■'.'??!»««VV.", G 000 083 696 5 '^•:^iH- A POPULAR HISTORY ART OF MUSir From the Earliest Times until the Present. With Accounts of the Chief Musical Instruments and Scales; the Principles and Artistic Value of Their Music; together with Biographical Notices of the Greater Composers, Chronological Charts, Specimens of Music, and Many Engravings. BY W. S. B. MATHEWS, Author of''' Hovj to Understand Musi,,'' " Studies ii Phrasing," " Twenty Lessoiis to a Beginner," ''Primer of Musical Forms," Associate Editor of Mason'' s ^''Pianoforte Technics" etc., etc. CHICAGO: W. S. B, MATH' WS. Copyright hy W. S. B. Mathews, 1891. REGAN PRINTING HOUSE, CHICAGO, PREFACE. ^, HAVE laere endeavored to provide a readable account of the A entire history of the art of music, within the compass of a ^ single small volume, and to treat the luxuriant and many- sided later development with the particularity proportionate to its importance, and the greater interest appertaining to it from its proximity to the times of the reader. The range of the work can be most easily estimated from the Table of Contents (pages 5-10), It will be seen that I have attempted to cover the same extent of history, in treating of which the standard musical histories of Naumann, Ambros, Fetis and others have employed from three times to ten times as much space. In the nature of the case there will be differences of opinion among competent judges concerning my success in this difficult undertaking. Upon this point I can only plead absolute sincerity of purpose, and a certain familiarity with the ground to be covered, due to having treated it in my lectures in the Chicago Musical College for five years, to the extent of about thirty-five lectures yearly. I have made free use of all the standard his- tories — those of Fetis, Ambros, Naumann, Brendel, Gevaert, Hawkins, Burney, the writings of Dr. Hugo Riemann, Dr. Ritter Prof. Fillmore, and the dictionaries of Grove and Mendel, as well as many monographs in all the leading modern languages I have divided the entire history into books, placing at the beginning of each book a general chapter defining the central idea and salient features of the step in development therein recounted. The student who will attentively peruse these chapters in succession will have in them a fairly complete account of the entire progress. Chicago, May 5, iSgu W . S . B . M AT H EW S . LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE. Chart of Greatest Composers 11 Chart of Italian Composers 12 Chart of German Composers.. . 13 Pianists andComposersforPiano 14 Kiufr David Playing the Three- string-ed Crwth 24 Egyptian Representations, 4th Dynast.v 28 Bruce's Harpers 30 Harp and Musicians of 20th Dy- nasty 32 Lvres"Found in Tombs 33 Women, Street Musicians 34 Shoulder Harps 35 Kinnor 42 Larger Jewish Harp 43 Assyrian Harps 45 Assyrian Banjo 46 Assyrian Psaltery 47 Greek Lyres 64 Music to Ode of Pindar 69 Hindoo Vina 71 Ravanastron 72 Chinese Ke 74 Japanese Ko-Ko 76 Old Breton Song 88 Old Welsh Song 92 Welsh Song in Praise of Love 94 Harp of Sir Brian Boirohen 97 Facsimile "Sumer is Icumen In". .101 The Same Written out 102 Saxon Harp 104 Saxon Harp 105 Crwth 107 Scotch Pentatonic Melody 108 Arab Rebec 112 Arab Eoud 113 Arab Santir 114 Song by Thibaut, 13th Century. .122 Reinmar, the Minnesinger 124 Frauenlob 125 Minstrel Harps 126 (iregorianand A mbrosian Scales 132 Hucbald's Staff 141 Diaphony 141 Diaphony in Fourths 142 (iuido of Arezzo 144 Table of the Schools of the Neth- erlands 162 Orlando di Lassus 167 Music by Palestrina 173 to 175 Roman Letter Notation of Guido.181 Neumaeof 10th Century 181 Neumae of 11 th Century 182 Xeumae with Lines 183 Lament for Charlemagne 184 Early Staff of Five Lines 185 Lute 191 Tuning of the Lute ' 192 Early Forms of Rebec 195 Angel Playing Rebec, 13th Cen- tury 1% -^^^ d PAGE. Viol da Gamba 197 Barytone 198 Stradivarius Violin 200 Old Organ 202 Portable Organ 204 Bellows Bags at Halberstadt. . . .20(j Concert of 7th Century 208 Extract, Peri's "Eurydice" 22b Aria, Monteverde's "Arianna". . .23'» Aria, Cavalli's " Erismena" 231 Aria, Scarlatti's Cantata 232 Aria, Lulli's "Roland" 240 Heinrich Schiitz 24t. i Jean Pielers Swelinck 251 Samuel Scheidt 252 Johann Adam Reinken 254 John Sebastian Bach 2foi> Geo. Friedrich Handel 274 Joseph Haj'dn 286 The Mozart Family 293 Mozart (Miss Stock) 300 Mozart 302 Beethoven 311 Beethoven as He Appeared on the Street 314 Beethoven Autograph 315 Facsimile Title Page Mas. Bee- thoven 318 Gluck 329 Gr^trv 340 Boieldieu 343 Purcell 350 I J. L. Dussek 358 j Hummel 362 I Moscheles 363 Schubert 390 I Spinet, 1590 393 1 Ornamentation of Same 394 Another View of the Same 395 Mozart's Grand Piano 396 Cristofori's Design of Action 397 His Action as Made in 1726 398 Erard Grand Action 399 Stein way Iron Frame and Over- stringing 400 Carl Maria Von Weber 407 Meyerbeer '♦12 Richard Wagner 417 Mme. Schroder-Devrient 420 Paganini ^30 Paganini in Concert (Landseer)..431 Chopin 442 Liszt 452,453 Hauptmann 460 Mendelssohn 462 Schumann 476 Rossini 480 Verdi 484 Auber 489 Gade 498 Sterndale-Bennett 502 Rubinstein 506 CONTENTS, PAGE. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 4 CHRONOLOGICAL CHART OF GREATEST COMPOSERS 11 CHRONOLOGICAL CHART OF ITALIAN COMPOSERS 12 CHRONOLOGICAL CHART OF PRINCIPAL GERMAN COMPOSERS 13 CHRONOLOGICAL CHART OF PIANISTS AND COMPOSERS FOR PIANO 14 INTRODUCTION 15-23 Music defined— general idea of musical progress— conditions of fine art — qualities of satisfactory art-forms— periods in musical history — difference between ancient and modern music. BOOK FIRST— MUSIC OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. CHAPTER I— MUSIC AMONG THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS 27-39 Sources of information — antiquity of their development — instruments —uses of music— their ideas about music and education— "Song- of the Harper" — kindergarten. CHAPTER II-MUSIC AMONG THE HEBREWS AND ASSYRIANS.40-47 Music among the Hebrews — Jubal — kinnor — ugabh — musicians in the temple service — psaltery — flute — larger harp — Miriam — liturgy of the temple— musical ideal in Hebrew mind— music among the Assyrians— types of instruments. CHAPTER III-MUSIC AMONG THE ANCIENT GREEKS 48-69 Importance of this development — extent of the time — date of Homeric poems— epoch of ^schylus— extracts from Homer — Hesiod — patriotic applications of music— choral song— festivals— lyric drama — d4but of jEschylus, Sophocles and Euripides — nature of the classic drama — orchestic — Socrates — Aristoxenus — problems of Aristotle — Greek theory of music— Pythagoras and ratios of simple consonances — devotional use of music — Greek scales- Claudius Ptolemy— Didymus— the lyre and cithara—magadis— flute —aesthetic importance— Plato on the noble harmonies— loyalty to the true — Greek musical alphabet— notation — Ode from Pindar. CHAPTER IV— MUSIC IN INDIA, CHINA AND JAPAN 70-77 Early beginning — use of the bow— national instruments — the vina — theory— ravanastron— music exclusively melodic— saying of the Emperor Tschun— the ke— Japanese ko-ko. BOOK SECOND-APPRENTICE PERIOD OF MODERN MUSIC. . PAGE. CHAPTER V— THE TRANSFORMATION AND ITS CAUSES 81-86 General view of the transformation to modern music— causes co-oper- ating—difference between ancient and modern music— harmony and tonality-- consonance and dissonance— three steps in the development of harmonic perceptions— when were these steps taken? — tonality defined — g'rowth of tonal perception — uncon- scious perception of implied or associated tones. CHAPTER VI— THE MINSTRELS OF THE NORTH 87-108 Importance of Celtic development of minstrelsy— orig-in of the Celts — the minstrel— old Breton song- — the druids— classification of bards— degrees-F^tis on the Welsh minstrel — "Triads of the Isle of Britain"— old harp music— "TheTwo Lovers"— Gerald Barry on the Welsh — old Welsh song- — the Irish — Sir Brian Boirohen's harp — Eng-lish and Saxon music — King- Arthur as minstrel — org-an at Winchester — Scandinavian scalds — Eddas — "Sumer is Icumen in"— Ang-lo-Saxon harp— source of the harg in Britain— the crwth— melody in pentatonic scale. CHAPTER VII-THE ARABS, OR SARACENS 100-114 The Arab apparition in history — their taste for poetry — competitive contests of poetry and song- — encouragement of literature — rebec — eoud- santir. CHAPTER VIII-ORIGIN OF THE GREAT FRENCH EPICS. .. .115-120 Period of the Chansons de Geste— social conditions of France as g-iven by M. L6on Gautier— "Cantilena of St. Eulalie "—subjects of the Chansons de Geste. CHAPTER IX— TROUBADOURS, TROUVERES AND MINNE- SINGERS 121-127 The troubadours— Count Wilhelm— varieties of their songs— melody from Thibaut— Adam de la Halle— "Story of Antioch"— "Song of Roland"— minnesinger Reinmar— Heinrich Frauenlob— minstrel harps— Hans Sachs— influence of these minstrel guilds. CHAPTER X— INFLUENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH ...128-133 Church not influential in the development of music as such — nature of the early Christian hymns— St.Ambrose — the Arabrosian scales — corruptions elsewhere — St. Gregory and his reforms — the Gregorian tones — man^- later reforms — limitations of these reforms— incidental influence of the Church through her great cathedrals. CHAPTER XI— MUSICAL DIDACTIC FROM THE FIFTH TO FOURTEENTH CENTURY 134-147 Macrobus— Martinus Capella—Boethius—Cassiodorus— Bishop Isi- dore—Venerable Bede— Aurelian— R6mi of Auxerre— Hucbald— examples— instruments of music during the seventh and eighth centuries— Odon of Cluny— Guido of Arezzo— staff— Franco of Cologne— Franco of Paris. CHAPTER XII— THE RISE OF POLYPHONY; OLD FRENCH AND GALLO-BELGIC SCHOOLS 148-159 Orig-in and meaning- of polj-phony— raonodic and homophonic — canonic imitation — chords as incidents — variety and unity — early French school — Coussemaker's researches — L^onin — descant — Perotin — names of pieces — Robert of Sabillon — Pierre de la Croix — Jean of Garland — FrsLoca of P.aris — Jean de Mnris — fleurettes — John ^Qttoii-::J4ach»Mt— Gal4o-&rtf ic school — Dufay — Hans de — "^Tjetandta^Aiitoine de BUsiTois. CHAPTER XIII— SCHOOLS OF THE NETHERLANDS 160-161 Wealth of the Low Countries — freedom of the communes — strength of the burg-her class— period of these schools— table of periods and masters — Okeghem — Tinctor— Josquin — his popularity — Ar- kadelt — Gombert — Willaert — Goudimel — Cypriano de Rore — Or- lando de Lassus — his Munich school— his g-enius. CHAPTER XIV— POLYPHONIC SCHOOLS OF ITALY— PALES- TRINA 168-178 Prosperity of Italy in fifteenth century— grreat cathedrals and public works— conservatories founded at Naples — Willaert at St. Mark's, Venice — Zarlino — his reforms in theory— Cypriano de Rore — Goudimel— Palestrina— the council of Trent— Palestrina's music — Martin Luther CHAPTER XV— CHANGES IN MUSICAL NOTATION 179-138 General direction of musical prog-ress toward classification and the establishment of unities of various kinds — early letter notation of the Greeks and Romans — Roman notation as used by Guido of Arezzo—neumae— with lines— additional lines— "Lament for Char- lemagne"— notation employed by the French Trouveres— clefs- new staff proposed by an American reformer. CHAPTER XVI— MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS— THE VIOLIN AND • ORGAN 189-207 Progress in tonal perceptions — influence of harp and lute — descrip- tion of the latter— system of stringing— locating the frets— the violin — bow discovered in India — early forms of bowed instru- ments — rebec — barytone — viol da Gamba — Amati — Stradivari — peculiarities of his instruments — Maggini — Stainer — antiquity- of the organ — early forms — organ sent Charlemagne— organs at Munich— Malme'sburj' Abbey— measure of organ pipes— portable org-an — clumsiness of the old keyboards— the organ in 1500 A. D. BOOK THIRD— THE DAWN OF MODERN MUSIC. CHAPTER XVII CONDITION OF MUSIC AT BEGINNING OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 211-220 Justification of the name "apprentice period "— office of domestic musicians in England in the reign of Elizabeth — great fondness for music everywhere — casual influence of counterpoint in edu- cating harmonic sense— madrigal— multiplicity of collections of this kind — absurd use of madrigals for dramatic monody — the work of the seventeenth century, free melodic expression — the new problem of the musical drama— the representative principle in music — music last of the arts — Florence and Venice the centers — statistics of books published from 1470 to 1500. J CHAPTER XVIII— FIRST CENTURY OF ITALIAN OPERA AND DRAMATIC SONG 221-234 Circle of the Literati in Florence — Galilei and his monody — Peri's " Daf ne " — Schiitz's setting- of the same— Peri's "Eurydice" — rare editions — // stilo rappresetitativo — Cavaliare's oratorio "The Soul and the Bodj'" — second period of opera— ^Monteverde's '^ArtatiHa^' — orchestra of the same — new orchestral effects — scene from '■Eur3'dice" — director of St. Mark's — Legrenzi — Cesti — public theaters— Alessandro ^ca.T\:\n\~reritntiro stroitientalo—CoreWi— sonatas for the violin — influence of the violin upon the art of sing-ing- — orifirin of Italian school of sing-ing- — artificial sopranos —Porpora— Selections from Monteverde, Cavalli and Scarlatti. CHAPTER XIX— BEGINNINGS OF OPERA IN FRANCE AND GERMANY 235-243 Slow progress of opera to other parts of Europe — origin of French opera— ballets of Boesset—Perrin—Cambert— their first opera— their patent from the king-— Lulli— his success and productivity- attention to verbal delivery and the vernacular of the audience- foundations of the French Acad^'mie de Musi(jue — opera in Ger- many— Schiitz-Hamburg and Keiser— selection from Lulli— " Roland " — Mattheson. CHAPTER XX— THE PROGRESS OF ORATORIO 244-248 Oratorio invented simultaneously with opera — Cavaliere — mj'stery plays — Carissimi — two tj-pes of oratorio — cantata — Handel's appropriation from Carissimi— sacred oratorio— Scliiitz's Pas- sions-" Last Seven Words." CHAPTER XXI— BEGINNINGS OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. .249-260 Beg-inning-s of instrumental music in seventeenth century — tentative character of instrumental music of si.xteenth century — Gabrieli and organ pieces — imitations of vocal works — melodies not fully carried out— Swelinck— Scheidt— Schein— Frescobaldi — Reinken— Pachelbel—Muffat— Corelli— orchestra of the period— its defects. BOOK FOURTH— FLOWERING TIME OF MODERN MUSIC. CHAPTER XXII— MUSIC IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. . .261-264 The flowering- time of modern music — complexity of developments now taking- place— principal actors— two main channels of im- provement— fugue— sonata— Bach and Handel as writers of fugue —people's song makes its way into cultivated instrumental music— reference to Mozart's sonatas— thematic and lyric as ele- ments of contrast. CHAPTER XXIII-JOHN SEBASTIAN BACH 265-272 Bach as a composer — sketch — his clavier — attainments as virtuoso upon the clavier and the organ— choral works— Passion oratorios —his pre-eminence as writer of fugues — general sketch of the form of a fugue— prelude— mutually complementary— Bach's con- certos — his rhythm. PAGE. CHAPTER XXIV— GEO. FRIEDRICH HANDEIv 273-281 The companion fig-ure of Bach— early life— violinist at Hamburg- conductor, composer— first opera— Italy— successes there— Eng- land— Italian operas— oratorio "Messiah" — other oratorios— list of his works — Bach and Handel compared — Handel's place in art —personalities CHAPTER XXV— EMANUEIv BACH, ^^ lYDN— ^HV, SONATA. .282-291 The sons of Bach— Emanuel Bach as composer— dif5'5r-4^ ' found- ing a new form — Haydn — early years — conf^v^*^' """'nee Esterhazy — compositions— the visit to Lon' ering '^g made — "The Creation "—second visit to Lonoo-vr- -Haydn aua the sonata form— "The Last Seven Words "—his rank as tone-poet. CHAPTER XXVI— MOZART AND HIS GENIUS 292-304 Charming personalit3'— childhood— early talent — concerts — Mozart at Bologna and the test of his powers — Haydn's opinion — early operas — "Marriage of Figaro" — success — accompaniments added to Handel's "Messiah " and other works— call to Berlin— myste- rious order for the "Requiem"— death— general quality of Mozart's music. CHAPTER XXVII— BEETHOVEN AND HIS WORKS 305-315 A worths' successor to Haydn and Mozart — early years — orchestral leader — piajig p lavLpg^ — his friends — Count Waldstein — his first visit to Vientia^^^^^settled in Vienna — compositions — life — appear- ance—place in art. CHAPTER XXVIII— HAYDN, MOZART AND BEETHOVEN COM- PARED 316-326 Their relation to symphony — refinement of Mozart — early age of Mozart— Beethoven's independence — relation to sonata — Beetho- ven more free— clima.x of classical art— Beethoven adagios- summing up— tendency of progress. CHAPTER XXIX— OPERA IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 327-351 Three great names— Graun—Gluck— his reforms— his ideal— early works — "Orpheus" — "Iphigenie" — Mozart's place in opera— Rameau— theoretical writings— Rousseau— Phillidor — Monsigny — Gr6try — Gossec — M6hul— Lesueur — Boieldieu — French opera in general — Italian opera — Pergolesi — Jomelli — Sacchini — Paisiello — Piccini— Zingarelli- opera in England— Purcell— Dr. Arne. CHAPTER XXX — PIANO PLAYING VIRTUOSI — VIOLINISTS— TARTINI AND SPOHR 352-369 Pian gjorte established as domestic instrument— Scarlatti — Matthe- ~ son— -Dr. Blow — John Bull — Clementi — Dussek — Cramer — Berger —Hummel— Moscheles—Tartini—Spohr. BOOK FIFTH— EPOCH OF THE ROMANTIC. CHAPTER XXXI— THE NINETEENTH CENTURY— THE ROMAN- TIC—MUSIC OF THE FUTURE 373-380 Classic and romantic defined— art in general— applied to music- illustrated by Schubert — Schumann — development of virtuosity Berlioz— "music of the future'*— how originating— the outlook. PAGE. CHAPTER XXXII— SCHUBERT AND THE ROMANTIC 381-391 Early life of Schubert — compositions — first songs — " Erl King" — rapiditj' of composition — unfinished symphony — industry — spon- taneity — personal characteristics. CHAPTER XXXIII— o TORY OF THE PIANOFORTE 392^W3 i2ri£tu^QiVsianoforte— spinet— Clavicembalo— Mozart's grand piano— Qtfging>"'s desfg-n of action — Erard action — iron frame — Chick- — Porp Steinway improvements. CHAPTER XXXIV— GERMAN OPERA— WEBER, MEYERBEER, WAGNER 404-427 Tendency of German opera— Weber— " Der Freischutr-, "—roman- ticism— iiitiovatlon^^^noianp_4)laj^ life- master worRs^=^^pTa^eTir~aTf— Wagner==early life— earlj' operas— '* Lohengrin"' — Zixrich — Schroder-Devrient — " Nieblung's Ring " peculiarities. CHAPTER XXXV— VIRTUOSITY IN THE NINETEENTH CEN- TURY— PAGANINI, BERLIOZ, CHOPIN, THAIyBERG, LISZT. 428-454 Continuity of these appearances with those already recounted — Paganini- his playing— inspiring effect— Berlioz— works— place in art— progress of piano playing— virtuosi co-operating— Thal- berg and his style— Parish-Alvars—Pollini— Chopin — place in art— Liszt— early appearances— rivalry with Thalberg— style- Weimar — Bonn Beethoven monument — as teacher — as composer. CHAPTER XXXVI— MENDELSSOHN AND SCHUMANN 455-»7'i Mendelssohn — personality — talent — early works — maturity — as player Leipsic Conservatory— Hauptmann— "Elijah"— "St. Paul" —Schumann— early education and habits— works— strength of the romantic tendency — his " New Journal of Music " — music in Leip- sic — Clara Wieck — larger works for piano — technical traits — songs— general characteristics. CHAPTER XXXVII— ITALIAN OPERA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 478-487 Spontini— Rossini— Donizetti— Bellini— Verdi— Boito—Ponchielli. CHAPTER XXXVIII-FRENCH OPERA AND COMPOSERS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 488-4% Auber—H6rold— Adam— Gounod — Mass6 — Massenet— Saint-Saens— D6libes — Bizet — Ambroise Thomas. CHAPTER XXXIX-LATER COMPOSERS AND PERFORMERS. 497-508 Gade — Brahms — Tschaikowsky — Svensden — Grieg — Bruch — Bennett— Macfarren— Mackenzie— Nicod^—Moszkowsky— Dvorak— Henselt — Litolff— Wilmers — Heller — Hiller — Rubinstein— Bulow—Rein- ecke. 10 CHRONOLOGY OF THE (iREATEST COMPOSERS. L oi^yn'crlU.) Explanation.— The heavy vertical lines are century lines. Light vertical, twenty-year lines. Horizontal lines, the life of the composer. .. -4 * 1 ^ j"^ .'- H 1 Q - . "" ■■ _ t S l •s % Y - % : I - - cu I — 1 '— ^ 1 ~" 1 1 - % ; 1 1 - ^ t ' : ^ . i I I 1 - 1 s o - CD - - # CHRONOLOGY OF PRINCIPAL ITALIAN COMPOSERS. [Copyright.) From Palestrina to Present Time. (See explanation, page 11) CD •^ % ^ «) »~ — — — — — ~ ■ ■ 1" - 4 - -1 00 - - 1-1 1 - _ - - — — — - - --- 1 - — — - I — 1 1 — 1 - \ — --i 3^ _ ^ - 1^ - —2 — -5 - - - T — — 1 1 -i-i £ — _ I 1 ^ ^ ^ ss " -.4- -• 5- - 1 — — s ^ ^ - — 1- 1 o - — — — — — — — — — o -a - — 1- CHRONOLOGICAL CHART OF THE MORE IMPORTANT GERMAN COMPOSERS. [Copyright.) From Orlando Lassus to the Present Time. (See page 11. 05 o Jit u CO ■:i-^ Cfl tQ CHRONOLOGICAL SUCCESSION OF PIANISTS AND COMPOSERS FOR THE PIANOFORTE. Copyright.) From 1660 to the Present Time (1891). C3> CO V\ I I ^ ^ I I I I e- c 14 INTRODUCTION I. HE name "music" contams two ideas, both of them important in our modern use of the term : The general meaning is that of '' a pleasing modu- lation of sounds. " In this sense the term is used constantly by poets, novelists and even in conversation — as when we speak of the ''music of the forest," the ''music of the brook" or the "music of nature." There is also a rem- iniscence of the etymological derivation of the term, as something derived from the "Muses," the fabled retinue of the Greek god Apollo, who presided over all the higher operations of the mind and imagination. Thus the name "music," when applied to an art, contains a suggestion of an inspiration, a something derived from a special inner light, or from a higher source outside the composer, as all true imagination seems to be to those who exercise it. 2. Music has to do with tones, sounds selected on account of their musical quality and relations. These tones, again, before becoming music in the artistic sense, must be so joined together, set in order, controlled by the human imagination, that they express sentiment. Every manifestation of musical art has in it these two elements : The fit selection of tones ; and, second, the use of them for expressing sentinie?it and feeling. Hence the practical art 15 16 Introductioyi. of music, like every other fine art, has in it two elements, an Older, or technical, where trained intelligence rules, and teaching and study are the principal means of progress ; and an inner, the imagination and musical feeling, which can indeed be strengthened by judicious experience in hearing, but which when wanting cannot be supplied by the teacher, or the laws of their action reduced to satis- factory statement. 3. There is no fine art which reflects the activity of spirit more perfectly than that of music. There is some- thing in the nature of this form of art which renders it particularly acceptable to quick and sensitive minds. If evidence of this statement were needed beyond the intui- tive assent which every musical reader will immediately give, it could easily be furnished in the correspondence between the activity of mind in general and in the art of music in particular, every great period of mental strength having been accompanied by a corresponding term of activity in music. Furthermore, the development of the art of music has kept pace with the deepening of mental activity in general, so that in these later times when the general movement of mind is so much greater than in ancient times, and the operations of intellect so much more diffused throughout all classes, the art of music has come to a period of unprecedented richness and strength. II. 4. The earlier forms of music were very simple ; the range of tones employed was narrow, and the habits of mind in the people emplo3'ing them apparently calm and almost inactive. As time passed on more and more tones were added to the musical scales, and more and more Introduction . 1 7 complicated relations recognized between them, and the music thereby became more diversified in its tonal effects, and therein better adapted for the expression of a more energetic or more sensitive action of mind and feeling. This has been the general course of the progress, from the earliest times in which there w^as an art of music until now. The two-fold progress of an education in tone percep- tion, and an increasing ability to employ elaborate com- binations for the expression of feelings too high-strung for the older forms of expression, is observable in almost all stages of musical history, and in our own days has received a striking illustration in the progress made in , . ^-^ appreciating the works of the latest of the great mus- wl ^ ical geniuses, Richard Wagner, whose music twenty- f;_ five years ago was regarded by the public generally as unmusical and atrocious ; whereas now it is heard with pleasure, and takes hold of the more advanced musical minds with a firmness beyond that of any other musical production. The explanation is to be found in the develop- ment of finer tone perceptions — the ability to co-ordinate tonal combinations so distantly related that to the musical ears of a generation ago their relation was not recognized, uierefore to those ears they were not music. Wagner f' '1 these strange combinations as music. The deeper ations between tones and chords apparently remote, he lelt, and employed them for the expression of his imagi- nation. Other ears now feel them as he did. An education has taken place. 5. It is altogether likely that the education will still go on until many new combinations which to our ears would be meaningless will become a part of the ordinary vernacular of the art. Indeed, a writer quite recently (Julius Klauser, in "The Septonnate ") points out a vast 18 hitroduction. amount of musical material already contained within our tonal systems which as yet is entirely unused. The new chords and relations thus suggested are quite in line with the additions made by Wagner to the vocabulary of his day. III. 6. There are certain conditions which must be met before a fine art will be developed. These it is worth while to consider briefly : The state of art, in any community or nation, at any period of its history, depends upon a fortunate corre- spondence between two elements which we might call the internal and the external. By the former is meant the inner movement of mind or spirit, which must be of such depth and force as to leave a surplusage after the material needs of existence have been met. In every community where there is a certain degree of wealth, leisure and a vigorous movement of mind, this surplus force, remain- ing over after the necessary wheels of common life have been set in motion, will expend itself in some form of art or literature. The nature of the form selected as the expression of this surplus force will depend upon the fashion, the prevalent activity of the life of the dav^ or, in other words, the environment. Illustrating this principle, reference might be made to the condition of Greek art in the flowering time of its history, when the wealth of Athens was so great as to leave resources unemployed in the material uses of life, and when the intellectual move- ment was so splendid as to leave it until now a brilliant tradition of history. Only one form of art was pre-em- inently successful here; it was sculpture, which at that time reached its fullest development — to such a degree Introduction. 19 that modern sculpture is only a weak repetition of ancient works in this line. So also the brilliant period of Italian painting, when the mental movement represented by Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Lorenzo de Medici, and the pleasure-loving existence, the brilliant fetes, in which noble men and beautifully appareled women per- formed all sorts of allegorical representations, and the colors, groupings, etc., afforded the painter an endless variety of material and suggestion. When Rubens flour- ished in the Netherlands, a century later, similar condi- tions accompanied his appearance and the prolific man- ifestations of his genius. In the same way, music depends upon peculiar conditions of its own. They are three: The vigor of the mental movement in general, its strength upon the imaginative and sentimental side, and the suggestion from the environment in the way of musical instruments of adequate tonal powers. Such instruments never existed in the history of the art until about the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The organ, the violin and the predecessor of the pianoforte, the spinet, came to practical form at nearly the same time. At the same time the instruments of plucked strings — the guitars, lutes and other instruments which until then had occupied the exclusive attention of musicians — began to go out. Moreover, musical science had been worked out, and the arts of counterpoint, canonic imitation, fugue, harmony, etc., had all reached a high degree of perfection when Bach and Handel appeared. 7. The entire history of music is merely in illustra- tion of these principles. Wherever there has been vig- orous movement of mind and material prosperity (and they have always been associated) there has been an art of music, the richness of which, however, has always 20 Introduction. been limited by the state of the musical ears of the people or generation, and the perfection of their musical instru- ments. The instruments are an indispensable ingredient in musical progress, since it is only by means of instru- ments that tonal combinations can be exactly repeated, the voice mastering the more difficult relations of tones only when the ear has become quick to perceive tonal relations, and tenacious to retain them — in other words, educated. Hence in the pages following, the instruments peculiar to each epoch will receive the attention their importance deserves, which is considerably more than that usually allotted them in concise accounts of the history of this art. 8. The conditions of a satisfactory Art Form are three : Unity, the expression of a single ruling idea; variety, the relief of the monotony due to the over-ascendency of unity (or contrast, an exact and definite form of variety); and symmetry, or the due proportion of the different parts of the work as a whole. These principles, univer- sally recognized as governing in the other fine arts, are equally valid in music. As will be seen later, all musical progress has been toward their more complete attain- ment and their due co-ordination into a single satisfac- tory whole. Every musical form that has ever been created is an effort to solve this problem; and analysis shows which one of the leading principles has been most considered, and the manner in which it has been carried out. Ancient music was very weak in all respects, and never fully attained the first of these qualities. Modern music has mastered all three to a very respectable degree. g. The art of music appears to have been earliest of all the fine arts in the order of time; but it has been longer than any of the others in reaching its maturity, Introduction. 21 most of the master works now current having been created within the last two centuries, and the greater proportion of them within the last century. Sculpture came to its perfection in Greece about 500 B. C. ; architecture about 1200 to 1300 A. D., when the great European cathedrals were built; painting about 1500 to 1600 A. D. Poetry, like music, representing the continual life of soul, has never been completed, new works of highest quality remaining possible as long as hearts can feel and minds can conceive; but the productions of Shakespeare, about 1650, are believed to represent a point of perfection not likely to be surpassed. Music, on the other hand, has been continually progressive, at least until the appearance of Beethoven, about the beginning of the present century, and the romantic composers between 1830 and the present time. IV. 10. The history of music may be divided into two great periods — Ancient and Modern — the Christian era forming a dividing line between them. Each of these periods, again, may be subdivided into two other periods, one long, the other quite short — an Apprentice Period, when types of instruments were being found out, melodic or harmonic forms mastered; in other words, the tonal sense undergoing its primary education. The other, a Master Period, when an art of music suddenly blossoms out, complete and satisfactory according to the principles recognized by the musicians of the time. In the natural course of things such an art, having once found its heart, ought to go on to perfection; but this has not generally been the case. After a period of vigorous growth and the production of master works suitable to the time, a 22 Introduction. decline has ensued, and at length musical productivity has entirely ceased. Occasionally a cessation in art prog- ress of this kind may have been dependent upon the failure of one or other of the primary conditions of suc- cessful art mentioned above, especially the failure of material prosperity. This had something to do with the cessation of progress in ancient Egypt, very likely; but more often the stoppage of progress has been due to the exhaustion of the suggestive powers of the musical instruments in use. The composers of the music of ancient Greece had for instruments only lyres of six or eight strings, with little vibrative power. After ten cen- turies of use. every suggestion in the compass of these in- struments to furnish, had been carried out. If other and richer instruments could have been introduced, no doubt Greek music would have taken a new lease of life, /. e., sup- posing that the material prosperity had remained constant. The apprentice periods of ancient history extend back to the earliest traces of music which we have, beginning perhaps with the early Aryans in central Asia, whom Max Miiller represents as circling around the family altar at sunrise and sunset, and with clasped hands repeating in musical tones a hymn, perhaps one of the earliest of those in the Vedas, or a still older one. From this early association of music with religious worship we derive something of our heredity of reverence for the art, a sentiment which in all ages has associated music with religious ritual and worship, and out of which has come much of the tender regard we have for it as the expres- sion of home and love in the higher aspects. All the leading types of instruments were discovered in the early periods of human history, but the full powers of the best have been reached only in recent times. Introduction, , 23 11. The art of music was highly esteemed in an- tiquity, and every great nation had a form of its own. But it was only i n three or fou r cou ntries that an art was developed of such beauty and depth of principle as to have interest for us. The countries where this was done were Egypt . Greece and Indi a. 12. Modern music differs from ancient in two radical points : Tonality, or the dependence of all tones in the series upon a single leading tone called the Key; and Harmony, or the satisfactory use of combined sounds. This part of music was not possible to the ancients, for want of correctly tuned scales, and the selection of the proper tone as key. The only form of combined sounds which they used was the octave, and rarely the fifth or fourth. The idea of using other combined sounds than the octave seems to have been suggested by Aristotle, about 300 B. C. The period from the Christian era until about 1400 A. D. was devoted to apprentice work in this department of art, the central concept wanted being a principle of unity. After the beginning of the schools of the Netherlands, about 1400, progress was very rapid. The blossoming time of the modern art of music, how- ever, cannot be considered to have begun before about 1600, whenopera was commenced ; or 1700, when instru- mental music began to receive its full development. Upon the whole, the former of these dates is regarded as the more just, and it will be so used in the present work. KING DAVID, PLAYING O^ i HE THREE-STRINGED CRWTH. [From a manuscript of the eleventh century now in the National Library, Paris.] 24 Bock First. THE Music of the Ancient World PRIMITIVE TYPES OF INSTRUMENTS, AND AN ARTISTIC MONODY, WITHOUT REAL TONALITY. CHAPTER I. MUSIC AMONG THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. Jgg) Y a curious fortune we are able to form an approx- "]^j) imately accurate idea of the musical instruments in use in Egypt as long ago as about 4000 B. C. The earliest advanced civilization of which any coherent traces have come down to us was developed along the Nile, where the equable climate and the periodic inunda- tions of the river raised the pursuit of the husbandman above the uncertainties incident to less favorable cli- mates, while at the same time the mild climate reduced to a minimum the demands upon his productive powers for the supply of the necessaries of life. This interest- hig people had the curious custom of depositing the mummies of their dead in tombs elaborately hewn out of the rock, or excavated in more yielding ground, in the hills which border the narrow valley of the Nile. Many of these excavations are of very considerable extent, reaching sometimes to the number of twenty rooms, and a linear distance of 600 feet from the entrance. The walls of these underground apartments are generally decorated in outline intaglio if the rock be hard ; or in color if the walls be plaster, as is often the case. The subjects of the decorations embrace the entire range of the domestic and public life of the people, among them 27 28 Music Among the Ancient Egyptiajis. .S£ S ^ '^ .5 o fJ w a J r-- 5 S & ? -^ lU .- ■.- it Si <1 = >< s cr ti bi ^ o £ - "ki - ^o- (ae - va. Ka/ t^v TN zNV'^- E=^ tJ=S= i hwi daccw hi ! h wi daccw hi ! a hwi daccw hi' i Ian brydferth m^^E^^ES,^ s i This old song- was a great favorite with Henry V, while he was yet Prince of Wales, and with his jolU' companions he "used to shout it vigor- ously at the Bear's Head tavern, about 1410. (Edward Jones' "Relics of the Welsh Bards," p. 176.) The Muistrcls of the North. 93 betray the transition period of tonality, when chords had come into legitimate use, but the true feeling for a tonic had not yet been acquired. The preceding, for instance, proceeds regularly in the key of G in all respects but the very ending of each strain, which takes place in the key of C. Or to speak tonically, the melody and accom- paniment after being written nearly all the way in the key of Do, suddenly diverge to the key of Fa, and there close. Another (p. 94) is quite modern in spirit and treatment. It is a vigorous love song, and there is a boisterous chorus of bards which comes in with the refrain. A curious feature of this melody is the full-measure rest, immediately following the strong chorus of the bards. During the rests we seem to hear the chorus repeated. In. the eleventh century, Gerald Barry, an entertain- ing writer, made a tour of Britain, and his account of the people in different parts of the country is still extant and full of interest. Of the Welsh he says: '* Those who arrive in the morning are entertained until evening with the conversation of young women, and the music of the harp, for each house has its young women and harps allotted to this purpose. In each family the art of playing the harp is held preferable to any other learning." He adds (chapter XIII, "Of their Symphonies and Songs") : " In their musical concerts they do not sing in unison, like the inhabitants of other countries, but in many different parts, so that in a company of singers, which one very frequently meets with in Wales, you will hear as many different parts and voices as there are per- formers, while all at length unite with organic melody in one consonance, and in the soft sweetness of B-flat. 94 The Minstrels of the North. OLD WELSH SONG, IN PRAISE OF LOVE. Solo, Chorus of Bards. ^^^£^^^^|^^?^IJ Car-u 'mhell a char-u'n ag - os, Hob y de-ri dan-do: ^^ s :t: Solo. H J=j= Chokus of Bards. ■^^_L^>_1- New-id car - iad pob py-thef-nos Dy-nagau-uet-to t-- il l^E^ -y— 5^- ^ f^=^ ^t Erhynigyd. ni all fynghal-on Sirmfw-yn Sian ^ -,_,-^_^^^^p^^^^^ « igg^SI P=fcC=t :tif:=:^ ^zz^ Z$d2-, 1 1 , »- F # p ^ u Lai nachar-u'm hen gar - iad - on, o'r brw-yn, fe ^ — =b pEi f=4 ;^^.=^; z^zr -"^^ ^— ^ -t=: Der - e, der-e'r Uwyn ; ni souia i fwv am Sian - tan fwyn W: -^—^ i The Minstrels of the North. 95 In the north district of Britain, beyond the Humber and on the borders of Yorkshire, the inhabitants make use of the same kind of symphonious harmony, but with less variety, singing in only two parts, one murmuring in the bass, the other warbling in the acute or treble. Neither of the two nations has acquired this peculiarity by art, but by long habit, which has rendered it natural and familiar; and the practice is now so firmly rooted in them that it is unusual to hear a single and simple melody well sung, and what is still more wonderful, the children, even from their infancy, sing in the same manner. As the English in general do not adopt this mode of singing, but only those to the north of the countries, I believe it was from the Danes and Norwegians, by whom these parts of the island were more frequently invaded, and held longer under their dominion, that the natives con- tracted this method of singing." lln further token of the universality of music among these people, Gerald men- tions the story of Richard de Clare, who a short time after the death of Richard I, passed from England into Wales, accompanied by certain other lords and attend- ants. At the passage of Coed Grono, at the entrance into the woods, he dismissed his attendants and pursued his journey undefended, preceded by a minstrel and a singer, the one accompanying the other on the fiddle. [ ' ' Tibicinem prceviens habens ct precentor em ca?iti/e?tce notulis alternatim in fidiculare respofidentem.'"^ Similar devotion to music he found in Ireland. He says: *'The only thing to which I find this people to apply commendable industry is playing upon musical instruments, in which they are incomparably more skill- ful than any other that I have seen. For their modula- tion on these instruments, unlike that of the Britons, to 96 The Minstrels of the North. which I am accustomed, is not slow and harsh, but hvely and rapid, while the harmony is both sweet and gay. It is astonishing that in so complex and rapid a movement of the fingers the musical proportions can be preserved, and that throughout the difficult modulations on their various instruments the harmony is completed with so sweet a velocity, so unequal an equality, so discordant a concord, as if the chords sounded together fourths and fifths. They enter into a movement and conclude it in so delicate a manner, and play the little notes so sport- ively under the blunter sounds of the bass strings, enliven- ing with wanton levity, or communicating a deeper internal sense of pleasure, so that the perfection of their art appears in the concealment of it. From this cause those very strains afford an unspeakable mental delight to those who have skillfully penetrated into the m3'steries of the art ; fatigue rather than gratify the ears of others, who seeing do not perceive, and hearing do not understand. and by whom the finest music is esteemed no better than a confused and disorderly noise, to be heard with unwill- ingness and disgust.i Ireland only uses and delights in two instruments — the harp and tabor. Scotland has three — the harp, the tabor and the crowth or crowd. Wales, the harp, the pipes and the crowd. The Irish also used strings of brass instead of catgut." ) The brilliant time of Ireland was the reign of Sir Brian Boirohen, in the tenth century. After his victory over the Danes, and their expulsion from the island, he opened schools and colleges for indigent students, founded libraries, and encouraged learning heartily. He was one of the best harpers of his kingdom. His harp is preserved in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, and a well made instrument it is, albeit now somewhat The Minstrels of the North. 97 out of repair. It is about thirty inches high; the wood is oak and arms of brass. There are twenty-eight strings fixed in the sounding table by silver buttons in copper-lined holes. The present appearance of the instrument is this : r Fig. 19. The Anglo-Saxons also were great amateurs of music. Up to the sixth century they remained pagan. Gregory the Great sent missionaries to them, and more than 10,000 were baptized in a single day. The Venerable Bede represents St. Benoit as establishing the music of the new church, substituting the plain song of Rome for the Gallic songs previously used. While few remains of the literature of the early English have come down to us, we have enough from the period of the Venerable Bede and the generation immediately following to give an idea of the vigor and depth of the national consciousness here brought to expression. From the seventh to the tenth centuries there was in England a movement more vigorous, more productive and consequently more modern, than any- 98 The Minstrels of the North. thing like it in any other part of Europe for three cen- turies later. The Saxon poets Caedmon, the Venerable Bede, Alcuin, the friend, teacher and adviser of that mighty genius Charlemagne, were minds of the first order, t^i-^^ King Arthur the Great was an enthusiastic and tal- ented minstrel. It is told of him that in this disguise he made his way successfully into the Danish camp, and was able to spy out the plans of his invading enemies. The incident has also a light upon the other side, since it shows the estimation in which the wandering minstrel was held by the Danes themselves. King Alfred also established a professorship of music at Oxford, where, indeed, the university, properly so-called, did not yet exist, but^a school of considerable vigor had been founded, t All the remains of Anglo-Saxon poetry are full of allusions to the bards, the gleemen and the min- strels ; and the poems themselves, most likel}^ were the production of poet-musicians classed under these differ- ent names. Many additional reasons might be given for believing that the art of music was mor6 carefully cultivated in England at this time than in any other European country. For instance, at Winchester, in the year 900, a large organ was built in the cathedral — larger than had ever been built before. It had 400 pipes, whereas most of the organs previously in use had no more than forty or fifty pipes. There is reason to believe that among the other musical devices here prac- ticed that of ''round " singing was brought to a high degree of popular skill. Apparently also they had some- thing like what was afterward called a burden, a refrain which, instead of coming in at the end of the melod}^, was sung by a part of the singers continually with it. The Minstrels of the North. ^ 99 Nor was musical cultivation confined to England. In the eighth and ninth centuries the Scandinavians had a civilization of considerable vigor. The minstrels were called Scalds, polishers or smoothers of language. Fetis well says: "As eminently poets and singers as they were barbarians, they put into their songs a strength of ideas, an energy of sentiment, a richness of imagin- ation with which we are struck even in translations, admittedly inferior to the originals. Not less valiant than inspired, their scalds by turns played the harp, raising their voices in praise of heroes, and precipitated themselves into the combat with sword and lance, meet- ing the enemy in fiercest conflict. Most that remains from these pbet-minstrels is contained in the great national collections called Eddas, of which the oldest received their present form early in the eleventh century. The sagas contained in the Eddas form but a mere frag- ment of this ancient literature. More than 200 scalds are known by name as authors of sagas. These war- riors, so pitiless and ferocious in bartle, show themselves full of devotion to their families. They were good sons, tender husbands and kind fathers. The Eddas contain pieces of singular delicacy of sentiment." Their songs, when compared with those of other races, are more musical, the sentiment is richer and more profound, and the rhythms have more variety. The melodic intervals, also, indicate a more delicate sense of harmony than we find in other parts of Europe at so early a date. Their instrument was the harp. Iceland was the foremost musical center of the civilized world in the ninth cen- tury, and it is said that kings in other parts of Europe sent there for capable minstrels to lead the music in the courts. 100 The Minstrels of the North. A very highly finished English composition, a round with strict canon for four voices, with a burden of the kind already mentioned, repeated over and over by two other voices has been discovered. It is the famous "Summer is Coming In," composed, apparently, some time before the year 1240. \ On page loi is given alreduced fac simile. It is writ- ten on a staff of six lines, in the square notes of the Fran- conian period. The clef is that of C. The asterisk at the end of the first phrase marks the proper place of entrance for the successive voices, each in turn commencing at the beginning w^hen the previous one has arrived at this point. Below is the pes, or burden, which is to be repeated over and over until the piece is finished. The complete solu- tion is reproduced in miniature from Grove's Dictionary, on pages 102 and 103. (The elaborateness of this piece of music led the original discoverers to place it much later than the date above given, but more careful examination of the manuscript justifies the conclusion that it was written some time before 1240. It is by far the most elaborate piece of ancient part music which has come down to us from times so remote. It indicates con- clusively that early in the thirteenth century, jvhen the composers of the old French school were struggling with the beginnings of canonic imitation, confining their work to ecclesiastical tonality, English musicians had arrived at a better art and a true feeling for the major scale and key. '• Following is the manuscript, the original size of the page being seven and seven-twelfths inches by five and five-twelfths inches. The reduced page before the reader represents the original upon a scale of about two-thirds. The Latin directions below the fourth staff indicate the manner of singing it. The MiJistreh of the North. 101 FAC SIMILE OF MSS. OF " SUMER IS ICUMEN IN." ^ nabWr^xmotmutfX 102 The Minstrels of the North. " SUMER IS ICUMEN IN." The Mmstrels of the North. 103 ""SUMER IS ICUMEN IN." [371 1 Ui] Sing cue vord3 and reusic are incorreclly fiiteri topetber in all preriotu edit » AulieoUy. each voice ceased at the end of the Ctiirfa. which Is here denoted by the sign *. The present coitom If br tU tb« toto* 1 OQBtlsiu onai the/ reach a point at whlcb thsr mar aU cooTenieiitlT close together, u I p d icated bj the pauaa. . 104 The Mi7istrels of the North. The harp was the principal instrument of these peo- ple, and their songs and poems contain innumerable references to it. Sir Francis Palgrave says in his " His- tory of the Anglo-Saxons " : " They were great amateurs of rhythm and harmony. In their festivals the harp passed from hand to hand, and whoever could not show himself possessed of talent for music, was counted Fig-. 20. SAXON HARP. [From manusci;ipt in the library of Cambridg-e University.] unworthy of being received in good society. Adhelm, bishop of Sherbourne, was not able to gain the attention of the citizens otherwise than by habilitating himself as a minstrel and taking his stand upon the bridge in the central part of the town and there singing the ballads he had composed." One of the earliest representations of The Minstrels of the North. 105 the English harp that has come do^^ul to us is found in the Harleian manuscript in the British Museum. It is presumably of the tenth century. Fig. 21. KING DAVID. [From Saxon Psalter of the tenth century.] The harp was three or four feet in height. It had eleven strings. It was held betw.een the knees, and was played with the right hand. In the thirteenth century it appears to have been played with both hands. Two circumstances in this account may well surprise us ; nor are there data available for resolving the ques- tions to which they give rise. The presence of two such instruments as the harp and the crwth in this part of Europe is not to be explained by historical facts within our knowledge. The harp does not appear in musical 106 . The Minstrels of the North. history after its^ career in ancient Egypt until' we find it in the hands of these bards, scalds and minstrels of northern Europe. The Aryans who crossed into India do not seem to have had it. Nor did the Greeks, nor the Romans. We find it for a while in Asia, but only in civilizations derived from that of Egypt, already in their decadence when they come under our observa- tion. Inasmuch as there are no data existing whereby we can determine whether these people discovered the harp .anew for themselves or derived it from some other nation, and greatly improved it, either supposition is allowable. Upon the whole, the probabilities appear to be that this instrument was among the primitive acquisitions of the Aryans. All of them were huntersf to whom the clang of the bow string must have been a familiar sound. As already suggested, it seems that the harp must have been the oldest type of stringed instrument of all. The Aryans who crossed the Himalayas into India may have lost it, in pursuit of some other type of instrument of plucked strings. The. crwth presents still more troublesome questions, which we must admit are still less hopeful of solution. (See Fig. 22.) In this case we find an instrument pla^^ed with a bow in northern Europe, far one side the course of Asiatic commerce, at a time when there was no such instrument elsewhere in the world but in India. Whence came the crwth? The rebec was not known in Arabia until nearly two centuries after we find the crwth mentioned by Venance Fortunatus. We have seen that the Sanskrit had four words meaning bow, a fact affording presump- tive evidence of the knowledge of this mode of exciting vibrations, while the Sanskrit was still a spoken language. The Mivstreh of the North. 07 It is possible that the bow was a discovery of the Aryans in their early days, ere yet the family had begun to separate. The crwth may have been a survival of this primitive discovery, still cherished among a people not able to employ it intelligently, and not able to develop its powers. For while the crwth was in Europe two centuries before the violin, the improvement of this /_^^ -i=^z= n O my bon-ny, ben - ny High - laud Lad-die, |fe±^Eg^i^^g^ -->- :it=^ ^- O my hand-some High-land lad-die! when I was sick, and li^g^ S ^^^^i^ like to die, he row'd me in his high - land plai-die. CHAPTER VII. THE ARABS OR SARACENS. ¥P O N many accounts the influence of the Arab civilization was important in this quarter of the musical world, and it may here well enough en- gage our attention, since its most important aspects are those in which it operates upon the European mind, awakening there ideas which but for this stimulus might have remained dormant centuries longer. From the standpoint of the western world and the limited information concerning the followers of Mahomet which enters into our educational curricula, the Arab appears to us an inert figure, picturesque and imposing, upon the sandy carpet of northern Africa, but a force of little influence in the world of modern nineteenth-century thought. Nevertheless, there was a time when this pictur- esque figure became seized with an activity which shook Europe and Christendom to its very center. The voice of the prophet Mahomet awakened the Arab from his slumber. He aroused himself to the duty of proselyting the world to the doctrine of the One God and the Great Prophet. With sword in hand and the rallying cry of his faith he went forth, with such result that a vast pro- portion of the inhabitants of the globe at this very hour 109 110 The Aj^abs or Saracens. profess the tenets of his rehgion. Once awakened into Hfe, he penetrated the distant east, and brought back thence the foundation of our arithmetic, the predecessor of our greatest of musical instruments, the vioHn, and discovered for himself the productions of the greatest of the Greek minds, the works of the philosopher Aristotle. He established a new state in Spain, and for several centuries confronted Christendom vsith the alternative of the sword or his faith. One of the best characterizations of this people upon the musical-literary side is that of the eminent M. Ginguene, who in his "History of Italian Literature," remarks as follows, concerning the points under immediate consideration : '' In the most ancient times the Arabs had a particular taste for poetry, which among almost all people had opened a way to the most elevated and abstract studies. Their language, rich, flexible and abundant, favored their fertile imagination : their spirit lively and senten- tious ; their eloquence natural and artless, they de- claimed with energy the pieces they had composed, or they sang, accompanied with instruments, in a very expressive chorus. These poems make upon the simple and sensitive auditors a prodigious effect. The young poets receive the praises of the tribe, and all cele- brate their genius and merit. They prepare a solemn festival. The women dressed in their most beautiful habits, sing a chorus before their sons and husbands upon the happiness of their tribe. During the annual fair, where tribes from a distance are gathered for thirty days, a large part of the time is spent in a contest of poetry and eloquence. The works which gain praise are deposited in the archives of the princess or emirs. The best ones are painted or embroidered with letters of gold The Arabs or Saraceyis. Ill upon silk cloth, and suspended in the temple at Mecca. Seven of these poems had obtained this honor in the time of Mahomet, and they say that Mahomet himself was flattered to see one of the chapters of the Koran compared with these seven poems and judged worthy to be hung up with them. Almansor, the second of the Abassides, loved poetry and letters, and was very well learned in laws, philosophy and astronomy. They say that in building the famous town of Bagdad he took the suggestions from the astronomers for placing the principal building. The university at Bagdad was honored and very celebrated. Copious translations from the Greek were made, and many original treatises produced in other parts of Arabia, but the most brilliant development of Arabic letters was ifi Spain. Cordova, Grenada, Valencia were distinguished for their schools, colleges and acade- mies. Spain possessed seventy libraries, open to the public in different towns, when the rest of Europe, with- out books, without letters, without culture, was sunk ifi the most shameful ignorance. A crowd of celebrated writers enriched the Spanish-Arabic literature in all its parts. The influence of the Arab upon science and literature extended into all Europe ; to him are owed many useful inventions. The famous tower at Seville was built for the observatory. It is to be noticed, however, that the Arabs, while taking much from the Greeks, did not take any of their literature, properly so-called — neither Sophocles, Euripides, Sappho, Anacreon, nor Demosthenes. The result is that their own literature preserved its original character ; they preserved also in all purity the peculiarity of their music — an art in which they excelled and in which the theory was very com- plicated. Their works are full of the praises of music 112 The Arabs or SaraceJis. and its marvelous effect. They attributed very powerful effects not alone to music sung, but to the sound of cer- tain instruments and to certain instrumental strings and to certain inflections of the voice." The modern world is indebted to the Arab for at least three of its most important instruments of music. The Fi^. 23. THE ARAB REBEC. ravanastron he brought home with him from India, and under the name Rebec it found its way into Europe, where in an appreciative soil it grew and expanded into that miracle of sonority and expression, the modern violin. The instrument of the south of Europe during the latter part of the Middle Ages was the lute, which had its origin in the Arab Eoud. (See Fig. 24.) The Arabs or Saracens. 113 Still more familiar to domestic eyes is that descendant of the Arab santir, the modern pianoforte. This, under the name of psaltery, begins to figure in manuscript as early as the ninth century. The Arab canon, which is commonly taken as the immediate predecessor of the pianoforte, had the important difference of being strung with catgut strings. The essential foundation of the pianoforte was the metal strings, necessitating hammers for inciting the vibrations, and affording in the superior solidity incident to metal support a firmness and suscep- tibility to development. This is the santir. It has sur- vived in Europe as the dulcimer, or the German hack- brett. 114 The Arabs or Saracens. Yet while the Arab wrote so abundantly upon the subject of music, and while it filled so prominent a part in his social and official life, and in spite of his sagacity in seizing perfectible types of instruments, there is very little in his treatment of the art which need delay us in the present work. His music belongs entirely to the ancient period of monody. He never had a harmony of combined sounds, nor a scale with intervals permitting combined "sounds. He was sufficiently scientific to carry out the intonations of the Pythagorean theory, and when he went beyond this and formed a scale for himself he devised one which did not permit the association of Fig. 25. THE SANTIR. sounds into chord masses ; and, more fatal still, he not only invented such a scale, but carried it into execution so exactly that the ear of the race was hopelessly com- mitted to monody, and has remained so until this very day. The scale of the Arabs in the latter times contained twenty-two divisions in the octave, of which only the fifth and fourth exactly correspond with the harmonic ratios. The place of the Arab in music, therefore, is that of an unintentional minister to a higher civilization and to the art of music. CHAPTER VIII. ORIGIN OF THE GREAT FRENCH EPICS. N E of the earliest developments of popular music B?&y on the continent was that of the Chanso7is de Geste ("Songs of Action"), which were, in effect, great national epics. The period of this activity was from about 800 to iioo or 1200, and the greatest produc- tions were the -'Songs of Roland," the ''Song of Anti- och," etc., translations of which maybe found in collec- tions of mediaeval romances. The social conditions out of which these songs grew have been well summarized by M. Leon Gautier, in his '' Les Epopees Fra?i^aises^' : "If we transport ourselves in imagination into Gaul in the seventh century, and casting our eyes to the right, the left, and to all parts, we undertake to render to our- selves an exact account of the state in which we find the national poetry, the following will be the spectacle which will meet our gaze : Upon one hand in Amorican Brittany there are a group of popular poets who speak a Celtic dialect, and sing upon the harp certain legends, certain fables of Celtic origin. They form a league apart, and do not mix at all in the poetic movement of the great Gallo- Roman country. They are the popular singers of an abased race, of a conquered people. Toward the end of the twelfth century we see their legends emerge from 115 116 Origin of the Great French Epics. their previous obscurity and conquer a sudden and astonishing popularity, which endured throughout all the remainder of the Middle Ages. But in the seventh century the}^ had no profound influence in Gaul, and their voice had no echo except beyond the boundary straits among the harpers and singers of England, Wales and Ireland. ''Upon another side, that of the Moselle, the Meuse and the Rhine, in the country vaguely designated under the name of Austrasia, German invasions have left more indelible traces. The ideas, customs and even the language have taken on a Tudesque imprint. There they sing in a form purely Germanic the ^ Antiguissinia Carmifia^ [" Most Ancient Songs "] which Charlemagne was one day to order his writers to compile and put in permanent form. Between these two extreme divisions there was a neutral territory where a new language was in process of forming — that of the 'Oc' and 'Oil.' Here the songs were neither German nor Gallo-Roman, but Romance. And here were the germs of the future epics of France." Out of this combination of contrasting spirits of race, the movement of awakened national life, arose, first, what were called Cantilenas — short songs of a ballad- like character. The language is a mixture of German, Latin and French, intermingled in a most curious man- ner. For example, consider the following verses from the cantilena of St. Eulalie, as given by M. Gautier, p. 65 : " Buona pulcella fut Eulalia; Bel avret corps, bellezour anima. Voldrent la vientre li Deo inimi, Voldrent la faire diaule servir, Elle n'out eskoltet les mal conselliers Qu'elle Deo raniet chi maent sus en ciel." Origin of the Great Firnch Epics. 117 Which being somewhat freely rendered into Enghsh, it sa^'s that : " A good virgin was Eulalia ; She had a beautiful body, more beautiful spirit ; The enemies of God would conquer her, Would make her serve the devil ; But never would she understand the evil ones who counsel To deny God, who is above all in heaven." And so the ballad goes on twenty-three verses more to narrate how she withstood the exhortations of the king of the pagans, that she would forsake the name of Christian; and when they threw her into the fire the fire would not burn her, for the fire was pure; and when the king drew his sword to cut off her head the detnoiselle did not con- tradict him, for she wished to leave the world. She prayed to Christ, and under the form of a dove she flew away toward heaven. These charming verses of the ninth century were probably sung to music having little of the movement which we now associate with the term melody, but which was more of a chant-like character. Of similar literary texture were a multitude of songs, of which many different ones related to the same hero. Hence in time there was a disposition on the part of the cleverer minstrels to combine them into a single narra- tion, and to impart to the w^hole so composed something of an epic character. Thus arose the famous Chansons de Geste already mentioned, the origin and general char- acter of which have been most happily elucidated in the work of M. Gautier, already referred to. He says : ''The great epics of the French had their origin in the romantic and commanding deeds of Charlemagne and the battles against Saracens in 792. The fate of civilization trembled in the balance at Ville Daigne and at Poitiers. 118 Origin of the Great French Epics. It is the lot of Christianity, it is the lot of the world, which is at stake. The innumerable murders, the tor- rents of blood, these thousands of deaths have had their sure effect upon history. The world has been Christian in place of being Arab. It appertains to Jesus instead of Mahomet. This civilization, of which we are so proud, this beauty of the domestic circle, this independence of our spirit, this free character of our wives and children it is to Charles Martelle, and above all to William of Orange, that we owe them, after God. We possess only a limited number of these primitive epics, the Cha7isons de Geste, and are not certain that we have them in the second or even the third versions. At the head of the list we place the ' Song of Roland,' the Iliad of France. Ah the other songs of action, however beautiful and how- ever ancient they may be, are far inferior. The text of the ' Song of Roland ' as it has come dow^n to us cannot have been written much before iioo. Besides this there is the ^ Chanson de N ivies y^ ^ Ogier ie Danois,^ ^ Jour de Blaibes,^ all of which were written in the languages of Oc and Oil. All these have something in common; the verse is ten syllables, the correspondences are assonances and not rhymes. In style these Chansons de Geste are rapid, military, but above all dramatic and popular. They are without shading, spontaneous, no labor, no false art, no study. Above all it is a style to which one can apply the words of Montaigne, and it is the same upon paper as in the mouth. Really these verses are made to be upon the living lip, and not upon the cold and dead parchment of the manuscript. The oldest manuscripts are small, in order that they may be carried in the pocket for use of traveling jongleurs and singers. They have Homeric epithets. The style is singularly grave. There Origin of the Great French Epics. 119 is nothing to raise a laugh. The first epics were popular about the end of the eleventh century. The idea of womaii is purer in the early poems. There is no descrip- tion of the body ; there is no gallantry. The beautiful Aud(i apprehends the death of Roland ; she falls dead. In the second half of the twelfth century our poets would have been incapable of so simple and noble a conception. We iind, even in 'Amis et Amelis,^ women who are still very German in physiognomy, and alluring, but they are Germans, so to say, of the second manner. They have a habit of throwing themselves into the arms of the first man who takes their fancy. '•Each one of the races which composed France or Gaul in the sixth or seventh century, contributed its share toward the future epics. The Celts furnished their character, the Romans their language, the Church its faith; but the Germans did more. For long centuries they had the habit of chanting in popular verse their origin, their victories and their heroes. Above all they penetrated the new poetry with their new spirit. All the German ideas upon war, royalty, family and government, upon woman and right, passed into the epic of the French. ''Our fathers had no epics, it is true, but they had popular chants, rapid, ardent and short, which are pre- cisely what we have called cantilenas. A cantilena is at the same time a recitation and an ode. It is at times a complaint and more often a round. It is a hymn, above all religious and musical, which runs over the lips and which, thanks to its brevity, mainly, is easily graven upon the memory. The cantilenas were a power in society ; they caused the most powerful to tremble. When a captain wished to nerve himself up against a bad action he said, ' They will make a bad song about me.* 120 Origin of the Great French Epics. " The heroes and the deeds which gave birth to '-'rench epics are those of the commencement of the eighth cen- tury to the end of the tenth. France is then mort* than a mere land ; it is a country ; a single religious i-aith fills all hearts and all intelligence. Toward the end of the tenth century we see the popular singers arre^^ting crowds in all public places. They sing poems of .3,000 or 4,000 verses. These are the first of the Chansons de Geste. Out of the great number of cantilenas dediccited to a single hero it happened that some poet had t:he happy thought of combining them into a single poeir^. Thus came a suite of pieces about Roland or William, and from these, in time, an epic. The latest of the epic cycles was that concerning the crusades. The style is popular, rapid, easy to sing. It recalls the Homeric poetry. The constant epithets, the military enumera- tions, the discourses of the heroes before combat, and the idea of God, are simple, childlike, and superstition has no place. The supernatural exists in plenty, but no marvels. " CHAPTER IX. THE TROUBADOURS, TROUVERES AND MINNESINGERS. O the full account of the origin of the Chansons de Geste in the foregoing chapter, it remains now to add a few notes concerning the pe7'S07i7iel of the different classes of minstrels through whose efforts these great songs were created. The first of these singers were the troubadours, who were traveling minstrels especially gifted in versification and in music. Their compositions appear to have been short, on the whole, and of various kinds, as will pres- ently be seen. The earliest of the troubadours of whom we have definite account was Count Wilhelm of Poitiers, 1 087-1 127. Among the kind of songs cultivated by these singers were love songs, canzonets, chansons; serenade — that is, an evening song; auberde, or day song; servantes, written to extol the goodness of princes ; tenzone, quarrelsome or contemptuous songs ; and roun- delays, terminated forever with the same refrain. There was also what was called the pastourelle, a make-believe shepherd's song. The so-called chansonniers of the north, who flourished toward the end of the twelfth century, were also troubadours. Among them the name of Count 121 122 The Troubadour Sy Trouveres and Minnesingers. Thibaut of Champagne, king of Navarre, stands cele- brated — 1 201-1253. He composed both religious and secular songs. The following is one of his melodies unharmonized. Its date is about the same as that of ^— -S?-' ^— ^1 >rr-'-^ ^s^si -^ — L'autrier par la ma-ti - u6 - e.En-tre ua bois et un ver-gier ¥^^^M U- ne pastoure ai trou-ve-e Chantant poursoi en-voi-sier, Et di-soit un son pre-iuier '"Chi me ti'^nt li mausd'a-nior. ' 3 iig^i^lillgpige^ Tan-tost ce-le part m'entor, Iva je I'oi des rais-ner; ^:^mmmmwM Si li dis saus de- la - ier. Bel-leDiex vousdoint bon-jor. *' Summer is Coming In." Another celebrated name of these minstrels was Adam de la Halle, of Arras in Pi- cardy — 1240-1286. Upon many accounts the music of this author is of considerable interest to us. He was a good natural melodist, as the examples in Coussemaker's 'Adam de la Halle" show. He is also the author of the earliest comic opera of which we have any account, the play of "Robin and Marion. " We shall speak of this later, in connection with the development of opera in general. Immediately following the troubadours came the trouveres, who were simply troubadours of nobler birth, and perhaps of finer imagination. There were so The Troubadours, Trouv^res and Minnesingers. 123 many of these singers that it is quite impossible here to give a hst of their names. Among the more celebrated, forty-two names are given by Fetis, the most familiar among them being those of Blondel, the minstrel of Richard Cceur de Lion, and the Chatelaine de Coucy (died about 1192), from whom we have twenty-three chansons. It was the trouveres who invented the Chansojis de Geste already mentioned — songs of action ; in other words, ballads. One of the most celebrated of these was the ''Story of Antioch," a romance of the crusades, extending to more than 15,000 lines. This poem was not intended to be read, but was chanted by the minstrels during the crusades themselves. One Richard the Pil- grim was the author. The song is, in fact, a history of the crusade in which he took part, up to a short time before the battle in which he was killed. Another very celebrated piece of the same kind, the '' Song of Roland," the history of a warrior in the suite of Charlemagne, is said to have been chanted before the battle of Hastings by the Jongleur Taillefer. Other pieces of the same kind were the '' Legend of the Chevalier Cygne '* ( '• Lohen- grin ") '' Parsifal " and the "Holy Grail." Each one of these was sung to a short formula of melody, which was performed over and over incessantly, excepting variations of endings employed in the episodes. A very eminent author of pieces of this kind was the Chevalier de Coucy, who died 1192, in the crusade. There are twenty-four songs of his still in the Paris Library. A similar development of knightly music was had in Germany from the time of Frederick the Red — 1152- iigo. These were known as minnesingers. Among the most prominent were Heinrich of Beldeke, 1 184-1228, 124 The Troicbadoiirs, TrouiCrcs end Minnesiyigers, an epic writer; Spervogel, ii 50-1 175 ; and Frauenlobe, middle of the twelfth century. The forms of the minne songs were the song {lede), lay ( lerch ), proverb ( spruch ). The song rarel}^ exceeded one strophe ; the lay frequently did. A little later we encounter certain names which have been recently celebrated in the poems of Wagner, such as Heinrich von Morungen, Reinmar von Hagenau, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried von Strassburg, Fig. 26. REINMAR, THE MINNESINGER. [From a manuscript of the thirteenth century, in the National Library at Paris.] Walther von der Vogelweide, Klingsor, Tannhauser, etc. All of these were from the middle of the thirteenth century. A portrait of Reinmar, the minnesinger, has come down to us with a manuscript now contained in the National Library at Paris. The last of the minnesing- ers was Heinrich von Meissen, 1260-1318. His poems were always in the praise of woman, for which reason he was called Frauenlob ("Woman's Praise "). An old chronicle tells us that when he died the women of Ma\ence The Troubadours, Trouvercs ayid Minnesingers. 125 bore him to the tomb, moistened his grave with their tears, and poured out libations of the costliest wines of the Rhineland. The following illustration is supposed to be a representation of this minstrel, although the Fig. 27. MASTER HEINRICH FRAUENLOB. [From a manuscript in the Manesse coUection at Paris.] drawing is hardly up to the standard of the modern Academy. \ The work of the minnesingers was succeeded in Ger- ' many by a class of humbler minstrels of the common 126 The Troubadours, Trouv^res and Minnesingers. people, known as the Mastersingers, the city of Nurem- berg being their principal center. A few of these men were real geniuses — poets of the people. One of the most celebrated was Hans Sachs, since represented in Wagner's *^ Meistersingers." Sachs was a very prolific poet and composer, his pieces being of every kind, from the simpler songs of sentiment and home to quite elabo- rate plays. About nine volumes of his poems have been reprinted by the Stuttgart Literary Union. Fig. 28. MINSTREL HARPS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. The principal influence of these different classes of popular minstrel was ten-|p o rary, in keeping alive a love for music and a certain appreciation of it. The most of their music was rather slow and labored, and it is impossible to discover in the later development of the art material traces of their influence upon it. In this respect they differ materially from the Celtic and English bards mentioned in the previous chapter. Although the pro- ductions of those minstrels have all passed away, the}^ The Troubadours, Trouveres and Minnesiyigers. 127 have left a distinct impress upon musical composition, even to our own day, in certain simple forms of diatonic melody of highly expressive character. The troubadours, trouveres and minnesingers, on the other hand, never acquired the art of spontaneous melody, and as for har- mon}', there is no evidence that they made any use of it. Their instrument of music was a small harp of ten or twelve strings, but no more — a much smaller and less effective instrument than the Irish harp of the eleventh century, or the Saxon of the tenth. (See Fig. 28.) ^^p^^ CHAPTER X. THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. ^T is not easy to define the influence of the Christian fj Church in this transformation, for the reason that upon the technical side it was slight, although upon the aesthetic side it was of very great importance. From the circumstance that all the early theoretical writers from the sixth century to the thirteenth were monks or ecclesiastics of some degree, and from the very important part played by the large cathedrals in the development of polyphonic music, many historians have concluded that to the Church almost this entire transformation of the art of music is due. This, how- ever, is wide of the truth. The Church as such had very little to do with developing an art of music through all the early centuries. The early Christians were humble people, for the most part, who had embraced a religion proscribed and at times persecuted. Their meetings were private, and attended by small numbers, as, for instance, in the Catacombs at Rome, where the little chapels in the dark passage ways under ground were incapable of holding more than twenty or thirty people at a time. Under these circumstances the sing- ing cannot have been essentially of more musical impor- tance than that of cottage prayer meetings of the present day. In another way the Church, indeed, exercised a 128 The Influeyicc of the Christiayi Church. 129 certain amount of influence in this department as in all others, an influence which might be described as cosmo- politan. The early apostles and bishops traveled from one province to another, and it is likely that the congre- gation in each province made use of the melodies already in existence. The first Christian hymns and psalms were probably sung to temple melodies brought from Jerusalem by the apostles. As new hymns were written (something which happened very soon, under the inspiration of the new faith and hope), they were adapted to the best of these old melodies, just as has been done continually down to nearly our own time. Our knowledge of the early Church, in this side of its activity, is very limited. It is not until the time of St. Ambrose, who was bishop of Milan in the last part of the fourth cen- tury, that the Church began to have an official music. By this time the process of secularization had been carried so far that there was a great want of seriousness and nobility in the worship. St. Ambrose, accordingly, selected certain melodies as being suitable for the solemn hymns of the Church and the offices of the mass. He himself was a poet of some originality. He com- posed quite a number of hymns, of which the most famous is that noble piece of praise, Te Deiim Laudamus, a poerm which has inspired a greater number of musical sitings than any other outside the canon of the Scrip- tures. The melodies which St. Ambrose collected were probably from Palestine, and he selected four scales from the Greek system, within which, as he supposed, all future melodies should be composed. This was done, most likely, under the impression that each one of the Greek scales had a characteristic expression, and that the four which he chose would suffice for the varying 130 The Influence of the Christian Church. needs of the hymns of the Church. In naming these scales a mistake was made, that upon re being called the Dorian, and all the other names being applied improp- erly. The series upon mi was called Phrygian, upon fa Lydian; upon sol Mixo-Lydian. The melodies of St. Ambrose were somewhat charged with ornament, a fact which indicates their Asiatic origin. It is probable that a part of the melodies of the Plain Song still in use are remains of the liturgies of St. Ambrose. The Church at Milan maintains the Ambrosian liturgy to the present date. In this action of St. Ambrose we have a characteristic representation of the influence which the Church has exerted upon music in all periods of its career. Upon the aesthetic and ethical sides the Church has awakened aspirations, hopes and faith, of essen- tially musical character, and in this respect it has been one of the most powerful sources of inspiration that musical art has experienced. But upon the technical side the action of the Church has been purely conserv- ative and, not to say it disrespectfully, politic. The end sought in every modification of the existing music has been that of affording the congregation a musical setting for certain hymns — a setting not inconsistent with the spirit of the hymns themselves, but in melody agreeable to the congregation. The question which John Wesley is reported to have asked, "Why the devil should have all the good tunes," has been a favorite conundrum with the fathers of the Church. Notwithstanding the firmness with which the Church at Milan maintained the Ambrosian liturgy, in other provinces this conservatism failed ; and within the next two centuries very great abuses crept in through the adoption of local secular melodies not yet divested of The Influeyice of the Christian Church. 131 their profane associations. St. Gregory the Great ( 540- 595), who was elected pope about 590, set himself to restore church music to its purity, or rather to restrict the introduction of profane melodies, and to establish certain limits beyond which the music should not be allowed to pass. St. Gregory himself was not a musician. He therefore contented himself with restoring the Ambro- sian chants as far as possible ; but the musical scales established by Ambrose he somewhat enlarged, adding to them four other scales called plagal. These were the Hypo-Dorian, la to la ; Hypo-Phrygian, si to si ; Hypo- Lydian, dotodo; Hypo-i^olian, mi to mi. I do not under- stand that the terminal notes of these plagal scales of St. Gregory were used as key notes, but only that melodies instead of being restricted between the tonic and its octave, were permitted to pass below and above the tonic, coming back to that as a center ; for we must remember that in the ancient music the tonality was purely arbi- trary, and, so to say, accidental. While all kinds of keys used the series of tones known by the names do, re, mi, fa, so, la, si, do, it was within the choice of the composer to bring his melodies to a close upon any one of these tones, which, being thus emphasized, was regarded as the tonic of the melody. Whatever of color one key had differing from another was due therefore to the preponderance of some one tone of the scale in the course of the melody. The Plain Song of the Roman Church, and of the English Church as well, has been called Gregorian, from St. Gregory, and the majority of ecclesiastical amateurs sup- pose that the square note notation upon four lines was invented by St. Gregory. This, however, is not the case. The melody, very likely, may have come down to us with few alterations. The notation, however, has undergone 132 The Infltieyice of the Christian Church. several very important changes, of which there will be more particular mention in chapter XV. The Gregorian notation of the sixth century was probably the Roman letters which we find in Hucbald, as will be seen farther on. Several of the tunes well known to Protestants have been arranged from the so-called Gregorian chants. They are ''Boylston," " Olmutz " and ''Hamburg.'' The eighth tone, from which " Olmutz " was arranged, has always been appropriated to the Alagfiijicat (^^' yiy Soul doth Magnify the Lord "). The following are the ecclesiastical scales and names, as established by St. Gregory: Dorian. 4—4- I I ? V -^ i E :^ Hypo-Dorian. Phrygian. 1 — ^J-^-^ t \ — —- ' ^ I Hypo Phrygian. Lydiau. ?^ I I ^ ^ Hypo-Lydian. jfixo-Lyaian. ^ ^ A ± ^ I Hypo -3Iixo-Lydian. The Influence of the Christian Omrch. 133 With the labors of St. Gregory the influence of the Church upon the course of musical development by no means ceased. At various epochs in its history synods, councils and popes have effected various reforms, every reform consisting in barring out a certain amount of novelty which had crept in, and in a supposed *^ restora- tion " of the service to its pristine purity. The restora- tion, however, has never been complete. Church music, like every other department of the art, has gone on in increasing complexity from the beginning until now. The main difference between the Church and the world in any century consists in drawing the line of the per- missible at a different point. One of the latest reforms was that begun by Pope Marcellus and the Council of Trent, which ordered from Palestrina an example of church music as it should be. Incidentally, in another direction, the Church has been of very great influence upon the course of musical development. The great cathedrals of the commercial centers of the world, in the effort to render their service worthy of the congregation, have afforded support to talented composers in all ages, and some of the most important movements in music have been made by ecclesiastics or officials deriving support from these sources. More extended particulars of this part of her influence will be given later. It may suffice to mention the cathedrals of Westminster and St. Paul in England, of Notre Dame in Paris, to which we owe the old French school and the beginning of polyphony; the cathedral at Strassburg, which supported important musicians; Cologne, where the celebrated Franco lived; St. Mark's, at Venice, where, from about 1350 to the end of the last century, an extremely brilliant succession of musical directors found a field for their activity. CHAPTER XI. THE DIDACTIC OF MUSIC FROM THE FIFTH CEN- TURY TO THE FOURTEENTH. I. HERE is very little in the Roman writers upon music that is of interest. Macrobus, an expert grammarian and encyclopedist living at Rome at the end of the fourth or beginning of the fifth cen- tury, wrote a commentary upon the song of Scipio, in which he quotes from Pythagoras concerning the music of the spheres : "What hear I? What is it which fills my ears with sounds so sweet and powerful? It is the harmony which, formed of unequal intervals, but accord- ing to just proportion, results from the impulse and movements of the spheres themselves, and of which the sharp sound tempered by the grave sound produces con- tinually varied concerts." (Cicero, '' De Republica,'' VI.) Commenting upon this passage, Macrobus says that Pythagoras was the first of the Greeks who divined that the planets and the sidereal universe must have harmonic properties such as Scipio spoke of, on account of their regular movements and proportions to each other. We find in the writings of Macrobus an advance upon the musical theories of Ptolemy. He shows that contrary to the doctrine of Aristoxenus there is not a 134 The Didactic of Miisic 135 true half tone, and that the relation 8 : 9 does not admit of being equally divided. In place of the three sympho- nies of the octave, fourth and fifth, mentioned by his predecessors, he makes five, including the octave and the double octave. "Such," he sa^^s, ''is the number of symphonies that we ought to be astonished that the human ear can comprehend them." Another of the Roman writers upon music was Mar- tinus Capella. His work is called the "Nuptials of Philologus and Mercury " ( " De Nuptiis Philologice et Mer- curii^'). The little upon music which the book contains was only an abridgment of the Greek treatise of Aris- tides Quintilianus. The most important of the earliest treatises upon music, and by far the most famous, is that of Boethius, as it is also the most systematic. The following sum- mary is from " Fetis' "History of Music," Vol. IV: " Born at Rome between 470 and 475, Boethius made at home classical studies, and went, they say, to Athens itself, where he studied philosophy with Proclus. He was of the age of about thirty-five when, in 510, he was made president of the senate. Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, called him to himself, on account of his reputation for wisdom and virtue ; he confided to him an important position in the palace, and intrusted to him many important diplomatic negotiations. Boethius did nothing which was not to his credit, but this made him only the more hostile to the interests of the courtiers ; he was therefore overthrown and cast into prison, where he composed his 'Consolations of Philosophy.' He was put to death 524 or 526.' Boethius' treatise on music is divided into five books. It is a vast repertory of the knowledge of the ancients 136 The Didactic of Music. relative to this art. Its doctrine is Pythagorean. The first book is divided into thirty-four chapters. In the first he develops the thought of Aristotle, that n^usic is inherent in human nature. He there renders the text of a decree which the Ephori of Sparta rendered against Timotheus of Miletus, but which better critics have regarded as fictitious. The second chapter establishes that there are three sorts of music : the worldly, which is universal harmony ; the human, which has its source in the intelligence, which reunites and co-ordinates the elements ; finall}^, the third kind is artificial, made by instruments of different sorts. The chapters following treat of the voice as the source of music ; of conso- nances and their proportions ; of the division of the voice and its compass ; of the perception of sounds by the ear ; of the correspondence of the semitones ; of the division of the octave ; of tetrachords ; of the three genera — enharmonic, chromatic and diatonic; of intervals of sounds compered to those of the stars ; of the musical and different faculties. All the second book, divided into thirty chapters, is speculative, and devotes itself to the different kinds and relations of intervals, according to the different S3'stems of theoreticians. The third book, in seven chapters, is a continuation of the subject of the second. It is par- ticularly employed in refuting the errors of Aristoxenus. The fourth book, in eighteen chapters, is entirely rela- tive to the practice of the art, particularly to the nota- tion. It is in this book that Boethius makes known the Latin notation of the first fifteen letters of the alphabet without preparation, without the slightest explanation, and as if he had done something which any one con- cerned with music at Rome would readily understand, as The Didactic of Music. 137 a matter of course. There is not one word to show that it was new, or that he claimed the invention. It was un- doubtedly the usual notation. The fifth book of this treatise has for its object the determination of intervals by the divisions of a mono- chord, and a refutation of the systems of Ptolemy and Archytas. We here find this proposition, remarkable if we recall the time when the author lived, that: ''If the ear did not count the vibrations, and did not seize the inequalities of movement of two sounds resonating by percussion, the intelligence would not be able to ren- der account of them by the science of numbers." After Boethius there is nothing in Roman literature concern- ing music. Notwithstanding that* Italy fell under the dominion of the Goths and Lombards after 476, it pre- served Greek traditions in music to the end of the sixth century. Cassiodorus, who lived still in 562, aged almost 100 years, left a souvenir for music in the fifth chapter of his treatise on the "Discipline of Letters and Liberal Arts" {De Artibiis ac Disciplinis Litterariini). He enu- merates the fifteen modes of Alypius as not having been abandoned, and establishes them in their natural order, calling them tones. Here also we find the classification of six kinds of symphonies, about 300 years after this enumeration, first realized in notes by Hucbald. He gives a series of fourths and of fifths, occasionally for two voices, occasionally with the octave added. These are the most important of all the things concerning music to be found in that part of Cassiodorus' book dedicated to music. In the seventh century the first, or perhaps the only author who wrote upon music was Bishop Isidore, of 138 The Didactic of Music. Seville. In his celebrated treatise on the etymologies or origins {" Isido?-i Hispaniensis Episcopi Etymologiariim, Lihri XX''^ divided into twenty books, chapters XIV to XXII of the third book relate to music. These are the chapters published by the Abbe Gerbert, under the name of ^'- Sc?iic7ucs de Musique,'^ in the collection of ecclesias- tical writers upon this art, after a manuscript in the imperial library at Vienna. While many of these chap- ters contain nothing more than generalities and pseudo historical anecdotes concernirfg the inventors of this art, this is not the case with the nineteenth chapter, the sixth in Gerbert's edition, for here he speaks "Of the First Division of Music, called Harmony." The defini- tions given by St. Isidore have a precision, a clearness not found in other writers of the Middle Ages. ''Har- monic music," says he, ''is at the same time modulation of the voice, and concordance of many simultaneous sounds. Symphony is the order established between concordant sounds, low and high, produced by the voice,*the breath or by percussion. Concordant sounds, the highest and the lowest, agree in such way that if one of them happens to dissonate it offends the ear. The contrary is the case in diaphony, which is the union of dissonant sounds." Here we find St. Isidore employ- ing the term diaphony in its original sense, as a Greek word, meaning dissonance — a sense exactly opposite to that of Jean de Muris. The Venerable Bede was the light of the eighth cen- tury, and the glory of the Anglo-Saxons. His treatise upon music, however, deals in theories and generalities, throwing no light upon the music of his day. The eleva- tion of his ideas may be seen in the following sentence, with which he introduces his subject: "It is to be The Didactic of Music. 139 remarked that all art is contained in reason ; and so it is that music consists and develops itself in relations of numbers." {^^Notandum est, quod omnis ars in ratiojie coti- tifietur. Miisica quoqite in ratione 7innierorum consistit atque versatur.'") Only two treatises upon music have come down to us from the ninth century. The first is b}^ a monk, named Aurelian, in the abbey of Reome or IMontier- Saint-Jean, in the diocese of Langes, who appears to have lived about the year 850. His book, called ^^ MusiccB Disciplina,^'' in twenty chapters, is a compilation of older anecdotes and theories, throwing no light upon the actual condition of the art in his day. The sole remaining work of this period was by Remi, of Auxerre, who had opened the course of theology and music at Rheims in 893, and afterward at Paris in the earlier years of the tenth century. His book, like the preced- ing, is wholly devoted to the ideas of the ancients. H. This brings us to the first writer on music, during the Middle Ages, whose work throws any important light upon the actual practice of the art in the period when it was written, namely, Hucbald, a monk of the convent of St. Armand, in the diocese of Tournay, in French Flan- ders. Gerbert gives two treatises upon music, as having come down to us from this author. Nevertheless there is reason to doubt the genuineness of one of them — whereof presently. The fii!'st of these, the so-called *' Treatise," from -a manuscript in the library of the Franciscan convent at Strassburg, collated with another from Cesene, bears this title : ''Incipit Liber Ubaldi Per- itissimi Musici de Harmonica InstitutioTie.'" The other is 140 The Didactic of Music. called "■ Hiicbaldi Monachi E Ion ens is Music a Enchiriadis,'' or ''Manual of Music, by the Monk Hucbald." The former work is of little interest, and if a genuine produc- tion of Hucbald's, probably belongs, as M. Fetis sug- gests, to his earlier period, when he was still teaching at Rheims, along with his former classmate, Remi, of Auxerre. The manual of Hucbald is not to be regarded as a complete treatise upon music. It has three principal subjects, namely : The formation of a new system of notation, the tonality of plain song, and symphony, or the singing of many voices at different intervals — in other words, harmony. In treating the scale he divides it into tetrachords, precisely according to the Greek method, as far as known to him, and he nowhere appears to perceive the inap- plicability of this division to the ecclesiastical modes. For representing the sounds, of the scale, divided into four tetrachords, Hucbald proposed the Greek letters, which in effect, would have been a- notation of absolute pitch, with the farther disadvantage of ignoring the har- monic principles of unity already discovered, and in fact involved in his own method of enlarging a two-voice passage by adding a third at the interval of an octave with the lowest. He recognizes six kinds of symphony ; in reality he employs only three, the others being reduplications. His symphonies are those of fourths, fifths and octaves. In all parts of his work but one he uses the term diaphony as synonymous with symphony ; there he gives its ancient meaning of dissonance. He proposed a sort of staff notation, upon which all the voices could be represented at once. The following The Didactic of Music. 141 illustration represents his staff and his diaphony, or harmony : » - Do\ t« / m.n i\ P«\ .u\ tt si \ on »/ io\ CU a biiur Dom ous in ' r \ / '» SL Rl"/ Do\ ..e/ \ u./ b>j< tJ / m.n \ lae/ pe\ ,u\ tUS. \ oria/ in\ c. a baur Dom nus > 10/ r \ / 'S 8J glo/ s«e/ \ u./ bus tj Do\ lac/ tf / m,n '\ pe\ Su\ t 1 si t\ or a/ 1 n\ CU la bi(u Dom inus 1 no/ r \ / Ii sr Klo/ DoA sae / \ la/ bui tr / min i\ lae/ pc\ suV t^si \ oria/ i l\ cula biturDcm .nus 1 no/ r \ / 'S Sn glo/ sae/ \ ta/ bus t7 la?/ POLYPHONIC NOTATION OF HUCBALD. The initial letters, T and S, at the beginning of the lines in the preceding staff indicate the place of the steps (tones) and half steps (semitones). 1 — 1 1- 1~" p h U — -h Z- I 1 i , .. Sit glo - ^,' — — ^ - a Do — «^ — s=^ mi — ^ C7- - ni in sae CU ■ la lue- S:±: 1 .'; -1 1 \ [— -4=^ 1 — 1 1 — 1 f2i- — 1 1— 1 1 ^ — — 'i il r ta -&- -«• bi ■ tur — .s ^- -T=i- Do mi - ■nrrir^' y^f- mpan a gpf ond Voice add ed tO a melody ajready_£xis ting, the counterpoint having s strict rf^lati'nn fp tVif^ Ip^aHJng pi^lnrly^ hniLa-A^zkQlly indep^Ildeftt mavement. This conception had its origin in the art of extemporaneous descant, in which, while the choir and congregation repeated the melody of the plain song, a few talented singers performed variations to it, guided solely by ear and tradition, returning to the tone of the plain song at all the points of repose. We do not know when extemporaneous descant gave place to written composition, but it was probably early in the twelfth century. By "double counterpoint " is meant a counter- point which, although written to be sung an octave lower than the principal song, can be transposed an octave and 152 The Rise of Polyphony. sung higher than the principal song without giving rise to forbidden progressions. This will be the case only when the original relations of the two voices have been restricted to certain prescribed intervals. By "fugue" is mejjit_a,lQriiLof^ composition in which every voice in turn enters with the leading melody of the piece, the same given out by the leading voice at first, called the "subject," responding alternately in tonic and dominant. This form comes later than the period we are now about to consider, but it grew out of the devices of polyphony, and accordingly is always to be kept in mind as the goal toward which all this progress was tending. The art of polyphony is to be understood as an effort toward variety and unity combined. The unity con- sisted in all the voices following with the same melodic idea ; variety, in the different combinations resulting in the course of the progress. The limitations of polyphony were reached when the true expression of melodic inter- vals was lost through their intermingling with so many incongruous elements. II. The beginnings of contrapuntal and polyphonic music have been traced to what is now known as the old French school, having its active period between about iioo and 1370, or thereabouts. The principal masters known to us now by name, were all, or nearly all, connected with the cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, and several of them with the university of the Sorbonne. Paris, during the earlier part of this period, in fact dur- ing the greater part of it, was the most advanced and active intellectual center of the entire civilized world. When the French school had ceased to advance, as The Rise of Polyphony. 153 happened some time before the close of the history in 1370, as above assigned, it found a successor in what is known as the Gallo-Belgic school, which was active between 1350 and 1432. This, in turn, was succeeded by the Netherland school, extending from about 1425 to 1625. The removal of the star of progress from one location to another, as here indicated in the succession of these great national schools, was probably influenced by corresponding or slightly antecedent changes in the com- mercial or political relations of the countries, rendering the old locality less favorable to art than the new one. > For questions of this sort, however, there is not now -! time or space. To return to the old French school — the recognition of the importance of this school is due to a learned Belgian savant, M. Coussemaker, who happening to discover in the medical library at Mont- pelier, France, an old manuscript of music, analyzed it, and found that it represented masters previously unknown, and, for the most part, belonging to the period under present consideration. In several monographs upon the history of " Harmony in the Middle Ages," he traced the steps through which polyphony had arisen, and was able to show that, instead of dating from the fourteenth or fifteenth century, as previously supposed, it had its beginnings more than three centuries earlier, and that Paris was the first center of this form of musical effort. For convenience of classification the entire duration of the old French school may be divided into four periods, of which the first may be taken to extend from 1 100 to 1 140, the great names being those of Leonin and Perotin, both organists and deschanteurs at Notre Dame. The Montpelier manuscript contains several compositions 154 The Rise of Polyphony. \ by both these masters, and in them we find the germs of the most important devices of counterpoint. Leonin was known to his contemporaries as "Optimus Organista," on account of his superior organ playing. He wrote a treatise upon the art, a manuscript copy of which appears to be in the British Museum, and its con- tents have been summarized by an anonymous observer, but never pubhshed in full. He is said to dwell mainly upon the proper manner of performing the antiphonary and the graduale. It is also stated that he noted his compositions according to a method invented by him- self. If this work could be fully examined it might throw important light upon the point reached in the practice of church music in his day ; his notation, also, would be a matter of interest and possibly of importance. Quite a number of compositions by Leonin have been discovered. The successor of Master Leonin, as director of the music at Notre Dame, was one Perotin, who, besides being a capable deschanteur, was an even greater organist than his teacher, Leonin. He was also a very prolific composer, many of his compositions being still extant. He made additions to his predecessor's manual of the organ. By descant in the foregoing account, reference is made to the practice of extemporaneous singing of an ornamental part to the plain son^ or a secu lar cantm^ .^iXmu^- This art had its origin one or two centuries earlier than the period now under consideration, in the secular organum of Hucbald (see p. 142), and all the more talented singers, who were also composers as well, were expert masters of it. Descant was the predecessor of counterpoint. The chief forms of composition in vogue during this period were i^tette, ro^do and conduit. The terms were i The Rise of Polyphony. 155 her inexactly applied, but in general the mot ette ap- ^Q fr> lia vp been a rhnrrh rnmposition. in which often \ different voic es 4iad d i fferent tex ts, -so that thp words ce_-wholly lost in per iormance. — 5^e rondo seems to /e been a secular composition, and was sometimes itten without words. The conduit was an organ ;ce, occasionally, if not generaiiy, of a secular charac- All of these forms were also distinguished as gj^um, triplu m and qu adruplum, arrnrding to th e num-_ • of voi ces. The harmonic treatment in them is still de, occasional passages of parallel fifths occurring, er the manner of Hucbald, but in the works of Perotin jsages of this kind are softened somewhat by the nee of contrary motion in the other parts. He made leginning in canonic imitation, Coussemaker and Nau- nn, after him, giving examples from a composition of called '^ Posuit Adjutoriuni.'' In these works of rotin, and in many others of that day, traces are to seen of an amelioration of the musical ear, and a jference for thirds and sixths, such as but a short time iviously had been unknown to musical theory. This uence was probably due to what was called " Jf'aux urdo?i,'' a system of accompanying a melody by an emporaneous second and third part in thirds or sixths. This art, again, is clearly due to the influence of the md singing of the British isles. Thus we have already beginning of at least three important elements of )d music: The recognition of the triad, or, more )perly, of the third and sixth, a beginning in imitation, i the contrapuntal concept of an independently mov- ; melodic accompaniment to a second voice, which in n had been the outcome of extemporaneous descant. e works of Perotin were undoubtedly in advance of 156 The Rise of Polyphony. his time, having in them no small vitality, as is she in their having formed a part of the repertory of N( Dame for more than two centuries. The second period of the old French school exteni from about i L4Q to — 1 1 70, ■ a £d__^reat ijiiproveme were made in the art of ha«ftUDV meanw hile..- " three great masters of this period were Alobert Sabillonl his successor in Notre Dame, Pjerre dp Croix, and a theoretical writer named J eaiLde^Garla The first of these men was distinguished as a great c chanteur, in other words, a ready hand at extempc neous counterpoint. Pierre de la Croix made cerl improvements in notation, the nature of which, howe^ the musical historians fail to give us. Garland divi* the consonances into perfect, imperfect and middle - system which has remained in use, with slight alterati to the present day. The thirds and sixths, however, < rank as dissonances. He also defines double coun point, and gives examples. The illustrations are cru but the idea is correct. The third period of the old French school is soi times known as the Franconian period, from the 1 great names in it of Franco of Paris and France Cologne, whose theories have already been noticed. (! page 146.) Another celebrated name of this period was t of Jerome of Moravia, also a theoretical writer, wh treatise has been published along with the others Coussemaker's " Mediaeval Writers upon Music." was a teacher and a Dominican monk at Paris, was contemporaneous with Franco of Cologne. The fourth period of the old French school extenc from 1230 to 1370. Tlic iureo f^roat name- 'v-r--^ Philli] 7nc Rise of Polyphony. 15V de Vitry, Jean de Muris and Guillaume de Machaut. They were regarded by their contemporaries as exponents of the ars nora, in contradistinction to the Franconian teaching, which was called ars antiqua. One of these differences was the use of a number of signs permitting singers to introduce chromatics in order to carry out the imitations without destroying the tonality. Jean de Muris was born in Normandy. He was a doctor in the Sor- bonne, and from 1330 a deacon and a canon. He died in 1370. He was a learned man of an active mind. He speaks of three kinds of tempo — lively, moderate and slow. He says that Pierre sometimes set against a breve four, six, seven and even nine semibreves — a license followed to this day in the small notes of the fioratura. This kind of license on the part of the deschanteurs had been carried to a great length, the melodic figures result- ing being called '' fleio'cttes''^ ("little flowers"). John Cot- ton compared the singers improvising thefleurettesol this kind to revelers, who, having at length reached home, cannot tell by what route they got there. Jean de Muris reproved them in turn, saying: ''You throw tones by chance, like boys throwing stones, scarcely one in a hun- dred hitting the mark, and instead of giving pleasure you cause anger and ill-humor." Machaut w^as born in Rethel, a province in Champagne, in 1284. He was still living in 1369. He was a poet and musician who occupied important positions in the service of several princes, and wrote a mass for the coronation of Charles V. Naumann thinks that Machaut was the natural prede- cessor of the style of Lassus and Palestrina. He says that the use of double counterpoint slackened from this time, whereby the music of the Netherland composers — Dufay, Willaert and Palestrina — is simpler and less 158 The Rise of Polyphony. artificial than that of Odington and Jean de Garland. Chords were in the north. Chords were more regarded. This also had its source III. The Gallo-Belgic school occupies an intermediate place between the oldjlxench and Net herlandis h. Its time was from 1360 to 1460, and Tournay the central point for most of the time. The first great name in this school was Dufay, 1 350-1432. The compositions re- mained the same as formerly, triplum, quadruplum, etc. One of the masters of this school, Hans Zeelandia, who died about 1370, is to be noticed on account of his part writing being more euphonious than that of his predecessors. He uses thethird more freely, and he gives the p f incipal melody i n his chansons to-thiilrebie, and not to the tenor, as do the others. This also is in line with the British influence. Dufay was regarded by his contemporaries as the greatest composer of his time. The opeii__iia- tc notation — srnxged e d t he black notes about 1400, or, according to Ambros, as early as 1370. Coussemaker dates Dufay 1355 to 1435. The introduction of popular tunes as a cantits fermus in masses and other such compositions is due to him ; there are a large number of such works still in the library of the Vatican. He was the first, so far as we know, who introduced " L'Onune Arme,'' and the same subject was treated by several other composers after him. Naumann thinks that the most noticeable pecul iarity of the work of Dufay is the^ilTTerrupte d paiL vviil- ing, the imitation nqLXUiiJ:ii»§-throtrgh~~the^whole com- position, but appearing here and there, according to the fancy ^oF the composer. Dufay is also credited with The Schools of the Netherlands. 161 demand at the time, the effects of the stimulating envi- ronment were immediately seen. It was perhaps partly in consequence of the burgher character of the classes most engaged in music in Flanders that the form music there developed should have been so exclusively vocal. All the work of this school, extending over two centuries, was either exclusively vocal, or written with main con- sideration for the voice, the instrumental additions, if any, having never taken on a descriptive or colorative character. The schools of the Netherlands came into prominence about I425^nd endured, with little loss of prestige, for two centuries, or untj j_ 1625 . During this period there was a succession of eminent names in music in these countries, and a great progress was made in polyphony, and a transition begun out of that into harmony (which was in part accidental, owing to their outdoing them- selves, as we shall see). Moreover, in the later times, quite a number of eminent men emigrated to foreign countries, and there kindled the sacred fires of the art, and set new causes in operation, leading to the develop- ment of national schools of great vigor. The three most eminent names in the category last referred to were those of TincJjcu:, who founded the school of Naples shjortly— b e fore ^500;- W illaort, who — founded that of Venice soon aiter-i^oo, and Orl ando La GsttsT'who founded that of M-unl£h_a trifle-later. The great Ra lestrina h im- self was an outcome of these schools of the Netherlands, and, aside from the independent musical life in Spain, there was no strong cultivation of music anywhere in Europe during this period, which did not have its source in these schools of the Netherlands. The entire delation of these schools is perhaps better shown in the following ,}jr 162 The Schools of the Netherlands. table taken from Naumann, than is possible in any other manner : THE NETHERLAND SCHOOL. (1425-1625 A. D.) Belgian School. Dutch School. First Period — 1 425-151 2. First Period — 1 430-1 506. OKEGHEM, Compere, Petrus, Hobrechtv Platenis, Tinctor. Second Period — 1455- 15 26 . Second Period — 1495-1570. JOSgUIN DESPRES, Agricola, ARKADELT, Hollander. Mouton. Third Period — 1495-1572. Th ird Period — 1 440-1622. GOMBERT, WILLAERT, SCHWELINCK. Goudimel, Clemens {non papa), Cyprian de Rore. Fourth Period — i 520-1 625. ORLANDO LASSUS, Andreas Pavernage, Phillippus de Monte, Verdonck. The first composer of the Belgian branch of the Neth- erlandish school was Joannes Okeghem, who was a singer boy in the choir of the Antwerp cathedral in 1443, and is supposed to have been a pupil of Binchois. Directly after the date just mentioned he gave up his place at Antwerp, and entered the service of the king of France. For forty years he served three successive kings, having been in especial favor with Louis XI. He resigned his position at Tours soon after 1490, and lived in retirement until his death in 151 3, at the age of nearly 100 years. Okeghem was a very ingenious and laborious composer, who carried_JLhe art of ^a«efti€-i«iil;a^ion_to_a, much finer point than had been reached before-j^is time. He is generally credited with having composed a mntpt-fp, in_thirt^:^ix£arts having almost all the devices later known as augnieftte*i.on, diminution, inversion, retrograde^ crah,. The Schools of the Netherlands. 163 etc. The thirty-six parts here mentioned, however, were not fully written out. Only six parts were written, the remainder being developed from these on the principle of a round, the successive choruses following each other at certain intervals, according to Latin directions printed with the music. The other composers belonging to this period were comparatively unimportant, with the excep- tion of JohannesJTinctor, who was born about 1446 and died in 151 1. Tinctor, after being educated to music in Belgium, emigrated to Naples. In early youth he studied law, and took the degree of doctor of jurisprudence, and afterward of theology ; was admitted to the priesthood, and became a canon. He then entered the service of Ferdinand of Arragon, king of Naples, who appointed him chaplain and cantor. He founded a music school in Naples, and published a multitude of theoretical works of the nature of text books. He is entitled to the honorable distinction of having published the first musical diction- ary of which we have any record. This book is without date, but is supposed to have been printed about 1475. None of the compositions of Tinctor have been printed, and his importance in music history ranks mainly upon the theoretical works which he composed, and his relation as founder of the Naples school. The second period of the Belgian school has the great name of Josquin des Pres, who was born about the mid- dle of the fifteenth century, probably at St. Quentin, in Hainault. He was a pupil of Okeghem ; was chapel master in his native town, and in 1471 was a musician at the papal court of Sixtus IV. This great master is to be remembered as the first of the Netherlandish school whose works still have vitality. He was a man of genius and of musical feeling. Martin Luther said of him that 164 The Schools of the Netherlands. " Other composers make their music where their notes take them [referring to their canonic devices]; but Jos- quin takes his music where he wills." Baini, the biog- rapher of Palestrina, speaks of him as having been the idol of Europe. He says : " They sing only Josquin in Italy ; Josquin alone in France ; only Josquin in Ger- many; in Flanders, in Hungary, in Bohemia, in Spain — only Josquin." ( ' ' S' canta il solo Jusquitio in Italia ; ilsolo Jusquino in Francia ; il solo Jusquino in Gerniania,^' etc.) Josquin was a musician of ready wit, and many amusing stories are told of the skill with which he overcame obsta- cles. Among others it is told that while he was at the French court the courtier to whom he applied for promo- tion always put him off with the answer, *' Lasciafare mi.'^ Weary of waiting, Josquin composed a mass upon the subject la, sol, fa, re, mi, repeated over and over in mimicry of the oft repeated answer. The king was so much amused that he at once promised Josquin a position, but his memory not having proved faithful, Josquin appealed to him with a motette : ^' Portio mea non est in terra viventium^^ (''My portion is not in the land of the living") ; and '^ Me?nor esto verbi tui^' (" Remember thy words "). Another anecdote of similar readiness is that of the motette which the king, who was a very bad singer, asked Josquin to write, with a part in it for the royal voice. Josquin composed a very elaborate motette, full of all sorts of canonic devices, and in the center of the score one part with the same note repeated over and over, the one good note of the king's voice — the inscrip- tion being " Vox regis'' ("voice of the king "). It will be too much to claim Josquin as a composer of express- ive music. The mere fact of his having written motettes upon the genealogies in the first chapters of St. Matthew The Schools of the Netherlands, 165 and St. Luke sufficiently defines the importance he at- tached to the words. Speaking of Josquin's treatment of effects, it is recorded of him that a single word is some- times scattered through a whole page of notes, showing that he attached no importance to the words whatever. One of the most beautiful of his pieces was a dirge written upon the death of Okeghem. Owing to the good fortune of the invention of music printing from movable types, in 1498, when Josquin was at the height of his powers, a large number of his works have come down to modern times. In the corresponding period of the Dutch school the name of Jacob Arkadelt is to be remembered, who, although not a composer of the first order, was never- theless a man of decided power, and is known to us through a number of his works still existing in consider- able freshness. Arkadelt was a singing master to the boys in St. Peter's in Rome in 1539, and was admitted to the college of papal singers in 1540. About 1555 he entered the service of Cardinal Charles of Lorraine, duke of Guise, and went to Paris, where probably he died. Besides a large number of motettes and masses, he was one of the most famous of the Venetian school of madrigal writers, a form of composition of which it will be in order to speak later. One of the most pleasing of Arkadelt's compositions is an Ave Maria which is often played and sung at the present day. The third period of the Netherlandish school embraced four very eminent names — Gombert, Willaert, Goudimel and Cyprian de Rore. The three latter were successively chapel masters at the cathedral of St. Mark's in Venice, and were eminent lights of the Venetian school. It is a significant indication of the commercial decadence of 166 The Schools of the Netherlands. the Netherlands, which had now set in, that all the composers of this period distinguished themselves in foreign countries. Nicholas Gombert, a pupil of Josquin, became master of singers, and afterward directed the music at the royal chapel in Madrid from 1530. He was a prolific composer of masses, motettes, chansons and other works. Of the remaining members of this period mention will be made in connection with the account of the music in St. Mark's, where they all dis- tinguished themselves. The most gifted of all these Netherlandish masters was Orlando de Lassus, who was born in Belgium, educated at Antwerp, spent some time in Italy, and finally settled at Munich, where he lived for about forty years, as musical director and composer. The composi- tions of this great man fill many volumes. He dis- tinguished himself in every province of music, being equally at home in secular madrigals — quite a number of which are heard even at the present day with satisfac- tion — masses and other heavy church compositions, and instrumental works. He was a cultivated man of the world who held an honored position at court and made a great mark in the community. He founded the school at Munich which, with rare good fortune, has occupied a distinguished position ever since, and has been, and still is, one of the most im.portant musical centers in Europe, as all who are acquainted with the history of Richard Wagner, or the reputation of the present incum- bent, the Master Rheinberger, will readily see. In Lassus we begin to have the spontaneity of the modern composer. The quaintness of the Middle Ages still lingers to some extent, and learning he had in plenty when it suited him to use it, but he was also capable of The Schools of the Netherlands. 167 very simple and direct melodic expression and quaint and very fascinating harmony. While the tonality is still vague, like that of the church modes, the music itself is thoroughly chordal in character, and evidently planned with reference to the direct expression of the text. A large number of madrigals have come down to Fig. 30. ORLANDO DE LASSUS. [From a contemporary print b.v the French eng-raver Ameling-ue.] US from this great master; among them is the one called *'Matona, Lovely Maiden," which is one of the most beautiful part songs in existence. The life of Lassus was full of dignity and honor. He was extremely popu- lar in Munich and in all other parts of Europe. He is to be considered the first great genius in the art of music. CHAPTER XIV. POLYPHONIC SCHOOLS OF ITALY. PALESTRINA. ^ T A L Y in the fifteenth century was in a highly pros- ^ perous condition. The great commercial cities had a profitable commerce with all parts of the then known world, and great public works had been under way for more than two centuries. The beginning of the Renaissance was marked by the great cathedrals, of which St. Mark's at Venice was a little earlier than Pisa, Sienna, Florence and Milan. All these were built before 1300. Vast public works were undertaken in all parts of the country, such as the canal that supplied Milan with water, and irrigated a large part of the plain of Lombardy ; the great sea wall of Genoa ; roads, bridges, municipal buildings, fortresses and the like. By the beginning of the sixteenth century the art of painting had reached a very high eminence ; the master Raphael was already at work, as was also that remarkable genius, Leonardo da Vinci — the most universally gifted artist who ever appeared. Michael Angelo was at work in the Sistine Chapel, and his plans for St. Peter's were partly being carried out. It was in this time that Johannes Tinctor, the Netherlandish composer, founded a music school at Naples. The school itself was short-lived, but Polyphonic Schools of Italy. 169 it was presently succeeded by four others of a different kind which eventually produced a large number of eminent musicians, several of whom will occupy our attention later. Tinctor's music school appears to have been a private affair. Those which followed it were charitable institutions, taking poor boys from the streets, furnishing them with a living, the rudiments of an edu- cation, and musical training enough to make them avail- able in the service of the Church. The founding of these schools took place some time later than the period under immediate discussion. Santa Maria di Loreto was foimded in 1535, by a poor artisan of the name of Fran- cisco, who received in his house orphans of both sexes, and caused them to be fed and clothed and instructed in music. He was assisted by donations from the rich, and presently a priest named Giovanni da Tappia under- took to raise a permanent endowment by begging alms from house to house. At the end of nine years he had accomplished his task. The building was called the Conservatorio, and in 1536 received certain government allowances. The pupils reached the number of 800, and among the illustrious musicians produced by this school were Alessandro Scarlatti, Durante, Porpora, Trajetta, Sacchini, Gugliemi and many more. The second school of this kind organized was that of San Onofrio a Capuana, in 1576. It received 120 orphans, who were instructed in religion and music. In 1797 the pupils of this school were transferred to Santa Maria. The third school of this kind was that of De Pove?-i~di Gesii Crista, established in 1589, for foundlings. In 1744 this conservatory was made into a diocesan seminary. The fourth of these schools was that of Delia Pieta di Turchini, which originated about 1584. Quite a number of eminent IVO Polyphonic Schools of Italy. composers were produced in this school. All of these con- servatories were consolidated in 1808 as the Reale Collegia di Musica (Royal College of Music). The example of Naples was followed with more or less rapidity in the other principal Italian cities. The most important musical center of Italy during this time was Venice, where Adrian Willaert became musical director in the cathedral of St. Mark's, in 1527. Here he remained until 1562. The churQh_of_St. Mark's had already held a prominent position as a musical center at least two centuries of the four which it had been in existence. The recently published history of the music in St. Mark's extends back to 1380, from which time to the beginning of the present century there has been a succession of eminent musicians as organists and musical directors. There were two organs in this church, standing in gal- leries on opposite sides of the chancel. This circum- stance had an important influence on the development of music in the cathedral, as will hereafter be seen. It was in this church, according to Italian tradition, that pedals were first applied to the organ. It is probable that these appliances were very rude at first, and few in number, but they served to supplement the resources of the hands of the organist, and enabled him to produce effects not otherwise obtainable. The existence of the two choirs and two organs, and no doubt the habit of antiphonal singing in the Plain Song of the Church, led Willaert to invent double choruses, and finally to divide his choir into three or more parts. Willae rt is regarded by many as the f ender of the madrig^al, of which there is more to be said presently. He was also the teacher of two very eminent musicians who succeeded him in his position at St. Mark's — Zarlino and Cyprians de Polyphonic Schools of Italy. 1*71 Rore. To go on with the story of St. Mark's from this point, the most important successor of Willaert was .Qjoseffo ZarJinQ, who spent his youth in studying for the Church, and was admitted to minor orders in 1539, and ordained deacon in 1541. He was a proficient scholar in Greek and Hebrew, in mathematics, astronomy and chemistry. After studying for some years with Willaert he was elected in 1555 first Maestro di Capella at St. Mark's. In this position his services were required not alone as director of music in the church, but also as a servant of the repubhc, and it was his duty to com- pose or arrange music for all of the public festivals. After the battle of Repanto, October 7, 1571, Zarlino was appointed to celebrate the victory with appropriate music. When Henry III visited \'enice, in 1574, he was greeted by music by Zarlino. This same composer is also credited with having composed a dramatic piece called OrpJieo, which was performed with great splendor in the larger council chamber. Again, in 1577, Zarlino was commissioned to compose a mass for the commem- oration of the terrible plague which devastated Italy and carried off Titian, among other great men. His ecclesiastical standing was so good that in 1583 he was elected bishop, but his accession to the see was so strongly opposed by the doge and the senate that he consented to retain the appointment of St. Mark's, where he remained until his death in 1590. Zarlino was very famous as a composer, in his own day, but few of his works have come down to us. He is best known by certain works of his on harmony and the theory of music, of which the most important was the Institutio7ii Ar7noniche (Venice, 1558), and his Demunstrationi Armon- iche (Venice, 1571). Zarlino's distinction rests upon 1*72 Polyphonic Schools of Italy. his having restor-a the true tuning of the tetrachord to that of 8:9, 9 -», 15:16, as opposed to the Pythagorean tuning of 9:^, 9:8, 256:243. He was the most important scientific authority in the music of the new epoch. His diScoYeries in harmony were afterward supplemented — by those of Tartini, almost two centuries later. Among other strong points of Zarlino was his demonstration of equal temperament, which came into general use about 100 years later. Cypriano de Rore, whose name was mentioned above in connection with St. Mark's, held a position as master in that eminent cathedral only one year, his tenure of office falling between the death of Willafert and the appointment of Zarlino. He was a very prolific composer of motettes and madrigals, and after resigning his position at St. Mark's went to the Court of Parma, where he died at the age of forty-nine. The later eminent masters holding positions in this church will come into view in the next book, in connec- tion with the opera, for Monteverde was director of the music here during the greater part of his career as a dramatic composer. The most eminent development of the polyphonic school, and at the same time the dawn of a better era in church music, took place in Rome, where the influence of the Netherlandish composer is noticeable. Claude Goudimel, whose name appears in the table of the Neth- erlandish school in the preceding chapter, opened a music school in Rome in the early part of the sixteenth century, and among his pupils was the name of Pales- trina. Goudimel's residence in Rome was not very long. He afterward returned to Paris, and in some way was connected with Calvin in preparing psalm books for the Polyphonic Schools of Italy. 1*73 Calvinists. He was killed finally at Lyons in the mas- sacre of St. Bartholomew, August 24, 1572. The culmination of the contrapuntal school and the dawn of the new era in church music came about through the labors of the pupil of Goudimel, the great Palestrina. This master, w hose name was Giovanni Pierluigi ( Eng- lish, John Peter Lewis), was born of humble parents at Palestrina, a small town in the vicinity of Rome. The date is uncertain, but it was probably about 1520. As early as 1540 he came to Rome to study music, where he made so good progress that in 1551 he was appointed musical director at the Julian chapel in the Vatican. He then commenced the publication of a series of remark- able musical works, the first of which were in the style prevalent in his day. There was much learning of every sort ; all the devices of polyphony were freely and lux- uriantly employed, but along with them were other pas- sages of true expression. The dedication of some of these books to the pope secured for him certain small pre- ferments, which, in his most profitable condition, aggre- gated about thirty scudi a month { perhaps equal to $20 of our money). On this miserable pittance he supported his wife and four children. In 1556 he was discharged from his place as a pontifical singer, on account of his marriage, a fact which had been ignored by the pope who appointed him. He then held the post of chapel master at the Lateran. In 1561 he was transferred to Sa?itd Maria Maggiore, where he remained ten years at a monthly salary of sixteen scudi, until 1571, when he was once more elected to his old office of master at the Vatican. It would take us too long to speak of his various works in detail, although his numerous publications during this period demonstrate his claim to mastership of the first 174 Polyphonic Schools of Italy. order. The best of his pieces had already been adopted in the apostohc chapel, and his reputation was now greater in Italy than that of any other musician. But the taste for elaboration in church music had reached a point where reform was imperatively demanded. Not content with having secular melodies employed as canti fcrmi in the music sung to the words of the mass, the words of these secular songs themselves were often writ- ten in and sung by a majority of the singers in the choir, only those in the front rows singing the solemn words of the ecclesiastical office. The Council of Trent (1545- 1563) commented upon this state of things with great severity, and appointed a commission to inquire into the abuse and decide upon a remedy. It was contemplated lO entirely do away with elaborate musicift the Church, and sing only the Gregorian songs. A^w of the music- loving cardinals succeeded in preventing so sweeping an order, and a commission was appointed to take the mat- ter in hand. Two of the most active of these were Cardinals Borromeo and Vitellozzi. The former reported of the singing in the pontifical chapel, to the following effect: "These singers," said he, ''count it for their principal glory that when one sings sunctus, another sings Sabbaoth and another gloria tua, and the whole effect of the music is little more than a confused whirring and snarling, more resembling the performance of cats in January than the beautiful flowers of May." At the same time Palestrina was desired to write a mass in a style suitable for the sacred office. Too modest to rest the case upon one work, he wrote three, which were per- formed with great care at the house of Cardinal Vitel- lozzi, and all were much admired, but the third, known as the mass '' Papcs Marcelli,'' in memory of the pope Polypho7iic Schools of Italy. 1*75 who had appointed Palestrina to one of his positions, was recognized as of transcendent excellence. It was copied in the collection of the Vatican, and the pope ordered a special performance of it in the Apostolic chapel. At the end of it he declared that it must have been some such music as this that the apostles of the Apocalypse heard sung by the triumphant hosts of angels in the New Jerusalem. Palestrina continued to write masses, motettes and other works during the remainder of his life, but during the entire time lived in the extremely limited condition already mentioned, and was subject to much enmity from jealous singers and composers. The most pleasing incident of his later life happened in 1575, when fifteen hundred singers from his native town came to Rome in two confraternities of the Crucifix and the Sacrament, making a solemn entry into the city, singing the music of their great townsman, who conducted at their head. The long and active life of this great mas- ter came to an end January 22, 1594. Among his greater works are ninety-three masses, a very large number of motettes, forty-five hymns for the whole year, sixty-eight offertories, and a large number of litanies, magnificats and madrigals. It is not unlikely that reform in Catholic Church music had been very largely influenced by the Protestant music of Germany. Martin Luther (1483-1546) in arrang- ing music for the Protestant Church, invented the clioxale and added to the best melodies from the Plain Song some wonderfully fine ones of his own, such as '' Eine Feste Burg,^^ and caused many others to be written by the best composers of the Netherlandish school. The chorale was the exact opposite of the motette of the Netherlands. In the chorale all of the voices moved together. The 176 Polyphonic Schools of Italy. same music was invariably sung to the same words, whereby an association was created, intensifying the effect of the music and the words respectively. As examples of Palestrina's music are not common I have thought best to allow space for the following from his music for Holy Week. The pieces will produce a much better effect if sung by good voices than when played upon an instrument. They are written for the voice. "TENEBRiE FACT/E SUNT," BY GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA. Soprano. Tranquilly. ^ . jkLtnto. :. — /> T«Kon. Bass. Firmly marked. cres - cen ■ do. f Ma3^=— ^; lA ^ Te - ne-brae fac-taesunt, dum cru - ci - fi - xis - — f r-\ <^''« • cen • do. f I ' =i=^ I W ^ ^ \ \ I ^ i Te - ne-brae fac -tae sunt, dura cru - ci - k * : : -— P rr. <^es- f Te - ne-brse (ax -tae &unt, dam cru ci - fi - xis a Umpo. •eat Je • •um Ju- daa Et cir>eft ho-r%in no - nam ex Polyphonic Schools of Italy. "TENEBR^ FACTiE SUNT.' Ex • cla • mana Ja - 1V8 Polyphonic Schools of Italy, TENEBRiE FACTiE SUNT. vo-ce mag it : u ma • aua tu Do- mi- ne, com- men - do -Bpl - n-tum me Tempo prima, BOPRANO. ^- -5- Tbkob. PP riten.-^ ppp^ Et in-cli-na-to ca - pi-te e- mi-sit spi - ri - turn, m/ _ - P PP rt/cn--^ PPPrr^ Et in-cli-na-to ca - pi-te e - mi-eit spi - ri - turn. . J.m/" - P PP rilen.-^ PPP^ Et . in - cli - na - to ca - pi-te e - mi-sit spi - ri - turn. nf -, P PP, rUen.-^ ppp^ Et in-cli-na-to ca - pi-te e-mi-sit spi • ri - turn. CHAPTER XV. THE CHANGES IN MUSICAL NOTATION, fj^ H E entire movement of musical thought since three or four tones began to be put together into scales, melodies and unities of various kinds, has been in the direction of classification. This is shown very conclusively in the history of musical notation, which, at the end of the period just now under con- sideration, had reached a form nearly the same as we now have it. The early notation regarded tones as individual, and wholly without classification of any kind. The first musical notation of which we have any authentic knowledge was that of the Greeks already noted in chap- ter III. Their scale consisted of two octaves and one note, their so-called "greater perfect system," and the tones were named by the first fifteen letters of the Greek alphabet. This, however, was only a beginning of their system, for the variety of pitches required in their enharmonic and chromatic scales, and in the various transposition scales was so great that they required sixty-seven characters for representing them. These characters were written above the words to which they applied, and they had additional marks for duration, especially in the later periods of Greek music. Besides this they had an entirely different set of characters for the same tones played upon the cithara, so that a word 179 180 The Changes in Musical Notation. to be sung without accompaniment had one mark above it for the pitch of the note, while if accompanied even by the same tone upon the instrument, a second char- acter was written for the instrumental part. The system was wholly without classification, except that the letters were applied from the lowest notes upward, the same as we now have them. There was nothing to assist the eye in forming an idea of the movement of the melody, and as the forms of the letters were very similar in some cases there is no doubt that mistakes of copyists were numerous. This, however, is a matter of little concern to us, since no authentic melodies of the classical period have come down to us. The example of Greek characters given on p. 6g, in connection with the Ode of Pindar, sufficiently illustrates the nature of this nota- tion, although the interposition of the staff between the musical notes and the words deprives the illustration of a part of its value. The Romans had also a notation consisting of letters written above the words to which they applied ; they made use of the first fifteen letters of the alphabet in the same manner as the Greeks, but we do not know whether they employed the same characters for the instruments and the voices, or had different ones. The only example we possess of the Roman notation from classical times, or in close tradition from classical times, is that in " Boethius' Consolations of Philosophy." From the fact of this being the only place where the Roman notation is illustrated, certain writers have concluded thatBoethius invented it — a supposition which is utterly improbable. Boethius mentions the Roman notation, and employs it, as also does Hucbald in certain of his examples, but neither one of them explains it or gives The Changes in Musical Notation, 181 any account of its origin. We have simply to take it for granted that the Romans transferred the letter nota- tion of approximate pitch to their own characters instead of using Greek letters. The following example from Guido's book illustrates the appearance of the Roman notation as he uses it : i^^^JSu igJL r ':~v~~Tv f'^ r^ "' '' ^'-r"n 1 '■ ' 1 ' r Qui tol . - . lis pec - • ca • ta. Fiff. 31. LETTER NOTATION OF GUIDO OF AREZZO, WITH DECIPHERING. I'he most curious notation of which we have a record was that of the neumae, or neumes, which were employed by the ecclesiastical writers mostly from about the sixth century to the twelfth. This writing, as will be seen from the examples hereafter given, very much resembled the curves and hooks of the modern shorthand. The learned Fetis thinks that the characters were derived from the Coptic notation, and these again from the hieratic notation of the ancient Egyptians. The neumes signified mostly intonations, upward or downward slides of the voice, and not absolute pitch. •r^nocgrct fuf-mcof mC: -muif tu tf Figr. 32. NEUME NOTATION OF THE TENTH CENTURY. There are no clefs or other indications of the key, and it is little better than sheer guesswork to attempt to decipher one of them, for want of some one 182 The Chayiges in Musical Notation. single base mark to reckon from. Accordingly, the various commentators have rendered the old pieces in a variety of ways. It is probable that the imperfections of this notation were helped out, when it was in current use, by tradition, which appropriated certain keys to each of the principal hymns of the Church ; this being under- stood, the singer found himself able to make something intelligible out of a notation which, without the help of traditions, would have been meaningless. From about the eleventh century the supposed meanings of the vari- ous signs of the neumes are easily to be ascertained. 1 opu U mC iif qbfeaatat &c. Po • pu - le me - ua quid fe - ci aut FifT. 33. NEUME NOTATION OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY, DECIPHERED BY MARTINI IN "GREGORIAN" NOTATION. because tables are given by a number of writers of that period; but the earlier examples are practically unde- cipherable. This notation came into use partly through ecclesiastical influence, and partly owing to its being easy to write, while at the same time it occupied little space upon the page. The earlier examples, as already said, were without clefs or any means of ascertaining the key note. After a while we find them with one line representing do or fa, and the signs arranged above, below, or upon the line, at intervals approximately representing the pitch intended. Still later we find a colored line for fa, a thumb nail line traced on the parch- ment, but not colored, for re, and a different one for la. The Changes hi Musical Notation. 183 Still later four lines were used. There were many varieties of forms of the neumes employed by the different copyists and by different nationalities, the heaviest marks of this kind being those of the Lombard- Gothic represented in Fig. 35. These marks were after- v/ard written upon a four-linfi_^ff, and the note heads were derived from them. Fiff. 34. NEUME NOT.A.TION OF G'JII,0 OF AREZZO. There were no marks whatever for duration or measure in the neumes notation, and its persistence through so long a time signifies very plainly that it was not in the line of the musical life of the world, but was a special hieratic notation made to answer for ecclesiastical purposes by the help of carefully transmitted traditions. Oo - ro - oat re - gom °om • ni • am Fig-. 35. DECIPHERED NEUME NOTATION OF THE LATEST PERIOD. One of the oldest forms of this notation is that of the lament for the death of Charlemagne, an extract from which is here presented, together with its transla- tion as given by Naumann. 184 The Changes i7i Musical Notatioji. Incidentally this illustration gives a fair specimen of mediaeval melody of the earlier period. It dates from the tenth century. "lament for CHARLEMAGNE." romani A. • -- .- ' r ' . SOLi^ OKIw *- nrrjci C ixmcrr-ioe riimio r*ecimtcMTni(cro V A so - lis urlu us-qut ad oc - ci-du - i. Lit - to ■ ra oia-ris planctus pulsat in -gens cum cr - ro - re oi -1111-0. Heu • mc do -lens, plan ■ -I- m m-^^- 3t^iq Fraa ci, Ro ■ ma - ni at - que cun-cti ore - dii • li, Luc - tn pun - gun - tur et ma^-namo-les-ti-a, in - fan-tee, se - nos, glo-n-o - si pnn-ci-pes, Nam clanifit or . bia de • tri-men-tum Ka • ro • li. Heu ' mi • hi mi • be - ro ! The Cha7iges in Musical Notatio7i. 185 The earliest suggestion of the staff that we have is that in the work of Hucbaid already mentioned, in which he proposed to print the words in the spaces of the staff of eleven lines, placing each sj'Uable according to its pitch (p. 141). The staff, in connection with neumes, as given above in Fig. 34, probably came into use about the same time as that when Hucbald's book was written, but it was not until the days of Guido of Arezzo that the staff was employed in anything like its modern form, nor is it cer- tain that Guido had anything to do with introducing it.

-^it V ti A- i: Fig. 36. NOTATION OF THE FRENCH TROUVERES. In one of the manuscripts of his book letters are written upon the lines and spaces, and in another the neumes are given. The note head was not invented until some little time after his death, probably about fifty years. By the time of Franco of Cologne, the four-lined staff with square notes had come into use, the notes hav- ing the value already assigned them in the chapter upon Franco of Cologne. (See p. 145.) The place of fa was marked b}' a clef, and with some few exceptions all the 186 The Changes in Musical Notatioyi. musical notation from this time forward is susceptible of approximate translation. The term approximate is used above by reason of the fact that no sharps or fiats were written until long after this period, but it is thought that they were occasionally interpolated by the singers quite a long time before it became customary to put them into the notation. In this way, for example, a piece of music beginning and ending on the degree appropriate to fa might be brought within the limits of the key of F by the singer changing B natural to B flat wherever it occurred. Our information in regard to this practice is extremely limited, and, in fact, rests upon two or three detached hints. The signature was not employed until some cen- turies later. As already mentioned in chapter XI, there was no measure notation for a long time after Franco's death. The data are uncertain concerning the exact time when the bar began to be used to mark the measure. Its earliest use was that of marking the end of the music belonging to a line of poetry. This is the same use as now made of the double bar in vocal music. In fact, everything points to the progressive development of music in all respects, and the development of what we might call self- consciousness in musicians, whereb}' each succeeding gen- eration sought to place upon record a greater number of particulars concerning their music, and to leave less and less to accident or tradition. This progress has gone on until the present time, when two particulars of our music are exactly recorded — the pitch and the rhythm. The exact relation of every tone to the key note is ascertainable from our musical notation, and the precise degree of rhythmic importance appertaining to each tone according to its place in measure and in the larger rhythms. We The Changes in Micsical Notation. 187 are still lame in the matter of expression, and in piano- forte music also in regard to the application of the pedals. Here our notation affords only a few detached sugges- tions. If the master works of the modern school could be noted for expression as completely as for pitch and rhythm, the labor of acquiring musical knowledge would be very greatly diminished. The four-line staff has remained in use in the Catholic Church until the present time, and with it the square notes. It is generally called Gregorian, and by many is supposed to have been invented by Gregory the Great; but as a matter of fact, about six centuries elapsed after his death before this square-note notation came into use. The five-line staff came into use about 1500. Informa- tion is wanting as to the causes which led to its adop- tion in preference to the four-line notation so long in use. The clef for do (C clef) remained in use until very lately, and is still used by many strict theorists, being written upon the first line for the soprano, the fourth line for the tenor, the third line for the alto. The G clef, also, when first introduced, was often written upon the third or the first line ; the F clef, moreover, was not definitely estab- lished on the fourth line until toward 1700. In the scores of Palestrina's work, now published in complete form, there are pieces written with the soprano in the G clef upon the first line, the alto in the C clef upon the second line, the tenor in the C clef upon the fourth line, and the bass in the F clef upon the third line. This, while affording the eye two familiar clefs, the treble and the bass, places them in such a way as to practically make it necessary for the modern reader to transpose every note of the composition in all the parts, 188 The Changes in Musical Notation. and, in fact, to effect a transposition for each part upon principles peculiar to itself. The progress of classification is distinctly seen in the use of seven letters instead of fifteen, affording a tacit recognition of the most essential underlying facts of har- mony — the equivalence of octaves. The staff, however, affords the eye no assistance at this point, since the octaves of notes occupy relatively entirely different positions upon it, the octave of a space being invariably a line, and the octave of a line a space. Moreover, the octave of a bass line is always very differently located when it falls upon the treble staff, and, vice versa, the octave of a treble note falling in the bass is very differ- ently placed. If a notation had to be made anew it would no doubt facilitate matters to make use of a staff so planned as to bring out the equivalence of octaves more perfectly. A recent American designer, Mrs, Wheeler, has proposed a double staff of six lines, divided into two groups of three, for the treble and bass, thus presenting for the piano score four groups of three lines each, separated by smaller or larger intervals. Upon such a staff every tone would fall in the same place upon the three lines in every octave, the octave of the first line of the lower three would be the first line of the second three, and so on. This, however, is to anticipate. The smaller rhyth- mic divisions of the measure were very little used in the old music which, if not sung in slow time, was at least written in long notes, and the smaller varieties of notes are the invention of a period perhaps rather later than that at which we have now arrived. They belong to the elaborate rhythmic construction of the music of Han- del, Bach, Scailatci and Haydn. CHAPTER XVI. MUSICAL INSTRUMENiFS. THE VIOLIN, ORGAN, ETC. L BU R I N G the entire period covered by the division of the story with which we have been now for some time dealing, the influences operating upon the tonal sense in the direction of harmonic perception had also been highly stimulative to the sense of melody. All the d evices of counterpoi nt, with their two, three and four tones of the moving voice against one of the cantiis fermus, were so many incitations in the direction of melodic cleverness. This influence was still further strengthened by the constant effort of the composer to impart to each voice as characteristic an individuality of movement as possible. Hence there is a distinct gain in smoothness of melody, and there are occasional appearances of truly expressive quality in this part of the music, even in the most elaborate of the contra- puntal compositions. Meanwhile the various forms of popular minstrelsy, whose general course we have already traced, were powerfully appealing to this part of the musical endowment of the hearers. But the great means of cultivating an ear_far_melody, both in players and hearers, was the violin, which, contemporaneously with ~-~^_ 189 ( 190 Musical Instrumoits. the present point of our story, had reached its mature form and nearly all of its tonal powers. In fact, the tonal— «d«catkm of the mediaeval musicians had been carried forward in several directions by the instruments in use. The harp and its influence upon the develop- ment of chord perceptions have already received attention, but there was another instrument which, during the period subsequent to about 1400, exerted even a more powerful influence — I mean the lute. The lute and the violin appear in crude forms at nearly the same time in Europe. The violin was the instrument of the north, the lute of the south. Later they move together geographically, sharing the popular suffrages. By the time of Palestrina the lute had come to its full powers and most complete form. Within twenty years after the death of Palestrina orchestral music started upon the career which has never since stopped, the violin at the head of the forces, thanks to the insight of the great musical genius, Monteverde. The lute belongs to the same class of instruments as the guitar, differing from that, however, in important details of construction. It has a pear-shaped body, com- posed of narrow pieces of bent wood glued together ; the sounding board is flat, and of fir. The neck is longer or shorter, according to the variety of lute. It was strung with from eight to eleven strings, which in the east were of silk, but in Europe were catgut down to the end of the seventeenth century, when spun strings were substituted for the bass. The finger board was marked by frets, indi- cating the places at which the strings should be stopped. There were four or more of the longest strings which were not upon the finger board, and were never stopped. They were used for basses. Melodically the instrument had little power, although its tone was gentle and sweet. Musical Instruments. 191 Its influence, like that of the guitar of the present time, was in the direction of simple harmony, mainly restricted to the nearest chords of the key. The essential point in which the construction of the lute differed from that of the guitar, was in the back, which in the latter is flat, so that ribs are indispensable for preserving the rigidity of the body against the pull of the strings. The lute body is very solid, from the mode of its construction involving an application of the principle of the arch. The standard appearance of the lute was the following : Fig. 37. THE LUTE IN ITS STANDARD FORM. [From Grove's Dictionary.] The Stringing and tuning varied much in different periods. According to Praetorius, the lute had four open 102 Musical Instruments. strings tuned according to the scale in a below. Later, aGwas added above and below, and the tuning was that at b. jggg^^gjp^igg^ Another authority — Baron — gives a tuning for an ''eleven-course " lute, as follows : * ± n -r * ' The F below the bass staff had ten frets, G eleven, and each of the highest six strings twelve frets. The instrument thus had a compass of three octaves and a half from the C below the bass. All the strings were in pairs, two to each unison, excepting the upper two, which were single. The instrument was a very troublesome one to keep in order. Mattheson, who wrote in the lat- ter part of the eighteenth century, when the lute was still cultivated, said that a lutist of eighty years must have spent nearly sixty in tuning his instrument. The pull of the strings broke down the sounding board or belly, which had therefore to be taken off and righted once in every two or three years. The lute was derived from an Arabian or Persian instrument, of which the Arab eoud. Fig. 24 ( p. 113), was the latest representative. The problem of locating the frets accurately upon the finger board was one of the causes which led to close investigation into the mathematical relation of the tones in the scale ; and the directions given for placing them by various Arab and other writers afford precise and valuable information concerning their views of Musical Instruments. 193 intonation. The lute was made in a great variety of sizes, the largest being what was called the arch lute, which was more than four feet long from bottom to the end of the neck. This was employed by Corelli for the basses of his violin sonatas, and Handel made similar use of it. A diminutive lute has come down to our own days under the name of Mandolin. It is strung with metal strings, however, and played with a plectrum, whereas the mediaeval lute was played with the fingers. Monteverde employed still another variety of the lute in his orchestra, called the Chitarrone, whence our word guitar. This was a very large lute, with many strings, which were wire, and played, therefore, with a plectrum. The chitarrone in the collection at South Kensington has twelve strings upon the finger board, and eight bass strings tuned by the pegs at the top of the long neck. It was used mainly for basses. The guitar, of which a figure is omitted on account of the familiarity of the instrument, was the Spanish form of the lute, or the Spanish form which the Moorish lute took in that country. The essential feature of the violin is the incitation of the vibration by means of the bow. We do not know when or where this art was discovered, but it is supposed to have been in the remote east, at a very early period. The argument of Fetis, that since the Sanskrit has four terms for bow, according to the material of which it was made, therefore the art of the bow must have been known before the Sanskrit ceased to be a spoken lan- guage, has little weight. For while it is true that Sanskrit was not a spoken, or, more properly, a living, language in ordinary life after about 1500 B. C, it is true, on the other hand, that it remained in use as a 194 Musical histrumeiits. language of religion and of the learned down to times very recent. In that case there would necessarily be additions made to it from time to time, as new concepts came up for expression, in the same manner as additions were made to Latin during the Middle Ages, and even in modern times. Still, all the nations around Hindostan have the tradition that the art of playing music by means of a bow is very old, the Ceylonese attributing the inven- tion to one of their kings who reigned about 5000 B. C. Their ravanastron is very crude. (See page 72.) A sim- ilarly simple instrument is in use to the present day in many parts of the east. The Arab form of it, known as the rebec, is represented on p. 113, Fig. 23. It has two strmgs of silk, and is played with the point downward, like a 'cello. It is not possible after this lapse of time to determine which was the original form of the violin in Europe. Very early we find the crwth in the hands of the Celtic players, as noticed in chapter VI. The form given in Fig. 22 (p. 107) is rather late, most likely, and somewhat of a degradation, since many of the elements of the violin are wanting in it. The clumsy resonance body is of the same width all the wa}^, preventing the depression of one end of the bow in order to avoid sounding adjacent strings. As the bridge of the crwth was nearly flat, the adjacent strings were octaves, or related in such a way that when sounding together chords were produced. Many have supposed that all the strings were sounded together at each drawing of the bow. This is not impossible, for in one of the sculptures on a capital in the old church at Boscherville in Nor- mandy a stringed instrument is represented in which the tone is produced by a revolving bow, on the principle of the hurdy-gurdy, whereby chords must have been Musical Instruments. 195 produced continually. (See p. 208.) The same carving has two stringed instruments of the violin family, one held like a violin (No. 6), the other bass downward, like a 'cello (No. i). These two figures are fragments of the same carving. They are supposed to date from about the eleventh century. Many similar representa- tions occur, such as the following from old manuscripts. Fig. 38. These oval instruments had the same deficiency as the crwth, in respect to indentations at the side of the instrument, for permitting the depression of the bow. The oldest type of this instrument in use appears to have been the form known as the rebec, the Arab form, which came into Europe in the time of the crusades. According to certain authorities this was the primitive type from which our violin was derived. The form is better shown in the cut on page 196, which is from an Italian painting of the thirteenth century. The body of the rebec was pear-shaped. It was contemporaneous with many other forms partaking of the shape of the guitar. From this came the family of viols, which were very popular in England during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 196 Musical histrunients. The viol differed from the violin family proper in having a flat back like a guitar, and rounded corners. The only individual of the viol family which attained to artistic development was the viol da Gamba, or bass viol, which was tuned like a lute, having six strings. This instrument was a favorite with many amateurs until late in the eighteenth century. (See p. 197.) Fig. 39. ANGEL PLAYING A REBEC. [From an Italian painting of the thirteenth century.] Still more curious was the form of viol known as the barytone, which, in addition to an outfit of six catgut strings upon the finger board, was furnished with twenty- four wire strings, stretched close under the sounding board, where they sounded by sympathetic vibration. This was the instrument which Prince Esterhazy, Haydn's patron, so much admired, and for which Haydn wrote more than 150 compositions. Its form is shown in Fig. 41. It is not easy within present limits to apportion the various steps by which the violin reached its present Musical histruments. 197 form. The first eminent master of violins, as distin- guished from small viols, was the celebrated Gaspar da Salo, who lived and worked at Brescia during the latter part of the sixteenth century. The model varies, and the sound holes are straight and flat. His violins are small and weak of tone, but his tenors and basses are much sought for. His model was followed some time later by Guar- Fig. 40. VIOL DA GAMBA. [From Reissman's '" Historj- of German Music."] nerius. The real mastership in violin making was attained at Cremona, in Lombardy, where were many religious houses with elaborate services, and a surrounding popu- lation of wealth and artistic instinct afforded the mechanic 198 Musical Instruments. an appreciative public. It was here early in the sixteenth century that we first find the Amati family in the person of the oldest known violin maker, Andrea, from whom Fetis quotes two instruments dated 1546 and 1 55 1 . One of them is a rebec with three strings; the other is a small violin. They are a distinct advance over the Fig. 41. THE BARYTONE. violins 'of the western school, but they stop very far short of the modern instrument. The tone of his instruments is clear and silvery, but not very powerful. The most eminent of the Amatis was Nicolo, 1 596-1 684, a son of Geronimo and grandson of Andrea. The outline is more graceful, the varnish deeper and richer, and the proportions of his instruments better calculated. His Musical instriunents. 1^^ instruments have greater power and intensity of tone, and his tenors and 'cellos are very famous. But the Cremona school came to a culmination in the works of the pupil of Nicolo Amati — Antonio Stradivari, 1649-1737. This great master of the violin pursued the principles of the Amati construction down to about 1700, having then been making violins for upwards of thirty-three years. After 1700 he changed his principles of construction somewhat, and developed the grand style distinguishing his later works. He marks the culminating point of the art of violin making. It was he who perfected the model of the violin and its fittings. The bridge in its present form, and the sound holes, are cut exactly as he planned them, and no artist has discovered a possibility of improving them. His main improvements consisted (i) in lowering the height of the model — that is, the arch of the belly ; (2) in making the four corner blocks more massive, and in giving greater curvature to the middle ribs ; (3) in altering the setting of the sound Jioles, giv- ing them a decided inclination to each other at the top ; (4) in making the scroll more massive and permanent. Every violin of Stradivari was a special study, modified in various details according to the nature of the wood which he happened to have, sometimes a trifle smaller, a trifle thicker in this place or the other, or some other slight change accounted for not by pre-established theory, but by adaptation to the peculiarities of the wood in hand. According to Fetis, his wood was always selected with reference to its tone-producing qualities — the fir of the belly always giving a certain note, and the maple of the back a certain other note. These peculiarities are not regarded as fully established. The tone of the Strad- ivarius violin is full, musical and high-spirited. The 200 Musical Instruments. small number now in existence are held at extremely high prices. The usual pattern is that represented in the following figure. Stradivari established his own factory about 1680, and continued to make instruments up to 1730. The violin of 1708 weighs three-quarters of a pound. Besides making violins, this eminent artist also made guitars, lutes, 'cellos and tenors. It is wholly uncertain to what extent the peculiarities of the Stradivari instruments Figr. 42. THE STRADIVARIUS VIOLIN. [From Grove.] Wcjre matters of deduction and how far accidental. But there can be no question that the average excellence of his instruments, judging from the specimens still in existence, was much greater than that of any other violin maker. Many other eminent artists made good violins in the century and a half from the time of Andrea Amati and Musical Instrume^its. 201 Gaspar da Salo to Stradivari, among the most eminent being Maggini, of Brescia, whose viohns are very highly esteemed. Still, inasmuch as the finishing touches were put to the instrument by Stradivarius, we need not linger to discuss the minor makers. II. Before 1600 the organ had attained its maturity, and had become furnished with its distinctive characteristics as we have it at the present time. As this instrument, from the nature of its tone qualities and its peculiar limitation to serious music of grave rhythm, is naturally suited to the service of the Church, it has remained till the present day in the province where it had already firmly established itself at the time now under consider- ation. The origin of the organ is very difficult to ascer- tain. There are traces of some sort of wind instrument before the Christian era. The so-called hydraulic organ was probably one in which water was used to perfect the air-holding qualities of the wind chest, in the same man- ner as now in gas holders. One of the earliest mediaeval references to organs is to that sent King Pepin,.of France, father of Charlemagne, in 742 by Constantine, emperor of Byzantium at that time. This instrument, says the old chronicler, had brass pipes, blown with bellows bags; it was struck with the hands and feet. It was the first of this kind seen in France. Praetorius says that the organ which Vitellianus set in church 300 years before Pepin, must have been the small instrument of fifteen pipes, for which the wind was collected in twelve bellows bags. According to Julianus, a Spanish bishop who flour- ished in 450, the organ was in common use in churches 202 Musical Instruments. at that time. In 822 an organ was sent to Charlemagne by the Caliph Haroun Alraschid, made by an Arabian maker. This instrument was placed in a church at Aix-la-Chapelle. There were good organ builders in Venice as early as 822, and before 900 there was an organ in the cathedral at Munich. In the ninth century Fig. 43. [From Franchinus Gaffurius, " Theorica Mtisica^'^ Milan, 1492.] organs had become common in England, and in the tenth the English prelate, St. Dunstan, erected one in Malmes- bury Abbey, of which the pipes were of brjiss. The instruments of that time were extremely crude. Musical Instruments. 203 From this time on there are many authentic remains in the way of treatises on organ building and description of organs. The essential elements of this instrument consist of pipes for producing sound, of which a com- plete set, one pipe for each key of the keyboard, is called a stop ; bellows and wind chest for holding the wind, sliders or valves for admitting it to the pipes, and keys for controlling the valves. In his studies for a history of musical notation, Dr. Hugo Riemann quotes an extract from an anonymous manuscript of the tenth century, in which the author gives directions for a set of organ pipes. "Take first," he says, *'ten pipes of a proper dimension and of equal length and size. Divide the first pipe into nine parts ; eight of these will be the length of the second. Dividing the length of this again into nine parts, eight of these will be the proper length of the third ; dividing the first pipe into four parts, three of them will be the length of the fourth ; taking the first pipe as three parts, two of them will be the length of the fifth ; eight-ninths of this again will give the proper length of the sixth ; eight- ninths of this, the length of the seventh ; one-half the first, the length of the eighth, or octave." This gives a major scale, with the Pythagorean third, consisting of two great steps, which was too sharp to be consonant. The semitone between the third and the fourth is too small, as is also that between the seventh and eighth. The modern way of making the pipes of smaller diam- eter as they become shorter, had evidently not been thought of. Nevertheless, these directions are very important, since they throw positive light upon the tuning of the various intervals, the pipe lengths and 204 Musical Instruments. proportions affording accurate determinations of the musical relations intended. The early organs were furnished with slides which the organist pulled out when he wished to make a pipe speak, and pushed back to check its utterance. The date of the invention of the valve is uncertain, but it must have been about as soon as the power of the instrument was increased by the addition of the second or third stop. Before this, however, and perhaps for Fig. 44. PORTABLE ORGAN FROM THE PROCESSION IN HONOR OF MAXIMILIAN I. [Prom Praetorius' '■'■ Syntag>na Miisica," about 1500 A. D.] some little time after, there were many organs in use, which were committed to the diaphony of Hucbald, having in place of the diapason three ranks of pipes, speaking an octave and the fifth between. Each of these combined sounds was treated in the same way as simple ones are on other instruments, and if chords were attempted upon them the effect must have been hideous Musical histruments. 205 indeed; but it is probable that at this time the notes were played singly, and not in chords, or at most in octaves. We do not know the date at which this style of organ building ceased, but it is probably before the thirteenth centur3^ There is a manuscript of the four- teenth century in the Royal Library at Madrid, stating that the clavier at that epoch comprised as many as thirty-one keys, and that the larger pipes were placed on one side, and small pipes in the center, the same as now. The earliest chromatic keyboards known are those in the organ erected at Halberstadt cathedral in 1361. This instrument had twenty-two keys, fourteen diatonics and eight chromatics, extending from B natural up to A; and twenty bellows blown by ten men. Its larger pipe B stood in front, and was thirty-one Brunswick feet in length and three and a half feet in circumference. This note would now be marked as a semitone below the C of thirty-two feet. In this organ for the first time a pro- vision was made for using the soft stop independently of the loud one. This result was obtained by means of three keyboards. The keys were very wide, those of the upper and middle keyboards measuring four inches from center to center. The sharps and flats were about two and a half inches above the diatonic keys, and had a fall of about one and a quarter inches. The mechani- cal features of the organ were very greatly improved during the next century, but it was not until the old organ in the Church of St. ^Egidien in Brunswick that the sharps and naturals were combined in one keyboard in the same manner as at present. The ke\'s were still very large, the naturals of the great manual being about one and three-quarters inches in width. It was to the organ at Halberstadt that pedals were added in 1495, 206 Musical Instrumeiits. but no pipes were assigned to them. They merely pulled down the lower keys of the manual. Some time before the beginning of the seventeenth century the organ had acquired nearly the entire variety of tone that it has ever had. The mechanism was rude, no doubt, and the voicing perhaps imperfect. The tuning was by the unequal system, throwing the discords into remote keys as much as possible. In Michael Praetorius' ^'Syntagma Musica,'' the great source of Figr. 45. BELLOWS BAGS IN THE ORGAN AT HALBERSTADT, AND METHOD OF BLOWING. [Praetorius.] information upon this part of the history (published at Wolfenbiittel, 1618), he describes a number of large organs. Among them he mentions the organ in the Church of St. Mary at Danzig, built in 1585, having three manuals and pedal; there were fifty-five stops. The balance must have been very bad, since there were Musical Instrumefits. 207 in the great organ three stops of sixteen feet, and only three of eight feet. There was a mixture having twenty- four pipes to each key, besides a ''zimbel" in the same manual, having three ranks. Prastorius also gives many other specifications of large organs of three manuals, some with dates, some without. They belong mostly to the beginning of the seventeenth century, and the number indicates unmis- takably the interest awakened in this part of the musical furnishing of the large churches. Many points in these organs were imperfect, but the foundation had been laid, and the general character of the subsequent building settled. There was also a beginning of virtuosity upon the organ, but this will come up for consideration at a later point in the narrative. Fip. 46. SCULPTURED HEAD OF COLUMN, FOUND IN THE RUINS OF THE ABBEY OF ST. GEORGE, AT BOSCHERVILLE, IN NORMANDY. ELEVENTH CENTURY. (1) Three-Stringed viol or rebec. (2) Two persons playing the org-anis- trum, a stringed instrument vibrated by means of a circular bow or wheel, like the hurdy-gurdy. (3) Pandean pipes. (4) Apparently a small harp. (5) Psaltery. (6) Rotta or crwth. (7) Acrobat. f8) Harp. (9);^ (10) Instruments of percussion, perhaps bells. 208 Beolc Third. THE Dawn of Modern Music THE BEGINNING OF FREE EXPRESSION IN SONG, OPERA, ORATORIO AND FREE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. CHAPTER XVII. CONDITION OF MUSIC AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. "^ N justification of the name "apprentice period" for (i that part of the history of music ending with Pales- trina as the representative of the finished art of the Netherlands (helped out, we may well enough admit, with no small measure of the original insight and genius of his own)^ a general view of the condition of music in all European countries at the beginning of the seven- teenth century may well be taken. The fullness with which the details have already been treated renders it unnecessary to repeat them here, but it will be enough to recapitulate the principal features of the art thus far attained, adding thereto a number of incidents omitted. f Upon the side of musical phraseology, then, we find in the north the attainment of a simple and expressive form of melody almost or quite up to the standard of modern taste. In the cR-ection of the musically elaborative ele- ment we have the schools of the Netherlands and of Italy, in which absolutely everything of this kind was realized which modern art can show, saving perhaps the fugue, which involved questions of tonality belonging to a grade of taste and harmonic perception more advanced and refined than that as yet attained. It took nearly 211 ^^ J- 212 Music at Beginning of Seventeefith Century. another century before the ecclesiastical keys were thor- oughly disenchanted in the estimation of classical musi- cians. It was Bach who finally made true tonality the rule rather than the exception. In the line of instruments the harp had had its day, its never ending tuning having been one of the most operative forces in the development of the ear. Its successor, the lute, equally weak in tenacity of intona- tion, but with greater artistic resources, had been fully tested in every direction. The organ had attained a very respectable size, even when measured according to mod- ern ideas, and its influence in the direction of harmonic education had been well begun. The keyed instrument, of which our pianoforte is the living representative, had found its keyboard and a practical method of eliciting tones, which, whatever their weakness, were at least bet- ter than those of the lute, the chittarone, the psaltery or harp. Best of all, the violin had found master hands able to shape it into a model graceful to the eye, and sono- rous beyond anything else which the art of music can show. True, it was not until about sixty years later that the powers of this instrument in the direction of solos were fully recognized, or, indeed, brought before the pubhc. This was the work of Corelli, whose sonatas were pubhshed in the third quarter of the century with which we are now dealing. The viol, the weaker pre- decessor of the violin, had made great headway, and Monteverde put himself on record in 1607, much to his credit, by placing it at the head of his orchestra. Moreover, not only were the instruments of music in a condition creditable even in the light of modern ideas, but the popular taste for music was more lively and far- reaching than ever before. Everywhere in the civilized \ \ Music at Beginning of Seventeenth Cejitiuy. 213 world the practice of music was the universal attribute of a gentleman. In Italy we shall find a circle composed of some of the best minds of the nation engaged in the regular study of classical learning, and in discussions ^having for their object the re-discovery of the art of ancient music, which the seekers wrongfully imagined to have been as far superior to the music then in vogue as the sculpture of the ancients had been superior to that of mediaeval Italy. In no country was the art of music more highly esteemed, or, we may add, in a more advanced state than in England. Richard Braithwaite, a writer of the reign of Eliza- beth, formulated certain rules for the government of the house of an earl, in which the earl was *'to keep five musicians, skillful in that commendable sweet science "; and they were required to teach "the earl's children to sing and to play upon the bass viol, the virginals, the lute, the bandour or cittern." When he gave great feasts, the musicians were " to play whilst the service was going to the table, upon sackbuts, cornets, shawms and such other instruments going with wind, and upon viols, violins or other broken music during repast." In barber shops they had lutes and virginals wherewith the gentlemen might amuse themselves while awaiting their turn. It was the same in reception rooms ; musical instruments were provided as the surest method of enabling waiting guests to amuse themselves. If it be asked why it was that in spite of this high esteem for music so little came out of its cultivation in England that was creditable upon the highest plane, according to the scales in which we are accustomed to weigh the music of Italy and Germany, the answer is not hard to find. It was in consequence of the little 214 Music at Beginning of Seventeenth Century. attention paid to musical learning in the highest sense, as compared with the learning and training in musician- ship on the continent. English music died out, or grew small, for want of depth of earth. High ideals and thorough training in the technique are two prime con- ditions of a successful development of an art. Besides, the art of music suffered irreparable damage in England at the hands of the Puritans. The protectorate lasted long enough to put the art under an eclipse from which it did not fully emerge until nearly our own time. A similar fondness for this form of art pervaded all European countries. In Italy music was the delight of the common people and the favorite pursuit of the great. In Germany the Reformation and the influence of Luther hacFse't the people singing. The organ had attained an advanced state there, and other instruments of every sort were cultivated. It was the same in France. The love for music was universal. Hence the times were ripe for a great advance in art. There was concentrated' upon music an attention which it has rarely enjoyed at any other period of its history, and the advances now to be mentioned were correspondingly abundant and striking. The contrapuntal schools had done more to educate harmonic perception than is commonly supposed. All the devices of counterpoint, as we have them to-day, were invented by the various schools of this period, and brought to a high degree of perfection. But the learn- ing had somewhat overshot its mark. The multiplicity of parts in the compositions of Willaert, and the other masters of the polyphonic schools, served for the culti- vation of chord perception just as surely as if they had intentionally written chord successions without troubling Music at Beginning of Seventeenth Century. 215 themselves with imitative canon in any degree. For, when there were so many voice parts as ten, fifteen or twenty within the hmits of the compass of the human organ, that is to say^ mainly within the limits of two octaves and a half, the parts had no recourse but to cross continually, and since there was no aid afforded the ear by differences in tone color between one voice part and another, it necessarily followed that they fell upon the ear with the effect not of voice parts, in which the melody of each could be followed independently of the others, but rather as chord masses, in which here and there a prominent melodic phrase occasionally emerged, only to be lost the next moment by the prominence of a bit of the melody of some other voice. The effect of a compo- sition of this kind was no other than that of a succession of chords, and the ear was as thoroughly educated to chord perception by this class of music as if the com- poser had intended only to write successions of chords. Still the training of these schools, while incidentally affording education to the ear upon the harmonic side, was thoroughly contrapuntal, and the study of every, composer was to make something more elaborate than anything that had been written by his predecessors. Nevertheless there was an influence in another direc- tion. An art form was invented, which by the end of this period had established itself as the type of a musical form whenever the composer would arrive at something more spontaneous than could conveniently be attained by the way of a motette or conduit. That form was the madrigal. The meaning of the name is unknown. Some have deri\ cd it from Mary, and point to the sacred madrigals, many of which were composed by all the contrapuntal writers. Others have assigned a different 216 Music at Beginning of Seventeenth Century. origin for it, and it is not possible now to decide which is the true one. Enough if we find this form emerging from obscurity by the middle of the fifteenth century. The first writer of compositions under this title whose name is known to us was Busnois, and in the same col- lection are compositions of the same class by many other composers of the Netherlandish schools. A madrigal was a secular composition, generally devoted to love, but in polyphonic style, and in one of the ecclesiastical modes. They were always vocal down to the seventeenth century, but from that time forward they were generally marked for voices and instruments. One of the best composers of madrigals was Arkadelt, of the Netherland- ish school. The success of the great Orlando Lassus in this school has already been mentioned, together with the name of one of the best known of his compositions in this line (p. 167). The strange modulations, like that from F to E flat in one of Arkadelt's madrigals, are current incidents of the ecclesiastical mode in which they are written. Many of the secular works of this class are hardly to be distin- guished from those intended for the Church, and some are to be met with, having two sets of words, one secular, occa- sionally almost profane; the other sacred, some hymn or other from the offices of divine service. In England this school had a great currency, and the madrigals of the British writers of the seventeenth cen- tury are every whit as free and melodious as the best of those of the Italian school. The number of writers of this class of works was innumerable, so much so that we might well class it as the ruling art form of the century, just as the dramatic song was in the eighteenth century, the fugue in the last half of it, and the sonata in the Music at Beginning of Seveiiteenth Cejitiwy. 217 beginning of the nineteenth. Everybody wrote madrigals who ever wrote music at all. According to the dates of collections published, the English followed the Italian composers. The earliest Italian compositions of this class are contained in three collections printed by Otta- viano di Petrucci, the inventor of the process of print- ing music from movable type. These collections were published in Venice, 1501-1503, and copies are -still retained in the library at Bologna and at Vienna. The English cultivation of this form of composition became general toward the last of this century, and in the first part of the next ensuing, and it is but just to say that the English composers finally surpassed the continental in this school, and developed out of it a beautiful art genre of their own, the glee. Toward the latter part of the sixteenth century certain attempts were made in Italy at something resembling our opera, but in place of solo pieces by any of the performers there were mad- rigals. When Juliet, for example, would soliloquize upon the balcony, she did so in a madrigal, the remain- ing four parts being carried by chambermaids^itiside. When Romeo climbed the balcony and breathM his sweet vows to Juliet, one or two of his friends around the corner carried the missing melodies in which he sought to improvise his warm affection. The absurdity of the proceeding was manifest, but it needed yet another point of emphasis. There was a grand wedding in Venice in 1595, at which the music consisted of madri- gals, all in slow time and minor key. The contradic- tion between the doleful music and the festive occasion was too plain to be ignored, and led, presently, to the invention of a totally different style of song of which later there is much to say. 218 Music at Beginning of Seventeenth Century. The seventeenth century was one of the most mem- orable in the history of music, not so much, however, for what it fully accomplished as for the new ideas brought out and in part developed. The specific part of the general development of music which this century accomplished was the developjne?ii of free melodic expression. While, as already noticed, the musical productions of the preceding centuries had manifested an increasing melodic force and propriety, the secret of genuine melodic expression had yet to be found. In the madri- gal and motette the conditions were wholly unsuited to the development of this part of music. Instead of one prominent voice, in which the main interest of the pro- duction centered itself, the composer of that period had a certain number of equally important voice parts, all taking part in the development of the one leading idea of his piece. Melodically speaking, the standpoint was wrong and the situation false. Melody means individ- uality, individualism ; the free representation of a per- sonality in its own self-determined motion. At the point of the year 1600, speaking with sufficient exactness for ordinary purposes, the ruling standpoint of musical pro- duction changed, in the effort to rediscover the lost vocal forms of the Greek drama. The new problem was that of finding, for every moment and every speech of the drama, a form of utterance suitable to the sentiment and the occasion. Thus entered into music, through the ministry of self-forgetfulness, the most important prin- ciple which has actuated its later progress, the principle namely, of dramatic expression — in other words, the representative principle, the effort to represent in music something which until now had been outside of music. Out of this principle, co-operating with that other idea Music at Beginning of Seventeenth Century. 219 of two centuries later, the inherent interest of the indi- vidual, has grown the richness and manifold luxuriance of modern romantic music, together with the entire province of opera and oratorio. We have now to trace the steps which led to this great transformation in the art of music ; and to illustrate the application of the new principles to the province of instrumental music, which had no beginning of genuine art value before this period. When examined with reference to the matured productions of the century next ensuing, those of the seventeenth appear quite as much like apprentice efforts as those of the latter part of the period covered in the preceding book of our story ; but they have in them, however, the seeds of the later development, and stand to us, therefore, in the character of first fruits.' To state it still more unmistakably, we have to trace in the opera- tions of the seventeenth century the origin of di-aniatic song, the beginnings of free instru?nental music, the dis- covery of the art of voice training and the formation of what is called the *'old Italian school of singing," and the operation of the representative element in music, together with the new forms created through its entrance into art. The musical movement of this century in its entirety was a part of the general operation of mind, which was now of great amplitude and spontaneity. The fervor of the Renaissance indeed had passed, having resulted in the creation of masterpieces of architecture, sculpture, painting and poetry during the previous two centuries. Music came to expression last of the forms of art, and when mental movement was less intense. For this reason the Italian mind failed to rule in it after the early beginnings in the new direction had been made. 220 Music at Beginning of Seventeenth Century. The representative element entered the art of music in Italy ; but the mastery of its application, and the devel- opment of new forms fully completing the representa- tion, were carried on by other nationalities where the mental movement still retained the pristine vigor of new impulses and rich vitality. The city of Florence was the center where the drama and song-like melody found its beginning. Almost immediately, however, Venice became the home of music, and fostered the growth of dramatic song for more than half a century. At this time, as for a century previous, Venice was the most active intellectual center of Europe. Perhaps nothing gives so clear a realization of this supremacy as the statistics of books printed in the leading centers of Europe from 1470 to 1500. The largest centers were Strassburg, with 526 ; Basle, 320 ; Leipsic, 351; Nuremburg, 382; Cologne, 530; Paris, 751; Rome, 925; Bologna, 298; Milan, 625, while Ven- ice heads the list with 2,835. Toward the end of the century, the appearance of the genius, Alexander Scar- latti, effected the transference of the musical supremacy of Italy to Naples. "^=^5<^p^^ CHAPTER X V I i I - FIRST CENTURY OF ITALIAN OPERA AND DRAMATIC SONG. U R I N G the last decade of the sixteenth century [1^^ a company of ^orentine gentlemen were in the habit of meeting at the house of Count Bardi for the study of ancient literature. Their attention had con cen trated itself upon the d rama of^heJjra^ks, and the one thing which they sought to discover was the music of ancienLtragedy, the statel}^n(ijr'f"^^iired into nation tn which—the ^reat p eriods of Eschylus, Euripides and" Sophocles had been uttered. The alleged fragments of Pindar's music since discovered by Athanasius Kircher (p. 69) were not yet known, and they had nothing what- ever to guide their researches beyond the mathematical computations of Ptolemy and the other Greek writers. At length, one evening, Vincenzo Galilei, father of the astronomer Galileo, presented himself with a monody. Taking a scene from Dante's " Furgatorio'^ (the episode of Ugolini), he sang or chanted it to music of his own production, with the accompaniment of the viola played by himself. The assembly was in raptures. " Surely," they said, ^' this must have been the style of the music of the famous drama of Athens." Thereupon others set themselves to composing monodies, which, as yet, were 221 222 First Century of Italian Opera. not arias, but something between a recitative and an aria, having measure and a certain regularity of tune, but in general the freedom of the chant. Among the number at Count Bardi's was the poet Rinuccini, who prepared a drama called ' ' Daf ne. " The music of this was composed in part by an amateur named Caccini, and in part by Jacopo Peri, all being members of this studious circle meeting at the house of Count Bardi. ''DafneJMvas perfo rmed in i ^197 at the house of Count Corsi, wTl great success, but the music has been lost, and nothing more definite is known about it. This beginning of opera, for so it was, was also the beginning of opera in Germany, as we shall presently see, for about twenty years later a copy of "Bafne " w^as carried to Dresden for production there before the court, but when the libretto had been translated into German, it was found unsuited to the music of the Italian copy, whereupon the Dresden director, Heinrich Schuetz, wrote new music for it, and thus became the composer of the first German opera ever written. In 1600 the marriage of Catherine de Medici with Henry IV of France was celebrated at Florence with great pomp, and Peri was commissioned to under- take a new opera, for which Rinuccini composed the text ''Eurydice." The work was given with great eclat, and was shortly after printed. Only one copy of the first edition is now known to be in existence, and that, by a curious accident, is in the Newberry Library at Chicago. The British Museum has a copy of the second edition of 1608. The opera of *' Eurydice " is short, the printed copy containing only fifty-eight pages, and the music is almost entirely recitative. There are two or three short choruses; there is one orchestral interlude for three flutes, extending to about twenty measures in all, but there is nothing like First Century of Italian Opera. 223 a finale or ensemble piece. Nevertheless, this is the beginning, out of which afterward grew the entire fiowei/ of Italian opera. On page 225 is an extract. The new style thus invented was known to the Italians as // stilo rappresentivo., or the representative style, that is to say, the dramatic style, and there is some dispute as to the real author of tlieinvention. About the same time with the production of ''Eurydice," a Florentine musi- cian, Emilio del Cavaliere, wrote the music to a sacred drama, of which the text had been composed for him by Laura Guidiccioni, the title being ^^ La Rappresentazione del Anima e del Corpo. " The^iece_was_an^allegoricai-Qjis, ve ry^ elabo rate in it s struc ture, and writl an thrn ughant in— tlie representative style, of which Cavaliere claimed to be y the inventor. This oratorio, which was the first ever written, was produced at the oratory of St. Maria in Vallicella, in the month of February, ten months before the appearance of '* Eurydice " at Florence. It is evident, therefore, that if the style had been in any manner derived from the Florentine experiments already noted, it must have been from the earlier opera ''Dafne" and not from *•' Eurydice. " The principal characters were "// Tempo " (time), ''La Vita " (life), ''II Hondo " (the world), etc. The orchestra consisted of one lira doppia, one clavicembalo, one chittarone and two flutes. No part is written for violin. At one part of the performance there was a ballet. The whole was performed in church, as already noticed, as a part of religious service. y^ Seven years later we enter upon the second period of the opera, when, on the occasion of the marriage of Francesco Gongeaza with Margherita, Infanta of Savoy, Rinuccini prepared the libretti for two operas, entitled " Dafne " and " Arianna," the second of which was set to / ( 224 First Century of Italian Opera. music by Claudio Monteverde, the ducal musical director, a man of extraordinary genius. The first of these operas has long since been forgotten, but Monteverde made a prodigious effect with his. The scene where Ariadne bewails the departure of her faithless lover affected the audience to tears. Mo nteverde wn^; imn-ieHia J^l^rprn- missTo ncd to -wxjt e^ another_ aperay.-io^-"wiiich he~toak the subject of "■ Qr/ai^^l-s^di^ being himself an accomplished violinist, he made an important addition to the orchestral appointments previously attempted in opera. The instru- ments used were the following : 2 Gravicembani. 2 Contrabass! de viola, lo Viole da brazzo. 1 Arpa doppio. 2 Violini piccolo alia Francese. 2 Chitaroni. 2 Organi de Legno. 2 Bassa da Gamba. 4 Tromboni. 1 Regale. 2 Cornetti. I Flautino alia vigesima secunda. I Clarino, con 3 trombi sordine. A very decided attempt is made in this work at orchestra coloring, each character being furnished with a combination of instruments appropriate to his place in the drama. These works were not given in public, but only in palaces for the great, and it was not for more than twenty years that a public opera house was erected in Venice. In 1624 Monteverde at the instance of Giro- lamoMocenigo composed an intermezzo, ''IlCombatimento di Tancredi e Clorinda,^^ in which he introduced for the first time two important orchestral effects : The pizzicati (plucking the strings with the fingers) and the tremolo. FLUTE TRIO AND SCENE. [From the first opera, " Eurydice " (1600). Jacopo Peri.] #^ J J 1 m— -^•- ..0 ^ -2 5^-+^?— «_«.- -'-K ■— U.^- i E^ ^ ^fej 3 '^ :£E 4 L ^'—^s ^ a — *- ■si-zyft' m=^^^ -0 — #- ;^i Xel pui'ar-dor del - la piu bel-la stel - la 9^ '^- i^^^pgii au-rea sa-cel - la di bel foe' accen - di ^ -#— • PH :i=C*: 3f^^ I 1- iHi XI]— Tz, - ^g; ^ E qui dis-cen - di su I'au-ra - te plu - me, etc -6^- 225 226 First Century of Italiayi Opera. These occur in the scene where Clorinda, disguised as a knight, fights a duel with her lover Tancredi, who, not knowing his opponent, gives her a fatal wound. The strokes of the sword are accompanied by the pizzicati of the violins, and the suspense when Clorinda falls is characterized by the tremolo — two devices universal in melodrama to the present day. Monteverde had already for some time been a resident in Venice as director of the music at St. Mark's, where his salary had originally been established at 300 ducats per annum, and a house in the canon's close. In 1616 his salary was raised to 500 ducats, and he gave himself up entirely to the service of the republic. The first opera house was erected in 1637 and was followed within a few years by two other opera houses in Venice. In these places Monteverde's subsequent works were produced. The greater number of his manuscripts are hopelessly lost. We possess only eight books of madrigals, a volume of canzonettes, the complete edition of "Orpheus," and a quantity of church music. The new path opened by this great composer was followed assiduously by a multitude of Italian musicians. Among these the more distinguished names are those of Cavalli, who wrote thirty-four operas for Venice alone, Legrenzi and Cesti. The latter wrote six operas, some of which were very successful. By 1699 there were eleven theaters in Venice at which operas were habitually given; at Rome there were three; in Bologna one; and in Na- ples one. It would take us too far to discuss in detail the successive steps in the history during this century, since in the nature of the case, an individual work like an opera can with difficulty rise above the popular musical phraseology of the day, the object being immediate First Cejihiry of Italiayi Opera. 227 success with a public largely uncultivated. Hence, pop- ular operas for the most part are short-lived, rarely retaining their popularity more than thirty years. The grea test genius in opora in this century after \ Monteverde was Mr^^nndi w Hi ill III i^ nf Naples, the principal of the conservatory there, and, we might say, the inventor of the Italian art of singing — bel canto. For as there had been no monody, so there had been no solo singing, and as the operas of the first three- quarters of this century, in spite of the improvements of Monteverde, consisted mostly of recitative, there was still no singing in the modern acceptation of the term. Scarlatti introduced new forms. To the rccitati-ro secco, or unaccompanied recitative, which until now had been the principal dependence for the movement of the drama, he added the recitativo stromentato, or accom- panied recitative, in which the instruments afforded a draiffatic coloring for the text of the singer. To these, again, he added a third element, the aria. The first he employed for the ordinary bu&iiiiiss_j2JL_the-st^ge; the second for the expxes sion of de fij) pathos; the third for strongly individualized soliloquy. These three types of vocal delivery remam valid, and are still used by com- posers in the same way as by Scarlatti. His first opera was produced in Rome at the palace of Christina, ex- queen of Sweden, in 1680. This was followed by 108 others, the most of which were produced in Naples. The most celebrated of these were ^'Ponipei'' (Naples, 1684), ''La Theodora'' (Rome, 1693), ''II Trioiupho de la Liberta'' (Venice, 1707) and, most celebrated of all, -La Prmcipessa Fidt'Ie.'" In addition to this he wrote a large number of cantatas, more or less dramatic in character. Scarlatti not only created the aria, calling for sustained 228 First Century of Italian Opera. and impassioned singing, but also invented or discovered, methods of training singers to perform these numbers successfully. He was the founder of the Italian school of singing, and the external model upon which it was based undoubtedly was furnished by the violin which, having been perfected by the Amati, as already noted in the previous chapter, and its solo capacities having been brought out by Archangelo Corelli, whose first violin sonatas were published a few years before Scarlat- ti's first opera, had now established a standard of melodic phrasing and impassioned delivery superior to anything which had previously been known. It was a pupil of Scarlatti, Nicolo Porpora (i 686-1 766), who carried for- ward the work begun by his master. Porpora was even a greater teacher of singing than Scarlatti himself, and his pupils became the leading singers in Europe during the first quarter of the eighteenth century. The progress of vocal cultivation was remarkably helped by the fact that at this time women were not permitted to appear upon the stage, all the female parts being taken by male so- pranos, castrati. These artificial sopraaos, having no other career before them than that of operatic singing, devoted themselves vigorously to the technique of their art, and were efficient agents in awakening a taste for florid singing impossible for ordinary or untrained voices. Women did not appear upon the stage in opera until toward the middle of this century. Handel, in London, had male sopranos such as Faranelli, Senesimo, and the earlier of the female sopranos, of whom the vicious Cuzzoni was a shining example. The artistic merits of Porpora have been greatly exaggerated by certain writers, notably by Mme. George Sand in her " Cotisuelo,^' where he figures as one of the greatest and most devoted of First Century of Italian Opera. 229 artists. Her work, however, has the excellence of affording a very good representation of the artistic end proposed by the Italian masters of singing in their best moments. Porpora spent the early part of his life in Naples, but afterward he resided for some time in Dresden, Vienna, Rome and Venice, being principal of a conservatory in the latter place. In the latter years of his life (1736) he was invited to London to compose operas in competition with Handel, in which calling he but poorly succeeded. Porpora represents the ideal which has ruled Italian opera from his time to the present, the ideal, namely, of the pleasing, the well sounding, and the vocally agreeable. He is responsible for the fanciful roulades, the long arias and the many features of this part of dramatic music which please the unthinking, but mark such a wide departure from the severe and noble, if nar- row, ideal of the original inventors of this form of art. It is to be regretted that the limits of the present work do not permit the introduction of selections of music sufficiently extended for illustrating the finer mod- ifications of style effected by the successive masters named in the text. The brief extracts following are taken from the excellent lectures of the late John Hul- lah upon *' Transitional Periods in Musical History." The same valuable and suggestive work contains a num- ber of more extended selections from these and other little known masters of the period, for which reason the book forms a useful addition to the library of teachers, schools, etc. Other illustrations will be found in Ge- vaert's ''Les Gloires d'ltalie'' ("The Glories of Italy"). There are sixty arias in this collection, all w^ell edited, and chosen for their effectiveness for public performance at the present day. ARIA PARLANTE.— "LA3CIATE MI MORIR." [From the opera "Ariadae," 1607. Monteverde.] ^^m^^^^^ La-Bci» te mi mo - ri - re. ^m ^^mmm f^^il^^gsa? E clio vo - le - te voi che mi con • for • ti ^P^Spi^i i^^^^^^ in CO- 81 da-ra «or - te, in co-el gran mar - ti-re? La- iii ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^1 * :^^g^' '^- Bcia - te mi mo-ri • re. La-8cia-te mi mo • n • re. ^=^ eres. f^ dim. \ W\ 1 \ 230 EXTRACT FROM SONG, " VAGHE STELLE.*' [From the opera '* Erismena," 1655. Francesco Cavalli.] Andaminu -^ r r frfrr ^^^^^^ on dor • mi pi V'» - ghe «tel • le. tri ^ :^^H-^%^^F^ ^^ fe^M.^:^^ B: gEd^^ Lu - ci • bel • le, Non dor • mi • te, doq dor •mi • te. ^^i^^^ 231 ARIA. — "lASCIAMI PIANGERE." rFrom a cantata. Alessandro Scarlatti.] Lento non troppo. ^^J=H— ^^^ 3— J-H^E^^ La • 8cLa-mi, la - scia-mi pian - gc - re ch'io65 per t^^ ^ s 1 1 ■ ^p^- j^ ^==r^=i=i s=5 p^^^i^pi^^^^ ^^^igE^^JE ^ a^g^^^ ch5 io 80, io 80, io so per - ch6. I m^^ w- ^m^m La>8ci&-mi plan • ge-n. r^-^ I r ^^^m^^^^:^]^^ p^^ EgEl^^^^j^jvf ^g^El igS^IE^:^ la • 8cia-mi pian - ge-re ch'io so per • ch 6. per-ch» , ch'ioso per- 232 ^ ^m'B^^^^^^^^ •iO, lo 66. lo s5 per - chS. ^^^^^^^^^ f=rT=N=^ g =^=F ^ i DeL -Ic mio la • grime La sor - te ^^^a^ifi^l gggjpjS^i^ ^a^pa a^g per • fi - dtt ba - ^iu inju i. ea • zia nou e. 233 ^fJ^^s^^P^^^-^-^t^p^ Dcl-le mie la • gri-me La Bor • te per - fi - da 8a • zia ^^^^^^^m^ ^ pl^Si^l^^^^i^p Del-le mic la-»ri-me H^ip^iiE^ La sor - te per - fi - da aHi^imi^lgii^S • -^ kmmM £- £EE UE^^^^^^^^^^^ m Ba • zianon e 116. n6, n6 n5, n6, ea ^^SigiiiO^^^ D. izzi ^=l— ^- : ^mi La • 8cia-ml 3 ^^-&-teM=^:^=^^ eS^ =^-,=3^3 :Si3 234 CHAPTER XIX. BEGINNINGS OF OPERA IN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 1. J^^- ^ ROM Florence the art of dramatic song spread Igpt to all other parts of the world, yet not so rapidly as would have been supposed. For it was not until nearly half of the century had already elapsed that opera made a beginning in France, the country where ruled the unfortunate princess for whose nuptials the first opera had been written. French opera grew out of the ballet. This term, which at present is restricted to enter- tainments in which dancing is the principal feature, and the story is entirely told in pantomime, had formerly a more extended signification. It was equivalent to the English term "Mask," a play in which dancing, songs and even dialogue found place. This light and sprightly form of drama has been favored in France from a remote period. As early as the first quarter of the seventeenth century Antoine Boesset (i 585-1643) composed ballets for the entertainments of the king, Louis XIII. His son succeeded him at the court of Louis XIV. Some of the ballets of the elder Boesset were produced in 1635, and in these we must find the beginnings of French opera, if indeed we do not go back still farther, and find it in the 235 230 Beginnings of Opera in France and Germany. play of '-Robin and Marian," written by Adam de la Halle. In fact, dramatic entertainment has been indi- genous in France from an early date, and it is by no means easy to say that at any particular moment the Hne was crossed where modern opera begins. The ballets of Boesset were, no doubt, slight upon the dramatic side, having even less of serious intention in the music than the lightest of comic opera of the present day. The impulse to grand opera came from a different quarter. A sagacious cleric, the Abbe Perrin, heard, either at Florence or in Paris, from the company of Italian singers brought over in 1645, Peri's "Eurydice," which made a great impression upon him, and he sug- gested to a musician of his acquaintance, Robert Cam- bert, the production of another work in similar style. Several things in this account appear strange, but strangest of all, the total ignorance that prevailed in Paris of the vast development that had been made in Italian opera by Monteverde and the other Italians, during the forty years since Peri's experiment had been first composed. With the leisurely movement of the times, the new work of the French composers was pro- duced in 1659. This was ''La Pastor ale, ^^ performed with the greatest applause at the chateau of Issy. This was followed by several other works in similar style, ^'Ariane," "Adonis" and the like, and in 1669 Perrin secured a patent giving him a monopoly of operatic performances in France for a period of years. Meanwhile a certain ambitious and unscrupulous youngster was feeling his way to a position where he might make himself recognized. It was the youthful violinist, Jean Baptiste LuUi, the illegitimate son of a Florentine gentleman, his dates being about 1633-1687. Beginnings of Opera in France and Germany. 237 Lulli had been taught the rudiments of knowledge, including that of the violin, by a kind-hearted priest of his native city, and, when yet a mere lad, made his way to Paris in the suite of the duke of Guise. Once in Paris his way was open. Gifted with a quick wit, a total absence of principle or honor^ but of insatiable ambi- tion, he made his wa}^ from one position to another, and at length had been so prominent as a composer of dance music, and leader of the king's violins, as to have oppor- tunity to distinguish himself by composing the music for the ballet of '^Alcidiane,'' and others, in which Louis XIV himself danced. LuUi's ambition was still farther stimulated and his style influenced by the study of the music of Cavalli, for several of whose operas he com- posed ballets, upon the occasion of their production in France. Within thirteen years he produced no less than thirty ballets. In these he himself took part with considerable success as dancer and comic actor. The success of Cambert and Perrin's operas of ''Pomone'' and ''The Pains and Pleasures of Love" (1671) awakened in him the desire of supplanting them in the regard of the king. After intrigues creditable neither to himself nor to the powers influenced by them, he succeeded in this same year in having the patent of Perrin set aside, and a new one issued, giving him the sole right of producing operas in France for a period of years. Then ensued a career of operatic productivity most creditable and influential from every point of view. In the space of fourteen years Lulli produced twenty operas, or divertissements, of which the best, perhaps, were ''Alceste,'' 1674, "Thesee,'' 1675, ''Amadis de Gaule,'' 1684, and ''Roland," 1685. Lulli made certain improvements upon the Italian 238 Begi7inings of Opera hi France and Germany. models, which he originally followed, making the reci- tative more stately, and employing the accompanying orchestra for purposes of dramatic coloration. He was a great master of the stage, and introduced his effects with consummate judgment. His declamation of the text was most excellent, and in this respect his operas have served as models in the traditions of the French stage from that time until now. As a musician, however, he was clever rather than deep, and the music is often monotonous and rather stilted. Nevertheless, his operas held the stage for many years after the death of their author, and occasional revivals have taken place at inter- vals, even after the advance in taste and musical knowl- edge had effectually quenched their ability to please a popular audience. His "Roland" was performed as an incident in the regular season at Paris as late as 1778, when Gliick's "Orpheus" had already been heard. The example of Lulji's music given on pages 240 and 241 is from this work. The melody is vigorous and appropriate. The most commendable feature of this beginning of opera in France was the attention given to the musical treatment of the vernacular of the country. The princi- ple once recognized, that opera not in the vernacular of the country can never have more than an incidental and adventitious importance, has always been maintained in France. The Academie de Aliisiqiie, for which the patent was granted to Perrin, and transferred to LuUi, has been maintained with few interruptions ever since, and has been the home of a native French opera, constantly increasing in vigor, originality and interest. Italian opera has been fashionable in Paris for brief periods, and as the amusement of' the fashionable world, but the native opera has nearly always held the place of honor in the Beginni7igs of Opera in France and Germany. 239 affections of the people, and the foreign works produced there have been translated into the French language. II. In Germany the contrary was the case for more than a century later. The first operatic performance, indeed, was given in the German language. A copy of Peri's ''Dafne" was sent to Dresden and as a preparation for performance the text was translated, but it was found impossible to adapt the German words to the Italian reci- tative, owing to the different structure of the German sentences, bringing the emphasis in totally different places. In this stress the local master, Heinrich Schuetz, was called upon to compose new music, which he did, and the work was given in 1627. This beginning of German opera, however, was totally accidental. All that was intended was the repetition of the famous Italian work. Nor did the persons concerned appear to recognize the importance and high significance of the act in which they had co-operated, for no other German operas were given there or elsewhere until much later. Schuetz, moreover, did not pursue the career of an operatic com- poser, but turned his attention mainly to church music and oratorio, in which department he highly distinguished himself, as we will presently have occasion to examine farther. It was not until the beginning of the century next ensuing, that German opera began to take root and grow. The beginning was made in the free city of Hamburg, which was at that time the richest and most independent city of Germany, and, being remote from the centers of political disturbance, it suffered less from the thirty years' war than most other parts of the country. The prime mover here was Reinhard Keiser (1673-1739), born at SONG. — " ROLAND, CGUREZ AUX APMES." [From the opera " Roland," 1685. J. B. LuUi.) Animato. i mea, coa - rez aax ar • mes, Qae la m^m cr-r ^ ^^^ ^^^^M J— f— L pu, L'» • moor de sea di - vios ap - oas, Fait vi-vreau de- t7 A \ 1^ :^ ^gi U.-4- ii ^^ ^^Ig ^ifs: 3E»£:;-rE ^p: la du tr6 - paa Bo - land, cou - rez • :^^^J aaz ar • mes. -aux ^^^^$^^^^. aiH ^^f?^335 ^afe ^^^■-'1^ i F=FF=J?=P=^^ aux ar - mes. Que la g^fa#l^^-^=fe i ^i^^ f t ^ ft. T=t=tr gloi - re a de charm - es. Que la glol • re a de charm ^m^ r - ^:f—- ^^g^ 241 242 Beginnhigs of Opera in France and Geryjiany. Weissenfels, near Leipsic, and educated at the Thomas School. His attention had been directed to dramatic music. early, and at the age of nineteen he was commissioned to write a pastoral, ''Isjnene,^' for the court of Brunswick. The success of this gained him another libretto, ^'■Basilius,^' also composed with success. He removed to Hamburg in 1694, and for forty years remained a favorite with the public, composing for that theater no less than 116 operas, of which the first, ''Irene," was produced in 1697. In 1700 he opened a series of popular concerts, the prototypes of the star combinations of the present day. In these entertainments the greatest virtuosi were heard, the most popular and best singers, and the ne\,'est and best music. His direction of the opera did not begin until 1703; here also he proved himself a master. The place of this composer in the history of art is mainly an adventitious one, depending upon the chronological circumstance of his preceding others in the same field, rather than upon the more important reason of his having set a style, or established an ideal, for later masters. His operas subsided into farce, the serious element being almost wholly lacking, and, according to Riemann, the last of them shows no improvement over the first. Their only merit is that they are not imita- tions of the Italian nor upon mythological subjects, but from common life. In his later life he devoted himself to the composition of church music, in which depart- ment he accomplished notable, if somewhat conven- tional, success. The Hamburg theater furnished a field for another somewhat famous figure in musical history, that of Johann Mattheson, a singularly versa- tile and gifted man, a native of that city (1681-1764). After a liberal education, in which his musical taste and Beginnings of Opera in France and Germany, 248 talent became distinguished at an early age, he appeared on the stage as singer, and in one of his own operas, after singing his role upon the stage, came back into the orchestra in order to conduct from the harpsichord the performance, until his role required him again upon the stage. Indeed, it was this eccentricity which occasioned a quarrel between him and Handel, who resented the implication that he himself was incapable of carrying on the performance. Mattheson composed a large number of works, including many church cantatas of the style made more celebrated in the works of Sebastian Bach, later, the intention of these works having been to render the church services more interesting by affording the congregation a practical place in the exercises. Mattheson is best known at the present time by his ''Complete Orchestral Director," a compilation of musical knowledge and notions, intended for the instruction of those intend- ing to act in this capacity. CHAPTER XX. THE PROGRESS OF ORATORIO. I. S already noticed in the previous chapter, the /^OT oratorio had its origin at the same time as ^ opera, both being phases of the stilo rappresen- fativo, or the effort to afford musical utterance to dramatic }-)oetry — at first merely a solemn and impressive utter- ance, later, as the possibilities of the new phase of art unfolded themselves, a descriptive utterance, in which the music colored and emphasized the moods of the text and the situation. The idea of oratorio was not new. 'Ail through the Middle Ages they seem to have had miracle plays in the Church, as accessories of the less solemn services, and as means of instruction in biblical history. The mediaeval plays had very plain music, which followed entirely the cadences of the plain song, and made no attempt at representing the dramatic situation or the feelings growing out of it. All that the music sought to do was to afford a decorous utterance, having in it, from association with the cadence of the music of the Church, something impressive, yet not in any manner growing out of the drama to which it was set. The Florentine music drama was something entirely different from this, or soon became so, aad in oratorio" this \^as just as apparent as in opera, although the opportunities of vocal display were not made so much of. 344 The Progress of Oratorio. 245 The modern oratorio exists in two types : The dra- matic cantata, of which the form and general idea were established by Carissimi; and the church cantata, which differed from the ItaHan type chiefly in being of a more exclusively religious character, and of having occa- sional opportunities for the congregation to join in a chorale. The former of these types was established by Giacomo Carissimi (1604-1674), who was born near Rome, and held his first musical position as director at Assisi, but presently obtained the directorship at the Church of St. Apollinaris in Rome, where he served all the remainder of his long and active life. Without having been a genius of the first order, it was Carissimi's good fortune to exercise an important influence upon the course of musical progress, particularly in the direction of ora- torio, in which all the more attractive elements came from his innovations. Carissimi was a prolific composer, having constant occasion for new and pleasing attractions for the musical service oj^A^e rich and important Jesuit church, where he held his appointment. These composi- tions are of every sort, but cantatas form the larger portion, consisting of passages of Scripture set in consecutive form, with due alternation of solo and chorus, in a style at once pleasing and dramatically appropriate. The major- ity of his compositions have been lost, many of them going to the waste paper baskets when the Jesuits were suppressed. Enough remain, however, to indicate the interest and importance of his work. Moreover, there is another curious commentary upon the value of his music, in the fact that Handel took twelve measures well nigh bodily out of one of the choruses in Carissimi's ** Jephthah," and incorporated them in ''Hear Jacob's God" in his own "Samson." Mr. Hullah gives an 246 The Progress of Oratorio. excellent aria from this work, but it is too long for inser- tion here. The more important of Carissimi's innovations were in the direction of pleasing qualities in the accom- paniments, and agreeable rhythms. He was teacher of several of the most important Italian musicians of the following generation, among them being Bassani, Cesti, Buononcini and Alessandro Scarlatti. II. The other type of oratorio received important assist- ance toward full realization in Germany, at the hands of Fig. 47. HEINRICH SCHUETZ. Mattheson, as already noticed, and from those of Heinrich ^ Schuetz (i 585-1 672), who, after preliminary studies in The Progress of Oratorio. 24 Y Italy, where he acquired the Itahan roprooontativG otylo fronv ^Gabri eli__iri__yenice, ^in i6og, three years later returned to Germany^ and in 1615 was appointed chapel masterjojiie_elector of Saxony^-a p^jsition which he held with slight interruptions until his death, at the advanced age already indicated. Notice has already been taken in a former chapter of his appearance in the field of opera composition, in setting new music to Rinuccini's '' Dafne," on account of the German words being incapa- ble of adaptation to the music of Peri. But before this he had demonstrated his versatility and talent in the production of certain settings of the psalms of David, in the form of motettes for eight and more voices. In his second work, an oratorio upon the ''Resurrection," he shows the same striving after a freer dramatic expression. His great work ^'Symphonice Sacrce,'' consists of cantatas for voices, with instrumental accompaniments, in which the instrumental part shows serious effort after dramatic coloration. The first of his works in this style was the ''Last Seven Words" (1645), which contained the dis- tinguishing marks of all the later Passion music. It consisted of a narrative, reflections, chorales, and the words of the Lord Himself. Many years later he pro- duced his great Passions (1665-1666), and in these he accomplishes as much of the dramatic expression as pos- sible by means of choruses, which are highly dramatic in style and very spirited. The voluminous works of this master have now been reprinted, and some of them possess a degree of interest warranting their occasional presentation. Schuetz occupies an intermediate posi- tion between the masters of the old school, with whom the traditions of ecclesiastical modes governed everything, and those who have passed entirely beyond them and 248 The Progy-ess of Oratorio- polyphony, into modern monody. The music of Schuetz is always polyphonic, h\\\. there is much of drairratic- feeling in it, nevertheless. He_w^^_ane-of- 4hose-r.lp.ar- headed, practical masters, who, without being geniuses ilT'the intuitive sense, nevertheless contrive to impress themselves upon the subsequent activity in their prov- ince, chiefly through their sagacity in seizing new forms and bringing them into practicable perfection. Into the forms of the Passion, as Schuetz created it. Ba ch poured the w:eaiill_Qf_his_devotion and his inspiration; aa4atef^ teethoven put into the symphony form, created to his hand by the somewhat mechanical Haydn, the amplitude of his musical imagination, which, but for this preparatory • work of the lesser master, would have been driven to the creation of entirely new forms for his thoughts, not only hampering the composer, but — which would have been equally unfavorable to his success — depriving him of an audience prepared to appreciate the greatness of the new genius through their previous training in the same gen- eral style. CHAPTER XXI. BEGINNINGS OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. ^-^1^ H E beginning of instrumental music, apart from jjn vocal, is to be found in the latter part of the sixteenth century, but the main advances toward freedom of style and spontaneous expression were made during the seventeenth, and, as we might expect, origin- ally in Italy, where the art of music was more prosperous, and incitations to advance were more numerous and diversified. ; Upon all accounts the honor of the first place in the account of this part of the development of modern music is to be given to Andreas Gabrieli (1510- 1586), who from a singing boy in the choir of St. Mark's, under the direction of Adrian Willaert, succeeded in 1566 to the position of second organist, where his fame attracted many pupils. Among the numberless composi- tions emanating from his pen were masses, madrigals, and a considerable variety of pieces for organ alone, bearing the names of "Canzone," "Ricerari,'^ "Conce?'te,'^ and five- voiced Sonatas, the latter printed in 1586, being perhaps the earliest application of this now celebrated name to instrumental compositions. The pieces of Gabrieli were mostly imitations of compositions for the voice, fugal in style, and with never among them a melody fully carried out. Among the pupils of Andreas Gabrieli were Hans 249 250 Beginnings of Instrumental Music. Leo Hassler, the celebrated Dresden composer, and Swelinck, the equally celebrated Netherlandish organist, of whom there is more to be said. The beginning of organ composition, and the higher art of organ playing, made by Andreas Gabrieli, was carried much farther by his nephew and pupil, Giovanni Gabrieli (i 557-1 612), who, born and trained at Venice, early entered the service of its great cathedral, and in 1585 succeeded Claudio Merulo as first organist of the same. As a composer Giovanni Gabrieli continued the double-chorus effects which had been such a feature of tne St. Mark's liturgy since the time of Willaert, but especially he distinguished himself in improving the style of organ playing, and in giving it a freedom and almost secular character somewhat surprising for the times. A large number of his compositions of all sorts are in print, very many ''for voices or instruments." The alternative affords a good idea of the subordinate position still occupied by instrumental music, but a beginning had been made, which later was to lead to great things. The art of organ playing found its next great expo- nents in Holland and Germany, all of them having been pupils of the Venetian master. The most celebrated of these, considered purely as an organist, was Jean Pie- ters Swelinck (i 560-1 621), who was born at Deventer in Holland, and died at Amsterdam. He was more cele- brated as a performer and improviser than for the instru- mental pieces he published. Among his pupils was the celebrated Samuel Scheidt (i 587-1654), organist at Halle, who is memorable as the first who made artistic use of the chorale. Scheidt is also famous as the author of a book upon organ tabulature, or the notation for organ, which in Germany at this period was different from that Begin7ii7igs of Instrumental Miisic. 251 of the piano, and in fact much resembled the tabulature tor the kite, from which it was derived. It consists of a combination of lines and signs, by the aid of which the organist was supposed to be capable of deciphering the intentions of the composer. No especial importance appears to have been attached to the difference of nota- tion for instruments and voices in this period. And in Fit'. 48. JEAN PIETERS SWELINCK. fact, until our own times certain instruments, the viola, for example, have had their own notation, different from the voices, and different from that of other instruments. Another celebrated German organist of this period was johann Hermann Schein,who, with Scheldt and Swelinck, constituted the three great German musical S's of the six- teenth century. Schein (i 586-1630) was appointed cantor of the Leipsic St. Thomas school in 1615, and worked 252 Beginnings of Iustrume7ital Music. there as above. His numberless compositions are more free in style than the average of the century, and a num- ber of them are distmctly secular. Nevertheless, in the development of instrumental music he had but small part, not being one of the highly gifted original geniuses who impress themselves upon following generations. Fig. 49. SAMUEL SCHEIDT. The great German master of this period was Schuetz, chapel master at Dresden, whose career forms part of the story of the oratorio, a form of music which he had so large a share in shaping into its present form. II. In order to come once more into the path of musical empire, we must return again to Italy, where there was an organist at St. Peter's, who had in him the elements of greatness and originality. Girolamo Frescobaldi (i 587-1 640J was organist of St. Peter's at Rome from Beginnings of Instniniental Music. 253 1615. His education had been in part acquired in Italy, and in part in the Netherlands. As a virtuoso he attained an extraordinary success, and one of his recitals is reputed to have been attended by as many as 30,000 people. He distinguished himself as composer no less than as organist, and particularly by his compositions in free ^yle^ His Ricerari, Concertos and Canzones were all protests against the bondage of instrumental music to the fetters of vocal forms. It was the composi- tions of this master, together with those of Froberger, that Sebastian Bach desired to have, and which, in fact, he stole out of his brother's book case, and copied in the moonlight nights. It would take us too far were we to enumerate all the composers who distinguished themselves in this century, no one of them succeeding in composing anything satis- factory to this later generation, but all contributing something toward the liberation of instrumental music, and all adding something to its too limited resources. Among these names were those of Johann Kasper Kerl, organist at St. Stephen's church in Vienna, who, after having served with distinction at Munich, returned later and died at Vienna in 1690. Another of these German mas- ters, also one of those whose compositions Bach wished to study, was Johann Pachelbel, of Nuremberg (1635- 1706). In 1674 he was assistant organist at Vienna, in 1677 organist at Eisenach, and soon back to Nuremberg a few years later. His multifarious works for organ, among which we find a variety of forms, were perhaps the chief model upon which Sebastian Bach formed his style. He especially excelled in improvising choral variations, and in fanciful and musicianly treatment of themes proposed by the hearer. Yet another name of 25 4 Beginnings of Iiistriuncntal Music. this epoch, that of George Muffat, is now almost forgot- ten. He studied in France, and formed his style upon that of the French. A later master, also very influential in the style of Sebastian Bach, was Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707). For nearly forty years he was organist at the Church of St. Mary at Liibeck, where he was so ceie- Fig. 50. JOHANN ADAM REINKEN. brated that the young Sebastian Bach made a journey on foot there in order to hear and master the principles of his art. Buxtehude wrote a great number of pieces in free style for the organ, and, while his works have little value to modern ears, there is no doubt that this master was an important influence upon the enfranchise- ment of instrumental music. Among all these Nether- landish organists few are better known by name at the present day than Johann Adam Reinken (1623-1722), who was born at Deventer, Holland, and after the proper Beginnings of Instrume^ital Music. 255 elementary and finishing studies, succeeded his master, Scheidemann, as organist at Hamburg. Here his fame was so great that the young Bach made two journeys there on foot, in order to hear him. He was a virtuoso of a high order, and his style exercised considerable influence over that of Bach. HI. Return we now to Italy, where the violin led also to an important development of instrumental music, having in it the promise of the best that we have had since. In Fusignano, near Imola, was born in 1653 * Archangelo Corelli, who became the first of violin virtuosi, and the first of composers for the instrument, and for violins in com- bination with other members of the same family, and so of our string quartette. He died in 1713 at Rome. Of his boyhood there is little known. About 1680 he appears in high favor at the court of Munich. In 1681 he was again in Rome, where he appears to have found a friend in Cardinal Ottoboni, in whose palace he died. His period of creative activity extended from 1683, when he began the publication of his forty-eight three-voiced sonatas, for two violins, in four numbers of twelve sonatas each. He also composed many other sonatas for the violin, for violin and piano, and for other instruments. These epoch-marking works are held in high esteem at the present time, and are in constant use for purposes of instruction. Meanwhile the orchestra had been steadily enriched through the competition of successive operatic compos- ers, each exerting himself to produce more effect than the preceding. In this way new combinations of tone color were contrived, and now and then introduced in a 256 Beginnhigs of histrumental Music. fortunate manner, and effects of greater sonority were attained through the greater number of instruments, and the more expert use of those they had. In the present state of knowledge it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to trace the successive steps of this progress, and to give proper credit to each composer for his own contribution to the general stock. At best, the orchestra at the end of this century was somewhat meager. The violin and the other members of its family had taken their places somewhat as we now have them, but the number of basses and tenors was much less than at present, their place being filled by the archlute and the harpsichord. The trumpet was occasionally employed, the flute, the oboe, and very rarely the trombone. The conductor at the harpsichord, playing from a figured bass, filled in chords according to his own judgment of the effect required. Nothing approaching the smooth- ness and discreet coloration of the orchestra of the present day, or even of the Haydn orchestra, existed at this time. The violin players were very cautious about using the second and third "positions," but played continually with their hands in the first position. This part of the music, therefore, wholly lacked the freedom which it now has, and the whole progress of this century was purely apprentice work in instrumental music, its value lying in its establishing the principle, first, that instrumental music might exist independently of vocal, and, second, that it might enhance the expressiveness of vocal music when associated with it. The groundwork of the two great forms of the period next ensuing, the fugue and the sonata, had been laid, and a certain amount of precedent established in favor of free composition in dance and fantasia form. Meanwhile the pianoforte of the day, the Beginnings of Instrumental Mnsic. 257 clavicembalo, as the Italians called it, had been consider- ably improved. The present scale of music had been demonstrated by Zarlino, and the ground prepared for the great geniuses whose coming made the eighteenth century forever memorable as the blossoming time of musical art. Upon the whole, perhaps the most important part of the actual accomplishment of this century was in musical theory. While musicians for centuries had been employ- ing the major and minor thirds, and the triads as we now have them, the fact had remained unacknowledged in musical theory, and the supposed authority of the Greeks still remained binding upon all. Zarlino, however, made a new departure. He not only assigned the true intervals of the major scale, according to perfect intonation, but argued strongly for equal temperament, and demonstrated the impossibility of chromatic music upon any other basis. Purists may still continue to doubt whether this was an absolute advantage to the art of music, since it carries with it the necessity of having all harmonic relations something short of perfection; but the immediate benefit to musical progress was unquestionable, and according to all appearance the art of music is irrevocably committed to the tempered scale of twelve tones in the octave. ^^^^^^ Boole yourtK. THE Flowering Time of Modern Music BACH, HANDEL, HAYDN, MOZART, BEETHOVEN THE FUGUE AND THE SONATA. CHAPTER XXII. GENERAL VIEW OF MUSIC IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. W) T is not easy to characterize simply and clearly the ^ nature of the musical development which took place during the eighteenth century. The blossom- ing of music was so manifold, so diversified, so irrepres- sible in every direction, that there was not one single province of it, wherein new and masterly creations were not brought out. The central figures of this period were those of the two Colossi, Bach and Handel ; after them Haydn, the master of genial proportion and taste ; Mozart, the melodist of ineffable sweetness, and finally at the end of the century, the great master, Beethoven. In opera we have the entire work of that great reformer, the Chevalier Gluck, and a succession of Italian com- posers who enlarged the boundaries of the Italian music- drama in every direction, but especially in the direction of the impassioned and sensational. Add to these influ- ences, already sufficiently diversified, that of a succes- sion of brilliant virtuosi upon the leading instruments, whereby the resources of all the effective musical appa- ratuses were* more fully explored and illustrated, with the final result of affording the poetic composer additional means of bringing his ideas to a more effective expression 261 202 Music in the Eighteenth Century. — and we have the general features of a period in music so luxuriant that in it we might easily lose our- selves; nor can we easily form a clear idea of the entire movement as the expression of a single underlying spir- itual impulse. Yet such in its inner apprehension it most assuredly was. \/ Upon the whole, all the improvements of the time arrange themselves into two categories, namely : The bet- ter proportion, contrast, and more agreeable succession of moments in art works ; and, second, the more ample means for intense expression. In the department of form, indeed, there was a very important transition made between the first half of the century and the last. . The typical form of the first part of this division was the fugue, which came to a perfection under the hands of Bach and Handel, far beyond anything to be found in the form previously. The fugue was the creation of this epoch, and while based upon the general idea of canonic imitation, after the Netherlandish ideal, it differed from their productions in several highly significant respects. While all of a fugue is contained within the original sub- ject, and the counter-subject, which accompanies it at every repetition, it has an element of tonality in it which places it upon an immensely higher plane of musical art than any form known, or possible, before the obso- lescence of the ecclesiastical modes. Moreover, the fugue has opportunities for episode, which enable it to acquire variety to a degree impossible for any form developed earlier ; and which, when these opportunities were fresh, afforded composers a field for the display of fancy which was practically free. This, one may still realize by comparing the different fugues in Bach's **Well Tempered Clavier" with each other, and with Music in the Eighteenth Century, 263 those of any other collection. It is impossible to detect anywhere the point where the inspiration of the com- poser felt itself bound by the restrictions of this form. It was for Bach and Handel practically a free form. And the few other contempoianeous geniuses of a high order either experienced the sane freedom in it, or found ways of evading its strictness by the production of various styles of fancy pieces, which, while conforming to the fugue form in their main features, were nevertheless free enough to be received by the musical public of that day with substantially the same satisfaction as a fan- tasia would have been received a century later. Roughly speaking. Bach and Handel exhausted the fugue. While Bach displayed his mental activity in almost every province of music, and like some one since, of whom it has been much less truthfully said, ''touched nothing which he did not adorn," he was all his life a writer of fugues. His preludes are not fugues, and their number almost equals that of the fugues ; but the operative principles were not essentially different — merely the applications of thematic development were different. Yet strange as it may seem, within thirty years from his death it became impossible to write fugues, and at the same time be free. Why was this ? v^A new element came into music, incompatible with fugue, requiring a different form of expression, and incapable of combination with fugue. That element was the people's song, with its symmetrical cadences and its universal intelligibility. Let the reader take any one of the Mozart sonatas, and play the first melody he finds — he will immediately see that here is something for which no place could have been found in a fugue, nor yet in its complement, the prelude of Bach's days. The same is 264 Music in the Eightee^ith Century. true of many similar passages in the sonatas of Haydn. Music had now found the missing half of its dual nature. For we must know that in the same manner as the the- matic or fugal element in music represents the play of musical fantasy, turning over musical ideas intellectually or seriously; so there is a spontaneous melody, into which no thought of developing an idea enters. The melody flows or soars like the song of a bird, because it is the free expression, not of musical fantasy, as such (the unconscious play of tonal fancy), but the flow of melody^ song, the soaring of spirit in some one particular direc- tion, floating upon buoyant pinions, and in directions well conceived and sure. The symmetry of the people's song follows as a natural part of the progress. The spon- taneous element of the music of the northern harpers now found its way into the musical productions of the highest geniuses. Henceforth the fugue subsides from its pre-eminence, and remains possible only as a highly specialized department of the general art of musical com- position, useful and necessary at times, but nevermore the expression of the unfettered fancy of the musical mind. The discovery of the secret of musical contrast, in the types of development, the thematic and the lyric, led to the creation of a new form, in which they mutually contrast with and help each other. That form was the Sonata, which having been begun earlier, was developed further by the sons of Bach, but which received its characteristic touches from the hands of Haydn and Mozart. This was the crowning glory of the eighteenth century — the sonata. A form had been created, into which the greatestof masters was even then beginning to breathe his mighty soul, producing thereby a succession of master works, which stand without parallel in the realm of music. CHAPTER XXIII. JOHN SEBASTIAN BACH. j^ L L things considered, the most remarkable figure j^^^ of this period was that of the great John Sebas- tian Bach, who was born at Eisenach, in Prussia, in 1685, and died at Leipsic in 1750. It is scarcely too much to say that this great man has exercised more influence upon the development of music than any other composer who has ever lived. In his own day he led a quiet, uneventful life, at first as student, then as court musician at Weimar, where he played the violin ; later as orgarlist at Arnstadt, a small village near Weimar, and still later as director of music in the St. Thomas church and school at Leipsic. In the sixty- five years of his life. Bach produced an enormous number of compositions, of which about half were in fugue form, a form which was at its prime at the beginning of this century and which Bach carried to the farthest point in the direction of freedom and spontaneity which it ever reached. It is the remarkable glory of Bach to have rendered his compositions indispensable to thorough mastery in three different provinces of musical effort. The modern art of violin playing rests upon two works, the six sonatas of Bach for violin solo, and the Caprices of Paganini. The former contain everything that belongs 265 266 Johyi Sebastian Bach. to the classical, the latter everything that belongs to the sensational. In organ playing the foundation is Bach, and Bach alone. Nine-tenthsof organ playing is com- prised in the Bach works. Upon the piano his influence has been little less. While it is true that at least four works are necessary for making a pianist of the modern Fi^. 51. JOHN SEBASTIAN BACH. school, viz., the ''Well Tempered Clavier," of Bach; the '' Gradus ad Parnasswn,^^ of Clementi; the ''Studies," of Chopin, and the Rhapsodies, of Liszt, the works of Bach form, on the whole, considerably more tlian one- third of this preparation. Nor has the influence of John Sebastia7i Bach. 267 Bach been confined to the province of technical instruc- tion alone. On the contrary, all composers since his time have felt the stimulus of his great tone poems, and Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin and Wagner found him the most productive of great masters. The life of Bach need not long detain us. A musi- cian of the tenth generation, member of a family which occupies a liberal space in German encyclopedias of music, art and literature, Sebastian Bach led the life of a teacher, productive artist and virtuoso, mainly within the limits of the comparatively unimportant pro- vincial city of Leipsic. His three wives in succession and his twenty-one children were the domestic incidents which bound him to his home. Here he trained his choir, taught his pupils, composed those master works which modern musicians try in vain to equal, and the even tenor of his life was broken in upon by very few incidents of a sensational kind. We do not understand that Bach was a virtuoso upon the violin, although no other master has required more of that greatest of mu- sical instruments. Upon the piano and organ the case is different. Bach's piano was the clavier, upon which he was the greatest virtuoso of his time. His touch was clear and liquid, his technique unbounded, and his mu- sical fantasy absolutely without limit. Hence in improv- isation or in the performance of previously arranged numbers he never failed to delight his audience. It was the same upon the organ. The art of obligato pedal play- ing he brought to a point which it had never before reached and scarcely afterward surpassed. He compre- hended the full extent of organ technique, and with the exception of a fe^ tricks of quasi-orchestral imitation, made possible in modern organs, he covered the entire 268 John Sebastian Bach. ground of organ playing in a manner at once solid and brilliant. Many stories are told of his capacity in this direction, but the general characterization already given is sufficient. He was a master of the first order. The common impression that he played habitually upon the full organ is undoubtedly erroneous. He made ample use of registration to the fullest extent practicable on the organs of his day. The most remarkable feature of the career of Bach is his productivity in the line of choral works. As leader of the music in the St. Thomas church, he had under his control two organs, two choirs, the children of the school and an orchestra. For these resources he composed a succession of cantatas, every feast day in the ecclesias- tical 5^ear being represented by from one to five separ- ate works. The total number of these cantatas reaches more than 230. Some of them are short, ten or fifteen minutes long, but most of them are from thirty to forty minutes, and some of them reach an hour. Their treas- ures have been but imperfectly explored, although most of them are now in print. In the course of his ministra- tions at Leipsic he produced five great Passion oratorios for Good Friday in Holy Week. The greatest of these was the Passion of St. Matthew, so named from the source of its text. This work occupies about two hours in per- formance. It is in two parts, and the sermon was sup- posed to intervene. It consists of recitative, arias and choruses, some of which are extremely elaborate and highly dramatic. The other Passions are less fortunate. Nevertheless they contain many beautiful and highly dramatic moments. Bach's oratorios belong to the category of church works, as distinguished from those intended for concert purposes. This is seen especially John Sebastian Bach. 269 in the treatment of the chorale, in which he expects the congregation to co-operate. In one direction Bach was subject to serious hmitation. His knowledge of the voice, and his consideration for its convenience, were far below the standard of composers of the same time edu- cated in Italy. In his works, while many passages are very impressive, and while the melody and harmony are always appropriate to the matter in hand, the intervals and especially the convenience of the different registers of the voice are very imperfectly considered, for which reason his works have not been performed to anything like the extent to which their musical interest would otherwise have carried them. This is especially true of the greatest of all, the Passion according to St. Mat- thew. It was first performed on Good Friday, 1729, in the St. Thomas church at Leipsic, and it does not appear to have been given again until 1829, when Men- delssohn brought it out. Since that time it has been given almost every year in Leipsic, and more or less fre- quently in all the musical centers of the world, but its elaboration is very great and its vocal treatment unsatis- factory to solo voices, for which reason it succeeds only under the inspiration of an artistic and enthusiastic leader. In fact, all the great works of Bach are more or less in the category of classics, which are well spoken of and seldom consulted. While, in Beethoven's time, the whole of the "Well Tempered Clavier " was not thought too much for an ambitious youngster, at the present time there are few pianists who play half a dozen of these pieces. The easier inventions for two parts, some of the suites, several gavottes, modernized from his violin and chamber music, and a very few of his other pieces for the clavier, are habitually played. 270 John Sebastian Bach. It would be unjust to close the account of this great artist without mentioning what we might call the pro- phetic element in his works. The great bulk of Bach's compositions are in two forms, the Prelude and the Fugue. The fugue came to perfection in his hands. It was an application of the Netherlandish art of canonic imitation, combined with modern tonality. In a fugue the first voice gives the subject in the tonic, the second voice answers in the dominant, the third voice comes again in the tonic, and the fourth voice, if there be one, again in the dominant. Then ensues a digression into some key upon what theorists call the dominant side, when one or two voices give out the subject and answer it again, always in the tonic and dominant of the new key. Then more or less modulating matter, themat- ically developed out of some leading motive of the sub- ject, and again the principal material of the theme, with one or more answers. The final close is preceded by a more or less elaborate pedal point upon the dominant of the principal key, after which the subject comes in. With very few exceptions the fugues of Bach are in modern tonality, the major key or the modern minor, with their usual relatives. The prelude is a less closely organized composition.. Sometimes it is purely harmonic in its interest, like the first of the ' ' Well Tempered Clavier. " At other times it is highly melodic, like the preludes in C sharp major and minor of the first book of the Clavier, and, as a rule, the prelude either treats its motives in a somewhat lyric manner or dispenses with the melodic material alto- gether. Thus the prelude and fugue mutually com- plete each other. But it is a great mistake to regard Bach as a writer of fugues alone. He was also very free , John Sebastiaji Bach. 2Yl in fantasies, and one of his pianoforte works, concern- ing the origin of which nothing whatever is known, the " Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue," is one of the four or five greatest compositions that exist for this instrument. The remarkable thing about this fantasia is the freedom of its treatment and the facility with which it lends itself to virtuoso handling, as distinguished from the rather lim- ited treatment of the piano usual in Bach's works. The second part of the fantasia is occupied by a succession of recitatives of an extremely graphic and poetic char- acter. Melodicall}' and harmonically these recitatives are thoroughly modern and dramatic, the latter element being very forcibly represented by the succession of diminished sevenths on which the phrases of the recita- tive end. The fugue following is long, highly diversified and extremely climactic in its interest. In other parts of his work Bach has left fantasies of a more descriptive character. He has, for instance, a hunting scene with various incidents of a realistic character, and in general he shows himself in his piano works a man of wide range of mind and extremely vigorous musical fantasy. In the department of concertos for solo instruments and orchestra, his works are very rich. There are a large number for piano, quite a number for organ, several for two and three pianos, with orchestra, and various other combinations of instruments, such as two violins and 'cellos, and so on. ^ In these each solo player has an ea^d '^shaii^ wi^h the other, and solos and accomp^«H^t \\i^'k -together understandingly for mutual end^^The most noticeable feature of his elab- orate works is the rhythm, which is vigorous, highly organized and extremely effective. In the department of harmony, it is believed by almost all close observers 272 John Sebastian Bach. that no combination of tones since made by any writer is without a precedent in the works of Bach; the strange chords of Schumann and Wagner find their prototypes in the works of this great Leipsic master. Melodically considered, Bach was a genius of the highest order. Not only did he make this impression upon his own time and upon the great masters of the next two genera- tions, but many of his airs have attained genuine popu- larity within the present generation, and are played with more real satisfaction than most other works that we have. This is the more remarkable because from the time of his first residence in Leipsic when he was only twenty-four years old he went out of that city but a few times, and heard very little music but his own. He was three times married, and had twenty-one children, many of whom were musical. Three of his sons became eminent, and the principal episode of his later life was his visit to Potsdam, where his son, Carl Phillip Eman- uel, was musician to Frederick the Great. Here he was received with the utmost informality by the king and made to play and improvise upon all the pianos and organs in the palace and the adjacent churches. As a reminiscence of this visit he produced a fugue upon a subject given by Frederick himself, written for six real parts. This work was called the ' '■ Musical Offering, " and was dedicated to Frederick the Great. In his later years Bach became blind from having over-exerted his eyes in childhood and in later life. He died on Good P'riday in 1750. CHAPTER XXIV. GEO. FREDERICK HANDEL. ^ H E companion figure to Bach, in this epoch, was that of George Frederick Handel, who was born at the httle town of Halle in the same year as Bach, 1685, and died in London in 1759. Handel's father was a physician, and although the boy showed considerable aptitude for music his father did not think favorably of his pursuing it as a vocation; but the fates were too strong for him. When George Frederick was about eight years old, he managed to go with his father to the court of the duke of Saxe Weissenfels, some distance away, where an older brother was in service. Here he obtained access to the organ in the chapel, and was overheard by the duke, who recognized the boy's talent, and, with the authority inherent in princely rank, admonished the father that on no account was he to thwart so gifted an inclination. Accordingly the young- ster had lessons in music upon the clavier, the organ and the violin, the three standard instruments of the time. The older Handel died, and before he was nineteen George Frederick made his way to Hamburg, w^hich was then one of the musical centers of Germany. Here he obtained an engagement in the theater orchestra as ripieno violin, a sort of fifth wheel in the orchestral 273 2*74 George Frederick Hdjidel. chariot, its duty being that of filling in missing parts. The boy was then rather more than six feet high, heavy and awkward. He was an indifferent violinist, and the other players were disposed to make a butt of him, although he was known to be an accomplished harpsichordist. It Fig. 52. GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL. 1685-1759. happened presently, however, that the leader of the orchestra, who presided at the harpsichord, fell sick, and Handel, being at the same time the best harpsichordist and the poorest violinist of all, was placed at the head. George Frederick Handel. 275 He carried the rehearsals and the performances through with such spirit that it resulted in his being made assist- ant director, and two works of his were presently per- formed — '^Almira" and *'Nero. " The first made a great hit and was retained in performance for several weeks. The Italian ambassador immediately recognized the talent of the young man, and offered to take him to Italy in his suite, but Handel declined, preferring to go with his own money, which, after the production of ''Nero," and its successful run of several weeks, he was able to do. Accordingly we find him in Italy, in 1710, first at Naples, where he made the acquaintance of the greatest harpsichord player of that time, Domenico Scarlatti. The style of the young German was so charming, and so different from that of the great Italian player, that he immediately became a favorite, and was called // Caro Sassofie (''The dear Saxon "). He produced an opera in Naples with good success. Afterward he produced others at Rome and Venice. In a few years he was back at Hanover, where he was made musical director to the Elector George, who afterward became George I of England. Here, presently, he took a vacation in order to visit London, where he found things so much to his liking that he remained, having good employment under Queen Anne, and a public anxious to hear his Italian operas. Presently Queen Anne died and George the First came over to reign as king. This was altogether a different matter, for Handel had his unsettled account with the elector of Hanover, upon whom he had so cavalierly turned his back. The peace was finally made, however, by a set of compositions very celebrated in England under the name of " The Water Music. " When 2*76 George Frederick HdndeL King George was going from Whitehall to Westminster in his barge, Handel followed with a company of musicians, playing a succession of pieces, which the king knew well enough for a production of his truant capellmeister. Accordingly he received him once more into favor, and Handel went on with his work. For upwards of twenty years, Handel pursued his course in London as a composer of Italian operas, of which the number reached about forty. During the greater part of his time he had his own theater, and employed the singers from Italy and elsewhere, produc- ing his works in the best manner of his time. His operas were somewhat conventional in their treatment, but every one of them contained good points. Here and there a chorus, occasioi;ally a recitative, now and then an aria^^^ always something to repay a careful hearing, and occasionally a master effect, such as only genius of the first order could produce. His education during this period was exactly opposite to that of Bach. Bach lived in Leipsic all his life, and, being in a position from which only a decided fault of his own could discharge him, he consulted no one's taste but his own, writing his music from within, and adapting it to his forces inhand,ornot adapting it, as it pleased him. Handel, on the other hand, had always the public. He commenced as an operatic composer. As an operatic composer he suc- ceeded in Hamburg, and as an operatic composer he succeeded in Italy. The same career held him in Lon- don. There was always an audience to be moved, to be affected, to be pleased, and there were always singers of high talents to carry out his conceptions. Hence his whole training was in the direction of smoothness, facil- ity, pleasing quality. Nevertheless, there came an end George Frederick Handel 211 to the popularity of Handel. A most shabby pasticcio called the '■ Beggar's Opera, " was the immediate cause of his downfall. This queer compilation was made up of old ballad tunes, with hastily improvised words, and the merest thread of a story, and included some tunes of HandePs own. This being produced at an opposition house, took the town. The result was that Handel was bankrupted for the second time, owing more than Some time before this he had held the position of pri- vate musical director to the earl of Chandos, who had a chapel in connection with his palace, a short distance out of London, as it then was. In this place Handel had already produced a number of elaborate anthems and one oratorio — " Esther. " In the stress of his present cir- cumstances, after a few weeks, he remembered the ora- torio of ''Esther," and immediately brought it out in an enlarged form. The effect was enormous. Whatever the English taste might be for opera, for oratorio their recognition was irrepressible. "Esther" brought him a great deal of money, and he presently wrote other orato- rios with such good effect that in a very few years he had completely paid up the enormous indebtedness of his operatic vefitures. At length, in 1741, he composed his master work — the ''Messiah." This epoch-marking cotnposrtion was improvised in less than a fortnight, a rate of speed calling for about three numbers per day. The work was produced in Dublin for charitable pur- poses. It had the advantage of a text containing the most beautiful and impressive passages of Scripture relating to the Messiah, a circumstance which no doubt inspired the beauty of the music, and added to the early popular- ity of the work. In later times it is perhaps not too much 278 George Frederick Handel. to say that the music has been equally useful to the text, in keeping its place in the consciousness of successive generations of Christians. In this beautiful master work we have the result of the whole of Handel's training. The work is very cleverly arranged in a succession of recitatives, arias and choruses, following each other in a highly dramatic and effective manner. There are cer- tain passages in the '' Messiah " which have never been surpassed for tender and. poetic expression. Among these are the '^Behold and See if There Be Any Sorrow Like His Sorrow," "Come unto Him," and *' He was Despised." In the direction of sublimity nothing grander can be found than the " Hallelujah,' ''Worthy is the Lamb," '' Lift up Your Heads," nor anything more dramatically impressive than the splendid burst at the words, "Wonderful," "Coun- sellor." The work, as a whole, while containing mannerisms in the roulades of such choruses as " He shall Purify," and "For unto Us," marks the highest point reached in the direction of oratorio; for, while Handel himself surpassed its sublimity in "Israel in Egypt," and Bach its dramatic qualities in the thunder and lightning chorus in the St. Matthew Passion; and Mendelssohn its melodiousness in his "Elijah"; for a balance of good qualities, and for even and sustained inspiration throughout, the " Messiah " is justly entitled to the rank which, by common consent, it holds as the most complete master work which oratorio can show. In the " Israel in Egypt " Handel illustrates a differ- ent phase of his talent. This curious work is composed almost entirely of choruses, the most of which are for two choirs, very elaborately treated. Among them all, the two which perhaps stand out pre-eminent are " The George Frederick Handel, • 279 Horse and His Rider" and the "Hailstone," two colos- sal works, as dramatic as they are imposing. The mas- terly effect of the Handelian chorus rests upon the com- bination of good qualities such as no other master has accomplished to the same extent. They are extremely well written for the voice, with an accurate appreciation of the effect of different registers and masses, the melo- dic ideas are smooth and vigorous, and the harmonic treatment as forcible as possible, without ever control- ling the composer further than it suited his artistic pur- pose to go. Bach very often commences a fugue which he feels obliged to finish, losing thereby the opportunity of a dramatic effect. Handel perfects his fugue only when the dramatic effect will be improved by so doing, and in this respect he makes a distinct gain over his great contemporary at Leipsic. The total list of the Handel works comprises the following: Two Italian oratorios; nineteen English oratorios; five Te Deums; six psalms; twenty anthems; three German operas; one English opera; thirty-nine Italian operas; two Italian serenatas, two English serenatas; one Italian inter- mezzo, " Terpsichore "; four odes; twenty-four chamber duets; ninety-four cantatas; seven French songs; thirty- three concertos; nineteen English songs; sixteen Italian airs; twenty-four sonatas. Handel was never married; nor, so far as we know, ever in love. He had among his friends some of the most eminent writers of his day, such as Addison, Pope, Dean Swift and others. His later years were so suc- cessful that when he died his fortune of above ;^5o,ooo was left for charitable purposes. This was after he had paid all of the indebtedness incurred in his ear- lier bankruptcy. It would be a mistake to dismiss this 280 * Geoi'ge Fredei'ick Handel. great master without some notice of his harpsichord and organ playing. As^a^teacher of the princesses of the royal family, he produced many suites and lessons for the harpsichord, in one of which, as an unnoticed incident, occur the air and variations since so universally popu- lar under the name of "The Harmonious Blacksmith." It is not known to whom the composer was indebted for the name generally applied to this extremely broad air, and clever variations. Very likely some music publisher was the unknown poet. As an organist Handel was both great and popular. In the middle of his oratorios he used to play an organ concerto with orchestra. Of these compositions he wrote a very large number. They are always fresh and hearty in style, well written for organ, and with a very flowing pedal part. Handel appears to have played the pedals upon a somewhat different plan from that of Bach. Bach is generally supposed to have used his toes for the most part, employing the heel only for an occasional note where the toes were insufficient. Handel seems to have used toe and heel habitually in almost equal proportion. It is a curious feature of the later part of Handel's career that he brought out his oratorios in costume. Several of the original bills are extant, in which an ora- torio is promised ' ' with new cloathes. " ' ' Esther " is said to have been given with complete stage appointment at Chandos, like an opera; but the Lord Chamberlain prohibited future representations of the kind on account of the supposed sacredness of the subject. Afterward the characters were costumed, and the stage set, but there was no action. While Handel was German by birth, his long residence in England and his habitual writing for the last ten or fifteen years of his life George Frederick Handel. 281 oratorios in the English language, made him, to all in- tents and purposes, an English composer. For nearly a century he stood to the English school as a model of everything that was good and great, to such an extent that very little of original value was accomplished in that country, and when, by lapse of time and a deeper self-consciousness on the part of English musicians, this influence had begun to wane, a new German com- poser came in the person of Felix Mendelssohn Bar- tholdy, who, in turn, became a popular idol, and for many years a barrier to original effort. The influence of Handel upon the later course of music is by no means $o marked as that of Bach. Never- theless, he was one o£ the great tone poets of all times, and his works form an indispensable part of the literature of music. It was his good fortune to embody certain types of melody and harmony with a' clearness and effectiveness) that no other composer has equaled. The oratorio, in par- ticular, not only fulfilled itself in Handel, but we might almost say completed \tse\l there, for very little of decided originality has been produced in this department since. The Handelian operas have been mostly forgotten for many years, but they contain gems of melody in the solo and chorus parts which have still a future. His first opera, "Almira," was revived at Hamburg a few years ago with remarkable effect, and it is not at all unlikely that extracts from many of the other works will eventu- ally find their way into the current repertory of the singer, as many of the arias already have. CHAPTER XXV. EMANUEL BACH; HAYDN; THE SONATA. I. MO N E of the sons of Bach inherited the com- manding genius of their father, although four of them showed talent above the average of musi- cians of their day, and one of them distinguished himself and exercised an important influence upon the subsequent course of pianoforte music. The most gifted of Bach's sons was Wilhelm Friedmann, the eldest (17 10-1784), who was especially educated by his father for a musician. He turned out badly, however, his enormous talents not being able to save him from the natural consequences of a dissolute life. He died in Berlin in the greatest degra- dation and want. This Bach wrote comparatively few compositions, owing to his invincible repugnance to the labor of putting them upon paper; he was famous as an improviser, and certain pieces of his in the Berlin library are considered to manifest musical gifts of a high order. Johann Christian (i 735-1 782), the eleventh son, known as the Milanese or London Bach, devoted himself to the lighter forms of music, and after having served some years as organist of the cathedral at Milan, and having distinguished himself by certain operas successfully pro- duced in Italy, he removed to London, where he led an easy and enjoyable life. He was an elegant and fluent 282 Emanuel Bach ; Haydn; the Sonata. 283 writer for the pianoforte. The one son of Bach who is commonly regarded as having left a mark upon the later course of music was Carl Philip Emanuel (1714-1788), the third son, commonly known as the Berlin or Ham- burg Bach. His father intended him for a philosopher, and had him educated accordingly in the Leipsic and Frankfort universities, but his love for music and the thorough grounding in it he had at home eventually determined him in this direction. While in the Frank- fort University he conducted a singing society, which naturally led to his exercising himself in composition. Presently he gave up law for music, and going to Berlin he obtained an appointment as '• Kammer-musiker " to Frederick the Great, his especial business being that of accompanying the king in his flute concertos. The seven years' war having put an end to these duties, he migrated to Hamburg, where he held honorable appointments as organist and conductor until his death. He wrote in a tasteful and free, but somewhat superficial, style; and while his compositions bear favorable comparison with those of other musicians of his time, they are by no means of a commanding nature like those of his father. There were, however, two reasons for this, wholly aside from the question of less ability in the younger composer. One of these is to be found in the free form which Emanuel Bach began to develop. Sebastian Bach had the advantage of writing his greatest works in a form which had been prepared for him, without having been ex- hausted. The technique of fugue had been created before his time, but its possibilities in the direction of freedom and spontaneity had never been illustrated. Bach pro- ceeded to do this for the fugue form, and, it may be added, did it with such amplitude that no composer has 284 Emanuel Bach ; Hayd)i ; the Sonata. been able to write a free and original fugue since. The son recognizing both that the fugue had been exhausted as a free art-form, and feeling no doubt that something more intuitively intelligible than fugue was possible, addressed himself to composition in the free style, in which the means of producing effects had not yet been mastered. The thematic use of material had been acquired, or was easily inferable from the fugue, but the proper manner of contrasting that material with other, calculated to relieve the attention and at the same time intensify the interest, remained for later explorers. The missing con- trast was the lyric element, but it was not until the next generation of composers that it came into pianoforte music in satisfactory form. Accordingly the sonatas of Emanuel Bach sound dry and superficial, and while they are interesting as the remote models upon which Bee- thoven occasionally built, they do not repay study for the purposes of public performance. There is little heart in them. As a literary musician Bach deserves to be remembered for his work upon ''The True Art of Play- ing the Piano." This was the first systematic instruction book for the instrument of which we have a record, and it still is the main dependence for information concerning the method of Bach's playing, and the way in which he intended the embellishments in his works to be per- formed. II. In the little village of Rohrau, in Austria, was born to a master wheelwright's wife, in 1732, a little son, dark- skinned, not large of frame, nor handsome, but gifted with that most imperishable of endowments, a genius for melody and tonal symmetry. The baby was named Francis Joseph, and he grew to the age of about s^.< in Emanuel Bach; Haydn; the Sonata. 285 the family of his parents, in a little house which although twice somewhat rebuilt, still stands in its original form. Hither people come from many lands in order to see the birthplace of the great composer Haydn, the indefatiga- ble and simple-hearted tone poet of many symphonies, sonatas, and the two favorite cantatas or oratorios, the ''Creation" and the ''Seasons." In his earliest child- hood the boy showed a talent for music, which, as his parents both sang and played a little, he had often an opportunity of hearing. Before he was quite six years old he was able to stand up in the choir of the village church and lead in solos, with his sweet and true, if not strong, voice. This was his delight. At length George Reutter, the director of the music in the cathedral of St. Stephen at Vienna, heard him, and offered the boy a place in his choir. Now indeed his fortune seemed made, and he embraced the offer with gratitude. As a choir boy he ought to have been taught music in a thorough manner, but as Reutter was rather a careless man this did not happen in Haydn's case, but the boy grew up in his own devices. He composed constantly, without having had the slightest regular training. One day Reutter saw one of his pieces, a mass movement for twelve parts. He offered the passing advice, that the composer would have done better to have taken two voices, and that the best exercise for him would be to write "divisions" (varia- tions) upon the airs he sang in the service — but no instruction. At length the boy's voice began to break, and at the age of fourteen or fifteen, he was turned out to shift for himself. He found an asylum in the house of a wig maker, Keller, with whom he lived for several years, earning small sums by lessons, playing the organ at one of the churches, the violin at another,singing at another and 286 Emanuel Bach; Haydn; the Sonata. soon, in all managing to place himself upon the road to fortune — that of industry and sobriety. This part of his career lasted from 1748, when he left the choir of the cathedral, to 1752, when he became accompanist to the Italian master, Porpora, who was then living in Vienna in the house of an Italian lady, whose daughter's educa- tion he was superintending. With Porpora he learned the art of singing, and the proper manner of accompany- ing the voice. He also got many hints in regard to the Fip. 53. correct manner of composing. He had already produced a number of works in various styles. In 1759 he was appointed conductor of the music at the palace of Count Morzin, where he had a small number of musicians under his direction, only sixteen in all. Here he began his life work. Two years later he was invited to assume the assistant directorship of the private orchestra and choir of Prince Esterhazy, who lived in magnificent style, and for many years had maintained a private musical chapel. Emaftuel Bach; Haydn; the Soyiata. 287 Very soon the old prince died, and his son reigned in his place. The new master was the one named "The Mag- nificent," and greatly enlarged the musical appointment of his predecessor. He built a great palace at Esterhaz, where there was a theater, in which opera was given, and a smaller one where there was a marionette company, the machinery of which had been brought to great perfec- tion. There were frequent concerts. The prince was a great amateur of the peculiar viol called the barytone, and it was one of Haydn's duties to provide new com- positions for this instrument. Here for thirty years he continued in service, with few interruptions, and always on the very best of terms with his prince, and with the men under him. The players called Haydn " Papa." Owing to its situation, remote from town, and to the prince's constantly increasing aversion to living in Vienna, Haydn scarcely left the vicinity for years together. Here, wholly from within his own resources, he evolved a succession of works in every style, and for almost every possible combination of instruments, from operas for the large theater, to marionette music for the small place, orchestral compositions, among which the 1 75 symphonies form a not inconsiderable portion; there are also concertos for many kinds of instruments, and songs, masses, diver- tissements and the like. In short, there is scarcely any form of music which Haydn did not have to make at some time or other in his long service in the Esterhazy establish- ment. Being his own orchestral director, he had the opportunity of trying and experimenting and of realiz- ing what would be effective and what would not. The motive mainly operative in his work, necessarily, was that of pleasing and amusing. Nobler intentions were not wanting, but the pleasing element had to be considered 288 Emanuel Bach ; Haydyi ; the Sojiata. in most that he did. Thus he developed a style of his own, original, becoming, with a certain taste and sym- metry, and with a melodious element which never loses its charm. Withal he became very clever in his treatment of themes. It was a saying of his that the ''idea" did not matter at all; ''treatment is everything." From this standpoint it is impossible to deny Haydn the credit of having accomplished his ideal. He commenced his musical career as a violinist and a singer. His orchestral symphonies were for violins (for strings), with occasional seasoning from the brass and wood wind. The constant study of the violin led to modifications in his style, and evolved first, the string quartette in the form which has always remained stand- ard. The symphonies are only larger string quartettes, for, in the order of the themes, the general manner of treating them and the principles of contrast or relief which actuated them, the quartettes are sonatas, as also are the symphonies. Haydn gave the sonata form its present shape. The inse£tion of a second theme in the first movement, and the principle of contrasting this second theme with the first in such a way that the second theme is generally lyric in style, or at least tending in that direction, was Haydn's. He also developed the middle part of "Ihe sonata into what is known as the "elaboration," ''Durchfuhrungssatz.'' The cantabile slow movement, modeled somewhat after the Italian cantilena, was his. Mozart and Beethoven did wonders with it later, but the suggestion was Haydn's. The endless productivity, the constant succession of new pieces demanded, led to a somewhat systematic proceeding in their production, and so the form and the method of the sonata became stereo- typed. All the instrumental movements of this time, Emanuel Bach ; Haydn; the Sonata. 289 whenever there was any serious intention, assumed the form of sonatas; /. e., of the instrumental sonatas — the symphony and the quartette. At length Haydn's master died, and he accepted an invitation from Salamon, the publisher, to London, where he produced several new symphonies, conducted many concerts and returned to Vienna richer by about $6,000 than when he had left his home a few months before. He had become a great master, known ail over the world, with- out himself knowing it. If any man ever woke up and found himself famous, Haydn was that man, although he had been in the way of having his compositions played and sung before most of the important personages in Europe for years. Prince Esterhazy being a royal entertainer. It was for Madrid that Haydn composed his first Passion oratorio, ''The Last Seven Words." This work, by a curious chance, he made over into an instrumental piece for his London concerts, the prejudice against "popery" preventing its being given there in its original form. In 1794 he was again in London. Upon the first visit to London he took the journey down the Rhine, and at Bonn, in going or coming, the young Beethoven showed him a new cantata. In 1794 he was again in London, where the same success attended him as before. He produced many new works, and was royally entertained. Again he went home richer by many thousands of dollars than when he set out. With his savings he purchased a house in the suburbs of Vienna, where he lived the remainder of his life, dying in 1809. It was during these last years that he wrote his two oratorios already men- tioned. That by which he is best known is the ''Crea- tion," which is a master work indeed, if only we do not look in it for too much of the distinctly religious or 290 Emanuel Bach; Haydn; the Sonata. sublime. It belongs to the pleasing in art, and certain of its numbers are worthy of Italian opera, so sweetly melo- dious are they, yet ever refined and beautiful. Of this kind are the solo arias, ''On Mighty Pens," the famous <'With Verdure Clad," the lovely trio, '' Most Beautiful Appear." Several choruses in this work are really splen- did. At the head of the list I would place the two cho- ruses, ''Achieved Is the Glorious Work," with the beau- tiful trio between, " On Thee Each Living Soul Awaits." The development of the fugue in the second chorus is masterly and effective indeed. Everybody knows "The Heavens are Telling," which, however, has rather more reputation than it deserves. The English have made much of Haydn's descriptive music in the accompanied reci- tatives. This part of his work, however, was but clever when first written, and now, through the enormous devel- opment which this part of musical composition has since reached, is little more than childish. Withal, the "Cre- ation " is not difficult. It can be rendered effectively with moderate resources. This fact, added to its many charming and engaging qualities, has insured its popu- larity in all parts of the musical world. It bids fair to remain for amateur societies for many years yet. As a tone poet Haydn belonged by no means to the first rank — at least in so. far as the inherent weight and range of his ideas is concerned. His one claim to mu- sical fame rests upon his graceful manner of treating a musical idea, and upon the readiness of his invention in contrasting his themes, to which may be added the sweet and genial flavor of his music, which in every line shows a pure and childlike spirit, simple, unaffected, yet deep and true. It was his good fortune to stand to Mozart and Beethoven in the role of master. Both were in many Emajiuel Bach ; Haydn; the Sonata. 291 ways his superiors, y^\. both revered him, the one until his own life went out in the freshness of his youth; the other until when an old man, having stood upon the very Pisgah tops of the tone world, full of honors, he spoke of the old master, Haydn, with affection, in his very last days. Higher testimony than this it would be impossible to quote. For, in the nature of the case, the composer, Haydn, can never be judged again by musicians and poets who know so well his aims and the value of what he accomplished as the two Vienna masters, Mozart and Bee- thoven, who were younger than he, yet not too young to understand the condition of the musical world into which Haydn had been born, and the musical world as it had become from his living in it. CHAPTER XXVI. MOZART AND HIS GENIUS. /^^ N E of the most engaging personalities, and at the \^^ same time one of the most highly gifted, versatile and richly endowed geniuses who ever adorned the art of music, was that of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (i 756-1 791). He was a son of the violin player and musician, Leopold Mozart, living at Salzburg. At an ex- tremely early age he showed his love for music by listen- ing to the lessons of his sister. By the time he was four, his father commenced to give him lessons, and when he was less than five years old he was discovered one day making marks upon music paper, which he stoutly main- tained belonged to a concerto. The statement was re- ceived with incredulity, but upon carefully examining the manuscript it was found correctly written, and sensi- ble; but so difficult as to be impossible to play. Upon the boy's attention being called to this, he replied, " I call it a concerto becavise it is so difficult ; they should practice it until they can play it." In childhood, and indeed all through life, his ear was very sensitive. He could not bear to hear the sound of a trumpet, and upon his father seeking to overcome his nervousness by having a trumpet blown in the room, it threw him into convul- sions. The boy was of a most active mind, interested in 292 Mozart and His Geiiius. 293 everything that went on about him, and eager to learn in every direction. Nothing came amiss, arithmetic, gram- mar and language — he was immediately at home in any subject which he took up. Music was intuitive to him. So Fi^. 54. CONCERT BY THE MOZART FAMILY. THE LITTLE WOLFGANG AT THE PIANO. [From a painting- by Carmontil, 1763.] remarkable was his progress, that when he was yet but six years old his father began to travel with him. Their first journey was to Munich, where the elector received them kindly. The programmes consisted of improvisations 294 Mozart and His Genius. by the youthful Mozart upon themes assigned by the audience ; pieces for vioHn and piano, the father tak- ing the vioHn parf, and the sister in turn played piano pieces. The father was a good violinist and the author of an excellent school for that instrument. He also composed many ambitious works, which rise above the capellmeister average^ Highly gratified with their recep- tion at Munich, they went on to Vienna, where again they were cordially received, the emperor especially being highly delighted with the " little magician," as he called the promising boy. Even at this early age Mozart had a distinct idea of his own authorit}^ in music, although no one could be freer than he from t"lie charge of self-conceit. In Vienna, he asked expressly for Wagenseil, the court composer, that he might be sure of having a real con- noisseur among his hearers. *' I am playing a concerto of yours," he said, "you must turn over for me.",/ The ladies of the aristocracy went wild over the fascinating young fellow, but presently he had an attack of scarlet fever, which brought the tour to an end. After the return to Salzburg, the practice went on every day, and regular lessons in books, as they had during the journey; and, when he was still less than nine years of age, the family undertook a longer tour to Paris, playing at all the important towns on the way. In several of the cities, Wolfgang played the violin, and also the organ in the churches. At Paris they had a remarkable success, play- ing before the court at Versailles, and in many of the houses of the nobility. Here the father had four of the boy's son- atas for piano and violin engraved and published. The stay at Paris lasted five months,until November 10,1764, when they departed for London. Here they met a favorable reception at court, the king, George III, Mozart and His Genius. 295 taking a great interest in the wonderful young master. He put before him pieces of Bach, Wagenseil and Handel, which he played at sight. On the fifth of June they gave a concert in Spring Gardens, where their receipts were as much as loo guineas. His next appear- ance was as an organist for the benefit of a charity. The father having taken cold, was ill for some time, during which time, as the boy was unable to play on the piano, he wrote his first symphony, and the year following three others. Before leaving London they visited the British Museum, and in memory of his visit Wolfgang composed a four-part quartette, and presented the auto- graph to the museum. Without pausing to trace the concert career of the young virtuoso it must suffice to sa}', tha/by the time he was twelve years old, he had become favorably known in every court of southern Europe. His talent had been illustrated in many different waj^s, and testedby the most severe masters. One of the most celebrated cases of this kind happened at Bologna, where the Philharmonic Academy received him as a member, after his passing the usual severe test, over which the famous master. Padre Martini, presided. The conditions of member- ship required the candidate to write an elaborate motette in six parts, founded upon a melody assigned from the Roman Antiphonarium, the work to conform to the strictest rules, with double counterpoint and fugue. In consequence of the nervous feeling due to the limit of time allowed, candidates very often failed. Mozart, how- ever, took his paper in the cheerful frame of mind which ever^'where distinguished him, and was duly locked up. In less than three-quarters of an hour he rapped at his door and asked to be let out. The authorities sent him 296 Mozart and His Genius. word not to be discouraged, but to keep on trying, as he had yet three hours, and might accomphsh it. They were greatly astonished on finding that he had already fin- ished, having produced a complete master work, abun- dantly up to all requirements, the whole written in his peculiarly neat and accurate manner. His compositions had already reached the number of eighty, including a number of symphonies. It was now late in the year 1771, and at Milan Wolfgang set seriously to work upon his opera, which was produced December 26 and repeated to full houses twenty times, the author himself conducting it. This was ' 'Mitridate^ Re di Ponto. " The year following he composed two other operas for Italy, and several symphonies, so that when his new opera of '^Lucio Silla'^ was performed in Milan October 24, 1772, the number of his works had reached 135. From 1773 to 1777 Mozart remained at Salzburg, with occa- sional journeys to Vienna and other cities, always pur- suing a life of unflagging industry. The number of his works had increased by the end of this period to upwards of 250, including an immense variety of pieces of chamber music, symphonies, two or three operas, a number of masses, and the like. He was now twenty-one years old, and since the age of fourteen he had been assistant con- ductor at Salzburg in the service of the prince archbishop, who was a small-souled man, wholly unworthy the service which Mozart rendered him. There is at least a small satisfaction in remembering that the archbishop himself had a distinct impression of the dis-esteem in which he was held by his talented young musical conductor. With the attainment of his majority the second period in the life of this great genius began. Unable to obtain permissioir from the shabby prelate for father and son to Mozart and His Genius. 297 go together upon an artistic tour, the father at length decided to send the young man out with his mother, and in September, 1777, the two started for Paris, travehng in their own carriage with post horses. Their plan was to give a concert at every promising town, taking what- ever time might be necessary for working it up in due form. In this way their journey was considerably pro- longed by delays at Munich, Mannheim and Augsburg.' At Mannheim, especially, the incidents of the tour were varied by Mozart's falling in love with the charming daugh- ter of the theatrical prompter and copyist, a promising singer, who afterward married happily in quite a different quarter. At Paris things did not turn out quite so favor- ably as tTTe father had anticipated. Most afflicting of all, the mother fell sick there, and died, so that the son left Paris in September for home with a far heavier heart than when he entered it. During the most of 1779 and 1780 he re mained at Salzburg, fulfilling his duties as assistant con- ductor. Then came his first opera in Germany, ^'Ido- ineneOy RiidiJOrcia^'" produced at Munich January 29, 178 1. The success of this work was so decided that it determined Mozart's career as an operatic composer. A few months later he quarreled with the archbishop, and the unpleas- ant connection came to an end. His. second opera, ^^Die ^ntfiihrung_aus demSeraiP'' ("The Elopement from the _Seragli4^"), was produced at Vienna July 16, 1782. This was his first opera in German. In August of this year he was married to Constance Weber, younger sister of her who had first enchanted him. The marriage was congenial in many ways, bu^ as the wife was incapable in money mat- ters and administration, and Mozart himself careless as a business man, and in receipt of a small and irregular income, they soon found themselves in a sea of little 298 Mozart and His Genius. troubles, from which the strugghng artist was nevermore free. Only at the last moment, when indeed his life was all but extinct, did the clouds disappear, and a prospect open before him, which if he had lived to enjoy it, would have placed his remaining days in easy circumstances. In 1785 the father visited his son in Vienna, and upon one of the first days of his stay, there was a little din- ner party at Mozart's house, with Ha3'dn and the two Barons Todi. In his letter home, Leopold Mozart sa3^s that Haydn said to him: '- 1 declare to you, before God, as a man of honor, that your son is the greatest com- poser that I know, either personally or by reputation ; he has taste, and beyond that the most consummate knowl- edge of composition." In return for this compliment Mozart dedicated to Haydn six string quartettes, with a laudatory preface, in which he says that it was "but his 1 due, for from Haydn I first learned to compose a quar- tette. "," which was performed with moderate suc- cess! He had now reached the age of fifty, and entered upon the second stage of his artistic career, and the second period of the French opera. The admirers of Ra- meau invited appreciation of the new works upon the ground of their being better than those of Lulli, and all Paris was divided into two opposite camps. Rameau is entitled to having developed his operas more musically than those of Lulli, and the later ones became still richer upon the orchestral side. Th? entire list of operas by Rameau numbers about thirty. That they did not preserve their popularity so long as those of Lulli is due to their deficiency upon the dramatic side, especially to the inherent inexpressive- ness of the music itself. The treatment of the orchestra is clever in many places, showing a manifest improve- ment over that of Lulli, especially in the freedom of thematic work. He also ventures occasionall}^ on enhar- monic changes. Contemporaneous with him was that remarkable gen- ius, Jean Jacques Rousseau (171 2-1 778), the father of the kindergarten idea, and of many other humanitarian and educational novelties. Rousseau's importance in the history of music is not sufficient to justify an account of his early days. With a great fondness for music, he found it extremely difficult to read by note, as he was almost entirely self-taught. This led him to devise a simpler notation, which he did about 1740, pubHshing Opera in the Eighteenth Century. 339 z.i\ account of it in 1743. His system was substantially that of the tonic sol fa, except that he used figures in place of letters. He presented a memorial to the Academy of Sciences upon this subject in 1742, but his plan was so vigorously opposed by Rameau that nothing came of it ; nevertheless the idea was afterward worked out by M. Paris, in the present century, and has proven very useful among the Orpheo?iistes. In 1752 Rameau pro- duced his first opera ''Le Devin du Village^'" a very light affair, somewhat on the order of what Germans call a Singspiel. The most remarkable piece that he produced was his comedy ^'Pygmalion " in 1775. There is no song in this opera. The only music in it is that for orches- tral interludes in the intervals between the phrases of declamation. The continuation of French opera was due to Phili- dor, the celebrated chess player (i 726-1 795). He was very talented in many directions, and from the produc- tion of his first opera in 1759, to his last, Belisaire, finished by his friend Berton, and produced in 1796, he enjoyed an uninterrupted popularity, having brought out in that time about twenty-one operas, some of them comic, one or two of them serious. His music is light and pleasing, and he is credited with having been the first to produce descriptive airs {'^Le MarechaP') and the unaccompanied quartette (''Tom Jones," 1764). The great merit of his works was their clever construction for the stage. Contemporaneous with him was Pierre Alexander Monsigny (1729-1817). Not having been intended for the profession of music, he had a classical education, and upon the death of his father obtained a clerkship in Paris. He belonged to a noble family, and at first pursued music as a recreation. His first opera 340 Opera in the Eighteenth Century. was produced after five months' tuition in harmony and theory, in 1759 ; this was followed by about thirty other works. His greatest skill was melody and ease of treat- ment. In 1812 he w^as appointed inspector of the Cca- servatory, and in 181 3 he succeeded Gretry in the Insti tute, and in 18 16 he received the cross of the Legion cf Honor. Fi^. 61. Upon the appearance of Andre Ernest Modest Gretry, (1741-1813), we come to a real genius, although not of the first order. He was the son of a poor violinist of Liege, Belgium, and when about sixteen years of age he composed six small symphonies and a mass. The latter gained him the protection of the canon of the cathedral opera in the Eighteenth Century. 341 who sent him to Rome, where he pursued his stud- ies with very httle credit. After producing one small work in Rome, he made his way to Paris, and his first opera, ^'Le Huron,'' was sucessfully produced in 1768. This was followed by more than fifty operas of all sorts, some of which still survive. Gretry was a very charming man, and wrote upon music and other subjects in a pleasing manner. His importance in the history of music is due more to the number of works by him, than to their striking musical qualities. Another remarkable musician of this period in France was Francois Joseph Gossec (1733-1829), who also was a Belgian from Hainault. His early training was obtained in the cathedral at Antwerp. He came to Paris in 1751 and became a pupil of Rameau. He con- ceived the idea of writing orchestral symphonies, and produced some pieces of this kind in 1754, ^^'^ 3'ears be- fore the date of Haydn's first. In 1759 he published some quartettes. In 1760 he produced his best, ''Afesse des MortSy'' in which he made a sensation by writing the '^Tuba Mirum^' for two orchestras, one of wind instru- ments concealed outside. Berlioz probably derived an idea from this. He wrote twelve operas which were suc- cessfully produced, twenty-six symphonies and a variety of other works. He founded his amateur concerts in 1770, and his sacred concerts in 1773. In 1784 he organ- ized his school of singing, out of which the Conserva- tory of Music was afterward developed. Upon the foun- dation of the conservatory, in 1795, he was appointed in- spector with Cherubini and Mehul. His influence upon the general development of music is local to Paris, where he did more to enrich opera on the instrumental side than an}' other composer of the eighteenth century. 342 Ope? a in the Eighteenth Century. Etienne Henry Mehul ( 1763- 1 817) was another of these prolific composers of light operas. Son of a cook at Givet, he had passion for music, and soon became a good organist. At fourteen he was deputy organist, and in 1778 he arrived in Paris and at once commenced to study and teach. The next year he was so fortunate as to listen to Gluck's ''Iphigenie en Tatiride,'' which made a great impression upon him. He called upon Gluck himself in order to express his admiration, and, in consequence of the encouragement received from the eminent composer, he proceeded to write three operas, one after another, which are now lost. His fourth was accepted at the Academy, but not per- formed. Finally his '^ Eiiphrosine et Coradin'' wdiS pro- duced at the Opera Comique in 1790. The public immediately recognized a force, a sincerity of accent, a dramatic truth, and a gift of accurately expressing the meaning of words, which always remained the main characteristics of Mehul. Within the next seventeen years he produced twenty-four operas, besides a large number of cantatas and other works. Upon the whole, this sincere master must be regarded as one of the most eminent in the history of French opera. Somewhat later in the operatic field was Jean Fran- 9ois Lesueur (i 763-1 837). After serving as a boy chor- ister at Abbeville and Amiens, he came to Paris, where in 1786 he was appointed musical director at Notre Dame, and distinguished himself by giving magnificent per- formances of motettes and solemn masses, with a large orchestra in addition to the usual forces. His first opera, '^ La Caverne,^^ was produced in 1793, after which he wrote four others, as well as three which were never per- formed. In the line of church music he was much more opera in the Eighteenth Century 343 productive, and one might say, more at home. His music is marked by grand simphcity. As a teacher in later Hfe he was very celebrated, am.ong his pupils being the greatest of French masters, Berlioz. The most gifted of the French composers of light opera at the end of the eighteenth century, and in the early part of the nineteenth, was Francois Adrien Boiel- Fiff 62. BOIELDIEU. dieu (1775-1834). This talented musician was born at Rouen, where his father was secretary to the archbishop. The boy was educated in the ecclesiastical schools, hav- ing begun as a choir boy in the cathedral. His first little work for the stage was performed at Rouen when he was about seventeen, " La Fille Coiipable,'' with such success that the author was encouraged to go and seek 344 Opera in the Eighteenth Century. his fortune in Paris. Here for a long time he met with little encouragement, and was obliged to make a living at first as a piano tuner ; later he was fortunate enough to have certain romances of his sung by popular singers, and thus his name became somewhat known. For these songs he received the munificent compensation of two dollars and a half each. Presently he secured a libretto, "Z^ Dot de Suzette,'' which was composed and per- formed at the Opera Comique, with so much encourage- ment, that he soon after produced his one-act opera, '' La FajuiUe Suisse.'' His popularity was not fully estab- lished, however, until '^ Zoraiine et Zulnare^' in 1798. This work possesses a vein of tenderness, a refined orchestration, and singularly clear and pleasing forms. In 1800 his world-wide favorite, ^^Le Caliph de Bagdad,'' was produced, and its taking overture was played from one end of Europe to the other, upon all possible instru- ments and combinations of them. His other two suc- cessful operas were "Jean de Paris" (1812), and La Dafne Blanche^' (1825). Both these made as much repu- tation outside of France as in it, and are still produced in Germany. In 1803 Boieldieu received an appoint- ment in St. Petersburg and lived there six years, but he returned to Paris later, and in 181 7 became Mehul's suc- cessor as teacher of composition at the Conservatory. Of the French stage during this epoch it is to be ob- served that nothing dl a large and serious character was produced upon it, except the operas of Gluck, which of course were not indigenous to France. What progress was made by the composers before mentioned, and others of less importance, consisted in acquiring fluency, ease and effective construction. The ground had been prepared from which the century following would reap a harvest. opera in the Eighteenth Century. 345 III. \v\ Italy during the eighteenth century, opera con- tinued to be cultivated by a succession of gifted and pro- lific composers. At the beginning of the century, the great Alexander Scarlatti was at the height of his career, as also were Lotti and the younger masters men- tioned in the former chapter. All these composers fol- lowed in the style established by Scarlatti and Porpora. The most talented of the Italians of this period was Giovanni Batista Pergolesi (1710-1737). This gifted genius was born at Jesin. in the Roman states, but when a mere child, was admitted to the conservatory '' Of the Poor in Jesus Christ" at Naples, where his education was completed. He commenced as a violin player, and attracted attention while a mere child by his origi- nal passages, chromatics, new harmonies an3 modula- tions. A report of his performances of this kind being made to his teacher Matteis, he desired to hear them for himself, which he did with much surprise, and asked the boy whether he could write them down. The next day the youngster presented himself with a sonata for the violin, as a specimen of his power ; this led to his receiv- ing regular instruction in counterpoint. The first com- position of his was a sacred drama called ^' La Conver- sione di St. Guglielmo,'' written while he was still a stu- dent. It was performed with comic intermezzi (sic .^) in the summer of 1731, at the cloister of St. Agnello. The dram.atic element in this work is very pronounced, and the violin is treated with considerable feeling. His first opera, '^La Salustia,^' was produced in 1731. It is notable for improvement in the orchestration. In the winLer of this same year he wrote his comic intermezzo, 346 Opera in the Eighteenth Century. ^^ La Serva Padrojia,^' a sprightly operetta, which had a moderate success at the time, but afterward for nearly a hundred years was played in all parts of Europe. He wrote several other operas, which had but moderate suc- cess, although many of them were performed with con- siderable applause after his death. By general consent the most beautiful work of Pergolesi was his ^' Stabat Mater,'' which was written to order for a religious con- fraternity, for use on Good Friday, in place of a ^'■Stabaf' by Scarlatti, the price paid being ten ducats — about nine dollars. It is for two voices, a soprano and contralto, and is excellently written. No sooner was he dead than his music immediately became the object of admiration, his operas and lighter pieces being played in all parts of Italy. He died at the age of twenty-six, being the young- est master who has ever left a permanent impression in musical hfstory. One of the most prolific composers of this period was Nicolo Jomelli (1714-1774J. Jomelli represents the Nea- politan school, having been educated first at the con- servatory of San Onofrio, and later at that of "La Pieta de' TurcJiini.'' His earlier inclination was church music, and in order to perfect himself in it he went to Rome. This was irvi740, and two of his operas were there produced. He afterward visited Vienna, where he produced several operas, and in 1749 he was appointed assistant musical director at St. Peter's in Rome, a position which he held for five years, after which he went to Stuttgart, as mu- sical director. While in Germany he had a very great reputation as an opera composer. In 1770 Mozart wrote from Naples, *'The opera here is by Jomelli; it is beautiful, but the style is too elevated as well as too antique for the theater." His latei life was spent in opera in the Eighteenth Century. 347 Naples. Besides many operas he wrote a number of compositions for the church. It perhaps gives a good idea of the estimation in which he was held while living, that a critic highly esteemed in his day said that it would be a sorry day for the world when the operas of Jo- melli were forgotten, at the same time pronouncing them superior to those of Mozart. Not a single line of Jo- melli is performed at the present time, nor is likely ever to be; but the works of Mozart still retain their popu- larity. Another prolific composer of the Neapolitan school was Antonio Maria Gasparo Sacchini (i 724-1 786). This clever composer was very successful in his lifetime, his operas being produced in all parts of Europe. Neverthe- less they are monotonous in character, and have little depth. He has very little importance for the history of music. Still another, also from the Neapolitan school, was Piccini (1728-1800J. His first operas were pro- duced in 1754, ^i^^ from that time on for about forty years he was a very popular composer, his works being produced in every theater, and in 1778 he was set up as an idol by his admirers, in opposition to Gluck. He was highly honored by Napoleon, who took pleasure in dis- tinguishing him for the sake of humbling several much more deserving musicians. The complete list of his works in Fetis contains eighty operas. His biographer credits him with one hundred and thirty-three. Yet an- other composer of the Neapolitan school was Giovanni Paisiello (1741-1815). From the time of his first operas to his death, he was highly esteemed as a composer. In 1776 he was invited by the Empress Catharine to St. Petersburg, where he lived for eight years, and among otlier operas which he composed while there was "// 348 Opera in the Eighteeiitli Century. Barbiere di Seinglia.'^ In 1799 he was called to Paris, where Napoleon very greatly distinguished him. Upon leaving Paris, in 1803, Napoleon desired him to name his successor, when he performed the creditable act of nominating Lesueur, who was at that time unknown. The list of his works embraces ninety-four operas and 103 masses. His music was melodious and pleasing, but rather feeble; he is regarded, however, as the inventor of the concerted finale, which has since been so largely developed in opera. Perhaps the best of all the Neapol- itan composers of this half century was Zingarelli (1752- 1827). Zingarelli was not only a good musician and a good composer, but a man of ability and principle. He was an associate pupil with Cimarosa. After leaving the conservatory he took lessons upon the violin, and in 1779 produced a cantata at the San Carlo theater. Two years later his first opera was produced at the same theater with great applause, ^'Montezuma.'' He then went to Milan, where most of his later works were produced. He was an extremely rapid worker, his librettist stating it as a fact that all the music of his successful opera of ^^ Alsinda'^ v^diS composed in seven days, although the composer was in ill health at the time. Another of his best works, his " Giidietta e Romeo,^' was composed in about eight days. It is said that this astonishing facility was acquired through the discipline of his teacher Sper- anza, who obliged his pupils to write the same composi- tion many times over, with change of time and signature, but without any change in the fundamental ideas. While busily engaged as a popular opera composer, Zingarelli found time to compose much church music, his most im- portant works being masses and cantatas. Of the for- mer there stili exist a very large number; of the latter opera in the Eighteenth Century. 349 about twent} . He made a trip to France in 1789, where he brought out a new opera, ''V Antigone'' -, he was appointed musical director at the cathedral at Milan in 1792, and two years later at Loretto, Naples. Thence he was transferred to the Sistine chapel at Rome, and finally in 1813 he was appointed director of the Royal College of Music at Naples, in which position he spent the remainder of his long and active life. He produced about thirty-two operas, twenty-one oratorios and cantatas, and there are about 500 manu- scripts of his in the ''Annuale di Loreto.'" As a composer of comic operas Zingarelli became popular all over Europe, but he was nevertheless a serious, even a devout composer. He was extremely abstemious, rose early, worked hard all day, and, after a piece of bread and a glass of wine for supper, retired early to rest. He was never married, but found his satisfaction in the successes of his musical children, among whom were Bellini, Mercadante, Ricci, Sir Michael Costa, Florimo, etc. IV. In this, as in the preceding century, there was very little activity in England in the realm of opera music, beyond that of foreign composers imported for special engagements. In the last part of the seventeenth cen- tuiry, however, there was a real genius in English music, w^ho, if he had lived longer, would in all probability have made a mark distinguishable even across the channel, and upon the chart of the world's activity in music. That composer was Henry Purcell (1658-1695), born in Lon- don, of a musical family. His father having died while the boy was a mere infant, he was presently admitted as a choir boy in the Chapel Royal, the musical director 350 Opera in the Eighteenth Century. being Captain Cook, and later Pelham Humpfrey. In 1675, when yet only seventeen years of age, Purcell com- posed an opera, * ' Dido and ^neas, " which is grand opera in all respects, there being no spoken dialogue but reci- tative — the first work of the kind in English. It contains some very spirited numbers. After this he composed music to a large number of dramatic pieces, many an- thems, held the position of master of the Chapel Royal, and in many ways occupied an honored and distinguished Fig-. 63. HENRY PURCELL. position. He was one of the earliest composers to fur,- nish music to some of Shakespeare's plays, and his ''Full Fathom Five " and "Come unto These Yellow Sands," from the "Tempest," have held the stage until the pres- ent time. He was in all respects the most vigorous and original of English composers. He died in the fullness of his powers and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The portrait here given was painted by John Closterman, and originally engraved for his ''Orpheus Britannicus.'' It is opera in the Eighteenth Century. 351 impossible not to wonder whether the future of English music might not have been better if the powerful figure of the great master Handel had not dwarfed all native effort in Britain after Purcell. In the eighteenth century the most notable English composer was Dr. Thomas Arne (1710-1778), who en- joyed a well deserved reputation as an excellent dramatic composer, the author of many songs still reckoned among English classics, and the composer of the national hymn ''Rule Britannia," which occurred as an incident in his masque of ''Alfred/' 1740. Dr. Arne has all the char- acteristics of a genuine national composer. His music was immediately popular, and held the stage for many years. His first piece was Fielding's ' ' Opera of Operas, " produced in 1733. The full list of his pieces reached upwards of forty-one operas and plays to which he fur- nished the music, two oratorios, "Abel" and "Judith," and a variety of occasional music. His style is some- what like that of Handel, a remark which was true of all English composers for more than a hundred years after Handel's death; but it is forcible, melodious and direct. His music was not known outside of England. ^^T^f^^^^ CHAPTER XXX. PIANO PLAYING AND VIRTUOSI; THE VIOLIN: TARTINI AND SPOHR. L ^ T was during the eighteenth century that the piano- ^ forte definitely established itself in the estimation of musicians, artists and the common people, as the handiest and most useful of domestic and solo instru- ments. The progress was very slow at first, the musi- cians such as Bach, Handel, Scarlatti and Rameau, the four great virtuosi of the beginning of this century, gener- ally preferred the older forms of the instrument, the clavier or the harpsichord, both on account of their more agreeable touch and the sweetness of their tones. Nevertheless the style of playing and of writing for these instruments underwent a gradual change at the hands of these very masters, of such a character that when the pianoforte became generally recognized as superior to its predecessors, about the middle of the century, the compo- sitions of Bach and Scarlatti were found well adapted to the newer and more powerful instrument. The piano- forte itself underwent several modifications from the primitive forms of action devised by Cristofori in 171 1, rendering it more responsive to the touch. All this, relating to the mechanical perfection of the instrument, although appropriate in part to the present moment of the .3S2 Piano Playing and Virtuosi. 353 narrative, is deferred until a later chapter, when the entire history of this instrument will be considered in detail. From that it will be seen, by comparing dates, that every important mechanical step in advance was followed by immediate modifications of the style of writing and playing, whereby the progress toward fullness and manifold suggestiveness of music for this instrument has been steady and great. The first of the great virtuosi was Domenico Scar- latti (1683-1757), son of the great Alessandro Scarlatti, and a pupil of his father, and of other masters whose names are now uncertain. He was a moderately suc- cessful composer of operas and works for the Church, but his distinguishing merit was that of a virtuoso upon the harpsichord — the pianoforte of that time. He was the first of the writers upon the harpsichord who introduced difficulties for the pleasure of overcoming them, and who, in his own country, was without peer as performer until Handel came there and surpassed him, in 1708. Scarlatti was also a performer upon the organ, but upon this instrument he unhesitatingly confessed Handel to be his superior. In 1715 Scarlatti succeeded Baj as chapel master at St. Peter's in Rome, where he composed much church music. His operas were successful in their own day, but were soon forgotten. His pianoforte composi- tions still remain as a necessary part of the education of the modern virtuoso. They are free in form, brilliant in execution, and melodious after the Italian manner. Many of them are still excessively difficult to play, in spite of the progress in technique which has been made since. There were many other compmsers in the early part of this century who exercised a local and temporary 364 Piayio Playing and Virtuosi. influence in the direction of popularizing the pianoforte and its music, through the attractiveness of their own playing, as well as by the compositions they produced. Among these must not be forgotten Matthesori, the Hamburgh composer of operas (p. 242), who published many works for piano, including suites, sonatas and other pieces in the free style. Johann Kuhnau (1667- 1722), predecessor of Bach as cantor at Leipsic, pub- lished a variety of sonatas and other compositions in free style, about the beginning of the eighteenth century. Of still greater importance than the last named, was Rameau, the French theorist and operatic composer (p. 336)- His compositions were attractive and very original, and in addition to the charm of his own play- ing, and that of his works, he placed later musicians under lasting obligations by his treatise upon the art of accompanying upon the clavecin and organ, in which his theories of chords were applied to valuable practical use. The work of all these and of many others who might be mentioned, not forgetting several English writers, such as Dr. Blow, Dr. John Bull and the gifted artist Purcell (see p. 350), must be regarded as merely prepar- atory for the advance made during the last part of the eighteenth century. It was Haydn who began to demand of the pianoforte more of breadth, and a certain colora- tion of touch, which he must have needed in his elabor- ative passages in the middle of the sonata piece. This kind of free fantasia upon the leading motives of the work, was planned after the style of thematic discussion of leading motives by the orchestra, and the obvious cue of the player is to impart to the different sequences and changes of the motives as characteristic tone-colors as possible, for the sake of rendering them more interesting \ Piano Playing and Virtuosi. 355 tc the hearers, and possibly of affording them more ex^;ression. Haydn's work was followed by that of Mozart, who gave the world the adagio upon the piano. Then in the fullness of time came Beethoven, who after all must be regarded as the great improver of piano playing of this century, as well as that of the next follow- ing. Beethoven improved the piano style in the surest and most influential manner possible. In his own play- ing he was far in advance of the virtuosi of the eighteenth century, and in his foresight of farther possibilities in the direction of tone sustaining and coloration he went still farther. This is seen in all his concertos, especially in the fourth and fifth, in the piano trios, and the quartette ; but still more in the later pianoforte sonatas. Here the piano is treated with a boldness, and at the same time a delicacy and poetic quality, which taxes the greatest players of the present time to accomplish. The most advanced virtuoso works of Chopin, Schumann and Liszt, the three great masters^^of-tbe- ^iauufui Le in tlie "TTine^ teenth century, are but slightly beyond the demands of these later sonatas of the great Vienna master. In the later part of the eighteenth century there were a number of pianoforte virtuosi whose merits claim our attention at this point. At the head, in point of time, was the great Italian master, Muzio Clementi (1752-1832). Born at about the same time as Mozart, he outlived Beethoven. His early studies were pursued at Rome with so m.uch enthusiasm that at the age of fourteen he had produced several important compositions of a con- trapuntal character. These being successfully performed, attracted the attention of an English amateur living in Rome, who offered to take charge of the boy, carry him to England and see that his career was opened under 356 Piayio Playing and Virtuosi. favorable auspices. Until 1770, therefore (the year of Beethoven's birth), Clementi pursued his studies near London. Then, in the full force of his remarkable vir- tuosity, he burst upon the town. He carried everything before him, and had a most unprecedented success. His command of the instrument surpassed everything pre- viously seen. After three years as cembalist and con- ductor at the Italian opera in London, he set out upon a tour as virtuoso. In 1781 he appeared in Paris, and so on toward Munich, Strassburg, and at length Vienna, where he met Haydn, and where, at the instigation of the Emperor Joseph II, he had a sort of musical contest with the young Mozart. Clementi, after a short prelude, introduced his sonata in B flat, the opening motive of which was afterward employed by Mozart in the introduc- tion to the overture to the "Magic Flute"; and followed it up with a.toccata abounding in runs in diatonic thirds and other double stops for the right hand, at that time esteemed very difficult. The victory was regarded as doubtful, Mozart compensating for his less brilliant execution by his beautiful singing touch, of which Clementi ever after- ward spoke with admiration. Moreover, from this meet- ing he himself endeavored to put more music and less show into his own compositions. Clementi was soon back in England, w^iere he remained until 1802, when he took his promising pupil, John Field, inventor of the nocturne, upon a tour of Europe, as far as St. Peters- burg, where they were received with unbounded enthu- siasm. In 1810 he returned to London and gave up con- cert playing in public. He wrote symphonies for the Lon- don Philharmonic Society, published very many sona- tas for piano (about 100 in all), and in 1817 published his master work, a set of 100 studies for the piano, in all Piano Playing and Virtuosi. 357 styles, the ''Gradus ad Par.'iassum,'' upon which to a con- siderable extent the entire modern art of piano playing depends, dementi's idea in the work was to provide for the entire training of the pupil by means of it; not alone upon the technical, but upon the artistic side as well, and the majority of the pieces have artistic purpose no less than technical. The wide range taken by piano liter- ature since dementi's day, however, reduces the teacher to the alternative of confining the pupil to the works of one writer, in case the entire work is used, or of employ- ing only the purely technical part of the ' ' Gradus, " accom- plishing the other side of the development by means of compositions of more poetic and older masters. The latter is the course now generally pursued by the great teachers, and this was the reason influencing the selection of studies from the ''Gradus'' made by the virtuoso, Tausig. dementi's compositions exercised considerable influence upon Beethoven, who esteemed his sonatas better than those of Mozart. The opinion was undoubt- edly based upon the freedom with which Clementi treated the piano, as distinguished from the gentle and somewhat tame manner of Mozart. The element of manly strength was that which attracted Beethoven, himself a virtuoso. Another of the first virtuosi to gain distinction upon the pianoforte, in the latter part of this century and the first part of the nineteenth, was J. L. Dussek (1761- 1812). This highly gifted musician was born in Czas- lau, in Bohemia, and his early musical studies were made upon the organ, upon which he early attained dis- tinction, holding one prominent position after another, his last being at Berg-op-Zoom. He next went to Amster- dam, and presently after to the Hague, still later, in 1788, 358 Piano Playing and Virtuosi. to London, where he hved twelve years. It was there that Haydn met him, and wrote to Dussek's father in high terms of his son's talents and good qualities. Afterward he was back again upon the continent, living for some years with Prince Louis Ferdinand, and having right goocf times with him, both musically and festively. Fig. 64. J. L. DUSSEK. He died in France. He made many concert tours in different periods of his life, and his playing was highly esteemed from one end of Europe to the other. A con- temporary writer says of him: ''As a virtuoso he is unanimously placed in the very first rank. In rapidity and sureness of execution, in a mastery of the greatest Piano Playing and l^irtuosi. 359 difficulties, it would be hard to find a pianist who sur- passes him ; in neatness and precision of execution, possibly one (John Cramer, of London); in soul, expres- sion and delicacy, certainly none.''^ The brilliant pianist and teacher Tomaschek said of him: ''There was, in fact, something magical in the manner in which Dussek, w^ith all his charming grace of manner, through his wonderful touch, extorted from the instru- ment delicious and at the same time emphatic tones. His fingers were like a company of ten singers, endowed with equal executive powers, and able to pro- duce with the utmost perfection whatever their director could require. I never saw the Prague public so enchanted as they were on this occasion by Dussek's splendid pla}'ing. His fine declamatory style, especiall}' in caniabile phrases, stands as the ideal for every artistic performance — something which no otherpianist since has reached. He was the first of the virtuosi who placed the piano sideways upon the platform, although the later ones may not have had an interesting profile to exhibit.'' The published works of this fine musician and creditable composer number nearly loo, and the so- nata cuts a leading figure among them. He treated the piano with much more freedom and breadth than Mozart, though this is not so much to his credit as if he had not lived many years after Mozart died, his earli- est compositions falling very near the last years of that great genius. He was distinctly a virtuoso, loving his instrument and its tonal powers. He was the first of all the players whose public performances called attention to the quality of tone, and its singing power. This also points not alone to the fact of his career falling in with 360 Piano Playing and Virtuosi. the increased powers of the pianoforte, as a result of the inventions of Erard, CoUard and Broadwood, but is to his personal credit, since it was genius in him enabhng him to recognize these possibilities, at a time when most players were still in ignorance of them. As a com- poser he wrote many things of more than average excel- lence, and some of his lighter compositions still have vitalit}^ It is altogether likely that Beethoven was influenced by Dussek's playing, in the direction of tone- color. Indeed, the third sonata of Beethoven can hardly be accounted for without recognizing Dussek as the composer upon some one of whose works its general style and form were modeled. Another pianist of considerable importance, a disciple of Mozart, yet with originality of his own, was J. B. Cramer (1771-1858). Thistalented and deserving musi- cian was the son of a musician living at Mannheim, who removed to London when the young Cramer was but one year old. There the boy grew up, receiving his educa- tion from several reputable masters, Clementi being among them. His taste was formed by the diligent study of the works of Emanuel Bach, Haydn and Mozart. In spirit Cramer was a disciple of the last named, but from living to a good old age, he naturally surpassed his ideal in the treatment of the pianoforte. In the latter part of the eighteenth century there were few musical compositions sold over the music counters in Vienna and the musical world generally, but those of Dussek, Cramer and Pleyel, while those of Beethoven were compar- atively neglected. Cramer's compositions were slight in real merit, his fame resting upon his studies for the piano, of which about thirty out of the entire 100 are very good music. The second, and last, book of Piano Playing and Virtuosi. 361 these were published in 1810. They do not form a neces- sary part of the training of a virtuoso, but they have decided merits, and are generally included to this day in the list of pianistic indispensables. Cramer's style of playing was quiet and elegant. Moscheles gives an idea of it in his diary, and regrets that he should allow the snuff, which he took incessantly, to get upon the keys. Cramer's studies preceded those of Clementi, and very likely may have inspired them through a desire of illus- trating a bolder and more masterly style of pianism. Among the many talented pupils of Clementi was Ludwig Berger (i 777-1838), of Berlin, whose unmis- takable gifts for the piano attracted the master's atten- tion when he was in Berlin in 1802, and he took him along with him to St. Petersburg. After living some years in that city, and later in London, he returned to Berlin, where he was held in the highest esteem as teacher until his death. Among the distinguished who studied with him were Mendelssohn, Taubert, Henselt, Fanny Hensel, Herzsberg, and others. He was an in- defatigable composer of decided originality. But few of his works were published. A set of his studies is highly esteemed by many. In further illustration of the Mozart principles of piano playing, and with a reputation as composer, which in his lifetime was curiously beyond his merits, was J. M. Hummel (1778-1837). He was born at Presburg, and had the good luck to attract the favorable notice of Mozart. He was received into the house of the master, and was regarded as the best representative of Mozart's ideas. He made his early appearances as a child pianist under the care of his father, in most parts of Germany and Holland. In 1804 he succe'eded Haydn as musical 362 Piano Playing and \^irtnosi. director to the Esterhazy establishment. He afterward held several other appointments of credit, and played much in all parts of Europe. He was a pleasant player, with a light, smooth touch, suited to the Viennese piano- fortes of the time. Fig. 65. HUMMEL. The latest of the virtuosi representing the classical traditions of the pianoforte, uninfluenced by the new methods which came in w^ith Thalberg and Liszt, was Igna^-Moscheles (1794-1870). He was born at Prague, his father being a cloth merchant and Israelite. Piano Playing and Virtuosi. 363 He had the usual childhood of promising musicians, pla3'ing everything he could lay his hands upon, includ- ing Beethoven's ^'Sonata Pafhefique,'' and at the age of seven he was taken to Dionys Weber, whose verdict is worth remembering, He said: " Candidly speaking, the boy is on the wrong road, for he makes hash of great works which he does not understand, and to which MOSCHELES. he is entirely unequal. But he has talent, and I could make something of him if you were to hand him over to me for three years, and follow out my plan to the letter. The first year he must play nothing but Mozart, the sec- ond Clementi, the third Bach ; but only that — not a note as yet of Beethoven, and if he persists in using the cir- 364 Piano Playing and Virtuosi. culating musical libraries,! have done with him forever." Having completed his studies after this severe 7'egi?ne, Moscheles began his concert appearances, which were everywhere successful. He continued his studies in Vienna with Salieri, and Beethoven thought so well of him that he engaged him to make the pianoforte arrangement of '^Fidelia.'" This was in 1814. In 1815 he produced his famous variations upon the Alexander march, Opus 32, from which his reputation as virtuoso dates. His active concert service began about 1820, and extended throughout Europe. In 1826 he set- tled in London, where he was held in the highest esteem, both as man and musician. He became a fast friend of Mendelssohn, who had been his pupil in Berlin, and in 1846 joined him at Leipsic, where he continued until his death. Moscheles was originally a solid and brilliant player. Later he became famous as one of the best liv- ing representatives of the true style and interpretation of the Beethoven sonatas. He never advanced beyond the Clementi principles of piano playing, the works of Chopin and Liszt remaining sealed books to his fingers, to the very last. As a teacher he was painstaking and patient, and he was honored by all who knew him. All his life he kept a diary, from which a very readable volume has been compiled, with many glimpses of other eminent musicians. It is called " Recent Music and Musicians." 11. The art of violin playing also made great progress during this century, its most eminent representative being Guiseppe Tartini (1692-1770). He was born in Pirano, in Istria, and was intended for the church, but Pia7io Playing ajid Virtuosi. 365 upon coming of age he fell in love with a lady somewhat above him in rank, and w^as secretly married to her. When this fact w^as discovered by her relatives he was obliged to fly, and having taken refuge in a monastery he remained there two years, during which he diligently devoted himself to music, being his own instructor upon the violin, but a pupil of the college organist in counter- point and composition. Later, being united to his wife, he made still further studies on the violin, and by 1721 had returned to Padua, where he evermore resided, his reputation bringing him a sufficient number of pupils to assist his rather meager salary as solo violinist of the cathedral. He was a virtuoso violinist greater than any one before him. Besides employing the higher positions more freely than had previously been the case, he appears to have made great improvements in the art of bowing, and his playing was characterized by great pur- ity and depth of sentiment, and at times with most astonishing passion. He was a composer of extraordi- nary merit, several of his pieces for the violin still forming part of the concert repertory of artists. His famous ''Ti'illo del Diavolo,^' is well known. He dreamed that he had sold his soul to the devil, and on the whole was well pleased with the behavior of that gentlemanly per- sonage. But it occurred to him to ask his strange asso- ciate to play something for him on the violin. Cheer- fully Satan took the instrument, and immediately impro- vised a sonata of astonishing force and wild passion, concluding it with a great passage of trills, of super- human power and beauty; Tartini awoke in an ecstasy of admiration. Whereupon he sought after every man- ner to reduce to paper the wonderful composition of his dream. Fine as was the work thus produced, Tartini 366 Piano Playing and Virtuosi. always maintained that it fell far short of the glorious virtuoso piece which he had heard. Tartini was. in some sort a forerunner of the modern romantic school. He was accustomed to take a poem as the basis of an instrumental piece. He wrote the words along the score and conducted the music wherever the spirit of the words took it. He was also in the habit of affixing to his published works mottoes, indicative of their poetic intention. With this general characterization his music well agrees, for in dreamy moods it has a mystical beauty till then unknown in music. He is also entitled to lasting memory on account of his having first dis- covered the phenomenon of ''combination tones," the under resultant which is produced when two tones are sounded together upon the violin, especially in the higher parts of the compass. These tones are the roots of the consonances sounding, and Tartini directed the attention of his pupils to them as a guide to correct intonation in double stops, since they do not occur unless the intona- tion is pure. He made this important discovery about 1714, and in 1754 ^e published a treatise on harmony embodying the combination tones as a basis of a system of harmony. This having been violently attacked, his second work of this kind, " On the Principles of Musical Harmony Contained in the Diatonic Genus, " was pub- lished m 1767. Tartini, therefore, must be reckoned among the great masters who have contributed to a true doctrine of the tonal system. Copies of his theoretical writings are in the Newberry Library at Chicago. In the latter part of the eighteenth century and the first of the next following the art of violin playing was best illustrated by the German artist, Louis Spohr (1784- 1859), who was almost or quite as great as a composer, Piano Playing and Virtuosi. 367 as in his early career of a virtuoso. In his own specialty he was one of the most eminent masters who has ever appeared. His technique was founded upon that of his predecessors of the school of Viotti and Rode, but his own individuality was so decided that he soon found out a style original with himself. Its distinguishing quality was the singing tone. He never reconciled himself to the light bow introduced by Paganini, and all his work is distinguished by sweetness, singing quality and a flow- ing melodiousness. He was fond of chromatic harmonies and double stops, which imparted great sonority to his playing. He was born at Brunswick, and early com- menced to study music. At the age of fifteen he pla3^ed in the orchestra of the duke of Brunswick, at a yearly sal- ary of about $ IOC Later he studied and traveled with Eck, a great player of the day, and upon his return to Bruns- wick he became leader of the orchestra. His virtuoso career commenced about 1803. Two years later he be- came musical director at Gotha, where he married a charming harp player, Dorette Scheidler, who invariably afterward appeared with him in all their concerts. They traveled in their own carriage, having suitable boxes for the harp and the violin. In 181 3 he was musical director at the theater, ^'Ari der ^F^/;/," at Vienna, where among his violinists was Moritz Hauptmann, afterward so celebra- ted as theorist. Soon after his arrival in Vienna, Spohr received a singular proposition from one Herr von Tost, to the effect "that for a proportionate pecuniary consideration I would assign over to him all I might compose, or had already written, in Vienna, for the term of three years, to be his sole property during that time; to give him the original scores, and to keep myself even no copy of them. 868 Piano Playing and Virtuosi. After the lapse of three years he would return the manu- script to me, and I should then be at liberty either to publish or sell them. After I had pondered a moment over this strange and enigmatical proposition, I asked him whether the compositions were not to be played during those three years? Whereupon Herr von Tost re- plied: 'Oh, yes! As often as possible, but each time upon my lending them for that purpose, and only in my presence.'" He desired such pieces as could be produced in private circles, and would therefore prefer quartettes and quintettes for stringed instruments, and sextettes, octettes and nonettes for stringed and wind instruments. Spohr was to consider the proposition and fix upon the sum to be paid for the different kinds of compositions. Finding on inquiry that Herr von Tost was a wealthy man, very fond of music, Spohr fixed the price at thirty ducats for a quar- tette, thirty-five for a quintette, and so on, progressively higher for the different kinds of composition. On being questioned as to his object, Von Tost replied: '' I have two objects in view: First, I desire to be invited to the musical parties where you will execute your compositions, and for that I must have them in my keeping. Secondly, possessing such treasures of art, I hope upon my busi- ness journeys to make extensive acquaintance among the lovers of music, which may then serve me also in m}^ manufacturing interests. " This singular bargain was duly consummated and faithfully carried out, and the wealthy patron proved of great service to the Spohrs in procur- ing their housekeeping outfit from various tradesmen with whom he had dealings, and he would not suffer Spohr to pay for anything, saying only, ''Give yourself no uneasiness; you will soon square everything with your compositions." Piano Playing atid Virtuosi. 369 The most important of Spohr's works is his great school for the violin, published in 1831. He left also a vast amount of chamber music, fifteen concertos for violin and orchestra, nine symphonies, four oratories, of which ''The Last Judgment" is perhaps the best, ten operas, many concert overtures, etc. — in all more than 200 works, many of them of large dimensions. His best operas are ''Jessonda'' (1823), ''Faust" (1818), "The Alchemist" (1832) and "The Crusaders" (1845). His orchestral works are richly instrumented, and the color- ing is sweet and mellow, yet at times extremely sonorous. During his residence in Vienna, Spohr met Beethoven many times. He was one of the first to introduce the earlier quartettes, in his concerts throughout Germany, and valued them properly. But in regard to the Bee- thoven symphonies he placed himself on record in a highly entertaining manner. He says of the melody of the famous "Hymn to Joy," in Beethoven's ninth sym- phony, that it is so "monstrous and tasteless, and its grasp of Schiller's ode so trivial, that I cannot even now understand how a genius like Beethoven could have written it." ^'^^^^^r Bseic liftK. THE Period of the Romantic. WEBER, PAGANmi, SCHUBERT, BERLIOZ, MEYERBEER, MENDELSSOHN, SCHUMANN CHOPIN, LIS^,^ttf%Ml^fM"W^,' uie destroying serpents liiiS gr^c.;'. JUOSI . MUSaCinMprt^K-tWTOii^^lo^S^' ^^ >erent cojce))t .of art from that of tl ^^- TV HHT .HHMOAV 1 / CHAPTER XXXI. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, THE ROMANTIC; MUSIC OF THE FUTURE. p N ordinary speech a distinction is made between the (^ musical productions of the eighteenth century and those of the next following; the former being called Classic, the XdXXex Romantic. The terms are used rather indefinitely. According to Hegel, whose teaching co- incided with the last years of Beethoven's life, the classic in art embraces those productions in which the general is aimed at, rather than the pa?ticular; the re- poseful and completely satisfactory, rather than the forced, or the sensational; and the beautiful rather than the excit- ing. The philosopher Hegel, w^ho w^as one of the first to employ this distinction in art criticism, took his depart- ure from the famous group of Laocoon and his sons in the embrace of the destroying serpents. This group, so full of agony and irrepressible horror, belongs, he said, to a totally different concept of art from that of the gods and goddesses of Greece, in the beauty and fresh- ness of their eternal youth. These qualities are those of the general and the eternal ; the Laocoon, in its nat- ure painful, was not nor could be permanently satisfac- tory in and of itself, but only through allowance being made by reason of interest in the story told by it. According to more recent philosophers, the romantic 374 The Nineteenth Century, the Romantic. movement in literature and art (for they are parts of the same general movement of the latter part of the eigh- teenth century) has its essential characteristic in the doctrine that what is to be sought in art is not the pleas- ing and the satisfactory, so much as the true. E^ery- thing, they say, belonging to life and experience, is fit subject of art; to the end that thereby the soul may learn to understand itself, and come to complete self-conscious- ness. The entire movement of the romantic writers had for its moving principle \hei\\di^\vn,Nihiniu7nanu?natienum a me puto (''I will consider nothing human to be foreign to me"). Yet other writers make the romantic element to consist of the striking, the strongly contrasted, the ex- citing, and so at length the sensational. Whichever con- struction we may put upon this much used and seldom determined term, its general meaning is that of a dis- tinction from the more moderate writings and compo- sitions of the eighteenth century. "Individualism, as opposed to the general, is the key to the romantic, and in music this principle has acquired great dominance throughout the century in which we ar,e still living. Moreover, if the principle of individualism had not been discovered in its application to the other arts, it must necessarily have found its way into music, for music is the most subjective of all the arts ; having indeed its general principles of form and proportion, but coming to the composer (if he be a genius) as the immediate expression of his own feelings and moods, or as the inter- play of his environment and the inner faculties of mu- sical phantasy. In this sense there is a difference between the music of Bach and Mozart, on the one hand, and that of Bee- thoven and Schubert, on the other. Beethoven was essen- The Nmeteenth Century, the Romantic. 375 tially a romantic composer, especially after he had passed middle life, and the period of the '' Moonlight " sonata. From that time on, his works are more and more free in form, and their moods are more strongly marked and individual. This is true of Beethoven, in spite of his having been born, as we might say, under the star of the classic. He writes freely and fantastically,in spite of his earl}' training. The mood in the man dominated every- thing, and it is always this which finds its expression in the music. The romantic, therefore, represents an enlargement of the domain of music, by the acquisition of provinces outside its boundaries, and belonging originally to the domains of poetry and painting. And so by romantic is meant the general idea of representing in music something outside, of telling a story or painting a picture by means of music. The principle was alread}^ old, being involved in the very conception of opera, which in the nature of the case is an attempt to make music do duty as describer of the inner feelings and experiences of the dramatis personam. Nevertheless, while leading con- tinually to innovations in musical discourse for almost two centuries, it was prevented from having more than momentary entrances into instrumental music until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the general movement of mind known as the romantic was at its height. In France the writers of this group carried on war against classic tradition — the idea that every literary work should be modeled after one of those of the an- cient writers; subjects of tragedy should be taken from Greek mythology or history ; and the characters should think lik*^ the classics, and speak in the formal and stilted phraseology of the vernacular translations out of the 376 The Nineteenth Century, the Rofuantic. ancient works. These writers, also, were those who upheld the rights of man, and produced declarations of independence. /In short, it was the principle of individ- ualism, as opposed to the merely general and conven- tional, for we may remember that the conventional had a large place in ancient art. ■ Plato says (see p. 38) that the Egyptians had patterns of the good in all forms of art, framed and displayed in their temples. And new productions were to be judged by comparing them with these, and when they contained different principles, they were upon that account to be condemned and prohibited. In farther evidence of the correspondence between the musical activity in this direction, and the general move- ment of mind at this period, including the shaking up of the dry bones in every part of the social order, (the French revolution being the most extreme and dras- tic illustration), we may observe that the composer through whom this element entered into the art of music in its first free development was Franz Schubert, who was born during the years when this disturbance was at its height, namely, in 1797. Moreover, the manner in which his inspiration to musical creation was received corresponded exactly to the definition of the romantic given above; for it was always through reading a poem or a story that these strange and beautiful musical com- binations occurred to him, many instances of which are given in the sketch later. It is curious, furthermore, that the general method of Schubert's musical thought is classical in its repose, save where directly associated with a text of a picture-building character, or of decided emotion. Thus, while it is not possible to separate one part of the works of this composer from anot' r, and to say of the one that it belongs to an older dispensation, The Nineteenth Century, the Romantic. 377 while the other part represents a different principle of art (both parts alike having the same general treatment of melody, and the same refined and poetic atmosphere), it is, nevertheless, true that if we had only the sonatas, chamber pieces, and the symphonies of Schubert, no one would think of classing his works differently from those of Mozart, as to their operative principles. But when w^e have the songs, the five or six hundred of them, the operas and other vocal works, in which music is so lovely in and of itself, yet at the same time so descriptive, so loyal to the changing moods of the text, we necessarily interpret the instrumental music in the same light, espe- cially when we know that there are no distinct periods in the short life of this composer concerning which different principles can be predicated. Almost immediately after Schubert there come com- posers in whom the new tendency is more marked. Men- delssohn entered the domain of the romantic in 1826, with his overture to the ''Midsummer Night's Dream," and directly after him came Schumann, with a luxuri- ant succession of deeply moved, imaginative, quasi-de- scriptive, or at any rate representative, pianoforte pieces. Schumann, indeed, did not need to read a poem in order to find musical ideas flowing in unaccustomed channels. The ideas took these forms and channels of their own accord, as we see in his very first pieces, his " Fapillons,'' ''Intermezzi,'' '' Davidshimdlertd7ize'' and the like. So, too, with Chopin. There is very little of the descriptive and the picture-making element in his works. Nevertheless, they chimed in so well with the unrest, the somewhat Byronic sentiment, the vague yearning of the period, that they found a public without loss of time, and estab- lished themselves in the popular taste without having had 378 The Nineteenth Centioy, the Romantic. to find a propaganda movement for explaining them as the foretokens of a ''music of the future." This representative work in music has been very much helped by the astonishing development of virtuosity upon the violin, the pianoforte and other instruments, which distinguishes this century* Beginning with Paga- nini, whose astonishing violin playing was first heard during the last years of the eighteenth century, we have Thalberg, Chopin, Liszt, Rubinstein, Joachim, Tausig, Leonard, and a multitude of others, through whose efforts the general appreciation cff instrumental music has been ^vonderfuUy stimulated, and the appetite for overcoming difficulties and realizing great effects so much increased as to have permanently elevated the standard of compli- cation in musical discourse, and the popular average of performance. Nor has virtuosity been confined to single instru- ments. There have been two great virtuosi in orches- tration, during this century, who have exercised as great an. influence in this complicated and elaborate depart- ment, as the others mentioned have upon their own solo instruments. The first of these was Hector Berlioz, the great French master, whose earlier compositions ^ were produced in 1835, when the instruments of the orchestra were combined in vast masses, and with descriptive intention, far beyond anything by previous writers. In his later works, such as the ''Damnation of Faust," and the mighty Requiem, Berlioz far sur- passed these efforts, every one of his effects afterward proving to have been well calculated. Directly after his early works came the first of that much discussed genius, Richard Wagner, who besides being one of the most profound and acute intelligences evjr distinguished The Nineteenth Century, the Romajitic. 3^79 in music, and a great master of the province of opera (^in which he accomplished stupendous creations), was also an orchestral virtuoso, coloring when he chose, with true instinct, for the mere sake of color; and massing and contrasting instruments in endless variety and beauty. The activit}' in musical production during the nine- teenth century has been so extraordinary in amount and in the number of composers concerned in it, and so ample in the range of musical effects brought to realiza- tion, as fully to illustrate the truth of the principle enunciated at the outset of this narrative, namely : That the course of musical progress has been toward greater complication of tonal effects in every direction ; implying upon the part of composers the possession of more inclu- sive principles of tonal unity; and upon the part of the hearers, to whom these vast works have been addressed, the possession of corresponding powers of tonal percep- tion, and the persistence of impressions for a sufficient length of time in each instance for the underlying unity to be realized. As an incident in the rapidity of the progress on the part of composers, we have had what is called ^-the music of the future" ; namely, productions of one gen- eration intelligible to the finer intelligences of that gen- eration, yet "music of the future" to all the others; but in the generation following, these compositions have gone into the common stock, through the progress of the faculties of hearing and of deeper perceptions of tonal relations. Meanwhile there has been created another stratum of music of the future, which may be expected to occupy the attention of the generation next ensuing, to whom in turn it will become the music of the present. 380 The Ninetee7ith Century, the Romantic. In the nature of the case, there is not, nor can there be, a stopping place, unless we conceive the possibility of a return to the conservatism of Plato and the ancient Egyptians, and the passage of statute laws permitting the employment of chords and rhythms up to a certain specified degree of complexity, beyond which their use would constitute a grave statutory offense. It is possi- ble that the ideal of art might again be ''reformed " in the direction of restriction from the uncomely, the forced and the sensational, and in favor of the beautiful, the becoming and the divine. Nevertheless, it is the inev- itable consequence of a prescription of this kind to run into mere prettiness and tuneful emptiness. Protection is a failure in art. The spirit must have freedom, or it will never take its grandest flights. And it is altogether possible that the needed corrective will presently be discovered of itself, through the progress of spirit into a clearer vision, a higher aspiration and a nobler sense of beauty. This we may hope will be one of the distinc- tions of the coming ages, which poets have foretold and seers have imagined, when truth and love will prevail and find their illustration in a civilization conformed of its own accord to the unrestricted outflowing of these deep, eternal, divine principles. >^-^ "^^^^p^^ CHAPTER XXXII. SCHUBERT AND THE ROMANTIC. w HE first two great figures of the nineteenth cen- tury were those of Carl Maria von Weber, whose work will be considered later, and the great song writer, Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828). This remark- able man was born of poor parents in Vienna, or near it, his father being a schoolmaster, earning the proverbially meager stipend of the profession in Germany at that time, amounting to no more than $100 or $200 a year. The family was musical, and the Sundays were devoted to quartette playing and other forms of music. The boy Franz early showed a fine ear. He was soon put to the study of the violin and the piano — while still a mere child being furnished with a small violin, upon which he went through the motions of his father's part. He had a fine voice, and this attracted the attention of the director of the choir in the great Cathedral of St. Stephen's, as it had in Haydn's case, and he was pres- ently enrolled as chorister and a member of what was called the "Convict," a school connected with the church, where the boys had schooling as well as musical instruction. Early he began to write, among his first works being certain pieces for the piano and violin, com- posed when he was a little more than eleven. In the "Convict" school there was an orchestra where they 381 382 Schubert and the Romantic. practiced symphonies and overtures of Haydn, Mozart, Kotzeluch,Cherubini, Mehul, Krommer, and occasionally Beethoven. Here his playing immediately put him on a level with the older boys. One of them turned around one day to see who it was playing so cleverly, and found it " a little boy in spectacles," named Franz Schubert. The two boys became intimate, and one day the little fellow, blushing deeply, admitted to the older one that he had composed much, and would do so still more if he could get the music paper. Spaun saw the state of affairs, and took care thereafter that the music paper should be forthcoming. In time Franz became first violin, and when the conductor was absent, took his place. The orchestral music delighted him greatly, and of the Mozart adagio, in the G minor symphon3;he said that ''you could hear the angels singing." Among other works which particularly delighted him were the overtures to the *' Magic Flute " and " Figaro." The particular object of his reverence was Beethoven, who was then at the height of his fame, but he never met the great master more than once or twice. Once when a few boyish songs had been sung to words by Klopstock, Schubert asked his friend whether he could ever do anything after Beethoven. His friend answered, perhaps he could do a great deal. To which the boy responded: " Perhaps; I sometimes have dreams of that sort; but who can do any- thing after Beethoven? " The boy made but small repu- tation for scholarship in the school, after the thirst for composition had taken possession of him, which it did when he had been there but one year. One of his earliest compositions was a fantasia for four hands, hav- ing about thirteen movements of different character, occupying about thirty-two pages of fine writing. His Schubert and the Romantic. 388 brother remarks that not one ends in the key in which it began. He seems to have had a passion for uncanny subjects, for the next work of his is a "Lament of Hagar," of thirteen movements in different keys, unconnected. After this again, a "Corpse Fantasia" to words of Schiller. This has seventeen movements, and is posi- tively erratic in its changes of key. It is full of reminis- cences of Haydn's " Creation " and other works. The musical stimulation of this boy was meager indeed. Not until he was thirteen years of age did he hear an opera; and not until he was fifteen a really first-class work, Spontini's "Vestal," in 1812. Three years later he prob- ably heard Gluck's ''Iphige7iie en Tauride,''' a work which in his estimation eclipsed them all. During the same year there were the sixth and seventh symphonies, the choral fantasia and portions of the mass in C, and the overture to " Coriolanus," of Beethoven. He was a great admirer of Mozart, and in his diary, under date of June 13,1816, he speaks of a quintette: " Gently, as if out of a distance, did the magic tones of Mozart's music strike my ears. With what inconceivable alternate force and tenderness did Schlesinger's magic playing impress it deep into my heart! Such lovely impressions remain on my soul, there to work for good, past all power of time and circum- stance. In the darkness of this life they reveal a bright, beautiful prospect, inspiring confidence and hope. Oh Mozart, Mozart, what countless consolatory images of a bright, better world hast thou stamped on our souls! " Presently Schubert entered his father's school, in order to avoid the rigorous conscription, and remained a teacher of the elementary branches for three years. His first important composition was a mass, which was pro- duced honorably October 16, 1814, and many good judges 384 Schubert and the Romantic. pronounced it equal to any similar work of the kind, excepting possibly Beethoven's mass in C. By 1815 the rage of composition had fully taken possession of the soul of Schubert, and thenceforth poured out from this receptacle of inspiration a steady succession of works of all dimensions and characters, very few of which were performed in his lifetime. Among these works in the year 1815, there are 137 songs, of which only sixty-seven are printed as yet. And in August alone twenty-nine, of which eight are dated the 15th, and seven the 19th. Among these 137 songs some are of such enormous length that this feature alone would have prevented their publication. Of those published, ^'Die Burgschaff' fills twenty-two pages of the Litolff edition. It was the length of these compositions which caused Beethoven's excla- mation upon his death bed : ''Such long poems, niany of them containing ten others." And this mass of music was produced in the interim of school drudgery. Among these songs of his boyhood years are ''Gretchen am Spinnrade,''' ''Der Erl Konig,'" ''Hedge Roses," "Restless Love," the '' Schae/er's Klaglied,'^ the " Ossian " songs, and many others, all falling within the production of this year. It is said that when the " Erl King" was tried in the evening, the listeners at the convict thought it of questionable success. The music of the boy at the words "My father, my father" seemed to be inexcusable, for overwhelmed with fright, he sings a half a tone sharp of the accompaniment. At length, after about three years, Schubert's services as a schoolmaster becoming less and less valuable, an opening was made for him by Schober, who proposed that Schubert should live with him. He was now free to devote himself to composition, and so thoroughly did Srhubef't and the Romantit. 385 he do this that in the year following, 1816, he experi- enced the novelty of having composed for money, a cantata of his having not only been performed upon the occasion of Salieri's fiftieth anniversary of life in Vienna, but money was sent him for it, 100 florins, Vienna money, about $20 American. He w^as already compos- ing operas, and in 1816 there was one, ^^ Die Burg- schaft,'" in three acts. In the same year there were two symphonies, the fourth in C minor, called ''The Tragic," and the fifth for small orchestra. The songs of this year, however, were of more value. Among them were the "Wanderer's Night Song," the "Fisher," the "Wanderer" and many others now known wherever melody and dramatic quality are appreciated. The rapidity with which he composed songs was in- credible. October, 18 15, he finds the poems of Rose- garten, and between the 15th and igth sets seven of them. " Everything that he touched," says Schumann, "turned into music." At a later date, calling upon one of his friends, he found certain poems by Wilhelm Miiller, and carried them off with him. A few days later, his friend desiring the book, called on Schubert for it, and found that he had already set a number of them to music. They were the songs of the ''SchoJie Midlcrin.'" A year or so after, returning from a day in the country, they stopped at a tavern, where he found a friend with a volume of Shakespeare open before him. Schubert took up the volume, turned a few pages, became interested in one of the pieces, took up some waste paper, and scribbling the lines proceeded to write a melody. This was the so-called "Shakespeare Serenade," "Hark, Hark, the Lark." The "Serenade," in D minor, is said to have been conceived in a similarly impromptu manner. In 386 Schubert and the Rojuantic. 1816 the great tenor, Vogl, made Schubert's acquaint- ance, having been brought by one of Schubert's admirers. At first the songs did not make much impression upon him ; later they grew upon him, and he introduced them among the best circles of the Vienna aristocracy. Vogl appreciated the value of these songs. * 'Nothing, " said he, ''so shows the want of a good school of singing as Schu- bert's songs. Otherwise, what an enormous and univer- sal effect must have been produced throughout the world, wherever the German language is understood, by these truly divine inspirations, these utterances of musical clair- voyance. How many would have comprehended for the first time the meaning of such terms as speech and poetry in music ; words in harmony, ideas clothed in music, and would have learned that the finest poems of our greatest poets may be enhanced and even transcended when translated into musical language. Numberless examples might be named, but I will only mention the 'Erl King,' 'Gretchen,' 'Schwager Kronos,' 'The Mignon's and Harper's Songs,' 'Schiller's Pilgrim,' the -Burgschaft^ and the 'Sehnsucht. ' " We are told that within the next two or three years Schubert made a number of friends, and the circle of his admirers was considerably extended. The same remark- able productivity continued. In the summer of 1818 he went to the country seat of Count Esterhazy, where he remained several months. This was in Hungary, and the Hungarian pieces are supposed to date from his resi- dence there. It was not until 1819 that the first song of Schubert was sung in public. This was the " Shep- herd's Lament," of which the Leipsic correspondent of the Algeinei?ie Miisikalische Zeitung says: "The touching and feeling composition of this talented young man was Schubert and the Romajitic ^^' 387 sung by Herr Jaeger in a similar spirit." The following year, among other compositions, was the oratorio of •' Lazarus." which was composed in three parts — first, the sickness and death, then the burial and elegy, and, finally, the resurrection. The last part, unfortunately, if ever written, has been lost. He made attempts at operatic composition, producing a vast amount of beau- tiful music, but always to indifferent librettos, so that none of his music was publicly performed. It was not until 1827 and 1828 that his continual practice in orches- tral writing resulted in the production of real master works. In this year the unfinished symphony in B minor was produced, in which the two movements that we have are among the most beautiful and poetic that the treasury of orchestral music possesses. The other was the great symphony in C, which was first performed in Leipsic ten years after Schubert's death, through the intervention of Schumann. During all these years since leaving his father's school, Schubert had been living in a ver}^ modest manner, with an income which must have been very small and irregular. He was very industrious, usually rising soon after five in the morning, and, after a light breakfast of coffee and rolls, writing steadily about seven hours. The amount of work which he got through in this way was something incredible. Whole acts of operas were composed and beautifully written out in score within a few days. Upon the same morning from three to six songs might be written, if the poems chanced to attract him. He scarcely ever altered or erased, and rarely curtailed. All his music has the character of improvisation. The melody, harmony, the thematic treatment, and the accompaniment with the instrumental coloring, all seem to have occurred to him at the same 388 Schubert and the Romantic. time. It is only a question of writing it down. Very little of his music was performed during his lifetime — of the songs, first and last, many of them in private circles, and the last two or three years of his life, perhaps twenty or twenty-five in public. A few of his smaller orchestral numbers were played by amateur players, where he may have heard them himself, but his larger works he never heard. All that schooling of ear which Beethoven had, as an orchestral director in youth, Schubert lacked. His studies in counterpoint had never been pursued beyond the rudiments, and the last engagement he made before his death was for lessons with Sechter, the contrapuntal authority in Vienna at that time. In spontaneity of genius Schubert resembles Mozart more than any other master who ever lived. His early education and training were different from those of Moz- art, and musical ideas take different form with him. While Mozart was distinctly a melodist, counterpoint and fugue were at his fingers' ends, and his thematic treatment had all the freedom which comes from a thorough training in the use of musical material. Schu- bert had not this kind of training. He never wrote a good fugue, and his counterpoint was indifferent; but on the other hand he had several qualities which Mozart had not, and in particular a very curious and interesting mental phenomenon, which we might call psychical resonance or clairvoyance. Whatever poem or story he read immediately called up musical images in his mind. Under the excitement of the sentiment of a poem, or of dramatic incidents narrated, strange harmonies spon- taneously suggested themselves, and melodies exquisitely appropriate to the sentiment he desired to convey. He was a musical painter, whose colors were not imitated Schubert a?id the Romantic. 389 from something without himself, but were inspired from within. Schubert was a great admirer of Beethoven, and upon one occasion called upon him with a set of works which he had dedicated to the great master. Beethoven had been prepared for the visit by some admirer of Schubert's, and received him very kindly, but when he began to compliment the works the bashful Schubert rushed out of doors. Upon another occasion during his last illness Beethoven desired something to read, and a selection of about sixty of Schubert's songs, partly in print and partly in manuscript, were put in his hands. His astonishment was extreme, especially when he heard that there existed about 500 of the same kind. He pored over them for days, and asked to see Schubert's operas and piano pieces, but the illness returned, and it was too late. He said *' Truly Schubert has the divine fire in him." Schubert was one of the torch bearers at Beethoven's funeral. In March 1828, he gave an even- ing concert of his own works in the hall of the Musik- verein. The hall was crowded, the concert very success- ful, and the receipts more than $150, which was a very large sum for Schubert in those days. For several months before his death Schubert's health was delicate. Poverty and hard work, a certain want of encourage- ment and ease had done their office for him. He died November 19, 1828. He left no will. His personal property was sold at auction, the whole amounting to about $12. Among the assets was a lot of old music valued at ten florins. It is uncertain whether this included the unpublished manuscript or not. In per- sonal appearance Schubert was somewhat insignificant. He was about five feet one inch high, his figure stout 390 Schubert aiid the Romantic. and clumsy, with a round back and shoulders, perhaps due to incessant writing, fleshy arms, thick, short fingers. His cheeks were full, his eyebrows bushy and his nose insignificant. His hair was black, and remarkably thick and vigorous, and his eyes were so bright that even through the spectacles, which he constantl}^ wore, they at once attracted attention. His glasses were inseparable Fiff. 67. FRANZ SCHUBERT. from his face. In the convict he was the ''little boy in spectacles." He habitually slept in them. He was very simple in his tastes, timid and never really at ease but in the society of his intimates and people of his own sta- tion. His attitude toward the aristocracy was entirely different from the domineering, self-assertive pose of Bee- thoven, but he was very amiable, and dearly beloved. Sduibert and the Roma7itic, 391 His place in the history of music, aside from the gen- eral fact of his possessing genius of the first order, is that of the creator of the artistic song. While his pianoforte sonatas are extremely beautiful and very difficult, and anticipate many modern effects; his string quartettes, and other chamber music, worthy to be ranked with those of any other master ; and his symphonies exquis- itely beautiful in their ideas, orchestral coloring and the entire atmosphere which they carry — his habitual atti- tude was that of the writer of songs. Some of these are of remarkable length and range. One of them extends to sixty-six pages of manuscript. Another occupies forty-five pages of close print. A work of this kind is a cantata, and not merely a song. Many of the others are six or eight pages long, and in all the music freely and spontaneously follows the poem, with a del- icate correspondence between the poetic idea and the melody, with its harmony and treatment, such as we look for in vain in any other writer, unless it be Schumann, who, however, did not possess Schubert's instinct of the vocally suitable. For with all the range which these songs cover, their vocal quality is as noticeable as that of Italian cantilenas. '"^=^5i*j?^ CHAPTER XXXIII. THE STORY OF THE PIANOFORTE. H E popular instrument of the nineteenth century l[y has been the pianoforte, the result of an evolution having its beginning more than six centuries back. It is impossible in the present state of knowledge to trace all the steps through which this remarkable instru- ment has reached its present form. In the Assyrian sculptures discovered by Layard, there are instruments apparently composed of metal rods or plates, touched by l a^ammers, upon the same ^"^neral principle as the toy instrument with glass plates, or the xylophone composed of wooden rods resting upon bands of straw. In these the use of the hammer for producing the tone is obvious. In the Middle Ages there was an instrument called the psaltery, apparently some sort of a four-sided harp strung with metal strings. The evidence upon this point is rather indistinct. Still later there is the Arab santir (p. 114). This was a trapeze-shaped instrument, com- posed of a solid frame, sounding board and metal wires struck with hammers. This instrument still exists in Germany under the name of Hackbrett^ ox the dulcimer. As now made, each string consists of three wires tuned in unison. It is played by means of leather hammers held in the hand. The difficulty of adapting this instru- ment to the keyboard consisted in the fact that if the 392 The Story of the Pianoforte. 393 hammers were connected with the keys, they would be under the strings instead of above them, and this diffi- culty for a long time proved insurmountable. Two forms of instruments were at length developed, composed of a wire-strung psaltery, played from a chro- matic keyboard like that of the organ. The first of these was the one called in England Spinet, or in Italy Espin- neito, and in Germany the Clavier. The essential charac- teristic of this instrument was the manner of producing tones. Upon the ends of the keys were brass pieces Fiff. 68. SPINET. [Showing the disposition of the string's, bridges, etc. Dresden, 1590.1 called '* tangents," of a t riangular sha pe, of such form that when the_ key was pressed , the tangent pushed the wire and so produced the tone. As it remained in con- tact with the wire as long as the key was held down, there was nothing like what we now call a singing tone. The instruments were very small, in shape like a square piano, but of Jhree or four octaves compass : the wires were of brass, and quite small. In several representations which have come down to us from the seventeenth century, the number of strings shown is smaller than the number of 894 The Story of the Pianoforte. keys, from which some writers have inferred that it might have been possible to obtain more than one tone from the sarne string, through a process of stopping it with one tangent and striking it with another. This, however, is highly improbable; the discrepancies referred to are undoubtedly due to carelessness of the engraver. The clavier, or spinet, was a better instrument than the lute, which at length it superseded, having more tones and a greater harmonic capacity. Besides which it was a step toward something much better still. In England they made them with pieces of cloth drawn through between the wires, to deaden the already small tone still further. Figr. 69. KEYBOARD AND FRET WORK OF SPINET SHOWN IN FIG. 68. These were sometimes called virginals, and seem to have been used as practice pianos, where the noise of the full tone might have been objectionable. The oldest form of the clavier known to the writer was that shown in Fig. 6g, which was so small that it might be carried under the arm, and when used was placed upon the table. They were sometimes ornamented in a very elab- orate manner. ^Contemporaneously with the spinet, and of almost equal antiquity, was an instrument in the form of a grand piano^ called in Italy the clavicembalo, and in England the harpsichord. In Germany it was called the flugel or wing, from its being shaped like the wings of a bird. The Story of the Pianoforte. 395 These also, in the earher times, were made very small, and were rested upon the table. The essential distinc- tion between the cembalo and the spinet was in the man- ner of tone production. In the cembalo there was a wooden jack resting upon the end of the keys, and upon this jack a little plectrum made of raven's quill, which had to be frequently renewed. When the key was Fig. 70. RICHLY ORNAMENTED SPINET. [Made for the Princess Anna, of Saxony, about 1550.] pressed, the jack rose and the plectrum snapped the wire. The tone was thin and delicate, but as the plectrum did not remain in contact with the string, the vibration con- tinued longer than in the clavier. The cembalo was the favorite instrument in Italy during the seventeenth cen- tury, and in England it had a great currency under the 396 The Story of the Pianoforte. name of harpsichord. Many attempts were made at increasing the resources of this instrument, one of the most curious being that of combining two harpsichords in one, having two actions, two sounding boards and sets of strings, and two keyboards related hke those of the organ. This form seems to have been exclusively English. The form of the harpsichord is shown in Fig. 71. Fig^. 71. MOZART'S CONCERT GRAND PIANO. [Now in the MoZart Museum at Salzburg. Its compass is five octaves. 1 Far back in the sixteenth century an attempt was made at a hammer mechanism to strike down upon the strings. For this purpose the strings were placed in a vertical position, the same as in our upright pianos of the present day. Mr. B. J. Lang, of Boston, has an upright spinet of this kind, which he bought in Nurem- burg. It is a small and rude affair, having about four octaves compass and a very small scale. The pianoforte proper was not invented until 1711, when a Florentine mechanic, named Cristofori, invented what he called a Fortepiano, from its capacity of being The Story of the Pianoforte. 39^ played loud or soft. The essential feature of the piano- forte mechanism is in the use of the hammer to produce the tone, and the necessary provision for doing this successfully is to secure an instantaneous escapement of the hammer from contact with the wire, as soon as the blow has been delivered, while at the same time the key remains pressed in order to hold the damper away from Pigr. 72. CRISTOFORI'S ACTION. fAccording- to his orig-inal diagram.] A is the string-; b the bottom; c the first lever, or key; there is a pad, Deu?n,'' wTitten during the years 1854 and 1855, for some kind of festival performance. He planned this composition as part of a great trilogy of an epic- dramatic character in honor of Napoleon, the first con- sul. At the moment of his return from his Italian campaigns, he was to have been represented as entering Notre Dame, where this "7> Deiim^' is sung by an appointment of musical forces consisting of a double chorus of 200 voices, a third choir of 600 children, an orchestra of 134, an organ, and solo voices. . The entire work was never completed, and the "7> Deum " had its first and only representation in Berlioz's lifetime at the opening of the Palace of Industry, April 30, 1855. The work is full of splendid conceptions, and is freer from eccentricities than any other of the author. It is extremely sonorous, and is destined to be better known as festival occasions upon a larger scale become more numerous. The w^hole effect of Berlioz's activity was that of a virtuoso in the department of dramatic and descriptive 436 Virtuosity in the Nineteenth Century. music, and in the art of wielding large orchestral masses. It is curious that between him and Wagner the rela- tions should never have been cordial, although the ends proposed by both were substantially identical, and the genius of both incontestable. Berlioz had no confidence in Wagner's ' ' endless melody, " and when he writes about music he does so in the attitude of a humble follower of the old masters. III. The progress in piano playing, in the course of the nineteenth century has been most extraordinary. The music of Beethoven and Schubert, composed during the first quarter of this century, and the influence of the virtuosi prominent during that time, whose activity has been told in connection with those of the century pre- vious (the operative principles of which were the ones mainly influencing them); and the continual strife of the piano makers to increase the resonance, singing quality and artistic susceptibility of the tone and the strength and elasticity of the action, as recounted in the chapter devoted to the history of this, the greatest of modern instruments — were concentrating influences having the effect of calling attention to the new instrument in a very remarkable manner. Add to these causes the meteor-like appearance of Paganini, with his stupendous execution upon the violin, and its novel possibilities. All these to- gether seem to have led four gifted geniuses at about the same time to make independent investigations into the tonal possibilities of the piano, and the mode of producing effects upon it, in the hope of creating a new art, and of rivaling the weird successes of the highly gifted Italian, who apparently had exhausted the possibilities of the Virtuosity in the Nineteeyith Century. 437 violin. The artists thus occupied in developing the art of piano playing were Chopin, Liszt, Thalberg and Schu- mann, and it is far from easy to determine exactly which one it was who first brought his influence to bear upon the public ; or which one it was who first arrived at the suc- cessful application of the principles of the new technique, whose essential divergences from the old consisted in a more flexible use of the fingers, hand and arm, and the co-operation of the foot for the promotion of blending, and of bringing into simultaneous use the tonal resources from all parts of the instrument. In this case, as in so many others of remarkable invention, the improvements seem to have been made by several independent investi- gators acting simultaneously, each one ignorant of the work of the others. The impulse in the direction of greater freedom had already found expression in the pianoforte pieces of the great master, Von Weber, whose sonatas and caprices had been published between 1810 and 1820. (See pp. 410 and 411.) These contain sev- eral novelties, which I have found it more convenient to discuss in connection with the personal history of the composer. Liszt has generally been held as a little the earliest of the four in point of time, his arrangement of Berlioz's ''Harold" symphony having been published, according to the dates in Weitzmann's history, in 1827, but according to more accurate information, in 1835, while he had published his arrangement of the Paganini ca- prices in 1832, one year after hearing Paganini. In these works Liszt makes demands upon the hands which were not recognized as among the possibilities of the old technique. But for all this, it is apparently certain that the honor of having developed a style distinctly original, and with peculiarities easily recog- 438 Virtuosity in the Nineteenth Century. nizable by the average listener, belongs to the great virtuoso Thalberg. Sigismund Thalberg (1812-1871) was the illegitimate son of Prince Dietrichstein, a diplomat then living at Geneva. His mother was the Baroness von Wetzlar. Thalberg was carefully educated, and accustomed to high-bred society from childhood. His father intended him for a diplomatic career, but the boy's talent for the piano was irresistible, and, so well had his education been advanced by his teacher, the first bassoonist of the Vienna opera, that by the time he was fifteen he made a brilliant success at a concert in Vienna. His first composition in the style which he afterward made so famous was the fantasia on themes from '' Eur- yanthe,'' which was published in 1828. Later, in 1835, he entered upon his public career as virtuoso with concert tours to all parts of the world, everywhere greeted with admiration and astonishment. He appeared in Paris late in 1834 or early in 1835, finding Liszt there in the plenitude of his powers. Then there was a rivalry between them, and opposing camps were instituted of their respective admirers. The dispute as to their relative excellence ran high, and, as usually happens in personal questions of this sort, victory did not belong entirely to either party. Nevertheless, at this distance it is not easy to see why the question should have been raised, since in the light of modern piano playing Liszt's art had in it the promise of everything which has come since ; while Thalberg's had in it only one side of the modern art. Thalberg had a wonderful technique, in which scales of marvelous fluency, lightness, clearness and equality, intervened between chord passages of great breadth and sonority, so that all the resources of the piano were open to him. But his specialty was that of carrying Virtuosity in the Nineteenth Ceyitury. 439 d melody in the middle of the piano, playing it by means of the two thumbs alternately, the other hand being occu- pied in runs and passages covering the whole com- pass of the piano, crossing the melody from below, or descending upon it from the highest regions of the treble, and continuing down the keyboard with perfect equal- ity and lightness, without in the slightest degree dis- turbing the singing of the melody. This, of its own accord, went on in the most artistic manner, as if the pianist had nothing at all else to do than to sing'iX.. The perfection of Thalberg's melody playing was something wonderful, as well it might be; for in order to master the art of it, he studied singing for five years with one of the best teachers of the Italian school, the eminent Gar- cia. This, however, was later, after he had located in Paris. This trick of treating the melody was not new with Thalberg. It had previously been done upon the harp by the great Welsh virtuoso. Parish Alvars (i 808-1 849), whose European reputation had been acquired by a suc- cession of great concert tours, and who at length closed his days in Vienna, where Thalberg lived. There was also an Italian master, Giuseppe Francesco Pollini (1763- 1846), who in 1809 became professor of the piano in the Conservatory of Milan. Pollini had been a pupil of Mozart, and dedicated to that great master his first work. Early after being appointed professor he pub- lished a great school for the pianoforte (181 1), in which the art is fully discussed in all its bearings, and minute directions given for touch and all the rest appertaining to a concert treatment of the instrument. He was the first to write piano pieces upon three staves, the middle one being devoted to the melody ; a proceeding after- 440 Virtuosity in the Nineteenth Century. ward followed in some cases by Liszt and Thalberg. PoUini surrounded his melodies, thus placed in the mid- dle of the instrument, where at that time the sonority and singing quality of the pianoforte exclusively lay,, with runs and passages of a brilliant and highly ingen- ious kind. This was done in his "■Una de J2 Esercizi ifi Forma di Toccata,^'' but he had already, in 1801, published several brilliant pieces in Paris, in which novelties occur. I have never seen a copy of these works of PoUini, nor any other account of them than those in Riemann's dic- tionary and in Weitzmann's history of the pianoforte, but it is altogether likely that when they are examined we shall find in this case, as in many others of progressive development, that the final result was reached by a suc- cession of steps, each one short, and apparently not so very important. The chain of technical development for the piano extended from Bach in unbroken progress, and the discovery of Pollini, who was less known in western lands than others of the great names in the list, enables us to fill in between Moscheles and Thalberg. Pollini's w^ork anticipates the Clementi Gradus by about six years. To return to Thalberg. In 1856 he visited America, where his success was the same as in all other parts of the world. Having accumulated a fortune, he retired from active life, and bought an estate near Naples, where he spent the remainder of his life. There were reasons of a purely external and conventional kind why the play- ing of Thalberg should have attracted more attention, or at least been more admired, than that of Liszt, in Paris and in aristocratic circles everywhere. His man- ner was the perfection of quiet. Whatever the difficulty of the passages upon which he was engaged, he remained Virtuosity in the Nineteenth Century. 441 perfectly quiet, sitting upright, modestly, without a single unnecessary motion. Moreover, the general character of his passages, which progressed fluently upward or downward by degrees, instead of taking violent leaps from one part of the keyboard to another, permitted him to maintain this elegant quiet with less restriction than would have been possible i.i such works, for instance, as the great concert fantasias of Liszt. It is to be noticed, further, that the peculiar sonority of Thalberg's playing depended upon the improvements in the pianoforte, made just before his appearance and during his career. His method of playing the melody, moreover, while per- haps not distinctly so recognized by him, employed a noticeable element of the arm touch, while his passage work was a finger movement of the lightest and most facile description. His chords, also, were often struck with a finger touch, and he was perhaps the originator of the peculiar effect produced by touching a chord with the fingers only, but rebounding from the keys with the whole arm to the elbow. A chord thus played has the delicacy peculiar to finger work, but in the removal from the keys the muscles of the arm are called into action in such a way that the finger stroke is intensified to a degree somewhat depending upon the height to which the rebound is carried. IV. Francois Frederic Chopin (1809-1849) was one of the most remarkable composers of this epoch, and in some respects one of the most precocious musical geniuses of whom we have any record. He was born at Zela-Zowa Wola, a village six miles from Warsaw, in Poland, the son of a French merchant living there, who 442 Virtuosity in the Nincteeyith Centiiry. had married a Polish lady. Later, in consequence of financial reverses, his father became a teacher in the university. The boy, Francois, was brought up amid refined and pleasant surroundings, and his education was carefully looked to. Although rather delicate in appear- ance, he was healthy and full of spirits. His precocity Figr. 82. FREDERIC CHOPIN. upon the piano was such that at the age of nine he played a 'concerto in public with great success, from which time forward he made many appearances in his native city. He early began to compose, and by the time he was thirteen or fourteen, had undertaken a number of works of considerable magnitude. After having received Virtuosity in the Ni^ieteenth Century. 443 the best instruction which his native city afforded, he started out, at the age of nineteen, for a visit to Vienna, where he appeared in two concerts, and to his own sur- prise was pronounced one of the greatest virtuosi of the day. This, however, is not the point of his precocity. When he started upon his tour to Vienna, he had with him certain manuscripts, which he had composed. His Opus 2 consisted of variations upon Mozart's air, ''La ci Darem la Mano,^^ of which later Schumann wrote such a glowing account in his paper at Leipsic. These variations were enormously difficult, and in a wholly novel style. There were several mazurkas, the three nocturnes, Opus 9, of which the extremely popular one in E flat stands second; the twelve studies. Opus 10, dedicated to Franz Liszt, and a concerto in F minor, and all or nearly all of that in E minor. These were the work of a boy then only nineteen, the pupil of a comparatively unknown provincial teacher. When we examine these works more minutely, our astonishment increases, for they represent an entirely new school of piano pla3'ing. New effects, new management of the hands, new passages, beautiful melody, exquisitely modulated harmonies — in short, a new world in piano playing was here opened. So difficult and so strange were these works, that for nearly a generation the more difficult ones of them were a sealed book to amateur pianists, and even virtuosi like Moschelos declare that they could never get their fingers reliably through them. Much pleased with his success in Vienna, Chopin returned toW^arsaw, and after some months, set out for London, by way of P^ris. Here his fortune varied some- what. At first he found it impossible to secure a hearing, his only acquaintances being a few of his exiled fellow- 444 Virtuosity in the Nineteejith Ccnticn*. countrymen, who were there. At length one evening a friend took him to a reception at the Rothschild's, and in this cultivated society he found appreciative listeners to his marvelous playing. From that time on he remained in Paris, only leaving it when his health made it neces- sary to visit the south of France. He very seldom appeared in public. His touch was not sufficiently strong to render his playing effective in a large hall. The whole of the Chopin genius is summed up in his early works, which he took with him on his visit to Vienna. All his later works are in some sense repeti- tions. The ideas and the treatment are new, but the princi- ples underlying are the same, and rarely, if ever, does he reach a higher flight than in some of these earlier works. His most celebrated innovation was that of the Noc- turne, a sentimental cantilena for the pianoforte, in which a somewhat Byronic sentiment is expressed in a high- bred and elegant style. "^The name '^nocturne" was not original with Chopin — the Dublin pianist, John Field, having published his first nocturnes in 1816. Field himself derived the name from the prayers of the Roman Church which are made between midnight and morning.^The name, therefore, implies something belong- ing to the night — mysterious, dreamy, poetic. In Field's there is little of this, aside from the name; the melodies are plain and the sentiments commonplace. With Chopin, however, it is entirely different. In some in- stances the treatment for the piano is very simple, as in the popular nocturne in E flat, already mentioned; but in other cases he exercises the utmost freedom, and very carefully trained fingers are needed to perform them suc- cessfully. This is the case, for example, in the beauti- ful nocturne in G, Opus 37, No. 2, where the passages in Virtuosity in the Nineteenth Century. 445 thirds and sixths are extremely trying; also in the very dramatic nocturne in C minor, Opus 48. Chopin's place in the Pantheon of the romantic school is that of the popularizer of pianoforte sentiment. His compositions, by whatever name they may be called, are essentially lyric pieces, songs, ballads and fanciful stories in rhyme. The subjects are frequently tender or sad, sometimes morbid — in short, Byronic. '^The treat- ment is always graceful and high-bred, and the contrasts strong. > The melodies are embroidered with a peculiar kind of Jioratura, which he invented himself, founded upon the Italian embellishment of that kind — a delicate efflorescence of melody, which, when perfectly done, is extremely pleasing. The names applied to the different compositions such as Ballade, Scherzo, Prelude, Rondo, Sonata, Impromptu, have only a remote reference to the nature of the piece. Occasionally the entire composition is morbid and unsatisfactory to a degree. These belong to the later period of his life, when he was in poor health. He is a woman's composer?^ In his strongest moments there is always an effeminate element. In this respect he is exactly opposite to Schumann and Beethoven, whose works, however delicate and refined, have always a manly strength. |Chopin made the most important modifications in the current way-of treating the piano.^ In this part of his activity he seemed to realize the pos- sibilities of the instrument, in the same way that Paga- nini had recognized those of the violin. His passages, while based upon those of Hummel, nevertheless pro- duced effects of which Hummel v/as totally incapable. Cliopin is the or iginat or of the extended arpeggio chord, of the chromatic sequences of the diminished sevenths with passmg notes, and cadenza forms derived from 446 Virtuosity in the Ninctccntli Century. them. He is thoroughly French in his views of " chang- ing notes," as, for instance, in the accompaniment to the impromptu in A flat, Opus 29. j His influence upon the general progress of musical development is to be traced in the works of Liszt, especially in the later pianoforte works, and in a large number of less gifted imitators, like Doehler. V. Aside from Wagner, the most remarkable figure of this century is that of Franz Liszt, who was born at Raiding, in Hungary, 181 1, and died at Bayreuth, 1886. His father, Adam Liszt, was an official in the imperial service, and a musical amateur, capable of instructing his son in piano playing. At the age of nine he made his first public appearance, with so much success that several noblemen guaranteed the money to enable him to pursue his studies for six years in Vienna. Here he became a pupil of Czerny, Salieri and Randhartinger. He made the acquaintance of Schubert, and upon one occasion played before Beethoven, who kissed him, with the prophecy that he would make his mark. His first appearance as a composer was in a set of variations on a waltz by Diabelli, the same for which Beethoven wrote the thirty-three variations, Opus 120. Liszt's variation was the twenty-fourth in the set to which Beethoven did not contribute. It was published in 1823, when he was twelve years old. The same year he went to Paris, his father -hoping to enter him at the Conservatory, in spite of his foreign origin; but Cherubini refused to receive him, so he studied with other composers. His operetta of '^Don Sanche'' was performed at the Academic Royale in 1825, and was well received. At this time he Virtuosity in the Nineteenth Century. 447 was in the height of his youthful success in Paris, tall, slender, with long hair and a most free and engaging countenance, with ready wit and unbounded tact. He performed marvels upon the piano, such as no one else could attempt. His repertory at this time seems to have consisted of pieces of the old school. In 1827 he lost his father, and being thrown upon his own resources, he began his concert tour. He appeared in London in 1827, his piece being the Hummel concerto. Three years later he played in London again, his number being the Weber Concertstiick. There was something weird and magnetic about his playing. He was very tall, about six feet two inches, slender, with piercing eyes, very long arms, but small hands ; he pla}ed without notes, and amid the most frightful difficulties of execution kept his eyes fixed upon this, that or the other person in the audience. He moved about at the piano very much in the exciting passages, not, apparently, on account of the difficulty of overcoming technical obstacles, but simply from innate fire and excitement. As for technical difficulties, they did not exist. Everything that the piano contained seemed to be at his service, and the only regret was that the instrument was not better able to respond to his de- mand. (/In the fortissimo passages his tone was immense, and his pianissimos were the most delicate whispers. In these his fingers glided over the keys with inconceivable lightness and speed, and the tone fell upon the ear with a delicate tracery with which no particular was lost by reason of speed or lightness. This wonderful control of the instrument stood him in equal stead with his own compositions, especially adapted to his own style of playing; or with the works of the old school, which he 448 Virtuosity in the Niiieteenth Coitury. transfigured as they had never been played before ; or the last sonatas of Beethoven, which at that time were a sealed book to most musicians. These, indeed, he did not play in public, but in private. The essential nov- elties of the Liszt technique were the bravoura cadenzas. The other sensational features, such as carrying the melody in the middle range of the piano with surround- ing embroidery, the rapid runs and the extravagant climaxes, were all more or less common to the three representative virtuoso piano writers of this epoch — Liszt, Chopin and Thalberg. A careful study of all the circumstances and influences surrounding Liszt at the time, leads to the conclusion that his ideas of the possibilities of the pianoforte were matured very gradually, not reaching their complete expression in the operatic fantasias before about 1834 or 1835. His early appearances were in pieces of the old school, and there is nothing more to be found in contem- porary accounts of his playing than admiration for its superior fire and delicacy. Upon the appearance of Paganini, however, this was changed. The temporary eclipse, which this brilliant apparition made of the ris- ing Liszt, led him to new studies in original directions. Thus arose the transcriptions of the Paganini caprices in 1832, and the composition of his own ' ' Studies for Trans- cendent Execution," in the same or the following year. Farther sensational improvements were probably the result of the Thalberg contest in Paris during 1835. Liszt's influence may be inferred from such incidents as the following: In 1839 there was a movement on foot to erect a monument to Beethoven at Bonn, but after some months' solicitation the committee found it impos- sible to realize the desired sum, or anything approaching Virtuosity in the Niyietccnth Century. 449 It. Whereupon Liszt wrote them to give themselves no further uneasiness, for he himself would be responsible for the entire amount, about $10,000. This large sum he raised by his own exertions, and paid over, and a monument was unveiled with brilliant ceremonies in 1845. One of the performances upon that occasion was that of the Beethoven fifth concerto, which Liszt himself played. Concerning this memorable performance Berlioz himself writes: ''The piano concerto in E flat is generally known for one of the better productions of Beethoven. The first movement and the Adagio, above all, are of incom- parable beauty. To say that Liszt played it, and that he played it in a fashion grand, fine, poetic, yet always faithful, is to make a veritable pleonasm, and there was a tumult of applause, a sound of trumpets, and fanfares of the orchestra, which must have been heard far beyond the limits of the hall. Liszt immediately afterward mounted the desk of the conductor to direct the perform- ance of the symphony in C minor, which he made us hear as Beethoven wrote it, including the entire scherzo, with- out the abridgment, as we have so long been accustomed to hear at the Conservatory at Paris; and the finale, with the repeat indicated by Beethoven. I have always had such confidence in the taste of the correctors of the great masters that I was very much surprised to find the symphony in C minor still more beautiful when executed entirely than when corrected. It was necessary to go to Bonn to make this discovery." In 1S49 a new epoch was opened in the history of this remarkable man. The grand duke of Weimar invited him to assume the direction of his musical establishment, including the opera. The salary was absurdly small — $800 or $1,000 a year. This, however, cut no figure in Liszt's 450 Vifiuosity in the Nineteenth Century. mind, for he had always been singularly open-handed, yet at same time prudent. From his successful concert tours he had put by funds, 20,000 francs for his aged mother, and 20,000 francs for each of the three children he had by the Countess D'Agoult (known in literature as Daniel Stern), and he considered that the position would afford him an opportunity of developing his own talent for composition, and at the same time of affording a hearing for important new w^orks, which, on account of their novelty and originality, were impossible of perform- ance in the theaters of large cities. The repertory of the Weimar opera, from this time on, was most extraordinary. Here were produced for the first time Wagner's " Flying Dutchman," ^'Tannhduser'^ and ''Lohengrin,'^ '' Be?ive- nuto Cellini,^' of Berlioz, Schumann's ''Geuovera'' and ''Mannfred,'' and Schubert's ''Alfonso and Estrella." Here were produced, also, the best of the operas of pre- vious generations. Every master work of this sort Liszt revised with the greatest care, giving endless patience to every detail, and supplementing the resources of the theater, when insufficient, by "guests" from the great operas in the capital. Thus the musical establishment at Weimar became a sort of Mecca, to which all the musicians of the world gathered, especially the young and energetic in the pursuit of knowledge, and creative artists seeking a hearing or fresh inspiration. From an artistic standpoint, nothing more beautiful than the life of Liszt at Weimar could be desired. Besides these operatic performances and his symphony concerts, he gathered about him a succession of young virtuosi pian- ists. These had lessons, more or less formally, some of them for many years. Liszt never received money for lessons, and took no pupils but those whom he regarded Virtuosity in the Nineteenth Century. 451 as promising, or who were personally attractive to him- self. About 1850 the American, Dr. William Mason, was there, and for two years following. The class at this time contained the well known names of Rubinstein, Carl Klindworth, Pruckner, Tausig, Joachim Raff, and Hans Von Billow. From this time on there is scarcely a concert pianist in the world who did not spend a few months or longer with Liszt at Weimar. Nor did his influence stop here. He produced a constant succession of important works, and conducted concerts and festivals in Hungary, and in different parts of German}' and France. Everywhere his inspiring presence and his keen insight were prized above all ordinary resources. y^ There is not space here to sketch in detail liis sin- gular and trying relations to that self-conscious genius, Wagner, who, when absconding to Zurich, sent the score of ''Lohengrin'' to Liszt. It can be imagined with what force the elevated and noble beauty of this epoch-marking work appealed to a genius so sensitive as Liszt. He not only produced the opera with great care, but prepared the public for it by means of extended articles in impor- tant journals in Leipsic. Berlin and Paris. From this time on, Liszt became the good angel of Wagner. There are few records in the annals of music more creditable than the letters of Liszt to Wagner. He took charge of his business in Germany, exercised his wholly unique and commanding influence to secure performances of Wag- ner's operas, sent him money out of his own purse, and secured some from his friends. More than this, he greeted every new work of Wagner's with an apprecia- tion as generous and noble as it was intelligent and fine. About 1852 Liszt commenced his symphonic poems. In these he avails himself of two of W^agner's sugges- 452 Virtuosity in the Nineteenth Century. tions. Much is made of the leading motive, and the orchestration is handled in a sonorous and brilliant man- ner, which Berlioz and Wagner first introduced. The works are very effective and original. Certain ones of them have become almost classic, like "The Preludes" and ''Tasso.'^ He also wrote a number of large choral works, among them his " Legend of the Holy Elizabeth," the ''Graner Mass," etc. Fig-. 83. LISZT AS ABBE. [Grove] There is hardly a province of musical composition in which Liszt did not distinguish himself. The orchestral compositions number about twenty. There are several important arrangements, such as Schubert marches, Schubert's songs, '^ Rakoczy March," and a variety of arrangements for pianoforte and orchestra, including two Virfiiositr ill the Nineteenth CcntiD-y. 453 concertos, the Weber Polacca in E, and the Schubert fantasia. The pianoforte compositions are extremely numerous. Of the ori{' poser his works are very uneven, many of the ideas and short passages being Later Composers and Performers. 507 beautiful, while the elaborations are rather labored and uninspired. In his later years he has almost entirely lost his sight. In America Rubinstein's greatest suc- cesses were in the compositions of Schumann, and in ihe later works of Beethoven. Yet another distinguished virtuoso of the school of Chopin and Liszt was Hans Guido von Biilow (1830- ), born at Dresden. Biilow was one of the disciples of Liszt at Weimar, where he practiced with the utmost diligence, his hands having originally been rather unpli- able. He was at first intended for the profession of the law, but upon hearing '' Lohengrin'' at Weimar, in 1850, he threw over jurisprudence and went to Zurich to con- sult Wagner. The next year he was back with Liszt, and his first concert tours were made in 1853. Since this time he has been teacher in some of the most promi- nent conservatories, an orchestral director in the most important places, such as Munich, where he brought out the '' Meistersinger'' and ''Tristan and Isolde" for the first time, and at Berlin and Meiningen. As a composer Biilow is dry and unsympathetic, but as a pianist extremely accurate and intelligent, though not especially emotional. As an orchestral director he is probably the first of the present time, although -his irascibility is such that he rarely continues long in the same position. He plays upon the orchestra just as he does upon the piano, shading everything, bringing out a motive here and a motive there, and transforming the performance from the conventional indifference of an established orchestra to the earnest and sympathetic interpretation of a quartette party com- posed of first-class players. His memory is prodigious. Among other remarkable achievements of his is that of conducting the '• Meistersingcr'' (perhaps the most 508 Later Composers and Performers. elaborate score in existence) entirely without notes, giving every player his cue to come in after his rests. He was married originally to Cosima, daughter of Liszt, who afterward left him and became the w^ife of Wagner. One of the most cultivated pianists and composers of the present time is Carl Reinecke, who was born at Altona in Denmark in 1827, and was educated by his father. In 1851 Hiller secured for him the professorship of piano and counterpoint in the Conservatory of Cologne, and in i860 he became the conductor of the Gewatid- haus concerts in Leipsic, and professor of composition in the Conservatory, in which position he has remained ever since. He has been a very prolific composer in almost all departments, in a style somewhat resembling that of Mendelssohn, but with an element of originality. His concerto in F sharp for the pianoforte is very highly esteemed in Europe, but perhaps, upon the whole, his most fortunate compositions are those for children. Of these he has written a very large number, both songs and piano pieces. They are poetic and refined, and at the same time pleasing to the childish mind. As already stated at the outset of this division of the narrative, the cultivation of music has become so gen- eral during the present century, and the number of good composers and performers has so greatly increased as to render it practically impossible to decide which ones of the prominent names are likely to be permanent addi- tions to the roll of art; and which ones belong to the ephemera, of which every generation produces its abund- ant list. The limits practicable having been reached at this point, many desirable names are unavoidably omitted. These must be studied in publications devoted to current biography. I is[ E) E ix: . PAGE. "Abel" 351 " Abou Hassan " 408 Academie de Musique 238 Adam, 491 Adam de la Halle 122 ^Bschylus 55 •• Africaine" 414 ■• Ag-nes von Hohenstaufen " 479 -Aida" 485 • Alceste '* 333 " Alcidor" 479 •■ Allg-emeine Musicalische Zei- tunq-'' 464 Amati ....201 Ambrosian Scales ,,,, . . .131 Ang-lo-Saxon Harp 104 Angrlo-Sa.xons, Music among % •Anna Boletia" 482 Antiquity, Music in 23 Apprentice Periods of Music 22 Arabs and Saracens 109 ■• Arianna*' 224 Aristophanes 57 Aristotle 58,65 Aristo.xenus 58 Arkadelt 165 Art. Conditions of Its Develop- ment 18 Art Forms. Qualities of 20 " Ascanio " 494 Ass3-rian Harps 45 Assyrians, Music among 46 Auber 488 Aurelian 139 Bach 265, 468 Bach as Melodist 272 Bach, Emanuel 282 Banjo, Ancient 46 Bar in Vocal Music 186 Bardi, Count of. 221 Bards 89 Barytone 1% "Basilius" 242 Bayreuth 425 " Beatrice and Benedict " 435 Bede 139 Beethoven ... .305, 316, 319, 320, 355, 499 Bellini 482 Bellows Bag-s in Old Organs 206 Bennett 501 Berger 361 Berlioz 432 Berlioz and Mendelssohn 434 Bizet 495 Blondel 123 Blow, Dr. John 354 Boethius 135 Boieldieu 343 Boito 486 PAGE. Bologna, Mozart at 295 Books Published 220 Boscherville Sculptures 208 Brahms 498 Braitffwaite's Musicians for an Earl's Household 213 Breton Song 88 Bruce's Harpers 30 Bruch 500 Bulow 423, 507 Buxtehude 254 " Caliph de Bagdad " 344 "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voy- age" 457 Calzabigi 333 Cambert 236 " Cantilena of St. Eulalie " 116 Canzone 249 Carissimi 245 Cassiodorus 137 Cavalli 226, 231 " Caverne, La" 342 Celts 87 Centers of Music,17th Century. ..220 Cesti 226 Chansons de Geste 115 " Cheval de Bronze, Le " 490 China 73 Chittarone 193 \ Chopin ". 441 Choral Song 53 Choral Works of Bach 268 I Chromatic Keyboards 205 j Church Influence 128 I Cithara- 64 j Clementi 355,357 Concerto 249 "Concertstiick" 411 I Corelli 255 "Corpse Fantasia" 383 Council of Trent 174 Cramer 360 Cremona 198 "Crociato, II" 141 "Crown Diamonds " 490 Crwth 24,106 Cvpriano de Rore 172 "Dafne" 222 " Damnation of Faust " 434 Delibes 494 " Devil's Trill " 366 " Devin du Village " 339 Didactic of Music 134 " Dido and .(Eneas " 349 "Dinorah" 415 " Don Giovanni " 300 Donizetti 482 "Don Sanche" 446 I Drama, Ancient 54,55 309 INDEX - Continued. Druids 89 Dufay 158 Dussek 357 Dusseldorf, Mendelssohn 459 Dvonik 503 Egyptians, Early 25 Elements of Music 15 '• Eliiah" 461 Encrlish Round 100 " Entfiihrung- aus dem Serail ". ..297 "Esther," Hiindel 277 Eoud 113 Epics, French Mediaeval 115 " Erl King, The" 384 '• Ernani" 485 " Eurvanthe" , 409 " Eve'" 493 "Faust," Berlioz 434 " Faust," Gounod 491 " Faust," Schumann 474 "Faust," Spohr 369 "Fernand Cortez" 478 F 6tis, on the Celts 90 Field 356 Fleurettes 157 Flute, Eg-yptian 28 Flute, Greek 64 Flute, Hebrew „ 42 ForW, Principles of 20 "Fra Diavolo" ^v490 Franco of Cologne 14^, l£6. 186 Franco of Paris 147, 157 Frauenlob ^..-y 125 French Opera, Orig-inof 225 French Tenacity' of Vernacular.. 239 Frescobaldi 252 Fugue 151, 262, 263, 270 Fug-ue, Chromatic. 271 Gade 497 '' Gioconda, La " 487 "God and Nature" 413 Grieff 500 " Harmony and Meter" 4f)0 " Harold in Italy " 434 Heller 504 Henselt 504 Herold 490 Hiller 505 " Huron, Le " 341 India, Music in 70 India, Musical Drama in 73 Individualism 374 Instrumental Music 249 Instruments, Relation to Prog- ress 20 '■ Iphig-enie" 335 Ireland, Music in 95 Irish Harp 97 Iron Frame 401 Iron Tension Bar 399 Isidore, of Seville 138 " Ismene" .242 Italian School of Singing- 228 Japanese 77 PAGE. " Jean de Paris " 344 " Jephthah," Carissimi 245 " Jessonda" 369 Jomelli 346 Josquin 163 Jubal 43 "Judith" 351 Kerl 253 Kindergarten, Egyptian 39 King Arthur 98 King David Playing 24 Kinnor 42 Klauser, " Septonnate " 17 Ko-ko 77 " Kreisleriana " 471 Kuhnau 354 "Lakm6" 494 Lalo 495 Landseer Portrait of Paganini. .431 Lassi .167 Leading Motive 410 " L'Elisir d'Amore" 482 L6onin 153 Liszt 446,447 Liszt and "Lohengrin" 418 Liszt and the Later Sonatas of Beethoven 323 Liszt. Pupils of 451 Liszt's Appearance 454 Litolff 504 " Lucia " 482 Lulli 236 Luther 175 Lyre, Egyptian 33 Lyre, Greek 64 L\'ric Element in Music 263 Macfarren 501 Mackenzie 503 Macrobus 134 Madrigal 215 Madrigal in Opera.. . ." 217 Magadis 64 " Marion Delorme" 487 Martinus Capella 135 "Marriage of Jeannette" 493 Mask.... 225 Mason's Enthusiasm for Schu- mann 475 " Massaniello" 489 Masse 492^ Massenet 493 Mediaeval Violins 195 M^hul 342 " Mefistofele" 486 " Meistersinger, Die" 423 Mendelssohn 455 Mendelssohn on Berlioz 434 Mendelssohn's Relation to Schu- beft 377 " M^sse Solennelle," Rossini 481 Metastasio 333 Meyerbeer 411 " Mignon" * 495 Minnesingers, 123 510 INDEX— Continued. Minstrels of the North 87 Miracle Plays 244 "Mireille" 491 Mixtures in Old Organs 207 Modes, Gr^k 61 "Moise" 481 Monody and Homophony 198 Monsig-ny 339 Monte verde ^24 — '' Mors et Vita " 492 Moscheles 362 Moscheles with Mendelssohn 455 Moszkowsky 503 Motette 154 Mozart 299 Mozart as an Operatic Force 336 Mozart on Jomelli 346 Naples Schools 169 "Nero " 486 Neumae 181 Nicode. 503 "Nieblung's Ring- " 420 " Norma " 483 Notation 179 Notation, Roman 189 '' Nurmahal," 1822 479 "Oberon" 409 Odon 143 Okefrheni 162 Old French School 153 Opecarr: 223^ Opera in Germany and France, .,235 ' Opera in 16th Century 327 Opera and-Drama 427 Opera, Future of 427 Oratorio 22;Jc2it< Oratofio \n Costume 'ISO l Orchestic, Greek 56J: Orchestra at End of 17th Cen- -7] tury 256 Orchestra, Corelli's 255 Orchestra, Monteverde's 224 Org-an, Early Form 202 Org-an, Portable 204 Organ at Winchester 98 Organ Music Notation 251 | Organ um 142 \ Orlando di Lassus 166 ' "Orpheus," Gluck's 333 "Otello" 485 i " Otello," 1816 479 : Pachelbel 253 ! Paganini 428 Paisiello 347 Palestrina 173 Parish-Alvars 439 "Parsifal" 426 ; Passions, Bach 269 l Patriotic Use of Music 52 I Pentatonic Scales 74 i People's Song 263 Perceptions of Tone 85 Pergolesi 345 P6rotin 153 PAGE. Perrin, the Abbe 326 Petrucci 217 Phantasiestiicke, Schumann 469 Philippe de Vitry 157 Phillidor 339 Piccini 347 Pindar, Ode of 69 Pizzicati 224 Plato 67 Pollini 439 " Polliodoro," Graun 328 " Polveucte" 491 Ponchielli 487 Popular Taste for Music 213 Popularity in 19th Century . . .373, 379 Polyphonic Schools of Italy 168 Polyphony as an Art Form 151 Porpora 228 "Postilion de Lonjumeau, Le"..491 " Preaux Clercs, Le" 490 ■' Promessi Sposi, I " 487 " Prophete " 414 Ptolemy 61 Pupils of Liszt 452 Purcell 34v " Puritan i, I " 483 " Pygmalion " 339 Pythagoras >.^ 59 Rameau 336 Ratios, Greek Tetrachord 61 Ravanastron 72 Rebec 196 "■ Redemption, The " 492 Reinecke 508 Reinken 254 Reinmar 127 Remi 139 " Representative Style" 223 " Requiem," Berlioz 434 " Requiem," Mozart 303 " Rheingeld, Das " 420 Rhythm of Bach 271 Rh^-thmic Development 188 Ricerari 249 " Rienzi" 416 Rinuccini 222 " Robert le Diable " 414 " Robin and Marian " 236 Roman Notation 180 Romantic, The 373 " Romilda e Constanza " 413 Rondo 155 Rossini 479 Rota 150 Rousseau 338 " Rubezahl " 408 Rubinstein 505 Saint-Saens 493 Santir 114 Saracens 109 Saracens, Instruments of 112 " Sardanapolis" 433 Scales, Greek 60 Scales, Ambrosian 129, 130 511 INDEX— Conchuicd. PAGE. Scandinavians, Music among 99 Scarlatti, A 227,232 Scarlatti, D 275, 353 Scheldt 250 Schein 251 School of Munich 166 Schools of the Netherlands 160 Schubert 376, 381 Schulhoff 504 Schumann 464-477 Schiiiz and " Daf ne " 239 Scotch Melody 108 *• Septonnate " IT " Serva Padrona, La" 344 "Siegfiied" 421 Socrates 56 Sonata Form 264^ Sonatas, Bach So Sonatas, Beethoven 309, 319, 322 Sonatas, Corelli 2^5 Sonatas, Haydn 288,317 Sonatas, Weber 410 "■ Song of Roland " 118 " Sbng of the Harper " 36 Song-s of Schubert 384 Songs of Schumann 468 Songs of Troubadours 121 " Songs without Words " 458 " Sonnambula, La " 482 Spinet 393, 396 Spohr 3f>6 Spontini 478 Staff 185 Steinway 402 St. Ambrose 129 St. Mark's 133 "St. Paul" 459 " Sumer is Icumen in " 101 Svensden 500 Svvelinck 250 "Symphoniae Sacrae" 247 Symphonies, Beethoven 319 Symphonies, Haydn 288 Symphonies, Mendelssohn 4<>4 Symphonies, Schumann 474 Symphon v 316 "Tancredi" 479 " Tannbauser "... 418 .'AGE. Tartini 36^ Tausig 505 Technique, Modern 436, 446 Terpander 53 Thalberg 438 Thales 52 Theaters in Venice 226 Thematic Work, Schumann.. 473 Theory, India 70 Theory. Mediaeval 134, 147 Thomas, Ambroise : . . .49b Tinctor 163 Thomaschek 359 "Tom Jones" 339 Tonality 84 Tone Perceptions 17, 55 " Traviata, La " 485 "Triads of Britain " 93 "Tristan and Isolde " 423 Troubadours 121 "Trovatore. 11 " 485 Tschaikowsky 499 Verdi 483 "Vestale, La" 478 Vina 71 Viol da Gamba 164 Violin Making 195 Violin, Stradivarius 199 Virtuosity 378 Virtuoso Element, 19th Century.. 428 Vitry, Philippe de 157 Wagner 416 Wagner and Berlioz 434 Wagner, "Die Walkiire" 420 Weber 406 Weber as Pianist 410,437 Weber's Influence on Piano Plav- ing '..410 Weimar, Liszt at 449 Welsh, Music of 93 Wieck 467 Wilhelm, Count, Troubadour. .. .121 Willaert, Adrien 171 Winchester, Organ at 98 "Zampa" 490 Zarlino 171, 257 Zelter 457 Zingarelli 348 512 f^ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES This book is due on the lai^^^te Ittjuifj^tt below. tD-URL APR 21 fJEi'^LlVAL iViAY ■ RENEWAL J^^ ^ 'f^ra BOOK BOX M^^2 6REC8 I9.U 11966 NOV 5^7^ ^11"' v^\,^ ji m' ^ft \^' «^^^ ^ ^^^ ^.9 »«iN0Vi/#^j88 ^,|WtOG 141987 QL^APR' ft' 1990 a^iS 1S30 ,ru Book Slip — Series 4280 Form L-f»-20/*(-8, ACi w2-a 1355 1 / «i taroL