diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:48:41 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:48:41 -0700 |
| commit | 2d19ca7f480855de3e14b62d33add690d4d1289c (patch) | |
| tree | d38deac03013f8338a8c9029fbbbaf84cec7538e | |
365 files changed, 32095 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16351-8.txt b/16351-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..732a2c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8934 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Critical & Historical Essays, by Edward MacDowell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Critical & Historical Essays + Lectures delivered at Columbia University + +Author: Edward MacDowell + +Editor: W. J. Baltzell + +Release Date: July 24, 2005 [EBook #16351] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRITICAL & HISTORICAL ESSAYS *** + + + + +Produced by David Newman, Daniel Emerson Griffith and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + + +Italic text is represented by _underscores_ around the text. + +Footnotes in the original text were all marked with asterisks: +I have renumbered these and represented them as [01] through [15]. + +All other text enclosed between square brackets represents or +describes the illustrations (for which see the HTML edition): + +Pitches: [c, ... c ... a b c' (middle-C) d' e' ... c'' ... c'''] + +Round brackets: when around a single note these represent a note +in the extract which was bracketed or otherwise highlighted. +When around two or more notes, they represent a slur or beam. + +Braces: surround simultaneous notes in a chord {a c' e'} + +Accidentals: + +[f++] = F double-sharp +[a+] = A sharp +[c=] = C natural +[e-] = E flat +[d--] = D double-flat + +In the main text, accidentals are written out in full, as +[natural], A[flat], G[sharp]. One table uses [#] for [sharp]. + +Accents and marcato: denoted by > and ^ before a note. + +Time signatures: [4/4], [6/8], etc. + +[C] or [C/4] = C-shaped [4/4] time. +[C|] or [C/2] = C-shaped [2/2] time. +[O] = A circle +[O.] = A circle with a dot in the center +[C.] = A broken circle (C-shaped) with a dot in the center + +[G:] = Treble clef ([G8:] = Treble clef 8va bassa) +[F:] = Bass clef ([F8:] = Bass clef 8va bassa) + +Rhythms (A trailing . represents a dotted note): + +[L] = Longa +[B] = Brevis +[S] = Semibrevis +[1] = Whole-note (Semibreve) +[2] = Half-note (Minim) +[4] = Quarter-note (Crotchet) +[8] = Eighth-note (Quaver) +[16] = Sixteenth-note (Semiquaver) + +Lyrics and Labels: words aligned with the notes begin [W: ...] + +Breves and macrons, used to denote short and long stresses in +poetry are denoted ['] and [-] respectively. + +[|] = Bar (Bar line) +[<] = Crescendo hairpin +[x] = small cross +[\] = 45 degree downstroke +[/] = 45 degree upstroke +[/\] = large circumflex shape +[O|] = a circle bisected by a vertical line protruding both ways +[Gamma] = The Greek capital gamma +[mid-dot] = a dot at the height of a hyphen +[over-dot] = a single dot over the following letter +[Over-slur] = a frown-shaped curved line +[Under-slur] = a smile-shaped curved line (breve) +[reverse-apostrophe] = the mirror image of a closing quote +[Upper Mordent] = an upper mordent: /\/\/ with thick downstrokes +[Crenellation] = horizontals, low, high, low, connected by verticals +[Podium] = [Crenellation] with the third horizontal at half-height +[Step] = horizontal, vertical, horizontal, vertical, ascending +[Turn] = a turn (~) + +[Figure 01] = extract available as a MIDI file (figure01.mid). +[Illustration] = all other illustrations. + +For example, here's a D minor scale set to words: + +[G: d' e' (f' g') a' b-' (c+'' d'')] +[W: One, two, three, four, five, six. ] + +And a simple rhythmic example: + +[3/4: 4 4 8 8 | 8. 16 2] = [- - ' ' - ' -] + + + + +CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS + +Lectures delivered at Columbia University + +BY EDWARD MACDOWELL + +EDITED BY W.J. BALTZELL + + +LONDON + + ELKIN & CO., LTD., + 8 & 10 BEAK STREET, + REGENT STREET, W. + + CONSTABLE & CO., LTD., + 10 ORANGE STREET, + LEICESTER SQUARE, W.C. + +BOSTON, U.S.A., ARTHUR P. SCHMIDT + +COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY ARTHUR P. SCHMIDT + +A.P.S. 9384 + +Stanhope Press + +F.H. GILSON COMPANY +BOSTON, U.S.A. + + + + +PREFACE + + +The present work places before the public a phase of the +professional activity of Edward MacDowell quite different from +that through which his name became a household word in musical +circles, that is, his work as a composer. In the chapters +that follow we become acquainted with him in the capacity of +a writer on phases of the history and aesthetics of music. + +It was in 1896 that the authorities of Columbia University +offered to him the newly created Chair of Music, for which he +had been strongly recommended as one of the leading composers +of America. After much thought he accepted the position, and +entered upon his duties with the hope of accomplishing much for +his art in the favorable environment which he fully expected +to find. The aim of the instruction, as he planned it, was: +"First, to teach music scientifically and technically, with a +view to training musicians who shall be competent to teach and +compose. Second, to treat music historically and aesthetically +as an element of liberal culture." In carrying out his plans he +conducted a course, which, while "outlining the purely technical +side of music," was intended to give a "general idea of music +from its historical and aesthetic side." Supplementing this, +as an advanced course, he also gave one which took up the +development of musical forms, piano music, modern orchestration +and symphonic forms, impressionism, the relationship of music +to the other arts, with much other material necessary to form +an adequate basis for music criticism. + +It is a matter for sincere regret that Mr. MacDowell put in +permanent form only a portion of the lectures prepared for +the two courses just mentioned. While some were read from +manuscript, others were given from notes and illustrated with +musical quotations. This was the case, very largely, with +the lectures prepared for the advanced course, which included +extremely valuable and individual treatment of the subject of +the piano, its literature and composers, modern music, etc. + +A point of view which the lecturer brought to bear upon his +subject was that of a composer to whom there were no secrets +as to the processes by which music is made. It was possible +for him to enter into the spirit in which the composers both +of the earlier and later periods conceived their works, and +to value the completed compositions according to the way in +which he found that they had followed the canons of the best +and purest art. It is this unique attitude which makes the +lectures so valuable to the musician as well as to the student. + +The Editor would also call attention to the intellectual +qualities of Mr. MacDowell, which determined his attitude +toward any subject. He was a poet who chose to express himself +through the medium of music rather than in some other way. For +example, he had great natural facility in the use of the +pencil and the brush, and was strongly advised to take up +painting as a career. The volume of his poetical writings, +issued several years ago, is proof of his power of expression +in verse and lyric forms. Above these and animating them +were what Mr. Lawrence Gilman terms "his uncommon faculties +of vision and imagination." What he thought, what he said, +what he wrote, was determined by the poet's point of view, +and this is evident on nearly every page of these lectures. + +He was a wide reader, one who, from natural bent, dipped into +the curious and out-of-the-way corners of literature, as will +be noticed in his references to other works in the course +of the lectures, particularly to Rowbotham's picturesque and +fascinating story of the formative period of music. Withal he +was always in touch with contemporary affairs. With the true +outlook of the poet he was fearless, individual, and even +radical in his views. This spirit, as indicated before, he +carried into his lectures, for he demanded of his pupils that +above all they should be prepared to do their own thinking and +reach their own conclusions. He was accustomed to say that we +need in the United States, a public that shall be independent +in its judgment on art and art products, that shall not be tied +down to verdicts based on tradition and convention, but shall be +prepared to reach conclusions through knowledge and sincerity. + +That these lectures may aid in this splendid educational +purpose is the wish of those who are responsible for placing +them before the public. + + W.J. BALTZELL. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAP. PAGE + + I. THE ORIGIN OF MUSIC 1 + II. ORIGIN OF SONG VS. ORIGIN OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC 16 + III. THE MUSIC OF THE HEBREWS AND THE HINDUS 32 + IV. THE MUSIC OF THE EGYPTIANS, ASSYRIANS AND CHINESE 42 + V. THE MUSIC OF THE CHINESE (continued) 54 + VI. THE MUSIC OF GREECE 69 + VII. THE MUSIC OF THE ROMANS--THE EARLY CHURCH 90 + VIII. FORMATION OF THE SCALE--NOTATION 106 + IX. THE SYSTEMS OF HUCBALD AND GUIDO + D'AREZZO--THE BEGINNING OF COUNTERPOINT 122 + X. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS--THEIR HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 132 + XI. FOLK-SONG AND ITS RELATION TO NATIONALISM IN MUSIC 141 + XII. THE TROUBADOURS, MINNESINGERS AND MASTERSINGERS 158 + XIII. EARLY INSTRUMENTAL FORMS 175 + XIV. THE MERGING OF THE SUITE INTO THE SONATA 188 + XV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC 199 + XVI. THE MYSTERY AND MIRACLE PLAY 205 + XVII. OPERA 210 +XVIII. OPERA (continued) 224 + XIX. ON THE LIVES AND ART PRINCIPLES OF SOME SEVENTEENTH + AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY COMPOSERS 236 + XX. DECLAMATION IN MUSIC 254 + XXI. SUGGESTION IN MUSIC 261 + + + + +CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS + + +I + +THE ORIGIN OF MUSIC + + +Darwin's theory that music had its origin "in the sounds +made by the half-human progenitors of man during the season +of courtship" seems for many reasons to be inadequate and +untenable. A much more plausible explanation, it seems to me, is +to be found in the theory of Theophrastus, in which the origin +of music is attributed to the whole range of human emotion. + +When an animal utters a cry of joy or pain it expresses its +emotions in more or less definite tones; and at some remote +period of the earth's history all primeval mankind must have +expressed its emotions in much the same manner. When this +inarticulate speech developed into the use of certain sounds as +symbols for emotions--emotions that otherwise would have been +expressed by the natural sounds occasioned by them--then we have +the beginnings of speech as distinguished from music, which +is still the universal language. In other words, intellectual +development begins with articulate speech, leaving music for +the expression of the emotions. + +To symbolize the sounds used to express emotion, if I may so +put it, is to weaken that expression, and it would naturally +be the strongest emotion that would first feel the inadequacy +of the new-found speech. Now what is mankind's strongest +emotion? Even in the nineteenth century Goethe could say, "'Tis +fear that constitutes the god-like in man." Certainly before +the Christian era the soul of mankind had its roots in fear. +In our superstition we were like children beneath a great tree +of which the upper part was as a vague and fascinating mystery, +but the roots holding it firmly to the ground were tangible, +palpable facts. We feared--we knew not what. Love was human, +all the other emotions were human; fear alone was indefinable. + +The primeval savage, looking at the world subjectively, was +merely part of it. He might love, hate, threaten, kill, if he +willed; every other creature could do the same. But the wind +was a great spirit to him; lightning and thunder threatened him +as they did the rest of the world; the flood would destroy him +as ruthlessly as it tore the trees asunder. The elements were +animate powers that had nothing in common with him; for what +the intellect cannot explain the imagination magnifies. + +Fear, then, was the strongest emotion. Therefore auxiliary aids +to express and cause fear were necessary when the speech symbols +for fear, drifting further and further away from expressing the +actual thing, became words, and words were inadequate to express +and cause fear. In that vague groping for sound symbols which +would cause and express fear far better than mere words, we +have the beginning of what is gradually to develop into music. + +We all know that savage nations accompany their dances by +striking one object with another, sometimes by a clanking of +stones, the pounding of wood, or perhaps the clashing of stone +spearheads against wooden shields (a custom which extended until +the time when shields and spears were discarded), meaning thus +to express something that words cannot. This meaning changed +naturally from its original one of being the simple expression +of fear to that of welcoming a chieftain; and, if one wishes +to push the theory to excess, we may still see a shadowy +reminiscence of it in the manner in which the violinists of +an orchestra applaud an honoured guest--perchance some famous +virtuoso--at one of our symphony concerts by striking the +backs of their violins with their bows. + +To go back to the savages. While this clashing of one object +against another could not be called the beginning of music, and +while it could not be said to originate a musical instrument, +it did, nevertheless, bring into existence music's greatest +prop, rhythm, an ally without which music would seem to be +impossible. It is hardly necessary to go into this point in +detail. Suffice it to say that the sense of rhythm is highly +developed even among those savage tribes which stand the +lowest in the scale of civilization to-day, for instance, +the Andaman Islanders, of whom I shall speak later; the same +may be said of the Tierra del Fuegians and the now extinct +aborigines of Tasmania; it is the same with the Semangs of +the Malay Peninsula, the Ajitas of the Philippines, and the +savages inhabiting the interior of Borneo. + +As I have said, this more or less rhythmic clanking of stones +together, the striking of wooden paddles against the side of +a canoe, or the clashing of stone spearheads against wooden +shields, could not constitute the first musical instrument. But +when some savage first struck a hollow tree and found that +it gave forth a sound peculiar to itself, when he found a +hollow log and filled up the open ends, first with wood, +and then--possibly getting the idea from his hide-covered +shield--stretched skins across the two open ends, then he had +completed the first musical instrument known to man, namely, +the drum. And such as it was then, so is it now, with but +few modifications. + +Up to this point it is reasonable to assume that primeval man +looked upon the world purely subjectively. He considered himself +merely a unit in the world, and felt on a plane with the other +creatures inhabiting it. But from the moment he had invented the +first musical instrument, the drum, he had created something +outside of nature, a voice that to himself and to all other +living creatures was intangible, an idol that spoke when it +was touched, something that he could call into life, something +that shared the supernatural in common with the elements. A +God had come to live with man, and thus was unfolded the +first leaf in that noble tree of life which we call religion. +Man now began to feel himself something apart from the world, +and to look at it objectively instead of subjectively. + +To treat primitive mankind as a type, to put it under one head, +to make one theorem cover all mankind, as it were, seems almost +an unwarranted boldness. But I think it is warranted when we +consider that, aside from language, music is the very first +sign of the dawn of civilization. There is even the most +convincingly direct testimony in its favour. For instance: + +In the Bay of Bengal, about six hundred miles from the Hoogly +mouth of the Ganges, lie the Andaman Islands. The savages +inhabiting these islands have the unenviable reputation +of being, in common with several other tribes, the nearest +approach to primeval man in existence. These islands and their +inhabitants have been known and feared since time immemorial; +our old friend Sinbad the Sailor, of "Arabian Nights" fame, +undoubtedly touched there on one of his voyages. These savages +have no religion whatever, except the vaguest superstition, +in other words, fear, and they have no musical instruments +of any kind. They have reached only the _rhythm_ stage, and +accompany such dances as they have by clapping their hands +or by stamping on the ground. Let us now look to Patagonia, +some thousands of miles distant. The Tierra del Fuegians have +precisely the same characteristics, no religion, and no musical +instruments of any kind. Retracing our steps to the Antipodes +we find among the Weddahs or "wild hunters" of Ceylon exactly +the same state of things. The same description applies without +distinction equally well to the natives in the interior of +Borneo, to the Semangs of the Malay Peninsula, and to the now +extinct aborigines of Tasmania. According to Virchow their +dance is demon worship of a purely anthropomorphic character; +no musical instrument of any kind was known to them. Even +the simple expression of emotions by the voice, which we have +seen is its most primitive medium, has not been replaced to +any extent among these races since their discovery of speech, +for the Tierra del Fuegians, Andamans, and Weddahs have but +one sound to represent emotion, namely, a cry to express joy; +having no other means for the expression of sorrow, they paint +themselves when mourning. + +It is granted that all this, in itself, is not conclusive; +but it will be found that no matter in what wilderness one +may hear of a savage beating a drum, there also will be a +well-defined religion. + +Proofs of the theory that the drum antedates all other musical +instruments are to be found on every hand. For wherever in the +anthropological history of the world we hear of the trumpet, +horn, flute, or other instrument of the pipe species, it will +be found that the drum and its derivatives were already well +known. The same may be said of the lyre species of instrument, +the forerunner of our guitar (_kithara_), _tebuni_ or Egyptian +harp, and generally all stringed instruments, with this +difference, namely, that wherever the lyre species was known, +both pipe and drum had preceded it. We never find the lyre +without the drum, or the pipe without the drum; neither do we +find the lyre and the drum without the pipe. On the other hand, +we often find the drum alone, or the drum and pipe without +the lyre. This certainly proves the antiquity of the drum and +its derivatives. + +I have spoken of the purely rhythmical nature of the pre-drum +period, and pointed out, in contrast, the musical quality of +the drum. This may seem somewhat strange, accustomed as we are +to think of the drum as a purely rhythmical instrument. The +sounds given out by it seem at best vague in tone and more +or less uniform in quality. We forget that all instruments +of percussion, as they are called, are direct descendants of +the drum. The bells that hang in our church towers are but +modifications of the drum; for what is a bell but a metal drum +with one end left open and the drum stick hung inside? + +Strange to say, as showing the marvellous potency of primeval +instincts, bells placed in church towers were supposed to +have much of the supernatural power that the savage in his +wilderness ascribed to the drum. We all know something of the +bell legends of the Middle Ages, how the tolling of a bell was +supposed to clear the air of the plague, to calm the storm, and +to shed a blessing on all who heard it. And this superstition +was to a certain extent ratified by the religious ceremonies +attending the casting of church bells and the inscriptions +moulded in them. For instance, the mid-day bell of Strasburg, +taken down during the French Revolution, bore the motto + + "I am the voice of life." + +Another one in Strasburg: + + "I ring out the bad, ring in the good." + +Others read + + "My voice on high dispels the storm." + + "I am called Ave Maria + I drive away storms." + + "I who call to thee am the Rose of the World and am called + Ave Maria." + +The Egyptian _sistrum_, which in Roman times played an +important rôle in the worship of Isis, was shaped somewhat +like a tennis racquet, with four wire strings on which rattles +were strung. The sound of it must have been akin to that of our +modern tambourine, and it served much the same purpose as the +primitive drum, namely, to drive away Typhon or Set, the god +of evil. Dead kings were called "Osiris" when placed in their +tombs, and _sistri_ put with them in order to drive away Set. + +Beside bells and rattles we must include all instruments of the +tambourine and gong species in the drum category. While there +are many different forms of the same instrument, there are +evidences of their all having at some time served the same +purpose, even down to that strange instrument about which +Du Chaillu tells us in his "Equatorial Africa", a bell of +leopard skin, with a clapper of fur, which was rung by the +wizard doctor when entering a hut where someone was ill or +dying. The leopard skin and fur clapper seem to have been +devised to make no noise, so as not to anger the demon that +was to be cast out. This reminds us strangely of the custom of +ringing a bell as the priest goes to administer the last rites. + +It is said that first impressions are the strongest and most +lasting; certain it is that humanity, through all its social and +racial evolutions, has retained remnants of certain primitive +ideas to the present day. The army death reveille, the minute +gun, the tolling of bells for the dead, the tocsin, etc., all +have their roots in the attributes assigned to the primitive +drum; for, as I have already pointed out, the more civilized +a people becomes, the more the word-symbols degenerate. It +is this continual drifting away of the word-symbols from the +natural sounds which are occasioned by emotions that creates +the necessity for auxiliary means of expression, and thus +gives us instrumental music. + +Since the advent of the drum a great stride toward civilization +had been made. Mankind no longer lived in caves but built huts +and even temples, and the conditions under which he lived +must have been similar to those of the natives of Central +Africa before travellers opened up the Dark Continent to the +caravan of the European trader. If we look up the subject in +the narratives of Livingstone or Stanley we find that these +people lived in groups of coarsely-thatched huts, the village +being almost invariably surrounded by a kind of stockade. Now +this manner of living is identically the same as that of all +savage tribes which have not passed beyond the drum state +of civilization, namely, a few huts huddled together and +surrounded by a palisade of bamboo or cane. Since the pith +would decompose in a short time, we should probably find that +the wind, whirling across such a palisade of pipes--for that is +what our bamboos would have turned to--would produce musical +sounds, in fact, exactly the sounds that a large set of Pan's +pipes would produce. For after all what we call Pan's pipes +are simply pieces of bamboo or cane of different lengths tied +together and made to sound by blowing across the open tops. + +The theory may be objected to on the ground that it scarcely +proves the antiquity of the pipe to be less than that of the +drum; but the objection is hardly of importance when we consider +that the drum was known long before mankind had reached the +"hut" stage of civilization. Under the head of pipe, the +trumpet and all its derivatives must be accepted. On this point +there has been much controversy. But it seems reasonable to +believe that once it was found that sound could be produced +by blowing across the top of a hollow pipe, the most natural +thing to do would be to try the same effect on all hollow +things differing in shape and material from the original +bamboo. This would account for the conch shells of the Amazons +which, according to travellers' tales, were used to proclaim +an attack in war; in Africa the tusks of elephants were used; +in North America the instrument did not rise above the whistle +made from the small bones of a deer or of a turkey's leg. + +That the Pan's pipes are the originals of all these species +seems hardly open to doubt. Even among the Greeks and Romans +we see traces of them in the double trumpet and the double +pipe. These trumpets became larger and larger in form, and +the force required to play them was such that the player +had to adopt a kind of leather harness to strengthen his +cheeks. Before this development had been reached, however, +I have no doubt that all wind instruments were of the Pan's +pipes variety; that is to say, the instruments consisted of a +hollow tube shut at one end, the sound being produced by the +breath catching on the open edge of the tube. + +Direct blowing into the tube doubtless came later. In +this case the tube was open at both ends, and the sound +was determined by its length and by the force given to the +breath in playing. There is good reason for admitting this new +instrument to be a descendant of the Pan's pipes, for it was +evidently played by the nose at first. This would preclude +its being considered as an originally forcible instrument, +such as the trumpet. + +Now that we have traced the history of the pipe and considered +the different types of the instrument, we can see immediately +that it brought no great new truth home to man as did the drum. + +The savage who first climbed secretly to the top of the +stockade around his village to investigate the cause of the +mysterious sounds would naturally say that the Great Spirit +had revealed a mystery to him; and he would also claim to be +a wonder worker. But while his pipe would be accepted to a +certain degree, it was nevertheless second in the field and +could hardly replace the drum. Besides, mankind had already +commenced to think on a higher plane, and the pipe was reduced +to filling what gaps it could in the language of the emotions. + +The second strongest emotion of the race is love. All over the +world, wherever we find the pipe in its softer, earlier form, we +find it connected with love songs. In time it degenerated into +a synonym for something contemptibly slothful and worthless, +so much so that Plato wished to banish it from his "Republic," +saying that the Lydian pipe should not have a place in a +decent community. + +On the other hand, the trumpet branch of the family developed +into something quite different. At the very beginning it was +used for war, and as its object was to frighten, it became +larger and larger in form, and more formidable in sound. In +this respect it only kept pace with the drum, for we read +of Assyrian and Thibetan trumpets two or three yards long, +and of the Aztec war drum which reached the enormous height +of ten feet, and could be heard for miles. + +Now this, the trumpet species of pipe, we find also used as an +auxiliary "spiritual" help to the drum. We are told by M. Huc, +in his "Travels in Thibet," that the llamas of Thibet have +a custom of assembling on the roofs of Lhassa at a stated +period and blowing enormous trumpets, making the most hideous +midnight din imaginable. The reason given for this was that +in former days the city was terrorized by demons who rose from +a deep ravine and crept through all the houses, working evil +everywhere. After the priests had exorcised them by blowing +these trumpets, the town was troubled no more. In Africa the +same demonstration of trumpet blowing occurs at an eclipse +of the moon; and, to draw the theory out to a thin thread, +anyone who has lived in a small German Protestant town will +remember the chorals which are so often played before sunrise +by a band of trumpets, horns, and trombones from the belfry of +some church tower. Almost up to the end of the last century +trombones were intimately connected with the church service; +and if we look back to Zoroaster we find the sacerdotal +character of this species of instrument very plainly indicated. + +Now let us turn back to the Pan's pipes and its direct +descendants, the flute, the clarinet, and the oboe. We shall +find that they had no connection whatever with religious +observances. Even in the nineteenth century novel we are +familiar with the kind of hero who played the flute--a very +sentimental gentleman always in love. If he had played the +clarinet he would have been very sorrowful and discouraged; and +if it had been the oboe (which, to the best of my knowledge, +has never been attempted in fiction) he would have needed to +be a very ill man indeed. + +Now we never hear of these latter kinds of pipes being +considered fit for anything but the dance, love songs, or love +charms. In the beginning of the seventeenth century Garcilaso +de la Vega, the historian of Peru, tells of the astonishing +power of a love song played on a flute. We find so-called +"courting" flutes in Formosa and Peru, and Catlin tells of the +Winnebago courting flute. The same instrument was known in Java, +as the old Dutch settlers have told us. But we never hear of it +as creating awe, or as being thought a fit instrument to use +with the drum or trumpet in connection with religious rites. +Leonardo da Vinci had a flute player make music while he +painted his picture of Mona Lisa, thinking that it gave her the +expression he wished to catch--that strange smile reproduced +in the Louvre painting. The flute member of the pipe species, +therefore, was more or less an emblem of eroticism, and, as I +have already said, has never been even remotely identified with +religious mysticism, with perhaps the one exception of Indra's +flute, which, however, never seems to have been able to retain a +place among religious symbols. The trumpet, on the other hand, +has retained something of a mystical character even to our +day. The most powerful illustration of this known to me is +in the "Requiem" by Berlioz. The effect of those tremendous +trumpet calls from the four corners of the orchestra is an +overwhelming one, of crushing power and majesty, much of which +is due to the rhythm. + +To sum up. We may regard rhythm as the intellectual side +of music, melody as its sensuous side. The pipe is the one +instrument that seems to affect animals--hooded cobras, +lizards, fish, etc. Animals' natures are purely sensuous, +therefore the pipe, or to put it more broadly, melody, affects +them. To rhythm, on the other hand, they are indifferent; +it appeals to the intellect, and therefore only to man. + +This theory would certainly account for much of the +potency of what we moderns call music. All that aims to be +dramatic, tragic, supernatural in our modern music, derives +its impressiveness directly from rhythm.[01] What would +that shudder of horror in Weber's "Freischütz" be without +that throb of the basses? Merely a diminished chord of the +seventh. Add the pizzicato in the basses and the chord sinks +into something fearsome; one has a sudden choking sensation, +as if one were listening in fear, or as if the heart had +almost stopped beating. All through Wagner's music dramas +this powerful effect is employed, from "The Flying Dutchman" +to "Parsifal." Every composer from Beethoven to Nicodé has +used the same means to express the same emotions; it is the +medium that pre-historic man first knew; it produced the same +sensation of fear in him that it does in us at the present day. + +Rhythm denotes a thought; it is the expression of a +purpose. There is will behind it; its vital part is intention, +power; it is an act. Melody, on the other hand, is an almost +unconscious expression of the senses; it translates feeling +into sound. It is the natural outlet for sensation. In anger +we raise the voice; in sadness we lower it. In talking we +give expression to the emotions in sound. In a sentence in +which fury alternates with sorrow, we have the limits of the +melody of speech. Add to this rhythm, and the very height of +expression is reached; for by it the intellect will dominate +the sensuous. + + +[01] The strength of the "Fate" motive in Beethoven's fifth + symphony undoubtedly lies in the succession of the four + notes at equal intervals of time. Beethoven himself + marked it _So pocht das Schicksal an die Pforte_. + + + + +II + +ORIGIN OF SONG vs. ORIGIN OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC + + +Emerson characterized language as "fossil poetry," but "fossil +music" would have described it even better; for as Darwin says, +man _sang_ before he became human. + +Gerber, in his "Sprache als Kunst," describing the degeneration +of sound symbols, says "the saving point of language is +that the original material meanings of words have become +forgotten or lost in their acquired ideal meaning." This +applies with special force to the languages of China, Egypt, +and India. Up to the last two centuries our written music +was held in bondage, was "fossil music," so to speak. Only +certain progressions of sounds were allowed, for religion +controlled music. In the Middle Ages folk song was used by +the Church, and a certain amount of control was exercised +over it; even up to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries +the use of sharps and flats was frowned upon in church music. +But gradually music began to break loose from its old chains, +and in our own century we see Beethoven snap the last thread +of that powerful restraint which had held it so long. + +The vital germ of music, as we know it, lay in the fact that +it had always found a home in the hearts of the common people +of all nations. While from time immemorial theory, mostly in +the form of mathematical problems, was being fought over, and +while laws were being laid down by religions and governments +of all nations as to what music must be and what music was +forbidden to be, the vital spark of the divine art was being +kept alive deep beneath the ashes of life in the hearts of the +oppressed common folk. They still sang as they felt; when the +mood was sad the song mirrored the sorrow; if it were gay the +song echoed it, despite the disputes of philosophers and the +commands of governments and religion. Montaigne, in speaking +of language, said with truth, "'Tis folly to attempt to fight +custom with theories." This folk song, to use a Germanism, +we can hardly take into account at the present moment, though +later we shall see that spark fanned into fire by Beethoven, +and carried by Richard Wagner as a flaming torch through the +very home of the gods, "Walhalla." + +Let us go back to our dust heap. Words have been called +"decayed sentences," that is to say, every word was once a +small sentence complete in itself. This theory seems true +enough when we remember that mankind has three languages, +each complementing the other. For even now we say many words +in one, when that word is reinforced and completed by our +vocabulary of sounds and expression, which, in turn, has its +shadow, gesture. These shadow languages, which accompany +all our words, give to the latter vitality and raise them +from mere abstract symbols to living representatives of +the idea. Indeed, in certain languages, this auxiliary +expression even overshadows the spoken word. For instance, +in Chinese, the _theng_ or intonation of words is much more +important than the actual words themselves. Thus the third +intonation or _theng_, as it is called in the Pekin dialect, +is an upward inflection of the voice. A word with this upward +inflection would be unintelligible if given the fourth _theng_ +or downward inflection. For instance, the word "kwai" with a +downward inflection means "honourable," but give it an upward +inflection "kwai" and it means "devil." + +Just as a word was originally a sentence, so was a tone in +music something of a melody. One of the first things that +impresses us in studying examples of savage music is the +monotonic nature of the melodies; indeed some of the music +consists almost entirely of one oft-repeated sound. Those +who have heard this music say that the actual effect is not +one of a steady repetition of a single tone, but rather that +there seems to be an almost imperceptible rising and falling +of the voice. The primitive savage is unable to sing a tone +clearly and cleanly, the pitch invariably wavering. From +this almost imperceptible rising and falling of the voice +above and below one tone we are able to gauge more or less the +state of civilization of the nation to which the song belongs. +This phrase-tone corresponds, therefore, to the sentence-word, +and like it, gradually loses its meaning as a phrase and fades +into a tone which, in turn, will be used in new phrases as +mankind mounts the ladder of civilization. + +At last then we have a single tone clearly uttered, and +recognizable as a musical tone. We can even make a plausible +guess as to what that tone was. Gardiner, in his "Music of +Nature," tells of experiments he made in order to determine the +normal pitch of the human voice. By going often to the gallery +of the London Stock Exchange he found that the roar of voices +invariably amalgamated into one long note, which was always +F. If we look over the various examples of monotonic savage +music quoted by Fletcher, Fillmore, Baker, Wilkes, Catlin, +and others, we find additional corroboration of the statement; +song after song, it will be noticed, is composed entirely of +F, G, and even F alone or G alone. Such songs are generally +ancient ones, and have been crystallized and held intact by +religion, in much the same way that the chanting heard in the +Roman Catholic service has been preserved. + +Let us assume then that the normal tone of the human voice +in speaking is F or G [F: f g] for men, and for women the +octave higher. This tone does very well for our everyday life; +perhaps a pleasant impression may raise it somewhat, _ennui_ may +depress it slightly; but the average tone of our "commonplace" +talk, if I may call it that, will be about F. But let some +sudden emotion come, and we find monotone speech abandoned for +impassioned speech, as it has been called. Instead of keeping +the voice evenly on one or two notes, we speak much higher or +lower than our normal pitch. + +And these sounds may be measured and classified to a certain +extent according to the emotions which cause them, although +it must be borne in mind that we are looking at the matter +collectively; that is to say, without reckoning on individual +idiosyncrasies of expression in speech. Of course we know that +joy is apt to make us raise the voice and sadness to lower +it. For instance, we have all heard gruesome stories, and +have noticed how naturally the voice sinks in the telling. A +ghost story told with an upward inflection might easily +become humourous, so instinctively do we associate the upward +inflection with a non-pessimistic trend of thought. Under stress +of emotion we emphasize words strongly, and with this emphasis +we almost invariably raise the voice a fifth or depress it a +fifth; with yet stronger emotion the interval of change will +be an octave. We raise the voice almost to a scream or drop it +to a whisper. Strangely enough these primitive notes of music +correspond to the first two of those harmonics which are part +and parcel of every musical sound. Generally speaking, we may +say that the ascending inflection carries something of joy +or hope with it, while the downward inflection has something +of the sinister and fearful. To be sure, we raise our voices +in anger and in pain, but even then the inflection is almost +always downward; in other words, we pitch our voices higher and +let them fall slightly. For instance, if we heard a person cry +"Ah/" we might doubt its being a cry of pain, but if it were +"Ah\" we should at once know that it was caused by pain, +either mental or physical. + +The declamation at the end of Schubert's "Erlking" would have +been absolutely false if the penultimate note had ascended to +the tonic instead of descending a fifth. "The child lay dead." + +How fatally hopeless would be the opening measures of "Tristan +and Isolde" without that upward inflection which comes like a +sunbeam through a rift in the cloud; with a downward inflection +the effect would be that of unrelieved gloom. In the Prelude to +"Lohengrin," Wagner pictures his angels in dazzling white. He +uses the highest vibrating sounds at his command. But for +the dwarfs who live in the gloom of Niebelheim he chooses +deep shades of red, the lowest vibrating colour of the solar +spectrum. For it is in the nature of the spiritual part +of mankind to shrink from the earth, to aspire to something +higher; a bird soaring in the blue above us has something of +the ethereal; we give wings to our angels. On the other hand, +a serpent impresses us as something sinister. Trees, with +their strange fight against all the laws of gravity, striving +upward unceasingly, bring us something of hope and faith; the +sight of them cheers us. A land without trees is depressing and +gloomy. As Ruskin says, "The sea wave, with all its beneficence, +is yet devouring and terrible; but the silent wave of the blue +mountain is lifted towards Heaven in a stillness of perpetual +mercy; and while the one surges unfathomable in its darkness, +the other is unshaken in its faithfulness." + +And yet so strange is human nature that that which we +call civilization strives unceasingly to nullify emotion. +The almost childlike faith which made our church spires +point heavenward also gave us Gothic architecture, that +emblem of frail humanity striving towards the ideal. It is +a long leap from that childlike faith to the present day of +skyscrapers. For so is the world constituted. A great truth +too often becomes gradually a truism, then a merely tolerated +and uninteresting theory; gradually it becomes obsolete +and sometimes even degenerates into a symbol of sarcasm or a +servant of utilitarianism. This we are illustrating every day +of our lives. We speak of a person's being "silly," and yet +the word comes from "sælig," old English for "blessed"; to act +"sheepishly" once had reference to divine resignation, "even +as a sheep led to the slaughter," and so on _ad infinitum_. +We build but few great cathedrals now. Our tall buildings +generally point to utilitarianism and the almighty dollar. + +But in the new art, music, we have found a new domain in which +impulses have retained their freshness and warmth, in which, +to quote Goethe, "first comes the act, then the word"; first +the expression of emotion, then the theory that classifies it; +a domain in which words cannot lose their original meanings +entirely, as in speech. For in spite of the strange twistings +of ultra modern music, a simple melody still embodies the +same pathos for us that it did for our grandparents. To be +sure the poignancy of harmony in our day has been heightened +to an incredible degree. We deal in gorgeous colouring and +mighty sound masses which would have been amazing in the last +century; but still through it all we find in Händel, Beethoven, +and Schubert, up to Wagner, the same great truths of declamation +that I have tried to explain to you. + +Herbert Spencer, in an essay on "The Origin and Functions of +Music," speaks of speech as the parent of music. He says, +"utterance, which when languaged is speech, gave rise to +music." The definition is incomplete, for "languaged utterance," +as he calls it, which is speech, is a duality, is either an +expression of emotion or a mere symbol of emotion, and as such +has gradually sunk to the level of the commonplace. As Rowbotham +points out, impassioned speech is the parent of music, while +unimpassioned speech has remained the vehicle for the smaller +emotions of life, the everyday expression of everyday emotions. + +In studying the music of different nations we are confronted +by one fact which seems to be part and parcel of almost every +nationality, namely, the constant recurrence of what is called +the five tone (pentatonic) scale. We find it in primitive +forms of music all the world over, in China and in Scotland, +among the Burmese, and again in North America. Why it is so +seems almost doomed to remain a mystery. The following theory +may nevertheless be advanced as being at least plausible: + +Vocal music, as we understand it, and as I have already +explained, began when the first tone could be given clearly; +that is to say, when the sound sentence had amalgamated into the +single musical tone. The pitch being sometimes F, sometimes G, +sudden emotion gives us the fifth, C or D, and the strongest +emotion the octave, F or G. Thus we have already the following +sounds in our first musical scale. + + [G: f' g' c'' d'' f''] + +We know how singers slur from one tone to another. It is a +fault that caused the fathers of harmony to prohibit what +are called hidden fifths in vocal music. The jump from G to +C in the above scale fragment would be slurred, for we must +remember that the intoning of clear individual sounds was +still a novelty to the savage. Now the distance from G to +C is too small to admit two tones such as the savage knew; +consequently, for the sake of uniformity, he would try to +put but one tone between, singing a mixture of A and B[flat], +which sound in time fell definitely to A, leaving the mystery +of the half-tone unsolved. This addition of the third would +thus fall in with the law of harmonics again. First we have the +keynote; next in importance comes the fifth; and last of all +the third. Thus again is the absence of the major seventh in +our primitive scale perfectly logical; we may search in vain +in our list of harmonics for the tone which forms that interval. + +Now that we have traced the influence of passionate utterance +on music, it still remains for us to consider the influence +of something very different. The dance played an important +rôle in the shaping of the art of music; for to it music owes +periodicity, form, the shaping of phrases into measures, +even its rests. And in this music is not the only debtor, +for poetry owes its very "feet" to the dance. + +Now the dance was, and is, an irresponsible thing. It had no +_raison d'être_ except purely physical enjoyment. This rhythmic +swaying of the body and light tapping of the feet have always +had a mysterious attraction and fascination for mankind, +and music and poetry were caught in its swaying measures +early in the dawn of art. When a man walks, he takes either +long steps or short steps, he walks fast or slow. But when +he takes one long step and one short one, when one step is +slow and the other fast, he no longer walks, he dances. Thus +we may say with reasonable certainty that triple time arose +directly from the dance, for triple time is simply one strong, +long beat followed by a short, light one, viz.: [2 4] or +[- '], the "trochee" in our poetry. [4 2] [' -], Iambic. +The spondee [2 2] or [- -], which is the rhythm of prose, +we already possessed; for when we walk it is in spondees, +namely, in groups of two equal steps. Now imagine dancing +to spondees! At first the steps will be equal, but the body +rests on the first beat; little by little the second beat, +being thus relegated to a position of relative unimportance, +becomes shorter and shorter, and we rest longer on the first +beat. The result is the trochaic rhythm. We can see that this +result is inevitable, even if only the question of physical +fatigue is considered. And, to carry on our theory, this very +question of fatigue still further develops rhythm. The strong +beat always coming on one foot, and the light beat on the other, +would soon tire the dancer; therefore some way must be found +to make the strong beat alternate from one foot to the other. +The simplest, and in fact almost the only way to do this, +is to insert an additional short beat before the light beat. +This gives us [- ' -] or [4. 8 4], the dactyl in poetry. + +We have, moreover, here discovered the beginning of form, and +have begun to group our musical tones in measures and phrases; +for our second dactyl is slightly different from the first, +because the right foot begins the first and the left foot the +second. We have two measures [(4. 8 4 | 4. 8 4)] + [(- ' - | - ' -)] +and one phrase, for after the second measure the right foot +will again have the beat and will begin another phrase of two +measures. + +Carry this theory still further, and we shall make new +discoveries. If we dance in the open air, unless we would dance +over the horizon, we must turn somewhere; and if we have but a +small space in which to dance, the turns must come sooner and +oftener. Even if we danced in a circle we should need to reverse +the motion occasionally, in order to avoid giddiness; and this +would measure off our phrases into periods and sections. + +Thus we see music dividing into two classes, one purely +emotional, the other sensuous; the one arising from the language +of heroes, the other from the swaying of the body and the patter +of feet. To both of these elements, if we may call them so, +metre and melody brought their power; to declamation, metre +brought its potent vitality; to the dance, melody added its soft +charm and lulling rhyme. The intellectual in music, namely, +rhythm and declamation, thus joined forces, as did the purely +sensuous elements, melody and metre (dance). At the first glance +it would seem as if the dance with its rhythms contradicted the +theory of rhythm as being one of the two vital factors in music; +but when we consider the fact that dance-rhythms are merely +regular pulsations (once commenced they pulsate regularly to +the end, without break or change), and when we consider that +just this unbroken regularity is the very antithesis of what +we mean by rhythm, the purely sensuous nature of the dance is +manifest. Strauss was the first to recognize this defect in +the waltz, and he remedied it, so far as it lay within human +skill, by a marvellous use of counter-rhythms, thus infusing +into the dance a simulation of intellectuality. + +The weaving together of these elements into one art-fabric has +been the ideal of all poets from Homer to Wagner. The Greeks +idealized their dances; that is to say, they made their dances +fit their declamation. In the last two centuries, and especially +in the middle of the nineteenth, we have danced our highest +flights of impassioned speech. For what is the symphony, sonata, +etc., but a remnant of the dance form? The choric dances of +Stesichorus and Pindar came strangely near our modern forms, +but it was because the form fitted the poem. In our modern +days, we too often, Procrustes-like, make our ideas to fit the +forms. We put our guest, the poetic thought, that comes to us +like a homing bird from out the mystery of the blue sky--we +put this confiding stranger straightway into that iron bed, +the "sonata form," or perhaps even the third rondo form, +for we have quite an assortment. Should the idea survive +and grow too large for the bed, and if we have learned to +love it too much to cut off its feet and thus _make_ it fit +(as did that old robber of Attica), why we run the risk of +having some critic wise in his theoretical knowledge, say, +as was and is said of Chopin, "He is weak in sonata form!" + +There are two ways of looking at music: first, as impassioned +speech, the nearest psychologically-complete utterance of +emotion known to man; second, as the dance, comprising as it +does all that appeals to our nature. And there is much that is +lovely in this idea of nature--for do not the seasons dance, +and is it not in that ancient measure we have already spoken of, +the trochaic? Long Winter comes with heavy foot, and Spring is +the light-footed. Again, Summer is long, and Autumn short and +cheery; and so our phrase begins again and again. We all know +with what periodicity everything in nature dances, and how the +smallest flower is a marvel of recurring rhymes and rhythms, +with perfume for a melody. How Shakespeare's Beatrice charms us +when she says, "There a star danced, and under that was I born." + +And yet man is not part of Nature. Even in the depths of the +primeval forest, that poor savage, whom we found listening +fearfully to the sound of his drum, knew better. Mankind lives +in isolation, and Nature is a thing for him to conquer. For +Nature is a thing that exists, while man _thinks_. Nature is +that which passively lives while man actively wills. It is the +strain of Nature in man that gave him the dance, and it is his +godlike fight against Nature that gave him impassioned speech; +beauty of form and motion on one side, all that is divine in man +on the other; on one side materialism, on the other idealism. + +We have traced the origin of the drum, pipe, and the voice in +music. It still remains for us to speak of the lyre and the +lute, the ancestors of our modern stringed instruments. The +relative antiquity of the lyre and the lute as compared with +the harp has been much discussed, the main contention against +the lyre being that it is a more artificial instrument than +the harp; the harp was played with the fingers alone, while the +lyre was played with a plectrum (a small piece of metal, wood, +or ivory). Perhaps it would be safer to take the lute as the +earliest form of the stringed instrument, for, from the very +first, we find two species of instruments with strings, one +played with the fingers, the prototype of our modern harps, +banjos, guitars, etc., the other played with the plectrum, +the ancestor of all our modern stringed instruments played by +means of bows and hammers, such as violins, pianos, etc. + +However this may be, one thing is certain, the possession of +these instruments implies already a considerable measure of +culture, for they were not haphazard things. They were made for +a purpose, were invented to fill a gap in the ever-increasing +needs of expression. In Homer we find a description of the +making of a lyre by Hermes, how this making of a lyre from the +shell of a tortoise that happened to pass before the entrance to +the grotto of his mother, Maïa, was his first exploit; and that +he made it to accompany his song in praise of his father Zeus. +We must accept this explanation of the origin of the lyre, +namely, that it was deliberately invented to accompany the +voice. For the lyre in its primitive state was never a solo +instrument; the tone was weak and its powers of expression +were exceedingly limited. On the other hand, it furnished an +excellent background for the voice and, which was still more +to the point, the singer could accompany himself. The drum +had too vague a pitch, and the flute or pipe necessitated +another performer, besides having too much similarity of tone +to the voice to give sufficient contrast. Granted then that the +lyre was invented to accompany the voice, and without wasting +time with surmises as to whether the first idea of stringed +instruments was received from the twanging of a bowstring +or the finding of a tortoise shell with the half-dessicated +tendons of the animal still stretching across it, let us find +when the instrument was seemingly first used. + +That the lyre and lute are of Asiatic origin is generally +conceded, and even in comparatively modern times, Asia seems to +be the home of its descendants. The Tartars have been called +the troubadours of Asia--and of Asia in the widest sense of +the word--penetrating into the heart of the Caucasus on the +west and reaching through the country eastward to the shores of +the Yellow Sea. Marco Polo, the celebrated Venetian traveller, +and M. Huc, a French missionary to China and Thibet, as well +as Spencer, Atkinson, and many others, speak of the wandering +bards of Asia. Marco Polo's account of how Jenghiz Kahn, the +great Mongol conqueror, sent an expedition composed entirely of +minstrels against Mien, a city of 30,000 inhabitants, has often +been quoted to show what an abundance--or perhaps superfluity +would be the better word--of musicians he had at his court. + +That the lyre could not be of Greek origin is proved by the fact +that no root has been discovered in the language for _lyra_, +although there are many special names for varieties of the +instrument. Leaving aside the question of the geographical +origin of the instrument, we may say, broadly, that wherever +we find a nation with even the smallest approach to a history, +there we shall find bards singing of the exploits of heroes, +and always to the accompaniment of the lyre or the lute. For at +last, by means of these instruments, impassioned speech was able +to lift itself permanently above the level of everyday life, +and its lofty song could dispense with the soft, sensuous +lull of the flute. And we shall see later how these bards +became seers, and how even our very angels received harps, +so closely did the instrument become associated with what I +have called impassioned speech, which, in other words, is the +highest expression of what we consider godlike in man. + + + + +III + +THE MUSIC OF THE HEBREWS AND THE HINDUS + + +The music of the Hebrews presents one of the most interesting +subjects in musical history, although it has an unfortunate +defect in common with so many kindred subjects, namely, +that the most learned dissertation must invariably end with +a question mark. When we read in Josephus that Solomon had +200,000 singers, 40,000 harpers, 40,000 sistrum players, and +200,000 trumpeters, we simply do not believe it. Then too +there is lack of unanimity in the matter of the essential +facts. One authority, describing the _machol_, says it is +a stringed instrument resembling a modern viola; another +describes it as a wind instrument somewhat like a bagpipe; +still another says it is a metal ring with a bell attachment +like an Egyptian sistrum; and finally an equally respected +authority claims that the _machol_ was not an instrument at +all, but a dance. Similarly the _maanim_ has been described +as a trumpet, a kind of rattle box with metal clappers, and +we even have a full account in which it figures as a violin. + +The temple songs which we know have evidently been much +changed by surrounding influences, just as in modern synagogues +the architecture has not held fast to ancient Hebrew models +but has been greatly influenced by different countries and +peoples. David may be considered the founder of Hebrew music, +and his reign has been well called an "idyllic episode in the +otherwise rather grim history of Israel." + +Of the instruments named in the Scriptures, that called the +harp in our English translation was probably the _kinnor_, +a kind of lyre played by means of a plectrum, which was a +small piece of metal, wood, or bone. The psaltery or _nebel_ +(which was of course derived from the Egyptian _nabla_, just +as the _kinnor_ probably was in some mysterious manner derived +from the Chinese _kin_) was a kind of dulcimer or zither, an +oblong box with strings which were struck by small hammers. The +timbrel corresponds to our modern tambourine. The _schofar_ +and _keren_ were horns. The former was the well-known ram's horn +which is still blown on the occasion of the Jewish New Year. + +In the Talmud mention is made of an organ consisting of ten +pipes which could give one hundred different sounds, each pipe +being able to produce ten tones. This mysterious instrument was +called _magrepha_, and although but one Levite (the Levites were +the professional musicians among the Hebrews) was required to +play it, and although it was only about three feet in length, +its sound was so tremendous that it could be heard ten miles +away. Hieronymus speaks of having heard it on the Mount of +Olives when it was played in the Temple at Jerusalem. To add +to the mystery surrounding this instrument, it has been proved +by several learned authorities that it was merely a large drum; +and, to cap the climax, other equally respected writers have +declared that this instrument was simply a large shovel which, +after being used for the sacrificial fire in the temple, was +thrown to the ground with a great noise, to inform the people +that the sacrifice was consummated. + +It is reasonably certain that the seemingly incongruous titles +to the Psalms were merely given to denote the tune to which +they were to be sung, just as in our modern hymns we use the +words _Canterbury_, _Old Hundredth_, _China_, etc. + +The word _selah_ has never been satisfactorily explained, some +readings giving as its meaning "forever," "hallelujah," etc., +while others say that it means repeat, an inflection of the +voice, a modulation to another key, an instrumental interlude, +a rest, and so on without end. + +Of one thing we may be certain regarding the ancient Hebrews, +namely, that their religion brought something into the world +that can never again be lost. It fostered idealism, and gave +mankind something pure and noble to live for, a religion +over which Christianity shed the sunshine of divine mercy +and hope. That the change which was to be wrought in life was +sharply defined may be seen by comparing the great songs of the +different nations. For up to that time a song of praise meant +praise of a _King_. He was the sun that warmed men's hearts, +the being from whom all wisdom came, and to whom men looked +for mercy. If we compare the Egyptian hymns with those of the +Hebrews, the difference is very striking. On the walls of the +great temples of Luxor and the Ramesseum at Thebes, as well as +on the wall of the temple of Abydos and in the main hall of the +great rock-hewn temple of Abu-Simbel, in Nubia, is carved the +"Epic of Pentaur," the royal Egyptian scribe of Rameses II: + + My king, his arms are mighty, his heart is firm. He + bends his bow and none can resist him. Mightier + than a hundred thousand men he marches forward. His + counsel is wise and when he wears the royal crown, + Alef, and declares his will, he is the protector of + his people. His heart is like a mountain of iron. Such + is King Rameses. + +If we turn to the Hebrew prophets, this is their song: + + The mountains melted from before the Lord and before + Him went the pestilence; burning coals went forth at + His feet. Hell is naked before Him and destruction + hath no covering. He hangeth the earth upon nothing + and the pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished + at His reproof. Though He slay me, yet will I trust + in Him. For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and at + the last day He shall stand upon the earth. + +As with the Hebrews, music among the Hindus was closely +bound to religion. When, 3000 years before the Christian era, +that wonderful, tall, white Aryan race of men descended upon +India from the north, its poets already sang of the gods, +and the Aryan gods were of a different order from those known +to that part of the world; for they were beautiful in shape, +and friendly to man, in great contrast to the gods of the +Davidians, the pre-Aryan race and stock of the Deccan. These +songs formed the _Rig-Veda_, and are the nucleus from which +all Hindu religion and art emanate. + +We already know that when the auxiliary speech which we call +music was first discovered, or, to use the language of all +primitive nations, when it was first bestowed on man by the +gods, it retained much of the supernatural potency that its +origin would suggest. In India, music was invested with divine +power, and certain hymns--especially the prayer or chant of +Vashishtha--were, according to the _Rig-Veda_, all powerful in +battle. Such a magic song, or chant, was called a _brahma_, +and he who sang it a _brahmin_. Thus the very foundation of +Brahminism, from which rose Buddhism in the sixth century +B.C., can be traced back to the music of the sacred songs of +the _Rig-Veda_ of India. The priestly or Brahmin caste grew +therefore from the singers of the Vedic hymns. The Brahmins +were not merely the keepers of the sacred books, or Vedas, the +philosophy, science, and laws of the ancient Hindus (for that is +how the power of the caste developed), but they were also the +creators and custodians of its secular literature and art. Two +and a half thousand years later Prince Gautama or Buddha died, +after a life of self-sacrifice and sanctity. On his death five +hundred of his disciples met in a cave near Rajagriha to gather +together his sayings, and chanted the lessons of their great +master. These songs became the bible of Buddhism, just as the +_Vedas_ are the bible of Brahminism, for the Hindu word for +a Buddhist council means literally "a singing together." + +Besides the sacred songs of the Brahmins and Buddhists, the +Hindus had many others, some of which partook of the occult +powers of the hymns, occult powers that were as strongly marked +as those of Hebrew music. For while the latter are revealed in +the playing of David before Saul, in the influence of music on +prophecy, the falling of the walls of Jericho at the sound of +the trumpets of Joshua, etc., in India the same supernatural +power was ascribed to certain songs. For instance, there were +songs that could be sung only by the gods, and one of them, so +the legend runs, if sung by a mortal, would envelop the singer +in flames. The last instance of the singing of this song was +during the reign of Akbar, the great Mogul emperor (about 1575 +A.D.). At his command the singer sang it standing up to his +neck in the river Djaumna, which, however, did not save him, +for, according to the account, the water around him boiled, +and he was finally consumed by a flame of fire. Another of +Akbar's singers caused the palace to be wrapped in darkness +by means of one of these magic songs, and another averted a +famine by causing rain to fall when the country was threatened +by drought. Animals were also tamed by means of certain songs, +the only relic of which is found in the serpent charmers' +melodies, which, played on a kind of pipe, seem to possess the +power of controlling cobras and the other snakes exhibited by +the Indian fakirs. + +Many years before Gautama's time, the brahmas or singers of +sacred songs of ancient India formed themselves into a caste or +priesthood; and the word "Brahma," from meaning a sacred singer, +became the name of the supreme deity; in time, as the nation +grew, other gods were taken into the religion. Thus we find in +pre-Buddha times the trinity of gods: Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, +with their wives, Sarasvati or learning, Lakshmi or beauty, +and Paravati, who was also called Kali, Durga, and Mahadevi, +and was practically the goddess of evil. Of these gods Brahma's +consort, Sarasvati, the goddess of speech and learning, brought +to earth the art of music, and gave to mankind the _Vina_. + +This instrument is still in use and may be called the national +instrument of India. It is composed of a cylindrical pipe, +often bamboo, about three and a half feet long, at each end +of which is fixed a hollow gourd to increase the tone. It is +strung lengthwise with seven metal wires held up by nineteen +wooden bridges, just as the violin strings are supported by a +bridge. The scale of the instrument proceeds in half tones from +[F: a,] to [G: b''] The tones are produced by plucking the +strings with the fingers (which are covered with a kind of +metal thimble), and the instrument is held so that one of +the gourds hangs over the left shoulder, just as one would +hold a very long-necked banjo. + +It is to the Krishna incarnation of Vishnu that the Hindu scale +is ascribed. According to the legend, Krishna or Vishnu came to +earth and took the form of a shepherd, and the nymphs sang to +him in many thousand different keys, of which from twenty-four +to thirty-six are known and form the basis of Hindu music. To +be sure these keys, being formed by different successions of +quarter-tones, are practically inexhaustible, and the 16,000 +keys of Krishna are quite practicable. The differences in tone, +however, were so very slight that only a few, of them have +been retained to the present time. + +The Hindus get their flute from the god Indra, who, from being +originally the all-powerful deity, was relegated by Brahminism +to the chief place among the minor gods--from being the god +of light and air he came to be the god of music. His retinue +consisted of the _gandharvas_, and _apsaras_, or celestial +musicians and nymphs, who sang magic songs. After the rise and +downfall of Buddhism in India the term _raga_ degenerated to +a name for a merely improvised chant to which no occult power +was ascribed. + +The principal characteristics in modern Hindu music are a +seemingly instinctive sense of harmony; and although the actual +chords are absent, the melodic formation of the songs plainly +indicates a feeling for modern harmony, and even form. The +actual scale resembles our European scale of twelve semitones +(twenty-two _s'rutis_, quarter-tones), but the modal development +of these sounds has been extraordinary. Now a "mode" is the +manner in which the notes of a scale are arranged. For instance, +in our major mode the scale is arranged as follows: tone, +tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone. In India there +are at present seventy-two modes in use which are produced by +making seventy-two different arrangements of the scale by means +of sharps and flats, the only rule being that each degree of +the scale must be represented; for instance, one of the modes +_Dehrásan-Karabhárna_ corresponds to our major scale. Our minor +(harmonic) scale figures as _Kyravâni_. _Tânarupi_ corresponds +to the following succession of notes, + + [G: c' d-' e--' f' g' a+' b' c''] + +_Gavambódi_, to [G: c' d-' e-' f+' g' a-' b--' c''] + +_Máya-Mâlavagaula_, to [G: c' d' e-' f' g-' a' b-' c''] + +It can thus easily be seen how the seventy-two modes are +possible and practicable. Observe that the seven degrees of +the scale are all represented in these modes, the difference +between them being in the placing of half-tones by means of +sharps or flats. Not content with the complexity that this modal +system brought into their music, the Hindus have increased it +still more by inventing a number of formulae called _ragas_ +(not to be confounded with those rhapsodical songs, the modern +descendant of the magic chants, previously mentioned). + +In making a Hindu melody (which of course must be in one of +the seventy-two modes, just as in English we should say that a +melody must be in one of our two modes, either major or minor) +one would have to conform to one of the _ragas_, that is to +say, the melodic outline would have to conform to certain +rules, both in ascending and descending. These rules consist +of omitting notes of the modes, in one manner when the melody +ascends, and in another when it descends. Thus, in the _raga_ +called _Mohànna_, in ascending the notes must be arranged in +the following order: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8; in descending it is 8, +7, 5, 4, 2, 1. Thus if we wished to write a melody in the mode +_Tânarupi_--_raga Mohànna_--we could never use the fourth, +F, or the seventh, B, if our melody ascended; if our melody +descended we should have to avoid the sixth, A[sharp], and the +third, E[double-flat]. As one can easily perceive, many strange +melodic effects are produced by these means. For instance, +in the _raga Mohànna_, in which the fourth and seventh degrees +of the scale are avoided in ascending, if it were employed in +the mode _Dehrásin-Karabhárna_, which corresponds to our own +major scale, it would have a pronounced Scotch tinge so long +as the melody ascended; but let it _descend_ and the Scotch +element is deserted for a decided North American Indian, +notably Sioux tinge. The Hindus are an imaginative race, and +invest all these _ragas_ and modes with mysterious attributes, +such as anger, love, fear, and so on. They were even personified +as supernatural beings; each had his or her special name and +history. It was proper to use some of them only at midday, +some in the morning, and some at night. If the mode or _raga_ +is changed during a piece, it is expressed in words, by saying, +for instance, that "_Mohànna_" (the new "_raga_") is here +introduced to the family of _Tânarupi_. The melodies formed +from these modes and _ragas_ are divided into four classes, +_Rektah_, _Teranah_, _Tuppah_, and _Ragni_. The _Rektah_ is in +character light and flowing. It falls naturally into regular +periods, and resembles the _Teranah_, with the exception that +the latter is only sung by men. The character of the _Tuppah_ +is not very clear, but the _Ragni_ is a direct descendant +of the old magic songs and incantations; in character it is +rhapsodical and spasmodic. + + + + +IV + +THE MUSIC OF THE EGYPTIANS, ASSYRIANS, AND CHINESE + + +In speaking of the music of antiquity we are seriously hampered +by the fact that there is practically no actual music in +existence which dates back farther than the eighth or tenth +century of the present era. Even those well-known specimens of +Greek music, as they are claimed to be, the hymns to Apollo, +Nemesis, and Calliope, do not date farther back than the third +or fourth century, and even these are by no means generally +considered authentic. Therefore, so far as actual sounds go, +all music of which we have any practical knowledge dates from +about the twelfth century. + +Theoretically, we have the most minute knowledge of the +scientific aspect of music, dating from more than five hundred +years before the Christian era. This knowledge, however, is +worse than valueless, for it is misleading. For instance, +it would be a very difficult thing for posterity to form any +idea as to what our music was like if all the actual music in +the world at the present time were destroyed, and only certain +scientific works such as that of Helmholtz on acoustics and a +few theoretical treatises on harmony, form, counterpoint and +fugue were saved. + +From Helmholtz's analysis of sounds one would get the idea +that the so-called tempered scale of our pianos caused thirds +and sixths to sound discordantly. + +From the books on harmony one would gather that consecutive +fifths and octaves and a number of other things were never +indulged in by composers, and to cap the climax one would +naturally accept the harmony exercises contained in the books +as being the very acme of what we loved best in music. Thus +we see that any investigation into the music of antiquity must +be more or less conjectural. + +Let us begin with the music of the Egyptians. The oldest +existing musical instrument of which we have any knowledge is +an Egyptian lyre to be found in the Berlin Royal Museum. It +is about four thousand years old, dating from the period just +before the expulsion of the Hyksos or "Shepherd" kings. + +At that time (the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty, 1500-2000 +B.C.) Egypt was just recovering from her five hundred years of +bondage, and music must already have reached a wonderful state +of development. In wall paintings of the eighteenth dynasty +we see flutes, double flutes, and harps of all sizes, from +the small one carried in the hand, to the great harps, almost +seven feet high, with twenty-one strings; the never-failing +sistrum (a kind of rattle); kitharas, the ancestors of our +modern guitars; lutes and lyres, the very first in the line +of instruments culminating in the modern piano. + +One hesitates to class the trumpets of the Egyptians in the +same category, for they were war instruments, the tone of +which was probably always forced, for Herodotus says that +they sounded like the braying of a donkey. The fact that the +cheeks of the trumpeter were reinforced with leather straps +would further indicate that the instruments were used only +for loud signalling. + +According to the mural paintings and sculptures in the tombs +of the Egyptians, all these instruments were played together, +and accompanied the voice. It has long been maintained that +harmony was unknown to the ancients because of the mathematical +measurement of sounds. This might be plausible for strings, +but pipes could be cut to any size. The positions of the hands +of the executants on the harps and lyres, as well as the use +of short and long pipes, make it appear probable that something +of what we call harmony was known to the Egyptians. + +We must also consider that their paintings and sculptures were +eminently symbolic. When one carves an explanation in hard +granite it is apt to be done in shorthand, as it were. Thus, a +tree meant a forest, a prisoner meant a whole army; therefore, +two sculptured harpists or flute players may stand for twenty +or two hundred. Athenaeus, who lived at the end of the second +and beginning of the third century, A.D., speaks of orchestras +of six hundred in Ptolemy Philadelphus's time (300 B.C.), +and says that three hundred of the players were harpers, in +which number he probably includes players on other stringed +instruments, such as lutes and lyres. It is therefore to be +inferred that the other three hundred played wind and percussion +instruments. This is an additional reason for conjecturing +that they used chords in their music; for six hundred players, +not to count the singers, would hardly play entirely in unison +or in octaves. The very nature of the harp is chordal, and +the sculptures always depict the performer playing with both +hands, the fingers being more or less outstretched. That the +music must have been of a deep, sonorous character, we may +gather from the great size of the harps and the thickness of +their strings. As for the flutes, they also are pictured as +being very long; therefore they must have been low in pitch. +The reed pipes, judging from the pictures and sculptures, +were no higher in pitch than our oboes, of which the highest +note is D and E above the treble staff. + +It is claimed that so far as the harps were concerned, +the music must have been strictly diatonic in character. +To quote Rowbotham, "the harp, which was the foundation of the +Egyptian orchestra, is an essentially non-chromatic instrument, +and could therefore only play a straight up and down diatonic +scale." Continuing he says, "It is plain therefore that the +Egyptian harmony was purely diatonic; such a thing as modern +modulation was unknown, and every piece from beginning to end +was played in the same key." That this position is utterly +untenable is very evident, for there was nothing to prevent +the Egyptians from tuning their harps in the same order of +tones and half tones as is used for our modern pianos. That +this is even probable may be assumed from the scale of a flute +dating back to the eighteenth or nineteenth century B.C. (1700 +or 1600 B.C.), which was found in the royal tombs at Thebes, +and which is now in the Florence Museum. + +Its scale was + + [G: (a a+ b c' c+' d') (a' a+' b' c'' c+'' d'') (e'') + f'' f+'' g'' g+'' (a'' a+'' b'' c''' c+''' d''')] + +The only thing about which we may be reasonably certain in +regard to Egyptian music is that, like Egyptian architecture, +it must have been very massive, on account of the preponderance +in the orchestra of the low tones of the stringed instruments. + +The sistrum was, properly speaking, not considered a musical +instrument at all. It was used only in religious ceremonies, and +may be considered as the ancestor of the bell that is rung at +the elevation of the Host in Roman Catholic churches. Herodotus +(born 485 B.C.) tells us much about Egyptian music, how the +great festival at Bubastis in honour of the Egyptian Diana +(_Bast_ or _Pascht_), to whom the cat was sacred, was attended +yearly by 700,000 people who came by water, the boats resounding +with the clatter of castanets, the clapping of hands, and the +soft tones of thousands of flutes. Again he tells us of music +played during banquets, and speaks of a mournful song called +_Maneros_. This, the oldest song of the Egyptians (dating back +to the first dynasty), was symbolical of the passing away of +life, and was sung in connection with that gruesome custom +of bringing in, towards the end of a banquet, an effigy of a +corpse to remind the guests that death is the birthright of +all mankind, a custom which was adopted later by the Romans. + +Herodotus also gives us a vague but very suggestive glimpse +of what may have been the genesis of Greek tragedy, for he was +permitted to see a kind of nocturnal Egyptian passion play, in +which evidently the tragedy of Osiris was enacted with ghastly +realism. Osiris, who represents the light, is hunted by Set or +Typhon, the god of darkness, and finally torn to pieces by the +followers of Set, and buried beneath the waters of the lake; +Horus, the son of Osiris, avenges his death by subduing Set, and +Osiris appears again as the ruler of the shadowland of death. + +This strange tragedy took place at night, on the shore of +the lake behind the great temple at Saïs. Osiris was dressed +royally, in white, and after the horrible pursuit and his +murder by Set and his sinister band, Horus, the rising sun, +dispels the gloom, and a glorious new god of light appears. Set +and his followers are driven back to the gloomy temple where, +perhaps, there was another scene showing the shade of Osiris, +enthroned and ruling the dead. We have no means of knowing the +character of the music which accompanied this mystery play; +but certainly the deep tones of the harps and the flutes, +together with the chanting of men's voices, must have been +appropriate. Add to these the almost silent rattle of the +sistrum, which, for the Egyptians, possessed something of the +supernatural, and we have an orchestral colouring which is +suggestive, to say the least. + +With this we will leave Egyptian music, simply calling attention +to the works of Resellini, Lepsius, Wilkinson, and Petri, +which contain copies of mural paintings and temple and tomb +sculptures relating to music. For instance, pages 103, 106, and +111 of Lepsius's third book, "Die Denkmäler aus Aegypten und +Aethiopen," will be found very interesting, particularly page +106, which shows some of the rooms of the palace of Amenotep +IV, of the eighteenth dynasty (about 1500 or 1600 B.C.), +in which dancing and music is being taught. In the same work, +second book, on pages 52 and 53, are pictures taken from a tomb +near Gizeh, showing harp and flute players and singers. The +position of the hands of the singers--they hold them behind +their ears--is a manner of illustrating the act of hearing, +and arises from the hieroglyphic _double_ way of putting things; +for instance, in writing hieroglyphics the word is often first +spelled out, then comes another sign for the pronunciation, +then sometimes even two other signs to emphasize its meaning. + +The music of the Assyrians may be summed up very briefly. All +that can be gathered from the bas-relief sculptures is that +shrill tones and acute pitch must have characterized their +music. As Rowbotham says, alluding to the Sardanapalus wall +sculpture now in the British Museum in London, "What can one +think of the musical delicacy of a nation the King of which, +dining alone with his queen, chooses to be regaled with the +sounds of a lyre and a big drum close at his elbow?" The +instruments represented in these bas-reliefs, aside from the +drum, are high-pitched: flutes, pipes, trumpets, cymbals, and +the smaller stringed instruments. These were all portable, +and some, such as drums and dulcimers, were strapped to the +body, all of which points to the eminently warlike character +of the people. Instead of clapping the hands to mark the time +as did the Egyptians, they stamped their feet. The dulcimer +was somewhat like a modern zither, and may be said to contain +the germ of our piano; for it was in the form of a flat case, +strapped to the body and held horizontally in front of the +player. The strings were struck with a kind of plectrum, +held in the right hand, and were touched with the left hand +immediately afterwards to stop the vibration, just as the +dampers in the pianoforte fall on the string the moment the +key is released. There existed among the Chaldeans a science +of music, which, of course, is a very different thing from +practical music, but it was so imbued with astronomical +symbolism that it seems hardly worth while to consider +it here. The art of Babylonia and Assyria culminated in +architecture and bas-relief sculpture, and it is chiefly +valuable as being the germ from which Greek art was developed. + +In considering Chinese music one has somewhat the same feeling +as one would have in looking across a flat plain. There are no +mountains in Chinese music, and there is nothing in its history +to make us think that it was ever anything but a more or less +puerile playing with sound; therefore there is no separating +modern Chinese music from that of antiquity. To be sure, +Confucius (about 500 B.C.) said that to be well governed +a nation must possess good music. Pythagoras, Aristotle, +and Plato, in Greece, said the same thing, and their maxims +proved a very important factor in the music of ancient times, +for the simple reason that an art controlled by government can +have nothing very vital about it. Hebrew music was utterly +annihilated by laws, and the poetic imagination thus pent +up found its vent in poetry, the result being some of the +most wonderful works the world has ever known. In Egypt, this +current of inspiration from the very beginning was turned toward +architecture. In Greece, music became a mere stage accessory +or a subject for the dissecting table of mathematics; in China, +we have the dead level of an obstinate adherence to tradition, +thus proving Sir Thomas Browne's saying, "The mortallest enemy +unto knowledge, and that which hath done the greatest execution +upon truth, hath been a peremptory adhesion unto tradition, +and more especially the establishing of our own belief upon +the dictates of antiquity." + +The Chinese theory is that there are eight different musical +sounds in nature, namely: + + 1. The sound of skin. + 2. The sound of stone. + 3. The sound of metal. + 4. The sound of clay. + 5. The sound of silk. + 6. The sound of wood. + 7. The sound of bamboo. + 8. The sound of gourd. + +The sound of skin has a number of varieties, all different +kinds of drums. + +The sound of stone is held by the Chinese to be the most +beautiful among sounds, one between that of metal and of +wood. The principal instrument in this category is the _king_, +and in mythology it is the chosen instrument of Kouei, the +Chinese Orpheus. This instrument has a large framework on which +are hung sixteen stones of different sizes, which are struck, +like drums, with a kind of hammer. According to Amiot, only +a certain kind of stone found near the banks of the river +Tee will serve for the making of these instruments, and in +the year 2200 B.C. the Emperor Yu assessed the different +provinces so many stones each for the palace instruments, +in place of tribute. + +The sound of metal is embodied in the various kinds of bells, +which are arranged in many different series, sometimes after +the patterns of the _king_, while sometimes they are played +separately. + +The sound of clay, or baked earth, is given by a kind of round +egg made of porcelain--for that is what it amounts to--pierced +with five holes and a mouthpiece, upon blowing through which +the sound is produced--an instrument somewhat suggestive of +our ocarina. + +The sound of silk is given by two instruments: one a kind of +flat harp with seven strings, called _che_, the other with +twenty-five strings, called _kin_, in size from seven to nine +feet long. The ancient form of this instrument is said to have +had fifty strings. + +The sound of wood is a strange element in a Chinese orchestra, +for it is produced in three different ways: first, by an +instrument in the form of a square wooden box with a hole in one +of its sides through which the hand, holding a small mallet, +is inserted, the sound of wood being produced by hammering +with the mallet on the inside walls of the box, just as the +clapper strikes a bell. This box is placed at the northeast +corner of the orchestra, and begins every piece. Second, by a +set of strips of wood strung on a strap or cord, the sound of +which is obtained by beating the palm of the hand with them. +The third is the strangest of all, for the instrument consists +of a life-size wooden tiger. It has a number of teeth or pegs +along the ridge of its back, and it is "played" by stroking +these pegs rapidly with a wooden staff, and then striking the +tiger on the head. This is the prescribed end of every Chinese +orchestral composition, and is supposed to be a symbol of man's +supremacy over brute creation. The tiger has its place in the +northwest corner of the orchestra. + +The sound of bamboo is represented in the familiar form of +Pan's pipes, and various forms of flutes which hardly need +further description. + +And finally the sound of the gourd. The gourd is a kind of +squash, hollowed out, in which from thirteen to twenty-four +pipes of bamboo or metal are inserted; each one of these +pipes contains a metal reed, the vibration of which causes +the sound. Below the reed are cut small holes in the pipes, +and there is a pipe with a mouthpiece to keep the gourd, +which is practically an air reservoir, full of air. The air +rushing out through the bamboo pipes will naturally escape +through the holes cut below the reeds, making no sound, but +if the finger stops one or more of these holes, the air is +forced up through the reeds, thus giving a musical sound, +the pitch of which will be dependent on the length of the +pipes and the force with which the air passes through the reed. + +Other instruments of the Chinese are gongs of all sizes, +trumpets, and several stringed instruments somewhat akin to our +guitars and mandolins. Neither the Chinese nor the Japanese +have ever seemed to consider the voice as partaking of the +nature of music. This is strange, for the language of the +Chinese depends on flexibility of the voice to make it even +intelligible. As a matter of fact, singing, in our sense of +the word, is unknown to them. + + + + +V + +THE MUSIC OF THE CHINESE (Continued) + + +Having described the musical instruments in use in China +we still have for consideration the music itself, and the +conditions which led up to it. + +Among the Chinese instruments mentioned in the preceding +chapter, the preponderance of instruments of percussion, such +as drums, gongs, bells, etc., has probably been noticed. In +connection with the last named we meet with one of the two cases +in Chinese art in which we see the same undercurrent of feeling, +or rather superstition, as that found among western nations. We +read in the writings of Mencius, the Chinese philosopher (350 +B.C.), the following bit of gossip about the king Senen of Tse. + + "The king," said he, "was sitting aloft in the hall, when + a man appeared, leading an ox past the lower part of it. + The king saw him, and asked, 'Where is the ox going?' + + "The man replied, 'We are going to consecrate a bell with + its blood.' + + "The king said, 'Let it go. I cannot bear its frightened + appearance as if it were an innocent person going to the + place of death.' + + "The man answered, 'Shall we then omit the consecration + of the bell?' + + "The king said, 'How can that be omitted? Change the ox + for a sheep.'" + +As stated before, this is one of the few cases in which Chinese +superstition coincides with that of the West; for our own church +bells were once consecrated in very much the same manner, a +survival of that ancient universal custom of sacrifice. With +the exception of this resemblance, which, however, has nothing +to do with actual music, everything in Chinese art is exactly +the opposite of our western ideas on the subject. + +The Chinese orchestra is composed of about sixteen different +types of percussion instruments and four kinds of wind and +stringed instruments, whereas in our European orchestras the +ratio is exactly reversed. Their orchestras are placed at +the back of the stage, ours in front of it. The human voice +is not even mentioned in their list of musical sounds (sound +of metal, baked clay, wood, skin, bamboo, etc)., whereas we +consider it the most nearly perfect instrument existing. This +strange perversity once caused much discussion in days when +we knew less of China than we do at present, as to whether +the Chinese organs of hearing were not entirely different from +those of western nations. We now know that this contradiction +runs through all their habits of life. With them white is the +colour indicative of mourning; the place of honour is on the +left hand; the seat of intellect is in the stomach; to take off +one's hat is considered an insolent gesture; the magnetic needle +of the Chinese compass is reckoned as pointing south, instead of +north; even up to the middle of the nineteenth century the chief +weapon in war was the bow and arrow, although they were long +before acquainted with gunpowder--and so on, _ad infinitum_. + +We are aware that the drum is the most primitive instrument +known to man. If all our knowledge of the Chinese were included +in a simple list of their orchestral instruments, we should +recognize at once that the possession of the gourd, mouth-organ, +and lute indicates a nation which has reached a high state of +civilization; on the other hand, the great preponderance of +bells, gongs, drums, etc., points unmistakably to the fact +that veneration of the laws and traditions of the past (a +past of savage barbarism), and a blind acquiescence in them, +must constitute the principal factor in that civilization. The +writings of Chinese philosophers are full of wise sayings +about music, but in practice the music itself becomes almost +unbearable. For instance, in the Confucian _Analects_ we read, +"The Master (Confucius)[02] said: 'How to play music may be +known. At the commencement of the piece, all the parts should +sound together. As it proceeds, they should be in harmony, +severally distinct, and flowing without a break, and thus on +to the conclusion.'" The definition is certainly remarkable +when one considers that it was given about five hundred +years before our era. In practice, however, the Chinese do +not distinguish between musical _combinations_ of sound and +_noise_; therefore the above definition must be taken in a very +different sense from that which ordinarily would be the case. By +harmony, Confucius evidently means similarity of noises, and by +"melody flowing without a break" he means absolute monotony of +rhythm. We know this from the hymns to the ancestors which, +with the hymns to the Deity, are the sacred songs of China, +songs which have come down from time immemorial. + +According to Amiot one of the great court functions is the +singing of the "Hymn to the Ancestors," which is conducted +by the Emperor. Outside the hall where this ceremony takes +place are stationed a number of bell and gong players who +may not enter, but who, from time to time, according to fixed +laws, join in the music played and sung inside. In the hall +the orchestra is arranged in the order prescribed by law: +the _ou_, or wooden tiger, which ends every piece, is placed +at the northwest end of the orchestra, and the _tschou_, or +wooden box-drum, which begins the music, at the northeast; +in the middle are placed the singers who accompany the hymn +by posturing as well as by chanting. At the back of the hall +are pictures of the ancestors, or merely tablets inscribed +with their names, before which is a kind of altar, bearing +flowers and offerings. The first verse of the hymn consists of +eight lines in praise of the godlike virtues of the ancestors, +whose spirits are supposed to descend from Heaven and enter +the hall during the singing of this verse by the chorus. Then +the Emperor prostrates himself three times before the altar, +touching his head to the earth each time. As he offers the +libations and burns the perfumes on the altar, the chorus +sings the second verse of eight lines, in which the spirits +are thanked for answering the prayer and entreated to accept +the offerings. The Emperor then prostrates himself nine times, +after which he resumes his position before the altar, while +the last verse of eight lines, eulogistic of the ancestors, +is being chanted; during this the spirits are supposed to +ascend again to Heaven. The hymn ends with the scraping of +the tiger's back and striking it on the head. + +We can imagine the partial gloom of this species of chapel, +lighted by many burning, smoky joss-sticks, with its glint +of many-coloured silks, and gold embroidery; the whining, +nasal, half-spoken, monotonous drone of the singers with their +writhing figures bespangled with gold and vivid colour; the +incessant stream of shrill tones from the wind instruments; +the wavering, light clatter of the musical stones broken +by the steady crash of gongs and the deep booming of large +drums; while from outside, the most monstrous bell-like noises +vaguely penetrate the smoke-laden atmosphere. The ceremony +must be barbarously impressive; the strange magnificence of it +all, together with the belief in the actual presence of the +spirits, which the vague white wreaths of joss-stick smoke +help to suggest, seem to lend it dignity. From the point of +view of what we call music, the hymn is childish enough; but +we must keep in mind the definition of Confucius. According +to the Chinese, music includes that phase of sound which we +call mere noise, and the harmonizing of this noise is Chinese +art. We must admit, therefore, that from this point of view +their orchestra is well balanced, for what will rhyme better +with noise than more noise? The gong is best answered by the +drum, and the tomtom by the great bell. + +China also has its folk song, which seems to be an irrepressible +flower of the field in all countries. This also follows the +precepts of the sages in using only the five-note or pentatonic +scale found among so many other nationalities. It differs, +however, from the official or religious music, inasmuch as +that unrhythmic perfection of monotony, so loved by Confucius, +Mencius, and their followers, is discarded in favour of a style +more naturally in touch with human emotion. These folk songs +have a strong similarity to Scotch and Irish songs, owing to +the absence of the fourth and seventh degrees of the scale. +If they were really sung to the accompaniment of chords, the +resemblance would be very striking. The Chinese singing voice, +however, is not sonorous, the quality commonly used being a +kind of high, nasal whine, very far removed from what we call +music. The accompaniment of the songs is of a character most +discordant to European ears, consisting as it does mainly of +constant drum or gong beats interspersed with the shrill notes +of the _kin_, the principal Chinese stringed instrument. Ambros, +the historian, quotes a number of these melodies, but falls +into a strange mistake, for his version of a folk song called +"_Tsin-fa_" is as follows: + + [Figure 01] + +Now this is exactly as if a Chinaman, wishing to give his +countrymen an idea of a Beethoven sonata, were to eliminate +all the harmony and leave only the bare melody accompanied by +indiscriminate beats on the gong and a steady banging on two or +three drums of different sizes. This is certainly the manner +in which the little melody just quoted would be accompanied, +and not by European chords and rhythms. + +If we could eliminate from our minds all thoughts of music and +bring ourselves to listen only to the _texture_ of sounds, we +could better understand the Chinese ideal of musical art. For +instance, if in listening to the deep, slow vibrations of a +large gong we ignore completely all thought of pitch, fixing +our attention only upon the roundness and fullness of the sound +and the way it gradually diminishes in volume without losing +any of its pulsating colour, we should then realize what the +Chinese call music. Confucius said, "When the music master Che +first entered on his office, the finish with the _Kwan-Ts'eu_ +(Pan's-pipes) was magnificent--how it filled the ears!" And +that is just what Chinese music aims to do, it "fills the ears" +and therefore is "magnificent."[03] + +With their views as to what constitutes the beautiful in music +it is not strange that the Chinese find our music detestable. It +goes too fast for them. They ask, "Why play another entirely +different kind of sound until one has already enjoyed to +the full what has gone before?" As they told Père Amiot +many years ago: "Our music penetrates through the ear to the +heart, and from the heart to the soul; that your music cannot +do." Amiot had played on a harpsichord some pieces by Rameau +("_Les Cyclopes_," "_Les Charmes_," etc.) and much flute music, +but they could make nothing of it. + +According to their conception of music, sounds must follow one +another slowly, in order to pass through the ears to the heart +and thence to the soul; therefore they went back with renewed +satisfaction to their long, monotonous chant accompanied by +a pulsating fog of clangour. + +Some years ago, at the time of that sudden desire of China, +or more particularly of Li Hung Chang, to know more of +occidental civilization, some Chinese students were sent +by their government to Berlin to study music. After about a +month's residence in Berlin these students wrote to the Chinese +government asking to be recalled, as they said it would be +folly to remain in a barbarous country where even the most +elementary principles of music had not yet been grasped. + +To go deeply into the more technical side of Chinese music +would be a thankless task, for in the Chinese character +the practical is entirely overshadowed by the speculative. +All kinds of fanciful names are given to the different tones, +and many strange ideas associated with them. Although our modern +chromatic scale (all but the last half-tone) is familiar to +them, they have never risen to a practical use of it even to +this day. The Chinese scale is now, as it always has been, +one of five notes to the octave, that is to say, our modern +major scale with the fourth and seventh omitted. + +From a technical point of view, the instruments of bamboo attain +an importance above all other Chinese instruments. According +to the legend, the Pan's-pipes of bamboo regulated the tuning +of all other instruments, and as a matter of fact the pipe +giving the note F, the universal tonic, is the origin of +all measures also. For this pipe, which in China is called +the "musical foot," is at the same time a standard measure, +holding exactly twelve hundred millet seeds, and long enough +for one hundred millet seeds to stand end on end within it. + +In concluding this consideration of the music of the +Chinese, I would draw attention to the unceasing repetition +which constitutes a prominent feature in all barbarous or +semi-barbarous music. In the "Hymn of the Ancestors" this +endless play on three or four notes is very marked. + + [Figure 02] + +In other songs it is equally apparent. + + [Figure 03] etc. + + [Figure 04] + + [Figure 05] etc. + +This characteristic is met with in the music of the American +Indians, also in American street songs, in fact in all music of +a primitive nature, just as our school children draw caricatures +similar to those made by great chiefs and medicine men in the +heart of Africa, and, similarly, the celebrated "graffiti" +of the Roman soldiers were precisely of the same nature as +the beginnings of Egyptian art. In art, the child is always +a barbarian more or less, and all strong emotion acting on +a naturally weak organism or a primitive nature brings the +same result, namely, that of stubborn repetition of one idea. +An example of this is Macbeth, who, in the very height of his +passion, stops to juggle with the word "sleep," and in spite +of the efforts of his wife, who is by far the more civilized +of the two, again and again recurs to it, even though he +is in mortal danger. When Lady Macbeth at last breaks down, +she also shows the same trait in regard to her bloodstained +hands. It is not so far from Scotland to the Polar regions, +and there we find that when Kane captured a young Eskimo and +kept him on his ship, the only sign of life the prisoner gave +was to sing over and over to himself the following: + + [Figure 06] + +Coming back again to civilization, we find Tennyson's Elaine, in +her grief, repeating, incessantly the words, "Must I then die." + +The music of the Siamese, Burmese, Javanese, and Japanese has +much in common with that of the Chinese, the difference between +the first two and the last named being mainly in the absence +of the _king_, or musical stones, or rather the substitution +of sets of drums in place of it. For instance, the Burmese +drum-organ, as it is called, consists of twenty-one drums +of various sizes hung inside a great hoop. Their gong-organ +consists of fifteen or more gongs of different sizes strung +inside a hoop in the same manner. The player takes his place +in the middle of the hoop and strikes the drums or gongs +with a kind of stick. These instruments are largely used in +processions, being carried by two men, just as a sedan chair is +borne; the player, in order to strike all the gongs and bells, +must often walk backwards, or strike them behind his back. + +In Javanese and Burmese music these sets of gongs and drums are +used incessantly, and form a kind of high-pitched, sustained +tone beneath which the music is played or sung. + +In Siamese music the wind instruments have a prominent +place. After having heard the Siamese Royal Orchestra a number +of times in London, I came to the conclusion that the players +on the different instruments _improvise_ their parts, the only +rule being the general character of the melodies to be played, +and the finishing together. The effect of the music was that +of a contrapuntal nightmare, hideous to a degree which one who +has not heard it cannot conceive. Berlioz, in his "Soirées de +l'orchestre," well described its effect when he said: + + "After the first sensation of horror which one cannot + repress, one feels impelled to laugh, and this hilarity + can only be controlled by leaving the hall. So long + as these impossible sounds continue, the fact of their + being gravely produced, and in all sincerity _admired_ + by the players, makes the 'concert' appear inexpressibly + 'comic.'" + +The Japanese had the same Buddhistic disregard for euphony, +but they have adopted European ideas in music and are rapidly +becoming occidentalized from a musical point of view. Their +principal instruments are the _koto_ and the _samisen_. The +former is similar to the Chinese _che_, and is a kind of large +zither with thirteen strings, each having a movable bridge by +means of which the pitch of the string may be raised or lowered. +The _samisen_ is a kind of small banjo, and probably originated +in the Chinese _kin_. + +From Buddhism to sun worship, from China to Peru and Mexico, +is a marked change, but we find strange resemblances in the +music of these peoples, seeming almost to corroborate the +theory that the southern American races may be traced back to +the extreme Orient. We remember that in the Chinese sacred +chants--"official" music as one may call it--all the notes +were of exactly the same length. Now Garcilaso de la Vega +(1550), in his "Commentarios Reales," tells us that unequal +time was unknown in Peru, that all the notes in a song were +of exactly the same length. He further tells us that in his +time the voice was but seldom heard in singing, and that +all the songs were played on the flute, the words being so +well known that the melody of the flute immediately suggested +them. The Peruvians were essentially a pipe race, while, on the +other hand, the instruments of the Mexicans were of the other +extreme, all kinds of drums, copper gongs, rattles, musical +stones, cymbals, bells, etc., thus completing the resemblance +to Chinese art. In Prescott's "Conquest of Peru" we may read +of the beautiful festival of Raymi, or adoration of the sun, +held at the period of the summer solstice. It describes how the +Inca and his court, followed by the whole population of the +city, assembled at early dawn in the great square of Cuzco, +and how, at the appearance of the first rays of the sun, +a great shout would go up, and thousands of wind instruments +would break forth into a majestic song of adoration. That the +Peruvians were a gentler nation than the Mexicans can be seen +from their principal instrument, the pipe. + +While it has been strenuously denied that on such occasions +human sacrifices were offered in Peru, the Mexicans, that race +whose principal instruments were drums and brass trumpets, +not only held such sacrifices, but, strange to say, held +them in honour of a kind of god of music, Tezcatlipoca. This +festival was the most important in Mexico, and took place +at the temple or "teocalli," a gigantic, pyramid-like mass +of stone, rising in terraces to a height of eighty-six feet +above the city, and culminating in a small summit platform +upon which the long procession of priests and victims could +be seen from all parts of the city. Once a year the sacrifice +was given additional importance, for then the most beautiful +youth in Mexico was chosen to represent the god himself. For +a year before the sacrifice he was dressed as Tezcatlipoca, +in royal robes and white linen, with a helmet-like crown of +sea shells with white cocks' plumes, and with an anklet hung +with twenty gold bells as a symbol of his power, and he was +married to the most beautiful maiden in Mexico. The priests +taught him to play the flute, and whenever the people heard +the sound of it they fell down and worshipped him. + +The account may be found in Bancroft's great work on the +"Native Races of the Pacific," also Sahagun's "Nueva España +and Bernal Diaz," but perhaps the most dramatic description +is that by Rowbotham: + + And when the morning of the day of sacrifice arrived, + he was taken by water to the Pyramid Temple where he + was to be sacrificed, and crowds lined the banks of the + river to see him in the barge, sitting in the midst of + his beautiful companions. When the barge touched the + shore, he was taken away from those companions of his + forever, and was delivered over to a band of priests, + exchanging the company of beautiful women for men + clothed in black mantles, with long hair matted with + blood--their ears also were mangled. These conducted + him to the steps of the pyramid, and he was driven + up amidst a crowd of priests, with drums beating and + trumpets blowing. As he went up he broke an earthen + flute on every step to show that his love, and his + delights were over. And when he reached the top, he was + sacrificed on an altar of jasper, and the signal that + the sacrifice was completed was given to the multitudes + below by the rolling of the great sacrificial drum.[04] + + +[02] _Kong_. His disciples called him _Fu Tsee_, or "the + master"; Jesuit missionaries Latinized this to Confucius. + +[03] The Chinese theatre has been called an unconscious + parody of our old-fashioned Italian opera, and there + are certainly many resemblances. In a Chinese play, + when the situation becomes tragic, or when one of the + characters is seized with some strong emotion, it finds + vent in a kind of aria. The dialogue is generally given + in the most monotonous manner possible--using only + high throat and head tones, occasionally lowering or + raising the voice on a word, to express emotion. This + monotonous, and to European ears, strangely nonchalant, + nasal recitative, is being continually interrupted by + gong pounding and the shrill, high sound of discordant + reed instruments. When one or more of the characters + commits suicide (which as we know is an honoured custom + in China) he sings--or rather whines--a long chant before + he dies, just as his western operatic colleagues do, as, + for instance, Edgar in "Lucia di Lammermoor" and even, + to come nearer home, Siegfried in "Götterdämmerung." + +[04] This drum was made of serpents' skins, and the sound of + it was so loud that it could be heard eight miles away. + + + + +VI + +THE MUSIC OF GREECE + + +The first name of significance in Greek music is that of +Homer. The hexameters of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" were +quite probably chanted, but the four-stringed lyre which we +associate with the ancient Greek singers was only used for +a few preluding notes--possibly to pitch the voice of the +bard--and not during the chant itself. For whatever melody +this chant possessed, it depended entirely upon the raising +and lowering of the voice according to the accent of the words +and the dramatic feeling of the narrative. For its rhythm +it depended upon that of the hexameter, which consists of +a line of six dactyls and spondees, the line always ending +with a spondee. Really the line should end with a dactyl +([- ' ']) and a spondee ([- -]). If a line ends with two +spondees it is a spondaic hexameter. + +From this it would seem that while the pitch of the chant would +be very difficult to gauge, owing to the diversity of opinion as +to how to measure in actual sounds the effect of emotions upon +the human voice, at least the _rhythm_ of the chants would be +well defined, owing to the hexameter in which the latter were +written. Here again, however, we are cast adrift by theory, +for in practice nothing could be more misleading than such a +deduction. For instance, the following lines from Longfellow's +"Evangeline" are both in this metre, although the rhythm of +one differs greatly from that of the other. + + Wearing her Norman cap, and her kirtle of blue, and the earrings + +and + + Shielding the house from storms, on the north were the barns + and the farm-yard. + +Now if we think that these lines can be sung to the same +musical rhythm we are very far from the truth, although both +are hexameters, namely, + + [- ' ' - ' - ' ' - ' ' - ' ' - -] + + [- ' ' - ' - ' ' - ' ' - ' ' - -] + +dactyls, ending with spondee. + +Thus we see that metre in verse and rhythm in music are two +different things, although of course they both had the same +origin. + +After all has been said, it is perhaps best to admit that, so +far as Greek music is concerned, its better part certainly lay +in poetry. In ancient times all poetry was sung or chanted; it +was what I have called impassioned speech. The declamation of +"The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" constituted what was really the +"vocal" music of the poems. With the Greeks the word "music" +(_mousiké_) included all the aesthetic culture that formed part +of the education of youth; in the same general way a poet was +called a singer, and even in Roman times we find Terence, in +his "Phormio," alluding to poets as musicians. That Aeschylus +and Sophocles were not musicians, as we understand the term, +is very evident in spite of the controversies on the subject. + +Impassioned speech, then, was all that existed of vocal music, +and as such was in every way merely the audible expression of +poetry. I have no doubt that this is the explanation of the +statement that Aeschylus and Sophocles wrote what has been +termed the _music_ to their tragedies. What they really did +was to teach the chorus the proper declamation and stage +action. It is well known that at the Dionysian Festival +it was to the poet as "chorus master" that the prize was +awarded, so entirely were the arts identified one with the +other. That declamation may often reach the power of music, +it is hardly necessary to say. Among modern poets, let any +one, for instance, look at Tennyson's "Passing of Arthur" for +an example of this kind of music; the mere sound of the words +completes the picture. For instance, when Arthur is dying and +gives his sword, Excalibur, to Sir Bedivere with the command +to throw it into the mere, the latter twice fails to do so, +and returns to Arthur telling him that all he saw was + + "The water lapping on the crag + And the long ripple washing in the reeds." + +But when at last he throws it, the magic sword + + "Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon + And flashing round and round, and whirl'd in an arch + Shot like a streamer of the northern morn. + So flashed and fell the brand Excalibur." + +Again, when Sir Bedivere, carrying the dying king, stumbles +up over the icy rocks to the shore, his armour clashing +and clanking, the verse uses all the clangour of cr--ck, the +slipping s's too, and the vowel _a_ is used in all its changes; +when the shore is finally reached, the verse suddenly turns +into smoothness, the long _o_'s giving the same feeling of +breadth and calm that modern music would attempt if it treated +the same subject. + +Here are the lines: + + Dry clash'd his harness in the icy caves + And barren chasms, and all to left and right + The bare, black cliff clang'd round him as he based + His feet on juts of slippery crag that rang + Sharp-smitten with the dint of arméd heels. + And on a sudden, lo! the level lake + And the long glories of the winter moon. + +When we think of the earlier Greek plays, we must imagine +the music of the words themselves, the cadenced voices of +the protagonist or solitary performer, and the chorus, the +latter keeping up a rhythmic motion with the words. This, +I am convinced, was the extent of Greek music, so far as that +which was ascribed to the older poets is concerned. + +Instrumental music was another thing, and although we possess +no authentic examples of it, we know what its scales consisted +of and what instruments were in use. It would be interesting +to pass in review the tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles, +the odes of Sappho and Pindar, those of the latter having a +novel periodicity of form which gives force to the suggestion +that these choric dances were the forerunners of our modern +instrumental forms. + +Such matters, however, take us from our actual subject, and we +will therefore turn to Pythagoras, at Crotona, in Italy (about +500 B.C.), whom we find already laying down the rules forming +a mathematical and scientific basis for the Greek musical scale. + +More than three centuries had passed since Homer had chanted +his "Iliad" and "Odyssey," and in the course of the succeeding +fifty years some of the master spirits of the world were to +appear. When we think of Pythagoras, Gautama, Buddha, Confucius, +Aeschylus, Sophocles, Sappho, Pindar, Phidias, and Herodotus as +contemporaries--and this list might be vastly extended--it seems +as if some strange wave of ideality had poured over mankind. +In Greece, however, Pythagoras's theory of metempsychosis +(doctrine of the supposed transmigration of the soul from +one body to another) was not strong enough to make permanent +headway, and his scientific theories unhappily turned music +from its natural course into the workshop of science, from +which Aristoxenus in vain attempted to rescue it. + +At that time Homer's hexameter had begun to experience many +changes, and from the art of rhythm developed that of rhyme and +form. The old lyre, from having four strings, was developed by +Terpander, victor in the first musical contest at the feast +of Apollo Carneius, into an instrument of seven strings, to +which Pythagoras[05] added an eighth, Theophrastus a ninth, +and so on until the number of eighteen was reached. + +Flute and lyre playing had attained a high state of excellence, +for we hear that Lasus, the teacher of the poet Pindar +(himself the son of a Theban flute player), introduced into +lyre playing the runs and light passages which, until that time, +it had been thought possible to produce only on the flute. + +The dance also had undergone a wonderful development +rhythmically; for even in Homer's time we read in "The Odyssey" +of the court of Alcinoüs at Phocaea, how two princes danced +before Ulysses and played with a scarlet ball, one throwing +it high in the air, the other always catching it with his +feet off the ground; and then changing, they flung the ball +from one to the other with such rapidity that it made the +onlookers dizzy. During the play, Demidocus chanted a song, +and accompanied the dance with his lyre, the players never +losing a step. As Aristides (died 468 B.C.), speaking of +Greek music many centuries later said: "Metre is not a thing +which concerns the ear alone, for in the dance it is to be +_seen_." Even a statue was said to have silent rhythm, and +pictures were spoken of as being musical or unmusical. + +Already in Homer's time, the Cretans had six varieties of +[5/4] time to which they danced: + + [4 8 4 | 4 8 8 8 | 8 4 8 8 | 8 8 4 8 | 8 8 8 4 | 8 8 8 8 8] + [- ' - | - ' ' ' | ' - ' ' | ' ' - ' | ' ' ' - | ' ' ' ' '] + +The first was known as the Cretic foot, being in a way the model +or type from which the others were made; but the others were +called paeons. The "Hymn to Apollo" was called a paeon or paean, +for the singers danced in Cretic rhythms as they chanted it. + +There were many other dances in Greece, each having its +characteristic rhythm. For instance, the Molossian dance +consisted of three long steps, [- - -] ([3/2]); that of the +Laconians was the dactyl, [- ' '] ([4/4]), which was sometimes +reversed [' ' -] ([4/4]). In the latter form it was also the +chief dance of the Locrians, the step being called anapaest. +From Ionia came the two long and two short steps, [- - ' '], +([3/4: 4 4 8 8]), or [' ' - -] ([3/4: 8 8 4 4]), which were +called Ionic feet. The Doric steps consisted primarily of a +trochee and a spondee, [- ' - -] or [7/8] time. These values, +however, were arranged in three other different orders, namely, +[' - - - | - - ' - | - - - '] and were called the first, +second, third, or fourth epitrite, according to the positions +of the short step. The second epitrite was considered the most +distinctly Doric. + +The advent of the Dionysian[06] festivals in Greece threatened +to destroy art, for those wild Bacchic dances, which are to +be traced back to that frenzied worship of Bel and Astarte +in Babylon, wild dances amenable only to the impulse of the +moment, seemed to carry everything before them. Instead of that, +however, the hymns to Bacchus, who was called in Phoenicia +the flute god, from which the characteristics of his worship +are indicated, were the germs from which tragedy and comedy +developed, and the mad bacchanalian dances were tamed into +dithyrambs. For the Corybantes, priests of the goddess Cybele, +brought from Phrygia, in Asia Minor, the darker form of this +worship; they mourned for the death of Bacchus, who was supposed +to die in winter and to come to life again in the spring. When +these mournful hymns were sung, a goat was sacrificed on the +altar; thus the origin of the word "tragedy" or "goat song" +(_tragos_, goat, and _odos_, singer). As the rite developed, +the leader of the chorus would chant the praises of Dionysus, +and sing of his adventures, to which the chorus would make +response. In time it became the custom for the leader, +or coryphaeus, to be answered by one single member of the +chorus, the latter being thus used merely for the chanting +of commentaries on the narrative. The answerer was called +"hypocrite," afterward the term for actor. + +This was the material from which Aeschylus created the +first tragedy, as we understand the term. Sophocles (495-406 +B.C.) followed, increasing the number of actors, as did also +Euripides (480-406 B.C.). + +Comedy (_komos_, revel, and _odos_, singer) arose from the +spring and summer worship of Bacchus, when everything was a +jest and Nature smiled again. + +The dithyramb (_dithyrambos_ or Bacchic step, [- ' ' -]) +brought a new step to the dance and therefore a new element +into poetry, for all dances were choric, that is to say they +were sung as well as danced. + +Arion was the first to attempt to bring the dithyramb into +poetry, by teaching the dancers to use a slower movement and to +observe greater regularity in their various steps. The Lydian +flute, as may be supposed, was the instrument which accompanied +the dithyramb, associated with all kinds of harsh, clashing +instruments, such as cymbals, tambourines, castanets. These +Arion tried to replace by the more dignified Grecian lyre; +but it was long before this mad dance sobered down to regular +rhythm and form. From Corinth, where Arion first laboured, +we pass to Sicyon, where the taming of the dithyramb into an +art form was accomplished by Praxilla, a poetess who added a +new charm to the lilt of this Bacchic metre, namely, rhyme. + +And this newly acquired poetic wealth was in keeping with +the increasing luxury and magnificence of the cities, for +we read in Athenaeus and Diodorus that Agrigentum sent to +the Olympic games three hundred chariots, drawn by white +horses. The citizens wore garments of cloth of gold, and even +their household ornaments were of gold and silver; in their +houses they had wine cellars which contained three hundred +vats, each holding a hundred hogsheads of wine. In Sybaris +this luxury reached its height, for the Sybarites would not +allow any trade which caused a disagreeable sound, such as +that of the blacksmith, carpenter, or mason, to be carried on +in their city limits. They dressed in garments of deep purple, +tied their hair in gold threads, and the city was famed for +its incessant banqueting and merrymaking. It was such luxury +as this that Pindar found at the court of Hiero, at Syracuse, +whither Aeschylus had retired after his defeat by Sophocles +at the Dionysian Festival at Athens. + +The worship of Bacchus being at its height at that time, it may +be imagined that wine formed the principal element of their +feasts. And even as the dithyramb had been pressed into the +service of poetry, so was drinking made rhythmic by music. For +even the wine was mixed with water according to musical ratios; +for instance, the paeonic or 3 to 2, [' ' ' -] = [8 8 8 4]; +the iambic or 2 to 1, [- '] = [4 8]; dactylic or 2 to 2, +[- ' '] = [4. 8 8]. The master of the feast decided the ratio, +and a flute girl played a prescribed melody while the toast +to good fortune, which commenced every banquet, was being +drunk. By the time the last note had sounded, the great cup +should have gone round the table and been returned to the +master. And then they had the game of the cottabos, which +consisted of throwing the contents of a wine cup high in the +air in such a manner that the wine would fall in a solid mass +into a metal basin. The winner was the one who produced the +clearest musical sound from the basin. + +We see from all this that music was considered rather +a beautiful plaything or a mere colour. By itself it was +considered effeminate; therefore the early Greeks always had the +flute player accompanied by a singer, and the voice was always +used with the lyre to prevent the latter appealing directly +to the senses. The dance was corrected in the same manner; +for when we speak of Greek dances, we always mean _choric_ +dances. Perhaps the nearest approach to the effect of what +we call music was made by Aeschylus, in the last scene of his +"Persians," when Xerxes and the chorus end the play with one +continued wail of sorrow. In this instance the words take +second place, and the actual sound is depended upon for the +dramatic effect. + +The rise and fall of actual instrumental music in Greece may +be placed between 500 and 400 B.C. After the close of the +Peloponnesian War (404 B.C.), when Sparta supplanted Athens as +the leader of Greece, art declined rapidly, and at the time +of Philip of Macedon (328 B.C.) may be said to have been +practically extinct. Then, in place of the dead ashes of art, +the cold fire of science arose; for we have such men as Euclid +(300 B.C.) and his school applying mathematics to musical +sounds, and a system of cold calculation to an art that had +needed all the warmth of emotional enthusiasm to keep it alive. +Thus music became a science. Had it not been for the little +weeds of folk song which managed with difficulty to survive at +the foot of this arid dust heap, and which were destined to be +transformed and finally to bloom into such lovely flowers in +our times, we might yet have been using the art to illustrate +mathematical calculations. + +The teaching of Pythagoras was the first step in this +classification of sounds; and he went further than this, for +he also classified the _emotions_ affected by music. It was +therefore a natural consequence that in his teaching he should +forbid music of an emotional character as injurious. When he +came to Crotona, it was to a city that vied with Agrigentum, +Sybaris, and Tarentum in luxury; its chief magistrate wore +purple garments, a golden crown upon his head, and white +shoes on his feet. It was said of Pythagoras that he had +studied twelve years with the Magi in the temples of Babylon; +had lived among the Druids of Gaul and the Indian Brahmins; had +gone among the priests of Egypt and witnessed their most secret +temple rites. So free from care or passion was his face that +he was thought by the people to be Apollo; he was of majestic +presence, and the most beautiful man they had ever seen. So +the people accepted him as a superior being, and his influence +became supreme over science and art, as well as manners. + +He gave the Greeks their first scientific analysis of sound. +The legend runs that, passing a blacksmith's shop and +hearing the different sounds of the hammering, he conceived +the idea that sounds could be measured by some such means +as weight is measured by scales, or distance by the foot +rule. By weighing the different hammers, so the story goes, +he obtained the knowledge of harmonics or overtones, namely, +the fundamental, octave, fifth, third, etc. This legend, which +is stated seriously in many histories of music, is absurd, for, +as we know, the hammers would not have vibrated. The anvils +would have given the sound, but in order to produce the octave, +fifth, etc., they would have had to be of enormous proportions. +On the other hand, the monochord, with which students in physics +are familiar, was his invention; and the first mathematical +demonstrations of the effect on musical pitch of length of +cord and tension, as well as the length of pipes and force of +breath, were his. + +These mathematical divisions of the monochord, however, +eventually did more to stifle music for a full thousand years +than can easily be imagined. This division of the string +made what we call harmony impossible; for by it the major +third became a larger interval than our modern one, and the +minor third smaller. Thus thirds did not sound well together, +in fact were dissonances, the only intervals which _did_ +harmonize being the fourth, fifth, and octave. This system +of mathematically dividing tones into equal parts held good +up to the middle of the sixteenth century, when Zarlino, who +died in 1590, invented the system in use at the present time, +called the _tempered scale_, which, however, did not come into +general use until one hundred years later. + +Aristoxenus, a pupil of Aristotle, who lived more than a +century after Pythagoras, rejected the monochord as a means for +gauging musical sounds, believing that the ear, not mathematical +calculation, should be the judge as to which interval sounds +"perfect." But he was unable to formulate a system that +would bring the third (and naturally its inversion the sixth) +among the harmonizing intervals or consonants. Didymus (about +30 B.C.) first discovered that two different-sized whole +tones were necessary in order to make the third consonant; +and Ptolemy (120 A.D.) improved on this system somewhat. But +the new theory remained without any practical effect until +nearly the seventeenth century, when the long respected theory +of the perfection of mathematical calculation on the basis of +natural phenomena was overthrown in favour of actual effect. If +Aristoxenus had had followers able to combat the crushing +influence of Euclid and his school, music might have grown up +with the other arts. As it is, music is still in its infancy, +and has hardly left its experimental stage. + +Thus Pythagoras brought order into the music as well as +into the lives of people. But whereas it ennobled the +people, it killed the music, the one vent in life through +which unbounded utterance is possible; its essence is so +interwoven with spirituality that to tear it away and fetter +it with human mathematics is to lower it to the level of mere +utilitarianism. And so it was with Greek music, which was held +subordinate to metre, to poetry, to acting, and finally became +a term of contempt. Pythagoras wished to banish the flute, +as Plato also did later, and the name of flute player was used +as a reproach. I fancy this was because the flute, on account +of its construction, could ignore the mathematical divisions +prescribed for the stringed instruments, and therefore could +indulge in purely emotional music. Besides, the flute was +the chosen instrument of the orgiastic Bacchic cult, and its +associations were those of unbridled license. To be sure, the +voice was held by no mathematical restrictions as to pitch; +but its music was held in check by the words, and its metre +by dancing feet. + +Having measured the musical intervals, there still remained +the task of classifying the different manners of singing which +existed in Greece, and using all their different notes to form +a general system. For just as in different parts of Greece +there existed different dances, the steps of which were known +as Lydian, Ionian, Locrian, and Dorian feet, and so on, so the +melodies to which they were danced were known as being in the +Lydian, Ionian, Locrian, or Dorian scale or mode. In speaking +of Hindu music, I explained that what we call a mode consists +of a scale, and that one mode differs from another _only_ in +the position of the semitones in this scale. Now in ancient +Greece there were in use over fifteen different modes, each one +common to the part of the country in which it originated. At the +time of Pythagoras there were seven in general use: the Dorian, +Lydian, Aeolian or Locrian, Hypo- (or low) Lydian, Phrygian, +Hypo- (or low) Phrygian, and Mixolydian or mixed Lydian. The +invention of the latter is attributed to Sappho by Plutarch, +quoting Aristoxenus. + +These modes were all invested with individual characters +by the Greeks, just as in the present day we say our major +mode is happy, the minor sad. The Dorian mode was considered +the greatest, and, according to Plato, the only one worthy of +men. It was supposed to have a dignified, martial character. The +Lydian, on the other hand, was all softness, and love songs +were written in it. The Phrygian was of a violent, ecstatic +nature, and was considered as being especially appropriate for +dithyrambs, the metre for the wild bacchanalian dances. For +instance, Aristotle tells how Philoxenus attempted to set +dithyrambic verse to the Dorian mode, and, failing, had to +return to the Phrygian. The Mixolydian, which was Sappho's mode, +was the mode for sentiment and passion. The Dorian, Phrygian, +and Lydian were the oldest modes. + +Each mode or scale was composed of two sets of four notes, +called tetrachords, probably derived from the ancient form +of the lyre, which in Homer's time is known to have had four +strings. + +Leaving the matter of actual pitch out of the question (for +these modes might be pitched high or low, just as our major +or minor scale may be pitched in different keys), these three +modes were constructed as follows: + + Greek Dorian (E F) G A (B C) D E, + that is, semitone, tone, tone. + + / + | Phrygian D (E F) G A (B C) D, + | or F[#] (G[#] A) B C[#] (D[#] E) F[#], + Asiatic | that is, tone, semitone, tone. + | + | Lydian C D (E F) G A (B C), + \ that is, tone, tone, semitone. + +Thus we see that a tetrachord commencing with a half-tone and +followed by two whole tones was called a Dorian tetrachord; +one commencing with a tone, followed by a half-tone, and again +a tone, constituted a Phrygian tetrachord. The other modes +were as follows: In the Aeolian or Locrian the semitones occur +between the second and third notes, and the fifth and sixth: +[F: b, (c+ d) e (f+ g) a b] +Theraclides Ponticus identifies the Hypodorian with the Aeolian, +but says that the name "hypo-" merely denoted a likeness to +Doric, not to pitch. Aristoxenus denies the identity, and +says that the Hypodorian was a semitone below the Dorian or +Hypolydian. In the Hypophrygian, the semitones occur between +the third and fourth, and sixth and seventh degrees: +[F: c+ d+ (e+ f+) g+ (a+ b) c+'] +In the Hypolydian, the semitones occur between the fourth and +fifth, and seventh and eighth: [F: e- f g (a b-) c' (d' e-')] +The Dorian (E), Phrygian (commencing on F[sharp] with the fourth +sharped), and the Lydian (A[flat] major scale) modes we have +already explained. In the Mixolydian, the semitones occur +between the first and second, and fourth and fifth degrees: +[G: (a b-) c' (d' e-') f' g' a'] + +According to the best evidence (in the works of Ptolemy, +"Harmonics," second book, and Aristides), these were +approximately the actual pitch of the modes as compared one +to another. + +And now the difficulty was to weld all these modes together +into one scale, so that all should be represented and yet not +be complicated by what we should call accidentals. This was +accomplished in the following manner, by simple mathematical +means: + +We remember that the Dorian, which was the most greatly +favoured mode in Greece, was divided into two tetrachords of +exactly the same proportions, namely, semitone, tone, tone. By +taking the lowest note of the Mixolydian, B, and forming a +Dorian tetrachord on it, B C D E were acquired. Adding to this +another Dorian tetrachord, E F G A (commencing on the last note +of the first), and repeating the same series of tetrachords +an octave higher, we have in all four Dorian tetrachords, +two of which overlap the others. The two middle tetrachords, +constituting the original Dorian mode, were called _disjunct_, +the two outer ones which overlap the middle ones were called +_conjunct_ or _synemmenon_ tetrachords. + +If we consider this new scale from octave to octave, commencing +with the lowest note, that is to say from B to B, we find that +it coincides exactly with the Mixolydian mode; therefore this +was called the Mixolydian octave. The octave in this scale +from the second note, C to C, coincides exactly with the Lydian +mode, and was called the Lydian octave; from the third note, D, +up to its octave gives the Phrygian; from the fourth note, E, +the Dorian; from the fifth, F, the Hypolydian; from the sixth, +G, the Hypophrygian; and from the seventh, A, the Aeolian +or Hypodorian octave. Add one note to the lower end of this +universal Greek scale, as it was called, and we see that the +whole tonal system was included within two octaves. To each of +the notes comprising it was given a name partly derived from +its position in the tetrachords, and partly from the fingering +employed in lyre playing, as shown in the diagram on page 87. + +The fifteen strings of the _kithara_ were tuned according to +this scale, and the A, recurring three times in it, acquired +something of the importance of a tonic or key note. As yet, +however, this scale allowed of no transposition of a mode to +another pitch; in order to accomplish this the second tetrachord +was used as the first of another similar system. Thus, +considering the second tetrachord, E F G A, as first of the +new scale, it would be followed by A B[flat] C D, and the +two disjunct tetrachords would be formed. Followed by the two +upper conjunct tetrachords, and the _proslambanómenos_ added, +our system on a new pitch would be complete. This procedure +has come down almost unchanged to our times; for we have but +two modes, major and minor, which are used on every pitch, +constituting various keys. These Greek modes are the basis +on which all our modern ideas of tonality rest; for our major +mode is simply the Greek Lydian, and our minor mode the Aeolian. + + +LIST OF NOTES IN THE GREEK SCALE + + disjunct +Aeolian. [G: a'] +- A. Nete, or highest. ---+ +Hypophrygian. +-| G. Páranete, next highest. | +Hypolydian. +-| | F. Trite, third. | +Dorian. +-| | | E. Néte, highest. ---+ conjunct +Phrygian. +-| | | | D. Páranéte, next highest. ---+ ---+ +Lydian. +-| | | | | C. Trite, third. | | +Mixolydian. +-| | | | | | B. Paramese, next to central tone | | + | | | | | | +- A. Mese, central tone. ---+ ===+ + | | | | | +--- G. Líchanos, index finger. | + | | | | +----- F. Parhýpate, next to lowest. | + | | | +------- E. Hýpate, lowest. ===+ + | | +--------- D. Líchanos, index. | + | +----------- C. Parhýpate, next to lowest. | + +------------- B. Hýpate, lowest. ---+ + [F: a,] A. Proslambanómenos, added tone. + +To go into detailed explanation of the Greek enharmonic +and chromatic pitch will scarcely be worth while, and I will +therefore merely add that the instruments were sometimes tuned +differently, either to relieve the inevitable monotony of this +purely diatonic scale or for purposes of modulation. A Dorian +tetrachord is composed of semitone, tone, tone; to make it +chromatic, it was changed as follows: [G: e' f' g-' a'] the +_líchanos_, or index finger string, being lowered a semitone. + +The enharmonic pitch consisted of tuning the _líchanos_ down +still further, almost a quarter-tone below the second string, +or _parhýpate_, thus making the tetrachord run quarter-tone, +quarter-tone, two tones. Besides this, even in the diatonic, +the Greeks used what they called soft intervals; for example, +when the tetrachord, instead of proceeding by semitone, tone, +tone (which system was called the hard diatonic), was tuned +to semitone, three-quarter-tone, and tone and a quarter. The +chromatic pitch also had several forms, necessitating the use +of small fractional tones as well as semitones. + +Our knowledge of the musical notation of the Greeks rests +entirely on the authority of Alypius, and dates from about the +fourth century A.D. That we could not be absolutely sure of +the readings of ancient Greek melodies, even if we possessed +any, is evident from the fact that these note characters, +which at first were derived from the signs of the zodiac, +and later from the letters of the alphabet, indicate only the +relative pitch of the sounds; the rhythm is left entirely to +the metrical value of the words in the lines to be sung. Two +sets of signs were used for musical notation, the vocal system +consisting of writing the letters of the alphabet in different +positions, upside down, sideways, etc. + +Of the instrumental system but little is known, and that +not trustworthy. + + +[05] The fundamental doctrine of the Pythagorean philosophy + was that the essence of all things rests upon musical + relations, that numbers are the principle of all that + exists, and that the world subsists by the rhythmical + order of its elements. The doctrine of the "Harmony of + the spheres" was based on the idea that the celestial + spheres were separated from each other by intervals + corresponding with the relative length of strings + arranged so as to produce harmonious tones. + +[06] Dionysus, the same as the Roman Bacchus. + + + + +VII + +THE MUSIC OF THE ROMANS--THE EARLY CHURCH + + +The art history of the world makes it clear to us that when +the art of a country turns to over-elaboration of detail +and mechanical dexterity, when there is a general tendency +toward vividness of _impression_ rather than poignancy and +vitality of _expression_, then we have the invariable sign +of that decadence which inevitably drifts into revolution +of one kind or another. Lasus (500 B.C.), who, as previously +mentioned, was a great flute and lyre player as well as poet, +betrays this tendency, which reached its culmination under the +Romans. Lasus was more of a virtuoso than a poet; he introduced +into Greece a new and florid style of lyre and harp playing; +and it was he who, disliking the guttural Dorian pronunciation +of the letter S, wrote many of his choric poems without using +this letter once in them. Pindar, his pupil, followed in his +footsteps. In many of his odes we find intricate metrical +devices; for instance, the first line of most of the odes +is so arranged metrically that the same order of accents is +maintained whether the line be read backward or forward, the +short and long syllables falling into exactly the same places in +either case. The line "Hercules, the patron deity of Thebes," +may be taken as an example, [(- ' ' ' - )'( - ' ' ' -)]. Such +devices occur all through his poems. We find in them also that +magnificence of diction which is the forerunner of "virtuosity"; +for he speaks of his song as "a temple with pillars of gold, +gold that glitters like blazing fire in the night time." + +In the hands of Aristophanes (450-380 B.C.), the technique +of poetry continued to advance. In "The Frogs," "The +Wasps," and "The Birds" are to be found marvels of skill in +onomatopoetic[07] verse. His comedies called for many more +actors than the tragedies had required, and the chorus was +increased from fifteen to twenty-four. Purple skins were +spread across the stage, and the _parabasis_ (or topical song) +and satire vied with the noble lines of Aeschylus and Sophocles +for favour with the public. + +Meanwhile, as might have been expected, instrumental music +became more and more independent, and musicians, especially +the flute players, prospered; for we read in Suidas that they +were much more proficient and sought after than the lyre and +kithara players. When they played, they stood in a conspicuous +place in the centre of the audience. Dressed in long, feminine, +saffron-coloured robes, with veiled faces, and straps round +their cheeks to support the muscles of the mouth, they exhibited +the most startling feats of technical skill. Even women became +flute players, although this was considered disgraceful. +The Athenians even went so far that they built a temple to the +flute player Lamia, and worshipped her as Venus. The prices +paid to these flute players surpassed even those given to +virtuosi in modern times, sometimes amounting to more than +one thousand dollars a day, and the luxury in which they lived +became proverbial. + +During this period, Aristophanes of Alexandria (350 B.C.), +called "the grammarian," devised a means for indicating the +inflection of the voice in speaking, by which the cadences +which orators found necessary in impassioned speech could be +classified, at least to some extent. When the voice was to fall, +a downward stroke [\] was placed above the syllable; when the +voice was to be raised, an upward stroke [/] indicated it; +and when the voice was to rise and fall, the sign was [/\], +which has become our accent in music. These three signs are +found in the French language, in the accent _aigu_, or high +accent, as in _passé_; the accent _grave_, or low accent, +as in _sincère_; or _circonflexe_, as in _Phâon_. The use of +dots[08] for punctuation is also ascribed to Aristophanes; +and our dots in musical notation, as well as the use of commas +to indicate breathings, may be traced to this system. + +As I have said, all this tended toward technical skill and +analysis; what was lacking in inventive power it was sought +to cover by wonderful execution. The mania for flute playing, +for instance, seemed to spread all over the world; later we +even hear that the king of Egypt, Ptolemy Auletes (80-51 B.C.), +Cleopatra's father, was nicknamed "the flute player." + +In Rome, this lack of poetic vitality seemed evident from the +beginning; for while Greece was represented by the tragedy +and comedy, the Romans' preference was for mere pantomime, +a species of farce of which they possessed three kinds: +(1) The simple pantomime without chorus, in which the actors +made the plot clear to the audience by means of gestures and +dancing. (2) Another which called for a band of instrumental +musicians on the stage to furnish an accompaniment to the +acting of the pantomimist. (3) The chorus pantomime, in +which the chorus and the orchestra were placed on the stage, +supplementing the gestures of the actors by singing a narrative +of the plot of the pantomime, and playing on their instruments. +The latter also were expressive of the non-ideal character of +the pantomime, as is indicated by the fact that the orchestra +was composed of cymbals, gongs, castanets, foot castanets, +rattles, flutes, bagpipes, gigantic lyres, and a kind of shell +or crockery cymbals, which were clashed together. + +The Roman theatre itself was not a place connected with the +worship of the gods, as it was with the Greeks. The altar +to Dionysus had disappeared from the centre of the orchestra, +and the chorus, or rather the band, was placed upon the stage +with the actors. The bagpipe now appears for the first time in +musical history, although there is some question as to whether +it was not known to the Assyrians. It represents, perhaps, the +only remnant of Roman music that has survived, for the modern +Italian peasants probably play in much the same way as did their +forefathers. The Roman pipes were bound with brass, and had +about the same power of tone as was obtained from the trumpet. + +It is easy to see that an orchestra thus constituted would +be better adapted for making a great noise than for music, +while the pantomime itself was of such a brutal nature that +the degradation of art may be said to have been complete. As +the decay of art in Egypt culminated under Ptolemy Auletes, +so in Rome it culminated in the time of Caligula (12-41 A.D.), +and Nero (37-68 A.D.). + +The latter, as we learn from Suetonius, competed for prizes +in the public musical contests, and was never without a slave +at his elbow to warn him against straining his voice. In +his love of magnificence he resembled a Greek flute player, +with unbounded means to gratify it. His palace, the "Golden +House," had triple porticos a mile in length, and enclosed +a lake surrounded by buildings which had the appearance of a +city. Within its area were corn fields, vineyards, pastures, +and woods containing many animals, both wild and tame. In +other parts it was entirely overlaid with gold, and adorned +with jewels and mother-of-pearl. The porch was so high that +a colossal statue of himself, one hundred and twenty feet +in height, stood in it. The supper rooms were vaulted, and +compartments of the ceiling, inlaid with ivory, were made to +revolve and scatter flowers; they also contained pipes which +shed perfumes upon the guests. + +When the revolt under Vindex broke out (68 A.D.), a new +instrument had just been brought to Rome. Tertullian, Suetonius, +and Vitruvius agree in calling it an organ. This instrument, +which was the invention of Ctesibus of Alexandria, consisted +of a set of pipes through which the air was made to vibrate +by means of a kind of water pump operated by iron keys. It +was undoubtedly the direct ancestor of our modern organ. Nero +intended to introduce these instruments into the Roman theatre. +In planning for his expedition against Vindex, his first +care was to provide carriages for his musical instruments; +for his intention was to sing songs of triumph after having +quelled the revolt. He publicly vowed that if his power in the +state were reestablished, he would include a performance upon +organs as well as upon flutes and bagpipes, in the exhibitions +he intended to institute in honour of his success. + +From a musical point of view, Suetonius's biography of Nero +is interesting chiefly on account of its giving us glimpses +of the life of a professional musician of those days. We read, +together with many other details, that it was the custom for a +singer to lie on his back, with a sheet of lead upon his breast, +to correct unsteadiness in breathing, and to abstain from food +for two days together to clear his voice, often denying himself +fruit and sweet pastry. The degraded state of the theatre may +well be imagined from the fact that under Nero the custom of +hiring professional applause was instituted. After his death, +which is so dramatically told by Suetonius, music never revived +in Rome. + +In the meanwhile, however, a new kind of music had begun; +in the catacombs and underground vaults, the early Christians +were chanting their first hymns. Like all that we call "new," +this music had its roots in the old. The hymns sung by the +Christians were mainly Hebrew temple songs, strangely changed +into an uncouth imitation of the ancient Greek drama or worship +of Dionysus; for example, Philo of Alexandria, as well as Pliny +the Younger, speaks of the Christians as accompanying their +songs with gestures, and with steps forward and backward. This +Greek influence is still further implied by the order of one +of the earliest of the Church fathers, Clement of Alexandria +(about 300 A.D.), who forbade the use of the chromatic style in +the hymns, as tending too much toward paganism. Some writers +even go so far as to identify many of the Christian myths and +symbols with those of Greece. For instance, they see, in the +story of Daniel in the lions' den, another form of the legend of +Orpheus taming the wild beasts; in Jonah, they recognize Arion +and the dolphin; and the symbol of the Good Shepherd, carrying +home the stray lamb on his shoulders, is considered another +form of the familiar Greek figure of Hermes carrying the goat. + +Be this as it may, it is certain that this crude beginning +of Christian music arose from a vital necessity, and was +accompanied by an indomitable faith. If we look back, we note +that until now music had either been the servant of ignoble +masters, looked upon as a mathematical problem to be solved +scientifically, or used according to methods prescribed by +the state. It had been dragged down to the lowest depths of +sensuality by the dance, and its divine origin forgotten in +lilting rhythms and soft, lulling rhymes. + +On the other hand, the mathematicians, in their cold +calculation, reduced music to the utilitarianism of algebra, +and even viewed it as a kind of medicine for the nerves and +mind. When we think of the music of Pythagoras and his school, +we seem to be in a kind of laboratory in which all the tones +are labelled and have their special directions for use. For +the legend runs that he composed melodies in the diatonic, +chromatic, and enharmonic styles as antidotes for moods such +as anger, fear, sorrow, etc., and invented new rhythms which +he used to steady and strengthen the mind, and to produce +simplicity of character in his disciples. He recommended that +every morning, after rising, they should play on the lyre and +sing, in order to clear the mind. It was inevitable that this +half mathematical, half psychologically medicinal manner of +treating music would, in falling into the hands of Euclid +(300 B.C.) and his school, degenerate into a mere peg on +which to hang mathematical theorems. On the other hand, when +we think of Greek dances, we seem to pass into the bright, +warm sunshine. We see graceful figures holding one another by +the wrist, dancing in a circle around some altar to Dionysus, +and singing to the strange lilt of those unequal measures. We +can imagine the scheme of colour to be white and gold, framed +by the deep-blue arch of the sky, the amethyst sea flecked +with glittering silver foam, and the dark, sombre rocks of the +Cretan coast bringing a suggestion of fate into this dancing, +soulless vision. Turning now to Rome, we see that this same +music has fallen to a wretched slave's estate, cowering in some +corner until the screams of Nero's living torches need to be +drowned; and then, with brazen clangour and unabashed rhythms, +this brutal music flaunts forth with swarms of dancing slaves, +shrilling out the praises of Nero; and the time for successful +revolution is at hand. + +The first steps toward actually defining the new music took +place in the second century, when the Christians were free to +worship more openly, and, having wealthy converts among them, +held their meetings in public places and basilicas which were +used by magistrates and other officials during the day. These +basilicas or public halls had a raised platform at one end, on +which the magistrate sat when in office. There were steps up to +it, and on these steps the clergy stood. The rest of the hall +was called the "nave" (ship), for the simile of "storm-tossed +mariners" was always dear to the early Christian church. In the +centre of the nave stood the reader of the Scriptures, and on +each side of him, ranged along the wall, were the singers. The +Psalms were sung antiphonally, that is, first one side would +sing and the other side would answer. The congregations +were sometimes immense, for according to St. Jerome (340-420 +A.D.) and St. Ambrose (340-397 A.D.) "the roofs reechoed with +their cries of 'Alleluia,' which in sound were like the great +waves of the surging sea." + +Nevertheless this was, as yet, only sound, and not music. Not +until many centuries later did music become distinct from +chanting, which is merely intoned _speech_. The disputes +of the Arians and the Athanasians also affected the music of +the church, for as early as 306 A.D., Arius introduced many +secular melodies, and had them sung by women. + +Passing over this, we find that the first actual arrangement +of Christian music into a regular system was attempted by Pope +Sylvester, in 314 A.D., when he instituted singing schools, +and when the heresy of Arius was formally condemned. + +Now this chanting or singing of hymns was more or less a +declamation, thus following the Greek tradition of using one +central note, somewhat in the nature of a keynote. + +Rhythm, distinct melody, and even metre were avoided as +retaining something of the unclean, brutal heathenism against +which the Christians had revolted. It was the effort to keep +the music of the church pure and undefiled that caused the +Council of Laodicea (367 A.D.) to exclude from the church all +singing not authorized from the pulpit. + +A few years later (about 370 A.D.) Ambrose, the Archbishop +of Milan, strove to define this music more clearly, by fixing +upon the modes that were to be allowed for these chants; for +we must remember that all music was still based upon the Greek +modes, the modern major and minor being as yet unknown. In the +course of time the ancient modes had become corrupted, and the +modes that Ambrose took for his hymns were therefore different +from those known in Greece under the same names. His Dorian +is what the ancients called Phrygian, [G: d' d''] dominant, +A; his Phrygian was the ancient Dorian, [G: e' e''] dominant, +C; his Lydian corresponded to the old Hypolydian, [G: f' f''] +dominant, C; and his Mixolydian to the old Hypophrygian, +[G: g' g''] dominant, D. These modes were accepted by the +church and were called the Authentic modes. + +Almost two centuries later, Gregory the Great added four +more modes, which were called Plagal or side modes (from +_plagios_--oblique). These were as follows: + + (Keynote) + + Hypodorian, [G: a (d') a' ] dominant, F. + Hypophrygian, [G: c (e') b' ] dominant, A. + Hypolydian, [G: c' (f') c''] dominant, A. + Hypo-mixolydian, [G: d' (g') d''] dominant, C. + +It is easy to see that these so-called new modes are simply +new versions of the first four; although they are lowered a +fourth beneath the authentic modes (hence the _hypo_), the +_keynote remains the same_ in each instance. Still later two +more modes were added to this list, the Ionic, [G: c' c''] +dominant, G, which corresponded to the ancient Greek Lydian; +and the Aeolian, [G: a' a''] dominant, E, which, strange to say, +was the only one of these newer modes which corresponded to +its Greek namesake. Naturally these two newly admitted modes +were also accompanied by their lower pitched attendant modes, +the Hypoionic, [G: g (c') g'] dominant, E, and the Hypoaeolian, +[G: e' (a') e''] dominant, C. + + +SUMMARY + + Mode. Key. Dominant. + + Dorian. D A + Hypodorian. D F + Phrygian. E C + Hypophrygian. E A + Lydian. F C + Hypolydian. F A + Mixolydian. G D + Hypo-mixolydian. G C + Aeolian. A E + Hypoaeolian. A C + Ionian. C G + Hypoionian. C E + + + Dominants + + [G: a' f' c' {a (a')} c' a d' c' e' c' g' e'] + +Now all these lower, or derived modes, Hypodorian, Hypophrygian, +Hypolydian, etc., received the name Plagal modes, because +there was but one tonic or keynote in the scale; consequently +a melody starting on any degree of the scale would invariably +return to the same tonic or keynote. They differed from the +authentic modes, inasmuch as in the latter a melody might end +either on the upper or lower tonic or keynote. Thus the melody +itself was said to be either authentic or plagal, according +to whether it had one or two tonics. The theme of Schumann's +"Etudes symphoniques" is authentic, and the first variation +is plagal. + +Between the sixth and tenth centuries there was much confusion +as to the placing of these modes, but they finally stood as +given above. The Greek names were definitely accepted in the +eleventh century, or thereabouts; previously, they were known +also as the first, second, third, etc., up to the twelfth, +church tones or Gregorian modes. + +At this point it is necessary to refer again to Ambrose. +Apart from having brought the first four authentic modes +into church music, he composed many hymns which had this +peculiarity, namely, that they were modelled more on the actual +declamation of the words to be sung than had hitherto been +the case. We are told that his chants--to use the phrase of +his contemporary, Francis of Cologne--were "all for sweetness +and melodious sound"; and St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.), +speaks of them with ecstasy. The words in these hymns were +used in connection with small groups of notes; consequently +they could be understood as they were sung, thus returning +in a measure to the character of the music of the ancients, +in which the word and declamation were of greater importance +than the actual sounds which accompanied them. But now a +strange thing was to happen that was to give us a new art. +Now, at last, music was to be separated from language and dance +rhythms, and stand alone for the first time in the history of +civilization as _pure music_. + +To appreciate the change made by Gregory (540-604 A.D.), it is +necessary to bear in mind the state of the church just before +his time. As the Ambrosian chant had brought something of the +old declamation and sweetness back into the church ceremonial, +so also in the church itself there was a tendency to sink +back into the golden shimmer that had surrounded the ancient +pagan rites. Already Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch (260 +A.D.), had striven to bring a certain Oriental magnificence +into the church ceremonials. He had a canopied throne erected +for himself, from which he would address his congregation; +he introduced applause into the church, after the fashion of +the Roman theatres; he also had a chorus of women singers, who, +as Eusebius tells us, sang not the Christian hymns, but pagan +tunes. Later, in Constantinople, even this luxury and pomp +increased; the churches had domes of burnished gold, and had +become gigantic palaces, lit by thousands of lamps. The choir, +dressed in glittering robes, was placed in the middle of the +church, and these singers began to show the same fatal sign +of decadence that we saw before in Rome and Greece. According +to St. Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.), they used unguents on their +throats in order to make the voice flexible, for by this time +the singing had become a mere vehicle for virtuosity; when +they sang their _tours de force_, the people applauded and +waved their handkerchiefs, as they did also when the preaching +pleased them. The pagans pointed the finger of scorn at the +Christians, as being mere renegades from the old religion, +and said, plausibly enough, that their worship was merely +another form of the Dionysus tragedy. There was the same altar, +the same chorus, the priest who sang and was answered by the +chorus; and the resemblance had grown to such an extent that +St. Chrysostom (350 A.D.) complained that the church chorus +accompanied its singing with theatrical gestures, which, +as we know, is simply the first step towards the dance. + +This was the state of things when Gregory became Pope in +590 A.D. His additions to the modes already in use have been +explained. His great reform lay in severing the connection +between the music of the church and that of the pagan world +before it. Casting aside the declamation and rhythm, which +up to now had always dominated pure sound, he abolished the +style of church singing in vogue, and substituted for it a +system of chanting in which every tie between the words and +music was severed. + +The music was certainly primitive enough, for it consisted +merely of a rising and falling of the voice for the space of +many notes on one single syllable, as, for instance, + + [F: (f g f g a a) a (a a a g a g g f a)] + [W: Gloria] + +The difference between this and the Ambrosian chant is evident +if we look at the following; and we must also bear in mind +that the Ambrosian chants were very simple in comparison with +the florid _tours de force_ of the Byzantine church: + + [F: d (d f) (d e) f | (g f) (g a) a | (a g) a c' d'] + [W: Al me pater | Ambrosi, | nostras, preces,] + [F: (a b) a | a g a f e d] + [W: audi | Christe, exaudinos] + +Now this reform could not be carried out at once; it was +only through the medium of Charlemagne (742-814 A.D.), +a hundred years later, that the Gregorian chant was firmly +established. Authorized by a synod of bishops, called together +from all parts of Europe by Pope Adrian I, Charlemagne, in +774, caused all the chant and hymn books of the Ambrosian +system throughout Italy to be burned. So completely was +this accomplished that only one Ambrosian missal was found +(by St. Eugenius at Milan), and from this work alone can we +form any idea as to the character of the music used by the +followers of Ambrose, who were much retarded by the lack of +a musical notation, which was the next factor needed to bring +music to an equality with the other arts. + + +[07] Imitating the sound of the thing signified. Poe's + "Raven" has much of this character. + +[08] [over-dot]c, perfect pause; c[mid-dot], short; c., shortest; + breathings: [reverse-apostrophe] hard; ' soft. + + + + +VIII + +FORMATION OF THE SCALE--NOTATION + + +In comparing the Ambrosian chant with that of Gregory, it +may be said that we have touched upon the vital principle of +modern music. The novelty in the Gregorian chant consisted in +its absolute emancipation from the tyranny of actual words +and declamation; while the idea, the poetic principle, or +religious ecstasy still remained the ideal to be expressed in +the music. Before this, as already explained, music was either +a mathematical problem, a rhythm to mark the time in dancing, +or a vehicle serving for the display of clever _tours de force_, +the music of the tragedies being merely a kind of melodious +declamation. To quote Goethe, "having recognized the fact, +it still remains for us to see how it developed." Let us now +consider this point. + +Three things were necessary before these Gregorian chants +could develop at all: (1) A simple, clean-cut musical scale +or systematized table of musical sounds. (2) Some definite +manner of symbolizing sounds, so that they could be accurately +expressed in writing. (3) A cultivation of the sense of +hearing, in order that mankind might learn to distinguish +between sounds that are discordant and those that sound well +together; in other words, harmony. + +We will begin with the scale, and review what we know of the +Greek modes in order to show how they were amalgamated into +our present octave system of scales. + + [Tetrachords /------|-----\ /-------|--------\ ] + [ F: b, c d e f g a G: b c' d' e' f' g' a'] + [Mixolydian \--+-+-+-+-+-+----/ | | | | | | ] + [Lydian \-+-+-+-+-+------/ | | | | | ] + [Phrygian \-+-+-+-+---------/ | | | | ] + [Dorian \-+-+-+------------/ | | | ] + [Hypolydian \-+-+---------------/ | | ] + [Hypophrygian \-+------------------/ | ] + [Aeolian or Locrian or Hypodorian \---------------------/ ] + [Notes labelled from highest to lowest: Nete, Páranete, Trite, + Nete, Páranete, Trite, Paramese, Mese, Líchanos, Parhýpate, + Hýpate, Líchanos, Parhýpate, Hýpate, [F: a,] Proslambanómenos.] + +Under Ambrose and Pope Gregory, these modes had taken a +different form. The chromatic and enharmonic styles had been +abandoned in theory, the portamento which the singers introduced +into their chants being the only principle retained. The new +system was as follows: + + [F8: g, a, b, G8: c d e f g a b c' d' e' f' g' a'] + [First nine notes labelled: + Hypoion., Hypodor., Hypophryg., Hypolyd./Ionian, + Hypo-mixolyd./Dorian, Hypoaeol./Phryg., Lyd., Mixolyd., Aeol.] + +In order to complete the story of the evolution of scales and +clefs, we must add that the Flemish monk, Hucbald (900 A.D.), +divided this scale into regular tetrachords, beginning at +G, with the succession, tone, semitone, tone, forming four +disjunct tetrachords, + + [F: (g, a, b-, c) (d e f g) (a b c' d') G: (e' f+' g' a')] + +This division remained without influence on the development +of the scale. + +The first change in the _tetrachord_ system of reckoning +tones and dividing the scale was made by Guido d'Arezzo (first +half of eleventh century), who divided it into hexachords or +groups of six notes each. Up to that time, each note of the +scale had had a letter of the alphabet for its symbol. It was +Guido who conceived the idea of using syllables for these +notes. The story of how it occurred to him is well known: +On one occasion, hearing his brethren in the monastery choir +of Arezzo, in Tuscany, sing a hymn to St. John the Baptist, he +noticed that the first syllable of each line came on regularly +ascending notes of the scale, the first syllable coming on C, +the first of the next line on D, the first of the third on E, +etc., up to A on the sixth line. As all these syllables happened +to differ one from the other, and, moreover, were very easy +to sing, he hit upon the idea of using them to distinguish +the notes on which they fell in the hymn. + + [F: c d f (d e) d | d d c d e e ] + [W: _Ut_ queant laxis | _Re_sonare fibris ] + [F: (e f g) e (d e) c d | f g a (g f) d d] + [W: _Mi_ra gestorum | _Fa_muli tuorum ] + [F: (g a g) e f g d | a g a f (g a) a | (g f) d c e d ] + [W: _Sol_ve polluti | _La_bii reatum | Sancte Joannes] + +Furthermore, as there were six of these syllables, he arranged +the musical scale in groups of six notes instead of four, +hexachords instead of tetrachords. Commencing with G, which +was the lowest note of the system in Hucbald's time, the first +hexachord was formed of G A B C D E; the second, following the +example of the Greeks, he made to overlap the first, namely, +C D E F G A; the third, likewise overlapping the second, +commenced on F. In order to make this hexachord identical +in structure with, the first and second, he flatted the B, +thus making the succession of notes, F G A B[flat] C D. The +next three hexachords were repetitions of the first three, +namely, G A B C D E, C D E F G A, F G A B[flat] C D; the last +was again a repetition of the first, G A B C D E. + + +THE GAMUT. + +[F: g, a, b, c d e c d e f g a f g a b- c' d' ] +[W: [Gamma] A B C D E C D E F G a F G a b c d ] +[W: (Ut re mi fa sol la) (Ut re mi fa sol la) (Ut re mi fa sol la)] +[Hexachords: (Hard Low) (Natural Low) (Soft Low)] + +[G: g a b= c' d' e' c' d' e' f' g' a' ] +[W: G a b c d e c d e f g aa ] +[W: (Ut re mi fa sol la) (Ut re mi fa sol la)] +[Hexachords: (Hard High) (Natural High)] + +[G: f' g' a' b-' c'' d'' g' a' b=' c'' d'' e''] +[W: f g aa bb cc dd g aa bb cc dd ee ] +[W: (Ut re mi fa sol la) (Ut re mi fa sol la)] +[Hexachords: (Soft High) (Hard Super Acute)] + +To the lowest note of this scale, which was foreign to the +Greek system, he gave a special name, _gamma_, after the +Greek letter G. From this we get our word for the scale, +the gamut. The other notes remained the same as before, only +that for the lowest octave capital letters were used; in the +next octave, the notes were designated by small letters, and +in the last octave by double letters, aa, bb, etc., as in the +following example. + + [F: g, g G: a g' | a' g'' ] + [W: Capitals. : Small letters | Double or very small letters] + + +PRESENT SCALE. + + [F: c,, | c, | c G: c' | c'' | c''' | c''''] + [W: C_ | C | c : c' | c'' | c''' | c''''] + [W: Contra | Great | Small : 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th ] + +Following out his system, he applied the newly acquired +syllables to each of the hexachords--for instance, the lowest +hexachord, G A B C D E, which was called hard, became _ut re +mi fa sol la_; the second, which was called natural, C D E F +G A, also became _ut re mi fa sol la_; and the third, which +was called soft, F G A B[flat] C D, became likewise _ut re mi +fa sol la_. The next three hexachords were treated in the same +manner; the last or seventh hexachord was merely a repetition +of the first and the fourth. + +Now in the hymns, and also in the sequences, as they were called +(which were simply a series of notes forming a little melody +sung to two or three words), the voice was rarely called upon +to progress more than the interval of a sixth, and so this +solmization, as the new system was called, was very valuable; +for one had only to give the pitch, and _ut_ always meant the +keynote, _re_ the second, _mi_ the third, etc., etc. In time +_ut_ was found to be a difficult syllable to sing, and _do_ +was substituted. This change, however, was made after the scale +was divided into a system of octaves instead of hexachords. The +improvement in singing soon made the limits of the hexachords +too small to be practical; therefore another syllable was added +to the hexachordal system, _si_, and with this seventh note +we have our modern scale. From this we see that the scale in +present use is composed of octaves, just as the older scales +were composed of hexachords, and before that tetrachords. Just +as in mediaeval times each hexachord commenced with _ut_, +so now every octave of our tonal system commences with _do_. + +Before leaving the hexachordal system, it may be as well to +explain the mode of procedure when the voice had to go beyond +the interval of the sixth. We know that the first of every set +of six notes was called _ut_, the second, _re_, the third, +_mi_, etc. When the voice had to go beyond _la_, the sixth +note, to B[natural], that sixth note was always called _re_, +and was considered the second note of a new hexachord. If, +on the other hand, the voice had to go beyond _a_, to B[flat], +the fifth note was called _re_, since the syllables _mi fa_ +must always come on the half-tone. + +In a study of our system of writing music, it may be as well to +begin with the derivation of our sharps and flats. Observing +the third hexachord on our list we see that in order to make +it identical in structure with the first and second, the B had +to be lowered a semitone. Now the third hexachord was called +soft. The B[flat] in it was accordingly called a soft B or +B _molle_, which is still the name in France for a flat, and +_moll_ in German still means minor, or "soft" or "lowered." For +the fourth hexachord, which was called hard, this B was again +raised a semitone. But the flatted B was already indicated +by the letter _b_ or round _b_, as it was called; hence this +B natural was given a _square_ shape and called B _carré_, +[illustration]. The present French word for natural (when it +is specially marked) is _bécarré_; the German word for major +also comes indirectly from this, for _dur_ means "hard." + +An explanation of the modern German names for notes will be +easily understood in this connection. In the German nomenclature +the letters of the alphabet stand for the notes of the scale +as in the English, with the exception of B. This B, or "round" +B, in the German system stands for B[flat], which is more +logical than our English usage, since our flat is merely a +slightly modified form of _b_. The German B natural is our +letter _h_, which is merely a corruption of the square _b_, +[illustration], which by the addition of a line in time +became our [natural]. The Germans have carried the flatting +and sharping of tones to a logical conclusion in their present +nomenclature, for by "sharping" the sound of a single letter it +is raised a semitone from its normal diapason, thus F becomes +_Fis_, G _Gis_. On the other hand, in order to lower a tone, +the letter representing it is "flatted," and F is called _Fes_, +G _Ges_, the only exception to these rules being the B which +we have already considered. + +In France the Guidonian system was adhered to closely, and +to this day the _bécarré_ is used only as an accidental, to +indicate that the note to which it refers has been flatted +before. The _naturel_ (which has the same shape) is used +to designate a note that is natural to the key; thus the +distinction is made between an accidental and a note that is +common to the key. In F major, for instance, B[natural] is +_si bécarré_, A[natural] would be _la naturel_. Our modern +sharp is merely another form of the natural or square B +([natural]) which gradually came to be used before _any_ note, +signifying that it was raised or sharped a half-tone; the flat +lowered it a semitone, and after a while the natural received +its present place between the sharp and flat. The first instance +we have of the sharp being used is in the thirteenth century, +when (in the Rondels of Adam de la Hale) it takes the form +of a cross [x] (the German word for the sharp still remains +_kreuz_). The French word _diese_ (sharp) comes from the Greek +_diesis_, a term used to indicate the raising of the voice in +the chromatic scale. + +And now we have to speak of notation and its development. +Thus far we have found only two ways in which musical sounds +were indicated by the ancients. First, we remember the invention +of Aristophanes of Alexandria, his accents, high, low, and +circumflex. Then we know from Ptolemy, Boethius, and Alypius +that letters were used to designate the different tones; but as +there is no music extant in this notation to prove the theory, +we need not trouble ourselves with it. + +The system of Aristophanes, however, was destined to become the +nucleus from which our modern notation sprang. We know that +an elementary idea, clearly expressed, has more chances of +living than has a more complicated system, however ingenious +the latter may be. Now this system is so plain that we will +find it is common to many aboriginal peoples, for instance +the American Indians have a system very similar. + +In the period now under consideration (from the third to the +tenth century), music was noted in this way: an upstroke of +the pen meant a raising of the voice, a downstroke lowered it, +a flat stroke meant a repetition of the same note, thus [/ \ -] +[G: c' g' c' c']. Gradually it became necessary to indicate +the contour of the melodies with more accuracy; therefore the +circumflex was added [Over-slur] [G: g' c'' g'] and reversed +[Under-slur] [G: g' e' g']. Still later a sign for two steps was +invented [Step] [G: e' g' b'] and when the progression was to +be diatonically stepwise the strokes were thicker [Thick Step] +[G: g' a' b']. So this notation developed, and by combining +the many signs together, simple non-rhythmic melodies could be +indicated with comparative clearness and simplicity. The flat +stroke for a single note [-], indicating [G: b'], eventually +became smaller and thicker, thus [Thick -]. By combining these +different signs, a skip of a third and back came to be noted +[Crenellation], and if the note came down on a second instead +of the original note it became [Podium] [G: g' b' a']. The +_quilisma_ ([Upper Mordent]) indicated a repetition of two +notes, one above the other, and we still use much the same +sign for our trill. Also the two forms of the circumflex, +[Over-slur] [Under-slur], were joined ([Turn]) and thus we +have the modern turn, so much used by Wagner. + +Now while this notation was ingenious, it still left much +to be desired as to pitch. To remedy this a red line was +drawn before writing these signs or _neumes_, as they were +called. This line represented a given pitch, generally E; +above and below it were then written the signs for the notes, +their pitch being determined by the relative position they held +in regard to the _line_. Thus [Podium, Turn, Upper Mordent] was +the equivalent of [G: c' e' d' e' d' c' d' e' d' e' d' e' d'], +considering the line as being middle C pitch, a fourth higher F. +This was the condition of musical notation in 1000 A.D. + +To Guido d'Arezzo is ascribed its development up to some +semblance of our present system, although the claim has often +been denied. It is certain, however, that the innovations +were made at this period. In the first place Guido made the +red line _always_ stand for the pitch of F, and at a little +distance above it he added another line, this time yellow, +which was to indicate the pitch of C. Thus the signs began to +take very definite meaning as regards pitch; for, given a sign +extending from one line to the other, the reader could see +at a glance that the music progressed a fifth, from F to C, +or _vice-versa_. And now the copyists, seeing the value of +these lines in determining the pitch of the different signs, +of their own account added two more in black ink, one of which +they drew between the F and the C line, and the other above +the C line, thus [illustration]. By doing this they accurately +decided the pitch of every note, for the lowest line, being F, +the line between that and the C line must stand for A, and the +two spaces for G and B; the top line would stand for E, and the +space between it and the yellow line for D. Little by little +these copyists grew careless about making the lines in yellow, +red, and black, and sometimes drew them all in black or red, +thereby losing the distinguishing mark of the F and C lines. In +order to remedy this, Guido placed the letters F and C before +the lines representing these notes, thus [illustration]. In +this way our modern _clefs_ (_clavis_ or key) originated, for +the C clef, as it is called, gradually changed its shape to +[illustration] and [illustration], and the F clef changed to +[illustration], which is our bass clef in a rudimentary form. + +Later, still another line was added to the set, thus giving +us our modern staff, and another clef, [illustration], was +added on the next to the lowest line. This, in turn, became +our present treble clef, [G:]. In the course of time the signs +themselves underwent many changes, until at last from [Podium], +etc., they became our modern signs. + +Before this, however, a grave defect in the notation had to +be remedied. There was as yet no way of designating the length +of time a note was to be sustained; something definite in the +way of noting _rhythm_ was necessary. This was accomplished +by Franco of Cologne, in the beginning of the thirteenth +century. By disconnecting the parts of the sign [Podium] one +from another, the following individual signs were acquired +[illustration of Podium broken into three pieces]. In order +to have two distinct values of length, these signs were +called longs and shorts, _longa_ [illustration], and _brevis_ +[illustration], to which was added the _brevis_ in another +position [illustration], called _semibrevis_. The _longa_ +was twice the value of the _brevis_, and the _semibrevis_ +was half the length of the _brevis_ ([L = B B B = S S]). +When notes of equal length were slurred, they were written +[illustration]. When two or more notes were to be sung to +one syllable in quicker time, the _brevi_ were joined one to +the other [illustration], as for instance in the songs of the +thirteenth century, + + + DIRGE FOR KING RICHARD'S DEATH + + GAUCELM FAIDIT. + + [Illustration] + [W: Fortz chose est que tot le maur major dam] + + + ROI THIBAUT DE NAVARRE (1250). + + [Illustration] + [W: Si li dis sans de laies | Belle diex vous doint bon jour] + +or, in modern style, + + [G: g' a' b' c'' (d'' c'') (b' a' g') | + a' b' (c'' b') (b' a' g') (a' b') g'] + +In this example we find the first indication of the measuring +off of phrases into bars. As we see, it consisted of a little +stroke, which served to show the beginning of a new line, +and was not restricted to regularity of any kind except that +necessitated by the verse. + +The use of the _semibrevis_ is shown in the following chanson +of Raoul de Coucy (1192): + + [Illustration] + [W: Quant li rossignol jolis | chante + Seur la flor d'este | que n'est la rose et le lis] + + [G: d'' (c'' a') b-' (a' (g' f')) g' (a' b-' a' f') f' | f' g' + a' (b-' a') (c'' d'' c'' b-') (a' g') a' | + d'' (c'' a') b-' a' (g' f') g' (a' (b-' a') f') f'] + +The French troubadours and the German minnesingers of the +thirteenth century used these forms of notes only, and even +then restricted themselves to two kinds, either the _longa_ +and _brevis_, or _brevis_ and _semibrevis_. + +The necessity for rests very soon manifested itself, and the +following signs were invented to correspond to the _longa_, +_brevis_, and _semibrevis_ [illustration]. Also the number of +note symbols was increased by the _maxima_ or double _longa_ +[illustration], and the _minima_ [illustration], which +represented half the value of the _semibrevis_. + +Now that music began taking a more definite rhythmic form +than before, a more regular dividing off of the phrases +became necessary. This was accomplished by the use of a +dot, and another form, the perpendicular line, which we +have noticed in the song of the King of Navarre (1250). At +first a means to indicate triple time was invented, and the +measure corresponding to our [9/8] was indicated by placing +the sign [O.] at the beginning of the line. This was called +perfect. Then, for plain triple time the dot was omitted [O]; +for [6/8] time the sign [C.] was adopted, and for ordinary +common time [C] was taken. Consequently, when these signs +were placed at the beginning of the line they changed the +value of the notes to correspond to the time marked. Thus in +[O.] (_tempus perfectum_, _prolatio major_) or [9/8], the +_brevis_ was reckoned worth three _semibrevi_ [B = S S S] +([1. = 4. 4. 4.]); the _semibrevis_ three _minimi_ [S = M M M] +([4. = 8 8 8]). In [O] or [3/4] time [B = S S S] ([2. = 4 4 4]); +but the _semibrevis_ was only as long as two _minimi_ [S = M M] +([4 = 8 8]). In [C.] or [6/8] time [B = S S] ([2. = 4. 4.]), +but [S = M M M] ([4. = 8 8 8]). In [C] or [2/2] time [B = S S] +([1 = 2 2]), and [S = M M] ([2 = 4 4]). + +In the beginning of the fifteenth century the notes began to +be written in an open form + + [Illustration] _Maxima_. + [Illustration] _Longa_. + [Illustration] _Brevis_. + [Illustration] _Semibrevis_. + [Illustration] _Minima_. + [Illustration] _Semiminima_, which was added later. + +As still smaller units of value were added, the _semiminima_ +was replaced by [filled minima], and the half _semiminima_ +thus became [minima with tail], and the next smaller values, +[two tails] and [three tails]. The rest to correspond to +the _semiminima_ was [illustration]; for the _semibrevis_ +[illustration], and _minima_ [illustration]. + +Thus we have the following values and their corresponding rests: + + _Maxima_ [Illustration] + _Longa_ [Illustration] + _Brevis_ [Illustration] + _Semibrevis_ [Illustration] + _Minima_ [Illustration] + _Semiminima_ or _crocheta_ [Illustration] + _Fusa_ or _crocheta_ [Illustration] + _Semifusa_ [Illustration] + +The rests for the _fusa_ and _semifusa_ were turned to the left +in order to avoid the confusion that would ensue if the rest +[illustration] stood for [fusa]. Besides, the sign would have +easily become confused with the C clef [illustration]. + +Signs for the changes of _tempo_, that is to say changes +from quick to slow, etc., were introduced in the fifteenth +century. The oldest of them consists of drawing a line through +the _tempus_ sign [O|]. This meant that the notes were to be +played or sung twice as rapidly as would usually be the case, +without, however, affecting the relative value of the notes +to one another. Now we remember that the sign [C] stood for +our modern [4/4] time; when a line was drawn through it, +[C|] it indicated that two _brevi_ were counted as one, and +the movement was said to be _alla breve_. This is the one +instance of time signatures that has come down to us unaltered. + + + + +IX + +THE SYSTEMS OF HUCBALD AND GUIDO D'AREZZO--THE BEGINNING +OF COUNTERPOINT + + +We have seen that by order of Charlemagne, Ambrosian chant was +superseded by that of Gregory, and from any history of music +we may learn how he caused the Gregorian chant to be taught +to the exclusion of all other music. Although Notker, in the +monastery of St. Gall, in Switzerland, and others developed the +Gregorian chant, until the time of Hucbald this music remained +mere wandering melody, without harmonic support of any kind. + +Hucbald (840-930) was a monk of the monastery of St. Armand in +Flanders. As we know from our studies in notation, he was the +first to improve the notation by introducing a system of lines +and spaces, of which, however, the spaces only were utilized +for indicating the notes, viz.: + + [Illustration] + +His attempt to reconstruct the musical scale was afterwards +overshadowed by the system invented by Guido d'Arezzo, and it +is therefore unnecessary to describe it in detail. His great +contribution to progress was the discovery that more than one +sound could be played or sung simultaneously, thus creating a +composite sound, the effect which we call a chord. However, +in deciding which sounds should be allowed to be played or +sung together, he was influenced partly by the mysticism of +his age, and partly by a blind adherence to the remnants of +musical theory which had been handed down from the Greeks. As +Franco of Cologne, later (1200), in systematizing rhythm into +measure, was influenced by the idea of the Trinity in making +his [3/8] or [9/8] time _tempus perfectum_, and adopting for +its symbol the Pythagorean circle [O.] or [O], so Hucbald, +in choosing his series of concords or sounds that harmonize +well together, took the first three notes of the overtones of +every sonorous fundamental, or, to express it differently, of +the series of natural harmonics, that is to say, he admitted +the octave and fifth: [F: g, d g]. But from the fifth to the +octave gives the interval of the fourth, therefore he permitted +this combination also. + +From the works of Boethius (_circa_ 400) and others, he had +derived and accepted the Pythagorean division of the scale, +making thirds and sixths dissonant intervals; and so his perfect +chord (from which our later triad gets its name of _perfect_) +was composed of a root, fifth or fourth, and octave. + +Hucbald, as I have already explained, changed the Greek tone +system somewhat by arranging it in four regular disjunct +tetrachords, namely: + + [F: (g, a, b-, c) (d e f g) G: (a b c' d') (e' f+' g' a')] + +This system permitted the addition of a fifth to each note +indiscriminately, and the fifths would always be _perfect_; but +in regard to the octaves it was faulty, for obvious reasons. As +his system of notation consisted of merely writing T for tone +and S for semitone between the lines of his staff, it was only +necessary to change the order of these letters for the octave +at the beginning of each line. With the fourth, however, +this device was impossible, and therefore he laid down the +rule that when the voices proceeded in fourths, and a discord +(or augmented fourth) was unavoidable, the lower voice was to +remain on the same note until it could jump to another fourth +forming a perfect interval: + + [F: {g b} {g b} {g a} {g b} {d a} {d g} {c f} {c e} {a, d} {g, c}] + +This at least brought into the harmony an occasional third, +which gradually became a recognized factor in music. + +We probably know that the year 1000 was generally accepted +as the time when the world was to come to an end. In the +_Bibliothèque Nationale_ in Paris there is a manuscript +containing the prophecy which had been handed down for many +centuries; also the signs for the notes to which it was to be +sung, viz.: + + [Figure 07] + +The text is: + + The Judge will speak and the earth shall tremble + with awe. The stars shall be destroyed and the glory + of the moon shall die, the mountains shall be crushed + and the world with all in it shall utterly perish. + +With the opening of the eleventh century, such was the relief +from this fear which had been oppressing Christendom, that even +the church reflected it in such strange rites as the _Feast +of Asses_ (January 14th), which was a burlesque of the Mass. + +In this travesty of the Mass a young girl, dressed to +represent the Virgin, riding on an ass and carrying a child +in her arms, was conducted to the church door. Upon being +admitted and riding up the aisle to the altar, the girl +tethered the ass to the railing and sat on the steps until +the service was finished. The _Credo_, _Gloria_, etc., all +ended with a "hee-haw," and at the conclusion of the service +the officiating priest brayed three times, and was answered by +the congregation. The mixing of the vernacular with Latin in +this service is the first instance of the use of any language +but Latin in church music. + +This quasi-symbolical pantomime gave rise in time to the +mediaeval Passion Plays, or Mysteries, as they were called. That +these travesties of the Mass took different forms in various +countries is very evident when we remember the description +of the "Abbot of Unreason," in Scott's "Abbot." In England, +among other absurdities such as the "Pope of Fools," the "Ball +Dance," etc., they also had the festival of the "Boy Bishop," +in which, between the sixth and twenty-eighth of December, +a boy was made to perform all the functions of a bishop. + +It would seem that all this has but little bearing upon +the development of music. As a matter of fact it was a most +potent factor in it, for music was essentially and exclusively +a church property. By permitting the people to secularize +the church rites at certain seasons, it was inevitable that +church music would also become common property for a time, +with this difference, however, that the common people could +carry the tunes away with them, and the music would be the only +thing remaining as a recollection of the carnival. Indeed, the +prevalence of popular songs soon became such that writers of +church music began to use them instead of their being derived +from church music, as was originally the case. This continued to +such an extent that almost up to 1550 a mass was known by the +name of the popular song it was based upon, as, for instance, +the mass of the "Man in Armour," by Josquin dés Pres, and those +entitled "_Je prends conge_" and "_Je veult cent mille ecus_." + +Now we know that the _tempus perfectum_ was _par excellence_ +[9/8] and [3/4] time. It was natural therefore that these first +church tunes should have been changed to dances in the hands +of the common people. Even in these dances it is interesting to +note that the same symbolic significance appears to be present, +for the earliest form of these dances was the "round song," +or roundelay, and it was danced in a circle. + +Duple time did not come into general use until the beginning of +the fourteenth century. About the same time, the organum (as it +was called) or system of harmonization of Hucbald was discarded, +and Johannes de Muris and Philippe de Vitry championed the +consonant quality of the third and sixth, both major and minor. +The fifth was retained as a consonant, but the fourth was +passed over in silence by the French school of writers, or +classed with the dissonants. Successive fifths were prohibited +as being too harshly dissonant, but successive fourths were +necessarily permitted, as it would be an impossibility to do +without them. Nevertheless, the fourth was still considered +a dissonance, and was permitted only between the upper parts +of the music. Thus the harsh consecutive passages in fifths +and fourths of the organum of Hucbald disappeared in favour +of the softer progressions of thirds and sixths. + +In order to make clear how the new science of counterpoint +came into existence, I must again revert to Hucbald.[09] + +Before his time, all "recognized" music was a more or less +melodious succession of tones, generally of the same length, +one syllable being sometimes used for many notes. He discovered +that a melody might be sung by several singers, each commencing +at a different pitch instead of all singing the same notes at +the same time. He also laid down rules as to how this was to +be done to produce the best effect. We remember why he chose +the fourth, fifth, and octave in preference to the third and +sixth. He called his system an "organum" or "diaphony," and +to sing according to his rules was called to "organize" or +"organate." We must remember that at that time fourths and +fifths were not always indicated in the written music; only +the melody, which was called the principal or subject. By +studying the rules prescribed for the organum, the singers +could add the proper intervals to the melody. We must keep +in mind, however, that later fourths were preferred to fifths +(being considered less harsh), and that the musical scale of +the period compelled the different voices to vary slightly, +that is to say, two voices could not sing exactly the same +melody at the interval of a fourth without the use of sharps +or flats; therefore one voice continued on the same note until +the awkward place was passed, and then proceeded in fourths +again with the other voice as before: + + [G: {e' a'} {d' g'} {d' f+'} {d' e'}] + +On account of the augmented fourth that would occur by a strict +adherence to the melodic structure of the subject, the following +would have been impossible: [G: {e' a'} {d' g'} ({c' f+'})] +Thus we find the first instance of the use of thirds, and also +of oblique motion as opposed to the earlier inevitable parallel +motion of the voices. This necessary freedom in singing the +organum or diaphony led to the attempt to sing two _different_ +melodies, one against the other--"note against note," or +"point counter point,"[10] point or _punct_ being the name +for the written note. There being now two distinct melodies, +both had to be _noted_ instead of leaving it to the singers +to add their parts extemporaneously, according to the rules of +the organum, as they had done previously. Already earlier than +this (in 1100), owing to the tendency to discard consecutive +fourths and fifths, the intermovement of the voices, from +being parallel and oblique, became _contrary_, thus avoiding +the parallel succession of intervals. The name "organum" was +dropped and the new system became known as tenor and descant, +the tenor being the principal or foundation melody, and the +descant or descants (for there could be as many as there +were parts or voices to the music) taking the place of the +organum. The difference between _discantus_ and _diaphony_ +was that the latter consisted of several parts or voices, +which, however, were more or less exact reproductions, at +different pitch, of the principal or given melody, while the +former was composed of entirely different melodic and rhythmic +material. This gave rise to the science of counterpoint, which, +as I have said, consists of the trick of making a number +of voices sing different melodies at the same time without +violating certain given rules. The given melody or "principal" +soon acquired the name of _cantus firmus_, and the other parts +were each called _contrapunctus_,[11] as before they had been +called tenor and descant. These names were first used by Gerson, +Chancellor of Notre Dame, Paris, about 1400. + +In the meantime (about 1300-1375), the occasional use of thirds +and sixths in the diaphonies previously explained led to an +entirely different kind of singing, called _falso bordone_ +or _faux bourdon_ (_bordonizare_, "to drone," comes from a +kind of pedal in organum that first brought the third into +use). This system, contrary to the old organum, consisted of +using only thirds and sixths together, excluding the fourth +and fifth entirely, except in the first and last bars. This +innovation has been ascribed to the Flemish singers attached +to the Papal Choir (about 1377), when Pope Gregory XI returned +from Avignon to Rome. In the British Museum, however, there +are manuscripts dating from the previous century, showing +that the _faux bourdon_ had already commenced to make its way +against the old systems of Hucbald and Guido. The combination +of the _faux bourdon_ and the remnant of the organum gives us +the foundation for our modern tone system. The old rules, +making plagal motion of the different voices preferable to +parallel motion, and contrary motion preferable to either, +still hold good in our works on theory; so also in regard to +the rules forbidding consecutive fifths and octaves, leaving +the question of the fourth in doubt. + +To sum up, we may say, therefore, that up to the sixteenth +century, all music was composed of the slender material of +thirds, sixths, fifths, and octaves, fourths being permitted +only _between_ the voices; consecutive successions of fourths, +however, were permitted, a license not allowed in the use of +fifths or octaves. This leads us directly to a consideration +of the laws of counterpoint and fugue, laws that have remained +practically unchanged up to the present, with the one difference +that, instead of being restricted to the meagre material of +the so-called consonants, the growing use of what were once +called dissonant chords, such as the dominant seventh, ninth, +diminished seventh, and latterly the so-called altered chords, +has brought new riches to the art. + +Instead of going at once into a consideration of the laws +of counterpoint, it will be well to take up the development +of the instrumental resources of the time. There were three +distinct types of music: the ecclesiastical type (which of +course predominated) found its expression in melodies sung +by church choirs, four or more melodies being sometimes sung +simultaneously, in accordance with certain fixed rules, +as I have already explained. These melodies or chants +were often accompanied by the organ, of which we will speak +later. The second type was purely instrumental, and served as +an accompaniment for the dance, or consisted of _fanfares_ +(ceremonial horn signals), or hunting signals. The third +type was that of the so-called _trouvères_ or _troubadours_, +with their _jongleurs_, and the minnesingers, and, later, the +mastersingers. All these "minstrels," as we may call them, +accompanied their singing by some instrument, generally one +of the lute type or the psaltery. + + +[09] There is much question as to Hucbald's organum. That + actually these dissonances were used even up to 1500 is + proved by Franco Gafurius of Milan, who mentions a Litany + for the Dead (_De Profundis_) much used at that time: + + [G: {f' g'} {f' g'} {g' a'} {g' a'} {g' c''} {e' a'} {f' g'}] + [W: De profundis, etc.] + +[10] Counterpoint is first mentioned by Muris (1300). + +[11] Only principal (tenor or cantus firmus) was sung to words. + + + + +X + +MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS--THEIR HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT + + +In church music, the organ is perhaps the first instrument to +be considered. In 951, Elfeg, the Bishop of Winchester had +built in his cathedral a great organ which had four hundred +pipes and twenty-six pairs of bellows, to manage which seventy +strong men were necessary. Wolstan, in his life of St. Swithin, +the Benedictine monk, gives an account of the exhausting work +required to keep the bellows in action. + +Two performers were necessary to play this organ, just as +nowadays we play four-hand music on the piano. The keys went +down with such difficulty that the players had to use their +elbows or fists on each key; therefore it is easy to see that, +at the most, only four keys could be pressed down at the same +time. On the other hand, each key when pressed down or pushed +back (for in the early organs the keyboard was perpendicular) +gave the wind from the bellows access to ten pipes each, which +were probably tuned in octaves or, possibly, according to the +organum of Hucbald, in fifths or fourths. This particular organ +had two sets of keys (called manuals), one for each player; +there were twenty keys to each manual, and every key caused +ten pipes to sound. The compass of this organ was restricted +to ten notes, repeated at the distance of an octave, and, +there being four hundred pipes, forty pipes were available for +each note. On each key was inscribed the name of the note. As +may be imagined, the tone of this instrument was such that it +could be heard at a great distance. + +There were many smaller organs, as, for instance, the one in the +monastery of Ramsey, which had copper pipes. Pictures of others +from the twelfth century show that even where there were only +ten pipes, the organ had two manuals, needed two players, and at +least four men for the bellows. The great exertion required to +play these instruments led to the invention of what is called +"mixtures." From the moment fifths and fourths were considered +to sound better together than the simple notes, the pipes were +so arranged that the player did not need to press two of the +ponderous organ keys for this combination of sounds. One key +was made to open the valves of the two sets of pipes, so that +each key, instead of sounding one note, would, at will, sound +the open fifth, fourth, or octave. With the addition of the +third, thus constituting a perfect major triad, this barbarous +habit has come down to our present day almost unchanged, for by +using what is called the "mixture stop" of our modern organs, +each key of the manual gives not only the original note, +but also its perfect major triad, several octaves higher. + +Originally the organ was used only to give the right intonation +for the chanting of the priests. From the twelfth century, small +portable organs of limited compass were much used; although the +tone of these instruments was necessarily slight, and, owing to +the shortness of the pipes, high in pitch, the principle of the +mechanism was similar to that of the larger instruments. They +were hung by means of a strap passed over the shoulders; +one hand pressed the keys in front of the pipes (which were +arranged perpendicularly), and the other hand operated the +small bellows behind the pipes. These small instruments rarely +had more than eight pipes, consequently they possessed only +the compass of an octave. With slight variations, they were +quite universally used up to the seventeenth century. Organ +pedals were invented in Germany about 1325. Bernhard, organist +of St. Mark's, Venice (1445-1459), has been credited with the +invention of organ pedals, but it is probable that he merely +introduced them into Italy. + +As the Greek modes formed the basis for the musical system of +the church, so the Greek monochord is the type from which the +monks evolved what they called the clavichord. The monochord +has a movable bridge, therefore some time is lost in adjusting +it in order to get the different tones. To obviate this +inconvenience, a number of strings were placed side by side, +and a mechanism inserted which, by pressing a key (_clavis_), +would move the bridge to the point at which the string must +divide to give the note indicated by the key. This made it +possible to use one string for several different notes, and +explains why the clavichord or clavicembalo needed comparatively +few strings. This instrument became obsolete toward the end +of the eighteenth century. + +The other species of instrument, the harpsichord, which was +invented about 1400, and which may be considered as having +sprung from the clavichord, consisted of a separate string for +each sound; the key, instead of setting in action a device +for striking and at the same time _dividing_ the strings, +caused the strings to be plucked by quills. Thus, in these +instruments, not only was an entirely different quality of tone +produced, but the pitch of a string remained unaltered. These +instruments were called _bundfrei_, "unbound," in opposition to +the _clavicembalo_, which was called _gebunden_, or "bound." The +harpsichord was much more complicated than the clavichord, +in that the latter ceased to sound when the key which moved +the bridge was released, whereas the harpsichord required what +is called a "damper" to stop the sound when the key came up; +once the string was touched by the quill, all command of the +tone by the key was lost. To regulate this, a device was added +to the instrument by means of which a damper fell on the string +when the key was released, thereby stopping the sound. + +We have now to consider the instrumental development of the +Middle Ages. + +An instrument of the harpsichord family which has significance +in the development of the instruments of the Middle Ages is +the spinet (from _spina_, "thorn"; it had leather points up +to 1500), first made by Johannes Spinctus, Venice, 1500. It +was a harpsichord with a _square_ case, the strings running +diagonally instead of lengthwise. When the spinet was of +very small dimensions it was called a virginal; when it was +in the shape of our modern grand piano, it was, of course, +a harpsichord; and when the strings and sounding board +were arranged perpendicularly, the instrument was called +a clavicitherium. As early as 1500, then, four different +instruments were in general use, the larger ones having a +compass of about four octaves. The connecting link between the +harpsichord, the clavichord, and the piano, was the dulcimer or +hackbrett, which was a tavern instrument. Pantaleon Hebenstreit, +a dancing master and inventor of Leipzig, in 1705 added an +improved hammer action, which was first applied to keyboard +instruments by Cristofori, an instrument maker at Florence +(1711). His instrument was called _forte-piano_ or _pianoforte_, +because it would strike loud or soft. + +These instruments all descended from the ancient lyre, the +only difference being that instead of causing the strings to +vibrate by means of a plectrum held in the hand, the plectrum +was set in motion by the mechanism of the _claves_ or keys. The +system of fingering employed in playing the harpsichord, up to +1700, did not make use of the thumb. J.S. Bach, F. Couperin, +and J.P. Rameau were the pioneers in this matter. The first +published work on piano technique and fingering was that by +C.P.E. Bach (1753). + +With the advent of bowed instruments the foundation was laid for +the modern orchestra, of which they are the natural basis. The +question of the antiquity of the bowed instrument has often been +discussed, with the result that the latter has been definitely +classed as essentially modern, for the reason that it did not +become known in Europe until about the tenth to the twelfth +centuries. As a matter of fact, the instrument is doubtless +of Person or Hindu origin, and was brought to the West by +the Arabs, who were in Spain from the eighth to the fifteenth +centuries; in fact, most of our stringed instruments, both the +bowed and those of the lyre type, we owe to the Arabs--the very +name of the lute, _el oud_ ("shell" in Arabic) became _liuto_ in +Italian, in German _laute_, and in English lute. There were many +varieties of these bowed instruments, and it is thought that the +principle arose from rubbing one instrument with another. The +only other known examples of bowed instruments of primitive +type are (1) the _ravanastron_, an instrument of the monochord +type, native to India, made to vibrate by a kind of bow with +a string stretched from end to end; (2) the Welsh _chrotta_ +(609 A.D.), a primitive lyre-shaped instrument, with which, +however, the use of the bow seems to have been a much later +invention. Mention should also be made of the marine trumpet, +much in vogue from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries; +it consisted of a long, narrow, resonant box, composed of +three boards, over which was stretched a single string; +other unchangeable strings, struck with the bow, served as +drones. Only the harmonics were played on the marine trumpet. + +The principle of procuring the vibrations in stringed +instruments by means of a bow was, of course, applied to the +monochord class of keyed instruments, and was thus the origin +of the hurdy-gurdy, which consisted of a wheel covered with +resined leather and turned by a crank. + +The bowed instruments were originally of two types, the first +in the form of the lute or mandolin; the second probably +derived from the Welsh _crwth_, consisting of a flat, long box +strung with strings (called fidel from _fides_, "string"). The +combination of these types, which were subjected to the most +fantastic changes of shape, led eventually to the modern +violin family. + +We know that the highest plane of perfection in the violin +was reached in Italy about 1600. The Cremona makers, Amati, +Guarnerius, and Stradivarius, made their most celebrated +instruments between 1600 and 1750. + +The violin bow, in its earliest form, was nothing more than an +ordinary bow with a stretched string; Corelli and Tartini used a +bow of the kind. The present shape of the bow is due to Tourte, +a Paris maker, who experimented in conjunction with Viotti, +the celebrated violinist. + +By looking at the original lute and the Arabian _rebeck_ +or Welsh _crwth_ (originally Latin _chorus_), we can see how +the modern violin received its generally rounded shape from +the lute, its flatness from the _rebeck_, the sides of the +instrument being cut out in order to give the bow free access +to the side strings. The name too, _fidula_ or _vidula_, +from mediaeval Latin _fides_, "string," became fiddle and +viola, the smaller viola being called violino, the larger, +violoncello and viola da gamba. + +In the Middle Ages, the different species of bowed instrument +numbered from fifteen to twenty, and it was not until between +1600 and 1700 that the modern forms of these instruments +obtained the ascendancy. + +Of the wind instruments it was naturally the flute that +retained its antique form; the only difference between the +modern instrument and the ancient one being that the former +is blown crosswise, instead of perpendicularly. Quantz, +the celebrated court flute player to Frederick the Great +of Prussia, was the first to publish, in 1750, a so-called +"method" of playing the traversal (crosswise) flute. + +With the reed instruments the change in modern times is more +striking. The original form of the reed instruments was of the +double-reed variety. The oldest known mention of them dates from +650 A.D., when the name applied is _calamus_ (reed); later the +names _shalmei_ (_chalumeau_, "straw," from German _halm_) and +_shawm_ were used. These instruments were played by means of a +bell-shaped mouthpiece, the double reed being fixed inside the +tube. It was not until toward the end of the sixteenth century +that the bell-shaped mouthpiece was dispensed with and the reed +brought directly to the lips, thus giving the player greater +power of expression. The oboe is a representative type of the +higher pitched double-reed instruments. In its present shape it +is about two hundred years old. As the deeper toned instruments +were necessarily very long, six to eight and even ten feet, +an assistant had to walk before the performer, holding the +tube on his shoulder. This inconvenience led to bending the +tube back on itself, making it look somewhat like a bundle of +sticks, hence the word _faggot_; although it is commonly known +in this country by the French name, _bassoon_. This manner of +arranging the instrument dates from about the year 1550. The +clarinet is an essentially modern instrument, the single +beating reed and cylindrical tube coming into use about 1700, +the invention of a German named Denner, who lived at Nuremberg. + +All the brass instruments of the Middle Ages seem to have +been very short, therefore high in pitch. We remember that +the Romans had trumpets (chiefly used in signalling) called +_buccina_, and we may assume that the whole modern family of +brass instruments has descended from this primitive type. As +late as 1500, the hunting horn consisted of but one loop which +passed over the shoulder and around the body of the player. +A horn of from six to seven feet in length was first used +about 1650; and we know that, owing to the smallness of the +instruments and their consequent high pitch in those days, many +of Bach's scores contain parts absolutely impracticable for our +modern brass instruments. The division of these instruments +into classes, such as trumpets, horns, trombones, etc., is +due to the differences in shape, which in turn produce tones +of different quality. The large bore of the trombone gives +great volume to the tone, the small bore of the trumpet great +brilliancy, the medium bore of the horn veils the brilliancy +on one hand and lightens the thickness of tone on the other. + +The horn, called _cor de chasse_, was first used in the +orchestra in 1664, in one of Lully's operas, but its technique +(stopped tones and crooks) was only properly understood about +1750; the present-day valve horn did not come into general +use until within the last half century. Fifty years before +the principle had been applied to the horn the trumpet had +crooks and slides, a mechanism which, in the trumpet, is still +retained in England, pointing to the fact that the trombone is, +after all, nothing but a very large kind of trumpet. + + + + +XI + +FOLK SONG AND ITS RELATION TO NATIONALISM IN MUSIC + + +In order to understand as well as to feel music, we must reduce +it to its primary elements, and these are to be found in folk +song, or, to go further back, in its predecessor, the chant +of the savages. + +Folk music may be likened to a twig which has fallen into a +salt mine, to borrow an expression from Taine; every year adds +fresh jewels to the crystals that form on it until at last the +only resemblance to the original is in the general contour. We +know that the nucleus of melody lies in one note, just as the +origin of language is to be sought for in the word. Therefore +folk music proper must be separated from what may be called +barbaric music, the most primitive type of the latter being +the "one-note" strain from which spring the melodies of the +people. This one-note form passes through many rhythmical +changes before song becomes developed to the extent of adding +several notes to its means of expression. The next development +of savage chanting (which is the precursor of folk song) may +be traced back to its two elements, one of which was a mere +savage howl, and the other, that raising of the voice under +stress of strong emotion which still constitutes one of our +principal means of expression. + +Thus, in this barbaric music we invariably find three +principles: 1, rhythm; 2, the howl or descending scale of +undefined intervals; and 3, the emotional raising of the +voice. The rhythm, which characterizes the most primitive +form of song or chant, consists of the incessant repetition +of a very small group of rhythmic sounds. This incessant +recurrence of one idea is characteristic of primitive, weak, +or insane natures. The second principle, which invariably +includes the first (pointing to a slightly more advanced state +of development), is met with in many folk songs of even modern +times. The third principle is one which indicates the transition +stage from primitive or barbaric music to folk music. + +To the primitive savage mind, the smallest rhythmic phrase is a +wonderful invention, therefore it is repeated incessantly. Add +to that a certain joy in mere sound, and we have the howl, +which certainly follows the sequence of nature, for a thunder +clap, or the phenomenon of echo, is its prototype, being a loud +explosion followed by a more or less regular sequence of minor +reverberations. When the accent of passion is added to these +two principles--will and nature--we have laid the aesthetic +foundation for all that we call music.[12] The example of a +loud tone with gradually ascending inflections has only been +found in the most perverted types of humanity; for instance, an +English writer quaintly alludes to the songs of the Polynesian +cannibals as consisting of "gruesomely suggestive passages +of rising quarter-tones sung gloatingly before their living +captives who are soon to be devoured." + +Now traces of these three elements are to be found in every +folk song known, and we may even trace their influence in +modern music, the lowest or most primitive being, as I have +said, the "one-note" type, the next what I have called the +"howl" type, the third the highest or "emotional" type. + +Specimens of the first type, chants such as these [Figure 08], +are to be heard in every part of the globe, the rhythmic figure +being necessarily short and repeated incessantly. + +The next step was a tremendous advance, and we find its +influence permeating all music. The most primitive specimens of +this type we find among the Jute Indians [Figure 09], a mixture +of one and two. The same is to be found in Australia, slightly +modified: [Figure 10] The Caribs have the same song +[G: g'' \ Chromatic g']. We find it again in Hungary, although +in a still more modified form, thus: + + [Figure 11] + +And last of all we meet with it in its primitive state in the +folk song used by Bizet in "Carmen." We can even see traces of +it in the quasi-folk song of the present century: + + [Figure 12] etc. + +The third element of folk song shows again a great advance, +for instead of the mere howl of pleasure or pain, we have a +more or less exactly graded expression of feeling. In speaking +of impassioned speech I explained the relative values of the +inflections of the voice, how the upward skip of the fourth, +fifth, and octave indicates the intensity of the emotion +causing the cry. When this element is brought into music, it +gives a vitality not before possessed, for by this it becomes +speech. When in such music this inflection rhymes with the +words, that is to say, when the speech finds its emotional +reflection in the music, we have reached the highest development +of folk song. In its best state, this is immeasurably superior +to much of our "made" music, only too often false in rhythm, +feeling, and declamation. + +Among the different nations, these three characteristics often +become obscured by national idiosyncracies. Much of the Chinese +music, the "Hymn to the Ancestors," for instance, seemingly +covers a number of notes, whereas, in fact, it belongs to the +one-note type. We find that their melodies almost invariably +return to the same note, the intervening sounds being more +or less merely variations above and below the pitch of the +principal sound. For example: + + [Figure 13] + +Hungarian folk music has been much distorted by the oriental +element, as represented by the _zingari_ or gypsies. +The Hungarian type of folk music is one of the highest, and +is extremely severe in its contours, as shown in the following: + + [Figure 14] + +The gypsy element as copied by Liszt has obscured the folk +melodies by innumerable arabesques and ornaments of all sorts, +often covering even a "one-note" type of melody until it seems +like a complicated design. + +This elaboration of detail and the addition of passing and +ornamental notes to every melody is distinctly an oriental +trait, which finds vent not only in music but also in +architecture, designing, carving, etc. It is considered by many +an element of weakness, seeking to cover a poverty of thought +by rich vestments. And yet, to my mind, nothing can be more +misleading. In spite of Sir Hubert Parry and other writers, +I cannot think that the Moors in Spain, for instance, covered +poverty of thought beneath superficial ingenuity of design. The +Alhambra outdoes in "passage work," in virtuoso arabesques, +all that an army of Liszts could do in piano literature; +and yet the Arabs were the saviours of science, and promoted +the greatest learning and depth of thought known in Europe in +their time. As for Liszt, there is such an astounding wealth +of poetry and deep feeling beneath the somewhat "flashy," +bombastic trick of speech he inherited, that the true lover +of music can no more allow his feelings to be led astray by +such externals than one would judge a man's mind by the cut +of his coat or the hat he wears. + +Thus we see the essence of folk song is comprised in the three +elements mentioned, and its aesthetic value may be determined +by the manner in which these elements are combined and their +relative preponderance. + +One point must be very distinctly understood, namely, that what +we call harmonization of a melody cannot be admitted as forming +any part of folk song. Folk melodies are, without exception, +homophonous. This being the case, perhaps my statement that the +vital principle of folk music in its best state has nothing in +common with nationalism (considered in the usual sense of the +word), will be better understood. And this will be the proof +that nationalism, so-called, is merely an extraneous thing +that has no part in pure art. For if we take any melody, even +of the most pronounced national type, and merely eliminate the +characteristic turns, affectations, or mannerisms, the theme +becomes simply music, and retains no touch of nationality. We +may even go further; for if we retain the characteristic +mannerisms of dress, we may harmonize a folk song in such a +manner that it will belie its origin; and by means of this +powerful factor (an essentially modern invention) we may even +transform a Scotch song, with all its "snap" and character, +into a Chinese song, or give it an Arabian flavour. This, +to be sure, is possible only to a limited degree; enough, +however, to prove to us the power of harmony; and harmony, +as I have said, has no part in folk song. + +To define the _rôle_ of harmony in music is no easy matter. +Just as speech has its shadow languages, gesture and expression; +just as man is a duality of idealism and materialism; just as +music itself is a union of the emotional and the intellectual, +so harmony is the shadow language of melody; and just as in +speech this shadow language overwhelms the spoken word, so +in music harmony controls the melody. For example: Imagine +the words "I will kill you" being said in a jesting tone of +voice and with a pleasant expression of the face; the import +of the words would be lost in their expression; the mere words +would mean nothing to us in comparison with the expression +that accompanied them. + +Take away the harmonic structure upon which Wagner built his +operas and it would be difficult to form a conception of the +marvellous potency of his music. Melody, therefore, may be +classed as the gift of folk song to music; and harmony is its +shadow language. When these two powers, melody and harmony, +supplement each other, when one completes the thought of the +other, then, provided the thought be a noble one, the effect +will be overwhelmingly convincing, and we have great music. The +contrary results when one contradicts the other, and that +is only too often the case; for we hear the mildest waltzes +dressed up in tragic and dramatic chords, which, like Bottom, +"roar as gently as any sucking dove." + +In discussing the origin of speech, mention was made of those +shadow languages which accompany all our spoken words, namely, +the languages of expression and gesture. These were surely +the very first auxiliaries of uttered speech, and in the same +way we find that they constitute the first sign of advance +in primitive melody. Savages utter the same thought over and +over again, evidently groping after that semblance of Nirvana +(or perhaps it may be better described as "hypnotic exaltation") +which the incessant repetition of that one thought, accompanied +by its vibrating shadow, sound, would naturally occasion. + +It was also stated that the relative antiquity or primitivity +of a melody is invariably to be discovered by its degree +of relationship to the original type, one note, one rhythm, +the emotional, the savage howl, or, in other words, the high +note followed by a gradual descent. To confirm this theory of +the origin of folk song, we need only look at the aboriginal +chants of widely separated peoples to find that the oldest +songs all resemble one another, despite the fact that they +originated in widely separated localities. + +Now the difference between this primitive music and that +which we call folk song is that the latter is characterized +by a feeling for design, in the broadest sense of the word, +entirely lacking in the former. For we find that although +folk song is composed of the same material as savage music, +the material is arranged coherently into sentences instead of +remaining the mere exclamation of passion or a nerve exciting +reiteration of unchanging rhythms and vibrations, as is the +case in the music of the savage. + +Before proceeding further, I wish to draw the line which +separates savage from folk music very plainly. + +We know that the first stage in savage music is that of one +note. Gradually a tone above the original is added on account +of the savage being unable to intone correctly; through +stress of emotion the fifth and octave come into the chant; +the sixth, being the note above the fifth, is added later, +as is the third, the note above the second. Thus is formed +the pentatonic scale as it is found all over the world, and +it is clear, therefore, that the development of the scale is +due to emotional influences. + +The development of rhythm may be traced to the words sung +or declaimed, and the development of design or form to the +dance. In the following, from Brazil, we find a savage chant +in almost its primitive state: + + [Figure 15] etc. + +The next example, also from Brazil, is somewhat better, but +still formless and unemotional. + + [Figure 16] etc. + +Let this be danced to, however, and the change is very marked, +for immediately form, regularity, and design are noticeable: + + [Figure 17] etc. + +On the other hand, the emotional element marks another very +decided change, namely, by placing more sounds at the command +of the singer, and also by introducing words, which necessarily +invest the song with the rhythm of language. + +Thus the emotional and declamatory elements heighten the +powers of expression by the greater range given to the voice, +and add the poignancy and rhythm of speech to song. On the +other hand, the dance gives regularity to the rhythmic and +emotional sequences. + +In the following examples we can see more clearly the elements +of folk song as they exist in savage music: + + Three or four note (simple) + + South America [Figure 18] + Nubia [Figure 19] + + Emotional (simple) + + Samoa [Figure 20] + + Emotional and Composite + + Hudson's Bay [Figure 21] + Soudan [Figure 22] + + Howl and Emotion + + [Figure 23] + + Dance. Brazil + [Figure 24] + Simple [Figure 25] or + Dance [Figure 26] + +The fact that so many nations have the pentatonic or five-note +scale (the Chinese, Basque, Scotch, Hindu, etc.), would seem to +point to a necessary similarity of their music. This, however, +is not the case. In tracing the differences we shall find +that true folk song has but few marked national traits, it is +something which comes from the heart; whereas nationalism in +music is an outward garment which is a result of certain habits +of thought, a _mannerism_ of language so to speak. If we look at +the music of different nations we find certain characteristics; +divest the music of these same characteristics and we find +that the figure upon which this garment of nationalism has +been placed is much the same the world over, and that its +relationship to the universal language of savage music is very +marked. Carmen's song, divested of the mixture of triplets +and dual rhythms (Spanish or Moorish) is akin to the "howl." + +Nationalism may be divided into six different classes: + +First we have what may be broadly termed "orientalism," +which includes the Hindu, Moorish, Siamese, and Gypsy, the +latter embracing most of southeastern European (Roumania, +etc.) types. Liszt's "Second Rhapsody," opening section, +divested of orientalism or gypsy characteristics, is merely +of the savage three-note type. + +Our second division may be termed the style of reiteration, +and is to be found in Russia and northern Europe. + +The third consists of the mannerism known as the "Scotch snap," +and is a rhythmic device which probably originated in that +trick of jumping from one register of the voice to another, +which has always had a fascination for people of simple +natures. The Swiss _jodel_ is the best illustration of this +in a very exaggerated form. + +The fourth consists of a seemingly capricious intermixture +of dual and triple rhythm, and is especially noticeable in +Spanish and Portuguese music as well as in that of their South +American descendants. This distinction, however, may be traced +directly back to the Moors. For in their wonderful designs we +continually see the curved line woven in with the straight, the +circle with the square, the _tempus perfectum_ with the spondee. +This would bring this characteristic directly under the head +of orientalism or ornamental development. Yet the peculiarity +is so marked that it seems to call for separate consideration. + +The fifth type, like the fourth, is open to the objection that +it is merely a phase of the oriental type. It consists of the +incessant use of the augmented second and diminished third, +a distinctively Arabian characteristic, and is to be found +in Egypt, also, strange to say, occasionally among our own +North American Indians. This, however, is not to be wondered +at, considering that we know nothing of their ancestry. Only +now and then on that broad sea of mystery do we see a half +submerged rock, which gives rise to all sorts of conjectures; +for example, the custom of the Jutes to wear green robes and +use fans in certain dances, the finding in the heart of America +of such an Arab tune as this: + + [Figure 27] + +or such a Russian tune as this: + + [Figure 28] + +The last type of nationalism in folk song is almost a negative +quality, its distinguishing mark being mere simplicity, +a simplicity which is affected, or possibly assimilated, by +the writer of such a song; for German folk song proper is a +made thing, springing not from the people, but from the many +composers, both ancient and modern, who have tried their hands +in that direction. + +While this of course takes nationalism out of the composition +of German folk song so-called, the latter has undoubtedly gained +immensely by it; for by thus divesting music of all its national +mannerisms, it has left the thought itself untroubled by quirks +and turns and a restricted musical scale; it has allowed this +thought to shine out in all its own essential beauty, and thus, +in this so-called German folk song, the greatest effects of +poignancy are often reached through absolute simplicity and +directness. + +Now let us take six folk songs and trace first their national +characteristics, and after that their scheme of design, for +it is by the latter that the vital principle, so to speak, of +a melody is to be recognized, all else being merely external, +costumes of the different countries in which they were born. And +we shall see that a melody or thought born among one people +will change its costume when it migrates to another country. + + Arab Song + + [Figure 29] + + Scheme [Figure 29a] + + Russia--Reiteration + + [Figure 30] + + [Figure 31] + + Red Sarafan + + [Figure 32] + + Scotch + + [Figure 33] + + [Figure 34] + + Irish--Emotional in character, with greater perfection in design + + [Figure 35] + + Spanish + + [Figure 36] + + Egyptian + + [Figure 37] (Note augmented intervals) + +The characteristics of German and English folk songs may be +observed in the familiar airs of these nations. + +The epitome of folk song, divested of nationalism, is shown +in the following: + + [Figure 38] + + +[12] The antiquity of any melody (or its primitiveness) may + be established according to its rhythmic and melodic + or human attributes. + + + + +XII + +THE TROUBADOURS, MINNESINGERS AND MASTERSINGERS + + +Although wandering minstrels or bards have existed since the +world began, and although the poetry they have left is often +suggestive, the music to which the words were sung is but +little known. + +About 700-800 A.D., when all Europe was in a state of dense +ignorance and mental degradation, the Arabs were the embodiment +of culture and science, and the Arab empire extended at that +time over India, Persia, Arabia, Egypt (including Algeria and +Barbary), Portugal, and the Spanish caliphates, Andalusia, +Granada, etc. The descriptions of the splendour at the courts +of the Eastern caliphs at Bagdad seem almost incredible. + +For instance, the Caliph Mahdi is said to have expended +six millions of dinars of gold in a single pilgrimage to +Mecca. His grandson, Almamon, gave in alms, on one single +occasion, two and a half millions of gold pieces, and the +rooms in his palace at Bagdad were hung with thirty-eight +thousand pieces of tapestry, over twelve thousand of which +were of silk embroidered with gold. The floor carpets were +more than twenty thousand in number, and the Greek ambassador +was shown a hundred lions, each with his keeper, as a sign +of the king's royalty, as well as a wonderful tree of gold +and silver, spreading into eighteen large, leafy branches, +on which were many birds made of the same precious metals. By +some mechanical means, the birds sang and the leaves trembled. +Naturally such a court, particularly under the reign of +Haroun-al Raschid (the Just), who succeeded Almamon, would +attract the most celebrated of those Arabian minstrels, such as +Zobeir, Ibrahim of Mossoul, and many others who figure in the +"Arabian Nights," real persons and celebrated singers of their +times. We read of one of them, Serjab, who, by court jealousy +and intrigues, was forced to leave Bagdad, and found his way +to the Western caliphates, finally reaching Cordova in Spain, +where the Caliph Abdalrahman's court vied with that of Bagdad +in luxury. Concerning this we read in Gibbon that in his palace +of Zehra the audience hall was incrusted with gold and pearls, +and that the caliph was attended by twelve thousand horsemen +whose belts and scimiters were studded with gold. + +We know that the Arabian influence on the European arts came +to us by the way of Spain, and although we can see traces of +it very plainly in the Spanish music of to-day, the interim of +a thousand years has softened its characteristics very much. On +the other hand, the much more pronounced Arabian characteristics +of Hungarian music are better understood when we recall that the +Saracens were at the gates of Budapesth as late as 1400. That +the European troubadours should have adopted the Moorish _el +oud_ and called it "lute" is therefore but natural. And in +all the earlier songs of the troubadours we shall find many +traces of the same influence; for their _albas_ or _aubades_ +(morning songs) came from the Arabic, as did their _serenas_ or +serenades (evening songs), _planhs_ (complaints), and _coblas_ +(couplets). The troubadours themselves were so called from +_trobar_, meaning to invent. + +In the works of Fauriel and St. Polaye, and many others, may +be found accounts of the origin of the Provençal literature, +including, of course, a description of the troubadours. +It is generally admitted that Provençal poetry has no +connection with Latin, the origin of this new poetry being very +plausibly ascribed to a gypsy-like class of people mentioned +by the Latin chroniclers of the Middle Ages as _joculares_ +or _joculatores_. They were called _joglars_ in Provençal, +_jouglers_ or _jougleors_ in French, and our word "juggler" +comes from the same source. What that source originally was +may be inferred from the fact that they brought many of the +Arab forms of dance and poetry into Christian Europe. For +instance, two forms of Provençal poetry are the counterpart +of the Arabian _cosidas_ or long poem, all on one rhyme; and +the _maouchahs_ or short poem, also rhymed. The _saraband_, +or Saracen dance, and later the morris dance (_Moresco_ +or _Fandango_) or Moorish dance, seem to point to the same +origin. In order to make it clearer I will quote an Arabian +song from a manuscript in the British Museum, and place beside +it one by the troubadour Capdeuil. + + Arabian Melody [Figure 39] + + Pons de Capdeuil [Figure 40] + +The troubadours must not be confounded with the _jougleurs_ +(more commonly written _jongleurs_). The latter, wandering, +mendicant musicians, ready to play the lute, sing, dance, or +"juggle," were welcomed as merry-makers at all rich houses, +and it soon became a custom for rich nobles to have a number +of them at their courts. The troubadour was a very different +person, generally a noble who wrote poems, set them to music, +and employed _jongleurs_ to sing and play them. In the South +these songs were generally of an amorous nature, while in the +North they took the form of _chansons de geste_, long poems +recounting the feats in the life and battles of some hero, +such as Roland (whose song was chanted by the troops of William +the Conqueror), or Charles Martel. + +And so the foundations for many forms of modern music were +laid by the troubadours, for the _chanson_ or song was always +a narrative. If it were an evening song it was a _sera_ or +serenade, or if it were a night song, _nocturne_; a dance, +a _ballada_; a round dance, a _rounde_ or _rondo_; a country +love song, a _pastorella_. Even the words descant and treble +go back to their time; for the _jongleurs_, singing their +masters' songs, would not all follow the same melody; one +of them would seek to embellish it and sing something quite +different that still would fit well with the original melody, +just as nowadays, in small amateur bands we often hear a +flute player adding embellishing notes to his part. Soon, +more than one singer added to his part, and the new voice was +called the triple, third, or treble voice. This extemporizing +on the part of the _jongleurs_ soon had to be regulated, and +the actual notes written down to avoid confusion. Thus this +habit of singing merged into _faux bourdon_, which has been +discussed in a former chapter. Apart from these forms of song, +there were some called _sirventes_--that is "songs of service," +which were very partisan, and were accompanied by drums, bells, +and pipes, and sometimes by trumpets. The more warlike of these +songs were sung at tournaments by the _jongleurs_ outside the +lists, while their masters, the troubadours, were doing battle, +of which custom a good description is to be found in Hagen's +book on the minnesingers. + +In France the Provençal poetry lasted only until the middle +of the fourteenth century, after the troubadours had received +a crushing blow at the time the Albigenses were extirpated in +the thirteenth century. + +In one city alone (that of Beziers), between 30,000 and 40,000 +people were killed for heresy against the Pope. The motto +of the Pope's representatives was "God will know His Own," +and Catholics as well as Albigenses (as the sect was called) +were massacred indiscriminately. That this heresy against +the Pope was vastly aided by the troubadours, is hardly open +to doubt. Such was their power that the rebellious, antipapal +_sirventes_ of the troubadours (which were sung by their troops +of _jongleurs_ in every market place) could be suppressed only +after the cities of Provence were almost entirely annihilated +and the population destroyed by the massacre, burning alive, +and the Inquisition. + +A review of the poems of Bertran de Born, Bernart de Ventadour, +Thibaut, or others is hardly in place here. Therefore we +will pass to Germany, where the spirit of the troubadours was +assimilated in a peculiarly Germanic fashion by the minnesingers +and the mastersingers. + +In Germany, the troubadours became minnesingers, or singers of +love songs, and as early as the middle of the twelfth century +the minnesingers were already a powerful factor in the life +of the epoch, counting among their number many great nobles +and kings. The German minnesingers differed from the French +troubadours in that they themselves accompanied their songs on +the viol, instead of employing _jongleurs_. Their poems, written +in the Swabian dialect, then the court language of Germany, +were characterized by greater pathos and purity than those of +the troubadours, and their longer poems, corresponding to the +_chansons de geste_ of the north of France, were also superior +to the latter in point of dignity and strength. From the French +we have the "Song of Roland" (which William the Conqueror's +troops sang in their invasion of England); from the Germans the +"Nibelungen Song," besides Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival" +and Gottfried von Strasburg's "Tristan." In contradistinction +to the poetry of the troubadours, that of the minnesingers +was characterized by an undercurrent of sadness which seems +to be peculiar to the Germanic race. The songs are full of +nature and the eternal strife between Winter and Summer and +their prototypes Death and Life (recalling the ancient myths +of Maneros, Bacchus, Astoreth, Bel, etc.). + +After the death of Konrad IV, the last Swabian emperor of the +House of Hohenstaufen, minnesinging in Germany declined, and +was succeeded by the movement represented by the _meister_ or +mastersingers. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, +when Germany was broken up into countless small duchies and +kingdoms, many of the German nobles became mere robbers and took +part in the innumerable little wars which kept the nation in +a state of ferment. Thus they had neither time nor inclination +to occupy themselves with such pursuits as poetry or music. In +the meanwhile, however, the incessant warfare and brigandage +that prevailed in the country tended to drive the population +to the cities for protection. The latter grew in size, and +little by little the tradespeople began to take up the arts +of poetry and music which had been discarded by the nobles. + +Following their custom in respect to their trades, they formed +the art companies into guilds, the rules for admittance to which +were very strict. The rank of each member was determined by +his skill in applying the rules of the "Tabulatur," as it was +called. There were five grades of membership: the lowest was +that of mere admittance to the guild; the next carried with +it the title of scholar; the third the friend of the school; +after that came the singer, the poet; and last of all the +mastersinger, to attain which distinction the aspirant must +have invented a new style of melody or rhyme. The details of +the contest we all know from Wagner's comedy; in a number of +cases Wagner even made use of the sentences and words found +in the rules of the mastersingers. Although the mastersingers +retained their guild privileges in different parts of Germany +almost up to the middle of the present century, the movement +was strongest in Bavaria, with Nuremberg as its centre. + +Thus we see that the mastersingers and the minnesingers were +two very different classes of men. The mastersingers are +mainly valuable for having given Wagner a pretext for his +wonderful music. Hans Sachs was perhaps the only one of the +mastersingers whose melodies show anything but the flattest +mediocrity. The minnesingers and their immediate predecessors +and successors, on the other hand, furnished thought for a great +part of our modern art. To put it in a broad manner, it may be +said that much of our modern poetry owes more than is generally +conceded to the German mediaeval romance as represented in the +works of Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried of Strasburg, and +the unknown compilers of the "Nibelungenlied" and "Gutrune." +Music owes more to the troubadours, for, from what we know +of the melodies of the minnesingers, they cannot compare in +expressiveness with those of their French _confrères_. + +In closing this consideration of the minnesingers, I will quote +some of their verses and melodies, giving short accounts of +the authors. + +The best known of the minnesingers were Walther von der +Vogelweide, Heinrich Frauenlob, Tannhäuser, Nithart, Toggenburg, +etc. We first hear of Walther von der Vogelweide in 1200, +as a poet attached to the court of Philip of Hohenstaufen, +the German Kaiser, and shortly after to that of his successors +Otto and Friedrich. He accompanied Kaiser Friedrich to the +Crusade of 1228, and saw him crowned in Jerusalem. He died +in Würzburg, Bavaria. In accordance with his dying request, +food and drink for the birds were placed on his tomb every day; +the four holes carved for that purpose being still visible. The +pictures in Hagen's work on the mastersingers were collected in +the fifteenth century by Manasses of Zorich, and have served +as the basis for all subsequent works on the subject. The +picture of Von der Vogelweide (page 21) shows him sitting in +an attitude of meditation, on a green hillock, beside him his +sword and his coat of arms (a caged bird on one side and his +helmet on the other), and in his hand a roll of manuscript. +One of his shorter poems begins: + + Neath the lindens + In the meadow + Seek I flowers sweet; + Clover fragrant, + Tender grasses, + Bend beneath my feet. + + See, the gloaming, + Softly sinking, + Covers hill and dale. + Hush! my lover-- + Tandaradei! + Sweet sings the nightingale. + +We all are familiar with Tannhäuser (plate 35), through Wagner's +opera; therefore it is unnecessary to say more than that he was +a real person, a minnesinger, and that the singing tournament +at the Wartburg (the castle of the Thüringen family) really took +place in 1206-07. This tournament, which Wagner introduces into +his "Tannhäuser," was a trial of knightly strength, poetry, +and music, between the courts of Babenhausen and Thüringen, +and was held in Erfurt. Among the knights who competed were +Klingsor of Hungary, a descendant of the Klingsor who figures +in the "Parzival" legend, Tannhäuser, Walther von Eschenbach, +Walther von der Vogelweide, and many others. Tannhäuser was +a follower, or perhaps better, the successor of Walther von +der Vogelweide, like him, a crusader, and lived in the first +half of the thirteenth century. Toggenburg and Frauenlob were +both celebrated minnesingers, the former (plate 7) being the +subject of many strange legends. The simplicity and melodious +charm of his verses seem to contradict the savage brutality +ascribed to him in the stories of his life. + +Frauenlob (plate 44), as Heinrich von Meissen was +called, represents the minnesingers at the height of their +development. He died about 1320, and his works, as his nickname +suggests, were imbued with _das ewig weibliche_ in its best +sense. He was called the Magister of the seven free arts, and +was given the position of Canon of the Cathedral of Mayence, +with the title of Doctor of Divinity. He also wrote a paraphrase +on the "Song of Solomon," turning it into a rhapsodical eulogy +of the Virgin Mary, carrying versification to what seemed then +its utmost limits. The picture shows him playing and singing +to some prince, the carpet on which he stands being lifted +by the attendants. It makes plain the difference between the +minnesingers and the troubadours. In this picture the singer +is seen to be accompanying himself before the king, whereas in +plate 28 we see two troubadours in the lists, their _jongleurs_ +playing or singing the songs of their masters, while the latter +engage each other in battle. In order to give one more example +we will take the pictures of Conrad, the son of Conrad IV, +and the last of the Hohenstaufens (plate 11). He was born +about 1250, and was beheaded in the market place at Naples in +1268. The story of Konradin, as he was called, is familiar; +how he lived with his mother at the castle of her brother, +Ludwig of Bavaria, how he was induced to join in a rebellion +of the two Sicilies (to the crown of which he was heir) against +France, his defeat and execution by the Duke of Anjou, himself +a well-known troubadour. The text accompanying his picture +in Hagen's work describes him as having black eyes and blonde +hair, and wearing a long green dress with a golden collar. +His gray hunting horse is covered with a crimson mantle, has a +golden saddle and bit, and scarlet reins. Konradin wears white +hunting gloves and a three-cornered king's crown. Above the +picture are the arms of the kingdom of Jerusalem (a golden +crown in silver ground), to which he was heir through his +grandmother, Iolanthe. One of his songs runs as follows, and +it may be accepted as a fair specimen of the style of lyric +written by the minnesingers: + + The lovely flowers and verdure sweet + That gentle May doth slip + Have been imprisoned cruelly + In Winter's iron grip; + But May smiles o'er the green clad fields + That seemed anon so sad, + And all the world is glad. + + No joy to me the Summer brings + With all its bright long days. + My thoughts are of a maiden fair + Who mocks my pleading gaze; + She passes me in haughty mood, + Denies me aught but scorn, + And makes my life forlorn. + + Yet should I turn my love from her, + For aye my love were gone. + I'd gladly die could I forget + The love that haunts my song. + So, lonely, joyless, live I on, + For love my prayer denies, + And, childlike, mocks my sighs. + +The music of these minnesingers existing in manuscript has been +but little heeded, and only lately has an attempt been made to +classify and translate it into modern notation. The result so +far attained has been unsatisfactory, for the rhythms are all +given as spondaic. This seems a very improbable solution of +the mystery that must inevitably enshroud the musical notation +of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. + +Nithart (plate 36), by whom a number of melodies or "tones" +are given in Hagen's book (page 845), has been dubbed the +second "Till Eulenspiegel." He was a Bavarian, and lived about +1230, at the court of Frederick of Austria. He was eminently +the poet and singer of the peasants, with whom, after the +manner of Eulenspiegel, he had many quarrels, one of which is +evidently the subject of the picture. His music, or melodies, +and the verses which went with them, form the most complete +authentic collection of mediaeval music known. In considering +the _minnelieder_ of the Germans it is very interesting to +compare them with the songs of the troubadours, and to note +how in the latter the Arab influence has increased the number +of curved lines, or arabesques, whereas the German songs may +be likened to straight lines, a characteristic which we know +is a peculiarity of their folk song. + + PASTORELLA BY THIBAUT II, KING OF NAVARRE, 1254. + + [Figure 41] + [W: L'Autrier par la matinée Entre sen bos et un Vergier + Une pastore ai trouneé chantant pour soi en voisier.] + + Example from NITHART + + [Figure 42] + +In speaking of the straight lines of the melodies of +the minnesingers and in comparing them with the tinge of +orientalism to be found in those of the troubadours, it was +said that music owes more to the latter than to the former, +and this is true. If we admit that the straight line of Grecian +architecture is perfect, so must we also admit that mankind is +imperfect. We are living beings, and as such are swayed to a +great extent by our emotions. To the straight line of purity +in art the tinge of orientalism, the curved line of emotion, +brings the flush of life, and the result is something which we +can _feel_ as well as worship from afar. Music is a language, +and to mankind it serves as a medium for saying something which +cannot be put into mere words. Therefore, it must contain the +human element of mere sensuousness in order to be intelligible. +This is why the music of the troubadours, although not so pure +in style as that of the minnesingers, has been of the greatest +value in the development of our art. This orientalism, however, +must not mask the straight line; it must be the means of lending +more force, tenderness, or what not, to the figure. It must +be what the poem is to the picture, the perfume to the flower; +it must help to illustrate the thing itself. The moment we find +this orientalism (and I am using the word in its broadest sense) +covering, and thus distorting the straight line of pure music, +then we have national music so-called, a music which derives +its name and fame from the clothes it wears and not from that +strange language of the soul, the "why" of which no man has +ever discovered. + + + + +XIII + +EARLY INSTRUMENTAL FORMS + + +Referring to some newspaper reports which he knew to be +without foundation, Bismarck once said, "Newspapers are simply +a union of printer's ink and paper." Omitting the implied slur +we might say the same of printed music and printed criticism; +therefore, in considering printed music we must, first of all, +remember that it is the letter of the law which kills. We must +look deeper, and be able to translate sounds back into the +emotions which caused them. There is no right or wrong way +to give utterance to music. There is but _one_ way, namely, +through the living, vital expression of the content of the +music; all else is not music but mere pleasure for the ear, +a thing of the senses. For the time being we must see through +the composer's eyes and hear through his ears. In other words, +we must think in his language. The process of creating music is +often, to a great extent, beyond the control of the composer, +just as is the case with the novelist and his characters. The +language through which musical thought is expressed, however, is +a different thing, and it is this process of developing musical +speech until it has become capable of saying for us that which, +in our spoken language, must ever remain unsaid, that I shall +try to make clear in our consideration of form in music. + +Until the very end of the fifteenth century, music, so far +as we know, had no language of its own, that is to say, +it was not recognized as a medium for expressing thought or +emotion. Josquin des Prés (born at Conde in the north of France +in 1450, died 1521) was the first to attempt the expression +of thought in sound. Luther, in rebelling against Rome, also +overturned the music of the church in Germany. He incorporated +many folk songs into the music of the Protestant church and +discarded the old Gregorian chant (which was vague in rhythm, +or, rather, wholly without rhythm), calling it asinine braying. + +While Luther was paving the way for Bach by encouraging +church music to be something more than merely the singing +of certain melodies according to prescribed rules, in Italy +(at the time of his death in 1546) the Council of Trent was +already trying to decide upon a style of music proper for the +church. The matter was definitely settled in 1562 or 1563 by +the adoption of Palestrina's style.[13] Thus, while in Germany +ecclesiastical music was being broadened and an opening offered +for the development of the dramatic and emotional side of music, +in Italy, on the contrary, the emotional style of music was +being neglected and an absolutely serene style of what may be +called "impersonal" music encouraged. Italy, however, soon had +opera on which to fall back, and thus music in both countries +developed rapidly, although on different lines. + +In England, the budding school of English art, as exemplified +by Purcell, was soon overwhelmed by the influence of Händel +and the all-pervading school of Italian opera, which he brought +with him. + +In France, up to 1655, when Cardinal Mazarin sent to Italy for +an opera troupe with the purpose of entertaining Anne of Austria +(the widow of Louis XIII), there was practically no recognized +music except that imported from other countries. Under Louis +XI (d. 1483) Ockeghem, the Netherland contrapuntist, was the +chief musician of the land. + +The French pantomimes or masques, as they were sometimes called, +can hardly be said to have represented a valuable gain to art, +although their prevalence in France points directly to their +having been the direct descendants of the old pantomime on +one hand, and on the other, the direct ancestor of the French +opera. For we read that already in 1581 (twenty years before +Caccini's "Euridice" at Florence), a ballet entitled "Circe" was +given on the occasion of the marriage of Margaret of Lorraine, +the stepsister of Henry III. The music to it was written by +Beaulieu and Salmon, two court musicians. There were ten bands +of music in the cupola of the ballroom where the ballet was +given. These bands included hautbois, cornets, trombones, violas +de gamba, flutes, harps, lutes, flageolets. Besides all this, +ten violin players in costume entered the scene in the first +act, five from each side. Then a troupe of Tritons came swimming +in, playing lutes, harps, flutes, one even having a kind of +'cello. When Jupiter makes his appearance, he is accompanied by +forty musicians. The festivities on this occasion are said to +have cost over five million francs. Musically, the ballet was no +advance towards expressiveness in art. An air which accompanied +"Circe's" entrance, may be cited as being the original of the +well-known "Amaryllis," which is generally called _Air Louis +XV_. Baltazarini calls it _un son fort gai, nomme la clochette_. + +Music remained inert in France until 1650, when the Italians +gained an ascendancy, which they retained until 1732, +when Rameau's first opera "Hyppolyte et Aricie" was given in +Paris. Rameau had already commenced his career by gaining great +success as a harpsichord player and instrumental composer, +mostly for the harpsichord. By his time, however, music, +that is to say, secular music, was already becoming a new art, +and the French merely improved upon what already existed. + +Now this new art was first particularly evident in the dances of +these different peoples. These dances gave the music _form_, and +held it down to certain prescribed rhythms and duration. Little +by little the emotions, the natural expression of which is +music, could no longer be restricted to these dance forms +and rhythms; and gradually the latter were modified by each +daring innovator in turn. This "daring" of human beings, in +breaking through the trammels of the dance in order to express +what lay within their souls in the language that properly +belonged to it, would seem almost ludicrous to us, were we +not even to-day trying to get up courage to do the same thing. +The modifications of dance forms led up to our sonata, symphony, +and symphonic poem, as I hope to show. Opera was a thing apart, +and, being untrammelled either by dance rhythms or church laws, +developed gradually and normally. It cannot, however, be said to +have developed side by side with purely instrumental music, for +the latter is only just beginning to emancipate itself from its +dance clothes and to come forth as a language for the expression +of all that is divine in man. First we will consider the forms +and rhythms of these dances, then the awakening of the idea of +design in music, and its effect in modifying these forms and +laying the foundation for the sonata of the nineteenth century. + +The following shows the structure of the different dance forms +up to about 1750. + + +OLD DANCE FORMS (1650-1750). + + [ :Motive-|-Motive--|-Motive-----|--|-Motive---|--|-Motive----|---] + [2/4: 4 8 8 | 8. 16 4 | 8 8 8 8 | 4 4 | 4 8 8 | 4 4 | 8. 16 8 8 | 2 ] + [ :------Phrase-----|----Phrase-----|---Phrase----|----Phrase-----] + [A phrase may be three or four measures, and sections may be unequal] + [ :-------------Section-------------|-----------Section-----------] + [ :------------------------------Period---------------------------] + + This period might be repeated or extended to sixteen measures + and still remain a period. + + + 1. |--I P.-|--II P.-| (II is generally longer than I) + 2. |---I---|---II---|--I--| + 3. |---I---|---II---|-III-| (generally III resembles I) + 4. |---I---|---II---|-III-|--I--|--II-| or |--I--|--II--|-III-|--I--| + 5. |---I---|---II---|-III-|--IV-| + 6. |---I---|---II---|-III-|--IV-|--I--|--II-| + 7. |---I---|---II---|--I--|-III-|--IV-|-III-|--I--|--II--|--I--| + +In all these forms each period may be repeated. + + +Often the first, third, and fourth periods are repeated, +leaving the second period as it is. This happens especially +when the second period is longer than the first. In Nos. 2, +4, 6, 7, a few bars are often added at _Fine_ as a coda. + + +ANALYSIS OF OLD DANCES + +1. SARABANDE.--[3/2] [3/4] lento. Rhythm [3/2: 2 ^2. 4 | 2 2]. +Form 1, sometimes Form 2. This is of Spanish origin (_Saracen_ +dance), and is generally accompanied by variations called +_partita_ or doubles. + +2. MUSETTE (_cornemusa_ or bagpipe).--[3/4] [2/4] allegretto. +Form 1. Always written over or under a pedal note, which is +generally sustained to the end. It generally forms the second +part (not period) to the gavotte. + +3. GAVOTTE.--[4/4] allegro moderato. +Rhythm [4/4: 4 4 | 4 8 8 4 4] or [4 8 8 | 4 4 4 4]. +Always commences on the third beat. Form 3 or 5. +When accompanied by a musette, the gavotte is always repeated. + +4. BOURREE.--[C/2] allegro. Rhythm [C/2: 8 8 | 4 4 4 8 8]. +Form 3 or 5. Generally faster than the gavotte, and commences +on the fourth beat. + +5. RIGAUDON.--Similar to the bourrée, but slower. + +6. LOURE.--Similar to the bourrée, but slower. (In French +the verb _lourer_ means "to hold," which may have been a +characteristic of the _loure_ bass). + +7. TAMBOURIN.--[C/2] allegro. In form and rhythm like the +gavotte, but faster. Usually founded on a rhythmic pedal +note imitating a tambourine. + +8. CORRENTE, COURANTE.--[3/4] allegretto. +Rhythm [3/4: 8 8 8 | 8 8 8 8 8 8] or [3/4: 8 | 8 8 8 8 8 8] +(does not usually commence on the beat). Form 1, sometimes +Form 2. The rhythm is usually uniform, a kind of perpetual +motion, though not in one voice. + +9. MINUET.--[3/4] generally a little slower than moderato, +although in later minuets the tempo became allegretto. +Rhythm, generally, [3/4: >(4 | 4) 4 4 | 4 8 8 8 8] etc. +Old minuets often began on the first beat. Form 4; the third +and fourth periods being generally in a different mode from +the first and second periods, and called Trio or Minuet 2. +Minuets exist also without the Trio, and are in Form 1 or 2. + +10. CHACONNE.--[3/4] moderato. Form undecided; has sometimes +even only one period, sometimes three or two. It is generally +accompanied by doubles or variations, and is invariably +written on a ground bass or _basso ostinato_. The rhythm is +often syncopated. + +PASSACAILLE, [3/4], resembles a chaconne but is more stately. + +11. WALTZ (old German).--[3/4] andante moderato. Generally +Form 6. Rhythm [3/4: 4. 8 8. 16 | 8 8 4 8 8] approximately. + +12. MARCH.--[4/4] allegro moderato. +Rhythm [4/4: 8. 16 | 4 . 16 4 4 | 2. 3(8 8 8)] etc., or +[4 | 4 8. 16 4 4] etc. Form 6. Generally all the periods +are repeated and consist of eight measures each; third and +fourth periods change the key and rhythm. + +13. ALLEMANDE.--[4/4] moderato. Rhythm generally uniform +sixteenth notes. Form 1. + +14. PASSEPIED.--Quick minuet. + +15. PAVANE, PADVANA, or PAVO (peacock).--[4/4] andante +moderato. Rhythm [4/4: 4 8. 16 4. 8 | 8 8 8 8 2]. Form 2 or 6. +Sometimes [2/4]; third and fourth periods in different keys. + +16. GIGUE.--[2/4] [6/8] [3/4] [3/8] [9/8] [12/8] presto. +Rhythm generally uniform eighth notes. Forms 1 and 2. + +17. POLONAISE.--[3/4]. Rhythm [3/4: 8 16 16 8 16 16 4] or +[16 16 8 16 16 8 4] allegro. Form 1, generally with short coda. + + +MODERN FORMS (1800). + +1. MAZURKA.--[3/4] allegretto. Form 6. +Rhythm [3/4: 4 | 8. 16 4 4]. + +2. POLONAISE (also POLACCA).--[3/4] allegro maestoso. +Rhythm [3/4: 8. 16 8. 16 16 16 16 16] or [8 4 16 16 8 8]. +The bass is generally [8 16 16 8 8 8 8]. Form 7. + +3. BOLERO (CACHUCHA) (Spanish).--Like the polonaise but +livelier, and generally containing counter-rhythms in triplets. + +4. HABANERA.--[2/4]. +Rhythm [2/4: 8 8 16 8 16 | 8 8 16 8 16 | 8 8 3(8 8 8) | 8 8 4]. +The characteristic element is the mixture of triplets and eighth +notes. Time, andante. Form undecided, generally No. 1. Very often +repeated with slight changes. + +5. CZARDAS (Hungarian).--First part [C/2] (_lassan_, _lento_); +second part [2/4] (_friska_, _presto_ and _prestissimo_). +For form and rhythm see Liszt's rhapsodies, Nos. 2, 4, and 6. + +6. TARANTELLA.--Rhythm [6/8: 8 8 8 8 8 8 | 8 8 8 8 8 8] or +[8 8 8 8 8 8 | 4 8 4 8]. Time, molto allegro to prestissimo. +Forms 4 and 6, sometimes 7. In the Trio the movement is often +quieter although not necessarily slower. It almost invariably +has a Coda. The Finale is usually prestissimo. + +7. SALTARELLO.--Similar to the tarantella, with the exception +of having more jumps (_salti_). + +8. POLKA (about 1840).--[2/4] allegretto. +Rhythm [2/4: 8 8 4 | 8 16 16 4]. Form 6. Accent is on the +second beat. Cuban dances (sometimes called habaneros) are +often in polka form and rhythm, with the one exception of +the triplets peculiar to almost all Spanish music +[2/4: 8 8 >4 | 8 8 >4 | 16 8 16 >8 8 | 16 8 16 3(16 16 16) 8] + +9. WALTZ.--[3/4]. Rhythm (bass) [3/4: >4 4 4 | >4 4 4]. +Faster than the old waltz. Form 2 with a coda. Modern waltzes are +often written in sets, or many different waltzes joined together +by short modulations or codas, preceded by an introduction, +generally in one period, _lento_, and ending with a brilliant +coda containing reminiscences of the principal themes. + +10. GALOP.--[2/4]. Rhythm [2/4: 16 16 16 16 8 8 | 8 8 8 8] or +[16 16 8 8 8 | 16 16 8 16 16 8]. Form 6. Time, presto. + +11. MARCH.--Same as the old march, but modified in character +and movement according to its title--funeral march, military +march, cortege, festival march, etc. In funeral marches, +the third and fourth periods are generally in major. + +The modernizing of dance forms has been undertaken by +almost every writer from Scarlatti (d. 1757) down to our +day. Scarlatti joined sections together with isolated measures, +repeated sections and phrases before completing the period, +and added short codas to periods indiscriminately. Since his +time, everyone has added to or curtailed the accepted forms +by putting two forms together; hence the fantaisie-mazurka, +etc. Wagner represents the culminating point of the modern +tendency to disregard forms which were interpreted differently +by every composer, and which had their origin in dances. + +The attempt to emancipate music from the dance commenced very +early; in fact, most of the earliest secular music we know +already shows the tendency towards programme music, for, +from an emotional standpoint, secular music began at the +very bottom of the ladder. It was made to express _things_ +at first, just as in learning any new language we naturally +first acquire a vocabulary of nouns to express things we see, +such as table, chair, etc., in the same way that in _written_ +language the symbols first take the shape of animals or other +things they are meant to represent. This same characteristic +naturally showed itself in music before the words for _emotion_ +came, the common, everyday nouns were sought for in this new +language. The madrigals of Weelkes and their word painting show +this, and the same occur in instrumental music, as in Byrd's +"Carman's Whistle," one of the earliest English instrumental +works contemporaneous to the madrigals of Morley and others. +In France, many of the earliest clavichord pieces were of +the programme type, and even in Germany, where instrumental +music ran practically in the same groove with church music, +the same tendency showed itself. + +I have given the forms of most of the old dances, and also the +elements of melodic structure (motive, phrase, etc.). I must, +however, add the caution that this material is to be accepted +in a general way, and as representing the rhythms and forms +most frequently used. A French courante differed from the +Italian, and certain dances were taken at different _tempi_ in +different countries. Poor, or at least careless construction, +is often the cause of much confusion. Scarlatti, for instance, +is especially loose in melodic structure. + +It was only with Beethoven that the art of musical design showed +anything like complete comprehension by the composer. Until +then, with occasional almost haphazard successes, the art +of pushing a thought to its logical conclusion was seemingly +unknown. An emotional passage now and then would often betray +deep feeling, but the thought would almost invariably be lost in +the telling, for the simple reason that the musical sentences +were put together almost at random, mere stress of momentary +emotion being seemingly the only guiding influence. Bach stands +alone; his sense of design was inherent, but, owing to the +contrapuntal tendency of his time, his feeling for _melodic_ +design is often overshadowed, and even rendered impossible +by the complex web of his music. With a number of melodies +sounding together, their individual emotional development +becomes necessarily difficult to emphasize. + +Bach's art has something akin to that of Palestrina. They both +stand alone in the history of the world, but the latter belongs +to the Middle Ages. He is the direct descendant of Ambrose, +Gregory, Notker, Tutilo, etc., the crowning monument of the +Roman Church in music, and represents what may be termed +unemotional music. His art was untouched by the strange, +suggestive colours of modern harmony; it was pure, unemotional, +and serene. One instinctively thinks of Bach, on the other +hand, as a kind of musical reflection of Protestantism. His +was not a secluded art which lifted its head high above the +multitude; it was rather the palpable outpouring of a great +heart. Bach also represents all the pent-up feeling which +until then had longed in vain for utterance, and had there +been any canvas for him to paint on (to use a poor simile), +the result would have been still more marvellous. As it was, +the material at his disposal was a poor set of dance forms, +with the one exception of the fugue, the involved utterance +of which precluded spontaneity and confined emotional design +to very restricted limits. It is exactly as if Wagner had +been obliged to put his thoughts in quadrille form with the +possible alternative of some mathematical device of musical +double bookkeeping. As it is, Bach's innovations were very +considerable. In the first place, owing to the lack of the +system of equal temperament, composers had been limited to +the use of only two or three sharps and flats; in all the +harpsichord music of the pre-Bach period we rarely find +compositions in sharp keys beyond G, or flat keys beyond +A[flat]. To be sure, Rameau, in France, began at the same time +to see the necessity for equal temperament, but it was Bach +who, by his forty-eight "Preludes and Fugues," written in all +the keys, first settled the matter definitely. + +In the fugue form itself, he made many innovations consisting +mainly of the casting aside of formalism. With Bach a fugue +consists of what is called the "exposition," that is to say, +the enunciation of the theme (subject), its answer by another +voice or part, recurrence of the subject in another part which, +in turn, is again answered, and so on according to the number +of voices or parts. After the exposition the fugue consists +of a kind of free contrapuntal fantasy on the subject and its +answer. By throwing aside the restraint of form Bach often +gave his fugues an emotional significance in spite of the +complexity of the material he worked with. + + +[13] Pier Luigi, born in Palestrina, near Rome. + + + + +XIV + +THE MERGING OF THE SUITE INTO THE SONATA + + +In the previous chapter it was stated that the various dances, +such as the minuet, sarabande, allemande, etc., led up to +our modern sonata form, or, perhaps, to put it more clearly, +they led up to what we call sonata form. As a matter of fact, +already in the seventeenth century, we find the word _sonata_ +applied to musical compositions; generally to pieces for the +violin, but rarely for the harpsichord. The word sonata +was derived originally from the Italian word _suonare_, +"to sound," and the term was used to distinguish instrumental +from vocal music. The latter was sung (_cantata_), the former +was sounded (_suonata_) by instruments. Thus many pieces were +called _suonatas_; the distinguishing point being that they were +_played_ and not sung. Organ sonatas existed as far back as 1600 +and even earlier, but the earliest application of the word seems +to have been made in connection with pieces for the violin. + +Dances were often grouped together, especially when they had +some slight intrinsic musical value. Probably the term _sonata_ +first designated a composition in one of these dance forms +not intended for dancing. Gradually groups of dances were +called _suites_; then, little by little, the dance titles of +the separate numbers were dropped, and the _suite_ was called +_sonata_. These different numbers, however, retained their +dance characteristics, as we shall see later. The arrangement +of the pieces composing the _suites_ differed in various +countries. There were French, Italian, German, and English +suites, generally, however, retaining the same grouping of +the different movements. The first movement consisted of an +_allemande_; then came a _courante_; then a _minuet_; then +a _sarabande_; and last of all a _gigue_; all in the same +key. Sometimes the _minuet_ and _sarabande_ changed places, +just as in modern times do the _andante_ and _scherzo_. + +Already in 1685, when Corelli's sonatas for strings appeared, +the custom of decreasing the number of movements to three began +to obtain, and a century later this custom was universal. The +_allemande_, _overture_, or _preludio_ formed the first +movement; the second consisted of the _sarabande_, the ancestor +of our _adagio_; and the last part was generally a _gigue_. Even +when the dance titles were no more used (the music having long +outgrown its original purpose), the distinctive characteristics +of these different movements were retained; the _sarabande_ +rhythm was still adhered to for the _adagio_ (even by Haydn) +and the triple time and rhythm of the _gigue_ were given to +the last part. In addition to this, these three movements +were often kept in one key. In his first sonatas Beethoven +added a movement, generally a _minuet_, to this scheme; but +returned to the three-movement structure later. His Op. 111 +has only two movements, in a way returning to a still earlier +general form of the sonata. Now, as has already been said, +some of the earliest examples of instrumental music were +mainly descriptive in character, that is to say, consisting +of imitations of _things_, thus marking the most elementary +stage of programme music. Little by little composers became +more ambitious and began to attempt to give expression to +the emotions by means of music; and at last, with Beethoven, +"programme music" may be said, in one sense, to have reached +its climax. For although it is not generally realized, he +wrote every one of his sonatas with definite subjects, and, +at one time, was on the point of publishing mottoes to them, +in order to give the public a hint of what was in his mind +when he wrote them. + +Analysis may be considered as the reducing of a musical +composition to its various elements--harmony, rhythm, +melody--and power of expression. Just as melody may be analyzed +down to the motives and phrases of which it consists, so may +the expressiveness of music be analyzed; and this latter study +is most valuable, for it brings us to a closer understanding +of the power of music as a language. + +For the sake of clearness we will group music as follows: + + 1. Dance forms. + 2. Programme music. (Things. Feelings.) + 3. The gathering together of dances in suites. + 4. The beginnings of design. + 5. The merging of the suite into the sonata. + +The dance tunes I need hardly quote; they consist of a mere play +of sound to keep the dancers in step, for which purpose any more +or less agreeable rhythmical succession of sounds will serve. + +If we take the next step in advance of instrumental music +we come to the giving of meanings to these dances, and, as I +have explained, these meanings will at first have reference +to things; for instance, Couperin imitates an alarm clock; +Rameau tries to make the music sound as if three hands were +playing instead of two (_Les trois mains_); he imitates sighing +(_Les soupirs_); the scolding voice; he even tries to express a +mood musically (_L'indifferente_). In Germany, these attempts +to make instrumental music expressive of something beyond +rhythmic time-keeping continued, and we find Carl Philip +Emanuel Bach attempting to express light-hearted amiability (_La +complaisance_) and even languor (_Les tendres langueurs_). The +suite, while it combined several dances in one general form, +shows only a trace of _design_. There was more design in one +of the small programme pieces already quoted than in most of +the suites of this period (see, for example, Loeilly's "Suite"). + +Bach possessed instinctively the feeling for musical speech +which seemed denied to his contemporaries whenever they had no +actual story to guide their expression; and even in his dance +music we find coherent musical sentences as, for instance, +in the _Courante_ in A. + +In art our opinions must, in all cases, rest directly on the +thing under consideration and not on what is written about +it. In my beliefs I am no respecter of the written word, +that is to say, the mere fact that a statement is made by +a well-known man, is printed in a well-known work, or is +endorsed by many prominent names, means nothing to me if the +thing itself is available for examination. Without a thorough +knowledge of music, including its history and development, +and, above all, musical "sympathy," individual criticism is, +of course, valueless; at the same time the acquirement of this +knowledge and sympathy is not difficult, and I hope that we may +yet have a public in America that shall be capable of forming +its own ideas, and not be influenced by tradition, criticism, +or fashion. + +We need to open our eyes and see for ourselves instead +of trusting the direction of our steps to the guidance of +others. Even an opinion based on ignorance, frankly given, +is of more value to art than a platitude gathered from some +outside source. If it is not a platitude but the echo of some +fine thought, it only makes it worse, for it is not sincere, +unless of course it is quoted understandingly. We need +freshness and sincerity in forming our judgments in art, for +it is upon these that art lives. All over the world we find +audiences listening suavely to long concerts, and yet we do +not see one person with the frankness of the little boy in +Andersen's story of the "New Clothes of the Emperor." It is +the same with the other arts. I have never heard anyone say +that part of the foreground of Millet's "Angelus" is "muddy" +or that the Fornarina's mysterious smile is anything but +"hauntingly beautiful." People do not dare admire the London +Law Courts; all things must be measured by the straight lines +of Grecian architecture. Frankness! Let us have frankness, +and if we have no feelings on a subject, let us remain silent +rather than echo that drone in the hive of modern thought, +the "_authority_ in art." + +Every person with even the very smallest love and sympathy for +art possesses ideas which are valuable to that art. From the +tiniest seeds sometimes the greatest trees are grown. Why, +therefore, allow these tender germs of individualism to +be smothered by that flourishing, arrogant bay tree of +tradition--fashion, authority, convention, etc. + +My reason for insisting on the importance of all lovers of +art being able to form their own opinions is obvious, when we +consider that our musical public is obliged to take everything +on trust. For instance, if we read on one page of some history +(every history of music has such a page) that Mozart's sonatas +are sublime, that they do not contain one note of mere filigree +work, and that they far transcend anything written for the +harpsichord or clavichord by Haydn or his contemporaries, we +echo the saying, and, if necessary, quote the "authorities." Now +if one had occasion to read over some of the clavichord music +of the period, possibly it might seem strange that Mozart's +sonatas did not impress with their magnificence. One might +even harbour a lurking doubt as to the value of the many +seemingly bare runs and unmeaning passages. Then one would +probably turn back to the authorities for an explanation and +find perhaps the following: "The inexpressible charm of Mozart's +music leads us to forget the marvellous learning bestowed upon +its construction. Later composers have sought to conceal the +constructional points of the sonata which Mozart never cared to +disguise, so that incautious students have sometimes failed to +discern in them the veritable 'pillars of the house,' and have +accused Mozart of poverty of style because he left them boldly +exposed to view, as a great architect delights to expose the +piers upon which the tower of his cathedral depends for its +support." (Rockstro, "History of Music," p. 269.) Now this +is all very fine, but it is nonsense, for Mozart's sonatas +are anything but cathedrals. It is time to cast aside this +shibboleth of printer's ink and paper and look the thing itself +straight in the face. It is a fact that Mozart's sonatas are +compositions entirely unworthy of the author of the "Magic +Flute," or of any composer with pretensions to anything beyond +mediocrity. They are written in a style of flashy harpsichord +virtuosity such as Liszt never descended to, even in those of +his works at which so many persons are accustomed to sneer. + +Such a statement as I have just made may be cried down as +rank heresy, first by the book readers and then by the general +public; but I doubt if anyone among that public would or could +actually turn to the music itself and analyze it intelligently, +from both an aesthetic and technical standpoint, in order to +verify or disprove the assertion. + +Once a statement is made it seems to be exceedingly difficult +to keep it from obtaining the universal acceptance which it +gains by unthinking reiteration in other works. One of the +strangest cases of this repetition of a careless statement may +be found in the majority of histories of music, where we are +told that musical expression (that is to say, the increasing +and diminishing of a tone, crescendo and diminuendo) was +first _discovered_ at Mannheim, in Germany, about 1760. This +statement may be found in the works of Burney, Schubart, +Reichardt, Sittard, Wasielewski, and even in Jahn's celebrated +"Life of Mozart." The story is that Jommelli, an Italian, +first "invented" the crescendo and diminuendo, and that when +they were first used, the people in the audience gradually +rose from their seats at the crescendo, and as the music +"diminuendoed" they sat down again. The story is absurd, +for the simple reason that even in 1705, Sperling, in his +"Principae Musicae," describes crescendos from _ppp_ to _fff_, +and we read in Plutarch of the same thing. + +Shedlock, in his work "The Pianoforte Sonata," quotes as the +first sonatas for the clavier those of Kuhnau, and cites +especially the six _Bible_ sonatas. Now Kuhnau, although +he was Bach's predecessor at St. Thomas' Church in Leipzig, +was certainly a composer of the very lowest rank. The _Bible_ +sonatas, which Shedlock paints to us in such glowing colours, +are the merest trash, and not to be compared with the works of +his contemporaries. I do not think that they have any place +whatsoever in the history or development either of music or +of that form called the sonata. + +The development of the suite from dance forms has already +been shown, and we will now trace the development of the +sonata from the suite in Italy, Germany, and France. As an +example of this development in Italy, a so-called sonata by +G.B. Pescetti will serve (the sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti +were not originally so named, and the sonatas before that were +simply short pieces, so designated to distinguish them from +dance music). This sonata was published about 1730, and was one +of nine. The first movement is practically of the _allemande_ +type, and its first period ends in the dominant key. There +is but the slightest trace of a second theme in the first +part; yet the improvement in contrapuntal design over the +suites is evident. The second movement is in the same key, +and retains the characteristic rhythm of the _sarabande_; +at the end, the improvement, so far as design is concerned, +is very noticeable. The last movement, still in the same key, +is a _gigue_, thus keeping well in the shadow of the suite. + +A sonata by the German Rolle (1718-1785) is valuable in that +it shows a very decided second theme in the first period, +thus tending toward the development of the original simple +dance form into the more complex sonata form. The _adagio_, +however, still has the _sarabande_ characteristics, and +foreshadows many things. It contains many _words_ that later +were shaped into great poems by others. "The Erlking" of +Schubert is especially hinted at, just as the first movement +was prophetic of Beethoven. In the last movement we have the +_gigue_ rhythm again. + +In France, music had become merely a court appendage, as was +the case with the other arts, and had long served as a means +for showing the divine grace with which Louis XIV or XV could +turn out his toes in the minuet. In addition to this, the +arranging of a scientific system of harmonization by Rameau +(1683-1764) (which, by the way, is the basis of most of the +treatises of harmony of the present century), caused the few +French composers who could make headway against the prevailing +Italian opera after Lully to turn their attention away from +polyphonic writing; and having, after all, but little to +express in other than the long-accustomed dance rhythms and +tunes, their music cannot be said to have made any mark in +the world. In order to show the poverty of this style, let +us take a sonata by Méhul (1763-1817). The first movement +has already a well-defined second theme, but otherwise is +a mere collection of more or less commonplace progressions. +The second part is a dance tune, pure and simple; indeed the +first part had all the characteristics of the _farandole_ +(see Bizet's "l'Arlesienne"). The last part is entitled rondo, +"a round dance," and is evidently one in the literal sense of +the word. In all these sonatas the increasing use of what is +called the Alberti bass is noticeable. + +To show the last link between the suite and the sonata, +reference may be made to the well-known sonata in D major by +Haydn. In this, as in those analyzed above, all the movements +are in the same key. The adagio is a _sarabande_, and the +last movement has the characteristics of the _gigue_. This, +however, is only the starting point with Haydn; later we will +consider the development of this form into what is practically +our modern sonata, which, of course, includes the symphony, +quartet, quintet, concerto, etc. + +Our path of study in tracing the development of the sonata from +the suite leads us through a sterile tract of seemingly bare +desert. The compositions referred to are full of fragments, +sometimes fine in themselves, but lying wherever they happened +to fall, their sculptors having no perception of their value +one with another. Disconnected phrases, ideas never completed; +to quote Hamlet, "Words, words!" Later we find Beethoven +and Schubert constructing wonderful temples out of these +same fragments, and shaping these same words into marvellous +tone poems. + +The music of the period we have been considering is well +described by Browning in "A Toccata of Galuppi's": + + Yes you, like a ghostly cricket, + Creaking where a house was burned: + Dust and ashes, dead and done with, + Venice spent what Venice earned. + + + + +XV + +THE DEVELOPMENT OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC + + +Up to the time of Beethoven, music for the pianoforte consisted +mainly of programme music of the purely descriptive order, that +is to say, it was generally imitative of natural or artificial +externals. To be sure, if we go back to the old clavecinists, +and examine the sonatas of Kuhnau, sundry pieces by Couperin, +Rameau, and the Germans, Froberger, C.P.E. Bach and others, +we find the beginnings of that higher order of programme music +which deals directly with the emotions; and not only that, +but which aims at causing the hearer to go beyond the actual +sounds heard, in pursuance of a train of thought primarily +suggested by this music. + +To find this art of programme music, as we may call it, brought +to a full flower, we must seek in the mystic utterances +of Robert Schumann. It is wise to keep in mind, however, +that although Schumann's piano music certainly answers to +our definition of the higher programme music, it also marks +the dividing line between emotional programme music without a +well-defined object and that dramatically emotional art which +we have every reason to believe was aimed at by Beethoven in +many of his sonatas, and which, in its logical development +and broadened out by orchestral colours and other resources, +is championed by Richard Strauss at the present day. + +We have already learned that C.P.E. Bach had entirely broken +with the contrapuntal style of his father and his age in +order to gain freer utterance, and that the word "colour" +began to be used in his time in connection with music for +even one instrument. It is, perhaps, needless to say that the +vastly enlarged possibilities, both technical and tonal, of +the newly invented _forte-piano_ were largely the outcome of +this seeking for colour in music. In addition to this, the new +art of harmonic dissonances was already beginning to stretch +out in the direction of new and strange tonal combinations, +thus giving to the music written for the instrument many new +possibilities in the way of causing and depicting emotions. That +the first experiments were puerile, we know, as, for example, +Haydn's attempts, in one of his pianoforte sonatas, to suggest +the conversion of an obdurate sinner. + +When we consider Mozart, it is impossible to forget the +fact that in his piano works he was first and foremost +a piano virtuoso, a child prodigy, of whom filigree work +was expected by the public for which he wrote his sonatas. +(We cannot call this orientalism, for it was more or less of +German pattern, traced from the fioriture of the Italian opera +singer.) Therefore, emotional utterance or even new or poetic +colouring was not to be expected of him. + +As has been said before, it remained for Beethoven to +weld these new words and strange colours into poems, which, +notwithstanding the many barnacles hanging to them (remnants of +a past of timid adhesion to forms and fashions), are, in truth, +the first lofty and dignified musical utterances with an object +which we possess. I mean by this statement that his art was the +first to cast aside the iron fetters of what then formed the +canons of art. The latter may be described (even in reference +to modern days) as constituting the shadow of a great man. And, +although this is a digression, I may add that all students of +piano music no doubt realize the weighty shadow that Beethoven +cast over the first half of the nineteenth century, just as +Wagner is doing at the present time. + +Our purists are unable to realize that the shadows are the +least vital part of the great men who cast them. We remember +that the only wish expressed by Diogenes when Alexander came +to see him was that the king should stand aside so that he +could enjoy the light of the sun. + +To return: We find that Beethoven was the first exponent of +our modern art. Every revolution is bound to bring with it a +reaction which seeks to consolidate and put in safe keeping, +as it were, results attained by it. Certainly Beethoven alone +can hardly be said to have furthered this end; for his revolt +led him into still more remote and involved trains of thought, +as in his later sonatas and quartets. Even the Ninth Symphony, +hampered as it is by actual words for which declamation and a +more or less well-defined form of musical speech are necessary, +suffers from the same involved utterance that characterizes +his last period. + +Schubert, in his instrumental work, was too ardent a seeker +and lover of the purely beautiful to build upon the forms of +past generations, and thus his piano music, neither restrained +nor supported by poetic declamation, was never held within +the bounds of formalism. + +It was Mendelssohn who first invested old and seemingly worn-out +forms of instrumental music (especially for the pianoforte) +with the new poetic license of speech, which was essentially +the spirit of the age of revolution in which he lived. + +In holding up Mendelssohn as a formalist against Beethoven, +and at the same time presenting him as the composer directly +responsible for our modern symphonic poem, there is a +seeming contradiction, which, however, is more apparent than +real. While Beethoven never hesitated to overturn form (harmonic +or otherwise) to suit the exigencies of his inspiration, +Mendelssohn cast all his pictures into well-defined and orthodox +forms. Thus his symphonic poems, for example, the overtures to +"The Lovely Melusina," "Fingal's Cave," "Ruy Blas," etc., are +really overtures in form; whereas, the so-called "Moonlight" +sonata of Beethoven, as well as many others, are sonatas only +in name. The emotional and problematic significance given by +Mendelssohn to many of his shorter piano pieces, including even +such works as preludes and fugues, is familiar to us all. These +works, however, but rarely departed from the orthodox forms +represented by their names. His "Songs without Words" have +been so often quoted as constituting a new art form that it +is well to remember that they are practically all cast in +the same mould, that of the most simple song form, with one, +and sometimes two more or less similar verses, preceded by a +short introduction and ending with a coda. + +We may say then, broadly, that Beethoven invested instrumental +music with a wonderful poignancy and power of expression, +elevating it to the point of being the medium of expressing +some of the greatest thoughts we possess. In so doing, however, +he shattered many of the great idols of formalism by the sheer +violence of his expression. + +Schubert, let me say again, seemed indifferent to symmetry, or +never thought of it in his piano music. Mendelssohn, possibly +influenced by his early severe training with Zelter, accepted +symmetry of form as the cornerstone of his musical edifice; +although he was one of the first in the realms of avowed +programme music, he never carried it beyond the boundary of +good form. And, as in speaking a moment ago of the so-called +canons of musical art, we compared them with the shadows that +great men have cast upon their times, it may be as well to +remember that just this formalism of Mendelssohn overshadowed +and still overshadows England to the present day. On the other +hand, Beethoven's last style still shows itself in Brahms, +and even in Richard Strauss. Schumann was different from +these three. His music is not avowed programme music; neither +is it, as is much of Schubert's, pure delight in beautiful +melodies and sounds. It did not break through formalism by +sheer violence of emotion, as did Beethoven's; least of all +has it Mendelssohn's orthodox dress. It represents, as well as +I can put it, the rhapsodical reverie of a great poet to whom +nothing seems strange, and who has the faculty of relating +his visions, never attempting to give them coherence, until, +perhaps, when awakened from his dream, he naïvely wonders what +they may have meant. It will be remembered that Schumann added +titles to his music after it was composed. + +To all of this new, strange music, Liszt and Chopin added the +wonderful tracery of orientalism. As I have said before, the +difference between these two is that with Chopin this tracery +enveloped poetic thought as with a thin gauze; whereas with +Liszt, the embellishment itself made the starting point for +almost a new art in tonal combination, the effects of which are +seen on every hand to-day. To realize its influence, one need +only compare the graceful arabesques of the most simple piano +piece of to-day with the awkward and gargoyle-like figuration +of Beethoven and his predecessors. We may justly attribute this +to Liszt rather than to Chopin, whose nocturne embellishments +are but first cousins to those of the Englishman, John Field, +though naturally Chopin's Polish temperament gave his work that +grace and profusion of design which we have called orientalism. + + + + +XVI + +THE MYSTERY AND MIRACLE PLAY + + +It is interesting to recall the origin of our words "treble" +and "discant." The latter was derived from the first attempts to +break away from the monotony of several persons singing the same +melody in unison, octaves, fifths, or fourths. In such cases +the original melody was called _cantus firmus_ (a term still +generally used in counterpoint to designate the given melody +of an exercise to which the student is to write other parts), +the new melody that was sung with it was called the _discant_, +and when a third part was added, it received the name _triplum_ +or _treble_. As Ambros remarks, this forcible welding together +of different melodies, often well-known old tunes, secular +or derived from the church chants, was on a direct line with +the contemporary condition of the other arts. For instance, +on the portal to the left of the Cathedral of Saint Mark, +at Venice, is a relief, representing some Biblical scene, +which is entirely made up of fragments of some older sculptured +figures, placed together without regard to anatomy in much the +same brutal fashion that the melodies of the time were sung +together. The traces of this clumsy music-making extended down +to Palestrina's time, and became the germ of counterpoint, +canon, and fugue, constituting (apart from the folk song) +the only music known at that time. + +This music, however, very soon developed into two styles, one +adopted by the church, the other, a secular style, furnishing +the musical texture both of opera and other secular music. The +opera, or rather the art form we know under that name (for the +name itself conveys nothing, for which reason Wagner coined the +term "music drama") broke away from the church in the guise of +Mysteries, as they were called in mediaeval times. A Mystery +(of which our modern oratorio is the direct descendant) was +a kind of drama illustrating some sacred subject, and the +earliest specimens laid the foundation for the Greek tragedy +and comedy. We still see a relic of this primitive art form +in the Oberammergau Passion Play. + +We read of the efforts made, as early as the fifth century, +to hold the people to the church; among other devices employed +was that of illustrating the subjects of the services by the +priests performing the offices being dressed in an appropriate +costume. Little by little the popular songs of the people +crept into the church service among the regular ecclesiastical +chants, thus foreshadowing the beginnings of modern opera; +for after a while, special Latin texts were substituted for +the regular service, the mimetic part of which degenerated +into the most extraordinary license as, for instance, in the +"Feast of Asses" (January 14) which may be called a burlesque +of the mass, and which has been described in a former chapter. + +With this mixture of the vernacular and the official Latin,[14] +these Miracle and Passion Plays, as well as the Mysteries and +Moralities (as different forms of this ecclesiastical mumming +were called) began to be given in other places besides the +churches. + +In addition to this combination of singing and acting, the +_tenson_ or poetic debate (which was one form of the troubadour +songs, and one very often _acted_ by the jongleurs) probably +also did its part towards giving stability to this new art +form. The earliest specimen of it, in its purely secular aspect, +is a small work entitled "Robin et Marian," by Adam de la Hale, +a well-known troubadour (called "the humpback," born at Arras +in the south of France in 1240), who followed in the train of +that ferocious Duke Charles of Anjou, who beheaded Konradin, +the last of the Hohenstaufens, in 1268, and Manfred, both of +them minnesingers. + +As the Mystery was the direct ancestor of our oratorio, so was +the little pastoral of Adam de la Hale the germ of the modern +French vaudeville. One of its melodies is said to be sung to +this day in some parts of southern France. + +The entire object in this little play being that both words and +action should be perfectly understood, it is obvious that as +little as possible should be going on during the singing. Thus, +such melodies as we find in these old pastoral plays would be +accompanied by short notes, serving merely to give the pitch +and tonality, which would gradually develop into chords, +thus laying the foundation for harmony. + +If, on the other hand, we look at the "church play" of the +same period, the Mystery, and remember that it was sung by +men accustomed to singing the _organum_ of Hucbald, we have +a clue as to what it was and what it led up to. For while +one part or voice of the music would give a melody (copied +from or at any rate resembling the Gregorian chant or the +sequences of Notker of Tubilo), the other voices would sing +songs in the vernacular, and, strangest of all, one voice +would repeat some Latin word, or even a "nonsense word" +(to use Edward Lear's term) but much more slowly than the +other voices. Thus the needs of the Mystery were as well met +by incipient counterpoint on the one hand, as, on the other, +the secular song-play engendered the sense of harmony. + +That the early secular forerunner of opera, as represented by +"Robin et Marian," was still, to a certain degree, controlled +by the church is clear if we remember that at that time the +only methods of noting music were entirely in the hands of the +clergy. The notation for the lute, for instance, was invented +about 1460 to 1500. Thus, we can say that the recording of +secular music was not free from church influence until some +time after the sixteenth century. + +This primitive "opera" music was thus fettered by difficulty of +notation and the influence of the ecclesiastical rules until +perhaps about 1600, when the first real opera began to find a +place in Italy. Jacopo Peri and Caccini were among the first +workers in the comparatively new form, and they both took +the same subject, _Eurydice_. Of the former the following +two short excerpts will suffice; the first is where Orpheus +bewails his fate; in the second he expresses his joy at bringing +Eurydice back to earth. Caccini's opera was perhaps the first +to introduce the many useless ornaments that, up to the middle +of this century, were characteristic of Italian opera. + + + EURYDICE--PERI. + + Orpheus bewailing his fate. + + [Figure 43] + [W: I weep not, I am not sighing, tho' thou art from me taken. + What use to sigh] + + + Orpheus' joy in bringing back Eurydice. + + [Figure 44] + [W: Gioi-te al canto mio serve frondo di che in su l'au rora] + + +[14] It is interesting to note as to the prevalence of Latin, + that Dante's "Divina Commedia" was the first important + poem in Italian. Latin was used on the stage in Italy + up to the sixteenth century; the stationary chorus + stationed on the stage remained until the seventeenth + century and was not entirely discontinued until the + first half of the eighteenth century. + + + + +XVII + +OPERA + + +No art form is so fleeting and so subject to the dictates of +fashion as opera. It has always been the plaything of fashion, +and suffers from its changes. To-day the stilted figures of +Hasse, Pergolesi, Rameau, and even Gluck, seem as grotesque +to us as the wigs and buckles of their contemporaries. To +Palestrina's masses and madrigals, Rameau's and Couperin's +claveçin pieces, and all of Bach, we can still listen without +this sense of incongruity. On the other hand, operas of +Alessandro Scarlatti, Matheson, and Porpora would bore us +unmitigatedly. They have gone out of fashion. Even the modern +successors of these men, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi, in his +earlier years, have become dead letters musically, although only +as late as 1845, Donizetti was at the very zenith of his fame. + +Of all the operas of the past century, our present public has +not seen or even heard of one, with the exception of "The Magic +Flute," and less probably "Don Juan." This is bad enough; +but if we look at works belonging to the first part of the +nineteenth century, we find the same state of affairs. The +operas of Spontini, Rossini, most of Meyerbeer's, even Weber's +"Freischütz," have passed away, seemingly never to return. Even +"Cavalleria Rusticana," of recent creation, is falling rapidly +into oblivion. Thus the opéra comique early disappeared in +favour of the romantic opera and the operetta. The former has +already nearly ended its career, and the latter has descended +to the level of mere farce. In the course of time, these opera +forms become more and more evanescent; for the one-act opera of +miniature tragedy, which is practically only a few years old, +is already almost extinct. + +And yet this art form has vastly more hold on the public than +other music destined to outlive it. The fact is, that music +which is tied down to the conventionalities and moods of its +time and place can never appeal but to the particular time and +mood which gave it birth. (Incidentally, I may say the same of +music having its roots in the other peculiarities of folk song.) + +Now the writers of these operas were great men who put their +best into their work; the cause of the failure of these operas +was not on account of the music, but the ideas and thoughts +with which this music was saddled. What were the books which +people read and loved in those days (1750-1800), that is, +books upon which operas might be built? In England we find "The +Castle of Otranto," "The Mysterious Mother," etc., by Horace +Walpole. Now Macaulay says that Horace Walpole's works rank +as high among the delicacies of intellectual epicures as the +Strasburg pie among the dishes described in the _Almanach des +Gourmands_. None but an unhealthy and disorganized mind could +have produced such literary luxuries as the works of Walpole. + +France had not yet recovered from the empty formalism of +the preceding century, Bernardin de St. Pierre was a kind +of colonial Mlle. Scudery, and Jean Jacques Rousseau, one +of the sparks which were to ignite the French Revolution, +writes his popular opera to the silly story of "The Village +Soothsayer." Had not Gluck written to the classics he would +have had to write "à la Watteau." + +In Germany, conditions were better; for the so-called Romantic +school had just begun to make headway. In opera, however, this +school of Romanticism only commenced to make itself felt later, +when we have a crop of operas on Fouque's "Undine" as well as +"Hofmann's Tales." + +It is as though opera had to dress according to the prevailing +fashion of the day. The very large sleeves of one year look +strange to us a little later. Just so is it with opera; for +those old operas by Méhul, Spontini, Salieri, and others all +wear enormous crinolines, while the contemporary instrumental +works of the same period, unfettered by fashion, still possess +all the freedom which their limited speech permitted them to +have. Thus we see that opera is necessarily a child of the times +in which it is written, in contrast to other music which echoes +but the thought of the composer, thought that is not necessarily +bound down to any time, place, or peculiarity of diction. + +In Germany, Italian opera was never accepted by the people as +it was in France. In the latter country, opera had to be in the +vernacular and practically to become _French_. Lully's operas +were written to libretti by Quinault and Corneille; and while, +as early as 1645, Paris imported its opera from Italy, this +art form was rapidly modified to suit the public for which +it was secured. Even with Piccini and Gluck, and down to +Rossini and Meyerbeer, this nationalism was infused into the +foreign product. In Germany the case was entirely different, +for up to the very last, Italian opera was a thing apart. +Although German composers, such as Mozart and Paër, wrote +Italian opera, the "Singspiel" (a kind of opéra comique), +found its culminating point in Weber's "Freischütz," which +fought against Rossini's operas for supremacy in Germany. + +Gluck's victory over the Piccinists gave to the French form +of Italian opera an impetus that caused Cherubini to proceed +on almost the same lines in his operas, the "Water Carrier," +etc. Cherubini was a pupil of Andreas Sarti, a celebrated +contrapuntist and a disciple of the last of the Italian church +composers who looked back to Palestrina for inspiration. Thus +the infusion of a certain soberness of diction, which we call +German, fitted in with the man's training and predilections. + +The first names we meet with in French opera after Cherubini +are those of Grétry, Méhul, and Spontini. The former was a +Frenchman whose works are now obsolete, although Macfarren, in +the "Encyclopedia Brittanica," says that he is the only French +composer of symphonies that are known and enjoy popularity +in France. + +Grétry was born in Liége, about 1740. He walked to Italy, +studied in Rome, and returned to France about 1770. None of +his works have come down to us, but his name is interesting +by reason of a certain contradiction in his operas. This +contradiction consists in his being one of the first to revive +the idea of the hidden orchestra; it is interesting also to +note that in his "Richard Coeur de Lion," he anticipated +Wagner's use of the _leitmotiv_. His words on the hidden +orchestra sound strangely modern: + + PLAN FOR A NEW THEATRE.--I should like the auditorium + of my theatre to be small, holding at the most one + thousand persons and consisting of a sort of open + space, without boxes, small or great; for these nooks + only encourage talking and scandal. I would like + the orchestra to be concealed, so that neither the + musicians nor the lights on their music stands could + be visible to the spectators. + +Méhul was born about 1763 in the south of France, and is +celebrated, among other things, as being a pupil of Gluck, +in Paris. He was also noted for having, at the request of +Napoleon, brought out an opera based on Macpherson's "Ossian," +in which no violins were used in the orchestra. "Joseph," +another opera of his, is occasionally given in small German +towns. Méhul died in 1817. + +Spontini, the next representative of opera in France, was an +Italian, born in 1774. He went to Paris in 1803, where, through +the influence of the Empress Josephine, he was enabled to have +several small operas performed; finally in 1807 his "Vestal," +written to a French text, was given with great success. In this, +his greatest work, he followed Gluck's footsteps, not only in +the music, but also in the choice of a classic subject. In 1809, +he branched out into a more romantic vein with the opera of +"Fernando Cortez." His other works never attained popularity. +After the Restoration in France, he was named director of the +court music in Berlin by the King of Prussia, at an annual +salary of ten thousand thalers (about $7,500), a position he +held from 1820 to 1840. He died in Italy in 1851. Spontini may +be said to have been the last representative of the Gluck opera; +but he also brought into it all the magnificence in scenery, +etc., that would naturally be expected by the fashion of the +First Empire. He made no innovations, and merely served to +keep alive the traditions of Grand Opera in France. + +The next powerful influence in France, and indeed in all +Europe, was that of Rossini. He may be said to have built on +Gluck's ideas in many ways. Born in 1792, at Pesaro, in Italy, +he wrote many operas of the flimsy Italian style while still +a boy. At twenty-one he had already written his "Tancredi" +and the opera buffa, "The Italians in Algiers." His best work +(besides "William Tell") was "The Barber of Seville." Other +works are "Cinderella" (_La Cenerentola_), "The Thieving +Blackbird" (_La Gazza Ladra_), "Moses," and "The Lady of the +Lake." These operas were mostly made up of parts of others +that were failures, à la Hasse. An engagement being offered +him in London, he went there with his wife, and in one season +they earned about two hundred thousand francs, which laid the +foundation for his future prosperity. + +The next year he went to Paris, where, after a few unimportant +works, he, produced "William Tell" with tremendous success +(1829). Although he lived until 1868, he never wrote for +the operatic stage again, his other works being mainly the +well-known "Stabat Mater" and some choruses. He was essentially +a writer of light opera, although "William Tell" has many +elevated moments. His style was so entirely warped by his love +for show and the virtuoso side of singing that the many real +beauties of his music are hardly recognizable. His music is +so overladen with _fioriture_ that often its very considerable +value is obscured. He had absolutely no influence upon German +music, for the Germans, from Beethoven down, despised the +flimsy style and aims of this man, who, by appealing to the +most unmusical side of the fashionable audiences of Europe, +did so much to discourage the production of operas with a +lofty aim. In France, however, his influence was unchallenged, +and we may almost say that, with few exceptions, the overture +to "William Tell" served as a model for all other operatic +overtures which have been written there up to the present +day. We have only to look at the many overtures by Hérold, +Boieldieu, Auber, and others, to see the influence exerted by +this style of overture, which consisted of a slow introduction, +followed by a more or less sentimental melody, followed in +turn by a galop as a coda. + +So fashionable had this kind of thing become that even Weber was +slightly touched by it. In the meanwhile, the French composers +were producing operas of a smaller kind, but, in many ways, of +a better character than the larger works of Rossini, Spontini, +and their followers. Had this flimsy Italian influence been +lacking, doubtless French opera to-day would be a different +thing from what it actually is. For these smaller operas by +Hérold, Auber, and Boieldieu had many points in common with +the German _Singspiel_, which may be said to have saved German +musical art for Wagner. + +What might have developed under better conditions is shown +in a work by Halévy entitled, "La juive," in which is to be +found promise of a great school of opera, a promise unhappily +stifled by the advent of an eclectic, the German Meyerbeer, +who blinded the public with unheard of magnificence of staging, +just as Rossini before him had blinded it by novel technical +feats. Meyerbeer thus drew the art into a new channel, and, +unluckily, this new tendency was not so much in the direction +of elevation of style as in sensationalism. + +To return to the French composers. Hérold was born in 1791, +in Paris, and his principal works were "Zampa" and the "Pré +aux clercs." The first was produced in 1831, the latter in +1832. He died in 1833. Boieldieu was born in 1775, in Rouen; +died 1834. His principal works were "La dame blanche" and +"Jean de Paris." + +Halévy (Levy) was born in 1799, in Paris, and died in 1862; +his father was a Bavarian and his mother from Lorraine. He +wrote innumerable operas. His most famous work, "La juive," +written in 1835, was killed by Meyerbeer's "Huguenots," and +produced a year later. He was professor of counterpoint at +the Conservatoire from 1831, among his pupils being Gounod, +Massé, Bazin, and Bizet. + +Auber was born in 1782, and died in May, 1871. He was +practically the last of the essentially French composers. +His operas may be summed up as being the perfect translation +into music of the witty plays of Scribe, with whom he was +associated all his life. To read a comedy by Scribe is to +imagine Auber's music to it. No one has excelled Auber in +the expression of all the finesse of wit and lightness of +touch. What the union between the two men was may be inferred +from the fact that Scribe wrote many of his librettos to +Auber's music, the latter being written first, Scribe then +adding the words. His principal works are "Masaniello" or +"The Mute," and "Fra Diavolo." He was appointed director of +the Paris Conservatoire, in 1842, in succession to Cherubini. + +In speaking of Grétry, I quoted his opinion (given in one of +his essays on music) as to what opera should be and cited his +use of the _leitmotiv_ in his "Richard Coeur de Lion" (which +contains the air, _une fièvre brûlante_). If with this we +quote his reasons for writing opéra comique rather than grand +opera, we have one of the reasons why French opera has, as yet, +never developed beyond Massenet's "Roi de Lahore" on one side, +and Delibes' "Lakmé" on the other. + +Grétry writes that he introduced lyric comedy on the stage +because the public was tired of tragedy, and because he had +heard so many lovers of dancing complain that their favourite +art played only a subordinate rôle in grand opera. Also the +public loved to hear short songs; therefore he introduced many +such into his operas. + +Even nowadays, this seeming contradiction between theory and +practice is to be found, I think, in the French successors of +Meyerbeer. The public needed dancing, and all theories must +bend to that wish. Even Wagner succumbed to this influence in +Paris; and when Weber's "Freischütz" was first given at the +grand opera, Berlioz was commissioned to arrange ballet music +from Weber's piano works to supply the deficiency. + +In France, even to-day, everything gives way to the public, +a public whose intelligence from a poetic standpoint is, in +my opinion, lower than that of any other country. The French +composer is dependent on his country (Paris) as is no musician +of other nationality. Berlioz' life was embittered by the want +of recognition in Paris. Although he had been acclaimed as +a great musician all over Europe, yet he returned again and +again to Paris, preferring (as he admits) the approbation of +its musically worthless public to his otherwise world-wide fame. + +We remember that Auber never stirred out of Paris throughout +his long life. It was an article in the _Gazette Musicale_ of +Paris which was instrumental in calling Gounod back into the +world from his intended priestly vocation. And this influence +of the admittedly ignorant and superficial French public is +the more remarkable when one considers the fact that it was +always the last to admit the value of the best work of its +composers. Thus Berlioz' fame was gained in Russia and Germany +while he was still derided and comparatively unknown in Paris. + +The failure of Bizet's "Carmen" is said to have hastened the +composer's death, which took place within three months after +the first performance of the opera. As Saint-Saëns wrote at +the time, in his disgust at the French public: "The fat, ugly +bourgeois ruminates in his padded stall, regretting separation +from his kind. He half opens a glassy eye, munches a bonbon, +then sleeps again, thinking that the orchestra is a-tuning." And +yet, even Saint-Saëns, whose name became known chiefly through +Liszt's help, and whose operas and symphonies were given +in Germany before they were known in France, even he is one +of the most ardent adherents to the "anti-foreigner" cry in +France. In my opinion, this respect for and attempt to please +this grossly ignorant French public is and has been one of the +great devitalizing influences which hamper the French composer. + +Charles Gounod was born in 1818, in Paris. His father was +an engraver and died when Gounod was very young. The boy +received his first music lessons from his mother. He was +admitted to the Conservatoire at sixteen, and studied with +Halévy and Lesueur. In 1839 he gained _the Prix de Rome_, +and spent three years in Rome, studying ecclesiastical +music. In 1846 he contemplated becoming a priest, and wrote +a number of religious vocal works, published under the name +Abbé C. Gounod. In 1851 the article I referred to appeared, +and such was its effect on Gounod, that within four months his +first opera "Sapho" was given (April, 1851). A year later this +was followed by some music for a tragedy (Poussard's "Ulysse" +at the Comédie Française), and in 1854 by the five-act opera "La +nonne sanglante." These were only very moderately successful; +and so Gounod turned to the opéra comique, and wrote music to +an adaptation of Molière's "Medecin malgré lui." This became +very popular, and paved the way for his "Faust," which was +produced at the Opéra Comique in 1859. In the opéra comique, +as we know, the singing was always interspersed with spoken +dialogue. Thus, this opera, as we know it, dates from its +preparation for the Grand Opera ten years later, 1869. Ten +months after "Faust" was given he used a fable of Lafontaine +for a short light opera, "Philemon and Baucis." + +In the meantime, "Faust" began to bring him encouragement, +and his next opera was on the subject of the "Queen of Sheba" +(1862). This being unsuccessful, he wrote two more light operas, +"Mireille" and "La colombe" (1866). The next was "Romeo et +Juliette" (1867). This was very successful, and marks the +culmination of Gounod's success as an opera composer. In +1870 he went to London, where he made his home for a number +of years. His later operas, "Cinq-Mars" (1877), "Polyeucte" +(1878), and "Le tribut de Zamora" (1881), met with small +success, and have rarely been given. + +In his later years, as we know, he showed his early predilection +for religious music; and his oratorios "The Redemption," +"Mors et Vita," and several masses have been given with +varying success. Perhaps one of the greatest points ever made +in Gounod's favour by a critic was that by Pougin, who asks what +other composer could have written two such operas as "Faust" and +"Romeo et Juliette" and still have them essentially different +musically. The "Garden Scene" in the one and the "Balcony Scene" +in the other are identical, so far as the feeling of the play +is concerned; also the duel of Faust and Valentine and Romeo +and Tybalt. + +Ambroise Thomas's better works, "Mignon" and "Hamlet," may +be said to be more or less echoes of Gounod; and while his +"Francesca da Rimini," which was brought out in 1882, was by +far his most ambitious work, it never became known outside of +Paris. Ambroise Thomas was born in 1811, and died within a year +of Gounod. His chief merit was in his successful direction +of the Conservatoire, to which he succeeded Auber in 1871. + +Georges Bizet (his name was Alexander César Leopold) was born in +1838, in Paris. His father was a poor singing teacher, and his +mother a sister-in-law of Delsarte; she was a first-prize piano +pupil of the Conservatoire. As a boy, Bizet was very precocious, +and entered the Conservatoire as a pupil of Marmontel when he +was ten. He took successively the first prizes for solfége, +piano, organ, and fugue, and finally the _Prix de Rome_ in +1857, when he was nineteen years old. The latter kept him +in Rome until 1861, when he returned to Paris and gave piano +and harmony lessons and arranged dance music for brass bands, +a _métier_ not unknown to either Wagner or Raff. + +Until 1872, Bizet wrote but small and unimportant works, such +as "The Pearl Fisher," "The Fair Maid of Perth," and several +vaudeville operettas, some of which he wrote to order and +anonymously. He married a daughter of Halévy, the composer, +and in 1871-72 served in the National Guard. His first +important work was the incidental music to Alphonse Daudet's +"L'Arlesienne" and finally his "Carmen" was given (but without +success), at the Opéra Comique, in March, 1875. He died June 3, +1875. + +Camille Saint-Saëns was born in Paris, in 1835; he commenced +studying piano when only three years old. I believe it is +mostly through his piano concertos and his symphonic poems +that his name will live; for his operas have never attained +popularity, with perhaps the one exception of "Samson and +Delilah." His other operas are: "The Yellow Princess," +"Proserpina," "Etienne Marcel," "Henry VIII," "Ascanio." + +Jules Massenet was born in 1842, and at the age of twelve +became a pupil of Bezit at the Conservatoire, was rejected by +Bezit for want of talent, and afterward studied with Reber and +Thomas, and won the _Prix de Rome_ in 1863. Upon his return, +in 1866, he wrote a number of small orchestral works, including +two suites and several sacred dramas, "Marie Magdalen" and +"Eve and the Virgin," in which the general Meyerbeerian style +militated against any suggestion of religious feeling. His +first grand opera, "Le roi de Lahore," was given in 1881. +The second was "Herodiade," which was followed by "Manon," +"The Cid," "Esclarmonde," "Le mage." + + + + +XVIII + +OPERA (Continued) + + +One of the most disputed questions in modern music is that of +opera. Although we have many controversies as to what purely +instrumental or vocal music may do, the operatic art, if we +may call it so, always remains the same. In creating the music +drama, Wagner put forth a composite art, something which many +declare impossible, and as many others advocate as being the +most complete art form yet conceived. We are still in the +midst of the discussion, and a final verdict is therefore +as yet impossible. On one hand we have Wagner, and against +him we have the absolutists such as Brahms, the orthodox +thinkers represented by Anton Rubinstein and many others, +the new Russian school represented by Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov, +Tchaikovsky, and the successors of the French school of +Meyerbeer, namely, Saint-Saëns, Massenet, etc. + +In order to get a clear idea of the present state of the +matter we must review the question from the beginning of the +eighteenth century. For many reasons this is not an easy task, +first of all because very little of the music of the operas +of this period actually exists. We know the names of Hasse, +Pergolesi, Matheson, Graun, Alessandro Scarlatti (who was a much +greater man than his son the harpsichord player and composer, +Domenico), to name only a few. To be sure, a number of the +French operas of the period are preserved, owing to the custom +in France of engraving music. In Germany and Italy, however, +such operas were never printed, and one may safely say that +it was almost the rule for only one manuscript copy to be +available. Naturally this copy belonged to the composer, who +generally led the opera himself, improvising much of it on the +harpsichord, as we shall see later. As an instance of the danger +which operas, under such conditions, ran of being destroyed +and thus lost to the world, we may cite the total destruction +of over sixty of Hasse's operas in his extreme old age. + +The second point which makes it difficult for us to get an +absolutely clear insight into the conditions of opera at the +beginning of the eighteenth century lies in the fact that +contemporary historians never brought their histories up +to their own times. Thus Marpurg, in his history, divides +music into four periods; first, that of Adam and Eve to +the flood; second, from the flood to the Argonauts; third, +to the beginning of the Olympiads; fourth, from thence to +Pythagoras. The same may be said of the celebrated histories +of Gerbert and Padre Martini. + +On the other hand, we are certain that much of the modern +speculation was anticipated by these men. For instance, Matheson +calls pantomime "dumb music," freed from melodic and harmonic +forms. The idea was advanced that music owes its rhythmic +regularity and form to dancing, and architecture was called +frozen music, a metaphor which, in later days, was considered +such an original conception of Goethe and Schlegel. This same +inability of historians to bring their accounts up to the +contemporary times may be noticed in the later works of Forkel +(d. 1818) and Ambros (d. 1876). + +Yet a third reason remains which tends to confuse the student +as to what really constituted opera. This is owing to the fact +that there existed the very important element of improvisation, +of which I shall speak later. + +In order to see what Gluck, Weber, and Wagner had to break away +from, let us look at the condition of opera at the beginning +of the eighteenth century. We remember that opera, having +become emancipated from the Church long before any other music, +developed apace, while instrumental (secular) music was still in +its infancy. In Germany, even the drama was neglected for its +kindred form of opera; therefore, in studying its development, +we may well understand why the dramatic stage considered the +opera its deadly enemy. + +The life of the German dramatist and actor of the first half +of the eighteenth century was one of the direst hardship and +poverty. Eckhof, one of the greatest actors of his time, made +his entry into Brunswick in a kind of miserable hay cart, in +which, accompanied by his sick wife and several dogs, he had +travelled over the rough roads. To keep warm they had filled +part of the wagon with straw. The German actor and dramatist +of that time often died in the hospital, despised by the richer +classes; even the village priests and ministers refused to allow +them to eat at their tables. Their scenery rarely consisted +of more than three rough pieces: a landscape, a large room, +and a peasant's hut interior. Many even had only two large +cloths which were hung about the stage, one green, which was +to be used when the scene was in the open air, and the other +yellow, which was used to represent an interior. Shakespeare's +"Poor Players" were certainly a stern reality in Germany. In +order to attract the public the plays had to consist for the +most part of the grossest subjects imaginable, it being barely +possible to smuggle some small portion of serious drama into +the entertainment. + +With opera, however, it was vastly different; opera troupes +were met at the city gates by the royal or ducal carriages, +and the singers were fêted everywhere. The prices paid them +can only be compared with the salaries paid nowadays. They +were often ennobled, and the different courts quarrelled for +the honour of their presence. The accounts of the cost of +the scenery used are incredible, amounting to many thousands +of dollars for a single performance. + +One of the earliest German kapellmeisters and opera composers +was Johann Adolf Hasse, who was born in Dresden about 1700. To +show the foundation upon which Gluck built, we will look at +opera as it existed in Hasse's time. In 1727 Hasse married at +Venice, Faustina Bordoni, the foremost singer of the time. He +wrote over one hundred operas for her, and had a salary of +thirty-six thousand marks, or nine thousand dollars, yearly. Now +these operas were very different from those we know. The arias +in them (and, of course, the whole opera was practically but a +succession of arias) were only sketched in an extremely vague +manner. Much was left to the singer, and the accompaniment +was sparsely indicated by figures written above a bass. The +recitative which separated one aria from another was improvised +by the singer, and was accompanied on the harpsichord by the +kapellmeister, who was naturally obliged to improvise his +part on the spur of the moment, following the caprice of the +singer. There was no creating an atmosphere for a tragic or +dramatic situation by means of the accompaniment; as soon as +the situation arrived, an aria was sung explaining it. Now, +as the singer was given much latitude in regard to the melody, +and _absolute_ liberty in regard to the recitative, it is easy +to see that, with the astounding technical perfection possessed +by the singers of the time, this latitude would be used to +astonish the hearers by wonderful vocal feats intermingled +with more or less passionate declamation. + +The composer was merely the excuse for the opera; but he +needed to be a consummate musician to conduct and accompany +this improvised music, of which his written score was but the +nucleus. The wretched acting of opera singers in general has +been rather humourously traced back to this epoch. Nowadays, +in an opera, when, by way of example, a murder is to be +committed, the orchestra paints the situation, and the act is +accomplished without delay. In those olden days a singer would +have indignantly refused to submit to such a usurpation of +his rights; he would have raised his dagger, and then, before +striking, would have sung an aria in the regular three parts, +after which he would have stabbed his man. The necessity for +doing something during this interim is said to be responsible +for those idiotic gestures which used to be such a seemingly +necessary part of the equipment of the opera singer. + +In the ordinary opera of the time there was the custom of +usually having about from twenty to thirty such arias (Hasse's +one hundred operas contain about three thousand arias). Now +these arias, although they were intended to paint a situation, +rapidly became simply a means to display the singer's skill. The +second part was a melody with plenty of vocal effects, and +the third part a bravura piece, pure and simple. So there +only remained the recitative in which true dramatic art could +find place. As this, however, was invariably improvised by the +singer, one can see that the composer of music had his cross +as well as his brother the dramatist. The music having no vital +connection with the text, it is easy to see how one opera could +be set to several texts or _vice-versa_, as was often done. + +Another factor also contributed to retard the artistic +development of opera. All these arias had to be constructed +and sung according to certain customs. Thus, the fiery, minor +aria was always sung by the villain, the so-called colorature +arias by the tall, majestic heroine, etc. + +All this seems childish to us, but it was certainly a powerful +factor in making fame for a composer. For, as has been said, +while a modern composer writes two or three different operas, +Hasse wrote one hundred versions of one. This also had its +effect on instrumental music, and, in a way, is also the direct +cause of that monstrosity known as "variations" (Händel wrote +sixty-six on one theme.) In our days we often hear the bitter +complaint that opera singers are no longer what they used +to be, and that the great art of singing has been lost. If +we look back to the period under consideration, we cannot +but admit that there is much truth in the contention. In the +first place, an opera singer of those days was necessarily +an actor of great resource, a thorough musician, a composer, +and a marvellous technician. In addition to this, operas were +always written for individuals. Thus, all of Hasse's were +designed for Faustina's voice; and by examining the music, +we can tell exactly what the good and bad points of her voice +were, such was the care with which it was written. + +Before we leave the subject of Hasse and his operas, I wish +to refer briefly to a statement found in all histories and +books on music. We find it stated that all this music was sung +and played either loud or soft; with no gradual transitions +from one to the other. The existence of that gradual swelling +or diminishing of the tone in music which we call crescendo +and diminuendo, is invariably denied, and its first use is +attributed to Jommelli, director of the opera at Mannheim, in +1760. Thus we are asked to believe that Faustina sang either +_piano_ or _forte_, and still was an intensely dramatic singer. + +This seems to me to require no comment; especially as, already +in 1676, Matthew Locke, an English writer, uses the [<] sign +for the gradual transition from soft to loud. For obvious +reasons there could be no such transition in harpsichord music, +and this is why, when the same instrument was provided with +hammers instead of quills, the name was changed to _pianoforte_, +to indicate its power to modify the tone from soft to loud. + +Naturally Händel, who was a man of despotic tendencies, +could not long submit to the caprices of opera singers. +After innumerable conflicts with them, we find him turning +back to one of the older forms of opera, the oratorio. + +Bach never troubled himself about an art from which he was so +widely separated both by training and inclination. Thus the +reformation of opera (I mean the old opera of which I have been +speaking) devolved upon Gluck. His early operas were entirely +on the lines of those of Hasse and Porpora. He wrote operas for +archduchesses ("Il Parnasso" was played by four archduchesses +and accompanied on harpsichord by the Archduke Leopold), and +was music master to Marie Antoinette at Vienna. It was owing +to these powerful influences that his art principles had an +opportunity to be so widely exploited. For these principles +were not new; they formed the basis of Peri's first attempt +at opera in 1600, and had been recalled in vain by Marcello in +1720. They were so simple that it seems almost childish to quote +them. They demanded merely that the music should always assist, +but never interfere with either the declamation or dramatic +action of the story. Thus by Gluck's powerful influence with +what may be termed the fashion of his day, he did much to +relegate to a place of minor importance the singer, who until +then had held undisputed sway. This being the case, the great +art of singing, which had allowed the artist the full control +and responsibility of opera, thus centering all upon the one +individuality, degenerated into the more subordinate rôle of +following the composer's directions. + +It now became the duty of the composer to foresee every +contingency of his work, and it lay with him to give directions +for every detail of it. As a result, the singers, having +no longer absolute control but still anxious to display +their technical acquirements, gradually changed into that +now almost obsolete abomination, the "Italian opera singer," +an artist, who, shirking all responsibility for the music and +dramatic action, neglected the composer so far as possible, +and introduced vocal pyrotechnics wherever he or she dared--and +their daring was great. + +In the meantime, as Gluck was bringing in his reforms, songs +were gradually introduced into the _Schauspiel_ or drama, the +ill-fated brother of opera in Germany; and just as the grand +opera reached its highest point with Gluck, so this species of +melodrama grew apace, until we see its culmination in Weber's +"Freischütz." + +The good results of Gluck's innovations and also, to a certain +degree, its discrepancies, may be plainly seen in Mozart's +operas; for only too often in his operas Mozart was obliged to +introduce _fioriture_ of the poorest possible description in +situations where they were utterly out of place. This, however, +may not be entirely laid at the door of the exacting singer, for +we find these same _fioriture_ throughout his harpsichord music. + +We may almost say that the union of drama and music was first +definitely given status by Mozart; for a number of his operas, +such as the "Schauspieldirektor," etc., were merely a form of +the German _Singspiel_, which, as I have said, culminated in +"Freischütz." + +Thus, at the beginning of our century we find two art forms: +First, grand opera of a strange nationality, and second, the +small but rapidly developing form of comedy or drama with music. + +In order to show how Wagner evolved his art theories from +this material, we must consider to some degree the general +conditions of this period. + +As late as 1853, Riehl wrote that Mendelssohn was the only +composer who had the German public, whereas others had only +a small section of it. For example, Schumann, whose music he +did not like, was accepted as a new Messiah in the Elbe River +district; "but who," he asks, "knows anything about him in the +south or west of Germany?" And as for Richard Wagner, who, he +says, is a man of extravagant ideas and a kind of phenomenon +of no consequence artistically, he asks, "who really knows +anything about him outside of the little party of fanatics +who profess to like his music (so-called)?" Its only chance of +becoming known, he says, is in the public's curiosity to hear +works which are rarely given. This curiosity, he continues, +will be a much more potent factor in his chance of becoming +known than all his newspaper articles and the propaganda of +his friend, Franz Liszt. + +For the German opera there were half a dozen +_Boersenplätze_--Berlin for the northwest, Hamburg for +the northeast, Frankfort for the southwest, Munich for the +southeast. As Riehl says, a success in Frankfort meant a +success in all the Frankfort clay deposit and sandstone systems, +but in the chalk formation of Munich it stood no chance. Thus +Germany had no musical centre. But after Meyerbeer found such +a centre in Paris, all other Germans, including Wagner, looked +to Paris for fame. + +At the end of the eighteenth century, Vienna was the art centre; +nevertheless Gluck had to go to Paris for recognition. + +Mendelssohn only succeeded by his _Salonfähigkeit_. Always +respectable in his forms, no one else could have made music +popular among the cultured classes as could Mendelssohn. This +also had its danger; for if Mendelssohn had written an opera +(the lack of which was so bewailed by the Philistines), +it would have taken root all over Germany, and put Wagner +back many years. At the death of Mendelssohn, the Philistines +heralded the coming of a new German national school, founded on +his principles (formalism), one that would clarify the artistic +atmosphere of the turgid and anarchistic excesses of Wagner and +Berlioz and their followers. These critics found already that +Beethoven's melodies were too long and his instrumentation too +involved. They declared that the further music departed from +its natural simplicity the more involved its utterance became, +the less clear, and consequently the poorer it was. Music was +compared to architecture, and thus the more Greek it was, the +better; forgetting that architecture was tied to utilitarianism +and poetry to word-symbols, and that painting is primarily an +art of externals. + +Riehl says that art is always in danger of ruin when its simple +foundation forms are too much elaborated, overlooking the fact +that music is not an art, but psychological utterance. + +It needed all Wagner's gigantic personality to rise above this +wave of formalism that looked to the past for its salvation, +a past which was one of childish experimenting rather than of +aesthetic accomplishment. The tendency was to return to the +dark cave where tangible walls were to be touched by the hands, +rather than to emerge into a sunlight that seemed blinding. + + + + +XIX + +ON THE LIVES AND ART PRINCIPLES OF SOME SEVENTEENTH AND +EIGHTEENTH CENTURY COMPOSERS + + +There is much of value to the student to be derived from a +study of the lives and art principles of the composers of the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. To go back to an earlier +period would hardly be worth while, as the music composed in +those days is too much obscured by the uncertainty of tradition +and the inevitable awkwardness of expression that goes with +all primitiveness in art. + +The first whom I would mention are Don Carlo Gesualdo, Prince +of Venosa, and Ludovico Viadana. + +The former was a nephew of the Archbishop of Naples, was born +in 1550, and died in 1613. His name is important from the fact +that he went boldly beyond Monteverde, his contemporary, in the +use of the new dissonant chords (sevenths and ninths) which +were just beginning to be employed, and adopted a chromatic +style of writing which strangely foreshadowed the chromatic +polyphonic style of the present century. He wrote innumerable +madrigals for a number of voices, but his innovations remained +sterile so far as the development of music is concerned, for +the reason that while his music often acquired a wonderful +poignancy for his time by the use of chromatics, just as often +it led him into the merest bramble bush of sound, real music +being entirely absent. + +Viadana (1566-1645) has been placed by many historians of +music in the same category as Guido d'Arezzo (who is credited +with having invented solmization, musical notation, etc.), +Palestrina, Monteverde and Peri, who are famed, the one for +having discovered the dominant ninth chord, and the other +for the invention of opera. Viadana is said to have been the +first to use what is called a _basso continuo_, and even the +figured bass. The former was the uninterrupted repetition of +a short melody or phrase in the bass through the entire course +of a piece of music. This was done very often to give a sense +of unity that nowadays would be obtained by a repetition of +the first thought at certain intervals through the piece. The +figured (or better, ciphered) bass was an entirely different +thing. This device, which is still employed, consisted of +the use of figures to indicate the different chords in music. +These figures or ciphers were written over or under the bass +note on which the chord represented by the figures was to be +played or sung. A 5 over or under a bass note meant that with +that note a perfect major triad was to be sounded, considering +the note written as the root of the chord; a 3 was taken to +stand for a perfect minor triad; a 6 for the chord of the sixth +(first inversion of a triad), and 6/4 for the second inversion; +a line through a 5 or 7 meant that the triad was a diminished +fifth or a diminished seventh chord; a cross indicated a leading +tone; a 4 stood for the third inversion of the dominant seventh +chord. This system of shorthand, as it may be called, was and +is still of tremendous value to composers. In the olden days, +particularly, when many of the composers engraved their own +music for publication, it saved a great deal of labour. It is +probably not generally known that the engraving of music by +the composer was so common; but such was the case with Bach, +Rameau, and Couperin. + +And this reminds me that the embellishments, as they were +called, which are so common in all harpsichord and clavichord +music, were also noted in a kind of shorthand, and for precisely +the same reason. The embellishments themselves originated +from the necessity for sustaining in some way the tone of +the instrument, which gave out little, dry, clicklike sounds; +if the melody were played in simple notes, these sounds would +mingle with the accompaniment and be lost in it. Therefore, +the embellishments served to sustain the tones of the melody, +and thus cause them to stand out from the accompaniment. Their +notation by means of symbols copied from the primitive _neumes_ +vastly facilitated the work of engraving. Much confusion arose +in the notation of embellishments, owing to the fact that each +composer had his own system of symbols. + +Alessandro Scarlatti and his son Domenico, both celebrated in +their day, are the next to demand attention. The former was +born about 1650 and died about 1725. He wrote many operas of +which we know practically nothing. His son was born about 1685 +and died in 1757. He was the most celebrated harpsichord player +of his time; and although his style, which was essentially one +of virtuosity, was not productive of direct results, it did +nevertheless foreshadow the wonderful technical achievements +of Liszt in our own times. It is indeed a great pity that +Domenico Scarlatti's work did not bear more direct fruit in his +day, for it would have turned Mozart, as well as many others, +from the loose, clumsy mannerisms of the later virtuoso style, +which ran to the Alberti bass and other degrading platitudes, +paralleled in our comparatively modern days by the Thalberg +arpeggios, repeating notes, Döhler trill, etc. + +Two masters in music, Händel and J.S. Bach, were born the +same year, 1685; their great French contemporary, Rameau, +was born two years earlier and died in 1764; while Händel +died in 1759, and Bach in 1750. Bach was destined to give +to the world its first glimpse of the tremendous power of +music, while Rameau organized the elements of music into a +scientific harmonic structure, laying the foundation for our +modern harmony. Händel's great achievement (besides being a +fine composer) was to crush all life out of the then promising +school of English music, the foundation for which had been so +well laid by Purcell, Byrd, Morley, etc. + +Jean Philippe Rameau was born in Dijon, and after travels in +Italy and a short period of service as organist at Clermont, +in Auvergne, went to Paris. There he wrote a number of small +vaudevilles or musical comedies, which were successful; and +his music for the harpsichord, consisting almost exclusively +of small pieces with descriptive titles, soon began to be +widely played in France. Much later in life he succeeded +in obtaining a hearing for his operas, the first of which, +"Hippolyte et Aricie," was given in 1732, when he was fifty +years old. For thirty-two years his operas continued to hold +the French stage against those of all foreigners. + +His style marked a great advance over that of Lully, the +Italian, of the century before. Rameau aimed at clearness +of diction and was one of the first to attempt to give +individuality to the different orchestral instruments. By +some strange coincidence, his first opera had much the same +dramatic situation that all the early operas seemed to have, +namely, a scene in the infernal regions. Rameau's operas +never became the foundation for a distinctly French opera, +for at the time of his death (1764), Italian opera troupes had +already introduced a kind of comedy with music, which rapidly +developed into opéra comique; it was reserved for Gluck, +the German, to revive grand opera in France. + +As a theoretician, Rameau exerted tremendous influence upon +music. He discovered that the chord which we call the perfect +major triad was not merely the result of an artificial training +of the ear to like certain combinations of sounds, but that +this chord was inherent in every musical sound, constituting, +as it does, the first four harmonics or overtones. All chords, +therefore, that were not composed of thirds placed one above +the other, were inversions of fundamental chords. This theory +holds good in the general harmonic system of to-day. But +although the major triad and even the dominant seventh chord +could be traced back to the harmonics, the minor triad proved +a different matter; after many experiments Rameau gave it up, +leaving it unaccounted for. + +Rameau was also largely instrumental in gaining recognition for +the desirability of dividing the octave into twelve equal parts, +making all the so-called half-tones recur at mathematically +equal distances from each other in the chromatic scale. In +1737 his work on the generation of chords through overtones +caused the equal temperament system of tuning to be generally +accepted, and the old modes, with the exception of the Ionian +and Aeolian, to be dropped out of use. The former became known +as major and the latter as minor, from the third, which was +large in the Ionian and small in the Aeolian. + +Händel, as before stated, was born in 1685 (February 23), in +Halle, in the same year as J.S. Bach, who was a month younger +(born March 21). His father was a barber, who, as was common +in those days, combined the trade of surgery, cupping, etc., +with that of hairdressing. He naturally opposed his son's +bent toward music, but with no effect. At fifteen years of +age, Händel was beginning to be well known as a clavichord +and organ player, in the latter capacity becoming specially +celebrated for his wonderful improvisations. In spite of an +attempt to make a lawyer of him, he persisted in taking music +as his vocation, after the death of his father. + +In Hamburg, whither he went in 1703, he obtained a place among +the second violins in the opera orchestra.[15] Realizing that +in Germany opera was but a reflection of Italian art, he left +Hamburg in 1707 and went to Italy, where he soon began to make +a name for himself, both as performer and composer. One of his +operas, "Agrippa," was performed at Venice during the Carnival +season of 1710. + +The Hanoverian kapellmeister, Staffani, was present and invited +him to Hanover, whither he went, becoming Staffani's successor +in the service of the Elector of Hanover. Several trips to +England, where he was warmly welcomed, resulted in his accepting +from Queen Anne, in 1713, a salary of two hundred pounds yearly, +thus entering her service, notwithstanding his contract with +the Elector. In 1714 the Queen died, and the Elector of +Hanover was called to the English throne under the title of +George I. Händel, in order to escape the impending disgrace +occasioned by having broken faith with his former employer, +wrote some music intended to be particularly persuasive, and +had it played on a barge that followed a royal procession up +the Thames. This "Water Music," as it was called, procured +for him the King's pardon. + +From this time he lived in England, practically monopolizing +all that was done in music. In 1720 a company for the giving +of Italian opera was formed, and Händel placed at its head. In +1727, on the occasion of the accession of George II, Händel +wrote four anthems, one of which "Zadok the Priest," ends +with the words "God save the King," from which it has been +erroneously stated that he wrote the English national hymn. + +In 1737 Händel gave up the writing of operas, after sinking +most of his own savings in the undertaking, and began to write +oratorios, the germs of which are found in the old Mysteries and +Passion plays performed on a platform erected in the chapel or +oratory of a church. Much has been written about Händel's habit +of taking themes from other composers, and he was even dubbed +the "grand old robber." It must not be overlooked, however, +that although he made use of ideas from other composers, he +turned them to the best account. By 1742 Händel was again in +prosperous circumstances, his "Messiah" having been a tremendous +success. From that time until his death he held undisputed sway, +although his last years were clouded by a trouble with his eyes, +which were operated upon unsuccessfully by an English oculist, +named Taylor, who had also operated on Bach's eyes with the +same disastrous result. Händel became completely blind in +1752. Up to the last year of his life he continued to give +oratorio concerts and played organ concertos, of which only +the _tutti_ were noted, he improvising his part. + +Händel's strength lay in his great ability to produce +overwhelming effects by comparatively simple means. This is +especially the case in his great choruses which are massive +in effect and yet simple to the verge of barrenness. This, +of course, has no reference to the absurd _fioriture_ and +long passage work given to the voices,--an Italian fashion of +the times,--but to the contrapuntal texture of the work. Of +his oratorios, "The Messiah" is the best known. Two of his +"Concerti Grossi," the third and sixth, are sometimes played +by string orchestras. Of his harpsichord music we have the +eight "Suites" of 1720 (among which the one in E is known as +having the variations called "The Harmonious Blacksmith"), +and a number of "Harpsichord Lessons," among which are six +fugues. All these may be said to have little value. + +J.S. Bach differed in almost every respect from Händel, +except that he was born in the same year and was killed by +the same doctor. While Händel left no pupils, with perhaps +the exception of his assistant organist, Bach aided and taught +his own celebrated sons, Krebs, Agricola, Kittel, Kirnberger, +Marpurg, and many other distinguished musicians. Bach twice made +an effort to see Händel at Halle, but without success. On the +other hand, there are reasons for believing that Händel never +took the trouble to examine any of Bach's clavichord music. He +lived like a conqueror in a foreign land, writing operas, +oratorios, and concertos to order, and stealing ideas right and +left without compunction; whereas Bach wrote from conviction, +and no charge of plagiarism was ever laid at his door. Händel +left a great fortune of twenty thousand pounds. Bach's small +salary at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig made it necessary +for him to do much of his own engraving; and at his death, +though he had helped many young struggling artists, his +widow was left so poor that she had to be supported by public +benevolence. Bach's works were neglected by his contemporaries, +and it was only in the nineteenth century that he began to be +appreciated in a way commensurate with his worth. + +Bach was born in Eisenach, in Thuringia, and it is of +interest to know that as far back as his great grandfather, +Veit Bach (born about 1550), music had been the profession +of the family. Bach's parents died when he was a boy of ten, +and his education was continued by his elder brother, Johann +Christoph, at a town near Gotha, where he held a position as +organist. The boy soon outstripped his brother in learning, +and continued his studies wholly by himself. + +After filling a position as organist at Weimar, in 1703 he +accepted one at a small town, Arnstadt, at a salary of about +fifty-seven dollars yearly. He had already begun to compose, +and possibly in imitation of Kuhnau, whose so-called "Bible" +sonatas were at the time being talked about, he wrote an +elaborate clavichord piece to illustrate the departure of his +brother, Johann Jakob, who had entered the service of Charles +XII of Sweden as oboist. This composition is divided into five +parts, each bearing an appropriate superscription and ending +with an elaborate fugue to illustrate the postillion's horn. I +believe this is the only instance of his having written actual +programme music. After leaving Arnstadt he filled positions as +organist at Mühlhausen, Weimar, Coethen, etc. It was before +1720 that he paid his two visits to Halle in the hope of +seeing Händel. At this time he had already written the first +part of the "Wohltemperierte Clavier," the violin sonatas, +and many other great works. Ten years later, when Händel again +came to Germany, Bach was too ill to go to see him personally, +but sent his eldest son to invite Händel to come and see him, +although without success. + +In 1723 he obtained the position of Cantor at the St. +Thomas School, in Leipzig, left vacant by the death of Kuhnau; +here he remained until his death. In 1749 the English oculist, +Taylor, happened to be in Leipzig. On the advice of friends, +Bach submitted to an operation on his eyes, which had always +troubled him. The failure of this operation rendered him +totally blind and the accompanying medical treatment completely +broke him down. On the eighteenth of July, 1750, he suddenly +regained his sight, but it was accompanied by a stroke of +paralysis from which he died ten days later. + +So far as his church music is concerned, Bach may be considered +as the Protestant compeer of the Roman Catholic, Palestrina, +with the difference that his music was based on the tonalities +of major and minor and that his harmonic structure was founded +on a scientific basis. What is mere wandering in Palestrina, +with Bach is moving steadily forward with a well-defined object +in view. With Bach, music is cast in the definite mould of +tonality, while with Palestrina the vagueness of the modes lends +to his music something of mystery and a certain supernatural +freedom from _human will_, so prominent a characteristic +of Bach's compositions. In considering Bach's music we must +forget the technique, which was merely the outside dress of +his compositions. His style was the one of the period, just as +he wore a wig, and buckles on his shoes. His music must not be +confounded with the contrapuntal style of his utterance, and +although he has never been surpassed as a scientific writer +of counterpoint, it would be unjust to look there for his +chief glory. As a matter of fact, when his scientific speech +threatened to clash with the musical idea in his composition, +he never hesitated to sacrifice the former to the latter. Thus +Bach may be considered the greatest musical scientist of his +time as well as the greatest breaker of mere rules. + +Of his sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel is the most celebrated, +and did much to prepare the way for Haydn in the development +of the sonata. J.S. Bach wrote many sonatas, but none for the +clavichord; his sonatas were for the violin and the 'cello +alone, a great innovation. The violin sonatas bring into +play all the resources of the instrument; indeed it is barely +possible to do them justice from the technical standpoint. His +"Wohltemperierte Clavier" naturally was a tremendous help to +clavichord technique, and even now the "Chromatic Fantaisie" +and other works require fine pianists to perform them properly. + +In considering the development of music, it must always be +remembered that Haydn, Mozart, and their contemporaries knew +little or nothing of Bach's works, thus accounting for what +otherwise would seem a retrograde movement in art. C.P.E. Bach +(born 1714) was much better known than his father; even Mozart +said of him, "He is the father, and we are mere children." He +was renowned as a harpsichord player, and wrote many sonatas +which form the connecting link between the suite and the +sonata. He threw aside the polyphonic style of his father +and strove to give his music new colour and warmth by means +of harmony and modulation. He died in 1788 in Hamburg, where +he was conductor of the opera. It should be mentioned that he +wrote a method of clavichord playing on which, in later days, +Czerny said that Beethoven based his piano teaching. + +Up to the period now under consideration, music for the +orchestra occupied a very small part in the composer's work. To +be sure, J.S. Bach wrote some suites, and separate movements +were written in the different dance forms for violins, with +sometimes the addition of a few reed instruments, and possibly +flutes and small horns or trumpets. It is in the works of +C.P.E. Bach, however, that we find the germ of symphonic +orchestral writing that was to be developed by Haydn, Mozart, +and Beethoven. The so-called "symphonies" by Emanuel Bach are +merely rudimentary sonatas written for strings, with flutes, +oboes, bassoons, trumpets, etc., and have practically no +artistic significance except as showing the inevitable trend of +musical thought toward greater power of expression. In Germany +(and indeed everywhere else) the Italian element had full sway +over opera, and non-Italian musicians were forced into writing +for the concert room instead of the stage. Even Beethoven had +many disappointments in connection with his one opera "Fidelio," +and so strong was the Italian influence, that here in America +we are only just now (1897) recovering from the effects of it. + +Franz Joseph Haydn was born near Vienna, in 1732, of humble +parents, his mother a cook in a count's family, and his father +a wheelwright and sexton of the parish church. When a young boy +Haydn had a fine voice, on account of which he was admitted as a +member of the choir at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. This +entitled him to admission to St. Stephen's School, connected +with the cathedral, in which the city paid for the board and +lodging as well as the instruction of the singers. When the +boys' voices changed or "broke," however, they were turned +adrift. On leaving the cathedral, Haydn suffered the direst +poverty, engaging himself at one time as valet to the Italian +singing teacher, Porpora, in order to secure some lessons. + +He gradually managed to make himself known, and was engaged +by Count Morzin, a rich nobleman, to organize an orchestra of +about eighteen, which the count retained in his service with +Haydn as leader. Here he wrote his first symphony (for strings, +two oboes and two horns, in three movements) and a number of +smaller works. When he was twenty-nine, Count Morzin gave up +his establishment and Haydn entered the service of Prince Paul +Esterhazy, in Eisenstadt, Hungary, in the same capacity. Here +he had an orchestra of sixteen, composed of good musicians, whom +he could call up at any hour of the night to play if he wished, +and over whom he had complete control. Although the contract +by which he was engaged names the most degrading conditions, +and places Haydn on a par with all the other servants, the pay, +though small (two hundred dollars yearly), was certain and +regular. From this time Haydn was free from the hardships of +poverty. His salary was soon increased to five hundred dollars, +and he made as much more from his compositions. He wrote over +one hundred and twenty-five symphonies, sixty-eight trios, +seventy-seven quartets, fifty-seven concertos, fifty-seven +sonatas, eight oratorios and cantatas, and nineteen operas, +besides innumerable smaller things, for instance, between five +hundred and six hundred vocal pieces. His operas, of course, +are mere trifles compared with our more modern ones. + +His friendship for Mozart is well known. As for his relations +with Beethoven, it is probable that their disagreement was +merely the effect of pride, and perhaps a certain amount +of laziness on one side and youthful bumptiousness on the +other. Haydn was returning to Vienna _via_ Bonn, from England, +where he had been welcomed by the wildest enthusiasm, when +Beethoven called on him to ask for his opinion as to his talent +as a composer. It resulted in Beethoven's going to Vienna. +After taking a few lessons of Haydn he went to another teacher +and made all manner of contemptuous remarks about Haydn, +declaring he had not learned anything from him. + +After two highly successful visits to England, in 1792 and 1794, +Haydn returned to Vienna and wrote his two celebrated cantatas, +"The Creation" and "The Seasons." His last appearance in public +was when he attended a performance of "The Creation" in 1808, +at the age of seventy-six. He was received with a fanfare of +trumpets and cheers from the audience. After the first part he +was obliged to leave, and as he was being carried out by his +friends, he turned at the door and lifted his hands towards the +orchestra, as if in benediction; Beethoven kissed his hand, +and everyone paid him homage. He died during the bombardment +of Vienna by the French, May 31, 1809. + +Haydn's later symphonies have been very cleverly compared +with those of Beethoven by the statement that the latter wrote +tragedies and great dramas, whereas Haydn wrote comedies and +charming farces. As a matter of fact, Haydn is the bridge +between the idealized dance and independent music. Although +Beethoven still retained the form of the dance, he wrote great +poems, whereas the music of Haydn always preserves a tinge of +the actual dance. With Haydn, music was still an art consisting +of the weaving together of pretty sounds, and although _design_, +that is to say, the development of the emotional character +of a musical thought, was by no means unknown to him, that +development was never permitted to transcend the limits of a +certain graceful euphony which was a marked characteristic +of his style. His use of orchestral instruments represents +a marked advance on that of C.P.E. Bach, and certainly very +materially helped Mozart. + +Of Mozart we probably all know something. Born at Salzburg, +in 1756, his was a short life, for he died in 1791. We know +of his great precocity; his first compositions were published +when he was six years old, at which age he was already playing +in concerts with his eleven-year old sister, and was made much +of by the titled people before whom he played. The rest of +his life is one continual chronicle of concerts given all over +Europe, interrupted at intervals by scarlet fever, smallpox, +and other illnesses, until the last one, typhoid fever, caused +his death. During his stay in Italy he wrote many operas in +the flowery Italian style which, luckily, have never been +revived to tarnish his name. + +His first works worthy of mention are the clavier concertos and +several symphonies and quartets, which date from about 1777. His +first important opera is "Idomeneo, King of Crete," written for +the Munich opera. In this he adopts the principles of Gluck, +thus breaking away from the wretched style of the Italian +opera of the period, although the work itself was written in +Italian. His next opera was in German, "Die Entführung aus +dem Serail," and was given with great success at Vienna, in +1782. It was followed by "The Marriage of Figaro," "Don Juan," +and the "Magic Flute." + +The story of his death is well known. A stranger, who turned +out to be the steward of Count Walsegg, came to him and +ordered a requiem, which was played in 1793 as Walsegg's own +composition. Mozart thought the man a messenger from the other +world. He died before he completed the work. So great was his +poverty that it was difficult to get a priest to attend him, +and a physician who was summoned would come only after the play +he was attending was ended. He had a "third class" funeral, +and as a fierce storm was raging, no one accompanied the body +to the grave. His widow gave a concert, and with the help of the +Emperor money enough was raised to pay the outstanding debts. + +It is difficult to give an adequate idea of Mozart's works. He +possessed a certain simple charm of expression which, +in its directness, has an element of pathos lacking in the +comparatively jolly light-heartedness of Haydn. German opera +profited much from his practically adopting the art principles +of Gluck, although it must be confessed that this change in +style may have been simply a phase of his own individual art +development. His later symphonies and operas show us the man +at his best. His piano works and early operas show the effect +of the "virtuoso" style, with all its empty concessions to +technical display and commonplace, ear-catching melody. + + +[15] At that time the harpsichord player was a very important + member of an orchestra, as he accompanied the recitative + from figured bass and was practically the conductor. On + one occasion when the harpsichordist was absent Händel + took his place with so much success that it paved the + way for a hearing of his operas. + + + + +XX + +DECLAMATION IN MUSIC + + +There is one side of music which I am convinced has never +been fully studied, namely, the relation between it and +declamation. As we know, music is a language which may delineate +actual occurrences by means of onomatopoetic sounds. By the +use of more or less suggestive sounds, it may bring before +our minds a quasi-visual image of things which we more or less +definitely feel. + +Now to do all this, there must be rules; or, to put it more +broadly, there must be some innate quality that enables +this art of sounds to move in sympathy with our feelings. +I have no wish to go into detailed analysis of the subject; +but a superficial survey of it may clear up certain points with +regard to the potency of music that we are too often willing +to refer back to the mere pleasing physical sensations of sound. + +Some consideration of this subject may enable us to understand +the much discussed question of programme music. It may also help +us to recognize the astonishing advance we have made in the art; +an advance, which, strange to say, consists in successively +throwing off all the trammels and conventionalities of what is +generally considered artificial, and the striking development +of an art which, with all its astounding wealth of exterior +means, aims at the expression of elemental sensations. + +Music may be divided into four classes, each class marking +an advance in receptive power on the part of the listener and +poetic subtlety on that of the composer. We may liken the first +stage to that of the savage Indians who depict their exploits +in war and peace on the rocks, fragments of bone, etc. If the +painter has in mind, say, an elephant, he carves it so that its +principal characteristics are vastly exaggerated. A god in such +delineation is twice the size of the ordinary man, and so it is +in descriptive music. For instance, in Beethoven's "Pastoral" +symphony, the cuckoo is not a bird which mysteriously hides +itself far away in a thicket, the sound of whose voice comes to +one like a strange, abrupt call from the darkness of the forest; +no, it is unmistakably a cuckoo, reminding one strangely of +those equally advanced and extremely cheap art products of +Nuremberg, made of pine wood, and furnished with a movable tail. + +The next stage is still a question of delineation; but +of delineation that leads us into strange countries, and +the sounds we hear are but the small door through which we +pass. This music _suggests_; by way of example, the opening of +the last movement of the "Pastoral" symphony, the march from +Tchaïkovsky's "Symphonie Pathétique," the opening of Raff's +"Im Walde," and Goldmark's "Sakuntala." Such music hints, +and there is a certain potency in its suggestion which makes +us see things. These two divisions of music have been termed +"programme" or "objective" music. + +The other two classes of music have been termed subjective. +The first is declamation, pure and simple; the singer may be +telling a lie, or his sentiment may be insincere or false; what +these sounds stand for, we know from the words, their grade of +passion, etc. The last phase of our art is much more subtle, +and is not amenable to such accurate analysis. If we may liken +music to painting, we may, I think, compare the latter to the +first three stages of this new language of music; but it can +go no further. For that art must touch its audience through +a palpable delineation of something more or less material; +whereas music is of the stuff dreams are made of. It is hardly +necessary to say, however, that our dreams are often much more +poignant than the actual sensations caused by real occurrences +would be. And it is because of this strange quality, I think, +that dreams and music affect us in much the same manner. + +The vital principle of Wagner's art was that he not only made +startlingly vivid pictures in his music, but that he made the +people in these pictures actually walk out of the frame and +directly address the audience. In other words, his orchestra +forms a kind of pictorial and psychological background from +which his characters detach themselves and actually speak. If +they speak falsely, the ever present orchestra, forming as it +were a halo, unmercifully tears away the mask, like the mirror +in old fairy tales. + +In Wagner's operas, however, the intrusion of gross palpable +machinery of the stage, as well as that of the actor's art, +too often clouds the perfect working of this wonderful art +conception. It is just this intrusion of materialism in Wagner's +music dramas which constitutes their only weakness. + +At this point I wish to insist upon the fact that in music it +is always through declamation that the public is addressed most +directly; not only that, but declamation is not necessarily tied +by any of the fetters of the spoken word; nor is it subservient +to any of the laws of articulate speech as we meet with them in +language. This being admitted, I have no hesitation in giving +my opinion that opera, or rather the music drama, is not the +highest or the most perfect form of our art. The music drama +as represented by Wagner (and he alone represents it) is the +most perfect union of painting, poetry, and music imaginable to +our nineteenth-century minds. But as regards representing the +highest development of music, I find it too much hampered by +the externals of art, necessary materialism in the production +of palpable acts, and its enforced subjection to the laws that +govern the spoken word. + +Music is universal; Wagner's operas, by the inherent necessities +of speech, are necessarily and irrevocably Germanic. "Les +Maitres Chanteurs," "The Dwarfs of Niebelheim," "Elizabeta," +are impossibilities, whereas, for instance, Beethoven's "Eroica" +labours under no such disadvantage. "Goodbye, My Dearest Swan," +invests part of "Lohengrin" with a certain grotesque colour +that no one would ever dream of if there were no necessity for +the singer to be tied down to the exigencies of palpable and +certainly most materialistic language. The thought in itself +is beautiful, but the necessity for the words drags it into +the mud. + +This certainly shows the difference between the language of +music and what is called articulate speech, the purely symbolic +and artificial character of the latter, and the direct, +unhampered utterance of the former. Music can invariably +heighten the poignancy of mere spoken words (which mean +nothing in themselves), but words can but rarely, in fact I +doubt whether they can ever, heighten the effect of musical +declamation. To my mind, listening to Wagner's operas may be +likened to watching a circus with three rings. That containing +the music should have our closest attention, for it offers +the most wonderful sounds ever imagined by any man. At the +same time it is impossible for any human being not to have his +attention often lured away to the other rings, in one of which +Fricke's rams vie with the bird and the dragon; or where the +phantom ship seems as firmly fixed as the practical rainbow, +which so closely betrays the carpenter. In the other ring you +can actually hear the dull jokes of Mimi and the Wanderer, +or hear Walther explain that he has passed a comfortable night +and slept well. + +The music to these remarkable scenes, however, does not deign +to stoop so low, but soars in wonderful poetry by itself, thus +rejecting a union which, to speak in the jargon of our day, is +one of the convincing symptoms of decadence; in other words, +it springs from the same impulse as that which has produced +the circus with three rings. + +Summing up, I wish to state what I consider the four elements +of music, namely, music that paints, music that suggests, music +that actually speaks, and music that almost defies analysis, +and is composed of the other three elements. + +When we were considering the early works for harpsichord, I said +that music could define certain things with quite reasonable +exactitude. Just as in the Egyptian hieroglyphics a wavy line +stands for water, so it can in music, with the latitude that +it can mean anything in nature that we might consider of the +same genre. Thus, the figure in Wagner's "Waldweben" means in +that instance waves of air, and we know it by the context. +His swaying figure of the "Prelude to Rheingold" is as +plainly water as is the same figure used by Mendelssohn in his +"Lovely Melusina." Not that Wagner plagiarized, but that he and +Mendelssohn recognized the definiteness of musical suggestions; +which is more than proved by their adopting the same musical +ideas to indicate the same things. + +More indefinite is the analysis of our second type or element +of music. The successful recognition of this depends not only +upon the susceptibility of the hearer to delicate shades of +sensation, but also upon the receptivity of the hearer and his +power to accept freely and unrestrictedly the mood shadowed +forth by the composer. Such music cannot be looked upon +objectively. To those who would analyze it in such a manner it +must remain an unknown language; its potency depends entirely +upon a state of willing subjectivity on the part of the hearer. + +The third element, as we know, consists of the spoken word or +phrase; in other words, declamation. In this, however, the +composer cuts loose entirely from what we call language. It +is the medium of expression of emotion of every kind. It is +not restricted to the voice or to any instrument, or even to +our sharps, flats, and naturals. Through stress of emotion the +sharps become sharper, with depression the flats become flatter, +thus adding poignancy to the declamation. Being unfettered by +words, this emotion has free rein. The last element, as I have +said, is extremely difficult to define. It is declamation that +suggests and paints at the same time. We find hardly a bar +of Wagner's music in which this complex form of music is not +present. Thus, the music dramas of Wagner, shorn of the fetters +of the actual spoken word, emancipated from the materialism +of acting, painting, and furniture, may be considered as the +greatest achievement in our art, an art that does not include +the spoken word called poetry, or painting, or sculpture, +and most decidedly not architecture (form), but the essence +of all these. What these aim to do through passive exterior +influences, music accomplishes by actual living vibration. + + + + +XXI + +SUGGESTION IN MUSIC + + +In speaking of the power of suggestion in music I wish at +the outset to make certain reservations. In the first place +I speak for myself, and what I have to present is merely an +expression of my personal opinion; if in any way these should +incite to further investigation or discussion, my object will +in part have been attained. + +In the second place, in speaking of this art, one is +seriously hampered by a certain difficulty in making oneself +understood. To hear and to enjoy music seems sufficient to +many persons, and an investigation as to the causes of this +enjoyment seems to them superfluous. And yet, unless the +public comes into closer touch with the tone poet than that +objective state Which accepts with the ears what is intended +for the spirit, which hears the sounds and is deaf to their +import, unless the public can separate the physical pleasure +of music from its ideal significance, our art, in my opinion, +cannot stand on a sound basis. + +The first step toward an appreciation of music should be +taken in our preparatory schools. Were young people taught +to distinguish between tones as between colours, to recognize +rhythmic values, and were they taught so to use their voices as +to temper the nasal tones of speech, in after life they would +be better able to appreciate and cherish an art of which mere +pleasure-giving sounds are but a very small part. + +Much of the lack of independence of opinion about music arises +from want of familiarity with its material. Thus, after dinner, +our forefathers were accustomed to sing catches which were +entirely destitute of anything approaching music. + +Music contains certain elements which affect the nerves of +the mind and body, and thus possesses the power of direct +appeal to the public,--a power to a great extent denied to the +other arts. This sensuous influence over the hearer is often +mistaken for the aim and end of all music. With this in mind, +one may forgive the rather puzzling remarks so often met with; +for instance, those of a certain English bishop that "Music +did not affect him either intellectually or emotionally, +only pleasurably," adding, "Every art should keep within +its own realm; and that of music was concerned with pleasing +combinations of sound." In declaring that the sensation of +hearing music was pleasant to him, and that to produce that +sensation was the entire mission of music, the Bishop placed +our art on a level with good things to eat and drink. Many +colleges and universities of this land consider music as a +kind of _boutonnière_. + +This estimate of music is, I believe, unfortunately a very +general one, and yet, low as it is, there is a possibility +of building on such a foundation. Could such persons be made +to recognize the existence of decidedly unpleasant music, +it would be the first step toward a proper appreciation of +the art and its various phases. + +Mere beauty of sound is, in itself, purely sensuous. It is +the Chinese conception of music that the texture of a sound +is to be valued; the long, trembling tone-tint of a bronze +gong, or the high, thin streams of sound from the pipes are +enjoyed for their ear-filling qualities. In the _Analects_ of +Confucius and the writings of Mencius there is much mention +of music, and "harmony of sound that shall fill the ears" +is insisted upon. The Master said, "When the music maker Che +first entered on his office, the finish with the Kwan Ts'eu +was magnificent. How it filled the ears!" Père Amiot says, +"Music must fill the ears to penetrate the soul." Referring to +the playing of some pieces by Couperin on a spinet, he says that +Chinese hearers thought these pieces barbarous; the movement +was too rapid, and did not allow sufficient time for them to +enjoy each tone by itself. Now this is colour without form, +or sound without music. For it to become music, it must possess +some quality which will remove it from the purely sensuous. To +my mind, it is in the power of suggestion that the vital spark +of music lies. + +Before speaking of this, however, I wish to touch upon two +things: first, on what is called the science of music; and +secondly, on one of the sensuous elements of music which enters +into and encroaches upon all suggestion. + +If one were called upon to define what is called the +intellectual side of music, he would probably speak of "form," +contrapuntal design, and the like. Let us take up the matter +of form. If by the word "form" our theorists meant the most +poignant expression of poetic thought in music, if they meant +by this word the art of arranging musical sounds into the most +telling presentation of a musical idea, I should have nothing +to say: for if this were admitted instead of the recognized +forms of modern theorists for the proper utterance, we should +possess a study of the power of musical sounds which might +truly justify the title of musical intellectuality. As it is, +the word "form" stands for what have been called "stoutly +built periods," "subsidiary themes," and the like, a happy +combination of which in certain prescribed keys was supposed +to constitute good form. Such a device, originally based upon +the necessities and fashions of the dance, and changing from +time to time, is surely not worthy of the strange worship +it has received. A form of so doubtful an identity that the +first movement of a certain Beethoven sonata can be dubbed by +one authority "sonata-form," and by another "free fantasia," +certainly cannot lay claim to serious intellectual value. + +Form should be a synonym for _coherence_. No idea, whether +great or small, can find utterance without form, but that form +will be inherent to the idea, and there will be as many forms +as there are adequately expressed ideas. In the musical idea, +_per se_, analysis will reveal form. + +The term "contrapuntal development" is to most tone poets of the +present day a synonym for the device of giving expression to +a musically poetic idea. _Per se_, counterpoint is a puerile +juggling with themes, which may be likened to high-school +mathematics. Certainly the entire web and woof of this +"science," as it is called, never sprang from the necessities of +poetic musical utterance. The entire pre-Palestrina literature +of music is a conclusive testimony as to the non-poetic and +even uneuphonious character of the invention. + +In my opinion, Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the world's +mightiest tone poets, accomplished his mission, not by means +of the contrapuntal fashion of his age, but in spite of it. The +laws of canon and fugue are based upon as prosaic a foundation +as those of the rondo and sonata form; I find it impossible to +imagine their ever having been a spur, or an incentive to poetic +musical speech. Neither, pure tonal beauty, so-called "form," +nor what is termed the intellectual side of music (the art +of counterpoint, canon, and fugue), constitutes a really vital +factor in music. This narrows our analysis down to two things, +namely, the physical effect of musical sound, and suggestion. + +The simplest manifestations of the purely sensuous effect of +sound are to be found in the savage's delight in noise. In +the more civilized state, this becomes the sensation of mere +pleasure in hearing pleasing sounds. It enters into folk song +in the form of the "Scotch snap," which is first cousin to the +Swiss _jodel_, and is undoubtedly the origin of the skips of +the augmented and (to a lesser degree) diminished intervals to +be found in the music of many nations. It consists of the trick +of alternating chest tones with falsetto. It is a kind of quirk +in the voice which pleases children and primitive folk alike, +a simple thing which has puzzled folklorists the world over. + +The other sensuous influence of sound is one of the most +powerful elements of music, and all musical utterance +is involved with and inseparable from it. It consists of +repetition, recurrence, periodicity. + +Now this repetition may be one of rhythm, tone tint, texture, +or colour, a repetition of figure or of pitch. We know that +savages, in their incantation ceremonies, keep up a continuous +drum beating or chant which, gradually increasing in violence, +drives the hearers into such a state of frenzy that physical +pain seems no longer to exist for them. + +The value of the recurring rhythms and phrases of the march is +well recognized in the army. A body of men will instinctively +move in cadence with such music. The ever recurring lilt of a +waltz rhythm will set the feet moving unconsciously, and as the +energy of the repetition increases and decreases, so will the +involuntary accompanying physical sympathy increase or decrease. + +Berlioz jokingly tells a story of a ballet dancer who objected +to the high pitch in which the orchestra played, and insisted +that the music be transposed to a lower key. Cradle songs are +fashioned on the same principle. + +This sensuous sympathy with recurring sounds, rhythm, and pitch +has something in common with hypnotism, and leads up to what +I have called suggestion in music. + +This same element in a modified form is made use of in poetry, +for instance, in Poe's "Raven," + + Quoth the raven, nevermore, + +and the repetition of colour in the same author's "Scarlet +Death." It is the mainspring (I will not call it the vital +spark) of many so-called popular songs, the recipe for which +is exceedingly simple. A strongly marked rhythmic figure is +selected, and incessantly repeated until the hearer's body +beats time to it. The well-known tunes "There'll Be a Hot +Time," etc., and "Ta-ra-ra, Boom-de-ay" are good examples of +this kind of music. + +There are two kinds of suggestion in music: one has been called +tone-painting, the other almost evades analysis. + +The term tone-painting is somewhat unsatisfactory, and reminds +one of the French critic who spoke of a poem as "beautiful +painted music." I believe that music can suggest forcibly +certain things and ideas as well as vague emotions encased in +the so-called "form" and "science" of music. + +If we wish to begin with the most primitive form of suggestion +in music, we shall find it in the direct imitation of sounds +in nature. We remember that Helmholtz, Hanslick, and their +followers denied to music the power to suggest things in +nature; but it was somewhat grudgingly admitted that music +might express the emotions caused by them. In the face of this, +to quote a well-known instance, we have the "Pastoral" symphony +of Beethoven, with the thrush, cuckoo, and thunderstorm. The +birds and the storm are very plainly indicated; but it is not +possible for the music to be an expression of the emotions +caused by them, for the very simple reason that no emotions +are caused by the cuckoo and thrush, and those caused by +thunderstorms range all the way from depression and fear to +exhilaration, according to the personality of individuals. + +That music may imitate any rhythmic sounds or melodic figure +occurring in nature, hardly needs affirmation. Such devices may +be accepted almost as quotations, and not be further considered +here. The songs of birds, the sound made by galloping horses' +feet, the moaning of the wind, etc., are all things which +are part and parcel of the musical vocabulary, intelligible +alike to people of every nationality. I need hardly say that +increasing intensity of sound will suggest vehemence, approach, +and its visual synonym, growth, as well as that decreasing +intensity will suggest withdrawal, dwindling, and placidity. + +The suggestion brought about by pattern is very familiar. +It was one of the first signs of the breaking away from +the conventional trammels of the contrapuntal style of the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The first madrigal of +Thomas Weelkes (1590) begins with the words, "Sit down," and +the musical pattern falls a fifth. The suggestion was crude, +but it was caused by the same impulse as that which supplied +the material for Wagner's "Waldweben," Mendelssohn's "Lovely +Melusina," and a host of other works. + +The fact that the pattern of a musical phrase can suggest kinds +of motion may seem strange; but could we, for example, imagine +a spinning song with broken arpeggios? Should we see a spear +thrown or an arrow shot on the stage and hear the orchestra +playing a phrase of an undulating pattern, we should at once +realize the contradiction. Mendelssohn, Schumann, Wagner, +Liszt, and practically everyone who has written a spinning +song, has used the same pattern to suggest the turning of a +wheel. That such widely different men as Wagner and Mendelssohn +should both have adopted the same pattern to suggest undulating +waves is not a mere chance, but clearly shows the potency of +the suggestion. + +The suggestion conveyed by means of pitch is one of the +strongest in music. Vibrations increasing beyond two hundred +and fifty trillions a second become luminous. It is a curious +coincidence that our highest vibrating musical sounds bring +with them a well-defined suggestion of light, and that as +the pitch is lowered we get the impression of ever increasing +obscurity. To illustrate this, I have but to refer you to the +Prelude to "Lohengrin." Had we no inkling as to its meaning, +we should still receive the suggestion of glittering shapes +in the blue ether. + +Let us take the opening of the "Im Walde" symphony by Raff as +an example; deep shadow is unmistakably suggested. Herbert +Spencer's theory of the influence of emotion on pitch is well +known and needs no confirmation. This properly comes under +the subject of musical speech, a matter not to be considered +here. Suffice it to say that the upward tendency of a musical +phrase can suggest exaltation, and that a downward trend may +suggest depression, the intensity of which will depend upon +the intervals used. As an instance we may quote the "Faust" +overture of Wagner, in which the pitch is used emotionally +as well as descriptively. If the meaning I have found in this +phrase seems to you far-fetched, we have but to give a higher +pitch to the motive to render the idea absolutely impossible. + +The suggestion offered by movement is very obvious, for music +admittedly may be stately, deliberate, hasty, or furious, +it may march or dance, it may be grave or flippant. + +Last of all I wish to speak of the suggestion conveyed by +means of tone-tint, the blending of timbre and pitch. It is +essentially a modern element in music, and in our delight in +this marvellous and potent aid to expression we have carried +it to a point of development at which it threatens to dethrone +what has hitherto been our musical speech, melody, in favour +of what corresponds to the shadow languages of speech, namely, +gesture and facial expression. Just as these shadow languages +of speech may distort or even absolutely reverse the meaning +of the spoken word, so can tone colour and harmony change the +meaning of a musical phrase. This is at once the glory and +the danger of our modern music. Overwhelmed by the new-found +powers of suggestion in tonal tint and the riot of hitherto +undreamed of orchestral combinations, we are forgetting that +permanence in music depends upon melodic speech. + +In my opinion, it is the line, not the colour, that will last. +That harmony is a potent factor in suggestion may be seen +from the fact that Cornelius was able to write an entire song +pitched upon one tone, the accompaniment being so varied in +its harmonies that the listener is deceived into attributing +to that one tone many shades of emotion. + +In all modern music this element is one of the most important. +If we refer again to the "Faust" overture of Wagner, we will +perceive that although the melodic trend and the pitch of +the phrase carry their suggestion, the roll of the drum which +accompanies it throws a sinister veil over the phrase, making +it impressive in the extreme. + +The seed from which our modern wealth of harmony and tone +colour sprang was the perfect major triad. The _raison d'être_ +and development of this combination of tones belong to the +history of music. Suffice it to say, that for some psychological +reason this chord (with also its minor form) has still the same +significance that it had for the monks of the Middle Ages. It is +perfect. Every complete phrase, must end with it. The attempts +made to emancipate music from the tyranny of this combination +of sounds have been in vain, showing that the suggestion of +finality and repose contained in it is irrefutable. + +Now if we depart from this chord a sensation of unrest is +occasioned which can only subside by a progression to another +triad or a return to the first. With the development of our +modern system of tonality we have come to think tonally; and a +chord lying outside of the key in which a musical thought is +conceived will carry with it a sense of confusion or mystery +that our modern art of harmony and tone colour has made its +own. Thus, while any simple low chords accompanying the first +notes of Raff's "Im Walde" symphony, given by the horns and +violins, would suggest gloom pierced by the gleams of light, +the remoteness of the chords to the tonality of C major gives +a suggestion of mystery; but as the harmony approaches the +triad the mystery dissolves, letting in the gleam of sunlight +suggested by the horn. + +Goldmark's overture to "Sakuntala" owes its subtle suggestion to +much the same cause. Weber made use of it in his "Freischütz," +Wagner in his "Tarnhelm" motive, Mendelssohn in his "Midsummer +Night's Dream," Tchaïkovsky in the opening of one of his +symphonies. + +In becoming common property, so to speak, this important +element of musical utterance has been dragged through the mud; +and modern composers, in their efforts to raise it above the +commonplace, have gone to the very edge of what is physically +bearable in the use of tone colour and combination. While this +is but natural, owing to the appropriation of some of the most +poetic and suggestive tone colours for ignoble dance tunes and +doggerel, it is to my mind a pity, for it is elevating what +should be a means of adding power and intensity to musical +speech to the importance of musical speech itself. Possibly +Strauss's "Thus Spake Zarathustra" may be considered the +apotheosis of this power of suggestion in tonal colour, and +in it I believe we can see the tendency I allude to. This +work stuns by its glorious magnificence of tonal texture; the +suggestion, in the opening measures, of the rising sun is a +mighty example of the overwhelming power of tone colour. The +upward sweep of the music to the highest regions of light has +much of splendour about it; and yet I remember once hearing +in London, sung in the street at night, a song that seemed to +me to contain a truer germ of music. + +For want of a better word I will call it ideal suggestion. +It has to do with actual musical speech, and is difficult to +define. The possession of it makes a man a poet. If we look +for analogy, I may quote from Browning and Shakespeare. + + Dearest, three months ago + When the mesmerizer, Snow, + With his hand's first sweep + Put the earth to sleep. + + BROWNING, _A Lovers' Quarrel_. + + + Daffodils, + That come before the swallow dares, and takes + The winds of March with beauty; Violets dim, + But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes. + + SHAKESPEARE, _Winter's Tale_. + +For me this defies analysis, and so it is with some things +in music, the charm of which cannot be ascribed to physical +or mental suggestion, and certainly not to any device of +counterpoint or form, in the musical acceptance of the word. + + + + +INDEX + + +A. + + Accents, 92. + Adagio, 189. + Aeolian mode, 83. + Aeschylus, 70, 76. + Alberti bass, 197. + Allemande, 182, 189, 195. + Amati, 138. + Ambros, 205. + Ambrose, 98, 99, 102, 104. + Amiot, 50, 57, 61, 263. + Anapaest, 75. + Andaman Islanders, 3, 5, 6. + Animals, 13. + Arabian, 152, 158. + Architecture, 192, 225. + Arion, 76. + Aristides, 74, 84. + Aristophanes, 91, 92. + Aristotle, 49. + Aristoxenus, 73, 81. + Assyrian, 48. + Auber, 216, 217, 219. + + +B. + + Bach, C.P.E., 191, 199, 200, 247, 248, 251. + Bach, J.S., 136, 185, 186, 187, 191, 231, 239, 241, 244, 247, + 248, 265. + Bagpipe, 32, 93. + Ballet, 177. + Bamboo, 52. + Banjo, 29. + Basso continuo, 237. + Bassoon, 139. + Bazin, 217. + Beethoven, 14, 16, 17, 22, 185, 189, 190, 196, 197, 199, 200, + 201, 202, 203, 234, 247, 250, 267. + Bell, 7, 8, 46. + Bellini, 210. + Berlioz, 14, 65, 219, 266. + Bizet, 144, 151, 197, 217, 219, 222. + Boieldieu, 216, 217. + Bolero, 182. + Borneo, 3, 5. + Bourrée, 179. + Brahma, 36, 37. + Brahminism, 36, 39. + Brahms, 203, 224. + Brevis, 118, 120. + Browning, 198, 272. + Buddha, 36. + Burmah, 23, 64, 65. + Burney, 194. + Byrd, 184. + + +C. + + Caccini, 177, 209. + Cachucha, 182. + Canon, 205. + Cantata, 188. + Cantus firmus, 130, 205. + Ceylon, 5. + Chaconne, 181. + Chaldeans, 49. + Charlemagne, 105. + Che, 50, 66. + Cherubini, 213. + China, 16, 18, 23, 49. + Chinese folksong, 59. + Chinese music, 144, 147, 263. + Chinese orchestra, 55. + Chinese scale, 62. + Chinese theatre, 61. + Chopin, 27, 204. + Christianity, 34. + Christians (Early), 96. + Chrotta (Crwth), 137. + Church music, 206. + Clarinet, 13, 139. + Clavichord, 134. + Clavicitherium, 136. + Clef, 116. + Colour in music, 200, 263, 270. + Comedy, 76. + Confucius, 49, 56, 60, 263. + Conjunct tetrachord, 86. + Constantinople, 103. + Corelli, 138, 189. + Cornet, 177. + Corrente (Courante), 181, 185, 189. + Coucy, Raoul de, 118. + Council of Laodicaea, 99. + Council of Trent, 176. + Counterpoint, 129, 205, 208, 264. + Couperin, 136, 191, 200, 210. + Cristofori, 136. + Czardas, 183. + + +D. + + Dactyl, 25, 26, 69, 75. + Dance, 24, 27, 28, 78, 97, 126, 149, 178. + Dance forms, modern, 182. + Dance forms, old, 179, 180. + Dante, 207. + Darwin, 1, 16. + Declamation, 26, 27, 254. + Delibes, 218. + Descant (discant), 129, 205. + Diaphony, 128, 129. + Diatonic, 45. + Didymus, 81. + Dionysian, 75. + Disjunct tetrachord, 86. + Dithyramb, 76. + Donizetti, 210. + Dorian, 75, 83. + Drum, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 25, 30, 33. + Drum organ, 65. + Dulcimer, 33, 49, 136. + + +E. + + Egypt, 16, 34, 43, 152. + Emerson, 16. + Embellishments, 238. + Enharmonic (Greek), 88. + Epitrite, 75. + Equal temperament, 187, 241. + Euclid, 79. + + +F. + + Fantaisie-mazurka, 184. + Faux bourdon, 130, 163. + Fear, 2. + Feast of asses, 125, 206. + Field, 204. + Figured bass, 237. + Flageolet, 177. + Flats, 16, 39, 112. + Flute, 6, 13, 30, 31, 43, 44, 45, 67, 82, 138, 177. + Flute players, 91. + Folk song, 16, 17, 141. + Folk song (Chinese), 59. + Folk song (German), 152. + Form, 24, 25, 263, 264. + Fourth (augmented), 128. + Franco of Cologne, 117, 123. + Frauenlob, Heinrich, 167, 168. + Froberger, 199. + Fugue, 187, 206. + Fusa, 120. + + +G. + + Galop, 183. + Galuppi, 198. + Gamut, 109. + Gardiner, 19. + Gavotte, 180. + Gerbert, 16, 225. + Gesture, 17. + Gesualdo, 236. + Gigue, 182, 189, 197. + Gluck, 210, 212, 213, 214, 215, 231, 252. + Goethe, 1, 22. + Goldmark, 271. + Gong, 8, 53. + Gothic architecture, 21. + Gottfried von Strasburg, 165. + Gounod, 217, 219, 220. + Greek idea of music, 70. + Greek modes, 83. + Greeks, 27, 30, 42. + Gregorian chants, 104, 106, 208. + Gregorian modes, 100. + Gregory (Pope), 100, 102, 104. + Grétry, 213, 218. + Guarnerius, 138. + Guido d'Arezzo, 108, 115. + Guitar, 6, 29. + Gypsy music, 145. + + +H. + + Habanera, 182. + Hale, Adam de la, 207. + Halévy, 217. + Hamlet, 197. + Händel, 22, 177, 231, 239, 241. + Harmonics, 20, 80. + Harmony, 23, 39, 44, 147, 190, 208, 270. + Harp, 6, 29, 33, 43, 44, 45, 48, 177. + Harpsichord, 134. + Hasse, 210, 227, 229, 230. + Haydn, 193, 197, 200, 247, 248, 252. + Hebrews, 32, 33, 34. + Helmholtz, 42. + Herodotus, 43, 46, 47. + Hérold, 216, 217. + Hexachord, 110. + Hexameter, 69. + Hindus, 35. + Homer, 27, 29, 69. + Horn, 6, 7, 140. + Hucbald, 107, 122, 127, 208. + Hungarian, 143, 145, 159. + Hurdy-gurdy, 137. + Hypodorian mode, 84. + Hypolydian mode, 83. + Hypophrygian mode, 83. + + +I. + + Iambus, 25. + Impassioned speech, 19, 28. + India, 16. + Indians, 143, 152. + Ionic, 75. + Isis, 8. + + +J. + + Jahn, 194. + Japanese, 53, 64. + Javanese, 13, 64, 65. + Jenghiz Khan, 30. + Jommelli, 195, 230. + Jongleurs, 131, 160, 162, 207. + Josquin des Prés, 176. + + +K. + + Keren, 33. + Kin, 33, 50, 59. + King, 50. + Kinnor, 33. + Kithara, 43, 86. + Koto, 66. + Kuhnau, 195, 199, 245. + + +L. + + Lasus, 73, 90. + Leitmotiv, 214. + Lepsius, 48. + Levites, 33. + Liszt, 145, 146, 151, 194, 204, 220, 233. + Locke, 230. + Loeilly, 191. + London Stock Exchange, 19. + Longa, 118, 120. + Longfellow, 69. + Loure, 180. + Lully, 196, 212, 240. + Lute, 28, 29, 30, 31, 43, 44, 131, 137, 177, 208. + Luther, 176. + Lydian mode, 83. + Lyre, 6, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 43, 69, 136. + + +M. + + Maanim, 32. + Macaulay, 211. + Macbeth, 64. + Macfarren, 213. + Machol, 32. + Magrepha, 33. + Mandolin, 137. + Maneros, 46. + March, 181, 183. + Marine trumpet, 137. + Marpurg, 225. + Masque, 177. + Massé, 217. + Massenet, 218, 223, 224. + Mastersingers, 131, 165. + Matheson, 210, 225. + Maxima, 119, 120. + Mazurka, 182. + Méhul, 197, 212, 213, 214. + Melody, 14, 15, 18, 26, 28, 148, 190. + Mencius, 54, 263. + Mendelssohn, 202, 203, 233, 234, 259, 268, 271. + Metre, 26, 74. + Mexico, 66, 67. + Meyerbeer, 210, 213, 217, 218, 224, 233. + Millet, 192. + Minima, 119, 120. + Minnesingers, 118, 131, 164, 166, 170, 173. + Minuet, 181, 189. + Miracle plays, 207. + Mixolydian mode, 83. + Mixtures (organ), 133. + Mode, 39, 83. + Mona Lisa, 13. + Monochord, 80, 134. + Monteverde, 236. + Moors, 152. + Moralities, 207. + Morley, 185. + Morris dance, 160. + Motive, 179, 190. + Mozart, 193, 200, 232, 239, 247, 251. + Musette, 180. + Mysteries, 125, 206, 207, 208. + + +N. + + Nationalism, 151, 153. + Nebel, 33. + Nero, 94. + Neumes, 115. + Notation, 114, 208. + Notation (Greek system), 88. + Nithart, 167, 171. + + +O. + + Oboe, 13, 44, 139, 177. + Ockeghem, 177. + Octave (Greek system), 86. + Opera, 178, 206, 208, 210. + Organ, 33, 94, 132. + Organ pedals, 134. + Organs (portable), 134. + Organum, 128. + Orientalism, 151, 173, 204. + Osiris, 8, 47. + Overture, 189, 216. + + +P. + + Paean, 75. + Palestrina, 176, 186, 205, 210, 246. + Pan's Pipe, 9, 10, 11, 12, 62. + Pantomime, 93, 177. + Passecaille, 181. + Passepied, 182. + Passion plays, 125, 206. + Pavane, 182. + Pentatonic, 149, 151. + Pergolesi, 210. + Peri, 209, 231. + Period, 179. + Periodicity, 24, 28, 265. + Peru, 66, 67. + Pescetti, 195. + Phrase, 179, 190. + Phrygian mode, 76, 83. + Piano, 29, 230. + Piccini, 213. + Pindar, 27, 72, 90. + Pipe, 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 28, 30, 37, 44. + Pitch, 269. + Plato, 11, 49. + Plutarch, 195. + Poe, 266. + Poetry, 24. + Polacca, 182. + Polka, 183. + Polonaise, 182. + Porpora, 210. + Portuguese, 152. + Prelude, 189. + Prescott, 66. + Procrustes, 27. + Programme music, 190, 199, 203, 255. + Psalms, 34. + Psaltery, 33, 131. + Ptolemy, 85. + Purcell, 176. + Pythagoras, 49, 72, 79, 82, 97. + + +Q. + + Quarter-tones, 38, 39. + + +R. + + Raff, 269, 271. + Raga, 39, 40. + Rameau, 136, 178, 186, 191, 196, 199, 210, 239, 240. + Ravanastron, 137. + Rebec, 138. + Reed, 45. + Reichardt, 194. + Repetition, 266. + Rhythm, 14, 15, 25, 26, 27, 74, 117, 142, 190. + Rigaudon, 180. + Rig-Veda, 35. + Rimsky-Korsakoff, 224. + Robin et Marian, 207, 208. + Rockstro, 194. + Rolle, 196. + Romans, 46. + Romanticism, 212. + Rosseau, 212. + Rossini, 210, 215, 217. + Rowbotham, 23, 68. + Rubinstein, 224. + Ruskin, 21. + Russia, 152. + + +S. + + Sachs, Hans, 166. + Saint-Mark's Cathedral, 205. + St. Pierre, Bernardin de, 211. + Saint-Saëns, 219, 222, 224. + Saltarello, 183. + Samisen, 66. + Sappho, 72, 83. + Sarabande, 160, 180, 189, 197. + Sarti, 213. + Scale, 39, 107. + Scale (Chinese), 62. + Scarlatti, A., 238. + Scarlatti, D., 184, 185, 195, 210, 238. + Schauspiel, 232. + Scherzo, 189. + Schofar, 33. + Schubart, 194. + Schubert, 20, 23, 196, 197, 201, 203. + Schumann, 101, 199, 203, 204, 233. + Scotch, 41, 147, 152, 265. + Scotland, 23. + Scribe, 218. + Section, 179. + Selah, 34. + Semangs, 3, 5. + Semibrevis, 118, 120. + Semifusa, 120. + Sentences, decayed, 17. + Sequences, 111. + Set, 8, 47. + Shakespeare, 28, 272. + Sharps, 16, 39, 112. + Shedlock, 195. + Siamese, 64, 65. + Singspiel, 213, 217. + Sistrum, 8, 32, 43, 46, 47. + Sittard, 194. + Solmisation, 108, 111. + Sonata, 27, 178, 189, 190. + Sonata form, 27, 188. + Sophocles, 70, 76. + Spanish, 152, 159. + Spencer, Herbert, 22, 269. + Sperling, 195. + Spinet, 135. + Spondee, 23, 69, 75. + Spontini, 210, 212, 213, 214. + Stesichorus, 7. + Stradivarius, 138. + Strauss, J., 27. + Strauss, R., 200, 203, 272. + Suggestion, 255, 260, 261. + Suite, 188, 190. + Sylvester (Pope), 99. + Symphonic poem, 178. + Symphony, 27, 178, 248. + + +T. + + Talmud, 33. + Tambourin (dance), 180. + Tambourine, 7, 33. + Tannhäuser, 167, 168. + Tarantella, 183. + Tartini, 138. + Tasmania, 3, 5. + Tchaïkovsky, 224, 271. + Tennyson, 71. + Terpander, 73. + Tetrachord, 83, 124. + Theophrastus, 1, 74. + Thibaut of Navarre, 118. + Thibet, 12. + Thirds, 124. + Thomas, A., 221. + Tierra del Fuegians, 3, 4, 6. + Timbrel, 33. + Time signs, 119, 120. + Tone tint, 270. + Tourte, 138. + Tragedy, 76. + Treble, 163, 205. + Trochee, 25, 28, 75. + Trombone, 140, 177. + Troubadours, 118, 131, 160, 165, 166, 171, 173, 207. + Trumpet, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 32, 43, 140. + Typhon, 8. + + +V. + + Vaudeville, 207. + Vedas, 36, 39. + Vega, Garcilaso de la, 13, 66. + Verdi, 210. + Viadana, 236, 237. + Vina, 38. + Vinci, Leonardo da, 13. + Viola, 32. + Viola da gamba, 177. + Violin, 29, 32, 138. + Violoncello, 177. + Viotti, 138. + Virginal, 135. + Vishnu, 38. + Vocal music, 23. + + +W. + + Wagner, 14, 15, 17, 21, 22, 27, 147, 166, 168, 186, 201, 206, + 214, 217, 218, 224, 233, 234, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 268, + 269, 271. + Walpole, 211. + Wasielewski, 194. + Walter von der Vogelweide, 167. + Waltz, 27, 181, 183. + Weber, 14, 210, 213, 216, 218, 219, 271. + Weddahs, 5, 6. + Weelkes, 184, 268. + Wolfram von Eschenbach, 165. + + +Z. + + Zarlino, 81. + Zither, 33. + Zoroaster, 12. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Critical & Historical Essays, by Edward MacDowell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRITICAL & HISTORICAL ESSAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 16351-8.txt or 16351-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/5/16351/ + +Produced by David Newman, Daniel Emerson Griffith and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/16351-8.zip b/16351-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..14b8403 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-8.zip diff --git a/16351-h.zip b/16351-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..45c6817 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h.zip diff --git a/16351-h/16351-h.htm b/16351-h/16351-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d384a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/16351-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,12218 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Critical and Historical Essays + by Edward MacDowell</title> + <style title="Standard" type="text/css"> + <!-- + /* <![CDATA[ */ + + body { margin-left:15%; margin-right:15%; } + h1, h2, h3, h4 { text-align:center; margin-top:3em; } + h5 { text-align:left; margin-top:1em; font-weight:normal; } + img { vertical-align:middle; + border: solid white; border-width:3px 1px; } + hr { border: solid black 1px; } + p { text-align:justify; text-indent:0em !important; } + span.first { font-variant:normal !important; } + .left { text-align:left; } + .right { text-align:right; } + .central { text-align:center; text-indent:0em !important; } + p.stanza span { display:block; } + p.stanza br { display:none; } + p.poet { margin-left:9em; } + blockquote { margin-left:3em; margin-right:3em; } + .flush.central { margin-left:0em; margin-right:0em; } + .central p { text-align:center; text-indent:0em !important; } + .i0 { margin-left:2.25em; text-indent:-2.25em; } + .i1 { margin-left:2.25em; text-indent:-1.75em; } + .i17 { margin-left:2.25em; text-indent:6.25em; } + p.fn { margin-left:4em; margin-right:2.5em; font-size:80%; } + p.fn span { float:left; width:1.5em; margin-left:-1.5em; } + a.fn, p.fn span a { vertical-align:super; font-size:65%; } + .sc { font-variant:small-caps; } + .nc { font-variant:normal; } + table { margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; } + .toc td { vertical-align:top; font-variant:small-caps; } + .toc td.page { vertical-align:bottom; text-align:right; } + ul { list-style-type:none; } + ul li { text-indent:-1em; } + span.nobr { white-space:nowrap; } + ins { text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray; } + a:link, a:visited { text-decoration:none; } + a:link:hover { text-decoration:underline; } + a:visited:hover { text-decoration:underline; } + + /* ]]> */ + --> + </style> + <style title="Page Numbers and Indents" type="text/css"> + <!-- + /* <![CDATA[ */ + + body { margin-left:15%; margin-right:15%; } + h1, h2, h3, h4 { text-align:center; margin-top:3em; } + h5 { text-align:left; margin-top:1em; font-weight:normal; } + img { vertical-align:middle; + border: solid white; border-width:3px 1px; } + hr { border: solid black 1px; } + p { text-align:justify; text-indent:1em; } + p.cont { text-indent:0em; } + span.first { font-variant:small-caps; } + .left { text-align:left; } + .right { text-align:right; } + .central { text-align:center; text-indent:0em; } + p.stanza span { display:block; } + p.stanza br { display:none; } + p.poet { margin-left:9em; } + blockquote { margin-left:3em; margin-right:3em; } + .flush { margin-left:0em; margin-right:0em; } + .central p { text-align:center; text-indent:0em !important; } + .i0 { margin-left:2.25em; text-indent:-2.25em; } + .i1 { margin-left:2.25em; text-indent:-1.75em; } + .i17 { margin-left:2.25em; text-indent:6.25em; } + p.fn { margin-left:4em; margin-right:2.5em; font-size:80%; + text-indent:0em !important; } + p.fn span { float:left; width:1.5em; margin-left:-1.5em; } + a.fn, p.fn span a { vertical-align:super; font-size:65%; } + .sc { font-variant:small-caps; } + .nc { font-variant:normal; } + table { margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; } + .toc td { vertical-align:top; font-variant:small-caps; } + .toc td.page { vertical-align:bottom; text-align:right; } + ul { list-style-type:none; } + ul li { text-indent:-1em; } + span.nobr { white-space:nowrap; } + ins { text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray; } + a:link, a:visited { text-decoration:none; } + a:link:hover { text-decoration:underline; } + a:visited:hover { text-decoration:underline; } + + /* Page number display code */ + a[name] { position:absolute; } + a.pagebreak[name] { right:1%; font-size:x-small; + color:gray; text-indent:0em; font-style:normal; + font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; + border:1px solid silver; padding:1px 3px; } + a.pagebreak:after { content:attr(title); } + + /* ]]> */ + --> + </style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Critical & Historical Essays, by Edward MacDowell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Critical & Historical Essays + Lectures delivered at Columbia University + +Author: Edward MacDowell + +Editor: W. J. Baltzell + +Release Date: July 24, 2005 [EBook #16351] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRITICAL & HISTORICAL ESSAYS *** + + + + +Produced by David Newman, Daniel Emerson Griffith and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<!-- BE AWARE, if editing this file, that I make use of the + non-breaking space character ' ' in the alt attribute of + some img tags to make alternate text more readable in + text-only browsers. --> +<h1> +<a class="pagebreak" name="pagei" id="pagei" title="i"></a> +CRITICAL<br /> +<small>AND</small><br /> +HISTORICAL ESSAYS</h1> +<h3> +<i>Lectures delivered at Columbia University</i><br /> +BY<br /> +EDWARD MACDOWELL</h3> + +<h3>EDITED BY<br /> +W.J. BALTZELL</h3> + +<h4 class="sc">London<br /><br /> +ELKIN & CO., Ltd.,<br /> +8 & 10 Beak Street,<br /> +Regent Street, W.</h4> + +<h4>CONSTABLE & CO., Ltd.,<br /> +10 Orange Street,<br /> +Leicester Square, W.C.</h4> + +<h4 class="sc">Boston, U.S.A., ARTHUR P. SCHMIDT</h4> + +<h4 class="sc"><a class="pagebreak" name="pageii" id="pageii" title="ii"></a> +Copyright, 1912, by ARTHUR P. SCHMIDT<br /> +A.P.S. 9384</h4> + +<h4>Stanhope Press<br /> +F.H. GILSON COMPANY<br /> +BOSTON, U.S.A.</h4> + + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="pageiii" id="pageiii" title="iii"></a> +PREFACE</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">The</span> +present work places before the public a phase of the +professional activity of Edward MacDowell quite different +from that through which his name became a household +word in musical circles, that is, his work as a composer. +In the chapters that follow we become acquainted with +him in the capacity of a writer on phases of the history +and æsthetics of music. +</p> + +<p> +It was in 1896 that the authorities of Columbia University +offered to him the newly created Chair of Music, +for which he had been strongly recommended as one of +the leading composers of America. After much thought +he accepted the position, and entered upon his duties +with the hope of accomplishing much for his art in the +favorable environment which he fully expected to find. +The aim of the instruction, as he planned it, was: “First, +to teach music scientifically and technically, with a view +to training musicians who shall be competent to teach and +compose. Second, to treat music historically and æsthetically +as an element of liberal culture.” In carrying out +his plans he conducted a course, which, while “outlining +the purely technical side of music,” was intended to give +a “general idea of music from its historical and æsthetic +side.” Supplementing this, as an advanced course, he +also gave one which took up the development of musical +forms, piano music, modern orchestration and symphonic +<a class="pagebreak" name="pageiv" id="pageiv" title="iv"></a> +forms, impressionism, the relationship of music to the +other arts, with much other material necessary to form +an adequate basis for music criticism. +</p> + +<p> +It is a matter for sincere regret that Mr. MacDowell +put in permanent form only a portion of the lectures +prepared for the two courses just mentioned. While +some were read from manuscript, others were given from +notes and illustrated with musical quotations. This was +the case, very largely, with the lectures prepared for the +advanced course, which included extremely valuable and +individual treatment of the subject of the piano, its literature +and composers, modern music, etc. +</p> + +<p> +A point of view which the lecturer brought to bear +upon his subject was that of a composer to whom there +were no secrets as to the processes by which music is made. +It was possible for him to enter into the spirit in which +the composers both of the earlier and later periods conceived +their works, and to value the completed compositions +according to the way in which he found that they +had followed the canons of the best and purest art. It is +this unique attitude which makes the lectures so valuable +to the musician as well as to the student. +</p> + +<p> +The Editor would also call attention to the intellectual +qualities of Mr. MacDowell, which determined his attitude +toward any subject. He was a poet who chose to +express himself through the medium of music rather than +in some other way. For example, he had great natural +facility in the use of the pencil and the brush, and was +strongly advised to take up painting as a career. The +volume of his poetical writings, issued several years ago, +<a class="pagebreak" name="pagev" id="pagev" title="v"></a> +is proof of his power of expression in verse and lyric forms. +Above these and animating them were what Mr. Lawrence +Gilman terms “his uncommon faculties of vision and +imagination.” What he thought, what he said, what he +wrote, was determined by the poet's point of view, and +this is evident on nearly every page of these lectures. +</p> + +<p> +He was a wide reader, one who, from natural bent, +dipped into the curious and out-of-the-way corners of +literature, as will be noticed in his references to other +works in the course of the lectures, particularly to Rowbotham's +picturesque and fascinating story of the formative +period of music. Withal he was always in touch with +contemporary affairs. With the true outlook of the poet +he was fearless, individual, and even radical in his views. +This spirit, as indicated before, he carried into his lectures, +for he demanded of his pupils that above all they +should be prepared to do their own thinking and reach +their own conclusions. He was accustomed to say that +we need in the United States, a public that shall be +independent in its judgment on art and art products, that +shall not be tied down to verdicts based on tradition and +convention, but shall be prepared to reach conclusions +through knowledge and sincerity. +</p> + +<p> +That these lectures may aid in this splendid educational +purpose is the wish of those who are responsible for +placing them before the public. +</p> + +<p class="right"> +W. J. BALTZELL. +</p> + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="pagevi" id="pagevi" title="vi"></a> +CONTENTS</h2> + +<table class="toc" summary=""> +<tr><th>CHAP.</th><th></th><th class="right">PAGE</th></tr> +<tr><td class="right">I.</td> +<td>The Origin of Music</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">II.</td> +<td>Origin of Song vs. Origin of Instrumental Music</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page16">16</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">III.</td> +<td>The Music of the Hebrews and the Hindus</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page32">32</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">IV.</td> +<td>The Music of the Egyptians, Assyrians and Chinese</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page42">42</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">V.</td> +<td>The Music of the Chinese (<i class="nc">continued</i>)</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page54">54</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">VI.</td> +<td>The Music of Greece</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page69">69</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">VII.</td> +<td>The Music of the Romans—the Early Church</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page90">90</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">VIII.</td> +<td>Formation of the Scale—Notation</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page106">106</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">IX.</td> +<td>The Systems of Hucbald and Guido d'Arezzo—the Beginning of Counterpoint</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page122">122</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">X.</td> +<td>Musical Instruments—Their History and Development</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page132">132</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">XI.</td> +<td>Folk-Song and its Relation to Nationalism in Music</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page141">141</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">XII.</td> +<td>The Troubadours, Minnesingers and Mastersingers</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page158">158</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">XIII.</td> +<td>Early Instrumental Forms</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page175">175</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">XIV.</td> +<td>The Merging of the Suite into the Sonata</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page188">188</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">XV.</td> +<td>The Development of Pianoforte Music</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page199">199</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">XVI.</td> +<td>The Mystery and Miracle Play</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page205">205</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">XVII.</td> +<td>Opera</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page210">210</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">XVIII.</td> +<td>Opera (<i class="nc">continued</i>)</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page224">224</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">XIX.</td> +<td>On the Lives and Art Principles of Some Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Composers</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page236">236</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">XX.</td> +<td>Declamation in Music</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page254">254</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="right">XXI.</td> +<td>Suggestion in Music</td> +<td class="page"><a href="#page261">261</a></td></tr> +</table> + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page1" id="page1" title="1"></a> +CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS</h2> + + +<h2>I<br /><br /> +THE ORIGIN OF MUSIC</h2> + + +<p> +<span class="first">Darwin's</span> +theory that music had its origin “in the +sounds made by the half-human progenitors of man during +the season of courtship” seems for many reasons to +be inadequate and untenable. A much more plausible +explanation, it seems to me, is to be found in the theory +of Theophrastus, in which the origin of music is attributed +to the whole range of human emotion. +</p> + +<p> +When an animal utters a cry of joy or pain it expresses +its emotions in more or less definite tones; and at some +remote period of the earth's history all primeval mankind +must have expressed its emotions in much the same +manner. When this inarticulate speech developed into +the use of certain sounds as symbols for emotions—emotions +that otherwise would have been expressed by the +natural sounds occasioned by them—then we have the +beginnings of speech as distinguished from music, which is +still the universal language. In other words, intellectual +development begins with articulate speech, leaving +music for the expression of the emotions. +</p> + +<p> +To symbolize the sounds used to express emotion, if +I may so put it, is to weaken that expression, and it +<a class="pagebreak" name="page2" id="page2" title="2"></a> +would naturally be the strongest emotion that would +first feel the inadequacy of the new-found speech. Now +what is mankind's strongest emotion? Even in the +nineteenth century Goethe could say, “'Tis fear that +constitutes the god-like in man.” Certainly before the +Christian era the soul of mankind had its roots in fear. +In our superstition we were like children beneath a great +tree of which the upper part was as a vague and fascinating +mystery, but the roots holding it firmly to the ground +were tangible, palpable facts. We feared—we knew not +what. Love was human, all the other emotions were +human; fear alone was indefinable. +</p> + +<p> +The primeval savage, looking at the world subjectively, +was merely part of it. He might love, hate, threaten, +kill, if he willed; every other creature could do the same. +But the wind was a great spirit to him; lightning and +thunder threatened him as they did the rest of the world; +the flood would destroy him as ruthlessly as it tore the +trees asunder. The elements were animate powers that +had nothing in common with him; for what the intellect +cannot explain the imagination magnifies. +</p> + +<p> +Fear, then, was the strongest emotion. Therefore +auxiliary aids to express and cause fear were necessary +when the speech symbols for fear, drifting further and +further away from expressing the actual thing, became +words, and words were inadequate to express and +cause fear. In that vague groping for sound symbols +which would cause and express fear far better than mere +words, we have the beginning of what is gradually to +develop into music. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page3" id="page3" title="3"></a> +We all know that savage nations accompany their +dances by striking one object with another, sometimes by +a clanking of stones, the pounding of wood, or perhaps +the clashing of stone spearheads against wooden shields +(a custom which extended until the time when shields +and spears were discarded), meaning thus to express +something that words cannot. This meaning changed +naturally from its original one of being the simple expression +of fear to that of welcoming a chieftain; and, if one +wishes to push the theory to excess, we may still see a +shadowy reminiscence of it in the manner in which the +violinists of an orchestra applaud an honoured guest—perchance +some famous virtuoso—at one of our symphony +concerts by striking the backs of their violins with +their bows. +</p> + +<p> +To go back to the savages. While this clashing of one +object against another could not be called the beginning +of music, and while it could not be said to originate a +musical instrument, it did, nevertheless, bring into existence +music's greatest prop, rhythm, an ally without +which music would seem to be impossible. It is hardly +necessary to go into this point in detail. Suffice it to say +that the sense of rhythm is highly developed even among +those savage tribes which stand the lowest in the scale +of civilization to-day, for instance, the Andaman Islanders, +of whom I shall speak later; the same may be said of the +Tierra del Fuegians and the now extinct aborigines of +Tasmania; it is the same with the Semangs of the Malay +Peninsula, the Ajitas of the Philippines, and the savages +inhabiting the interior of Borneo. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page4" id="page4" title="4"></a> +As I have said, this more or less rhythmic clanking of +stones together, the striking of wooden paddles against +the side of a canoe, or the clashing of stone spearheads +against wooden shields, could not constitute the first +musical instrument. But when some savage first struck +a hollow tree and found that it gave forth a sound peculiar +to itself, when he found a hollow log and filled up the open +ends, first with wood, and then—possibly getting the idea +from his hide-covered shield—stretched skins across the +two open ends, then he had completed the first musical +instrument known to man, namely, the drum. And such +as it was then, so is it now, with but few modifications. +</p> + +<p> +Up to this point it is reasonable to assume that primeval +man looked upon the world purely subjectively. He considered +himself merely a unit in the world, and felt on a +plane with the other creatures inhabiting it. But from +the moment he had invented the first musical instrument, +the drum, he had created something outside of nature, a +voice that to himself and to all other living creatures was +intangible, an idol that spoke when it was touched, something +that he could call into life, something that shared +the supernatural in common with the elements. A God +had come to live with man, and thus was unfolded the +first leaf in that noble tree of life which we call religion. +Man now began to feel himself something apart from the +world, and to look at it objectively instead of subjectively. +</p> + +<p> +To treat primitive mankind as a type, to put it under +one head, to make one theorem cover all mankind, as it +were, seems almost an unwarranted boldness. But I +think it is warranted when we consider that, aside from +<a class="pagebreak" name="page5" id="page5" title="5"></a> +language, music is the very first sign of the dawn of civilization. +There is even the most convincingly direct +testimony in its favour. For instance: +</p> + +<p> +In the Bay of Bengal, about six hundred miles from the +Hoogly mouth of the Ganges, lie the Andaman Islands. +The savages inhabiting these islands have the unenviable +reputation of being, in common with several other tribes, +the nearest approach to primeval man in existence. These +islands and their inhabitants have been known and +feared since time immemorial; our old friend Sinbad the +Sailor, of “Arabian Nights” fame, undoubtedly touched +there on one of his voyages. These savages have no +religion whatever, except the vaguest superstition, in +other words, fear, and they have no musical instruments +of any kind. They have reached only the <i>rhythm</i> stage, +and accompany such dances as they have by clapping +their hands or by stamping on the ground. Let us now +look to Patagonia, some thousands of miles distant. +The Tierra del Fuegians have precisely the same characteristics, +no religion, and no musical instruments of any +kind. Retracing our steps to the Antipodes we find +among the Weddahs or “wild hunters” of Ceylon exactly +the same state of things. The same description applies +without distinction equally well to the natives in the +interior of Borneo, to the Semangs of the Malay Peninsula, +and to the now extinct aborigines of Tasmania. +According to Virchow their dance is demon worship of a +purely anthropomorphic character; no musical instrument +of any kind was known to them. Even the simple +expression of emotions by the voice, which we have seen +<a class="pagebreak" name="page6" id="page6" title="6"></a> +is its most primitive medium, has not been replaced to +any extent among these races since their discovery of +speech, for the Tierra del Fuegians, Andamans, and +Weddahs have but one sound to represent emotion, +namely, a cry to express joy; having no other means +for the expression of sorrow, they paint themselves when +mourning. +</p> + +<p> +It is granted that all this, in itself, is not conclusive; +but it will be found that no matter in what wilderness +one may hear of a savage beating a drum, there also will +be a well-defined religion. +</p> + +<p> +Proofs of the theory that the drum antedates all other +musical instruments are to be found on every hand. For +wherever in the anthropological history of the world we +hear of the trumpet, horn, flute, or other instrument of +the pipe species, it will be found that the drum and its +derivatives were already well known. The same may be +said of the lyre species of instrument, the forerunner of +our guitar (<i>kithara</i>), <i>tebuni</i> or Egyptian harp, and generally +all stringed instruments, with this difference, namely, +that wherever the lyre species was known, both pipe and +drum had preceded it. We never find the lyre without +the drum, or the pipe without the drum; neither do we +find the lyre and the drum without the pipe. On the +other hand, we often find the drum alone, or the drum and +pipe without the lyre. This certainly proves the antiquity +of the drum and its derivatives. +</p> + +<p> +I have spoken of the purely rhythmical nature of the +pre-drum period, and pointed out, in contrast, the musical +quality of the drum. This may seem somewhat strange, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page7" id="page7" title="7"></a> +accustomed as we are to think of the drum as a purely +rhythmical instrument. The sounds given out by it +seem at best vague in tone and more or less uniform in +quality. We forget that all instruments of percussion, +as they are called, are direct descendants of the drum. +The bells that hang in our church towers are but modifications +of the drum; for what is a bell but a metal drum +with one end left open and the drum stick hung inside? +</p> + +<p> +Strange to say, as showing the marvellous potency of +primeval instincts, bells placed in church towers were +supposed to have much of the supernatural power that +the savage in his wilderness ascribed to the drum. We +all know something of the bell legends of the Middle +Ages, how the tolling of a bell was supposed to clear the +air of the plague, to calm the storm, and to shed a blessing +on all who heard it. And this superstition was to a +certain extent ratified by the religious ceremonies attending +the casting of church bells and the inscriptions moulded +in them. For instance, the mid-day bell of Strasburg, +taken down during the French Revolution, bore the +motto +</p> + +<blockquote><p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I am the voice of life.”</span> +</p></blockquote> + +<p class="cont"> +Another one in Strasburg: +</p> + +<blockquote><p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I ring out the bad, ring in the good.”</span> +</p></blockquote> + +<p class="cont"> +Others read +</p> + +<blockquote><p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“My voice on high dispels the storm.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I am called Ave Maria</span><br /> +<span class="i0">I drive away storms.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I who call to thee am the Rose of the World +and am called Ave Maria.”</span> +</p></blockquote> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page8" id="page8" title="8"></a> +The Egyptian <i>sistrum</i>, which in Roman times played +an important rôle in the worship of Isis, was shaped somewhat +like a tennis racquet, with four wire strings on which +rattles were strung. The sound of it must have been +akin to that of our modern tambourine, and it served +much the same purpose as the primitive drum, namely, +to drive away Typhon or Set, the god of evil. Dead kings +were called “Osiris” when placed in their tombs, and <i>sistri</i> +put with them in order to drive away Set. +</p> + +<p> +Beside bells and rattles we must include all instruments +of the tambourine and gong species in the drum +category. While there are many different forms of the +same instrument, there are evidences of their all having +at some time served the same purpose, even down to that +strange instrument about which Du Chaillu tells us in +his “Equatorial Africa”, a bell of leopard skin, with a +clapper of fur, which was rung by the wizard doctor when +entering a hut where someone was ill or dying. The +leopard skin and fur clapper seem to have been devised +to make no noise, so as not to anger the demon that was +to be cast out. This reminds us strangely of the custom +of ringing a bell as the priest goes to administer the last +rites. +</p> + +<p> +It is said that first impressions are the strongest and +most lasting; certain it is that humanity, through all its +social and racial evolutions, has retained remnants of +certain primitive ideas to the present day. The army +death reveille, the minute gun, the tolling of bells for the +dead, the tocsin, etc., all have their roots in the attributes +assigned to the primitive drum; for, as I have already +<a class="pagebreak" name="page9" id="page9" title="9"></a> +pointed out, the more civilized a people becomes, the more +the word-symbols degenerate. It is this continual drifting +away of the word-symbols from the natural sounds +which are occasioned by emotions that creates the necessity +for auxiliary means of expression, and thus gives us instrumental +music. +</p> + +<p> +Since the advent of the drum a great stride toward +civilization had been made. Mankind no longer lived in +caves but built huts and even temples, and the conditions +under which he lived must have been similar to those +of the natives of Central Africa before travellers opened +up the Dark Continent to the caravan of the European +trader. If we look up the subject in the narratives of +Livingstone or Stanley we find that these people lived in +groups of coarsely-thatched huts, the village being almost +invariably surrounded by a kind of stockade. Now this +manner of living is identically the same as that of all +savage tribes which have not passed beyond the drum +state of civilization, namely, a few huts huddled together +and surrounded by a palisade of bamboo or cane. Since +the pith would decompose in a short time, we should +probably find that the wind, whirling across such a +palisade of pipes—for that is what our bamboos would +have turned to—would produce musical sounds, in fact, +exactly the sounds that a large set of Pan's pipes would +produce. For after all what we call Pan's pipes are simply +pieces of bamboo or cane of different lengths tied together +and made to sound by blowing across the open tops. +</p> + +<p> +The theory may be objected to on the ground that it +scarcely proves the antiquity of the pipe to be less than +<a class="pagebreak" name="page10" id="page10" title="10"></a> +that of the drum; but the objection is hardly of importance +when we consider that the drum was known long before +mankind had reached the “hut” stage of civilization. +Under the head of pipe, the trumpet and all its derivatives +must be accepted. On this point there has been much +controversy. But it seems reasonable to believe that +once it was found that sound could be produced by blowing +across the top of a hollow pipe, the most natural +thing to do would be to try the same effect on all hollow +things differing in shape and material from the original +bamboo. This would account for the conch shells of the +Amazons which, according to travellers' tales, were used +to proclaim an attack in war; in Africa the tusks of elephants +were used; in North America the instrument did +not rise above the whistle made from the small bones +of a deer or of a turkey's leg. +</p> + +<p> +That the Pan's pipes are the originals of all these species +seems hardly open to doubt. Even among the Greeks +and Romans we see traces of them in the double trumpet +and the double pipe. These trumpets became larger and +larger in form, and the force required to play them was +such that the player had to adopt a kind of leather harness +to strengthen his cheeks. Before this development +had been reached, however, I have no doubt that all +wind instruments were of the Pan's pipes variety; that is +to say, the instruments consisted of a hollow tube shut +at one end, the sound being produced by the breath +catching on the open edge of the tube. +</p> + +<p> +Direct blowing into the tube doubtless came later. In +this case the tube was open at both ends, and the sound +<a class="pagebreak" name="page11" id="page11" title="11"></a> +was determined by its length and by the force given to +the breath in playing. There is good reason for admitting +this new instrument to be a descendant of the Pan's +pipes, for it was evidently played by the nose at first. +This would preclude its being considered as an originally +forcible instrument, such as the trumpet. +</p> + +<p> +Now that we have traced the history of the pipe and +considered the different types of the instrument, we can +see immediately that it brought no great new truth home +to man as did the drum. +</p> + +<p> +The savage who first climbed secretly to the top of the +stockade around his village to investigate the cause of +the mysterious sounds would naturally say that the +Great Spirit had revealed a mystery to him; and he +would also claim to be a wonder worker. But while his +pipe would be accepted to a certain degree, it was nevertheless +second in the field and could hardly replace the +drum. Besides, mankind had already commenced to +think on a higher plane, and the pipe was reduced to +filling what gaps it could in the language of the emotions. +</p> + +<p> +The second strongest emotion of the race is love. All +over the world, wherever we find the pipe in its softer, +earlier form, we find it connected with love songs. In +time it degenerated into a synonym for something contemptibly +slothful and worthless, so much so that Plato +wished to banish it from his “Republic,” saying that +the Lydian pipe should not have a place in a decent +community. +</p> + +<p> +On the other hand, the trumpet branch of the family +developed into something quite different. At the very +<a class="pagebreak" name="page12" id="page12" title="12"></a> +beginning it was used for war, and as its object was to +frighten, it became larger and larger in form, and more +formidable in sound. In this respect it only kept pace +with the drum, for we read of Assyrian and Thibetan +trumpets two or three yards long, and of the Aztec war +drum which reached the enormous height of ten feet, and +could be heard for miles. +</p> + +<p> +Now this, the trumpet species of pipe, we find also +used as an auxiliary “spiritual” help to the drum. We +are told by M. Huc, in his “Travels in Thibet,” that the +llamas of Thibet have a custom of assembling on the +roofs of Lhassa at a stated period and blowing enormous +trumpets, making the most hideous midnight din imaginable. +The reason given for this was that in former days +the city was terrorized by demons who rose from a deep +ravine and crept through all the houses, working evil +everywhere. After the priests had exorcised them by +blowing these trumpets, the town was troubled no more. +In Africa the same demonstration of trumpet blowing +occurs at an eclipse of the moon; and, to draw the theory +out to a thin thread, anyone who has lived in a small +German Protestant town will remember the chorals which +are so often played before sunrise by a band of trumpets, +horns, and trombones from the belfry of some church tower. +Almost up to the end of the last century trombones were +intimately connected with the church service; and if we +look back to Zoroaster we find the sacerdotal character +of this species of instrument very plainly indicated. +</p> + +<p> +Now let us turn back to the Pan's pipes and its direct +descendants, the flute, the clarinet, and the oboe. We +<a class="pagebreak" name="page13" id="page13" title="13"></a> +shall find that they had no connection whatever with +religious observances. Even in the nineteenth century +novel we are familiar with the kind of hero who played +the flute—a very sentimental gentleman always in love. +If he had played the clarinet he would have been very +sorrowful and discouraged; and if it had been the oboe +(which, to the best of my knowledge, has never been +attempted in fiction) he would have needed to be a very +ill man indeed. +</p> + +<p> +Now we never hear of these latter kinds of pipes being +considered fit for anything but the dance, love songs, or +love charms. In the beginning of the seventeenth century +Garcilaso de la Vega, the historian of Peru, tells of +the astonishing power of a love song played on a flute. +We find so-called “courting” flutes in Formosa and Peru, +and Catlin tells of the Winnebago courting flute. The +same instrument was known in Java, as the old Dutch +settlers have told us. But we never hear of it as creating +awe, or as being thought a fit instrument to use with the +drum or trumpet in connection with religious rites. +Leonardo da Vinci had a flute player make music while +he painted his picture of Mona Lisa, thinking that it +gave her the expression he wished to catch—that +strange smile reproduced in the Louvre painting. The +flute member of the pipe species, therefore, was more or +less an emblem of eroticism, and, as I have already said, +has never been even remotely identified with religious +mysticism, with perhaps the one exception of Indra's +flute, which, however, never seems to have been able to +retain a place among religious symbols. The trumpet, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page14" id="page14" title="14"></a> +on the other hand, has retained something of a mystical +character even to our day. The most powerful illustration +of this known to me is in the “Requiem” by Berlioz. +The effect of those tremendous trumpet calls from +the four corners of the orchestra is an overwhelming one, +of crushing power and majesty, much of which is due to +the rhythm. +</p> + +<p> +To sum up. We may regard rhythm as the intellectual +side of music, melody as its sensuous side. The pipe is +the one instrument that seems to affect animals—hooded +cobras, lizards, fish, etc. Animals' natures are +purely sensuous, therefore the pipe, or to put it more +broadly, melody, affects them. To rhythm, on the other +hand, they are indifferent; it appeals to the intellect, and +therefore only to man. +</p> + +<p> +This theory would certainly account for much of the +potency of what we moderns call music. <a name="ft01"></a>All that aims +to be dramatic, tragic, supernatural in our modern music, +derives its impressiveness directly from rhythm.<a class="fn" +href="#fn01"> 1 </a> What +would that shudder of horror in Weber's “Freischütz” +be without that throb of the basses? Merely a diminished +chord of the seventh. Add the pizzicato in the basses +and the chord sinks into something fearsome; one has a +sudden choking sensation, as if one were listening in fear, +or as if the heart had almost stopped beating. All through +Wagner's music dramas this powerful effect is employed, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page15" id="page15" title="15"></a> +from “The Flying Dutchman” to “Parsifal.” Every +composer from Beethoven to Nicodé has used the same +means to express the same emotions; it is the medium +that pre-historic man first knew; it produced the same +sensation of fear in him that it does in us at the present +day. +</p> + +<p> +Rhythm denotes a thought; it is the expression of a +purpose. There is will behind it; its vital part is intention, +power; it is an act. Melody, on the other hand, is +an almost unconscious expression of the senses; it translates +feeling into sound. It is the natural outlet for +sensation. In anger we raise the voice; in sadness we +lower it. In talking we give expression to the emotions +in sound. In a sentence in which fury alternates +with sorrow, we have the limits of the melody of speech. +Add to this rhythm, and the very height of expression is +reached; for by it the intellect will dominate the sensuous. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="fn"><span><a href="#ft01"> 1 </a></span><a name="fn01"></a> +The strength of the “Fate” motive in Beethoven's fifth symphony +undoubtedly lies in the succession of the four notes at equal +intervals of time. Beethoven himself marked it <i>So pocht das Schicksal +an die Pforte</i>.</p> + + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page16" id="page16" title="16"></a> +II<br /><br /> +ORIGIN OF SONG <i>vs.</i> ORIGIN OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">Emerson</span> +characterized language as “fossil poetry,” +but “fossil music” would have described it even better; +for as Darwin says, man <i>sang</i> before he became human. +</p> + +<p> +Gerber, in his “Sprache als Kunst,” describing the +degeneration of sound symbols, says “the saving point +of language is that the original material meanings of +words have become forgotten or lost in their acquired +ideal meaning.” This applies with special force to the +languages of China, Egypt, and India. Up to the last +two centuries our written music was held in bondage, was +“fossil music,” so to speak. Only certain progressions +of sounds were allowed, for religion controlled music. +In the Middle Ages folk song was used by the Church, +and a certain amount of control was exercised over it; +even up to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the use +of sharps and flats was frowned upon in church music. +But gradually music began to break loose from its old +chains, and in our own century we see Beethoven snap +the last thread of that powerful restraint which had held +it so long. +</p> + +<p> +The vital germ of music, as we know it, lay in the fact +that it had always found a home in the hearts of the common +people of all nations. While from time immemorial +<a class="pagebreak" name="page17" id="page17" title="17"></a> +theory, mostly in the form of mathematical problems, +was being fought over, and while laws were being laid +down by religions and governments of all nations as to +what music must be and what music was forbidden to +be, the vital spark of the divine art was being kept alive +deep beneath the ashes of life in the hearts of the oppressed +common folk. They still sang as they felt; when the mood +was sad the song mirrored the sorrow; if it were gay +the song echoed it, despite the disputes of philosophers +and the commands of governments and religion. Montaigne, +in speaking of language, said with truth, “'Tis +folly to attempt to fight custom with theories.” This +folk song, to use a Germanism, we can hardly take into +account at the present moment, though later we shall +see that spark fanned into fire by Beethoven, and carried +by Richard Wagner as a flaming torch through the very +home of the gods, “Walhalla.” +</p> + +<p> +Let us go back to our dust heap. Words have been +called “decayed sentences,” that is to say, every word +was once a small sentence complete in itself. This +theory seems true enough when we remember that mankind +has three languages, each complementing the other. For +even now we say many words in one, when that word +is reinforced and completed by our vocabulary of sounds +and expression, which, in turn, has its shadow, gesture. +These shadow languages, which accompany all our words, +give to the latter vitality and raise them from mere abstract +symbols to living representatives of the idea. Indeed, in +certain languages, this auxiliary expression even overshadows +the spoken word. For instance, in Chinese, the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page18" id="page18" title="18"></a> +<i>theng</i> or intonation of words is much more important +than the actual words themselves. Thus the third +intonation or <i>theng</i>, as it is called in the Pekin dialect, +is an upward inflection of the voice. A word with this +upward inflection would be unintelligible if given the +fourth <i>theng</i> or downward inflection. For instance, the +word “kwai” with a downward inflection means “honourable,” +but give it an upward inflection “kwai” and it +means “devil.” +</p> + +<p> +Just as a word was originally a sentence, so was a tone +in music something of a melody. One of the first things +that impresses us in studying examples of savage music +is the monotonic nature of the melodies; indeed some of +the music consists almost entirely of one oft-repeated +sound. Those who have heard this music say that the +actual effect is not one of a steady repetition of a single +tone, but rather that there seems to be an almost imperceptible +rising and falling of the voice. The primitive +savage is unable to sing a tone clearly and cleanly, the +pitch invariably wavering. From this almost imperceptible +rising and falling of the voice above and below +one tone we are able to gauge more or less the state of +civilization of the nation to which the song belongs. +This phrase-tone corresponds, therefore, to the sentence-word, +and like it, gradually loses its meaning as a phrase +and fades into a tone which, in turn, will be used in new +phrases as mankind mounts the ladder of civilization. +</p> + +<p> +At last then we have a single tone clearly uttered, and +recognizable as a musical tone. We can even make a +plausible guess as to what that tone was. Gardiner, in +<a class="pagebreak" name="page19" id="page19" title="19"></a> +his “Music of Nature,” tells of experiments he made in +order to determine the normal pitch of the human voice. +By going often to the gallery of the London Stock Exchange +he found that the roar of voices invariably amalgamated +into one long note, which was always F. If we look +over the various examples of monotonic savage music +quoted by Fletcher, Fillmore, Baker, Wilkes, Catlin, +and others, we find additional corroboration of the statement; +song after song, it will be noticed, is composed +entirely of F, G, and even F alone or G alone. Such +songs are generally ancient ones, and have been crystallized +and held intact by religion, in much the same way that +the chanting heard in the Roman Catholic service has +been preserved. +</p> + +<p> +Let us assume then that the normal tone of the human +voice in speaking is F or G +<a href="midi/voice.midi"><img src="images/male_voice.png" + width="112" height="26" alt="[below middle C]" /></a> +for men, and for +women the octave higher. This tone does very well +for our everyday life; perhaps a pleasant impression may +raise it somewhat, <i>ennui</i> may depress it slightly; but the +average tone of our “commonplace” talk, if I may call +it that, will be about F. But let some sudden emotion +come, and we find monotone speech abandoned for impassioned +speech, as it has been called. Instead of keeping +the voice evenly on one or two notes, we speak much +higher or lower than our normal pitch. +</p> + +<p> +And these sounds may be measured and classified to a +certain extent according to the emotions which cause +them, although it must be borne in mind that we are +looking at the matter collectively; that is to say, without +<a class="pagebreak" name="page20" id="page20" title="20"></a> +reckoning on individual idiosyncrasies of expression in +speech. Of course we know that joy is apt to make us +raise the voice and sadness to lower it. For instance, we +have all heard gruesome stories, and have noticed how +naturally the voice sinks in the telling. A ghost story +told with an upward inflection might easily become +humourous, so instinctively do we associate the upward +inflection with a non-pessimistic trend of thought. Under +stress of emotion we emphasize words strongly, and with +this emphasis we almost invariably raise the voice a +fifth or depress it a fifth; with yet stronger emotion the +interval of change will be an octave. We raise the voice +almost to a scream or drop it to a whisper. Strangely +enough these primitive notes of music correspond to the +first two of those harmonics which are part and parcel +of every musical sound. Generally speaking, we may say +that the ascending inflection carries something of joy or +hope with it, while the downward inflection has something +of the sinister and fearful. To be sure, we raise our +voices in anger and in pain, but even then the inflection +is almost always downward; in other words, we pitch our +voices higher and let them fall slightly. For instance, +if we heard a person cry “Ah/” we might doubt its +being a cry of pain, but if it were “Ah\” we should at +once know that it was caused by pain, either mental or +physical. +</p> + +<p> +The declamation at the end of Schubert's “Erlking” +would have been absolutely false if the penultimate note +had ascended to the tonic instead of descending a fifth. +“The child lay dead.” +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page21" id="page21" title="21"></a> +How fatally hopeless would be the opening measures of +“Tristan and Isolde” without that upward inflection which +comes like a sunbeam through a rift in the cloud; with a +downward inflection the effect would be that of unrelieved +gloom. In the Prelude to “Lohengrin,” Wagner pictures +his angels in dazzling white. He uses the highest vibrating +sounds at his command. But for the dwarfs who live +in the gloom of Niebelheim he chooses deep shades of +red, the lowest vibrating colour of the solar spectrum. +For it is in the nature of the spiritual part of mankind +to shrink from the earth, to aspire to something higher; +a bird soaring in the blue above us has something of the +ethereal; we give wings to our angels. On the other hand, a +serpent impresses us as something sinister. Trees, with +their strange fight against all the laws of gravity, striving +upward unceasingly, bring us something of hope and +faith; the sight of them cheers us. A land without trees +is depressing and gloomy. As Ruskin says, “The sea +wave, with all its beneficence, is yet devouring and terrible; +but the silent wave of the blue mountain is lifted towards +Heaven in a stillness of perpetual mercy; and while the +one surges unfathomable in its darkness, the other is +unshaken in its faithfulness.” +</p> + +<p> +And yet so strange is human nature that that which +we call civilization strives unceasingly to nullify emotion. +The almost childlike faith which made our church spires +point heavenward also gave us Gothic architecture, that +emblem of frail humanity striving towards the ideal. +It is a long leap from that childlike faith to the present +day of skyscrapers. For so is the world constituted. +<a class="pagebreak" name="page22" id="page22" title="22"></a> +A great truth too often becomes gradually a truism, +then a merely tolerated and uninteresting theory; gradually +it becomes obsolete and sometimes even degenerates +into a symbol of sarcasm or a servant of utilitarianism. +This we are illustrating every day of our lives. +We speak of a person's being “silly,” and yet the word +comes from “sælig,” old English for “blessed”; to act +“sheepishly” once had reference to divine resignation, +“even as a sheep led to the slaughter,” and so on <i>ad infinitum</i>. +We build but few great cathedrals now. Our tall +buildings generally point to utilitarianism and the almighty +dollar. +</p> + +<p> +But in the new art, music, we have found a new domain +in which impulses have retained their freshness and warmth, +in which, to quote Goethe, “first comes the act, then the +word”; first the expression of emotion, then the theory +that classifies it; a domain in which words cannot lose +their original meanings entirely, as in speech. For in +spite of the strange twistings of ultra modern music, a +simple melody still embodies the same pathos for us that +it did for our grandparents. To be sure the poignancy +of harmony in our day has been heightened to an incredible +degree. We deal in gorgeous colouring and mighty +sound masses which would have been amazing in the last +century; but still through it all we find in Händel, Beethoven, +and Schubert, up to Wagner, the same great truths +of declamation that I have tried to explain to you. +</p> + +<p> +Herbert Spencer, in an essay on “The Origin and +Functions of Music,” speaks of speech as the parent of +music. He says, “utterance, which when languaged is +<a class="pagebreak" name="page23" id="page23" title="23"></a> +speech, gave rise to music.” The definition is incomplete, +for “languaged utterance,” as he calls it, which is speech, +is a duality, is either an expression of emotion or a mere +symbol of emotion, and as such has gradually sunk to +the level of the commonplace. As Rowbotham points +out, impassioned speech is the parent of music, while +unimpassioned speech has remained the vehicle for the +smaller emotions of life, the everyday expression of everyday +emotions. +</p> + +<p> +In studying the music of different nations we are confronted +by one fact which seems to be part and parcel +of almost every nationality, namely, the constant recurrence +of what is called the five tone (pentatonic) scale. +We find it in primitive forms of music all the world over, +in China and in Scotland, among the Burmese, and again +in North America. Why it is so seems almost doomed +to remain a mystery. The following theory may nevertheless +be advanced as being at least plausible: +</p> + +<p> +Vocal music, as we understand it, and as I have already +explained, began when the first tone could be given +clearly; that is to say, when the sound sentence had amalgamated +into the single musical tone. The pitch being +sometimes F, sometimes G, sudden emotion gives us the +fifth, C or D, and the strongest emotion the octave, F or +G. Thus we have already the following sounds in our +first musical scale. +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<a href="midi/first_scale.midi"> +<img src="images/scale_first.png" width="225" height="49" + alt="[G: f' g' c'' d'' f'']" /></a> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +We know how singers slur from one tone to another. It +is a fault that caused the fathers of harmony to prohibit +<a class="pagebreak" name="page24" id="page24" title="24"></a> +what are called hidden fifths in vocal music. The jump +from G to C in the above scale fragment would be slurred, +for we must remember that the intoning of clear individual +sounds was still a novelty to the savage. Now the +distance from G to C is too small to admit two tones +such as the savage knew; consequently, for the sake of +uniformity, he would try to put but one tone between, +singing a mixture of A and B♭, which sound in time fell +definitely to A, leaving the mystery of the half-tone +unsolved. This addition of the third would thus fall in +with the law of harmonics again. First we have the keynote; +next in importance comes the fifth; and last of all +the third. Thus again is the absence of the major seventh +in our primitive scale perfectly logical; we may search +in vain in our list of harmonics for the tone which forms +that interval. +</p> + +<p> +Now that we have traced the influence of passionate +utterance on music, it still remains for us to consider the +influence of something very different. The dance played +an important rôle in the shaping of the art of music; +for to it music owes periodicity, form, the shaping of +phrases into measures, even its rests. And in this music +is not the only debtor, for poetry owes its very “feet” to +the dance. +</p> + +<p> +Now the dance was, and is, an irresponsible thing. +It had no <i>raison d'être</i> except purely physical enjoyment. +This rhythmic swaying of the body and light tapping of +the feet have always had a mysterious attraction and +fascination for mankind, and music and poetry were +caught in its swaying measures early in the dawn of art. +<a class="pagebreak" name="page25" id="page25" title="25"></a> +When a man walks, he takes either long steps or short +steps, he walks fast or slow. But when he takes one +long step and one short one, when one step is slow and the +other fast, he no longer walks, he dances. Thus we may +say with reasonable certainty that triple time arose directly +from the dance, for triple time is simply one strong, long +beat followed by a short, light one, viz.: +<img src="images/trochee.png" width="54" height="26" alt="[2 4]" /> +or +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/barline.png" width="2" height="26" alt="|" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/barline.png" width="2" height="26" alt="|" />,</span> +the “trochee” in our poetry. +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/iamb.png" width="131" height="26" alt="[4 2 | 4 2]" />,</span> +Iambic. +The spondee +<img src="images/spondee.png" width="75" height="26" alt="[2 2]" /> +or +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/barline.png" width="2" height="26" alt="|" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/barline.png" width="2" height="26" alt="|" />,</span> +which is the rhythm of +prose, we already possessed; for when we walk it is in +spondees, namely, in groups of two equal steps. Now +imagine dancing to spondees! At first the steps will be +equal, but the body rests on the first beat; little by little +the second beat, being thus relegated to a position of +relative unimportance, becomes shorter and shorter, and +we rest longer on the first beat. The result is the trochaic +rhythm. We can see that this result is inevitable, even +if only the question of physical fatigue is considered. And, +to carry on our theory, this very question of fatigue still +further develops rhythm. The strong beat always coming +on one foot, and the light beat on the other, would soon +tire the dancer; therefore some way must be found to +make the strong beat alternate from one foot to the other. +The simplest, and in fact almost the only way to do this, +is to insert an additional short beat before the light beat. +This gives us +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/barline.png" width="2" height="26" alt="|" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/barline.png" width="2" height="26" alt="|" /></span> +or +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/dactyl.png" width="67" height="26" alt="[4. 8 4]" />,</span> +the dactyl in poetry. +</p> + +<p> +We have, moreover, here discovered the beginning of +form, and have begun to group our musical tones in +<a class="pagebreak" name="page26" id="page26" title="26"></a> +measures and phrases; for our second dactyl is slightly +different from the first, because the right foot begins the +first and the left foot the second. We have two measures +<img src="images/dactyl_phrase.png" width="155" height="45" + alt="[(4. 8 4 | 4. 8 4)] [(- ' - | - ' -)]" /> +and one phrase, for after the second +measure the right foot will again have the beat and will +begin another phrase of two measures. +</p> + +<p> +Carry this theory still further, and we shall make new +discoveries. If we dance in the open air, unless we would +dance over the horizon, we must turn somewhere; and if +we have but a small space in which to dance, the turns +must come sooner and oftener. Even if we danced in a +circle we should need to reverse the motion occasionally, +in order to avoid giddiness; and this would measure off +our phrases into periods and sections. +</p> + +<p> +Thus we see music dividing into two classes, one purely +emotional, the other sensuous; the one arising from the +language of heroes, the other from the swaying of the +body and the patter of feet. To both of these elements, +if we may call them so, metre and melody brought their +power; to declamation, metre brought its potent vitality; +to the dance, melody added its soft charm and lulling +rhyme. The intellectual in music, namely, rhythm and +declamation, thus joined forces, as did the purely sensuous +elements, melody and metre (dance). At the first +glance it would seem as if the dance with its rhythms +contradicted the theory of rhythm as being one of the +two vital factors in music; but when we consider the fact +that dance-rhythms are merely regular pulsations (once +commenced they pulsate regularly to the end, without +<a class="pagebreak" name="page27" id="page27" title="27"></a> +break or change), and when we consider that just this +unbroken regularity is the very antithesis of what we +mean by rhythm, the purely sensuous nature of the +dance is manifest. Strauss was the first to recognize +this defect in the waltz, and he remedied it, so far as it +lay within human skill, by a marvellous use of counter-rhythms, +thus infusing into the dance a simulation of +intellectuality. +</p> + +<p> +The weaving together of these elements into one art-fabric +has been the ideal of all poets from Homer to +Wagner. The Greeks idealized their dances; that is to +say, they made their dances fit their declamation. In +the last two centuries, and especially in the middle of the +nineteenth, we have danced our highest flights of impassioned +speech. For what is the symphony, sonata, etc., +but a remnant of the dance form? The choric dances of +Stesichorus and Pindar came strangely near our modern +forms, but it was because the form fitted the poem. In +our modern days, we too often, Procrustes-like, make our +ideas to fit the forms. We put our guest, the poetic +thought, that comes to us like a homing bird from out the +mystery of the blue sky—we put this confiding stranger +straightway into that iron bed, the “sonata form,” or +perhaps even the third rondo form, for we have quite an +assortment. Should the idea survive and grow too large +for the bed, and if we have learned to love it too much to +cut off its feet and thus <i>make</i> it fit (as did that old robber +of Attica), why we run the risk of having some critic +wise in his theoretical knowledge, say, as was and is said +of Chopin, “He is weak in sonata form!” +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page28" id="page28" title="28"></a> +There are two ways of looking at music: first, as impassioned +speech, the nearest psychologically-complete utterance +of emotion known to man; second, as the dance, +comprising as it does all that appeals to our nature. And +there is much that is lovely in this idea of nature—for +do not the seasons dance, and is it not in that ancient +measure we have already spoken of, the trochaic? Long +Winter comes with heavy foot, and Spring is the light-footed. +Again, Summer is long, and Autumn short and +cheery; and so our phrase begins again and again. We +all know with what periodicity everything in nature dances, +and how the smallest flower is a marvel of recurring +rhymes and rhythms, with perfume for a melody. How +Shakespeare's Beatrice charms us when she says, “There +a star danced, and under that was I born.” +</p> + +<p> +And yet man is not part of Nature. Even in the +depths of the primeval forest, that poor savage, whom we +found listening fearfully to the sound of his drum, knew +better. Mankind lives in isolation, and Nature is a thing +for him to conquer. For Nature is a thing that exists, +while man <i>thinks</i>. Nature is that which passively lives +while man actively wills. It is the strain of Nature in +man that gave him the dance, and it is his godlike +fight against Nature that gave him impassioned speech; +beauty of form and motion on one side, all that is divine +in man on the other; on one side materialism, on the +other idealism. +</p> + +<p> +We have traced the origin of the drum, pipe, and the +voice in music. It still remains for us to speak of the +lyre and the lute, the ancestors of our modern stringed +<a class="pagebreak" name="page29" id="page29" title="29"></a> +instruments. The relative antiquity of the lyre and the +lute as compared with the harp has been much discussed, +the main contention against the lyre being that it is a +more artificial instrument than the harp; the harp was +played with the fingers alone, while the lyre was played +with a plectrum (a small piece of metal, wood, or ivory). +Perhaps it would be safer to take the lute as the earliest +form of the stringed instrument, for, from the very first, +we find two species of instruments with strings, one played +with the fingers, the prototype of our modern harps, +banjos, guitars, etc., the other played with the plectrum, +the ancestor of all our modern stringed instruments played +by means of bows and hammers, such as violins, pianos, +etc. +</p> + +<p> +However this may be, one thing is certain, the possession +of these instruments implies already a considerable +measure of culture, for they were not haphazard things. +They were made for a purpose, were invented to fill a gap +in the ever-increasing needs of expression. In Homer we +find a description of the making of a lyre by Hermes, +how this making of a lyre from the shell of a tortoise that +happened to pass before the entrance to the grotto of +his mother, Maïa, was his first exploit; and that he made +it to accompany his song in praise of his father Zeus. +We must accept this explanation of the origin of the lyre, +namely, that it was deliberately invented to accompany +the voice. For the lyre in its primitive state was never +a solo instrument; the tone was weak and its powers of +expression were exceedingly limited. On the other hand, +it furnished an excellent background for the voice and, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page30" id="page30" title="30"></a> +which was still more to the point, the singer could accompany +himself. The drum had too vague a pitch, and the +flute or pipe necessitated another performer, besides +having too much similarity of tone to the voice to give +sufficient contrast. Granted then that the lyre was +invented to accompany the voice, and without wasting +time with surmises as to whether the first idea of stringed +instruments was received from the twanging of a bowstring +or the finding of a tortoise shell with the half-dessicated +tendons of the animal still stretching across +it, let us find when the instrument was seemingly first +used. +</p> + +<p> +That the lyre and lute are of Asiatic origin is generally +conceded, and even in comparatively modern times, +Asia seems to be the home of its descendants. The +Tartars have been called the troubadours of Asia—and +of Asia in the widest sense of the word—penetrating +into the heart of the Caucasus on the west and reaching +through the country eastward to the shores of the Yellow +Sea. Marco Polo, the celebrated Venetian traveller, and +M. Huc, a French missionary to China and Thibet, as +well as Spencer, Atkinson, and many others, speak of the +wandering bards of Asia. Marco Polo's account of how +Jenghiz Kahn, the great Mongol conqueror, sent an expedition +composed entirely of minstrels against Mien, a city +of 30,000 inhabitants, has often been quoted to show +what an abundance—or perhaps superfluity would be +the better word—of musicians he had at his court. +</p> + +<p> +That the lyre could not be of Greek origin is proved +by the fact that no root has been discovered in the language +<a class="pagebreak" name="page31" id="page31" title="31"></a> +for <i>lyra</i>, although there are many special names for +varieties of the instrument. Leaving aside the question +of the geographical origin of the instrument, we may say, +broadly, that wherever we find a nation with even the +smallest approach to a history, there we shall find bards +singing of the exploits of heroes, and always to the +accompaniment of the lyre or the lute. For at last, by +means of these instruments, impassioned speech was +able to lift itself permanently above the level of everyday +life, and its lofty song could dispense with the soft, +sensuous lull of the flute. And we shall see later how +these bards became seers, and how even our very angels +received harps, so closely did the instrument become +associated with what I have called impassioned speech, +which, in other words, is the highest expression of what +we consider godlike in man. +</p> + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page32" id="page32" title="32"></a> +III<br /><br /> +THE MUSIC OF THE HEBREWS AND THE HINDUS</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">The</span> +music of the Hebrews presents one of the most +interesting subjects in musical history, although it has an +unfortunate defect in common with so many kindred +subjects, namely, that the most learned dissertation must +invariably end with a question mark. When we read in +Josephus that Solomon had 200,000 singers, 40,000 +harpers, 40,000 sistrum players, and 200,000 trumpeters, +we simply do not believe it. Then too there is lack of +unanimity in the matter of the essential facts. One +authority, describing the <i>machol</i>, says it is a stringed instrument +resembling a modern viola; another describes it +as a wind instrument somewhat like a bagpipe; still +another says it is a metal ring with a bell attachment +like an Egyptian sistrum; and finally an equally respected +authority claims that the <i>machol</i> was not an instrument +at all, but a dance. Similarly the <i>maanim</i> has been described +as a trumpet, a kind of rattle box with metal +clappers, and we even have a full account in which it +figures as a violin. +</p> + +<p> +The temple songs which we know have evidently been +much changed by surrounding influences, just as in +modern synagogues the architecture has not held fast +to ancient Hebrew models but has been greatly influenced +<a class="pagebreak" name="page33" id="page33" title="33"></a> +by different countries and peoples. David may be considered +the founder of Hebrew music, and his reign has +been well called an “idyllic episode in the otherwise rather +grim history of Israel.” +</p> + +<p> +Of the instruments named in the Scriptures, that called +the harp in our English translation was probably the +<i>kinnor</i>, a kind of lyre played by means of a plectrum, +which was a small piece of metal, wood, or bone. The +psaltery or <i>nebel</i> (which was of course derived from the +Egyptian <i>nabla</i>, just as the <i>kinnor</i> probably was in some +mysterious manner derived from the Chinese <i>kin</i>) was a +kind of dulcimer or zither, an oblong box with strings +which were struck by small hammers. The timbrel +corresponds to our modern tambourine. The <i>schofar</i> +and <i>keren</i> were horns. The former was the well-known +ram's horn which is still blown on the occasion of the +Jewish New Year. +</p> + +<p> +In the Talmud mention is made of an organ consisting +of ten pipes which could give one hundred different sounds, +each pipe being able to produce ten tones. This mysterious +instrument was called <i>magrepha</i>, and although but +one Levite (the Levites were the professional musicians +among the Hebrews) was required to play it, and although +it was only about three feet in length, its sound was +so tremendous that it could be heard ten miles away. +Hieronymus speaks of having heard it on the Mount of +Olives when it was played in the Temple at Jerusalem. +To add to the mystery surrounding this instrument, it +has been proved by several learned authorities that it +was merely a large drum; and, to cap the climax, other +<a class="pagebreak" name="page34" id="page34" title="34"></a> +equally respected writers have declared that this instrument +was simply a large shovel which, after being used +for the sacrificial fire in the temple, was thrown to the +ground with a great noise, to inform the people that the +sacrifice was consummated. +</p> + +<p> +It is reasonably certain that the seemingly incongruous +titles to the Psalms were merely given to denote the +tune to which they were to be sung, just as in our modern +hymns we use the words <i>Canterbury</i>, <i>Old Hundredth</i>, +<i>China</i>, etc. +</p> + +<p> +The word <i>selah</i> has never been satisfactorily explained, +some readings giving as its meaning “forever,” “hallelujah,” +etc., while others say that it means repeat, an +inflection of the voice, a modulation to another key, an +instrumental interlude, a rest, and so on without end. +</p> + +<p> +Of one thing we may be certain regarding the ancient +Hebrews, namely, that their religion brought something +into the world that can never again be lost. It fostered +idealism, and gave mankind something pure and noble +to live for, a religion over which Christianity shed the +sunshine of divine mercy and hope. That the change +which was to be wrought in life was sharply defined may +be seen by comparing the great songs of the different +nations. For up to that time a song of praise meant +praise of a <i>King</i>. He was the sun that warmed men's +hearts, the being from whom all wisdom came, and to +whom men looked for mercy. If we compare the Egyptian +hymns with those of the Hebrews, the difference is +very striking. On the walls of the great temples of +Luxor and the Ramesseum at Thebes, as well as on the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page35" id="page35" title="35"></a> +wall of the temple of Abydos and in the main hall of the +great rock-hewn temple of Abu-Simbel, in Nubia, is +carved the “Epic of Pentaur,” the royal Egyptian scribe +of Rameses II: +</p> + +<blockquote> +<p> +My king, his arms are mighty, his heart is firm. He bends his +bow and none can resist him. Mightier than a hundred thousand +men he marches forward. His counsel is wise and when he wears +the royal crown, Alef, and declares his will, he is the protector of +his people. His heart is like a mountain of iron. Such is King +Rameses. +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +If we turn to the Hebrew prophets, this is their song: +</p> + +<blockquote> +<p> +The mountains melted from before the Lord and before Him +went the pestilence; burning coals went forth at His feet. Hell is +naked before Him and destruction hath no covering. He hangeth +the earth upon nothing and the pillars of heaven tremble and are +astonished at His reproof. Though He slay me, yet will I trust in +Him. For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and at the last day +He shall stand upon the earth. +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +As with the Hebrews, music among the Hindus was +closely bound to religion. When, 3000 years before the +Christian era, that wonderful, tall, white Aryan race of +men descended upon India from the north, its poets +already sang of the gods, and the Aryan gods were of a +different order from those known to that part of the +world; for they were beautiful in shape, and friendly to +man, in great contrast to the gods of the Davidians, the +pre-Aryan race and stock of the Deccan. These songs +formed the <i>Rig-Veda</i>, and are the nucleus from which all +Hindu religion and art emanate. +</p> + +<p> +We already know that when the auxiliary speech which +we call music was first discovered, or, to use the language +<a class="pagebreak" name="page36" id="page36" title="36"></a> +of all primitive nations, when it was first bestowed on +man by the gods, it retained much of the supernatural +potency that its origin would suggest. In India, music +was invested with divine power, and certain hymns—especially +the prayer or chant of Vashishtha—were, +according to the <i>Rig-Veda</i>, all powerful in battle. Such +a magic song, or chant, was called a <i>brahma</i>, and he who +sang it a <i>brahmin</i>. Thus the very foundation of Brahminism, +from which rose Buddhism in the sixth century +B.C., can be traced back to the music of the sacred songs +of the <i>Rig-Veda</i> of India. The priestly or Brahmin +caste grew therefore from the singers of the Vedic hymns. +The Brahmins were not merely the keepers of the sacred +books, or Vedas, the philosophy, science, and laws of the +ancient Hindus (for that is how the power of the caste +developed), but they were also the creators and custodians +of its secular literature and art. Two and a half thousand +years later Prince Gautama or Buddha died, after a life +of self-sacrifice and sanctity. On his death five hundred +of his disciples met in a cave near Rajagriha to gather +together his sayings, and chanted the lessons of their +great master. These songs became the bible of Buddhism, +just as the <i>Vedas</i> are the bible of Brahminism, for the +Hindu word for a Buddhist council means literally “a +singing together.” +</p> + +<p> +Besides the sacred songs of the Brahmins and Buddhists, +the Hindus had many others, some of which partook of +the occult powers of the hymns, occult powers that were +as strongly marked as those of Hebrew music. For +while the latter are revealed in the playing of David +<a class="pagebreak" name="page37" id="page37" title="37"></a> +before Saul, in the influence of music on prophecy, the +falling of the walls of Jericho at the sound of the trumpets +of Joshua, etc., in India the same supernatural power +was ascribed to certain songs. For instance, there were +songs that could be sung only by the gods, and one of +them, so the legend runs, if sung by a mortal, would +envelop the singer in flames. The last instance of the +singing of this song was during the reign of Akbar, the +great Mogul emperor (about 1575 A.D.). At his command +the singer sang it standing up to his neck in the +river Djaumna, which, however, did not save him, for, +according to the account, the water around him boiled, +and he was finally consumed by a flame of fire. Another +of Akbar's singers caused the palace to be wrapped in +darkness by means of one of these magic songs, and +another averted a famine by causing rain to fall when +the country was threatened by drought. Animals were +also tamed by means of certain songs, the only relic of +which is found in the serpent charmers' melodies, which, +played on a kind of pipe, seem to possess the power of +controlling cobras and the other snakes exhibited by the +Indian fakirs. +</p> + +<p> +Many years before Gautama's time, the brahmas or +singers of sacred songs of ancient India formed themselves +into a caste or priesthood; and the word “Brahma,” from +meaning a sacred singer, became the name of the supreme +deity; in time, as the nation grew, other gods were taken +into the religion. Thus we find in pre-Buddha times the +trinity of gods: Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, with their +wives, Sarasvati or learning, Lakshmi or beauty, and +<a class="pagebreak" name="page38" id="page38" title="38"></a> +Paravati, who was also called Kali, Durga, and Mahadevi, +and was practically the goddess of evil. Of these gods +Brahma's consort, Sarasvati, the goddess of speech and +learning, brought to earth the art of music, and gave to +mankind the <i>Vina</i>. +</p> + +<p> +This instrument is still in use and may be called the +national instrument of India. It is composed of a cylindrical +pipe, often bamboo, about three and a half feet +long, at each end of which is fixed a hollow gourd to +increase the tone. It is strung lengthwise with seven +metal wires held up by nineteen wooden bridges, just as +the violin strings are supported by a bridge. The scale of +the instrument proceeds in half tones from +<a href="midi/vina_range.midi"><img src="images/vina_range.png" + width="130" height="46" alt="[F: a,] to [G: b'']" /></a><br /> +The tones are produced by plucking the strings with the +fingers (which are covered with a kind of metal thimble), +and the instrument is held so that one of the gourds hangs +over the left shoulder, just as one would hold a very long-necked +banjo. +</p> + +<p> +It is to the Krishna incarnation of Vishnu that the +Hindu scale is ascribed. According to the legend, Krishna +or Vishnu came to earth and took the form of a shepherd, +and the nymphs sang to him in many thousand different +keys, of which from twenty-four to thirty-six are known +and form the basis of Hindu music. To be sure these +keys, being formed by different successions of quarter-tones, +are practically inexhaustible, and the 16,000 keys +of Krishna are quite practicable. The differences in +tone, however, were so very slight that only a few, of +them have been retained to the present time. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page39" id="page39" title="39"></a> +The Hindus get their flute from the god Indra, who, +from being originally the all-powerful deity, was relegated +by Brahminism to the chief place among the minor gods—from +being the god of light and air he came to be the god +of music. His retinue consisted of the <i>gandharvas</i>, and +<i>apsaras</i>, or celestial musicians and nymphs, who sang +magic songs. After the rise and downfall of Buddhism +in India the term <i>raga</i> degenerated to a name for a merely +improvised chant to which no occult power was ascribed. +</p> + +<p> +The principal characteristics in modern Hindu music +are a seemingly instinctive sense of harmony; and although +the actual chords are absent, the melodic formation +of the songs plainly indicates a feeling for modern +harmony, and even form. The actual scale resembles +our European scale of twelve semitones (twenty-two +<i>s'rutis</i>, quarter-tones), but the modal development of these +sounds has been extraordinary. Now a “mode” is the +manner in which the notes of a scale are arranged. For +instance, in our major mode the scale is arranged as follows: +tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone. +In India there are at present seventy-two modes in use +which are produced by making seventy-two different +arrangements of the scale by means of sharps and flats, +the only rule being that each degree of the scale must be +represented; for instance, one of the modes <i>Dehrásan-Karabhárna</i> +corresponds to our major scale. Our minor +(harmonic) scale figures as <i>Kyravâni</i>. <i>Tânarupi</i> corresponds +to the following succession of notes, +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<a href="midi/tanarupi.midi"><img src="images/scale_tanarupi.png" + width="352" height="49" + alt="[G: c' d-' e--' f' g' a+' b' c'']" /></a> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page40" id="page40" title="40"></a> +<i>Gavambódi</i>, to +<a href="midi/gavambodi.midi"><img src="images/scale_gavambodi.png" + width="361" height="49" alt="[G: c' d-' e-' f+' g' a-' b--' c'']" /></a> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +<i>Máya-Mâlavagaula</i>, to +<a href="midi/maya.midi"><img src="images/scale_maya.png" + width="350" height="49" alt="[G: c' d' e-' f' g-' a' b-' c'']" /></a> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +It can thus easily be seen how the seventy-two modes are +possible and practicable. Observe that the seven degrees +of the scale are all represented in these modes, the difference +between them being in the placing of half-tones by +means of sharps or flats. Not content with the complexity +that this modal system brought into their music, the +Hindus have increased it still more by inventing a number +of formulæ called <i>ragas</i> (not to be confounded with +those rhapsodical songs, the modern descendant of the +magic chants, previously mentioned). +</p> + +<p> +In making a Hindu melody (which of course must be +in one of the seventy-two modes, just as in English we +should say that a melody must be in one of our two +modes, either major or minor) one would have to conform +to one of the <i>ragas</i>, that is to say, the melodic outline +would have to conform to certain rules, both in ascending +and descending. These rules consist of omitting notes +of the modes, in one manner when the melody ascends, +and in another when it descends. Thus, in the <i>raga</i> +called <i>Mohànna</i>, in ascending the notes must be arranged +in the following order: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8; in descending it +is 8, 7, 5, 4, 2, 1. Thus if we wished to write a melody +in the mode <i>Tânarupi</i>—<i>raga Mohànna</i>—we could +never use the fourth, F, or the seventh, B, if our melody +ascended; if our melody descended we should have to +avoid the sixth, A♯, and the third, E♭♭. As one can +<a class="pagebreak" name="page41" id="page41" title="41"></a> +easily perceive, many strange melodic effects are produced +by these means. For instance, in the <i>raga Mohànna</i>, +in which the fourth and seventh degrees of the +scale are avoided in ascending, if it were employed in +the mode <i>Dehrásin-Karabhárna</i>, which corresponds to our +own major scale, it would have a pronounced Scotch +tinge so long as the melody ascended; but let it <i>descend</i> +and the Scotch element is deserted for a decided North +American Indian, notably Sioux tinge. The Hindus are +an imaginative race, and invest all these <i>ragas</i> and modes +with mysterious attributes, such as anger, love, fear, +and so on. They were even personified as supernatural +beings; each had his or her special name and history. It +was proper to use some of them only at midday, some in +the morning, and some at night. If the mode or <i>raga</i> +is changed during a piece, it is expressed in words, by +saying, for instance, that “<i>Mohànna</i>” (the new “<i>raga</i>”) +is here introduced to the family of <i>Tânarupi</i>. The +melodies formed from these modes and <i>ragas</i> are divided +into four classes, <i>Rektah</i>, <i>Teranah</i>, <i>Tuppah</i>, and <i>Ragni</i>. +The <i>Rektah</i> is in character light and flowing. It falls +naturally into regular periods, and resembles the <i>Teranah</i>, +with the exception that the latter is only sung by men. +The character of the <i>Tuppah</i> is not very clear, but the +<i>Ragni</i> is a direct descendant of the old magic songs and +incantations; in character it is rhapsodical and spasmodic. +</p> + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page42" id="page42" title="42"></a> +IV<br /><br /> +THE MUSIC OF THE EGYPTIANS, ASSYRIANS, AND CHINESE</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">In</span> +speaking of the music of antiquity we are seriously +hampered by the fact that there is practically no actual +music in existence which dates back farther than the +eighth or tenth century of the present era. Even those +well-known specimens of Greek music, as they are claimed +to be, the hymns to Apollo, Nemesis, and Calliope, do not +date farther back than the third or fourth century, and +even these are by no means generally considered authentic. +Therefore, so far as actual sounds go, all music of +which we have any practical knowledge dates from about +the twelfth century. +</p> + +<p> +Theoretically, we have the most minute knowledge of +the scientific aspect of music, dating from more than +five hundred years before the Christian era. This knowledge, +however, is worse than valueless, for it is misleading. +For instance, it would be a very difficult thing for posterity +to form any idea as to what our music was like if +all the actual music in the world at the present time +were destroyed, and only certain scientific works such +as that of Helmholtz on acoustics and a few theoretical +treatises on harmony, form, counterpoint and fugue were +saved. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page43" id="page43" title="43"></a> +From Helmholtz's analysis of sounds one would get the +idea that the so-called tempered scale of our pianos caused +thirds and sixths to sound discordantly. +</p> + +<p> +From the books on harmony one would gather that +consecutive fifths and octaves and a number of other +things were never indulged in by composers, and to cap +the climax one would naturally accept the harmony +exercises contained in the books as being the very acme +of what we loved best in music. Thus we see that any +investigation into the music of antiquity must be more +or less conjectural. +</p> + +<p> +Let us begin with the music of the Egyptians. The +oldest existing musical instrument of which we have any +knowledge is an Egyptian lyre to be found in the Berlin +Royal Museum. It is about four thousand years old, +dating from the period just before the expulsion of the +Hyksos or “Shepherd” kings. +</p> + +<p> +At that time (the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty, +1500–2000 B.C.) Egypt was just recovering from her +five hundred years of bondage, and music must already +have reached a wonderful state of development. In +wall paintings of the eighteenth dynasty we see flutes, +double flutes, and harps of all sizes, from the small one +carried in the hand, to the great harps, almost seven feet +high, with twenty-one strings; the never-failing sistrum +(a kind of rattle); kitharas, the ancestors of our modern +guitars; lutes and lyres, the very first in the line of instruments +culminating in the modern piano. +</p> + +<p> +One hesitates to class the trumpets of the Egyptians in +the same category, for they were war instruments, the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page44" id="page44" title="44"></a> +tone of which was probably always forced, for Herodotus +says that they sounded like the braying of a donkey. +The fact that the cheeks of the trumpeter were reinforced +with leather straps would further indicate that the instruments +were used only for loud signalling. +</p> + +<p> +According to the mural paintings and sculptures in +the tombs of the Egyptians, all these instruments were +played together, and accompanied the voice. It has long +been maintained that harmony was unknown to the +ancients because of the mathematical measurement of +sounds. This might be plausible for strings, but pipes +could be cut to any size. The positions of the hands of +the executants on the harps and lyres, as well as the use of +short and long pipes, make it appear probable that something +of what we call harmony was known to the Egyptians. +</p> + +<p> +We must also consider that their paintings and sculptures +were eminently symbolic. When one carves an +explanation in hard granite it is apt to be done in shorthand, +as it were. Thus, a tree meant a forest, a prisoner +meant a whole army; therefore, two sculptured harpists +or flute players may stand for twenty or two hundred. +Athenæus, who lived at the end of the second and beginning +of the third century, A.D., speaks of orchestras of +six hundred in Ptolemy Philadelphus's time (300 B.C.), +and says that three hundred of the players were harpers, +in which number he probably includes players on other +stringed instruments, such as lutes and lyres. It is therefore +to be inferred that the other three hundred played wind +and percussion instruments. This is an additional reason +for conjecturing that they used chords in their music; for +<a class="pagebreak" name="page45" id="page45" title="45"></a> +six hundred players, not to count the singers, would hardly +play entirely in unison or in octaves. The very nature +of the harp is chordal, and the sculptures always depict +the performer playing with both hands, the fingers being +more or less outstretched. That the music must have +been of a deep, sonorous character, we may gather from +the great size of the harps and the thickness of their +strings. As for the flutes, they also are pictured as being +very long; therefore they must have been low in pitch. +The reed pipes, judging from the pictures and sculptures, +were no higher in pitch than our oboes, of which +the highest note is D and E above the treble staff. +</p> + +<p> +It is claimed that so far as the harps were concerned, +the music must have been strictly diatonic in character. +To quote Rowbotham, “the harp, which was the foundation +of the Egyptian orchestra, is an essentially non-chromatic +instrument, and could therefore only play a +straight up and down diatonic scale.” Continuing he +says, “It is plain therefore that the Egyptian harmony +was purely diatonic; such a thing as modern modulation +was unknown, and every piece from beginning to end was +played in the same key.” That this position is utterly +untenable is very evident, for there was nothing to prevent +the Egyptians from tuning their harps in the same +order of tones and half tones as is used for our modern +pianos. That this is even probable may be assumed +from the scale of a flute dating back to the eighteenth +or nineteenth century B.C. (1700 or 1600 B.C.), which +was found in the royal tombs at Thebes, and which is +now in the Florence Museum. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page46" id="page46" title="46"></a> +Its scale was +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<a href="midi/flute_scale.midi"><img src="images/scale_flute.png" + width="511" height="76" + alt="[G: (a a+ b c' c+' d') (a' a+' b' c'' c+'' d'') (e'') + f'' f+'' g'' g+'' (a'' a+'' b'' c''' c+''' d''')]" /></a> +</p> + +<p> +The only thing about which we may be reasonably +certain in regard to Egyptian music is that, like Egyptian +architecture, it must have been very massive, on account +of the preponderance in the orchestra of the low tones of +the stringed instruments. +</p> + +<p> +The sistrum was, properly speaking, not considered a +musical instrument at all. It was used only in religious +ceremonies, and may be considered as the ancestor of the +bell that is rung at the elevation of the Host in Roman +Catholic churches. Herodotus (born 485 B.C.) tells us +much about Egyptian music, how the great festival at Bubastis +in honour of the Egyptian Diana (<i>Bast</i> or <i>Pascht</i>), to +whom the cat was sacred, was attended yearly by 700,000 +people who came by water, the boats resounding with the +clatter of castanets, the clapping of hands, and the soft +tones of thousands of flutes. Again he tells us of music +played during banquets, and speaks of a mournful song +called <i>Maneros</i>. This, the oldest song of the Egyptians +(dating back to the first dynasty), was symbolical of the +passing away of life, and was sung in connection with that +gruesome custom of bringing in, towards the end of a banquet, +an effigy of a corpse to remind the guests that death +is the birthright of all mankind, a custom which was +adopted later by the Romans. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page47" id="page47" title="47"></a> +Herodotus also gives us a vague but very suggestive +glimpse of what may have been the genesis of Greek +tragedy, for he was permitted to see a kind of nocturnal +Egyptian passion play, in which evidently the tragedy +of Osiris was enacted with ghastly realism. Osiris, who +represents the light, is hunted by Set or Typhon, the god +of darkness, and finally torn to pieces by the followers +of Set, and buried beneath the waters of the lake; Horus, +the son of Osiris, avenges his death by subduing Set, and +Osiris appears again as the ruler of the shadowland of +death. +</p> + +<p> +This strange tragedy took place at night, on the shore +of the lake behind the great temple at Saïs. Osiris was +dressed royally, in white, and after the horrible pursuit +and his murder by Set and his sinister band, Horus, +the rising sun, dispels the gloom, and a glorious new god +of light appears. Set and his followers are driven back +to the gloomy temple where, perhaps, there was another +scene showing the shade of Osiris, enthroned and ruling +the dead. We have no means of knowing the character +of the music which accompanied this mystery play; but +certainly the deep tones of the harps and the flutes, +together with the chanting of men's voices, must have +been appropriate. Add to these the almost silent rattle +of the sistrum, which, for the Egyptians, possessed something +of the supernatural, and we have an orchestral +colouring which is suggestive, to say the least. +</p> + +<p> +With this we will leave Egyptian music, simply calling +attention to the works of Resellini, Lepsius, Wilkinson, +and Petri, which contain copies of mural paintings and +<a class="pagebreak" name="page48" id="page48" title="48"></a> +temple and tomb sculptures relating to music. For +instance, pages 103, 106, and 111 of Lepsius's third +book, “Die Denkmäler aus Ægypten und Æthiopen,” +will be found very interesting, particularly page 106, which +shows some of the rooms of the palace of Amenotep IV, +of the eighteenth dynasty (about 1500 or 1600 B.C.), +in which dancing and music is being taught. In the +same work, second book, on pages 52 and 53, are pictures +taken from a tomb near Gizeh, showing harp and flute +players and singers. The position of the hands of the +singers—they hold them behind their ears—is a manner +of illustrating the act of hearing, and arises from the +hieroglyphic <i>double</i> way of putting things; for instance, +in writing hieroglyphics the word is often first spelled out, +then comes another sign for the pronunciation, then sometimes +even two other signs to emphasize its meaning. +</p> + +<p> +The music of the Assyrians may be summed up very +briefly. All that can be gathered from the bas-relief +sculptures is that shrill tones and acute pitch must have +characterized their music. As Rowbotham says, alluding +to the Sardanapalus wall sculpture now in the British +Museum in London, “What can one think of the musical +delicacy of a nation the King of which, dining alone with +his queen, chooses to be regaled with the sounds of a +lyre and a big drum close at his elbow?” The instruments +represented in these bas-reliefs, aside from the +drum, are high-pitched: flutes, pipes, trumpets, cymbals, +and the smaller stringed instruments. These were all +portable, and some, such as drums and dulcimers, were +strapped to the body, all of which points to the eminently +<a class="pagebreak" name="page49" id="page49" title="49"></a> +warlike character of the people. Instead of clapping the +hands to mark the time as did the Egyptians, they stamped +their feet. The dulcimer was somewhat like a modern +zither, and may be said to contain the germ of our piano; +for it was in the form of a flat case, strapped to the body +and held horizontally in front of the player. The strings +were struck with a kind of plectrum, held in the right +hand, and were touched with the left hand immediately +afterwards to stop the vibration, just as the dampers in +the pianoforte fall on the string the moment the key is +released. There existed among the Chaldeans a science +of music, which, of course, is a very different thing from +practical music, but it was so imbued with astronomical +symbolism that it seems hardly worth while to consider +it here. The art of Babylonia and Assyria culminated +in architecture and bas-relief sculpture, and it is chiefly +valuable as being the germ from which Greek art was +developed. +</p> + +<p> +In considering Chinese music one has somewhat the +same feeling as one would have in looking across a flat +plain. There are no mountains in Chinese music, and there +is nothing in its history to make us think that it was ever +anything but a more or less puerile playing with sound; +therefore there is no separating modern Chinese music +from that of antiquity. To be sure, Confucius (about +500 B.C.) said that to be well governed a nation must +possess good music. Pythagoras, Aristotle, and Plato, in +Greece, said the same thing, and their maxims proved a +very important factor in the music of ancient times, for +the simple reason that an art controlled by government +<a class="pagebreak" name="page50" id="page50" title="50"></a> +can have nothing very vital about it. Hebrew music +was utterly annihilated by laws, and the poetic imagination +thus pent up found its vent in poetry, the result +being some of the most wonderful works the world +has ever known. In Egypt, this current of inspiration +from the very beginning was turned toward architecture. +In Greece, music became a mere stage accessory or a +subject for the dissecting table of mathematics; in China, +we have the dead level of an obstinate adherence to +tradition, thus proving Sir Thomas Browne's saying, +“The mortallest enemy unto knowledge, and that which +hath done the greatest execution upon truth, hath been a +peremptory adhesion unto tradition, and more especially +the establishing of our own belief upon the dictates of +antiquity.” +</p> + +<p> +The Chinese theory is that there are eight different +musical sounds in nature, namely: +</p> + +<blockquote> +<ol> +<li>The sound of skin.</li> +<li>The sound of stone.</li> +<li>The sound of metal.</li> +<li>The sound of clay.</li> +<li>The sound of silk.</li> +<li>The sound of wood.</li> +<li>The sound of bamboo.</li> +<li>The sound of gourd.</li> +</ol> +</blockquote> + +<p> +The sound of skin has a number of varieties, all different +kinds of drums. +</p> + +<p> +The sound of stone is held by the Chinese to be the +most beautiful among sounds, one between that of metal +and of wood. The principal instrument in this category +<a class="pagebreak" name="page51" id="page51" title="51"></a> +is the <i>king</i>, and in mythology it is the chosen instrument +of Kouei, the Chinese Orpheus. This instrument has a +large framework on which are hung sixteen stones of +different sizes, which are struck, like drums, with a kind +of hammer. According to Amiot, only a certain kind of +stone found near the banks of the river Tee will serve for +the making of these instruments, and in the year 2200 B.C. +the Emperor Yu assessed the different provinces so many +stones each for the palace instruments, in place of tribute. +</p> + +<p> +The sound of metal is embodied in the various kinds +of bells, which are arranged in many different series, +sometimes after the patterns of the <i>king</i>, while sometimes +they are played separately. +</p> + +<p> +The sound of clay, or baked earth, is given by a kind +of round egg made of porcelain—for that is what it +amounts to—pierced with five holes and a mouthpiece, +upon blowing through which the sound is produced—an +instrument somewhat suggestive of our ocarina. +</p> + +<p> +The sound of silk is given by two instruments: one +a kind of flat harp with seven strings, called <i>che</i>, the +other with twenty-five strings, called <i>kin</i>, in size from +seven to nine feet long. The ancient form of this instrument +is said to have had fifty strings. +</p> + +<p> +The sound of wood is a strange element in a Chinese +orchestra, for it is produced in three different ways: +first, by an instrument in the form of a square wooden +box with a hole in one of its sides through which the +hand, holding a small mallet, is inserted, the sound of +wood being produced by hammering with the mallet on +the inside walls of the box, just as the clapper strikes a +<a class="pagebreak" name="page52" id="page52" title="52"></a> +bell. This box is placed at the northeast corner of the +orchestra, and begins every piece. Second, by a set of +strips of wood strung on a strap or cord, the sound of which +is obtained by beating the palm of the hand with them. +The third is the strangest of all, for the instrument consists +of a life-size wooden tiger. It has a number of teeth +or pegs along the ridge of its back, and it is “played” +by stroking these pegs rapidly with a wooden staff, and +then striking the tiger on the head. This is the prescribed +end of every Chinese orchestral composition, and +is supposed to be a symbol of man's supremacy over +brute creation. The tiger has its place in the northwest +corner of the orchestra. +</p> + +<p> +The sound of bamboo is represented in the familiar +form of Pan's pipes, and various forms of flutes which +hardly need further description. +</p> + +<p> +And finally the sound of the gourd. The gourd is a kind +of squash, hollowed out, in which from thirteen to twenty-four +pipes of bamboo or metal are inserted; each one of these +pipes contains a metal reed, the vibration of which causes +the sound. Below the reed are cut small holes in the pipes, +and there is a pipe with a mouthpiece to keep the gourd, +which is practically an air reservoir, full of air. The air +rushing out through the bamboo pipes will naturally +escape through the holes cut below the reeds, making no +sound, but if the finger stops one or more of these holes, +the air is forced up through the reeds, thus giving a musical +sound, the pitch of which will be dependent on the +length of the pipes and the force with which the air passes +through the reed. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page53" id="page53" title="53"></a> +Other instruments of the Chinese are gongs of all +sizes, trumpets, and several stringed instruments somewhat +akin to our guitars and mandolins. Neither the +Chinese nor the Japanese have ever seemed to consider +the voice as partaking of the nature of music. This is +strange, for the language of the Chinese depends on +flexibility of the voice to make it even intelligible. As a +matter of fact, singing, in our sense of the word, is unknown +to them. +</p> + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page54" id="page54" title="54"></a> +V<br /><br /> +THE MUSIC OF THE CHINESE (<i>Continued</i>)</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">Having</span> +described the musical instruments in use in +China we still have for consideration the music itself, +and the conditions which led up to it. +</p> + +<p> +Among the Chinese instruments mentioned in the preceding +chapter, the preponderance of instruments of +percussion, such as drums, gongs, bells, etc., has probably +been noticed. In connection with the last named +we meet with one of the two cases in Chinese art in which +we see the same undercurrent of feeling, or rather superstition, +as that found among western nations. We read +in the writings of Mencius, the Chinese philosopher (350 +B.C.), the following bit of gossip about the king Senen +of Tse. +</p> + +<blockquote class="flush"> +<p> +“The king,” said he, “was sitting aloft in the hall, when +a man appeared, leading an ox past the lower part of it. +The king saw him, and asked, ‘Where is the ox going?’ +</p> + +<p> +“The man replied, ‘We are going to consecrate a bell +with its blood.’ +</p> + +<p> +“The king said, ‘Let it go. I cannot bear its frightened +appearance as if it were an innocent person going to the +place of death.’ +</p> + +<p> +“The man answered, ‘Shall we then omit the consecration +of the bell?’ +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page55" id="page55" title="55"></a> +“The king said, ‘How can that be omitted? Change +the ox for a sheep.’” +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +As stated before, this is one of the few cases in which +Chinese superstition coincides with that of the West; +for our own church bells were once consecrated in very +much the same manner, a survival of that ancient universal +custom of sacrifice. With the exception of this +resemblance, which, however, has nothing to do with +actual music, everything in Chinese art is exactly the +opposite of our western ideas on the subject. +</p> + +<p> +The Chinese orchestra is composed of about sixteen +different types of percussion instruments and four kinds of +wind and stringed instruments, whereas in our European +orchestras the ratio is exactly reversed. Their orchestras +are placed at the back of the stage, ours in front of it. +The human voice is not even mentioned in their list of +musical sounds (sound of metal, baked clay, wood, +skin, bamboo, etc)., whereas we consider it the most +nearly perfect instrument existing. This strange perversity +once caused much discussion in days when we knew +less of China than we do at present, as to whether the +Chinese organs of hearing were not entirely different +from those of western nations. We now know that this +contradiction runs through all their habits of life. With +them white is the colour indicative of mourning; the +place of honour is on the left hand; the seat of intellect +is in the stomach; to take off one's hat is considered an +insolent gesture; the magnetic needle of the Chinese compass +is reckoned as pointing south, instead of north; even +up to the middle of the nineteenth century the chief weapon +<a class="pagebreak" name="page56" id="page56" title="56"></a> +in war was the bow and arrow, although they were long before +acquainted with gunpowder—and so on, <i>ad infinitum</i>. +</p> + +<p> +We are aware that the drum is the most primitive instrument +known to man. If all our knowledge of the Chinese +were included in a simple list of their orchestral instruments, +we should recognize at once that the possession +of the gourd, mouth-organ, and lute indicates a nation +which has reached a high state of civilization; on the +other hand, the great preponderance of bells, gongs, drums, +etc., points unmistakably to the fact that veneration of +the laws and traditions of the past (a past of savage barbarism), +and a blind acquiescence in them, must constitute +the principal factor in that civilization. The writings +of Chinese philosophers are full of wise sayings about +music, but in practice the music itself becomes almost +unbearable. <a name="ft02"></a>For instance, in the Confucian <i>Analects</i> we +read, “The Master +(Confucius)<a class="fn" href="#fn02"> 2 </a> +said: ‘How to play music +may be known. At the commencement of the piece, all +the parts should sound together. As it proceeds, they +should be in harmony, severally distinct, and flowing +without a break, and thus on to the conclusion.’” The +definition is certainly remarkable when one considers +that it was given about five hundred years before our +era. In practice, however, the Chinese do not distinguish +between musical <i>combinations</i> of sound and <i>noise</i>; therefore +the above definition must be taken in a very different +sense from that which ordinarily would be the case. By +harmony, Confucius evidently means similarity of noises, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page57" id="page57" title="57"></a> +and by “melody flowing without a break” he means +absolute monotony of rhythm. We know this from the +hymns to the ancestors which, with the hymns to the +Deity, are the sacred songs of China, songs which have +come down from time immemorial. +</p> + +<p> +According to Amiot one of the great court functions +is the singing of the “Hymn to the Ancestors,” which is +conducted by the Emperor. Outside the hall where this +ceremony takes place are stationed a number of bell and +gong players who may not enter, but who, from time to +time, according to fixed laws, join in the music played and +sung inside. In the hall the orchestra is arranged in the +order prescribed by law: the <i>ou</i>, or wooden tiger, which +ends every piece, is placed at the northwest end of the +orchestra, and the <i>tschou</i>, or wooden box-drum, which +begins the music, at the northeast; in the middle are +placed the singers who accompany the hymn by posturing +as well as by chanting. At the back of the hall are +pictures of the ancestors, or merely tablets inscribed +with their names, before which is a kind of altar, bearing +flowers and offerings. The first verse of the hymn consists +of eight lines in praise of the godlike virtues of the ancestors, +whose spirits are supposed to descend from Heaven +and enter the hall during the singing of this verse by +the chorus. Then the Emperor prostrates himself three +times before the altar, touching his head to the earth +each time. As he offers the libations and burns the perfumes +on the altar, the chorus sings the second verse of +eight lines, in which the spirits are thanked for answering +the prayer and entreated to accept the offerings. The +<a class="pagebreak" name="page58" id="page58" title="58"></a> +Emperor then prostrates himself nine times, after which +he resumes his position before the altar, while the last +verse of eight lines, eulogistic of the ancestors, is being +chanted; during this the spirits are supposed to ascend +again to Heaven. The hymn ends with the scraping of +the tiger's back and striking it on the head. +</p> + +<p> +We can imagine the partial gloom of this species of +chapel, lighted by many burning, smoky joss-sticks, with +its glint of many-coloured silks, and gold embroidery; the +whining, nasal, half-spoken, monotonous drone of the +singers with their writhing figures bespangled with gold +and vivid colour; the incessant stream of shrill tones from +the wind instruments; the wavering, light clatter of the +musical stones broken by the steady crash of gongs and +the deep booming of large drums; while from outside, the +most monstrous bell-like noises vaguely penetrate the +smoke-laden atmosphere. The ceremony must be barbarously +impressive; the strange magnificence of it all, together +with the belief in the actual presence of the spirits, +which the vague white wreaths of joss-stick smoke help to +suggest, seem to lend it dignity. From the point of view +of what we call music, the hymn is childish enough; but +we must keep in mind the definition of Confucius. According +to the Chinese, music includes that phase of sound +which we call mere noise, and the harmonizing of this +noise is Chinese art. We must admit, therefore, that +from this point of view their orchestra is well balanced, +for what will rhyme better with noise than more noise? +The gong is best answered by the drum, and the tomtom +by the great bell. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page59" id="page59" title="59"></a> +China also has its folk song, which seems to be an +irrepressible flower of the field in all countries. This also +follows the precepts of the sages in using only the five-note +or pentatonic scale found among so many other +nationalities. It differs, however, from the official or +religious music, inasmuch as that unrhythmic perfection +of monotony, so loved by Confucius, Mencius, and their +followers, is discarded in favour of a style more naturally +in touch with human emotion. These folk songs have a +strong similarity to Scotch and Irish songs, owing to the +absence of the fourth and seventh degrees of the scale. +If they were really sung to the accompaniment of chords, +the resemblance would be very striking. The Chinese +singing voice, however, is not sonorous, the quality +commonly used being a kind of high, nasal whine, very far +removed from what we call music. The accompaniment +of the songs is of a character most discordant to European +ears, consisting as it does mainly of constant drum or +gong beats interspersed with the shrill notes of the <i>kin</i>, +the principal Chinese stringed instrument. Ambros, the +historian, quotes a number of these melodies, but falls +into a strange mistake, for his version of a folk song +called “<i>Tsin-fa</i>” is as follows: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure01.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page60" id="page60" title="60"></a> +<img src="images/figure01.png" width="541" height="409" alt="[Figure 01]" /> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +Now this is exactly as if a Chinaman, wishing to give his +countrymen an idea of a Beethoven sonata, were to eliminate +all the harmony and leave only the bare melody +accompanied by indiscriminate beats on the gong and a +steady banging on two or three drums of different sizes. +This is certainly the manner in which the little melody +just quoted would be accompanied, and not by European +chords and rhythms. +</p> + +<p> +If we could eliminate from our minds all thoughts of +music and bring ourselves to listen only to the <i>texture</i> +of sounds, we could better understand the Chinese ideal +of musical art. For instance, if in listening to the deep, +slow vibrations of a large gong we ignore completely all +thought of pitch, fixing our attention only upon the +roundness and fullness of the sound and the way it gradually +diminishes in volume without losing any of its pulsating +colour, we should then realize what the Chinese +call music. Confucius said, “When the music master +<a class="pagebreak" name="page61" id="page61" title="61"></a> +Che first entered on his office, the finish with the <i>Kwan-Ts'eu</i> +(Pan's-pipes) was magnificent—how it filled the +ears!” <a name="ft03"></a>And that is just what Chinese music aims to +do, it “fills the ears” and therefore is +“magnificent.”<a class="fn" href="#fn03"> 3 </a> +</p> + +<p> +With their views as to what constitutes the beautiful +in music it is not strange that the Chinese find our music +detestable. It goes too fast for them. They ask, “Why +play another entirely different kind of sound until one +has already enjoyed to the full what has gone before?” +As they told Père Amiot many years ago: “Our music +penetrates through the ear to the heart, and from the +heart to the soul; that your music cannot do.” Amiot +had played on a harpsichord some pieces by Rameau +(“<i>Les Cyclopes</i>,” “<i>Les Charmes</i>,” etc.) and much flute +music, but they could make nothing of it. +</p> + +<p> +According to their conception of music, sounds must +follow one another slowly, in order to pass through the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page62" id="page62" title="62"></a> +ears to the heart and thence to the soul; therefore they +went back with renewed satisfaction to their long, monotonous +chant accompanied by a pulsating fog of clangour. +</p> + +<p> +Some years ago, at the time of that sudden desire of +China, or more particularly of Li Hung Chang, to know +more of occidental civilization, some Chinese students +were sent by their government to Berlin to study music. +After about a month's residence in Berlin these students +wrote to the Chinese government asking to be recalled, +as they said it would be folly to remain in a barbarous +country where even the most elementary principles of +music had not yet been grasped. +</p> + +<p> +To go deeply into the more technical side of Chinese +music would be a thankless task, for in the Chinese character +the practical is entirely overshadowed by the speculative. +All kinds of fanciful names are given to the +different tones, and many strange ideas associated with +them. Although our modern chromatic scale (all but +the last half-tone) is familiar to them, they have never +risen to a practical use of it even to this day. The Chinese +scale is now, as it always has been, one of five notes to +the octave, that is to say, our modern major scale with +the fourth and seventh omitted. +</p> + +<p> +From a technical point of view, the instruments of +bamboo attain an importance above all other Chinese +instruments. According to the legend, the Pan's-pipes +of bamboo regulated the tuning of all other instruments, +and as a matter of fact the pipe giving the note F, the universal +tonic, is the origin of all measures also. For this +pipe, which in China is called the “musical foot,” is at +<a class="pagebreak" name="page63" id="page63" title="63"></a> +the same time a standard measure, holding exactly +twelve hundred millet seeds, and long enough for one +hundred millet seeds to stand end on end within it. +</p> + +<p> +In concluding this consideration of the music of the +Chinese, I would draw attention to the unceasing repetition +which constitutes a prominent feature in all barbarous or +semi-barbarous music. In the “Hymn of the Ancestors” +this endless play on three or four notes is very marked. +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure02.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure02.png" width="531" height="331" alt="[Figure 02]" /> +</p> + +<p> +In other songs it is equally apparent. +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure03.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure03.png" width="531" height="134" alt="[Figure 03] etc." /> +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure04.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure04.png" width="531" height="219" alt="[Figure 04]" /> +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure05.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure05.png" width="415" height="55" alt="[Figure 05] etc." /> +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page64" id="page64" title="64"></a> +This characteristic is met with in the music of the +American Indians, also in American street songs, in fact +in all music of a primitive nature, just as our school +children draw caricatures similar to those made by great +chiefs and medicine men in the heart of Africa, and, +similarly, the celebrated “graffiti” of the Roman soldiers +were precisely of the same nature as the beginnings of +Egyptian art. In art, the child is always a barbarian +more or less, and all strong emotion acting on a naturally +weak organism or a primitive nature brings the same +result, namely, that of stubborn repetition of one idea. +An example of this is Macbeth, who, in the very height +of his passion, stops to juggle with the word “sleep,” and +in spite of the efforts of his wife, who is by far the more +civilized of the two, again and again recurs to it, even +though he is in mortal danger. When Lady Macbeth at +last breaks down, she also shows the same trait in regard +to her bloodstained hands. It is not so far from Scotland +to the Polar regions, and there we find that when Kane +captured a young Eskimo and kept him on his ship, the +only sign of life the prisoner gave was to sing over and +over to himself the following: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure06.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure06.png" width="193" height="53" alt="[Figure 06]" /> +</p> + +<p> +Coming back again to civilization, we find Tennyson's +Elaine, in her grief, repeating, incessantly the words, +“Must I then die.” +</p> + +<p> +The music of the Siamese, Burmese, Javanese, and +Japanese has much in common with that of the Chinese, +the difference between the first two and the last named +<a class="pagebreak" name="page65" id="page65" title="65"></a> +being mainly in the absence of the <i>king</i>, or musical stones, +or rather the substitution of sets of drums in place of it. +For instance, the Burmese drum-organ, as it is called, +consists of twenty-one drums of various sizes hung inside +a great hoop. Their gong-organ consists of fifteen or +more gongs of different sizes strung inside a hoop in the +same manner. The player takes his place in the middle +of the hoop and strikes the drums or gongs with a kind of +stick. These instruments are largely used in processions, +being carried by two men, just as a sedan chair is borne; +the player, in order to strike all the gongs and bells, must +often walk backwards, or strike them behind his back. +</p> + +<p> +In Javanese and Burmese music these sets of gongs +and drums are used incessantly, and form a kind of high-pitched, +sustained tone beneath which the music is played +or sung. +</p> + +<p> +In Siamese music the wind instruments have a prominent +place. After having heard the Siamese Royal +Orchestra a number of times in London, I came to the +conclusion that the players on the different instruments +<i>improvise</i> their parts, the only rule being the general +character of the melodies to be played, and the finishing +together. The effect of the music was that of a contrapuntal +nightmare, hideous to a degree which one who has +not heard it cannot conceive. Berlioz, in his “Soirées +de l'orchestre,” well described its effect when he said: +</p> + +<blockquote> +<p> +“After the first sensation of horror which one cannot repress, one +feels impelled to laugh, and this hilarity can only be controlled by +leaving the hall. So long as these impossible sounds continue, the +fact of their being gravely produced, and in all sincerity <i>admired</i> +by the players, makes the ‘concert’ appear inexpressibly ‘comic.’” +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page66" id="page66" title="66"></a> +The Japanese had the same Buddhistic disregard for +euphony, but they have adopted European ideas in +music and are rapidly becoming occidentalized from a +musical point of view. Their principal instruments are +the <i>koto</i> and the <i>samisen</i>. The former is similar to the +Chinese <i>che</i>, and is a kind of large zither with thirteen +strings, each having a movable bridge by means of +which the pitch of the string may be raised or lowered. +The <i>samisen</i> is a kind of small banjo, and probably +originated in the Chinese <i>kin</i>. +</p> + +<p> +From Buddhism to sun worship, from China to Peru +and Mexico, is a marked change, but we find strange +resemblances in the music of these peoples, seeming +almost to corroborate the theory that the southern +American races may be traced back to the extreme Orient. +We remember that in the Chinese sacred chants—“official” +music as one may call it—all the notes were +of exactly the same length. Now Garcilaso de la Vega +(1550), in his “Commentarios Reales,” tells us that +unequal time was unknown in Peru, that all the notes in +a song were of exactly the same length. He further tells +us that in his time the voice was but seldom heard in +singing, and that all the songs were played on the flute, +the words being so well known that the melody of the +flute immediately suggested them. The Peruvians were +essentially a pipe race, while, on the other hand, the instruments +of the Mexicans were of the other extreme, all +kinds of drums, copper gongs, rattles, musical stones, +cymbals, bells, etc., thus completing the resemblance to +Chinese art. In Prescott's “Conquest of Peru” we may +<a class="pagebreak" name="page67" id="page67" title="67"></a> +read of the beautiful festival of Raymi, or adoration of +the sun, held at the period of the summer solstice. It +describes how the Inca and his court, followed by the +whole population of the city, assembled at early dawn +in the great square of Cuzco, and how, at the appearance +of the first rays of the sun, a great shout would go up, and +thousands of wind instruments would break forth into a +majestic song of adoration. That the Peruvians were a +gentler nation than the Mexicans can be seen from their +principal instrument, the pipe. +</p> + +<p> +While it has been strenuously denied that on such occasions +human sacrifices were offered in Peru, the Mexicans, +that race whose principal instruments were drums and +brass trumpets, not only held such sacrifices, but, strange +to say, held them in honour of a kind of god of music, +Tezcatlipoca. This festival was the most important in +Mexico, and took place at the temple or “teocalli,” a +gigantic, pyramid-like mass of stone, rising in terraces to +a height of eighty-six feet above the city, and culminating +in a small summit platform upon which the long procession +of priests and victims could be seen from all parts of +the city. Once a year the sacrifice was given additional +importance, for then the most beautiful youth in Mexico +was chosen to represent the god himself. For a year +before the sacrifice he was dressed as Tezcatlipoca, in +royal robes and white linen, with a helmet-like crown of +sea shells with white cocks' plumes, and with an anklet +hung with twenty gold bells as a symbol of his power, +and he was married to the most beautiful maiden in +Mexico. The priests taught him to play the flute, and +<a class="pagebreak" name="page68" id="page68" title="68"></a> +whenever the people heard the sound of it they fell down +and worshipped him. +</p> + +<p> +The account may be found in Bancroft's great work +on the “Native Races of the Pacific,” also Sahagun's +“Nueva España and Bernal Diaz,” but perhaps the most +dramatic description is that by Rowbotham: +</p> + +<blockquote> +<p> +And when the morning of the day of sacrifice arrived, he was +taken by water to the Pyramid Temple where he was to be sacrificed, +and crowds lined the banks of the river to see him in the +barge, sitting in the midst of his beautiful companions. When +the barge touched the shore, he was taken away from those companions +of his forever, and was delivered over to a band of priests, exchanging +the company of beautiful women for men clothed in black +mantles, with long hair matted with blood—their ears also were +mangled. These conducted him to the steps of the pyramid, and he +was driven up amidst a crowd of priests, with drums beating and +trumpets blowing. As he went up he broke an earthen flute on +every step to show that his love, and his delights were over. And +when he reached the top, he was sacrificed on an altar of jasper, and +the signal that the sacrifice was completed was given to the multitudes +below by <a name="ft04"></a>the rolling of the great +sacrificial drum.<a class="fn" href="#fn04"> 4 </a> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<hr /> + +<p class="fn"><span><a href="#ft02"> 2 </a></span><a name="fn02"></a> +<i>Kong</i>. His disciples called him <i>Fu Tsee</i>, or “the master”; Jesuit +missionaries Latinized this to Confucius.</p> + +<p class="fn"><span><a href="#ft03"> 3 </a></span><a name="fn03"></a> +The Chinese theatre has been called an unconscious parody of +our old-fashioned Italian opera, and there are certainly many resemblances. +In a Chinese play, when the situation becomes tragic, or +when one of the characters is seized with some strong emotion, it +finds vent in a kind of aria. The dialogue is generally given in the +most monotonous manner possible—using only high throat and +head tones, occasionally lowering or raising the voice on a word, +to express emotion. This monotonous, and to European ears, +strangely nonchalant, nasal recitative, is being continually interrupted +by gong pounding and the shrill, high sound of discordant +reed instruments. When one or more of the characters commits +suicide (which as we know is an honoured custom in China) he sings—or +rather whines—a long chant before he dies, just as his western +operatic colleagues do, as, for instance, Edgar in “Lucia di Lammermoor” +and even, to come nearer home, Siegfried in “Götterdämmerung.”</p> + +<p class="fn"><span><a href="#ft04"> 4 </a></span><a name="fn04"></a> +This drum was made of serpents' skins, and the sound of it was +so loud that it could be heard eight miles away.</p> + + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page69" id="page69" title="69"></a> +VI<br /><br /> +THE MUSIC OF GREECE</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">The</span> +first name of significance in Greek music is that +of Homer. The hexameters of “The Iliad” and “The +Odyssey” were quite probably chanted, but the four-stringed +lyre which we associate with the ancient Greek +singers was only used for a few preluding notes—possibly +to pitch the voice of the bard—and not during the chant +itself. For whatever melody this chant possessed, it +depended entirely upon the raising and lowering of the +voice according to the accent of the words and the dramatic +feeling of the narrative. For its rhythm it depended +upon that of the hexameter, which consists of a line of +six dactyls and spondees, the line always ending with a +spondee. Really the line should end with a dactyl +<span class="nobr">(<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" />)</span> +and a spondee +<span class="nobr">(<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" />).</span> +If a line ends with +two spondees it is a spondaic hexameter. +</p> + +<p> +From this it would seem that while the pitch of the +chant would be very difficult to gauge, owing to the diversity +of opinion as to how to measure in actual sounds +the effect of emotions upon the human voice, at least the +<i>rhythm</i> of the chants would be well defined, owing to +the hexameter in which the latter were written. Here +again, however, we are cast adrift by theory, for in practice +nothing could be more misleading than such a deduction. +For instance, the following lines from Longfellow's +<a class="pagebreak" name="page70" id="page70" title="70"></a> +“Evangeline” are both in this metre, although the rhythm +of one differs greatly from that of the other. +</p> + +<blockquote><p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Wearing her Norman cap, and her kirtle of blue, and the earrings</span> +</p></blockquote> + +<p class="cont"> +and +</p> + +<blockquote><p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Shielding the house from storms, on the north were the barns and the farm-yard.</span> +</p></blockquote> + +<p> +Now if we think that these lines can be sung to the same +musical rhythm we are very far from the truth, although +both are hexameters, namely, +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +dactyls, ending with spondee. +</p> + +<p> +Thus we see that metre in verse and rhythm in music +are two different things, although of course they both +had the same origin. +</p> + +<p> +After all has been said, it is perhaps best to admit that, +so far as Greek music is concerned, its better part certainly +lay in poetry. In ancient times all poetry was sung or +chanted; it was what I have called impassioned speech. +The declamation of “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” +constituted what was really the “vocal” music of the +poems. With the Greeks the word “music” (<i>mousiké</i>) +included all the æsthetic culture that formed part of the +education of youth; in the same general way a poet was +called a singer, and even in Roman times we find Terence, +in his “Phormio,” alluding to poets as musicians. That +Æschylus and Sophocles were not musicians, as we +understand the term, is very evident in spite of the +controversies on the subject. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page71" id="page71" title="71"></a> +Impassioned speech, then, was all that existed of vocal +music, and as such was in every way merely the audible +expression of poetry. I have no doubt that this is the +explanation of the statement that Æschylus and Sophocles +wrote what has been termed the <i>music</i> to their tragedies. +What they really did was to teach the chorus the proper +declamation and stage action. It is well known that at +the Dionysian Festival it was to the poet as “chorus +master” that the prize was awarded, so entirely were the +arts identified one with the other. That declamation +may often reach the power of music, it is hardly necessary +to say. Among modern poets, let any one, for instance, +look at Tennyson's “Passing of Arthur” for an example +of this kind of music; the mere sound of the words completes +the picture. For instance, when Arthur is dying +and gives his sword, Excalibur, to Sir Bedivere with the +command to throw it into the mere, the latter twice +fails to do so, and returns to Arthur telling him that all +he saw was +</p> + +<blockquote><p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“The water lapping on the crag</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And the long ripple washing in the reeds.”</span> +</p></blockquote> + +<p class="cont"> +But when at last he throws it, the magic sword +</p> + +<blockquote><p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And flashing round and round, and whirl'd in an arch</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Shot like a streamer of the northern morn.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">So flashed and fell the brand Excalibur.”</span> +</p></blockquote> + +<p> +Again, when Sir Bedivere, carrying the dying king, +stumbles up over the icy rocks to the shore, his armour +clashing and clanking, the verse uses all the clangour +of cr—ck, the slipping s's too, and the vowel <i>a</i> is used in +<a class="pagebreak" name="page72" id="page72" title="72"></a> +all its changes; when the shore is finally reached, the verse +suddenly turns into smoothness, the long <i>o</i>'s giving the +same feeling of breadth and calm that modern music +would attempt if it treated the same subject. +</p> + +<p> +Here are the lines: +</p> + +<blockquote><p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Dry clash'd his harness in the icy caves</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And barren chasms, and all to left and right</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The bare, black cliff clang'd round him as he based</span><br /> +<span class="i0">His feet on juts of slippery crag that rang</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Sharp-smitten with the dint of arméd heels.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And on a sudden, lo! the level lake</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And the long glories of the winter moon.</span> +</p></blockquote> + +<p> +When we think of the earlier Greek plays, we must +imagine the music of the words themselves, the cadenced +voices of the protagonist or solitary performer, and the +chorus, the latter keeping up a rhythmic motion with the +words. This, I am convinced, was the extent of Greek +music, so far as that which was ascribed to the older poets +is concerned. +</p> + +<p> +Instrumental music was another thing, and although +we possess no authentic examples of it, we know what +its scales consisted of and what instruments were in use. +It would be interesting to pass in review the tragedies of +Æschylus and Sophocles, the odes of Sappho and Pindar, +those of the latter having a novel periodicity of form +which gives force to the suggestion that these choric +dances were the forerunners of our modern instrumental +forms. +</p> + +<p> +Such matters, however, take us from our actual subject, +and we will therefore turn to Pythagoras, at Crotona, +in Italy (about 500 B.C.), whom we find already +<a class="pagebreak" name="page73" id="page73" title="73"></a> +laying down the rules forming a mathematical and scientific +basis for the Greek musical scale. +</p> + +<p> +More than three centuries had passed since Homer had +chanted his “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” and in the course of +the succeeding fifty years some of the master spirits of +the world were to appear. When we think of Pythagoras, +Gautama, Buddha, Confucius, Æschylus, Sophocles, Sappho, +Pindar, Phidias, and Herodotus as contemporaries—and +this list might be vastly extended—it seems as if +some strange wave of ideality had poured over mankind. +In Greece, however, Pythagoras's theory of metempsychosis +(doctrine of the supposed transmigration of the soul +from one body to another) was not strong enough to make +permanent headway, and his scientific theories unhappily +turned music from its natural course into the workshop +of science, from which Aristoxenus in vain attempted to +rescue it. +</p> + +<p> +At that time Homer's hexameter had begun to experience +many changes, and from the art of rhythm developed +that of rhyme and form. <a name="ft05"></a>The old lyre, from having +four strings, was developed by Terpander, victor in the +first musical contest at the feast of Apollo Carneius, into +an instrument of seven strings, to which Pythagoras<a class="fn" href="#fn05"> 5 </a> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page74" id="page74" title="74"></a> +added an eighth, Theophrastus a ninth, and so on until +the number of eighteen was reached. +</p> + +<p> +Flute and lyre playing had attained a high state of +excellence, for we hear that Lasus, the teacher of the +poet Pindar (himself the son of a Theban flute player), +introduced into lyre playing the runs and light passages +which, until that time, it had been thought possible to +produce only on the flute. +</p> + +<p> +The dance also had undergone a wonderful development +rhythmically; for even in Homer's time we read in “The +Odyssey” of the court of Alcinoüs at Phocæa, how two +princes danced before Ulysses and played with a scarlet +ball, one throwing it high in the air, the other always +catching it with his feet off the ground; and then changing, +they flung the ball from one to the other with such rapidity +that it made the onlookers dizzy. During the play, +Demidocus chanted a song, and accompanied the dance +with his lyre, the players never losing a step. As Aristides +(died 468 B.C.), speaking of Greek music many +centuries later said: “Metre is not a thing which concerns +the ear alone, for in the dance it is to be <i>seen</i>.” Even a +statue was said to have silent rhythm, and pictures were +spoken of as being musical or unmusical. +</p> + +<p> +Already in Homer's time, the Cretans had six varieties +of +<img src="images/time_54.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[5/4]" /> +time to which they danced: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<img src="images/cretan_54.png" width="295" height="104" + alt="[4 8 4 | 4 8 8 8 | 8 4 8 8 | + 8 8 4 8 | 8 8 8 4 | 8 8 8 8 8] + [- ' - | - ' ' ' | ' - ' ' | + ' ' - ' | ' ' ' - | ' ' ' ' ']" /> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page75" id="page75" title="75"></a> +The first was known as the Cretic foot, being in a way the +model or type from which the others were made; but the +others were called pæons. The “Hymn to Apollo” was +called a pæon or pæan, for the singers danced in Cretic +rhythms as they chanted it. +</p> + +<p> +There were many other dances in Greece, each having +its characteristic rhythm. For instance, the Molossian +dance consisted of three long steps, +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /></span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/ob.png" width="8" height="28" alt="(" + /><img src="images/time_32.png" width="9" height="25" alt="[3/2]" + /><img src="images/cb.png" width="8" height="28" alt=")" />;</span> +that of the +Laconians was the dactyl, +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /></span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/ob.png" width="8" height="28" alt="(" + /><img src="images/time_44.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[4/4]" + /><img src="images/cb.png" width="8" height="28" alt=")" />,</span> +which was sometimes +reversed +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /></span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/ob.png" width="8" height="28" alt="(" + /><img src="images/time_44.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[4/4]" + /><img src="images/cb.png" width="8" height="28" alt=")" />.</span> +In the latter form it was also the +chief dance of the Locrians, the step being called anapæst. +From Ionia came the two long and two short steps, +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" />,</span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/ob.png" width="8" height="28" alt="(" + /><img src="images/ionic_1.png" width="94" height="26" + alt="[3/4: 4 4 8 8]" + /><img src="images/cb.png" width="8" height="28" alt=")" />,</span> or +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /></span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/ob.png" width="8" height="28" alt="(" + /><img src="images/ionic_2.png" width="86" height="26" + alt="[3/4: 8 8 4 4]" + /><img src="images/cb.png" width="8" height="28" alt=")" />,</span> +which were called +Ionic feet. The Doric steps consisted primarily of a +trochee and a spondee, +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /></span> +or +<img src="images/time_78.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[7/8]" /> +time. These +values, however, were arranged in three other different +orders, namely, +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/barline.png" width="2" height="26" alt="|" /></span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/barline.png" width="2" height="26" alt="|" /></span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/barline.png" width="2" height="26" alt="|" /></span> +and +were called the first, second, third, or fourth epitrite, according +to the positions of the short step. The second +epitrite was considered the most distinctly Doric. +</p> + +<p> +<a name="ft06"></a>The advent of the +Dionysian<a class="fn" href="#fn06"> 6 </a> festivals in Greece +threatened to destroy art, for those wild Bacchic dances, +which are to be traced back to that frenzied worship of +Bel and Astarte in Babylon, wild dances amenable only to +the impulse of the moment, seemed to carry everything +before them. Instead of that, however, the hymns to +Bacchus, who was called in Phœnicia the flute god, from +which the characteristics of his worship are indicated, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page76" id="page76" title="76"></a> +were the germs from which tragedy and comedy developed, +and the mad bacchanalian dances were tamed into dithyrambs. +For the Corybantes, priests of the goddess +Cybele, brought from Phrygia, in Asia Minor, the darker +form of this worship; they mourned for the death of +Bacchus, who was supposed to die in winter and to come +to life again in the spring. When these mournful hymns +were sung, a goat was sacrificed on the altar; thus the +origin of the word “tragedy” or “goat song” (<i>tragos</i>, +goat, and <i>odos</i>, singer). As the rite developed, the leader +of the chorus would chant the praises of Dionysus, and +sing of his adventures, to which the chorus would make +response. In time it became the custom for the leader, or +coryphæus, to be answered by one single member of the +chorus, the latter being thus used merely for the chanting +of commentaries on the narrative. The answerer was +called “hypocrite,” afterward the term for actor. +</p> + +<p> +This was the material from which Æschylus created +the first tragedy, as we understand the term. Sophocles +(495–406 B.C.) followed, increasing the number of actors, +as did also Euripides (480–406 B.C.). +</p> + +<p> +Comedy (<i>komos</i>, revel, and <i>odos</i>, singer) arose from the +spring and summer worship of Bacchus, when everything +was a jest and Nature smiled again. +</p> + +<p> +The dithyramb (<i>dithyrambos</i> or Bacchic step, +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/barline.png" width="2" height="26" alt="|" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/barline.png" width="2" height="26" alt="|" /> )</span> +brought a new step to the dance and therefore a new +element into poetry, for all dances were choric, that is to +say they were sung as well as danced. +</p> + +<p> +Arion was the first to attempt to bring the dithyramb into +poetry, by teaching the dancers to use a slower movement +<a class="pagebreak" name="page77" id="page77" title="77"></a> +and to observe greater regularity in their various steps. +The Lydian flute, as may be supposed, was the instrument +which accompanied the dithyramb, associated with all +kinds of harsh, clashing instruments, such as cymbals, +tambourines, castanets. These Arion tried to replace by +the more dignified Grecian lyre; but it was long before +this mad dance sobered down to regular rhythm and +form. From Corinth, where Arion first laboured, we pass +to Sicyon, where the taming of the dithyramb into an +art form was accomplished by Praxilla, a poetess who +added a new charm to the lilt of this Bacchic metre, +namely, rhyme. +</p> + +<p> +And this newly acquired poetic wealth was in keeping +with the increasing luxury and magnificence of the cities, +for we read in Athenæus and Diodorus that Agrigentum +sent to the Olympic games three hundred chariots, +drawn by white horses. The citizens wore garments of +cloth of gold, and even their household ornaments were of +gold and silver; in their houses they had wine cellars +which contained three hundred vats, each holding a hundred +hogsheads of wine. In Sybaris this luxury reached +its height, for the Sybarites would not allow any trade +which caused a disagreeable sound, such as that of the +blacksmith, carpenter, or mason, to be carried on in their +city limits. They dressed in garments of deep purple, +tied their hair in gold threads, and the city was famed for +its incessant banqueting and merrymaking. It was such +luxury as this that Pindar found at the court of Hiero, +at Syracuse, whither Æschylus had retired after his +defeat by Sophocles at the Dionysian Festival at Athens. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page78" id="page78" title="78"></a> +The worship of Bacchus being at its height at that time, it +may be imagined that wine formed the principal element of +their feasts. And even as the dithyramb had been pressed +into the service of poetry, so was drinking made rhythmic +by music. For even the wine was mixed with water +according to musical ratios; for instance, the pæonic or 3 +to 2, +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /></span> = +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/r_8884.png" width="56" height="26" alt="[8 8 8 4]" />;</span> +the iambic or 2 to 1, +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /></span> = +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/r_48.png" width="33" height="26" alt="[4 8]" />;</span> +dactylic or 2 to 2, +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="'" /></span> = +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/r_4d88.png" width="52" height="26" alt="[4. 8 8]" />.</span> +The master of the +feast decided the ratio, and a flute girl played a prescribed +melody while the toast to good fortune, which commenced +every banquet, was being drunk. By the time the last +note had sounded, the great cup should have gone round +the table and been returned to the master. And then +they had the game of the cottabos, which consisted of +throwing the contents of a wine cup high in the air in +such a manner that the wine would fall in a solid mass +into a metal basin. The winner was the one who produced +the clearest musical sound from the basin. +</p> + +<p> +We see from all this that music was considered rather +a beautiful plaything or a mere colour. By itself it was +considered effeminate; therefore the early Greeks always +had the flute player accompanied by a singer, and the +voice was always used with the lyre to prevent the latter +appealing directly to the senses. The dance was corrected +in the same manner; for when we speak of Greek dances, +we always mean <i>choric</i> dances. Perhaps the nearest +approach to the effect of what we call music was made +by Æschylus, in the last scene of his “Persians,” when +Xerxes and the chorus end the play with one continued +<a class="pagebreak" name="page79" id="page79" title="79"></a> +wail of sorrow. In this instance the words take second +place, and the actual sound is depended upon for the +dramatic effect. +</p> + +<p> +The rise and fall of actual instrumental music in Greece +may be placed between 500 and 400 B.C. After the +close of the Peloponnesian War (404 B.C.), when Sparta +supplanted Athens as the leader of Greece, art declined +rapidly, and at the time of Philip of Macedon (328 B.C.) +may be said to have been practically extinct. Then, +in place of the dead ashes of art, the cold fire of science +arose; for we have such men as Euclid (300 B.C.) and +his school applying mathematics to musical sounds, and +a system of cold calculation to an art that had needed +all the warmth of emotional enthusiasm to keep it alive. +Thus music became a science. Had it not been for the +little weeds of folk song which managed with difficulty +to survive at the foot of this arid dust heap, and which +were destined to be transformed and finally to bloom +into such lovely flowers in our times, we might yet +have been using the art to illustrate mathematical +calculations. +</p> + +<p> +The teaching of Pythagoras was the first step in this +classification of sounds; and he went further than this, +for he also classified the <i>emotions</i> affected by music. It +was therefore a natural consequence that in his teaching he +should forbid music of an emotional character as injurious. +When he came to Crotona, it was to a city that vied +with Agrigentum, Sybaris, and Tarentum in luxury; its +chief magistrate wore purple garments, a golden crown +upon his head, and white shoes on his feet. It was said +<a class="pagebreak" name="page80" id="page80" title="80"></a> +of Pythagoras that he had studied twelve years with the +Magi in the temples of Babylon; had lived among the +Druids of Gaul and the Indian Brahmins; had gone among +the priests of Egypt and witnessed their most secret +temple rites. So free from care or passion was his face +that he was thought by the people to be Apollo; he was of +majestic presence, and the most beautiful man they had +ever seen. So the people accepted him as a superior +being, and his influence became supreme over science and +art, as well as manners. +</p> + +<p> +He gave the Greeks their first scientific analysis of sound. +The legend runs that, passing a blacksmith's shop and +hearing the different sounds of the hammering, he conceived +the idea that sounds could be measured by some +such means as weight is measured by scales, or distance +by the foot rule. By weighing the different hammers, +so the story goes, he obtained the knowledge of harmonics +or overtones, namely, the fundamental, octave, fifth, +third, etc. This legend, which is stated seriously in many +histories of music, is absurd, for, as we know, the hammers +would not have vibrated. The anvils would have +given the sound, but in order to produce the octave, +fifth, etc., they would have had to be of enormous proportions. +On the other hand, the monochord, with which +students in physics are familiar, was his invention; and the +first mathematical demonstrations of the effect on musical +pitch of length of cord and tension, as well as the length +of pipes and force of breath, were his. +</p> + +<p> +These mathematical divisions of the monochord, however, +eventually did more to stifle music for a full thousand +<a class="pagebreak" name="page81" id="page81" title="81"></a> +years than can easily be imagined. This division of the +string made what we call harmony impossible; for by it +the major third became a larger interval than our modern +one, and the minor third smaller. Thus thirds did not +sound well together, in fact were dissonances, the only +intervals which <i>did</i> harmonize being the fourth, fifth, +and octave. This system of mathematically dividing +tones into equal parts held good up to the middle of the +sixteenth century, when Zarlino, who died in 1590, invented +the system in use at the present time, called the <i>tempered +scale</i>, which, however, did not come into general use +until one hundred years later. +</p> + +<p> +Aristoxenus, a pupil of Aristotle, who lived more than +a century after Pythagoras, rejected the monochord as a +means for gauging musical sounds, believing that the ear, +not mathematical calculation, should be the judge as to +which interval sounds “perfect.” But he was unable to +formulate a system that would bring the third (and naturally +its inversion the sixth) among the harmonizing intervals +or consonants. Didymus (about 30 B.C.) first +discovered that two different-sized whole tones were necessary +in order to make the third consonant; and Ptolemy +(120 A.D.) improved on this system somewhat. But +the new theory remained without any practical effect +until nearly the seventeenth century, when the long +respected theory of the perfection of mathematical calculation +on the basis of natural phenomena was overthrown +in favour of actual effect. If Aristoxenus had +had followers able to combat the crushing influence of +Euclid and his school, music might have grown up with +<a class="pagebreak" name="page82" id="page82" title="82"></a> +the other arts. As it is, music is still in its infancy, and +has hardly left its experimental stage. +</p> + +<p> +Thus Pythagoras brought order into the music as well +as into the lives of people. But whereas it ennobled the +people, it killed the music, the one vent in life through +which unbounded utterance is possible; its essence is so +interwoven with spirituality that to tear it away and +fetter it with human mathematics is to lower it to the level +of mere utilitarianism. And so it was with Greek music, +which was held subordinate to metre, to poetry, to acting, +and finally became a term of contempt. Pythagoras +wished to banish the flute, as Plato also did later, and the +name of flute player was used as a reproach. I fancy this +was because the flute, on account of its construction, +could ignore the mathematical divisions prescribed for +the stringed instruments, and therefore could indulge in +purely emotional music. Besides, the flute was the +chosen instrument of the orgiastic Bacchic cult, and its +associations were those of unbridled license. To be sure, +the voice was held by no mathematical restrictions as to +pitch; but its music was held in check by the words, and +its metre by dancing feet. +</p> + +<p> +Having measured the musical intervals, there still +remained the task of classifying the different manners of +singing which existed in Greece, and using all their different +notes to form a general system. For just as in different +parts of Greece there existed different dances, the +steps of which were known as Lydian, Ionian, Locrian, +and Dorian feet, and so on, so the melodies to which +they were danced were known as being in the Lydian, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page83" id="page83" title="83"></a> +Ionian, Locrian, or Dorian scale or mode. In speaking +of Hindu music, I explained that what we call a mode +consists of a scale, and that one mode differs from another +<i>only</i> in the position of the semitones in this scale. Now +in ancient Greece there were in use over fifteen different +modes, each one common to the part of the country in +which it originated. At the time of Pythagoras there +were seven in general use: the Dorian, Lydian, Æolian +or Locrian, Hypo- (or low) Lydian, Phrygian, Hypo- (or +low) Phrygian, and Mixolydian or mixed Lydian. The +invention of the latter is attributed to Sappho by Plutarch, +quoting Aristoxenus. +</p> + +<p> +These modes were all invested with individual characters +by the Greeks, just as in the present day we say our +major mode is happy, the minor sad. The Dorian mode +was considered the greatest, and, according to Plato, the +only one worthy of men. It was supposed to have a +dignified, martial character. The Lydian, on the other +hand, was all softness, and love songs were written in it. +The Phrygian was of a violent, ecstatic nature, and was +considered as being especially appropriate for dithyrambs, +the metre for the wild bacchanalian dances. For instance, +Aristotle tells how Philoxenus attempted to set dithyrambic +verse to the Dorian mode, and, failing, had to +return to the Phrygian. The Mixolydian, which was +Sappho's mode, was the mode for sentiment and passion. +The Dorian, Phrygian, and Lydian were the oldest +modes. +</p> + +<p> +Each mode or scale was composed of two sets of four +notes, called tetrachords, probably derived from the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page84" id="page84" title="84"></a> +ancient form of the lyre, which in Homer's time is known +to have had four strings. +</p> + +<p> +Leaving the matter of actual pitch out of the question +(for these modes might be pitched high or low, just as +our major or minor scale may be pitched in different +keys), these three modes were constructed as follows: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<img src="images/three_modes.png" width="501" height="206" + alt="Greek: Dorian (E F) G A (B C) D E, + that is, semitone, tone, tone. + Asiatic: Phrygian D (E F) G A (B C) D, + or F# (G# A) B C# (D# E) F#, + that is, tone, semitone, tone. + Lydian C D (E F) G A (B C), + that is, tone, tone, semitone." /> +</p> + +<p> +Thus we see that a tetrachord commencing with a half-tone +and followed by two whole tones was called a Dorian +tetrachord; one commencing with a tone, followed by +a half-tone, and again a tone, constituted a Phrygian tetrachord. +The other modes were as follows: In the Æolian +or Locrian the semitones occur between the second and +third notes, and the fifth and sixth: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<a href="midi/aeolian.midi"><img src="images/scale_aeolian.png" + width="347" height="35" alt="[F: b, (c+ d) e (f+ g) a b]" /></a> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +Theraclides Ponticus identifies the Hypodorian with the +Æolian, but says that the name “hypo-” merely denoted a +likeness to Doric, not to pitch. Aristoxenus denies the +identity, and says that the Hypodorian was a semitone +below the Dorian or Hypolydian. In the Hypophrygian, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page85" id="page85" title="85"></a> +the semitones occur between the third and fourth, and +sixth and seventh degrees: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<a href="midi/hypophrigian.midi"><img src="images/scale_hypophrygian.png" + width="370" height="42" alt="[F: c+ d+ (e+ f+) g+ (a+ b) c+']" /></a> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +In the Hypolydian, the semitones occur between the fourth +and fifth, and seventh and eighth: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<a href="midi/hypolydian.midi"><img src="images/scale_hypolydian.png" + width="348" height="50" alt="[F: e- f g (a b-) c' (d' e-')]" /></a> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +The Dorian (E), Phrygian (commencing on F♯ with the +fourth sharped), and the Lydian (A♭ major scale) modes +we have already explained. In the Mixolydian, the semitones +occur between the first and second, and fourth and +fifth degrees: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<a href="midi/mixolydian.midi"><img src="images/scale_mixolydian.png" + width="345" height="63" alt="[G: (a b-) c' (d' e-') f' g' a']" /></a> +</p> + +<p> +According to the best evidence (in the works of Ptolemy, +“Harmonics,” second book, and Aristides), these were +approximately the actual pitch of the modes as compared +one to another. +</p> + +<p> +And now the difficulty was to weld all these modes +together into one scale, so that all should be represented +and yet not be complicated by what we should call accidentals. +This was accomplished in the following manner, +by simple mathematical means: +</p> + +<p> +We remember that the Dorian, which was the most +greatly favoured mode in Greece, was divided into two +tetrachords of exactly the same proportions, namely, +semitone, tone, tone. By taking the lowest note of the +Mixolydian, B, and forming a Dorian tetrachord on it, +B C D E were acquired. Adding to this another Dorian +<a class="pagebreak" name="page86" id="page86" title="86"></a> +tetrachord, E F G A (commencing on the last note of +the first), and repeating the same series of tetrachords +an octave higher, we have in all four Dorian tetrachords, +two of which overlap the others. The two middle tetrachords, +constituting the original Dorian mode, were called +<i>disjunct</i>, the two outer ones which overlap the middle ones +were called <i>conjunct</i> or <i>synemmenon</i> tetrachords. +</p> + +<p> +If we consider this new scale from octave to octave, +commencing with the lowest note, that is to say from B +to B, we find that it coincides exactly with the Mixolydian +mode; therefore this was called the Mixolydian +octave. The octave in this scale from the second note, C +to C, coincides exactly with the Lydian mode, and was +called the Lydian octave; from the third note, D, up to +its octave gives the Phrygian; from the fourth note, E, +the Dorian; from the fifth, F, the Hypolydian; from the +sixth, G, the Hypophrygian; and from the seventh, A, +the Æolian or Hypodorian octave. Add one note to the +lower end of this universal Greek scale, as it was called, +and we see that the whole tonal system was included +within two octaves. To each of the notes comprising +it was given a name partly derived from its position in +the tetrachords, and partly from the fingering employed +in lyre playing, as shown in the diagram on +<a href="#page87a">page 87</a>. +</p> + +<p> +The fifteen strings of the <i>kithara</i> were tuned according +to this scale, and the A, recurring three times in it, acquired +something of the importance of a tonic or key +note. As yet, however, this scale allowed of no transposition +of a mode to another pitch; in order to accomplish +this the second tetrachord was used as the first of another +<a class="pagebreak" name="page87" id="page87" title="87"></a> +similar system. Thus, considering the second tetrachord, +E F G A, as first of the new scale, it would be followed +by A B♭ C D, and the two disjunct tetrachords would +be formed. Followed by the two upper conjunct tetrachords, +and the <i>proslambanómenos</i> added, our system on +a new pitch would be complete. This procedure has +come down almost unchanged to our times; for we have +but two modes, major and minor, which are used on every +pitch, constituting various keys. These Greek modes +are the basis on which all our modern ideas of tonality +rest; for our major mode is simply the Greek Lydian, and +our minor mode the Æolian. +</p> + +<h4><a class="pagebreak" name="page87a" id="page87a" title="87"></a> +LIST OF NOTES IN THE GREEK SCALE</h4> + +<blockquote class="flush central"> +<p> +<img src="images/scale_greek.png" width="507" height="412" + alt="A. Nete, or highest. + G. Páranete, next highest. + F. Trite, third. + E. Néte, highest. + D. Páranéte, next highest. + C. Trite, third. + B. Paramese, next to central tone + A. Mese, central tone. + G. Líchanos, index finger. + F. Parhýpate, next to lowest. + E. Hýpate, lowest. + D. Líchanos, index. + C. Parhýpate, next to lowest. + B. Hýpate, lowest. + A. Proslambanómenos, added tone." /> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page88" id="page88" title="88"></a> +To go into detailed explanation of the Greek enharmonic +and chromatic pitch will scarcely be worth while, and +I will therefore merely add that the instruments were +sometimes tuned differently, either to relieve the inevitable +monotony of this purely diatonic scale or for purposes of +modulation. A Dorian tetrachord is composed of semitone, +tone, tone; to make it chromatic, it was changed +as follows: +<a href="midi/dorian_tetra.midi"><img src="images/chromatic_tetrachord.png" + width="189" height="49" alt="[G: e' f' g-' a']" /></a> +the <i>líchanos</i>, or index +finger string, being lowered a semitone. +</p> + +<p> +The enharmonic pitch consisted of tuning the <i>líchanos</i> +down still further, almost a quarter-tone below the second +string, or <i>parhýpate</i>, thus making the tetrachord run +quarter-tone, quarter-tone, two tones. Besides this, +even in the diatonic, the Greeks used what they called +soft intervals; for example, when the tetrachord, instead +of proceeding by semitone, tone, tone (which system was +called the hard diatonic), was tuned to semitone, three-quarter-tone, +and tone and a quarter. The chromatic +pitch also had several forms, necessitating the use of small +fractional tones as well as semitones. +</p> + +<p> +Our knowledge of the musical notation of the Greeks +rests entirely on the authority of Alypius, and dates +from about the fourth century A.D. That we could +not be absolutely sure of the readings of ancient Greek +melodies, even if we possessed any, is evident from the fact +that these note characters, which at first were derived +from the signs of the zodiac, and later from the letters of +the alphabet, indicate only the relative pitch of the +sounds; the rhythm is left entirely to the metrical value +<a class="pagebreak" name="page89" id="page89" title="89"></a> +of the words in the lines to be sung. Two sets of signs +were used for musical notation, the vocal system consisting +of writing the letters of the alphabet in different positions, +upside down, sideways, etc. +</p> + +<p> +Of the instrumental system but little is known, and +that not trustworthy. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="fn"><span><a href="#ft05"> 5 </a></span><a name="fn05"></a> +The fundamental doctrine of the Pythagorean philosophy was +that the essence of all things rests upon musical relations, that +numbers are the principle of all that exists, and that the world subsists +by the rhythmical order of its elements. The doctrine of the +“Harmony of the spheres” was based on the idea that the celestial +spheres were separated from each other by intervals corresponding +with the relative length of strings arranged so as to produce harmonious +tones.</p> + +<p class="fn"><span><a href="#ft06"> 6 </a></span><a name="fn06"></a> +Dionysus, the same as the Roman Bacchus.</p> + + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page90" id="page90" title="90"></a> +VII<br /><br /> +THE MUSIC OF THE ROMANS—THE EARLY CHURCH</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">The</span> +art history of the world makes it clear to us that +when the art of a country turns to over-elaboration of +detail and mechanical dexterity, when there is a general +tendency toward vividness of <i>impression</i> rather than +poignancy and vitality of <i>expression</i>, then we have the +invariable sign of that decadence which inevitably drifts +into revolution of one kind or another. Lasus (500 B.C.), +who, as previously mentioned, was a great flute and lyre +player as well as poet, betrays this tendency, which +reached its culmination under the Romans. Lasus was +more of a virtuoso than a poet; he introduced into Greece +a new and florid style of lyre and harp playing; and it was +he who, disliking the guttural Dorian pronunciation of the +letter S, wrote many of his choric poems without using +this letter once in them. Pindar, his pupil, followed in +his footsteps. In many of his odes we find intricate +metrical devices; for instance, the first line of most of the +odes is so arranged metrically that the same order of +accents is maintained whether the line be read backward +or forward, the short and long syllables falling into +exactly the same places in either case. The line “Hercules, +the patron deity of Thebes,” may be taken as an +<a class="pagebreak" name="page91" id="page91" title="91"></a> +example, +<span class="nobr"><a href="images/hercules_orig.png"><img + src="images/hercules.png" width="213" height="20" + alt="[(- ' ' ' - )'( - ' ' ' -)]" /></a>.</span> +Such devices occur +all through his poems. We find in them also that magnificence +of diction which is the forerunner of “virtuosity”; +for he speaks of his song as “a temple with +pillars of gold, gold that glitters like blazing fire in the +night time.” +</p> + +<p> +In the hands of Aristophanes (450–380 B.C.), the +technique of poetry continued to advance. In “The +Frogs,” “The Wasps,” and “The Birds” are to be found +marvels of skill in +<a name="ft07"></a>onomatopoetic<a class="fn" href="#fn07"> 7 </a> +verse. His comedies +called for many more actors than the tragedies had required, +and the chorus was increased from fifteen to twenty-four. +Purple skins were spread across the stage, and the +<i>parabasis</i> (or topical song) and satire vied with the noble +lines of Æschylus and Sophocles for favour with the +public. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile, as might have been expected, instrumental +music became more and more independent, and musicians, +especially the flute players, prospered; for we read in +Suidas that they were much more proficient and sought +after than the lyre and kithara players. When they +played, they stood in a conspicuous place in the centre +of the audience. Dressed in long, feminine, saffron-coloured +robes, with veiled faces, and straps round their +cheeks to support the muscles of the mouth, they exhibited +the most startling feats of technical skill. Even women +became flute players, although this was considered disgraceful. +The Athenians even went so far that they +<a class="pagebreak" name="page92" id="page92" title="92"></a> +built a temple to the flute player Lamia, and worshipped +her as Venus. The prices paid to these flute players +surpassed even those given to virtuosi in modern times, +sometimes amounting to more than one thousand dollars +a day, and the luxury in which they lived became proverbial. +</p> + +<p> +During this period, Aristophanes of Alexandria (350 +B.C.), called “the grammarian,” devised a means for +indicating the inflection of the voice in speaking, by which +the cadences which orators found necessary in impassioned +speech could be classified, at least to some extent. When +the voice was to fall, a downward stroke +<img src="images/downstroke.png" width="15" height="15" alt="\" /> +was placed +above the syllable; when the voice was to be raised, an +upward stroke +<img src="images/upstroke.png" width="15" height="15" alt="/" /> +indicated it; and when the voice was +to rise and fall, the sign was +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/circumflex.png" width="15" height="15" alt="/\" />,</span> +which has become our +accent in music. These three signs are found in the +French language, in the accent <i>aigu</i>, or high accent, as in +<i>passé</i>; the accent <i>grave</i>, or low accent, as in <i>sincère</i>; or +<i>circonflexe</i>, as in <i>Phâon</i>. <a name="ft08"></a>The use of +dots<a class="fn" href="#fn08"> 8 </a> for punctuation +is also ascribed to Aristophanes; and our dots in +musical notation, as well as the use of commas to indicate +breathings, may be traced to this system. +</p> + +<p> +As I have said, all this tended toward technical skill +and analysis; what was lacking in inventive power it was +sought to cover by wonderful execution. The mania for +flute playing, for instance, seemed to spread all over the +world; later we even hear that the king of Egypt, Ptolemy +Auletes (80–51 B.C.), Cleopatra's father, was nicknamed +“the flute player.” +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page93" id="page93" title="93"></a> +In Rome, this lack of poetic vitality seemed evident +from the beginning; for while Greece was represented by +the tragedy and comedy, the Romans' preference was for +mere pantomime, a species of farce of which they possessed +three kinds: (1) The simple pantomime without chorus, +in which the actors made the plot clear to the audience +by means of gestures and dancing. (2) Another which +called for a band of instrumental musicians on the stage +to furnish an accompaniment to the acting of the pantomimist. +(3) The chorus pantomime, in which the chorus +and the orchestra were placed on the stage, supplementing +the gestures of the actors by singing a narrative of the +plot of the pantomime, and playing on their instruments. +The latter also were expressive of the non-ideal character +of the pantomime, as is indicated by the fact that the +orchestra was composed of cymbals, gongs, castanets, +foot castanets, rattles, flutes, bagpipes, gigantic lyres, and +a kind of shell or crockery cymbals, which were clashed +together. +</p> + +<p> +The Roman theatre itself was not a place connected +with the worship of the gods, as it was with the Greeks. +The altar to Dionysus had disappeared from the centre +of the orchestra, and the chorus, or rather the band, was +placed upon the stage with the actors. The bagpipe +now appears for the first time in musical history, although +there is some question as to whether it was not known to +the Assyrians. It represents, perhaps, the only remnant of +Roman music that has survived, for the modern Italian +peasants probably play in much the same way as did +their forefathers. The Roman pipes were bound with +<a class="pagebreak" name="page94" id="page94" title="94"></a> +brass, and had about the same power of tone as was +obtained from the trumpet. +</p> + +<p> +It is easy to see that an orchestra thus constituted +would be better adapted for making a great noise than +for music, while the pantomime itself was of such a brutal +nature that the degradation of art may be said to have +been complete. As the decay of art in Egypt culminated +under Ptolemy Auletes, so in Rome it culminated in the +time of Caligula (12–41 A.D.), and Nero (37–68 A.D.). +</p> + +<p> +The latter, as we learn from Suetonius, competed for +prizes in the public musical contests, and was never without +a slave at his elbow to warn him against straining his +voice. In his love of magnificence he resembled a Greek +flute player, with unbounded means to gratify it. His +palace, the “Golden House,” had triple porticos a mile +in length, and enclosed a lake surrounded by buildings +which had the appearance of a city. Within its area +were corn fields, vineyards, pastures, and woods containing +many animals, both wild and tame. In other parts +it was entirely overlaid with gold, and adorned with jewels +and mother-of-pearl. The porch was so high that a colossal +statue of himself, one hundred and twenty feet in height, +stood in it. The supper rooms were vaulted, and compartments +of the ceiling, inlaid with ivory, were made to +revolve and scatter flowers; they also contained pipes +which shed perfumes upon the guests. +</p> + +<p> +When the revolt under Vindex broke out (68 A.D.), +a new instrument had just been brought to Rome. Tertullian, +Suetonius, and Vitruvius agree in calling it an +organ. This instrument, which was the invention of +<a class="pagebreak" name="page95" id="page95" title="95"></a> +Ctesibus of Alexandria, consisted of a set of pipes through +which the air was made to vibrate by means of a kind of +water pump operated by iron keys. It was undoubtedly +the direct ancestor of our modern organ. Nero intended +to introduce these instruments into the Roman theatre. +In planning for his expedition against Vindex, his first +care was to provide carriages for his musical instruments; +for his intention was to sing songs of triumph after having +quelled the revolt. He publicly vowed that if his power +in the state were reestablished, he would include a performance +upon organs as well as upon flutes and bagpipes, in +the exhibitions he intended to institute in honour of his +success. +</p> + +<p> +From a musical point of view, Suetonius's biography of +Nero is interesting chiefly on account of its giving us +glimpses of the life of a professional musician of those +days. We read, together with many other details, that it +was the custom for a singer to lie on his back, with a sheet +of lead upon his breast, to correct unsteadiness in breathing, +and to abstain from food for two days together to +clear his voice, often denying himself fruit and sweet +pastry. The degraded state of the theatre may well be +imagined from the fact that under Nero the custom of +hiring professional applause was instituted. After his +death, which is so dramatically told by Suetonius, music +never revived in Rome. +</p> + +<p> +In the meanwhile, however, a new kind of music had +begun; in the catacombs and underground vaults, the early +Christians were chanting their first hymns. Like all that +we call “new,” this music had its roots in the old. The +<a class="pagebreak" name="page96" id="page96" title="96"></a> +hymns sung by the Christians were mainly Hebrew temple +songs, strangely changed into an uncouth imitation of the +ancient Greek drama or worship of Dionysus; for example, +Philo of Alexandria, as well as Pliny the Younger, speaks +of the Christians as accompanying their songs with gestures, +and with steps forward and backward. This Greek +influence is still further implied by the order of one of +the earliest of the Church fathers, Clement of Alexandria +(about 300 A.D.), who forbade the use of the chromatic +style in the hymns, as tending too much toward paganism. +Some writers even go so far as to identify many of the +Christian myths and symbols with those of Greece. For +instance, they see, in the story of Daniel in the lions' den, +another form of the legend of Orpheus taming the wild +beasts; in Jonah, they recognize Arion and the dolphin; +and the symbol of the Good Shepherd, carrying home the +stray lamb on his shoulders, is considered another form +of the familiar Greek figure of Hermes carrying the goat. +</p> + +<p> +Be this as it may, it is certain that this crude beginning +of Christian music arose from a vital necessity, and was +accompanied by an indomitable faith. If we look back, +we note that until now music had either been the servant +of ignoble masters, looked upon as a mathematical problem +to be solved scientifically, or used according to methods +prescribed by the state. It had been dragged down to +the lowest depths of sensuality by the dance, and its +divine origin forgotten in lilting rhythms and soft, lulling +rhymes. +</p> + +<p> +On the other hand, the mathematicians, in their cold +calculation, reduced music to the utilitarianism of algebra, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page97" id="page97" title="97"></a> +and even viewed it as a kind of medicine for the nerves +and mind. When we think of the music of Pythagoras +and his school, we seem to be in a kind of laboratory in +which all the tones are labelled and have their special +directions for use. For the legend runs that he composed +melodies in the diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic +styles as antidotes for moods such as anger, fear, sorrow, +etc., and invented new rhythms which he used to steady +and strengthen the mind, and to produce simplicity of +character in his disciples. He recommended that every +morning, after rising, they should play on the lyre and sing, +in order to clear the mind. It was inevitable that this +half mathematical, half psychologically medicinal manner +of treating music would, in falling into the hands of +Euclid (300 B.C.) and his school, degenerate into a mere +peg on which to hang mathematical theorems. On the +other hand, when we think of Greek dances, we seem to +pass into the bright, warm sunshine. We see graceful +figures holding one another by the wrist, dancing in a +circle around some altar to Dionysus, and singing to the +strange lilt of those unequal measures. We can imagine +the scheme of colour to be white and gold, framed by the +deep-blue arch of the sky, the amethyst sea flecked with +glittering silver foam, and the dark, sombre rocks of the +Cretan coast bringing a suggestion of fate into this dancing, +soulless vision. Turning now to Rome, we see that +this same music has fallen to a wretched slave's estate, +cowering in some corner until the screams of Nero's +living torches need to be drowned; and then, with brazen +clangour and unabashed rhythms, this brutal music flaunts +<a class="pagebreak" name="page98" id="page98" title="98"></a> +forth with swarms of dancing slaves, shrilling out the +praises of Nero; and the time for successful revolution is +at hand. +</p> + +<p> +The first steps toward actually defining the new music +took place in the second century, when the Christians +were free to worship more openly, and, having wealthy +converts among them, held their meetings in public +places and basilicas which were used by magistrates and +other officials during the day. These basilicas or public +halls had a raised platform at one end, on which the +magistrate sat when in office. There were steps up to it, +and on these steps the clergy stood. The rest of the hall +was called the “nave” (ship), for the simile of “storm-tossed +mariners” was always dear to the early Christian +church. In the centre of the nave stood the reader of +the Scriptures, and on each side of him, ranged along the +wall, were the singers. The Psalms were sung antiphonally, +that is, first one side would sing and the other side +would answer. The congregations were sometimes immense, +for according to St. Jerome (340–420 A.D.) and +St. Ambrose (340–397 A.D.) “the roofs reechoed with +their cries of ‘Alleluia,’ which in sound were like the great +waves of the surging sea.” +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless this was, as yet, only sound, and not +music. Not until many centuries later did music become +distinct from chanting, which is merely intoned <i>speech</i>. +The disputes of the Arians and the Athanasians also +affected the music of the church, for as early as 306 A.D., +Arius introduced many secular melodies, and had them +sung by women. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page99" id="page99" title="99"></a> +Passing over this, we find that the first actual arrangement +of Christian music into a regular system was +attempted by Pope Sylvester, in 314 A.D., when he +instituted singing schools, and when the heresy of Arius +was formally condemned. +</p> + +<p> +Now this chanting or singing of hymns was more or +less a declamation, thus following the Greek tradition of +using one central note, somewhat in the nature of a +keynote. +</p> + +<p> +Rhythm, distinct melody, and even metre were avoided +as retaining something of the unclean, brutal heathenism +against which the Christians had revolted. It was the +effort to keep the music of the church pure and undefiled +that caused the Council of Laodicea (367 A.D.) to exclude +from the church all singing not authorized from the pulpit. +</p> + +<p> +A few years later (about 370 A.D.) Ambrose, the Archbishop +of Milan, strove to define this music more clearly, +by fixing upon the modes that were to be allowed for these +chants; for we must remember that all music was still +based upon the Greek modes, the modern major and +minor being as yet unknown. In the course of time the +ancient modes had become corrupted, and the modes that +Ambrose took for his hymns were therefore different from +those known in Greece under the same names. His +Dorian is what the ancients called Phrygian, +<img src="images/notes_dd.png" width="109" height="49" + alt="[G: d' d'']" /> +dominant, A; his Phrygian was the ancient Dorian, +<img src="images/notes_ee.png" width="109" height="49" + alt="[G: e' e'']" /> +dominant, C; his Lydian corresponded to +the old Hypolydian, +<img src="images/notes_ff.png" width="109" height="49" + alt="[G: f' f'']" /> +dominant, C; and his +<a class="pagebreak" name="page100" id="page100" title="100"></a> +Mixolydian to the old Hypophrygian, +<img src="images/notes_gg.png" width="109" height="49" + alt="[G: g' g'']" /> +dominant, D. These modes were accepted by the church +and were called the Authentic modes. +</p> + +<p> +Almost two centuries later, Gregory the Great added +four more modes, which were called Plagal or side modes +(from <i>plagios</i>—oblique). These were as follows: +</p> + +<blockquote> +<p> +Hypodorian, +<img src="images/notes_ada.png" width="147" height="64" + alt="[G: a Keynote-(d') a']" /> +dominant, F. +</p><p> +Hypophrygian, +<img src="images/notes_ceb.png" width="147" height="49" + alt="[G: c (e') b']" /> +dominant, A. +</p><p> +Hypolydian, +<img src="images/notes_cfc.png" width="147" height="49" + alt="[G: c' (f') c'']" /> +dominant, A. +</p><p> +Hypo-mixolydian, +<img src="images/notes_dgd.png" width="147" height="49" + alt="[G: d' (g') d'']" /> +dominant, C. +</p></blockquote> + +<p> +It is easy to see that these so-called new modes are +simply new versions of the first four; although they are +lowered a fourth beneath the authentic modes (hence the +<i>hypo</i>), the <i>keynote remains the same</i> in each instance. +Still later two more modes were added to this list, the +Ionic, +<img src="images/notes_cc.png" width="109" height="49" + alt="[G: c' c'']" /> +dominant, G, which corresponded to +the ancient Greek Lydian; and the Æolian, +<img src="images/notes_aa.png" width="109" height="49" + alt="[G: a' a'']" /> +dominant, E, which, strange to say, was the only one of +these newer modes which corresponded to its Greek namesake. +Naturally these two newly admitted modes were +also accompanied by their lower pitched attendant modes, +the Hypoionic, +<img src="images/notes_gcg.png" width="147" height="57" + alt="[G: g (c') g']" /> +dominant, E, and the +Hypoæolian, +<img src="images/notes_eae.png" width="147" height="49" + alt="[G: e' (a') e'']" /> +dominant, C. +</p> + +<blockquote class="central"> +<h4><a class="pagebreak" name="page101" id="page101" + title="101"></a>SUMMARY</h4> + +<table summary=""> +<tr><th>Mode.</th><th>Key.</th><th>Dominant.</th></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Dorian. </td><td>D</td><td>A</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Hypodorian. </td><td>D</td><td>F</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Phrygian. </td><td>E</td><td>C</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Hypophrygian. </td><td>E</td><td>A</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Lydian. </td><td>F</td><td>C</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Hypolydian. </td><td>F</td><td>A</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Mixolydian. </td><td>G</td><td>D</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Hypo-mixolydian. </td><td>G</td><td>C</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Æolian. </td><td>A</td><td>E</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Hypoæolian.</td><td>A</td><td>C</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Ionian. </td><td>C</td><td>G</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Hypoionian. </td><td>C</td><td>E</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="central"> +<img src="images/dominants.png" width="260" height="59" + alt="Dominants [G: a' f' c' {a (a')} c' a d' c' e' c' g' e']" /> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +Now all these lower, or derived modes, Hypodorian, +Hypophrygian, Hypolydian, etc., received the name Plagal +modes, because there was but one tonic or keynote in +the scale; consequently a melody starting on any degree +of the scale would invariably return to the same tonic +or keynote. They differed from the authentic modes, +inasmuch as in the latter a melody might end either on +the upper or lower tonic or keynote. Thus the melody +itself was said to be either authentic or plagal, according +to whether it had one or two tonics. The theme of +Schumann's “Etudes symphoniques” is authentic, and +the first variation is plagal. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page102" id="page102" title="102"></a> +Between the sixth and tenth centuries there was much +confusion as to the placing of these modes, but they finally +stood as given above. The Greek names were definitely +accepted in the eleventh century, or thereabouts; previously, +they were known also as the first, second, third, +etc., up to the twelfth, church tones or Gregorian modes. +</p> + +<p> +At this point it is necessary to refer again to Ambrose. +Apart from having brought the first four authentic modes +into church music, he composed many hymns which had +this peculiarity, namely, that they were modelled more on +the actual declamation of the words to be sung than had +hitherto been the case. We are told that his chants—to +use the phrase of his contemporary, Francis of Cologne—were +“all for sweetness and melodious sound”; and St. +Augustine (354–430 A.D.), speaks of them with ecstasy. +The words in these hymns were used in connection with +small groups of notes; consequently they could be understood +as they were sung, thus returning in a measure to +the character of the music of the ancients, in which the +word and declamation were of greater importance than +the actual sounds which accompanied them. But now a +strange thing was to happen that was to give us a new art. +Now, at last, music was to be separated from language and +dance rhythms, and stand alone for the first time in the +history of civilization as <i>pure music</i>. +</p> + +<p> +To appreciate the change made by Gregory (540–604 +A.D.), it is necessary to bear in mind the state of the +church just before his time. As the Ambrosian chant +had brought something of the old declamation and sweetness +back into the church ceremonial, so also in the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page103" id="page103" title="103"></a> +church itself there was a tendency to sink back into the +golden shimmer that had surrounded the ancient pagan +rites. Already Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch +(260 A.D.), had striven to bring a certain Oriental +magnificence into the church ceremonials. He had a +canopied throne erected for himself, from which he would +address his congregation; he introduced applause into the +church, after the fashion of the Roman theatres; he also +had a chorus of women singers, who, as Eusebius tells us, +sang not the Christian hymns, but pagan tunes. Later, +in Constantinople, even this luxury and pomp increased; +the churches had domes of burnished gold, and had become +gigantic palaces, lit by thousands of lamps. The choir, +dressed in glittering robes, was placed in the middle of +the church, and these singers began to show the same +fatal sign of decadence that we saw before in Rome and +Greece. According to St. Chrysostom (347–407 A.D.), +they used unguents on their throats in order to make the +voice flexible, for by this time the singing had become a +mere vehicle for virtuosity; when they sang their <i>tours de +force</i>, the people applauded and waved their handkerchiefs, +as they did also when the preaching pleased them. +The pagans pointed the finger of scorn at the Christians, +as being mere renegades from the old religion, and said, +plausibly enough, that their worship was merely another +form of the Dionysus tragedy. There was the same altar, +the same chorus, the priest who sang and was answered +by the chorus; and the resemblance had grown to such an +extent that St. Chrysostom (350 A.D.) complained that +the church chorus accompanied its singing with theatrical +<a class="pagebreak" name="page104" id="page104" title="104"></a> +gestures, which, as we know, is simply the first step towards +the dance. +</p> + +<p> +This was the state of things when Gregory became +Pope in 590 A.D. His additions to the modes already +in use have been explained. His great reform lay in +severing the connection between the music of the church +and that of the pagan world before it. Casting aside the +declamation and rhythm, which up to now had always +dominated pure sound, he abolished the style of church +singing in vogue, and substituted for it a system of chanting +in which every tie between the words and music was +severed. +</p> + +<p> +The music was certainly primitive enough, for it consisted +merely of a rising and falling of the voice for the +space of many notes on one single syllable, as, for instance, +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<img src="images/gloria.png" width="531" height="57" + alt="[F: (f g f g a a) a (a a a g a g g f a)] [W: Gloria]" /> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +The difference between this and the Ambrosian chant is +evident if we look at the following; and we must also bear +in mind that the Ambrosian chants were very simple in +comparison with the florid <i>tours de force</i> of the Byzantine +church: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<img src="images/al_me.png" width="531" height="158" + alt="[F: d (d f) (d e) f | (g f) (g a) a | (a g) a c' d'] + [W: Al me pater | Ambrosi, | nostras, preces,] + [F: (a b) a | a g a f e d] + [W: audi | Christe, exaudinos]" /> +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page105" id="page105" title="105"></a> +Now this reform could not be carried out at once; +it was only through the medium of Charlemagne (742–814 +A.D.), a hundred years later, that the Gregorian +chant was firmly established. Authorized by a synod of +bishops, called together from all parts of Europe by Pope +Adrian I, Charlemagne, in 774, caused all the chant and +hymn books of the Ambrosian system throughout Italy to +be burned. So completely was this accomplished that +only one Ambrosian missal was found (by St. Eugenius at +Milan), and from this work alone can we form any idea +as to the character of the music used by the followers of +Ambrose, who were much retarded by the lack of a musical +notation, which was the next factor needed to bring +music to an equality with the other arts. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="fn"><span><a href="#ft07"> 7 </a></span><a name="fn07"></a> +Imitating the sound of the thing signified. Poe's “Raven” +has much of this character.</p> + +<p class="fn"><span><a href="#ft08"> 8 </a></span><a name="fn08"></a> +<!-- [.c] -->ċ, perfect pause; c·, short; c., shortest; + breathings: +<img src="images/hard.png" width="4" height="15" alt="`" /> hard; +<img src="images/soft.png" width="4" height="15" alt="'" /> soft.</p> + + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page106" id="page106" title="106"></a> +VIII<br /><br /> +FORMATION OF THE SCALE—NOTATION</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">In</span> +comparing the Ambrosian chant with that of Gregory, +it may be said that we have touched upon the vital +principle of modern music. The novelty in the Gregorian +chant consisted in its absolute emancipation from the +tyranny of actual words and declamation; while the idea, +the poetic principle, or religious ecstasy still remained the +ideal to be expressed in the music. Before this, as already +explained, music was either a mathematical problem, a +rhythm to mark the time in dancing, or a vehicle serving +for the display of clever <i>tours de force</i>, the music of the +tragedies being merely a kind of melodious declamation. +To quote Goethe, “having recognized the fact, it still +remains for us to see how it developed.” Let us now consider +this point. +</p> + +<p> +Three things were necessary before these Gregorian +chants could develop at all: (1) A simple, clean-cut +musical scale or systematized table of musical sounds. +(2) Some definite manner of symbolizing sounds, so that +they could be accurately expressed in writing. (3) A +cultivation of the sense of hearing, in order that mankind +might learn to distinguish between sounds that are discordant +and those that sound well together; in other +words, harmony. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page107" id="page107" title="107"></a> +We will begin with the scale, and review what we know +of the Greek modes in order to show how they were +amalgamated into our present octave system of scales. +</p> + +<blockquote class="flush central"> +<p> +<img src="images/modes.png" width="507" height="241" + alt="a, (Proslambanómenos) + Mixolydian: b, (Hýpate) - b (Paramese) + Lydian: c (Parhýpate) - c' (Trite) + Phrygian: d (Líchanos) - d' (Páranete) + Dorian: e (Hýpate) - e' (Nete) + Hypolydian: f (Parhýpate) - f' (Trite) + Hypophrygian: g (Líchanos) - g' (Páranete) + Aeolian or Locrian or Hypodorian: a (Mese) - a' (Nete)" /> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +Under Ambrose and Pope Gregory, these modes had +taken a different form. The chromatic and enharmonic +styles had been abandoned in theory, the portamento +which the singers introduced into their chants being the +only principle retained. The new system was as follows: +</p> + +<blockquote class="flush central"> +<p> +<img src="images/modes_2.png" width="508" height="137" + alt="Hypoion. (g), Hypodor. (a), Hypophryg. (b), Hypolyd./Ionian (c), + Hypo-mixolyd./Dorian (d), Hypoaeol./Phryg. (e), Lyd. (f), Mixolyd. (g), + Aeol. (a)" /> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +In order to complete the story of the evolution of scales +and clefs, we must add that the Flemish monk, Hucbald +(900 A.D.), divided this scale into regular tetrachords, +beginning at G, with the succession, tone, semitone, tone, +forming four disjunct tetrachords, +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page108" id="page108" title="108"></a> +<a href="midi/hucbald_tetra.midi"><img + src="images/tetrachords.png" width="541" height="105" + alt="[F: (g, a, b-, c) (d e f g) (a b c' d') G: (e' f+' g' a')]" /></a> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +This division remained without influence on the development +of the scale. +</p> + +<p> +The first change in the <i>tetrachord</i> system of reckoning +tones and dividing the scale was made by Guido d'Arezzo +(first half of eleventh century), who divided it into hexachords +or groups of six notes each. Up to that time, +each note of the scale had had a letter of the alphabet for +its symbol. It was Guido who conceived the idea of +using syllables for these notes. The story of how it +occurred to him is well known: On one occasion, hearing +his brethren in the monastery choir of Arezzo, in Tuscany, +sing a hymn to St. John the Baptist, he noticed that the +first syllable of each line came on regularly ascending +notes of the scale, the first syllable coming on C, the +first of the next line on D, the first of the third on E, etc., +up to A on the sixth line. As all these syllables happened +to differ one from the other, and, moreover, were very +easy to sing, he hit upon the idea of using them to distinguish +the notes on which they fell in the hymn. +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page109" id="page109" title="109"></a> +<img src="images/sol_fa.png" width="531" height="149" + alt="[F: c d f (d e) d | d d c d e e ] + [W: _Ut_ queant laxis | _Re_sonare fibris ] + [F: (e f g) e (d e) c d | f g a (g f) d d] + [W: _Mi_ra gestorum | _Fa_muli tuorum ] + [F: (g a g) e f g d | a g a f (g a) a | (g f) d c e d ] + [W: _Sol_ve polluti | _La_bii reatum | Sancte Joannes]"/> +</p> + +<p> +Furthermore, as there were six of these syllables, he +arranged the musical scale in groups of six notes instead +of four, hexachords instead of tetrachords. Commencing +with G, which was the lowest note of the system in +Hucbald's time, the first hexachord was formed of +G A B C D E; +the second, following the example of the Greeks, +he made to overlap the first, namely, C D E F G A; the +third, likewise overlapping the second, commenced on +F. In order to make this hexachord identical in structure +with, the first and second, he flatted the B, thus making +the succession of notes, F G A B♭ C D. The next three +hexachords were repetitions of the first three, namely, +G A B C D E, C D E F G A, +F G A B♭ C D; the last +was again a repetition of the first, G A B C D E. +</p> + +<blockquote class="flush central"> +<h4 class="sc">The Gamut.</h4> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page110" id="page110" title="110"></a> +<img src="images/gamut.png" width="508" height="450" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="cont"> +To the lowest note of this scale, which was foreign to +the Greek system, he gave a special name, <i>gamma</i>, after +the Greek letter G. From this we get our word for the +scale, the gamut. The other notes remained the same as +before, only that for the lowest octave capital letters were +used; in the next octave, the notes were designated by +small letters, and in the last octave by double letters, aa, +bb, etc., as in the following example. +</p> + +<blockquote class="flush central"> +<p> +<img src="images/cases.png" width="305" height="78" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</p> + +<h4 class="sc">Present Scale.</h4> + +<p> +<img src="images/scale_present.png" width="504" height="147" + alt="[F: c,, | c, | c G: c' | c'' | c''' | c''''] + [W: C_ | C | c : c' | c'' | c''' | c''''] + [W: Contra | Great | Small : 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th ]" /> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +Following out his system, he applied the newly acquired +syllables to each of the hexachords—for instance, the +lowest hexachord, G A B C D E, which was called hard, +became <i>ut</i> <i>re</i> <i>mi</i> <i>fa</i> <i>sol</i> <i>la</i>; the second, which was called +natural, C D E F G A, also became +<i>ut</i> <i>re</i> <i>mi</i> <i>fa</i> <i>sol</i> <i>la</i>; +<a class="pagebreak" name="page111" id="page111" title="111"></a> +and the third, which was called soft, F G A B♭ C D, +became likewise <i>ut</i> <i>re</i> <i>mi</i> <i>fa</i> <i>sol</i> <i>la</i>. The next three +hexachords were treated in the same manner; the last +or seventh hexachord was merely a repetition of the first +and the fourth. +</p> + +<p> +Now in the hymns, and also in the sequences, as they +were called (which were simply a series of notes forming +a little melody sung to two or three words), the voice was +rarely called upon to progress more than the interval of +a sixth, and so this solmization, as the new system was +called, was very valuable; for one had only to give the +pitch, and <i>ut</i> always meant the keynote, <i>re</i> the second, +<i>mi</i> the third, etc., etc. In time <i>ut</i> was found to be a +difficult syllable to sing, and <i>do</i> was substituted. This +change, however, was made after the scale was divided +into a system of octaves instead of hexachords. The +improvement in singing soon made the limits of the hexachords +too small to be practical; therefore another syllable +was added to the hexachordal system, <i>si</i>, and with this +seventh note we have our modern scale. From this we see +that the scale in present use is composed of octaves, just +as the older scales were composed of hexachords, and +before that tetrachords. Just as in mediæval times each +hexachord commenced with <i>ut</i>, so now every octave of +our tonal system commences with <i>do</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Before leaving the hexachordal system, it may be as +well to explain the mode of procedure when the voice had +to go beyond the interval of the sixth. We know that +the first of every set of six notes was called <i>ut</i>, the second, +<i>re</i>, the third, <i>mi</i>, etc. When the voice had to go beyond +<a class="pagebreak" name="page112" id="page112" title="112"></a> +<i>la</i>, the sixth note, to B♮, that sixth note was always called +<i>re</i>, and was considered the second note of a new hexachord. +If, on the other hand, the voice had to go beyond +<i>a</i>, to B♭, the fifth note was called <i>re</i>, since the syllables +<i>mi fa</i> must always come on the half-tone. +</p> + +<p> +In a study of our system of writing music, it may be +as well to begin with the derivation of our sharps and +flats. Observing the third hexachord on our list we see +that in order to make it identical in structure with the +first and second, the B had to be lowered a semitone. +Now the third hexachord was called soft. The B♭ in +it was accordingly called a soft B or B <i>molle</i>, which is +still the name in France for a flat, and <i>moll</i> in German +still means minor, or “soft” or “lowered.” For the +fourth hexachord, which was called hard, this B was +again raised a semitone. But the flatted B was already +indicated by the letter <i>b</i> or round <i>b</i>, as it was called; +hence this B natural was given a <i>square</i> shape and called +B <i>carré</i>, +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/b_carre.png" width="7" height="21" alt="[illustration]" />.</span> +The present French word for natural (when +it is specially marked) is <i>bécarré</i>; the German word for +major also comes indirectly from this, for <i>dur</i> means +“hard.” +</p> + +<p> +An explanation of the modern German names for notes +will be easily understood in this connection. In the +German nomenclature the letters of the alphabet stand +for the notes of the scale as in the English, with the exception +of B. This B, or “round” B, in the German system +stands for B♭, which is more logical than our English +usage, since our flat is merely a slightly modified form of +<i>b</i>. The German B natural is our letter <i>h</i>, which is merely +<a class="pagebreak" name="page113" id="page113" title="113"></a> +a corruption of the square <i>b</i>, +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/b_carre.png" width="7" height="21" alt="[illustration]" />,</span> +which by the addition of +a line in time became our ♮. The Germans have carried +the flatting and sharping of tones to a logical conclusion +in their present nomenclature, for by “sharping” +the sound of a single letter it is raised a semitone from its +normal diapason, thus F becomes <i>Fis</i>, G <i>Gis</i>. On the +other hand, in order to lower a tone, the letter representing +it is “flatted,” and F is called <i>Fes</i>, G <i>Ges</i>, the only exception +to these rules being the B which we have already +considered. +</p> + +<p> +In France the Guidonian system was adhered to closely, +and to this day the <i>bécarré</i> is used only as an accidental, +to indicate that the note to which it refers has been +flatted before. The <i>naturel</i> (which has the same shape) +is used to designate a note that is natural to the +key; thus the distinction is made between an accidental +and a note that is common to the key. In F major, +for instance, B♮ is <i>si bécarré</i>, A♮ would be <i>la naturel</i>. +Our modern sharp is merely another form of the natural +or square B (♮) which gradually came to be used before +<i>any</i> note, signifying that it was raised or sharped a half-tone; +the flat lowered it a semitone, and after a while the +natural received its present place between the sharp and +flat. The first instance we have of the sharp being used +is in the thirteenth century, when (in the Rondels of +Adam de la Hale) it takes the form of a cross × (the +German word for the sharp still remains <i>kreuz</i>). The +French word <i>diese</i> (sharp) comes from the Greek <i>diesis</i>, +a term used to indicate the raising of the voice in the +chromatic scale. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page114" id="page114" title="114"></a> +And now we have to speak of notation and its development. +Thus far we have found only two ways in which +musical sounds were indicated by the ancients. First, we +remember the invention of Aristophanes of Alexandria, +his accents, high, low, and circumflex. Then we know +from Ptolemy, Bœthius, and Alypius that letters were +used to designate the different tones; but as there is no +music extant in this notation to prove the theory, we need +not trouble ourselves with it. +</p> + +<p> +The system of Aristophanes, however, was destined to +become the nucleus from which our modern notation +sprang. We know that an elementary idea, clearly expressed, +has more chances of living than has a more complicated +system, however ingenious the latter may be. +Now this system is so plain that we will find it is common +to many aboriginal peoples, for instance the American +Indians have a system very similar. +</p> + +<p> +In the period now under consideration (from the third +to the tenth century), music was noted in this way: an upstroke +of the pen meant a raising of the voice, a downstroke +lowered it, a flat stroke meant a repetition of the +same note, thus +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/upstroke.png" width="15" height="15" alt="/" /> +<img src="images/downstroke.png" width="15" height="15" alt="\" /> +<img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" /></span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/notes_cgcc.png" width="140" height="49" + alt="[G: c' g' c' c']" />.</span> Gradually +it became necessary to indicate the contour of the melodies +with more accuracy; therefore the circumflex was +added +<img src="images/frown.png" width="17" height="8" alt="[Over-slur]" /> +<img src="images/notes_gcg_lig.png" width="113" height="49" + alt="[G: g' c'' g']" /> +and reversed +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="[Under-slur]" /> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/notes_geg_lig.png" width="113" height="49" + alt="[G: g' e' g']" />.</span> +Still +later a sign for two steps was invented +<img src="images/step.png" width="26" height="26" alt="[Step]" /> +<img src="images/notes_egb.png" width="116" height="49" + alt="[G: e' g' b']" /> +and when the progression was to be diatonically stepwise +<a class="pagebreak" name="page115" id="page115" title="115"></a> +the strokes were thicker +<img src="images/thick_step.png" width="39" height="30" alt="[Thick Step]" /> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/notes_gab.png" width="114" height="49" alt="[G: g' a' b']" />.</span> +So this notation +developed, and by combining the many signs together, +simple non-rhythmic melodies could be indicated with comparative +clearness and simplicity. The flat stroke for a +single note +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/long.png" width="19" height="8" alt="-" />,</span> +indicating +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/notes_b.png" width="60" height="49" alt="[G: b']" />,</span> +eventually became smaller +and thicker, thus +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/thick_line.png" width="15" height="5" alt="[Thick -]" />.</span> +By combining these different signs, +a skip of a third and back came to be noted +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/crenellation.png" width="34" height="15" + alt="[Crenellation]" />,</span> +and +if the note came down on a second instead of the original +note it became +<img src="images/podium.png" width="33" height="16" alt="[Podium]" /> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/notes_gba_lig.png" width="114" height="49" + alt="[G: g' b' a']" />.</span> +The <i>quilisma</i> +<span class="nobr">(<img src="images/quilisma.png" width="17" height="6" + alt="[Upper Mordent]" />)</span> +indicated +a repetition of two notes, one above the other, and +we still use much the same sign for our trill. Also the two +forms of the circumflex, +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/frown.png" width="17" height="8" alt="[Over-slur]" /> +<img src="images/smile.png" width="17" height="8" alt="[Under-slur]" />,</span> +were joined +<span class="nobr">(<img src="images/turn.png" width="24" height="11" alt="[Turn]" />)</span> +and thus +we have the modern turn, so much used by Wagner. +</p> + +<p> +Now while this notation was ingenious, it still left much +to be desired as to pitch. To remedy this a red line was +drawn before writing these signs or <i>neumes</i>, as they were +called. This line represented a given pitch, generally E; +above and below it were then written the signs for the +notes, their pitch being determined by the relative position +they held in regard to the <i>line</i>. Thus +<img src="images/neumes1.png" width="78" height="19" + alt="[Podium, Turn, Upper Mordent]" /> +was the +equivalent of +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/neumes2.png" width="182" height="49" + alt="[G: c' e' d' e' d' c' d' e' d' e' d' e' d']" />,</span> +considering +the line as being middle C pitch, a fourth higher F. +This was the condition of musical notation in 1000 A.D. +</p> + +<p> +To Guido d'Arezzo is ascribed its development up to +some semblance of our present system, although the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page116" id="page116" title="116"></a> +claim has often been denied. It is certain, however, that +the innovations were made at this period. In the first +place Guido made the red line <i>always</i> stand for the pitch +of F, and at a little distance above it he added another +line, this time yellow, which was to indicate the pitch of +C. Thus the signs began to take very definite meaning +as regards pitch; for, given a sign extending from one line +to the other, the reader could see at a glance that the +music progressed a fifth, from F to C, or <i>vice-versa</i>. And +now the copyists, seeing the value of these lines in determining +the pitch of the different signs, of their own account +added two more in black ink, one of which they drew +between the F and the C line, and the other above the +C line, thus +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/staff_dotted.png" width="82" height="22" + alt="[illustration]" />.</span> +By doing this they accurately +decided the pitch of every note, for the lowest line, being +F, the line between that and the C line must stand for A, +and the two spaces for G and B; the top line would stand +for E, and the space between it and the yellow line for D. +Little by little these copyists grew careless about +making the lines in yellow, red, and black, and sometimes +drew them all in black or red, thereby losing the distinguishing +mark of the F and C lines. In order to remedy +this, Guido placed the letters F and C before the lines representing +these notes, thus +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/staff_cf.png" width="74" height="24" alt="[illustration]" />.</span> +In this way our +modern <i>clefs</i> (<i>clavis</i> or key) originated, for the C clef, as +it is called, gradually changed its shape to +<img src="images/clef_c1.png" width="75" height="21" alt="[illustration]" /> +and +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/clef_c2.png" width="49" height="26" alt="[illustration]" />,</span> +and the F clef changed to +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/clef_f.png" width="78" height="25" alt="[illustration]" />,</span> +which is our +bass clef in a rudimentary form. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page117" id="page117" title="117"></a> +Later, still another line was added to the set, thus giving +us our modern staff, and another clef, +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/clef_g1.png" width="23" height="44" alt="[illustration]" />,</span> +was added +on the next to the lowest line. This, in turn, became our +present treble clef, +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/clef_g2.png" width="21" height="47" alt="[G:]" />.</span> +In the course of time the signs +themselves underwent many changes, until at last from +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/podium2.png" width="33" height="24" alt="[Podium]" />,</span> +etc., they became our modern signs. +</p> + +<p> +Before this, however, a grave defect in the notation had +to be remedied. There was as yet no way of designating +the length of time a note was to be sustained; something +definite in the way of noting <i>rhythm</i> was necessary. This +was accomplished by Franco of Cologne, in the beginning +of the thirteenth century. By disconnecting the parts +of the sign +<img src="images/podium3.png" width="30" height="34" alt="[Podium]" /> +one from another, the following individual +signs were acquired +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/podium4.png" width="44" height="24" + alt="[illustration of Podium broken into three pieces]" />.</span> +In order to have two +distinct values of length, these signs were called longs and +shorts, <i>longa</i> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_l.png" width="10" height="27" alt="[illustration]" />,</span> +and <i>brevis</i> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_b.png" width="10" height="11" alt="[illustration]" />,</span> +to which was added the +<i>brevis</i> in another position +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="[illustration]" />,</span> +called <i>semibrevis</i>. The +<i>longa</i> was twice the value of the <i>brevis</i>, and the <i>semibrevis</i> +was half the length of the <i>brevis</i> +<span class="nobr">(<img src="images/nc_l.png" width="10" height="27" alt="[L" /> = +<img src="images/nc_b.png" width="10" height="11" alt="B" /> +<img src="images/nc_b.png" width="10" height="11" alt="B" /></span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_b.png" width="10" height="11" alt="B" /> = +<img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="S" /> +<img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="S]" />).</span> +When notes of equal length were slurred, they were written +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/longae.png" width="33" height="39" alt="[illustration]" />.</span> +When two or more notes were to be sung to one +syllable in quicker time, the <i>brevi</i> were joined one to the +other +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/brevi.png" width="19" height="19" alt="[illustration]" />,</span> +as for instance in the songs of the thirteenth +century, +</p> + +<blockquote class="flush central"> +<h4>DIRGE FOR KING RICHARD'S DEATH</h4> + +<p> +<img src="images/fortz.png" width="506" height="88" + alt="GAUCELM FAIDIT. + [Illustration: Fortz chose est que tot le maur major dam]" /> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="central"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page118" id="page118" title="118"></a> +<img src="images/si_li1.png" width="495" height="82" + alt="ROI THIBAUT DE NAVARRE (1250). + [Illustration: Si li dis sans de laies | + Belle diex vous doint bon jour]" /> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +or, in modern style, +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<img src="images/si_li2.png" width="531" height="49" + alt="[G: g' a' b' c'' (d'' c'') (b' a' g') | + a' b' (c'' b') (b' a' g') (a' b') g']" /> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +In this example we find the first indication of the measuring +off of phrases into bars. As we see, it consisted of +a little stroke, which served to show the beginning of a +new line, and was not restricted to regularity of any kind +except that necessitated by the verse. +</p> + +<p> +The use of the <i>semibrevis</i> is shown in the following +chanson of Raoul de Coucy (1192): +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<img src="images/quant_li1.png" width="505" height="140" + alt="[Illustration: Quant li rossignol jolis | chante + Seur la flor d'este | que n'est la rose et le lis]" /> +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<img src="images/quant_li2.png" width="531" height="134" + alt="[G: d'' (c'' a') b-' (a' (g' f')) g' (a' b-' a' f') f' | f' g' + a' (b-' a') (c'' d'' c'' b-') (a' g') a' | + d'' (c'' a') b-' a' (g' f') g' (a' (b-' a') f') f']" /> +</p> + +<p> +The French troubadours and the German minnesingers +of the thirteenth century used these forms of notes only, +and even then restricted themselves to two kinds, either +the <i>longa</i> and <i>brevis</i>, or <i>brevis</i> and <i>semibrevis</i>. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page119" id="page119" title="119"></a> +The necessity for rests very soon manifested itself, +and the following signs were invented to correspond to +the <i>longa</i>, <i>brevis</i>, and <i>semibrevis</i> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/rs_lbsb.png" width="126" height="20" alt="[illustration]" />.</span> +Also +the number of note symbols was increased by the <i>maxima</i> +or double <i>longa</i> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_mx.png" width="20" height="14" alt="[illustration]" />,</span> +and the <i>minima</i> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_c.png" width="12" height="22" alt="[illustration]" />,</span> +which represented +half the value of the <i>semibrevis</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Now that music began taking a more definite rhythmic +form than before, a more regular dividing off of the +phrases became necessary. This was accomplished by +the use of a dot, and another form, the perpendicular +line, which we have noticed in the song of the King of +Navarre (1250). At first a means to indicate triple +time was invented, and the measure corresponding to our +<img src="images/time_98.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[9/8]" /> +was indicated by placing the sign +<img src="images/time_od.png" width="14" height="14" alt="[O.]" /> +at the beginning +of the line. This was called perfect. Then, for plain +triple time the dot was omitted +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/time_o.png" width="14" height="14" alt="[O]" />;</span> +for +<img src="images/time_68.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[6/8]" /> +time the sign +<img src="images/time_cd.png" width="12" height="14" alt="[C.]" /> +was adopted, and for ordinary common time +<img src="images/time_c.png" width="12" height="14" alt="[C]" /> +was taken. +Consequently, when these signs were placed at the beginning +of the line they changed the value of the notes to +correspond to the time marked. Thus in +<img src="images/time_od.png" width="14" height="14" alt="[O.]" /> +(<i>tempus perfectum</i>, <i>prolatio major</i>) or +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/time_98.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[9/8]" />,</span> +the <i>brevis</i> was reckoned +worth three <i>semibrevi</i> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_b.png" width="10" height="11" alt="[B" /> = +<img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="S" /> +<img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="S" /> +<img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="S]" /></span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/ob.png" width="8" height="28" alt="(" + /><img src="images/r_1d.png" width="18" height="8" alt="[1." /> = +<img src="images/ru_4d4d4d.png" width="69" height="27" alt="4. 4. 4.]" + /><img src="images/cb.png" width="8" height="28" alt=")" />;</span> +the <i>semibrevis</i> +three <i>minimi</i> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="[S" /> = +<img src="images/nc_c.png" width="12" height="22" alt="M" /> +<img src="images/nc_c.png" width="12" height="22" alt="M" /> +<img src="images/nc_c.png" width="12" height="22" alt="M]" /></span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/ob.png" width="8" height="28" alt="(" + /><img src="images/ru_4d.png" width="14" height="27" alt="[4." /> = +<img src="images/ru_888.png" width="40" height="25" alt="8 8 8]" + /><img src="images/cb.png" width="8" height="28" alt=")" />.</span> In +<img src="images/time_o.png" width="14" height="14" alt="[O]" /> +or +<img src="images/time_34.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[3/4]" /> +time +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_b.png" width="10" height="11" alt="[B" /> = +<img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="S" /> +<img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="S" /> +<img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="S]" /></span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/ob.png" width="8" height="28" alt="(" + /><img src="images/rd_2d.png" width="15" height="26" alt="[2." /> = +<img src="images/rd_444.png" width="56" height="26" alt="4 4 4]" + /><img src="images/cb.png" width="8" height="28" alt=")" />;</span> +but the <i>semibrevis</i> was +only as long as two <i>minimi</i> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="[S" /> = +<img src="images/nc_c.png" width="12" height="22" alt="M" /> +<img src="images/nc_c.png" width="12" height="22" alt="M]" /></span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/ob.png" width="8" height="28" alt="(" + /><img src="images/ru_4.png" width="9" height="27" alt="[4" /> = +<img src="images/ru_88.png" width="24" height="25" alt="8 8]" + /><img src="images/cb.png" width="8" height="28" alt=")" />.</span> +In +<img src="images/time_cd.png" width="12" height="14" alt="[C.]" /> +or +<img src="images/time_68.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[6/8]" /> +time +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_b.png" width="10" height="11" alt="[B" /> = +<img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="S" /> +<img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="S]" /></span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/ob.png" width="8" height="28" alt="(" + /><img src="images/ru_2d.png" width="14" height="27" alt="[2." /> = +<img src="images/ru_4d4d.png" width="41" height="27" alt="4. 4.]" + /><img src="images/cb.png" width="8" height="28" alt=")" />,</span> +but +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="[S" /> = +<img src="images/nc_c.png" width="12" height="22" alt="M" /> +<img src="images/nc_c.png" width="12" height="22" alt="M" /> +<img src="images/nc_c.png" width="12" height="22" alt="M]" /></span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/ob.png" width="8" height="28" alt="(" + /><img src="images/ru_4d.png" width="14" height="27" alt="[4." /> = +<img src="images/ru_888.png" width="40" height="25" alt="8 8 8]" + /><img src="images/cb.png" width="8" height="28" alt=")" />.</span> +In +<img src="images/time_c.png" width="12" height="14" alt="[C]" /> +or +<img src="images/time_22.png" width="9" height="25" alt="[2/2]" /> +time +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_b.png" width="10" height="11" alt="[B" /> = +<img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="S" /> +<img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="S]" /></span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/ob.png" width="8" height="28" alt="(" + /><img src="images/r_1.png" width="13" height="8" alt="[1" /> = +<img src="images/ru_22.png" width="41" height="27" alt="2 2]" + /><img src="images/cb.png" width="8" height="28" alt=")" />,</span> +and +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_sb.png" width="13" height="10" alt="[S" /> = +<img src="images/nc_c.png" width="12" height="22" alt="M" /> +<img src="images/nc_c.png" width="12" height="22" alt="M]" /></span> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/ob.png" width="8" height="28" alt="(" + /><img src="images/ru_2.png" width="9" height="27" alt="[2" /> = +<img src="images/ru_44.png" width="32" height="27" alt="4 4]" + /><img src="images/cb.png" width="8" height="28" alt=")" />.</span> +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page120" id="page120" title="120"></a> +In the beginning of the fifteenth century the notes began +to be written in an open form +</p> + +<blockquote class="central"> +<table summary=""> +<tr><td class="right"><img src="images/no_mx.png" width="40" height="22" + alt="[Illustration]" /></td><td class="left"><i>Maxima</i>.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="right"><img src="images/no_l.png" width="23" height="21" + alt="[Illustration]" /></td><td class="left"><i>Longa</i>.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="right"><img src="images/no_b.png" width="13" height="12" + alt="[Illustration]" /></td><td class="left"><i>Brevis</i>.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="right"><img src="images/no_sb.png" width="11" height="11" + alt="[Illustration]" /></td><td class="left"><i>Semibrevis</i>.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="right"><img src="images/no_m.png" width="11" height="22" + alt="[Illustration]" /></td><td class="left"><i>Minima</i>.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="right"><img src="images/no_sm.png" width="14" height="20" + alt="[Illustration]" /></td><td class="left"><i>Semiminima</i>, + which was added later.</td></tr> +</table> +</blockquote> + +<p class="cont"> +As still smaller units of value were added, the <i>semiminima</i> +was replaced by +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_c.png" width="12" height="22" alt="[filled minima]" />,</span> +and the half <i>semiminima</i> thus +became +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_f.png" width="14" height="22" alt="[minima with tail]" />,</span> +and the next smaller values, +<img src="images/nc_sf.png" width="13" height="21" alt="[two tails]" /> +and +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_dsf.png" width="14" height="28" alt="[three tails]" />.</span> +The +rest to correspond to the <i>semiminima</i> was +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/rt_c.png" width="11" height="16" alt="[illustration]" />;</span> +for the <i>semibrevis</i> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/rt_sb.png" width="20" height="6" alt="[illustration]" />,</span> +and <i>minima</i> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/rt_m.png" width="15" height="6" alt="[illustration]" />.</span> +</p> + +<p> +Thus we have the following values and their corresponding +rests: +</p> + +<blockquote class="central"> +<table summary=""> +<tr><td class="left"><i>Maxima</i></td><td class="right"> + <img src="images/no_mx.png" width="40" height="22" alt="[Illustration]" /></td> + <td><img src="images/rs_mx.png" width="82" height="32" alt="" /></td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><i>Longa</i></td><td class="right"> + <img src="images/no_l.png" width="23" height="21" alt="[Illustration]" /></td> + <td><img src="images/rs_l.png" width="81" height="32" alt="" /></td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><i>Brevis</i></td><td class="right"> + <img src="images/no_b.png" width="13" height="12" alt="[Illustration]" /></td> + <td><img src="images/rs_b.png" width="81" height="30" alt="" /></td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><i>Semibrevis</i></td><td class="right"> + <img src="images/no_sb.png" width="11" height="11" alt="[Illustration]" /></td> + <td><img src="images/rs_sb.png" width="81" height="31" alt="" /></td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><i>Minima</i></td><td class="right"> + <img src="images/no_m.png" width="11" height="22" alt="[Illustration]" /></td> + <td><img src="images/rs_m.png" width="81" height="30" alt="" /></td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><i>Semiminima</i> or <i>crocheta</i></td><td class="right"> + <img src="images/nc_c.png" width="12" height="22" alt="[Illustration]" /></td> +<td><img src="images/rt_c.png" width="11" height="16" alt="" /></td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><i>Fusa</i> or <i>crocheta</i></td><td class="right"> + <img src="images/nc_f.png" width="14" height="22" alt="[Illustration]" /></td> +<td><img src="images/rt_f.png" width="8" height="13" alt="" /></td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><i>Semifusa</i></td><td class="right"> + <img src="images/nc_sf.png" width="13" height="21" alt="[Illustration]" /></td> + <td><img src="images/rt_sf.png" width="9" height="17" alt="" /></td></tr> +</table> +</blockquote> + +<p> +The rests for the <i>fusa</i> and <i>semifusa</i> were turned to the left +in order to avoid the confusion that would ensue if the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page121" id="page121" title="121"></a> +rest +<img src="images/rt_confuse.png" width="11" height="27" alt="[illustration]" /> +stood for +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/nc_f.png" width="14" height="22" alt="[fusa]" />.</span> +Besides, the sign would have easily +become confused with the C clef +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/clef_c3.png" width="12" height="27" alt="[illustration]" />.</span> +</p> + +<p> +Signs for the changes of <i>tempo</i>, that is to say changes +from quick to slow, etc., were introduced in the fifteenth +century. The oldest of them consists of drawing a line +through the <i>tempus</i> sign +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/tempus.png" width="20" height="36" alt="[O|]" />.</span> +This meant that the notes +were to be played or sung twice as rapidly as would +usually be the case, without, however, affecting the relative +value of the notes to one another. Now we remember +that the sign +<img src="images/time_c4.png" width="11" height="14" alt="[C]" /> +stood for our modern +<img src="images/time_44.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[4/4]" /> +time; when a line was drawn through it, +<img src="images/time_c2.png" width="11" height="18" alt="[C|]" /> +it indicated that two +<i>brevi</i> were counted as one, and the movement was said +to be <i>alla breve</i>. This is the one instance of time signatures +that has come down to us unaltered. +</p> + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page122" id="page122" title="122"></a> +IX<br /><br /> +THE SYSTEMS OF HUCBALD AND GUIDO D'AREZZO—THE BEGINNING +OF COUNTERPOINT</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">We</span> +have seen that by order of Charlemagne, Ambrosian +chant was superseded by that of Gregory, and from any +history of music we may learn how he caused the Gregorian +chant to be taught to the exclusion of all other +music. Although Notker, in the monastery of St. Gall, +in Switzerland, and others developed the Gregorian chant, +until the time of Hucbald this music remained mere +wandering melody, without harmonic support of any kind. +</p> + +<p> +Hucbald (840–930) was a monk of the monastery of +St. Armand in Flanders. As we know from our studies +in notation, he was the first to improve the notation by +introducing a system of lines and spaces, of which, however, +the spaces only were utilized for indicating the notes, viz.: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<img src="images/sit_gloria.png" width="504" height="291" + alt="[Illustration]" /> +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page123" id="page123" title="123"></a> +His attempt to reconstruct the musical scale was afterwards +overshadowed by the system invented by Guido +d'Arezzo, and it is therefore unnecessary to describe it +in detail. His great contribution to progress was the +discovery that more than one sound could be played or +sung simultaneously, thus creating a composite sound, +the effect which we call a chord. However, in deciding +which sounds should be allowed to be played or sung +together, he was influenced partly by the mysticism of +his age, and partly by a blind adherence to the remnants +of musical theory which had been handed down from the +Greeks. As Franco of Cologne, later (1200), in systematizing +rhythm into measure, was influenced by the idea +of the Trinity in making his +<img src="images/time_38.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[3/8]" /> +or +<img src="images/time_98.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[9/8]" /> +time <i>tempus perfectum</i>, +and adopting for its symbol the Pythagorean circle +<img src="images/time_od.png" width="14" height="14" alt="[O.]" /> +or +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/time_o.png" width="14" height="14" alt="[O]" />,</span> +so Hucbald, in choosing his series of concords or +sounds that harmonize well together, took the first +three notes of the overtones of every sonorous fundamental, +or, to express it differently, of the series of natural +harmonics, that is to say, he admitted the octave and fifth: +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/notes_gdg.png" width="147" height="30" + alt="[F: g, d g]" />.</span> +But from the fifth to the octave gives +the interval of the fourth, therefore he permitted this +combination also. +</p> + +<p> +From the works of Bœthius (<i>circa</i> 400) and others, he +had derived and accepted the Pythagorean division of +the scale, making thirds and sixths dissonant intervals; +and so his perfect chord (from which our later triad gets +its name of <i>perfect</i>) was composed of a root, fifth or fourth, +and octave. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page124" id="page124" title="124"></a> +Hucbald, as I have already explained, changed the +Greek tone system somewhat by arranging it in four +regular disjunct tetrachords, namely: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<a href="midi/hucbald_tetra.midi"><img src="images/hucbald_tetra.png" + width="531" height="50" alt="[F: (g, a, b-, c) (d e f g) + G: (a b c' d') (e' f+' g' a')]" /></a> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +This system permitted the addition of a fifth to each +note indiscriminately, and the fifths would always be +<i>perfect</i>; but in regard to the octaves it was faulty, for +obvious reasons. As his system of notation consisted of +merely writing T for tone and S for semitone between +the lines of his staff, it was only necessary to change the +order of these letters for the octave at the beginning of +each line. With the fourth, however, this device was +impossible, and therefore he laid down the rule that when +the voices proceeded in fourths, and a discord (or augmented +fourth) was unavoidable, the lower voice was to +remain on the same note until it could jump to another +fourth forming a perfect interval: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<img src="images/hucbald_fourths.png" width="531" height="41" + alt="[F: {g b} {g b} {g a} {g b} {d a} {d g} + {c f} {c e} {a, d} {g, c}]" /> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +This at least brought into the harmony an occasional third, +which gradually became a recognized factor in music. +</p> + +<p> +We probably know that the year 1000 was generally +accepted as the time when the world was to come to an +end. In the <i>Bibliothèque Nationale</i> in Paris there is a +manuscript containing the prophecy which had been +handed down for many centuries; also the signs for the +notes to which it was to be sung, viz.: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page125" id="page125" title="125"></a> +[<a href="midi/figure07.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure07.png" width="531" height="131" alt="[Figure 07]" /> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +The text is: +</p> + +<blockquote><p> +The Judge will speak and the earth shall tremble with awe. +The stars shall be destroyed and the glory of the moon shall die, the +mountains shall be crushed and the world with all in it shall utterly +perish. +</p></blockquote> + +<p> +With the opening of the eleventh century, such was +the relief from this fear which had been oppressing Christendom, +that even the church reflected it in such strange +rites as the <i>Feast of Asses</i> (January 14th), which was a +burlesque of the Mass. +</p> + +<p> +In this travesty of the Mass a young girl, dressed to +represent the Virgin, riding on an ass and carrying a +child in her arms, was conducted to the church door. +Upon being admitted and riding up the aisle to the altar, +the girl tethered the ass to the railing and sat on the +steps until the service was finished. The <i>Credo</i>, <i>Gloria</i>, +etc., all ended with a “hee-haw,” and at the conclusion +of the service the officiating priest brayed three times, +and was answered by the congregation. The mixing of +the vernacular with Latin in this service is the first +instance of the use of any language but Latin in church +music. +</p> + +<p> +This quasi-symbolical pantomime gave rise in time to +the mediæval Passion Plays, or Mysteries, as they were +called. That these travesties of the Mass took different +<a class="pagebreak" name="page126" id="page126" title="126"></a> +forms in various countries is very evident when we remember +the description of the “Abbot of Unreason,” in Scott's +“Abbot.” In England, among other absurdities such as +the “Pope of Fools,” the “Ball Dance,” etc., they also +had the festival of the “Boy Bishop,” in which, between +the sixth and twenty-eighth of December, a boy was +made to perform all the functions of a bishop. +</p> + +<p> +It would seem that all this has but little bearing upon +the development of music. As a matter of fact it was a +most potent factor in it, for music was essentially and +exclusively a church property. By permitting the people +to secularize the church rites at certain seasons, it was +inevitable that church music would also become common +property for a time, with this difference, however, that the +common people could carry the tunes away with them, +and the music would be the only thing remaining as a +recollection of the carnival. Indeed, the prevalence of +popular songs soon became such that writers of church +music began to use them instead of their being derived +from church music, as was originally the case. This +continued to such an extent that almost up to 1550 a +mass was known by the name of the popular song it was +based upon, as, for instance, the mass of the “Man in +Armour,” by Josquin dés Pres, and those entitled “<i>Je +prends conge</i>” and “<i>Je veult cent mille ecus</i>.” +</p> + +<p> +Now we know that the <i>tempus perfectum</i> was <i>par excellence</i> +<img src="images/time_98.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[9/8]" /> +and +<img src="images/time_34.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[3/4]" /> +time. It was natural therefore that these +first church tunes should have been changed to dances in +the hands of the common people. Even in these dances +it is interesting to note that the same symbolic significance +<a class="pagebreak" name="page127" id="page127" title="127"></a> +appears to be present, for the earliest form of these dances +was the “round song,” or roundelay, and it was danced +in a circle. +</p> + +<p> +Duple time did not come into general use until the +beginning of the fourteenth century. About the same +time, the organum (as it was called) or system of harmonization +of Hucbald was discarded, and Johannes de +Muris and Philippe de Vitry championed the consonant +quality of the third and sixth, both major and minor. +The fifth was retained as a consonant, but the fourth was +passed over in silence by the French school of writers, or +classed with the dissonants. Successive fifths were prohibited +as being too harshly dissonant, but successive +fourths were necessarily permitted, as it would be an impossibility +to do without them. Nevertheless, the fourth +was still considered a dissonance, and was permitted only +between the upper parts of the music. Thus the harsh +consecutive passages in fifths and fourths of the organum +of Hucbald disappeared in favour of the softer progressions +of thirds and sixths. +</p> + +<p> +<a name="ft09"></a>In order to make clear how the new science of counterpoint +came into existence, I must again revert to +Hucbald.<a class="fn" href="#fn09"> 9 </a> +</p> + +<p> +Before his time, all “recognized” music was a more or +less melodious succession of tones, generally of the same +<a class="pagebreak" name="page128" id="page128" title="128"></a> +length, one syllable being sometimes used for many +notes. He discovered that a melody might be sung by +several singers, each commencing at a different pitch +instead of all singing the same notes at the same time. +He also laid down rules as to how this was to be done to +produce the best effect. We remember why he chose the +fourth, fifth, and octave in preference to the third and +sixth. He called his system an “organum” or “diaphony,” +and to sing according to his rules was called to “organize” +or “organate.” We must remember that at that time +fourths and fifths were not always indicated in the written +music; only the melody, which was called the principal +or subject. By studying the rules prescribed for the +organum, the singers could add the proper intervals to +the melody. We must keep in mind, however, that +later fourths were preferred to fifths (being considered +less harsh), and that the musical scale of the period compelled +the different voices to vary slightly, that is to say, +two voices could not sing exactly the same melody at the +interval of a fourth without the use of sharps or flats; +therefore one voice continued on the same note until the +awkward place was passed, and then proceeded in fourths +again with the other voice as before: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<img src="images/fourths_move.png" width="152" height="49" + alt="[G: {e' a'} {d' g'} {d' f+'} {d' e'}]" /> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +On account of the augmented fourth that would occur by a +strict adherence to the melodic structure of the subject, the +following would have been impossible: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<img src="images/fourths_no_go.png" width="118" height="49" + alt="[G: {e' a'} {d' g'} ({c' f+'})]" /> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page129" id="page129" title="129"></a> +Thus we find the first instance of the use of thirds, and +also of oblique motion as opposed to the earlier inevitable +parallel motion of the voices. <a name="ft10"></a>This necessary freedom in +singing the organum or diaphony led to the attempt to +sing two <i>different</i> melodies, one against the other—“note +against note,” or “point counter +point,”<a class="fn" href="#fn10"> 10 </a> +point or <i>punct</i> +being the name for the written note. There being now +two distinct melodies, both had to be <i>noted</i> instead of +leaving it to the singers to add their parts extemporaneously, +according to the rules of the organum, as they +had done previously. Already earlier than this (in 1100), +owing to the tendency to discard consecutive fourths and +fifths, the intermovement of the voices, from being parallel +and oblique, became <i>contrary</i>, thus avoiding the parallel +succession of intervals. The name “organum” was +dropped and the new system became known as tenor +and descant, the tenor being the principal or foundation +melody, and the descant or descants (for there could be as +many as there were parts or voices to the music) taking +the place of the organum. The difference between <i>discantus</i> +and <i>diaphony</i> was that the latter consisted of +several parts or voices, which, however, were more or less +exact reproductions, at different pitch, of the principal or +given melody, while the former was composed of entirely +different melodic and rhythmic material. This gave rise +to the science of counterpoint, which, as I have said, +consists of the trick of making a number of voices sing +different melodies at the same time without violating +certain given rules. <a name="ft11"></a>The given melody or “principal” +<a class="pagebreak" name="page130" id="page130" title="130"></a> +soon acquired the name of <i>cantus firmus</i>, and the other +parts were each called +<i>contrapunctus</i>,<a class="fn" href="#fn11"> 11 </a> +as before they had +been called tenor and descant. These names were first +used by Gerson, Chancellor of Notre Dame, Paris, about +1400. +</p> + +<p> +In the meantime (about 1300–1375), the occasional use +of thirds and sixths in the diaphonies previously explained +led to an entirely different kind of singing, called <i>falso +bordone</i> or <i>faux bourdon</i> (<i>bordonizare</i>, “to drone,” comes +from a kind of pedal in organum that first brought the +third into use). This system, contrary to the old organum, +consisted of using only thirds and sixths together, excluding +the fourth and fifth entirely, except in the first +and last bars. This innovation has been ascribed to the +Flemish singers attached to the Papal Choir (about 1377), +when Pope Gregory XI returned from Avignon to Rome. +In the British Museum, however, there are manuscripts +dating from the previous century, showing that the <i>faux +bourdon</i> had already commenced to make its way against +the old systems of Hucbald and Guido. The combination +of the <i>faux bourdon</i> and the remnant of the organum +gives us the foundation for our modern tone system. +The old rules, making plagal motion of the different +voices preferable to parallel motion, and contrary motion +preferable to either, still hold good in our works on theory; +so also in regard to the rules forbidding consecutive fifths +and octaves, leaving the question of the fourth in doubt. +</p> + +<p> +To sum up, we may say, therefore, that up to the +sixteenth century, all music was composed of the slender +<a class="pagebreak" name="page131" id="page131" title="131"></a> +material of thirds, sixths, fifths, and octaves, fourths being +permitted only <i>between</i> the voices; consecutive successions +of fourths, however, were permitted, a license not allowed +in the use of fifths or octaves. This leads us directly +to a consideration of the laws of counterpoint and fugue, +laws that have remained practically unchanged up to the +present, with the one difference that, instead of being +restricted to the meagre material of the so-called consonants, +the growing use of what were once called dissonant +chords, such as the dominant seventh, ninth, +diminished seventh, and latterly the so-called altered +chords, has brought new riches to the art. +</p> + +<p> +Instead of going at once into a consideration of the +laws of counterpoint, it will be well to take up the development +of the instrumental resources of the time. There +were three distinct types of music: the ecclesiastical +type (which of course predominated) found its expression +in melodies sung by church choirs, four or more melodies +being sometimes sung simultaneously, in accordance with +certain fixed rules, as I have already explained. These +melodies or chants were often accompanied by the organ, +of which we will speak later. The second type was purely +instrumental, and served as an accompaniment for the +dance, or consisted of <i>fanfares</i> (ceremonial horn signals), or +hunting signals. The third type was that of the so-called +<i>trouvères</i> or <i>troubadours</i>, with their <i>jongleurs</i>, and the +minnesingers, and, later, the mastersingers. All these +“minstrels,” as we may call them, accompanied their +singing by some instrument, generally one of the lute type +or the psaltery. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="fn"><span><a href="#ft09"> 9 </a></span><a name="fn09"></a> +There is much question as to Hucbald's organum. That +actually these dissonances were used even up to 1500 is proved by +Franco Gafurius of Milan, who mentions a Litany for the Dead +(<i>De Profundis</i>) much used at that time:</p> + +<p class="central"> +<img src="images/profundis.png" width="243" height="61" + alt="[Illustration: De profundis, etc.]" /> +</p> + +<p class="fn"><span><a href="#ft10"> 10 </a></span><a name="fn10"></a> +Counterpoint is first mentioned by Muris (1300).</p> + +<p class="fn"><span><a href="#ft11"> 11 </a></span><a name="fn11"></a> +Only principal (tenor or cantus firmus) was sung to words.</p> + + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page132" id="page132" title="132"></a> +X<br /><br /> +MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS—THEIR HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">In</span> +church music, the organ is perhaps the first instrument +to be considered. In 951, Elfeg, the Bishop of Winchester +had built in his cathedral a great organ which +had four hundred pipes and twenty-six pairs of bellows, +to manage which seventy strong men were necessary. +Wolstan, in his life of St. Swithin, the Benedictine +monk, gives an account of the exhausting work required +to keep the bellows in action. +</p> + +<p> +Two performers were necessary to play this organ, +just as nowadays we play four-hand music on the piano. +The keys went down with such difficulty that the players +had to use their elbows or fists on each key; therefore it +is easy to see that, at the most, only four keys could be +pressed down at the same time. On the other hand, +each key when pressed down or pushed back (for in the +early organs the keyboard was perpendicular) gave the +wind from the bellows access to ten pipes each, which +were probably tuned in octaves or, possibly, according +to the organum of Hucbald, in fifths or fourths. This +particular organ had two sets of keys (called manuals), +one for each player; there were twenty keys to each +manual, and every key caused ten pipes to sound. The +compass of this organ was restricted to ten notes, repeated +<a class="pagebreak" name="page133" id="page133" title="133"></a> +at the distance of an octave, and, there being four hundred +pipes, forty pipes were available for each note. On +each key was inscribed the name of the note. As may +be imagined, the tone of this instrument was such that it +could be heard at a great distance. +</p> + +<p> +There were many smaller organs, as, for instance, the +one in the monastery of Ramsey, which had copper +pipes. Pictures of others from the twelfth century show +that even where there were only ten pipes, the organ +had two manuals, needed two players, and at least four +men for the bellows. The great exertion required to play +these instruments led to the invention of what is called +“mixtures.” From the moment fifths and fourths were +considered to sound better together than the simple +notes, the pipes were so arranged that the player did not +need to press two of the ponderous organ keys for this +combination of sounds. One key was made to open the +valves of the two sets of pipes, so that each key, instead of +sounding one note, would, at will, sound the open fifth, +fourth, or octave. With the addition of the third, thus +constituting a perfect major triad, this barbarous habit +has come down to our present day almost unchanged, for +by using what is called the “mixture stop” of our modern +organs, each key of the manual gives not only the original +note, but also its perfect major triad, several octaves +higher. +</p> + +<p> +Originally the organ was used only to give the right +intonation for the chanting of the priests. From the +twelfth century, small portable organs of limited compass +were much used; although the tone of these instruments +<a class="pagebreak" name="page134" id="page134" title="134"></a> +was necessarily slight, and, owing to the shortness of +the pipes, high in pitch, the principle of the mechanism +was similar to that of the larger instruments. They were +hung by means of a strap passed over the shoulders; one +hand pressed the keys in front of the pipes (which were +arranged perpendicularly), and the other hand operated +the small bellows behind the pipes. These small instruments +rarely had more than eight pipes, consequently +they possessed only the compass of an octave. With +slight variations, they were quite universally used up to +the seventeenth century. Organ pedals were invented in +Germany about 1325. Bernhard, organist of St. Mark's, +Venice (1445–1459), has been credited with the invention +of organ pedals, but it is probable that he merely introduced +them into Italy. +</p> + +<p> +As the Greek modes formed the basis for the musical +system of the church, so the Greek monochord is the +type from which the monks evolved what they called +the clavichord. The monochord has a movable bridge, +therefore some time is lost in adjusting it in order to +get the different tones. To obviate this inconvenience, a +number of strings were placed side by side, and a mechanism +inserted which, by pressing a key (<i>clavis</i>), would move +the bridge to the point at which the string must divide to +give the note indicated by the key. This made it possible +to use one string for several different notes, and explains +why the clavichord or clavicembalo needed comparatively +few strings. This instrument became obsolete toward the +end of the eighteenth century. +</p> + +<p> +The other species of instrument, the harpsichord, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page135" id="page135" title="135"></a> +which was invented about 1400, and which may be considered +as having sprung from the clavichord, consisted +of a separate string for each sound; the key, instead of +setting in action a device for striking and at the same +time <i>dividing</i> the strings, caused the strings to be plucked +by quills. Thus, in these instruments, not only was an +entirely different quality of tone produced, but the pitch +of a string remained unaltered. These instruments were +called <i>bundfrei</i>, “unbound,” in opposition to the <i>clavicembalo</i>, +which was called <i>gebunden</i>, or “bound.” The harpsichord +was much more complicated than the clavichord, +in that the latter ceased to sound when the key which +moved the bridge was released, whereas the harpsichord +required what is called a “damper” to stop the sound when +the key came up; once the string was touched by the quill, +all command of the tone by the key was lost. To regulate +this, a device was added to the instrument by means +of which a damper fell on the string when the key was +released, thereby stopping the sound. +</p> + +<p> +We have now to consider the instrumental development +of the Middle Ages. +</p> + +<p> +An instrument of the harpsichord family which has +significance in the development of the instruments of the +Middle Ages is the spinet (from <i>spina</i>, “thorn”; it had +leather points up to 1500), first made by Johannes Spinctus, +Venice, 1500. It was a harpsichord with a <i>square</i> case, +the strings running diagonally instead of lengthwise. +When the spinet was of very small dimensions it was +called a virginal; when it was in the shape of our modern +grand piano, it was, of course, a harpsichord; and when the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page136" id="page136" title="136"></a> +strings and sounding board were arranged perpendicularly, +the instrument was called a clavicitherium. As early as +1500, then, four different instruments were in general +use, the larger ones having a compass of about four +octaves. The connecting link between the harpsichord, +the clavichord, and the piano, was the dulcimer or hackbrett, +which was a tavern instrument. Pantaleon Hebenstreit, +a dancing master and inventor of Leipzig, in 1705 +added an improved hammer action, which was first +applied to keyboard instruments by Cristofori, an instrument +maker at Florence (1711). His instrument was +called <i>forte-piano</i> or <i>pianoforte</i>, because it would strike +loud or soft. +</p> + +<p> +These instruments all descended from the ancient lyre, +the only difference being that instead of causing the +strings to vibrate by means of a plectrum held in the hand, +the plectrum was set in motion by the mechanism of the +<i>claves</i> or keys. The system of fingering employed in +playing the harpsichord, up to 1700, did not make use of +the thumb. J.S. Bach, F. Couperin, and J.P. Rameau +were the pioneers in this matter. The first published +work on piano technique and fingering was that by +C.P.E. Bach (1753). +</p> + +<p> +With the advent of bowed instruments the foundation +was laid for the modern orchestra, of which they are +the natural basis. The question of the antiquity of +the bowed instrument has often been discussed, with the +result that the latter has been definitely classed as essentially +modern, for the reason that it did not become +known in Europe until about the tenth to the twelfth +<a class="pagebreak" name="page137" id="page137" title="137"></a> +centuries. As a matter of fact, the instrument is doubtless +of Person or Hindu origin, and was brought to the West +by the Arabs, who were in Spain from the eighth to the +fifteenth centuries; in fact, most of our stringed instruments, +both the bowed and those of the lyre type, we owe +to the Arabs—the very name of the lute, <i>el oud</i> (“shell” +in Arabic) became <i>liuto</i> in Italian, in German <i>laute</i>, and +in English lute. There were many varieties of these bowed +instruments, and it is thought that the principle arose +from rubbing one instrument with another. The only +other known examples of bowed instruments of primitive +type are (1) the <i>ravanastron</i>, an instrument of the monochord +type, native to India, made to vibrate by a kind +of bow with a string stretched from end to end; (2) the +Welsh <i>chrotta</i> (609 A.D.), a primitive lyre-shaped instrument, +with which, however, the use of the bow seems to +have been a much later invention. Mention should also +be made of the marine trumpet, much in vogue from the +fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries; it consisted of a long, +narrow, resonant box, composed of three boards, over +which was stretched a single string; other unchangeable +strings, struck with the bow, served as drones. Only +the harmonics were played on the marine trumpet. +</p> + +<p> +The principle of procuring the vibrations in stringed +instruments by means of a bow was, of course, applied to +the monochord class of keyed instruments, and was thus +the origin of the hurdy-gurdy, which consisted of a wheel +covered with resined leather and turned by a crank. +</p> + +<p> +The bowed instruments were originally of two types, +the first in the form of the lute or mandolin; the second +<a class="pagebreak" name="page138" id="page138" title="138"></a> +probably derived from the Welsh <i>crwth</i>, consisting of a +flat, long box strung with strings (called fidel from <i>fides</i>, +“string”). The combination of these types, which were +subjected to the most fantastic changes of shape, led +eventually to the modern violin family. +</p> + +<p> +We know that the highest plane of perfection in the +violin was reached in Italy about 1600. The Cremona +makers, Amati, Guarnerius, and Stradivarius, made their +most celebrated instruments between 1600 and 1750. +</p> + +<p> +The violin bow, in its earliest form, was nothing more +than an ordinary bow with a stretched string; Corelli +and Tartini used a bow of the kind. The present shape +of the bow is due to Tourte, a Paris maker, who experimented +in conjunction with Viotti, the celebrated violinist. +</p> + +<p> +By looking at the original lute and the Arabian <i>rebeck</i> +or Welsh <i>crwth</i> (originally Latin <i>chorus</i>), we can see how +the modern violin received its generally rounded shape +from the lute, its flatness from the <i>rebeck</i>, the sides of +the instrument being cut out in order to give the bow +free access to the side strings. The name too, <i>fidula</i> or +<i>vidula</i>, from mediæval Latin <i>fides</i>, “string,” became fiddle +and viola, the smaller viola being called violino, the +larger, violoncello and viola da gamba. +</p> + +<p> +In the Middle Ages, the different species of bowed instrument +numbered from fifteen to twenty, and it was +not until between 1600 and 1700 that the modern forms of +these instruments obtained the ascendancy. +</p> + +<p> +Of the wind instruments it was naturally the flute that +retained its antique form; the only difference between +the modern instrument and the ancient one being that +<a class="pagebreak" name="page139" id="page139" title="139"></a> +the former is blown crosswise, instead of perpendicularly. +Quantz, the celebrated court flute player to Frederick the +Great of Prussia, was the first to publish, in 1750, a so-called +“method” of playing the traversal (crosswise) flute. +</p> + +<p> +With the reed instruments the change in modern times +is more striking. The original form of the reed instruments +was of the double-reed variety. The oldest known mention +of them dates from 650 A.D., when the name +applied is <i>calamus</i> (reed); later the names <i>shalmei</i> (<i>chalumeau</i>, +“straw,” from German <i>halm</i>) and <i>shawm</i> were +used. These instruments were played by means of +a bell-shaped mouthpiece, the double reed being fixed +inside the tube. It was not until toward the end of the +sixteenth century that the bell-shaped mouthpiece was +dispensed with and the reed brought directly to the lips, +thus giving the player greater power of expression. The +oboe is a representative type of the higher pitched double-reed +instruments. In its present shape it is about two +hundred years old. As the deeper toned instruments +were necessarily very long, six to eight and even ten feet, +an assistant had to walk before the performer, holding the +tube on his shoulder. This inconvenience led to bending +the tube back on itself, making it look somewhat like a +bundle of sticks, hence the word <i>faggot</i>; although it is +commonly known in this country by the French name, +<i>bassoon</i>. This manner of arranging the instrument dates +from about the year 1550. The clarinet is an essentially +modern instrument, the single beating reed and cylindrical +tube coming into use about 1700, the invention +of a German named Denner, who lived at Nuremberg. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page140" id="page140" title="140"></a> +All the brass instruments of the Middle Ages seem +to have been very short, therefore high in pitch. We +remember that the Romans had trumpets (chiefly used +in signalling) called <i>buccina</i>, and we may assume that +the whole modern family of brass instruments has +descended from this primitive type. As late as 1500, the +hunting horn consisted of but one loop which passed +over the shoulder and around the body of the player. +A horn of from six to seven feet in length was first +used about 1650; and we know that, owing to the smallness +of the instruments and their consequent high pitch +in those days, many of Bach's scores contain parts absolutely +impracticable for our modern brass instruments. +The division of these instruments into classes, such as +trumpets, horns, trombones, etc., is due to the differences +in shape, which in turn produce tones of different quality. +The large bore of the trombone gives great volume to the +tone, the small bore of the trumpet great brilliancy, the +medium bore of the horn veils the brilliancy on one hand +and lightens the thickness of tone on the other. +</p> + +<p> +The horn, called <i>cor de chasse</i>, was first used in the orchestra +in 1664, in one of Lully's operas, but its technique +(stopped tones and crooks) was only properly understood +about 1750; the present-day valve horn did not come into +general use until within the last half century. Fifty years +before the principle had been applied to the horn the +trumpet had crooks and slides, a mechanism which, in +the trumpet, is still retained in England, pointing to the +fact that the trombone is, after all, nothing but a very +large kind of trumpet. +</p> + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page141" id="page141" title="141"></a> +XI<br /><br /> +FOLK SONG AND ITS RELATION TO NATIONALISM IN MUSIC</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">In</span> +order to understand as well as to feel music, we must +reduce it to its primary elements, and these are to be +found in folk song, or, to go further back, in its predecessor, +the chant of the savages. +</p> + +<p> +Folk music may be likened to a twig which has fallen +into a salt mine, to borrow an expression from Taine; +every year adds fresh jewels to the crystals that form +on it until at last the only resemblance to the original +is in the general contour. We know that the nucleus of +melody lies in one note, just as the origin of language +is to be sought for in the word. Therefore folk music +proper must be separated from what may be called barbaric +music, the most primitive type of the latter being +the “one-note” strain from which spring the melodies +of the people. This one-note form passes through many +rhythmical changes before song becomes developed to the +extent of adding several notes to its means of expression. +The next development of savage chanting (which +is the precursor of folk song) may be traced back to its +two elements, one of which was a mere savage howl, and +the other, that raising of the voice under stress of strong +emotion which still constitutes one of our principal means +of expression. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page142" id="page142" title="142"></a> +Thus, in this barbaric music we invariably find three +principles: 1, rhythm; 2, the howl or descending scale of +undefined intervals; and 3, the emotional raising of the +voice. The rhythm, which characterizes the most primitive +form of song or chant, consists of the incessant repetition +of a very small group of rhythmic sounds. This +incessant recurrence of one idea is characteristic of primitive, +weak, or insane natures. The second principle, +which invariably includes the first (pointing to a slightly +more advanced state of development), is met with in many +folk songs of even modern times. The third principle is +one which indicates the transition stage from primitive +or barbaric music to folk music. +</p> + +<p> +To the primitive savage mind, the smallest rhythmic +phrase is a wonderful invention, therefore it is repeated +incessantly. Add to that a certain joy in mere sound, and +we have the howl, which certainly follows the sequence +of nature, for a thunder clap, or the phenomenon of +echo, is its prototype, being a loud explosion followed by +a more or less regular sequence of minor reverberations. +<a name="ft12"></a>When the accent of passion is added to these two principles—will +and nature—we have laid the æsthetic +foundation for all that we call +music.<a class="fn" href="#fn12"> 12 </a> The example of +a loud tone with gradually ascending inflections has only +been found in the most perverted types of humanity; +for instance, an English writer quaintly alludes to the +songs of the Polynesian cannibals as consisting of “gruesomely +suggestive passages of rising quarter-tones sung +<a class="pagebreak" name="page143" id="page143" title="143"></a> +gloatingly before their living captives who are soon to be +devoured.” +</p> + +<p> +Now traces of these three elements are to be found in +every folk song known, and we may even trace their +influence in modern music, the lowest or most primitive +being, as I have said, the “one-note” type, the next what +I have called the “howl” type, the third the highest or +“emotional” type. +</p> + +<p> +Specimens of the first type, chants such as these +<img src="images/figure08.png" width="144" height="55" alt="[Figure 08]" /> +[<a href="midi/figure08.midi">MIDI</a>], +are to be heard in every part of the +globe, the rhythmic figure being necessarily short and +repeated incessantly. +</p> + +<p> +The next step was a tremendous advance, and we find +its influence permeating all music. The most primitive +specimens of this type we find among the Jute Indians +<img src="images/figure09.png" width="292" height="49" alt="[Figure 09]" /> +[<a href="midi/figure09.midi">MIDI</a>], +a mixture of one and two. +The same is to be found in Australia, slightly modified: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure10.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure10.png" width="531" height="50" alt="[Figure 10]" /> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +The Caribs have the same song +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/caribs.png" width="111" height="54" + alt="[G: g'' \ Chromatic g']" />.</span> +We find +it again in Hungary, although in a still more modified +form, thus: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure11.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<a href="images/figure11o.png"><img + src="images/figure11.png" width="531" height="53" alt="[Figure 11]" /></a> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page144" id="page144" title="144"></a> +And last of all we meet with it in its primitive state in the +folk song used by Bizet in “Carmen.” We can even see +traces of it in the quasi-folk song of the present century: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure12.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure12.png" width="299" height="49" alt="[Figure 12] etc." /> +</p> + +<p> +The third element of folk song shows again a great +advance, for instead of the mere howl of pleasure or pain, +we have a more or less exactly graded expression of +feeling. In speaking of impassioned speech I explained +the relative values of the inflections of the voice, how the +upward skip of the fourth, fifth, and octave indicates the +intensity of the emotion causing the cry. When this element +is brought into music, it gives a vitality not before +possessed, for by this it becomes speech. When in such +music this inflection rhymes with the words, that is to +say, when the speech finds its emotional reflection in the +music, we have reached the highest development of folk +song. In its best state, this is immeasurably superior +to much of our “made” music, only too often false in +rhythm, feeling, and declamation. +</p> + +<p> +Among the different nations, these three characteristics +often become obscured by national idiosyncracies. Much +of the Chinese music, the “Hymn to the Ancestors,” for +instance, seemingly covers a number of notes, whereas, +in fact, it belongs to the one-note type. We find that +their melodies almost invariably return to the same note, +the intervening sounds being more or less merely variations +above and below the pitch of the principal sound. For +example: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page145" id="page145" title="145"></a> +[<a href="midi/figure13.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure13.png" width="531" height="134" alt="[Figure 13]" /> +</p> + +<p> +Hungarian folk music has been much distorted by the +oriental element, as represented by the <i>zingari</i> or gypsies. +The Hungarian type of folk music is one of the highest, +and is extremely severe in its contours, as shown in the +following: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure14.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure14.png" width="273" height="49" alt="[Figure 14]" /> +</p> + +<p> +The gypsy element as copied by Liszt has obscured the +folk melodies by innumerable arabesques and ornaments +of all sorts, often covering even a “one-note” type of +melody until it seems like a complicated design. +</p> + +<p> +This elaboration of detail and the addition of passing +and ornamental notes to every melody is distinctly an +oriental trait, which finds vent not only in music but also +in architecture, designing, carving, etc. It is considered +by many an element of weakness, seeking to cover a +poverty of thought by rich vestments. And yet, to my +mind, nothing can be more misleading. In spite of Sir +Hubert Parry and other writers, I cannot think that the +Moors in Spain, for instance, covered poverty of thought +beneath superficial ingenuity of design. The Alhambra +outdoes in “passage work,” in virtuoso arabesques, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page146" id="page146" title="146"></a> +all that an army of Liszts could do in piano literature; +and yet the Arabs were the saviours of science, and promoted +the greatest learning and depth of thought known +in Europe in their time. As for Liszt, there is such an +astounding wealth of poetry and deep feeling beneath +the somewhat “flashy,” bombastic trick of speech he +inherited, that the true lover of music can no more allow +his feelings to be led astray by such externals than one +would judge a man's mind by the cut of his coat or the +hat he wears. +</p> + +<p> +Thus we see the essence of folk song is comprised in +the three elements mentioned, and its æsthetic value may +be determined by the manner in which these elements +are combined and their relative preponderance. +</p> + +<p> +One point must be very distinctly understood, namely, +that what we call harmonization of a melody cannot be +admitted as forming any part of folk song. Folk melodies +are, without exception, homophonous. This being the +case, perhaps my statement that the vital principle of +folk music in its best state has nothing in common with +nationalism (considered in the usual sense of the word), +will be better understood. And this will be the proof +that nationalism, so-called, is merely an extraneous thing +that has no part in pure art. For if we take any melody, +even of the most pronounced national type, and merely +eliminate the characteristic turns, affectations, or mannerisms, +the theme becomes simply music, and retains no +touch of nationality. We may even go further; for if we +retain the characteristic mannerisms of dress, we may +harmonize a folk song in such a manner that it will belie +<a class="pagebreak" name="page147" id="page147" title="147"></a> +its origin; and by means of this powerful factor (an essentially +modern invention) we may even transform a Scotch +song, with all its “snap” and character, into a Chinese +song, or give it an Arabian flavour. This, to be sure, is +possible only to a limited degree; enough, however, to +prove to us the power of harmony; and harmony, as I +have said, has no part in folk song. +</p> + +<p> +To define the <i>rôle</i> of harmony in music is no easy matter. +Just as speech has its shadow languages, gesture and expression; +just as man is a duality of idealism and materialism; +just as music itself is a union of the emotional and +the intellectual, so harmony is the shadow language of melody; +and just as in speech this shadow language overwhelms +the spoken word, so in music harmony controls the +melody. For example: Imagine the words “I will kill you” +being said in a jesting tone of voice and with a pleasant +expression of the face; the import of the words would +be lost in their expression; the mere words would mean +nothing to us in comparison with the expression that +accompanied them. +</p> + +<p> +Take away the harmonic structure upon which Wagner +built his operas and it would be difficult to form a conception +of the marvellous potency of his music. Melody, +therefore, may be classed as the gift of folk song to +music; and harmony is its shadow language. When these +two powers, melody and harmony, supplement each other, +when one completes the thought of the other, then, provided +the thought be a noble one, the effect will be overwhelmingly +convincing, and we have great music. The +contrary results when one contradicts the other, and that +<a class="pagebreak" name="page148" id="page148" title="148"></a> +is only too often the case; for we hear the mildest waltzes +dressed up in tragic and dramatic chords, which, like +Bottom, “roar as gently as any sucking dove.” +</p> + +<p> +In discussing the origin of speech, mention was made +of those shadow languages which accompany all our +spoken words, namely, the languages of expression and +gesture. These were surely the very first auxiliaries of +uttered speech, and in the same way we find that they +constitute the first sign of advance in primitive melody. +Savages utter the same thought over and over again, +evidently groping after that semblance of Nirvana (or +perhaps it may be better described as “hypnotic exaltation”) +which the incessant repetition of that one thought, +accompanied by its vibrating shadow, sound, would naturally +occasion. +</p> + +<p> +It was also stated that the relative antiquity or primitivity +of a melody is invariably to be discovered by its +degree of relationship to the original type, one note, one +rhythm, the emotional, the savage howl, or, in other +words, the high note followed by a gradual descent. To +confirm this theory of the origin of folk song, we need +only look at the aboriginal chants of widely separated +peoples to find that the oldest songs all resemble one +another, despite the fact that they originated in widely +separated localities. +</p> + +<p> +Now the difference between this primitive music and +that which we call folk song is that the latter is characterized +by a feeling for design, in the broadest sense of +the word, entirely lacking in the former. For we find +that although folk song is composed of the same material +<a class="pagebreak" name="page149" id="page149" title="149"></a> +as savage music, the material is arranged coherently into +sentences instead of remaining the mere exclamation of +passion or a nerve exciting reiteration of unchanging +rhythms and vibrations, as is the case in the music of the +savage. +</p> + +<p> +Before proceeding further, I wish to draw the line +which separates savage from folk music very plainly. +</p> + +<p> +We know that the first stage in savage music is that of +one note. Gradually a tone above the original is added +on account of the savage being unable to intone correctly; +through stress of emotion the fifth and octave +come into the chant; the sixth, being the note above +the fifth, is added later, as is the third, the note above +the second. Thus is formed the pentatonic scale as it is +found all over the world, and it is clear, therefore, that +the development of the scale is due to emotional influences. +</p> + +<p> +The development of rhythm may be traced to the +words sung or declaimed, and the development of design +or form to the dance. In the following, from Brazil, +we find a savage chant in almost its primitive state: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure15.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure15.png" width="375" height="29" alt="[Figure 15] etc." /> +</p> + +<p> +The next example, also from Brazil, is somewhat better, +but still formless and unemotional. +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure16.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure16.png" width="270" height="29" alt="[Figure 16] etc." /> +</p> + +<p> +Let this be danced to, however, and the change is very +marked, for immediately form, regularity, and design are +noticeable: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure17.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure17.png" width="270" height="29" alt="[Figure 17] etc." /> +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page150" id="page150" title="150"></a> +On the other hand, the emotional element marks another +very decided change, namely, by placing more sounds +at the command of the singer, and also by introducing +words, which necessarily invest the song with the rhythm +of language. +</p> + +<p> +Thus the emotional and declamatory elements heighten +the powers of expression by the greater range given to +the voice, and add the poignancy and rhythm of speech +to song. On the other hand, the dance gives regularity +to the rhythmic and emotional sequences. +</p> + +<p> +In the following examples we can see more clearly the +elements of folk song as they exist in savage music: +</p> + +<blockquote class="flush central"> +<h4>Three or four note (simple)</h4> + +<p>South America<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure18.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure18.png" width="260" height="33" alt="[Figure 18]" /> +</p> + +<p>Nubia<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure19.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure19.png" width="159" height="30" alt="[Figure 19]" /> +</p> + +<h4>Emotional (simple)</h4> + +<p>Samoa<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure20.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure20.png" width="472" height="52" alt="[Figure 20]" /> +</p> + +<h4>Emotional and Composite</h4> + +<p>Hudson's Bay<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure21.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure21.png" width="264" height="52" alt="[Figure 21]" /> +</p> + +<p>Soudan<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure22.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure22.png" width="303" height="62" alt="[Figure 22]" /> +</p> + +<h4>Howl and Emotion</h4> + +<p> +[<a href="midi/figure23.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<a href="images/figure23o.png"><img + src="images/figure23.png" width="137" height="65" alt="[Figure 23]" /></a> +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page151" id="page151" title="151"></a> +Dance. Brazil<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure24.midi">MIDI</a>, +<a href="midi/figure25.midi">MIDI</a>, +<a href="midi/figure26.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure24-6.png" width="531" height="142" + alt="[Figure 24] Simple [Figure 25] or Dance [Figure 26]" /> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +The fact that so many nations have the pentatonic or +five-note scale (the Chinese, Basque, Scotch, Hindu, etc.), +would seem to point to a necessary similarity of their +music. This, however, is not the case. In tracing the +differences we shall find that true folk song has but few +marked national traits, it is something which comes from +the heart; whereas nationalism in music is an outward +garment which is a result of certain habits of thought, +a <i>mannerism</i> of language so to speak. If we look at the +music of different nations we find certain characteristics; +divest the music of these same characteristics +and we find that the figure upon which this garment of +nationalism has been placed is much the same the world +over, and that its relationship to the universal language +of savage music is very marked. Carmen's song, divested +of the mixture of triplets and dual rhythms (Spanish or +Moorish) is akin to the “howl.” +</p> + +<p> +Nationalism may be divided into six different classes: +</p> + +<p> +First we have what may be broadly termed “orientalism,” +which includes the Hindu, Moorish, Siamese, and +Gypsy, the latter embracing most of southeastern European +(Roumania, etc.) types. Liszt's “Second Rhapsody,” +<a class="pagebreak" name="page152" id="page152" title="152"></a> +opening section, divested of orientalism or gypsy characteristics, +is merely of the savage three-note type. +</p> + +<p> +Our second division may be termed the style of reiteration, +and is to be found in Russia and northern Europe. +</p> + +<p> +The third consists of the mannerism known as the +“Scotch snap,” and is a rhythmic device which probably +originated in that trick of jumping from one register of +the voice to another, which has always had a fascination +for people of simple natures. The Swiss <i>jodel</i> is the best +illustration of this in a very exaggerated form. +</p> + +<p> +The fourth consists of a seemingly capricious intermixture +of dual and triple rhythm, and is especially +noticeable in Spanish and Portuguese music as well as +in that of their South American descendants. This distinction, +however, may be traced directly back to the +Moors. For in their wonderful designs we continually +see the curved line woven in with the straight, the circle +with the square, the <i>tempus perfectum</i> with the spondee. +This would bring this characteristic directly under the +head of orientalism or ornamental development. Yet +the peculiarity is so marked that it seems to call for +separate consideration. +</p> + +<p> +The fifth type, like the fourth, is open to the objection +that it is merely a phase of the oriental type. It consists +of the incessant use of the augmented second and diminished +third, a distinctively Arabian characteristic, and is +to be found in Egypt, also, strange to say, occasionally +among our own North American Indians. This, however, +is not to be wondered at, considering that we know nothing +of their ancestry. Only now and then on that broad sea +<a class="pagebreak" name="page153" id="page153" title="153"></a> +of mystery do we see a half submerged rock, which gives +rise to all sorts of conjectures; for example, the custom +of the Jutes to wear green robes and use fans in certain +dances, the finding in the heart of America of such an +Arab tune as this: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure27.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure27.png" width="305" height="49" alt="[Figure 27]" /> +</p> + +<p class="cont"> +or such a Russian tune as this: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure28.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/figure28.png" width="421" height="49" alt="[Figure 28]" />.</span> +</p> + +<p> +The last type of nationalism in folk song is almost +a negative quality, its distinguishing mark being mere +simplicity, a simplicity which is affected, or possibly +assimilated, by the writer of such a song; for German +folk song proper is a made thing, springing not from the +people, but from the many composers, both ancient and +modern, who have tried their hands in that direction. +</p> + +<p> +While this of course takes nationalism out of the composition +of German folk song so-called, the latter has +undoubtedly gained immensely by it; for by thus divesting +music of all its national mannerisms, it has left the +thought itself untroubled by quirks and turns and a restricted +musical scale; it has allowed this thought to shine +out in all its own essential beauty, and thus, in this so-called +German folk song, the greatest effects of poignancy +are often reached through absolute simplicity and directness. +</p> + +<p> +Now let us take six folk songs and trace first their +national characteristics, and after that their scheme of +<a class="pagebreak" name="page154" id="page154" title="154"></a> +design, for it is by the latter that the vital principle, so +to speak, of a melody is to be recognized, all else being +merely external, costumes of the different countries in +which they were born. And we shall see that a melody +or thought born among one people will change its costume +when it migrates to another country. +</p> + + +<p class="central">Arab Song<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure29.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure29.png" width="531" height="560" alt="[Figure 29]" /> +</p> + +<p class="central">Scheme<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure29a.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure29a.png" width="531" height="159" alt="[Figure 29a]" /> +</p> + + +<p class="central"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page155" id="page155" title="155"></a> +Russia—Reiteration<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure30.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure30.png" width="483" height="135" + alt="[Figure 30] etc." /> +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure31.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure31.png" width="541" height="49" alt="[Figure 31] etc." /> +</p> + +<p class="central">Red Sarafan<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure32.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure32.png" width="541" height="140" alt="[Figure 32]" /> +</p> + +<p class="central">Scotch<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure33.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure33.png" width="541" height="307" alt="[Figure 33]" /> +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page156" id="page156" title="156"></a> +[<a href="midi/figure34.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure34.png" width="541" height="304" alt="[Figure 34]" /> +</p> + +<p class="central">Irish—Emotional in character, +with greater perfection in design<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure35.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<a href="images/figure35o.png"><img src="images/figure35.png" + width="541" height="313" alt="[Figure 35]" /></a> +</p> + +<p class="central">Spanish<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure36.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure36.png" width="541" height="56" alt="[Figure 36]" /> +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page157" id="page157" title="157"></a> +Egyptian<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure37.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure37.png" width="541" height="141" + alt="[Figure 37] (Note augmented intervals)" /> +</p> + +<p> +The characteristics of German and English folk songs +may be observed in the familiar airs of these nations. +</p> + +<p> +The epitome of folk song, divested of nationalism, is +shown in the following: +</p> + +<p class="central"> +[<a href="midi/figure38.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure38.png" width="305" height="49" alt="[Figure 38]" /> +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="fn"><span><a href="#ft12"> 12 </a></span><a name="fn12"></a> +The antiquity of any melody (or its primitiveness) may be established +according to its rhythmic and melodic or human attributes.</p> + + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page158" id="page158" title="158"></a> +XII<br /><br /> +THE TROUBADOURS, MINNESINGERS AND MASTERSINGERS</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">Although</span> +wandering minstrels or bards have existed +since the world began, and although the poetry they have +left is often suggestive, the music to which the words +were sung is but little known. +</p> + +<p> +About 700–800 A.D., when all Europe was in a state +of dense ignorance and mental degradation, the Arabs +were the embodiment of culture and science, and the +Arab empire extended at that time over India, Persia, +Arabia, Egypt (including Algeria and Barbary), Portugal, +and the Spanish caliphates, Andalusia, Granada, etc. +The descriptions of the splendour at the courts of the +Eastern caliphs at Bagdad seem almost incredible. +</p> + +<p> +For instance, the Caliph Mahdi is said to have expended +six millions of dinars of gold in a single pilgrimage to +Mecca. His grandson, Almamon, gave in alms, on one +single occasion, two and a half millions of gold pieces, +and the rooms in his palace at Bagdad were hung with +thirty-eight thousand pieces of tapestry, over twelve +thousand of which were of silk embroidered with gold. +The floor carpets were more than twenty thousand in +number, and the Greek ambassador was shown a hundred +lions, each with his keeper, as a sign of the king's royalty, +as well as a wonderful tree of gold and silver, spreading +into eighteen large, leafy branches, on which were many +<a class="pagebreak" name="page159" id="page159" title="159"></a> +birds made of the same precious metals. By some +mechanical means, the birds sang and the leaves trembled. +Naturally such a court, particularly under the reign of +Haroun-al Raschid (the Just), who succeeded Almamon, +would attract the most celebrated of those Arabian minstrels, +such as Zobeir, Ibrahim of Mossoul, and many +others who figure in the “Arabian Nights,” real persons +and celebrated singers of their times. We read +of one of them, Serjab, who, by court jealousy and intrigues, +was forced to leave Bagdad, and found his way +to the Western caliphates, finally reaching Cordova in +Spain, where the Caliph Abdalrahman's court vied with +that of Bagdad in luxury. Concerning this we read in +Gibbon that in his palace of Zehra the audience hall was +incrusted with gold and pearls, and that the caliph was +attended by twelve thousand horsemen whose belts and +scimiters were studded with gold. +</p> + +<p> +We know that the Arabian influence on the European +arts came to us by the way of Spain, and although we can +see traces of it very plainly in the Spanish music of to-day, +the interim of a thousand years has softened its characteristics +very much. On the other hand, the much more +pronounced Arabian characteristics of Hungarian music +are better understood when we recall that the Saracens +were at the gates of Budapesth as late as 1400. That the +European troubadours should have adopted the Moorish +<i>el oud</i> and called it “lute” is therefore but natural. And +in all the earlier songs of the troubadours we shall find +many traces of the same influence; for their <i>albas</i> or <i>aubades</i> +(morning songs) came from the Arabic, as did their +<a class="pagebreak" name="page160" id="page160" title="160"></a> +<i>serenas</i> or serenades (evening songs), <i>planhs</i> (complaints), +and <i>coblas</i> (couplets). The troubadours themselves were +so called from <i>trobar</i>, meaning to invent. +</p> + +<p> +In the works of Fauriel and St. Polaye, and many others, +may be found accounts of the origin of the Provençal +literature, including, of course, a description of the troubadours. +It is generally admitted that Provençal poetry +has no connection with Latin, the origin of this new poetry +being very plausibly ascribed to a gypsy-like class of +people mentioned by the Latin chroniclers of the Middle +Ages as <i>joculares</i> or <i>joculatores</i>. They were called <i>joglars</i> +in Provençal, <i>jouglers</i> or <i>jougleors</i> in French, and our +word “juggler” comes from the same source. What that +source originally was may be inferred from the fact that +they brought many of the Arab forms of dance and +poetry into Christian Europe. For instance, two forms +of Provençal poetry are the counterpart of the Arabian +<i>cosidas</i> or long poem, all on one rhyme; and the <i>maouchahs</i> +or short poem, also rhymed. The <i>saraband</i>, or Saracen +dance, and later the morris dance (<i>Moresco</i> or <i>Fandango</i>) +or Moorish dance, seem to point to the same origin. In +order to make it clearer I will quote an Arabian song from +a manuscript in the British Museum, and place beside it +one by the troubadour Capdeuil. +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page161" id="page161" title="161"></a> +Arabian Melody<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure39.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure39.png" width="541" height="569" alt="[Figure 39]" /> +</p> + +<p class="central"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page162" id="page162" title="162"></a> +[<a href="midi/figure40.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure40.png" width="531" height="165" + alt="Pons de Capdeuil [Figure 40]" /> +</p> + +<p> +The troubadours must not be confounded with the +<i>jougleurs</i> (more commonly written <i>jongleurs</i>). The latter, +wandering, mendicant musicians, ready to play the lute, +sing, dance, or “juggle,” were welcomed as merry-makers +at all rich houses, and it soon became a custom for rich +nobles to have a number of them at their courts. The +troubadour was a very different person, generally a noble +who wrote poems, set them to music, and employed <i>jongleurs</i> +to sing and play them. In the South these songs +were generally of an amorous nature, while in the North +they took the form of <i>chansons de geste</i>, long poems recounting +the feats in the life and battles of some hero, +such as Roland (whose song was chanted by the troops +of William the Conqueror), or Charles Martel. +</p> + +<p> +And so the foundations for many forms of modern +music were laid by the troubadours, for the <i>chanson</i> or +song was always a narrative. If it were an evening song +it was a <i>sera</i> or serenade, or if it were a night song, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page163" id="page163" title="163"></a> +<i>nocturne</i>; a dance, a <i>ballada</i>; a round dance, a <i>rounde</i> or +<i>rondo</i>; a country love song, a <i>pastorella</i>. Even the words +descant and treble go back to their time; for the <i>jongleurs</i>, +singing their masters' songs, would not all follow the +same melody; one of them would seek to embellish it +and sing something quite different that still would fit well +with the original melody, just as nowadays, in small +amateur bands we often hear a flute player adding embellishing +notes to his part. Soon, more than one singer +added to his part, and the new voice was called the triple, +third, or treble voice. This extemporizing on the part +of the <i>jongleurs</i> soon had to be regulated, and the actual +notes written down to avoid confusion. Thus this habit +of singing merged into <i>faux bourdon</i>, which has been +discussed in a former chapter. Apart from these forms +of song, there were some called <i>sirventes</i>—that is “songs +of service,” which were very partisan, and were accompanied +by drums, bells, and pipes, and sometimes by +trumpets. The more warlike of these songs were sung at +tournaments by the <i>jongleurs</i> outside the lists, while their +masters, the troubadours, were doing battle, of which custom +a good description is to be found in Hagen's book on +the minnesingers. +</p> + +<p> +In France the Provençal poetry lasted only until the +middle of the fourteenth century, after the troubadours +had received a crushing blow at the time the Albigenses +were extirpated in the thirteenth century. +</p> + +<p> +In one city alone (that of Beziers), between 30,000 and +40,000 people were killed for heresy against the Pope. +The motto of the Pope's representatives was “God will +<a class="pagebreak" name="page164" id="page164" title="164"></a> +know His Own,” and Catholics as well as Albigenses (as +the sect was called) were massacred indiscriminately. +That this heresy against the Pope was vastly aided by the +troubadours, is hardly open to doubt. Such was their +power that the rebellious, antipapal <i>sirventes</i> of the +troubadours (which were sung by their troops of <i>jongleurs</i> +in every market place) could be suppressed only after the +cities of Provence were almost entirely annihilated and +the population destroyed by the massacre, burning alive, +and the Inquisition. +</p> + +<p> +A review of the poems of Bertran de Born, Bernart de +Ventadour, Thibaut, or others is hardly in place here. +Therefore we will pass to Germany, where the spirit of the +troubadours was assimilated in a peculiarly Germanic +fashion by the minnesingers and the mastersingers. +</p> + +<p> +In Germany, the troubadours became minnesingers, or +singers of love songs, and as early as the middle of the +twelfth century the minnesingers were already a powerful +factor in the life of the epoch, counting among their +number many great nobles and kings. The German +minnesingers differed from the French troubadours in +that they themselves accompanied their songs on the viol, +instead of employing <i>jongleurs</i>. Their poems, written in +the Swabian dialect, then the court language of Germany, +were characterized by greater pathos and purity than +those of the troubadours, and their longer poems, corresponding +to the <i>chansons de geste</i> of the north of France, +were also superior to the latter in point of dignity +and strength. From the French we have the “Song of +Roland” (which William the Conqueror's troops sang in +<a class="pagebreak" name="page165" id="page165" title="165"></a> +their invasion of England); from the Germans the “Nibelungen +Song,” besides Wolfram von Eschenbach's “Parzival” +and Gottfried von Strasburg's “Tristan.” In +contradistinction to the poetry of the troubadours, that of +the minnesingers was characterized by an undercurrent +of sadness which seems to be peculiar to the Germanic +race. The songs are full of nature and the eternal strife +between Winter and Summer and their prototypes Death +and Life (recalling the ancient myths of Maneros, Bacchus, +Astoreth, Bel, etc.). +</p> + +<p> +After the death of Konrad IV, the last Swabian emperor +of the House of Hohenstaufen, minnesinging in Germany +declined, and was succeeded by the movement represented +by the <i>meister</i> or mastersingers. During the fourteenth +and fifteenth centuries, when Germany was broken up +into countless small duchies and kingdoms, many of the +German nobles became mere robbers and took part in the +innumerable little wars which kept the nation in a state +of ferment. Thus they had neither time nor inclination +to occupy themselves with such pursuits as poetry or +music. In the meanwhile, however, the incessant warfare +and brigandage that prevailed in the country tended to +drive the population to the cities for protection. The +latter grew in size, and little by little the tradespeople +began to take up the arts of poetry and music which had +been discarded by the nobles. +</p> + +<p> +Following their custom in respect to their trades, they +formed the art companies into guilds, the rules for admittance +to which were very strict. The rank of each +member was determined by his skill in applying the rules +<a class="pagebreak" name="page166" id="page166" title="166"></a> +of the “Tabulatur,” as it was called. There were five +grades of membership: the lowest was that of mere admittance +to the guild; the next carried with it the title +of scholar; the third the friend of the school; after that +came the singer, the poet; and last of all the mastersinger, +to attain which distinction the aspirant must have invented +a new style of melody or rhyme. The details of +the contest we all know from Wagner's comedy; in a +number of cases Wagner even made use of the sentences +and words found in the rules of the mastersingers. Although +the mastersingers retained their guild privileges +in different parts of Germany almost up to the middle +of the present century, the movement was strongest in +Bavaria, with Nuremberg as its centre. +</p> + +<p> +Thus we see that the mastersingers and the minnesingers +were two very different classes of men. The +mastersingers are mainly valuable for having given +Wagner a pretext for his wonderful music. Hans Sachs +was perhaps the only one of the mastersingers whose +melodies show anything but the flattest mediocrity. +The minnesingers and their immediate predecessors and +successors, on the other hand, furnished thought for a +great part of our modern art. To put it in a broad +manner, it may be said that much of our modern poetry +owes more than is generally conceded to the German +mediæval romance as represented in the works of Wolfram +von Eschenbach, Gottfried of Strasburg, and the unknown +compilers of the “Nibelungenlied” and “Gutrune.” +Music owes more to the troubadours, for, from what +we know of the melodies of the minnesingers, they cannot +<a class="pagebreak" name="page167" id="page167" title="167"></a> +compare in expressiveness with those of their French +<i>confrères</i>. +</p> + +<p> +In closing this consideration of the minnesingers, I will +quote some of their verses and melodies, giving short +accounts of the authors. +</p> + +<p> +The best known of the minnesingers were Walther von +der Vogelweide, Heinrich Frauenlob, Tannhäuser, Nithart, +Toggenburg, etc. We first hear of Walther von der +Vogelweide in 1200, as a poet attached to the court of +Philip of Hohenstaufen, the German Kaiser, and shortly +after to that of his successors Otto and Friedrich. He +accompanied Kaiser Friedrich to the Crusade of 1228, +and saw him crowned in Jerusalem. He died in Würzburg, +Bavaria. In accordance with his dying request, +food and drink for the birds were placed on his tomb +every day; the four holes carved for that purpose being +still visible. The pictures in Hagen's work on the mastersingers +were collected in the fifteenth century by +Manasses of Zorich, and have served as the basis for all +subsequent works on the subject. The picture of Von der +Vogelweide (page 21) shows him sitting in an attitude +of meditation, on a green hillock, beside him his sword +and his coat of arms (a caged bird on one side and his +helmet on the other), and in his hand a roll of manuscript. +One of his shorter poems begins: +</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Neath the lindens</span><br /> +<span class="i0">In the meadow</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Seek I flowers sweet;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Clover fragrant,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Tender grasses,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Bend beneath my feet.</span> +</p> + +<p class="stanza"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page168" id="page168" title="168"></a> +<span class="i0">See, the gloaming,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Softly sinking,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Covers hill and dale.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Hush! my lover—</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Tandaradei!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Sweet sings the nightingale.</span> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +We all are familiar with Tannhäuser (plate 35), through +Wagner's opera; therefore it is unnecessary to say more +than that he was a real person, a minnesinger, and that the +singing tournament at the Wartburg (the castle of the +Thüringen family) really took place in 1206–07. This +tournament, which Wagner introduces into his “Tannhäuser,” +was a trial of knightly strength, poetry, and music, +between the courts of Babenhausen and Thüringen, and +was held in Erfurt. Among the knights who competed +were Klingsor of Hungary, a descendant of the Klingsor +who figures in the “Parzival” legend, Tannhäuser, +Walther von Eschenbach, Walther von der Vogelweide, +and many others. Tannhäuser was a follower, or perhaps +better, the successor of Walther von der Vogelweide, +like him, a crusader, and lived in the first half of the +thirteenth century. Toggenburg and Frauenlob were +both celebrated minnesingers, the former (plate 7) being +the subject of many strange legends. The simplicity and +melodious charm of his verses seem to contradict the +savage brutality ascribed to him in the stories of his life. +</p> + +<p> +Frauenlob (plate 44), as Heinrich von Meissen was +called, represents the minnesingers at the height of their +development. He died about 1320, and his works, as his +nickname suggests, were imbued with <i>das ewig weibliche</i> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page169" id="page169" title="169"></a> +in its best sense. He was called the Magister of the +seven free arts, and was given the position of Canon of +the Cathedral of Mayence, with the title of Doctor of +Divinity. He also wrote a paraphrase on the “Song +of Solomon,” turning it into a rhapsodical eulogy of the +Virgin Mary, carrying versification to what seemed then +its utmost limits. The picture shows him playing and +singing to some prince, the carpet on which he stands +being lifted by the attendants. It makes plain the difference +between the minnesingers and the troubadours. +In this picture the singer is seen to be accompanying +himself before the king, whereas in plate 28 we see two +troubadours in the lists, their <i>jongleurs</i> playing or singing +the songs of their masters, while the latter engage each +other in battle. In order to give one more example we +will take the pictures of Conrad, the son of Conrad IV, +and the last of the Hohenstaufens (plate 11). He was born +about 1250, and was beheaded in the market place at +Naples in 1268. The story of Konradin, as he was called, +is familiar; how he lived with his mother at the castle of +her brother, Ludwig of Bavaria, how he was induced to +join in a rebellion of the two Sicilies (to the crown of +which he was heir) against France, his defeat and execution +by the Duke of Anjou, himself a well-known troubadour. +The text accompanying his picture in Hagen's +work describes him as having black eyes and blonde +hair, and wearing a long green dress with a golden collar. +His gray hunting horse is covered with a crimson mantle, +has a golden saddle and bit, and scarlet reins. Konradin +wears white hunting gloves and a three-cornered king's +<a class="pagebreak" name="page170" id="page170" title="170"></a> +crown. Above the picture are the arms of the kingdom +of Jerusalem (a golden crown in silver ground), to which +he was heir through his grandmother, Iolanthe. One of +his songs runs as follows, and it may be accepted as +a fair specimen of the style of lyric written by the +minnesingers: +</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The lovely flowers and verdure sweet</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That gentle May doth slip</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Have been imprisoned cruelly</span><br /> +<span class="i0">In Winter's iron grip;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But May smiles o'er the green clad fields</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That seemed anon so sad,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And all the world is glad.</span> +</p> + +<p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No joy to me the Summer brings</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With all its bright long days.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">My thoughts are of a maiden fair</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Who mocks my pleading gaze;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">She passes me in haughty mood,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Denies me aught but scorn,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And makes my life forlorn.</span> +</p> + +<p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet should I turn my love from her,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For aye my love were gone.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">I'd gladly die could I forget</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The love that haunts my song.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">So, lonely, joyless, live I on,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For love my prayer denies,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And, childlike, mocks my sighs.</span> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +The music of these minnesingers existing in manuscript +has been but little heeded, and only lately has an attempt +been made to classify and translate it into modern notation. +The result so far attained has been unsatisfactory, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page171" id="page171" title="171"></a> +for the rhythms are all given as spondaic. This seems +a very improbable solution of the mystery that must +inevitably enshroud the musical notation of the eleventh, +twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. +</p> + +<p> +Nithart (plate 36), by whom a number of melodies or +“tones” are given in Hagen's book (page 845), has been +dubbed the second “Till Eulenspiegel.” He was a Bavarian, +and lived about 1230, at the court of Frederick of +Austria. He was eminently the poet and singer of the +peasants, with whom, after the manner of Eulenspiegel, he +had many quarrels, one of which is evidently the subject +of the picture. His music, or melodies, and the verses +which went with them, form the most complete authentic +collection of mediæval music known. In considering the +<i>minnelieder</i> of the Germans it is very interesting to compare +them with the songs of the troubadours, and to +note how in the latter the Arab influence has increased +the number of curved lines, or arabesques, whereas the +German songs may be likened to straight lines, a characteristic +which we know is a peculiarity of their folk +song. +</p> + +<blockquote class="flush central"> +<h4>PASTORELLA BY THIBAUT II, KING OF NAVARRE, 1254.</h4> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page172" id="page172" title="172"></a> +[<a href="midi/figure41.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure41.png" width="542" height="790" + alt="[Figure 41: L'Autrier par la matinée + Entre sen bos et un Vergier + Une pastore ai trouneé + chantant pour soi en voisier.]" /> +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page173" id="page173" title="173"></a> +[<a href="midi/figure42.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure42.png" width="531" height="157" + alt="Example from NITHART [Figure 42]" /> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +In speaking of the straight lines of the melodies of the +minnesingers and in comparing them with the tinge of +orientalism to be found in those of the troubadours, it was +said that music owes more to the latter than to the former, +and this is true. If we admit that the straight line +of Grecian architecture is perfect, so must we also admit +that mankind is imperfect. We are living beings, and as +such are swayed to a great extent by our emotions. To +the straight line of purity in art the tinge of orientalism, +the curved line of emotion, brings the flush of life, and the +result is something which we can <i>feel</i> as well as worship +from afar. Music is a language, and to mankind it serves +as a medium for saying something which cannot be put +into mere words. Therefore, it must contain the human +element of mere sensuousness in order to be intelligible. +<a class="pagebreak" name="page174" id="page174" title="174"></a> +This is why the music of the troubadours, although not +so pure in style as that of the minnesingers, has been of +the greatest value in the development of our art. This +orientalism, however, must not mask the straight line; +it must be the means of lending more force, tenderness, +or what not, to the figure. It must be what the poem is +to the picture, the perfume to the flower; it must help +to illustrate the thing itself. The moment we find this +orientalism (and I am using the word in its broadest +sense) covering, and thus distorting the straight line of +pure music, then we have national music so-called, a +music which derives its name and fame from the clothes +it wears and not from that strange language of the soul, +the “why” of which no man has ever discovered. +</p> + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page175" id="page175" title="175"></a> +XIII<br /><br /> +EARLY INSTRUMENTAL FORMS</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">Referring</span> +to some newspaper reports which he knew to +be without foundation, Bismarck once said, “Newspapers +are simply a union of printer's ink and paper.” Omitting +the implied slur we might say the same of printed music +and printed criticism; therefore, in considering printed +music we must, first of all, remember that it is the letter +of the law which kills. We must look deeper, and be able +to translate sounds back into the emotions which caused +them. There is no right or wrong way to give utterance +to music. There is but <i>one</i> way, namely, through the +living, vital expression of the content of the music; all +else is not music but mere pleasure for the ear, a thing of +the senses. For the time being we must see through +the composer's eyes and hear through his ears. In other +words, we must think in his language. The process of +creating music is often, to a great extent, beyond the control +of the composer, just as is the case with the novelist +and his characters. The language through which musical +thought is expressed, however, is a different thing, and it +is this process of developing musical speech until it has +become capable of saying for us that which, in our spoken +language, must ever remain unsaid, that I shall try to make +clear in our consideration of form in music. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page176" id="page176" title="176"></a> +Until the very end of the fifteenth century, music, so +far as we know, had no language of its own, that is to say, +it was not recognized as a medium for expressing thought +or emotion. Josquin des Prés (born at Conde in the north +of France in 1450, died 1521) was the first to attempt +the expression of thought in sound. Luther, in rebelling +against Rome, also overturned the music of the church in +Germany. He incorporated many folk songs into the +music of the Protestant church and discarded the old +Gregorian chant (which was vague in rhythm, or, rather, +wholly without rhythm), calling it asinine braying. +</p> + +<p> +While Luther was paving the way for Bach by encouraging +church music to be something more than merely the +singing of certain melodies according to prescribed rules, +in Italy (at the time of his death in 1546) the Council of +Trent was already trying to decide upon a style of music +proper for the church. <a name="ft13"></a>The matter was definitely settled +in 1562 or 1563 by the adoption of Palestrina's +style.<a class="fn" href="#fn13"> 13 </a> +Thus, while in Germany ecclesiastical music was being +broadened and an opening offered for the development +of the dramatic and emotional side of music, in Italy, on +the contrary, the emotional style of music was being +neglected and an absolutely serene style of what may be +called “impersonal” music encouraged. Italy, however, +soon had opera on which to fall back, and thus music +in both countries developed rapidly, although on different +lines. +</p> + +<p> +In England, the budding school of English art, as +exemplified by Purcell, was soon overwhelmed by the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page177" id="page177" title="177"></a> +influence of Händel and the all-pervading school of Italian +opera, which he brought with him. +</p> + +<p> +In France, up to 1655, when Cardinal Mazarin sent to +Italy for an opera troupe with the purpose of entertaining +Anne of Austria (the widow of Louis XIII), there was +practically no recognized music except that imported from +other countries. Under Louis XI (d. 1483) Ockeghem, the +Netherland contrapuntist, was the chief musician of the +land. +</p> + +<p> +The French pantomimes or masques, as they were +sometimes called, can hardly be said to have represented +a valuable gain to art, although their prevalence in France +points directly to their having been the direct descendants +of the old pantomime on one hand, and on the other, the +direct ancestor of the French opera. For we read that +already in 1581 (twenty years before Caccini's “Euridice” +at Florence), a ballet entitled “Circe” was given +on the occasion of the marriage of Margaret of Lorraine, +the stepsister of Henry III. The music to it was written +by Beaulieu and Salmon, two court musicians. There +were ten bands of music in the cupola of the ballroom +where the ballet was given. These bands included hautbois, +cornets, trombones, violas de gamba, flutes, harps, +lutes, flageolets. Besides all this, ten violin players in +costume entered the scene in the first act, five from each +side. Then a troupe of Tritons came swimming in, playing +lutes, harps, flutes, one even having a kind of 'cello. When +Jupiter makes his appearance, he is accompanied by forty +musicians. The festivities on this occasion are said to +have cost over five million francs. Musically, the ballet +<a class="pagebreak" name="page178" id="page178" title="178"></a> +was no advance towards expressiveness in art. An air +which accompanied “Circe's” entrance, may be cited as +being the original of the well-known “Amaryllis,” which is +generally called <i>Air Louis XV</i>. Baltazarini calls it <i>un son +fort gai, nomme la clochette</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Music remained inert in France until 1650, when the +Italians gained an ascendancy, which they retained until +1732, when Rameau's first opera “Hyppolyte et Aricie” +was given in Paris. Rameau had already commenced +his career by gaining great success as a harpsichord player +and instrumental composer, mostly for the harpsichord. +By his time, however, music, that is to say, secular music, +was already becoming a new art, and the French merely +improved upon what already existed. +</p> + +<p> +Now this new art was first particularly evident in the +dances of these different peoples. These dances gave the +music <i>form</i>, and held it down to certain prescribed rhythms +and duration. Little by little the emotions, the natural +expression of which is music, could no longer be restricted +to these dance forms and rhythms; and gradually the latter +were modified by each daring innovator in turn. This +“daring” of human beings, in breaking through the +trammels of the dance in order to express what lay within +their souls in the language that properly belonged to it, +would seem almost ludicrous to us, were we not even +to-day trying to get up courage to do the same thing. +The modifications of dance forms led up to our sonata, +symphony, and symphonic poem, as I hope to show. +Opera was a thing apart, and, being untrammelled either +by dance rhythms or church laws, developed gradually and +<a class="pagebreak" name="page179" id="page179" title="179"></a> +normally. It cannot, however, be said to have developed +side by side with purely instrumental music, for the latter +is only just beginning to emancipate itself from its dance +clothes and to come forth as a language for the expression +of all that is divine in man. First we will consider the +forms and rhythms of these dances, then the awakening +of the idea of design in music, and its effect in modifying +these forms and laying the foundation for the sonata of +the nineteenth century. +</p> + +<p> +The following shows the structure of the different dance +forms up to about 1750. +</p> + +<blockquote class="flush central"> +<h4>OLD DANCE FORMS (1650–1750).</h4> + +<p> +<img src="images/dance_forms1.png" width="506" height="195" + alt="[ :Motive-|-Motive--|-Motive-----|--|-Motive---|--|-Motive----|---] + [2/4: 4 8 8 | 8. 16 4 | 8 8 8 8 | 4 4 | 4 8 8 | 4 4 | 8. 16 8 8 | 2 ] + [ :------Phrase-----|----Phrase-----|---Phrase----|----Phrase-----] + [A phrase may be three or four measures, and sections may be unequal] + [ :-------------Section-------------|-----------Section-----------] + [ :------------------------------Period---------------------------] + This period might be repeated or extended to sixteen measures + and still remain a period." /> +<br /> +<img src="images/dance_forms2.png" width="451" height="219" + alt="1. |--I P.-|--II P.-| (II is generally longer than I) + 2. |---I---|---II---|--I--| + 3. |---I---|---II---|-III-| (generally III resembles I) + 4. |---I---|---II---|-III-|--I--|--II-| or |--I--|--II--|-III-|--I--| + 5. |---I---|---II---|-III-|--IV-| + 6. |---I---|---II---|-III-|--IV-|--I--|--II-| + 7. |---I---|---II---|--I--|-III-|--IV-|-III-|--I--|--II--|--I--|" /> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="cont"> +In all these forms each period may be repeated. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page180" id="page180" title="180"></a> +Often the first, third, and fourth periods are repeated, +leaving the second period as it is. This happens especially +when the second period is longer than the first. In Nos. +2, 4, 6, 7, a few bars are often added at <i>Fine</i> as a coda. +</p> + +<h4>ANALYSIS OF OLD DANCES</h4> + +<p> +1. <span class="sc">Sarabande</span>.—<img src="images/time_32.png" + width="9" height="25" alt="[3/2]" /> +<img src="images/time_34.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[3/4]" /> +lento. Rhythm +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/d_sarabande.png" width="193" height="36" + alt="[3/2: 2 ^2. 4 | 2 2]" />.</span> +Form 1, sometimes Form 2. This is of Spanish +origin (<i>Saracen</i> dance), and is generally accompanied by +variations called <i>partita</i> or doubles. +</p> + +<p> +2. <span class="sc">Musette</span> +(<i>cornemusa</i> or bagpipe).—<img src="images/time_34.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[3/4]" /> +<img src="images/time_24.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[2/4]" /> +allegretto. +Form 1. Always written over or under a pedal note, +which is generally sustained to the end. It generally +forms the second part (not period) to the gavotte. +</p> + +<p> +3. <span class="sc">Gavotte</span>.—<img src="images/time_44.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[4/4]" /> +allegro moderato. +Rhythm +<img src="images/d_gavotte1.png" width="189" height="26" + alt="[4/4: 4 4 | 4 8 8 4 4]" /> +or +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/d_gavotte2.png" width="170" height="26" + alt="[4 8 8 | 4 4 4 4]" />.</span> +Always commences on the third beat. Form 3 or 5. +When accompanied by a musette, the gavotte is always +repeated. +</p> + +<p> +4. <span class="sc">Bourree</span>.—<img src="images/time_c2.png" + width="11" height="18" alt="[C/2]" /> +allegro. Rhythm +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/d_bourree.png" width="166" height="26" + alt="[C/2: 8 8 | 4 4 4 8 8]" />.</span> +Form 3 or 5. Generally faster than the gavotte, and +commences on the fourth beat. +</p> + +<p> +5. <span class="sc">Rigaudon</span>.—Similar to the bourrée, but slower. +</p> + +<p> +6. <span class="sc">Loure</span>.—Similar to the bourrée, but slower. (In +French the verb <i>lourer</i> means “to hold,” which may have +been a characteristic of the <i>loure</i> bass). +</p> + +<p> +7. <span class="sc">Tambourin</span>.—<img src="images/time_c2.png" + width="11" height="18" alt="[C/2]" /> +allegro. In form and rhythm like +the gavotte, but faster. Usually founded on a rhythmic +pedal note imitating a tambourine. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page181" id="page181" title="181"></a> +8. <span class="sc">Corrente</span>, +<span class="sc">Courante</span>.—<img src="images/time_34.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[3/4]" /> +allegretto. +Rhythm +<img src="images/d_courante1.png" width="188" height="26" + alt="[3/4: 8 8 8 | 8 8 8 8 8 8]" /> +or +<img src="images/d_courante2.png" width="144" height="27" + alt="[3/4: 8 | 8 8 8 8 8 8]" /> +(does not usually commence on the beat). Form 1, +sometimes Form 2. The rhythm is usually uniform, a +kind of perpetual motion, though not in one voice. +</p> + +<p> +9. <span class="sc">Minuet</span>.—<img src="images/time_34.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[3/4]" /> +generally a little slower than moderato, +although in later minuets the tempo became allegretto. +Rhythm, generally, +<img src="images/d_minuet.png" width="231" height="33" + alt="[3/4: >(4 | 4) 4 4 | 4 8 8 8 8]" /> etc. +Old +minuets often began on the first beat. Form 4; the +third and fourth periods being generally in a different +mode from the first and second periods, and called Trio or +Minuet 2. Minuets exist also without the Trio, and are +in Form 1 or 2. +</p> + +<p> +10. <span class="sc">Chaconne</span>.—<img src="images/time_34.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[3/4]" /> +moderato. Form undecided; has +sometimes even only one period, sometimes three or two. +It is generally accompanied by doubles or variations, and +is invariably written on a ground bass or <i>basso ostinato</i>. +The rhythm is often syncopated. +</p> + +<p> +<span class="sc">Passacaille</span>, +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/time_34.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[3/4]" />,</span> +resembles a chaconne but is more +stately. +</p> + +<p> +11. <span class="sc">Waltz</span> +(old German).—<img src="images/time_34.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[3/4]" /> +andante moderato. +Generally Form 6. Rhythm +<img src="images/d_waltz1.png" width="203" height="26" + alt="[3/4: 4. 8 8. 16 | 8 8 4 8 8]" /> +approximately. +</p> + +<p> +12. <span class="sc">March</span>.—<img src="images/time_44.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[4/4]" /> +allegro moderato. +Rhythm +<img src="images/d_march1.png" width="261" height="37" + alt="[4/4: 8. 16 | 4 8. 16 4 4 | 2. 3(8 8 8)]" /> etc., +or +<img src="images/d_march2.png" width="150" height="26" + alt="[4 | 4 8. 16 4 4]" /> etc. +Form 6. Generally all the periods are +repeated and consist of eight measures each; third and +fourth periods change the key and rhythm. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page182" id="page182" title="182"></a> +13. <span class="sc">Allemande</span>.—<img src="images/time_44.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[4/4]" /> +moderato. Rhythm generally +uniform sixteenth notes. Form 1. +</p> + +<p> +14. <span class="sc">Passepied</span>.—Quick minuet. +</p> + +<p> +15. <span class="sc">Pavane</span>, <span class="sc">Padvana</span>, +or <span class="sc">Pavo</span> (peacock).—<img src="images/time_44.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[4/4]" /> +andante +moderato. Rhythm +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/d_pavane.png" width="236" height="26" + alt="[4/4: 4 8. 16 4. 8 | 8 8 8 8 2]" />.</span> +Form 2 or 6. Sometimes <span class="nobr"><img src="images/time_24.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[2/4]" />;</span> +third and fourth periods in +different keys. +</p> + +<p> +16. <span class="sc">Gigue</span>.—<img src="images/time_24.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[2/4]" /> +<img src="images/time_68.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[6/8]" /> +<img src="images/time_34.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[3/4]" /> +<img src="images/time_38.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[3/8]" /> +<img src="images/time_98.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[9/8]" /> +<img src="images/time_128.png" width="17" height="25" alt="[12/8]" /> +presto. Rhythm generally +uniform eighth notes. Forms 1 and 2. +</p> + +<p> +17. <span class="sc">Polonaise</span>.—<span class="nobr"><img src="images/time_34.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[3/4]" />.</span> +Rhythm <img src="images/d_polonaise1.png" width="134" height="27" + alt="[3/4: 8 16 16 8 16 16 4]" /> or +<img src="images/d_polonaise2.png" width="118" height="27" + alt="[16 16 8 16 16 8 4]" /> allegro. Form 1, generally with short coda. +</p> + +<h4>MODERN FORMS (1800).</h4> + +<p> +1. <span class="sc">Mazurka</span>.—<img src="images/time_34.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[3/4]" /> +allegretto. Form 6. +Rhythm <span class="nobr"><img src="images/d_mazurka.png" width="144" height="26" + alt="[3/4: 4 | 8. 16 4 4]" />.</span> +</p> + +<p> +2. <span class="sc">Polonaise</span> +(also <span class="sc">Polacca</span>).—<img src="images/time_34.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[3/4]" /> +allegro maestoso. +Rhythm <img src="images/d_polacca1.png" width="147" height="26" + alt="[3/4: 8. 16 8. 16 16 16 16 16]" /> or +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/d_polacca2.png" width="95" height="27" + alt="[8 4 16 16 8 8]" />.</span> The +bass is generally <span class="nobr"><img src="images/d_polacca3.png" width="115" height="27" + alt="[8 16 16 8 8 8 8]" />.</span> Form 7. +</p> + +<p> +3. <span class="sc">Bolero</span> (<span class="sc">Cachucha</span>) +(Spanish).—Like the polonaise +but livelier, and generally containing counter-rhythms in +triplets. +</p> + +<p> +4. <span class="sc">Habanera</span>.—<span class="nobr"><img src="images/time_24.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[2/4]" />.</span> +Rhythm +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/d_habanera.png" width="330" height="37" + alt="[2/4: 8 8 16 8 16 | 8 8 16 8 16 | 8 8 3(8 8 8) | + 8 8 4]" />.</span> +The characteristic element is the +mixture of triplets and eighth notes. Time, andante. +Form undecided, generally No. 1. Very often repeated +with slight changes. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page183" id="page183" title="183"></a> +5. <span class="sc">Czardas</span> +(Hungarian).—First part <img src="images/time_c2.png" + width="11" height="18" alt="[C/2]" /> +(<i>lassan</i>, <i>lento</i>); +second part <img src="images/time_24.png" width="10" height="25" alt="[2/4]" /> +(<i>friska</i>, <i>presto</i> and <i>prestissimo</i>). For +form and rhythm see Liszt's rhapsodies, Nos. 2, 4, and 6. +</p> + +<p> +6. <span class="sc">Tarantella</span>.—Rhythm +<img src="images/d_tarantella1.png" width="223" height="26" + alt="[6/8: 8 8 8 8 8 8 | 8 8 8 8 8 8]" /> +or <span class="nobr"><img src="images/d_tarantella2.png" width="202" height="26" + alt="[8 8 8 8 8 8 | 4 8 4 8]" />.</span> Time, molto allegro to prestissimo. +Forms 4 and 6, sometimes 7. In the Trio the +movement is often quieter although not necessarily +slower. It almost invariably has a Coda. The Finale +is usually prestissimo. +</p> + +<p> +7. <span class="sc">Saltarello</span>.—Similar to the tarantella, with the +exception of having more jumps (<i>salti</i>). +</p> + +<p> +8. <span class="sc">Polka</span> +(about 1840).—<img src="images/time_24.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[2/4]" /> +allegretto. +Rhythm <span class="nobr"><img src="images/d_polka.png" width="159" height="26" + alt="[2/4: 8 8 4 | 8 16 16 4]" />.</span> Form 6. Accent is on the +second beat. Cuban dances (sometimes called habaneros) +are often in polka form and rhythm, with the one exception +of the triplets peculiar to almost all Spanish music +<img src="images/d_cuban.png" width="333" height="37" + alt="[2/4: 8 8 >4 | 8 8 >4 | 16 8 16 >8 8 | + 16 8 16 3(16 16 16) 8]" /> +</p> + +<p> +9. <span class="sc">Waltz</span>.—<span class="nobr"><img src="images/time_34.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[3/4]" />.</span> +Rhythm (bass) <span class="nobr"><img src="images/d_waltz2.png" width="181" height="33" + alt="[3/4: >4 4 4 | >4 4 4]" />.</span> +Faster than the old waltz. Form 2 with a coda. Modern +waltzes are often written in sets, or many different waltzes +joined together by short modulations or codas, preceded +by an introduction, generally in one period, <i>lento</i>, and +ending with a brilliant coda containing reminiscences of +the principal themes. +</p> + +<p> +10. <span class="sc">Galop</span>.—<span class="nobr"><img src="images/time_24.png" + width="10" height="25" alt="[2/4]" />.</span> +Rhythm <img src="images/d_galop1.png" width="184" height="26" + alt="[2/4: 16 16 16 16 8 8 | 8 8 8 8]" /> or +<span class="nobr"><img src="images/d_galop2.png" width="173" height="26" + alt="[16 16 8 8 8 | 16 16 8 16 16 8]" />.</span> Form 6. Time, presto. +</p> + +<p> +11. <span class="sc">March</span>.—Same as the old march, but modified +in character and movement according to its title—funeral +<a class="pagebreak" name="page184" id="page184" title="184"></a> +march, military march, cortege, festival march, etc. In +funeral marches, the third and fourth periods are generally +in major. +</p> + +<p> +The modernizing of dance forms has been undertaken +by almost every writer from Scarlatti (d. 1757) down to our +day. Scarlatti joined sections together with isolated +measures, repeated sections and phrases before completing +the period, and added short codas to periods indiscriminately. +Since his time, everyone has added to or curtailed +the accepted forms by putting two forms together; hence +the fantaisie-mazurka, etc. Wagner represents the culminating +point of the modern tendency to disregard +forms which were interpreted differently by every composer, +and which had their origin in dances. +</p> + +<p> +The attempt to emancipate music from the dance commenced +very early; in fact, most of the earliest secular +music we know already shows the tendency towards +programme music, for, from an emotional standpoint, +secular music began at the very bottom of the ladder. +It was made to express <i>things</i> at first, just as in learning +any new language we naturally first acquire a vocabulary +of nouns to express things we see, such as table, +chair, etc., in the same way that in <i>written</i> language the +symbols first take the shape of animals or other things +they are meant to represent. This same characteristic +naturally showed itself in music before the words for +<i>emotion</i> came, the common, everyday nouns were sought +for in this new language. The madrigals of Weelkes +and their word painting show this, and the same occur +in instrumental music, as in Byrd's “Carman's Whistle,” +<a class="pagebreak" name="page185" id="page185" title="185"></a> +one of the earliest English instrumental works contemporaneous +to the madrigals of Morley and others. +In France, many of the earliest clavichord pieces were of +the programme type, and even in Germany, where instrumental +music ran practically in the same groove with +church music, the same tendency showed itself. +</p> + +<p> +I have given the forms of most of the old dances, and +also the elements of melodic structure (motive, phrase, +etc.). I must, however, add the caution that this material +is to be accepted in a general way, and as representing +the rhythms and forms most frequently used. A French +courante differed from the Italian, and certain dances were +taken at different <i>tempi</i> in different countries. Poor, or +at least careless construction, is often the cause of much +confusion. Scarlatti, for instance, is especially loose in +melodic structure. +</p> + +<p> +It was only with Beethoven that the art of musical +design showed anything like complete comprehension by +the composer. Until then, with occasional almost haphazard +successes, the art of pushing a thought to its logical +conclusion was seemingly unknown. An emotional passage +now and then would often betray deep feeling, but +the thought would almost invariably be lost in the telling, +for the simple reason that the musical sentences were put +together almost at random, mere stress of momentary +emotion being seemingly the only guiding influence. Bach +stands alone; his sense of design was inherent, but, owing +to the contrapuntal tendency of his time, his feeling for +<i>melodic</i> design is often overshadowed, and even rendered +impossible by the complex web of his music. With a +<a class="pagebreak" name="page186" id="page186" title="186"></a> +number of melodies sounding together, their individual +emotional development becomes necessarily difficult to +emphasize. +</p> + +<p> +Bach's art has something akin to that of Palestrina. +They both stand alone in the history of the world, but +the latter belongs to the Middle Ages. He is the direct +descendant of Ambrose, Gregory, Notker, Tutilo, etc., +the crowning monument of the Roman Church in music, +and represents what may be termed unemotional music. +His art was untouched by the strange, suggestive colours +of modern harmony; it was pure, unemotional, and serene. +One instinctively thinks of Bach, on the other hand, as a +kind of musical reflection of Protestantism. His was not +a secluded art which lifted its head high above the multitude; +it was rather the palpable outpouring of a great heart. +Bach also represents all the pent-up feeling which until +then had longed in vain for utterance, and had there been +any canvas for him to paint on (to use a poor simile), the +result would have been still more marvellous. As it +was, the material at his disposal was a poor set of dance +forms, with the one exception of the fugue, the involved +utterance of which precluded spontaneity and confined +emotional design to very restricted limits. It is exactly +as if Wagner had been obliged to put his thoughts in +quadrille form with the possible alternative of some +mathematical device of musical double bookkeeping. As +it is, Bach's innovations were very considerable. In the +first place, owing to the lack of the system of equal temperament, +composers had been limited to the use of only +two or three sharps and flats; in all the harpsichord music +<a class="pagebreak" name="page187" id="page187" title="187"></a> +of the pre-Bach period we rarely find compositions in +sharp keys beyond G, or flat keys beyond A♭. To be +sure, Rameau, in France, began at the same time to see +the necessity for equal temperament, but it was Bach who, +by his forty-eight “Preludes and Fugues,” written in all +the keys, first settled the matter definitely. +</p> + +<p> +In the fugue form itself, he made many innovations consisting +mainly of the casting aside of formalism. With +Bach a fugue consists of what is called the “exposition,” +that is to say, the enunciation of the theme (subject), +its answer by another voice or part, recurrence of the +subject in another part which, in turn, is again answered, +and so on according to the number of voices or parts. +After the exposition the fugue consists of a kind of free +contrapuntal fantasy on the subject and its answer. By +throwing aside the restraint of form Bach often gave his +fugues an emotional significance in spite of the complexity +of the material he worked with. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="fn"><span><a href="#ft13"> 13 </a></span><a name="fn13"></a> +Pier Luigi, born in Palestrina, near Rome.</p> + + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page188" id="page188" title="188"></a> +XIV<br /><br /> +THE MERGING OF THE SUITE INTO THE SONATA</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">In</span> +the previous chapter it was stated that the various +dances, such as the minuet, sarabande, allemande, etc., +led up to our modern sonata form, or, perhaps, to put it +more clearly, they led up to what we call sonata form. +As a matter of fact, already in the seventeenth century, +we find the word <i>sonata</i> applied to musical compositions; +generally to pieces for the violin, but rarely for the harpsichord. +The word sonata was derived originally from the +Italian word <i>suonare</i>, “to sound,” and the term was used +to distinguish instrumental from vocal music. The latter +was sung (<i>cantata</i>), the former was sounded (<i>suonata</i>) by +instruments. Thus many pieces were called <i>suonatas</i>; +the distinguishing point being that they were <i>played</i> and +not sung. Organ sonatas existed as far back as 1600 and +even earlier, but the earliest application of the word seems +to have been made in connection with pieces for the violin. +</p> + +<p> +Dances were often grouped together, especially when +they had some slight intrinsic musical value. Probably +the term <i>sonata</i> first designated a composition in one of +these dance forms not intended for dancing. Gradually +groups of dances were called <i>suites</i>; then, little by little, +the dance titles of the separate numbers were dropped, +and the <i>suite</i> was called <i>sonata</i>. These different numbers, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page189" id="page189" title="189"></a> +however, retained their dance characteristics, as we shall +see later. The arrangement of the pieces composing the +<i>suites</i> differed in various countries. There were French, +Italian, German, and English suites, generally, however, +retaining the same grouping of the different movements. +The first movement consisted of an <i>allemande</i>; then came +a <i>courante</i>; then a <i>minuet</i>; then a <i>sarabande</i>; and last of +all a <i>gigue</i>; all in the same key. Sometimes the <i>minuet</i> +and <i>sarabande</i> changed places, just as in modern times do +the <i>andante</i> and <i>scherzo</i>. +</p> + +<p> +Already in 1685, when Corelli's sonatas for strings +appeared, the custom of decreasing the number of movements +to three began to obtain, and a century later this +custom was universal. The <i>allemande</i>, <i>overture</i>, or <i>preludio</i> +formed the first movement; the second consisted of +the <i>sarabande</i>, the ancestor of our <i>adagio</i>; and the last part +was generally a <i>gigue</i>. Even when the dance titles were +no more used (the music having long outgrown its original +purpose), the distinctive characteristics of these different +movements were retained; the <i>sarabande</i> rhythm was still +adhered to for the <i>adagio</i> (even by Haydn) and the triple +time and rhythm of the <i>gigue</i> were given to the last part. +In addition to this, these three movements were often kept +in one key. In his first sonatas Beethoven added a movement, +generally a <i>minuet</i>, to this scheme; but returned to +the three-movement structure later. His Op. 111 has only +two movements, in a way returning to a still earlier general +form of the sonata. Now, as has already been said, some +of the earliest examples of instrumental music were mainly +descriptive in character, that is to say, consisting of +<a class="pagebreak" name="page190" id="page190" title="190"></a> +imitations of <i>things</i>, thus marking the most elementary +stage of programme music. Little by little composers +became more ambitious and began to attempt to give +expression to the emotions by means of music; and at last, +with Beethoven, “programme music” may be said, in one +sense, to have reached its climax. For although it is not +generally realized, he wrote every one of his sonatas with +definite subjects, and, at one time, was on the point of +publishing mottoes to them, in order to give the public +a hint of what was in his mind when he wrote them. +</p> + +<p> +Analysis may be considered as the reducing of a musical +composition to its various elements—harmony, rhythm, +melody—and power of expression. Just as melody may +be analyzed down to the motives and phrases of which +it consists, so may the expressiveness of music be analyzed; +and this latter study is most valuable, for it brings us +to a closer understanding of the power of music as a +language. +</p> + +<p> +For the sake of clearness we will group music as follows: +</p> + +<blockquote> +<ol> +<li>Dance forms.</li> +<li>Programme music. (Things. Feelings.)</li> +<li>The gathering together of dances in suites.</li> +<li>The beginnings of design.</li> +<li>The merging of the suite into the sonata.</li> +</ol> +</blockquote> + +<p> +The dance tunes I need hardly quote; they consist of +a mere play of sound to keep the dancers in step, for which +purpose any more or less agreeable rhythmical succession +of sounds will serve. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page191" id="page191" title="191"></a> +If we take the next step in advance of instrumental +music we come to the giving of meanings to these dances, +and, as I have explained, these meanings will at first have +reference to things; for instance, Couperin imitates an +alarm clock; Rameau tries to make the music sound as if +three hands were playing instead of two (<i>Les trois mains</i>); +he imitates sighing (<i>Les soupirs</i>); the scolding voice; he +even tries to express a mood musically (<i>L'indifferente</i>). In +Germany, these attempts to make instrumental music +expressive of something beyond rhythmic time-keeping +continued, and we find Carl Philip Emanuel Bach attempting +to express light-hearted amiability (<i>La complaisance</i>) +and even languor (<i>Les tendres langueurs</i>). The suite, +while it combined several dances in one general form, +shows only a trace of <i>design</i>. There was more design in +one of the small programme pieces already quoted than in +most of the suites of this period (see, for example, Loeilly's +“Suite”). +</p> + +<p> +Bach possessed instinctively the feeling for musical +speech which seemed denied to his contemporaries whenever +they had no actual story to guide their expression; +and even in his dance music we find coherent musical sentences +as, for instance, in the <i>Courante</i> in A. +</p> + +<p> +In art our opinions must, in all cases, rest directly on +the thing under consideration and not on what is written +about it. In my beliefs I am no respecter of the written +word, that is to say, the mere fact that a statement is made +by a well-known man, is printed in a well-known work, or +is endorsed by many prominent names, means nothing to +me if the thing itself is available for examination. Without +<a class="pagebreak" name="page192" id="page192" title="192"></a> +a thorough knowledge of music, including its history +and development, and, above all, musical “sympathy,” +individual criticism is, of course, valueless; at the same time +the acquirement of this knowledge and sympathy is not +difficult, and I hope that we may yet have a public in +America that shall be capable of forming its own ideas, +and not be influenced by tradition, criticism, or fashion. +</p> + +<p> +We need to open our eyes and see for ourselves instead +of trusting the direction of our steps to the guidance of +others. Even an opinion based on ignorance, frankly +given, is of more value to art than a platitude gathered +from some outside source. If it is not a platitude but the +echo of some fine thought, it only makes it worse, for it is +not sincere, unless of course it is quoted understandingly. +We need freshness and sincerity in forming our judgments +in art, for it is upon these that art lives. All over the +world we find audiences listening suavely to long concerts, +and yet we do not see one person with the frankness of +the little boy in Andersen's story of the “New Clothes of +the Emperor.” It is the same with the other arts. I +have never heard anyone say that part of the foreground of +Millet's “Angelus” is “muddy” or that the Fornarina's +mysterious smile is anything but “hauntingly beautiful.” +People do not dare admire the London Law Courts; +all things must be measured by the straight lines of Grecian +architecture. Frankness! Let us have frankness, +and if we have no feelings on a subject, let us remain silent +rather than echo that drone in the hive of modern thought, +the “<i>authority</i> in art.” +</p> + +<p> +Every person with even the very smallest love and +<a class="pagebreak" name="page193" id="page193" title="193"></a> +sympathy for art possesses ideas which are valuable to +that art. From the tiniest seeds sometimes the greatest +trees are grown. Why, therefore, allow these tender +germs of individualism to be smothered by that flourishing, +arrogant bay tree of tradition—fashion, authority, +convention, etc. +</p> + +<p> +My reason for insisting on the importance of all lovers +of art being able to form their own opinions is obvious, +when we consider that our musical public is obliged to +take everything on trust. For instance, if we read on +one page of some history (every history of music has such +a page) that Mozart's sonatas are sublime, that they do +not contain one note of mere filigree work, and that they +far transcend anything written for the harpsichord or +clavichord by Haydn or his contemporaries, we echo the +saying, and, if necessary, quote the “authorities.” Now +if one had occasion to read over some of the clavichord +music of the period, possibly it might seem strange that +Mozart's sonatas did not impress with their magnificence. +One might even harbour a lurking doubt as to the value of +the many seemingly bare runs and unmeaning passages. +Then one would probably turn back to the authorities +for an explanation and find perhaps the following: “The +inexpressible charm of Mozart's music leads us to forget +the marvellous learning bestowed upon its construction. +Later composers have sought to conceal the constructional +points of the sonata which Mozart never cared to disguise, +so that incautious students have sometimes failed to +discern in them the veritable ‘pillars of the house,’ and +have accused Mozart of poverty of style because he left +<a class="pagebreak" name="page194" id="page194" title="194"></a> +them boldly exposed to view, as a great architect delights +to expose the piers upon which the tower of his cathedral +depends for its support.” (Rockstro, “History of Music,” +p. 269.) Now this is all very fine, but it is nonsense, for +Mozart's sonatas are anything but cathedrals. It is time +to cast aside this shibboleth of printer's ink and paper and +look the thing itself straight in the face. It is a fact that +Mozart's sonatas are compositions entirely unworthy of +the author of the “Magic Flute,” or of any composer with +pretensions to anything beyond mediocrity. They are +written in a style of flashy harpsichord virtuosity such as +Liszt never descended to, even in those of his works at +which so many persons are accustomed to sneer. +</p> + +<p> +Such a statement as I have just made may be cried +down as rank heresy, first by the book readers and then +by the general public; but I doubt if anyone among that +public would or could actually turn to the music itself and +analyze it intelligently, from both an æsthetic and technical +standpoint, in order to verify or disprove the assertion. +</p> + +<p> +Once a statement is made it seems to be exceedingly +difficult to keep it from obtaining the universal acceptance +which it gains by unthinking reiteration in other works. +One of the strangest cases of this repetition of a careless +statement may be found in the majority of histories of +music, where we are told that musical expression (that is +to say, the increasing and diminishing of a tone, crescendo +and diminuendo) was first <i>discovered</i> at Mannheim, in +Germany, about 1760. This statement may be found in +the works of Burney, Schubart, Reichardt, Sittard, Wasielewski, +and even in Jahn's celebrated “Life of Mozart.” +<a class="pagebreak" name="page195" id="page195" title="195"></a> +The story is that Jommelli, an Italian, first “invented” the +crescendo and diminuendo, and that when they were first +used, the people in the audience gradually rose from their +seats at the crescendo, and as the music “diminuendoed” +they sat down again. The story is absurd, for the simple +reason that even in 1705, Sperling, in his “Principæ +Musicæ,” describes crescendos from <i>ppp</i> to <i>fff</i>, and we +read in Plutarch of the same thing. +</p> + +<p> +Shedlock, in his work “The Pianoforte Sonata,” quotes +as the first sonatas for the clavier those of Kuhnau, and +cites especially the six <i>Bible</i> sonatas. Now Kuhnau, +although he was Bach's predecessor at St. Thomas' Church +in Leipzig, was certainly a composer of the very lowest +rank. The <i>Bible</i> sonatas, which Shedlock paints to us +in such glowing colours, are the merest trash, and not to be +compared with the works of his contemporaries. I do not +think that they have any place whatsoever in the history +or development either of music or of that form called the +sonata. +</p> + +<p> +The development of the suite from dance forms has +already been shown, and we will now trace the development +of the sonata from the suite in Italy, Germany, and +France. As an example of this development in Italy, a +so-called sonata by G.B. Pescetti will serve (the sonatas +by Domenico Scarlatti were not originally so named, and +the sonatas before that were simply short pieces, so designated +to distinguish them from dance music). This sonata +was published about 1730, and was one of nine. The first +movement is practically of the <i>allemande</i> type, and its +first period ends in the dominant key. There is but the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page196" id="page196" title="196"></a> +slightest trace of a second theme in the first part; yet +the improvement in contrapuntal design over the suites +is evident. The second movement is in the same key, and +retains the characteristic rhythm of the <i>sarabande</i>; at the +end, the improvement, so far as design is concerned, is +very noticeable. The last movement, still in the same +key, is a <i>gigue</i>, thus keeping well in the shadow of the +suite. +</p> + +<p> +A sonata by the German Rolle (1718–1785) is valuable +in that it shows a very decided second theme in the first +period, thus tending toward the development of the +original simple dance form into the more complex sonata +form. The <i>adagio</i>, however, still has the <i>sarabande</i> characteristics, +and foreshadows many things. It contains +many <i>words</i> that later were shaped into great poems by +others. “The Erlking” of Schubert is especially hinted +at, just as the first movement was prophetic of Beethoven. +In the last movement we have the <i>gigue</i> rhythm again. +</p> + +<p> +In France, music had become merely a court appendage, +as was the case with the other arts, and had long served +as a means for showing the divine grace with which +Louis XIV or XV could turn out his toes in the minuet. +In addition to this, the arranging of a scientific system of +harmonization by Rameau (1683–1764) (which, by the +way, is the basis of most of the treatises of harmony of the +present century), caused the few French composers who +could make headway against the prevailing Italian opera +after Lully to turn their attention away from polyphonic +writing; and having, after all, but little to express in other +than the long-accustomed dance rhythms and tunes, their +<a class="pagebreak" name="page197" id="page197" title="197"></a> +music cannot be said to have made any mark in the world. +In order to show the poverty of this style, let us take a +sonata by Méhul (1763–1817). The first movement has +already a well-defined second theme, but otherwise is a +mere collection of more or less commonplace progressions. +The second part is a dance tune, pure and simple; indeed +the first part had all the characteristics of the <i>farandole</i> +(see Bizet's “l'Arlesienne”). The last part is entitled +rondo, “a round dance,” and is evidently one in the literal +sense of the word. In all these sonatas the increasing use +of what is called the Alberti bass is noticeable. +</p> + +<p> +To show the last link between the suite and the sonata, +reference may be made to the well-known sonata in D +major by Haydn. In this, as in those analyzed above, +all the movements are in the same key. The adagio is a +<i>sarabande</i>, and the last movement has the characteristics +of the <i>gigue</i>. This, however, is only the starting point +with Haydn; later we will consider the development of +this form into what is practically our modern sonata, +which, of course, includes the symphony, quartet, quintet, +concerto, etc. +</p> + +<p> +Our path of study in tracing the development of the +sonata from the suite leads us through a sterile tract of +seemingly bare desert. The compositions referred to are +full of fragments, sometimes fine in themselves, but lying +wherever they happened to fall, their sculptors having +no perception of their value one with another. Disconnected +phrases, ideas never completed; to quote Hamlet, +“Words, words!” Later we find Beethoven and Schubert +constructing wonderful temples out of these same +<a class="pagebreak" name="page198" id="page198" title="198"></a> +fragments, and shaping these same words into marvellous +tone poems. +</p> + +<p> +The music of the period we have been considering is +well described by Browning in “A Toccata of Galuppi's”: +</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yes you, like a ghostly cricket,</span><br /> +<span class="i1"> Creaking where a house was burned:</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Dust and ashes, dead and done with,</span><br /> +<span class="i1"> Venice spent what Venice earned.</span> +</p> +</blockquote> + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page199" id="page199" title="199"></a> +XV<br /><br /> +THE DEVELOPMENT OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">Up</span> +to the time of Beethoven, music for the pianoforte +consisted mainly of programme music of the purely descriptive +order, that is to say, it was generally imitative +of natural or artificial externals. To be sure, if we go +back to the old clavecinists, and examine the sonatas of +Kuhnau, sundry pieces by Couperin, Rameau, and the +Germans, Froberger, C.P.E. Bach and others, we find +the beginnings of that higher order of programme music +which deals directly with the emotions; and not only that, +but which aims at causing the hearer to go beyond the +actual sounds heard, in pursuance of a train of thought +primarily suggested by this music. +</p> + +<p> +To find this art of programme music, as we may call it, +brought to a full flower, we must seek in the mystic utterances +of Robert Schumann. It is wise to keep in mind, +however, that although Schumann's piano music certainly +answers to our definition of the higher programme music, +it also marks the dividing line between emotional programme +music without a well-defined object and that +dramatically emotional art which we have every reason to +believe was aimed at by Beethoven in many of his sonatas, +and which, in its logical development and broadened out +<a class="pagebreak" name="page200" id="page200" title="200"></a> +by orchestral colours and other resources, is championed +by Richard Strauss at the present day. +</p> + +<p> +We have already learned that C.P.E. Bach had entirely +broken with the contrapuntal style of his father and his +age in order to gain freer utterance, and that the word +“colour” began to be used in his time in connection with +music for even one instrument. It is, perhaps, needless +to say that the vastly enlarged possibilities, both technical +and tonal, of the newly invented <i>forte-piano</i> were largely +the outcome of this seeking for colour in music. In +addition to this, the new art of harmonic dissonances was +already beginning to stretch out in the direction of new +and strange tonal combinations, thus giving to the music +written for the instrument many new possibilities in the +way of causing and depicting emotions. That the first +experiments were puerile, we know, as, for example, +Haydn's attempts, in one of his pianoforte sonatas, to +suggest the conversion of an obdurate sinner. +</p> + +<p> +When we consider Mozart, it is impossible to forget the +fact that in his piano works he was first and foremost a +piano virtuoso, a child prodigy, of whom filigree work was +expected by the public for which he wrote his sonatas. +(We cannot call this orientalism, for it was more or less +of German pattern, traced from the fioriture of the Italian +opera singer.) Therefore, emotional utterance or even +new or poetic colouring was not to be expected of him. +</p> + +<p> +As has been said before, it remained for Beethoven to +weld these new words and strange colours into poems, +which, notwithstanding the many barnacles hanging to +them (remnants of a past of timid adhesion to forms and +<a class="pagebreak" name="page201" id="page201" title="201"></a> +fashions), are, in truth, the first lofty and dignified musical +utterances with an object which we possess. I mean by this +statement that his art was the first to cast aside the iron +fetters of what then formed the canons of art. The latter +may be described (even in reference to modern days) as +constituting the shadow of a great man. And, although +this is a digression, I may add that all students of piano +music no doubt realize the weighty shadow that Beethoven +cast over the first half of the nineteenth century, +just as Wagner is doing at the present time. +</p> + +<p> +Our purists are unable to realize that the shadows are +the least vital part of the great men who cast them. We +remember that the only wish expressed by Diogenes when +Alexander came to see him was that the king should stand +aside so that he could enjoy the light of the sun. +</p> + +<p> +To return: We find that Beethoven was the first exponent +of our modern art. Every revolution is bound to +bring with it a reaction which seeks to consolidate and +put in safe keeping, as it were, results attained by it. +Certainly Beethoven alone can hardly be said to have +furthered this end; for his revolt led him into still more +remote and involved trains of thought, as in his later +sonatas and quartets. Even the Ninth Symphony, hampered +as it is by actual words for which declamation +and a more or less well-defined form of musical speech are +necessary, suffers from the same involved utterance that +characterizes his last period. +</p> + +<p> +Schubert, in his instrumental work, was too ardent a +seeker and lover of the purely beautiful to build upon the +forms of past generations, and thus his piano music, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page202" id="page202" title="202"></a> +neither restrained nor supported by poetic declamation, +was never held within the bounds of formalism. +</p> + +<p> +It was Mendelssohn who first invested old and seemingly +worn-out forms of instrumental music (especially for the +pianoforte) with the new poetic license of speech, which +was essentially the spirit of the age of revolution in which +he lived. +</p> + +<p> +In holding up Mendelssohn as a formalist against Beethoven, +and at the same time presenting him as the composer +directly responsible for our modern symphonic +poem, there is a seeming contradiction, which, however, +is more apparent than real. While Beethoven never +hesitated to overturn form (harmonic or otherwise) to +suit the exigencies of his inspiration, Mendelssohn cast +all his pictures into well-defined and orthodox forms. +Thus his symphonic poems, for example, the overtures to +“The Lovely Melusina,” “Fingal's Cave,” “Ruy Blas,” +etc., are really overtures in form; whereas, the so-called +“Moonlight” sonata of Beethoven, as well as many others, +are sonatas only in name. The emotional and problematic +significance given by Mendelssohn to many of his +shorter piano pieces, including even such works as preludes +and fugues, is familiar to us all. These works, however, +but rarely departed from the orthodox forms represented +by their names. His “Songs without Words” have been +so often quoted as constituting a new art form that it is +well to remember that they are practically all cast in the +same mould, that of the most simple song form, with one, +and sometimes two more or less similar verses, preceded +by a short introduction and ending with a coda. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page203" id="page203" title="203"></a> +We may say then, broadly, that Beethoven invested +instrumental music with a wonderful poignancy and power +of expression, elevating it to the point of being the medium +of expressing some of the greatest thoughts we possess. +In so doing, however, he shattered many of the great +idols of formalism by the sheer violence of his expression. +</p> + +<p> +Schubert, let me say again, seemed indifferent to +symmetry, or never thought of it in his piano music. +Mendelssohn, possibly influenced by his early severe +training with Zelter, accepted symmetry of form as the +cornerstone of his musical edifice; although he was one +of the first in the realms of avowed programme music, +he never carried it beyond the boundary of good form. +And, as in speaking a moment ago of the so-called canons +of musical art, we compared them with the shadows that +great men have cast upon their times, it may be as well +to remember that just this formalism of Mendelssohn +overshadowed and still overshadows England to the +present day. On the other hand, Beethoven's last style +still shows itself in Brahms, and even in Richard Strauss. +Schumann was different from these three. His music is +not avowed programme music; neither is it, as is much +of Schubert's, pure delight in beautiful melodies and +sounds. It did not break through formalism by sheer +violence of emotion, as did Beethoven's; least of all has it +Mendelssohn's orthodox dress. It represents, as well as I +can put it, the rhapsodical reverie of a great poet to whom +nothing seems strange, and who has the faculty of relating +his visions, never attempting to give them coherence, +until, perhaps, when awakened from his dream, he naïvely +<a class="pagebreak" name="page204" id="page204" title="204"></a> +wonders what they may have meant. It will be remembered +that Schumann added titles to his music after it +was composed. +</p> + +<p> +To all of this new, strange music, Liszt and Chopin +added the wonderful tracery of orientalism. As I have +said before, the difference between these two is that with +Chopin this tracery enveloped poetic thought as with a +thin gauze; whereas with Liszt, the embellishment itself +made the starting point for almost a new art in tonal +combination, the effects of which are seen on every hand +to-day. To realize its influence, one need only compare +the graceful arabesques of the most simple piano piece +of to-day with the awkward and gargoyle-like figuration +of Beethoven and his predecessors. We may justly +attribute this to Liszt rather than to Chopin, whose +nocturne embellishments are but first cousins to those +of the Englishman, John Field, though naturally Chopin's +Polish temperament gave his work that grace and profusion +of design which we have called orientalism. +</p> + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page205" id="page205" title="205"></a> +XVI<br /><br /> +THE MYSTERY AND MIRACLE PLAY</h2> + +<p> +<!-- small caps missing in original --> +<span class="first">It</span> +is interesting to recall the origin of our words “treble” +and “discant.” The latter was derived from the first +attempts to break away from the monotony of several +persons singing the same melody in unison, octaves, +fifths, or fourths. In such cases the original melody was +called <i>cantus firmus</i> (a term still generally used in counterpoint +to designate the given melody of an exercise to +which the student is to write other parts), the new melody +that was sung with it was called the <i>discant</i>, and when +a third part was added, it received the name <i>triplum</i> +or <i>treble</i>. As Ambros remarks, this forcible welding together +of different melodies, often well-known old tunes, +secular or derived from the church chants, was on a direct +line with the contemporary condition of the other arts. +For instance, on the portal to the left of the Cathedral of +Saint Mark, at Venice, is a relief, representing some Biblical +scene, which is entirely made up of fragments of some +older sculptured figures, placed together without regard +to anatomy in much the same brutal fashion that the +melodies of the time were sung together. The traces of +this clumsy music-making extended down to Palestrina's +time, and became the germ of counterpoint, canon, and +<a class="pagebreak" name="page206" id="page206" title="206"></a> +fugue, constituting (apart from the folk song) the only +music known at that time. +</p> + +<p> +This music, however, very soon developed into two +styles, one adopted by the church, the other, a secular +style, furnishing the musical texture both of opera and +other secular music. The opera, or rather the art form we +know under that name (for the name itself conveys +nothing, for which reason Wagner coined the term “music +drama”) broke away from the church in the guise of +Mysteries, as they were called in mediæval times. A +Mystery (of which our modern oratorio is the direct +descendant) was a kind of drama illustrating some sacred +subject, and the earliest specimens laid the foundation +for the Greek tragedy and comedy. We still see a relic +of this primitive art form in the Oberammergau Passion +Play. +</p> + +<p> +We read of the efforts made, as early as the fifth century, +to hold the people to the church; among other devices +employed was that of illustrating the subjects of the +services by the priests performing the offices being dressed +in an appropriate costume. Little by little the popular +songs of the people crept into the church service among +the regular ecclesiastical chants, thus foreshadowing the +beginnings of modern opera; for after a while, special Latin +texts were substituted for the regular service, the mimetic +part of which degenerated into the most extraordinary +license as, for instance, in the “Feast of Asses” (January +14) which may be called a burlesque of the mass, +and which has been described in a former chapter. +</p> + +<p> +<a name="ft14"></a>With this mixture of the vernacular and the official +<a class="pagebreak" name="page207" id="page207" title="207"></a> +Latin,<a class="fn" href="#fn14"> 14 </a> these Miracle and Passion Plays, as well as the +Mysteries and Moralities (as different forms of this ecclesiastical +mumming were called) began to be given in other +places besides the churches. +</p> + +<p> +In addition to this combination of singing and acting, +the <i>tenson</i> or poetic debate (which was one form of the +troubadour songs, and one very often <i>acted</i> by the jongleurs) +probably also did its part towards giving stability +to this new art form. The earliest specimen of it, in its +purely secular aspect, is a small work entitled “Robin et +Marian,” by Adam de la Hale, a well-known troubadour +(called “the humpback,” born at Arras in the south of +France in 1240), who followed in the train of that ferocious +Duke Charles of Anjou, who beheaded Konradin, the last +of the Hohenstaufens, in 1268, and Manfred, both of them +minnesingers. +</p> + +<p> +As the Mystery was the direct ancestor of our oratorio, +so was the little pastoral of Adam de la Hale the germ of +the modern French vaudeville. One of its melodies is +said to be sung to this day in some parts of southern +France. +</p> + +<p> +The entire object in this little play being that both +words and action should be perfectly understood, it is +obvious that as little as possible should be going on +<a class="pagebreak" name="page208" id="page208" title="208"></a> +during the singing. Thus, such melodies as we find in these +old pastoral plays would be accompanied by short notes, +serving merely to give the pitch and tonality, which would +gradually develop into chords, thus laying the foundation +for harmony. +</p> + +<p> +If, on the other hand, we look at the “church play” +of the same period, the Mystery, and remember that it +was sung by men accustomed to singing the <i>organum</i> of +Hucbald, we have a clue as to what it was and what it led +up to. For while one part or voice of the music would +give a melody (copied from or at any rate resembling the +Gregorian chant or the sequences of Notker of Tubilo), +the other voices would sing songs in the vernacular, and, +strangest of all, one voice would repeat some Latin word, +or even a “nonsense word” (to use Edward Lear's term) +but much more slowly than the other voices. Thus +the needs of the Mystery were as well met by incipient +counterpoint on the one hand, as, on the other, the +secular song-play engendered the sense of harmony. +</p> + +<p> +That the early secular forerunner of opera, as represented +by “Robin et Marian,” was still, to a certain degree, +controlled by the church is clear if we remember that at +that time the only methods of noting music were entirely +in the hands of the clergy. The notation for the lute, for +instance, was invented about 1460 to 1500. Thus, we +can say that the recording of secular music was not free +from church influence until some time after the sixteenth +century. +</p> + +<p> +This primitive “opera” music was thus fettered by +difficulty of notation and the influence of the ecclesiastical +<a class="pagebreak" name="page209" id="page209" title="209"></a> +rules until perhaps about 1600, when the first real opera +began to find a place in Italy. Jacopo Peri and Caccini +were among the first workers in the comparatively new +form, and they both took the same subject, <i>Eurydice</i>. +Of the former the following two short excerpts will suffice; +the first is where Orpheus bewails his fate; in the second +he expresses his joy at bringing Eurydice back to earth. +Caccini's opera was perhaps the first to introduce the +many useless ornaments that, up to the middle of this +century, were characteristic of Italian opera. +</p> + +<blockquote class="flush central"> +<h4>EURYDICE—PERI.</h4> + +<p>Orpheus bewailing his fate.<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure43.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure43.png" width="442" height="155" + alt="[Figure 43: I weep not, I am not sighing, + tho' thou art from me taken. + What use to sigh]" /> +</p> + +<p>Orpheus' joy in bringing back Eurydice.<br /> +[<a href="midi/figure44.midi">MIDI</a>]<br /> +<img src="images/figure44.png" width="427" height="152" + alt="[Figure 44: Gioi-te al canto mio serve frondo di che in su l'au rora]" /> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<hr /> + +<p class="fn"><span><a href="#ft14"> 14 </a></span><a name="fn14"></a> +It is interesting to note as to the prevalence of Latin, that +Dante's “Divina Commedia” was the first important poem in Italian. +Latin was used on the stage in Italy up to the sixteenth century; +the stationary chorus stationed on the stage remained until the +seventeenth century and was not entirely discontinued until the first +half of the eighteenth century.</p> + + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page210" id="page210" title="210"></a> +XVII<br /><br /> +OPERA</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">No</span> +art form is so fleeting and so subject to the dictates of +fashion as opera. It has always been the plaything of +fashion, and suffers from its changes. To-day the stilted +figures of Hasse, Pergolesi, Rameau, and even Gluck, +seem as grotesque to us as the wigs and buckles of their +contemporaries. To Palestrina's masses and madrigals, +Rameau's and Couperin's claveçin pieces, and all of Bach, +we can still listen without this sense of incongruity. On +the other hand, operas of Alessandro Scarlatti, Matheson, +and Porpora would bore us unmitigatedly. They have +gone out of fashion. Even the modern successors of these +men, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi, in his earlier years, +have become dead letters musically, although only as late +as 1845, Donizetti was at the very zenith of his fame. +</p> + +<p> +Of all the operas of the past century, our present public +has not seen or even heard of one, with the exception of +“The Magic Flute,” and less probably “Don Juan.” +This is bad enough; but if we look at works belonging to +the first part of the nineteenth century, we find the same +state of affairs. The operas of Spontini, Rossini, most of +Meyerbeer's, even Weber's “Freischütz,” have passed +away, seemingly never to return. Even “Cavalleria +Rusticana,” of recent creation, is falling rapidly into +<a class="pagebreak" name="page211" id="page211" title="211"></a> +oblivion. Thus the opéra comique early disappeared in +favour of the romantic opera and the operetta. The +former has already nearly ended its career, and the latter +has descended to the level of mere farce. In the course of +time, these opera forms become more and more evanescent; +for the one-act opera of miniature tragedy, which is +practically only a few years old, is already almost extinct. +</p> + +<p> +And yet this art form has vastly more hold on the public +than other music destined to outlive it. The fact is, +that music which is tied down to the conventionalities +and moods of its time and place can never appeal but to +the particular time and mood which gave it birth. +(Incidentally, I may say the same of music having its roots +in the other peculiarities of folk song.) +</p> + +<p> +Now the writers of these operas were great men who +put their best into their work; the cause of the failure of +these operas was not on account of the music, but the +ideas and thoughts with which this music was saddled. +What were the books which people read and loved in those +days (1750–1800), that is, books upon which operas might +be built? In England we find “The Castle of Otranto,” +“The Mysterious Mother,” etc., by Horace Walpole. +Now Macaulay says that Horace Walpole's works rank +as high among the delicacies of intellectual epicures as +the Strasburg pie among the dishes described in the +<i>Almanach des Gourmands</i>. None but an unhealthy and +disorganized mind could have produced such literary +luxuries as the works of Walpole. +</p> + +<p> +France had not yet recovered from the empty formalism +of the preceding century, Bernardin de St. Pierre was +<a class="pagebreak" name="page212" id="page212" title="212"></a> +a kind of colonial Mlle. Scudery, and Jean Jacques +Rousseau, one of the sparks which were to ignite the French +Revolution, writes his popular opera to the silly story of +“The Village Soothsayer.” Had not Gluck written to the +classics he would have had to write “à la Watteau.” +</p> + +<p> +In Germany, conditions were better; for the so-called +Romantic school had just begun to make headway. In +opera, however, this school of Romanticism only commenced +to make itself felt later, when we have a crop of +operas on Fouque's “Undine” as well as “Hofmann's +Tales.” +</p> + +<p> +It is as though opera had to dress according to the +prevailing fashion of the day. The very large sleeves +of one year look strange to us a little later. Just so is it +with opera; for those old operas by Méhul, Spontini, +Salieri, and others all wear enormous crinolines, while the +contemporary instrumental works of the same period, +unfettered by fashion, still possess all the freedom which +their limited speech permitted them to have. Thus we +see that opera is necessarily a child of the times in which +it is written, in contrast to other music which echoes but +the thought of the composer, thought that is not necessarily +bound down to any time, place, or peculiarity of +diction. +</p> + +<p> +In Germany, Italian opera was never accepted by the +people as it was in France. In the latter country, opera +had to be in the vernacular and practically to become +<i>French</i>. Lully's operas were written to libretti by Quinault +and Corneille; and while, as early as 1645, Paris +imported its opera from Italy, this art form was rapidly +<a class="pagebreak" name="page213" id="page213" title="213"></a> +modified to suit the public for which it was secured. +Even with Piccini and Gluck, and down to Rossini and +Meyerbeer, this nationalism was infused into the foreign +product. In Germany the case was entirely different, +for up to the very last, Italian opera was a thing apart. +Although German composers, such as Mozart and Paër, +wrote Italian opera, the “Singspiel” (a kind of opéra +comique), found its culminating point in Weber's “Freischütz,” +which fought against Rossini's operas for supremacy +in Germany. +</p> + +<p> +Gluck's victory over the Piccinists gave to the French +form of Italian opera an impetus that caused Cherubini +to proceed on almost the same lines in his operas, the +“Water Carrier,” etc. Cherubini was a pupil of Andreas +Sarti, a celebrated contrapuntist and a disciple of the last +of the Italian church composers who looked back to +Palestrina for inspiration. Thus the infusion of a certain +soberness of diction, which we call German, fitted in with +the man's training and predilections. +</p> + +<p> +The first names we meet with in French opera after +Cherubini are those of Grétry, Méhul, and Spontini. +The former was a Frenchman whose works are now +obsolete, although Macfarren, in the “Encyclopedia +Brittanica,” says that he is the only French composer +of symphonies that are known and enjoy popularity in +France. +</p> + +<p> +Grétry was born in Liége, about 1740. He walked to +Italy, studied in Rome, and returned to France about 1770. +None of his works have come down to us, but his name is +interesting by reason of a certain contradiction in his +<a class="pagebreak" name="page214" id="page214" title="214"></a> +operas. This contradiction consists in his being one of the +first to revive the idea of the hidden orchestra; it is +interesting also to note that in his “Richard Cœur de Lion,” +he anticipated Wagner's use of the <i>leitmotiv</i>. His words +on the hidden orchestra sound strangely modern: +</p> + +<blockquote><p> +<span class="sc">Plan for a New Theatre</span>.—I should like the auditorium of +my theatre to be small, holding at the most one thousand persons +and consisting of a sort of open space, without boxes, small or great; +for these nooks only encourage talking and scandal. I would like +the orchestra to be concealed, so that neither the musicians nor the +lights on their music stands could be visible to the spectators. +</p></blockquote> + +<p> +Méhul was born about 1763 in the south of France, +and is celebrated, among other things, as being a pupil +of Gluck, in Paris. He was also noted for having, at +the request of Napoleon, brought out an opera based on +Macpherson's “Ossian,” in which no violins were used +in the orchestra. “Joseph,” another opera of his, is +occasionally given in small German towns. Méhul died +in 1817. +</p> + +<p> +Spontini, the next representative of opera in France, +was an Italian, born in 1774. He went to Paris in 1803, +where, through the influence of the Empress Josephine, +he was enabled to have several small operas performed; +finally in 1807 his “Vestal,” written to a French text, +was given with great success. In this, his greatest work, +he followed Gluck's footsteps, not only in the music, but +also in the choice of a classic subject. In 1809, he branched +out into a more romantic vein with the opera of “Fernando +Cortez.” His other works never attained popularity. +After the Restoration in France, he was named +<a class="pagebreak" name="page215" id="page215" title="215"></a> +director of the court music in Berlin by the King of +Prussia, at an annual salary of ten thousand thalers +(about $7,500), a position he held from 1820 to 1840. +He died in Italy in 1851. Spontini may be said to have +been the last representative of the Gluck opera; but he +also brought into it all the magnificence in scenery, etc., +that would naturally be expected by the fashion of the +First Empire. He made no innovations, and merely +served to keep alive the traditions of Grand Opera in +France. +</p> + +<p> +The next powerful influence in France, and indeed in +all Europe, was that of Rossini. He may be said to have +built on Gluck's ideas in many ways. Born in 1792, at +Pesaro, in Italy, he wrote many operas of the flimsy +Italian style while still a boy. At twenty-one he had +already written his “Tancredi” and the opera buffa, +“The Italians in Algiers.” His best work (besides “William +Tell”) was “The Barber of Seville.” Other works +are “Cinderella” (<i>La Cenerentola</i>), “The Thieving +Blackbird” (<i>La Gazza Ladra</i>), “Moses,” and “The Lady of +the Lake.” These operas were mostly made up of parts +of others that were failures, à la Hasse. An engagement +being offered him in London, he went there with his wife, +and in one season they earned about two hundred thousand +francs, which laid the foundation for his future prosperity. +</p> + +<p> +The next year he went to Paris, where, after a few +unimportant works, he, produced “William Tell” with +tremendous success (1829). Although he lived until 1868, +he never wrote for the operatic stage again, his other works +being mainly the well-known “Stabat Mater” and some +<a class="pagebreak" name="page216" id="page216" title="216"></a> +choruses. He was essentially a writer of light opera, +although “William Tell” has many elevated moments. +His style was so entirely warped by his love for show and +the virtuoso side of singing that the many real beauties +of his music are hardly recognizable. His music is so +overladen with <i>fioriture</i> that often its very considerable +value is obscured. He had absolutely no influence upon +German music, for the Germans, from Beethoven down, +despised the flimsy style and aims of this man, who, by +appealing to the most unmusical side of the fashionable +audiences of Europe, did so much to discourage the production +of operas with a lofty aim. In France, however, +his influence was unchallenged, and we may almost say +that, with few exceptions, the overture to “William Tell” +served as a model for all other operatic overtures which +have been written there up to the present day. We have +only to look at the many overtures by Hérold, Boieldieu, +Auber, and others, to see the influence exerted by this +style of overture, which consisted of a slow introduction, +followed by a more or less sentimental melody, followed +in turn by a galop as a coda. +</p> + +<p> +So fashionable had this kind of thing become that even +Weber was slightly touched by it. In the meanwhile, the +French composers were producing operas of a smaller +kind, but, in many ways, of a better character than the +larger works of Rossini, Spontini, and their followers. +Had this flimsy Italian influence been lacking, doubtless +French opera to-day would be a different thing from what +it actually is. For these smaller operas by Hérold, Auber, +and Boieldieu had many points in common with the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page217" id="page217" title="217"></a> +German <i>Singspiel</i>, which may be said to have saved +German musical art for Wagner. +</p> + +<p> +What might have developed under better conditions is +shown in a work by Halévy entitled, “La juive,” in which +is to be found promise of a great school of opera, a promise +unhappily stifled by the advent of an eclectic, the +German Meyerbeer, who blinded the public with unheard +of magnificence of staging, just as Rossini before him had +blinded it by novel technical feats. Meyerbeer thus drew +the art into a new channel, and, unluckily, this new +tendency was not so much in the direction of elevation of +style as in sensationalism. +</p> + +<p> +To return to the French composers. Hérold was born +in 1791, in Paris, and his principal works were “Zampa” +and the “Pré aux clercs.” The first was produced in +1831, the latter in 1832. He died in 1833. Boieldieu was +born in 1775, in Rouen; died 1834. His principal works +were “La dame blanche” and “Jean de Paris.” +</p> + +<p> +Halévy (Levy) was born in 1799, in Paris, and died in +1862; his father was a Bavarian and his mother from +Lorraine. He wrote innumerable operas. His most +famous work, “La juive,” written in 1835, was killed by +Meyerbeer's “Huguenots,” and produced a year later. +He was professor of counterpoint at the Conservatoire +from 1831, among his pupils being Gounod, Massé, Bazin, +and Bizet. +</p> + +<p> +Auber was born in 1782, and died in May, 1871. He +was practically the last of the essentially French composers. +His operas may be summed up as being the perfect translation +into music of the witty plays of Scribe, with whom +<a class="pagebreak" name="page218" id="page218" title="218"></a> +he was associated all his life. To read a comedy by +Scribe is to imagine Auber's music to it. No one has +excelled Auber in the expression of all the finesse of wit +and lightness of touch. What the union between the two +men was may be inferred from the fact that Scribe wrote +many of his librettos to Auber's music, the latter being +written first, Scribe then adding the words. His principal +works are “Masaniello” or “The Mute,” and “Fra +Diavolo.” He was appointed director of the Paris +Conservatoire, in 1842, in succession to Cherubini. +</p> + +<p> +In speaking of Grétry, I quoted his opinion (given in +one of his essays on music) as to what opera should be +and cited his use of the <i>leitmotiv</i> in his “Richard Cœur +de Lion” (which contains the air, <i>une fièvre brûlante</i>). +If with this we quote his reasons for writing opéra comique +rather than grand opera, we have one of the reasons +why French opera has, as yet, never developed beyond +Massenet's “Roi de Lahore” on one side, and Delibes' +“<ins title="Transcriber's note: corrected from 'Lakme'">Lakmé</ins>” +on the other. +</p> + +<p> +Grétry writes that he introduced lyric comedy on the +stage because the public was tired of tragedy, and because +he had heard so many lovers of dancing complain that +their favourite art played only a subordinate rôle in grand +opera. Also the public loved to hear short songs; therefore +he introduced many such into his operas. +</p> + +<p> +Even nowadays, this seeming contradiction between +theory and practice is to be found, I think, in the French +successors of Meyerbeer. The public needed dancing, +and all theories must bend to that wish. Even Wagner +succumbed to this influence in Paris; and when Weber's +<a class="pagebreak" name="page219" id="page219" title="219"></a> +“Freischütz” was first given at the grand opera, Berlioz +was commissioned to arrange ballet music from +Weber's piano works to supply the deficiency. +</p> + +<p> +In France, even to-day, everything gives way to the public, +a public whose intelligence from a poetic standpoint +is, in my opinion, lower than that of any other country. +The French composer is dependent on his country (Paris) +as is no musician of other nationality. Berlioz' life was +embittered by the want of recognition in Paris. Although +he had been acclaimed as a great musician all over +Europe, yet he returned again and again to Paris, preferring +(as he admits) the approbation of its musically +worthless public to his otherwise world-wide fame. +</p> + +<p> +We remember that Auber never stirred out of Paris +throughout his long life. It was an article in the <i>Gazette +Musicale</i> of Paris which was instrumental in calling +Gounod back into the world from his intended priestly +vocation. And this influence of the admittedly ignorant +and superficial French public is the more remarkable when +one considers the fact that it was always the last to admit +the value of the best work of its composers. Thus +Berlioz' fame was gained in Russia and Germany while he +was still derided and comparatively unknown in Paris. +</p> + +<p> +The failure of Bizet's “Carmen” is said to have hastened +the composer's death, which took place within three +months after the first performance of the opera. As Saint-Saëns +wrote at the time, in his disgust at the French public: +“The fat, ugly bourgeois ruminates in his padded stall, +regretting separation from his kind. He half opens a +glassy eye, munches a bonbon, then sleeps again, thinking +<a class="pagebreak" name="page220" id="page220" title="220"></a> +that the orchestra is a-tuning.” And yet, even Saint-Saëns, +whose name became known chiefly through Liszt's +help, and whose operas and symphonies were given in +Germany before they were known in France, even he is +one of the most ardent adherents to the “anti-foreigner” +cry in France. In my opinion, this respect for and attempt +to please this grossly ignorant French public is and +has been one of the great devitalizing influences which +hamper the French composer. +</p> + +<p> +Charles Gounod was born in 1818, in Paris. His father +was an engraver and died when Gounod was very young. +The boy received his first music lessons from his mother. +He was admitted to the Conservatoire at sixteen, and +studied with Halévy and Lesueur. In 1839 he gained +<i>the Prix de Rome</i>, and spent three years in Rome, studying +ecclesiastical music. In 1846 he contemplated becoming +a priest, and wrote a number of religious vocal works, +published under the name Abbé C. Gounod. In 1851 the +article I referred to appeared, and such was its effect on +Gounod, that within four months his first opera “Sapho” +was given (April, 1851). A year later this was followed by +some music for a tragedy (Poussard's “Ulysse” at the +Comédie Française), and in 1854 by the five-act opera “La +nonne sanglante.” These were only very moderately +successful; and so Gounod turned to the opéra comique, and +wrote music to an adaptation of Molière's “Medecin +malgré lui.” This became very popular, and paved the +way for his “Faust,” which was produced at the Opéra +Comique in 1859. In the opéra comique, as we know, the +singing was always interspersed with spoken dialogue. +<a class="pagebreak" name="page221" id="page221" title="221"></a> +Thus, this opera, as we know it, dates from its preparation +for the Grand Opera ten years later, 1869. Ten months +after “Faust” was given he used a fable of Lafontaine +for a short light opera, “Philemon and Baucis.” +</p> + +<p> +In the meantime, “Faust” began to bring him encouragement, +and his next opera was on the subject of the +“Queen of Sheba” (1862). This being unsuccessful, he +wrote two more light operas, “Mireille” and “La +colombe” (1866). The next was “Romeo et Juliette” +(1867). This was very successful, and marks the +culmination of Gounod's success as an opera composer. In +1870 he went to London, where he made his home for +a number of years. His later operas, “Cinq-Mars” +(1877), “Polyeucte” (1878), and “Le tribut de Zamora” +(1881), met with small success, and have rarely been +given. +</p> + +<p> +In his later years, as we know, he showed his early +predilection for religious music; and his oratorios “The +Redemption,” “Mors et Vita,” and several masses have +been given with varying success. Perhaps one of the +greatest points ever made in Gounod's favour by a critic +was that by Pougin, who asks what other composer could +have written two such operas as “Faust” and “Romeo +et Juliette” and still have them essentially different +musically. The “Garden Scene” in the one and the +“Balcony Scene” in the other are identical, so far as the +feeling of the play is concerned; also the duel of Faust and +Valentine and Romeo and Tybalt. +</p> + +<p> +Ambroise Thomas's better works, “Mignon” and +“Hamlet,” may be said to be more or less echoes of +<a class="pagebreak" name="page222" id="page222" title="222"></a> +Gounod; and while his “Francesca da Rimini,” which was +brought out in 1882, was by far his most ambitious work, +it never became known outside of Paris. Ambroise +Thomas was born in 1811, and died within a year of Gounod. +His chief merit was in his successful direction of the +Conservatoire, to which he succeeded Auber in 1871. +</p> + +<p> +Georges Bizet (his name was Alexander César Leopold) +was born in 1838, in Paris. His father was a poor singing +teacher, and his mother a sister-in-law of Delsarte; she +was a first-prize piano pupil of the Conservatoire. As a +boy, Bizet was very precocious, and entered the +Conservatoire as a pupil of Marmontel when he was ten. He +took successively the first prizes for solfége, piano, organ, +and fugue, and finally the <i>Prix de Rome</i> in 1857, when he +was nineteen years old. The latter kept him in Rome +until 1861, when he returned to Paris and gave piano and +harmony lessons and arranged dance music for brass +bands, a <i>métier</i> not unknown to either Wagner or Raff. +</p> + +<p> +Until 1872, Bizet wrote but small and unimportant +works, such as “The Pearl Fisher,” “The Fair Maid +of Perth,” and several vaudeville operettas, some of +which he wrote to order and anonymously. He married a +daughter of Halévy, the composer, and in 1871–72 served +in the National Guard. His first important work was the +incidental music to Alphonse Daudet's “L'Arlesienne” +and finally his “Carmen” was given (but without success), +at the Opéra Comique, in March, 1875. He died +June 3, 1875. +</p> + +<p> +Camille Saint-Saëns was born in Paris, in 1835; he +commenced studying piano when only three years old. I +<a class="pagebreak" name="page223" id="page223" title="223"></a> +believe it is mostly through his piano concertos and his +symphonic poems that his name will live; for his operas +have never attained popularity, with perhaps the one +exception of “Samson and Delilah.” His other operas +are: “The Yellow Princess,” “Proserpina,” “Etienne +Marcel,” “Henry VIII,” “Ascanio.” +</p> + +<p> +Jules Massenet was born in +<ins title="Transcriber's note: corrected from '1852'">1842</ins>, +and at the age of +twelve became a pupil of Bezit at the Conservatoire, was +rejected by Bezit for want of talent, and afterward studied +with Reber and Thomas, and won the <i>Prix de Rome</i> in +1863. Upon his return, in 1866, he wrote a number of +small orchestral works, including two suites and several +sacred dramas, “Marie Magdalen” and “Eve and the +Virgin,” in which the general Meyerbeerian style militated +against any suggestion of religious feeling. His first +grand opera, “Le roi de Lahore,” was given in 1881. +The second was “Herodiade,” which was followed by +“Manon,” “The Cid,” “Esclarmonde,” “Le mage.” +</p> + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page224" id="page224" title="224"></a> +XVIII<br /><br /> +OPERA (Continued)</h2> + +<p> +<!-- small caps missing in original --> +<span class="first">One</span> +of the most disputed questions in modern music is +that of opera. Although we have many controversies as to +what purely instrumental or vocal music may do, the +operatic art, if we may call it so, always remains the +same. In creating the music drama, Wagner put forth +a composite art, something which many declare impossible, +and as many others advocate as being the most complete +art form yet conceived. We are still in the midst of the +discussion, and a final verdict is therefore as yet impossible. +On one hand we have Wagner, and against him we have +the absolutists such as Brahms, the orthodox thinkers +represented by Anton Rubinstein and many others, the +new Russian school represented by Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov, +Tchaikovsky, and the successors of the French school +of Meyerbeer, namely, Saint-Saëns, Massenet, etc. +</p> + +<p> +In order to get a clear idea of the present state of the +matter we must review the question from the beginning +of the eighteenth century. For many reasons this is not +an easy task, first of all because very little of the music +of the operas of this period actually exists. We know +the names of Hasse, Pergolesi, Matheson, Graun, Alessandro +Scarlatti (who was a much greater man than his son +the harpsichord player and composer, Domenico), to +name only a few. To be sure, a number of the French +<a class="pagebreak" name="page225" id="page225" title="225"></a> +operas of the period are preserved, owing to the custom +in France of engraving music. In Germany and Italy, +however, such operas were never printed, and one may +safely say that it was almost the rule for only one manuscript +copy to be available. Naturally this copy belonged +to the composer, who generally led the opera himself, +improvising much of it on the harpsichord, as we shall +see later. As an instance of the danger which operas, +under such conditions, ran of being destroyed and thus +lost to the world, we may cite the total destruction of +over sixty of Hasse's operas in his extreme old age. +</p> + +<p> +The second point which makes it difficult for us to get +an absolutely clear insight into the conditions of opera at +the beginning of the eighteenth century lies in the fact +that contemporary historians never brought their histories +up to their own times. Thus Marpurg, in his history, +divides music into four periods; first, that of Adam +and Eve to the flood; second, from the flood to the +Argonauts; third, to the beginning of the Olympiads; +fourth, from thence to Pythagoras. The same may be +said of the celebrated histories of Gerbert and Padre +Martini. +</p> + +<p> +On the other hand, we are certain that much of the +modern speculation was anticipated by these men. For +instance, Matheson calls pantomime “dumb music,” freed +from melodic and harmonic forms. The idea was advanced +that music owes its rhythmic regularity and form +to dancing, and architecture was called frozen music, a +metaphor which, in later days, was considered such an +original conception of Goethe and Schlegel. This same +<a class="pagebreak" name="page226" id="page226" title="226"></a> +inability of historians to bring their accounts up to the +contemporary times may be noticed in the later works +of Forkel (d. 1818) and Ambros (d. 1876). +</p> + +<p> +Yet a third reason remains which tends to confuse the +student as to what really constituted opera. This is +owing to the fact that there existed the very important +element of improvisation, of which I shall speak later. +</p> + +<p> +In order to see what Gluck, Weber, and Wagner had to +break away from, let us look at the condition of opera at +the beginning of the eighteenth century. We remember +that opera, having become emancipated from the Church +long before any other music, developed apace, while instrumental +(secular) music was still in its infancy. In +Germany, even the drama was neglected for its kindred +form of opera; therefore, in studying its development, we +may well understand why the dramatic stage considered +the opera its deadly enemy. +</p> + +<p> +The life of the German dramatist and actor of the first +half of the eighteenth century was one of the direst hardship +and poverty. Eckhof, one of the greatest actors of +his time, made his entry into Brunswick in a kind of +miserable hay cart, in which, accompanied by his sick +wife and several dogs, he had travelled over the rough +roads. To keep warm they had filled part of the wagon +with straw. The German actor and dramatist of that +time often died in the hospital, despised by the richer +classes; even the village priests and ministers refused to +allow them to eat at their tables. Their scenery rarely +consisted of more than three rough pieces: a landscape, a +large room, and a peasant's hut interior. Many even had +<a class="pagebreak" name="page227" id="page227" title="227"></a> +only two large cloths which were hung about the stage, +one green, which was to be used when the scene was in the +open air, and the other yellow, which was used to represent +an interior. Shakespeare's “Poor Players” were certainly +a stern reality in Germany. In order to attract the +public the plays had to consist for the most part of the +grossest subjects imaginable, it being barely possible to +smuggle some small portion of serious drama into the +entertainment. +</p> + +<p> +With opera, however, it was vastly different; opera +troupes were met at the city gates by the royal or ducal +carriages, and the singers were fêted everywhere. The +prices paid them can only be compared with the salaries +paid nowadays. They were often ennobled, and the +different courts quarrelled for the honour of their presence. +The accounts of the cost of the scenery used are incredible, +amounting to many thousands of dollars for a single +performance. +</p> + +<p> +One of the earliest German kapellmeisters and opera +composers was Johann Adolf Hasse, who was born in +Dresden about 1700. To show the foundation upon which +Gluck built, we will look at opera as it existed in Hasse's +time. In 1727 Hasse married at Venice, Faustina Bordoni, +the foremost singer of the time. He wrote over +one hundred operas for her, and had a salary of thirty-six +thousand marks, or nine thousand dollars, yearly. Now +these operas were very different from those we know. +The arias in them (and, of course, the whole opera was +practically but a succession of arias) were only sketched +in an extremely vague manner. Much was left to the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page228" id="page228" title="228"></a> +singer, and the accompaniment was sparsely indicated +by figures written above a bass. The recitative which +separated one aria from another was improvised by the +singer, and was accompanied on the harpsichord by the +kapellmeister, who was naturally obliged to improvise his +part on the spur of the moment, following the caprice of +the singer. There was no creating an atmosphere for a +tragic or dramatic situation by means of the accompaniment; +as soon as the situation arrived, an aria was sung +explaining it. Now, as the singer was given much latitude +in regard to the melody, and <i>absolute</i> liberty in regard to +the recitative, it is easy to see that, with the astounding +technical perfection possessed by the singers of the time, +this latitude would be used to astonish the hearers by +wonderful vocal feats intermingled with more or less passionate +declamation. +</p> + +<p> +The composer was merely the excuse for the opera; but +he needed to be a consummate musician to conduct and +accompany this improvised music, of which his written +score was but the nucleus. The wretched acting of opera +singers in general has been rather humourously traced back +to this epoch. Nowadays, in an opera, when, by way of +example, a murder is to be committed, the orchestra paints +the situation, and the act is accomplished without delay. +In those olden days a singer would have indignantly refused +to submit to such a usurpation of his rights; he would +have raised his dagger, and then, before striking, would +have sung an aria in the regular three parts, after which he +would have stabbed his man. The necessity for doing +something during this interim is said to be responsible for +<a class="pagebreak" name="page229" id="page229" title="229"></a> +those idiotic gestures which used to be such a seemingly +necessary part of the equipment of the opera singer. +</p> + +<p> +In the ordinary opera of the time there was the custom +of usually having about from twenty to thirty such arias +(Hasse's one hundred operas contain about three thousand +arias). Now these arias, although they were intended to +paint a situation, rapidly became simply a means to display +the singer's skill. The second part was a melody +with plenty of vocal effects, and the third part a bravura +piece, pure and simple. So there only remained the +recitative in which true dramatic art could find place. As +this, however, was invariably improvised by the singer, +one can see that the composer of music had his cross as +well as his brother the dramatist. The music having no +vital connection with the text, it is easy to see how one +opera could be set to several texts or <i>vice-versa</i>, as was +often done. +</p> + +<p> +Another factor also contributed to retard the artistic +development of opera. All these arias had to be constructed +and sung according to certain customs. Thus, +the fiery, minor aria was always sung by the villain, the +so-called colorature arias by the tall, majestic heroine, etc. +</p> + +<p> +All this seems childish to us, but it was certainly a +powerful factor in making fame for a composer. For, as +has been said, while a modern composer writes two or +three different operas, Hasse wrote one hundred versions +of one. This also had its effect on instrumental music, +and, in a way, is also the direct cause of that monstrosity +known as “variations” (Händel wrote sixty-six on one +theme.) In our days we often hear the bitter complaint +<a class="pagebreak" name="page230" id="page230" title="230"></a> +that opera singers are no longer what they used to be, +and that the great art of singing has been lost. If we look +back to the period under consideration, we cannot but +admit that there is much truth in the contention. In the +first place, an opera singer of those days was necessarily an +actor of great resource, a thorough musician, a composer, +and a marvellous technician. In addition to this, operas +were always written for individuals. Thus, all of Hasse's +were designed for Faustina's voice; and by examining the +music, we can tell exactly what the good and bad points of +her voice were, such was the care with which it was written. +</p> + +<p> +Before we leave the subject of Hasse and his operas, +I wish to refer briefly to a statement found in all +histories and books on music. We find it stated that all +this music was sung and played either loud or soft; with +no gradual transitions from one to the other. The existence +of that gradual swelling or diminishing of the tone +in music which we call crescendo and diminuendo, is invariably +denied, and its first use is attributed to Jommelli, +director of the opera at Mannheim, in 1760. Thus we +are asked to believe that Faustina sang either <i>piano</i> or +<i>forte</i>, and still was an intensely dramatic singer. +</p> + +<p> +This seems to me to require no comment; especially as, +already in 1676, Matthew Locke, an English writer, uses +the +<img src="images/cresc.png" width="64" height="12" alt="[crescendo]" /> +sign for the gradual transition from soft to loud. +For obvious reasons there could be no such transition in +harpsichord music, and this is why, when the same instrument +was provided with hammers instead of quills, the +name was changed to <i>pianoforte</i>, to indicate its power to +modify the tone from soft to loud. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page231" id="page231" title="231"></a> +Naturally Händel, who was a man of despotic tendencies, +could not long submit to the caprices of opera singers. +After innumerable conflicts with them, we find him turning +back to one of the older forms of opera, the oratorio. +</p> + +<p> +Bach never troubled himself about an art from which +he was so widely separated both by training and inclination. +Thus the reformation of opera (I mean the old opera +of which I have been speaking) devolved upon Gluck. +His early operas were entirely on the lines of those of +Hasse and Porpora. He wrote operas for archduchesses +(“Il Parnasso” was played by four archduchesses and +accompanied on harpsichord by the Archduke Leopold), +and was music master to Marie Antoinette at Vienna. It +was owing to these powerful influences that his art principles +had an opportunity to be so widely exploited. For +these principles were not new; they formed the basis of +Peri's first attempt at opera in 1600, and had been recalled +in vain by Marcello in 1720. They were so simple that it +seems almost childish to quote them. They demanded +merely that the music should always assist, but never +interfere with either the declamation or dramatic action +of the story. Thus by Gluck's powerful influence with +what may be termed the fashion of his day, he did much to +relegate to a place of minor importance the singer, who +until then had held undisputed sway. This being the case, +the great art of singing, which had allowed the artist the +full control and responsibility of opera, thus centering all +upon the one individuality, degenerated into the more +subordinate rôle of following the composer's directions. +</p> + +<p> +It now became the duty of the composer to foresee every +<a class="pagebreak" name="page232" id="page232" title="232"></a> +contingency of his work, and it lay with him to give +directions for every detail of it. As a result, the singers, +having no longer absolute control but still anxious to +display their technical acquirements, gradually changed +into that now almost obsolete abomination, the “Italian +opera singer,” an artist, who, shirking all responsibility +for the music and dramatic action, neglected the composer +so far as possible, and introduced vocal pyrotechnics +wherever he or she dared—and their daring was great. +</p> + +<p> +In the meantime, as Gluck was bringing in his reforms, +songs were gradually introduced into the <i>Schauspiel</i> or +drama, the ill-fated brother of opera in Germany; and +just as the grand opera reached its highest point with +Gluck, so this species of melodrama grew apace, until we +see its culmination in Weber's “Freischütz.” +</p> + +<p> +The good results of Gluck's innovations and also, to a +certain degree, its discrepancies, may be plainly seen in +Mozart's operas; for only too often in his operas Mozart +was obliged to introduce <i>fioriture</i> of the poorest possible +description in situations where they were utterly out of +place. This, however, may not be entirely laid at the +door of the exacting singer, for we find these same <i>fioriture</i> +throughout his harpsichord music. +</p> + +<p> +We may almost say that the union of drama and music +was first definitely given status by Mozart; for a number +of his operas, such as the “Schauspieldirektor,” etc., +were merely a form of the German <i>Singspiel</i>, which, as I +have said, culminated in “Freischütz.” +</p> + +<p> +Thus, at the beginning of our century we find two art +forms: First, grand opera of a strange nationality, and +<a class="pagebreak" name="page233" id="page233" title="233"></a> +second, the small but rapidly developing form of comedy +or drama with music. +</p> + +<p> +In order to show how Wagner evolved his art theories +from this material, we must consider to some degree the +general conditions of this period. +</p> + +<p> +As late as 1853, Riehl wrote that Mendelssohn was the +only composer who had the German public, whereas others +had only a small section of it. For example, Schumann, +whose music he did not like, was accepted as a new Messiah +in the Elbe River district; “but who,” he asks, “knows +anything about him in the south or west of Germany?” +And as for Richard Wagner, who, he says, is a man of +extravagant ideas and a kind of phenomenon of no consequence +artistically, he asks, “who really knows anything +about him outside of the little party of fanatics who +profess to like his music (so-called)?” Its only chance of +becoming known, he says, is in the public's curiosity to +hear works which are rarely given. This curiosity, he +continues, will be a much more potent factor in his chance +of becoming known than all his newspaper articles and +the propaganda of his friend, Franz Liszt. +</p> + +<p> +For the German opera there were half a dozen <i>Boersenplätze</i>—Berlin +for the northwest, Hamburg for the +northeast, Frankfort for the southwest, Munich for the +southeast. As Riehl says, a success in Frankfort meant +a success in all the Frankfort clay deposit and sandstone +systems, but in the chalk formation of Munich it stood +no chance. Thus Germany had no musical centre. But +after Meyerbeer found such a centre in Paris, all other +Germans, including Wagner, looked to Paris for fame. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page234" id="page234" title="234"></a> +At the end of the eighteenth century, Vienna was the +art centre; nevertheless Gluck had to go to Paris for +recognition. +</p> + +<p> +Mendelssohn only succeeded by his <i>Salonfähigkeit</i>. +Always respectable in his forms, no one else could have +made music popular among the cultured classes as could +Mendelssohn. This also had its danger; for if Mendelssohn +had written an opera (the lack of which was so +bewailed by the Philistines), it would have taken root all +over Germany, and put Wagner back many years. At +the death of Mendelssohn, the Philistines heralded the +coming of a new German national school, founded on his +principles (formalism), one that would clarify the artistic +atmosphere of the turgid and anarchistic excesses of +Wagner and Berlioz and their followers. These critics +found already that Beethoven's melodies were too long +and his instrumentation too involved. They declared +that the further music departed from its natural simplicity +the more involved its utterance became, the less clear, +and consequently the poorer it was. Music was compared +to architecture, and thus the more Greek it was, the +better; forgetting that architecture was tied to utilitarianism +and poetry to word-symbols, and that painting is +primarily an art of externals. +</p> + +<p> +Riehl says that art is always in danger of ruin when its +simple foundation forms are too much elaborated, overlooking +the fact that music is not an art, but psychological +utterance. +</p> + +<p> +It needed all Wagner's gigantic personality to rise above +this wave of formalism that looked to the past for its +<a class="pagebreak" name="page235" id="page235" title="235"></a> +salvation, a past which was one of childish experimenting +rather than of æsthetic accomplishment. The tendency +was to return to the dark cave where tangible walls were +to be touched by the hands, rather than to emerge into a +sunlight that seemed blinding. +</p> + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page236" id="page236" title="236"></a> +XIX<br /><br /> +ON THE LIVES AND ART PRINCIPLES OF +SOME SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH +CENTURY COMPOSERS</h2> + +<p> +<!-- small caps missing in original --> +<span class="first">There</span> +is much of value to the student to be derived from +a study of the lives and art principles of the composers +of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. To go back +to an earlier period would hardly be worth while, as the +music composed in those days is too much obscured by +the uncertainty of tradition and the inevitable awkwardness +of expression that goes with all primitiveness in art. +</p> + +<p> +The first whom I would mention are Don Carlo Gesualdo, +Prince of Venosa, and Ludovico Viadana. +</p> + +<p> +The former was a nephew of the Archbishop of Naples, +was born in 1550, and died in 1613. His name is important +from the fact that he went boldly beyond Monteverde, +his contemporary, in the use of the new dissonant chords +(sevenths and ninths) which were just beginning to be +employed, and adopted a chromatic style of writing which +strangely foreshadowed the chromatic polyphonic style +of the present century. He wrote innumerable madrigals +for a number of voices, but his innovations remained +sterile so far as the development of music is concerned, +for the reason that while his music often acquired a wonderful +poignancy for his time by the use of chromatics, just +<a class="pagebreak" name="page237" id="page237" title="237"></a> +as often it led him into the merest bramble bush of +sound, real music being entirely absent. +</p> + +<p> +Viadana (1566–1645) has been placed by many historians +of music in the same category as Guido d'Arezzo +(who is credited with having invented solmization, musical +notation, etc.), Palestrina, Monteverde and Peri, who +are famed, the one for having discovered the dominant +ninth chord, and the other for the invention of opera. +Viadana is said to have been the first to use what is called +a <i>basso continuo</i>, and even the figured bass. The former +was the uninterrupted repetition of a short melody or +phrase in the bass through the entire course of a piece of +music. This was done very often to give a sense of unity +that nowadays would be obtained by a repetition of the +first thought at certain intervals through the piece. The +figured (or better, ciphered) bass was an entirely different +thing. This device, which is still employed, consisted of +the use of figures to indicate the different chords in music. +These figures or ciphers were written over or under the +bass note on which the chord represented by the figures +was to be played or sung. A 5 over or under a bass note +meant that with that note a perfect major triad was to +be sounded, considering the note written as the root of +the chord; a 3 was taken to stand for a perfect minor +triad; a 6 for the chord of the sixth (first inversion of a +triad), and <sup>6</sup>⁄<sub>4</sub> +for the second inversion; a line through a +5 or 7 meant that the triad was a diminished fifth or a +diminished seventh chord; a cross indicated a leading +tone; a 4 stood for the third inversion of the dominant +seventh chord. This system of shorthand, as it may be +<a class="pagebreak" name="page238" id="page238" title="238"></a> +called, was and is still of tremendous value to composers. +In the olden days, particularly, when many of the composers +engraved their own music for publication, it saved +a great deal of labour. It is probably not generally known +that the engraving of music by the composer was so +common; but such was the case with Bach, Rameau, and +Couperin. +</p> + +<p> +And this reminds me that the embellishments, as they +were called, which are so common in all harpsichord and +clavichord music, were also noted in a kind of shorthand, +and for precisely the same reason. The embellishments +themselves originated from the necessity for sustaining in +some way the tone of the instrument, which gave out little, +dry, clicklike sounds; if the melody were played in simple +notes, these sounds would mingle with the accompaniment +and be lost in it. Therefore, the embellishments served to +sustain the tones of the melody, and thus cause them to +stand out from the accompaniment. Their notation by +means of symbols copied from the primitive <i>neumes</i> vastly +facilitated the work of engraving. Much confusion arose +in the notation of embellishments, owing to the fact that +each composer had his own system of symbols. +</p> + +<p> +Alessandro Scarlatti and his son Domenico, both celebrated +in their day, are the next to demand attention. +The former was born about 1650 and died about 1725. He +wrote many operas of which we know practically nothing. +His son was born about 1685 and died in 1757. He was +the most celebrated harpsichord player of his time; and +although his style, which was essentially one of virtuosity, +was not productive of direct results, it did nevertheless +<a class="pagebreak" name="page239" id="page239" title="239"></a> +foreshadow the wonderful technical achievements of Liszt +in our own times. It is indeed a great pity that Domenico +Scarlatti's work did not bear more direct fruit in his +day, for it would have turned Mozart, as well as many +others, from the loose, clumsy mannerisms of the later +virtuoso style, which ran to the Alberti bass and other +degrading platitudes, paralleled in our comparatively +modern days by the Thalberg arpeggios, repeating notes, +Döhler trill, etc. +</p> + +<p> +Two masters in music, Händel and J.S. Bach, were +born the same year, 1685; their great French contemporary, +Rameau, was born two years earlier and died in 1764; +while Händel died in 1759, and Bach in 1750. Bach was +destined to give to the world its first glimpse of the tremendous +power of music, while Rameau organized the +elements of music into a scientific harmonic structure, +laying the foundation for our modern harmony. Händel's +great achievement (besides being a fine composer) was to +crush all life out of the then promising school of English +music, the foundation for which had been so well laid by +Purcell, Byrd, Morley, etc. +</p> + +<p> +Jean Philippe Rameau was born in Dijon, and after +travels in Italy and a short period of service as organist at +Clermont, in Auvergne, went to Paris. There he wrote a +number of small vaudevilles or musical comedies, which +were successful; and his music for the harpsichord, consisting +almost exclusively of small pieces with descriptive +titles, soon began to be widely played in France. Much +later in life he succeeded in obtaining a hearing for his +operas, the first of which, “Hippolyte et Aricie,” was given +<a class="pagebreak" name="page240" id="page240" title="240"></a> +in 1732, when he was fifty years old. For thirty-two years +his operas continued to hold the French stage against +those of all foreigners. +</p> + +<p> +His style marked a great advance over that of Lully, the +Italian, of the century before. Rameau aimed at clearness +of diction and was one of the first to attempt to give +individuality to the different orchestral instruments. By +some strange coincidence, his first opera had much the +same dramatic situation that all the early operas seemed +to have, namely, a scene in the infernal regions. Rameau's +operas never became the foundation for a distinctly +French opera, for at the time of his death (1764), Italian +opera troupes had already introduced a kind of comedy +with music, which rapidly developed into opéra comique; +it was reserved for Gluck, the German, to revive grand +opera in France. +</p> + +<p> +As a theoretician, Rameau exerted tremendous influence +upon music. He discovered that the chord which we call +the perfect major triad was not merely the result of an +artificial training of the ear to like certain combinations +of sounds, but that this chord was inherent in every +musical sound, constituting, as it does, the first four +harmonics or overtones. All chords, therefore, that were +not composed of thirds placed one above the other, were +inversions of fundamental chords. This theory holds good +in the general harmonic system of to-day. But although +the major triad and even the dominant seventh chord +could be traced back to the harmonics, the minor triad +proved a different matter; after many experiments Rameau +gave it up, leaving it unaccounted for. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page241" id="page241" title="241"></a> +Rameau was also largely instrumental in gaining recognition +for the desirability of dividing the octave into +twelve equal parts, making all the so-called half-tones +recur at mathematically equal distances from each other +in the chromatic scale. In 1737 his work on the generation +of chords through overtones caused the equal temperament +system of tuning to be generally accepted, and +the old modes, with the exception of the Ionian and +Æolian, to be dropped out of use. The former became +known as major and the latter as minor, from the third, +which was large in the Ionian and small in the Æolian. +</p> + +<p> +Händel, as before stated, was born in 1685 (February 23), +in Halle, in the same year as J.S. Bach, who was a month +younger (born March 21). His father was a barber, who, +as was common in those days, combined the trade of +surgery, cupping, etc., with that of hairdressing. He +naturally opposed his son's bent toward music, but with +no effect. At fifteen years of age, Händel was beginning +to be well known as a clavichord and organ player, in +the latter capacity becoming specially celebrated for his +wonderful improvisations. In spite of an attempt to +make a lawyer of him, he persisted in taking music as +his vocation, after the death of his father. +</p> + +<p> +<a name="ft15"></a>In Hamburg, whither he went in 1703, he obtained a +place among the second violins in the opera +orchestra.<a class="fn" href="#fn15"> 15 </a> +Realizing that in Germany opera was but a reflection of +Italian art, he left Hamburg in 1707 and went to Italy, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page242" id="page242" title="242"></a> +where he soon began to make a name for himself, both as +performer and composer. One of his operas, “Agrippa,” +was performed at Venice during the Carnival season +of 1710. +</p> + +<p> +The Hanoverian kapellmeister, Staffani, was present and +invited him to Hanover, whither he went, becoming +Staffani's successor in the service of the Elector of Hanover. +Several trips to England, where he was warmly welcomed, +resulted in his accepting from Queen Anne, in 1713, a +salary of two hundred pounds yearly, thus entering her +service, notwithstanding his contract with the Elector. +In 1714 the Queen died, and the Elector of Hanover was +called to the English throne under the title of George I. +Händel, in order to escape the impending disgrace occasioned +by having broken faith with his former employer, +wrote some music intended to be particularly persuasive, +and had it played on a barge that followed a royal procession +up the Thames. This “Water Music,” as it was +called, procured for him the King's pardon. +</p> + +<p> +From this time he lived in England, practically monopolizing +all that was done in music. In 1720 a company +for the giving of Italian opera was formed, and Händel +placed at its head. In 1727, on the occasion of the accession +of George II, Händel wrote four anthems, one of +which “Zadok the Priest,” ends with the words “God +save the King,” from which it has been erroneously stated +that he wrote the English national hymn. +</p> + +<p> +In 1737 Händel gave up the writing of operas, after +sinking most of his own savings in the undertaking, and +began to write oratorios, the germs of which are found +<a class="pagebreak" name="page243" id="page243" title="243"></a> +in the old Mysteries and Passion plays performed on a +platform erected in the chapel or oratory of a church. +Much has been written about Händel's habit of taking +themes from other composers, and he was even dubbed +the “grand old robber.” It must not be overlooked, however, +that although he made use of ideas from other +composers, he turned them to the best account. By 1742 +Händel was again in prosperous circumstances, his “Messiah” +having been a tremendous success. From that +time until his death he held undisputed sway, although his +last years were clouded by a trouble with his eyes, which +were operated upon unsuccessfully by an English oculist, +named Taylor, who had also operated on Bach's eyes with +the same disastrous result. Händel became completely +blind in 1752. Up to the last year of his life he continued +to give oratorio concerts and played organ concertos, +of which only the <i>tutti</i> were noted, he improvising his +part. +</p> + +<p> +Händel's strength lay in his great ability to produce +overwhelming effects by comparatively simple means. +This is especially the case in his great choruses which are +massive in effect and yet simple to the verge of barrenness. +This, of course, has no reference to the absurd <i>fioriture</i> +and long passage work given to the voices,—an Italian +fashion of the times,—but to the contrapuntal texture of +the work. Of his oratorios, “The Messiah” is the best +known. Two of his “Concerti Grossi,” the third and +sixth, are sometimes played by string orchestras. Of his +harpsichord music we have the eight “Suites” of 1720 +(among which the one in E is known as having the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page244" id="page244" title="244"></a> +variations called “The Harmonious Blacksmith”), and a +number of “Harpsichord Lessons,” among which are six +fugues. All these may be said to have little value. +</p> + +<p> +J.S. Bach differed in almost every respect from Händel, +except that he was born in the same year and was killed by +the same doctor. While Händel left no pupils, with perhaps +the exception of his assistant organist, Bach aided +and taught his own celebrated sons, Krebs, Agricola, +Kittel, Kirnberger, Marpurg, and many other distinguished +musicians. Bach twice made an effort to see Händel at +Halle, but without success. On the other hand, there are +reasons for believing that Händel never took the trouble +to examine any of Bach's clavichord music. He lived like +a conqueror in a foreign land, writing operas, oratorios, and +concertos to order, and stealing ideas right and left without +compunction; whereas Bach wrote from conviction, and +no charge of plagiarism was ever laid at his door. Händel +left a great fortune of twenty thousand pounds. Bach's +small salary at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig made it +necessary for him to do much of his own engraving; and +at his death, though he had helped many young struggling +artists, his widow was left so poor that she had to be +supported by public benevolence. Bach's works were +neglected by his contemporaries, and it was only in the +nineteenth century that he began to be appreciated in a +way commensurate with his worth. +</p> + +<p> +Bach was born in Eisenach, in Thuringia, and it is of +interest to know that as far back as his great grandfather, +Veit Bach (born about 1550), music had been the profession +of the family. Bach's parents died when he was +<a class="pagebreak" name="page245" id="page245" title="245"></a> +a boy of ten, and his education was continued by his +elder brother, Johann Christoph, at a town near Gotha, +where he held a position as organist. The boy soon outstripped +his brother in learning, and continued his studies +wholly by himself. +</p> + +<p> +After filling a position as organist at Weimar, in 1703 +he accepted one at a small town, Arnstadt, at a salary of +about fifty-seven dollars yearly. He had already begun to +compose, and possibly in imitation of Kuhnau, whose so-called +“Bible” sonatas were at the time being talked +about, he wrote an elaborate clavichord piece to illustrate +the departure of his brother, Johann Jakob, who had +entered the service of Charles XII of Sweden as oboist. +This composition is divided into five parts, each bearing +an appropriate superscription and ending with an elaborate +fugue to illustrate the postillion's horn. I believe +this is the only instance of his having written actual +programme music. After leaving Arnstadt he filled positions +as organist at Mühlhausen, Weimar, Coethen, etc. +It was before 1720 that he paid his two visits to Halle in +the hope of seeing Händel. At this time he had already +written the first part of the “Wohltemperierte Clavier,” +the violin sonatas, and many other great works. Ten +years later, when Händel again came to Germany, Bach +was too ill to go to see him personally, but sent his eldest +son to invite Händel to come and see him, although without +success. +</p> + +<p> +In 1723 he obtained the position of Cantor at the St. +Thomas School, in Leipzig, left vacant by the death of +Kuhnau; here he remained until his death. In 1749 the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page246" id="page246" title="246"></a> +English oculist, Taylor, happened to be in Leipzig. On +the advice of friends, Bach submitted to an operation on +his eyes, which had always troubled him. The failure of +this operation rendered him totally blind and the accompanying +medical treatment completely broke him down. +On the eighteenth of July, 1750, he suddenly regained his +sight, but it was accompanied by a stroke of paralysis +from which he died ten days later. +</p> + +<p> +So far as his church music is concerned, Bach may +be considered as the Protestant compeer of the Roman +Catholic, Palestrina, with the difference that his music +was based on the tonalities of major and minor and that +his harmonic structure was founded on a scientific basis. +What is mere wandering in Palestrina, with Bach is +moving steadily forward with a well-defined object in +view. With Bach, music is cast in the definite mould +of tonality, while with Palestrina the vagueness of the +modes lends to his music something of mystery and a +certain supernatural freedom from <i>human will</i>, so prominent +a characteristic of Bach's compositions. In considering +Bach's music we must forget the technique, +which was merely the outside dress of his compositions. +His style was the one of the period, just as he wore a wig, +and buckles on his shoes. His music must not be confounded +with the contrapuntal style of his utterance, and +although he has never been surpassed as a scientific writer +of counterpoint, it would be unjust to look there for his +chief glory. As a matter of fact, when his scientific +speech threatened to clash with the musical idea in his +composition, he never hesitated to sacrifice the former to +<a class="pagebreak" name="page247" id="page247" title="247"></a> +the latter. Thus Bach may be considered the greatest +musical scientist of his time as well as the greatest breaker +of mere rules. +</p> + +<p> +Of his sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel is the most celebrated, +and did much to prepare the way for Haydn in +the development of the sonata. J.S. Bach wrote many +sonatas, but none for the clavichord; his sonatas were for +the violin and the 'cello alone, a great innovation. The +violin sonatas bring into play all the resources of the +instrument; indeed it is barely possible to do them justice +from the technical standpoint. His “Wohltemperierte +Clavier” naturally was a tremendous help to clavichord +technique, and even now the “Chromatic Fantaisie” and +other works require fine pianists to perform them properly. +</p> + +<p> +In considering the development of music, it must always +be remembered that Haydn, Mozart, and their contemporaries +knew little or nothing of Bach's works, thus +accounting for what otherwise would seem a retrograde +movement in art. C.P.E. Bach (born 1714) was much +better known than his father; even Mozart said of him, +“He is the father, and we are mere children.” He was +renowned as a harpsichord player, and wrote many sonatas +which form the connecting link between the suite and +the sonata. He threw aside the polyphonic style of his +father and strove to give his music new colour and warmth +by means of harmony and modulation. He died in 1788 +in Hamburg, where he was conductor of the opera. It +should be mentioned that he wrote a method of clavichord +playing on which, in later days, Czerny said that Beethoven +based his piano teaching. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page248" id="page248" title="248"></a> +Up to the period now under consideration, music for the +orchestra occupied a very small part in the composer's +work. To be sure, J.S. Bach wrote some suites, and +separate movements were written in the different dance +forms for violins, with sometimes the addition of a few +reed instruments, and possibly flutes and small horns or +trumpets. It is in the works of C.P.E. Bach, however, +that we find the germ of symphonic orchestral writing that +was to be developed by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. +The so-called “symphonies” by Emanuel Bach are +merely rudimentary sonatas written for strings, with +flutes, oboes, bassoons, trumpets, etc., and have practically +no artistic significance except as showing the inevitable +trend of musical thought toward greater power of expression. +In Germany (and indeed everywhere else) the +Italian element had full sway over opera, and non-Italian +musicians were forced into writing for the concert room +instead of the stage. Even Beethoven had many disappointments +in connection with his one opera “Fidelio,” +and so strong was the Italian influence, that here in America +we are only just now (1897) recovering from the effects +of it. +</p> + +<p> +Franz Joseph Haydn was born near Vienna, in 1732, of +humble parents, his mother a cook in a count's family, +and his father a wheelwright and sexton of the parish +church. When a young boy Haydn had a fine voice, on +account of which he was admitted as a member of the choir +at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. This entitled him +to admission to St. Stephen's School, connected with the +cathedral, in which the city paid for the board and lodging +<a class="pagebreak" name="page249" id="page249" title="249"></a> +as well as the instruction of the singers. When the boys' +voices changed or “broke,” however, they were turned +adrift. On leaving the cathedral, Haydn suffered the +direst poverty, engaging himself at one time as valet to +the Italian singing teacher, Porpora, in order to secure +some lessons. +</p> + +<p> +He gradually managed to make himself known, and was +engaged by Count Morzin, a rich nobleman, to organize +an orchestra of about eighteen, which the count retained +in his service with Haydn as leader. Here he wrote his +first symphony (for strings, two oboes and two horns, in +three movements) and a number of smaller works. When +he was twenty-nine, Count Morzin gave up his establishment +and Haydn entered the service of Prince Paul +Esterhazy, in Eisenstadt, Hungary, in the same capacity. +Here he had an orchestra of sixteen, composed of good +musicians, whom he could call up at any hour of the night +to play if he wished, and over whom he had complete +control. Although the contract by which he was engaged +names the most degrading conditions, and places Haydn +on a par with all the other servants, the pay, though small +(two hundred dollars yearly), was certain and regular. +From this time Haydn was free from the hardships of +poverty. His salary was soon increased to five hundred +dollars, and he made as much more from his compositions. +He wrote over one hundred and twenty-five symphonies, +sixty-eight trios, seventy-seven quartets, fifty-seven concertos, +fifty-seven sonatas, eight oratorios and cantatas, +and nineteen operas, besides innumerable smaller things, +for instance, between five hundred and six hundred vocal +<a class="pagebreak" name="page250" id="page250" title="250"></a> +pieces. His operas, of course, are mere trifles compared +with our more modern ones. +</p> + +<p> +His friendship for Mozart is well known. As for his +relations with Beethoven, it is probable that their disagreement +was merely the effect of pride, and perhaps a +certain amount of laziness on one side and youthful +bumptiousness on the other. Haydn was returning to +Vienna <i>via</i> Bonn, from England, where he had been welcomed +by the wildest enthusiasm, when Beethoven called +on him to ask for his opinion as to his talent as a +composer. It resulted in Beethoven's going to Vienna. +After taking a few lessons of Haydn he went to another +teacher and made all manner of contemptuous remarks +about Haydn, declaring he had not learned anything from +him. +</p> + +<p> +After two highly successful visits to England, in 1792 +and 1794, Haydn returned to Vienna and wrote his two +celebrated cantatas, “The Creation” and “The Seasons.” +His last appearance in public was when he attended a +performance of “The Creation” in 1808, at the age of +seventy-six. He was received with a fanfare of trumpets +and cheers from the audience. After the first part he +was obliged to leave, and as he was being carried out by +his friends, he turned at the door and lifted his hands +towards the orchestra, as if in benediction; Beethoven +kissed his hand, and everyone paid him homage. He +died during the bombardment of Vienna by the French, +May 31, 1809. +</p> + +<p> +Haydn's later symphonies have been very cleverly compared +with those of Beethoven by the statement that the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page251" id="page251" title="251"></a> +latter wrote tragedies and great dramas, whereas Haydn +wrote comedies and charming farces. As a matter of fact, +Haydn is the bridge between the idealized dance and +independent music. Although Beethoven still retained +the form of the dance, he wrote great poems, whereas the +music of Haydn always preserves a tinge of the actual +dance. With Haydn, music was still an art consisting +of the weaving together of pretty sounds, and although +<i>design</i>, that is to say, the development of the emotional +character of a musical thought, was by no means unknown +to him, that development was never permitted to transcend +the limits of a certain graceful euphony which was a +marked characteristic of his style. His use of orchestral +instruments represents a marked advance on that of +C.P.E. Bach, and certainly very materially helped +Mozart. +</p> + +<p> +Of Mozart we probably all know something. Born at +Salzburg, in 1756, his was a short life, for he died in 1791. +We know of his great precocity; his first compositions +were published when he was six years old, at which age +he was already playing in concerts with his eleven-year old +sister, and was made much of by the titled people before +whom he played. The rest of his life is one continual +chronicle of concerts given all over Europe, interrupted at +intervals by scarlet fever, smallpox, and other illnesses, +until the last one, typhoid fever, caused his death. During +his stay in Italy he wrote many operas in the flowery +Italian style which, luckily, have never been revived to +tarnish his name. +</p> + +<p> +His first works worthy of mention are the clavier +<a class="pagebreak" name="page252" id="page252" title="252"></a> +concertos and several symphonies and quartets, which date +from about 1777. His first important opera is “Idomeneo, +King of Crete,” written for the Munich opera. In this he +adopts the principles of Gluck, thus breaking away from +the wretched style of the Italian opera of the period, +although the work itself was written in Italian. His next +opera was in German, “Die Entführung aus dem Serail,” +and was given with great success at Vienna, in 1782. It +was followed by “The Marriage of Figaro,” “Don Juan,” +and the “Magic Flute.” +</p> + +<p> +The story of his death is well known. A stranger, who +turned out to be the steward of Count Walsegg, came to +him and ordered a requiem, which was played in 1793 as +Walsegg's own composition. Mozart thought the man a +messenger from the other world. He died before he +completed the work. So great was his poverty that it +was difficult to get a priest to attend him, and a physician +who was summoned would come only after the play +he was attending was ended. He had a “third class” +funeral, and as a fierce storm was raging, no one accompanied +the body to the grave. His widow gave a concert, +and with the help of the Emperor money enough was raised +to pay the outstanding debts. +</p> + +<p> +It is difficult to give an adequate idea of Mozart's +works. He possessed a certain simple charm of expression +which, in its directness, has an element of pathos lacking +in the comparatively jolly light-heartedness of Haydn. +German opera profited much from his practically adopting +the art principles of Gluck, although it must be confessed +that this change in style may have been simply a phase +<a class="pagebreak" name="page253" id="page253" title="253"></a> +of his own individual art development. His later symphonies +and operas show us the man at his best. His +piano works and early operas show the effect of the +“virtuoso” style, with all its empty concessions to technical +display and commonplace, ear-catching melody. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="fn"><span><a href="#ft15"> 15 </a></span><a name="fn15"></a> +At that time the harpsichord player was a very important +member of an orchestra, as he accompanied the recitative from +figured bass and was practically the conductor. On one occasion +when the harpsichordist was absent Händel took his place with so +much success that it paved the way for a hearing of his operas.</p> + + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page254" id="page254" title="254"></a> +XX<br /><br /> +DECLAMATION IN MUSIC</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">There</span> +is one side of music which I am convinced has +never been fully studied, namely, the relation between it +and declamation. As we know, music is a language which +may delineate actual occurrences by means of onomatopoetic +sounds. By the use of more or less suggestive +sounds, it may bring before our minds a quasi-visual image +of things which we more or less definitely feel. +</p> + +<p> +Now to do all this, there must be rules; or, to put it more +broadly, there must be some innate quality that enables +this art of sounds to move in sympathy with our feelings. +I have no wish to go into detailed analysis of the subject; +but a superficial survey of it may clear up certain points +with regard to the potency of music that we are too often +willing to refer back to the mere pleasing physical sensations +of sound. +</p> + +<p> +Some consideration of this subject may enable us to +understand the much discussed question of programme +music. It may also help us to recognize the astonishing +advance we have made in the art; an advance, which, +strange to say, consists in successively throwing off all +the trammels and conventionalities of what is generally +considered artificial, and the striking development of an +art which, with all its astounding wealth of exterior means, +aims at the expression of elemental sensations. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page255" id="page255" title="255"></a> +Music may be divided into four classes, each class +marking an advance in receptive power on the part of +the listener and poetic subtlety on that of the composer. +We may liken the first stage to that of the savage Indians +who depict their exploits in war and peace on the rocks, +fragments of bone, etc. If the painter has in mind, say, +an elephant, he carves it so that its principal characteristics +are vastly exaggerated. A god in such delineation +is twice the size of the ordinary man, and so it is in descriptive +music. For instance, in Beethoven's “Pastoral” +symphony, the cuckoo is not a bird which mysteriously +hides itself far away in a thicket, the sound of whose voice +comes to one like a strange, abrupt call from the darkness +of the forest; no, it is unmistakably a cuckoo, reminding +one strangely of those equally advanced and extremely +cheap art products of Nuremberg, made of pine wood, +and furnished with a movable tail. +</p> + +<p> +The next stage is still a question of delineation; but of +delineation that leads us into strange countries, and the +sounds we hear are but the small door through which +we pass. This music <i>suggests</i>; by way of example, the +opening of the last movement of the “Pastoral” symphony, +the march from Tchaïkovsky's “Symphonie Pathétique,” +the opening of Raff's “Im Walde,” and Goldmark's +“Sakuntala.” Such music hints, and there is a +certain potency in its suggestion which makes us see +things. These two divisions of music have been termed +“programme” or “objective” music. +</p> + +<p> +The other two classes of music have been termed subjective. +The first is declamation, pure and simple; the +<a class="pagebreak" name="page256" id="page256" title="256"></a> +singer may be telling a lie, or his sentiment may be insincere +or false; what these sounds stand for, we know from +the words, their grade of passion, etc. The last phase +of our art is much more subtle, and is not amenable to +such accurate analysis. If we may liken music to painting, +we may, I think, compare the latter to the first three +stages of this new language of music; but it can go no +further. For that art must touch its audience through a +palpable delineation of something more or less material; +whereas music is of the stuff dreams are made of. It is +hardly necessary to say, however, that our dreams are +often much more poignant than the actual sensations +caused by real occurrences would be. And it is because +of this strange quality, I think, that dreams and music +affect us in much the same manner. +</p> + +<p> +The vital principle of Wagner's art was that he not only +made startlingly vivid pictures in his music, but that he +made the people in these pictures actually walk out of the +frame and directly address the audience. In other words, +his orchestra forms a kind of pictorial and psychological +background from which his characters detach themselves +and actually speak. If they speak falsely, the ever present +orchestra, forming as it were a halo, unmercifully tears +away the mask, like the mirror in old fairy tales. +</p> + +<p> +In Wagner's operas, however, the intrusion of gross +palpable machinery of the stage, as well as that of the +actor's art, too often clouds the perfect working of this +wonderful art conception. It is just this intrusion of +materialism in Wagner's music dramas which constitutes +their only weakness. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page257" id="page257" title="257"></a> +At this point I wish to insist upon the fact that in music +it is always through declamation that the public is addressed +most directly; not only that, but declamation is +not necessarily tied by any of the fetters of the spoken +word; nor is it subservient to any of the laws of articulate +speech as we meet with them in language. This being +admitted, I have no hesitation in giving my opinion that +opera, or rather the music drama, is not the highest or the +most perfect form of our art. The music drama as represented +by Wagner (and he alone represents it) is the most +perfect union of painting, poetry, and music imaginable +to our nineteenth-century minds. But as regards representing +the highest development of music, I find it too +much hampered by the externals of art, necessary materialism +in the production of palpable acts, and its enforced +subjection to the laws that govern the spoken word. +</p> + +<p> +Music is universal; Wagner's operas, by the inherent +necessities of speech, are necessarily and irrevocably +Germanic. “Les Maitres Chanteurs,” “The Dwarfs +of Niebelheim,” “Elizabeta,” are impossibilities, whereas, +for instance, Beethoven's “Eroica” labours under no such +disadvantage. “Goodbye, My Dearest Swan,” invests +part of “Lohengrin” with a certain grotesque colour that +no one would ever dream of if there were no necessity for +the singer to be tied down to the exigencies of palpable +and certainly most materialistic language. The thought +in itself is beautiful, but the necessity for the words drags +it into the mud. +</p> + +<p> +This certainly shows the difference between the language +of music and what is called articulate speech, the purely +<a class="pagebreak" name="page258" id="page258" title="258"></a> +symbolic and artificial character of the latter, and the +direct, unhampered utterance of the former. Music can +invariably heighten the poignancy of mere spoken words +(which mean nothing in themselves), but words can but +rarely, in fact I doubt whether they can ever, heighten +the effect of musical declamation. To my mind, listening +to Wagner's operas may be likened to watching a circus +with three rings. That containing the music should have +our closest attention, for it offers the most wonderful sounds +ever imagined by any man. At the same time it is impossible +for any human being not to have his attention +often lured away to the other rings, in one of which Fricke's +rams vie with the bird and the dragon; or where the phantom +ship seems as firmly fixed as the practical rainbow, +which so closely betrays the carpenter. In the other ring +you can actually hear the dull jokes of Mimi and the +Wanderer, or hear Walther explain that he has passed a +comfortable night and slept well. +</p> + +<p> +The music to these remarkable scenes, however, does +not deign to stoop so low, but soars in wonderful poetry by +itself, thus rejecting a union which, to speak in the jargon +of our day, is one of the convincing symptoms of decadence; +in other words, it springs from the same impulse +as that which has produced the circus with three rings. +</p> + +<p> +Summing up, I wish to state what I consider the four elements +of music, namely, music that paints, music that suggests, +music that actually speaks, and music that almost +defies analysis, and is composed of the other three elements. +</p> + +<p> +When we were considering the early works for harpsichord, +I said that music could define certain things with +<a class="pagebreak" name="page259" id="page259" title="259"></a> +quite reasonable exactitude. Just as in the Egyptian +hieroglyphics a wavy line stands for water, so it can in +music, with the latitude that it can mean anything in +nature that we might consider of the same genre. Thus, +the figure in Wagner's “Waldweben” means in that +instance waves of air, and we know it by the context. +His swaying figure of the “Prelude to Rheingold” is as +plainly water as is the same figure used by Mendelssohn +in his “Lovely Melusina.” Not that Wagner plagiarized, +but that he and Mendelssohn recognized the definiteness +of musical suggestions; which is more than proved by +their adopting the same musical ideas to indicate the same +things. +</p> + +<p> +More indefinite is the analysis of our second type or +element of music. The successful recognition of this +depends not only upon the susceptibility of the hearer to +delicate shades of sensation, but also upon the receptivity +of the hearer and his power to accept freely and unrestrictedly +the mood shadowed forth by the composer. +Such music cannot be looked upon objectively. To those +who would analyze it in such a manner it must remain an +unknown language; its potency depends entirely upon a +state of willing subjectivity on the part of the hearer. +</p> + +<p> +The third element, as we know, consists of the spoken +word or phrase; in other words, declamation. In this, +however, the composer cuts loose entirely from what we +call language. It is the medium of expression of emotion +of every kind. It is not restricted to the voice or to +any instrument, or even to our sharps, flats, and naturals. +Through stress of emotion the sharps become sharper, +<a class="pagebreak" name="page260" id="page260" title="260"></a> +with depression the flats become flatter, thus adding +poignancy to the declamation. Being unfettered by +words, this emotion has free rein. The last element, as I +have said, is extremely difficult to define. It is declamation +that suggests and paints at the same time. We find +hardly a bar of Wagner's music in which this complex +form of music is not present. Thus, the music dramas of +Wagner, shorn of the fetters of the actual spoken word, +emancipated from the materialism of acting, painting, and +furniture, may be considered as the greatest achievement +in our art, an art that does not include the spoken word +called poetry, or painting, or sculpture, and most decidedly +not architecture (form), but the essence of all these. +What these aim to do through passive exterior influences, +music accomplishes by actual living vibration. +</p> + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page261" id="page261" title="261"></a> +XXI<br /><br /> +SUGGESTION IN MUSIC</h2> + +<p> +<span class="first">In</span> +speaking of the power of suggestion in music I wish +at the outset to make certain reservations. In the first +place I speak for myself, and what I have to present is +merely an expression of my personal opinion; if in any +way these should incite to further investigation or discussion, +my object will in part have been attained. +</p> + +<p> +In the second place, in speaking of this art, one is seriously +hampered by a certain difficulty in making oneself +understood. To hear and to enjoy music seems sufficient +to many persons, and an investigation as to the causes of +this enjoyment seems to them superfluous. And yet, unless +the public comes into closer touch with the tone poet than +that objective state Which accepts with the ears what is +intended for the spirit, which hears the sounds and is deaf +to their import, unless the public can separate the physical +pleasure of music from its ideal significance, our art, in +my opinion, cannot stand on a sound basis. +</p> + +<p> +The first step toward an appreciation of music should +be taken in our preparatory schools. Were young people +taught to distinguish between tones as between colours, +to recognize rhythmic values, and were they taught so to +use their voices as to temper the nasal tones of speech, +in after life they would be better able to appreciate and +<a class="pagebreak" name="page262" id="page262" title="262"></a> +cherish an art of which mere pleasure-giving sounds are +but a very small part. +</p> + +<p> +Much of the lack of independence of opinion about +music arises from want of familiarity with its material. +Thus, after dinner, our forefathers were accustomed to +sing catches which were entirely destitute of anything +approaching music. +</p> + +<p> +Music contains certain elements which affect the nerves +of the mind and body, and thus possesses the power of +direct appeal to the public,—a power to a great extent +denied to the other arts. This sensuous influence over the +hearer is often mistaken for the aim and end of all music. +With this in mind, one may forgive the rather puzzling +remarks so often met with; for instance, those of a certain +English bishop that “Music did not affect him either +intellectually or emotionally, only pleasurably,” adding, +“Every art should keep within its own realm; and that of +music was concerned with pleasing combinations of sound.” +In declaring that the sensation of hearing music was +pleasant to him, and that to produce that sensation was +the entire mission of music, the Bishop placed our art on a +level with good things to eat and drink. Many colleges +and universities of this land consider music as a kind of +<i>boutonnière</i>. +</p> + +<p> +This estimate of music is, I believe, unfortunately a +very general one, and yet, low as it is, there is a possibility +of building on such a foundation. Could such persons be +made to recognize the existence of decidedly unpleasant +music, it would be the first step toward a proper appreciation +of the art and its various phases. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page263" id="page263" title="263"></a> +Mere beauty of sound is, in itself, purely sensuous. It +is the Chinese conception of music that the texture of a +sound is to be valued; the long, trembling tone-tint of a +bronze gong, or the high, thin streams of sound from the +pipes are enjoyed for their ear-filling qualities. In the +<i>Analects</i> of Confucius and the writings of Mencius there +is much mention of music, and “harmony of sound that +shall fill the ears” is insisted upon. The Master said, +“When the music maker Che first entered on his office, the +finish with the Kwan Ts'eu was magnificent. How it +filled the ears!” Père Amiot says, “Music must fill the +ears to penetrate the soul.” Referring to the playing of +some pieces by Couperin on a spinet, he says that Chinese +hearers thought these pieces barbarous; the movement +was too rapid, and did not allow sufficient time for them +to enjoy each tone by itself. Now this is colour without +form, or sound without music. For it to become music, +it must possess some quality which will remove it from +the purely sensuous. To my mind, it is in the power of +suggestion that the vital spark of music lies. +</p> + +<p> +Before speaking of this, however, I wish to touch upon +two things: first, on what is called the science of music; +and secondly, on one of the sensuous elements of music +which enters into and encroaches upon all suggestion. +</p> + +<p> +If one were called upon to define what is called the +intellectual side of music, he would probably speak of +“form,” contrapuntal design, and the like. Let us take up +the matter of form. If by the word “form” our theorists +meant the most poignant expression of poetic thought +in music, if they meant by this word the art of arranging +<a class="pagebreak" name="page264" id="page264" title="264"></a> +musical sounds into the most telling presentation of a +musical idea, I should have nothing to say: for if this were +admitted instead of the recognized forms of modern +theorists for the proper utterance, we should possess a +study of the power of musical sounds which might truly +justify the title of musical intellectuality. As it is, the +word “form” stands for what have been called “stoutly +built periods,” “subsidiary themes,” and the like, a +happy combination of which in certain prescribed keys was +supposed to constitute good form. Such a device, originally +based upon the necessities and fashions of the dance, +and changing from time to time, is surely not worthy +of the strange worship it has received. A form of so +doubtful an identity that the first movement of a certain +Beethoven sonata can be dubbed by one authority +“sonata-form,” and by another “free fantasia,” certainly +cannot lay claim to serious intellectual value. +</p> + +<p> +Form should be a synonym for <i>coherence</i>. No idea, +whether great or small, can find utterance without form, +but that form will be inherent to the idea, and there will +be as many forms as there are adequately expressed ideas. +In the musical idea, <i>per se</i>, analysis will reveal form. +</p> + +<p> +The term “contrapuntal development” is to most tone +poets of the present day a synonym for the device of giving +expression to a musically poetic idea. <i>Per se</i>, counterpoint +is a puerile juggling with themes, which may be likened +to high-school mathematics. Certainly the entire web +and woof of this “science,” as it is called, never sprang +from the necessities of poetic musical utterance. The +entire pre-Palestrina literature of music is a conclusive +<a class="pagebreak" name="page265" id="page265" title="265"></a> +testimony as to the non-poetic and even uneuphonious +character of the invention. +</p> + +<p> +In my opinion, Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the +world's mightiest tone poets, accomplished his mission, +not by means of the contrapuntal fashion of his age, but +in spite of it. The laws of canon and fugue are based +upon as prosaic a foundation as those of the rondo and +sonata form; I find it impossible to imagine their ever having +been a spur, or an incentive to poetic musical speech. +Neither, pure tonal beauty, so-called “form,” nor what is +termed the intellectual side of music (the art of counterpoint, +canon, and fugue), constitutes a really vital factor +in music. This narrows our analysis down to two things, +namely, the physical effect of musical sound, and suggestion. +</p> + +<p> +The simplest manifestations of the purely sensuous +effect of sound are to be found in the savage's delight in +noise. In the more civilized state, this becomes the sensation +of mere pleasure in hearing pleasing sounds. It +enters into folk song in the form of the “Scotch snap,” +which is first cousin to the Swiss <i>jodel</i>, and is undoubtedly +the origin of the skips of the augmented and (to a lesser +degree) diminished intervals to be found in the music of +many nations. It consists of the trick of alternating chest +tones with falsetto. It is a kind of quirk in the voice +which pleases children and primitive folk alike, a simple +thing which has puzzled folklorists the world over. +</p> + +<p> +The other sensuous influence of sound is one of the most +powerful elements of music, and all musical utterance is +involved with and inseparable from it. It consists of +repetition, recurrence, periodicity. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page266" id="page266" title="266"></a> +Now this repetition may be one of rhythm, tone tint, +texture, or colour, a repetition of figure or of pitch. We +know that savages, in their incantation ceremonies, keep +up a continuous drum beating or chant which, gradually +increasing in violence, drives the hearers into such a state +of frenzy that physical pain seems no longer to exist for +them. +</p> + +<p> +The value of the recurring rhythms and phrases of the +march is well recognized in the army. A body of men will +instinctively move in cadence with such music. The ever +recurring lilt of a waltz rhythm will set the feet moving +unconsciously, and as the energy of the repetition increases +and decreases, so will the involuntary accompanying physical +sympathy increase or decrease. +</p> + +<p> +Berlioz jokingly tells a story of a ballet dancer who objected +to the high pitch in which the orchestra played, and +insisted that the music be transposed to a lower key. +Cradle songs are fashioned on the same principle. +</p> + +<p> +This sensuous sympathy with recurring sounds, rhythm, +and pitch has something in common with hypnotism, +and leads up to what I have called suggestion in music. +</p> + +<p> +This same element in a modified form is made use of in +poetry, for instance, in Poe's “Raven,” +</p> + +<blockquote><p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Quoth the raven, nevermore,</span> +</p></blockquote> + +<p class="cont"> +and the repetition of colour in the same author's “Scarlet +Death.” It is the mainspring (I will not call it the vital +spark) of many so-called popular songs, the recipe for +which is exceedingly simple. A strongly marked rhythmic +figure is selected, and incessantly repeated until the +hearer's body beats time to it. The well-known tunes +<a class="pagebreak" name="page267" id="page267" title="267"></a> +“There'll Be a Hot Time,” etc., and “Ta-ra-ra, Boom-de-ay” +are good examples of this kind of music. +</p> + +<p> +There are two kinds of suggestion in music: one has been +called tone-painting, the other almost evades analysis. +</p> + +<p> +The term tone-painting is somewhat unsatisfactory, and +reminds one of the French critic who spoke of a poem +as “beautiful painted music.” I believe that music can +suggest forcibly certain things and ideas as well as vague +emotions encased in the so-called “form” and “science” +of music. +</p> + +<p> +If we wish to begin with the most primitive form of suggestion +in music, we shall find it in the direct imitation of +sounds in nature. We remember that Helmholtz, Hanslick, +and their followers denied to music the power to suggest +things in nature; but it was somewhat grudgingly +admitted that music might express the emotions caused +by them. In the face of this, to quote a well-known +instance, we have the “Pastoral” symphony of Beethoven, +with the thrush, cuckoo, and thunderstorm. The birds +and the storm are very plainly indicated; but it is not +possible for the music to be an expression of the emotions +caused by them, for the very simple reason that no emotions +are caused by the cuckoo and thrush, and those +caused by thunderstorms range all the way from depression +and fear to exhilaration, according to the personality +of individuals. +</p> + +<p> +That music may imitate any rhythmic sounds or melodic +figure occurring in nature, hardly needs affirmation. Such +devices may be accepted almost as quotations, and not be +further considered here. The songs of birds, the sound +<a class="pagebreak" name="page268" id="page268" title="268"></a> +made by galloping horses' feet, the moaning of the wind, +etc., are all things which are part and parcel of the musical +vocabulary, intelligible alike to people of every nationality. +I need hardly say that increasing intensity of sound +will suggest vehemence, approach, and its visual synonym, +growth, as well as that decreasing intensity will suggest +withdrawal, dwindling, and placidity. +</p> + +<p> +The suggestion brought about by pattern is very familiar. +It was one of the first signs of the breaking away +from the conventional trammels of the contrapuntal style +of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The first +madrigal of Thomas Weelkes (1590) begins with the words, +“Sit down,” and the musical pattern falls a fifth. The +suggestion was crude, but it was caused by the same +impulse as that which supplied the material for Wagner's +“Waldweben,” Mendelssohn's “Lovely Melusina,” and a +host of other works. +</p> + +<p> +The fact that the pattern of a musical phrase can suggest +kinds of motion may seem strange; but could we, for +example, imagine a spinning song with broken arpeggios? +Should we see a spear thrown or an arrow shot on the +stage and hear the orchestra playing a phrase of an undulating +pattern, we should at once realize the contradiction. +Mendelssohn, Schumann, Wagner, Liszt, and practically +everyone who has written a spinning song, has used +the same pattern to suggest the turning of a wheel. That +such widely different men as Wagner and Mendelssohn +should both have adopted the same pattern to suggest undulating +waves is not a mere chance, but clearly shows +the potency of the suggestion. +</p> + +<p> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page269" id="page269" title="269"></a> +The suggestion conveyed by means of pitch is one of +the strongest in music. Vibrations increasing beyond two +hundred and fifty trillions a second become luminous. It +is a curious coincidence that our highest vibrating musical +sounds bring with them a well-defined suggestion of light, +and that as the pitch is lowered we get the impression of +ever increasing obscurity. To illustrate this, I have but +to refer you to the Prelude to “Lohengrin.” Had we no +inkling as to its meaning, we should still receive the suggestion +of glittering shapes in the blue ether. +</p> + +<p> +Let us take the opening of the “Im Walde” symphony +by Raff as an example; deep shadow is unmistakably suggested. +Herbert Spencer's theory of the influence of emotion +on pitch is well known and needs no confirmation. +This properly comes under the subject of musical speech, +a matter not to be considered here. Suffice it to say that +the upward tendency of a musical phrase can suggest exaltation, +and that a downward trend may suggest depression, +the intensity of which will depend upon the intervals +used. As an instance we may quote the “Faust” overture +of Wagner, in which the pitch is used emotionally as +well as descriptively. If the meaning I have found in this +phrase seems to you far-fetched, we have but to give a +higher pitch to the motive to render the idea absolutely +impossible. +</p> + +<p> +The suggestion offered by movement is very obvious, +for music admittedly may be stately, deliberate, hasty, or +furious, it may march or dance, it may be grave or flippant. +</p> + +<p> +Last of all I wish to speak of the suggestion conveyed by +means of tone-tint, the blending of timbre and pitch. It +<a class="pagebreak" name="page270" id="page270" title="270"></a> +is essentially a modern element in music, and in our delight +in this marvellous and potent aid to expression we have +carried it to a point of development at which it threatens +to dethrone what has hitherto been our musical speech, +melody, in favour of what corresponds to the shadow +languages of speech, namely, gesture and facial expression. +Just as these shadow languages of speech may distort or +even absolutely reverse the meaning of the spoken word, +so can tone colour and harmony change the meaning of a +musical phrase. This is at once the glory and the danger +of our modern music. Overwhelmed by the new-found +powers of suggestion in tonal tint and the riot of hitherto +undreamed of orchestral combinations, we are forgetting +that permanence in music depends upon melodic speech. +</p> + +<p> +In my opinion, it is the line, not the colour, that will last. +That harmony is a potent factor in suggestion may be +seen from the fact that Cornelius was able to write an +entire song pitched upon one tone, the accompaniment +being so varied in its harmonies that the listener is deceived +into attributing to that one tone many shades of +emotion. +</p> + +<p> +In all modern music this element is one of the most important. +If we refer again to the “Faust” overture of +Wagner, we will perceive that although the melodic trend +and the pitch of the phrase carry their suggestion, the +roll of the drum which accompanies it throws a sinister +veil over the phrase, making it impressive in the extreme. +</p> + +<p> +The seed from which our modern wealth of harmony +and tone colour sprang was the perfect major triad. The +<ins title="Transcriber's note: corrected from 'raison d'étre'"><i>raison d'être</i></ins> +and development of this combination of tones +<a class="pagebreak" name="page271" id="page271" title="271"></a> +belong to the history of music. Suffice it to say, that for +some psychological reason this chord (with also its minor +form) has still the same significance that it had for the +monks of the Middle Ages. It is perfect. Every complete +phrase, must end with it. The attempts made to +emancipate music from the tyranny of this combination +of sounds have been in vain, showing that the suggestion +of finality and repose contained in it is irrefutable. +</p> + +<p> +Now if we depart from this chord a sensation of unrest +is occasioned which can only subside by a progression to +another triad or a return to the first. With the development +of our modern system of tonality we have come to +think tonally; and a chord lying outside of the key in +which a musical thought is conceived will carry with it +a sense of confusion or mystery that our modern art of +harmony and tone colour has made its own. Thus, while +any simple low chords accompanying the first notes of +Raff's “Im Walde” symphony, given by the horns and violins, +would suggest gloom pierced by the gleams of light, +the remoteness of the chords to the tonality of C major +gives a suggestion of mystery; but as the harmony approaches +the triad the mystery dissolves, letting in the +gleam of sunlight suggested by the horn. +</p> + +<p> +Goldmark's overture to “Sakuntala” owes its subtle +suggestion to much the same cause. Weber made use of it +in his “Freischütz,” Wagner in his “Tarnhelm” motive, +Mendelssohn in his “Midsummer Night's Dream,” Tchaïkovsky +in the opening of one of his symphonies. +</p> + +<p> +In becoming common property, so to speak, this important +element of musical utterance has been dragged through +<a class="pagebreak" name="page272" id="page272" title="272"></a> +the mud; and modern composers, in their efforts to raise +it above the commonplace, have gone to the very edge of +what is physically bearable in the use of tone colour and +combination. While this is but natural, owing to the appropriation +of some of the most poetic and suggestive tone +colours for ignoble dance tunes and doggerel, it is to my +mind a pity, for it is elevating what should be a means of +adding power and intensity to musical speech to the importance +of musical speech itself. Possibly Strauss's “Thus +Spake Zarathustra” may be considered the apotheosis of +this power of suggestion in tonal colour, and in it I believe +we can see the tendency I allude to. This work stuns by +its glorious magnificence of tonal texture; the suggestion, +in the opening measures, of the rising sun is a mighty +example of the overwhelming power of tone colour. The +upward sweep of the music to the highest regions of light +has much of splendour about it; and yet I remember once +hearing in London, sung in the street at night, a song that +seemed to me to contain a truer germ of music. +</p> + +<p> +For want of a better word I will call it ideal suggestion. +It has to do with actual musical speech, and is difficult to +define. The possession of it makes a man a poet. If +we look for analogy, I may quote from Browning and +Shakespeare. +</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Dearest, three months ago</span><br /> +<span class="i0">When the mesmerizer, Snow,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With his hand's first sweep</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Put the earth to sleep.</span> +</p> + +<p class="poet"> +<span class="sc">Browning</span>, <i>A Lovers' Quarrel</i>. +</p> + +<p class="stanza"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="page273" id="page273" title="273"></a> +<span class="i17"> + + + Daffodils,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That come before the swallow dares, and takes</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The winds of March with beauty; Violets dim,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes.</span> +</p> + +<p class="poet"> +<span class="sc">Shakespeare</span>, <i>Winter's Tale</i>. +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +For me this defies analysis, and so it is with some things +in music, the charm of which cannot be ascribed to physical +or mental suggestion, and certainly not to any device of +counterpoint or form, in the musical acceptance of the +word. +</p> + + + +<h2><a class="pagebreak" name="page275" id="page275" title="275"></a> +INDEX</h2> + + +<h4>A.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Accents, <a href="#page92">92</a>.</li> +<li>Adagio, <a href="#page189">189</a>.</li> +<li>Æolian mode, <a href="#page83">83</a>.</li> +<li>Æschylus, <a href="#page70">70</a>, <a href="#page76">76</a>.</li> +<li>Alberti bass, <a href="#page197">197</a>.</li> +<li>Allemande, <a href="#page182">182</a>, <a href="#page189">189</a>, + <a href="#page195">195</a>.</li> +<li>Amati, <a href="#page138">138</a>.</li> +<li>Ambros, <a href="#page205">205</a>.</li> +<li>Ambrose, <a href="#page98">98</a>, <a href="#page99">99</a>, + <a href="#page102">102</a>, <a href="#page104">104</a>.</li> +<li>Amiot, <a href="#page50">50</a>, <a href="#page57">57</a>, + <a href="#page61">61</a>, <a href="#page263">263</a>.</li> +<li>Anapæst, <a href="#page75">75</a>.</li> +<li>Andaman Islanders, <a href="#page3">3</a>, <a href="#page5">5</a>, <a href="#page6">6</a>.</li> +<li>Animals, <a href="#page13">13</a>.</li> +<li>Arabian, <a href="#page152">152</a>, <a href="#page158">158</a>.</li> +<li>Architecture, <a href="#page192">192</a>, <a href="#page225">225</a>.</li> +<li>Arion, <a href="#page76">76</a>.</li> +<li>Aristides, <a href="#page74">74</a>, <a href="#page84">84</a>.</li> +<li>Aristophanes, <a href="#page91">91</a>, <a href="#page92">92</a>.</li> +<li>Aristotle, <a href="#page49">49</a>.</li> +<li>Aristoxenus, <a href="#page73">73</a>, <a href="#page81">81</a>.</li> +<li>Assyrian, <a href="#page48">48</a>.</li> +<li>Auber, <a href="#page216">216</a>, <a href="#page217">217</a>, <a href="#page219">219</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>B.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Bach, C.P.E., <a href="#page191">191</a>, <a href="#page199">199</a>, + <a href="#page200">200</a>, <a href="#page247">247</a>, + <a href="#page248">248</a>, <a href="#page251">251</a>.</li> +<li>Bach, J.S., <a href="#page136">136</a>, <a href="#page185">185</a>, + <a href="#page186">186</a>, <a href="#page187">187</a>, + <a href="#page191">191</a>, <a href="#page231">231</a>, + <a href="#page239">239</a>, <a href="#page241">241</a>, + <a href="#page244">244</a>, <a href="#page247">247</a>, + <a href="#page248">248</a>, <a href="#page265">265</a>.</li> +<li>Bagpipe, <a href="#page32">32</a>, <a href="#page93">93</a>.</li> +<li>Ballet, <a href="#page177">177</a>.</li> +<li>Bamboo, <a href="#page52">52</a>.</li> +<li>Banjo, <a href="#page29">29</a>.</li> +<li>Basso continuo, <a href="#page237">237</a>.</li> +<li>Bassoon, <a href="#page139">139</a>.</li> +<li>Bazin, <a href="#page217">217</a>.</li> +<li>Beethoven, <a href="#page14">14</a>, <a href="#page16">16</a>, + <a href="#page17">17</a>, <a href="#page22">22</a>, + <a href="#page185">185</a>, <a href="#page189">189</a>, + <a href="#page190">190</a>, <a href="#page196">196</a>, + <a href="#page197">197</a>, <a href="#page199">199</a>, + <a href="#page200">200</a>, <a href="#page201">201</a>, + <a href="#page202">202</a>, <a href="#page203">203</a>, + <a href="#page234">234</a>, <a href="#page247">247</a>, + <a href="#page250">250</a>, <a href="#page267">267</a>.</li> +<li>Bell, <a href="#page7">7</a>, <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href="#page46">46</a>.</li> +<li>Bellini, <a href="#page210">210</a>.</li> +<li>Berlioz, <a href="#page14">14</a>, <a href="#page65">65</a>, + <a href="#page219">219</a>, <a href="#page266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Bizet, <a href="#page144">144</a>, <a href="#page151">151</a>, + <a href="#page197">197</a>, <a href="#page217">217</a>, + <a href="#page219">219</a>, <a href="#page222">222</a>.</li> +<li>Boieldieu, <a href="#page216">216</a>, <a href="#page217">217</a>.</li> +<li>Bolero, <a href="#page182">182</a>.</li> +<li>Borneo, <a href="#page3">3</a>, <a href="#page5">5</a>.</li> +<li>Bourrée, <a href="#page179">179</a>.</li> +<li>Brahma, <a href="#page36">36</a>, <a href="#page37">37</a>.</li> +<li>Brahminism, <a href="#page36">36</a>, <a href="#page39">39</a>.</li> +<li>Brahms, <a href="#page203">203</a>, <a href="#page224">224</a>.</li> +<li>Brevis, <a href="#page118">118</a>, <a href="#page120">120</a>.</li> +<li>Browning, <a href="#page198">198</a>, <a href="#page272">272</a>.</li> +<li>Buddha, <a href="#page36">36</a>.</li> +<li>Burmah, <a href="#page23">23</a>, <a href="#page64">64</a>, <a href="#page65">65</a>.</li> +<li>Burney, <a href="#page194">194</a>.</li> +<li>Byrd, <a href="#page184">184</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>C.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Caccini, <a href="#page177">177</a>, <a href="#page209">209</a>.</li> +<li>Cachucha, <a href="#page182">182</a>.</li> +<li>Canon, <a href="#page205">205</a>.</li> +<li>Cantata, <a href="#page188">188</a>.</li> +<li><a class="pagebreak" name="page276" id="page276" title="276"></a> + Cantus firmus, <a href="#page130">130</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a>.</li> +<li>Ceylon, <a href="#page5">5</a>.</li> +<li>Chaconne, <a href="#page181">181</a>.</li> +<li>Chaldeans, <a href="#page49">49</a>.</li> +<li>Charlemagne, <a href="#page105">105</a>.</li> +<li>Che, <a href="#page50">50</a>, <a href="#page66">66</a>.</li> +<li>Cherubini, <a href="#page213">213</a>.</li> +<li>China, <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href="#page18">18</a>, + <a href="#page23">23</a>, <a href="#page49">49</a>.</li> +<li>Chinese folksong, <a href="#page59">59</a>.</li> +<li>Chinese music, <a href="#page144">144</a>, <a href="#page147">147</a>, + <a href="#page263">263</a>.</li> +<li>Chinese orchestra, <a href="#page55">55</a>.</li> +<li>Chinese scale, <a href="#page62">62</a>.</li> +<li>Chinese theatre, <a href="#page61">61</a>.</li> +<li>Chopin, <a href="#page27">27</a>, <a href="#page204">204</a>.</li> +<li>Christianity, <a href="#page34">34</a>.</li> +<li>Christians (Early), <a href="#page96">96</a>.</li> +<li>Chrotta (Crwth), <a href="#page137">137</a>.</li> +<li>Church music, <a href="#page206">206</a>.</li> +<li>Clarinet, <a href="#page13">13</a>, <a href="#page139">139</a>.</li> +<li>Clavichord, <a href="#page134">134</a>.</li> +<li>Clavicitherium, <a href="#page136">136</a>.</li> +<li>Clef, <a href="#page116">116</a>.</li> +<li>Colour in music, <a href="#page200">200</a>, <a href="#page263">263</a>, + <a href="#page270">270</a>.</li> +<li>Comedy, <a href="#page76">76</a>.</li> +<li>Confucius, <a href="#page49">49</a>, <a href="#page56">56</a>, + <a href="#page60">60</a>, <a href="#page263">263</a>.</li> +<li>Conjunct tetrachord, <a href="#page86">86</a>.</li> +<li>Constantinople, <a href="#page103">103</a>.</li> +<li>Corelli, <a href="#page138">138</a>, <a href="#page189">189</a>.</li> +<li>Cornet, <a href="#page177">177</a>.</li> +<li>Corrente (Courante), <a href="#page181">181</a>, + <a href="#page185">185</a>, <a href="#page189">189</a>.</li> +<li>Coucy, Raoul de, <a href="#page118">118</a>.</li> +<li>Council of Laodicæa, <a href="#page99">99</a>.</li> +<li>Council of Trent, <a href="#page176">176</a>.</li> +<li>Counterpoint, <a href="#page129">129</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a>, + <a href="#page208">208</a>, <a href="#page264">264</a>.</li> +<li>Couperin, <a href="#page136">136</a>, <a href="#page191">191</a>, + <a href="#page200">200</a>, <a href="#page210">210</a>.</li> +<li>Cristofori, <a href="#page136">136</a>.</li> +<li>Czardas, <a href="#page183">183</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>D.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Dactyl, <a href="#page25">25</a>, <a href="#page26">26</a>, + <a href="#page69">69</a>, <a href="#page75">75</a>.</li> +<li>Dance, <a href="#page24">24</a>, <a href="#page27">27</a>, + <a href="#page28">28</a>, <a href="#page78">78</a>, + <a href="#page97">97</a>, <a href="#page126">126</a>, + <a href="#page149">149</a>, <a href="#page178">178</a>.</li> +<li>Dance forms, modern, <a href="#page182">182</a>.</li> +<li>Dance forms, old, <a href="#page179">179</a>, <a href="#page180">180</a>.</li> +<li>Dante, <a href="#page207">207</a>.</li> +<li>Darwin, <a href="#page1">1</a>, <a href="#page16">16</a>.</li> +<li>Declamation, <a href="#page26">26</a>, <a href="#page27">27</a>, + <a href="#page254">254</a>.</li> +<li>Delibes, <a href="#page218">218</a>.</li> +<li>Descant (discant), <a href="#page129">129</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a>.</li> +<li>Diaphony, <a href="#page128">128</a>, <a href="#page129">129</a>.</li> +<li>Diatonic, <a href="#page45">45</a>.</li> +<li>Didymus, <a href="#page81">81</a>.</li> +<li>Dionysian, <a href="#page75">75</a>.</li> +<li>Disjunct tetrachord, <a href="#page86">86</a>.</li> +<li>Dithyramb, <a href="#page76">76</a>.</li> +<li>Donizetti, <a href="#page210">210</a>.</li> +<li>Dorian, <a href="#page75">75</a>, <a href="#page83">83</a>.</li> +<li>Drum, <a href="#page4">4</a>, <a href="#page6">6</a>, + <a href="#page7">7</a>, <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href="#page9">9</a>, + <a href="#page10">10</a>, <a href="#page11">11</a>, + <a href="#page12">12</a>, <a href="#page25">25</a>, + <a href="#page30">30</a>, <a href="#page33">33</a>.</li> +<li>Drum organ, <a href="#page65">65</a>.</li> +<li>Dulcimer, <a href="#page33">33</a>, <a href="#page49">49</a>, <a href="#page136">136</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>E.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Egypt, <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href="#page34">34</a>, + <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page152">152</a>.</li> +<li>Emerson, <a href="#page16">16</a>.</li> +<li>Embellishments, <a href="#page238">238</a>.</li> +<li>Enharmonic (Greek), <a href="#page88">88</a>.</li> +<li>Epitrite, <a href="#page75">75</a>.</li> +<li>Equal temperament, <a href="#page187">187</a>, <a href="#page241">241</a>.</li> +<li>Euclid, <a href="#page79">79</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>F.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Fantaisie-mazurka, <a href="#page184">184</a>.</li> +<li>Faux bourdon, <a href="#page130">130</a>, <a href="#page163">163</a>.</li> +<li>Fear, <a href="#page2">2</a>.</li> +<li>Feast of asses, <a href="#page125">125</a>, <a href="#page206">206</a>.</li> +<li><a class="pagebreak" name="page277" id="page277" title="277"></a> + Field, <a href="#page204">204</a>.</li> +<li>Figured bass, <a href="#page237">237</a>.</li> +<li>Flageolet, <a href="#page177">177</a>.</li> +<li>Flats, <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href="#page39">39</a>, <a href="#page112">112</a>.</li> +<li>Flute, <a href="#page6">6</a>, <a href="#page13">13</a>, + <a href="#page30">30</a>, <a href="#page31">31</a>, + <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page44">44</a>, + <a href="#page45">45</a>, <a href="#page67">67</a>, + <a href="#page82">82</a>, <a href="#page138">138</a>, + <a href="#page177">177</a>.</li> +<li>Flute players, <a href="#page91">91</a>.</li> +<li>Folk song, <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href="#page17">17</a>, <a href="#page141">141</a>.</li> +<li>Folk song (Chinese), <a href="#page59">59</a>.</li> +<li>Folk song (German), <a href="#page152">152</a>.</li> +<li>Form, <a href="#page24">24</a>, <a href="#page25">25</a>, + <a href="#page263">263</a>, <a href="#page264">264</a>.</li> +<li>Fourth (augmented), <a href="#page128">128</a>.</li> +<li>Franco of Cologne, <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href="#page123">123</a>.</li> +<li>Frauenlob, Heinrich, <a href="#page167">167</a>, <a href="#page168">168</a>.</li> +<li>Froberger, <a href="#page199">199</a>.</li> +<li>Fugue, <a href="#page187">187</a>, <a href="#page206">206</a>.</li> +<li>Fusa, <a href="#page120">120</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>G.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Galop, <a href="#page183">183</a>.</li> +<li>Galuppi, <a href="#page198">198</a>.</li> +<li>Gamut, <a href="#page109">109</a>.</li> +<li>Gardiner, <a href="#page19">19</a>.</li> +<li>Gavotte, <a href="#page180">180</a>.</li> +<li>Gerbert, <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href="#page225">225</a>.</li> +<li>Gesture, <a href="#page17">17</a>.</li> +<li>Gesualdo, <a href="#page236">236</a>.</li> +<li>Gigue, <a href="#page182">182</a>, <a href="#page189">189</a>, <a href="#page197">197</a>.</li> +<li>Gluck, <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href="#page212">212</a>, + <a href="#page213">213</a>, <a href="#page214">214</a>, + <a href="#page215">215</a>, <a href="#page231">231</a>, + <a href="#page252">252</a>.</li> +<li>Goethe, <a href="#page1">1</a>, <a href="#page22">22</a>.</li> +<li>Goldmark, <a href="#page271">271</a>.</li> +<li>Gong, <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href="#page53">53</a>.</li> +<li>Gothic architecture, <a href="#page21">21</a>.</li> +<li>Gottfried von Strasburg, <a href="#page165">165</a>.</li> +<li>Gounod, <a href="#page217">217</a>, <a href="#page219">219</a>, + <a href="#page220">220</a>.</li> +<li>Greek idea of music, <a href="#page70">70</a>.</li> +<li>Greek modes, <a href="#page83">83</a>.</li> +<li>Greeks, <a href="#page27">27</a>, <a href="#page30">30</a>, <a href="#page42">42</a>.</li> +<li>Gregorian chants, <a href="#page104">104</a>, + <a href="#page106">106</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>.</li> +<li>Gregorian modes, <a href="#page100">100</a>.</li> +<li>Gregory (Pope), <a href="#page100">100</a>, + <a href="#page102">102</a>, <a href="#page104">104</a>.</li> +<li>Grétry, <a href="#page213">213</a>, <a href="#page218">218</a>.</li> +<li>Guarnerius, <a href="#page138">138</a>.</li> +<li>Guido d'Arezzo, <a href="#page108">108</a>, <a href="#page115">115</a>.</li> +<li>Guitar, <a href="#page6">6</a>, <a href="#page29">29</a>.</li> +<li>Gypsy music, <a href="#page145">145</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>H.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Habanera, <a href="#page182">182</a>.</li> +<li>Hale, Adam de la, <a href="#page207">207</a>.</li> +<li>Halévy, <a href="#page217">217</a>.</li> +<li>Hamlet, <a href="#page197">197</a>.</li> +<li>Händel, <a href="#page22">22</a>, <a href="#page177">177</a>, + <a href="#page231">231</a>, <a href="#page239">239</a>, + <a href="#page241">241</a>.</li> +<li>Harmonics, <a href="#page20">20</a>, <a href="#page80">80</a>.</li> +<li>Harmony, <a href="#page23">23</a>, <a href="#page39">39</a>, + <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href="#page147">147</a>, + <a href="#page190">190</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>, + <a href="#page270">270</a>.</li> +<li>Harp, <a href="#page6">6</a>, <a href="#page29">29</a>, + <a href="#page33">33</a>, <a href="#page43">43</a>, + <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href="#page45">45</a>, + <a href="#page48">48</a>, <a href="#page177">177</a>.</li> +<li>Harpsichord, <a href="#page134">134</a>.</li> +<li>Hasse, <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href="#page227">227</a>, + <a href="#page229">229</a>, <a href="#page230">230</a>.</li> +<li>Haydn, <a href="#page193">193</a>, <a href="#page197">197</a>, + <a href="#page200">200</a>, <a href="#page247">247</a>, + <a href="#page248">248</a>, <a href="#page252">252</a>.</li> +<li>Hebrews, <a href="#page32">32</a>, <a href="#page33">33</a>, <a href="#page34">34</a>.</li> +<li>Helmholtz, <a href="#page42">42</a>.</li> +<li>Herodotus, <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page46">46</a>, <a href="#page47">47</a>.</li> +<li>Hérold, <a href="#page216">216</a>, <a href="#page217">217</a>.</li> +<li>Hexachord, <a href="#page110">110</a>.</li> +<li>Hexameter, <a href="#page69">69</a>.</li> +<li>Hindus, <a href="#page35">35</a>.</li> +<li>Homer, <a href="#page27">27</a>, <a href="#page29">29</a>, <a href="#page69">69</a>.</li> +<li>Horn, <a href="#page6">6</a>, <a href="#page7">7</a>, <a href="#page140">140</a>.</li> +<li>Hucbald, <a href="#page107">107</a>, <a href="#page122">122</a>, + <a href="#page127">127</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>.</li> +<li>Hungarian, <a href="#page143">143</a>, <a href="#page145">145</a>, + <a href="#page159">159</a>.</li> +<li>Hurdy-gurdy, <a href="#page137">137</a>.</li> +<li>Hypodorian mode, <a href="#page84">84</a>.</li> +<li>Hypolydian mode, <a href="#page83">83</a>.</li> +<li>Hypophrygian mode, <a href="#page83">83</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4><a class="pagebreak" name="page278" id="page278" title="278"></a> +I.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Iambus, <a href="#page25">25</a>.</li> +<li>Impassioned speech, <a href="#page19">19</a>, <a href="#page28">28</a>.</li> +<li>India, <a href="#page16">16</a>.</li> +<li>Indians, <a href="#page143">143</a>, <a href="#page152">152</a>.</li> +<li>Ionic, <a href="#page75">75</a>.</li> +<li>Isis, <a href="#page8">8</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>J.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Jahn, <a href="#page194">194</a>.</li> +<li>Japanese, <a href="#page53">53</a>, <a href="#page64">64</a>.</li> +<li>Javanese, <a href="#page13">13</a>, <a href="#page64">64</a>, <a href="#page65">65</a>.</li> +<li>Jenghiz Khan, <a href="#page30">30</a>.</li> +<li>Jommelli, <a href="#page195">195</a>, <a href="#page230">230</a>.</li> +<li>Jongleurs, <a href="#page131">131</a>, <a href="#page160">160</a>, + <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page207">207</a>.</li> +<li>Josquin des Prés, <a href="#page176">176</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>K.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Keren, <a href="#page33">33</a>.</li> +<li>Kin, <a href="#page33">33</a>, <a href="#page50">50</a>, <a href="#page59">59</a>.</li> +<li>King, <a href="#page50">50</a>.</li> +<li>Kinnor, <a href="#page33">33</a>.</li> +<li>Kithara, <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page86">86</a>.</li> +<li>Koto, <a href="#page66">66</a>.</li> +<li>Kuhnau, <a href="#page195">195</a>, <a href="#page199">199</a>, + <a href="#page245">245</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>L.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Lasus, <a href="#page73">73</a>, <a href="#page90">90</a>.</li> +<li>Leitmotiv, <a href="#page214">214</a>.</li> +<li>Lepsius, <a href="#page48">48</a>.</li> +<li>Levites, <a href="#page33">33</a>.</li> +<li>Liszt, <a href="#page145">145</a>, <a href="#page146">146</a>, + <a href="#page151">151</a>, <a href="#page194">194</a>, + <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href="#page220">220</a>, + <a href="#page233">233</a>.</li> +<li>Locke, <a href="#page230">230</a>.</li> +<li>Loeilly, <a href="#page191">191</a>.</li> +<li>London Stock Exchange, <a href="#page19">19</a>.</li> +<li>Longa, <a href="#page118">118</a>, <a href="#page120">120</a>.</li> +<li>Longfellow, <a href="#page69">69</a>.</li> +<li>Loure, <a href="#page180">180</a>.</li> +<li>Lully, <a href="#page196">196</a>, <a href="#page212">212</a>, <a href="#page240">240</a>.</li> +<li>Lute, <a href="#page28">28</a>, <a href="#page29">29</a>, + <a href="#page30">30</a>, <a href="#page31">31</a>, + <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page44">44</a>, + <a href="#page131">131</a>, <a href="#page137">137</a>, + <a href="#page177">177</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>.</li> +<li>Luther, <a href="#page176">176</a>.</li> +<li>Lydian mode, <a href="#page83">83</a>.</li> +<li>Lyre, <a href="#page6">6</a>, <a href="#page28">28</a>, + <a href="#page29">29</a>, <a href="#page30">30</a>, + <a href="#page31">31</a>, <a href="#page32">32</a>, + <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page69">69</a>, + <a href="#page136">136</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>M.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Maanim, <a href="#page32">32</a>.</li> +<li>Macaulay, <a href="#page211">211</a>.</li> +<li>Macbeth, <a href="#page64">64</a>.</li> +<li>Macfarren, <a href="#page213">213</a>.</li> +<li>Machol, <a href="#page32">32</a>.</li> +<li>Magrepha, <a href="#page33">33</a>.</li> +<li>Mandolin, <a href="#page137">137</a>.</li> +<li>Maneros, <a href="#page46">46</a>.</li> +<li>March, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href="#page183">183</a>.</li> +<li>Marine trumpet, <a href="#page137">137</a>.</li> +<li>Marpurg, <a href="#page225">225</a>.</li> +<li>Masque, <a href="#page177">177</a>.</li> +<li>Massé, <a href="#page217">217</a>.</li> +<li>Massenet, <a href="#page218">218</a>, <a href="#page223">223</a>, + <a href="#page224">224</a>.</li> +<li>Mastersingers, <a href="#page131">131</a>, <a href="#page165">165</a>.</li> +<li>Matheson, <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href="#page225">225</a>.</li> +<li>Maxima, <a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href="#page120">120</a>.</li> +<li>Mazurka, <a href="#page182">182</a>.</li> +<li>Méhul, <a href="#page197">197</a>, <a href="#page212">212</a>, + <a href="#page213">213</a>, <a href="#page214">214</a>.</li> +<li>Melody, <a href="#page14">14</a>, <a href="#page15">15</a>, + <a href="#page18">18</a>, <a href="#page26">26</a>, + <a href="#page28">28</a>, <a href="#page148">148</a>, + <a href="#page190">190</a>.</li> +<li>Mencius, <a href="#page54">54</a>, <a href="#page263">263</a>.</li> +<li>Mendelssohn, <a href="#page202">202</a>, <a href="#page203">203</a>, + <a href="#page233">233</a>, <a href="#page234">234</a>, + <a href="#page259">259</a>, <a href="#page268">268</a>, + <a href="#page271">271</a>.</li> +<li>Metre, <a href="#page26">26</a>, <a href="#page74">74</a>.</li> +<li>Mexico, <a href="#page66">66</a>, <a href="#page67">67</a>.</li> +<li>Meyerbeer, <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href="#page213">213</a>, + <a href="#page217">217</a>, <a href="#page218">218</a>, + <a href="#page224">224</a>, <a href="#page233">233</a>.</li> +<li>Millet, <a href="#page192">192</a>.</li> +<li>Minima, <a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href="#page120">120</a>.</li> +<li><a class="pagebreak" name="page279" id="page279" title="279"></a> + Minnesingers, <a href="#page118">118</a>, <a href="#page131">131</a>, + <a href="#page164">164</a>, <a href="#page166">166</a>, + <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page173">173</a>.</li> +<li>Minuet, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href="#page189">189</a>.</li> +<li>Miracle plays, <a href="#page207">207</a>.</li> +<li>Mixolydian mode, <a href="#page83">83</a>.</li> +<li>Mixtures (organ), <a href="#page133">133</a>.</li> +<li>Mode, <a href="#page39">39</a>, <a href="#page83">83</a>.</li> +<li>Mona Lisa, <a href="#page13">13</a>.</li> +<li>Monochord, <a href="#page80">80</a>, <a href="#page134">134</a>.</li> +<li>Monteverde, <a href="#page236">236</a>.</li> +<li>Moors, <a href="#page152">152</a>.</li> +<li>Moralities, <a href="#page207">207</a>.</li> +<li>Morley, <a href="#page185">185</a>.</li> +<li>Morris dance, <a href="#page160">160</a>.</li> +<li>Motive, <a href="#page179">179</a>, <a href="#page190">190</a>.</li> +<li>Mozart, <a href="#page193">193</a>, <a href="#page200">200</a>, + <a href="#page232">232</a>, <a href="#page239">239</a>, + <a href="#page247">247</a>, <a href="#page251">251</a>.</li> +<li>Musette, <a href="#page180">180</a>.</li> +<li>Mysteries, <a href="#page125">125</a>, <a href="#page206">206</a>, + <a href="#page207">207</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>N.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Nationalism, <a href="#page151">151</a>, <a href="#page153">153</a>.</li> +<li>Nebel, <a href="#page33">33</a>.</li> +<li>Nero, <a href="#page94">94</a>.</li> +<li>Neumes, <a href="#page115">115</a>.</li> +<li>Notation, <a href="#page114">114</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>.</li> +<li>Notation (Greek system), <a href="#page88">88</a>.</li> +<li>Nithart, <a href="#page167">167</a>, <a href="#page171">171</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>O.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Oboe, <a href="#page13">13</a>, <a href="#page44">44</a>, + <a href="#page139">139</a>, <a href="#page177">177</a>.</li> +<li>Ockeghem, <a href="#page177">177</a>.</li> +<li>Octave (Greek system), <a href="#page86">86</a>.</li> +<li>Opera, <a href="#page178">178</a>, <a href="#page206">206</a>, + <a href="#page208">208</a>, <a href="#page210">210</a>.</li> +<li>Organ, <a href="#page33">33</a>, <a href="#page94">94</a>, <a href="#page132">132</a>.</li> +<li>Organ pedals, <a href="#page134">134</a>.</li> +<li>Organs (portable), <a href="#page134">134</a>.</li> +<li>Organum, <a href="#page128">128</a>.</li> +<li>Orientalism, <a href="#page151">151</a>, <a href="#page173">173</a>, + <a href="#page204">204</a>.</li> +<li>Osiris, <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href="#page47">47</a>.</li> +<li>Overture, <a href="#page189">189</a>, <a href="#page216">216</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>P.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Pæan, <a href="#page75">75</a>.</li> +<li>Palestrina, <a href="#page176">176</a>, <a href="#page186">186</a>, + <a href="#page205">205</a>, <a href="#page210">210</a>, + <a href="#page246">246</a>.</li> +<li>Pan's Pipe, <a href="#page9">9</a>, <a href="#page10">10</a>, + <a href="#page11">11</a>, <a href="#page12">12</a>, + <a href="#page62">62</a>.</li> +<li>Pantomime, <a href="#page93">93</a>, <a href="#page177">177</a>.</li> +<li>Passecaille, <a href="#page181">181</a>.</li> +<li>Passepied, <a href="#page182">182</a>.</li> +<li>Passion plays, <a href="#page125">125</a>, <a href="#page206">206</a>.</li> +<li>Pavane, <a href="#page182">182</a>.</li> +<li>Pentatonic, <a href="#page149">149</a>, <a href="#page151">151</a>.</li> +<li>Pergolesi, <a href="#page210">210</a>.</li> +<li>Peri, <a href="#page209">209</a>, <a href="#page231">231</a>.</li> +<li>Period, <a href="#page179">179</a>.</li> +<li>Periodicity, <a href="#page24">24</a>, <a href="#page28">28</a>, + <a href="#page265">265</a>.</li> +<li>Peru, <a href="#page66">66</a>, <a href="#page67">67</a>.</li> +<li>Pescetti, <a href="#page195">195</a>.</li> +<li>Phrase, <a href="#page179">179</a>, <a href="#page190">190</a>.</li> +<li>Phrygian mode, <a href="#page76">76</a>, <a href="#page83">83</a>.</li> +<li>Piano, <a href="#page29">29</a>, <a href="#page230">230</a>.</li> +<li>Piccini, <a href="#page213">213</a>.</li> +<li>Pindar, <a href="#page27">27</a>, <a href="#page72">72</a>, <a href="#page90">90</a>.</li> +<li>Pipe, <a href="#page6">6</a>, <a href="#page10">10</a>, + <a href="#page11">11</a>, <a href="#page13">13</a>, + <a href="#page14">14</a>, <a href="#page28">28</a>, + <a href="#page30">30</a>, <a href="#page37">37</a>, + <a href="#page44">44</a>.</li> +<li>Pitch, <a href="#page269">269</a>.</li> +<li>Plato, <a href="#page11">11</a>, <a href="#page49">49</a>.</li> +<li>Plutarch, <a href="#page195">195</a>.</li> +<li>Poe, <a href="#page266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Poetry, <a href="#page24">24</a>.</li> +<li>Polacca, <a href="#page182">182</a>.</li> +<li>Polka, <a href="#page183">183</a>.</li> +<li>Polonaise, <a href="#page182">182</a>.</li> +<li>Porpora, <a href="#page210">210</a>.</li> +<li>Portuguese, <a href="#page152">152</a>.</li> +<li>Prelude, <a href="#page189">189</a>.</li> +<li><a class="pagebreak" name="page280" id="page280" title="280"></a> + Prescott, <a href="#page66">66</a>.</li> +<li>Procrustes, <a href="#page27">27</a>.</li> +<li>Programme music, <a href="#page190">190</a>, <a href="#page199">199</a>, + <a href="#page203">203</a>, <a href="#page255">255</a>.</li> +<li>Psalms, <a href="#page34">34</a>.</li> +<li>Psaltery, <a href="#page33">33</a>, <a href="#page131">131</a>.</li> +<li>Ptolemy, <a href="#page85">85</a>.</li> +<li>Purcell, <a href="#page176">176</a>.</li> +<li>Pythagoras, <a href="#page49">49</a>, <a href="#page72">72</a>, + <a href="#page79">79</a>, <a href="#page82">82</a>, + <a href="#page97">97</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>Q.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Quarter-tones, <a href="#page38">38</a>, <a href="#page39">39</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>R.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Raff, <a href="#page269">269</a>, <a href="#page271">271</a>.</li> +<li>Raga, <a href="#page39">39</a>, <a href="#page40">40</a>.</li> +<li>Rameau, <a href="#page136">136</a>, <a href="#page178">178</a>, + <a href="#page186">186</a>, <a href="#page191">191</a>, + <a href="#page196">196</a>, <a href="#page199">199</a>, + <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href="#page239">239</a>, + <a href="#page240">240</a>.</li> +<li>Ravanastron, <a href="#page137">137</a>.</li> +<li>Rebec, <a href="#page138">138</a>.</li> +<li>Reed, <a href="#page45">45</a>.</li> +<li>Reichardt, <a href="#page194">194</a>.</li> +<li>Repetition, <a href="#page266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Rhythm, <a href="#page14">14</a>, <a href="#page15">15</a>, + <a href="#page25">25</a>, <a href="#page26">26</a>, + <a href="#page27">27</a>, <a href="#page74">74</a>, + <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href="#page142">142</a>, + <a href="#page190">190</a>.</li> +<li>Rigaudon, <a href="#page180">180</a>.</li> +<li>Rig-Veda, <a href="#page35">35</a>.</li> +<li>Rimsky-Korsakoff, <a href="#page224">224</a>.</li> +<li>Robin et Marian, <a href="#page207">207</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>.</li> +<li>Rockstro, <a href="#page194">194</a>.</li> +<li>Rolle, <a href="#page196">196</a>.</li> +<li>Romans, <a href="#page46">46</a>.</li> +<li>Romanticism, <a href="#page212">212</a>.</li> +<li>Rosseau, <a href="#page212">212</a>.</li> +<li>Rossini, <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href="#page215">215</a>, + <a href="#page217">217</a>.</li> +<li>Rowbotham, <a href="#page23">23</a>, <a href="#page68">68</a>.</li> +<li>Rubinstein, <a href="#page224">224</a>.</li> +<li>Ruskin, <a href="#page21">21</a>.</li> +<li>Russia, <a href="#page152">152</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>S.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Sachs, Hans, <a href="#page166">166</a>.</li> +<li>Saint-Mark's Cathedral, <a href="#page205">205</a>.</li> +<li>St. Pierre, Bernardin de, <a href="#page211">211</a>.</li> +<li>Saint-Saëns, <a href="#page219">219</a>, <a href="#page222">222</a>, + <a href="#page224">224</a>.</li> +<li>Saltarello, <a href="#page183">183</a>.</li> +<li>Samisen, <a href="#page66">66</a>.</li> +<li>Sappho, <a href="#page72">72</a>, <a href="#page83">83</a>.</li> +<li>Sarabande, <a href="#page160">160</a>, <a href="#page180">180</a>, + <a href="#page189">189</a>, <a href="#page197">197</a>.</li> +<li>Sarti, <a href="#page213">213</a>.</li> +<li>Scale, <a href="#page39">39</a>, <a href="#page107">107</a>.</li> +<li>Scale (Chinese), <a href="#page62">62</a>.</li> +<li>Scarlatti, A., <a href="#page238">238</a>.</li> +<li>Scarlatti, D., <a href="#page184">184</a>, <a href="#page185">185</a>, + <a href="#page195">195</a>, <a href="#page210">210</a>, + <a href="#page238">238</a>.</li> +<li>Schauspiel, <a href="#page232">232</a>.</li> +<li>Scherzo, <a href="#page189">189</a>.</li> +<li>Schofar, <a href="#page33">33</a>.</li> +<li>Schubart, <a href="#page194">194</a>.</li> +<li>Schubert, <a href="#page20">20</a>, <a href="#page23">23</a>, + <a href="#page196">196</a>, <a href="#page197">197</a>, + <a href="#page201">201</a>, <a href="#page203">203</a>.</li> +<li>Schumann, <a href="#page101">101</a>, <a href="#page199">199</a>, + <a href="#page203">203</a>, <a href="#page204">204</a>, + <a href="#page233">233</a>.</li> +<li>Scotch, <a href="#page41">41</a>, <a href="#page147">147</a>, + <a href="#page152">152</a>, <a href="#page265">265</a>.</li> +<li>Scotland, <a href="#page23">23</a>.</li> +<li>Scribe, <a href="#page218">218</a>.</li> +<li>Section, <a href="#page179">179</a>.</li> +<li>Selah, <a href="#page34">34</a>.</li> +<li>Semangs, <a href="#page3">3</a>, <a href="#page5">5</a>.</li> +<li>Semibrevis, <a href="#page118">118</a>, <a href="#page120">120</a>.</li> +<li>Semifusa, <a href="#page120">120</a>.</li> +<li>Sentences, decayed, <a href="#page17">17</a>.</li> +<li>Sequences, <a href="#page111">111</a>.</li> +<li>Set, <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href="#page47">47</a>.</li> +<li>Shakespeare, <a href="#page28">28</a>, <a href="#page272">272</a>.</li> +<li>Sharps, <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href="#page39">39</a>, <a href="#page112">112</a>.</li> +<li>Shedlock, <a href="#page195">195</a>.</li> +<li>Siamese, <a href="#page64">64</a>, <a href="#page65">65</a>.</li> +<li>Singspiel, <a href="#page213">213</a>, <a href="#page217">217</a>.</li> +<li><a class="pagebreak" name="page281" id="page281" title="281"></a> + Sistrum, <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href="#page32">32</a>, + <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page46">46</a>, + <a href="#page47">47</a>.</li> +<li>Sittard, <a href="#page194">194</a>.</li> +<li>Solmisation, <a href="#page108">108</a>, <a href="#page111">111</a>.</li> +<li>Sonata, <a href="#page27">27</a>, <a href="#page178">178</a>, + <a href="#page189">189</a>, <a href="#page190">190</a>.</li> +<li>Sonata form, <a href="#page27">27</a>, <a href="#page188">188</a>.</li> +<li>Sophocles, <a href="#page70">70</a>, <a href="#page76">76</a>.</li> +<li>Spanish, <a href="#page152">152</a>, <a href="#page159">159</a>.</li> +<li>Spencer, Herbert, <a href="#page22">22</a>, <a href="#page269">269</a>.</li> +<li>Sperling, <a href="#page195">195</a>.</li> +<li>Spinet, <a href="#page135">135</a>.</li> +<li>Spondee, <a href="#page23">23</a>, <a href="#page69">69</a>, <a href="#page75">75</a>.</li> +<li>Spontini, <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href="#page212">212</a>, + <a href="#page213">213</a>, <a href="#page214">214</a>.</li> +<li>Stesichorus, <a href="#page7">7</a>.</li> +<li>Stradivarius, <a href="#page138">138</a>.</li> +<li>Strauss, J., <a href="#page27">27</a>.</li> +<li>Strauss, R., <a href="#page200">200</a>, <a href="#page203">203</a>, + <a href="#page272">272</a>.</li> +<li>Suggestion, <a href="#page255">255</a>, <a href="#page260">260</a>, + <a href="#page261">261</a>.</li> +<li>Suite, <a href="#page188">188</a>, <a href="#page190">190</a>.</li> +<li>Sylvester (Pope), <a href="#page99">99</a>.</li> +<li>Symphonic poem, <a href="#page178">178</a>.</li> +<li>Symphony, <a href="#page27">27</a>, <a href="#page178">178</a>, + <a href="#page248">248</a>.</li> +</ul> + + +<h4>T.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Talmud, <a href="#page33">33</a>.</li> +<li>Tambourin (dance), <a href="#page180">180</a>.</li> +<li>Tambourine, <a href="#page7">7</a>, <a href="#page33">33</a>.</li> +<li>Tannhäuser, <a href="#page167">167</a>, <a href="#page168">168</a>.</li> +<li>Tarantella, <a href="#page183">183</a>.</li> +<li>Tartini, <a href="#page138">138</a>.</li> +<li>Tasmania, <a href="#page3">3</a>, <a href="#page5">5</a>.</li> +<li>Tchaïkovsky, <a href="#page224">224</a>, <a href="#page271">271</a>.</li> +<li>Tennyson, <a href="#page71">71</a>.</li> +<li>Terpander, <a href="#page73">73</a>.</li> +<li>Tetrachord, <a href="#page83">83</a>, <a href="#page124">124</a>.</li> +<li>Theophrastus, <a href="#page1">1</a>, <a href="#page74">74</a>.</li> +<li>Thibaut of Navarre, <a href="#page118">118</a>.</li> +<li>Thibet, <a href="#page12">12</a>.</li> +<li>Thirds, <a href="#page124">124</a>.</li> +<li>Thomas, A., <a href="#page221">221</a>.</li> +<li>Tierra del Fuegians, <a href="#page3">3</a>, <a href="#page4">4</a>, + <a href="#page6">6</a>.</li> +<li>Timbrel, <a href="#page33">33</a>.</li> +<li>Time signs, <a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href="#page120">120</a>.</li> +<li>Tone tint, <a href="#page270">270</a>.</li> +<li>Tourte, <a href="#page138">138</a>.</li> +<li>Tragedy, <a href="#page76">76</a>.</li> +<li>Treble, <a href="#page163">163</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a>.</li> +<li>Trochee, <a href="#page25">25</a>, <a href="#page28">28</a>, <a href="#page75">75</a>.</li> +<li>Trombone, <a href="#page140">140</a>, <a href="#page177">177</a>.</li> +<li>Troubadours, <a href="#page118">118</a>, <a href="#page131">131</a>, + <a href="#page160">160</a>, <a href="#page165">165</a>, + <a href="#page166">166</a>, <a href="#page171">171</a>, + <a href="#page173">173</a>, <a href="#page207">207</a>.</li> +<li>Trumpet, <a href="#page6">6</a>, <a href="#page10">10</a>, + <a href="#page11">11</a>, <a href="#page12">12</a>, + <a href="#page13">13</a>, <a href="#page14">14</a>, + <a href="#page32">32</a>, <a href="#page43">43</a>, + <a href="#page140">140</a>.</li> +<li>Typhon, <a href="#page8">8</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<h4>V.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Vaudeville, <a href="#page207">207</a>.</li> +<li>Vedas, <a href="#page36">36</a>, <a href="#page39">39</a>.</li> +<li>Vega, Garcilaso de la, <a href="#page13">13</a>, <a href="#page66">66</a>.</li> +<li>Verdi, <a href="#page210">210</a>.</li> +<li>Viadana, <a href="#page236">236</a>, <a href="#page237">237</a>.</li> +<li>Vina, <a href="#page38">38</a>.</li> +<li>Vinci, Leonardo da, <a href="#page13">13</a>.</li> +<li>Viola, <a href="#page32">32</a>.</li> +<li>Viola da gamba, <a href="#page177">177</a>.</li> +<li>Violin, <a href="#page29">29</a>, <a href="#page32">32</a>, <a href="#page138">138</a>.</li> +<li>Violoncello, <a href="#page177">177</a>.</li> +<li>Viotti, <a href="#page138">138</a>.</li> +<li>Virginal, <a href="#page135">135</a>.</li> +<li>Vishnu, <a href="#page38">38</a>.</li> +<li>Vocal music, <a href="#page23">23</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<h4>W.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Wagner, <a href="#page14">14</a>, <a href="#page15">15</a>, + <a href="#page17">17</a>, <a href="#page21">21</a>, + <a href="#page22">22</a>, <a href="#page27">27</a>, + <a href="#page147">147</a>, <a href="#page166">166</a>, + <a href="#page168">168</a>, <a href="#page186">186</a>, + <a href="#page201">201</a>, <a href="#page206">206</a>, + <a href="#page214">214</a>, <a href="#page217">217</a>, + <a href="#page218">218</a>, <a href="#page224">224</a>, + <a href="#page233">233</a>, <a href="#page234">234</a>, + <a href="#page256">256</a>, <a href="#page257">257</a>, + <a href="#page258">258</a>, <a href="#page259">259</a>, + <a href="#page260">260</a>, <a href="#page268">268</a>, + <a href="#page269">269</a>, <a href="#page271">271</a>.</li> +<li><a class="pagebreak" name="page282" id="page282" title="282"></a> + Walpole, <a href="#page211">211</a>.</li> +<li>Wasielewski, <a href="#page194">194</a>.</li> +<li>Walter von der Vogelweide, <a href="#page167">167</a>.</li> +<li>Waltz, <a href="#page27">27</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>, + <a href="#page183">183</a>.</li> +<li>Weber, <a href="#page14">14</a>, <a href="#page210">210</a>, + <a href="#page213">213</a>, <a href="#page216">216</a>, + <a href="#page218">218</a>, <a href="#page219">219</a>, + <a href="#page271">271</a>.</li> +<li>Weddahs, <a href="#page5">5</a>, <a href="#page6">6</a>.</li> +<li>Weelkes, <a href="#page184">184</a>, <a href="#page268">268</a>.</li> +<li>Wolfram von Eschenbach, <a href="#page165">165</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<h4>Z.</h4> + +<ul> +<li>Zarlino, <a href="#page81">81</a>.</li> +<li>Zither, <a href="#page33">33</a>.</li> +<li>Zoroaster, <a href="#page12">12</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<h3>Transcriber's Note</h3> + +<p>Most of the musical examples have been typeset in lilypond. +MIDI files of some of these are available from the links marked [MIDI]. +A few of the original images contained typographical errors: these can +be viewed by clicking on the corrected images (on pages +<a href="#page91">91</a>, +<a href="#page143">143</a>, +<a href="#page150">150</a> and +<a href="#page156">156</a>).</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Critical & Historical Essays, by Edward MacDowell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRITICAL & HISTORICAL ESSAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 16351-h.htm or 16351-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/5/16351/ + +Produced by David Newman, Daniel Emerson Griffith and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/16351-h/images/al_me.png b/16351-h/images/al_me.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9dcc0d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/al_me.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/b_carre.png b/16351-h/images/b_carre.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..406ddf5 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/b_carre.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/barline.png b/16351-h/images/barline.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..01598c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/barline.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/brevi.png b/16351-h/images/brevi.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..efd514a --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/brevi.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/caribs.png b/16351-h/images/caribs.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae09014 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/caribs.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/cases.png b/16351-h/images/cases.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..11ebdb9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/cases.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/cb.png b/16351-h/images/cb.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d73367 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/cb.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/chromatic_tetrachord.png b/16351-h/images/chromatic_tetrachord.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fbe917c --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/chromatic_tetrachord.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/circumflex.png b/16351-h/images/circumflex.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..940c4a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/circumflex.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/clef_c1.png b/16351-h/images/clef_c1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a77d2a --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/clef_c1.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/clef_c2.png b/16351-h/images/clef_c2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..425eba2 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/clef_c2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/clef_c3.png b/16351-h/images/clef_c3.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e26d150 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/clef_c3.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/clef_f.png b/16351-h/images/clef_f.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc72a62 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/clef_f.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/clef_g1.png b/16351-h/images/clef_g1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..19072ae --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/clef_g1.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/clef_g2.png b/16351-h/images/clef_g2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5066a63 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/clef_g2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/crenellation.png b/16351-h/images/crenellation.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d65b4a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/crenellation.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/cresc.png b/16351-h/images/cresc.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9cee1e --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/cresc.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/cretan_54.png b/16351-h/images/cretan_54.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b74ab05 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/cretan_54.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_bourree.png b/16351-h/images/d_bourree.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cbc8a73 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_bourree.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_courante1.png b/16351-h/images/d_courante1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..12cba81 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_courante1.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_courante2.png b/16351-h/images/d_courante2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..74de7de --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_courante2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_cuban.png b/16351-h/images/d_cuban.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1cdf9a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_cuban.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_galop1.png b/16351-h/images/d_galop1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a6f0f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_galop1.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_galop2.png b/16351-h/images/d_galop2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0247217 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_galop2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_gavotte1.png b/16351-h/images/d_gavotte1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..11e9854 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_gavotte1.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_gavotte2.png b/16351-h/images/d_gavotte2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4feeaee --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_gavotte2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_habanera.png b/16351-h/images/d_habanera.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e0046d --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_habanera.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_march1.png b/16351-h/images/d_march1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8730742 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_march1.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_march2.png b/16351-h/images/d_march2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e03ebb4 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_march2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_mazurka.png b/16351-h/images/d_mazurka.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6a6a8c --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_mazurka.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_minuet.png b/16351-h/images/d_minuet.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd66fae --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_minuet.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_pavane.png b/16351-h/images/d_pavane.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b042317 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_pavane.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_polacca1.png b/16351-h/images/d_polacca1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8083916 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_polacca1.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_polacca2.png b/16351-h/images/d_polacca2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d6fa363 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_polacca2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_polacca3.png b/16351-h/images/d_polacca3.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fcbbe93 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_polacca3.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_polka.png b/16351-h/images/d_polka.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1fa4ece --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_polka.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_polonaise1.png b/16351-h/images/d_polonaise1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a7cb84 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_polonaise1.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_polonaise2.png b/16351-h/images/d_polonaise2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..08f9be9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_polonaise2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_sarabande.png b/16351-h/images/d_sarabande.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d06831f --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_sarabande.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_tarantella1.png b/16351-h/images/d_tarantella1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e6a5df --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_tarantella1.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_tarantella2.png b/16351-h/images/d_tarantella2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c82e175 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_tarantella2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_waltz1.png b/16351-h/images/d_waltz1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c17bc7b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_waltz1.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/d_waltz2.png b/16351-h/images/d_waltz2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6f4f259 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/d_waltz2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/dactyl.png b/16351-h/images/dactyl.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c7d212a --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/dactyl.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/dactyl_phrase.png b/16351-h/images/dactyl_phrase.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b3da62 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/dactyl_phrase.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/dance_forms1.png b/16351-h/images/dance_forms1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..160ceac --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/dance_forms1.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/dance_forms2.png b/16351-h/images/dance_forms2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5cbf03 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/dance_forms2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/dominants.png b/16351-h/images/dominants.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa1dc20 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/dominants.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/downstroke.png b/16351-h/images/downstroke.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cfe6f2f --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/downstroke.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure01.png b/16351-h/images/figure01.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e95b97d --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure01.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure02.png b/16351-h/images/figure02.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..84375be --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure02.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure03.png b/16351-h/images/figure03.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..429f374 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure03.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure04.png b/16351-h/images/figure04.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ca45db --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure04.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure05.png b/16351-h/images/figure05.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e0e419d --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure05.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure06.png b/16351-h/images/figure06.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a1f20f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure06.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure07.png b/16351-h/images/figure07.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6da05d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure07.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure08.png b/16351-h/images/figure08.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..af007e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure08.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure09.png b/16351-h/images/figure09.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..78f4137 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure09.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure10.png b/16351-h/images/figure10.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d84917c --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure10.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure11.png b/16351-h/images/figure11.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0346d83 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure11.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure11o.png b/16351-h/images/figure11o.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dca30c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure11o.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure12.png b/16351-h/images/figure12.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2be92be --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure12.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure13.png b/16351-h/images/figure13.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..23a2851 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure13.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure14.png b/16351-h/images/figure14.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e806aae --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure14.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure15.png b/16351-h/images/figure15.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0eff367 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure15.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure16.png b/16351-h/images/figure16.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a6e4df0 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure16.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure17.png b/16351-h/images/figure17.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2671cf0 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure17.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure18.png b/16351-h/images/figure18.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5dbe104 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure18.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure19.png b/16351-h/images/figure19.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..091fbaf --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure19.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure20.png b/16351-h/images/figure20.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3251fa1 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure20.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure21.png b/16351-h/images/figure21.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5010b19 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure21.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure22.png b/16351-h/images/figure22.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4746956 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure22.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure23.png b/16351-h/images/figure23.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1055858 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure23.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure23o.png b/16351-h/images/figure23o.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c4af10 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure23o.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure24-6.png b/16351-h/images/figure24-6.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..941b6fa --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure24-6.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure27.png b/16351-h/images/figure27.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6c166c --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure27.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure28.png b/16351-h/images/figure28.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..51123af --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure28.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure29.png b/16351-h/images/figure29.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..19634ee --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure29.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure29a.png b/16351-h/images/figure29a.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a47d2f --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure29a.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure30.png b/16351-h/images/figure30.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c814afe --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure30.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure31.png b/16351-h/images/figure31.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d8b5e50 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure31.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure32.png b/16351-h/images/figure32.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c634eec --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure32.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure33.png b/16351-h/images/figure33.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9851a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure33.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure34.png b/16351-h/images/figure34.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4d854c --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure34.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure35.png b/16351-h/images/figure35.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..86a657d --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure35.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure35o.png b/16351-h/images/figure35o.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc85fd3 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure35o.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure36.png b/16351-h/images/figure36.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4fdda52 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure36.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure37.png b/16351-h/images/figure37.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ed91e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure37.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure38.png b/16351-h/images/figure38.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6791108 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure38.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure39.png b/16351-h/images/figure39.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc8b079 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure39.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure40.png b/16351-h/images/figure40.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e243dae --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure40.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure41.png b/16351-h/images/figure41.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5759ae --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure41.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure42.png b/16351-h/images/figure42.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..71ab00d --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure42.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure43.png b/16351-h/images/figure43.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..13c0e7b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure43.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/figure44.png b/16351-h/images/figure44.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd5bae1 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/figure44.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/fortz.png b/16351-h/images/fortz.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b085cd --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/fortz.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/fourths_move.png b/16351-h/images/fourths_move.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f2835e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/fourths_move.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/fourths_no_go.png b/16351-h/images/fourths_no_go.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f4e135 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/fourths_no_go.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/frown.png b/16351-h/images/frown.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ab57f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/frown.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/gamut.png b/16351-h/images/gamut.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6991fd --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/gamut.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/gloria.png b/16351-h/images/gloria.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..06e8d07 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/gloria.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/hard.png b/16351-h/images/hard.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8ef582e --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/hard.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/hercules.png b/16351-h/images/hercules.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c60f255 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/hercules.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/hercules_orig.png b/16351-h/images/hercules_orig.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad1055b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/hercules_orig.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/hucbald_fourths.png b/16351-h/images/hucbald_fourths.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9080b86 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/hucbald_fourths.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/hucbald_tetra.png b/16351-h/images/hucbald_tetra.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ded2d8c --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/hucbald_tetra.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/iamb.png b/16351-h/images/iamb.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4740d10 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/iamb.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/ionic_1.png b/16351-h/images/ionic_1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..225f255 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/ionic_1.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/ionic_2.png b/16351-h/images/ionic_2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e23ae1 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/ionic_2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/long.png b/16351-h/images/long.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2328f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/long.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/longae.png b/16351-h/images/longae.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..377bd99 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/longae.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/male_voice.png b/16351-h/images/male_voice.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..634b0a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/male_voice.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/modes.png b/16351-h/images/modes.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9b962cf --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/modes.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/modes_2.png b/16351-h/images/modes_2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..195f71f --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/modes_2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/nc_b.png b/16351-h/images/nc_b.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b2d9bb2 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/nc_b.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/nc_c.png b/16351-h/images/nc_c.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb04f10 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/nc_c.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/nc_dsf.png b/16351-h/images/nc_dsf.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5e67e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/nc_dsf.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/nc_f.png b/16351-h/images/nc_f.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7d2b0a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/nc_f.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/nc_l.png b/16351-h/images/nc_l.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c963b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/nc_l.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/nc_mx.png b/16351-h/images/nc_mx.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf31128 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/nc_mx.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/nc_sb.png b/16351-h/images/nc_sb.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..30a4efe --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/nc_sb.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/nc_sf.png b/16351-h/images/nc_sf.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d23d0e --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/nc_sf.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/neumes1.png b/16351-h/images/neumes1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a00a6f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/neumes1.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/neumes2.png b/16351-h/images/neumes2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7169c0b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/neumes2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/no_b.png b/16351-h/images/no_b.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6634698 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/no_b.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/no_l.png b/16351-h/images/no_l.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7dc7853 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/no_l.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/no_m.png b/16351-h/images/no_m.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9bb8d02 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/no_m.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/no_mx.png b/16351-h/images/no_mx.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0bfba73 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/no_mx.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/no_sb.png b/16351-h/images/no_sb.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7022f89 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/no_sb.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/no_sm.png b/16351-h/images/no_sm.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..13aa8d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/no_sm.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_aa.png b/16351-h/images/notes_aa.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..03a10d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_aa.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_ada.png b/16351-h/images/notes_ada.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7c33d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_ada.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_b.png b/16351-h/images/notes_b.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..39d4782 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_b.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_cc.png b/16351-h/images/notes_cc.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee41e70 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_cc.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_ceb.png b/16351-h/images/notes_ceb.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c64837 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_ceb.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_cfc.png b/16351-h/images/notes_cfc.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e22639 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_cfc.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_cgcc.png b/16351-h/images/notes_cgcc.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bfcd06c --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_cgcc.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_dd.png b/16351-h/images/notes_dd.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b4df09 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_dd.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_dgd.png b/16351-h/images/notes_dgd.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..68ded37 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_dgd.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_eae.png b/16351-h/images/notes_eae.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b358863 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_eae.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_ee.png b/16351-h/images/notes_ee.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ffc938 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_ee.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_egb.png b/16351-h/images/notes_egb.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..56e0bdb --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_egb.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_ff.png b/16351-h/images/notes_ff.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c71fca --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_ff.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_gab.png b/16351-h/images/notes_gab.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..696b56b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_gab.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_gba_lig.png b/16351-h/images/notes_gba_lig.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4eeaef1 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_gba_lig.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_gcg.png b/16351-h/images/notes_gcg.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..66ed64a --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_gcg.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_gcg_lig.png b/16351-h/images/notes_gcg_lig.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4c89e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_gcg_lig.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_gdg.png b/16351-h/images/notes_gdg.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7608aa --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_gdg.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_geg_lig.png b/16351-h/images/notes_geg_lig.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f06d885 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_geg_lig.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/notes_gg.png b/16351-h/images/notes_gg.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0f9118 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/notes_gg.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/ob.png b/16351-h/images/ob.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ded519 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/ob.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/podium.png b/16351-h/images/podium.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d8e7d87 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/podium.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/podium2.png b/16351-h/images/podium2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0145274 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/podium2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/podium3.png b/16351-h/images/podium3.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..51919e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/podium3.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/podium4.png b/16351-h/images/podium4.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a3da4cc --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/podium4.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/profundis.png b/16351-h/images/profundis.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bcda764 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/profundis.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/quant_li1.png b/16351-h/images/quant_li1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..089f491 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/quant_li1.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/quant_li2.png b/16351-h/images/quant_li2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5b74087 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/quant_li2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/quilisma.png b/16351-h/images/quilisma.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..930cbc8 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/quilisma.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/r_1.png b/16351-h/images/r_1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..93b9060 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/r_1.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/r_1d.png b/16351-h/images/r_1d.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b8d88ce --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/r_1d.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/r_48.png b/16351-h/images/r_48.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0202f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/r_48.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/r_4d88.png b/16351-h/images/r_4d88.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..470449b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/r_4d88.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/r_8884.png b/16351-h/images/r_8884.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9eb0d51 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/r_8884.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/rd_2d.png b/16351-h/images/rd_2d.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c49cbdf --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/rd_2d.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/rd_444.png b/16351-h/images/rd_444.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..90e09eb --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/rd_444.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/rs_b.png b/16351-h/images/rs_b.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c30d101 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/rs_b.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/rs_l.png b/16351-h/images/rs_l.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..718570c --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/rs_l.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/rs_lbsb.png b/16351-h/images/rs_lbsb.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b3e770 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/rs_lbsb.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/rs_m.png b/16351-h/images/rs_m.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e7a836 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/rs_m.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/rs_mx.png b/16351-h/images/rs_mx.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b50287 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/rs_mx.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/rs_sb.png b/16351-h/images/rs_sb.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac553a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/rs_sb.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/rt_c.png b/16351-h/images/rt_c.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dbba8a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/rt_c.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/rt_confuse.png b/16351-h/images/rt_confuse.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee72d6c --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/rt_confuse.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/rt_f.png b/16351-h/images/rt_f.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dde021d --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/rt_f.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/rt_m.png b/16351-h/images/rt_m.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a8f4517 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/rt_m.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/rt_sb.png b/16351-h/images/rt_sb.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d033d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/rt_sb.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/rt_sf.png b/16351-h/images/rt_sf.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..445ff3f --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/rt_sf.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/ru_2.png b/16351-h/images/ru_2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0b7ce5f --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/ru_2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/ru_22.png b/16351-h/images/ru_22.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d27f282 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/ru_22.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/ru_2d.png b/16351-h/images/ru_2d.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..55c920c --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/ru_2d.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/ru_4.png b/16351-h/images/ru_4.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf56a9f --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/ru_4.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/ru_44.png b/16351-h/images/ru_44.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d65058 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/ru_44.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/ru_4d.png b/16351-h/images/ru_4d.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5612ef7 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/ru_4d.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/ru_4d4d.png b/16351-h/images/ru_4d4d.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba2284f --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/ru_4d4d.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/ru_4d4d4d.png b/16351-h/images/ru_4d4d4d.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c02cd27 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/ru_4d4d4d.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/ru_88.png b/16351-h/images/ru_88.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8267149 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/ru_88.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/ru_888.png b/16351-h/images/ru_888.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1405ca0 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/ru_888.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/scale_aeolian.png b/16351-h/images/scale_aeolian.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7460df8 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/scale_aeolian.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/scale_first.png b/16351-h/images/scale_first.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..88b213f --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/scale_first.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/scale_flute.png b/16351-h/images/scale_flute.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..39e2a8c --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/scale_flute.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/scale_gavambodi.png b/16351-h/images/scale_gavambodi.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5080025 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/scale_gavambodi.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/scale_greek.png b/16351-h/images/scale_greek.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2827965 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/scale_greek.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/scale_hypolydian.png b/16351-h/images/scale_hypolydian.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..02dedb3 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/scale_hypolydian.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/scale_hypophrygian.png b/16351-h/images/scale_hypophrygian.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a159f6 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/scale_hypophrygian.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/scale_maya.png b/16351-h/images/scale_maya.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b3b0f03 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/scale_maya.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/scale_mixolydian.png b/16351-h/images/scale_mixolydian.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe45a23 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/scale_mixolydian.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/scale_present.png b/16351-h/images/scale_present.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4f5605 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/scale_present.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/scale_tanarupi.png b/16351-h/images/scale_tanarupi.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ccb71b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/scale_tanarupi.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/si_li1.png b/16351-h/images/si_li1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..25c2019 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/si_li1.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/si_li2.png b/16351-h/images/si_li2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a209896 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/si_li2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/sit_gloria.png b/16351-h/images/sit_gloria.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a01b9b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/sit_gloria.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/smile.png b/16351-h/images/smile.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..89915c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/smile.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/soft.png b/16351-h/images/soft.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d59c276 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/soft.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/sol_fa.png b/16351-h/images/sol_fa.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..22797bc --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/sol_fa.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/spondee.png b/16351-h/images/spondee.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..46162d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/spondee.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/staff_cf.png b/16351-h/images/staff_cf.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..74d92a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/staff_cf.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/staff_dotted.png b/16351-h/images/staff_dotted.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b3ab637 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/staff_dotted.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/step.png b/16351-h/images/step.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d08021 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/step.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/tempus.png b/16351-h/images/tempus.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ca8fa1 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/tempus.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/tetrachords.png b/16351-h/images/tetrachords.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..338760a --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/tetrachords.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/thick_line.png b/16351-h/images/thick_line.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a8b073 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/thick_line.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/thick_step.png b/16351-h/images/thick_step.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b2be23e --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/thick_step.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/three_modes.png b/16351-h/images/three_modes.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..641d575 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/three_modes.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_128.png b/16351-h/images/time_128.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f83eb9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_128.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_22.png b/16351-h/images/time_22.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d5fe268 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_22.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_24.png b/16351-h/images/time_24.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6bcef35 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_24.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_32.png b/16351-h/images/time_32.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..912a3cf --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_32.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_34.png b/16351-h/images/time_34.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba749ff --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_34.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_38.png b/16351-h/images/time_38.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fdb5ef1 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_38.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_44.png b/16351-h/images/time_44.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9cea7b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_44.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_54.png b/16351-h/images/time_54.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..de4f5e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_54.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_68.png b/16351-h/images/time_68.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..acd4d06 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_68.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_78.png b/16351-h/images/time_78.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4dc55f --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_78.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_98.png b/16351-h/images/time_98.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d0e1f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_98.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_c.png b/16351-h/images/time_c.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..82efe93 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_c.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_c2.png b/16351-h/images/time_c2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a3f3a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_c2.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_c4.png b/16351-h/images/time_c4.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4466ec1 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_c4.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_cd.png b/16351-h/images/time_cd.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..472150e --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_cd.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_o.png b/16351-h/images/time_o.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..10340f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_o.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/time_od.png b/16351-h/images/time_od.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7941a5b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/time_od.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/trochee.png b/16351-h/images/trochee.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f3db67 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/trochee.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/turn.png b/16351-h/images/turn.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..06b6937 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/turn.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/upstroke.png b/16351-h/images/upstroke.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fcb612a --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/upstroke.png diff --git a/16351-h/images/vina_range.png b/16351-h/images/vina_range.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..eed6010 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/images/vina_range.png diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/alme.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/alme.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba99feb --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/alme.ly @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Al me pater + +\score { + \context Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } << + \clef bass + \set Score.timing = ##f + \autoBeamOff + \override Staff.NoteCollision #'merge-differently-headed = ##t + \context Voice = heads { \voiceOne + \override Stem #'transparent = ##t + d2 d\melisma f\melismaEnd d\melisma e\melismaEnd f \bar "|" + g\melisma f\melismaEnd g\melisma a\melismaEnd a1 \bar "|" + a2\melisma g\melismaEnd a \bar "" \break + c' d' \bar "|" + a\melisma b\melismaEnd a \bar "|" a g a f e d \bar "|." + } + \context Voice = tails { \voiceTwo + \override NoteHead #'transparent = ##t + d2 d8[ s4. f8] s4. d8[ s4. e8] s4. f2 \bar "|" + g8[ s4. f8] s4. g8[ s4. a8] s4. a1 \bar "|" + a8[ s4. g8] s4. a2 \bar "" \break + c' d' \bar "|" + a8[ s4. b8] s4. a2 \bar "|" a g a f e d + } + \lyricsto heads \new Lyrics { + Al me __ pa -- ter Am -- bro -- si, nos -- tras, pre -- ces, + au -- di Chris -- te, ex -- au -- di -- nos + } + >> +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/bass1.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/bass1.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..21f44da --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/bass1.ly @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Musical examples in the bass clef + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + { + \clef bass + \set Score.timing = ##f + #(set-accidental-style 'forget) + f1 g \bar "" \break + a, \bar "" \break + b, cis^( d) e fis^( g) a b \bar "" \break + cis dis eis( fis) gis ais( b) cis' \bar "" \break + es f g a( bes) c' d'( es') \bar "" \break + g, d g \bar "" \break + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/bass2.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/bass2.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6f04ae1 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/bass2.ly @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Treatment of fourths in Hucbald's system + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + { + \clef bass + \set Score.timing = ##f + #(set-accidental-style 'forget) + <g b>2 <g b> <g a> <g b> <d a> <d g> <c f> <c e> <a, d> <g, c> + } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/caribs.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/caribs.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0b14889 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/caribs.ly @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Folksong of the Caribs + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + { + \clef treble + \time 7/4 + g''2 a1\rest g'4 \bar "" + } +\layout { raggedright = ##t } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/cases.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/cases.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a47991 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/cases.ly @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Case of letters used to denote each octave + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + { + \clef bass + \set Score.timing = ##f + a,1^\markup { \column < "Capitals." "" > } g + \clef treble + \bar "" + a^\markup { \column < "Small letters" "" > } g' + \once \override Staff.BarLine #'bar-size = #3 + \bar "|" + a'^\markup { \column < "Double or very" " small letters" "" > } g'' + \bar "|." + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/cresc.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/cresc.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b10ea82 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/cresc.ly @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Crescendo symbol + +\score { + \new Staff \with { + \remove "Staff_symbol_engraver" + \remove "Time_signature_engraver" + \remove "Clef_engraver" + } \relative c' { \hideNotes f4\< f f s\! } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/dominants.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/dominants.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3467ac --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/dominants.ly @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Parenthesize function + +#(define (parenthesize-callback callback) + "Construct a function that will do CALLBACK and add parentheses. + Example usage: see parenthesizeNote below" + + (define (parenthesize-stencil grob) + "This function adds parentheses to the original callback for GROB. + The dimensions of the stencil is not affected." + + (let* ((fn (ly:get-default-font grob)) + (pclose (ly:find-glyph-by-name fn "accidentals-rightparen")) + (popen (ly:find-glyph-by-name fn "accidentals-leftparen")) + (subject (callback grob)) + + ; remember old size + (subject-dim-x (ly:stencil-extent subject 0)) + (subject-dim-y (ly:stencil-extent subject 1))) + + ; add parens + (set! subject + (ly:stencil-combine-at-edge + (ly:stencil-combine-at-edge subject 0 1 pclose 0.2) + 0 -1 popen 0.2)) + + ; revert old size. + (ly:stencil-set-extent! subject 0 subject-dim-x) + (ly:stencil-set-extent! subject 1 subject-dim-y) + subject)) + parenthesize-stencil) + +parenthesizeNote = { + \once \override NoteHead #'print-function = + #(parenthesize-callback Note_head::print) +} + +% Dominants for table of scales + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + a'4^"Dominants" f' c' + << \parenthesizeNote a' \\ + \stemUp a >> % causes notecolumn warning: ignore it + c' a d' c' e' c' g' e' \bar "|" + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure01.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure01.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a6d6771 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure01.ly @@ -0,0 +1,103 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 1 + +\book { + + \score { + \new PianoStaff \with { + \remove "Span_bar_engraver" + \override VerticalAlignment #'forced-distance = #10 + } << + \new Staff { + \clef treble + \time 2/2 + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + << + \relative c'' { + b4 b8 d e g g e | d4 d8 e d4 d4\rest \bar ":|" d4 d d b8 d | e4 e d2 | + b4 a8 b d4 b8 a | g4 g8 a g2 | b8 a g a a4. b8 | d4 e8 g d[ e] d b | a4 + } \\ + \relative c'' { + g1 | g2. s4 | g4 fis g2 | g4 c b2 | \break + g4 fis8 g g4 fis | e dis e2 | <c e> fis | a2. b8 g | \break fis4 + } + >> + \relative c'' { + b8 d a[ b] g e | d4 e2 g4 | a4. a8 g a g e | d2 g4 e8 d | g4 d r2 \bar "|." + } + } + \new Staff { + \clef bass + << + \relative c' { + d4. b8 c2 | b2. s4 | s2 d2 | \clef treble | c8 d e fis g2 \clef bass | + g,2 g4 c | s1 | s | c2. b4 | s4 + } \\ + \relative c' { + g1 | g2. d4\rest | <g b>4 <a c> b g | s1 | + g2 b,4 d | <e b'> <b fis' b> <e b'>2 | e <d c'> | fis4 e fis g | <d d'>4 + } + >> + \relative c' { + b8 d a[ b] g e | d4 e2 g4 | a4. a8 g a g e | d2 g4 e8 d | g4 d r2 | + } + } + >> + \layout { } + } + + \score { + \new PianoStaff \with { + \remove "Span_bar_engraver" + \override VerticalAlignment #'forced-distance = #10 + } << + \new Staff { + \clef treble + \time 2/2 + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + << + \relative c'' { + b4 b8 d e g g e | d4 d8 e d4 d4\rest | + b4 b8 d e g g e | d4 d8 e d4 d4\rest | + d4 d d b8 d | e4 e d2 | + b4 a8 b d4 b8 a | g4 g8 a g2 | b8 a g a a4. b8 | d4 e8 g d[ e] d b | a4 + } \\ + \relative c'' { + g1 | g2. s4 | + g1 | g2. s4 | + g4 fis g2 | g4 c b2 | \break + g4 fis8 g g4 fis | e dis e2 | <c e> fis | a2. b8 g | \break fis4 + } + >> + \relative c'' { + b8 d a[ b] g e | d4 e2 g4 | a4. a8 g a g e | d2 g4 e8 d | g4 d r2 \bar "|." + } + } + \new Staff { + \clef bass + << + \relative c' { + d4. b8 c2 | b2. s4 | + d4. b8 c2 | b2. s4 | + s2 d2 | \clef treble | c8 d e fis g2 \clef bass | + g,2 g4 c | s1 | s | c2. b4 | s4 + } \\ + \relative c' { + g1 | g2. d4\rest | + g1 | g2. d4\rest | + <g b>4 <a c> b g | s1 | + g2 b,4 d | <e b'> <b fis' b> <e b'>2 | e <d c'> | fis4 e fis g | <d d'>4 + } + >> + \relative c' { + b8 d a[ b] g e | d4 e2 g4 | a4. a8 g a g e | d2 g4 e8 d | g4 d r2 | + } + } + >> + \midi { \tempo 4=112 } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure02.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure02.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c1feac --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure02.ly @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 2 + +\score { + \header { + piece = "1 Verse" + } + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c' { + \clef treble + \time 2/2 + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + f1 c' a f \once \override Staff.BarLine #'hair-thickness = #6.0 + a c d c \once \override Staff.BarLine #'hair-thickness = #6.0 + d c a g \once \override Staff.BarLine #'hair-thickness = #6.0 + c g d' f, \once \override Staff.BarLine #'hair-thickness = #6.0 + f' d c a \once \override Staff.BarLine #'hair-thickness = #6.0 + f' c d c \once \override Staff.BarLine #'hair-thickness = #6.0 + d c a g \once \override Staff.BarLine #'hair-thickness = #6.0 + d' c a f \once \override Staff.BarLine #'hair-thickness = #6.0 + d' c a g \once \override Staff.BarLine #'hair-thickness = #6.0 + g' f d c \bar "|." + } + \layout { } + \midi { \tempo 1=60 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure03.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure03.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d356e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure03.ly @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 3 + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \time 2/2 + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + f2 d4 c | a2 a | f' d4 c | d2 d | g4 f d c | a c c f | \break + d c f, g | a2 a | a4 c c a | c2 d4 f | c2 c | r1 | + } + \layout { } + \midi { \tempo 2=112 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure04.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure04.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ba234a --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure04.ly @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 4 + +\book { + + \score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \time 2/2 + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + a2 a4 c | d f f d | c2 c4 d | c2 r \bar ":|" c c | c a4 c | d2 d | + c1 | a2 g4 a | c2 a4 g | f2 f4 g | f1 | a4 g f a | g2. a4 | + c2 d4 f | c1 | g2 a4 c | g a f d | c1 | d2 f | g2. a4 | f g f d | c1 + \bar "|." + } + \layout { } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \time 2/2 + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + a2 a4 c | d f f d | c2 c4 d | c2 r \bar "|" + a2 a4 c | d f f d | c2 c4 d | c2 r \bar "|" + c c | c a4 c | d2 d | + c1 | a2 g4 a | c2 a4 g | f2 f4 g | f1 | a4 g f a | g2. a4 | + c2 d4 f | c1 | g2 a4 c | g a f d | c1 | d2 f | g2. a4 | f g f d | c1 + \bar "|." + } + \midi { \tempo 2=112 } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure05.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure05.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2da373 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure05.ly @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 5 + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \time 2/4 + #(override-auto-beam-setting '(end * * * *) 1 4) + a8 g a8. g16 \bar "" f8 g f4 | d8. c16 a8 c | d4 d \bar "|." + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 4=88 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure06.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure06.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d1dc59d --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure06.ly @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 6 + +\book { + + \score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + g8[ a bes] g[ bes] s \bar "|" + \mark \markup { \musicglyph #"scripts-ufermata" } + s g1 \bar "|." + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + g8[ a bes] g[ bes] r \bar "|" + \mark \markup { \musicglyph #"scripts-ufermata" } + s g1 \bar "|." + } + \midi { \tempo 4=104 } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure07.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure07.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1336d0d --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure07.ly @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 7 + +\book { + + \score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + { + \clef bass + \set Score.timing = ##f + #(set-accidental-style 'forget) + \override Staff.NoteCollision #'merge-differently-headed = ##t + d2 a a a a a g a a a bes a + << { \override Stem #'transparent = ##t + f2 e f g a bes a + } \\ { \override NoteHead #'transparent = ##t + f8[ s4. e8] s4. f2 g a8[ s4. bes8 s4. a8] s4. + } >> + a2 \bar "|" + a( g) g g g( a g) f e d d d( e d) c c( \stemUp d) d d1 \bar "|." + } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + { + \clef bass + \set Score.timing = ##f + d2 a a a a a g a a a bes a f( e) f g a( bes a) a r \bar "|" + a( g) g g g( a g) f e d d d( e d) c c( d) d d1 \bar "|." + } + \midi { \tempo 2=120} + } + +} diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure08.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure08.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..806a80e --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure08.ly @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 8 + +\book { + + \score { + \new Staff \with { + \remove "Time_signature_engraver" + \remove "Clef_engraver" + } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \time 2/4 + \override Staff.BarLine #'transparent = ##t + \partial 8 + s8 \repeat "percent" 3 { << {bes8[ es c es]} \\ {g,8[ f g es]} >> } + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \with { + \remove "Time_signature_engraver" + \remove "Clef_engraver" + } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \time 2/4 + \override Staff.BarLine #'transparent = ##t + << { bes8[ es c es] bes8[ es c es] bes8[ es c es] } \\ + { g,8[ f g es] g8[ f g es] g8[ f g es] } >> + } + \midi { \tempo 4=92 } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure09.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure09.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e6fb64 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure09.ly @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 9 + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c''' { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + g8. g16 fis8. g16 e8. g16 dis8. g16 c,8. g'16 a,4 + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 4=88 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure10.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure10.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..67663c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure10.ly @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 10 + +\book { + + \score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \time 2/4 + \override Glissando #'style = #'zigzag + \repeat "percent" 2 { e8. e16 e8. e16 } | + \repeat "percent" 2 { d8. d16 d8. d16 } | + c8[ c8 c8 c8] | b8[ b8 b8. b16] | a4 \glissando e4 \bar "" + } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \time 2/4 + \override Glissando #'style = #'zigzag + e8. e16 e8. e16 | e8. e16 e8. e16 | + d8. d16 d8. d16 | d8. d16 d8. d16 | + c8[ c8 c8 c8] | b8[ b8 b8. b16] | \times 2/5 {a 8 as g ges f} e4 \bar "" + } + \midi { \tempo 4=88 } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure11.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure11.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e2ee667 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure11.ly @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 11 + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c''' { + \clef treble + \autoBeamOff + \time 2/4 + g16[ g8.] f16[ f8.] | es8[ d8] c16[ f8.] | bes,16[ bes8.] a4 | + c16[ c8.] bes16[ es8.] | a,8[ g8] \stemDown f16[ bes8.] | + \stemNeutral es,16[ es8.] d8 es8 \bar "" + } + \layout {} + \midi { \tempo 4=80 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure12.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure12.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec595f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure12.ly @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 12 + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \time 4/4 + \partial 4 + c4 | f4. f8 e4 d4 | c4. bes8 a4 g8[ f8] | + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 4=104 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure13.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure13.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc2cca0 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure13.ly @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 13 + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + \time 4/4 + \partial 2 + e4 g | d4. c8 a4 c | d2 e8 d e g | d e d c a g a c | + d2 g4. g8 | d4. c8 a4 c | d r8 e g4 e | d2 g8[ e16 g] e8[ d] | + c2 d8.[ c16 a8. c16] | d2 g8.[ e16 g8. e16] | d4. c8 a4 c | d2 \bar "|." + } + \layout { } + \midi { \tempo 4=108 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure14.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure14.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e09c27 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure14.ly @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 14 + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c' { + \clef treble + \time 4/4 + \partial 8 + c8 | f4. g8 as4 g4 | f2. g4 | as4 \bar "" + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 4=120 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure15.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure15.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..263566b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure15.ly @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 15 + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c' { + \clef bass + \set Score.timing = ##f + g4 \bar "|" g a g g a a a a a g g a g g a \bar "" + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 4=144 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure16.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure16.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..85c3fac --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure16.ly @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 16 + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c' { + \clef bass + \set Score.timing = ##f + g4. a8 g4 g a g g a g \bar "" + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 4=144 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure17.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure17.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..795754b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure17.ly @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 17 + +\book{ + + \score { + \new Staff + \relative c' { + \clef bass + \time 3/4 + g4. a8 g4 | g a g | g a g | + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + } + + \score { + \new Staff + \relative c' { + \clef bass + \time 3/4 + g4. a8 g8 r | g4 a g8 r | g4 a g8 r | + } + \midi { \tempo 4=160 } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure18.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure18.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e3032af --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure18.ly @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 18 + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c' { + \clef bass + \set Score.timing = ##f + g8.[ a16] b8.[ a16] g4 \bar "|" g4 a4 g4 \bar "|." + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 4=120 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure19.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure19.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d2eded --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure19.ly @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 19 + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c' { + \clef bass + \set Score.timing = ##f + a8[ g f g] a[ g] g4 \bar "|." + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 4=88 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure20.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure20.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d03e95 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure20.ly @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 20 + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c' { + \clef bass + \set Score.timing = ##f + g8[ g g g] g[ g] g4 \bar "|" a8[ a a a] a[ a] a4 \bar "|" + g8[ g g g] g[ g] g4 \bar "|" g4( g'4) \bar "|." + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 4=112 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure21.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure21.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a3611c7 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure21.ly @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 21 + +\score { + \new Staff \with { + \remove "Time_signature_engraver" + } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + \[ g8 d'4. \] b8 g4. \bar "|" g8 g4. g8 g4. e2 \bar "|." + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 4=112 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure22.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure22.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..989dd7d --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure22.ly @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 22 + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c' { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + c8[ g' g g] e[ c] c[ g] ~ \bar "|" g2\fermata r4 d'4 \bar "|" c1 \bar "|." + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 4=112 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure23.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure23.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0df7891 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure23.ly @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 23 + +\book { + + \score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \override Glissando #'style = #'zigzag + \set Score.timing = ##f + g8 g'4->\fermata f4\> \glissando s4 g,4\! \bar "|." + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \override Glissando #'style = #'zigzag + \set Score.timing = ##f + g8\ff g'4. \times 2/10 { f8 e\f es d\mf des c\mp b bes\p a as\pp } g4 \bar "|." + } + \midi { \tempo 4=92 } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure24-6.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure24-6.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..42c24a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure24-6.ly @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figures 24, 25, 26 + +% First midi direction gives the three figures together, as printed +% Uncomment last three midi directions in turn to generate separate files + +\book { + + \score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c' { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + c4 d c e d c d e \bar "|" c d c e d c d e \bar ".|." + c4 d8 c4 e8 d4 c8 d4 e8 \bar "|" \break c4. c d4 c8 d4. \bar ".|." + \clef treble c8.[ d16] c8[ e8] d8.[ c16] d8[ e8] \bar "|" + c8.[ c16] e8[ c8] g'4 \bar "|" + } + \layout { } +% \midi { \tempo 4=80 } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c' { + \set Score.timing = ##f + c4 d c e d c d e \bar "|" c d c e d c d e \bar ".|." + } +% \midi { \tempo 2=80 } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c' { + \set Score.timing = ##f + c4 d8 c4 e8 d4 c8 d4 e8 \bar "|" \break c4. c d4 c8 d4. \bar ".|." + } +% \midi { \tempo 4=120 } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c' { + \set Score.timing = ##f + \clef treble c8.[ d16] c8[ e8] d8.[ c16] d8[ e8] \bar "|" + c8.[ c16] e8[ c8] g'4 \bar "|" + } +% \midi { \tempo 4=80 } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure27.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure27.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b107b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure27.ly @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 27 + +\book { + + \score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + g4 bes d2 ~ \bar "|" d4 cis bes! cis8[ d] \bar "|" cis!2. \bar ":|" + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + g4 bes d2 ~ \bar "|" d4 cis bes! cis8[ d] \bar "|" cis!2. + g4 bes d2 ~ \bar "|" d4 cis bes! cis8[ d] \bar "|" cis!2. + } + \midi { \tempo 2=80 } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure28.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure28.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..19e81da --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure28.ly @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 28 + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c' { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + d8.[ e16 f8 a] \bar "|" g8[ g16 f e8 c] \bar "|" + d8[ a' g f] e[ e] d4 \bar "|" + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 4=88 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure29.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure29.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9906f3e --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure29.ly @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 29 + +\score { + \new Staff \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + \key des \major + \time 2/4 + des2 | c4 as8.[ bes16] | c8~[ c32 des es des] c8~[ c32 des es des] | c2 | + r4 bes8.[ c16] | des8.[ c16 es8. c16] | des4~ des8.[ c32 bes] | as4 des4 | + bes4 as8.[( bes32 as] | ges4) bes8.[ c16] | des8.[ es32 des] c8.[ des32 c] | + bes4 as8~[ as32 bes as ges] | ges8[ as bes c] | des[ c bes as] | + ges2-> ~ | ges8 r ges'4 | f4 des8.[ es16] | + f8~[ f32 ges as ges] f8~[ f32 ges as ges] | f2 | r4 es8.[ f16] | + ges8.[ f16 as8. f16] | ges4~ ges8.[ f32 es] | des4 c | + bes as8.[ bes32 as] | ges4 bes8.[ c16] | des8~[ des32 es des c] c4 | + bes4 as8~[ as32 bes as ges] | ges8[ as bes c] | des[ c bes as] | + ges2->( | f8) \bar "" + } + \layout { } + \midi { \tempo 4=80 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure29a.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure29a.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..82fdd2b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure29a.ly @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Scheme for Figure 29 + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + \key des \major + \[ des2 \bar "|" c4 as8.[ bes16] \] \bar "|" + c2~ \bar "|" c2 \bar "|" r4 bes8.[ c16] \bar "|" + \[ des4 es4 \bar "|" des4. bes8 \bar "|" as4 \] \bar "" \break + \[ des4 \bar "|" \stemUp bes4 as4 \bar "|" ges4 \] + \stemNeutral bes8.[ c16] \bar "|" + \[ des4 c4 \bar "|" \stemUp bes4 as4 \bar "|" ges2 \] \bar "|" + \stemDown \[ des'4 c4 \stemUp bes4 as4 \bar "|" ges2 \] \bar "|" + } + \layout { } + \midi { \tempo 4=80 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure30.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure30.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..91c5a20 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure30.ly @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 30 + +\score { + \new Staff \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + \time 4/4 + a16[ b c8~] c[ e] d[ e16 d] b[ c b8] | + a16[ b c8~] c[ e] d[ e16 d] b[ c b8] | + a16[ b c8~] c[ e] g[ a16 g] e8[ f16 e] | f8[ g16 f] cis8[ d16 cis] d4 r | + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 4=100 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure31.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure31.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d9419d --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure31.ly @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 31 + +\book { + + \score { + \new Staff \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + \time 4/4 + e4. d8 \grace {c16[ d]} c8[ a] b4 | cis4. b8 \grace {a16[ b]} a8[ f] g4 | + a4. b8 \grace {g16[ a]} g8[ f] g4 | <d f>2 e8 r c'[ d] | + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + \time 4/4 + e4. d16 c32[ d] c8[ a] b4 | cis4. b16 a32[ b] a8[ f] g4 | + a4. b16 g32[ a] g8[ f] g4 | <d f>2 e8 r c'[ d] | + } + \midi { \tempo 4=88 } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure32.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure32.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0cd2cc5 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure32.ly @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 32 + +\score { + \new Staff \relative c' { + \clef treble + \key a \major + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + \time 4/4 + \[ e4 cis' cis b | a gis8[ fis] e4. e8 \] | + \[ e4 cis' d4. cis8 | b2 fis4 \] r4 | + \[ fis d' d cis! | b a8[ gis!] a4 fis! \] | + \[ e a b4. cis!8 | a2. \] r4 \bar "|." + } + \layout { } + \midi { \tempo 4=120 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure33.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure33.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d7c406 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure33.ly @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 33 + +\book { + + \score { + \new Staff \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \key es \major + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + \time 4/4 + \partial 4 + g8.[ f16] | es4 f8.[( g16] \stemUp bes4) \stemNeutral g4 | + c4 f,4 f4 es16[ c8.] | es4 f8.[( g16] \stemUp bes4) \stemNeutral c4 | + \grace {es,16[ f]} g2 r4 g8.[ f16] | + es4 f4 g16[ bes8.] g8[ bes8] | c4 f,4 f4 g4 | + f16[ es8.] c4 bes4. c8 | es2 r4 bes'8.[ c16] | + es4 f8[ g8] \acciaccatura g8 bes,4 g8[ bes8] | + c4 f,4 f4 \acciaccatura es'8 g4 | f16[ es8.] f8[ g8] bes,4 c4 | + \acciaccatura es,8 f2 r4 bes8.[ c16] | + es8[ bes8] f'8[ g8] es16[( bes8.]) g8[ bes8] | + \grace bes8 c4 f,4 f4 g4 | f16[ es8.] c4 bes4. c8 | es2. \bar "|." + } + \layout { } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \key es \major + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + \time 4/4 + \partial 4 + g8.[ f16] | es4 f8.[( g16] \stemUp bes4) \stemNeutral g4 | + c4 f,4 f4 es16[ c8.] | es4 f8.[( g16] \stemUp bes4) \stemNeutral c4 | + \grace {es,16[ f]} g2 r4 g8.[ f16] | + es4 f4 g16[ bes8.] g8[ bes8] | c4 f,4 f4 g4 | + f16[ es8.] c4 bes4. c8 | es2 r4 bes'8.[ c16] | + es4 f8[ g16] r16 \acciaccatura g8 bes,4 g8[ bes8] | + c4 f,4 f4 \acciaccatura es'8 g4 | f16[ es8.] f8[ g8] bes,4 c4 | + \acciaccatura es,8 f2 r4 bes8.[ c16] | + es8[ bes8] f'8[ g8] es16[( bes8.]) g8[ bes16] r16 | + \grace bes8 c4 f,4 f4 g4 | f16[ es8.] c4 bes4. c8 | es2. \bar "|." + } + \midi { \tempo 4=92 } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure34.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure34.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f1ce36 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure34.ly @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 34 + +\score { + \new Staff \relative c' { + \clef treble + \key g \major + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + \time 3/4 + \partial 4 + d4 | e4 g4 a4 | g16[ b8.] d4 e4 | d4. b8 a4 | b16[ g8.] e4 d4 | + e4 g4 a4 | g16[ b8.] d4 e4 | d4. b8 a4 | b16[ g8.]~ g4 \bar "||" \break + d'8.[ e16] \key c \major \bar "||" f4 f4 e8[ d8] | e4 d4 g4 | + \acciaccatura e8 d4. b8[ a8 b8] | g4 e4 d4 | + e4 g4 a4 | g16[ b8.] d4 e4 | d4. b8 a4 | b16[ g8.]~ g2 \bar "|." + } + \layout { } + \midi { \tempo 4=100 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure35.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure35.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..57961c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure35.ly @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 35 + +smaller = { + \set fontSize = #-2 + \override Stem #'length = #5.5 + \override Beam #'thickness = #0.384 + \override Beam #'space-function = + #(lambda (beam mult) (* 0.8 (Beam::space_function beam mult))) +} + +\book { + + \score { + \new Staff \relative c' { + \clef treble + \key es \major + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + \time 4/4 + \partial 4 + es8[ f] | g4. f8 g[ c bes g] | f[ es] c4 r g'8[ as] | bes4. c8 bes[ g es g] | + f2 r4 es8[ f] | g4. f8 g[ c bes g] | f[ es c bes] c[ d es f] | + g4. as8 g[ f es f] | + es2 r4 c'8[ d] | es4. d8 d[ c bes g] | bes[ g] es4 r c'8[ d] | + es4. d8 d[ c bes g] | f2 r4 bes | g'4. f8 f[ es c es] | + bes[ g] es4 r8 d es[ f]| + << {\smaller g8[ c bes g] f[ es c d]} \\ {g4. f8 es4 d} >> | es2. \bar "|." + } + \layout { } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \relative c' { + \clef treble + \key es \major + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + \time 4/4 + \partial 4 + es8[ f] | g4. f8 g[ c bes g] | f[ es] c4 r g'8[ as] | bes4. c8 bes[ g es g] | + f2 r4 es8[ f] | g4. f8 g[ c bes g] | f[ es c bes] c[ d es f] | + g4. as8 g[ f es f] | + es2 r4 c'8[ d] | es4. d8 d[ c bes g] | bes[ g] es4 r c'8[ d] | + es4. d8 d[ c bes g] | f2 r4 bes | g'4. f8 f[ es c es] | + bes[ g] es4 r8 d es[ f]| g4. f8 es4 d | es2. \bar "|." + } + \layout { } + \midi { \tempo 4=76 } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure36.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure36.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d39175 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure36.ly @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 36 + +\score { + \new Staff \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \key es \major + \time 3/4 + es8 r es[ d es g] | f[ \times 2/3 {f16 g f]} ces2 | bes4 c! d | + \times 2/3 {bes8[ c bes]} g2 \bar "|." + } + \layout { } + \midi { \tempo 4=100 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure37.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure37.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4c2629 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure37.ly @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 37 + +\book { + + \score { + \new Staff \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \key bes \major + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + \time 4/4 + \set Score.timing = ##f + g4 d'4 cis4. bes8 \bar "|" + a16[ g a g] \times 2/3 {fis16[ g fis]} es!8 d4 d'4~ \bar "|" + \times 2/3 {d8[ es d]} cis!4. bes8 \bar "|" + a4 bes2 fis!4 \bar "|" g4 d'4 cis!4. \times 2/3 {bes16[ cis bes]} \bar "|" + g4 d'4. cis!8 \bar "|" \times 2/3 {bes16[ a cis]} g8 \bar "|" + } + \layout { } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \key bes \major + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + \time 4/4 + \set Score.timing = ##f + g4 d'4 cis4. bes8 \bar "|" + a16[ g a g] \times 2/3 {fis16[ g fis]} es!8 d4 d'4~ \bar "|" + \times 2/3 {d8[ es d]} cis!4. bes8 \bar "|" + a4 bes2 fis!4 \bar "|" g4 d'4 cis!4. \times 2/3 {bes16[ cis bes]} \bar "|" + g4 d'4. cis!8 \bar "|" \times 2/3 {bes16[ a c]} g8 \bar "|" + } + \midi { \tempo 4=84 } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure38.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure38.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..984738d --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure38.ly @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 38 + +\score { + \new Staff \relative c' { + \clef treble + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + \time 2/2 + \partial 4 + e4 | c'2 e | g e | a, c~ | c \bar "|." + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 2=84 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure39.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure39.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..95fc8c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure39.ly @@ -0,0 +1,91 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 39 + +\book { + + \score { + \new PianoStaff \with { + \remove "Span_bar_engraver" + \override VerticalAlignment #'forced-distance = #10 + } << + \new Staff \relative c'' { + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + \clef treble + \time 2/2 + \key f \major + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + R1 | \stemUp bes4 a \stemNeutral << {\times 2/3 {bes4 a bes}} \\ {e,2} >> | + << {cis'2 d} \\ {f,1} >> | << {e'4 d \times 2/3 {cis4 bes! bes}} \\ {g1} >> | + << {a4 bes a bes} \\ {f1} >> | \break + <cis g' cis>2 <d f a d> | + << {\times 2/3 {e'4 d cis} \times 2/3 {bes cis d }} \\ {d,1} >> | <d d'>1 | + << {\times 2/3 {cis'4 d e} \times 2/3 {f4 e d8*2/3[ a c]}} \\ {e,2 f} >> | + << {a2 g} \\ {e1} >> | \break + << {f2} \\ {\times 2/3 {e4 d c}} >> <b a'>2~ | + <b a'>2. << {f'16 e f e} \\ {<g, cis>4} >> | + << {d'4. a'8 a2} \\ {a,1} >> | a'1\fermata | % \acciaccatura g8 + a8.[ g16] a8.[ g16] \times 2/3 {a2 d4} | + << {\times 2/3 {cis4 d e} \times 2/3 {f4 e d}} \\ {e,2 f} >> | + <d bes'>2 << {\times 2/3 {a'2 f4}} \\ {<a, d>2} >> | + << {\times 2/3 {g'8[ a bes!]}} \\ {des,4} >> <c f c'>2\fermata + <g a cis f a>4 | <a d f a>1\fermata \bar "|." + } + \new Staff \relative c, { + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + \clef bass + \time 2/2 + \key f \major + <d a'>1~ | <d a'>2 <d' g>2 | << {a'2~ \times 2/3 {a4 g a} } \\ {d,1} >> | + <d bes'>1 | <d a'> | <bes es g>2 <d, a' f'> | <d' g bes!>1 | <d, a'> | + <c'! bes'!>2 <c a' c> | << {bes'!2. a4} \\ {c,2 cis2} >> | + <d a'>2 <g, f'>~ | <g f'>2. <a, a'>4 | <d a'>1~ | <d a'>~ | <d a'> | + <d' bes'>2 <d a'> | <g, e'> <f f'> | <bes! e!>4 <a f'>2 <a, a'>4 | <d d'>1 | + } + >> + \layout { } + } + + \score { + \new PianoStaff \with { + \remove "Span_bar_engraver" + \override VerticalAlignment #'forced-distance = #10 + } << + \new Staff \relative c'' { + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + \clef treble + \time 2/2 + \key f \major + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + r1 | \stemUp bes4 a \stemNeutral << {\times 2/3 {bes4 a bes}} \\ {e,2} >> | + << {cis'2 d} \\ {f,1} >> | << {e'4 d \times 2/3 {cis4 bes! bes}} \\ {g1} >> | + << {a4 bes a bes} \\ {f1} >> | <cis g' cis>2 <d f a d> | + << {\times 2/3 {e'4 d cis} \times 2/3 {bes cis d }} \\ {d,1} >> | <d d'>1 | + << {\times 2/3 {cis'4 d e} \times 2/3 {f4 e d8*2/3[ a c]}} \\ {e,2 f} >> | + << {a2 g} \\ {e1} >> | << {f2 a} \\ {\times 2/3 {e4 d c} b2~} >> | + << {a'2. f16 e f e} \\ {b2. <g cis>4} >> | + << {d'4. a'8 a2} \\ {a,1} >> | a'2...\fermata g16 | + a8.[ g16] a8.[ g16] \times 2/3 {a2 d4} | + << {\times 2/3 {cis4 d e} \times 2/3 {f4 e d}} \\ {e,2 f} >> | + <d bes'>2 << {\times 2/3 {a'2 f4}} \\ {<a, d>2} >> | + << {\times 2/3 {g'8[ a bes]}} \\ {des,4} >> <c f c'>2\fermata + <g a cis f a>4 | <a d f a>1 \bar "|." + } + \new Staff \relative c, { + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + \clef bass + \time 2/2 + \key f \major + <d a'>1~ | <d a'>2 <d' g>2 | << {a'2~ \times 2/3 {a4 g a} } \\ {d,1} >> | + <d bes'>1 | <d a'> | <bes es g>2 <d, a' f'> | <d' g bes!>1 | <d, a'> | + <c'! bes'!>2 <c a' c> | << {bes'!2. a4} \\ {c,2 cis2} >> | + <d a'>2 <g, f'>~ | <g f'>2. <a, a'>4 | <d a'>1~ | <d a'>~ | <d a'> | + <d' bes'>2 <d a'> | <g, e'> <f f'> | <bes! e!>4 <a f'>2 <a, a'>4 | <d d'>1 | + } + >> + \midi { \tempo 2=60 } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure40.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure40.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e96835 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure40.ly @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 40 + +\score { + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \set Score.barNumberVisibility = ##f + \time 3/2 + \partial 2 + c2 | c2 \tupletUp \times 2/3 { b4( c2) } a2 | b c d | + b g \times 2/3 { b4( c2) } | b2 c a | + \stemUp \times 2/3 { b4( g2) } \stemNeutral g2 c, | + e f \times 2/3 { g4( f2) } | + e2 \times 2/3 { f4( g2) } c2 | c2 \times 2/3 { b4( c2) } a2 | + b c d | b g \times 2/3 { b4( c2) } \bar "|." + } + \addlyrics { + Us gays co -- nortz -- ne fai gay -- a -- men far + gay -- a chan -- so qui fag e gai sem -- \skip 2 bian gai + dez -- i -- rier jo -- jos gay al -- le grar + } + \layout { } + \midi { \tempo 2=80 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure41.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure41.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..347c58f --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure41.ly @@ -0,0 +1,111 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 41 + +\book { + + \score { + << + \new ChoirStaff \with { + \override VerticalAlignment #'forced-distance = #11 + } << + \override Score.SystemStartBracket #'transparent = ##t + \override Score.BarNumber #'transparent = ##t + \context Lyrics = words { s1 } + \context Staff = top { + << + \context Voice = melody \relative c' { + \voiceOne + \clef treble + \time 3/4 + e4. f8 g4 | a g f | g8 g4. s4 | c,4. d8 e4 | f e d | + <a c>2. | e'4. f8 g4 | a( g) f | \times 3/2 {g4 g4} | c,4. d8 e4 | + <a, b f'> <g b e> <f g d'> | c'2. | c4. d8 e4 | f g! f | <a, e'>2. | + d4. e8 f4 | e e8*2/3[ d c] d8[ e] | c2. | <f, b d>4 d' c8.[ b16] | + <f a d>8 <f a d>4. s4 | e'4 <a, b f'>8.[ <g e'>16] <f g d'>4 | + e'4 f4 g8.[ f16] | e4 d8.[ c16] <e, f! b>4 | c'4. d8 e4 | + <c e g>4 g'8.[ f16] e4 | \times 3/2 { d4 c4 } | <f, g d'>4 <g e'> <a f'> | + <g e'> e'8*2/3[ d c] d8[ e8] | <e, g c>2. \bar "|." + } + \context Voice = alto \relative c' { + \voiceTwo + c2. | a | c | a | gis | + s | c | c | <g c> | a | + s | s | <e a> | <gis d'> | s | + <f a> | <a c>2 gis4 | b a2 | s2. | s2. | + <g b!>2 s4 | <g c>2. | gis2 s4 | <e a>2. | + s4 <c' e> <g c> | s2. | s | s2 <f g>4 | s2. | + } + >> + } + \new Staff \relative c { + \clef bass + <c g'>2. | <f, c'> | <e e'> | <f c'> | << {d'2 f4} \\ {e,2.} >> | + << {e'2.} \\ {\times 3/2 {a,4 as}} >> | <g e'>2. | <f c'> | <e e'> | <f c'> | + <g, g'> | <c g'> | <a a'> | <b b'> | <c c'> | <d d'> | + <e e'>2 <e b'>4 | <a, a'>2 <as as'>4 | <g g'>2. | <d' a'>8 <d a'>4. s4 | + <g, g'>2. | <c g'> | <b b'>2 <gis gis'>4 | <a a'>2. | + <g g'> | <g g' f'>4*3/2 <c g' e' g> | + <c g'>2. ~ | <c g'> ~ | <c g'> | + } + >> + \context Lyrics = words \lyricsto melody { + L'Au -- tri -- er par la ma -- ti -- née En -- tre sen bos et un + Vergier Une \skip 8 past -- ore ai trou -- neé chan -- tant pour + soi en voi -- sier. + } + >> + \layout { } + } + + \score { + \new ChoirStaff \with { + \override VerticalAlignment #'forced-distance = #11 + } << + \override Score.SystemStartBracket #'transparent = ##t + \override Score.BarNumber #'transparent = ##t + \context Lyrics = words { s1 } + \context Staff = top { + << + \context Voice = melody \relative c' { + \voiceOne + \clef treble + \time 3/4 + e4. f8 g4 | a g f | g8 g4. s4 | c,4. d8 e4 | f e d | + <a c>2. | e'4. f8 g4 | a( g) f | \times 3/2 {g4 g4} | c,4. d8 e4 | + <a, b f'> <g b e> <f g d'> | c'2. | c4. d8 e4 | f g! f | <a, e'>2. | + d4. e8 f4 | e e8*2/3[ d c] d8[ e] | c2. | <f, b d>4 d' c8.[ b16] | + <f a d>8 <f a d>4. s4 | e'4 <a, b f'>8.[ <g e'>16] <f g d'>4 | + e'4 f4 g8.[ f16] | e4 d8.[ c16] <e, f! b>4 | c'4. d8 e4 | + <c e g>4 g'8.[ f16] e4 | \times 3/2 { d4 c4 } | <f, g d'>4 <g e'> <a f'> | + <g e'> e'8*2/3[ d c] d8[ e8] | <e, g c>2. \bar "|." + } + \context Voice = alto \relative c' { + \voiceTwo + c2. | a | c | a | gis | + s | c | c | <g c> | a | + s | s | <e a> | <gis d'> | s | + % rhythm changed below to allow triplet in melody to sound + <f a> | <a c>4. s8 gis4 | b a2 | s2. | s2. | + <g b!>2 s4 | <g c>2. | gis2 s4 | <e a>2. | + s4 <c' e> <g c> | s2. | s | s2 <f g>4 | s2. | + } + >> + } + \new Staff \relative c { + \clef bass + <c g'>2. | <f, c'> | <e e'> | <f c'> | << {d'2 f4} \\ {e,2.} >> | + << {e'2.} \\ {\times 3/2 {a,4 as}} >> | <g e'>2. | <f c'> | <e e'> | <f c'> | + <g, g'> | <c g'> | <a a'> | <b b'> | <c c'> | <d d'> | + <e e'>2 <e b'>4 | <a, a'>2 <as as'>4 | <g g'>2. | <d' a'>8 <d a'>4. s4 | + <g, g'>2. | <c g'> | <b b'>2 <gis gis'>4 | <a a'>2. | + <g g'> | <g g' f'>4*3/2 <c g' e' g> | + <c g'>2. ~ | <c g'> ~ | <c g'> | + } + >> + \midi { \tempo 4=112 } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure42.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure42.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4b77b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure42.ly @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 42 + +tsNithart = \markup { + \number { \column < "3" "4" > \column < "6" "4" > } +} + +\header { composer = "Example from Nithart" } + +\score { + \new Staff \with { } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \key f \major + \set Score.timing = ##f + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'print-function = #Text_interface::print + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'text = #tsNithart + a4 e f \bar "|" g8 a a4 r \bar "|" g a \stemUp bes g a a \bar "|" + a f8 g a4 g f e \bar "|" f g e f d e \bar "|" + a f g \bar "|" a8 bes \stemUp bes4 r \bar "|" a f g a g f \bar "|." + } + \layout { } + \midi { \tempo 4=112 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure43.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure43.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f01c06 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure43.ly @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 43 + +tsFourSixTwo = \markup { + \number { \column < "4" "2" > \column < "6" "2" > \column < "2" "2" > } +} + +\score { + \new Staff \with { } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \key c \major + \autoBeamOff + #(set-accidental-style 'forget) + \set Score.timing = ##f + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'print-function = #Text_interface::print + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'text = #tsFourSixTwo + a4 \bar "|" a2 a2 r4 b4 b4. c8 \bar "|" a2 a2 r4 c8 c8 c2 ~ \bar "|" \break + c2 \stemUp bes4. a8 a2 a2 \bar "|" r8 b8 b8 b8 b2 ~ \bar "|" \break + b2 + } + \addlyrics { + I weep not, I am not sigh -- ing, tho' thou art __ + from me tak -- en. What use to sigh + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 2=52 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/figure44.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/figure44.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..08fdac2 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/figure44.ly @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Figure 44 + +tsSixFour = \markup { + \number { \column < "6" "4" > \column < "4" "4" > } +} + +\score { + \new Staff \with { } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \key c \major + \set Score.timing = ##f + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'print-function = #Text_interface::print + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'text = #tsSixFour + g2 \bar "|" g2. g4 a4 a4 \bar "|" b1. \bar "|" d2. d4 d4 c4 \bar "|" + c2 dis2 \bar "|" c4 b4 \stemUp b4( ais4) b1 \bar "|." + } + \addlyrics { + Gio -- i-te al can -- to mio ser -- ve fron -- do + di "che in" su l'au ro -- ra + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 2=92 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/flute_scale.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/flute_scale.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..edff634 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/flute_scale.ly @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Parenthesize function + +#(define (parenthesize-callback callback) + "Construct a function that will do CALLBACK and add parentheses. + Example usage: see parenthesizeNote below" + + (define (parenthesize-stencil grob) + "This function adds parentheses to the original callback for GROB. + The dimensions of the stencil is not affected." + + (let* ((fn (ly:get-default-font grob)) + (pclose (ly:find-glyph-by-name fn "accidentals-rightparen")) + (popen (ly:find-glyph-by-name fn "accidentals-leftparen")) + (subject (callback grob)) + + ; remember old size + (subject-dim-x (ly:stencil-extent subject 0)) + (subject-dim-y (ly:stencil-extent subject 1))) + + ; add parens + (set! subject + (ly:stencil-combine-at-edge + (ly:stencil-combine-at-edge subject 0 1 pclose 0.2) + 0 -1 popen 0.2)) + + ; revert old size. + (ly:stencil-set-extent! subject 0 subject-dim-x) + (ly:stencil-set-extent! subject 1 subject-dim-y) + subject)) + parenthesize-stencil) + +parenthesizeNote = { + \once \override NoteHead #'print-function = + #(parenthesize-callback Note_head::print) +} + +% Egyptian flute scale + +\score { + { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + a4( ais b c' cis' d') a'( ais' b' c'' cis'' d'') + \parenthesizeNote e'' + f'' fis'' g'' gis'' a''( ais'' b'' c''' cis''' d''') + } + \layout { + raggedright = ##t + \context { \Staff \remove Time_signature_engraver } + } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/gloria.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/gloria.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b998012 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/gloria.ly @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Gloria + +\score { + \context Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } << + \clef bass + \set Score.timing = ##f + \autoBeamOff + \override Staff.NoteCollision #'merge-differently-headed = ##t + \context Voice = heads { \voiceOne + \override Stem #'transparent = ##t + f2\melisma g2 f g a a1\melismaEnd a2 + a\melisma a2 g a g g f a1\melismaEnd \bar "|" + } + \context Voice = tails { \voiceTwo + \override NoteHead #'transparent = ##t + f8[ s4. g8] s4. + f8[ s4. g8 s4. a8] s4. + a1 a2 a + a8[ s4. g8] s4. + a8[ s4. g8] s4. + g8[ s4. f8] s4. + a1 + } + \lyricsto heads \new Lyrics { Glo -- ri -- a __ } + >> +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/profundis.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/profundis.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de4f6d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/profundis.ly @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% De profundis + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c' { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + <f g>2 <f g> <g a> <g a> <g c> <e a> <f g> + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/quant_li.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/quant_li.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..10147de --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/quant_li.ly @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +\include "gregorian-init.ly" + +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Quant li rossignol jolis chante + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \key f \major + \set Score.timing = ##f + d4 c8[ a] bes4 a g8[ f] g4 a8[ bes a f] f4 \divisioMinima + f g a bes8[ a] \bar "" \break c[ d c bes] a[ g] a4 \divisioMinima + d c8[ a] bes4 a g8[ f] g4 a bes8[ a] f4 f + } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/rhythms.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/rhythms.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..56fb583 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/rhythms.ly @@ -0,0 +1,133 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Rhythmic examples + +\book { + + \score { + \new Staff \with { + \remove "Staff_symbol_engraver" + %\remove "Time_signature_engraver" + \remove "Clef_engraver" + } \relative c'' { + \set Score.timing = ##f + \autoBeamOff + \override Staff.BarLine #'bar-size = #4 + s4 \bar "|" e2 e4 \bar "|" + s4 \bar "|" e4 e2 \bar "|" e4 e2 \bar "|" + s4 \bar "|" e2 e2 \bar "|" + s4 \bar "|" e4. e8 e4 \bar "|" + s4 \bar "|" e8 e8 e8 e4 \bar "|" + s4 \bar "|" e4 e8 \bar "|" + s4 \bar "|" e4. e8 e8 \bar "|" + s4 \bar "|" e2. s2 e4 e4 e4 \bar "|" + s4 \bar "|" e16 e16 e8 e8 e8 \bar "|" e16 e16 e8 e16 e16 e8 \bar "|" + s4 \bar "|" \time 2/4 e16 e e e e8 e8 \bar "|" e e e e \bar "|" + s4 \bar "|" \time 3/4 e4-> e e \bar "|" e-> e e \bar "|" + \break + + s4 \bar "" \time 2/2 e8[ e8] \bar "|" e4 e4 e4 e8[ e8] \bar "|" + + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + s4 \bar "||" \time 3/2 e2 e2.\rtoe e4 \bar "|" e2 e2 \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "||" \time 4/4 e4 e4 \bar "|" e4 e8[ e8] e4 e4 \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "|" e4 e8[ e8] \bar "|" e4 e4 e4 e4 \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "" \time 3/4 r8 e8[ e8 e8] \bar "|" e8[ e8 e8 e8 e8 e8] \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "" \time 3/4 e8 \bar "|" e8[ e8 e8 e8 e8 e8] \bar "|" \break + \break + s4 \bar "||" \time 3/4 e4->~ \bar "|" e e e \bar "|" e4 e8[ e e e] \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "||" \time 3/4 e4. e8 e8.[ e16] \bar "|" e8[ e8] e4 e8[ e8] \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "||" \time 4/4 e8.[ e16] \bar "|" e4 e8.[ e16] e4 e4 \bar "|" + e2. \tupletUp \times 2/3 { e8[ e8 e8] } \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "||" e4 \bar "|" e4 e8.[ e16] e4 e4 \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "||" \time 4/4 e4 e8.[ e16] e4. e8 \bar "|" e8[ e e e] e2 \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "||" \time 3/4 e8[ e16 e16] e8[ e16 e16] e4 \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "||" e16[ e16 e8] e16[ e16 e8] e4 \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "||" \time 3/4 e4 \bar "|" e8.[ e16] e4 e4 \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "||" \time 3/4 e8.[ e16] e8.[ e16] e16[ e e e] \bar "||" + \break + s4 \bar "" e8 e4 e16[ e16] e8[ e8] \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "|" e8[ e16 e16] e8[ e8 e8 e8] \bar "|" \break + \break + s4 \bar "||" \time 2/4 e8[ e8] e16[ e8 e16] \bar "|" e8[ e8] e16[ e8 e16] + \bar "|"e8[ e8] \times 2/3 { e8[ e8 e8] } \bar "|" e8[ e8] e4 \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "||" \time 6/8 e8[ e8 e8] e8[ e8 e8] \bar "|" e8[ e8 e8] e8[ e8 e8] + \break + s4 \bar "||" e8[ e8 e8] e8[ e8 e8] \bar "|" e4 e8 e4 e8 \bar "||" + \break + s4 \bar "||" \time 2/4 e8[ e8] e4 \bar "|" e8[ e16 e16] e4 \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "||" \time 2/4 e8[ e8] e4-> \bar "|" e8[ e8] e4-> + \bar "|" e16[ e8 e16] e8->[ e8] + \bar "|" e16[ e8 e16] \times 2/3 { e16[ e16 e16 } e8] \bar "||" + \break + s4 \bar "||" \time 3/4 e4-> e4 e4 \bar "|" e4-> e4 e4 \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "||" \time 2/4 e16[ e e e] e8[ e8] \bar "|" e8[ e8] e8[ e8] \bar "|" + \break + s4 \bar "|" e16[ e16 e8] e8[ e8] \bar "|" e16[ e16 e8] e16[ e16 e8] \bar "|" + + \break + s4 f,4 f8 f4 \bar "" + s4 f4 f8 f8 f8 \bar "" + s4 f8 f4 f8 f8 \bar "" + s4 f8 f8 f4 f8 \bar "" + s4 f8 f8 f8 f4 \bar "" + s4 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 \bar "|" \break + s4 \bar "|" a1. s2 f4. f4. f4. \bar "|" + s4 \bar "|" f4. s2 f8[ f8 f8] \bar "|" + s4 \bar "|" f4 s2 f8[ f8] \bar "|" \break + s4 \bar "|" f2. s2 f4. f4. \bar "|" + s4 \bar "|" f1 s2 f2 f2 \bar "|" + s4 \bar "|" f2 s2 f4 f4 \bar "|" \break + + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \with { + \remove "Staff_symbol_engraver" + \remove "Clef_engraver" + } \relative c'' { + \set Score.timing = ##f + \autoBeamOff + \override Staff.BarLine #'bar-size = #4 + s4 \bar "|" \time 3/4 e4 e4 e8[ e8] \bar "|" + s4 \bar "|" \time 3/4 e8 e8 e4 e4 + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \with { + \remove "Time_signature_engraver" + \remove "Clef_engraver" + } { + \override Staff.StaffSymbol #'line-count = #1 + \override Staff.BarLine #'bar-size = #4 + \clef treble + \time 3/4 + \partial 4 + s4 | c''4.( c''8 c''4 c''4. c''8 c''4) | + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/sili.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/sili.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6337ac5 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/sili.ly @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +\include "gregorian-init.ly" + +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Si li dis sans de laies + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c'' { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + g4 a b c d8[ c] b4 a g \divisioMinima a b c b b8[ a g] a[ b] g4 + } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/sol_fa.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/sol_fa.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5bbcd19 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/sol_fa.ly @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Ut queant laxis + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + { + \clef bass + \set Score.timing = ##f + \override Stem #'transparent = ##t + \autoBeamOff + c2 d f d( e) d \bar "|" d d c d e e \bar "|" + e( f g) e d( e) c d \bar "|" f g a g( f) d d \bar "|" + g( a g) e f g d \bar "|" a g a f g( a) a \bar "|" + g( f) d c e d \bar "|." + } + \addlyrics { + \markup {\bold \italic Ut} que -- ant la -- xis + \markup {\bold \italic Re} -- so -- na -- re fib -- ris + \markup {\bold \italic Mi} -- ra ges -- to -- rum + \markup {\bold \italic Fa} -- mu -- li tu -- o -- rum + \markup {\bold \italic Sol} -- ve pol -- lu -- ti + \markup {\bold \italic La} -- bi -- i re -- a -- tum + Sanc -- te Jo -- an -- nes + } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/tetra_1.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/tetra_1.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e0bbf9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/tetra_1.ly @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Hucbald's tetrachords on single staff + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + { + \set Score.timing = ##f + \clef bass g,1^( a, bes, c) d^( e f g) + \clef treble a^( b c' d') e'^( fis' g' a') + } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/tetrachords.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/tetrachords.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d16a09 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/tetrachords.ly @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Hucbald's tetrachords on two staves + +\score { + \new PianoStaff \with { + \override VerticalAlignment #'forced-distance = #10 + } << + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + s1 s s s s s s s s s s s e'^( fis' g' a') + } + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } { + \clef bass + g,1^( a, bes, c) d^( e f g) a( b c' d') s s s s + } + >> +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/time_sigs.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/time_sigs.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..03436b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/time_sigs.ly @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Time signatures + +\book { + + \score { + \new Staff \with { + \remove "Staff_symbol_engraver" + \remove "Clef_engraver" + } { + \override Staff.BarLine #'bar-size = #4 + \time 4/4 s1 \time 2/2 s1 + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() + \time 4/4 s1 \time 2/2 s1 + \time 3/2 s1. \time 3/4 s2. + \time 5/4 s4*5 + \time 3/8 s4. \time 6/8 s2. \time 7/8 s8*7 \time 9/8 s8*9 \time 12/8 s1. + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + } + + \score { + \new Staff \with { + \remove "Staff_symbol_engraver" + \remove "Clef_engraver" + } { + %#(set-global-staff-size 26) + \override Staff.BarLine #'bar-size = #4 + \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'neomensural + \time 4/4 s1 \time 3/2 s1. \time 6/4 s1. \time 9/4 s4*9 + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + } + +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/treble1.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/treble1.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1929b2c --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/treble1.ly @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Musical examples in the treble clef (monophonic) + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + #(set-accidental-style 'forget) + f'1 g' c'' d'' f'' \bar "" \break + a' \bar "" \break + e' f' ges' a' \bar "" \break + d' d'' \bar "" \break + e' e'' \bar "" \break + f' f'' \bar "" \break + g' g'' \bar "" \break + a d'-+^"Keynote" a' \bar "" \break + c' e'-+ b' \bar "" \break % c' is probably an error for b + c' f'-+ c'' \bar "" \break + d' g'-+ d'' \bar "" \break + c' c'' \bar "" \break + a' a'' \bar "" \break + g c'-+ g' \bar "" \break + e' a'-+ e'' \bar "" \break + c'1 des' eses' f' g' ais' b' c'' \bar "" \break + c'1 des' es' fis' g' as' beses' c'' \bar "" \break + c'1 d' es' f' ges' a' bes' c'' \bar "" \break + a( bes) c' d'( es') f' g' a' \bar "" \break + + << \override Staff.NoteCollision #'merge-differently-headed = ##t + {\override Stem #'transparent = ##t g'2 c'' g'} \\ + {\override NoteHead #'transparent = ##t g'8[ s4. c''8 s4. g'8] s4.} + >> \bar "" \break + << { + \override Stem #'transparent = ##f + } \\ { + \override NoteHead #'transparent = ##f + } >> + << % \override Staff.NoteCollision #'merge-differently-headed = ##t + {\override NoteHead #'transparent = ##t g'8[ s4. e'8 s4. g'8] s4.} \\ + {\override Stem #'transparent = ##t g'2 e' g'} + >> \bar "" \break + << % \override Staff.NoteCollision #'merge-differently-headed = ##t + {\override NoteHead #'transparent = ##t g'8[ s4. b'8 s4. a'8] s4.} \\ + {\override Stem #'transparent = ##t g'2 b' a'} + >> \bar "" \break + c'8[ e'] d'16[ e' d' c' d'] e'32[ d' e' d' e' d'] s4 \bar "" \break + \override Stem #'transparent = ##t + c'2 g' c' c' \bar "" \break + e' g' b' \bar "" \break + g' a' b' \bar "" \break + b' + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/treble2.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/treble2.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e51ded --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/treble2.ly @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Musical examples in the treble clef (using chords) + +\score { + \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } + \relative c' { + \clef treble + \set Score.timing = ##f + #(set-accidental-style 'forget) + <e a>2 <d g> <d fis> <d e> \bar "" \break + <e a>2 <d g> <c fis>-+ \bar "" \break + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/lilypond/vina_range.ly b/16351-h/lilypond/vina_range.ly new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7263355 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/lilypond/vina_range.ly @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +\version "2.4" +\paper{ linewidth=15\cm leftmargin=3\cm rightmargin=3\cm indent=0\mm } + +% Range of the Vina + +\score { + \new Staff \with { + \remove "Time_signature_engraver" + } { + \clef bass + \set Score.timing = ##f + a,1^\markup { \hspace #4.0 \raise #-0.5 to } \clef treble b''1 + } + \layout { raggedright = ##t } + \midi { \tempo 2=100 } +} + diff --git a/16351-h/midi/aeolian.midi b/16351-h/midi/aeolian.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..52f269b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/aeolian.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/dorian_tetra.midi b/16351-h/midi/dorian_tetra.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1523fea --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/dorian_tetra.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure01.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure01.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2cdb082 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure01.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure02.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure02.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..94c3200 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure02.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure03.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure03.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e1f8191 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure03.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure04.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure04.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..66956e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure04.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure05.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure05.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8fad91b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure05.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure06.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure06.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..517719b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure06.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure07.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure07.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd07056 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure07.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure08.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure08.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..323b0b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure08.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure09.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure09.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ea6553 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure09.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure10.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure10.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0dbea1b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure10.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure11.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure11.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..69c628f --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure11.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure12.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure12.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..daf1755 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure12.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure13.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure13.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..92ac20e --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure13.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure14.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure14.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a334138 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure14.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure15.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure15.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..abbdf94 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure15.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure16.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure16.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a8f0ca --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure16.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure17.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure17.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bbb1ac3 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure17.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure18.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure18.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae050c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure18.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure19.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure19.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c7d6ee --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure19.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure20.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure20.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b97cbd6 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure20.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure21.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure21.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a9608bf --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure21.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure22.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure22.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ae6005 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure22.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure23.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure23.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..674570e --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure23.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure24.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure24.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..63545a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure24.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure25.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure25.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb13007 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure25.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure26.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure26.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9cfd9a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure26.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure27.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure27.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc78882 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure27.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure28.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure28.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8063941 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure28.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure29.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure29.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f04061 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure29.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure29a.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure29a.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9c6806 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure29a.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure30.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure30.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa7fe7a --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure30.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure31.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure31.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc1d938 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure31.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure32.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure32.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..66fe874 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure32.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure33.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure33.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a926f95 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure33.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure34.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure34.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffd80ef --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure34.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure35.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure35.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..394610c --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure35.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure36.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure36.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c52f564 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure36.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure37.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure37.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7dd5857 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure37.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure38.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure38.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b33cfaa --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure38.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure39.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure39.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0eb691a --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure39.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure40.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure40.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b0b82b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure40.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure41.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure41.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d6ed4be --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure41.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure42.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure42.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..04683c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure42.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure43.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure43.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a67ab72 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure43.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/figure44.midi b/16351-h/midi/figure44.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aecf7cc --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/figure44.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/first_scale.midi b/16351-h/midi/first_scale.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6e4c6c --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/first_scale.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/flute_scale.midi b/16351-h/midi/flute_scale.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6f11cc --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/flute_scale.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/gavambodi.midi b/16351-h/midi/gavambodi.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..00b3c1b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/gavambodi.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/hucbald_tetra.midi b/16351-h/midi/hucbald_tetra.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d359102 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/hucbald_tetra.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/hypolydian.midi b/16351-h/midi/hypolydian.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d58ccac --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/hypolydian.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/hypophrigian.midi b/16351-h/midi/hypophrigian.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..199528b --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/hypophrigian.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/maya.midi b/16351-h/midi/maya.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..80b2996 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/maya.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/mixolydian.midi b/16351-h/midi/mixolydian.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cda8cb9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/mixolydian.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/tanarupi.midi b/16351-h/midi/tanarupi.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7f01fa --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/tanarupi.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/vina_range.midi b/16351-h/midi/vina_range.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ead2894 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/vina_range.midi diff --git a/16351-h/midi/voice.midi b/16351-h/midi/voice.midi Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd02290 --- /dev/null +++ b/16351-h/midi/voice.midi diff --git a/16351.txt b/16351.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6fedfac --- /dev/null +++ b/16351.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8934 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Critical & Historical Essays, by Edward MacDowell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Critical & Historical Essays + Lectures delivered at Columbia University + +Author: Edward MacDowell + +Editor: W. J. Baltzell + +Release Date: July 24, 2005 [EBook #16351] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRITICAL & HISTORICAL ESSAYS *** + + + + +Produced by David Newman, Daniel Emerson Griffith and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + + +Italic text is represented by _underscores_ around the text. + +Footnotes in the original text were all marked with asterisks: +I have renumbered these and represented them as [01] through [15]. + +All other text enclosed between square brackets represents or +describes the illustrations (for which see the HTML edition): + +Pitches: [c, ... c ... a b c' (middle-C) d' e' ... c'' ... c'''] + +Round brackets: when around a single note these represent a note +in the extract which was bracketed or otherwise highlighted. +When around two or more notes, they represent a slur or beam. + +Braces: surround simultaneous notes in a chord {a c' e'} + +Accidentals: + +[f++] = F double-sharp +[a+] = A sharp +[c=] = C natural +[e-] = E flat +[d--] = D double-flat + +In the main text, accidentals are written out in full, as +[natural], A[flat], G[sharp]. One table uses [#] for [sharp]. + +Accents and marcato: denoted by > and ^ before a note. + +Time signatures: [4/4], [6/8], etc. + +[C] or [C/4] = C-shaped [4/4] time. +[C|] or [C/2] = C-shaped [2/2] time. +[O] = A circle +[O.] = A circle with a dot in the center +[C.] = A broken circle (C-shaped) with a dot in the center + +[G:] = Treble clef ([G8:] = Treble clef 8va bassa) +[F:] = Bass clef ([F8:] = Bass clef 8va bassa) + +Rhythms (A trailing . represents a dotted note): + +[L] = Longa +[B] = Brevis +[S] = Semibrevis +[1] = Whole-note (Semibreve) +[2] = Half-note (Minim) +[4] = Quarter-note (Crotchet) +[8] = Eighth-note (Quaver) +[16] = Sixteenth-note (Semiquaver) + +Lyrics and Labels: words aligned with the notes begin [W: ...] + +Breves and macrons, used to denote short and long stresses in +poetry are denoted ['] and [-] respectively. + +[|] = Bar (Bar line) +[<] = Crescendo hairpin +[x] = small cross +[\] = 45 degree downstroke +[/] = 45 degree upstroke +[/\] = large circumflex shape +[O|] = a circle bisected by a vertical line protruding both ways +[Gamma] = The Greek capital gamma +[mid-dot] = a dot at the height of a hyphen +[over-dot] = a single dot over the following letter +[Over-slur] = a frown-shaped curved line +[Under-slur] = a smile-shaped curved line (breve) +[reverse-apostrophe] = the mirror image of a closing quote +[Upper Mordent] = an upper mordent: /\/\/ with thick downstrokes +[Crenellation] = horizontals, low, high, low, connected by verticals +[Podium] = [Crenellation] with the third horizontal at half-height +[Step] = horizontal, vertical, horizontal, vertical, ascending +[Turn] = a turn (~) + +[Figure 01] = extract available as a MIDI file (figure01.mid). +[Illustration] = all other illustrations. + +For example, here's a D minor scale set to words: + +[G: d' e' (f' g') a' b-' (c+'' d'')] +[W: One, two, three, four, five, six. ] + +And a simple rhythmic example: + +[3/4: 4 4 8 8 | 8. 16 2] = [- - ' ' - ' -] + + + + +CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS + +Lectures delivered at Columbia University + +BY EDWARD MACDOWELL + +EDITED BY W.J. BALTZELL + + +LONDON + + ELKIN & CO., LTD., + 8 & 10 BEAK STREET, + REGENT STREET, W. + + CONSTABLE & CO., LTD., + 10 ORANGE STREET, + LEICESTER SQUARE, W.C. + +BOSTON, U.S.A., ARTHUR P. SCHMIDT + +COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY ARTHUR P. SCHMIDT + +A.P.S. 9384 + +Stanhope Press + +F.H. GILSON COMPANY +BOSTON, U.S.A. + + + + +PREFACE + + +The present work places before the public a phase of the +professional activity of Edward MacDowell quite different from +that through which his name became a household word in musical +circles, that is, his work as a composer. In the chapters +that follow we become acquainted with him in the capacity of +a writer on phases of the history and aesthetics of music. + +It was in 1896 that the authorities of Columbia University +offered to him the newly created Chair of Music, for which he +had been strongly recommended as one of the leading composers +of America. After much thought he accepted the position, and +entered upon his duties with the hope of accomplishing much for +his art in the favorable environment which he fully expected +to find. The aim of the instruction, as he planned it, was: +"First, to teach music scientifically and technically, with a +view to training musicians who shall be competent to teach and +compose. Second, to treat music historically and aesthetically +as an element of liberal culture." In carrying out his plans he +conducted a course, which, while "outlining the purely technical +side of music," was intended to give a "general idea of music +from its historical and aesthetic side." Supplementing this, +as an advanced course, he also gave one which took up the +development of musical forms, piano music, modern orchestration +and symphonic forms, impressionism, the relationship of music +to the other arts, with much other material necessary to form +an adequate basis for music criticism. + +It is a matter for sincere regret that Mr. MacDowell put in +permanent form only a portion of the lectures prepared for +the two courses just mentioned. While some were read from +manuscript, others were given from notes and illustrated with +musical quotations. This was the case, very largely, with +the lectures prepared for the advanced course, which included +extremely valuable and individual treatment of the subject of +the piano, its literature and composers, modern music, etc. + +A point of view which the lecturer brought to bear upon his +subject was that of a composer to whom there were no secrets +as to the processes by which music is made. It was possible +for him to enter into the spirit in which the composers both +of the earlier and later periods conceived their works, and +to value the completed compositions according to the way in +which he found that they had followed the canons of the best +and purest art. It is this unique attitude which makes the +lectures so valuable to the musician as well as to the student. + +The Editor would also call attention to the intellectual +qualities of Mr. MacDowell, which determined his attitude +toward any subject. He was a poet who chose to express himself +through the medium of music rather than in some other way. For +example, he had great natural facility in the use of the +pencil and the brush, and was strongly advised to take up +painting as a career. The volume of his poetical writings, +issued several years ago, is proof of his power of expression +in verse and lyric forms. Above these and animating them +were what Mr. Lawrence Gilman terms "his uncommon faculties +of vision and imagination." What he thought, what he said, +what he wrote, was determined by the poet's point of view, +and this is evident on nearly every page of these lectures. + +He was a wide reader, one who, from natural bent, dipped into +the curious and out-of-the-way corners of literature, as will +be noticed in his references to other works in the course +of the lectures, particularly to Rowbotham's picturesque and +fascinating story of the formative period of music. Withal he +was always in touch with contemporary affairs. With the true +outlook of the poet he was fearless, individual, and even +radical in his views. This spirit, as indicated before, he +carried into his lectures, for he demanded of his pupils that +above all they should be prepared to do their own thinking and +reach their own conclusions. He was accustomed to say that we +need in the United States, a public that shall be independent +in its judgment on art and art products, that shall not be tied +down to verdicts based on tradition and convention, but shall be +prepared to reach conclusions through knowledge and sincerity. + +That these lectures may aid in this splendid educational +purpose is the wish of those who are responsible for placing +them before the public. + + W.J. BALTZELL. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAP. PAGE + + I. THE ORIGIN OF MUSIC 1 + II. ORIGIN OF SONG VS. ORIGIN OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC 16 + III. THE MUSIC OF THE HEBREWS AND THE HINDUS 32 + IV. THE MUSIC OF THE EGYPTIANS, ASSYRIANS AND CHINESE 42 + V. THE MUSIC OF THE CHINESE (continued) 54 + VI. THE MUSIC OF GREECE 69 + VII. THE MUSIC OF THE ROMANS--THE EARLY CHURCH 90 + VIII. FORMATION OF THE SCALE--NOTATION 106 + IX. THE SYSTEMS OF HUCBALD AND GUIDO + D'AREZZO--THE BEGINNING OF COUNTERPOINT 122 + X. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS--THEIR HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 132 + XI. FOLK-SONG AND ITS RELATION TO NATIONALISM IN MUSIC 141 + XII. THE TROUBADOURS, MINNESINGERS AND MASTERSINGERS 158 + XIII. EARLY INSTRUMENTAL FORMS 175 + XIV. THE MERGING OF THE SUITE INTO THE SONATA 188 + XV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC 199 + XVI. THE MYSTERY AND MIRACLE PLAY 205 + XVII. OPERA 210 +XVIII. OPERA (continued) 224 + XIX. ON THE LIVES AND ART PRINCIPLES OF SOME SEVENTEENTH + AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY COMPOSERS 236 + XX. DECLAMATION IN MUSIC 254 + XXI. SUGGESTION IN MUSIC 261 + + + + +CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS + + +I + +THE ORIGIN OF MUSIC + + +Darwin's theory that music had its origin "in the sounds +made by the half-human progenitors of man during the season +of courtship" seems for many reasons to be inadequate and +untenable. A much more plausible explanation, it seems to me, is +to be found in the theory of Theophrastus, in which the origin +of music is attributed to the whole range of human emotion. + +When an animal utters a cry of joy or pain it expresses its +emotions in more or less definite tones; and at some remote +period of the earth's history all primeval mankind must have +expressed its emotions in much the same manner. When this +inarticulate speech developed into the use of certain sounds as +symbols for emotions--emotions that otherwise would have been +expressed by the natural sounds occasioned by them--then we have +the beginnings of speech as distinguished from music, which +is still the universal language. In other words, intellectual +development begins with articulate speech, leaving music for +the expression of the emotions. + +To symbolize the sounds used to express emotion, if I may so +put it, is to weaken that expression, and it would naturally +be the strongest emotion that would first feel the inadequacy +of the new-found speech. Now what is mankind's strongest +emotion? Even in the nineteenth century Goethe could say, "'Tis +fear that constitutes the god-like in man." Certainly before +the Christian era the soul of mankind had its roots in fear. +In our superstition we were like children beneath a great tree +of which the upper part was as a vague and fascinating mystery, +but the roots holding it firmly to the ground were tangible, +palpable facts. We feared--we knew not what. Love was human, +all the other emotions were human; fear alone was indefinable. + +The primeval savage, looking at the world subjectively, was +merely part of it. He might love, hate, threaten, kill, if he +willed; every other creature could do the same. But the wind +was a great spirit to him; lightning and thunder threatened him +as they did the rest of the world; the flood would destroy him +as ruthlessly as it tore the trees asunder. The elements were +animate powers that had nothing in common with him; for what +the intellect cannot explain the imagination magnifies. + +Fear, then, was the strongest emotion. Therefore auxiliary aids +to express and cause fear were necessary when the speech symbols +for fear, drifting further and further away from expressing the +actual thing, became words, and words were inadequate to express +and cause fear. In that vague groping for sound symbols which +would cause and express fear far better than mere words, we +have the beginning of what is gradually to develop into music. + +We all know that savage nations accompany their dances by +striking one object with another, sometimes by a clanking of +stones, the pounding of wood, or perhaps the clashing of stone +spearheads against wooden shields (a custom which extended until +the time when shields and spears were discarded), meaning thus +to express something that words cannot. This meaning changed +naturally from its original one of being the simple expression +of fear to that of welcoming a chieftain; and, if one wishes +to push the theory to excess, we may still see a shadowy +reminiscence of it in the manner in which the violinists of +an orchestra applaud an honoured guest--perchance some famous +virtuoso--at one of our symphony concerts by striking the +backs of their violins with their bows. + +To go back to the savages. While this clashing of one object +against another could not be called the beginning of music, and +while it could not be said to originate a musical instrument, +it did, nevertheless, bring into existence music's greatest +prop, rhythm, an ally without which music would seem to be +impossible. It is hardly necessary to go into this point in +detail. Suffice it to say that the sense of rhythm is highly +developed even among those savage tribes which stand the +lowest in the scale of civilization to-day, for instance, +the Andaman Islanders, of whom I shall speak later; the same +may be said of the Tierra del Fuegians and the now extinct +aborigines of Tasmania; it is the same with the Semangs of +the Malay Peninsula, the Ajitas of the Philippines, and the +savages inhabiting the interior of Borneo. + +As I have said, this more or less rhythmic clanking of stones +together, the striking of wooden paddles against the side of +a canoe, or the clashing of stone spearheads against wooden +shields, could not constitute the first musical instrument. But +when some savage first struck a hollow tree and found that +it gave forth a sound peculiar to itself, when he found a +hollow log and filled up the open ends, first with wood, +and then--possibly getting the idea from his hide-covered +shield--stretched skins across the two open ends, then he had +completed the first musical instrument known to man, namely, +the drum. And such as it was then, so is it now, with but +few modifications. + +Up to this point it is reasonable to assume that primeval man +looked upon the world purely subjectively. He considered himself +merely a unit in the world, and felt on a plane with the other +creatures inhabiting it. But from the moment he had invented the +first musical instrument, the drum, he had created something +outside of nature, a voice that to himself and to all other +living creatures was intangible, an idol that spoke when it +was touched, something that he could call into life, something +that shared the supernatural in common with the elements. A +God had come to live with man, and thus was unfolded the +first leaf in that noble tree of life which we call religion. +Man now began to feel himself something apart from the world, +and to look at it objectively instead of subjectively. + +To treat primitive mankind as a type, to put it under one head, +to make one theorem cover all mankind, as it were, seems almost +an unwarranted boldness. But I think it is warranted when we +consider that, aside from language, music is the very first +sign of the dawn of civilization. There is even the most +convincingly direct testimony in its favour. For instance: + +In the Bay of Bengal, about six hundred miles from the Hoogly +mouth of the Ganges, lie the Andaman Islands. The savages +inhabiting these islands have the unenviable reputation +of being, in common with several other tribes, the nearest +approach to primeval man in existence. These islands and their +inhabitants have been known and feared since time immemorial; +our old friend Sinbad the Sailor, of "Arabian Nights" fame, +undoubtedly touched there on one of his voyages. These savages +have no religion whatever, except the vaguest superstition, +in other words, fear, and they have no musical instruments +of any kind. They have reached only the _rhythm_ stage, and +accompany such dances as they have by clapping their hands +or by stamping on the ground. Let us now look to Patagonia, +some thousands of miles distant. The Tierra del Fuegians have +precisely the same characteristics, no religion, and no musical +instruments of any kind. Retracing our steps to the Antipodes +we find among the Weddahs or "wild hunters" of Ceylon exactly +the same state of things. The same description applies without +distinction equally well to the natives in the interior of +Borneo, to the Semangs of the Malay Peninsula, and to the now +extinct aborigines of Tasmania. According to Virchow their +dance is demon worship of a purely anthropomorphic character; +no musical instrument of any kind was known to them. Even +the simple expression of emotions by the voice, which we have +seen is its most primitive medium, has not been replaced to +any extent among these races since their discovery of speech, +for the Tierra del Fuegians, Andamans, and Weddahs have but +one sound to represent emotion, namely, a cry to express joy; +having no other means for the expression of sorrow, they paint +themselves when mourning. + +It is granted that all this, in itself, is not conclusive; +but it will be found that no matter in what wilderness one +may hear of a savage beating a drum, there also will be a +well-defined religion. + +Proofs of the theory that the drum antedates all other musical +instruments are to be found on every hand. For wherever in the +anthropological history of the world we hear of the trumpet, +horn, flute, or other instrument of the pipe species, it will +be found that the drum and its derivatives were already well +known. The same may be said of the lyre species of instrument, +the forerunner of our guitar (_kithara_), _tebuni_ or Egyptian +harp, and generally all stringed instruments, with this +difference, namely, that wherever the lyre species was known, +both pipe and drum had preceded it. We never find the lyre +without the drum, or the pipe without the drum; neither do we +find the lyre and the drum without the pipe. On the other hand, +we often find the drum alone, or the drum and pipe without +the lyre. This certainly proves the antiquity of the drum and +its derivatives. + +I have spoken of the purely rhythmical nature of the pre-drum +period, and pointed out, in contrast, the musical quality of +the drum. This may seem somewhat strange, accustomed as we are +to think of the drum as a purely rhythmical instrument. The +sounds given out by it seem at best vague in tone and more +or less uniform in quality. We forget that all instruments +of percussion, as they are called, are direct descendants of +the drum. The bells that hang in our church towers are but +modifications of the drum; for what is a bell but a metal drum +with one end left open and the drum stick hung inside? + +Strange to say, as showing the marvellous potency of primeval +instincts, bells placed in church towers were supposed to +have much of the supernatural power that the savage in his +wilderness ascribed to the drum. We all know something of the +bell legends of the Middle Ages, how the tolling of a bell was +supposed to clear the air of the plague, to calm the storm, and +to shed a blessing on all who heard it. And this superstition +was to a certain extent ratified by the religious ceremonies +attending the casting of church bells and the inscriptions +moulded in them. For instance, the mid-day bell of Strasburg, +taken down during the French Revolution, bore the motto + + "I am the voice of life." + +Another one in Strasburg: + + "I ring out the bad, ring in the good." + +Others read + + "My voice on high dispels the storm." + + "I am called Ave Maria + I drive away storms." + + "I who call to thee am the Rose of the World and am called + Ave Maria." + +The Egyptian _sistrum_, which in Roman times played an +important role in the worship of Isis, was shaped somewhat +like a tennis racquet, with four wire strings on which rattles +were strung. The sound of it must have been akin to that of our +modern tambourine, and it served much the same purpose as the +primitive drum, namely, to drive away Typhon or Set, the god +of evil. Dead kings were called "Osiris" when placed in their +tombs, and _sistri_ put with them in order to drive away Set. + +Beside bells and rattles we must include all instruments of the +tambourine and gong species in the drum category. While there +are many different forms of the same instrument, there are +evidences of their all having at some time served the same +purpose, even down to that strange instrument about which +Du Chaillu tells us in his "Equatorial Africa", a bell of +leopard skin, with a clapper of fur, which was rung by the +wizard doctor when entering a hut where someone was ill or +dying. The leopard skin and fur clapper seem to have been +devised to make no noise, so as not to anger the demon that +was to be cast out. This reminds us strangely of the custom of +ringing a bell as the priest goes to administer the last rites. + +It is said that first impressions are the strongest and most +lasting; certain it is that humanity, through all its social and +racial evolutions, has retained remnants of certain primitive +ideas to the present day. The army death reveille, the minute +gun, the tolling of bells for the dead, the tocsin, etc., all +have their roots in the attributes assigned to the primitive +drum; for, as I have already pointed out, the more civilized +a people becomes, the more the word-symbols degenerate. It +is this continual drifting away of the word-symbols from the +natural sounds which are occasioned by emotions that creates +the necessity for auxiliary means of expression, and thus +gives us instrumental music. + +Since the advent of the drum a great stride toward civilization +had been made. Mankind no longer lived in caves but built huts +and even temples, and the conditions under which he lived +must have been similar to those of the natives of Central +Africa before travellers opened up the Dark Continent to the +caravan of the European trader. If we look up the subject in +the narratives of Livingstone or Stanley we find that these +people lived in groups of coarsely-thatched huts, the village +being almost invariably surrounded by a kind of stockade. Now +this manner of living is identically the same as that of all +savage tribes which have not passed beyond the drum state +of civilization, namely, a few huts huddled together and +surrounded by a palisade of bamboo or cane. Since the pith +would decompose in a short time, we should probably find that +the wind, whirling across such a palisade of pipes--for that is +what our bamboos would have turned to--would produce musical +sounds, in fact, exactly the sounds that a large set of Pan's +pipes would produce. For after all what we call Pan's pipes +are simply pieces of bamboo or cane of different lengths tied +together and made to sound by blowing across the open tops. + +The theory may be objected to on the ground that it scarcely +proves the antiquity of the pipe to be less than that of the +drum; but the objection is hardly of importance when we consider +that the drum was known long before mankind had reached the +"hut" stage of civilization. Under the head of pipe, the +trumpet and all its derivatives must be accepted. On this point +there has been much controversy. But it seems reasonable to +believe that once it was found that sound could be produced +by blowing across the top of a hollow pipe, the most natural +thing to do would be to try the same effect on all hollow +things differing in shape and material from the original +bamboo. This would account for the conch shells of the Amazons +which, according to travellers' tales, were used to proclaim +an attack in war; in Africa the tusks of elephants were used; +in North America the instrument did not rise above the whistle +made from the small bones of a deer or of a turkey's leg. + +That the Pan's pipes are the originals of all these species +seems hardly open to doubt. Even among the Greeks and Romans +we see traces of them in the double trumpet and the double +pipe. These trumpets became larger and larger in form, and +the force required to play them was such that the player +had to adopt a kind of leather harness to strengthen his +cheeks. Before this development had been reached, however, +I have no doubt that all wind instruments were of the Pan's +pipes variety; that is to say, the instruments consisted of a +hollow tube shut at one end, the sound being produced by the +breath catching on the open edge of the tube. + +Direct blowing into the tube doubtless came later. In +this case the tube was open at both ends, and the sound +was determined by its length and by the force given to the +breath in playing. There is good reason for admitting this new +instrument to be a descendant of the Pan's pipes, for it was +evidently played by the nose at first. This would preclude +its being considered as an originally forcible instrument, +such as the trumpet. + +Now that we have traced the history of the pipe and considered +the different types of the instrument, we can see immediately +that it brought no great new truth home to man as did the drum. + +The savage who first climbed secretly to the top of the +stockade around his village to investigate the cause of the +mysterious sounds would naturally say that the Great Spirit +had revealed a mystery to him; and he would also claim to be +a wonder worker. But while his pipe would be accepted to a +certain degree, it was nevertheless second in the field and +could hardly replace the drum. Besides, mankind had already +commenced to think on a higher plane, and the pipe was reduced +to filling what gaps it could in the language of the emotions. + +The second strongest emotion of the race is love. All over the +world, wherever we find the pipe in its softer, earlier form, we +find it connected with love songs. In time it degenerated into +a synonym for something contemptibly slothful and worthless, +so much so that Plato wished to banish it from his "Republic," +saying that the Lydian pipe should not have a place in a +decent community. + +On the other hand, the trumpet branch of the family developed +into something quite different. At the very beginning it was +used for war, and as its object was to frighten, it became +larger and larger in form, and more formidable in sound. In +this respect it only kept pace with the drum, for we read +of Assyrian and Thibetan trumpets two or three yards long, +and of the Aztec war drum which reached the enormous height +of ten feet, and could be heard for miles. + +Now this, the trumpet species of pipe, we find also used as an +auxiliary "spiritual" help to the drum. We are told by M. Huc, +in his "Travels in Thibet," that the llamas of Thibet have +a custom of assembling on the roofs of Lhassa at a stated +period and blowing enormous trumpets, making the most hideous +midnight din imaginable. The reason given for this was that +in former days the city was terrorized by demons who rose from +a deep ravine and crept through all the houses, working evil +everywhere. After the priests had exorcised them by blowing +these trumpets, the town was troubled no more. In Africa the +same demonstration of trumpet blowing occurs at an eclipse +of the moon; and, to draw the theory out to a thin thread, +anyone who has lived in a small German Protestant town will +remember the chorals which are so often played before sunrise +by a band of trumpets, horns, and trombones from the belfry of +some church tower. Almost up to the end of the last century +trombones were intimately connected with the church service; +and if we look back to Zoroaster we find the sacerdotal +character of this species of instrument very plainly indicated. + +Now let us turn back to the Pan's pipes and its direct +descendants, the flute, the clarinet, and the oboe. We shall +find that they had no connection whatever with religious +observances. Even in the nineteenth century novel we are +familiar with the kind of hero who played the flute--a very +sentimental gentleman always in love. If he had played the +clarinet he would have been very sorrowful and discouraged; and +if it had been the oboe (which, to the best of my knowledge, +has never been attempted in fiction) he would have needed to +be a very ill man indeed. + +Now we never hear of these latter kinds of pipes being +considered fit for anything but the dance, love songs, or love +charms. In the beginning of the seventeenth century Garcilaso +de la Vega, the historian of Peru, tells of the astonishing +power of a love song played on a flute. We find so-called +"courting" flutes in Formosa and Peru, and Catlin tells of the +Winnebago courting flute. The same instrument was known in Java, +as the old Dutch settlers have told us. But we never hear of it +as creating awe, or as being thought a fit instrument to use +with the drum or trumpet in connection with religious rites. +Leonardo da Vinci had a flute player make music while he +painted his picture of Mona Lisa, thinking that it gave her the +expression he wished to catch--that strange smile reproduced +in the Louvre painting. The flute member of the pipe species, +therefore, was more or less an emblem of eroticism, and, as I +have already said, has never been even remotely identified with +religious mysticism, with perhaps the one exception of Indra's +flute, which, however, never seems to have been able to retain a +place among religious symbols. The trumpet, on the other hand, +has retained something of a mystical character even to our +day. The most powerful illustration of this known to me is +in the "Requiem" by Berlioz. The effect of those tremendous +trumpet calls from the four corners of the orchestra is an +overwhelming one, of crushing power and majesty, much of which +is due to the rhythm. + +To sum up. We may regard rhythm as the intellectual side +of music, melody as its sensuous side. The pipe is the one +instrument that seems to affect animals--hooded cobras, +lizards, fish, etc. Animals' natures are purely sensuous, +therefore the pipe, or to put it more broadly, melody, affects +them. To rhythm, on the other hand, they are indifferent; +it appeals to the intellect, and therefore only to man. + +This theory would certainly account for much of the +potency of what we moderns call music. All that aims to be +dramatic, tragic, supernatural in our modern music, derives +its impressiveness directly from rhythm.[01] What would +that shudder of horror in Weber's "Freischuetz" be without +that throb of the basses? Merely a diminished chord of the +seventh. Add the pizzicato in the basses and the chord sinks +into something fearsome; one has a sudden choking sensation, +as if one were listening in fear, or as if the heart had +almost stopped beating. All through Wagner's music dramas +this powerful effect is employed, from "The Flying Dutchman" +to "Parsifal." Every composer from Beethoven to Nicode has +used the same means to express the same emotions; it is the +medium that pre-historic man first knew; it produced the same +sensation of fear in him that it does in us at the present day. + +Rhythm denotes a thought; it is the expression of a +purpose. There is will behind it; its vital part is intention, +power; it is an act. Melody, on the other hand, is an almost +unconscious expression of the senses; it translates feeling +into sound. It is the natural outlet for sensation. In anger +we raise the voice; in sadness we lower it. In talking we +give expression to the emotions in sound. In a sentence in +which fury alternates with sorrow, we have the limits of the +melody of speech. Add to this rhythm, and the very height of +expression is reached; for by it the intellect will dominate +the sensuous. + + +[01] The strength of the "Fate" motive in Beethoven's fifth + symphony undoubtedly lies in the succession of the four + notes at equal intervals of time. Beethoven himself + marked it _So pocht das Schicksal an die Pforte_. + + + + +II + +ORIGIN OF SONG vs. ORIGIN OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC + + +Emerson characterized language as "fossil poetry," but "fossil +music" would have described it even better; for as Darwin says, +man _sang_ before he became human. + +Gerber, in his "Sprache als Kunst," describing the degeneration +of sound symbols, says "the saving point of language is +that the original material meanings of words have become +forgotten or lost in their acquired ideal meaning." This +applies with special force to the languages of China, Egypt, +and India. Up to the last two centuries our written music +was held in bondage, was "fossil music," so to speak. Only +certain progressions of sounds were allowed, for religion +controlled music. In the Middle Ages folk song was used by +the Church, and a certain amount of control was exercised +over it; even up to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries +the use of sharps and flats was frowned upon in church music. +But gradually music began to break loose from its old chains, +and in our own century we see Beethoven snap the last thread +of that powerful restraint which had held it so long. + +The vital germ of music, as we know it, lay in the fact that +it had always found a home in the hearts of the common people +of all nations. While from time immemorial theory, mostly in +the form of mathematical problems, was being fought over, and +while laws were being laid down by religions and governments +of all nations as to what music must be and what music was +forbidden to be, the vital spark of the divine art was being +kept alive deep beneath the ashes of life in the hearts of the +oppressed common folk. They still sang as they felt; when the +mood was sad the song mirrored the sorrow; if it were gay the +song echoed it, despite the disputes of philosophers and the +commands of governments and religion. Montaigne, in speaking +of language, said with truth, "'Tis folly to attempt to fight +custom with theories." This folk song, to use a Germanism, +we can hardly take into account at the present moment, though +later we shall see that spark fanned into fire by Beethoven, +and carried by Richard Wagner as a flaming torch through the +very home of the gods, "Walhalla." + +Let us go back to our dust heap. Words have been called +"decayed sentences," that is to say, every word was once a +small sentence complete in itself. This theory seems true +enough when we remember that mankind has three languages, +each complementing the other. For even now we say many words +in one, when that word is reinforced and completed by our +vocabulary of sounds and expression, which, in turn, has its +shadow, gesture. These shadow languages, which accompany +all our words, give to the latter vitality and raise them +from mere abstract symbols to living representatives of +the idea. Indeed, in certain languages, this auxiliary +expression even overshadows the spoken word. For instance, +in Chinese, the _theng_ or intonation of words is much more +important than the actual words themselves. Thus the third +intonation or _theng_, as it is called in the Pekin dialect, +is an upward inflection of the voice. A word with this upward +inflection would be unintelligible if given the fourth _theng_ +or downward inflection. For instance, the word "kwai" with a +downward inflection means "honourable," but give it an upward +inflection "kwai" and it means "devil." + +Just as a word was originally a sentence, so was a tone in +music something of a melody. One of the first things that +impresses us in studying examples of savage music is the +monotonic nature of the melodies; indeed some of the music +consists almost entirely of one oft-repeated sound. Those +who have heard this music say that the actual effect is not +one of a steady repetition of a single tone, but rather that +there seems to be an almost imperceptible rising and falling +of the voice. The primitive savage is unable to sing a tone +clearly and cleanly, the pitch invariably wavering. From +this almost imperceptible rising and falling of the voice +above and below one tone we are able to gauge more or less the +state of civilization of the nation to which the song belongs. +This phrase-tone corresponds, therefore, to the sentence-word, +and like it, gradually loses its meaning as a phrase and fades +into a tone which, in turn, will be used in new phrases as +mankind mounts the ladder of civilization. + +At last then we have a single tone clearly uttered, and +recognizable as a musical tone. We can even make a plausible +guess as to what that tone was. Gardiner, in his "Music of +Nature," tells of experiments he made in order to determine the +normal pitch of the human voice. By going often to the gallery +of the London Stock Exchange he found that the roar of voices +invariably amalgamated into one long note, which was always +F. If we look over the various examples of monotonic savage +music quoted by Fletcher, Fillmore, Baker, Wilkes, Catlin, +and others, we find additional corroboration of the statement; +song after song, it will be noticed, is composed entirely of +F, G, and even F alone or G alone. Such songs are generally +ancient ones, and have been crystallized and held intact by +religion, in much the same way that the chanting heard in the +Roman Catholic service has been preserved. + +Let us assume then that the normal tone of the human voice +in speaking is F or G [F: f g] for men, and for women the +octave higher. This tone does very well for our everyday life; +perhaps a pleasant impression may raise it somewhat, _ennui_ may +depress it slightly; but the average tone of our "commonplace" +talk, if I may call it that, will be about F. But let some +sudden emotion come, and we find monotone speech abandoned for +impassioned speech, as it has been called. Instead of keeping +the voice evenly on one or two notes, we speak much higher or +lower than our normal pitch. + +And these sounds may be measured and classified to a certain +extent according to the emotions which cause them, although +it must be borne in mind that we are looking at the matter +collectively; that is to say, without reckoning on individual +idiosyncrasies of expression in speech. Of course we know that +joy is apt to make us raise the voice and sadness to lower +it. For instance, we have all heard gruesome stories, and +have noticed how naturally the voice sinks in the telling. A +ghost story told with an upward inflection might easily +become humourous, so instinctively do we associate the upward +inflection with a non-pessimistic trend of thought. Under stress +of emotion we emphasize words strongly, and with this emphasis +we almost invariably raise the voice a fifth or depress it a +fifth; with yet stronger emotion the interval of change will +be an octave. We raise the voice almost to a scream or drop it +to a whisper. Strangely enough these primitive notes of music +correspond to the first two of those harmonics which are part +and parcel of every musical sound. Generally speaking, we may +say that the ascending inflection carries something of joy +or hope with it, while the downward inflection has something +of the sinister and fearful. To be sure, we raise our voices +in anger and in pain, but even then the inflection is almost +always downward; in other words, we pitch our voices higher and +let them fall slightly. For instance, if we heard a person cry +"Ah/" we might doubt its being a cry of pain, but if it were +"Ah\" we should at once know that it was caused by pain, +either mental or physical. + +The declamation at the end of Schubert's "Erlking" would have +been absolutely false if the penultimate note had ascended to +the tonic instead of descending a fifth. "The child lay dead." + +How fatally hopeless would be the opening measures of "Tristan +and Isolde" without that upward inflection which comes like a +sunbeam through a rift in the cloud; with a downward inflection +the effect would be that of unrelieved gloom. In the Prelude to +"Lohengrin," Wagner pictures his angels in dazzling white. He +uses the highest vibrating sounds at his command. But for +the dwarfs who live in the gloom of Niebelheim he chooses +deep shades of red, the lowest vibrating colour of the solar +spectrum. For it is in the nature of the spiritual part +of mankind to shrink from the earth, to aspire to something +higher; a bird soaring in the blue above us has something of +the ethereal; we give wings to our angels. On the other hand, +a serpent impresses us as something sinister. Trees, with +their strange fight against all the laws of gravity, striving +upward unceasingly, bring us something of hope and faith; the +sight of them cheers us. A land without trees is depressing and +gloomy. As Ruskin says, "The sea wave, with all its beneficence, +is yet devouring and terrible; but the silent wave of the blue +mountain is lifted towards Heaven in a stillness of perpetual +mercy; and while the one surges unfathomable in its darkness, +the other is unshaken in its faithfulness." + +And yet so strange is human nature that that which we +call civilization strives unceasingly to nullify emotion. +The almost childlike faith which made our church spires +point heavenward also gave us Gothic architecture, that +emblem of frail humanity striving towards the ideal. It is +a long leap from that childlike faith to the present day of +skyscrapers. For so is the world constituted. A great truth +too often becomes gradually a truism, then a merely tolerated +and uninteresting theory; gradually it becomes obsolete +and sometimes even degenerates into a symbol of sarcasm or a +servant of utilitarianism. This we are illustrating every day +of our lives. We speak of a person's being "silly," and yet +the word comes from "saelig," old English for "blessed"; to act +"sheepishly" once had reference to divine resignation, "even +as a sheep led to the slaughter," and so on _ad infinitum_. +We build but few great cathedrals now. Our tall buildings +generally point to utilitarianism and the almighty dollar. + +But in the new art, music, we have found a new domain in which +impulses have retained their freshness and warmth, in which, +to quote Goethe, "first comes the act, then the word"; first +the expression of emotion, then the theory that classifies it; +a domain in which words cannot lose their original meanings +entirely, as in speech. For in spite of the strange twistings +of ultra modern music, a simple melody still embodies the +same pathos for us that it did for our grandparents. To be +sure the poignancy of harmony in our day has been heightened +to an incredible degree. We deal in gorgeous colouring and +mighty sound masses which would have been amazing in the last +century; but still through it all we find in Haendel, Beethoven, +and Schubert, up to Wagner, the same great truths of declamation +that I have tried to explain to you. + +Herbert Spencer, in an essay on "The Origin and Functions of +Music," speaks of speech as the parent of music. He says, +"utterance, which when languaged is speech, gave rise to +music." The definition is incomplete, for "languaged utterance," +as he calls it, which is speech, is a duality, is either an +expression of emotion or a mere symbol of emotion, and as such +has gradually sunk to the level of the commonplace. As Rowbotham +points out, impassioned speech is the parent of music, while +unimpassioned speech has remained the vehicle for the smaller +emotions of life, the everyday expression of everyday emotions. + +In studying the music of different nations we are confronted +by one fact which seems to be part and parcel of almost every +nationality, namely, the constant recurrence of what is called +the five tone (pentatonic) scale. We find it in primitive +forms of music all the world over, in China and in Scotland, +among the Burmese, and again in North America. Why it is so +seems almost doomed to remain a mystery. The following theory +may nevertheless be advanced as being at least plausible: + +Vocal music, as we understand it, and as I have already +explained, began when the first tone could be given clearly; +that is to say, when the sound sentence had amalgamated into the +single musical tone. The pitch being sometimes F, sometimes G, +sudden emotion gives us the fifth, C or D, and the strongest +emotion the octave, F or G. Thus we have already the following +sounds in our first musical scale. + + [G: f' g' c'' d'' f''] + +We know how singers slur from one tone to another. It is a +fault that caused the fathers of harmony to prohibit what +are called hidden fifths in vocal music. The jump from G to +C in the above scale fragment would be slurred, for we must +remember that the intoning of clear individual sounds was +still a novelty to the savage. Now the distance from G to +C is too small to admit two tones such as the savage knew; +consequently, for the sake of uniformity, he would try to +put but one tone between, singing a mixture of A and B[flat], +which sound in time fell definitely to A, leaving the mystery +of the half-tone unsolved. This addition of the third would +thus fall in with the law of harmonics again. First we have the +keynote; next in importance comes the fifth; and last of all +the third. Thus again is the absence of the major seventh in +our primitive scale perfectly logical; we may search in vain +in our list of harmonics for the tone which forms that interval. + +Now that we have traced the influence of passionate utterance +on music, it still remains for us to consider the influence +of something very different. The dance played an important +role in the shaping of the art of music; for to it music owes +periodicity, form, the shaping of phrases into measures, +even its rests. And in this music is not the only debtor, +for poetry owes its very "feet" to the dance. + +Now the dance was, and is, an irresponsible thing. It had no +_raison d'etre_ except purely physical enjoyment. This rhythmic +swaying of the body and light tapping of the feet have always +had a mysterious attraction and fascination for mankind, +and music and poetry were caught in its swaying measures +early in the dawn of art. When a man walks, he takes either +long steps or short steps, he walks fast or slow. But when +he takes one long step and one short one, when one step is +slow and the other fast, he no longer walks, he dances. Thus +we may say with reasonable certainty that triple time arose +directly from the dance, for triple time is simply one strong, +long beat followed by a short, light one, viz.: [2 4] or +[- '], the "trochee" in our poetry. [4 2] [' -], Iambic. +The spondee [2 2] or [- -], which is the rhythm of prose, +we already possessed; for when we walk it is in spondees, +namely, in groups of two equal steps. Now imagine dancing +to spondees! At first the steps will be equal, but the body +rests on the first beat; little by little the second beat, +being thus relegated to a position of relative unimportance, +becomes shorter and shorter, and we rest longer on the first +beat. The result is the trochaic rhythm. We can see that this +result is inevitable, even if only the question of physical +fatigue is considered. And, to carry on our theory, this very +question of fatigue still further develops rhythm. The strong +beat always coming on one foot, and the light beat on the other, +would soon tire the dancer; therefore some way must be found +to make the strong beat alternate from one foot to the other. +The simplest, and in fact almost the only way to do this, +is to insert an additional short beat before the light beat. +This gives us [- ' -] or [4. 8 4], the dactyl in poetry. + +We have, moreover, here discovered the beginning of form, and +have begun to group our musical tones in measures and phrases; +for our second dactyl is slightly different from the first, +because the right foot begins the first and the left foot the +second. We have two measures [(4. 8 4 | 4. 8 4)] + [(- ' - | - ' -)] +and one phrase, for after the second measure the right foot +will again have the beat and will begin another phrase of two +measures. + +Carry this theory still further, and we shall make new +discoveries. If we dance in the open air, unless we would dance +over the horizon, we must turn somewhere; and if we have but a +small space in which to dance, the turns must come sooner and +oftener. Even if we danced in a circle we should need to reverse +the motion occasionally, in order to avoid giddiness; and this +would measure off our phrases into periods and sections. + +Thus we see music dividing into two classes, one purely +emotional, the other sensuous; the one arising from the language +of heroes, the other from the swaying of the body and the patter +of feet. To both of these elements, if we may call them so, +metre and melody brought their power; to declamation, metre +brought its potent vitality; to the dance, melody added its soft +charm and lulling rhyme. The intellectual in music, namely, +rhythm and declamation, thus joined forces, as did the purely +sensuous elements, melody and metre (dance). At the first glance +it would seem as if the dance with its rhythms contradicted the +theory of rhythm as being one of the two vital factors in music; +but when we consider the fact that dance-rhythms are merely +regular pulsations (once commenced they pulsate regularly to +the end, without break or change), and when we consider that +just this unbroken regularity is the very antithesis of what +we mean by rhythm, the purely sensuous nature of the dance is +manifest. Strauss was the first to recognize this defect in +the waltz, and he remedied it, so far as it lay within human +skill, by a marvellous use of counter-rhythms, thus infusing +into the dance a simulation of intellectuality. + +The weaving together of these elements into one art-fabric has +been the ideal of all poets from Homer to Wagner. The Greeks +idealized their dances; that is to say, they made their dances +fit their declamation. In the last two centuries, and especially +in the middle of the nineteenth, we have danced our highest +flights of impassioned speech. For what is the symphony, sonata, +etc., but a remnant of the dance form? The choric dances of +Stesichorus and Pindar came strangely near our modern forms, +but it was because the form fitted the poem. In our modern +days, we too often, Procrustes-like, make our ideas to fit the +forms. We put our guest, the poetic thought, that comes to us +like a homing bird from out the mystery of the blue sky--we +put this confiding stranger straightway into that iron bed, +the "sonata form," or perhaps even the third rondo form, +for we have quite an assortment. Should the idea survive +and grow too large for the bed, and if we have learned to +love it too much to cut off its feet and thus _make_ it fit +(as did that old robber of Attica), why we run the risk of +having some critic wise in his theoretical knowledge, say, +as was and is said of Chopin, "He is weak in sonata form!" + +There are two ways of looking at music: first, as impassioned +speech, the nearest psychologically-complete utterance of +emotion known to man; second, as the dance, comprising as it +does all that appeals to our nature. And there is much that is +lovely in this idea of nature--for do not the seasons dance, +and is it not in that ancient measure we have already spoken of, +the trochaic? Long Winter comes with heavy foot, and Spring is +the light-footed. Again, Summer is long, and Autumn short and +cheery; and so our phrase begins again and again. We all know +with what periodicity everything in nature dances, and how the +smallest flower is a marvel of recurring rhymes and rhythms, +with perfume for a melody. How Shakespeare's Beatrice charms us +when she says, "There a star danced, and under that was I born." + +And yet man is not part of Nature. Even in the depths of the +primeval forest, that poor savage, whom we found listening +fearfully to the sound of his drum, knew better. Mankind lives +in isolation, and Nature is a thing for him to conquer. For +Nature is a thing that exists, while man _thinks_. Nature is +that which passively lives while man actively wills. It is the +strain of Nature in man that gave him the dance, and it is his +godlike fight against Nature that gave him impassioned speech; +beauty of form and motion on one side, all that is divine in man +on the other; on one side materialism, on the other idealism. + +We have traced the origin of the drum, pipe, and the voice in +music. It still remains for us to speak of the lyre and the +lute, the ancestors of our modern stringed instruments. The +relative antiquity of the lyre and the lute as compared with +the harp has been much discussed, the main contention against +the lyre being that it is a more artificial instrument than +the harp; the harp was played with the fingers alone, while the +lyre was played with a plectrum (a small piece of metal, wood, +or ivory). Perhaps it would be safer to take the lute as the +earliest form of the stringed instrument, for, from the very +first, we find two species of instruments with strings, one +played with the fingers, the prototype of our modern harps, +banjos, guitars, etc., the other played with the plectrum, +the ancestor of all our modern stringed instruments played by +means of bows and hammers, such as violins, pianos, etc. + +However this may be, one thing is certain, the possession of +these instruments implies already a considerable measure of +culture, for they were not haphazard things. They were made for +a purpose, were invented to fill a gap in the ever-increasing +needs of expression. In Homer we find a description of the +making of a lyre by Hermes, how this making of a lyre from the +shell of a tortoise that happened to pass before the entrance to +the grotto of his mother, Maia, was his first exploit; and that +he made it to accompany his song in praise of his father Zeus. +We must accept this explanation of the origin of the lyre, +namely, that it was deliberately invented to accompany the +voice. For the lyre in its primitive state was never a solo +instrument; the tone was weak and its powers of expression +were exceedingly limited. On the other hand, it furnished an +excellent background for the voice and, which was still more +to the point, the singer could accompany himself. The drum +had too vague a pitch, and the flute or pipe necessitated +another performer, besides having too much similarity of tone +to the voice to give sufficient contrast. Granted then that the +lyre was invented to accompany the voice, and without wasting +time with surmises as to whether the first idea of stringed +instruments was received from the twanging of a bowstring +or the finding of a tortoise shell with the half-dessicated +tendons of the animal still stretching across it, let us find +when the instrument was seemingly first used. + +That the lyre and lute are of Asiatic origin is generally +conceded, and even in comparatively modern times, Asia seems to +be the home of its descendants. The Tartars have been called +the troubadours of Asia--and of Asia in the widest sense of +the word--penetrating into the heart of the Caucasus on the +west and reaching through the country eastward to the shores of +the Yellow Sea. Marco Polo, the celebrated Venetian traveller, +and M. Huc, a French missionary to China and Thibet, as well +as Spencer, Atkinson, and many others, speak of the wandering +bards of Asia. Marco Polo's account of how Jenghiz Kahn, the +great Mongol conqueror, sent an expedition composed entirely of +minstrels against Mien, a city of 30,000 inhabitants, has often +been quoted to show what an abundance--or perhaps superfluity +would be the better word--of musicians he had at his court. + +That the lyre could not be of Greek origin is proved by the fact +that no root has been discovered in the language for _lyra_, +although there are many special names for varieties of the +instrument. Leaving aside the question of the geographical +origin of the instrument, we may say, broadly, that wherever +we find a nation with even the smallest approach to a history, +there we shall find bards singing of the exploits of heroes, +and always to the accompaniment of the lyre or the lute. For at +last, by means of these instruments, impassioned speech was able +to lift itself permanently above the level of everyday life, +and its lofty song could dispense with the soft, sensuous +lull of the flute. And we shall see later how these bards +became seers, and how even our very angels received harps, +so closely did the instrument become associated with what I +have called impassioned speech, which, in other words, is the +highest expression of what we consider godlike in man. + + + + +III + +THE MUSIC OF THE HEBREWS AND THE HINDUS + + +The music of the Hebrews presents one of the most interesting +subjects in musical history, although it has an unfortunate +defect in common with so many kindred subjects, namely, +that the most learned dissertation must invariably end with +a question mark. When we read in Josephus that Solomon had +200,000 singers, 40,000 harpers, 40,000 sistrum players, and +200,000 trumpeters, we simply do not believe it. Then too +there is lack of unanimity in the matter of the essential +facts. One authority, describing the _machol_, says it is +a stringed instrument resembling a modern viola; another +describes it as a wind instrument somewhat like a bagpipe; +still another says it is a metal ring with a bell attachment +like an Egyptian sistrum; and finally an equally respected +authority claims that the _machol_ was not an instrument at +all, but a dance. Similarly the _maanim_ has been described +as a trumpet, a kind of rattle box with metal clappers, and +we even have a full account in which it figures as a violin. + +The temple songs which we know have evidently been much +changed by surrounding influences, just as in modern synagogues +the architecture has not held fast to ancient Hebrew models +but has been greatly influenced by different countries and +peoples. David may be considered the founder of Hebrew music, +and his reign has been well called an "idyllic episode in the +otherwise rather grim history of Israel." + +Of the instruments named in the Scriptures, that called the +harp in our English translation was probably the _kinnor_, +a kind of lyre played by means of a plectrum, which was a +small piece of metal, wood, or bone. The psaltery or _nebel_ +(which was of course derived from the Egyptian _nabla_, just +as the _kinnor_ probably was in some mysterious manner derived +from the Chinese _kin_) was a kind of dulcimer or zither, an +oblong box with strings which were struck by small hammers. The +timbrel corresponds to our modern tambourine. The _schofar_ +and _keren_ were horns. The former was the well-known ram's horn +which is still blown on the occasion of the Jewish New Year. + +In the Talmud mention is made of an organ consisting of ten +pipes which could give one hundred different sounds, each pipe +being able to produce ten tones. This mysterious instrument was +called _magrepha_, and although but one Levite (the Levites were +the professional musicians among the Hebrews) was required to +play it, and although it was only about three feet in length, +its sound was so tremendous that it could be heard ten miles +away. Hieronymus speaks of having heard it on the Mount of +Olives when it was played in the Temple at Jerusalem. To add +to the mystery surrounding this instrument, it has been proved +by several learned authorities that it was merely a large drum; +and, to cap the climax, other equally respected writers have +declared that this instrument was simply a large shovel which, +after being used for the sacrificial fire in the temple, was +thrown to the ground with a great noise, to inform the people +that the sacrifice was consummated. + +It is reasonably certain that the seemingly incongruous titles +to the Psalms were merely given to denote the tune to which +they were to be sung, just as in our modern hymns we use the +words _Canterbury_, _Old Hundredth_, _China_, etc. + +The word _selah_ has never been satisfactorily explained, some +readings giving as its meaning "forever," "hallelujah," etc., +while others say that it means repeat, an inflection of the +voice, a modulation to another key, an instrumental interlude, +a rest, and so on without end. + +Of one thing we may be certain regarding the ancient Hebrews, +namely, that their religion brought something into the world +that can never again be lost. It fostered idealism, and gave +mankind something pure and noble to live for, a religion +over which Christianity shed the sunshine of divine mercy +and hope. That the change which was to be wrought in life was +sharply defined may be seen by comparing the great songs of the +different nations. For up to that time a song of praise meant +praise of a _King_. He was the sun that warmed men's hearts, +the being from whom all wisdom came, and to whom men looked +for mercy. If we compare the Egyptian hymns with those of the +Hebrews, the difference is very striking. On the walls of the +great temples of Luxor and the Ramesseum at Thebes, as well as +on the wall of the temple of Abydos and in the main hall of the +great rock-hewn temple of Abu-Simbel, in Nubia, is carved the +"Epic of Pentaur," the royal Egyptian scribe of Rameses II: + + My king, his arms are mighty, his heart is firm. He + bends his bow and none can resist him. Mightier + than a hundred thousand men he marches forward. His + counsel is wise and when he wears the royal crown, + Alef, and declares his will, he is the protector of + his people. His heart is like a mountain of iron. Such + is King Rameses. + +If we turn to the Hebrew prophets, this is their song: + + The mountains melted from before the Lord and before + Him went the pestilence; burning coals went forth at + His feet. Hell is naked before Him and destruction + hath no covering. He hangeth the earth upon nothing + and the pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished + at His reproof. Though He slay me, yet will I trust + in Him. For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and at + the last day He shall stand upon the earth. + +As with the Hebrews, music among the Hindus was closely +bound to religion. When, 3000 years before the Christian era, +that wonderful, tall, white Aryan race of men descended upon +India from the north, its poets already sang of the gods, +and the Aryan gods were of a different order from those known +to that part of the world; for they were beautiful in shape, +and friendly to man, in great contrast to the gods of the +Davidians, the pre-Aryan race and stock of the Deccan. These +songs formed the _Rig-Veda_, and are the nucleus from which +all Hindu religion and art emanate. + +We already know that when the auxiliary speech which we call +music was first discovered, or, to use the language of all +primitive nations, when it was first bestowed on man by the +gods, it retained much of the supernatural potency that its +origin would suggest. In India, music was invested with divine +power, and certain hymns--especially the prayer or chant of +Vashishtha--were, according to the _Rig-Veda_, all powerful in +battle. Such a magic song, or chant, was called a _brahma_, +and he who sang it a _brahmin_. Thus the very foundation of +Brahminism, from which rose Buddhism in the sixth century +B.C., can be traced back to the music of the sacred songs of +the _Rig-Veda_ of India. The priestly or Brahmin caste grew +therefore from the singers of the Vedic hymns. The Brahmins +were not merely the keepers of the sacred books, or Vedas, the +philosophy, science, and laws of the ancient Hindus (for that is +how the power of the caste developed), but they were also the +creators and custodians of its secular literature and art. Two +and a half thousand years later Prince Gautama or Buddha died, +after a life of self-sacrifice and sanctity. On his death five +hundred of his disciples met in a cave near Rajagriha to gather +together his sayings, and chanted the lessons of their great +master. These songs became the bible of Buddhism, just as the +_Vedas_ are the bible of Brahminism, for the Hindu word for +a Buddhist council means literally "a singing together." + +Besides the sacred songs of the Brahmins and Buddhists, the +Hindus had many others, some of which partook of the occult +powers of the hymns, occult powers that were as strongly marked +as those of Hebrew music. For while the latter are revealed in +the playing of David before Saul, in the influence of music on +prophecy, the falling of the walls of Jericho at the sound of +the trumpets of Joshua, etc., in India the same supernatural +power was ascribed to certain songs. For instance, there were +songs that could be sung only by the gods, and one of them, so +the legend runs, if sung by a mortal, would envelop the singer +in flames. The last instance of the singing of this song was +during the reign of Akbar, the great Mogul emperor (about 1575 +A.D.). At his command the singer sang it standing up to his +neck in the river Djaumna, which, however, did not save him, +for, according to the account, the water around him boiled, +and he was finally consumed by a flame of fire. Another of +Akbar's singers caused the palace to be wrapped in darkness +by means of one of these magic songs, and another averted a +famine by causing rain to fall when the country was threatened +by drought. Animals were also tamed by means of certain songs, +the only relic of which is found in the serpent charmers' +melodies, which, played on a kind of pipe, seem to possess the +power of controlling cobras and the other snakes exhibited by +the Indian fakirs. + +Many years before Gautama's time, the brahmas or singers of +sacred songs of ancient India formed themselves into a caste or +priesthood; and the word "Brahma," from meaning a sacred singer, +became the name of the supreme deity; in time, as the nation +grew, other gods were taken into the religion. Thus we find in +pre-Buddha times the trinity of gods: Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, +with their wives, Sarasvati or learning, Lakshmi or beauty, +and Paravati, who was also called Kali, Durga, and Mahadevi, +and was practically the goddess of evil. Of these gods Brahma's +consort, Sarasvati, the goddess of speech and learning, brought +to earth the art of music, and gave to mankind the _Vina_. + +This instrument is still in use and may be called the national +instrument of India. It is composed of a cylindrical pipe, +often bamboo, about three and a half feet long, at each end +of which is fixed a hollow gourd to increase the tone. It is +strung lengthwise with seven metal wires held up by nineteen +wooden bridges, just as the violin strings are supported by a +bridge. The scale of the instrument proceeds in half tones from +[F: a,] to [G: b''] The tones are produced by plucking the +strings with the fingers (which are covered with a kind of +metal thimble), and the instrument is held so that one of +the gourds hangs over the left shoulder, just as one would +hold a very long-necked banjo. + +It is to the Krishna incarnation of Vishnu that the Hindu scale +is ascribed. According to the legend, Krishna or Vishnu came to +earth and took the form of a shepherd, and the nymphs sang to +him in many thousand different keys, of which from twenty-four +to thirty-six are known and form the basis of Hindu music. To +be sure these keys, being formed by different successions of +quarter-tones, are practically inexhaustible, and the 16,000 +keys of Krishna are quite practicable. The differences in tone, +however, were so very slight that only a few, of them have +been retained to the present time. + +The Hindus get their flute from the god Indra, who, from being +originally the all-powerful deity, was relegated by Brahminism +to the chief place among the minor gods--from being the god +of light and air he came to be the god of music. His retinue +consisted of the _gandharvas_, and _apsaras_, or celestial +musicians and nymphs, who sang magic songs. After the rise and +downfall of Buddhism in India the term _raga_ degenerated to +a name for a merely improvised chant to which no occult power +was ascribed. + +The principal characteristics in modern Hindu music are a +seemingly instinctive sense of harmony; and although the actual +chords are absent, the melodic formation of the songs plainly +indicates a feeling for modern harmony, and even form. The +actual scale resembles our European scale of twelve semitones +(twenty-two _s'rutis_, quarter-tones), but the modal development +of these sounds has been extraordinary. Now a "mode" is the +manner in which the notes of a scale are arranged. For instance, +in our major mode the scale is arranged as follows: tone, +tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone. In India there +are at present seventy-two modes in use which are produced by +making seventy-two different arrangements of the scale by means +of sharps and flats, the only rule being that each degree of +the scale must be represented; for instance, one of the modes +_Dehrasan-Karabharna_ corresponds to our major scale. Our minor +(harmonic) scale figures as _Kyravani_. _Tanarupi_ corresponds +to the following succession of notes, + + [G: c' d-' e--' f' g' a+' b' c''] + +_Gavambodi_, to [G: c' d-' e-' f+' g' a-' b--' c''] + +_Maya-Malavagaula_, to [G: c' d' e-' f' g-' a' b-' c''] + +It can thus easily be seen how the seventy-two modes are +possible and practicable. Observe that the seven degrees of +the scale are all represented in these modes, the difference +between them being in the placing of half-tones by means of +sharps or flats. Not content with the complexity that this modal +system brought into their music, the Hindus have increased it +still more by inventing a number of formulae called _ragas_ +(not to be confounded with those rhapsodical songs, the modern +descendant of the magic chants, previously mentioned). + +In making a Hindu melody (which of course must be in one of +the seventy-two modes, just as in English we should say that a +melody must be in one of our two modes, either major or minor) +one would have to conform to one of the _ragas_, that is to +say, the melodic outline would have to conform to certain +rules, both in ascending and descending. These rules consist +of omitting notes of the modes, in one manner when the melody +ascends, and in another when it descends. Thus, in the _raga_ +called _Mohanna_, in ascending the notes must be arranged in +the following order: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8; in descending it is 8, +7, 5, 4, 2, 1. Thus if we wished to write a melody in the mode +_Tanarupi_--_raga Mohanna_--we could never use the fourth, +F, or the seventh, B, if our melody ascended; if our melody +descended we should have to avoid the sixth, A[sharp], and the +third, E[double-flat]. As one can easily perceive, many strange +melodic effects are produced by these means. For instance, +in the _raga Mohanna_, in which the fourth and seventh degrees +of the scale are avoided in ascending, if it were employed in +the mode _Dehrasin-Karabharna_, which corresponds to our own +major scale, it would have a pronounced Scotch tinge so long +as the melody ascended; but let it _descend_ and the Scotch +element is deserted for a decided North American Indian, +notably Sioux tinge. The Hindus are an imaginative race, and +invest all these _ragas_ and modes with mysterious attributes, +such as anger, love, fear, and so on. They were even personified +as supernatural beings; each had his or her special name and +history. It was proper to use some of them only at midday, +some in the morning, and some at night. If the mode or _raga_ +is changed during a piece, it is expressed in words, by saying, +for instance, that "_Mohanna_" (the new "_raga_") is here +introduced to the family of _Tanarupi_. The melodies formed +from these modes and _ragas_ are divided into four classes, +_Rektah_, _Teranah_, _Tuppah_, and _Ragni_. The _Rektah_ is in +character light and flowing. It falls naturally into regular +periods, and resembles the _Teranah_, with the exception that +the latter is only sung by men. The character of the _Tuppah_ +is not very clear, but the _Ragni_ is a direct descendant +of the old magic songs and incantations; in character it is +rhapsodical and spasmodic. + + + + +IV + +THE MUSIC OF THE EGYPTIANS, ASSYRIANS, AND CHINESE + + +In speaking of the music of antiquity we are seriously hampered +by the fact that there is practically no actual music in +existence which dates back farther than the eighth or tenth +century of the present era. Even those well-known specimens of +Greek music, as they are claimed to be, the hymns to Apollo, +Nemesis, and Calliope, do not date farther back than the third +or fourth century, and even these are by no means generally +considered authentic. Therefore, so far as actual sounds go, +all music of which we have any practical knowledge dates from +about the twelfth century. + +Theoretically, we have the most minute knowledge of the +scientific aspect of music, dating from more than five hundred +years before the Christian era. This knowledge, however, is +worse than valueless, for it is misleading. For instance, +it would be a very difficult thing for posterity to form any +idea as to what our music was like if all the actual music in +the world at the present time were destroyed, and only certain +scientific works such as that of Helmholtz on acoustics and a +few theoretical treatises on harmony, form, counterpoint and +fugue were saved. + +From Helmholtz's analysis of sounds one would get the idea +that the so-called tempered scale of our pianos caused thirds +and sixths to sound discordantly. + +From the books on harmony one would gather that consecutive +fifths and octaves and a number of other things were never +indulged in by composers, and to cap the climax one would +naturally accept the harmony exercises contained in the books +as being the very acme of what we loved best in music. Thus +we see that any investigation into the music of antiquity must +be more or less conjectural. + +Let us begin with the music of the Egyptians. The oldest +existing musical instrument of which we have any knowledge is +an Egyptian lyre to be found in the Berlin Royal Museum. It +is about four thousand years old, dating from the period just +before the expulsion of the Hyksos or "Shepherd" kings. + +At that time (the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty, 1500-2000 +B.C.) Egypt was just recovering from her five hundred years of +bondage, and music must already have reached a wonderful state +of development. In wall paintings of the eighteenth dynasty +we see flutes, double flutes, and harps of all sizes, from +the small one carried in the hand, to the great harps, almost +seven feet high, with twenty-one strings; the never-failing +sistrum (a kind of rattle); kitharas, the ancestors of our +modern guitars; lutes and lyres, the very first in the line +of instruments culminating in the modern piano. + +One hesitates to class the trumpets of the Egyptians in the +same category, for they were war instruments, the tone of +which was probably always forced, for Herodotus says that +they sounded like the braying of a donkey. The fact that the +cheeks of the trumpeter were reinforced with leather straps +would further indicate that the instruments were used only +for loud signalling. + +According to the mural paintings and sculptures in the tombs +of the Egyptians, all these instruments were played together, +and accompanied the voice. It has long been maintained that +harmony was unknown to the ancients because of the mathematical +measurement of sounds. This might be plausible for strings, +but pipes could be cut to any size. The positions of the hands +of the executants on the harps and lyres, as well as the use +of short and long pipes, make it appear probable that something +of what we call harmony was known to the Egyptians. + +We must also consider that their paintings and sculptures were +eminently symbolic. When one carves an explanation in hard +granite it is apt to be done in shorthand, as it were. Thus, a +tree meant a forest, a prisoner meant a whole army; therefore, +two sculptured harpists or flute players may stand for twenty +or two hundred. Athenaeus, who lived at the end of the second +and beginning of the third century, A.D., speaks of orchestras +of six hundred in Ptolemy Philadelphus's time (300 B.C.), +and says that three hundred of the players were harpers, in +which number he probably includes players on other stringed +instruments, such as lutes and lyres. It is therefore to be +inferred that the other three hundred played wind and percussion +instruments. This is an additional reason for conjecturing +that they used chords in their music; for six hundred players, +not to count the singers, would hardly play entirely in unison +or in octaves. The very nature of the harp is chordal, and +the sculptures always depict the performer playing with both +hands, the fingers being more or less outstretched. That the +music must have been of a deep, sonorous character, we may +gather from the great size of the harps and the thickness of +their strings. As for the flutes, they also are pictured as +being very long; therefore they must have been low in pitch. +The reed pipes, judging from the pictures and sculptures, +were no higher in pitch than our oboes, of which the highest +note is D and E above the treble staff. + +It is claimed that so far as the harps were concerned, +the music must have been strictly diatonic in character. +To quote Rowbotham, "the harp, which was the foundation of the +Egyptian orchestra, is an essentially non-chromatic instrument, +and could therefore only play a straight up and down diatonic +scale." Continuing he says, "It is plain therefore that the +Egyptian harmony was purely diatonic; such a thing as modern +modulation was unknown, and every piece from beginning to end +was played in the same key." That this position is utterly +untenable is very evident, for there was nothing to prevent +the Egyptians from tuning their harps in the same order of +tones and half tones as is used for our modern pianos. That +this is even probable may be assumed from the scale of a flute +dating back to the eighteenth or nineteenth century B.C. (1700 +or 1600 B.C.), which was found in the royal tombs at Thebes, +and which is now in the Florence Museum. + +Its scale was + + [G: (a a+ b c' c+' d') (a' a+' b' c'' c+'' d'') (e'') + f'' f+'' g'' g+'' (a'' a+'' b'' c''' c+''' d''')] + +The only thing about which we may be reasonably certain in +regard to Egyptian music is that, like Egyptian architecture, +it must have been very massive, on account of the preponderance +in the orchestra of the low tones of the stringed instruments. + +The sistrum was, properly speaking, not considered a musical +instrument at all. It was used only in religious ceremonies, and +may be considered as the ancestor of the bell that is rung at +the elevation of the Host in Roman Catholic churches. Herodotus +(born 485 B.C.) tells us much about Egyptian music, how the +great festival at Bubastis in honour of the Egyptian Diana +(_Bast_ or _Pascht_), to whom the cat was sacred, was attended +yearly by 700,000 people who came by water, the boats resounding +with the clatter of castanets, the clapping of hands, and the +soft tones of thousands of flutes. Again he tells us of music +played during banquets, and speaks of a mournful song called +_Maneros_. This, the oldest song of the Egyptians (dating back +to the first dynasty), was symbolical of the passing away of +life, and was sung in connection with that gruesome custom +of bringing in, towards the end of a banquet, an effigy of a +corpse to remind the guests that death is the birthright of +all mankind, a custom which was adopted later by the Romans. + +Herodotus also gives us a vague but very suggestive glimpse +of what may have been the genesis of Greek tragedy, for he was +permitted to see a kind of nocturnal Egyptian passion play, in +which evidently the tragedy of Osiris was enacted with ghastly +realism. Osiris, who represents the light, is hunted by Set or +Typhon, the god of darkness, and finally torn to pieces by the +followers of Set, and buried beneath the waters of the lake; +Horus, the son of Osiris, avenges his death by subduing Set, and +Osiris appears again as the ruler of the shadowland of death. + +This strange tragedy took place at night, on the shore of +the lake behind the great temple at Sais. Osiris was dressed +royally, in white, and after the horrible pursuit and his +murder by Set and his sinister band, Horus, the rising sun, +dispels the gloom, and a glorious new god of light appears. Set +and his followers are driven back to the gloomy temple where, +perhaps, there was another scene showing the shade of Osiris, +enthroned and ruling the dead. We have no means of knowing the +character of the music which accompanied this mystery play; +but certainly the deep tones of the harps and the flutes, +together with the chanting of men's voices, must have been +appropriate. Add to these the almost silent rattle of the +sistrum, which, for the Egyptians, possessed something of the +supernatural, and we have an orchestral colouring which is +suggestive, to say the least. + +With this we will leave Egyptian music, simply calling attention +to the works of Resellini, Lepsius, Wilkinson, and Petri, +which contain copies of mural paintings and temple and tomb +sculptures relating to music. For instance, pages 103, 106, and +111 of Lepsius's third book, "Die Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und +Aethiopen," will be found very interesting, particularly page +106, which shows some of the rooms of the palace of Amenotep +IV, of the eighteenth dynasty (about 1500 or 1600 B.C.), +in which dancing and music is being taught. In the same work, +second book, on pages 52 and 53, are pictures taken from a tomb +near Gizeh, showing harp and flute players and singers. The +position of the hands of the singers--they hold them behind +their ears--is a manner of illustrating the act of hearing, +and arises from the hieroglyphic _double_ way of putting things; +for instance, in writing hieroglyphics the word is often first +spelled out, then comes another sign for the pronunciation, +then sometimes even two other signs to emphasize its meaning. + +The music of the Assyrians may be summed up very briefly. All +that can be gathered from the bas-relief sculptures is that +shrill tones and acute pitch must have characterized their +music. As Rowbotham says, alluding to the Sardanapalus wall +sculpture now in the British Museum in London, "What can one +think of the musical delicacy of a nation the King of which, +dining alone with his queen, chooses to be regaled with the +sounds of a lyre and a big drum close at his elbow?" The +instruments represented in these bas-reliefs, aside from the +drum, are high-pitched: flutes, pipes, trumpets, cymbals, and +the smaller stringed instruments. These were all portable, +and some, such as drums and dulcimers, were strapped to the +body, all of which points to the eminently warlike character +of the people. Instead of clapping the hands to mark the time +as did the Egyptians, they stamped their feet. The dulcimer +was somewhat like a modern zither, and may be said to contain +the germ of our piano; for it was in the form of a flat case, +strapped to the body and held horizontally in front of the +player. The strings were struck with a kind of plectrum, +held in the right hand, and were touched with the left hand +immediately afterwards to stop the vibration, just as the +dampers in the pianoforte fall on the string the moment the +key is released. There existed among the Chaldeans a science +of music, which, of course, is a very different thing from +practical music, but it was so imbued with astronomical +symbolism that it seems hardly worth while to consider +it here. The art of Babylonia and Assyria culminated in +architecture and bas-relief sculpture, and it is chiefly +valuable as being the germ from which Greek art was developed. + +In considering Chinese music one has somewhat the same feeling +as one would have in looking across a flat plain. There are no +mountains in Chinese music, and there is nothing in its history +to make us think that it was ever anything but a more or less +puerile playing with sound; therefore there is no separating +modern Chinese music from that of antiquity. To be sure, +Confucius (about 500 B.C.) said that to be well governed +a nation must possess good music. Pythagoras, Aristotle, +and Plato, in Greece, said the same thing, and their maxims +proved a very important factor in the music of ancient times, +for the simple reason that an art controlled by government can +have nothing very vital about it. Hebrew music was utterly +annihilated by laws, and the poetic imagination thus pent +up found its vent in poetry, the result being some of the +most wonderful works the world has ever known. In Egypt, this +current of inspiration from the very beginning was turned toward +architecture. In Greece, music became a mere stage accessory +or a subject for the dissecting table of mathematics; in China, +we have the dead level of an obstinate adherence to tradition, +thus proving Sir Thomas Browne's saying, "The mortallest enemy +unto knowledge, and that which hath done the greatest execution +upon truth, hath been a peremptory adhesion unto tradition, +and more especially the establishing of our own belief upon +the dictates of antiquity." + +The Chinese theory is that there are eight different musical +sounds in nature, namely: + + 1. The sound of skin. + 2. The sound of stone. + 3. The sound of metal. + 4. The sound of clay. + 5. The sound of silk. + 6. The sound of wood. + 7. The sound of bamboo. + 8. The sound of gourd. + +The sound of skin has a number of varieties, all different +kinds of drums. + +The sound of stone is held by the Chinese to be the most +beautiful among sounds, one between that of metal and of +wood. The principal instrument in this category is the _king_, +and in mythology it is the chosen instrument of Kouei, the +Chinese Orpheus. This instrument has a large framework on which +are hung sixteen stones of different sizes, which are struck, +like drums, with a kind of hammer. According to Amiot, only +a certain kind of stone found near the banks of the river +Tee will serve for the making of these instruments, and in +the year 2200 B.C. the Emperor Yu assessed the different +provinces so many stones each for the palace instruments, +in place of tribute. + +The sound of metal is embodied in the various kinds of bells, +which are arranged in many different series, sometimes after +the patterns of the _king_, while sometimes they are played +separately. + +The sound of clay, or baked earth, is given by a kind of round +egg made of porcelain--for that is what it amounts to--pierced +with five holes and a mouthpiece, upon blowing through which +the sound is produced--an instrument somewhat suggestive of +our ocarina. + +The sound of silk is given by two instruments: one a kind of +flat harp with seven strings, called _che_, the other with +twenty-five strings, called _kin_, in size from seven to nine +feet long. The ancient form of this instrument is said to have +had fifty strings. + +The sound of wood is a strange element in a Chinese orchestra, +for it is produced in three different ways: first, by an +instrument in the form of a square wooden box with a hole in one +of its sides through which the hand, holding a small mallet, +is inserted, the sound of wood being produced by hammering +with the mallet on the inside walls of the box, just as the +clapper strikes a bell. This box is placed at the northeast +corner of the orchestra, and begins every piece. Second, by a +set of strips of wood strung on a strap or cord, the sound of +which is obtained by beating the palm of the hand with them. +The third is the strangest of all, for the instrument consists +of a life-size wooden tiger. It has a number of teeth or pegs +along the ridge of its back, and it is "played" by stroking +these pegs rapidly with a wooden staff, and then striking the +tiger on the head. This is the prescribed end of every Chinese +orchestral composition, and is supposed to be a symbol of man's +supremacy over brute creation. The tiger has its place in the +northwest corner of the orchestra. + +The sound of bamboo is represented in the familiar form of +Pan's pipes, and various forms of flutes which hardly need +further description. + +And finally the sound of the gourd. The gourd is a kind of +squash, hollowed out, in which from thirteen to twenty-four +pipes of bamboo or metal are inserted; each one of these +pipes contains a metal reed, the vibration of which causes +the sound. Below the reed are cut small holes in the pipes, +and there is a pipe with a mouthpiece to keep the gourd, +which is practically an air reservoir, full of air. The air +rushing out through the bamboo pipes will naturally escape +through the holes cut below the reeds, making no sound, but +if the finger stops one or more of these holes, the air is +forced up through the reeds, thus giving a musical sound, +the pitch of which will be dependent on the length of the +pipes and the force with which the air passes through the reed. + +Other instruments of the Chinese are gongs of all sizes, +trumpets, and several stringed instruments somewhat akin to our +guitars and mandolins. Neither the Chinese nor the Japanese +have ever seemed to consider the voice as partaking of the +nature of music. This is strange, for the language of the +Chinese depends on flexibility of the voice to make it even +intelligible. As a matter of fact, singing, in our sense of +the word, is unknown to them. + + + + +V + +THE MUSIC OF THE CHINESE (Continued) + + +Having described the musical instruments in use in China +we still have for consideration the music itself, and the +conditions which led up to it. + +Among the Chinese instruments mentioned in the preceding +chapter, the preponderance of instruments of percussion, such +as drums, gongs, bells, etc., has probably been noticed. In +connection with the last named we meet with one of the two cases +in Chinese art in which we see the same undercurrent of feeling, +or rather superstition, as that found among western nations. We +read in the writings of Mencius, the Chinese philosopher (350 +B.C.), the following bit of gossip about the king Senen of Tse. + + "The king," said he, "was sitting aloft in the hall, when + a man appeared, leading an ox past the lower part of it. + The king saw him, and asked, 'Where is the ox going?' + + "The man replied, 'We are going to consecrate a bell with + its blood.' + + "The king said, 'Let it go. I cannot bear its frightened + appearance as if it were an innocent person going to the + place of death.' + + "The man answered, 'Shall we then omit the consecration + of the bell?' + + "The king said, 'How can that be omitted? Change the ox + for a sheep.'" + +As stated before, this is one of the few cases in which Chinese +superstition coincides with that of the West; for our own church +bells were once consecrated in very much the same manner, a +survival of that ancient universal custom of sacrifice. With +the exception of this resemblance, which, however, has nothing +to do with actual music, everything in Chinese art is exactly +the opposite of our western ideas on the subject. + +The Chinese orchestra is composed of about sixteen different +types of percussion instruments and four kinds of wind and +stringed instruments, whereas in our European orchestras the +ratio is exactly reversed. Their orchestras are placed at +the back of the stage, ours in front of it. The human voice +is not even mentioned in their list of musical sounds (sound +of metal, baked clay, wood, skin, bamboo, etc)., whereas we +consider it the most nearly perfect instrument existing. This +strange perversity once caused much discussion in days when +we knew less of China than we do at present, as to whether +the Chinese organs of hearing were not entirely different from +those of western nations. We now know that this contradiction +runs through all their habits of life. With them white is the +colour indicative of mourning; the place of honour is on the +left hand; the seat of intellect is in the stomach; to take off +one's hat is considered an insolent gesture; the magnetic needle +of the Chinese compass is reckoned as pointing south, instead of +north; even up to the middle of the nineteenth century the chief +weapon in war was the bow and arrow, although they were long +before acquainted with gunpowder--and so on, _ad infinitum_. + +We are aware that the drum is the most primitive instrument +known to man. If all our knowledge of the Chinese were included +in a simple list of their orchestral instruments, we should +recognize at once that the possession of the gourd, mouth-organ, +and lute indicates a nation which has reached a high state of +civilization; on the other hand, the great preponderance of +bells, gongs, drums, etc., points unmistakably to the fact +that veneration of the laws and traditions of the past (a +past of savage barbarism), and a blind acquiescence in them, +must constitute the principal factor in that civilization. The +writings of Chinese philosophers are full of wise sayings +about music, but in practice the music itself becomes almost +unbearable. For instance, in the Confucian _Analects_ we read, +"The Master (Confucius)[02] said: 'How to play music may be +known. At the commencement of the piece, all the parts should +sound together. As it proceeds, they should be in harmony, +severally distinct, and flowing without a break, and thus on +to the conclusion.'" The definition is certainly remarkable +when one considers that it was given about five hundred +years before our era. In practice, however, the Chinese do +not distinguish between musical _combinations_ of sound and +_noise_; therefore the above definition must be taken in a very +different sense from that which ordinarily would be the case. By +harmony, Confucius evidently means similarity of noises, and by +"melody flowing without a break" he means absolute monotony of +rhythm. We know this from the hymns to the ancestors which, +with the hymns to the Deity, are the sacred songs of China, +songs which have come down from time immemorial. + +According to Amiot one of the great court functions is the +singing of the "Hymn to the Ancestors," which is conducted +by the Emperor. Outside the hall where this ceremony takes +place are stationed a number of bell and gong players who +may not enter, but who, from time to time, according to fixed +laws, join in the music played and sung inside. In the hall +the orchestra is arranged in the order prescribed by law: +the _ou_, or wooden tiger, which ends every piece, is placed +at the northwest end of the orchestra, and the _tschou_, or +wooden box-drum, which begins the music, at the northeast; +in the middle are placed the singers who accompany the hymn +by posturing as well as by chanting. At the back of the hall +are pictures of the ancestors, or merely tablets inscribed +with their names, before which is a kind of altar, bearing +flowers and offerings. The first verse of the hymn consists of +eight lines in praise of the godlike virtues of the ancestors, +whose spirits are supposed to descend from Heaven and enter +the hall during the singing of this verse by the chorus. Then +the Emperor prostrates himself three times before the altar, +touching his head to the earth each time. As he offers the +libations and burns the perfumes on the altar, the chorus +sings the second verse of eight lines, in which the spirits +are thanked for answering the prayer and entreated to accept +the offerings. The Emperor then prostrates himself nine times, +after which he resumes his position before the altar, while +the last verse of eight lines, eulogistic of the ancestors, +is being chanted; during this the spirits are supposed to +ascend again to Heaven. The hymn ends with the scraping of +the tiger's back and striking it on the head. + +We can imagine the partial gloom of this species of chapel, +lighted by many burning, smoky joss-sticks, with its glint +of many-coloured silks, and gold embroidery; the whining, +nasal, half-spoken, monotonous drone of the singers with their +writhing figures bespangled with gold and vivid colour; the +incessant stream of shrill tones from the wind instruments; +the wavering, light clatter of the musical stones broken +by the steady crash of gongs and the deep booming of large +drums; while from outside, the most monstrous bell-like noises +vaguely penetrate the smoke-laden atmosphere. The ceremony +must be barbarously impressive; the strange magnificence of it +all, together with the belief in the actual presence of the +spirits, which the vague white wreaths of joss-stick smoke +help to suggest, seem to lend it dignity. From the point of +view of what we call music, the hymn is childish enough; but +we must keep in mind the definition of Confucius. According +to the Chinese, music includes that phase of sound which we +call mere noise, and the harmonizing of this noise is Chinese +art. We must admit, therefore, that from this point of view +their orchestra is well balanced, for what will rhyme better +with noise than more noise? The gong is best answered by the +drum, and the tomtom by the great bell. + +China also has its folk song, which seems to be an irrepressible +flower of the field in all countries. This also follows the +precepts of the sages in using only the five-note or pentatonic +scale found among so many other nationalities. It differs, +however, from the official or religious music, inasmuch as +that unrhythmic perfection of monotony, so loved by Confucius, +Mencius, and their followers, is discarded in favour of a style +more naturally in touch with human emotion. These folk songs +have a strong similarity to Scotch and Irish songs, owing to +the absence of the fourth and seventh degrees of the scale. +If they were really sung to the accompaniment of chords, the +resemblance would be very striking. The Chinese singing voice, +however, is not sonorous, the quality commonly used being a +kind of high, nasal whine, very far removed from what we call +music. The accompaniment of the songs is of a character most +discordant to European ears, consisting as it does mainly of +constant drum or gong beats interspersed with the shrill notes +of the _kin_, the principal Chinese stringed instrument. Ambros, +the historian, quotes a number of these melodies, but falls +into a strange mistake, for his version of a folk song called +"_Tsin-fa_" is as follows: + + [Figure 01] + +Now this is exactly as if a Chinaman, wishing to give his +countrymen an idea of a Beethoven sonata, were to eliminate +all the harmony and leave only the bare melody accompanied by +indiscriminate beats on the gong and a steady banging on two or +three drums of different sizes. This is certainly the manner +in which the little melody just quoted would be accompanied, +and not by European chords and rhythms. + +If we could eliminate from our minds all thoughts of music and +bring ourselves to listen only to the _texture_ of sounds, we +could better understand the Chinese ideal of musical art. For +instance, if in listening to the deep, slow vibrations of a +large gong we ignore completely all thought of pitch, fixing +our attention only upon the roundness and fullness of the sound +and the way it gradually diminishes in volume without losing +any of its pulsating colour, we should then realize what the +Chinese call music. Confucius said, "When the music master Che +first entered on his office, the finish with the _Kwan-Ts'eu_ +(Pan's-pipes) was magnificent--how it filled the ears!" And +that is just what Chinese music aims to do, it "fills the ears" +and therefore is "magnificent."[03] + +With their views as to what constitutes the beautiful in music +it is not strange that the Chinese find our music detestable. It +goes too fast for them. They ask, "Why play another entirely +different kind of sound until one has already enjoyed to +the full what has gone before?" As they told Pere Amiot +many years ago: "Our music penetrates through the ear to the +heart, and from the heart to the soul; that your music cannot +do." Amiot had played on a harpsichord some pieces by Rameau +("_Les Cyclopes_," "_Les Charmes_," etc.) and much flute music, +but they could make nothing of it. + +According to their conception of music, sounds must follow one +another slowly, in order to pass through the ears to the heart +and thence to the soul; therefore they went back with renewed +satisfaction to their long, monotonous chant accompanied by +a pulsating fog of clangour. + +Some years ago, at the time of that sudden desire of China, +or more particularly of Li Hung Chang, to know more of +occidental civilization, some Chinese students were sent +by their government to Berlin to study music. After about a +month's residence in Berlin these students wrote to the Chinese +government asking to be recalled, as they said it would be +folly to remain in a barbarous country where even the most +elementary principles of music had not yet been grasped. + +To go deeply into the more technical side of Chinese music +would be a thankless task, for in the Chinese character +the practical is entirely overshadowed by the speculative. +All kinds of fanciful names are given to the different tones, +and many strange ideas associated with them. Although our modern +chromatic scale (all but the last half-tone) is familiar to +them, they have never risen to a practical use of it even to +this day. The Chinese scale is now, as it always has been, +one of five notes to the octave, that is to say, our modern +major scale with the fourth and seventh omitted. + +From a technical point of view, the instruments of bamboo attain +an importance above all other Chinese instruments. According +to the legend, the Pan's-pipes of bamboo regulated the tuning +of all other instruments, and as a matter of fact the pipe +giving the note F, the universal tonic, is the origin of +all measures also. For this pipe, which in China is called +the "musical foot," is at the same time a standard measure, +holding exactly twelve hundred millet seeds, and long enough +for one hundred millet seeds to stand end on end within it. + +In concluding this consideration of the music of the +Chinese, I would draw attention to the unceasing repetition +which constitutes a prominent feature in all barbarous or +semi-barbarous music. In the "Hymn of the Ancestors" this +endless play on three or four notes is very marked. + + [Figure 02] + +In other songs it is equally apparent. + + [Figure 03] etc. + + [Figure 04] + + [Figure 05] etc. + +This characteristic is met with in the music of the American +Indians, also in American street songs, in fact in all music of +a primitive nature, just as our school children draw caricatures +similar to those made by great chiefs and medicine men in the +heart of Africa, and, similarly, the celebrated "graffiti" +of the Roman soldiers were precisely of the same nature as +the beginnings of Egyptian art. In art, the child is always +a barbarian more or less, and all strong emotion acting on +a naturally weak organism or a primitive nature brings the +same result, namely, that of stubborn repetition of one idea. +An example of this is Macbeth, who, in the very height of his +passion, stops to juggle with the word "sleep," and in spite +of the efforts of his wife, who is by far the more civilized +of the two, again and again recurs to it, even though he +is in mortal danger. When Lady Macbeth at last breaks down, +she also shows the same trait in regard to her bloodstained +hands. It is not so far from Scotland to the Polar regions, +and there we find that when Kane captured a young Eskimo and +kept him on his ship, the only sign of life the prisoner gave +was to sing over and over to himself the following: + + [Figure 06] + +Coming back again to civilization, we find Tennyson's Elaine, in +her grief, repeating, incessantly the words, "Must I then die." + +The music of the Siamese, Burmese, Javanese, and Japanese has +much in common with that of the Chinese, the difference between +the first two and the last named being mainly in the absence +of the _king_, or musical stones, or rather the substitution +of sets of drums in place of it. For instance, the Burmese +drum-organ, as it is called, consists of twenty-one drums +of various sizes hung inside a great hoop. Their gong-organ +consists of fifteen or more gongs of different sizes strung +inside a hoop in the same manner. The player takes his place +in the middle of the hoop and strikes the drums or gongs +with a kind of stick. These instruments are largely used in +processions, being carried by two men, just as a sedan chair is +borne; the player, in order to strike all the gongs and bells, +must often walk backwards, or strike them behind his back. + +In Javanese and Burmese music these sets of gongs and drums are +used incessantly, and form a kind of high-pitched, sustained +tone beneath which the music is played or sung. + +In Siamese music the wind instruments have a prominent +place. After having heard the Siamese Royal Orchestra a number +of times in London, I came to the conclusion that the players +on the different instruments _improvise_ their parts, the only +rule being the general character of the melodies to be played, +and the finishing together. The effect of the music was that +of a contrapuntal nightmare, hideous to a degree which one who +has not heard it cannot conceive. Berlioz, in his "Soirees de +l'orchestre," well described its effect when he said: + + "After the first sensation of horror which one cannot + repress, one feels impelled to laugh, and this hilarity + can only be controlled by leaving the hall. So long + as these impossible sounds continue, the fact of their + being gravely produced, and in all sincerity _admired_ + by the players, makes the 'concert' appear inexpressibly + 'comic.'" + +The Japanese had the same Buddhistic disregard for euphony, +but they have adopted European ideas in music and are rapidly +becoming occidentalized from a musical point of view. Their +principal instruments are the _koto_ and the _samisen_. The +former is similar to the Chinese _che_, and is a kind of large +zither with thirteen strings, each having a movable bridge by +means of which the pitch of the string may be raised or lowered. +The _samisen_ is a kind of small banjo, and probably originated +in the Chinese _kin_. + +From Buddhism to sun worship, from China to Peru and Mexico, +is a marked change, but we find strange resemblances in the +music of these peoples, seeming almost to corroborate the +theory that the southern American races may be traced back to +the extreme Orient. We remember that in the Chinese sacred +chants--"official" music as one may call it--all the notes +were of exactly the same length. Now Garcilaso de la Vega +(1550), in his "Commentarios Reales," tells us that unequal +time was unknown in Peru, that all the notes in a song were +of exactly the same length. He further tells us that in his +time the voice was but seldom heard in singing, and that +all the songs were played on the flute, the words being so +well known that the melody of the flute immediately suggested +them. The Peruvians were essentially a pipe race, while, on the +other hand, the instruments of the Mexicans were of the other +extreme, all kinds of drums, copper gongs, rattles, musical +stones, cymbals, bells, etc., thus completing the resemblance +to Chinese art. In Prescott's "Conquest of Peru" we may read +of the beautiful festival of Raymi, or adoration of the sun, +held at the period of the summer solstice. It describes how the +Inca and his court, followed by the whole population of the +city, assembled at early dawn in the great square of Cuzco, +and how, at the appearance of the first rays of the sun, +a great shout would go up, and thousands of wind instruments +would break forth into a majestic song of adoration. That the +Peruvians were a gentler nation than the Mexicans can be seen +from their principal instrument, the pipe. + +While it has been strenuously denied that on such occasions +human sacrifices were offered in Peru, the Mexicans, that race +whose principal instruments were drums and brass trumpets, +not only held such sacrifices, but, strange to say, held +them in honour of a kind of god of music, Tezcatlipoca. This +festival was the most important in Mexico, and took place +at the temple or "teocalli," a gigantic, pyramid-like mass +of stone, rising in terraces to a height of eighty-six feet +above the city, and culminating in a small summit platform +upon which the long procession of priests and victims could +be seen from all parts of the city. Once a year the sacrifice +was given additional importance, for then the most beautiful +youth in Mexico was chosen to represent the god himself. For +a year before the sacrifice he was dressed as Tezcatlipoca, +in royal robes and white linen, with a helmet-like crown of +sea shells with white cocks' plumes, and with an anklet hung +with twenty gold bells as a symbol of his power, and he was +married to the most beautiful maiden in Mexico. The priests +taught him to play the flute, and whenever the people heard +the sound of it they fell down and worshipped him. + +The account may be found in Bancroft's great work on the +"Native Races of the Pacific," also Sahagun's "Nueva Espana +and Bernal Diaz," but perhaps the most dramatic description +is that by Rowbotham: + + And when the morning of the day of sacrifice arrived, + he was taken by water to the Pyramid Temple where he + was to be sacrificed, and crowds lined the banks of the + river to see him in the barge, sitting in the midst of + his beautiful companions. When the barge touched the + shore, he was taken away from those companions of his + forever, and was delivered over to a band of priests, + exchanging the company of beautiful women for men + clothed in black mantles, with long hair matted with + blood--their ears also were mangled. These conducted + him to the steps of the pyramid, and he was driven + up amidst a crowd of priests, with drums beating and + trumpets blowing. As he went up he broke an earthen + flute on every step to show that his love, and his + delights were over. And when he reached the top, he was + sacrificed on an altar of jasper, and the signal that + the sacrifice was completed was given to the multitudes + below by the rolling of the great sacrificial drum.[04] + + +[02] _Kong_. His disciples called him _Fu Tsee_, or "the + master"; Jesuit missionaries Latinized this to Confucius. + +[03] The Chinese theatre has been called an unconscious + parody of our old-fashioned Italian opera, and there + are certainly many resemblances. In a Chinese play, + when the situation becomes tragic, or when one of the + characters is seized with some strong emotion, it finds + vent in a kind of aria. The dialogue is generally given + in the most monotonous manner possible--using only + high throat and head tones, occasionally lowering or + raising the voice on a word, to express emotion. This + monotonous, and to European ears, strangely nonchalant, + nasal recitative, is being continually interrupted by + gong pounding and the shrill, high sound of discordant + reed instruments. When one or more of the characters + commits suicide (which as we know is an honoured custom + in China) he sings--or rather whines--a long chant before + he dies, just as his western operatic colleagues do, as, + for instance, Edgar in "Lucia di Lammermoor" and even, + to come nearer home, Siegfried in "Goetterdaemmerung." + +[04] This drum was made of serpents' skins, and the sound of + it was so loud that it could be heard eight miles away. + + + + +VI + +THE MUSIC OF GREECE + + +The first name of significance in Greek music is that of +Homer. The hexameters of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" were +quite probably chanted, but the four-stringed lyre which we +associate with the ancient Greek singers was only used for +a few preluding notes--possibly to pitch the voice of the +bard--and not during the chant itself. For whatever melody +this chant possessed, it depended entirely upon the raising +and lowering of the voice according to the accent of the words +and the dramatic feeling of the narrative. For its rhythm +it depended upon that of the hexameter, which consists of +a line of six dactyls and spondees, the line always ending +with a spondee. Really the line should end with a dactyl +([- ' ']) and a spondee ([- -]). If a line ends with two +spondees it is a spondaic hexameter. + +From this it would seem that while the pitch of the chant would +be very difficult to gauge, owing to the diversity of opinion as +to how to measure in actual sounds the effect of emotions upon +the human voice, at least the _rhythm_ of the chants would be +well defined, owing to the hexameter in which the latter were +written. Here again, however, we are cast adrift by theory, +for in practice nothing could be more misleading than such a +deduction. For instance, the following lines from Longfellow's +"Evangeline" are both in this metre, although the rhythm of +one differs greatly from that of the other. + + Wearing her Norman cap, and her kirtle of blue, and the earrings + +and + + Shielding the house from storms, on the north were the barns + and the farm-yard. + +Now if we think that these lines can be sung to the same +musical rhythm we are very far from the truth, although both +are hexameters, namely, + + [- ' ' - ' - ' ' - ' ' - ' ' - -] + + [- ' ' - ' - ' ' - ' ' - ' ' - -] + +dactyls, ending with spondee. + +Thus we see that metre in verse and rhythm in music are two +different things, although of course they both had the same +origin. + +After all has been said, it is perhaps best to admit that, so +far as Greek music is concerned, its better part certainly lay +in poetry. In ancient times all poetry was sung or chanted; it +was what I have called impassioned speech. The declamation of +"The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" constituted what was really the +"vocal" music of the poems. With the Greeks the word "music" +(_mousike_) included all the aesthetic culture that formed part +of the education of youth; in the same general way a poet was +called a singer, and even in Roman times we find Terence, in +his "Phormio," alluding to poets as musicians. That Aeschylus +and Sophocles were not musicians, as we understand the term, +is very evident in spite of the controversies on the subject. + +Impassioned speech, then, was all that existed of vocal music, +and as such was in every way merely the audible expression of +poetry. I have no doubt that this is the explanation of the +statement that Aeschylus and Sophocles wrote what has been +termed the _music_ to their tragedies. What they really did +was to teach the chorus the proper declamation and stage +action. It is well known that at the Dionysian Festival +it was to the poet as "chorus master" that the prize was +awarded, so entirely were the arts identified one with the +other. That declamation may often reach the power of music, +it is hardly necessary to say. Among modern poets, let any +one, for instance, look at Tennyson's "Passing of Arthur" for +an example of this kind of music; the mere sound of the words +completes the picture. For instance, when Arthur is dying and +gives his sword, Excalibur, to Sir Bedivere with the command +to throw it into the mere, the latter twice fails to do so, +and returns to Arthur telling him that all he saw was + + "The water lapping on the crag + And the long ripple washing in the reeds." + +But when at last he throws it, the magic sword + + "Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon + And flashing round and round, and whirl'd in an arch + Shot like a streamer of the northern morn. + So flashed and fell the brand Excalibur." + +Again, when Sir Bedivere, carrying the dying king, stumbles +up over the icy rocks to the shore, his armour clashing +and clanking, the verse uses all the clangour of cr--ck, the +slipping s's too, and the vowel _a_ is used in all its changes; +when the shore is finally reached, the verse suddenly turns +into smoothness, the long _o_'s giving the same feeling of +breadth and calm that modern music would attempt if it treated +the same subject. + +Here are the lines: + + Dry clash'd his harness in the icy caves + And barren chasms, and all to left and right + The bare, black cliff clang'd round him as he based + His feet on juts of slippery crag that rang + Sharp-smitten with the dint of armed heels. + And on a sudden, lo! the level lake + And the long glories of the winter moon. + +When we think of the earlier Greek plays, we must imagine +the music of the words themselves, the cadenced voices of +the protagonist or solitary performer, and the chorus, the +latter keeping up a rhythmic motion with the words. This, +I am convinced, was the extent of Greek music, so far as that +which was ascribed to the older poets is concerned. + +Instrumental music was another thing, and although we possess +no authentic examples of it, we know what its scales consisted +of and what instruments were in use. It would be interesting +to pass in review the tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles, +the odes of Sappho and Pindar, those of the latter having a +novel periodicity of form which gives force to the suggestion +that these choric dances were the forerunners of our modern +instrumental forms. + +Such matters, however, take us from our actual subject, and we +will therefore turn to Pythagoras, at Crotona, in Italy (about +500 B.C.), whom we find already laying down the rules forming +a mathematical and scientific basis for the Greek musical scale. + +More than three centuries had passed since Homer had chanted +his "Iliad" and "Odyssey," and in the course of the succeeding +fifty years some of the master spirits of the world were to +appear. When we think of Pythagoras, Gautama, Buddha, Confucius, +Aeschylus, Sophocles, Sappho, Pindar, Phidias, and Herodotus as +contemporaries--and this list might be vastly extended--it seems +as if some strange wave of ideality had poured over mankind. +In Greece, however, Pythagoras's theory of metempsychosis +(doctrine of the supposed transmigration of the soul from +one body to another) was not strong enough to make permanent +headway, and his scientific theories unhappily turned music +from its natural course into the workshop of science, from +which Aristoxenus in vain attempted to rescue it. + +At that time Homer's hexameter had begun to experience many +changes, and from the art of rhythm developed that of rhyme and +form. The old lyre, from having four strings, was developed by +Terpander, victor in the first musical contest at the feast +of Apollo Carneius, into an instrument of seven strings, to +which Pythagoras[05] added an eighth, Theophrastus a ninth, +and so on until the number of eighteen was reached. + +Flute and lyre playing had attained a high state of excellence, +for we hear that Lasus, the teacher of the poet Pindar +(himself the son of a Theban flute player), introduced into +lyre playing the runs and light passages which, until that time, +it had been thought possible to produce only on the flute. + +The dance also had undergone a wonderful development +rhythmically; for even in Homer's time we read in "The Odyssey" +of the court of Alcinoues at Phocaea, how two princes danced +before Ulysses and played with a scarlet ball, one throwing +it high in the air, the other always catching it with his +feet off the ground; and then changing, they flung the ball +from one to the other with such rapidity that it made the +onlookers dizzy. During the play, Demidocus chanted a song, +and accompanied the dance with his lyre, the players never +losing a step. As Aristides (died 468 B.C.), speaking of +Greek music many centuries later said: "Metre is not a thing +which concerns the ear alone, for in the dance it is to be +_seen_." Even a statue was said to have silent rhythm, and +pictures were spoken of as being musical or unmusical. + +Already in Homer's time, the Cretans had six varieties of +[5/4] time to which they danced: + + [4 8 4 | 4 8 8 8 | 8 4 8 8 | 8 8 4 8 | 8 8 8 4 | 8 8 8 8 8] + [- ' - | - ' ' ' | ' - ' ' | ' ' - ' | ' ' ' - | ' ' ' ' '] + +The first was known as the Cretic foot, being in a way the model +or type from which the others were made; but the others were +called paeons. The "Hymn to Apollo" was called a paeon or paean, +for the singers danced in Cretic rhythms as they chanted it. + +There were many other dances in Greece, each having its +characteristic rhythm. For instance, the Molossian dance +consisted of three long steps, [- - -] ([3/2]); that of the +Laconians was the dactyl, [- ' '] ([4/4]), which was sometimes +reversed [' ' -] ([4/4]). In the latter form it was also the +chief dance of the Locrians, the step being called anapaest. +From Ionia came the two long and two short steps, [- - ' '], +([3/4: 4 4 8 8]), or [' ' - -] ([3/4: 8 8 4 4]), which were +called Ionic feet. The Doric steps consisted primarily of a +trochee and a spondee, [- ' - -] or [7/8] time. These values, +however, were arranged in three other different orders, namely, +[' - - - | - - ' - | - - - '] and were called the first, +second, third, or fourth epitrite, according to the positions +of the short step. The second epitrite was considered the most +distinctly Doric. + +The advent of the Dionysian[06] festivals in Greece threatened +to destroy art, for those wild Bacchic dances, which are to +be traced back to that frenzied worship of Bel and Astarte +in Babylon, wild dances amenable only to the impulse of the +moment, seemed to carry everything before them. Instead of that, +however, the hymns to Bacchus, who was called in Phoenicia +the flute god, from which the characteristics of his worship +are indicated, were the germs from which tragedy and comedy +developed, and the mad bacchanalian dances were tamed into +dithyrambs. For the Corybantes, priests of the goddess Cybele, +brought from Phrygia, in Asia Minor, the darker form of this +worship; they mourned for the death of Bacchus, who was supposed +to die in winter and to come to life again in the spring. When +these mournful hymns were sung, a goat was sacrificed on the +altar; thus the origin of the word "tragedy" or "goat song" +(_tragos_, goat, and _odos_, singer). As the rite developed, +the leader of the chorus would chant the praises of Dionysus, +and sing of his adventures, to which the chorus would make +response. In time it became the custom for the leader, +or coryphaeus, to be answered by one single member of the +chorus, the latter being thus used merely for the chanting +of commentaries on the narrative. The answerer was called +"hypocrite," afterward the term for actor. + +This was the material from which Aeschylus created the +first tragedy, as we understand the term. Sophocles (495-406 +B.C.) followed, increasing the number of actors, as did also +Euripides (480-406 B.C.). + +Comedy (_komos_, revel, and _odos_, singer) arose from the +spring and summer worship of Bacchus, when everything was a +jest and Nature smiled again. + +The dithyramb (_dithyrambos_ or Bacchic step, [- ' ' -]) +brought a new step to the dance and therefore a new element +into poetry, for all dances were choric, that is to say they +were sung as well as danced. + +Arion was the first to attempt to bring the dithyramb into +poetry, by teaching the dancers to use a slower movement and to +observe greater regularity in their various steps. The Lydian +flute, as may be supposed, was the instrument which accompanied +the dithyramb, associated with all kinds of harsh, clashing +instruments, such as cymbals, tambourines, castanets. These +Arion tried to replace by the more dignified Grecian lyre; +but it was long before this mad dance sobered down to regular +rhythm and form. From Corinth, where Arion first laboured, +we pass to Sicyon, where the taming of the dithyramb into an +art form was accomplished by Praxilla, a poetess who added a +new charm to the lilt of this Bacchic metre, namely, rhyme. + +And this newly acquired poetic wealth was in keeping with +the increasing luxury and magnificence of the cities, for +we read in Athenaeus and Diodorus that Agrigentum sent to +the Olympic games three hundred chariots, drawn by white +horses. The citizens wore garments of cloth of gold, and even +their household ornaments were of gold and silver; in their +houses they had wine cellars which contained three hundred +vats, each holding a hundred hogsheads of wine. In Sybaris +this luxury reached its height, for the Sybarites would not +allow any trade which caused a disagreeable sound, such as +that of the blacksmith, carpenter, or mason, to be carried on +in their city limits. They dressed in garments of deep purple, +tied their hair in gold threads, and the city was famed for +its incessant banqueting and merrymaking. It was such luxury +as this that Pindar found at the court of Hiero, at Syracuse, +whither Aeschylus had retired after his defeat by Sophocles +at the Dionysian Festival at Athens. + +The worship of Bacchus being at its height at that time, it may +be imagined that wine formed the principal element of their +feasts. And even as the dithyramb had been pressed into the +service of poetry, so was drinking made rhythmic by music. For +even the wine was mixed with water according to musical ratios; +for instance, the paeonic or 3 to 2, [' ' ' -] = [8 8 8 4]; +the iambic or 2 to 1, [- '] = [4 8]; dactylic or 2 to 2, +[- ' '] = [4. 8 8]. The master of the feast decided the ratio, +and a flute girl played a prescribed melody while the toast +to good fortune, which commenced every banquet, was being +drunk. By the time the last note had sounded, the great cup +should have gone round the table and been returned to the +master. And then they had the game of the cottabos, which +consisted of throwing the contents of a wine cup high in the +air in such a manner that the wine would fall in a solid mass +into a metal basin. The winner was the one who produced the +clearest musical sound from the basin. + +We see from all this that music was considered rather +a beautiful plaything or a mere colour. By itself it was +considered effeminate; therefore the early Greeks always had the +flute player accompanied by a singer, and the voice was always +used with the lyre to prevent the latter appealing directly +to the senses. The dance was corrected in the same manner; +for when we speak of Greek dances, we always mean _choric_ +dances. Perhaps the nearest approach to the effect of what +we call music was made by Aeschylus, in the last scene of his +"Persians," when Xerxes and the chorus end the play with one +continued wail of sorrow. In this instance the words take +second place, and the actual sound is depended upon for the +dramatic effect. + +The rise and fall of actual instrumental music in Greece may +be placed between 500 and 400 B.C. After the close of the +Peloponnesian War (404 B.C.), when Sparta supplanted Athens as +the leader of Greece, art declined rapidly, and at the time +of Philip of Macedon (328 B.C.) may be said to have been +practically extinct. Then, in place of the dead ashes of art, +the cold fire of science arose; for we have such men as Euclid +(300 B.C.) and his school applying mathematics to musical +sounds, and a system of cold calculation to an art that had +needed all the warmth of emotional enthusiasm to keep it alive. +Thus music became a science. Had it not been for the little +weeds of folk song which managed with difficulty to survive at +the foot of this arid dust heap, and which were destined to be +transformed and finally to bloom into such lovely flowers in +our times, we might yet have been using the art to illustrate +mathematical calculations. + +The teaching of Pythagoras was the first step in this +classification of sounds; and he went further than this, for +he also classified the _emotions_ affected by music. It was +therefore a natural consequence that in his teaching he should +forbid music of an emotional character as injurious. When he +came to Crotona, it was to a city that vied with Agrigentum, +Sybaris, and Tarentum in luxury; its chief magistrate wore +purple garments, a golden crown upon his head, and white +shoes on his feet. It was said of Pythagoras that he had +studied twelve years with the Magi in the temples of Babylon; +had lived among the Druids of Gaul and the Indian Brahmins; had +gone among the priests of Egypt and witnessed their most secret +temple rites. So free from care or passion was his face that +he was thought by the people to be Apollo; he was of majestic +presence, and the most beautiful man they had ever seen. So +the people accepted him as a superior being, and his influence +became supreme over science and art, as well as manners. + +He gave the Greeks their first scientific analysis of sound. +The legend runs that, passing a blacksmith's shop and +hearing the different sounds of the hammering, he conceived +the idea that sounds could be measured by some such means +as weight is measured by scales, or distance by the foot +rule. By weighing the different hammers, so the story goes, +he obtained the knowledge of harmonics or overtones, namely, +the fundamental, octave, fifth, third, etc. This legend, which +is stated seriously in many histories of music, is absurd, for, +as we know, the hammers would not have vibrated. The anvils +would have given the sound, but in order to produce the octave, +fifth, etc., they would have had to be of enormous proportions. +On the other hand, the monochord, with which students in physics +are familiar, was his invention; and the first mathematical +demonstrations of the effect on musical pitch of length of +cord and tension, as well as the length of pipes and force of +breath, were his. + +These mathematical divisions of the monochord, however, +eventually did more to stifle music for a full thousand years +than can easily be imagined. This division of the string +made what we call harmony impossible; for by it the major +third became a larger interval than our modern one, and the +minor third smaller. Thus thirds did not sound well together, +in fact were dissonances, the only intervals which _did_ +harmonize being the fourth, fifth, and octave. This system +of mathematically dividing tones into equal parts held good +up to the middle of the sixteenth century, when Zarlino, who +died in 1590, invented the system in use at the present time, +called the _tempered scale_, which, however, did not come into +general use until one hundred years later. + +Aristoxenus, a pupil of Aristotle, who lived more than a +century after Pythagoras, rejected the monochord as a means for +gauging musical sounds, believing that the ear, not mathematical +calculation, should be the judge as to which interval sounds +"perfect." But he was unable to formulate a system that +would bring the third (and naturally its inversion the sixth) +among the harmonizing intervals or consonants. Didymus (about +30 B.C.) first discovered that two different-sized whole +tones were necessary in order to make the third consonant; +and Ptolemy (120 A.D.) improved on this system somewhat. But +the new theory remained without any practical effect until +nearly the seventeenth century, when the long respected theory +of the perfection of mathematical calculation on the basis of +natural phenomena was overthrown in favour of actual effect. If +Aristoxenus had had followers able to combat the crushing +influence of Euclid and his school, music might have grown up +with the other arts. As it is, music is still in its infancy, +and has hardly left its experimental stage. + +Thus Pythagoras brought order into the music as well as +into the lives of people. But whereas it ennobled the +people, it killed the music, the one vent in life through +which unbounded utterance is possible; its essence is so +interwoven with spirituality that to tear it away and fetter +it with human mathematics is to lower it to the level of mere +utilitarianism. And so it was with Greek music, which was held +subordinate to metre, to poetry, to acting, and finally became +a term of contempt. Pythagoras wished to banish the flute, +as Plato also did later, and the name of flute player was used +as a reproach. I fancy this was because the flute, on account +of its construction, could ignore the mathematical divisions +prescribed for the stringed instruments, and therefore could +indulge in purely emotional music. Besides, the flute was +the chosen instrument of the orgiastic Bacchic cult, and its +associations were those of unbridled license. To be sure, the +voice was held by no mathematical restrictions as to pitch; +but its music was held in check by the words, and its metre +by dancing feet. + +Having measured the musical intervals, there still remained +the task of classifying the different manners of singing which +existed in Greece, and using all their different notes to form +a general system. For just as in different parts of Greece +there existed different dances, the steps of which were known +as Lydian, Ionian, Locrian, and Dorian feet, and so on, so the +melodies to which they were danced were known as being in the +Lydian, Ionian, Locrian, or Dorian scale or mode. In speaking +of Hindu music, I explained that what we call a mode consists +of a scale, and that one mode differs from another _only_ in +the position of the semitones in this scale. Now in ancient +Greece there were in use over fifteen different modes, each one +common to the part of the country in which it originated. At the +time of Pythagoras there were seven in general use: the Dorian, +Lydian, Aeolian or Locrian, Hypo- (or low) Lydian, Phrygian, +Hypo- (or low) Phrygian, and Mixolydian or mixed Lydian. The +invention of the latter is attributed to Sappho by Plutarch, +quoting Aristoxenus. + +These modes were all invested with individual characters +by the Greeks, just as in the present day we say our major +mode is happy, the minor sad. The Dorian mode was considered +the greatest, and, according to Plato, the only one worthy of +men. It was supposed to have a dignified, martial character. The +Lydian, on the other hand, was all softness, and love songs +were written in it. The Phrygian was of a violent, ecstatic +nature, and was considered as being especially appropriate for +dithyrambs, the metre for the wild bacchanalian dances. For +instance, Aristotle tells how Philoxenus attempted to set +dithyrambic verse to the Dorian mode, and, failing, had to +return to the Phrygian. The Mixolydian, which was Sappho's mode, +was the mode for sentiment and passion. The Dorian, Phrygian, +and Lydian were the oldest modes. + +Each mode or scale was composed of two sets of four notes, +called tetrachords, probably derived from the ancient form +of the lyre, which in Homer's time is known to have had four +strings. + +Leaving the matter of actual pitch out of the question (for +these modes might be pitched high or low, just as our major +or minor scale may be pitched in different keys), these three +modes were constructed as follows: + + Greek Dorian (E F) G A (B C) D E, + that is, semitone, tone, tone. + + / + | Phrygian D (E F) G A (B C) D, + | or F[#] (G[#] A) B C[#] (D[#] E) F[#], + Asiatic | that is, tone, semitone, tone. + | + | Lydian C D (E F) G A (B C), + \ that is, tone, tone, semitone. + +Thus we see that a tetrachord commencing with a half-tone and +followed by two whole tones was called a Dorian tetrachord; +one commencing with a tone, followed by a half-tone, and again +a tone, constituted a Phrygian tetrachord. The other modes +were as follows: In the Aeolian or Locrian the semitones occur +between the second and third notes, and the fifth and sixth: +[F: b, (c+ d) e (f+ g) a b] +Theraclides Ponticus identifies the Hypodorian with the Aeolian, +but says that the name "hypo-" merely denoted a likeness to +Doric, not to pitch. Aristoxenus denies the identity, and +says that the Hypodorian was a semitone below the Dorian or +Hypolydian. In the Hypophrygian, the semitones occur between +the third and fourth, and sixth and seventh degrees: +[F: c+ d+ (e+ f+) g+ (a+ b) c+'] +In the Hypolydian, the semitones occur between the fourth and +fifth, and seventh and eighth: [F: e- f g (a b-) c' (d' e-')] +The Dorian (E), Phrygian (commencing on F[sharp] with the fourth +sharped), and the Lydian (A[flat] major scale) modes we have +already explained. In the Mixolydian, the semitones occur +between the first and second, and fourth and fifth degrees: +[G: (a b-) c' (d' e-') f' g' a'] + +According to the best evidence (in the works of Ptolemy, +"Harmonics," second book, and Aristides), these were +approximately the actual pitch of the modes as compared one +to another. + +And now the difficulty was to weld all these modes together +into one scale, so that all should be represented and yet not +be complicated by what we should call accidentals. This was +accomplished in the following manner, by simple mathematical +means: + +We remember that the Dorian, which was the most greatly +favoured mode in Greece, was divided into two tetrachords of +exactly the same proportions, namely, semitone, tone, tone. By +taking the lowest note of the Mixolydian, B, and forming a +Dorian tetrachord on it, B C D E were acquired. Adding to this +another Dorian tetrachord, E F G A (commencing on the last note +of the first), and repeating the same series of tetrachords +an octave higher, we have in all four Dorian tetrachords, +two of which overlap the others. The two middle tetrachords, +constituting the original Dorian mode, were called _disjunct_, +the two outer ones which overlap the middle ones were called +_conjunct_ or _synemmenon_ tetrachords. + +If we consider this new scale from octave to octave, commencing +with the lowest note, that is to say from B to B, we find that +it coincides exactly with the Mixolydian mode; therefore this +was called the Mixolydian octave. The octave in this scale +from the second note, C to C, coincides exactly with the Lydian +mode, and was called the Lydian octave; from the third note, D, +up to its octave gives the Phrygian; from the fourth note, E, +the Dorian; from the fifth, F, the Hypolydian; from the sixth, +G, the Hypophrygian; and from the seventh, A, the Aeolian +or Hypodorian octave. Add one note to the lower end of this +universal Greek scale, as it was called, and we see that the +whole tonal system was included within two octaves. To each of +the notes comprising it was given a name partly derived from +its position in the tetrachords, and partly from the fingering +employed in lyre playing, as shown in the diagram on page 87. + +The fifteen strings of the _kithara_ were tuned according to +this scale, and the A, recurring three times in it, acquired +something of the importance of a tonic or key note. As yet, +however, this scale allowed of no transposition of a mode to +another pitch; in order to accomplish this the second tetrachord +was used as the first of another similar system. Thus, +considering the second tetrachord, E F G A, as first of the +new scale, it would be followed by A B[flat] C D, and the +two disjunct tetrachords would be formed. Followed by the two +upper conjunct tetrachords, and the _proslambanomenos_ added, +our system on a new pitch would be complete. This procedure +has come down almost unchanged to our times; for we have but +two modes, major and minor, which are used on every pitch, +constituting various keys. These Greek modes are the basis +on which all our modern ideas of tonality rest; for our major +mode is simply the Greek Lydian, and our minor mode the Aeolian. + + +LIST OF NOTES IN THE GREEK SCALE + + disjunct +Aeolian. [G: a'] +- A. Nete, or highest. ---+ +Hypophrygian. +-| G. Paranete, next highest. | +Hypolydian. +-| | F. Trite, third. | +Dorian. +-| | | E. Nete, highest. ---+ conjunct +Phrygian. +-| | | | D. Paranete, next highest. ---+ ---+ +Lydian. +-| | | | | C. Trite, third. | | +Mixolydian. +-| | | | | | B. Paramese, next to central tone | | + | | | | | | +- A. Mese, central tone. ---+ ===+ + | | | | | +--- G. Lichanos, index finger. | + | | | | +----- F. Parhypate, next to lowest. | + | | | +------- E. Hypate, lowest. ===+ + | | +--------- D. Lichanos, index. | + | +----------- C. Parhypate, next to lowest. | + +------------- B. Hypate, lowest. ---+ + [F: a,] A. Proslambanomenos, added tone. + +To go into detailed explanation of the Greek enharmonic +and chromatic pitch will scarcely be worth while, and I will +therefore merely add that the instruments were sometimes tuned +differently, either to relieve the inevitable monotony of this +purely diatonic scale or for purposes of modulation. A Dorian +tetrachord is composed of semitone, tone, tone; to make it +chromatic, it was changed as follows: [G: e' f' g-' a'] the +_lichanos_, or index finger string, being lowered a semitone. + +The enharmonic pitch consisted of tuning the _lichanos_ down +still further, almost a quarter-tone below the second string, +or _parhypate_, thus making the tetrachord run quarter-tone, +quarter-tone, two tones. Besides this, even in the diatonic, +the Greeks used what they called soft intervals; for example, +when the tetrachord, instead of proceeding by semitone, tone, +tone (which system was called the hard diatonic), was tuned +to semitone, three-quarter-tone, and tone and a quarter. The +chromatic pitch also had several forms, necessitating the use +of small fractional tones as well as semitones. + +Our knowledge of the musical notation of the Greeks rests +entirely on the authority of Alypius, and dates from about the +fourth century A.D. That we could not be absolutely sure of +the readings of ancient Greek melodies, even if we possessed +any, is evident from the fact that these note characters, +which at first were derived from the signs of the zodiac, +and later from the letters of the alphabet, indicate only the +relative pitch of the sounds; the rhythm is left entirely to +the metrical value of the words in the lines to be sung. Two +sets of signs were used for musical notation, the vocal system +consisting of writing the letters of the alphabet in different +positions, upside down, sideways, etc. + +Of the instrumental system but little is known, and that +not trustworthy. + + +[05] The fundamental doctrine of the Pythagorean philosophy + was that the essence of all things rests upon musical + relations, that numbers are the principle of all that + exists, and that the world subsists by the rhythmical + order of its elements. The doctrine of the "Harmony of + the spheres" was based on the idea that the celestial + spheres were separated from each other by intervals + corresponding with the relative length of strings + arranged so as to produce harmonious tones. + +[06] Dionysus, the same as the Roman Bacchus. + + + + +VII + +THE MUSIC OF THE ROMANS--THE EARLY CHURCH + + +The art history of the world makes it clear to us that when +the art of a country turns to over-elaboration of detail +and mechanical dexterity, when there is a general tendency +toward vividness of _impression_ rather than poignancy and +vitality of _expression_, then we have the invariable sign +of that decadence which inevitably drifts into revolution +of one kind or another. Lasus (500 B.C.), who, as previously +mentioned, was a great flute and lyre player as well as poet, +betrays this tendency, which reached its culmination under the +Romans. Lasus was more of a virtuoso than a poet; he introduced +into Greece a new and florid style of lyre and harp playing; +and it was he who, disliking the guttural Dorian pronunciation +of the letter S, wrote many of his choric poems without using +this letter once in them. Pindar, his pupil, followed in his +footsteps. In many of his odes we find intricate metrical +devices; for instance, the first line of most of the odes +is so arranged metrically that the same order of accents is +maintained whether the line be read backward or forward, the +short and long syllables falling into exactly the same places in +either case. The line "Hercules, the patron deity of Thebes," +may be taken as an example, [(- ' ' ' - )'( - ' ' ' -)]. Such +devices occur all through his poems. We find in them also that +magnificence of diction which is the forerunner of "virtuosity"; +for he speaks of his song as "a temple with pillars of gold, +gold that glitters like blazing fire in the night time." + +In the hands of Aristophanes (450-380 B.C.), the technique +of poetry continued to advance. In "The Frogs," "The +Wasps," and "The Birds" are to be found marvels of skill in +onomatopoetic[07] verse. His comedies called for many more +actors than the tragedies had required, and the chorus was +increased from fifteen to twenty-four. Purple skins were +spread across the stage, and the _parabasis_ (or topical song) +and satire vied with the noble lines of Aeschylus and Sophocles +for favour with the public. + +Meanwhile, as might have been expected, instrumental music +became more and more independent, and musicians, especially +the flute players, prospered; for we read in Suidas that they +were much more proficient and sought after than the lyre and +kithara players. When they played, they stood in a conspicuous +place in the centre of the audience. Dressed in long, feminine, +saffron-coloured robes, with veiled faces, and straps round +their cheeks to support the muscles of the mouth, they exhibited +the most startling feats of technical skill. Even women became +flute players, although this was considered disgraceful. +The Athenians even went so far that they built a temple to the +flute player Lamia, and worshipped her as Venus. The prices +paid to these flute players surpassed even those given to +virtuosi in modern times, sometimes amounting to more than +one thousand dollars a day, and the luxury in which they lived +became proverbial. + +During this period, Aristophanes of Alexandria (350 B.C.), +called "the grammarian," devised a means for indicating the +inflection of the voice in speaking, by which the cadences +which orators found necessary in impassioned speech could be +classified, at least to some extent. When the voice was to fall, +a downward stroke [\] was placed above the syllable; when the +voice was to be raised, an upward stroke [/] indicated it; +and when the voice was to rise and fall, the sign was [/\], +which has become our accent in music. These three signs are +found in the French language, in the accent _aigu_, or high +accent, as in _passe_; the accent _grave_, or low accent, +as in _sincere_; or _circonflexe_, as in _Phaon_. The use of +dots[08] for punctuation is also ascribed to Aristophanes; +and our dots in musical notation, as well as the use of commas +to indicate breathings, may be traced to this system. + +As I have said, all this tended toward technical skill and +analysis; what was lacking in inventive power it was sought +to cover by wonderful execution. The mania for flute playing, +for instance, seemed to spread all over the world; later we +even hear that the king of Egypt, Ptolemy Auletes (80-51 B.C.), +Cleopatra's father, was nicknamed "the flute player." + +In Rome, this lack of poetic vitality seemed evident from the +beginning; for while Greece was represented by the tragedy +and comedy, the Romans' preference was for mere pantomime, +a species of farce of which they possessed three kinds: +(1) The simple pantomime without chorus, in which the actors +made the plot clear to the audience by means of gestures and +dancing. (2) Another which called for a band of instrumental +musicians on the stage to furnish an accompaniment to the +acting of the pantomimist. (3) The chorus pantomime, in +which the chorus and the orchestra were placed on the stage, +supplementing the gestures of the actors by singing a narrative +of the plot of the pantomime, and playing on their instruments. +The latter also were expressive of the non-ideal character of +the pantomime, as is indicated by the fact that the orchestra +was composed of cymbals, gongs, castanets, foot castanets, +rattles, flutes, bagpipes, gigantic lyres, and a kind of shell +or crockery cymbals, which were clashed together. + +The Roman theatre itself was not a place connected with the +worship of the gods, as it was with the Greeks. The altar +to Dionysus had disappeared from the centre of the orchestra, +and the chorus, or rather the band, was placed upon the stage +with the actors. The bagpipe now appears for the first time in +musical history, although there is some question as to whether +it was not known to the Assyrians. It represents, perhaps, the +only remnant of Roman music that has survived, for the modern +Italian peasants probably play in much the same way as did their +forefathers. The Roman pipes were bound with brass, and had +about the same power of tone as was obtained from the trumpet. + +It is easy to see that an orchestra thus constituted would +be better adapted for making a great noise than for music, +while the pantomime itself was of such a brutal nature that +the degradation of art may be said to have been complete. As +the decay of art in Egypt culminated under Ptolemy Auletes, +so in Rome it culminated in the time of Caligula (12-41 A.D.), +and Nero (37-68 A.D.). + +The latter, as we learn from Suetonius, competed for prizes +in the public musical contests, and was never without a slave +at his elbow to warn him against straining his voice. In +his love of magnificence he resembled a Greek flute player, +with unbounded means to gratify it. His palace, the "Golden +House," had triple porticos a mile in length, and enclosed +a lake surrounded by buildings which had the appearance of a +city. Within its area were corn fields, vineyards, pastures, +and woods containing many animals, both wild and tame. In +other parts it was entirely overlaid with gold, and adorned +with jewels and mother-of-pearl. The porch was so high that +a colossal statue of himself, one hundred and twenty feet +in height, stood in it. The supper rooms were vaulted, and +compartments of the ceiling, inlaid with ivory, were made to +revolve and scatter flowers; they also contained pipes which +shed perfumes upon the guests. + +When the revolt under Vindex broke out (68 A.D.), a new +instrument had just been brought to Rome. Tertullian, Suetonius, +and Vitruvius agree in calling it an organ. This instrument, +which was the invention of Ctesibus of Alexandria, consisted +of a set of pipes through which the air was made to vibrate +by means of a kind of water pump operated by iron keys. It +was undoubtedly the direct ancestor of our modern organ. Nero +intended to introduce these instruments into the Roman theatre. +In planning for his expedition against Vindex, his first +care was to provide carriages for his musical instruments; +for his intention was to sing songs of triumph after having +quelled the revolt. He publicly vowed that if his power in the +state were reestablished, he would include a performance upon +organs as well as upon flutes and bagpipes, in the exhibitions +he intended to institute in honour of his success. + +From a musical point of view, Suetonius's biography of Nero +is interesting chiefly on account of its giving us glimpses +of the life of a professional musician of those days. We read, +together with many other details, that it was the custom for a +singer to lie on his back, with a sheet of lead upon his breast, +to correct unsteadiness in breathing, and to abstain from food +for two days together to clear his voice, often denying himself +fruit and sweet pastry. The degraded state of the theatre may +well be imagined from the fact that under Nero the custom of +hiring professional applause was instituted. After his death, +which is so dramatically told by Suetonius, music never revived +in Rome. + +In the meanwhile, however, a new kind of music had begun; +in the catacombs and underground vaults, the early Christians +were chanting their first hymns. Like all that we call "new," +this music had its roots in the old. The hymns sung by the +Christians were mainly Hebrew temple songs, strangely changed +into an uncouth imitation of the ancient Greek drama or worship +of Dionysus; for example, Philo of Alexandria, as well as Pliny +the Younger, speaks of the Christians as accompanying their +songs with gestures, and with steps forward and backward. This +Greek influence is still further implied by the order of one +of the earliest of the Church fathers, Clement of Alexandria +(about 300 A.D.), who forbade the use of the chromatic style in +the hymns, as tending too much toward paganism. Some writers +even go so far as to identify many of the Christian myths and +symbols with those of Greece. For instance, they see, in the +story of Daniel in the lions' den, another form of the legend of +Orpheus taming the wild beasts; in Jonah, they recognize Arion +and the dolphin; and the symbol of the Good Shepherd, carrying +home the stray lamb on his shoulders, is considered another +form of the familiar Greek figure of Hermes carrying the goat. + +Be this as it may, it is certain that this crude beginning +of Christian music arose from a vital necessity, and was +accompanied by an indomitable faith. If we look back, we note +that until now music had either been the servant of ignoble +masters, looked upon as a mathematical problem to be solved +scientifically, or used according to methods prescribed by +the state. It had been dragged down to the lowest depths of +sensuality by the dance, and its divine origin forgotten in +lilting rhythms and soft, lulling rhymes. + +On the other hand, the mathematicians, in their cold +calculation, reduced music to the utilitarianism of algebra, +and even viewed it as a kind of medicine for the nerves and +mind. When we think of the music of Pythagoras and his school, +we seem to be in a kind of laboratory in which all the tones +are labelled and have their special directions for use. For +the legend runs that he composed melodies in the diatonic, +chromatic, and enharmonic styles as antidotes for moods such +as anger, fear, sorrow, etc., and invented new rhythms which +he used to steady and strengthen the mind, and to produce +simplicity of character in his disciples. He recommended that +every morning, after rising, they should play on the lyre and +sing, in order to clear the mind. It was inevitable that this +half mathematical, half psychologically medicinal manner of +treating music would, in falling into the hands of Euclid +(300 B.C.) and his school, degenerate into a mere peg on +which to hang mathematical theorems. On the other hand, when +we think of Greek dances, we seem to pass into the bright, +warm sunshine. We see graceful figures holding one another by +the wrist, dancing in a circle around some altar to Dionysus, +and singing to the strange lilt of those unequal measures. We +can imagine the scheme of colour to be white and gold, framed +by the deep-blue arch of the sky, the amethyst sea flecked +with glittering silver foam, and the dark, sombre rocks of the +Cretan coast bringing a suggestion of fate into this dancing, +soulless vision. Turning now to Rome, we see that this same +music has fallen to a wretched slave's estate, cowering in some +corner until the screams of Nero's living torches need to be +drowned; and then, with brazen clangour and unabashed rhythms, +this brutal music flaunts forth with swarms of dancing slaves, +shrilling out the praises of Nero; and the time for successful +revolution is at hand. + +The first steps toward actually defining the new music took +place in the second century, when the Christians were free to +worship more openly, and, having wealthy converts among them, +held their meetings in public places and basilicas which were +used by magistrates and other officials during the day. These +basilicas or public halls had a raised platform at one end, on +which the magistrate sat when in office. There were steps up to +it, and on these steps the clergy stood. The rest of the hall +was called the "nave" (ship), for the simile of "storm-tossed +mariners" was always dear to the early Christian church. In the +centre of the nave stood the reader of the Scriptures, and on +each side of him, ranged along the wall, were the singers. The +Psalms were sung antiphonally, that is, first one side would +sing and the other side would answer. The congregations +were sometimes immense, for according to St. Jerome (340-420 +A.D.) and St. Ambrose (340-397 A.D.) "the roofs reechoed with +their cries of 'Alleluia,' which in sound were like the great +waves of the surging sea." + +Nevertheless this was, as yet, only sound, and not music. Not +until many centuries later did music become distinct from +chanting, which is merely intoned _speech_. The disputes +of the Arians and the Athanasians also affected the music of +the church, for as early as 306 A.D., Arius introduced many +secular melodies, and had them sung by women. + +Passing over this, we find that the first actual arrangement +of Christian music into a regular system was attempted by Pope +Sylvester, in 314 A.D., when he instituted singing schools, +and when the heresy of Arius was formally condemned. + +Now this chanting or singing of hymns was more or less a +declamation, thus following the Greek tradition of using one +central note, somewhat in the nature of a keynote. + +Rhythm, distinct melody, and even metre were avoided as +retaining something of the unclean, brutal heathenism against +which the Christians had revolted. It was the effort to keep +the music of the church pure and undefiled that caused the +Council of Laodicea (367 A.D.) to exclude from the church all +singing not authorized from the pulpit. + +A few years later (about 370 A.D.) Ambrose, the Archbishop +of Milan, strove to define this music more clearly, by fixing +upon the modes that were to be allowed for these chants; for +we must remember that all music was still based upon the Greek +modes, the modern major and minor being as yet unknown. In the +course of time the ancient modes had become corrupted, and the +modes that Ambrose took for his hymns were therefore different +from those known in Greece under the same names. His Dorian +is what the ancients called Phrygian, [G: d' d''] dominant, +A; his Phrygian was the ancient Dorian, [G: e' e''] dominant, +C; his Lydian corresponded to the old Hypolydian, [G: f' f''] +dominant, C; and his Mixolydian to the old Hypophrygian, +[G: g' g''] dominant, D. These modes were accepted by the +church and were called the Authentic modes. + +Almost two centuries later, Gregory the Great added four +more modes, which were called Plagal or side modes (from +_plagios_--oblique). These were as follows: + + (Keynote) + + Hypodorian, [G: a (d') a' ] dominant, F. + Hypophrygian, [G: c (e') b' ] dominant, A. + Hypolydian, [G: c' (f') c''] dominant, A. + Hypo-mixolydian, [G: d' (g') d''] dominant, C. + +It is easy to see that these so-called new modes are simply +new versions of the first four; although they are lowered a +fourth beneath the authentic modes (hence the _hypo_), the +_keynote remains the same_ in each instance. Still later two +more modes were added to this list, the Ionic, [G: c' c''] +dominant, G, which corresponded to the ancient Greek Lydian; +and the Aeolian, [G: a' a''] dominant, E, which, strange to say, +was the only one of these newer modes which corresponded to +its Greek namesake. Naturally these two newly admitted modes +were also accompanied by their lower pitched attendant modes, +the Hypoionic, [G: g (c') g'] dominant, E, and the Hypoaeolian, +[G: e' (a') e''] dominant, C. + + +SUMMARY + + Mode. Key. Dominant. + + Dorian. D A + Hypodorian. D F + Phrygian. E C + Hypophrygian. E A + Lydian. F C + Hypolydian. F A + Mixolydian. G D + Hypo-mixolydian. G C + Aeolian. A E + Hypoaeolian. A C + Ionian. C G + Hypoionian. C E + + + Dominants + + [G: a' f' c' {a (a')} c' a d' c' e' c' g' e'] + +Now all these lower, or derived modes, Hypodorian, Hypophrygian, +Hypolydian, etc., received the name Plagal modes, because +there was but one tonic or keynote in the scale; consequently +a melody starting on any degree of the scale would invariably +return to the same tonic or keynote. They differed from the +authentic modes, inasmuch as in the latter a melody might end +either on the upper or lower tonic or keynote. Thus the melody +itself was said to be either authentic or plagal, according +to whether it had one or two tonics. The theme of Schumann's +"Etudes symphoniques" is authentic, and the first variation +is plagal. + +Between the sixth and tenth centuries there was much confusion +as to the placing of these modes, but they finally stood as +given above. The Greek names were definitely accepted in the +eleventh century, or thereabouts; previously, they were known +also as the first, second, third, etc., up to the twelfth, +church tones or Gregorian modes. + +At this point it is necessary to refer again to Ambrose. +Apart from having brought the first four authentic modes +into church music, he composed many hymns which had this +peculiarity, namely, that they were modelled more on the actual +declamation of the words to be sung than had hitherto been +the case. We are told that his chants--to use the phrase of +his contemporary, Francis of Cologne--were "all for sweetness +and melodious sound"; and St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.), +speaks of them with ecstasy. The words in these hymns were +used in connection with small groups of notes; consequently +they could be understood as they were sung, thus returning +in a measure to the character of the music of the ancients, +in which the word and declamation were of greater importance +than the actual sounds which accompanied them. But now a +strange thing was to happen that was to give us a new art. +Now, at last, music was to be separated from language and dance +rhythms, and stand alone for the first time in the history of +civilization as _pure music_. + +To appreciate the change made by Gregory (540-604 A.D.), it is +necessary to bear in mind the state of the church just before +his time. As the Ambrosian chant had brought something of the +old declamation and sweetness back into the church ceremonial, +so also in the church itself there was a tendency to sink +back into the golden shimmer that had surrounded the ancient +pagan rites. Already Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch (260 +A.D.), had striven to bring a certain Oriental magnificence +into the church ceremonials. He had a canopied throne erected +for himself, from which he would address his congregation; +he introduced applause into the church, after the fashion of +the Roman theatres; he also had a chorus of women singers, who, +as Eusebius tells us, sang not the Christian hymns, but pagan +tunes. Later, in Constantinople, even this luxury and pomp +increased; the churches had domes of burnished gold, and had +become gigantic palaces, lit by thousands of lamps. The choir, +dressed in glittering robes, was placed in the middle of the +church, and these singers began to show the same fatal sign +of decadence that we saw before in Rome and Greece. According +to St. Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.), they used unguents on their +throats in order to make the voice flexible, for by this time +the singing had become a mere vehicle for virtuosity; when +they sang their _tours de force_, the people applauded and +waved their handkerchiefs, as they did also when the preaching +pleased them. The pagans pointed the finger of scorn at the +Christians, as being mere renegades from the old religion, +and said, plausibly enough, that their worship was merely +another form of the Dionysus tragedy. There was the same altar, +the same chorus, the priest who sang and was answered by the +chorus; and the resemblance had grown to such an extent that +St. Chrysostom (350 A.D.) complained that the church chorus +accompanied its singing with theatrical gestures, which, +as we know, is simply the first step towards the dance. + +This was the state of things when Gregory became Pope in +590 A.D. His additions to the modes already in use have been +explained. His great reform lay in severing the connection +between the music of the church and that of the pagan world +before it. Casting aside the declamation and rhythm, which +up to now had always dominated pure sound, he abolished the +style of church singing in vogue, and substituted for it a +system of chanting in which every tie between the words and +music was severed. + +The music was certainly primitive enough, for it consisted +merely of a rising and falling of the voice for the space of +many notes on one single syllable, as, for instance, + + [F: (f g f g a a) a (a a a g a g g f a)] + [W: Gloria] + +The difference between this and the Ambrosian chant is evident +if we look at the following; and we must also bear in mind +that the Ambrosian chants were very simple in comparison with +the florid _tours de force_ of the Byzantine church: + + [F: d (d f) (d e) f | (g f) (g a) a | (a g) a c' d'] + [W: Al me pater | Ambrosi, | nostras, preces,] + [F: (a b) a | a g a f e d] + [W: audi | Christe, exaudinos] + +Now this reform could not be carried out at once; it was +only through the medium of Charlemagne (742-814 A.D.), +a hundred years later, that the Gregorian chant was firmly +established. Authorized by a synod of bishops, called together +from all parts of Europe by Pope Adrian I, Charlemagne, in +774, caused all the chant and hymn books of the Ambrosian +system throughout Italy to be burned. So completely was +this accomplished that only one Ambrosian missal was found +(by St. Eugenius at Milan), and from this work alone can we +form any idea as to the character of the music used by the +followers of Ambrose, who were much retarded by the lack of +a musical notation, which was the next factor needed to bring +music to an equality with the other arts. + + +[07] Imitating the sound of the thing signified. Poe's + "Raven" has much of this character. + +[08] [over-dot]c, perfect pause; c[mid-dot], short; c., shortest; + breathings: [reverse-apostrophe] hard; ' soft. + + + + +VIII + +FORMATION OF THE SCALE--NOTATION + + +In comparing the Ambrosian chant with that of Gregory, it +may be said that we have touched upon the vital principle of +modern music. The novelty in the Gregorian chant consisted in +its absolute emancipation from the tyranny of actual words +and declamation; while the idea, the poetic principle, or +religious ecstasy still remained the ideal to be expressed in +the music. Before this, as already explained, music was either +a mathematical problem, a rhythm to mark the time in dancing, +or a vehicle serving for the display of clever _tours de force_, +the music of the tragedies being merely a kind of melodious +declamation. To quote Goethe, "having recognized the fact, +it still remains for us to see how it developed." Let us now +consider this point. + +Three things were necessary before these Gregorian chants +could develop at all: (1) A simple, clean-cut musical scale +or systematized table of musical sounds. (2) Some definite +manner of symbolizing sounds, so that they could be accurately +expressed in writing. (3) A cultivation of the sense of +hearing, in order that mankind might learn to distinguish +between sounds that are discordant and those that sound well +together; in other words, harmony. + +We will begin with the scale, and review what we know of the +Greek modes in order to show how they were amalgamated into +our present octave system of scales. + + [Tetrachords /------|-----\ /-------|--------\ ] + [ F: b, c d e f g a G: b c' d' e' f' g' a'] + [Mixolydian \--+-+-+-+-+-+----/ | | | | | | ] + [Lydian \-+-+-+-+-+------/ | | | | | ] + [Phrygian \-+-+-+-+---------/ | | | | ] + [Dorian \-+-+-+------------/ | | | ] + [Hypolydian \-+-+---------------/ | | ] + [Hypophrygian \-+------------------/ | ] + [Aeolian or Locrian or Hypodorian \---------------------/ ] + [Notes labelled from highest to lowest: Nete, Paranete, Trite, + Nete, Paranete, Trite, Paramese, Mese, Lichanos, Parhypate, + Hypate, Lichanos, Parhypate, Hypate, [F: a,] Proslambanomenos.] + +Under Ambrose and Pope Gregory, these modes had taken a +different form. The chromatic and enharmonic styles had been +abandoned in theory, the portamento which the singers introduced +into their chants being the only principle retained. The new +system was as follows: + + [F8: g, a, b, G8: c d e f g a b c' d' e' f' g' a'] + [First nine notes labelled: + Hypoion., Hypodor., Hypophryg., Hypolyd./Ionian, + Hypo-mixolyd./Dorian, Hypoaeol./Phryg., Lyd., Mixolyd., Aeol.] + +In order to complete the story of the evolution of scales and +clefs, we must add that the Flemish monk, Hucbald (900 A.D.), +divided this scale into regular tetrachords, beginning at +G, with the succession, tone, semitone, tone, forming four +disjunct tetrachords, + + [F: (g, a, b-, c) (d e f g) (a b c' d') G: (e' f+' g' a')] + +This division remained without influence on the development +of the scale. + +The first change in the _tetrachord_ system of reckoning +tones and dividing the scale was made by Guido d'Arezzo (first +half of eleventh century), who divided it into hexachords or +groups of six notes each. Up to that time, each note of the +scale had had a letter of the alphabet for its symbol. It was +Guido who conceived the idea of using syllables for these +notes. The story of how it occurred to him is well known: +On one occasion, hearing his brethren in the monastery choir +of Arezzo, in Tuscany, sing a hymn to St. John the Baptist, he +noticed that the first syllable of each line came on regularly +ascending notes of the scale, the first syllable coming on C, +the first of the next line on D, the first of the third on E, +etc., up to A on the sixth line. As all these syllables happened +to differ one from the other, and, moreover, were very easy +to sing, he hit upon the idea of using them to distinguish +the notes on which they fell in the hymn. + + [F: c d f (d e) d | d d c d e e ] + [W: _Ut_ queant laxis | _Re_sonare fibris ] + [F: (e f g) e (d e) c d | f g a (g f) d d] + [W: _Mi_ra gestorum | _Fa_muli tuorum ] + [F: (g a g) e f g d | a g a f (g a) a | (g f) d c e d ] + [W: _Sol_ve polluti | _La_bii reatum | Sancte Joannes] + +Furthermore, as there were six of these syllables, he arranged +the musical scale in groups of six notes instead of four, +hexachords instead of tetrachords. Commencing with G, which +was the lowest note of the system in Hucbald's time, the first +hexachord was formed of G A B C D E; the second, following the +example of the Greeks, he made to overlap the first, namely, +C D E F G A; the third, likewise overlapping the second, +commenced on F. In order to make this hexachord identical +in structure with, the first and second, he flatted the B, +thus making the succession of notes, F G A B[flat] C D. The +next three hexachords were repetitions of the first three, +namely, G A B C D E, C D E F G A, F G A B[flat] C D; the last +was again a repetition of the first, G A B C D E. + + +THE GAMUT. + +[F: g, a, b, c d e c d e f g a f g a b- c' d' ] +[W: [Gamma] A B C D E C D E F G a F G a b c d ] +[W: (Ut re mi fa sol la) (Ut re mi fa sol la) (Ut re mi fa sol la)] +[Hexachords: (Hard Low) (Natural Low) (Soft Low)] + +[G: g a b= c' d' e' c' d' e' f' g' a' ] +[W: G a b c d e c d e f g aa ] +[W: (Ut re mi fa sol la) (Ut re mi fa sol la)] +[Hexachords: (Hard High) (Natural High)] + +[G: f' g' a' b-' c'' d'' g' a' b=' c'' d'' e''] +[W: f g aa bb cc dd g aa bb cc dd ee ] +[W: (Ut re mi fa sol la) (Ut re mi fa sol la)] +[Hexachords: (Soft High) (Hard Super Acute)] + +To the lowest note of this scale, which was foreign to the +Greek system, he gave a special name, _gamma_, after the +Greek letter G. From this we get our word for the scale, +the gamut. The other notes remained the same as before, only +that for the lowest octave capital letters were used; in the +next octave, the notes were designated by small letters, and +in the last octave by double letters, aa, bb, etc., as in the +following example. + + [F: g, g G: a g' | a' g'' ] + [W: Capitals. : Small letters | Double or very small letters] + + +PRESENT SCALE. + + [F: c,, | c, | c G: c' | c'' | c''' | c''''] + [W: C_ | C | c : c' | c'' | c''' | c''''] + [W: Contra | Great | Small : 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th ] + +Following out his system, he applied the newly acquired +syllables to each of the hexachords--for instance, the lowest +hexachord, G A B C D E, which was called hard, became _ut re +mi fa sol la_; the second, which was called natural, C D E F +G A, also became _ut re mi fa sol la_; and the third, which +was called soft, F G A B[flat] C D, became likewise _ut re mi +fa sol la_. The next three hexachords were treated in the same +manner; the last or seventh hexachord was merely a repetition +of the first and the fourth. + +Now in the hymns, and also in the sequences, as they were called +(which were simply a series of notes forming a little melody +sung to two or three words), the voice was rarely called upon +to progress more than the interval of a sixth, and so this +solmization, as the new system was called, was very valuable; +for one had only to give the pitch, and _ut_ always meant the +keynote, _re_ the second, _mi_ the third, etc., etc. In time +_ut_ was found to be a difficult syllable to sing, and _do_ +was substituted. This change, however, was made after the scale +was divided into a system of octaves instead of hexachords. The +improvement in singing soon made the limits of the hexachords +too small to be practical; therefore another syllable was added +to the hexachordal system, _si_, and with this seventh note +we have our modern scale. From this we see that the scale in +present use is composed of octaves, just as the older scales +were composed of hexachords, and before that tetrachords. Just +as in mediaeval times each hexachord commenced with _ut_, +so now every octave of our tonal system commences with _do_. + +Before leaving the hexachordal system, it may be as well to +explain the mode of procedure when the voice had to go beyond +the interval of the sixth. We know that the first of every set +of six notes was called _ut_, the second, _re_, the third, +_mi_, etc. When the voice had to go beyond _la_, the sixth +note, to B[natural], that sixth note was always called _re_, +and was considered the second note of a new hexachord. If, +on the other hand, the voice had to go beyond _a_, to B[flat], +the fifth note was called _re_, since the syllables _mi fa_ +must always come on the half-tone. + +In a study of our system of writing music, it may be as well to +begin with the derivation of our sharps and flats. Observing +the third hexachord on our list we see that in order to make +it identical in structure with the first and second, the B had +to be lowered a semitone. Now the third hexachord was called +soft. The B[flat] in it was accordingly called a soft B or +B _molle_, which is still the name in France for a flat, and +_moll_ in German still means minor, or "soft" or "lowered." For +the fourth hexachord, which was called hard, this B was again +raised a semitone. But the flatted B was already indicated +by the letter _b_ or round _b_, as it was called; hence this +B natural was given a _square_ shape and called B _carre_, +[illustration]. The present French word for natural (when it +is specially marked) is _becarre_; the German word for major +also comes indirectly from this, for _dur_ means "hard." + +An explanation of the modern German names for notes will be +easily understood in this connection. In the German nomenclature +the letters of the alphabet stand for the notes of the scale +as in the English, with the exception of B. This B, or "round" +B, in the German system stands for B[flat], which is more +logical than our English usage, since our flat is merely a +slightly modified form of _b_. The German B natural is our +letter _h_, which is merely a corruption of the square _b_, +[illustration], which by the addition of a line in time +became our [natural]. The Germans have carried the flatting +and sharping of tones to a logical conclusion in their present +nomenclature, for by "sharping" the sound of a single letter it +is raised a semitone from its normal diapason, thus F becomes +_Fis_, G _Gis_. On the other hand, in order to lower a tone, +the letter representing it is "flatted," and F is called _Fes_, +G _Ges_, the only exception to these rules being the B which +we have already considered. + +In France the Guidonian system was adhered to closely, and +to this day the _becarre_ is used only as an accidental, to +indicate that the note to which it refers has been flatted +before. The _naturel_ (which has the same shape) is used +to designate a note that is natural to the key; thus the +distinction is made between an accidental and a note that is +common to the key. In F major, for instance, B[natural] is +_si becarre_, A[natural] would be _la naturel_. Our modern +sharp is merely another form of the natural or square B +([natural]) which gradually came to be used before _any_ note, +signifying that it was raised or sharped a half-tone; the flat +lowered it a semitone, and after a while the natural received +its present place between the sharp and flat. The first instance +we have of the sharp being used is in the thirteenth century, +when (in the Rondels of Adam de la Hale) it takes the form +of a cross [x] (the German word for the sharp still remains +_kreuz_). The French word _diese_ (sharp) comes from the Greek +_diesis_, a term used to indicate the raising of the voice in +the chromatic scale. + +And now we have to speak of notation and its development. +Thus far we have found only two ways in which musical sounds +were indicated by the ancients. First, we remember the invention +of Aristophanes of Alexandria, his accents, high, low, and +circumflex. Then we know from Ptolemy, Boethius, and Alypius +that letters were used to designate the different tones; but as +there is no music extant in this notation to prove the theory, +we need not trouble ourselves with it. + +The system of Aristophanes, however, was destined to become the +nucleus from which our modern notation sprang. We know that +an elementary idea, clearly expressed, has more chances of +living than has a more complicated system, however ingenious +the latter may be. Now this system is so plain that we will +find it is common to many aboriginal peoples, for instance +the American Indians have a system very similar. + +In the period now under consideration (from the third to the +tenth century), music was noted in this way: an upstroke of +the pen meant a raising of the voice, a downstroke lowered it, +a flat stroke meant a repetition of the same note, thus [/ \ -] +[G: c' g' c' c']. Gradually it became necessary to indicate +the contour of the melodies with more accuracy; therefore the +circumflex was added [Over-slur] [G: g' c'' g'] and reversed +[Under-slur] [G: g' e' g']. Still later a sign for two steps was +invented [Step] [G: e' g' b'] and when the progression was to +be diatonically stepwise the strokes were thicker [Thick Step] +[G: g' a' b']. So this notation developed, and by combining +the many signs together, simple non-rhythmic melodies could be +indicated with comparative clearness and simplicity. The flat +stroke for a single note [-], indicating [G: b'], eventually +became smaller and thicker, thus [Thick -]. By combining these +different signs, a skip of a third and back came to be noted +[Crenellation], and if the note came down on a second instead +of the original note it became [Podium] [G: g' b' a']. The +_quilisma_ ([Upper Mordent]) indicated a repetition of two +notes, one above the other, and we still use much the same +sign for our trill. Also the two forms of the circumflex, +[Over-slur] [Under-slur], were joined ([Turn]) and thus we +have the modern turn, so much used by Wagner. + +Now while this notation was ingenious, it still left much +to be desired as to pitch. To remedy this a red line was +drawn before writing these signs or _neumes_, as they were +called. This line represented a given pitch, generally E; +above and below it were then written the signs for the notes, +their pitch being determined by the relative position they held +in regard to the _line_. Thus [Podium, Turn, Upper Mordent] was +the equivalent of [G: c' e' d' e' d' c' d' e' d' e' d' e' d'], +considering the line as being middle C pitch, a fourth higher F. +This was the condition of musical notation in 1000 A.D. + +To Guido d'Arezzo is ascribed its development up to some +semblance of our present system, although the claim has often +been denied. It is certain, however, that the innovations +were made at this period. In the first place Guido made the +red line _always_ stand for the pitch of F, and at a little +distance above it he added another line, this time yellow, +which was to indicate the pitch of C. Thus the signs began to +take very definite meaning as regards pitch; for, given a sign +extending from one line to the other, the reader could see +at a glance that the music progressed a fifth, from F to C, +or _vice-versa_. And now the copyists, seeing the value of +these lines in determining the pitch of the different signs, +of their own account added two more in black ink, one of which +they drew between the F and the C line, and the other above +the C line, thus [illustration]. By doing this they accurately +decided the pitch of every note, for the lowest line, being F, +the line between that and the C line must stand for A, and the +two spaces for G and B; the top line would stand for E, and the +space between it and the yellow line for D. Little by little +these copyists grew careless about making the lines in yellow, +red, and black, and sometimes drew them all in black or red, +thereby losing the distinguishing mark of the F and C lines. In +order to remedy this, Guido placed the letters F and C before +the lines representing these notes, thus [illustration]. In +this way our modern _clefs_ (_clavis_ or key) originated, for +the C clef, as it is called, gradually changed its shape to +[illustration] and [illustration], and the F clef changed to +[illustration], which is our bass clef in a rudimentary form. + +Later, still another line was added to the set, thus giving +us our modern staff, and another clef, [illustration], was +added on the next to the lowest line. This, in turn, became +our present treble clef, [G:]. In the course of time the signs +themselves underwent many changes, until at last from [Podium], +etc., they became our modern signs. + +Before this, however, a grave defect in the notation had to +be remedied. There was as yet no way of designating the length +of time a note was to be sustained; something definite in the +way of noting _rhythm_ was necessary. This was accomplished +by Franco of Cologne, in the beginning of the thirteenth +century. By disconnecting the parts of the sign [Podium] one +from another, the following individual signs were acquired +[illustration of Podium broken into three pieces]. In order +to have two distinct values of length, these signs were +called longs and shorts, _longa_ [illustration], and _brevis_ +[illustration], to which was added the _brevis_ in another +position [illustration], called _semibrevis_. The _longa_ +was twice the value of the _brevis_, and the _semibrevis_ +was half the length of the _brevis_ ([L = B B B = S S]). +When notes of equal length were slurred, they were written +[illustration]. When two or more notes were to be sung to +one syllable in quicker time, the _brevi_ were joined one to +the other [illustration], as for instance in the songs of the +thirteenth century, + + + DIRGE FOR KING RICHARD'S DEATH + + GAUCELM FAIDIT. + + [Illustration] + [W: Fortz chose est que tot le maur major dam] + + + ROI THIBAUT DE NAVARRE (1250). + + [Illustration] + [W: Si li dis sans de laies | Belle diex vous doint bon jour] + +or, in modern style, + + [G: g' a' b' c'' (d'' c'') (b' a' g') | + a' b' (c'' b') (b' a' g') (a' b') g'] + +In this example we find the first indication of the measuring +off of phrases into bars. As we see, it consisted of a little +stroke, which served to show the beginning of a new line, +and was not restricted to regularity of any kind except that +necessitated by the verse. + +The use of the _semibrevis_ is shown in the following chanson +of Raoul de Coucy (1192): + + [Illustration] + [W: Quant li rossignol jolis | chante + Seur la flor d'este | que n'est la rose et le lis] + + [G: d'' (c'' a') b-' (a' (g' f')) g' (a' b-' a' f') f' | f' g' + a' (b-' a') (c'' d'' c'' b-') (a' g') a' | + d'' (c'' a') b-' a' (g' f') g' (a' (b-' a') f') f'] + +The French troubadours and the German minnesingers of the +thirteenth century used these forms of notes only, and even +then restricted themselves to two kinds, either the _longa_ +and _brevis_, or _brevis_ and _semibrevis_. + +The necessity for rests very soon manifested itself, and the +following signs were invented to correspond to the _longa_, +_brevis_, and _semibrevis_ [illustration]. Also the number of +note symbols was increased by the _maxima_ or double _longa_ +[illustration], and the _minima_ [illustration], which +represented half the value of the _semibrevis_. + +Now that music began taking a more definite rhythmic form +than before, a more regular dividing off of the phrases +became necessary. This was accomplished by the use of a +dot, and another form, the perpendicular line, which we +have noticed in the song of the King of Navarre (1250). At +first a means to indicate triple time was invented, and the +measure corresponding to our [9/8] was indicated by placing +the sign [O.] at the beginning of the line. This was called +perfect. Then, for plain triple time the dot was omitted [O]; +for [6/8] time the sign [C.] was adopted, and for ordinary +common time [C] was taken. Consequently, when these signs +were placed at the beginning of the line they changed the +value of the notes to correspond to the time marked. Thus in +[O.] (_tempus perfectum_, _prolatio major_) or [9/8], the +_brevis_ was reckoned worth three _semibrevi_ [B = S S S] +([1. = 4. 4. 4.]); the _semibrevis_ three _minimi_ [S = M M M] +([4. = 8 8 8]). In [O] or [3/4] time [B = S S S] ([2. = 4 4 4]); +but the _semibrevis_ was only as long as two _minimi_ [S = M M] +([4 = 8 8]). In [C.] or [6/8] time [B = S S] ([2. = 4. 4.]), +but [S = M M M] ([4. = 8 8 8]). In [C] or [2/2] time [B = S S] +([1 = 2 2]), and [S = M M] ([2 = 4 4]). + +In the beginning of the fifteenth century the notes began to +be written in an open form + + [Illustration] _Maxima_. + [Illustration] _Longa_. + [Illustration] _Brevis_. + [Illustration] _Semibrevis_. + [Illustration] _Minima_. + [Illustration] _Semiminima_, which was added later. + +As still smaller units of value were added, the _semiminima_ +was replaced by [filled minima], and the half _semiminima_ +thus became [minima with tail], and the next smaller values, +[two tails] and [three tails]. The rest to correspond to +the _semiminima_ was [illustration]; for the _semibrevis_ +[illustration], and _minima_ [illustration]. + +Thus we have the following values and their corresponding rests: + + _Maxima_ [Illustration] + _Longa_ [Illustration] + _Brevis_ [Illustration] + _Semibrevis_ [Illustration] + _Minima_ [Illustration] + _Semiminima_ or _crocheta_ [Illustration] + _Fusa_ or _crocheta_ [Illustration] + _Semifusa_ [Illustration] + +The rests for the _fusa_ and _semifusa_ were turned to the left +in order to avoid the confusion that would ensue if the rest +[illustration] stood for [fusa]. Besides, the sign would have +easily become confused with the C clef [illustration]. + +Signs for the changes of _tempo_, that is to say changes +from quick to slow, etc., were introduced in the fifteenth +century. The oldest of them consists of drawing a line through +the _tempus_ sign [O|]. This meant that the notes were to be +played or sung twice as rapidly as would usually be the case, +without, however, affecting the relative value of the notes +to one another. Now we remember that the sign [C] stood for +our modern [4/4] time; when a line was drawn through it, +[C|] it indicated that two _brevi_ were counted as one, and +the movement was said to be _alla breve_. This is the one +instance of time signatures that has come down to us unaltered. + + + + +IX + +THE SYSTEMS OF HUCBALD AND GUIDO D'AREZZO--THE BEGINNING +OF COUNTERPOINT + + +We have seen that by order of Charlemagne, Ambrosian chant was +superseded by that of Gregory, and from any history of music +we may learn how he caused the Gregorian chant to be taught +to the exclusion of all other music. Although Notker, in the +monastery of St. Gall, in Switzerland, and others developed the +Gregorian chant, until the time of Hucbald this music remained +mere wandering melody, without harmonic support of any kind. + +Hucbald (840-930) was a monk of the monastery of St. Armand in +Flanders. As we know from our studies in notation, he was the +first to improve the notation by introducing a system of lines +and spaces, of which, however, the spaces only were utilized +for indicating the notes, viz.: + + [Illustration] + +His attempt to reconstruct the musical scale was afterwards +overshadowed by the system invented by Guido d'Arezzo, and it +is therefore unnecessary to describe it in detail. His great +contribution to progress was the discovery that more than one +sound could be played or sung simultaneously, thus creating a +composite sound, the effect which we call a chord. However, +in deciding which sounds should be allowed to be played or +sung together, he was influenced partly by the mysticism of +his age, and partly by a blind adherence to the remnants of +musical theory which had been handed down from the Greeks. As +Franco of Cologne, later (1200), in systematizing rhythm into +measure, was influenced by the idea of the Trinity in making +his [3/8] or [9/8] time _tempus perfectum_, and adopting for +its symbol the Pythagorean circle [O.] or [O], so Hucbald, +in choosing his series of concords or sounds that harmonize +well together, took the first three notes of the overtones of +every sonorous fundamental, or, to express it differently, of +the series of natural harmonics, that is to say, he admitted +the octave and fifth: [F: g, d g]. But from the fifth to the +octave gives the interval of the fourth, therefore he permitted +this combination also. + +From the works of Boethius (_circa_ 400) and others, he had +derived and accepted the Pythagorean division of the scale, +making thirds and sixths dissonant intervals; and so his perfect +chord (from which our later triad gets its name of _perfect_) +was composed of a root, fifth or fourth, and octave. + +Hucbald, as I have already explained, changed the Greek tone +system somewhat by arranging it in four regular disjunct +tetrachords, namely: + + [F: (g, a, b-, c) (d e f g) G: (a b c' d') (e' f+' g' a')] + +This system permitted the addition of a fifth to each note +indiscriminately, and the fifths would always be _perfect_; but +in regard to the octaves it was faulty, for obvious reasons. As +his system of notation consisted of merely writing T for tone +and S for semitone between the lines of his staff, it was only +necessary to change the order of these letters for the octave +at the beginning of each line. With the fourth, however, +this device was impossible, and therefore he laid down the +rule that when the voices proceeded in fourths, and a discord +(or augmented fourth) was unavoidable, the lower voice was to +remain on the same note until it could jump to another fourth +forming a perfect interval: + + [F: {g b} {g b} {g a} {g b} {d a} {d g} {c f} {c e} {a, d} {g, c}] + +This at least brought into the harmony an occasional third, +which gradually became a recognized factor in music. + +We probably know that the year 1000 was generally accepted +as the time when the world was to come to an end. In the +_Bibliotheque Nationale_ in Paris there is a manuscript +containing the prophecy which had been handed down for many +centuries; also the signs for the notes to which it was to be +sung, viz.: + + [Figure 07] + +The text is: + + The Judge will speak and the earth shall tremble + with awe. The stars shall be destroyed and the glory + of the moon shall die, the mountains shall be crushed + and the world with all in it shall utterly perish. + +With the opening of the eleventh century, such was the relief +from this fear which had been oppressing Christendom, that even +the church reflected it in such strange rites as the _Feast +of Asses_ (January 14th), which was a burlesque of the Mass. + +In this travesty of the Mass a young girl, dressed to +represent the Virgin, riding on an ass and carrying a child +in her arms, was conducted to the church door. Upon being +admitted and riding up the aisle to the altar, the girl +tethered the ass to the railing and sat on the steps until +the service was finished. The _Credo_, _Gloria_, etc., all +ended with a "hee-haw," and at the conclusion of the service +the officiating priest brayed three times, and was answered by +the congregation. The mixing of the vernacular with Latin in +this service is the first instance of the use of any language +but Latin in church music. + +This quasi-symbolical pantomime gave rise in time to the +mediaeval Passion Plays, or Mysteries, as they were called. That +these travesties of the Mass took different forms in various +countries is very evident when we remember the description +of the "Abbot of Unreason," in Scott's "Abbot." In England, +among other absurdities such as the "Pope of Fools," the "Ball +Dance," etc., they also had the festival of the "Boy Bishop," +in which, between the sixth and twenty-eighth of December, +a boy was made to perform all the functions of a bishop. + +It would seem that all this has but little bearing upon +the development of music. As a matter of fact it was a most +potent factor in it, for music was essentially and exclusively +a church property. By permitting the people to secularize +the church rites at certain seasons, it was inevitable that +church music would also become common property for a time, +with this difference, however, that the common people could +carry the tunes away with them, and the music would be the only +thing remaining as a recollection of the carnival. Indeed, the +prevalence of popular songs soon became such that writers of +church music began to use them instead of their being derived +from church music, as was originally the case. This continued to +such an extent that almost up to 1550 a mass was known by the +name of the popular song it was based upon, as, for instance, +the mass of the "Man in Armour," by Josquin des Pres, and those +entitled "_Je prends conge_" and "_Je veult cent mille ecus_." + +Now we know that the _tempus perfectum_ was _par excellence_ +[9/8] and [3/4] time. It was natural therefore that these first +church tunes should have been changed to dances in the hands +of the common people. Even in these dances it is interesting to +note that the same symbolic significance appears to be present, +for the earliest form of these dances was the "round song," +or roundelay, and it was danced in a circle. + +Duple time did not come into general use until the beginning of +the fourteenth century. About the same time, the organum (as it +was called) or system of harmonization of Hucbald was discarded, +and Johannes de Muris and Philippe de Vitry championed the +consonant quality of the third and sixth, both major and minor. +The fifth was retained as a consonant, but the fourth was +passed over in silence by the French school of writers, or +classed with the dissonants. Successive fifths were prohibited +as being too harshly dissonant, but successive fourths were +necessarily permitted, as it would be an impossibility to do +without them. Nevertheless, the fourth was still considered +a dissonance, and was permitted only between the upper parts +of the music. Thus the harsh consecutive passages in fifths +and fourths of the organum of Hucbald disappeared in favour +of the softer progressions of thirds and sixths. + +In order to make clear how the new science of counterpoint +came into existence, I must again revert to Hucbald.[09] + +Before his time, all "recognized" music was a more or less +melodious succession of tones, generally of the same length, +one syllable being sometimes used for many notes. He discovered +that a melody might be sung by several singers, each commencing +at a different pitch instead of all singing the same notes at +the same time. He also laid down rules as to how this was to +be done to produce the best effect. We remember why he chose +the fourth, fifth, and octave in preference to the third and +sixth. He called his system an "organum" or "diaphony," and +to sing according to his rules was called to "organize" or +"organate." We must remember that at that time fourths and +fifths were not always indicated in the written music; only +the melody, which was called the principal or subject. By +studying the rules prescribed for the organum, the singers +could add the proper intervals to the melody. We must keep +in mind, however, that later fourths were preferred to fifths +(being considered less harsh), and that the musical scale of +the period compelled the different voices to vary slightly, +that is to say, two voices could not sing exactly the same +melody at the interval of a fourth without the use of sharps +or flats; therefore one voice continued on the same note until +the awkward place was passed, and then proceeded in fourths +again with the other voice as before: + + [G: {e' a'} {d' g'} {d' f+'} {d' e'}] + +On account of the augmented fourth that would occur by a strict +adherence to the melodic structure of the subject, the following +would have been impossible: [G: {e' a'} {d' g'} ({c' f+'})] +Thus we find the first instance of the use of thirds, and also +of oblique motion as opposed to the earlier inevitable parallel +motion of the voices. This necessary freedom in singing the +organum or diaphony led to the attempt to sing two _different_ +melodies, one against the other--"note against note," or +"point counter point,"[10] point or _punct_ being the name +for the written note. There being now two distinct melodies, +both had to be _noted_ instead of leaving it to the singers +to add their parts extemporaneously, according to the rules of +the organum, as they had done previously. Already earlier than +this (in 1100), owing to the tendency to discard consecutive +fourths and fifths, the intermovement of the voices, from +being parallel and oblique, became _contrary_, thus avoiding +the parallel succession of intervals. The name "organum" was +dropped and the new system became known as tenor and descant, +the tenor being the principal or foundation melody, and the +descant or descants (for there could be as many as there +were parts or voices to the music) taking the place of the +organum. The difference between _discantus_ and _diaphony_ +was that the latter consisted of several parts or voices, +which, however, were more or less exact reproductions, at +different pitch, of the principal or given melody, while the +former was composed of entirely different melodic and rhythmic +material. This gave rise to the science of counterpoint, which, +as I have said, consists of the trick of making a number +of voices sing different melodies at the same time without +violating certain given rules. The given melody or "principal" +soon acquired the name of _cantus firmus_, and the other parts +were each called _contrapunctus_,[11] as before they had been +called tenor and descant. These names were first used by Gerson, +Chancellor of Notre Dame, Paris, about 1400. + +In the meantime (about 1300-1375), the occasional use of thirds +and sixths in the diaphonies previously explained led to an +entirely different kind of singing, called _falso bordone_ +or _faux bourdon_ (_bordonizare_, "to drone," comes from a +kind of pedal in organum that first brought the third into +use). This system, contrary to the old organum, consisted of +using only thirds and sixths together, excluding the fourth +and fifth entirely, except in the first and last bars. This +innovation has been ascribed to the Flemish singers attached +to the Papal Choir (about 1377), when Pope Gregory XI returned +from Avignon to Rome. In the British Museum, however, there +are manuscripts dating from the previous century, showing +that the _faux bourdon_ had already commenced to make its way +against the old systems of Hucbald and Guido. The combination +of the _faux bourdon_ and the remnant of the organum gives us +the foundation for our modern tone system. The old rules, +making plagal motion of the different voices preferable to +parallel motion, and contrary motion preferable to either, +still hold good in our works on theory; so also in regard to +the rules forbidding consecutive fifths and octaves, leaving +the question of the fourth in doubt. + +To sum up, we may say, therefore, that up to the sixteenth +century, all music was composed of the slender material of +thirds, sixths, fifths, and octaves, fourths being permitted +only _between_ the voices; consecutive successions of fourths, +however, were permitted, a license not allowed in the use of +fifths or octaves. This leads us directly to a consideration +of the laws of counterpoint and fugue, laws that have remained +practically unchanged up to the present, with the one difference +that, instead of being restricted to the meagre material of +the so-called consonants, the growing use of what were once +called dissonant chords, such as the dominant seventh, ninth, +diminished seventh, and latterly the so-called altered chords, +has brought new riches to the art. + +Instead of going at once into a consideration of the laws +of counterpoint, it will be well to take up the development +of the instrumental resources of the time. There were three +distinct types of music: the ecclesiastical type (which of +course predominated) found its expression in melodies sung +by church choirs, four or more melodies being sometimes sung +simultaneously, in accordance with certain fixed rules, +as I have already explained. These melodies or chants +were often accompanied by the organ, of which we will speak +later. The second type was purely instrumental, and served as +an accompaniment for the dance, or consisted of _fanfares_ +(ceremonial horn signals), or hunting signals. The third +type was that of the so-called _trouveres_ or _troubadours_, +with their _jongleurs_, and the minnesingers, and, later, the +mastersingers. All these "minstrels," as we may call them, +accompanied their singing by some instrument, generally one +of the lute type or the psaltery. + + +[09] There is much question as to Hucbald's organum. That + actually these dissonances were used even up to 1500 is + proved by Franco Gafurius of Milan, who mentions a Litany + for the Dead (_De Profundis_) much used at that time: + + [G: {f' g'} {f' g'} {g' a'} {g' a'} {g' c''} {e' a'} {f' g'}] + [W: De profundis, etc.] + +[10] Counterpoint is first mentioned by Muris (1300). + +[11] Only principal (tenor or cantus firmus) was sung to words. + + + + +X + +MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS--THEIR HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT + + +In church music, the organ is perhaps the first instrument to +be considered. In 951, Elfeg, the Bishop of Winchester had +built in his cathedral a great organ which had four hundred +pipes and twenty-six pairs of bellows, to manage which seventy +strong men were necessary. Wolstan, in his life of St. Swithin, +the Benedictine monk, gives an account of the exhausting work +required to keep the bellows in action. + +Two performers were necessary to play this organ, just as +nowadays we play four-hand music on the piano. The keys went +down with such difficulty that the players had to use their +elbows or fists on each key; therefore it is easy to see that, +at the most, only four keys could be pressed down at the same +time. On the other hand, each key when pressed down or pushed +back (for in the early organs the keyboard was perpendicular) +gave the wind from the bellows access to ten pipes each, which +were probably tuned in octaves or, possibly, according to the +organum of Hucbald, in fifths or fourths. This particular organ +had two sets of keys (called manuals), one for each player; +there were twenty keys to each manual, and every key caused +ten pipes to sound. The compass of this organ was restricted +to ten notes, repeated at the distance of an octave, and, +there being four hundred pipes, forty pipes were available for +each note. On each key was inscribed the name of the note. As +may be imagined, the tone of this instrument was such that it +could be heard at a great distance. + +There were many smaller organs, as, for instance, the one in the +monastery of Ramsey, which had copper pipes. Pictures of others +from the twelfth century show that even where there were only +ten pipes, the organ had two manuals, needed two players, and at +least four men for the bellows. The great exertion required to +play these instruments led to the invention of what is called +"mixtures." From the moment fifths and fourths were considered +to sound better together than the simple notes, the pipes were +so arranged that the player did not need to press two of the +ponderous organ keys for this combination of sounds. One key +was made to open the valves of the two sets of pipes, so that +each key, instead of sounding one note, would, at will, sound +the open fifth, fourth, or octave. With the addition of the +third, thus constituting a perfect major triad, this barbarous +habit has come down to our present day almost unchanged, for by +using what is called the "mixture stop" of our modern organs, +each key of the manual gives not only the original note, +but also its perfect major triad, several octaves higher. + +Originally the organ was used only to give the right intonation +for the chanting of the priests. From the twelfth century, small +portable organs of limited compass were much used; although the +tone of these instruments was necessarily slight, and, owing to +the shortness of the pipes, high in pitch, the principle of the +mechanism was similar to that of the larger instruments. They +were hung by means of a strap passed over the shoulders; +one hand pressed the keys in front of the pipes (which were +arranged perpendicularly), and the other hand operated the +small bellows behind the pipes. These small instruments rarely +had more than eight pipes, consequently they possessed only +the compass of an octave. With slight variations, they were +quite universally used up to the seventeenth century. Organ +pedals were invented in Germany about 1325. Bernhard, organist +of St. Mark's, Venice (1445-1459), has been credited with the +invention of organ pedals, but it is probable that he merely +introduced them into Italy. + +As the Greek modes formed the basis for the musical system of +the church, so the Greek monochord is the type from which the +monks evolved what they called the clavichord. The monochord +has a movable bridge, therefore some time is lost in adjusting +it in order to get the different tones. To obviate this +inconvenience, a number of strings were placed side by side, +and a mechanism inserted which, by pressing a key (_clavis_), +would move the bridge to the point at which the string must +divide to give the note indicated by the key. This made it +possible to use one string for several different notes, and +explains why the clavichord or clavicembalo needed comparatively +few strings. This instrument became obsolete toward the end +of the eighteenth century. + +The other species of instrument, the harpsichord, which was +invented about 1400, and which may be considered as having +sprung from the clavichord, consisted of a separate string for +each sound; the key, instead of setting in action a device +for striking and at the same time _dividing_ the strings, +caused the strings to be plucked by quills. Thus, in these +instruments, not only was an entirely different quality of tone +produced, but the pitch of a string remained unaltered. These +instruments were called _bundfrei_, "unbound," in opposition to +the _clavicembalo_, which was called _gebunden_, or "bound." The +harpsichord was much more complicated than the clavichord, +in that the latter ceased to sound when the key which moved +the bridge was released, whereas the harpsichord required what +is called a "damper" to stop the sound when the key came up; +once the string was touched by the quill, all command of the +tone by the key was lost. To regulate this, a device was added +to the instrument by means of which a damper fell on the string +when the key was released, thereby stopping the sound. + +We have now to consider the instrumental development of the +Middle Ages. + +An instrument of the harpsichord family which has significance +in the development of the instruments of the Middle Ages is +the spinet (from _spina_, "thorn"; it had leather points up +to 1500), first made by Johannes Spinctus, Venice, 1500. It +was a harpsichord with a _square_ case, the strings running +diagonally instead of lengthwise. When the spinet was of +very small dimensions it was called a virginal; when it was +in the shape of our modern grand piano, it was, of course, +a harpsichord; and when the strings and sounding board +were arranged perpendicularly, the instrument was called +a clavicitherium. As early as 1500, then, four different +instruments were in general use, the larger ones having a +compass of about four octaves. The connecting link between the +harpsichord, the clavichord, and the piano, was the dulcimer or +hackbrett, which was a tavern instrument. Pantaleon Hebenstreit, +a dancing master and inventor of Leipzig, in 1705 added an +improved hammer action, which was first applied to keyboard +instruments by Cristofori, an instrument maker at Florence +(1711). His instrument was called _forte-piano_ or _pianoforte_, +because it would strike loud or soft. + +These instruments all descended from the ancient lyre, the +only difference being that instead of causing the strings to +vibrate by means of a plectrum held in the hand, the plectrum +was set in motion by the mechanism of the _claves_ or keys. The +system of fingering employed in playing the harpsichord, up to +1700, did not make use of the thumb. J.S. Bach, F. Couperin, +and J.P. Rameau were the pioneers in this matter. The first +published work on piano technique and fingering was that by +C.P.E. Bach (1753). + +With the advent of bowed instruments the foundation was laid for +the modern orchestra, of which they are the natural basis. The +question of the antiquity of the bowed instrument has often been +discussed, with the result that the latter has been definitely +classed as essentially modern, for the reason that it did not +become known in Europe until about the tenth to the twelfth +centuries. As a matter of fact, the instrument is doubtless +of Person or Hindu origin, and was brought to the West by +the Arabs, who were in Spain from the eighth to the fifteenth +centuries; in fact, most of our stringed instruments, both the +bowed and those of the lyre type, we owe to the Arabs--the very +name of the lute, _el oud_ ("shell" in Arabic) became _liuto_ in +Italian, in German _laute_, and in English lute. There were many +varieties of these bowed instruments, and it is thought that the +principle arose from rubbing one instrument with another. The +only other known examples of bowed instruments of primitive +type are (1) the _ravanastron_, an instrument of the monochord +type, native to India, made to vibrate by a kind of bow with +a string stretched from end to end; (2) the Welsh _chrotta_ +(609 A.D.), a primitive lyre-shaped instrument, with which, +however, the use of the bow seems to have been a much later +invention. Mention should also be made of the marine trumpet, +much in vogue from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries; +it consisted of a long, narrow, resonant box, composed of +three boards, over which was stretched a single string; +other unchangeable strings, struck with the bow, served as +drones. Only the harmonics were played on the marine trumpet. + +The principle of procuring the vibrations in stringed +instruments by means of a bow was, of course, applied to the +monochord class of keyed instruments, and was thus the origin +of the hurdy-gurdy, which consisted of a wheel covered with +resined leather and turned by a crank. + +The bowed instruments were originally of two types, the first +in the form of the lute or mandolin; the second probably +derived from the Welsh _crwth_, consisting of a flat, long box +strung with strings (called fidel from _fides_, "string"). The +combination of these types, which were subjected to the most +fantastic changes of shape, led eventually to the modern +violin family. + +We know that the highest plane of perfection in the violin +was reached in Italy about 1600. The Cremona makers, Amati, +Guarnerius, and Stradivarius, made their most celebrated +instruments between 1600 and 1750. + +The violin bow, in its earliest form, was nothing more than an +ordinary bow with a stretched string; Corelli and Tartini used a +bow of the kind. The present shape of the bow is due to Tourte, +a Paris maker, who experimented in conjunction with Viotti, +the celebrated violinist. + +By looking at the original lute and the Arabian _rebeck_ +or Welsh _crwth_ (originally Latin _chorus_), we can see how +the modern violin received its generally rounded shape from +the lute, its flatness from the _rebeck_, the sides of the +instrument being cut out in order to give the bow free access +to the side strings. The name too, _fidula_ or _vidula_, +from mediaeval Latin _fides_, "string," became fiddle and +viola, the smaller viola being called violino, the larger, +violoncello and viola da gamba. + +In the Middle Ages, the different species of bowed instrument +numbered from fifteen to twenty, and it was not until between +1600 and 1700 that the modern forms of these instruments +obtained the ascendancy. + +Of the wind instruments it was naturally the flute that +retained its antique form; the only difference between the +modern instrument and the ancient one being that the former +is blown crosswise, instead of perpendicularly. Quantz, +the celebrated court flute player to Frederick the Great +of Prussia, was the first to publish, in 1750, a so-called +"method" of playing the traversal (crosswise) flute. + +With the reed instruments the change in modern times is more +striking. The original form of the reed instruments was of the +double-reed variety. The oldest known mention of them dates from +650 A.D., when the name applied is _calamus_ (reed); later the +names _shalmei_ (_chalumeau_, "straw," from German _halm_) and +_shawm_ were used. These instruments were played by means of a +bell-shaped mouthpiece, the double reed being fixed inside the +tube. It was not until toward the end of the sixteenth century +that the bell-shaped mouthpiece was dispensed with and the reed +brought directly to the lips, thus giving the player greater +power of expression. The oboe is a representative type of the +higher pitched double-reed instruments. In its present shape it +is about two hundred years old. As the deeper toned instruments +were necessarily very long, six to eight and even ten feet, +an assistant had to walk before the performer, holding the +tube on his shoulder. This inconvenience led to bending the +tube back on itself, making it look somewhat like a bundle of +sticks, hence the word _faggot_; although it is commonly known +in this country by the French name, _bassoon_. This manner of +arranging the instrument dates from about the year 1550. The +clarinet is an essentially modern instrument, the single +beating reed and cylindrical tube coming into use about 1700, +the invention of a German named Denner, who lived at Nuremberg. + +All the brass instruments of the Middle Ages seem to have +been very short, therefore high in pitch. We remember that +the Romans had trumpets (chiefly used in signalling) called +_buccina_, and we may assume that the whole modern family of +brass instruments has descended from this primitive type. As +late as 1500, the hunting horn consisted of but one loop which +passed over the shoulder and around the body of the player. +A horn of from six to seven feet in length was first used +about 1650; and we know that, owing to the smallness of the +instruments and their consequent high pitch in those days, many +of Bach's scores contain parts absolutely impracticable for our +modern brass instruments. The division of these instruments +into classes, such as trumpets, horns, trombones, etc., is +due to the differences in shape, which in turn produce tones +of different quality. The large bore of the trombone gives +great volume to the tone, the small bore of the trumpet great +brilliancy, the medium bore of the horn veils the brilliancy +on one hand and lightens the thickness of tone on the other. + +The horn, called _cor de chasse_, was first used in the +orchestra in 1664, in one of Lully's operas, but its technique +(stopped tones and crooks) was only properly understood about +1750; the present-day valve horn did not come into general +use until within the last half century. Fifty years before +the principle had been applied to the horn the trumpet had +crooks and slides, a mechanism which, in the trumpet, is still +retained in England, pointing to the fact that the trombone is, +after all, nothing but a very large kind of trumpet. + + + + +XI + +FOLK SONG AND ITS RELATION TO NATIONALISM IN MUSIC + + +In order to understand as well as to feel music, we must reduce +it to its primary elements, and these are to be found in folk +song, or, to go further back, in its predecessor, the chant +of the savages. + +Folk music may be likened to a twig which has fallen into a +salt mine, to borrow an expression from Taine; every year adds +fresh jewels to the crystals that form on it until at last the +only resemblance to the original is in the general contour. We +know that the nucleus of melody lies in one note, just as the +origin of language is to be sought for in the word. Therefore +folk music proper must be separated from what may be called +barbaric music, the most primitive type of the latter being +the "one-note" strain from which spring the melodies of the +people. This one-note form passes through many rhythmical +changes before song becomes developed to the extent of adding +several notes to its means of expression. The next development +of savage chanting (which is the precursor of folk song) may +be traced back to its two elements, one of which was a mere +savage howl, and the other, that raising of the voice under +stress of strong emotion which still constitutes one of our +principal means of expression. + +Thus, in this barbaric music we invariably find three +principles: 1, rhythm; 2, the howl or descending scale of +undefined intervals; and 3, the emotional raising of the +voice. The rhythm, which characterizes the most primitive +form of song or chant, consists of the incessant repetition +of a very small group of rhythmic sounds. This incessant +recurrence of one idea is characteristic of primitive, weak, +or insane natures. The second principle, which invariably +includes the first (pointing to a slightly more advanced state +of development), is met with in many folk songs of even modern +times. The third principle is one which indicates the transition +stage from primitive or barbaric music to folk music. + +To the primitive savage mind, the smallest rhythmic phrase is a +wonderful invention, therefore it is repeated incessantly. Add +to that a certain joy in mere sound, and we have the howl, +which certainly follows the sequence of nature, for a thunder +clap, or the phenomenon of echo, is its prototype, being a loud +explosion followed by a more or less regular sequence of minor +reverberations. When the accent of passion is added to these +two principles--will and nature--we have laid the aesthetic +foundation for all that we call music.[12] The example of a +loud tone with gradually ascending inflections has only been +found in the most perverted types of humanity; for instance, an +English writer quaintly alludes to the songs of the Polynesian +cannibals as consisting of "gruesomely suggestive passages +of rising quarter-tones sung gloatingly before their living +captives who are soon to be devoured." + +Now traces of these three elements are to be found in every +folk song known, and we may even trace their influence in +modern music, the lowest or most primitive being, as I have +said, the "one-note" type, the next what I have called the +"howl" type, the third the highest or "emotional" type. + +Specimens of the first type, chants such as these [Figure 08], +are to be heard in every part of the globe, the rhythmic figure +being necessarily short and repeated incessantly. + +The next step was a tremendous advance, and we find its +influence permeating all music. The most primitive specimens of +this type we find among the Jute Indians [Figure 09], a mixture +of one and two. The same is to be found in Australia, slightly +modified: [Figure 10] The Caribs have the same song +[G: g'' \ Chromatic g']. We find it again in Hungary, although +in a still more modified form, thus: + + [Figure 11] + +And last of all we meet with it in its primitive state in the +folk song used by Bizet in "Carmen." We can even see traces of +it in the quasi-folk song of the present century: + + [Figure 12] etc. + +The third element of folk song shows again a great advance, +for instead of the mere howl of pleasure or pain, we have a +more or less exactly graded expression of feeling. In speaking +of impassioned speech I explained the relative values of the +inflections of the voice, how the upward skip of the fourth, +fifth, and octave indicates the intensity of the emotion +causing the cry. When this element is brought into music, it +gives a vitality not before possessed, for by this it becomes +speech. When in such music this inflection rhymes with the +words, that is to say, when the speech finds its emotional +reflection in the music, we have reached the highest development +of folk song. In its best state, this is immeasurably superior +to much of our "made" music, only too often false in rhythm, +feeling, and declamation. + +Among the different nations, these three characteristics often +become obscured by national idiosyncracies. Much of the Chinese +music, the "Hymn to the Ancestors," for instance, seemingly +covers a number of notes, whereas, in fact, it belongs to the +one-note type. We find that their melodies almost invariably +return to the same note, the intervening sounds being more +or less merely variations above and below the pitch of the +principal sound. For example: + + [Figure 13] + +Hungarian folk music has been much distorted by the oriental +element, as represented by the _zingari_ or gypsies. +The Hungarian type of folk music is one of the highest, and +is extremely severe in its contours, as shown in the following: + + [Figure 14] + +The gypsy element as copied by Liszt has obscured the folk +melodies by innumerable arabesques and ornaments of all sorts, +often covering even a "one-note" type of melody until it seems +like a complicated design. + +This elaboration of detail and the addition of passing and +ornamental notes to every melody is distinctly an oriental +trait, which finds vent not only in music but also in +architecture, designing, carving, etc. It is considered by many +an element of weakness, seeking to cover a poverty of thought +by rich vestments. And yet, to my mind, nothing can be more +misleading. In spite of Sir Hubert Parry and other writers, +I cannot think that the Moors in Spain, for instance, covered +poverty of thought beneath superficial ingenuity of design. The +Alhambra outdoes in "passage work," in virtuoso arabesques, +all that an army of Liszts could do in piano literature; +and yet the Arabs were the saviours of science, and promoted +the greatest learning and depth of thought known in Europe in +their time. As for Liszt, there is such an astounding wealth +of poetry and deep feeling beneath the somewhat "flashy," +bombastic trick of speech he inherited, that the true lover +of music can no more allow his feelings to be led astray by +such externals than one would judge a man's mind by the cut +of his coat or the hat he wears. + +Thus we see the essence of folk song is comprised in the three +elements mentioned, and its aesthetic value may be determined +by the manner in which these elements are combined and their +relative preponderance. + +One point must be very distinctly understood, namely, that what +we call harmonization of a melody cannot be admitted as forming +any part of folk song. Folk melodies are, without exception, +homophonous. This being the case, perhaps my statement that the +vital principle of folk music in its best state has nothing in +common with nationalism (considered in the usual sense of the +word), will be better understood. And this will be the proof +that nationalism, so-called, is merely an extraneous thing +that has no part in pure art. For if we take any melody, even +of the most pronounced national type, and merely eliminate the +characteristic turns, affectations, or mannerisms, the theme +becomes simply music, and retains no touch of nationality. We +may even go further; for if we retain the characteristic +mannerisms of dress, we may harmonize a folk song in such a +manner that it will belie its origin; and by means of this +powerful factor (an essentially modern invention) we may even +transform a Scotch song, with all its "snap" and character, +into a Chinese song, or give it an Arabian flavour. This, +to be sure, is possible only to a limited degree; enough, +however, to prove to us the power of harmony; and harmony, +as I have said, has no part in folk song. + +To define the _role_ of harmony in music is no easy matter. +Just as speech has its shadow languages, gesture and expression; +just as man is a duality of idealism and materialism; just as +music itself is a union of the emotional and the intellectual, +so harmony is the shadow language of melody; and just as in +speech this shadow language overwhelms the spoken word, so +in music harmony controls the melody. For example: Imagine +the words "I will kill you" being said in a jesting tone of +voice and with a pleasant expression of the face; the import +of the words would be lost in their expression; the mere words +would mean nothing to us in comparison with the expression +that accompanied them. + +Take away the harmonic structure upon which Wagner built his +operas and it would be difficult to form a conception of the +marvellous potency of his music. Melody, therefore, may be +classed as the gift of folk song to music; and harmony is its +shadow language. When these two powers, melody and harmony, +supplement each other, when one completes the thought of the +other, then, provided the thought be a noble one, the effect +will be overwhelmingly convincing, and we have great music. The +contrary results when one contradicts the other, and that +is only too often the case; for we hear the mildest waltzes +dressed up in tragic and dramatic chords, which, like Bottom, +"roar as gently as any sucking dove." + +In discussing the origin of speech, mention was made of those +shadow languages which accompany all our spoken words, namely, +the languages of expression and gesture. These were surely +the very first auxiliaries of uttered speech, and in the same +way we find that they constitute the first sign of advance +in primitive melody. Savages utter the same thought over and +over again, evidently groping after that semblance of Nirvana +(or perhaps it may be better described as "hypnotic exaltation") +which the incessant repetition of that one thought, accompanied +by its vibrating shadow, sound, would naturally occasion. + +It was also stated that the relative antiquity or primitivity +of a melody is invariably to be discovered by its degree +of relationship to the original type, one note, one rhythm, +the emotional, the savage howl, or, in other words, the high +note followed by a gradual descent. To confirm this theory of +the origin of folk song, we need only look at the aboriginal +chants of widely separated peoples to find that the oldest +songs all resemble one another, despite the fact that they +originated in widely separated localities. + +Now the difference between this primitive music and that +which we call folk song is that the latter is characterized +by a feeling for design, in the broadest sense of the word, +entirely lacking in the former. For we find that although +folk song is composed of the same material as savage music, +the material is arranged coherently into sentences instead of +remaining the mere exclamation of passion or a nerve exciting +reiteration of unchanging rhythms and vibrations, as is the +case in the music of the savage. + +Before proceeding further, I wish to draw the line which +separates savage from folk music very plainly. + +We know that the first stage in savage music is that of one +note. Gradually a tone above the original is added on account +of the savage being unable to intone correctly; through +stress of emotion the fifth and octave come into the chant; +the sixth, being the note above the fifth, is added later, +as is the third, the note above the second. Thus is formed +the pentatonic scale as it is found all over the world, and +it is clear, therefore, that the development of the scale is +due to emotional influences. + +The development of rhythm may be traced to the words sung +or declaimed, and the development of design or form to the +dance. In the following, from Brazil, we find a savage chant +in almost its primitive state: + + [Figure 15] etc. + +The next example, also from Brazil, is somewhat better, but +still formless and unemotional. + + [Figure 16] etc. + +Let this be danced to, however, and the change is very marked, +for immediately form, regularity, and design are noticeable: + + [Figure 17] etc. + +On the other hand, the emotional element marks another very +decided change, namely, by placing more sounds at the command +of the singer, and also by introducing words, which necessarily +invest the song with the rhythm of language. + +Thus the emotional and declamatory elements heighten the +powers of expression by the greater range given to the voice, +and add the poignancy and rhythm of speech to song. On the +other hand, the dance gives regularity to the rhythmic and +emotional sequences. + +In the following examples we can see more clearly the elements +of folk song as they exist in savage music: + + Three or four note (simple) + + South America [Figure 18] + Nubia [Figure 19] + + Emotional (simple) + + Samoa [Figure 20] + + Emotional and Composite + + Hudson's Bay [Figure 21] + Soudan [Figure 22] + + Howl and Emotion + + [Figure 23] + + Dance. Brazil + [Figure 24] + Simple [Figure 25] or + Dance [Figure 26] + +The fact that so many nations have the pentatonic or five-note +scale (the Chinese, Basque, Scotch, Hindu, etc.), would seem to +point to a necessary similarity of their music. This, however, +is not the case. In tracing the differences we shall find +that true folk song has but few marked national traits, it is +something which comes from the heart; whereas nationalism in +music is an outward garment which is a result of certain habits +of thought, a _mannerism_ of language so to speak. If we look at +the music of different nations we find certain characteristics; +divest the music of these same characteristics and we find +that the figure upon which this garment of nationalism has +been placed is much the same the world over, and that its +relationship to the universal language of savage music is very +marked. Carmen's song, divested of the mixture of triplets +and dual rhythms (Spanish or Moorish) is akin to the "howl." + +Nationalism may be divided into six different classes: + +First we have what may be broadly termed "orientalism," +which includes the Hindu, Moorish, Siamese, and Gypsy, the +latter embracing most of southeastern European (Roumania, +etc.) types. Liszt's "Second Rhapsody," opening section, +divested of orientalism or gypsy characteristics, is merely +of the savage three-note type. + +Our second division may be termed the style of reiteration, +and is to be found in Russia and northern Europe. + +The third consists of the mannerism known as the "Scotch snap," +and is a rhythmic device which probably originated in that +trick of jumping from one register of the voice to another, +which has always had a fascination for people of simple +natures. The Swiss _jodel_ is the best illustration of this +in a very exaggerated form. + +The fourth consists of a seemingly capricious intermixture +of dual and triple rhythm, and is especially noticeable in +Spanish and Portuguese music as well as in that of their South +American descendants. This distinction, however, may be traced +directly back to the Moors. For in their wonderful designs we +continually see the curved line woven in with the straight, the +circle with the square, the _tempus perfectum_ with the spondee. +This would bring this characteristic directly under the head +of orientalism or ornamental development. Yet the peculiarity +is so marked that it seems to call for separate consideration. + +The fifth type, like the fourth, is open to the objection that +it is merely a phase of the oriental type. It consists of the +incessant use of the augmented second and diminished third, +a distinctively Arabian characteristic, and is to be found +in Egypt, also, strange to say, occasionally among our own +North American Indians. This, however, is not to be wondered +at, considering that we know nothing of their ancestry. Only +now and then on that broad sea of mystery do we see a half +submerged rock, which gives rise to all sorts of conjectures; +for example, the custom of the Jutes to wear green robes and +use fans in certain dances, the finding in the heart of America +of such an Arab tune as this: + + [Figure 27] + +or such a Russian tune as this: + + [Figure 28] + +The last type of nationalism in folk song is almost a negative +quality, its distinguishing mark being mere simplicity, +a simplicity which is affected, or possibly assimilated, by +the writer of such a song; for German folk song proper is a +made thing, springing not from the people, but from the many +composers, both ancient and modern, who have tried their hands +in that direction. + +While this of course takes nationalism out of the composition +of German folk song so-called, the latter has undoubtedly gained +immensely by it; for by thus divesting music of all its national +mannerisms, it has left the thought itself untroubled by quirks +and turns and a restricted musical scale; it has allowed this +thought to shine out in all its own essential beauty, and thus, +in this so-called German folk song, the greatest effects of +poignancy are often reached through absolute simplicity and +directness. + +Now let us take six folk songs and trace first their national +characteristics, and after that their scheme of design, for +it is by the latter that the vital principle, so to speak, of +a melody is to be recognized, all else being merely external, +costumes of the different countries in which they were born. And +we shall see that a melody or thought born among one people +will change its costume when it migrates to another country. + + Arab Song + + [Figure 29] + + Scheme [Figure 29a] + + Russia--Reiteration + + [Figure 30] + + [Figure 31] + + Red Sarafan + + [Figure 32] + + Scotch + + [Figure 33] + + [Figure 34] + + Irish--Emotional in character, with greater perfection in design + + [Figure 35] + + Spanish + + [Figure 36] + + Egyptian + + [Figure 37] (Note augmented intervals) + +The characteristics of German and English folk songs may be +observed in the familiar airs of these nations. + +The epitome of folk song, divested of nationalism, is shown +in the following: + + [Figure 38] + + +[12] The antiquity of any melody (or its primitiveness) may + be established according to its rhythmic and melodic + or human attributes. + + + + +XII + +THE TROUBADOURS, MINNESINGERS AND MASTERSINGERS + + +Although wandering minstrels or bards have existed since the +world began, and although the poetry they have left is often +suggestive, the music to which the words were sung is but +little known. + +About 700-800 A.D., when all Europe was in a state of dense +ignorance and mental degradation, the Arabs were the embodiment +of culture and science, and the Arab empire extended at that +time over India, Persia, Arabia, Egypt (including Algeria and +Barbary), Portugal, and the Spanish caliphates, Andalusia, +Granada, etc. The descriptions of the splendour at the courts +of the Eastern caliphs at Bagdad seem almost incredible. + +For instance, the Caliph Mahdi is said to have expended +six millions of dinars of gold in a single pilgrimage to +Mecca. His grandson, Almamon, gave in alms, on one single +occasion, two and a half millions of gold pieces, and the +rooms in his palace at Bagdad were hung with thirty-eight +thousand pieces of tapestry, over twelve thousand of which +were of silk embroidered with gold. The floor carpets were +more than twenty thousand in number, and the Greek ambassador +was shown a hundred lions, each with his keeper, as a sign +of the king's royalty, as well as a wonderful tree of gold +and silver, spreading into eighteen large, leafy branches, +on which were many birds made of the same precious metals. By +some mechanical means, the birds sang and the leaves trembled. +Naturally such a court, particularly under the reign of +Haroun-al Raschid (the Just), who succeeded Almamon, would +attract the most celebrated of those Arabian minstrels, such as +Zobeir, Ibrahim of Mossoul, and many others who figure in the +"Arabian Nights," real persons and celebrated singers of their +times. We read of one of them, Serjab, who, by court jealousy +and intrigues, was forced to leave Bagdad, and found his way +to the Western caliphates, finally reaching Cordova in Spain, +where the Caliph Abdalrahman's court vied with that of Bagdad +in luxury. Concerning this we read in Gibbon that in his palace +of Zehra the audience hall was incrusted with gold and pearls, +and that the caliph was attended by twelve thousand horsemen +whose belts and scimiters were studded with gold. + +We know that the Arabian influence on the European arts came +to us by the way of Spain, and although we can see traces of +it very plainly in the Spanish music of to-day, the interim of +a thousand years has softened its characteristics very much. On +the other hand, the much more pronounced Arabian characteristics +of Hungarian music are better understood when we recall that the +Saracens were at the gates of Budapesth as late as 1400. That +the European troubadours should have adopted the Moorish _el +oud_ and called it "lute" is therefore but natural. And in +all the earlier songs of the troubadours we shall find many +traces of the same influence; for their _albas_ or _aubades_ +(morning songs) came from the Arabic, as did their _serenas_ or +serenades (evening songs), _planhs_ (complaints), and _coblas_ +(couplets). The troubadours themselves were so called from +_trobar_, meaning to invent. + +In the works of Fauriel and St. Polaye, and many others, may +be found accounts of the origin of the Provencal literature, +including, of course, a description of the troubadours. +It is generally admitted that Provencal poetry has no +connection with Latin, the origin of this new poetry being very +plausibly ascribed to a gypsy-like class of people mentioned +by the Latin chroniclers of the Middle Ages as _joculares_ +or _joculatores_. They were called _joglars_ in Provencal, +_jouglers_ or _jougleors_ in French, and our word "juggler" +comes from the same source. What that source originally was +may be inferred from the fact that they brought many of the +Arab forms of dance and poetry into Christian Europe. For +instance, two forms of Provencal poetry are the counterpart +of the Arabian _cosidas_ or long poem, all on one rhyme; and +the _maouchahs_ or short poem, also rhymed. The _saraband_, +or Saracen dance, and later the morris dance (_Moresco_ +or _Fandango_) or Moorish dance, seem to point to the same +origin. In order to make it clearer I will quote an Arabian +song from a manuscript in the British Museum, and place beside +it one by the troubadour Capdeuil. + + Arabian Melody [Figure 39] + + Pons de Capdeuil [Figure 40] + +The troubadours must not be confounded with the _jougleurs_ +(more commonly written _jongleurs_). The latter, wandering, +mendicant musicians, ready to play the lute, sing, dance, or +"juggle," were welcomed as merry-makers at all rich houses, +and it soon became a custom for rich nobles to have a number +of them at their courts. The troubadour was a very different +person, generally a noble who wrote poems, set them to music, +and employed _jongleurs_ to sing and play them. In the South +these songs were generally of an amorous nature, while in the +North they took the form of _chansons de geste_, long poems +recounting the feats in the life and battles of some hero, +such as Roland (whose song was chanted by the troops of William +the Conqueror), or Charles Martel. + +And so the foundations for many forms of modern music were +laid by the troubadours, for the _chanson_ or song was always +a narrative. If it were an evening song it was a _sera_ or +serenade, or if it were a night song, _nocturne_; a dance, +a _ballada_; a round dance, a _rounde_ or _rondo_; a country +love song, a _pastorella_. Even the words descant and treble +go back to their time; for the _jongleurs_, singing their +masters' songs, would not all follow the same melody; one +of them would seek to embellish it and sing something quite +different that still would fit well with the original melody, +just as nowadays, in small amateur bands we often hear a +flute player adding embellishing notes to his part. Soon, +more than one singer added to his part, and the new voice was +called the triple, third, or treble voice. This extemporizing +on the part of the _jongleurs_ soon had to be regulated, and +the actual notes written down to avoid confusion. Thus this +habit of singing merged into _faux bourdon_, which has been +discussed in a former chapter. Apart from these forms of song, +there were some called _sirventes_--that is "songs of service," +which were very partisan, and were accompanied by drums, bells, +and pipes, and sometimes by trumpets. The more warlike of these +songs were sung at tournaments by the _jongleurs_ outside the +lists, while their masters, the troubadours, were doing battle, +of which custom a good description is to be found in Hagen's +book on the minnesingers. + +In France the Provencal poetry lasted only until the middle +of the fourteenth century, after the troubadours had received +a crushing blow at the time the Albigenses were extirpated in +the thirteenth century. + +In one city alone (that of Beziers), between 30,000 and 40,000 +people were killed for heresy against the Pope. The motto +of the Pope's representatives was "God will know His Own," +and Catholics as well as Albigenses (as the sect was called) +were massacred indiscriminately. That this heresy against +the Pope was vastly aided by the troubadours, is hardly open +to doubt. Such was their power that the rebellious, antipapal +_sirventes_ of the troubadours (which were sung by their troops +of _jongleurs_ in every market place) could be suppressed only +after the cities of Provence were almost entirely annihilated +and the population destroyed by the massacre, burning alive, +and the Inquisition. + +A review of the poems of Bertran de Born, Bernart de Ventadour, +Thibaut, or others is hardly in place here. Therefore we +will pass to Germany, where the spirit of the troubadours was +assimilated in a peculiarly Germanic fashion by the minnesingers +and the mastersingers. + +In Germany, the troubadours became minnesingers, or singers of +love songs, and as early as the middle of the twelfth century +the minnesingers were already a powerful factor in the life +of the epoch, counting among their number many great nobles +and kings. The German minnesingers differed from the French +troubadours in that they themselves accompanied their songs on +the viol, instead of employing _jongleurs_. Their poems, written +in the Swabian dialect, then the court language of Germany, +were characterized by greater pathos and purity than those of +the troubadours, and their longer poems, corresponding to the +_chansons de geste_ of the north of France, were also superior +to the latter in point of dignity and strength. From the French +we have the "Song of Roland" (which William the Conqueror's +troops sang in their invasion of England); from the Germans the +"Nibelungen Song," besides Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival" +and Gottfried von Strasburg's "Tristan." In contradistinction +to the poetry of the troubadours, that of the minnesingers +was characterized by an undercurrent of sadness which seems +to be peculiar to the Germanic race. The songs are full of +nature and the eternal strife between Winter and Summer and +their prototypes Death and Life (recalling the ancient myths +of Maneros, Bacchus, Astoreth, Bel, etc.). + +After the death of Konrad IV, the last Swabian emperor of the +House of Hohenstaufen, minnesinging in Germany declined, and +was succeeded by the movement represented by the _meister_ or +mastersingers. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, +when Germany was broken up into countless small duchies and +kingdoms, many of the German nobles became mere robbers and took +part in the innumerable little wars which kept the nation in +a state of ferment. Thus they had neither time nor inclination +to occupy themselves with such pursuits as poetry or music. In +the meanwhile, however, the incessant warfare and brigandage +that prevailed in the country tended to drive the population +to the cities for protection. The latter grew in size, and +little by little the tradespeople began to take up the arts +of poetry and music which had been discarded by the nobles. + +Following their custom in respect to their trades, they formed +the art companies into guilds, the rules for admittance to which +were very strict. The rank of each member was determined by +his skill in applying the rules of the "Tabulatur," as it was +called. There were five grades of membership: the lowest was +that of mere admittance to the guild; the next carried with +it the title of scholar; the third the friend of the school; +after that came the singer, the poet; and last of all the +mastersinger, to attain which distinction the aspirant must +have invented a new style of melody or rhyme. The details of +the contest we all know from Wagner's comedy; in a number of +cases Wagner even made use of the sentences and words found +in the rules of the mastersingers. Although the mastersingers +retained their guild privileges in different parts of Germany +almost up to the middle of the present century, the movement +was strongest in Bavaria, with Nuremberg as its centre. + +Thus we see that the mastersingers and the minnesingers were +two very different classes of men. The mastersingers are +mainly valuable for having given Wagner a pretext for his +wonderful music. Hans Sachs was perhaps the only one of the +mastersingers whose melodies show anything but the flattest +mediocrity. The minnesingers and their immediate predecessors +and successors, on the other hand, furnished thought for a great +part of our modern art. To put it in a broad manner, it may be +said that much of our modern poetry owes more than is generally +conceded to the German mediaeval romance as represented in the +works of Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried of Strasburg, and +the unknown compilers of the "Nibelungenlied" and "Gutrune." +Music owes more to the troubadours, for, from what we know +of the melodies of the minnesingers, they cannot compare in +expressiveness with those of their French _confreres_. + +In closing this consideration of the minnesingers, I will quote +some of their verses and melodies, giving short accounts of +the authors. + +The best known of the minnesingers were Walther von der +Vogelweide, Heinrich Frauenlob, Tannhaeuser, Nithart, Toggenburg, +etc. We first hear of Walther von der Vogelweide in 1200, +as a poet attached to the court of Philip of Hohenstaufen, +the German Kaiser, and shortly after to that of his successors +Otto and Friedrich. He accompanied Kaiser Friedrich to the +Crusade of 1228, and saw him crowned in Jerusalem. He died +in Wuerzburg, Bavaria. In accordance with his dying request, +food and drink for the birds were placed on his tomb every day; +the four holes carved for that purpose being still visible. The +pictures in Hagen's work on the mastersingers were collected in +the fifteenth century by Manasses of Zorich, and have served +as the basis for all subsequent works on the subject. The +picture of Von der Vogelweide (page 21) shows him sitting in +an attitude of meditation, on a green hillock, beside him his +sword and his coat of arms (a caged bird on one side and his +helmet on the other), and in his hand a roll of manuscript. +One of his shorter poems begins: + + Neath the lindens + In the meadow + Seek I flowers sweet; + Clover fragrant, + Tender grasses, + Bend beneath my feet. + + See, the gloaming, + Softly sinking, + Covers hill and dale. + Hush! my lover-- + Tandaradei! + Sweet sings the nightingale. + +We all are familiar with Tannhaeuser (plate 35), through Wagner's +opera; therefore it is unnecessary to say more than that he was +a real person, a minnesinger, and that the singing tournament +at the Wartburg (the castle of the Thueringen family) really took +place in 1206-07. This tournament, which Wagner introduces into +his "Tannhaeuser," was a trial of knightly strength, poetry, +and music, between the courts of Babenhausen and Thueringen, +and was held in Erfurt. Among the knights who competed were +Klingsor of Hungary, a descendant of the Klingsor who figures +in the "Parzival" legend, Tannhaeuser, Walther von Eschenbach, +Walther von der Vogelweide, and many others. Tannhaeuser was +a follower, or perhaps better, the successor of Walther von +der Vogelweide, like him, a crusader, and lived in the first +half of the thirteenth century. Toggenburg and Frauenlob were +both celebrated minnesingers, the former (plate 7) being the +subject of many strange legends. The simplicity and melodious +charm of his verses seem to contradict the savage brutality +ascribed to him in the stories of his life. + +Frauenlob (plate 44), as Heinrich von Meissen was +called, represents the minnesingers at the height of their +development. He died about 1320, and his works, as his nickname +suggests, were imbued with _das ewig weibliche_ in its best +sense. He was called the Magister of the seven free arts, and +was given the position of Canon of the Cathedral of Mayence, +with the title of Doctor of Divinity. He also wrote a paraphrase +on the "Song of Solomon," turning it into a rhapsodical eulogy +of the Virgin Mary, carrying versification to what seemed then +its utmost limits. The picture shows him playing and singing +to some prince, the carpet on which he stands being lifted +by the attendants. It makes plain the difference between the +minnesingers and the troubadours. In this picture the singer +is seen to be accompanying himself before the king, whereas in +plate 28 we see two troubadours in the lists, their _jongleurs_ +playing or singing the songs of their masters, while the latter +engage each other in battle. In order to give one more example +we will take the pictures of Conrad, the son of Conrad IV, +and the last of the Hohenstaufens (plate 11). He was born +about 1250, and was beheaded in the market place at Naples in +1268. The story of Konradin, as he was called, is familiar; +how he lived with his mother at the castle of her brother, +Ludwig of Bavaria, how he was induced to join in a rebellion +of the two Sicilies (to the crown of which he was heir) against +France, his defeat and execution by the Duke of Anjou, himself +a well-known troubadour. The text accompanying his picture +in Hagen's work describes him as having black eyes and blonde +hair, and wearing a long green dress with a golden collar. +His gray hunting horse is covered with a crimson mantle, has a +golden saddle and bit, and scarlet reins. Konradin wears white +hunting gloves and a three-cornered king's crown. Above the +picture are the arms of the kingdom of Jerusalem (a golden +crown in silver ground), to which he was heir through his +grandmother, Iolanthe. One of his songs runs as follows, and +it may be accepted as a fair specimen of the style of lyric +written by the minnesingers: + + The lovely flowers and verdure sweet + That gentle May doth slip + Have been imprisoned cruelly + In Winter's iron grip; + But May smiles o'er the green clad fields + That seemed anon so sad, + And all the world is glad. + + No joy to me the Summer brings + With all its bright long days. + My thoughts are of a maiden fair + Who mocks my pleading gaze; + She passes me in haughty mood, + Denies me aught but scorn, + And makes my life forlorn. + + Yet should I turn my love from her, + For aye my love were gone. + I'd gladly die could I forget + The love that haunts my song. + So, lonely, joyless, live I on, + For love my prayer denies, + And, childlike, mocks my sighs. + +The music of these minnesingers existing in manuscript has been +but little heeded, and only lately has an attempt been made to +classify and translate it into modern notation. The result so +far attained has been unsatisfactory, for the rhythms are all +given as spondaic. This seems a very improbable solution of +the mystery that must inevitably enshroud the musical notation +of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. + +Nithart (plate 36), by whom a number of melodies or "tones" +are given in Hagen's book (page 845), has been dubbed the +second "Till Eulenspiegel." He was a Bavarian, and lived about +1230, at the court of Frederick of Austria. He was eminently +the poet and singer of the peasants, with whom, after the +manner of Eulenspiegel, he had many quarrels, one of which is +evidently the subject of the picture. His music, or melodies, +and the verses which went with them, form the most complete +authentic collection of mediaeval music known. In considering +the _minnelieder_ of the Germans it is very interesting to +compare them with the songs of the troubadours, and to note +how in the latter the Arab influence has increased the number +of curved lines, or arabesques, whereas the German songs may +be likened to straight lines, a characteristic which we know +is a peculiarity of their folk song. + + PASTORELLA BY THIBAUT II, KING OF NAVARRE, 1254. + + [Figure 41] + [W: L'Autrier par la matinee Entre sen bos et un Vergier + Une pastore ai trounee chantant pour soi en voisier.] + + Example from NITHART + + [Figure 42] + +In speaking of the straight lines of the melodies of +the minnesingers and in comparing them with the tinge of +orientalism to be found in those of the troubadours, it was +said that music owes more to the latter than to the former, +and this is true. If we admit that the straight line of Grecian +architecture is perfect, so must we also admit that mankind is +imperfect. We are living beings, and as such are swayed to a +great extent by our emotions. To the straight line of purity +in art the tinge of orientalism, the curved line of emotion, +brings the flush of life, and the result is something which we +can _feel_ as well as worship from afar. Music is a language, +and to mankind it serves as a medium for saying something which +cannot be put into mere words. Therefore, it must contain the +human element of mere sensuousness in order to be intelligible. +This is why the music of the troubadours, although not so pure +in style as that of the minnesingers, has been of the greatest +value in the development of our art. This orientalism, however, +must not mask the straight line; it must be the means of lending +more force, tenderness, or what not, to the figure. It must +be what the poem is to the picture, the perfume to the flower; +it must help to illustrate the thing itself. The moment we find +this orientalism (and I am using the word in its broadest sense) +covering, and thus distorting the straight line of pure music, +then we have national music so-called, a music which derives +its name and fame from the clothes it wears and not from that +strange language of the soul, the "why" of which no man has +ever discovered. + + + + +XIII + +EARLY INSTRUMENTAL FORMS + + +Referring to some newspaper reports which he knew to be +without foundation, Bismarck once said, "Newspapers are simply +a union of printer's ink and paper." Omitting the implied slur +we might say the same of printed music and printed criticism; +therefore, in considering printed music we must, first of all, +remember that it is the letter of the law which kills. We must +look deeper, and be able to translate sounds back into the +emotions which caused them. There is no right or wrong way +to give utterance to music. There is but _one_ way, namely, +through the living, vital expression of the content of the +music; all else is not music but mere pleasure for the ear, +a thing of the senses. For the time being we must see through +the composer's eyes and hear through his ears. In other words, +we must think in his language. The process of creating music is +often, to a great extent, beyond the control of the composer, +just as is the case with the novelist and his characters. The +language through which musical thought is expressed, however, is +a different thing, and it is this process of developing musical +speech until it has become capable of saying for us that which, +in our spoken language, must ever remain unsaid, that I shall +try to make clear in our consideration of form in music. + +Until the very end of the fifteenth century, music, so far +as we know, had no language of its own, that is to say, +it was not recognized as a medium for expressing thought or +emotion. Josquin des Pres (born at Conde in the north of France +in 1450, died 1521) was the first to attempt the expression +of thought in sound. Luther, in rebelling against Rome, also +overturned the music of the church in Germany. He incorporated +many folk songs into the music of the Protestant church and +discarded the old Gregorian chant (which was vague in rhythm, +or, rather, wholly without rhythm), calling it asinine braying. + +While Luther was paving the way for Bach by encouraging +church music to be something more than merely the singing +of certain melodies according to prescribed rules, in Italy +(at the time of his death in 1546) the Council of Trent was +already trying to decide upon a style of music proper for the +church. The matter was definitely settled in 1562 or 1563 by +the adoption of Palestrina's style.[13] Thus, while in Germany +ecclesiastical music was being broadened and an opening offered +for the development of the dramatic and emotional side of music, +in Italy, on the contrary, the emotional style of music was +being neglected and an absolutely serene style of what may be +called "impersonal" music encouraged. Italy, however, soon had +opera on which to fall back, and thus music in both countries +developed rapidly, although on different lines. + +In England, the budding school of English art, as exemplified +by Purcell, was soon overwhelmed by the influence of Haendel +and the all-pervading school of Italian opera, which he brought +with him. + +In France, up to 1655, when Cardinal Mazarin sent to Italy for +an opera troupe with the purpose of entertaining Anne of Austria +(the widow of Louis XIII), there was practically no recognized +music except that imported from other countries. Under Louis +XI (d. 1483) Ockeghem, the Netherland contrapuntist, was the +chief musician of the land. + +The French pantomimes or masques, as they were sometimes called, +can hardly be said to have represented a valuable gain to art, +although their prevalence in France points directly to their +having been the direct descendants of the old pantomime on +one hand, and on the other, the direct ancestor of the French +opera. For we read that already in 1581 (twenty years before +Caccini's "Euridice" at Florence), a ballet entitled "Circe" was +given on the occasion of the marriage of Margaret of Lorraine, +the stepsister of Henry III. The music to it was written by +Beaulieu and Salmon, two court musicians. There were ten bands +of music in the cupola of the ballroom where the ballet was +given. These bands included hautbois, cornets, trombones, violas +de gamba, flutes, harps, lutes, flageolets. Besides all this, +ten violin players in costume entered the scene in the first +act, five from each side. Then a troupe of Tritons came swimming +in, playing lutes, harps, flutes, one even having a kind of +'cello. When Jupiter makes his appearance, he is accompanied by +forty musicians. The festivities on this occasion are said to +have cost over five million francs. Musically, the ballet was no +advance towards expressiveness in art. An air which accompanied +"Circe's" entrance, may be cited as being the original of the +well-known "Amaryllis," which is generally called _Air Louis +XV_. Baltazarini calls it _un son fort gai, nomme la clochette_. + +Music remained inert in France until 1650, when the Italians +gained an ascendancy, which they retained until 1732, +when Rameau's first opera "Hyppolyte et Aricie" was given in +Paris. Rameau had already commenced his career by gaining great +success as a harpsichord player and instrumental composer, +mostly for the harpsichord. By his time, however, music, +that is to say, secular music, was already becoming a new art, +and the French merely improved upon what already existed. + +Now this new art was first particularly evident in the dances of +these different peoples. These dances gave the music _form_, and +held it down to certain prescribed rhythms and duration. Little +by little the emotions, the natural expression of which is +music, could no longer be restricted to these dance forms +and rhythms; and gradually the latter were modified by each +daring innovator in turn. This "daring" of human beings, in +breaking through the trammels of the dance in order to express +what lay within their souls in the language that properly +belonged to it, would seem almost ludicrous to us, were we +not even to-day trying to get up courage to do the same thing. +The modifications of dance forms led up to our sonata, symphony, +and symphonic poem, as I hope to show. Opera was a thing apart, +and, being untrammelled either by dance rhythms or church laws, +developed gradually and normally. It cannot, however, be said to +have developed side by side with purely instrumental music, for +the latter is only just beginning to emancipate itself from its +dance clothes and to come forth as a language for the expression +of all that is divine in man. First we will consider the forms +and rhythms of these dances, then the awakening of the idea of +design in music, and its effect in modifying these forms and +laying the foundation for the sonata of the nineteenth century. + +The following shows the structure of the different dance forms +up to about 1750. + + +OLD DANCE FORMS (1650-1750). + + [ :Motive-|-Motive--|-Motive-----|--|-Motive---|--|-Motive----|---] + [2/4: 4 8 8 | 8. 16 4 | 8 8 8 8 | 4 4 | 4 8 8 | 4 4 | 8. 16 8 8 | 2 ] + [ :------Phrase-----|----Phrase-----|---Phrase----|----Phrase-----] + [A phrase may be three or four measures, and sections may be unequal] + [ :-------------Section-------------|-----------Section-----------] + [ :------------------------------Period---------------------------] + + This period might be repeated or extended to sixteen measures + and still remain a period. + + + 1. |--I P.-|--II P.-| (II is generally longer than I) + 2. |---I---|---II---|--I--| + 3. |---I---|---II---|-III-| (generally III resembles I) + 4. |---I---|---II---|-III-|--I--|--II-| or |--I--|--II--|-III-|--I--| + 5. |---I---|---II---|-III-|--IV-| + 6. |---I---|---II---|-III-|--IV-|--I--|--II-| + 7. |---I---|---II---|--I--|-III-|--IV-|-III-|--I--|--II--|--I--| + +In all these forms each period may be repeated. + + +Often the first, third, and fourth periods are repeated, +leaving the second period as it is. This happens especially +when the second period is longer than the first. In Nos. 2, +4, 6, 7, a few bars are often added at _Fine_ as a coda. + + +ANALYSIS OF OLD DANCES + +1. SARABANDE.--[3/2] [3/4] lento. Rhythm [3/2: 2 ^2. 4 | 2 2]. +Form 1, sometimes Form 2. This is of Spanish origin (_Saracen_ +dance), and is generally accompanied by variations called +_partita_ or doubles. + +2. MUSETTE (_cornemusa_ or bagpipe).--[3/4] [2/4] allegretto. +Form 1. Always written over or under a pedal note, which is +generally sustained to the end. It generally forms the second +part (not period) to the gavotte. + +3. GAVOTTE.--[4/4] allegro moderato. +Rhythm [4/4: 4 4 | 4 8 8 4 4] or [4 8 8 | 4 4 4 4]. +Always commences on the third beat. Form 3 or 5. +When accompanied by a musette, the gavotte is always repeated. + +4. BOURREE.--[C/2] allegro. Rhythm [C/2: 8 8 | 4 4 4 8 8]. +Form 3 or 5. Generally faster than the gavotte, and commences +on the fourth beat. + +5. RIGAUDON.--Similar to the bourree, but slower. + +6. LOURE.--Similar to the bourree, but slower. (In French +the verb _lourer_ means "to hold," which may have been a +characteristic of the _loure_ bass). + +7. TAMBOURIN.--[C/2] allegro. In form and rhythm like the +gavotte, but faster. Usually founded on a rhythmic pedal +note imitating a tambourine. + +8. CORRENTE, COURANTE.--[3/4] allegretto. +Rhythm [3/4: 8 8 8 | 8 8 8 8 8 8] or [3/4: 8 | 8 8 8 8 8 8] +(does not usually commence on the beat). Form 1, sometimes +Form 2. The rhythm is usually uniform, a kind of perpetual +motion, though not in one voice. + +9. MINUET.--[3/4] generally a little slower than moderato, +although in later minuets the tempo became allegretto. +Rhythm, generally, [3/4: >(4 | 4) 4 4 | 4 8 8 8 8] etc. +Old minuets often began on the first beat. Form 4; the third +and fourth periods being generally in a different mode from +the first and second periods, and called Trio or Minuet 2. +Minuets exist also without the Trio, and are in Form 1 or 2. + +10. CHACONNE.--[3/4] moderato. Form undecided; has sometimes +even only one period, sometimes three or two. It is generally +accompanied by doubles or variations, and is invariably +written on a ground bass or _basso ostinato_. The rhythm is +often syncopated. + +PASSACAILLE, [3/4], resembles a chaconne but is more stately. + +11. WALTZ (old German).--[3/4] andante moderato. Generally +Form 6. Rhythm [3/4: 4. 8 8. 16 | 8 8 4 8 8] approximately. + +12. MARCH.--[4/4] allegro moderato. +Rhythm [4/4: 8. 16 | 4 . 16 4 4 | 2. 3(8 8 8)] etc., or +[4 | 4 8. 16 4 4] etc. Form 6. Generally all the periods +are repeated and consist of eight measures each; third and +fourth periods change the key and rhythm. + +13. ALLEMANDE.--[4/4] moderato. Rhythm generally uniform +sixteenth notes. Form 1. + +14. PASSEPIED.--Quick minuet. + +15. PAVANE, PADVANA, or PAVO (peacock).--[4/4] andante +moderato. Rhythm [4/4: 4 8. 16 4. 8 | 8 8 8 8 2]. Form 2 or 6. +Sometimes [2/4]; third and fourth periods in different keys. + +16. GIGUE.--[2/4] [6/8] [3/4] [3/8] [9/8] [12/8] presto. +Rhythm generally uniform eighth notes. Forms 1 and 2. + +17. POLONAISE.--[3/4]. Rhythm [3/4: 8 16 16 8 16 16 4] or +[16 16 8 16 16 8 4] allegro. Form 1, generally with short coda. + + +MODERN FORMS (1800). + +1. MAZURKA.--[3/4] allegretto. Form 6. +Rhythm [3/4: 4 | 8. 16 4 4]. + +2. POLONAISE (also POLACCA).--[3/4] allegro maestoso. +Rhythm [3/4: 8. 16 8. 16 16 16 16 16] or [8 4 16 16 8 8]. +The bass is generally [8 16 16 8 8 8 8]. Form 7. + +3. BOLERO (CACHUCHA) (Spanish).--Like the polonaise but +livelier, and generally containing counter-rhythms in triplets. + +4. HABANERA.--[2/4]. +Rhythm [2/4: 8 8 16 8 16 | 8 8 16 8 16 | 8 8 3(8 8 8) | 8 8 4]. +The characteristic element is the mixture of triplets and eighth +notes. Time, andante. Form undecided, generally No. 1. Very often +repeated with slight changes. + +5. CZARDAS (Hungarian).--First part [C/2] (_lassan_, _lento_); +second part [2/4] (_friska_, _presto_ and _prestissimo_). +For form and rhythm see Liszt's rhapsodies, Nos. 2, 4, and 6. + +6. TARANTELLA.--Rhythm [6/8: 8 8 8 8 8 8 | 8 8 8 8 8 8] or +[8 8 8 8 8 8 | 4 8 4 8]. Time, molto allegro to prestissimo. +Forms 4 and 6, sometimes 7. In the Trio the movement is often +quieter although not necessarily slower. It almost invariably +has a Coda. The Finale is usually prestissimo. + +7. SALTARELLO.--Similar to the tarantella, with the exception +of having more jumps (_salti_). + +8. POLKA (about 1840).--[2/4] allegretto. +Rhythm [2/4: 8 8 4 | 8 16 16 4]. Form 6. Accent is on the +second beat. Cuban dances (sometimes called habaneros) are +often in polka form and rhythm, with the one exception of +the triplets peculiar to almost all Spanish music +[2/4: 8 8 >4 | 8 8 >4 | 16 8 16 >8 8 | 16 8 16 3(16 16 16) 8] + +9. WALTZ.--[3/4]. Rhythm (bass) [3/4: >4 4 4 | >4 4 4]. +Faster than the old waltz. Form 2 with a coda. Modern waltzes are +often written in sets, or many different waltzes joined together +by short modulations or codas, preceded by an introduction, +generally in one period, _lento_, and ending with a brilliant +coda containing reminiscences of the principal themes. + +10. GALOP.--[2/4]. Rhythm [2/4: 16 16 16 16 8 8 | 8 8 8 8] or +[16 16 8 8 8 | 16 16 8 16 16 8]. Form 6. Time, presto. + +11. MARCH.--Same as the old march, but modified in character +and movement according to its title--funeral march, military +march, cortege, festival march, etc. In funeral marches, +the third and fourth periods are generally in major. + +The modernizing of dance forms has been undertaken by +almost every writer from Scarlatti (d. 1757) down to our +day. Scarlatti joined sections together with isolated measures, +repeated sections and phrases before completing the period, +and added short codas to periods indiscriminately. Since his +time, everyone has added to or curtailed the accepted forms +by putting two forms together; hence the fantaisie-mazurka, +etc. Wagner represents the culminating point of the modern +tendency to disregard forms which were interpreted differently +by every composer, and which had their origin in dances. + +The attempt to emancipate music from the dance commenced very +early; in fact, most of the earliest secular music we know +already shows the tendency towards programme music, for, +from an emotional standpoint, secular music began at the +very bottom of the ladder. It was made to express _things_ +at first, just as in learning any new language we naturally +first acquire a vocabulary of nouns to express things we see, +such as table, chair, etc., in the same way that in _written_ +language the symbols first take the shape of animals or other +things they are meant to represent. This same characteristic +naturally showed itself in music before the words for _emotion_ +came, the common, everyday nouns were sought for in this new +language. The madrigals of Weelkes and their word painting show +this, and the same occur in instrumental music, as in Byrd's +"Carman's Whistle," one of the earliest English instrumental +works contemporaneous to the madrigals of Morley and others. +In France, many of the earliest clavichord pieces were of +the programme type, and even in Germany, where instrumental +music ran practically in the same groove with church music, +the same tendency showed itself. + +I have given the forms of most of the old dances, and also the +elements of melodic structure (motive, phrase, etc.). I must, +however, add the caution that this material is to be accepted +in a general way, and as representing the rhythms and forms +most frequently used. A French courante differed from the +Italian, and certain dances were taken at different _tempi_ in +different countries. Poor, or at least careless construction, +is often the cause of much confusion. Scarlatti, for instance, +is especially loose in melodic structure. + +It was only with Beethoven that the art of musical design showed +anything like complete comprehension by the composer. Until +then, with occasional almost haphazard successes, the art +of pushing a thought to its logical conclusion was seemingly +unknown. An emotional passage now and then would often betray +deep feeling, but the thought would almost invariably be lost in +the telling, for the simple reason that the musical sentences +were put together almost at random, mere stress of momentary +emotion being seemingly the only guiding influence. Bach stands +alone; his sense of design was inherent, but, owing to the +contrapuntal tendency of his time, his feeling for _melodic_ +design is often overshadowed, and even rendered impossible +by the complex web of his music. With a number of melodies +sounding together, their individual emotional development +becomes necessarily difficult to emphasize. + +Bach's art has something akin to that of Palestrina. They both +stand alone in the history of the world, but the latter belongs +to the Middle Ages. He is the direct descendant of Ambrose, +Gregory, Notker, Tutilo, etc., the crowning monument of the +Roman Church in music, and represents what may be termed +unemotional music. His art was untouched by the strange, +suggestive colours of modern harmony; it was pure, unemotional, +and serene. One instinctively thinks of Bach, on the other +hand, as a kind of musical reflection of Protestantism. His +was not a secluded art which lifted its head high above the +multitude; it was rather the palpable outpouring of a great +heart. Bach also represents all the pent-up feeling which +until then had longed in vain for utterance, and had there +been any canvas for him to paint on (to use a poor simile), +the result would have been still more marvellous. As it was, +the material at his disposal was a poor set of dance forms, +with the one exception of the fugue, the involved utterance +of which precluded spontaneity and confined emotional design +to very restricted limits. It is exactly as if Wagner had +been obliged to put his thoughts in quadrille form with the +possible alternative of some mathematical device of musical +double bookkeeping. As it is, Bach's innovations were very +considerable. In the first place, owing to the lack of the +system of equal temperament, composers had been limited to +the use of only two or three sharps and flats; in all the +harpsichord music of the pre-Bach period we rarely find +compositions in sharp keys beyond G, or flat keys beyond +A[flat]. To be sure, Rameau, in France, began at the same time +to see the necessity for equal temperament, but it was Bach +who, by his forty-eight "Preludes and Fugues," written in all +the keys, first settled the matter definitely. + +In the fugue form itself, he made many innovations consisting +mainly of the casting aside of formalism. With Bach a fugue +consists of what is called the "exposition," that is to say, +the enunciation of the theme (subject), its answer by another +voice or part, recurrence of the subject in another part which, +in turn, is again answered, and so on according to the number +of voices or parts. After the exposition the fugue consists +of a kind of free contrapuntal fantasy on the subject and its +answer. By throwing aside the restraint of form Bach often +gave his fugues an emotional significance in spite of the +complexity of the material he worked with. + + +[13] Pier Luigi, born in Palestrina, near Rome. + + + + +XIV + +THE MERGING OF THE SUITE INTO THE SONATA + + +In the previous chapter it was stated that the various dances, +such as the minuet, sarabande, allemande, etc., led up to +our modern sonata form, or, perhaps, to put it more clearly, +they led up to what we call sonata form. As a matter of fact, +already in the seventeenth century, we find the word _sonata_ +applied to musical compositions; generally to pieces for the +violin, but rarely for the harpsichord. The word sonata +was derived originally from the Italian word _suonare_, +"to sound," and the term was used to distinguish instrumental +from vocal music. The latter was sung (_cantata_), the former +was sounded (_suonata_) by instruments. Thus many pieces were +called _suonatas_; the distinguishing point being that they were +_played_ and not sung. Organ sonatas existed as far back as 1600 +and even earlier, but the earliest application of the word seems +to have been made in connection with pieces for the violin. + +Dances were often grouped together, especially when they had +some slight intrinsic musical value. Probably the term _sonata_ +first designated a composition in one of these dance forms +not intended for dancing. Gradually groups of dances were +called _suites_; then, little by little, the dance titles of +the separate numbers were dropped, and the _suite_ was called +_sonata_. These different numbers, however, retained their +dance characteristics, as we shall see later. The arrangement +of the pieces composing the _suites_ differed in various +countries. There were French, Italian, German, and English +suites, generally, however, retaining the same grouping of +the different movements. The first movement consisted of an +_allemande_; then came a _courante_; then a _minuet_; then +a _sarabande_; and last of all a _gigue_; all in the same +key. Sometimes the _minuet_ and _sarabande_ changed places, +just as in modern times do the _andante_ and _scherzo_. + +Already in 1685, when Corelli's sonatas for strings appeared, +the custom of decreasing the number of movements to three began +to obtain, and a century later this custom was universal. The +_allemande_, _overture_, or _preludio_ formed the first +movement; the second consisted of the _sarabande_, the ancestor +of our _adagio_; and the last part was generally a _gigue_. Even +when the dance titles were no more used (the music having long +outgrown its original purpose), the distinctive characteristics +of these different movements were retained; the _sarabande_ +rhythm was still adhered to for the _adagio_ (even by Haydn) +and the triple time and rhythm of the _gigue_ were given to +the last part. In addition to this, these three movements +were often kept in one key. In his first sonatas Beethoven +added a movement, generally a _minuet_, to this scheme; but +returned to the three-movement structure later. His Op. 111 +has only two movements, in a way returning to a still earlier +general form of the sonata. Now, as has already been said, +some of the earliest examples of instrumental music were +mainly descriptive in character, that is to say, consisting +of imitations of _things_, thus marking the most elementary +stage of programme music. Little by little composers became +more ambitious and began to attempt to give expression to +the emotions by means of music; and at last, with Beethoven, +"programme music" may be said, in one sense, to have reached +its climax. For although it is not generally realized, he +wrote every one of his sonatas with definite subjects, and, +at one time, was on the point of publishing mottoes to them, +in order to give the public a hint of what was in his mind +when he wrote them. + +Analysis may be considered as the reducing of a musical +composition to its various elements--harmony, rhythm, +melody--and power of expression. Just as melody may be analyzed +down to the motives and phrases of which it consists, so may +the expressiveness of music be analyzed; and this latter study +is most valuable, for it brings us to a closer understanding +of the power of music as a language. + +For the sake of clearness we will group music as follows: + + 1. Dance forms. + 2. Programme music. (Things. Feelings.) + 3. The gathering together of dances in suites. + 4. The beginnings of design. + 5. The merging of the suite into the sonata. + +The dance tunes I need hardly quote; they consist of a mere play +of sound to keep the dancers in step, for which purpose any more +or less agreeable rhythmical succession of sounds will serve. + +If we take the next step in advance of instrumental music +we come to the giving of meanings to these dances, and, as I +have explained, these meanings will at first have reference +to things; for instance, Couperin imitates an alarm clock; +Rameau tries to make the music sound as if three hands were +playing instead of two (_Les trois mains_); he imitates sighing +(_Les soupirs_); the scolding voice; he even tries to express a +mood musically (_L'indifferente_). In Germany, these attempts +to make instrumental music expressive of something beyond +rhythmic time-keeping continued, and we find Carl Philip +Emanuel Bach attempting to express light-hearted amiability (_La +complaisance_) and even languor (_Les tendres langueurs_). The +suite, while it combined several dances in one general form, +shows only a trace of _design_. There was more design in one +of the small programme pieces already quoted than in most of +the suites of this period (see, for example, Loeilly's "Suite"). + +Bach possessed instinctively the feeling for musical speech +which seemed denied to his contemporaries whenever they had no +actual story to guide their expression; and even in his dance +music we find coherent musical sentences as, for instance, +in the _Courante_ in A. + +In art our opinions must, in all cases, rest directly on the +thing under consideration and not on what is written about +it. In my beliefs I am no respecter of the written word, +that is to say, the mere fact that a statement is made by +a well-known man, is printed in a well-known work, or is +endorsed by many prominent names, means nothing to me if the +thing itself is available for examination. Without a thorough +knowledge of music, including its history and development, +and, above all, musical "sympathy," individual criticism is, +of course, valueless; at the same time the acquirement of this +knowledge and sympathy is not difficult, and I hope that we may +yet have a public in America that shall be capable of forming +its own ideas, and not be influenced by tradition, criticism, +or fashion. + +We need to open our eyes and see for ourselves instead +of trusting the direction of our steps to the guidance of +others. Even an opinion based on ignorance, frankly given, +is of more value to art than a platitude gathered from some +outside source. If it is not a platitude but the echo of some +fine thought, it only makes it worse, for it is not sincere, +unless of course it is quoted understandingly. We need +freshness and sincerity in forming our judgments in art, for +it is upon these that art lives. All over the world we find +audiences listening suavely to long concerts, and yet we do +not see one person with the frankness of the little boy in +Andersen's story of the "New Clothes of the Emperor." It is +the same with the other arts. I have never heard anyone say +that part of the foreground of Millet's "Angelus" is "muddy" +or that the Fornarina's mysterious smile is anything but +"hauntingly beautiful." People do not dare admire the London +Law Courts; all things must be measured by the straight lines +of Grecian architecture. Frankness! Let us have frankness, +and if we have no feelings on a subject, let us remain silent +rather than echo that drone in the hive of modern thought, +the "_authority_ in art." + +Every person with even the very smallest love and sympathy for +art possesses ideas which are valuable to that art. From the +tiniest seeds sometimes the greatest trees are grown. Why, +therefore, allow these tender germs of individualism to +be smothered by that flourishing, arrogant bay tree of +tradition--fashion, authority, convention, etc. + +My reason for insisting on the importance of all lovers of +art being able to form their own opinions is obvious, when we +consider that our musical public is obliged to take everything +on trust. For instance, if we read on one page of some history +(every history of music has such a page) that Mozart's sonatas +are sublime, that they do not contain one note of mere filigree +work, and that they far transcend anything written for the +harpsichord or clavichord by Haydn or his contemporaries, we +echo the saying, and, if necessary, quote the "authorities." Now +if one had occasion to read over some of the clavichord music +of the period, possibly it might seem strange that Mozart's +sonatas did not impress with their magnificence. One might +even harbour a lurking doubt as to the value of the many +seemingly bare runs and unmeaning passages. Then one would +probably turn back to the authorities for an explanation and +find perhaps the following: "The inexpressible charm of Mozart's +music leads us to forget the marvellous learning bestowed upon +its construction. Later composers have sought to conceal the +constructional points of the sonata which Mozart never cared to +disguise, so that incautious students have sometimes failed to +discern in them the veritable 'pillars of the house,' and have +accused Mozart of poverty of style because he left them boldly +exposed to view, as a great architect delights to expose the +piers upon which the tower of his cathedral depends for its +support." (Rockstro, "History of Music," p. 269.) Now this +is all very fine, but it is nonsense, for Mozart's sonatas +are anything but cathedrals. It is time to cast aside this +shibboleth of printer's ink and paper and look the thing itself +straight in the face. It is a fact that Mozart's sonatas are +compositions entirely unworthy of the author of the "Magic +Flute," or of any composer with pretensions to anything beyond +mediocrity. They are written in a style of flashy harpsichord +virtuosity such as Liszt never descended to, even in those of +his works at which so many persons are accustomed to sneer. + +Such a statement as I have just made may be cried down as +rank heresy, first by the book readers and then by the general +public; but I doubt if anyone among that public would or could +actually turn to the music itself and analyze it intelligently, +from both an aesthetic and technical standpoint, in order to +verify or disprove the assertion. + +Once a statement is made it seems to be exceedingly difficult +to keep it from obtaining the universal acceptance which it +gains by unthinking reiteration in other works. One of the +strangest cases of this repetition of a careless statement may +be found in the majority of histories of music, where we are +told that musical expression (that is to say, the increasing +and diminishing of a tone, crescendo and diminuendo) was +first _discovered_ at Mannheim, in Germany, about 1760. This +statement may be found in the works of Burney, Schubart, +Reichardt, Sittard, Wasielewski, and even in Jahn's celebrated +"Life of Mozart." The story is that Jommelli, an Italian, +first "invented" the crescendo and diminuendo, and that when +they were first used, the people in the audience gradually +rose from their seats at the crescendo, and as the music +"diminuendoed" they sat down again. The story is absurd, +for the simple reason that even in 1705, Sperling, in his +"Principae Musicae," describes crescendos from _ppp_ to _fff_, +and we read in Plutarch of the same thing. + +Shedlock, in his work "The Pianoforte Sonata," quotes as the +first sonatas for the clavier those of Kuhnau, and cites +especially the six _Bible_ sonatas. Now Kuhnau, although +he was Bach's predecessor at St. Thomas' Church in Leipzig, +was certainly a composer of the very lowest rank. The _Bible_ +sonatas, which Shedlock paints to us in such glowing colours, +are the merest trash, and not to be compared with the works of +his contemporaries. I do not think that they have any place +whatsoever in the history or development either of music or +of that form called the sonata. + +The development of the suite from dance forms has already +been shown, and we will now trace the development of the +sonata from the suite in Italy, Germany, and France. As an +example of this development in Italy, a so-called sonata by +G.B. Pescetti will serve (the sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti +were not originally so named, and the sonatas before that were +simply short pieces, so designated to distinguish them from +dance music). This sonata was published about 1730, and was one +of nine. The first movement is practically of the _allemande_ +type, and its first period ends in the dominant key. There +is but the slightest trace of a second theme in the first +part; yet the improvement in contrapuntal design over the +suites is evident. The second movement is in the same key, +and retains the characteristic rhythm of the _sarabande_; +at the end, the improvement, so far as design is concerned, +is very noticeable. The last movement, still in the same key, +is a _gigue_, thus keeping well in the shadow of the suite. + +A sonata by the German Rolle (1718-1785) is valuable in that +it shows a very decided second theme in the first period, +thus tending toward the development of the original simple +dance form into the more complex sonata form. The _adagio_, +however, still has the _sarabande_ characteristics, and +foreshadows many things. It contains many _words_ that later +were shaped into great poems by others. "The Erlking" of +Schubert is especially hinted at, just as the first movement +was prophetic of Beethoven. In the last movement we have the +_gigue_ rhythm again. + +In France, music had become merely a court appendage, as was +the case with the other arts, and had long served as a means +for showing the divine grace with which Louis XIV or XV could +turn out his toes in the minuet. In addition to this, the +arranging of a scientific system of harmonization by Rameau +(1683-1764) (which, by the way, is the basis of most of the +treatises of harmony of the present century), caused the few +French composers who could make headway against the prevailing +Italian opera after Lully to turn their attention away from +polyphonic writing; and having, after all, but little to +express in other than the long-accustomed dance rhythms and +tunes, their music cannot be said to have made any mark in +the world. In order to show the poverty of this style, let +us take a sonata by Mehul (1763-1817). The first movement +has already a well-defined second theme, but otherwise is +a mere collection of more or less commonplace progressions. +The second part is a dance tune, pure and simple; indeed the +first part had all the characteristics of the _farandole_ +(see Bizet's "l'Arlesienne"). The last part is entitled rondo, +"a round dance," and is evidently one in the literal sense of +the word. In all these sonatas the increasing use of what is +called the Alberti bass is noticeable. + +To show the last link between the suite and the sonata, +reference may be made to the well-known sonata in D major by +Haydn. In this, as in those analyzed above, all the movements +are in the same key. The adagio is a _sarabande_, and the +last movement has the characteristics of the _gigue_. This, +however, is only the starting point with Haydn; later we will +consider the development of this form into what is practically +our modern sonata, which, of course, includes the symphony, +quartet, quintet, concerto, etc. + +Our path of study in tracing the development of the sonata from +the suite leads us through a sterile tract of seemingly bare +desert. The compositions referred to are full of fragments, +sometimes fine in themselves, but lying wherever they happened +to fall, their sculptors having no perception of their value +one with another. Disconnected phrases, ideas never completed; +to quote Hamlet, "Words, words!" Later we find Beethoven +and Schubert constructing wonderful temples out of these +same fragments, and shaping these same words into marvellous +tone poems. + +The music of the period we have been considering is well +described by Browning in "A Toccata of Galuppi's": + + Yes you, like a ghostly cricket, + Creaking where a house was burned: + Dust and ashes, dead and done with, + Venice spent what Venice earned. + + + + +XV + +THE DEVELOPMENT OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC + + +Up to the time of Beethoven, music for the pianoforte consisted +mainly of programme music of the purely descriptive order, that +is to say, it was generally imitative of natural or artificial +externals. To be sure, if we go back to the old clavecinists, +and examine the sonatas of Kuhnau, sundry pieces by Couperin, +Rameau, and the Germans, Froberger, C.P.E. Bach and others, +we find the beginnings of that higher order of programme music +which deals directly with the emotions; and not only that, +but which aims at causing the hearer to go beyond the actual +sounds heard, in pursuance of a train of thought primarily +suggested by this music. + +To find this art of programme music, as we may call it, brought +to a full flower, we must seek in the mystic utterances +of Robert Schumann. It is wise to keep in mind, however, +that although Schumann's piano music certainly answers to +our definition of the higher programme music, it also marks +the dividing line between emotional programme music without a +well-defined object and that dramatically emotional art which +we have every reason to believe was aimed at by Beethoven in +many of his sonatas, and which, in its logical development +and broadened out by orchestral colours and other resources, +is championed by Richard Strauss at the present day. + +We have already learned that C.P.E. Bach had entirely broken +with the contrapuntal style of his father and his age in +order to gain freer utterance, and that the word "colour" +began to be used in his time in connection with music for +even one instrument. It is, perhaps, needless to say that the +vastly enlarged possibilities, both technical and tonal, of +the newly invented _forte-piano_ were largely the outcome of +this seeking for colour in music. In addition to this, the new +art of harmonic dissonances was already beginning to stretch +out in the direction of new and strange tonal combinations, +thus giving to the music written for the instrument many new +possibilities in the way of causing and depicting emotions. That +the first experiments were puerile, we know, as, for example, +Haydn's attempts, in one of his pianoforte sonatas, to suggest +the conversion of an obdurate sinner. + +When we consider Mozart, it is impossible to forget the +fact that in his piano works he was first and foremost +a piano virtuoso, a child prodigy, of whom filigree work +was expected by the public for which he wrote his sonatas. +(We cannot call this orientalism, for it was more or less of +German pattern, traced from the fioriture of the Italian opera +singer.) Therefore, emotional utterance or even new or poetic +colouring was not to be expected of him. + +As has been said before, it remained for Beethoven to +weld these new words and strange colours into poems, which, +notwithstanding the many barnacles hanging to them (remnants of +a past of timid adhesion to forms and fashions), are, in truth, +the first lofty and dignified musical utterances with an object +which we possess. I mean by this statement that his art was the +first to cast aside the iron fetters of what then formed the +canons of art. The latter may be described (even in reference +to modern days) as constituting the shadow of a great man. And, +although this is a digression, I may add that all students of +piano music no doubt realize the weighty shadow that Beethoven +cast over the first half of the nineteenth century, just as +Wagner is doing at the present time. + +Our purists are unable to realize that the shadows are the +least vital part of the great men who cast them. We remember +that the only wish expressed by Diogenes when Alexander came +to see him was that the king should stand aside so that he +could enjoy the light of the sun. + +To return: We find that Beethoven was the first exponent of +our modern art. Every revolution is bound to bring with it a +reaction which seeks to consolidate and put in safe keeping, +as it were, results attained by it. Certainly Beethoven alone +can hardly be said to have furthered this end; for his revolt +led him into still more remote and involved trains of thought, +as in his later sonatas and quartets. Even the Ninth Symphony, +hampered as it is by actual words for which declamation and a +more or less well-defined form of musical speech are necessary, +suffers from the same involved utterance that characterizes +his last period. + +Schubert, in his instrumental work, was too ardent a seeker +and lover of the purely beautiful to build upon the forms of +past generations, and thus his piano music, neither restrained +nor supported by poetic declamation, was never held within +the bounds of formalism. + +It was Mendelssohn who first invested old and seemingly worn-out +forms of instrumental music (especially for the pianoforte) +with the new poetic license of speech, which was essentially +the spirit of the age of revolution in which he lived. + +In holding up Mendelssohn as a formalist against Beethoven, +and at the same time presenting him as the composer directly +responsible for our modern symphonic poem, there is a +seeming contradiction, which, however, is more apparent than +real. While Beethoven never hesitated to overturn form (harmonic +or otherwise) to suit the exigencies of his inspiration, +Mendelssohn cast all his pictures into well-defined and orthodox +forms. Thus his symphonic poems, for example, the overtures to +"The Lovely Melusina," "Fingal's Cave," "Ruy Blas," etc., are +really overtures in form; whereas, the so-called "Moonlight" +sonata of Beethoven, as well as many others, are sonatas only +in name. The emotional and problematic significance given by +Mendelssohn to many of his shorter piano pieces, including even +such works as preludes and fugues, is familiar to us all. These +works, however, but rarely departed from the orthodox forms +represented by their names. His "Songs without Words" have +been so often quoted as constituting a new art form that it +is well to remember that they are practically all cast in +the same mould, that of the most simple song form, with one, +and sometimes two more or less similar verses, preceded by a +short introduction and ending with a coda. + +We may say then, broadly, that Beethoven invested instrumental +music with a wonderful poignancy and power of expression, +elevating it to the point of being the medium of expressing +some of the greatest thoughts we possess. In so doing, however, +he shattered many of the great idols of formalism by the sheer +violence of his expression. + +Schubert, let me say again, seemed indifferent to symmetry, or +never thought of it in his piano music. Mendelssohn, possibly +influenced by his early severe training with Zelter, accepted +symmetry of form as the cornerstone of his musical edifice; +although he was one of the first in the realms of avowed +programme music, he never carried it beyond the boundary of +good form. And, as in speaking a moment ago of the so-called +canons of musical art, we compared them with the shadows that +great men have cast upon their times, it may be as well to +remember that just this formalism of Mendelssohn overshadowed +and still overshadows England to the present day. On the other +hand, Beethoven's last style still shows itself in Brahms, +and even in Richard Strauss. Schumann was different from +these three. His music is not avowed programme music; neither +is it, as is much of Schubert's, pure delight in beautiful +melodies and sounds. It did not break through formalism by +sheer violence of emotion, as did Beethoven's; least of all +has it Mendelssohn's orthodox dress. It represents, as well as +I can put it, the rhapsodical reverie of a great poet to whom +nothing seems strange, and who has the faculty of relating +his visions, never attempting to give them coherence, until, +perhaps, when awakened from his dream, he naively wonders what +they may have meant. It will be remembered that Schumann added +titles to his music after it was composed. + +To all of this new, strange music, Liszt and Chopin added the +wonderful tracery of orientalism. As I have said before, the +difference between these two is that with Chopin this tracery +enveloped poetic thought as with a thin gauze; whereas with +Liszt, the embellishment itself made the starting point for +almost a new art in tonal combination, the effects of which are +seen on every hand to-day. To realize its influence, one need +only compare the graceful arabesques of the most simple piano +piece of to-day with the awkward and gargoyle-like figuration +of Beethoven and his predecessors. We may justly attribute this +to Liszt rather than to Chopin, whose nocturne embellishments +are but first cousins to those of the Englishman, John Field, +though naturally Chopin's Polish temperament gave his work that +grace and profusion of design which we have called orientalism. + + + + +XVI + +THE MYSTERY AND MIRACLE PLAY + + +It is interesting to recall the origin of our words "treble" +and "discant." The latter was derived from the first attempts to +break away from the monotony of several persons singing the same +melody in unison, octaves, fifths, or fourths. In such cases +the original melody was called _cantus firmus_ (a term still +generally used in counterpoint to designate the given melody +of an exercise to which the student is to write other parts), +the new melody that was sung with it was called the _discant_, +and when a third part was added, it received the name _triplum_ +or _treble_. As Ambros remarks, this forcible welding together +of different melodies, often well-known old tunes, secular +or derived from the church chants, was on a direct line with +the contemporary condition of the other arts. For instance, +on the portal to the left of the Cathedral of Saint Mark, +at Venice, is a relief, representing some Biblical scene, +which is entirely made up of fragments of some older sculptured +figures, placed together without regard to anatomy in much the +same brutal fashion that the melodies of the time were sung +together. The traces of this clumsy music-making extended down +to Palestrina's time, and became the germ of counterpoint, +canon, and fugue, constituting (apart from the folk song) +the only music known at that time. + +This music, however, very soon developed into two styles, one +adopted by the church, the other, a secular style, furnishing +the musical texture both of opera and other secular music. The +opera, or rather the art form we know under that name (for the +name itself conveys nothing, for which reason Wagner coined the +term "music drama") broke away from the church in the guise of +Mysteries, as they were called in mediaeval times. A Mystery +(of which our modern oratorio is the direct descendant) was +a kind of drama illustrating some sacred subject, and the +earliest specimens laid the foundation for the Greek tragedy +and comedy. We still see a relic of this primitive art form +in the Oberammergau Passion Play. + +We read of the efforts made, as early as the fifth century, +to hold the people to the church; among other devices employed +was that of illustrating the subjects of the services by the +priests performing the offices being dressed in an appropriate +costume. Little by little the popular songs of the people +crept into the church service among the regular ecclesiastical +chants, thus foreshadowing the beginnings of modern opera; +for after a while, special Latin texts were substituted for +the regular service, the mimetic part of which degenerated +into the most extraordinary license as, for instance, in the +"Feast of Asses" (January 14) which may be called a burlesque +of the mass, and which has been described in a former chapter. + +With this mixture of the vernacular and the official Latin,[14] +these Miracle and Passion Plays, as well as the Mysteries and +Moralities (as different forms of this ecclesiastical mumming +were called) began to be given in other places besides the +churches. + +In addition to this combination of singing and acting, the +_tenson_ or poetic debate (which was one form of the troubadour +songs, and one very often _acted_ by the jongleurs) probably +also did its part towards giving stability to this new art +form. The earliest specimen of it, in its purely secular aspect, +is a small work entitled "Robin et Marian," by Adam de la Hale, +a well-known troubadour (called "the humpback," born at Arras +in the south of France in 1240), who followed in the train of +that ferocious Duke Charles of Anjou, who beheaded Konradin, +the last of the Hohenstaufens, in 1268, and Manfred, both of +them minnesingers. + +As the Mystery was the direct ancestor of our oratorio, so was +the little pastoral of Adam de la Hale the germ of the modern +French vaudeville. One of its melodies is said to be sung to +this day in some parts of southern France. + +The entire object in this little play being that both words and +action should be perfectly understood, it is obvious that as +little as possible should be going on during the singing. Thus, +such melodies as we find in these old pastoral plays would be +accompanied by short notes, serving merely to give the pitch +and tonality, which would gradually develop into chords, +thus laying the foundation for harmony. + +If, on the other hand, we look at the "church play" of the +same period, the Mystery, and remember that it was sung by +men accustomed to singing the _organum_ of Hucbald, we have +a clue as to what it was and what it led up to. For while +one part or voice of the music would give a melody (copied +from or at any rate resembling the Gregorian chant or the +sequences of Notker of Tubilo), the other voices would sing +songs in the vernacular, and, strangest of all, one voice +would repeat some Latin word, or even a "nonsense word" +(to use Edward Lear's term) but much more slowly than the +other voices. Thus the needs of the Mystery were as well met +by incipient counterpoint on the one hand, as, on the other, +the secular song-play engendered the sense of harmony. + +That the early secular forerunner of opera, as represented by +"Robin et Marian," was still, to a certain degree, controlled +by the church is clear if we remember that at that time the +only methods of noting music were entirely in the hands of the +clergy. The notation for the lute, for instance, was invented +about 1460 to 1500. Thus, we can say that the recording of +secular music was not free from church influence until some +time after the sixteenth century. + +This primitive "opera" music was thus fettered by difficulty of +notation and the influence of the ecclesiastical rules until +perhaps about 1600, when the first real opera began to find a +place in Italy. Jacopo Peri and Caccini were among the first +workers in the comparatively new form, and they both took +the same subject, _Eurydice_. Of the former the following +two short excerpts will suffice; the first is where Orpheus +bewails his fate; in the second he expresses his joy at bringing +Eurydice back to earth. Caccini's opera was perhaps the first +to introduce the many useless ornaments that, up to the middle +of this century, were characteristic of Italian opera. + + + EURYDICE--PERI. + + Orpheus bewailing his fate. + + [Figure 43] + [W: I weep not, I am not sighing, tho' thou art from me taken. + What use to sigh] + + + Orpheus' joy in bringing back Eurydice. + + [Figure 44] + [W: Gioi-te al canto mio serve frondo di che in su l'au rora] + + +[14] It is interesting to note as to the prevalence of Latin, + that Dante's "Divina Commedia" was the first important + poem in Italian. Latin was used on the stage in Italy + up to the sixteenth century; the stationary chorus + stationed on the stage remained until the seventeenth + century and was not entirely discontinued until the + first half of the eighteenth century. + + + + +XVII + +OPERA + + +No art form is so fleeting and so subject to the dictates of +fashion as opera. It has always been the plaything of fashion, +and suffers from its changes. To-day the stilted figures of +Hasse, Pergolesi, Rameau, and even Gluck, seem as grotesque +to us as the wigs and buckles of their contemporaries. To +Palestrina's masses and madrigals, Rameau's and Couperin's +clavecin pieces, and all of Bach, we can still listen without +this sense of incongruity. On the other hand, operas of +Alessandro Scarlatti, Matheson, and Porpora would bore us +unmitigatedly. They have gone out of fashion. Even the modern +successors of these men, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi, in his +earlier years, have become dead letters musically, although only +as late as 1845, Donizetti was at the very zenith of his fame. + +Of all the operas of the past century, our present public has +not seen or even heard of one, with the exception of "The Magic +Flute," and less probably "Don Juan." This is bad enough; +but if we look at works belonging to the first part of the +nineteenth century, we find the same state of affairs. The +operas of Spontini, Rossini, most of Meyerbeer's, even Weber's +"Freischuetz," have passed away, seemingly never to return. Even +"Cavalleria Rusticana," of recent creation, is falling rapidly +into oblivion. Thus the opera comique early disappeared in +favour of the romantic opera and the operetta. The former has +already nearly ended its career, and the latter has descended +to the level of mere farce. In the course of time, these opera +forms become more and more evanescent; for the one-act opera of +miniature tragedy, which is practically only a few years old, +is already almost extinct. + +And yet this art form has vastly more hold on the public than +other music destined to outlive it. The fact is, that music +which is tied down to the conventionalities and moods of its +time and place can never appeal but to the particular time and +mood which gave it birth. (Incidentally, I may say the same of +music having its roots in the other peculiarities of folk song.) + +Now the writers of these operas were great men who put their +best into their work; the cause of the failure of these operas +was not on account of the music, but the ideas and thoughts +with which this music was saddled. What were the books which +people read and loved in those days (1750-1800), that is, +books upon which operas might be built? In England we find "The +Castle of Otranto," "The Mysterious Mother," etc., by Horace +Walpole. Now Macaulay says that Horace Walpole's works rank +as high among the delicacies of intellectual epicures as the +Strasburg pie among the dishes described in the _Almanach des +Gourmands_. None but an unhealthy and disorganized mind could +have produced such literary luxuries as the works of Walpole. + +France had not yet recovered from the empty formalism of +the preceding century, Bernardin de St. Pierre was a kind +of colonial Mlle. Scudery, and Jean Jacques Rousseau, one +of the sparks which were to ignite the French Revolution, +writes his popular opera to the silly story of "The Village +Soothsayer." Had not Gluck written to the classics he would +have had to write "a la Watteau." + +In Germany, conditions were better; for the so-called Romantic +school had just begun to make headway. In opera, however, this +school of Romanticism only commenced to make itself felt later, +when we have a crop of operas on Fouque's "Undine" as well as +"Hofmann's Tales." + +It is as though opera had to dress according to the prevailing +fashion of the day. The very large sleeves of one year look +strange to us a little later. Just so is it with opera; for +those old operas by Mehul, Spontini, Salieri, and others all +wear enormous crinolines, while the contemporary instrumental +works of the same period, unfettered by fashion, still possess +all the freedom which their limited speech permitted them to +have. Thus we see that opera is necessarily a child of the times +in which it is written, in contrast to other music which echoes +but the thought of the composer, thought that is not necessarily +bound down to any time, place, or peculiarity of diction. + +In Germany, Italian opera was never accepted by the people as +it was in France. In the latter country, opera had to be in the +vernacular and practically to become _French_. Lully's operas +were written to libretti by Quinault and Corneille; and while, +as early as 1645, Paris imported its opera from Italy, this +art form was rapidly modified to suit the public for which +it was secured. Even with Piccini and Gluck, and down to +Rossini and Meyerbeer, this nationalism was infused into the +foreign product. In Germany the case was entirely different, +for up to the very last, Italian opera was a thing apart. +Although German composers, such as Mozart and Paer, wrote +Italian opera, the "Singspiel" (a kind of opera comique), +found its culminating point in Weber's "Freischuetz," which +fought against Rossini's operas for supremacy in Germany. + +Gluck's victory over the Piccinists gave to the French form +of Italian opera an impetus that caused Cherubini to proceed +on almost the same lines in his operas, the "Water Carrier," +etc. Cherubini was a pupil of Andreas Sarti, a celebrated +contrapuntist and a disciple of the last of the Italian church +composers who looked back to Palestrina for inspiration. Thus +the infusion of a certain soberness of diction, which we call +German, fitted in with the man's training and predilections. + +The first names we meet with in French opera after Cherubini +are those of Gretry, Mehul, and Spontini. The former was a +Frenchman whose works are now obsolete, although Macfarren, in +the "Encyclopedia Brittanica," says that he is the only French +composer of symphonies that are known and enjoy popularity +in France. + +Gretry was born in Liege, about 1740. He walked to Italy, +studied in Rome, and returned to France about 1770. None of +his works have come down to us, but his name is interesting +by reason of a certain contradiction in his operas. This +contradiction consists in his being one of the first to revive +the idea of the hidden orchestra; it is interesting also to +note that in his "Richard Coeur de Lion," he anticipated +Wagner's use of the _leitmotiv_. His words on the hidden +orchestra sound strangely modern: + + PLAN FOR A NEW THEATRE.--I should like the auditorium + of my theatre to be small, holding at the most one + thousand persons and consisting of a sort of open + space, without boxes, small or great; for these nooks + only encourage talking and scandal. I would like + the orchestra to be concealed, so that neither the + musicians nor the lights on their music stands could + be visible to the spectators. + +Mehul was born about 1763 in the south of France, and is +celebrated, among other things, as being a pupil of Gluck, +in Paris. He was also noted for having, at the request of +Napoleon, brought out an opera based on Macpherson's "Ossian," +in which no violins were used in the orchestra. "Joseph," +another opera of his, is occasionally given in small German +towns. Mehul died in 1817. + +Spontini, the next representative of opera in France, was an +Italian, born in 1774. He went to Paris in 1803, where, through +the influence of the Empress Josephine, he was enabled to have +several small operas performed; finally in 1807 his "Vestal," +written to a French text, was given with great success. In this, +his greatest work, he followed Gluck's footsteps, not only in +the music, but also in the choice of a classic subject. In 1809, +he branched out into a more romantic vein with the opera of +"Fernando Cortez." His other works never attained popularity. +After the Restoration in France, he was named director of the +court music in Berlin by the King of Prussia, at an annual +salary of ten thousand thalers (about $7,500), a position he +held from 1820 to 1840. He died in Italy in 1851. Spontini may +be said to have been the last representative of the Gluck opera; +but he also brought into it all the magnificence in scenery, +etc., that would naturally be expected by the fashion of the +First Empire. He made no innovations, and merely served to +keep alive the traditions of Grand Opera in France. + +The next powerful influence in France, and indeed in all +Europe, was that of Rossini. He may be said to have built on +Gluck's ideas in many ways. Born in 1792, at Pesaro, in Italy, +he wrote many operas of the flimsy Italian style while still +a boy. At twenty-one he had already written his "Tancredi" +and the opera buffa, "The Italians in Algiers." His best work +(besides "William Tell") was "The Barber of Seville." Other +works are "Cinderella" (_La Cenerentola_), "The Thieving +Blackbird" (_La Gazza Ladra_), "Moses," and "The Lady of the +Lake." These operas were mostly made up of parts of others +that were failures, a la Hasse. An engagement being offered +him in London, he went there with his wife, and in one season +they earned about two hundred thousand francs, which laid the +foundation for his future prosperity. + +The next year he went to Paris, where, after a few unimportant +works, he, produced "William Tell" with tremendous success +(1829). Although he lived until 1868, he never wrote for +the operatic stage again, his other works being mainly the +well-known "Stabat Mater" and some choruses. He was essentially +a writer of light opera, although "William Tell" has many +elevated moments. His style was so entirely warped by his love +for show and the virtuoso side of singing that the many real +beauties of his music are hardly recognizable. His music is +so overladen with _fioriture_ that often its very considerable +value is obscured. He had absolutely no influence upon German +music, for the Germans, from Beethoven down, despised the +flimsy style and aims of this man, who, by appealing to the +most unmusical side of the fashionable audiences of Europe, +did so much to discourage the production of operas with a +lofty aim. In France, however, his influence was unchallenged, +and we may almost say that, with few exceptions, the overture +to "William Tell" served as a model for all other operatic +overtures which have been written there up to the present +day. We have only to look at the many overtures by Herold, +Boieldieu, Auber, and others, to see the influence exerted by +this style of overture, which consisted of a slow introduction, +followed by a more or less sentimental melody, followed in +turn by a galop as a coda. + +So fashionable had this kind of thing become that even Weber was +slightly touched by it. In the meanwhile, the French composers +were producing operas of a smaller kind, but, in many ways, of +a better character than the larger works of Rossini, Spontini, +and their followers. Had this flimsy Italian influence been +lacking, doubtless French opera to-day would be a different +thing from what it actually is. For these smaller operas by +Herold, Auber, and Boieldieu had many points in common with +the German _Singspiel_, which may be said to have saved German +musical art for Wagner. + +What might have developed under better conditions is shown +in a work by Halevy entitled, "La juive," in which is to be +found promise of a great school of opera, a promise unhappily +stifled by the advent of an eclectic, the German Meyerbeer, +who blinded the public with unheard of magnificence of staging, +just as Rossini before him had blinded it by novel technical +feats. Meyerbeer thus drew the art into a new channel, and, +unluckily, this new tendency was not so much in the direction +of elevation of style as in sensationalism. + +To return to the French composers. Herold was born in 1791, +in Paris, and his principal works were "Zampa" and the "Pre +aux clercs." The first was produced in 1831, the latter in +1832. He died in 1833. Boieldieu was born in 1775, in Rouen; +died 1834. His principal works were "La dame blanche" and +"Jean de Paris." + +Halevy (Levy) was born in 1799, in Paris, and died in 1862; +his father was a Bavarian and his mother from Lorraine. He +wrote innumerable operas. His most famous work, "La juive," +written in 1835, was killed by Meyerbeer's "Huguenots," and +produced a year later. He was professor of counterpoint at +the Conservatoire from 1831, among his pupils being Gounod, +Masse, Bazin, and Bizet. + +Auber was born in 1782, and died in May, 1871. He was +practically the last of the essentially French composers. +His operas may be summed up as being the perfect translation +into music of the witty plays of Scribe, with whom he was +associated all his life. To read a comedy by Scribe is to +imagine Auber's music to it. No one has excelled Auber in +the expression of all the finesse of wit and lightness of +touch. What the union between the two men was may be inferred +from the fact that Scribe wrote many of his librettos to +Auber's music, the latter being written first, Scribe then +adding the words. His principal works are "Masaniello" or +"The Mute," and "Fra Diavolo." He was appointed director of +the Paris Conservatoire, in 1842, in succession to Cherubini. + +In speaking of Gretry, I quoted his opinion (given in one of +his essays on music) as to what opera should be and cited his +use of the _leitmotiv_ in his "Richard Coeur de Lion" (which +contains the air, _une fievre brulante_). If with this we +quote his reasons for writing opera comique rather than grand +opera, we have one of the reasons why French opera has, as yet, +never developed beyond Massenet's "Roi de Lahore" on one side, +and Delibes' "Lakme" on the other. + +Gretry writes that he introduced lyric comedy on the stage +because the public was tired of tragedy, and because he had +heard so many lovers of dancing complain that their favourite +art played only a subordinate role in grand opera. Also the +public loved to hear short songs; therefore he introduced many +such into his operas. + +Even nowadays, this seeming contradiction between theory and +practice is to be found, I think, in the French successors of +Meyerbeer. The public needed dancing, and all theories must +bend to that wish. Even Wagner succumbed to this influence in +Paris; and when Weber's "Freischuetz" was first given at the +grand opera, Berlioz was commissioned to arrange ballet music +from Weber's piano works to supply the deficiency. + +In France, even to-day, everything gives way to the public, +a public whose intelligence from a poetic standpoint is, in +my opinion, lower than that of any other country. The French +composer is dependent on his country (Paris) as is no musician +of other nationality. Berlioz' life was embittered by the want +of recognition in Paris. Although he had been acclaimed as +a great musician all over Europe, yet he returned again and +again to Paris, preferring (as he admits) the approbation of +its musically worthless public to his otherwise world-wide fame. + +We remember that Auber never stirred out of Paris throughout +his long life. It was an article in the _Gazette Musicale_ of +Paris which was instrumental in calling Gounod back into the +world from his intended priestly vocation. And this influence +of the admittedly ignorant and superficial French public is +the more remarkable when one considers the fact that it was +always the last to admit the value of the best work of its +composers. Thus Berlioz' fame was gained in Russia and Germany +while he was still derided and comparatively unknown in Paris. + +The failure of Bizet's "Carmen" is said to have hastened the +composer's death, which took place within three months after +the first performance of the opera. As Saint-Saens wrote at +the time, in his disgust at the French public: "The fat, ugly +bourgeois ruminates in his padded stall, regretting separation +from his kind. He half opens a glassy eye, munches a bonbon, +then sleeps again, thinking that the orchestra is a-tuning." And +yet, even Saint-Saens, whose name became known chiefly through +Liszt's help, and whose operas and symphonies were given +in Germany before they were known in France, even he is one +of the most ardent adherents to the "anti-foreigner" cry in +France. In my opinion, this respect for and attempt to please +this grossly ignorant French public is and has been one of the +great devitalizing influences which hamper the French composer. + +Charles Gounod was born in 1818, in Paris. His father was +an engraver and died when Gounod was very young. The boy +received his first music lessons from his mother. He was +admitted to the Conservatoire at sixteen, and studied with +Halevy and Lesueur. In 1839 he gained _the Prix de Rome_, +and spent three years in Rome, studying ecclesiastical +music. In 1846 he contemplated becoming a priest, and wrote +a number of religious vocal works, published under the name +Abbe C. Gounod. In 1851 the article I referred to appeared, +and such was its effect on Gounod, that within four months his +first opera "Sapho" was given (April, 1851). A year later this +was followed by some music for a tragedy (Poussard's "Ulysse" +at the Comedie Francaise), and in 1854 by the five-act opera "La +nonne sanglante." These were only very moderately successful; +and so Gounod turned to the opera comique, and wrote music to +an adaptation of Moliere's "Medecin malgre lui." This became +very popular, and paved the way for his "Faust," which was +produced at the Opera Comique in 1859. In the opera comique, +as we know, the singing was always interspersed with spoken +dialogue. Thus, this opera, as we know it, dates from its +preparation for the Grand Opera ten years later, 1869. Ten +months after "Faust" was given he used a fable of Lafontaine +for a short light opera, "Philemon and Baucis." + +In the meantime, "Faust" began to bring him encouragement, +and his next opera was on the subject of the "Queen of Sheba" +(1862). This being unsuccessful, he wrote two more light operas, +"Mireille" and "La colombe" (1866). The next was "Romeo et +Juliette" (1867). This was very successful, and marks the +culmination of Gounod's success as an opera composer. In +1870 he went to London, where he made his home for a number +of years. His later operas, "Cinq-Mars" (1877), "Polyeucte" +(1878), and "Le tribut de Zamora" (1881), met with small +success, and have rarely been given. + +In his later years, as we know, he showed his early predilection +for religious music; and his oratorios "The Redemption," +"Mors et Vita," and several masses have been given with +varying success. Perhaps one of the greatest points ever made +in Gounod's favour by a critic was that by Pougin, who asks what +other composer could have written two such operas as "Faust" and +"Romeo et Juliette" and still have them essentially different +musically. The "Garden Scene" in the one and the "Balcony Scene" +in the other are identical, so far as the feeling of the play +is concerned; also the duel of Faust and Valentine and Romeo +and Tybalt. + +Ambroise Thomas's better works, "Mignon" and "Hamlet," may +be said to be more or less echoes of Gounod; and while his +"Francesca da Rimini," which was brought out in 1882, was by +far his most ambitious work, it never became known outside of +Paris. Ambroise Thomas was born in 1811, and died within a year +of Gounod. His chief merit was in his successful direction +of the Conservatoire, to which he succeeded Auber in 1871. + +Georges Bizet (his name was Alexander Cesar Leopold) was born in +1838, in Paris. His father was a poor singing teacher, and his +mother a sister-in-law of Delsarte; she was a first-prize piano +pupil of the Conservatoire. As a boy, Bizet was very precocious, +and entered the Conservatoire as a pupil of Marmontel when he +was ten. He took successively the first prizes for solfege, +piano, organ, and fugue, and finally the _Prix de Rome_ in +1857, when he was nineteen years old. The latter kept him +in Rome until 1861, when he returned to Paris and gave piano +and harmony lessons and arranged dance music for brass bands, +a _metier_ not unknown to either Wagner or Raff. + +Until 1872, Bizet wrote but small and unimportant works, such +as "The Pearl Fisher," "The Fair Maid of Perth," and several +vaudeville operettas, some of which he wrote to order and +anonymously. He married a daughter of Halevy, the composer, +and in 1871-72 served in the National Guard. His first +important work was the incidental music to Alphonse Daudet's +"L'Arlesienne" and finally his "Carmen" was given (but without +success), at the Opera Comique, in March, 1875. He died June 3, +1875. + +Camille Saint-Saens was born in Paris, in 1835; he commenced +studying piano when only three years old. I believe it is +mostly through his piano concertos and his symphonic poems +that his name will live; for his operas have never attained +popularity, with perhaps the one exception of "Samson and +Delilah." His other operas are: "The Yellow Princess," +"Proserpina," "Etienne Marcel," "Henry VIII," "Ascanio." + +Jules Massenet was born in 1842, and at the age of twelve +became a pupil of Bezit at the Conservatoire, was rejected by +Bezit for want of talent, and afterward studied with Reber and +Thomas, and won the _Prix de Rome_ in 1863. Upon his return, +in 1866, he wrote a number of small orchestral works, including +two suites and several sacred dramas, "Marie Magdalen" and +"Eve and the Virgin," in which the general Meyerbeerian style +militated against any suggestion of religious feeling. His +first grand opera, "Le roi de Lahore," was given in 1881. +The second was "Herodiade," which was followed by "Manon," +"The Cid," "Esclarmonde," "Le mage." + + + + +XVIII + +OPERA (Continued) + + +One of the most disputed questions in modern music is that of +opera. Although we have many controversies as to what purely +instrumental or vocal music may do, the operatic art, if we +may call it so, always remains the same. In creating the music +drama, Wagner put forth a composite art, something which many +declare impossible, and as many others advocate as being the +most complete art form yet conceived. We are still in the +midst of the discussion, and a final verdict is therefore +as yet impossible. On one hand we have Wagner, and against +him we have the absolutists such as Brahms, the orthodox +thinkers represented by Anton Rubinstein and many others, +the new Russian school represented by Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov, +Tchaikovsky, and the successors of the French school of +Meyerbeer, namely, Saint-Saens, Massenet, etc. + +In order to get a clear idea of the present state of the +matter we must review the question from the beginning of the +eighteenth century. For many reasons this is not an easy task, +first of all because very little of the music of the operas +of this period actually exists. We know the names of Hasse, +Pergolesi, Matheson, Graun, Alessandro Scarlatti (who was a much +greater man than his son the harpsichord player and composer, +Domenico), to name only a few. To be sure, a number of the +French operas of the period are preserved, owing to the custom +in France of engraving music. In Germany and Italy, however, +such operas were never printed, and one may safely say that +it was almost the rule for only one manuscript copy to be +available. Naturally this copy belonged to the composer, who +generally led the opera himself, improvising much of it on the +harpsichord, as we shall see later. As an instance of the danger +which operas, under such conditions, ran of being destroyed +and thus lost to the world, we may cite the total destruction +of over sixty of Hasse's operas in his extreme old age. + +The second point which makes it difficult for us to get an +absolutely clear insight into the conditions of opera at the +beginning of the eighteenth century lies in the fact that +contemporary historians never brought their histories up +to their own times. Thus Marpurg, in his history, divides +music into four periods; first, that of Adam and Eve to +the flood; second, from the flood to the Argonauts; third, +to the beginning of the Olympiads; fourth, from thence to +Pythagoras. The same may be said of the celebrated histories +of Gerbert and Padre Martini. + +On the other hand, we are certain that much of the modern +speculation was anticipated by these men. For instance, Matheson +calls pantomime "dumb music," freed from melodic and harmonic +forms. The idea was advanced that music owes its rhythmic +regularity and form to dancing, and architecture was called +frozen music, a metaphor which, in later days, was considered +such an original conception of Goethe and Schlegel. This same +inability of historians to bring their accounts up to the +contemporary times may be noticed in the later works of Forkel +(d. 1818) and Ambros (d. 1876). + +Yet a third reason remains which tends to confuse the student +as to what really constituted opera. This is owing to the fact +that there existed the very important element of improvisation, +of which I shall speak later. + +In order to see what Gluck, Weber, and Wagner had to break away +from, let us look at the condition of opera at the beginning +of the eighteenth century. We remember that opera, having +become emancipated from the Church long before any other music, +developed apace, while instrumental (secular) music was still in +its infancy. In Germany, even the drama was neglected for its +kindred form of opera; therefore, in studying its development, +we may well understand why the dramatic stage considered the +opera its deadly enemy. + +The life of the German dramatist and actor of the first half +of the eighteenth century was one of the direst hardship and +poverty. Eckhof, one of the greatest actors of his time, made +his entry into Brunswick in a kind of miserable hay cart, in +which, accompanied by his sick wife and several dogs, he had +travelled over the rough roads. To keep warm they had filled +part of the wagon with straw. The German actor and dramatist +of that time often died in the hospital, despised by the richer +classes; even the village priests and ministers refused to allow +them to eat at their tables. Their scenery rarely consisted +of more than three rough pieces: a landscape, a large room, +and a peasant's hut interior. Many even had only two large +cloths which were hung about the stage, one green, which was +to be used when the scene was in the open air, and the other +yellow, which was used to represent an interior. Shakespeare's +"Poor Players" were certainly a stern reality in Germany. In +order to attract the public the plays had to consist for the +most part of the grossest subjects imaginable, it being barely +possible to smuggle some small portion of serious drama into +the entertainment. + +With opera, however, it was vastly different; opera troupes +were met at the city gates by the royal or ducal carriages, +and the singers were feted everywhere. The prices paid them +can only be compared with the salaries paid nowadays. They +were often ennobled, and the different courts quarrelled for +the honour of their presence. The accounts of the cost of +the scenery used are incredible, amounting to many thousands +of dollars for a single performance. + +One of the earliest German kapellmeisters and opera composers +was Johann Adolf Hasse, who was born in Dresden about 1700. To +show the foundation upon which Gluck built, we will look at +opera as it existed in Hasse's time. In 1727 Hasse married at +Venice, Faustina Bordoni, the foremost singer of the time. He +wrote over one hundred operas for her, and had a salary of +thirty-six thousand marks, or nine thousand dollars, yearly. Now +these operas were very different from those we know. The arias +in them (and, of course, the whole opera was practically but a +succession of arias) were only sketched in an extremely vague +manner. Much was left to the singer, and the accompaniment +was sparsely indicated by figures written above a bass. The +recitative which separated one aria from another was improvised +by the singer, and was accompanied on the harpsichord by the +kapellmeister, who was naturally obliged to improvise his +part on the spur of the moment, following the caprice of the +singer. There was no creating an atmosphere for a tragic or +dramatic situation by means of the accompaniment; as soon as +the situation arrived, an aria was sung explaining it. Now, +as the singer was given much latitude in regard to the melody, +and _absolute_ liberty in regard to the recitative, it is easy +to see that, with the astounding technical perfection possessed +by the singers of the time, this latitude would be used to +astonish the hearers by wonderful vocal feats intermingled +with more or less passionate declamation. + +The composer was merely the excuse for the opera; but he +needed to be a consummate musician to conduct and accompany +this improvised music, of which his written score was but the +nucleus. The wretched acting of opera singers in general has +been rather humourously traced back to this epoch. Nowadays, +in an opera, when, by way of example, a murder is to be +committed, the orchestra paints the situation, and the act is +accomplished without delay. In those olden days a singer would +have indignantly refused to submit to such a usurpation of +his rights; he would have raised his dagger, and then, before +striking, would have sung an aria in the regular three parts, +after which he would have stabbed his man. The necessity for +doing something during this interim is said to be responsible +for those idiotic gestures which used to be such a seemingly +necessary part of the equipment of the opera singer. + +In the ordinary opera of the time there was the custom of +usually having about from twenty to thirty such arias (Hasse's +one hundred operas contain about three thousand arias). Now +these arias, although they were intended to paint a situation, +rapidly became simply a means to display the singer's skill. The +second part was a melody with plenty of vocal effects, and +the third part a bravura piece, pure and simple. So there +only remained the recitative in which true dramatic art could +find place. As this, however, was invariably improvised by the +singer, one can see that the composer of music had his cross +as well as his brother the dramatist. The music having no vital +connection with the text, it is easy to see how one opera could +be set to several texts or _vice-versa_, as was often done. + +Another factor also contributed to retard the artistic +development of opera. All these arias had to be constructed +and sung according to certain customs. Thus, the fiery, minor +aria was always sung by the villain, the so-called colorature +arias by the tall, majestic heroine, etc. + +All this seems childish to us, but it was certainly a powerful +factor in making fame for a composer. For, as has been said, +while a modern composer writes two or three different operas, +Hasse wrote one hundred versions of one. This also had its +effect on instrumental music, and, in a way, is also the direct +cause of that monstrosity known as "variations" (Haendel wrote +sixty-six on one theme.) In our days we often hear the bitter +complaint that opera singers are no longer what they used +to be, and that the great art of singing has been lost. If +we look back to the period under consideration, we cannot +but admit that there is much truth in the contention. In the +first place, an opera singer of those days was necessarily +an actor of great resource, a thorough musician, a composer, +and a marvellous technician. In addition to this, operas were +always written for individuals. Thus, all of Hasse's were +designed for Faustina's voice; and by examining the music, +we can tell exactly what the good and bad points of her voice +were, such was the care with which it was written. + +Before we leave the subject of Hasse and his operas, I wish +to refer briefly to a statement found in all histories and +books on music. We find it stated that all this music was sung +and played either loud or soft; with no gradual transitions +from one to the other. The existence of that gradual swelling +or diminishing of the tone in music which we call crescendo +and diminuendo, is invariably denied, and its first use is +attributed to Jommelli, director of the opera at Mannheim, in +1760. Thus we are asked to believe that Faustina sang either +_piano_ or _forte_, and still was an intensely dramatic singer. + +This seems to me to require no comment; especially as, already +in 1676, Matthew Locke, an English writer, uses the [<] sign +for the gradual transition from soft to loud. For obvious +reasons there could be no such transition in harpsichord music, +and this is why, when the same instrument was provided with +hammers instead of quills, the name was changed to _pianoforte_, +to indicate its power to modify the tone from soft to loud. + +Naturally Haendel, who was a man of despotic tendencies, +could not long submit to the caprices of opera singers. +After innumerable conflicts with them, we find him turning +back to one of the older forms of opera, the oratorio. + +Bach never troubled himself about an art from which he was so +widely separated both by training and inclination. Thus the +reformation of opera (I mean the old opera of which I have been +speaking) devolved upon Gluck. His early operas were entirely +on the lines of those of Hasse and Porpora. He wrote operas for +archduchesses ("Il Parnasso" was played by four archduchesses +and accompanied on harpsichord by the Archduke Leopold), and +was music master to Marie Antoinette at Vienna. It was owing +to these powerful influences that his art principles had an +opportunity to be so widely exploited. For these principles +were not new; they formed the basis of Peri's first attempt +at opera in 1600, and had been recalled in vain by Marcello in +1720. They were so simple that it seems almost childish to quote +them. They demanded merely that the music should always assist, +but never interfere with either the declamation or dramatic +action of the story. Thus by Gluck's powerful influence with +what may be termed the fashion of his day, he did much to +relegate to a place of minor importance the singer, who until +then had held undisputed sway. This being the case, the great +art of singing, which had allowed the artist the full control +and responsibility of opera, thus centering all upon the one +individuality, degenerated into the more subordinate role of +following the composer's directions. + +It now became the duty of the composer to foresee every +contingency of his work, and it lay with him to give directions +for every detail of it. As a result, the singers, having +no longer absolute control but still anxious to display +their technical acquirements, gradually changed into that +now almost obsolete abomination, the "Italian opera singer," +an artist, who, shirking all responsibility for the music and +dramatic action, neglected the composer so far as possible, +and introduced vocal pyrotechnics wherever he or she dared--and +their daring was great. + +In the meantime, as Gluck was bringing in his reforms, songs +were gradually introduced into the _Schauspiel_ or drama, the +ill-fated brother of opera in Germany; and just as the grand +opera reached its highest point with Gluck, so this species of +melodrama grew apace, until we see its culmination in Weber's +"Freischuetz." + +The good results of Gluck's innovations and also, to a certain +degree, its discrepancies, may be plainly seen in Mozart's +operas; for only too often in his operas Mozart was obliged to +introduce _fioriture_ of the poorest possible description in +situations where they were utterly out of place. This, however, +may not be entirely laid at the door of the exacting singer, for +we find these same _fioriture_ throughout his harpsichord music. + +We may almost say that the union of drama and music was first +definitely given status by Mozart; for a number of his operas, +such as the "Schauspieldirektor," etc., were merely a form of +the German _Singspiel_, which, as I have said, culminated in +"Freischuetz." + +Thus, at the beginning of our century we find two art forms: +First, grand opera of a strange nationality, and second, the +small but rapidly developing form of comedy or drama with music. + +In order to show how Wagner evolved his art theories from +this material, we must consider to some degree the general +conditions of this period. + +As late as 1853, Riehl wrote that Mendelssohn was the only +composer who had the German public, whereas others had only +a small section of it. For example, Schumann, whose music he +did not like, was accepted as a new Messiah in the Elbe River +district; "but who," he asks, "knows anything about him in the +south or west of Germany?" And as for Richard Wagner, who, he +says, is a man of extravagant ideas and a kind of phenomenon +of no consequence artistically, he asks, "who really knows +anything about him outside of the little party of fanatics +who profess to like his music (so-called)?" Its only chance of +becoming known, he says, is in the public's curiosity to hear +works which are rarely given. This curiosity, he continues, +will be a much more potent factor in his chance of becoming +known than all his newspaper articles and the propaganda of +his friend, Franz Liszt. + +For the German opera there were half a dozen +_Boersenplaetze_--Berlin for the northwest, Hamburg for +the northeast, Frankfort for the southwest, Munich for the +southeast. As Riehl says, a success in Frankfort meant a +success in all the Frankfort clay deposit and sandstone systems, +but in the chalk formation of Munich it stood no chance. Thus +Germany had no musical centre. But after Meyerbeer found such +a centre in Paris, all other Germans, including Wagner, looked +to Paris for fame. + +At the end of the eighteenth century, Vienna was the art centre; +nevertheless Gluck had to go to Paris for recognition. + +Mendelssohn only succeeded by his _Salonfaehigkeit_. Always +respectable in his forms, no one else could have made music +popular among the cultured classes as could Mendelssohn. This +also had its danger; for if Mendelssohn had written an opera +(the lack of which was so bewailed by the Philistines), +it would have taken root all over Germany, and put Wagner +back many years. At the death of Mendelssohn, the Philistines +heralded the coming of a new German national school, founded on +his principles (formalism), one that would clarify the artistic +atmosphere of the turgid and anarchistic excesses of Wagner and +Berlioz and their followers. These critics found already that +Beethoven's melodies were too long and his instrumentation too +involved. They declared that the further music departed from +its natural simplicity the more involved its utterance became, +the less clear, and consequently the poorer it was. Music was +compared to architecture, and thus the more Greek it was, the +better; forgetting that architecture was tied to utilitarianism +and poetry to word-symbols, and that painting is primarily an +art of externals. + +Riehl says that art is always in danger of ruin when its simple +foundation forms are too much elaborated, overlooking the fact +that music is not an art, but psychological utterance. + +It needed all Wagner's gigantic personality to rise above this +wave of formalism that looked to the past for its salvation, +a past which was one of childish experimenting rather than of +aesthetic accomplishment. The tendency was to return to the +dark cave where tangible walls were to be touched by the hands, +rather than to emerge into a sunlight that seemed blinding. + + + + +XIX + +ON THE LIVES AND ART PRINCIPLES OF SOME SEVENTEENTH AND +EIGHTEENTH CENTURY COMPOSERS + + +There is much of value to the student to be derived from a +study of the lives and art principles of the composers of the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. To go back to an earlier +period would hardly be worth while, as the music composed in +those days is too much obscured by the uncertainty of tradition +and the inevitable awkwardness of expression that goes with +all primitiveness in art. + +The first whom I would mention are Don Carlo Gesualdo, Prince +of Venosa, and Ludovico Viadana. + +The former was a nephew of the Archbishop of Naples, was born +in 1550, and died in 1613. His name is important from the fact +that he went boldly beyond Monteverde, his contemporary, in the +use of the new dissonant chords (sevenths and ninths) which +were just beginning to be employed, and adopted a chromatic +style of writing which strangely foreshadowed the chromatic +polyphonic style of the present century. He wrote innumerable +madrigals for a number of voices, but his innovations remained +sterile so far as the development of music is concerned, for +the reason that while his music often acquired a wonderful +poignancy for his time by the use of chromatics, just as often +it led him into the merest bramble bush of sound, real music +being entirely absent. + +Viadana (1566-1645) has been placed by many historians of +music in the same category as Guido d'Arezzo (who is credited +with having invented solmization, musical notation, etc.), +Palestrina, Monteverde and Peri, who are famed, the one for +having discovered the dominant ninth chord, and the other +for the invention of opera. Viadana is said to have been the +first to use what is called a _basso continuo_, and even the +figured bass. The former was the uninterrupted repetition of +a short melody or phrase in the bass through the entire course +of a piece of music. This was done very often to give a sense +of unity that nowadays would be obtained by a repetition of +the first thought at certain intervals through the piece. The +figured (or better, ciphered) bass was an entirely different +thing. This device, which is still employed, consisted of +the use of figures to indicate the different chords in music. +These figures or ciphers were written over or under the bass +note on which the chord represented by the figures was to be +played or sung. A 5 over or under a bass note meant that with +that note a perfect major triad was to be sounded, considering +the note written as the root of the chord; a 3 was taken to +stand for a perfect minor triad; a 6 for the chord of the sixth +(first inversion of a triad), and 6/4 for the second inversion; +a line through a 5 or 7 meant that the triad was a diminished +fifth or a diminished seventh chord; a cross indicated a leading +tone; a 4 stood for the third inversion of the dominant seventh +chord. This system of shorthand, as it may be called, was and +is still of tremendous value to composers. In the olden days, +particularly, when many of the composers engraved their own +music for publication, it saved a great deal of labour. It is +probably not generally known that the engraving of music by +the composer was so common; but such was the case with Bach, +Rameau, and Couperin. + +And this reminds me that the embellishments, as they were +called, which are so common in all harpsichord and clavichord +music, were also noted in a kind of shorthand, and for precisely +the same reason. The embellishments themselves originated +from the necessity for sustaining in some way the tone of +the instrument, which gave out little, dry, clicklike sounds; +if the melody were played in simple notes, these sounds would +mingle with the accompaniment and be lost in it. Therefore, +the embellishments served to sustain the tones of the melody, +and thus cause them to stand out from the accompaniment. Their +notation by means of symbols copied from the primitive _neumes_ +vastly facilitated the work of engraving. Much confusion arose +in the notation of embellishments, owing to the fact that each +composer had his own system of symbols. + +Alessandro Scarlatti and his son Domenico, both celebrated in +their day, are the next to demand attention. The former was +born about 1650 and died about 1725. He wrote many operas of +which we know practically nothing. His son was born about 1685 +and died in 1757. He was the most celebrated harpsichord player +of his time; and although his style, which was essentially one +of virtuosity, was not productive of direct results, it did +nevertheless foreshadow the wonderful technical achievements +of Liszt in our own times. It is indeed a great pity that +Domenico Scarlatti's work did not bear more direct fruit in his +day, for it would have turned Mozart, as well as many others, +from the loose, clumsy mannerisms of the later virtuoso style, +which ran to the Alberti bass and other degrading platitudes, +paralleled in our comparatively modern days by the Thalberg +arpeggios, repeating notes, Doehler trill, etc. + +Two masters in music, Haendel and J.S. Bach, were born the +same year, 1685; their great French contemporary, Rameau, +was born two years earlier and died in 1764; while Haendel +died in 1759, and Bach in 1750. Bach was destined to give +to the world its first glimpse of the tremendous power of +music, while Rameau organized the elements of music into a +scientific harmonic structure, laying the foundation for our +modern harmony. Haendel's great achievement (besides being a +fine composer) was to crush all life out of the then promising +school of English music, the foundation for which had been so +well laid by Purcell, Byrd, Morley, etc. + +Jean Philippe Rameau was born in Dijon, and after travels in +Italy and a short period of service as organist at Clermont, +in Auvergne, went to Paris. There he wrote a number of small +vaudevilles or musical comedies, which were successful; and +his music for the harpsichord, consisting almost exclusively +of small pieces with descriptive titles, soon began to be +widely played in France. Much later in life he succeeded +in obtaining a hearing for his operas, the first of which, +"Hippolyte et Aricie," was given in 1732, when he was fifty +years old. For thirty-two years his operas continued to hold +the French stage against those of all foreigners. + +His style marked a great advance over that of Lully, the +Italian, of the century before. Rameau aimed at clearness +of diction and was one of the first to attempt to give +individuality to the different orchestral instruments. By +some strange coincidence, his first opera had much the same +dramatic situation that all the early operas seemed to have, +namely, a scene in the infernal regions. Rameau's operas +never became the foundation for a distinctly French opera, +for at the time of his death (1764), Italian opera troupes had +already introduced a kind of comedy with music, which rapidly +developed into opera comique; it was reserved for Gluck, +the German, to revive grand opera in France. + +As a theoretician, Rameau exerted tremendous influence upon +music. He discovered that the chord which we call the perfect +major triad was not merely the result of an artificial training +of the ear to like certain combinations of sounds, but that +this chord was inherent in every musical sound, constituting, +as it does, the first four harmonics or overtones. All chords, +therefore, that were not composed of thirds placed one above +the other, were inversions of fundamental chords. This theory +holds good in the general harmonic system of to-day. But +although the major triad and even the dominant seventh chord +could be traced back to the harmonics, the minor triad proved +a different matter; after many experiments Rameau gave it up, +leaving it unaccounted for. + +Rameau was also largely instrumental in gaining recognition for +the desirability of dividing the octave into twelve equal parts, +making all the so-called half-tones recur at mathematically +equal distances from each other in the chromatic scale. In +1737 his work on the generation of chords through overtones +caused the equal temperament system of tuning to be generally +accepted, and the old modes, with the exception of the Ionian +and Aeolian, to be dropped out of use. The former became known +as major and the latter as minor, from the third, which was +large in the Ionian and small in the Aeolian. + +Haendel, as before stated, was born in 1685 (February 23), in +Halle, in the same year as J.S. Bach, who was a month younger +(born March 21). His father was a barber, who, as was common +in those days, combined the trade of surgery, cupping, etc., +with that of hairdressing. He naturally opposed his son's +bent toward music, but with no effect. At fifteen years of +age, Haendel was beginning to be well known as a clavichord +and organ player, in the latter capacity becoming specially +celebrated for his wonderful improvisations. In spite of an +attempt to make a lawyer of him, he persisted in taking music +as his vocation, after the death of his father. + +In Hamburg, whither he went in 1703, he obtained a place among +the second violins in the opera orchestra.[15] Realizing that +in Germany opera was but a reflection of Italian art, he left +Hamburg in 1707 and went to Italy, where he soon began to make +a name for himself, both as performer and composer. One of his +operas, "Agrippa," was performed at Venice during the Carnival +season of 1710. + +The Hanoverian kapellmeister, Staffani, was present and invited +him to Hanover, whither he went, becoming Staffani's successor +in the service of the Elector of Hanover. Several trips to +England, where he was warmly welcomed, resulted in his accepting +from Queen Anne, in 1713, a salary of two hundred pounds yearly, +thus entering her service, notwithstanding his contract with +the Elector. In 1714 the Queen died, and the Elector of +Hanover was called to the English throne under the title of +George I. Haendel, in order to escape the impending disgrace +occasioned by having broken faith with his former employer, +wrote some music intended to be particularly persuasive, and +had it played on a barge that followed a royal procession up +the Thames. This "Water Music," as it was called, procured +for him the King's pardon. + +From this time he lived in England, practically monopolizing +all that was done in music. In 1720 a company for the giving +of Italian opera was formed, and Haendel placed at its head. In +1727, on the occasion of the accession of George II, Haendel +wrote four anthems, one of which "Zadok the Priest," ends +with the words "God save the King," from which it has been +erroneously stated that he wrote the English national hymn. + +In 1737 Haendel gave up the writing of operas, after sinking +most of his own savings in the undertaking, and began to write +oratorios, the germs of which are found in the old Mysteries and +Passion plays performed on a platform erected in the chapel or +oratory of a church. Much has been written about Haendel's habit +of taking themes from other composers, and he was even dubbed +the "grand old robber." It must not be overlooked, however, +that although he made use of ideas from other composers, he +turned them to the best account. By 1742 Haendel was again in +prosperous circumstances, his "Messiah" having been a tremendous +success. From that time until his death he held undisputed sway, +although his last years were clouded by a trouble with his eyes, +which were operated upon unsuccessfully by an English oculist, +named Taylor, who had also operated on Bach's eyes with the +same disastrous result. Haendel became completely blind in +1752. Up to the last year of his life he continued to give +oratorio concerts and played organ concertos, of which only +the _tutti_ were noted, he improvising his part. + +Haendel's strength lay in his great ability to produce +overwhelming effects by comparatively simple means. This is +especially the case in his great choruses which are massive +in effect and yet simple to the verge of barrenness. This, +of course, has no reference to the absurd _fioriture_ and +long passage work given to the voices,--an Italian fashion of +the times,--but to the contrapuntal texture of the work. Of +his oratorios, "The Messiah" is the best known. Two of his +"Concerti Grossi," the third and sixth, are sometimes played +by string orchestras. Of his harpsichord music we have the +eight "Suites" of 1720 (among which the one in E is known as +having the variations called "The Harmonious Blacksmith"), +and a number of "Harpsichord Lessons," among which are six +fugues. All these may be said to have little value. + +J.S. Bach differed in almost every respect from Haendel, +except that he was born in the same year and was killed by +the same doctor. While Haendel left no pupils, with perhaps +the exception of his assistant organist, Bach aided and taught +his own celebrated sons, Krebs, Agricola, Kittel, Kirnberger, +Marpurg, and many other distinguished musicians. Bach twice made +an effort to see Haendel at Halle, but without success. On the +other hand, there are reasons for believing that Haendel never +took the trouble to examine any of Bach's clavichord music. He +lived like a conqueror in a foreign land, writing operas, +oratorios, and concertos to order, and stealing ideas right and +left without compunction; whereas Bach wrote from conviction, +and no charge of plagiarism was ever laid at his door. Haendel +left a great fortune of twenty thousand pounds. Bach's small +salary at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig made it necessary +for him to do much of his own engraving; and at his death, +though he had helped many young struggling artists, his +widow was left so poor that she had to be supported by public +benevolence. Bach's works were neglected by his contemporaries, +and it was only in the nineteenth century that he began to be +appreciated in a way commensurate with his worth. + +Bach was born in Eisenach, in Thuringia, and it is of +interest to know that as far back as his great grandfather, +Veit Bach (born about 1550), music had been the profession +of the family. Bach's parents died when he was a boy of ten, +and his education was continued by his elder brother, Johann +Christoph, at a town near Gotha, where he held a position as +organist. The boy soon outstripped his brother in learning, +and continued his studies wholly by himself. + +After filling a position as organist at Weimar, in 1703 he +accepted one at a small town, Arnstadt, at a salary of about +fifty-seven dollars yearly. He had already begun to compose, +and possibly in imitation of Kuhnau, whose so-called "Bible" +sonatas were at the time being talked about, he wrote an +elaborate clavichord piece to illustrate the departure of his +brother, Johann Jakob, who had entered the service of Charles +XII of Sweden as oboist. This composition is divided into five +parts, each bearing an appropriate superscription and ending +with an elaborate fugue to illustrate the postillion's horn. I +believe this is the only instance of his having written actual +programme music. After leaving Arnstadt he filled positions as +organist at Muehlhausen, Weimar, Coethen, etc. It was before +1720 that he paid his two visits to Halle in the hope of +seeing Haendel. At this time he had already written the first +part of the "Wohltemperierte Clavier," the violin sonatas, +and many other great works. Ten years later, when Haendel again +came to Germany, Bach was too ill to go to see him personally, +but sent his eldest son to invite Haendel to come and see him, +although without success. + +In 1723 he obtained the position of Cantor at the St. +Thomas School, in Leipzig, left vacant by the death of Kuhnau; +here he remained until his death. In 1749 the English oculist, +Taylor, happened to be in Leipzig. On the advice of friends, +Bach submitted to an operation on his eyes, which had always +troubled him. The failure of this operation rendered him +totally blind and the accompanying medical treatment completely +broke him down. On the eighteenth of July, 1750, he suddenly +regained his sight, but it was accompanied by a stroke of +paralysis from which he died ten days later. + +So far as his church music is concerned, Bach may be considered +as the Protestant compeer of the Roman Catholic, Palestrina, +with the difference that his music was based on the tonalities +of major and minor and that his harmonic structure was founded +on a scientific basis. What is mere wandering in Palestrina, +with Bach is moving steadily forward with a well-defined object +in view. With Bach, music is cast in the definite mould of +tonality, while with Palestrina the vagueness of the modes lends +to his music something of mystery and a certain supernatural +freedom from _human will_, so prominent a characteristic +of Bach's compositions. In considering Bach's music we must +forget the technique, which was merely the outside dress of +his compositions. His style was the one of the period, just as +he wore a wig, and buckles on his shoes. His music must not be +confounded with the contrapuntal style of his utterance, and +although he has never been surpassed as a scientific writer +of counterpoint, it would be unjust to look there for his +chief glory. As a matter of fact, when his scientific speech +threatened to clash with the musical idea in his composition, +he never hesitated to sacrifice the former to the latter. Thus +Bach may be considered the greatest musical scientist of his +time as well as the greatest breaker of mere rules. + +Of his sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel is the most celebrated, +and did much to prepare the way for Haydn in the development +of the sonata. J.S. Bach wrote many sonatas, but none for the +clavichord; his sonatas were for the violin and the 'cello +alone, a great innovation. The violin sonatas bring into +play all the resources of the instrument; indeed it is barely +possible to do them justice from the technical standpoint. His +"Wohltemperierte Clavier" naturally was a tremendous help to +clavichord technique, and even now the "Chromatic Fantaisie" +and other works require fine pianists to perform them properly. + +In considering the development of music, it must always be +remembered that Haydn, Mozart, and their contemporaries knew +little or nothing of Bach's works, thus accounting for what +otherwise would seem a retrograde movement in art. C.P.E. Bach +(born 1714) was much better known than his father; even Mozart +said of him, "He is the father, and we are mere children." He +was renowned as a harpsichord player, and wrote many sonatas +which form the connecting link between the suite and the +sonata. He threw aside the polyphonic style of his father +and strove to give his music new colour and warmth by means +of harmony and modulation. He died in 1788 in Hamburg, where +he was conductor of the opera. It should be mentioned that he +wrote a method of clavichord playing on which, in later days, +Czerny said that Beethoven based his piano teaching. + +Up to the period now under consideration, music for the +orchestra occupied a very small part in the composer's work. To +be sure, J.S. Bach wrote some suites, and separate movements +were written in the different dance forms for violins, with +sometimes the addition of a few reed instruments, and possibly +flutes and small horns or trumpets. It is in the works of +C.P.E. Bach, however, that we find the germ of symphonic +orchestral writing that was to be developed by Haydn, Mozart, +and Beethoven. The so-called "symphonies" by Emanuel Bach are +merely rudimentary sonatas written for strings, with flutes, +oboes, bassoons, trumpets, etc., and have practically no +artistic significance except as showing the inevitable trend of +musical thought toward greater power of expression. In Germany +(and indeed everywhere else) the Italian element had full sway +over opera, and non-Italian musicians were forced into writing +for the concert room instead of the stage. Even Beethoven had +many disappointments in connection with his one opera "Fidelio," +and so strong was the Italian influence, that here in America +we are only just now (1897) recovering from the effects of it. + +Franz Joseph Haydn was born near Vienna, in 1732, of humble +parents, his mother a cook in a count's family, and his father +a wheelwright and sexton of the parish church. When a young boy +Haydn had a fine voice, on account of which he was admitted as a +member of the choir at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. This +entitled him to admission to St. Stephen's School, connected +with the cathedral, in which the city paid for the board and +lodging as well as the instruction of the singers. When the +boys' voices changed or "broke," however, they were turned +adrift. On leaving the cathedral, Haydn suffered the direst +poverty, engaging himself at one time as valet to the Italian +singing teacher, Porpora, in order to secure some lessons. + +He gradually managed to make himself known, and was engaged +by Count Morzin, a rich nobleman, to organize an orchestra of +about eighteen, which the count retained in his service with +Haydn as leader. Here he wrote his first symphony (for strings, +two oboes and two horns, in three movements) and a number of +smaller works. When he was twenty-nine, Count Morzin gave up +his establishment and Haydn entered the service of Prince Paul +Esterhazy, in Eisenstadt, Hungary, in the same capacity. Here +he had an orchestra of sixteen, composed of good musicians, whom +he could call up at any hour of the night to play if he wished, +and over whom he had complete control. Although the contract +by which he was engaged names the most degrading conditions, +and places Haydn on a par with all the other servants, the pay, +though small (two hundred dollars yearly), was certain and +regular. From this time Haydn was free from the hardships of +poverty. His salary was soon increased to five hundred dollars, +and he made as much more from his compositions. He wrote over +one hundred and twenty-five symphonies, sixty-eight trios, +seventy-seven quartets, fifty-seven concertos, fifty-seven +sonatas, eight oratorios and cantatas, and nineteen operas, +besides innumerable smaller things, for instance, between five +hundred and six hundred vocal pieces. His operas, of course, +are mere trifles compared with our more modern ones. + +His friendship for Mozart is well known. As for his relations +with Beethoven, it is probable that their disagreement was +merely the effect of pride, and perhaps a certain amount +of laziness on one side and youthful bumptiousness on the +other. Haydn was returning to Vienna _via_ Bonn, from England, +where he had been welcomed by the wildest enthusiasm, when +Beethoven called on him to ask for his opinion as to his talent +as a composer. It resulted in Beethoven's going to Vienna. +After taking a few lessons of Haydn he went to another teacher +and made all manner of contemptuous remarks about Haydn, +declaring he had not learned anything from him. + +After two highly successful visits to England, in 1792 and 1794, +Haydn returned to Vienna and wrote his two celebrated cantatas, +"The Creation" and "The Seasons." His last appearance in public +was when he attended a performance of "The Creation" in 1808, +at the age of seventy-six. He was received with a fanfare of +trumpets and cheers from the audience. After the first part he +was obliged to leave, and as he was being carried out by his +friends, he turned at the door and lifted his hands towards the +orchestra, as if in benediction; Beethoven kissed his hand, +and everyone paid him homage. He died during the bombardment +of Vienna by the French, May 31, 1809. + +Haydn's later symphonies have been very cleverly compared +with those of Beethoven by the statement that the latter wrote +tragedies and great dramas, whereas Haydn wrote comedies and +charming farces. As a matter of fact, Haydn is the bridge +between the idealized dance and independent music. Although +Beethoven still retained the form of the dance, he wrote great +poems, whereas the music of Haydn always preserves a tinge of +the actual dance. With Haydn, music was still an art consisting +of the weaving together of pretty sounds, and although _design_, +that is to say, the development of the emotional character +of a musical thought, was by no means unknown to him, that +development was never permitted to transcend the limits of a +certain graceful euphony which was a marked characteristic +of his style. His use of orchestral instruments represents +a marked advance on that of C.P.E. Bach, and certainly very +materially helped Mozart. + +Of Mozart we probably all know something. Born at Salzburg, +in 1756, his was a short life, for he died in 1791. We know +of his great precocity; his first compositions were published +when he was six years old, at which age he was already playing +in concerts with his eleven-year old sister, and was made much +of by the titled people before whom he played. The rest of +his life is one continual chronicle of concerts given all over +Europe, interrupted at intervals by scarlet fever, smallpox, +and other illnesses, until the last one, typhoid fever, caused +his death. During his stay in Italy he wrote many operas in +the flowery Italian style which, luckily, have never been +revived to tarnish his name. + +His first works worthy of mention are the clavier concertos and +several symphonies and quartets, which date from about 1777. His +first important opera is "Idomeneo, King of Crete," written for +the Munich opera. In this he adopts the principles of Gluck, +thus breaking away from the wretched style of the Italian +opera of the period, although the work itself was written in +Italian. His next opera was in German, "Die Entfuehrung aus +dem Serail," and was given with great success at Vienna, in +1782. It was followed by "The Marriage of Figaro," "Don Juan," +and the "Magic Flute." + +The story of his death is well known. A stranger, who turned +out to be the steward of Count Walsegg, came to him and +ordered a requiem, which was played in 1793 as Walsegg's own +composition. Mozart thought the man a messenger from the other +world. He died before he completed the work. So great was his +poverty that it was difficult to get a priest to attend him, +and a physician who was summoned would come only after the play +he was attending was ended. He had a "third class" funeral, +and as a fierce storm was raging, no one accompanied the body +to the grave. His widow gave a concert, and with the help of the +Emperor money enough was raised to pay the outstanding debts. + +It is difficult to give an adequate idea of Mozart's works. He +possessed a certain simple charm of expression which, +in its directness, has an element of pathos lacking in the +comparatively jolly light-heartedness of Haydn. German opera +profited much from his practically adopting the art principles +of Gluck, although it must be confessed that this change in +style may have been simply a phase of his own individual art +development. His later symphonies and operas show us the man +at his best. His piano works and early operas show the effect +of the "virtuoso" style, with all its empty concessions to +technical display and commonplace, ear-catching melody. + + +[15] At that time the harpsichord player was a very important + member of an orchestra, as he accompanied the recitative + from figured bass and was practically the conductor. On + one occasion when the harpsichordist was absent Haendel + took his place with so much success that it paved the + way for a hearing of his operas. + + + + +XX + +DECLAMATION IN MUSIC + + +There is one side of music which I am convinced has never +been fully studied, namely, the relation between it and +declamation. As we know, music is a language which may delineate +actual occurrences by means of onomatopoetic sounds. By the +use of more or less suggestive sounds, it may bring before +our minds a quasi-visual image of things which we more or less +definitely feel. + +Now to do all this, there must be rules; or, to put it more +broadly, there must be some innate quality that enables +this art of sounds to move in sympathy with our feelings. +I have no wish to go into detailed analysis of the subject; +but a superficial survey of it may clear up certain points with +regard to the potency of music that we are too often willing +to refer back to the mere pleasing physical sensations of sound. + +Some consideration of this subject may enable us to understand +the much discussed question of programme music. It may also help +us to recognize the astonishing advance we have made in the art; +an advance, which, strange to say, consists in successively +throwing off all the trammels and conventionalities of what is +generally considered artificial, and the striking development +of an art which, with all its astounding wealth of exterior +means, aims at the expression of elemental sensations. + +Music may be divided into four classes, each class marking +an advance in receptive power on the part of the listener and +poetic subtlety on that of the composer. We may liken the first +stage to that of the savage Indians who depict their exploits +in war and peace on the rocks, fragments of bone, etc. If the +painter has in mind, say, an elephant, he carves it so that its +principal characteristics are vastly exaggerated. A god in such +delineation is twice the size of the ordinary man, and so it is +in descriptive music. For instance, in Beethoven's "Pastoral" +symphony, the cuckoo is not a bird which mysteriously hides +itself far away in a thicket, the sound of whose voice comes to +one like a strange, abrupt call from the darkness of the forest; +no, it is unmistakably a cuckoo, reminding one strangely of +those equally advanced and extremely cheap art products of +Nuremberg, made of pine wood, and furnished with a movable tail. + +The next stage is still a question of delineation; but +of delineation that leads us into strange countries, and +the sounds we hear are but the small door through which we +pass. This music _suggests_; by way of example, the opening of +the last movement of the "Pastoral" symphony, the march from +Tchaikovsky's "Symphonie Pathetique," the opening of Raff's +"Im Walde," and Goldmark's "Sakuntala." Such music hints, +and there is a certain potency in its suggestion which makes +us see things. These two divisions of music have been termed +"programme" or "objective" music. + +The other two classes of music have been termed subjective. +The first is declamation, pure and simple; the singer may be +telling a lie, or his sentiment may be insincere or false; what +these sounds stand for, we know from the words, their grade of +passion, etc. The last phase of our art is much more subtle, +and is not amenable to such accurate analysis. If we may liken +music to painting, we may, I think, compare the latter to the +first three stages of this new language of music; but it can +go no further. For that art must touch its audience through +a palpable delineation of something more or less material; +whereas music is of the stuff dreams are made of. It is hardly +necessary to say, however, that our dreams are often much more +poignant than the actual sensations caused by real occurrences +would be. And it is because of this strange quality, I think, +that dreams and music affect us in much the same manner. + +The vital principle of Wagner's art was that he not only made +startlingly vivid pictures in his music, but that he made the +people in these pictures actually walk out of the frame and +directly address the audience. In other words, his orchestra +forms a kind of pictorial and psychological background from +which his characters detach themselves and actually speak. If +they speak falsely, the ever present orchestra, forming as it +were a halo, unmercifully tears away the mask, like the mirror +in old fairy tales. + +In Wagner's operas, however, the intrusion of gross palpable +machinery of the stage, as well as that of the actor's art, +too often clouds the perfect working of this wonderful art +conception. It is just this intrusion of materialism in Wagner's +music dramas which constitutes their only weakness. + +At this point I wish to insist upon the fact that in music it +is always through declamation that the public is addressed most +directly; not only that, but declamation is not necessarily tied +by any of the fetters of the spoken word; nor is it subservient +to any of the laws of articulate speech as we meet with them in +language. This being admitted, I have no hesitation in giving +my opinion that opera, or rather the music drama, is not the +highest or the most perfect form of our art. The music drama +as represented by Wagner (and he alone represents it) is the +most perfect union of painting, poetry, and music imaginable to +our nineteenth-century minds. But as regards representing the +highest development of music, I find it too much hampered by +the externals of art, necessary materialism in the production +of palpable acts, and its enforced subjection to the laws that +govern the spoken word. + +Music is universal; Wagner's operas, by the inherent necessities +of speech, are necessarily and irrevocably Germanic. "Les +Maitres Chanteurs," "The Dwarfs of Niebelheim," "Elizabeta," +are impossibilities, whereas, for instance, Beethoven's "Eroica" +labours under no such disadvantage. "Goodbye, My Dearest Swan," +invests part of "Lohengrin" with a certain grotesque colour +that no one would ever dream of if there were no necessity for +the singer to be tied down to the exigencies of palpable and +certainly most materialistic language. The thought in itself +is beautiful, but the necessity for the words drags it into +the mud. + +This certainly shows the difference between the language of +music and what is called articulate speech, the purely symbolic +and artificial character of the latter, and the direct, +unhampered utterance of the former. Music can invariably +heighten the poignancy of mere spoken words (which mean +nothing in themselves), but words can but rarely, in fact I +doubt whether they can ever, heighten the effect of musical +declamation. To my mind, listening to Wagner's operas may be +likened to watching a circus with three rings. That containing +the music should have our closest attention, for it offers +the most wonderful sounds ever imagined by any man. At the +same time it is impossible for any human being not to have his +attention often lured away to the other rings, in one of which +Fricke's rams vie with the bird and the dragon; or where the +phantom ship seems as firmly fixed as the practical rainbow, +which so closely betrays the carpenter. In the other ring you +can actually hear the dull jokes of Mimi and the Wanderer, +or hear Walther explain that he has passed a comfortable night +and slept well. + +The music to these remarkable scenes, however, does not deign +to stoop so low, but soars in wonderful poetry by itself, thus +rejecting a union which, to speak in the jargon of our day, is +one of the convincing symptoms of decadence; in other words, +it springs from the same impulse as that which has produced +the circus with three rings. + +Summing up, I wish to state what I consider the four elements +of music, namely, music that paints, music that suggests, music +that actually speaks, and music that almost defies analysis, +and is composed of the other three elements. + +When we were considering the early works for harpsichord, I said +that music could define certain things with quite reasonable +exactitude. Just as in the Egyptian hieroglyphics a wavy line +stands for water, so it can in music, with the latitude that +it can mean anything in nature that we might consider of the +same genre. Thus, the figure in Wagner's "Waldweben" means in +that instance waves of air, and we know it by the context. +His swaying figure of the "Prelude to Rheingold" is as +plainly water as is the same figure used by Mendelssohn in his +"Lovely Melusina." Not that Wagner plagiarized, but that he and +Mendelssohn recognized the definiteness of musical suggestions; +which is more than proved by their adopting the same musical +ideas to indicate the same things. + +More indefinite is the analysis of our second type or element +of music. The successful recognition of this depends not only +upon the susceptibility of the hearer to delicate shades of +sensation, but also upon the receptivity of the hearer and his +power to accept freely and unrestrictedly the mood shadowed +forth by the composer. Such music cannot be looked upon +objectively. To those who would analyze it in such a manner it +must remain an unknown language; its potency depends entirely +upon a state of willing subjectivity on the part of the hearer. + +The third element, as we know, consists of the spoken word or +phrase; in other words, declamation. In this, however, the +composer cuts loose entirely from what we call language. It +is the medium of expression of emotion of every kind. It is +not restricted to the voice or to any instrument, or even to +our sharps, flats, and naturals. Through stress of emotion the +sharps become sharper, with depression the flats become flatter, +thus adding poignancy to the declamation. Being unfettered by +words, this emotion has free rein. The last element, as I have +said, is extremely difficult to define. It is declamation that +suggests and paints at the same time. We find hardly a bar +of Wagner's music in which this complex form of music is not +present. Thus, the music dramas of Wagner, shorn of the fetters +of the actual spoken word, emancipated from the materialism +of acting, painting, and furniture, may be considered as the +greatest achievement in our art, an art that does not include +the spoken word called poetry, or painting, or sculpture, +and most decidedly not architecture (form), but the essence +of all these. What these aim to do through passive exterior +influences, music accomplishes by actual living vibration. + + + + +XXI + +SUGGESTION IN MUSIC + + +In speaking of the power of suggestion in music I wish at +the outset to make certain reservations. In the first place +I speak for myself, and what I have to present is merely an +expression of my personal opinion; if in any way these should +incite to further investigation or discussion, my object will +in part have been attained. + +In the second place, in speaking of this art, one is +seriously hampered by a certain difficulty in making oneself +understood. To hear and to enjoy music seems sufficient to +many persons, and an investigation as to the causes of this +enjoyment seems to them superfluous. And yet, unless the +public comes into closer touch with the tone poet than that +objective state Which accepts with the ears what is intended +for the spirit, which hears the sounds and is deaf to their +import, unless the public can separate the physical pleasure +of music from its ideal significance, our art, in my opinion, +cannot stand on a sound basis. + +The first step toward an appreciation of music should be +taken in our preparatory schools. Were young people taught +to distinguish between tones as between colours, to recognize +rhythmic values, and were they taught so to use their voices as +to temper the nasal tones of speech, in after life they would +be better able to appreciate and cherish an art of which mere +pleasure-giving sounds are but a very small part. + +Much of the lack of independence of opinion about music arises +from want of familiarity with its material. Thus, after dinner, +our forefathers were accustomed to sing catches which were +entirely destitute of anything approaching music. + +Music contains certain elements which affect the nerves of +the mind and body, and thus possesses the power of direct +appeal to the public,--a power to a great extent denied to the +other arts. This sensuous influence over the hearer is often +mistaken for the aim and end of all music. With this in mind, +one may forgive the rather puzzling remarks so often met with; +for instance, those of a certain English bishop that "Music +did not affect him either intellectually or emotionally, +only pleasurably," adding, "Every art should keep within +its own realm; and that of music was concerned with pleasing +combinations of sound." In declaring that the sensation of +hearing music was pleasant to him, and that to produce that +sensation was the entire mission of music, the Bishop placed +our art on a level with good things to eat and drink. Many +colleges and universities of this land consider music as a +kind of _boutonniere_. + +This estimate of music is, I believe, unfortunately a very +general one, and yet, low as it is, there is a possibility +of building on such a foundation. Could such persons be made +to recognize the existence of decidedly unpleasant music, +it would be the first step toward a proper appreciation of +the art and its various phases. + +Mere beauty of sound is, in itself, purely sensuous. It is +the Chinese conception of music that the texture of a sound +is to be valued; the long, trembling tone-tint of a bronze +gong, or the high, thin streams of sound from the pipes are +enjoyed for their ear-filling qualities. In the _Analects_ of +Confucius and the writings of Mencius there is much mention +of music, and "harmony of sound that shall fill the ears" +is insisted upon. The Master said, "When the music maker Che +first entered on his office, the finish with the Kwan Ts'eu +was magnificent. How it filled the ears!" Pere Amiot says, +"Music must fill the ears to penetrate the soul." Referring to +the playing of some pieces by Couperin on a spinet, he says that +Chinese hearers thought these pieces barbarous; the movement +was too rapid, and did not allow sufficient time for them to +enjoy each tone by itself. Now this is colour without form, +or sound without music. For it to become music, it must possess +some quality which will remove it from the purely sensuous. To +my mind, it is in the power of suggestion that the vital spark +of music lies. + +Before speaking of this, however, I wish to touch upon two +things: first, on what is called the science of music; and +secondly, on one of the sensuous elements of music which enters +into and encroaches upon all suggestion. + +If one were called upon to define what is called the +intellectual side of music, he would probably speak of "form," +contrapuntal design, and the like. Let us take up the matter +of form. If by the word "form" our theorists meant the most +poignant expression of poetic thought in music, if they meant +by this word the art of arranging musical sounds into the most +telling presentation of a musical idea, I should have nothing +to say: for if this were admitted instead of the recognized +forms of modern theorists for the proper utterance, we should +possess a study of the power of musical sounds which might +truly justify the title of musical intellectuality. As it is, +the word "form" stands for what have been called "stoutly +built periods," "subsidiary themes," and the like, a happy +combination of which in certain prescribed keys was supposed +to constitute good form. Such a device, originally based upon +the necessities and fashions of the dance, and changing from +time to time, is surely not worthy of the strange worship +it has received. A form of so doubtful an identity that the +first movement of a certain Beethoven sonata can be dubbed by +one authority "sonata-form," and by another "free fantasia," +certainly cannot lay claim to serious intellectual value. + +Form should be a synonym for _coherence_. No idea, whether +great or small, can find utterance without form, but that form +will be inherent to the idea, and there will be as many forms +as there are adequately expressed ideas. In the musical idea, +_per se_, analysis will reveal form. + +The term "contrapuntal development" is to most tone poets of the +present day a synonym for the device of giving expression to +a musically poetic idea. _Per se_, counterpoint is a puerile +juggling with themes, which may be likened to high-school +mathematics. Certainly the entire web and woof of this +"science," as it is called, never sprang from the necessities of +poetic musical utterance. The entire pre-Palestrina literature +of music is a conclusive testimony as to the non-poetic and +even uneuphonious character of the invention. + +In my opinion, Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the world's +mightiest tone poets, accomplished his mission, not by means +of the contrapuntal fashion of his age, but in spite of it. The +laws of canon and fugue are based upon as prosaic a foundation +as those of the rondo and sonata form; I find it impossible to +imagine their ever having been a spur, or an incentive to poetic +musical speech. Neither, pure tonal beauty, so-called "form," +nor what is termed the intellectual side of music (the art +of counterpoint, canon, and fugue), constitutes a really vital +factor in music. This narrows our analysis down to two things, +namely, the physical effect of musical sound, and suggestion. + +The simplest manifestations of the purely sensuous effect of +sound are to be found in the savage's delight in noise. In +the more civilized state, this becomes the sensation of mere +pleasure in hearing pleasing sounds. It enters into folk song +in the form of the "Scotch snap," which is first cousin to the +Swiss _jodel_, and is undoubtedly the origin of the skips of +the augmented and (to a lesser degree) diminished intervals to +be found in the music of many nations. It consists of the trick +of alternating chest tones with falsetto. It is a kind of quirk +in the voice which pleases children and primitive folk alike, +a simple thing which has puzzled folklorists the world over. + +The other sensuous influence of sound is one of the most +powerful elements of music, and all musical utterance +is involved with and inseparable from it. It consists of +repetition, recurrence, periodicity. + +Now this repetition may be one of rhythm, tone tint, texture, +or colour, a repetition of figure or of pitch. We know that +savages, in their incantation ceremonies, keep up a continuous +drum beating or chant which, gradually increasing in violence, +drives the hearers into such a state of frenzy that physical +pain seems no longer to exist for them. + +The value of the recurring rhythms and phrases of the march is +well recognized in the army. A body of men will instinctively +move in cadence with such music. The ever recurring lilt of a +waltz rhythm will set the feet moving unconsciously, and as the +energy of the repetition increases and decreases, so will the +involuntary accompanying physical sympathy increase or decrease. + +Berlioz jokingly tells a story of a ballet dancer who objected +to the high pitch in which the orchestra played, and insisted +that the music be transposed to a lower key. Cradle songs are +fashioned on the same principle. + +This sensuous sympathy with recurring sounds, rhythm, and pitch +has something in common with hypnotism, and leads up to what +I have called suggestion in music. + +This same element in a modified form is made use of in poetry, +for instance, in Poe's "Raven," + + Quoth the raven, nevermore, + +and the repetition of colour in the same author's "Scarlet +Death." It is the mainspring (I will not call it the vital +spark) of many so-called popular songs, the recipe for which +is exceedingly simple. A strongly marked rhythmic figure is +selected, and incessantly repeated until the hearer's body +beats time to it. The well-known tunes "There'll Be a Hot +Time," etc., and "Ta-ra-ra, Boom-de-ay" are good examples of +this kind of music. + +There are two kinds of suggestion in music: one has been called +tone-painting, the other almost evades analysis. + +The term tone-painting is somewhat unsatisfactory, and reminds +one of the French critic who spoke of a poem as "beautiful +painted music." I believe that music can suggest forcibly +certain things and ideas as well as vague emotions encased in +the so-called "form" and "science" of music. + +If we wish to begin with the most primitive form of suggestion +in music, we shall find it in the direct imitation of sounds +in nature. We remember that Helmholtz, Hanslick, and their +followers denied to music the power to suggest things in +nature; but it was somewhat grudgingly admitted that music +might express the emotions caused by them. In the face of this, +to quote a well-known instance, we have the "Pastoral" symphony +of Beethoven, with the thrush, cuckoo, and thunderstorm. The +birds and the storm are very plainly indicated; but it is not +possible for the music to be an expression of the emotions +caused by them, for the very simple reason that no emotions +are caused by the cuckoo and thrush, and those caused by +thunderstorms range all the way from depression and fear to +exhilaration, according to the personality of individuals. + +That music may imitate any rhythmic sounds or melodic figure +occurring in nature, hardly needs affirmation. Such devices may +be accepted almost as quotations, and not be further considered +here. The songs of birds, the sound made by galloping horses' +feet, the moaning of the wind, etc., are all things which +are part and parcel of the musical vocabulary, intelligible +alike to people of every nationality. I need hardly say that +increasing intensity of sound will suggest vehemence, approach, +and its visual synonym, growth, as well as that decreasing +intensity will suggest withdrawal, dwindling, and placidity. + +The suggestion brought about by pattern is very familiar. +It was one of the first signs of the breaking away from +the conventional trammels of the contrapuntal style of the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The first madrigal of +Thomas Weelkes (1590) begins with the words, "Sit down," and +the musical pattern falls a fifth. The suggestion was crude, +but it was caused by the same impulse as that which supplied +the material for Wagner's "Waldweben," Mendelssohn's "Lovely +Melusina," and a host of other works. + +The fact that the pattern of a musical phrase can suggest kinds +of motion may seem strange; but could we, for example, imagine +a spinning song with broken arpeggios? Should we see a spear +thrown or an arrow shot on the stage and hear the orchestra +playing a phrase of an undulating pattern, we should at once +realize the contradiction. Mendelssohn, Schumann, Wagner, +Liszt, and practically everyone who has written a spinning +song, has used the same pattern to suggest the turning of a +wheel. That such widely different men as Wagner and Mendelssohn +should both have adopted the same pattern to suggest undulating +waves is not a mere chance, but clearly shows the potency of +the suggestion. + +The suggestion conveyed by means of pitch is one of the +strongest in music. Vibrations increasing beyond two hundred +and fifty trillions a second become luminous. It is a curious +coincidence that our highest vibrating musical sounds bring +with them a well-defined suggestion of light, and that as +the pitch is lowered we get the impression of ever increasing +obscurity. To illustrate this, I have but to refer you to the +Prelude to "Lohengrin." Had we no inkling as to its meaning, +we should still receive the suggestion of glittering shapes +in the blue ether. + +Let us take the opening of the "Im Walde" symphony by Raff as +an example; deep shadow is unmistakably suggested. Herbert +Spencer's theory of the influence of emotion on pitch is well +known and needs no confirmation. This properly comes under +the subject of musical speech, a matter not to be considered +here. Suffice it to say that the upward tendency of a musical +phrase can suggest exaltation, and that a downward trend may +suggest depression, the intensity of which will depend upon +the intervals used. As an instance we may quote the "Faust" +overture of Wagner, in which the pitch is used emotionally +as well as descriptively. If the meaning I have found in this +phrase seems to you far-fetched, we have but to give a higher +pitch to the motive to render the idea absolutely impossible. + +The suggestion offered by movement is very obvious, for music +admittedly may be stately, deliberate, hasty, or furious, +it may march or dance, it may be grave or flippant. + +Last of all I wish to speak of the suggestion conveyed by +means of tone-tint, the blending of timbre and pitch. It is +essentially a modern element in music, and in our delight in +this marvellous and potent aid to expression we have carried +it to a point of development at which it threatens to dethrone +what has hitherto been our musical speech, melody, in favour +of what corresponds to the shadow languages of speech, namely, +gesture and facial expression. Just as these shadow languages +of speech may distort or even absolutely reverse the meaning +of the spoken word, so can tone colour and harmony change the +meaning of a musical phrase. This is at once the glory and +the danger of our modern music. Overwhelmed by the new-found +powers of suggestion in tonal tint and the riot of hitherto +undreamed of orchestral combinations, we are forgetting that +permanence in music depends upon melodic speech. + +In my opinion, it is the line, not the colour, that will last. +That harmony is a potent factor in suggestion may be seen +from the fact that Cornelius was able to write an entire song +pitched upon one tone, the accompaniment being so varied in +its harmonies that the listener is deceived into attributing +to that one tone many shades of emotion. + +In all modern music this element is one of the most important. +If we refer again to the "Faust" overture of Wagner, we will +perceive that although the melodic trend and the pitch of +the phrase carry their suggestion, the roll of the drum which +accompanies it throws a sinister veil over the phrase, making +it impressive in the extreme. + +The seed from which our modern wealth of harmony and tone +colour sprang was the perfect major triad. The _raison d'etre_ +and development of this combination of tones belong to the +history of music. Suffice it to say, that for some psychological +reason this chord (with also its minor form) has still the same +significance that it had for the monks of the Middle Ages. It is +perfect. Every complete phrase, must end with it. The attempts +made to emancipate music from the tyranny of this combination +of sounds have been in vain, showing that the suggestion of +finality and repose contained in it is irrefutable. + +Now if we depart from this chord a sensation of unrest is +occasioned which can only subside by a progression to another +triad or a return to the first. With the development of our +modern system of tonality we have come to think tonally; and a +chord lying outside of the key in which a musical thought is +conceived will carry with it a sense of confusion or mystery +that our modern art of harmony and tone colour has made its +own. Thus, while any simple low chords accompanying the first +notes of Raff's "Im Walde" symphony, given by the horns and +violins, would suggest gloom pierced by the gleams of light, +the remoteness of the chords to the tonality of C major gives +a suggestion of mystery; but as the harmony approaches the +triad the mystery dissolves, letting in the gleam of sunlight +suggested by the horn. + +Goldmark's overture to "Sakuntala" owes its subtle suggestion to +much the same cause. Weber made use of it in his "Freischuetz," +Wagner in his "Tarnhelm" motive, Mendelssohn in his "Midsummer +Night's Dream," Tchaikovsky in the opening of one of his +symphonies. + +In becoming common property, so to speak, this important +element of musical utterance has been dragged through the mud; +and modern composers, in their efforts to raise it above the +commonplace, have gone to the very edge of what is physically +bearable in the use of tone colour and combination. While this +is but natural, owing to the appropriation of some of the most +poetic and suggestive tone colours for ignoble dance tunes and +doggerel, it is to my mind a pity, for it is elevating what +should be a means of adding power and intensity to musical +speech to the importance of musical speech itself. Possibly +Strauss's "Thus Spake Zarathustra" may be considered the +apotheosis of this power of suggestion in tonal colour, and +in it I believe we can see the tendency I allude to. This +work stuns by its glorious magnificence of tonal texture; the +suggestion, in the opening measures, of the rising sun is a +mighty example of the overwhelming power of tone colour. The +upward sweep of the music to the highest regions of light has +much of splendour about it; and yet I remember once hearing +in London, sung in the street at night, a song that seemed to +me to contain a truer germ of music. + +For want of a better word I will call it ideal suggestion. +It has to do with actual musical speech, and is difficult to +define. The possession of it makes a man a poet. If we look +for analogy, I may quote from Browning and Shakespeare. + + Dearest, three months ago + When the mesmerizer, Snow, + With his hand's first sweep + Put the earth to sleep. + + BROWNING, _A Lovers' Quarrel_. + + + Daffodils, + That come before the swallow dares, and takes + The winds of March with beauty; Violets dim, + But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes. + + SHAKESPEARE, _Winter's Tale_. + +For me this defies analysis, and so it is with some things +in music, the charm of which cannot be ascribed to physical +or mental suggestion, and certainly not to any device of +counterpoint or form, in the musical acceptance of the word. + + + + +INDEX + + +A. + + Accents, 92. + Adagio, 189. + Aeolian mode, 83. + Aeschylus, 70, 76. + Alberti bass, 197. + Allemande, 182, 189, 195. + Amati, 138. + Ambros, 205. + Ambrose, 98, 99, 102, 104. + Amiot, 50, 57, 61, 263. + Anapaest, 75. + Andaman Islanders, 3, 5, 6. + Animals, 13. + Arabian, 152, 158. + Architecture, 192, 225. + Arion, 76. + Aristides, 74, 84. + Aristophanes, 91, 92. + Aristotle, 49. + Aristoxenus, 73, 81. + Assyrian, 48. + Auber, 216, 217, 219. + + +B. + + Bach, C.P.E., 191, 199, 200, 247, 248, 251. + Bach, J.S., 136, 185, 186, 187, 191, 231, 239, 241, 244, 247, + 248, 265. + Bagpipe, 32, 93. + Ballet, 177. + Bamboo, 52. + Banjo, 29. + Basso continuo, 237. + Bassoon, 139. + Bazin, 217. + Beethoven, 14, 16, 17, 22, 185, 189, 190, 196, 197, 199, 200, + 201, 202, 203, 234, 247, 250, 267. + Bell, 7, 8, 46. + Bellini, 210. + Berlioz, 14, 65, 219, 266. + Bizet, 144, 151, 197, 217, 219, 222. + Boieldieu, 216, 217. + Bolero, 182. + Borneo, 3, 5. + Bourree, 179. + Brahma, 36, 37. + Brahminism, 36, 39. + Brahms, 203, 224. + Brevis, 118, 120. + Browning, 198, 272. + Buddha, 36. + Burmah, 23, 64, 65. + Burney, 194. + Byrd, 184. + + +C. + + Caccini, 177, 209. + Cachucha, 182. + Canon, 205. + Cantata, 188. + Cantus firmus, 130, 205. + Ceylon, 5. + Chaconne, 181. + Chaldeans, 49. + Charlemagne, 105. + Che, 50, 66. + Cherubini, 213. + China, 16, 18, 23, 49. + Chinese folksong, 59. + Chinese music, 144, 147, 263. + Chinese orchestra, 55. + Chinese scale, 62. + Chinese theatre, 61. + Chopin, 27, 204. + Christianity, 34. + Christians (Early), 96. + Chrotta (Crwth), 137. + Church music, 206. + Clarinet, 13, 139. + Clavichord, 134. + Clavicitherium, 136. + Clef, 116. + Colour in music, 200, 263, 270. + Comedy, 76. + Confucius, 49, 56, 60, 263. + Conjunct tetrachord, 86. + Constantinople, 103. + Corelli, 138, 189. + Cornet, 177. + Corrente (Courante), 181, 185, 189. + Coucy, Raoul de, 118. + Council of Laodicaea, 99. + Council of Trent, 176. + Counterpoint, 129, 205, 208, 264. + Couperin, 136, 191, 200, 210. + Cristofori, 136. + Czardas, 183. + + +D. + + Dactyl, 25, 26, 69, 75. + Dance, 24, 27, 28, 78, 97, 126, 149, 178. + Dance forms, modern, 182. + Dance forms, old, 179, 180. + Dante, 207. + Darwin, 1, 16. + Declamation, 26, 27, 254. + Delibes, 218. + Descant (discant), 129, 205. + Diaphony, 128, 129. + Diatonic, 45. + Didymus, 81. + Dionysian, 75. + Disjunct tetrachord, 86. + Dithyramb, 76. + Donizetti, 210. + Dorian, 75, 83. + Drum, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 25, 30, 33. + Drum organ, 65. + Dulcimer, 33, 49, 136. + + +E. + + Egypt, 16, 34, 43, 152. + Emerson, 16. + Embellishments, 238. + Enharmonic (Greek), 88. + Epitrite, 75. + Equal temperament, 187, 241. + Euclid, 79. + + +F. + + Fantaisie-mazurka, 184. + Faux bourdon, 130, 163. + Fear, 2. + Feast of asses, 125, 206. + Field, 204. + Figured bass, 237. + Flageolet, 177. + Flats, 16, 39, 112. + Flute, 6, 13, 30, 31, 43, 44, 45, 67, 82, 138, 177. + Flute players, 91. + Folk song, 16, 17, 141. + Folk song (Chinese), 59. + Folk song (German), 152. + Form, 24, 25, 263, 264. + Fourth (augmented), 128. + Franco of Cologne, 117, 123. + Frauenlob, Heinrich, 167, 168. + Froberger, 199. + Fugue, 187, 206. + Fusa, 120. + + +G. + + Galop, 183. + Galuppi, 198. + Gamut, 109. + Gardiner, 19. + Gavotte, 180. + Gerbert, 16, 225. + Gesture, 17. + Gesualdo, 236. + Gigue, 182, 189, 197. + Gluck, 210, 212, 213, 214, 215, 231, 252. + Goethe, 1, 22. + Goldmark, 271. + Gong, 8, 53. + Gothic architecture, 21. + Gottfried von Strasburg, 165. + Gounod, 217, 219, 220. + Greek idea of music, 70. + Greek modes, 83. + Greeks, 27, 30, 42. + Gregorian chants, 104, 106, 208. + Gregorian modes, 100. + Gregory (Pope), 100, 102, 104. + Gretry, 213, 218. + Guarnerius, 138. + Guido d'Arezzo, 108, 115. + Guitar, 6, 29. + Gypsy music, 145. + + +H. + + Habanera, 182. + Hale, Adam de la, 207. + Halevy, 217. + Hamlet, 197. + Haendel, 22, 177, 231, 239, 241. + Harmonics, 20, 80. + Harmony, 23, 39, 44, 147, 190, 208, 270. + Harp, 6, 29, 33, 43, 44, 45, 48, 177. + Harpsichord, 134. + Hasse, 210, 227, 229, 230. + Haydn, 193, 197, 200, 247, 248, 252. + Hebrews, 32, 33, 34. + Helmholtz, 42. + Herodotus, 43, 46, 47. + Herold, 216, 217. + Hexachord, 110. + Hexameter, 69. + Hindus, 35. + Homer, 27, 29, 69. + Horn, 6, 7, 140. + Hucbald, 107, 122, 127, 208. + Hungarian, 143, 145, 159. + Hurdy-gurdy, 137. + Hypodorian mode, 84. + Hypolydian mode, 83. + Hypophrygian mode, 83. + + +I. + + Iambus, 25. + Impassioned speech, 19, 28. + India, 16. + Indians, 143, 152. + Ionic, 75. + Isis, 8. + + +J. + + Jahn, 194. + Japanese, 53, 64. + Javanese, 13, 64, 65. + Jenghiz Khan, 30. + Jommelli, 195, 230. + Jongleurs, 131, 160, 162, 207. + Josquin des Pres, 176. + + +K. + + Keren, 33. + Kin, 33, 50, 59. + King, 50. + Kinnor, 33. + Kithara, 43, 86. + Koto, 66. + Kuhnau, 195, 199, 245. + + +L. + + Lasus, 73, 90. + Leitmotiv, 214. + Lepsius, 48. + Levites, 33. + Liszt, 145, 146, 151, 194, 204, 220, 233. + Locke, 230. + Loeilly, 191. + London Stock Exchange, 19. + Longa, 118, 120. + Longfellow, 69. + Loure, 180. + Lully, 196, 212, 240. + Lute, 28, 29, 30, 31, 43, 44, 131, 137, 177, 208. + Luther, 176. + Lydian mode, 83. + Lyre, 6, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 43, 69, 136. + + +M. + + Maanim, 32. + Macaulay, 211. + Macbeth, 64. + Macfarren, 213. + Machol, 32. + Magrepha, 33. + Mandolin, 137. + Maneros, 46. + March, 181, 183. + Marine trumpet, 137. + Marpurg, 225. + Masque, 177. + Masse, 217. + Massenet, 218, 223, 224. + Mastersingers, 131, 165. + Matheson, 210, 225. + Maxima, 119, 120. + Mazurka, 182. + Mehul, 197, 212, 213, 214. + Melody, 14, 15, 18, 26, 28, 148, 190. + Mencius, 54, 263. + Mendelssohn, 202, 203, 233, 234, 259, 268, 271. + Metre, 26, 74. + Mexico, 66, 67. + Meyerbeer, 210, 213, 217, 218, 224, 233. + Millet, 192. + Minima, 119, 120. + Minnesingers, 118, 131, 164, 166, 170, 173. + Minuet, 181, 189. + Miracle plays, 207. + Mixolydian mode, 83. + Mixtures (organ), 133. + Mode, 39, 83. + Mona Lisa, 13. + Monochord, 80, 134. + Monteverde, 236. + Moors, 152. + Moralities, 207. + Morley, 185. + Morris dance, 160. + Motive, 179, 190. + Mozart, 193, 200, 232, 239, 247, 251. + Musette, 180. + Mysteries, 125, 206, 207, 208. + + +N. + + Nationalism, 151, 153. + Nebel, 33. + Nero, 94. + Neumes, 115. + Notation, 114, 208. + Notation (Greek system), 88. + Nithart, 167, 171. + + +O. + + Oboe, 13, 44, 139, 177. + Ockeghem, 177. + Octave (Greek system), 86. + Opera, 178, 206, 208, 210. + Organ, 33, 94, 132. + Organ pedals, 134. + Organs (portable), 134. + Organum, 128. + Orientalism, 151, 173, 204. + Osiris, 8, 47. + Overture, 189, 216. + + +P. + + Paean, 75. + Palestrina, 176, 186, 205, 210, 246. + Pan's Pipe, 9, 10, 11, 12, 62. + Pantomime, 93, 177. + Passecaille, 181. + Passepied, 182. + Passion plays, 125, 206. + Pavane, 182. + Pentatonic, 149, 151. + Pergolesi, 210. + Peri, 209, 231. + Period, 179. + Periodicity, 24, 28, 265. + Peru, 66, 67. + Pescetti, 195. + Phrase, 179, 190. + Phrygian mode, 76, 83. + Piano, 29, 230. + Piccini, 213. + Pindar, 27, 72, 90. + Pipe, 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 28, 30, 37, 44. + Pitch, 269. + Plato, 11, 49. + Plutarch, 195. + Poe, 266. + Poetry, 24. + Polacca, 182. + Polka, 183. + Polonaise, 182. + Porpora, 210. + Portuguese, 152. + Prelude, 189. + Prescott, 66. + Procrustes, 27. + Programme music, 190, 199, 203, 255. + Psalms, 34. + Psaltery, 33, 131. + Ptolemy, 85. + Purcell, 176. + Pythagoras, 49, 72, 79, 82, 97. + + +Q. + + Quarter-tones, 38, 39. + + +R. + + Raff, 269, 271. + Raga, 39, 40. + Rameau, 136, 178, 186, 191, 196, 199, 210, 239, 240. + Ravanastron, 137. + Rebec, 138. + Reed, 45. + Reichardt, 194. + Repetition, 266. + Rhythm, 14, 15, 25, 26, 27, 74, 117, 142, 190. + Rigaudon, 180. + Rig-Veda, 35. + Rimsky-Korsakoff, 224. + Robin et Marian, 207, 208. + Rockstro, 194. + Rolle, 196. + Romans, 46. + Romanticism, 212. + Rosseau, 212. + Rossini, 210, 215, 217. + Rowbotham, 23, 68. + Rubinstein, 224. + Ruskin, 21. + Russia, 152. + + +S. + + Sachs, Hans, 166. + Saint-Mark's Cathedral, 205. + St. Pierre, Bernardin de, 211. + Saint-Saens, 219, 222, 224. + Saltarello, 183. + Samisen, 66. + Sappho, 72, 83. + Sarabande, 160, 180, 189, 197. + Sarti, 213. + Scale, 39, 107. + Scale (Chinese), 62. + Scarlatti, A., 238. + Scarlatti, D., 184, 185, 195, 210, 238. + Schauspiel, 232. + Scherzo, 189. + Schofar, 33. + Schubart, 194. + Schubert, 20, 23, 196, 197, 201, 203. + Schumann, 101, 199, 203, 204, 233. + Scotch, 41, 147, 152, 265. + Scotland, 23. + Scribe, 218. + Section, 179. + Selah, 34. + Semangs, 3, 5. + Semibrevis, 118, 120. + Semifusa, 120. + Sentences, decayed, 17. + Sequences, 111. + Set, 8, 47. + Shakespeare, 28, 272. + Sharps, 16, 39, 112. + Shedlock, 195. + Siamese, 64, 65. + Singspiel, 213, 217. + Sistrum, 8, 32, 43, 46, 47. + Sittard, 194. + Solmisation, 108, 111. + Sonata, 27, 178, 189, 190. + Sonata form, 27, 188. + Sophocles, 70, 76. + Spanish, 152, 159. + Spencer, Herbert, 22, 269. + Sperling, 195. + Spinet, 135. + Spondee, 23, 69, 75. + Spontini, 210, 212, 213, 214. + Stesichorus, 7. + Stradivarius, 138. + Strauss, J., 27. + Strauss, R., 200, 203, 272. + Suggestion, 255, 260, 261. + Suite, 188, 190. + Sylvester (Pope), 99. + Symphonic poem, 178. + Symphony, 27, 178, 248. + + +T. + + Talmud, 33. + Tambourin (dance), 180. + Tambourine, 7, 33. + Tannhaeuser, 167, 168. + Tarantella, 183. + Tartini, 138. + Tasmania, 3, 5. + Tchaikovsky, 224, 271. + Tennyson, 71. + Terpander, 73. + Tetrachord, 83, 124. + Theophrastus, 1, 74. + Thibaut of Navarre, 118. + Thibet, 12. + Thirds, 124. + Thomas, A., 221. + Tierra del Fuegians, 3, 4, 6. + Timbrel, 33. + Time signs, 119, 120. + Tone tint, 270. + Tourte, 138. + Tragedy, 76. + Treble, 163, 205. + Trochee, 25, 28, 75. + Trombone, 140, 177. + Troubadours, 118, 131, 160, 165, 166, 171, 173, 207. + Trumpet, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 32, 43, 140. + Typhon, 8. + + +V. + + Vaudeville, 207. + Vedas, 36, 39. + Vega, Garcilaso de la, 13, 66. + Verdi, 210. + Viadana, 236, 237. + Vina, 38. + Vinci, Leonardo da, 13. + Viola, 32. + Viola da gamba, 177. + Violin, 29, 32, 138. + Violoncello, 177. + Viotti, 138. + Virginal, 135. + Vishnu, 38. + Vocal music, 23. + + +W. + + Wagner, 14, 15, 17, 21, 22, 27, 147, 166, 168, 186, 201, 206, + 214, 217, 218, 224, 233, 234, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 268, + 269, 271. + Walpole, 211. + Wasielewski, 194. + Walter von der Vogelweide, 167. + Waltz, 27, 181, 183. + Weber, 14, 210, 213, 216, 218, 219, 271. + Weddahs, 5, 6. + Weelkes, 184, 268. + Wolfram von Eschenbach, 165. + + +Z. + + Zarlino, 81. + Zither, 33. + Zoroaster, 12. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Critical & Historical Essays, by Edward MacDowell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRITICAL & HISTORICAL ESSAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 16351.txt or 16351.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/5/16351/ + +Produced by David Newman, Daniel Emerson Griffith and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/16351.zip b/16351.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d9cf8d --- /dev/null +++ b/16351.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe9e7f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #16351 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16351) |
