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| committer | pgww <pgww@lists.pglaf.org> | 2025-07-30 17:22:02 -0700 |
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diff --git a/76594-h/76594-h.htm b/76594-h/76594-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c5a15c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/76594-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,24398 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + The Art of Music - Vol. VI | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; font-weight: normal;/* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +h1, h2 {margin-top: 4em;} +h3 {margin-top: 2em;} +h2 {margin-bottom: 2em;} + +.p1 {margin-top: 1em;} +.p1b {margin-bottom: 1em;} +.p11 {margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; } +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} +.p2b {margin-bottom: 2em;} +.p4 {margin-top: 4em;} +.p6 {margin-top: 6em;} +.p6b {margin-bottom: 6em;} + +.hang { + padding-left: 1em; + text-indent: -1em; +} + +.hang2 { + padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em; +} + +.half-title +{ + margin-top: 6em; + text-align: center; + font-size: 140%; +} + +.indent5 {margin-left: 5em;} + + +.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} + +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} + +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + + +.big1 { + font-size: 110%; + } + +.big2 { + font-size: 130%; + } + +.big3 { + font-size: 140%; + } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +.x-ebookmaker .ebhide {visibility: hidden; display: none;} + +.autotable{ + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + + +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } +table.autotable td, +table.autotable th { padding: 0.25em; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} +.tdc {text-align: center;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + visibility: hidden; + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} /* page numbers */ + + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 0.9em; +} + +.blockquot1 { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 5%; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} +img.w100 {width: 100%;} + +img.w10 {width: 4%;} + +img.w15 {width: 15%;} + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: 1px dashed; margin-top: 4em;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +/* uncomment the next line for centered poetry */ + .poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +.poetry-container {text-align: center;} +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} + + + /* Transcriber's notes */ + .tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%;padding-bottom: 1em; padding-top: 1em; + padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; margin-top: 4em; margin-bottom: 4em; } + +/* Illustration classes */ +.illowe30 {width: 30em;} +.illowe35 {width: 35em;} +.illowe37_5 {width: 37.5em;} +.illowe50 {width: 50em;} +.illowe5_3125 {width: 5.3125em;} +.illowe5_0 {width: 5.0em;} + + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76594 ***</div> + +<figure class="figcenter illowe50" id="cover"> + <img class="w100" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="cover" title="bookc"> +</figure> + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="tnote"> + + <p class="center p2 big1">TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES</p> + +<p>In the plain text version <em>Italic</em> text is denoted by _underscores_. +<span class="smcap">Small Caps</span> are represented in UPPER CASE. The sign ^ represents a +superscript; thus e^ represents the lower case letter “e” written +immediately above the level of the previous character.</p> + +<p>The musical files for the musical examples discussed in the book have +been provided by Jude Eylander. Those examples can be heard by clicking +on the [Listen] tab. This is only possible in the HTML version of the +book. The scores that appear in the original book have been included as +“jpg” images.</p> + +<p>In some cases the scores that were used to generate the music files +differ slightly from the original scores. Those differences are due +to modifications that were made by the Music Transcriber during the +process of creating the musical archives in order to make the music +play accurately on modern musical transcribing programs. These scores +are included as PNG images, and can be seen by clicking on the [PNG] +tag in the HTML version of the book.</p> + +<p>Obvious punctuation and other printing errors have been corrected.</p> + +<p>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the +public domain.</p> + + + + +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="tb x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class= "half-title p6b">THE ART OF MUSIC</p> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="center big3">The Art of Music</p> +</div> + +<p class="center big1">A Comprehensive Library of Information<br> +for Music Lovers and Musicians</p> + +<p class="center p2">Editor-in-Chief</p> +<p class="center big3">DANIEL GREGORY MASON<br> +<small>Columbia University</small></p> + + +<p class="center p2">Associate Editors</p> + +<p class="p1 center"><span style="padding-right: 5em; ">EDWARD B. HILL</span> <span style="padding-left: 5em; ">LELAND HALL</span><br> +<span style="padding-left: 4em; ">Harvard University</span> <span style="padding-left: 6.5em; ">Past Professor, Univ. of Wisconsin</span></p> + + +<p class="center p2">Managing Editor</p> + +<p class="center big1">CÉSAR SAERCHINGER<br> +Modern Music Society of New York</p> + + +<p class="center big1 p1">In Fourteen Volumes<br> +<small>Profusely Illustrated</small></p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowe5_3125" id="tp-ilo"> + <img class="w100 p2" src="images/tp-ilo.jpg" alt="ilotp1" title="tpilo1"> +</figure> + +<p class="center p4">NEW YORK<br> +THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF MUSIC</p> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</span></p> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</span></p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowe30" id="frontis-ilo"> + <img class="w100 p2" src="images/frontis-ilo.jpg" alt="frontisilo" title="ilofrontis"> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>The Singing Angels</p></figcaption> +</figure> +<p class="center"><em>Altar piece by Hubert and Jan van Eyck</em></p> + +</div> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</span></p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h1>THE ART OF MUSIC: VOLUME SIX<br> +<br> +<small>Choral and Church Music</small></h1> +<br> +<p class="center p1 big2">ROSSETTER GLEASON COLE, M.A.</p> +<br> +<br> +<p class="center big2 p2"><small>Introduction by</small><br> + +FRANK DAMROSCH, <span class="smcap">Mus. Doc.</span></p> +<br> +<p class="center">Director Institute of Musical Art in the City of New York<br> +Conductor, Musical Art Society of New York, etc.</p> +<br> +<figure class="figcenter illowe5_0" id="tp2-ilo"> + <img class="w100 p2" src="images/tp2-ilo.jpg" alt="tp2ilo" title="ilotp2"> +</figure><br> + +<p class="center p4 big1"><small>NEW YORK</small><br> +THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF MUSIC</p> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="center p6 p6b">Copyright, 1915, by<br> +THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF MUSIC, Inc.<br> +[All Rights Reserved]</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</span></p> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak p2b" >PREFATORY NOTE</h2> +</div> + + +<p>The field of choral and church music is so vast and +the subject so inclusive that the author has felt the constant +pressure of the necessity for sifting and abbreviating +and condensing the voluminous material at hand +in order not to go far beyond the prescribed limits of +this volume. He has resolutely shut his eyes to the +allurements of the many by-paths that constantly beckoned +away from the historical highway he was appointed +to tread; and he has endeavored to keep this +object constantly in mind—to trace the development +of the forces and tendencies from which have sprung +the various musical forms that have gone to make up +the literature of choral and church music as century +followed century. In this volume, therefore, the great +personalities of musical history will receive far less +attention than the particular musical forms and art-tendencies +that flowed from their, oft-times, combined +creative activities.</p> + +<p>While a large number of choral and organ works of +every class have been analyzed with much detail and +a still larger number given definite classification, it is +hoped that the historical summaries and the discussions +of styles and periods, scattered throughout this volume, +will be even more helpful to the reader in enabling him +to place any given musical work in its true musical, as +well as historical, perspective. It is a matter of some +regret that from sheer lack of space several interesting +and wholly relevant topics—such as hymnology, contemporaneous +church music, the whole relation of music +to the present-day church, etc.—must be left untouched.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</span> +In the chapters on contemporaneous choral +music, it was necessary for the same reason to shut out +of consideration the whole field of short cantata (for +church choirs, and for female and male chorus), though +the number of really fine works here is quite amazing. +Contemporaneous choral music is fully discussed in +three chapters and a large number of works are adequately +described, though for obvious reasons critical +estimates are in the main impossible from the very +propinquity of these works.</p> + +<p>Grateful acknowledgment is here made to Mr. Frederick +H. Martens and to Mr. Reginald L. McAll for the +contribution of the comprehensive chapter on the history +of the organ (Chapter XIV), at the end of which +their initials will be found; also to Mr. Wilhelm Middelschulte, +organist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, +for many critical suggestions, especially on the organ-works +of Bach, Widor and Reger. In this connection +the author wishes to give full and grateful recognition +to the valuable assistance of his wife in gathering and +verifying much historical material.</p> + +<p class="right" style="padding-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Rossetter G. Cole.</span></p> + +<p>Chicago, August, 1915.</p> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</span></p> + +<p class="center big3 p2">CHORAL AND CHURCH MUSIC</p> +</div> + + + + + +<h2 class="nobreak p2b" >INTRODUCTION</h2> + + +<p>“And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude +of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to +God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward +men.”</p> + +<p>This choir of angels (for can we conceive of a multitude +of angels announcing this message otherwise than +in well-ordered song?) typifies the mission of choral +singing.</p> + +<p>Whenever human beings unite in expressing noble +thoughts in noble music, their message also is one of +good will. Their speech is rendered in rhythmic cadence, +intoned in harmonious concord and made expressive +by melody; they are bound together in amicable +union for a common purpose; they willingly submit +to the discipline of a controlling mind; their object +is to put beauty into the world and the peace and +harmony which are required to make their work effective +are communicated to those who hear them and +whose souls they cause to vibrate in unison with their +music.</p> + +<p>It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the practice +of choral singing dates back to very early times. +Not, of course, in the way in which we understand +the term to-day, as an art-form, but in cruder forms +of singing or chanting in unison such as may still be +heard among uncivilized or half-civilized tribes.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</span></p> + +<p>The desire to unite in the performance of religious +rites, in prayers for rain or in praise of the deity; in +the mutual encouragement to do battle against a common +foe; in the celebration of seasonal changes, in +rejoicing over the gifts of nature or the fruits of +their toil at harvest time—all these common feelings +induce a common expression and stimulate choral +singing.</p> + +<p>The development from these crude forms to the art-forms +of the present has not only extended over a long +period, but has been affected and influenced by many +and various factors. For purposes of discussion we +may divide these into two main classes: the Church and +the Folk-song. These two factors have brought to the +evolution of choral singing certain elements which, +though diametrically opposed, yet most happily complement +each other, namely, obedience to law and freedom +of expression.</p> + +<p>In the nature of things music in the Church—the Roman +Catholic and the Greek Orthodox—had to adapt +itself to the strict canons of the Liturgy. As the service +became more and more elaborate and it was realized +that music exerted a strong spiritualizing influence, its +use was extended until it became one of the principal +features in the Mass and required the participation of +not only the regular clergy, but of numerous trained +auxiliaries. Thus it came to pass that the Church, to +satisfy its need for canonic music—that is, for music +which met the liturgic requirements, preserved the dignity +of the text and enhanced the devotional attitude—stimulated +the efforts toward greater beauty, variety, +and dignity of expression. Every monastery, every +cathedral contributed something to this evolutionary +process until this primary stage of choral development +culminated in the work of Palestrina. This was accomplished +by slow stages. The art of counterpoint, which +forms the basis of this art-form, grew very gradually +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</span> +from the combination of two voices to that of three, +four, or more and incidentally caused to be discovered +certain art-forms, such as the canon and the fugue, +based upon the principle of imitation, which have been +employed by all the great masters of musical composition +to the present day.</p> + +<p>Let us now, for a moment, leave this field of choral +development and go into a small village in Russia. It +is evening. The villagers are assembled under the +spreading branches of an old linden tree whose blossoms +perfume the still air as the moon rises above the +forest. Presently one of the villagers intones a song. +It is known to all, has been handed down from generation +to generation. No one knows whence it came—it +seems always to have been there and it is interwoven +with the memories and emotions of all the people of +the village and of the whole countryside. In a word—it +is a folk-song. One after another the villagers join in, +some in unison with the tune, but others, finding the +range too high, endeavor to find tones which sound in +pleasing consonance, and so, gradually, there is evolved +a full harmony accompanying the melody of the song. +Has anyone taught the villagers the science of harmony? +Of course not, but, just as the beautiful melody +grew out of the people’s hearts and in the course +of generations molded itself into a perfect tune, so +gradually the sense for good harmony grew and caused +the elimination of unpleasing progressions. Sometimes +such a song tells a story which is developed in many +stanzas. Then a ‘foresinger’ will chant the stanzas and +the villagers will sing a choral refrain, thus taking +active part in the recital.</p> + +<p>This, then, is the other source of choral singing +which, meeting the stream coming from the church, +soon united with it and helped to create and to develop +this form of musical art.</p> + +<p>In order to obtain a survey of the whole field of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</span> +choral music as it has grown from these two principal +sources, let us enumerate it under three divisions:</p> + +<p>1. As an expression of popular emotions and +thoughts.</p> + +<p class="indent5"> +a. Folk-songs and refrains.<br> +b. Dance songs.<br> +c. Marching and war songs.<br> +d. Work songs.<br> +e. National songs.<br> +</p> + +<p>2. For religious purposes.</p> + +<p class="indent5"> +a. Masses, motets, chorales, and other church-music.<br> +b. Cantatas and oratorios.<br> +</p> + +<p>3. Miscellaneous forms for choral art.</p> + +<p class="indent5"> +a. Part-songs, glees, madrigals, etc.<br> +b. Secular cantatas.<br> +c. As adjuncts to symphonic music.<br> +d. As component parts of the opera.<br> +</p> + +<p>This shows the wide scope of choral singing and its +possibilities for coming into close relationship to every +phase of human life.</p> + +<p>Whenever men come together for a common purpose +involving the expression of deep feelings or of their +ideals, ordinary speech seems inadequate and recourse +to united musical expression, that is, choral singing, +seems most appropriate. Hence, the choral folk-songs +and dance-songs found in Russia, Scandinavia, Germany, +and many other nations and races; the marching +and war-songs which cause the heart to beat faster and +to enliven the spirits, which would otherwise droop +from physical fatigue and hardships. Even where no +spiritual element seems in evidence on the surface, as +in the work in the fields, in the hauling of barges against +the current of a great river, such as the Volga in Russia, +in the cigar factories in Florida and in Cuba, or in +heaving on a rope aboard ship, the mere working together +of many in a common task causes them to lighten<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</span> +their labor by utterance of united song. There is little +doubt that labor is better done with the accompaniment +of singing by happy and contented workers. No discontented +workman is inclined to sing. And when a +great assemblage of people unites in the national hymn +of its country, it must be a callous soul and cold heart +that does not try to join with ardor and enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>All these manifestations of musical expression by +popular singing may be executed by comparatively +untrained individuals. Even some quite unusual and +interesting harmonic progressions, the result of generations +of experiment and selection, as for instance +in Finland, Scandinavia, and among our +Southern negroes, are not the result of individual +training, but part of the general racial instinct +for musical expression. The other classes +of choral singing which we have enumerated above +require considerable training of individuals in order +to produce satisfactory results. In other words, +whereas the folk-songs, dance, marching, and national +songs were either the spontaneous expression of the +people themselves or composed in the style of the people’s +or folk-song whose chief centre of interest is the +tune or melody while its harmonization is of secondary +importance, the choral art-songs, to which belong part-songs, +glees, madrigals, motets, cantatas, and all larger +forms of choral music, employ a much more elaborate +style of composition. The different voice-parts—soprano, +alto, tenor, and bass—and their subdivisions +often progress in rhythmic independence of each other. +The voice-parts may enter the song at different times, +in different sequence, in different metrical and rhythmical +figures; they may sing different words simultaneously +and therefore give different expression; sometimes +one voice-part requires dynamic prominence, +sometimes another, while the other voices subordinate +themselves. All this requires that the individual singer<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</span> +must have a musical voice and true ear and a good +sense of rhythm; that he should understand the rudimentary +science of music and of notation; and that +his eye should be able to recognize the symbols which +indicate the pitch and time value of sounds and translate +them instantly into the sounds themselves. Also, it +requires that the individuals submit to the strictest discipline +in obeying the directions of the leader. Only +complete, intelligent, and instant obedience to the director +on the part of every member of the chorus will +produce good results. In other words, only team-work +of the highest type secures mastery.</p> + +<p>Efficiency in the performance of choral works of +art, therefore, demands the following conditions: First, +a leader who is a thorough, trained musician; cultured +and well-educated; of good character and with high +ideals and noble aims; of good personality, courteous +but strict in discipline; critical but not discouraging; +energetic and enthusiastic, but always within the limits +of dignity. Second, a chorus composed of singers who +sing because they love to sing (paid or unpaid), who +are gladly willing to obey the leader’s direction, and +who will concentrate themselves upon their work +throughout the period of rehearsal or performance. +Their degree of vocal excellence, musical qualities, individual +musical knowledge and training will determine +the magnitude of the task upon which the leader +may direct their efforts and also the degree of excellence +which their performance can attain.</p> + +<p>In the United States there exist innumerable organizations +devoted to the study of choral music in its various +forms, and it may be of interest to enumerate +some of the principal kinds.</p> + + +<p class="hang">1. The church congregation which sings hymns either in unison +or in four-part harmony in a more or less happy-go-lucky +fashion.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</span></p> + +<p class="hang">2. The church choir composed of male and female voices or +of boys’ and men’s voices.</p> + +<p class="hang">3. The societies devoted to the study of oratorios and cantatas.</p> + +<p class="hang">4. The societies devoted to the study of unaccompanied choral +singing (<em>a cappella</em>, as it is called), such as madrigals, +glees, motets, etc.</p> + +<p class="hang">5. Male choruses, such as the German singing societies and the +glee clubs.</p> + +<p class="hang">6. Choruses of women’s voices.</p> + +<p class="hang">7. Opera choruses.</p> + +<p class="hang">8. Choruses of school-children.</p> + + +<p>The great majority of these organizations consists of +amateurs, that is, of people who love music and who +find in choral singing an opportunity to gratify their +desire to take an active part in its performance.</p> + +<p>Even those whose voices are of mediocre quality and +have had little or no training can learn to do excellent +work in large choruses in which the individual voice is +merged in the mass. An example of this may be found +in the People’s Singing Classes and in the People’s +Choral Union of New York. Applicants to the former +are admitted without vocal or musical examination. +They are taught to sing from notes, to follow the bâton +of the leader, to phrase and enunciate correctly, and to +produce a musical quality of tone. After two seasons +they are promoted into the Choral Union and are +capable of singing the choruses of the oratorios by Handel, +Mendelssohn, and the modern masters. Their +work has been highly praised by the principal music +critics and they have given and are still giving pleasure +to thousands of people at their concerts.</p> + +<p>Societies like the Oratorio Society of New York, the +Handel and Haydn of Boston, the Apollo Club of Chicago, +and numerous similar ones in nearly every city +are also composed of amateurs, but admission is obtained +only after proof of good vocal material and +ability to sing at sight has been given. This enables +such organizations to perform with a high degree of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</span> +artistic finish and to produce a number of large works +every season.</p> + +<p>The male societies, such as glee clubs and <em>Deutsche +Gesangvereine</em>, cultivate a lighter class of music, but +they sometimes reach a high degree of vocal excellence +and finish in diction and phrasing. They afford a welcome +relief from work, business cares, and mental +strain to many men who like to sing and who enjoy +the weekly rehearsals and the social intercourse with +congenial men which usually follows the drill.</p> + +<p>The women’s choruses are not as numerous nor as +popular as the men’s, but seem to be growing more so +every year. It is difficult to understand why male +choral singing should have developed more quickly +and more widely, as women are usually more interested +in music than the average man. Perhaps there is a +psychological reason for it!</p> + +<p>Choruses of children’s voices are among the most +delightful manifestations in the realm of music when +they are well trained. Our public schools throughout +the country have the best possible machinery for their +development, and wherever this is guided by a good +musician and competent organizer the results are very +beautiful. It is a great pity, therefore, that the start in +the direction of choral singing given in the schools to +hundreds of thousands of children every year should +not be systematically followed up by providing municipal +evening singing classes, either in the school buildings +or in other suitable halls provided by the city. +Such classes would tend enormously to uplift the young +people who are just beginning life by giving them opportunity +to meet their friends under clean and pleasant +conditions, to enjoy the study of beautiful music +and thereby to put into their lives something which +will help to lift them above the purely material thoughts +and commonplace existence which are so often the lot +of the wage-earner.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</span></p> + +<p>There remains only the consideration of the various +kinds of professional choruses. Of these, the church +choir is the most frequently met with. As a rule, it is +little better than the average amateur chorus, the members +receiving a nominal fee, chiefly in order to insure +their regular attendance at rehearsals and services. +But there are some notable exceptions in the case of +wealthy congregations who spend whatever may be +necessary to secure a highly gifted and thoroughly competent +choir-master, good voices, and frequent rehearsals. +In some cases there have been established richly +endowed choir schools in which boys gifted with good +voices receive not only musical training, but an excellent +general education sufficient to prepare them for +college.</p> + +<p>The grand opera choruses have, until recently, been +largely recruited from Italy and Germany, but now +they include many young American men and women +whose fresh voices and intelligent application are +looked upon as welcome additions both by the conductors +and the public. As interest in opera grows and +as operatic institutions are established in a larger number +of cities, this career will attract many young people +whose voices are not of such quality as to promise +success as soloists, but who are musical and prefer +work along artistic lines to the more mechanical business +or trade occupations.</p> + +<p>Finally, mention must be made of a kind of choral +singing which, at its best, is to vocal music what chamber +music is to instrumental, namely, <em>a cappella</em> singing.</p> + +<p>Dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, +when the old Italian and Flemish masters of church +music laid the foundations of their wonderful contrapuntal +style which culminated in the work of Palestrina, +this form of unaccompanied choral singing has flourished +to the present day, producing exquisite blossoms +in every succeeding age and in nearly every country<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</span> +which has cultivated a love of music. Much of this class +of music requires highly skilled singers, thorough musical +training and expert leadership, and it is therefore +desirable to secure professional singers when this is +possible. The Musical Art Society of New York and +other societies with similar aims devote themselves to +this type of choral singing. Their choirs usually consist +of professional singers and their programs embrace +works by Palestrina, Orlando di Lasso, and their contemporaries +and successors—Bach, Gibbons, Morley, +Wilbye, and other English madrigalists; the masters of +the German romantic school; Russian, Scandinavian, +and Celtic part-songs; Cornelius, Brahms, and the modern +composers of all nations.</p> + +<p>From the foregoing recital of the wide scope of this +important branch of musical art and its general practice +by all classes of people, it would appear that choral +singing is that form of music which is best adapted to +popular use and that it is one of the easiest and best +means to promote the love and culture of good music +in the community.</p> + +<p>Through the musical experience gained in the study +of choral works and because of the pleasure it gives +to the participants, interest is aroused in other forms +of musical art. Those who are engaged in trying to +awaken the American people to the appreciation of +music by means of recitals by singers, pianists, and +violinists; by chamber music, symphony concerts, and +opera, will find more ready response from people who +have entered the field of music apprehension through +choral singing than through any other medium except +the thorough training of a good music school, and this +contingent is, as yet, comparatively small. It is to be +hoped that, as the value of choral singing as a community +asset becomes more generally recognized, public +education boards and civic societies will give the +fullest encouragement to its practice by the people at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xix">[Pg xix]</span> +large. It is not too much to say that twenty per cent. +of the adults of every city could become qualified to +take part in choral singing, and this opens up marvellous +possibilities.</p> + +<p>Such civic choruses could assist in the celebration +of the national holidays, of festivities in memory of +great events, in exercises designed to honor a famous +man; in short, they would be a true people’s voice expressing +a people’s emotions, aspirations, and ideals. +What more fitting then than that the great republic +of America should foster the art and cultivate the practice +of choral singing in order the more effectively to +proclaim to all the world its message of well ordered +liberty, of enlightenment and progress, and of peace +to men of good will?</p> + +<p class="right" style="padding-right: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Frank Damrosch</span></p> + +<p>New York, May, 1915.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xx">[Pg xx]</span></p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxi">[Pg xxi]</span></p> + +<p class="center big2 p4">CONTENTS OF VOLUME SIX</p> +</div> + + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdc"><small>PAGE</small></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Prefatory Note</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;"><a href="#Page_vii">vii</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Introduction by Dr. Frank Damrosch</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;"><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> </td> +<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">Part I. Choral Music of the Middle Ages</span></td> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdc">CHAPTER</td> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">I.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Music of the Early and Mediæval Church and<br> +Early Secular Music</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_1">1</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">The music of the earliest Christian church as evolved<br> +from contemporary practices and systems; the alliance of<br> +the Roman liturgy with music; the <em>Schola Cantorum</em>—St.<br> +Ambrose and liturgical music; his hymns; Gregory the<br> +Great and his reforms; the Gregorian antiphonary; sequences<br> +and tropes—Progress in musical methods in the<br> +northern countries; Hucbald and <em>organum</em>; Guido of Arezzo;<br> +Franco of Cologne and measured music; growth of part-singing—Early<br> +secular music; the Troubadours and Trouvères;<br> +Adam de la Hâle; the Minnesingers and the Mastersingers;<br> +mediæval secular forms; The early madrigal and<br> +its precursors, the <em>chanson</em> and <em>frottola</em>; ‘Sumer is icumen<br> +in’; relation of folk-music to art-music.</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">II.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Polyphonic Period</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_36">36</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">The Gallo-Belgic School; the Netherlanders; the mass<br> +and its liturgical significance; the use of secular subjects--Conditions<br> +that fostered continuity of development: the<br> +‘Mass of Tournay’; Dufay and Okeghem; Hobrecht’s <em>Parce<br> +Domine</em>; Josquin des Près’ masses and motets; his expressive<br> +style—The motet as an extra-liturgical form; its development;<br> +its later characteristic style; distinction between<br> +sacred and secular music—Orlando di Lasso’s ‘Penitential<br> +Psalms’; his tendency toward a simpler style; his <em>Gustate<br> +et Videte</em> and other compositions—Palestrina’s reforms,<br> +methods, and style; his masses, <em>Papæ Marcelli</em>, <em>Brevis</em>, and<br> +<em>Assumpta est Maria</em>; his motets and other compositions:<br> +Vittoria and others—Madrigal writers of the sixteenth century:<br> +Festa, Arcadelt, Willaert, Byrd, Morley, etc.</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">III.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The First Century of Protestant Church Music</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_76">76</a> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Martin Luther; the chorale as the nucleus of German<br> +Protestant church music—Early Reformation composers:<br> +Walther, Eccard, Prætorius; influence of church choir<br> +schools in Germany during the Reformation period—English<br> +Protestant music, music of the Anglican liturgy: the anthem,<br> +its early history and style—The spread of congregational<br> +song; psalms and hymns.</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">Part II. The Cantata and Other Short Forms</span></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">IV.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Early Italian Secular Cantata, the German<br> +Classical Cantata, the English Anthem, and Other Short Choral Forms</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_99">99</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">The entrance of dramatic tendencies into music—Carissimi<br> +and the early cantata; Rossi, Cesti, and Legrenzi—A.<br> +Scarlatti, the culminating point in cantata-writing in Italy;<br> +later developments of the Italian cantata—The German<br> +church cantata and its relation to the Lutheran service;<br> +cantata-texts of Neumeister and others—Bach in the service<br> +of the church; his church cantatas—G. F. Handel; Joseph<br> +Haydn; W. A. Mozart—English church music in the eighteenth<br> +century; the anthem: Croft, Greene, Boyce, and<br> +others—Later history of this motet in England, Italy, and<br> +Germany; decadence of the madrigal; the glee, the part-song,<br> +the masque and the ode.</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">V.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Cantata in the Nineteenth Century</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_142">142</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Conflict of tradition and progress—Ludwig van Beethoven:<br> +‘Ruins of Athens,’ ‘Glorious moment’; Andreas<br> +Romberg—C. M. von Weber; Franz Schubert; Ludwig Spohr—Mendelssohn:<br> +‘First Walpurgis Night,’ etc.; 95th Psalm;<br> +<em>Lauda Sion</em>, etc.—Hector Berlioz: ‘Damnation of Faust’—Robert<br> +Schumann: ‘Paradise and the Peri’; ‘Pilgrimage of<br> +the Rose’; Miscellany—Ferdinand Hiller; Niels W. Gade:<br> +‘Crusaders,’ ‘Erl-King’s Daughter,’ ‘Christmas Eve,’ ‘Comala,’<br> +etc.—Félicien David: ‘The Desert’; Minor cantata<br> +writers in Germany and England: Benedict, Costa, Macfarren,<br> +Smart, Bennett—Anglican ritual-music and the German<br> +evangelical motet in the nineteenth century; the part-song.</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">VI.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Modern Cantata</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_189">189</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Wagner: ‘The Love Feast of the Apostles’; Liszt: ‘The<br> +Bells of Strassburg,’ ‘Prometheus’—Brahms: ‘Song of<br> +Triumph,’ ‘Song of Destiny’—Max Bruch: ‘Frithjof,’ ‘Fair<br> +Ellen,’ ‘The Cross of Fire,’ ‘The Lay of the Bell,’ etc.—Rheinberger;<br> +Dvořák; Hofmann; Goetz—Grieg; Gounod;<br> +Sullivan: ‘The Golden Legend’; Barnby’s Gaul; Stainer;<br> +Cowen—Parry; Mackenzie; Stanford—Elgar: ‘King Olaf’;<br> +‘Caractacus’; ‘The Black Knight’—Coleridge-Taylor: ‘Hiawatha’<br> +cycle—Dudley Buck: ‘The Golden Legend’; ‘The<br> +Light of Asia’; Horatio Parker and other cantata writers in<br> +the United States.</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em;"></td> +<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">Part III. The Oratorio and the Mass</span></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">VII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Early and Classical Oratorios</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="vertical-align: top; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Origin of oratorio in the sacred drama of Italy—Cavalieri:<br> +‘The Representation of Soul and Body’—Carissimi:<br> +‘Jephthah’—Scarlatti; Stradella; other early oratorio writers—Development<br> +of oratorio in Germany; Passion-music<br> +and its development; Schütz: ‘The Seven Last Words of<br> +Christ’; ‘The Passion Oratorio’; ‘The Resurrection’—J. S.<br> +Bach: ‘Christmas Oratorio’; ‘Passion according to St. Matthew’;<br> +Graun: ‘The Death of Jesus’; other writers of Passion-music—Handel<br> +and the oratorio; ‘The Messiah’—‘Israel<br> +in Egypt’; ‘Judas Maccabæus’; ‘Samson,’ etc.—Haydn:<br> +‘The Creation’; ‘The Seasons.‘</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">VIII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Oratorio from Beethoven to Brahms</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_264">264</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Beethoven: ‘The Mount of Olives’; Spohr: ‘The Last<br> +Judgment’ and ‘Calvary’—Mendelssohn: ‘St. Paul’—‘Elijah’<br> +and ‘Hymn of Praise’—Liszt: ‘St. Elizabeth’ and ‘Christus’—Oratorio<br> +in England; Sterndale Bennett: ‘The Woman of<br> +Samaria’; Costa’s ‘Eli’—Oratorio in France; Lesueur; Berlioz’s<br> +<em>L’enfance du Christ</em>—Gounod: ‘The Redemption’;<br> +<em>Mors et Vita</em>.</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">IX.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Modern Oratorio</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_292">292</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Brahms: ‘German Requiem’; Dvořák: ‘St. Ludmila’—César<br> +Franck: ‘The Beatitudes’;—Tinel: ‘Franciscus’; Benoît:<br> +‘Lucifer’—Saint-Saëns: ‘Christmas Oratorio’; ‘The<br> +Deluge’; Massenet: <em>Ève</em>; <em>Marie Madeleine</em>; Dubois: ‘Paradise<br> +Lost’—Oratorio in England; Mackenzie: ‘The Rose of<br> +Sharon’; ‘Bethlehem’; Parry: ‘Judith’; ‘Job’; ‘King Saul’—Stanford:<br> +‘The Three Holy Children’; ‘Eden’; Sullivan:<br> +‘The Prodigal Son’; ‘The Light of the World’; Cowen—Oratorio<br> +in America; Paine: ‘St. Peter’; Horatio Parker:<br> +<em>Hora Novissima</em>; ‘The Legend of St. Christopher.’</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">X.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Modern Mass</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_318">318</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">The adaptation of liturgical forms to extra-liturgical<br> +purposes; Mass; Requiem Mass—Stabat Mater; Magnificat;<br> +Te Deum—Musical masses and the Roman service—Bach:<br> +‘B minor Mass’—Bach‘s ‘Magnificat in D’; Pergolesi‘s<br> +<em>Stabat Mater</em>; Handel‘s Te Deums; Graun‘s ‘Prague <em>Te<br> +Deum</em>’; Haydn’s church music—Mozart: the <em>Requiem</em> and<br> +other masses—Cherubini: <em>Requiem</em> and other masses; Schubert’s<br> +masses—Beethoven: <em>Missa Solemnis</em>; Weber’s masses—Berlioz:<br> +<em>Requiem</em>; <em>Te Deum</em>; Rossini’s <em>Stabat Mater</em>;<br> +Liszt: ‘Graner Mass’ and ‘Hungarian Coronation Mass’—Gounod:<br> +‘St. Cecilia Mass’ and other masses; Dvořák:<br> +<em>Requiem</em> and <em>Stabat Mater</em>; Verdi: ‘The Manzoni <em>Requiem</em>’—The<br> +masses of Rheinberger, Henschel and others.</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em;"></td> +<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">Part IV. Modern Choral Music</span></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">XI.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Contemporaneous Choral Music in Germany</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_347">347</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Contemporaneous Choral Music in Germany—Richard<br> +Strauss: <em>Wanderers Sturmlied</em>; <em>Taillefer</em>; Motets—Taubmann:<br> +<em>Eine Deutsche Messe</em>; <em>Sängerweihe</em>; Georg Schumann:<br> +<em>Ruth</em>; <em>Totenklage</em> and other works—Max Reger’s<br> +choral compositions; Schönberg: <em>Gurrelieder</em>; ‘Transfigured<br> +Night’; <em>Pierrot lunaire</em>—Other choral writers of the present;<br> +Felix Draeseke’s <em>Christus</em>; Wolfrum’s <em>Weihnachtsmysterium</em>;<br> +Albert Fuchs; Wilhelm Platz; August Bungert’s<br> +<em>Warum? Woher? Wohin?</em> Felix Woyrsch: <em>Totentanz</em> and<br> +other works; Wilhelm Berger’s <em>Totentanz</em>; Karl Ad. Lorenz:<br> +<em>Das Licht</em>; other contributors to modern German choral<br> +literature.</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">XII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Contemporaneous Choral Music in England and America</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_359">359</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Elgar: ‘The Light of Life’; ‘The Dream of Gerontius’;<br> +‘The Apostles’; ‘The Kingdom’; ‘The Music Makers’;—Parry:<br> +‘War and Peace’; ‘The Vision of Life’; ‘The Pied<br> +Piper of Hamelin’; Mackenzie; Cowen; Coleridge-Taylor—Bantock:<br> +‘The Fire Worshippers’; ‘Omar Khayyam’ and<br> +other choral works—Holbrooke: ‘The Bells,’ ‘Byron’ and<br> +other works; Grainger and others; Walford Davies:<br> +‘Everyman’; ‘The Temple’ and other works; minor English<br> +choral writers—Horatio Parker: ‘Morven and the Grail’ and<br> +smaller works; Chadwick: ‘Judith’ and ‘Noël’—Henry<br> +Hadley: ‘Merlin and Vivian’ and short works; F. S. Converse:<br> +‘Job’; other American choral writers.</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">XIII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Contemporary Choral Music in France, Italy,<br> +Russia and Elsewhere</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_386">386</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Debussy: <em>L’enfant prodigue</em>, <em>La demoiselle élue</em> and<br> +<em>Le martyre de Saint-Sébastien</em>; Reynaldo Hahn: <em>La pastorale<br> +de Noël</em>; Gabriel Pierné: <em>La croisade des enfants</em>; <em>Les<br> +enfants de Bethlehem</em>; <em>Les fioretti de Saint-François<br> +d’Assisi</em>—Florent Schmitt: Psalm XLVII; Vincent d’Indy:<br> +<em>Chant de la cloche</em>, etc.—Renaissance of oratorio in Italy;<br> +Perosi and his oratorios; Bossi: <em>Canticum canticorum</em>; <em>Il<br> +Paradiso perduto</em>; Wolf-Ferrari: <em>La Vita Nuova</em> and other<br> +works—Scandinavia; choral music in Russia; Moussorgsky;<br> +Rimsky-Korsakoff; Glazounoff; Glière; Arensky and<br> +others; choral composition in Poland, Bohemia, Hungary,<br> +Spain.</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">Part V. The Organ and Its Music</span></td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">XIV.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Organ from the Earliest Times to the Present</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_397">397</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">The ancestor of the modern organ; pneumatic and hydraulic<br> +organs of classical antiquity—The organ in early<br> +mediæval times—The tenth and eleventh centuries: cloister<br> +and minster organs; the twelfth and thirteenth centuries:<br> +introduction of the ‘portative’ organ and balanced keys;<br> +the fourteenth century: chromatic keyboard; pedals; organ<br> +blowing—Fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; cathedral and<br> +church organs; the <em>Rückpositiv</em>; the Spanish <em>partida</em>;<br> +builders—The seventeenth century: mechanical development;<br> +tuning; union of manuals; the eighteenth century;<br> +the ‘Swell’; English builders; the Silbermanns—<em>Rococo</em><br> +adornment of cases; the nineteenth century and the birth<br> +of the modern instrument—Pneumatic action; electric action;<br> +the Universal Air Chest; duplex stop control; tonal<br> +improvements—the chamber organ; the concert organ.</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">XV.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Early Organ Music</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_415">415</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">The old Italian masters: Landino to Frescobaldi—Early<br> +German masters; the forerunners of Bach; Hassler, Pachelbel,<br> +Buxtehude—J. S. Bach: the toccatas, the preludes and<br> +fugues, the sonatas and other works—The early French<br> +composers: Couperin and Rameau; Spain and Portugal;<br> +the Netherlands—The early English masters; Tye, Tallis,<br> +Byrd, Bull, Gibbons, etc.—Purcell; Handel.</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">XVI.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Organ Music after Bach and Handel</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_456">456</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">The eclipse of organ music after Bach; Bach’s pupils<br> +and other organ masters of the classic period—Organ composers<br> +of the romantic period: Mendelssohn, Liszt, Rheinberger<br> +and others—Great French organists of the nineteenth<br> +century—English organists since Handel.</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2em; vertical-align: top;">XVII.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Modern Organ Music</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;"><a href="#Page_479">479</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Supremacy of modern French organ music; Saint-Saëns;<br> +Guilmant: sonatas and smaller works—Widor: organ<br> +symphonies; Dubois; Gigout and other French organ-writers—German<br> +organ composers; Piutti; Klose; Reger;<br> +chorale-fantasias; Karg-Elert and others—Organ music in<br> +Italy; Capocci; Bossi; Busoni and others—English organ<br> +composers since 1850—Organ music in the United States;<br> +early history; Dudley Buck; Frederick Archer and Clarence<br> +Eddy; contemporary American organ composers.</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Literature</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;"><a href="#Page_503">503</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Index</span></td> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;"><a href="#Page_507">507</a> </td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxii">[Pg xxii]</span></p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxiii">[Pg xxiii]</span></p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxiv">[Pg xxiv]</span></p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxv">[Pg xxv]</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxviii">[Pg xxviii]</span></p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxvii">[Pg xxvii]</span></p> +<p class="half-title p6b">CHORAL AND CHURCH MUSIC</p> +</div> + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER I<br> +<small>MUSIC OF THE EARLY AND MEDIÆVAL CHURCH AND EARLY SECULAR MUSIC</small></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The music of the earliest Christian church as evolved from contemporary +practices and systems; the alliance of the Roman liturgy with music; +the <em>Schola Cantorum</em>—St. Ambrose and liturgical music; his hymns; +Gregory the Great and his reforms; the Gregorian antiphonary; +sequences and tropes—Progress in musical methods in the northern +countries; Hucbald and <em>organum</em>; Guido of Arezzo; Franco of +Cologne and measured music; growth of part-singing—Early secular music; +the Troubadours and Trouvères; Adam de la Hâle; the Minnesingers and +the Mastersingers; mediæval secular forms; The early madrigal and its +precursors, the <em>chanson</em> and <em>frottola</em>; ‘Sumer is icumen in’; relation of +folk-music to art-music.</p> +</div> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>Accustomed as we are in the present age to rapid +progress and swift development, it seems difficult to +understand why it should have required so many centuries +to develop among human beings a feeling for +the necessity of more than a single melody or voice-part +in music expression. The earliest music of which we +have any knowledge is monophonic, a single melody +sung by a single voice, or by a number of voices in +unison or in octaves. This characteristic prevails not +only in the music of primitive races, ancient or modern, +but also in the music of those ancient nations that attained +a high degree of civilization—Greeks, Romans, +Egyptians, Assyrians, Hebrews. The Greeks and Egyptians +understood thoroughly the theory of intervals +and they possessed an adequate comprehension of intervals +in the melodic sense, where tone follows tone.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span> +But it seems never to have occurred to them to apply +this knowledge of intervals to sounds of different pitch +heard simultaneously, certainly never seriously enough +to lead them to make experiments in the use of these +intervals for the purpose of evolving two or more independent +melodies or voice-parts sounding at the same +time. Even the crude device of having two melodies +move in parallel fifths or fourths, as in the <em>organum</em> of +Hucbald, was not employed until the tenth century of +the Christian era. And, the principle of discant or +added parts to a given melody having been once established, +it required nearly six centuries more of constant +experimentation with vocal part-writing before there +emerged any clear or conscious feeling for what we call +harmony or a progression of chord-units. Since the +sixteenth century, however, musical progress has unfolded +with constantly accelerated pace.</p> + +<p>Until about the beginning of the seventeenth century, +when secularity entered the domain of music and received +such important consideration in the development +of dramatic and instrumental music, practically +the whole creative energy of art-music had been expended +in the interest of religion. From the earliest +times the most important music of the Greeks, Egyptians, +Assyrians, and Hebrews was associated with their +respective religious rites and ceremonies. Roman civilization +contributed nothing of importance to the musical +knowledge or practices of its time, for militant +Rome was far more interested in assimilating from the +culture of conquered countries than in originating and +developing practices of her own. Even the dawn of the +Christian era, with the tremendous dynamics of its new +moral and ethical ideals and its prophecy of intellectual +freedom, did not usher in any essential departure from +the old musical usages. The early Christians merely +selected from current musical systems and contemporaneous +melodies those elements that were best suited to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span> +the services of the new religion and to the religious +home life of its adherents. Until the period of open +persecution set in, the converts to the new religion did +not in general follow a social or economic life that differed +in any essential respects from that of their neighbors +who still paid homage to the old forms and trod +the old paths of religious worship. The believers in +the new and the old forms of religion mingled freely +in the daily rounds of their various duties and pleasures. +Just as the early Christian art did not differ in +principle from the best Pagan models, so the music of +the early Christian congregations was absorbed into +their services from the musical practices of the communities +from which the converts came. Those in the +East naturally turned for their musical material to the +noble melodies of the Hebrew synagogue and to the +more chaste Greek melodies whose association was farther +removed from sensual Pagan rites. Those in the +West borrowed freely from current Græco-Roman +music, employing, of course, only those melodies that +were purest and most refined in character and association.</p> + +<p>From this point of contact with the old civilization, +the music of the early Christian worship gradually +developed along the line of its own inherent and individual +needs and kept pace with the internal unfoldment +of the liturgic idea that at an early date imbedded +itself firmly in all branches of the church services. The +line of continuity in passing from the old to the new, +however, was unbroken. Public ceremonials and +priestly sacrifices have always produced conditions exceedingly +favorable to the development of rituals and +liturgies. This was conspicuously true of the Hebrew +religion, as well as the Pagan religions which were +practised in the opening centuries of the Christian era. +It is not altogether surprising, then, that many Pagan +ideas, forms, and ceremonials were incorporated into<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span> +the ritual and liturgy of the early church, especially +after the third century, when Christianity was received +into the favor of the State.</p> + +<p>While the organization of the early Christian church +was still simple and its government more or less democratic +in character, the congregation took an active part +in the musical portion of the service. But the gradual +development of elaborate liturgies and ceremonies, the +transformation of the clergy from representatives of +the people to mediatorial functionaries, and the general +hierarchical tendencies of the times—all contributed in +bringing about a condition distinctly unfavorable to +free congregational singing. Indeed, this was specifically +forbidden in all liturgical services by the Council +of Laodicea (343-381), and while the transfer of the +office of song from the people to the clergy was not +immediately effective, congregational singing in the +apostolic sense passed out of existence in the fourth +century. It is true that in private worship and in non-liturgical +services the singing of hymns and psalms by +the general body of worshippers was permitted, but the +rapid growth of sacerdotalism irresistibly led to the +corresponding withdrawal of initiative from the individual +worshippers, until the clergy in all liturgical +services finally assumed all the offices of public worship, +inclusive of song, which was regarded as an integral +part of the office of prayer.</p> + +<p>The establishment of the priestly liturgic chant marks +the real beginning of the history of music in the Christian +church, for music after that event became a matter +of special qualifications and preparation on the +part of the performers, and of rigid adherence to prescribed +formulas and regulations in all details of performance. +It followed with utmost logic from the doctrine +of the universality and immutability of the church +that its liturgy, rites, and ceremonies should not only +remain unchanged from age to age, but should be uniform<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span> +in all countries and localities where her authority +was recognized.</p> + +<p>In the study of the Roman Catholic liturgy its alliance +with music must be kept constantly in mind, for in inception +and in development it was and always has been +a musical liturgy. In working out the problems of +securing the desired uniformity in respect to musical +settings for different localities and of handing down +to succeeding generations the musical forms that had +gained the sanction of church authority, the church +fathers were confronted with difficulties the magnitude +of which it is not easy for us to comprehend. It was +not until the eleventh century that a system of staff +notation was devised whereby the exact pitch of notes +could be accurately represented, and a full century +elapsed after this vital invention before an adequate +system of measured music was evolved whereby the +exact relative duration of notes could be represented. +A detailed account of the slow and laborious development +of the elementary material out of which the fair +edifice of modern music was finally to be reared will +be found in Vol. I of this series. It will suffice here to +say that the authorized versions of the various chants, +as the liturgy was gradually taking definite and final +shape during the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, had +to be taught and preserved by ‘word of mouth,’ this +process being somewhat aided, through visual association, +by means of a kind of musical shorthand called +‘neumes,’ consisting of dots, short lines and combinations +of lines written over the syllables to be sung, +which indicated the general direction of the melody but +not the exact intervals between its tones as it fluctuated +up and down in pitch. Even this crude system of representing +pitch relations by visual symbols was of great +assistance to the singers, for in principle it sought to +serve the same purpose that our modern notation accomplishes +in suggesting to the eve the outline of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span> +melody. Indefinite as it was in not indicating exact +intervallic relations, it greatly aided in recalling to +mind the melodies already memorized, assistance which +was greatly appreciated by the singers, for as many as +a thousand different melodies were used during the +church year, many of them for a single occasion +only.</p> + +<p>To eliminate conflicting traditions and to bring about +uniformity in all branches of the service, singing schools +were established by order and under the direction of +ecclesiastical authorities (the first one in 314 at Rome +by Pope Sylvester), in which the clerical singers received +thorough instruction and training not only in the +exact forms of all the chants to be used, but also in all +matters of intonation, qualities of tone suited to different +chants, enunciation, etc. These schools (<em>scholæ +cantorum</em>) brought about as much uniformity and +permanency as were possible in the absence of more +exact notational means. But even with these great +handicaps, a wealth of musical material was accumulated +even before the twelfth century, whose plenitude +and affluent beauty it would seem have never been +rightly appreciated or exploited by the Catholic Church +itself. The difficulties in deciphering the vague neumes +in the mediæval manuscripts have undoubtedly operated +to keep these treasures hidden away in their original +depositories; yet the results of the labors of occasional +enthusiasts in translating some of them into modern +notation would indicate that here are unexplored +channels for the permanent enrichment of the literature +of Catholic music. In his <em>motu propria</em> of November +22, 1903, Pope Pius X turned the attention of the +Catholic world back to the glories of the mediæval +Gregorian music and, indirectly, to the old manuscripts, +treasure-stores of long forgotten melodies of the old +church singers that are still hidden away in the monasteries +and abbeys of Europe and northern Africa, as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span> +well as in the more accessible museums and libraries +of Europe.</p> + +<p>The earliest known manuscripts date from the eighth, +possibly the sixth, century. But aside from the traditional +music of the liturgy, handed down from generation +to generation by word of mouth and preserved intact, +in Rome at least, by the severe discipline of the +singing schools, we possess very few examples of music +whose origin can with certainty be placed before the +eleventh century, when our present staff notation came +into being. Yet even with so little actual music of the +period at hand we know with great definiteness the +character of ecclesiastical music from contemporary +writings, edicts, and decrees.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>When early Christian music finally freed itself from +the influence of Pagan models in the interest of its +own internal necessities, it opened the way for the first +time in history for the development of a purely vocal +art, dispensing with the assistance of the instruments +that formed such an essential part of the musical practices +allied with Pagan religious rites and ceremonies. +For the first fifteen centuries of the Christian era almost +the only art-music was that which was cultivated by +and for the church, and since the church during this +period persistently frowned upon the use of instruments, +the history of the music of the period is the history +of choral music.</p> + +<p>But while in Italy the use of instruments was rigidly +forbidden and any deviation from prescribed practices +was a punishable offense, greater difficulty was experienced +in enforcing this church law in those countries +of Europe, now known as France, Germany, and England, +which had more recently been won to the standard<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span> +of Christianity by the militant missionaries of +Rome, but which still retained a rugged independence +that clung tenaciously to many local customs. In some +of these localities instruments were freely used and in +the monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland festival occasions +were graced by a band of harps, flutes, cymbals, +a seven-stringed psaltery, and an organ. Notwithstanding +a few noteworthy exceptions, the music of the +Roman Church can be characterized as pure vocal music +until near the end of the sixteenth century at least. +And when instruments were occasionally used—the organ +more and more toward the end of the sixteenth +century—it was for the purpose of doubling the voice-parts +in order to gain greater sonority.</p> + +<p>After the office of song was restricted to specially +trained clericals, thus bringing music within the domain +of culture and laying the foundation for its development +as an art, the first name of importance among +those who strove to bring order and increased effectiveness +into the chaotic conditions of liturgical music was +St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (340?-397). Much that +was attributed to him until a few decades ago has +been proved to be apocryphal and legendary. We +may with much certainty, however, affirm that his enthusiastic +interest in the music of the liturgy resulted +(1) in carefully sifting the material that had been +gradually accumulating, and (2) in bringing into the +ritual of the Western church from the Eastern three +elements of great value to its further development—antiphonal +singing of psalms by two alternating choirs, +responsorial singing, and Greek hymnody. His great +interest in the last-named field led him not only to +translate many of the finest Greek hymns into Latin, +but inspired him to write new Latin hymns to be sung, +probably to simple melodies, after the Greek fashion. +Among the hymns (about ten in number) from his own +pen may be named <em>Veni Redemptor Gentium</em> and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span> +<em>Eterna Christi Munera</em> (‘Hymnal Noted,’ Nos. 12 and +36).</p> + +<p>St. Ambrose’s innovations soon found favor elsewhere. +Antiphonal psalmody was introduced into the +service at Rome by Pope Celestine (pope from 422 to +432), and in a short time was quite generally adopted +throughout the domains of the church. St. Augustine +(354-430), who was a friend of St. Ambrose and a collaborator +with him, and who is said to have made a +collection of Ambrosian melodies for the use of the +church, bears touching testimony to their emotional +effect: ‘How I wept at thy hymns and canticles, pierced +to the quick by the voices of thy melodious church! +Those voices flowed into my ears, and the truth distilled +into my heart, and thence there streamed forth +a devout emotion, and my tears ran down, and happy +was I therein.’ (St. Augustine, ‘Confessions,’ Book 9, +chap. 6.)</p> + +<p>The so-called Ambrosian collection vied in importance +with the Gregorian for several centuries and +many of its finest features were undoubtedly incorporated +into the later and more comprehensive collection. +So important a place does St. Ambrose fill in the +history of ecclesiastical music that the term Ambrosian +is still applied to usages, both liturgical and musical, +of the Church of Milan, which distinguish its service in +certain respects from the Roman service, and which are +supposed to have been originated by the great Milanese +bishop.</p> + +<p>After St. Ambrose the next prelate to impress himself +profoundly on the course of development of church-music +was Pope Gregory the Great (pope from 590 to +604). While recent research<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> has proved beyond +doubt that a multitude of reforms and innovations attributed +to him by mediæval legends and repeated by +later history belong in reality to a much later period, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span>it is well established that he manifested an enthusiastic +and well-directed interest in the music of the service, +that he introduced many corrective measures to +curb the growing danger of secularizing church-music +through the use of unauthorized embellishments and +licenses in singing the chants, and that he brought about +a thorough and far-reaching reorganization of the singing +schools. When he became pope in 590, the liturgy +was practically completed as far as its actual material +was concerned. Since the earliest practices of the +church had encouraged a musical liturgy, he found in +actual use a vast number of chants and musical settings +for various parts of the services. These musical settings +differed in different localities. In conformity with +his definitely conceived policy of establishing in reality +one universal church for all peoples and races, with +centralized power and highly-organized form of government, +he set about to accomplish a definite systematization +and an authoritative organization of all liturgic +functions, together with the necessarily similar regulation +of the music associated with the liturgy. This reform +was in the nature of a codification of existing material, +and while he did not finish the great work, he +brought it within the bounds of uniformity as regards +both liturgy and musical settings, and gave to these +results of his labors all the permanency that the solemn +law of the church could command. The liturgical portion +was called <em>Sacramentarium Gregorianum</em> and the +musical portion <em>Antiphonarium Gregorianum</em>, and +from the seventh century these two books are always +met with side by side.</p> + +<p>The interesting and fanciful stories of Pope Gregory’s +labors as composer of chants and as teacher in the +<em>Schola Cantorum</em> must be discarded as wholly unproven +legends, and to the same category belongs the +tradition that after compiling the Antiphonary he +caused a copy of it to be chained to the altar of St.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span> +Peter’s, as containing the only music authorized by +the church. One of the direct results of his reorganization +of the singing school, however, was the establishment +on a permanent basis of the Sistine Chapel,<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> or +papal choir, at Rome. This organization, the oldest +choral body in the world, was for centuries the court +of final resort in all matters pertaining to the traditions +of Gregorian chant and it maintained a practically continuous +existence from that far-off age until the temporal +power of the pope came to an end in 1870, when +it was practically disbanded. Since that date, however, +its members have from time to time been called together +to sing in the Sistine Chapel on occasions of +special significance.</p> + +<p>The Gregorian collection or antiphonary, which was +the musical law of the Roman Church until the Renaissance +period, was probably not settled in final form +until the time of Gregory II (pope 715-731) or Gregory +III (pope 731-741). However much Gregory the Great +may have accomplished in establishing methods of +permanency and universality in the ritual-music, the +processes of selection, accretion, and assimilation went +on for more than a century after his death. This collection, +which was written in the vague neumes of the +period, became the most important factor in the music +of the Western church and by the end of, the eleventh +century had practically superseded all other bodies of +ritual-music—such as the African, Celtic, Gallican, and +Spanish<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> (Mozarabic)—which had previously gained +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span>ascendency in the various countries which acknowledged +spiritual allegiance to Rome.</p> + +<p>The historic collection of Gregorian music divides +itself into two large groups—(1) the music of the Mass, +together with that of the baptismal, burial, and other +occasional services, corresponding with the modern +Missal, and (2) the music of the daily Hours of Divine +Service, corresponding with the modern Breviary. +There are about 630 compositions in the first large +group, in which only scriptural words appear, classified +as follows: about 150 Introits (<em>Antiphonæ ad introitum</em>), +about 150 Communions (<em>Antiphonæ ad communionem</em>), +110 Graduals, 100 Alleluias, 23 Tracts, and +102 Offertories. In the music of the second large division +(the Hours of Divine Service) there is much less +variety than in the music of the Mass. As this group +of services did not have the same official position as the +Mass, less restraint was exercised in regard to modifications. +In this collection are to be found some 2,000 +antiphons and about 800 Greater Responds, besides +many Lesser Responds, Invitatories, and Versicles.</p> + +<p>It is now quite generally believed that there were no +essential differences between Ambrosian and Gregorian +music. If any differences existed, they were in such +compositions as the Ambrosian hymn, which was written +for the use of the congregation and was more measured +and stately in its swing than its Gregorian counterpart, +which was sung by the trained choirs and +therefore capable of much more rhythmic freedom and +melodic embellishment.</p> + +<p>The Roman singing school (<em>Schola Cantorum</em>) played +a large and important part both in the labor of codifying +the great collection since known as Gregorian music, +and in spreading the Gregorian chant among the +faithful in other lands. This latter task was greatly +facilitated by the establishment of numerous singing +schools, modelled after the Roman school, in England,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span> +France, and Germany, under the auspices of monastic +orders or powerful prelates. Among the most famous +of these schools were the one at Metz, founded by +Bishop Chrodegang, which maintained great prestige +up to the twelfth century; the one at Oxford, founded +by Alfred the Great; the monastic school of Fulda, +which held the foremost place in Germany; and the one +at St. Gall, Switzerland, whose fame and achievements +eclipsed all the others and which was celebrated far +and near for the elaborateness and excellence of its +musical service and for the devotion and enthusiasm +of its monks in the advancement of ecclesiastical music +during the eighth, the ninth, and especially the tenth +century. England became acquainted with Gregorian +chant during the lifetime of Gregory the Great, when +St. Augustine (not to be confused with the Latin +father) was commissioned in 597 as an apostle to carry +Christianity to the island across the channel. In France +and Germany (Franconia and Allemania) Pepin,<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> and +especially Charlemagne, gave energetic and active support +to the movement to bring about uniformity with +Rome, and by the beginning of the ninth century the +Gregorian chant had supplanted the old Gallican chant +in all the domains of the great emperor. Spain, however, +did not accept the Gregorian chant until the +eleventh century, during the reign of Pope Gregory VII.</p> + +<p>The inexact system of notation (neumes) in which +the Gregorian antiphonary was written necessarily laid +great emphasis on the oral transmission of the melodies, +hence it was hardly possible to attain perfect uniformity +in different countries and in different periods. +Yet it is believed that the singers of the Roman school, +who were subject to severe penalties for even slight +infractions of the traditions of the Gregorian procedure, +succeeded in preserving through the Middle Ages not +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span>only the great body of Gregorian chant but their traditional +performance with a wonderful degree of purity +and inviolability. But away from Rome, while the +general principles of procedure were preserved intact, +modifications in details undoubtedly crept in, some unconsciously +and some in deference to the various national +or local predilections. Thus in Gaul and the +northern countries generally, the oriental style of ornamentation, +retained from earlier periods in many of +the Roman melodies, met with scant favor. To satisfy +these sturdy and independent singers the ornate qualities +were frequently softened or eliminated altogether.</p> + +<p>Additions to the original ritual music of the Gregorian +service appeared about the beginning of the tenth +century under the names of sequences and tropes. The +sequence was a melody of hymn-like structure which +derived its name from its position in the Mass, being +a continuation or sequence of the Gradual and Alleluia. +It had long been a custom, introduced from the East, +to prolong the final vowel of the Alleluia-chant, sung +between the Epistle and the Gospel, into a free melody +or vocal flourish without words, called jubilation, originally +a kind of ecstatic improvisation. French musicians +in the ninth century added words to these melodies. +They thus became separate compositions to +which at first the name ‘prose’ was given, since the +words adapted to the music were without meter. Later, +when these compositions became thoroughly independent, +texts in metrical form were written for them, the +name ‘prose’ was dropped as no longer appropriate, +and the new name ‘sequence’ assumed. This change in +name and character is credited to the St. Gall monk, +Notker Balbulus (died 912). Sequences became very +popular from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries +and mediæval office-books abound in fine specimens, +many of them of extreme beauty and originality. During +the tenth and eleventh centuries the monastery of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> +St. Gall remained the chief centre of activity in the +composition of sequences and Notker found a multitude +of followers, mainly in Germany. Quite independent +of the St. Gall influence, a second centre of +activity appeared at the monastery of St. Martial in +Limoges, culminating in the twelfth century in Adam +of St. Victor in Paris. These sequences, patterned after +the Greek model, approached more and more the form +of the hymn, in which they finally disappeared.</p> + +<p>In the sequences the vernacular, as well as Latin, +was employed and they were freely used in the Mass, +becoming ‘a sort of people’s song.’ But since they were +in reality extra-liturgical, they were all suppressed, except +five, when the Council of Trent revised the Roman +liturgy in the sixteenth century. The five at present in +use are: <em>Victimæ Paschali</em>, appointed for Easter Sunday, +written by Wipo early in the eleventh century, the +oldest of the five and the only one similar in structure +to Notker’s sequences; <em>Veni Sancte Spiritus</em> for Whitsunday, +written probably by Innocent III at the end of +the twelfth century, called ‘the Golden Sequence’ by +mediæval writers; <em>Lauda Sion</em> for the festival Corpus +Christi, written by St. Thomas Aquinas supposedly +about the year 1261; <em>Stabat Mater</em>, sung since 1727 on +the Friday in Passion Week, of uncertain authorship; +and <em>Dies Irae</em>, sung on All Souls’ Day and in the +Requiem or Mass for the Dead, written by Thomas of +Celano late in the twelfth century or early in the +thirteenth century. In the thirteenth century the poetry +of the Latin Church attained its period of greatest brilliance +and amid the rich efflorescence of this wonderful +epoch the <em>Dies Irae</em> stands incomparable, the finest +example of rhymed Latin poetry of the Middle Ages. +Second to it in poetic beauty is the <em>Stabat Mater</em>. It +should be added that the authors of the above sequences +were combined poets and composers, as poetry and +music were twin-born arts during the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span></p> + +<p>Another of the many illustrations of the readiness +with which the churches of the West accepted the musical +practices of the East was the ‘trope,’ which was +adopted among the Franks in the ninth and tenth centuries +from the many Byzantine musicians who came +into the West during this period. The trope was not +unlike the sequence in its development. The name was +originally given to any succession of tones without text +that occurred in the florid chants. Tuotilo of St. Gall +(died 915) developed the tropes into quasi-independent +compositions by setting words to them and interpolating +them among the chants of the Mass, thus thrusting +them into the Gregorian liturgy. These interpolations, +some very extensive and ornate, found their way into +all the Mass-chants except the Credo, which was considered +too sacred to violate. But since the tropes were +regarded by the Council of Trent as weakening accretions +to the venerable structure of church-music, they, +as well as the sequences, were banished from the liturgy +in its final revision.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>The tendency of ecclesiasticism has always been to +curb and discourage individual effort toward progress +in all matters pertaining to the development of ritual-music. +This was not altogether strange, for until modern +times music existed in the church solely for liturgical +purposes. It was not desired that its effectiveness +should be considered apart from the religious idea with +which it was so intimately associated in the liturgy. +So completely were text and music merged into one +artistic unity that the church authorities consistently +and persistently resented any effort to glorify music +for its own sake or at the expense of the liturgic idea. +The state of immobility in which ritual music existed +was the natural sequence to the church doctrine of immutability.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> +Notwithstanding constant temptation to +experiment and introduce innovations, the efforts of the +Roman singers were rigidly restricted to the problems +of perfecting the performance of the ritual music as +prescribed by church law and tradition. From the +standpoint of the liturgy (from which standpoint alone +this music should be judged) the Roman singers must +have attained a standard of ideal perfection in beauty +and expressiveness of tonal utterance, and in preserving +the original liturgical significance of the music in +the service.</p> + +<p>So conservative was Rome and so fettered was Italy +by the venerated traditions of the Papal Chapel that +no change in musical methods was possible in this field. +Outside of Italy, however, conditions were more favorable +to progress. In the triumphant march of Christianity +over Western Europe under the leadership of +Rome many concessions were made to local customs +and usages. The independent northerners steadily refused +to accept with unquestioning allegiance the traditions +of Rome in all matters pertaining to ritual-music, +and thus stagnation was prevented and the hope of further +progress for music in time became a reality. Out +of the experiments and occasional innovations of the +venturesome singers of the northern countries there +were slowly and laboriously laid the foundations on +which it became possible to construct the succeeding +system of ecclesiastical polyphonic music. But when, +in the fullness of time and with infinite patience and +toil, this stately edifice was reared, how appropriate and +fitting it was that the Roman Palestrina, himself associated +for many years with the Sistine Chapel, should +have been the one to lay on its altar the richest treasures +of religious music that the Roman Church possesses, the +purest, most complete and perfect expression of the +spirit of the Roman liturgy!</p> + +<p>Before the Carlovingian era the practice of music was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span> +restricted to the singing schools founded for the preservation +and propagation of Gregorian chant. But with +the great impetus given to learning under Charlemagne +the consideration of liturgic music passed to the monastery +study. Music became a compulsory subject in the +curriculum of the cathedral and monastery schools, and +its theory as well as its practice received the attention +of the learned monks and scholars. It was from this +direction that the next recorded advances in musical +art appeared.</p> + +<p>In the writings of these ecclesiastical musicians and +scholars we find accounts of the clumsy, yet persistent +efforts of the singers and theorists to break away from +the prevailing monophony or unison chanting of Gregorian +music and to improve upon current systems of +notation. The Flemish monk Hucbald (who died about +930), in his <em>Musica enchiriadis</em>, described the earliest +known efforts at polyphony, which he called Organum +or Diaphony (See Vol. I, pp. 161 ff). Guido d’Arezzo +(died about 1050), sometimes called ‘the father of music’ +and undoubtedly the most impressive musical personality +in the early part of the Middle Ages, probably +originated the four-lined staff for indicating pitch relationships +and invented solmization, a system of reading +music through the association of tones with syllables +that is the direct ancestor of our present-day systems +of reading music by syllables (‘Tonic Sol-fa,’ ‘Movable +Do,’ ‘Fixed Do’). He is credited by later writers with +many innovations and discoveries which possibly belonged +rightfully to talented and ingenious contemporaries +who, however, did not succeed in stamping themselves +on their own age as vividly as did this great +singer and teacher. Franco of Cologne (died about +1200), in his famous treatise on Measured Music, gives +a voluminous account of his own and contemporary +thought about intervals, consonances and dissonances, +time-values of notes, etc.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span></p> + +<p>By the beginning of the thirteenth century the science +of music had reached the point where music could be +accurately notated as regards both pitch and time relationships +and its further development became correspondingly +accelerated. The organization of music on +the twofold basis of regularity of stress or accent and +of fixed proportions in the division of time-units was +hastened by the growing desire of singers to add a new +voice-part to the old Gregorian chant. This practice of +part-singing, at first called ‘organum,’ later ‘discant,’ +undoubtedly had its origin in the study-rooms of the +choirs and singing schools. The choristers were naturally +chosen because of their unusual aptitude for music. +The larger part of their time was given up not only +to the perfecting of means for the most effective performance +of the church music, but also to the study of +the theory and practice of music in all its then known +phases. The creative instinct more and more seized +upon them. Notwithstanding ecclesiastical restrictions +the singers were too much under the seductive spell +of the inner spirit of their art not to yield to the ready +temptation of delving into the infinite possibilities of +new tonal combinations and devices that lay so close +at hand. When the idea of singing two melodies at +the same time was once grasped (we have no definite +knowledge how it was first suggested), the singers took +it up with avidity.</p> + +<p>At first experiments were restricted to two voices or +parts. While one chorister was singing a familiar +chant-melody another would sing a second melody an +octave or a fourth or a fifth below it, usually joining +it at the end in unison. The progression of two voices +or parts moving in parallel octaves was known to the +Greeks and was called by them ‘magadizing’—from the +magadis, a stringed instrument. The singing of two +concurrent parts in parallel fourths or fifths did not offend +mediæval ears as it does modern ears, probably<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> +because of the exact parallelism of such melodic movement, +which is merely a different kind of unison.<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> The +earliest parallel movement was evidently in fourths, not +in fifths, as usually stated in musical histories. (See +Weinmann, ‘History of Church Music,’ page 74.)</p> + +<p>Various kinds of organum soon came into vogue. +Three-part organum resulted from doubling the lower +of the two parts an octave higher, and four-part organum +from adding to these three parts the original +upper part an octave lower, thus producing simultaneously +moving octaves, fourths, and fifths. Such a progression +of parts, quite obnoxious to ears accustomed +to harmony, impressed Hucbald as ‘a delightful concord.’<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> +As the experiments increased, the accompanying +voice (the discant) was added above as well as below +the chant (the <em>cantus firmus</em>, or fixed voice). The +monotony of exclusive parallelism was broken by +sometimes sustaining the same tone in one part while +the other part moved up or down (oblique motion) or +by letting the two parts move in contrary direction, and +lastly, by mixing these three kinds of tone movement, +thus producing greater variety in the intervals used. +When this freer movement of parts was recognized as +essential to more pleasing vocal effects, the word discant +came to be applied to it to distinguish it from the +more primitive form of movement—organum—in parallel +fourths, fifths, and octaves. Until the thirteenth +century the intervals most used in all styles of part-writing +were fourths, fifths, octaves, and unisons. +Thirds and sixths, though occasionally permitted, were +regarded as dissonances until the period when harmony +came to be a conscious element of musical thought.</p> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<figure class="figcenter illowe30" id="ilofp23"> + <img class="w100 p2" src="images/ilofp23.jpg" alt="ilop21" title="p21ilo"> + <figcaption class="caption">The Playing Angels</figcaption> +</figure> + +<p class="center p2b"><em>Altar piece by Hubert and Jan van Eyck</em></p> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="p2">Until a definite system of notation was devised, the +discanting parts to the chants were extemporized by +the singers. But when the staff was invented and notes +or points were employed to indicate the exact pitch of +the tones of the melodies, the name counterpoint (<em>punctus +contra punctum</em>, note against note) was given to the +part or parts added to the chant (<em>cantus firmus</em>). The +term counterpoint<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> displaced discant in the thirteenth +century, and from this time the art of counterpoint developed +as the number of added parts increased and +the various kinds of intervallic relationships among the +interdependent parts were recognized and systematized.</p> + +<p>The foundation of all the art-music of the Middle +Ages was the chant; and the science of music concerned +itself wholly with the addition of more or less free and +independent parts to the chant-melodies. Musical invention, +however, was limited entirely to these accompanying +parts. Until probably the fourteenth century +or even later, composers as such were unknown. Since +music in the church was never considered apart from +the liturgy to which it was wedded, not only did the +melodic form of the chants themselves (that is, their +rising and falling inflections of pitch) follow quite +closely the natural rhetorical utterance of the words of +the liturgy, being an intensification of the natural values +of forceful speech, but for several centuries after the +principle of polyphony was thoroughly recognized the +intricate church compositions, such as the masses and +motets, were constructed by using the liturgic chants +as subjects and adding free parts to these. At first the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span>principal melody (subject) was taken from the chant +books; but in course of time secular songs of the day +found their way into the choral parts, either as the +principal melody to which other parts were supplied +or as an accompanying part to a given plain-song melody. +The secular words, frequently of questionable +moral quality, were often carried along with the melodies +into the sacred company of actual ritual-music and +the singers found such a combination neither irreverent +nor incongruous. It was quite analogous to the custom, +common among the early painters, of painting the portraits +of such ordinary mortals as wealthy purchasers +or patrons on the same canvas with saints or apostles, +or even with the Madonna. The church authorities +frowned upon mingling secular and sacred elements +in ecclesiastical music in this manner, and the practice, +so common in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, +led to such gross abuses that it was finally suppressed.</p> + +<p>The important rôle which the church singers themselves +played in the development of music in this formative +period is worthy of passing notice. Foremost in +importance is to be noted that the choirs were in fact +training-schools for composers. Almost without exception +the church composers were graduated, so to +speak, from the choirs into the more exalted and distinguished +sphere of creative work, having first gained +their practical training and experience as choristers. +But the humbler singers themselves were not without +a good measure of influence. In their experiments in +the study-rooms, as well as in the actual singing of +written compositions, they served to counteract the pedantic +rules of theorists by following the dictates of +the ear as against mere rule. Thus chromatic tones +not indicated in the score were frequently sung by the +experienced choristers who followed their natural musical +feeling, and later theory sanctioned what they intuitively +felt. In this way natural musical impulse<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span> +(which Wagner has so beautifully symbolized in Walther +in <em>Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg</em>) many times +softened the austerity and harshness of musical practices +dictated by mediæval theory.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>While, under the guidance of scholasticism, the stream +of church song was thus gradually gaining artistic momentum +and expressive beauty and power through the +upbuilding of a complicated science of melodic interweaving, +a second stream of song, unfettered by rule +or tradition, was modestly and quietly flowing along, +gushing from the hearts of the people and fed from +secular emotions and experiences. Until the humanistic +movement in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries +discovered points of contact and mutual interdependence, +these two streams of religious and secular song +seldom touched in their onward flow, for they sprang +from widely divergent sources and were guided by +widely differing principles of artistic utterance. In the +history of Western Europe ecclesiastical music has exercised +a remarkably small and disproportionate influence +on the nature and development of secular music; +on the contrary, it has frequently weakened and +changed its own standards under the impact of secular +ideals and styles. Many folk-songs doubtless imitated +melodic and modal characteristics of the chant-melodies, +but there has always existed a certain antipathy +between these two forms. The early indifference of the +popular mind to church music is easily traceable to the +facts that this music was cultivated exclusively by ecclesiastics, +that it was sung in Latin, a language which +the people neither understood nor cared for, and that +the people had no part in church song outside the few +non-liturgical hymns.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span></p> + +<p>The discussion of secular music in the Middle Ages +is necessarily beset with difficulties of large proportions, +since very few authentic examples of folk-melodies +of this period have been preserved. Musical learning +was confined almost exclusively to monks and ecclesiastics +who had no real interest in the preservation +of these wild-flower products. Those that were pressed +into service as parts of polyphonic church music undoubtedly +underwent melodic and rhythmic alterations +to suit their new environment. In all of them +words and music were twin-born; but, while many of +the beautiful mediæval and earlier poems are extant, +their melodies seem to be irretrievably lost.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>The secular music of the Middle Ages had no direct +or immediate bearing on the development of musical +art, but the courtly troubadours and minnesingers and, +later, the mastersingers of humbler origin, served to +keep alive the practice of solo singing with instrumental +accompaniment and thus maintained the idea of individual +expression which had been banished from the +church in the early centuries. The first outburst of +popular song that attained the significance of a distinct +movement occurred in southeastern France among the +nobles of sunny, contented, and cheerful Provence. +These troubadours, who flourished throughout southern +France, Italy, and Spain from about 1100 to 1300, were +concerned largely with the deeds of chivalry, especially +that phase of the idea of knightliness that glorified the +love of some beautiful or good woman as the inspiration +of, or the reward for, deeds of adventure or valor. +In the intense feeling and strong lyric impulse of these +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span>courtly poet-singers is to be found the beginning of +the modern art of lyric poetry. They showed great +ingenuity in the invention and elaboration of verse-forms<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> +and coupled with this gift was a musical inventiveness +of marked power which in time developed +a style quite divorced from the influence of plain-song. +The melodies, following the rhythmical swing of the +verse, frequently approximated the structure and feeling +of the modern phrase and phrase-group. The development +of this feeling for the organization of melodic +units later led to most important results when the +secular impulse seized upon the perfected methods of +scholastic music.</p> + +<p>In the north of France and in England the trouvères +(both ‘trouvère’ and ‘troubadour’ mean ‘an inventor or +finder’) followed close upon the troubadours, whom +they freely imitated both in style and poetic themes. +In their artistic activities, however, they were more +closely associated with ecclesiastical poets and musicians +than were the troubadours, there was less divergence +from the church style in their melodies, and hence +their efforts entered more directly as a shaping force +in the succeeding epoch of musical development in +Flanders and England. They were also more frequently +of humble origin than were the troubadours. +Adam de la Hále (about 1230 to 1287), probably the +most conspicuously gifted in the long line of worthy +trouvères, was of humble birth, the son of a well-to-do +burgher of Arras, in Picardy. He was a master of the +<em>chanson</em>, sixteen of which are preserved written in +three parts and in rondeau form. These are among the +oldest known examples of secular compositions in more +than two parts. In the same manuscript with these +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span><em>chansons</em> are preserved six Latin motets in florid counterpoint. +His name looms large in musical history, +however, from the fact that his dramatic pastoral play +called <em>Le jeu de Robin et Marion</em> (written for the +French court at Naples, where the first performance +was given in 1285) is the earliest example of what we +now call comic opera. It is written in dialogue and +grouped into scenes; airs, couplets, and pieces for two +voices singing in alternation but never together are +scattered through the play, during the performance of +which eleven personages appear. This quaint song-play, +which is a development or expansion of the earlier +<em>pastourelle</em>, was given in Arras in 1896 during the festival +in commemoration of the composer. Adam’s task +seems, however, to have been little more than that of +a compiler, since the most of the songs were not of his +own composition. Nevertheless he is altogether one of +the most interesting personalities in the pre-Netherland +period.</p> + +<p>Parallel with the impulse given to secular song and +poetry by the troubadours and trouvères, but beginning +a little later, was the growth of the minnesingers, +or love-singers, of Germany. This movement, extending +through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, was +limited almost exclusively to men of noble birth and +aristocratic rank and was associated with the pomp of +courtly life. Its influence on the general trend of musical +development was, therefore, less marked than that +of the corresponding movement in France, particularly +in northern France. Relatively fewer of the minnesongs +reached or impressed the popular ear, because of +the greater exclusiveness of the minnesingers and the +less pleasing outlines of their melodies, especially the +earlier ones. The range of their themes was wider than +that of their French contemporaries, including nature, +qualities of character, patriotism, and piety, as well as +love and chivalrous deeds. The minnesongs on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span> +whole display more seriousness than is found in the +songs of France, primary emphasis always being given +to the words. At first modelled after the declamatory +style of Gregorian chant, their melodies lacked the easy +flow of the troubadour songs, but the later ones are +marked by strongly modern feeling for rhythm, phrase +structure, and definite key, and display the delightful +naïveté of the German folk-song. Many of them undoubtedly +passed into folk-melodies and from thence +into the chorale literature of the German Reformation +period.</p> + +<p>The mastersingers followed in the wake of the declining +minnesingers. Drawn entirely from the burgher or +artisan classes and organizing themselves into guilds +after the manner of the contemporary trades-union, +they strove to imitate the methods of their aristocratic +forerunners, without, however, sharing their artistic +and lyric endowments. At a time when their social and +economic superiors were entirely engrossed in the +political and religious turmoils of the times, they succeeded +in keeping alive a real love for music in the +hearts of the common people and in preserving a wholesome +reverence for the dignity and worth of the art. +Aside from this important function, they did nothing +directly to advance the art of music. In <em>Die Meistersinger +von Nürnberg</em> Wagner gives an historically accurate +picture of their hopelessly pedantic methods and +reactionary spirit, which were indeed far removed +from the nature of real folk-music. The vast bulk of +their melodies were weak imitations of church chants +or popular folk-songs. At long intervals a mastersinger +such as Hans Sachs, the quaint and lovable cobbler +of Nuremberg (1494-1576), would manifest a spark +of real lyric genius. The first guild is supposed to have +been established at Mayence on the Rhine in 1311 by +Heinrich von Meissen, called Frauenlob, himself a distinguished +minnesinger, the last of that order. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span> +guilds multiplied and were especially active from the +fourteenth to the sixteenth century. After 1600 the +movement lost its significance and the guilds dropped +by the wayside one by one, though a few lingered on +until the nineteenth century, the last one having been +disbanded at Ulm in 1839.</p> + +<p>The special historical significance of the troubadours, +trouvères, and minnesingers is to be found in the fact +that these secular poet-musicians of both high and low +degree composed their melodies under the impulsion +of natural, spontaneous musical feeling rather than +prescribed theoretical law. If they followed the feeling +for church modes at all, this feeling instinctively led +them to construct their melodies more and more in +those modes corresponding to our modern major and +minor scales. Naumann, in his ‘History of Music,’<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> +gives a number of these melodies in full. One of them, +<em>L’autrier par la matinée</em>, by Thibaut, King of Navarre +(1201-1253), a celebrated troubadour, moves entirely in +the key of G major. Another is ‘The Loveliness of +Woman’ (<em>Tritt ein reines Weib daher</em>), a proverb<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> by +the minnesinger Spervogel, dating from the middle of +the twelfth century, a refined melody clearly in the key +of D major, employing every tone of the scale. A third, +‘Broken Faith,’ a beautiful and touching minnesong by +Prince Witzlav, is modern enough in key feeling and +melodic structure to have flowed from the pen of Schubert. +In all of those quoted the phrases are clearly outlined, +a sense of design and melodic cohesion is manifested +in the frequent repetition of phrases, and +through them all there breathes the spirit of free lyric +invention that differentiates them sharply from all existing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span>church models and makes them close kin to the +developed songs of the eighteenth century and later. +The gradual development of such an untrammelled +feeling for free melody among the people explains the +comparative rapidity with which art-music, after its +secession from the church modes and ecclesiastical +methods early in the seventeenth century, developed +new forms and expanded into new paths that led to a +popular appreciation never before accorded to music.</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>The secular impulse from whence sprang the simple +melodies of the minnesingers and troubadours soon +found a channel for fuller expression in the art-music +of the period immediately following the decay of chivalrous +song. It was inevitable that the tendency toward +secularization, already strongly developing in the other +arts—notably painting and architecture—should extend +to music also. The beneficent alliance of music and +poetry both in the service of the church and in the less +pretentious effusions of the secular poet-musicians of +courtly estate naturally led thought to a desire that music +should be the helpful companion of poetry in all +her wanderings, in the domain of secular experiences as +well as religious. As soon as the spirit of polyphony +had been firmly established in ecclesiastical music, the +church composers began to turn their attention to the +rapidly widening field of secular poetry for material on +which to exploit their newly-found contrapuntal skill. +The first application of the principles of polyphony +to secular art-music manifested itself in the French +<em>chanson</em> and the Italian <em>frottola</em>. Both of these were +merely popular melodies brought within the domain +of the contrapuntal principle. The <em>frottola</em> seems to +have been always set for four voices in very simple<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span> +movement, the <em>chanson</em> for either three or four voices. +These two forms soon merged into the madrigal, which +expanded its scope so as to include almost any lyric +composition of delicate texture dealing with thoughts +of rustic humor, sentiment, or passion, couched in the +language of everyday life. The madrigal in time developed +into a special department of composition, having +a brilliant history of its own and engaging the interested +attention of nearly every noted composer from +the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. The word, +whose derivation is hopelessly entangled in a maze of +disputed sources, appears as early at least as the fourteenth +century in connection with pastoral or rustic +poems of amorous character, and very naturally the +name was soon transferred to the music to which the +words were set.</p> + +<p>Few madrigals whose composition antedate the invention +of printing have been preserved. But all authorities +agree that even in its earlier stages it was +composed for three or more voices in the prevailing +church modes. Throughout its best period, which closed +practically with the sixteenth century, it maintained +the characteristic of being sung without instrumental +accompaniment of any kind.<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> The association of concurrent +parts with plain-song undoubtedly suggested +similar treatment for secular melodies, and the troubadours +and trouvères were probably the first to put this +suggestion into practice. But they passed out of existence +before the art of discant had progressed beyond +its first stage of infancy and further development of +polyphonic secular music was left in the more skilled +hands of the scientifically trained musicians of the +church. The madrigal, or more strictly speaking its +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span>predecessors, was forthwith adopted by the church +composers, who treated it with much tenderness and +lavished on it all the learning and technical skill they +could command. Since these composers, however, were +so thoroughly imbued by training and experience with +the characteristics and idioms of church music, we find +no essential differences, as far as the music is concerned, +between the madrigal and its ecclesiastical +counterpart, the motet (see Chapter II). These two +forms have maintained an almost exact correspondence +with each other in each successive stage of their musical +development. The only real difference lay in the +nature of the words employed, those of the madrigal +being always secular, those of the motet, sacred. While +the madrigal was just as polyphonic as the motet and +followed the same general laws of musical construction, +it was in lighter vein and in simpler style to suit +the secular spirit of the words. The ponderous and +solemn character of the motet was avoided, the contrapuntal +parts became more plastic and expressive in +conformity with the sentiment of the words. These +freer and more expressive qualities in the madrigal +were eagerly seized upon by the dramatic composers +of the seventeenth century, during which period the +madrigal was a regular feature of the opera. Dr. +Stainer enumerates the following essential qualities of +the true madrigal: themes suitable in character to the +words, variety of rhythm, short melodic phrases, imitation +and counterpoint.</p> + +<p>The original home of the true madrigal is undoubtedly +Flanders. It is mentioned here as early as the first +part of the fifteenth century, when it was already a well +established form of polyphonic writing popular with +both Flemish and Netherland composers. It was regarded +by them as second only in importance to the +mass and motet. In a period when the musical leadership +of Europe was located in the Low Countries, its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> +cultivation by these learned masters insured its transmission +to other countries and, more important still to +the development of musical art, marked the first practical +alliance of popular song and science. The offspring +of this union was destined to achieve important +results in the art-revolution of the seventeenth century.</p> + +<p>Any narrative of early secular music would be peculiarly +incomplete without extended mention of the oldest +example of secular polyphonic music known to exist, +the famous English canon or round, ‘Sumer is icumen +in,’ an ancient manuscript copy of which is among the +richest treasures of the British Museum. The first mention +of this celebrated piece, hidden away in the Harleian +collection of manuscripts, was made in the first decade +of the eighteenth century. Until the middle of the +nineteenth century the date of the manuscript was assigned +to the fifteenth century. But after most minute +and laborious research, the English historian, William +Chappell, discovered internal evidence (which succeeding +investigators have accepted) to prove that this venerable +manuscript was written between 1226 and 1240 +at the abbey of Reading in Berkshire by a monk named +John of Fornsete. The manuscript is, of course, the +work of a copyist; no clew has been found to the composer’s +name.</p> + +<p>The rustic character of the words would seem to ally +it to the madrigal, but its musical form is that of the +rota or round, very different from the free structure +of the madrigal. In the manuscript are also Latin +words addressed to the Virgin, indicating its occasional +use for worship purposes. The old English words are +as follows:</p> + + +<div class="poetry-container p11"> +<div class="poetry"> +<p>‘Sumer is icumen in, Lhude sing cuccu;<br> +Groweth sed and bloweth med, And springth the wode nu;<br> +Awe bleteth after lomb, Lhouth after calve cu;<br> +Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth, Murie sing cuccu.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wel singes thu cuccu; Ne swik thu naver nu.’</span><br> +</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span></p> + +<p>The Latin directions on the manuscript for singing the +round indicate that the theme is to be sung in exact +imitation by four voices of equal compass which enter, +each four measures after the preceding one. Accompanying +this strict four-part canon throughout are two +additional parts, called a ‘pes’ or ground-bass. This +two-voiced burden consists of a four-measure group +which monotonously repeats itself over and over again, +the two parts exchanging places in regular alternation.</p> + +<p>The extreme antiquity of the piece would alone make +it an object of reverent interest, for it is the earliest +example of a canon, it is the first recorded use of the +ground-bass or <em>basso ostinato</em>, and it is the only known +piece in six real parts before the fifteenth century. +But the wonder grows when we consider the musical +quality of this remarkable melody of unknown parentage, +‘born out of due season.’ It is sweet and joyous +in character, fitting the pastoral mood of the words; +it flows along in graceful outline with a wonderful +amount of melodic variety; it maintains an easy rhythmic +swing in definite three-pulse measure; it has an +unmistakably modern feeling for key—the key of F +major—made all the more definite by clearly defined +tonic and dominant harmonies which pulsate back and +forth in alternate measures. In musical feeling and +expression it is ‘immeasurably in advance of any +polyphonic music of earlier date than the Fa-las peculiar +to the later decades of the sixteenth century’ (Rockstro). +Its formal structure displays full knowledge of +the contrapuntal devices of the times and also remarkable +freedom in handling them.</p> + +<p>The apparition of this warm-blooded melody amid +the arid scholasticism of the thirteenth century seems +utterly incongruous. Yet Rockstro’s explanation<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span>seems plausible enough. He points out that some folk-songs +of greatest antiquity possess the same qualities +of ingenious grace that shine so resplendently in this +melody. The words are evidently Northumbrian; what +could be more natural than that some trained monkish +ear caught the melody and words as they fell from the +untutored but inspired lips of some north-countryman, +rubbed off a rough place here and there, detected its +adaptability for use as a ‘round’ theme (a quality quite +common in folk-songs), and worked it out with his +clerical companions in extempore fashion after the custom +of the times?</p> + +<p>The inference is irresistible that such a fragrant folk-song, +if this be a folk-song, could not have existed as +an isolated specimen. The few melodies of undoubted +antiquity we possess demonstrate the presence of unrecognized +Schuberts and Mozarts, geniuses ‘born to +blush unseen,’ among the humble but inspired singers +even of those far-off centuries. The devout and sincere +monks who laid the formal foundations of the art +of music were too much under the thraldom of authority +and theory to perceive the spirit, or recognize the +invaluable aid, of such free, spontaneous song in working +out the problems they set themselves to solve. In +many respects it was a real misfortune and a hindrance +in the development of art-music that more of its early +steps of progress could not have been taken under the +stimulating influence of the folk-song, instead of exclusively +under the influence and guidance of ecclesiasticism +and the strict and deadening formalism of the +early church. The oft-repeated argument that it was +necessary to evolve complex musical forms before expressive +musical utterance could exist, falls to the +ground, shattered by a single phrase of this inspired +Northumbrian lay. It would scarcely be maintained +that the manufacture of carriages preceded the creation +of man or that man acquired an extensive vocabulary<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span> +before he became conscious of ideas surging within him +for utterance.</p> + +<p>The religious thought of the monk-musicians of the +early centuries was centred on forms and externals, and +the character of their religious thought dominated all +their mental activities. They were not ready to be led +by ‘a little child’; they had no ears attuned to the ‘still, +small voice’ of free-born, inspired song. The free spirit +of the song, which even in remotest periods insisted on +choosing its own appropriate form, did not find real +lodgment in art-music until the Romanticism of the +nineteenth century conclusively demonstrated the inalienable +right of every musical thought to determine +the nature of the musical form through which it should +be expressed, unfettered by tradition or theoretical law. +The growth of this principle of emancipation in music +has kept pace through all the centuries with the growth +of the same spirit of freedom in the individual consciousness +of man. At the beginning of the twentieth +century we are for the first time in the history of musical +art beginning to breathe in an atmosphere of full +freedom in respect to the relation of musical thought +to musical form. If wild extravagances have occasionally +resulted from the realization of this full freedom, +they are possibly the inevitable consequences of +a youthful overjoy at kicking loose from the old harness +of stereotyped forms—an exuberance of feeling +that the present period of necessary readjustment and +orientation will temper and direct into real constructive +channels.</p> + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="footnotes"> + +<p class="center p2 big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> Especially Gevaert, <em>La Mélopée antique dans le Chant de l’Église latine</em>.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> The name ‘Sistine Chapel’ was not given to this organization until +the Pontificate of Sixtus IV (1471-1484); it was derived from the <em>Cappella +Sistina</em> built by this pope.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> Practically all the music of these ancient collections has been lost, +excepting the Spanish or Mozarabic or Visigothic. Recent discoveries have +disclosed a considerable portion of the music of this branch of the Church, +so that we have some definite information concerning at least three ancient +ecclesiastical dialects of ritual-music—the Gregorian, the Ambrosian, and +the Visigothic or Mozarabic. In a few Spanish churches the Mozarabic +rites and music still survive.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> Pope Paul in 760 sent copies of the <em>Antiphonarium</em> and <em>Responsoriale</em> +to King Pepin.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> Alert teachers of ear-training have frequently observed that certain +students will sing tones given them by dictation a fifth above or below +the given tone under the impression that they are singing in unison with it. +(See also Parry, ‘The Evolution of the Art of Music,’ Chap. 4.)</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> Such an expression of pleasure can be explained only when it is +remembered that the monastic mind was thoroughly accustomed to being +absolutely submissive to authority. Mediæval ecclesiastical authority dictated +what was good or bad in musical theory and procedure, just as it +did in the realms of morals, ethics, and religion; and authority decreed +that only perfect intervals—fourths, fifths, and octaves—were usable, therefore +they were pleasing. It took several centuries of the actual ‘practice’ +of music to overcome the ban placed by ‘theory’ on the interval of the +third in certain cadences.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> The development of the technical material of composition, imitation, +canon, fugue, etc., is fully described in Vol. I.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> The melody of the celebrated ‘Lament’ over the death of Charlemagne, +composed in 814 and sung by both Franks and Germans, is fortunately +preserved to us. This remarkable melody (quoted by Naumann in +his ‘History of Music,’ Vol. I, p. 199) has a compass of practically only +three tones, yet in its simple outlines there is eloquent and dignified expression +of the popular love for the great emperor. The melody of the +more famous ‘Roland’s Song,’ also of Charlemagne’s time, has not survived, +although it was sung as late as the battle of Poictiers in 1356.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> Among the favorite forms were the <em>canzonet</em> or <em>chanson</em>, a love-song +addressed to some courtly dame, the <em>serenade</em> or evening song, the <em>aubade</em> +or day song, the <em>servante</em>, extolling the virtues of some prince, the <em>tenzone</em> +or dialogue song, the <em>roundelay</em>, with the same refrain repeated again and +again, and the <em>pastourelle</em>, descriptive of ‘Arcadian love in idyllic nature.’</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> Chap. 8 of Vol. I is devoted to an unusually full and illuminating +discussion of the whole secular song movement of this period.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> As noted above, the melodies of the minnesongs were from the +beginning dependent on the metrical and poetical structure of the strophe. +The three principal kinds are the song (<em>Lied</em>), the lay (<em>Lerch</em>), and the +proverb (<em>Spruch</em>).</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> The word madrigal was used at various periods to apply to two other +forms in addition to the one here described: (1) the solo madrigal or +<em>madrigale concertate con il basso continuo</em>, and (2) the madrigal with +accompaniment for several instruments, ‘apt for viols and voyces,’ as the +old English song books have it.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> Grove’s ‘Dictionary of Music and Musicians,’ Vol. IV, Art. ‘Sumer is +icumen in.’</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER II<br> +<small>THE POLYPHONIC PERIOD</small></h2> + +</div> + + + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The Gallo-Belgic School; the Netherlanders; the Mass and its liturgical +significance; the use of secular subjects—Conditions that fostered continuity +of development: the ‘Mass of Tournay’; Dufay and Okeghem; +Hobrecht’s <em>Parce Domine</em>; Josquin des Prés’ masses and motets; his expressive +style—The motet as an extra-liturgical form; its development; its +later characteristic style; distinction between sacred and secular music—Orlandus +Lassus: his ‘Penitential Psalms’; his tendency toward a simpler +style; his <em>Gustate et Videte</em> and other compositions—Palestrina’s reforms, +methods, and style; his masses, <em>Papæ Marcelli</em>, <em>Brevis</em>, and <em>Assumpta est +Maria</em>; his motets and other compositions: Vittoria and others—Madrigal +writers of the sixteenth century: Festa, Arcadelt, Willaert, Byrd, Morley, +etc.</p> +</div> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>Until about 1550 practically all art-music in western +Europe was choral. Though the first important steps +in the development of music were taken in Italy, devotion +to the principles of unison Gregorian chant kept +the polyphonic idea from gaining a foothold there until +the fourteenth century. As we have seen, vocal counterpoint +was the offspring of northern musicians, and +under their care and guidance it developed into its most +complex and perfected form. The first centre of activity +was Paris, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. +From this point the art was gradually disseminated +to the northward and its development was continued +through the experimentation and theorizing of +the musicians of northern France and Flanders (the +Gallo-Belgic School, 1360-1460). After these zealous +apprentices had made ready the crude tools of composition, +there appeared real masters who strove earnestly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span> +to convert the elaborate technical forms and devices +of vocal counterpoint into vehicles for the expression +of musical feeling and religious devotion. These +masters were the Netherlanders (from 1400 to 1550), +whose mission it was to perfect the forms and material +of musical composition, and, working from the standpoint +of musical science, to compel these forms to serve +the expressional purposes of the art. So well did they +accomplish these two ends that for nearly two centuries +all of western Europe gave musical allegiance to +the Netherlanders and looked to them for teachers, +composers, and choir leaders. During this period the +Low Countries were the musical headquarters of Europe.</p> + +<p>In the first period of polyphony the singers had followed +the inspiration of the moment and certain general +rules of intervallic movement in improvising their +discant to the Gregorian chant. In the fourteenth century +these unsystematic efforts gradually gave way to +the definite writing of all the parts to be sung. In the fifteenth +century the Netherlanders began systematically +to develop and perfect the forms crudely outlined by +their predecessors in the fields of both church and secular +music. The forms of church choral music that held +their chief attention were masses, motets, psalms, and +hymns. Among the secular forms we find <em>chansons</em> and +madrigals. Of all these the mass, with its separate +parts, was destined to become the form on which the +composer expended his greatest care and skill and +through which he sought to express his noblest thoughts. +It was to the Netherland period and to the Roman +Church composers thereafter what the sonata and the +symphony were to the composers of the nineteenth century +and the decades just preceding. In such reverence +and respect was this form held that in the preface of a +mass published in 1539 by Grapheus in Nuremberg it +could be confidently asserted, ‘he who is not acquainted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span> +with the masses of the old masters is ignorant of true +music.’ The great importance attached to the mass +by composers was inevitable from its commanding position +in the church service. At this point it may be opportune +to discuss some of the essential features of the +mass from the standpoint of the liturgy.</p> + +<p>Among the several offices of the Roman Catholic +Church the mass is the most fundamental and solemn—the +chief doctrinal cornerstone on which is reared the +whole superstructure of Catholic faith and worship. +It was evolved from the dogma of the eucharist, to +which was added at an early period the Jewish idea of +sacrifice, which formed so vital a part of the old dispensation. +Little by little it grew into the fair proportions +of a great religious poem, magnificent in outline +and texture, and breathing the religious ecstasies of +the devout and holy teachers and leaders and saints +of the church. Scriptural lessons, prayers, hymns, and +responses are woven into the liturgic texture, all being +brought into harmonious unity under the sway of the +controlling idea of consecration and oblation. To the +Roman Catholic the mass is ‘the permanent channel of +grace ever kept open between God and his church.’ +As often as the eucharistic elements of bread and wine +are presented at the altar with certain prescribed prayers +and formulas, the atoning sacrifice of Christ is repeated +through the miracle of transubstantiation, ‘by +which the bread and wine are transmuted into the very +body and blood of Christ.’<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> The following sentences +from Cardinal Gibbons’ ‘The Faith of Our Fathers’ +make this central dogma of the Catholic faith still more +clear: ‘The sacrifice of the mass is identical with that +of the cross, both having the same victim and high +priest—Jesus Christ. The only difference consists in +the manner of the oblation. Christ was offered upon +the cross in a bloody manner; in the mass he is offered +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span>up in an unbloody manner. On the cross he purchased +our ransom, and in the eucharistic sacrifice the price +of that ransom is applied to our souls.’</p> + +<p>The mass is not the product of any one individual +or council or hierarchical body, but, rather, is a gradual +evolution,<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> a growth from the richest and holiest experiences +of generations of pious and devout priests +and monks, whose whole lives were dedicated to the +service of the Most High and to the upbuilding of his +visible kingdom on earth. Furthermore, in the mass +the words of the liturgic text are not to be dissociated +from the musical tones in which they are uttered by +priest or choir. The spirit and meaning of the words +so completely saturate the musical forms chosen for +their expression that word and tone constitute an indissoluble +artistic unit. And, while the aim of the +church has always been to restrict the function of music +in the service to a purely secondary place—to keep +it in bondage to the ritual—the enormous value of music +as an effective reinforcement of the poetic text was +recognized from the very inception of liturgic forms.</p> + +<p>In explaining the potent influence which the ceremonies +and rites of the Roman Catholic Church have +always exerted over the minds of men, whether believers +in that faith or not, one must take into account +the composite character of the appeal that is made. +Exalted poetic text and alluring tone are by no means +the only agencies employed. Through every avenue of +approach and by means of a multitude of artistic agencies, +the mind and heart of the worshipper are assailed +with the one object in view to compel undivided attention +to, and contemplation of, the supreme mysteries of +religious faith which the Roman liturgy sets forth. The +solemn magnificence of the ceremonial rites, with gorgeous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span> +vestments and dignified gesture and the grace of +swinging censers, is enhanced by the grandeur of architectural +proportions and decorations. Every resource +of artistic genius that painter can throw upon glowing +canvas or sculptor can chisel into marble forms is found +on wall or niche or altar. Long before the Florentine +reformers stumbled upon the principle of the union of +all the arts in dramatic representation and centuries +before Wagner gave such insistent reiteration to this +principle, the Roman Church had given practical proof +of the efficacy of the perfect union of all the arts as an +aid in the expression of the religious idea. No one +art existed for its own sake, nor did it measure its +effectiveness by the merits and value of its own individual +impressiveness; but each art borrowed something +from its association with the other arts and with +the time-honored forms and the hallowed memories +which their universality and supposed divine nature always +evoked. Thus, as has been frequently pointed +out, there is much ecclesiastical art to which a largely +fictitious value has been attached because of its sacred +and revered association.</p> + +<p>But whatever may be said about the intrinsic artistic +ineffectiveness of much ecclesiastical plastic and pictorial +art, no one can deny the inherent beauty, power, +and appropriateness of the music to which the Roman +Catholic liturgy is wedded. Of all the arts that were +called into the service of the church, music was best +suited by its very nature to respond to the new ideals +of Christianity. The pictorial and plastic arts were +used to appeal to eye and imagination as reinforcements +to the inherent symbolism of ceremonial and +ritual. But music, which has no recourse to symbols +or imagery and which has in its vocabulary no suggestion +of the material world outside of man, was far +better equipped, even in the infancy of the art, to lay +hold of the essential spirit of the liturgy and express<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span> +it in terms that not only acted directly and powerfully +on the hearts and minds of the worshippers, but threw +a glamour and fascination over all its allied agencies of +expression. The spiritual and emotional appeals of the +sublime ideals of the Gospel struck a note in human +consciousness which responded in an outburst of artistic +rapture that was unknown to pre-Christian periods, +and music, as the freest and least material of the arts, +was the first to develop a form of expression that was +a fitting embodiment of the indwelling religious motive +and idea. So wonderfully did the ancient creators of +the religious melodies known as plain-song do their +work, and so perfectly did they blend word and tone +in priestly chant or choral response, that these melodies +have not only been held in reverence by the church +ever since that far-off time, but they are now the only +musical forms permitted for certain important portions +of the liturgy.</p> + +<p>Although the word ‘mass’<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> is, strictly speaking, applicable +only to the eucharistic service in its entirety, +it has been used from the early centuries of Roman +Church history to designate certain portions of the liturgy +to which unusually solemn and impressive music +has been set. With the growth of counterpoint the opportunities +for increasing the impressiveness and elaborateness +of these settings were obviously multiplied. +The parts of the service which were thus subject to +special musical elaboration were the <em>Kyrie</em>, the <em>Gloria</em>, +the <em>Credo</em>, the <em>Sanctus</em>, the <em>Benedictus</em>, and the <em>Agnus +Dei</em>. These six movements together comprise what was +known as the ‘mass,’ and they still constitute, with +slight variations, the essential portions in all musical +masses, whether written for church or concert performance. +During the period under consideration it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span>was an almost universal custom to have one subject +(<em>cantus firmus</em>) do service for all the movements of a +mass, which accordingly took its name from this subject. +These subjects, particularly in the earlier periods +of polyphonic music, were plain-song melodies, whence +we have such names for masses as <em>Missa Iste confessor</em>, +<em>Missa Tu es Petrus</em>, and <em>Missa Veni sponsa Christi</em>. But, +as has already been mentioned, sacred melodies were +not the only ones chosen. Composers frequently invaded +the domain of popular song for subjects for their +masses. Such ardent love-songs as <em>Adieu, mes amours</em> +(‘Farewell, my love’) and <em>Baisez-moi</em> (‘Kiss me’) seem +strangely out of place in such surroundings, but these +and similar names appear in the titles of many a mass +of this period. The most famous of all the popular +songs thus used was the old French love-song, <em>L’homme +armé</em> (‘The Armed Man’), which nearly every Netherland +master from Dufay<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> to Palestrina wove with infinite +skill into the texture of at least one mass, Josquin +des Prés, indeed, into two. If the composer wished to +conceal the source of his subject, for the ecclesiastical +authorities naturally frowned upon the practice of using +secular melodies, or if he invented an original subject, +as he occasionally ventured to do, he affixed the +title <em>sine nomine</em> to his mass. If it had some uniform +peculiarity of construction it was called <em>Missa ad fugam</em> +or <em>Missa ad canones</em>. Sometimes it would take its name<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> +from the number of voices for which it was written, as +<em>Missa quatuor vocum</em>, or from the mode in which it +was composed, as <em>Missa secundi toni</em>, or <em>Missa octavi +toni</em>. Occasionally the subject would be constructed +upon the six tones of the hexachord and the work entitled +<em>Missa ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la</em>; or upon some practice-phrase +from the choir-room, as Josquin’s <em>Missa la, sol, +fa, re, mi</em>.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowe30" id="score-p42"> + <img class="w100" src="images/score-p42.jpg" alt="p43score" title="scorep43"> +</figure> + +<p class="center ebhide p2b"><a href="images/score-p42.png">[PNG]</a>[<a href="music/score-p42.mp3">Listen</a>]</p> + +<p class="center p1b"><em>L’homme armé</em></p> + +<p>The Netherlanders have been severely reproached for +their frequent use of non-ecclesiastical subjects for +their church compositions, and at first thought such a +practice would seem to be entirely indefensible and +reprehensible. The censure was undoubtedly merited +when the secular words accompanied the folk-melodies +in their forced journeys into such sacred regions. It +was equally merited in the early periods when the +meagre art of the discanters possessed so few resources +either to conceal the identity of the secular tune or to +expunge its secularity by rhythmic alterations. The +case was quite different, however, with the complicated +polyphonic structures into which the later masters of +the ‘new art’ (<em>ars nova</em>) injected the secular melodies. +With the early discanters ‘the <em>tenor</em> (the voice that carried +the subject) formed the foundation of the arches, +now it became one of the arches which, united in harmonious +structure, formed the bridge.’<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> With the contrapuntists +the subject itself became more plastic and +submitted to whatever rhythmic changes were desirable +in the working out of their contrapuntal purposes; +each part became entirely independent in its melodic +and rhythmic movement. In the complex interweavings +of voice-parts the identity of the subject itself +became practically lost. The ear could no longer identify +it in performance as a complete melody, though +the eye could recognize it on the printed page. In such +a case the secularity of its origin became a largely<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span> +negligible element, swallowed up by the purely ecclesiastical +manner in which the subject was handled. In an +era when it was not the custom for composers to invent +their own subjects, this practice of using merely the +melodies of secular songs for church compositions was +no more censurable than the later employment of folk-songs +as the basis of many of the splendid chorales of +the German Protestant movement. Moreover, it must +be borne in mind, in justice to the Netherlanders, that +during this whole period there were no essential differences +of style or treatment to distinguish secular +from sacred compositions.</p> + +<p>But it should be further noticed that in the relation +of text to music there is revealed the most glaring weakness +of the Netherlanders. Until the brilliant close of +this period was nearly reached, the text was of quite +secondary importance. Starting from a basis of theory +and science, counterpoint, in all its evolutionary processes, +became largely a matter of mathematical calculation +in which the sound, not the word, governed. So +deeply were composers absorbed in working out the +problems of pure sound-combinations and so little importance +did they attach to the text that they did not +deem it necessary to write down more than the opening +word of each movement of the mass, as <em>Sanctus</em> or +<em>Benedictus</em>, leaving it to the intelligence of the trained +singers to fill in the remainder of the familiar texts as +they saw fit. This laxness in respect to the text invited +many abuses, such as the mixing of secular and sacred +words, the interpolation of unauthorized words, the +blending of texts from various parts of the liturgy, to +the danger of errors in dogma, which eventually placed +the whole structure of polyphonic music under the reproach +of the church authorities.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span></p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>Notwithstanding faults due to the immaturity of the +art and a certain false perspective, the church composers +of this period displayed, up to their light, a rare +devotion to the one supreme purpose of enhancing the +impressiveness of the religious rites and their liturgic +significance, thus making possible a line of unbroken +continuity in the development of the art of unaccompanied +vocal polyphony, which was destined to become +the peculiar glory of the Netherland era. Trained in +cloisters and choirs, acknowledging the church as their +only patron and master to whose service they dedicated +all their powers, these men were far removed from +worldly affairs and especially protected from the distracting +and corrupting influences of the savage strife +and turmoil of the times. Every important ecclesiastical +establishment maintained its own staff of composers, +for, until the founding of musical publishing houses +soon after 1500 made the multiplication and circulation +of musical scores easy, the labor and expense of copying +the manuscripts prevented any extensive exchange +of musical compositions among the thousands of ecclesiastical +establishments that dotted western Europe +and each establishment was compelled to depend +largely on its own resources for its more elaborate +ritual-music. For the most part the ecclesiastical musicians +passed their lives in the absorbing routine of +their official duties, close to the heart of their religion +and living constantly in an atmosphere permeated with +austere ecclesiastical traditions. Thus the best Catholic +music of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, unaffected +by the external conditions and influences that +brought weakness and decline to some of the other +arts, preserved its serene course of development toward +its culminating point in the sublime creations of Palestrina.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span> +But before this zenith of the second great period +of musical art was reached, there were two centuries of +artistic yearning and searching, a period that Parry +calls ‘the youth of modern music—a period most pure, +serene, and innocent—when mankind was yet too immature +in things musical to express itself in terms of +passion or of force, but used forms and moods of art +which are like tranquil dreams and communings of +man with his inner self, before the sterner experiences +of life have quite awakened him to its multiform realities +and vicissitudes.’<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p>The Netherland period was one of quite astonishing +musical activity. The number of musicians actually +engaged in the composition of ritual-music constitutes +an imposing array (the names of nearly 400 are recorded) +and their actual output both in bulk and quality +measures not at all unworthily with that of the other +arts of this period, the names of whose masterpieces +are household words. That the equally great masterpieces +of polyphonic vocal art are not familiar, indeed, +are almost wholly unknown even to musicians, is inevitable +from the very limitations imposed upon music +by the matter of performance, and from the inavailability +of this music outside its special home—the church. +Its speech was always idiomatic, a kind of developed +specialty, and, for about two centuries after its culminating +point was reached, it became archaic even in +the church from whose bosom it sprang, so that the +avenues to a wide public acquaintance with its peculiar +beauties were largely closed soon after its greatest masterpieces +were written.</p> + +<p>The masses and motets of the period reflect all the +changing phases of the gradually advancing musical +art. They express the deep and serious things of the +art; the madrigals and <em>chansons</em> are the emanations +of the composers’ lighter moments of relaxation, incidental<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span> +deviations from the main course of artistic endeavor, +written mostly for the entertainment of noble +and wealthy patrons. The oldest known mass is the +celebrated ‘Mass of Tournay,’<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> which Coussemaker ascribes +to the thirteenth century. It is written in three +parts with the subject (<em>cantus</em>) in the middle; one of +the added parts moves almost constantly in parallel +fourths or fifths with either the subject or the third part, +while this third part generally has a contrary movement +to one of the other parts. Historically it forms +an interesting transitional link between the primitive +organum and the crude counterpoint of the thirteenth +and fourteenth centuries.</p> + +<p>It is customary for musical historians to distinguish +two Netherland schools. The first was occupied with +pioneer work; its music was severe and unmelodious, +simple and unpretentious when compared with that of +the succeeding school, with only faint attempts to attain +euphonic beauty; yet earnestness of purpose coupled +with much contrapuntal science and ingenuity are +everywhere in evidence. William Dufay (1400-1474) +was the principal master of this school, although the +mass <em>Ecce Ancilla</em>, by Antoine Busnois (1440-1492), is +regarded by Naumann as ‘the most important musical +historical monument up to the year 1475.’<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> In this period +the several movements of the mass began to take +on a certain definiteness and individuality of form corresponding +to the natural subdivisions of the texts, +making several movements within each movement. +Likewise certain modes of treatment came to be associated +with certain movements. Thus, in the <em>Agnus Dei</em>, +which was divided into two parts, the composer was +expected to employ the utmost resources of his contrapuntal +skill; the second part was usually written in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span>canon or in intricate fugue and frequently with a larger +number of voices than in the other movements of the +mass. The <em>Benedictus</em> came to be regarded as a composition +for two, three, or four solo voices, usually followed +by a choral <em>Osanna</em>. And so the various movements +gradually assumed quite definite outlines as to +form and character, which remained in force for a +century and a half.</p> + +<p>With Joannes Okeghem (about 1430-1495 or 6) the +second Netherland school was ushered in. This master, +to whom the laudatory title of ‘Prince of Music’ was +given, appears to have carried the possibilities of contrapuntal +ingenuity and contrivance to extremest limits. +Comparatively few of his works are extant, and +most of these display wonderful technical skill in handling +musical problems rather than attempts at expression. +Among those preserved is the famous <em>Missa cujusvis +toni</em> (mass in any tone or mode), which seems +to have been composed as an intellectual exercise for +the highly trained choristers of his time, demanding +in its rendition perfect mastery of all the church modes +and ability to transpose from one mode to another. +He was rather a great teacher and theorist than a great +church composer. His pupils carried the art of polyphony +into all countries and Kiesewetter maintains that +through these students he became ‘the founder of all +schools from his own to the present age.’<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> One of the +most prominent of Okeghem’s contemporaries was +Jacob Hobrecht or Obrecht (1430-1505 or 6), who was +a most devoted disciple and admirer, though not a +pupil, of the learned master. He left many masses, motets, +and <em>chansons</em>, in some of which, notably in the +motet <em>Parce Domine</em> for three voices, he attains a high +degree of real expressive power. This fine work exerted +a powerful influence on Josquin des Prés and +reveals its creator as possibly the first composer to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span>make polyphony bend to the necessity of musical expression +as we understand it.</p> + +<p>Okeghem’s most celebrated pupil was Josquin des +Prés (about 1450-1521), who eclipsed his master’s fame +in musical learning and wealth of ingenuity and became +the most brilliant exponent of the musical art of the +Netherlanders. He was the most popular composer and +celebrated musician of his time, the spread of his music +as well as his fame being greatly aided, no doubt, +by the newly-invented process of printing music from +movable type, which appeared at the very moment +when he was at the height of his power. In his best +works (he was a most prolific writer) we can detect +a more flowing and emotional style and catch glimpses +of a quality of sublime seriousness joined with fervid +beauty that still makes a strong appeal to modern taste. +Ambros well characterizes him as ‘the first musician +who impresses us as having genius.’ His printed works +consist of 19 masses (32 are extant), more than 150 +motets, and about 50 secular works. Of his masses the +most beautiful and the most advanced in style are the +<em>Ad fugam</em>, the <em>De Beata Virgine</em>, the <em>Da pacem</em>, and the +<em>La, sol, fa, re, mi</em>. In Naumann’s judgment, no master +of modern times has surpassed the grandeur of the <em>Incarnatus</em> +from the <em>Missa Da pacem</em>. When not in a +trifling or humorous mood, he rises above form and +technique into the realm of expression where, among +vocal contrapuntists, he is excelled only by Lassus and +Palestrina. The music of Dufay and his contemporaries +was frequently beautiful, but it was helpless to reflect +the character of the words. Whether the words +were gay or mournful, the music conveyed the same +impression to the listener. But Josquin knew how to +unlock the expressive power of music and henceforward +music more and more assumed the function of +definite delineation of mood and word.</p> + +<p>But Josquin evidently possessed a light-heartedness<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span> +and vivacity that would not always brook restraint and +that led him to introduce bits of quaint humor into +his church music that, to say the least, displayed a +lack of reverence and marred an otherwise admirable +style. It is related that he much desired to receive a +church benefice from Louis XII of France, at whose +court he held an appointment, but as often as he applied +to the proper official he received only the answer, +<em>Lascia fare mi</em>. At length Josquin wearied of the delay +and, seizing upon the musical sound of the courtier’s +words, composed a mass on the subject <em>La, sol, fa, re, +mi</em>, which appeared again and again, mimicking the +official’s curt and oft-repeated answer. The musician’s +wit pleased the king and won his promise of a benefice, +which promise, however, was straightway forgotten. +But the composer was in nowise discouraged. He dedicated +to the king a motet for which he took the text +from the 119th Psalm (118th in the Vulgate), <em>Memor +esto verbi tui servo tuo, in quo mihi spem dedisti</em> (‘Remember +the word unto thy servant, upon which thou +hast caused me to hope’), thinking thereby to quicken +the memory of his royal master. Louis was evidently +dull of understanding, for yet a second time the musical +joker dedicated to him a motet, <em>Portio mea non est +in terra viventium</em> (‘My portion is not in the land of +the living’), which evidently won the object of his desire, +for still another motet, <em>Bonitatem fecisti cum servo +tuo</em>, is generally regarded as a polite thank-offering +for the appointment. It is further related that the king, +who was wholly unmusical and who possessed a very +feeble voice, requested the great musician to compose +a piece in which his Majesty could join. The sagacious +Josquin forthwith wrote a canon for two boys’ voices, +supplemented by a part for the king consisting of one +note sustained throughout.<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> In his celebrated <em>Missa +Hercules Dux Ferrariae</em>, a quaint conceit prompted him +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span>to build his subject, <em>Re ut re ut re fa mi re</em>, on the succession +of syllables whose vowels correspond to the +vowels in the words <em>Hercules Dux Ferrariae</em>. These +were innocent pranks, but he carried his musical trifling +to unpardonable extremes in his <em>Missa didadi</em> +(‘Dice’ Mass), in which he set himself the profane task +of solving a dice-problem in terms of musical technique. +But the faults of Josquin were in large measure +the faults of his period. In common with Okeghem +and others, he was exceedingly fond of inventing riddle-canons +and other musical puzzles. So much did +this practice, especially in connection with ecclesiastical +music, arouse the indignation of Martin Agricola +that this worthy scholar even threatened the composers +with the terrors of the last day ‘when all will certainly +not go well with the outrageous riddle-makers.’</p> + +<p>The modernity of Josquin’s art, his ability to interest +us by intensity of expression in depicting the meaning +of the words, is finely illustrated in his two motets +<em>Planxit autem David</em> and <em>Absolon fili mi</em>. In the latter +especially he attains an expression of pathos, an effect +of extreme sadness, which at times becomes poignant. +In the closing measures there occurs a remarkably daring +use of the augmented fifth, a dissonance whose introduction +is ‘terribly effective.’ His psalm <em>Laudate +pueri</em>, in contrasting mood, is pervaded by a persistent +feeling of joy. The music, which moves happily along +through a chain of pure concords without a disturbing +dissonance, exhibits tranquillity and joyful confidence +throughout.</p> + +<p>By a strange perversion the mass, although the most +solemn and sacred portion of the Roman service, was +treated by church composers in their musical settings of +it up to the middle of the sixteenth century as the +proper parade-ground for all conceivable forms of musical +riddles and extravagances that would display their +technical learning and ingenuity. But these aberrations<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> +are found much less frequently in the motets and +madrigals. Here the composer was governed by no +such fancied necessity; he felt a much greater sense +of freedom to follow musical impulses. Hence these +forms were the first to profit from the remarkable +awakening of the musical understanding that took +place at the close of the fifteenth century and to be enriched +with the accompanying first flashes of the dawning +sense of harmonic propriety and characterization.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>The motet<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> occupies a place in ecclesiastical music +next in importance to the mass. It has always been +extra-liturgical; the words, though not prescribed, are +generally selected from the Bible (the Psalms, antiphons, +etc.) or the office-books. In the Roman Church +service it is intended to be sung at high mass, usually +after or in place of the plain-song offertorium for the +day to fill out the time while the priest is preparing +the oblations and presenting them at the altar. The +great antiquity of the motet is attested by the fact that +Franco of Cologne in his epochal work on Measured +Music gives it place in one of the three classes<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> of +choral compositions in use in his time. The characteristic +features of the early motet were separate texts for +each voice and a subject (<em>tenor</em>) made up of some short +phrase or group of motives repeated several or many +times, according to the length of the composition.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span></p> + +<p>These phrases were borrowed from either plain-song +or secular melodies. Like the mass, the early motet +was not an original composition, but the combination +of existing chants or secular songs. Frequently it was +frankly secular; more frequently all the texts were +sacred, but sometimes, as in the mass, secular texts +and melodies were mingled with the sacred. When +the texts in the motet were various, they always bore +some kind of mental relation to each other,<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> a condition +which was by no means always present in the mass +when different texts were used. The practice of providing +each voice-part with a separate text, while it +tended to confuse the listener, served, on the other +hand, to emphasize the musical independence of the +parts and so threw stress on a quality of utmost benefit +to the advancement of contrapuntal methods.</p> + +<p>A few motets by Philip of Vitry,<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> written about 1300, +are the most ancient purely church motets of which we +have authentic record. We are informed by Morley +that this composer’s motets ‘were for some time of all +others best esteemed and most used in the church.’ +Beginning probably in France and cultivated with +marked success by the great Netherlanders, the motet +reached its highest point of perfection under Palestrina +in Rome. It was adopted, with important modifications, +into the services of the two great branches of +the Protestant Church from their very beginning. In +England, until the ‘full’ anthem finally superseded it, +and in Germany from Luther until after Bach’s time, it +held a high place in ecclesiastical music, but the words +were almost invariably in the vernacular, while in the +Roman service they were always in Latin.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span></p> + +<p>In the period represented by Okeghem there may +be noticed the beginning of a distinctive style for motet-music +differing quite materially from that of the mass. +It has been already stated that the disfiguring extravagances +and learned complexities which composers felt +in duty bound to lavish on the music of the mass, were +more and more avoided in the motet. A solemnity, +dignity, and breadth of style, of which one finds but +few examples in the masses of the period, were encouraged +in the motet. This different viewpoint led +composers to focus their interest and attention on the +portrayal of the meaning of the words rather than on +the working of contrapuntal miracles and the church +composers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries left +a rich legacy of compositions in this form appropriate +to their appointed use and permeated with the spirit +of devotion and reverence. After the compelling genius +of Des Prés had once revealed the expressive capabilities +of music, this new power was evoked with so much +enthusiasm by all his great contemporaries and successors +among the Netherlanders that the richest period +of motet writing is to be found between the years 1500 +and 1600.</p> + +<p>As soon as the text became a matter of solicitous care +on the part of composers, there can be discovered a +number of distinct groups of motets, distinguished from +each other by the character of the texts employed, each +group possessing certain individual peculiarities. There +was a numerous class based on selections from the +Gospels dealing with the various parables, as the Pharisee +and Publican. The Passion of our Lord as given +in the different Gospels formed the basis of another +large group. One of the earliest of these Passion motets +is Hobrecht’s, a work filled with deep pathos and +tender sadness. The Passion motets of Loyset Compère +(about 1450-1518) are spoken of as possessing extraordinary +beauty. The Magnificat was frequently treated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span> +in motet form, the oldest known example of which is +Dufay’s. A vast number of texts were drawn from +the Book of Canticles, while the Lamentations of Jeremiah +inspired the writing of numberless compositions +in motet style. Carpentrasso’s Lamentations were sung +in the Sistine Chapel once each year until 1587, when +they were superseded by Palestrina’s superb compositions. +Several of the sequences were also set as motets, +among which must be especially noted two by Josquin +des Prés—a <em>Victimæ Paschali</em>, in which he used parts +of the old plain-song melody intermingled with two +popular airs, and a <em>Stabat Mater</em>, the subject for which +he borrowed from a secular air of the time, <em>Comme +femme</em>. Less interesting were the laudatory motets +inscribed to princes and nobles by the composers attached +to their individual courts, and the countless motets +written for the greater festivals and special occasions +in the church calendar.</p> + +<p>Reverence for the Virgin-mother inspired some of the +most beautiful of all motets and a multitude of these +fine compositions, delicate in texture and of impressive +beauty, might be cited; such are Dufay’s <em>Ave Regina, +Salve Virgo</em>, and <em>Flos florum, fons amorum</em>; Brassart’s +<em>Ave Maria</em>; Bianchoys’ <em>Beata Dei genetrix</em>; Arcadelt’s +<em>Ave Maria</em>, which is now probably one of the best +known of sixteenth-century motets and which sounds +wonderfully modern with its compact chords, sweet +tunefulness, and simple pathos; Gombert’s <em>Vita dulcedo</em>; +Josquin’s <em>Ave vera virginitas</em>. There remains to +be mentioned the large group of funeral motets or +<em>Næniæ</em>, comprising some of the finest examples of the +pure motet style. One of the most celebrated of these +is the dirge written by Josquin in memory of his +friend and teacher Okeghem, which is scarcely exceeded +in beauty by anything which this master has +produced.</p> + +<p>About 1500 the triad was recognized as a musical factor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> +of importance and close upon this recognition came +the discovery of modal harmony. Chord progressions, +groups of closely-knit harmonies, appropriate to the +church mode employed, now became common and in +the relation of this new factor to musical expression is +to be found the basis of distinction between secular +and sacred music, a distinction which rapidly grew +more marked as the harmonic sense unfolded and developed. +From Josquin’s time secular music strove +after the representation of specific moods of feeling +suggested by the words, in which representation the +new element of harmony was summoned to give +warmth and color and dramatic significance, while +sacred music sought to express only the general mood +of the text, representing an unvariable and fixed aspiration, +with little or no attempt at detailed delineation.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>The last great Netherlander, and indeed the greatest +of them all, was Orlandus Lassus or Orlando di Lasso +(1532-1594), who spent nearly the whole of the best +creative period of his life outside the boundaries of +his native land in Munich in the service of the art-loving +Duke Albert V and his son Duke William of +Bavaria. Next to Palestrina the greatest genius of the +sixteenth century, he left a deep impress on the development +of Germanic art. Though not so ideal in +purely ritual-music as his great contemporary, he displayed +a greater fertility, a wider sympathy, and a +warmer human feeling. Proske’s estimate of him is +noteworthy: ‘Lassus is a universal genius.... No +one resembles so closely the great Handel, and, as in the +latter, the German, Italian, and English genius of the +eighteenth century were found blended, so in Lassus +the entire glory of contemporary Germanic and Latin<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> +art was commingled in a single mighty personality.’ +(<em>Musica Divina</em>, Vol. I, p. 52.)</p> + +<p>Lassus was probably the most prolific composer of +all time, having left the enormous number of nearly +2,500 separate compositions. As his master, Duke Albert, +was a staunch and devout Catholic, by far the +larger part of his creative energy was expended in the +field of pure church-music, of which he wrote no less +than 1,200 motets and <em>sacræ cantiones</em>, 51 masses, about +180 Magnificats, and over 150 lamentations, psalms, +hymns, Requiems, Ave Marias, antiphons, etc. The +most celebrated of his works and, according to Ambros,<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> +the only other work of the sixteenth century +worthy to stand beside Palestrina’s <em>Missa Papæ Marcelli</em>, +are the ‘Penitential Psalms,’ which were composed +at the duke’s suggestion prior to 1565, though not published +until 1584. The establishment of the date of +their composition definitely upsets the familiar legend +that they were written for Charles IX of France to +solace his troubled conscience after the horrors of the +massacre of St. Bartholomew. It may well be, however, +that they were sung before this unhappy monarch, for +Lassus spent some time at the court of France at +Charles’ invitation. Lassus’ masterpiece, though written +comparatively early in his career, possesses in a +marked degree all the qualities of strength, grandeur, +dignity, repose, and especially impersonality and absence +of what would now be called dramatic effects, +that are the distinguishing characteristics of the maturest +period of ritual-music of the great Netherlander +and his Italian compeer, Palestrina. The ‘Penitential +Psalms’ (the 6th, 32d, 38th, 51st, 102d, 130th, and 143d) +were set for from two to six voices, according to the +suggestion of the text, and the style of expression +varies from the extreme simplicity of the opening +chords to the massive and intricate tone-structures by +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span>means of which he depicts the remorse and fear of +the penitent sinner. But, while a note of sorrow and +wailing runs throughout, the master has with equal +genius portrayed the strong consolation of sincere +repentance and the sure hope of pardon from a loving +God.</p> + +<p>In all of Lassus’ works there is a noticeable breaking +away from the intricacies and complicated forms of +Josquin and the older Netherlanders in favor of a more +direct and simple style. Secular music may well have +exerted an indirect influence to produce such a result, +but a more direct cause must be sought in the religious +movements of his period. Lassus, like Palestrina, was +a man of strong and sincere religious convictions. Zealous +Catholics in Rome were seeking to reform the +abuses in ecclesiastical government and procedure that +had started the Reformation and given such astonishing +strength to its progress. The court at Munich, in +which Lassus was such a prominent figure, was the first +in Europe to espouse the cause of this counter-reformation. +Simplicity of style and directness of expression +were the natural and logical consequences of the earnestness +of purpose and religious conviction that +breathes in the music of both Lassus and Palestrina +and that sought to grasp the essential spirit of the +Roman liturgy and body it forth in vitalizing tones. +Indeed, the tendency toward a simpler and less ornate +style was well under way before the Council of Trent +undertook to discuss the defects in the prevalent church +style.</p> + +<p>Of Lassus’ 1,200 compositions of the motet type 429 +were called <em>sacræ cantiones</em>, a term that is rather vague +as to its inclusion and exact application. The most +famous of the motets is the masterly <em>Gustate et Videte</em>, +to which additional interest is attached from a pretty +story related by Heinrich Delmotte, one of the most +reliable of Lassus’ biographers, to the effect that, during<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span> +the festival of Corpus Christi in 1584, the singing of this +motet, as the solemn procession headed by the choir +emerged from the church, caused the sun to shine forth +brightly in the midst of a terrific thunder-storm, permitting +the procession to traverse its accustomed course +through the city. But when the procession returned to +the church and the singing ceased, the storm burst forth +again in all its fury. The multitude cried ‘A miracle,’ +and for many years thereafter the singing of this motet +always accompanied the offering up of prayers for fine +weather. Though one might select a score of his fine +motets for special mention, three may be spoken of +here in addition to the <em>Gustate</em>, namely, <em>Dixit autem +Maria</em>, <em>Improperium expectabit cor meum</em>, and <em>Timor +et Tremor</em> in six parts, replete with wonderful vocal +effects. His simple, direct, and earnest style is well set +forth in the <em>Adoramus te Christe</em>, a short chorale for +four male voices, utterly devoid of contrapuntal artifice, +yet breathing a spirit of humble adoration that +maintains throughout an atmosphere of solemn tenderness. +His motets were written for from two to twelve +voices and the masses for four and five voices.</p> + +<p>But Lassus had an open heart also for secular inspiration. +The genius that could thrill us with the +solemnity and pathos of religious aspirations and sentiments +was also moved to expression by the pleasantries +of human experience; no other composer of his century +was so prolific in humorous works. One is a setting +of the Psalm <em>Super flumina Babylonis</em>, in which +the separate letters and syllables are sung in the fashion +of a spelling-lesson, ‘S-U—Su—P-E-R—per—Super,’ +evidently parodying the ridiculous handling of words +by the older masters. It takes two movements of this +comic procedure to get through the first verse. In some +of his German songs his humor rises to the height of +hilarious joy, though most of them are the expression +of a simple naïveté. In one of his Italian villanellas he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span> +makes a German infantry captain sing a grotesque serenade +to his lady-love. But he was especially famous for +his drinking songs, one of the most celebrated of which +was a setting of Walter Mapes’ convivial song <em>Si bene +perpendi, causæ sunt quinque bibendi</em>, to which Dean +Aldrich has given the following well-known translation:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container p11"> +<div class="poetry"> +<p>‘If all be true that I do think,<br> +There are five reasons we should drink:<br> +Good wine, a friend, or being dry,<br> +Or lest you should be by and by,<br> +Or any other reason why.’</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The remainder of his secular compositions comprise 233 +madrigals, 34 Latin songs,<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> 370 French songs, and 59 +canzonets, which formidable list reveals him as a lyric +writer of great versatility. Notwithstanding his great +fame during his lifetime and the succeeding generation, +the last half of the seventeenth century witnessed a +great decline in his popularity and his music fell into +almost complete oblivion, from which it has been happily +rescued by the recent revival of interest in the old +masters and especially by the publication by Breitkopf +& Haertel of a complete edition of his works which will +comprise about sixty volumes.</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>We are now face to face with one of the greatest +geniuses of all time, Palestrina,<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> or to give his real +name, Giovanni Pierluigi (1526-1594). Into his hands +it was given not only to restore to Italy, for a time at +least, its leadership in the domain of musical art, but +also to carry to completion the magnificent structure of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span>polyphonic ecclesiastical music founded and fashioned +into stately proportions by the Netherlanders, and to +utter the final words in the art of unaccompanied vocal +counterpoint. Thus the cycle of development in Roman +ritual-music was consummated on the very spot where +just ten centuries before it had found its first definite +formulation under the guiding hand of Gregory the +Great and in perfect consonance with the spirit and best +traditions of the great liturgy around which Christian +worship had centred through all the intervening centuries, +until Luther’s momentous break with Rome had +caused a deflection in the current of religious thought. +He summed up all the best qualities in the art of his +predecessors. He added nothing new to its technique, +but, child as he was of the land whose peculiar gift is +melody, he crowned this art with a radiant richness of +melodious charm and graceful movement which none +of his masters could achieve. Palestrina’s peculiar +greatness seems to lie in the supreme fact that, through +a perfect sympathy with and understanding of the mysteries +of the Roman system of worship and through +an unequalled mastery of the Netherlanders’ art of contrapuntal +expression, he was able to restore music to +its proper relation to the service as established by the +Early Church, a relation that had been lost by the incongruous +and disturbing intricacies of the musical +forms which by their very elaborateness had so overlaid +the text as to render it unintelligible and thus obliterate +the religious significance of the words and warp the +whole function of music in the larger organism of the +mass. This reform was brought about by a return to +the simpler methods of the ancient church. While the +musical world around him was teeming with signs of +the new spirit of impending change and progress, his +genius, the richest of them all, was satisfied to dwell +within the sanctuary of tradition. While all his contemporaries +were facing forward, filled with the rapture<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span> +of discovery and innovation, ‘the Palestrina style +belonged rather to the mediæval world, with its emphasis +upon monastic reveries and contemplation.’<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> What +has been termed ‘the Palestrina style’ had existed before +his time in isolated church compositions, but, since +his whole life was dedicated with singular fidelity and +purity of purpose to the development of an exalted and +chaste style that would perfectly reflect the inner spirit +of the church ceremonies, his name has become attached +to a type which is peculiarly his. Its external +characteristics are the repudiation of mere intellectual +cleverness, the avoidance of secularity either in +form or in spirit, and the employment of an unaffected, +indescribable simplicity of expression as the best means +of preserving the liturgic significance of the text and +enforcing the impressiveness of the music on the worshipper’s +mind. For its greatest effect this music must +be heard in the particular religious environment for +which it was created. ‘No sensuous melodies, no dissonant, +tension-creating harmonies, no abrupt rhythms +distract the thoughts and excite the sensibilities. +Chains of consonant chords growing out of the combination +of smoothly-flowing, closely-interwoven parts, +the contours of which are all but lost in the maze of +tones, lull the mind into that state of submission to +indefinite impressions which makes it susceptible to the +mystic influence of the ceremonial and turns it away +from worldly things.’<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + +<p>In analyzing music of this type it will be found that +each voice-part is equal in independence and importance +with every other voice-part; that the voices enter, +intertwine, and drop out with absolute freedom of +movement; that one key is maintained throughout the +whole composition, with no modulations in the modern +sense; that the beginnings and endings of the melodic +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span>phrases usually occur at different points in different +voices, producing a constant shifting in the rhythmical +flux that baffles aural analysis and creates a feeling +of vagueness and indefiniteness of design. The changes +in dynamics or in speed are never startling or abrupt, +but are accomplished through almost imperceptible +gradations. Furthermore, certain values entered into +the construction of these wonderfully plastic creations +that were almost wholly dependent upon a perfect understanding +of purely vocal effects. ‘The distribution +of the components of a chord in order to produce the +greatest sonority; the alternation of the lower voices +with the higher; the elimination of voices as a section +approached its close, until the harmony was reduced +at the last syllable to two higher voices in <em>pianissimo</em>, +as though the strain were vanishing into the upper air; +the resolution of tangled polyphony into a sunburst +of open golden chords; the subtle intrusion of veiled +dissonances into the fluent gleaming concord; the skillful +blending of the vocal registers for the production +of exquisite contrasts of light and shade—these and +many other devices were employed for the attainment +of delicate and lustrous sound tints, with results to +which modern chorus writing affords no parallel.’<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<p>It is quite characteristic of the inherent and unostentatious +greatness of Palestrina that the <em>Missa Papæ +Marcelli</em>, the singing of which before the Commission +of Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel on the nineteenth of +June, 1565, caused this mass to be chosen as a model +in style and in structure of what all future music +of the Roman liturgy should be, was written several +years before that event as an ordinary item of routine +loyalty in the service of the church which he so devoutly +loved.<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> It did not come into being, as has been +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span>persistently proclaimed by legend and history,<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> at the +request of the Commission nor as a specific answer to +the warning of the Council of Trent that all figured +or polyphonic music would be excluded from the Roman +service because of the current abuses. The name +by which this famous mass has been known was not +given to it until 1567. The Pope to whom it was dedicated, +Marcellus II, had died in 1555, ten years before +fame and immortality had been accorded to this composition +by the award of the Cardinal Commission, but, +though he had reigned only twenty-three days, Palestrina +did not forget his earnest efforts in behalf of +church-music while he was a Cardinal. This mass +stands by universal consent as an unrivalled monument +to the piety, depth of feeling, and intensity of expression, +as well as the technical skill, of its creator. All +technical contrivances, the devices of fugue and canon, +are in complete subjection to the demands of expression, +and the listener is never for a moment conscious +of the consummate art with which the parts are fashioned. +Its subjects are all original and all are of great +simplicity, but treated with infinite variety. It is written +for six voices—soprano, alto, two tenors of equal +compass, and two equal basses—which are so grouped +as constantly to suggest the effects of antiphonal choirs. +Though an atmosphere of solemnity pervades the +whole, each movement has individual characterization. +Baini, Palestrina’s biographer, calls the Kyrie devout, +the Gloria animated, the Credo majestic, the Sanctus +angelic, and the Agnus Dei prayerful.</p> + +<p>Palestrina wrote in all ninety-three masses for four, +five, six, and eight voices, many of them of surpassing +beauty, but only a comparatively few are sung outside +the Sistine Chapel. The six-part <em>Assumpta est Maria</em>, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span>composed in 1585 for the Papal Choir, is accounted +by many critics to be even more beautiful than the +celebrated <em>Missa Papæ Marcelli</em>. It possesses all the +fine qualities of the latter and is certainly its equal. +The <em>Missa Brevis</em><a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> was composed upon subjects taken +from the plain-song melody <em>Audi filia</em>, upon which +Goudimel had written a fine mass of earlier date. The +mass <em>L’homme armé</em> is one of the very few of his +church compositions into which he introduced secular +melodies. It is quite possible that he took this means +of demonstrating that he could excel the Netherlanders +on their own ground, for it is apparently conceived +throughout in the Netherland style and is tremendously +difficult and elaborate.</p> + +<p>Among the most superb of his church compositions +must be named the motets, of which 179 for from four +to twelve voices appear in the complete critical edition +published by Breitkopf & Haertel in 33 volumes. +Some of these are as unapproachable in their beauty as +are the masses which gave Palestrina his title of <em>Musicæ +Princeps</em>. Among the finest may be mentioned +<em>Peccantem me quotidie</em>, filled with an indescribable +sweetness and tenderness of feeling, and <em>Super flumina +Babylonis</em>, written soon after the death of his wife +Lucrezia, in which can be detected the expression of +the pathetic grief of ‘the heart-broken composer mourning +by the banks of the Tiber’ for his lost wife. His +other church compositions include 45 Hymns for the +whole year, 68 Offertories, and a large number of Lamentations, +Magnificats, Vesper-psalms, and Litanies. +His setting of the <em>Stabat Mater</em>, for which Dr. Burney +had a boundless admiration, is one of the most effective +in existence and one of his most celebrated works. +The fine <em>Improperia</em>, which are still among the greatest +treasures of the Papal Choir, probably reflect the experiences<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span> +of his inner life during the anxious period +following his dismissal from the Papal Choir by Paul +IV in 1555, when physical and mental ills attacked the +over-sensitive master.</p> + +<p>The second half of the sixteenth century has been +aptly called ‘The Golden Age of Ecclesiastical Music.’ +Further progress was impossible along the line of vocal +counterpoint brought to such astounding perfection by +Palestrina, yet the Palestrina style found zealous imitators +for a half-century at least after the passing of +the great Roman master. But the spirit of the Renaissance, +now rampant in every field of human thought, +refused to be held in check by church doors, and the +glories of the ‘Golden Age,’ the products of an art rejoicing +in the full maturity of its power, were almost +immediately followed by a period of decadence, in +which secular sentimentality was mingled in strange +fellowship with what remained of the majestic devotional +style of the old masters. The triumphant progress +of secular music, instrumental as well as operatic, +soon broke down the opposition of the ecclesiastical +purists, and after Allegri the Palestrina style practically +disappeared. Gregorio Allegri (about 1580-1652) +is remembered now almost wholly by his celebrated +<em>Miserere</em> for nine voices in two choirs, which is +considered to be one of the finest compositions ever +conceived for the Roman service. Until recently at +least, it has been sung annually during Holy Week +at the Sistine Chapel, where it was prized as so rare +a treasure that to copy it was punishable with excommunication.<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> +Up to the year 1770 only three copies +are known to have been legally made. In that year, +it will be recalled, the fourteen-year-old Mozart wrote +it down with marvellous accuracy from the memory of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span>a single performance. Much of the ineffable sadness +of this piece, which, as it is performed in the Sistine +Chapel, has always aroused the unbounded enthusiasm +of musicians, is said to be due to certain traditional +embellishments or florid passages which were introduced +in the form of elaborate four-part cadenzas to +take the place of the simple endings of some of the +verses. Mendelssohn, in a letter to Zelter during his +Italian journey in 1831, described in great detail the +music of these beautiful <em>abbellimenti</em>. Of one of these +he says: ‘It is often repeated, and makes so deep an +impression that when it begins an evident excitement +pervades all present.... The soprano intones the +high C in a pure, soft voice, allowing it to vibrate for +a time, and slowly gliding down, while the alto holds +its C steadily, so that at first I was under the delusion +that the high C was still held by the soprano. The +skill, too, with which the harmony is gradually developed +is truly marvellous.’</p> + +<p>It must not be supposed that Palestrina was the only +great church composer of his period. There were +others during his lifetime and immediately following, +whose genius would have been proclaimed of the first +magnitude had it not been for the greater effulgence +of Palestrina’s. Giovanni Maria Nanino (about 1545-1607) +ranks as second only to Palestrina among the +Italian church composers, as witness his motet for six +voices, <em>Hodie nobis cœlorum rex</em>, annually sung in the +Sistine Chapel on Christmas morning; his mass, <em>Vestiva +i colli</em>, for five voices; and particularly his Lamentations +set in simple melodious style for four male +voices. His brother, Giovanni Bernardino Nanino +(about 1560-about 1618), wrote a remarkable <em>Salve +Regina</em> for twelve voices in which the new spirit of +striving for unusual effects is noticeable. Viadana +(about 1564-1645) introduced into church music the +<em>concerti ecclesiastici</em>, which were a kind of monodic<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span> +chant or song for from one to four voices with organ +accompaniment indicated by a <em>basso continuo</em>, or figured +bass. Most of his church music, however, was +written in the old contrapuntal style. Following the +trend of the times, Francesco Soriano or Suriano +(1549-about 1621) permitted the dramatic style of the +monodists to enter very perceptibly into his ‘Passions +for Holy Week,’ probably his best work. Among the +greatest of Palestrina’s contemporaries was Tomasso +da Vittoria (about 1540-about 1613), sometimes called +‘the Spanish Palestrina.’ His greatest masterpiece is +the elaborate six-part Requiem Mass, composed for the +obsequies of the Empress Maria, widow of Maximilian +II. Next to Palestrina’s Mass for the Dead, this is the +most important and profoundly moving among the +many settings of this office as pure ritual-music. Its +subjects are all taken from plain-song melodies, yet it +has an astonishingly modern quality, due to Vittoria’s +employment of powerful, sonorous chords and especially +to a warmer and more direct and personal mode +of expressing his religious emotions than composers of +the polyphonic school were wont to assume. Palestrina’s +religious music is the music of a soul of immaculate +purity, as though, to use Ambros’ figure, his strains +were messengers from a higher world; Vittoria’s music +was the responsive utterance of a saintly soul on earth, +struggling amid poignantly human emotions for a +heavenly estate. Among his other works, the <em>Improperia</em> +gained great renown for their purity of church +style and warmth and tenderness of expression.</p> + +<p>Before leaving the field of church music of this period, +something must be said of the worthy rival to +the Roman school that had sprung up and flourished +mightily in Venice. Here in the midst of the prosperity, +luxury, and splendor of this cultured ‘Queen of the +Seas’ was a group of earnest musicians who did not +fear to loosen the bands of tradition or to accept new<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span> +ideals and venture on untrodden paths that led in new +directions; so that the products of the Venetian school, +rather than the Roman, formed the natural bridge between +the mediæval and modern conceptions of religious +music. The masters of Venetian music, Willaert +and the two Gabrielis, seemed to borrow for their +music something of the brilliant coloring of the Venetian +painters. Luxuriant harmonies, massive and bold +chord-effects, the employment of numerous chromatic +tones which assisted powerfully in changing the old +modal system into the modern key system, a desire for +greater sonority and contrast in color and expression—all +these qualities, with their emphasis upon individual +characterization, opposed themselves strikingly to the +calmness, the delicacy, and the impersonality of the +Palestrina style. All the great Venetian masters occupied +the post of chapel-master at St. Mark’s, then one +of the most important musical appointments in Europe. +The use of several choirs, which was introduced +by Adrian Willaert (about 1480-1562) and became a +characteristic feature of Venetian church music, owed +its origin to the architectural structure of this church, +which contains two opposing choir lofts, each with its +own organ. Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli added a +third choir and with this elaborate mechanism produced +unprecedented choral effects by ingenious groupings +of voices, heard now as separate choirs, now in answering +alternation, now as selected voices from each +choir, and now in magnificent masses of tone. A twelve-part +psalm, <em>Deus misereatur nostri</em>, written by G. +Gabrieli (1557-1612) for three choirs—one consisting of +deep voices, one of higher, and the third of the usual +four parts—is one of the most imposing examples of +this type of grandiose many-choired music. He is one +of the few church composers who have left no masses. +His most famous work, two volumes of <em>Sacræ Symphoniæ</em>, +consisted of motets for from six to sixteen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span> +voices, to which he added free accompaniments written +for various combinations of orchestral instruments +with organ. In thus broadening the scope of church +music to include instrumental groupings and effects +in combination with voices, he stands as the pioneer of +a dawning movement fraught with greatest possibilities +for the future development of both ecclesiastical music +and independent instrumental music. The chief work +of Andrea Gabrieli (1510-1586), uncle of Giovanni, was, +according to his own testimony, the six-part ‘Penitential +Psalms,’ though this was outdone in magnificence and +tonal beauty by his many compositions for several +choirs. One of the most notable and popular of the +Venetian composers was Giovanni Croce (about 1560-1609), +whose masses, written in a style of noble simplicity, +are still favorites with Catholic church choirs.</p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>The century which culminated in the ‘Golden Age of +Ecclesiastical Music’ was also the period of greatest +glory for the madrigal. In the first half of the century +its leading exponents were Jacques Arcadelt (about +1514-about 1555), Philippe Verdelot (dates of birth and +death unknown), Huberto Waelrant (about 1518-1595), +and especially Adrian Willaert (about 1480-1562), in +the madrigals of all of whom there are revealed a +lucidity of style, a graceful melodic flow, and, when +the character of the words demanded, a simplicity of +treatment, which together constituted the true sixteenth-century +madrigalian style. Arcadelt, a Netherlander +by birth and education, lived for many years in Italy, +where his madrigals became so popular that his First +Book, published in Venice in 1538, passed through sixteen +editions in eighty years, the first to win marked +success. Though he wrote much church music, his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> +fame rests on his charming madrigals, only a few of +which, unfortunately, are accessible in modern form. +Waelrant’s <em>Vorrei morire</em> (published with English +words ‘Hard by a fountain,’ which, however, have no +relation to the Italian text) is a beautiful example of +this type. Orlandus Lassus was the last of the great +Netherland madrigalists and he left many books of +splendid compositions in this style.</p> + +<p>In art-loving Venice an especially brilliant group +of madrigalists appeared who brought added renown +and honor to this centre of culture and learning. +Adrian Willaert, one of the many gifted migratory +Netherlanders, was the first to make the Venetians +acquainted with this form, of distinctly northern origin, +and its popularity quickly spread all over Italy. Under +Italian influences the severity of its melodic outlines +softened and it readily responded to the national love +of color and warmth. While Willaert can no longer +be called the ‘Father of the Madrigal,’ he was one of +the first strong writers in the madrigal-form, and his +transplantation of it from Flanders to sunny Italy gave +to it just the genial quality needed to bring it to full +maturity. He was especially influential in developing +a freer style and a taste for chromaticism. This tendency +found strongest accentuation in the ‘Chromatic +Madrigals’<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> of Ciprian de Rore (1516-1565). He published +five books of these and, while many were in the +nature of experiments, they served to prepare the way +for the mastery of chromatic elements so conspicuous +in later composers. His madrigals, written in an original +and genial style of great richness, enjoyed enormous +popularity. Giovanni Croce paid homage to the +spirit of the times in a notable collection of humorous +part-songs (<em>Triaca musicale</em>, <em>Capricci</em>) for from four +to seven voices. The Gabrielis were also generous contributors<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span> +to the development of the madrigal, which, +in its adopted home in Italy, attained its fairest and +most luxuriant flowering.</p> + +<p>The earliest of the Italians to achieve notable success +in madrigal-writing was the Roman, Constanzo +Festa (died 1545). One of his madrigals, ‘Down in a +flowery vale’ (<em>Quando ritrovo la mia pastorella</em>), attained +the distinction of being for a long time the most +widely-known piece of its class in England. Palestrina +showed his supreme command over all styles by freeing +the madrigal from Flemish influences and contributing +in goodly measure to the literature of this fascinating +form. Among them are many <em>madrigali spirituali</em>—compositions +midway in seriousness between the motet +and the light <em>chanson</em>, which aimed to bring into church +music more of the warmth and grace of the best secular +music. In the new style of madrigal-writing Palestrina +was followed with splendid results by his successor in +office as ‘composer to the Papal Choir,’ Felice Anerio, +by Francesco Anerio, brother of the preceding, by the +Naninis, and, in particular, by Luca Marenzio (about +1560-1599), who devoted himself especially to the advancement +of secular art and whose madrigals were of +such captivating beauty and expressive power that he +earned for himself the title of ‘the sweetest swan of +Italy.’ His reputation was far-extended and his popularity<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> +in England was so great that Dr. Burney not +only places him among the greatest of all madrigal +writers, but traces the passion for this form of secular +music that spread over England beginning about 1590, +directly to the wide appreciation of his highly-perfected +madrigal style.</p> + +<p>The madrigal was carried to Germany by Netherlanders +and German students of the Venetians, but it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span>never succeeded in making much headway against the +national fondness for the folk-song (<em>Volkslied</em>), from +which it radically differed. Neither was it seriously +valued in France, although here the <em>chanson</em> had long +enjoyed great popularity and had furnished the type +from which the early Flemish madrigals were evolved. +English soil, however, was especially favorable to its +development, and it was no sooner transplanted thither +from Italy and Flanders than it took deep root and +flourished with a luxuriance that did not lose its splendor +beside the best works of Rome or Venice. Richard +Edwards (1523-1566) and William Byrd (1543-1623), +the latter the greatest English composer of the sixteenth +century, had both written polyphonic secular songs of +the madrigal type that had achieved wide fame, but the +national love of part-songs received an extraordinary +stimulus from the publication in 1588 of <em>Musica Transalpina</em>,<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> +a collection of over fifty madrigals selected +from the best Flemish and Italian composers of the +time and adapted to English words. These were received +with such astonishing favor that the madrigal +at once leaped into the importance almost of a national +institution, fostered by a numerous school of composers +who devoted themselves almost wholly to perfecting it. +All the best English composers delighted in producing +madrigals in countless profusion. Between the years of +1590 and 1630 no less than 2,000 pieces in this form were +published, so that at the beginning of the seventeenth +century the madrigal stands out as the clearest expression +of the contemporary English national taste, the +favorite of composers and public alike. The flowering +period of the English madrigal was the first two decades +of the seventeenth century, when a truly brilliant +galaxy of native composers developed characteristics +that distinguish it quite clearly from its continental +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span>relatives and place it on a secure vantage-ground where +it need fear no rival. In delicacy, simplicity, and a +delicious naïveté, some of the English madrigals of this +period are unapproachable. During the Elizabethan +era English church-music reached a high standard, but +it sounds restrained and almost perfunctory beside the +joyous, fresh, spontaneous flow of these madrigals.</p> + +<p>Chief in importance among the English madrigalists +was Thomas Morley (1557-about 1602), whose music +revels in irrepressible cheerfulness and sweet tunefulness. +He showed an especial fondness for the light +canzonets and ballets, or fa-las, in which latter form, +introduced by him into England, he is unrivalled. His +contemporary, John Dowland (1563-1626), was equally +successful in his canzonets and ‘Songes or Ayres of +foure parts.’ But the inspired pieces of John Wilbye +(dates of birth and death unknown) are universally +considered to be the best representatives of the English +madrigal in its purest and most characteristic and comprehensive +form. Other great masters of this form +were George Kirbye (died 1634), Thomas Weelkes +(about 1575-1623), John Bennet (dates unknown), Michael +Este (dates unknown), Thomas Ravenscroft (about +1582-about 1635), and Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625). +There can be no doubt that the splendor of this era of +madrigal-writing was made more lustrous by the sympathetic +interest taken in this popular form by many +of the best poets of the brilliant Elizabethan period. +The works of many of the inspired makers of these +sweet old melodies are still sung with delight and +dearly prized by the numerous choral societies and +clubs that zealously cultivate unaccompanied vocal +part-music. Since madrigal-writing has experienced +somewhat of a revival in recent years, it will be of interest +to enumerate some of the most beautiful and +most famous of these old compositions which still retain +an imperishable charm and undying appeal.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> +Among such will be found the following: Dowland’s +‘Awake, sweet Love,’ ‘Come again,’ and ‘Now, oh! now, +I needs must part’; Weelkes’ ‘In pride of May,’ ‘The +Nightingale,’ and the bold ‘Like two proud armies’; +Wilbye’s ‘The Lady Oriana’ (in praise of Queen Elizabeth), +‘Flora gave me fairest flowers,’ ‘Lady, when I +behold,’ ‘Down in a valley,’ ‘Draw on, sweet Night,’ and +‘But Sweet take heed’; and Bateson’s ‘In Heaven lives +Oriana.’</p> + +<p>Some of the English madrigalists of this period, as +Edwards and Gibbons, were close kin to the Netherlanders +in style and feeling. Many of the madrigals +of Byrd, Weelkes, Wilbye, and Kirbye are elaborate +in design and display ingenious and delightful imitation, +but in general there is discoverable a clear tendency +to discard the burdensome rules of ecclesiastical +writing. With the development of this tendency the +passing of the madrigal proper began, for the prime +essentials of a true madrigal, no matter what it may +be called, are that it must conform to the general feeling +of some ecclesiastical mode and must be written in +accordance with contrapuntal procedure. Without +these qualities the madrigal flavor is lost. After 1620 +it began to merge into the simpler and lighter glee and +part-song, which forms will be considered in Chapter +IV.</p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="footnotes"> +<p class="center p2 big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> Dickinson, ‘Music in the History of the Western Church,’ p. 83.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> The largest contributions to the mass were made by the Eastern +Church during the first four centuries and were translated into Latin by +the Church of Rome.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> From the Latin <em>missa</em> in the sentence, <em>Ite, missa est</em> (‘Depart, the +assembly is dismissed’), sung by the deacon immediately before the close +of the service.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> The practice of thus displacing the authorized Gregorian chants with +folk-songs was inaugurated by Dufay. In three of his four-part masses, +preserved in the archives of the Papal Choir, the subjects are all borrowed +from popular songs, with the secular words accompanying them—among +them being <em>L’homme armé</em>.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> Weinmann, ‘History of Church Music,’ p. 85.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> Parry, ‘The Evolution of the Art of Music,’ p. 103.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> Tournay was one of the chief musical centres of the Gallo-Belgic +period and its cathedral possessed a body of choristers trained to the +highest point of efficiency then known to the vocal art.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> Naumann, ‘The History of Music’ (Eng. trans.), Vol. I, p. 325.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> Kiesewetter, ‘The History of Music,’ p. 131.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">[23]</a> Mendelssohn wrote a similar part for Hensel in his ‘Son and Stranger.’</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">[24]</a> The origin of the word is veiled in much obscurity, which has been +increased in large measure by the varied spellings adopted by early +writers (<em>motetum</em>, <em>motectum</em>, <em>motellus</em>, <em>motulus</em>, <em>mutetus</em>).</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">[25]</a> These three classes comprised (1) those forms in which all +voice-parts had the same words, as the <em>Cantilena</em>, the <em>Rondel</em> or <em>Rota</em>, the +<em>Organum communiter sumptum</em>; (2) those in which each part had its +own special words, as the <em>Motet</em>; and (3) those in which some parts had +words and others merely vocalized, as <em>Hoquet</em> or <em>Ochetus</em>, the <em>Conductus</em>, +and <em>Organum purum vel proprie sumptum</em>. <em>Organum purum</em> was the +oldest form and was held in great reverence by the earliest writers.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">[26]</a> Thus in <em>Salvatoris mater</em>, an old three-part Latin motet, probably +of the first half of the fifteenth century, by the Englishman, Thomas Damett, +quoted in the ‘Oxford History of Music,’ Vol. II, p. 149, the texts of the +two upper parts are prayers to the Virgin and to St. George in behalf of +King Henry VI, while the lowest part sings the <em>Benedictus</em>.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">[27]</a> His <em>Ars compositionis de Motetis</em>, preserved in the Paris library, +is supposed to have been written between 1290 and 1310.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">[28]</a> <em>Geschichte der Musik</em>, Vol. III, p. 353.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">[29]</a> All of these were part-songs of the <em>chanson</em> and madrigal type.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">[30]</a> So called from the name of his birthplace, a small town southeast +of Rome, the ancient Præneste.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">[31]</a> Waldo S. Pratt, ‘History of Music,’ p. 124.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">[32]</a> Arthur Mees, ‘Choirs and Choral Music,’ p. 62.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">[33]</a> Edward Dickinson, ‘Music in the History of the Western Church,’ +p. 167.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">[34]</a> He was then <em>Maestro di Cappella</em> of Santa Maria Maggiore.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">[35]</a> A full and authoritative discussion of the facts and fables associated +with this mass, based on researches in the archives, will be found +in F. X. Haberl’s <em>Die Kardinal-Kommission von 1564 und Palestrina’s +Missa Papæ Marcelli</em>.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">[36]</a> <em>Missa Brevis</em> was a name given to a mass of moderate length and +not intended for festival occasions of great solemnity.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">[37]</a> It was published for the first time with the Pope’s permission by +Dr. Burney. It is given in almost complete form in Grove’s ‘Dictionary of +Music and Musicians,’ Art. ‘Miserere.’</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">[38]</a> The most famous of these, set to Petrarch’s <em>Vergini</em>, have in recent +years been published by Breitkopf and Haertel.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">[39]</a> Of the 57 madrigals in <em>Musica Transalpina</em>, published in London in +1588, ten were by him, and of the twenty-eight numbers in Watson’s +‘Italian Madrigals Englished,’ published in 1590, twenty-three were from his +pen.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">[40]</a> Rockstro avers that the word ‘madrigal’ appears for the first time in +England in the preface to this volume.</p> + +</div> +</div> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER III<br> +<small>THE FIRST CENTURY OF PROTESTANT CHURCH MUSIC</small></h2> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Martin Luther; the chorale as the nucleus of German Protestant church +music—Early Reformation composers: Walther, Eccard, Prætorius; influence +of church choir schools in Germany during the Reformation period—English +Protestant music, music of the Anglican liturgy: the anthem, its +early history and style—The spread of congregational song; psalms and +hymns.</p> +</div> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>Christian art in its general outlines has followed +upon the heels of Christian thought and doctrine with +the fidelity and persistence of a shadow. Ever since it +first learned definite articulation, it has responded with +childlike obedience to the varying conditions which +the church has experienced in its endeavors to win and +to hold the allegiance of humanity to its spiritual leadership. +Music, the youngest of the arts, strikingly illustrates +this attitude of dependence. Consequent on the +doctrine of the universality of the church, a marked +sameness and uniformity existed in the ritual-music of +French, Italian, Spanish, German, and English church +composers, as long as the supremacy of the church was +undisputed. This absence of variation in style, form, +and expression, this suppression of national and individual +characteristics, was the natural manifestation +of the doctrine of the complete surrender of the individual, +which governed all his relations to the church. +The workings of the forces of humanistic thought in the +sixteenth century brought about some deviations, even +in sacred music, from this uniform mode of expression,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span> +and in Italy we can easily find points of differentiation +between the music of Venetian, Roman, and +Neapolitan composers, though all were loyal adherents +of the same faith.</p> + +<p>But when Luther struck the mighty blow at the spiritual +and political power of Rome which loosened a +large part of northern Europe from its grasp and +changed the whole current of the world’s religious +thought, it was quite natural that there was a resounding +echo in the musical methods and forms of expression +that accompanied the manifold developments of +this new religious movement. In the discussion of this +movement as it relates to the subject in hand, two facts +need constant reaffirmation—(1) that even before Luther’s +time there had been many evidences of the impending +change in religious thought, evidences that run +back with more or less frequency even to the Middle +Ages,<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> and (2) that Luther was first of all a reformer, +not a destroyer, of the ancient church and her modes of +worship. For a full understanding of the music of the +Reformation it must be kept in mind that the doctrinal +points back of Luther’s revolt included the denial of +the mediatorial function of the priest, the declaration +of the universal priesthood of believers, and the stout +insistence on the inalienable right of the individual +believer not only to freedom of reason and conscience, +but to direct access in prayer to Deity at all times. The +whole character and color of Protestant music is derived +from this recognition of the individual, and his +duties and privileges in the direct worship of God. +This freer, more spontaneous and democratic conception +of worship threw the emphasis upon the congregation, +and Luther’s form of public worship was built +up around this central fact. The two changes most +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span>responsive to this new conception were the substitution +of the people’s vernacular for Latin as the official language +of the service<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> and the restoration to the people +of the office of song, which had been withdrawn from +them at the very beginning of the development of elaborate +liturgic forms. This newly-found liturgic use for +the people’s song caused a prompt development of the +singularly rich and impressive hymnody of the early +German Protestant Church and Luther, in the order of +services which he prepared for the Wittenberg churches +in 1526 (the <em>Deutsche Messe</em>), gave especial prominence +to this element.</p> + +<p>Luther’s fervent desire was to bring all elements of +the church service within the comprehension of the +whole congregation; it was to be a people’s service. +The congregational hymns, so conspicuous in his +scheme of public worship, were not only sung in the +mother-tongue, but many of them were sung to melodies +whose origin was equally close and dear to the +people’s heart. Luther was the founder of German +Protestant hymnody (though not of German hymnody, +as we shall see), and in furnishing tunes to the multitude +of hymns which he and his helpers wrote, translated, +or adapted, to give voice to the new religious +aspirations and ideals of the Protestant faith, recourse +was had to two popular sources, the rich treasury of +religious folk-song that had been in existence for centuries<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> +and contemporary secular folk-song of the +more noble and sedate type. In thus transferring the +familiar and beloved melodies of home and social life +to the use of the sanctuary, an intimate and personal +relation of the congregation to the church service was +established that was wholly lacking in the old church +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span>associations. A third source of Luther’s melodies was +Gregorian chant and the stately Catholic hymns. Many +of the melodies were original, and this was more and +more the case as time went on, but the musician of this +period, as has been pointed out in the discussion of +Netherland music, was thoroughly accustomed to borrowing +his melodies (subjects) either from popular +song or plain-song. The name ‘chorale’ was soon given +to these hymn-melodies, from whatever source they +were derived, and the chorale, from its importance in +the Lutheran liturgy, promptly became the nucleus of +the whole Lutheran musical system, in exactly the same +sense that plain-song was of the Roman musical system. +Its close relation to the sturdy folk-song gave to the +chorale and to the entire literature of religious music +evolved from it a virility and vitality that made it, of +all the artistic products of the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries, alone comparable with the superb +creations of Palestrina and his school. The origin of +probably more than half of the melodies of the +Lutheran chorale-books may be traced to folk-songs of +some kind or period. Moreover, in wedding his hymns +to music Luther was careful to provide strongly rhythmical +melodies, which naturally made a more lively appeal +to the people than did the unrhythmical Latin music +of the Roman service, a fact whose significance has +been largely overlooked by historians. The militant +and assertive ring of many of the early chorales, contrasting +strongly with the calm, contemplative mood +of so many of the Catholic hymns, finds at least partial +explanation in this fact.</p> + +<p>The place of Luther in German religious music is +quite easy to estimate now, though it has required over +three centuries to disentangle the great reformer’s actual +achievement in this field from the gross exaggerations +and inaccuracies of partisan bias in both attack +and defence. But if it now seems to be well established<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span> +that Luther actually composed only a few<a id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> of the 137 +melodies once attributed to him, and that only five of +the thirty-six hymns which he wrote are entirely original, +this does not detract one whit from his greatness +or his wisdom as a leader in pointing musical aspirations +in a new direction, for his real significance in +German music, whether he composed melodies or not, +lies, not in new forms, but in the new spirit that he +gave to his followers and infused into sacred music. +He had no thought of breaking with the past. In preserving +intact the line of continuity, he was wise enough +to retain many forms and practices in the old Church +that he regarded as vital and permanent and to build +them firmly into the structure of his new liturgy. Realizing +the importance of having an abundance of hymns +for his followers, Luther once said to Spalatin, ‘We +are looking everywhere for poets,’ and in a short time +his wish was more than realized in the thousands of +original hymns that were poured forth. But in addition +to these he and his collaborators did not hesitate to +look in other directions. As he had freely utilized +existing material for his hymn-melodies, so he borrowed +liberally from the magnificent store of religious +poetry that had gradually accumulated during the centuries. +The principal sources thus drawn upon were +(1) old Latin hymns which were translated and modified +(as <em>Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich</em> from <em>Da pacem +Domine</em>, a sixth-or seventh-century antiphon; <em>Der du +bist drei</em> from <em>O Lux beata</em>, a fifth-century Epiphany +hymn; and <em>Herr Gott, dich loben wir</em> from the <em>Te +Deum</em>); (2) early German translations of Latin hymns +which were amplified; (3) early German hymns which +were corrected or arranged; and (4) Latin Psalms and +other Biblical passages which were translated and paraphrased +in metrical German verse. A fifth and prolific +source must not be overlooked—secular songs, favorite +songs of love and praise of Nature, which were recast +into religious hymns by the simple device of altering +a few words or lines.</p> + +<div class="chapter"> +<figure class="figcenter illowe35" id="ilofp81"> + <img class="w100 p4" src="images/ilofp81.jpg" alt="ilop83" title="p83ilo"> + <figcaption class="caption">Luther in the Circle of His Family</figcaption> +</figure> + +<p class="center p1b"><em>After the painting by E. Spangenberg</em></p> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="p2">The importance of music in the Lutheran service +was greatly enhanced by Luther’s relentless war on the +worship of images and pictures. The arts of painting +and sculpture practically disappeared from the church +edifices or were put under almost prohibitive restrictions. +Music thus became almost the sole artistic accessory +to religion in the service of the Reformed +Church. But in music Luther recognized that there was +no real conflict between Protestant and Catholic ideals; +hence he retained the principal features of the musical +system of the ancient Church, and readjusted them in +accordance with his altered conception of worship. +We have observed how he exalted the German hymn, +which had existed in pre-Reformation times only as +an occasional religious utterance and then always in +extra-liturgical services, to a place of chief importance +in congregational worship. In his enthusiasm for congregational +song, however, there was no antagonism to +the choir; on the contrary, he made ample provision +for it and urged every encouragement of the use of +contrapuntal music. Luther introduced only one real +innovation into his musical system—the congregational +chorale; for the rest it was based squarely on existing +methods, adopting with no essential changes the three +chief features of the Roman system: (1) the principles +of the old polyphony as developed by the Netherlanders +and Italians; (2) the use of borrowed subjects (<em>canti +firmi</em>) as the basis of the church polyphony, the subjects +being taken from chorales, however, instead of +from plain-song as in the Roman system; and (3) a few +Gregorian melodies and priestly chants for certain +parts of the service. Until the church-cantata developed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span> +as a distinguishing feature under Bach’s guiding +hands, the motet, with Latin or German words and +identical in form and style with the motet of the old +Church, was the chief representative of contrapuntal +vocal music in the Reformed Church. The important +place which contrapuntal organ music occupied in the +service will be treated in the chapter in which the early +organ masters are discussed.</p> + +<p>The first result of Luther’s efforts to bring about a +reform in the liturgy was the <em>Formula Missæ</em> of 1523. +In reality this was simply an abridged form of the +Roman Mass and was intended only as a temporary +expedient; everything repugnant to the fundamental +principles of the new faith was omitted, but Latin was +retained as the language of worship. In the <em>Deutsche +Messe</em> of 1526 he completed his long contemplated and +carefully thought out revision of the liturgy, in which +the process of simplification was carried still further +and the mother-tongue substituted for Latin in nearly +all the offices.</p> + +<p>Two years before this (1524) he had published the +first Protestant hymn-book (<em>Geystliche Gesangk Buchleyn</em>, +for four voices), with the assistance of his friend +and musical adviser, Johann Walther. In 1525 Walther +published another and larger one, with a preface by +Luther. Chorale-books now multiplied with such astonishing +rapidity that at the time of Luther’s death in +1546 there were no less than sixty collections in use, +including the various editions. The very first hymn-melodies +sung by the congregation were not harmonized +at all. Soon simple contrapuntal settings were +given to these melodies, and in all the early chorale-books +the melody, following the contemporary usage +in contrapuntal writing, was placed in the tenor, the +congregation singing it in unison while the choir supplied +the contrapuntal parts. But by the end of the +sixteenth century harmonic feeling had progressed far<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span> +enough to permit the melody to pass to the treble,<a id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> +where it naturally belonged in the people’s song. +Henceforth it is generally found there, supported by +solid chord-movement, and its early contrapuntal character +becomes transformed into a simpler harmonic +style. The development of the organ in Germany during +the closing decades of the sixteenth century made +it possible for this instrument to take the place of the +choir as an accompaniment to the unison congregational +song, the choir after 1600 finding ample scope +for its powers in the elaborate motet.</p> + +<p>The brutal devastation of the Thirty Years’ War was +followed by a weakening of religious faith and vigor, +and after the middle of the seventeenth century interest +in the chorale waned and the steady stream of chorales +slackened and soon came to a full stop. The sturdy +militant enthusiasm of the early years of the Reformation +was superseded by religious apathy which had a +corresponding influence on church music. The rhythmical +freedom and variety of the early chorales gradually +disappeared and their vigorous character became +tamed down to the type as now sung, in which the tones +of the melody assumed a uniform length. While this +style is undoubtedly dignified and imposing, it represents +a distinct loss of energy and vigor, as compared +with the original free form. But the chorale had already +passed into the larger arteries of German secular +art-music, and here its tremendous powers of stimulation +were no longer dependent on the spiritual pulse of +the church.</p> + +<p>The historical importance of the chorale can scarcely +be overestimated. Musically speaking, it forms the +basis of a large and significant portion of the literature +of German music, both vocal and instrumental; religiously<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span> +speaking, it was the effective instrument +through which the intensely devout faith of the German +people found its readiest and most expressive +voice for their emotions of joy and thanksgiving in the +newly-found office of direct communion with God; politically +speaking, it was recognized by friend and foe +alike as the most powerful agency for the spread of +the new doctrines. Whole towns were said to have +been won over to Protestantism by Luther’s hymns. An +irate priest exclaimed: ‘Luther’s songs have damned +more souls than all his books and speeches.’ Furthermore, +the Protestant hymn exercised an immediate and +wholesome influence on the Roman Catholic hymn. +Realizing the popularity and devotional value of the +Lutheran hymn-singing, the Catholic authorities reversed +their traditional attitude toward the congregational +hymn and strove to stem the inroads made by +this alluring propaganda on their congregations by providing +hymn-books of their own in the language of the +people. The first German Catholic collection (<em>Ein New +Gesangbüchlin Geystlicher Lieder</em>) appeared in 1537 in +Leipzig, the work of the Dominican monk, Michael +Vehe, of Halle. It contained fifty-two hymns and forty-seven +melodies, many of which, in altered form, were +borrowed from the Protestant hymn-books, as Luther +had borrowed from the best Catholic hymns. Thus +these religious opponents sought to square musical accounts +by freely appropriating each other’s treasures +of sacred song. The second Catholic hymn-book (<em>Geistliche +Lieder und Psalmen</em>) did not appear until 1567. +It was edited by Johann Leisentrit of Bautzen and comprised +147 melodies and 250 texts, among which were +no less than sixty-six hymns by Protestant poets, four, +indeed, by Luther himself! Thereafter similar hymn-books +multiplied rapidly, and the history of the development +and subsequent decline of the Catholic German +hymn coincides quite largely with that of the Lutheran<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span> +hymn and with nearly the same contributing causes, +political and religious. It is of interest to note that +about 1600 the hymn found its way for a time even +into the office of the Holy Mass. In the eighteenth century +the Catholic hymn sank back into its pre-Reformation +status of unimportance in public worship, but retained +its position in the parochial schools, where it +was permanently placed early in the seventeenth century.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>Just as a veritable swarm of religious poets had responded +to Luther’s Macedonian call for hymn-writers, +so there soon appeared among his followers a numerous +array of musicians, eager and competent to furnish +the music for the new service. Johann Walther +(1496-1570) was one of the first composers in the Reformed +Church—first in importance as well as chronologically. +Luther had summoned him to Wittenberg +in 1524 to assist him in arranging the musical part of +the German Mass, and, as already mentioned, he played +a most important part in arranging and editing the first +chorale-books. He was the first<a id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> to harmonize the +hymn-melodies after the manner of secular part-songs, +that is, in simple four-part harmony, note against note, +which form has characterized the congregational hymn +since his time. He was the composer of many well-known +chorales and motets, and there are a few historians +who even attribute to him the authorship of +the melody of the famous <em>Ein’ feste Burg</em>. Johann Eccard +(1553-1611), a prominent pupil of Orlandus Lassus, +appeared soon enough after Luther’s passing to +be under the direct influence of the great reformer. +He enjoyed great popularity on account of his simple +and graceful part-songs, chorales, and motets. His +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span>chief work was <em>Geistliche Lieder</em> (‘A Collection of Fifty-five +Sacred Melodies for Feast-days and Holy-days’). +Another important work was <em>Preussische Fest-lieder</em> +(‘Prussian Festival Songs for the Whole Year’) for five +to eight voices. These were somewhat in the nature +of a new form, occupying a place midway in simplicity +between the chorale and the motet—akin to the chorale +in having the melody in the highest part and possessing +a certain folk-song flavor, and approaching the motet +in having the melody contrapuntally dependent on the +other parts and therefore not to be sung alone. Michael +Prætorius (1571-1621) was a prolific writer of motets, +psalms, chorales, and choir-pieces, some of the last-named +being compositions for several choirs in the +Venetian style for as many as thirty voices. From +1605 to 1610 he issued his <em>Musæ Sioniæ</em>, a huge collection +of sacred part-songs, including many of his own, +in sixteen volumes, five with Latin words, the remainder +with German. The name of Johann Crüger (1598-1662) +is inseparably connected with Lutheran church-song. +He was one of the last great composers of chorales—and +one of the most prolific—and is remembered +now chiefly for the large number of these chorales that +have remained favorites during all the intervening +years. Among the best-known are <em>Nun danket alle +Gott</em>; <em>Jesu meine Zuversicht</em>; <em>Schmücke dich, O liebe +Seele</em>; and <em>Jesu meine Freude</em>. Most of his chorales +were written in the rhythmically regular and subdued +form which later was accepted as the modern idea of +the chorale. Other Protestant composers who gained +distinction as writers of Lutheran church-music before +Bach were Joachim von Burck or Moller (1541-1610), +celebrated for his <em>Odæ sacræ</em> or part-songs; Bartholomäus +Gesius (about 1555-1613); Melchior Franck (about +1573-1639); Hermann Schein (1586-1630), known chiefly +by his <em>Cantional</em>, published in 1627, consisting of over +200 chorale-melodies, inclusive of about 80 original<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span> +ones, which he harmonized, mostly note against note, +retaining the old irregular rhythm of the earliest chorale +melodies; and Andreas Hammerschmidt (1612-1675), +who, in his <em>Musikalische Andachten</em> (‘Musical +Devotions’) in five volumes and ‘Dialogues between +God and a Faithful Soul’ in two volumes, pointed to a +new and freer style in sacred composition and made a +deep impression on contemporary music of the Lutheran +service. With Heinrich Schütz, who will be discussed +in a succeeding chapter, Hammerschmidt constitutes +the important connecting link between the sixteenth-century +ecclesiastical style and the perfected +forms of Sebastian Bach.</p> + +<p>In retaining the trained choir for the performance +of the more elaborate choral music of the service, +Luther was forced to make special provision for the +education of the choristers, for with the Reformation +came the suppression of the abbeys and monasteries +that formerly had been the chief supporters of the +choir-schools, and the complete transformation of the +choristers from their former semi-clerical to a laic +status. As early as 1524 he had aroused Protestant +Germany to the imperative need of public education as +the only means of securing the success and permanence +of Protestant ideals, by addressing a stirring appeal to +the councilors of German cities. In all Protestant centres +schools were founded and actively maintained by +municipal, private, and parochial endowment. Music +was an integral part of Luther’s scheme of public education, +and in connection with the larger institutions he +urged the appointment of precentors or cantors<a id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> who +should have charge of the training of the choristers and +the selection and singing of the church music. These +precentorships became a powerful element in the development +of Protestant sacred music and in the diffusion<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span> +of choral culture. The most famous one was +that of the <em>Thomasschule</em> or School of St. Thomas in +Leipzig, where a long line of illustrious musicians from +Schein, Kuhnau, and Sebastian Bach down to Moritz +Hauptmann, E. F. Richter, and Wilhelm Rust (died +1892) enjoyed brilliant careers as cantors. Here a choir +of about sixty boys served four churches—St. Thomas, +St. Nicholas, St. Peter, and the New-Church. The lay +character of the choirs and the close relation between +the religious life of the church and the home aided +greatly in the general movement of popular musical +education.</p> + +<p>Another influential factor in the spread of choral +culture was the wandering choirs, or <em>currendi</em>. The +ancient custom of pupils from the monastic schools +going about town on certain festival days and singing +for alms was utilized in the Reformation period for +the twofold purpose of spreading the new doctrines +and strengthening the popular love of sacred song. +The members of these <em>currendi</em> belonged to the lower +grades of the parochial and cathedral schools, and to +them was assigned the duty of singing choral responses +and chorales in the service. On week-days they passed +from house to house singing canticles, and soon became +so much of a public institution that their services +were in demand, at a small fee, for all sorts of home +and semi-religious occasions, such as birthdays, weddings, +and baptisms. The older members of the choirs +were recruited in the higher or Latin schools from the +<em>alumni</em> or boys who were given a home in the school +buildings and who in return obligated themselves to +serve in the church choir and church orchestra. They +received the best vocal and instrumental instruction +and were therefore well equipped to perform the florid +and difficult music of the polyphonic masters. The interest +of these choristers in choral music continued +after their connection with the choirs as <em>alumni</em> and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span> +<em>currendani</em> (members of the <em>currendi</em>) had ceased, and, +as students in seminaries and universities or as plain +citizens, they exerted a wide influence on choral music +either by individually supplementing the local choirs or +by establishing choruses which were independent of the +churches but which were used to augment the choirs +on important church festivals.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>While the remarkable fermentation caused by Luther’s +doctrines was working such significant readjustments +in the religious, intellectual, and artistic life of +Germany, with echoing responses in adjacent continental +countries, a similar movement of revolt and reconstruction +gathered headway in England, generated +by the same fundamental causes but starting some +years later, and resulting in a complete separation +from Rome and in the establishment of the Church of +England. But the Anglican Church, like the Lutheran +Church, did not stand upon a wholly independent basis +of its own. Both proclaimed themselves purifiers and +reformers, not destroyers, of the ancient church, +hence both retained a large portion of the liturgy of the +parent church from which they revolted. The Reformation +in England, however, developed along quite +different lines from Luther’s energetic movement in +Germany. On the continent the revolt from Rome was +from first to last a religious movement; in England its +first outward manifestation was political. The incentive +which led Henry VIII to break with Pope Clement +VII was not an unalterable religious conviction such as +buttressed Luther at the Diet of Worms, but was personal +pique at the refusal of the Pope to recognize the +validity of his marriage with Anne Boleyn. In the +Act of Supremacy of 1534 the King and his successors<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span> +were declared to be ‘protector and supreme head on +earth of the church and clergy of England,’ but no doctrinal +changes were involved and the immediate result +was merely a change in the name of the church. Yet +Henry’s secession soon had the result of forming a distinct +line of cleavage for those who had been secretly +sympathizing with the religious ideals of Luther and +Zwingli on the continent and in whose Anglo-Saxon +hearts the right to independent thought and a liberated +reason was deeply cherished.</p> + +<p>The real reconstruction of the liturgy for the new +national Church in conformity to fundamental Protestant +doctrine began under Edward VI, who authorized +two forms of the Book of Common Prayer in succession +(1549 and 1552). In 1559 Elizabeth authorized a +third form, which remained in use for over a century. +The revision of the Book of Common Prayer in 1662 +under Charles II practically completed the restatement +of doctrine begun by Edward VI.</p> + +<p>The entire ritual of the Church of England is contained +in this Book of Common Prayer, and, as far as +the ordinary congregational worship is concerned, is +divided into Matins and Evensong (or Morning Prayer +and Evening Prayer) and the office of Holy Communion. +The ritual-music in all three consists of chants, +hymns, anthems, and certain free musical settings of +the canticles and other constant portions of the liturgy +technically called ‘services.’ In all matters of style and +construction the ‘service’ has closely followed the development +of the anthem, the early stages of which we +shall now trace.</p> + +<p>The anthem was recognized as a regular part of divine +service early in Elizabeth’s reign, but the word +was not actually used in the Prayer Book until the revision +of 1662, which simply states after the third collect, +‘In quires and places where they sing here followeth +the anthem.’ A few years after Elizabeth issued<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> +the ‘Injunctions’ granting permission to use ‘a hymn +or such like song in churches,’ the word anthem appears +in the second edition of Day’s choral collection, +entitled ‘Certain Notes set forth in four and five Parts +to be sung at the Morning and Evening Prayer and +Communion.’ The high place that church music has +occupied in the thought of English musicians is amply +evidenced by the fact that practically every composer +that England has produced has given his most serious +efforts to this form. The actual output of anthems has +been enormous; and, while it may be said with much +truth that the qualities of pedantry and dryness are too +much in evidence to permit the use of the terms ‘inspiring’ +or ‘inspired’ for the bulk of them, it may be +maintained with equal truth that in no other class of +church music, except the mighty individual contributions +of Palestrina and Bach, has the element of secularity +been so rigorously excluded as in the English +anthem and its allied forms. While the religious music +of Protestant Germany and Catholic Italy and +France suffered a lamentable relapse in the seventeenth +and eighteenth centuries under the insinuating influence +of the operatic style, the music of the English +cathedral service maintained on the whole a serenity +and certain austerity of style entirely consistent with +ecclesiastical ideals and dignity. The best examples +of this style—and they are numerous—give to the music +of the Anglican Church an honorable place in the +literature of the worship music of the four great historic +branches of the church universal, notwithstanding +its average mediocrity and the absence of really +great names among English church composers.</p> + +<p>The anthem is the culminating point of the ritual-music +of the Anglican Church, as the cantata was of +the early Lutheran Church. In its more extended form +it has much the same general musical structure as the +cantata, comprising choruses, solos, duets, etc., but it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span> +has never attained the large dimensions of its German +analogue. Like the church cantata, it made use of the +vernacular from the beginning, and, thus established +on the basis of a direct verbal appeal to the congregation, +it in time evolved a musical type of its own, clearly +differentiated from other distinctive types of church-music +and embodying the essential qualities of the +church from whose innermost being it blossomed.</p> + +<p>The word ‘anthem’ (from the Greek <em>Antiphona</em>, +through the changing forms, <em>antefne</em>, <em>antem</em>, <em>anthem</em>) +naturally suggests the idea of antiphonal or responsive +music, and it originally had this application, but not +since the restriction of its use to a specific and distinctive +form of church music. Its text is usually taken +from the Psalms or other portions of the Bible, or from +the liturgy. The anthem has never been a real part +of the liturgy in the same sense as musical portions of +the ‘service,’ for its words have never been authoritatively +prescribed for the various days of the church +calendar, a wide latitude being allowed in this respect.</p> + +<p>Four kinds of anthems are recognized and named +according to the vocal forces employed in performance. +They are called ‘full’ when written for chorus throughout; +‘verse’ when written for chorus and various groupings +of solo voices, the chorus being of secondary importance; +‘solo’ when written for chorus and one solo +voice; and ‘double’ when written for a double choir +singing antiphonally. The ‘full’ anthem is the natural +successor to the earlier Latin motet; the ‘verse’ and +‘solo’ anthems clearly show the influence of Italian +solo-forms applied to the problems of church-music. +The utmost freedom of form is now permitted in the +anthem and its dimensions vary from those of a simple +hymn-tune to extended compositions in several movements +constructed with elaborate contrapuntal skill +and employing independent organ, and sometimes orchestral,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> +accompaniment. In this larger form it approaches +closely the character of the cantata, although +not so individualized in its parts.</p> + +<p>The earliest anthems date from the beginning of +Elizabeth’s long reign (1558-1603) and the cultivation +of this form has gone on from this period in unbroken +continuity, save for the brief ascendency of Puritan +ideals during the Commonwealth. The literature of +Anglican Church music divides itself into four periods +of quite distinctive characteristics:</p> + + + +<p class="hang"><span style="padding-left: 2.9em; padding-right: 1em;">I.</span> (1550-1660) in the contrapuntal style of the unaccompanied +motet;</p> + +<p class="hang"><span style="padding-left: 2.5em; padding-right: 1em;">II.</span> (1660-1720) the beginning of the modern free style;</p> + +<p class="hang"><span style="padding-left: 2.1em; padding-right: 1em;">III.</span> (1720-1850) middle modern; and</p> + +<p class="hang"><span style="padding-left: 2.1em; padding-right: 1em;">IV.</span> 1850 to the present.</p> + + +<p>The peculiar character of the English Reformation +in its early stages was reflected in the ritual-music of +the newly-founded national church. The leaders of +the Protestant movement on the continent were mostly +men who sprang from the ranks of the common people. +It was in large measure a democratic and popular +movement. It was only natural that the music of the +people should find an echoing response in the music of +the church which sprang from such a foundation, and +thus the chorale, adapted from or closely related to +folk-music, forced its way into the Lutheran ritual-music +and exercised a profound influence on all aspects +of the worship-music of German Protestantism. +The English Reformation had no such popular basis. +The various stages of its progress were in the main determined +by royal edicts or by acts of parliaments subservient +to the royal will. No channel was open +through which the music of the people could exert any +appreciable influence on the figured music of the Anglican +Church. The fragrance of the English folk-song +may be detected in many an example of English hymnology,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span> +but no such aroma ever penetrated into the +atmosphere of the anthem or the ‘service.’</p> + +<p>When the break with Rome came and the reorganized +Church became an established fact, an astonishingly +small number of changes were made, considering the +momentous nature of the revolt, either in the general +body of ecclesiastical officers of the Church or among +the church musicians. For the first century of its existence +the figured music of the Anglican service was +almost identical in character with the corresponding +portions of the Roman Catholic service. The style and +structure of the anthem with English words differed +in no respect from the Latin motet. The traditions of +English church-music, traditions whose effects are still +to be felt in the choral portions, were firmly laid by +men deeply skilled in polyphonic writing, men whose +learning and musicianship made them worthy compeers +of the great continental contrapuntists, Lassus +and Palestrina.</p> + +<p>Among the greatest of the church composers of this +early period were such men as Thomas Tallis (1529?-1585), +whose anthems ‘I Call and Cry’ and ‘All People +that on Earth do Dwell’ are fine examples of the old +contrapuntal style; William Byrd (1538?-1623), with +his masterful ‘Bow Thine Ear’ and ‘Sing Joyfully’; and +Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), the ‘English Palestrina,’ +whose ‘Hosanna,’ ‘Lift up your Heads,’ ‘O Clap your +Hands together,’ and ‘Almighty and Everlasting God’ +have not yet ceased to excite admiration and reverence +for their solemnity and dignity. Most of the anthems +of this period are ‘full,’ though occasional ‘verse’ anthems +are also to be found. All were essentially <em>a cappella</em> +and relied wholly upon purely vocal effects. Small +portable organs were in common use in many churches, +but when they were employed as accompaniment they, +as well as occasional orchestral instruments, merely +reinforced the voice-parts or filled out the vocal ‘rests.’</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span></p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>Since the Reformation in all countries was fundamentally +democratic, though in varying degrees of expression, +it was inevitable that the people’s song should +be given substantial recognition in all forms of the +Protestant service. In Germany the chorale was at once +the utterance of profoundest religious conviction in the +sanctuary, in the home, and on the battlefield; and the +incitement to creative energy in more elaborate musical +forms. But in respect to its alliance with higher forms +of art-music, the chorale has no analogue in the ritual-music +of other Protestant services. In France, Switzerland, +and the Netherlands, the only form of religious +song tolerated by the Reformed Church was Calvin’s +austere psalmody, which was the beginning and end of +worship-music in all churches under his leadership. +His intolerant antipathy to everything that even suggested +the elaborate and beautiful forms of the Roman +ritual rigidly excluded all polyphonic or figured music +as well as all forms of instrumental accompaniment. +The Genevan Psalter, published in various editions +from 1542 to 1562 when it appeared in its complete +form, consisted of the metrical translations of the +Psalms by Clement Marot and Theodore Beza set, for +the most part, to adaptations of popular secular French +songs, though many of the finest tunes have been variously +attributed, but without conclusive proof, to Louis +Bourgeois, Guillaume Franc, and Claude Goudimel. +Many of the fine melodies of the Genevan Psalter, such +as ‘Old Hundredth’ or the long-metre doxology and +‘Toulon,’ have persisted in popularity during the centuries +and have been permanently enshrined in Protestant +hymnology. Although many editions of the most +popular of the psalm-tunes appeared for four voices +(the melody at first in the tenor), finely harmonized<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> +by Bourgeois, Goudimel and others, no other than plain +unisonal singing of the tunes was permitted in the +church service for over two centuries.</p> + +<p>The movement in favor of congregational song +quickly passed to England, where, however, complex +conditions prevented the development of any such uniform +type as the chorale. The establishment of the +Church of England, with its revised liturgy and musical +service, had scarcely been effected when it came into +collision with opposition within the Protestant fold far +more intense and bitter than any encountered from its +Roman Catholic foes. The Puritan party, in its excessive +repugnance to all forms of ritualism or ceremonial +and in its invincible conviction that everything artistic +in worship was sinful, fiercely attacked the Anglican +Church as an insincere compromise with popery. Following +Calvin’s leadership, Puritanism threw overboard +the whole structure of formal worship in the +historic church and permitted in the service no music +at all except the congregational singing of the metrical +psalms. In this wholly democratic conception of worship-music +there was obviously no incentive to any +higher form of musical expression. The only contribution +of the Dissenters, therefore, to the literature of +church-music was their hymnody, or rather psalmody, +for the words, even though many times rewritten and +reparaphrased, were rigidly limited to the Psalms. The +first complete English metrical Psalter<a id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> was the famous +one by Sternhold and Hopkins in 1562, which held sway +among Puritan congregations for nearly two centuries +and a half and was likewise supreme in the Anglican +Church for at least a century and a half. The new +version of the Psalter by Tate and Brady, published in +1696, remained in favor till a still later date or till +about the middle of the nineteenth century, but the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span>popularity of both was seriously challenged by the +splendid version of Isaac Watts in 1719. The origin +of the sixty-five different psalm-tunes in the Sternhold +and Hopkins collection has been open to much controversy. +It seems highly probable that most of them +were of English composition, though many were doubtless +written in imitation of hymn-tunes that were favorites +among the French, Swiss, and German Protestants.</p> + +<p>The congregational song of the Anglican Church in +the first century and a half of its existence likewise +kept close to the Psalter. Hymns, in the German sense +of spontaneous expression of individual religious sentiment, +were practically unknown in English religious +song until just before the period of Watts and the Wesleys. +The idea that nothing should be used in public +worship that was not strictly Scriptural dominated the +services of Conformists and Non-conformists alike. To +be sure, a few ancient hymns, such as the <em>Te Deum</em> and +<em>Veni Creator</em>, together with some canticles and ‘spiritual +songs,’ were admitted into the Appendix to the +Psalter, to be sung in private devotions, but it was not +until the closing years of the seventeenth century that the +hymn emerged from the protecting care of the Psalms +and asserted itself as an independent form in the service. +The first successful collection in which it assumed +a place of its own was ‘Select Psalms and Hymns’ for +St. James’s, Westminster, 1697. A new and glorious era +for English hymnody was at hand, in which the hard, +prosaic lines of the old psalmody were to be laid aside +for more spontaneous, inspired religious utterance. +But if the verses of the old poets of an austere, unloving +religion were to be discarded and gradually forgotten, +many of the melodies to which they were sung have +lived to be joined to words of sweeter comfort and +more joyous hope than the English religionists of those +olden days permitted themselves. Most of the early +tunes were written in the then prevalent church modes,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span> +many were undoubtedly adapted from English folk-songs +and continental melodies, but the names of many +of the greatest English composers of this period—Tye, +Tallis, Gibbons, Byrd—lived on in their inspired church +tunes and are still to be found in nearly every modern +hymnal in use, whether prepared for liturgical or non-liturgical +services.</p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="footnotes"> +<p class="center p2 big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="label">[41]</a> In the ‘Thuringian Mystery, or the Parable of the Ten Virgins,’ written +evidently by monks and performed for the first time at Eisenach, +Thuringia, on April 24, 1322, the futility of intercessory prayers to saints +or even to the Virgin is asserted.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="label">[42]</a> This substitution was not entirely accomplished during Luther’s +lifetime, however, as a few Latin motets were retained for a long time.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="label">[43]</a> Philip Wackernagel in his collection of old German hymns (<em>Das +deutsche Kirchenlied</em>) gives 1,448 examples of these, dating from 868 to +1518.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44" class="label">[44]</a> Only two can with certainty be ascribed to him—<em>Jesaia dem Propheten +das geschah</em> and <em>Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott</em>—while five more are probably +by him.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45" class="label">[45]</a> The first chorale-book to adopt this as a fixed principle was the +one published in 1586 at Nuremberg by Lucas Osiander, ‘Fifty Sacred +Songs and Psalms, arranged contrapuntally for four voices, so that a +whole Christian congregation may unite in the singing of them.’</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46" class="label">[46]</a> <em>Cf.</em> Naumann, ‘The History of Music’ (Eng. trans.), Vol. I, p. 473.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47" class="label">[47]</a> Cantors, however, had existed from early times in the ecclesiastical +establishments and singing schools (<em>scholæ cantorum</em>).</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48" class="label">[48]</a> Sternhold’s first incomplete collection of nineteen psalms was published +in 1549, the year of his death.</p> + +</div> +</div> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER IV<br> +<small>THE EARLY ITALIAN SECULAR CANTATA,<br> +THE GERMAN CLASSICAL CANTATA, THE ENGLISH ANTHEM,<br> +AND OTHER SHORT CHORAL FORMS</small></h2> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="p2">The entrance of dramatic tendencies into music—Carissimi and the +early cantata; Rossi, Cesti, and Legrenzi—A. Scarlatti, the culminating +point in cantata-writing in Italy; later developments of the Italian cantata—The +German church cantata and its relation to the Lutheran service; +cantata-texts of Neumeister and others—Bach in the service of the church; +his church cantatas—G. F. Handel; Joseph Haydn; W. A. Mozart—English +church music in the eighteenth century; the anthem; Croft, Greene, Boyce, +and others—Later history of the motet in England, Italy, and Germany; +decadence of the madrigal; the glee, the part-song, the masque and the ode.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="p2">The year 1600 is probably the most significant milestone +in all the long history of the development of the +art of music. By a strange coincidence this year witnessed +the performance of the first oratorio, Cavalieri’s +‘The Representation of Body and Soul,’ in Rome and +the first public performance<a id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> of opera, Peri’s <em>Euridice</em>, +in Florence. These events were of tremendous import +in that they not only emphasized and gave direction to +the newly-developed dramatic tendencies, but made +necessary the further and more complete development +of two closely-related but subordinate activities—independent +instrumental music and pure vocal art. The +entrance of a consciously dramatic element into musical +composition meant a comprehensive widening of +the area of musical expression. Heretofore music had +served its chief purpose and had found its justification +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span>in the service of the church. Though there are portions +of the Roman Catholic liturgy that are essentially dramatic +in their spiritual significance, the avowedly impersonal +character of the whole liturgy had excluded +the possibility of utilizing these situations for dramatic +treatment, even in those parts specifically given over to +elaborate musical settings. Had such a dramatic treatment +been in consonance with the spirit of this liturgy, +some of the many opportunities would certainly have +been seized upon by such a genius as Palestrina, for +there are many striking examples in his masses and +motets of his wonderful ability to delineate the sentiment +and mood of the text and reinforce the meaning +and significance of a word by some expressive chord +or dissonance. These instances serve to suggest how +deeply he sensed the genius of the Roman liturgy and +under what admirable artistic restraint he must have +labored in not exploiting the dramatic possibilities +which lay even in the limited musical vocabulary of +his period. But this restraint was no longer necessary +in the new secular fields of composition opened up by +the disciples of ‘the new music’ (<em>nuove musiche</em>).</p> + +<p>The first results of the infusion of this consciously +new factor into musical speech was an intense activity +in all fields of composition that offered opportunity for +the employment of the <em>musica parlante</em> or <em>stilo rappresentativo</em>, +as the new form of musical declamation or +recitative was called that formed the distinguishing +characteristic of the works of Peri, Cavalieri and other +early composers of the new movement. This new form +of musical speech was not intended by the Florentine +reformers as an invention, but merely as a revival of +the ancient manner of declaiming tragedy, using varying +degrees of vocal inflection in accordance with the +demands of the rhetorical utterance of the text, with no +reference whatever to melodic structure or design.</p> + +<p>While the use of the recitative was at first confined to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span> +the opera,<a id="FNanchor_50" href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> it was only natural that experiments should +be made in other forms, less pretentious, in which it +was desired to clothe a poetic text with the expressive +strength and beauty of musical tones.</p> + +<p>The term ‘cantata’ came to be used by composers +in the early part of the seventeenth century (first probably +not far from 1650) to designate some of these short +secular compositions for the chamber, usually dramatic +in character, which were written for a single voice with +a simple accompaniment for one instrument, generally +a lute. These secular compositions were called <em>cantate +da camera</em>. They were given without action and at +first were sung in unbroken recitative, imitating the +style employed with such success in the operas of Caccini, +Peri, and Monteverdi. But the monotony of this +style soon led to the introduction of the air or sustained +melody, which recurred several times during the progress +of the recitative, but with a different text each +time.</p> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>The cantata as a distinct musical form was assiduously +cultivated by nearly all of the important Italian +composers during the seventeenth century and its form +soon began to crystallize along the lines which, for the +following century, characterized it. In this work of +definition and crystallization, Giacomo Carissimi (born +probably 1604, died 1674) had a most distinguished +part. He also transferred the cantata from the chamber +to the church and wrote prolifically in both secular +and sacred forms. A more detailed analysis of Carissimi’s +influence on choral writing will be reserved for +the discussion of early oratorio, but it may be said +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span>here that, though he cannot be credited with the invention +of the sacred cantata, he was the first musician of +large calibre to adopt this form and to lavish on it his +best thought and most profound skill. He is generally +admitted to have exerted more influence on the perfecting +of the recitative than any of his contemporaries +and he firmly established in sacred music those elements +of pathos and dramatic fervor which had proved +to be so effective in the opera and for which the public +had acquired so keen an appetite. This enrichment +of the purely musical means of expression in church +music in the interest of greater dramatic realism was +by no means a healthy accretion from the standpoint +of pure ecclesiastical music, for, with the introduction +of the dramatic element and the employment of the +solo voice with all the possibilities for virtuosity and +the temptations for display, the period of decadence +in the music of the Roman Church began.</p> + +<p>All of Carissimi’s cantatas were for one voice or at +most for two and all were written with accompaniment +for a single instrument—lute, harpsichord, ‘cello, etc. +His accompaniments were simple, but displayed unusual +lightness and variety for his period. He left a +vast amount of completed work behind him, but little +of it is now available. Dr. Charles Burney,<a id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> writing +near the close of the eighteenth century, when actual +performances of Carissimi’s works were not such a matter +of ancient history as now, gives warm praise to +the beauty and musical effectiveness of his cantatas +and liberally reproduces musical extracts. In speaking +of a collection of twenty-two of his cantatas, preserved +in Christ Church, Oxford, Burney says: ‘There is not +one which does not offer something that is still new, +curious, and pleasing; but most particularly in the +recitatives, many of which seem the most expressive, +affecting, and perfect that I have seen. In the airs +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span>there are frequently sweet and graceful passages, which +more than a hundred years have not impaired.’ His +secular cantatas were both lyric and dramatic. Only +one was suggested by a special event, the death of +Mary Queen of Scots.</p> + +<p>The cantata of the seventeenth century was evidently +as diverse in style and character as were its descendants +in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It dealt +with subjects that were sacred, profane, heroic, comic, +and sometimes ludicrous. The wider range of subjects +available for the secular or chamber cantata made this +form especially appealing to composers. Then, too, the +voice was the most perfectly developed medium of +musical expression that the age provided—the heritage +of centuries of training in the service of the church. +While the violins of the last half of the century approached +the most perfect specimens that the great Cremona +violin-makers produced, this instrument was at +a disadvantage as compared with the voice, because instrumental +forms were still very crude and in the making, +and the instruments on which the violin depends +for accompanying harmonic background (the harpsichord +and the clavichord) were inadequate, unsatisfactory, +and very limited in their range of musical expression. +Avoidance of a set or arbitrary form was one of +the characteristics of the seventeenth-century chamber +cantata as a whole. This freedom in form (that is, in +the order and kind of arias, etc.) offered greatest scope +for the imagination and intellectual capacities of the +composer. The period of vocal virtuosity and degeneracy +had not yet set in and the singers themselves were +not only the best trained in everything pertaining to +musical science, but were the most intellectual of musicians +and represented the best phases of musical art +and culture. The intimacy of the chamber and the +absence of scenery and action in performance gave the +highest incentive and best opportunity to both composer<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span> +and singer to subordinate everything to the higher +demands of artistic expression. Hence the composers +of the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth centuries +regarded the chamber cantata much in the same +light that Beethoven and Brahms in the nineteenth century +regarded the pianoforte sonata and the violin +sonata—the most intimate and intellectual form of music +that the age could produce. All the great composers +up to and including Handel practised in this form as +Bach did in fugue, and in its exploitation they worked +out many a problem of thematic development, of contrast +in melodic forms, and of interesting harmonic +structure and key-relationships, thereby enriching the +vocabulary of the art for succeeding generations. Mention +will here be made of the more important of Carissimi’s +contemporaries and immediate successors who +gained distinction as writers of cantata and who aided +in its further development.</p> + +<p>The elaborate cantatas of Luigi Rossi (born near the +end of the sixteenth century, died about 1650) for a +single voice—<em>a voce sola</em>—are among the very earliest +examples of this form and are noteworthy illustrations +of how quickly the vague and indefinite recitative of +the Florentine monodies began to show tendencies +to formal organization and a pleasing, fluent style for +the solo voices. A fine example of the newly-awakened +tendency toward definite form in secular music is found +in his cantata <em>Gelosia</em>, which Burney quotes in full in +his History and in which Parry<a id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> finds the following +definite formal scheme, which had evidently been carefully +thought out by the composer:</p> + + + +<p class="indent5 hang2">A<sup>1</sup>. 4/4, declamatory recitative of 23 measures and close.</p> + +<p class="indent5 hang2">B<sup>1</sup>. 3/4, tuneful—nine measures.</p> + +<p class="indent5 hang2">C<sup>1</sup>. 4/4, declamatory recitative of 19 measures.</p> + +<p class="indent5 hang2">A<sup>2</sup>. Same bass as A<sup>1</sup>, but different words and varied voice-part.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span></p> + + +<p class="indent5 hang2">B<sup>2</sup>. 3/4, same bass as B^1, but different words and different +voice-part.</p> + +<p class="indent5 hang2">C<sup>2</sup>. 4/4, recitative. Same bass as C<sup>1</sup>, but different words +and different voice-part.</p> + +<p class="indent5 hang2">A<sup>3</sup>. Same music as A<sup>1</sup>, but different words.</p> + +<p class="indent5 hang2">B<sup>3</sup>. 3/4, same as B<sup>1</sup>, with different words.</p> + +<p class="indent5 hang2">C<sup>3</sup>. Same bass and almost the same voice-part as C<sup>1</sup> till +last three measures, which are varied to give effect +to the conclusion.</p> + +<p>Marc’ Antonio Cesti (about 1620-1669) was a pupil of +Carissimi and went far beyond the efforts of his teacher +in the formal construction of his melodies. His great +popularity attests the increasing fondness of Italian +taste for tuneful formality. One of his cantatas, <em>O cara +libertà</em>, is said to have been one of the most famous +of the century. Many of his melodies approximate the +characteristic forms in which later vocal arias were +cast, including the forms consisting of two contrasted +parts (A B) and of three parts with the contrasted section +in the middle (A B A). In the latter form the +third part is a varied or free repetition of the first part.</p> + +<p>Giovanni Legrenzi (about 1625-1690), though only +five years younger than Cesti, made a much larger contribution +to the development of his art, especially on +the instrumental side of vocal music. He is credited +with being one of the first composers to display a real +instinct for instrumental music, and he is said to have +reorganized the orchestra used to supplement the organ +at St. Mark’s, Venice, increasing it to 34 performers—8 +violins, 11 violette (small viola), 2 viole da braccia, +2 viole da gamba, 1 violone (bass viol), 4 theorbos, 2 +cornets, 1 bassoon, and 3 trombones. His accompaniments +show great vivacity and in general a variety of +style in strong contrast to those of most of his co-workers. +He published many cantatas in which the +music runs along uninterruptedly from beginning to +end. The succession of recitatives, melodious passages,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span> +and what might be called arias varies in each cantata +according to the demands of the texts. A great variety +is also noticeable in the form of the arias, which are remarkably +free in rhythm and declamatory flow. His +cantatas are among the best types of this seventeenth-century +form.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>Alessandro Scarlatti (1659-1725) undoubtedly looms +largest among the figures in Italian music of the seventeenth +century and the first half of the eighteenth +century, with especially marked influence in the fields +of opera and cantata. One of the most prolific composers +of all ages, he completed 115 operas, many +masses (at least 10 survive), 8 oratorios, and a vast +number of cantatas<a id="FNanchor_53" href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> (500 have come down to us), besides +quantities of music in other forms. The extraordinary +number of his chamber cantatas that survive +him is strong evidence of his estimate of and affection +for this form, examples of which cover every period +of his life and reflect as faithfully as do Beethoven’s +sonatas the various phases and stages of the composer’s +artistic unfolding. Scarlatti was the greatest of +the writers of chamber-cantatas and only a few of his +successors approached him in excellence in this field. +Indeed, the popularity of this form seems to have spent +its force in Italy soon after the middle of the eighteenth +century. Many of his cantatas bear internal evidence +that he regarded them as ‘carefully designed studies in +composition,’<a id="FNanchor_54" href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> in the working out of which he brought +to bear his best musicianship. One of the finest examples +of this careful and beautiful workmanship is +the cantata <em>Andata a miei sospiri</em>, two settings of which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span>he wrote for and sent to his composer-friend, Gasparini, +in 1712.</p> + +<p>But the very fertility of his invention and the ease +and rapidity with which his musical thoughts flowed +from his pen generated a tendency toward the adoption +of a stereotyped style, influenced as he was by the growing +inclination of his pleasure-loving Neapolitan audiences +to demand triviality more than dramatic seriousness, +tuneful melody and vocal display more than sincerity +of expression. He did not possess the rugged +tenacity of artistic purpose that drove Gluck, a half-century +later, to insist on the primacy of the dramatic +intent and the complete subordination of the musical +element to the dramatic. So we find that under his +hand the cantata, as well as the opera, became conventionalized +in form. The vocal element, on which he +lavished greatest care, became predominant and the +aria, as the chief means of vocal utterance, fell under +the same spell of conventionality. But in the cantatas, +especially in the essentially musical parts, there are +comparatively few evidences of the spirit of triviality +that he so freely admitted into his operas. It is not +true, as is frequently asserted, that Scarlatti invented +the stereotyped forms of the aria that were the chief +stock in trade of his successors in Italian opera until +the middle of the nineteenth century. Nearly all of +these aria-forms, including the commonest and most +banal operatic form, the one with the indispensable +<em>da capo</em>, may be found in the cantatas and operas of the +composers already mentioned, among whom the inclination +toward definite organization in melodic form +was already well developed before Scarlatti had more +than begun his career as composer. The incredible +number of arias that he wrote and their easy classification +as to form certainly made this common error of +statement a very pardonable one. From his position +as the greatest composer of his period, however, he gave<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span> +to their use an authority and an impetus whose force +was not fully spent for a century and a quarter after his +death.</p> + +<p>But if Scarlatti’s contributions to the cantata and +opera were mainly along the line of the glorification +of the purely musical and vocal elements, in one direction +certainly he contributed richly to the permanent +progress of musical art. In Carissimi’s cantatas the +accompaniments were very simple, written usually with +figured bass only, which was left to the performers to +fill in at their discretion. After Carissimi the accompaniment +began to assume a more elaborate character, +but many of Scarlatti’s show utmost care in working +out. Most of these were for violin or ‘cello. Some of +those for ‘cello required such large technical equipment +that ability to play them was looked upon as a mark +of distinguished musicianship. Indeed, it was not uncommon +in that age, which was far more superstitious +than our own, for audiences, deeply impressed with the +beauty of tone and marvellous skill of the performers, +to believe and declare that angels had assumed the +form of men.</p> + +<p>Cantata-writing in Italy reached its highest point in +A. Scarlatti and seems to have been, for a period extending, +roughly speaking, from 1650 to 1750, almost +the only form of vocal music used for private or chamber +purposes. As Parry points out, ‘it is certainly +creditable to the taste of the prosperous classes that a +branch of art which had such distinguished qualities +should have been so much in demand; for the standard +of style, notwithstanding obvious defects, is always +high.’<a id="FNanchor_55" href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> But the decline in the standards of opera had +an inevitable effect on the character of its closely allied +form, the chamber-cantata. Though composers continued +industriously to employ it, the finest examples +are to be found among the composers already mentioned.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span> +In addition to the above, Giovanni Battista +Bassani (about 1657-1716) published numerous cantatas +on love themes for one, two, or three voices with +instruments and maintained a noble style in both vocal +and instrumental parts, his handling of the instrumental +parts being distinctly an advance over previous +composers.</p> + + +<p>It is to be noted that few, if any, distinguishing or +personal marks can be discovered in the works of the +various Italian composers of this period, particularly +those whose names follow. All say the same elegant, +suave things in much the same elegant, suave manner. +Francesco Gasparini (1668-1727) had such a high reputation +in his time that Alessandro Scarlatti sent his son, +Domenico, to study with him. Later a curious rivalry +sprang up between Gasparini and the elder Scarlatti, +which took the strange guise of a cantata-correspondence +in which each sought to puzzle and outdo the +other. Gasparini’s fame, however, rested on a treatise +upon accompaniment, published in 1708, which remained +a standard work in Italy until well along in +the nineteenth century. Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739), +celebrated for his settings of 50 psalms for one, +two, three, and four voices with accompaniment, published +26 cantatas for different voices with accompaniment +for various instruments. The Royal Library at +Dresden contains copies of two of his cantatas—<em>Timotheus</em>, +to his own Italian translation of Dryden’s poem, +and <em>Cassandra</em>—both of which were famous in their +time. Emanuele Astorga (1681-1736) is remembered +now almost entirely by his beautiful cantatas for solo +voices (soprano or contralto), of which about 100 are +extant, and for two voices, all with accompaniment +in figured bass for the harpsichord. Ten of these +duets (for soprano and contralto) are published in +Peters’ Edition and also by Leuckhart with accompaniment +arranged for pianoforte.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span></p> + +<p>Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), son of Alessandro +Scarlatti and especially famous as a harpsichord player +and composer for this instrument, wrote many cantatas +in which the form became more extended, comprising +various movements. In this extension of form Scarlatti +was followed by Pergolesi (1710-1736), whose cantata +<em>Orfeo ed Euridice</em>, written in the composer’s last illness, +was the most famous of the period. Giovanni +Battista Bononcini (about 1660-about 1750), remembered +now as the defeated rival of the great Handel in +the famous London opera-writing duel, was one of the +most prolific of all cantata writers, though the music +was quite mediocre. Other well-known Italian composers +of the eighteenth century who employed the extended +cantata-form were Antonio Caldara (1678-1763) +and Niccola Porpora (1686-1766 or 1767). The +great Handel himself wrote many cantatas for single +voice in the prevalent fashion and in many of them +used for his accompaniment such combinations of +instruments as strings and oboes. After Handel’s time +the cantata of the Italian type described above lost +favor and was gradually superseded by the concert +aria, a form which Mozart, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn +have used with fine results.<a id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> Mozart gave the name +cantata to a composition for three solo voices, chorus, +and orchestra in three movements, written about 1783 +(Koëchel No. 429). The distinction of having used the +chorus in the cantata for the first time, however, probably +rests with Giovanni Paësiello (1741-1816), who, in +an attempt to revive the waning interest in this form, +sought to give greater vocal effectiveness by contrasting +choral with solo effects. In this formal respect at least, +several of his cantatas (as <em>Dafne ed Alceo</em> and <em>Retour +de Persée</em>) are prototypes of the present-day form.</p> + +<p>Thus far in the consideration of the cantata we have +been concerned mainly with its secular form and with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span>its development in Italy. The secular cantata in Italian +style does not seem to have gained any permanent popularity +outside the land of its birth, certainly not +enough to attract the attention of the best composers +either in France, which had developed a dramatic style +of its own along different principles from those of the +Italians, or in Germany and England, in both of which +countries the influence of Italian opera predominated. +In France only unimportant composers cared to employ +it. In England native composers of the seventeenth +century found two worthy substitutes for the +cantata in the masque and the ode.</p> + +<p>In the very beginning of its career the cantata was +successfully placed within the domain of church music +by Carissimi, and during his lifetime and later the +church-cantata in Italy had much the same form as that +of the oratorio, to which it was so closely allied in +spirit and function. But in Germany, under the influence +of the intense religious feeling engendered by +the stormy days of the Reformation, it took on the +character almost of a national religious institution. +Here it developed into a form of such magnificent proportions +and significant influence that an extended exposition +of some of the contributing causes and accompanying +conditions may be pertinent.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>German choral music, which in its early history +means German church music, cannot be considered +apart from certain fundamental national traits which +are present in some degree even in the earliest folk-music +of this nation and in the effusions of the mediæval +minnesingers—traits which instinctively turned +their artistic attention toward sincerity of poetic +thought and utterance rather than sensuous beauty of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span> +melodic expression. An instinct for grasping fundamentals, +a fervid devotion, and a rugged tenacity in +following accepted ideals—these were qualities that +made Germany a fit cradle for the Reformation and the +German people the foremost defenders and stoutest +preachers of the religious emancipation of the individual +which Luther proclaimed with such far-sounding +tones. The contrapuntal skill that German musicians +had learned, along with the rest of Europe, from +the Netherland masters, they did not use so much for +the glorification of music or for æsthetic and formal +considerations as for the enrichment and elucidation +of the ideas and sentiments of the words. When the +rest of Europe had capitulated to the ravishing sweetness +and allurements of Italian melody, Germany listened +somewhat incredulously, and even when this +charmer was finally admitted into the inner courts of +its musical household, it was compelled to assume a +purified and chastened form.</p> + +<p>The essential characteristics of German musical art +are well illustrated by the condition of music in Germany +in the seventeenth century as compared with that +of Italy. The secular impulse that had wrought such +a revolution in Italian music and musical methods had +made itself felt in Germany at an even earlier period, +but in a very different manner. In the southern country +it brought about an intense development of the +dramatic element. This almost immediately reacted +upon church music and left upon it an indelible impression, +sadly weakening the Palestrina ideal of impersonality +with the impingement of the strong personal, +human element which the introduction of the +solo inevitably emphasized, and which led, as has been +pointed out, to a period of deterioration in Catholic +church music.</p> + +<p>The change in German music can also be traced to a +secular source, but not only were the immediate results<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span> +of this change, in terms of actual music, vastly +different from those in Italy, but the controlling motive +which molded its varied manifestations was alike +different. The German Protestants were at once summoned +to test the strength and sincerity of their new-found +faith in the crucible of physical combat, and they +were stirred as was possibly no other nation engaged in +the complicated succession of religious wars of the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As it was religious +fervor that led them to take up the sword in defence, +so it was religious sentiment and devotion that furnished +the motive that lies back of the entire scheme of +German musical art of the seventeenth century. To +the rather austere German composers of this period +music seemed to be too lovely and pure a thing to be +used for histrionic tricks and trappings. So the most +sincere and important utterances of German musical +art of the seventeenth century are to be found in the +field of religious music. It has been pointed out (page +79) that the chorale was the basis of the music which +sprang into being as the natural expression of the +Protestant movement in Germany. Since the rich mass +of folk-song supplied such abundant material for the +chorales used in the Lutheran service, the secular element +through this channel entered into the very warp +and woof of German music, and carried into it the +quality of simple and fervid sincerity that in a marked +degree has always characterized the German folk-song +and the art-music that sprang from it.</p> + +<p>The secular element had wrought a complete change +in Italian music within the short space of a half century +and the impetuous Italians had given themselves over +to the new tendency so whole-heartedly that the boundaries +of the old ecclesiastical art were almost wholly +obliterated. An unexpected caution and conservatism, +however, manifested itself among the Germans and an +entire century elapsed before a definite and distinctive<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span> +art-fabric was evolved from the material at hand. +Composers, now almost wholly forgotten, but who +might have won more frequent historic mention had +they chosen to tread the more brilliant path of histrionic +art, worked contentedly and with pious enthusiasm to +make chorales for the church service or to construct +motets by using the chorale tunes as subjects and weaving +voice-parts around them in expressive counterpoint +or in imitative figures, with all the polyphonic skill +they possessed.</p> + +<p>Out of this religious zeal finally emerged the German +church cantata, which found its culminating point, +as did so many other musical forms associated with German +church music, in Johann Sebastian Bach. In Italy +and elsewhere in connection with Roman Catholic music, +the church cantata never possessed any liturgical +significance, though it was freely employed for purposes +of religious entertainment and instruction. But +almost immediately after its introduction into Germany +through the gifted German students who had +studied in Italian art-centres, notably in Venice, the +church cantata became a part of the regular order of +the German Protestant church worship and thus became +the object of solicitous attention on the part of +Protestant German composers. Encouraged by the +church and firmly imbedded in its liturgy, it needed +only the touch of Bach’s genius to cause it to grow into +full artistic stature and stand as the most precious +musical gift of German Protestantism to the world. In +the seventeenth century it was frequently called ‘spiritual +concerto’ or ‘spiritual dialogue,’<a id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> and consisted +of Biblical passages and church or devotional hymns. +During this period its rather crude musical form usually +followed this order—an instrumental introduction, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span>a ‘spiritual aria’ (a simple strophic song for one or +more voices), one or two vocal solos, and a chorale or +two.</p> + +<p>While German religious music was cautiously feeling +its way toward individual self-expression, there were +not wanting among German musicians those who felt +that the forms of Italian dramatic music, such as the +recitative and aria with their obvious possibilities for +the expression of impassioned human feeling, should +be fully utilized in the structure of their new religious +art, and who argued that the qualities of brilliance, +variety, and personal utterance should be present in +ecclesiastical art as well as in secular. On the other +hand were those who were in favor of banishing from +the church service all vocal music except that based on +the austere chorale and motet (analogous to the Latin +motet of the sixteenth century), and who would restrict +all church music to the more abstract, objective, and +liturgic conception derived from ecclesiastical traditions. +Standing on middle ground between these two +extreme ideals, Bach, with the insight born of genius, +retained all that was best and most serviceable in each—the +simple strength and sturdy devotion of the +chorale, together with the contrapuntal chorus, as the +collective expression of exalted religious sentiment, and +the recitative and Italian aria, chastened and stripped +of its histrionic shallowness and insincerity, as the individual +personal utterance of the more subjective moods +of meditation and introspection.</p> + +<p>The Lutheran Church retained in its liturgy many of +the prominent features of the Roman liturgy. Among +them were portions of the mass, the custom of chanting +certain parts of the service, the singing of ancient +hymns and traditional tunes, and the observance of +special church days and festivals. The calendar of +the church year was largely the same in the two faiths, +and in the Lutheran Church, as in the Roman, the order<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span> +and character of the different portions of the service +were carefully prescribed by church law. Each Sunday +and special day had its own appropriate Bible lesson, +versicles and prayers, and its own chorales, the words +of which would illustrate the Bible texts of the day, +commenting upon them and applying their lessons to +the common experience of the devout worshippers. +This intimate relation of chorales to a definite church-day +was of obvious advantage to composers in that it +enabled them to construct, around the chorales as central +points, compositions which would amplify the sentiment +of the stanzas of the chorales and serve as musical +commentaries on the religious significance of the +various days of the church calendar. The cantata thus +became the chief musical feature of the Lutheran liturgy, +and the words brought to the attention of the congregation +some particular feature of the religious +thought that received special emphasis in the order of +the day.</p> + +<p>The great popularity of the cantata with both church +authorities and congregation in Germany was undoubtedly +due in part to the many opportunities it offered for +satisfying the universal craving for greater individualization, +for freer utterance of individual emotion and +sentiment. The opera of the period, which consisted +largely of solo-singing, gave free rein to the expression +of personal feeling, as the spirit of the times demanded. +Yet nothing that was really permanent or artistic could +arise from this foundation, since the subjects of opera +were drawn almost exclusively from far-removed classical +and mythological sources. These subjects held little +or no real interest for the masses, and the singers who +impersonated the legendary characters were actuated +almost solely by professional vanity. The opera was +thus inevitably surrounded with an atmosphere of insincerity +and moral indifference. While the people applauded, +they remained untouched except on the surface,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span> +and only partly satisfied. When the element of +personal expression was transferred to church performances, +the situation was radically changed. Their +religious experiences were real and vital and tangible. +The important part that the congregation was encouraged +to take in the singing of hymns and chorales gave +to the zealous worshippers a feeling of individual responsibility +in the services. Even in those more elaborate +musical portions assigned to the choir, they could +follow, in fancied participation, the religious emotions +set forth in a language that they could readily understand +and that was intensified by the expressive power +of appropriate music. The intensely subjective, sometimes +even sentimental, nature of the texts made a deep +appeal to the warm Protestant piety of the German +people.</p> + +<p>Poetical texts of a semi-dramatic character, suited in +more or less definite way to the different church days, +soon came to be in great demand. The first to supply +such cantata texts of real literary merit was Erdmann +Neumeister (1671-1756), a preacher-poet of Sorau and +Hamburg, who wrote no less than five complete cycles +of texts for the church calendar. Though a host of +other poets followed him in writing similar cantata +texts, Neumeister seems to have been unexcelled and +to have had a large influence by the sheer literary excellence +of his poetry and the moving power of his +pious eloquence. Both Telemann and Mattheson were +appreciative collaborators with him, and among the +cantatas which Bach wrote with such incredible industry +for his choir at St. Thomas’ Church are several with +Neumeister’s fine texts.</p> + +<p>Neumeister’s cycles of cantatas were published between +the years 1704 and 1716. In the preface to the +first of these cycles he frankly stated that ‘a cantata +has the appearance of a piece taken out of an opera.’ +The publication of these cycles of cantata texts brought<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span> +on a fierce controversy between his adherents among +churchmen and musicians on the one side and the Pietists +and those who were swayed by an instinctive antipathy +to theatrical music of any kind on the other. +Even the older and more severe cantatas had been accused +of worldliness, but the very idea of using in the +worship of God the recitative and aria, which were +the chief vehicles of musical expression in the profane +opera, was repugnant to the pietistic mind. The innovators +were charged with bringing into the church all +sorts of ‘singable stuff’ and gay and dance-like tunes. +To this Mattheson, who was chief among the musicians +of his period who could wield a pen in defence of their +art-theories, replied that of course a distinction must be +made between a sacred and an operatic recitative, and +that intelligent musicians knew well enough how to +treat it in the spirit of the church service and thus preserve +a true church style which would be at the same +time an independent style.<a id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> And so the question as to +what constitutes the true church style, as to what is +pure church music, has been hotly discussed, with +greater or less absence of brotherly love, in every generation +for the last two centuries, and, it is to be observed, +with much the same arguments as weapons in +each succeeding generation.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>In simplest definition church music, as Spitta has concisely +said, is music ‘that has grown up within the +bosom of the church’<a id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> and, he might have added, that +best expresses the essence and spirit of its distinctive +creedal beliefs. It took centuries for Roman Catholicism +to produce a Palestrina. But, when he did appear, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span>he acted as genius has always acted; while the learned +theologians of the Council of Trent were speculating +on the true character of church music and fulminating +against abuses, he was quietly creating those wonderful +masses and motets that have ever since been regarded +as the loftiest musical embodiment of the spirit of the +Roman Catholic liturgy and which, therefore, needed +no edict of council or pontiff to establish their supremacy. +And so, while lesser musicians were busily engaged +in defending the new ideas, Johann Sebastian +Bach (1685-1750), with all the quiet confidence of +genius, was steadily producing works for the church +service that stand in the same relation to the Lutheran +liturgy and to the spirit of the Lutheran Church of his +period that Palestrina’s music stands to the Roman +liturgy.</p> + +<p>The whole creative energy of Bach’s genius seemed +to centre around his deeply religious nature. The +great majority of his works were written either expressly +for the Lutheran Church service or in forms appropriate +to the spirit of this service. He consciously +set himself the task not only to regenerate church music, +which even in his time had fallen into melancholy +ways, but especially to take the forms which he found +already technically developed and to apply them to the +utterance of the exalted ideas of religious life and experience +as interpreted through the German Protestant +faith. Bach was the only one of the eighteenth-century +German composers who was completely equipped for +so worthy a task. Springing from sturdy peasant stock, +bred and educated entirely in his own beloved Thuringia +and wholly in accordance with German traditions +and Protestant ideals, and never deeming it necessary +to go abroad for those superficial refinements +which his nation lacked, Bach was essentially and peculiarly +the product of a culture that was purely German +Protestant. He was endowed with an intellectual<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span> +force of truly gigantic proportions and with a catholicity +wide and wise enough to assimilate whatever was +vital and vigorous in the various musical forms and +styles with which the air was filled. He was absolute +master of organ music, which throughout the seventeenth +century was the only branch of art to develop +real splendor as an indigenous product of the Lutheran +Church. Although in thought and feeling a thoroughgoing +churchman, he had the wit to discern that even +the opera, the worldly antipode of the churchly ideal, +contained elements that could be rendered valuable in +reverent service to purely religious purposes. In Bach’s +hands these operatic elements lost their emotional +sensuality, washed clean in the pure impersonal flow +of his organ music. Thus he reconciled the two seemingly +dissimilar styles and fused them into one, which +so perfectly expressed the essential being of the Church +he so deeply loved and so loyally served that, as Spitta +asserts, he ‘has remained to this day the last church +composer.’<a id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a></p> + +<p>During all his years of musical activity Bach was a +church organist and choir director. In these positions +it was a part of his official duties to compose music for +the various services of the church calendar. The zeal +and fidelity with which he performed this part of his +task is clearly evidenced by the following list of his +more important church works, vocal and instrumental: +about 20 large fantasias, preludes and fugues, a passacaglia, +several toccatas, and a large number of chorale-preludes +and elaborations, about 300 cantatas, 5 Passions, +3 oratorios for Christmas, Easter, and Ascension, +5 large masses and several shorter ones, many motets, +2 Magnificats, 5 Sanctuses, etc.</p> + +<p>By far the largest single group of his compositions +consists of church cantatas. Of these he wrote five +series for the Sundays and festivals of the church year,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span> +295 cantatas in all, of which 266 were written while he +was director of music at the Thomas and Nicolai +Churches in Leipzig, which post he held from 1723 until +his death in 1750. They easily take rank among the +master’s best works, and, notwithstanding the rather +astounding fact that for over four years he wrote a +cantata each week for the following Sunday’s service +in addition to other compositions, they contain many +of the finest and loftiest examples of accompanied +church music of his own or any other period, and give +unmistakable evidence of the scholarly care and loving +thought he bestowed upon them. As a group they are +excelled only by the Passions and the great B minor +Mass, and some of their choruses are not surpassed +even by these wonderful creations. Not one of them +was published during his life and many have been lost. +The manuscripts remained almost forgotten for nearly +a century after his death, but the Bach-Gesellschaft has +published about two hundred of them in its authoritative +edition of the master’s works (1851-1899), comprising +over fifty volumes and forming an enduring monument +to the master’s genius.</p> + +<p>An interesting and illuminating light is thrown upon +Bach’s attitude toward the composition of his church +music, especially the cantatas, when we remember that +they were all written, not for universal fame or popular +acclaim, but for the use of his own choir and for the +edification of that particular congregation for whom +it was his business to write music. He wrote them, exactly +as the minister wrote his sermons, as personal +contributions to the effectiveness and completeness of +individual church services and occasions. There is +little evidence to show that the congregation looked +upon these masterly compositions in any other light +than as regular and necessary parts of the ordinary +routine of service, little dreaming that a future century +would give them such lofty valuation.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span></p> + +<p>The church cantatas<a id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> reveal an astonishing versatility +and range of expression which show how completely +he surrendered his merely technical musicianship +to the guidance of the sentiment and mood of the +texts, and the needs of their liturgic environment. In +these cantatas he has bequeathed to his church and nation +‘a treasury of religious song compared with which, +for magnitude, diversity, and power, the creative work +of any other church composer that may be named—Palestrina, +Gabrieli, or whoever he may be—sinks into +insignificance.’<a id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a></p> + +<p>In length they vary from four to seven movements, +frequently with an instrumental prelude or overture. +The shortest consume about twenty minutes in performance +and the longest an hour or so. They are all written +with accompaniment for organ and, usually, some +solo instrument or group of instruments. The vocal +numbers consist of recitatives, arias, duets, and choruses. +In no other eighteenth-century composer does +the recitative assume such qualities of expressive and +fluent melody as in Bach. The arias vary greatly in +form, ranging from the use of the <em>da capo</em>, which in his +hands loses its Italian superficiality and conventionality, +to the utmost freedom of melodic design. In the choruses +he found full opportunity for indulging his characteristic +fondness for elaborate and complex polyphonic +structures. His conception of the relation of the +voice-parts to the whole tonal scheme differed radically +from contemporary usage. To him the solo part was +not a thing complete in and of itself, but rather a contrapuntal +detail of a larger tonal unit. Hence the accompaniment +usually rises to melodic importance coordinate +with the voice-part. Sometimes, indeed, the +voice-part sinks to secondary consideration, and merely +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span>concertizes with a more significant theme assigned to +the organ or some solo instrument. Bach’s whole mode +of thought was so essentially instrumental in its coloring +and expressional devices that he frequently produces +results that are hardly consonant with what might +be called vocal idiom. Such a mode of treatment easily +lapses into monotony and over-austerity, of which there +are occasional instances in all of his vocal works. But +there are more than enough counterbalancing examples +of arias in his cantatas to show how plastic this form +could become in his hands for the expression of the +deepest and tenderest sentiments and for the musical +delineation of the subtlest details in the changing +thought of the texts.</p> + +<p>The chorale, as already mentioned, played a most +important rôle in the constructional plan of Bach’s cantatas. +Since each church day had its especially appointed +chorale (<em>Hauptlied</em>), he made it an almost +universal practice to introduce this, either in whole or in +modified form, as material for contrapuntal treatment +in the voice-parts or in the accompaniments of at least +several of the movements. In some of the cantatas, +such as <em>Wer nur den lieben Gott</em> and especially the +famous <em>Ein’ feste Burg</em>, chorales appear in some guise +or other in every movement, whether recitative, aria, +or chorus. There are but very few of the cantatas, +among them the well-known <em>Ich hatte viel Bekümmerniss</em>, +in which no chorale-melody appears. The Bach +cantata regularly closed with a chorale in a plain and +unornamented four-part form, but richly harmonized.</p> + +<p>It is a real misfortune that the profound beauties of +these rare examples of ecclesiastical art are now practically +unknown to any except the occasional student. +But there are at least three things that have conspired +to keep them away from the general knowledge and +appreciation of the present-day public—(1) the Lutheran +service, which in the seventeenth and eighteenth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span> +centuries usually lasted for four hours at least, has been +much shortened and the cantata is no longer a necessary +component, hence at present it is rarely heard +even in its original home, the Lutheran service; (2) the +organ was such a central and dominating part of Bach’s +whole scheme of musical utterance that the cantata +cannot be performed with any other accompaniment +without a large shrinkage in artistic effectiveness; (3) +these works are so completely saturated with the spirit +and meaning of the particular type of church worship +for which they were created that when performed in +the concert room, even with the organ, they lose in +large measure, merely from the changed perspective +and environment. Many of the cantatas are available +for study in Peters’ Edition and, in English translation, +in the Novello Edition.</p> + +<p>Bach’s vocal polyphony, as illustrated by the intricate +choruses of his cantatas, was built squarely on his +conception of instrumental polyphony as applied to the +church service. All the finest qualities of his organ +style—the inexhaustible wealth of invention, the masterful +use of every contrapuntal device for exploiting +the thematic material, the majestic sweep of massive +bodies of closely knit melodies—all are found in these +choruses in a profusion and affluence that show at once +the marvellous fecundity of his genius and the reverent +love and patient care with which his task was wrought. +Of the nearly fifty cantatas that are published with German +and English texts, many might justly be chosen +for analysis that would closely approach in excellence +the few here presented. These few, however, are recognized +as among the greatest and are thoroughly representative +of Bach’s cantata style. In addition to these +there may also be enumerated <em>Wer nur den lieben Gott</em> +(‘If Thou but Sufferest God to Guide Thee’), <em>Jesu, +meine Freude</em> (‘Jesu, Priceless Treasure’), <em>Aus tiefer +Noth schrei’ ich zu Dir</em> (‘From Depths of Woe I Call on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span> +Thee’), and the Ascension cantata <em>Wer da glaubet und +getauft wird</em> (‘Whoso Believeth and Is Baptized’).</p> + +<p><em>Ich hatte viel Bekümmerniss</em> (‘My Heart was Full of +Heaviness’).—This work was Bach’s first sacred cantata. +He composed it in 1714 at Weimar while still +depressed over his difficulties with the elders of the +<em>Liebfrauenkirche</em> at Halle about an organ position; the +music is strongly colored by this mental condition. +It was written for the third Sunday after Trinity and +contains eleven numbers. The first part, which is +mournful in character, consists of a quiet opening chorus, +a beautiful aria for soprano accompanied by oboe +and strings, a tender recitative and aria full of intense +sorrow, and a closing chorus tinged with deep pathos, +‘Why, my Soul, art thou vexed?’ Part II is more cheerful. +A duet for soprano and bass, who represent the +soul and Christ, is followed by a richly harmonized +chorus introducing a chorale melody. Then comes a +pleasing tenor aria with graceful accompaniment, ‘Rejoice, +O my Soul, change weeping to smiling,’ leading +to a final chorus. The words ‘The Lamb that for us is +slain, to Him will we render power and glory,’ are +uttered majestically by the full choir; the solo bass +gives out the words ‘Power and glory and praise be +unto Him forevermore,’ leading to the final ‘Hallelujah,’ +poured forth with tremendous effect by the combined +choir and orchestra.</p> + +<p><em>Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit</em> (‘God’s time is the +best of all’) is usually called the <em>Actus Tragicus</em>, and +occasionally the ‘Mourning Cantata,’ as it was evidently +written to commemorate the death of some aged man. +This work, too, was composed at Weimar in Bach’s +younger days. The introduction is quiet and tender, +introducing some themes used later in the body of +the cantata. The opening chorus (‘God’s own time is +the best of all. In Him we live, move, and have our +being, as long as He wills. And in Him we die at His<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span> +good time’) is at first slow and solemn, but changes to +a quick fugue and ends in a strain of mournful beauty, +befitting the last part of the text. Next comes a tenor +solo, ‘O Lord, incline us to consider that our days are +numbered,’ the text being continued in a mournful aria +for bass, ‘Set in order thine house, for thou shalt die +and not live.’ The choir then sings ‘It is the old decree, +Man, thou art mortal,’ the lower voices forming a double +fugue, while the soprano repeats the words ‘Yea, +come, Lord Jesus,’ and the orchestra intones the melody +of an old hymn, ‘I have cast all my care on God.’ The +words spoken on the cross, ‘Into Thy hands my spirit I +commend,’ are rendered by the alto, the bass answering +‘Thou shalt be with Me to-day in Paradise.’ A chorale +sung by the alto mingles with the last of the bass +arioso. The work closes with a chorus, using the so-called +Fifth Gloria,</p> + +<div class="poetry-container p11"> +<div class="poetry"> +<p>‘All glory, praise, and majesty<br> +To Father, Son, and Spirit be,<br> +The holy, blessed Trinity,’ etc.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p><em>Ein’ feste Burg.</em>—This cantata, one of the strongest of +the remarkable series of church works composed by +Bach, is constructed on Luther’s immortal hymn, the +battle-hymn of the Reformation. Historians differ as +to the exact time of its composition, but all agree that +it was when Bach was at the height of his creative +power, the occasion probably being either the Reformation +Festival of 1730 or the bicentenary of Protestantism +in Saxony, May 17, 1739. It is laid out in truly +grand proportions and is permeated from first to last +with the bold spirit of triumphant confidence that made +the old Reformation days such a stirring memory in +every German heart. The cantata opens with a stupendous +fugue based on Luther’s melody and using the +first stanza of the hymn, than which Bach never wrote +anything grander. Following this comes a duet for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span> +soprano and bass, the text including the second stanza. +A bass recitative and a soprano aria lead to the second +great chorus, in which the chorale is sung in unison and +with mighty effect, amid a whirl of wildly leaping figures +in the orchestra, to the third stanza of the hymn, +‘And were the world all devils o’er And watching to devour +us.’ The sixth number, a tenor recitative, leads to +a duet for alto and tenor, ‘How blessed then are they +who still on God are calling.’ The chorale is heard +again in the final chorus, this time sung without accompaniment +to the last stanza of the hymn—a thrilling +ending to a colossal work.</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>Handel (1685-1759), one of the few great masters of +choral writing, was a man in whose life strange contrasts +jostled each other. He was born a German, but +died a naturalized Englishman and was buried in Westminster +Abbey among England’s most illustrious sons; +he was intended by his parents to be a lawyer, but by +nature to be a musician; the greater part of his life was +spent in writing operas, popular in his day but now forgotten, +while his fame now rests almost entirely on +the great oratorios that he wrote after he was fifty years +old and had been practically driven from the operatic +stage by intrigues and cabals. He towers above all his +contemporaries except Bach; while his greatest masterpieces +are his oratorios, his smaller choral works in +secular cantata-form display his fine instinct for gracious +melody, dramatic coloring, and characteristic +choral effects.</p> + +<p>‘Acis and Galatea.’—This cantata or pastoral (the +composer calls it a serenata, under which title it had +its first London performance in 1732) was composed by +Handel in 1720, while he was chapel-master to the Duke<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span> +of Chandos, and was performed at Cannons the following +year. In writing it, following a custom very much +in vogue among composers of his time, he drew upon +an earlier work composed in 1708 during his sojourn +in Italy. Most of the text was written by the poet John +Gay, though certain fragments were borrowed from +Dryden, Hughes, and Pope.</p> + +<p>The nymph Galatea deeply loved the shepherd Acis, +but in turn was adored by Polyphemus, the one-eyed +Cyclops of Ætna. One day, while she was reclining in +Acis’ embrace, the giant, believing himself alone, poured +out his story of hopeless love, ending in a burst of +jealousy against his rival, when, spying the lovers, he +hurled an immense rock at Acis and crushed him. His +blood, gushing forth, became a purling stream.</p> + +<p>A graceful overture, pastoral in style, leads to a chorus +depicting the pleasures of rustic life. Galatea enters, +seeking her lover, and sings a recitative, ‘Ye verdant +plains and woody mountains,’ followed by a sweet +melody, ‘Hush, ye pretty warbling choir!’ Acis responds +with an aria of exquisite grace and beauty, one +of Handel’s finest, ‘Love in her eyes sits playing and +sheds delicious death.’ Galatea replies with the famous +‘As when the dove laments her love,’ after which the +first part closes with a sparkling duet and chorus, +‘Happy we.’ Part II opens with a chorus of alarm, expressing +fear of the love-sick giant and describing the +phenomena of Nature at his angry approach. Then +follows a recitative by the Cyclops, ‘I melt, I rage, I +burn,’ and after it the well-known aria, ‘O ruddier than +the cherry!’ Acis’ plaintive song, ‘Love sounds the +alarm,’ follows in marked contrast. Galatea begs him +to trust the gods and is joined by the other two in the +trio, ‘The flocks shall leave the mountain.’ The Cyclops +in a rage then seizes a fragment of Mt. Ætna and +crushes the unhappy lover. Galatea’s sad lament follows, +‘Must I my Acis still bemoan?’ and the work closes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span> +with a consolatory chorus of the shepherds and shepherdesses, +‘Galatea, dry thy tears.’</p> + +<p>‘Alexander’s Feast.’—The text for this work is Dryden’s +famous poem, the full title of which is ‘Alexander’s +Feast or the Power of Music, a Song in Honour of +St. Cecilia’s Day, 1697.’ Handel composed the music +in 1736, completing the first part January 5th, the second +January 17th. The work came to its first performance +at Covent Garden Theatre, February 19th, 1736, +and met with remarkable success, winning a lasting +popularity which even at the present time makes it one +of the five best-known of Handel’s choral works. The +chief solos are the stormy aria ‘"Revenge, Revenge!" +Timotheus cries,’ and the great descriptive recitative, +‘Give the vengeance due to the valiant crew.’ Some of +the choruses are among Handel’s finest, equalling those +of the ‘Messiah’ or ‘Israel in Egypt.’ They are ‘Behold +Darius great and good,’ ‘Break his bands of sleep +asunder,’ ‘Let old Timotheus yield the prize,’ and ‘The +many rend the skies with loud applause.’</p> + +<p><em>L’Allegro.</em>—The full title of this work is <em>L’Allegro, +il Penseroso ed il Moderato</em>, Milton’s two descriptive +poems, <em>L’Allegro</em> and <em>Il Penseroso</em>, supplying the text +for the first two movements; but instead of being preserved +as separate poems in the musical work, they +are made to alternate in sixteen contrasting strophes +and anti-strophes. Allegro, represented by the tenor, +sings the praises of pleasure and light-heartedness; +Penseroso, a soprano, following each time with the +regularity of a shadow, advocates meditation and seriousness +and melancholy. The Moderato was an addition +supplied by Handel and his librettist, Charles Jennens, +and represented chiefly by a chorus, whose purpose +it was to counsel both Allegro and Penseroso to +adhere to a middle course as the safest; but this third +part is rarely given. The work is in Handel’s best style—the +Allegro is spirited, the Penseroso serious and tender,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span> +and the Moderato calm and sedate. The music was +composed in the seventeen days between January 19th +and February 6th, 1740, and was first performed on +February 27th of the same year at the Royal Theatre, +Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London.</p> + +<p>Haydn’s (1732-1809) life-work was indissolubly associated +with instrumental forms. The parentage and +early development of the sonata and the modern orchestra +can be traced directly to him. He wrote comparatively +little in choral forms and the best of this +was in the field of oratorio and church music.</p> + +<p>In 1785 Haydn was commissioned to write ‘The Seven +Words of Jesus on the Cross,’ sometimes called ‘The +Passion,’ as music for the Good Friday service for the +cathedral of Cadiz. As first written it was an instrumental +work of seven slow movements, which the composer +later produced in London under the name <em>Passione +Instrumentale</em>. Later still he introduced numbers +for solo voices and chorus and, by inserting in +the middle a <em>largo</em> movement for wind instruments, +divided it into two parts. In this form it was first presented +at Vienna in 1796 and was published in 1801. +The work is simple in structure and a similarity of +mood and character pervades the various movements. +It opens with an impressive orchestral number, after +which each of the Seven Words is successively stated +in the form of a chorale followed by a chorus. In +conclusion comes a descriptive chorus in rapid movement, +‘The Veil of the Temple was rent in twain,’ which +pictures vividly the darkness, the earthquake, the rending +tombs, and the raising of the saints. Haydn frequently +expressed a great fondness for this work, and +by many of his contemporaries it was regarded as one +of his most sublime creations.</p> + +<p><em>Ariadne auf Naxos.</em>—This cantata, written for a solo +voice (soprano) and orchestra, is dated 1782. It is one +of the most perfect examples of the original cantata<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span> +form, the Italian <em>cantata da camera</em> already described. +The story is that of Ariadne, daughter of Minos, king of +Crete, who, desperately in love with Theseus, son of +Ægeus, king of Athens, aids him with a thread to escape +from the labyrinth after slaying the Minotaur, and +accompanies him on his return to Athens. She awakens +on the island of Naxos to find herself abandoned +by her lover, and here the cantata opens. The music +pictures her awakening, her gradual realization of +Theseus’ perfidy, her anxiety, her anger, and her despair. +The vocal score is intricate, demanding not only +facility in execution, but also a noble style of musical +declamation, great musical intelligence, and refinement +of sentiment.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Outside of the instrumental forms in which his universal +genius made him so preëminent, Mozart’s natural +artistic instinct led him most strongly to dramatic +music. He sought the opera as an opportunity for +highest artistic endeavor; but other vocal forms he employed, +not so much from choice as from the demands +of special occasions. Like Haydn, he paid but passing +attention to the cantata.</p> + +<p>‘King Thamos.’—The foundation of this work by +Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91) was an historical +drama, ‘Thamos, King of Egypt,’ written by Freiherr +von Gebler. To this Mozart composed the incidental +music, consisting of five entr’actes and three majestic +choruses. The music was written in 1779 and 1780 at +Salzburg; the work was presented a few times there under +the direction of Boehm and Schikaneder and then +was shelved. However, Mozart utilized some of the music +by setting the choruses to Latin and German words, +in which form they were used in the church service as +hymns and motets. They are known to musicians now +by the names <em>Splendente te Deus</em>, <em>Deus tibi laus et +honor</em>, and <em>Ne pulvis et cinis</em>. Though a feeling of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span> +great solemnity pervades them, their original theatrical +purpose cannot be entirely concealed behind their +adopted sacred words.</p> + +<p><em>Davidde Penitente.</em>—This cantata originated in Mozart’s +vow, made before his marriage with Constance +Weber, to write a mass to celebrate her arrival at Salzburg +as his wife. The ‘half-mass’ which he actually +wrote for this occasion comprised only the Kyrie, Gloria, +Sanctus, and Benedictus, the rest being supplied +from an earlier mass. The work was given in this form +at St. Peter’s Church, August 25, 1783, his wife taking +the solo part. Early in 1785 Mozart received a commission +to write a cantata for a Viennese festival; being +short of time, he took the Kyrie and Gloria from the +above mass, expanded them into five movements, added +four new ones, and fitted them all out with Italian texts +selected from the Psalms of David. In this form the +work was presented at the Burg Theater, March 13th, +under the title <em>Davidde Penitente</em>. It contains ten numbers, +consisting of choruses, soprano and tenor arias +and a terzetto, the tenth number, a final chorus and +fugue, being called the ‘queen of vocal fugues’ by the +critics of the time. This cantata is regarded as one of +the finest examples of Mozart’s church style, notwithstanding +the brilliant character of the solo parts, especially +the bravura aria for soprano (<em>Fra le oscure +ombre</em>).</p> + +<p>The Masonic Cantatas.—Mozart became a Mason soon +after he arrived in Vienna in 1784 and he entered into +the activities of the fraternity with great ardor. The +following year he composed a small cantata, <em>Die Maurerfreude</em> +(‘The Mason’s Joy’), for tenor and chorus, in +honor of the master of his lodge, Herr Born. The second +Masonic cantata,<a id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> <em>Lob der Freundschaft</em> (‘Praise of +Friendship’), was finished November 15th, 1791, only +three weeks before his death. This work, which is on +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span>a larger scale than its predecessor, but less earnest in +spirit, is pleasing and popular and consists of six numbers—two +choruses, two recitatives, a tenor aria, and a +duet. It was Mozart’s last completed composition. Two +days after its performance at his lodge his last illness +attacked him.</p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>In the second period of Anglican Church music, beginning +after the restoration of the Stuarts in 1660, a +distinct change in the character of anthem-writing is +discernible. This was inaugurated by Pelham Humfrey +(1647-1674), whose foreign study under Lulli and +later in Italy brought him in touch with the greater +freedom of the operatic style. In his church music and +that of his immediate successors there is noticeable +greater variety of plan and detail, more daring harmonies, +more easy grace in the flow of voice-parts, and in +general a faint echo at least of the brilliance reflected +from the stage. The Italian art of solo-singing began +to force its way into the domain of church music, adding +relief and contrast to the severity of the old motet +type of ‘full’ anthem. This style culminated in Henry +Purcell (1658-1695), probably the most gifted and certainly +the most versatile genius that English music has +produced. In his hands the modern form of the anthem, +as differentiated from the old motet, became +clearly defined. Purcell, trained in the Chapel Royal +and himself a ‘most distinguished singer,’ gave large +emphasis to the ‘verse’ and ‘solo’ anthems, and these +grew rapidly in favor. Although an operatic composer +of profound ability, in many respects far in advance of +his time, his religious music shows no trace of undue +influence from this secular source, and many of his +anthems<a id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> and ‘services’ are still cherished as among +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span>the finest examples of English church music of any +period.</p> + +<p>During the latter part of the seventeenth century instrumental +music in England took on new importance, +and its influence was felt in all branches of the art. +Orchestral instruments were frequently employed in +the ritual-music in addition to the organ, which instrument, +it should be added, was far behind the German +organ of this period in mechanical development and +technical possibilities. Purcell wrote trumpet parts to +his celebrated Te Deum and composed as many as +twenty anthems with orchestra (besides over thirty +with organ). His instrumental accompaniments began +to assume quite independent outlines and his choruses +were of such fine workmanship that Handel, who was +thoroughly acquainted with his church music, gladly +acknowledged his indebtedness to him. Other noted +composers of anthems of this period were Dr. John +Blow (1648-1708), William Croft (1678-1727), and Jeremiah +Clarke (1670-1707), all of whom were choristers +in the Chapel Royal and were brought up and trained +in the atmosphere of the cathedral service.</p> + +<p>No accession to the form of the anthem has been +made since the beginning of the eighteenth century. +All the forms now in use—the full, the verse, the solo—were +well established in the public esteem and the old +unaccompanied style had been permanently abandoned +in favor of instrumental accompaniment. The eighteenth +century was a period of general religious and intellectual +apathy and this condition of thought brooded +over English church-music. After the spontaneous and +melodious Purcell, the compositions of the best church +musicians of the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth +centuries (constituting the third period of English +church-music) sound dry and perfunctory, although +admirable in construction and solid and worthy +in content. If we except the Te Deums and anthems of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span> +Handel, this period presents nothing of striking worth. +The composers of this period, the best of whose anthems +are still to be found in the repertory of present-day +choirs, include Maurice Greene (1696?-1755), William +Hayes (1706-1777), William Boyce (1710-1779), +and Jonathan Battishill (1738-1801), whose ‘Call to Remembrance’ +is a work of eminent beauty, modern in +conception beyond its time.</p> + +<p>English psalmody of the eighteenth century, both +among the Non-conformists and in the Established +Church, had likewise fallen into melancholy ways. Although +the good old solid psalm-tunes were still in the +Psalters, the interest in them declined, the number in +actual use gradually dwindled, the singing became dry +and perfunctory, and the curious custom of ‘lining out’ +the psalms became general. Especially in the Non-conformist +services frivolous tunes were employed +which smacked of the Italian opera style; and vocal +flourishes were introduced in which several tones would +be sung to a single syllable. But in the Church of England +the gradual rise of the hymn to an independent +place in the Psalter at the very beginning of the century +served to keep alive the pure flame of sacred song and +to inaugurate the long-delayed period of real English +hymnody, a full century and a half after the corresponding +outburst of sacred song among the Germans. +Gawthorn’s <em>Harmonica Perfecta</em> of 1730 included a +large portion of the fine psalm-tunes of the Ravenscroft +Psalter, together with some older ones and many new +ones. These new hymn-tunes were in the main as solid +and satisfying as the best of the old psalm-tunes, yet +with more rhythmic freedom. The Church of England, +however, was slow to give full recognition to the hymn, +the first church hymn-book for general use (Madan’s +‘Collection of Psalms and Hymns,’ better known as the +Lock Hospital Collection) not being published until +1769. The devotional hymns of Watts and Doddridge<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span> +were just beginning to reach the public heart, when +they received a magnificent accession from the Wesleyan +movement, which, starting in the middle of the +century, took full advantage of the liberty of worship +newly conferred upon non-conformists and brought +into English religious life something of the enthusiasm +of the old German Reformation days. A revival of +spiritual life took place in sections of England that +let loose a great creative force of sacred verse and +song, which operated not only to swell the ranks of +Methodism with converts whose hearts were filled with +exuberant song, but to bring into England real congregational +singing and into English hymnody some of its +richest gems of sacred lyrics. Thus the century closed +with a distinct uplift in the religious song of the people, +which did not bear full fruit in the Church of England, +however, till the dawning years of the next century.</p> + + +<h3>VII</h3> + +<p>After the glories of the Palestrina epoch, in which +all forms of ecclesiastical music attained their highest +point of perfection, the motet led a rather checkered +existence. The English contemporaries of the great +Roman had cultivated it with such success that the +<em>cantiones sacræ</em> (collections of Latin motets) of Tallis +and Byrd are held to be second only to those of Palestrina +himself. We have seen that the full anthem with +English words superseded the Latin motet in the service +of the Anglican Church, but, though the name was +changed, the true motet style persisted until the Restoration; +indeed, many of the anthems were actually written +as Latin motets and afterward adapted to English +words, as, for example, Byrd’s <em>Civitas sancti tui</em>, which +is always sung to the words ‘Bow thine ear, O Lord.’ +The last of the great motet writers in the Roman school<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span> +were Vittoria, Morales, the two Anerios, the two Naninis, +Luca Marenzio, and Suriano, all of whom closely +approached the excellence of Palestrina’s superb motets; +Orlandus Lassus sustained the reputation of the +Netherlanders throughout his long career; while in +Venice Willaert, de Rore, the two Gabrielis, and Giovanni +Croce, the greatest of this school, produced compositions +of wonderful delicacy and beauty. But after +the first quarter of the seventeenth century the splendor +of motet-writing disappeared. The solidity and grandeur +of the old style of mass, motet, and madrigal were +thoroughly undermined by the secularity of the monodic +style, which now became all-pervasive. The same +influences, in slightly varying degrees, crept into Catholic +and Protestant church music alike. The rapid development +of instrumental music toward the latter part +of this century brought about the abandonment of unaccompanied +motets in favor of those with instrumental +accompaniment, and at the same time the modern major +and minor keys gradually supplanted the old ecclesiastical +modes. In Italy the best composers—Alessandro +Scarlatti, Pergolesi, Durante, Leo, and others—strove +earnestly to reconcile the new style with church +ideals and succeeded in producing effective works, +though by no means always churchly.</p> + +<p>The strongest motet writing of the eighteenth century, +however, flourished in Germany. Many of the motets +of the early German Protestant composers were simple +polyphonic adaptations of chorales, and in the seventeenth +century a simple, often trivial, style prevailed, +but in the opening years of the eighteenth century a +group of composers appeared who strove to revive the +solid, elaborate style of the earlier masters. Beginning +with Reinhard Keiser (1674-1739) and continued by +Karl Heinrich Graun (1701-1759) and Johann Adolph +Hasse (1699-1783), a Catholic composer of attractive +style, this movement culminated in Sebastian Bach<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span> +(1685-1750), who clothed the motet in all the dignity and +elaborateness of the old sixteenth century period. His +motets represent the most perfect type of unaccompanied +music in the Protestant church-service, as Palestrina’s +do in the Roman, and in their way are quite +as incomparable. Bach wrote about 200 motets, among +the best-known of which are <em>Komm, Jesu, komm</em> +(‘Come, Jesu, come’), <em>Jesu, meine Freude</em> (‘Jesu, priceless +treasure’), <em>Nun ist das Heil</em> (‘Now shall the grace’), +and <em>Singet dem Herrn</em> (‘Sing ye to the Lord’). A score +of others equally fine might easily be mentioned. The +motets of Handel, which have only in recent years +been snatched from obscurity by the German Handel +Society, are works of transcendent beauty, full of youthful +vigor and strength, and worthy of his best period.</p> + +<p>The madrigal also participated in the common ruin +that befell the old polyphonic style, and after 1620 the +true madrigal practically disappeared. In Italy it was +displaced by the interest in the new chamber-cantata; +it was wholly forgotten in Flanders and France; in +England it merged into the glee; and in Germany the +rise of the part-song compensated somewhat for its +disappearance.</p> + +<div class="chapter"> +<figure class="figcenter illowe30" id="ilofp139"> + <img class="w100" src="images/ilofp139.jpg" alt="ilop139" title="p139ilo"> + <figcaption class="caption">St. Thomas’ Church, Leipzig, in Bach’s Time</figcaption> +</figure> + +<p class="center p1b"><em>From on old print</em></p> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span></p> + +</div> + +<p>The glee<a id="FNanchor_65" href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> is a form peculiar to England, having a +certain native folk-song flavor and quite impossible of +transplantation; no other country except, to a degree, +America, has bestowed on it any attention at all. A +whole century separates its appearance from the decline +of the madrigal. The intervening transitional style is +well illustrated by the lovely canzonets of Thomas Ford +(about 1580-1648), such as ‘Since first I saw your face’ +and ‘There is a Ladie sweete and kind,’ which breathe +something of the spirit of both madrigal and glee. +Unlike the madrigal, the glee is always sung by solo +voices, usually male, of which there are at least three, +but, like the madrigal, it is always unaccompanied. +The first glees were produced in the early years of the +eighteenth century, and the period of its finest achievement +includes the years between 1750 and 1825, a period +which is almost exactly contemporaneous with the long +life of the greatest master of this form, Samuel Webbe +(1740-1816). The more obvious traits of the glee that +distinguish it from the madrigal are (1) the modern +major and minor system of keys instead of ecclesiastical +modes, (2) absence of conscious contrapuntal development +in the treatment of the voice-parts and the +consequent frequent employment of chord-masses, (3) +short phrases with frequent full cadences, and (4) +greater freedom in changes of rhythm and rate of +speed. Notwithstanding these general characteristics, +there are many real glees, such as Stevens’ ‘Ye spotted +snakes,’ that exhibit a high quality of melodic development, +sustained power, and constructional design. +While not intended to be contrapuntal, the glee maintains +a high degree of melodic independence among +the parts, so that the impression given is that of several +interweaving melodies. Among the finest specimens of +glees are ‘When winds breathe soft,’ ‘The mighty conqueror,’ +‘Come live with me,’ and ‘Hence, all ye vain +delights’ by Samuel Webbe; ‘Ye spotted snakes,’ ‘Blow, +blow, thou winter wind,’ and ‘Sigh no more, ladies’ by +Richard Stevens (1757-1837); ‘By Celia’s arbour,’ ‘Mine +be a cot,’ and ‘Cold is Cadwallo’s tongue’ by William +Horsley (1774-1858). In addition to the above the +principal glee composers are: John Wall Calcott +(1766-1821), Thomas Attwood (1765-1838), Jonathan +Bittishill (1738-1801), Benjamin Cooke (1734-1793), +John Danby (1757-1798), Reginald Spoffarth (1770-1827), +and Sir Henry Bishop (1786-1855).</p> + +<p>While in a strict sense all the vocal forms thus far +mentioned are part-songs, in choral literature this term<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span> +is restricted to apply only to those unaccompanied +vocal compositions in which one melody stands out +conspicuously, all the others being more in the nature +of harmonic background. In this respect it differs +sharply from the glee, though in general musical mood +the two forms may be very similar. The part-song +has its origin in Germany, where from early times the +custom prevailed of giving simple harmonic setting to +the folk-songs,<a id="FNanchor_66" href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> usually note against note. Modelled +largely after the harmonized folk-songs, secular part-songs +in profusion were written by German composers, +particularly after the decline of the madrigal. As an +importation from Germany the part-song was heartily +welcomed in England, where it was cultivated side by +side with the madrigal, the two forms often presenting +many points of similarity and constantly reacting on +each other. The great madrigalists wrote many such +compositions (which they frequently called canzonets) +on the borderland between the two forms. Such are +Morley’s ‘My bonny lass she smileth’ and ‘Now is the +month of Maying,’ and the canzonets of Thomas Ford +mentioned above. The eighteenth-century part-song in +England is, on the whole, unimportant; in Germany +its chief value after 1800 lay in the incentive and impetus +it gave to the formation of numerous choral societies +and in the resultant diffusion of choral culture. +The real glories of the part-song belong to the nineteenth +century. Before that period the three principal +secular <em>a cappella</em> vocal forms may be thus briefly +characterized: the madrigal, as the secular counterpart +of the motet, is modal and contrapuntal; the glee is +harmonic, devoid of strict counterpoint, but all the +voices are melodically interesting; the part-song is harmonic, +but concentrates the melodic interest in one part, +usually the highest.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span></p> +<p>Before passing to the consideration of nineteenth-century +choral music, it remains to give brief mention +to two other forms, the masque and the ode, both of +which are characteristically English and belong essentially +to the seventeenth century. The masque occupied +a place midway between the cantata and the opera, and +enjoyed great popularity at court and among the aristocratic +classes as a kind of private entertainment from +the time of the early Tudors to the Civil War. Originally +an importation from Italy, it received special development +at the hands of the best English poets—Ben +Jonson, Fletcher, Chapman, Campion, Milton, and +others. It was an elaborate dramatic entertainment +based on some mythological or allegorical subject, calling +for dialogue, declamation, airs, madrigals, much +dancing, and gorgeous scenery and costume, and performed +for the most part by personages of high rank +in disguise, whence the name. The best English composers +of the seventeenth century gave their talents to +the writing of masque music—Nicholas Lanier, Matthew +Locke, Pelham Humfrey, Henry Purcell, John +Eccles, and, in the next century, Dr. Thomas Arne. The +ode also found much favor with the English seventeenth +and eighteenth-century poets, such as Milton, Dryden, +Gray, and Collins, but the composer whose name is +most closely allied with it is Henry Purcell (about 1658-1695), +who alone wrote twenty-nine odes and welcome +songs for various public and royal occasions, among +them four for St. Cecilia’s Day festivals and four in +consecutive years (1690-1693) for Queen Mary’s birthday. +Handel wrote four—‘Alexander’s Feast,’ ‘Ode for +St. Cecilia’s Day,’ ‘Birthday Ode,’ and <em>L’Allegro ed il +Penseroso</em>,<a id="FNanchor_67" href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> two of which have been already analyzed.</p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="footnotes"> +<p class="center p2 big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49" class="label">[49]</a> Peri’s first opera, <em>Dafne</em>, composed in collaboration with Caccini, had +been privately performed in Florence in 1597 (1594?).</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_50" href="#FNanchor_50" class="label">[50]</a> The success of Cavalieri’s <em>La Rappresentazione</em> was apparently swallowed +up by the greater interest in the success of opera, so that twenty +years elapsed before a second oratorio was written.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_51" href="#FNanchor_51" class="label">[51]</a> ‘History of Music,’ Vol. IV, p. 144.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_52" href="#FNanchor_52" class="label">[52]</a> ‘Oxford History of Music,’ Vol. III, p. 153.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_53" href="#FNanchor_53" class="label">[53]</a> The library of the Paris Conservatoire alone possesses eight volumes +of his cantatas in MS.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_54" href="#FNanchor_54" class="label">[54]</a> Grove’s ‘Dictionary of Music and Musicians,’ Art. ‘Scarlatti,’ by E. J. +Dent.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_55" href="#FNanchor_55" class="label">[55]</a> ‘Oxford History of Music,’ Vol. III, p. 393.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_56" href="#FNanchor_56" class="label">[56]</a> For example, Beethoven’s <em>Ah, perfido!</em> and Mendelssohn’s <em>Infelice</em>.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_57" href="#FNanchor_57" class="label">[57]</a> Andreas Hammerschmidt published ‘Dialogues between God and the +Believing Soul’ (Dresden, 1647) for various groups of voices from two up +to six.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_58" href="#FNanchor_58" class="label">[58]</a> Mattheson, <em>Das beschütze Orchestre</em>, p. 142.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_59" href="#FNanchor_59" class="label">[59]</a> Philipp Spitta, ‘The Life of Johann Sebastian Bach,’ Vol. I, p. 484.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_60" href="#FNanchor_60" class="label">[60]</a> <em>Op. cit.</em>, Vol. I, p. 486.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_61" href="#FNanchor_61" class="label">[61]</a> Bach seldom used the word ‘cantata,’ preferring the terms ‘concerto’ +and ‘dialogue.’</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_62" href="#FNanchor_62" class="label">[62]</a> Dickinson, ‘Music in the History of the Western Church,’ p. 301.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_63" href="#FNanchor_63" class="label">[63]</a> Catalogued in Köchel, <em>Eine kleine Freimauer Cantate</em>.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_64" href="#FNanchor_64" class="label">[64]</a> Among them are ‘O give thanks,’ ‘O God Thou hast cast us out,’ and +‘O Lord God of Hosts.’</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_65" href="#FNanchor_65" class="label">[65]</a> This word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon <em>gligg</em>—‘music,’ and has +no direct relation to the specific mood of mirth or gaiety. The glee, therefore, +may be either cheerful or serious.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_66" href="#FNanchor_66" class="label">[66]</a> Similarly in Italy the <em>villanella</em> was a harmonized popular melody, +but it failed to exert any further influence on choral forms.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_67" href="#FNanchor_67" class="label">[67]</a> This is called an oratorio in the list of the German Handel Society.</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER V<br> +<small>THE CANTATA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY</small></h2> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Conflict of tradition and progress—Ludwig van Beethoven: ‘Ruins of +Athens,’ ‘Glorious Moment’; Andreas Romberg—C. M. von Weber; Franz +Schubert; Ludwig Spohr—Mendelssohn: ‘First Walpurgis Night,’ etc.; 95th +Psalm; <em>Lauda Sion</em>, etc.—Hector Berlioz: ‘Damnation of Faust’—Robert +Schumann: ‘Paradise and the Peri’; ‘Pilgrimage of the Rose’; Miscellany—Ferdinand +Hiller; Niels W. Gade: ‘Crusaders,’ ‘Erl-King’s Daughter,’ +‘Christmas Eve,’ ‘Comala,’ etc.—Félicien David: ‘The Desert’; Minor cantata +writers in Germany and England: Benedict, Costa, Macfarren, Smart, Bennett—Anglican +ritual-music and the German evangelical motet in the nineteenth +century; the part-song.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="p2">The student of history will observe that one of the +most noticeable effects of the constantly accelerated +pace that musical progress assumed after the art had +once learned definite articulation, is that the successive +periods in which characteristic styles and forms have +been developed and perfected have been growing +steadily shorter and shorter in duration. The Netherland +period of vocal polyphony spanned two full centuries; +the next century and a half was concerned with +the first stage in the development of dramatic music +and oratorio, and with the application of polyphonic +principles to instrumental forms; the period of seventy-five +years between 1750 and 1825 was memorable chiefly +by the appearance and swift development of the sonata +and symphony from Haydn to Beethoven, with occasional +premonitions of impending revolutionary +changes; the half-century from 1825 to 1875 witnessed +the rise and full flowering of the remarkable movement +of nineteenth-century romanticism; in the years since +1875 new ideas and tendencies, unfolded from the preceding<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span> +period, have crowded upon the musical arena +in such profusion and with such swiftness and persistence +that intelligent orientation is beset with perplexing +difficulties. The ‘youngest of the arts,’ so backward +and slow of speech in its infancy, certainly displays +unmistakable symptoms of precocity with advancing +years.</p> + +<p>From the above statement of the approximate duration +of the general periods of musical progress it will +be noted that the nineteenth century is divisible into +three periods, the first of which merely carried to completion +the classical methods of the preceding century. +But, while instrumental music responded promptly and +vigorously and with far-reaching results to the novel +ideals of romanticism, choral music was far more conservative. +It exhibited the utmost reserve toward the +new influences, and for several decades after these had +brought enrichment and expansion to instrumental +forms, it admitted them only with a certain timidity, so +that on the whole the effective invasion of choral music +by romanticism was delayed a full half-century after +it had taken possession of instrumental fields. This +retardation of choral progress is due largely to the +natural limitations of the human voice, which is confronted +with obvious difficulties when attempting to +adopt for its own peculiar purposes the instrumental +standpoint of unrestrained liberty in the use of melodic +intervals and harmonic progressions. Choral forms +have generally proved to be far less elastic than instrumental +forms, and have had to contend with the tendency +toward inertia inherited from their early association +with ecclesiastical traditions—traditions from +which the development of instrumental music has been +notably free. Hence, a much longer period was required +in choral music than in instrumental music for +readjustment to the new viewpoint which nineteenth-century +romanticism injected into the whole fabric of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span> +art-methods, and the choral literature of the century +falls into only two periods. The great majority of +the choral works—particularly the smaller choral works—of +the first two thirds of the century at least are characterized +by general conformity with the classical methods +of Handel, Haydn, and Mozart; where romantic influences +are admitted they express themselves in terms +of greater harmonic warmth and richness, freer melodic +outlines, and a more marked avoidance of the older +special contrapuntal devices in favor of more direct +mood-painting and detailed characterization of the text, +but the classical forms and methods are quite uniformly +retained.</p> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>Beethoven’s (1770-1827) contribution to the literature +of choral music was relatively small and the most significant +part of it was made in the larger forms, as +might be expected of a composer possessed of such +mighty intellectual endowments. Of the smaller works, +two only are selected for detailed comment. The others +include ‘Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage’ (to Goethe’s +poem) for mixed chorus and orchestra, written in 1815, +and ‘King Stephen, Hungary’s First Benefactor,’ a prologue +in one act with overture and choruses, the music +for which was composed in 1811 to the text by Kotzebue +for the same occasion as ‘The Ruins of Athens.’</p> + +<p>‘The Ruins of Athens.’—The music to an allegorical +poem with this title by Kotzebue was written in 1811 +for the opening of a new theatre at Pesth, Hungary, +which took place February 9, 1812. The story of the +poem is as follows: Minerva, having incurred the +wrath of Jove, has been fettered by him with chains +ever since the Golden Age within a rock through which +neither the inquiry of man nor the wisdom of the +goddess could penetrate. Finally Jove relents and releases<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span> +the goddess. Minerva then hastens to her beloved +Athens, only to find it in ruins and her art debased. +She turns sadly away and proceeds to Pesth, +where she establishes her temple in the new theatre +and presides over a triumphal procession in honor of +the emperor, its patron, who is to restore again the +Golden Age. The work was presented a second time +in Beethoven’s lifetime at the opening of a new theatre +in Vienna in 1822. This time it was with a new text +by Carl Meisl entitled <em>Die Weihe des Hauses</em> (‘Dedication +of the House’), and it was for this occasion that +Beethoven composed the overture, which is still frequently +performed. The music consists of eight numbers. +The overture is very light and deemed even by +his friends to be unworthy of the master. The weird, +fervid chorus of the Dervishes for male voices in unison +and the stirring Turkish March are strongly Oriental +in color and treatment. They are strong and effective +numbers, as is also the triumphal march and chorus +‘Twine ye a garland.’</p> + +<p>‘The Glorious Moment.’—September, 1814, brought to +Vienna many potentates and distinguished statesmen +for the Vienna Congress, which met to adjust the claims +of the European states after the allies had entered +Paris. The occasion was a momentous one and was +celebrated with great pomp by the Viennese authorities. +Beethoven was requested to write for the greeting of +the royal guests a cantata, the words of which had been +written by Dr. Aloys Weissenbach of Salzburg. It was +called <em>Der glorreiche Augenblick</em> or <em>Der heilige Augenblick</em> +(‘The Glorious Moment’). The time for writing +this work was short in itself and this was much curtailed +by disputes between composer and poet, as Beethoven +made every effort to have the atrocious text +altered so as to lend itself better to a musical setting. +The work was begun in September and performed at +a concert given for Beethoven’s benefit on November<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span> +29th, before a remarkable audience of 6,000 persons. +This concert, at which was performed also the recently-composed +Seventh Symphony, was a most brilliant affair, +and the audience was wildly enthusiastic, especially +for ‘The Glorious Moment,’ which was hailed as +symbolical of the moment when Europe was to be freed +from Napoleonic domination. Incidentally, it may be +recorded that the composer reaped much substantial +advantage from this great occasion, in that, as a result, +he was able to invest 20,000 marks in shares of the +Bank of Austria. The cantata, which for obvious reasons +is not one of his strongest, is in six numbers. In +1836 it appeared with a new title, <em>Preis der Tonkunst</em> +(‘The Praise of Music’), with a new poetical text by +Friedrich Rochlitz.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Among the composers of the first quarter of the nineteenth +century Andreas Romberg (1767-1821) occupies +a worthy place, though not one of large importance. +He is the composer of five operas, ten symphonies, +twenty violin concertos, etc., now forgotten, much +church music, and several cantatas. The ‘Lay of the +Bell’ (<em>Das Lied von der Glocke</em>) was the most widely +known of all his works, and at present is nearly the +only one of them to retain any public notice.</p> + +<p>‘The Lay of the Bell.’—Schiller’s famous poem with +this title forms the text to which Romberg composed +the music of this cantata in 1808. During the last half +of the nineteenth century it enjoyed great popularity +with the smaller choruses in England, Germany, and +America, and is still frequently heard. The work rehearses +the various steps in the making of the bell, +from lighting the furnace-fire and mixing the metals +to the casting of the bell and the breaking of the mold +by the master. Each step is used as the basis for the +description of scenes which the bell will witness in its +life among the people—scenes of youth, young manhood,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span> +and old age, of joy and love and sorrow—all the +intimate experiences that make up human life. The +music is written for mixed chorus, with soprano, tenor, +and bass solos, and, while it lacks the harmonic warmth +and variety of the cantatas written later under the glow +of the romantic spirit, it is full of interest and animation, +though light in style throughout.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>As the founder of the German romantic movement, +Weber (1786-1826) was an intense nationalist, and his +stirring music, folk-song in character and wholly German +in feeling, had a profound political influence in +fanning the flame of national and patriotic sentiment +that sprang into existence during the period of Napoleonic +oppression. His inspiring settings of the patriotic +poems in Körner’s <em>Leyer und Schwert</em>, for male voices, +made him the idol of the students and young nationalists, +and <em>Der Freischütz</em>, the first German opera, created +a perfect furor of patriotic feeling. His first cantata +was <em>Der erste Ton</em>, written in 1808 for declamation, +chorus, and orchestra. Other choral works were the +cantata <em>Natur und Liebe</em> (‘Nature and Love’) for two +sopranos, two tenors, and two basses with pianoforte +accompaniment, composed in 1818, and the hymn <em>In +seiner Ordung schafft der Herr</em> (‘In constant order +works the Lord’) for solos, chorus, and orchestra, written +in 1812.</p> + +<p>‘Jubilee Cantata.’—Weber was commissioned by +Count Vitzthum in 1818 to write a grand jubilee cantata +for a court concert commemorating the fiftieth anniversary +of the reign of Friedrich August, king of Saxony, +on the 20th of September. The text was written by the +poet Friedrich Kind. Before it was completed, however, +he was informed that the work would not be required<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span> +and that other plans had been made. It has +been intimated that this change came about through +the intrigues of his Italian rivals (he was then Court +Musical Director at Dresden). The cantata, however, +was given in the Neustadt church for the benefit of +the needy peasants in the Hartz Mountains, with Weber +himself as conductor. While it is said that a <em>Jubel</em> +overture by Weber was performed at the court concert, +it is believed by the best authorities that the famous +<em>Jubel</em> overture, now known the world over, was entirely +independent of the cantata and of later composition. +As the original text dealt with events in the +life of the king, the work was unsuited for general +performance, hence a second text was later supplied +by Amadeus Wendt and the title changed to <em>Ernte-Cantate</em> +(‘Harvest Cantata’). This is the version in +common use at the present time. Still another text +was made by Hampdon Napier, and this was given in +London under the title of ‘The Festival of Peace’ +shortly before Weber’s death, the composer himself +conducting. The cantata is written for four solo voices, +chorus, and orchestra. Joy at the fullness of the harvest +alternates with solemn thanksgiving and praise to +the Giver of all good for His bounty. A devotional +spirit prevails throughout, except in the ‘storm’ chorus, +where a dramatic style appears. The beautiful number +for quartet and chorus, ‘Wreathe into garlands the gold +of the harvest,’ is frequently detached from the cantata +and performed separately.</p> + +<p><em>Kampf und Sieg</em> (‘Battle and Victory’).—While Weber +was in Munich in June, 1815, the victory of the allies at +Waterloo was announced. The city was at once filled +with rejoicing and a large crowd gathered at St. Michael’s +Church to hear a <em>Te Deum</em>. Weber, who was +present, conceived the idea of a grand cantata to commemorate +the victory and he laid the matter before +the poet Wohlbrück, whom he had met the same day.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span> +Wohlbrück at once shared the composer’s enthusiasm +and by the first of August the text was ready. The +cantata was brought to a first performance in Prague +on December 22d and made a deep impression, not so +much by its musical worth as by its appeal to patriotic +ardor and by the stirring military character of its vivid +battle-descriptions. Weber resorted to the same elements +of rather vulgar realism which Beethoven invoked +in his ‘Wellington’s Victory’—the noises and +crash of battle and national melodies to designate the +fighting hosts. Amid the roar of cannon, the cries of +the wounded, and the shouts of the soldiers can be +heard the revolutionary melody <em>Ça ira</em> from the advancing +French, ‘God save the King’ from the English, +while the stirring strains of the Austrian and Prussian +grenadier marches and the refrain from Weber’s own +patriotic song, <em>Lützow’s wilde Jagd</em>, swell the volume +of tumultuous sound from the victorious allies. The +cantata is written for four solo voices, chorus, and orchestra. +Faith (bass), Love (soprano), and Hope +(tenor) appear in the lyrical portions of the work; the +middle section is given over entirely to the battle scene +and the whole closes with a stately chorus, <em>Herr Gott, +Dich loben wir</em>.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>While Franz Schubert (1797-1828) essayed nearly +every musical form, it is as the creator and perfecter of +the German art-song that he takes his place among the +great and mighty ones of music. His supreme gift as +a melodist and song-writer is at once apparent in all +of his works. In choral fields he wrote considerable +church music and several smaller works, of which the +only one of large importance is <em>Miriam’s Siegesgesang</em> +(‘The Song of Miriam’). Among the others are the +Ninety-second Psalm for baritone solo and mixed chorus +(written in 1828 for the synagogue at Vienna); the +Twenty-third Psalm for four voices (quartet, or male or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span> +female chorus) with pianoforte accompaniment, easy, +grateful and song-like in character; two hymns, <em>Herr +unser Gott</em> and <em>An dem Heiligen Geist</em>, the latter for +eight-part male chorus and orchestra; and <em>Glaube, Hoffnung +und Liebe</em> (‘Faith, Hope, and Charity’) for mixed +chorus and wood-wind instruments, written in 1816.</p> + +<p><em>Miriam’s Siegesgesang.</em>—This noble cantata, known +in English as ‘The Song of Miriam’ or ‘Miriam’s War +Song,’ was composed by Schubert in March, 1828, the +last year of his short life. It was written for soprano +solo and chorus to Grillparzer’s lines paraphrasing the +part of the sixteenth chapter of Exodus that sets forth +Miriam’s thanksgiving for the escape of the Israelites +and the people’s song of triumph as they rejoice over +their own deliverance and the destruction of the pursuing +Egyptians. Schubert left it with only a pianoforte +accompaniment, though intending to score it for +orchestra. What death prevented him from doing was +supplied a year or two later by his friend Franz Lachner, +who at the time was kapellmeister at the Kärnthnerthor +Theatre in Vienna. The date of its first performance +is in doubt. Nottebohm gives it as January +30, 1829, the occasion being a benefit concert to raise +funds for a monument in memory of the composer. +A spirited solo and chorus (‘Strike the cymbals’) opens +the work. This is followed by a graceful song in which +the Lord is described as a shepherd leading his people +out of Egypt. In the next number the awe of the +Israelites is depicted as they pass unharmed through +the divided waters, while Pharaoh’s hosts are engulfed +behind them. The sea becomes calm again and the +first chorus is repeated, closing with a majestic fugue +(‘Mighty is the Lord at all times’). Though the cantata +is short, it is replete with passages of enduring charm.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Ludwig Spohr (1784-1859), the celebrated violinist +and composer of instrumental music and operas in a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span> +style intermediate between the old classical and the +new romantic schools, left much choral music which, +however, has quite largely lost its early vogue. In +the shorter forms are three psalms for solos and double +chorus; the Twenty-fourth Psalm for solos and chorus +with pianoforte; the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth +Psalm for solos and chorus with organ or pianoforte; +the Eighty-fourth Psalm (Milton) for solos, chorus, and +orchestra; two hymns—‘St. Cecilia’ for soprano solo +and chorus, and ‘God, thou art great’ (<em>Gott, du bist +gross</em>) for solos, chorus, and orchestra; and a patriotic +cantata, <em>Das befreite Deutschland</em> (‘Free Germany’).</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) was the +first composer since Handel to rival him in the mastery +of choral forms. Gifted and genial as he is in other +fields, it is here that he has left the most enduring evidence +of his genius. His fine contrapuntal training and +his splendid mastery over all the technical resources +of polyphonic writing made choral forms especially +agreeable to his natural and developed gifts. In general +form his choral works follow Handelian models, +but his melodies are far more glowing and his harmonies +far richer and of warmer texture. Most of his +smaller choral works fall under the head of church +music. These comprise several anthems and other +ritual-music for the Anglican service, the fruit of his +long and intimate relations with English musical life, +some fine motets (especially the three for female voices +written in 1830 for the convent of <em>Trinità de’ Monti</em> in +Rome, namely, <em>Veni Domine</em>, <em>Laudate Pueri</em>, and <em>Surrexit +Pastor</em>, and the great eight-part motet, ‘Judge me, +O God’), several compositions for the Berlin Cathedral, +hymns, and nine psalms. He is the first composer in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span> +the nineteenth century to give to the psalm the same +breadth and seriousness of treatment accorded to the +larger choral forms. They rise to the dignity of important +works, though all are not equally beautiful. +They are: Psalms 115 (‘Not unto us, O Lord’) and 95 +(‘O come let us worship’) for solos, chorus, and orchestra; +Psalm 114 (‘When Israel out of Egypt came’) +for eight-part chorus and orchestra; Psalm 98 (‘Sing to +the Lord’) for eight-part chorus and orchestra, written +for the festival service in the Berlin Cathedral on New +Year’s Day, 1844; Psalm 42 (‘As the hart pants’) for +soprano solo, chorus, and organ; Psalms 2, 22, and 47 +for eight-part <em>a cappella</em> chorus, written for the Berlin +Cathedral; and Psalm 13 (‘Lord, how long wilt Thou +forget me’) for alto solo and chorus. The 42d and 95th +are the finest of the psalms; the others are seldom performed +now. The hymn, ‘Hear my prayer,’ for soprano +solo, chorus, and organ, closing with the familiar +‘O for the wings of a dove,’ is one of the most beautiful +of Mendelssohn’s devotional inspirations, and has enjoyed, +and still enjoys, great popularity with both +choirs and choral societies.</p> + +<p>‘The First Walpurgis Night.’—While Mendelssohn +was travelling in Italy in 1831 he composed music to +Goethe’s poem ‘The First Walpurgis Night,’ the dramatic +intensity of which made a deep impression on +the young composer; but it was not until February 2, +1843, that it was publicly performed at Leipzig, and +then much altered from the original draft. St. Walpurgis, +to whom May-day eve was dedicated, was an +early missionary who had brought Christianity to the +Druids of Saxony. The scene of the cantata is the summit +of the Brocken and the time May-day eve, when +the Druids, taking advantage of the old Northern myth +that on this eve the witches hold high revels here, +gather to celebrate their rites, while their sentinels, +disguised as demons, scare away the Christians with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span> +wild gesticulations, clashes of arms, and hideous noises. +The music belongs to Mendelssohn’s most important +and significant work. The overture, graphically depicting +the passage from winter to spring, is followed by +a tenor solo and a chorus of Druids, breathing the atmosphere +of spring. Next comes a dramatic alto solo, +uttering a warning, and after it a stately exhortation +by the Druid priest. There ensues a whispering chorus, +portraying the sentinels as they quietly take their +places. A guard then discloses the plan for frightening +away intruders. This leads to a chorus in which +the composer uses most grotesque musical effects, both +vocal and instrumental, to picture the infernal scene. +This weird chaos gives way to an impressive hymn for +bass solo and chorus. Following this comes the terrified +cry of the Christians, who are driven away, while +the Druids and their priest chant a closing hymn of +praise.</p> + +<p>‘As the Hart Pants.’—Mendelssohn’s setting of the +Forty-second Psalm was first presented at a Gewandhaus +concert in Leipzig in 1838. It is smaller in form +than the ‘Walpurgis Night,’ but is symmetrical and artistic. +A sustained introduction leads to a chorus, tender +and full of passionate longing, ‘As the hart pants +after the water brooks, so panteth my soul for Thee, +O God,’ in which the highest point among the choral +portions of the work is reached. A beautiful adagio +melody is given out by the oboe and repeated as a +soprano solo, ‘For my soul thirsteth for God.’ The third +number, ‘My tears have been my meat,’ given as a soprano +recitative, leads to a march-like chorus for +women’s voices, ‘For I had gone with the multitude.’ +The male voices then sing in unison ‘Why, my soul, art +thou cast down?’ and the female voices answer, ‘Trust +thou in God.’ A pathetic soprano recitative follows, +beginning ‘O my God! My soul is cast down within me.’ +The eighth number is sung by a male quartet with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span> +string accompaniment, ‘The Lord will command His +loving-kindness in the daytime,’ a beautiful response +full of hope and consolation; while through it is heard +the saddening strain of the soprano. The closing full +chorus repeats the fourth number, ‘Trust thou in God,’ +more elaborately developed, and ending in a pæan of +praise to God. This Psalm-cantata is one of the finest +as well as most frequently performed of Mendelssohn’s +shorter choral works and breathes throughout a deeply +religious feeling couched in terms of refined romantic +sentiment.</p> + +<p>‘Come Let Us Sing’ (95th Psalm).—The first performance +of this psalm, which is written for tenor solo, +chorus, and orchestra, took place at Leipzig on February +21, 1839. It opens with a solo, ‘O come, let us +worship,’ the theme of which is immediately taken up +and developed by the chorus in jubilant tone, but which +sinks at the end to a quiet mood. A solo soprano voice +then enunciates the words, ‘Come, let us sing to the +Lord,’ and this theme is treated fugally by the chorus +in a joyous allegro movement, closing with a strong +two-part canon in the octave for the male and female +voices. The third number is a graceful duet, ‘In His +hands,’ for two sopranos, which is followed by a stately +fugal chorus, ‘For His is the sea,’ at the end of which +the opening section of the first chorus appears with +antiphonal phrases for the tenor solo. The original +setting closes with the fifth number, ‘Henceforth, when +ye hear His voice,’ for solo and chorus, a movement of +fine contrapuntal workmanship, closing with softest +tones to the pleading words, ‘Turn not deaf ears and +hard hearts.’ An additional number was left by Mendelssohn, +written a few weeks after the first performance, +with the evident purpose of bringing the psalm +to a more complete finish. It consists of another choral +setting of the words, ‘For His is the sea,’ in which the +theme from the first number again plays an important<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span> +part and an atmosphere of joy and majestic power +is maintained throughout.</p> + +<p><em>Lauda Sion</em> (‘Praise Jehovah’), one of Mendelssohn’s +most beautiful cantatas, for four solo voices, chorus, +and orchestra, was written for the celebration of the +Festival of Corpus Christi by the Church of St. Martin +at Liège, where it was performed June 11, 1846, the +composer himself being present. The <em>Lauda Sion</em> is a +sequence (see page 15) written by Thomas Aquinas +about 1264 and is regularly sung at High Mass on this +Feast. There is a short introduction and the announcement +of the theme <em>Lauda Sion</em> leads to a chorus <em>Laudis +thema</em>, of devotional character. In the <em>Sit laus plena</em>, +phrases sung by the soprano are repeated by the chorus. +Then follows a beautiful quartet, <em>In hac mensa</em>. A +solemn chorale in unison leads to a charming soprano +arioso, <em>Caro cibus</em>. The seventh and last number is an +intensely dramatic solo and chorus, set to the closing +lines of the well-known hymn. This is Mendelssohn’s +only excursion into the Catholic liturgy.</p> + +<p>‘The Gutenberg Festival Cantata.’—Mendelssohn +wrote this short festival cantata for the fourth centennial +celebration of the invention of printing, observed +at Leipzig, June 24, 1840, by the unveiling of Gutenberg’s +statue in the public square. The text was written +by Adolphus Prölsz, a teacher in the Gymnasium at +Freiberg. A stately chorale leads to ‘Fatherland! within +thy confines,’ a song<a id="FNanchor_68" href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> written in memory of Gutenberg. +Next comes a spirited melody for tenors, ‘And +God said, "Let there be Light,"’ followed by a closing +chorale, ‘Now, thank God all.’</p> + +<p>‘Antigone.’—The incidental music to Sophocles’ <em>Antigone</em> +was composed in 1841 in the short space of eleven +days, and was privately presented at Potsdam before +William IV of Prussia and his court, October 28. Its first +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span>public performance was at Leipzig, March 5, 1842. It +was written for male chorus and orchestra and consists +of seven numbers. Although built along modern lines, +Mendelssohn’s felicitous music faithfully represents the +spirit of the ancient Greek tragedy.</p> + +<p>‘Œdipus at Colonos.’—At the command of the king of +Prussia, from whom Mendelssohn had received the +commission of chapel-master in 1841, the music to this +tragedy by Sophocles was composed in 1843 and its +first presentation took place at Potsdam November 1, +1845. The music, sung by two male choruses antiphonally, +embraces nine choral numbers, preceded by +a short introduction. The third number, closing with +an invocation to Neptune by the united choruses, is the +gem of the work and has few equals in effective choral +writing. It is frequently heard in detached form on +the concert stage.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>The early romantic movement attracted to itself no +more enthusiastic disciple and energetic exponent than +Hector Berlioz (1803-1869). Indeed, he was one of the +earliest and at the same time one of the most extreme +of the romanticists. Eccentric, impatient of formalism +of any kind, but gifted with an intensely vivid imagination +and a prodigious sense of color, he possessed a +creative force of great originality and spontaneity, +whose effectiveness, however, was frequently marred +by its extravagance of expression. Endowed with an +insatiable desire to interline all music with some kind +of a descriptive or narrative purpose, he gave a tremendous +impetus to ‘program music.’ In attempting +to find an effective medium for descriptive effort in +striving after the fantastic, he mightily developed the +resources of the orchestra and became the real founder +of the modern science of orchestration; moreover, he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span> +used his orchestra as eloquently in his choral masterpiece, +‘The Damnation of Faust,’ as in his symphonic +works. His choral-writing came under the same romantic +spell of liberation from formalism as did his +instrumental inspirations. His ‘Faust’ is not only the +first choral work, but almost the only one until near +the end of the nineteenth century, in which the romantic +ideal wholly dominates both choral and instrumental +forces. If some of the choral numbers suffer in comparison +with present-day choral treatment, this is not +because of any difference of viewpoint, but because +of the inadequacy, which one sometimes feels, of the +purely musical vocabulary at his command to express +fully what he felt. He frequently used the chorus, as +did Beethoven in the ‘Ninth Symphony,’ as an adjunct +to his symphonic works, but in distinctly choral forms, +he left, in addition to the ‘Faust’ and the works mentioned +in Chapter VIII, the cantata <em>La mort de Sardanapale</em>, +which was completed amid the uproar of the +July Revolution, 1830, and with which he won the +Grand Prix de Rome the same year; the cantata <em>Le +cinq mai</em> for bass solo, chorus, and orchestra, +written in 1834 for the anniversary of Napoleon’s death; +the cantata <em>L’Impériale</em>, written in 1855 for the Paris +Exhibition; <em>Sara la Baigneuse</em>, a choral ballad; three +youthful cantatas, <em>La révolution grecque</em> (1826), <em>Herminie</em> +(1828), and <em>La mort de Cléopatre</em> (1829); and a +few occasional choruses and choral ballads.</p> + +<p>‘The Damnation of Faust.’—This ‘dramatic legend,’ +as the composer calls it, is the aftermath of an early and +immature work, ‘Eight Scenes from Faust’ (published +in 1829 as opus 1), and was composed in 1845 and ‘46, +part of it here and there while on a concert tour in +Austria and Hungary, the rest in Paris. Its first performance +took place at the Opéra-Comique, Paris, December +6, 1846, under the direction of the composer, +before a wretchedly small audience and without success.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span> +In Germany it was produced at the Royal Opera +House, Berlin, June 19, 1847, Berlioz conducting. +Though parts of it were frequently given in England, +the first complete performance did not take place until +February 5, 1880, at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, +when Charles Hallé conducted it. In New York a few +days later, on February 12th, it had its first American +hearing under the direction of Dr. Leopold Damrosch +with the combined Oratorio and Arion Societies. ‘The +Damnation of Faust’ is undoubtedly Berlioz’s masterpiece +and sums up the best qualities of his exuberant +and fantastic style. Both instrumental and choral parts +are overlaid with a wealth of romantic and poetic coloring, +the orchestration is dazzling, and the chorus is +brilliantly handled. Many of its most beautiful and +effective numbers were retained almost without alteration +from his earlier ‘Eight Scenes from Faust’—the +work of a youth of twenty-five years. These include +the scene where Faust is lulled to sleep by the sylphs, +the peasants’ song, the songs of the rat and the flea, +the King of Thule ballad, and Mephistopheles’ serenade.</p> + +<p>The work, which has the dimensions of an oratorio, +is divided into four parts, the first of which contains +three scenes, the second five, the third six, and the +fourth six, concluding with a short epilogue and the +apotheosis of Marguerite. The persons represented +are Marguerite (mezzo-soprano), Faust (tenor), Mephistopheles +(bass), and Brander (bass). The story does +not closely follow Goethe’s version, as the opening +scene discloses Faust alone at sunrise on a plain in +Hungary, where Berlioz places him in order to have +the opportunity of introducing the Hungarian national +march. He sings in tender strain of the joys of spring +and the delights of nature, but his reverie is disturbed +by a rollicking chorus and dance of peasants. From +another part of the plain come warlike sounds of an +advancing army to the stirring and brilliant music of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span> +the Rákóczy March. The troops pass and Faust retires, +unmoved by the scene. The second part opens with +Faust in North Germany, alone in his study. He voices +his discontent with the world; as he is on the point of +drowning his sorrow with poison, the tones of the +Easter Hymn (‘Christ is risen from the dead’) strike +his ear. He listens in wonderment to the joyful strains +and at the end joins in the stately chorus. Repentant +and exalted, he resolves to begin anew, when Mephistopheles +suddenly appears and mockingly exclaims, +‘Sweet sentiments indeed and fit for any saint!’ Faust +is entrapped by his promises and they disappear. The +next scene finds them in Auerbach’s cellar in Leipzig +amid a band of carousing students who sing a lusty +drinking song (‘Oh, it is rare when winter’s storms are +loudly roaring’). There follows the drunken Brander’s +song of the rat, at the end of which the irreverent students +improvise an ironical fugue on the word ‘Amen’ +to a motive from the theme of Brander’s song. Mephistopheles +adds to the reckless merriment with the song +of the flea (‘Once on a time a king, sirs, loved a flea +passing well’). Amid the heavy bravos of the drunken +students, Faust and Mephistopheles vanish, to appear +again in the next scene, the seventh, on the wooded +meadows on the banks of the Elbe. Mephistopheles +sings a delightful melody (‘Within these bowers’) and +summons the spirits of earth and of air to lull his companion +to sleep. Faust slumbers while the gnomes and +sylphs sing a chorus of ravishing beauty (‘Dream, +happy Faust’), closing with an exquisitely delicate orchestral +number in waltz-measure, the dance of the +sylphs. As they disappear, Faust wakes and relates his +vision of Marguerite. Mephistopheles agrees to lead +him to her chamber and on the way thither they join +a band of jovial soldiers and students marching along +the street. The last scene of this part consists of a +lively soldiers’ chorus (‘Tower and wall may bar our<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span> +way’) and a characteristic Latin student-song (<em>Jam nox +stellata</em>), the two being cleverly combined at the end.</p> + +<p>The action of the third part takes place in Marguerite’s +chamber. Faust enters and sings passionately +of his love for her (‘Oh, come, calm breathing twilight’). +Mephistopheles warns him of her approach and hides +him behind a curtain. She enters and in detached +phrases tells of her vision of Faust and her love for +him. While preparing for slumber, she sings the pathetic +ballad, ‘Once in far Thule.’ As its sad strains +die away, Mephistopheles summons the evil spirits and +the will-o’-the-wisps to encircle her dwelling and lure +her to her doom. Then follows the lovely dance of the +will-o’-the-wisps, an orchestral minuet which Berlioz +has enriched with many a masterly touch of tonal realism. +Mephistopheles sings his sardonic serenade +(‘Why, fair maid, wilt thou linger’), with frequent +choral accompaniment by the will-o’-the-wisps, each +stanza closing with a derisive ‘Ha!’ A trio (‘O purest +maid’) of great dramatic power and passion brings +this part to a close. Faust and Marguerite avow their +mutual love, Mephistopheles warns them of approaching +danger, while a chorus of neighbors in the street +taunts the hapless maiden. As the fourth part opens, +Marguerite, alone in her chamber, sings a sad, sweet +romance, ‘Alone and heavy-hearted’ (Goethe’s familiar +<em>Meine Ruh’ ist hin</em>), at the end of which distant strains +of the songs of the soldiers and students are heard. +The next scene is Faust’s solemn and powerful invocation +to Nature (‘Mysterious Nature! vast and relentless +power!’). Mephistopheles appears on the rocky scene, +relates Marguerite’s crime and imprisonment, and, +playing upon Faust’s desire to rescue her, makes him +sign the contract that binds his soul to the Evil One. +The ‘Ride to the Abyss’ now begins and Berlioz’s furious +music, which only for one short moment relaxes +its impetuous galloping rhythm, pictures with relentless<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span> +realism the terrible scenes as the riders pass horror-stricken +peasants praying at the roadside, as they draw +into their train monstrous birds, hideous beasts, and +leering skeleton-phantoms. With a shout of triumph +from Mephistopheles and a cry of horror from Faust, +they fall into the abyss, where they are greeted by a +chorus of devils (male voices), who sing in a language +invented for them by the imaginative Berlioz (<em>Has! +Irimiru Karabrao</em>, etc.). The glee and triumph of this +fiendish host are uttered in snarling tones of harshest +discord, ‘the hellish laugh of fiends exulting in their +torture.’ These sounds of pandemonium are followed +by a short epilogue ‘On Earth,’ leading into an equally +short one ‘In Heaven,’ in which the seraphim plead +for Marguerite. The whole work closes with the +‘Apotheosis of Marguerite,’ in which the celestial chorus +(‘Thou ransomed soul, rest from thy sorrow!’) with +joyful tones welcomes the pardoned maiden to the +realms of everlasting light.</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>The achievements of Robert Schumann (1810-1856) +in other fields far outshone his choral works, yet the latter +are by no means inconsiderable in number or unimportant +in quality and influence. But he never mastered +the technical details of effective choral-writing +as did Mendelssohn. Sonorous and glowing as many +of his choruses are, his choral works, even the finest +one, ‘Paradise and the Peri,’ make their strongest appeal +through the beauty and melodic charm of the +solos and their orchestral accompaniments. He wrote +nothing that could strictly be called church-music +though his compositions include a Mass and a Requiem. +Several of his works besides these, however, can be +classed as sacred music. They are the ‘Advent Hymn,’<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span> +‘New Year’s Song,’ and a motet (<em>Verzweifle nicht</em>) for +double male chorus and organ (1849). His secular +choral works are numerous, the most important of +which are given detailed mention below. In addition +there are the two ballads by Uhland for solos, chorus, +and orchestra, ‘The King’s Son’ and ‘The Luck of Edenhall’ +(for male voices); ‘The Page and the King’s +Daughter,’ a ballad by Geibel written for solos, chorus, +and orchestra; a beautiful setting of Hebbel’s ‘Song of +Night’ for chorus and orchestra; and a number of romances +and ballads, among the best-known of which +is ‘Gypsy Life.’ He also wrote incidental music to +Byron’s ‘Manfred’ and a set of scenes (grouped into +three parts) from Goethe’s ‘Faust,’ the latter intended, +not for stage performance, but for concert. Some portions +of his ‘Faust’ music are quite equal to ‘Paradise +and the Peri’ in melodic beauty and in freshness and +sustained power of invention, but the work is uneven, +the third part being by far the best.</p> + +<p>‘Paradise and the Peri’ was Schumann’s first venture +in the field of choral forms with orchestra, yet it is not +only his finest choral work, but it marks the real beginning +of the secular or ‘romantic’ oratorio as a form +of equal worth and importance with the sacred oratorio. +He published it, however, without giving any +classifying name to its form. The constant use of a +narrator seems to ally it to passion-music, as far as its +form is concerned, but in other respects, notwithstanding +its length, it resembles the dramatic secular cantata. +In treating the narrative parts, however, Schumann +abandons the older form of recitative and gives to these +connecting links almost the same melodic importance +as to the main events of the story themselves, thus sacrificing +an opportunity for much needed contrast +among the vocal elements.</p> + +<p>‘Paradise and the Peri’ was written in 1843 and was +given its first performance at the Gewandhaus, Leipzig,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span> +on December 4th of the same year with the composer +conducting. England heard the work for the +first time June 23d, 1856, with Mme. Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt +singing the part of the Peri and Sterndale +Bennett conducting. Schumann found his text in the +second poem of Thomas Moore’s ‘Lalla Rookh,’ which +he followed very closely. This deals with the beautiful +Hindoo legend of the fallen Peri, banished from +paradise, who is promised readmission if she succeeds +in finding the gift ‘most dear to Heaven.’ She brings +in succession the last drop of blood shed by a hero +fighting for his country’s liberty, the last sigh of a devoted +maiden who sacrificed herself to die by the side +of her plague-stricken lover, and the tear of a repentant +sinner—which last precious gift alone can move +the crystal bar that closes the gate of light. These +three quests for the coveted gift constitute the three +parts into which the work is divided. The music has +many touches of oriental color, but it breathes throughout +the warm romantic sentiment, in melody and harmony, +which was an inseparable part of Schumann’s +individual style. The work discloses some fine choral-writing, +but the composer of <em>Frauenliebe und-Leben</em> +and <em>Dichterliebe</em> is conspicuously apparent in many +an exquisite song, the peers of anything Schumann has +written. The persons represented are the Peri (soprano), +the angel (alto), the King of Gazna (bass), the +youth (tenor), the maiden (soprano), and the horseman +(baritone); the part of the narrator is distributed +among various voices. There are choruses of Hindoos, +angels, houris, and genii of the Nile.</p> + +<p>An expressive orchestral introduction is followed by +the narrator (alto), who describes the forlorn Peri at +the gate of heaven. The Peri sings a beautiful melody +(‘How blest seem to me, banished child of air!’), full +of tender longing; the angel tells her how she may +again be admitted (‘One hope is thine’) and the Peri<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span> +departs on her quest, singing ‘I know the wealth hidden +in every urn.’ The narrator here introduces a +quartet (‘Oh, beauteous land’), which is immediately +followed by a full chorus (‘But crimson now her rivers +ran’). A stirring march-like movement foretells the +approach of the tyrant of Gazna; choruses of Hindoos +and the conquerors shout defiance at each other; the +narrator (tenor) tells of the solitary youth left fighting +for his native land; the tyrant and the youth face each +other and utter short defiant phrases; the youth shoots +his last arrow, it misses its mark and he is slain; and +an eight-part chorus cries out in agonized tones, ‘Woe! +for false flew the shaft.’ The Peri saw the deed and +flew to catch the last drop of blood shed for liberty +by the youthful hero. The part closes with a chorus +(‘For blood must be holy’), vigorous, broad, exultant, +in which the Peri finally joins.</p> + +<p>The second part opens with a tenderly expressive +strain which accompanies the narrator (tenor) as he +tells of the return of the Peri to heaven’s gate with her +gift. A short solo for the angel follows (‘Sweet is our +welcome’), and the narrator describes the disappointment +of the Peri. Without any break in the music the +scene suddenly shifts to the banks of the Nile; the +spirits of the river in a pianissimo chorus weave their +dainty strains around the lament of the Peri (‘O Eden, +how longeth for thee my heart’) which rises ever higher +and higher. The narrator (tenor) describes at length +the pestilence that afflicts Egypt’s land. The Peri +weeps at the scene and a solo quartet in beautiful +phrases sings the magic power of tears. From this +point to the end of the second part there is an unbroken +stream of exquisite melody, as the pathetic +scene is unfolded of the faithful love of the maiden +who gladly dies beside her plague-stricken lover. It +contains two of Schumann’s finest lyric inspirations—the +solo of the mezzo-soprano narrator (‘Poor youth,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span> +thus deserted’) and the deeply-moving love-song of +the dying maiden (‘Oh, let me only breathe the air, +love!’). The Peri sings a calm, sweet lament over the +bodies of the lovers (‘Sleep on’), in which the chorus +joins, and this beautiful part is brought to a reposeful +close. A graceful chorus of houris (‘Wreathe ye the +steps to great Allah’s throne’) opens the third part, in +which chorus a pleasing canon for the first and second +sopranos is given an important place. The narration +is taken up by the tenor (‘Now morn is blushing in the +sky’) in very melodious strain. The angel in a short +solo again announces that the gift must be far holier. +The Peri, full of anguish and disappointment but still +not despairing, in a long aria (‘Rejected and sent from +Eden’s door’) voices her determination to find the +acceptable gift. The narrator, this time a baritone, +sings a lengthy but graceful melody (‘And now o’er +Syria’s rosy plain’), followed by a beautiful quartet +of Peris (‘Say, is it so?’). The baritone resumes the +narrative, and, after a short solo by the Peri, this is +continued by a tenor who in a long and stirring song +describes a scene in Baalbec’s valley—an innocent +child playing amid the flowers, a weary, sin-stained +horseman who pauses to drink from the near-by fountain. +The alto narrator pictures the vesper call to +prayer and the child’s instant response. The tenor +dwells on the childhood memories aroused in ‘the man +of sin’ at the sight. The horseman in a short but heartfelt +strain (‘There was a time, thou blessed child’) is +touched to repentance. A quartet and chorus (‘Oh, +blessed tears of true repentance’) take up the theme +in simple, full harmony. The Peri and the tenor narrator +describe the scene as the man and the child kneel +side by side in prayer. In the final number the Peri in +exultant tones (‘Joy, joy forever! My work is done’) +sings her happiness at having found the acceptable gift, +and from a chorus of the blest there resounds a glad<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span> +welcome to the redeemed Peri (‘Oh, welcome mid the +blest!’).</p> + +<p>‘The Pilgrimage of the Rose’ was written for solos, +chorus, and orchestra in the spring of 1851 and first +performed at Düsseldorf, May 6, 1852. It is founded +on a fairy tale by Moritz Horn, the uninspiring and +weak text of which is probably responsible for the infrequent +performance of this cantata, though individual +numbers are occasionally given. The narrative calls +for eight personages distributed among the various +voices and there are twenty-four numbers. The rather +commonplace story relates the wanderings of a rose, +who, transformed into a lovely maiden, tastes the joys +of pure happiness among mortals. The rose, which +she must always carry with her, she finally gives to her +infant babe, and, as she dies, she is carried away by +angels. Among the most interesting numbers are the +opening song in canon-form for two sopranos (‘Of +loving will the token’), the chorus of fairies (‘In dancing’), +a spirited male chorus (‘In the thick wood hast +wandered’), the duet (‘In the smiling valley’), and the +two bridal choruses (‘Why sound the horns so gaily?’ +and ‘And now at the miller’s’).</p> + +<p>‘The Minstrel’s Curse,’ a work for solo voices, chorus, +and orchestra, was written and first performed +in 1852. It presents the familiar Uhland ballad of the +same name, adapted for the composer by Richard +Pohl. The original text is not closely followed and +several other poems by Uhland are introduced, such as +<em>Die drei Lieder</em>, <em>Entsagung</em>, and <em>Hohe Liebe</em>, the singing +of which last-named song is made the occasion +that leads to the tragedy. The cantata opens with a +description of the castle and the proud king by the +narrator, after which an alto solo announces the advent +of the minstrels. The youth sings a graceful +Provençal song and a chorus follows. The stern king +angrily objects to the tender themes chosen by the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span> +youth and the harper sings in sterner mood. The +queen plaintively requests more songs and the youth +and the harper again sing of spring and pleasure. The +youth then sings passionately of love and the harper +and the queen join him in a powerful trio that precedes +the tragedy, after which the chorus carries the +narration to the end.</p> + +<p>‘Advent Hymn.’—This setting of a devotional hymn +by Friedrich Rückert for soprano solo, chorus, and +orchestra, was made in 1848. It is a short work with +only seven numbers, but is broad and impressive in +style and is finely illustrative of Schumann’s best +choral-writing. The first number is a melodious solo +(‘In lowly guise thy King appeareth’) for soprano with +answering passages for female chorus, which leads +into a strong five-part chorus (‘O King indeed, though +no man hail Thee’). This is followed by a soprano +solo (‘When Thou the stormy sea art crossing’), concluding +with a quiet chorus for female voices. The +fourth number is introduced by a short section for +male voices (‘Thou Lord of grace and truth unfailing’), +which is taken up at once by full chorus in delicate +pianissimo and interspersed with frequent five-pulse +measures. The fifth number is given to a quartet +(‘Need is there for Thyself, returning’), written in free +imitative style. The last two numbers are elaborate +choruses to which a solo quartet is very effectively +joined. The close is massive and stately—a prayer +that Christ will quench all strife and bring peace and +unity to the peoples of the earth.</p> + +<p>Friedrich Rückert’s ‘New Year’s Hymn’ was set to +music by Schumann in 1849 for chorus and orchestra, +with incidental solos for soprano, alto, and bass. The +theme is the familiar one of solemn retrospection over +the Old Year and hopeful anticipation for the New. +The solo work is slight, the weightier utterances being +confided to the chorus. The final chorus (‘O prince,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span> +waking throned for a year as of right’) is particularly +effective. Beginning in full, pianissimo harmony, it +rises to a jubilant close, in which appears the chorale +‘Now thank we all our God,’ at first in the bass contrapuntally +treated and then with all the voices in +unison.</p> + +<p>‘Mignon’s Requiem’ is a cantata of slight and delicate +texture, but of rich and varied musical beauty. Very +different from many of the texts which Schumann +chose for choral settings, this one was especially written +for music. It is taken from Goethe’s ‘Wilhelm +Meister,’ from the scene in which the obsequies of +Mignon occur. The score is full of poetic and mystical +touches from the first quiet chorus (‘Who comes to +join our silent assembly?’) to the last triumphant chorus +(‘Children, haste into life to return’). The work +was composed in 1849 for solos, chorus, and orchestra, +but the duties of the soloists are light.</p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>The list of choral works of Ferdinand Hiller (1811-1885) +is an extensive one. The style in which many +of them were written is now obsolete, however, and +only one, ‘A Song of Victory,’ has retained its earlier +popularity. Next in importance to this is the dramatic +cantata, ‘Nala and Damayanti,’ founded on an +ancient Hindoo poem and written in 1871. Other +choral works are the two oratorios, ‘The Destruction +of Jerusalem’ (1839) and ‘Saul’ (1858), and the cantatas +<em>O weint um sie</em> (1839), ‘Israel’s Song of Victory’ +(1841), ‘Song of the Spirits over the Water’ (1842), +‘Prometheus’ (1843), ‘Rebecca’ (1843), ‘Heloise’ (1844), +‘Loreley’ (1845), and ‘Prince Papagei’ (1872).</p> + +<p>‘A Song of Victory.’—The triumph of the German +arms in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 was the occasion<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span> +that prompted the composition of this cantata, +and joy and gratitude for victory are its dominant +moods. It was written for soprano solo, chorus, and +orchestra, and the Cologne Festival of 1871 was the +scene of its first performance. The work opens with +a powerful chorus (‘The Lord great wonders for us +hath wrought’) beginning with sustained chords, then +changing to a movement of great animation. The soprano +voice takes up the second number (‘Praise, O +Jerusalem, praise the Lord’) and, as the opening +phrases are repeated, the chorus adds a soft accompaniment. +This is followed by a vigorous and dramatic +chorus (‘The heathen are fallen in the pit’), describing +the terrors of war and, in contrast, the strong +confidence of true believers in the protection of the +Lord. A short soprano solo (‘See, it is written in the +book of the righteous’), lamenting for the slain, leads +into a beautiful three-part chorus for female voices +(‘He in tears that soweth’), to which the soprano obbligato +is most effectively added. The sixth number +(‘Mighty is our God’) is a sustained chorus with massive +chords. The last two numbers are for solo and +chorus and return to the exultant mood with which the +work begins, the last chorus (‘Praise the Lord for His +great wonders’) closing with an outburst of joy and +hallelujah.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The first important contribution which Denmark +made to the literature of music in the larger forms +came from the pen of Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817-1890). +Although his music shows strong traces of the influence +of Schumann and Mendelssohn, especially the latter, +his best works are virile, individual, and plainly affected +by the harmonies and cadences of the Scandinavian +folk-song. Some of his most forceful and characteristic +utterances are to be found in choral forms +and here he followed Schumann’s example in choosing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span> +romantic subjects drawn largely from imaginative and +fanciful legends and folklore. Several of the cantatas +are chosen for analysis; the remaining ones are +‘Spring Fantasy’ (1850), ‘Kalamus’ (1853), ‘Spring’s +Message’ (1853) for chorus and orchestra, and ‘Psyche’ +(1856) for solos, chorus, and orchestra.</p> + +<p>‘The Crusaders’ is the first<a id="FNanchor_69" href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> secular choral work +after ‘Paradise and the Peri’ to compare in importance +and in richness of content and treatment with Schumann’s +fine composition. It easily takes rank among +the strongest and most beautiful of nineteenth-century +cantatas. It was written in 1866 and performed in +Copenhagen the same year. In 1876 Gade conducted +this work as well as his ‘Zion’ at the +Birmingham Festival, England. The central motive +of the poem by Carl Andersen (much of +whose material is drawn from Tasso’s ‘Jerusalem Delivered’) +is the temptation of the brave crusader Rinaldo +d’Este by the sorceress Armida and her sirens +and his triumph over the powers of evil. The personages +are three in number, Rinaldo (tenor), Armida +(mezzo-soprano), and Peter the Hermit (bass); and the +work is divided into three parts—(1) In the desert, (2) +Armida, and (3) Towards Jerusalem. The first part +opens with a chorus of pilgrims and women from the +crusaders’ host, depicting the long, weary march and +the sufferings in the struggle to gain the distant goal. +The encouraging voice of Peter the Hermit is heard +(‘Soon our God success will send us’) and Rinaldo sings +the stirring Crusaders’ Song (‘Shine, holy sun, shine on +my trusty sword’), to each stanza of which the chorus +adds a vigorous, war-like refrain. The Hermit leads +the crusaders in an evening prayer of impressive +strength, beauty, and exalted devotion, and thus the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span>first part closes. The second part begins with a long +orchestral introduction, descriptive of the direful influence +of Armida’s magic charms. The spirits of darkness +appear and, as they dance, sing a weird pianissimo +chorus (‘Silent, creeping so light’). In a fine dramatic +solo Armida outlines her plans for the ensnarement of +Rinaldo. The sirens, in a three-part chorus, sing a +melody of truly wonderful sensuous beauty (‘The wave +sweeps my breast’) and their enticing voices are frequently +heard in the tumultuous music of the temptation +scene that follows. Armida sings in seductive +tones ‘O Rinaldo, come to endless joy and rest.’ The +brave knight’s senses are enthralled and he is on the +point of yielding when he hears a strain of the Crusaders’ +Song as from the distance. A powerful concerted +number is built up from this point. Rinaldo +wavers, the sturdy Crusaders’ Song and the voluptuous +music of the sirens and Armida struggle for the mastery. +The former becomes more insistent, the magic spell +of the sorceress is broken, and Rinaldo, now thoroughly +roused, joins fervently in the crusaders’ refrain, ‘Of +heaven the faithful soldier am I ever.’ Like Wagner’s +‘Parsifal,’ with which this cantata has many points in +common, the first and third parts of ‘The Crusaders’ +build a religious frame for the vividly contrasting +temptation scene of the middle part. The third part is +introduced by a calm and devotional morning hymn of +the crusaders, their faces fixed toward Jerusalem. The +penitent Rinaldo again vows allegiance to the cross +(‘With holy thoughts seek holy things’). His solo leads +into the choral March of Pilgrims (‘Forward! O weary +feet’), stirring, confident, and exalted. Jerusalem appears +in the distance; the Hermit calls the hosts to final +combat, the Crusaders’ Song again resounds triumphantly +and the work closes with a brilliant choral climax +(‘To war! God wills it, up, arouse thee!’).</p> + +<p>‘The Erl-King’s Daughter.’—Gade composed the music<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span> +for this cantata in 1852, the text being founded on Danish +legends quite different from the one made famous +by Goethe’s familiar poem. The knight, Sir Oluf, has +been bewitched by the Erl-King’s daughters as he slept +in the twilight on a mound in the forest. Notwithstanding +the warning of his mother, he fares forth on the eve +of his wedding-day to seek again the alluring maidens. +They invite him with enticing songs to join their moonlight +revels and offer him a silken robe for his bride +and a silver cuirass for himself. He refuses to dance +with the fairest of them, she lays her hand upon his +brow and predicts his death. He jumps on his steed +and madly rushes home, where his mother tremblingly +awaits him. In the morning light she sees him riding +desperately through the fields without plume or shield; +he draws rein at the castle door, briefly greets his terrified +mother, and falls dead from his steed. A short +epilogue draws a moral that youths who ride through +the woods at night should turn aside from the Erl-King’s +mound, for ‘danger will ever him betide who +heeds the Erl-maidens’ singing!’ There are three solo +voices—the Erl-King’s daughter (soprano), Sir Oluf +(baritone), and Oluf’s mother (alto). The music +throughout is very melodious, graceful, and pleasing. +The most interesting numbers are the chorus of Erl-maidens, +the enticing song of the Erl-King’s daughter, +the morning hymn (‘The sun now mounts the eastern +sky’) which opens the third part, and the dramatic +finale, a concerted number of much vigor and animation.</p> + +<p>‘Christmas Eve’ is a short meditation on the Nativity +(poem by August von Platen), set in cantata-form for +alto solo, eight-part chorus, and orchestra in 1851. A +strongly devotional style is maintained throughout. In +the opening number a seraph (alto) bids the hosts of +angels to carry earthward the glad tidings of Christ’s +coming. The second number is a double chorus of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span> +seraphim (‘Behold, a star appeareth’) and shepherds +(‘Angelic hosts surround us’), the two uniting in rich +and varied combinations. The seraph, in a solo of rare +beauty (‘O! with pure devotion’), summons the world +to worship the Child, and the chorus softly sings its +‘praise to the newly-born.’ The double chorus is +handled antiphonally with great skill and effectiveness. +The final number (‘But now a cheerful morning o’er-spreads +the weary earth’) is a flowing, hymn-like melody +for alto solo, repeated in elaborated form for full +eight-part chorus, but sinking quietly to a reposeful +close.</p> + +<p>‘Comala,’ the earliest of Gade’s choral works, was +first performed at Leipzig through Mendelssohn’s influence +on March 3, 1843. The dramatic poem to which +the music is written follows Ossian and relates the story +of the Scottish princess Comala, daughter of Sarno, +king of Innistore, whose ardent passion for Fingal, king +of Morven, was as ardently returned. Disguised as a +youth (in the manner of old Italian opera) she follows +him on an expedition against Caracul, king of Lochlin. +The royal lovers part before the battle, Fingal promising +to return victorious in the evening. Filled with sad +forebodings, the princess with her maidens awaits him +on a height from which she can witness the battle. A +furious storm arises and amid its roaring blasts the +spirits of the warriors’ ancestors sweep by to guide +home the souls of the slain. Comala imagines that +the battle is lost and her lover killed. Overmastered +by her grief, she dies, and Fingal, returning with his +victorious warriors, hears from the weeping maidens +the news of the tragedy. He sorrowfully calls upon +the bards to sing her praises, and, with the maidens, +they chant a farewell hymn to her as her departing soul +is borne to the mansions of her fathers. Music and +poetry alike are tinged with the darksome northern +colors.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span></p> + +<p>The solo work is distributed among four personages—Comala +(soprano), her two maidens Dersagrena and +Malicoma (mezzo-sopranos), and Fingal (bass). The +graceful and, in the main, obvious character of the +music has made this cantata a great favorite for more +than a half-century. Many characteristic touches of +northern harmony and melody are brought to view, +as in the orchestral introduction and in the songs of +Comala and the ballads sung by her maids to cheer +her (‘There, lonely, sits Comala’ and ‘One day there +came from Lochlin’). The parting duet between Fingal +and Comala is melodious and sincere; but the main +charm of the work springs from the choruses, which +are about equally divided between Fingal’s warriors +and Comala’s maidens. Of the male choruses the one +accompanying Fingal’s victorious return (‘Far fled is +the foe’) is particularly stately and forceful. The +female chorus is used with fine effect in the agitated +scene of Comala’s fatal forebodings and subsequent +death. The chorus of spirits (‘Our pathway is the +storm’) is weird and sepulchral, but becomes dramatic +as the frightened princess raises her voice in supplication +to spare her lover. The cantata closes with a full +chorus of bards and maidens (‘In the darkness of +clouds’), who, in imposing and majestic unison strains, +rich in the sombre hues of the northern splendor, commend +the soul of ‘the sweet loving maiden’ to the spirits +of the fathers.</p> + +<p>‘Zion’ is a sacred cantata for baritone solo, chorus, +and orchestra, written in 1860 when Gade was at the +height of his creative powers. It consists of an introduction +(‘Hear, O my flock Israel’) in which the chorus +relates how the Lord God heard the groanings and +cries of the children of Israel and wrought great wonders +in their behalf. This is followed by two choruses—the +first describing the departure from Egypt and +closing with a tranquil fugal section (‘Like as a flock<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span> +He hath gently led His people’), and the second portraying +the captivity in Babylon. The final number, +entitled ‘The Return,’ relates the prophecy of the New +Jerusalem. The baritone solo takes up the theme in a +dignified aria, followed by a female chorus and closing +with an animated full chorus (‘Never shall thy sun be +setting’) in impressive, sonorous phrases. The whole +work is conceived in a broad oratorio style in which +the influence of both Handel and Mendelssohn may be +detected.</p> + +<p>‘Spring’s Message,’ for chorus and orchestra, is based +on a poem by Geibel which depicts Spring as the season +of hope, particularly of the Christian’s hope. This +mood is maintained throughout and the composer’s +gift of tuneful melody has thrown over voice-parts and +accompaniment alike a charm that well befits this joyous +season. This short work was written in 1853.</p> + + +<h3>VII</h3> + +<p>Félicien David (1810-1876) was a prominent French +composer of the nineteenth century who attained his +maximum popularity in the fifties. Though he wrote +numerous operas and compositions in various other +fields, he is one of those composers whom posterity has +remembered almost entirely by a single work, in this +case, ‘The Desert,’ a composition of singular beauty and +charm. While a comparatively young man David had +sojourned for several years in the East, in Constantinople, +Egypt, and the Holy Land, and his experiences +there made an indelible impression upon his talents. +The form of ‘The Desert’ is rather hard to classify. The +composer calls it a ‘symphonic ode.’ It consists of orchestral +numbers, male choruses, and tenor solos, +grouped into three parts and interspersed with short +descriptive recitations. The poem by Auguste Colin, +which forms the text of the work, made an instant appeal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span> +to David and the very spontaneous music for it +was composed in three months. When it was first performed +in the hall of the Conservatoire, December 8, +1844, it was received with enormous applause and was +repeated to crowded houses for a month. The popular +estimate then placed upon it has been largely confirmed +by its long-continued popularity. David wrote three +other choral works—the oratorio ‘Moses on Sinai’ +(1846), a second symphonic ode, ‘Christopher Columbus’ +(1847), and ‘Eden,’ a ‘mystery’ in two parts, performed +at the Grand Opéra in 1848—but none of these +received popular approval.</p> + +<p>‘The Desert.’—The theme of the work on which +David’s fame chiefly rests is the desert with its silent +vastness, its gloom, and its grandeur. The human interest +is centred on a caravan in various situations, in +the description of which the composer, with remarkable +success, invokes genuine local color; his Arabs are no +mere disguised Frenchmen. Throughout the orchestral +introduction a sustained C symbolizes the dreary +monotony of the boundless stretches of sand; a fantastic +hymn of homage to Allah is sung; the march of +the caravan is brilliantly depicted, first by the orchestra +and then by the chorus; the caravan battles with a +fierce simoon; calm is restored and the march is resumed +until evening halts it. The second part, entitled +‘Night,’ opens with a charming tenor solo (‘O night, O +lovely night’), after which the orchestra plays an ‘Arab +Fantasia’ and a ‘Dance of the Dancing Girls.’ The +chorus sings of freedom in the desert and the tenor +indulges in an evening meditation, to an accompaniment +in Oriental rhythm. The third part (‘Sunrise’) +begins with a chant of the muezzin, founded on a real +Arabian melody, calling the faithful to prayer, and +then the caravan departs on its journey, to the choral +music heard in the first part. The opening hymn to +Allah, with some modifications, brings the work to a +close. The Oriental atmosphere is preserved throughout +to an astonishing degree.</p> + +<div class="chapter"> +<figure class="figcenter illowe30" id="ilofp177"> + <img class="w100 p2" src="images/ilofp177.jpg" alt="ilop177" title="p177ilo"> + <figcaption class="caption">Cantata Writers of the Nineteenth Century:</figcaption> +</figure> + + +<p class="center p1b">Top: Ferdinand Hiller and Félicien David<br> +Bottom: Niels W. Gade and W. Sterndale Bennett</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="p2">It will be observed that the Germans have been given +by far the most numerous representation among the +choral works thus far mentioned, there being among +them compositions by only three composers of other +nationalities—Gade, a Dane, and Berlioz and David, +both Frenchmen. This numerical difference represents +a fair statement of the relative importance of choral +music in continental countries in the period under present +discussion (that is, from 1800 to about 1870). In +France choral music was entirely overshadowed in +artistic significance by the opera, as, indeed, were all +other forms of music. The list of German composers +of cantatas and shorter choral works might be even +still further extended by the inclusion of Robert Franz +(1815-1892), the writer of exquisitely refined songs, +who also composed the 117th Psalm for double chorus +<em>a cappella</em>, a Kyrie for four-part chorus and solos <em>a +cappella</em>, and a Liturgy for the Evangelical service; +and Franz Abt (1819-1885), chiefly known by ballads +of a folk-song character and a large number of cantatas +for female voices and male voices, all written in an +easy, flowing, popular style.</p> + +<p>In England, cantatas, especially those based on some +story or legend, have long been exceedingly popular. +The love of choral music has been a national characteristic +of the English people for over two centuries. +As early as the seventeenth century choral festivals +were organized by various cathedral choirs acting conjointly. +The celebration of St. Cecilia’s day was made +the occasion of some of the earliest of these festivals +and ‘The Musical Society’ was organized in London in +1683 in order to conduct them on a more artistic basis. +Musical festivals and associations were later formed +in the provinces and grew into great favor. As time +went on these assumed large dimensions and exerted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span> +an artistic influence as in no other country. Some of +those now in existence are extremely old, as the ‘Festivals +of the Three Choirs’ of Gloucester, Worcester, and +Hereford, organized in 1724, and the Birmingham Festival, +begun in 1768 by a series of concerts made up +almost exclusively of Handel’s works. The tremendous +popularity of Handel’s choral works in England +not only resulted in the extension of the Handel worship +which continued unabated until the frequent visits +of Mendelssohn attracted much of its enthusiasm to his +own superb oratorios, but caused a substantial increase +in the number of choral societies throughout the kingdom. +These societies have been unusually generous in +giving native works abundant hearing and English composers +were not slow to take advantage of the opportunities +thus offered. English choral works, therefore, constitute +a formidable array. From the time of Purcell +until the present generation of composers, however, very +few works have been produced that rise much above +the general level of mere respectability or amiable reflection +of Handelian and Mendelssohnian models that +seems to be the chief characteristic of English choral +music of the period thus bounded. Indeed, English +choral works produced in this period before 1850 are +practically a negligible quantity in the literature of this +branch of musical art. But among English composers +who were active in this field in the third quarter of the +nineteenth century there are several who deserve special +mention; these are Sir Julius Benedict, Sir Michael +Costa, Sir George A. Macfarren, Sir William Sterndale +Bennett, and Henry Smart.</p> + +<p>Julius Benedict (1804-1885), an eminent German who +made England his home during the last fifty years of +his life, contributed frequently and successfully to the +Norwich Festivals, of which he was the conductor from +1845 to 1878, inclusive. Here in 1860 his beautiful cantata +‘Undine’ was performed, in which the famous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span> +singer Clara Novello made her last public appearance. +In 1863 at the same festival his cantata ‘Richard Cœur +de Lion’ was produced and in 1866 ‘The Legend of St. +Cecilia.’ The cantata ‘Graziella,’ intended for the Norwich +Festival of 1881 but not completed in time, was +produced at the Birmingham Festival of 1882. Of these +cantatas, ‘The Legend of St. Cecilia’ is the most important. +The poem, written by the English critic and +author Henry F. Chorley, presents four characters—Cecilia +(soprano), her husband, Valerianus (tenor), the +Prefect of Rome (bass), and a Christian Woman (contralto)—and +choruses of Roman citizens, Christians, +and angels. It sets forth the wedding festivities, the +conversion of Valerianus to Christianity by the angelic +vision through Cecilia’s prayers, the discovery of his +defection by the angry prefect of Rome who had just +joined them in wedlock, his trial, the parting and +finally the death of the pair—Valerianus by being beheaded +and Cecilia by the slow martyrdom of the stake.</p> + +<p>Michael Costa (1808-1884), an Italian composer and +conductor who lived in England after 1830, was closely +identified with English choral music as conductor of +the Birmingham Festivals from 1849 to 1882, as conductor +of the Sacred Harmonic Society and the Handel +Festivals from 1857 to 1880, in which latter capacity +he wrote additional accompaniments to most of Handel’s +oratorios, and as composer of two important oratorios +which will be mentioned in a later chapter, and +of several shorter choral works. His serenata, ‘The +Dream,’ which was written to a poem by William Bartholomew +for the marriage festivities of the Princess +Royal of England to Prince Frederick William of Prussia, +afterward Emperor Frederick, is a short and delightfully +melodious composition for four solo voices, +chorus, and orchestra. Oberon (bass) commands the +fairies to prepare a car for Queen Mab (alto), who +charms the eyes and ears of The Lady (soprano) so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span> +that she may in her dreams see the form and hear the +tones of adoration of ‘her beloved lover’ (tenor). The +principal numbers are a dainty and bright chorus of +fairies (‘Make the car of a golden king-cup’), an impassioned +serenade by the lover (‘O the joy of truly loving’), +and a closing choral serenade (‘Lady, arise! look +forth and see’), tuneful and sparkling.</p> + +<p>George Alexander Macfarren (1813-1887) was one of +the most distinguished and scholarly English musicians +of the nineteenth century. He was a prolific composer +in many fields and in none was he more successful than +in choral-writing. His operas, oratorios, and cantatas +are numerous, and in the last-named group his important +works are ‘Leonora,’ composed in 1851; ‘May-Day,’ +written for the Bradford Festival, 1856; ‘Christmas,’ +written in 1859 and first performed at a concert +of the Musical Society of London on May 9, 1860; ‘The +Lady of the Lake,’ founded on Scott’s poem and produced +at the Glasgow Musical Festival, November 15, +1876; ‘Songs in a Cornfield,’ written in 1868 for female +voices to words by Christina Rossetti; and ‘Outward +Bound’ (1877). John Oxenford, a popular librettist of +the period, furnished the texts for ‘Christmas,’ ‘May-Day,’ +and ‘Outward Bound.’</p> + +<p>‘May-Day,’ for soprano solo, chorus, and orchestra, is +a brief cantata full of the jollity of this old-time festival, +with its ancient ceremony of choosing the May-Queen +and the accompanying rustic revels. It contains +many examples of the quaint style of part-writing prevalent +in the preceding century, among them the delightful +part-song ‘The Hunt’s up.’<a id="FNanchor_70" href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> ‘The Lady of the Lake’ +is a work of large dimensions demanding five solo +voices—Ellen, the Lady of the Lake (soprano), Blanche +of Devan (contralto), James FitzJames, the Knight of +Snowdoun (tenor), Roderick Dhu (baritone), and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span>James, Earl of Douglas (bass). The most interesting +music in this cantata is assigned to the chorus, and +here the composer demonstrates his fine ability in effective +part-writing, at the same time introducing many +touches borrowed from the idiom of Scottish folk-melodies.</p> + +<p>Henry Smart (1813-1879) was one of the earliest of +the modern English composers to come under the influence +of the romantic movement. He is most widely +known for his part-songs, organ music, and anthems +and other Anglican ritual-music, but his best work is +the cantata ‘The Bride of Dunkerron.’ He produced +several other cantatas of less merit—‘King René’s +Daughter’ (1871) and ‘The Fishermaidens,’ both for +female voices, and the sacred cantata ‘Jacob,’ written +for the Glasgow Festival and performed there November +10th, 1873.</p> + +<p>‘The Bride of Dunkerron’ was written for the Birmingham +Festival of 1864. The poem by Frederick +Enoch is founded on a legend concerning a Lord of +Dunkerron, whose castle was on the coast of Kerry, +who fell in love with a sea-maiden and followed her to +her watery home. She seeks the Sea-King’s consent +to their union, which he not only refuses to give but +condemns her to death for loving a mortal and drives +her lover from his realm by a tempest which casts his +body upon the shores. There are solo parts for the Sea-Maiden +(soprano), Dunkerron (tenor), and the Sea-King +(bass). The solos are numerous and uniformly +grateful, the most conspicuous ones being Dunkerron’s +simple but charming song as he waits on the seashore +for the maiden’s appearing (‘The full moon is beaming’), +the Sea-King’s aria (‘Oh, the earth is fair in plain +and glade’), and the maiden’s graceful song (‘Our home +shall be on this bright isle’) which she sings as she departs +to win the consent of the Sea-King. The chorus +has important work to do and Smart shows conspicuous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span> +skill in handling this factor. The opening number +is in reality a double chorus of peasants who tell of +Dunkerron’s nightly watch by the sea, and sea-maidens +who sing the enticing songs that prove to be his undoing. +After the long love-duet between Dunkerron +and the maiden, there ensues a brisk and stirring chorus +which depicts the journey of the lovers through +the waters to the maiden’s dwelling-place. The sea-maidens +sing several attractive choruses and a chorus +of storm-spirits (‘Roar, wind of the tempest, roar’) +foretells the impending tragedy and leads to a dramatic +trio for the three characters. The king’s angry edict +dooms the lovers and the double chorus of peasants +and sea-maidens closes the work as it began it, but the +mood is now one of sad lament over the tragic dénouement.</p> + +<p>‘King René’s Daughter’ is a cantata for female voices, +written in 1871. The poem by Frederick Enoch is based +on a lyric drama by Henrik Hertz. King René, of +Provence, had betrothed his infant daughter Iolanthe to +the son of the Count of Vaudemont. She became suddenly +blind before she had emerged from babyhood, +and, in order to keep from her the realization of her +loss, her father brought her up without any knowledge +of what sight means. A magician offered to restore her +sight, making only the one condition that she first be +told of the lost faculty, but this her father refused to +do. One day her betrothed passed through the valley +where she dwelt, singing his troubadour songs. He beheld +Iolanthe for the first time and was fascinated by +her beauty. Through the song which he sang to her +of the lovely rose she realized the existence of the lost +sense, and, this having been disclosed to her and the +magician’s condition thus fulfilled, she was healed. +There are thirteen numbers in the cantata and the +solo parts are Iolanthe (soprano), Martha (mezzo-soprano), +and Beatrice (contralto), though other solo<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span> +voices are added in a trio and later in a quartet which, +as narrator, tells of the troubadour’s song to Iolanthe. +The entire work is written in a melodious, graceful +style and closes with a chorus of exuberant joy at the +restoration of sight to ‘King René’s daughter the fair.’</p> + +<p>Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875) has not infrequently +been called ‘the English Mendelssohn,’ not because he +was a conscious imitator of his great German contemporary +and intimate friend, but because his music +exemplifies the same qualities of polished refinement +and exquisite workmanship, although of far less inspirational +value and emotional content. Bennett was +a ‘shy and reticent’ composer in point of the number +of his works, and of these (there are only 46 opera +in all) only three were in extended choral forms, +namely, an ‘Ode for the Opening of the International +Exhibition,’ 1862, to words by Tennyson, ‘The May +Queen,’ a pastoral cantata, and ‘The Woman of Samaria,’ +a sacred cantata usually classed as an oratorio.</p> + +<p>‘The May Queen’ was written for the Leeds Festival +of 1858 and, notwithstanding the poorly-written libretto +by Henry F. Chorley, is replete with musical beauties +of striking power. The solo parts are assigned to the +May Queen (soprano), the Queen (alto), the Lover +(tenor), and the Captain of the Foresters, as Robin +Hood (bass). The story relates the celebration of May-Day +in ancient times on the banks of the Thames, which +is interrupted by a quarrel between the jealous and +despondent lover of the May Queen and Robin Hood, +who enters at the head of a band of rollicking foresters +and openly makes love to the May Queen. The Queen +enters, the lover is arrested for having struck the forester, +the May Queen intercedes for his release and thereby +reveals her affection for him, the forester is banished +for having stooped to woo a peasant girl, the Queen +orders the wedding of the May Queen and her lover on +the following morning, and everything ends happily.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span> +The music (there are ten numbers in the cantata) is +characterized throughout by utmost refinement and +grace of expression and is distinctly individualized in +respect to the different personages. The finest solos are +the lament of the disconsolate lover (‘O meadow, clad +in early green’) and the forester’s robust song (‘Tis +jolly to hunt in the bright moonlight’). The chorus-writing +is scholarly, always effective without over-taxing +the singers, bright, spirited, and spontaneous. This +cantata is to be numbered among the most beautiful +compositions of this class.</p> + + +<h3>VIII</h3> + +<p>Anglican ritual-music of the nineteenth century falls +into two natural groups. The first group comprises the +compositions up to about 1850 which complete the third +period of English church-music (see page 93) overlapping +from the preceding century; the second group +begins with the evidences of new life that crept into +English church-music about the middle of the century +and brought to it refreshing vigor and regeneration. +Most of the anthems and ‘services’ of the first half of +the century repeat the colorless and listless style of +the preceding century, yet several composers produced +music of real worth, dignity, and solidity. Such were +William Crotch (1775-1847); Thomas Attwood (1765-1838), +a pupil of Mozart and a close friend of Mendelssohn +(to whom the latter dedicated his three preludes +and fugues for organ), whose ‘I was glad,’ written for +the coronation of George IV with full orchestral accompaniment, +is a remarkably fine work of imposing +breadth; and Thomas Attwood Walmisley (1814-1856). +Among the most representative examples of the work +of this group of composers will be found the following +anthems: Attwood’s ‘Withdraw not Thou’ and ‘Grant<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span> +we beseech Thee,’ Walmisley’s ‘Remember, O Lord’ and +‘O give thanks.’ With the melodious music of Sir John +Goss (1800-1880) and the notable series of anthems +and ‘services’ by Rev. S. S. Wesley (1810-1876) and Sir +George A. Macfarren (1813-1887), what might be called +the middle modern school of English anthem-music +comes to an end. On the whole academic and respectable +rather than inspired, the religious music of this +period is only the outward expression of the drowsy +and apathetic inner life of the Church.</p> + +<p>The motets of the nineteenth century and the decades +just preceding have, in the main, far closer kinship +to the sacred cantata than to the typical form whose +name they assume. Beautiful as the motets of Haydn, +Mozart, and Cherubini are as music, they are far removed +from the old motet in spirit, even though they +were written to be sung at High Mass. The best motets +written for the German Evangelical service were attempts +to revive the glories of Bach’s motet style. In +this field Mendelssohn achieved noteworthy success +(see page 151) and the well-known motets of Moritz +Hauptmann (1792-1868), cantor of the Thomasschule +at Leipzig for over twenty years, attest how deeply he +imbibed the spirit of his great predecessor. The motets +of these two composers represent the best examples +of this form in the period covered by this chapter. But +as the years move on, the old motet is becoming more +and more archaic.</p> + +<p>The nineteenth-century part-song had a brilliant history. +The enthusiasm with which it was cultivated in +Germany under certain patriotic stimuli, later spread +to England and France with happy results. The first +German choral society made up wholly of amateur +singers was the Berlin <em>Singakademie</em>, founded on May +27th, 1791, by Karl Christian Fasch (1736-1800). Male +choruses, as much social as musical in nature, had +existed in Germany since the seventeenth century, but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span> +they did not attain much popularity or influence until +Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832) established the first +<em>Liedertafel</em> in Berlin in 1808, composed of twenty-four +men from the <em>Singakademie</em>. The political effect of +Weber’s stirring part-songs, especially his setting of +the patriotic songs in Körner’s <em>Leyer und Schwert</em>, as, +for example, ‘Bright sword of liberty’ and ‘Lützow’s +wild hunt,’ has been already mentioned. The love of +choral singing became contagious, and, stimulated by +the new feeling of nationalism, both male choruses +(<em>Liedertafeln</em>) and choral societies (<em>Gesangvereine</em>) +began to multiply rapidly, especially after 1818. +Though much of the part-music written for their consumption +was weak and tasteless, many of the great +composers bountifully contributed of their best ideas. +Schubert wrote some fifty pieces of this class, twenty-two +of which are for unaccompanied male voices. +Among these seldom-sung pieces are many of astonishing +beauty, as his setting of <em>Nur wer die Sehnsucht +kennt</em>. Schumann wrote about a dozen part-songs for +male voices and some twenty for mixed voices, many +of them as poetic and charmingly melodic as his songs. +Mendelssohn’s part-songs, however, exerted an overpowering +influence not only in his own country but +especially in England, where he was imitated <em>ad nauseam</em> +for nearly fifty years by native composers. Here, +however, they were instrumental in creating such a +revival of choral singing among the people, well-nigh +dead since the old madrigal days, that singing societies +were established far and wide throughout the land, +even in remote communities. So many of these part-songs +of Mendelssohn are familiar household songs in +Germany, England, and America that it will be unnecessary +to name any here. Among the German part-song +writers of less importance are Ignaz Seyfried +(1776-1841), Julius Otto (1804-1877), Friedrich Kücken +(1810-1882), Friedrich Truhn (1811-1886), Ferdinand<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span> +Hiller (1811-1885), Robert Franz (1815-1892), Carl +Wilhelm (1815-1873), composer of <em>Die Wacht am +Rhein</em>, Franz Abt (1819-1885), and Joachim Raff (1822-1882).</p> + +<p>Though Mendelssohn’s part-songs set the prevailing +style in England for many years, many native compositions +of sterling worth were produced. Sterndale +Bennett wrote only three, but they are fine examples of +this class, especially ‘Come, live with me.’ John L. +Hatton (1809-1886), Henry Smart (1813-1879), Sir +George A. Macfarren (1813-1887), Henry Leslie (1822-1896), +Ciro Pinsuti (1829-1888), and other composers in +England have written fine part-songs that have been +deservedly popular. But Robert L. de Pearsall (1795-1856), +who wrote almost exclusively in this form, succeeded +in a remarkable degree in combining the quaintness +of the old madrigal with the freedom and grace of +the more modern style. He published about sixty madrigals +and part-songs, a large proportion of which will +remain a permanent part of the literature of this field. +Among the finest of these may be mentioned the ten-part +song ‘Sir Patrick Spens,’ probably the most elaborate +and successful part-song in existence, the genuinely +humorous ‘Who shall win my lady fair,’ the melodious +‘When last I strayed,’ ‘Purple glow,’ and ‘O who will +o’er the downs so free,’ and others equally masterly.</p> + +<p>About 1835 a general movement was started in France +for the establishment of singing societies called <em>Orphéon</em>. +These were organized in the communal schools, +among working people, and at the universities, but were +for male singers only. They became very popular and +spread with great rapidity. The corporation of Paris +recognized their importance and made choral singing +one of its municipal departments, in 1852 placing Gounod +at the head of the <em>Orphéon</em>. Annual contests and +festivals were instituted which attracted choral societies +from every part of France. In 1867 these choral<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span> +societies numbered 3,243 with a membership of 147,500. +The rapid increase in interest in choral singing naturally +led to the composition of numberless unaccompanied +part-songs, which were on the whole more elaborate +than the English part-songs and which admitted +the dramatic element very frequently. Among French +composers who wrote expressly for these societies were +Halévy, Adolphe Adam, Félicien David, Ambroise +Thomas, Gounod, Delibes, Massenet, Dubois, Bazin, and +particularly Laurent de Rillé, whose compositions in +this form number over a hundred.</p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="footnotes"> +<p class="center p2 big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_68" href="#FNanchor_68" class="label">[68]</a> An adaptation of this melody is associated in England and America +with Charles Wesley’s Christmas hymn, ‘Hark! the herald angels sing.’</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_69" href="#FNanchor_69" class="label">[69]</a> Though most of Berlioz’s ‘Damnation of Faust’ was written in 1845-6, +it really antedated Schumann’s work both in inception and in the actual +composition of many of its finest numbers (see page 158).</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_70" href="#FNanchor_70" class="label">[70]</a> Any morning song of a lively, spirited nature, even a love-song, +was called a ‘Hunt’s-up’ in olden English times.</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER VI<br> +<small>THE MODERN CANTATA</small></h2> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Wagner: ‘The Love Feast of the Apostles’; Liszt: ‘The Bells of Strassburg,’ +‘Prometheus’—Brahms: ‘Song of Triumph,’ ‘Song of Destiny’—Max +Bruch; ‘Frithjof,’ ‘Fair Ellen,’ ‘The Cross of Fire,’ ‘The Lay of the Bell,’ +etc.—Rheinberger; Dvořák; Hofmann; Goetz—Grieg; Gounod; Sullivan: +‘The Golden Legend’; Barnby; Gaul; Stainer; Cowen—Parry; Mackenzie; +Stanford—Elgar: ‘King Olaf’; ‘Caractacus’; ‘The Black Knight’—Coleridge-Taylor: +‘Hiawatha’ cycle—Dudley Buck: ‘The Golden Legend’; ‘The Light +of Asia’; Horatio Parker and other cantata writers in the United States.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="p2">Teutonic genius was supreme in the field of cantata-writing +until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, +when there appeared numerous and worthy rivals. +While the Germans have consistently retained their +love for this form and have maintained a numerical +lead in actual production, England, France, Scandinavia, +and America have produced choral works that +challenge comparison with the best German standards, +and in some instances have struck out original lines of +development that mark points of notable departure +from the older models. The period covered by this +chapter includes the works produced in the last quarter, +or at most the last third, of the nineteenth century, +with some flexibility at either boundary.</p> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>The most notable exception to the above chronological +grouping is Richard Wagner (1813-1883), who belongs +to the preceding chapter as far as dates are concerned. +But so many of the prominent composers here<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span> +considered were so strongly influenced, consciously or +unconsciously, by the Bayreuth master’s art-methods +and followed them in such a direct line of succession, +that this seems the more fitting place to mention his +brief connection with this field of musical literature.</p> + +<p>‘The Love Feast of the Apostles’ (<em>Das Liebesmahl der +Apostel</em>) was Wagner’s one and only cantata. It was +written in 1843, the same year as Schumann’s ‘Paradise +and Peri’ and three years before Berlioz completed his +‘Damnation of Faust.’ Wagner had already written +‘The Flying Dutchman’ and ‘Rienzi’ had been performed +in Dresden the summer preceding the composition +of this cantata. The thirty-year-old composer put +into this work much of the dramatic power already +hinted at in ‘The Flying Dutchman’ and displayed with +such overwhelming power in his later works. It was +written for a great <em>Männersängerfest</em> held in Dresden +in July, 1843, and was first performed under his own +direction on the 6th of the month in the <em>Frauenkirche</em>, +the orchestra and chorus numbering one thousand performers. +The subject of this Scriptural Scene was suggested +by the fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles +and Wagner wrote his own words, as he did in all of +his dramatic works.</p> + +<p>The opening chorus represents the disciples, drawn +together by persecution, offering consolation to one +another. After a few quiet measures of greeting the +voices divide into three choruses, when the movement +accelerates and leads to a powerful climax, ending +pianissimo. The apostles (twelve bass voices) then +enter with a hearty greeting, while the disciples sing +softly <em>Wir sind versammelt im Namen Jesu Christi</em> +(‘We are assembled in the name of Jesus Christ’), after +which the united chorus swells forth in a majestic passage, +invoking the blessing of the Holy Spirit, beginning +with the words <em>Allmächt’ger Vater, der du hast gemacht +Himmel und Erd’ und Alles was darin</em> (‘Almighty<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span> +Father, Thou that did’st create Heaven and the Earth +and all that in them is’). Voices from above (as in the +last act of ‘Parsifal’) are then heard singing <em>Seid getrost, +ich bin euch nah</em> (‘Peace be yours, I am at hand’). +To this the disciples respond with renewed vigor, while +the apostles counsel unswerving consecration to God. +The work closes with a mighty chorale, <em>Denn ihm ist +alle Herrlichkeit von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit</em> (‘To Him all +praise and glory be forever and forever’), its dramatic +effect being greatly heightened by the rich orchestral +accompaniment. The orchestra has remained silent +until the final number.</p> + +<p>Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was an artist of amazing +versatility and tremendous creative energy. Greatest +as a virtuoso and a composer of instrumental music of +striking originality and picturesque romanticism, he +yet wrote liberally in various choral forms. In addition +to notable church works, large and small, and three +oratorios, Liszt wrote several cantatas and shorter +choral works—‘The Bells of Strassburg,’ ‘St. Cecilia’ +(for mezzo-soprano, chorus, and orchestra), <em>An die +Künstler</em> (for solos, male chorus, and orchestra), <em>Zur +Säcular-Feier Beethoven’s</em> (for solos, chorus, and orchestra), +<em>Festalbum</em> for Goethe’s centenary (1849), +‘Prometheus,’ Psalm 13 (for tenor solo, chorus, and orchestra), +Psalm 18 (for male chorus, orchestra, and +organ), Psalm 23 (for tenor or soprano solo with harp +and organ), Psalm 137 (for solo and female chorus +with violin, harp, piano, and organ), and a large number +of male choruses.</p> + +<p>‘The Bells of Strassburg.’—Liszt composed this work +(<em>Die Glocken des Strassburger Münsters</em>) in 1874 and +dedicated it to Longfellow. The text is a mere fragment +from this poet’s ‘Christus’—the prologue to ‘The +Golden Legend’—and deals with the futile effort of the +prince of darkness and his legions, during a furious +night tern nest, to cast down the cross surmounting the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span> +cathedral tower. The work is written for baritone solo +(Lucifer), mixed chorus, and orchestra. It opens with +a short prelude entitled ‘Excelsior,’ consisting of this +word sung several times by the chorus with ever-increasing +power, ending fortissimo. The main movement, +called ‘The Bells,’ begins with a ponderous introduction +by the bells, trumpets, and horns, after +which Lucifer hurls forth his first command, exhorting +his band of spirits to tear down the cross. The chorus +of spirits (sopranos, altos, and tenors) replies to this +(‘Oh, we cannot, for around it’) and then the tenors +and basses, representing the bells, sing a Latin chant. +These voices continue in the same order, Lucifer’s exhortation +and the cry of helplessness from the evil +spirits becoming more and more vehement as the chant +of the bells ever replies in tones of calm trust in the +protecting power. Lucifer’s fourth and last appeal is +given with the full strength of voice and orchestra. In +the reply of the chorus the female voices unite, producing +a fine effect with the first and second tenors. At +length Satan, defeated, gives the order to retreat, and +the work closes with the Gregorian chant,</p> + +<div class="poetry-container p11"> +<div class="poetry"> +<p><em>Nocte surgentes<br> +Vigilemus omnes!<br> +Laudemus Deum verum</em>,</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>given by the combined chorus, organ, and orchestra.</p> + +<p><em>Prometheus.</em>—This cantata, founded on Herder’s +poem of the same name, was composed by Liszt in 1850. +He utilizes several of Herder’s prologues, which describe +the situations in words and serve to introduce +the various choral numbers. The first prologue depicts +Prometheus, the Titan, bound to a stake and about to +suffer torture for having stolen fire from heaven. This +leads to a chorus of sea-nymphs (female voices), expressing +sorrow and fear. The second prologue describes +the anger of Oceanus at the children of earth for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span> +disturbing his waters and gives Prometheus’ reply. This +is followed by a spirited mixed chorus of Tritons and +a lovely melodious chorus of Oceanides for female +voices, closing with a full double chorus, ‘Holy and +grand and free is the gift of Heaven.’ The third prologue +introduces the goddess Gæa with her train of +wood-nymphs, loudly weeping. The chorus of Dryads +follows, in the midst of which occurs a very dramatic +alto solo, ‘Deserted stand the Gods’ sacred altars in +the old forest.’ In the dialogue following Gæa upbraids +Prometheus, who stoutly defends himself. The +number closes with a mixed chorus of gleaners, which +is full of graceful melody. In the next prologue Bacchus +builds an arbor to soften the Titan’s suffering and +a male chorus of vine-dressers follows. At length an +<em>Allegro moderato</em> for orchestra introduces Hercules, +who with an arrow kills the vulture which is about to +devour Prometheus and frees him, bidding him ‘Go +hence unto thy mother’s throne.’ This leads to a stately +male chorus, ‘All human foresight wanders in deepest +night.’ The last prologue pictures the pardon of Prometheus +at the throne of Themis, and the work closes +with a chorus of the Muses.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>The genius of Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) touched +many fields and he was great in every field that he entered—orchestral, +pianoforte, chamber, song and choral. +Several of his choral works, notably the <em>Deutsches +Requiem</em>, the <em>Schicksalslied</em> and the <em>Triumphlied</em>, are +among the great things of choral literature and enjoy +undisputed popularity. Even those that are modest in +dimensions are equally serious with the larger ones in +conception and in treatment and spring from the deep +places of the composer’s soul. In all of them, as in his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span> +symphonies, he reached a point of sublimity that had +seldom been touched, if at all, since Beethoven. All of +his published compositions between his opus 40 and +opus 60, with two exceptions, were vocal works, songs +or choral. The ‘Requiem’ was opus 45 and his period +of greatest activity as a writer of choral works followed +soon after. Of these only ‘Rinaldo,’ the first one written +after the ‘Requiem,’ can really be called a cantata; the +others partake more of the character of the ode or the +choral ballad. They are <em>Rhapsodie</em>, founded on fragments +from Goethe’s <em>Harzreise</em> for alto solo, male chorus +and orchestra; <em>Schicksalslied</em> (‘Song of Destiny’) +for chorus and orchestra; <em>Triumphlied</em> (‘Song of Triumph’) +for eight-part chorus and orchestra; <em>Naenie</em> +for chorus and orchestra and <em>Gesang der Parzen</em> (‘Song +of the Fates’) for six-part chorus and orchestra, the +last two of which were later compositions in the form +of short choral ballads like the <em>Schicksalslied</em>. He +wrote liberally in forms approximating the part-song. +In many of the early <em>Marienlieder</em>, male choruses and +mixed choruses, he adopts the form of the simple harmonized +melody, while in others, as the two motets, +opus 29, he is the direct descendant of Bach, the contrapuntist. +In some of his little known <em>a cappella</em> choruses, +as the lovely <em>Vineta</em> from his opus 42 and two +from his opus 104, he produces strange and wonderful +effects through a masterly handling of harmonic +changes and melodic interweavings.</p> + +<p>‘Song of Triumph.’—Brahms wrote his <em>Triumphlied</em> +in 1871 to commemorate the German victories and the +consequent establishment of the German empire, and +he dedicated it to Wilhelm I. Its first performance +was at Vienna in 1872; a repetition occurred at Cologne +in 1873 at the fifty-first Festival of the Lower Rhine. +The text was adapted by the composer from the nineteenth +chapter of Revelation. The work, consisting of +three movements, was written for double chorus, orchestra<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</span> +and organ, together with two short baritone +solos. A lively yet solemn prelude introduces the first +number, at the close of which both choirs enter with the +words ‘Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!’ The principal +theme of this movement is founded on an old German +song, <em>Heil dir im Siegerkranz</em>. This part closes with +a tremendous contrapuntal climax of Handelian proportions. +The second part, like the first, has its prelude, +followed by a short fugue, after which a new melody +is introduced and sung antiphonally by the two +choirs. The strongest climax occurs in the third movement. +After a brief orchestral introduction a baritone +solo is heard, ‘And behold then the heavens opened +wide,’ to which the choruses reply, ‘And yonder a snow-white +horse.’ Then the baritone sings, ‘And lo! a great +name hath He written,’ following which the choruses +utter the stately phrase, ‘King of Kings and Lord of +Lords,’ sung antiphonally with ever-increasing fervor +and ending with the full power of voices, organ and +orchestra, the stately effect of which is beyond description.</p> + +<p>The <em>Schicksalslied</em> (‘Song of Destiny’) for chorus and +orchestra, with text by Hölderlin, is a noble and expressive +work, which received its first performance Oct. 18, +1871, at a concert given by the Carlsruhe Philharmonic +Society, the composer conducting. The two ideas of +death and eternal life are placed in juxtaposition and +although these dominant ideas are dramatically balanced +against each other, the close dispels the clouds +and lets in a flood of light. Indeed the composer seems +to open heaven itself to his hearers and to usher them +in. While the poet morbidly depicts the existence of +immortals on the one hand and suffering humanity on +the other, Brahms, by introducing an orchestral prelude +of great beauty, injects a new idea, namely, that there +is hope for man and that he is not to be ruthlessly +chained to uncertainty or lured by the Unknown. After<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span> +dramatically setting forth the two conflicting ideas, in +the development of which Brahms closely follows the +poet in the music, he returns once more to the beautiful +music of the introduction, which brings the hearers +safely back again into an atmosphere of peace and +hope and solace. It is a striking example of the power +of instrumental music to change the effect produced +by the poetic text.</p> + +<p><em>Rinaldo.</em>—This cantata is written for tenor solo and +male chorus to a text by Goethe and its value lies in +the beauty of the choruses and in the intimate solos, +expressive of the love which has filled the heart of the +hero Rinaldo for the enchantress Armida. The poetic +text, however, is rather vague and leaves too much to +the imagination of the hearer. Armida, the heroine, +does not appear at all nor does the ‘diamond shield,’ +to which is assigned such an important function in +rousing the enamored Rinaldo from his shame, and +the music is not sufficiently definite to supply the hearer +with the missing links. Especially effective is the closing +chorus, which depicts Rinaldo, freed from the wiles +of the enchantress and safe with the crusaders on their +homeward journey.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>The mastery of Max Bruch (b. 1838) over concert choral +forms has won him a foremost place among German +choral writers of the nineteenth century and his works +are known and valued wherever choral music is cultivated. +He combines fluent, pleasing melody with rare +skill in handling and grouping his orchestral and vocal +forces. His choral writing is always broad, dignified, +impressive and vocally grateful. The list of his choral +works is quite imposing. His larger works comprise +the two oratorios <em>Moses</em>, opus 67, and <em>Gustav Adolf</em>, +opus 73, both late compositions, and three epic cantatas,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span> +a form to which he gave especial attention. These +three, which are frequently classed as secular oratorios, +are <em>Odysseus</em>, opus 41, <em>Arminius</em>, opus 43, and <em>Achilleus</em>, +opus 50. In addition he has produced a number of +shorter compositions in cantata and choral ballad form. +They are, in the order of their composition, ‘Frithjof +Scenes’ for solos, male chorus and orchestra; ‘Fair +Ellen’ for solos, chorus and orchestra; ‘Salamis, a Triumph-song +of the Greeks,’ poem by H. Lingg, for solos, +male chorus and orchestra; ‘Frithjof at His Father’s +Grave’ for baritone solo, female chorus and orchestra; +<em>Normannenzug</em> for baritone, male chorus and orchestra; +<em>Römische Leichenfeier</em>, text by Lingg, for chorus +and orchestra; ‘The Lay of the Bell’ (<em>Das Lied der +Glocke</em>) for solos, chorus and orchestra; ‘The Cross of +Fire’ (<em>Das Feuerkreuz</em>) for solos, chorus and orchestra; +and ‘Leonidas’ for male chorus and orchestra. He has +also written several very attractive short sacred choruses, +among them the <em>Jubilate, Amen</em>, opus 3, for soprano, +chorus and orchestra, and ‘The Flight of the +Holy Family’ for chorus and orchestra.</p> + +<p><em>Frithjof</em>, for baritone and mezzo-soprano solo voices, +male chorus and orchestra, is one of his finest productions +and was his first work to achieve a signal success. +It was written at Mannheim in 1863, when he was only +twenty-five years old, and the extraordinary favor with +which it was received caused this masterwork of the +youthful composer to become the prototype of a numerous +group of dramatic cantatas for male voices that +followed in its wake. The text comprises six scenes +taken from Bishop Tegner’s far-famed <em>Frithjofsaga</em>.</p> + +<p>A lively orchestral introduction, entitled ‘Frithjof’s +Return,’ leads to a beautiful baritone aria, ‘How bravely +o’er the floods so bright,’ accompanied by an attractive +chorus, ‘O ‘tis delight when the land afar appeareth.’ +The second scene depicts Princess Ingeborg, whom +Frithjof has come home to wed, being led to the altar<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span> +by King Ring, the result of a plot by Ingeborg’s brothers +against Frithjof. A brief wedding march is followed +by the bridal chorus, ‘Sadly the skald walks before +the train,’ and Ingeborg’s lament, ‘My heart with +sorrow overflowing.’ The next scene, ‘Frithjof’s Revenge,’ +intensely dramatic both in the vocal score and +the rich instrumentation, opens with a chorus of priests, +‘Midnight sun on the mountain burns,’ in the midst of +which is heard Frithjof’s cry, ‘Go to Hela’s dark abode,’ +and after it his rugged aria, ‘Where my father rests.’ +As he sings this, he fires the temple and flees to his +ship, amid the dramatic and descriptive cries of the +people and Frithjof’s followers, and the curses of the +priests. This chorus is a work of great tonal beauty, +portraying vividly the dramatic action of the text. The +fourth number, entitled ‘Frithjof’s Departure from the +Northland,’ opens with a male quartet of exceptional +charm, followed by Frithjof’s powerful solo, ‘World’s +grandest region, thou mighty North!’ In the fifth scene +occurs ‘Ingeborg’s Lament,’ a sorrowful and pathetic +heart-cry to her lost lover, ‘Storms wildly roar,’ after +which comes the finale, a spirited chorus sung by Frithjof +and his men as they sail away in the good ship +‘Ellida’ in quest of further adventures.</p> + +<p>The story of Bruch’s ‘Fair Ellen’ is laid at Lucknow, +British India, and the story is founded on an incident +said to have occurred during the famous siege of this +city in 1857, when a Scotch girl, fair Ellen, heard, above +the din of battle, the shrill bagpipes of the Macgregors +in the far distance, as the relief party approached, +playing ‘The Campbells are Coming.’ Her inspired +words of hope and encouragement stirred the despairing +defenders to renewed resistance, beating off the +besiegers until rescue was at hand. The cantata, the +text of which is Emanuel Geibel’s ballad of the same +name, was written in 1869. It is of modest dimensions, +embracing solos for soprano and baritone, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span> +five chorus numbers. The music, following Bruch’s +style, is rich in instrumentation, while the choruses are +full of fine melody. The Scotch tune, ‘The Campbells +are Coming,’ is introduced many times in the orchestral +score, and at the close the composer makes a fine climax +by broadening out the joyous march-melody into +a devout hymn of thanksgiving.</p> + +<p>‘The Cross of Fire,’ a dramatic cantata founded on +incidents in Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Lady of the Lake,’ was +composed in 1888 and is one of the finest of Bruch’s +later choral works. It was an ancient custom in the +Highlands of Scotland, when one clan declared war +on another, to call the clansmen to arms by means of +a ‘cross of fire.’ After solemn consecration at the altar, +this war-signal was carried with all possible speed from +post to post by noble messengers and in its wake the +men-at-arms assembled. Bruch’s librettist, Heinrich +Bulthaupt, opens the cantata at the point in Scott’s +familiar poem where Norman, a noble Highlander, is +proudly leading his bride Mary, a noble maiden, to a +near-by mountain chapel to celebrate the wedding ceremony. +The wedding train approaches the church to +the festal sounds of organ and a wedding anthem. +As the ceremony is about to begin, Angus, a messenger, +rushes in with the cross of fire and hurriedly hands it +to Norman with the chieftain’s command to bear it to +the nearest post. Norman bids a heart-broken farewell +to his bride and hurries off followed by his warriors. +Poet and composer now describe the feelings of +Norman on his rapid journey, battling between duty +and love. The rising of the clan in response to the war-signal +is given vivid portrayal. Then follows the best-known +number of the cantata, the beautiful <em>Ave Maria</em>, +in which the despairing Mary expresses her emotions +at being left alone. The stirring war-song, ‘Clan Alpin! +Clan Alpin!’ in which Norman rouses his warriors to a +high pitch of bravery, is an impressive number, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</span> +Bruch with fine effect uses an old Scotch battle-song. +The final number is a masterly concerted piece. Mary +and her maidens anxiously watch the ebb and flow of +battle from a neighboring hill-top. The cry goes up +that Norman has fallen, but shouts of victory are soon +heard, the valiant Norman appears and rapturously +throws himself in Mary’s arms, and joy and happiness +reign. This number is massive, full of life, vigor, and +effective contrast, and furnishes a brilliant climax to +the whole work.</p> + +<p>Schiller’s ‘Lay of the Bell’ has furnished inspiration +to numerous composers. Romberg’s cantata has already +been described and this called forth several rivals. +Bruch’s is the most pretentious of them and approaches +closely to the oratorio form. The poem loses +in musical setting through its over-abundance of rapidly-passing +scenes—there are twenty-seven numbers +grouped into two parts—but the music abounds in +moments of great beauty, especially in such choral +numbers as the final one in the first part, ‘One blest +assurance yet is granted,’ the funeral chorus in the second +part (‘From the steeple, sad and slow’), the chorus, +‘Hallowed Order, child of Heaven,’ which is one +of the most elaborate of the work, and the finale with +preceding bass solo, ‘Heave it, brothers, heave it high!’ +Near the close a charming trio for soprano, alto and +tenor voices appears (‘Peace benignant, gentle Concord’) +into the accompaniment of which Bruch has +skilfully and effectively interwoven the melody of the +familiar Christmas song, ‘Silent night, hallowed night!’</p> + +<p>For each of his great epic cantatas Bruch chose a +warrior hero—Frithjof the Viking, Arminius the German +liberator, Odysseus and Achilles, the Greek chieftains. +<em>Odysseus</em> was first performed in Bremen in +1873. It was written to the poem of Wilhelm Paul +Graff, which, like the ‘Frithjof,’ consists of a series of +scenes or episodes. These are grouped into two parts,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</span> +the first containing four scenes and the second six, +drawn from the adventurous and picturesque life of +the King of Ithaca. Arminius, equally epic in feeling +and treatment, was written in 1875 to a poem by F. +Cueppers. The scene is laid in Germany, the time being +from 9 to 13 A. D. when Arminius (Latin for Hermann) +laid the foundations of the political league of +the Germanic tribes by uniting them for the time being +against the common Roman foe and throwing off the +Roman yoke. The work is in four parts—‘Introduction,’ +‘In the Sacred Forest,’ ‘The Insurrection,’ and ‘The +Battle’—and closes with an inspiring patriotic hymn of +stately proportions, ‘Germany’s sons shall be renowned.’ +The part of Arminius (baritone) is particularly fine +throughout. Both of these cantatas are equally popular +and they were followed in 1885 by another on the same +general lines, <em>Achilleus</em>, to the poem by H. Bulthaupt, +the motives of which are drawn from Homer’s <em>Iliad</em>. +This is in many respects a greater work than its predecessors; +it is laid out on broader lines, the orchestral +part seeks greater recognition and the composer frequently +and with tremendous effect employs the double +chorus in building up massive polyphonic climaxes.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>Joseph Rheinberger (1839-1901) is a prolific composer +who has contributed most liberally to choral literature. +In this field and that of organ he is at his +best. <em>Christophorus</em>, sometimes called an oratorio, was +written in 1880 and is based on the mediæval legend +of the giant who, notwithstanding his mighty strength, +sought a master to serve who was most powerful on +earth and who knew no fear. But he found that the +mightiest earthly monarch feared Satan and that Satan +shrank in terror before the Cross, so he gladly became<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</span> +the servant of the Lord of the Cross. The composer +mingles sacred and secular elements in a masterly +manner; portions of the work, particularly the closing +numbers of the first part, belong to the richest and +most beautiful choral writing of the last half of the +nineteenth century. ‘The Star of Bethlehem,’ a Christmas +cantata, possesses sustained beauty and is conceived +in a lofty vein. <em>Das Thal des Espingo</em>, a choral +ballad for male voices and orchestra (poem by Paul +Heyse), is one of the finest examples of its kind. +‘Clarice of Eberstein,’ ‘Toggenburg,’ ‘Montfort,’ <em>Die +Rosen von Hildesheim</em> for male chorus and wind instruments, +and <em>Wittekind</em> are among the finest of his secular +compositions.</p> + +<p>Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904) is the one representative +Bohemian composer who has given serious attention to +the larger choral forms. His greatest compositions in +this field, however, were written, not for performance +in his native land, but for the great English festivals—the +<em>Stabat Mater</em>, composed in 1876 and performed +March 10th, 1883, by the London Musical Society, the +‘Spectre’s Bride,’ written for the Birmingham Festival +of 1885, ‘St. Ludmila’ (oratorio) for the Leeds Festival +of 1886, and the Requiem Mass for the Birmingham +Festival of 1891. England did valiant service in calling +the world’s attention to Dvořák’s unique genius.</p> + +<p>‘The Spectre’s Bride.’—This well-known cantata is +founded upon an old legend, current among all Slavic +nations, about a maiden, who, deserted by her lover +and awaiting his return, was enticed away at midnight +by a spectre, only to be led over hill and dale, amid +grewsome horrors, to the graveyard. There she took +refuge in a tiny house where she was beset by spectres, +and the moonlight revealed, lying on a plank, a revivified +corpse, which rose up and glared at her. Her fervent +prayers to the Virgin finally ended the hideous +spell. A cock crew, dawn came, and the girl wended<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</span> +her way home in the peaceful morning. When the +work was performed at Birmingham it was received +with great enthusiasm and, despite its horrible story, +it is a masterpiece of dramatic narrative and descriptive +realism.</p> + +<p>The cantata consists of eighteen numbers. Eleven +of these are allotted to the narrator (baritone), who, +with the choral responses and supported by vividly +descriptive instrumentation, gives a realistic portrayal +of the frightful scenes. The weirdness of the music +increases in intensity up to the entrance of the maiden +in the house of the dead. In the seven remaining numbers +other solo voices are heard. The lament of the +maiden (soprano) for her lost lover and, at the close, +her fervent appeal to the Virgin are fascinating in their +beauty. There are also four duets sung by the bride +and the spectre (tenor), together with one in which the +chorus participates. As Hadow says in his ‘Studies in +Modern Music’ (Vol. II, p. 206): ‘There is too much +monotony of suffering; there is too much gloom and +terror and pain; a tragedy so unrelieved comes near to +overstraining the sympathy of the spectator.’ Yet the +musical appeal, through the composer’s inexhaustible +resources of rhythmic, harmonic and melodic effects, +garbed in gorgeous orchestral colors, softens the horrors +and lightens the prevailing darkness of the poem.</p> + +<p>Heinrich Karl Johann Hofmann (1842-1902) had the +good fortune to win public recognition in different fields +in rapid succession. In three successive years his ‘Hungarian +Suite’ for orchestra (1873), his ‘Frithjof’ symphony +(1874), and his cantata ‘Melusina’ (1875) +achieved such instant favor that he soon became one +of the best-known of the contemporary German composers. +While these successes were somewhat ephemeral +and while he manifested a tendency to sacrifice +individuality of expression to sensuous charm and formal +beauty, the ‘Melusina’ deserves long life. He followed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</span> +the lead of Schumann in choosing legends and +fairy tales as subjects for his most successful cantatas. +These are, in addition to the one just mentioned, +<em>Aschenbrödel</em> (‘Cinderella’), <em>Nornengesang</em> (‘Song of +the Norns’) for female chorus, and <em>Waldfräulein</em>.</p> + +<p>The ‘Legend of the Fair Melusina’ was composed in +1875. Melusina, a fountain nymph, becomes betrothed +to Count Raymond and marries him under the agreement +that she may go her own way one day in every +seven, without question or hindrance on his part. In +these intervals she again becomes a mermaid and +bathes with her nymphs in her native fountain. Later, +urged by his mother Clotilda and his uncle Sintram, +who are consumed with jealousy and curiosity, Raymond +invades her privacy. Doomed by this violation +of his compact to eternal separation, he embraces Melusina +for the last time and dies in her arms. The +weeping nymph returns to her former element. The +music is not difficult and is replete with melody of +captivating charm. The melodious prologue, the rollicking +hunting song, the rapturous love-duet, the chorus +of nymphs at the fountain with Melusina, the dramatic +choral accusation of the people against Melusina, +the final duet with choral accompaniment leading to +the tragic dénouement—all these have contributed to +make this one of the most musically effective of the +more unpretentious cantatas.</p> + +<p>Hermann Goetz (1840-1876) was cut off too early in +his career to have given full expression to his undeniably +great talent, yet he has left at least one choral +work that demonstrated love for, and ability in, this +form. In his setting of Schiller’s <em>Nänia</em> (<em>Auch das +Schöne muss sterben</em>) for chorus and orchestra, as well +as the 137th Psalm (‘By the Waters of Babylon’) for +soprano, chorus and orchestra, he reveals a close kinship +to both Schumann and Brahms in his effective +handling of voices and instruments.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</span></p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>Edvard Hagerup Grieg (1843-1907), the greatest of +the Scandinavian composers, chose musical forms of +modest mold and outline—such as his altogether charming +songs and piano pieces—for many of his most fragrant +and characteristic thoughts. He wrote only three +choral pieces—all in the smaller forms, but all individual, +brilliant and full of his peculiarly charming +idiom. They are <em>Vor der Klosterpforte</em> (‘At the Convent +Door’) for solo, female voices and orchestra, the +well-known and vigorous <em>Landerkennung</em> (‘Land Discovery’) +for male chorus and orchestra and the Scenes +from Björnson’s unfinished drama, <em>Olaf Trygvasson</em>, +for solos, chorus and orchestra. The last is the largest +and most elaborate of the three and has for its subject-matter +the efforts of Olaf, a descendant of Harold Haarfagar +(the first king of Norway) but brought up in +banishment, to conquer Norway and convert its people +from Paganism to Christianity.</p> + +<p>For fully thirty years after the middle of the nineteenth +century had been passed, French composers were +still too firmly wedded to the operatic stage to give +more than fleeting attention to choral forms of the +cantata type, and few French names of this period, +therefore, will find place here.</p> + +<p>Charles Gounod (1818-1893), who turned his thoughts +almost exclusively to religious music in the later years +of his life, wrote several oratorios which will be mentioned +in detail in Chapter VIII. His smaller works—the +137th Psalm (‘By Babylon’s Wave’), the 129th +Psalm (‘Out of Darkness’), and especially the motet, +‘Gallia,’ with soprano solo—evidence a fund of pleasing +melody that, while not ecclesiastical in feeling, lies +close enough to the apprehension of the average listener +to make his music deeply prized by lovers of sweet<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</span> +melody. The ‘Gallia’ (to words from the Lamentations +of Jeremiah) is a lamentation over the disaster that +befell his country in the war of 1870; it was written +for soprano, chorus and orchestra and was first produced +at the Albert Hall, London, May 1, 1871, at the +opening of the International Exhibition. Théodore Dubois +(born 1837), who was one of the many winners of +the coveted <em>Prix de Rome</em>, on his return from Italy +produced an important choral work, ‘The Seven Last +Words of Christ’ (<em>Les sept Paroles du Christ</em>), on Good +Friday, 1867, at St. Clotilde’s, of which he was then +choir-master. The writer of melodious opera-music, +Jules Massenet (1842-1912), has written one charming +cantata, <em>Narcisse</em> (‘Narcissus’), for chorus and orchestra, +that was produced in 1877. After 1880, however, +choral works in the smaller forms became more numerous +in France.</p> + +<p>At the beginning of the last quarter of the nineteenth +century elements of distinctive individuality began to +creep into English cantata-music and assert themselves +more and more. Out of the mass of cantatas that +came into being to feed the choral appetites of the vast +number of English singing societies and festivals, works +of impressive beauty and fine workmanship appeared +that would reflect credit on the choral literature of +any nation. English composers have seized upon the +ballad, the legend and the fairy-tale, upon scenes from +secular and sacred history, and have exercised especial +industry in using them as material for choral works. +Their number is so great that but a few can be named.</p> + +<p>Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842-1900) is best known +in the field of cantata by the ‘Golden Legend,’ though +it was preceded by two others, ‘Kenilworth,’ written in +1864 for the Birmingham Festival, and ‘The Martyr of +Antioch,’ in 1875, for the Leeds Festival.</p> + +<p>‘The Golden Legend’ received its first presentation at +the Leeds Musical Festival in 1886. The text consists<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</span> +of those portions of Longfellow’s poem which concern +Elsie and Prince Henry. Joseph Bennett, who acted as +librettist, has arranged these into six scenes with a +prologue and epilogue. The prologue describes the attempts +of Lucifer and his spirits to tear down the cross +from the spire of Strassburg Cathedral, Lucifer being +a baritone, his spirits sopranos and altos, and the bells +tenors and basses. In the opening scene of the legend +Prince Henry in his chamber sings ‘I cannot sleep.’ +This is followed by the temptation duet with Lucifer, +which ends with an angels’ chorus. In Scene II Ursula, +Elsie’s mother, sits before her cottage and sings an +evening song and the villagers are heard in a beautiful +choral hymn, ‘O gladsome light.’ In the following dialogue +Elsie discloses her decision to offer her life for +the prince and then sings the beautiful prayer, ‘My +Redeemer and my Lord.’</p> + +<p>Scene III is on the road to Salerno; Henry and Elsie +sing a graceful duet, ‘Sweet is the air with budding +haws’; pilgrims pass, intoning a Latin hymn, and Lucifer, +among them, utters his mocking lines, ‘Here am I, +too, in the pious band’; the prince’s song of greeting +to the sea is heard, and also a sweet song by Elsie, +‘The night is calm and cloudless,’ effectively repeated +with full chorus. Scene IV is at the Medical School at +Salerno. Lucifer, disguised as Friar Angelo, leads Elsie +away to her sacrifice, but she is rescued by the repentant +prince. The music to this dramatic scene is +most stirring. In Scene V, before Ursula’s cottage, a +messenger recites the prince’s miraculous cure and +Elsie’s safety; after which Ursula’s prayer of thanksgiving +is heard, ‘Virgin, who lovest the poor and lowly.’ +The last scene is at the Castle of Vautsberg on the +Rhine, on the evening of the wedding day. After a +joyous duet by Prince Henry and his bride (now the +Lady Alicia), there follows a choral epilogue, rising +at the end to a great fugal climax.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</span></p> + +<p>Joseph Barnby’s (1838-1896) part-songs and church-music +and his long experience as conductor of important +choral societies gave him a large influence with +an important section of English lovers of choral music. +His choral pieces include the melodious psalm, +‘The Lord is King,’ written for the Leeds Festival of +1883, and the cantata ‘Rebekah,’ which he characterizes +as a ‘sacred idyll.’</p> + +<p>‘Rebekah’ was written in 1870 and is undoubtedly his +finest work. It deals with the wooing of Rebekah by +Isaac as related in the Scriptures and done into verse +by Arthur Matthison. The first and last choruses disclose +some effective modern fugue-writing that is melodious +and expressive as well as contrapuntally interesting. +The last chorus, especially, builds up to a massive +and vocally brilliant climax. Probably the best-known +number is Isaac’s solo, the favorite tenor aria, ‘The soft +southern breeze plays around me.’</p> + +<p>Alfred Robert Gaul (1837-1913) is the composer of +many pleasing and popular cantatas, mostly on sacred +subjects, the most widely known of which are ‘The +Holy City,’ ‘Ruth,’ ‘The Ten Virgins’ and ‘Joan of Arc.’</p> + +<p>Sir John Stainer (1840-1901) writes in a more serious +style, but yet more suited to church choirs than to large +choral bodies. ‘The Daughter of Jairus,’ ‘The Crucifixion’ +(A Meditation for Passion Week), and ‘St. Mary +Magdalen’ are his more familiar cantatas.</p> + +<p>Frederic Hymen Cowen (born 1852) has been a prolific +writer of cantatas, no fewer than seven having +come from his pen. They are ‘The Rose Maiden’ +(1870), ‘The Corsair’ (1876), ‘St. Ursula’ (1881), ‘The +Sleeping Beauty’ (1885), ‘St. John’s Eve’ (1889), ‘The +Water Lily’ (1893), and ‘The Transfiguration’ (1895). +Some of these, particularly ‘The Rose Maiden,’ have attained +wide popularity because of their easy, fluent melody +and pleasing part-writing.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</span></p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>It remained for three Englishmen, all born within +five years of each other—Mackenzie (1847), Parry +(1848) and Stanford (1852)—to break away from the +traditions of English choral music and to venture to +say their musical thoughts in their own way. The +point of departure from the old to the new paths bases +itself squarely on the work of this trio. Cowen and +Cordor (both born in 1852) added nothing of importance +to the musical means of expression employed +by this trio, but Elgar (born in 1857) has carried forward +English choral music to heights never before +attained. The decade between 1847 and 1857, therefore, +is memorable in English musical history in having witnessed +the birth of the men who are most responsible +for the remarkable revolution in the character of English +choral music witnessed in the last quarter of the +nineteenth century. It is a curious coincidence that +the ode, a form cultivated with such industrious zeal +by early English composers, should have appealed with +great force to all of the trio mentioned above, as a musical +form worthy of revival. No less than fourteen +odes came from their pens.</p> + +<p>When the first important choral work of Charles +Hubert H. Parry (b. 1848), scenes from Shelley’s ‘Prometheus +Unbound,’ was produced at the Gloucester +Festival of 1880, its new tone of confident assertion was +recognized as the beginning of a new era in English +music, though its success with the public was very +small. Works of impressive significance followed in +quick succession and he became a figure of dominant +importance in English musical life. In addition to +three oratorios and several works combining symphonic +and choral forms, he has written an imposing +list of shorter choral works. The ordinary form of the +cantata has little appeal for him, and none of his choral<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</span> +works is so named. ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin,’ +however, is really a cantata in feeling, even though it +requires very slight solo work. He reaches superb +heights of sustained expression in some of his odes—he +wrote ten in all—that stamp his choral writing with +qualities of superlative excellence, among which are +perfect accentuation, mastery of expressive counterpoint +and remarkable handling of large tonal masses +so as to produce the greatest effects of sonority and +breadth. These qualities appear with conspicuous +force in his famous ‘Blest Pair of Sirens,’ an ode by +John Milton, set for eight-part chorus and orchestra, +and first sung in 1887 by the Bach Choir. Other choral +works before 1900 that added greatly to his reputation +are ‘The Glories of Our Blood and State,’ a funeral ode +by James Shirley, produced at the Gloucester Festival +of 1883, ‘Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day’ (poem by Pope) at +Leeds, 1889, <em>L’Allegro ed il Penseroso</em> (poem by Milton) +at Norwich, 1890, ‘Invocation to Music’ (ode in +memory of Purcell by Robert Bridges) at Leeds, 1895, +and ‘The Lotus-Eaters,’ a choral song, 1892.</p> + +<p>With the exception of ‘The Witch’s Daughter,’ performed +at the Leeds Festival of 1904, all of the cantatas +and shorter choral works of Alexander Campbell +Mackenzie (born 1847) fall within the period covered +by the present chapter. Attention was first attracted +to his fine command of choral technique by ‘The Bride,’ +a cantata founded on a poem by the German poet, +Hamerling, and performed at the Gloucester Festival +of 1881. Possibly his highest point of artistic effectiveness +is reached in his fine <em>Veni, Creator Spiritus</em>, set +to Dryden’s paraphrase and produced at the Birmingham +Festival, 1891. Burns’ ‘The Cotter’s Saturday +Night’ furnished inspiration for one of his most characteristic +works (for chorus only) and naturally appealed +strongly to his national feeling and idiom. His other +cantatas include ‘Jason’ (Bristol Festival, 1882), ‘The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</span> +Story of Sayid’ (Leeds, 1886), founded on Edwin Arnold’s +‘Pearls of the Faith,’ and the ‘Dream of Jubal’ +(Liverpool Philharmonic, 1889). In the last-named +cantata he employs a reciter in addition to soloists and +chorus.</p> + +<p>The cumulative effect of the artistic activity of the +notable trio named above may find partial explanation +in the fact that together they represent the three dominant +national branches of the United Kingdom—Parry +the Englishman, Mackenzie the Scotchman and Stanford +the Irishman. The works of these three brilliant +exponents of British music reveal many idioms traceable +to their respective racial characteristics. In the +two choral ballads of Charles Villiers Stanford (born +1852)—‘The Voyage of Maeldune’ (Leeds Festival, +1889), poem by Tennyson, and ‘Phaudrig Crohoore’ +(Norwich Festival, 1896), poem by J. S. Le Fanu—traits +of Irish folk-song appear on many a page and +lend to the music individuality and a fragrant beauty. +Indeed, he has achieved some of his greatest successes +in his choral ballads. His splendid setting of Tennyson’s +‘The Revenge’ (Leeds Festival, 1896), with its +snappy, breezy and, withal, brilliant style, tempted him +to set another nautical ballad, Campbell’s ‘The Battle +of the Baltic,’ which, however, is hardly as effective. +His style is more eclectic than that of his two great +contemporaries, combining some of the best German +and English qualities with his own individual mode of +utterance. His oratorios will be mentioned in another +place. He has made very notable contributions to +sacred and church music, especially liturgical music.</p> + + +<h3>VII</h3> + +<p>Sir Edward Elgar’s<a id="FNanchor_71" href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> position as not only the leader +among English composers of the present, but as one +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</span>of the greatest of contemporary creative musicians, is +amply buttressed by a series of works in orchestral and +choral fields, which, though not conspicuous by its +length, is remarkable for the strength and originality +of their musical ideas, the vigor of treatment and the +supreme command which the composer displays over +the technical means of expression. Most of his greatest +works are discussed in other sections of this series, yet +it was in the field of cantata that his name first rose to +prominence and the English festivals furnished the occasion, +as in the case of so many other English composers. +‘The Black Knight’ had found a respectful +hearing at the Worcester Festival of 1893 and the +‘Scenes from the Bavarian Highlands’ at the same Festival +in 1896, but the production of the ‘Scenes from +the Saga of King Olaf’ at the North Staffordshire Festival +at Hanley in 1896 created a profound impression +and its remarkable success raised his name at once to +a place among the great ones of music. ‘The Banner of +St. George’ followed in 1897 and ‘Caractacus,’ the finest +of his cantatas, in 1898.</p> + +<p>‘The Black Knight,’ for chorus and orchestra, is a setting +of Longfellow’s translation of Uhland’s poem, <em>Der +schwarze Ritter</em>, and the music with virile urgency sets +forth the dramatic incidents of this ballad of the mysterious +‘sable knight,’ whose visit at the court festivities +of an ancient king caused the sudden death of the king’s +two children. Elgar’s maturer style is clearly foreshadowed +in this early work.</p> + +<p>‘The Banner of St. George,’ a ballad for chorus and +orchestra, with text by Shapcott Wensley, was inspired +by the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria +in 1897 and was performed the same year. The +poem is divided into two scenes, dealing with the deliverance +of a princess from the dragon by the valiant +Saint George of Sabra, and an epilogue in which Elgar +makes characteristic use of a stirring ‘marching’ melody,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</span> +to words of patriotic sentiment, in building up a +rousing choral climax.</p> + +<p>‘Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf’ is a setting of +Longfellow’s words with additions and connecting passages +by H. A. Acworth. The vigorous and individual +style of the preceding works here finds full fruition and +Elgar stands forth as a matured creator, full armed +and conscious of his strength. The poetical selections +are grouped into eight scenes with introduction and +epilogue. These include the remarkably strong and +dramatic ‘Challenge of Thor,’ as the Norse god hurls +defiance at the Christian religion; King Olaf’s return +to Norway and his acceptance of the challenge; the +breaking of the image of Thor and the conversion of +Olaf’s subjects; ‘The Wraith of Odin,’ a stirring choral +ballad relating the mysterious visit of the spirit of Odin +to the banquet hall; the wooing of Sigrid, queen of +Svithiod, by King Olaf, which is preceded by a charming +chorus of the minstrel maids of the queen; the +choral ballad of Thyri, sister of Svend, the Danish +king, who flees from her betrothed to King Olaf’s court +for protection—one of the finest parts of the cantata—followed +by the lovely duet of Thyri and Olaf; and +the death of Olaf in the fierce sea-battle with the Danes, +thrillingly related by the chorus. In the epilogue the +efficacy of Christian love in converting the world is +contrasted with that of the sword and gives occasion +to Elgar for constructing a choral climax, beginning +<em>a cappella</em> with the words, ‘As torrents in summer, +half dried in their channels,’ that for simple beauty +and sustained power of expression has few equals in +choral literature. Three solo voices are added to the +choral forces at the end.</p> + +<p>‘Caractacus,’ written to the poem by H. A. Acworth +for the Leeds Musical Festival of 1898, stands in the +natural progressive order of his secular cantatas as the +strongest of the series and, in many respects, the most<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</span> +remarkable of its class in any country or period. Elgar, +in this and later choral works, appears in the +double rôle of symphonist and choral writer, for the +orchestra frequently rises into momentary preëminence +and overshadows the choral machinery as a medium of +expression. ‘Caractacus’ must be thought of in its orchestral +coloring in order to grasp its full strength and +beauty, for Elgar is a master of all modern orchestral +resources.</p> + +<p>This cantata was written at the composer’s home at +Malvern in the immediate environment of the stirring +scenes related in its score and enacted in ancient times +by the heroic defenders of British freedom, for it was +at Malvern Hills on the Welsh frontier that Caractacus +made his final stand against the legions of Rome. The +work is in six scenes, the first depicting Caractacus and +his warriors in his British camp at Malvern Hills at +night. It opens after a short orchestral introduction +with the stirring chorus, ‘Watchmen, alert!’ The king’s +daughter Eigen and her betrothed Orbin break in upon +the sad reveries of the disheartened monarch and their +recital of the warning of the Druid maiden ushers in +the beautiful trio sung by Eigen, Orbin and Caractacus, +‘At eve to the greenwood we wandered away.’ As they +depart, the Spirits of the Hills sing a calm benediction, +‘Rest, weary monarch,’ one of the loveliest choral portions +of the work, scored with consummate skill for +both chorus and orchestra. The second scene shifts +the action to the sacred oak grove and deals with the +rites of the Druids as they cast the omens. There is +a mystic dance of the Druid-maidens, ‘Tread the measure +left and right,’ which is an inspiration of enthralling +beauty and rhythmic grace but which never loses +a certain solemn dignity. As the dance ceases, there +follows the impassioned invocation to Taranis. The +king enters, the Arch-Druid deceives him as to the +omens, Orbin protests, but is cursed and driven forth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</span> +by the Druids. The close of the scene is built up around +the vigorous soldiers’ chorus, ‘Leap to the light, my +brand of fight,’ and the contrasting chorus of Druids +as they call down curses on Orbin. The third scene +pictures the parting of the lovers as Orbin joins the +force of Caractacus. It opens with a graceful rustic +chorus of youths and maidens who are with Eigen, twining +wreaths of flowers, ‘Come beneath our woodland +bow’rs.’ The scene closes with the beautiful duet of +the parting lovers. The fourth scene is again on Malvern +Hills and Eigen and her maidens anxiously discuss +the rumors of distant battle. The return of Caractacus +and the remnants of his defeated army brings this +part to a close with the impressive lament of Caractacus +(in 7-pulse measure) accompanied by the chorus +of warriors. Soon afterwards Caractacus and his family +are betrayed to the enemy and scene five, which is +short, relates the embarking of the British captives in +Roman galleys. The final scene is the triumphal procession +in Rome, beginning with a pompous orchestral +march followed by full chorus and dramatic solos by +the captives—Caractacus, Eigen and Orbin. Their bold +independence and intrepid defense before the tribunal +of the emperor, Claudius, win pardon and an honored +home in Rome. The subject is one that might well +appeal to a British composer, and Elgar, with magnificent +effect, seizes the opportunity to add a stirring epilogue—‘The +clang of arms is over’—which unfolds, as +it develops, some pages of patriotic sentiment (‘Britons, +alert!’) that are thrilling in their majestic power.</p> + + +<h3>VIII</h3> + +<p>Musical history has often been called upon to record +the fact that a gifted composer’s firstling has been his +best. In the case of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</span> +his creative imagination never again reached +such fine heights of inspired effort as those attained in +its first flight. His greatest work is undoubtedly the +cantata, ‘Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast’—the first of the +‘Hiawatha’ trilogy—performed November 11, 1898, at +the Royal College of Music, London, while the composer +was still a student at this institution. The second +part of the trilogy, ‘The Death of Minnehaha,’ was +brought out in 1899 at the North Staffordshire Festival, +and the third, ‘Hiawatha’s Departure,’ made its +first public appearance at a concert of the Royal Choral +Society, at Albert Hall, March 22, 1900. Two months +later the overture to the entire work received its initial +performance. The text for the whole trilogy is +selected from Longfellow’s familiar ‘The Song of Hiawatha.’ +This poem, which handles with childlike simplicity +and directness the emotions and experiences +of a primitive race, seems to have struck deep into the +soul of this Anglo-African composer and he has imbued +the score, especially of the first part, with an atmosphere +of individuality possessed by none of its successors. +He touched a new vein here which he was +not able to inject with equal success into his other +works. The score abounds in concise, characteristic +and striking themes, many of which are treated in +the manner of ‘leading-motives.’</p> + +<p>‘Scenes from the Song of Hiawatha.’—The first part +of the trilogy is ‘Hiawatha’s Wedding-Feast,’ for tenor +solo, chorus and orchestra. ‘Sumptuous was the feast +Nakomis made at Hiawatha’s wedding’ and the detailed +description includes not only the banquet itself but the +entertainment which followed, how Pau-Puk-Keewis +danced,</p> + +<div class="poetry-container p11"> +<div class="poetry"> +<p>‘How the gentle Chibiabos,<br> +He the sweetest of musicians,<br> +Sang his songs of love and longing;<br> +How Iagoo, the great boaster,<br> +Told his tales of strange adventure.’</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</span></p> + +<p>Chibiabos’ song, the beautiful tenor solo, ‘Onaway, +awake, beloved!’ is one of the gems of the whole trilogy.</p> + +<p>The second part—‘The Death of Minnehaha,’ for soprano +and baritone solos, chorus and orchestra—begins +with the description of the ‘long and dreary winter! +the cold and cruel winter!’ and continues with the +pathetic story of the wasting famine and the fever, +how Minnehaha shuddered at the words of the two +uninvited guests, ‘lay down on her bed in silence,’ how +Hiawatha plunged into the forest in search of food +only to return ‘empty-handed, heavy-hearted.’ Then +follows the death and burial of Minnehaha and the +lament of Hiawatha. The pathos of the words is given +striking setting in the music, particularly in the opening +chorus, ‘O the long and dreary winter!’ and in +Hiawatha’s noble lament, ‘Farewell, O Minnehaha!’ +which the chorus gently echoes after him. The chief +share of the work is allotted to the chorus.</p> + +<p>The third part—‘Hiawatha’s Departure,’ for soprano, +tenor and baritone solos, chorus and orchestra—is the +longest of the three and has more opportunity for +varied effects. Reminiscences of themes from the preceding +parts give pleasing thematic unity to the whole +work. It begins with the return of spring and with it +Iagoo, the great traveller, ‘full of new and strange adventures.’ +He relates to an incredulous audience how +he saw a water ‘bigger than the Big-Sea-Water’ and on +it a tall canoe with great wings, ‘bigger than a grove of +pine-trees,’ in which were warriors ‘painted white.’ +Hiawatha, of all the listeners, laughed not, for he had +seen the same things in a vision. He tells them of the +coming of the white men and prophesies their achievements +and the downfall of the Indian race. Then follows, +in simple narrative, Hiawatha’s welcome to the +white men and the missionary priest who came with +them to tell the message of the Saviour; Hiawatha’s +touching farewell to Nakomis and his people (‘I am<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</span> +going, O my people, on a long and distant journey. +To the portals of the Sunset, to the regions of the home-wind’); +and his departure in the birch canoe as he +‘sailed into the fiery sunset, To the Islands of the +Blessed, to the land of the Hereafter!’ Musically the +third part is unequal to the others in the strength of +its appeal, yet at the close, Hiawatha’s tender words of +parting and the answering farewell of the people are +written in the virile and characteristic mood of the +first part. The solo voices assume a larger share of +work than in the other parts.</p> + +<p>Coleridge-Taylor’s other choral works were of course +in demand after the success of his first one, but, though +received with favor, they do not measure up to the +first, nor did they make the deep impression of the +‘Hiawatha’ music.</p> + + +<h3>IX</h3> + +<p>The United States did not enter the list of cantata +and oratorio producing nations until the last quarter +of the nineteenth century. Before that time W. B. +Bradbury, J. A. Butterfield, A. Hamerik, George F. +Root and others had prepared the way for their successors +by choral works of a simple, popular character +suited to the musical conditions of their time. On +account of the number, musical quality, size and extensive +influence of his choral works, Dudley Buck may +justly be accorded the honor of being the first important +choral writer in America.</p> + +<p>The influence of Dudley Buck (1839-1909) in the field +of church-music was probably stronger and more fundamental +and lasting than in that of concert choral +music, for the needs of American church-music could +not be met, as could those of choral societies, by mere +importation of foreign-made music. Yet his concert +choral works are quite numerous. They include the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</span> +46th Psalm, written for the Boston Handel and Haydn +Society, 1872; ‘Don Munio,’ a dramatic cantata written +in 1874, whose story is taken from Washington Irving’s +Spanish papers and deals with the wars and loves of +the Moorish period; four cantatas for male voices—‘King +Olaf’s Christmas,’ ‘The Nun of Nidaros’ (1878), +‘The Voyage of Columbus’ (1885) and ‘Paul Revere’s +Ride’; ‘The Centennial Meditation of Columbia,’ written +for the Centennial Exposition and performed at +Philadelphia, May 10, 1876; ‘The Golden Legend,’ to +which was awarded the prize offered by the Cincinnati +May Festival Association for the best work by an American +and which received its initial performance at the +Festival in 1880; and his largest and most pretentious +choral work, ‘The Light of Asia.’</p> + +<p>‘The Golden Legend’ is, like Sullivan’s cantata of the +same name, a setting of a portion of Longfellow’s ‘Christus.’ +The text is divided into a prologue, twelve scenes +and an epilogue. The story is identical with that of +Sullivan’s cantata already mentioned and the music on +the whole rises to a higher plane of excellence. Especially +effective and deservedly well-known is Elsie’s +prayer in the fifth scene (‘My Redeemer and my Lord’), +an aria breathing a deep religious feeling and filled +with calm beauty. Buck is at his best in such numbers +as the simple hymn for unaccompanied quartet (‘O +gladsome light of the Father’), Elsie’s charming aria +in the ninth scene (‘The night is calm and cloudless’ +with a choral refrain of <em>Kyrie eleison</em>), and the love-duet +between Elsie and Prince Henry in the twelfth +scene.</p> + +<p>‘The Light of Asia’ was written in 1886, published in +London and performed there for the first time in St. +James’s Hall, March 19, 1889. The well-known poem +by Sir Edwin Arnold naturally lends itself to elaborate +treatment and the composer has done it full justice, +constructing on its strong lines a work that approaches<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</span> +the dimensions and character of an oratorio. The initial +fugal chorus (‘Below the highest sphere four regents +sit’), foretelling the birth of the child Buddha +who ‘shall deliver men from ignorance,’ establishes at +once the broad massive outlines of the work. After +the King has conferred with his ministers as to a remedy +for the seriousness of Prince Siddârtha and, on +their advice, has summoned a court of pleasure at +which the most beautiful maidens are to teach him +love, there follows a lovely duet describing the meeting +and recognition of the Prince and the fair Yasôdhara, +and the part closes with a jubilant wedding +chorus, ‘Enter, thrice happy!’ The second part—‘The +Renunciation’—describes the sensuous life of the Orient, +the awakening of Siddârtha from this life of love +and joy to his mission, his six long years of wandering, +his victorious struggles with the varied temptations of +‘the fiends who war with Wisdom and the Light.’ The +third part—‘The Return’—relates the sorrows of the +lonely Yasôdhara and the return of the wandering +Siddârtha as a Buddha, dressed in the yellow garb +of a hermit, begging alms, yet greeted by his people +with glad acclaim. The epilogue and final chorus (‘Before +beginning and without an end’) is the choral climax +of the whole work, constructed with fine musicianship +and majestic in its effect. Important solo duties +are assigned to the Prince, his wife Yasôdhara and his +father, the King.</p> + +<p>Dr. Leopold Damrosch (1832-1885), who occupied a +position of great influence in the musical life of New +York City, wrote two important choral works that were +published in this country—‘Ruth and Naomi’ (1870), +a Scriptural idyl, and ‘Sulamith’ (The Song of Songs), +which was performed for the first time by the Oratorio +Society, New York, in April, 1882. Other short choral +works written by Americans in the period now under +consideration were ‘Prayer and Praise,’ the Forty-sixth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</span> +Psalm (Cincinnati Festival prize, 1882), and ‘The Rose,’ +by William Wallace Gilchrist (born 1846); ‘The Culprit +Fay’ (1879) and ‘Praise of Harmony’ (1886) by +Frederick Grant Gleason (1848-1903); ‘Phœbus Arise’ +(1882), ‘The Nativity’ (1883) and ‘The Realm of Fancy’ +(1884) by John Knowles Paine (1839-1906); ‘The Tale +of the Viking’ (1879) and ‘Henry of Navarre’ (1885) by +George Elbridge Whiting (born 1842).</p> + +<p>The choral works from the pen of Arthur Foote (b. +1853) are not numerous, but they are fine in musical +quality and workmanship. There are only three of +them and all are settings of poems by Longfellow—‘The +Farewell of Hiawatha’ (1879), a ballad for baritone +solo, male chorus and orchestra, ‘The Wreck of +the Hesperus’ for mixed voices and ‘The Skeleton in +Armor.’</p> + +<p>George Whitfield Chadwick (b. 1854) has written +more voluminously in the smaller choral forms, all of +his writing being distinguished by a keen feeling for +vocal values and a rich harmonic sense. His chief +works in cantata form are ‘The Viking’s Last Voyage’ +for baritone solo, male chorus and orchestra, 1880 (Boston +Apollo Club, 1881); ‘Lovely Rosabelle’ for solos, +mixed chorus and orchestra, 1889 (Boston Orchestral +Club, 1890); <em>Phœnix Expirans</em>, 1891 (Springfield Festival, +1892); ‘Columbian Ode,’ 1892, written for the dedication +of the buildings of the World’s Fair, Chicago, +May, 1893; ‘The Lily Nymph,’ 1895 (Springfield Festival, +1896); and <em>Ecce jam noctis</em>, 1897, written for the +commencement exercises of Yale University, 1897, on +the occasion of his receiving from Yale the honorary +degree of Master of Arts.</p> + +<p>Horatio William Parker (b. 1863) has been a prolific +writer of choral works, both before 1900 and since +that date, and, through his skilful handling of vocal +masses and a superb contrapuntal technique, has won +for himself a foremost place among living masters of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</span> +choral writing. While a student under Rheinberger at +Munich, two of his choral works, ‘The Ballad of a +Knight and his Daughter’ (1884) and ‘King Trojan’ +(1885), were given public performance there and were +later published. ‘The Ballad of the Normans’ (<em>Normannenzug</em>) +for male chorus and orchestra appeared +in 1889; ‘The Kobolds’ (poem by Arlo Bates) for chorus +and orchestra was performed at the Springfield (Mass.) +Festival in May, 1891; ‘Harold Harfagar’ for chorus +and orchestra was performed in 1891 in New York; +‘The Dream-King and his Love’ (poem by Geibel) for +tenor solo, chorus and orchestra won a prize in 1893 +offered by the National Conservatory of Music in New +York City, of which Dvořák was then director and in +which the composer was a teacher; ‘The Holy Child,’ a +Christmas cantata, was published in 1893; and ‘A Wanderer’s +Psalm’ was written for and performed at the +Hereford Festival, England, in 1900. A composition +which finely illustrates his great ability in handling +problems of vocal counterpoint is his motet for double +chorus <em>a cappella</em>, <em>Adstant angelorum chori</em> (poem by +Thomas à Kempis), which won the prize given by the +Musical Art Society of New York City in 1898.</p> + +<p>Mrs. H. H. A. Beach (b. 1867) has written several +small choral works that have found well-merited favor, +among them ‘The Minstrel and the King’ for tenor and +baritone solos, male chorus and orchestra, ‘The Rose +of Avontown,’ a ballad for soprano solo and female +chorus, ‘The Chambered Nautilus’ for female chorus, +and ‘Sylvania’ for mixed chorus.</p> + +<p>Among other small choral works of serious content +and fine workmanship belonging to this period must +be mentioned a fine motet by Arthur Whiting (b. 1861) +for double chorus <em>a cappella</em>, ‘O God, my heart is +ready’ (words selected from the Psalms).</p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="footnotes"> +<p class="center p2 big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_71" href="#FNanchor_71" class="label">[71]</a> Born 1857.</p> + +</div> +</div> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER VII<br> +<small>EARLY AND CLASSICAL ORATORIOS</small></h2> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Origin of oratorio in the sacred drama of Italy—Cavalieri: ‘The Representation +of Soul and Body’—Carissimi: ‘Jephthah’—Scarlatti; Stradella; +other early oratorio writers—Development of oratorio in Germany; Passion-music +and its development; Schütz: ‘The Seven Last Words of Christ’; +‘The Passion Oratorio’; ‘The Resurrection’—J. S. Bach: ‘Christmas Oratorio’; +‘Passion according to St. Matthew’; Graun: ‘The Death of Jesus’; other +writers of Passion-music—Handel and the oratorio; ‘The Messiah’—‘Israel +in Egypt’; ‘Judas Maccabæus’; ‘Samson,’ etc.—Haydn: ‘The Creation’; ‘The +Seasons.’</p> +</div> + + +<p class="p2">The early oratorio had many of the essential characteristics +possessed by its modern derivative. It always +dealt with sacred subjects (the modern oratorio, +however, frequently concerns itself with secular +themes), it was almost always dramatic and its musical +apparatus consisted of the usual four solo voices and +the chorus with instrumental accompaniment.</p> + +<p>In the liturgic drama of the Roman Church must be +sought the origin of the oratorio, which, in a musically +coherent form, appeared at about the same time with +the opera, as the spiritual counterpart of its secular +companion, making a devotional and intellectual appeal +in place of the sensual. In the mediæval church +two forms of the mass were in use side by side: the +Roman office, which was mainly celebrated by the +priest, and the Gallican Mass, a freer form, in which +the people largely participated. Quite naturally the +divergence between the two became marked and during +the twelfth century the Gallican Mass was reformed +with regard to lay participation. In order, however, +that the people, who were attached to a form in which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</span> +they took so direct a part, might be compensated for +this exclusion, dramatic representations were devised, +based on the Scriptures, all with reference to the great +church festivals, especially that of Holy Week. In +these the germ of the idea of the oratorio is to be found. +These dramatic representations took the form of mysteries +and miracle plays—dramatic versions of Scriptural +episodes, with music, both sacred and secular, +introduced to heighten their effect—as well as moralities, +in which Christian virtues and mental qualities +were treated allegorically. They included processionals +of the type of the ancient <em>Festum Asinorum</em> (‘The +Ass’s Festival’), commemorating the flight of the Holy +Family into Egypt, which was annually celebrated at +Beauvais and Sens as early as the twelfth century, and +in which the celebrated carol, <em>Prose de l’Ane</em> (‘Hymn +of the Ass’), still preserved, was the central feature.</p> + +<p>With the monodic revolution which was inaugurated +at the close of the sixteenth century and which marked +the beginning of opera, the history of oratorio as a +distinctly musical rather than a liturgic art-form may +be said to begin. The sacred musical drama was generally +staged in the vestry or vestibule of church or +convent—its ‘oratory’—and in course of time the term +oratorio was applied to this music. In the oratory of +St. Filippo Neri’s church in Rome (<em>S. Girolamo della +Charità</em>) Animuccia’s settings of <em>laudi spirituali</em> +(sacred songs of praise) had already been sung in the +sixteenth century; and the fact that these hymns were +often used in connection with Biblical recitations is not +without direct influence on the development of the +form.</p> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>Yet it was not until the performance of Emilio del +Cavalieri’s <em>Rappresentazione di anima e di corpo</em> +(Rome, in February, 1600), in which Time, Life, The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</span> +World, Pleasure, Intellect, The Soul and The Body +appeared, that the first actual oratorio was heard in +germinal shape, during the same year that witnessed +the world <em>première</em> of all opera with Peri’s <em>Euridice</em>, +which took place in Florence in December.</p> + +<p>There was practically no difference in form between +the first operas and the earliest oratorios, a statement +borne out by the fact that Domenico Mazzocchi’s <em>Querimonia +di S. Maria Maddelena</em> rivalled Monteverdi’s +<em>Lamento d’Arianna</em> in popularity. Both opera and +oratorio were constructed, musically, in the self-same +way. Both were made up of recitative and arias, of +choral and instrumental numbers, and both began with +an overture. The angelic choruses of the first oratorios +were musically synonymous with the bacchic +choruses of the early operas. The difference between +them lay only in the choice of subject-matter. And +throughout the seventeenth century this continued to +be the case, speaking generally, despite a certain divergence +of viewpoint which had already made itself +felt. How ‘operatic’ in character Cavalieri’s sacred +score was, is proven by its composer’s employment of +children as <em>dramatis personæ</em>, by the division of his +work into acts, and by the use of worldly intermezzos, +pantomimes and ballets. Interesting is the composer’s +anticipation of Wagner at Bayreuth in his stage directions +relegating his orchestra to a place ‘behind the +scenes’ and out of sight. This orchestra, primitive in +character, consisted of a double lyre, a harpsichord, +a large guitar and two flutes. The use of the violin was +recommended, though it was not insisted upon.</p> + +<p>Cavalieri’s stage directions for the performance of +his sacred drama are so interesting and throw so much +light on the dramatic character of the early oratorio +that they are quoted here, nearly in full, from Dr. Burney’s +‘History of Music’:</p> + +<p>(1) ‘The words should be printed, with verses correctly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</span> +arranged, the scenes numbered, and the characters +of interlocutors specified.</p> + +<p>(2) ‘Instead of the Overture or Symphony to modern +musical drama, a madrigal is recommended, as a +full piece, with all the parts doubled, and a greater +number of instruments.</p> + +<p>(3) ‘When the curtain rises, two youths, who recite +the Prologue, appear on the stage; and when they have +done, Time, one of the Characters in the Morality, +comes on, and has the note with which he is to begin +given him by the instrumental performers behind the +scenes.</p> + +<p>(4) ‘The Chorus are to have a place allotted to +them on the stage, part sitting and part standing, in +sight of the principal characters; and, when they sing, +they are to rise and be in motion, with proper gestures.</p> + +<p>(5) ‘Pleasure, another imaginary character, and +two companions, are to have instruments in their +hands, on which they are to play while they sing and +perform ritornelles.</p> + +<p>(6) ‘<em>Il Corpo</em>, the Body, when these words are uttered, +<em>Si che hormia alma mia</em>, etc., may throw away +some of his ornaments, as his gold collar, feather from +his hat, etc.</p> + +<p>(7) ‘The World and Human Life in particular, are +to be gaily and richly dressed; and when they are divested +of their trappings, to appear very poor and +wretched, and at length dead carcasses.</p> + +<p>(8) ‘The Symphonies and Ritornelles may be played +by a great number of instruments; and, if a violin +should play the principal part, it would have a good +effect.</p> + +<p>(9) ‘The performance may be finished with or without +a dance. If without, the last chorus is to be doubled +in all its parts, vocal and instrumental; but, if a +dance is preferred, a verse beginning thus: <em>Chiostri +altissimi e stellati</em>, is to be sung, accompanied sedately<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</span> +and reverently by the dance. These shall succeed other +grave steps and figures of the solemn kind. During the +ritornelles, the four principal dancers are to form a ballet, +<em>saltato con capriole</em>, enlivened with capers or <em>entrechats</em>, +without singing, and thus, after each stanza, +always varying the steps of the dance; and the four +principal dancers may sometimes use the <em>galiard</em>, +sometimes the <em>canary</em>, and sometimes the <em>courant</em> step, +which will do very well in the ritornelles.</p> + +<p>(10) ‘The stanzas of the ballet are to be sung and +played by all performers within and without.’</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact Cavalieri’s work was in reality a +sacred opera, not an oratorio. Contemporaries of +Cavalieri, Agostino Manni (<em>Rappresentazione del Figliuol +Prodigo</em>), Anerio (<em>Teatro armonico spirituale</em>), +Pietro della Valle (<em>Esther</em>, <em>La Purificazione</em>) and, somewhat +later, Domenico Mazzocchi, Luigi Rossi, Ludovico +Bellanda, Vittorio Loreto (<em>La Pellegrina Constante</em>, +<em>Sacre d’Abramo</em>), Francesco Balducci (<em>La Fede</em>) and +others, represent tentative gropings toward a more +artistically satisfying formal and musical development +of the oratorio.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>The slow revival of choral art quite naturally found +in sacred subjects the material best suited to treatment, +not alone because of earlier sixteenth century associations, +but also because such subjects did not over-encourage +dramatic realism. Yet even Carissimi (1604-1674) +had but little success in his efforts to establish a +loftier spiritual standard in oratorio. He did much +to perfect the recitative, and to add charm and variety +to the instrumental accompaniment; he set aside the +theatrical presentation, often gave dramatic details to +a ‘narrator’ and laid more weight on the choral element. +His music has real quality and beauty; yet the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</span> +secular idea persists in his works and defeats his attempts +to turn Scriptural dramatic representations into +genuine church-music. Despite this, his work is valuable +as a stepping stone—he was the first to write music +which held out hopes of a future for the oratorio +as a distinct art-form.</p> + +<p>Giacomo Carissimi, from 1628 to the time of his death +choir-master of the <em>Appolinare</em> Church in Rome, was +already renowned as a teacher and composer in 1650. +It was in this year that Athanasius Kirchner, in his +celebrated <em>Musurgia universalis</em>, a quaint mixture of +scientific knowledge and childish hearsay, introduced +Carissimi, with an analysis of his <em>Jephta</em>, to a wider +circle as the perfect oratorio-composer. Nor is it without +reason that Carissimi has been termed the Handel +of the seventeenth century. His oratorios <em>Jonas</em>, +<em>Jephta</em>, <em>Job</em>, <em>Diluvium universalis</em>, etc., he called <em>historie</em>, +and the Biblical text on which they were founded +was liberally interspersed with poetic supplementary +matter to allow for the introduction of little arias and +martial, elegiac or popular incidental choruses. The +text was still Latin, though after Carissimi’s time the +<em>oratorio volgare</em>, so called because it was sung in Italian +and was thus distinguished from the Latin oratorio, +supplanted the latter in popular favor.</p> + +<p><em>Jephta</em> is, perhaps, Carissimi’s most characteristic +work. It employs a Biblical subject, like all his other +works of the kind, for Carissimi adhered strictly to +this conception of oratorio, though many of his contemporaries +shaped their cantatas and oratorios around +the life of some saint. In <em>Jephta</em>, too, as in all the +composer’s oratorios, the musical stress is laid on the +choruses. These are not written in the style of the +polyphonic madrigal, but in a simple chordal setting +whose rhythm is conditioned by the word-accents. The +fugue is absent, imitation and canon are suggested only +in the duets. In nearly all cases the chorus serves to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</span> +develop the dramatic idea. In the oratorio of the time, +chorus is, in general, opposed to chorus, with the occasional +relief of solo voices. Yet Carissimi secures +considerable movement and variety by dividing more +extended portions of his text into short sections, first +sung by one or more solo voices and then taken up by +the choruses <em>en masse</em>. Excellent examples of this procedure +are to be found in his <em>Diluvium universalis</em> and +<em>Dives malus</em>.</p> + +<p>Naturally, the harmonic structure of <em>Jephta</em> and the +companion oratorios of Carissimi seems almost pathetically +simple to the modern ear, accustomed to the +richness of chromatic harmonization. His modulations, +save in a few instances, such as the chorus <em>Abit +in montes</em> of <em>Jephta</em>, are restricted to the keys of the +upper and lower dominant. This lack, however, was +not perceptible to listeners of the composer’s own generation. +They enjoyed the rhythmic vitality and dramatic +truth of his works, the vivid descriptive quality +of the shipwreck music in <em>Jonas</em>, the idyllic charm of +the two-voice movements to which the playmates of +Jephthah’s daughter dance their rounds. And in +<em>Jephta</em> the composer often gained a depth of pathos +worthy of a really great singer’s rendering. Such a +number is the <em>Plorate colles</em>, a model of expressive +writing. It was from this <em>Plorate</em> that Handel borrowed +twelve measures to use in ‘Hear, Jacob’s God,’ in his +‘Samson.’</p> + +<p>All in all, Carissimi may be held to have laid down +the lines along which the Handelian oratorio was later +to develop. As a contrapuntal writer his great merit +lay in the adaptation of the polyphonic idea to the new +conceptions of tonality. He stands for the introduction +of a more serious musicianship in oratorio work, and +his influence was noticeably great and made itself felt +in the works of his successors up to Handel’s time. +Among these men who carried on his work (though<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</span> +often they were mainly active in the operatic or instrumental +fields), two in particular stand forth, Alessandro +Stradella (d. 1681) and Alessandro Scarlatti (d. +1725). These two men, in a manner, sum up the activity +of many others, of Provencale, Vitali, Colonna, +Leonardo Leo, G. B. Bononcini, Bassani, Ristocchi and +Polaroli in Italy; of the Italian musicians in Vienna—Bertali, +Draghi, Ariosto, Badia and M. A. Bononcini; +and in Munich, Pietro Tosi. All of these composers +wrote oratorios between the years 1650 and 1750 and +developed in them the principles of Carissimi with +more or less originality and success.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>Alessandro Scarlatti, born in 1659 in Trapani, Sicily, +the greatest representative of the Neapolitan school, +was, it is asserted, a pupil of Carissimi. He wrote operas, +cantatas, vocal and instrumental pieces by the +hundred, and his oratorios alone number fourteen. +Their titles show that he departed from his master’s +strict adherence to Biblical subjects for his textual material. +We have a <em>Maddalena penitente</em>, a <em>Sacrificio +d’Abramo</em>, <em>Agar et Ismaele esiliati</em>, it is true, but also a +<em>San Casimiro, rè di Polonia</em>, and a <em>S. Filippo Neri</em>. Like +Carissimi he subordinated strict thematic counterpoint +to the exigencies of a free and unconstrained leading +of the voices, and with an added richness and elaboration +of effect. He gave the aria a more definite structure, +and made large use of rhythmic melody, in the +manner of Gluck, to bring out the dramatic value of +highly impassioned scenes, which in spoken drama +would have appeared as monologue. Where lesser +depths of feeling were to be plumbed, he used accompanied +recitative and the <em>recitativo secco</em> mainly for +the development of the narrative itself. This general<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</span> +scheme of arrangement has been followed by later +composers down to our own day.</p> + +<p>Perhaps his oratorio <em>Il trionfo della grazia</em>, composed +in 1685, which was a favorite as late as the early years +of the eighteenth century, gives us as good a general +idea of his sacred music as any other. It was also +known under the title of <em>La Conversione di Maddalena</em>, +as in it the Magdalen makes her appearance as a species +of apple of discord between ‘Youth’ and ‘Penitence.’ +In clever contrast such opposites as Gravity and Heedlessness, +The World’s Curse and The Joy of Life, are +used to enhance the moral and musical effect of the +work. The second section of the oratorio takes up the +conversion of the penitent sinner, and the music which +the Magdalen now sings, full of pathos and gravity, +offers a piquant contrast to the jolly melodies, embroidered +with coloratura and shakes, which were her +part before. Particularly beautiful is an instrumental +symphony (in the older sense of the word) which, +after the heroine has said the words, ‘A penitent and +faithful heart shall see the heavens open,’ is wonderfully +suggestive of the kneeling of the penitent woman. +Schering calls it a musical pendant to Ribera’s celebrated +picture of St. Agnes, in the Dresden galleries.</p> + +<p>In another of Scarlatti’s oratorios, <em>Sedecia, rè di +Gerusalemme</em><a id="FNanchor_72" href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> (1706), we meet with a splendidly effective +use of orchestral means—always remembering +that the orchestra of that day was not our present one. +The introductory <em>sinffonie</em> is here nothing more or less +than a violin concerto<a id="FNanchor_73" href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> in disguise, and the orchestra—consisting +of obbligato and second violins, trumpets, +tympani (especially prominent in the military music +in Part I of the work) and oboes—takes an important +part in the musical development from beginning to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</span>end. Among the vocal numbers might be instanced a +particularly expressive duo between Anna and her son +Ishmael (accompanied by an obbligato oboe); an aria +of Ishmael’s, accompanied by two solo violins, and +Sedecia’s two arias in Part II.</p> + +<p>In this oratorio in particular, Scarlatti speaks with +the accents of a master who is consciously striving toward +the realization of a new ideal. It offers striking +proof of the fact of how great Scarlatti might have become +as a composer of oratorio had not opera so +largely preëmpted his best efforts. The closing movement +of <em>Sedecia</em>, a five-part chorus on broad lines, with +incidental solo-quartet sections, recalls in its style the +magnificent triumphal choruses of Handel’s oratorios. +<em>S. Casimiro, rè di Polonia</em> (1713) also contains arias of +great beauty; and written during the master’s last period +of creative activity, <em>La Vergine addolorata</em> (1717) +must be considered one of his finest works. A ‘Lament +of Mary’ printed by Raf. Carreras in his <em>El Oratorio +Musical</em> (1906), p. 188, approaches Bach in power and +expressiveness.</p> + +<p>The austere and serious power which Scarlatti infused +into his sacred music was not attained by his +immediate successors and contemporaries. But the +master’s predilection for brilliancy and effect, when we +compare his music with that of Purcell, though its +greater dramatic interest and movement is incontestable, +brought about, perhaps, a less degree of emotional +expression and a less intimate touch in the portrayal +of mood pictures.</p> + +<p>Alessandro Stradella, born in Naples about 1645, was +not as prolific a writer as Scarlatti, yet he left over 150 +works (among them ten operas and eight oratorios) +at the time of his early death—he is supposed to have +been murdered in Genoa in 1681. He has much in +common with Scarlatti. In Stradella’s works we find +the same recurring suggestion of Handelian breadth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</span> +and strength, and in general that freedom and grandeur +of conceptive outlook which stamps the great +composer.</p> + +<p>Stradella’s best known oratorio is his <em>S. Giovanni +Battista</em> (about 1676). Its great artistic merit lies in +its plastic musical portrayals of the characters of +Herod and his daughter, and in the happy use of fiery, +dramatic melody to limn them in tone; for as a musical +character-painter Stradella may be said to have +been Scarlatti’s superior, although his influence on the +development of the form was not so great as was that +of his contemporary. The romantic details regarding +his personal life, many of them undoubtedly apocryphal, +which recur in every biography, do not seem to +call for consideration here. It is his contribution to +the music of the oratorio only with which we are concerned, +and in this respect he deserves a place beside +Scarlatti.</p> + +<p>The numerous composers of oratorio who lead from +Carissimi, through Scarlatti and Stradella, to Handel +and his more immediate German predecessors, have +nothing especially new to offer. Scarlatti and Stradella +accomplished much in the direction of both musical +and purely formal development, but they were unable +to establish a distinct line of demarcation between +oratorio and opera. Italian oratorio was practically +not distinguishable from the Italian <em>opera seria</em> until +as late as Mozart’s boyhood.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>Italian oratorio, by reason of its descent from the +sacred church dramas and its close association with +opera, has never been wholly able to break away from +the element of recreation that was so conspicuous in +its early use as a means of attracting people to attend<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</span> +church. And the complete separation between the +recreational and religious elements did not take place +until the oratorio passed out of the land of its birth +into Germany, when it fused with the spirit of Passion-music +and emerged a distinctly religious art-form. +The connecting link between Italian oratorio and Germany +was Giovanni Gabrieli, who, as the teacher of +Heinrich Schütz, the greatest German musician of the +seventeenth century, transmitted to his great pupil not +only his technical mastery of the best of Netherland +and Italian art-methods, but his own remarkable artistic +sincerity and religious earnestness. It was Schütz +who, from the different standpoint of Protestant faith +as nurtured by the Lutheran Reformation, laid the +foundations of modern oratorio.</p> + +<p>Before tracing the influence of Schütz in shaping the +future course of oratorio, it will be in place to sketch +the origin and development of the Passion-music. The +quasi-dramatic musical presentation of the Passion<a id="FNanchor_74" href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> +is even more deeply rooted in the liturgy of the Roman +Church than is the oratorio. It represents the artistic +amplification of the reading of the Passion of our +Lord, according to the evangels as prescribed by the +church during Holy Week: on Palm Sunday the Passion +according to St. Matthew, on Tuesday, St. Mark, +on Wednesday, St. Luke, and on Good Friday, St. John. +At an early period it had become customary to assign +the narrative text and the words of Christ, of the +Apostles, the High Priest and other individual characters +to various singers, instead of having them read. +During the period of the supremacy of Gregorian +plain-song this mode of rendering this part of the +liturgy resulted in the Passion chant (<em>cantus passionis</em>). +This continued to be the only form used until the principles +of polyphony were sufficiently developed to substitute<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</span> +a more elaborate form. Since the year 1200 +and probably much earlier, the texts to be sung were +divided among three priests, called ‘Deacons of the +Passion,’ as follows: one chanted the words of Christ, +another the narration of the Evangelist and a third the +words of the apostles, the crowd, or others whose words +are recorded. Passion-music, it will be observed, is +much older than the oratorio and at the time that the +latter began to assume shape and coherence, it already +could boast of a considerable literature. When the +monodic revolution brought about the development +of the oratorio along lines similar to those of opera +and encouraged the use of legends of the saints and +Christian allegory as text matter, the Passion remained +strictly bound to its original Biblical text, although the +musical treatment of certain text portions in motet +form (Passion Motets) was permitted. Not until the +second half of the seventeenth century did Passion and +oratorio in Italy draw near to each other, and only in +the last quarter of the century was the story of the +Passion utilized for the first time as subject-matter for +a great oratorio.</p> + +<p>Attilio Ariosti’s <em>Passione</em> (1693) is probably the first +work of its kind in Italy to present this subject with +due dramatic emphasis and the use of musically adequate +popular choruses. G. A. Perti’s <em>Passione</em> (1685), +on the other hand, is one of the type known as <em>sepolcros</em>, +intended for devotional performance at a richly +decorated Holy Sepulchre and serving principally as an +excuse for tearfully exaggerated scenes of sorrow between +Mary Magdalene and the disciples. After Ariosti’s +<em>Passione</em> Italian Passion music in its best manifestations +may be said to have been taken over into the +oratorio proper, with little but its text to distinguish +it from the latter.</p> + +<p>When Luther constructed the liturgy of the Church +which followed his religious leadership, he borrowed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</span> +from the Roman ritual, among other things, the custom +of singing to musical accompaniment the story of the +trial and death of the Saviour. About the middle of +the seventeenth century German composers<a id="FNanchor_75" href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> injected +into the existing Italian form a new spiritual and musical +fervor, and an emotional expressiveness which was +eventually to culminate in the great Passions of Johann +Sebastian Bach. By the end of the seventeenth century +the Passion existed in three distinct forms—the chant, +the motet and the oratorio. Schütz cultivated particularly +the last two forms with wonderful results considering +the musical vocabulary of his period, but the +Passion-oratorio, with its greater musical and dramatic +possibilities, was best adapted to serve the deep religious +fervor of Bach’s inspiration and to attain its final +development at his hands.</p> + +<p>Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672), of Dresden, was the +greatest of Bach’s predecessors as a composer of +church-music. Familiar with the best music of Italy +and a master of religious writing, he laid the foundation +of the modern German oratorio. His ‘Resurrection,’ +‘Seven Last Words,’ and four ‘Passions’ represent +the culmination of the form before Bach. Schütz, +who has been called ‘the father of German music,’ was +one of the greatest Psalm-writers of all times, though +few of these compositions are so named but appear +under such titles as ‘spiritual concertos,’ ‘sacred symphonies,’ +motets, and ‘sacred choral music.’ Though +his work was based on the Italian style, he was greatly +influenced by Scandellus, one of his predecessors in +Dresden as chapel-master of the Elector Johann Georg +of Saxony. His finest choral works are the six mentioned +above, all of which come under the general +classification of oratorios. One of his greatest works, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</span><em>Historia der fröhlichen und siegreichen Auferstehung +unseres einigen Erlösers und Seligmachers Jesu Christi</em>, +or ‘Resurrection,’ was written in 1623, for Easter service, +it being the custom then, as now, in some of the +important churches of Saxony, to sing the Resurrection +on Easter day before the sermon, just as the Passion +was sung on Good Friday. The vocal parts are accompanied +by the organ and four <em>viole da gamba</em>, and +the chorus is frequently in six and eight parts. The +works of Schütz are characterized by simplicity of +themes, which are always expressive and full of color. +At times he becomes dramatic, but he is always devotional +and reverential, and though he abandons the +liturgical forms of Scandellus, many of his themes, +though original, are based on liturgical melody or +Gregorian chant. All trace of the Italian recreational +element disappears; there is no suggestion of the stage +or of ‘attractive’ effects and the only object before the +composer’s mind is evidently to faithfully portray in +music the solemnity and pious grandeur of the texts. +This was the point of departure for German Protestant +oratorio.</p> + +<p>Another important work of Schütz was his setting of +the ‘Seven Words of Jesus,’ written and performed in +1645. This departs even more from the liturgical chant, +and the part of the Evangelist, instead of being chanted, +is treated as a recitative, first for alto, then for tenor, +then for soprano and tenor accompanied by the other +two voices, thus bringing it into quartet form. The first +and last choruses are in five parts and each is called +‘Chorus of the Congregation.’ After the first chorus +and before the last (therefore separating the actual +scenes from the chorus of the people), an instrumental +number called <em>symphonia</em> is inserted, thereby giving +more dramatic force to the narration. These two symphonias +are in five parts and while the instruments +are not indicated, they were probably played by the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</span> +strings. Parts of the work are very touching and beautifully +expressive. For some unknown reason this +work was not published until 1873 (228 years after its +first production), edited by Carl Riedel.</p> + +<p>Possibly his greatest work is his setting of the four +Passions entitled <em>Historia des Leidens und Sterbens +unseres Herrn und Heylandes Jesu Christi</em> and following +the text of the four Evangelists. This was written +in 1665-66 but was not published during his lifetime +and only the ‘St. John Passion’ exists in manuscript, +but a complete copy of the four Passions was made by +Grundig in 1690, comparatively soon after the death +of Schütz. These Passions are built up largely with +short choruses which, though conceived in deep devotion, +are at times very dramatic. The parts not given +to the chorus are recitatives in liturgical form, sometimes +accompanied<a id="FNanchor_76" href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> and sometimes for the voice alone. +The texts of some of the choruses were taken from +well-known church hymns. The ‘St. Matthew Passion’ +is the most fluent melodically. These settings of the +Passion comprised the composer’s last works and in +them lay the kernel of what was later perfected by +Bach and Handel, both of whom completed in their +respective lines what Schütz had begun. It has been +regarded significant that the year of his birth was +exactly one hundred years before that of Bach and +Handel.</p> + +<p>Schütz was still much under the influence of the +Gregorian modes and did not attempt to break away +from them in passages of simple recitative, but he also +employed for simple harmonized passages many of the +chorale melodies that were so popular all over Protestant +Germany. But after Schütz plain-song practically +disappears from German Passion and oratorio music +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</span>and the influence of the chorale becomes more distinct +and insistent. During the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries Passion music was extensively cultivated in +Germany and all her best composers gave it marked +attention. Johann Sebastiani in 1672 produced a Passion +at Königsberg, in which the narration is set entirely +to original music and in which chorales, simply +and effectively harmonized, are given more prominence. +Thenceforward German church-music, freed +from its allegiance to the old modal system, struck out +paths of its own, and rapid progress was made. In +1673 Theile’s <em>Deutsche Passion</em> was performed at Lübeck +with extraordinary success and Reinhard Keiser, +the Hamburg opera-composer, created renewed interest +in this form by his setting of the Passion in 1704, which +contained an innovation followed by all subsequent +German writers of Passion-music. This consisted in +what he called <em>soliloquia</em>, which voiced devout reflections +on the solemn events of the Gospel narrative.</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>Bach’s extraordinary and single-hearted devotion to +the cause of church-music led him very naturally to +the door of Passion-music and oratorio, and he brought +to the composition of these elaborate forms an unequalled +mastery over all the technical devices of contrapuntal +writing and a marvellous fertility of invention. +A deeply religious and devout nature enriched +the natural nobility of his musical speech, and scattered +through the four oratorios from his pen that are preserved +to us are some of his sublimest thoughts. +These four are a Christmas-oratorio and three Passion-oratories—St. +Matthew, St. John, and St. Luke (now +regarded as genuine, though for many years considered +spurious). Through the carelessness of his son<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</span> +Friedemann a St. Mark Passion and probably still another +have been lost, for he is known to have written +five Passions.</p> + +<p>‘Christmas Oratorio.’—This work, written in 1723 and +performed a year later, consists of six parts (in reality +six separate cantatas) intended for the first, second and +third days of the Christmas service, for New Year’s +Day, New Year’s Sunday and Epiphany. While these +belong together liturgically and are connected by chorales, +there have been very few single performances of +the entire work because of its very great length. The +parts given most frequently are the first two, which are +the strongest. The text, the story of the Nativity, is +taken from Matthew and Luke, but is elaborated by +passages taken from two of his secular works. This +was a common procedure in the eighteenth century and +as Bach had just written festival music for the birthday +of the Queen of Poland and for other court festivities, +parts of these joyful compositions easily adapted themselves +to the joy of the Christmas season.</p> + +<p>The first part opens with a sort of fanfare of trumpets +accompanied by drums, which gives a distinct festival +atmosphere as the people assemble for the first +service; it is followed at once by the chorus <em>Jauchzet, +frohlocket, auf, preisset die Tage</em>. The solo tenor narrates +the part of the Evangelist and brings the attention +of the worshippers to the joy of this specific festival. +But Bach sees beyond the Nativity and anticipates +the sacrifice and suffering of the Saviour, therefore the +words of the Advent hymn, <em>Wie soll ich dich empfangen</em>, +are set to the Passion chorale, <em>O Haupt voll Blut +und Wunden</em>. This first part contains beautiful, simple +melodies interspersed with chorales. An atmosphere, +almost of Advent sorrow, pervades the part as a whole +and is strongly contrasted with the second part which +brings in the real, generally-accepted Christmas atmosphere. +The second part opens with the well-known<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</span> +‘Pastoral Symphony,’ so often played on orchestral +programs and so charmingly idyllic, simple and naïve. +It is built on two themes, one typical of the shepherds, +the other of the angels. At the close of this the Evangelist +continues his narrative, which is frequently interrupted +by lyric passages and by chorales, such as +<em>Brich an, du schönes Morgenlicht</em>. The beautiful tenor +solo, <em>Frohe Hirten eilt</em>, following a bass recitative, is +one of the most compelling numbers, but probably the +finest from both a vocal and an orchestral standpoint +is the lovely alto solo, <em>Schlafe, mein Liebster</em>. The part +closes with a massive chorus of praise to God in the +highest, sung by the angels, shepherds and the congregation.</p> + +<p>As the other four parts are rarely performed, no +detailed analysis is given here; however, these parts +have been given together and are about as long as the +combined first two parts. One of the most effective +choruses in the last four parts is one in the fifth, <em>Ehre +sei dir Gott gesungen</em>.</p> + +<p>‘Passion According to St. Matthew.’—This stupendous +work, now universally considered the finest work of its +kind, was written in 1729 and performed on April 15th +of the same year at the afternoon service of Good Friday +in the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, but was later +altered and extended so that it was not completed in +its present form until 1740. While it was frequently +performed in Leipzig until the end of the eighteenth +century, it was practically forgotten by the outside +world until 1829, just one hundred years after its first +production, when it was given on March 11th, in the +<em>Singakademie</em>, Berlin, under the direction of Mendelssohn. +This generous artist is deserving of the deepest +gratitude for his untiring enthusiasm in compelling the +world to recognize the grandeur of this work and the +greatness of its half-forgotten creator. He was evidently +deeply struck with the strangeness of his own<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</span> +relation to the rescuing of the great work from oblivion, +for, in commenting on the performance, he made the +following reference to his own nationality—the only +recorded instance of this kind: ‘It was an actor<a id="FNanchor_77" href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> and +a Jew who restored this great Christian work to the +people.’ It was not performed in London until April +6th, 1854. The first American performance was by the +Handel and Haydn Society in Boston in 1874.</p> + +<p>The story of the ‘Passion according to St. Matthew’ +was already embodied in the service at Leipzig and it +was sung on Palm Sunday each year in choral form. +The fact that the Passions were regularly given at +church services, added to his own interest in the subject +itself, probably inspired Bach to give artistic musical +expression to the different versions of the Gospel narratives. +While Bach wrote five Passions, four on the +four Gospels and one by Picander, the greatest and +last was the ‘Matthew Passion.’ The ‘Passion according +to St. Luke’ is by many authorities not attributed entirely +to Bach, for even though it were a youthful work, +there are parts that cannot be reconciled with his general +style of that period, though others bear his unmistakable +stamp. Of the ‘Passion according to St. +Mark’ only five lyric pieces are preserved in the Funeral +Ode on the death of Queen Christiane Eberhardine. +The Picander Passion is lost. The ‘Passion according +to St. John’ was first performed at St. Thomas’ Church +on April 7th, 1724, and is musically not much inferior +to the great ‘Matthew Passion,’ but in the latter work +Bach developed to a larger extent the element characteristic +of the oratorio and united more closely the +ecclesiastical and the folk-song quality. The fact that +he was accustomed to the simple choral setting probably +prevented him from giving anything like conscious +dramatic effect, yet the complexity of his natural musical<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</span> +expression often led him to a dramatic climax of +which he was not conscious, for his Passions were +written for the church service only. As Bach was +above all a devout Lutheran, he doubtless was imbued +with the spirit of offsetting the grandeur of the Roman +Mass with the combination of simple and complex +forms in which the congregation could take part in the +well-known chorales interspersed so artistically. Arthur +Mees<a id="FNanchor_78" href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> speaks of Bach’s Passions as ‘the expression +of the religious devotion of his own individual self +as representative of his fellow-believers. Even the dramatic +portions are not the utterances of actors in a +drama, but those of the Christian congregation which +is carried away in its contemplation of the events to +the point of identifying itself with the actual participants +in the scene.’</p> + +<p>Between the two parts of the Passion it was customary +in Bach’s time to have the sermon, as in the +days of St. Philip Neri at Rome. As the performance +of the Passion consumed more than two hours and the +sermon lasted at least two hours, the Good Friday service +was a most serious and weighty church event.</p> + +<p>The first part of the ‘Matthew Passion’ is divided into +three principal sections—Jesus with his disciples and +the institution of the Last Supper, Jesus at Gethsemane, +and the seizure of Jesus. The second part is divided +into four sections—Jesus before the High Priest, Jesus +before Pilate, the Crucifixion, and the last, consisting +of madrigal-like elaborations of Bible texts. This part +contains the famous bass aria, <em>Am Abend als es kühle +ward</em>, which with its refined instrumentation is one of +the most beautiful in the entire work, almost romantic +in atmosphere and remarkably lyric. Among the many +notable characteristics of this work is the accompanying +of the words of Jesus by the orchestra in place of +the usual <em>continuo</em>. The Daughter of Zion, whose +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</span>words were given by other composers to a definite +voice, no longer appears as an individual, but her +words are sung in turn by alto, soprano, tenor and bass +solos, in duets and in choral form.</p> + +<p>While a large part of the text (from chapters <span class="allsmcap">XXVI</span> +and <span class="allsmcap">XXVII</span> of Matthew’s Gospel) was doubtless compiled +by Bach himself, he had able assistance from the +poet Picander (whose real name was Friedrich Henrici), +who wrote many of the hymns and who has already +been referred to as the poet of the lost Passion, +considered of little value because of the inadequacy +of the text.</p> + +<p>With Bach’s ‘Matthew Passion’ the development of +the Protestant Church music in this form came to an +abrupt close for the simple reason that no one since +Bach’s time has possessed the necessary technical and +musical equipment for further progress. In this glorious +work, which next to his own ‘B minor Mass’ is +probably his most sublime utterance, he seems to have +completely grasped the touching pathos and the poignant +sorrow of the scenes unfolded in the Gospel narratives +of the Passion and, in interpreting them through +the religious experience of a devout believer, to have +exhausted the vocabulary of music appropriate to the +liturgy of which this Scriptural narrative forms an +impressive part. However, other Passions were written +after Bach’s settings were made and the most +famous of them is Graun’s <em>Der Tod Jesu</em>, which is +spoken of in some detail below. Handel made two +settings of the Passion, one of which (‘The Passion of +Christ’ to a poem by B. H. Brockes of Hamburg) is in +existence. It was written probably about 1716 and the +composer introduced no fewer than twenty of its numbers +into later works, some altered, some transferred +bodily. Haydn’s Passion (‘The Seven Words of Our +Saviour’) has already been spoken of under cantatas +(Chapter IV). An interesting example of later Passion<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</span> +music is Gounod’s unaccompanied Passion-motet, ‘The +Seven Last Words of Our Saviour’ (<em>Filiæ Jerusalem</em>), +written from the standpoint of the Roman Church service +in the style of Palestrina.</p> + +<p>Karl Heinrich Graun (1701-1759), a contemporary +of Bach, was the last great writer of Passion music. +Indeed, the greatest of his works was the Passion-cantata +‘The Death of Jesus,’ text by Ramler, which +met with the most monumental success and has been a +favorite up to the present day. Performed for the first +time on March 26th, 1763, in the Cathedral of Berlin +(four years after the death of the composer), it was +published immediately and both orchestral and piano +scores passed through edition after edition, and the +work obtained a very wide hearing. In many places an +annual performance of it was given and it was as well +known as the ‘Messiah,’ ‘The Creation’ and the Mozart +<em>Requiem</em>. Although Graun was first of all a contrapuntist, +his harmony was rich and expressive and his +style often dramatic. As he was himself an opera +singer of splendid attainments, he understood how to +produce the best vocal effects. His melodies, if judged +from the standpoint of the time in which they were +written, are very expressive, though present-day +standards would not pronounce them always forceful. +This may be partly due to the text, which, though suited +to the demands of the time, is not always pliable. +Graun, like all German Passion composers of this period, +made frequent use of the chorale, sometimes for +purposes of narration and sometimes to express the +thought of the people. The <em>dramatis personæ</em> are not +well defined in the text, hence it is difficult to discern +who is speaking, since chorus, solos and chorales serve +for different functions. Frederick the Great somewhat +humorously spoke of this work as ‘Graun’s best opera’ +and there is considerable justification for the statement, +especially when considered in connection with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</span> +the two principal bass arias—one, which comes near +the close, ‘Now suddenly by anguish long restrained,’ +and the other, which is by far the highest dramatic +point in the work, ‘Jerusalem, for slaughter thirsting.’ +The latter is most effective, even judged by present-day +standards, and has an elaborate accompaniment. This +is followed by the chorus, ‘Christ unto us hath left an +example,’ in double fugue, the vocal effects of which +have made it successful in spite of the commonplace +themes employed. This is so well-known that it is +often sung by choirs as a separate composition.</p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>The law of compensation has seldom operated so +magnificently to the advantage of a great artist defeated +in a cherished life enterprise, as in the case of +Handel. Rejoicing in the reputation of being one of +the greatest opera composers of his time, he might +easily have spent the whole productive period of his +life in winning the applause of the pleasure-loving +opera audiences who regarded the glitter and tinsel of +Italian opera as the <em>summum bonum</em> of artistic expression. +Fortunately for Handel himself and for the art +of music, he was compelled to give up his career as an +opera composer and manager because of the jealousy +of rivals, the cabals and intrigues of court-cliques and +the financial embarrassments brought about by combinations +of unpleasant circumstances. It was only +after he was fifty years old that he began to write the +works that have immortalized him. Several of his early +oratorios—‘Esther’ (1718 and 1732), ‘Deborah’ (1733) +and ‘Athaliah’ (1733)—had met with great success +and popular approval, part of which was no doubt attributable +to the unbounded admiration aroused by his +performances on the organ between the parts of his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</span> +oratorios. Practically driven from the operatic stage +by adverse circumstances—and all of his operas are +forgotten now—he eagerly turned to the more appreciative +English oratorio audiences. It was this English +love for the sacred drama that encouraged Handel to +abandon stage composition (1741) and to give full expression +to the deeper things of his rugged, independent, +sincere nature through the highest forms of religious +music. The result was the production of the +stupendous series of oratorios on which his fame now +almost wholly rests. ‘Saul’ and ‘Israel in Egypt’ were +both performed in 1739, and in 1742 the immortal ‘Messiah’ +was given to the world. The enthusiasm with +which this great work was received stimulated him to +renewed activity along the same line and after the +‘Messiah’ came ‘Samson’ and the ‘Dettingen Te Deum,’ +performed in 1743; ‘Semele’ and ‘Joseph,’ performed in +1744; ‘Belshazzar’ and ‘Heracles’ in 1745; the ‘Occasional +Oratorio’ and ‘Judas Maccabæus’ in 1747; +‘Joshua’ in 1748, ‘Solomon’ and ‘Susannah’ in 1749, +‘Theodora’ in 1750, ‘The Choice of Hercules’ in 1750, +and ‘Jephthah,’ his last oratorio, in 1752. During the +composition of ‘Jephthah,’ his failing eyesight became +so troublesome that he submitted to several operations +for cataract, which, however, were unsuccessful and +total blindness ensued.</p> + +<p>During the period of about twenty years in which +Handel’s oratorios were written, the oratorio itself +passed through practically all the phases of development +from the simple form in which Carissimi left it +to the massive structure of his (Handel’s) later oratorios. +During this period he had practically no competition; +indeed, in the field of concert oratorio there +is no one between Carissimi and Haydn who approaches +him in greatness. The early Italian oratorio +(including Handel’s earliest ones) consisted largely +of vocal solos in the prevalent Italian operatic style.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</span> +Scant attention was given to the chorus. As Handel +delivered himself more and more in this form, he drew +the line of demarcation more clearly between oratorio +and opera. He elevated the chorus to an exalted position +as the most effective and characteristic medium +for the utterance of the sublime and epic thoughts so +appropriate to the oratorio, and this feature has been +largely maintained in oratorio since Handel’s time. +To be sure, he frequently employed a distinctly operatic +style (as in the familiar aria ‘Rejoice greatly’ from the +‘Messiah’), but in general he differentiated between the +two forms and firmly established the permanent lines +on which modern oratorio has developed. It should +be borne in mind that oratorio is not, and never has +been, church-music, but concert-music. Its first use, +though frequently associated with church services, was +distinctly extra-liturgical. It is not even necessarily +religious music and it is worthy of note in this connection +that the majority of Handel’s choral works are +secular. Several of his early oratorios—‘Esther’ and +‘Deborah,’ as well as the serenata, ‘Acis and Galatea’—were +performed, as was the early custom in Italy, with +costume and stage scenery and action. English church +authorities frowned on this practice, however, and +Handel discontinued it, but he retained the dramatic +element throughout all of his career as an oratorio +writer; in fact ‘Samson’ possesses so much real dramatic +action that it might well be staged for full operatic +performance.</p> + +<p>Handel’s oratorio style differed sharply from Bach’s +in that it was less severe and more distinctly vocal. +His long experience in writing for the stage led him +instinctively to assume a more direct and intimate +form of musical speech than that adopted by the great +Cantor in his church-music. Next to Bach he was the +greatest master of counterpoint of his time and many +of his choruses are perfect examples of vocal fugue,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</span> +but he depended far more than did Bach upon solid +chord-movement for some of his most massive and +grandiose effects. His general choral style represents +a happy combination of the homophonic and contrapuntal +principles, both operating in the immediate interests +of expressive dramatic utterance, as witness the +magnificent ‘Hallelujah’ chorus in the ‘Messiah.’ +Deeply expressive arias, often with folk-song simplicity +of melody, and massive, highly organized and often +elaborately constructed contrapuntal choruses are the +two salient musical features of his best oratorio +style.</p> + +<p>‘Messiah.’—Probably no other musical composition +is held in such universal affection as is Handel’s ‘Messiah’ +and its popularity (in the best sense of the word) +seems to increase with the years. Performances of it +have steadily become more and more frequent during +the last fifty years and with many choral societies in +America, England and Germany, it has become an annual +musical event at the Christmas season, though +just why this particular season should have been +chosen, it would be hard to say. Not only was Handel +in many respects the greatest of oratorio writers, but +this oratorio was his greatest work, free from traditions +or limitations. It was written to a text which he himself +selected from the Bible, though it was arranged by +Charles Jennens, who had previously collaborated with +him on <em>L’Allegro</em>. The very conception of the work +itself is one of the sublimest that could engage the attention +of the human mind—the great events in the life +of the Saviour—and it struck down into the depths of +his deeply religious nature. Volumes of sermons and +criticisms have been preached and written upon the +‘Messiah’ from every conceivable religious and artistic +angle. In England it has taken a place of devout veneration +that is almost a fetich. Yet Ernest Walker, the +English critic, declares that ‘if it was necessary for us<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</span> +blindly to bow the knee for all time to one single work, +no doubt the "Messiah" was our wisest choice.’</p> + +<p>This monumental work was begun on the 22nd of +August, 1741, and finished on September 14th, therefore +in the short space of twenty-three days. It was +performed first in Dublin on April 13th, 1742, and it +won immediate success. In London it was given for +the first time on March 23rd, 1743, and at this performance +King George the Second was so stirred during the +singing of the words, ‘For the Lord God Omnipotent +reigneth,’ that he rose to his feet and the whole audience +followed his reverent example. From this incident +sprang the familiar custom of rising during the +singing of the Hallelujah Chorus. The work was given +thirty-four times during Handel’s lifetime and he himself +directed it for the last time on April 6th, 1759, only +a week before his death. The first really adequate +performance of it was given in Westminster Abbey in +1784, when it was given by the largest mass of performers +ever assembled up to that time, the orchestra +numbering 242 and the chorus 267. This was, however, +eclipsed by the performance in the Crystal Palace at +the centenary of the composer’s death, when an orchestra +of 460 and a choir of 2,700 performed the work.</p> + +<p>It is in three parts, the first containing the prophecy +of the coming of the Messiah and the narrative of the +nativity. It opens after a noble orchestral introduction +with a tenor recitative and aria, ‘Comfort ye my people’ +and ‘Every valley shall be exalted.’ This, like many +of the Handel arias, is very ornate and requires a flexible +vocal technique, single syllables being used for +long florid passages. A similar illustration of this is +found in the bass recitative, ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ and +in the middle part of the following pastoral aria, ‘But +who may abide,’ where the demands upon a fluent +vocal delivery are exceedingly great, especially for the +naturally slow-moving bass voice. These vocal demands,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</span> +however, are not confined to the solos, but appear +with equal force in some of the choruses as well, a +good illustration of which is the brilliant fugal chorus, +‘And he shall purify.’ This is followed by the favorite +contralto solo, ‘O Thou that tellest good tidings to Zion,’ +which is taken up at its close and developed by the +chorus. One of the most magnificent choruses in the +first part is ‘For unto us a child is born’ and this is followed +by the exquisite pastoral symphony which precedes +the narration of the shepherds. The contralto +and soprano arias, ‘He shall feed his flock’ and ‘Come +unto Him all ye that labor,’ are among the most beautiful +lyric melodies of oratorio literature and these are +followed by the fugal chorus which closes the first +part, ‘His yoke is easy.’</p> + +<p>The second part, depicting the Saviour’s suffering, +death and triumph, begins with a noble chorus, ‘Behold +the Lamb of God,’ after which the alto sings one +of the most expressively beautiful arias ever written, +‘He was despised.’ When Mrs. Cibber sang this aria +at the first performance in Dublin, the Reverend Mr. +Delany, friend of Dean Swift, who cherished a prejudice +against all public singers, was so transported by +the pathos of the music that he rapturously exclaimed: +‘Woman, for this be all thy sins forgiven.’ It is followed +by the dramatically expressive choruses, ‘Surely +He hath borne our griefs,’ ‘And with His stripes’ and +‘All we, like sheep, have gone astray,’ the last closing +with a stately chorale, ‘And the Lord hath laid on Him +the iniquity of us all.’ One of the most effective choruses +in this part is the joyous ‘Lift up your heads, O ye +gates,’ but the real climax of the part, and indeed of +the whole work, is the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus, of such wondrous +power and sustained beauty that everything after +it must of necessity take on something of the nature of +an anticlimax.</p> + +<p>The short third part forms, as it were, a Credo, as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</span> +expressed by the great soprano aria, ‘I know that my +Redeemer liveth.’ The work closes with two of Handel’s +finest choruses—‘Worthy is the Lamb,’ of great +dignity and nobility, and the triumphant ‘Amen’ fugue, +overpowering in its majestic sweep of contrapuntal +movement. Speaking of the impression that this deeply +religious epic has always produced on audiences in +every country, Mr. F. J. Crowest, in ‘The Great Tone +Poets,’ exclaims: ‘Where is the prelate who can move +our souls as they are moved by Handel’s "Messiah"?’ +And what can be added to such praise?</p> + + +<h3>VII</h3> + +<p>‘Israel in Egypt.’—This work, the most perfect example +of the choral oratorio, containing some of the most +colossal choruses ever written (twenty-eight double +choruses), was composed in October, 1738, in the short +interval of twenty-seven days. In addition to the choruses +there are only five arias, three duets and some +short recitatives, which serve as connecting links in +the massive choral chain. The second part (the Exodus) +was written first and had evidently been planned +as a cantata; however, Handel doubtless realized the +possibilities of the vast material at hand and added +the first part, which thus became an historical introduction +to the work already written. Its first performance +took place on April 4th, 1739, at the King’s Theatre, +London, and on the 11th it was given again but with +some alterations, caused by insertion of songs, and at +the third performance on April 17th, the ‘Funeral Anthem’ +in memory of Queen Caroline was interpolated. +For some reason this excellent work was not successful +and was given only nine times during Handel’s lifetime. +It was again brought to light in 1849 by the +Sacred Harmonic Society of London, when it was peformed +as originally written, and in this form it is now +given. The text, credited to Handel, was really taken +literally from the Bible and arranged by him so as to +form a very dramatic narrative.</p> + + +<div class="chapter"> + <figure class="figcenter illowe37_5" id="ilop253"> + <img class="w100 p2" src="images/ilop253.jpg" alt="ilop253" title="p253ilo"> + <figcaption class="caption p1b">Facsimile of Handel’s Manuscript: the Last Page of ‘The Messiah’</figcaption> +</figure> + +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</span> +</div> + +<p class="p2">It opens, without an overture, with a few measures +of tenor recitative (‘Now there arose a King in Egypt +who knew not Joseph’), leading at once to the lament +of the Israelites over the cruelties of the Egyptian bondage +(‘And the children of Israel sighed’), a double +chorus of great dramatic power leading up to the +words, ‘And their cry came up unto God.’ After another +short recitative for tenor, there follows the series +of choruses descriptive of the plagues, in which the +composer uses almost modern descriptive means. +Thus, the first of the choruses describing the plague of +the water turning to blood (‘They loathed to drink of +the river’), is fugal and depicts the nauseating effects +of the water upon the Egyptians; the hopping of the +frogs is naïvely imitated in the accompaniment of the +following aria for mezzo-soprano (‘Their land brought +forth frogs’); and the plague of insects, a double +chorus with a buzzing, restless orchestral accompaniment, +is remarkably descriptive of insect motion. Before +the dramatic double chorus, ‘He gave them hailstones +for rain,’ the orchestra introduces the approaching +storm, which, beginning gradually, develops into +tremendous force as if the elements had been let loose. +After the storm, comes the gloom of the darkness that +fell over the land and vague, uncertain tones grope +about as the chorus sings, ‘He sent a thick darkness +over all the land.’ Then, in the savage fury of +righteous retribution, a chorus of unexampled energy +(‘He smote all the first-born of Egypt’) describes the +swift vengeance of the Most High. The English critic +Chorley calls it ‘a fiercely Jewish’ chorus, with ‘a +touch of Judith, of Jael, of Deborah in it—no quarter, +no delay, no mercy for the enemies of the Most High.’<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</span> +The passage of the Red Sea follows these stormy descriptive +choruses, and another dramatic but jubilant +chorus (‘But the waters overwhelmed their enemies’) +is succeeded by two short choruses of a devotional +character which bring the first part to a close.</p> + +<p>The second part, ‘The Song of Moses,’ after a short +orchestral introduction, is ushered in by a chorus +(‘Moses and the children of Israel sang this song’), +after which comes the sublime fugal chorus, a mighty +song of praise to the Lord (‘For He hath triumphed +gloriously’). In this part is also the famous declamatory +duet for two basses, ‘The Lord is a Man of War,’ +and the great tenor aria, ‘The enemy said "I will pursue."’ +After the exultant song of Miriam, the prophetess, +there comes a magnificent triumphal double +chorus, splendidly supported by the orchestra—a piling +up of voice upon voice, instrument upon instrument, +in a pæan of exultation and triumph, which +brings the work to a climactic close of tremendous +dramatic effectiveness.</p> + +<p>‘Judas Maccabæus.’—This oratorio was written at the +request of the Prince of Wales for the celebration of +the victory of Culloden (April 16th, 1746) and the work, +written in thirty-two days (July 9th to August 11th, +1746), was performed on April first, 1747, the festal +day celebrating the return of the victorious Duke of +Cumberland. The text was prepared by the Reverend +Thomas Morell, D.D., who selected the material concerning +the events surrounding the Hebrew warrior +from the First Book of Maccabees and from Josephus. +The first performance at Covent Garden was so successful +that the work was repeated six times that year. +Handel himself conducted it thirty-eight times, and it +gained steadily in popularity, which was further augmented +by the enthusiasm of the Jews, who delighted +in it because it extolled a proud event in their national +history.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</span></p> + +<p>The first part (the time is the second century B. C.) +opens with the lament of the Israelitish men and +women over the death of their leader Mattathias +(father of Judas Maccabæus and his brother Simon), +who had inspired the Jews to withstand the tyranny of +Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, in his effort to +deprive them of their freedom and their religious worship. +The first chorus, ‘Mourn, ye afflicted children,’ +and, after a duet, the chorus ‘For Zion lamentation +make,’ establish at once the sombre mood of the whole +work. Simon’s militant, ringing aria, ‘Arm, arm, ye +brave,’ which is still an effective solo greatly beloved +of bass singers, is followed by a short but rousing +chorus, ‘We come in bright array.’ The first part closes +with one of the most massive and imposing choruses +from Handel’s pen, ‘Hear us, O Lord.’</p> + +<p>The second part opens with an instrumental prelude +descriptive of the battle scenes and the celebration of +the initial victories, and leads into the finest chorus +in the work, a powerful song of triumph, ‘Fallen is the +foe.’ The war of liberation is renewed, Judas rouses +the courage of his depressed people and his army departs +to meet the enemy, while those who remain behind +voice their denunciation of the idolatries of the +heathen. The second part closes dramatically with the +chorus, ‘We never will bow down to the rude stock or +sculptured stone,’ which develops into a vigorous chorale +in which is heard the repeated phrase, ‘We worship +God alone.’</p> + +<p>The third part begins with a prayer, ‘Father of +heaven, from Thy eternal throne,’ which is sung by the +priest in the recovered and restored temple of Jerusalem. +A messenger announces the victory of Judas and, +as the youths and maidens go out to meet the returning +victor, they sing the world-famous jubilant chorus, ‘See +the conquering hero comes,’ which, by the way, was +originally composed for ‘Joshua’ as a tribute to Othniel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</span> +on his return from the capture of Debir, and was later +transferred to ‘Judas Maccabæus.’ The oratorio appropriately +closes with a Hallelujah chorus which at +once celebrates the return of peace and serves as the +joyous expression of national thanksgiving.</p> + +<p>‘Samson.’—Although this work was written almost at +the same time as the ‘Messiah’ (1741), it was not performed +until February 18th, 1743, when it was given +in London at Covent Garden. Its success was instant. +Eight consecutive performances were given—a far more +eloquent tribute in Handel’s time than in our own to +the popular appreciation with which it was received. +Handel himself regarded the work with deep affection, +and, when urged to express a preference for either the +‘Messiah’ or ‘Samson,’ declared he was unable to choose +between them. During his lifetime ‘Samson’ shared +almost equal popularity with the ‘Messiah’ and ‘Judas +Maccabæus’—the three most frequently performed. +The text, arranged by Newburg Hamilton from Milton’s +poem, ‘Samson Agonistes,’ although based upon the +Bible narrative of the powerful Samson, does not follow +it absolutely. The principal characters are Samson; +Micah, his friend; Manoah, his father; Delilah, +his wife; and Harapha, a giant of Gath. The scene is +laid before the prison of Gaza.</p> + +<p>A brilliant overture, stately at first and gradually +developing into minuet rhythm, opens the work, which +at once reveals the blind captive, Samson, temporarily +released from his menial toil because of the feast of +Dagon, and lamenting his deplorable plight as he hears +the fiery chorus of the priests, ‘Awake the trumpet’s +lofty sound.’ His father and his friend come to lament +with him just after his touching tenor song (‘Torments, +alas!’), and as they ask which of his sorrows is greater, +blindness or captivity, Samson sings one of the +noblest laments ever written, ‘Total eclipse: no sun, no +moon, all dark amidst the blaze of noon,’ a song which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</span> +touched Handel so deeply in his latter days of blindness +that he wept at the performance, as did the audience +with him. Samson nobly tells his friends that his +punishment is deserved and that there is no hope for +him; but at times he furiously denounces his foes, +especially in the dramatic outburst, ‘Why does the God +of Israel sleep?’ which is followed by an elaborate +choral fugue (‘Then shall they know’) on two subjects, +one given by the altos, the other by the tenors. The +first part closes with a beautiful chorus in which his +friends point his thought to the joys of a future life +for compensation for all his earthly sorrows.</p> + +<p>The second part discloses Delilah trying again to +entice her husband, but he now understands her treachery +and answers her sensuous song with the emphatic +‘Your charms to ruin led the way.’ He then has a visitation +from the giant Harapha who taunts him on his +present condition. The colloquy between the giants +produces two of the finest arias of the oratorio—Harapha’s +dashing and boastful bass aria, ‘Honor and +arms scorn such a foe,’ and Samson’s proud answer, +‘My strength is from the living God.’ Micah finally bids +Harapha to call on Dagon to ‘dissolve the magic spells +that gave our hero strength,’ after which is heard the +broad, devout six-part chorus of the Israelites, ‘Hear, +Jacob’s God.’ The part closes with a massive double +chorus—in which Israelites and Philistines, in choral +strife, extol their respective deities.</p> + +<p>In the third part, Harapha notifies Samson that he +must appear at the feast of Dagon to exhibit his +strength and, though he refuses at first, he finally yields +because he believes it to be God’s will. Samson calls +upon the Spirit which led him formerly and goes to the +temple. He takes in each hand one of the pillars which +support the roof and with a mighty effort pulls down +the temple, crushing the Philistines and burying himself +with them. A tender, expressive funeral march is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</span> +played as Samson is borne away by his people. For +this march Handel afterwards substituted the Dead +March from ‘Saul’ and both marches now appear in +the score. Manoah exhorts the people to lay aside their +sorrow and praise God, and this brings the famous +trumpet aria, ‘Let the bright Seraphim,’ which is so +grateful for both voice and instrument. The brilliant +chorus, ‘Let their celestial concerts,’ brings this imposing +oratorio to a triumphant close.</p> + + +<h3>VIII</h3> + +<p>Most of the great composers have frankly built on +the achievements of their predecessors, carrying to +completion or at least to higher stages of development +the forms handed down to them, without much conscious +influence from contemporary composers. Some, +like Wagner and Schubert, have struck out new lines +whose discovery and development cannot be explained +wholly as resulting from the operation of preceding +artistic forces and principles. Comparatively few of +the really great composers have acknowledged their +indebtedness to contemporary genius. Such a one, +however, was ‘Papa’ Haydn. The youthful Mozart had +opened up new visions in symphonic and orchestral +music and compelled the veteran Haydn<a id="FNanchor_79" href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> to new effort. +And when Haydn heard the ‘Messiah’ for the first time +in Westminster Abbey during his first visit to England +in 1791, he was so moved by the majesty of the ‘Hallelujah’ +chorus that it inspired him to the composition of +what is undoubtedly his greatest work, the ‘Creation.’ +This work joins with its great artistic inspirer, Handel’s +‘Messiah,’ and with Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah’ in forming +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</span>a trio of the world’s most popular oratorios. Of his +other two oratorios—the ‘Seasons’ and ‘The Return of +Tobias’—only the former claims present-day performance +and that far less frequently than its predecessor, +the ‘Creation.’ One misses in Haydn’s choral works +the massive grandeur of effect and complexity of structure +of the Handel oratorios. Haydn was a deeply religious +man, but it was not in accord with his happy, +sunny, optimistic nature to sound the depths of human +emotion. The great charm of the ‘Creation’ lies in the +freshness, the artless simplicity, and the evident spontaneity +of its melody, and the naturalness and direct +expressive power of its choruses.</p> + +<p>The ‘Creation’ was begun in 1795, to a libretto given +the composer by the London manager, Salomon, and +compiled by Lidley from Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ and +from Genesis. It was completed in 1798, when Haydn +was sixty-six years old, and the first performance took +place at the Schwarzenberg Palace on the 29th and +30th of April, 1798, with the text translated and much +altered by Baron von Swieten. It was first publicly +produced at the National Theatre, Vienna, March 19, +1799, and was received with greatest enthusiasm. It +soon made its way to the music-centres of Europe, having +its first London performance on March 28th, 1800, +and its first Paris performance on Dec. 24th, of the +same year. Napoleon I was on his way to attend the +latter performance when he narrowly escaped death by +an infernal machine in the Rue Nicaise. Structurally +one is impressed with the large number of arias and the +correspondingly small number of choruses, as compared +with Handel’s later oratorios. In this respect +Haydn was undoubtedly influenced by the form of the +Italian concert oratorio, then very popular in Vienna.</p> + +<p>It is constructed in the usual three parts, the first +two of which are the strongest. The overture is a +quaint bit of tone painting; at first monotonous and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</span> +barren of melody, it attempts to depict chaos; but +gradually form begins to appear in the music and the +various instruments speak out more clearly, until harmony +is established. The first voice is that of Raphael +(bass) in a short recitative, ‘In the beginning,’ followed +by a chorus which gently whispers the words, ‘And the +Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,’ closing +with a joyous outburst on the words, ‘And there +was light.’ The separation of light from darkness follows, +Satan and his legions ‘sink into the deep abyss’ +and the quiet chorus appears, ‘A new created world +springs up.’ The first four days of creation are described +in a series of recitatives, arias and choruses, +many of which are familiar the world over—the inspiring +chorus with soprano obbligato, ‘The marvellous +work’; the fine bass aria, ‘Rolling in foaming billows,’ +with its lovely limpid refrain, ‘Softly purling’; and the +well-known ‘With verdure clad,’ a soprano aria on +which Haydn lavished the utmost care, having altered +it three times before it entirely satisfied him—all leading +up to the magnificent final chorus of the first part, +‘The heavens are telling,’ in which a trio of voices +(Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael) is finely contrasted with +the majestic choral passages.</p> + +<p>The second part describes the creation of animate life +on the earth. Beginning with birds, it enumerates the +various classes, rising in the scale until the crowning +glory of creation is reached in man. The opening aria, +‘On mighty pens’ (Gabriel), pictures the eagle, the lark, +the dove and the nightingale, each bird being depicted +in a characteristic musical phrase in the accompaniment. +One of the most interesting numbers is the description +of the roaring lions, with deep growls of the +double bassoons, the ‘flexible tiger’ with rapid string +passages, the alertness of the stag with a <em>presto</em> movement, +the neighing and prancing of the horse, the fluttering +and buzzing of swarming insects in the air—in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</span> +all of which the humor of Haydn is naïvely expressed +in comical musical mimicry. The creation of man +brings the beautiful tenor aria, ‘In native worth’ +(Uriel). The final chorus is the superb fugue, +‘Achieved is the glorious work,’ in the midst of which +is set a trio, ‘On Thee each living soul awaits,’ and, +after a return to the fugue, closing with a Gloria and +Hallelujah of singularly beautiful and majestic outlines. +The third part opens with an orchestral introduction +picturing the first morning of the completed +creation, in which the flutes and horns contribute some +beautiful effects. A tender dialogue between Adam +and Eve is followed by a charming duet, ‘Graceful +consort.’ The closing chorus, ‘Sing the Lord, ye voices +all,’ opens in a strain of solemn majesty and gradually +unfolds until it leads into a massive fugue, ‘Jehovah’s +praise forever shall endure.’ It closes with a mighty +pæan of praise, given by the combined chorus, solo +voices and orchestra with telling effect.</p> + +<p>‘The Seasons.’—Haydn’s last oratorio, ‘The Seasons,’ +the words for which were based on Thomson’s poem of +the same name and arranged by Baron von Swieten, +was written between April, 1798, and April, 1801, and +first presented at the Schwarzenberg Palace, Vienna, on +April 24th, 1801. Three performances were given in +close succession. This work can scarcely be called a +real oratorio; it partakes more of the character and +form of the sacred cantata, but is more frequently given +the first named classification. The ‘Seasons’ represents +a distinct decline in the composer’s powers, but it is +not to be wondered at, for he was sixty-nine years old +when it was completed, and during its composition +was greatly harassed and irritated by the nonsensical +demands and caprices of the librettist. The characters +are Simon, a farmer; Jane, his daughter; and Lucas, +a young countryman. These personages do not have +any dramatic significance, though the work contains a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</span> +love scene between Lucas and Jane. That the scene is +laid in the country is easily imagined from the subject, +and the chorus represents the country-folk.</p> + +<p>The first scene depicts early spring and opens with +a lively overture and with recitatives from the three +principals, expressing joy at the approach of the balmy +season, at once followed by the first chorus, ‘Come, +gentle spring.’ After the farmer’s aria comes a trio +and a fugal chorus, ‘Be propitious, bounteous heaven.’ +The chorus, ‘Spring, her lovely charms unfolding,’ is +almost redolent with the odor of waxen buds and early +blossoms. Following this is the closing fugal chorus, +‘God of light.’</p> + +<p>‘Summer’ is introduced with a short prelude leading +to a beautiful aria by Simon, ‘From out the fold the +shepherd drives,’ and at the appearance of the early +sunrise the trio and chorus chant a song of welcome, +‘Hail, O glorious sun!’ The various numbers picture +the progress of the day, and after the overwhelming +heat of noon, an ominous silence tells of the coming +storm. The drums give forth a peal of thunder, followed +by a storm-chorus, ‘Hark the deep, tremendous +voice.’ The driving rain, the thunder and the lightning-flashes +are vividly pictured in the music. With the +trio and chorus, ‘Now cease the conflicts,’ the music +becomes tranquil again as the night approaches, with +the droning of insects, the croaking of the frogs, the +song of the quail and the peals from a distant bell-tower—and +darkness and slumber drop over the land.</p> + +<p>The third part, ‘Autumn,’ depicting the ‘kind rewards’ +of Nature, contains the song of Simon, ‘Behold, +along the dewy grass,’ which is followed by the famous +hunting chorus, ‘Hark! the mountains resound,’ a vivid +tonal picture of the chase. A recitative, praising the +rich vintage, leads to a scene of revelry, closing with +the lively rustic chorus, ‘Joyful the liquor flows,’ in +which a rollicking drinking-song, a well-known Austrian<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</span> +dance-melody with suggestions of bagpipe and +fiddle, is happily introduced.</p> + +<p>‘Winter’ is prefaced by a slow prelude indicative of +the fogs creeping in. After the recitative of Simon and +Jane’s cavatina, both picturing the approach of the icy +season, there is a realistic musical picture of the wayfarer +lost in the snow-storm. Simon moralizes on the +changing seasons and offers as his conclusion that +‘nought but truth remains.’ A prayer to Heaven for +divine guidance brings the pastoral scene to a close.</p> + +<p>The eighteenth century came to an end with Handel +as the great outstanding figure in oratorio and Haydn +just appearing on the scene. England led Europe in +its devotion to this form of choral art, though Germany +was soon to awaken to its importance. Bach’s magnificent +choral works were slumbering on dusty shelves +and Italian oratorio was still fatuously allied with operatic +ideals, while France gave little heed to the form +at all. But another half-century was to witness a more +even distribution of interest in large choral forms.</p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="footnotes"> +<p class="center p2 big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_72" href="#FNanchor_72" class="label">[72]</a> Score in the Royal Library, Dresden.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_73" href="#FNanchor_73" class="label">[73]</a> Fétis proves in his <em>Biographie universelle</em> how materially Scarlatti +influenced a more extended branching out of violin technique.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_74" href="#FNanchor_74" class="label">[74]</a> The first ecclesiastic who is known to have used a dramatic presentation +of the Passion is St. Gregory Nazianzen (330-390).</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_75" href="#FNanchor_75" class="label">[75]</a> Winterfeld, in <em>Der Evangelische Kirchengesang</em>, states that the earliest +known Passion-music composed by a Protestant was published in +Keuchenthal’s book (Wittenberg, 1573), which contained a German version +of the Passion with four-part music for the recitation and choruses.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_76" href="#FNanchor_76" class="label">[76]</a> Though no accompaniment at all is indicated in the score of any +of these Passion-oratorios, it is very probable that organ was used to +accompany some parts.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_77" href="#FNanchor_77" class="label">[77]</a> Édouard Devrient, Mendelssohn’s friend and helper in the Bach +revival.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_78" href="#FNanchor_78" class="label">[78]</a> Arthur Mees, ‘Choirs and Choral Music,’ p. 103.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_79" href="#FNanchor_79" class="label">[79]</a> Haydn (1732-1809) was Mozart’s senior by 24 years and was, therefore, +fifty-six years old when the thirty-two-year-old Mozart wrote his +greatest symphonies—the ‘Jupiter,’ the ‘Apollo’ and the one in E-flat major.</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER VIII<br> +<small>THE ORATORIO FROM BEETHOVEN TO BRAHMS</small></h2> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Beethoven: ‘The Mount of Olives’; Spohr: ‘The Last Judgment’ and +‘Calvary’—Mendelssohn: ‘St. Paul’—‘Elijah’ and ‘Hymn of Praise’—Liszt: +‘St. Elizabeth’ and ‘Christus’—Oratorio in England; Sterndale Bennett: +‘The Woman of Samaria’; Costa’s ‘Eli’—Oratorio in France; Lesueur; Berlioz’s +<em>L’enfance du Christ</em>—Gounod: ‘The Redemption’; <em>Mors et Vita</em>.</p> +</div> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>With the early years of the nineteenth century came +many forces which fed the awakening desire for choral +song. The dawning consciousness of national life in +the Teutonic nations and the grateful sense of relief +from Napoleonic oppression, with the accompanying +train of intellectual activities which the new sense of +freedom let loose—all contributed to develop, in Germany +particularly, a new attitude toward choral song +as an outlet for the expression of the newly-awakened +sense of new relationships. Hence in Germany we will +find the most important centre of choral activities in +the first half of this century. Here many of that remarkable +group of German composers who assumed +undisputed leadership of the musical world during this +period, gave to the oratorio their richest thoughts and +maturest attention—among them Beethoven, Spohr, +Mendelssohn and Liszt.</p> + +<p>‘Christ on the Mount of Olives’ (<em>Christus am Oelberge</em>) +was Beethoven’s only oratorio. It was begun +in 1800 at a period when he was still under the influence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</span> +of Haydn and Mozart. It was finished in 1801 and first +performed at Vienna, April 5th, 1803. Its first production +in England was in 1814 under Sir George Smart +during the Lenten oratorios at Drury Lane. Huber’s +text, which was written in fourteen days, has been universally +condemned as lacking in solemnity and failing +in the essential dramatic requirements. Several attempts +have been made to substitute texts for the original +one that would remove its incongruities, but without +satisfactory results.</p> + +<p>The work calls for three solo voices, Jesus, Peter, +and the Seraph. The introduction is an orchestral +<em>adagio</em> movement, very dramatic in character, depicting +the agony in the Garden. This is followed by a +recitative and aria for Jesus (tenor), ‘All my soul +within me shudders,’ a sweet, pathetic number, in spite +of its incongruity. There ensues a scene and aria by +the Seraph, ‘Praise the Redeemer’s goodness,’ and +joined to it a buoyant, joyous <em>obbligato</em> with chorus, +‘O triumph, all ye ransomed!’ This is followed by a +duet between Jesus and the Seraph, ‘On Me then fall +thy heavy judgment,’ which, like Jesus’ first aria, offends +through verging on the dramatic. After a short +recitative in which Jesus welcomes death, there follows +a strong and properly dramatic number, a chorus of +soldiers in march-time, ‘We surely here shall find Him,’ +in which are heard the shouts of the rabble and the grief +of the apostles. Next comes a dialogue between Jesus +and Peter, ‘Not unchastised shall this audacious band,’ +and following this, a passage which again strains one’s +sense of propriety, comes a trio between Jesus, Peter +and the Seraph, with chorus, ‘O sons of men, with +gladness.’ The last number, a chorus of angels, ‘Hallelujah, +God’s Almighty Son,’ begins with a short but +powerful orchestral introduction which is followed by +a joyous outburst; and this in turn merges into a massive +fugue, enriched and strengthened by a splendid<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</span> +orchestral accompaniment such as only Beethoven +could conceive.</p> + +<p>Had Beethoven written another oratorio, as he evidently +contemplated, he doubtless would have enriched +this form out of the tragic experiences of his later life, +as he so bountifully did the more congenial forms of +instrumental speech.</p> + +<p>Spohr (1784-1859) was a prolific composer in instrumental +and vocal forms. His ‘Jessonda’ was regarded +as one of the strongest early romantic operas and two +of his three oratorios enjoyed a large measure of popularity +during his lifetime and in subsequent years, particularly +in England. His style was melodious, exceedingly +chromatic and modulatory, but his musical powers +lacked the ability for sustained flights. While his +musicianship charms, one feels a certain discrepancy +between the grandeur of some of his oratorio themes +and his musical mode of handling them. The Handelian +breadth and massiveness is absent. His three +oratorios are ‘The Last Judgment,’ ‘Calvary’ and ‘The +Fall of Babylon,’ the last named written for the Norwich +(England) Festival of 1842.</p> + +<p>‘The Last Judgment’ (<em>Die letzten Dinge</em>)—not to be +confounded with an earlier, crude oratorio, <em>Das jüngste +Gericht</em>, written in 1812—was composed in 1825 and +first performed on Good Friday, 1826, at the Lutheran +Church at Cassel. The first large performance was at +the Rhenish Festival at Düsseldorf of the same year. +Its first hearing in England was at the Norwich Festival, +September 30th, 1830, and in America, at Boston, +March 20th, 1843, when it was presented by the Handel +and Haydn Society. The English title of the oratorio is +misleading and was a mistranslation, confused with +Spohr’s earlier work, of similar name but different +meaning. There is no suggestion of the terrors of the +last judgment in this oratorio. The text of the first part +is given over wholly to the general thought of praise<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</span> +‘unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the +Lamb forever.’ The second part is concerned with +those portions of Revelation that describe the signs of +the last day, closing with St. John’s vision of a new +heaven and a new earth.</p> + +<p>The first part contains among other numbers the +well-known chorus, ‘All glory to the Lamb that died’; +the admirable tenor solo and chorus, ‘Blessing, honor, +glory and power,’ with a tranquil beginning and ending, +but expanding into a well-written fugue in the middle; +and the closing number, a beautiful quartet and +chorus, ‘Lord God of Heaven and Earth.’ The second +part begins with an orchestral introduction which +graphically portends the signs and wonders of the last +day. These are dramatically related in the following +long bass recitative with vigorous, agitated accompaniment. +After the powerful chorus, ‘Destroyed is Babylon,’ +the vision of a new heaven and earth is proclaimed +by the soprano, and three transitional numbers lead +to the last movement, a majestic chorus, ‘Great and +wonderful are all Thy works,’ which consists of a +smooth introduction, a lively fugue, still another fugue +(‘Thine is the kingdom’), followed by an exultant outburst +of praise and the final Amen.</p> + +<p>‘Calvary’ was first performed at Cassel on Good Friday, +1835. Four years later it was given in England at +the Norwich Festival, the composer himself conducting. +While it met with considerable criticism because of ecclesiastical +prejudice against the introduction of the +personality of Jesus among the singing characters +(Beethoven’s ‘Mount of Olives’ occasioned the same offense), +the work was a signal success. The text was by +Rochlitz.</p> + +<p>The work deals with scenes connected with the crucifixion +and abounds in beautiful, expressive melody, +both in the choruses (sung by the friends of Jesus) and +in the ariosos of Mary and the recitatives of John. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</span> +beautiful chorus, ‘Gentle night, O descend,’ following +a very grave and somewhat protracted overture, is an +example of this expressive melody. The work becomes +more impressive toward the close; especially so is the +cry of Jesus, ‘My God, my God, O why hast Thou forsaken +me?’ followed by the fervent prayer of the disciples, +‘In this dread hour of death,’ and another beautiful +number sung by the disciples, ‘His earthly race is +run,’ set for a quartet of solo voices accompanied by +the chorus. A highly dramatic number is the chorus +of priests and people, as they express their consuming +fear aroused by the convulsions of nature attendant +upon the crucifixion. The final number is a beautiful, +sustained chorus of the disciples, ‘Beloved Lord, Thine +eyes we close.’</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>The world waited fifty-six years after the first performance +of Handel’s ‘Messiah’ (1742) before Haydn +presented his ‘Creation,’ the first oratorio after Handel’s +death that is comparable with his great masterpiece. +After a lapse of thirty-eight years another oratorio +appeared—Mendelssohn’s ‘St. Paul’—which rose +above the ‘Creation’ and revealed its composer as one +on whose shoulders the mantle of both Handel and +Bach had descended with power. Versatile as Mendelssohn +was in many forms, vocal polyphony seemed +most congenial of all, and he will undoubtedly live +longest in his great choral masterpieces, ‘St. Paul’ and +‘Elijah,’ the latter of which reaches a point of grandeur +of conception and effective dramatic expression that +remains as yet unsurpassed by any subsequent choral +work. One of the most skillful contrapuntists since +Bach, a perfect master of orchestration and possessed +of exquisite sense of formal values, Mendelssohn was +splendidly equipped to take advantage of the tremendous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</span> +strides that had been made in the musical means +of expression since the time of Handel and Haydn. +He absorbed the devotional intensity of Bach’s choral +music and reinstated the chorale as an integral element +of German oratorio; from Handel he borrowed +massiveness of choral structure and brilliance of vocal +writing. Like Handel, his mode of musical speech was +direct and intimate and its appeal was couched in +terms of even more suave beauty. The immediate +success of Mendelssohn’s oratorios was without doubt +greatly aided by the favorable condition of the popular +religious thought, as well as by the great acceleration +in the interest in choral singing that had resulted from +the immense popularity of Haydn’s ‘Creation’ in Germany. +The appeal of this oratorio (‘Creation’) was +doubly strong on account of its simplicity of conception +and musical expression, so that in all directions choral +societies were formed for the express purpose of producing +it. A wide demand for choral works was created, +but nothing of permanent value came in response +until Mendelssohn’s ‘St. Paul.’ On the whole Mendelssohn’s +oratorio-arias suffer from a lack of forcefulness +due to the remarkable ease with which he invented +sensuously charming melodies, so that many of them +lack depth; but in choral writing his extraordinary architectonic +skill led him firmly to a style which carries +him close to the height where Handel dwelt.</p> + +<p>‘St. Paul’ was the first of Mendelssohn’s great oratorios. +It was written at the request of the Cecilia Society +of Frankfort-on-the-Main—begun in Düsseldorf +and completed at Leipzig, when the composer was in +his twenty-sixth year. The text was written by the +composer with the assistance of his friends Fürst and +Schubring, after A. B. Marx had declined to write it +on the ground that the introduction of chorales would +be unsuited to the period of the narrative. The work +is developed from three main themes—the martyrdom<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</span> +of St. Stephen, the conversion of St. Paul and the latter’s +career after this event. Lampadius calls the work +‘the glorification of Christianity with its humility, its +joy in living and dying for the Lord, in contrast to the +blind self-righteousness of Judaism and the more sensuous +morality of the heathen schools. It is the contrast, +or rather the struggle, of the last two with the +first, and the victory of the light and love of the Gospel. +This thought is made incarnate in the persons of +Stephen, Paul and Barnabas; and is concentrated in the +really central point of interest of the whole oratorio—the +conversion of St. Paul.’</p> + +<p>The first performance of this work took place on +May 22, 1836, on the occasion of the Lower Rhine Festival +at Düsseldorf, the Cecilia Society of Frankfort +having been compelled to forego its production because +of the illness of its conductor. On Oct. 3rd, 1836, the +first English performance was given at Liverpool. In +the meantime, notwithstanding its success, Mendelssohn +had revised the work and shortened it by omitting +ten numbers. The enthusiasm with which ‘St. +Paul’ was received was unprecedented, in Germany +alone one hundred and fifty performances being given +within eighteen months of its first production at Düsseldorf.</p> + +<p>The rather long and expressive overture is followed +directly by the first chorus, ‘Lord! Thou alone art God!’ +which is very massively scored and expresses great +exultation. The mood of this chorus changes, as it +approaches its middle section, to the more excited and +restless theme, ‘The heathen furiously rage’; but soon +returns to the mood with which it opens and passes on +directly to the chorale, ‘To God on High.’ This nobly +beautiful melody is the beloved old German chorale, +‘<em>Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr</em>.’ The next part marks +the martyrdom of Stephen. A powerful choral recitative +for the basses accuses him of blasphemy and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</span> +multitude takes up the cry, ‘Now this man ceaseth not +to utter blasphemous words.’ Stephen replies to this +in a very expressive solo, ‘Men, Brethren and Fathers!’ +but the people again give way to their anger in the +strong chorus, ‘Take him away!’ The soprano solo, +‘Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,’ is a most +eloquent admonition, but uttered in vain. The people +in a tumult of frenzy demand his death (‘Stone him to +death’). The pathetic tenor recitative tells of the tragic +deed. Then follows a beautiful chorale of complete +resignation, ‘To Thee, O Lord, I yield my spirit.’ Following +this chorale, comes the calm and comforting +chorus, ‘Happy and blest are they,’ with its fluent, expressive +melodies. The fiery, threatening aria for bass, +‘Consume them all,’ brings Saul upon the scene. ‘But +the Lord is mindful of His own’ follows and offers a +complete contrast in its quiet and lovely melody for +alto. Now occurs the most vital point of interest in the +oratorio, the conversion. A voice from heaven (effectively +represented by a soprano choir) is heard in +the words, ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?’ An +orchestral interlude leads with gradually growing crescendo +to the powerful chorus, ‘Rise up! arise!’ This +is succeeded by the chorale, ‘Sleepers, wake! a voice is +calling,’ in which the effect is greatly enhanced by the +trumpet figure following each choral line. The general +mood grows more profound and serious as Saul offers +up a prayer, ‘O God, have mercy upon me.’ Forgiveness +and mercy are offered by Ananias and Saul’s sight +is restored to him and he is baptized as Paul the apostle. +The first part comes to a conclusion with the +strong, exultant chorus, ‘O great is the depth of the +riches of wisdom.’</p> + +<p>A noble and dignified fugue, ‘The nations are now +the Lord’s,’ opens the second part of the oratorio. +There soon follows the chorus, ‘How lovely are the +messengers that preach us the gospel of peace,’ one of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</span> +the most beautifully melodious numbers in the whole +work. It is succeeded by the soprano aria, ‘I will sing +of Thy great mercies.’ But the scorn and rage of the +Jews are aroused by the cures which Paul works in +the name of the very prophet whose disciples he once +so cruelly persecuted. The angry chorus, ‘Is this he +who in Jerusalem,’ is followed by another chorale, ‘O +Thou the true and only light,’ a fervent prayer of the +Church for divine guidance. Paul and Barnabas depart +for Lystra. Paul heals the cripple at Lystra and +the multitude is deeply stirred. At this point Mendelssohn +brings the three types of religion—Greek, Christian +and Jewish—in fine contrast in the three choruses—‘O +be gracious, ye immortals,’ full of Pagan sensuousness, +‘But our God abideth in heaven,’ with its calm +assurance of Christian faith, and ‘This is Jehovah’s +temple,’ in which the uncompromising intolerance of +the Jews is angrily voiced. Paul bids a sorrowful farewell +to his brethren (‘Be thou faithful unto death’) +and the congregation tenderly responds, ‘Far be it from +thy path.’ Two of the finest choruses of the work are +the final numbers, ‘See what love hath the Father’ and +‘Now only unto Him.’ Two of the ‘St. Paul’ choruses—the +beautiful chorale ‘To Thee, O Lord, I yield my +spirit’ and the melodious ‘Happy and blest are they’—were +chosen to be sung at Mendelssohn’s obsequies.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>‘Elijah.’—Mendelssohn waited a full ten years after +the performance of ‘St. Paul’ before he produced another +oratorio on such broad lines and when ‘Elijah’ +appeared in 1846, the world recognized that it was an +event that transcended in importance any similar event +since Handel’s ‘Messiah.’ ‘Elijah’ is certainly Mendelssohn’s +finest and most sustained flight and there are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</span> +not wanting those critics who stoutly maintain that it +is unsurpassed in the whole literature of oratorio. In +it the composer enters new paths. He gives full rein +to the intensely dramatic side of the text and freely +departs from the conventional form of oratorio—so +much so that the work might safely be called a sacred +opera. ‘Elijah’ was long in the composer’s mind and +he worked on it carefully and with profoundest affection +and sympathy, for although he had embraced +Christianity, there was something about the heroic +character of the old Hebrew militant prophet that +struck deep into the fibres of his being. Work on it +was begun as early as 1840, but he did not earnestly +begin the composition of the music (the text he compiled +largely himself) until 1845. It was first performed +at the Birmingham Festival on August 26th, +1846, when Mendelssohn conducted it before an enormous +audience which extended to the composer one of +the most thrilling ovations ever enjoyed by a musician. +Though its success was most extraordinary, Mendelssohn +was not deterred from carefully revising it. It +is interesting to note that the universally popular ‘angels’ +trio’ (‘Lift thine eyes’) was originally written for +only two voices.</p> + +<p>The most startling innovation of the whole oratorio +is the short, impressive bass recitative which precedes +the overture—Elijah’s dramatic prophecy of the +drought. Then follows the sombre, gloomy overture +portraying the results of the curse as the drought settles +over the land and dries up the waters. It leads +without pause into the opening chorus, ‘Help, Lord,’ +which voices the anguished appeal of the drought—and +famine-stricken people. This dramatic supplication +leads into a second chorus, ‘Lord, bow Thine ear to +our prayer,’ with a duet for two sopranos, supported +by a unison chorus, the theme of which is based on an +old Hebrew chant and is intoned first by the male and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</span> +then by the female voices. The succeeding tenor aria +(Obadiah), ‘If with all your hearts,’ is of great beauty. +The people are not consoled and again burst forth into +vehement complaint, ‘Yet doth the Lord see it not,’ +which changes toward the end into a lovely chorale, +‘For He the Lord our God.’ An angel’s voice then calls +Elijah to the waters of Cherith. A beautiful double +quartet follows, whose simple melody is worked up +with fine effect, ‘For He shall give His angels charge +over thee,’ Elijah is now bidden by the angel to the +widow’s house at Zarephath. The raising of her son +follows in a dramatic scene consisting of the mother’s +passionate cry, ‘What have I to do with thee,’ and the +prophet’s ‘Give me thy son.’ The scene then closes with +the chorus, ‘Blessed are the men who fear Him,’ The +next scene is one of the most dramatic portions of the +work—the appearance of the prophet before Ahab, his +defiant challenge to the priests of Baal to the sacrifice +on Mount Carmel, and the thrilling trial by fire. This +part includes the truly Pagan choruses, ‘Baal, we cry +to thee’ and ‘Hear our cry, O Baal’; Elijah’s taunt, ‘Call +him louder’; the prophet’s dignified appeal, ‘Lord God +of Abraham,’ followed by the simple chorale, ‘Cast thy +burden on the Lord’; the summoning of fire from +heaven upon the altars, and the picturesque and descriptive +chorus, ‘The fire descends from heaven.’ The +priests are doomed to destruction by Elijah in an excited +recitative. Following a choral response, Elijah +sings the highly dramatic and difficult aria, ‘Is not His +word like a fire?’ Another aria, ‘Woe unto them,’ for +alto voice, succeeds Elijah’s and the rain scene begins. +In answer to Obadiah’s appeal to help the people, +Elijah sings his expressive invocation for rain, ‘Look +down from heaven,’ and after several choral responses, +together with the exclamations of Elijah and the youth +who is sent ‘to look toward the sea,’ the signs of rain +appear. Then follows the most thrilling climax of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</span> +whole work. As the clouds grow black with rain and +the storm gathers force, the people begin to voice their +thanks, the orchestra describes the rushing waters, and +finally the whole chorus joins in a tumultuous outburst +of thanksgiving (‘Thanks be to God’) which +brings the first part to a magnificent close.</p> + +<p>An effective soprano solo, ‘Hear ye, Israel,’ opens the +second part. This leads into the strong, majestic +chorus, ‘Be not afraid,’ one of Mendelssohn’s finest +choral efforts, in which the regular musical forces are +augmented by the organ. Elijah needs the encouragement +of this admonition, for he again confronts Ahab +and condemns the worship of Baal. The queen, Jezebel, +accuses him of working to destroy Israel and the +people in wrath shout, ‘Let the guilty prophet perish.’ +Obadiah bids him fly to the wilderness. The next +scene reveals the persecuted prophet alone and discouraged. +In a pathetic plaint, ‘It is enough,’ he resigns +himself to death and, wearied with flight, he falls +asleep under the juniper tree ‘and the angels encamp +round about him.’ This leads directly to what is undoubtedly +the most exquisitely beautiful vocal trio in +existence—the pure and serene ‘Lift thine eyes,’ sung +<em>a cappella</em> by the watching angels. Without pause there +follows the beautiful chorus, ‘He watching over Israel.’ +The angel then awakens Elijah, who complains pathetically, +‘O Lord, I have labored in vain.’ ‘O rest in +the Lord,’ sung by the angel, offers Elijah consolation. +The encouraging chorus, ‘He shall endure to the end,’ +brings the scene to a majestic close. The following +scene reveals a changed Elijah. He yearns now for the +divine presence instead of for death. In a sudden outburst +the chorus exclaims, ‘Behold, God the Lord +passed by.’ A sudden <em>pianissimo</em> works up into an +impressive <em>crescendo</em>, and once more appears a <em>pianissimo</em> +as the chorus impressively exclaims, ‘The Lord +was not in the tempest.’ The earthquake and the tempest<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</span> +and the fire follow. ‘And there came a still, small +voice ... and in that still, small voice onward came +the Lord.’ Elijah was transformed by the experience +and went on his way ‘in the strength of the Lord.’ His +strong, confident aria follows, ‘For the mountains shall +depart.’ A powerful chorus states that ‘Then did Elijah +the prophet break forth like a fire’ and there follows +the dramatic choral narrative of the prophet’s +ascent into heaven in a fiery chariot. The fine tenor +aria, ‘Then, then shall the righteous shine,’ and the +melodious quartet, ‘Oh! come, every one that thirsteth,’ +lead over into the final choral number—a magnificent +fugue (‘Lord, our Creator’), introduced by the majestic +phrase, ‘And then shall your light break forth.’</p> + +<p>‘Hymn of Praise.’—This symphony-cantata was composed +to commemorate the fourth centennial of the +invention of the art of printing, held at Leipzig, in +June, 1840. A second performance followed at Birmingham, +Mendelssohn conducting, a few months later, +Sept. 23rd. Dramatically it has no very great significance, +being designed purely as a ‘tribute of praise’ for +the manifold gifts of the Lord, among them being the +art of printing—which the text, based upon the Scriptures, +carefully elucidates.</p> + +<p>The symphony, or instrumental prelude, is divided +into three parts, opening with a majestic trombone +passage which clearly anticipates the mood of the ensuing +cantata. The real ‘Hymn of Praise’ is given out +in the opening chorus, ‘All that has life and breath,’ +based upon the motive heard in the opening measure of +the prelude. The work then moves on in a majestic +manner, reaching its climax with the entrance of the +impressive chorus, ‘The night is departing.’ A final +chorus, ‘Ye nations, offer to the Lord,’ is in fugal form +and is inspiring in its massiveness. The choral motive, +‘All that has life and breath,’ is again given out +<em>fortissimo</em> and brings the work to an impressive close.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</span> +The duet for two sopranos, ‘I waited for the Lord,’ is +one of the most beautiful numbers in this work.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>The dazzling achievements of Liszt (1811-86) as a +pianoforte virtuoso and the popularity and originality +of his instrumental compositions have put his choral +work in an unfortunate perspective; and they have by +no means received the attention they richly merit. +Two of the finest examples of oratorio of this period +are from the brilliant Abbé’s pen, both written in the +full maturity of his powers and with the employment +of all his immense resources of dramatic and emotional +expression. They are ‘Christus’ and ‘The Legend +of the Holy Elizabeth.’ The latter legend, familiar +to English readers through Canon Kingsley’s +dramatic poem, ‘The Saint’s Tragedy,’ deals with the +life of the daughter of King Andreas II of Hungary, +born in 1207, who at the age of four was sent to the +Wartburg to be brought up as the affianced bride of +Ludwig, son of the Landgrave Hermann of Thuringia. +After their marriage in 1220 wonderful tales were told +of her devotion to the poor, of her pious Christian life, +and, after Ludwig’s death, of the cruel hardships which +the hatred of her mother-in-law brought upon her. +She died in 1231 and was canonized at Marburg in +1235 by command of Pope Gregory IX.</p> + +<p>‘The Legend of Saint Elizabeth’ was composed in +1864 and received its first performance in Budapest +on August 15, 1865, which event marked the twenty-fifth +anniversary of the establishment of the Budapest +Conservatory. The composition, however, was really +undertaken at the request of the Duke of Weimar for +a festival held at the Wartburg on Aug. 28, 1867, commemorating +both the eighth centenary of its founding<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</span> +and also the restoration of the romantic old castle +which was so intimately associated with the legend of +St. Elizabeth. The text by Otto Roquette was inspired +by the six magnificent frescoes by Moritz von Schwind +which adorn the walls of the Wartburg, and it is divided +into six scenes corresponding to the six frescoes.</p> + +<p>The first scene opens with an orchestral introduction +which sets forth the Elizabeth motive, taken from an +old ecclesiastical melody. The music grows animated +as it leads into the first chorus, which joyfully welcomes +the child Elizabeth, who as the affianced bride +of Ludwig, son of the Landgrave of Thuringia, comes +to the Wartburg, where she is brought up side by side +with her future husband. The second scene reveals +the happy matron Elizabeth, now for some years the +wife of Ludwig. One of the most beautiful parts of +the whole work is the duet between Elizabeth and Ludwig +as he surprises her in her alms-deeds which she +tries to conceal from him because of her mother-in-law’s +fierce disapproval of them. Especially dramatic +and beautiful is the portion dealing with the ‘Rose +Miracle.’ The quaint story of this episode is as follows: +Elizabeth, having dismissed her ladies in order +that she may secretly bring bread and wine to some +of her poor, sick subjects, suddenly meets her husband +in the deep forest far from the Wartburg. Ludwig’s +suspicions are aroused and when he asks what her +basket contains, she tells him that she has been gathering +roses. Ludwig, who does not believe her, seizes +the basket, when she hastily confesses that it is bread +and wine, and behold! the contents of the basket have +been turned into roses! Liszt was very desirous of +having this very mysterious and ethereal and indicated +in the score that the orchestra should in this part +‘sound fairly transfigured’ and that the conductor +should ‘scarcely mark the rhythm’ in order not to imperil +the effect. The penitent Ludwig begs her forgiveness<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</span> +and as she asks, ‘Is it a dream?’ the chorus +responds, ‘A wonder hath the Lord performed.’</p> + +<p>Scene three opens with the stately chorus of crusaders +(‘In Palestine, the Holy Land’) with dignified march +accompaniment, which leads to Ludwig’s farewell to +his wife on his departure for the Holy Wars. Then +ensues Elizabeth’s passionate entreaty, ‘Oh tarry! O +shorten not the hour,’ followed by the pathetic ‘With +grief my spirit wrestles,’ after which the stirring chorus +and march of the crusaders closes the scene. Scene +four, with its short, sombre orchestral prelude, announces +the death of Ludwig, the bitter antagonism +of Landgravine Sophie, Elizabeth’s mother-in-law, who +drives the sorrowing, broken-hearted young widow +from her home. Especially dramatic are the dialogues, +in the midst of which is Elizabeth’s aria, ‘O day of +mourning, day of sorrow,’ in which she pours out her +grief as she fares forth in the storm. Scene five discloses +Elizabeth on her death-bed in a hospital founded +by herself, where she has forgotten her own sorrow in +ministering unto others. Her last words (‘Unto mine +end Thy love has led me’), after a gradual <em>decrescendo</em> +in the orchestra, are followed by a chorus of angels, +‘All grief is o’er,’ closing with the celestial strains of +harps. An orchestral interlude, in which are developed +the main themes of the work, leads to the last +scene, which depicts the canonization of Elizabeth at +Marburg in the presence of the Emperor. This ceremony +closes the work with a chorus of the people +mourning her death, choruses of the crusaders, of the +church choristers and bishops, and finally an imposing +six-part chorus, the Latin hymn, <em>Tu pro nobis, mater +pia</em>.</p> + +<p><em>Christus</em> was composed in 1866 during Liszt’s residence +in Rome, just after he had been appointed Abbé +by his friend, Archbishop Hohenlohe, and at a time +when, it is said, he entertained high hopes of being<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</span> +appointed chapel-master of the Papal Choir. But, +though he was in high favor with the Catholic hierarchy, +nothing came of it. The <em>Christus</em> was written +soon after the ‘Legend of St. Elizabeth,’ but, while both +are deeply imbued with the spirit of Roman Catholicism, +the former reflects the deep interest which he took +in religious matters at the time far more than does the +latter. Liszt compiled the text, which is in Latin, entirely +from the Bible and from the Roman liturgy. +There are three divisions to the work—(1) ‘The Nativity,’ +(2) ‘After Epiphany,’ dealing with the Lord’s +life and ministry, and (3) ‘The Passion and the Resurrection.’ +The first fragmentary performance of +‘Christus’ took place July 6, 1867, at the Sala Dantesca, +in Rome, and another in Vienna in 1871. The first +complete production was at Weimar in 1873 under the +direction of the composer.</p> + +<p>The first part, containing five numbers, opens with +an orchestral prelude built on an ancient plain-song +melody, <em>Rorate cœli</em>, in Isaiah’s prophecy. This leads +into a quaint Pastoral, after which comes the angels’ +announcement of Jesus’ birth and a <em>Gloria in excelsis</em>. +A devotional setting of the old Latin hymn, <em>Stabat +mater speciosa</em>, leads into two orchestral movements of +great beauty—‘The Song of the Shepherds at the Manger,’ +a lovely pastoral, and ‘The March of the Three +Kings,’ an elaborate number in which the high tones +of the violins and flutes typify the Star of Bethlehem. +The second part contains ‘The Beatitudes’ for baritone +and six-part chorus, the Lord’s Prayer, a part entitled +‘The Founding of the Church’ (<em>Tu es Petrus</em>), ‘The +Miracle’ (Jesus calming the storm), again treated orchestrally, +and ‘The Entry into Jerusalem,’ a brilliantly +scored tone-picture, mainly instrumental, save for two +vocal passages—a Hosanna for chorus and a Benedictus +for mezzo-soprano and chorus. The third part opens +with the pathetic solo <em>Tristis est anima mea</em> (‘My soul<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</span> +is sorrowful’), in which the Christ pours out his soul +to Peter and his companions on the way to Gethsemane. +The orchestra plays a most important part in the expression +of this tragic struggle, after which the ancient +Latin hymn, <em>Stabat mater dolorosa</em>, is given with combined +orchestral and choral forces. Of all the settings +of this celebrated liturgic text, Liszt’s is the most powerful +and impressive, though it is too overwhelming +in its effect for use in the church-service. This lengthy +and elaborate number is contrasted strongly with the +following simple and quaint Easter hymn, <em>O filii et +filiæ</em>, which prepares the listener for the majestic <em>Resurrexit</em> +(‘Resurrection’) which follows and builds up a +final climax, with the combined resources of chorus +and orchestra, that is really commensurate with the +grandeur of the theme.</p> + +<p>Liszt himself regarded the <em>Christus</em> as his best work—‘my +musical will and testament’—and in works of its +class it certainly stands unique in the intensity of its +expression and in the unusual combination of mediæval +church atmosphere and modern musical resources—a +powerful fusing of the old and the new. It is scarcely +an oratorio in the usual understanding of the term, but +rather a kind of liturgic mystery, such as Lesueur +strove to build up but did not complete. It cannot be +considered apart from the religious faith of its composer +and from this point of view it stands as the highest +representative of Roman Catholic oratorio.</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>The influence of England on oratorio is by no means +to be measured by the number of original works of this +class produced by Englishmen. No other country in +the world has such a record of long and unbroken loyalty +to this musical form and no other country has so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</span> +freely opened its doors to composers of other nationalities. +When one recalls that Handel’s series of magnificent +oratorios was written for English appreciation, +that Haydn’s ‘Creation’ drew its inspiration from London, +that Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah,’ Gounod’s ‘Redemption’ +and <em>Mors et Vita</em>, and many other oratorios of +less worth were written for, and received their initial +performances before, English festival audiences, one +can form some estimate of what English love of choral +art has done for its development.</p> + +<p>English composers of this period were still using +the musical phraseology of Handel and Mendelssohn, +so that not much can be said of the individual works +produced, though several were worthy and held a certain +popularity for a long time. Among the more notable +English oratorios of the period were Sir Julius +Benedict’s ‘St. Peter’ (1870), George Alexander Macfarren’s +‘St. John the Baptist,’ which was received enthusiastically +at the Bristol Festival of 1873, William +Sterndale Bennett’s ‘The Woman of Samaria,’ and Sir +Michael Costa’s ‘Eli’ and ‘Naaman’ (Birmingham Festival, +1864).</p> + +<p>‘The Woman of Samaria,’ a ‘sacred cantata’ by W. +Sterndale Bennett (1816-75), was first performed at +Birmingham August 27, 1867. The story, taken from the +fourth chapter of St. John’s Gospel, follows literally the +Bible narrative—Jesus’ journey to Samaria, his rest at +the well, and the entrance of the Samaritan woman. +This is interspersed with choral and solo passages, the +former enacting the part of moralist, commenting upon +the situations as they occur by means of appropriate +scriptural selections. The part of the Woman of Samaria +is sung by the soprano, while the declamatory +parts are assigned to the contralto. The tenor has but +one aria and the bass acts almost entirely as narrator, +the Saviour’s words being always related in the third +person. In a single instance the chorus assumes the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</span> +rôle of narrator, ‘Now we believe,’ where the words are +part of the story.</p> + +<p>A short instrumental prelude leads to the chorale, +‘Ye Christian people now rejoice,’ for sopranos only. +The melody used is an old one, having appeared in the +<em>Geistliche Lieder</em> (Wittenberg) in 1535. The chorale +is interestingly treated by means of opposing rhythm in +the orchestral part. The recitative for contralto, ‘Then +cometh Jesus to a city of Samaria,’ opens the oratorio +proper. After a chorus, ‘Blessed be the Lord God of +Israel,’ and short recitatives for bass, contralto and +soprano, which are again followed by a chorus, there +ensues the conversation between the Saviour and the +woman, during which Jesus tells her of her past life. +She replies in the beautiful contralto solo, ‘O Lord, +Thou hast searched me out,’ which is full of tender expression. +During the dialogue, the divine nature of +Jesus is revealed to the woman and there follows the +six-part chorus, ‘Therefore they shall come and sing,’ +and this in turn is succeeded by the deeply devotional +and well-known quartet, ‘God is a Spirit,’ sung by the +solo voices <em>a cappella</em>. A soprano solo, ‘I will love +Thee, O Lord,’ was introduced into the oratorio after +the death of the composer, among whose manuscripts +it was found. This was done for two reasons, to indicate +the conversion of the woman and also to interrupt +the series of choruses. Among the remaining numbers +are a lovely chorale, ‘Abide with me, fast falls the eventide,’ +and the fine chorus, ‘Now we believe.’ The work +is brought to a close with a majestic fugue, ‘Blessed be +the Lord God of Israel.’ An atmosphere of devotion +pervades the work and, while the composer recognizes +the worldly character of the woman, he sees also the +possibilities of her intuitive religious feeling, which +the Master needed only to awaken.</p> + +<p>Costa’s ‘Eli’ was first produced at the Birmingham +Festival, August 29, 1855, under the direction of the composer.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</span> +The text follows the scriptural narrative in +the first book of Samuel and was arranged by William +Bartholomew. In a rather disconnected manner, and +with the story of young Samuel as a central point, it +deals with the service of Eli the priest, the carousals +of his dissolute sons, the sorrows of Elkanah and Hannah, +and the exploits of the warlike Philistines. Some +of the finer numbers of the oratorio are Eli’s sombre +invocation, ‘Hear my prayer, O Lord’; Hannah’s joyful +song, ‘I will extol Thee, O Lord’; the elaborate fugal +chorus, ‘Hosanna in the highest,’ which closes the first +part; the familiar orchestral march of the Israelites; +Samuel’s devout evening prayer, ‘This night I lift my +heart to Thee,’ followed by the beautiful female chorus +of angels with harp accompaniment, ‘No evil shall befall +thee’; and the vigorous chorus, ‘Woe unto us, we +are spoiled,’ sung by the Israelites when their crushing +defeat by the Philistines is announced.</p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>The oratorio in France had a slow beginning and +has throughout its development displayed traits distinctly +traceable to two sources, the first of which is the +national fondness for theatrical settings for all dramatic +works. Even <em>La nativité</em> by Gossec (1734-1829) +probably gained wide attention when given at the Tuileries +Cathedral, because the composer had a chorus +of angels concealed in the dome, thereby giving a more +picturesquely dramatic effect. Concert-oratorio, in +which the sources of enjoyment are largely limited to +pure choral effects, divorced from dramatic content, +has never made a wide appeal in France. The second +source of the characteristics of French oratorio is to +be found in the influence which the liturgy of the Roman +Church has exercised over this art-form. French<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</span> +oratorio has preserved a close connection with the old +Gallican liturgic drama of the Middle Ages—so much +so that the word ‘mystery’ has almost entirely superseded +‘oratorio’ as a title or sub-title for this form of +composition. Its line of descent from the mediæval +mysteries is still further identified in the subject-matter +itself, which usually concerns itself with the mysteries +of Christian faith and church doctrine. The +titles most frequently subjoined by the composers are +‘sacred drama,’ ‘biblical scene,’ etc., rather than ‘oratorio.’ +Here lies the distinct line of demarcation between +oratorio from the Protestant and Roman Catholic +points of view.</p> + +<p>The first of the French composers to write a series +of oratorios<a id="FNanchor_80" href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> was François Lesueur (1760-1837) and +the strongest of these is his ‘Christmas Oratorio’ written +in 1826, which is a combination of drama and +churchly office. Lesueur was of the opinion that ecclesiastical +music must of necessity be liturgical and +therefore based on the Gregorian chant and accent. +This work is really an adaptation of the Christmas +Mass treated as an oratorio-text, the parts of which are +distributed as solos, choruses and ensemble passages +among the persons assembled around the manger. +Most of these lightly scored passages are built upon +old liturgical melodies or upon old French Christmas +songs, and the harp is very lavishly used in the instrumentation. +The text is in Latin, taken from the Vulgate. +After the <em>Kyrie</em>, accompanied by string quartet, +there follows the appearance of the angels, closing with +a short instrumental coda. After this comes a <em>Gloria in +excelsis</em> and a pastoral instrumental passage (Shepherds +on the Fields of Bethlehem) scored for violas and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</span>horns. Two holy women sing as a duet the <em>Gratias +agimus tibi</em> and the closing number consists of a pastoral +hymn to the words, <em>Jam desinant suspiria</em>.</p> + +<p>One of the most important of the French romantic +oratorios is Hector Berlioz’s sacred trilogy, <em>L’enfance +du Christ</em> (‘The Childhood of Christ’), which was written +in 1854 and performed in Paris and Brussels the +same year. This oratorio, dealing with the flight of the +Holy Family, is really an enlargement of an earlier +cantata, <em>Fuite en Egypt</em> (‘The Flight into Egypt’), and +shows traces of the influence of Lesueur, whose pupil, +Berlioz, caught the operatic spirit that was associated +with his master’s work. The oratorio, the text of which +is by the composer, consists of three rather short parts—The +Dream of Herod, The Flight into Egypt and The +Arrival in Sais. The first part depicts Herod, tormented +by awful dreams and influenced by the soothsayers +to kill the first-born men-children. The music +is sombre, but in the Herod passages takes on the operatic +style referred to above. In strong contrast to +this is the second part, which deals entirely with the +Holy Family and reveals qualities of loveliness and +naïveté as it depicts the babe Jesus greeted by the +chorus of angels. The most elaborate part is the third, +especially the portion which reveals Joseph demanding +shelter where he has been refused. Here the music +assumes a dramatic and brilliant development.</p> + +<p>Although Charles Gounod (1818-93) after the extraordinary +success of his masterpiece, ‘Faust,’ was firmly +established as one of the foremost opera-composers of +Europe, he never lost touch with religious music and +finally abandoned the stage entirely for the style that +lay closest to his real ambition, becoming the greatest, +if not indeed the only great, composer of oratorio in +France during this period. As a winner of the <em>Grand +Prix de Rome</em> he had studied ecclesiastical music, especially +the works of Palestrina; during a visit to Vienna<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</span> +in 1842 he had produced a Requiem in the church of +St. Charles, which created a profound impression, and +soon after returning to Paris he had even seriously +thought of taking holy orders. Wide attention was +first attracted to him by the London performance of +portions of his <em>Messe solennelle</em>, and even during the +period of his greatest fame from his stage-works, he +constantly reverted to the composition of sacred music. +His two great oratorios—‘The Redemption’ and <em>Mors +et Vita</em>—strike out a somewhat new path for this art-form. +Here he abandons entirely the contrapuntal and +fugal character of the chorus as being artificial and +unessential, thus departing completely from Handelian +and Mendelssohnian models, and adopts from the Wagnerian +music-drama the system of ‘leading motives,’ of +which he makes limited use to designate important and +representative religious or dramatic themes. Both of +these oratorios were composed for English audiences, +and Gounod’s residence in London after the Franco-Prussian +War and his acquaintance with the English +festival oratorio undoubtedly colored the compositions +to such an extent that they might almost be called English +oratorios.</p> + +<p>‘The Redemption.’—This work was originally intended +as the first part of a ‘Sacred Trilogy,’ as he +styled it, only the second of which (<em>Mors et Vita</em>) was +ever completed; the composition of the third was prevented +by his death. The seriousness with which Gounod +approached this work is evidenced by the inscription—‘the +work of my life’—which he wrote on the +opening page of the first of the great works, ‘The Redemption.’ +This had been begun in 1867 in Rome, +where the composer wrote his text and set a few numbers +of the music, but it was not completed until twelve +years later and the first performance took place on +August 30, 1882, at the Birmingham Festival. It was +heard in Paris, May 22nd, 1886, and for the first time in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</span> +America in the winter of 1883-1884 under the direction +of Theodore Thomas. It is dedicated to Queen Victoria.</p> + +<p>In the preface of his work Gounod states: ‘This +work is a lyrical setting forth of the three great facts +on which depends the existence of the Christian +Church. These facts are: 1. The Passion and the +Death of the Saviour. 2. His glorious life on earth +from His Resurrection to His Ascension. 3. The spread +of Christianity in the world through the mission of the +Apostles.’ This trilogy is preceded by a ‘Prologue on +the creation, the fall of our first parents and the promise +of the Redeemer.’ The work is divided in accordance +with the above as follows:</p> + +<p>Prologue—The Creation.</p> + +<p>Part I.—Calvary.</p> + +<p>Part II.—From the Resurrection to the Ascension.</p> + +<p>Part III.—The Pentecost.</p> + +<p>The personages are Jesus, Mary and two narrators. +The composition, which by some is pronounced the +finest of modern oratorios, is a curious mixture of old +and new ways of musical treatment. While Gounod, +evidently influenced by Wagner, made use of ‘leading +motives,’ he also used the narrator in the same manner +as did Bach and in like manner treats the chorale. +After a short instrumental introduction, descriptive of +chaos, and the narrator’s recitative concerning the fall +of man, the Redemption theme is heard and it appears +wherever the atonement is thought of. This beautiful +leading motive is heard nine times during the course +of the work and is most effectively introduced in the +first chorus, ‘The earth is my possession.’ Its most +touching use is where Jesus tells the dying malefactor, +‘To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise,’ and its +most impressively triumphant appearance is in the +orchestral part at the close of the splendid chorus, +‘Unfold, ye portals everlasting.’</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</span></p> + +<p>The first part treats of the condemnation of Jesus, the +crucifixion, Mary at the foot of the cross and Jesus’ +conversation with the two thieves. It contains some +finely written solos and choruses, and the two instrumental +numbers—‘The March to Calvary’ and the number +descriptive of the darkness that fell over the earth +as Jesus uttered his last words. The second part includes +the events in the period between the Resurrection +and the Ascension. Among the beautiful numbers +in this part are the trio of Holy Women (two sopranos +and a contralto) ‘The Lord, He is risen again,’ and the +lovely chorus with soprano obbligato, ‘From Thy love +as a Father.’ Possibly the strongest chorus in the whole +work is ‘Unfold, ye portals everlasting,’ which is so +often sung as a separate chorus number. The third +part with its beautiful orchestral introduction has for +its first chorus the melodious ‘Lovely appear over the +mountains,’ followed by one of the most exquisite portions +of the whole work, the soprano solo, ‘Over the +barren wastes.’ After a repetition of the preceding +chorus, there follow the impressive events of the day +of Pentecost, the Apostles at prayer (for orchestra +alone), the descent of the Spirit and the singing of the +Beatitudes. The close is a repetition of the majestic +apostles’ hymn in unison, with the whole chorus, orchestra +and organ massed in a magnificent structure +with grandiose effect.</p> + +<p><em>Mors et Vita</em> is the second of his contemplated ‘sacred +trilogy,’ of which ‘The Redemption’ was the first. The +Latin text is compiled from the Catholic liturgy and +from the Vulgate, and the work is dedicated to Pope +Leo XIII. The first performance took place at the +Birmingham Festival, August 26, 1885, under the direction +of Richter, and the first performance in Paris, in +May, 1886. Gounod writes in the preface: ‘It will +perhaps be asked why, in the title, I have placed death +before life. It is because in the order of eternal things<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</span> +death precedes life, although in the order of temporal +things life precedes death.’ He also refers to his use +of ‘leading motives,’ which are also employed in ‘The +Redemption.’ There are four of these, the first of +which, a theme made up of four tones (a sequence of +three major seconds), is supposed to express ‘the terror +inspired by the sense of the inflexibility of Justice and, +in consequence, by that of the anguish of punishment. +Its sternness gives expression both to the sentences of +Divine Justice and the sufferings of the condemned, +and is found in combination throughout the whole work +with melodic forms which express sentiments altogether +different, as in the <em>Sanctus</em> and the <em>Pie Jesu</em> of +the <em>Requiem</em> which forms the first part.’ The second, +the motive of sorrow and tears, is, by the alteration of +one tone, changed into a motive of joy. Of the fourth, +Gounod writes: ‘By means of a threefold superposition, +it results in the interval of an augmented fifth and +announces the awakening of the dead at the terrifying +call of the angelic trumpets, of which St. Paul speaks in +one of his epistles to the Corinthians.’</p> + +<p>A short Prologue leads to the first part, <em>Mors</em> (Death), +which is a <em>Requiem</em> expanded by interpolated texts of +a reflective character. The second part, called <em>Judicium</em> +(Last Judgment), contains six subdivisions, as +follows: The Sleep of the Dead, The Trumpets at the +Last Judgment, The Resurrection of the Dead, The +Judge, The Judgment of the Elect, The Judgment of the +Rejected. The third part, <em>Vita</em> (Life), using the text of +St. John’s vision in the Apocalypse, describes the joys +of the Holy City, New Jerusalem, closing with an exultant +<em>Hosanna in excelsis</em>.</p> + +<p>Among the finest choruses of the oratorio are the +<em>Quid sum miser</em> (‘Ah! What shall we then be pleading’) +and the <em>Lacrymosa dies illa</em> (‘Day of weeping, +day of mourning’) from the <em>Dies iræ</em>. Probably the +greatest aria of the work is the soprano solo, <em>Beati qui<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</span> +lavant</em> (‘The righteous shall enter into Glory Eternal’).</p> + +<p>The theme which Gounod has chosen presents opportunities +for orchestral effects which such a master of +orchestration as he was would naturally seize upon, +and several of the numbers are for orchestra alone—The +Epilogue to the first part, in which the various +leading motives are developed, The Judge, and The +Heavenly Jerusalem.</p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="footnotes"> +<p class="center p2 big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_80" href="#FNanchor_80" class="label">[80]</a> These oratorios were, in addition to the one named, ‘Deborah,’ +‘Rachel,’ ‘Ruth and Naomi,’ ‘Ruth and Boaz,’ and the three ‘Coronation +Oratorios’ written for the three days’ coronation ceremonies of Napoleon +in 1804 (in reality three masses expanded so as to include the special +ceremonies).</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER IX<br> +<small>THE MODERN ORATORIO</small></h2> +</div> + + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Brahms: ‘German Requiem’; Dvořák: ‘St. Ludmila’—César Franck: +‘The Beatitudes’—Tinel: ‘Franciscus’; Benoît: ‘Lucifer’—Saint-Saëns: +‘Christmas Oratorio’; ‘The Deluge’; Massenet: <em>Ève</em>; <em>Marie Madeleine</em>; Dubois: +‘Paradise Lost’—Oratorio in England; Mackenzie: ‘The Rose of +Sharon’; ‘Bethlehem’; Parry: ‘Judith’; ‘Job’; ‘King Saul’—Stanford: ‘The +Three Holy Children’; ‘Eden’; Sullivan: ‘The Prodigal Son’; ‘The Light of +the World’; Cowen—Oratorio in America; Paine: ‘St. Peter’; Horatio Parker: +<em>Hora Novissima</em>; ‘The Legend of St. Christopher.’</p> +</div> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>‘The German Requiem’ is the largest of Brahms’ several +choral works and was the first of his compositions +to bring him fame and to verify Schumann’s enthusiastic +prophecy concerning him. The work, consisting +of seven numbers, is mainly choral, though there are +baritone and soprano solos, and it was first heard in +its entirety at Bremen on Good Friday, 1868. Its first +English performance was in 1873 and it was heard for +the first time in America at the Cincinnati May Festival +in 1884 under Theodore Thomas’ direction.</p> + +<p>The title ‘Requiem’ is in a measure misleading, as it +has nothing in common with the setting of the Catholic +Mass for the Dead. It is much broader in scope than +the customary use of this term as a form of religious +music would imply. While it points out the emptiness +and vanity of material life, its dominant note is one of +consolation, expanding into joy and leading to the +ultimate triumph over death and the grave. The composition +of the ‘German Requiem’ was suggested by the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</span> +death of the composer’s mother in 1865 and the work +itself is generally regarded as Brahms’ masterpiece, +Maitland going so far as to call it ‘the greatest achievement +of modern sacred music in Germany.’</p> + +<p>The first chorus, ‘Blessed are they that go mourning,’ +is a beautiful composition, its charm being greatly enhanced +by its rich orchestral accompaniment. No. 2, +the Funeral March, is written in triple time, which +through Brahms’ magic is made to express vividly the +measured tread of the mourners. No. 3, ‘Lord, make +me to know the measure of my days on earth,’ consists +of a baritone solo followed by two choral fugues which +are very effective though of great difficulty. No. 4, a +chorus (‘How lovely is Thy dwelling-place, O Lord of +Hosts’), is slower than its predecessor and is charmingly +melodious. No. 5, ‘Ye now are sorrowful, grieve +not,’ for soprano solo and chorus, has rich passages +of melody and discloses the composer’s great ability in +song-writing. No. 6, for baritone solo and chorus +(‘Here on earth we have no continuing place, we seek +now a heavenly one’), pictures the resurrection of the +dead in intricate fugal passages of wonderful power. +No. 7, the finale (‘Blessed are the faithful who in the +Lord are sleeping’), in contrast with the tumultuous +strains which precede it, offers a calm and sweetly serious +close to this remarkable work.</p> + +<p>Dvořák’s ‘St. Ludmila’ is sometimes classed as a sacred +cantata, but its breadth rather suggests its inclusion +among oratorios. The poem, by Jaroslav Vrchlicky, is +based on a Bohemian legend and sets forth the worship +of the heathen goddess Bába, the destruction of her +statue by the Christian teacher Ivan, the conversion of +Princess Ludmila and her future husband, Prince Bořivoy, +and their baptism, which ushered in the Christianization +of Bohemia. The work was written for the +Leeds Festival, where it had its first presentation in +1886. While there are many suggestions of national<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</span> +folk-song and national idiom in the score, Dvořák, in +writing the music, doubtless had in mind English conditions, +demands and tastes, in that he gave special +prominence to the choral parts and strove to develop +charming and original melodies with strongly rhythmic +features.</p> + +<p>The composition is in three parts. The first scene is +laid in the courtyard of Melnik Castle, where the people +are gathered about the statue of the goddess Bába +in worship of Bohemian Pagan deities. An introductory +orchestral number depicts the dawn, following +which are several solos and choruses of women and +priests, in which the dawning day and the laughing +springtime are joyously proclaimed. Ludmila enters +with an invocation to the goddess for blessings on the +fatherland, closing with the charming passage, ‘I long +with childlike longing,’ to which the chorus adds, ‘The +gods are ever near.’ With the approach of Ivan, the +serene music changes abruptly, as he implores them in +a strong, declamatory aria, ‘Give ear, ye people, one is +our God.’ After the destruction of the heathen statue +by Ivan amid scenes of great confusion, Ludmila proclaims +her faith in the doctrine which Ivan preaches, +and the part closes with choruses of lament and alarm +by the people. The second part, after an orchestral +prelude, discloses Svatava aiding her mistress in finding +Ivan, whom they finally discover emerging from a +cave. After Ludmila and Svatava have both declared +their faith in Christianity, the music suddenly changes. +The religious mood gives way to the merry sound of +the hunt and the hunters’ chorus. Prince Bořivoy enters +and relates how Ivan miraculously healed the +wounded hind. As he sees Ludmila, he declares his +love for her. Ivan expounds his doctrine to the prince +and the hunters, and Bořivoy is also converted. When +he again pours out his love for Ludmila, she at first +replies, ‘To thee the pleasure of the chase belongs,’ but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</span> +Ivan urges her to bestow her hand upon the prince, +and a quartet and a chorus close the part. The scene +of the third part is laid in the cathedral of Velehrad. +The royal lovers are baptized, and the noble chorus, +‘Mighty Lord, to us be gracious,’ creates an exalted +religious atmosphere. At the conclusion of the ceremony +the orchestra enters with trumpet fanfares, followed +by solos by Svatava and Ivan with choral responses; +and a powerful contrapuntal chorus, a final +‘Alleluia,’ impressively closes the work.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>Though Franck’s list of works is small compared +with those of some of his fellow-composers, he touched +every field of serious music and left the impress of his +powerful individuality. <em>Les Béatitudes</em> (‘The Beatitudes’) +is probably his finest work, though, after hearing +his noble D minor symphony or his striking piano +quintet, one is reluctant to pass over either of these +superb creations in naming Franck’s masterpiece. He +wrote five large choral works, though, in common with +other French composers, he seldom used the title ‘oratorio.’ +The first one in oratorio-form was ‘Ruth and +Boaz,’ written in 1845, which he designates <em>Églogue +biblique</em> and in which he is evidently struggling for +new harmonic effects, although he had not yet found +the idiom which characterizes his later works. He +follows the form of French oratorios of this period, +which were usually short, possibly because this temperamental +nation was not inclined to hear a long +religious work which, without any dramatic action, +would occupy a whole evening. The naïveté and simplicity +of this youthful work won much admiration +when it was first performed at the Conservatoire at +Paris on January 4, 1846. The picturesque orchestral<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</span> +prelude, the chorus of Moabites, Ruth’s beautiful aria +in the first part, the duet between Ruth and Boaz in +the second part, the charming and original chorus of +reapers with its suggestion of an old French folk-song—these +are some of the beauties of this simple sacred +idyl. <em>La Rédemption</em>, which the composer calls a <em>poème +symphonique</em>, was finished Nov. 7, 1872, and was first +performed at the Concert National on April 10, 1873, +under the direction of Colonne. Franck’s mysticism +becomes more apparent in this work. While it is by +no means on a level with the ‘Beatitudes,’ such passages +as the angels’ choruses, the arias of the archangel, +the music expressing the joy of mankind at +Christ’s advent, reveal the tender grace and purity of +Franck’s inspirations. <em>Rébecca</em>, a Biblical idyl (<em>scène +biblique</em>) on a poem by Paul Collin, dates from 1881, +and is written in the simple style of his earlier ‘Ruth.’ +An Oriental atmosphere pervades the work and gives +color to its harmonies and modulations, as witness the +opening chorus and the picturesque chorus of camel-drivers. +In <em>Psyché</em> Franck reaches his mature style. +Written in 1887-88 and first performed at the <em>Concerts +du Châtelet</em> under Colonne, Feb. 23, 1890, this quite +lengthy work possesses many passages of ravishing +beauty and elusive charm—such as the <em>Sommeil de +Psyché</em>, a prelude ‘full of mysterious language,’ and +the music accompanying the scene where Psyché reposes +among the flowers.</p> + +<p>‘The Beatitudes’ is a work in which Franck’s best and +most characteristic qualities of thought and workmanship +are displayed in a wonderful degree. Of a deeply +religious nature, profoundly earnest and sincere, working +wholly for himself and his art-ideals, and wholly +oblivious of the indifference with which an unappreciative +generation received his great works, Franck translated +into music his own inner self to a degree that has +been vouchsafed to very few composers. The grandeur<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</span> +and religious significance of the underlying thoughts +of this great theme struck deep into his gentle, tender +nature and he was able to sustain a noble mode of +musical speech from beginning to end without flagging. +Three characteristics stand out prominently in his +music—(1) a mysticism that throws a glamour of delicious +vagueness of outline over all his modes of artistic +expression, a mysticism that roots itself deep in +the hidden things of the religious faith he so consistently +held, (2) a complex and intricate polyphony that +rivals Bach’s in its nobility and expressiveness, and +(3) an astounding wealth of novel harmonies that elude +analysis and enthrall the listener by their very elusiveness.</p> + +<p>‘The Beatitudes’ was begun in 1870 and was published +ten years later. Parts of it were performed in +Paris from time to time, but the entire work did not +come to public hearing until one year after the composer’s +death—at Dijon in 1891 at the Commemoration +Festival of St. Bernard. Its first Paris performance +was March 19, 1893, under Colonne, and France at last +awoke to the recognition of the greatness of her departed +adopted son. The text is a poetic paraphrase of +the Sermon on the Mount, made by Madame Colomb. +It is not altogether adequate and is interspersed with +philosophical episodes that at times suggest spiritualism +and other irrelevant matter. Curiously enough it +was frequently these extraneous parts that touched +Franck most deeply and occasioned some of his finest +outbursts of religious rapture. The strongest musical +parts of the oratorio are the fine choral writing and +the skillful handling of the orchestra in exploiting and +illustrating the poetic and dramatic meaning of the +text. In the orchestral numbers his most brilliant style +is revealed. His treatment of the various characters—Satan, +the Voice of Christ, Mater Dolorosa—is often +very dramatic, almost theatrical: other characters are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</span> +the Angel of Forgiveness and the Angel of Death. The +central theme which runs through the whole work is +the perpetual conflict between good and evil, and ‘terrestrial’ +and ‘celestial’ choruses are frequently used to +illustrate these opposing forces.</p> + +<p>The musical numbers of the oratorio naturally group +themselves into eight parts (preceded by a prologue) +corresponding to the Gospel narrative. The Christ motive +is introduced in the music of the prologue (for +tenor and celestial chorus) which establishes at once +the mood of the whole work. Of exquisite beauty and +tenderness are the passages assigned to the voice of +Christ (baritone) in the first part (‘Blessed he, who, +from earth’s dreams awaking’) and in the third and +fourth parts. The celestial choruses are notable +throughout for their tender note of consolation and admonition, +especially in the fifth part. Franck’s treatment +of the whole of the third beatitude—‘Blessed are +they that mourn’—is forceful and impressive, beginning +with the chorus, ‘Grief over all creatures,’ the +strongest in the whole oratorio. The most dramatic +moments of the work are in the seventh part—‘Blessed +are the peacemakers.’ His Satan, as the arch-inspirer +of all strife and discord, appears as a figure of Miltonic +grandeur. Opposed to his bitter denunciations and +taunts are the gentle strains of the Christ voice +(‘Blessed are they who, with voice beseeching’), which +touch even Satan to a penitent mood (‘Ah! that voice’) +and lead into one of the most beautiful portions of the +entire work, the famous quintet of peacemakers (‘Evil +cannot stay’). The eighth part—‘Blessed are they +which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake’—rivals +the seventh in dramatic intensity and force. Satan, +‘not yet defeated,’ again hurls defiance at Christ. He +is rebuked by the chorus of the just and finally gives +way before the voice of the <em>Mater Dolorosa</em> who sings +a sublime song (‘Stricken with sorrow’). Satan recognizes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</span> +his doom, the voice of Christ is heard for the last +time, and the celestial chorus responds with a triumphant +Hosanna which brings the work to a close.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p><em>Franciscus</em> was the first work to bring Edgar Tinel +(1854-1912) international fame. While preceding works +had brought him success, the sound musicianship of +this oratorio, its beauties of contrapuntal and orchestral +structure, won for its composer a wide recognition +beyond the boundaries of his native Belgium as one of +the ablest contemporary choral writers. He has written +much church-music and has evinced strong interest in +the reform of Gregorian chant and ecclesiastical music +which has stirred the Roman Church since the middle +of the nineteenth century. It was while he was director +of the Institute for Sacred Music at Malines that he +composed ‘Franciscus,’ generally regarded as his masterpiece, +and it was produced there, August 22, 1888. +It was one of the works performed at the Lower Rhine +Festival in 1894 and was heard for the first time in +England in 1895 at the Cardiff Festival. Before either +German or English performance, however, it had been +brought out in New York City in 1893. The librettist, +Lodemijk de Koninck, has woven into the lines of his +poem all the salient features of the life of St. Francis +of Assisi (1181-1226), ‘the adorable mediæval mystic +who invited all beings and all things to divine love,’ +and who became the founder of the great mendicant +order of Franciscan monks.</p> + +<p>The oratorio is divided into three parts. The first—‘Francis’ +Worldly Life and his Renunciation’—opens +with a sonorous prelude developed from a theme of +stately character and discloses a brilliant scene of court +life at Assisi, where knights and ladies hold high feast<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</span> +amid the beauty of an Italian night. There is dancing +and merriment and the gay Francis is called upon for +a song. He astonishes the guests by singing the Ballad +of Poverty, which, with its quaint unaccompanied +choral refrains, forms one of the most delightful musical +passages in the work. On his way home after the +festivities he hears a voice speaking his name. Later +in his chamber he hears the same heavenly voice and +sees a vision of a magnificent hall, hung with cross-bedecked +armor, wherein a noble maiden, Poverty, +walks. The heavenly voice tells him that Poverty shall +be his bride, his weapon the cross, and his mission to +convert the world. The second part pictures ‘Francis’ +Monastic Life’ and teems with the fantastic episodes +with which mediæval legends allegorically associated +the lives of the church fathers and saints. It introduces +the angels of Hope, of Love, and of Peace, against +whom the spirits of War and of Hate wage battle. +Francis, worn with fasting, bare-foot and clad in a +monk’s gray garb, comes from his cell. His former +companions no longer know him, and jeer him as he +tells them of his lovely bride, Poverty. He sings the +beautiful, pathetic Song of Poverty, <em>Erbarm’ Dich +meiner Noth, O Herr!</em> (‘Have mercy on my need, O +Lord!’). Taught by him they learn the meaning of +brotherly love and peace reigns on earth. Francis’ +Hymn to the Sun with choral accompaniment, the +deeply expressive Song of Love and the closing chorus +of celestial voices, are among the rarest gems of the +work. The third part deals with ‘Francis’ Death and +Glorification,’ the finest numbers of which are the angelus +chorus which he hears at evening as he lies on +his death-bed; the double chorus in the church scene +(<em>Lux æterna</em>), in which the solemn tones of the organ +join with contrasting celestial and earthly choirs; the +imposingly heroic funeral march; and the final scene, +in which the composer masses chorus on chorus with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</span> +tremendous cumulative effect, closing with the words, +‘Triumph! Glory be to God!’</p> + +<p>Pierre Léopold Benoît (b. 1834), a consistent propagandist +for Flemish music, has been foremost in +the movement to establish a national school of music +distinct from French and German schools. In aiding +this movement he has himself been a prolific writer in +many fields. His choral works include the six oratorios—<em>Lucifer</em> +(1866), <em>Die Schelde</em> (1869), <em>Prometheus</em> +(1868), <em>Der Krieg</em> (1880), <em>Der Rhein</em> (1889) and the +‘Children’s Oratorio’—a choral symphony (‘The Mowers’), +and in addition many cantatas, among them one +for children’s voices (‘Into the World’), of great beauty +and practical value for school purposes. In style Benoît +is influenced sometimes by Franck and sometimes by +Schumann and the later Germans; there are few traces +of a strongly individual style.</p> + +<p><em>Lucifer</em>, Benoît’s most important composition and +one of the best of its period, was written in 1865 and +first performed in Brussels in 1866. The text is by +Emanuel Hiel. It shows distinctly the presence of a +progressive spirit in Belgium and France, though the +former country welcomed the oratorio more heartily +than did the latter. The subject is the thrice-attempted +effort of Satan to gain victory over a divinely protected +humanity; but the text is so allegorical and so unskillfully +put together that it no longer takes hold of the +listener’s interest. Portions of the work, especially the +agitated passages, are characterized by unrestrained +emotional expression. The solos are generally pleasing +and lyric, though not deep—the whole affording +contrasts which hold the attention. The orchestration +is brilliant for the period and the choral-writing skillful. +The employment of leading motives, to which the +composer himself called attention (though as a whole +they are not very characteristic), stamped the work as +being very modern in style at the time it was written.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</span> +It no doubt had a large influence on Benoît’s contemporaries, +especially on Franck, whose later oratorios, +though constructed with vastly greater skill and genius, +show many similar traits.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>The ‘Christmas Oratorio’ (<em>Noël</em>) of Charles Camille +Saint-Saëns (born 1835), although constructed in the +oratorio style, scarcely exceeds the dimensions of a +cantata. It calls for five soloists, and is scored for +strings, organ and, in one number, the harp. While +the text is based on the story of the Nativity, only +two numbers mention the birth of Jesus and these at +the beginning of the work, the remainder being liturgical +matter, such as the Magnificat, Benedictus and +Gloria Patri, and the triumph of the Church—all appropriate +to the Christmas season. A quaint and melodious +pastoral introduction of some length leads into +a recitative, ‘And there were shepherds,’ after which +the announcement to the shepherds is apportioned +among three solo voices, closing with the chorus, ‘Glory +to God in the highest.’ The most dramatic chorus in +the work is ‘Wherefore are the nations raging,’ to +which the accompaniment in itself furnishes an atmosphere +of wild unrest. A portion of the opening +pastoral prelude is heard again in the next to the last +number, before the quintet takes up the words, ‘Arise +now, Daughter of Zion,’ which, especially in the ‘Alleluia’ +portion, contains some beautiful writing for the +solo voices. A final chorus, written in majestic hymn +style and also closing with an oft-repeated ‘Alleluia,’ +concludes the oratorio. The composition, though short, +is exceedingly beautiful, not only in its graceful and +melodious voice-parts, but in its delicate and striking +accompaniments.</p> + +<p>‘The Deluge,’ a biblical scene which Saint-Saëns wrote<span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</span> +in 1875, has steadily maintained its place in the choral +repertoire. It is an effective, artistic work, nobly conceived +and true to the scriptural narrative. The orchestra +takes a leading part in the vivid portrayal of +the commotions of Nature—the approaching rain, +gradually bursting into torrents, the rising of the flood, +the buoyancy of the ark as it ‘floated upon the mournful +ocean,’ the darkness, and finally the receding waters. +The narration of the most important events is +given to the chorus, while the minor incidents are delegated +to the soloists, largely in recitative. Especially +effective is the passage at the beginning of the second +part in which it is related that ‘the sun disappeared’ +and ‘the rains from heaven poured,’ where the choral +parts have little melodic movement, dwelling much on +one tone, as though awed at the magnitude of the calamity, +while the storm-tossed accompaniment vividly +depicts the fierce force of the elements. One of the +finest numbers is the fugal chorus, ‘This race will I +blot out forever.’ In striking contrast to this is the +delicately scored scene of the departing and the returning +dove and the rainbow-music. The work closes +with a massive contrapuntal chorus, in which the solo +quartet joins, ‘Now increase, grow and multiply.’</p> + +<p>Jules Massenet (1842-1912) has made several excursions +into the field of choral music, but has never +been quite able to throw off his theatrical associations. +His oratorios are <em>Ève</em> (1875), <em>La Vierge</em> (‘The Holy +Virgin’), a sacred legend in four scenes (1880), and <em>La +terre promise</em> (‘The Promised Land,’ 1900). In addition +is a four-act sacred drama, <em>Marie Madeleine</em> +(1873), which is utterly theatrical.</p> + +<p><em>Ève</em>, a mystery which Massenet wrote in 1875, though +not deeply conceived, is full of beautiful color. It is +in three parts, the first being ‘The Birth of Woman.’ +At the beginning of the part the composer has written +in the score: ‘Serene Nature round Man in his sleep.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</span> +A pure light is spread over Creation, and from the new-born +Earth light vapors illumined by the Sun rise on +the horizon. A soft breeze undulates the flowers of +the field and the waves of the sea.’ Part second, ‘Eve +in Solitude’ (The Temptation), bears this superscription: +‘Starlit sky. A balmy night. In the forest solitude +Eve walks in deep thought far from Adam. Trembling +and enchanted she listens to the voices of the +night which murmur around her.’ In these surroundings +she sings an aria of narcotic sweetness, <em>O nuit, +douce nuit</em> (‘O night! gentle night’), which discloses +how receptive she is to the alluring voices of sweet +temptation. The third part is ‘The Fall.’ It is impossible +to think of Massenet’s character of Eve with any +degree of sympathy, as she is depicted simply as an +easily tempted Parisienne, with all the characteristics +of a frail and sentimental woman. According to the +text, she plucks from the tree, not the fruit of the +knowledge of good and evil, but of love, which is here +styled ‘the forbidden fruit.’ The eating of the fruit +brings on a rapturous love-duet (<em>con passione</em>) in true +theatrical style, and the happy pair are banished from +Eden—for loving!</p> + +<p><em>Marie Madeleine</em>, a work which Massenet calls a +sacred drama, was written in 1873 and performed at +the Odéon Théâtre, Paris, the same year. It consists of +three acts, (1) Magdalen at the Fountain, (2) Jesus before +Mary Magdalene, (3) Golgotha, including the +scenes, ‘Magdalen at the Cross,’ ‘At the Tomb of Jesus,’ +and the ‘Resurrection.’ The persons represented are +Mary Magdalene, Martha, Jesus and Judas, together +with choruses of disciples, Pharisees, scribes, publicans, +soldiers, servants, holy women and people.</p> + +<p>One who is in sympathy with the inspiring Bible +narrative, so beautifully treated in dramatic literature, +finds it difficult to become reconciled to the extraneous, +irrelevant material brought into the text and elaborated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</span> +in the music—for example, the introduction of Judas +as a lover of the Magdalen and a chorus of women +who taunt her. The music abounds in dramatic, +Oriental coloring and rich melody. The two tableaux +in the third act are very realistic, the first presenting +the ‘Crucifixion,’ and the second, the ‘Ascension.’</p> + +<p>Théodore Dubois (b. 1837) has worked much in the +field of choral music. Besides many pieces of church-music +and five cantatas, he has written three oratorios—‘The +Seven Last Words of Christ’ (1867), a short and +easy setting of the familiar Passion-scene; ‘Paradise +Lost,’ which is given some space below; and <em>Nôtre-Dame +de la Mer</em> (1897).</p> + +<p>‘Paradise Lost’ (<em>Le Paradis perdu</em>), for the composition +of which Dubois won the City of Paris prize in 1878, +is a dramatic oratorio in four parts. The text, by +Édouard Bau, is based on Milton’s great poem. It is a +fresh, spontaneous work, and abounds in striking tone-pictures, +the most unique of which is the fierce struggle +in Part I between the forces of Heaven and of Hell +(the faithful and the rebellious angels). The superscription +of the orchestral introduction is a commentary +on the sombre nature of the music: ‘Before the +Creation of our Earth, while Chaos yet reigned ... +the host of angels, called from the ends of Heaven, +assembled before the throne of the Almighty.’ This +prelude is at once followed by the chorus of seraphim +and the recitative of the Archangel. The first two +parts, ‘The Revolt’ and ‘Hell,’ portray the contest of +Satan and his angels against the archangels and the +faithful, and the condition of the lost angels in their +new abode of torment. The third part, ‘Paradise,’ includes +the temptation and the fall of man, and the +fourth, ‘The Judgment,’ tells of the upheaval on the +earth, the despair of Adam and Eve and their expulsion +from Paradise. Among the best portions of the +work might be named the opening of Part III, a beautiful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</span> +picture of a morning in Paradise (ushered in by the +orchestra and taken up chorally by the spirits who +guard Eden); the simple, devout prayer of Adam and +Eve (in duet form); and a grandiose concerted piece, +‘O God, avenging and righteous,’ which is sung by +Adam, Eve, the Archangel and the chorus of seraphim. +The characterization of Satan is particularly strong +throughout the work. Interesting is the French viewpoint, +which depicts the chivalrous Adam unwilling to +allow the blame for the first sin to rest upon his spouse: +‘Pardon the woman.... I ‘twas who led her astray!’ +he pleads before the Archangel who passes sentence +upon the guilty pair. Many pages of the music approach +closely to the boundaries of sentimentality.</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>In the field of English oratorio we find the same contributing +composers as in the cantata-form of this period +and the same progressive spirit and virile qualities +that sought out and found individual forms of expression +(see Chapter VI). The principal oratorio +writers of the period in the United Kingdom are Mackenzie, +Parry, Stanford, Sullivan and Cowen.</p> + +<p>‘The Rose of Sharon,’ a dramatic oratorio by Alexander +Campbell Mackenzie (born 1847), was first produced +at the Norwich Festival, Oct. 16. 1884, the +composer conducting. Mackenzie speaks of the production +of this work as the ‘turning point’ of his career. +The first performance met with enormous success +and it was received in all parts of the United Kingdom +with extraordinary marks of approval. The text by +Joseph Bennett is based upon the Song of Solomon +and the persons represented are the Sulamite (the +Rose of Sharon), a woman (the narrator), the Beloved +and Solomon, the chorus being variously made up of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</span> +princes, nobles, officers of the court, elders, villagers +and soldiers. It is in four parts in addition to a prologue +which indicates the parabolic character of the +drama and an epilogue which points its moral. The +four parts are: (1) Separation, (2) Temptation, (3) +Victory, and (4) Reunion. The principal motive of +the work is revealed in the words which the Sulamite +sings—‘Love is strong as death and unconquerable as +the grave.’</p> + +<p>The story relates how the Sulamite is seen by Solomon, +who at once becomes enamored of her and tears +her away from her Beloved, placing her in his own +harem, where, although surrounded by every luxury +which royal favor can devise, she still remains loyal +to her Beloved. After every effort on the part of Solomon, +the nobles and the women of the court, the Sulamite +continues to sing ‘My Beloved pastures his flock +among the lilies’ and she is finally restored to him, +after which they return together to the vineyards. +The score is heavily loaded with beautiful passages—lyric, +pastoral and dramatic—for choral and solo parts +alike. The composer uses with great skill and effectiveness +four motives—the Love motive associated with +the above quotation and a motive associated with each +of the three principal characters. Some of the loveliest +parts of the work are the long dialogue between the +Sulamite and her Beloved in the first part; the simple +‘The Lord is my Shepherd’ which the Sulamite, alone +in Solomon’s palace, devoutly sings as she longingly +remembers the scenes from which she has been parted; +the stately chorus, ‘Make a joyful noise unto the Lord,’ +accompanying the procession of the ark; the chorus of +shepherds and vine-dressers; the jubilant chorus, ‘Sing, +O Heavens! be joyful, O Earth!’ as the villagers greet +the returning lovers, which chorus leads into a rapturous +duet that prepares the way for a chorale-like finale +in which all join.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</span></p> + +<p>‘Bethlehem’ is a mystery in two acts, Mackenzie here +using this term in preference to ‘oratorio’ as better indicating +the nature of the work, which preserves a +quaintness of narrative style throughout. The text is +by Joseph Bennett and the work made its appearance +in 1894. The events of the first act or part take place +in the fields of Bethlehem, where angels appear to the +shepherds, comforting them with good news and singing +an anthem of praise to God, returning to heaven +and leaving the shepherds astounded at the vision. +They talk together of the wondrous sight and, as dawn +appears, the people of Bethlehem gather together and +they all rejoice and sing a carol. The scene of the +second act is Bethlehem. A host of ‘arméd cherubim’ +guard the new-born King as the blessed mother sweetly +sings to her babe. But the shepherds with some people +of Bethlehem seek the Holy Babe through the city to +worship Him; likewise certain kings from the East, +whose salutations the blessed mother answers. As the +kings marvel and offer gifts, all join in humble and +devout adoration of the Holy Child. The quaintness of +style is preserved in the music also, yet without sacrificing +its dignity.</p> + +<p>‘Judith’ (‘The Regeneration of Manasseh’) was the +first oratorio of Parry (b. 1848), although he had already +written several of the long series of choral works +that mark him as one of England’s great composers. It +was produced at the Birmingham Festival of 1888. The +persons in the action are Manasseh, king of Israel; Meshullemeth, +his wife; his children; Judith; a High +Priest of Moloch; and a messenger of Holofernes. The +text, by the composer, is in two acts. In the first, the +priests of Moloch demand the children of Manasseh for +sacrifice, but as they are about to be offered up, Judith +appears and endeavors to save them. She is herself +saved from the wrath of the people only by the coming +of the Assyrians, who lay Jerusalem in ruins and carry<span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</span> +off Manasseh a prisoner to Babylon. But the captive +king repents of his sins against God and is permitted +to return to Jerusalem. In the second act, while the +Jews are lamenting over the desolation of their city, a +messenger from the Assyrian general, Holofernes, arrives +and demands new terms of submission and tribute. +Here Judith comes to the rescue; she exhorts the +Jews to have confidence in God’s help, makes her way +to the Assyrian camp and to the tent of Holofernes +and strikes him down with her own hand. The Israelites, +fired by her heroism, fall upon their bewildered +enemies and scatter them, returning to Jerusalem and +praising the God of Israel. The Moloch choruses are +very characteristic, some of them fierce and barbaric, +while the march of the Assyrian host at the close of the +first part is stately and majestic. One of the loveliest +parts is the scene between Meshullemeth and her children +as she sings, in answer to their questions, the simple, +pathetic ballad of Israel’s ancient escape from +Egypt and the Red Sea.</p> + +<p>‘Job’ was written for the Gloucester Festival of 1892 +and is much shorter than the preceding oratorio. +Parry’s treatment of the familiar story of the patriarch’s +misfortunes is at once individual and poetic. +He groups the events into four scenes, opening the +first one with a noble, serene theme in the orchestra, associated +with the ‘perfect and upright man that feared +God,’ and appropriately using it again to bring the +whole work to a close. The narrator is given an important +rôle, but the climax of the work is Job’s +lengthy lament for his losses in the third scene. The +music is noble and of sustained dignity and impressiveness.</p> + +<p>‘King Saul,’ Parry’s third oratorio, was performed at +the Birmingham Festival of 1894. It relates, in a series +of ten scenes grouped into four acts, the main events +in the picturesque life of this king of Israel. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</span> +prophet Samuel and the youthful shepherd David are +prominent persons in the narrative, while the introduction +of the Witch of Endor scene gives opportunity for +music of vividly descriptive character. Among many +fine lyric passages are the love-duet of David and +Michal and David’s devotional psalm after the battle +with the Philistines (‘Let us lift up our eyes unto the +mountains, whence cometh our help’). The choral-writing +throughout is marked by unerring skill and +noteworthy effectiveness.</p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>‘The Three Holy Children,’ by Sir Charles Villiers +Stanford (born 1852), was written for the Birmingham +Festival of 1885. The words are taken in the +main from those parts of the Old Testament and the +Apocrypha that deal with the captivity of the Jews +under Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. This king +had erected a great image of Bel in the valley of Dura +and commanded that all his subjects worship it under +penalty of death by fire. A company of Jewish women, +by the waters of Babylon, are mourning over their +captivity, when they are taunted by some Assyrian soldiers +on their way to worship Bel and they reply with +songs of their beloved country and with imprecations +on their enemies. Ananias, Azarias and Misael, three +prominent Jews, denounce the worship of idols and +refuse to bow down to Bel. They are dragged before +the king and cast into the fiery furnace; but the flames +do them no harm and the amazed king releases them +and joins with the multitude in praising God ‘that hath +sent His angel and delivered His servants that trusted +in Him.’</p> + +<p>‘Eden,’ a dramatic oratorio, is a strong setting of Robert +Bridges’ poem and found first presentation, as have +several others of Stanford’s choral works, at the Birmingham<span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</span> +Festival, this one in 1891. The poem is an +elaborate epic of large dimensions, involving in its +action many characters (Adam, Eve, Satan, Michael, +Angels of Earth, Sun, Music, Poetry, etc.) and for its +choral elements, calling upon angels, devils, furies, all-seers, +etc. With this complicated dramatic machinery +Stanford has built an imposing musical structure—grand, +terrible in places, of ravishing beauty in others—always +skillfully fashioned and of compelling appeal, +especially in the choral parts. The poem is divided +into three acts: I, Heaven; II, Hell; III, Earth (Part 1, +The Fall; Part 2, Adam’s Vision). In the first and third +acts the composer drops into the old ecclesiastical modal +style for pages at a time with beautiful effect. Indeed, +he takes for some of his most important thematic +material two phrases of the plain-song melody <em>Sanctorum +meritis</em> (from the <em>Sarum Missal</em>) and weaves +them into choral passages with the skill of a sixteenth-century +church-contrapuntist. Especially beautiful, +among such portions, are the opening six-part chorus +of all angels (‘God of might! God of love!’) and a five-part +<em>a cappella</em> chorus (‘Flames of pure love are we’)—the +latter in the pure style of a <em>Madrigale spirituale</em>.</p> + +<p>‘The Prodigal Son,’ which is the first of Sullivan’s +oratorios, received its first performance at the Worcester +Festival, Sept. 3, 1869, for which occasion it was +written. The text, compiled by the composer, is based +on the well-known parable, the shortness of which, +however, has necessitated the introduction of other +Scriptural material; so that only six of the eighteen +numbers deal directly with the narrative, while the +other twelve reflect on the lessons it teaches. In a preface +to the work, Sullivan explains his conception of the +Prodigal as ‘a buoyant, restless youth, tired of the monotony +of home, and anxious to see what lay beyond +the confines of his father’s farm, going away in the confidence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</span> +of his own simplicity and ardor, and led gradually +away into the follies and sins which at the outset +would have been distasteful to him.’</p> + +<p>The musical treatment is melodious, opening, after +a short orchestral prelude, with the joyous, though reflective, +chorus, ‘There is joy in the presence of the +angels of God,’ preceded by a brief soprano solo. The +parable then opens with tenor recitative and aria, ‘A +certain man had two sons,’ and armed with the good +counsel of his father, the prodigal son starts away. +He is heard from in the chorus of revelry, ‘Let us eat +and drink; to-morrow we die.’ The admonishing contralto +solo, ‘Love not the world,’ is well known, having +found its way to concert programs. After an orchestral +prelude the soprano declaims in recitative the +Prodigal’s experience as a swineherd and his struggle +with famine, closing with the aria, ‘O that thou had’st +harkened.’ The repentance of the Prodigal is beautifully +expressed in the tenor aria, ‘How many hired +servants of my father.’ A chorus, ‘The sacrifices of +God,’ is followed by the Prodigal’s return—the joy of +the father being expressed in the bass aria, ‘For this +my son was dead.’ One of the finest choruses in the +work, ‘O that men would praise the Lord,’ is soon followed +by the unaccompanied quartet, ‘The Lord is +nigh,’ and the final chorus, ‘Thou, O Lord, art our +Father,’ closes with a joyous ‘Hallelujah.’</p> + +<p>‘The Light of the World,’ the second of Sullivan’s oratorios +and much longer than the first, was written for +the Birmingham Festival and performed there on August +27, 1873. The composer’s plan is set forth in the +preface as follows: ‘The work has been laid out in +scenes dealing respectively, in the first part, with the +nativity, preaching, healing and prophesying of our +Lord, ending with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem; +and in the second part with the utterances which, containing +the avowal of himself as the Son of Man, excited<span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</span> +to the utmost the wrath of his enemies, and led +the rulers to conspire for his betrayal and death; the +solemn recital by the chorus of his sufferings, and the +belief in his final reward; the grief of Mary Magdalene +at the sepulchre; and the consolation and triumph of +the disciples at the resurrection of their Lord and +Master.’</p> + +<p>The first part is divided into four scenes—‘Bethlehem,’ +‘Nazareth,’ ‘Lazarus’ and ‘The Way to Jerusalem.’ +The second part contains two—‘Jerusalem’ and ‘At the +Sepulchre.’ The first scene, dealing with the narrative +of the shepherds, the announcement by the angel and +the Magnificat sung by Mary, is introduced by a pastoral +prelude which establishes the atmosphere of the +scene. In the second scene, ‘Nazareth,’ are two very +dramatic choruses, ‘Whence hath this man his wisdom?’ +and ‘Is not this Jesus?’ It contains also an effective +quintet, ‘Doubtless thou art our Father,’ and a +well-written chorus, ‘He maketh the sun to rise,’ which +is one of the finest in the work. The ‘Lazarus’ scene +is darksome throughout, while ‘The Way to Jerusalem,’ +strongly contrasted with the preceding, is festive in +character and contains a beautiful three-part chorus +for children’s voices, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David.’ +The first part closes with a massive ‘Hosanna’ chorus +combined with a trio for female solo voices. The anger +and dissension caused by the Lord’s sojourn in Jerusalem +are dramatically depicted in an introduction +which opens the second part and which is followed by +an expressive baritone solo, ‘When the Son of Man +shall come.’ This scene also contains a charming chorus +for women’s voices, ‘The hour is come,’ and the +expressive farewell of Jesus, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem.’ +The crucifixion is not brought into the work except +by indirect mention in a chorus and the work closes +with the scene ‘At the Sepulchre,’ in which an angel +tells the waiting Mary Magdalene that Christ has risen.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</span> +This leads, after a tenor solo, to the final fugal chorus, +‘Him hath God exalted.’</p> + +<p>Frederic Hymen Cowen (born 1852) wrote two oratorios +that fall within this period—‘The Deluge’ (1878), +and ‘Ruth,’ written for the Worcester Festival of 1887. +The incidents of the familiar story of ‘Ruth’ (here +called a dramatic oratorio) are grouped into two parts +by the librettist, Joseph Bennett, and the composer has +given throughout a pleasing, though not deep, musical +setting to the text.</p> + + +<h3>VII</h3> + +<p>Oratorio by native American composers is a very +young product and practically dates from the composition +of Paine’s ‘St. Peter,’ though several works with the +title of oratorio had been written before this. Paine, +however, was the first American to approach his task +with an adequate equipment of ripe musicianship and +knowledge of technical means of expression. As yet +he has been followed in this field by comparatively +few American composers, though many worthy works +in cantata-form have been written.</p> + +<p>‘St. Peter,’ by John K. Paine (1839-1906), received its +first performance in Portland, Maine, in June, 1873, +under the direction of the composer. Its second performance +took place in Boston on May 9, 1874, by the +Handel and Haydn Society. The main theme of the +oratorio is the establishment of Christianity, as illustrated +by the four main events in the life of St. Peter. +It consists of two parts—(1) The Divine Call, followed +by the denial of Peter and his repentance, and (2) The +Ascension and Pentecost. The work abounds in strong, +well-written choruses and beautiful arias, which, +where the text demands it, become at times touching +(as, for example, in the aria, ‘Let not your hearts be +troubled’) and at times dramatic, as is the scene of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</span> +the emphatic denials of Peter and the accusations of +the people. A noble chorus, ‘Awake, thou that sleepest,’ +closes the first part. Probably the most beautiful +choral number, however, is in the second part, ‘The +voice of the Lord,’ which follows the description of the +Pentecostal miracle; though it is not massive, as is the +majestic closing chorus, ‘Great and marvellous are +Thy works.’</p> + +<p>Horatio Parker’s <em>Hora Novissima</em>, the most ambitious +and finely conceived choral work by an American, +was written in 1892, while the composer was associated +with Dvořák as teacher of counterpoint in the National +Conservatory of Music in New York, and received its +first hearing on May 3, 1893, when it was given by the +Church Choral Society of New York under the direction +of the composer. Soon after it was given in Boston +and at the Festivals of Cincinnati and Worcester, +Mass. In 1899 it was the chief novelty at the Three +Choirs Festival in Worcester, England (also conducted +by the composer), and bears the distinction of being +the first work of an American to be performed under +these historic auspices.</p> + +<p>The subject of the oratorio deals with the New +Jerusalem and the text, selected from a Latin poem of +the twelfth century by the monk Bernard de Morlaix +entitled ‘The Rhythm of the Celestial Country,’ has +been most skillfully translated by the composer’s +mother, Isabella G. Parker. The oratorio consists of +eleven numbers grouped into two parts, and the larger +portion of it is choral, there being only four numbers +for solo voices. The opening chorus, following the +instrumental prelude in which the principal motives +are set forth, begins with the words, <em>Hora novissima</em> +(‘Cometh earth’s latest hour’), which at once reveals +the composer’s dignified style of choral writing. The +most effective portion of the first part, however, is +the fugal chorus. <em>Pars mea, rex meus</em> (‘Most Mighty,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</span> +most Holy’), which is built up on massive lines. Another +very broad and truly splendid number is the joyous +double chorus, <em>Stant Syon atria</em> (‘There stand those +walls on high’), which is in the second part. An <em>a cappella</em> +chorus, <em>Urbs Syon unica</em> (‘City of high renown’), +is finely developed in strict fugal form and leads over +into the final number—broad and again fugally treated—for +quartet and chorus, <em>Urbs Syon inclyta</em> (‘Thou +city great and high’), which forms a majestic close to +a noble work, conceived on broad lines and constructed +with conspicuous skill and scholarship. Among the +solo portions the lovely soprano aria, <em>O bone patria</em> +(‘O country, bright and fair’), is especially distinguished +by graceful, dignified and appealing melody.</p> + +<p>‘The Legend of St. Christopher,’ a dramatic oratorio +on a theme that has often been chosen by composers, +was written soon after the <em>Hora Novissima</em> and was +published in 1898. In September, 1902, Parker conducted +the third part of this oratorio at the Worcester +(England) Festival and in October of the same year +the entire work was performed at the Bristol Festival. +The text, as in the case of many of the composer’s +choral works, is by his mother, Isabella G. Parker. +It presents in attractive poetic form the main features +of the familiar legend and requires the following characters: +Offerus, the King, the Queen, the Hermit and +Satan. The chorus frequently assumes the burden of +narration. The legend relates how the giant Offerus +sought the mightiest earthly monarch, that he might +serve him with his great strength and stature. But +he finds that the king to whom he attaches himself is +not the mightiest on earth, for he fears Satan, whom +the giant straightway seeks to serve. Satan in turn +trembles as they pass a cross by the roadside before +which women are singing a hymn to the Lord of +Heaven. Offerus finally finds a hermit who serves this +Lord of Heaven and who teaches him the meaning of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</span> +service. During a furious storm at night a child with +a quiet light upon its head piteously begs to be carried +across the raging stream. Offerus heeds the cry and +carries the child in his strong arms, only to find, when +he reaches the further shore, that it was the Christ-child +he bore; the hermit exclaims ‘Christopher be now +thy name, thine henceforth by rightful claim.’</p> + +<p>The musical handling of the theme shows the composer’s +marked skill and preference for choral-writing. +The choral portions of the work are the strongest, +though there are not wanting lyric solo-passages of +great beauty, as witness the melodies assigned to the +Queen and the Hermit, and the fine trio in the last +part (an Angel, the Hermit and Offerus). It would be +difficult to find among modern works a more exquisite +piece of effective unaccompanied part-writing than +Parker has given in his setting of the Latin hymn, +<em>Jam sol recedit igneus</em>, which follows immediately +after the above trio.</p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER X<br> +<small>THE MODERN MASS</small></h2> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The adaptation of liturgical forms to extra-liturgical purposes; Mass; +Requiem Mass—Stabat Mater; Magnificat; Te Deum—Musical masses and +the Roman service—Bach: ‘B minor Mass’—Bach’s ‘Magnificat in D’; Pergolesi’s +<em>Stabat Mater</em>; Handel’s Te Deums; Graun’s ‘Prague Te Deum’; +Haydn’s church music—Mozart: the <em>Requiem</em> and other masses—Cherubini: +<em>Requiem</em> and other masses; Schubert’s masses—Beethoven: <em>Missa Solemnis</em>; +Weber’s masses—Berlioz: <em>Requiem</em>; <em>Te Deum</em>; Rossini’s <em>Stabat Mater</em>; +Liszt: ‘Graner Mass’ and ‘Hungarian Coronation Mass’—Gounod: ‘St. +Cecilia Mass’ and other masses; Dvořák: <em>Requiem</em> and <em>Stabat Mater</em>; Verdi: +‘The Manzoni Requiem’—The masses of Rheinberger, Henschel and others.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="p2">As polyphonic music developed with the expanding +possibilities of the contrapuntal art and the increasing +splendor of the Roman liturgical service, the old church +composers seized upon certain portions of the liturgy +as being especially adapted for musical exploitation +and elaboration. The masters of the fifteenth and +sixteenth century ecclesiastical vocal counterpoint +made the musical settings of these parts of the holy +office the object of their deepest consideration and lavished +on them their utmost artistic skill and profundity. +The parts of the holy office thus selected were those +that were constant, invariable from day to day; they +were six in number and in the following order: <em>Kyrie</em> +(in three parts, <em>Kyrie eleison!</em> <em>Christe eleison!</em> <em>Kyrie +eleison!</em>), <em>Gloria</em> (Doxology), <em>Credo</em>, <em>Sanctus</em>, <em>Benedictus</em> +and <em>Agnus Dei</em>. Since these were the principal +musical portions of the eucharistic office sung by the +choir, they came to be spoken of together as one composition, +as Palestrina’s ‘Mass of Pope Marcellus,’ Gounod’s +‘St. Cecilia Mass,’ and so on. In all musical<span class="pagenum" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</span> +masses, ancient or modern, the same number and order +of movements is preserved, since the holy office itself +is universal and unchangeable. With the development +of instrumental music in the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries, opportunities were offered for combining various +instruments with the voices, and the mass with +orchestral accompaniment arose. When sacred music +finally broke loose from ecclesiastical control and came +to be considered independent of the Church, composers +took advantage of the great poetic suggestiveness +of the missal text for constructing elaborate choral +works with the combined resources of instruments and +voices. While many of the modern masses here considered +were written as liturgical music for actual +church performance, many must be considered apart +from any ecclesiastical use, as pure concert-music. +The most prominent of these are probably Bach’s great +‘B minor Mass’ and Beethoven’s ‘Mass in D.’</p> + +<p>Among the liturgical forms that have been most employed +for extra-liturgical purposes as concert-music +are the mass (<em>Missa Solemnis</em>, consisting of the six numbers +given above), the <em>Requiem</em> (<em>Missa pro Defunctis</em>), +<em>Stabat Mater</em>, <em>Te Deum</em> and <em>Magnificat</em>. These great +religious poems of the Middle Ages and earlier, which +were either adopted into or were associated with the +liturgy of the Roman Church, have never ceased to stir +the imagination of composers, some of whom have +been of the Protestant faith. The Protestant Church +did not adopt the Mass into its liturgy, though the early +Lutheran Church borrowed a modified form from the +Roman Church and the Anglican Church still retains +many of the same musical texts (such as the Gloria, +Te Deum, Benedictus, and others) that were used in +various parts of the Roman service. The <em>Kyrie</em> and +<em>Gloria</em> were formerly frequently used together in the +Lutheran service as the so-called short mass (<em>Missa +brevis</em>).</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</span></p> + +<p>The Requiem Mass (<em>Missa pro Defunctis</em>) takes its +name from the beginning of the Introit, <em>Requiem æternam +dona eis, Domine</em>, and consists of the holy office +celebrated in memory of the departed. It may take +place any day before burial, especially the third, or +on the seventh or the thirtieth day after death, or on +the first or any subsequent anniversary of the death. +It is also celebrated on All Souls’ Day, November 2, in +memory of all the faithful departed. As a form of musical +composition, the Requiem consists of nine parts: +(1) The Introit—<em>Requiem æternam</em>; (2) <em>Kyrie</em>; (3) the +Gradual and Tract—<em>Requiem æternam</em> and <em>Absolve, +Domine</em>; (4) The Sequence or Prose—<em>Dies iræ</em>; (5) +The Offertorium—<em>Domine Jesu Christi</em>; (6) <em>Sanctus</em>; +(7) <em>Benedictus</em>; (8) <em>Agnus Dei</em>; and (9) the Communio—<em>Lux +æterna</em>. In addition to these the following +are sometimes added: (10) Responsorium—<em>Libera me</em>; +and (11) the Lectio—<em>Tædet animam meam</em>.</p> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>The <em>Stabat Mater</em> is a beautiful mediæval poem, +whose authorship is generally ascribed to a Franciscan +monk, Jacobus de Benedictis, though some believe it +to have been written by Pope Innocent III and still +others by St. Bonaventure. It was not a part of the +liturgy and was not at first used with music. It did +not come into any large use as a devotional poem until +about the thirteenth century and gradually found its +way into the liturgy as a ‘sequence,’ though it did not +even appear in the Roman Missal until 1727, and was +not sanctioned as a hymn until some time after that. +It is one of the finest and most popular of the old +Latin poems and has lent itself so well to musical setting +that many composers from Des Prés to Rossini +have been inspired to set it. It depicts the sorrowing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</span> +mother, Mary, as she stood at the foot of the cross and +the desire of humanity to share with her this sorrow. +The initial words of the poem are</p> + +<div class="poetry-container p11"> +<div class="poetry"> +<p><em>Stabat mater dolorosa<br> +Juxta crucem lacrymosa</em>,</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>a free translation of which is—‘The weeping, mournful +mother stood close to the cross.’</p> + +<p>The <em>Magnificat</em> is the Song of the Blessed Mary, +<em>Magnificat anima mea Dominum</em> (‘My soul doth magnify +the Lord’), and appears as the central point of +musical interest in the Vesper service. During the +period of the exclusively vocal service, it was sung +antiphonally, sometimes as a plain-song melody, with +choral response in several voices. In the second half +of the sixteenth century, however, this was discontinued +and only the first versicle was intoned by one voice, and +the other eleven were sung by the choir. This was +finally changed into the antiphonal singing of two +choirs. With the development of the organ, this instrument +began to take a place in alternating with the +voices, giving a different antiphonal effect. Thus from +the sixteenth to the eighteenth century we find many +so-called ‘Organ Magnificats.’ Later a deterioration +began by combining the plain-song with secular or irrelevant +matter, and this custom gradually led to the +substitution of a good secular melody as a <em>cantus</em>, in +place of the plain-song chant. In this style Orlandus +Lassus produced some of the most charming <em>a cappella</em> +compositions extant. In the Anglican Church, the Magnificat +also assumed free and elaborate proportions and +it consists of combined solo and chorus passages with +organ and, sometimes, orchestral accompaniment. +Bach, Mendelssohn and other modern composers have +treated the Magnificat in elaborate oratorio style with +orchestral accompaniment and complex voice-writing.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</span></p> + +<p>The <em>Te Deum Laudamus</em> (‘We praise Thee, O God’) +seems to owe its origin to Nicetas, Bishop of Remesiana +in Dacia (about A. D. 400), and it was at once used as +an important part of the Nocturns or Matins. Music +was used with it from the beginning, in fact the words +were used with chants already existent. It is in three +parts or sections. The praise of the Trinity occupies +all of the first section; ‘Thou art the King of Glory’ begins +the second section, which ends with two verses +of prayer, ‘We therefore pray Thee’ and ‘Make them +to be numbered.’ The third section begins with ‘O +Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine heritage.’ It +was at first sung to a free chant but was later developed +into complex settings for solos, chorus and elaborate +accompaniment. While it is a part of the service of +both the Roman and the Anglican Churches, the finest +examples of this great canticle seem to come from +England, that by Purcell, written for St. Cecilia’s Day, +1694, and published in 1697, being one of the earliest +large ones, and indeed one of the greatest Te Deums. +This was doubtless the model for Handel’s ‘Utrecht Te +Deum,’ written in 1712, which is even a nobler work +than that by Purcell. These, together with the ones of +Macfarren and Sullivan, that of Dvořák in 1896, Stanford’s, +performed at the Leeds Festival in 1898, and +Parry’s, performed at the Hereford Festival of 1900, +are the most famous Te Deums of modern times.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>The decadence in church-music that began to set in +early in the seventeenth century and that soon caused +the glories of the ‘Palestrina style’ to disappear, may +be traced, not so much to the monodic revolution and +the consequent change in the style of writing it entailed, +but primarily to the fact that the composers of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</span> +church music in the main wrote at the same time for +church and theatre. Blinded by the greater brilliance +of the stage, they were not able to keep separate these +two widely divergent styles and the operatic mode of +speech soon found entrance into the church service, +and later there was very little to distinguish the one +style from the other. This condition continued uninterrupted +until the movement for the restoration of +Catholic Church music was started near the middle of +the nineteenth century by Kaspar Ett (1788-1847) and +Karl Proske (1794-1861), and further developed by +Franz Witt (1834-1888) and the Cecilian Society.</p> + +<p>Before this period of reform set in (and it is by no +means carried to full fruition as yet) a few great composers +wrote masses of solid musical worth for the +Roman Church service, though seldom in the real spirit +of the liturgy. Haydn wrote 13 masses and much other +church music, but we miss the ecclesiastical note in his +bright, sunny music. Mozart composed the great +Requiem, 15 masses, 4 Kyries, 9 Offertories, a Te +Deum, and other pieces. But of his church music, Dr. +Heinrich Reimann, in a criticism of Jahn’s ‘Life of +Mozart’ says: ‘His masses are unequal in value, but +even the best are, in spite of manifold excellences in +other respects, so narrowly conceived, so entirely +adapted, not merely to certain local conditions, but also +to the taste of individual clerical dignitaries and general +convention, that the composer who otherwise knew +so well how to fit the tone to the word, here often appears +thoughtless, so little does he trouble to render +the meaning of the text in his music.’ Franz Witt, certainly +a competent authority from the standpoint of +their adaptability to the Roman service, rather severely +says: ‘Whoever desires to serve Art (where instrumental +music is in use), let him perform Mozart’s 8th +and 9th Masses (in F and D, Köchel Nos. 192 and 194) +and let him disregard <em>all</em> the rest!’ From the same<span class="pagenum" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</span> +standpoint, Dr. Karl Weinmann, in his ‘History of +Church Music’ (p. 192), judges Beethoven’s two Masses +in C and D as too secular and extravagant in expression +for the church service and adds (p. 193): ‘Whoever +has penetrated deeper into the spirit of the Catholic +liturgy, within whose framework the performance +must after all take place, will see that between the seriousness +of the liturgic act and the gaiety of these +compositions (of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven), an +abyss yawns which is not to be bridged!’ Cherubini’s +masses, of which we possess eleven, likewise come under +the condemnation of being un-ecclesiastical in character, +notwithstanding all their inherent qualities of +nobility and dignity as sacred music. And here again +we encounter the distinction, to which attention has +been called in an earlier chapter, between church-music +and religious music.</p> + +<p>Among the earlier composers whose music was well +adapted to the Roman service, Dr. Weinmann mentions +Michael Haydn (1737-1806), brother of Joseph, as +the one who ‘approached perhaps most nearly to the requirements +of church art, at least in his works written +without an orchestra, of which the <em>Tenebræ</em> and the +two <em>Missæ Quadragesimales</em> are the most famous.’ +Under the influence of the Cecilian Society movement, +Catholic composers, such as Moritz Brosig (1815-1887) +and Joseph Rheinberger (1839-1901), have made noteworthy +contributions to a regenerated church-art.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>Possibly the finest illustration of the essential difference +between church-music and religious music is +to be found in Bach’s incomparable B minor Mass. It is +church-music in no sense of the word, for it was written +without any reference to the liturgic significance of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</span> +text or to the fitness of the music for church service, +and it has never been used as real liturgic music. It +is the expression of Bach’s individual conception of +the tremendous religious meaning of the words, expressed +in musical terms that are wholly emancipated +from all ecclesiastical restraint or ritualistic consideration. +Though he used the same words that are found +in the Roman Mass, Bach, as a devout Lutheran, was +wholly out of sympathy with the Roman service itself, +of which these words form so vital a part. And yet as +a piece of religious music, it probably has no equal +among choral masterpieces, unless it be Beethoven’s +‘Mass in D.’ It touches the most exalted religious emotions +and voices the common spiritual hopes and aspirations +of humanity; it is religious music, but it is +non-sectarian.</p> + +<p>This colossal work was written between 1733 and +1738, the <em>Kyrie</em> and the <em>Gloria</em> having been completed +in 1733 and the other parts by 1738. The work was +conceived on stupendous lines which outclassed any +previous effort either of his own or of any other composer +of masses. Bach gave one or two parts of this +mass now and then at some of the regular services at +Leipzig and these occupied as much time as could be +allotted to the musical portion of the service, for, indeed, +in this work each portion had in itself the dimensions +of a cantata. Unimportant texts were developed +into large arias or complicated fugal choruses, +and the variety and abundance of musical material +used is incredible.</p> + +<p>Entirely apart from its complexity, stands the fact +that Bach’s musical structure is most expressive, and +even if the hearer loses a word here and there, he +cannot fail to catch the spirit, especially in such passages +as the joyous <em>Gloria</em> and the calm <em>Et in terra +pax</em>. It is true that Bach’s works, in his own time as +now, required a somewhat trained listener, but his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</span> +themes are so characteristic of the verbal ideas expressed +in the text that they are in themselves an eloquent, +yet simple, commentary on it. The <em>Kyrie</em> alone +consists of three elaborate parts, the first of which ends +in a five-part fugal chorus. The second part, <em>Christe +eleison</em>, is a duet sung by two sopranos. It has a simple, +childlike quality of entreaty and is followed by the +third part, <em>Kyrie eleison</em>, again fugally treated in four +parts. The following number, the <em>Gloria</em>, which, with +the <em>Credo</em>, stands at the summit of choral-writing, consists +of eight musically complete parts, the last of which, +<em>Cum sancto spiritu</em>, written for five-part chorus, is one +of the most powerful and exalted of the entire work. +The <em>Credo</em> is set on the same vast lines as the <em>Gloria</em>. +Beginning with a theme taken from a Gregorian chorale, +the composer develops it fugally after it has been +announced by tenors, basses and altos. The <em>Credo</em> +also consists of eight parts, the choral first part being +followed by a most elaborate soprano and alto duet +(<em>Et in unum Dominum</em>), after which follows the five-part +fugal chorus (<em>Et incarnatus</em>). The <em>Crucifixus</em> is +one of the most remarkable portions of the entire +work. The bass theme, appearing thirteen times in +succession, gives a remarkable background, and with +the other choral parts, which move freely over it, +creates an atmosphere of mingled pain, sorrow and +consecration. <em>Et resurrexit</em> is taken up by the five-part +fugal chorus, which is full of joy. <em>Et in spiritum +sanctum</em> is a bass aria introduced by the oboe d’amour +and the <em>Confiteor unum baptisma</em> closes this group +with an intricate five-part double fugue. The <em>Sanctus</em> +is a massive six-part chorus, the <em>Osanna</em> is an eight-part +chorus, the <em>Benedictus</em> is a tenor solo with violin obbligato, +and the <em>Agnus Dei</em> an alto solo. The last chorus +(<em>Dona nobis pacem</em>) is in four parts and this brings +this monumental work to a close. Its great difficulty +has militated against its being as frequently performed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</span> +as it certainly merits. Complete performances of it +have been given at intervals since its complete production +at the Berlin Singakademie in 1835. Its first performance +in America was the one given at Bethlehem, +Pennsylvania, in 1900, at the Bach Festival under direction +of J. Frederick Wolle.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>Bach’s ‘Magnificat in D.’—The first performance of +this great work (called the ‘Great Magnificat’) was +given on Christmas, 1723, at the evening service in the +Thomas Church at Leipzig. It is characterized by powerful +choruses which are elaborated with all of Bach’s +technical resources. It calls for a five-part chorus with +accompaniment of organ and orchestra and, in its feeling +of largeness, foreshadows the future work of this +wonderful genius.</p> + +<p>The <em>Stabat Mater</em> of Pergolesi (1710-1736) is supposed +to have been written at Pozzuoli, where he went +in 1736 because of ill health, and at the request of the +Brotherhood of Saint Luigi de Palazzo to replace the +work of A. Scarlatti which had been performed there +regularly on Good Friday. Some writers, however, +think it was written much earlier, in fact, soon after +leaving the Conservatory at Naples in 1729. The date +1736, however, seems the more authentic and it is likely +that he wrote it while living in the monastery at Pozzuoli, +where, however, he did not devote himself by +any means wholly to sacred writing, but to his favorite +<em>opera buffa</em> as well. While the work is not rich in +large ideas—rather is it made up of many short though +melodious themes which, like all of Pergolesi’s, border +on the sentimental—it has always held a high place in +Italy.</p> + +<p>Handel’s Te Deums.—The <em>Utrecht Te Deum</em>, written<span class="pagenum" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</span> +in 1712 to celebrate the signing of the peace of Utrecht, +was avowedly composed in the same form as Purcell’s, +though Handel’s work was characterized by greater +brilliancy, especially in the orchestral coloring. The +work antagonized his patron, the Grand Duke of Hanover, +whose affairs were by no means furthered by the +council of Utrecht, and it therefore recalls a rather dark +hour in Handel’s history. The <em>Dettingen Te Deum</em>, on +the contrary, brought outwardly more gratifying results. +The unexpected victory of George II over the +French at Dettingen brought great joy and gratitude +to the English people and Handel, who then was at the +Chapel Royal, was requested to write a Te Deum for +the thanksgiving service to be held Nov. 27, 1743, in +St. James’s Chapel. It was begun July 17th and completed +some time before the 30th of that month. The +work is rated as one of the greatest by this composer +and the joy and thanksgiving of the whole nation is +depicted in a style that is more grandioso, but less rich +in contrapuntal resources, than the <em>Utrecht Te Deum</em>. +He achieved his massive effects, not through any theatrical +means, but by combining the note of triumph and +exultant joy with a measured dignity, the effect of +which is most compelling. The fanfare of trumpets +and drums which ushers in the opening chorus has +never been surpassed in its magnificence for the expression +of thanksgiving.</p> + +<p>Graun’s ‘Prague Te Deum.’—Though he had written +some very acceptable music for church service while a +mere boy, Graun (1701-1759) achieved his first fame as +a composer of operas. This led to his appointment as +chapel-master to Frederick the Great, and not long +before his death he wrote two sacred works which +have established his permanent fame, the ‘Passion’ and +the so-called <em>Prague Te Deum</em>. The latter was written +to commemorate his royal patron’s victory at Prague +in 1756, but was not performed until 1762 at Charlottenburg,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</span> +at the close of the Seven Years’ War. It was, +therefore, really performed as a peace celebration. It +is one of the finest Te Deums in existence and certainly +the most celebrated of Continental settings.</p> + +<p>The first important work that proclaimed Joseph +Haydn a vocal writer was the <em>Stabat Mater</em>, written in +1771. It follows the prevalent Italian style and reminds +somewhat of Pergolesi, with only a few suggestions +of the Haydn that was revealed in the ‘Creation.’ The +second of his two Te Deums (written in 1800) is a +noble composition which is still much used in church +service. Though Haydn’s masses (he wrote thirteen) +are not conceived in the real spirit of the Roman liturgy +and are lacking in dignity and austerity, they are +still among the most frequently used by German Catholic +choirs. The freshness and cheerfulness which pervade +his church as well as his secular music cannot be +attributed to lack of seriousness on Haydn’s part, but +rather to fundamental traits of character which looked +at God and His whole universe through eyes that saw +only joy and hope. He is said to have confided to his +friend Carpani that at the thought of God his heart +leaped for joy, and he could not help his music doing +the same. Among the most famous of his masses are +No. 2 in C (the numbering follows the Novello edition); +the <em>Paukenmesse</em> (<em>in tempore belli</em>); No. 3 in D, the +‘Imperial’; No. 4 in B-flat, ‘The Creation’; and the +<em>Theresien Messe</em> in B-flat.</p> + +<p>Hermann Kretzschmar<a id="FNanchor_81" href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> says that ‘between Mozart’s +last mass and his "Requiem" there lies a whole lifetime,’ +and indeed this noble work, the completion of +which was cut off by the master’s death, is considered +one of the great choral compositions of all time. Doubtless +its wide appeal is due somewhat to the pathetic +and romantic circumstances surrounding the period of +its composition. One never thinks of it without recalling<span class="pagenum" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</span> +the mysterious, long black figure of the stranger +who commissioned Mozart to write it, and the apprehension +of the sick and discouraged composer and his +pathetic desire to live to see its completion. The mysterious +stranger was later revealed as Count Franz von +Walsegg of Ruppach, who was possessed with the idea +of posing as a composer and who desired to perform +a Requiem in memory of his wife who had died a short +time before. It was his plan, which he later carried +out, to let this Requiem be known as his own. Mozart +died on Dec. 5, 1791, before completing this work, +which occupied his thoughts up to his last conscious +moments. His widow, who was most anxious to have +the ‘Requiem’ ready for delivery on the day that it +was due, commissioned Süssmayer to complete the +work. Süssmayer was a composer of some repute and, +as a close friend and a pupil of Mozart, was intimately +acquainted with the composer’s ideas regarding the +‘Requiem’; then, too, his handwriting was so much +like Mozart’s that the widow was the more ready to +entrust the completion of the task to him, since he +could preserve the external resemblance to the fragments. +So successful was Süssmayer in writing in his +master’s style that for many years the <em>Benedictus</em>, +which was entirely his own work, was considered the +gem of the whole. The parts that were written in Mozart’s +own hand were the <em>Requiem</em> and the <em>Kyrie</em> complete, +the voice parts, organ and part of the accompaniment +of <em>Dies iræ</em> (68 measures); <em>Tuba mirum</em> (62); +<em>Rex tremendæ</em> (22); <em>Recordare</em> (130); <em>Confutatis</em> +(40); <em>Lacrymosa</em> (8); <em>Domine</em> (78); and <em>Hostias</em> (54).</p> + +<div class="chapter"> +<figure class="figcenter illowe35" id="ilofp331"> + <img class="w100 p4" src="images/ilofp331.jpg" alt="ilop331" title="p331ilo"> + <figcaption class="caption">Mozart rehearsing his Requiem (shortly before his death)</figcaption> +</figure> + +<p class="center p1b"><em>Painting by Munkacsy</em></p> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="p2">This work, when completed and delivered to Count +von Walsegg, was copied by him and performed as +his own on Dec. 14, 1793, but after many years the +manuscript, as turned over by Süssmayer, was found +and placed in the <em>Hofbibliothek</em> in Vienna. That Mozart +strove to emphasize the churchly character in his +‘Requiem’ is particularly in evidence in the Introit +(<em>Requiem æternam</em>), also in his use of the Gregorian +chorale and in the simplicity of his themes. The picturing +of the approach of the Day of Judgment (<em>Dies +iræ</em>) is dramatic and reveals a heaviness which is +further augmented by the restlessness of the orchestra; +notwithstanding this, however, Mozart introduces a +spirit of resignation and the whole passage becomes +peaceful and expressive. The <em>Kyrie</em> is a beautiful, ornate +double fugue developed from the two themes to +which the words <em>Kyrie eleison</em> and <em>Christe eleison</em> are +set. The <em>Rex tremendæ</em> is another example of elaborate +as well as effective contrapuntal writing—here in +four-voiced canon form. Its close is delicately contrasted +with the body of the movement by the introduction +of the prayer, <em>Salva me, fons pietatis</em>. The +<em>Recordare</em>, sung by a quartet of solo voices with an +independent fugal accompaniment, is one of the most +exquisite portions of the work and by many is considered +the finest. It is rich in beautiful melodies and +is worked out in most delicate detail. The touching +<em>Confutatis</em>, sung antiphonally by men’s and women’s +voices, is another effective portion of this great work, +which Jahn speaks of as ‘the true and legitimate expression +of his (Mozart’s) artistic nature at its highest +point of finish—his imperishable monument.’</p> + +<p>Masses.—Mozart had mastered this form of composition, +according to the standards of the time, while +still a mere boy; but probably his best mass, the one +ranking closest to the ‘Requiem,’ is the sixth, the Mass +in F, which is very contrapuntal and contains some +masterly writing. In the <em>Credo</em> of this mass he used +material from the ‘Jupiter’ Symphony, as he did also +in the <em>Sanctus</em> of the B-flat or ‘Credo’ Mass. The Mass +in D is a close second to the one in F above mentioned +and in these two he expressed himself freely, while in +the following five, which are unfortunately his best<span class="pagenum" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</span> +known, he was obliged to write more artificially in order +to satisfy his display-loving patron, the Archbishop +of Salzburg.</p> + +<p>Most of the sixteen masses in the Breitkopf and Härtel +complete edition of Mozart’s works are supposed +to have been youthful compositions, which, though suggestive +of other works of the master, fall far short of +his usual skill. According to Köchel, however, the +masses published by Novello are not all genuine; such +are those in E-flat (Novello, Nos. 13 and 16), and in C +(No. 17). Jahn and Köchel both agree in believing that +the one in B-flat (No. 7, Novello, but published originally +by Peters) is not Mozart’s and base their contention +not only on the use of the clarinets, which were +not present in his Salzburg orchestra, but on the fact +that Mozart’s widow credited Süssmayer with being the +composer of the work. Other doubtful ones are two +short masses in C and G (Novello, Nos. 8 and 9), one in +G (Novello, No. 12) and a short Requiem in D minor +which Köchel discards because of his certainty that +Mozart never wrote but one Requiem, his last, unfinished +work.</p> + +<p>The fact that Mozart’s compositions were circulated +mostly in manuscript form and that few of them were +published during his lifetime, may be largely responsible +for the error of attributing these masses to him +and composers of small attainments may have used +this means for getting a hearing for their works. A +Mass in C, known as the ‘Coronation Mass’ (why this +name, is not known) was evidently patched together +from his opera <em>Cosi fan tutte</em>, though some authorities +believe that he himself compiled the opera from the +mass. The incomplete Mass in C minor is known to be +genuine, though he afterwards used a large part of it +in his <em>Davidde penitente</em>. This mass was begun in 1782 +and was intended for performance as a sort of thank-offering +upon his marriage to Constance Weber and it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</span> +had one performance on Aug. 25, 1783, in St. Peter’s +Church, Salzburg. He did not complete it for the ceremony, +however, and the missing numbers were supplied +by him with material from his other works. The +work is uneven in quality, some of it being very immature +and almost trivial, while other parts, such as +the <em>Kyrie</em> and <em>Gratias</em>, do not fall far below the ‘Requiem.’ +Aloys Schmitt endeavored to complete the +work in order to make it available for church-service. +As the <em>Agnus Dei</em> was missing, he repeated the music +of the <em>Kyrie</em> and, to complete the unfinished <em>Credo</em>, he +inserted unfamiliar sacred compositions of Mozart’s, +thus using the composer’s own material and inserting +his own harmonies, here and there, merely to connect +the parts.</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>Cherubini’s Requiem Mass in C minor was composed +in 1816 at the request of Louis XVIII for a memorial +service for Louis XVI, but it did not gain much more +than passing recognition until it was again performed +at the funeral service of Méhul in 1818. It was by all +means the best Requiem Mass produced in France in +many years and one which deserved not merely local +but general recognition. The work is soulful and expressive, +though Cherubini was restrained in his utterance. +He was given to using short, simple themes, +which, however, are not only beautiful, but artistically +expressive. The general tone of the work is gloomy +and sadly resigned, dwelling on the thought of death +as man’s inevitable destiny. The first ray of hope or +light comes with the words—<em>ad te omnis caro veniet</em>, +but on the whole the dark tints prevail throughout this +masterful and artistic work and give it a peculiar force +which few other ‘masses for the dead’ have attained.</p> + +<p>Cherubini’s second <em>Requiem</em> in D minor, written in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</span> +1836, though not unlike the first both as to musical +material and coloring, is a far less important work. +The fact that it was written entirely for male voices +makes it somewhat individual in character, but although +numerous Requiems have appeared for male +voices, they are no longer performed. This one has +been arranged for the usual mixed voices.</p> + +<p>Masses.—The ‘D minor Mass,’ composed in 1821, is +the best of his masses and can easily be classed with +his two famous Requiems. It is dignified, impressive, +and at times tinged with deep sorrow. As in the Requiems, +so also here, there is much impressive fugal +writing, so characteristic of Cherubini. There are also +more passages for solo voices, which at times employ +a form of intonation which is almost recitative. The +work is not given as frequently as it deserves. A fragment +of another mass written in 1806 and known as +the ‘Eight-voiced Credo’ (<em>a cappella</em>) is heard much +more frequently of late, though it has by no means the +power of the preceding. The close, <em>Et vitam venturi +sæculi</em>, is a masterpiece of contrapuntal writing which +more than compensates for the lack of content in the +other numbers. The fact that the form of liturgy used +at the French court was peculiar to that environment +accounts for the fragments left by Cherubini, which +were evidently used in place of an entire mass.</p> + +<p>With his usual fluency Schubert (1797-1828) wrote +the first three of his seven masses in one year (1814) +and the finest of these is the one in G, which is still +used in the Roman Church, and of which the <em>Credo</em> +is particularly fine. These masses were heard, in Schubert’s +time, only in suburban Vienna churches, as the +composer’s prestige was not sufficient for a larger hearing. +Two later masses by Schubert are given now in +concert form—the one in A-flat written in 1822 and the +one in E-flat written in 1828. These works were revived +by Herbeck and Brahms in Vienna and belong<span class="pagenum" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</span> +without doubt to the very best examples of this style +of writing—in fact, some authorities pronounce them +the greatest works of this mighty genius, excepting only +the D minor Quartet. Unfortunately the parts are not +all equally great. The ‘Mass in E-flat’ has a larger instrumental +development than the others, the orchestra +often announcing, augmenting, completing, or commenting +on the text of the choral parts, as is the case +with Beethoven. Schubert’s tendency in all his masses +was to use themes which approach closely to the form +of the <em>Lied</em> as he conceived it. The <em>Gloria</em> of this mass, +as also of the one in A-flat, is the most magnificent +part of the work.</p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>Of the two masses which Beethoven wrote, the first +in C major, opus 80, is overshadowed by the second in +D major, opus 123. While the ‘C major Mass,’ which +was Beethoven’s first large choral work in an ecclesiastical +form, may be lacking in some respects, it is by no +means an unimportant or unworthy composition. Owing +to the fact that he departed from the style of Haydn +and Mozart and approached the subject from an entirely +different standpoint, it did not find immediate +favor. Conflicting accounts are given as to the date +of first performance which took place in the chapel of +Count Esterhazy, the occasion being the birthday of +the Countess. Kretzschmar gives the date as Sept. 15, +1807, while Grove names Sept. 8, 1807, both agreeing, +however, that it was in honor of the Countess’ birthday.</p> + +<p>The <em>Missa Solemnis</em>, already referred to as the ‘D +major Mass,’ belongs to Beethoven’s third period and +is, therefore, characterized by remarkable freedom of +treatment and by depth and richness of musical content. +Although it was begun in 1818 and planned for +the installation of the Archduke Rudolph, his pupil<span class="pagenum" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</span> +(to whom he was very devoted), as Archbishop of Olmütz +on March 20, 1820, it was not completed until +1823, three years after the event for which it was intended. +It is a sort of spiritual relative of the ‘Ninth +Symphony,’ sketches of which had been begun as early +as 1815. The two works are in the same key and grew +side by side in the composer’s thought. Three movements +of the mass occupied a place on the program +of the memorable concert (May 7, 1824, in Vienna) at +which the ‘Ninth Symphony’ received its first performance, +when the audience went into ecstasies of enthusiasm +at the sublime grandeur of the music and the +pathetic figure of the deaf creator of such moving +sounds. The mass was not performed entire until 1824 +in Petrograd. An illustration of his habit of making +the form subservient to the thought-content is the introduction +of warlike music into the <em>Agnus Dei</em>, in +order to afford contrast to the thought of peace around +which the other thoughts are centred. The <em>Credo</em> is +exceedingly difficult for the singers, because of the excessively +high range of the voice-parts and the complicated +interweaving of the themes. The <em>Benedictus</em> is +one of the most beautiful ever written and is made +particularly effective by the use of the solo violin, +descending from the highest register, in a melody of +beautiful simplicity—a movement whose loveliness is +still more enhanced by the subdued chorus and accompaniment. +The difficulty of the work as a whole prevents +its frequent performance. The least difficult +parts are the <em>Kyrie</em> and the <em>Sanctus</em>, and the former is +given a unique effect through the accompaniment, +which is for organ and brass instruments only. This +work, like Bach’s ‘B minor Mass,’ requires strong adjectives +for a just valuation and when W. H. Hadow<a id="FNanchor_82" href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> +speaks of it as ‘gigantic, elemental, Mount Athos hewn +into a monument, scored at the base with fissure and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</span>landslip, rising through cloud and tempest beyond the +reach of human gaze,’ he merely sums up graphically +the general critical estimate of this great work, which, +like the great Bach Mass to which alone it can be compared, +must be regarded, not as church-music or liturgical +music merely, but as religious music in a universal +sense.</p> + +<p>Weber’s masses, like many others of this early period, +are now seldom given, though there is much good +writing in them. The one in E-flat major, known as +the <em>Jubelmesse</em>, was performed at Dresden in 1818, +which was the fiftieth year of the reign of the king of +Saxony, and, as it was an occasional work, it embodied +the pomp and importance of this festal event. The one +in G, written a year later for a family festival in the +King’s household, was more intimate in character. +Weber wrote to Rochlitz: ‘I mean to keep before me +the idea of a happy family-party kneeling in prayer +and rejoicing before the Lord as His children.’ Both +works manifest a devotional spirit.</p> + + +<h3>VII</h3> + +<p>Hector Berlioz’ ‘Requiem,’ written during 1836-37 +at the request of the French government, was performed +Dec. 5, 1837, in the Invalides in Paris at the +memorial services for General Damrémont and the +soldiers who had perished in the storming of Constantina +in Algiers, the government paying the composer +four thousand francs for the work. The original purpose +of the commission, however, was to have been +a memorial for those who had fallen in the July Revolution +of 1830. Berlioz had completed his work and +rehearsals had begun, when the Minister of the Interior +who had commissioned Berlioz was succeeded +by one who was of a different mind and the July festival<span class="pagenum" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</span> +took place without music. But the taking of Constantina +offered Berlioz a second chance for his work. +Berlioz arranged performances of it in several cities +of Germany, but its wide hearing came only recently. +The work is colossal, but so realistic, so almost savage +in its coloring that the hearer is fairly awed. It is also +so complicated and makes such tremendous demands +upon both the orchestra and the singers, that only few +organizations can give it adequate presentation and +then only by a large addition of instruments to the full +orchestra and by arranging them in groups in various +parts of the auditorium. The directions call for four +brass bands and sixteen drums in addition to the regular +orchestra. Extraordinary and often well-nigh impossible +demands are made upon the human voice, but, +notwithstanding these drawbacks, it remains the composer’s +most mature work, full of originality and coloring.</p> + +<p>The most remarkable part of the work—the most +original and theatrically impressive—is the <em>Dies iræ</em>, +in which the composer has used every possible tonal +resource to picture the terrors of the Day of Judgment. +After the choral passage beginning with <em>Quantus +tremor est futurus</em> has twice reached a forceful climax, +the orchestra softens down for a few measures, when +it suddenly bursts out with a crash like a thunder-bolt, +coming not only from the main orchestra on the stage, +but from the above mentioned bands in various parts +of the auditorium. A more vivid and theatrical description +of the awful day cannot be imagined, and at +the climax the basses thunder out the <em>Tuba mirum</em> +amidst a new outburst from the orchestra, strengthened +by many kettle-drums. So overwhelming is this +volume of sound that it became the butt of the ridicule +of the critics, who declared that no such outburst of +noise had been heard in Paris since the storming of +the Bastile! A great sense of relief comes with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</span> +quiet <em>Quid sum miser</em>, which Berlioz directed in the +score should be sung ‘with an expression of humility +and awe.’ <em>Rex tremendæ</em> again brings in the voice-parts +<em>fortissimo</em>, accompanied by crashing thunderbolts +in the orchestra. This continues up to the last +few measures, <em>Salva me</em>, which are sung almost in a +whisper. One of the finest portions of the work is the +<em>Lacrymosa</em>, which also abounds in striking contrasts, +and contains broad, massive harmonies and flowing +melodies.</p> + +<p>A <em>Te Deum</em> was written by Berlioz in 1835 as a +fragment of a larger work planned in honor of Napoleon. +In writing it the composer pictured to himself +the hero, returning from the victorious Italian +campaign, at the moment when his entry at Nôtre +Dame would open the service. This heroic picture and +the possibilities of the great cathedral inspired Berlioz +to use, besides orchestra and organ, three choirs, including +a large male chorus and three hundred children. +In the theatrical, not to say spectacular, plan of +the whole, Berlioz lost the import of the words and +thought only of tremendous effects; hence it became +even more sensational than the <em>Requiem</em>. From the +standpoint of musical color-effects, it is a remarkable +work, which is given oftener now than during the first +decades after its birth. Although written in 1835, it +had to wait until 1853 for its first performance, which +took place in London. Thirty years later (in 1883) it +had its second performance, this time in Bordeaux—the +first time in France.</p> + +<p>Rossini’s <em>Stabat Mater</em> belongs to the large class of +eighteenth and nineteenth century church-music that +was dominated by operatic models and in which the +devotional and serious spirit was almost wholly absent. +The <em>Stabat Mater</em> was written in 1832 at the request +of a Spanish friend and dedicated to the Abbé +Valera with no thought of its being published. However,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</span> +when some rather romantic circumstances +brought it before the public in 1841, Rossini revised +it and since then, unfortunately, it has been one of the +most popular of sacred works—‘unfortunately,’ because +it is almost wholly irreligious in feeling and theatrical +in mode of expression. As music, divorced from its +text, its melodies are gay, brilliant, sensuously beautiful +operatic pieces, but wholly out of place with sacred +texts. The most famous of these misplaced melodies +are the <em>Quis est homo</em> for soprano, the <em>Inflammatus</em> for +soprano obbligato and chorus, and the <em>Cujus animam</em> +for tenor. The nearest approach to the religious spirit +is the bass aria, <em>Pro peccatis</em>.</p> + +<p>The <em>Missa Solemnis</em> (‘Graner Mass’) of Liszt, who +seemed to love composition of sacred music above all +else, brought to his conception of the mass a consecration +which, even had he been less of a genius, would +have assured devotional music. The so-called ‘Graner +Mass’ was written for the dedication of the Cathedral of +Gran, which took place on August 31, 1856. A noble +atmosphere pervades the entire work and it is made +especially interesting through the use of leading motives, +the first instance of the kind in the history of +the mass. It is not the ‘leading motive’ of the later +Wagner type, but rather the employment of themes, +transformed according to context and varied connection, +as Liszt had developed it in <em>Les Préludes</em> and his +piano concertos. Thus the trumpet-like phrase at the +beginning of the <em>Gloria</em>, reappears in the <em>Resurrexit</em>, +the <em>Hosanna</em>, and the <em>Dona nobis</em>. The orchestration +is rich and the music always appropriate to the text. +Liszt spoke of the music as having been ‘rather prayed +than composed.’ While the work shows the influence +of Beethoven, it is more akin to Wagner, in that the +instrumental accompaniment has a larger share in the +action; this and his unusual use of thematic material +give to the work added historical importance. The performance<span class="pagenum" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</span> +of the mass caused a controversy as to its +merits and tendencies that raged for several decades. +Liszt, in all that he attempted, was a reformer. His +object in the field of church music was to bring about +‘an ecclesiastical musical style that should bring the +liturgy of the Roman Church nearer to an intellectual +and emotional expression of the age, should be in +closer sympathy with existing artistic ideals as they +were actually manifested in music.’<a id="FNanchor_83" href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a></p> + +<p>‘Hungarian Coronation Mass.’—This work, which +Liszt wrote in 1867, though also beautiful and interesting, +is by no means as fine as the ‘Graner Mass.’ Possibly +it was written more hurriedly; certainly it is not +as strong as the earlier work. Both masses contain +unusual effects, through the frequent employment of +unison vocal parts.</p> + + +<h3>VIII</h3> + +<p>In addition to the religious music already mentioned +and much liturgic music, Gounod wrote four masses, +of which the first <em>(Messe solennelle à Sainte Cecile</em>) is +the most important and the most popular. The second +(<em>Angeli custodes</em>) was written in 1882; the third (<em>Messe +à Jeanne d’Arc</em>) was performed at the Cathedral of +Rheims in 1887 and the fourth appeared in 1888. The +‘St. Cecilia Mass’ was an early work and its unusually +enthusiastic reception by the English public when several +movements were performed at a concert in London +on January 13, 1851, first called the attention of the +musical world to the young composer’s great ability. +It was not performed entire in Paris, however, until +Nov. 22, 1855, at one of the annual St. Cecilia celebrations +at the church of St. Eustache. The London +success was repeated at the Paris performance and this +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</span>mass, among Gounod’s religious music, shares the same +popularity as does his ‘Faust’ among his operas. It is +pervaded by an atmosphere of simplicity that offsets +the dramatic painting of Berlioz. In addition it possesses +grace, nobility and charm, though its melodies +are frequently cloying with their sweetness. The finest +numbers are the devotional <em>Kyrie</em>, the powerful <em>Credo</em>, +the familiar <em>Sanctus</em> with its fine tenor melody which +recurs at the close, delivered with full chorus in pompous, +jubilant tone; and the <em>Benedictus</em>, which is +treated in old ecclesiastical chant style for soprano solo +and organ accompaniment, which is later softly repeated +by a six-part chorus.</p> + +<p>Dvořák’s <em>Requiem</em> was written for and performed +at the Birmingham Festival in 1891. The most beautiful +portion is the <em>Agnus Dei</em>, but, while the music +throughout is sad and soulful and shows excellent +workmanship, it is not as strong as the composer’s +<em>Stabat Mater</em>, revealing much imitation of Berlioz. +Throughout the score (in vocal and orchestral parts) +he makes frequent use of a short, poignantly incisive +motive compressed within the compass of a diminished +third, sometimes with soul-shattering effect.</p> + +<p>The <em>Stabat Mater</em>, written in 1876 and performed by +the London Musical Society on March 10, 1883, on the +other hand expresses much more the strongly individual +style of the composer and in consequence has found +a much stronger hold and bids fair to continue long in +public favor. It begins with a breadth and force which +distinguish it from all other settings of this poem. It +is conceived from a modern romantic viewpoint and +is full of effective tone-painting. The portrayal of the +sorrowing Mary at the foot of the cross is touchingly +but majestically drawn, and the opening quartet and +chorus, <em>Stabat mater dolorosa</em>, has a certain dramatic +force. The composer then turns away from the dark +tones—the lament and sorrow—and lets the music<span class="pagenum" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</span> +fittingly express the loveliness of the mother of the +Saviour. The <em>Eia, mater</em> suggests a funeral march, with +the principal motive in the bass; and the <em>Fac me vere +tecum flere</em>, for tenor solo and chorus preceded by a +forceful orchestral introduction, is one of the most +dramatic portions of the work. The last number, +<em>Quando corpus morietur</em>, is quite similar to the opening +number, and the Amen, artistically wrought in +double counterpoint, brings the whole to an effective +close.</p> + +<p>Verdi’s ‘Manzoni Requiem.’—On May 22nd, 1874, the +City of Milan held a memorial service at St. Mark’s +Cathedral, commemorating the first anniversary of the +death of the great poet Alessandro Manzoni, and commissioned +Italy’s greatest composer, Verdi, to write a +Requiem for the occasion. The work was written +mostly during the summer of 1873 while the composer +was in France, Verdi utilizing for its last number the +<em>Libera me</em> which he had five years previously written +for the projected Requiem for Rossini, in collaboration +with twelve other Italian composers, a project which +was finally abandoned. A gentle, devout and thoroughly +ecclesiastical spirit pervades the work, which +is, however, conceived in the Italian style, therefore +in lighter vein than is the case with most of the great +Requiems of history; yet its orchestration and use of +musical material show clearly the modern trend instituted +by Wagner. Although it had a number of hearings +in Europe and in America, it is, unfortunately, +seldom given now. It is conceived in the mood in +which most of the great Italian composers in this form +have viewed death. There is the simple, childlike +faith peculiar to the Italian people, mingled with a +combination of sadness and peace—yet it is strong, expressive, +and at times intensely dramatic, and always +constructed with the master’s unerring intuition for fine +musical effects. While the unsympathetic German,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</span> +Hans von Bülow, condemned it as ‘an opera in ecclesiastical +costume,’ the world generally acknowledges +that it is sincere, lovely, though dramatically strong +and effective, music. The Italian wealth of melody is +everywhere present. It opens with a quiet Introit in +elegiac mood (<em>Requiem æternam</em>), which suddenly +changes in the <em>Te decet</em>, where, with an unexpected +shift of key, the basses give out a fugal theme which +gradually leads over to the <em>Kyrie</em>, which is sung by +quartet and chorus. One of the strongest numbers is +the <em>Dies iræ</em>, which is a chorus of almost startling +power, whose effects, however, are obtained through +legitimate musical means. Notably strong is the <em>Tuba +mirum</em> which enters dramatically and works up to a +tremendous climax. In striking contrast is the beautiful +trio, <em>Quid sum miser</em>; it begins softly with luscious +melody and maintains its subdued tone throughout, +until suddenly interrupted by the <em>Rex tremendæ</em>, +which with quartet and chorus rises through sharply +contrasting <em>pianissimo</em> and <em>fortissimo</em> passages to a +most dramatic climax, continuing through the <em>Salva +me</em>. In the <em>Agnus Dei</em> an original and unique effect is +obtained by letting the soprano and mezzo-soprano +solo voices sing the same melody an octave apart +throughout. The solo voices enter unaccompanied and +the chorus joins in here and there. The most powerful +number in the entire work is the <em>Libera me</em>, which +begins with a soprano solo in the free, unmeasured +intonation of old ecclesiastical psalmody, repeated in +like manner by the chorus in full harmony. The solo +soon leads into the <em>Dies iræ</em> and the introductory <em>Requiem +æternam</em>, which are followed by a magnificent +fugue in strict form on the words <em>Libera me</em>. After +this there is a repetition of the solo chant and the closing +unison tones in the chorus are sung with softest +possible tone (marked <em>pppp</em>), leaving an effect of absolute +peace and repose.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</span></p> + + +<h3>IX</h3> + +<p>Joseph Rheinberger, whose work includes almost +every form of musical composition, wrote twelve +masses, one of which, the ‘Mass in E-flat’ for double +choir dedicated to Pope Leo XIII, obtained for the +composer the order of knighthood of Gregory the +Great. He wrote also a <em>Stabat Mater</em>, a <em>De Profundis</em> +and much other music for the church service. All of +these, and especially the masses, are beautiful both as +music and as examples of the best modern liturgical +writing, and a deep religious fervor pervades them. +His appointment in 1877 as director of the Court +Church music at Munich inspired him to write prolifically +for the service of the Roman Church, to which +he has contributed some of its finest modern numbers, +thoroughly liturgical in spirit and in mode of treatment. +For this reason they are extensively used in the +Roman Church and are not well known to the concert-goer.</p> + +<p>Henschel’s <em>Requiem</em>, opus 59, had its initial performance +in Boston in February, 1903, and has since +been frequently heard both in Europe and America. +It was written in memory of his wife, Lillian Bailey +Henschel, who was one of his most distinguished pupils +and who concertized with him with signal success, +especially in duet-singing. It is a grateful work, +adapted everywhere to the voices and at times strongly +influenced by the song-form. It begins in deep sorrow, +which is gradually lifted through the comfort of the +church. Especially strong is the first part, which is an +artistic masterpiece.</p> + +<p>Henschel’s <em>Stabat Mater</em> was brought out at the Birmingham +Festival in 1894, on which occasion the composer +also sang the part of Saul in the oratorio of this +name by Parry, thus appearing in two important capacities<span class="pagenum" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</span> +at the festival, that of composer and interpretative +artist. Besides the <em>Stabat Mater</em> and the above +mentioned <em>Requiem</em>, he wrote a number of sacred +works in large form, among them a Te Deum, opus 52. +All are grateful and effective compositions.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The number of masses written for liturgic and concert +use is very large, and extended enumeration of +them here would be futile for present purposes. Several +notable ones, however, might well be added to our +list. Among these will be found the easy and much-used +‘Mass in B-flat’ by Henry Farmer (1819-1891), a +self-taught English musician; ‘Mass in C’ by the Dutch +pianist and composer, Eduard Silas (born 1827), which +won a prize of a gold medal and one thousand francs +in an international competition of sacred music held +in Belgium in 1866, in which there were seventy-six +competitors of twelve nationalities; ‘Requiem Mass’ by +Robert Schumann (1810-1856), melodious and non-liturgical +in spirit; ‘Requiem Mass’ by Charles V. Stanford +(born 1852), in memory of Lord Leighton, produced +at the Birmingham Festival of 1897 and thoroughly +ecclesiastical in style and feeling; and the ‘Mass +in G,’ a Stabat Mater, and a Te Deum by the same composer.</p> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="footnotes"> +<p class="center p2 big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_81" href="#FNanchor_81" class="label">[81]</a> Kretzschmar, <em>Führer durch den Konzertsaal, Kirchliche Werke</em>, p. 266.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_82" href="#FNanchor_82" class="label">[82]</a> ‘Oxford History of Music,’ Vol. V, p. 168.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_83" href="#FNanchor_83" class="label">[83]</a> Richard Aldrich in the Preface to the Schirmer edition of the ‘Graner +Mass.’</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER XI<br> +<small>CONTEMPORANEOUS CHORAL MUSIC IN GERMANY</small></h2> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Contemporaneous Choral Music in Germany—Richard Strauss: <em>Wanderers +Sturmlied</em>; <em>Taillefer</em>; Motets—Taubmann: <em>Eine Deutsche Messe</em>; <em>Sängerweihe</em>; +Georg Schumann: <em>Ruth</em>; <em>Totenklage</em> and other works—Max Reger’s +choral compositions; Schönberg: <em>Gurrelieder</em>; ‘Transfigured Night’; <em>Pierrot +lunaire</em>—Other choral writers of the present; Felix Draeseke’s <em>Christus</em>; +Wolfrum’s <em>Weinachtsmysterium</em>; Albert Fuchs; Wilhelm Platz; August +Bungert’s <em>Warum? Woher? Wohin?</em>; Felix Woyrsch: <em>Totentanz</em> and other +works; Wilhelm Berger’s <em>Totentanz</em>; Karl Ad. Lorenz: <em>Das Licht</em>; other +contributors to modern German choral literature.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="p2">The historian or reviewer of contemporaneous +events is naturally confronted with a problem of +greater complexity and perplexity than when he is taking +account of, and giving valuation to, the events and +works of a past generation, even though it be in the +immediate past. There are always present too many +forces and tendencies in the making, to be able to see +them as the next generation will see them—more nearly +in their right perspective. And so some reader twenty-five +years hence may chance to read these chapters on +present-day music as seen through present-day eyes +and may wonder that this or that composer is barely +mentioned by name or by work. Yet this method of +mere tabulation must of necessity be resorted to where +works have only recently been published and have as +yet found but small public recognition; for this volume +is primarily a volume of record, not of prophecy. +In each country, however, present musical conditions +are nourished by the survival of tendencies and styles +from the last generation and by new forces that at +present appear in the guise of mere individualism.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</span></p> + +<p>Contemporaneous choral music in Germany largely +represents the negation of older traditions, Handelian +and Mendelssohnian, in thought and construction; the +after-development and carrying over into the oratorio +and cantata field of the principle of the Wagnerian +leading-motive; and, especially, the florescence of the +modern spirit of unconstrained freedom of individual +expression within very broadly defined artistic limitations.</p> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>As Debussy in France, so Richard Strauss in Germany +might be said to be the best-known of all creative +musicians who are identified with the development +of choral composition along its present individualistic +lines. And like Debussy, Strauss has done his +most important work in the dramatic and symphonic +forms, rather than in the choral. Yet he made frequent +invasions into the choral field, and always with notable +success. His <em>Wanderers Sturmlied</em>, opus 14 (composed +1883-84 after a text by Goethe), a product of +his first period of creative activity in Munich, is still a +repertory number of the larger German choral associations. +It is written for six-part mixed chorus and +full orchestra, and though a work of the master’s youth, +fascinates by reason of the strongly individual flavor +of its inspiration and its power of emotional delineation. +Strauss’ treatment of the poem, which was the +outcome of Goethe’s sorrow at parting with Friederike +Brion in the fall of 1771, is strongly subjective and akin +to that of Brahms in the latter’s <em>Nänie</em> and ‘Song of +Fate.’ It is a moot question whether what Romain +Rolland<a id="FNanchor_84" href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> calls its ‘affected thought and style’ is not +rather an intimate musical sympathy with the Wertherian +ideals of its eighteenth century poem. Technically<span class="pagenum" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</span> +far more difficult and making demands with +which only a few of the greater German choral bodies +are able to comply, are two <em>a cappella</em> choruses, opus +34, for sixteen-part mixed chorus, composed in 1897. +Not without a suggestion of Brahmsian influence is +<em>Der Abend</em> (Schiller), rich in serious beauty, harmonious +in formal and poetic working out. Rückert’s +<em>Hymne</em>, its companion-piece, is conceived antiphonally, +its counterpoint effortless and flowing and suggestive +of Lassus at his best.</p> + +<p>During the first years of Strauss’ activity in Berlin +(1898-1905) he also wrote some shorter numbers, lyric +and spontaneous, for male chorus: opus 42, <em>Liebe</em> and +<em>Altdeutscher Schlachtgesang</em> (Old German Battlesong) +and opus 49, <em>Schlachtgesang</em> (Battle Hymn), <em>Lied der +Freundschaft</em> (Song of Friendship), and <em>Der Brauttanz</em> +(The Bridal Dance). In 1903, however, came his +splendid choral ballad <em>Taillefer</em>, a setting of Uhland’s +poem for mixed chorus, solos and full orchestra, dedicated +to the Philosophical Faculty of the University of +Heidelberg, the dedication representing the composer’s +acknowledgment of the doctorate which the University +had bestowed upon him <em>honoris causa</em>. The solo +parts are small—one, tenor, for Taillefer; another, bass, +for William of Normandy.</p> + +<p>There is a great deal of rhythmically direct unison +passage-work throughout the score, which serves to +throw the four-part sections into high relief, notably +in the interlude music descriptive of the battle of Hastings, +in which the masses of choral tone are handled +with great power. When Strauss conducted the work +at its <em>première</em> in Heidelberg (Oct. 26, 1903), the epic +‘Song of Roland’ in particular made a deep appeal by +reason of its primitive force. As much as any of his +works, <em>Taillefer</em> shows that Strauss is a poet as well as +a composer. It might almost be considered a choral +pendant, circumscribed by its more definite textual and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</span> +historical program, of the composer’s symphonic <em>Heldenleben.</em></p> + +<p>What is practically Strauss’ only contributions to the +literature of sacred choral music, the <em>Deutsche Motette</em> +(German Motets), opus 62, after Friederich Rückert’s +words, for sixteen-part mixed chorus and four solo +voices, were completed June 22, 1913; while the composer +was at the same time occupied by his ballet +<em>Légende de Joseph</em> and his ‘Alpine Symphony.’</p> + +<p>Strauss’ <em>Deutsche Motette</em> are his nearest approach to +oratorio. But if this form has not appealed to him, it +has to others among his contemporaries. In the same +category as Brahms’ <em>Deutsches Requiem</em> belongs Taubmann’s +<em>Deutsche Messe</em>, first performed at the <em>Tonkünstlerversammlung</em> +in Dortmund, 1898, and given in +New York in 1913 by the Oratorio Society. But where +the music of Brahms’ <em>Requiem</em> represents the deep outpouring +of genuine sorrow and, owing to its consequent +lyric character and exploitation of a single mood, +moves within a more limited circle of expression and +employs an idiom comparatively simple, Taubmann’s +‘Mass’ rings the changes of a richly varied succession +of impressions. Though the lyric element is by no +means forgotten, the dramatic note predominates. Its +beauty is cast in a massive mold, and notable are the +masterly choral fugues, far beyond anything the ‘German +Requiem’ can show. The easily flowing, plastically +contrapuntal development of the work is wonderfully +varied, and at the same time serves primarily +as an underlying river-bed above which a powerful +emotional current pulses, often moving with genuine +emotional strength.</p> + +<p>Taubmann has written other choral works: a setting +of ‘Psalm XIII’ for solos, chorus and orchestra; +<em>Tauwetter</em> (‘Thawing-Time’) for male chorus and orchestra; +and a <em>Sängerweihe</em> (‘Bardal Dedication’), a +choral drama, which provides for a chorus and organ<span class="pagenum" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</span> +in the body of the concert-hall to stimulate ‘ideal +participation on the part of the audience’; yet +<em>Eine Deutsche Messe</em> will probably continue to be +considered his greatest work, as well as one of the +greatest glories of modern German choral composition.</p> + +<p>Another ranking work in the choral music of contemporaneous +Germany is Georg Schumann’s biblical +oratorio <em>Ruth</em>, for soprano, alto and baritone solos, +chorus of mixed voices and orchestra. It is a far cry +to this work from Mendelssohn’s <em>Elijah</em>. Schumann, +like Bossi and Wolf-Ferrari, handles his sacred text +(extended by much poetic material) from a secular +point of view, yet with great mastery of means and +undeniable effect. There is not much that is inherently +sacred in the Old Testament idyl and hence it lends +itself, like the ‘Song of Songs,’ to a freer and less narrowly +religious musical interpretation. Old Hebrew +melodies are gracefully introduced in connection with +the composer’s own thematic material and, like César +Franck in his <em>Rébecca</em>, Schumann employs every +rhythmic and harmonic means, not forgetting a brilliant +and individual orchestration, to give his work a +quasi-oriental atmosphere. As regards polyphonic +handling Schumann writes in the manner of Bach and +Brahms, but identifies himself with the present-day +South German composers with respect to a rich and +glowing tonal color. His choral movement is at all +times plastic and exceedingly varied.</p> + +<p><em>Ruth</em> is undoubtedly Schumann’s most important accomplishment +in the choral field; yet he has composed +other works which call for mention. His <em>Totenklage</em> +(‘Elegiac Lament’), opus 33, and his <em>Sehnsucht</em> (‘Yearning’), +opus 40, for chorus, in themselves are of such +marked inspiration and artistry that they would serve +to establish his reputation had <em>Ruth</em> never been written. +His <em>Drei Geistliche Gesänge</em> (‘Three Sacred<span class="pagenum" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</span> +Songs’), opus 31, for chorus, also testify to a daring +inspiration which makes itself felt within the limitations +of the <em>a cappella</em> religious song.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>In this field, too, Max Reger, a Bavarian and a brilliant +member of that South German group of composers +among which Richard Strauss is the most prominent +figure, has done notable work, though his creative +activity has been displayed mainly along instrumental +lines. A grandiose setting of ‘Psalm 100’ for mixed +chorus, orchestra and organ; ‘12 Religious Folk-Songs +of Germany’ for mixed chorus; three six-part <em>a cappella</em> +mixed choruses (opus 39) and a five-part <em>a cappella</em> +‘Palm-Sunday Morning,’ to say nothing of his +forty easy four-part songs for service use, and his +choral cantatas for the great festivals of the Evangelical +church year—all testify to his interest in choral +music. Reger is a lover of elaborate counterpoint and +recondite harmonic device and he, like Schumann, has +been influenced largely by J. S. Bach and Brahms. +From the former he has taken over the cult of traditional +forms, from the latter he has learned to make +use of the abounding treasure of folk-song inspiration, +how to pour the wine of new ideas into the old formal +bottles, and how to venture even into metaphysics in +his search for exact expression. This is very evident +in his secular choral works, in <em>An den Gesang</em> (‘To the +Genius of Song’), opus 21, for male chorus and orchestra; +the <em>Gesang der Verklärten</em> (‘The Song of the Glorified’), +opus 75, for five-part chorus and orchestra; +<em>Die Nonne</em> (‘The Nun’), opus 112, for mixed chorus, +orchestra and organ; and the imposing <em>Weihe der +Nacht</em> (‘The Consecration of Night’), opus 119, for alto<span class="pagenum" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</span> +solo, male chorus and orchestra, and <em>Römischer Triumphgesang</em> +‘Roman Triumphal Song’, opus 126, for +male chorus and orchestra.</p> + +<p>Reger, even in his earlier works, shows a tendency +toward extreme complexity in structure and an excess +of technical elaboration which is not counterbalanced +by that strong control of imagination which makes +for ultimate clarity. On the contrary, he heaps Pelion +upon Ossa in harmonic daring and arbitrary modulation. +And still his is not to be considered the last word +in this respect in choral composition, for he has been +out-Heroded by the Viennese composer Arnold Schönberg.</p> + +<p>Schönberg is the head of a school of younger Viennese +musical impressionists and independents, including +Karl Horwitz, Heinrich Jalowetz, Alban Berg, Anton +von Webern, Egon Wellesz, who have abandoned the +more romantic and classic tenets of Bruckner and Hugo +Wolf to follow this ultra-modern leader. One of the +very few modern composers the performance of whose +works has, on occasion, aroused the active hostility of +his audiences, he has written symphonic music (the +suite <em>Pelléas et Mélisande</em>), chamber music, songs, +piano pieces, and a highly original and interesting text-book +on harmony. This composer, ‘whose every chord +is the outcome of an emotion’ and who, to quote James +Huneker, ‘has the courage of his chromatics,’ has made +various contributions to choral music, first among +which is <em>Gurrelieder</em>, for solos, chorus and orchestra, +composed to a text by the Danish poet Jens Peter +Jacobsen, translated into German by Robert Franz Arnold. +This choral cycle, written somewhere between +1901 and 1908, belongs in the second stage of the composer’s +development and not in the third period (from +1908 on), during which Schönberg ‘throws over almost +everything hitherto accepted, i. e., consonance, tonality, +thematic use, form, even program; and retains<span class="pagenum" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</span> +only rhythm and color, boldly calling this music a +mere emanation of himself, which has no relation to +the receptivities of his hearers.’<a id="FNanchor_85" href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a></p> + +<p>The <em>Gurrelieder</em> were heard in part, with piano accompaniment, +in London, in 1910. In 1913 a complete +performance with the enormous orchestra called for +by the score (including 8 flutes, 5 oboes, 7 clarinets, 10 +horns, 5 trumpets, 7 trombones, 6 kettle-drums, a number +of other instruments of percussion, 4 harps, celesta +and strings with as many individual players as possible) +took place in Vienna. Opinion is still largely +divided as to the ultimate value of Schönberg’s work. +It is worthy of note, however, that Ernest Newman, +in ‘The Musical Times,’ January, 1914, speaks warmly +of the <em>Gurrelieder</em>, which he calls ‘the finest musical +love-poem since "Tristan and Isolde."’</p> + +<p>In addition to the <em>Gurrelieder</em> we have from Schönberg’s +pen the sextet, opus 4, ‘Transfigured Night’ (First +Period), which, although not a choral work, is conceived +chorally for the strings, and is a work of exceeding +beauty and original tonal combination worked +out along normal lines—an entire contrast to the <em>Pierrot +lunaire</em>, a series of melodramas of the most cataclysmic +futurity, consisting of ‘three times seven poems’ +by Albert Giraud, with titles such as ‘The Red Mass,’ +‘The Sick Moon,’ ‘A Beheading,’ ‘Gallows Song,’ ‘The +Dandy,’ set for a narrator, piano, flute (also piccolo), +clarinet (also bass clarinet), violin (also viola), and +‘cello.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>Though we have now considered those great figures +which tower above the general creative level in present-day +choral writing in Germany, there still remain a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</span>number of their contemporaries whose claims to recognition +cannot well be ignored.</p> + +<p>Among them we find a group of composers who, +like Reynaldo Hahn and Gabriel Pierné in France, have +chosen the Christmas legend for musical treatment. +And like Hahn, some of them have essayed to develop +text and music along lines of the mediæval mystery. +Felix Draeseke’s oratorio-tetralogy, <em>Christus</em> (published +1905), a work of splendid scope, falls short, in spite of +much incidental beauty, because of lack of dramatic +movement and interest. More successful has been +Philip Wolfrum’s <em>Weinachtsmysterium</em> (1898), an attempt +to revive the old German Christmas miracle-play, +and partially employing mediæval song and +choral music as thematic material. The work shows +true musicianship, contrapuntal skill, and tact and intelligence +in welding together its ancient and modern +component elements. Other less pretentious ‘mysteries’ +are Albert Fuchs’ <em>Selig sind, die in dem Herrn sterben</em> +‘Blessed are they who die in the Lord’, published in +1907; and <em>Das tausendjährige Reich</em> ‘The Millennial +Kingdom’, published in 1909. The first may be considered +as belonging to the type of <em>Traumdichtung</em><a id="FNanchor_86" href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> +(dream-poem) we owe to Elgar. Its music is modern, +imaginative and full of effect. Even more dramatic is +‘The Millennial Kingdom,’ a succession of richly colored +choral mood-pictures portraying the believers of the +year 999 looking forward to the last day. This work, +though essentially German, still shows the influence of +Pierné’s ‘Children’s Crusade,’ as does Wilhelm Platz’ +<em>Gottes Kinder</em> (‘God’s Children’), an emotional and +effective cantata (1907).</p> + +<p>August Bungert, in a larger choral three-part ‘mystery’ +published in 1908, <em>Warum? Woher? Wohin?</em> +‘Why? Whence? Whither?’, is not especially happy +in a semi-religious text that smacks of theological disquisition.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</span> +His scores contain some fine solos as well +as choral movements, but are not especially well balanced, +and, despite the composer’s confessed endeavor +to make it another ‘German Requiem,’ it falls short +of real greatness.</p> + +<p>Felix Woyrsch, however, whose secular oratorio +<em>Tolentanz</em>, opus 50 (‘Dance of Death’), attains such a +high level of individual expression, shows but little +originality in his early work, <em>Geburt Christi</em> (‘Birth of +Christ’), opus 18. It is evident, consulting the list of +his compositions, that it is the secular rather than the +sacred that appeals to him. Aside from a Passion +Oratorio (opus 45), ‘The Birth of Christ’ seems to be +his only essay in church-music. We have on the other +hand: ‘Sapphic Ode to Aphrodite’ (soprano, women’s +voices and orchestra); a ‘German Hosting’ (solos, male +chorus and orchestra); a number of individual secular +choruses and, lastly, ‘The Dance of Death.’</p> + +<p>‘The Dance of Death’ is written for solos, chorus, +orchestra and organ, and is called a ‘mystery.’ Conceived +as a great oratorio, it stands for a distinct breaking +away from older oratorio tradition and is set to a +text which strings together scenes from human life in +effective contrast. Its music is essentially modern in +spirit, full of tonal color and beauty, and logical despite +excessive rhythmic elaboration. Yet it does not +keep to the level of inspiration established by its best +moments, and many sections voice a distinctly popular +appeal through a thin veil of musical modernism. In +the case of this work the titular use of the word <em>Mysterium</em> +is ‘merely a beauty-plaster borrowed from the +French mode,’<a id="FNanchor_87" href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> and the introduction of humorous and +other elements, which are not in keeping with the serious +and exalted style of the oratorio proper, tends to +give it, in spite of greater length and elaboration, the +character of a cantata. In this form, or rather in that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</span>of a programmatic choral ballad with orchestra, Wilhelm +Berger’s <em>Totentanz</em>, after Goethe’s poem, is conceived. +It is remarkably effective musically, and was +one of the numbers performed at the <em>Tonkünstlerfest</em> +at Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1914.</p> + +<p>Karl Adolf Lorenz’s oratorio <em>Das Licht</em> (1907), a fine +example of restrained modernism and beautifully +wrought choral writing, and Friedrich E. Koch’s <em>Von +den Jahreszeiten</em> (‘Of the Seasons’), essentially music +written for effect, though attractive in much of its detail, +should also be instanced here. Some mention, too, +should be made of various prominent composers who, +while their attention has principally been held by other +forms of composition, have nevertheless contributed +incidentally to modern German choral literature.</p> + +<p>Ludwig Thuille, the late gifted composer of <em>Lobetanz</em>, +wrote a number of fine choruses for both male +and female voices; Oscar Fried has composed an <em>Erntelied</em> +(text by Metsche), opus 15, for male chorus and +orchestra, a work of intense, elemental power. Engelbert +Humperdinck, also, has written the choral ballads +<em>Das Glück von Edenhall</em> (‘The Luck of Edenhall’) and +‘The Pilgrimage to Keevlar,’ the last a work of much +simple beauty and charm. Gustav Mahler is represented +by his extended choral work, <em>Das klagende Lied</em> +‘The Sorrowing Song’; and Arnold Mendelssohn has +created distinctive works, both sacred and secular—the +‘Evening Cantata’ eight-part mixed chorus, solo +and orchestra, ‘Our Lord’s Sufferings’ (1900) and, in +the same year, ‘Resurrection.’ His secular choral works +include a delightful <em>Neckreigen</em> (‘Teasing Round’) for +mixed chorus and orchestra; ‘Spring’s Consecration,’ a +hymn for solos, mixed chorus and orchestra; and ‘The +Tailor in Hell,’ a drastically humorous ballad for tenor +solo, chorus and orchestra.</p> + +<p>Siegmund von Hausegger, too, has written various +choruses with orchestra accompaniment: ‘Voices of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</span> +Evening,’ ‘Sunrise,’ ‘Reaper’s Song’ (mixed), ‘New +Wine Song,’ ‘Grief the Smith’ and ‘Dead March’ (male), +and a ‘Nature Symphony’ (1911). Hugo Kaun is the +author of a ‘Norseman’s Farewell’—a larger choral +work for baritone solo, male chorus and orchestra—as +well as of choruses for mixed and female voices. +And finally Hans Huber (a Swiss composer, it is true, +but educated in Leipzig, a representative of Teutonic +ideals, and influenced by Brahms) has created beautiful +music in his ‘Songs of Spring and Love,’ opus 72, +for mixed chorus, solo quartet, and four-hand piano +accompaniment, and in his four-part settings from +Goethe’s <em>Westöstlichem Divan</em>, opus 69.</p> + +<p>This study of contemporaneous choral composition +in Germany might fittingly conclude with a reference +to the Dutch composers who have been influenced, +creatively, by the modern German spirit in choral +composition. Prominent among them are: Samuel de +Lange, with an oratorio in the grand style, ‘Moses’ +(1889), original in idea but traditional in form; ‘The +Tear of a King,’ a ballad for soprano, mixed chorus and +orchestra (1913), as well as various shorter cantatas to +his credit; and G. H. G. von Brucken-Fock, composer +of the introspective choral oratorio, <em>De Wederkomst +van Christus of het naderende Godsryk</em> (1900). It +contains a notable <em>Dies iræ</em>, ending with a double +chorus after the manner of those in Bach’s motets. The +Belgian composers of choral music, whose artistic affiliations +are in general French rather than German, +will be considered elsewhere.</p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="footnotes"> +<p class="center p2 big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_84" href="#FNanchor_84" class="label">[84]</a> <em>Musiciens d’Aujourd’hui</em>, Paris, 1908.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_85" href="#FNanchor_85" class="label">[85]</a> <em>Zeitschrift der Internationalen Musik-Gesellschaft</em>, Feb., 1914, London +Notes, C. M., Leipzig.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_86" href="#FNanchor_86" class="label">[86]</a> Schering: <em>Geschichte des Oratoriums</em>, p. 486.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_87" href="#FNanchor_87" class="label">[87]</a> Schering: <em>Geschichte des Oratoriums</em>, p. 510.</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER XII<br> +<small>CONTEMPORANEOUS CHORAL MUSIC<br> + IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA</small></h2> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Elgar: ‘The Light of Life’; ‘The Dream of Gerontius’; ‘The Apostles’; +‘The Kingdom’; ‘The Music Makers’—Parry: ‘War and Peace’; ‘The Vision +of Life’; ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’; Mackenzie; Cowen; Coleridge-Taylor—Bantock: +‘The Fire Worshippers’; ‘Omar Khayyam’ and other choral +works—Holbrooke: ‘The Bells’, ‘Byron’ and other works; Grainger and +others; Walford Davies: ‘Everyman’; ‘The Temple’ and other works; +minor English choral writers—Horatio Parker: ‘Morven and the Grail’ and +smaller works; Chadwick: ‘Judith’ and ‘Noël’—Henry Hadley: ‘Merlin and +Vivian’ and short works; F. S. Converse: ‘Job’; other American choral +writers.</p> +</div> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>Among the large group of British composers of the +immediate present the task of recording events of value +and moment is rendered somewhat easier by virtue of +the fact that its dominating figure, Sir Edward Elgar +(born 1857), crossed the line into the twentieth century +with a well-defined style of individual expression +and a clear title to leadership, won through a noble +series of both orchestral and choral works. This series +has been augmented during the first decade of the century +by works of such splendid proportions and such +already recognized importance that at least some of +them may be regarded as already occupying places of +permanency for some time to come. As the result of +this leadership, there is discernible a distinct tendency +to regard Elgar as a kind of standard of measurement +for British musical values. So much is this true that +we already hear of Elgarians and post-Elgarians—for +Elgar has by no means said the last word in British<span class="pagenum" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</span> +music and a school of young composers is developing +that is surely destined to accomplish great things for +musical England.</p> + +<p>Elgar’s most important choral works since 1900 belong +to the class of religious music and all are deeply +permeated with the same spirit of mysticism that characterizes +the religious music of Franck and other devout +modern adherents of the Roman Church; indeed, +the Roman point of view in interpreting the teachings +of the Bible and the deep things of life, is especially +discernible in ‘The Apostles’ and ‘The Kingdom,’ as +well as in ‘The Dream of Gerontius.’</p> + +<p>Elgar’s mode of musical speech is remarkable, even +among present-day colorists, for its wealth of color and +its richness of tonal effects. Yet he is no impressionist +of the Debussy type; every detail of poetic and imaginative +suggestion is worked out with careful reference +to its own effectiveness as well as that of the larger +units to which it may belong. In his treatment of voice-parts +there is a remarkable fluency and independence +that suggests the old ecclesiastical methods. There is +perfect correspondence, in all matters of verbal accentuation, +between melodic setting and rhetorical delivery. +In his marked preference for long lines of indefinite +melodic structure (absence of definite phrases), +he closely allies himself not only with the ‘Palestrina +style’ but with the Wagnerian method of continuous +‘melos.’ His kinship with Wagner is further emphasized +by the elaborate employment of ‘leading motives’ +in his largest works. In these motives, however, he is +not as fortunate as was Wagner in casting them in distinct, +individual, and easily-distinguishable forms. +This defect may be inevitable, perhaps, in treating +sacred themes subject to so many purely spiritual ramifications +as Elgar indulges in. As in the Wagnerian +scheme, so in the Elgarian, the orchestra assumes a rôle +of utmost importance, frequently overtopping the choral<span class="pagenum" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</span> +forces and appropriating for its own purposes the composer’s +choicest melodies. But Elgar’s mode of treating +the orchestra on the whole differs radically from Wagner’s +because of the different points from which they +approached their tasks in their respective vocal works—Wagner +from the standpoint of dramatic effect, Elgar +from the standpoint of pure church-music. Hence +in the three works above mentioned one finds, for long +stretches at a time, a spirit of lofty impersonality, an +absence of sensuous melodies, which tends to lull the +mind of the listener into a passive condition for receiving +the impressions of the text, which is by no means +unlike the mental condition produced by listening to +actual liturgic music.</p> + +<p>‘The Light of Life’ is Elgar’s first work in oratorio +style and is short—not as long as many sacred cantatas; +yet its exceedingly serious style precludes its +being called a cantata. It received its initial hearing +at the Worcester Festival in September, 1896. The text +by Rev. E. Capel-Cure relates the gospel story of the +man, blind from his birth, whom Jesus healed. The +persons represented are the mother of the blind man +(soprano), the narrator (contralto), the blind man +(tenor) and the Master (baritone).</p> + +<p>After a meditative and melodious orchestral introduction +the first chorus, ‘Seek Him,’ is sung, by the Levites +(male voices) in the Temple courts. The blind +man’s prayer for light is followed by a recitative by +the narrator. The disciples ask ‘Who did sin?’ which +is directly answered in an expressive aria sung by the +mother, who asserts that he has not been made to suffer +this affliction because of the sins of others. The +Master then explains, ‘Neither hath this man sinned,’ +after which a broad, forcible chorus, ‘Light out of darkness,’ +follows. The eyes of the blind man are now +anointed, he washes in the Pool of Siloam and comes +forth healed; then he is asked by his incredulous neighbors<span class="pagenum" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</span> +and towns-people how this healing came. In the +heated discussion which follows, the music becomes +very dramatic. After the blind man has related his +story, the Pharisees again enter into discussion, the +strife between those approving and those condemning +the man being described in a characteristic choral setting. +Especially effective is the orchestration in the +scene in which the Jews question the mother and the +blind man. The strongest and most beautiful part of +the work is a solo sung by the Master, ‘I am the good +shepherd,’ which soon leads to the final chorus, ‘Light +of the world,’ which, though short, is permeated by a +strongly triumphant feeling.</p> + +<p>‘The Dream of Gerontius’ was written by Edward Elgar +upon commission of the Birmingham Festival Committee +and performed on the morning of Oct. 3, 1900, at +the Birmingham Triennial Festival. Although it was +finished for this particular occasion, it had been in the +composer’s mind for years and was, therefore, not +thought out in haste, as has been the case with many +other occasional works. The poem by Cardinal Newman +relates the dream of Gerontius as he lies on his +death-bed, the flight of his soul to the realm of the +unseen, its awakening with ‘a strange refreshment’ as +it is safely piloted before the Judge by the Angel, or +Soul’s Guardian Spirit, amid the hubbub of demons and +the reassuring voices of the angels—not, however, before +it has been purified in the waters of purgatory. +This poem had made a profound impression upon +Elgar and the words and the music are so closely +wedded that they seem like twin-expressions of the +same thought, both poet and composer having approached +their tasks from the standpoint of devout +Catholics.</p> + +<p>The work calls for only three soloists, mezzo-soprano, +tenor and bass, besides chorus and unusually large orchestra, +the latter being augmented by double bassoon,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</span> +organ, gong and glockenspiel. The string section is +often divided into many parts, sometimes fifteen and +even twenty. Elgar employs many leading motives, +characteristic of the verbal ideas with which they are +associated, the orchestral prelude alone giving out ten +important ones that foreshadow the scheme of the +work. In the work itself, as in all of Elgar’s later +choral works, all traces of the classical oratorio disappear +and solo, choral and orchestral parts follow each +other without pause and with utmost freedom of movement +within clearly defined scenes or parts. His part-writing +is beautifully contrapuntal, but it rarely even +approaches fugal writing.</p> + +<p>The first part reveals Gerontius (tenor) on his death-bed. +As the prelude closes, he sings ‘Jesu Maria, I am +near to death,’ after which a semi-chorus chants the +<em>Kyrie eleison</em>. Gerontius is again heard in the words +‘Rouse thee, my fainting soul,’ when a second chorus +responds in tender strains, ‘Be merciful.’ The holy +man then sings with deep feeling a longer solo, <em>Sanctus +fortis</em>, and after an effective orchestral interlude resumes +with the words, ‘I can no more,’ in which he expresses +fear and horror at his own hallucinations. This +is followed by a short chorus, ‘Rescue him, O Lord,’ +sung by the attendant priests. Gerontius then sings +his dying song, <em>Novissima hora est</em>, and the following +full chorus, ‘Go forth upon thy journey,’ brings the first +part to a close. The prelude to the second part pictures +the soul’s journey. Gerontius’ first utterance is +in a dreamy solo, ‘I went to sleep and now I am refreshed,’ +after which the Guardian Angel sings a lovely +melody called the ‘Alleluia’—‘My work is done, my task +is o’er.’ After a dialogue between the Angel and the +Soul, their flight amid howling demons of darkness +to the throne of God is pictured in a vividly dramatic +scene. The two again engage in dialogue, followed by +an impressive chorus of the Angelicals. The Angel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</span> +then sings ‘We have now passed the gate,’ and after +further dialogue the chorus is heard in ‘Glory to Him.’ +Further passages between the Soul and the chorus +ensue, when the Angelicals join in an exultant chorus, +‘Praise to the Holiest in the height.’ In the silence following, +the Soul hears the distant voices of men on +earth. The Angel’s explanation of this is interrupted +by a virile bass solo sung by the Angel of Agony, ‘Jesu, +by that shuddering dread.’ The Angel then repeats the +‘Alleluia’ given in Part I and continues, amid the choruses +of Angelicals and souls in purgatory, in a beautiful +melody, ‘Softly and gently, dearly ransomed soul,’ +after which the work closes with the diminishing +strains of the chorus of the Angelicals, ‘Praise to the +Holiest in the height.’</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>‘The Apostles.’—This, the second of Elgar’s large oratorios +and certainly one of his best, was heard for the +first time at the Birmingham Festival, on Oct. 3, 1903. +That Elgar had in mind the writing of a trilogy, of +which ‘The Apostles’ is the first part, is evidenced by +his statement in the preface of this work that he had +long desired ‘to compose an oratorio which should +embody the calling of the Apostles, their teaching +(schooling) and their mission, culminating in the establishment +of the Church among the Gentiles. The present +work carries out the first portion of the scheme; +the second portion remains for a future occasion.’ The +text is an unusually good one, Elgar himself having +spent years on its compilation from the Scriptures and +the Apocrypha. The personages represented are the +Virgin and the Angel, soprano; Mary Magdalene, alto; +St. John, tenor; Jesus, St. Peter and Judas, basses. The +tenor acts also as narrator. The leading motive is even +more extensively used than in ‘The Dream of Gerontius,’<span class="pagenum" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</span> +and the orchestra, which is large and augmented +by the shofar (ancient Hebrew trumpet), presents the +most important of the themes in the prelude, thus making +it a sort of musical epitome of the whole work. +The text is grouped into two large parts, with three +scenes in the first part and four in the second.</p> + +<p>In the first scene of Part I, ‘The Calling of the Apostles,’ +after the statement that Jesus had spent the night +in prayer on the mountain, there follows the dawn, +proclaimed by the watchers on the roof of the Temple. +The shofar, which announces the daybreak in Jewish +synagogues, at this point is heard in the orchestra. +From within the Temple comes the response, ‘It is a +good thing to give thanks.’ The calling of the apostles +now follows and closes the scene. The second scene, +‘By the Wayside,’ discloses Jesus teaching the people +the Beatitudes. The third scene, ‘By the Sea of Galilee,’ +depicts the repentance and regeneration of Mary +Magdalene, which is one of the finest portions of the +work. It also sets forth Jesus’ calming of the storm +and his walking on the water. The second part begins +with the fourth scene, ‘The Betrayal,’ which includes +the scenes in Gethsemane, in the palace of the High +Priest and without the Temple. No other composer has +treated the betrayal at such length and it contains some +of the most touching passages of the whole work, +among them the short chorus, ‘And the Lord looked +upon Peter and he went out and wept bitterly.’ In the +fifth scene, ‘Golgotha,’ Jesus’ words, ‘<em>Eli, Eli, lama +sabachthani?</em>’ are not spoken, but their meaning is +poignantly expressed in a few introductory measures by +the orchestra, after which follows a short, impressive +choral phrase of four measures, ‘Truly this was the +Son of God.’ The sixth is a short scene ‘At the Sepulchre’ +and the seventh and last, ‘The Ascension,’ is +characterized by remarkable ensemble passages of +great sonority, the voices being grouped as follows:<span class="pagenum" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</span> +‘In Heaven’ (mystic chorus of female voices in two +groups) and ‘On Earth’ (four solo voices and male +chorus of the apostles). This section is quite long and +elaborate and leads to a mighty ‘Alleluia,’ gradually +diminishing to a <em>pianissimo</em> close.</p> + +<p>‘The Kingdom,’ which Elgar wrote for and produced +at the Birmingham Festival, Oct. 3, 1906, is the second +portion of the trilogy anticipated in the composer’s +preface to ‘The Apostles’—the third portion, though +promised, has not yet appeared. In order to set forth +the relation of the two works to each other, they were +performed at this festival in the order in which they +were conceived. Much of the ‘leading motive’ material +of ‘The Apostles’ is also used in ‘The Kingdom,’ thereby +establishing a close unity between the two works. The +oratorio, the religious theme of which is the establishment +of the Church at Jerusalem, consists of five divisions: +(1) In the Upper Room; (2) At the Beautiful +Gate (The Morn of Pentecost); (3) Pentecost (In the +Upper Room. In Solomon’s Porch); (4) The Sign of +Healing (At the Beautiful Gate. The Arrest); (5) The +Upper Room (In Fellowship. The Breaking of Bread. +The Prayers). The persons represented are The Virgin +Mary, soprano; Mary Magdalene, alto; St. John, tenor; +and St. Peter, bass; the chorus represents the disciples, +the holy women and the people.</p> + +<p>After a long orchestral introduction, in which the +important themes are stated and developed, comes the +opening chorus of disciples and holy women together +with the quartet of soloists, ‘Seek first the Kingdom of +God,’ as they are all gathered in the Upper Room. +After Peter leads in the celebration of the Eucharist by +the breaking of bread, they sing a hymn of praise and +there follows a discussion, led by Peter, as to the choosing +of a successor to fill Judas’ place. The second division +opens with a duet of the two Marys at the Beautiful +Gate, leading directly into section three,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</span> +‘Pentecost,’ which is the longest of the work and is +ushered in by a tenor solo, stating that they were ‘all +with one accord in one place.’ The chorus of disciples +alternates with the mystic chorus of female voices, in +a description of the descent of the Holy Ghost, the +music, with the added organ in the accompaniment, +being very effective. ‘In Solomon’s Porch’ sets forth +the ‘speaking in other tongues’ and Peter’s admonition, +‘Repent and be baptized.’ The fourth section deals +with the healing of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate, +after which Peter and John are arrested because they +preached the resurrection of Jesus, and here the music +becomes very dramatic. It closes with Mary’s lovely +meditation, ‘The sun goeth down,’ in which two old +Hebrew hymns are used. The fifth section, with the +disciples and holy women again gathered in the Upper +Room, opens with a joyful, almost triumphant chorus, +‘The voice of joy is in the dwelling of the righteous,’ +after which follows ‘The Breaking of Bread’ and ‘The +Lord’s Prayer.’ A quiet closing chorus, ‘Thou, O Lord, +art our Father,’ is sung by chorus and soloists.</p> + +<p>‘The Music Makers,’ Elgar’s opus 69, published in +1912, is a setting of an ode by Arthur O’Shaughnessy for +contralto solo, chorus and orchestra, the chorus bearing +the brunt of the vocal work. An idea of the content +is given in the first stanza:</p> + + +<div class="poetry-container p11"> +<div class="poetry"> +<p>‘We are the music makers,<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And we are the dreamers of dreams,</span><br> +Wandering by the lone sea-breakers,<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And sitting by desolate streams;—</span><br> +Word-losers and world-forsakers,<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On whom the pale moon gleams;</span><br> +Yet we are the movers and shakers<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of the world for ever, it seems,’</span></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>after which the achievements of the Music Makers are +recited in the building of ‘the world’s great cities’ and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</span> +the fashioning of ‘an empire’s glory.’ Especially significant +is the stanza beginning:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container p11"> +<div class="poetry"> +<p>‘A breath of our inspiration<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is the life of each generation’;</span></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>and concluding with:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container p11"> +<div class="poetry"> +<p>‘Till our dream shall become their present,<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And their work in the world be done.’</span></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The work opens with an orchestral prelude, very +melodious and noble in style, which, after a strong +climax, leads into the first chorus, ‘We are the music +makers.’ This enters softly and rises to tremendous +force at the words, ‘and shakers of the world for ever.’ +The composition abounds in striking contrasts of dynamics +and rhythm, and while portions of it are sung in +a narrative manner, there are exceedingly dramatic +passages and in these Elgar calls the orchestra to his +aid most effectively. The whole work is grateful for +singers and full of color. Possibly the loveliest part +of it is the section comprising the fourth and fifth +stanzas, beginning with the above quotation, ‘A breath +of our inspiration,’ and including the first contralto +solo and obbligato.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>The elder composers, who first set the stream of +English music in the direction of original forms of expression, +have not been idle in the years since 1900. +Alexander C. Mackenzie (born 1847) contributed to +the Leeds Festival of 1904 a cantata, ‘The Witch’s +Daughter,’ adapted from Whittier; Henry Coward +(born 1852) composed ‘Gareth and Linet,’ a musical +romance of large proportions based on Malory’s <em>Morte +D’Arthur</em> for the Sheffield Festival of 1902; and Frederick<span class="pagenum" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</span> +H. Cowen (born 1852) wrote for the Cardiff Festival +of 1900 an oratorio, ‘The Veil,’ the text of which is +taken from Robert Buchanan’s deeply mystical poem, +‘The Book of Orm,’ an apologia for the vindication of +the ways of God to man, justifying death and sorrow +and evil. The work is divided into the following sections: +1, The Veil Woven; 2, Earth the Mother; 3, The +Dream of the World without Death; 4, The Soul and +the Dwelling; 5, Songs of Seeking; 6, The Lifting of the +Veil.</p> + +<p>The veteran composer, C. Hubert H. Parry (born +1848), has been the most active of this group, no less +than three important choral compositions having come +from his pen in the first decade of the century. ‘War +and Peace’ (1903) is a symphonic ode (text by the composer) +in ten numbers, in which ‘the fallen angels, +Pride and Hate,’ are pictured as the arch-instigators +of all strife. The recompense comes after these furies +have ‘drunk the lust of blood.’ Numbers entitled ‘Comradeship,’ +‘Home-Coming,’ ‘Song of Peace,’ and ‘Home,’ +lead to a stirring and noble ‘Marching Song of Peace’ +and a final prayer, ‘Grant us Thy peace, Lord.’ The +Norfolk and Norwich Festival of 1905 brought out his +setting in cantata form of Browning’s well-known ‘The +Pied Piper of Hamelin.’ Here the scholarly writer of +dignified choral counterpoint becomes genuinely humorous +as the tale unfolds how the rats ravaged ‘Hamelin +town by famous Hanover city,’ a characteristic little +figure being used to portray the gnawing of the rats. +It is rather simple in style and an atmosphere of folk-melody +and legend pervades the work. ‘The Vision of +Life,’ a symphonic poem for soprano and bass solos, +chorus and orchestra, received its first performance at +the Cardiff Festival, 1907. The poem by the composer +presents a vision of the course of man. Beginning with +the savage and cave-dweller, it pictures Greek culture +with its worship of the beautiful, the might of Rome<span class="pagenum" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</span> +with its passion for power which in time gives way to +the teachings of Christianity; then comes the mad fury +of the French Revolution, the oppression of the slave +and the domination of pride—and all finally ‘yields to +the spirit of love and of truth’ and the vision pictures +a future of peace when</p> + +<div class="poetry-container p11"> +<div class="poetry"> +<p>‘Hope and helpfulness unwearied<br> +Make all the path a radiant mead;<br> +And brother sees in the eyes of brother<br> +The trust that makes toil’s best reward.’</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The solo voices are The Dreamer and The Spirit of the +Vision, and the musical treatment of solo and choral +parts is noble and masterful.</p> + +<p>The untimely death of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in +1912 (he was born in 1875) cut short a career that began +with unusual promise. Though none of his later +works possesses the spontaneity and musical charm of +the ‘Hiawatha’ cantatas, he has produced several fine +choral works since 1900. ‘The Blind Girl of Castél +Cuillé,’ written for the Leeds Festival of 1901, is a setting +of Longfellow’s translation of a Gascon poem +which relates the story of a blind girl who was deserted +by her lover for another maiden and who, heart-broken, +dies at the latter’s wedding. ‘Meg Blane’ (a Rhapsody +of the Sea by Robert Buchanan) followed in 1902 and +was first performed at the Sheffield Musical Festival of +the same year. The text weirdly describes the terrors +of the sea. ‘The Atonement,’ which closely follows the +sequence of the Gospel narratives of the Passion, was +given at the Hereford Festival, 1903, and ‘Kubla Khan,’ +by the Handel Society in 1906. The ‘Bon-Bon Suite,’ +which appeared in 1908, is a setting of six poems by +Thomas Moore for baritone solo, chorus and orchestra. +The poems are ‘The Magic Mirror,’ ‘The Fairy Boat,’ +‘To Rosa,’ ‘Love and Hymen,’ ‘The Watchman,’ and +‘Say, What Shall We Dance?’ The words of these<span class="pagenum" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</span> +poems have little relationship to each other, though the +key to the whole is probably in the first poem, ‘The +Magic Mirror.’ ‘Endymion’s Dream,’ for soprano and +tenor solos, chorus and orchestra, was published in +1910. The words are by C. R. B. Barrett and are based +on the ancient legend of Endymion, originally a name +for the Sun as he sinks into the sea. In the later legend, +Endymion, a priest of Jove, while sacrificing, prayed +for everlasting youth. This was granted, but coupled +with eternal sleep. Mercury carried him to Mount Latmos +and Selene, the Moon Goddess, nightly gazed down +upon him lovingly. Coleridge-Taylor’s last cantata was +‘A Tale of Old Japan,’ poem by Alfred Noyes, which +was published in 1911. It is the quaint, sad story of the +unrequited love of little Kimi for the great painter +Sawara, and the music, which is rhapsodical in character, +is full of charming touches of ‘local color.’ Solo +voices take an important share of the work.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>Granville Bantock, born Aug. 7, 1868, in London, is +usually classed as one of the ‘middle group’ of modern +English composers, to which Sir Edward Elgar belongs, +in distinction to the so-called ‘post-Elgarians.’ Bantock +is a composer endowed with vivid imagination and a +strong and distinct musical personality, exemplified in +a number of important works. He has written much +for orchestra, notably the symphonic poems: ‘Thalaba +the Destroyer’ (after Southey), given in London, 1902; +‘Dante and Beatrice’ (Birmingham, 1903); the comedy-overture +‘The Pierrot of the Minute,’ and the symphonic +drama ‘Fifine at the Fair’ (Birmingham, 1912), and, +aside from a number of other works, the two orchestral +scenes ‘Processional’ and ‘Yaga-Naut,’ fragments of a +monster cycle, ‘The Curse of Kehama,’ never completed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</span></p> + +<p>Bantock’s leaning toward Orientalism in his music +is shown in his great choral works as well as in his +symphonic compositions. To say nothing of his one-act +opera ‘The Pearl of Iran,’ his six books of Oriental +songs (Arabian, Japanese, Egyptian, Persian, Indian, +Chinese), his ‘Ferishtah’s Fancies’ (Browning), for soprano +and orchestra, and the ‘Five Ghazals of Hafiz,’ +for baritone and orchestra, we have his choral works, +‘The Fire Worshippers’ and ‘Omar Khayyam,’ both +constructed on large lines.</p> + +<p>‘The Fire Worshippers’ is a dramatic cantata in six +scenes for chorus, solos and orchestra, a work of considerable +extent and making many demands on the +singers, whose story is laid in the ancient Persia of +the Magi. Its overture was performed, singly, in 1892, +at a Royal College of Music concert, but the work was +not given in its entirety until 1910. Though ‘rich in +feeling and sumptuous in tissue, with a curious blend +of sensuousness and spirituality,’ it has never secured +the meed of favor accorded the composer’s ‘Omar +Khayyam.’</p> + +<p>In this work, ‘a union of inspired poetry with inspired +music,’ to quote Rosa Newmarch, we have the composer +at his best. It presents in a musical setting no less than +54 stanzas of ‘The Rubaiyat,’ about half the book, for +a tremendous chorus, three solo voices and a large +orchestra. In his music Bantock has given these Epicurean +drinking-songs of Mohammedan Persia their +inner spiritual significance. He emphasizes their dramatic +quality as songs of revolt against Koranic law +and idealizes them as a defiance of reason and nature +against religious bigotry. The work is inordinately +long, judged by ordinary standards, and difficult of performance; +yet the composer’s tendency toward frequent +modulation is always balanced by a sure sense of +beauty and proportion. From the muezzin’s call to +prayer at sunset ‘the work moves on from mood to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</span> +mood, from contrast to contrast—conflict and repose, +love and death, regnant glory and the dust of oblivion—in +a wonderful and strenuous comment on human +existence.’ The more directly lyric stanzas are assigned +to the Poet (tenor) and the Beloved (contralto); +the philosophical reflections on the eternal ‘Yea and +Nay’ of human existence are placed in the mouth of +the Philosopher (baritone). The love duets, especially +‘When you and I behind the veil,’ are rich in haunting +charm, and the choruses glow with vivid color. Bantock’s +musical Orientalism is not a mere matter of externals, +of rhythms, of vocal arabesques and percussion-effects. +It goes far deeper and interprets the soul +of the Orient as Pierre Loti has done in his prose poems. +And on hearing Bantock’s ‘Rubaiyat’ it seems, as Mrs. +Newmarch beautifully puts it, ‘as though the northern +wind had scattered a fresh shower of rose leaves upon +the grave of Omar Khayyam.’</p> + +<p>Nor has Bantock been insensible to the appeal of the +myths of ancient Hellas. A ‘choral symphony’ set to +Swinburne’s beautiful ‘Atalanta in Calydon,’ in twenty +parts, <em>a cappella</em>, performed 1912 at the Manchester +Festival, bears witness to the fact. It is said to be the +most difficult work ever written for unaccompanied +chorus, the final movement in particular taxing the +voices to the utmost. In it the composer has blazed +new paths of choral effect by means of groupings of +variously constituted choirs, and among other of its +movements a <em>scherzo</em> for female voices is especially +praised. Bantock’s other secular choral works include: +‘The Time Spirit,’ a rhapsody for chorus and orchestra +(first heard at Gloucester Festival, 1904); three ‘Cavalier +Tunes’ for male chorus, ‘God Save the King,’ for +chorus and orchestra, and various choruses for female +and mixed voices, among which might be mentioned +‘On Himalay,’ all fine examples of original and harmonious +part-writing.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</span></p> + +<p>In the field of sacred music Bantock has also been +active. A ‘Mass in B-flat major’ for male voices (1893), +an anthem, a setting of the 82d Psalm, and the two +oratorios ‘Christ in the Desert’ (Gloucester Festival, +1907) and ‘Gethsemane,’ should be mentioned. Of these +the latter is the more important and was given at the +Gloucester Festival of 1910. An episode from the life +of Christ, it has been written for baritone solo, chorus, +orchestra and organ to biblical words. A richly ornamented +orchestral prelude in A-flat is succeeded by a +species of symphony for baritone, orchestra and chorus +in four sections: ‘In the Garden,’ ‘The Agony,’ ‘The +Prayer,’ ‘Betrayal.’ Rhythmic in movement and clear +in expression, its music is especially dramatic in the +‘Betrayal Scene,’ which leads over to a chorus followed +by a short solo and an eight-part choral finale.</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>In Joseph Holbrooke, born July 6, 1878, in Croydon, +we have, in contrast to Bantock, a member of that +ultra-modern English school of composition of which +Cyril Scott, ‘the English Debussy,’ is perhaps the best +known exponent. Holbrooke has attracted wide attention +because of his daring individuality and his boldness +of invention, as well as the disregard for convention +shown in his brilliantly colored mode of scoring +for orchestra. He has chosen Edgar Allan Poe as his +poet <em>par excellence</em> and his most important choral and +orchestral works (among the latter ‘The Raven’ (1900), +‘Ulalume,’ ‘The Haunted Palace,’ ‘The Masque of the +Red Death’) are associated with the verse of the American +poet.</p> + +<p>At the Birmingham Festival of 1906 ‘The Bells,’ ‘the +Mohammedan-hated Bells’ of Poe and Holbrooke, +jostled Bantock’s ‘Omar Khayyam,’ when heard for the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</span> +first time. With remarkable breadth of tonal laying-out, +and an incessant employment of chords of the +eleventh and thirteenth, the resonant clamor of the +bells is brought out in the work with clever programmatic +effect, in perfect accord with Poe’s words. A +long orchestral prelude leads weirdly over into the +first chorus, in A minor. Following this come four +choral numbers, ‘Sledge-Bells,’ ‘Wedding-Bells’ (female +voices), ‘Alarm Bells’ and ‘Iron Bells,’ each ringing the +changes on the titular suggestion in appropriate tonal +inflections. Holbrooke’s choral effects throughout are +incisive and are heightened by a remarkable fidelity to +his text.</p> + +<p>‘Byron’ (Poem No. 6) for chorus and orchestra, given +at Leeds, Dec. 7, 1904, is a setting of Keats’ ‘Sonnet to +Byron,’ beginning ‘Byron, how sweetly sad thy melody.’ +As regards form it is modelled somewhat on +Beethoven’s ‘Choral Symphony,’ but the orchestra is +more continuously active and its relation to the poem +more intimate. The orchestra section, in fact, is about +half the work and it may be played separately as a +symphonic poem without its choral complement, a +<em>coda</em> being provided for the purpose. There is some +beautiful passage-work for the clarinet in the orchestral +score and the part-writing is worthy of all +praise.</p> + +<p>‘Queen Mab’ (Poem No. 5) for chorus and orchestra, +also heard at Leeds (1904), is only incidentally choral +and interest is largely centred in the orchestral part. +The ‘Dramatic Choral Symphony’ (homage to E. A. +Poe), written around quotations from Poe’s writings +and philosophical in trend, may be said to suffer to +some extent from the difficulty of effectively setting +philosophical reflection to music. This disadvantage +is even more marked in ‘Apollo and the Seaman,’ a +‘Dramatic Symphony with Choral Ending for Male +Choir,’ which was produced in Queen’s Hall, London,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</span> +in 1908. To quote a French critic:<a id="FNanchor_88" href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> ‘Mr. Holbrooke, +eager to show his originality, had this “illuminated +symphony” given in quite a special way. Scriabine +had already added chord projections of light to his +orchestra, and thought of joining perfumes to them +in his future scores. Mr. Holbrooke was content with +a projection of the magic-lantern kind. Queen’s Hall +was plunged into obscurity and the text of Mr. Trench’s +poem was projected on the sheet, Mr. Holbrooke’s +chords sounding forth in the meantime. Then, announced +by the stroke of a gong, there appeared an +enormous head of Apollo and, after a long pedal-point +suggesting the beginning of <em>Rheingold</em>, the seance went +on, proving conclusively that there is nothing less musical +(save possibly Nietzsche) than this dialogue between +a sailor and Apollo, disguised as a merchant, +upon the immortality of the soul and other poetic +topics.’</p> + +<p>Joseph Holbrooke has written a number of individual +anthems and choruses in addition to these larger +works, among them the ‘dramatic choral song (No. 2)’ +entitled ‘To Zanthe’ (words by Poe), not to forget the +choruses in his opera ‘The Children of Don and Dylan.’ +That his is a great talent is not to be denied; yet the +consensus of opinion seems to agree that he has not as +yet ‘found’ himself.</p> + +<p>Before passing on to a consideration of the work +of Henry Walford Davies, whose musical sympathies +are those of the Elgarian school rather than those of +the English modernists, we will refer, briefly, to the +choral compositions of the younger English followers +of Scott and Holbrooke.</p> + +<p>Gustav von Holst, born 1874, in Cheltenham, a pupil +of Stanford, has written some notable works: an <em>Ave +Maria</em> for eight-part female chorus; female choruses +with orchestra in the masque ‘The Vision of Dame +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</span>Christian’ (1909); various cantatas and a fine tetralogy +of settings from the sacred books of India, the hymns +from the Rig-Veda, for chorus and orchestra.</p> + +<p>Percy Grainger, born July 8, 1882, at Brighton, +near Melbourne, Australia, has also contributed some +charming lighter numbers, in unusual combinations, +to modern English choral literature. Among them are +his Kipling Choruses: the ‘Father and Daughter,’ the +old Faröe Island ballad, arranged for five solo voices +(male), chorus, strings, brass, mandolins and guitars; +and the sparkling ‘Strathspey,’ combined with several +jigs and the fine old sea chanty, ‘What shall we do +with a drunken sailor,’ sung by male quartet to the accompaniment +of eight strings, two guitars, xylophone, +flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and concertina.</p> + +<p>Ralph Vaughan Williams, born at Down Amprey, +Oct. 12, 1872, supplies, as it were, a connecting link between +the Elgarians and the post-Elgarians, the more +academic and the more revolutionary among present-day +English composers. His principal choral works +are: ‘Willow Wood,’ a cantata (Liverpool, 1909), and +two extended compositions for voices and orchestra, ‘A +Sea Symphony’ and ‘Toward the Unknown Regions’ +(Leeds Festival, 1907), both to poems by Walt Whitman, +who with Williams seems to take the place that +Poe does with Holbrooke.</p> + +<p>In Henry Walford Davies, born Sept. 6, 1869, at Ostwestry, +we have another composer of serious choral +music along traditional lines, yet one not unaffected +by modern tendencies. His music is rich in expression, +artistic conscientiousness and idealism, and his two +most important works are undoubtedly the oratorio +‘The Temple,’ and ‘Everyman,’ a musical setting of a +mediæval morality, the original suggestion for which, +like that of similar choral works in modern Germany, +no doubt came from France. The text, with few exceptions, +has been taken from the old English morality<span class="pagenum" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</span> +play: God commands Death to bring Everyman (that +is, Man in general) before Him for judgment. In vain +Everyman seeks companions among his servants, +friends and ‘the rich’ for a journey whence none return; +yet at length finds ready to accompany him (after +lengthy moral disquisitions) comrades in the shape of +‘Good Deeds,’ ‘Knowledge,’ ‘Discretion,’ ‘Strength,’ +‘Beauty’ and ‘Five Wits.’ The choral music throughout +is spontaneous, vivid and realistic. ‘Everyman’ was +composed for the Leeds Festival of 1904, at which it +scored a marked success. A short prelude of thirty-two +measures is the keynote to the entire work and leads +directly to a prologue (addressed to the audience), delivered +by bass, contralto, soprano and tenor. The chorus +of ‘laughing, feasting rich men, reclining upon their +cushions, is a splendid bit of musical realism, which +shows better than any theoretical disquisition how +standards of taste in English oratorio have satisfactorily +rid themselves of Puritanic influences in the +course of years.’<a id="FNanchor_89" href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> Davies’ biblical oratorio, ‘The Temple’ +(Worcester Festival, 1902), is an oratorio pure and +simple, austerely beautiful and rather complex in its +choral writing, but lacking, perhaps, the inspirational +freshness of its more dramatic successor. ‘The Song of +Thanksgiving’ is generally considered the finest single +number in the score.</p> + +<p>Davies has also composed: ‘Hervé Riel’ (Browning) +for baritone solo, chorus and orchestra (Royal College +of Music, 1895); ‘Four Songs of Innocence’ (part-songs +for female voices, 1894); ‘Ode to Time’ (baritone solo, +chorus and orchestra) and ‘Noble Numbers’ (a cycle +of 18 songs for solo voices, chorus and orchestra); +‘The Three Jovial Huntsmen’ (cantata with orchestra, +1900); a ‘Morning and Evening Service’ and a ‘Cathedral +Service’ and ‘Lift up your hearts’ (Hereford Music +Festival, 1906).</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</span></p> +<p>Among other names which seem to call for mention +in connection with recent English choral writing are: +Bradley Rootham (a fine cantata to Charles Kingsley’s +‘Andromeda,’ for solos, chorus and orchestra); Alexander +M. McLean (a cantata, ‘The Annunciation,’ influenced +by Reger, 1909); Henry Wood (‘Elijah,’ 1902); +Alfred Herbert Brewer (‘The Holy Innocents,’ oratorio, +1904, ‘Emmaus’); Harvey Lohr, F. W. Humberston +and C. Lee Williams.</p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>Conditions in contemporaneous American choral +writing are quite analogous to those in England. Several +of our most prominent choral writers had already +won substantial recognition before the twentieth century +opened. Foremost among these elder composers +who have continued to write in the concert forms of +oratorio and cantata are George W. Chadwick (born +1854) and Horatio W. Parker (born 1863). But a host +of younger composers has arisen to seek artistic preferment +in this field. This augmented interest is no +doubt due in part to the remarkable increase in the +number of choral societies in the United States beginning +in the last decade of the nineteenth century and +the consequent increase in the demand for choral novelties; +but it is due in still larger part to the increased +interest in composition itself in the United States, an +interest that has been fostered and nourished by a noticeably +greater willingness on the part of the American +public in the most recent years to receive with some +favor really meritorious works by native composers. +This meed of home recognition, the greatest possible +stimulus to all creative purpose, will no doubt increase +in measure with the years.</p> + +<p>Horatio Parker has added several to his already long +list of choral works given in Chapter VI: ‘King Gorm<span class="pagenum" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</span> +the Grim’ (1908), a fiery choral ballad on a Danish +theme (words after Theodor Fontane); ‘The Leap of +Roushan Beg’ (1913), a ballad for men’s voices with +tenor solo (poem by Longfellow); ‘Alice Brand’ (1913), +a short cantata for three-part female chorus with solos +(poem by Sir Walter Scott); and ‘A Song of Times,’ a +short cantata for chorus and orchestra.</p> + +<p>In ‘Morven and the Grail,’ Parker has produced his +largest choral work since the <em>Hora Novissima</em> and +‘Legend of St. Christopher.’ This oratorio was written +for the Centenary Festival of the Handel and Haydn +Society of Boston, April 11-15, 1915. It calls for four +soloists—Morven, baritone; Sigurd, tenor; St. Cecilia, +soprano; Our Lady, alto; Angels of the Grail, a second +solo quartet. The poem by Brian Hooker is a work of +unusual charm and has accompanying it a quaint synopsis +of the story, relating how ‘Morven, seafaring upon +the quest of the Grail, heareth the Angels thereof calling +to him, and will follow the world’s dream even unto +the end of the world. He cometh to Avalon, the heaven +of Pleasure, and there for a time abideth in bliss.’ But +hearing Sigurd, the Volsung, riding against the Dragon +and realizing that man can not be content forever in +joy, he departeth and cometh to Valhalla of the Old +Gods, where he abideth in glory until, ‘hearing in his +soul as it were the voice of St. Cecilia hymning Christ +her Lord,’ he proceedeth to the Saints in Paradise, the +heaven of holiness, where again for a time he abideth +in peace. In spirit he heareth ‘Our Lady communing +with her child new-born into the world’ and learneth +that man may not forever content himself at rest and +that the desire of the soul is not to be found in Paradise, +nor in any place, but that it followeth everywhere; +‘wherefore he will depart out of that heaven to be born +again and become as a little child.’ The heavens being +then opened to him, in a vision he heareth the song +of the Grail and the Angels singing of man, living on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</span> +‘between Hell and Heaven in wonder everlasting.’ The +closing argument is as follows: ‘And forasmuch as +God of His own heart so imagineth all things that they +die and rise again, therefore shall the earth declare +the glory of God, world without end.’</p> + +<p>George W. Chadwick has written in nearly all the +larger forms of choral, orchestral and chamber music. +In the opening years of the century he wrote two choral +works of large dimensions, ‘Judith’ and ‘Noël,’ both in +oratorio form, though the action of the first is so intense +and dramatic that it could well be performed +with full operatic machinery. Both are conceived in +the form of the classical oratorio, though Chadwick’s +musical vocabulary is clearly modern, his harmony +being rich, warm and distinctly individual. ‘Judith’ is +a work of massive proportions, one of the few great +choral works yet produced in America. ‘Noël’ is simpler +in structure, yet contains numbers of compelling +beauty.</p> + +<p>‘Judith,’ a lyric drama in three acts, was published in +1901. The persons represented are Judith, mezzo-soprano; +Achior, tenor; Holofernes, baritone; Ozias, bass; +and Sentinel, tenor. The text by William Chauncey +Langdon is cast in three acts. The first, in Bethulia, +pictures the sorrows of Israel beset by Asshur’s host, +to which the Israelites are about to yield when the entreaties +of Ozias persuade them to trust the Lord five +days longer. Judith relates her vision, in which her +departed husband directs her to save her people by +destroying Holofernes. The second act brings her to +the camp of Holofernes, who is completely infatuated +with her beauty. She insists upon becoming his cup-bearer, +and after he has partaken too freely of wine, +she (still responding to the vision) slays him with his +own sword and conceals his head in the folds of her +dress as she passes the guards, whom Holofernes had +commanded to let her pass freely in and out. The third<span class="pagenum" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</span> +act begins with her return to Bethulia just as Ozias once +more kneels at the wall, praying for deliverance. As +she shows the head of Holofernes there is great rejoicing +and the victory of the Israelites over the Assyrians +is proclaimed.</p> + +<p>‘Noël,’ a Christmas pastoral for four solos, chorus and +orchestra, was written for the Litchfield County (Conn.) +University Club and published in 1909. The text is +compiled from various sources, most of which are +named. The work consists of twelve numbers, besides +an orchestral prelude entitled ‘The Star.’ No. 1 is a +chorus, ‘This is the month’ (words by Milton); No. 2, +‘From the eastern mountains’ (words by Thwing), depicts +the journey of the Wise Men; No. 3, ‘Long and +darksome was the night,’ is an alto solo (words by Ray +Palmer, 1830); No. 4 is a chorus for female voices, +<em>Parvum quando cerno Deum</em>, the authorship of the +Latin text being unknown; No. 5 is a bass solo, ‘I was +a foe to God,’ words by Torsteegen, 1731; and No. 6 a +chorus of praise, ‘Praise Him, O ye heaven of heavens,’ +with words by Prudentius, A. D. 405. No. 7 begins the +second part with ‘While to Bethlehem we are going,’ +for alto solo and chorus, words by Violante de Ceo, +1601; No. 8 is a soprano solo, ‘Hark! a voice from yonder +manger,’ words by Gerhardt, 1656; No. 9 is a carol +from the Latin of the fourteenth century, ‘A child is +born in Bethlehem,’ which can be sung unaccompanied; +No. 10 is a tenor solo, ‘O holy Child, Thy manger +streams,’ words from the Danish; No. 11, a quartet, +‘Hither come ye heavy-hearted,’ words by Gerhardt, +1656; and the last number, ‘How lovely shines the +morning star,’ words by Nikolai, 1597, is a stately chorale +and fugue for chorus and quartet.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</span></p> + + +<h3>VII</h3> + +<p>Henry K. Hadley (born 1871) is prominent among the +group of younger Americans who have assiduously +cultivated choral writing, having published seven or +eight choral works of varying size, up to the present +time (1915). His first cantata was ‘In Music’s Praise,’ +which won the prize offered in 1901 by the Oliver Ditson +Company, music-publishers. This was followed +in 1904 by ‘A Legend of Granada,’ a cantata for +women’s voices with soprano and baritone solos (words +by Ethel Watts Mumford). Four other cantatas for +women’s voices with various solo parts succeeded this +one—‘The Fate of Princess Kiyo’ (1907), a legend of +Japan (words by Edward Oxenford); ‘The Golden +Prince’ (1914); ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ (1911); +and ‘The Princess of Ys.’</p> + +<p>Hadley’s longest choral work is the lyric drama ‘Merlin +and Vivian’ (1907), to the poem by Ethel Watts +Mumford, an ambitious composition calling for the full +resources of solo, choral and orchestral forces. It is +in three parts, whose scenes are laid respectively on the +‘Isle of Avalon,’ at King Arthur’s court, and at Castle +Joyousguard. The characters are Morgan-le-Fay, the +enchantress, Queen of Avalon; Vivian, the sorceress; +King Arthur; Merlin, the enchanter, Arthur’s councilor; +Adrihim, the spirit of the architect of King Suleiman; +and Ariel, the spirit of music and light.</p> + +<p>Frederick Shepherd Converse (born 1871), after several +orchestral works in the larger forms, entered the +choral field with a composition of oratorio dimensions, +‘Job,’ a dramatic poem for solos, chorus and orchestra, +which was composed for the fiftieth annual festival +of the Worcester (Mass.) Musical Association in 1907. +The text is taken from Job and the Psalms in the Vulgate. +accompanied with an English paraphrase. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</span> +characters represented are Job, tenor; his Friend, baritone; +a woman of Israel, mezzo-soprano; and the voice +of Jehovah, bass; the chorus represents the voices of +prayer and adoration. A preface to the work points +out that ‘the dramatic motive of the poem is the development +of the moods of Job, distress under suffering, +rebellion, doubt, and final submissive understanding +of the will of God. In emotional contrast with him +is the Woman of Israel, who represents the spirit of +unquestioning faith. The Friend stands, like the three +friends of the Bible story, for the spirit of conventional +piety. The chorus represents superhuman voices, +which declare the glory of God; against their sustained +mood of adoration and praise beats the contest of human +emotions. The impersonal universal spirit of the +chorus is conveyed in the music by simple diatonic +harmonies, the warp upon which the solo parts are +woven in modern chromatic design.’</p> + +<p>Other choral compositions by Converse are a ‘Serenade’ +(1908) for soprano and tenor solos, male chorus +and small orchestra (text by John Macy) and ‘The +Peace Pipe’ (1915), a cantata for baritone solo, mixed +chorus and orchestra to text from Longfellow’s ‘Song of +Hiawatha.’ Longfellow, who has probably furnished +more texts for cantatas and choral ballads than any +other one poet, is also drawn upon by Carl Busch for +his cantata, ‘The Four Winds’ (1907) (again from ‘The +Song of Hiawatha’), a lengthy work calling for soprano +and tenor solos with chorus.</p> + +<p>Rossetter Gleason Cole (born 1866), in his lyrical +idyl, ‘The Passing of Summer’ (1902), written to a +libretto by Elsie Jones Cooley, presents a pastoral scene +in which two lovers go forth at the dawning of summer’s +last day and witness gracious Summer’s farewell +to all her children—the summer winds, the falling +leaves, the soft-hued flowers—but as evening falls they +rejoice that love’s flower, which Summer had planted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</span> +in their hearts, dies not. The score, which is quite +lengthy, demands soprano, tenor and contralto solos, +chorus and orchestra.</p> + +<p>David Stanley Smith (born 1877) appears among the +list of choral writers with two short works—‘The Logos’ +(The Word is Made Flesh), published in 1908, which is +a Christmas cantata for three solo voices (The Logos, +the Angel Gabriel and Mary) and chorus of angelic +voices and voices from earth; and ‘God our Life’ (1906), +a sacred cantata for general use.</p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="footnotes"> +<p class="center p2 big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_88" href="#FNanchor_88" class="label">[88]</a> <em>Les Post-Elgariens</em>, par X.-M. Boulestin, S. I. M., Jan., 1914.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_89" href="#FNanchor_89" class="label">[89]</a> Schering: <em>Geschichte des Oratoriums</em>, pp. 591-592.</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER XIII<br> +<small>CONTEMPORARY CHORAL MUSIC IN FRANCE, ITALY, RUSSIA AND ELSEWHERE</small></h2> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Debussy: <em>L’enfant prodigue</em>, <em>La demoiselle élue</em> and <em>Le martyre de +Saint-Sébastien</em>; Reynaldo Hahn: <em>La pastorale de Noël</em>; Gabriel Pierné: +<em>La croisade des enfants</em>; <em>Les enfants de Bethlehem</em>; <em>Les fioretti de Saint-François +d’Assisi</em>—Florent Schmitt: Psalm XLVII; Vincent d’Indy: <em>Chant +de la cloche</em>, etc.—Renaissance of oratorio in Italy; Perosi and his oratorios; +Bossi: <em>Canticum canticorum</em>; <em>Il Paradiso perduto</em>; Wolf-Ferrari: +<em>La Vita Nuova</em> and other works—Scandinavia; choral music in Russia; +Moussorgsky; Rimsky-Korsakoff; Glazounoff; Glière; Arensky and others; +choral composition in Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, Spain.</p> +</div> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>The choral music of contemporary France has its +immediate origin in the recent past. In particular the +oratorio and sacred cantata may be said to represent +the larger fruition of what Romain Rolland calls ‘the +new religious art which has sprung up since the death +of César Franck, around the memory of that great +musician.’ Pierné, d’Indy, Schmitt—some of the most +distinctive composers of modern France—have been +influenced by the Belgian master in a greater or less +degree. Hence it is not strange that the best-known +French choral works of the present day in the larger +forms are of a religious or quasi-religious nature.</p> + +<p>Thus, even in the case of Debussy (less directly influenced +by Franck than any of his contemporaries), we +find that two of his three principal choral works, the +lyric scene <em>L’enfant prodigue</em> and the ‘mystery’ <em>Le +martyre de Saint-Sébastien</em>, are developments of Biblical<span class="pagenum" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</span> +and hagiographic text-motives. And even in his +<em>Damoiselle élue</em>, a cantata for female voices with solos, +the heroine of Rossetti’s famous poem (to a French +paraphrase of which Debussy has written his score) +looks down from the ramparts of her pre-Raphaelite +paradise.</p> + +<p>In <em>L’enfant prodigue</em> (Roman Prize, 1884), its composer +does not as yet inaugurate those radical changes +which were to find complete expression in his later +works. It may be briefly described as a simple and +expressive miniature oratorio, including duets, trios, +a cleverly written <em>cortège</em> and dance, whose frequent +recitative anticipates the melodic declamation employed +in <em>Pelléas et Mélisande</em>.</p> + +<p>But when Debussy sent in his <em>Damoiselle élue</em> (first +published in 1887) from Rome, the departure, from accepted +standards was more marked. Its music is rich +in delicate imagery and attention to detail, orchestral +and vocal, yet despite its subtle expression of the +yearning of the translated for the one left behind on +earth—the chorus of sopranos descending in flexible, +fluid cadences as the Blessed Damozel ‘leans out from +the gold bars of Heaven’ and ‘casts her arms along the +golden barriers’—the customary public hearing accorded +‘works sent from Rome’ was denied it in Paris. +Since then, however, its composer has not had to complain +of a lack of performances.</p> + +<p>It is the five-act mystery <em>Le martyre de Saint-Sébastien</em>, +given in 1911 at the <em>Châtelet</em> theatre in Paris, +which is Debussy’s most ambitious and individual contribution +to the literature of the newer French choral +art, though the music is really incidental to D’Annunzio’s +drama. In general, the greatest French critics +paid tribute to the merits of the work. Alfred Bruneau +spoke of ‘its clarity, serenity and strength,’ insisting +that while the composer had hitherto given his attention +mainly to the instrumental forms, he had attained<span class="pagenum" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</span> +new power in the choral portions of <em>Le martyre</em>. He +dwells on the beauty of the lament of the women at +Sébastien’s death, and the ‘vast and magnificent’ final +<em>alleluia</em>. Pierre Laloy does not share Bruneau’s enthusiasm +for the choral close. He admits its ‘occasional +Palestrinian character,’ but deprecates the intrusion of +trifling motives evidently used for effect alone. Robert +Broussel counts the four Preludes, hieratic and voluptuous, +among Debussy’s most finished pages. Reynaldo +Hahn laments a lack of continuity in the score. Yet +all critics agree, in the main, on the interest and artistry +of the score, in which the religious feeling is +strongly and definitely marked.</p> + +<p>This concludes the tale of the composer’s choral compositions +of a religious nature, but no mention of Debussy’s +activity in the choral field would be complete +without a reference to his lovely <em>a cappella</em> choruses, +<em>Chansons de Charles d’Orleans</em>, practically the only +secular music for chorus which he has written, but +music well worth careful study.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the religious expressiveness which +permeates <em>Le martyre</em>, as witness the musical treatment +of its last scene in which paradise unfolds its gates +amid a golden glory of angel hosts, it is Gabriel Pierné +whose scores are the most successful examples of oratorio +composition in modern France. Reynaldo Hahn, +it is true, in a manner anticipated Pierné’s <em>Enfants de +Bethlehem</em> in 1901, with a Christmas oratorio, <em>Pastorale +de Noël</em>, written upon the text of one of the great passion-mysteries +of the thirteenth century, using the actual +mediæval words and thus projecting the liturgic +drama of the Middle Ages into the present day. Yet +his work has never attained that wider public recognition +accorded Pierné’s oratorios.</p> + +<p>On these rest the latter’s fame, though he has written +a secular cantata, <em>Edith</em> (1882), and a prize symphony +for chorus and orchestra, <em>L’an mil</em>. <em>La croisade des enfants<span class="pagenum" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</span></em> +(known throughout this country as ‘The Children’s +Crusade’), <em>Les enfants de Bethlehem</em> and, finally, +<em>Les fioretti de Saint-François d’Assisi</em>, are his chief +works.</p> + +<p>The ‘Children’s Crusade’ and the ‘Children of Bethlehem’ +are ‘mysteries,’ but not in the sense of Debussy’s +impressionistic <em>Martyre</em>, or Hahn’s mediæval Christmas +‘Miracle.’ The ‘Children’s Crusade’ has been set to a +libretto after Marcel Schwob’s poetic story; the ‘Children +at Bethlehem,’ to a poem by Gabriel Nigond. Both +scores are musically full of color and rich in pictorial +detail, employing the folk-song thematically. Their +great effect lies in the introduction of the children’s +chorus as a strong factor in the musical development +of the oratorio. The criticism has been made,<a id="FNanchor_90" href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> in +particular with regard to the ‘Children’s Crusade,’ that +the picturesque mingling of male choruses, female +choruses, solo voices, humming choruses, echo choruses, +voices from above and from the distance, together +with the choruses of children and full orchestra +in a succession of nerve-stimulating episodes, seems due +to deliberate calculation, speculating on the emotional +and nervous sensibility of the general public, and that +as a consequence the music lacks genuine intimacy and +warmth. Be this as it may, the composer has been +superlatively successful in creating works whose performance +awakens widespread pleasure and appreciation.</p> + +<p>In <em>Saint-François d’Assisi</em>, set to a poem by Gabriel +Nigond after ‘The Little Flowers of St. Francis,’ Pierné +again uses Christian legendary material. His music +portrays, with less of austere dignity and serious depth +than Tinel’s famous ‘Franciscus,’ yet with a more melodious +facility of touch, the life-cycle of the sermonizer +of the birds and founder of the order which bears his +name. Like its predecessors, it has much spiritual +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</span>charm and delicacy of expression; as in them, the +standpoint of tonal effect is kept well in view and—another +resemblance—the score has been successful, +though not, perhaps, in the same degree as the others. +Still, Pierné’s writing has not the dramatic power and +individual flavor to be found in the works of some of +his <em>confrères</em>.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>Notable among these is Florent Schmitt, a pupil of +Gabriel Fauré (who, by the way, has contributed to +French choral literature some charming shorter works—<em>La +naissance de Vénus</em>, <em>Les Djinns</em>, and <em>Madrigal</em>). +<em>Danse des Devadesis</em> is especially notable for brilliant +color and subtly suggestive rhythms. Florent Schmitt’s +<em>Tragédie de Salomé</em> in its symphonic form is well +known to the American concert-goer, but the same cannot +be said of his ‘Psalm XLVII,’ for orchestra, organ, +chorus and solo voices, though it exists in an edition +with English text, and is a musically distinctive and +original work. Its keynote is praise and joy, and it +bids ‘the people clap their hands’ and proclaims that +‘the fields of the earth belong to the Lord’ with real +dramatic effect and vigor.</p> + +<p>It is in the work of Vincent d’Indy, principal heritor +of the musical and spiritual legacy of César Franck, +that a more conservative standpoint makes itself felt. +And this is only natural, when we consider that the +counterpoint of the sixteenth century is the point of departure +of the composer’s own creative activity. He +stands for the classic tradition persisting along modern +lines of development. His sympathies are with +Wagner rather than Debussy, and in his operas or, +as he terms them, ‘dramatic actions,’ <em>Fervaal</em> and +<em>L’Etranger</em>, he merges Wagnerian practice and his +individual concept with effective results, though with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</span> +a rejection of all that atmospheric vagueness which +makes the charm of <em>Pelléas</em>.</p> + +<p>His best known choral work is <em>Le chant de la cloche</em> +(‘Song of the Bell’), awarded a prize by the City of +Paris in 1885. This is a dramatic legend, opus 18, for +chorus, solos and orchestra, broad in outline, rich in +detail, Wagnerian in structure, yet the composer’s own +in thematic content. The orchestra is handled with +great brilliancy. A later work, opus 23, <em>Sainte-Marie +Magdeleine</em>, a cantata for two solo voices, female chorus +and accompaniment of harmonium and piano, is +a work of the type of Debussy’s <em>Enfant prodigue</em>, a +miniature oratorio intended to form part of an evening’s +concert-program. It is needless to add that, musically, +it shows no semblance to Massenet’s oratorio +of the same name. We have also by d’Indy <em>La Chévauchée +du Cid</em>, a Hispano-Moorish scene for baritone, +chorus and orchestra; a ‘Festival Cantata’ for inaugural +purposes; an <em>Ode à Valence</em>, for solo, chorus and orchestra; +and <em>L’Art et le Peuple</em>, for four-part male +chorus.</p> + +<p>For some time d’Indy has been working upon a dramatic +choral work on an extended scale, <em>La légende de +Saint-Christophe</em> (a subject which Rheinberger and +Horatio Parker have already treated in oratorio form), +and it is said to be nearing completion. It will be +looked forward to with interest, especially as it represents +one of the composer’s periodical returns from +symphonic to choral composition.</p> + +<p>While the works of the composers already discussed +may be said to represent the most important achievements +in contemporary French choral writing, a number +of others have been more or less active in the same +field. Among these are: Gustave Charpentier (tone-drama, +<em>La vie du poete</em>, 1892), the late Augusta Holmès +(<em>Hymne à Apollon</em>, dramatic scene, and <em>Nocturne</em>, both +for baritone solo and chorus. <em>Danse d’Almées</em>, for contralto<span class="pagenum" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</span> +solo and chorus, and ‘The Vision of the Queen,’ +scene for solos and female chorus); C. de Grandval +(<em>Sainte Agnes</em>, dramatic cantata, 1892); Bourgault-Ducoudray +(<em>Esprit de la France</em>, for mixed chorus) +and others; but in general the ultra-modernists, Ravel, +Dukas, Magnard, and others have neglected the domain +of choral for that of symphonic composition.</p> + +<p>In Belgium contemporary choral composition since +Peter Benoît has been influenced by the Neo-French +school. We have G. L. Huberti’s <em>De laatste Zonnestraal</em> +(1892) and (in manuscript) <em>Verlichtung</em> (1882), <em>Bloemardinne</em> +and ‘Death of William of Orange,’ A greater +tone-poet is Émile Mathieu, with three secular choral +works, <em>Le Hoyoux</em>, <em>Le Sorbier</em> and <em>Freyhir</em> (1893). Jan +Blockx’s cantatas are mostly founded on national episodes. +Among them are: <em>Vredezang</em>, <em>Het droom van’t +paradies</em>, <em>Clokke Roelandt</em>, <em>Scheldezang</em> (1903). The +‘Roland’ cantata is his best-known choral number. Edgar +Tinel’s dramatic oratorio, <em>Franciscus</em> (1888), is the +greatest choral work the Flemish school has produced. +It has been more fully noted in Chapter IX.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>In Italy the renaissance of choral composition might +be said to begin in 1898, with Don Lorenzo Perosi’s appointment +as director of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. +In his sacred trilogy, <em>La Passione di Cristo</em>, comprising +(a) <em>La Cena del Signore</em>, (b) <em>L’Orazione del Monte</em>, (c) +<em>La Morte del Redentore</em> (performed for the first time +at Milan, 1899, at the Italian Congress of Sacred Music), +and in his oratorios, <em>La Transfigurazione del Nostro +Signor Gesù Cristo</em> (1898), <em>La Risurrezione di Lazaro</em> +(1898), <em>Il Natale del Redentore</em> (1899), <em>Mosè</em>, and <em>Il +Giudizio Universale</em> (1903), all written in a style ‘made +up of all styles and ranging from the Gregorian chant<span class="pagenum" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</span> +to the most modern modulations,’<a id="FNanchor_91" href="#Footnote_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> he shows deep +melodic instinct, richness of melodic invention, and a +strong dramatic veritism which has done much to make +them popular in Italy. ‘Each of the oratorios,’ to quote +again the great French critic, ‘is really a descriptive +mass, which from beginning to end traces out one dominating +thought.’ Critics in general are still divided as +to the ultimate value of his music; but its sincerity and +strength of purpose are unquestioned.</p> + +<p>Of greater importance than Perosi’s disciples Giovanni +Tebaldini (<em>Le Nozze de Cecilia</em>), and Alfredo +Ambrogio (<em>L’Entrata di Cristo in Gerusalemme</em>), is +Enrico Bossi. The latter’s oratorios, <em>Canticum canticorum</em> +(1900) and <em>Il Paradiso perduto</em> (1903), are distinctly +concert oratorios in the grand style, more +strongly individual and less mystically religious than +Perosi’s. His treatment of Solomon’s glowing ‘Song +of Songs’ is musically sensuous rather than symbolic, +and at times suggestive, in its passion, of Massenet. It +is a work rich in imaginative development and, again +in contrast to Perosi, the weight is laid on its choral +rather than its solo portions. The secular trend is even +more marked in <em>Il Paradiso perduto</em>, and some of its +movements are to be reckoned among the finest in modern +choral literature. In both these works, as in his secular +cantata <em>Giovanna d’Arca</em>, and his symphonic poem +<em>Il Cieco</em>, with tenor solo and chorus, Bossi has infused +the spirit of modernism into the Italian oratorio, and +developed it beyond the purely ecclesiastical concept +represented by Perosi.</p> + +<p>In this direction the influence of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, +better known, perhaps, as a composer of opera +than of oratorio, has also been noteworthy. His cantata, +<em>Talitha kumi</em> (‘Maiden, arise’), on the favorite +subject of the daughter of Jairus, written in 1900, was +followed by the oratorio <em>Sulamith</em>, which, if not dramatically<span class="pagenum" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</span> +as strong as Bossi’s <em>Canticum</em>, betrays melodic +charm and warm orchestral coloring.</p> + +<p>His greatest choral work, however, is undoubtedly +his <em>La Vita Nuova</em>, opus 9, in which, using Dante’s text, +he has woven together incidents of the love-life of +Dante and Beatrice in a succession of idyllic and lyric +mood-pictures. The suggestive power of the work is +remarkable; dramatic effect, rhythmic variety, harmonic +subtlety are combined in well-nigh perfect expressional +unity. The composer has followed his own +inspiration throughout, and that with the happiest artistic +results. There need be no hesitation in affirming +that this choral work marks the apex of attainment in +modern Italian choral composition, and it may be considered +the most valuable individual product of the +Italian choral revival.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>Turning from Italy to Scandinavia, we find that in +general little creative work is done in the choral forms +at the present day. In Finland, as in Denmark, the +cantata after the Handelian or Mendelssohnian model +is still in vogue. Even Sibelius has done little in the +way of choral writing—only a ‘Festival Cantata’ and +some choruses; nor has anything of importance been +written in Norway in this genre since the death of +Grieg; while oratorio, though largely given in concert +in Sweden, has not stimulated original composition.</p> + +<p>In Russia more has been done. The Neo-Russians +turn more naturally to symphonic and operatic composition +than to the choral forms, and although quite +a few of the great contemporaries are identified with +choral compositions, collectively there has not been a +great deal written, with the exception of music for the +liturgic services of the Greek Catholic Church, to which +Tschaikowsky, Bortniansky, and others have made notable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</span> +contributions. This liturgic music does not call +for consideration here, as it is discussed elsewhere. +The folk-music of Russia, which plays such a prominent +part as thematic material in the works of the Neo-Russian +school, is chorally more identified with the +operatic vocal ensemble, which is also outside the scope +of the present chapter.</p> + +<p>The original choral compositions of contemporary +Russia stand high, qualitatively. Moussorgsky is represented +by his virile ‘Destruction of Sennacherib’ +(1866) for chorus and orchestra, and a choral number +from his opera, <em>Salâmmbo</em>, revised, polished and enlarged +as a chorus for mixed voices and solo under +the title of ‘Joshua,’ one of the few of the composer’s +works which show a strong Oriental flavor. Nor has +Rimsky-Korsakoff, the friend and editor of Moussorgsky, +written much more. There is a cantata for tenor, +bass, male chorus and orchestra, ‘The Doom of Olga’ +(Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1909); another, <em>Switezianka</em>, for +soprano, tenor, chorus and orchestra, a cantata entitled +<em>Doubmouchka</em> and a ‘Gloria’ for orchestra and chorus; +as well as fifteen folk-songs arranged for mixed voices.</p> + +<p>Glazounoff, the symphonist, a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakoff, +is the author, jointly with Liadow, of a cantata +in memory of the celebrated Russian sculptor Antokolsky, +for tenor solo, chorus and orchestra, written +after his defection from the ranks of the national +school; and Liadow himself has set forty-five folk-songs +for female voices and composed a musical setting, for +mixed voices and orchestra, of the last scene from Schiller’s +‘Bride of Messina.’</p> + +<p>Arensky has given us a fine choral number—‘The +Fountain of Bachtchissarai,’ after a Pushkin poem, for +solo voices, chorus and orchestra; while Rachmaninoff’s +spirited and plastically written choral ballad, +‘Springtide,’ after a poem by Nekrassoff, composed in +1901 for dramatic baritone, mixed chorus and orchestra,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</span> +has already been heard in this country. A new +choral work by Rachmaninoff, set to E. A. Poe’s poem +‘The Bells,’ was given at Petrograd in the recent past +with great success. Glière has to his credit a choral +suite for female voices, with the four seasons as its +textual basis; Ippolitoff-Ivanoff has written three cantatas, +Oriental in coloring, each in memory of a Russian +poet; Akimenko has composed choruses for mixed +voices; Georges Catoire for female voices; and Alexander +Tanejew has set two groups of twelve poems +each, for four and five-part chorus respectively, while +his better-known nephew, Sergius Ivanovitch, who died +this year in Petrograd (1915), is the composer of a cantata, +‘St. John of Damascus’ (1884). Stravinsky, too, +has a cantata to his credit, composed in 1911, and this +practically completes the tale of contemporary Russian +choral composition.</p> + +<p>In concluding this study of contemporary choral music +there only remain to be mentioned, in Poland, +Felix Nowowiejski, author of several ‘concert-dramas,’ +‘The Prodigal Son’ (1901), ‘The Discovery of the Holy +Cross’ (1906) and <em>Quo Vadis</em> (1907)—rich in theatrical +effect; and in Hungary, Mauritius Vavrineoz, with an +oratorio, <em>Christus</em>. In Spain and Portugal choral music, +in the modern sense of the word, is hardly written. +Felipe Pedrell’s dramatic cantata <em>Comte Arnau</em>, a score +distinctly modern in style and treatment, and Grignón’s +<em>La Nit de Nadal</em>, for chorus, solos and orchestra, are +about the only ones that come to mind.</p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="footnotes"> +<p class="center p2 big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_90" href="#FNanchor_90" class="label">[90]</a> Schering: <em>Geschichte des Oratoriums</em>, p. 546.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_91" href="#FNanchor_91" class="label">[91]</a> Romain Rolland: <em>Musiciens d’Aujourd’hui</em>, Paris.</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER XIV<br> +<small>THE ORGAN FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT</small></h2> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The ancestor of the modern organ; pneumatic and hydraulic organs +of classical antiquity—The organ in early mediæval times—The tenth and +eleventh centuries: cloister and minster organs; the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries: introduction of the ‘portative’ organ and balanced keys; the +fourteenth century: chromatic keyboard; pedals; organ blowing—Fifteenth +and sixteenth centuries; cathedral and church organs; the <em>Rückpositiv</em>; the +Spanish <em>partida</em>; builders—The seventeenth century: mechanical development; +tuning; union of manuals; the eighteenth century: the ‘Swell’; +English builders; the Silbermanns—<em>Rococo</em> adornment of cases; the nineteenth +century and the birth of the modern instrument—Pneumatic action; +electric action; the Universal Air Chest; duplex stop control; tonal improvements—The +chamber organ; the concert organ; conclusion.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="p2">Far back in the mist of ages some primal prototype +of civilized man found that by blowing a hollow reed +he produced a pleasing sound. This was probably +the first step in the long process of evolution which +has resulted in the concert organ of to-day. From the +single reed of antediluvian times to the grouped reeds +of the dawn of history was a logical transition; the +early peoples of the Orient, the Egyptians, the Indians +and the Chinese had accomplished it; but classical antiquity +is, perhaps, our most definite point of contact, +and it might be said that the bucolic Pan’s pipes or +Syrinx of the Theocritan shepherd is the ancestor of +the ‘king of instruments.’</p> + +<p>The <em>Syrinx</em> of pastoral Greece consisted of a series +of reeds (tubes) without sound-holes, of graduated +length and blown across the ends, each tube giving +forth one note of the diatonic scale. In the course of +time men hit upon the idea of allowing a bellows to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</span> +take the place of the human lungs and thus produce +sound by artificial instead of natural wind-pressure. +Hence, even before the second century B. C. we have +the first pneumatic organ—a series of variously tuned +pipes, with mouthpieces, placed upon a box or chest, +into which the air was pumped by bellows, the pipes +sounding when the player opened the primitive valves +which admitted the air to each pipe.</p> + +<p>Following the pneumatic came the hydraulic organ, +in which water-pressure<a id="FNanchor_92" href="#Footnote_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> took the place of wind-pressure. +The invention of this <em>organon hydraulicon</em> is ascribed +to the Alexandrian mechanician Ktesibos, who +flourished during the second century B. C. The description<a id="FNanchor_93" href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> +left of the instrument by the inventor’s pupil +Heron has been corroborated in its essentials by the +discovery of a small baked clay model of an hydraulic +organ, found in the ruins of Carthage in 1885 and preserved +in the <em>Musée Lavigérie</em> at Carthage. This model, +7-1/16 by 2-3/4 inches (which it is estimated would represent +an actual instrument 10 feet high and 4 feet +across), was made by the potter Possessoris, whose +name is engraved on it, about 120 A. D., and is important +as verifying the fact that a primitive keyboard was +in use at the beginning of our era.</p> + +<p>It is clear that both forms of the organ, pneumatic +and hydraulic, existed side by side for centuries—the +hydraulic principle being best adapted to the construction +of large instruments, powerful in tone, for permanent +placing in amphitheatre, palace or coliseum, +and the pneumatic better suited to smaller ones, easily +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</span>carried about and enjoying, perhaps, a more general +popularity. The stationary and moveable organs of +the Roman empire thus anticipate the ‘positive’ and +‘portative’ instruments of a later day.</p> + +<p>Yet it is the hydraulic organ which is principally associated +with the palmy days of Roman imperial rule. +Though the poet Cornelius Severus (28 B. C.) celebrates +the organ (<em>cortina</em>) which, ‘so rich in its varied +strains under the master’s skill, with liquid sound +makes music in the vast theatre,’ evidence tends to +prove that the Romans were, musically, not a highly +advanced people—their ideal was quantity and loudness +of sound rather than quality, an ideal which the +hydraulic organ might realize better than the pneumatic. +Hence the <em>organon hydraulicon</em>, or <em>hydraulus</em>, +was a luxury in vogue among the wealthy patricians of +the empire. Nero, whose musical attainments history +views with such grave suspicion, possessed two hydraulic +organs. That they were heard in the Coliseum we +know by the testimony of Petronius, the <em>arbiter elegantiarum</em> +of Nero’s Augustinian circle, who speaks of gladiators +struggling to the sound of the water-organ. It is +strange to note that among later Roman emperors the +depraved and degenerate Heliogabalus (A. D. 219-222) +and his immediate successor, the good and noble Alexander +Severus, were both good performers on the +water-organ.</p> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>With the universal spread of the Christian faith the +organ found its way into the service of the Church, +and even during the decline of the empire and the +dawn of western civilization the art of organ-building +never altogether died out. And this, despite the fact +that originally the instrument had come under the ban +of the Church because of its heritage of evil associations<span class="pagenum" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</span> +with the gladiatorial combats, saturnalia and theatrical +representations of Pagan Rome; possibly, also, +because the emperor Julian the Apostate was the owner +of a fine <em>hydraulus</em>. Yet this prejudice was ere long +overcome, for the Spanish bishop, Julianus, in the fifth +century, asserts that organs were commonly used in the +churches throughout Spain.</p> + +<p>And such is the esteem in which the finer examples +of the builder’s art are held that they are considered +a gift fit for kings. The Emperor Konstantine Kopronymus +presents one to Pepin, king of the Franks, in the +year 757; and another Byzantine emperor sends one to +Charlemagne in 812, of which the chronicle says: ‘Its +bellows were of hide, its pipes of bronze, its tones as +loud as thunder and sweet as the sound of lyre and +psaltery.’ A pneumatic organ (as distinct from the +hydraulic one installed in his palace) was secured by +the son of Charlemagne, Louis le Debonnaire, for the +royal chapel at Aix-la-Chapelle. And before the tenth +century the use of the organ in church and monastery +was well-nigh universal. Three treatises on organ-building +written during the tenth century testify to the +fact. No doubt these early hydraulic instruments had +stops of some kind, but if so, their secret has perished +with them.</p> + +<p>The tenth century (as well as the eleventh) was one +of great activity in organ-building. Numerous small +organs were made in France, England and Germany +for use in cloister schools, where they supported the +singing of the Gregorian melodies. They usually consisted +of a series of from eight to, at the most, twenty-two +pipes, tuned in the scale of C major, from the tenor +C upward. The pipes resembled the modern diapasons +in construction and stood behind a species of manual +with small keys (upright at first, but later horizontal) +which allowed the wind to enter the pipes when they +were pressed down. Into these organs the wind was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</span> +pumped by bellows and water-power was not used to +regulate the pressure.</p> + +<p>The passion for cathedral building which had broken +out even before this time conditioned the building of +great organs in keeping with the size and splendor of +the ministers. These large organs were all built on the +hydraulic principle. In England we find a monster +organ (described in verse by St. Wolstan) installed in +Bishop Alphege’s church at Winchester about 980 A. D. +It had four hundred pipes of bronze, twenty-six bellows +and two manuals (for two players) of twenty keys (or +rather levers) each, every key governing ten pipes. +These pipes were probably tuned in octaves of different +pitch or, perhaps, with fifths. The instrument required +the services of some seventy men to pump the wind! +William of Malmesbury mentions ‘a fair organ with +pipes of copper, mounted in gilded frames,’ which St. +Dunstan presented to his monastery in the chronicler’s +native town. And in the <em>Vita S. Oswaldi</em> we are informed +that the Saxon Earl Elwin gave the Convent +of Ramsay an organ of spiral form, having copper +pipes, which ‘on feast-days emitted a sweet melodie +and a clangour resounding a long way.’ Large organs +were also installed in Cologne, and in the churches and +monasteries of many other German and French cities +during this century. The ‘clangour’ of the Ramsay organ +mentioned by the chronicler we may take for +granted, for in these instruments no special distinction +of tone-quality was sought, power and sonority being +the first essentials.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>Prior to the tenth and eleventh centuries, with their +monster instruments, the organ had been comparatively +easy to play. But with the enormous increase in size +and a correspondingly complicated mechanism the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</span> +organist had to be somewhat of an athlete, so great was +the actual physical exertion required to depress the +broad levers which produced the tone (no actual keyboard +existed before 1200 A. D.).<a id="FNanchor_94" href="#Footnote_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> The clenched fist +was used and originated the mediæval term <em>organum +pulsare</em>, to ‘beat’ the organ. During this century and +the succeeding one the compass of the organ was enlarged +from one to three octaves, and progress in organ-building +was also made in other directions.</p> + +<p>In the twelfth century the pipes were first divided +into registers and stops, and the small ‘portative’ organs, +easily carried, came into use. Not until a hundred +years later did the balanced keys, <em>depressa lamina</em>, +a genuine keyboard, appear in connection with the +portative organs, and in the fourteenth century their +use was general in the larger organs as well. Before +the introduction of the keyboard, the performer had +‘beaten’ levers or pulled out stop-like sliders to produce +the tone, and the great exertion entailed by the ‘beating’ +of the levers in the great organs is supposed to have +led to the invention of ‘mixtures’ some time after +1300.</p> + +<p>The fourteenth century also offers the first instance +of the use of a chromatic keyboard, that of the organ +at Halberstadt, built in 1361 and restored in 1495, in +which an inscription on the keyboard states that it +formed part of the original organ, which had the semi-tonal +arrangement of keys. During this century organ-building +received a temporary check owing to both the +Greek and Roman churches declaring against the use of +the instrument in public worship. It was soon restored +in the Roman Church, but has never been reintroduced +in the Greek.</p> + +<div class="chapter"> +<figure class="figcenter illowe35" id="ilofp403"> + <img class="w100 p6" src="images/ilofp403.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption">Handel’s Organ in Whitchurch</figcaption> +</figure> + + +<p class="center p1b"><em>From a photograph</em></p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="p2">During the fourteenth century the ‘positives’ and +‘regals,’<a id="FNanchor_95" href="#Footnote_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> small stationary organs, were perfected; and +the organ pedals, said to have been invented by Ludwig +van Valbeke, an organist of Brabant, about 1300, were +first introduced. The change from broad to narrow +and more easily played keys in the larger organs is +also supposed to have taken place at this time. The +‘blowers’ of these days, and for centuries to come, however, +did not have an easy time of it. In many of the +large organs the wind was pumped by continual shifting +of weights of lead or stone. This was not the case +with the bellows at Magdeburg and Halberstadt. Here +each blower manipulated two heavy bellows, pressing +down the upper plate of one while he raised the other +with a foot shod with an iron shoe. These blowers +were appropriately enough termed ‘tramplers.’ Another +method of pumping was in use in the Seville +Cathedral up to comparatively recent times. Here the +blower walked continually from one to the other end +of a fifteen-foot plank, on the principle of a see-saw, +alternately raising and depressing the feeders as he +reached either end. The ‘portatives’ of this time usually +consisted of a small wind-chest between two standards, +planted with two ranks of keys, of eight pipes +each, and with a clavier of eight flat diatonic keys, +with single bellows like the ordinary domestic article. +The smaller ‘portatives’ may be said to have furnished +the reed stops for the organ proper.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries organs of +great beauty and variety of tone, and rich in external +adornment (there is a legend of an organ with pipes +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</span>of pure silver erected by Philip II, king of Spain, in +the <em>Escorial</em>), were built throughout Europe, the Germans +enjoying the greatest reputation as builders. In +France (Amiens Cathedral, Church of St. Bernard of +Comminges, Chartres Cathedral); in Italy (Basilica di +San Petronio, Bologna; Orvieto Cathedral, Church of +St. John Lateran); in Spain (cathedrals of Salamanca, +Zaragoza, Tarragona, Barcelona), and in Germany +(churches and minsters in Vienna, Erfurt, Brunswick, +Strassburg, Salzburg, Bamberg, Nürnberg) are still to +be found organs and cases which excite admiration. +In England small organs were principally used in the +churches during the fifteenth century, though toward +its close and during the sixteenth larger organs were imported +from the Continent. During the sixteenth century +the <em>Rückpositiv</em> (back positive), a small portable +organ for liturgic ceremonies, located at the organist’s +back and communicating with a keyboard in the principal +organ by means of trackers running under his +feet, was invented and used until well into the nineteenth +century, especially in France.</p> + +<p>A curious feature of the sixteenth-century cathedral +organ of Spain, and one which influenced Spanish religious +composition, was the <em>partida</em>, or division. All +the stops were divided into two groups, each one acting +on half the keyboard, the stops on one side sounding +in the treble half, those on the other in the bass. Thus +a Spanish cathedral organ with 120 stops in reality +controlled only 60 sets of pipes. Compositions for these +organs were called <em>partidas</em>, one hand playing full organ +with all the reeds, the other using only flue stops. +The part written for full organ was always <em>glosada</em>, +or rich in brilliant passage-work and ornamentation. +Organ builders in the earlier days were usually monks +and priests, as all creative cultural activity was then +concentrated in the church and especially in the monasteries. +During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</span> +lay builder, in contrast to the ecclesiastic, makes his appearance.</p> + +<p>Among these builders were, in England: William +Wotton, who flourished in 1487, Chamberlyn (1509), +Duddyington (1519), Perrot (1526) and White (1531); +in Germany: Compenius, Schnitzker, Hildebrandt, +Schmid, André, Kranz, Lobsinger, and the Trampeli; in +Italy: the Attengnati family, Lorenzo di Giacomo, Luca +Blasi, Vincenzo Columbi. It may be said that during +the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the organ assumed +a form whose essentials—plurality of keyboards +(manuals) and wind-chests, arrangement of stop action +and pedals—have remained unchanged during +succeeding centuries. Interesting as an incident in the +development of the increasing secular use of the instrument +is its introduction (in the smaller form) in +the orchestra of Peri’s <em>Euridice</em> (1600), the first opera, +in which <em>un regalo</em> and <em>Duoi organi di legno</em> (portatives +with wooden pipes) were employed.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>During the seventeenth century many mechanical +devices intended to secure rapidity, ease and precision +in organ playing were invented or perfected. The custom +of tuning the organ according to the ‘unequal +temperament,’ which made practicable the use of only +sixteen keys, persisted throughout this century, and +did not die out on the Continent until the next. The +wind-gauge, invented in 1675 by Chr. F. Förner, was important, +as it made possible the proper regulation of +the wind-power in the various wind-chests and in the +registers above them. In general, this century as well +as that following are notable because of the addition of +many new flute and reed-tone stops, and a general enrichment +of the tone-color of the instrument; as well<span class="pagenum" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</span> +as the first general application of a thoroughly modern +idea, the union of several distinct organs, each having +a keyboard of its own, into one single instrument, +though more than one manual had been used before +this.</p> + +<p>Early in the eighteenth century the ‘swell’ is invented +to vary the loudness of the organ tone, by an English +organ-builder named Jordans (1712); and during the +course of the century the softest sounding manual in +the majority of English organs (known as the ‘echo’) +is changed into a swell. On the other hand the pedal +is practically unknown in England until the nineteenth +century. Father Smith, Thomas, René Harris and +Avery were prominent English organ-builders of the +eighteenth century, as well as Samuel Green, who invented +the horizontal bellows in 1789. The Silbermanns +were the great German builders of the time, and +from 1714 to 1817 various members of this family built +remarkably fine organs, renowned for their tone quality +and constructive excellence, in a number of German +cities. One of the finest of the Silbermann organs +is that of the Freiberg minster, built by Gottfried, +in 1714; another is that of the Catholic Royal Chapel +in Dresden.</p> + +<p>A curious development of the <em>rococo</em> spirit of the age +was the amount of money spent on the tasteless external +embellishment of the instrument—angels posturing +on the organ-cases, who by means of a mechanism +beat kettle-drums and cymbals and blew trumpets, and +‘cymbal stars’ which jingled as they revolved on wires. +Yet such errors in judgment represented no more than +a temporary aberration of taste, and the century as a +whole is one of continual mechanical progress with +corresponding musical results.</p> + +<p>It is in the nineteenth century, however, that the +great advance in the mechanics of organ-building, +which has culminated in the present perfected instrument<span class="pagenum" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</span> +of to-day, begins. Cavaillé-Col (b. 1811) introduced +separate wind-chests, with varying pressures +for the higher, middle and lower parts of the keyboard, +and added <em>flutes octaviantes</em> to the register. +In 1832 C. S. Barker (England) invented composition +pedals, making easier the handling of groups of stops, +and the pneumatic lever. And, finally, with the improvements +of H. W. Willis and the electro-pneumatic +action of Péschard (1866) (electricity had already been +applied to the key-action by Dr. Gauntlett in 1850), the +history of the ancient organ comes to an end and that +of the modern instrument begins.</p> + +<p class="right" style="padding-right: 2em;">F. H. M.</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>The processes by which the organ has developed +from its clumsy prototypes to the magnificent yet sensitive +and delicate instrument of to-day are parallel to +those to be found in other products of man’s ingenuity. +Practical science has contributed step by step to this +evolution, and no one can understand the modern organ +who is not familiar with the latest inventions of +electro-pneumatics.</p> + +<p>The first step was the introduction of pneumatic +mechanism to open the pallets in the old open slide +chests, thus equalizing the touch of the key-action. This +also made it possible to greatly increase the number of +stops served by a single pallet. The next problem was +to avoid increasing the weight of the key-touch when +the couplers were drawn, and this was accomplished by +an extension of the pneumatic system in the key-desk, +which in this case was connected by action-tubing to the +chests. The resulting combination of an entirely pneumatic +key-action with the pneumatic operation of the +pallets constituted tubular pneumatic action.</p> + +<p>An improved form of chest was at this time constructed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</span> +in which each stop was supplied with wind +separately and the single pallet for each note was replaced +by a small pneumatic valve for each pipe of +each stop on the chest. Hilborne L. Roosevelt and C. S. +Haskell developed this system (1885) and at first employed +it in connection with tracker key-action. Many +an old organ of this type is in perfect condition to-day. +Most American organs contain chests built on this plan, +with countless modifications. Among its advantages +are greater steadiness of wind, and independent control +of the wind as it enters each stop-chamber. The +latter feature is closely related in its operation to the +French ventils by which whole sections of stops are cut +off from the wind at the player’s will. Thus the modern +organ combines tubular pneumatic action with pneumatic +chests, as practically all chests, whether open or +individual, are pneumatic in their operation.</p> + +<p>An important advance must be credited to Mr. Roosevelt, +in the origination of adjustable combination action, +which was applied by him in 1882.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to record adequately the revolution +which the use of electricity has wrought in organ +building. In 1886 Henry Willis erected a large four-manual +electric organ in Canterbury Cathedral, where +the storage batteries filled a good-sized room (which +was the old singing school room), and their amperage +was enormous. The successful audacity of this achievement +deserves recognition. Here was a large key desk +placed behind the choir stalls, and connected only by +cables, 120 feet long, with the organ, which was entirely +concealed in the Triforium. This is exactly what +has become a commonplace in the organ of to-day. +The progress of electricity has, however, enabled us to +use much smaller magnets, and to apply their action to +the pneumatic chests with great simplicity. For it +must be remembered that so-called electric organs +merely add electrical control to the existing pneumatic<span class="pagenum" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</span> +action of the pipe valves. In some organs this element +is proportionately quite small, in others it is very large; +but in any case the chest action is pneumatic.</p> + +<p>In one form of chest the action, while electro-pneumatic +and designed to control each stop separately, is +exposed and constitutes the ceiling of a highly developed +modern open chest. Though originated by Randebrock, +the chief credit for this combination of the two +fundamental systems of chest structure is due to John +T. Austin (1895). He has named it the ‘Universal Air +Chest.’</p> + +<p>The separate stop-chest made it possible to operate +a stop from more than one keyboard, or at more +than one octave, a process which is called duplex, +multiple or unit stop control. Noted builders are applying +the idea in great variety. The principle is not new. +It was brought out in Belgium by L. Dryvers, and described +by H. V. Couwenbergh in 1887. One of his +schemes comprised an organ of six units, from which a +three-manual organ of forty-six registers was formed. +For instance, a Bourdon stop of 104 pipes yielded ten +registers, of the following variety of nomenclature—<em>Bourdon</em>, +<em>Sous-Basse</em>, <em>Flûte Bouchée</em>, <em>Flûte Douce</em>, +<em>Flûte Champêtre</em>. The ingenious prophet, however, +added to this scheme a <em>Récit</em> organ of eleven absolutely +separate solo stops, built on the <em>système ordinaire</em>, and +expressive, thereby showing a commendable sense of +the weakness of his own system!</p> + +<p>All modern organs employ the principle of duplex +mechanism to some extent, and, legitimately used, it +is of enormous value. The example given above is the +<em>reductio ad absurdam</em> of the idea, and also indicates +the deceptive habit of renaming the stops thus derived.</p> + +<p>The success of the modern organ has depended in +large measure on the use of really effective swell chambers. +Not only are they effective, but the proportion +of stops that are enclosed has been greatly increased.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</span> +The organ has thereby been liberated from its old lack +of flexibility. We even find two expressive divisions +playable from one manual. An interesting adaptation +of this idea is the grouping of all the stops of each tone +family in separate swell chambers. This has been done +on some large concert organs, as well as on those of the +unit type. Mention must here be made of the conspicuous +service rendered by Robert Hope-Jones both +in his insistence on effective expression, with the stops +arranged in ‘families’ of tone, and in his advocacy of +the unit organ. However, he was often obliged to +modify his own theories in practice. He was the first +to leather the lips of Diapason pipes.</p> + +<p>Tonally, the modern organ has also made great +strides. It cannot be said that voicers are more skillful +in their art, nor that the quality of the materials used is +better than in the past. We must, however, note the +great advantage of being able to supply and control +wind of any pressure desired in the modern wind chest. +It is quite common to voice the chorus solo reeds on a +wind pressure of twenty-five inches, for which the +scales used, the thickness and weight of the metal, and +the voicing, are greatly modified. The Diapasons and +Flutes have not changed so much as the chorus and solo +reeds, and the stops of string tone. Artistic voicing has +completely changed the character of these stops, and +has adjusted itself to the new conditions of expression. +A few men have achieved fame in this direction, though +their work has not always received the recognition it +deserves. Among them were George and Charles Englefried +and others, whose work was found on many +Roosevelt organs; John W. Whiteley, of the English +family of organ builders; and W. E. Haskell, whose development +of string tones and especially the allied flue +stops of reed character has attracted attention. The +inventions of Robert Hope-Jones have given a great +stimulus to the high-pressure reeds, and he also introduced<span class="pagenum" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</span> +the Diaphone (1894). Among American builders +the names of George S. Hutchings, Hilborne L. Roosevelt +and Ernest M. Skinner are conspicuous for their +high ideals in artistic voicing, while in Europe the noble +instruments constructed by Henry Willis and Aristide +Cavaillé-Coll are most conspicuous.</p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>No account of the modern organ would be complete +without reference to three new developments of the +instrument. Its origin and traditions are ecclesiastical, +but our civilization has at first hesitatingly, and now +boldly, appropriated the organ for other uses. It was +introduced into various private residences, and the +resulting type is known as the Chamber Organ. Then, +particularly in England, it was employed as a means of +public instruction and entertainment in town halls and +other public buildings. Notable examples are the organs +at Liverpool (St. George’s Hall), London (Albert +Hall, etc.), and Sydney, N. S. W. These instruments +are known as Concert Organs. A typical modern concert +organ scheme is as follows:</p> + + +<p class="center p2">SPECIFICATION OF A CONCERT ORGAN<br> +By CLIFFORD DEMAREST, F. A. G. O.</p> + +<p class="center"><em>Organist, Church of the Messiah, New York City</em></p> + +<p class="center p4">GREAT ORGAN</p> + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td>1. 16 ft. Bourdon</td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">10. 8 ft. Doppel Flute </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>2. 16 ft. Diapason</td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">11. 4 ft. Harmonic Flute</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>3. 8 ft. First Diapason</td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">12. 4 ft. Octave</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>4. 8 ft. Second Diapason</td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">13. 2-2/3 ft. Twelfth<br></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>5. 8 ft. Stentorphone (from Solo) </td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">14. 2 ft. Fifteenth</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>6. 8 ft. Gemshorn </td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">15. V Rks. Mixture</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>7. 8 ft. Gedeckt</td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">16. 16 ft. Trumpet</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>8. 8 ft. Gross Flute</td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">17. 8 ft. Trumpet</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>9. 8 ft. Gamba</td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">18. 4 ft. Trumpet</td> +</tr> +</table> + + + +<p class="center">Stops 4-18 Inclusive enclosed in a separate box</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</span></p> + +<p class="center p4">SWELL ORGAN</p> + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td>19. 16 ft. Contra Gamba</td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">30. 4 ft. Principal</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>20. 16 ft. Melodia</td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">31. 4 ft. Violina </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>21. 8 ft. First Diapason </td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">32. 4 ft. Flute Traverso </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>22. 8 ft. Second Diapason </td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">33. 2 ft. Flautino</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>23. 8 ft. Viole d’Orchestre </td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">34. III Rks. Solo Mixture</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>24. 8 ft. Viol Celeste </td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">35. 16 ft. Contra Fagotto</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td>25. 8 ft. Salicional</td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">36. 8 ft. Oboe</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>26. 8 ft. Salicional Celeste</td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">37. 8 ft. Cornopean (Horn quality)</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>27. 8 ft. Æoline</td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">38. 8 ft. French Trumpet </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>28. 8 ft. Hohl Flute </td> +<td style="padding-left: 2em;">39. 4 ft. Horn<br></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>29. 8 ft. Tibia Clausa </td> +<td></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<p class="center p4">CHOIR ORGAN</p> + + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">40. 16 ft. Dulciana</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">48. 8 ft. Quintadena</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">41. 8 ft. English Diapason</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">49. 4 ft. Chimney Flute</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">42. 8 ft. Geigen Principal</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">50. 4 ft. Fugara</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">43. 8 ft. Muted Viol</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">51. 2 ft. Piccolo</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">44. 8 ft. Dulciana</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">52. 8 ft. Orchestral Oboe</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">45. 8 ft. Concert Flute</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">53. 8 ft. Clarinet</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">46. 8 ft. Melodia</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">54. 8 ft. Saxophone (wood)</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">47. 8 ft. Flute Celeste (with Melodia)</td> +<td></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<p class="center">Enclosed in a separate box</p> + +<p class="center p4">SOLO ORGAN</p> + + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">55. 8 ft. Stentorphone</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">59. 4 ft. Philomela</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">56. 8 ft. Tibia Plena</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">60. 8 ft. Gross Gamba Celeste</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">57. 8 ft. Gross Gamba</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">61. 8 ft. French Horn</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">58. 4 ft. Clarion</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">62. 8 ft. Tuba (25 inches)</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p class="center">Enclosed in a separate box</p> + +<p class="center p4">PEDAL ORGAN</p> + + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">63. 32 ft. Open Diapason</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">72. 8 ft. Octave (from Second Diapason)</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">64. 16 ft. First Diapason</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">73. 8 ft. Violoncello</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">65. 16 ft. Second Diapason (metal)</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">74. 8 ft. Dolce Flute (from Great Bourdon)</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">66. 16 ft. Bourdon</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">75. 32 ft. Contra Bombarde</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">67. 16 ft. Second Bourdon (from Great)</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">76. 16 ft. Trombone</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">68. 16 ft. Dulciana (from Choir)</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">77. 16 ft. Contra Fagotto (from Swell)</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">69. 16 ft. Contra Gamba (from Swell)</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">78. 8 ft. Tromba</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">70. 16 ft. Violone</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">79. 4 ft. Clarion</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>71. 16 ft. Lieblich Gedeckt</td> +<td></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<p class="center p4">ECHO ORGAN</p> + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">80. 8 ft. Open Diapason</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">84. 8 ft. Vox Humana</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">81. 8 ft. Celestina</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">85. 4 ft. Flute d’Amour</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">82. 8 ft. Unda Maris</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">86. Harp.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">83. 8 ft. Fern Flute</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">87. Chimes (also playable on Great and Pedal)</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p class="center">Enclosed in a separate box </p> + + +<p class="center p4">COUPLERS</p> + + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">1. Swell to Pedal</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">12. Chimes to Great</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">23. Choir to Choir 4’</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">2. Swell to Pedal 4 ft.</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">13. Swell to Choir</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">24. Choir to Great 16’</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">3. Choir to Pedal</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">14. Echo to Choir</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">25. Choir to Great 4’</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">4. Great to Pedal</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">15. Swell to Solo</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">26. Solo to Solo 16’</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">5. Solo to Pedal</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">16. Great to Solo</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">27. Solo to Solo 4’</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">6. Echo to Pedal</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">17. Echo to Swell</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">28. Solo to Great 16’</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">7. Chimes to Pedal</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">18. Swell to Swell 16’</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">29. Solo to Great 4’</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">8. Swell to Great</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">19. Swell to Swell 4’</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">30. Echo to Great 16’</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">9. Choir to Great</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">20. Swell to Great 16’</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">31. Echo to Great 4’</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">10. Solo to Great</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">21. Swell to Great 4’</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">32. Echo on, Great off</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">11. Echo to Great</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">22. Choir to Choir 16’</td> +<td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 1em;">33. Echo on, Solo off</td> +</tr> + +</table> + + + +<div class="poetry-container p11"> +<p>Balanced Great Expression Pedal<br> +Balanced Swell Expression Pedal<br> +Balanced Choir Expression Pedal<br> +Balanced Solo and Echo Expression Pedal<br> +Balanced Crescendo Pedal</p> +</div> + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</span></p> + +<p>Concert halls and assembly halls in public buildings +in America are now being furnished with organs of this +type and an immense number of people derive æsthetic +enjoyment from these instruments. Moreover, astute +theatrical managers have seized on this favorite kind +of entertainment and are featuring organs in the theatre. +There is no settled form of theatre scheme, but the +process of evolution is going on, and worthy instruments +are being constructed for this purpose.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately this development has resulted in the +construction of numerous hybrid instruments. The bewildering +possibilities of duplication have led to the installation +of concert instruments with no independent +pedal foundation and with additional manuals which, +instead of preserving their own character, control only +a rearrangement of stops already perfectly accessible. +The tendency to let mere mechanism replace independent +tones is most flagrantly displayed in this class +of instruments.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt that the organ is now beginning +to ‘find itself.’ The organ of the future will be as much +like an organ as ever—only more so, if possible! We +shall still regard mechanism as a means to an end, and +not as an end in itself. We shall insist on simplicity +of control, at the key desk, however vast and sonorous +the tonal appointments. Finally, we shall honor and +encourage the master voicers in their efforts to use the +best methods of the past, and to adapt them to the new +mechanical conditions. For in the last analysis the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</span> +sense to which the organ makes its true appeal is not +that of touch, through the player’s fingers, nor that of +sight, through the impressive appearance of tracery and +noble towers of pipes, but that of hearing, for the ear +is the most marvellous acoustic instrument ever conceived +and is capable of appreciating the most refined +as well as the noblest organ tones.</p> + +<p class="right" style="padding-right: 2em;">R. L. McA.</p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="footnotes"> +<p class="center p2 big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_92" href="#FNanchor_92" class="label">[92]</a> An interesting example of the primitive application of the hydraulic +principle in producing musical sound is afforded by the ‘whistling jug’ of +the Peruvian Incas. Here water flowing from one jar to another, through +the medium of a cross-channel, forced the air through a whistle set over +the mouth of the second jar, with a resulting musical note. The inverse +tipping of the jar drew in the air again through the whistle.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_93" href="#FNanchor_93" class="label">[93]</a> Vitruvius, the Roman engineer and architect, who lived in the reign +of Augustus, has also described the hydraulic organ of Ktesibos in his +<em>De Arch.</em> lib. X, cap. II.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_94" href="#FNanchor_94" class="label">[94]</a> Though the first keyboard (of sixteen keys), according to Prætorius, +was introduced into the organ of the Magdeburg Cathedral toward the +close of the eleventh century.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_95" href="#FNanchor_95" class="label">[95]</a> ‘Regals’ from the Italian <em>rigabello</em>, an instrument used to support +the plain-chant in the church. Perhaps, also, in allusion to the quality +of ‘the king of instruments.’ The ‘regal’ may be regarded as the ancestor +of the modern harmonium.</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER XV<br> +<small>THE EARLY ORGAN MASTERS</small></h2> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The old Italian masters: Landino to Frescobaldi—Early German masters; +the forerunners of Bach; Hassler, Pachelbel, Buxtehude—J. S. Bach: +the toccatas, the preludes and fugues, the sonatas and other works—The +early French composers: Couperin and Rameau; Spain and Portugal; the +Netherlands—The early English masters; Tye, Tallis, Byrd, Bull, Gibbons, +etc.—Purcell; Handel.</p> +</div> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>Italy, which was the scene of the birth and infancy +of so many of the forms and ideas out of which modern +music was finally evolved, witnessed the first development +of organ-playing also. The earliest existing information +we possess regarding organists and organ-playing +comes from Italy and reaches far back into the +fourteenth century. Francesco Landino (1325-1390) of +Florence is the first celebrated representative of Italian +organists’ art. A contemporary writer gives the following +enthusiastic account of his playing: ‘The whole +assembly is excited by his organ-playing, the young +dance and sing, the old hum with him; all are enchanted. +He draws wonders from the little organ; the +birds cease their song and in their astonishment draw +near to listen.’<a id="FNanchor_96" href="#Footnote_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a></p> + +<p>The instrument with which Landino produced such +astonishing effects and gained such a reputation was +not the church organ (<em>organum magnum</em>), which was +altogether too clumsy, but the little house organ, probably<span class="pagenum" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</span> +the ‘portative’ organ, called <em>ninfale</em> in Italy (see +Chapter XIV). In the Library of St. Lorenzo at Florence +is a miniature which represents Landino seated, playing +on a <em>ninfale</em> which rests on his knees. He was +called <em>Il Cieco</em> from the fact that he was blind, and his +great skill as a performer gave him the name Francesco +<em>degli Organi</em>. He was generally recognized as the most +prominent organist and musician of his time, and, as he +was of noble family and grew up in an atmosphere of +culture and refinement, it is not astonishing to find +that he was not less celebrated as a philosopher and +poet. None of his compositions for the organ have +been preserved; probably most of his playing was improvisation, +as his infirmity would render it difficult for +him to make use of the imperfect notation of his time. +Several of his vocal works have come down to us, however, +and Fétis considered them far in advance of the +art of his period.</p> + +<p>There were, of course, many organists before Landino, +but none of them seem to have gained any special +excellence in the practice of their art. Until about the +time of Landino the professions of organ-playing and +organ-building, certainly as far as church-music was +concerned, seem to have been more commonly than +otherwise combined in the same person. But after Landino +organ-playing became more of a specialized department +of musical art. Early in the next century +Antonio Sguarcialupo achieved much fame for his performances +and in 1435 was appointed organist at the +newly-dedicated Cathedral of Santa Maria at Florence. +He was of noble birth and was a man of refined and +scholarly attainments. He evidently held the double +position of church organist and court organist to Lorenzo +the Magnificent, and his playing was so exceptional +that it attracted people to Florence from far +and near to listen to it. Lorenzo treated him as a +friend, and so highly did he esteem him that at his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</span> +death he wrote a sonnet eulogizing the musician, in +which Death is made to say, ‘I have taken him in order +that Heaven may be made more joyful with his music.’ +No compositions of his for either organ or voices have +come down to us, but he left a valuable collection of +older Italian compositions, thirteen in number, the only +existing examples of Italian musical art of that far-off +time. This collection is now in the Library of St. Lorenzo +in Florence.</p> + +<p>The Netherlanders, who were the musical masters of +Europe during this period, were the founders of the +first real school of organ-playing in Italy. The two +men who gave this movement its first impetus and direction +were Adrian Willaert (about 1480-1562), who +was <em>maestro di cappella</em> of St. Mark’s at Venice from +1527 till his death, and Jacques Buus (born in Flanders +about 1510), who was second organist at St. Mark’s +from 1541 to 1551. They cultivated with special zeal +and preference the so-called <em>ricercare</em>, one of the most +important of the early instrumental forms. Willaert’s +creative interest naturally lay more in the direction of +composing for the fine choral establishment which St. +Mark’s maintained, but Buus seems to have made at +least the beginning of a type of instrumental music that +was conceived for the organ and not merely transcribed +from vocal music, thus paving the way for real organ +music.</p> + +<p>For a better understanding of early organ music +it will be necessary here to describe briefly some of the +most important and frequently-employed instrumental +forms of the period. The earliest use of the organ in +the church service was merely to strengthen the voice +parts by duplication. When the organ was developed +sufficiently to be used alone for artistic playing, the +organist merely played well-known motets and other +church compositions and sometimes even favorite secular +madrigals and <em>chansons</em>. For a long time these<span class="pagenum" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</span> +were purely transcriptions of the choral parts with no +attempt at variation and many of the compositions of +the period were frankly written ‘either to be sung or +played.’ Little by little organists ventured to introduce +free passages of their own to embellish the voice parts, +but such compositions remained essentially choral +works. The <em>ricercare</em> (from <em>ricercare</em>, ‘to search out’) +was one of the earliest forms of strictly instrumental +music, though the term was sometimes applied also to +the madrigal.<a id="FNanchor_97" href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> It dates from early in the fifteenth century +and was an elaborate and scholarly form into +which every known contrapuntal artifice and device +was introduced, and which, therefore, was least cultivated. +Originally the <em>ricercare</em> did not adhere to the +same subject throughout, but, like the motet, progressed +after a short elaboration to a new subject. This lacked +conciseness, which, however, was won in the seventeenth +century when it assumed practically the same form as +the simple fugue, and for a long time these two terms +were interchangeable. The <em>ricercare</em> was sometimes in +the form of a <em>fantasia</em> on some popular melody or song +and in this way many secular tunes crept into organ music +as they had earlier found a surreptitious place in the +old masses. A somewhat later form was the <em>canzona +Francese</em>, an invention borrowed from the French +<em>chanson</em>, contrapuntal in character but less elaborate +than the <em>ricercare</em> and freed from pedantry. Its first +three notes were almost invariably a quarter and two +eighths, thus establishing a characteristic rhythmical +movement. Its song-like character made it a favorite +form. The <em>toccata</em> (from <em>toccare</em>, ‘to play’) was a third +and still later form. This required brilliant execution +and was in the nature of a fantastic improvisation to +display the technical skill of the performer. Later it +was frequently employed to precede a fugue and was +built largely on the development of a single figure.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</span></p> +<p>Pieces called <em>intonazioni d’organo</em> (‘Intonations’) were +short preludes, from five to twenty measures long, in +the nature of free improvisations; they were used to +precede the larger organ pieces in the services of the +Roman Church. The <em>fantasia</em> was a form of very +respectable age, probably as old as the <em>ricercare</em>. It +seems to have been descended from the accompanied +madrigal, in which the instruments played the same +parts with the voices. Hawkins in his History speaks +of fantasias as abounding ‘in fugues and little responsive +passages and all those elegances observable in the +structure and contrivance of the madrigal.’ Usually +they were utterly free in form, differing radically from +the more formal structure of later fantasias, such as +those by Mozart and Beethoven.</p> + +<p>St. Mark’s at Venice was destined to play such a distinguished +part in the development of organ-music that +a word of historical comment will here be appropriate. +Venice was a republic until 1797, its government being +vested in the hands of a Doge, or Duke, and a Council +made up of representatives of the nobility. From very +early times this Council took the greatest pride in the +music of the grand-ducal chapel, later known as St. +Mark’s Cathedral (San Marco). As early as 1318 they +commissioned Zucchetti to build a new organ for the +chapel and, when it was completed, appointed him organist +and choir-master. A second organ was built +about 1370 and the position of second organist created +in 1389. These two positions were co-equal in duties, +salary, and official importance and the organists, like +the consuls of old Rome, were supposed to be men of +equal calibre. They were chosen with the greatest care +from many candidates after the stiffest kind of examination +conducted before the magistrates and St. Mark’s +grew to be one of the most coveted musical appointments +in Europe. A <em>maestro di cappella</em> was added to +the two organists in 1491. His position was the most<span class="pagenum" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</span> +important of the three and his salary<a id="FNanchor_98" href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> was larger than +that of the organists. He composed the special music, +trained and conducted the choirs and orchestra, and +had general supervision over all the church music. This +position became so important that later a second <em>maestro</em> +was appointed with rank and duties coordinate +with the first. In these positions a long line of illustrious +musicians served St. Mark’s for several centuries.</p> + +<p>Once started in a new direction, the Italians soon +took from the hands of their Netherland masters the +development of this branch of the art and native organists +began to write copiously for their instrument. +In addition to Venice, Rome, Florence, Naples, Bologna, +Parma, and many other Italian cities boasted of excellent +musicians and organists who worked earnestly and +enthusiastically for the advancement of the art of organ +music. They did not employ counterpoint merely for +its own sake, as did many of the Netherland masters, +but imagination and feeling were given consideration. +Harmonically and melodically much progress was also +made and chromatic tones were much more freely and +frequently brought into use. The forms chiefly cultivated +were those mentioned above. Brief mention will +be made of the more famous of these early masters.</p> + +<p>Claudio Merulo (1533-1604) at the age of twenty-four +was chosen out of ten competitors to fill the position of +second organist at St. Mark’s in Venice, and from 1566 +to 1586 he was first organist there. One of the greatest +organists of his time, he is credited by Fétis with being +the first to write really independent compositions for +the organ. He wrote three volumes of <em>ricercari</em> and +<em>canzoni</em> and two volumes of toccatas. His fame as composer +rests chiefly on the fact that he advanced the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</span>toccata-form. His reputation was overshadowed by the +greater genius of the two Gabrielis, who were associated +with him at St. Mark’s.</p> + +<p>Andrea Gabrieli (1510-1586), a pupil of Willaert and +the successor of Merulo as second organist at St. Mark’s +in 1566, was one of the most eminent representatives of +the brilliant Venetian school. He exerted a large influence +not only as composer and performer, but also as +teacher. Among his distinguished pupils were his +nephew Giovanni and the German Hans Leo Hassler +of Nuremberg. His organ works include chiefly <em>ricercari</em>, +<em>canzoni</em>, and <em>intonazioni</em>. A characteristic work of +his is the <em>Fantasia allegra</em>, founded on a popular French +<em>chanson</em> by Crequillon, which is quoted by Ritter in his +<em>Geschichte des Orgelspiels</em>. It has three themes or subjects +which are developed in the style of the <em>ricercare</em>. +The second subject is a free ‘inversion’ of the first and +the third is formed from the second by ‘diminution,’ +with ornamentation in rapid passages.</p> + +<p>Giovanni Gabrieli (1557-1612), nephew and pupil of +Andrea, was likewise celebrated as organist, teacher, +and composer. From 1575 to 1579 he was at the court +in Munich. In 1585 he succeeded Merulo as first organist +at St. Mark’s, a position which he held until his +death. Heinrich Schuetz and Michael Prætorius were +among his famous pupils. As composer he stood at the +head of the Venetian school, being, like his uncle, a +great master of vocal forms and showing a special preference +for compositions for double and triple chorus. +For organ he left preludes, a <em>toccata</em>, and several <em>ricercari</em> +and <em>canzoni</em>. A valuable and attractive work of +his is the <em>Sonata pian e forte</em> in eight independent parts +(quoted in Wasielewski’s <em>Geschichte der Instrumentalmusik</em>).</p> + +<p>The two Gabrielis occupy a place of large importance +in the early development of organ music and may be +said to be the first real organ composers. Their <em>ricercari<span class="pagenum" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</span></em> +mark a distinct advance over the compositions of +their predecessors, especially in their fugal construction.</p> + +<p>Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1526-1594), <em>maestro +di cappella</em> of St. Peter’s at Rome from 1571 until his +death, and the greatest master of the unaccompanied +polyphonic choral style, wrote some for the organ, including +eight <em>ricercari</em>. The character of his music is +quiet, serious, and dignified, contrasting favorably with +the often dull and meaningless <em>ricercari</em> of the older +Netherlanders. Wasielewski’s estimate of these older +compositions is: ‘The impression they produce is essentially +wearisome, dry, and monotonous. They are generally +of great length and they sound like troubled, +uneasy successions of notes, wanting in contrast of +subjects and strength of ideas; the eye is more satisfied +than the ear.’<a id="FNanchor_99" href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a></p> + +<p>Luzzasco Luzzaschi (1545-1607) was organist of the +Cathedral of Ferrara. Merulo conferred upon him the +title of ‘first organist of Italy.’ A good organ number is +his Toccata in the fourth tone.</p> + +<p>Gioseffo Guami (about 1550-1611) enjoyed an excellent +reputation as organist and composer. He was organist +first at Munich, then at St. Mark’s, and finally +at the cathedral in Lucca, his native town. His <em>canzona</em> +‘<em>La Guamina</em>’ (quoted by Ritter) is a valuable composition +and shows him as a master of form, gifted with +refreshing inventive powers.</p> + +<p>Girolamo Diruta, born about 1560 at Perugia, was a +pupil of Merulo and organist of the cathedral at Chioggia, +near Venice. He was the author of a famous instruction +book (published in 1597), ‘<em>Il Transilvano</em>’—a +dialogue on the true method of playing organs: in +which work a knowledge of everything connected with +the keyboard is easily and rapidly taught. Also how to +use the hands in Diminution (which means here the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</span> +ornamentation of a subject by rapid notes) and the +method of understanding the Tablature, proving the +truth and necessity of the rules given, by examples of +Toccatas by divers excellent organists. A work newly +made, most useful and necessary to professors of the +organ.’ The book contains the following rules for playing +the organ ‘with gravity and ease.’ The organist +must sit before the middle of the keyboard and must +not make unnecessary movements, but must hold himself +upright and in graceful position. The fingers must +be placed equally above the keys, somewhat bent but +not stiff; the fingers must press, not strike, the keys. +The scale is to be played by the fingers alone, without +the thumb, which is to be used only in a <em>salto cattivo</em> +(that is, a leap from an accented to an unaccented +note), thus:</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowe37_5" id="score-p423"> + <img class="w100" src="images/score-p423.jpg" alt="scorep423" title="p423score"> +</figure> + +<p class="center ebhide p2b"><a href="images/score-p423.png">[PNG]</a>[<a href="music/score-p423.mp3">Listen</a>] + + +<p>The prejudice against the use of the thumb remained in +force until Sebastian Bach revolutionized the whole +method of fingering by using the thumb equally with the +other fingers. <em>Il Transilvano</em> also contains some interesting +directions for registration for the eight ecclesiastical +modes, for example: ‘For the First Tone, which +requires full-sounding quality, the Double Open Diapason, +the Open Diapason, and the Flute or Principal. To +give expression to the melancholy feeling of the Second +Tone, the Double Open Diapason and Tremulant are +required....’</p> + +<p>Constanzo Antegnati, born in Brescia in 1557, was +an organist and organ-builder, as his ancestors had +been for several generations. In 1608 he published an +instruction book called <em>L’Arte Organica</em>, which is of +more than passing interest since it gives some insight +into the size and structure of contemporary organs, +their tone-qualities and mode of playing. It would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</span> +seem that Italian organ-builders did not strive after +variety of tone-quality, but built their instruments almost +exclusively of diapasons from 32-foot pitch to +highest audible pitch through octaves and fifths, with +only a small proportion of flute stops and rarely a reed +stop. The Italian organists seldom, if ever, changed +registration during performance. The effects which +were then so much wondered at were produced more +by dexterity of execution and command of counterpoint.</p> + +<p>Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1644), Italy’s greatest +master of the organ and the most distinguished organist +of the seventeenth century, was the first to infuse expressive +power into organ music. He was complete +master of the contrapuntal and harmonic art of his +period and his work bears the stamp of genius that +would tolerate no rule, whether old or new. ‘Understand +me who can; I understand myself,’ he wrote as +a motto over one of his works. So great was his +fame, as Baini relates, that at his first appearance at +St. Peter’s in Rome in 1614 he had an audience of 30,000 +listeners. The organ on which he played was an +instrument of fourteen stops with one manual and a +short-compass pedal-board. He was organist of St. +Peter’s from 1614 until his death, except from 1628 to +1633 when he was court-organist at Florence. Instrumental +music was still in a crude, formative period, +yet his harmonies are frequently startling in their boldness +and romantic suggestion; his music shows almost +complete emancipation from the sway of ecclesiastical +modes; and in the vigor and force of his subjects as +well as in the freedom with which he treated them and +the expressive qualities he employed, he was far in advance +of his age. His contributions to organ literature +were numerous and important. They consisted of +<em>ricercari</em>, <em>canzoni</em>, <em>toccatas</em>, and <em>capriccios</em>, many of +which have been reprinted in modern notation in various<span class="pagenum" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</span> +collections of old masters.<a id="FNanchor_100" href="#Footnote_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> He was careful to give +very specific directions, many of which are exceedingly +interesting, as to just how he wished his compositions +performed.</p> + +<p>The culmination of Italian organ music was reached +in Frescobaldi and the supremacy in this field was soon +transferred to Germany, whither zealous and gifted +German students had carried the fruits of their Italian +study. Very little progress was made in Italy, in either +organ-playing or organ-building, from the time of Frescobaldi +until near the close of the nineteenth century, +so completely was Italy under the domination of the +particular kind of opera so dearly prized by that melody-loving +country. A few important Italian names, +however, remain to be mentioned.</p> + +<p>Giovanni Battista Fasolo, a Franciscan born at Asti, +lived at Venice and was known mainly by a work +(published in 1645) which supplied the organist with +suitable material for the different services throughout +the whole church-year.</p> + +<p>Giovanni Battista Bassini (1657-1716), a famous violinist +and organist, was chapel-master of the Cathedral +of Bologna from 1680 to 1685, when he went to Ferrara. +Of interest is his <em>Sonata da Organo</em> in F, in which he +makes use of the ‘circle of keys’ in modulating away +from and back to the principal key.</p> + +<p>Vincenzo Abrici (1631-1696) was born at Rome, but +was converted to Lutheranism and in 1664 was appointed +chapel-master to the Elector of Saxony at Dresden, +probably the only Italian Protestant organist of +his time. He wrote excellent church music and while +at Dresden was the teacher of Kuhnau.</p> + +<p>Bernardo Pasquini (1637-1710) was born in Tuscany +and became the most celebrated Italian organist of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</span>second half of the seventeenth century, his fame spreading +to many foreign countries. Most of his life was +spent at Rome where he was long organist at Santa +Maria Maggiore, from which position he was elevated +to a post that was evidently created especially for him—Organist +of the Senate and People of Rome.</p> + +<p>Domenico Zipoli (born about 1675) was organist of +the Jesuit Church at Rome about 1716 and during his +lifetime was recognized as one of the foremost composers +for the organ. He published sonatas for organ +and cembalo consisting of short pieces for ritual use. +Several of these are available in modern editions and, +especially a Canzona in G minor and a Pastorale in C +major, are pleasing enough to have been written by +Bach or Handel.</p> + +<p>Padre Giambattista Martini (1706-1784), a celebrated +theorist and historian, published in 1738 sonatas for +the organ and cembalo, which were sets of short pieces +hardly suitable for church use. He was considered the +highest authority on theoretical matters and was always +ready to help and encourage young musical talent. His +Gavotte in F (from one of the above sonatas) has often +figured on popular organ programs.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>Organ-playing in Germany was nearly a century later +in starting its serious development than in Italy. As +the first impetus to the art in Italy came from foreign +sources—from the Netherlanders Willaert and Buus +who had settled in Venice—so the first definite stimulus +in the development of German organ-playing came +from Italy and the Netherlands, where the art had +already reached a higher plane of development. Amsterdam +and Venice were the two chief centres from +which radiated the strongest influences in shaping the +development of German organ art. In the former city +Sweelinck became the teacher of most of the organists +who later laid the foundations of the North German +school of organ-playing, while many of the great South +German organists were trained in Venice or Rome.</p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<figure class="figcenter illowe30" id="ilofp427"> + <img class="w100 p2" src="images/ilofp427.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption">Early Organ Masters:</figcaption> +</figure> + + + +<p class="center p1b">Top: Girolamo Frescobaldi and Jan Pieters Sweelinck<br> +Bottom: Samuel Scheidt and Hans Leo Hassler</p> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="p2">The first Germans to develop the art were Conrad +Paumann of Nuremberg, Paulus Hofhaimer of Vienna, +and Arnold Schlick of Heidelberg, all South Germans. +The circumstances surrounding the life of the first +representative of German organ music, Conrad Paumann, +were strangely similar to those of the first great +Italian organist, Landino. Both were blind (Paumann +was born blind), both were of noble family, and both +mastered nearly every known instrument. Paumann +(1410-1473) aroused great enthusiasm by his playing, +he travelled much, and his fame spread to other countries. +For many years he was organist at St. Sebald’s +Church in Nuremberg, but spent his last years in +Munich. He was the author of <em>Fundamentum Organizandi</em>, +the oldest extant work on the art of extempore +organ-playing; for ‘organizing’ at that period still meant +adding a counterpoint or organum to a given subject.</p> + +<p>Paulus Hofhaimer (1459-1537), born at Radstadt, was +court organist to Emperor Maximilian I at Vienna. So +famous was he that he was knighted by both the Emperor +and the King of Hungary; poets praised him and +Lucas Cranach painted his portrait. His contemporary, +the organist Luscinius, described his playing as being +‘full of angelic warmth and power ... no one has +surpassed, no one has even equalled him.’</p> + +<p>Only the important churches in the larger towns +possessed organs in the fifteenth century. In the following +century, however, interest in organ-playing and +especially in organ-building increased greatly and organists +multiplied rapidly. Among the first of them to +gain eminence was another famous blind organist, Arnold +Schlick, born in Bohemia about 1460 and organist<span class="pagenum" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</span> +to the Elector Palatine at Heidelberg. He was the author +of the oldest printed German tablature book +(1512); in this independent pedal parts were used +throughout, a great advance over previous organ composers.</p> + +<p>In some of the compositions of Leonhard Kleber +(1490-1556) there appeared the first signs of what later +became known as the German school of Colorists. This +school made its appearance shortly before the middle +of the sixteenth century and took its name from the +effort of composers to overload their compositions with +ornamental rapid passages (<em>coloratura</em>). Many of +Kleber’s compositions display all the stability and +earnestness of the Bach period, but the habit of ‘coloring’ +the parts with meaningless ornaments soon took +possession of organists and for a period in the latter +part of the century the misuse and abuse of the art +of <em>coloratura</em> caused German organ music to become +utterly mechanical and conventional. The greatest of +the colorists were Ammerbach, organist at St. Thomas’ +Church, Leipzig (1560-1571), the famous Strasburg organists, +Bernard Schmid (father and son), Jacob Paix +(1550-1590), and Johann Woltz.</p> + +<p>As the seventeenth century dawned, the fashionable +art of <em>coloratura</em> waned and the old solid style of organ-playing +inaugurated by Schlick and continued faithfully +by his followers, which had really never been +lost by the more obscure musicians, was gradually revived +and gained new strength. A new life-giving element +of greatest importance to organ music was the +Lutheran chorale; from it the inane art of the ‘colorists’ +received its real death-blow. Its introduction into the +church-service and the important place it held there +opened up a new perspective for German organists and +offered an artistic opportunity which finally they began +to take advantage of. The people loved not only to +sing the chorales but to hear them played on the organ;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</span> +the organists naturally desired to please their listeners, +and out of the custom of organists to render the +chorales about to be sung with all the resources of their +art, gradually arose the <em>Choralvorspiel</em> or prelude. The +more abstract contrapuntal treatment or elaboration of +chorale-melodies was abandoned and a new method +of treatment adopted that even up to the present time +has failed to exhaust their possibilities. The great plasticity +of these chorale-preludes was first revealed by +Pachelbel; the elaboration of them was brought to the +highest perfection of expression and poetry by the immortal +genius of Sebastian Bach and their present-day +possibilities have been grandly demonstrated in the +<em>Choral-fantasias</em> of Max Reger. In the chorale-prelude +is to be found the basis of the solidity of style that +after Scheidt’s time has characterized German organ +music, and in the cultivation of this form the German +organist has found the most ample and satisfying opportunity +for the exercise of his highest artistic abilities. +The Lutheran service gave far greater opportunities +to the organist than did the Roman service; in this +fact is to be found one powerful reason, among others, +why German organ music advanced rapidly while Italian +organ music remained at a standstill.</p> + +<p>The new change in German organ art is strikingly +indicated by the <em>Tabulatura Nova</em>, published at Hamburg +in 1624 by Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) of Halle. +The music in this important work is entirely free from +the pernicious influence of <em>coloratura</em> and for the first +time chorales are treated as pure organ music. Scheidt, +who was a pupil of the great Dutch organist and teacher +Sweelinck and a contemporary of Frescobaldi, was one +of the three great S’s of the seventeenth century (the +other two being Schütz of Dresden and Schein of Leipzig, +all three being born about the same time). He was +one of the most famous organists of the century and did +much to set the seal of permanence on the forms of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</span> +organ music that henceforth were chiefly cultivated by +German organ composers. These forms were the figured +chorale, the prelude and fugue, the canzona, the +toccata, and the fantasia. Scheidt’s importance lies in +his artistic treatment of the chorale, an idea that was +taken up with such success a hundred years later by +the great Bach. By the middle of the seventeenth century +German organ music had attached itself firmly to +the solid ideals it has ever since maintained.</p> + +<p>Nuremberg, the old home of German art in South +Germany, was also one of the principal nurseries of +early German organ art and held its leading position +until the beginning of the eighteenth century. The first +of the celebrated Nuremberg organists was Hans Leo +Hassler (1564-1612), one of the real founders of German +music. He was organist to the fabulously wealthy +Fuggers in Augsburg in 1585 and after passing several +years in Venice as court-musician to Emperor Rudolph, +he accepted a position as court-organist at Dresden in +1608, where he died. He was the composer of the melody +to the chorale <em>Herzlich tut mich verlangen</em>, which +was such a favorite with Bach that he used it in many of +his chorale-preludes and also in the ‘St. Matthew Passion.’ +His organ works were only three in number, +but Ritter maintains that he bore the same important +relation to German music that the Gabrielis bore to +Italian.</p> + +<p>Erasmus Kindermann (1610-1655) spent most of his +life in Nuremberg. In his <em>Harmonia Organica</em> (published +in 1645), consisting of preludes in the twelve +tones, he composed several strictly in the modern keys +(C major, D major, F major) and treated the pedal +with great freedom.</p> + +<p>The greatest of the Nuremberg organists and one of +the most celebrated of the seventeenth century was +Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706). After holding the position +of organist at various places (among them Erfurt<span class="pagenum" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</span> +in 1676, where he taught Christopher Bach, Sebastian’s +older brother and first teacher), he returned to his native +city in 1695 as organist at St. Sebald’s. His organ +compositions were very important and influential, +among them seventy-eight chorale-preludes—many of +merit and long-standing popularity—several chaconnes, +brilliant toccatas, and chorale-fugues. He was the inventor +of this last-named form, the subject being the +first line of a chorale in diminution. This form was +perfected by Sebastian Bach and in the present day +has inspired Max Reger to the composition of his great +<em>chorale-fantasias</em>, for example, <em>Wachet auf, ruft uns die +Stimme</em>.</p> + +<p>Augsburg became the chief centre of activity among +the South German Catholic organists as Nuremberg was +the most influential centre of the Protestant branch. +Christian Erbach (1573-1628), organist of the Augsburg +Cathedral, wrote organ pieces in the style of Merulo +and Gabrieli, but in his ritual-music was much influenced +by the Protestant chorale-preludes, except that +he employed modal harmonies. An important Augsburg +publication was <em>Ars magna Consoni et Dissoni</em> +(‘The Great Art of Consonance and Dissonance’) by +Johann Speth, the cathedral organist, containing the +best contemporary toccatas and magnificats, and some +important airs with variations. The first great name +of this group is Johann Jacob Froberger (about 1610-1667), +who passed much of his life in Vienna as court-organist. +Ferdinand III sent him to Rome (1637-1641) +to study under Frescobaldi and he became one of the +most famous German organists and instrumental composers +of the century. His organ works—25 toccatas, 8 +fantasias, 6 canzonas, fugues, etc.—are important +largely because of their great influence on J. S. Bach’s +development; his music sounds now more archaic than +its date of composition would indicate. Johann Kaspar +Kerl (1621-1693), through the munificence of Emperor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</span> +Ferdinand III, likewise was sent to Rome to study under +Frescobaldi and Carissimi and exerted a wide influence +as organist and composer at Munich and +Vienna. His published organ works were largely toccatas +and canzonas in the Italian style.</p> + +<p>The most excellent and at the same time the last of +the great German Catholic organists until the nineteenth +century was Georg Muffat (about 1645-1704). +This really great artist deserves a much deeper appreciation +than history has yet accorded him. His great +work, <em>Apparatus Musico Organisticus</em> (1690), consisting +of toccatas, a chaconne, a passacaglia, and other pieces, +displays as fine a quality of artistic feeling as is to be +found in the period before Bach. ‘There is a human +feeling about the music of Muffat, which removes it +above mere counterpoint or exhibition of skill, and appeals +to the heart more than any of the earlier compositions.’<a id="FNanchor_101" href="#Footnote_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> +Ritter, in his <em>Geschichte des Orgelspiels</em>, says of +him: ‘In the toccata he surpasses all previous German +masters except Buxtehude. Inexhaustible in the invention +of new forms and possessing absolute mastery to +express them, he is the first who leads the hearer from +the realm of mere sound into that of real soul-inspired +music.’</p> + +<p>While organ music was thus developing in South +Germany, a vigorous school was formed in North Germany, +which waxed strong largely under influences +that radiated from the great Dutch organist, teacher, +and composer, Jan Pieter Sweelinck (1560-1621), at +Amsterdam. So many of the leading organists<a id="FNanchor_102" href="#Footnote_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> of the +next generation in North Germany were his pupils that +he earned the title of ‘Organist-maker’ and virtually +became the founder of the North German school of organ-playing.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</span> +His organ works are the most important +products of his genius as a composer. He was the first +to use the pedal as an integral part of the fugue and +was the inventor of the organ-fugue as a form evolved +from one subject with the gradual addition of countersubjects +leading up to an elaborate finale—a form +which Bach especially perfected.</p> + +<p>Hamburg was one of the most important centres +of activity in the progress of North German organ +music. Here Heinrich Scheidemann (about 1596-1663), +who came of a family of organists, was the first to attain +distinction. He was followed as organist of St. +Catherine’s Church by his more famous pupil Johann +Adam Reinken (1623-1722), who had also studied with +Sweelinck. Few of his organ compositions have remained +and these have no marks of special excellence, +but he gained a great reputation as a performer. He +had a large four-manual organ at St. Catherine’s and +his great ability in performance and in improvisation +on chorales attracted people from distant places. He +was organist there for sixty years, retaining his full +faculties until his death at the remarkable age of +ninety-nine. Sebastian Bach twice journeyed on foot +from Lüneberg to hear him play and was thereby greatly +impressed and influenced. On a later visit (1720), after +Bach himself had improvised for a half-hour on one +of Reinken’s favorite chorales, the Nestor of German +organists, then ninety-seven years old, exclaimed enthusiastically +to the younger artist, ‘I thought this art +would die with me, but I perceive that it lives in you.’ +The chief characteristics of his organ-playing were unusual +dexterity of foot and finger and ingenious combinations +of stops.</p> + +<p>Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707), a Dane born at Helsingör, +was the greatest of the North German group +of organists and exerted a still more profound and +stimulating influence on Bach. He was organist of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</span> +Marienkirche at Lübeck from 1667 till his death. With +one of the finest organs in Germany at his disposal +(three manuals with fifty-three stops, of which fifteen +were on the pedal), he made Lübeck famous for its +music. In 1673 he started an innovation in church-music +that attracted international attention. This was +a series of sacred concerts, called <em>Abendmusiken</em>, in +connection with the Sunday afternoon services during +November and December of each year, at which famous +singers and players assisted. These performances were +continued until early in the nineteenth century. In +1705 Sebastian Bach, then a youth of twenty years, +walked fifty miles from Arnstadt to hear him in one +of these performances and in 1703 Handel visited Lübeck +for the same purpose. Buxtehude left many +works for organ, the greatest of which are his fugues. +Two volumes (edited by Spitta) contain most valuable +music—in all about seventy works, consisting of passacaglias, +chaconnes, three toccatas, fifteen fugues, and +a large number of chorale-preludes. Many of these +disclose the fact that he had brought organ music to a +point of development that needed only the touch of +Bach’s overpowering genius for consummation. Among +the lesser figures that surround the giant Bach, Buxtehude +towers highest. He modulated freely into all keys +as Bach did, his harmonies were often as bold, and he +welded the old threefold North German fugue into a +close-knit, organically developed unity that clearly +foreshadowed Bach’s more solid and compact form.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>Between the sturdy schools of North and South Germany +there grew the Saxon or Thuringian, in which the +best influences of both schools interlocked. Here in +central Germany, especially in Thuringia where ‘every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</span> +peasant knows music’ (as an old proverb runs), there +flourished a school that ultimately was the greatest of +them all and that gave to the world Johann Sebastian +Bach (1685-1750), not only the greatest master of organ +music, but one of the greatest master-minds of all time.</p> + +<p>An analysis of the special qualities of mind and +heart that raised Bach to such a lofty pinnacle of inspired +effort will be found in another volume of this +series. Our present purpose is concerned only with +his organ works. These are both numerous and epoch-making. +They carry to the highest point of perfection +in workmanship and expression all the instrumental +forms that had been in the making for a century and +a half before his hand of magic touched them with its +transforming power; and their naturalness, spontaneity, +grandeur, and nobility of content and form have +been at once the despair and inspiration of nearly every +great musician since his time. The organ was the central +point in Bach’s art, as the orchestra was in Beethoven’s; +it was his natural voice, his most sympathetic +medium of expression. No matter what form he chose +to write in, the organist’s mode of thought and expression +is apparent—as much in his choral works +as in those for clavier. Robert Schumann says: ‘Most +wonderful and bold in his primal element is Bach at +his organ. Here he knows no bounds and works for +centuries ahead. The majority of his fugues are characteristic +pieces of the highest order, often truly poetic +creations, each one demanding its own characteristic +expression and its own color and light.’ Goethe ventures +the bold assertion that ‘in listening to Bach’s music +it seems as if divine harmony were intercoursing +with itself, as might have happened in the bosom of +God before the creation of the world.’</p> + +<p>Both of his parents died when Sebastian was ten +years old and the boy was brought up and educated +by his elder brother Johann Christian, a pupil of Pachelbel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</span> +and organist and school-master at Ohrdruf. His +organ training was of the most meagre description, but +he was an indefatigable worker and thinker. His first +organ position was at Arnstadt in 1704, in 1707 he removed +to Mühlhausen, from 1708 to 1717 he was court-organist +at Weimar, from 1717 to 1723 court chapel-master +at Cöthen, and from 1723 till his death cantor of +the Thomas School at Leipzig. His organ works number +about 150, of which only a small number were published +during his lifetime. Of the total number about +ninety are chorale-preludes (great and small). The +remaining works comprise nineteen large preludes and +fugues, eight little preludes and fugues, five toccatas +and fugues, two fantastias and fugues, seven independent +fugues, four fantasias, a passacaglia, six sonatas, +four concertos, and several shorter pieces.</p> + +<p>In his early productions Bach leaned strongly toward +his predecessors in art—Pachelbel, Buxtehude, Frescobaldi, +Couperin—a period of early dependence that is +to be observed in the lives of all the great masters. +He learned alike from German, Italian, and French +masters, assimilated their best influences, and acquired +all their resources, thus enlarging his own field of vision +before disclosing his own individuality. Incredibly +versatile as he is and unapproachable in many fields, +the forms that he endowed with unusual sublimity and +grandeur are the chorale-prelude, the toccata, and the +fugue. Of these the fugue reveals the most characteristic +elements of his greatness. The manner in which he +treated the form of the fugue is unique, without precedent +or parallel in the history of musical art. This +form, as Bach found it, was mainly characterized by +stiffness, monotony, and lack of expression. Under his +hands, the greatest contrapuntist of the world, it acquired +elasticity and flexibility; he made the seemingly +dry and hard form so serve his imagination that +he was able to produce real characteristic pieces, even<span class="pagenum" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</span> +musical poems, which reflect his innermost feeling +in all its different nuances.</p> + +<p>The Toccata in F shows Bach’s genius in its most +resplendent light. This piece, with its imposing and +truly modern pedal solos, its intricate contrapuntal +structure, its titanic energy, and its startling modulations, +excited the boundless admiration of Mendelssohn: +‘It sounded as if the walls of the church might +tumble down; what a giant that Cantor was!’<a id="FNanchor_103" href="#Footnote_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> Three +of the other toccatas are powerful compositions—the +one in C major in the form of an Italian concerto, and +the two in D minor, one of which is sometimes called +the ‘Dorian’ because there is no B-flat in the signature +and the other, majestic and brilliant.</p> + +<p>Of the rich treasure of preludes and fugues that he +left, the great Leipzig pieces, written in the full maturity +of his power, deserve special mention. They are +the ones in C minor, G minor, A minor, E minor, and +B minor—all ‘stupendous creations,’ as Spitta designates +them. The E minor Prelude and Fugue is called a ‘symphony’ +by Spitta. The Fugue, with its ‘wedge’ theme, +is the longest of Bach’s fugues—231 measures—but the +interest never flags for a moment. That Bach not only +‘violated’ rules but made his own, is shown by the +fact that he introduces into his fugue a <em>da capo</em>—from +measure 172 repeating the beginning part. The +lofty B minor Prelude and Fugue is replete with glowing +beauties. Of the highest type of perfection and +full of expressive eloquence is the E-flat major Prelude +and Fugue. The Fugue, which is sometimes called +‘the St. Anne Fugue’ from the chance resemblance of +its subject to the first line of an English hymn-tune of +that name, is built on the model of the old Italian threefold +fugue, in the last sections of which the subjects are +combined and interwoven with consummate skill.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</span></p> +<p>The Fantasia in G minor is one of the most majestic +works in the entire literature of music. The Fugue +associated with it is not as great as the Fantasia, but +is an exceedingly effective concert piece and a masterful +composition. It is a favorite not only with organists +but with all musicians, and has been transcribed +for pianoforte by Liszt and for orchestra by Abert. +Its popularity with the general public is due not a little +to the unusually pleasing character of the subject +itself, which possesses all the jollity and grace of a +dance-theme. Bach’s fugue-subjects (and fugue-subjects +in general) are seldom interesting or pleasing as +individual melodies. Their value is almost wholly +architectonic. The master architect will rear a structure +of significant beauty and imposing grandeur out of +a mass of individually uninteresting and meaningless +brick and stone. In much the same way, the composer +views his fugue-subject mainly as a constructional +item. His interest is centred on the structure itself and +the process of construction. Notwithstanding this objective, +impersonal point of view, it is undeniably true +that those fugues that have made the deepest popular +impression are constructed on subjects that are in themselves +melodically interesting, such as this G minor +Fugue, the C minor Fugue from the ‘Well-tempered +Clavichord,’ and the C minor Fugue from Mendelssohn’s +Three Preludes and Fugues for organ.</p> + +<p>In a class by itself is the wonderful Passacaglia in +C minor, which Bach wrote as an advanced exercise (a +practice piece!) for the two-manual and pedal clavichord. +It consists of twenty variations on a <em>basso ostinato</em> +of eight measures. The theme is announced by +the pedal alone <em>pianissimo</em> and is repeated over and +over again in one voice or another while the other +parts build up a structure of ever-increasing elaborateness +and magnificence, the whole concluding with a +fugue whose subject is derived from the <em>basso ostinato</em>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</span></p> + +<p>The eight ‘Little Preludes and Fugues,’ so familiar +to organ students the world over, were composed probably +for his own numerous pupils.</p> + +<p>The six sonatas (or trios) of Bach were not written +for the organ but for the pedal-clavier for the use of +his son Friedemann. However, the wonderful three-part +writing makes them especially suitable for reproduction +on the organ and affords excellent opportunity +for color and contrast in registration. They contain +a wealth of musical ideas of varying moods, character, +and deep expression, full of soul and life, and clothed +in attractive and often playful technique, the highest +of Bach’s art—a constant source of inspiration to the +organist that will take the time to delve into their +depths. They are not sonatas, of course, in the modern +sense of the word. Of special value may be mentioned +the following numbers from them: the first Allegro of +Sonata No. 1 in E-flat, the elaboration of which approaches +the modern sonata; the Largo and Finale (in +reality a masterful fugue) of the Second Sonata in C +minor; the whole of the Third Sonata in D minor, the +Adagio being of especial beauty; the Andante and Allegro +(Finale) of the Fourth Sonata in E minor, in the +Andante the harmonic effects being so full and complete +that one forgets that only three voices furnish +the material; the Largo of Sonata No. 5 with its rich +figuration work; and the first Allegro and the Largo of +the Sixth Sonata in G major.</p> + +<p>The real soul of Bach’s organ art is to be found in +that numerous group of his organ works that take the +chorale for basis and inspiration. Many of these are +short compositions intended for use in the church service, +but many are long and elaborate and written for +concert use. They appear in three forms, the chorale-prelude +(figured and fugal), the chorale-fantasia, and +the chorale-variation. The signification of the chorale +in the services of the Church to which Bach had dedicated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</span> +the full strength of his artistic powers sank deep +into his soul and the heart-beat of religious sentiment +and devotion constantly furnished stimulus and direction +to his imagination and intellect. His chorales frequently +speak to us in a language suggestive of words, +but which words cannot express, the secret remaining +in the music. Inexhaustible are the forms that thus +find characteristic expression, born of the poetical suggestion. +In the chorale ‘Through Adam’s fall we all +are doomed’ the fall into sin is suggested by the ever-recurrence +of the interval of a seventh in the bass. In +<em>Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam</em> the rushing waters +of the river Jordan are portrayed by the swift notes of +the bass in the left hand with 16-foot tone, while the +subject is played by the pedal with 8-foot tone. In the +variations on the chorale <em>Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ +ich her</em> in canon-form, Bach astonishes with his almost +superhuman mastery of contrapuntal devices, but the +expressive power never suffers, the mathematical element +and the musical fantasy joining in harmonious +and poetical union.</p> + +<p>So many of Bach’s works have been transcribed for +other instruments<a id="FNanchor_104" href="#Footnote_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> that the following comment by +Busoni<a id="FNanchor_105" href="#Footnote_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> will have interest: ‘One finds among the +master’s organ works pieces of a more pianistic character, +as one finds among the piano fugues some that +show the type of organ pieces. The technical manner +of Bach’s writing is in its essence the same for both +instruments. The transcription of his works from the +organ to the piano (or <em>vice versa</em>) cannot, therefore, +be regarded as wrong, esthetically considered.’</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</span></p> +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>The early organ masters in France were neither as +numerous nor as important as in either Italy or Germany, +and no significant advance came from France +in this field. The organ was late in getting a foothold +in this country, there being no record of any church-organ +there before the twelfth century; no school of +French composers for the instrument appeared until +the sixteenth century. In 1530 and 1531, however, a +five-volume collection of organ pieces was published in +Paris by the printer Pierre Attaignant, though no composers’ +names are given. This book gives a trustworthy +indication of the French art of organ-playing at that +time. The collection consists of (1) original organ +music—preludes, (2) vocal music arranged for the organ—motets, +Te Deums, Kyries, and Magnificats in the +eight modes, and (3) secular songs and dance music +intended for the house-organ or clavier. In France, +as elsewhere, no distinction was made in writing for +clavier and organ, though the latter enjoyed the preference, +as it was also a house instrument. The early +French masters had a true understanding of the nature +of the organ. Their playing was neither frivolous nor +over-serious, but natural and free. A tendency to emphasize +effective and ingenious registration rather than +the worth of the composition manifested itself among +French organists as early as the sixteenth century and +this has been a prominent characteristic of French +organ-music ever since. French organists of the sixteenth +century, however, seem to have possessed greater +facility on the pedals than their German contemporaries.</p> + +<p>In 1626 Jean Titelouze (1563-1633), a priest of St. +Omer, and canon and organist of the Cathedral of +Rouen, published at Paris ‘Magnificats in all the Tones,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</span> +with Versets, for Organ.’ His organ compositions are +of considerable merit and he may be regarded as the +founder of French organ-playing. The school of Titelouze +produced two excellent organists—Nicolas Gigault<a id="FNanchor_106" href="#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> +(born 1645), who, as Fétis says, was ‘one of the +good French organists of the seventeenth-century +school, which was superior to that of the eighteenth +century’; and André Raison (born about 1650), organist +of the abbey of St. Geneviève in Paris, published in 1688 +his <em>Livre d’Orgue</em> containing masses, an offertoire, +and a piece imitating Froberger’s descriptive music entitled +<em>Vive le Roy</em>, written for the festival which commemorated +the recovery of Louis XIV from illness. It +was stated that the purpose of the book was ‘to show +organists, both male and female, who are shut up in +provincial cloisters, how to make use of the excellent +novelties and the increase in the number of keyboards +introduced by modern organ-builders.’ Raison’s music +shows, in the indicated stops to be used, that the French +preference for reed stops had already manifested itself.</p> + +<p>Jacques Champion de Chambonnières (the last part +of which name he assumed when he married the heiress +of an estate of that name) was first chamber clavecinist +to Louis XIII. His influence on the development of +organ music was almost entirely through his famous +pupils, of whom, like Sweelinck, he had many, among +them Le Bègue, d’Anglebert, and the elder Couperins. +He died in 1670, but left no contributions to the literature +of the organ.</p> + +<p>Nicolas Antoine le Bègue (1630-1702), organist to the +king, in 1676 published three books of <em>Pièces d’Orgue</em>. +He was a very skillful organist and a thorough contrapuntist. +His book contains offertories, symphonies (the +same in form that Handel later employed for his overtures), +Noëls, elevations, mass music, magnificats, preludes,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</span> +solos for various stops, trios for two manuals and +pedal, and dialogues for two manuals.</p> + +<p>Jean Henri d’Anglebert, chamber clavecinist to Louis +XIV, published in 1689 <em>Pièces de Claveçin</em>, with a supplement +of some organ music. This contains among +other things a quartet for three manuals and pedal, +two of the parts to be played with one hand on two +keyboards, which would have been impossible on any +organ of this period outside of France on account of the +distance between the keyboards. By the beginning of +the eighteenth century France possessed many large +organs with three, four, and sometimes even five manuals. +The largest instruments had an Echo organ, and +the <em>Voix Humaine</em> and Tremulant were as popular then +as now. The pedal-board had a much larger compass +than on present-day organs, extending from F below +the present lowest C to thirty-six notes; but the pedal +had no 16-foot stops, only 8-and 4-foot, the pedal being +used, not for bass as now, but for carrying the tenor or +subject. It was later reduced to thirty notes, beginning +with the lowest C as at present.</p> + +<p>The Couperin family played much the same important +part in the development of French music as the +Bach family did in Germany and both in the same field, +that of instrumental music. For several generations +the Couperins were distinguished musicians; the post +of organist of St. Gervais remained in the family as a +kind of ‘living’ from about 1650 until 1815. The most +important and renowned member of this family was +François (1668-1733), called <em>Couperin le Grand</em> because +of his acknowledged superiority in organ and claveçin-playing. +He was organist at St. Gervais in 1698, but was +soon promoted to the position of clavecinist and organist +to the king. Notwithstanding his great reputation +as a performer on the organ, he wrote nothing especially +for that instrument. His paramount interest as +a composer lay in the development of the claveçin or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</span> +harpsichord and his work indicates the point of historical +development where the organ and the keyboard +instruments of the claveçin or harpsichord type parted, +each to travel its own path independent of the other. +His part in the creation of the modern pianoforte school +is discussed in another volume.</p> + +<p>Louis Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749), a pupil of +André Raison and his successor at St. Jacques, later +at St. Sulpice, composed much organ music, some of +which has been newly edited by Guilmant in his <em>Archives +des Maîtres de l’Orgue</em>.</p> + +<p>Louis Marchand (1669-1732) belonged to a family +that was celebrated in the annals of French music, +mostly in the field of stringed instruments. He published +a volume of organ music, some of which has been +edited by Guilmant in the work just mentioned. He +had a great reputation as a player, but his compositions +betray the trivial and superficial musician. He was +appointed court organist at Versailles and for a time +was very much the fashion as a teacher. But as a man +he was eccentric in manner and dissipated in habits—so +much so that the king is said to have insisted on paying +half of his salary to his wife. This incensed the +musician, and one day he stopped playing in the middle +of a mass and walked out of the church. When the +king indignantly called him to account for his unusual +behavior, he replied: ‘Sire, if my wife gets half my +salary, she may play half the service.’ In punishment +he was banished for a time and went to Germany. +While in Dresden in 1717 he met Sebastian Bach and a +contest between the two on the organ was arranged, but +to avoid inevitable defeat at the hands (and feet) of the +great German he suddenly left Dresden and returned +to Paris, and the contest never took place.</p> + +<p>Far more important than Marchand as a musician +was Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764). While his +chief fame rests on his operas, theoretical works, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</span> +claveçin music, he won a great reputation as an organist +(in Clermont, Lille, and Paris), especially as an extempore +player, and was considered the greatest +French organist of his time. He published no music +written especially for organ, however.</p> + +<p>Dom Jean François Bedos de Celles (about 1714-1797), +a Benedictine monk, deserves mention here, not +as an organist, but as a builder. His book <em>L’Art du +Facteur d’Orgues</em> contains much valuable information +about the condition of French organs in the eighteenth +century and indicates that a great advance in organ-building +was taking place. The author gives much advice +for effective combinations of registers suitable for +certain kinds of pieces; he finally says: ‘The more an +organist understands how to exhibit the resources of +his organ, the more will he please the public and +himself.’</p> + +<p>French keyboard music of the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries showed a marked preference for instruments +of the harpsichord and clavichord type. During +the eighteenth century French composers for, and +performers on, these instruments were supreme in +Europe, but organ-music west of the Rhine has been, +on the whole, quite unimportant from early times until +nearly the middle of the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>Organ-music in Spain and Portugal followed Italian +and French models and until about 1700 maintained a +place of equal importance and worth with that of +Italy. It is worthy of mention that the first musician +to raise the standard of revolt against the mediæval +system of tuning and to advocate a system of ‘temperament’ +was a Spaniard, Ramis de Pareja, born in Andalusia +about 1440. There are a few prominent names +among Spanish organists, such as Félix Antonio Cabezón +(1510-1566), Thomas de Santa Maria (died 1570), +and Pablo Nassare (born 1664), but no noteworthy +progress was made here, organ music exhibiting the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</span> +same state of lethargy that was apparent in all Catholic +countries during the period from Frescobaldi until +the middle of the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>With the Reformation the Netherlands divided along +the line of religious sympathies. Belgium remained +true to the Roman Church and her organ-music developed, +as in France, according to the needs of the +Roman ritual. Holland, however, embraced Lutheranism +and Calvinism, and, as soon as Spanish rule was +overthrown in 1581, took a prominent lead, through +her great organists, Sweelinck (whose work has been +already noted) and Anthony van Noordt (middle of +seventeenth century), in developing an organ style responsive +to the needs of the Protestant ritual.</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>In England peculiar conditions have prevailed from +very early times in respect to organ-music. Early English +musicians were easily the peers of those of any +continental country. Some of the oldest and most +famous organs were built in England and the house +organ was cultivated there with as much zeal and artistic +energy as in any other country. But, even after +the Reformation, the choir has always dominated English +church-music and until very recent years the organ +has been regarded as wholly secondary in importance. +All great English church-music up to the present generation +has been vocal. We find in the Anglican service +no counterpart of the chorale-prelude in the Lutheran +service or the canzona and toccata in the Roman. +The organ in the Anglican service has been employed +consistently and primarily as accompaniment +for the highly-trained choirs and its independent use +has been confined almost exclusively to playing before +and after the services.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</span></p> + +<p>Handicapped as it was by lack of appreciation within +the Church, organ-music was further retarded in its +development by the curious reluctance of English +builders to adopt pedals and to give up the old system +of tuning. Until well into the nineteenth century very +few English organs possessed pedals and in these few +the pedal-board rarely exceeded an octave and a half +in compass. In the matter of tuning, the system of ‘equal +temperament’ was not adopted for English organs until +more than a century after it had been firmly established +in practical use on the continent. Here again the domination +of the voices in the service is apparent. Whether +this mechanical inferiority of the organ was related +to its secondary position in English church-music as +cause or effect, is not germane to our purpose to discuss.</p> + +<p>So unimportant was the organ considered in early +English church-music that no cathedrals maintained +organists until the time of the Reformation, the singers +taking turns at playing the instrument. Henry Abington, +a priest who died in 1497, is the first Englishman +mentioned as having possessed proficiency as an organist +(at Wells in 1447 and Master of the Chapel Royal +after 1465), and his fame in this respect rests wholly +on his epitaph at Stonyhurst: ‘He was the best singer +amongst thousands, and besides this, he was the best +organist.’</p> + +<p>But organ music flourished in the palaces of kings +and wealthy noblemen, where organists and organ-makers +were installed as regular members of the households. +The greatest epoch of English music was also +the most brilliant of English organ-playing. Prepared +during the reigns of Henry VIII and Queen Mary, it +reached its culminating point in Queen Elizabeth’s long +reign (1558-1603). No examples of organ-music prior +to Elizabeth’s time have been preserved. The organ +compositions of the great Elizabethan organists were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</span> +written for the house organ rather than the church organ +and are, therefore, scattered through the numerous +collections of music for the virginal,<a id="FNanchor_107" href="#Footnote_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> for they were +playable on either instrument. Collections of music +written for the church organ, so common on the Continent, +were unknown in England until recent times.</p> + +<p>When England espoused the cause of Protestantism, +many of her Catholic musicians escaped to the Continent, +but many remained and were protected by the +Court from being molested as long as they kept their +private religious views to themselves. Among the latter +were some of the most famous organists and musicians +of Elizabeth’s reign—Tye, Tallis, Blitheman, Byrd, +and Bull.</p> + +<p>Dr. Christopher Tye (about 1515-1572) was organist +at Ely from 1541, and later became organist of the +Chapel Royal. He was highly respected for his great +musical ability and brilliant education, and his style +of writing was scholarly, though singularly unaffected. +According to Anthony Wood he was ‘a peevish and +humorsome man, especially in his later days,’ and it is +related that while he was playing one day in the chapel +of Queen Elizabeth, with whom he was a great favorite, +‘she sent the verger to tell him that he played out of +tune; whereupon he sent word that her ears were out +of tune.’ With him the most brilliant epoch of English +music begins.</p> + +<p>Thomas Redford (died before 1559) was organist +and choir-master at St. Paul’s, London, about 1535. He +had the reputation of being one of the ablest instrumental +writers of his time and left many organ-pieces.</p> + +<p>Thomas Tallis (about 1510-1585) received his first appointment +as organist at Waltham Abbey. At the Dissolution +he became one of the organists of the Chapel +Royal, which position he held until 1577 through the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</span> +shifting religious changes of the troublous reigns of +Henry, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth. He faithfully +served the church of his adoption by writing some of +its finest early anthems, canticles, and hymn-tunes. +Though a famous organist, but few of his organ works +have remained.</p> + +<p>William Byrd (1543-1623), one of the foremost composers +of his period and distinguished in all the forms +then current, was a pupil of, and worthy successor to, +Thomas Tallis, whom he surpassed in everything ‘except +in happy speculations.’ He served as organist of +Lincoln Cathedral from 1563 and became Gentleman +of the Chapel Royal in 1569, dividing with Tallis the +duties of organist. The excellence of his art is attested +by his numerous church compositions and the instrumental +pieces, many of which are for organ, contained +in the ‘Fitzwilliam Virginal Book,’ the ‘Virginal Book of +Queen Elizabeth,’ and ‘Lady Nevill’s Virginal Book.’</p> + +<p>Dr. John Bull (1563-1628) was the most famous virtuoso +on the organ and virginal of the latter part of +the Elizabethan era. He was organist at Hereford in +1582 and in 1591 followed his master Blitheman as organist +of the Chapel Royal. On Queen Elizabeth’s recommendation +he was appointed professor of music at +Gresham College in 1596, which position he held for +eleven years. In 1613 he was compelled to ‘go beyond +the seas without license,’ as was the euphonious phrase +for running away. He became the Archduke’s organist +at Brussels and four years later went to Antwerp where +he was cathedral organist until his death. He was a +curious personality, but a most excellent artist, exhibiting +marvellous contrapuntal skill and originality. In +his preludes and fantasias, notably in a Fantasia on +the hexachord, his modulations and complicated +rhythms display a strong modern feeling.</p> + +<p>One of the greatest names in the history of English +church-music is that of Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625),<span class="pagenum" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</span> +the last of the early school of English church composers. +In 1623 he became organist at Westminster Abbey +and was one of the most renowned organists of his time, +but published only a few pieces for keyed instruments—some +dances and a fantasia. All the great English +composers of this period were also great organists, for +the chief musicians at the cathedral and Chapel Royal +were all organists. All excelled as extempore performers, +and, when solo work was required, they exercised +their skill in improvisation and felt small necessity for +writing what they played.</p> + +<p>At the beginning of the seventeenth century the musical +art of the English Church received a staggering +blow from the fanatical ideas and iconoclastic acts of +the Puritans. Their misdirected zeal was aimed at all +art; choirs were abolished, paintings and organs were +destroyed, and priceless treasures were wantonly +burned. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 +more liberal views prevailed and there quickly followed +a revival of musical activity. But only a few musicians +survived the years of artistic darkness under Puritan +domination—they had either emigrated or chosen other +professions. The destroyed organs were rebuilt with +utmost haste and foreign organ-builders were summoned +to give aid. Among these were two Germans +by the name of Schmidt, one of whom became famous +as Father Smith. These organs were still in a primitive +form, the pedal not being considered necessary and, indeed, +not being added until Handel in his concertos +insisted on their use. With the new era came also an +influx of new ideas from the Continent. Pelham +Humfrey infused a more modern style into the music +of the cathedral service and the organ for a time was +permitted to assume the importance of a solo instrument.<a id="FNanchor_108" href="#Footnote_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> +Furthermore, the organ soon became a feature +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</span>of theatre and concert performances and the area of its +influence was thus widened.</p> + +<p>John Blow (1648-1708) was one of the first of the +noted musicians of the ‘new school.’ He was chosen +organist of Westminster Abbey at the age of twenty-one. +Eleven years later his pupil, Purcell, was appointed +to this office at Blow’s request, but at Purcell’s +death Blow was reinstated. He also held the post of +organist and composer to the king. He was a voluminous +composer, writing a vast amount of church-music +and also a considerable number of voluntaries for the +organ, of which relatively little has been published. +His style is strong, healthy, and, in harmonic progression, +frequently in advance of his time. One of his +organ pieces is a ‘Voluntary for ye Cornet stop,’ beginning +with a short fugal passage which introduces the +solo. It is dignified and effective, but the popularity of +such solo effects led in the next century to a style that +brought about a debasement of organ-music that was +far-reaching in its effects.</p> + +<p>William Croft (1677-1727), though a distinguished +composer and organist, did not exert as wide an influence +on organ-music as some of his contemporaries. +He was a pupil of Blow and after his master’s death +succeeded him as organist of Westminster Abbey. He +wrote twelve organ voluntaries, but they are not published.</p> + +<p>Maurice Greene (1696-1755) was organist at St. +Paul’s, London, in 1718, and succeeded Croft as organist +and composer to the Chapel Royal in 1727. In 1730 +he was appointed professor of music at Cambridge +University. He was a prolific and able composer and +rendered most valuable service to English cathedral +music. He also published several organ voluntaries, +in which he departed from the serious and fugal style +of his choral music and employed such ear-tickling solo +stops as the Cornet and Vox Humana to an excess that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</span> +brought into existence a host of tawdry and vulgar imitations.</p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>There remain to be mentioned the two most distinguished +names in English music—Purcell and Handel—the +one, who undoubtedly would have founded a +school of real English music had not his life been cut +off at so untimely an age, the other, who, though a German, +actually did found a great English school a half-century +later on the lines so brilliantly suggested by +his English predecessor. The year 1658 may be said to +mark the beginning of a new era in English music; in +it occurred the death of Cromwell, who, with all his +greatness, stood for Puritan ideas of artistic repression, +and the birth of Henry Purcell (1658-1695), who +raised the musical fame of England to a height it had +never before attained. Though he died at the age of +only thirty-seven, like Mozart and Schubert he wrote +with amazing swiftness and produced an astonishing +quantity of music in every form, far in advance of his +English, and most of his continental, contemporaries +in quality and workmanship. His music that falls within +the scope of the present inquiry consists of some +four-part sonatas and suites for organ or harpsichord. +One of the most excellent of these is a Toccata in A, +which possesses such unusual musical qualities for that +period that it was for a long time considered to be one +of Sebastian Bach’s earlier works. The modern feeling +for key seems to be fully established in Purcell’s +music. In this respect and in the fluency and expressional +power of his counterpoint he anticipated +Bach by fully three decades. Purcell was organist of +Westminster Abbey in 1680 and of the Chapel Royal in +1682.</p> + +<p>George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) was the greatest<span class="pagenum" id="Page_453">[Pg 453]</span> +representative of English music in the eighteenth +century and one of the most brilliant organists of his +time; his influence in both choral and organ fields was +supreme in England until the advent of Mendelssohn. +Handel’s organ-playing brought him fame earlier than +did his operas. In 1703 he visited Lübeck with his +friend Mattheson and listened with deep respect to +Buxtehude at the <em>Marienkirche</em>. One purpose of the +visit was to look into the possibilities of succeeding +the venerable organist, but one condition of the succession +was that the person who accepted the appointment +should also marry the daughter of the retiring +organist. After looking over the situation both Handel +and Mattheson declined the honor. During his Italian +visit (1706-1709) he met Domenico Scarlatti, who was +only two years his senior, and together they journeyed +from Florence to Rome, forming a friendship that +lasted throughout their long careers. In Rome Cardinal +Ottoboni arranged a sort of competition between +them. The contest was undecided on the harpsichord, +but when Handel had played on the organ, Scarlatti +was the first to acknowledge his friend’s superiority, +saying that he had not believed such playing as Handel’s +was possible. His London experience began in +1711, when he created a great sensation by the production +of his opera <em>Rinaldo</em>, written in fourteen days by +piecing together arias and choruses of earlier composition. +The <em>Utrecht Te Deum</em> in 1713 further increased +his fame in England and in 1719 he was appointed director +of the Royal Academy of Music, which became +the scene of his operatic triumphs and trials. Later +in life he turned his attention wholly to the composition +of religious works and produced in quick succession +the sublime oratorios that brought him immortality. +It was in connection with these oratorios that +his organ concertos came into existence. Handel had +a great reputation as an organist, especially as an extempore<span class="pagenum" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</span> +player. This reputation he was wise enough +to capitalize and, as a means of attracting larger audiences +to hear his oratorios, he exhibited his skill as +performer between the acts, to the great delight of his +listeners. He was not always in a mood for extemporizing, +however, and his thirty-three concertos for organ +(most of them with orchestra) were written for such +occasions, many being merely transcriptions of his concertos +for various other instruments. They are cast +in the form of either the Italian concerto or the French +overture. Since they were not written for use in +church, but in the theatre, they are for the most part +in light and flowing vein, brilliant in character but +free from triviality, and serve as excellent display +pieces. They contain fine music and must be regarded +as good works of art. The most important are No. 1 +in G minor, No. 4 in F major, and No. 10 in D minor. +These works became so popular that Burney says,<a id="FNanchor_109" href="#Footnote_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> +‘public players on keyed instruments totally subsisted +on these concertos for nearly thirty years.’</p> + +<p>Sir John Hawkins<a id="FNanchor_110" href="#Footnote_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> gives a glowing account of Handel’s +organ-playing. ‘As to his performance on the +organ,’ he says, ‘the powers of speech are so limited +that it is almost a vain attempt to describe it otherwise +than by its effects. A firm and delicate touch, a volant +finger, and a ready delivery of passages the most difficult, +are the praise of inferior artists; they were not +noticed in Handel, whose excellences were of a far +superior kind, and his amazing command of the instrument, +the fullness of his harmony, the grandeur and +dignity of his style, the fertility of his invention, were +qualities that absorbed every inferior attainment. +When he gave a concerto, his method in general was +to introduce it with a voluntary movement on the +Diapasons, which stole on the ear in a slow and solemn +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_455">[Pg 455]</span>progression; the harmony close-wrought and as full as +could possibly be expressed; the passages concatenated +with stupendous art, the whole at the time being perfectly +intelligible and carrying the appearance of great +simplicity. This kind of prelude was succeeded by the +concerto itself, which he executed with a degree of +spirit and firmness that no one could pretend to equal. +Such, in general, was the manner of his performance; +but who shall describe its effects upon the enraptured +auditory? Silence, the truest applause, succeeded the +instant that he addressed himself to the instrument, +and that so profound that it checked respiration and +seemed to control the functions of nature, while the +magic of his touch kept the attention of his hearers +awake only to those enchanting sounds to which it +gave utterance.’</p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="footnotes"> +<p class="center p2 big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_96" href="#FNanchor_96" class="label">[96]</a> Quoted in <em>Sammelbände der Intern. Mus. Gesellschaft</em>, Vol. III, page +614.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_97" href="#FNanchor_97" class="label">[97]</a> For example, Merulo published many <em>ricercari da cantore</em>.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_98" href="#FNanchor_98" class="label">[98]</a> When Willaert, who had previously occupied several important positions, +became <em>maestro</em> at St. Mark’s, his annual salary was only seventy +ducats or about $88. This was gradually increased to two hundred ducats +($250), which was continued to his successor.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_99" href="#FNanchor_99" class="label">[99]</a> <em>Geschichte der Instrumentalmusik</em>, p. 123.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_100" href="#FNanchor_100" class="label">[100]</a> Franz Commer’s <em>Sammlung der besten Meisterwerke des 17 und 18 +Jahrhunderts</em> and Ritter’s <em>Geschichte des Orgelspiels</em>. Also Haberl’s selections +from Frescobaldi’s organ pieces.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_101" href="#FNanchor_101" class="label">[101]</a> C. F. Abdy Williams: ‘The Story of Organ Music,’ p. 120.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_102" href="#FNanchor_102" class="label">[102]</a> Among his famous pupils were Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) of Halle, +Jacob Prætorius (1586-1651) of Hamburg, Heinrich Scheidemann of Hamburg, +Melchior Schildt (about 1592-1667) of Hanover, Paul Seifert (died +1666) of Danzig, and Johann Adam Reinken of Hamburg.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_103" href="#FNanchor_103" class="label">[103]</a> In a letter to his family dated September 3, 1831, at Sargans, Switzerland.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_104" href="#FNanchor_104" class="label">[104]</a> Chiefly organ works transcribed for the piano by Liszt, Tausig, Busoni, +and d’Albert; but also the ‘Two-part Inventions’ transcribed for +organ with a third part by Max Reger, and the Chaconne for violin alone +transcribed for organ by Wilhelm Middelschulte.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_105" href="#FNanchor_105" class="label">[105]</a> See Vol. II of his edition of ‘Well-tempered Clavichord’—article, +‘Transcriptions.’</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_106" href="#FNanchor_106" class="label">[106]</a> In Guilmant’s <em>Maîtres de l’Orgue</em> there is a charming ‘Noël’ by him.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_107" href="#FNanchor_107" class="label">[107]</a> Then the chief representative of keyed instruments in England, as +the organ was in Germany and Italy, and the claveçin in France.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_108" href="#FNanchor_108" class="label">[108]</a> A voluntary ‘upon the organ alone’ was permitted after the Psalm +and after the blessing.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_109" href="#FNanchor_109" class="label">[109]</a> Vol. IV, p. 429.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_110" href="#FNanchor_110" class="label">[110]</a> History of Music, p. 912 (Reprint: London, 1853).</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_456">[Pg 456]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER XVI<br> +<small>ORGAN MUSIC AFTER BACH AND HANDEL</small></h2> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The eclipse of organ music after Bach; Bach’s pupils and other organ +masters of the classic period—Organ composers of the romantic period: +Mendelssohn, Liszt, Rheinberger and others—Great French organists of +the nineteenth century—English organists since Handel.</p> +</div> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>The hopelessness of maintaining organ-music on the +height to which Bach had raised it was obvious enough +as soon as he had passed from the stage of which he +had been the most brilliant adornment. Johann +Joachim Quantz, in his book, <em>Versuch einer Anweisung +die Flöte zu spielen</em> (1752), expresses the fear that +after his (Bach’s) death the art of organ-playing, which +he had brought to the highest perfection, might deteriorate +or possibly disappear, ‘as there are only a few +that cultivate it.’ He complains that ‘good organists +are very rare,’ but intimates that one reason is that +they receive very little encouragement, since the majority +of them are paid ‘such miserably small salaries.’ +But while Bach’s creative genius had said the last word +in organ music in the particular forms which he employed, +he handed down his wonderful art of playing +to a galaxy of brilliant pupils and especially to his +oldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann.</p> + +<p>For a century after Bach’s death, however, the attention +of musical Europe was absorbed in following +other lines of development and his influence was not +immediately apparent. He was so far in advance of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_457">[Pg 457]</span> +his age that the essence of his art had to wait several +generations till the world had progressed enough to +perceive it and in a few years after he had passed he +became only a tradition. The organ was soon overshadowed +in importance by new media of musical expression; +the orchestra and the rapidly developing +pianoforte, the opera and the oratorio, the symphony +and the sonata, offered novel and more alluring opportunities +for the imagination and creative fancy of composers +than did the sombre, polyphonic forms that +seemed best suited both to the church services themselves +and to the organ of the period as an interpreting +instrument. And neither the organ nor organ-music +was rescued from the secondary and unimportant position +into which both fell after Bach’s time, until organ-builders +in the last half of the nineteenth century began +to introduce mechanical improvements which +made the instrument capable of meeting the modern +requirements in expressional power.</p> + +<p>Though the instrument itself lagged pitiably behind +other instruments in development, Germany, France, +and England continued to bring forth great organists. +Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784), the special favorite +of his father, was exceedingly talented as a performer +and was considered the finest organist in Germany +after his father’s death. He was organist of the +<em>Sophienkirche</em> in Dresden (1733-1747) and of the +<em>Marienkirche</em> in Halle (1747-1764). He had a great +reputation for improvisation, of which he was especially +fond, and he wrote very little for the organ—chorale-preludes, +trios, canons, and some fugues, of +which the one in F major is especially notable.</p> + +<p>Several of Sebastian Bach’s pupils were famous organists +in their time and good composers. Johann +Philip Kirnberger (1721-1783) wrote chorale-preludes +and fugues, but is best known to the musical world +by his theoretical work, <em>Die Kunst des reinen Satzes</em>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_458">[Pg 458]</span> +Johann Frederick Doles (1715-1797) was cantor of the +Thomas school in Leipzig from 1756 to 1789. He wrote +in rather popular vein and, strange indeed for a pupil +and successor of the great Cantor, actually demanded +the banishment of the fugal form from the church +service. Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780), whom +Bach playfully called ‘<em>der einzige Krebs in meinem +Bache</em>’ (‘the only crab in my brook’), was considered by +Bach to be his best pupil. He wrote chorale-fugues, +preludes, and fugues. His fugue in G major is still an +attractive concert piece. Johann Schneider (1702-1787), +organist at St. Nicholas’, Leipzig, gained great +fame as an improvisator on the organ. Johann Christian +Kittel (1732-1809), the last pupil of Sebastian Bach, +who brought his master’s traditions into the nineteenth +century, was organist at Erfurt from 1756 till his death. +He was a famous player and teacher and an excellent +composer. Among his celebrated pupils were M. G. +Fischer and J. C. H. Rinck.</p> + +<p>Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736-1809), famous +as a theoretical writer, composer, and teacher, was +court-organist in Vienna (1772) and kapellmeister at +St. Stephen’s (1792). For the organ he wrote eleven +sets of fugues and three of preludes, but the vast majority +of his 261 compositions are unpublished. His +fame lingered longest as a theorist and among his +pupils were names that later became celebrated—Seyfried, +Hummel, and Beethoven. Beethoven studied +counterpoint with him, but he expressed only a poor +opinion of his pupil’s talent.</p> + +<p>Georg Joseph Vogler (1749-1814), best known as +Abbé Vogler and immortalized in Robert Browning’s +well-known poem of that name, was a pupil of Padre +Martini in Bologna and of Vilotti in Padua. After going +to Rome he entered the priesthood, later returning to +Germany and sojourning a few years in each of various +places. He invented a system of simplification for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_459">[Pg 459]</span> +the organ and applied it to a portable instrument which +he called ‘orchestrion,’ with which he travelled over +Europe as concert-organist. One of his inventions was +the so-called ‘resultant’ 16-foot tone, produced by +uniting an 8-foot pipe with a 5-1/3-foot (‘quint’) pipe. +This device gave rise to the ‘resultant’ 32-foot tone +still employed by some organ-builders. He also advocated +discarding mixtures altogether. His compositions +no longer possess interest. His presumption and +self-confidence are well illustrated by the fact that he +published (Peters’, Leipzig, 1810) twelve chorales by +Sebastian Bach ‘corrected’ (<em>umgearbeitet</em>) by himself +and analyzed by C. M. von Weber, who at that time +was his pupil at Darmstadt.</p> + +<p>Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck (1770-1846) was a +voluminous writer for the organ. His compositions +show fluent melody and clear form, and his style is +dignified and simple, but his ideas lack musical depth. +He was wise enough not to attempt to follow Bach in +fugue writing, recognizing, as he said to Fétis, that if +he were ‘to succeed in composing anything worthy of +approval, it must be on different lines from his +(Bach’s).’ Rinck’s ‘Organ School’ is still well-known +in England and America.</p> + +<p>Michael Gotthard Fischer (1773-1829), organist at +Erfurt, was a most excellent player and a composer of +many organ-works—preludes, fantasias, chorale-preludes—that +even to-day have not lost their attractiveness.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>Johann Gottlob Schneider (1789-1864) was one of +the greatest German organ virtuosi of the nineteenth +century and did a great deal to popularize organ-music +by his many concert tours. His few published works—fugues, +fantasias, preludes—occupy an honorable +place. Like so many of the great organists of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_460">[Pg 460]</span> +earlier periods, he was famous for his improvisation.</p> + +<p>Adolf Friedrich Hesse (1809-1863), organist of St. +Bernard’s, Breslau, was another celebrated and much +admired organ virtuoso. He created a sensation by his +performances, especially his pedal-playing, at the inauguration +of the new organ at St. Eustache, Paris, in +1844. When later he concertized in England (1852) he +protested vigorously against the unequal temperament +of the English organs. He wrote preludes, fugues, fantasias, +études—mostly practical works in clear form, +with smooth-flowing melody and simple, popular content.</p> + +<p>August Gottfried Ritter (1811-1885), organist of the +cathedral in Magdeburg, was one of the greatest German +organ masters of the last century, famous alike +for his wonderful improvisation and as a virtuoso. He +wrote four fine sonatas for the organ, of which opus +19 in E minor and especially opus 23 in A minor (dedicated +to Liszt) are of great value. Other works are +chorale-preludes, fugues, and variations. Of greatest +value are his <em>Kunst des Orgelspiels</em>, an instruction book +in two volumes, and <em>Geschichte des Orgelspiels im +14-18 Jahrhunderts</em>, an admirable and scholarly scientific +treatise, which has been freely drawn upon, since +its publication in 1884, by most writers on organ history.</p> + +<p>Karl August Haupt (1810-1891), organist of the Parochialkirche, +Berlin (1849), and director of the Royal +Academy of Church Music (1869), was an organ master +of the first rank, equally great as virtuoso and extempore +player in the style of Bach, for whose works +he was ever an enthusiastic propagandist. He published +the organ works of Thiele, his friend and predecessor +at the Parochialkirche. He drew a host of +American students to him. One of these, Mr. E. E. +Truette in the <em>Étude</em>, is authority for the statement that +they numbered over 150 and he mentions the names of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_461">[Pg 461]</span> +Eugene Thayer, Clarence Eddy, J. K. Paine, George W. +Morgan, Arthur Bird, and Philip Hale.</p> + +<p>Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) was an organist +of fine attainments and wrote most gratefully +for the instrument. Himself a Bach enthusiast and +gifted with extraordinary contrapuntal facility, Mendelssohn +was the first composer for the organ after +Bach to approach him in the happy combination of +nobility of musical ideas and technical finish of workmanship. +He has earned the gratitude of organists +by his three preludes and fugues (of which the ones in +G major and C minor are possibly the best) and six +sonatas, all free from pedantry and full of refreshing +melodic invention, romantic warmth of harmony, and +in attractive technical garb. The preludes are less valuable +than the sonatas. Four of the six sonatas have +chorales for their principal thematic material and +these are the most valuable of the six. In the use of +the chorale in his organ sonatas and his oratorios, +Mendelssohn shows his close artistic kinship with the +great Cantor; the chorale made a deep appeal to him +and stirred the flight of his imagination to finest effort. +These are sonatas only in name, the strict sonata-form +not being observed. In the powerful first movement +of No. 1 (F minor), the chorale <em>Was mein Gott will, +gscheh allzeit</em> (‘What my God wills, be always +done!’) is beautifully interwoven. The simple, expressive +Adagio is followed by a very attractive Recitativo +which leads into the brilliant and dashing Finale. +The Adagio of No. 2 (C minor) is of finest beauty and +the best movement of this sonata, which is clear in +form and melodious, as Mendelssohn always is. No. 3 +(A minor) has only two movements, the first of grand +effect, presenting an excellent double fugue on the +chorale <em>Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir</em> (‘In deep distress +I cry to Thee’). No. 4 (B-flat major) is constructed +with four movements and is a brilliant, effective<span class="pagenum" id="Page_462">[Pg 462]</span> +concert sonata, the Allegretto (F major) being +especially attractive and written in Mendelssohn’s +typical fluent manner. No. 5 (D major) is a beautiful +work throughout. In No. 6 (D minor) Mendelssohn +uses the chorale <em>Vater unser im Himmelreich</em> as the +basis of four variations built up to a great climax and +a fugue constructed on the first line of the chorale. +The Finale (D major) almost breathes vocal expression.</p> + +<p>Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was never an organist, +but his interest in contrapuntal study led him to +write six fugues on the name B-A-C-H, of which No. 5, +the little staccato fugue, is the most original. The canons +which he wrote as studies for pedal-piano are also +suitable and effective for organ. Of these the B minor +Canon is best known as an effective concert-piece.</p> + +<p>Franz Liszt (1811-1886) contributed very original +and effective music for the organ, most of which inclines +towards orchestral effects and some of which +opened up new possibilities for the organ, as his compositions +for piano did for that instrument. In addition +he wrote many smaller pieces (including transcriptions) +for organ or harmonium, that are harmonically +most piquant. His best works for organ +are: Variations on a Basso Ostinato (<em>Crucifixus</em> of +the B minor Mass by Bach), Prelude and Fugue on +B-A-C-H, <em>Evocation à la Chapelle Sixtine</em>, Litany: <em>Ora +pro nobis</em>, and Fantasia and Fugue on <em>Ad nos, ad salutarem +undam</em> (theme by Meyerbeer), this last being +his greatest work for organ.</p> + +<p>Johann Friedrich Ludwig Thiele (1816-1848) was +organist of the Parochialkirche, Berlin, from 1839 to +1848. Although his early death at the age of thirty-two +prevented the full development of his extraordinary +genius, Thiele has left several very important organ-works—‘Chromatic +Fantasy,’ written at the age +of seventeen; three concert-pieces, all majestic compositions;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_463">[Pg 463]</span> +Theme and Variations in A-flat major and +in C major, both brilliant and effective concert-pieces.</p> + +<p>Immanuel Gottlob Friedrich Faisst (1823-1894), organist +in Stuttgart and director of the Stuttgart Conservatory, +published several organ pieces; his Sonata +in E major is a masterly work.</p> + +<p>The career of Julius Reubke (1834-1858), the son of +an organ-builder and a fine pianist and organist, was +cut short by death when he was only twenty-four years +old. His only organ-work, a sonata entitled ‘The 94th +Psalm,’ is one of the grandest and most powerful works +that have ever been written for the instrument; its position +in literature is really unique. It reveals the inexhaustible +fantasy, the profound depth, and the impetuous +temperament of the young composer, who with +sure hand molded his own form by breaking the old +sonata-form. This magnificent sonata introduced a +new epoch, the orchestral treatment of the organ. The +early death of Reubke and Thiele was the most serious +blow to modern progressive organ-music in Germany.</p> + +<p>Gustav Adolf Merkel (1827-1885), a pupil of Johann +Schneider and organist of the Kreuzkirche and Hofkirche +in Dresden, was one of the greatest organists +and organ-composers of his period and he has left +works of great beauty and value, though much of his +writing sounds dry and pedantic now. He wrote nine +sonatas, one of them for two performers and double +pedal. Of these sonatas the best are opus 42 in G +minor and opus 118 in D minor. Other works are fantasias, +preludes, and études. Merkel was a masterly +contrapuntist and falls in the direct line of succession +to Bach and Mendelssohn. His sonatas are on the +whole the best works of this class between Mendelssohn +and Rheinberger.</p> + +<p>Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), the great master of +German song and symphony, gave a few valuable +works to the organ: the very scholarly Fugue in A-flat +minor, Chorale-Prelude and Fugue on <em>O Traurigkeit, +O Herzeleid</em>, and eleven chorale-preludes (his last +work), of which two deserve especial mention—<em>Es ist +ein Ros’ entsprungen</em> and <em>O Welt, ich muss dich +lassen</em>.</p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<figure class="figcenter illowe30" id="ilofp465"> + <img class="w100 p2" src="images/ilofp465.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption">Modern Organ Composers:</figcaption> +</figure> + +<p class="center p1b">Top: Alexandre Guilmant and Charles Marie Widor<br> +Bottom: Joseph Rheinberger and Max Reger</p> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_464">[Pg 464]</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="p2">Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger (1839-1901) easily takes +rank as one of the best German organists and teachers +of the latter part of the nineteenth century and at the +same time one of the greatest organ composers of the +century. From 1867 he was professor of composition +and organ-playing in the Munich Conservatory and in +1877 was appointed director of the Court Church music +in Munich. He has exerted a marked influence on music +in America through his numerous pupils, among +whom may be mentioned Horatio W. Parker and +George W. Chadwick. His many-sided genius expressed +itself in various fields—orchestral, choral, +church, chamber, pianoforte, and organ. In all of these +fields he showed himself in close sympathy with modern +harmonic development and tendencies, but, strange +to say, not with Wagner’s methods and theories; yet +he combined with a progressive modern spirit a mastery +of fugal and contrapuntal forms equalled by none +of his contemporaries. While he avoided treating the +organ orchestrally, he was among the first to employ +in organ-forms the rich harmonic vocabulary of the +romantic composers who had already given to the literature +of the pianoforte and the orchestra so many +masterpieces of warm and glowing tone-color. His +organ compositions are pure music of an elevated type, +equal in their own individual way with the best orchestral +art of his period. In most of Rheinberger’s music, +however, there is present a certain quality of reserve +that never permits the expression of exuberance of +feeling or exalted enthusiasm. They reveal an astonishing +variety, a fertile imagination, deep earnestness, +and complete mastery of form and style. The most<span class="pagenum" id="Page_465">[Pg 465]</span> +important of these works are two concertos for organ +with orchestra in F major (opus 137) and G minor +(opus 177), and twenty sonatas, which alone constitute +a monumental contribution to organ literature. Rheinberger +seems to have attempted for the organ-sonata +something of the same task of setting free from the +trammels of tradition and of developing along the line +of its own inherent needs that Beethoven solved so +successfully for the pianoforte-sonata. These two +forms of the sonata, however, have very little in common +and Rheinberger, in his remarkable series, gave +the strongest impetus to the development of the organ-sonata +as a distinct music-form since Mendelssohn’s +noble works. The particular form which he seemed to +adopt for it as a kind of type was in three movements, +the first being in the nature of a prelude, the last a +fugue or some distinctly contrapuntal form, and the +intervening movement an intermezzo in slow tempo. +Most of his sonatas are constructed in this form, though +occasionally he employs four movements, as in the +Sonata in E minor, No. 8, where a Scherzoso appears +between the Intermezzo and the final movement. He +frequently uses with telling effect the modern device +of unifying the movements through the employment in +the last movement of themes heard in the first. In the +Pastoral Sonata, No. 3, the Eighth Gregorian Psalm +Tone, upon which the opening movement (Pastorale) +is constructed, appears again with fine effect as a contrasting +subject to the fugal theme in the last movement. +Plain-song melodies frequently appear in his +earlier sonatas. Many of the sonatas—especially No. +8 (opus 132) in E minor, No. 9 (opus 142) in B-flat +minor (dedicated to Guilmant), No. 12 (opus 154) in +B-flat major, No. 14 (opus 165) in C major, and No. +20 (opus 196) in F—are among the noblest examples +of organ-music. Among his shorter organ compositions +of large value are Twelve Characteristic Pieces,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_466">[Pg 466]</span> +many trios for two manuals and a pedal, besides several +pieces for organ and violin.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>French organ-music presents very little interesting +material for the historian to dwell upon until after the +middle of the nineteenth century, when a new stimulus +broke in upon the dreary triviality which had been so +long its chief characteristic. The most important +French organist of the last half of the eighteenth century +was Nicolas Séjan (1745-1819), who was appointed +organist of Nôtre Dame in 1772, of St. Sulpice in 1783, +of the Invalides in 1789, and of the Chapel Royal in +1814. Carlyle in his ‘French Revolution’ relates a thrilling +experience through which this organist passed at +the hands of the revolutionists in 1793, when they seized +the church of Nôtre Dame and made it the scene of a +sacrilegious orgy of unusually revolting character. Demoiselle +Candeille, a dancer from the Opéra, was established +at the altar as the Goddess of Reason and La +Harpe harangued the crowd, declaring all religion abolished. +As a crowning defiance to traditional religion +this was followed by a ball, at which Séjan was forced +to play dance-music on the great cathedral organ as +the howling rabble danced and shouted street songs.</p> + +<p>Alexandre Pierre François Boëly (1785-1858) was a +musician of most serious aims and made persistent efforts +to acquaint Frenchmen with the works of Bach +and other great composers for the organ, but with no +success. For several years he was organist at St. Germain +l’Auxerrois, Paris, but his zeal in serving his own +high artistic ideals cost him his position. He wrote +four offertories and many other pieces for organ.</p> + +<p>François Benoist (1794-1878), organist of the Royal +Chapel and professor of organ-playing at the Conservatoire +from 1819, left twelve books of organ works<span class="pagenum" id="Page_467">[Pg 467]</span> +entitled <em>Bibliothèque de l’Organiste</em>. Pieces from this +collection that have been reprinted, presumably the +best, are in the prevailing sentimental and trivial style +of this period. He was the organ-teacher of Saint-Saëns.</p> + +<p>Just before the middle of the nineteenth century a +movement for the restoration of Catholic church-music +was inaugurated in Bavaria by Dr. Karl Proske +(1794-1861), and Ratisbon became the centre of this +movement. A collateral movement for the reform of +plain-song was started by the ‘Benedictines of Solesmes,’ +an order of the ‘Congregation of France’ +founded at this monastery in 1833 by Dom Prosper +Guéranger. Two French organists who had taken holy +orders allied themselves to this latter movement and +aided greatly in the reformation of church-music, especially +by their writings on the relation of the organ to +plain-song and on other aspects of Gregorian music. +These were Louis Lambillotte (1797-1857) and Théodore +Nisard, the pen name of Abbé Xavier Normand +(born in 1812).</p> + +<p>The first of the modern French organists to have any +perceptible influence on present-day organists was +Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély (1817-1869), who +was organist at the Madeleine, Paris, from 1847 to 1858 +and of St. Sulpice from 1863 till his death. He was a +thorough musician, a skillful performer on the organ +and piano, and a composer in many fields. He was +regarded as possessing marvellous powers of improvisation +and his compositions for a time enjoyed great +popularity (‘The Monastery Bells’ was the best known +of his salon-music for pianoforte). Much of his organ-music +partakes of the nature of his ‘fashionable’ pianoforte-music; +it is light, if not trivial, and is very melodious, +but, despite its former great popularity, devoid +of artistic value. However, his name frequently appears +on present-day organ recital programs.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_468">[Pg 468]</span></p> + +<p>Antoine Édouard Batiste (1820-1876), organist of St. +Nicolas des Champs (1842-1854) and of St. Eustache +(1854-1876), was a fine teacher, one of the best performers +of his time, and a prolific composer of organ +music, much of which, however, is of the popular, +tuneful, ear-tickling, and easy-to-play variety. Several +of his nearly 300 compositions rise above this level and, +though showy and somewhat sentimental, are excellent +for their type. Few organ compositions have had +such widespread popularity as some of Batiste’s, as, for +example, the Communion in G, the Offertory in E, and +several of the ‘Grand Offertories,’ including the St. Cecilia +Offertories, among the best known of which are +the ones in D minor, C minor, and F. The vogue of +Batiste is by no means full-spent, but the gradually +widening demand for organ-music of a more serious +nature and a finer workmanship is automatically lessening +the appeal of such music, which is merely sensuously +pleasing.</p> + +<p>Much more serious in artistic purpose and effective +in healthy influence was Nicolas Jacques Lemmens +(1823-1881), an eminent Belgian organist and composer +who early came under the influence of German organ-music +while a student of Adolph Hesse at Breslau, +whither he was sent at government expense. Here he +spent a year in study (1846), cultivating a deep love for +Sebastian Bach and acquiring the traditions of his +great organ-works. When he returned to Belgium, he +carried with him a testimonial from his teacher, stating +that he could play Bach as well as he himself did. +As professor of organ-playing at the Brussels Conservatory +(1849-1858) he exerted a wide influence and in +1879 founded a school at Malines, Belgium, under the +auspices of the Belgian clergy for the training of Catholic +organists and choirmasters. Among his famous +pupils were Guilmant and Widor. He wrote many excellent +organ compositions, about sixty in all, including<span class="pagenum" id="Page_469">[Pg 469]</span> +sonatas (especially the Sonata Pontificale), offertories, +fantasias, etc., and his instruction book <em>École d’Orgue</em> +was adopted in the Paris and Brussels Conservatoires +and in other schools; but his chief influence was in +laying the foundations of a more serious style of organ-music +in Flanders and France. He was far more +successful than Boëly in arousing interest in Bach and +he astonished the French by his fine playing of the +great German master’s organ works. His example in +this direction was followed by many of the most distinguished +French organists, as Franck, Saint-Saëns, +Widor, Guilmant, Salomé—all of whom were enthusiastic +worshippers of the genius of the Leipzig cantor. +The most widely known of Lemmens’ organ pieces, +though by no means the best, is probably the Fantasia +in D minor, popularly called ‘The Storm.’</p> + +<p>Jan Albert van Eijken or Eyken (1823-1868), a distinguished +Dutch organist in Amsterdam and later in +Elberfeld, received his musical education at the Leipzig +Conservatory and later, at Mendelssohn’s suggestion, +under Johann Schneider at Dresden. He wrote +important works of great merit for the organ, including +three sonatas, of which the third in A minor deserves +special mention, twenty-five preludes, a large +number of chorale-preludes, a toccata and fugue on +B-A-C-H, and other pieces, all in the elevated style of +German Protestant organ-music.</p> + +<p>Samuel de Lange (born 1840) is another Dutch organist +and composer who was celebrated in Germany, +Austria, France, and England as a concert performer. +He taught successively in the Music Schools of Rotterdam +and Basel, and in the Conservatories of Cologne +(1876) and Stuttgart (1893). He wrote seven organ-sonatas +and many smaller pieces—all containing valuable +music.</p> + +<p>Three modern Belgian organists have achieved substantial +reputations. Alphonse Jean Ernest Mailly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_470">[Pg 470]</span> +(born 1833), ‘first organist to the King,’ became known +as a brilliant virtuoso and teacher (in the Brussels +Conservatory from 1868), and the composer of many +compositions for the organ, among them fantasias, +characteristic pieces, and a much-played sonata. His +pupil, Edgar Tinel (1854-1912), wrote one valuable +work for the organ, Sonata in G minor, of which the +Finale is especially vigorous in content and treatment. +In 1881 he succeeded Lemmens as director of the Institute +for Sacred Music at Malines and in 1896 accepted +an appointment as teacher of counterpoint and fugue +in the Brussels Conservatory. His fame as composer +rests more largely on his choral and church music. +Joseph Callaerts (1838-1901), a native of Antwerp and +a pupil of Lemmens at the Brussels Conservatory, was +organist of the Cathedral of Antwerp and teacher of +organ in the Music School from 1867. Some of his organ-music +borders on the popular, yet much of it possesses +dignity, if not great depth of thought.</p> + +<p>The greatest figure in French organ-music is César +Auguste Franck (1822-1890). What Sebastian Bach +is to German musical art, Franck is to French—the +great Gothic cathedral architect in tones. By virtue of +his works, which in many respects overshadow everything +before or after him in French organ literature, +and the beneficent effect of his personal influence, +which included within its radius many of the greatest +of present-day French composers, Franck was an +epoch-making personality and the spiritual head of a +new French school which has powerfully effected +French music since his time. A deep sincerity, religious +in its intensity, coupled with a certain indefinable +mysticism, pervades all of his compositions. Never +writing for effect or applause and possessing a Bach-like +fondness and capacity for intricate polyphonic +structure joined with an extremely modern freedom +in his use of harmonies, Franck created works of sublime<span class="pagenum" id="Page_471">[Pg 471]</span> +beauty that will live long after the works of +many of his now famous contemporaries are forgotten. +His abilities as an organist (he had the reputation of +being a fine one) were overshadowed by his compositions, +but he was professor of organ-playing at the +Paris Conservatoire and organist at St. Clotilde from +1872 till his death.</p> + +<p>His organ works are not numerous, but they are exceedingly +important, consisting of three sets of pieces.<a id="FNanchor_111" href="#Footnote_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> +In the first set of six pieces, No. 2, <em>Grande Pièce Symphonique</em> +in F-sharp minor, is appropriately called +symphonic. Its themes are noble and full of deepest +expression, and are developed with consummate mastery, +while the harmonic scheme is always novel and +fascinating. No. 3—Prelude, Fugue, and Variations in +B minor—is a work of the first rank and displays to +fine advantage his mastery of the resources of the organ +and the technical means of expression. The Pastorale +in E major, No. 4, is an especially interesting +and grateful concert-piece and the Finale, No. 6, is +brilliantly built up to a powerful climax. In a second +set, consisting of three chorales, though all are valuable, +the best are the first one in E major with its beautiful +melodic lines and its ingenious harmonic effects, +and the third one in A minor, which is Bach-like in its +imposing dignity. The third set comprises three effective +concert numbers—Fantasia in C major, which +again reveals his indebtedness to Bach in the skill with +which he superimposes a most expressive theme upon +a delicately constructed canon, Cantabile in B major, +and <em>Pièce Héroique</em>. Of these the best is the Cantabile +with its rich and interesting harmonies and expressive +melodies. Despite the marvellous beauty and noble +power of Franck’s musical thoughts, one cannot refrain +from the occasional wish that he had exercised more +conciseness in their development. At the organ he was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_472">[Pg 472]</span>a dreamer of seraphic visions and he sometimes forgot +that his listeners were apt to be uninspired mortals.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>The reluctance of English organ-builders, referred +to in a previous chapter, to adopt the mechanical improvements +introduced into Continental organs, naturally +retarded the progress of English organ-music. +After Handel, although England had good organists, +little of value was produced in organ composition until +almost the present generation. Excellent compositions +were written in the style of Handel and, later, of Mendelssohn, +but originality in musical material or treatment +was almost wholly absent.</p> + +<p>The best English organists and organ-composers of +the eighteenth century were the following: Dr. Thomas +Arne (1710-1778), William Boyce (1710-1779), John +Stanley (1713-1786), a remarkable organist who was +blind from the age of two and yet who distinguished +himself as composer, performer, and teacher; James +Nares (1715-1783), Benjamin Cooke (1734-1793), in one +of whose fugues the pedal takes the subject, an unusual +procedure in English organ-music of this century; +Thomas Sanders Dupuis (1733-1796), one of the +best organists of his time; Jonathan Battishill (1738-1801), +a remarkable extempore performer; John Christmas +Beckwith (1751-1809), also famous for his improvisations; +and Charles Wesley (1756-1834), a nephew +of the great Methodist leader. The musical forms employed +by these organist-composers (all of the above +wrote more or less for the organ except Boyce, Arnold, +and Battishill) were chiefly concertos and fugues in +the style of Handel, and voluntaries. In the time of +Dupuis a form of voluntary came into vogue that soon +became stereotyped, conventional, and banal. It consisted +of three or four movements usually in this order—a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_473">[Pg 473]</span> +slow movement in three-pulse rhythm for the diapasons, +a solo for cornet or trumpet with accompaniment +of bass only, and closing with a fugue. The first +two movements were almost invariably uninteresting +and dull, but the fugues showed that English composers +of the period could acquit themselves creditably in +forms that demanded learning rather than originality +and musical feeling.</p> + +<p>Samuel Wesley (1766-1837), brother of the Charles +Wesley mentioned above, was the foremost English +organist of his time and the first really great figure in +English organ-music. He was a fine extempore player, +the composer of much excellent organ-music (11 concertos +and a large number of voluntaries, interludes, +preludes, and fugues), and a close student and ardent +admirer of Bach. From 1800 he was a most zealous +and persistent propagandist for the German master’s +works and especially excelled as a performer of his +fugues. As he was an excellent violinist, Bach’s violin +works also received frequent performances in public +concerts at his hands. The first English edition of the +‘Well-tempered Clavichord’ was published by him in +1810 in collaboration with C. F. Horn and he was instrumental +in procuring the publication of an English +translation of Forkel’s life of Bach. His music is more +serious than the prevalent style and while he is not a +great composer, judged by Continental standards, his +influence was far-reaching and of utmost importance +to English musical life, in that he gave substantial dignity +to the organ as an interpreting instrument and induced +a widespread interest in more solid organ-music, +especially in Bach.</p> + +<p>Early in the nineteenth century ‘arrangements’ began +to be made for organ from other works, vocal and instrumental, +chiefly of German and Italian classical +composers. One of the earliest to start this custom was +John Clarke-Whitfeld (1770-1836), organist of Hereford<span class="pagenum" id="Page_474">[Pg 474]</span> +Cathedral and professor of music at Cambridge +University. His arrangements were from the vocal +works of Handel (1809), and as a substitute for the +ability to create original music, they presented worthy +compositions of a contrapuntal character suitable for +organists to perform. But the arranging of pieces for +the organ soon extended to other kinds of vocal music, +to symphonies and forms of instrumental music quite +foreign to the nature and idiom of the instrument, and +this practice developed into a craze for arrangements +and adaptations which lasted throughout the nineteenth +century and which still persists, especially in +England and America.</p> + +<p>William Crotch (1775-1847) was a prominent organist +and composer whose appointments were mostly +at Oxford. He wrote concertos for organ with orchestral +accompaniment and fugues for the organ alone, +and made many adaptations of Handel’s oratorios for +the organ. He was evidently a scholarly composer, for +some of his themes were carefully phrased, an unusual +procedure for his time. Crotch was one of the earliest +to indicate the exact tempo he desired for his music +by such mechanical means as a swinging pendulum. +In a footnote to an Introduction and Fugue on a subject +by Muffat, written in 1806, he says: ‘A pendulum +of two feet length will give the time of a crotchet +(quarter-note).’ About twenty-five years later Maelzel’s +metronome was beginning to be known in England, +and, when he published some fugues and canons +in 1835, he indicated the tempo by such comments as +‘Crotchet equals a pendulum of sixteen inches; Maelzel’s +metronome, 92.’</p> + +<p>It will be of interest in this connection to note an +earlier method of determining the tempo of a piece by +the ingenious device of comparison with the duration +of the pulse-beat. Johann Joachim Quantz (the music +teacher of Frederick the Great), in his <em>Anweisung die<span class="pagenum" id="Page_475">[Pg 475]</span> +Floete zu spielen</em> (1752), gives the following interesting +table for determining the rate of speed:</p> + +<p>‘In ordinary time (measure),</p> + +<p><em>Allegro assai</em>, for every half-measure, the time of one +beat of the pulse,</p> + +<p><em>Allegretto</em>, for every quarter-note, the time of one +beat of the pulse,</p> + +<p><em>Adagio cantabile</em>, for every eighth-note, the time of +one beat of the pulse,</p> + +<p><em>Adagio assai</em>, for every eighth-note, the time of two +beats of the pulse.’</p> + +<p>Vincent Novello (1781-1861), the founder of the well-known +publishing house of Novello and a celebrated +organist and composer, wrote no organ-music, but his +name became familiar to every English organist +through his ‘Cathedral Voluntaries,’ These were motets +and anthems by the old English church writers, +such as Gibbons, Blow, and Tye, arranged for organ +use, much as the early Venetian organists arranged the +motets and sacred madrigals of their time for keyboard +instruments.</p> + +<p>English organ-music continued to be either obvious +imitation of Handel, Mozart, Haydn, and, after 1845, +Mendelssohn, or arrangements and adaptations of German +classical music. Thomas Adams (1785-1858), +noted for his improvisations; Sir John Goss (1800-1880), +the greatest church musician of his time and organist +of St. Paul’s Cathedral for thirty-four years; +Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876), son of Samuel +Wesley mentioned above, who, like his father, was an +enthusiastic admirer of Bach’s works and an exceptionally +fine extempore player, and who for a time was +considered the finest organist in England—all wrote +voluntaries, interludes, fugues, and andantes for organ +in this style, though some of their anthems and ‘services,’ +particularly those of Wesley, belong to the finest +examples of English church-music of any period.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_476">[Pg 476]</span></p> + +<p>Henry Smart (1813-1879), who became blind about +1864 and henceforth was compelled to dictate his compositions +to an assistant, was an exceptional organist +and a composer who displayed many modern qualities +of interesting harmony in advance of most of his +English contemporaries. He wrote voluminously for +the organ—fifty preludes and interludes, andantes +(especially the one in A major), marches, variations, +and postludes.</p> + +<p>Edward John Hopkins (1818-1901), for nearly sixty +years organist of Temple Church, London, possessed +the sterling qualities of the best English organists and +exerted a wide influence through his church-music and +particularly his book, ‘The Organ: Its History and Construction,’ +written in conjunction with Dr. E. F. Rimbault +(1816-1876), which has long enjoyed the distinction +of being a standard work on this subject.</p> + +<p>William Spark (1823-1897), a pupil of S. S. Wesley, +was a celebrated recitalist and from 1860 organist of +Leeds Town Hall. While holding an appointment at +St. George’s, Leeds, he had organized the People’s Concerts, +the popularity of which had led to the erection +of the Town Hall. A magnificent instrument of four +manuals and 110 stops was installed in it and dedicated +in 1859, and soon thereafter Dr. Spark received the +appointment of borough organist and for years he gave +two public recitals on it each week. He was a noted +lecturer and writer on musical subjects and from 1869 +till his death was editor of ‘The Organists’ Quarterly +Journal,’ devoted to original compositions. His compositions +(a Fantasia, a Sonata in D minor, and other +pieces) were strongly influenced by Mendelssohn, +whose music was now the model for all English musicians +as Handel’s had been in the years preceding +Mendelssohn’s advent.</p> + +<p>Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley (1825-1889) presents +the unusual spectacle of an amateur musician rising<span class="pagenum" id="Page_477">[Pg 477]</span> +to the important position of professor of music at +Oxford University and becoming one of the most influential +musicians in the United Kingdom. Though an +excellent organist and composer for organ, he never +held a position as organist. He devoted a considerable +fortune to the founding and maintenance of a church<a id="FNanchor_112" href="#Footnote_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> +in which the musical service was of the highest order +and a college for the special training of choristers. +Through these channels and his Oxford professorship +he wielded a large influence on the young church musicians +of his time. His organ compositions—eighteen +preludes and fugues, a sonata, three andantes, etc.—were +for the most part in the style of Mendelssohn.</p> + +<p>The first place among English concert-organists was +long held by William Thomas Best (1826-1897), who +was one of the greatest virtuosos of the nineteenth century. +For nearly forty years (from 1855 to 1894) he +was organist of St. George’s Hall, Liverpool, where his +recitals became a feature of the city’s musical life and +gained for him an international reputation. An event +in his life that attracted world-wide notice was his +journey in 1890 to Sydney, Australia, where he inaugurated +the mammoth organ in the new Town Hall with +a series of twelve recitals. This organ, the largest in +the world, has five manuals and 126 speaking stops. +He published several valuable contributions to organ-literature—six +concert-pieces, a Sonata in D, a Toccata +in A, several fantasias and fugues on English Psalm-tunes, +and many preludes on Psalm-tunes in the style +of Bach’s chorale-preludes, etc. He was best known, +however, through his admirable ‘Organ Arrangements +from the Great Masters,’ his editions of Handel’s organ-concertos +and Mendelssohn’s and Bach’s organ-works, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_478">[Pg 478]</span>and his two text-books, ‘The Art of Organ-Playing’ and +‘Modern School for the Organ.’</p> + +<p>Of recent years composers in England have been less +exclusively occupied with choral and church music, for +the so-called musical renaissance, which is now bringing +England once more to the forefront of musical +nations, is due largely to the deeper interest composers +have been taking in the modern orchestral idiom, the +impressionistic tendencies of contemporary instrumental +music and the nationalistic expression which owes +its impulse to the recent folk-song revival movement. +Nevertheless meritorious works for the organ continue +to be produced by most of the present-day English composers, +and more especially by men like Alan Gray, +A. M. Goodhart, Ernest Halsey, James Lyon, T. Tertius +Noble, C. B. Rootham and W. Wolstenholme.</p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="footnotes"> +<p class="center p2 big2">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_111" href="#FNanchor_111" class="label">[111]</a> Edition Durand, Paris.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_112" href="#FNanchor_112" class="label">[112]</a> The college and church of St. Michael and All Angels, Tenbury, +Worcestershire, of which he was rector in addition to his Oxford professorship, +were dedicated in 1856.</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_479">[Pg 479]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >CHAPTER XVII<br> +<small>MODERN ORGAN MUSIC</small></h2> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Supremacy of modern French organ music; Saint-Saëns; Guilmant: +sonatas and smaller works—Widor: organ symphonies; Dubois; Gigout and +other French organ-writers—German organ composers; Piutti; Klose; Reger: +chorale-fantasias; Karg-Elert and others—Organ music in Italy; Capocci; +Bossi; Busoni and others—English organ composers since 1850—Organ +music in the United States; early history; Dudley Buck; Frederick Archer +and Clarence Eddy; contemporary American organ composers.</p> +</div> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>It is always an interesting and fruitful task to dive +beneath the surface of historical events and discover +the contributing causes that have led to the supremacy +of certain nations at certain periods in certain departments +of musical activity. For the past three decades +at least, French organ-music has occupied a position of +supremacy in certain important respects, among which +may be named brilliance of technical finish, glowing variety +of tone-colors as expressed in skillfully thought-out +registration, interesting and piquant rhythmical figuration +and melodic outline, combined with modernity +of harmonic treatment. A group of elder composers, of +whom Saint-Saëns, Guilmant, Widor and Dubois are +the chief ornaments, laid the solid foundation of this +school into which they were careful to build a deep +and intelligent appreciation of Bach’s organ art, which +had only recently been transplanted into France. +Rooted in such a fertile soil French vivacity and lightness +of feeling took on a deeper color and a richer +luxuriance that combined substance with beauty of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_480">[Pg 480]</span> +external expression. In this genial and healthy atmosphere +the younger generation of French organists have +lived and from its stimulating nourishment they have +developed many fascinating traits of strong and virile +individualism.</p> + +<p>Charles Camille Saint-Saëns (born 1835), the Nestor +of French composers, has demonstrated an unusual +versatility in composition and has contributed to nearly +every field of musical activity. He is not only a great +pianist but also an organist of great ability and from +1858 to 1870 was the organist at the Madeleine, Paris, +where he became famous for his improvisations and +his many excellences as a performer. Under the spell +of his imagination the organ becomes a flexible and +elastic instrument of which he demands pianistic lightness +and orchestral richness of color. In this respect +the few organ works of Saint-Saëns stand at the head +of all French contributions to organ literature. Freedom +from all scholastic tradition and the improvisation-like +character of most of his organ works make +them highly interesting. The Fantaisie in D-flat major +(opus 101), his best work, is appropriately named, for +it is music without prearranged plan and is harmonically +most piquant, especially the ending with its descending +harmonies over an organ-point. His three +Rhapsodies are all brilliant and attractive concert-pieces, +as are also his Preludes. Only in the Fugues +associated with these Preludes does Saint-Saëns, in +common with all French composers except César +Franck, fall short—the fugue is essentially the property +of German art.</p> + +<p>Felix Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911), one of the +most celebrated French organ composers and virtuosos, +extended his fame by many concert tours throughout +Europe and two in the United States (in 1893 and +1903). The larger part of his compositions is for organ. +These show rich, fluent melody, always clear<span class="pagenum" id="Page_481">[Pg 481]</span> +form and a rare skill in utilizing the possibilities of +organ tone-color. The popularity of his works among +organists is enhanced by the moderate technical demands +required for their performance. Guilmant possessed +astonishing facility in improvisation (an interesting +feature on most of his concert programs) and +won the admiration and respect of musicians of all +countries by his propaganda for the classical masters. +His historical recitals at the Trocadéro during the +Paris Exposition of 1878 attracted international notice +and later he published a large and valuable collection +entitled <em>Archives des maîtres de l’orgue</em>. From 1871 +to 1902 he was organist at La Trinité, Paris, which position +he gained by his remarkable playing at the inauguration +of the organs at St. Sulpice and Nôtre +Dame. His organ compositions are numerous and +highly original. The most important of them are the +eight sonatas. Of these the first sonata in D minor, +opus 42, is the favorite one among organists and the finest +in breadth of conception and unity of construction. +It is grateful, effective concert music, very clear in form +and typically French in invention. The first movement +is powerful and majestic, the Pastorale tender and +most expressive, and the Finale a brilliant display-piece +with its toccata-like motive. This sonata is also +published as a symphony for organ and orchestra—a +most impressive work. Sonata No. 3 in C minor, opus +56, is a fine work with an excellent Finale (Fugue). +Sonata No. 5 in C minor, opus 80, possesses a strong, +passionate first movement, an effective Scherzo with its +ingenious little staccato fugato and a Finale that is one +of Guilmant’s best and most forceful movements. The +sonata is dedicated to Clarence Eddy and in the last +movement the composer ingeniously and tactfully +builds his theme from the initials of his own name and +that of the American organist—C-G-E-A. The sixth +sonata, opus 86. is a beautiful work in all its movements.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_482">[Pg 482]</span> +Sonata No. 8 in A major, opus 91—he calls it +‘Symphony for organ and orchestra’—has an especially +attractive Scherzo and the Finale is brilliant and +strong.</p> + +<p>Besides the sonatas, Guilmant has written prolifically +in smaller forms and in various styles, in all of which +he makes excellent practical use of the possible effects +of the instrument for which his music is so well +adapted. The ‘Fugue in D’ is one of the strongest +French fugues and shows how deeply he had lived into +Bach’s favorite form. The ‘Religious March’ is cleverly +constructed on a theme from Handel’s ‘Messiah’ and +is built up with an original secondary subject (a +smooth, brilliant fugato) to an imposing climax. The +‘Funeral March and Seraphic Song’ enjoys deserved +popularity. The Finale (‘Seraphic Song’) is especially +notable with its double pedal effect (the melody being +played with the right foot) and sparkling harp-like +arpeggios on the manuals. In all his writings Guilmant +reveals a fanciful imagination and is always sure of +good effect. In ‘Lamentation,’ for example, he displays +his artistic resourcefulness in transforming the sad +march-like theme (in the pedal) of the first part into +a theme of religious consolation at the end (Hymn: +<em>Jerusalem convertere</em>).</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>Charles Marie Widor (born 1845), organist of St. +Sulpice in Paris since 1870, is the most distinguished +of the living French organists and organ composers. +Having succeeded César Franck as professor of organ-playing +at the Conservatoire in 1890 and Dubois as +professor of composition in 1896, he occupies a position +of extraordinary importance in contemporary +French organ-music as composer, teacher and performer. +While he is known in America almost exclusively<span class="pagenum" id="Page_483">[Pg 483]</span> +by his activities associated with the organ, he +has written extensively for the pianoforte, the voice +and the orchestra (two symphonies, three concertos, +etc.) and much in chamber-music forms. His best writings +for organ are ten symphonies which together constitute +one of the noblest gifts that any composer has +ever made to organ literature. In these works he shows +himself a thoroughly representative French composer, +combining all the brilliant qualities of the modern +French school. Influenced somewhat by Liszt and +Berlioz in his earlier works (the first series of symphonies), +he represents the finest progress in the French +art of organ-playing in the last three decades.</p> + +<p>His first eight organ symphonies (in reality sonatas) +were published in two series—opus 13 (Nos. 1-4) and +opus 42 (Nos. 5-8). These are in a class by themselves +and deserve especial attention and study. The title +‘symphony’ is often justified in the enlarged form used +and in the elaborate development of individual movements. +Most of them contain from four to six movements. +In the first symphony in C minor the best +movements are the first, second and fifth. The first +two movements of the second in D are the most attractive. +No. 3 in E (a kind of suite, consisting of Prelude, +Minuet, March, Canon, Fugue and a brilliant Finale) +is the easiest of the symphonies and of less importance +than the others. No. 4 is excellent throughout, the first +and fourth being possibly the best movements. The +first of the second series of symphonies—No. 5 in F—is +probably the most popular of the ten among organists, +since it possesses the double merit of being fine, +inspiring music and at the same time offering excellent +opportunity to display both the performer and the resources +of the modern organ to good advantage—especially +in the first movement (<em>Allegro vivace</em> in variation +form), in the second (<em>Allegro cantabile</em>) and in +the <em>Finale</em> (Toccata) with its brilliant staccato technique.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_484">[Pg 484]</span> +No. 6 is musically far superior to No. 5 and is +one of the most masterly works in the entire organ +literature, the first movement being particularly imposing +in its breadth and grandeur of conception, and +the second rich in noble sentiment. In No. 7 the fourth +and last movements are especially interesting. No. 8 +is one of the most beautiful of Widor’s works—the first +movement being of brilliant effect and the second full +of musical warmth.</p> + +<p>In addition to these eight, Widor has written the +<em>Symphonie Gothique</em> in C minor, opus 70, and the +<em>Symphonie Romane</em> in B minor, opus 73. The former +is one of his most notable compositions; in the first +movement sombre-hued, suppressed emotion is portrayed +in a most interesting harmonic garb, while the +fine melodic line of the second movement forms effective +contrast, and the Finale displays brilliant technical +features. In the first movement of the <em>Symphonie +Romane</em> there is a very ingenious and original elaboration +of a Gregorian chant used as theme. The Cantilena +(third movement) is lovely music and the Finale +brilliant and dashing. The <em>Symphonia Sacra</em>, opus 83, +is a massive work for organ and orchestra constructed +on a theme borrowed from the melody of the old Latin +hymn of St. Ambrose (fourth century), <em>Veni redemptor +gentium</em>, a hymn which Martin Luther translated for +Johann Walther’s <em>Gesangbuch</em> (1524) under the title +of <em>Nun komm der Heiden Heiland</em>. Upon this chorale +(which Bach has also used in several of his organ +preludes) Widor builds up a mighty Gothic cathedral +in tones, in the construction of which organ and orchestra +vie with each other in supplying vital plastic material. +The employment of the chorale in this modern +French work, coming as it does contemporaneously +with Reger’s remarkable Chorale-Fantasias in Germany, +is evidence that the resources of the old church-chorale +have not been exhausted and that the classic circle<span class="pagenum" id="Page_485">[Pg 485]</span> +beginning with Pachelbel and Bach has expanded its +circumference to embrace congenial masters from any +country; and here the modern Frenchman, Widor, +touches elbows with the German, Reger. This interesting +work was given its first American performance by +Wilhelm Middelschulte with the Chicago Symphony +Orchestra in February, 1911.</p> + +<p>Clément François Théodore Dubois (born 1837), organist +at the Madeleine from 1877 to 1896 (succeeding +Saint-Saëns) and director of the Conservatoire, after +Ambroise Thomas’ death, from 1896 to 1905, occupies +a respected position as an organ composer. Much of +his best composition, however, is in other fields. His +shorter organ pieces are numerous and generally effective, +especially for church use. His melodies are +mostly noble and fluent and his harmony modern and +interesting, inclining toward orchestral effects. The +pedal part frequently lacks independence. These compositions +are so well known that it would be superfluous +to name more than a few of the more familiar +ones: <em>Messe de Marriage</em>, <em>Fiat Lux</em>, ‘Hosanna,’ ‘March +of the Magi’ (with the highest B held through the entire +piece, representing the star in the East), and <em>In +Paradisum</em>.</p> + +<p>Eugène Gigout (born 1844), organist of St. Augustin +and director of an organ school in Paris, is one of the +first names among French writers for organ. He inclines +more to the classical style than do most of his +French colleagues. Among his best pieces are <em>Prière +en form de Prélude</em>, <em>Pèlerinage</em>, <em>Andante varié</em>, <em>Marche +religieuse</em>, <em>Marche funèbre</em>, <em>Andante Symphonique</em>.</p> + +<p>Théodore César Salomé (1834-1896), for many years +second organist at La Trinité, is best known by his +Sonata in C minor, an effective work.</p> + +<p>Samuel Alexandre Rousseau (1853-1904), pupil of +César Franck and chapel-master of St. Clotilde, Paris, +wrote valuable compositions for the organ that show<span class="pagenum" id="Page_486">[Pg 486]</span> +much creative power. Of these the <em>Double Thème varié</em> +is the best.</p> + +<p>Leon Boëllmann (1862-1897) was a fine organist in +Paris, the full development of whose artistic powers +was prevented by his early death. He was nearly +equally successful in all styles of composition, leaving +no less than sixty-eight published works. The <em>Suite +Gothique</em> in C minor is his most popular organ work. +He also wrote a <em>Fantaisie dialoguée</em> for organ and orchestra.</p> + +<p>Ferdinand de la Tombelle (born 1854), a pupil of +Guilmant and Dubois at the Conservatoire at Paris, +has written much organ music that has enjoyed a +measure of popularity both in England and America.</p> + +<p>The school of younger French organ composers +shows a well-defined tendency to adopt an impressionistic +style, without losing, however, the characteristically +French brilliance, grace and melodic charm. +Among its leaders will be found Joseph Bonnet (born +1884 at Bordeaux), organist at St. Eustache and Guilmant’s +successor at the Paris Conservatoire. Other +young French composers are A. Maquaire, a pupil of +Widor, whom he assists at St. Sulpice; Charles Quef, +organist at La Trinité; J. Ermand Bonnal, and others.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>Germany always has been, and still is, the special +champion of intellectual organ music, as France has +been of brilliant, melodious and colorful organ music. +Bach and the churchly function of the organ have been +the two factors in German organ music that have determined +its lines of development almost up to the +present. The concert organ placed in public halls, that +has been such a prominent element in the development +of organ music and its popular appreciation in France,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_487">[Pg 487]</span> +England and America through the giving of concerts +or recitals, has only recently made its appearance in +Germany. There the organ is still a church, not a +recital, instrument. Then, too, modern German organ-builders +have been much slower than either French, +English or American builders in adopting mechanical +improvements. Until very recently an organ suitable +for the adequate performance of a monochrome Bach +fugue has been the ideal of the German builder, and +at the opening of the twentieth century there were +hundreds of such organs in large German churches, +with eighteenth-century mechanical appliances. The +‘swell-box’ was not adopted until late in the nineteenth +century; and the wonderful development in nineteenth-century +German orchestral art found echoes only here +and there in German organ music. In the past three +decades, however, some magnificent modern instruments +have been installed in Germany and there are +already abundant evidences that a progressive spirit +has taken firm hold upon its organ-builders and its +organ-music. At present Germany possesses but few +composers for the organ whose works have exerted +large influence, but these are very important in their +relation to the development of organ music.</p> + +<p>Carl Piutti (1846-1902) was born in Elgersburg, Thuringia, +and educated at the Leipzig Conservatory, +where he taught from 1875 until his death. After 1880 +he was organist at the Thomas Church. Of his comparatively +few organ compositions, his Sonata in G +minor, opus 22, deserves special mention; it is imposing +in its proportions and is one of the most brilliant +examples of modern German organ art.</p> + +<p>Ernst Hans Fährmann (born 1860), organist of the +Johanneskirche in Dresden, is an excellent composer +for his instrument. His best work is Sonata in C major, +opus 22; the Sonata in A minor, opus 18, is also a brilliant +and effective work.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_488">[Pg 488]</span></p> + +<p>Friedrich Klose (born 1862 in Karlsruhe, lives in +Munich) has written much for orchestra with organ, +but has contributed one important work for organ +alone—Prelude, Double Fugue and Chorale (Chorale +at the conclusion for 4 trumpets and 4 trombones). +This work, which is dedicated to Anton Bruckner, had +its origin in an improvisation by Bruckner in Bayreuth. +Klose, an enthusiastic admirer of the Viennese +master, uses the theme of Bruckner in building up an +imposing, powerful work—very impressive in the introduction +and majestic in its great climax (over an +organ-point of thirty measures).</p> + +<p>Max Reger (born 1873 at Brand, Bavaria) is the +greatest living master of organ composition. Astounding +mastery over the technical side of composition (he +is probably the greatest contrapuntist since Bach), wonderful +richness in his harmonic formations, and a phenomenal +power of expression, are some of his admirable +traits. He is the leader of the ultra-modern German +school and, though still a comparatively young +man, is one of the most prolific writers in all musical +history. Of his first hundred opuses, twenty-two are +for organ, each ranging in size from a set of from +four to ten pieces to a sonata or a chorale-fantasia. +He is a distinct innovator in his harmonic scheme, but +is often accused of lacking warmth. Intensely modern +in his harmonic feeling, his novel harmonies do not +spring so much from chord movement in the ordinary +sense as from the happy sounding together of independently +moving melodies. The influence of his exuberant +polyphony is everywhere felt in his writings. +He is clearly an intellectualist and his art appears at +its highest in the most complicated structures, such +as the chorale-fantasias and variations, where he presents +movements of sublimest beauty and greatest +depths, as only a great master can.</p> + +<p>The chorale-fantasias of Reger cultivate a new field,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_489">[Pg 489]</span> +suggested, however, by Sebastian Bach in his one example, +<em>O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig</em>, where he composes +three verses, not variations. The characteristic +is that each verse, according to the poetic suggestion +of the text, assumes an entirely original form, but all +are organically molded into one whole. At the end +there usually appears a colossal fugue, where the melody +of the chorale is interwoven with the themes of the +fugue. His great chorale-fantasias are: <em>Ein’ feste Burg</em>; +<em>Freu’ dich sehr, O meine Seele</em>; <em>Wie schön leuchtet der +Morgenstern</em>; <em>Straf mich nicht in deinem Zorn</em>; <em>Alle +Menschen müssen sterben</em>; <em>Wachet auf, ruft uns die +Stimme</em>. Next in importance come the Fantasia on +B-A-C-H, opus 46, and the Symphonic Fantasia and +Fugue, opus 57. There are two sonatas—opus 33 in +F-sharp minor and opus 60 in D minor—and several +sets of short pieces. Among the latter group several +of the Monologues (opus 63), and several of both opus +59 (Benedictus and Pastorale in particular) and opus +69 are favorite numbers with recitalists.</p> + +<p>Sigfrid Karg-Elert (born 1878, lives in Leipzig), +though a young man, is an important figure in German +music of to-day. He has already published over a +hundred works and they bear the stamp of talent of +the highest order. He is a modernist of pronounced, +sometimes extravagant, type in his harmonic feeling +and combines with this a brilliant style of expression. +His Passacaglia in E-flat minor is a scholarly work; +the Sonatina No. 1 in A minor, opus 74, is built on large +lines, notwithstanding the title; of his groups of smaller +pieces, some of the better known are Three Impressions, +opus 72 (‘Moonlight,’ ‘Night’ and ‘Harmonies of +Evening’), and Ten Characteristic Pieces, opus 86 (<em>Prologus +Tragicus</em>, ‘Impression,’ ‘Canzona,’ etc.).</p> + +<p>The most prominent of living Danish composers for +the organ is Otto Malling (born 1848, living in Copenhagen), +whose works are both numerous and strikingly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_490">[Pg 490]</span> +individual. The majority of his organ compositions +take the form of mood-pictures inspired by biblical +subjects, most of which centre around the life and times +of Christ, as the ‘Holy Virgin’ suite of six pieces, opus +70 (‘The Annunciation,’ ‘Mary visits Elizabeth and +praises God,’ ‘The Holy Night,’ etc.).</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>Until the last quarter of the nineteenth century organ +music in Italy had remained practically where +Frescobaldi had left it. Very little progress had been +made during the intervening two centuries either in +organ music or in organ-building. Musical Italy was +almost wholly absorbed in vocal music and the opera. +Church music had sunk to lamentable depths of triviality +and secularity. Independent organ music received +only the slightest attention and absolute stagnation +reigned. When Guilmant, in the eighties of the +last century, opened the new organ in the church of St. +Louis des Français in Rome by giving daily recitals +for two weeks, he gave many of the well-known Bach +and Handel works their first performance in Italy! +Even now there are very few modern organs in Italy. +The names of Italian organists, therefore, are very few +in number, even when the present generation is +reached.</p> + +<p>In the eighteenth century only one Italian organist +stands out with any prominence, Francesco Antonio +Vallotti (1697-1780), chapel-master of the Church of +San Antonio in Padua. He was recognized as a great +writer of church-music and Tartini, his contemporary, +spoke in warmest terms of his playing. He was the +teacher of the famous Abbé Vogler.</p> + +<p>Marco Santucci (1762-1843), <em>maestro</em> of the cathedral +at Lucca, wrote 12 fugued sonatas for organ and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_491">[Pg 491]</span> +Vincenzo Antonio Petrali (1832-1889) had a great reputation +as an improvisator and virtuoso.</p> + +<p>Of the living Italian organists the most prominent +and influential are Capocci and Bossi, both of whom +have striven valiantly to bring Italian organ-art back to +the place of eminence it occupied in the early centuries. +The elder of these musicians, Filippo Capocci (born +1840), has been the organist of St. John Lateran in Rome +since 1875 and his organ is said to be the finest in +Italy. He is not only a fine performer, but also a +gifted composer of serious aims. He has written six +sonatas and twelve volumes of original organ-pieces, +mostly attractive and valuable. The sonatas are his +best works, in which he follows classical lines.</p> + +<p>Enrico Marco Bossi (born 1861) was organist of the +Cathedral of Como from 1881 to 1891, in 1896 he was +appointed director of the <em>Liceo Benedetto Marcello</em> in +Venice, in which institution he also taught organ and +advanced composition, and since 1902 he has been director +of the <em>Liceo Musicale</em> in Bologna. He is Italy’s +greatest organist to-day and has also been a prolific +writer in many fields—organ as well as choral, orchestral +and chamber music. His fine inventive genius, +bold harmonic feeling and originality of design, +coupled with a certain severity of style, are well illustrated +in his best works—a concerto for organ and +orchestra, opus 100 (especially the first movement of +which is built up to a powerful climax), two sonatas +(opus 60 and opus 77), and a large number of compositions +in smaller forms, such as Marche Héroique, Étude +Symphonique, Toccata, Romanza, Idylle, Hora Mystica, +Scherzo in G minor, etc. In 1893 with Tebaldini he +published ‘A School of Modern Organ-Playing,’ which +is a standard work.</p> + +<p>Oreste Ravanello (born 1871), organist of St. Mark’s, +Venice (1892), and director of music of Antonius Basilica +in Padua (1898), is to be named among the best<span class="pagenum" id="Page_492">[Pg 492]</span> +Italian writers of the present. His Fantasia in F minor +is an effective concert number.</p> + +<p>Lorenzo Perosi (born 1872) was appointed by Pope +Leo XIII musical director of the Sistine Chapel in +1898 and has written trios and preludes for the organ.</p> + +<p>Ferruccio Benvenuto Busoni (born 1865 at Florence), +the profound Bach scholar, has made the most important +contribution to modern organ literature by an +Italian—the <em>Fantasia contrapuntistica</em> (on a fragment +by Sebastian Bach). Bach’s last unfinished work was +intended as a fugue with four themes, but only the +first, second and part of the third fugues were left. +What the fourth theme was to be, remained a mystery +until the well-known theorist Bernhard Ziehn (1845-1912) +of Chicago solved it convincingly, thus showing +the possibilities of Bach’s fragment. With this suggestion +Busoni has accomplished the gigantic task with +admirable result. The work really consists of seven +fugues, three of them being variations (a new idea in +this form) of the preceding fugues. It exists in three +versions: for piano by Busoni; for organ, transcribed +by Wilhelm Middelschulte; and for orchestra and organ, +transcribed by Frederick Stock, conductor of the +Chicago Symphony Orchestra. As an organ piece it is +the most difficult work in the entire organ literature.</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>About 1850 the widespread dissatisfaction of English +organists with the crude and incomplete instruments +of the period began to have an appreciable effect on +English organ-builders. In the years soon following +the middle of the century notable improvements were +made—larger and more complete organs were built, +pedals were more common in church organs and complete +pedal-boards were introduced, the obsolete ‘unequal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_493">[Pg 493]</span> +temperament’ system of tuning was generally discarded +and the ‘swell to tenor G’ half-keyboard was discontinued. +When these necessary improvements were +made, English organ art advanced rapidly and an array +of eminent organists came into view whose united labors +as performers and composers brought the organ +into its present position of great influence in England +and made possible the fine achievements of the present +generation of younger British organists and organ-composers.</p> + +<p>Prominent in this group are the names of Sir Herbert +Stanley Oakley (1830-1903), professor of music +at Edinburgh University from 1865 to 1891 and regarded +as a player of exceptional ability and a good +composer; George Mursell Garrett (1834-1891), organist +to Cambridge University and the composer of much +church and organ music; Edmund Hart Turpin (born +1835), for many years regarded as one of England’s +greatest concert organists; Sir John Stainer (1840-1901), +one of the most prominent English musicians +of his day, organist at St. Paul’s, London (1872-1888), +professor of music at Oxford University from 1889 and +composer of many sacred cantatas and much church +and organ music of serious character; Sir Walter Parratt +(born 1841), since 1883 professor of organ at the +Royal College of Music and since 1893 master of music +to the royal household; Albert Lister Peace (born 1844), +a fine organ-virtuoso, the successor (1897) of W. T. Best +as organist of St. George’s Hall, Liverpool, which is +regarded as one of the best appointments in the United +Kingdom; Sir John Frederick Bridge (born 1844), organist +of Westminster Abbey from 1882, composer of +much good church music and the author of text-books +on counterpoint and organ accompaniment; and Sir +George C. Martin (born 1844), organist of St. Paul’s +Cathedral, London, after 1888 and a distinguished +writer of dignified music for the church service.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_494">[Pg 494]</span></p> + +<p>The best known of the younger generation of English +organists and organ-composers in America is Edwin +Henry Lemare (born 1865), who is generally regarded +as Best’s legitimate successor in the organ-concert +field. He first attracted large notice by his +recitals while organist of St. Margaret’s, London. His +reputation in the United States was greatly increased +during his two years’ tenure of the post of organist of +Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg (1902-1904), and by several +extended concert tours before and after that appointment. +In his organ compositions, which are very +numerous, he cultivates mostly a ‘light’ or ‘popular’ +style, though his writing reveals a facile command of +the means of musical expression. His Symphony in D +minor is his largest work and it is a brilliant, strong +composition.</p> + +<p>William Wolstenholme (born 1865), though blind +from birth, has attained a high place for himself both +as a performer (he made a short tour in the United +States in 1908) and as a composer of exquisite invention. +Over sixty of his compositions for organ are +published, including two sonatas. Alfred Hollins (born +1865) is also a blind organist, whose compositions for +the organ have the same qualities of lovely melody and +interesting harmony. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.</p> + +<p>William Faulkes, organist of St. Margaret’s church, +Anfield, Liverpool, England, is a prolific writer of organ +music of the ‘attractive’ type.</p> + +<p>Sir Edward Elgar (born 1857) has written very little +for the organ. His Sonata in G, opus 28, is important, +however. The ‘Pomp and Circumstance March,’ so +popular with organists, is an arrangement from a +march for military band written for the festivities of +the Coronation of Edward VII, played for the first +time at the Promenade Concert, London, Oct. 22, 1901.</p> + +<p>Basil Harwood (born 1859) is a composer of serious +aims and ample technical equipment. His organ works<span class="pagenum" id="Page_495">[Pg 495]</span> +include a Sonata in C-sharp minor and ‘Pæan.’ Other +prominent English organ composers of the present generation +are Julius Harrison, now living in London, +Hugh Blair and Purcell J. Mansfield.</p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>The history of organ music in the United States is +difficult of comparison with that of European countries, +for its development here has been so recent. Organ-building +on a large scale did not begin until about +1850 and organ-music of intrinsic value by native composers +did not appear until a couple of decades later. +But since then progress in every branch of organ art +has been truly remarkable, and this cumulative development +has atoned in large measure for earlier +backwardness and slowness. In the quality of both +organ-building and organ-music produced in this +country at the present time, American achievement +need not shun comparison with the best contemporary +European efforts.</p> + +<p>The rapidly increasing popularity of the organ as a +recital instrument in America is traceable to several +causes. At the foundation, of course, is the widely +diffused public appreciation of good music of all kinds, +fostered and stimulated by the annual flood of concerts—orchestral, +choral and chamber-music—and by +the recitals of individual artists in every field that are +given even in cities of comparatively small size. But +two causes have contributed particularly to the appreciation +of organ music: (1) the rapid progress that has +been made in the last twenty-five years by American +organ-builders in all matters pertaining to mechanical +appliances and tone-quality, with the result that magnificent +instruments are now to be found in almost +every city in the land, some of which are in public<span class="pagenum" id="Page_496">[Pg 496]</span> +halls, municipally owned and maintained for purposes +of public culture; and (2) a notable improvement in +the standards of organ-playing and general musicianship +among organists themselves. A factor of large +importance in this movement has been the activity of +the American Guild of Organists, modelled after the +Royal College of Organists in London and founded in +1896 in New York City ‘to raise the standard of efficiency +of organists by examinations in organ playing, +in the theory of music and in general musical knowledge; +and to grant certificates of Fellowship and Associateship +to members of the Guild who pass such examinations.’ +(Excerpt from the Constitution of this +Guild.) This Guild now (1915) numbers among its +members over 1600 prominent organists in the United +States and Canada. Part of its regular propaganda +is the giving of public services and organ recitals of +high musical quality.</p> + +<p>The first organ in America was the famous old Brattle +organ, imported and left by Thomas Brattle, treasurer +of Harvard College, by his will in 1713 to the +Brattle Square Church, Boston. But since the church +voted that it was not proper ‘to use said organ in the +public worship of God,’ it was erected in King’s Chapel, +Boston, in 1714, where it remained until 1756. For +eighty years after this date it was in constant use in +St. Paul’s Church, Newbury. It was then sold to St. +John’s Church, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was +in existence in 1901, when it was displayed at an exhibition +of musical instruments in Horticultural Hall, +Boston. This historically interesting old instrument +had only six stops.</p> + +<p>John Clemm is said to have erected the first American +built organ in Trinity Church, New York, in 1737. +This organ had three manuals and 26 stops and was +followed eight years later by a two-manual organ built +by Edward Bromfield in Boston. Until the days of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_497">[Pg 497]</span> +the Revolution it was in the Old South Church, but was +burned during the siege of Boston. Many other small +organs were built or imported for the larger churches, +but organ-building in America may properly be said +to begin with the erection in 1853 of the large four-manual +organ with seventy stops and 3096 pipes, by +Hook and Hastings in Tremont Temple, Boston. This +was an organ of concert proportions and others soon +followed in the large cities; chief among these early +large organs were the one erected in Boston Music +Hall (completed in 1863) and the one in the Cincinnati +Music Hall in 1878.</p> + +<p>American organists of the eighteenth and first half of +the nineteenth centuries have no particular interest for +us, save as mere historical reference. About the middle +of the last century, however, coincident with the widespread +awakening of popular interest in musical matters, +there appeared a number of young organists, all +of them with European training (mostly at Leipzig), +who were well-equipped to handle a large organ and +to play the organ music of the classical masters. Among +these pioneers appear prominently the names of James +Cutler Dunn Parker (born 1828), Benjamin Johnson +Lang (1837-1909), and Samuel Parkman Tuckerman +(1819-1890), among the group of Boston organists; +George Washbourne Morgan (1823-1892), an Englishman +who came to New York in 1853 and who was +considered the first concert-organist in America; John +Henry Willcox (1827-1875), a native of Georgia, educated +at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., and for the +rest of his life an organist in Boston; Eugene Whitney +Thayer (1838-1889), for many years organist at Music +Hall, Boston; George William Warren (1828-1902), a +self-taught musician who was for thirty years organist +of St. Thomas’s in New York; and John Knowles Paine +(1839-1906), from 1876 professor of music at Harvard +University, who was one of the first, if not the first,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_498">[Pg 498]</span> +American concert-organist who measured up to German +standards of classical organ playing.</p> + +<p>American organ music, however, begins with Dudley +Buck (1839-1909), for he was not only a performer of +finest attainments, but was the first American composer +to gain general recognition, and among his best compositions +are some large works for organ. For three +years preceding the great Chicago fire of Oct. 9, 1871, +he was organist of St. James’s Church in that city and +for twenty-five years (1877-1902) he was organist of +Holy Trinity Church, Brooklyn. His organ compositions +show the influence of classical models, expressed +in fluent, pleasing melody and attractive harmony with +an always clear sense of form. His best organ-works +include two sonatas (in E-flat, opus 22, and in G minor, +opus 77), Concert Variations on ‘The Star Spangled +Banner,’ and many smaller pieces, such as the familiar +Idylle, ‘At Evening.’ In addition he wrote a great deal +of church music with organ accompaniment. From +the pedagogical side his work was equally valuable, +including ‘18 Pedal-Phrasing Studies’ and ‘Illustrations +in Choir-Accompaniment, with Hints on Registration,’ +the latter of which is still of great practical value to +organists.</p> + +<p>The number of fine concert-organists increased so +rapidly since those named above that no attempt will +be made here even to enumerate them. The field of +concert-organists cannot be passed over, however, +without mention of two of their number whose influence, +especially in the transitional years of the last +two decades of the last century, was enormous in creating +an interest in, and love for, good organ music. +These organists are Frederick Archer (1838-1901) and +Clarence Eddy (born 1851), both organ-virtuosos of +the first rank, whose numerous and extended recital +tours brought them into every part of the United States. +Archer, who gained his first laurels as organist at Alexandra<span class="pagenum" id="Page_499">[Pg 499]</span> +Palace, London, came to America in 1880 and became +organist in Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, and finally +(1896) in Pittsburg where he served as city organist +and musical director of Carnegie Music Hall. Clarence +Eddy’s playing has brought him an international fame; +he now (1915) resides in Chicago as concert-organist, +teacher and writer.</p> + +<p>Passing to the group of organ-composers, the endeavor +will be made to name some of those—and a few +important ones will doubtless be omitted where a choice +must be made from a list that is increasing so rapidly—who +have made substantial contributions to organ +literature in the larger and more serious forms. This +will of necessity leave untouched a multitude of worthy +organ pieces of lighter vein that have already found +much favor with organists.</p> + +<p>In the front rank of American composers who have +written worthily for the organ Arthur Foote (born +1853) must be named. His compositions in this field +are not many, but they are important for their solid +musicianship, clear form and eloquent melodic and +harmonic expression. They include a much-played +Suite in D and many short characteristic pieces. Arthur +Foote has always lived in Boston.</p> + +<p>Horatio Parker (born 1863), who has made such +large contributions to choral and vocal fields, has written +also for the organ, but almost exclusively in larger +forms: Concerto in E-flat for organ and orchestra, Sonata +in E-flat, and five sets of concert pieces.</p> + +<p>Homer N. Bartlett (born 1845) is one of the most prolific +of American composers in many fields and among +his most important compositions are several organ +works. His Suite in C, opus 205, is not only his most +important organ composition, but it may well be named +among the best American organ compositions. He has +been for many years a prominent organist of New +York City.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_500">[Pg 500]</span></p> + +<p>Horace Wadhams Nicholl (born 1848), an Englishman +who came to America in the seventies, wrote 12 +Symphonic Preludes and Fugues for organ, also a symphonic +poem called ‘Life’ in six movements, which display +scholarly attainments and command of intricate +forms of writing.</p> + +<p>James Hotchkiss Rogers (born 1857), who has lived +in Cleveland since 1881, has written several notable +things for his instrument, including two sonatas, a concert +overture, and many small pieces.</p> + +<p>William H. Dayas (1864-1903), though born in New +York, went abroad when a young man and, after studying +with Haupt in Berlin, succeeded Busoni in Helsingfors +and later moved to England where he died. He +left two brilliant organ sonatas—opus 5 in F major and +opus 7 in C major.</p> + +<p>Foremost among foreign-born organists and organ-composers +who have made America their home, must +be named Wilhelm Middelschulte (born in Westphalia, +1863), who has been the organist of the Chicago Symphony +Orchestra since 1894. His compositions are all +in large contrapuntal forms and display complete mastery +of Bach’s intricate art. They include a Passacaglia +in D minor, a Concerto for organ and orchestra, Canonic +Fantasie and Fugue on four themes by J. S. Bach, +and Canons and Fugue on the chorale <em>Vater Unser im +Himmelreich</em>.</p> + +<p>Among the large works of the earlier American composers +that still survive are Eugene Thayer’s Sonata +No. 5 in C minor, George E. Whiting’s Sonata in A minor +and Henry M. Dunham’s two sonatas in F minor +and G minor.</p> + +<p>The number of organ works of really imposing proportions +and solid musical worth by American composers +is quite significant of the powerful undercurrents +that are silently shaping the future of American music. +If one were to select the living composers who are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_501">[Pg 501]</span> +representative of the best present tendencies in organ +composition in large forms in America, the following +names, in addition to those mentioned above, would +undoubtedly be among them: Mark Andrews, New +York; René Becker, St. Louis; Felix Borowski (born +1872, lives in Chicago); Rossetter Cole (born 1866, lives +in Chicago); Gaston M. Dethier (born 1875 in Belgium, +lives in New York); Gottfried H. Federlein, New York; +Ralph Kinder (born 1876, lives in Philadelphia); Will +C. Macfarlane (born 1870, city organist of Portland, +Maine); Russell King Miller, Philadelphia; and Harry +Rowe Shelley (born 1858, lives in New York).</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_502">[Pg 502]</span></p> + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_503">[Pg 503]</span></p> + +<p class="center big2 p4">LITERATURE FOR VOLUME VI</p> +</div> + + +<p class="center big1 p1"><em>In English</em></p> + +<div class="blockquot1"> + +<p><span class="smcap">G. Ashdown Audsley</span>: The Art of Organ Building (1905).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Theodore Baker</span>: A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians +(New York, 1905).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Charles Burney</span>: History of Music, 4 vols. (London, 1789).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Edward Dickinson</span>: Music in the History of the Western +Church (New York, 1913).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Edward Dickinson</span>: The Study of the History of Music (New +York, 1911).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">C. A. Edwards</span>: Organs and Organ Building (1881).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Arthur Elson</span>: Modern Composers of Europe (Boston, 1905).</p> + +<p>Famous Composers and Their Works, ed. by Paine, Thomas +and Klauser (Boston, 1891).</p> + +<p>Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5 vols., revised +(London, 1904-10).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">W. H. Hadow</span>: Studies in Modern Music, 2 vols. (New York, +1892-3).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">F. X. Haberl</span>: Magister Choralis, transl. by Donnelly (New +York, 1892).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir John Hawkins</span>: General History of Music (London, 1853).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Arthur Hervey</span>: French Music in the 19th Century (New +York, 1903).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Edward Burlingame Hill</span>: Vincent d’Indy: an Estimate (Musical +Quarterly, April, 1915).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">E. J. Hopkins</span>: The Organ: Its History and Construction +(1877).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto Jahn</span>: The Life of Mozart, 3 vols., transl. by Pauline +Townsend (London, 1882).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">H. C. Lahee</span>: The Organ and Its Masters (Boston, 1903).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. F. Liebach</span>: Claude Achille Debussy (London, 1908).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">M. Montagu-Nathan</span>: History of Russian Music (London, +1915).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">J. A. Fuller-Maitland</span>: English Music in the 19th Century +(New York, 1902).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy</span>: Letters from Italy and +Switzerland, transl. by Lady Wallace (New York, 1868).</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_504">[Pg 504]</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot1"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Arthur Mees</span>: Choirs and Choral Music (New York, 1911).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Emil Naumann</span>: History of Music, Vol. I, transl. by Praeger +(London).</p> + +<p>Oxford History of Music, 5 vols. (Oxford, 1901-05).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir C. H. H. Parry</span>: The Evolution of the Art of Music (New +York, 1896).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Annie W. Patterson</span>: The Story of the Oratorio (London, +1902).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Waldo Selden Pratt</span>: The History of Music (New York, +1907).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Philipp Spitta</span>: Life of Bach, 3 vols., transl. by Clara Bell +and J. A. Fuller-Maitland (London, 1884-88).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George P. Upton</span>: Standard Concert Guide (Chicago, 1912).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Karl Weinmann</span>: History of Church Music (New York, +1910).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">C. F. A. Williams</span>: The Story of Organ Music (London, 1905).</p> +</div> + + +<p class="center big1 p1"><em>In German</em></p> + +<div class="blockquot1"> + +<p><span class="smcap">A. W. Ambros</span>: Geschichte der Musik (Breslau, 1862-78).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Rudolph Cahn-Speyer</span>: Debussy; eine kritisch ästetische +Studie von Giacomo Settaccioli, besprochen (Die Musik, +August, 1912).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Karl Grunsky</span>: Musikgeschichte des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts +(1905).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hermann Kretzschmar</span>: Führer durch den Konzertsaal; 2te +Abteilung; Kirchliche Werke (Leipzig, 1905).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hermann Kretzschmar</span>: Oratorien und weltliche Chorwerke +(Leipzig, 1910).</p> + +<p>Monographien moderner Musiker, 3 vols. (Leipzig, 1906).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Karl Proske</span>: Musica Divina, Tome I (Ratisbon, 1853).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugo Riemann</span>: Handbuch der Musikgeschichte, Vol. II +(Leipzig, 1911).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugo Riemann</span>: Musiklexikon, 8th ed. (Leipzig, 1914).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">A. G. Ritter</span>: Geschichte des Orgelspiels im 14-18. Jahrhundert +(1884).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Arnold Schering</span>: Geschichte des Oratoriums (Leipzig, +1911).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Max Steinitzer</span>: Richard Strauss (Berlin and Leipzig, 1914).</p> + +<p>Zum 40. Tonkünstlerfest des Allgemeinen Deutschen Musikvereins +in Frankfurt a. M. (Die Musik, Vol. 4, 2tes Maiheft).</p> + +<p><em>Zeitschrift der Internationalen Musikaesellschaft</em> (Leipzig).</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_505">[Pg 505]</span></p> + + +<p class="center p1 big1"><em>In French</em></p> + +<div class="blockquot1"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gaston Carraud</span>: La musique pure dans l’école française +contemporaine (S. I. M., Aug.-Sept., 1910).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">D. Chennevrière</span>: Claude Debussy et son Œuvre (Paris, Durand, +1913).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">F. A. Gevaert</span>: La mélopée antique dans le chant de l’église +latine (1895).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jules Combarieu</span>: Histoire de la musique, Vol. II (Paris, +1913).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">M. P. Hamel</span>: Manuel du facteur d’orgues (1849).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">A. Pougin</span>: Essai historique sur la musique en Russie (Paris, +1904).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Romain Rolland</span>: Musiciens d’aujourd’hui (Paris, 1908).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Paul de Stoecklin</span>: Max Reger (Le Courrier musicale, April, +1906).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Maurice Touchard</span>: La musique espagnole contemporaine +(Nouvelle Revue, March, 1914).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jean d’Udine</span>: Rimsky-Korsakoff (Le Courrier musicale, July, +1908).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Egon Wellesz</span>: Schoenberg et la jeune école Viennoise (S. I. +M., March, 1912).</p> +</div> + + +<p class="center big1 p1"><em>In Spanish</em></p> + +<div class="blockquot1"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pedrell</span>: Organografia musical antigua española (1901).</p> +</div> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_507">[Pg 507]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" >INDEX FOR VOLUME VI</h2> +</div> + + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">A</p> +<p><em>A cappella</em> singing, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>-f.<br> +<br> +Abert (Bach transcription), <a href="#Page_438">438</a>.<br> +<br> +Abington, Henry, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>.<br> +<br> +Abrici, Vincenzo, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>.<br> +<br> +Abt, Franz, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.<br> +<br> +Accompaniments, (Scarlatti), <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Carissimi), <a href="#Page_108">108</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Act of Supremacy, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.<br> +<br> +Acworth, H. A., <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.<br> +<br> +Adam de la Hâle, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>f.<br> +<br> +Adams, Thomas, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.<br> +<br> +<em>Adieu, mes amours</em> (in French mass), <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.<br> +<br> +Agnus Dei, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>f.<br> +<br> +Agricola, Martin, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.<br> +<br> +Akimenko, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.<br> +<br> +Albert V, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.<br> +<br> +[d’] Albert (Bach transcription), <a href="#Page_440">440</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Albert Hall, London (organ in), <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.<br> +<br> +Albrechtsberger, Johann Georg, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.<br> +<br> +Aldrich, Richard (cited on Roman liturgy), <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.<br> +<br> +Alexander Severus, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.<br> +<br> +Allegri, Gregorio, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>f.<br> +<br> +Alphege, Bishop of Winchester, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.<br> +<br> +Amateur singers, <a href="#Page_xv">xv</a>.<br> +<br> +Ambrogio, Alfredo, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.<br> +<br> +Ambros (cited on Palestrina), <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.<br> +<br> +[St.] Ambrose, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>ff, <a href="#Page_484">484</a>.<br> +<br> +Ambrosian hymns, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.<br> +<br> +America (choral music), <a href="#Page_379">379</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(organs), <a href="#Page_408">408</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(organ music), <a href="#Page_495">495</a>ff.</span><br> +<br> +American Guild of Organists, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>.<br> +<br> +Ammerbach, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.<br> +<br> +Andersen, Carl, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.<br> +<br> +André (organ builder), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Andrews, Mark, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.<br> +<br> +[d’] Anglebert, Jean Henri, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>.<br> +<br> +Anglican Church (origin of), <a href="#Page_89">89</a>f.<br> +<br> +Anglican Church music, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(second period), <a href="#Page_133">133</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(third period), <a href="#Page_134">134</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(introduction of hymn), <a href="#Page_135">135</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(nineteenth century), <a href="#Page_184">184</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(use of Magnificat), <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Animuccia, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.<br> +<br> +[d’] Annunzio, Gabriele, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.<br> +<br> +Antegnati, Constanzo, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>.<br> +<br> +Anthem (English), <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>f, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>f.<br> +<br> +Antiphonal singing, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.<br> +<br> +Antokolsky, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.<br> +<br> +Arensky, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fountain of Bachtchissarai, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Arne, Thomas (English organ composer), <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.<br> +<br> +Arnold, [Sir] Edwin, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>f.<br> +<br> +Arnold, Robert Franz, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_508">[Pg 508]</span><br> +<br> +Arras (festival to Adam de la Hâle), <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.<br> +<br> +Assyrians, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>.<br> +<br> +Attaignant, Pierre, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>.<br> +<br> +Attengnati family (organ builders), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Aubade, <a href="#Page_25">25</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Austin, John T., <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.<br> +<br> +Augsburg (as centre of organ music), <a href="#Page_431">431</a>.<br> +<br> +Avery (organ builder), <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">B</p> +<p>Bach, Johann Sebastian, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a><em>ff</em>, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(attitude toward church music), <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(arias), <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(church cantata), <a href="#Page_122">122</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(and the chorale), <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(vocal polyphony), <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(motets), <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(oratorio), <a href="#Page_239">239</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(mass), <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(church music), <a href="#Page_325">325</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(organ fingering), <a href="#Page_423">423</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(chorale preludes), <a href="#Page_429">429</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(organ music), <a href="#Page_435">435</a>ff, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(pupils), <a href="#Page_457">457</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘<em>Ich hatte viel Bekümmerniss</em>,’ <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘<em>Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit</em>,’ <a href="#Page_125">125</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘<em>Ein’ feste Burg</em>,’ <a href="#Page_126">126</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Christmas Oratorio, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Passion According to St. Matthew, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mass in B minor, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>ff.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Magnificat in D, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Organ Preludes and Fugues, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fantasia in G minor, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Organ sonatas, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>.<br> +<br> +Back positive. See Rückpositiv.<br> +<br> +Baini (cited on Palestrina), <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(cit. on Frescobaldi), <a href="#Page_424">424</a>.</span><br> +<br> +<em>Baisez-moi</em> (in mass), <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.<br> +<br> +Bantock, Granville, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Fire Worshippers,’ <a href="#Page_372">372</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Omar Khayyam,’ <a href="#Page_372">372</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Masses, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Barker, C. S. (organ builder), <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.<br> +<br> +Barnby, Joseph, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Rebekah,’ <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Bartholomew, William, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.<br> +<br> +Bartlett, Homer N., <a href="#Page_499">499</a>.<br> +<br> +Basilica, Antonius, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>f.<br> +<br> +Bassani, Giovanni Battista, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>.<br> +<br> +Basso ostinato. See Ground-bass.<br> +<br> +Bates, Arlo, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.<br> +<br> +Batiste, Antoine Édouard, <a href="#Page_467">467</a>f.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_509">[Pg 509]</span><br> +<br> +Battishill, Jonathan, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.<br> +<br> +Bau, Édouard, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.<br> +<br> +Beach, Mrs. H. H. A., <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.<br> +<br> +Becker, René, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.<br> +<br> +Beckwith, John Christmas (English organ composer), <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.<br> +<br> +Beethoven, Ludwig van, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>f, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(oratorio), <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(mass), <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Ruins of Athens,’ <a href="#Page_144">144</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Die Weihe des Hauses</em>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Glorious Moment,’ <a href="#Page_145">145</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Christ on the Mount of Olives,’ <a href="#Page_264">264</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Missa Solemnis, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Benedict, [Sir] Julius, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>f, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Legend of St. Cecilia,’ <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Benedictines of Solesme,’ <a href="#Page_467">467</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Benedictus, Jacobus de, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.<br> +<br> +Bennett, Joseph, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.<br> +<br> +Bennett, W. Sterndale, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The May Queen,’ <a href="#Page_183">183</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Woman of Samaria, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Benoist, François, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>f.<br> +<br> +Benoît, Pierre Léopold, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>f, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Lucifer</em>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Berg, Alban, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.<br> +<br> +Berger, Wilhelm, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.<br> +<br> +Berlioz, Hector, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>ff, <a href="#Page_170">170</a> (footnote).<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Damnation of Faust, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Childhood of Christ, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Requiem, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Te Deum, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Bernard de Morlaix (12th cent. writer), <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.<br> +<br> +Best, William Thomas, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>.<br> +<br> +Bird, Arthur, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.<br> +<br> +Blair, Hugh, <a href="#Page_495">495</a>.<br> +<br> +Blasi, Luca, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Blitheman (English organist), <a href="#Page_448">448</a>.<br> +<br> +Blockx, Jan, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>.<br> +<br> +Blow, John, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.<br> +<br> +Blowers (organ), <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.<br> +<br> +Boehm, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br> +<br> +Boëllmann, Leon, <a href="#Page_486">486</a>.<br> +<br> +Boëly, Alexandre Pierre François, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>.<br> +<br> +[St.] Bonaventura, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.<br> +<br> +Bonnal, Ermand, <a href="#Page_486">486</a>.<br> +<br> +Bonnet, Joseph, <a href="#Page_486">486</a>.<br> +<br> +Book of Common Prayer, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.<br> +<br> +‘Book of Orm,’ <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.<br> +<br> +Borowski, Felix, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.<br> +<br> +Bossi, Enrico, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>; (organ music), <a href="#Page_491">491</a>.<br> +<br> +Boston, U.S. (Handel and Haydn society), <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(early and famous organs), <a href="#Page_496">496</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Boulestin, Xaver M. (quoted on Holbrooke), <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.<br> +<br> +Bourgault-Ducoudray, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>.<br> +<br> +Bourgeois, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.<br> +<br> +Boyce, William (English organ composer), <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.<br> +<br> +Brahms, Johannes, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>f, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(as organ composer), <a href="#Page_463">463</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Song of Triumph, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Song of Destiny, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Rinaldo,’ <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</span><br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_510">[Pg 510]</span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">German Requiem, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Brattle, Thomas, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>.<br> +<br> +Brattle organ (America), <a href="#Page_496">496</a>.<br> +<br> +Breitkopf & Härtel, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a> (footnote), <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.<br> +<br> +Brewer, A. H., <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.<br> +<br> +Bridge, Sir John Frederick, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>.<br> +<br> +Bridges, Robert (poet), <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.<br> +<br> +Brockes, B. H., <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.<br> +<br> +Bromfield, Edward, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>.<br> +<br> +Brosig, Moritz (church composer), <a href="#Page_324">324</a>.<br> +<br> +Browning, Robert, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.<br> +<br> +Bruch, Max, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>ff.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Frithjof,’ <a href="#Page_197">197</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Fair Ellen,’ <a href="#Page_198">198</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Cross of Fire,’ <a href="#Page_199">199</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Lay of the Bell,’ <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Odysseus</em>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Achilles</em>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Arminius</em>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Brucken-Fock, G. H. G. von, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.<br> +<br> +Bruckner, Anton, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>.<br> +<br> +Bruneau, Alfred (quot. on Debussy), <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.<br> +<br> +Buchanan, Robert, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.<br> +<br> +Buck, Dudley, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>f, <a href="#Page_498">498</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Golden Legend,’ <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Light of Asia,’ <a href="#Page_219">219</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Budapest Conservatory, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.<br> +<br> +Bull, John, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.<br> +<br> +Bülow, Hans von (quoted on Verdi’s Mass), <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.<br> +<br> +Bungert, August, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>f.<br> +<br> +Burney (cited), <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>f.<br> +<br> +Burns, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.<br> +<br> +Busch, Carl, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.<br> +<br> +Busoni, Ferruccio, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>, <a href="#Page_492">492</a>.<br> +<br> +Buus, Jacques, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.<br> +<br> +Buxtehude, Dietrich, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>f, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>.<br> +<br> +Byrd, William, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">C</p> + +<p>Cabezón, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>.<br> +<br> +Caccini, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br> +<br> +Callaerts, Joseph, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>.<br> +<br> +Calvin, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.<br> +<br> +Campbell, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.<br> +<br> +Campion (English writer of odes), <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.<br> +<br> +Candeille, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>.<br> +<br> +Canon (earliest example), <a href="#Page_32">32</a>f.<br> +<br> +Cantata, <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(German Church), <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(first use of name), <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(17th cent.), <a href="#Page_103">103</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(early examples), <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Italian), <a href="#Page_109">109</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(in France), <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(in Germany), <a href="#Page_111">111</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(texts), <a href="#Page_117">117</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(in 19th cent.), <a href="#Page_142">142</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(chronological grouping), <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(modern), <a href="#Page_189">189</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(English, late 19th cent.), <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(in United States), <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Cantata da camera, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br> +<br> +Canterbury Cathedral (organ), <a href="#Page_408">408</a>.<br> +<br> +Cantors, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>f.<br> +<br> +Cantus firmus, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.<br> +<br> +Canzona Francese, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.<br> +<br> +Canzonet, <a href="#Page_25">25</a> (footnote), <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.<br> +<br> +Capel-Cure, [Rev.] E., <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.<br> +<br> +Capocci, Filippo, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>.<br> +<br> +Cardiff Festival, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_511">[Pg 511]</span><br> +<br> +Carissimi, Giacomo, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>f, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(contemporaries), <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(oratorios), <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Jephta</em>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Carlyle (quot. on Séjan), <a href="#Page_466">466</a>.<br> +<br> +Carrera, Rafael, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br> +<br> +Catoire, Georges, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.<br> +<br> +Cavaillé-Coll, Aristide, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.<br> +<br> +Cavalieri, Emilio de, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a> (footnote), <a href="#Page_224">224</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(contemporaries), <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Cecilia Society of Frankfort, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.<br> +<br> +Cecilian Society, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.<br> +<br> +Celles, Dom Jean François Bedos de, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>.<br> +<br> +Cesti, Marc’ Antonio, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.<br> +<br> +Chadwick, George Whitfield, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Judith,’ <a href="#Page_381">381</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Noël,’ <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Chamber organ, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>f.<br> +<br> +Chamberlyn (organ builder), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Chambonnières, Jacques Champion de, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>.<br> +<br> +Chanson, <a href="#Page_25">25</a> (footnote), <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>ff.<br> +<br> +Chant, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(oral transmission of), <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See also Gregorian chant.</span><br> +<br> +Chapman (English masque writer), <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.<br> +<br> +Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>f, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.<br> +<br> +Charles II, King of England, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.<br> +<br> +Charles IX, King of France, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.<br> +<br> +Charpentier, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.<br> +<br> +Cherubini, Luigi, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Requiem Mass in C minor, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Requiem Mass in D minor, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eight Voice Credo, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mass in D minor, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Choirs (double, etc.), <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br> +<br> +Choral folk-singing, <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>-f.<br> +<br> +Choral music (origin and development), <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a>-f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(divisions), <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>-f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(conditions essential to efficient performance), <a href="#Page_xiv">xiv</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(forms in use in United States), <a href="#Page_xiv">xiv</a>-f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(influence of), <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(in Middle Ages), <a href="#Page_1">1</a>-98;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(kinds used in mediæval era), <a href="#Page_52">52</a> (footnote);</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(melody in treble), <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(contemporary), <a href="#Page_347">347</a>-397.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See also Cantata, Mass, Oratorio, Part-Song, etc.</span><br> +<br> +Choral Societies, <a href="#Page_xv">xv</a>-f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(first German), <a href="#Page_185">185</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(in France in 19th cent.), <a href="#Page_187">187</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Chorale, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>f, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.<br> +<br> +Chorley, Henry F., <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.<br> +<br> +Chromatic tones (first use), <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.<br> +<br> +Church choirs, <a href="#Page_xv">xv</a>.<br> +<br> +Church of England, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See Anglican church.</span><br> +<br> +Church music (early Christian) <a href="#Page_1">1</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(influence of Hebrews), <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(influence of Græco-Roman music), <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(outside of Italy), <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(introduction of organ in service), <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See also Anglican church music; Lutheran church; Roman Catholic church, etc.</span><br> +<br> +Church singers (importance in mediæval music), <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.<br> +<br> +Civic choruses, <a href="#Page_xix">xix</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_512">[Pg 512]</span><br> +<br> +Clarke-Whitfield, John, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>f.<br> +<br> +Clement VII, Pope, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.<br> +<br> +Clemm, John, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>.<br> +<br> +Clérambault, Louis Nicolas, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>.<br> +<br> +Cole, Rossetter Gleason, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>f, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.<br> +<br> +Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(choral works), <a href="#Page_370">370</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Scenes from the Song of Hiawatha,’ <a href="#Page_216">216</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Collin, Paul (poet), <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.<br> +<br> +Collins (writer of odes), <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.<br> +<br> +Cologne (early organ), <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.<br> +<br> +Colomb (librettist for Franck), <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.<br> +<br> +Columbi, Vincenzo, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Comic opera (earliest example), <a href="#Page_26">26</a>f.<br> +<br> +Commer, Franz, <a href="#Page_425">425</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Compenius (organ builder), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Composition pedals (organ), <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.<br> +<br> +Concert organ, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>f.<br> +<br> +Concerto (name applied to cantata), <a href="#Page_122">122</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Congregational singing, <a href="#Page_xix">xiv</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>f.<br> +<br> +Constantine. See Konstantine.<br> +<br> +Contemporaneous choral music, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>ff.<br> +<br> +Converse, Frederick Shepherd, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Job,’ <a href="#Page_383">383</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Cooke, Benjamin (English organ composer), <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.<br> +<br> +Cooley, Elsie Jones, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.<br> +<br> +Cornelius Severus, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.<br> +<br> +Costa, Michael, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Dream,’ <a href="#Page_179">179</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Eli,’ <a href="#Page_283">283</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Councils. See Trent, Council of.<br> +<br> +Couperin, François, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>f.<br> +<br> +Couwenbergh, H. V., <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.<br> +<br> +Coward, Henry, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.<br> +<br> +Cowen, Frederic Hymen, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>f.<br> +<br> +Cranach, Lucas, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>.<br> +<br> +Crequillon, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.<br> +<br> +Croce, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br> +<br> +Croft, William, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>.<br> +<br> +Cromwell, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.<br> +<br> +Crotch, William, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>.<br> +<br> +Crowest, F. J. (quot. on ‘Messiah’), <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.<br> +<br> +Crüger, Johann, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.<br> +<br> +Cueppers, F., <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br> +<br> +Currendi, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>f.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">D</p> +<br> +<p>‘Damnation of Faust’ (Berlioz), <a href="#Page_170">170</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Damrémont, General, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.<br> +<br> +Damrosch, Leopold, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.<br> +<br> +Dance songs, <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>.<br> +<br> +David, Félicien, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Desert,’ <a href="#Page_176">176</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Davies, Henry Walford, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Everyman, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Temple, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hervé Riel, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Day (choral collection), <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.<br> +<br> +Dayas, William H., <a href="#Page_500">500</a>.<br> +<br> +Debussy, Claude, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>La Demoiselle élue</em>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Le martyre de Saint-Sébastien</em>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Delaney (quot. on Mrs. Cibber), <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_513">[Pg 513]</span><br> +<br> +Delmotte, Heinrich (cited on Lassus), <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.<br> +<br> +Dethier, Gaston, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.<br> +<br> +Dettingen Te Deum, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>f.<br> +<br> +Devrient, Édouard, <a href="#Page_242">242</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Dialogue (name applied to cantata), <a href="#Page_122">122</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Diaphone (organ), <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.<br> +<br> +Dickinson, Edward (quot.), <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(cited on Bach’s cantatas), <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Diminution (organ playing), <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.<br> +<br> +Diruta, Girolamo, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>f.<br> +<br> +Discant, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.<br> +<br> +Division (in organ mechanism), <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.<br> +<br> +Doddridge, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>f.<br> +<br> +Doles, Johann Friedrich, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>.<br> +<br> +Draeseke, Felix, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.<br> +<br> +Dresden (Royal Library), <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Royal Chapel organ), <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Dryden, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.<br> +<br> +Dryvers, L., <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.<br> +<br> +Dubois, Théodore, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Paradise Lost,’ <a href="#Page_305">305</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Duddyngton (organ builder), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Dufay (use of popular songs), <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(footnote), <a href="#Page_47">47</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Dukas, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>.<br> +<br> +Duke of Weimar, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.<br> +<br> +Dunham, Henry M., <a href="#Page_500">500</a>.<br> +<br> +[St.] Dunstan, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.<br> +<br> +Duplex stop control, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.<br> +<br> +Dupuis, Thomas Sanders, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.<br> +<br> +Durante, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br> +<br> +Dvořák, Antonin, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>f, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Spectre’s Bride,’ <a href="#Page_202">202</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘St. Ludmila,’ <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Requiem, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stabat Mater, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>f.</span></p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">E</p> + +<p>Early Christian music. See Church music.<br> +<br> +Eccard, Johann, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>f.<br> +<br> +Echo (in the organ), <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.<br> +<br> +Eddy, Clarence, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.<br> +<br> +Edward VI of England, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.<br> +<br> +Edwards (English madrigalist), <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.<br> +<br> +Egyptians, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>.<br> +<br> +Eisenach, <a href="#Page_77">77</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Electricity (applied to organ action), <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>f.<br> +<br> +Elgar, [Sir] Edward, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>ff, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(organ compositions), <a href="#Page_494">494</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Black Knight,’ <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Banner of St. George,’ <a href="#Page_212">212</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf,’ <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Caractacus,’ <a href="#Page_213">213</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Light of Life,’ <a href="#Page_361">361</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Dream of Gerontius,’ <a href="#Page_362">362</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Apostles,’ <a href="#Page_364">364</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Kingdom,’ <a href="#Page_366">366</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Music Makers,’ <a href="#Page_367">367</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Elizabeth, Queen of England, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.<br> +<br> +Elwyn, Earl of, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.<br> +<br> +England (contemporary choral music), <a href="#Page_359">359</a>ff;<br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_514">[Pg 514]</span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">(organs, 15th cent.), <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Englefried, George and Charles, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.<br> +<br> +Enoch, Frederick, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.<br> +<br> +Erbach, Christian, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>.<br> +<br> +Esterhazy, Count, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.<br> +<br> +Ett, Kaspar, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.<br> +<br> +Eyken, Jan Albert van, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">F</p> + +<p>Fährmann, Ernst Hans, <a href="#Page_487">487</a>.<br> +<br> +Faisst, Immanuel Gottlob Friedrich, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.<br> +<br> +Families of tone (in organ), <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.<br> +<br> +Fantasia, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>.<br> +<br> +Farmer, Henry, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.<br> +<br> +Fasolo, Giovanni Battista, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>.<br> +<br> +Faulkes, William, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>.<br> +<br> +Federlin, Gottfried H., <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.<br> +<br> +Ferdinand III, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>.<br> +<br> +Festa, Constanzo, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.<br> +<br> +Festivals (in England), <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.<br> +<br> +Fétis (cited on Scarlatti), <a href="#Page_231">231</a> (footnote);<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(cited on Landino), <a href="#Page_416">416</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(cited on Merulo), <a href="#Page_420">420</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(cited on Gigault), <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(cited on Rinck), <a href="#Page_459">459</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Fischer, Michael Gotthard, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>.<br> +<br> +Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.<br> +<br> +Fletcher (as writer of masques), <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.<br> +<br> +Folk-song, <a href="#Page_xi">xi</a>, <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>f, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(relation to art-music), <a href="#Page_35">35</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(influence upon German ritual), <a href="#Page_93">93</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(in Lutheran ritual), <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(rel. to part-song), <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Fontane, Theodor, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>.<br> +<br> +Foote, Arthur, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.<br> +<br> +Förner, C. F., <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +France (modern choral music), <a href="#Page_386">386</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(famous organs), <a href="#Page_404">404</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(supremacy in modern organ music), <a href="#Page_479">479</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Francesco degli organi, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>.<br> +<br> +Franck, César, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(organ works), <a href="#Page_470">470</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Ruth and Boaz,’ <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Beatitudes,’ <a href="#Page_296">296</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘La Redemption,’ <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Rébecca,’ <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Psyché,’ <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Franco of Cologne, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.<br> +<br> +Franz, Robert, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.<br> +<br> +Frederick the Great, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.<br> +<br> +Frederick William of Prussia, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br> +<br> +Freiberg minster (organ), <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.<br> +<br> +Frescobaldi, Girolamo, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>f, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>.<br> +<br> +Fried, Oscar, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.<br> +<br> +Friedrich Augustus of Saxony, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br> +<br> +Froberger, Johann Jacob, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>.<br> +<br> +Frottola, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>f.<br> +<br> +Fuchs, Albert, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.<br> +<br> +Fürst, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">G</p> + +<p>Gabrieli, Andrea, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.<br> +<br> +Gabrieli, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.<br> +<br> +Gade, Niels Wilhelm, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>ff.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Crusaders,’ <a href="#Page_170">170</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Erl-King’s Daughter,’ <a href="#Page_171">171</a>f.</span><br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_515">[Pg 515]</span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Christmas Eve,’ <a href="#Page_172">172</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Comala,’ <a href="#Page_173">173</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Zion,’ <a href="#Page_174">174</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Spring’s Message,’ <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Gallo-Belgic School, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>f.<br> +<br> +Garrett, George Mursell, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>.<br> +<br> +Gauntlett, Henry John, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.<br> +<br> +Geibel, Emanuel, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.<br> +<br> +George II, King of England, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.<br> +<br> +German church cantata, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>f.<br> +<br> +Germany (church music), <a href="#Page_111">111</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(modern choral music), <a href="#Page_347">347</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(famous organs), <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Giacomo, Lorenzo di, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Gibbons, Orlando, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <em><a href="#Page_449">449f</a></em>, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.<br> +<br> +Gibbons, Cardinal (quot. on Catholic mass), <a href="#Page_38">38</a>f.<br> +<br> +Gigout, Eugène, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>.<br> +<br> +Glazounoff, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.<br> +<br> +Glee, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>f.<br> +<br> +Glière, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.<br> +<br> +Glosada, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.<br> +<br> +Goethe, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(quot. on Bach), <a href="#Page_435">435</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Goetz, Hermann, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br> +<br> +Goss, [Sir] John, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.<br> +<br> +Gossec, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.<br> +<br> +Goudimel, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.<br> +<br> +Gounod, Charles, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(passion music), <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(oratorio), <a href="#Page_286">286</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(masses), <a href="#Page_341">341</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Redemption,’ <a href="#Page_287">287</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Mors et Vita</em>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Graff, Wilhelm Paul (poet), <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.<br> +<br> +Grainger, Percy, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.<br> +<br> +Grandval, C. de, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>.<br> +<br> +Grapheus of Nuremberg (quot. on early masses), <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.<br> +<br> +Graun, Karl Heinrich, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Death of Jesus,’ <a href="#Page_245">245</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Prague Te Deum, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Greek Orthodox Church, x;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(music of), <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Greeks, Ancient, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>.<br> +<br> +Green, Samuel, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.<br> +<br> +Greene, Maurice, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>f.<br> +<br> +Gregorian chant, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(modern reform movement), <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Gregorian Antiphonary, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>ff.<br> +<br> +Gregory the Great, Pope, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>f.<br> +<br> +Gregory VII, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br> +<br> +Grieg, Edvard Hagerup, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br> +<br> +Grignón, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.<br> +<br> +Grillparzer (librettist to Schubert), <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br> +<br> +Ground-bass (first recorded use), <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.<br> +<br> +Grove’s Dictionary (cited), <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a> (footnote), <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.<br> +<br> +Guami, Gioseffo, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.<br> +<br> +Guéranger, Prosper, <a href="#Page_467">467</a>.<br> +<br> +Guido d’Arezzo, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.<br> +<br> +Guilmant, Félix Alexandre, <a href="#Page_442">442</a> (footnote), <a href="#Page_444">444</a>, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>, <em><a href="#Page_480">480</a>ff</em>, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fugue in D, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Funeral March and Seraphic Song, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lamentation, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Gutenberg, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_516">[Pg 516]</span></p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">H</p> + +<p>Haberl, F. X. (cited on Palestrina), <a href="#Page_64">64</a> (footnote), <a href="#Page_425">425</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Hadley, Henry K., <a href="#Page_383">383</a>.<br> +<br> +Hadow, W. H. (quot. on Beethoven), <a href="#Page_336">336</a>f.<br> +<br> +Hahn, Reynaldo, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.<br> +<br> +Halberstadt (early organ at), <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.<br> +<br> +Hale, Philip, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.<br> +<br> +Hamburg (as centre of organ art), <a href="#Page_433">433</a>.<br> +<br> +Hamerling (German poet), <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.<br> +<br> +Hamilton, Newburg, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.<br> +<br> +Hammerschmidt, Andreas, <a href="#Page_114">114</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Handel, George Frederick, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>f, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(passion music), <a href="#Page_244">244</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(oratorios), <a href="#Page_246">246</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(as organist), <a href="#Page_452">452</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(organ works), <a href="#Page_454">454</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Acis and Galatea,’ <a href="#Page_127">127</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Alexander’s Feast,’ <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘L’Allegro,’ <a href="#Page_129">129</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Messiah,’ <a href="#Page_249">249</a>ff.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Israel in Egypt,’ <a href="#Page_252">252</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Judas Maccabæus,’ <a href="#Page_254">254</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Samson,’ <a href="#Page_256">256</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Utrecht Te Deum,’ <a href="#Page_327">327</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>.<br> +<br> +Harmony, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.<br> +<br> +Harris, René, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.<br> +<br> +Harrison, Julius, <a href="#Page_495">495</a>.<br> +<br> +Harwood, Basil, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>f.<br> +<br> +Haskell, C. S., <a href="#Page_408">408</a>.<br> +<br> +Haskell, W. E., <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.<br> +<br> +Hassler, Hans Leo, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Herzlich thut mich verlangen</em>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Hastings, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>.<br> +<br> +Haupt, Karl August, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.<br> +<br> +Hauptmann, Maurice, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.<br> +<br> +Hausegger, Siegmund von, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>f.<br> +<br> +Hawkins, [Sir] John (cit. on organ fantasias), <a href="#Page_419">419</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(quot. on Handel), <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Haydn, Joseph, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(oratorio), <a href="#Page_258">258</a>ff.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Ariadne auf Naxos</em>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Seven Words of Jesus on the Cross,’ <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Creation,’ <a href="#Page_259">259</a>ff.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Seasons,’ <a href="#Page_261">261</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stabat Mater, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Hebrews, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>.<br> +<br> +Heliogabalus, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.<br> +<br> +Henrici, Friedrich, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.<br> +<br> +Henry VIII, King of England, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.<br> +<br> +Henschel, Georg, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.<br> +<br> +Herbeck, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.<br> +<br> +Herder (poet), <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br> +<br> +Hereford Festival, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.<br> +<br> +Hertz, Henrik, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.<br> +<br> +Hesse, Adolf Friedrich, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>f.<br> +<br> +Heyse, Paul, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br> +<br> +Hiel, Emanuel (librettist to Benoît), <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.<br> +<br> +Hildebrandt (organ builder), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Hiller, Ferdinand, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘A Song of Victory,’ <a href="#Page_168">168</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Hobrecht, Jacob, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_517">[Pg 517]</span><br> +<br> +Hofmann, Heinrich Karl Johann, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>f.<br> +<br> +‘Melusina,’ <a href="#Page_203">203</a>f.<br> +<br> +Hohenlohe, Archbishop, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.<br> +<br> +Holbrooke, Joseph, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Byron,’ <a href="#Page_375">375</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Bells,’ <a href="#Page_375">375</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dramatic Choral Symphony, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Queen Mab,’ <a href="#Page_375">375</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘To Zanthe,’ <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Apollo and the Seaman, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Hölderlin, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.<br> +<br> +Hollins, Alfred, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>.<br> +<br> +Holmès, Augusta, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.<br> +<br> +Holst, Gustave von, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>f.<br> +<br> +[L’]Homme armé, <a href="#Page_42">42</a> and footnote.<br> +<br> +Hook and Hastings (organ builders), <a href="#Page_497">497</a>.<br> +<br> +Hooker, Brian, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>.<br> +<br> +Hope-Jones, Robert, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>f.<br> +<br> +Hopkins, Edward John, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>.<br> +<br> +Horn, C. F., <a href="#Page_473">473</a>.<br> +<br> +Horn, Moritz, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.<br> +<br> +Horwitz, Karl, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.<br> +<br> +Huber, Hans, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.<br> +<br> +Huberti, G. L., <a href="#Page_392">392</a>.<br> +<br> +Hucbald, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.<br> +<br> +Humberston, F. W., <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.<br> +<br> +Humfrey, Pelham, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.<br> +<br> +Hummel, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.<br> +<br> +Humperdinck, Engelbert, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.<br> +<br> +Huneker, James (quoted on Schönberg), <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.<br> +<br> +Hungarian national march, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.<br> +<br> +‘Hunt’s-up’ (English song), <a href="#Page_180">180</a> and footnote.<br> +<br> +Hutchings, George S., <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.<br> +<br> +Hydraulic organ, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.<br> +<br> +Hymnody (Luther’s influence on), <a href="#Page_78">78</a>ff.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">I</p> + +<p>[d’]Indy, Vincent, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>f.<br> +<br> +‘Song of the Bell,’ <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.<br> +<br> +Innocent III, Pope, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.<br> +<br> +Instruments (in early Christian era), <a href="#Page_7">7</a>f.<br> +<br> +Intervals, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(in part writing), <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Ippolitoff-Ivanoff, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.<br> +<br> +Irving, Washington, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.<br> +<br> +Italian cantata, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>ff.<br> +<br> +Italy (modern choral music), <a href="#Page_392">392</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(famous organs), <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Ivanovitch, Sergius, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">J</p> + +<p>Jacobsen, Jens Peter, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.<br> +<br> +Jacobus de Benedictus, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.<br> +<br> +Jahn, Otto, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.<br> +<br> +Jalowetz, Heinrich, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.<br> +<br> +Jennens, Charles (librettist), <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.<br> +<br> +Johann Georg, Elector of Saxony, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.<br> +<br> +Jonson, Ben, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.<br> +<br> +Jordans (organ builder), <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.<br> +<br> +Josquin des Près, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>ff.<br> +<br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_518">[Pg 518]</span><br> +Julian the Apostate, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.<br> +<br> +Julianus, Spanish bishop, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</p> +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">K</p> + +<p>Karg-Elert, Sigfrid, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>.<br> +<br> +Karlsruhe Philharmonic Society, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.<br> +<br> +Kaun, Hugo, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.<br> +<br> +Kerl, Johann Kaspar, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>.<br> +<br> +Keuchenthal (passion music), <a href="#Page_236">236</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Keyboard (organ), <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.<br> +<br> +Kiesewetter, R. G. (quot. on Okeghem), <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.<br> +<br> +Kind, Friedrich, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br> +<br> +Kinder, Ralph, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.<br> +<br> +Kindermann, Erasmus, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.<br> +<br> +Kingsley, Charles, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.<br> +<br> +Kirbye (English madrigalist), <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.<br> +<br> +Kirnberger, Johann Philipp, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>.<br> +<br> +Kittel, Johann Christian, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.<br> +<br> +Klose, Friedrich, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>.<br> +<br> +Koch, Friedrich, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.<br> +<br> +Köchel, <a href="#Page_132">132</a> (footnote), <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.<br> +<br> +Koninck, Lodemijk de (librettist), <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.<br> +<br> +Konstantine, Kopronynus, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.<br> +<br> +Kotzebue, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.<br> +<br> +Kranz (organ builder), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Krebs, Johann Ludwig, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.<br> +<br> +Kretzschmar, Hermann (quoted on Mozart), <a href="#Page_329">329</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(cited on Beethoven), <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Ktesibos, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.<br> +<br> +Kuhnau, Johann, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +L<br> +<br> +Lachner, Franz, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br> +<br> +Lady Nevill’s Virginal Book, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.<br> +<br> +Laloy, Pierre (quot. on Debussy), <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.<br> +<br> +Lambillotte, Louis, <a href="#Page_467">467</a>.<br> +<br> +‘Lament’ for Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_24">24</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Lampadius (quot. on ‘St. Paul’), <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.<br> +<br> +Landino, Francesco, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>.<br> +<br> +Lang, Benjamin Johnson, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>.<br> +<br> +Langdon, W. C., <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.<br> +<br> +Lange, Samuel de, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>.<br> +<br> +Lasso, Orlando di. See Lassus.<br> +<br> +Lassus, Orlandus, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(secular compositions), <a href="#Page_59">59</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Penitential Psalms,’ <a href="#Page_57">57</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Gustate et Videte</em>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Leading motives, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.<br> +<br> +Le Bègue, Nicolas Antoine, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>.<br> +<br> +Leeds festival, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.<br> +<br> +Le Fanu, J. S., <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.<br> +<br> +Lefebure-Wély, Louis J. A., <a href="#Page_467">467</a>.<br> +<br> +Legrenzi, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>f.<br> +<br> +Lemare, Henry, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>.<br> +<br> +Lemmens, Nicolas Jacques, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>f.<br> +<br> +Leo, Leonardo, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br> +<br> +Leo XIII, Pope, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.<br> +<br> +Lerch (of minnesingers), <a href="#Page_28">28</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Lesueur, François, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Christmas Oratorio, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Liadoff, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.<br> +<br> +Lidley (librettist to Haydn), <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.<br> +<br> +Lied (of minnesingers), <a href="#Page_28">28</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Lingg, H. (librettist), <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_519">[Pg 519]</span><br> +<br> +Liszt, Franz, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(choral works), <a href="#Page_277">277</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Bach transcriptions), <a href="#Page_438">438</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440</a> (footnote);</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(as organ composer), <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Bells of Strassburg,’ <a href="#Page_191">191</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Prometheus,’ <a href="#Page_192">192</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Legend of St. Elizabeth,’ <a href="#Page_277">277</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Christus</em>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Missa Solemnis</em>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Hungarian Coronation Mass,’ <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Liturgic chant, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br> +<br> +Liturgy (Roman Catholic), <a href="#Page_x">x</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>f, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See also Mass.</span><br> +<br> +Liverpool (organ at St. George’s Hall), <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.<br> +<br> +Lobsinger (organ builder), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Lohr, Harvey, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.<br> +<br> +London (Albert Hall organ), <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.<br> +<br> +Longfellow, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.<br> +<br> +Louis XII, King of France, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.<br> +<br> +Louis the Debonnaire, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.<br> +<br> +Lucinius, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>.<br> +<br> +Luther, Martin, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>ff, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>f, <a href="#Page_484">484</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(compositions), <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a> (footnote).</span><br> +<br> +Lutheran service, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>f, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Deutsche Messe), <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Luzzaschi, Luzzasco, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">M</p> + +<p>Macfarlane, Will C., <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.<br> +<br> +Macfarren, George Alexander, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>f, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘May Day,’ <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Lady of the Lake,’ <a href="#Page_180">180</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Mackenzie, Alexander Campbell, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>f, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Rose of Sharon,’ <a href="#Page_306">306</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Bethlehem,’ <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</span><br> +<br> +McLean, M., <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.<br> +<br> +Macy, John, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.<br> +<br> +Madan’s Collection of Psalms and Hymn Tunes, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br> +<br> +Madrigal, <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>f, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(of Netherland period), <a href="#Page_46">46</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(in Germany), <a href="#Page_72">72</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(in France), <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(in England), <a href="#Page_73">73</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(decline), <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Magnard, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>.<br> +<br> +Magnificat, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Dufay), <a href="#Page_54">54</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Mahler, Gustav, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.<br> +<br> +Maitland, J. H. Fuller (quoted on Brahms’ ‘German Requiem’), <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.<br> +<br> +Male choruses, xvi.<br> +<br> +Malling, Otto, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>f.<br> +<br> +Malory (Morte d’Arthur), <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.<br> +<br> +Mansfield, Purcell J., <a href="#Page_495">495</a>.<br> +<br> +Manuals (organ), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.<br> +<br> +Manuscripts (earliest known), <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.<br> +<br> +Manzoni, Alessandro, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.<br> +<br> +Mapes, Walter, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.<br> +<br> +Maquaire, A., <a href="#Page_486">486</a>.<br> +<br> +Marcellus II, Pope, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.<br> +<br> +Marchand, Louis, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>.<br> +<br> +Marenzio, Luca, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.<br> +<br> +Martin, George C., <a href="#Page_493">493</a>.<br> +<br> +Martini, Padre, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_520">[Pg 520]</span><br> +<br> +Marx, A. B., <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.<br> +<br> +Mary, Queen of England, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.<br> +<br> +Mary, Queen of Scots, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.<br> +<br> +Masque, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.<br> +<br> +Mass, <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(use of secular subjects), <a href="#Page_41">41</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(origin of name), <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(development during Netherland period), <a href="#Page_46">46</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(introduction of hymn), <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(order of movements), <a href="#Page_318">318</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(classification), <a href="#Page_319">319</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(19th-cent. reform), <a href="#Page_323">323</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Mozart), <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Bach), <a href="#Page_324">324</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Haydn), <a href="#Page_329">329</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Cherubini), <a href="#Page_333">333</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Beethoven), <a href="#Page_335">335</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Liszt), <a href="#Page_340">340</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Gounod), <a href="#Page_341">341</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(modern), <a href="#Page_345">345</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Massenet, Jules, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(oratorio), <a href="#Page_303">303</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Ève</em>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Marie Madeleine</em>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Mathieu, Émile, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>.<br> +<br> +Mattheson, Johann, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.<br> +<br> +Mattheson (friend of Mendelssohn), <a href="#Page_453">453</a>.<br> +<br> +Matthison, Arthur, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.<br> +<br> +Maximilian, Emperor of Austria, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>.<br> +<br> +Measured music, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.<br> +<br> +Mees, Arthur (quot.), <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.<br> +<br> +Meistersinger, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>f.<br> +<br> +Melody (placed in treble), <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.<br> +<br> +Mendelssohn, Arnold, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.<br> +<br> +Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(part-song), <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(oratorio), <a href="#Page_268">268</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(quot. on Bach), <a href="#Page_437">437</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(organ works), <a href="#Page_461">461</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The First Walpurgis Night,’ <a href="#Page_152">152</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘As the Hart Pants,’ <a href="#Page_153">153</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Come, Let Us Sing,’ <a href="#Page_154">154</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gutenberg Festival Cantata, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Lauda Sion</em>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Antigone,’ <a href="#Page_155">155</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Œdipus at Colonos,’ <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘St. Paul,’ <a href="#Page_269">269</a>ff.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Elijah,’ <a href="#Page_272">272</a>ff.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Hymn of Praise,’ <a href="#Page_276">276</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Merkel, Gustav Adolf, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.<br> +<br> +Merulo, Claudio, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.<br> +<br> +Middelschulte, Wilhelm, <a href="#Page_440">440</a> (footnote), <a href="#Page_500">500</a>.<br> +<br> +Miller, Russell King, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.<br> +<br> +Milton, John (English masque writer), <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.<br> +<br> +Minnesingers, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>ff.<br> +<br> +Miracle plays, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.<br> +<br> +Modal harmony, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.<br> +<br> +Monasteries (St. Gall), <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(study of music), <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Monophonic music, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>.<br> +<br> +Monteverdi, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br> +<br> +Moore, Thomas (author of ‘Lalla Rookh’), <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br> +<br> +Morell, Rev. Thomas (librettist to Handel), <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.<br> +<br> +Morgan, George W., <a href="#Page_460">460</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>.<br> +<br> +Motet (Netherland period), <a href="#Page_46">46</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Josquin), <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(early history), <a href="#Page_52">52</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(subjects and early examples), <a href="#Page_54">54</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(18th cent.), <a href="#Page_136">136</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(19th cent.), <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Moussorgsky, Modeste, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>;<br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_521">[Pg 521]</span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Destruction of Sennacherib, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(relation to Haydn), <a href="#Page_258">258</a> and footnote;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(mass), <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘King Thamos,’ <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Masonic Cantatas, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Davidde Penitente</em>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Requiem, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>ff.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Coronation Mass, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Muffat, Georg, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.<br> +<br> +Multiple stop control, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.<br> +<br> +Mumford, Ethel Watts, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>.<br> +<br> +Musæ Sioniæ (hymn collection), <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.<br> +<br> +Music festivals (in England), <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.<br> +<br> +Musica Transalpina (madrigal collection), <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.<br> +<br> +Musical Art Society of New York, <a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a>.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">N</p> + +<p>Napier, Hampdon (librettist to Weber), <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br> +<br> +Napoleon I, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.<br> +<br> +Nares, James (English organ composer), <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.<br> +<br> +Nassare, Pablo, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>.<br> +<br> +National Conservatory of Music, New York, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.<br> +<br> +National songs, <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>.<br> +<br> +Naumann, Emil (cit.), <a href="#Page_24">24</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(quot. on Ecce Ancilla), <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(cited on Okeghem), <a href="#Page_49">49</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(cited on Luther’s hymns), <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Nekrassoff, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.<br> +<br> +Nero, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.<br> +<br> +Netherland schools, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(mass), <a href="#Page_37">37</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(use of secular subjects), <a href="#Page_43">43</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(texts), <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(differentiation of schools), <a href="#Page_47">47</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(organists), <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Neumes, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>f.<br> +<br> +Newman, Cardinal (cited on dream of Gerontius), <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.<br> +<br> +Newman, Ernest (quoted on Schönberg), <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.<br> +<br> +Nicetas, Bishop of Remesiana, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.<br> +<br> +Nicholl, Horace Wadhams, <a href="#Page_500">500</a>.<br> +<br> +Nigond, Gabriel, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>.<br> +<br> +Ninfale, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>.<br> +<br> +Nisard, Theódore, <a href="#Page_467">467</a>.<br> +<br> +Noordt, Anthony van, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>.<br> +<br> +Normand. See Nisard.<br> +<br> +Nottebohm (cited on Schubert), <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br> +<br> +Novello, Vincent, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.<br> +<br> +Nowowiejski, Felix, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.<br> +<br> +Nuremberg (first chorale collection published at), <a href="#Page_83">83</a> (footnote);<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(as home of organ music), <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.</span></p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">O</p> + +<p>Oakley, Sir Hubert Stanley, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>.<br> +<br> +Obrecht. See Hobrecht.<br> +<br> +Ode, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(revival of), <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Okeghem, Johannes, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>f.<br> +<br> +Opera, <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(first), <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Oratorio (first), <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(origin and early examples), <a href="#Page_223">223</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Cavalieri’s stage directions), <a href="#Page_225">225</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(17th-cent. Italian), <a href="#Page_233">233</a>ff;</span><br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_522">[Pg 522]</span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">(German passion-music), <a href="#Page_234">234</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Handel), <a href="#Page_246">246</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Haydn), <a href="#Page_258">258</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Beethoven), <a href="#Page_264">264</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Spohr), <a href="#Page_266">266</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Mendelssohn), <a href="#Page_268">268</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Liszt), <a href="#Page_277">277</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(English composers), <a href="#Page_281">281</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(in modern France), <a href="#Page_284">284</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(modern), <a href="#Page_292">292</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(modern English), <a href="#Page_306">306</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(American), <a href="#Page_314">314</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Oratorio Society of New York, xv-f.<br> +<br> +Orchestra (employment of, in ritual music), <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br> +<br> +Organ, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(history and development), <a href="#Page_397">397</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(10th-11th cent.), <a href="#Page_400">400</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(portative), <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(15th-17th cent.), <a href="#Page_404">404</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(18th-19th cent.), <a href="#Page_406">406</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(modern development), <a href="#Page_407">407</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(modern concert organ), <a href="#Page_411">411</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(early use in church service), <a href="#Page_418">418</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(first in America), <a href="#Page_496">496</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Organ blowers, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.<br> +<br> +Organ-building (10th-11th cent.), <a href="#Page_400">400</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(12th-14th cent.), <a href="#Page_401">401</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(15th-16th cent.), <a href="#Page_403">403</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(17th-19th cent.), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(modern), <a href="#Page_407">407</a>ff.</span><br> +<br> +Organ keyboard, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See also Pneumatic action; Electricity.</span><br> +<br> +‘Organ Magnificats,’ <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.<br> +<br> +Organ music (early masters), <a href="#Page_415">415</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(early forms), <a href="#Page_418">418</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Saxon or Thuringian school), <a href="#Page_434">434</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Bach), <a href="#Page_435">435</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(early French), <a href="#Page_441">441</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Spain and Portugal), <a href="#Page_445">445</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(early English), <a href="#Page_446">446</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Handel), <a href="#Page_452">452</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(after Bach and Handel), <a href="#Page_456">456</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(19th-cent. German), <a href="#Page_459">459</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(19th-cent. French), <a href="#Page_466">466</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(19th-cent. English), <a href="#Page_472">472</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(arrangements), <a href="#Page_473">473</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(modern French), <a href="#Page_479">479</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(modern German), <a href="#Page_487">487</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(modern Italian), <a href="#Page_490">490</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(in United States), <a href="#Page_495">495</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(American composers), <a href="#Page_499">499</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Organ pedals, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.<br> +<br> +Organ playing (methods), <a href="#Page_iii">iii</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>f, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.<br> +<br> +Organists (in Germany), <a href="#Page_426">426</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(in France), <a href="#Page_441">441</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(in Spain and Portugal), <a href="#Page_445">445</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Belgium), <a href="#Page_469">469</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(English), <a href="#Page_472">472</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(younger French school), <a href="#Page_486">486</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(younger English school), <a href="#Page_493">493</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(American), <a href="#Page_497">497</a>ff.</span><br> +<br> +Organum, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>f.<br> +<br> +Organum pulsare, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.<br> +<br> +Ornamentation (organ music), <a href="#Page_423">423</a>.<br> +<br> +O’Shaughnessy, Arthur, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.<br> +<br> +Osiander, Lucas (published first chorale book), <a href="#Page_83">83</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Ottoboni, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>.<br> +<br> +Ouseley, [Sir] Frederick Arthur Gore, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>f.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">P</p> + +<p>Pachelbel, Johann, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>f, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>.<br> +<br> +Paine, John K., <a href="#Page_314">314</a>f, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘St. Peter,’ <a href="#Page_314">314</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Paix, Jacob, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.<br> +<br> +Palestrina, x, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>ff, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(contemporaries), <a href="#Page_67">67</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(motets), <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</span><br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_523">[Pg 523]</span><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Missa Papæ Marcelli</em>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Palestrina style, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>f, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.<br> +<br> +Pareja, Ramis de, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>.<br> +<br> +Parker, Horatio William, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>f, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>, <a href="#Page_499">499</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Hora Novissima</em>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Legend of St. Christopher,’ <a href="#Page_316">316</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Morven and the Grail,’ <a href="#Page_380">380</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Parker, James Cutler Dunn, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>.<br> +<br> +Parratt, [Sir] Walter, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>.<br> +<br> +Parry, [Sir] C. Hubert H., <a href="#Page_20">20</a> (footnote), <a href="#Page_209">209</a>f, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(quot. on Rossi), <a href="#Page_104">104</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(quot. on 17th-cent. cantatas), <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Judith,’ <a href="#Page_308">308</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Job,’ <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘King Saul,’ <a href="#Page_309">309</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Vision of Life,’ <a href="#Page_369">369</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin,’ <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Partida (organ mechanism), <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.<br> +<br> +Part-singing, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>f.<br> +<br> +Part-song (origin), <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(German, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>th cent.), <a href="#Page_186">186</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(English, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>th cent.), <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(French, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>th cent.), <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Pasquini, Bernardo, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>f.<br> +<br> +Passion-music (origin and development), <a href="#Page_234">234</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Schütz), <a href="#Page_236">236</a>f;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Bach), <a href="#Page_239">239</a>ff;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Graun), <a href="#Page_245">245</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Pastourelle, <a href="#Page_25">25</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Paul IV, Pope, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.<br> +<br> +Paumann, Conrad, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>.<br> +<br> +Peace, Albert Lister, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>.<br> +<br> +Pedals (organ), <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Pedrell, Felipe, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.<br> +<br> +‘Penitential Psalms’ (Lassus), <a href="#Page_57">57</a>f.<br> +<br> +People’s Choral Union (New York), xv.<br> +<br> +People’s Singing Classes (New York), xv.<br> +<br> +Pepin, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.<br> +<br> +Pergolesi, Giov. Battista, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stabat Mater, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Peri, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Periods of musical progress, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>f.<br> +<br> +Perosi, Don Lorenzo, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>f, <a href="#Page_492">492</a>.<br> +<br> +Perrot (organ builder), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Péschard (organ builder), <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.<br> +<br> +Petrali, Vincenzo Antonio, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>.<br> +<br> +Petrarch, <a href="#Page_71">71</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Petronius, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.<br> +<br> +Philip of Vitry, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.<br> +<br> +Philip II, King of Spain, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.<br> +<br> +Picander. See Henrici.<br> +<br> +Pierluigi, Giovanni. See Palestrina.<br> +<br> +Pierné, Gabriel, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Les enfants de Bethlehem</em>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Children’s Crusade,’ <a href="#Page_389">389</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Saint-François d’Assisi</em>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Pius X, Pope, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.<br> +<br> +Piutti, Carl, <a href="#Page_487">487</a>.<br> +<br> +Plainsong. See Gregorian chant; Gregorian antiphonary.<br> +<br> +Platen, August von, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.<br> +<br> +Platz, Wilhelm, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.<br> +<br> +Pneumatic action (in organ), <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.<br> +<br> +Pneumatic lever (organ), <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.<br> +<br> +Pneumatic organ, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.<br> +<br> +Poe, Edgar Allan, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_524">[Pg 524]</span><br> +<br> +Pohl, Richard, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.<br> +<br> +Poland (contemporaneous choral music), <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.<br> +<br> +Polyphonic period, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>ff.<br> +<br> +Pope, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.<br> +<br> +Portative organ, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>.<br> +<br> +Positive organ, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.<br> +<br> +Possessoris, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.<br> +<br> +Poushkin, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.<br> +<br> +Prætorius, Jacob, <a href="#Page_432">432</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Prætorius, Michael, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.<br> +<br> +Prague Te Deum, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>f.<br> +<br> +Pratt, Waldo S. (quot. on Palestrina), <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.<br> +<br> +Prelude, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>.<br> +<br> +Professional choruses, <a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a>.<br> +<br> +Prölz, Adolphus, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br> +<br> +Proske, Karl, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_467">467</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(quot. on Lassus), <a href="#Page_56">56</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Protestant church music, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(substitution of vernacular for Latin), <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(in England), <a href="#Page_89">89</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Protestant composers (early), <a href="#Page_86">86</a>f, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.<br> +<br> +Protestant hymnody, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.<br> +<br> +Protestant service (Reformed church), <a href="#Page_95">95</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See Lutheran service.</span><br> +<br> +Psalmists, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.<br> +<br> +Psalmody, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(18th cent.), <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Public school choruses, xvi.<br> +<br> +Purcell, Henry, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(as organ composer), <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Puritanism, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">Q</p> + +<p>Quantz, Johann Joachim, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(quoted), <a href="#Page_456">456</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Quef, Charles, <a href="#Page_486">486</a>.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">R</p> + +<p>Rachmaninoff, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.<br> +<br> +Raison, André, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>.<br> +<br> +Rameau, Jean Philippe, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>f.<br> +<br> +Ramler (librettist), <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.<br> +<br> +Ramsay (early organ at convent of), <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.<br> +<br> +Randebrock (organ builder), <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.<br> +<br> +Ravanello, Oreste, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>f.<br> +<br> +Ravel, Maurice, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>.<br> +<br> +Recitative, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>f.<br> +<br> +Redford, Thomas, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>.<br> +<br> +Refrains, <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>.<br> +<br> +Regal, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Reger, Max (choral works), <a href="#Page_352">352</a>f, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440</a> (footnote);<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(organ works), <a href="#Page_488">488</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Reidel, Carl, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.<br> +<br> +Reimann, Heinrich (quot. on Mozart), <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.<br> +<br> +Reinken, Johann Adam, <a href="#Page_432">432</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Representative style, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br> +<br> +Requiem mass, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.<br> +<br> +Responsorial singing, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.<br> +<br> +Resultant tone (organ), <a href="#Page_459">459</a>.<br> +<br> +Revolution of 1830, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.<br> +<br> +Reubke, Julius, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_525">[Pg 525]</span><br> +<br> +Rheinberger, Joseph, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>f, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(masses), <a href="#Page_345">345</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(organ works), <a href="#Page_464">464</a>ff.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Christophorus</em>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Ribera (painter of ‘Magdalen’), <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.<br> +<br> +Ricercare, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.<br> +<br> +Richter, E. F., <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.<br> +<br> +Rimsky-Korsakoff, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.<br> +<br> +Rinck, J. C. H., <a href="#Page_458">458</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>.<br> +<br> +Ritter August Gottfried, <a href="#Page_425">425</a> (footnote), <a href="#Page_460">460</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(cit. on Crequillon), <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(quot. on Guami), <a href="#Page_422">422</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(cit. on Hassler), <a href="#Page_430">430</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(quot. on Muffat), <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Ritual (Pagan, Hebrew), <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(uniformity in, of mediæval European composers), <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(music in Anglican church), <a href="#Page_90">90</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See also Roman Catholic church; Litany; Lutheran service.</span><br> +<br> +Rochlitz, Friedrich (librettist of ‘The Praise of Music’), <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.<br> +<br> +Rockstro (quoted), <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(cited on first use of ‘madrigal’), <a href="#Page_73">73</a> (footnote).</span><br> +<br> +Rococo organ embellishments, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.<br> +<br> +Rogers, James Hotchkiss, <a href="#Page_500">500</a>.<br> +<br> +‘Roland’s Song,’ <a href="#Page_24">24</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Rolland, Romain (quot. on Strauss), <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(quot. on modern choral school), <a href="#Page_386">386</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(quoted on oratorio), <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Romberg, Andreas, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Lay of the Bell,’ <a href="#Page_146">146</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Roman Catholic church, x, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(introduction of antiphonal psalmody), <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(influence of Protestant hymn), <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(movement for restoration), <a href="#Page_323">323</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See also Gregorian chant; Mass, etc.</span><br> +<br> +Romans, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>.<br> +<br> +Roosevelt, Hilborne L., <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.<br> +<br> +Rootham, Bradley, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.<br> +<br> +Roquette, Otto (librettist), <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.<br> +<br> +Rossetti, Christina, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.<br> +<br> +Rossi, Luigi, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Gelosia</em>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Rossini, Gioacchino, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stabat Mater, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Round, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.<br> +<br> +Roundelay, <a href="#Page_25">25</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Rousseau, Samuel Alexandre, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>f.<br> +<br> +Rückert, Friedrich, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.<br> +<br> +Rückpositiv, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.<br> +<br> +Rudolph, Emperor of Austria, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.<br> +<br> +Russia (contemporary choral music), <a href="#Page_394">394</a>f.<br> +<br> +Rust, Wilhelm, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">S</p> + +<p>Sachs, Hans, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.<br> +<br> +Sacred Harmonic Society, London, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>f.<br> +<br> +St. Ambrose (hymns of), <a href="#Page_8">8</a>ff, <a href="#Page_484">484</a>.<br> +<br> +St. Filippo Nero, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.<br> +<br> +St. George’s Hall, Liverpool (organ in), <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.<br> +<br> +St. Mark’s, Venice, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>f.<br> +<br> +Saint-Saëns, Charles Camille (oratorio), <a href="#Page_302">302</a>f;<br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_526">[Pg 526]</span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">(as organ composer), <a href="#Page_480">480</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Noël</em>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Deluge,’ <a href="#Page_302">302</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Salamon, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.<br> +<br> +Salomé, Théodore César, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>.<br> +<br> +Salto cattivo (organ playing), <a href="#Page_423">423</a>.<br> +<br> +Salzburg, Archbishop of, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>f.<br> +<br> +Santa Maria, Thomas de, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>.<br> +<br> +Santucci, Marco, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>f.<br> +<br> +Scandellus, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.<br> +<br> +Scandinavia (contemporary choral music), <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.<br> +<br> +Scarlatti, Alessandro, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>ff, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cantatas, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Il trionfo della grazia</em>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Sedecia, rè di Gerusalemme</em>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Scarlatti, Domenico, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>.<br> +<br> +Scheidemann, Heinrich, <a href="#Page_432">432</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Scheidt, Samuel, <a href="#Page_432">432</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Schein, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.<br> +<br> +Schering (quot. on Everyman), <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.<br> +<br> +Schikaneder, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br> +<br> +Schildt, Melchior, <a href="#Page_432">432</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Schiller, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.<br> +<br> +Schlick, Arnold, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>.<br> +<br> +Schmid (organ builder), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Schmid, Bernard, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.<br> +<br> +Schmidt (German organist), <a href="#Page_450">450</a>.<br> +<br> +Schmitt, Aloys, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.<br> +<br> +Schmitt, Florent, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>.<br> +<br> +Schneider, Johann Gottlob, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>.<br> +<br> +Schnitzker (organ builder), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Scholæ cantorum, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.<br> +<br> +Schönberg, Arnold, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Gurrelieder</em>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Schubert, Franz, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>f; (part-song), <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(masses), <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Miriams Siegesgesang</em>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Schumann, Georg, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(as organ composer), <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Ruth,’ <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Schumann, Robert, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(part-song), <a href="#Page_162">162</a>f, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(quoted on Bach), <a href="#Page_435">435</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Paradise and the Peri,’ <a href="#Page_162">162</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Pilgrimage of the Rose,’ <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Minstrel’s Curse,’ <a href="#Page_166">166</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Advent Hymn,’ <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘New Year’s Hymn,’ <a href="#Page_167">167</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Mignon’s Requiem,’ <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Schütz, Heinrich, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>f, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Seven Words of Jesus,’ <a href="#Page_237">237</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Resurrection,’ <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Passions,’, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Schwob, Marcel, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>.<br> +<br> +Scott, [Sir] Walter, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>.<br> +<br> +Scriabine, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.<br> +<br> +Secular music, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>ff;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(earliest known examples), <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(first use of polyphony), <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See also Cantata; Chanson; Folk-song; Madrigal; Part-song.</span><br> +<br> +Seifert, Paul, <a href="#Page_432">432</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Séjan, Nicolas, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>.<br> +<br> +Sequences, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>ff.<br> +<br> +Serenade, <a href="#Page_25">25</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Servante, <a href="#Page_25">25</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Seyfried, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.<br> +<br> +Sguarcialupo, Antonio, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_527">[Pg 527]</span><br> +<br> +Sheffield Festival, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.<br> +<br> +Shelley, Harry Rowe, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.<br> +<br> +Shirley, James, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.<br> +<br> +Shubring (friend of Mendelssohn), <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.<br> +<br> +Silas, Eduard, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.<br> +<br> +Silbermann family (organ builders), <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.<br> +<br> +Singing schools, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>f, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br> +<br> +Sistine Chapel, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.<br> +<br> +Skinner, Ernest M., <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.<br> +<br> +Smart, [Sir] George, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.<br> +<br> +Smart, Henry, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(as organ composer), <a href="#Page_475">475</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Bride of Dunkerron,’ <a href="#Page_181">181</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘King René’s Daughter,’ <a href="#Page_182">182</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Smith, David Stanley, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.<br> +<br> +Smith, Father, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>.<br> +<br> +Solmisation, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.<br> +<br> +Sophocles, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.<br> +<br> +Spain (famous organs), <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.<br> +<br> +Spark, William, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>.<br> +<br> +Speth, Johann, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>.<br> +<br> +Spitta, Philipp (quot. on church music), <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(on J. S. Bach), <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(quot. on Bach), <a href="#Page_437">437</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Spohr, Ludwig, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>f, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Last Judgment,’ <a href="#Page_266">266</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Calvary,’ <a href="#Page_267">267</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Spruch (of minnesingers), <a href="#Page_28">28</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Stabat Mater, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>f.<br> +<br> +Staff (origin of), <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.<br> +<br> +Staff notation (first use), <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.<br> +<br> +Stage directions for oratorio, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>f.<br> +<br> +Stainer, Sir John, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(cited), <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Stanford, Charles Villiers, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Three Holy Children,’ <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Eden,’ <a href="#Page_310">310</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Stile rappresentativo, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br> +<br> +Stradella, Alessandro, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>S. Giovanni Battista</em>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Strauss, Richard, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(short choral works), <a href="#Page_349">349</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(religious music), <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Wanderers Sturmlied</em>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Taillefer</em>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Der Abend</em>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Stravinsky, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.<br> +<br> +Sullivan, [Sir] Arthur Seymour, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>f, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Golden Legend,’ <a href="#Page_206">206</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Prodigal Son,’ <a href="#Page_311">311</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Light of the World,’ <a href="#Page_312">312</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +‘Sumer is icumen in,’ <a href="#Page_32">32</a>f.<br> +<br> +Süssmayer, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.<br> +<br> +Sweelinck, J. P., <a href="#Page_427">427</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>.<br> +<br> +Swell chambers (organ), <a href="#Page_409">409</a>f.<br> +<br> +Swell (organ), <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.<br> +<br> +Swieten, Baron von, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.<br> +<br> +Sydney, N. S. W. (organ), <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.<br> +<br> +Sylvester, Pope, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.<br> +<br> +Syrinx, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">T</p> + +<p>Tablatura nova, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>.<br> +<br> +Tablature (organ), <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>.<br> +<br> +Tallis, Thomas, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>f.<br> +<br> +Taneieff, Alexander, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.<br> +<br> +Tartini, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_528">[Pg 528]</span><br> +<br> +Tasso (‘Jerusalem Delivered’), <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.<br> +<br> +Taubmann, Otto, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Deutsche Messe</em>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Sängerweihe</em>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Taussig (Bach transcription), <a href="#Page_440">440</a>.<br> +<br> +Te Deum Laudamus, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.<br> +<br> +Tebaldini, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>.<br> +<br> +Tegner, Bishop (librettist), <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.<br> +<br> +Tempo (method of determining), <a href="#Page_474">474</a>f.<br> +<br> +Tennyson, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.<br> +<br> +Tenzone, <a href="#Page_25">25</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Thayer, Eugene W., <a href="#Page_460">460</a>, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>, <a href="#Page_500">500</a>.<br> +<br> +Theatre organs, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.<br> +<br> +Thiele, Johann Friedrich Ludwig, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.<br> +<br> +Thirty Years’ War (effect of, on chorale), <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.<br> +<br> +Thomas Aquinas (author of Lauda Sion), <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br> +<br> +Thomas (organ builder), <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.<br> +<br> +Thomas, Theodore, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.<br> +<br> +Thomasschule, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.<br> +<br> +Thomson (author of ‘Seasons’), <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.<br> +<br> +Thuille, Ludwig, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.<br> +<br> +Tinel, Edgar, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>f, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>Franciscus</em>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Titelouze, Jean, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>f.<br> +<br> +Toccata, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.<br> +<br> +Tombelle, Ferdinand de la, <a href="#Page_486">486</a>.<br> +<br> +Tone grouping (in organ), <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.<br> +<br> +Trampeli (organ builders), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Trench (librettist of ‘Apollo and the Seaman’), <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.<br> +<br> +Trent, Council of, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.<br> +<br> +Tropes, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.<br> +<br> +Troubadours, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(historical significance), <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Trouvères, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(historical significance), <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Truette, E. E., <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.<br> +<br> +Tubular pneumatic action (in organ), <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.<br> +<br> +Tuckerman, Samuel Parkman, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>.<br> +<br> +Tuning, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Turpin, Edmund Hart, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>.<br> +<br> +Tye, Christopher, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <em><a href="#Page_448">448</a></em>, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">U</p> + +<p>Uhland, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.<br> +<br> +Unequal temperament, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Unit stop control, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.<br> +<br> +Universal air chest, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.<br> +<br> +Utrecht Te Deum, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>f, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">V</p> + +<p>Valbecke, Ludwig van, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.<br> +<br> +Vallotti, Francesco Antonio, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>.<br> +<br> +Vavrineoz, Mauritius, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.<br> +<br> +Venetian school, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>f;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(madrigalists), <a href="#Page_71">71</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Verdi, Giuseppe, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Manzoni Requiem, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Vetruvius, <a href="#Page_398">398</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Villanella, <a href="#Page_140">140</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Vilotti, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.<br> +<br> +Virginal Book of Queen Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_529">[Pg 529]</span><br> +<br> +Vitry, Philippe de, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.<br> +<br> +Vittoria (compared with Palestrina), <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.<br> +<br> +Vogler, [Abbé] Georg Joseph, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>f, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>.<br> +<br> +Vrchlicky, Jaroslav, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">W</p> + +<p>Wackernagel, Philip (cited on German hymns), <a href="#Page_78">78</a> (footnote).</p> + +<p>Wagner, Richard, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Love-Feast of the Apostles,’ <a href="#Page_190">190</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Walker, Ernest (quoted on the ‘Messiah’), <a href="#Page_249">249</a>f.<br> +<br> +Walsegg, Franz von, Count of Ruppach, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.<br> +<br> +Walther, Johann, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_484">484</a>.<br> +<br> +War songs, <a href="#Page_xii">xii</a>.<br> +<br> +Warren, George William, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>.<br> +<br> +Wasielewski (cit. on G. Gabrieli), <a href="#Page_421">421</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.<br> +<br> +Water organ, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.<br> +<br> +Water pressure (in organ), <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.<br> +<br> +Waterloo, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br> +<br> +Watson: ‘Italian Madrigals Englished,’ <a href="#Page_72">72</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Watts, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>f.<br> +<br> +Webbe, Samuel, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>f.<br> +<br> +Weber, Carl Maria von, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(masses), <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Jubilee Cantata,’ <a href="#Page_147">147</a>f.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘<em>Kampf und Sieg</em>,’ <a href="#Page_148">148</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Weber, Constance, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br> +<br> +Webern, Anton von, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.<br> +<br> +Weelkes (English madrigalist), <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.<br> +<br> +Weinmann, Karl (cited on mediæval music), <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(quot. on Netherlanders), <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(cited on Beethoven), <a href="#Page_324">324</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Weissenbach, Aloys, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.<br> +<br> +Wellesz, Egon, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.<br> +<br> +Wendt, Amadeus, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br> +<br> +Wensley, Shapcott (librettist), <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.<br> +<br> +Wesley, Charles (Christmas hymn of), <a href="#Page_155">155</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Wesley, Charles (organist), <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.<br> +<br> +Wesley, Samuel, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>.<br> +<br> +Wesley, Samuel Sebastian, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.<br> +<br> +White (organ builder), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Whiteley, John W., <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_530">[Pg 530]</span><br> +<br> +Whiting, Arthur, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.<br> +<br> +Whiting, George Elbridge, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_500">500</a>.<br> +<br> +Whittier, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.<br> +<br> +Widor, Charles Marie, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>f.<br> +<br> +Wilbye (English madrigalist), <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.<br> +<br> +Wilcox, John H., <a href="#Page_497">497</a>.<br> +<br> +Willaert, Adrian, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>.<br> +<br> +Willcox, John Henry, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>.<br> +<br> +William, Duke of Bavaria, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.<br> +<br> +William of Malmesbury, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.<br> +<br> +William IV, King of Prussia, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br> +<br> +Williams, C. F. Abdy, <a href="#Page_432">432</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Williams, C. Lee, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.<br> +<br> +Williams, Ralph Vaughan, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.<br> +<br> +Willis, H. W. (organ builder), <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.<br> +<br> +Winchester (famous early organs at), <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.<br> +<br> +Wind-chest, organ, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>;<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(separate), <a href="#Page_407">407</a>;</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(electro-pneumatic), <a href="#Page_408">408</a>f.</span><br> +<br> +Wind-gauge (organ), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Wind-power, regulation of (in organ), <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Wind pressure (in organ), <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.<br> +<br> +Winterfeld (cited on Passion music), <a href="#Page_236">236</a> (footnote).<br> +<br> +Witt, Franz (quoted on masses), <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.<br> +<br> +Wohlbrück (librettist), <a href="#Page_148">148</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><em>La vita nuova</em>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.</span><br> +<br> +Wolf-Ferrari, Ermanno, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>f.<br> +<br> +Wolfrum, Philip, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.<br> +<br> +Wolle, J. Frederick, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.<br> +<br> +[St.] Wolstan, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.<br> +<br> +Wolstenholme, William, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>.<br> +<br> +Woltz, Johann, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.<br> +<br> +Women’s choruses, <a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a>.<br> +<br> +Wood, Anthony (quot. on Tye), <a href="#Page_448">448</a>.<br> +<br> +Wood, Henry, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.<br> +<br> +Worms, Diet of, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.<br> +<br> +Wotton, William, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br> +<br> +Woyrsch, Felix, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>f.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘The Dance of Death,’ <a href="#Page_356">356</a>f.</span></p> + +<p style="padding-left: 5em; margin-top: 2em; ">Z</p> + +<p>Ziehn, Bernard, <a href="#Page_492">492</a>.<br> +<br> +Zipoli, Domenico, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>.<br> +<br> +Zucchetti, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>.<br> +<br> +Zwingli, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</p> + + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76594 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/76594-h/images/cover.jpg b/76594-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a8e6e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/76594-h/images/frontis-ilo.jpg b/76594-h/images/frontis-ilo.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d847c53 --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/frontis-ilo.jpg diff --git a/76594-h/images/ilofp139.jpg b/76594-h/images/ilofp139.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..467325c --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/ilofp139.jpg diff --git a/76594-h/images/ilofp177.jpg b/76594-h/images/ilofp177.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..71e8618 --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/ilofp177.jpg diff --git a/76594-h/images/ilofp23.jpg b/76594-h/images/ilofp23.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ccd950 --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/ilofp23.jpg diff --git a/76594-h/images/ilofp331.jpg b/76594-h/images/ilofp331.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4a64d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/ilofp331.jpg diff --git a/76594-h/images/ilofp403.jpg b/76594-h/images/ilofp403.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0d4e13 --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/ilofp403.jpg diff --git a/76594-h/images/ilofp427.jpg b/76594-h/images/ilofp427.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..00f17a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/ilofp427.jpg diff --git a/76594-h/images/ilofp465.jpg b/76594-h/images/ilofp465.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e03773 --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/ilofp465.jpg diff --git a/76594-h/images/ilofp81.jpg b/76594-h/images/ilofp81.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d96cdbc --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/ilofp81.jpg diff --git a/76594-h/images/ilop253.jpg b/76594-h/images/ilop253.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..98cd7e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/ilop253.jpg diff --git a/76594-h/images/score-p42.jpg b/76594-h/images/score-p42.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..752d254 --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/score-p42.jpg diff --git a/76594-h/images/score-p42.png b/76594-h/images/score-p42.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce894f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/score-p42.png diff --git a/76594-h/images/score-p423.jpg b/76594-h/images/score-p423.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..44a83da --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/score-p423.jpg diff --git a/76594-h/images/score-p423.png b/76594-h/images/score-p423.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..615b494 --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/score-p423.png diff --git a/76594-h/images/tp-ilo.jpg b/76594-h/images/tp-ilo.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa3cb25 --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/tp-ilo.jpg diff --git a/76594-h/images/tp2-ilo.jpg b/76594-h/images/tp2-ilo.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba5365f --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/images/tp2-ilo.jpg diff --git a/76594-h/music/score-p42.mp3 b/76594-h/music/score-p42.mp3 Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf09b0e --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/music/score-p42.mp3 diff --git a/76594-h/music/score-p423.mp3 b/76594-h/music/score-p423.mp3 Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7ad1043 --- /dev/null +++ b/76594-h/music/score-p423.mp3 |
