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diff --git a/17474-8.txt b/17474-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7abfb29 --- /dev/null +++ b/17474-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8731 @@ +Project Gutenberg's How to Listen to Music, 7th ed., by Henry Edward Krehbiel + +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: How to Listen to Music, 7th ed. + Hints and Suggestions to Untaught Lovers of the Art + +Author: Henry Edward Krehbiel + +Release Date: January 7, 2006 [EBook #17474] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOW TO LISTEN TO MUSIC, 7TH ED. *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Linda Cantoni, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +HOW TO LISTEN TO MUSIC + +HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS TO UNTAUGHT LOVERS OF THE ART + +BY + +HENRY EDWARD KREHBIEL + +_Author of "Studies in the Wagnerian Drama," "Notes on the Cultivation +of Choral Music," "The Philharmonic Society of New York," etc._ + +_SEVENTH EDITION_ + +NEW YORK +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS +1897 + +COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +TROW DIRECTORY +PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY +NEW YORK + + * * * * * + +TO + +W.J. HENDERSON + +WHO HAS HELPED ME TO RESPECT MUSICAL CRITICISM + + * * * * * + + + + +AUTHOR'S NOTE + + +The author is beholden to the Messrs. Harper & Brothers for permission +to use a small portion of the material in Chapter I., the greater part +of Chapter IV., and the Plates which were printed originally in one of +their publications; also to the publishers of "The Looker-On" for the +privilege of reprinting a portion of an essay written for them +entitled "Singers, Then and Now." + + + + +CONTENTS + + +[Sidenote: CHAP. I.] + +_Introduction_ + +Purpose and scope of this book--Not written for professional +musicians, but for untaught lovers of the art--neither for careless +seekers after diversion unless they be willing to accept a higher +conception of what "entertainment" means--The capacity properly to +listen to music as a touchstone of musical talent--It is rarely found +in popular concert-rooms--Travellers who do not see and listeners who +do not hear--Music is of all the arts that which is practised most and +thought about least--Popular ignorance of the art caused by the lack +of an object for comparison--How simple terms are confounded by +literary men--Blunders by Tennyson, Lamb, Coleridge, Mrs. Harriet +Beecher Stowe, F. Hopkinson Smith, Brander Matthews, and others--A +warning against pedants and rhapsodists. _Page 3_ + + +[Sidenote: CHAP. II.] + +_Recognition of Musical Elements_ + +The dual nature of music--Sense-perception, fancy, and +imagination--Recognition of Design as Form in its primary stages--The +crude materials of music--The co-ordination of tones--Rudimentary +analysis of Form--Comparison, as in other arts, not +possible--Recognition of the fundamental elements--Melody, Harmony, +and Rhythm--The value of memory--The need of an +intermediary--Familiar music best liked--Interrelation of the +elements--Repetition the fundamental principle of Form--Motives, +Phrases, and Periods--A Creole folk-tune analyzed--Repetition at the +base of poetic forms--Refrain and Parallelism--Key-relationship as a +bond of union--Symphonic unity illustrated in examples from +Beethoven--The C minor symphony and "Appassionata" sonata--The +Concerto in G major--The Seventh and Ninth symphonies. _Page 15_ + + +[Sidenote: CHAP. III.] + +_The Content and Kinds of Music_ + +How far it is necessary for the listener to go into musical +philosophy--Intelligent hearing not conditioned upon it--Man's +individual relationship to the art--Musicians proceed on the theory +that feelings are the content of music--The search for pictures and +stories condemned--How composers hear and judge--Definitions of the +capacity of music by Wagner, Hauptmann, and Mendelssohn--An utterance +by Herbert Spencer--Music as a language--Absolute music and Programme +music--The content of all true art works--Chamber music--Meaning and +origin of the term--Haydn the servant of a Prince--The characteristics +of Chamber music--Pure thought, lofty imagination, and deep +learning--Its chastity--Sympathy between performers and listeners +essential to its enjoyment--A correct definition of Programme +music--Programme music defended--The value of titles and +superscriptions--Judgment upon it must, however, go to the music, not +the commentary--Subjects that are unfit for music--Kinds of Programme +music--Imitative music--How the music of birds has been utilized--The +cuckoo of nature and Beethoven's cuckoo--Cock and hen in a seventeenth +century composition--Rameau's pullet--The German quail--Music that is +descriptive by suggestion--External and internal attributes--Fancy and +Imagination--Harmony and the major and minor mode--Association of +ideas--Movement delineated--Handel's frogs--Water in the "Hebrides" +overture and "Ocean" symphony--Height and depth illustrated by acute +and grave tones--Beethoven's illustration of distance--His rule +enforced--Classical and Romantic music--Genesis of the terms--What +they mean in literature--Archbishop Trench on classical books--The +author's definitions of both terms in music--Classicism as the +conservative principle, Romanticism as the progressive, regenerative, +and creative--A contest which stimulates life. _Page 36_ + + +[Sidenote: CHAP. IV.] + +_The Modern Orchestra_ + +Importance of the instrumental band--Some things that can be learned +by its study--The orchestral choirs--Disposition of the players--Model +bands compared--Development of instrumental music--The extent of an +orchestra's register--The Strings: Violin, Viola, Violoncello, and +Double-bass--Effects produced by changes in manipulation--The +wood-winds: Flute, Oboe, English horn, Bassoon, Clarinet--The Brass: +French Horn, Trumpet and Cornet, Trombone, Tuba--The Drums--The +Conductor--Rise of the modern interpreter--The need of him--His +methods--Scores and Score-reading. _Page 71_ + + +[Sidenote: CHAP. V.] + +_At an Orchestral Concert_ + +"Classical" and "Popular" as generally conceived--Symphony Orchestras +and Military bands--The higher forms in music as exemplified at a +classical concert--Symphonies, Overtures, Symphonic Poems, Concertos, +etc.--A Symphony not a union of unrelated parts--History of the +name--The Sonata form and cyclical compositions--The bond of union +between the divisions of a Symphony--Material and spiritual links--The +first movement and the sonata form--"Exposition, illustration, and +repetition"--The subjects and their treatment--Keys and nomenclature +of the Symphony--The _Adagio_ or second movement--The _Scherzo_ and +its relation to the Minuet--The Finale and the Rondo form--The latter +illustrated in outline by a poem--Modifications of the symphonic form +by Beethoven, Schumann, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Saint-Saëns and +Dvorák--Augmentation of the forces--Symphonies with voices--The +Symphonic Poem--Its three characteristics--Concertos and Cadenzas--M. +Ysaye's opinion of the latter--Designations in Chamber music--The +Overture and its descendants--Smaller forms: Serenades, Fantasias, +Rhapsodies, Variations, Operatic Excerpts. _Page 122_ + + +[Sidenote: CHAP. VI.] + +_At a Pianoforte Recital_ + +The Popularity of Pianoforte music exemplified in M. Paderewski's +recitals--The instrument--A universal medium of music study--Its +defects and merits contrasted--Not a perfect melody instrument--Value +of the percussive element--Technique; the false and the true estimate +of its value--Pianoforte literature as illustrated in recitals--Its +division, for the purposes of this study, into four periods: Classic, +Classic-romantic, Romantic, and Bravura--Precursors of the +Pianoforte--The Clavichord and Harpsichord, and the music composed for +them--Peculiarities of Bach's style--His Romanticism--Scarlatti's +Sonatas--The Suite and its constituents--Allemande, Courante, +Sarabande, Gigue, Minuet, and Gavotte--The technique of the +period--How Bach and Handel played--Beethoven and the Sonata--Mozart +and Beethoven as pianists--The Romantic composers--Schumann and Chopin +and the forms used by them--Schumann and Jean Paul--Chopin's Preludes, +Études, Nocturnes, Ballades, Polonaises, Mazurkas, Krakowiak--The +technique of the Romantic period--"Idiomatic" pianoforte +music--Development of the instrument--The Pedal and its use--Liszt and +his Hungarian Rhapsodies. _Page 154_ + + +[Sidenote: CHAP. VII.] + +_At the Opera_ + +Instability of popular taste in respect of operas--Our lists seldom +extend back of the present century--The people of to-day as +indifferent as those of two centuries ago to the language used--Use +and abuse of foreign languages--The Opera defended as an art-form--Its +origin in the Greek tragedies--Why music is the language of emotion--A +scientific explanation--Herbert Spencer's laws--Efforts of Florentine +scholars to revive the classic tragedy result in the invention of the +lyric drama--The various kinds of Opera: _Opera seria_, _Opera buffa_, +_Opera semiseria_, French _grand Opéra_, and _Opéra +comique_--Operettas and musical farces--Romantic Opera--A popular +conception of German opera--A return to the old terminology led by +Wagner--The recitative: Its nature, aims, and capacities--The change +from speech to song--The arioso style, the accompanied recitative and +the aria--Music and dramatic action--Emancipation from set forms--The +orchestra--The decay of singing--Feats of the masters of the Roman +school and La Bastardella--Degeneracy of the Opera of their +day--Singers who have been heard in New York--Two generations of +singers compared--Grisi, Jenny Lind, Sontag, La Grange, Piccolomini, +Adelina Patti, Nilsson, Sembrich, Lucca, Gerster, Lehmann, Melba, +Eames, Calvé, Mario, Jean and Edouard de Reszke--Wagner and his +works--Operas and lyric dramas--Wagner's return to the principles of +the Florentine reformers--Interdependence of elements in a lyric +drama--Forms and the endless melody--The Typical Phrases: How they +should be studied. _Page 202_ + + +[Sidenote: CHAP. VIII.] + +_Choirs and Choral Music_ + +Value of chorus singing in musical culture--Schumann's advice to +students--Choristers and instrumentalists--Amateurs and +professionals--Oratorio and _Männergesang_--The choirs of Handel and +Bach--Glee Unions, Male Clubs, and Women's Choirs--Boys' voices not +adapted to modern music--Mixed choirs--American Origin of amateur +singing societies--Priority over Germany--The size of choirs--Large +numbers not essential--How choirs are divided--Antiphonal +effects--Excellence in choir singing--Precision, intonation, +expression, balance of tone, enunciation, pronunciation, +declamation--The cause of monotony in Oratorio performances--_A +capella_ music--Genesis of modern hymnology--Influence of Luther and +the Germans--Use of popular melodies by composers--The +chorale--Preservation of the severe style of writing in choral +music--Palestrina and Bach--A study of their styles--Latin and +Teuton--Church and individual--Motets and Church Cantatas--The +Passions--The Oratorio--Sacred opera and Cantata--Epic and +Drama--Characteristic and descriptive music--The Mass: Its +secularization and musical development--The dramatic tendency +illustrated in Beethoven and Berlioz. _Page 253_ + + +[Sidenote: CHAP. IX.] + +_Musician, Critic and Public_ + +Criticism justified--Relationship between Musician, Critic and +Public--To end the conflict between them would result in +stagnation--How the Critic might escape--The Musician prefers to +appeal to the public rather than to the Critic--Why this is +so--Ignorance as a safeguard against and promoter of +conservatism--Wagner and Haydn--The Critic as the enemy of the +charlatan--Temptations to which he is exposed--Value of popular +approbation--Schumann's aphorisms--The Public neither bad judges nor +good critics--The Critic's duty is to guide popular +judgment--Fickleness of the people's opinions--Taste and judgment not +a birthright--The necessity of antecedent study--The Critic's +responsibility--Not always that toward the Musician which the latter +thinks--How the newspaper can work for good--Must the Critic be a +Musician?--Pedants and Rhapsodists--Demonstrable facts in +criticism--The folly and viciousness of foolish rhapsody--The Rev. Mr. +Haweis cited--Ernst's violin--Intelligent rhapsody approved--Dr. John +Brown on Beethoven--The Critic's duty. _Page 297_ + + * * * * * + +PLATES + +I. VIOLIN--(CLIFFORD SCHMIDT).--II. VIOLONCELLO--(VICTOR +HERBERT).--III. PICCOLO FLUTE--(C. KURTH, JUN.).--IV. OBOE--(JOSEPH +ELLER).--V. ENGLISH HORN--(JOSEPH ELLER).--VI. BASSOON (FEDOR +BERNHARDI).--VII. CLARINET--(HENRY KAISER).--VIII. BASS +CLARINET--(HENRY KAISER).--IX. FRENCH HORN--(CARL PIEPER).--X. +TROMBONE--(J. PFEIFFENSCHNEIDER).--XI. BASS TUBA--(ANTON +REITER).--XII. THE CONDUCTOR'S SCORE. _Page 325_ + +INDEX _Page 351_ + + + + +How to Listen to Music + + + + +I + +_Introduction_ + + +[Sidenote: _The book's appeal._] + +This book has a purpose, which is as simple as it is plain; and an +unpretentious scope. It does not aim to edify either the musical +professor or the musical scholar. It comes into the presence of the +musical student with all becoming modesty. Its business is with those +who love music and present themselves for its gracious ministrations +in Concert-Room and Opera House, but have not studied it as professors +and scholars are supposed to study. It is not for the careless unless +they be willing to inquire whether it might not be well to yield the +common conception of entertainment in favor of the higher enjoyment +which springs from serious contemplation of beautiful things; but if +they are willing so to inquire, they shall be accounted the class +that the author is most anxious to reach. The reasons which prompted +its writing and the laying out of its plan will presently appear. For +the frankness of his disclosure the author might be willing to +apologize were his reverence for music less and his consideration for +popular affectations more; but because he is convinced that a love for +music carries with it that which, so it be but awakened, shall +speedily grow into an honest desire to know more about the beloved +object, he is willing to seem unamiable to the amateur while arguing +the need of even so mild a stimulant as his book, and ingenuous, +mayhap even childish, to the professional musician while trying to +point a way in which better appreciation may be sought. + +[Sidenote: _Talent in listening._] + +The capacity properly to listen to music is better proof of musical +talent in the listener than skill to play upon an instrument or +ability to sing acceptably when unaccompanied by that capacity. It +makes more for that gentleness and refinement of emotion, thought, and +action which, in the highest sense of the term, it is the province of +music to promote. And it is a much rarer accomplishment. I cannot +conceive anything more pitiful than the spectacle of men and women +perched on a fair observation point exclaiming rapturously at the +loveliness of mead and valley, their eyes melting involuntarily in +tenderness at the sight of moss-carpeted slopes and rocks and peaceful +wood, or dilating in reverent wonder at mountain magnificence, and +then learning from their exclamations that, as a matter of fact, they +are unable to distinguish between rock and tree, field and forest, +earth and sky; between the dark-browns of the storm-scarred rock, the +greens of the foliage, and the blues of the sky. + +[Sidenote: _Ill equipped listeners._] + +Yet in the realm of another sense, in the contemplation of beauties +more ethereal and evanescent than those of nature, such is the +experience which in my capacity as a writer for newspapers I have made +for many years. A party of people blind to form and color cannot be +said to be well equipped for a Swiss journey, though loaded down with +alpenstocks and Baedekers; yet the spectacle of such a party on the +top of the Rigi is no more pitiful and anomalous than that presented +by the majority of the hearers in our concert-rooms. They are there to +adventure a journey into a realm whose beauties do not disclose +themselves to the senses alone, but whose perception requires a +co-operation of all the finer faculties; yet of this they seem to know +nothing, and even of that sense to which the first appeal is made it +may be said with profound truth that "hearing they hear not, neither +do they understand." + +[Sidenote: _Popular ignorance of music._] + +Of all the arts, music is practised most and thought about least. Why +this should be the case may be explained on several grounds. A sweet +mystery enshrouds the nature of music. Its material part is subtle and +elusive. To master it on its technical side alone costs a vast +expenditure of time, patience, and industry. But since it is, in one +manifestation or another, the most popular of the arts, and one the +enjoyment of which is conditioned in a peculiar degree on love, it +remains passing strange that the indifference touching its nature and +elements, and the character of the phenomena which produce it, or are +produced by it, is so general. I do not recall that anybody has ever +tried to ground this popular ignorance touching an art of which, by +right of birth, everybody is a critic. The unamiable nature of the +task, of which I am keenly conscious, has probably been a bar to such +an undertaking. But a frank diagnosis must precede the discovery of a +cure for every disease, and I have undertaken to point out a way in +which this grievous ailment in the social body may at least be +lessened. + +[Sidenote: _Paucity of intelligent comment._] + +[Sidenote: _Want of a model._] + +It is not an exaggeration to say that one might listen for a lifetime +to the polite conversation of our drawing-rooms (and I do not mean by +this to refer to the United States alone) without hearing a symphony +talked about in terms indicative of more than the most superficial +knowledge of the outward form, that is, the dimensions and apparatus, +of such a composition. No other art provides an exact analogy for this +phenomenon. Everybody can say something containing a degree of +appositeness about a poem, novel, painting, statue, or building. If he +can do no more he can go as far as Landseer's rural critic who +objected to one of the artist's paintings on the ground that not one +of the three pigs eating from a trough had a foot in it. It is the +absence of the standard of judgment employed in this criticism which +makes significant talk about music so difficult. Nature failed to +provide a model for this ethereal art. There is nothing in the natural +world with which the simple man may compare it. + +[Sidenote: _Simple terms confounded._] + +It is not alone a knowledge of the constituent factors of a symphony, +or the difference between a sonata and a suite, a march and a mazurka, +that is rare. Unless you chance to be listening to the conversation of +musicians (in which term I wish to include amateurs who are what the +word amateur implies, and whose knowledge stands in some respectable +relation to their love), you will find, so frequently that I have not +the heart to attempt an estimate of the proportion, that the most +common words in the terminology of the art are misapplied. Such +familiar things as harmony and melody, time and tune, are continually +confounded. Let us call a distinguished witness into the box; the +instance is not new, but it will serve. What does Tennyson mean when +he says: + + "All night have the roses heard + The flute, violin, bassoon; + All night has the casement jessamine stirr'd + To the dancers dancing in tune?" + +[Sidenote: _Tune and time._] + +Unless the dancers who wearied Maud were provided with even a more +extraordinary instrumental outfit than the Old Lady of Banbury Cross, +how could they have danced "in tune?" + +[Sidenote: _Blunders of poets and essayists._] + +Musical study of a sort being almost as general as study of the "three +Rs," it must be said that the gross forms of ignorance are utterly +inexcusable. But if this is obvious, it is even more obvious that +there is something radically wrong with the prevalent systems of +musical instruction. It is because of a plentiful lack of knowledge +that so much that is written on music is without meaning, and that +the most foolish kind of rhapsody, so it show a collocation of fine +words, is permitted to masquerade as musical criticism and even +analysis. People like to read about music, and the books of a certain +English clergyman have had a sale of stupendous magnitude +notwithstanding they are full of absurdities. The clergyman has a +multitudinous companionship, moreover, among novelists, essayists, and +poets whose safety lies in more or less fantastic generalization when +they come to talk about music. How they flounder when they come to +detail! It was Charles Lamb who said, in his "Chapter on Ears," that +in voices he could not distinguish a soprano from a tenor, and could +only contrive to guess at the thorough-bass from its being +"supereminently harsh and disagreeable;" yet dear old Elia may be +forgiven, since his confounding the bass voice with a system of +musical short-hand is so delightful a proof of the ignorance he was +confessing. + +[Sidenote: _Literary realism and musical terminology._] + +But what shall the troubled critics say to Tennyson's orchestra +consisting of a flute, violin, and bassoon? Or to Coleridge's "_loud_ +bassoon," which made the wedding-guest to beat his breast? Or to Mrs. +Harriet Beecher Stowe's pianist who played "with an airy and bird-like +touch?" Or to our own clever painter-novelist who, in "Snubbin' +through Jersey," has Brushes bring out his violoncello and play "the +symphonies of Beethoven" to entertain his fellow canal-boat +passengers? The tendency toward realism, or "veritism," as it is +called, has brought out a rich crop of blunders. It will not do to +have a character in a story simply sing or play something; we must +have the names of composers and compositions. The genial gentleman who +enriched musical literature with arrangements of Beethoven's +symphonies for violoncello without accompaniment has since +supplemented this feat by creating a German fiddler who, when he +thinks himself unnoticed, plays a sonata for violin and contralto +voice; Professor Brander Matthews permits one of his heroines to sing +Schumann's "Warum?" and one of his heroes plays "The Moonlight +Concerto;" one of Ouida's romantic creatures spends hours at an organ +"playing the grand old masses of Mendelssohn;" in "Moths" the tenor +never wearies of singing certain "exquisite airs of Palestrina," which +recalls the fact that an indignant correspondent of a St. Louis +newspaper, protesting against the Teutonism and heaviness of an +orchestra conductor's programmes, demanded some of the "lighter" works +of "Berlioz and Palestrina." + +[Sidenote: _A popular need._] + +Alas! these things and the many others equally amusing which Mr. G. +Sutherland Edwards long ago catalogued in an essay on "The Literary +Maltreatment of Music" are but evidences that even cultured folk have +not yet learned to talk correctly about the art which is practised +most widely. There is a greater need than pianoforte teachers and +singing teachers, and that is a numerous company of writers and +talkers who shall teach the people how to listen to music so that it +shall not pass through their heads like a vast tonal phantasmagoria, +but provide the varied and noble delights contemplated by the +composers. + +[Sidenote: _A warning against writers._] + +[Sidenote: _Pedants and rhapsodists._] + +Ungracious as it might appear, it may yet not be amiss, therefore, at +the very outset of an inquiry into the proper way in which to listen +to music, to utter a warning against much that is written on the art. +As a rule it will be found that writers on music are divided into two +classes, and that neither of these classes can do much good. Too often +they are either pedants or rhapsodists. This division is wholly +natural. Music has many sides and is a science as well as an art. Its +scientific side is that on which the pedant generally approaches it. +He is concerned with forms and rules, with externals, to the +forgetting of that which is inexpressibly nobler and higher. But the +pedants are not harmful, because they are not interesting; strictly +speaking, they do not write for the public at all, but only for their +professional colleagues. The harmful men are the foolish rhapsodists +who take advantage of the fact that the language of music is +indeterminate and evanescent to talk about the art in such a way as to +present themselves as persons of exquisite sensibilities rather than +to direct attention to the real nature and beauty of music itself. To +them I shall recur in a later chapter devoted to musical criticism, +and haply point out the difference between good and bad critics and +commentators from the view-point of popular need and popular +opportunity. + + + + +II + +_Recognition of Musical Elements_ + + +[Sidenote: _The nature of music._] + +Music is dual in its nature; it is material as well as spiritual. Its +material side we apprehend through the sense of hearing, and +comprehend through the intellect; its spiritual side reaches us +through the fancy (or imagination, so it be music of the highest +class), and the emotional part of us. If the scope and capacity of the +art, and the evolutionary processes which its history discloses (a +record of which is preserved in its nomenclature), are to be +understood, it is essential that this duality be kept in view. There +is something so potent and elemental in the appeal which music makes +that it is possible to derive pleasure from even an unwilling hearing +or a hearing unaccompanied by effort at analysis; but real +appreciation of its beauty, which means recognition of the qualities +which put it in the realm of art, is conditioned upon intelligent +hearing. The higher the intelligence, the keener will be the +enjoyment, if the former be directed to the spiritual side as well as +the material. + +[Sidenote: _Necessity of intelligent hearing._] + +So far as music is merely agreeably co-ordinated sounds, it may be +reduced to mathematics and its practice to handicraft. But recognition +of design is a condition precedent to the awakening of the fancy or +the imagination, and to achieve such recognition there must be +intelligent hearing in the first instance. For the purposes of this +study, design may be held to be Form in its primary stages, the +recognition of which is possible to every listener who is fond of +music; it is not necessary that he be learned in the science. He need +only be willing to let an intellectual process, which will bring its +own reward, accompany the physical process of hearing. + +[Sidenote: _Tones and musical material._] + +Without discrimination it is impossible to recognize even the crude +materials of music, for the first step is already a co-ordination of +those materials. A tone becomes musical material only by association +with another tone. We might hear it alone, study its quality, and +determine its degree of acuteness or gravity (its pitch, as musicians +say), but it can never become music so long as it remains isolated. +When we recognize that it bears certain relationships with other tones +in respect of time or tune (to use simple terms), it has become for us +musical material. We do not need to philosophize about the nature of +those relationships, but we must recognize their existence. + +[Sidenote: _The beginnings of Form._] + +Thus much we might hear if we were to let music go through our heads +like water through a sieve. Yet the step from that degree of +discrimination to a rudimentary analysis of Form is exceedingly short, +and requires little more than a willingness to concentrate the +attention and exercise the memory. Everyone is willing to do that much +while looking at a picture. Who would look at a painting and rest +satisfied with the impression made upon the sense of sight by the +colors merely? No one, surely. Yet so soon as we look, so as to +discriminate between the outlines, to observe the relationship of +figure to figure, we are indulging in intellectual exercise. If this +be a condition precedent to the enjoyment of a picture (and it plainly +is), how much more so is it in the case of music, which is intangible +and evanescent, which cannot pause a moment for our contemplation +without ceasing to be? + +[Sidenote: _Comparison with a model not possible._] + +There is another reason why we must exercise intelligence in +listening, to which I have already alluded in the first chapter. Our +appreciation of beauty in the plastic arts is helped by the +circumstance that the critical activity is largely a matter of +comparison. Is the picture or the statue a good copy of the object +sought to be represented? Such comparison fails us utterly in music, +which copies nothing that is tangibly present in the external world. + +[Sidenote: _What degree of knowledge is necessary?_] + +[Sidenote: _The Elements._] + +[Sidenote: _Value of memory._] + +It is then necessary to associate the intellect with sense perception +in listening to music. How far is it essential that the intellectual +process shall go? This book being for the untrained, the question +might be put thus: With how little knowledge of the science can an +intelligent listener get along? We are concerned only with his +enjoyment of music or, better, with an effort to increase it without +asking him to become a musician. If he is fond of the art it is more +than likely that the capacity to discriminate sufficiently to +recognize the elements out of which music is made has come to him +intuitively. Does he recognize that musical tones are related to each +other in respect of time and pitch? Then it shall not be difficult for +him to recognize the three elements on which music rests--Melody, +Harmony, and Rhythm. Can he recognize them with sufficient +distinctness to seize upon their manifestations while music is +sounding? Then memory shall come to the aid of discrimination, and he +shall be able to appreciate enough of design to point the way to a +true and lofty appreciation of the beautiful in music. The value of +memory is for obvious reasons very great in musical enjoyment. The +picture remains upon the wall, the book upon the library shelf. If we +have failed to grasp a detail at the first glance or reading, we need +but turn again to the picture or open the book anew. We may see the +picture in a changed light, or read the poem in a different mood, but +the outlines, colors, ideas are fixed for frequent and patient +perusal. Music goes out of existence with every performance, and must +be recreated at every hearing. + +[Sidenote: _An intermediary necessary._] + +Not only that, but in the case of all, so far as some forms are +concerned, and of all who are not practitioners in others, it is +necessary that there shall be an intermediary between the composer and +the listener. The written or printed notes are not music; they are +only signs which indicate to the performer what to do to call tones +into existence such as the composer had combined into an art-work in +his mind. The broadly trained musician can read the symbols; they stir +his imagination, and he hears the music in his imagination as the +composer heard it. But the untaught music-lover alone can get nothing +from the printed page; he must needs wait till some one else shall +again waken for him the + + "Sound of a voice that is still." + +[Sidenote: _The value of memory._] + +This is one of the drawbacks which are bound up in the nature of +music; but it has ample compensation in the unusual pleasure which +memory brings. In the case of the best music, familiarity breeds +ever-growing admiration. New compositions are slowly received; they +make their way to popular appreciation only by repeated performances; +the people like best the songs as well as the symphonies which they +know. The quicker, therefore, that we are in recognizing the melodic, +harmonic, and rhythmic contents of a new composition, and the more apt +our memory in seizing upon them for the operation of the fancy, the +greater shall be our pleasure. + +[Sidenote: _Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm._] + +[Sidenote: _Comprehensiveness of Melody._] + +In simple phrase Melody is a well-ordered series of tones heard +successively; Harmony, a well-ordered series heard simultaneously; +Rhythm, a symmetrical grouping of tonal time units vitalized by +accent. The life-blood of music is Melody, and a complete conception +of the term embodies within itself the essence of both its companions. +A succession of tones without harmonic regulation is not a perfect +element in music; neither is a succession of tones which have harmonic +regulation but are void of rhythm. The beauty and expressiveness, +especially the emotionality, of a musical composition depend upon the +harmonies which either accompany the melody in the form of chords (a +group of melodic intervals sounded simultaneously), or are latent in +the melody itself (harmonic intervals sounded successively). Melody is +Harmony analyzed; Harmony is Melody synthetized. + +[Sidenote: _Repetition._] + +[Sidenote: _A melody analyzed._] + +The fundamental principle of Form is repetition of melodies, which are +to music what ideas are to poetry. Melodies themselves are made by +repetition of smaller fractions called motives (a term borrowed from +the fine arts), phrases, and periods, which derive their individuality +from their rhythmical or intervallic characteristics. Melodies are +not all of the simple kind which the musically illiterate, or the +musically ill-trained, recognize as "tunes," but they all have a +symmetrical organization. The dissection of a simple folk-tune may +serve to make this plain and also indicate to the untrained how a +single feature may be taken as a mark of identification and a +holding-point for the memory. Here is the melody of a Creole song +called sometimes _Pov' piti Lolotte_, sometimes _Pov' piti Momzelle +Zizi_, in the patois of Louisiana and Martinique: + +[Music illustration] + +[Sidenote: _Motives, phrases, and periods._] + +It will be as apparent to the eye of one who cannot read music as it +will to his ear when he hears this melody played, that it is built up +of two groups of notes only. These groups are marked off by the heavy +lines across the staff called bars, whose purpose it is to indicate +rhythmical subdivisions in music. The second, third, fifth, sixth, and +seventh of these groups are repetitions merely of the first group, +which is the germ of the melody, but on different degrees of the +scale; the fourth and eighth groups are identical and are an appendage +hitched to the first group for the purpose of bringing it to a close, +supplying a resting-point craved by man's innate sense of symmetry. +Musicians call such groups cadences. A musical analyst would call each +group a motive, and say that each successive two groups, beginning +with the first, constitute a phrase, each two phrases a period, and +the two periods a melody. We have therefore in this innocent Creole +tune eight motives, four phrases, and two periods; yet its material is +summed up in two groups, one of seven notes, one of five, which only +need to be identified and remembered to enable a listener to recognize +something of the design of a composer if he were to put the melody to +the highest purposes that melody can be put in the art of musical +composition. + +[Sidenote: _Repetition in music._] + +Repetition is the constructive principle which was employed by the +folk-musician in creating this melody; and repetition is the +fundamental principle in all musical construction. It will suffice for +many merely to be reminded of this to appreciate the fact that while +the exercise of memory is a most necessary activity in listening to +music, it lies in music to make that exercise easy. There is +repetition of motives, phrases, and periods in melody; repetition of +melodies in parts; and repetition of parts in the wholes of the larger +forms. + +[Sidenote: _Repetition in poetry._] + +The beginnings of poetic forms are also found in repetition; in +primitive poetry it is exemplified in the refrain or burden, in the +highly developed poetry of the Hebrews in parallelism. The Psalmist +wrote: + + "O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, + Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure." + +[Sidenote: _Key relationship._] + +Here is a period of two members, the latter repeating the thought of +the former. A musical analyst might find in it an admirable analogue +for the first period of a simple melody. He would divide it into four +motives: "Rebuke me not | in thy wrath | neither chasten me | in thy +hot displeasure," and point out as intimate a relationship between +them as exists in the Creole tune. The bond of union between the +motives of the melody as well as that in the poetry illustrates a +principle of beauty which is the most important element in musical +design after repetition, which is its necessary vehicle. It is because +this principle guides the repetition of the tone-groups that together +they form a melody that is perfect, satisfying, and reposeful. It is +the principle of key-relationship, to discuss which fully would carry +me farther into musical science than I am permitted to go. Let this +suffice: A harmony is latent in each group, and the sequence of groups +is such a sequence as the experience of ages has demonstrated to be +most agreeable to the ear. + +[Sidenote: _The rhythmical stamp._] + +[Sidenote: _The principle of Unity._] + +In the case of the Creole melody the listener is helped to a quick +appreciation of its form by the distinct physiognomy which rhythm has +stamped upon it; and it is by noting such a characteristic that the +memory can best be aided in its work of identification. It is not +necessary for a listener to follow all the processes of a composer in +order to enjoy his music, but if he cultivates the habit of following +the principal themes through a work of the higher class he will not +only enjoy the pleasures of memory but will frequently get a glimpse +into the composer's purposes which will stimulate his imagination and +mightily increase his enjoyment. There is nothing can guide him more +surely to a recognition of the principle of unity, which makes a +symphony to be an organic whole instead of a group of pieces which are +only externally related. The greatest exemplar of this principle is +Beethoven; and his music is the best in which to study it for the +reason that he so frequently employs material signs for the spiritual +bond. So forcibly has this been impressed upon me at times that I am +almost willing to believe that a keen analytical student of his music +might arrange his greater works into groups of such as were in process +of composition at the same time without reference to his personal +history. Take the principal theme of the C minor Symphony for example: + +[Music illustration] + +[Sidenote: _A rhythmical motive pursued._] + +This simple, but marvellously pregnant, motive is not only the kernel +of the first movement, it is the fundamental thought of the whole +symphony. We hear its persistent beat in the scherzo as well: + +[Music illustration] + +and also in the last movement: + +[Music illustration] + +More than this, we find the motive haunting the first movement of the +pianoforte sonata in F minor, op. 57, known as the "Sonata +Appassionata," now gloomily, almost morosely, proclamative in the +bass, now interrogative in the treble: + +[Music illustration] + +[Sidenote: _Relationships in Beethoven's works._] + +[Sidenote: _The C minor Symphony and "Appassionata" sonata._] + +[Sidenote: _Beethoven's G major Concerto._] + +Schindler relates that when once he asked Beethoven to tell him what +the F minor and the D minor (Op. 31, No. 2) sonatas meant, he received +for an answer only the enigmatical remark: "Read Shakespeare's +'Tempest.'" Many a student and commentator has since read the +"Tempest" in the hope of finding a clew to the emotional contents +which Beethoven believed to be in the two works, so singularly +associated, only to find himself baffled. It is a fancy, which rests +perhaps too much on outward things, but still one full of suggestion, +that had Beethoven said: "Hear my C minor Symphony," he would have +given a better starting-point to the imagination of those who are +seeking to know what the F minor sonata means. Most obviously it means +music, but it means music that is an expression of one of those +psychological struggles which Beethoven felt called upon more and more +to delineate as he was more and more shut out from the companionship +of the external world. Such struggles are in the truest sense of the +word tempests. The motive, which, according to the story, Beethoven +himself said indicates, in the symphony, the rappings of Fate at the +door of human existence, is common to two works which are also related +in their spiritual contents. Singularly enough, too, in both cases the +struggle which is begun in the first movement and continued in the +third, is interrupted by a period of calm reassuring, soul-fortifying +aspiration, which in the symphony as well as in the sonata takes the +form of a theme with variations. Here, then, the recognition of a +simple rhythmical figure has helped us to an appreciation of the +spiritual unity of the parts of a symphony, and provided a commentary +on the poetical contents of a sonata. But the lesson is not yet +exhausted. Again do we find the rhythm coloring the first movement of +the pianoforte concerto in G major: + +[Music illustration] + +Symphony, concerto, and sonata, as the sketch-books of the master +show, were in process of creation at the same time. + +[Sidenote: _His Seventh Symphony._] + +Thus far we have been helped in identifying a melody and studying +relationships by the rhythmical structure of a single motive. The +demonstration might be extended on the same line into Beethoven's +symphony in A major, in which the external sign of the poetical idea +which underlies the whole work is also rhythmic--so markedly so that +Wagner characterized it most happily and truthfully when he said that +it was "the apotheosis of the dance." Here it is the dactyl, [dactyl +symbol], which in one variation, or another, clings to us almost as +persistently as in Hood's "Bridge of Sighs:" + + "One more unfortunate + Weary of breath, + Rashly importunate, + Gone to her death." + +[Sidenote: _Use of a dactylic figure._] + +We hear it lightly tripping in the first movement: + +[Music illustration] and [Music illustration]; + +gentle, sedate, tender, measured, through its combination with a +spondee in the second: + +[Music illustration]; + +cheerily, merrily, jocosely happy in the Scherzo: + +[Music illustration]; + +hymn-like in the Trio: + +[Music illustration] + +and wildly bacchanalian when subjected to trochaic abbreviation in the +Finale: + +[Music illustration] + +[Sidenote: _Intervallic characteristics._] + +Intervallic characteristics may place the badge of relationship upon +melodies as distinctly as rhythmic. There is no more perfect +illustration of this than that afforded by Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. +Speaking of the subject of its finale, Sir George Grove says: + + "And note--while listening to the simple tune itself, before + the variations begin--how _very_ simple it is; the plain + diatonic scale, not a single chromatic interval, and out of + fifty-six notes only three not consecutive."[A] + +[Sidenote: _The melodies in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony._] + +Earlier in the same work, while combating a statement by Lenz that the +resemblance between the second subject of the first movement and the +choral melody is a "thematic reference of the most striking +importance, vindicating the unity of the entire work, and placing the +whole in a perfectly new light," Sir George says: + + "It is, however, very remarkable that so many of the + melodies in the Symphony should consist of consecutive + notes, and that in no less than four of them the notes + should run up a portion of the scale and down + again--apparently pointing to a consistent condition of + Beethoven's mind throughout this work." + +[Sidenote: _Melodic likenesses._] + +Like Goethe, Beethoven secreted many a mystery in his masterpiece, but +he did not juggle idly with tones, or select the themes of his +symphonies at hap-hazard; he would be open to the charge, however, if +the resemblances which I have pointed out in the Fifth and Seventh +Symphonies, and those disclosed by the following melodies from his +Ninth, should turn out through some incomprehensible revelation to be +mere coincidences: + +From the first movement: + +[Music illustration] + +From the second: + +[Music illustration] + +The choral melody: + +[Music illustration] + +[Sidenote: _Design and Form._] + +From a recognition of the beginnings of design, to which +identification of the composer's thematic material and its simpler +relationships will lead, to so much knowledge of Form as will enable +the reader to understand the later chapters in this book, is but a +step. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] "Beethoven and His Nine Symphonies," p. 374. + + + + +III + +_The Content and Kinds of Music_ + + +[Sidenote: _Metaphysics to be avoided herein._] + +Bearing in mind the purpose of this book, I shall not ask the reader +to accompany me far afield in the region of æsthetic philosophy or +musical metaphysics. A short excursion is all that is necessary to +make plain what is meant by such terms as Absolute music, Programme +music, Classical, Romantic, and Chamber music and the like, which not +only confront us continually in discussion, but stand for things which +we must know if we would read programmes understandingly and +appreciate the various phases in which music presents itself to us. It +is interesting and valuable to know why an art-work stirs up +pleasurable feelings within us, and to speculate upon its relations to +the intellect and the emotions; but the circumstance that +philosophers have never agreed, and probably never will agree, on +these points, so far as the art of music is concerned, alone suffices +to remove them from the field of this discussion. + +[Sidenote: _Personal equation in judgment._] + +Intelligent listening is not conditioned upon such knowledge. Even +when the study is begun, the questions whether or not music has a +content beyond itself, where that content is to be sought, and how +defined, will be decided in each case by the student for himself, on +grounds which may be said to be as much in his nature as they are in +the argument. The attitude of man toward the art is an individual one, +and in some of its aspects defies explanation. + +[Sidenote: _A musical fluid._] + +The amount and kind of pleasure which music gives him are frequently +as much beyond his understanding and control as they are beyond the +understanding and control of the man who sits beside him. They are +consequences of just that particular combination of material and +spiritual elements, just that blending of muscular, nervous, and +cerebral tissues, which make him what he is, which segregate him as +an individual from the mass of humanity. We speak of persons as +susceptible or insusceptible to music as we speak of good and poor +conductors of electricity; and the analogy implied here is +particularly apt and striking. If we were still using the scientific +terms of a few decades ago I should say that a musical fluid might yet +be discovered and its laws correlated with those of heat, light, and +electricity. Like them, when reduced to its lowest terms, music is a +form of motion, and it should not be difficult on this analogy to +construct a theory which would account for the physical phenomena +which accompany the hearing of music in some persons, such as the +recession of blood from the face, or an equally sudden suffusion of +the same veins, a contraction of the scalp accompanied by chilliness +or a prickling sensation, or that roughness of the skin called +goose-flesh, "flesh moved by an idea, flesh horripilated by a +thought." + +[Sidenote: _Origin of musical elements._] + +[Sidenote: _Feelings and counterpoint._] + +It has been denied that feelings are the content of music, or that it +is the mission of music to give expression to feelings; but the +scientific fact remains that the fundamental elements of vocal +music--pitch, quality, and dynamic intensity--are the results of +feelings working upon the vocal organs; and even if Mr. Herbert +Spencer's theory be rejected, it is too late now to deny that music is +conceived by its creators as a language of the emotions and so applied +by them. The German philosopher Herbarth sought to reduce the question +to an absurdity by expressing surprise that musicians should still +believe that feelings could be "the proximate cause of the rules of +simple and double counterpoint;" but Dr. Stainer found a sufficient +answer by accepting the proposition as put, and directing attention to +the fact that the feelings of men having first decided what was +pleasurable in polyphony, and the rules of counterpoint having +afterward been drawn from specimens of pleasurable polyphony, it was +entirely correct to say that feelings are the proximate cause of the +laws of counterpoint. + +[Sidenote: _How composers hear music._] + +It is because so many of us have been taught by poets and romancers to +think that there is a picture of some kind, or a story in every piece +of music, and find ourselves unable to agree upon the picture or the +story in any given case, that confusion is so prevalent among the +musical laity. Composers seldom find difficulty in understanding each +other. They listen for beauty, and if they find it they look for the +causes which have produced it, and in apprehending beauty and +recognizing means and cause they unvolitionally rise to the plane +whence a view of the composer's purposes is clear. Having grasped the +mood of a composition and found that it is being sustained or varied +in a manner accordant with their conceptions of beauty, they occupy +themselves with another kind of differentiation altogether than the +misled disciples of the musical rhapsodists who overlook the general +design and miss the grand proclamation in their search for petty +suggestions for pictures and stories among the details of the +composition. Let musicians testify for us. In his romance, "Ein +Glücklicher Abend," Wagner says: + +[Sidenote: _Wagner's axiom._] + + "That which music expresses is eternal and ideal. It does + not give voice to the passion, the love, the longing of this + or the other individual, under these or the other + circumstances, but to passion, love, longing itself." + +Moritz Hauptmann says: + +[Sidenote: _Hauptmann's._] + + "The same music will admit of the most varied verbal + expositions, and of not one of them can it be correctly said + that it is exhaustive, the right one, and contains the whole + significance of the music. This significance is contained + most definitely in the music itself. It is not music that is + ambiguous; it says the same thing to everybody; it speaks to + mankind and gives voice only to human feelings. Ambiguity + only then makes its appearance when each person attempts to + formulate in his manner the emotional impression which he + has received, when he attempts to fix and hold the ethereal + essence of music, to utter the unutterable." + +[Sidenote: _Mendelssohn's._] + +[Sidenote: _The "Songs without Words."_] + +Mendelssohn inculcated the same lesson in a letter which he wrote to a +young poet who had given titles to a number of the composer's "Songs +Without Words," and incorporated what he conceived to be their +sentiments in a set of poems. He sent his work to Mendelssohn with the +request that the composer inform the writer whether or not he had +succeeded in catching the meaning of the music. He desired the +information because "music's capacity for expression is so vague and +indeterminate." Mendelssohn replied: + + "You give the various numbers of the book such titles as 'I + Think of Thee,' 'Melancholy,' 'The Praise of God,' 'A Merry + Hunt.' I can scarcely say whether I thought of these or + other things while composing the music. Another might find + 'I Think of Thee' where you find 'Melancholy,' and a real + huntsman might consider 'A Merry Hunt' a veritable 'Praise + of God.' But this is not because, as you think, music is + vague. On the contrary, I believe that musical expression is + altogether too definite, that it reaches regions and dwells + in them whither words cannot follow it and must necessarily + go lame when they make the attempt as you would have them + do." + +[Sidenote: _The tonal language._] + +[Sidenote: _Herbert Spencer's definition._] + +[Sidenote: _Natural expression._] + +[Sidenote: _Absolute music._] + +If I were to try to say why musicians, great musicians, speak thus of +their art, my explanation would be that they have developed, farther +than the rest of mankind have been able to develop it, a language of +tones, which, had it been so willed, might have been developed so as +to fill the place now occupied by articulate speech. Herbert Spencer, +though speaking purely as a scientific investigator, not at all as an +artist, defined music as "a language of feelings which may ultimately +enable men vividly and completely to impress on each other the +emotions they experience from moment to moment." We rely upon speech +to do this now, but ever and anon when, in a moment of emotional +exaltation, we are deserted by the articulate word we revert to the +emotional cry which antedates speech, and find that that cry is +universally understood because it is universally felt. More than +speech, if its primitive element of emotionality be omitted, more than +the primitive language of gesture, music is a natural mode of +expression. All three forms have attained their present stage of +development through conventions. Articulate speech has led in the +development; gesture once occupied a high plane (in the pantomimic +dance of the ancients) but has now retrograded; music, supreme at the +outset, then neglected, is but now pushing forward into the place +which its nature entitles it to occupy. When we conceive of an +art-work composed of such elements, and foregoing the adventitious +helps which may accrue to it from conventional idioms based on +association of ideas, we have before us the concept of Absolute music, +whose content, like that of every noble artistic composition, be it of +tones or forms or colors or thoughts expressed in words, is that high +ideal of goodness, truthfulness, and beauty for which all lofty +imaginations strive. Such artworks are the instrumental compositions +in the classic forms; such, too, may be said to be the high type of +idealized "Programme" music, which, like the "Pastoral" symphony of +Beethoven, is designed to awaken emotions like those awakened by the +contemplation of things, but does not attempt to depict the things +themselves. Having mentioned Programme music I must, of course, try to +tell what it is; but the exposition must be preceded by an explanation +of a kind of music which, because of its chastity, is set down as the +finest form of absolute music. This is Chamber music. + +[Sidenote: _Chamber music._] + +[Sidenote: _History of the term._] + +[Sidenote: _Haydn a servant._] + +In a broad sense, but one not employed in modern definition, Chamber +music is all music not designed for performance in the church or +theatre. (Out-of-door music cannot be considered among these artistic +forms of aristocratic descent.) Once, and indeed at the time of its +invention, the term meant music designed especially for the +delectation of the most eminent patrons of the art--the kings and +nobles whose love for it gave it maintenance and encouragement. This +is implied by the term itself, which has the same etymology wherever +the form of music is cultivated. In Italian it is _Musica da Camera_; +in French, _Musique de Chambre_; in German, _Kammermusik_. All the +terms have a common root. The Greek [Greek: kamara] signified an arch, +a vaulted room, or a covered wagon. In the time of the Frankish kings +the word was applied to the room in the royal palace in which the +monarch's private property was kept, and in which he looked after his +private affairs. When royalty took up the cultivation of music it was +as a private, not as a court, function, and the concerts given for +the entertainment of the royal family took place in the king's +chamber, or private room. The musicians were nothing more nor less +than servants in the royal household. This relationship endured into +the present century. Haydn was a _Hausofficier_ of Prince Esterhazy. +As vice-chapelmaster he had to appear every morning in the Prince's +ante-room to receive orders concerning the dinner-music and other +entertainments of the day, and in the certificate of appointment his +conduct is regulated with a particularity which we, who remember him +and reverence his genius but have forgotten his master, think +humiliating in the extreme. + +[Sidenote: _Beethoven's Chamber music._] + +Out of this cultivation of music in the private chamber grew the +characteristics of Chamber music, which we must consider if we would +enjoy it ourselves and understand the great reverence which the great +masters of music have always felt for it. Beethoven was the first +great democrat among musicians. He would have none of the shackles +which his predecessors wore, and compelled aristocracy of birth to bow +to aristocracy of genius. But such was his reverence for the style of +music which had grown up in the chambers of the great that he devoted +the last three years of his life almost exclusively to its +composition; the peroration of his proclamation to mankind consists of +his last quartets--the holiest of holy things to the Chamber musicians +of to-day. + +[Sidenote: _The characteristics of Chamber music._] + +Chamber music represents pure thought, lofty imagination, and deep +learning. These attributes are encouraged by the idea of privacy which +is inseparable from the form. Composers find it the finest field for +the display of their talents because their own skill in creating is to +be paired with trained skill in hearing. Its representative pieces are +written for strings alone--trios, quartets, and quintets. With the +strings are sometimes associated a pianoforte, or one or more of the +solo wind instruments--oboe, clarinet, or French horn; and as a rule +the compositions adhere to classical lines (see Chapter V.). Of +necessity the modesty of the apparatus compels it to forego nearly +all the adventitious helps with which other forms of composition gain +public approval. In the delineative arts Chamber music shows analogy +with correct drawing and good composition, the absence of which cannot +be atoned for by the most gorgeous coloring. In no other style is +sympathy between performers and listeners so necessary, and for that +reason Chamber music should always be heard in a small room with +performers and listeners joined in angelic wedlock. Communities in +which it flourishes under such conditions are musical. + +[Sidenote: _Programme music._] + +[Sidenote: _The value of superscriptions._] + +[Sidenote: _The rule of judgment._] + +Properly speaking, the term Programme music ought to be applied only +to instrumental compositions which make a frank effort to depict +scenes, incidents, or emotional processes to which the composer +himself gives the clew either by means of a descriptive title or a +verbal motto. It is unfortunate that the term has come to be loosely +used. In a high sense the purest and best music in the world is +programmatic, its programme being, as I have said, that "high ideal of +goodness, truthfulness, and beauty" which is the content of all true +art. But the origin of the term was vulgar, and the most contemptible +piece of tonal imitation now claims kinship in the popular mind with +the exquisitely poetical creations of Schumann and the "Pastoral" +symphony of Beethoven; and so it is become necessary to defend it in +the case of noble compositions. A programme is not necessarily, as +Ambros asserts, a certificate of poverty and an admission on the part +of the composer that his art has got beyond its natural bounds. +Whether it be merely a suggestive title, as in the case of some of the +compositions of Beethoven, Schumann, and Mendelssohn, or an extended +commentary, as in the symphonic poems of Liszt and the symphonies of +Berlioz and Raff, the programme has a distinct value to the composer +as well as the hearer. It can make the perceptive sense more +impressible to the influence of the music; it can quicken the fancy, +and fire the imagination; it can prevent a gross misconception of the +intentions of a composer and the character of his composition. +Nevertheless, in determining the artistic value of the work, the +question goes not to the ingenuity of the programme or the clearness +with which its suggestions have been carried out, but to the beauty of +the music itself irrespective of the verbal commentary accompanying +it. This rule must be maintained in order to prevent a degradation of +the object of musical expression. The vile, the ugly, the painful are +not fit subjects for music; music renounces, contravenes, negatives +itself when it attempts their delineation. + +A classification of Programme music might be made on these lines: + +[Sidenote: _Kinds of Programme music._] + +I. Descriptive pieces which rest on imitation or suggestion of natural +sounds. + +II. Pieces whose contents are purely musical, but the mood of which is +suggested by a poetical title. + +III. Pieces in which the influence which determined their form and +development is indicated not only by a title but also by a motto which +is relied upon to mark out a train of thought for the listener which +will bring his fancy into union with that of the composer. The motto +may be verbal or pictorial. + +IV. Symphonies or other composite works which have a title to indicate +their general character, supplemented by explanatory superscriptions +for each portion. + +[Sidenote: _Imitation of natural sounds._] + +[Sidenote: _The nightingale._] + +[Sidenote: _The cat._] + +[Sidenote: _The cuckoo._] + +The first of these divisions rests upon the employment of the lowest +form of conventional musical idiom. The material which the natural +world provides for imitation by the musician is exceedingly scant. +Unless we descend to mere noise, as in the descriptions of storms and +battles (the shrieking of the wind, the crashing of thunder, and the +roar of artillery--invaluable aids to the cheap descriptive writer), +we have little else than the calls of a few birds. Nearly thirty years +ago Wilhelm Tappert wrote an essay which he called "Zooplastik in +Tönen." He ransacked the musical literature of centuries, but in all +his examples the only animals the voices of which are unmistakable are +four fowls--the cuckoo, quail (that is the German bird, not the +American, which has a different call), the cock, and the hen. He has +many descriptive sounds which suggest other birds and beasts, but only +by association of idea; separated from title or text they suggest +merely what they are--musical phrases. A reiteration of the rhythmical +figure called the "Scotch snap," breaking gradually into a trill, is +the common symbol of the nightingale's song, but it is not a copy of +that song; three or four tones descending chromatically are given as +the cat's mew, but they are made to be such only by placing the +syllables _Mi-au_ (taken from the vocabulary of the German cat) under +them. Instances of this kind might be called characterization, or +description by suggestion, and some of the best composers have made +use of them, as will appear in these pages presently. The list being +so small, and the lesson taught so large, it may be well to give a few +striking instances of absolutely imitative music. The first bird to +collaborate with a composer seems to have been the cuckoo, whose notes + +[Music illustration: Cuck-oo!] + +had sounded in many a folk-song ere Beethoven thought of enlisting the +little solo performer in his "Pastoral" symphony. It is to be borne in +mind, however, as a fact having some bearing on the artistic value of +Programme music, that Beethoven's cuckoo changes his note to please +the musician, and, instead of singing a minor third, he sings a major +third thus: + +[Music illustration: Cuck-oo!] + +[Sidenote: _Cock and hen._] + +As long ago as 1688 Jacob Walter wrote a musical piece entitled +"Gallina et Gallo," in which the hen was delineated in this theme: + +[Music illustration: _Gallina._] + +while the cock had the upper voice in the following example, his clear +challenge sounding above the cackling of his mate: + +[Music illustration: _Gallo._] + +The most effective use yet made of the song of the hen, however, is in +"La Poule," one of Rameau's "Pièces de Clavecin," printed in 1736, a +delightful composition with this subject: + +[Music illustration: Co co co co co co co dai, etc.] + +[Sidenote: _The quail._] + +The quail's song is merely a monotonic rhythmical figure to which +German fancy has fitted words of pious admonition: + +[Music illustration: Fürch-te Gott! Lo-be Gott!] + +[Sidenote: _Conventional idioms._] + +[Sidenote: _Association of ideas._] + +[Sidenote: _Fancy and imagination._] + +[Sidenote: _Harmony and emotionality._] + +The paucity of examples in this department is a demonstration of the +statement made elsewhere that nature does not provide music with +models for imitation as it does painting and sculpture. The fact that, +nevertheless, we have come to recognize a large number of idioms based +on association of ideas stands the composer in good stead whenever he +ventures into the domain of delineative or descriptive music, and this +he can do without becoming crudely imitative. Repeated experiences +have taught us to recognize resemblances between sequences or +combinations of tones and things or ideas, and on these analogies, +even though they be purely conventional (that is agreed upon, as we +have agreed that a nod of the head shall convey assent, a shake of the +head dissent, and a shrug of the shoulders doubt or indifference), the +composers have built up a voluminous vocabulary of idioms which need +only to be helped out by a suggestion to the mind to be eloquently +illustrative. "Sometimes hearing a melody or harmony arouses an +emotion like that aroused by the contemplation of a thing. Minor +harmonies, slow movements, dark tonal colorings, combine directly to +put a musically susceptible person in a mood congenial to thoughts of +sorrow and death; and, inversely, the experience of sorrow, or the +contemplation of death, creates affinity for minor harmonies, slow +movements, and dark tonal colorings. Or we recognize attributes in +music possessed also by things, and we consort the music and the +things, external attributes bringing descriptive music into play, +which excites the fancy, internal attributes calling for an exercise +of the loftier faculty, imagination, to discern their meaning."[B] The +latter kind is delineative music of the higher order, the kind that I +have called idealized programme music, for it is the imagination +which, as Ruskin has said, "sees the heart and inner nature and makes +them felt, but is often obscure, mysterious, and interrupted in its +giving out of outer detail," which is "a seer in the prophetic sense, +calling the things that are not as though they were, and forever +delighting to dwell on that which is not tangibly present." In this +kind of music, harmony, the real seat of emotionality in music, is an +eloquent factor, and, indeed, there is no greater mystery in the art, +which is full of mystery, than the fact that the lowering of the +second tone in the chord, which is the starting-point of harmony, +should change an expression of satisfaction, energetic action, or +jubilation into an accent of pain or sorrow. The major mode is "to +do," the minor, "to suffer:" + +[Sidenote: _Major and minor._] + +[Music illustration: Hur-rah! A-las!] + +[Sidenote: _Music and movement._] + +How near a large number of suggestions, which are based wholly upon +experience or association of ideas, lie to the popular fancy, might be +illustrated by scores of examples. Thoughts of religious functions +arise in us the moment we hear the trombones intone a solemn phrase in +full harmony; an oboe melody in sixth-eighth time over a drone bass +brings up a pastoral picture of a shepherd playing upon his pipe; +trumpets and drums suggest war, and so on. The delineation of +movement is easier to the musician than it is to the poet. Handel, who +has conveyed the sensation of a "darkness which might be felt," in a +chorus of his "Israel in Egypt," by means which appeal solely to the +imagination stirred by feelings, has in the same work pictured the +plague of frogs with a frank _naïveté_ which almost upsets our +seriousness of demeanor, by suggesting the characteristic movement of +the creatures in the instrumental accompaniment to the arioso, "Their +land brought forth frogs," which begins thus: + +[Sidenote: _Handel's frogs._] + +[Music illustration] + +[Sidenote: _The movement of water._] + +We find the gentle flux and reflux of water as if it were lapping a +rocky shore in the exquisite figure out of which Mendelssohn +constructed his "Hebrides" overture: + +[Music illustration] + +and in fancy we ride on mighty surges when we listen to the principal +subject of Rubinstein's "Ocean" symphony: + +[Music illustration] + +In none of these instances can the composer be said to be imitative. +Music cannot copy water, but it can do what water does, and so suggest +water. + +[Sidenote: _High and low._] + +Some of the most common devices of composers are based on conceptions +that are wholly arbitrary. A musical tone cannot have position in +space such as is indicated by high or low, yet so familiar is the +association of acuteness of pitch with height, and gravity of pitch +with depth, that composers continually delineate high things with +acute tones and low things with grave tones, as witness Handel in one +of the choruses of "The Messiah:" + +[Music illustration: Glo-ry to God in the high-est, and peace on +earth.] + +[Sidenote: _Ascent, descent, and distance delineated._] + +Similarly, too, does Beethoven describe the ascent into heaven and the +descent into hell in the Credo of his mass in D. Beethoven's music, +indeed, is full of tone-painting, and because it exemplifies a double +device I make room for one more illustration. It is from the cantata +"Becalmed at Sea, and a Prosperous Voyage," and in it the composer +pictures the immensity of the sea by a sudden, extraordinary spreading +out of his harmonies, which is musical, and dwelling a long time on +the word "distance" (_Weite_) which is rhetorical: + +[Music illustration: In der un-ge-heu-'ren Wei-te.] + +[Sidenote: _Bald imitation bad art._] + +[Sidenote: _Vocal music and delineation._] + +[Sidenote: _Beethoven's canon._] + +The extent to which tone-painting is justified is a question which +might profitably concern us; but such a discussion as it deserves +would far exceed the limits set for this book, and must be foregone. +It cannot be too forcibly urged, however, as an aid to the listener, +that efforts at musical cartooning have never been made by true +composers, and that in the degree that music attempts simply to copy +external things it falls in the scale of artistic truthfulness and +value. Vocal music tolerates more of the descriptive element than +instrumental because it is a mixed art; in it the purpose of music is +to illustrate the poetry and, by intensifying the appeal to the fancy, +to warm the emotions. Every piece of vocal music, moreover, carries +its explanatory programme in its words. Still more tolerable and even +righteous is it in the opera where it is but one of several factors +which labor together to make up the sum of dramatic representation. +But it must ever remain valueless unless it be idealized. Mendelssohn, +desiring to put _Bully Bottom_ into the overture to "A Midsummer +Night's Dream," did not hesitate to use tones which suggest the bray +of a donkey, yet the effect, like Handel's frogs and flies in +"Israel," is one of absolute musical value. The canon which ought +continually to be before the mind of the listener is that which +Beethoven laid down with most painstaking care when he wrote the +"Pastoral" symphony. Desiring to inform the listeners what were the +images which inspired the various movements (in order, of course, that +they might the better enter into the work by recalling them), he gave +each part a superscription thus: + +[Sidenote: _The "Pastoral" symphony._] + + I. "The agreeable and cheerful sensations awakened by + arrival in the country." + + II. "Scene by the brook." + + III. "A merrymaking of the country folk." + + IV. "Thunder-storm." + + V. "Shepherds' song--feelings of charity combined with + gratitude to the Deity after the storm." + +In the title itself he included an admonitory explanation which should +have everlasting validity: "Pastoral Symphony; more expression of +feeling than painting." How seriously he thought on the subject we +know from his sketch-books, in which occur a number of notes, some of +which were evidently hints for superscriptions, some records of his +convictions on the subject of descriptive music. The notes are +reprinted in Nottebohm's "Zweite Beethoveniana," but I borrow Sir +George Grove's translation: + +[Sidenote: _Beethoven's notes on descriptive music._] + + "The hearers should be allowed to discover the situations." + + "Sinfonia caracteristica, or a recollection of country + life." + + "All painting in instrumental music, if pushed too far, is a + failure." + + "Sinfonia pastorella. Anyone who has an idea of country life + can make out for himself the intentions of the author + without many titles." + + "People will not require titles to recognize the general + intention to be more a matter of feeling than of painting in + sounds." + + "Pastoral symphony: No picture, but something in which the + emotions are expressed which are aroused in men by the + pleasure of the country (or), in which some feelings of + country life are set forth."[C] + +As to the relation of programme to music Schumann laid down an +admirable maxim when he said that while good music was not harmed by a +descriptive title it was a bad indication if a composition needed one. + +[Sidenote: _Classic and Romantic._] + +There are, among all the terms used in music, no words of vaguer +meaning than Classic and Romantic. The idea which they convey most +widely in conjunction is that of antithesis. When the Romantic School +of composers is discussed it is almost universally presented as +something opposed in character to the Classical School. There is +little harm in this if we but bear in mind that all the terms which +have come into use to describe different phases of musical development +are entirely artificial and arbitrary--that they do not stand for +anything absolute, but only serve as platforms of observation. If the +terms had a fixed meaning we ought to be able, since they have +established themselves in the language of history and criticism, to +describe unambiguously and define clearly the boundary which separates +them. This, however, is impossible. Each generation, nay, each +decade, fixes the meaning of the words for itself and decides what +works shall go into each category. It ought to be possible to discover +a principle, a touchstone, which shall emancipate us from the +mischievous and misleading notions that have so long prompted men to +make the partitions between the schools out of dates and names. + +[Sidenote: _Trench's definition of "classical."_] + +The terms were borrowed from literary criticism; but even there, in +the words of Archbishop Trench, "they either say nothing at all or say +something erroneous." Classical has more to defend it than Romantic, +because it has greater antiquity and, in one sense, has been used with +less arbitrariness. + + "The term," says Trench, "is drawn from the political + economy of Rome. Such a man was rated as to his income in + the third class, such another in the fourth, and so on, and + he who was in the highest was emphatically said to be of the + class, _classicus_, a class man, without adding the number + as in that case superfluous; while all others were _infra + classem_. Hence by an obvious analogy the best authors were + rated as _classici_, or men of the highest class; just as in + English we say 'men of rank' absolutely for men who are in + the highest ranks of the State." + +Thus Trench, and his historical definition, explains why in music also +there is something more than a lurking suggestion of excellence in the +conception of "classical;" but that fact does not put away the quarrel +which we feel exists between Classic and Romantic. + +[Sidenote: _Romantic in literature._] + +[Sidenote: _Schumann and Jean Paul._] + +[Sidenote: _Weber's operas._] + +[Sidenote: _Mendelssohn._] + +As applied to literature Romantic was an adjective affected by certain +poets, first in Germany, then in France, who wished to introduce a +style of thought and expression different from that of those who +followed old models. Intrinsically, of course, the term does not imply +any such opposition but only bears witness to the source from which +the poets drew their inspiration. This was the imaginative literature +of the Middle Ages, the fantastical stories of chivalry and knighthood +written in the Romance, or Romanic languages, such as Italian, +Spanish, and Provençal. The principal elements of these stories were +the marvellous and the supernatural. The composers whose names first +spring into our minds when we think of the Romantic School are men +like Mendelssohn and Schumann, who drew much of their inspiration from +the young writers of their time who were making war on stilted +rhetoric and conventionalism of phrase. Schumann touches hands with +the Romantic poets in their strivings in two directions. His artistic +conduct, especially in his early years, is inexplicable if Jean Paul +be omitted from the equation. His music rebels against the formalism +which had held despotic sway over the art, and also seeks to disclose +the beauty which lies buried in the world of mystery in and around us, +and give expression to the multitude of emotions to which unyielding +formalism had refused adequate utterance. This, I think, is the chief +element of Romanticism. Another has more of an external nature and +genesis, and this we find in the works of such composers as Von Weber, +who is Romantic chiefly in his operas, because of the supernaturalism +and chivalry in their stories, and Mendelssohn, who, while distinctly +Romantic in many of his strivings, was yet so great a master of form, +and so attached to it, that the Romantic side of him was not fully +developed. + +[Sidenote: _A definition of "Classical" in music._] + +[Sidenote: _The creative and conservative principles._] + +[Sidenote: _Musical laws of necessity progressive._] + +[Sidenote: _Bach and Romanticism._] + +[Sidenote: _Creation and conservation._] + +If I were to attempt a definition it would be this: Classical +composers are those of the first rank (to this extent we yield to the +ancient Roman conception) who have developed music to the highest +pitch of perfection on its formal side and, in obedience to generally +accepted laws, preferring æsthetic beauty, pure and simple, over +emotional content, or, at any rate, refusing to sacrifice form to +characteristic expression. Romantic composers are those who have +sought their ideals in other regions and striven to give expression to +them irrespective of the restrictions and limitations of form and the +conventions of law--composers with whom, in brief, content outweighs +manner. This definition presents Classicism as the regulative and +conservative principle in the history of the art, and Romanticism as +the progressive, regenerative, and creative principle. It is easy to +see how the notion of contest between them grew up, and the only harm +which can come from such a notion will ensue only if we shut our eyes +to the fact that it is a contest between two elements whose very +opposition stimulates life, and whose union, perfect, peaceful, +mutually supplemental, is found in every really great art-work. No law +which fixes, and hence limits, form, can remain valid forever. Its end +is served when it enforces itself long enough to keep lawlessness in +check till the test of time has determined what is sound, sweet, and +wholesome in the innovations which are always crowding eagerly into +every creative activity in art and science. In art it is ever true, as +_Faust_ concludes, that "In the beginning was the deed." The laws of +composition are the products of compositions; and, being such, they +cannot remain unalterable so long as the impulse freshly to create +remains. All great men are ahead of their time, and in all great +music, no matter when written, you shall find instances of profounder +meaning and deeper or newer feeling than marked the generality of +contemporary compositions. So Bach frequently floods his formal +utterances with Romantic feeling, and the face of Beethoven, serving +at the altar in the temple of Beauty, is transfigured for us by divine +light. The principles of creation and conservation move onward +together, and what is Romantic to-day becomes Classic to-morrow. +Romanticism is fluid Classicism. It is the emotional stimulus +informing Romanticism which calls music into life, but no sooner is it +born, free, untrammelled, nature's child, than the regulative +principle places shackles upon it; but it is enslaved only that it may +become and remain art. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[B] "Studies in the Wagnerian Drama," p. 22. + +[C] "Beethoven and His Nine Symphonies," by George Grove, C.B., 2d +ed., p. 191. + + + + +IV + +_The Modern Orchestra_ + + +[Sidenote: _The orchestra as an instrument._] + +[Sidenote: _What may be heard from a band._] + +The most eloquent, potent, and capable instrument of music in the +world is the modern orchestra. It is the instrument whose employment +by the classical composers and the geniuses of the Romantic School in +the middle of our century marks the high tide of the musical art. It +is an instrument, moreover, which is never played upon without giving +a great object-lesson in musical analysis, without inviting the eye to +help the ear to discern the cause of the sounds which ravish our +senses and stir up pleasurable emotions. Yet the popular knowledge of +its constituent parts, of the individual value and mission of the +factors which go to make up its sum, is scarcely greater than the +popular knowledge of the structure of a symphony or sonata. All this +is the more deplorable since at least a rudimentary knowledge of these +things might easily be gained, and in gaining it the student would +find a unique intellectual enjoyment, and have his ears unconsciously +opened to a thousand beauties in the music never perceived before. He +would learn, for instance, to distinguish the characteristic timbre of +each of the instruments in the band; and after that to the delight +found in what may be called the primary colors he would add that which +comes from analyzing the vast number of tints which are the products +of combination. Noting the capacity of the various instruments and the +manner in which they are employed, he would get glimpses into the +mental workshop of the composer. He would discover that there are +conventional means of expression in his art analogous to those in the +other arts; and collating his methods with the effects produced, he +would learn something of the creative artist's purposes. He would find +that while his merely sensuous enjoyment would be left unimpaired, and +the emotional excitement which is a legitimate fruit of musical +performance unchecked, these pleasures would have others consorted +with them. His intellectual faculties would be agreeably excited, and +he would enjoy the pleasures of memory, which are exemplified in music +more delightfully and more frequently than in any other art, because +of the rôle which repetition of parts plays in musical composition. + +[Sidenote: _Familiar instruments._] + +[Sidenote: _The instrumental choirs._] + +The argument is as valid in the study of musical forms as in the study +of the orchestra, but it is the latter that is our particular business +in this chapter. Everybody listening to an orchestral concert +recognizes the physical forms of the violins, flutes, cornets, and big +drum; but even of these familiar instruments the voices are not always +recognized. As for the rest of the harmonious fraternity, few give +heed to them, even while enjoying the music which they produce; yet +with a few words of direction anybody can study the instruments of the +band at an orchestral concert. Let him first recognize the fact that +to the mind of a composer an orchestra always presents itself as a +combination of four groups of instruments--choirs, let us call them, +with unwilling apology to the lexicographers. These choirs are: first, +the viols of four sorts--violins, violas, violoncellos, and +double-basses, spoken of collectively as the "string quartet;" second, +the wind instruments of wood (the "wood-winds" in the musician's +jargon)--flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons; third, the wind +instruments of brass (the "brass")--trumpets, horns, trombones, and +bass tuba. In all of these subdivisions there are numerous variations +which need not detain us now. A further subdivision might be made in +each with reference to the harmony voices (showing an analogy with the +four voices of a vocal choir--soprano, contralto, tenor, and bass); +but to go into this might make the exposition confusing. The fourth +"choir" (here the apology to the lexicographers must be repeated with +much humility and earnestness) consists of the instruments of +percussion--the kettle-drums, big drum, cymbals, triangle, bell chime, +etc. (sometimes spoken of collectively in the United States as "the +battery"). + +[Illustration: SEATING PLAN OF THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY.] + +[Sidenote: _How orchestras are seated._] + +[Sidenote: _Plan of the New York Philharmonic._] + +The disposition of these instruments in our orchestras is largely a +matter of individual taste and judgment in the conductor, though the +general rule is exemplified in the plan given herewith, showing how +Mr. Anton Seidl has arranged the desks for the concerts of the +Philharmonic Society of New York. Mr. Theodore Thomas's arrangement +differed very little from that of Mr. Seidl, the most noticeable +difference being that he placed the viola-players beside the second +violinists, where Mr. Seidl has the violoncellists. Mr. Seidl's +purpose in making the change was to gain an increase in sonority for +the viola part, the position to the right of the stage (the left of +the audience) enabling the viola-players to hold their instruments +with the F-holes toward the listeners instead of away from them. The +relative positions of the harmonious battalions, as a rule, are as +shown in the diagram. In the foreground, the violins, violas, and +'cellos; in the middle distance, the wood-winds; in the background, +the brass and the battery; the double-basses flanking the whole body. +This distribution of forces is dictated by considerations of sonority, +the most assertive instruments--the brass and drums--being placed +farthest from the hearers, and the instruments of the viol tribe, +which are the real backbone of the band and make their effect by a +massing of voices in each part, having the place of honor and greatest +advantage. Of course it is understood that I am speaking of a concert +orchestra. In the case of theatrical or operatic bands the arrangement +of the forces is dependent largely upon the exigencies of space. + +[Sidenote: _Solo instruments._] + +Outside the strings the instruments are treated by composers as solo +instruments, a single flute, oboe, clarinet, or other wind instrument +sometimes doing the same work in the development of the composition as +the entire body of first violins. As a rule, the wood-winds are used +in pairs, the purpose of this being either to fill the harmony when +what I may call the principal thought of the composition is consigned +to a particular choir, or to strengthen a voice by permitting two +instruments to play in unison. + +[Sidenote: _Groupings for harmony effects._] + +[Sidenote: _Wagner's instrumental characterization._] + +[Sidenote: _An instrumental language._] + +Each choir, except the percussion instruments, is capable of playing +in full harmony; and this effect is frequently used by composers. In +"Lohengrin," which for that reason affords to the amateur an admirable +opportunity for orchestral study, Wagner resorts to this device in +some instances for the sake of dramatic characterization. _Elsa_, a +dreamy, melancholy maiden, crushed under the weight of wrongful +accusation, and sustained only by the vision of a seraphic champion +sent by Heaven to espouse her cause, is accompanied on her entrance +and sustained all through her scene of trial by the dulcet tones of +the wood-winds, the oboe most often carrying the melody. _Lohengrin's_ +superterrestrial character as a Knight of the Holy Grail is prefigured +in the harmonies which seem to stream from the violins, and in the +prelude tell of the bringing of the sacred vessel of Christ's passion +to Monsalvat; but in his chivalric character he is greeted by the +militant trumpets in a strain of brilliant puissance and rhythmic +energy. Composers have studied the voices of the instruments so long +and well, and have noted the kind of melodies and harmonies in which +the voices are most effective, that they have formulated what might +almost be called an instrumental language. Though the effective +capacity of each instrument is restricted not only by its mechanics, +but also by the quality of its tones--a melody conceived for one +instrument sometimes becoming utterly inexpressive and unbeautiful by +transferrence to another--the range of effects is extended almost to +infinity by means of combination, or, as a painter might say, by +mixing the colors. The art of writing effectively for instruments in +combination is the art of instrumentation or orchestration, in which +Berlioz and Wagner were Past Grand Masters. + +[Sidenote: _Number of instruments._] + +The number of instruments of each kind in an orchestra may also be +said to depend measurably upon the music, or the use to which the band +is to be put. Neither in instruments nor in numbers is there absolute +identity between a dramatic and a symphonic orchestra. The apparatus +of the former is generally much more varied and complex, because of +the vast development of variety in dramatic expression stimulated by +Wagner. + +[Sidenote: _Symphony and dramatic orchestras._] + +The modern symphony, especially the symphonic poem, shows the +influence of this dramatic tendency, but not in the same degree. A +comparison between model bands in each department will disclose what +is called the normal orchestral organization. For the comparison (see +page 82), I select the bands of the first Wagner Festival held in +Bayreuth in 1876, the Philharmonic Society of New York, the Boston +Symphony Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. + +[Sidenote: _Instruments rarely used._] + +Instruments like the corno di bassetto, bass trumpet, tenor tuba, +contra-bass tuba, and contra-bass trombone are so seldom called for in +the music played by concert orchestras that they have no place in +their regular lists. They are employed when needed, however, and the +horns and other instruments are multiplied when desirable effects are +to be obtained by such means. + +[Sidenote: _Orchestras compared._] + + New York +Instruments Bayreuth. Philharmonic. Boston. Chicago. + +First violins 16 18 16 16 +Second violins 16 18 14 16 +Violas 12 14 10 10 +Violoncellos 12 14 8 10 +Double-basses 8 14 8 9 +Flutes 3 3 3 3 +Oboes 3 3 2 3 +English horn 1 1 1 1 +Clarinets 3 3 3 3 +Basset-horn 1 0 0 0 +Bassoons 3 3 3 3 +Trumpets or cornets 3 3 4 4 +Horns 8 4 4 4 +Trombones 3 3 3 3 +Bass trumpet 1 0 0 1 +Tenor tubas 2 0 2 4 +Bass tubas 2 1 2 1 +Contra-bass tuba 1 0 1 0 +Contra-bass trombone 1 0 0 1 +Tympani (pairs) 2 2 2 2 +Bass drum 1 1 1 1 +Cymbals (pairs) 1 1 1 1 +Harps 6 1 1 2 + +[Sidenote: _The string quartet._] + +[Sidenote: _Old laws against instrumentalists._] + +[Sidenote: _Early instrumentation._] + +[Sidenote: _Handel's orchestra._] + +The string quartet, it will be seen, makes up nearly three-fourths of +a well-balanced orchestra. It is the only choir which has numerous +representation of its constituent units. This was not always so, but +is the fruit of development in the art of instrumentation which is the +newest department in music. Vocal music had reached its highest point +before instrumental music made a beginning as an art. The former was +the pampered child of the Church, the latter was long an outlaw. As +late as the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries instrumentalists were +vagabonds in law, like strolling players. They had none of the rights +of citizenship; the religious sacraments were denied them; their +children were not permitted to inherit property or learn an honourable +trade; and after death the property for which they had toiled +escheated to the crown. After the instruments had achieved the +privilege of artistic utterance, they were for a long time mere +slavish imitators of the human voice. Bach treated them with an +insight into their possibilities which was far in advance of his time, +for which reason he is the most modern composer of the first half of +the eighteenth century; but even in Handel's case the rule was to +treat them chiefly as supports for the voices. He multiplied them just +as he did the voices in his choruses, consorting a choir of oboes and +bassoons, and another of trumpets of almost equal numbers with his +violins. + +[Sidenote: _The modern band._] + +The so-called purists in England talk a great deal about restoring +Handel's orchestra in performances of his oratorios, utterly unmindful +of the fact that to our ears, accustomed to the myriad-hued orchestra +of to-day, the effect would seem opaque, heavy, unbalanced, and +without charm were a band of oboes to play in unison with the violins, +another of bassoons to double the 'cellos, and half a dozen trumpets +to come flaring and crashing into the musical mass at intervals. Gluck +in the opera, and Haydn and Mozart in the symphony, first disclosed +the charm of the modern orchestra with the wind instruments +apportioned to the strings so as to obtain the multitude of tonal +tints which we admire to-day. On the lines which they marked out the +progress has been exceedingly rapid and far-reaching. + +[Sidenote: _Capacity of the orchestra._] + +[Sidenote: _The extremes of range._] + +In the hands of the latter-day Romantic composers, and with the help +of the instrument-makers, who have marvellously increased the capacity +of the wind instruments, and remedied the deficiencies which +embarrassed the Classical writers, the orchestra has developed into an +instrument such as never entered the mind of the wildest dreamer of +the last century. Its range of expression is almost infinite. It can +strike like a thunder-bolt, or murmur like a zephyr. Its voices are +multitudinous. Its register is coextensive in theory with that of the +modern pianoforte, reaching from the space immediately below the sixth +added line under the bass staff to the ninth added line above the +treble staff. These two extremes, which belong respectively to the +bass tuba and piccolo flute, are not at the command of every player, +but they are within the capacity of the instruments, and mark the +orchestra's boundaries in respect of pitch. The gravest note is almost +as deep as any in which the ordinary human ear can detect pitch, and +the acutest reaches the same extremity in the opposite direction. + +[Sidenote: _The viols._] + +[Sidenote: _The violin._] + +With all the changes that have come over the orchestra in the course +of the last two hundred years, the string quartet has remained its +chief factor. Its voice cannot grow monotonous or cloying, for, +besides its innate qualities, it commands a more varied manner of +expression than all the other instruments combined. The viol, which +term I shall use generically to indicate all the instruments of the +quartet, is the only instrument in the band, except the harp, that can +play harmony as well as melody. Its range is the most extensive; it is +more responsive to changes in manipulation; it is endowed more richly +than any other instrument with varieties of timbre; it has an +incomparable facility of execution, and answers more quickly and more +eloquently than any of its companions to the feelings of the player. A +great advantage which the viol possesses over wind instruments is +that, not being dependent on the breath of the player, there is +practically no limit to its ability to sustain tones. It is because +of this long list of good qualities that it is relied on to provide +the staff of life to instrumental music. The strings as commonly used +show four members of the viol family, distinguished among themselves +by their size, and the quality in the changes of tone which grows out +of the differences in size. The violins (Appendix, Plate I.) are the +smallest members of the family. Historically they are the culmination +of a development toward diminutiveness, for in their early days viols +were larger than they are now. When the violin of to-day entered the +orchestra (in the score of Monteverde's opera "Orfeo") it was +specifically described as a "little French violin." Its voice, Berlioz +says, is the "true female voice of the orchestra." Generally the +violin part of an orchestral score is two-voiced, but the two groups +may be split into a great number. In one passage in "Tristan und +Isolde" Wagner divides his first and second violins into sixteen +groups. Such divisions, especially in the higher regions, are +productive of entrancing effects. + +[Sidenote: _Violin effects._] + +[Sidenote: _Pizzicato._] + +[Sidenote: _"Col legno dall'arco."_] + +[Sidenote: _Harmonics._] + +[Sidenote: _Vibrato._] + +[Sidenote: _"Con sordino."_] + +The halo of sound which streams from the beginning and end of the +"Lohengrin" prelude is produced by this device. High and close +harmonies from divided violins always sound ethereal. Besides their +native tone quality (that resulting from a string stretched over a +sounding shell set to vibrating by friction), the violins have a +number of modified qualities resulting from changes in manipulation. +Sometimes the strings are plucked (_pizzicato_), when the result is a +short tone something like that of a banjo with the metallic clang +omitted; very dainty effects can thus be produced, and though it +always seems like a degradation of the instrument so pre-eminently +suited to a broad singing style, no less significant a symphonist than +Tschaikowsky has written a Scherzo in which the violins are played +_pizzicato_ throughout the movement. Ballet composers frequently +resort to the piquant effect, but in the larger and more serious forms +of composition, the device is sparingly used. Differences in quality +and expressiveness of tone are also produced by varied methods of +applying the bow to the strings: with stronger or lighter pressure; +near the bridge, which renders the tone hard and brilliant, and over +the end of the finger-board, which softens it; in a continuous manner +(_legato_), or detached (_staccato_). Weird effects in dramatic music +are sometimes produced by striking the strings with the wood of the +bow, Wagner resorting to this means to delineate the wicked glee of +his dwarf _Mime_, and Meyerbeer to heighten the uncanniness of +_Nelusko's_ wild song in the third act of "L'Africaine." Another class +of effects results from the manner in which the strings are "stopped" +by the fingers of the left hand. When they are not pressed firmly +against the finger-board but touched lightly at certain places called +nodes by the acousticians, so that the segments below the finger are +permitted to vibrate along with the upper portion, those peculiar +tones of a flute-like quality called harmonics or flageolet tones are +produced. These are oftener heard in dramatic music than in +symphonies; but Berlioz, desiring to put Shakespeare's description of +Queen Mab, + + "Her wagon-spokes made of long spinner's legs; + The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers; + The traces, of the smallest spider's web; + The collars, of the moonshine's watery beams--" + +into music in his dramatic symphony, "Romeo and Juliet," achieved a +marvellously filmy effect by dividing his violins, and permitting some +of them to play harmonics. Yet so little was his ingenious purpose +suspected when he first brought the symphony forward in Paris, that +one of the critics spoke contemptuously of this effect as sounding +"like an ill-greased syringe." A quivering motion imparted to the +fingers of the left hand in stopping the strings produces a +tremulousness of tone akin to the _vibrato_ of a singer; and, like the +vocal _vibrato_, when not carried to excess, this effect is a potent +expression of sentimental feeling. But it is much abused by solo +players. Another modification of tone is caused by placing a tiny +instrument called a sordino, or mute, upon the bridge. This clamps +the bridge, makes it heavier, and checks the vibrations, so that the +tone is muted or muffled, and at times sounds mysterious. + +[Sidenote: _Pizzicato on the basses._] + +[Sidenote: _Tremolo._] + +These devices, though as a rule they have their maximum of +effectiveness in the violins, are possible also on the violas, +violoncellos, and double-basses, which, as I have already intimated, +are but violins of a larger growth. The _pizzicato_ is, indeed, +oftenest heard from the double-basses, where it has a much greater +eloquence than on the violins. In music of a sombre cast, the short, +deep tones given out by the plucked strings of the contra-bass +sometimes have the awfulness of gigantic heart-throbs. The difficulty +of producing the other effects grows with the increase of difficulty +in handling the instruments, this being due to the growing thickness +of the strings and the wideness of the points at which they must be +stopped. One effect peculiar to them all--the most used of all +effects, indeed, in dramatic music--is the _tremolo_, produced by +dividing a tone into many quickly reiterated short tones by a rapid +motion of the bow. This device came into use with one of the earliest +pieces of dramatic music. It is two centuries old, and was first used +to help in the musical delineation of a combat. With scarcely an +exception, the varied means which I have described can be detected by +those to whom they are not already familiar by watching the players +while listening to the music. + +[Sidenote: _The viola._] + +The viola is next in size to the violin, and is tuned at the interval +of a fifth lower. Its highest string is A, which is the second string +of the violin, and its lowest C. Its tone, which sometimes contains a +comical suggestion of a boy's voice in mutation, is lacking in +incisiveness and brilliancy, but for this it compensates by a +wonderful richness and filling quality, and a pathetic and inimitable +mournfulness in melancholy music. It blends beautifully with the +violoncello, and is often made to double that instrument's part for +the sake of color effect--as, to cite a familiar instance, in the +principal subject of the Andante in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. + +[Sidenote: _The violoncello._] + +[Sidenote: _Violoncello effects._] + +The strings of the violoncello (Plate II.) are tuned like those of +the viola, but an octave lower. It is the knee-fiddle (_viola da +gamba_) of the last century, as the viola is the arm-fiddle (_viola da +braccio_), and got its old name from the position in which it is held +by the player. The 'cello's voice is a bass--it might be called the +barytone of the choir--and in the olden time of simple writing, little +else was done with it than to double the bass part one octave higher. +But modern composers, appreciating its marvellous capacity for +expression, which is next to that of the violin, have treated it with +great freedom and independence as a solo instrument. Its tone is full +of voluptuous languor. It is the sighing lover of the instrumental +company, and can speak the language of tender passion more feelingly +than any of its fellows. The ravishing effect of a multiplication of +its voice is tellingly exemplified in the opening of the overture to +"William Tell," which is written for five solo 'celli, though it is +oftenest heard in an arrangement which gives two of the middle parts +to violas. When Beethoven wished to produce the emotional impression +of a peacefully rippling brook in his "Pastoral" symphony, he gave a +murmuring figure to the divided violoncellos, and Wagner uses the +passionate accents of four of these instruments playing in harmony to +support _Siegmund_ when he is pouring out the ecstasy of his love in +the first act of "Die Walküre." In the love scene of Berlioz's "Romeo +and Juliet" symphony it is the violoncello which personifies the +lover, and holds converse with the modest oboe. + +[Sidenote: _The double-bass._] + +The patriarchal double-bass is known to all, and also its mission of +providing the foundation for the harmonic structure of orchestral +music. It sounds an octave lower than the music written for it, being +what is called a transposing instrument of sixteen-foot tone. Solos +are seldom written for this instrument in orchestral music, though +Beethoven, with his daring recitatives in the Ninth Symphony, makes it +a mediator between the instrumental and vocal forces. Dragonetti and +Bottesini, two Italians, the latter of whom is still alive, won great +fame as solo players on the unwieldy instrument. The latter uses a +small bass viol, and strings it with harp strings; but Dragonetti +played a full double-bass, on which he could execute the most +difficult passages written for the violoncello. + +[Sidenote: _The wood-winds._] + +Since the instruments of the wood-wind choir are frequently used in +solos, their acquaintance can easily be made by an observing amateur. +To this division of the orchestra belong the gentle accents in the +instrumental language. Violent expression is not its province, and +generally when the band is discoursing in heroic style or giving voice +to brave or angry emotion the wood-winds are either silent or are used +to give weight to the body of tone rather than color. Each of the +instruments has a strongly characteristic voice, which adapts itself +best to a certain style of music; but by use of different registers +and by combinations among them, or with the instruments of the other +choirs, a wide range of expression within the limits suggested has +been won for the wood-winds. + +[Sidenote: _The flute._] + +[Sidenote: _The piccolo flute._] + +[Sidenote: _Janizary music._] + +[Sidenote: _The story of the flute._] + +The flute, which requires no description, is, for instance, an +essentially soulless instrument; but its marvellous agility and the +effectiveness with which its tones can be blended with others make it +one of the most useful instruments in the band. Its native character, +heard in the compositions written for it as a solo instrument, has +prevented it from being looked upon with dignity. As a rule, +brilliancy is all that is expected from it. It is a sort of _soprano +leggiero_ with a small range of superficial feelings. It can +sentimentalize, and, as Dryden says, be "soft, complaining," but when +we hear it pour forth a veritable ecstasy of jubilation, as it does in +the dramatic climax of Beethoven's overture "Leonore No. 3," we marvel +at the transformation effected by the composer. Advantage has also +been taken of the difference between its high and low tones, and now +in some romantic music, as in Raff's "Lenore" symphony, or the prayer +of _Agathe_ in "Der Freischütz," the hollowness of the low tones +produces a mysterious effect that is exceedingly striking. Still the +fact remains that the native voice of the instrument, though sweet, +is expressionless compared with that of the oboe or clarinet. Modern +composers sometimes write for three flutes; but in the older writers, +when a third flute is used, it is generally an octave flute, or +piccolo flute (Plate III.)--a tiny instrument whose aggressiveness of +voice is out of all proportion to its diminutiveness of body. This is +the instrument which shrieks and whistles when the band is playing at +storm-making, to imitate the noise of the wind. It sounds an octave +higher than is indicated by the notes in its part, and so is what is +called a transposing instrument of four-foot tone. It revels in +military music, which is proper, for it is an own cousin to the +ear-piercing fife, which annually makes up for its long silence in the +noisy days before political elections. When you hear a composition in +march time, with bass and snare drum, cymbals and triangle, such as +the Germans call "Turkish" or "Janizary" music, you may be sure to +hear also the piccolo flute. The flute is doubtless one of the oldest +instruments in the world. The primitive cave-dwellers made flutes of +the leg-bones of birds and other animals, an origin of which a record +is preserved in the Latin name _tibia_. The first wooden flutes were +doubtless the Pandean pipes, in which the tone was produced by blowing +across the open ends of hollow reeds. The present method, already +known to the ancient Egyptians, of closing the upper end, and creating +the tone by blowing across a hole cut in the side, is only a +modification of the method pursued, according to classic tradition, by +Pan when he breathed out his dejection at the loss of the nymph +Syrinx, by blowing across the tuneful reeds which were that nymph in +her metamorphosed state. + +[Sidenote: _Reed instruments._] + +[Sidenote: _Double reeds._] + +The flute or pipe of the Greeks and Romans was only distantly related +to the true flute, but was the ancestor of its orchestral companions, +the oboe and clarinet. These instruments are sounded by being blown in +at the end, and the tone is created by vibrating reeds, whereas in the +flute it is the result of the impinging of the air on the edge of the +hole called the embouchure, and the consequent stirring of the column +of air in the flue of the instrument. The reeds are thin slips or +blades of cane. The size and bore of the instruments and the +difference between these reeds are the causes of the differences in +tone quality between these relatives. The oboe or hautboy, English +horn, and the bassoon have what are called double reeds. Two narrow +blades of cane are fitted closely together, and fastened with silk on +a small metal tube extending from the upper end of the instrument in +the case of the oboe and English horn, from the side in the case of +the bassoon. The reeds are pinched more or less tightly between the +lips, and are set to vibrating by the breath. + +[Sidenote: _The oboe._] + +[Sidenote: _The English horn._] + +The oboe (Plate IV.) is naturally associated with music of a pastoral +character. It is pre-eminently a melody instrument, and though its +voice comes forth shrinkingly, its uniqueness of tone makes it easily +heard. It is a most lovable instrument. "Candor, artless grace, soft +joy, or the grief of a fragile being suits the oboe's accents," says +Berlioz. The peculiarity of its mouth-piece gives its tone a reedy or +vibrating quality totally unlike the clarinet's. Its natural alto is +the English horn (Plate V.), which is an oboe of larger growth, with +curved tube for convenience of manipulation. The tone of the English +horn is fuller, nobler, and is very attractive in melancholy or dreamy +music. There are few players on the English horn in this country, and +it might be set down as a rule that outside of New York, Boston, and +Chicago, the English horn parts are played by the oboe in America. No +melody displays the true character of the English horn better than the +_Ranz des Vaches_ in the overture to Rossini's "William Tell"--that +lovely Alpine song which the flute embroiders with exquisite ornament. +One of the noblest utterances of the oboe is the melody of the funeral +march in Beethoven's "Heroic" symphony, in which its tenderness has +beautiful play. It is sometimes used effectively in imitative music. +In Haydn's "Seasons," and also in that grotesque tone poem by +Saint-Saëns, the "Danse Macabre," it gives the cock crow. It is the +timid oboe that sounds the A for the orchestra to tune by. + +[Sidenote: _The bassoon._] + +[Sidenote: _An orchestral humorist._] + +[Sidenote: _Supernatural effects._] + +The grave voice of the oboe is heard from the bassoon (Plate VI.), +where, without becoming assertive, it gains a quality entirely unknown +to the oboe and English horn. It is this quality that makes the +bassoon the humorist _par excellence_ of the orchestra. It is a reedy +bass, very apt to recall to those who have had a country education the +squalling tone of the homely instrument which the farmer's boy +fashions out of the stems of the pumpkin-vine. The humor of the +bassoon is an unconscious humor, and results from the use made of its +abysmally solemn voice. This solemnity in quality is paired with +astonishing flexibility of utterance, so that its gambols are always +grotesque. Brahms permits the bassoon to intone the _Fuchslied_ of the +German students in his "Academic" overture. Beethoven achieves a +decidedly comical effect by a stubborn reiteration of key-note, fifth, +and octave by the bassoon under a rustic dance intoned by the oboe in +the scherzo of his "Pastoral" symphony; and nearly every modern +composer has taken advantage of the instrument's grotesqueness. +Mendelssohn introduces the clowns in his "Midsummer-Night's-Dream" +music by a droll dance for two bassoons over a sustained bass note +from the violoncellos; but when Meyerbeer wanted a very different +effect, a ghastly one indeed, in the scene of the resuscitation of the +nuns in his "Robert le Diable," he got it by taking two bassoons as +solo instruments and using their weak middle tones, which, Berlioz +says, have "a pale, cold, cadaverous sound." Singularly enough, Handel +resorted to a similar device in his "Saul," to accompany the vision of +the Witch of Endor. + +[Sidenote: _The double bassoon._] + +In all these cases a great deal depends upon the relation between the +character of the melody and the nature of the instrument to which it +is set. A swelling martial fanfare may be made absurd by changing it +from trumpets to a weak-voiced wood-wind. It is only the string +quartet that speaks all the musical languages of passion and emotion. +The double-bassoon is so large an instrument that it has to be bent on +itself to bring it under the control of the player. It sounds an +octave lower than the written notes. It is not brought often into the +orchestra, but speaks very much to the purpose in Brahms's beautiful +variations on a theme by Haydn, and the glorious finale of Beethoven's +Fifth Symphony. + +[Sidenote: _The clarinet._] + +[Sidenote: _The bass clarinet._] + +The clarinet (Plate VII.) is the most eloquent member of the wood-wind +choir, and, except some of its own modifications or the modifications +of the oboe and bassoon, the latest arrival in the harmonious company. +It is only a little more than a century old. It has the widest range +of expression of the wood-winds, and its chief structural difference +is in its mouth-piece. It has a single flat reed, which is much wider +than that of the oboe or bassoon, and is fastened by a metallic band +and screw to the flattened side of the mouth-piece, whose other side +is cut down, chisel shape, for convenience. Its voice is rich, mellow, +less reedy, and much fuller and more limpid than the voice of the +oboe, which Berlioz tries to describe by analogy as "sweet-sour." It +is very flexible, too, and has a range of over three and a half +octaves. Its high tones are sometimes shrieky, however, and the full +beauty of the instrument is only disclosed when it sings in the middle +register. Every symphony and overture contains passages for the +clarinet which serve to display its characteristics. Clarinets are +made of different sizes for different keys, the smallest being that in +E-flat, with an unpleasantly piercing tone, whose use is confined to +military bands. There is also an alto clarinet and a bass clarinet +(Plate VIII.). The bell of the latter instrument is bent upward, pipe +fashion, and its voice is peculiarly impressive and noble. It is a +favorite solo instrument in Liszt's symphonic poems. + +[Sidenote: _Lips and reeds._] + +[Sidenote: _The brass instruments._] + +[Sidenote: _Improvements in brass instruments._] + +[Sidenote: _Valves and slides._] + +The fundamental principle of the instruments last described is the +production of tone by vibrating reeds. In the instruments of the brass +choir, the duty of the reeds is performed by the lips of the player. +Variety of tone in respect of quality is produced by variations in +size, shape, and modifications in parts like the bell and mouth-piece. +The _forte_ of the orchestra receives the bulk of its puissance from +the brass instruments, which, nevertheless, can give voice to an +extensive gamut of sentiments and feelings. There is nothing more +cheery and jocund than the flourishes of the horns, but also nothing +more mild and soothing than the songs which sometimes they sing. There +is nothing more solemn and religious than the harmony of the +trombones, while "the trumpet's loud clangor" is the very voice of a +war-like spirit. All of these instruments have undergone important +changes within the last few score years. The classical composers, +almost down to our own time, were restricted in the use of them +because they were merely natural tubes, and their notes were limited +to the notes which inflexible tubes can produce. Within this century, +however, they have all been transformed from imperfect diatonic +instruments to perfect chromatic instruments; that is to say, every +brass instrument which is in use now can give out all the semitones +within its compass. This has been accomplished through the agency of +valves, by means of which differing lengths of the sonorous tube are +brought within the command of the players. In the case of the +trombones an exceedingly venerable means of accomplishing the same end +is applied. The tube is in part made double, one part sliding over the +other. By moving his arm, the player lengthens or shortens the tube, +and thus changing the key of the instrument, acquires all the tones +which can be obtained from so many tubes of different lengths. The +mouth-pieces of the trumpet, trombone, and tuba are cup-shaped, and +larger than the mouth-piece of the horn, which is little else than a +flare of the slender tube, sufficiently wide to receive enough of the +player's lips to form the embouchure, or human reed, as it might here +be named. + +[Sidenote: _The French horn._] + +[Sidenote: _Manipulation of the French horn._] + +The French horn (Plate IX.), as it is called in the orchestra, is the +sweetest and mellowest of all the wind instruments. In Beethoven's +time it was but little else than the old hunting-horn, which, for the +convenience of the mounted hunter, was arranged in spiral +convolutions that it might be slipped over the head and carried +resting on one shoulder and under the opposite arm. The Germans still +call it the _Waldhorn_, _i.e._, "forest horn;" the old French name was +_cor de chasse_, the Italian _corno di caccia_. In this instrument +formerly the tones which were not the natural resonances of the +harmonic division of the tube were helped out by partly closing the +bell with the right hand, it having been discovered accidentally that +by putting the hand into the lower end of the tube--the flaring part +called the bell--the pitch of a tone was raised. Players still make +use of this method for convenience, and sometimes because a composer +wishes to employ the slightly muffled effect of these tones; but since +valves have been added to the instrument, it is possible to play a +chromatic scale in what are called the unstopped or open tones. + +[Sidenote: _Kinds of horns._] + +[Sidenote: _The trumpet._] + +[Sidenote: _The cornet._] + +Formerly it was necessary to use horns of different pitch, and +composers still respect this tradition, and designate the key of the +horns which they wish to have employed; but so skilful have the +players become that, as a rule, they use horns whose fundamental tone +is F for all keys, and achieve the old purpose by simply transposing +the music as they read it. If these most graceful instruments were +straightened out they would be seventeen feet long. The convolutions +of the horn and the many turns of the trumpet are all the fruit of +necessity; they could not be manipulated to produce the tones that are +asked of them if they were not bent and curved. The trumpet, when its +tube is lengthened by the addition of crooks for its lowest key, is +eight feet long; the tuba, sixteen. In most orchestras (in all of +those in the United States, in fact, except the Boston and Chicago +Orchestras and the Symphony Society of New York) the word trumpet is +merely a euphemism for cornet, the familiar leading instrument of the +brass band, which, while it falls short of the trumpet in the quality +of its tone, in the upper registers especially, is a more easily +manipulated instrument than the trumpet, and is preferable in the +lower tones. + +[Sidenote: _The trombone._] + +Mendelssohn is quoted as saying that the trombones (Plate X.) "are too +sacred to use often." They have, indeed, a majesty and nobility all +their own, and the lowest use to which they can be put is to furnish a +flaring and noisy harmony in an orchestral _tutti_. They are +marvellously expressive instruments, and without a peer in the whole +instrumental company when a solemn and spiritually uplifting effect is +to be attained. They can also be made to sound menacing and +lugubrious, devout and mocking, pompously heroic, majestic, and lofty. +They are often the heralds of the orchestra, and make sonorous +proclamations. + +[Sidenote: _Trombone effects._] + +[Sidenote: _The tuba._] + +The classic composers always seemed to approach the trombones with +marked respect, but nowadays it requires a very big blue pencil in the +hands of a very uncompromising conservatory professor to prevent a +student engaged on his _Opus 1_ from keeping his trombones going half +the time at least. It is an old story how Mozart keeps the instruments +silent through three-fourths of his immortal "Don Giovanni," so that +they may enter with overwhelming impressiveness along with the +ghostly visitor of the concluding scene. As a rule, there are three +trombones in the modern orchestra--two tenors and a bass. Formerly +there were four kinds, bearing the names of the voices to which they +were supposed to be nearest in tone-quality and compass--soprano, +alto, tenor, and bass. Full four-part harmony is now performed by the +three trombones and the tuba (Plate XI.). The latter instrument, +which, despite its gigantic size, is exceedingly tractable can "roar +you as gently as any sucking dove." Far-away and strangely mysterious +tones are got out of the brass instruments, chiefly the cornet and +horn, by almost wholly closing the bell. + +[Sidenote: _Instruments of percussion._] + +[Sidenote: _The xylophone._] + +[Sidenote: _Kettle-drums._] + +[Sidenote: _Pfund's tuning device._] + +[Sidenote: _Pitch of the drums._] + +[Sidenote: _Qualifications of a drummer._] + +The percussion apparatus of the modern orchestra includes a multitude +of instruments scarcely deserving of description. Several varieties of +drums, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, steel bars (_Glockenspiel_), +gongs, bells, and many other things which we are now inclined to look +upon as toys, rather than as musical instruments, are brought into +play for reasons more or less fantastic. Saint-Saëns has even utilized +the barbarous xylophone, whose proper place is the variety hall, in +his "Danse Macabre." There his purpose was a fantastic one, and the +effect is capital. The pictorial conceit at the bottom of the poem +which the music illustrates is Death, as a skeleton, seated on a +tombstone, playing the viol, and gleefully cracking his bony heels +against the marble. To produce this effect, the composer uses the +xylophone with capital results. But of all the ordinary instruments of +percussion, the only one that is really musical and deserving of +comment is the kettle-drum. This instrument is more musical than the +others because it has pitch. Its voice is not mere noise, but musical +noise. Kettle-drums, or tympani, are generally used in pairs, though +the vast multiplication of effects by modern composers has resulted +also in the extension of this department of the band. It is seldom +that more than two pairs are used, a good player with a quick ear +being able to accomplish all that Wagner asks of six drums by his +deftness in changing the pitch of the instruments. This work of tuning +is still performed generally in what seems a rudimentary way, though a +German drum-builder named Pfund invented a contrivance by which the +player, by simply pressing on a balanced pedal and watching an +indicator affixed to the side of the drums, can change the pitch to +any desired semitone within the range of an octave. + +The tympani are hemispherical brass or copper vessels, kettles in +short, covered with vellum heads. The pitch of the instrument depends +on the tension of the head, which is applied generally by key-screws +working through the iron ring which holds the vellum. There is a +difference in the size of the drums to place at the command of the +player the octave from F in the first space below the bass staff to F +on the fourth line of the same staff. Formerly the purpose of the +drums was simply to give emphasis, and they were then uniformly tuned +to the key-note and fifth of the key in which a composition was set. +Now they are tuned in many ways, not only to allow for the frequent +change of keys, but also so that they may be used as harmony +instruments. Berlioz did more to develop the drums than any composer +who has ever lived, though Beethoven already manifested appreciation +of their independent musical value. In the last movement of his Eighth +Symphony and the scherzo of his Ninth, he tunes them in octaves, his +purpose in the latter case being to give the opening figure, an octave +leap, of the scherzo melody to the drums solo. The most extravagant +use ever made of the drums, however, was by Berlioz in his "Messe des +Morts," where he called in eight pairs of drums and ten players to +help him to paint his tonal picture of the terrors of the last +judgment. The post of drummer is one of the most difficult to fill in +a symphonic orchestra. He is required to have not only a perfect sense +of time and rhythm, but also a keen sense of pitch, for often the +composer asks him to change the pitch of one or both of his drums in +the space of a very few seconds. He must then be able to shut all +other sounds out of his mind, and bring his drums into a new key while +the orchestra is playing--an extremely nice task. + +[Sidenote: _The bass drum._] + +The development of modern orchestral music has given dignity also to +the bass drum, which, though definite pitch is denied to it, is now +manipulated in a variety of ways productive of striking effects. Rolls +are played on it with the sticks of the kettle-drums, and it has been +emancipated measurably from the cymbals, which in vulgar brass-band +music are its inseparable companions. + +[Sidenote: _The conductor._] + +[Sidenote: _Time-beaters and interpreters._] + +[Sidenote: _The conductor a necessity._] + +In the full sense of the term the orchestral conductor is a product of +the latter half of the present century. Of course, ever since +concerted music began, there has been a musical leader of some kind. +Mural paintings and carvings fashioned in Egypt long before Apollo +sang his magic song and + + "Ilion, like a mist, rose into towers," + +show the conductor standing before his band beating time by clapping +his hands; and if we are to credit what we have been told about Hebrew +music, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, when they stood before their +multitudinous choirs in the temple at Jerusalem, promoted synchronism +in the performance by stamping upon the floor with lead-shodden feet. +Before the era which developed what I might call "star" conductors, +these leaders were but captains of tens and captains of hundreds who +accomplished all that was expected of them if they made the performers +keep musical step together. They were time-beaters merely--human +metronomes. The modern conductor is, in a sense not dreamed of a +century ago, a mediator between the composer and the audience. He is a +virtuoso who plays upon men instead of a key-board, upon a hundred +instruments instead of one. Music differs from her sister arts in many +respects, but in none more than in her dependence on the intermediary +who stands between her and the people for whose sake she exists. It is +this intermediary who wakens her into life. + + "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard + Are sweeter," + +is a pretty bit of hyperbole which involves a contradiction in terms. +An unheard melody is no melody at all, and as soon as we have music in +which a number of singers or instrumentalists are employed, the taste, +feeling, and judgment of an individual are essential to its +intelligent and effective publication. In the gentle days of the long +ago, when suavity and loveliness of utterance and a recognition of +formal symmetry were the "be-all and end-all" of the art, a +time-beater sufficed to this end; but now the contents of music are +greater, the vessel has been wondrously widened, the language is +become curiously complex and ingenious, and no composer of to-day can +write down universally intelligible signs for all that he wishes to +say. Someone must grasp the whole, expound it to the individual +factors which make up the performing sum and provide what is called an +interpretation to the public. + +[Sidenote: _"Star" conductors._] + +That someone, of course, is the conductor, and considering the +progress that music is continually making it is not at all to be +wondered at that he has become a person of stupendous power in the +culture of to-day. The one singularity is that he should be so rare. +This rarity has had its natural consequence, and the conductor who can +conduct, in contradistinction to the conductor who can only beat time, +is now a "star." At present we see him going from place to place in +Europe giving concerts in which he figures as the principal +attraction. The critics discuss his "readings" just as they do the +performances of great pianists and singers. A hundred blowers of +brass, scrapers of strings, and tootlers on windy wood, labor beneath +him transmuting the composer's mysterious symbols into living sound, +and when it is all over we frequently find that it seems all to have +been done for the greater glory of the conductor instead of the glory +of art. That, however, is a digression which it is not necessary to +pursue. + +[Sidenote: _Mistaken popular notions._] + +[Sidenote: _What the conductor does._] + +[Sidenote: _Rests and cues._] + +Questions and remarks have frequently been addressed to me indicative +of the fact that there is a widespread popular conviction that the +mission of a conductor is chiefly ornamental at an orchestral +concert. That is a sad misconception, and grows out of the old notion +that a conductor is only a time-beater. Assuming that the men of the +band have played sufficiently together, it is thought that eventually +they might keep time without the help of the conductor. It is true +that the greater part of the conductor's work is done at rehearsal, at +which he enforces upon his men his wishes concerning the speed of the +music, expression, and the balance of tone between the different +instruments. But all the injunctions given at rehearsal by word of +mouth are reiterated by means of a system of signs and signals during +the concert performance. Time and rhythm are indicated by the +movements of the bâton, the former by the speed of the beats, the +latter by the direction, the tones upon which the principal stress is +to fall being indicated by the down-beat of the bâton. The amplitude +of the movements also serves to indicate the conductor's wishes +concerning dynamic variations, while the left hand is ordinarily used +in pantomimic gestures to control individual players or groups. +Glances and a play of facial expression also assist in the guidance of +the instrumental body. Every musician is expected to count the rests +which occur in his part, but when they are of long duration (and +sometimes they amount to a hundred measures or more) it is customary +for the conductor to indicate the entrance of an instrument by a +glance at the player. From this mere outline of the communications +which pass between the conductor and his band it will be seen how +indispensable he is if music is to have a consistent and vital +interpretation. + +[Sidenote: _Personal magnetism._] + +The layman will perhaps also be enabled, by observing the actions of a +conductor with a little understanding of their purposes, to appreciate +what critics mean when they speak of the "magnetism" of a leader. He +will understand that among other things it means the aptitude or +capacity for creating a sympathetic relationship between himself and +his men which enables him the better by various devices, some +arbitrary, some technical and conventional, to imbue them with his +thoughts and feelings relative to a composition, and through them to +body them forth to the audience. + +[Sidenote: _The score._] + +[Sidenote: _Its arrangement._] + +[Sidenote: _Score reading._] + +What it is that the conductor has to guide him while giving his mute +commands to his forces may be seen in the reproduction, in the +Appendix, of a page from an orchestral score (Plate XII). A score, it +will be observed, is a reproduction of all the parts of a composition +as they lie upon the desks of the players. The ordering of these parts +in the score has not always been as now, but the plan which has the +widest and longest approval is that illustrated in our example. The +wood-winds are grouped together on the uppermost six staves, the brass +in the middle with the tympani separating the horns and trumpets from +the trombones, the strings on the lowermost five staves. The example +has been chosen because it shows all the instruments of the band +employed at once (it is the famous opening _tutti_ of the triumphal +march of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony), and is easy of comprehension by +musical amateurs for the reason that none of the parts requires +transposition except it be an octave up in the case of the piccolo, +an instrument of four-foot tone, and an octave down in the case of the +double-basses, which are of sixteen-foot tone. All the other parts are +to be read as printed, proper attention being given to the alto and +tenor clefs used in the parts of the trombones and violas. The ability +to "read score" is one of the most essential attributes of a +conductor, who, if he have the proper training, can bring all the +parts together and reproduce them on the pianoforte, transposing those +which do not sound as written and reading the different clefs at sight +as he goes along. + + + + +V + +_At an Orchestral Concert_ + + +[Sidenote: _Classical and Popular._] + +[Sidenote: _Orchestras and military bands._] + +In popular phrase all high-class music is "classical," and all +concerts at which such music is played are "classical concerts." Here +the word is conceived as the antithesis of "popular," which term is +used to designate the ordinary music of the street and music-hall. +Elsewhere I have discussed the true meaning of the word and shown its +relation to "romantic" in the terminology of musical critics and +historians. No harm is done by using both "classical" and "popular" in +their common significations, so far as they convey a difference in +character between concerts. The highest popular conception of a +classical concert is one in which a complete orchestra performs +symphonies and extended compositions in allied forms, such as +overtures, symphonic poems, and concertos. Change the composition of +the instrumental body, by omitting the strings and augmenting the reed +and brass choirs, and you have a military band which is best employed +in the open air, and whose programmes are generally made up of +compositions in the simpler and more easily comprehended +forms--dances, marches, fantasias on popular airs, arrangements of +operatic excerpts and the like. These, then, are popular concerts in +the broadest sense, though it is proper enough to apply the term also +to concerts given by a symphonic band when the programme is light in +character and aims at more careless diversion than should be sought at +a "classical" concert. The latter term, again, is commended to use by +the fact that as a rule the music performed at such a concert +exemplifies the higher forms in the art, classicism in music being +defined as that principle which seeks expression in beauty of form, in +a symmetrical ordering of parts and logical sequence, "preferring +æsthetic beauty, pure and simple, over emotional content," as I have +said in Chapter III. + +[Sidenote: _The Symphony._] + +[Sidenote: _Mistaken ideas about the form._] + +As the highest type of instrumental music, we take the Symphony. Very +rarely indeed is a concert given by an organization like the New York +and London Philharmonic Societies, or the Boston and Chicago +Orchestras, at which the place of honor in the scheme of pieces is not +given to a symphony. Such a concert is for that reason also spoken of +popularly as a "Symphony concert," and no confusion would necessarily +result from the use of the term even if it so chanced that there was +no symphony on the programme. What idea the word symphony conveys to +the musically illiterate it would be difficult to tell. I have known a +professional writer on musical subjects to express the opinion that a +symphony was nothing else than four unrelated compositions for +orchestra arranged in a certain sequence for the sake of an agreeable +contrast of moods and tempos. It is scarcely necessary to say that the +writer in question had a very poor opinion of the Symphony as an +Art-form, and believed that it had outlived its usefulness and should +be relegated to the limbo of Archaic Things. If he, however, trained +in musical history and familiar with musical literature, could see +only four unrelated pieces of music in a symphony by Beethoven, we +need not marvel that hazy notions touching the nature of the form are +prevalent among the untaught public, and that people can be met in +concert-rooms to whom such words as "Symphony in C minor," and the +printed designations of the different portions of the work--the +"movements," as musicians call them--are utterly bewildering. + +[Sidenote: _History of the term._] + +[Sidenote: _Changes in meaning._] + +[Sidenote: _Handel's "Pastoral Symphony."_] + +The word symphony has itself a singularly variegated history. Like +many another term in music it was borrowed by the modern world from +the ancient Greek. To those who coined it, however, it had a much +narrower meaning than to us who use it, with only a conventional +change in transliteration, now. By [Greek: symphônia] the Greeks +simply expressed the concept of agreement, or consonance. Applied to +music it meant first such intervals as unisons; then the notion was +extended to include consonant harmonies, such as the fifth, fourth, +and octave. The study of the ancient theoreticians led the musicians +of the Middle Ages to apply the word to harmony in general. Then in +some inexplicable fashion it came to stand as a generic term for +instrumental compositions such as toccatas, sonatas, etc. Its name was +given to one of the precursors of the pianoforte, and in Germany in +the sixteenth century the word _Symphoney_ came to mean a town band. +In the last century and the beginning of this the term was used to +designate an instrumental introduction to a composition for voices, +such as a song or chorus, as also an instrumental piece introduced in +a choral work. The form, that is the extent and structure of the +composition, had nothing to do with the designation, as we see from +the Italian shepherds' tune which Handel set for strings in "The +Messiah;" he called it simply _pifa_, but his publishers called it a +"Pastoral symphony," and as such we still know it. It was about the +middle of the eighteenth century that the present signification +became crystallized in the word, and since the symphonies of Haydn, in +which the form first reached perfection, are still to be heard in our +concert-rooms, it may be said that all the masterpieces of symphonic +literature are current. + +[Sidenote: _The allied forms._] + +[Sidenote: _Sonata form._] + +[Sidenote: _Symphony, sonata, and concerto._] + +I have already hinted at the fact that there is an intimate +relationship between the compositions usually heard at a classical +concert. Symphonies, symphonic poems, concertos for solo instruments +and orchestra, as well as the various forms of chamber music, such as +trios, quartets, and quintets for strings, or pianoforte and strings, +are but different expressions of the idea which is best summed up in +the word sonata. What musicians call the "sonata form" lies at the +bottom of them all--even those which seem to consist of a single +piece, like the symphonic poem and overture. Provided it follow, not +of necessity slavishly, but in its general structure, a certain scheme +which was slowly developed by the geniuses who became the law-givers +of the art, a composite or cyclical composition (that is, one +composed of a number of parts, or movements) is, as the case may be, a +symphony, concerto, or sonata. It is a sonata if it be written for a +solo instrument like the pianoforte or organ, or for one like the +violin or clarinet, with pianoforte accompaniment. If the +accompaniment be written for orchestra, it is called a concerto. A +sonata written for an orchestra is a symphony. The nature of the +interpreting medium naturally determines the exposition of the form, +but all the essential attributes can be learned from a study of the +symphony, which because of the dignity and eloquence of its apparatus +admits of a wider scope than its allies, and must be accepted as the +highest type, not merely of the sonata, but of the instrumental art. +It will be necessary presently to point out the more important +modifications which compositions of this character have undergone in +the development of music, but the ends of clearness will be best +subserved if the study be conducted on fundamental lines. + +[Sidenote: _What a symphony is._] + +[Sidenote: _The bond of unity between the parts._] + +The symphony then, as a rule, is a composition for orchestra made up +of four parts, or movements, which are not only related to each other +by a bond of sympathy established by the keys chosen but also by their +emotional contents. Without this higher bond the unity of the work +would be merely mechanical, like the unity accomplished by sameness of +key in the old-fashioned suite. (See Chapter VI.) The bond of +key-relationship, though no longer so obvious as once it was, is yet +readily discovered by a musician; the spiritual bond is more elusive, +and presents itself for recognition to the imagination and the +feelings of the listener. Nevertheless, it is an element in every +truly great symphony, and I have already indicated how it may +sometimes become patent to the ear alone, so it be intelligently +employed, and enjoy the co-operation of memory. + +[Sidenote: _The first movement._] + +[Sidenote: _Exposition of subjects._] + +[Sidenote: _Repetition of the first subdivision._] + +It is the first movement of a symphony which embodies the structural +scheme called the "sonata form." It has a triple division, and Mr. +Edward Dannreuther has aptly defined it as "the triune symmetry of +exposition, illustration, and repetition." In the first division the +composer introduces the melodies which he has chosen to be the +thematic material of the movement, and to fix the character of the +entire work; he presents it for identification. The themes are two, +and their exposition generally exemplifies the principle of +key-relationship, which was the basis of my analysis of a simple folk +tune in Chapter II. In the case of the best symphonists the principal +and second subjects disclose a contrast, not violent but yet distinct, +in mood or character. If the first is rhythmically energetic and +assertive--masculine, let me say--the second will be more sedate, more +gentle in utterance--feminine. After the two subjects have been +introduced along with some subsidiary phrases and passages which the +composer uses to bind them together and modulate from one key into +another, the entire division is repeated. That is the rule, but it is +now as often "honored in the breach" as in the observance, some +conductors not even hesitating to ignore the repeat marks in +Beethoven's scores. + +[Sidenote: _The free fantasia or "working-out" portion._] + +[Sidenote: _Repetition._] + +The second division is now taken up. In it the composer exploits his +learning and fancy in developing his thematic material. He is now +entirely free to send it through long chains of keys, to vary the +harmonies, rhythms, and instrumentation, to take a single pregnant +motive and work it out with all the ingenuity he can muster; to force +it up "steep-up spouts" of passion and let it whirl in the surge, or +plunge it into "steep-down gulfs of liquid fire," and consume its own +heart. Technically this part is called the "free fantasia" in English, +and the _Durchführung_--"working out"--in German. I mention the terms +because they sometimes occur in criticisms and analyses. It is in this +division that the genius of a composer has fullest play, and there is +no greater pleasure, no more delightful excitement, for the +symphony-lover than to follow the luminous fancy of Beethoven through +his free fantasias. The third division is devoted to a repetition, +with modifications, of the first division and the addition of a close. + +[Sidenote: _Introductions._] + +[Sidenote: _Keys and Titles._] + +First movements are quick and energetic, and frequently full of +dramatic fire. In them the psychological story is begun which is to +be developed in the remaining chapters of the work--its sorrows, +hopes, prayers, or communings in the slow movement; its madness or +merriment in the scherzo; its outcome, triumphant or tragic, in the +finale. Sometimes the first movement is preceded by a slow +introduction, intended to prepare the mind of the listener for the +proclamation which shall come with the _Allegro_. The key of the +principal subject is set down as the key of the symphony, and unless +the composer gives his work a special title for the purpose of +providing a hint as to its poetical contents ("Eroica," "Pastoral," +"Faust," "In the Forest," "Lenore," "Pathétique," etc.), or to +characterize its style ("Scotch," "Italian," "Irish," "Welsh," +"Scandinavian," "From the New World"), it is known only by its key, or +the number of the work (_opus_) in the composer's list. Therefore we +have Mozart's Symphony "in G minor," Beethoven's "in A major," +Schumann's "in C," Brahms's "in F," and so on. + +[Sidenote: _The second movement._] + +[Sidenote: _Variations._] + +The second movement in the symphonic scheme is the slow movement. +Musicians frequently call it the Adagio, for convenience, though the +tempi of slow movements ranges from extremely slow (_Largo_) to the +border line of fast, as in the case of the Allegretto of the Seventh +Symphony of Beethoven. The mood of the slow movement is frequently +sombre, and its instrumental coloring dark; but it may also be +consolatory, contemplative, restful, religiously uplifting. The +writing is preferably in a broadly sustained style, the effect being +that of an exalted hymn, and this has led to a predilection for a +theme and variations as the mould in which to cast the movement. The +slow movements of Beethoven's Fifth and Ninth Symphonies are made up +of variations. + +[Sidenote: _The Scherzo._] + +[Sidenote: _Genesis of the Scherzo._] + +[Sidenote: _The Trio._] + +The Scherzo is, as the term implies, the playful, jocose movement of a +symphony, but in the case of sublime geniuses like Beethoven and +Schumann, who blend profound melancholy with wild humor, the +playfulness is sometimes of a kind which invites us to thoughtfulness +instead of merriment. This is true also of some Russian composers, +whose scherzos have the desperate gayety which speaks from the music +of a sad people whose merrymaking is not a spontaneous expression of +exuberant spirits but a striving after self-forgetfulness. The Scherzo +is the successor of the Minuet, whose rhythm and form served the +composers down to Beethoven. It was he who substituted the Scherzo, +which retains the chief formal characteristics of the courtly old +dance in being in triple time and having a second part called the +Trio. With the change there came an increase in speed, but it ought to +be remembered that the symphonic minuet was quicker than the dance of +the same name. A tendency toward exaggeration, which is patent among +modern conductors, is threatening to rob the symphonic minuet of the +vivacity which gave it its place in the scheme of the symphony. The +entrance of the Trio is marked by the introduction of a new idea (a +second minuet) which is more sententious than the first part, and +sometimes in another key, the commonest change being from minor to +major. + +[Sidenote: _The Finale._] + +[Sidenote: _Rondo form._] + +The final movement, technically the Finale, is another piece of large +dimensions in which the psychological drama which plays through the +four acts of the symphony is brought to a conclusion. Once the purpose +of the Finale was but to bring the symphony to a merry end, but as the +expressive capacity of music has been widened, and mere play with +æsthetic forms has given place to attempts to convey sentiments and +feelings, the purposes of the last movement have been greatly extended +and varied. As a rule the form chosen for the Finale is that called +the Rondo. Borrowed from an artificial verse-form (the French +_Rondeau_), this species of composition illustrates the peculiarity of +that form in the reiteration of a strophe ever and anon after a new +theme or episode has been exploited. In modern society verse, which +has grown out of an ambition to imitate the ingenious form invented by +mediæval poets, we have the Triolet, which may be said to be a rondeau +in miniature. I choose one of Mr. H.C. Bunner's dainty creations to +illustrate the musical refrain characteristic of the rondo form +because of its compactness. Here it is: + +[Sidenote: _A Rondo pattern in poetry._] + + "A pitcher of mignonette + In a tenement's highest casement: + Queer sort of a flower-pot--yet + That pitcher of mignonette + Is a garden in heaven set, + To the little sick child in the basement-- + The pitcher of mignonette, + In the tenement's highest casement." + +[Sidenote: _Other forms for the Finale._] + +If now the first two lines of this poem, which compose its refrain, be +permitted to stand as the principal theme of a musical piece, we have +in Mr. Bunner's triolet a rondo _in nuce_. There is in it a threefold +exposition of the theme alternating with episodic matter. Another form +for the finale is that of the first movement (the Sonata form), and +still another, the theme and variations. Beethoven chose the latter +for his "Eroica," and the choral close of his Ninth, Dvorák, for his +symphony in G major, and Brahms for his in E minor. + +[Sidenote: _Organic Unities._] + +[Sidenote: _How enforced._] + +[Sidenote: _Berlioz's "idée fixe."_] + +[Sidenote: _Recapitulation of themes._] + +I am attempting nothing more than a characterization of the symphony, +and the forms with which I associated it at the outset, which shall +help the untrained listener to comprehend them as unities despite the +fact that to the careless hearer they present themselves as groups of +pieces each one of which is complete in itself and has no connection +with its fellows. The desire of composers to have their symphonies +accepted as unities instead of compages of unrelated pieces has led to +the adoption of various devices designed to force the bond of union +upon the attention of the hearer. Thus Beethoven in his symphony in C +minor not only connects the third and fourth movements but also +introduces a reminiscence of the former into the midst of the latter; +Berlioz in his "Symphonie Fantastique," which is written to what may +be called a dramatic scheme, makes use of a melody which he calls +"_l'idée fixe_," and has it recur in each of the four movements as an +episode. This, however, is frankly a symphony with programme, and +ought not to be treated as a modification of the pure form. Dvorák in +his symphony entitled "From the New World," in which he has striven to +give expression to the American spirit, quotes the first period of his +principal subject in all the subsequent movements, and then +sententiously recapitulates the principal themes of the first, second, +and third movements in the finale; and this without a sign of the +dramatic purpose confessed by Berlioz. + +[Sidenote: _Introduction of voices._] + +[Sidenote: _Abolition of pauses._] + +In the last movement of his Ninth Symphony Beethoven calls voices to +the aid of his instruments. It was a daring innovation, as it seemed +to disrupt the form, and we know from the story of the work how long +he hunted for the connecting link, which finally he found in the +instrumental recitative. Having hit upon the device, he summons each +of the preceding movements, which are purely instrumental, into the +presence of his augmented forces and dismisses it as inadequate to the +proclamation which the symphony was to make. The double-basses and +solo barytone are the spokesmen for the tuneful host. He thus achieves +the end of connecting the Allegro, Scherzo, and Adagio with each +other, and all with the Finale, and at the same time points out what +it is that he wishes us to recognize as the inspiration of the whole; +but here, again, the means appear to be somewhat extraneous. +Schumann's example, however, in abolishing the pauses between the +movements of the symphony in D minor, and having melodic material +common to all the movements, is a plea for appreciation which cannot +be misunderstood. Before Schumann Mendelssohn intended that his +"Scotch" symphony should be performed without pauses between the +movements, but his wishes have been ignored by the conductors, I fancy +because he having neglected to knit the movements together by +community of ideas, they can see no valid reason for the abolition of +the conventional resting-places. + +[Sidenote: _Beethoven's "choral" symphony followed._] + +Beethoven's augmentation of the symphonic forces by employing voices +has been followed by Berlioz in his "Romeo and Juliet," which, though +called a "dramatic symphony," is a mixture of symphony, cantata, and +opera; Mendelssohn in his "Hymn of Praise" (which is also a composite +work and has a composite title--"Symphony Cantata"), and Liszt in his +"Faust" symphony, in the finale of which we meet a solo tenor and +chorus of men's voices who sing Goethe's _Chorus mysticus_. + +[Sidenote: _Increase in the number of movements._] + +A number of other experiments have been made, the effectiveness of +which has been conceded in individual instances, but which have failed +permanently to affect the symphonic form. Schumann has two trios in +his symphony in B-flat, and his E-flat, the so-called "Rhenish," has +five movements instead of four, there being two slow movements, one in +moderate tempo (_Nicht schnell_), and the other in slow (_Feierlich_). +In this symphony, also, Schumann exercises the license which has been +recognized since Beethoven's time, of changing the places in the +scheme of the second and third movements, giving the second place to +the jocose division instead of the slow. Beethoven's "Pastoral" has +also five movements, unless one chooses to take the storm which +interrupts the "Merry-making of the Country Folk" as standing toward +the last movement as an introduction, as, indeed, it does in the +composer's idyllic scheme. Certain it is, Sir George Grove to the +contrary notwithstanding, that the sense of a disturbance of the +symphonic plan is not so vivid at a performance of the "Pastoral" as +at one of Schumann's "Rhenish," in which either the third movement or +the so-called "Cathedral Scene" is most distinctly an interloper. + +[Sidenote: _Further extension of boundaries._] + +[Sidenote: _Saint-Saëns's C minor symphony._] + +Usually it is deference to the demands of a "programme" that +influences composers in extending the formal boundaries of a symphony, +and when this is done the result is frequently a work which can only +be called a symphony by courtesy. M. Saint-Saëns, however, attempted +an original excursion in his symphony in C minor, without any +discoverable, or at least confessed, programmatic idea. He laid the +work out in two grand divisions, so as to have but one pause. +Nevertheless in each division we can recognize, though as through a +haze, the outlines of the familiar symphonic movements. In the first +part, buried under a sequence of time designations like this: +_Adagio_--_Allegro moderato_--_Poco adagio_, we discover the customary +first and second movements, the former preceded by a slow +introduction; in the second division we find this arrangement: +_Allegro moderato_--_Presto_--_Maestoso_--_Allegro_, this multiplicity +of terms affording only a sort of disguise for the regulation scherzo +and finale, with a cropping out of reminiscences from the first part +which have the obvious purpose to impress upon the hearer that the +symphony is an organic whole. M. Saint-Saëns has also introduced the +organ and a pianoforte with two players into the instrumental +apparatus. + +[Sidenote: _The Symphonic Poem._] + +[Sidenote: _Its characteristics._] + +Three characteristics may be said to distinguish the Symphonic Poem, +which in the view of the extremists who follow the lead of Liszt is +the logical outcome of the symphony and the only expression of its +æsthetic principles consonant with modern thought and feeling. +_First_, it is programmatic--that is, it is based upon a poetical +idea, a sequence of incidents, or of soul-states, to which a clew is +given either by the title or a motto; _second_, it is compacted in +form to a single movement, though as a rule the changing phases +delineated in the separate movements of the symphony are also to be +found in the divisions of the work marked by changes in tempo, key, +and character; _third_, the work generally has a principal subject of +such plasticity that the composer can body forth a varied content by +presenting it in a number of transformations. + +[Sidenote: _Liszt's first pianoforte concerto._] + +The last two characteristics Liszt has carried over into his +pianoforte concerto in E-flat. This has four distinct movements (viz.: +I. _Allegro maestoso_; II. _Quasi adagio_; III. _Allegretto vivace, +scherzando_; IV. _Allegro marziale animato_), but they are fused into +a continuous whole, throughout which the principal thought of the +work, the stupendously energetic phrase which the orchestra proclaims +at the outset, is presented in various forms to make it express a +great variety of moods and yet give unity to the concerto. "Thus, by +means of this metamorphosis," says Mr. Edward Dannreuther, "the +poetic unity of the whole musical tissue is made apparent, spite of +very great diversity of details; and Coleridge's attempt at a +definition of poetic unity--unity in multiety--is carried out to the +letter." + +[Sidenote: _Other cyclical forms._] + +[Sidenote: _Pianoforte and orchestra._] + +It will readily be understood that the other cyclical compositions +which I have associated with a classic concert, that is, compositions +belonging to the category of chamber music (see Chapter III.), and +concertos for solo instruments with orchestral accompaniment, while +conforming to the scheme which I have outlined, all have individual +characteristics conditioned on the expressive capacity of the +apparatus. The modern pianoforte is capable of asserting itself +against a full orchestra, and concertos have been written for it in +which it is treated as an orchestral integer rather than a solo +instrument. In the older conception, the orchestra, though it +frequently assumed the privilege of introducing the subject-matter, +played a subordinate part to the solo instrument in its development. +In violin as well as pianoforte concertos special opportunity is +given to the player to exploit his skill and display the solo +instrument free from structural restrictions in the cadenza introduced +shortly before the close of the first, last, or both movements. + +[Sidenote: _Cadenzas._] + +[Sidenote: _Improvisations by the player._] + +[Sidenote: _M. Ysaye's opinion of Cadenzas._] + +Cadenzas are a relic of a time when the art of improvisation was more +generally practised than it is now, and when performers were conceded +to have rights beyond the printed page. Solely for their display, it +became customary for composers to indicate by a hold ([fermata +symbol]) a place where the performer might indulge in a flourish of +his own. There is a tradition that Mozart once remarked: "Wherever I +smear that thing," indicating a hold, "you can do what you please;" +the rule is, however, that the only privilege which the cadenza opens +to the player is that of improvising on material drawn from the +subjects already developed, and since, also as a rule, composers are +generally more eloquent in the treatment of their own ideas than +performers, it is seldom that a cadenza contributes to the enjoyment +afforded by a work, except to the lovers of technique for technique's +sake. I never knew an artist to make a more sensible remark than did +M. Ysaye, when on the eve of a memorably beautiful performance of +Beethoven's violin concerto, he said: "If I were permitted to consult +my own wishes I would put my violin under my arm when I reach the +_fermate_ and say: 'Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the cadenza. +It is presumptuous in any musician to think that he can have anything +to say after Beethoven has finished. With your permission we will +consider my cadenza played.'" That Beethoven may himself have had a +thought of the same nature is a fair inference from the circumstance +that he refused to leave the cadenza in his E-flat pianoforte concerto +to the mercy of the virtuosos but wrote it himself. + +[Sidenote: _Concertos._] + +[Sidenote: _Chamber music._] + +Concertos for pianoforte or violin are usually written in three +movements, of which the first and last follow the symphonic model in +respect of elaboration and form, and the second is a brief movement +in slow or moderate time, which has the character of an intermezzo. As +to the nomenclature of chamber music, it is to be noted that unless +connected with a qualifying word or phrase, "Quartet" means a string +quartet. When a pianoforte is consorted with strings the work is +spoken of as a Pianoforte Trio, Quartet, or Quintet, as the case may +be. + +[Sidenote: _The Overture._] + +[Sidenote: _Pot-pourris._] + +The form of the overture is that of the first movement of the sonata, +or symphony, omitting the repetition of the first subdivision. Since +the original purpose, which gave the overture its name (_Ouverture_ = +aperture, opening), was to introduce a drama, either spoken or +lyrical, an oratorio, or other choral composition, it became customary +for the composers to choose the subjects of the piece from the +climacteric moments of the music used in the drama. When done without +regard to the rules of construction (as is the case with practically +all operetta overtures and Rossini's) the result is not an overture at +all, but a _pot-pourri_, a hotch-potch of jingles. The present +beautiful form, in which Beethoven and other composers have shown +that it is possible to epitomize an entire drama, took the place of an +arbitrary scheme which was wholly aimless, so far as the compositions +to which they were attached were concerned. + +[Sidenote: _Old styles of overtures._] + +[Sidenote: _The Prelude._] + +[Sidenote: _Gluck's principle._] + +[Sidenote: _Descriptive titles._] + +The earliest fixed form of the overture is preserved to the current +lists of to-day by the compositions of Bach and Handel. It is that +established by Lully, and is tripartite in form, consisting of a rapid +movement, generally a fugue, preceded and followed by a slow movement +which is grave and stately in its tread. In its latest phase the +overture has yielded up its name in favor of Prelude (German, +_Vorspiel_), Introduction, or Symphonic Prologue. The finest of these, +without borrowing their themes from the works which they introduce, +but using new matter entirely, seek to fulfil the aim which Gluck set +for himself, when, in the preface to "Alceste," he wrote: "I imagined +that the overture ought to prepare the audience for the action of the +piece, and serve as a kind of argument to it." Concert overtures are +compositions designed by the composers to stand as independent pieces +instead of for performance in connection with a drama, opera, or +oratorio. When, as is frequently the case, the composer, nevertheless, +gives them a descriptive title ("Hebrides," "Sakuntala"), their +poetical contents are to be sought in the associations aroused by the +title. Thus, in the instances cited, "Hebrides" suggests that the +overture was designed by Mendelssohn to reflect the mood awakened in +him by a visit to the Hebrides, more particularly to Fingal's Cave +(wherefore the overture is called the "Fingal's Cave" overture in +Germany)--"Sakuntala" invites to a study of Kalidasa's drama of that +name as the repository of the sentiments which Goldmark undertook to +express in his music. + +[Sidenote: _Serenades._] + +[Sidenote: _The Serenade in Shakespeare._] + +A form which is variously employed, for solo instruments, small +combinations, and full orchestra (though seldom with the complete +modern apparatus), is the Serenade. Historically, it is a contemporary +of the old suites and the first symphonies, and like them it consists +of a group of short pieces, so arranged as to form an agreeable +contrast with each other, and yet convey a sense of organic unity. +The character of the various parts and their order grew out of the +purpose for which the serenade was originated, which was that +indicated by the name. In the last century, and earlier, it was no +uncommon thing for a lover to bring the tribute of a musical +performance to his mistress, and it was not always a "woful ballad" +sung to her eyebrow. Frequently musicians were hired, and the tribute +took the form of a nocturnal concert. In Shakespeare's "Two Gentlemen +of Verona," _Proteus_, prompting _Thurio_ what to do to win _Silvia's_ +love, says: + + "Visit by night your lady's chamber window + With some sweet concert: to their instruments + Tune a deploring dump; the night's dread silence + Will well become such sweet complaining grievance." + +[Sidenote: _Out-of-doors music._] + +[Sidenote: _Old forms._] + +[Sidenote: _The "Dump."_] + +[Sidenote: _Beethoven's Serenade, op. 8._] + +It was for such purposes that the serenade was invented as an +instrumental form. Since they were to play out of doors, _Sir +Thurio's_ musicians would have used wind instruments instead of +viols, and the oldest serenades are composed for oboes and bassoons. +Clarinets and horns were subsequently added, and for such bands Mozart +wrote serenades, some of which so closely approach the symphony that +they have been published as symphonies. A serenade in the olden time +opened very properly with a march, to the strains of which we may +imagine the musicians approaching the lady's chamber window. Then came +a minuet to prepare her ear for the "deploring dump" which followed, +the "dump" of Shakespeare's day, like the "dumka" of ours (with which +I am tempted to associate it etymologically), being a mournful piece +of music most happily characterized by the poet as a "sweet +complaining grievance." Then followed another piece in merry tempo and +rhythm, then a second _adagio_, and the entertainment ended with an +_allegro_, generally in march rhythm, to which we fancy the musicians +departing. The order is exemplified in Beethoven's serenade for +violin, viola, and violoncello, op. 8, which runs thus: _March_; +_Adagio_; _Minuet_; _Adagio_ with episodic _Scherzo_; _Polacca_; +_Andante_ (variations), the opening march repeated. + +[Sidenote: _The Orchestral Suite._] + +[Sidenote: _Ballet music._] + +The Suite has come back into favor as an orchestral piece, but the +term no longer has the fixed significance which once it had. It is now +applied to almost any group of short pieces, pleasantly contrasted in +rhythm, tempo, and mood, each complete in itself yet disclosing an +æsthetic relationship with its fellows. Sometimes old dance forms are +used, and sometimes new, such as the polonaise and the waltz. The +ballet music, which fills so welcome a place in popular programmes, +may be looked upon as such a suite, and the rhythm of the music and +the orchestral coloring in them are frequently those peculiar to the +dances of the countries in which the story of the opera or drama for +which the music was written plays. The ballets therefore afford an +excellent opportunity for the study of local color. Thus the ballet +music from Massenet's "Cid" is Spanish, from Rubinstein's "Feramors" +Oriental, from "Aïda" Egyptian--Oriental rhythms and colorings being +those most easily copied by composers. + +[Sidenote: _Operatic excerpts._] + +[Sidenote: _Gluck and Vestris._] + +The other operatic excerpts common to concerts of both classes are +either between-acts music, fantasias on operatic airs, or, in the case +of Wagner's contributions, portions of his dramas which are so +predominantly instrumental that it has been found feasible to +incorporate the vocal part with the orchestral. In ballet music from +the operas of the last century, some of which has been preserved to +the modern concert-room, local color must not be sought. Gluck's +Greeks, like Shakespeare's, danced to the rhythms of the seventeenth +century. Vestris, whom the people of his time called "The god of the +dance," once complained to Gluck that his "Iphigénie en Aulide" did +not end with a chaconne, as was the rule. "A chaconne!" cried Gluck; +"when did the Greeks ever dance a chaconne?" "Didn't they? Didn't +they?" answered Vestris; "so much the worse for the Greeks." There +ensued a quarrel. Gluck became incensed, withdrew the opera which was +about to be produced, and would have left Paris had not Marie +Antoinette come to the rescue. But Vestris got his chaconne. + + + + +VI + +_At a Pianoforte Recital_ + + +[Sidenote: _Mr. Paderewski's concerts._] + +No clearer illustration of the magical power which lies in music, no +more convincing proof of the puissant fascination which a musical +artist can exert, no greater demonstration of the capabilities of an +instrument of music can be imagined than was afforded by the +pianoforte recitals which Mr. Paderewski gave in the United States +during the season of 1895-96. More than threescore times in the course +of five months, in the principal cities of this country, did this +wonderful man seat himself in the presence of audiences, whose numbers +ran into the thousands, and were limited only by the seating capacity +of the rooms in which they gathered, and hold them spellbound from two +to three hours by the eloquence of his playing. Each time the people +came in a gladsome frame of mind, stimulated by the recollection of +previous delights or eager expectation. Each time they sat listening +to the music as if it were an evangel on which hung everlasting +things. Each time there was the same growth in enthusiasm which began +in decorous applause and ended in cheers and shouts as the artist came +back after the performance of a herculean task, and added piece after +piece to a programme which had been laid down on generous lines from +the beginning. The careless saw the spectacle with simple amazement, +but for the judicious it had a wondrous interest. + +[Sidenote: _Pianoforte recitals._] + +[Sidenote: _The pianoforte's underlying principles._] + +I am not now concerned with Mr. Paderewski beyond invoking his aid in +bringing into court a form of entertainment which, in his hands, has +proved to be more attractive to the multitude than symphony, oratorio, +and even opera. What a world of speculation and curious inquiry does +such a recital invite one into, beginning with the instrument which +was the medium of communication between the artist and his hearers! +To follow the progressive development of the mechanical principles +underlying the pianoforte, one would be obliged to begin beyond the +veil which separates history from tradition, for the first of them +finds its earliest exemplification in the bow twanged by the primitive +savage. Since a recognition of these principles may help to an +understanding of the art of pianoforte playing, I enumerate them now. +They are: + +1. A stretched string as a medium of tone production. + +2. A key-board as an agency for manipulating the strings. + +3. A blow as the means of exciting the strings to vibratory action, by +which the tone is produced. + +[Sidenote: _Their Genesis._] + +[Sidenote: _Significance of the pianoforte._] + +Many interesting glimpses of the human mind and heart might we have in +the course of the promenade through the ancient, mediæval, and modern +worlds which would be necessary to disclose the origin and growth of +these three principles, but these we must forego, since we are to +study the music of the instrument, not its history. Let the knowledge +suffice that the fundamental principle of the pianoforte is as old as +music itself, and that scientific learning, inventive ingenuity, and +mechanical skill, tributary always to the genius of the art, have +worked together for centuries to apply this principle, until the +instrument which embodies it in its highest potency is become a +veritable microcosm of music. It is the visible sign of culture in +every gentle household; the indispensable companion of the composer +and teacher; the intermediary between all the various branches of +music. Into the study of the orchestral conductor it brings a +translation of all the multitudinous voices of the band; to the +choir-master it represents the chorus of singers in the church-loft or +on the concert-platform; with its aid the opera director fills his +imagination with the people, passions, and pageantry of the lyric +drama long before the singers have received their parts, or the +costumer, stage manager, and scene-painter have begun their work. It +is the only medium through which the musician in his study can +commune with the whole world of music and all its heroes; and though +it may fail to inspire somewhat of that sympathetic nearness which one +feels toward the violin as it nestles under the chin and throbs +synchronously with the player's emotions, or those wind instruments +into which the player breathes his own breath as the breath of life, +it surpasses all its rivals, save the organ, in its capacity for +publishing the grand harmonies of the masters, for uttering their +"sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs and harping symphonies." + +[Sidenote: _Defects of the pianoforte._] + +[Sidenote: _Lack of sustaining power._] + +This is one side of the picture and serves to show why the pianoforte +is the most universal, useful, and necessary of all musical +instruments. The other side shows its deficiencies, which must also be +known if one is to appreciate rightly the many things he is called +upon to note while listening intelligently to pianoforte music. +Despite all the skill, learning, and ingenuity which have been spent +on its perfection, the pianoforte can be made only feebly to +approximate that sustained style of musical utterance which is the +soul of melody, and finds its loftiest exemplification in singing. To +give out a melody perfectly, presupposes the capacity to sustain tones +without loss in power or quality, to bind them together at will, and +sometimes to intensify their dynamic or expressive force while they +sound. The tone of the pianoforte, being produced by a blow, begins to +die the moment it is created. The history of the instrument's +mechanism, and also of its technical manipulation, is the history of +an effort to reduce this shortcoming to a minimum. It has always +conditioned the character of the music composed for the instrument, +and if we were not in danger of being led into too wide an excursion, +it would be profitable to trace the parallelism which is disclosed by +the mechanical evolution of the instrument, and the technical and +spiritual evolution of the music composed for it. A few points will be +touched upon presently, when the intellectual activity invited by a +recital is brought under consideration. + +[Sidenote: _The percussive element._] + +[Sidenote: _Melody with drum-beats._] + +[Sidenote: _Rhythmical accentuation._] + +[Sidenote: _A universal substitute._] + +It is to be noted, further, that by a beautiful application of the +doctrine of compensations, the factor which limits the capacity of +the pianoforte as a melody instrument endows it with a merit which no +other instrument has in the same degree, except the instruments of +percussion, which, despite their usefulness, stand on the border line +between savage and civilized music. It is from its relationship to the +drum that the pianoforte derives a peculiarity quite unique in the +melodic and harmonic family. Rhythm is, after all, the starting-point +of music. More than melody, more than harmony, it stirs the blood of +the savage, and since the most vital forces within man are those which +date back to his primitive state, so the sense of rhythm is the most +universal of the musical senses among even the most cultured of +peoples to-day. By themselves the drums, triangles, and cymbals of an +orchestra represent music but one remove from noise; but everybody +knows how marvellously they can be utilized to glorify a climax. Now, +in a very refined degree, every melody on the pianoforte, be it played +as delicately as it may, is a melody with drum-beats. Manufacturers +have done much toward eliminating the thump of the hammers against the +strings, and familiarity with the tone of the instrument has closed +our ears against it to a great extent as something intrusive, but the +blow which excites the string to vibration, and thus generates sound, +is yet a vital factor in determining the character of pianoforte +music. The recurrent pulsations, now energetic, incisive, resolute, +now gentle and caressing, infuse life into the melody, and by +emphasizing its rhythmical structure (without unduly exaggerating it), +present the form of the melody in much sharper outline than is +possible on any other instrument, and much more than one would expect +in view of the evanescent character of the pianoforte's tone. It is +this quality, combined with the mechanism which places all the +gradations of tone, from loudest to softest, at the easy and +instantaneous command of the player, which, I fancy, makes the +pianoforte, in an astonishing degree, a substitute for all the other +instruments. Each instrument in the orchestra has an idiom, which +sounds incomprehensible when uttered by some other of its fellows, but +they can all be translated, with more or less success, into the +language of the pianoforte--not the quality of the tone, though even +that can be suggested, but the character of the phrase. The pianoforte +can sentimentalize like the flute, make a martial proclamation like +the trumpet, intone a prayer like the churchly trombone. + +[Sidenote: _The instrument's mechanism._] + +[Sidenote: _Tone formation and production._] + +In the intricacy of its mechanism the pianoforte stands next to the +organ. The farther removed from direct utterance we are the more +difficult is it to speak the true language of music. The violin player +and the singer, and in a less degree the performers upon some of the +wind instruments, are obliged to form the musical tone--which, in the +case of the pianist, is latent in the instrument, ready to present +itself in two of its attributes in answer to a simple pressure upon +the key. The most unmusical person in the world can learn to produce a +series of tones from a pianoforte which shall be as exact in pitch and +as varied in dynamic force as can Mr. Paderewski. He cannot combine +them so ingeniously nor imbue them with feeling, but in the simple +matter of producing the tone with the attributes mentioned, he is on a +level with the greatest virtuoso. Very different is the case of the +musician who must exercise a distinctly musical gift in the simple +evocation of the materials of music, like the violinist and singer, +who both form and produce the tone. For them compensation flows from +the circumstance that the tone thus formed and produced is naturally +instinct with emotional life in a degree that the pianoforte tone +knows nothing of. + +[Sidenote: _Technical manipulation._] + +[Sidenote: _Touch and emotionality._] + +In one respect, it may be said that the mechanics of pianoforte +playing represent a low plane of artistic activity, a fact which ought +always to be remembered whenever the temptation is felt greatly to +exalt the technique of the art; but it must also be borne in mind that +the mechanical nature of simple tone production in pianoforte playing +raises the value of the emotional quality which, nevertheless, stands +at the command of the player. The emotional potency of the tone must +come from the manner in which the blow is given to the string. +Recognition of this fact has stimulated reflection, and this in turn +has discovered methods by which temperament and emotionality may be +made to express themselves as freely, convincingly, and spontaneously +in pianoforte as in violin playing. If this were not so it would be +impossible to explain the difference in the charm exerted by different +virtuosi, for it has frequently happened that the best-equipped +mechanician and the most intellectual player has been judged inferior +as an artist to another whose gifts were of the soul rather than of +the brains and fingers. + +[Sidenote: _The technical cult._] + +[Sidenote: _A low form of art._] + +The feats accomplished by a pianoforte virtuoso in the mechanical +department are of so extraordinary a nature that there need be small +wonder at the wide prevalence of a distinctly technical cult. All who +know the real nature and mission of music must condemn such a cult. It +is a sign of a want of true appreciation to admire technique for +technique's sake. It is a mistaking of the outward shell for the +kernel, a means for the end. There are still many players who aim to +secure this admiration, either because they are deficient in real +musical feeling, or because they believe themselves surer of winning +applause by thus appealing to the lowest form of appreciation. In the +early part of the century they would have been handicapped by the +instrument which lent itself to delicacy, clearness, and gracefulness +of expression, but had little power. Now the pianoforte has become a +thing of rigid steel, enduring tons of strain from its strings, and +having a voice like the roar of many waters; to keep pace with it +players have become athletes with + + "Thews of Anakim + And pulses of a Titan's heart." + +[Sidenote: _Technical skill a matter of course._] + +They care no more for the "murmurs made to bless," unless it be +occasionally for the sake of contrast, but seek to astound, amaze, +bewilder, and confound with feats of skill and endurance. That with +their devotion to the purely mechanical side of the art they are +threatening to destroy pianoforte playing gives them no pause +whatever. The era which they illustrate and adorn is the technical era +which was, is, and ever shall be, the era of decay in artistic +production. For the judicious technique alone, be it never so +marvellous, cannot serve to-day. Its possession is accepted as a +condition precedent in the case of everyone who ventures to appear +upon the concert-platform. He must be a wonder, indeed, who can +disturb our critical equilibrium by mere digital feats. We want +strength and velocity of finger to be coupled with strength, velocity, +and penetration of thought. We want no halting or lisping in the +proclamation of what the composer has said, but we want the contents +of his thought, not the hollow shell, no matter how distinctly its +outlines be drawn. + +[Sidenote: _The plan of study in this chapter._] + +[Sidenote: _A typical scheme of pieces._] + +The factors which present themselves for consideration at a pianoforte +recital--mechanical, intellectual, and emotional--can be most +intelligently and profitably studied along with the development of the +instrument and its music. All branches of the study are invited by +the typical recital programme. The essentially romantic trend of Mr. +Paderewski's nature makes his excursions into the classical field few +and short; and it is only when a pianist undertakes to emulate +Rubinstein in his historical recitals that the entire pre-Beethoven +vista is opened up. It will suffice for the purposes of this +discussion to imagine a programme containing pieces by Bach, D. +Scarlatti, Handel, and Mozart in one group; a sonata by Beethoven; +some of the shorter pieces of Schumann and Chopin, and one of the +transcriptions or rhapsodies of Liszt. + +[Sidenote: _Periods in pianoforte music._] + +Such a scheme falls naturally into four divisions, plainly +differentiated from each other in respect of the style of composition +and the manner of performance, both determined by the nature of the +instrument employed and the status of the musical idea. Simply for the +sake of convenience let the period represented by the first group be +called the classic; the second the classic-romantic; the third the +romantic, and the last the bravura. I beg the reader, however, not to +extend these designations beyond the boundaries of the present study; +they have been chosen arbitrarily, and confusion might result if the +attempt were made to apply them to any particular concert scheme. I +have chosen the composers because of their broadly representative +capacity. And they must stand for a numerous _epigonoi_ whose names +make up our concert lists: say, Couperin, Rameau, and Haydn in the +first group; Schubert in the second; Mendelssohn and Rubinstein in the +third. It would not be respectful to the memory of Liszt were I to +give him the associates with whom in my opinion he stands; that matter +may be held in abeyance. + +[Sidenote: _Predecessors of the pianoforte._] + +[Sidenote: _The Clavichord._] + +[Sidenote: _"Bebung."_] + +The instruments for which the first group of writers down to Haydn and +Mozart wrote, were the immediate precursors of the pianoforte--the +clavichord, spinet, or virginal, and harpsichord. The last was the +concert instrument, and stood in the same relationship to the others +that the grand pianoforte of to-day stands to the upright and square. +The clavichord was generally the medium for the composer's private +communings with his muse, because of its superiority over its fellows +in expressive power; but it gave forth only a tiny tinkle and was +incapable of stirring effects beyond those which sprang from pure +emotionality. The tone was produced by a blow against the string, +delivered by a bit of brass set in the farther end of the key. The +action was that of a direct lever, and the bit of brass, which was +called the tangent, also acted as a bridge and measured off the +segment of string whose vibration produced the desired tone. It was +therefore necessary to keep the key pressed down so long as it was +desired that the tone should sound, a fact which must be kept in mind +if one would understand the shortcomings as well as the advantages of +the instrument compared with the spinet or harpsichord. It also +furnishes one explanation of the greater lyricism of Bach's music +compared with that of his contemporaries. By gently rocking the hand +while the key was down, a tremulous motion could be communicated to +the string, which not only prolonged the tone appreciably but gave it +an expressive effect somewhat analogous to the vibrato of a violinist. +The Germans called this effect _Bebung_, the French _Balancement_, and +it was indicated by a row of dots under a short slur written over the +note. It is to the special fondness which Bach felt for the clavichord +that we owe, to a great extent, the cantabile style of his music, its +many-voicedness and its high emotionality. + +[Sidenote: _Quilled instruments._] + +[Sidenote: _Tone of the harpsichord and spinet._] + +[Sidenote: _Bach's "Music of the future."_] + +The spinet, virginal, and harpsichord were quilled instruments, the +tone of which was produced by snapping the strings by means of plectra +made of quill, or some other flexible substance, set in the upper end +of a bit of wood called the jack, which rested on the farther end of +the key and moved through a slot in the sounding-board. When the key +was pressed down, the jack moved upward past the string which was +caught and twanged by the plectrum. The blow of the clavichord tangent +could be graduated like that of the pianoforte hammer, but the quills +of the other instruments always plucked the strings with the same +force, so that mechanical devices, such as a swell-box, similar in +principle to that of the organ, coupling in octaves, doubling the +strings, etc., had to be resorted to for variety of dynamic effects. +The character of tone thus produced determined the character of the +music composed for these instruments to a great extent. The brevity of +the sound made sustained melodies ineffective, and encouraged the use +of a great variety of embellishments and the spreading out of +harmonies in the form of arpeggios. It is obvious enough that Bach, +being one of those monumental geniuses that cast their prescient +vision far into the future, refused to be bound by such mechanical +limitations. Though he wrote _Clavier_, he thought organ, which was +his true interpretative medium, and so it happens that the greatest +sonority and the broadest style that have been developed in the +pianoforte do not exhaust the contents of such a composition as the +"Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue." + +[Sidenote: _Scarlatti's sonatas._] + +The earliest music written for these instruments--music which does +not enter into this study--was but one remove from vocal music. It +came through compositions written for the organ. Of Scarlatti's music +the pieces most familiar are a Capriccio and Pastorale which Tausig +rewrote for the pianoforte. They were called sonatas by their +composer, but are not sonatas in the modern sense. Sonata means +"sound-piece," and when the term came into music it signified only +that the composition to which it was applied was written for +instruments instead of voices. Scarlatti did a great deal to develop +the technique of the harpsichord and the style of composing for it. +His sonatas consist each of a single movement only, but in their +structure they foreshadow the modern sonata form in having two +contrasted themes, which are presented in a fixed key-relationship. +They are frequently full of grace and animation, but are as purely +objective, formal, and soulless in their content as the other +instrumental compositions of the epoch to which they belong. + +[Sidenote: _The suite._] + +[Sidenote: _Its history and form._] + +[Sidenote: _The bond between the movements._] + +The most significant of the compositions of this period are the +Suites, which because they make up so large a percentage of _Clavier_ +literature (using the term to cover the pianoforte and its +predecessors), and because they pointed the way to the distinguishing +form of the subsequent period, the sonata, are deserving of more +extended consideration. The suite is a set of pieces in the same key, +but contrasted in character, based upon certain admired dance-forms. +Originally it was a set of dances and nothing more, but in the hands +of the composers the dances underwent many modifications, some of them +to the obvious detriment of their national or other distinguishing +characteristics. The suite came into fashion about the middle of the +seventeenth century and was also called _Sonata da Camera_ and +_Balletto_ in Italy, and, later, _Partita_ in France. In its +fundamental form it embraced four movements: I. Allemande. II. +Courante. III. Sarabande. IV. Gigue. To these four were sometimes +added other dances--the Gavotte, Passepied, Branle, Minuet, Bourrée, +etc.--but the rule was that they should be introduced between the +Sarabande and the Gigue. Sometimes also the set was introduced by a +Prelude or an Overture. Identity of key was the only external tie +between the various members of the suite, but the composers sought to +establish an artistic unity by elaborating the sentiments for which +the dance-forms seemed to offer a vehicle, and presenting them in +agreeable contrast, besides enriching the primitive structure with new +material. The suites of Bach and Handel are the high-water mark in +this style of composition, but it would be difficult to find the +original characteristics of the dances in their settings. It must +suffice us briefly to indicate the characteristics of the principal +forms. + +[Sidenote: _The Allemande._] + +The Allemande, as its name indicates, was a dance of supposedly German +origin. For that reason the German composers, when it came to them +from France, where the suite had its origin, treated it with great +partiality. It is in moderate tempo, common time, and made up of two +periods of eight measures, both of which are repeated. It begins with +an upbeat, and its metre, to use the terms of prosody, is iambic. The +following specimen from Mersenne's "Harmonie Universelle," 1636, well +displays its characteristics: + +[Music illustration] + +[Sidenote: _Iambics in music and poetry._] + +Robert Burns's familiar iambics, + + "Ye flowery banks o' bonnie Doon, + How can ye bloom sae fair? + How can ye chant, ye little birds, + And I sae fu' o' care!" + +might serve to keep the rhythmical characteristics of the Allemande in +mind were it not for the arbitrary changes made by the composers +already hinted at. As it is, we frequently find the stately movement +of the old dance broken up into elaborate, but always quietly +flowing, ornamentation, as indicated in the following excerpt from the +third of Bach's English suites: + +[Music illustration] + +[Sidenote: _The Courante._] + +The Courante, or Corrente ("Teach lavoltas high and swift corantos," +says Shakespeare), is a French dance which was extremely popular in +the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries--a polite dance, +like the minuet. It was in triple time, and its movement was bright +and brisk, a merry energy being imparted to the measure by the +prevailing figure, a dotted quarter-note, an eighth, and a quarter in +a measure, as illustrated in the following excerpt also from Mersenne: + +[Music illustration] + +The suite composers varied the movement greatly, however, and the +Italian Corrente consists chiefly of rapid running passages. + +[Sidenote: _The Sarabande._] + +The Sarabande was also in triple time, but its movement was slow and +stately. In Spain, whence it was derived, it was sung to the +accompaniment of castanets, a fact which in itself suffices to +indicate that it was originally of a lively character, and took on its +solemnity in the hands of the later composers. Handel found the +Sarabande a peculiarly admirable vehicle for his inspirations, and one +of the finest examples extant figures in the triumphal music of his +"Almira," composed in 1704: + +[Sidenote: _A Sarabande by Handel._] + +[Music illustration] + +Seven years after the production of "Almira," Handel recurred to this +beautiful instrumental piece, and out of it constructed the exquisite +lament beginning "_Lascia ch'io pianga_" in his opera "Rinaldo." + +[Sidenote: _The Gigue._] + +[Sidenote: _The Minuet._] + +[Sidenote: _The Gavotte._] + +Great Britain's contribution to the Suite was the final Gigue, which +is our jolly and familiar friend the jig, and in all probability is +Keltic in origin. It is, as everybody knows, a rollicking measure in +6-8, 12-8, or 4-4 time, with twelve triplet quavers in a measure, and +needs no description. It remained a favorite with composers until far +into the eighteenth century. Shakespeare proclaims its exuberant +lustiness when he makes _Sir Toby Belch_ protest that had he _Sir +Andrew's_ gifts his "very walk should be a jig." Of the other dances +incorporated into the suite, two are deserving of special mention +because of their influence on the music of to-day--the Minuet, which +is the parent of the symphonic scherzo, and the Gavotte, whose +fascinating movement is frequently heard in latter-day operettas. The +Minuet is a French dance, and came from Poitou. Louis XIV. danced it +to Lully's music for the first time at Versailles in 1653, and it soon +became the most popular of court and society dances, holding its own +down to the beginning of the nineteenth century. It was long called +the Queen of Dances, and there is no one who has grieved to see the +departure of gallantry and grace from our ball-rooms but will wish to +see Her Gracious Majesty restored to her throne. The music of the +minuet is in 3-4 time, and of stately movement. The Gavotte is a +lively dance-measure in common time, beginning, as a rule, on the +third beat. Its origin has been traced to the mountain people of the +Dauphiné called Gavots--whence its name. + +[Sidenote: _Technique of the Clavier players._] + +[Sidenote: _Change in technique._] + +The transferrence of this music to the modern pianoforte has effected +a vast change in the manner of its performance. In the period under +consideration emotionality, which is considered the loftiest attribute +of pianoforte playing to-day, was lacking, except in the case of such +masters of the clavichord as the great Bach and his son, Carl Philipp +Emanuel, who inherited his father's preference for that instrument +over the harpsichord and pianoforte. Tastefulness in the giving out of +the melody, distinctness of enunciation, correctness of phrasing, +nimbleness and lightness of finger, summed up practically all that +there was in virtuosoship. Intellectuality and digital skill were the +essential factors. Beauty of tone through which feeling and +temperament speak now was the product of the maker of the instrument, +except again in the case of the clavichord, in which it may have been +largely the creation of the player. It is, therefore, not surprising +that the first revolution in technique of which we hear was +accomplished by Bach, who, the better to bring out the characteristics +of his polyphonic style, made use of the thumb, till then considered +almost a useless member of the hand in playing, and bent his fingers, +so that their movements might be more unconstrained. + +[Sidenote: _Bach's touch._] + +[Sidenote: _Handel's playing._] + +[Sidenote: _Scarlatti's style._] + +Of the varieties of touch, which play such a rôle in pianoforte +pedagogics to-day, nothing was known. Only on the clavichord was a +blow delivered directly against the string, and, as has already been +said, only on that instrument was the dynamic shading regulated by the +touch. Practically, the same touch was used on the organ and the +stringed instruments with key-board. When we find written praise of +the old players it always goes to the fluency and lightness of their +fingering. Handel was greatly esteemed as a harpsichord player, and +seems to have invented a position of the hand like Bach's, or to have +copied it from that master. Forkel tells us the movement of Bach's +fingers was so slight as to be scarcely noticeable; the position of +his hands remained unchanged throughout, and the rest of his body +motionless. Speaking of Handel's harpsichord playing, Burney says that +his fingers "seemed to grow to the keys. They were so curved and +compact when he played that no motion, and scarcely the fingers +themselves, could be discovered." Scarlatti's significance lies +chiefly in an extension of the technique of his time so as to give +greater individuality to the instrument. He indulged freely in +brilliant passages and figures which sometimes call for a crossing of +the hands, also in leaps of over an octave, repetition of a note by +different fingers, broken chords in contrary motion, and other devices +which prefigure modern pianoforte music. + +[Sidenote: _The sonata._] + +That Scarlatti also pointed the way to the modern sonata, I have +already said. The history of the sonata, as the term is now +understood, ends with Beethoven. Many sonatas have been written since +the last one of that great master, but not a word has been added to +his proclamation. He stands, therefore, as a perfect exemplar of the +second period in the scheme which we have adopted for the study of +pianoforte music and playing. In a general way a sonata may be +described as a composition of four movements, contrasted in mood, +tempo, sentiment, and character, but connected by that spiritual bond +of which mention was made in our study of the symphony. In short, a +sonata is a symphony for a solo instrument. + +[Sidenote: _Haydn._] + +When it came into being it was little else than a convenient formula +for the expression of musical beauty. Haydn, who perfected it on its +formal side, left it that and nothing more. Mozart poured the vessel +full of beauty, but Beethoven breathed the breath of a new life into +it. An old writer tells us of Haydn that he was wont to say that the +whole art of composing consisted in taking up a subject and pursuing +it. Having invented his theme, he would begin by choosing the keys +through which he wished to make it pass. + + "His exquisite feeling gave him a perfect knowledge of the + greater or less degree of effect which one chord produces + in succeeding another, and he afterward imagined a little + romance which might furnish him with sentiments and colors." + +[Sidenote: _Beethoven._] + +[Sidenote: _Mozart's manner of playing._] + +Beethoven began with the sentiment and worked from it outwardly, +modifying the form when it became necessary to do so, in order to +obtain complete and perfect utterance. He made spirit rise superior to +matter. This must be borne in mind when comparing the technique of the +previous period with that of which I have made Beethoven the +representative. In the little that we are privileged to read of +Mozart's style of playing, we see only a reflex of the players who +went before him, saving as it was permeated by the warmth which went +out from his own genial personality. His manipulation of the keys had +the quietness and smoothness that were praised in Bach and Handel. + + "Delicacy and taste," says Kullak, "with his lifting of the + entire technique to the spiritual aspiration of the idea, + elevate him as a virtuoso to a height unanimously conceded + by the public, by connoisseurs, and by artists capable of + judging. Clementi declared that he had never heard any one + play so soulfully and charmfully as Mozart; Dittersdorf + finds art and taste combined in his playing; Haydn + asseverated with tears that Mozart's playing he could never + forget, for it touched the heart. His staccato is said to + have possessed a peculiarly brilliant charm." + +[Sidenote: _Clementi._] + +[Sidenote: _Beethoven as a pianist._] + +The period of C.P.E. Bach, Haydn, and Mozart is that in which the +pianoforte gradually replaced its predecessors, and the first real +pianist was Mozart's contemporary and rival, Muzio Clementi. His chief +significance lies in his influence as a technician, for he opened the +way to the modern style of play with its greater sonority and capacity +for expression. Under him passage playing became an entirely new +thing; deftness, lightness, and fluency were replaced by stupendous +virtuosoship, which rested, nevertheless, on a full and solid tone. He +is said to have been able to trill in octaves with one hand. He was +necessary for the adequate interpretation of Beethoven, whose music is +likely to be best understood by those who know that he, too, was a +superb pianoforte player, fully up to the requirements which his last +sonatas make upon technical skill as well as intellectual and +emotional gifts. + +[Sidenote: _Beethoven's technique._] + +[Sidenote: _Expression supreme._] + +Czerny, who was a pupil of Beethoven, has preserved a fuller account +of that great composer's art as a player than we have of any of his +predecessors. He describes his technique as tremendous, better than +that of any virtuoso of his day. He was remarkably deft in connecting +the full chords, in which he delighted, without the use of the pedal. +His manner at the instrument was composed and quiet. He sat erect, +without movement of the upper body, and only when his deafness +compelled him to do so, in order to hear his own music, did he +contract a habit of leaning forward. With an evident appreciation of +the necessities of old-time music he had a great admiration for clean +fingering, especially in fugue playing, and he objected to the use of +Cramer's studies in the instruction of his nephew by Czerny because +they led to what he called a "sticky" style of play, and failed to +bring out crisp staccatos and a light touch. But it was upon +expression that he insisted most of all when he taught. + +[Sidenote: _Music and emotion._] + +More than anyone else it was Beethoven who brought music back to the +purpose which it had in its first rude state, when it sprang +unvolitionally from the heart and lips of primitive man. It became +again a vehicle for the feelings. As such it was accepted by the +romantic composers to whom he belongs as father, seer, and prophet, +quite as intimately as he belongs to the classicists by reason of his +adherence to form as an essential in music. To his contemporaries he +appears as an image-breaker, but to the clearer vision of to-day he +stands an unshakable barrier to lawless iconoclasm. Says Sir George +Grove, quoting Mr. Edward Dannreuther, in the passages within the +inverted commas: + +[Sidenote: _Beethoven a Romanticist._] + + "That he was no wild radical altering for the mere pleasure + of alteration, or in the mere search for originality, is + evident from the length of time during which he abstained + from publishing, or even composing works of pretension, and + from the likeness which his early works possess to those of + his predecessors. He began naturally with the forms which + were in use in his days, and his alteration of them grew + very gradually with the necessities of his expression. The + form of the sonata is 'the transparent veil through which + Beethoven seems to have looked at all music.' And the good + points of that form he retained to the last--the 'triune + symmetry of exposition, illustration, and repetition,' which + that admirable method allowed and enforced--but he permitted + himself a much greater liberty than his predecessors had + done in the relationship of the keys of the different + movements, and parts of movements, and in the proportion of + the clauses and sections with which he built them up. In + other words, he was less bound by the forms and musical + rules, and more swayed by the thought which he had to + express, and the directions which that thought took in his + mind." + +[Sidenote: _Schumann and Chopin._] + +It is scarcely to be wondered at that when men like Schumann and +Chopin felt the full force of the new evangel which Beethoven had +preached, they proceeded to carry the formal side of poetic +expression, its vehicle, into regions unthought of before their time. +The few old forms had now to give way to a large variety. In their +work they proceeded from points that were far apart--Schumann's was +literary, Chopin's political. In one respect the lists of their pieces +which appear most frequently on recital programmes seem to hark back +to the suites of two centuries ago--they are sets of short +compositions grouped, either by the composer (as is the case with +Schumann) or by the performer (as is the case with Chopin in the hands +of Mr. Paderewski). Such fantastic musical miniatures as Schumann's +"Carnaval" and "Papillons" are eminently characteristic of the +composer's intellectual and emotional nature, which in his university +days had fallen under the spell of literary romanticism. + +[Sidenote: _Jean Paul's influence._] + +[Sidenote: _Schumann's inspirations._] + +While ostensibly studying jurisprudence at Heidelberg, Schumann +devoted seven hours a day to the pianoforte and several to Jean Paul. +It was this writer who moulded not only Schumann's literary style in +his early years, but also gave the bent which his creative activity in +music took at the outset. To say little, but vaguely hint at much, was +the rule which he adopted; to remain sententious in expression, but +give the freest and most daring flight to his imagination, and spurn +the conventional limitations set by rule and custom, his ambition. +Such fanciful and symbolical titles as "Flower, Fruit, and Thorn +Pieces," "Titan," etc., which Jean Paul adopted for his singular +mixtures of tale, rhapsody, philosophy, and satire, were bound to find +an imitator in so ardent an apostle as young Schumann, and, therefore, +we have such compositions as "Papillons," "Carnaval," "Kreisleriana," +"Phantasiestücke," and the rest. Almost always, it may be said, the +pieces which make them up were composed under the poetical and +emotional impulses derived from literature, then grouped and named. To +understand their poetic contents this must be known. + +[Sidenote: _Chopin's music._] + +[Sidenote: _Preludes._] + +Chopin's fancy, on the other hand, found stimulation in the charm +which, for him, lay in the tone of the pianoforte itself (to which he +added a new loveliness by his manner of writing), as well as in the +rhythms of the popular dances of his country. These dances he not only +beautified as the old suite writers beautified their forms, but he +utilized them as vessels which he filled with feeling, not all of +which need be accepted as healthy, though much of it is. As to his +titles, "Preludes" is purely an arbitrary designation for +compositions which are equally indefinite in form and character; +Niecks compares them very aptly to a portfolio full of drawings "in +all stages of advancement--finished and unfinished, complete and +incomplete compositions, sketches and mere memoranda, all mixed +indiscriminately together." So, too, they appeared to Schumann: "They +are sketches, commencements of studies, or, if you will, ruins, single +eagle-wings, all strangely mixed together." Nevertheless some of them +are marvellous soul-pictures. + +[Sidenote: _Études._] + +[Sidenote: _Nocturnes._] + +The "Études" are studies intended to develop the technique of the +pianoforte in the line of the composer's discoveries, his method of +playing extended arpeggios, contrasted rhythms, progressions in thirds +and octaves, etc., but still they breathe poetry and sometimes +passion. Nocturne is an arbitrary, but expressive, title for a short +composition of a dreamy, contemplative, or even elegiac, character. In +many of his nocturnes Chopin is the adored sentimentalist of +boarding-school misses. There is poppy in them and seductive poison +for which Niecks sensibly prescribes Bach and Beethoven as antidotes. +The term ballad has been greatly abused in literature, and in music is +intrinsically unmeaning. Chopin's four Ballades have one feature in +common--they are written in triple time; and they are among his finest +inspirations. + +[Sidenote: _The Polonaise._] + +Chopin's dances are conventionalized, and do not all speak the idiom +of the people who created their forms, but their original +characteristics ought to be known. The Polonaise was the stately dance +of the Polish nobility, more a march or procession than a dance, full +of gravity and courtliness, with an imposing and majestic rhythm in +triple time that tends to emphasize the second beat of the measure, +frequently syncopating it and accentuating the second half of the +first beat: + +[Music illustration] + +[Sidenote: _The Mazurka._] + +National color comes out more clearly in his Mazurkas. Unlike the +Polonaise this was the dance of the common people, and even as +conventionalized and poetically refined by Chopin there is still in +the Mazurka some of the rude vigor which lies in its propulsive +rhythm: + +[Music illustration] or [Music illustration] + +[Sidenote: _The Krakowiak._] + +The Krakowiak (French _Cracovienne_, Mr. Paderewski has a fascinating +specimen in his "Humoresques de Concert," op. 14) is a popular dance +indigenous to the district of Cracow, whence its name. Its rhythmical +elements are these: + +[Music illustration] and [Music illustration] + +[Sidenote: _Idiomatic music._] + +[Sidenote: _Content higher than idiom._] + +In the music of this period there is noticeable a careful attention on +the part of the composers to the peculiarities of the pianoforte. No +music, save perhaps that of Liszt, is so idiomatic. Frequently in +Beethoven the content of the music seems too great for the medium of +expression; we feel that the thought would have had better expression +had the master used the orchestra instead of the pianoforte. We may +well pause a moment to observe the development of the instrument and +its technique from then till now, but as condemnation has already been +pronounced against excessive admiration of technique for technique's +sake, so now I would first utter a warning against our appreciation of +the newer charm. "Idiomatic of the pianoforte" is a good enough phrase +and a useful, indeed, but there is danger that if abused it may bring +something like discredit to the instrument. It would be a pity if +music, which contains the loftiest attributes of artistic beauty, +should fail of appreciation simply because it had been observed that +the pianoforte is not the most convenient, appropriate, or effective +vehicle for its publication--a pity for the pianoforte, for therein +would lie an exemplification of its imperfection. So, too, it would be +a pity if the opinion should gain ground that music which had been +clearly designed to meet the nature of the instrument was for that +reason good pianoforte music, _i.e._, "idiomatic" music, irrespective +of its content. + +[Sidenote: _Development of the pianoforte._] + +In Beethoven's day the pianoforte was still a feeble instrument +compared with the grand of to-day. Its capacities were but beginning +to be appreciated. Beethoven had to seek and invent effects which now +are known to every amateur. The instrument which the English +manufacturer Broadwood presented to him in 1817 had a compass of six +octaves, and was a whole octave wider in range than Mozart's +pianoforte. In 1793 Clementi extended the key-board to five and a half +octaves; six and a half octaves were reached in 1811, and seven in +1851. Since 1851 three notes have been added without material +improvement to the instrument. This extension of compass, however, is +far from being the most important improvement since the classic +period. The growth in power, sonority, and tonal brilliancy has been +much more marked, and of it Liszt made striking use. + +[Sidenote: _The Pedals._] + +[Sidenote: _Shifting pedal._] + +[Sidenote: _Damper pedal._] + +Very significant, too, in their relation to the development of the +music, were the invention and improvement of the pedals. The shifting +pedal was invented by a Viennese maker named Stein, who first applied +it to an instrument which he named "Saiten-harmonika." Before then +soft effects were obtained by interposing a bit of felt between the +hammers and the strings, as may still be seen in old square +pianofortes. The shifting pedal, or soft pedal as it is popularly +called, moves the key-board and action so that the hammer strikes only +one or two of the unison strings, leaving the other to vibrate +sympathetically. Beethoven was the first to appreciate the +possibilities of this effect (see the slow movement of his concerto in +G major and his last sonatas), but after him came Schumann and Chopin, +and brought pedal manipulation to perfection, especially that of the +damper pedal. This is popularly called the loud pedal, and the +vulgarest use to which it can be put is to multiply the volume of +tone. It was Chopin who showed its capacity for sustaining a melody +and enriching the color effects by releasing the strings from the +dampers and utilizing the ethereal sounds which rise from the strings +when they vibrate sympathetically. + +[Sidenote: _Liszt._] + +[Sidenote: _A dual character._] + +It is no part of my purpose to indulge in criticism of composers, but +something of the kind is made unavoidable by the position assigned to +Liszt in our pianoforte recitals. He is relied upon to provide a +scintillant close. The pianists, then, even those who are his +professed admirers, are responsible if he is set down in our scheme as +the exemplar of the technical cult. Technique having its unquestioned +value, we are bound to admire the marvellous gifts which enabled Liszt +practically to sum up all the possibilities of pianoforte mechanism in +its present stage of construction, but we need not look with unalloyed +gratitude upon his influence as a composer. There were, I fear, two +sides to Liszt's artistic character as well as his moral. I believe he +had in him a touch of charlatanism as well as a magnificent amount of +artistic sincerity--just as he blended a laxity of moral ideas with a +profound religious mysticism. It would have been strange indeed, +growing up as he did in the whited sepulchre of Parisian salon life, +if he had not accustomed himself to sacrifice a little of the soul of +art for the sake of vainglory, and a little of its poetry and feeling +to make display of those dazzling digital feats which he invented. +But, be it said to his honor, he never played mountebank tricks in the +presence of the masters whom he revered. It was when he approached the +music of Beethoven that he sank all thought of self and rose to a +peerless height as an interpreting artist. + +[Sidenote: _Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies._] + +[Sidenote: _Gypsies and Magyars._] + +Liszt's place as a composer of original music has not yet been +determined, but as a transcriber of the music of others the givers of +pianoforte recitals keep him always before us. The showy Hungarian +Rhapsodies with which the majority of pianoforte recitals end are, +however, more than mere transcriptions. They are constructed out of +the folk-songs of the Magyars, and in their treatment the composer has +frequently reproduced the characteristic performances which they +receive at the hands of the Gypsies from whom he learned them. This +fact and the belief to which Liszt gave currency in his book "Des +Bohémiens et de leur musique en Hongrie" have given rise to the +almost universal belief that the Magyar melodies are of Gypsy origin. +This belief is erroneous. The Gypsies have for centuries been the +musical practitioners of Hungary, but they are not the composers of +the music of the Magyars, though they have put a marked impress not +only on the melodies, but also on popular taste. The Hungarian +folk-songs are a perfect reflex of the national character of the +Magyars, and some have been traced back centuries in their literature. +Though their most marked melodic peculiarity, the frequent use of a +minor scale containing one or even two superfluous seconds, as thus: + +[Sidenote: _Magyar scales._] + +[Music illustration] + +may be said to belong to Oriental music as a whole (and the Magyars +are Orientals), the songs have a rhythmical peculiarity which is a +direct product of the Magyar language. This peculiarity consists of a +figure in which the emphasis is shifted from the strong to the weak +part by making the first take only a fraction of the time of the +second, thus: + +[Music illustration] + +[Sidenote: _The Scotch snap._] + +[Sidenote: _Gypsy epics._] + +In Scottish music this rhythm also plays a prominent part, but there +it falls into the beginning of a measure, whereas in Hungarian it +forms the middle or end. The result is an effect of syncopation which +is peculiarly forceful. There is an indubitable Oriental relic in the +profuse embellishments which the Gypsies weave around the Hungarian +melodies when playing them; but the fact that they thrust the same +embellishments upon Spanish and Russian music, in fact upon all the +music which they play, indicates plainly enough that the impulse to do +so is native to them, and has nothing to do with the national taste of +the countries for which they provide music. Liszt's confessed purpose +in writing the Hungarian Rhapsodies was to create what he called +"Gypsy epics." He had gathered a large number of the melodies without +a definite purpose, and was pondering what to do with them, when it +occurred to him that + + "These fragmentary, scattered melodies were the wandering, + floating, nebulous part of a great whole, that they fully + answered the conditions for the production of an harmonious + unity which would comprehend the very flower of their + essential properties, their most unique beauties," and + "might be united in one homogeneous body, a complete work, + its divisions to be so arranged that each song would form at + once a whole and a part, which might be severed from the + rest and be examined and enjoyed by and for itself; but + which would, none the less, belong to the whole through the + close affinity of subject matter, the similarity of its + inner nature and unity in development."[D] + +[Sidenote: _The Czardas._] + +The basis of Liszt's Rhapsodies being thus distinctively national, he +has in a manner imitated in their character and tempo the dual +character of the Hungarian national dance, the Czardas, which consists +of two movements, a _Lassu_, or slow movement, followed by a _Friss_. +These alternate at the will of the dancer, who gives a sign to the +band when he wishes to change from one to the other. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[D] Weitzmann, "Geschichte des Clavierspiels," p. 197. + + + + +VII + +_At the Opera_ + + +[Sidenote: _Instability of taste._] + +[Sidenote: _The age of operas._] + +Popular taste in respect of the opera is curiously unstable. It is +surprising that the canons of judgment touching it have such feeble +and fleeting authority in view of the popularity of the art-form and +the despotic hold which it has had on fashion for two centuries. No +form of popular entertainment is acclaimed so enthusiastically as a +new opera by an admired composer; none forgotten so quickly. For the +spoken drama we go back to Shakespeare in the vernacular, and, on +occasions, we revive the masterpieces of the Attic poets who +flourished more than two millenniums ago; but for opera we are bounded +by less than a century, unless occasional performances of Gluck's +"Orfeo" and Mozart's "Figaro," "Don Giovanni," and "Magic Flute" be +counted as submissions to popular demand, which, unhappily, we know +they are not. There is no one who has attended the opera for +twenty-five years who might not bewail the loss of operas from the +current list which appealed to his younger fancy as works of real +loveliness. In the season of 1895-96 the audiences at the Metropolitan +Opera House in New York heard twenty-six different operas. The oldest +were Gluck's "Orfeo" and Beethoven's "Fidelio," which had a single +experimental representation each. After them in seniority came +Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor," which is sixty-one years old, and +has overpassed the average age of "immortal" operas by from ten to +twenty years, assuming Dr. Hanslick's calculation to be correct. + +[Sidenote: _Decimation of the operatic list._] + +[Sidenote: _Dependence on singers._] + +The composers who wrote operas for the generation that witnessed +Adelina Patti's _début_ at the Academy of Music, in New York, were +Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, and Meyerbeer. Thanks to his progressive +genius, Verdi is still alive on the stage, though nine-tenths of the +operas which made his fame and fortune have already sunk into +oblivion; Meyerbeer, too, is still a more or less potent factor with +his "Huguenots," which, like "Lucia," has endured from ten to twenty +years longer than the average "immortal;" but the continued existence +of Bellini and Donizetti seems to be as closely bound up with that of +two or three singers as was Meleager's life with the burning billet +which his mother snatched from the flames. So far as the people of +London and New York are concerned whether or not they shall hear +Donizetti more, rests with Mesdames Patti and Melba, for Donizetti +spells "Lucia;" Bellini pleads piteously in "Sonnambula," but only +Madame Nevada will play the mediator between him and our stiff-necked +generation. + +[Sidenote: _An unstable art-form._] + +[Sidenote: _Carelessness of the public._] + +[Sidenote: _Addison's criticism._] + +[Sidenote: _Indifference to the words._] + +Opera is a mixed art-form and has ever been, and perhaps must ever be, +in a state of flux, subject to the changes of taste in music, the +drama, singing, acting, and even politics and morals; but in one +particular the public has shown no change for a century and a half, +and it is not quite clear why this has not given greater fixity to +popular appreciation. The people of to-day are as blithely +indifferent to the fact that their operas are all presented in a +foreign tongue as they were two centuries ago in England. The +influence of Wagner has done much to stimulate a serious attitude +toward the lyric drama, but this is seldom found outside of the +audiences in attendance on German representations. The devotees of the +Latin exotic, whether it blend French or Italian (or both, as is the +rule in New York and London) with its melodic perfume, enjoy the music +and ignore the words with the same nonchalance that Addison made merry +over. Addison proves to have been a poor prophet. The +great-grandchildren of his contemporaries are not at all curious to +know "why their forefathers used to sit together like an audience of +foreigners in their own country, and to hear whole plays acted before +them in a tongue which they did not understand." What their +great-grandparents did was also done by their grandparents and their +parents, and may be done by their children, grandchildren, and +great-grandchildren after them, unless Englishmen and Americans shall +take to heart the lessons which Wagner essayed to teach his own +people. For the present, though we have abolished many absurdities +which grew out of a conception of opera that was based upon the +simple, sensuous delight which singing gave, the charm of music is +still supreme, and we can sit out an opera without giving a thought to +the words uttered by the singers. The popular attitude is fairly +represented by that of Boileau, when he went to hear "Atys" and +requested the box-keeper to put him in a place where he could hear +Lully's music, which he loved, but not Quinault's words, which he +despised. + +[Sidenote: _Past and present._] + +It is interesting to note that in this respect the condition of +affairs in London in the early part of the eighteenth century, which +seemed so monstrously diverting to Addison, was like that in Hamburg +in the latter part of the seventeenth, and in New York at the end of +the nineteenth. There were three years in London when Italian and +English were mixed in the operatic representations. + + "The king or hero of the play generally spoke in Italian and + his slaves answered him in English; the lover frequently + made his court and gained the heart of his princess in a + language which she did not understand." + +[Sidenote: _Polyglot opera._] + +At length, says Addison, the audience got tired of understanding half +the opera, "and to ease themselves entirely of the fatigue of +thinking, so ordered it that the whole opera was performed in an +unknown tongue." + +[Sidenote: _Perversions of texts._] + +There is this difference, however, between New York and London and +Hamburg at the period referred to: while the operatic ragout was +compounded of Italian and English in London, Italian and German in +Hamburg, the ingredients here are Italian, French, and German, with no +admixture of the vernacular. Strictly speaking, our case is more +desperate than that of our foreign predecessors, for the development +of the lyric drama has lifted its verbal and dramatic elements into a +position not dreamed of two hundred years ago. We might endure with +equanimity to hear the chorus sing + +[Sidenote: _"Robert le Diable."_] + + "_La soupe aux choux se fait dans la marmite, + Dans la marmite on fait la soupe aux choux_" + +at the beginning of "Robert le Diable," as tradition says used to be +done in Paris, but we surely ought to rise in rebellion when the +chorus of guards change their muttered comments on Pizarro's furious +aria in "Fidelio" from + +[Sidenote: _"Fidelio."_] + + _"Er spricht von Tod und Wunde!"_ + +to + + _"Er spricht vom todten Hunde!"_ + +as is a prevalent custom among the irreverent choristers of Germany. + +Addison confesses that he was often afraid when seeing the Italian +performers "chattering in the vehemence of action," that they were +calling the audience names and abusing them among themselves. I do not +know how to measure the morals and manners of our Italian singers +against those of Addison's time, but I do know that many of the things +which they say before our very faces for their own diversion are not +complimentary to our intelligence. I hope I have a proper respect for +Mr. Gilbert's "bashful young potato," but I do not think it right +while we are sympathizing with the gentle passion of _Siebel_ to have +his representative bring an offering of flowers and, looking us full +in the face, sing: + + _"Le patate d'amor, + O cari fior!"_ + +[Sidenote: _"Faust."_] + +[Sidenote: _Porpora's "Credo."_] + +It isn't respectful, and it enables the cynics of to-day to say, with +the poetasters and fiddlers of Addison's day, that nothing is capable +of being well set to music that is not nonsense. Operatic words were +once merely stalking-horses for tunes, but that day is past. We used +to smile at Brignoli's "_Ah si! ah si! ah si!_" which did service for +any text in high passages; but if a composer should, for the +accommodation of his music, change the wording of the creed into +"_Credo, non credo, non credo in unum Deum_," as Porpora once did, we +should all cry out for his excommunication. + +As an art-form the opera has frequently been criticised as an +absurdity, and it is doubtless owing to such a conviction that many +people are equally indifferent to the language employed and the +sentiments embodied in the words. Even so serious a writer as George +Hogarth does not hesitate in his "Memoirs of the Opera" to defend this +careless attitude. + +[Sidenote: _Are words unessential?_] + + "The words of an air are of small importance to the + comprehension of the business of the piece," he says; "they + merely express a sentiment, a reflection, a feeling; it is + quite enough if their general import is known, and this may + most frequently be gathered from the situation, aided by the + character and expression of the music." + +[Sidenote: _"Il Trovatore."_] + +I, myself, have known an ardent lover of music who resolutely refused +to look into a libretto because, being of a lively and imaginative +temperament, she preferred to construct her own plots and put her own +words in the mouths of the singers. Though a constant attendant on the +opera, she never knew what "Il Trovatore" was about, which, perhaps, +is not so surprising after all. Doubtless the play which she had +fashioned in her own mind was more comprehensible than Verdi's medley +of burnt children and asthmatic dance rhythms. Madame de Staël went so +far as to condemn the German composers because they "follow too +closely the sense of the words," whereas the Italians, "who are truly +the musicians of nature, make the air and the words conform to each +other only in a general way." + +[Sidenote: _The opera defended as an art-form._] + +[Sidenote: _The classic tragedy._] + +Now the present generation has witnessed a revolution in operatic +ideas which has lifted the poetical elements upon a plane not dreamed +of when opera was merely a concert in costume, and it is no longer +tolerable that it be set down as an absurdity. On the contrary, I +believe that, looked at in the light thrown upon it by the history of +the drama and the origin of music, the opera is completely justified +as an art-form, and, in its best estate, is an entirely reasonable and +highly effective entertainment. No mean place, surely, should be given +in the estimation of the judicious to an art-form which aims in an +equal degree to charm the senses, stimulate the emotions, and persuade +the reason. This, the opera, or, perhaps I would better say the lyric +drama, can be made to do as efficiently as the Greek tragedy did it, +so far as the differences between the civilizations of ancient Hellas +and the nineteenth century will permit. The Greek tragedy was the +original opera, a fact which literary study would alone have made +plain even if it were not clearly of record that it was an effort to +restore the ancient plays in their integrity that gave rise to the +Italian opera three centuries ago. + +[Sidenote: _Genesis of the Greek plays._] + +Every school-boy knows now that the Hellenic plays were simply the +final evolution of the dances with which the people of Hellas +celebrated their religious festivals. At the rustic Bacchic feasts of +the early Greeks they sang hymns in honor of the wine-god, and danced +on goat-skins filled with wine. He who held his footing best on the +treacherous surface carried home the wine as a reward. They contended +in athletic games and songs for a goat, and from this circumstance +scholars have surmised we have the word tragedy, which means +"goat-song." The choric songs and dances grew in variety and beauty. +Finally, somebody (tradition preserves the name of Thespis as the man) +conceived the idea of introducing a simple dialogue between the +strophes of the choric song. Generally this dialogue took the form of +a recital of some story concerning the god whose festival was +celebrating. Then when the dithyrambic song returned, it would either +continue the narrative or comment on its ethical features. + +[Sidenote: _Mimicry and dress._] + +The merry-makers, or worshippers, as one chooses to look upon them, +manifested their enthusiasm by imitating the appearance as well as the +actions of the god and his votaries. They smeared themselves with +wine-lees, colored their bodies black and red, put on masks, covered +themselves with the skins of beasts, enacted the parts of nymphs, +fauns, and satyrs, those creatures of primitive fancy, half men and +half goats, who were the representatives of natural sensuality +untrammelled by conventionality. + +[Sidenote: _Melodrama._] + +Next, somebody (Archilocus) sought to heighten the effect of the story +or the dialogue by consorting it with instrumental music; and thus we +find the germ of what musicians--not newspaper writers--call +melodrama, in the very early stages of the drama's development. +Gradually these simple rustic entertainments were taken in hand by the +poets who drew on the legendary stores of the people for subjects, +branching out from the doings of gods to the doings of god-like men, +the popular heroes, and developed out of them the masterpieces of +dramatic poetry which are still studied with amazement, admiration, +and love. + +[Sidenote: _Factors in ancient tragedy._] + +The dramatic factors which have been mustered in this outline are +these: + +1. The choric dance and song with a religious purpose. + +2. Recitation and dialogue. + +3. Characterization by means of imitative gestures--pantomime, that +is--and dress. + +4. Instrumental music to accompany the song and also the action. + +[Sidenote: _Operatic elements._] + +[Sidenote: _Words and music united._] + +All these have been retained in the modern opera, which may be said to +differ chiefly from its ancient model in the more important and more +independent part which music plays in it. It will appear later in our +study that the importance and independence achieved by one of the +elements consorted in a work by nature composite, led the way to a +revolution having for its object a restoration of something like the +ancient drama. In this ancient drama and its precursor, the +dithyrambic song and dance, is found a union of words and music which +scientific investigation proves to be not only entirely natural but +inevitable. In a general way most people are in the habit of speaking +of music as the language of the emotions. The elements which enter +into vocal music (of necessity the earliest form of music) are +unvolitional products which we must conceive as co-existent with the +beginnings of human life. Do they then antedate articulate speech? Did +man sing before he spoke? I shall not quarrel with anybody who chooses +so to put it. + +[Sidenote: _Physiology of singing._] + +Think a moment about the mechanism of vocal music. Something occurs to +stir up your emotional nature--a great joy, a great sorrow, a great +fear; instantly, involuntarily, in spite of your efforts to prevent +it, maybe, muscular actions set in which proclaim the emotion which +fills you. The muscles and organs of the chest, throat, and mouth +contract or relax in obedience to the emotion. You utter a cry, and +according to the state of feeling which you are in, that cry has +pitch, quality (_timbre_ the singing teachers call it), and dynamic +intensity. You attempt to speak, and no matter what the words you +utter, the emotional drama playing on the stage of your heart is +divulged. + +[Sidenote: _Herbert Spencer's laws._] + +The man of science observes the phenomenon and formulates its laws, +saying, for instance, as Herbert Spencer has said: "All feelings are +muscular stimuli;" and, "Variations of voice are the physiological +results of variations of feeling." It was the recognition of this +extraordinary intimacy between the voice and the emotions which +brought music all the world over into the service of religion, and +provided the phenomenon, which we may still observe if we be but +minded to do so, that mere tones have sometimes the sanctity of words, +and must as little be changed as ancient hymns and prayers. + +[Sidenote: _Invention of Italian opera._] + +[Sidenote: _Musical declamation._] + +The end of the sixteenth century saw a coterie of scholars, +art-lovers, and amateur musicians in Florence who desired to +re-establish the relationship which they knew had once existed between +music and the drama. The revival of learning had made the classic +tragedy dear to their hearts. They knew that in the olden time +tragedy, of which the words only have come down to us, had been +musical throughout. In their efforts to bring about an intimacy +between dramatic poetry and music they found that nothing could be +done with the polite music of their time. It was the period of highest +development in ecclesiastical music, and the climax of artificiality. +The professional musicians to whom they turned scorned their theories +and would not help them; so they fell back on their own resources. +They cut the Gordian knot and invented a new style of music, which +they fancied was like that used by the ancients in their stage-plays. +They abolished polyphony, or contrapuntal music, in everything except +their choruses, and created a sort of musical declamation, using +variations of pitch and harmonies built up on a simple bass to give +emotional life to their words. In choosing their tones they were +guided by observation of the vocal inflections produced in speech +under stress of feeling, showing thus a recognition of the law which +Herbert Spencer formulated two hundred and fifty years later. + +[Sidenote: _The music of the Florentine reformers._] + +[Sidenote: _The solo style, harmony, and declamation._] + +[Sidenote: _Fluent recitatives._] + +The music which these men produced and admired sounds to us monotonous +in the extreme, for what little melody there is in it is in the +choruses, which they failed to emancipate from the ecclesiastical art, +and which for that reason were as stiff and inelastic as the music +which in their controversies with the musicians they condemned with +vigor. Yet within their invention there lay an entirely new world of +music. Out of it came the solo style, a song with instrumental +accompaniment of a kind unknown to the church composers. Out of it, +too, came harmony as an independent factor in music instead of an +accident of the simultaneous flow of melodies; and out of it came +declamation, which drew its life from the text. The recitatives which +they wrote had the fluency of spoken words and were not retarded by +melodic forms. The new style did not accomplish what its creators +hoped for, but it gave birth to Italian opera and emancipated music in +a large measure from the formalism that dominated it so long as it +belonged exclusively to the composers for the church. + +[Sidenote: _Predecessors of Wagner._] + +[Sidenote: _Old operatic distinctions._] + +[Sidenote: _Opera buffa._] + +[Sidenote: _Opera seria._] + +[Sidenote: _Recitative._] + +Detailed study of the progress of opera from the first efforts of the +Florentines to Wagner's dramas would carry us too far afield to serve +the purposes of this book. My aim is to fix the attitude proper, or at +least useful, to the opera audience of to-day. The excursion into +history which I have made has but the purpose to give the art-form a +reputable standing in court, and to explain the motives which prompted +the revolution accomplished by Wagner. As to the elements which +compose an opera, only those need particular attention which are +illustrated in the current repertory. Unlike the opera audiences of +two centuries ago, we are not required to distinguish carefully +between the various styles of opera in order to understand why the +composer adopted a particular manner, and certain fixed forms in each. +The old distinctions between _Opera seria_, _Opera buffa_, and _Opera +semiseria_ perplex us no more. Only because of the perversion of the +time-honored Italian epithet _buffa_ by the French mongrel _Opéra +bouffe_ is it necessary to explain that the classic _Opera buffa_ was +a polite comedy, whose musical integument did not of necessity differ +from that of _Opera seria_ except in this--that the dialogue was +carried on in "dry" recitative (_recitativo secco_, or _parlante_) in +the former, and a more measured declamation with orchestral +accompaniment (_recitativo stromentato_) in the latter. So far as +subject-matter was concerned the classic distinction between tragedy +and comedy served. The dry recitative was supported by chords played +by a double-bass and harpsichord or pianoforte. In London, at a later +period, for reasons of doubtful validity, these chords came to be +played on a double-bass and violoncello, as we occasionally hear them +to-day. + +[Sidenote: _Opera semiseria._] + +[Sidenote: _"Don Giovanni."_] + +Shakespeare has taught us to accept an infusion of the comic element +in plays of a serious cast, but Shakespeare was an innovator, a +Romanticist, and, measured by old standards, his dramas are irregular. +The Italians, who followed classic models, for a reason amply +explained by the genesis of the art-form, rigorously excluded comedy +from serious operas, except as _intermezzi_, until they hit upon a +third classification, which they called _Opera semiseria_, in which a +serious subject was enlivened with comic episodes. Our dramatic tastes +being grounded in Shakespeare, we should be inclined to put down "Don +Giovanni" as a musical tragedy; or, haunted by the Italian +terminology, as _Opera semiseria_; but Mozart calls it _Opera buffa_, +more in deference to the librettist's work, I fancy, than his own, +for, as I have suggested elsewhere,[E] the musician's imagination in +the fire of composition went far beyond the conventional fancy of the +librettist in the finale of that most wonderful work. + +[Sidenote: _An Opera buffa._] + +[Sidenote: _French Grand Opéra._] + +[Sidenote: _Opéra comique._] + +[Sidenote: _"Mignon."_] + +[Sidenote: _"Faust."_] + +It is well to remember that "Don Giovanni" is an _Opera buffa_ when +watching the buffooneries of _Leporello_, for that alone justifies +them. The French have _Grand Opéra_, in which everything is sung to +orchestra accompaniment, there being neither spoken dialogue nor dry +recitative, and _Opéra comique_, in which the dialogue is spoken. The +latter corresponds with the honorable German term _Singspiel_, and one +will not go far astray if he associate both terms with the English +operas of Wallace and Balfe, save that the French and Germans have +generally been more deft in bridging over the chasm between speech and +song than their British rivals. _Opéra comique_ has another +characteristic, its _dénouement_ must be happy. Formerly the _Théatre +national de l'Opéra-Comique_ in Paris was devoted exclusively to +_Opéra comique_ as thus defined (it has since abolished the +distinction and _Grand Opéra_ may be heard there now), and, therefore, +when Ambroise Thomas brought forward his "Mignon," Goethe's story was +found to be changed so that _Mignon_ recovered and was married to +_Wilhelm Meister_ at the end. The Germans are seldom pleased with the +transformations which their literary masterpieces are forced to +undergo at the hands of French librettists. They still refuse to call +Gounod's "Faust" by that name; if you wish to hear it in Germany you +must go to the theatre when "Margarethe" is performed. Naturally they +fell indignantly afoul of "Mignon," and to placate them we have a +second finale, a _dénouement allemand_, provided by the authors, in +which _Mignon_ dies as she ought. + +[Sidenote: _Grosse Oper._] + +[Sidenote: _Comic opera and operetta._] + +[Sidenote: _Opéra bouffe._] + +[Sidenote: _Romantic operas._] + +Of course the _Grosse Oper_ of the Germans is the French _Grand Opéra_ +and the English grand opera--but all the English terms are ambiguous, +and everything that is done in Covent Garden in London or the +Metropolitan Opera House in New York is set down as "grand opera," +just as the vilest imitations of the French _vaudevilles_ or English +farces with music are called "comic operas." In its best estate, say +in the delightful works of Gilbert and Sullivan, what is designated as +comic opera ought to be called operetta, which is a piece in which the +forms of grand opera are imitated, or travestied, the dialogue is +spoken, and the purpose of the play is to satirize a popular folly. +Only in method, agencies, and scope does such an operetta (the +examples of Gilbert and Sullivan are in mind) differ from comedy in +its best conception, as a dramatic composition which aims to "chastise +manners with a smile" ("_Ridendo castigat mores_"). Its present +degeneracy, as illustrated in the _Opéra bouffe_ of the French and the +concoctions of the would-be imitators of Gilbert and Sullivan, +exemplifies little else than a pursuit far into the depths of the +method suggested by a friend to one of Lully's imitators who had +expressed a fear that a ballet written, but not yet performed, would +fail. "You must lengthen the dances and shorten the ladies' skirts," +he said. The Germans make another distinction based on the subject +chosen for the story. Spohr's "Jessonda," Weber's "Freischütz," +"Oberon," and "Euryanthe," Marschner's "Vampyr," "Templer und Jüdin," +and "Hans Heiling" are "Romantic" operas. The significance of this +classification in operatic literature may be learned from an effort +which I have made in another chapter to discuss the terms Classic and +Romantic as applied to music. Briefly stated, the operas mentioned are +put in a class by themselves (and their imitations with them) because +their plots were drawn from the romantic legends of the Middle Ages, +in which the institutions of chivalry, fairy lore, and supernaturalism +play a large part. + +[Sidenote: _Modern designations._] + +[Sidenote: _German opera and Wagner._] + +These distinctions we meet in reading about music. As I have +intimated, we do not concern ourselves much with them now. In New York +and London the people speak of Italian, English, and German opera, +referring generally to the language employed in the performance. But +there is also in the use of the terms an underlying recognition of +differences in ideals of performance. As all operas sung in the +regular seasons at Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera House are +popularly spoken of as Italian operas, so German opera popularly means +Wagner's lyric dramas, in the first instance, and a style of +performance which grew out of Wagner's influence in the second. As +compared with Italian opera, in which the principal singers are all +and the _ensemble_ nothing, it means, mayhap, inferior vocalists but +better actors in the principal parts, a superior orchestra and chorus, +and a more conscientious effort on the part of conductor, stage +manager, and artists, from first to last, to lift the general effect +above the conventional level which has prevailed for centuries in the +Italian opera houses. + +[Sidenote: _Wagner's "Musikdrama."_] + +[Sidenote: _Modern Italian terminology._] + +In terminology, as well as in artistic aim, Wagner's lyric dramas +round out a cycle that began with the works of the Florentine +reformers of the sixteenth century. Wagner called his later operas +_Musikdramen_, wherefore he was soundly abused and ridiculed by his +critics. When the Italian opera first appeared it was called _Dramma +per musica_, or _Melodramma_, or _Tragedia per musica_, all of which +terms stand in Italian for the conception that _Musikdrama_ stands for +in German. The new thing had been in existence for half a century, and +was already on the road to the degraded level on which we shall find +it when we come to the subject of operatic singing, before it came to +be called _Opera in musica_, of which "opera" is an abbreviation. Now +it is to be observed that the composers of all countries, having been +taught to believe that the dramatic contents of an opera have some +significance, are abandoning the vague term "opera" and following +Wagner in his adoption of the principles underlying the original +terminology. Verdi called his "Aïda" an _Opera in quattro atti_, but +his "Otello" he designated a lyric drama (_Dramma lirico_), his +"Falstaff" a lyric comedy (_Commedia lirica_), and his example is +followed by the younger Italian composers, such as Mascagni, +Leoncavallo, and Puccini. + +[Sidenote: _Recitative._] + +In the majority of the operas of the current list the vocal element +illustrates an amalgamation of the archaic recitative and aria. The +dry form of recitative is met with now only in a few of the operas +which date back to the last century or the early years of the present. +"Le Nozze di Figaro," "Don Giovanni," and "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" +are the most familiar works in which it is employed, and in the +second of these it is used only by the bearers of the comedy element. +The dissolute _Don_ chatters glibly in it with _Zerlina_, but when +_Donna Anna_ and _Don Ottavio_ converse, it is in the _recitativo +stromentato_. + +[Sidenote: _The object of recitative._] + +[Sidenote: _Defects of the recitative._] + +[Sidenote: _What it can do._] + +In both forms recitative is the vehicle for promoting the action of +the play, preparing its incidents, and paving the way for the +situations and emotional states which are exploited, promulgated, and +dwelt upon in the set music pieces. Its purpose is to maintain the +play in an artificial atmosphere, so that the transition from dialogue +to song may not be so abrupt as to disturb the mood of the listener. +Of all the factors in an opera, the dry recitative is the most +monotonous. It is not music, but speech about to break into music. +Unless one is familiar with Italian and desirous of following the +conversation, which we have been often told is not necessary to the +enjoyment of an opera, its everlasting use of stereotyped falls and +intervallic turns, coupled with the strumming of arpeggioed cadences +on the pianoforte (or worse, double-bass and violoncello), makes it +insufferably wearisome to the listener. Its expression is +fleeting--only for the moment. It lacks the sustained tones and +structural symmetry essential to melody, and therefore it cannot +sustain a mood. It makes efficient use of only one of the fundamental +factors of vocal music--variety of pitch--and that in a rudimentary +way. It is specifically a product of the Italian language, and best +adapted to comedy in that language. Spoken with the vivacity native to +it in the drama, dry recitative is an impossibility in English. It is +only in the more measured and sober gait proper to oratorio that we +can listen to it in the vernacular without thought of incongruity. Yet +it may be made most admirably to preserve the characteristics of +conversation, and even illustrate Spencer's theory of the origin of +music. Witness the following brief example from "Don Giovanni," in +which the vivacity of the master is admirably contrasted with the +lumpishness of his servant: + +[Sidenote: _An example from Mozart._] + +[Music illustration: _Sempre sotto voce._ + +DON GIOVANNI. LEPORELLO. +_Le-po-rel-lo, o-ve sei? Son qui per_ +Le-po-rel-lo, where are you? I'm here and + + D.G. LEP. +_dis-gra-zi-a! e vo-i? Son qui. Chi è_ +more's the pit-y! and you, Sir? Here too. Who's + + D.G. +_mor-to, voi, o il vec-chio? Che do-_ +been killed, you or the old one? What a + + LEP. +_man-da da bes-tia! il vec-chio. Bra-vo!_ +ques-tion, you boo-by! the old one. Bra-vo!] + +[Sidenote: _Its characteristics._] + +Of course it is left to the intelligence and taste of the singers to +bring out the effects in a recitative, but in this specimen it ought +to be noted how sluggishly the disgruntled _Leporello_ replies to the +brisk question of _Don Giovanni_, how correct is the rhetorical pause +in "you, or the old one?" and the greater sobriety which comes over +the manner of the _Don_ as he thinks of the murder just committed, and +replies, "the old one." + +[Sidenote: _Recitative of some sort necessary._] + +[Sidenote: _The speaking voice in opera._] + +I am strongly inclined to the belief that in one form or the other, +preferably the accompanied, recitative is a necessary integer in the +operatic sum. That it is possible to accustom one's self to the change +alternately from speech to song we know from the experiences made with +German, French, and English operas, but these were not true lyric +dramas, but dramas with incidental music. To be a real lyric drama an +opera ought to be musical throughout, the voice being maintained from +beginning to end on an exalted plane. The tendency to drop into the +speaking voice for the sake of dramatic effect shown by some tragic +singers does not seem to me commendable. Wagner relates with +enthusiasm how Madame Schroeder-Devrient in "Fidelio" was wont to give +supreme emphasis to the phrase immediately preceding the trumpet +signal in the dungeon scene ("Another step, and you are _dead_!") by +speaking the last word "with an awful accent of despair." He then +comments: + + "The indescribable effect of this manifested itself to all + like an agonizing plunge from one sphere into another, and + its sublimity consisted in this, that with lightning + quickness a glimpse was given to us of the nature of both + spheres, of which one was the ideal, the other the real." + +[Sidenote: _Wagner and Schroeder-Devrient._] + +I have heard a similar effect produced by Herr Niemann and Madame +Lehmann, but could not convince myself that it was not an extremely +venturesome experiment. Madame Schroeder-Devrient saw the beginning of +the modern methods of dramatic expression, and it is easy to believe +that a sudden change like that so well defined by Wagner, made with +her sweeping voice and accompanied by her plastic and powerful acting, +was really thrilling; but, I fancy, nevertheless, that only Beethoven +and the intensity of feeling which pervades the scene saved the +audience from a disturbing sense of the incongruity of the +performance. + +[Sidenote: _Early forms._] + +[Sidenote: _The dialogue of the Florentines._] + +The development which has taken place in the recitative has not only +assisted in elevating opera to the dignity of a lyric drama by saving +us from alternate contemplation of the two spheres of ideality and +reality, but has also made the factor itself an eloquent vehicle of +dramatic expression. Save that it had to forego the help of the +instruments beyond a mere harmonic support, the _stilo +rappresentativo_, or _musica parlante_, as the Florentines called +their musical dialogue, approached the sustained recitative which we +hear in the oratorio and grand opera more closely than it did the +_recitative secco_. Ever and anon, already in the earliest works (the +"Eurydice" of Rinuccini as composed by both Peri and Caccini) there +are passages which sound like rudimentary melodies, but are charged +with vital dramatic expression. Note the following phrase from +_Orpheus's_ monologue on being left in the infernal regions by +_Venus_, from Peri's opera, performed A.D. 1600, in honor of the +marriage of Maria de' Medici to Henry IV. of France: + +[Sidenote: _An example from Peri._] + +[Music illustration: + + _E voi, deh per pie-tà, del mio mar-ti-re + Che nel mi-se-ro cor di-mo-ra e-ter-no, + La-cri-ma-te al mio pian-to om-bre d'in-fer-no!_] + +[Sidenote: _Development of the arioso._] + +[Sidenote: _The aria supplanted._] + +[Sidenote: _Music and action._] + +Out of this style there grew within a decade something very near the +arioso, and for all the purposes of our argument we may accept the +melodic devices by which Wagner carries on the dialogue of his operas +as an uncircumscribed arioso superimposed upon a foundation of +orchestral harmony; for example, _Lohengrin's_ address to the swan, +_Elsa's_ account of her dream. The greater melodiousness of the +_recitativo stromentato_, and the aid of the orchestra when it began +to assert itself as a factor of independent value, soon enabled this +form of musical conversation to become a reflector of the changing +moods and passions of the play, and thus the value of the aria, +whether considered as a solo, or in its composite form as duet, trio, +quartet, or _ensemble_, was lessened. The growth of the accompanied +recitative naturally brought with it emancipation from the tyranny of +the classical aria. Wagner's reform had nothing to do with that +emancipation, which had been accomplished before him, but went, as we +shall see presently, to a liberation of the composers from all the +formal dams which had clogged the united flow of action and music. We +should, however, even while admiring the achievements of modern +composers in blending these elements (and I know of no more striking +illustration than the scene of the fat knight's discomfiture in +_Ford's_ house in Verdi's "Falstaff") bear in mind that while we may +dream of perfect union between words and music, it is not always +possible that action and music shall go hand in hand. Let me repeat +what once I wrote in a review of Cornelius's opera, "Der Barbier von +Bagdad:"[F] + +[Sidenote: _How music can replace incident._] + + "After all, of the constituents of an opera, action, at + least that form of it usually called incident, is most + easily spared. Progress in feeling, development of the + emotional element, is indeed essential to variety of musical + utterance, but nevertheless all great operas have + demonstrated that music is more potent and eloquent when + proclaiming an emotional state than while seeking to depict + progress toward such a state. Even in the dramas of Wagner + the culminating musical moments are predominantly lyrical, + as witness the love-duet in 'Tristan,' the close of 'Das + Rheingold,' _Siegmund's_ song, the love-duet, and _Wotan's_ + farewell in 'Die Walküre,' the forest scene and final duet + in 'Siegfried,' and the death of _Siegfried_ in 'Die + Götterdämmerung.' It is in the nature of music that this + should be so. For the drama which plays on the stage of the + heart, music is a more truthful language than speech; but it + can stimulate movement and prepare the mind for an incident + better than it can accompany movement and incident. Yet + music that has a high degree of emotional expressiveness, by + diverting attention from externals to the play of passion + within the breasts of the persons can sometimes make us + forget the paucity of incident in a play. 'Tristan und + Isolde' is a case in point. Practically, its outward action + is summed up in each of its three acts by the same words: + Preparation for a meeting of the ill-starred lovers; the + meeting. What is outside of this is mere detail; yet the + effect of the tragedy upon a listener is that of a play + surcharged with pregnant occurrence. It is the subtle + alchemy of music that transmutes the psychological action of + the tragedy into dramatic incident." + +[Sidenote: _Set forms not to be condemned._] + +[Sidenote: _Wagner's influence._] + +[Sidenote: _His orchestra._] + +[Sidenote: _Vocal feats._] + +For those who hold such a view with me it will be impossible to +condemn pieces of set forms in the lyric drama. Wagner still +represents his art-work alone, but in the influence which he exerted +upon contemporaneous composers in Italy and France, as well as +Germany, he is quite as significant a figure as he is as the creator +of the _Musikdrama_. The operas which are most popular in our Italian +and French repertories are those which benefited by the liberation +from formalism and the exaltation of the dramatic idea which he +preached and exemplified--such works as Gounod's "Faust," Verdi's +"Aïda" and "Otello," and Bizet's "Carmen." With that emancipation +there came, as was inevitable, new conceptions of the province of +dramatic singing as well as new convictions touching the mission of +the orchestra. The instruments in Wagner's latter-day works are quite +as much as the singing actors the expositors of the dramatic idea, and +in the works of the other men whom I have mentioned they speak a +language which a century ago was known only to the orchestras of Gluck +and Mozart with their comparatively limited, yet eloquent, vocabulary. +Coupled with praise for the wonderful art of Mesdames Patti and Melba +(and I am glad to have lived in their generation, though they do not +represent my ideal in dramatic singing), we are accustomed to hear +lamentations over the decay of singing. I have intoned such jeremiads +myself, and I do not believe that music is suffering from a greater +want to-day than that of a more thorough training for singers. I +marvel when I read that Senesino sang cadences of fifty seconds' +duration; that Ferri with a single breath could trill upon each note +of two octaves, ascending and descending, and that La Bastardella's +art was equal to a perfect performance (perfect in the conception of +her day) of a flourish like this: + +[Sidenote: _La Bastardella's flourish._] + +[Music illustration] + +[Sidenote: _Character of the opera a century and a half ago._] + +[Sidenote: _Music and dramatic expression._] + +I marvel, I say, at the skill, the gifts, and the training which could +accomplish such feats, but I would not have them back again if they +were to be employed in the old service. When Senesino, Farinelli, +Sassarelli, Ferri, and their tribe dominated the stage, it strutted +with sexless Agamemnons and Cæsars. Telemachus, Darius, Nero, Cato, +Alexander, Scipio, and Hannibal ran around on the boards as +languishing lovers, clad in humiliating disguises, singing woful arias +to their mistress's eyebrows--arias full of trills and scales and +florid ornaments, but void of feeling as a problem in Euclid. Thanks +very largely to German influences, the opera is returning to its +original purposes. Music is again become a means of dramatic +expression, and the singers who appeal to us most powerfully are those +who are best able to make song subserve that purpose, and who to that +end give to dramatic truthfulness, to effective elocution, and to +action the attention which mere voice and beautiful utterance received +in the period which is called the Golden Age of singing, but which was +the Leaden Age of the lyric drama. + +[Sidenote: _Singers heard in New York._] + +For seventy years the people of New York, scarcely less favored than +those of London, have heard nearly all the great singers of Europe. +Let me talk about some of them, for I am trying to establish some +ground on which my readers may stand when they try to form an estimate +of the singing which they are privileged to hear in the opera houses +of to-day. Madame Malibran was a member of the first Italian company +that ever sang here. Madame Cinti-Damoreau came in 1844, Bosio in +1849, Jenny Lind in 1850, Sontag in 1853, Grisi in 1854, La Grange in +1855, Frezzolini in 1857, Piccolomini in 1858, Nilsson in 1870, Lucca +in 1872, Titiens in 1876, Gerster in 1878, and Sembrich in 1883. I +omit the singers of the German opera as belonging to a different +category. Adelina Patti was always with us until she made her European +début in 1861, and remained abroad twenty years. Of the men who were +the artistic associates of these _prime donne_, mention may be made of +Mario, Benedetti, Corsi, Salvi, Ronconi, Formes, Brignoli, Amadeo, +Coletti, and Campanini, none of whom, excepting Mario, was of +first-class importance compared with the women singers. + +[Sidenote: _Grisi._] + +[Sidenote: _Jenny Lind._] + +[Sidenote: _Lilli Lehmann._] + +Nearly all of these singers, even those still living and remembered by +the younger generation of to-day, exploited their gifts in the operas +of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, the early Verdi, and Meyerbeer. Grisi +was acclaimed a great dramatic singer, and it is told of her that once +in "Norma" she frightened the tenor who sang the part of _Pollio_ by +the fury of her acting. But measured by the standards of to-day, say +that set by Calvé's _Carmen_, it must have been a simple age that +could be impressed by the tragic power of anyone acting the part of +Bellini's Druidical priestess. The surmise is strengthened by the +circumstance that Madame Grisi created a sensation in "Il Trovatore" +by showing signs of agitation in the tower scene, walking about the +stage during _Manrico's_ "_Ah! che la morte ognora_," as if she would +fain discover the part of the castle where her lover was imprisoned. +The chief charm of Jenny Lind in the memory of the older generation is +the pathos with which she sang simple songs. Mendelssohn esteemed her +greatly as a woman and artist, but he is quoted as once remarking to +Chorley: "I cannot think why she always prefers to be in a bad +theatre." Moscheles, recording his impressions of her in Meyerbeer's +"Camp of Silesia" (now "L'Étoile du Nord"), reached the climax of his +praise in the words: "Her song with the two concertante flutes is +perhaps the most incredible feat in the way of bravura singing that +can possibly be heard." She was credited, too, with fine powers as an +actress; and that she possessed them can easily be believed, for few +of the singers whom I have mentioned had so early and intimate an +association with the theatre as she. Her repugnance to it in later +life she attributed to a prejudice inherited from her mother. A vastly +different heritage is disclosed by Madame Lehmann's devotion to the +drama, a devotion almost akin to religion. I have known her to go into +the scene-room of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and search +for mimic stumps and rocks with which to fit out a scene in +"Siegfried," in which she was not even to appear. That, like her +super-human work at rehearsals, was "for the good of the cause," as +she expressed it. + +[Sidenote: _Sontag._] + +Most amiable are the memories that cluster around the name of Sontag, +whose career came to a grievous close by her sudden death in Mexico in +1854. She was a German, and the early part of her artistic life was +influenced by German ideals, but it is said that only in the music of +Mozart and Weber, which aroused in her strong national emotion, did +she sing dramatically. For the rest she used her light voice, which +had an extraordinary range, brilliancy, and flexibility, very much as +Patti and Melba use their voices to-day--in mere unfeeling vocal +display. + + "She had an extensive soprano voice," says Hogarth; "not + remarkable for power, but clear, brilliant, and singularly + flexible; a quality which seems to have led her (unlike most + German singers in general) to cultivate the most florid + style, and even to follow the bad example set by Catalani, + of seeking to convert her voice into an instrument, and to + astonish the public by executing the violin variations on + Rode's air and other things of that stamp." + +[Sidenote: _La Grange._] + +[Sidenote: _Piccolomini._] + +[Sidenote: _Adelina Patti._] + +[Sidenote: _Gerster._] + +[Sidenote: _Lucca and Nilsson._] + +[Sidenote: _Sembrich._] + +Madame La Grange had a voice of wide compass, which enabled her to +sing contralto rôles as well as soprano, but I have never heard her +dramatic powers praised. As for Piccolomini, read of her where you +will, you shall find that she was "charming." She was lovely to look +upon, and her acting in soubrette parts was fascinating. Until Melba +came Patti was for thirty years peerless as a mere vocalist. She +belongs, as did Piccolomini and Sontag, to the comic _genre_; so did +Sembrich and Gerster, the latter of whom never knew it. I well +remember how indignant she became on one occasion, in her first +American season, at a criticism which I wrote of her _Amina_ in "La +Sonnambula," a performance which remains among my loveliest and most +fragrant recollections. I had made use of Catalani's remark concerning +Sontag: "_Son genre est petit, mais elle est unique dans son genre_," +and applied it to her style. She almost flew into a passion. "_Mon +genre est grand!_" said she, over and over again, while Dr. Gardini, +her husband, tried to pacify her. "Come to see my _Marguerite_ next +season." Now, Gounod's _Marguerite_ does not quite belong to the +heroic rôles, though we can all remember how Lucca thrilled us by her +intensity of action as well as of song, and how Madame Nilsson sent +the blood out of our cheeks, though she did stride through the opera +like a combination of the _grande dame_ and Ary Scheffer's spirituelle +pictures; but such as it is, Madame Gerster achieved a success of +interest only, and that because of her strivings for originality. +Sembrich and Gerster, when they were first heard in New York, had as +much execution as Melba or Nilsson; but their voices had less +emotional power than that of the latter, and less beauty than that of +the former--beauty of the kind that might be called classic, since it +is in no way dependent on feeling. + +[Sidenote: _Melba and Eames._] + +[Sidenote: _Calvé._] + +[Sidenote: _Dramatic singers._] + +[Sidenote: _Jean de Reszke._] + +[Sidenote: _Edouard de Reszke and Plançon._] + +Patti, Lucca, Nilsson, and Gerster sang in the operas in which Melba +and Eames sing to-day, and though the standard of judgment has been +changed in the last twenty-five years by the growth of German ideals, +I can find no growth of potency in the performances of the +representative women of Italian and French opera, except in the case +of Madame Calvé. For the development of dramatic ideals we must look +to the singers of German affiliations or antecedents, Mesdames +Materna, Lehmann, Sucher, and Nordica. As for the men of yesterday and +to-day, no lover, I am sure, of the real lyric drama would give the +declamatory warmth and gracefulness of pose and action which mark the +performances of M. Jean de Reszke for a hundred of the high notes of +Mario (for one of which, we are told, he was wont to reserve his +powers all evening), were they never so lovely. Neither does the +fine, resonant, equable voice of Edouard de Reszke or the finished +style of Plançon leave us with curious longings touching the voices +and manners of Lablache and Formes. Other times, other manners, in +music as in everything else. The great singers of to-day are those who +appeal to the taste of to-day, and that taste differs, as the clothes +which we wear differ, from the style in vogue in the days of our +ancestors. + +[Sidenote: _Wagner's operas._] + +[Sidenote: _Wagner's lyric dramas._] + +[Sidenote: _His theories._] + +[Sidenote: _The mission of music._] + +[Sidenote: _Distinctions abolished._] + +[Sidenote: _The typical phrases._] + +[Sidenote: _Characteristics of some motives._] + +A great deal of confusion has crept into the public mind concerning +Wagner and his works by the failure to differentiate between his +earlier and later creations. No injustice is done the composer by +looking upon his "Flying Dutchman," "Tannhäuser," and "Lohengrin" as +operas. We find the dramatic element lifted into noble prominence in +"Tannhäuser," and admirable freedom in the handling of the musical +factors in "Lohengrin," but they must, nevertheless, be listened to as +one would listen to the operas of Weber, Marschner, or Meyerbeer. +They are, in fact, much nearer to the conventional operatic type than +to the works which came after them, and were called _Musikdramen_. +"Music drama" is an awkward phrase, and I have taken the liberty of +substituting "lyric drama" for it, and as such I shall designate +"Tristan und Isolde," "Die Meistersinger," "Der Ring des Nibelungen," +and "Parsifal." In these works Wagner exemplified his reformatory +ideas and accomplished a regeneration of the lyric drama, as we found +it embodied in principle in the Greek tragedy and the _Dramma per +musica_ of the Florentine scholars. Wagner's starting-point is, that +in the opera music had usurped a place which did not belong to it.[G] +It was designed to be a means and had become an end. In the drama he +found a combination of poetry, music, pantomime, and scenery, and he +held that these factors ought to co-operate on a basis of mutual +dependence, the inspiration of all being dramatic expression. Music, +therefore, ought to be subordinate to the text in which the dramatic +idea is expressed, and simply serve to raise it to a higher power by +giving it greater emotional life. So, also, it ought to vivify +pantomime and accompany the stage pictures. In order that it might do +all this, it had to be relieved of the shackles of formalism; only +thus could it move with the same freedom as the other elements +consorted with it in the drama. Therefore, the distinctions between +recitative and aria were abolished, and an "endless melody" took the +place of both. An exalted form of speech is borne along on a flood of +orchestral music, which, quite as much as song, action, and scenery +concerns itself with the exposition of the drama. That it may do this +the agencies, spiritual as well as material, which are instrumental in +the development of the play, are identified with certain melodic +phrases, out of which the musical fabric is woven. These phrases are +the much mooted, much misunderstood "leading motives"--typical phrases +I call them. Wagner has tried to make them reflect the character or +nature of the agencies with which he has associated them, and +therefore we find the giants in the Niblung tetralogy symbolized in +heavy, slowly moving, cumbersome phrases; the dwarfs have two phrases, +one suggesting their occupation as smiths, by its hammering rhythm, +and the other their intellectual habits, by its suggestion of brooding +contemplativeness. I cannot go through the catalogue of the typical +phrases which enter into the musical structure of the works which I +have called lyric dramas as contra-distinguished from operas. They +should, of course, be known to the student of Wagner, for thereby will +he be helped to understand the poet-composer's purposes, but I would +fain repeat the warning which I uttered twice in my "Studies in the +Wagnerian Drama:" + +[Sidenote: _The phrases should be studied._] + + "It cannot be too forcibly urged that if we confine our + study of Wagner to the forms and names of the phrases out of + which he constructs his musical fabric, we shall, at the + last, have enriched our minds with a thematic catalogue + and--nothing else. We shall remain guiltless of knowledge + unless we learn something of the nature of those phrases by + noting the attributes which lend them propriety and fitness, + and can recognize, measurably at least, the reasons for + their introduction and development. Those attributes give + character and mood to the music constructed out of the + phrases. If we are able to feel the mood, we need not care + how the phrases which produce it have been labelled. If we + do not feel the mood, we may memorize the whole thematic + catalogue of Wolzogen and have our labor for our pains. It + would be better to know nothing about the phrases, and + content one's self with simple sensuous enjoyment than to + spend one's time answering the baldest of all the riddles of + Wagner's orchestra--'What am I playing now?' + +[Sidenote: _The question of effectiveness._] + + "The ultimate question concerning the correctness or + effectiveness of Wagner's system of composition must, of + course, be answered along with the question: 'Does the + composition, as a whole, touch the emotions, quicken the + fancy, fire the imagination?' If it does these things, we + may, to a great extent, if we wish, get along without the + intellectual processes of reflection and comparison which + are conditioned upon a recognition of the themes and their + uses. But if we put aside this intellectual activity, we + shall deprive ourselves, among other things, of the + pleasures which it is the province of memory to give; and + the exercise of memory is called for by music much more + urgently than by any other art, because of its volatile + nature and the rôle which repetition plays in it." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[E] "But no real student can have studied the score deeply, or +listened discriminatingly to a good performance, without discovering +that there is a tremendous chasm between the conventional aims of the +Italian poet in the book of the opera and the work which emerged from +the composer's profound imagination. Da Ponte contemplated a _dramma +giocoso_; Mozart humored him until his imagination came within the +shadow cast before by the catastrophe, and then he transformed the +poet's comedy into a tragedy of crushing power. The climax of Da +Ponte's ideal is reached in a picture of the dissolute _Don_ wrestling +in idle desperation with a host of spectacular devils, and finally +disappearing through a trap, while fire bursts out on all sides, the +thunders roll, and _Leporello_ gazes on the scene, crouched in a comic +attitude of terror, under the table. Such a picture satisfied the +tastes of the public of his time, and that public found nothing +incongruous in a return to the scene immediately afterward of all the +characters save the reprobate, who had gone to his reward, to hear a +description of the catastrophe from the buffoon under the table, and +platitudinously to moralize that the perfidious wretch, having been +stored away safely in the realm of Pluto and Proserpine, nothing +remained for them to do except to raise their voices in the words of +the "old song," + + _"Questo è il fin di chi fa mal: + E dei perfidi la morte + Alla vita è sempre ugual."_ + +"New York Musical Season, 1889-90." + +[F] "Review of the New York Musical Season, 1889-90," p. 75. + +[G] See "Studies in the Wagnerian Drama," chapter I. + + + + +VIII + +_Choirs and Choral Music_ + + +[Sidenote: _Choirs a touchstone of culture._] + +[Sidenote: _The value of choir singing._] + +No one would go far astray who should estimate the extent and +sincerity of a community's musical culture by the number of its chorus +singers. Some years ago it was said that over three hundred cities and +towns in Germany contained singing societies and orchestras devoted to +the cultivation of choral music. In the United States, where there are +comparatively a small number of instrumental musicians, there has been +a wonderful development of singing societies within the last +generation, and it is to this fact largely that the notable growth in +the country's knowledge and appreciation of high-class music is due. +No amount of mere hearing and study can compare in influence with +participation in musical performance. Music is an art which rests on +love. It is beautiful sound vitalized by feeling, and it can only be +grasped fully through man's emotional nature. There is no quicker or +surer way to get to the heart of a composition than by performing it, +and since participation in chorus singing is of necessity unselfish +and creative of sympathy, there is no better medium of musical culture +than membership in a choir. It was because he realized this that +Schumann gave the advice to all students of music: "Sing diligently in +choirs; especially the middle voices, for this will make you musical." + +[Sidenote: _Singing societies and orchestras._] + +[Sidenote: _Neither numbers nor wealth necessary._] + +There is no community so small or so ill-conditioned that it cannot +maintain a singing society. Before a city can give sustenance to even +a small body of instrumentalists it must be large enough and rich +enough to maintain a theatre from which those instrumentalists can +derive their support. There can be no dependence upon amateurs, for +people do not study the oboe, bassoon, trombone, or double-bass for +amusement. Amateur violinists and amateur flautists there are in +plenty, but not amateur clarinetists and French-horn players; but if +the love for music exists in a community, a dozen families shall +suffice to maintain a choral club. Large numbers are therefore not +essential; neither is wealth. Some of the largest and finest choirs in +the world flourish among the Welsh miners in the United States and +Wales, fostered by a native love for the art and the national +institution called Eisteddfod. + +[Sidenote: _Lines of choral culture in the United States._] + +The lines on which choral culture has proceeded in the United States +are two, of which the more valuable, from an artistic point of view, +is that of the oratorio, which went out from New England. The other +originated in the German cultivation of the _Männergesang_, the +importance of which is felt more in the extent of the culture, +prompted as it is largely by social considerations, than in the music +sung, which is of necessity of a lower grade than that composed for +mixed voices. It is chiefly in the impulse which German _Männergesang_ +carried into all the corners of the land, and especially the impetus +which the festivals of the German singers gave to the sections in +which they have been held for half a century, that this form of +culture is interesting. + +[Sidenote: _Church and oratorio._] + +[Sidenote: _Secular choirs._] + +The cultivation of oratorio music sprang naturally from the Church, +and though it is now chiefly in the hands of secular societies, the +biblical origin of the vast majority of the texts used in the works +which are performed, and more especially the regular performances of +Handel's "Messiah" in the Christmastide, have left the notion, more or +less distinct, in the public mind, that oratorios are religious +functions. Nevertheless (or perhaps because of this fact) the most +successful choral concerts in the United States are those given by +oratorio societies. The cultivation of choral music which is secular +in character is chiefly in the hands of small organizations, whose +concerts are of a semi-private nature and are enjoyed by the associate +members and invited guests. This circumstance is deserving of notice +as a characteristic feature of choral music in America, though it has +no particular bearing upon this study, which must concern itself with +choral organizations, choral music, and choral performances in +general. + +[Sidenote: _Amateur choirs originated in the United States._] + +[Sidenote: _The size of old choirs._] + +Organizations of the kind in view differ from instrumental in being +composed of amateurs; and amateur choir-singing is no older anywhere +than in the United States. Two centuries ago and more the singing of +catches and glees was a common amusement among the gentler classes in +England, but the performances of the larger forms of choral music were +in the hands of professional choristers who were connected with +churches, theatres, schools, and other public institutions. Naturally, +then, the choral bodies were small. Choirs of hundreds and thousands, +such as take part in the festivals of to-day, are a product of a later +time. + +[Sidenote: _Handel's choirs._] + + "When Bach and Handel wrote their Passions, Church Cantatas, + and Oratorios, they could only dream of such majestic + performances as those works receive now; and it is one of + the miracles of art that they should have written in so + masterly a manner for forces that they could never hope to + control. Who would think, when listening to the 'Hallelujah' + of 'The Messiah,' or the great double choruses of 'Israel in + Egypt,' in which the voice of the composer is 'as the voice + of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and + as the voice of many thunderings, saying, "Alleluia, for the + Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!"' that these colossal + compositions were never heard by Handel from any chorus + larger than the most modest of our church choirs? At the + last performance of 'The Messiah' at which Handel was + advertised to appear (it was for the benefit of his favorite + charity, the Foundling Hospital, on May 3, 1759--he died + before the time, however), the singers, including + principals, numbered twenty-three, while the + instrumentalists numbered thirty-three. At the first great + Handel Commemoration, in Westminster Abbey, in 1784, the + choir numbered two hundred and seventy-five, the band two + hundred and fifty; and this was the most numerous force ever + gathered together for a single performance in England up to + that time. + +[Sidenote: _Choirs a century ago._] + +[Sidenote: _Bach's choir._] + + "In 1791 the Commemoration was celebrated by a choir of five + hundred and a band of three hundred and seventy-five. In + May, 1786, Johann Adam Hiller, one of Bach's successors as + cantor of the St. Thomas School in Leipsic, directed what + was termed a _Massenaufführung_ of 'The Messiah,' in the + Domkirche, in Berlin. His 'masses' consisted of one hundred + and eighteen singers and one hundred and eighty-six + instrumentalists. In Handel's operas, and sometimes even in + his oratorios, the _tutti_ meant, in his time, little more + than a union of all the solo singers; and even Bach's + Passion music and church cantatas, which seem as much + designed for numbers as the double choruses of 'Israel,' + were rendered in the St. Thomas Church by a ludicrously + small choir. Of this fact a record is preserved in the + archives of Leipsic. In August, 1730, Bach submitted to the + authorities a plan for a church choir of the pupils in his + care. In this plan his singers numbered twelve, there being + one principal and two ripienists in each voice; with + characteristic modesty he barely suggests a preference for + sixteen. The circumstance that in the same document he asked + for at least eighteen instrumentalists (two more if flutes + were used), taken in connection with the figures given + relative to the 'Messiah' performances, gives an insight + into the relations between the vocal and the instrumental + parts of a choral performance in those days."[H] + +[Sidenote: _Proportion of voices and instruments._] + +This relation has been more than reversed since then, the orchestras +at modern oratorio performances seldom being one-fifth as large as the +choir. This difference, however, is due largely to the changed +character of modern music, that of to-day treating the instruments as +independent agents of expression instead of using them chiefly to +support the voices and add sonority to the tonal mass, as was done by +Handel and most of the composers of his day. + +[Sidenote: _Glee unions and male choirs._] + +I omit from consideration the Glee Unions of England, and the +quartets, which correspond to them, in this country. They are not +cultivators of choral music, and the music which they sing is an +insignificant factor in culture. The male choirs, too, need not detain +us long, since it may be said without injustice that their mission is +more social than artistic. In these choirs the subdivision into parts +is, as a rule, into two tenor voices, first and second, and two bass, +first and second. In the glee unions, the effect of whose singing is +fairly well imitated by the college clubs of the United States +(pitiful things, indeed, from an artistic point of view), there is a +survival of an old element in the male alto singing above the melody +voice, generally in a painful falsetto. This abomination is unknown to +the German part-songs for men's voices, which are written normally, +but are in the long run monotonous in color for want of the variety in +timbre and register which the female voices contribute in a mixed +choir. + +[Sidenote: _Women's choirs._] + +There are choirs also composed exclusively of women, but they are +even more unsatisfactory than the male choirs, for the reason that the +absence of the bass voice leaves their harmony without sufficient +foundation. Generally, music for these choirs is written for three +parts, two sopranos and contralto, with the result that it hovers, +suspended like Mahomet's coffin, between heaven and earth. When a +fourth part is added it is a second contralto, which is generally +carried down to the tones that are hollow and unnatural. + +[Sidenote: _Boys' choirs._] + +The substitution of boys for women in Episcopal Church choirs has +grown extensively within the last ten years in the United States, very +much to the promotion of æsthetic sentimentality in the congregations, +but without improving the character of worship-music. Boys' voices are +practically limitless in an upward direction, and are naturally clear +and penetrating. Ravishing effects can be produced with them, but it +is false art to use passionless voices in music conceived for the +mature and emotional voices of adults; and very little of the old +English Cathedral music, written for choirs of boys and men, is +preserved in the service lists to-day. + +[Sidenote: _Mixed choirs._] + +The only satisfactory choirs are the mixed choirs of men and women. +Upon them has devolved the cultivation of artistic choral music in our +public concert-rooms. As we know such choirs now, they are of +comparatively recent origin, and it is a singular commentary upon the +way in which musical history is written, that the fact should have so +long been overlooked that the credit of organizing the first belongs +to the United States. A little reflection will show this fact, which +seems somewhat startling at first blush, to be entirely natural. Large +singing societies are of necessity made up of amateurs, and the want +of professional musicians in America compelled the people to enlist +amateurs at a time when in Europe choral activity rested on the +church, theatre, and institute choristers, who were practically +professionals. + +[Sidenote: _Origin of amateur singing societies._] + +[Sidenote: _The German record._] + +[Sidenote: _American priority._] + +[Sidenote: _The American record._] + +As the hitherto accepted record stands, the first amateur singing +society was the Singakademie of Berlin, which Carl Friedrich Fasch, +accompanist to the royal flautist, Frederick the Great, called into +existence in 1791. A few dates will show how slow the other cities of +musical Germany were in following Berlin's example. In 1818 there were +only ten amateur choirs in all Germany. Leipsic organized one in 1800, +Stettin in 1800, Münster in 1804, Dresden in 1807, Potsdam in 1814, +Bremen in 1815, Chemnitz in 1817, Schwäbisch-Hall in 1817, and +Innsbruck in 1818. The Berlin Singakademie is still in existence, but +so also is the Stoughton Musical Society in Stoughton, Mass., which +was founded on November 7, 1786. Mr. Charles C. Perkins, historian of +the Handel and Haydn Society, whose foundation was coincident with the +sixth society in Germany (Bremen, 1815), enumerates the following +predecessors of that venerable organization: the Stoughton Musical +Society, 1786; Independent Musical Society, "established at Boston in +the same year, which gave a concert at King's Chapel in 1788, and took +part there in commemorating the death of Washington (December 14, +1799) on his first succeeding birthday;" the Franklin, 1804; the +Salem, 1806; Massachusetts Musical, 1807; Lock Hospital, 1812, and the +Norfolk Musical, the date of whose foundation is not given by Mr. +Perkins. + +[Sidenote: _Choirs in the West._] + +When the Bremen Singakademie was organized there were already choirs +in the United States as far west as Cincinnati. In that city they were +merely church choirs at first, but within a few years they had +combined into a large body and were giving concerts at which some of +the choruses of Handel and Haydn were sung. That their performances, +as well as those of the New England societies, were cruder than those +of their European rivals may well be believed, but with this I have +nothing to do. I am simply seeking to establish the priority of the +United States in amateur choral culture. The number of American cities +in which oratorios are performed annually is now about fifty. + +[Sidenote: _The size of choirs._] + +[Sidenote: _Large numbers not essential._] + +[Sidenote: _How "divisions" used to be sung._] + +In size mixed choirs ordinarily range from forty voices to five +hundred. It were well if it were understood by choristers as well as +the public that numbers merely are not a sign of merit in a singing +society. So the concert-room be not too large, a choir of sixty +well-trained voices is large enough to perform almost everything in +choral literature with good effect, and the majority of the best +compositions will sound better under such circumstances than in large +rooms with large choirs. Especially is this true of the music of the +Middle Ages, written for voices without instrumental accompaniment, of +which I shall have something to say when the discussion reaches choral +programmes. There is music, it is true, like much of Handel's, the +impressiveness of which is greatly enhanced by masses, but it is not +extensive enough to justify the sacrifice of correctness and finish in +the performance to mere volume. The use of large choirs has had the +effect of developing the skilfulness of amateur singers in an +astonishing degree, but there is, nevertheless, a point where +weightiness of tone becomes an obstacle to finished execution. When +Mozart remodelled Handel's "Messiah" he was careful to indicate that +the florid passages ("divisions" they used to be called in England) +should be sung by the solo voices alone, but nowadays choirs of five +hundred voices attack such choruses as "For unto us a Child is Born," +without the slightest hesitation, even if they sometimes make a +mournful mess of the "divisions." + +[Sidenote: _The division of choirs._] + +[Sidenote: _Five-part music._] + +[Sidenote: _Eight part._] + +[Sidenote: _Antiphonal music._] + +[Sidenote: _Bach's "St. Matthew Passion."_] + +The normal division of a mixed choir is into four parts or +voices--soprano, contralto, tenor, and bass; but composers sometimes +write for more parts, and the choir is subdivided to correspond. The +custom of writing for five, six, eight, ten, and even more voices was +more common in the Middle Ages, the palmy days of the _a capella_ +(_i.e._, for the chapel, unaccompanied) style than it is now, and, as +a rule, a division into more than four voices is not needed outside of +the societies which cultivate this old music, such as the Musical Art +Society in New York, the Bach Choir in London, and the Domchor in +Berlin. In music for five parts, one of the upper voices, soprano or +tenor, is generally doubled; for six, the ordinary distribution is +into two sopranos, two contraltos, tenor, and bass. When eight voices +are reached a distinction is made according as there are to be eight +real parts (_a otto voci reali_), or two choruses of the four normal +parts each (_a otto voci in due cori reali_). In the first instance +the arrangement commonly is three sopranos, two contraltos, two +tenors, and one bass. One of the most beautiful uses of the double +choir is to produce antiphonal effects, choir answering to choir, both +occasionally uniting in the climaxes. How stirring this effect can be +made may be observed in some of Bach's compositions, especially those +in which he makes the division of the choir subserve a dramatic +purpose, as in the first chorus of "The Passion according to St. +Matthew," where the two choirs, one representing _Daughters of Zion_, +the other _Believers_, interrogate and answer each other thus: + + I. "Come, ye daughters, weep for anguish; + See Him! +II. "Whom? + I. "The Son of Man. + See Him! +II. "How? + I. "So like a lamb. + See it! +II. "What? + I. "His love untold. + Look! +II. "Look where? + I. "Our guilt behold." + +[Sidenote: _Antiphony in a motet._] + +Another most striking instance is in the same master's motet, "Sing ye +to the Lord," which is written for two choirs of four parts each. (In +the example from the "St. Matthew Passion" there is a third choir of +soprano voices which sings a chorale while the dramatic choirs are +conversing.) In the motet the first choir begins a fugue, in the midst +of which the second choir is heard shouting jubilantly, "Sing ye! Sing +ye! Sing ye!" Then the choirs change rôles, the first delivering the +injunction, the second singing the fugue. In modern music, composers +frequently consort a quartet of solo voices, soprano, contralto, +tenor, and bass, with a four-part chorus, and thus achieve fine +effects of contrast in dynamics and color, as well as antiphonal. + +[Sidenote: _Excellence in choral singing._] + +[Sidenote: _Community of action._] + +[Sidenote: _Individualism._] + +[Sidenote: _Dynamics._] + +[Sidenote: _Beauty of tone._] + +[Sidenote: _Contralto voices._] + +The question is near: What constitutes excellence in a choral +performance? To answer: The same qualities that constitute excellence +in an orchestral performance, will scarcely suffice, except as a +generalization. A higher degree of harmonious action is exacted of a +body of singers than of a body of instrumentalists. Many of the parts +in a symphony are played by a single instrument. Community of voice +belongs only to each of the five bodies of string-players. In a chorus +there are from twelve to one hundred and fifty voices, or even more, +united in each part. This demands the effacement of individuality in a +chorus, upon the assertion of which, in a band, under the judicious +guidance of the conductor, many of the effects of color and expression +depend. Each group in a choir must strive for homogeneity of voice +quality; each singer must sink the _ego_ in the aggregation, yet +employ it in its highest potency so far as the mastery of the technics +of singing is concerned. In cultivating precision of attack (_i.e._, +promptness in beginning a tone and leaving it off), purity of +intonation (_i.e._, accuracy or justness of pitch--"singing in tune" +according to the popular phrase), clearness of enunciation, and +careful attention to all the dynamic gradations of tone, from very +soft up to very loud, and all shades of expression between, in the +development of that gradual augmentation of tone called _crescendo_, +and the gradual diminution called _diminuendo_, the highest order of +individual skill is exacted from every chorister; for upon individual +perfection in these things depends the collective effect which it is +the purpose of the conductor to achieve. Sensuous beauty of tone, even +in large aggregations, is also dependent to a great degree upon +careful and proper emission of voice by each individual, and it is +because the contralto part in most choral music, being a middle part, +lies so easily in the voices of the singers that the contralto +contingent in American choirs, especially, so often attracts attention +by the charm of its tone. Contralto voices are seldom forced into the +regions which compel so great a physical strain that beauty and +character must be sacrificed to mere accomplishment of utterance, as +is frequently the case with the soprano part. + +[Sidenote: _Selfishness fatal to success._] + +[Sidenote: _Tonal balance._] + +Yet back of all this exercise of individual skill there must be a +spirit of self-sacrifice which can only exist in effective potency if +prompted by universal sympathy and love for the art. A selfish +chorister is not a chorister, though possessed of the voice of a Melba +or Mario. Balance between the parts, not only in the fundamental +constitution of the choir but also in all stages of a performance, is +also a matter of the highest consideration. In urban communities, +especially, it is difficult to secure perfect tonal symmetry--the rule +is a poverty in tenor voices--but those who go to hear choral concerts +are entitled to hear a well-balanced choir, and the presence of an +army of sopranos will not condone a squad of tenors. Again, I say, +better a well-balanced small choir than an ill-balanced large one. + +[Sidenote: _Declamation._] + +[Sidenote: _Expression._] + +[Sidenote: _The choruses in "The Messiah."_] + +[Sidenote: _Variety of declamation in Handel's oratorio._] + +I have not enumerated all the elements which enter into a meritorious +performance, nor shall I discuss them all; only in passing do I wish +to direct attention to one which shines by its absence in the choral +performances not only of America but also of Great Britain and +Germany. Proper pronunciation of the texts is an obvious requirement; +so ought also to be declamation. There is no reason why characteristic +expression, by which I mean expression which goes to the genius of the +melodic phrase when it springs from the verbal, should be ignored, +simply because it may be difficult of attainment from large bodies of +singers. There is so much monotony in oratorio concerts because all +oratorios and all parts of any single oratorio are sung alike. Only +when the "Hallelujah" is sung in "The Messiah" at the gracious +Christmastide is an exaltation above the dull level of the routine +performances noticeable, and then it is communicated to the singers by +the act of the listeners in rising to their feet. Now, despite the +structural sameness in the choruses of "The Messiah," they have a +great variety of content, and if the characteristic physiognomy of +each could but be disclosed, the grand old work, which seems hackneyed +to so many, would acquire amazing freshness, eloquence, and power. +Then should we be privileged to note that there is ample variety in +the voice of the old master, of whom a greater than he said that when +he wished, he could strike like a thunderbolt. Then should we hear the +tones of amazed adoration in + +[Music illustration: Be-hold the Lamb of God!] + +of cruel scorn in + +[Music illustration: He trust-ed in God that would de-li-ver Him, let +him de-li-ver him if he de-light in him.] + +of boastfulness and conscious strength in + +[Music illustration: Let us break their bonds a-sun-der.] + +and learn to admire as we ought to admire the declamatory strength +and truthfulness so common in Handel's choruses. + +[Sidenote: _Mediæval music._] + +[Sidenote: _Madrigals._] + +There is very little cultivation of choral music of the early +ecclesiastical type, and that little is limited to the Church and a +few choirs specially organized for its performance, like those that I +have mentioned. This music is so foreign to the conceptions of the +ordinary amateur, and exacts so much skill in the singing of the +intervals, lacking the prop of modern tonality as it does, that it is +seldom that an amateur body can be found equal to its performance. +Moreover, it is nearly all of a solemn type. Its composers were +churchmen, and when it was written nearly all that there was of +artistic music was in the service of the Church. The secular music of +the time consisted chiefly in Madrigals, which differed from +ecclesiastical music only in their texts, they being generally erotic +in sentiment. The choristers of to-day, no less than the public, find +it difficult to appreciate them, because they are not melodic in the +sense that most music is nowadays. In them the melody is not the +privileged possession of the soprano voice. All the voices stand on +an equal footing, and the composition consists of a weaving together, +according to scientific rules, of a number of voices--counterpoint as +it is called. + +[Sidenote: _Homophonic hymns._] + +[Sidenote: _Calvin's restrictive influence._] + +Our hymn-tunes are homophonic, based upon a melody sung by one voice, +for which the other voices provide the harmony. This style of music +came into the Church through the German Reformation. Though Calvin was +a lover of music he restricted its practice among his followers to +unisonal psalmody, that is, to certain tunes adapted to the versified +psalms sung without accompaniment of harmony voices. On the adoption +of the Genevan psalter he gave the strictest injunction that neither +its text nor its melodies were to be altered. + + "Those songs and melodies," said he, "which are composed for + the mere pleasure of the ear, and all they call ornamental + music, and songs for four parts, do not behoove the majesty + of the Church, and cannot fail greatly to displease God." + +[Sidenote: _Luther and the German Church._] + +Under the influence of the German reformers music was in a very +different case. Luther was not only an amateur musician, he was also +an ardent lover of scientific music. Josquin des Pres, a contemporary +of Columbus, was his greatest admiration; nevertheless, he was anxious +from the beginning of his work of Church establishment to have the +music of the German Church German in spirit and style. In 1525 he +wrote: + +[Sidenote: _A German mass._] + + "I should like to have a German mass, and I am indeed at + work on one; but I am anxious that it shall be truly German + in manner. I have no objection to a translated Latin text + and Latin notes; but they are neither proper nor just (_aber + es lautet nicht artig noch rechtschaffen_); text and notes, + accent, melodies, and demeanor must come from our mother + tongue and voice, else will it all be but a mimicry, like + that of the apes." + +[Sidenote: _Secular tunes used._] + +[Sidenote: _Congregational singing._] + +In the Church music of the time, composed, as I have described, by a +scientific interweaving of voices, the composers had got into the +habit of utilizing secular melodies as the foundation on which to +build their contrapuntal structures. I have no doubt that it was the +spirit which speaks out of Luther's words which brought it to pass +that in Germany contrapuntal music with popular melodies as +foundations developed into the chorale, in which the melody and not +the counterpoint was the essential thing. With the Lutheran Church +came congregational singing; with congregational singing the need of a +new style of composition, which should not only make the participation +of the people in the singing possible, but should also stimulate them +to sing by freeing the familiar melodies (the melodies of folk-songs) +from the elaborate and ingenious, but soulless, counterpoint which +fettered them. + +[Sidenote: _Counterpoint._] + +[Sidenote: _The first congregational hymns._] + +The Flemish masters, who were the musical law-givers, had been using +secular tunes for over a century, but only as stalking-horses for +counterpoint; and when the Germans began to use their tunes, they, +too, buried them beyond recognition in the contrapuntal mass. The +people were invited to sing paraphrases of the psalms to familiar +tunes, it is true, but the choir's polyphony went far to stifle the +spirit of the melody. Soon the free spirit which I have repeatedly +referred to as Romanticism, and which was powerfully encouraged by +the Reformation, prompted a style of composition in which the admired +melody was lifted into relief. This could not be done until the new +style of writing invented by the creators of the opera (see Chapter +VII.) came in, but as early as 1568 Dr. Lucas Ostrander published +fifty hymns and psalms with music so arranged "that the congregation +may join in singing them." This, then, is in outline the story of the +beginning of modern hymnology, and it is recalled to the patrons of +choral concerts whenever in Bach's "Passion Music" or in Mendelssohn's +"St. Paul" the choir sings one of the marvellous old hymns of the +German Church. + +[Sidenote: _The Church and conservatism._] + +[Sidenote: _Harmony and emotion._] + +Choral music being bound up with the Church, it has naturally +participated in the conservatism characteristic of the Church. The +severe old style has survived in the choral compositions of to-day, +while instrumental music has grown to be almost a new thing within the +century which is just closing. It is the severe style established by +Bach, however, not that of Palestrina. In the Church compositions +prior to Palestrina the emotional power of harmony was but little +understood. The harmonies, indeed, were the accidents of the +interweaving of melodies. Palestrina was among the first to feel the +uplifting effect which might result from a simple sequence of pure +consonant harmonies, and the three chords which open his famous +"Stabat Mater" + +[Sidenote: _Palestrina's "Stabat Mater."_] + +[Sidenote: _Characteristics of his music._] + +[Music illustration: Sta-bat ma-ter] + +are a sign of his style as distinct in its way as the devices by means +of which Wagner stamps his individuality on his phrases. His melodies, +too, compared with the artificial _motivi_ of his predecessors, are +distinguished by grace, beauty, and expressiveness, while his command +of ætherial effects, due to the manner in which the voices are +combined, is absolutely without parallel from his day to this. Of the +mystery of pure beauty he enjoyed a wonderful revelation, and has +handed it down to us in such works as the "Stabat Mater," "Missa Papæ +Marcelli," and the "Improperia." + +[Sidenote: _Palestrina's music not dramatic._] + +[Sidenote: _A churchman._] + +[Sidenote: _Effect of the Reformation._] + +This music must not be listened to with the notion in mind of dramatic +expression such as we almost instinctively feel to-day. Palestrina +does not seek to proclaim the varying sentiment which underlies his +texts. That leads to individual interpretation and is foreign to the +habits of churchmen in the old conception, when the individual was +completely resolved in the organization. He aimed to exalt the mystery +of the service, not to bring it down to popular comprehension and make +it a personal utterance. For such a design in music we must wait until +after the Reformation, when the ancient mysticism began to fall back +before the demands of reason, when the idea of the sole and sufficient +mediation of the Church lost some of its power in the face of the +growing conviction of intimate personal relationship between man and +his creator. Now idealism had to yield some of its dominion to +realism, and a more rugged art grew up in place of that which had +been so wonderfully sublimated by mysticism. + +[Sidenote: _The source of beauty in Palestrina's music._] + +It is in Bach, who came a century after Palestrina, that we find the +most eloquent musical proclamation of the new régime, and it is in no +sense disrespectful to the great German master if we feel that the +change in ideals was accompanied with a loss in sensuous charm, or +pure æsthetic beauty. Effect has had to yield to idea. It is in the +flow of the voices, the color effects which result from combination +and registers, the clarity of the harmonies, the reposefulness coming +from conscious ease of utterance, the loveliness of each individual +part, and the spiritual exaltation of the whole that the æsthetic +mystery of Palestrina's music lies. + +[Sidenote: _Bach._] + +Like Palestrina, Bach is the culmination of the musical practice of +his time, but, unlike Palestrina, he is also the starting-point of a +new development. With Bach the old contrapuntal art, now not vocal +merely but instrumental also and mixed, reaches its climax, and the +tendency sets in which leads to the highly complex and dramatic art of +to-day. Palestrina's art is Roman; the spirit of restfulness, of +celestial calm, of supernatural revelation and supernal beauty broods +over it. Bach's is Gothic--rugged, massive, upward striving, human. In +Palestrina's music the voice that speaks is the voice of angels; in +Bach's it is the voice of men. + +[Sidenote: _Bach a German Protestant._] + +[Sidenote: _Church and individual._] + +[Sidenote: _Ingenuousness of feeling._] + +Bach is the publisher of the truest, tenderest, deepest, and most +individual religious feeling. His music is peculiarly a hymning of the +religious sentiment of Protestant Germany, where salvation is to be +wrought out with fear and trembling by each individual through faith +and works rather than the agency of even a divinely constituted +Church. It reflects, with rare fidelity and clearness, the essential +qualities of the German people--their warm sympathy, profound +compassion, fervent love, and sturdy faith. As the Church fell into +the background and the individual came to the fore, religious music +took on the dramatic character which we find in the "Passion Music" of +Bach. Here the sufferings and death of the Saviour, none the less an +ineffable mystery, are depicted as the most poignant experience of +each individual believer, and with an ingenuousness that must forever +provoke the wonder of those who are unable to enter into the German +nature. The worshippers do not hesitate to say: "My Jesus, +good-night!" as they gather in fancy around His tomb and invoke sweet +rest for His weary limbs. The difference between such a proclamation +and the calm voice of the Church should be borne in mind when +comparing the music of Palestrina with that of Bach; also the vast +strides made by music during the intervening century. + +[Sidenote: _The motet._] + +Of Bach's music we have in the repertories of our best choral +societies a number of motets, church cantatas, a setting of the +"Magnificat," and the great mass in B minor. The term Motet lacks +somewhat of definiteness of the usage of composers. Originally it +seems likely that it was a secular composition which the Netherland +composers enlisted in the service of the Church by adapting it to +Biblical and other religious texts. Then it was always unaccompanied. +In the later Protestant motets the chorale came to play a great part; +the various stanzas of a hymn were given different settings, the +foundation of each being the hymn tune. These were interspersed with +independent pieces, based on Biblical words. + +[Sidenote: _Church cantatas._] + +The Church Cantatas (_Kirchencantaten_) are larger services with +orchestral accompaniment, which were written to conform to the various +religious festivals and Sundays of the year; each has for a +fundamental subject the theme which is proper to the day. Again, a +chorale provides the musical foundation. Words and melody are +retained, but between the stanzas occur recitatives and metrical airs, +or ariosos, for solo voices in the nature of commentaries or +reflections on the sentiment of the hymn or the gospel lesson for the +day. + +[Sidenote: _The "Passions."_] + +[Sidenote: _Origin of the "Passions."_] + +[Sidenote: _Early Holy Week services._] + +The "Passions" are still more extended, and were written for use in +the Reformed Church in Holy Week. As an art-form they are unique, +combining a number of elements and having all the apparatus of an +oratorio plus the congregation, which took part in the performance by +singing the hymns dispersed through the work. The service (for as a +service, rather than as an oratorio, it must be treated) roots in the +Miracle plays and Mysteries of the Middle Ages, but its origin is even +more remote, going back to the custom followed by the primitive +Christians of making the reading of the story of the Passion a special +service for Holy Week. In the Eastern Church it was introduced in a +simple dramatic form as early as the fourth century A.D., the +treatment being somewhat like the ancient tragedies, the text being +intoned or chanted. In the Western Church, until the sixteenth +century, the Passion was read in a way which gave the service one +element which is found in Bach's works in an amplified form. Three +deacons were employed, one to read (or rather chant to Gregorian +melodies) the words of Christ, another to deliver the narrative in the +words of the Evangelist, and a third to give the utterances and +exclamations of the Apostles and people. This was the _Cantus +Passionis Domini nostri Jesu Christe_ of the Church, and had so strong +a hold upon the tastes of the people that it was preserved by Luther +in the Reformed Church. + +[Sidenote: _The service amplified._] + +[Sidenote: _Bach's settings._] + +Under this influence it was speedily amplified. The successive steps +of the progress are not clear, but the choir seems to have first +succeeded to the part formerly sung by the third deacon, and in some +churches the whole Passion was sung antiphonally by two choirs. In the +seventeenth century the introduction of recitatives and arias, +distributed among singers who represented the personages of sacred +history, increased the dramatic element of the service which reached +its climax in the "St. Matthew" setting by Bach. The chorales are +supposed to have been introduced about 1704. Bach's "Passions" are the +last that figure in musical history. That "according to St. John" is +performed occasionally in Germany, but it yields the palm of +excellence to that "according to St. Matthew," which had its first +performance on Good Friday, 1729, in Leipsic. It is in two parts, +which were formerly separated by the sermon, and employs two choirs, +each with its own orchestra, solo singers in all the classes of +voices, and a harpsichord to accompany all the recitatives, except +those of _Jesus_, which are distinguished by being accompanied by the +orchestral strings. + +[Sidenote: _Oratorios._] + +[Sidenote: _Sacred operas._] + +In the nature of things passions, oratorios, and their secular +cousins, cantatas, imply scenes and actions, and therefore have a +remote kinship with the lyric drama. The literary analogy which they +suggest is the epic poem as contra-distinguished from the drama. While +the drama presents incident, the oratorio relates, expounds, and +celebrates, presenting it to the fancy through the ear instead of +representing it to the eye. A great deal of looseness has crept into +this department of music as into every other, and the various forms +have been approaching each other until in some cases it is become +difficult to say which term, opera or oratorio, ought to be applied. +Rubinstein's "sacred operas" are oratorios profusely interspersed with +stage directions, many of which are impossible of scenic realization. +Their whole purpose is to work upon the imagination of the listeners +and thus open gate-ways for the music. Ever since its composition, +Saint-Saëns's "Samson and Delilah" has held a place in both theatre +and concert-room. Liszt's "St. Elizabeth" has been found more +effective when provided with pictorial accessories than without. The +greater part of "Elijah" might be presented in dramatic form. + +[Sidenote: _Influence of the Church plays._] + +[Sidenote: _Origin of the oratorio._] + +[Sidenote: _The choral element extended._] + +[Sidenote: _Narrative and descriptive choruses._] + +[Sidenote: _Dramatization._] + +Confusing and anomalous as these things are, they find their +explanation in the circumstance that the oratorio never quite freed +itself from the influence of the people's Church plays in which it had +its beginning. As a distinct art-form it began in a mixture of +artistic entertainment and religious worship provided in the early +part of the sixteenth century by Filippo Neri (now a saint) for those +who came for pious instruction to his oratory (whence the name). The +purpose of these entertainments being religious, the subjects were +Biblical, and though the musical progress from the beginning was along +the line of the lyric drama, contemporaneous in origin with it, the +music naturally developed into broader forms on the choral side, +because music had to make up for the lack of pantomime, costumes, and +scenery. Hence we have not only the preponderance of choruses in the +oratorio over recitative, arias, duets, trios, and so forth, but also +the adherence in the choral part to the old manner of writing which +made the expansion of the choruses possible. Where the choruses left +the field of pure reflection and became narrative, as in "Israel in +Egypt," or assumed a dramatic character, as in the "Elijah," the +composer found in them vehicles for descriptive and characteristic +music, and so local color came into use. Characterization of the solo +parts followed as a matter of course, an early illustration being +found in the manner in which Bach lifted the words of Christ into +prominence by surrounding them with the radiant halo which streams +from the violin accompaniment. In consequence the singer to whom was +assigned the task of singing the part of _Jesus_ presented himself to +the fancy of the listeners as a representative of the historical +personage--as the Christ of the drama. + +[Sidenote: _The chorus in opera and oratorio._] + +The growth of the instrumental art here came admirably into play, and +so it came to pass that opera and oratorio now have their musical +elements of expression in common, and differ only in their application +of them--opera foregoing the choral element to a great extent as being +a hindrance to action, and oratorio elevating it to make good the +absence of scenery and action. While oratorios are biblical and +legendary, cantatas deal with secular subjects and, in the form of +dramatic ballads, find a delightful field in the world of romance and +supernaturalism. + +[Sidenote: _The Mass._] + +[Sidenote: _Secularization of the Mass._] + +Transferred from the Church to the concert-room, and considered as an +art-form instead of the eucharistic office, the Mass has always made a +strong appeal to composers, and half a dozen masterpieces of missal +composition hold places in the concert lists of the singing societies. +Notable among these are the Requiems of Mozart, Berlioz, and Verdi, +and the Solemn Mass in D by Beethoven. These works represent at one +and the same time the climax of accomplishment in the musical +treatment and the secularization of the missal text. They are the +natural outcome of the expansion of the office by the introduction of +the orchestra into the Church, the departure from the _a capella_ +style of writing, which could not be consorted with the orchestra, and +the growth of a desire to enhance the pomp of great occasions in the +Church by the production of masses specially composed for them. Under +such circumstances the devotional purpose of the mass was lost in the +artistic, and composers gave free reign to their powers, for which +they found an ample stimulus in the missal text. + +[Sidenote: _Sentimental masses._] + +[Sidenote: _Mozart and the Mass._] + +[Sidenote: _The masses for the dead._] + +[Sidenote: _Gossec's Requiem._] + +The first effect, and the one which largely justifies the adherents of +the old ecclesiastical style in their crusade against the Catholic +Church music of to-day, was to make the masses sentimental and +operatic. So little regard was had for the sentiment of the words, so +little respect for the solemnity of the sacrament, that more than a +century ago Mozart (whose masses are far from being models of +religious expression) could say to Cantor Doles of a _Gloria_ which +the latter showed him, "_S'ist ja alles nix_," and immediately sing +the music to "_Hol's der Geier, das geht flink!_" which words, he +said, went better. The liberty begotten by this license, though it +tended to ruin the mass, considered strictly as a liturgical service, +developed it musically. The masses for the dead were among the +earliest to feel the spirit of the time, for in the sequence, _Dies +iræ_, they contained the dramatic element which the solemn mass +lacked. The _Kyrie_, _Credo_, _Gloria_, _Sanctus_, and _Agnus Dei_ are +purely lyrical, and though the evolutionary movement ended in +Beethoven conceiving certain portions (notably the _Agnus Dei_) in a +dramatic sense, it was but natural that so far as tradition fixed the +disposition and formal style of the various parts, it should not be +disturbed. At an early date the composers began to put forth their +powers of description in the _Dies iræ_, however, and there is extant +in a French mass an amusing example of the length to which +tone-painting in this music was carried by them. Gossec wrote a +Requiem on the death of Mirabeau which became famous. The words, +_Quantus tremor est futurus_, he set so that on each syllable there +were repetitions, _staccato_, of a single tone, thus: + +[Music illustration: Quan-tus tre---mor, tre-- etc.] + +This absurd stuttering Gossec designed to picture the terror inspired +by the coming of the Judge at the last trumpet. + +[Sidenote: _The orchestra in the Mass._] + +[Sidenote: _Beethoven and Berlioz._] + +The development of instrumentation placed a factor in the hands of +these writers which they were not slow to utilize, especially in +writing music for the _Dies iræ_, and how effectively Mozart used the +orchestra in his Requiem it is not necessary to state. It is a safe +assumption that Beethoven's Mass in D was largely instrumental in +inspiring Berlioz to set the Requiem as he did. With Beethoven the +dramatic idea is the controlling one, and so it is with Berlioz. +Beethoven, while showing a reverence for the formulas of the Church, +and respecting the tradition which gave the _Kyrie_ a triple division +and made fugue movements out of the phrases "_Cum sancto spiritu in +gloria Dei patris--Amen_," "_Et vitam venturi_," and "_Osanna in +excelsis_," nevertheless gave his composition a scope which placed it +beyond the apparatus of the Church, and filled it with a spirit that +spurns the limitations of any creed of less breadth and universality +than the grand Theism which affectionate communion with nature had +taught him. + +[Sidenote: _Berlioz's Requiem._] + +[Sidenote: _Dramatic effects in Haydn's masses._] + +[Sidenote: _Berlioz's orchestra._] + +Berlioz, less religious, less reverential, but equally fired by the +solemnity and majesty of the matter given into his hands, wrote a work +in which he placed his highest conception of the awfulness of the +Last Judgment and the emotions which are awakened by its +contemplation. In respect of the instrumentation he showed a far +greater audacity than Beethoven displayed even in the much-mooted +trumpets and drums of the _Agnus Dei_, where he introduces the sounds +of war to heighten the intensity of the prayer for peace, "_Dona nobis +pacem_." This is talked about in the books as a bold innovation. It +seems to have escaped notice that the idea had occurred to Haydn +twenty-four years before and been realized by him. In 1796 Haydn wrote +a mass, "In Tempore Belli," the French army being at the time in +Steyermark. He set the words, "_Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi_," +to an accompaniment of drums, "as if the enemy were already heard +coming in the distance." He went farther than this in a Mass in D +minor, when he accompanied the _Benedictus_ with fanfares of trumpets. +But all such timid ventures in the use of instruments in the mass sink +into utter insignificance when compared with Berlioz's apparatus in +the _Tuba mirum_ of his Requiem, which supplements the ordinary +symphonic orchestra, some of its instruments already doubled, with +four brass bands of eight or ten instruments each, sixteen extra +drums, and a tam-tam. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[H] "Notes on the Cultivation of Choral Music," by H.E. Krehbiel, p. +17. + + + + +IX + +_Musician, Critic, and Public_ + + +[Sidenote: _The newspapers and the public._] + +I have been told that there are many people who read the newspapers on +the day after they have attended a concert or operatic representation +for the purpose of finding out whether or not the performance gave +them proper or sufficient enjoyment. It would not be becoming in me to +inquire too curiously into the truth of such a statement, and in view +of a denunciation spoken in the introductory chapter of this book, I +am not sure that it is not a piece of arrogance, or impudence, on my +part to undertake in any way to justify any critical writing on the +subject of music. Certain it is that some men who write about music +for the newspapers believe, or affect to believe, that criticism is +worthless, and I shall not escape the charge of inconsistency, if, +after I have condemned the blunders of literary men, who are laymen in +music, and separated the majority of professional writers on the art +into pedants and rhapsodists, I nevertheless venture to discuss the +nature and value of musical criticism. Yet, surely, there must be a +right and wrong in this as in every other thing, and just as surely +the present structure of society, which rests on the newspaper, +invites attention to the existing relationship between musician, +critic, and public as an important element in the question How to +Listen to Music. + +[Sidenote: _Relationship between musician, critic, and public._] + +[Sidenote: _The need and value of conflict._] + +As a condition precedent to the discussion of this new element in the +case, I lay down the proposition that the relationship between the +three factors enumerated is so intimate and so strict that the world +over they rise and fall together; which means that where the people +dwell who have reached the highest plane of excellence, there also are +to be found the highest types of the musician and critic; and that in +the degree in which the three factors, which united make up the sum +of musical activity, labor harmoniously, conscientiously, and +unselfishly, each striving to fulfil its mission, they advance music +and further themselves, each bearing off an equal share of the good +derived from the common effort. I have set the factors down in the +order which they ordinarily occupy in popular discussion and which +symbolizes their proper attitude toward each other and the highest +potency of their collaboration. In this collaboration, as in so many +others, it is conflict that brings life. Only by a surrender of their +functions, one to the other, could the three apparently dissonant yet +essentially harmonious factors be brought into a state of complacency; +but such complacency would mean stagnation. If the published judgment +on compositions and performances could always be that of the +exploiting musicians, that class, at least, would read the newspapers +with fewer heart-burnings; if the critics had a common mind and it +were followed in concert-room and opera-house, they, as well as the +musicians, would have need of fewer words of displacency and more of +approbation; if, finally, it were to be brought to pass that for the +public nothing but amiable diversion should flow simultaneously from +platform, stage, and press, then for the public would the millennium +be come. A religious philosopher can transmute Adam's fall into a +blessing, and we can recognize the wisdom of that dispensation which +put enmity between the seed of Jubal, who was the "father of all such +as handle the harp and pipe," and the seed of Saul, who, I take it, is +the first critic of record (and a vigorous one, too, for he +accentuated his unfavorable opinion of a harper's harping with a +javelin thrust). + +[Sidenote: _The critic an Ishmaelite._] + +[Sidenote: _The critic not to be pitied._] + +[Sidenote: _How he might extricate himself._] + +[Sidenote: _The public like to be flattered._] + +We are bound to recognize that between the three factors there is, +ever was, and ever shall be _in sæcula sæculorum_ an irrepressible +conflict, and that in the nature of things the middle factor is the +Ishmaelite whose hand is raised against everybody and against whom +everybody's hand is raised. The complacency of the musician and the +indifference, not to say ignorance, of the public ordinarily combine +to make them allies, and the critic is, therefore, placed between two +millstones, where he is vigorously rasped on both sides, and whence, +being angular and hard of outer shell, he frequently requites the +treatment received with complete and energetic reciprocity. Is he +therefore to be pitied? Not a bit; for in this position he is +performing one of the most significant and useful of his functions, +and disclosing one of his most precious virtues. While musician and +public must perforce remain in the positions in which they have been +placed with relation to each other it must be apparent at half a +glance that it would be the simplest matter in the world for the +critic to extricate himself from his predicament. He would only need +to take his cue from the public, measuring his commendation by the +intensity of their applause, his dispraise by their signs of +displeasure, and all would be well with him. We all know this to be +true, that people like to read that which flatters them by echoing +their own thoughts. The more delightfully it is put by the writer the +more the reader is pleased, for has he not had the same idea? Are they +not his? Is not their appearance in a public print proof of the +shrewdness and soundness of his judgment? Ruskin knows this foible in +human nature and condemns it. You may read in "Sesame and Lilies:" + + "Very ready we are to say of a book, 'How good this + is--that's exactly what I think!' But the right feeling is, + 'How strange that is! I never thought of that before, and + yet I see it is true; or if I do not now, I hope I shall, + some day.' But whether thus submissively or not, at least be + sure that you go at the author to get at his meaning, not to + find yours. Judge it afterward if you think yourself + qualified to do so, but ascertain it first." + +[Sidenote: _The critic generally outspoken._] + +As a rule, however, the critic is not guilty of the wrong of speaking +out the thought of others, but publishes what there is of his own +mind, and this I laud in him as a virtue, which is praiseworthy in the +degree that it springs from loftiness of aim, depth of knowledge, and +sincerity and unselfishness of purpose. + +[Sidenote: _Musician and Public._] + +[Sidenote: _The office of ignorance._] + +[Sidenote: _Popularity of Wagner's music not a sign of intelligent +appreciation._] + +Let us look a little into the views which our factors do and those +which they ought to entertain of each other. The utterances of +musicians have long ago made it plain that as between the critic and +the public the greater measure of their respect and deference is given +to the public. The critic is bound to recognize this as entirely +natural; his right of protest does not accrue until he can show that +the deference is ignoble and injurious to good art. It is to the +public that the musician appeals for the substantial signs of what is +called success. This appeal to the jury instead of the judge is as +characteristic of the conscientious composer who is sincerely +convinced that he was sent into the world to widen the boundaries of +art, as it is of the mere time-server who aims only at tickling the +popular ear. The reason is obvious to a little close thinking: +Ignorance is at once a safeguard against and a promoter of +conservatism. This sounds like a paradox, but the rapid growth of +Wagner's music in the admiration of the people of the United States +might correctly be cited as a proof that the statement is true. Music +like the concert fragments from Wagner's lyric dramas is accepted +with promptitude and delight, because its elements are those which +appeal most directly and forcibly to our sense-perception and those +primitive tastes which are the most readily gratified by strong +outlines and vivid colors. Their vigorous rhythms, wealth of color, +and sonority would make these fragments far more impressive to a +savage than the suave beauty of a symphony by Haydn; yet do we not all +know that while whole-hearted, intelligent enjoyment of a Haydn +symphony is conditioned upon a considerable degree of culture, an +equally whole-hearted, intelligent appreciation of Wagner's music +presupposes a much wider range of sympathy, a much more extended view +of the capabilities of musical expression, a much keener discernment, +and a much profounder susceptibility to the effects of harmonic +progressions? And is the conclusion not inevitable, therefore, that on +the whole the ready acceptance of Wagner's music by a people is +evidence that they are not sufficiently cultured to feel the force of +that conservatism which made the triumph of Wagner consequent on many +years of agitation in musical Germany? + +[Sidenote: _"Ahead of one's time."_] + +In one case the appeal is elemental; in the other spiritual. He who +wishes to be in advance of his time does wisely in going to the people +instead of the critics, just as the old fogy does whose music belongs +to the time when sensuous charm summed up its essence. There is a good +deal of ambiguity about the stereotyped phrase "ahead of one's time." +Rightly apprehended, great geniuses do live for the future rather than +the present, but where the public have the vastness of appetite and +scantness of taste peculiar to the ostrich, there it is impossible for +a composer to be ahead of his time. It is only where the public are +advanced to the stage of intelligent discrimination that a Ninth +Symphony and a Nibelung Tetralogy are accepted slowly. + +[Sidenote: _The charlatan._] + +[Sidenote: _Influencing the critics._] + +Why the charlatan should profess to despise the critic and to pay +homage only to the public scarcely needs an explanation. It is the +critic who stands between him and the public he would victimize. Much +of the disaffection between the concert-giver and the +concert-reviewer arises from the unwillingness of the latter to enlist +in a conspiracy to deceive and defraud the public. There is no need of +mincing phrases here. The critics of the newspaper press are besieged +daily with requests for notices of a complimentary character touching +persons who have no honest standing in art. They are fawned on, +truckled to, cajoled, subjected to the most seductive influences, +sometimes bribed with woman's smiles or manager's money--and why? To +win their influence in favor of good art, think you? No; to feed +vanity and greed. When a critic is found of sufficient self-respect +and character to resist all appeals and to be proof against all +temptations, who is quicker than the musician to cite against his +opinion the applause of the public over whose gullibility and +ignorance, perchance, he made merry with the critic while trying to +purchase his independence and honor? + +[Sidenote: _The public an elemental force._] + +[Sidenote: _Critic and public._] + +[Sidenote: _Schumann and popular approval._] + +It is only when musicians divide the question touching the rights and +merits of public and critic that they seem able to put a correct +estimate upon the value of popular approval. At the last the best of +them are willing, with Ferdinand Hiller, to look upon the public as an +elemental power like the weather, which must be taken as it chances to +come. With modern society resting upon the newspaper they might be +willing to view the critic in the same light; but this they will not +do so long as they adhere to the notion that criticism belongs of +right to the professional musician, and will eventually be handed over +to him. As for the critic, he may recognize the naturalness and +reasonableness of a final resort for judgment to the factor for whose +sake art is (_i.e._, the public), but he is not bound to admit its +unfailing righteousness. Upon him, so he be worthy of his office, +weighs the duty of first determining whether the appeal is taken from +a lofty purpose or a low one, and whether or not the favored tribunal +is worthy to try the case. Those who show a willingness to accept low +ideals cannot exact high ones. The influence of their applause is a +thousand-fold more injurious to art than the strictures of the most +acrid critic. A musician of Schumann's mental and moral stature could +recognize this and make it the basis of some of his most forcible +aphorisms: + + "'It pleased,' or 'It did not please,' say the people; as if + there were no higher purpose than to please the people." + + "The most difficult thing in the world to endure is the + applause of fools!" + +[Sidenote: _Depreciation of the critic._] + +[Sidenote: _Value of public opinion._] + +The belief professed by many musicians--professed, not really +held--that the public can do no wrong, unquestionably grows out of a +depreciation of the critic rather than an appreciation of the critical +acumen of the masses. This depreciation is due more to the concrete +work of the critic (which is only too often deserving of condemnation) +than to a denial of the good offices of criticism. This much should be +said for the musician, who is more liable to be misunderstood and more +powerless against misrepresentation than any other artist. A line +should be drawn between mere expression of opinion and criticism. It +has been recognized for ages--you may find it plainly set forth in +Quintilian and Cicero--that in the long run the public are neither bad +judges nor good critics. The distinction suggests a thought about the +difference in value between a popular and a critical judgment. The +former is, in the nature of things, ill considered and fleeting. It is +the product of a momentary gratification or disappointment. In a much +greater degree than a judgment based on principle and precedent, such +as a critic's ought to be, it is a judgment swayed by that variable +thing called fashion--"_Qual piùm' al vento._" + +[Sidenote: _Duties of the critic._] + +[Sidenote: _The musician's duty toward the critic._] + +But if this be so we ought plainly to understand the duties and +obligations of the critic; perhaps it is because there is much +misapprehension on this point that critics' writings have fallen under +their own condemnation. I conceive that the first, if not the sole, +office of the critic should be to guide public judgment. It is not for +him to instruct the musician in his art. If this were always borne in +mind by writers for the press it might help to soften the asperity +felt by the musician toward the critic; and possibly the musician +might then be persuaded to perform his first office toward the critic, +which is to hold up his hands while he labors to steady and dignify +public opinion. No true artist would give up years of honorable esteem +to be the object for a moment of feverish idolatry. The public are +fickle. "The garlands they twine," says Schumann, "they always pull to +pieces again to offer them in another form to the next comer who +chances to know how to amuse them better." Are such garlands worth the +sacrifice of artistic honor? If it were possible for the critic to +withhold them and offer instead a modest sprig of enduring bay, would +not the musician be his debtor? + +[Sidenote: _The critic should steady public judgment._] + +[Sidenote: _Taste and judgment must be achieved._] + +Another thought. Conceding that the people are the elemental power +that Hiller says they are, who shall save them from the changeableness +and instability which they show with relation to music and her +votaries? Who shall bid the restless waves be still? We, in America, +are a new people, a vast hotch-potch of varied and contradictory +elements. We are engaged in conquering a continent; employed in a mad +scramble for material things; we give feverish hours to win the +comfort for our bodies that we take only seconds to enjoy; the moments +which we steal from our labors we give grudgingly to relaxation, and +that this relaxation may come quickly we ask that the agents which +produce it shall appeal violently to the faculties which are most +easily reached. Under these circumstances whence are to come the +intellectual poise, the refined taste, the quick and sure power of +analysis which must precede a correct estimate of the value of a +composition or its performance? + + "A taste or judgment," said Shaftesbury, "does not come + ready formed with us into this world. Whatever principles or + materials of this kind we may possibly bring with us, a + legitimate and just taste can neither be begotten, made, + conceived, or produced without the antecedent labor and + pains of criticism." + +[Sidenote: _Comparative qualifications of critic and public._] + +Grant that this antecedent criticism is the province of the critic and +that he approaches even remotely a fulfilment of his mission in this +regard, and who shall venture to question the value and the need of +criticism to the promotion of public opinion? In this work the critic +has a great advantage over the musician. The musician appeals to the +public with volatile and elusive sounds. When he gets past the +tympanum of the ear he works upon the emotions and the fancy. The +public have no time to let him do more; for the rest they are willing +to refer him to the critic, whose business it is continually to hear +music for the purpose of forming opinions about it and expressing +them. The critic has both the time and the obligation to analyze the +reasons why and the extent to which the faculties are stirred into +activity. Is it not plain, therefore, that the critic ought to be +better able to distinguish the good from the bad, the true from the +false, the sound from the meretricious, than the unindividualized +multitude, who are already satisfied when they have felt the ticklings +of pleasure? + +[Sidenote: _The critic's responsibilities._] + +[Sidenote: _Toward the musician._] + +[Sidenote: _Position and power of the newspaper._] + +But when we place so great a mission as the education of public taste +before the critic, we saddle him with a vast responsibility which is +quite evenly divided between the musician and the public. The +responsibility toward the musician is not that which we are accustomed +to hear harped on by the aggrieved ones on the day after a concert. It +is toward the musician only as a representative of art, and his just +claims can have nothing of selfishness in them. The abnormal +sensitiveness of the musician to criticism, though it may excite his +commiseration and even honest pity, should never count with the critic +in the performance of a plain duty. This sensitiveness is the product +of a low state in music as well as criticism, and in the face of +improvement in the two fields it will either disappear or fall under a +killing condemnation. The power of the press will here work for good. +The newspaper now fills the place in the musician's economy which a +century ago was filled in Europe by the courts and nobility. Its +support, indirect as well as direct, replaces the patronage which +erstwhile came from these powerful ones. The evils which flow from the +changed conditions are different in extent but not in kind from the +old. Too frequently for the good of art that support is purchased by +the same crookings of "the pregnant hinges of the knee" that were once +the price of royal or noble condescension. If the tone of the press at +times becomes arrogant, it is from the same causes that raised the +voices and curled the lips of the petty dukes and princes, to flatter +whose vanity great artists used to labor. + +[Sidenote: _The musician should help to elevate the standard of +criticism._] + +[Sidenote: _A critic must not necessarily be a musician._] + +[Sidenote: _Pedantry not wanted._] + +The musician knows as well as anyone how impossible it is to escape +the press, and it is, therefore, his plain duty to seek to raise the +standard of its utterances by conceding the rights of the critic and +encouraging honesty, fearlessness, impartiality, intelligence, and +sympathy wherever he finds them. To this end he must cast away many +antiquated and foolish prejudices. He must learn to confess with +Wagner, the arch-enemy of criticism, that "blame is much more useful +to the artist than praise," and that "the musician who goes to +destruction because he is faulted, deserves destruction." He must stop +the contention that only a musician is entitled to criticise a +musician, and without abating one jot of his requirements as to +knowledge, sympathy, liberality, broad-mindedness, candor, and +incorruptibility on the part of the critic, he must quit the foolish +claim that to pronounce upon the excellence of a ragout one must be +able to cook it; if he will not go farther he must, at least, go with +the elder D'Israeli to the extent of saying that "the talent of +judgment may exist separately from the power of execution." One need +not be a composer, but one must be able to feel with a composer before +he can discuss his productions as they ought to be discussed. Not all +the writers for the press are able to do this; many depend upon +effrontery and a copious use of technical phrases to carry them +through. The musician, alas! encourages this method whenever he gets a +chance; nine times out of ten, when an opportunity to review a +composition falls to him, he approaches it on its technical side. Yet +music is of all the arts in the world the last that a mere pedant +should discuss. + +But if not a mere pedant, then neither a mere sentimentalist. + +[Sidenote: _Intelligence versus emotionalism._] + + "If I had to choose between the merits of two classes of + hearers, one of whom had an intelligent appreciation of + music without feeling emotion; the other an emotional + feeling without an intelligent analysis, I should + unhesitatingly decide in favor of the intelligent + non-emotionalist. And for these reasons: The verdict of the + intelligent non-emotionalist would be valuable as far as it + goes, but that of the untrained emotionalist is not of the + smallest value; his blame and his praise are equally + unfounded and empty." + +[Sidenote: _Personal equation._] + +[Sidenote: _Exact criticism._] + +So writes Dr. Stainer, and it is his emotionalist against whom I +uttered a warning in the introductory chapter of this book, when I +called him a rhapsodist and described his motive to be primarily a +desire to present himself as a person of unusually exquisite +sensibilities. Frequently the rhapsodic style is adopted to conceal a +want of knowledge, and, I fancy, sometimes also because ill-equipped +critics have persuaded themselves that criticism being worthless, what +the public need to read is a fantastic account of how music affects +them. Now, it is true that what is chiefly valuable in criticism is +what a man qualified to think and feel tells us he did think and feel +under the inspiration of a performance; but when carried too far, or +restricted too much, this conception of a critic's province lifts +personal equation into dangerous prominence in the critical activity, +and depreciates the elements of criticism, which are not matters of +opinion or taste at all, but questions of fact, as exactly +demonstrable as a problem in mathematics. In musical performance these +elements belong to the technics of the art. Granted that the critic +has a correct ear, a thing which he must have if he aspire to be a +critic at all, and the possession of which is as easily proved as that +of a dollar-bill in his pocket, the questions of justness of +intonation in a singer or instrumentalist, balance of tone in an +orchestra, correctness of phrasing, and many other things, are mere +determinations of fact; the faculties which recognize their existence +or discover their absence might exist in a person who is not "moved by +concord of sweet sounds" at all, and whose taste is of the lowest +type. It was the acoustician Euler, I believe, who said that he could +construct a sonata according to the laws of mathematics--figure one +out, that is. + +[Sidenote: _The Rhapsodists._] + +[Sidenote: _An English exemplar._] + +Because music is in its nature such a mystery, because so little of +its philosophy, so little of its science is popularly known, there has +grown up the tribe of rhapsodical writers whose influence is most +pernicious. I have a case in mind at which I have already hinted in +this book--that of a certain English gentleman who has gained +considerable eminence because of the loveliness of the subject on +which he writes and his deftness in putting words together. On many +points he is qualified to speak, and on these he generally speaks +entertainingly. He frequently blunders in details, but it is only when +he writes in the manner exemplified in the following excerpt from his +book called "My Musical Memories," that he does mischief. The reverend +gentleman, talking about violins, has reached one that once belonged +to Ernst. This, he says, he sees occasionally, but he never hears it +more except + +[Sidenote: _Ernst's violin._] + + "In the night ... under the stars, when the moon is low and + I see the dark ridges of the clover hills, and rabbits and + hares, black against the paler sky, pausing to feed or + crouching to listen to the voices of the night.... + + "By the sea, when the cold mists rise, and hollow murmurs, + like the low wail of lost spirits, rush along the beach.... + + "In some still valley in the South, in midsummer. The + slate-colored moth on the rock flashes suddenly into crimson + and takes wing; the bright lizard darts timorously, and the + singing of the grasshopper--" + +[Sidenote: _Mischievous writing._] + +[Sidenote: _Musical sensibility and sanity._] + +Well, the reader, if he has a liking for such things, may himself go +on for quantity. This is intended, I fancy, for poetical hyperbole, +but as a matter of fact it is something else, and worse. Mr. Haweis +does not hear Ernst's violin under any such improbable conditions; if +he thinks he does he is a proper subject for medical inquiry. Neither +does his effort at fine writing help us to appreciate the tone of the +instrument. He did not intend that it should, but he probably did +intend to make the reader marvel at the exquisite sensibility of his +soul to music. This is mischievous, for it tends to make the +injudicious think that they are lacking in musical appreciation, +unless they, too, can see visions and hear voices and dream fantastic +dreams when music is sounding. When such writing is popular it is +difficult to make men and women believe that they may be just as +susceptible to the influence of music as the child Mozart was to the +sound of a trumpet, yet listen to it without once feeling the need of +taking leave of their senses or wandering away from sanity. Moreover, +when Mr. Haweis says that he sees but does not hear Ernst's violin +more, he speaks most undeserved dispraise of one of the best violin +players alive, for Ernst's violin now belongs to and is played by Lady +Hallé--she that was Madame Norman-Neruda. + +[Sidenote: _A place for rhapsody._] + +[Sidenote: _Intelligent rhapsody._] + +Is there, then, no place for rhapsodic writing in musical criticism? +Yes, decidedly. It may, indeed, at times be the best, because the +truest, writing. One would convey but a sorry idea of a composition +were he to confine himself to a technical description of it--the +number of its measures, its intervals, modulations, speed, and rhythm. +Such a description would only be comprehensible to the trained +musician, and to him would picture the body merely, not the soul. One +might as well hope to tell of the beauty of a statue by reciting its +dimensions. But knowledge as well as sympathy must speak out of the +words, so that they may realize Schumann's lovely conception when he +said that the best criticism is that which leaves after it an +impression on the reader like that which the music made on the hearer. +Read Dr. John Brown's account of one of Hallé's recitals, reprinted +from "The Scotsman," in the collection of essays entitled "Spare +Hours," if you would see how aptly a sweetly sane mind and a warm +heart can rhapsodize without the help of technical knowledge: + +[Sidenote: _Dr. Brown and Beethoven._] + + "Beethoven (Dr. Brown is speaking of the Sonata in D, op. + 10, No. 3) begins with a trouble, a wandering and groping in + the dark, a strange emergence of order out of chaos, a wild, + rich confusion and misrule. Wilful and passionate, often + harsh, and, as it were, thick with gloom; then comes, as if + 'it stole upon the air,' the burden of the theme, the still, + sad music--_Largo e mesto_--so human, so sorrowful, and yet + the sorrow overcome, not by gladness but by something + better, like the sea, after a dark night of tempest, falling + asleep in the young light of morning, and 'whispering how + meek and gentle it can be.' This likeness to the sea, its + immensity, its uncertainty, its wild, strong glory and play, + its peace, its solitude, its unsearchableness, its + prevailing sadness, comes more into our minds with this + great and deep master's works than any other." + +That is Beethoven. + +[Sidenote: _Apollo and the critic--a fable._] + +[Sidenote: _The critic's duty to admire._] + +[Sidenote: _A mediator between musician and public._] + +[Sidenote: _Essential virtues._] + +Once upon a time--it is an ancient fable--a critic picked out all the +faults of a great poet and presented them to Apollo. The god received +the gift graciously and set a bag of wheat before the critic with the +command that he separate the chaff from the kernels. The critic did +the work with alacrity, and turning to Apollo for his reward, received +the chaff. Nothing could show us more appositely than this what +criticism should not be. A critic's duty is to separate excellence +from defect, as Dr. Crotch says; to admire as well as to find fault. +In the proportion that defects are apparent he should increase his +efforts to discover beauties. Much flows out of this conception of his +duty. Holding it the critic will bring besides all needful knowledge a +fulness of love into his work. "Where sympathy is lacking, correct +judgment is also lacking," said Mendelssohn. The critic should be the +mediator between the musician and the public. For all new works he +should do what the symphonists of the Liszt school attempt to do by +means of programmes; he should excite curiosity, arouse interest, and +pave the way to popular comprehension. But for the old he should not +fail to encourage reverence and admiration. To do both these things he +must know his duty to the past, the present, and the future, and +adjust each duty to the other. Such adjustment is only possible if he +knows the music of the past and present, and is quick to perceive the +bent and outcome of novel strivings. He should be catholic in taste, +outspoken in judgment, unalterable in allegiance to his ideals, +unswervable in integrity. + + + + +PLATES + +[Illustration: PLATE I + +VIOLIN--(CLIFFORD SCHMIDT)] + +[Illustration: PLATE II + +VIOLONCELLO--(VICTOR HERBERT)] + +[Illustration: PLATE III + +PICCOLO FLUTE--(C. KURTH, JUN.)] + +[Illustration: PLATE IV + +OBOE--(JOSEPH ELLER)] + +[Illustration: PLATE V + +ENGLISH HORN--(JOSEPH ELLER)] + +[Illustration: PLATE VI + +BASSOON--(FEDOR BERNHARDI)] + +[Illustration: PLATE VII + +CLARINET--(HENRY KAISER)] + +[Illustration: PLATE VIII + +BASS CLARINET--(HENRY KAISER)] + +[Illustration: PLATE IX + +FRENCH HORN--(CARL PIEPER)] + +[Illustration: PLATE X + +TROMBONE--(J. PFEIFFENSCHNEIDER)] + +[Illustration: PLATE XI + +BASS TUBA--(ANTON REITER)] + +[Illustration: PLATE XII + +THE CONDUCTOR'S SCORE] + + + + +INDEX + + +Absolute music, 36 + +Academy of Music, New York, 203 + +Adagio, in symphony, 133 + +Addison, 205, 206, 208 + +Allegro, in symphony, 132 + +Allemande, 173, 174 + +Alto clarinet, 104 + +Alto, male, 260 + +Amadeo, 241 + +Ambros, August Wilhelm, 49 + +Antiphony, 267 + +Archilochus, 213 + +Aria, 235 + +Arioso, 235 + +Asaph, 115 + + +Bach, C.P.E., 180, 185 + +Bach, Johann Sebastian, 69, 83, 148, 167, 169, 170, 171, 174, 176, + 180, 181, 184, 192, 257, 259, 267, 268, 278, 281, 282, 283, 286, + 287, 289; + his music, 281 _et seq._; + his technique as player, 180, 181, 184; + his choirs, 257, 259; + compared with Palestrina, 278; + "Magnificat," 283; + Mass in B minor, 283; + Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, 171; + Suites, 174, 176; + "St. Matthew Passion," 267, 278, 282, 286, 289; + Motet, "Sing ye to the Lord," 268; + "St. John Passion," 286 + +_Balancement_, 170 + +Balfe, 223 + +Ballade, 192 + +Ballet music, 152 + +_Balletto_, 173 + +Bass clarinet, 104 + +Bass trumpet, 81, 82 + +Basset horn, 82 + +Bassoon, 74, 82, 99, 101 _et seq._ + +Bastardella, La, 239 + +Bayreuth Festival orchestra, 81, 82 + +_Bebung_, 169, 170 + +Beethoven, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 44, 46, 47, 49, 53, 60, + 62, 63, 70, 92, 94, 101, 102, 103, 106, 113, 120, 125, 131, 132, + 133, 136, 137, 138, 140, 141, 146, 147, 151, 167, 182, 184, 186, + 187, 193, 195, 196, 203, 208, 232, 292, 321, 322; + likenesses in his melodies, 33, 34; + unity in his works, 27, 28, 29; + his chamber music, 47; + his sonatas, 182; + his democracy, 46; + not always idiomatic, 193; + his pianoforte, 195; + his pedal effects, 196; + missal compositions, 292, 294; + his overtures, 147; + his free fantasias, 131; + his technique as a player, 186; + "Eroica" symphony, 100, 132, 136; + Fifth symphony, 28, 29, 30, 31, 92, 103, 120, 125, 133; + "Pastoral" symphony, 44, 49, 53, 62, 63, 94, 102, 132, 140, 141; + Seventh symphony, 31, 32, 132, 133; + Eighth symphony, 113; + Ninth symphony, 33, 34, 35, 94, 133, 136, 138, 305; + Sonata, op. 10, No. 3, 321; + Sonata, op. 31, No. 2, 29; + Sonata "Appassionata," 29, 30, 31; + Pianoforte concerto in G, 31; + Pianoforte concerto in E-flat, 146; + Violin concerto, 146; + "Becalmed at Sea," 60; + "Fidelio," 203, 208, 232; + Mass in D, 60, 292, 294; + Serenade, op. 8, 151 + +Bell chime, 74 + +Bellini, 203, 204, 242, 245; + "La Sonnambula," 204, 245; + "Norma," 242 + +Benedetti, 242 + +Berlin _Singakademie_, 262 + +Berlioz, 49, 80, 87, 89, 90, 94, 100, 102, 104, 113, 137, 138, 139, + 294, 295; + "_L'idée fixe_," 137; + "Symphonie Fantastique," 137; + "Romeo and Juliet," 90, 94, 139; + Requiem, 113, 294, 295 + +Bizet, "Carmen," 238, 242 + +Boileau, 206 + +Bosio, 241 + +Boston Symphony Orchestra, 81, 82, 108 + +Bottesini, 94 + +Bourrée, 173 + +Brahms's "Academic overture," 101 + +Branle, 173 + +Brass instruments, 74, 104 _et seq._ + +Brignoli, 209, 242 + +Broadwood's pianoforte, 195 + +Brown, Dr. John, 321 + +_Bully Bottom_ in music, 61 + +Bunner, H.C., 136 + +Burns's "Ye flowery banks," 175 + + +Caccini, "Eurydice," 234 + +Cadences, 23 + +Cadenzas, 145 + +Calvé, Emma, 242, 247 + +Calvin and music, 275 + +Campanini, 242 + +Cantatas, 290 + +Cat's mew in music, 52 + +Catalani, 245, 246 + +Chaconne, 153 + +Chamber music, 36, 44 _et seq._, 144 + +Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 81, 82, 108 + +Choirs, 253 _et seq._; + size of, 257 _et seq._, 264, 271; + men's, 255, 260; + boys', 261; + women's, 261; + mixed, 262, 264; + division of, 260, 266; + growth of, in Germany, 262; + history of, in America, 263; + in Cincinnati, 264; + contralto voices in, 270 + +Choirs, orchestral, 74 + +Chopin, 167, 188, 190, 191, 192, 196; + his romanticism, 188; + Preludes, 190; + Études, 191; + Nocturnes, 191; + Ballades, 192; + Polonaises, 192; + Mazurkas, 192; + his pedal effects, 196 + +Choral music, 253 _et seq._; + antiphonal, 267; + mediæval, 274; + Calvin on, 275; + Luther's influence on, 276; + congregational, 277; + secular tunes in, 276, 277; + Romanticism, influence on, 277; + preponderance in oratorio, 289; + dramatic and descriptive, 289 + +Chorley, H.F., on Jenny Lind's singing, 243 + +Church cantatas, 284 + +Cicero, 309 + +Cincinnati, choirs in, 264 + +Cinti-Damoreau, 241 + +Clarinet, 47, 74, 78, 82, 103 _et seq._, 151 + +Classical concerts, 122 _et seq._ + +Classical music, 36, 64, 122 _et seq._ + +Clavichord, 168, 181 + +_Clavier_, 171, 173 + +Clementi, 185, 195 + +Cock, song of the, 51, 53, 54 + +Coleridge, 11, 144 + +Coletti, 242 + +Comic opera, 224 + +Composers, how they hear music, 40 + +Concerto, 128, 144 _et seq._ + +Conductor, 114 _et seq._ + +Content of music, 36 _et seq._ + +Contra-bass trombone, 81, 82 + +Contra-bass tuba, 81, 82 + +Co-ordination of tones, 17 + +Coranto, Corrente, 173, 176 + +Cornelius, "Barbier von Bagdad," 236 + +Cornet, 73, 82, 108 + +Corno di bassetto, 81, 82 + +Corsi, 242 + +Couperin, 168 + +Courante, 173, 176 + +Covent Garden Theatre, London, 224, 226 + +Cowen, "Welsh" and "Scandinavian" symphonies, 132 + +Cracovienne, 193 + +Creole tune analyzed, 23, 24 + +Critics and criticism, 13, 297 _et seq._ + +Crotch, Dr., 322 + +Cuckoo, 51, 52, 53 + +Cymbals, 74, 82 + +Czardas, 201 + +Czerny, 186 + + +Dactylic metre, 31 + +Dance, the ancient, 43, 212 + +Dannreuther, Edward, 129, 144, 187 + +Depth, musical delineation of, 59, 60 + +De Reszke, Edouard, 248 + +De Reszke, Jean, 247 + +Descriptive music, 51 _et seq._ + +Design and form, 16 + +De Staël, Madame, 210 + +D'Israeli, 315 + +Distance, musical delineation of, 60 + +Dithyramb, 212, 213 + +"Divisions," 265 + +Doles, Cantor, 292 + +Donizetti, 203, 204, 242; + "Lucia," 203, 204 + +Double-bass, 74, 78, 82, 94 + +Double-bassoon, 103 + +Dragonetti, 94 + +Dramatic ballads, 290 + +Dramatic orchestras, 81, 82 + +_Dramma per musica_, 227, 249 + +Drummers, 113 + +Drums, 73, 74, 82, 110 _et seq._ + +Duality of music, 15 + +"Dump" and _Dumka_, 151 + +_Durchführung_, 131 + +Dvorák, symphonies, "From the New World," 132, 138; + in G major, 136 + + +Eames, Emma, 247 + +Edwards, G. Sutherland, 12 + +Elements of music, 15, 19 + +Emotionality in music, 43 + +English horn, 82, 99, 100 + +English opera, 223 + +Ernst's violin, 320 + +Esterhazy, Prince, 46 + +Euler, acoustician, 317 + +Expression, words of, 43 + + +Familiar music best liked, 21 + +Fancy, 15, 16, 58 + +Farinelli, 240 + +Fasch, C.F., 262 + +Feelings, their relation to music, 38 _et seq._, 215, 216 + +Ferri, 239, 240 + +Finale, symphonic, 135 + +First movement in symphony, 131 + +Flageolet tones, 89 + +Florentine inventors of the opera, 217, 227, 234, 249 + +Flute, 73, 74, 78, 82, 95 _et seq._ + +Form, 16, 17, 22, 35 + +Formes, 242, 248 + +Frederick the Great, 263 + +Free Fantasia, 131 + +French horn, 47, 106 _et seq._ + +Frezzolini, 242 + +_Friss_, 201 + +Frogs, musical delineation of, 58, 62 + + +"Gallina et Gallo," 53 + +Gavotte, 173, 179 + +German opera, 226 + +Gerster, Etelka, 242, 245 + +Gesture, 43 + +Gigue, 173, 174, 178 + +Gilbert, W.S., 208, 224 + +Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas, 224 + +_Glockenspiel_, 110 + +Gluck, 84, 148, 153, 202, 203, 238; + his dancers, 153; + his orchestra, 238; + "Alceste," 148; + "Iphigénie en Aulide," 153; + "Orfeo," 202, 203 + +Goethe, 34, 140, 223 + +Goldmark, "Sakuntala" overture, 149 + +Gong, 110 + +Gossec, Requiem, 293 + +Gounod, "Faust," 209, 224, 238, 246 + +_Grand Opéra_, 223, 224 + +Greek Tragedy, 211 _et seq._ + +Grisi, 241, 242 + +_Grosse Oper_, 224 + +Grove, Sir George, 33, 63, 141, 187 + +Gypsy music, 198 _et seq._ + + +Hallé, Lady, 320 + +Hamburg, opera in, 206, 207 + +Handel, 58, 60, 62, 83, 102, 126, 148, 174, 177, 178, 181, 182, 184, + 256, 257, 258, 259, 265, 272; + his orchestra, 84; + his suites, 174; + his overtures, 148; + his technique as a player, 181, 182, 184; + his choirs, 257; + Commemoration, 258; + his _tutti_, 258; + "Messiah," 60, 126, 256, 257, 265, 272; + "Saul," 102; + "Almira," 177; + "Rinaldo," 178; + "Israel in Egypt," 58, 62, 257, 259, 289; + "_Lascia ch'io pianga_," 178 + +Hanslick, Dr. Eduard, 203 + +Harmonics, on violin, 89 + +Harmony, 19, 21, 22, 218 + +Harp, 82 + +Harpsichord, 168, 170 + +Hauptmann, M., 41 + +Hautboy, 99 + +Haweis, the Rev. Mr., 318 _et seq._ + +Haydn, 46, 84, 100, 127, 168, 183, 295; + his manner of composing, 183; + dramatic effects in his masses, 295; + "Seasons," 100 + +Hebrew music, 114; + poetry, 25 + +Height, musical delineation of, 59, 60 + +Heman, 115 + +Hen, song of, in music, 52, 53, 54 + +Herbarth, philosopher, 39 + +Hiller, Ferdinand, 307, 310 + +Hiller, Johann Adam, 258 + +Hogarth, Geo., "Memoirs of the Opera," 210, 245 + +Horn, 82, 105, 106 _et seq._, 151 + +Hungarian music, 198 _et seq._ + +Hymn-tunes, history of, 275 + + +Iambics, 175 + +"_Idée fixe_," Berlioz's, 137 + +Identification of themes, 35 + +Idiomatic pianoforte music, 193, 194 + +Idioms, musical, 44, 51, 55 + +Imagination, 15, 16, 58 + +Imitation of natural sounds, 51 + +Individual attitude of man toward music, 37 + +Instrumental musicians, former legal status of, 83 + +Instrumentation, 71 _et seq._; + in the mass, 293 _et seq._ + +Intelligent hearing, 16, 18, 37 + +Intermediary necessary, 20 + +_Intermezzi_, 221 + +Interrelation of musical elements, 22 + + +Janizary music, 97 + +Jean Paul, 67, 189, 190 + +Jeduthun, 115 + +Jig, 179 + +Judgment, 311 + + +Kalidasa, 149 + +Kettle-drums, 111 _et seq._ + +Key relationship, 26, 129 + +Kinds of music, 36 _et seq._ + +_Kirchencantaten_, 284 + +Krakowiak, 193 + +Kullak, 184 + + +Lablache, 248 + +La Grange, 241, 245 + +Lamb, Charles, 10 + +Language of tones, 42, 43 + +_Lassu_, 201 + +Laws, musical, mutability of, 69 + +Lehmann, Lilli, 233, 244, 247 + +Lenz, 33 + +Leoncavallo, 228 + +Lind, Jenny, 241, 243 + +Liszt, 132, 140, 142, 143, 167, 168, 193, 197, 198, 228; + his music, 168, 193, 197; + his transcriptions, 167; + his rhapsodies, 167, 198; + his symphonic poems, 142; + "Faust" symphony, 132, 140; + Concerto in E-flat, 143; + "St. Elizabeth," 288 + +Literary blunders concerning music, 9, 10, 11, 12 + +Local color, 152, 153 + +London opera, 206, 207, 226 + +Louis XIV., 179 + +Lucca, Pauline, 242, 246, 247 + +Lully, his overtures, 148; + minuet, 179; + "Atys," 206 + +Luther, Martin, 276 + +Lyric drama, 231, 234, 237, 251 + + +Madrigal, 274 + +Magyar music, 198 _et seq._ + +Major mode, 57 + +Male alto, 260 + +Male chorus, 255, 260 + +Malibran, 241 + +_Männergesang_, 255, 260 + +Marie Antoinette, 153 + +Mario, 242, 247, 271 + +Marschner, "Hans Heiling," 225; + "Templer und Jüdin," 225; + "Vampyr," 225; + his operas, 248 + +Mascagni, 228 + +Mass, the, 290 _et seq._ + +Massenet, "Le Cid," 152 + +Materials of music, 16 + +Materna, Amalia, 247 + +Matthews, Brander, 11 + +Mazurka, 192 + +Melba, Nellie, 204, 238, 245, 247, 271 + +Melody, 19, 21, 22, 24 + +Memory, 19, 21, 73 + +Mendelssohn, 41, 42, 49, 59, 61, 67, 102, 109, 132, 139, 140, 149, + 168, 243, 278, 288, 289, 322; + on the content of music, 41, 42; + his Romanticism, 67; + on the use of the trombones, 109; + opinion of Jenny Lind, 243; + "Songs without Words," 41; + "Hebrides" overture, 59, 149; + "Midsummer Night's Dream," 61, 102; + "Scotch" symphony, 132, 139; + "Italian" symphony, 132; + "Hymn of Praise," 140; + "St. Paul," 278; + "Elijah," 288, 289 + +Mersenne, "Harmonie universelle," 175, 176 + +Metropolitan Opera House, New York, 203, 224, 226, 244 + +Meyerbeer, 89, 102, 203, 204, 208, 242, 243, 244; + "L'Africaine," 89; + "Robert le Diable," 102, 208, 244; + "Huguenots," 204; + "L'Étoile du Nord," 243 + +Military bands, 123 + +Minor mode, 57 + +Minuet, 134, 151, 173, 179 + +Mirabeau, 293 + +Model, none in nature for music, 8, 180 + +Monteverde, "Orfeo," 87 + +Moscheles, on Jenny Lind's singing, 243 + +Motet, 283 + +Motives, 22, 24 + +Mozart, 84, 109, 132, 145, 151, 168, 183, 184, 195, 202, 203, 221, + 224, 228, 230, 238, 244, 265, 292; + his pianoforte technique, 184; + on Doles's mass, 292; + his orchestra, 238; + his edition of Handel's "Messiah," 265; + on cadenzas, 145; + his pianoforte, 195; + his serenades, 151; + "Don Giovanni," 109, 202, 221, 222, 228, 230; + "Magic Flute," 203; + G-minor symphony, 132; + "Figaro," 202, 228 + +_Musica parlante_, 234 + +Musical instruction, deficiencies in, 9 + +Musician, Critic, and Public, 297 + +_Musikdrama_, 227, 238, 249 + + +Neri, Filippo, 288 + +Nevada, Emma, 204 + +Newspaper, the modern, 297, 298, 313 + +New York Opera, 206, 226, 241 + +Niecks, Frederick, 192 + +Niemann, Albert, 233 + +Nightingale, in music, 52 + +Nilsson, Christine, 242, 246, 247 + +Nordica, Lillian, 247 + +Norman-Neruda, Madame, 320 + +Notes not music, 20 + +Nottebohm, "Beethoveniana," 63 + + +Oboe, 47, 74, 78, 82, 84, 98 _et seq._ + +Opera, descriptive music in, 61; + history of, 202 _et seq._; + language of, 205; + polyglot performances of, 207 _et seq._; + their texts perverted, 207 _et seq._; + words of, 209, 210; + elements in, 214; + invention of, 216 _et seq._; + varieties of, 220 _et seq._; + comic elements in, 221; + action and incident in, 236; + singing in, 239; + singers compared, 241 _et seq._ + +_Opéra bouffe_, 220, 221, 225 + +_Opera buffa_, 220 + +_Opéra comique_, 223 + +_Opéra, Grand_, 223 + +_Opera in musica_, 228 + +_Opera semiseria_, 221 + +_Opera seria_, 220 + +_Opus_, 132 + +Oratorio, 256, 287 _et seq._ + +Orchestra, 71 _et seq._ + +Ostrander, Dr. Lucas, 278 + +"Ouida," 12 + +Overture, 147 _et seq._, 174 + + +Paderewski, his recitals, 154 _et seq._; + his Romanticism, 167; + "Krakowiak," 193 + +Painful, the, not fit subject for music, 50 + +Palestrina and Bach, 278 _et seq._; + his music, 279 _et seq._; + "Stabat Mater," 279, 280; + "Improperia," 280; + "Missa Papæ Marcelli," 280 + +Pandean pipes, 98 + +Pantomime, 43 + +Parallelism, 25 + +Passepied, 173 + +"Passions," 284 _et seq._ + +Patti, Adelina, 203, 204, 238, 242, 245, 247 + +Pedals, pianoforte, 195, 196 + +Pedants, 13, 315 + +Percussion instruments, 110 _et seq._ + +Peri, "Eurydice," 234 + +Periods, musical, 22, 24 + +Perkins, C.C., 263 + +Pfund, his drums, 112 + +Philharmonic Society of New York, 76, 77, 81, 82 + +Phrases, musical, 22, 24 + +Physical effects of music, 38 + +Pianoforte, history and description of, 154 _et seq._; + its music, 154 _et seq._, 166 _et seq._; + concertos, 144; + trios, 147 + +Piccolo flute, 85, 97 + +Piccolomini, 242, 245 + +Pictures in music, 40 + +_Pifa_, Handel's, 126 + +_Pizzicato_, 88, 91 + +Plançon, 248 + +Polonaise, 192 + +Polyphony and feelings, 39 + +Popular concerts, 122 + +Porpora, 209 + +"_Pov' piti Momzelle Zizi_," 23 + +Preludes, 148, 174 + +Programme music, 36, 44, 48 _et seq._, 64, 142 + +Puccini, 228 + + +Quail, call of, in music, 51, 54 + +Quartet, 147 + +Quilled instruments, 170 + +Quinault, "Atys," 206 + +Quintet, 147 + +Quintillian, 309 + + +Raff, 49, 96, 132; + "Lenore" symphony, 96, 132; + "Im Walde" symphony, 132 + +Rameau, 168 + +Recitative, 219, 220, 228 _et seq._ + +Reed instruments, 98 _et seq._ + +Reformation, its influence on music, 275, 278, 280 + +Refrain, 25 + +Register of the orchestra, 85 + +Repetition, 22, 25 + +Rhapsodists among writers, 13, 315 _et seq._ + +Rhythm, 19, 21, 26, 160 + +"_Ridendo castigat mores_," 225 + +Rinuccini, "Eurydice," 234 + +Romantic music, 36, 64 _et seq._, 71, 277 + +Romantic opera, 225 + +Ronconi, 242 + +Rondeau and Rondo, 135 + +Rossini, 147, 228, 242; + his overtures, 147; + "Il Barbiere," 228; + "William Tell," 93, 100 + +Rubinstein, 59, 152, 167, 168, 287; + his historical recitals, 167; + his sacred operas, 287; + "Ocean" symphony, 59; + "Feramors," 152 + +Ruskin, John, 302 + +Russian composers, 134 + + +Sacred Operas, 287 + +Saint-Saëns, "Danse Macabre," 101, 111; + symphony in C minor, 141; + "Samson and Delilah," 288 + +Salvi, 242 + +Sarabande, 173, 174, 177 + +Sassarelli, 240 + +Scarlatti, D., 167, 172, 182; + his technique, 172; + "Capriccio" and "Pastorale," 172 + +Scheffer, Ary, 246 + +Scherzo, 133, 179 + +Schröder-Devrient, 232 + +Schubert, 168 + +Schumann, 49, 64, 132, 133, 139, 140, 141, 167, 188, 189, 190, 196, + 254, 308, 310; + his Romanticism, 188; + and Jean Paul, 189; + his pedal effects, 196; + on popular judgment, 308, 310; + symphony in C, 132; + symphony in D minor, 139; + symphony in B-flat, 140; + "Rhenish" symphony, 140, 141; + "Carnaval," 189, 190; + "Papillons," 189, 190; + "Kreisleriana," 190; + "Phantasiestücke," 190 + +Score, 120 + +"Scotch snap," 52, 200 + +Second movement in symphony, 133 + +Seidl, Anton, 77 + +Sembrich, Marcella, 242, 245 + +Senesino, 239, 240 + +Sense-perception, 18 + +Serenade, 149 _et seq._ + +Shaftesbury, Lord, 311 + +Shakespeare, his dances, 153, 179; + his dramas, 202; + a Romanticist, 221; + "Two Gentlemen of Verona," 150; + Queen Mab, 90 + +Singing, physiology of, 215, 218; + operatic, 239; + choral, 268 + +Singing Societies, 253 _et seq._ + +_Singspiel_, 223 + +Smith, F. Hopkinson, 11 + +_Sonata da Camera_, 173 + +Sonata, 127, 182, 183 + +Sonata form, 127 _et seq._ + +Sontag, 241, 244, 245, 246 + +Sordino, 90 + +Space, music has no place in, 59 + +Speech and music, 43 + +Spencer, Herbert, 39, 43, 216, 218, 230 + +Spinet, 168, 170 + +Spohr, "Jessonda," 225 + +Stainer, Dr., 39, 316 + +Stein, pianoforte maker, 196 + +_Stilo rappresentativo_, 234 + +Stories, in music, 40 + +Strings, orchestral, 74, 82, 86 _et seq._, 102 + +Sucher, Rosa, 247 + +Suite, 129, 152, 173 _et seq._ + +Symphonic poem, 142 + +Symphonic prologue, 148 + +Symphony, 124 _et seq._, 183 + +Syrinx, 98 + + +Talent in listening, 4 + +Tambourine, 110 + +Tappert, "Zooplastik in Tönen," 51 + +Taste, 311 + +Technique, 163 _et seq._ + +Tennyson, 9 + +Terminology, musical, 8 + +_Théatre nationale de l'Opéra-Comique_, 223 + +Thespis, 212 + +Thomas, "Mignon," 223 + +_Tibia_, 98 + +Titiens, 242 + +Tonal language, 42, 43 + +Tones, co-ordination of, 17 + +Touch, 163 _et seq._ + +_Tragedia per musica_, 227 + +Tremolo, 91 + +Trench, Archbishop, 65, 66 + +Triangle, 74, 110 + +Trio, 134 + +Triolet, 136 + +Trombone, 82, 105, 106, 109 _et seq._ + +Trumpet, 105, 108 + +Tschaikowsky, 88, 132; + "Symphonie Pathétique," 132 + +Tuba, 82, 85, 106, 108 + +"Turkish" music, 97 + +Tympani, 82, 111 _et seq._ + + +Ugly, the, not fit for music, 50 + +United States, first to have amateur singing societies, 257, 262; + spread of choral music in, 263 + +Unity in the symphony, 27, 137 + + +Vaudevilles, 224 + +Verdi, 152, 203, 210, 228, 236, 238, 242, 243; + "Aïda," 152, 228, 238; + "Il Trovatore," 210, 243; + "Otello," 228, 238; + "Falstaff," 228, 236; + Requiem, 290 + +Vestris, 153 + +Vibrato, 90 + +Vile, the, unfit for music, 50 + +Viola, 74, 77, 82, 92, 93 + +_Viole da braccio_, 93 + +_Viole da gamba_, 93 + +Violin, 73, 74, 77, 82, 86 _et seq._, 144, 162 + +Violin concertos, 145 + +Violoncello, 74, 77, 82, 92, 93, 94 + +Virginal, 168, 170 + +Vocal music, 61, 215 + +_Vorspiel_, 148 + +Wagner, 41, 79, 80, 81, 88, 89, 94, 111, 205, 206, 219, 226, 227, 232, + 235, 237, 238, 244, 248, 249, 250, 251, 303, 305, 314; + on the content of music, 41; + his instrumentation, 80, 111; + his dramas, 219, 226, 227, 248; + _Musikdrama_, 227, 249; + his dialogue, 235; + his orchestra, 238, 250; + his operas, 248; + his theories, 249; + endless melody, 250; + typical phrases, 250; + "leading motives," 250; + popularity of his music, 303; + on criticism, 314; + "Flying Dutchman," 248; + "Tannhäuser," 248; + "Lohengrin," 79, 88, 235, 248; + "Die Meistersinger," 249; + "Tristan und Isolde," 87, 237, 249; + "Rheingold," 237; + "Die Walküre," 94, 237; + "Siegfried," 237, 244; + "Die Götterdämmerung," 237; + "Ring of the Nibelung," 249, 251, 305; + "Parsifal," 249 + +_Waldhorn,_ 107 + +Wallace, W.V., 223 + +Walter, Jacob, 53 + +Water, musical delineation of, 58, 59 + +Weber, 67, 96, 244, 248; + his Romanticism, 67; + "Der Freischütz," 96, 225; + "Oberon," 225; + "Euryanthe," 225 + +Weitzmann, "Geschichte des Clavierspiels," 201 + +Welsh choirs, 255 + +Wood-wind instruments, 74, 77, 78, 95 + + +Xylophone, 111 + + +Ysaye, on Cadenzas, 146 + + + + +SOME MUSICAL BOOKS + + +THE LETTERS OF FRANZ LISZT. Edited and collected by LA MARA. +With portraits. Crown 8vo, 2 vols., $6.00. + +RICHARD WAGNER'S LETTERS to his Dresden Friends--Theodore Uhlig, +Wilhelm Fischer, and Ferdinand Heine. Translated by J.S. SHEDLOCK. +Crown 8vo, $3.50. + +JENNY LIND THE ARTIST, 1820-1851. Memoir of Madame Jenny +Lind-Goldschmidt. Her Art Life and Dramatic Career, from original +documents, etc. By CANON H.S. HOLLAND and W.S. ROCKSTRO. With +illustrations, 12mo, $2.50. + +WAGNER AND HIS WORKS. The Story of his Life, with Critical Comments. +By HENRY T. FINCK. Third edition. With portraits. 2 vols., +12mo, $4.00. + +CHOPIN AND OTHER MUSICAL ESSAYS. By HENRY T. FINCK. 12mo, +$1.50. + +A CONCISE HISTORY OF MUSIC, from the Commencement of the Christian Era +to the present time. By H.G.B. HUNT. With numerous tables. +12mo, $1.00. + +CHARLES GOUNOD, AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL REMINISCENCES, with Family Letters +and Notes on Music. Translated by the HON. W. HUTCHINSON. +With portrait. 8vo, $3.00. + +THE GREAT MUSICIANS SERIES. Edited by F. HUEFFER. 14 vols., +12mo, each, $1.00. + +THE STUDENT'S HELMHOLTZ. Musical Acoustics, or the Phenomena of Sound. +By JOHN BROADHOUSE. With musical illustrations and examples. +12mo, $3.00. + +CYCLOPEDIA OF MUSIC AND MUSICIANS. Edited by JOHN DENISON CHAMPLIN, +JR. Critical editor, W.F. APTHORP. Popular edition. Large octavo, 3 +vols., $15.00 net. + +LETTERS OF A BARITONE. By FRANCIS WALKER. 16mo, $1.25. + +MUSICIANS AND MUSIC LOVERS, AND OTHER ESSAYS. By W.F. APTHORP. 12mo, +$1.50. + +THE WAGNER STORY BOOK. Firelight Tales of the Great Music-Dramas. By +W.H. FROST. Illustrated. 12mo, $1.50. + +MASTERS OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC. 4 vols., 12mo. Illustrated. Each, +$1.75. Masters of English Music, by Charles Willeby; Masters of French +Music, by Arthur Hervey; Masters of German Music, by J.A. +Fuller-Maitland; Masters of Italian Music, by R.A. Streatfield. + +THE EVOLUTION OF CHURCH MUSIC. By Rev. F.L. HUMPHREYS, 12mo, +$1.75 net. + +THE STORY OF BRITISH MUSIC, from the Earliest Times to the Tudor +Period. By F.J. CROWEST. Illustrated. 8vo, $3.50. + +THE HISTORY OF MUSIC, from the Earliest Times to the Time of the +Troubadours. By J.F. ROWBOTHAM. 12mo, $2.50. + +THE LEGENDS OF THE WAGNER DRAMA. Studies in Mythology and Romance. By +JESSIE L. 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