lifornia
onal
s*
Fl LLJ^oRE
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
LESSONS
MUSICAL HISTORY.
BY
JOHN COMFORT FILLMORE.
AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF PIANO MUSIC." "NEW LESSONS IN HARMONY,""
ETC.
PHILADELPHIA :
THEODORE PRESSER,
1704 CHESTNUT STREET.
ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS IN THE YEAR 1 888 I\~THE
OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS AT
WASHINGTON, D. C.
College
Library
flL
.
PREFACE.
THIS little book is the result of the author's own efforts to interest
his pupils in the History of Music and to give them an outline
of that history, presenting its salient facts in a clearer per-
spective than he could find in any text-book he had tried
to use. Since the book was begun, the excellent history of
Dr. Langhans has appeared in English, but the translation
is so clumsy as not to preclude the necessity of some other text-book
for English-speaking students. There still remains the need of an
exhaustive history to follow such an outline as is here attempted. Those
who read German can find it in the admirable histories of Von Dommer
and Ambros ; but the counterparts of these Avorks are not yet to be
found in English. ChappelTs history, so far as it has gone, is interesting,
and instructive to discriminating readersj but its author seems too
opinionated and too~unbalanced to ~Be thoroughly trusted as a guide.
Rowbotham is valuable to those who can devote attention to such
details as the minute study of Greek rhythms and other fine points of
ancient music, and will be interesting even to those who can read it but
superficially. But the second of his two large volumes already pub-
lished only brings us through the music of the Greek tragedy. The
histories of Burney and Hawkins are not to be forgotten, but they are,
of course, antiquated. Macfarren's, Ritter's, Bouavia Hunt's, Kockstro's
and others are outlines only.
The most important auxiliary to the English speaking student of
musical history is Grove's " Dictionary of Music and Musicians," by far
the most complete encyclopedia yet published in English, a library in
itself. It ought to be accessible to every student of music. There is a
short "Dictionary of Music and Musicians" appended to \V. S. B.
Mathews' "How to Understand Music," which will be found very
handy for reference. The book itself is valuable reading, and a second
volume, now in preparation, will cover important ground in the history
of music. Naumann's History is valuable for its illustrations. Many
of these are also to be found in Mendel's ".Conversations-lexicon," the
most extensive musical encyclopedia for those who read German. A
smaller, but most valuable German encyclopedia is Dr. Hugo Riemann's
41 Musikalisches Conversations-Lexikon." Among special histories
1115822
Kiemann's •' Studien zur Gesschichte der Notenschrift," is perhaps the
most important contribution to our knowledge made in recent years.
It ought to be translated into clear and readable English. Dr. Eiemann
is doubtless the greatest living musical theorist and no student of music
can afford to ignore his works. Unfortunately none of them have been
translated except his lecture on " The Nature of Harmony " and his
" Comparative Piano School."
In biography we are better off. The series entitled " The Great
Musicians," edited by Franz Hueffer is strongly to be recommended..
Its American publishers are Scribner and Welford, New York. Kara-
sowski's " Life of Chopin " is now to be had in English. This is the
stand ird biography of Chopin. Liszt's " Chopin " is interesting but is,
in some respects, inaccurate and misleading. Schumann's Essays are
well-known and so is Wasielwski's " Life of Schumann." It is matter
of pride to Americans that the standard life of Beethoven is the
production of an American, A. W. Thayer. Unfortunately, it has thus
far appeared only in German. The works connected with Mendelssohn's
name are numerous and valuable ; his letters are especially charming.
" Music and Morals " and " My Musical Memories," by the Rev. H. R.
Harries, are excellent reading. But I will not further extend a list
which could hardly be made exhaustive. The student who_ makes hia
own choice of the books here enumerated will know how to discriminate-
as to his further reading.
Milwaukee, Wisn November 1887. J. C. F.
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
INTRODUCTION.
IN the logical order of thought, the considera-
tion of the nature of music naturally precedes the
investigation of its function. But its function
was undoubtedly perceived ages before there was
any thought of investigating its nature on scien-
tific principles. We shall not go astray, then,
perhaps, if we first try to imagine to ourselves
what the first music in the world must have been
and why people practiced it. If we can get at
the real motive which impelled people to make
music we shall surely become enlightened as to
its real function in the economy of human nature.
The insight we thus gain will serve as a sure
guide through all the mazes of musical history.
We may assume as certain that the first ele-
mentary efforts at music were vocal, and not
instrumental. For the human voice was certainly
in existence before any other musical instruments
were invented. People sang before they had
instruments to play on. Mothers crooned to their
babes, rocking them backward and forward in
their arms as they hushed them to sleep. Men
shouted defiance to their enemies in inarticulate
cries and yells. Young men and maidens danced,
and sung to their dancing. We may be sure of
these things, because they are to be found among
the most primitive and savage peoples of our own
time, and because we have authentic accounts of
them among ancient primitive peoples. Human
nature is essentially the same in all ages and under
vii
INTRODUCTION.
The nature and
function of
music.
The earliest
music not
instrumental,
but vocal.
via
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
iNTROPfCTlON.
The function
of mutic if to
e-jrfireff and
excite feeling.
The nature of
music.
Primitire mutic
made up of
melody and
rhythm.
all conditions, and we cannot doubt that the
impulse which leads to such manifestations now
our remotest ancestors to express their feelings
in similar ways.
This phrase "express their feelings" suggests-
at least one of the motives which impelled people
i to sing. The savage yells at his enemy because
his yelling is the natural expression of his emo-
tional excitement. The mother croons to her babe
because she feels like doing so. It is the natural
expression of her emotional state. But this is not
all. She does so because of its effect on the child.
She knows intuitively that this monotonous, meas-
ured flow of sound, the expression of her own
quiet happiness, will soothe the infant into a rest-
ful state of feeling and dispose it to slumber. The
warrior feels that the expression of his rage by
means of violent sounds will excite his comrades
to valor and perhaps strike terror into his ene-
mies. The singing of the dancers is equally expres-
sive of their emotional state, and tends to excite
those feelings to still greater activity. Vocal
music, then, is a natural product of human nature,
and its function is to express and excite feeling,
In the primitive music above referred to we
find two of the essential elements of all music —
Melody and Rhythm. Melody is a succession of
single musical sounds, differing more or less in
pitch. Rhythm is a succession of beats or pulsa-
tions occurring at regular intervals. There is a
natural tendency in human nature to make all
melody rhythmic. The mother's low song to her
babe naturally falls into regularly recurring
rhythmic divisions, accompanied by corresponding
movements of the body. Rhythm is of the very
essence of the dance; and the rhythmic motions
of the dancers are accompanied with rhythmic
INTRODUCTION.
IX
The beginnings
of instrumental
music.
song, the clapping of hands and the stamping of
feet. The element of rhythm becomes most
strongly marked in war dances. In these the
motions are violent, the songs loud and harsh
and the rhythm often marked by the striking of
war clubs on hollow logs or on some resounding
instrument of percussion.
Instruments of percussion were, doubtless, the
first to be invented. From marking the rhythm
by pounding on a tree or post with a club, it
was not far to covering the end of a hollow log
with a ^tretched skin, thus producing a rude
drum. CProgres| was then easy toward the whole
family of drums, tom-toms, gongs, cymbals,
tambourines, etc., the latter kind as soon as metals
and metal working had been discovered. Wind
instruments were probably invented by some such
accident as hearing a broken reed give forth a
musical tone when blown across by the wind.
The Egyptian and Greek myth has it that the god
Hermes, walking by the Nile bank, picked up a
tortoise shell which had some sun-dried membranes
stretched across it, and that this gave him the idea
of the lyre. It is not improbable that some such
accident as this really occasioned the invention of
stringed instruments. Or perhaps the idea came
from a tightly-stretched bowstring. However
this may be, the first instrumental music must
have been associated with vocal music, and must
have been essentially the same in its nature and
function. That is, it consisted of rhythmical
successions of sounds, which owed their origin to
the innate impulse to express, convey and excite
feeling.
As time went on and the savage developedmto
the barbarian, and from the barbarian into the
"civilized man, there was, we know, a gradual
Sensuous beaut j
of tone.
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
INTRODUCTION.
The intellectual
fitment in
music.
VnUy.
growth in refinement. This improvement showed
'tselflnTlnusicanperception as well as elsewhere.
The power of discriminating qualities of tone, like
other faculties, grows with use and attention, and
sensuous beauty of tone gradually came to be
regarded as a refined sensuous pleasure in itself.
It was enjoyed apart from its emotional signifi-
cance, just as the perfume of a rose is. So we find
it now. There are persons who lay undue stress
the element of sensuous beauty in music,
on
disregarding other and higher considerations. To
such, music becomes a sensuous indulgence —
refined, indeed, but still involving a minimum of
intellectual and moral quality.
In the course of time the awakened human in-
tellect began to deal with music as with other sub-
jects in which men were interested. Philosophers
began to investigate the physical and mathematical
relations of tones, and thus arose the science of
ACOUSTICS. Composers began to analyze rhythms
and to balance groups of small rhythmical units
against each other to make symmetrically larger
units, and thus began the science and art of
MELODIC FORM. They also began to combine
two and afterward more melodies sounding at
the same time into one whole, and thus arose
COUNTERPOINT.*
They learned to secure Unity in these composi-
tions by using the same melody as a second voice-
part, only beginning it some time after the first. Thus
arose Strict and afterward Free IMITATION. From
this principle were developed, in the strict style,
CANON and FUGUE. From the free treatment of
* " Counterpoint " means "point against point." The
term was first used before our modern notes were in-
vented, when points were used to indicate tones.
INTRODUCTION.
XI
imitations were developed all the modern forms.
This unity of idea, secured by developing a com-
position through varied repetitions of a few melodic
ideas (Themes or Motives), is called THEMATIC
TREATMENT.
Once the idea of combining melodies had been
developed, the step was inevitable to thinking
sounds in combinations, or Chords. It took a long
time before men learned to think complex music
otherwise than as combinations of simultaneously
progressing melodies. They thought it horizontally,
so to speak. But after a time they learned to
think it perpendicularly. That is, they learned to
think of each combination of simultaneously sound-
ing tones (chord) as a musical unit ; and they
gradually found out the laws governing the
natural relations of succession chords. The science
of chords and of their successions and relations is
called HARMONY.
Finally, men developed the art of combining
and contrasting the different qualities of tones
produced by different kinds of instruments so as to
produce beautiful effects, and to heighten and
intensify emotional expression. This is the art of
INSTRUMENTATION, or ORCHESTRATION. All these
belong to the intellectual element in music. Logi-
cally and historically, they come after the emo-
tional and sensuous enjoyment of music.
The imagination is the great constructive
faculty. In the beginning of music it had only
the simplest elements of melody and rhythm as
material with which to deal. But it dealt with
these in their relation to feeling, and the folk-songs
of all nations are the sincere, spontaneous expression
of natural feeling. Gradually, as the sensuous
perception and the intellectual .elements in music
were developed, the food for the imagination
INTRODUCTION.
Harmony.
Instrumenta-
tion.
The
imagination.
Xll
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
IXTRODVCnON.
Summary.
Relatire rank
of compoteri
and their icorkt.
became richer and more varied, until we have
now a wealth of musical material sufficient to tax
the imaginative power of a Beethoven or a
Wagner.
To sum up, then, music is, in its nature, that
one of the Fine Arts which has for its material
musical tones. It affords us enjoyment on its
lowest plane through the discrimination of refined
from coarse tones and by combinations and con-
trasts of different qualities of tone. The pleasure
thus derived is refined, but it is sensuous merely.
Music adds to this very high intellectual enjoy-
ment. In its more elaboratic forms, such as the
fugue, the sonata, the symphony, the music-drama,,
it taxes the intellectual resources of both composer
and student in equal degree with the greatest
intellectual productions of the human mind in
other fields of activity. It thus adds intellectual
to sensuous enjoyment, and so ranks high in the
scale of mental activities.
But its primary and ultimate function is to-
express, convey and excite feeling. To this the
sensuous and intellectual elements are subordinate.
The imagination reaches its highest flights and
performs its most legitimate function when it
deals with its musical materials in their relation,
to emotion.
The rank of a composer, like that of any other
creative artist, depends, first of all, on the vigor,
vividness and fertility of his imagination. Crea-
tive power means the gift of spontaneous invention*
It can neither be learned nor taught ; it is an
original gift which can neither be acquired nor
accounted for. This is it which is commonly called
Genius. Nothing else can take the place of it.
Wherever it appears, as it does here and there
among men, and often under the most unexpected
INTRODUCTION.
Xlll
and apparently unpromising conditions, the world
does not willingly let it die. Men may be slow in
recognizing it ; but once acknowledged, it becomes
a precious and immortal possession for the whole
race. Next to this in importance comes what is
commonly called Talent. This means a special
aptitude for artistic perception and attainment,
and for applying acquired ideas, without much
original power of invention. In its higher mani-
festations talent so closely approximates the lower
orders of genius that it is often not easy to distin-
guish them, and there are many cases that have
occasioned dispute among critics.
Butwhether a composer be_^os§essedpfggniu8
or only of talent, it is absolutely essential that fie
shouIdTJave"Tn8 mmft~nnrpIyJltoTett with musical
material, and should navg
INTBODUCTION.
^
the intellectual side. He must, first of all, have
material for his imagination to deal with, must
acquire musical experience. Accordingly, we find
that all the great masters of composition have
diligently studied the works of their predecessors
and have missed no opportunities to hear the best
music. They have studied them also from the
intellectual and technical side ; have become mas-
ters of the technic of composition. They have
realized that no matter what ideas a composer
may have, he can only become an artist by acquir-
ing the power to express them. This they have
done by infinite painstaking, and so much have
they been impressed with the necessity of this,
that the greatest of them have repeatedly said, in
one form or other, that genius is only the art of
taking pains !
But this is not enough. Given an original,
creative mind, with acute musical perceptions,
ample intellectual and technical attainments and
Need of ttudy.
The moral
element.
XIV
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
INTRODUCTION.
Principles of
criticism.
a clear comprehension of the relation of music to
feeling, it still remains for him to decide what
kind of emotion he will choose to embody in music.
He may choose noble or ignoble subjects ; he may,
if he chooses, treat noble subjects in an ignoble
way. This has often been done by composers of
music for religious worship and for the drama.
Nor can he escape moral choices even in purely
instrumental music. He may make his music as
high in aim as the Beethoven fifth symphony, or
as unheroic, not to say frivolous and base, as an
Offenbach waltz. This will depend on his own
moral character. Base men cannot write great
music, nor heroic men ignoble music; though
even weak men may have their heroic moments,
and noble men their weak ones. But, other
things being equal, the rank of a composer will
depend on the nobility of his feeling and of his
moral purpose. The relative rank of his works
will depend on the degree in which they embody
the noblest and best that is in* him.
The principles above set forth are those which
will determine the judgments of composers and
their works which are to follow in this book. It
will seek to trace the development of the different
factors in musical production and in musical
enjoyment at different times and in different
nations. It will seek to show how and why the
course of musical history became what it was.
This the author regards as of even more import-
ance than an authentic record of historical facts.
INTRODUCTION.
xv
5
QUESTIONS.
How do we seek to gain an insight into the nature of
music ?
What natural impulses of human nature produced
primitive music? Give illustrations.
What are the primitive elements of music?
Give the probable origin of primitive instruments.
How did men come to a more discriminating percep-
tion of the difference in quality of tone ?
Give an account of the intellectual element in music.
How many kinds of enjoyment are derivable from
music ?
On what does the rank of a composer depend ?
Why do even gifted composers need study and experi-
ence?
What relation has music to the moral nature of man ?
INTBODXJCTION.
*i*^A/*^f^^ ^/W
I.— Chinese Instruments. The " Che" " or " Wonderful," a 25-stringed
instrument, and the " Po-son," a small drum.
II.— The earliest Egyptian Harp.
(XVI)
III. — Greek Instruments, (a) Plectrum, (b) Kithara, (c) Psaltery or
long lyre, (d) Chelys, a small lyre.
IV.— Greek Instruments, (a) and (c), Varieties of the Lyre.
(b) Trigonon.
(XVII)
LESSON I.
ORIENTAL AND ANCIENT MUSIC.
Music, as we know it, in .its developed form
as a line art, belongs to the jChristian Era,ltncl
practically, to tEeTast four centuries. It is the
latest born of the family of fine arts, and is
that one of them which specially corresponds
to the needs of emotional expression as devel-
oped by Christianity.
Nevertheless, music in its more elementary
forms, and even in a considerable degree of
development, as regards melody, has existed for
thousands of years, among nations and races
the most various and diverse. Harmony, coun-
ter-point, form and instrumentation's we know
them, are modern and occidental. But the most
ancient of Oriental civilizations, in China, in
India, in Persia, in Egypt and especially in
Greece, used and prized melody, established
scales, investigated acoustics, and had, possi-
bly, more knowledge of harmony and of instru-
mental combinations than we have yet been
able to discover. (See illustration I.)
In all ancient nations music was believed to
be of divine origin and in that stage of mental
development when mythologies invariably arise
there was always a mythology connected with
the art of music. In India the gift of music
was ascribed to BRAHMA. To his son, NARED,
was ascribed the invention of the Vina, an in-
strument of the guitar type. In Egypt the
invention of the lyre was ascribed to the god
THAUT, who, walking one day by the Nile, took
up a tortoise shell to which some dried mem-
branes still adhered, accidentally set them in
1
Music a recent
art.
3Telody ohter
than harmony.
This chapter
preceding
ancient
mythobtpy
concerning
music.
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
JWraculr/ug
l>owers
fttfi'ibuted to
vibration and thus produced musical tones. In
Greece a similar legend attached to HERMES.
Other similar examples might be cited from
China and elsewhere. (See illustrations II, III
and IV.)
Miraculous powers were attributed to music
and musicians. Some of the ancient sacred
songs in India produced rain ; some produced
darkness. Others no mortal might sing under
penalty of destruction by fire from heaven.
Others when sung forced men, animals and in-
animate objects to obey the will of the singer.
In Greece, ORPHEUS and AMPHION were followed
by trees and by wild animals which lost their
ferocity when they heard their songs. In Judea,
the walls of Jericho fell at the sound of the
priests' trumpets. These legends serve to show
how great was the impression produced on the
minds, feelings and imaginations of the ancients
by such music as they had.
In all the pre-Christian civilizations music
was regarded as an elevating exercise of the
feelings, intellect and imagination, and an im-
portant element of culture. Theorists occupied
themselves with the science of music, with the
determination of intervals, the construction of
scales and the building of melodies. Curiously
similar results, as regards scales, were arrived
at by nations widely remote from each other in
distance, blood, language, religion and customs.
The Chinese and the Indians seem to have had
the same pentatonic (five-toned) scale which is
still to be found in the ancient music of the
Celtic nations, such as the Irish and Scotch. It
is simply our major diatonic scale with the
fourth and seventh omitted. These intervals
were supplied later, and this scale, which we
call " natural," was found equally satisfactory
Music
regarded as
elevating.
Ancient
five-toned
scales.
ORIENTAL AND ANCIENT MUSIC.
by Oriental barbarians whose ideas and feelings
are incomprehensible to us. But the musical
results they otained from it, especially in China,
are such as do not in the least appeal to our
musical sympathies. In fact they often outrage
our musical susceptibilities, as our music does
theirs. Some of the ancient nations also had a
five-toned under-scale afterwards developed into
:an eight-toned one. This last was the reciprocal
of the major or over-scale, having the same
order of tones and semi-tones going down that
the over-scale has going up. Examples :
Five-toned over-scale :
Five-toned under-scale: CZ2— ^ ^
In both these pentatonic scales the fourth
and seventh, i. e., the intervals which give the
semitones or " leading-note " progressions are
left out and were afterwards supplied.
All these ancient nations had stringed instru-
ments, wind instruments of wood and of metal
and instruments of percussion. In China, the
latter class predominates. To India we proba-
bly owe the invention of stringed instruments
played with a bow. Egypt and Greece made
common use of stringed instruments plucked
with the fingers or with a plectrum, such as the
lyre and the harp, the percursors of our modern
harpsichord and piano-forte.
The splendid intellectual civilization of the
Greeks included an elaborate musical system.
The beginnings of Greek musical theory were
probably derived from Egypt, but of the Egyp-
tian theory of music we know nothing and of
its practice very little. Of the Greek system
Over-scale
and
Under-scale.
Different
families of
instruments.
The Greek
musical
system.
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
The
Mnuftonft
we are now able to give a, tolerably complete
account. The latest researches have profoundly
modified, not to say revolutionized the ideas of
it which have been current in Christendom since
the first attempts to revive the Greek scales as
a basis for Christian melody about the end of
the fifth century of our era. Those attempts
resulted in a serious misapprehension of the
facts of Greek theory and practice, and the
blunders of the early Christian theorists resulted
finally in the adoption and perpetuation in our
system of a so-called " minor " scale vastly in-
ferior in naturalness and in rationality to the
Greek scale from which it was perverted. As
a consequence, our present minor scale is a
clumsy and confused substitute for what might
have been as clear and satisfactory a scale as our
present " major " one. On this account Greek
musical theory has a special interest for us.
In brief, the Greek musical system had for
its fundamental unit the tetrachord, or series of
four tones. The three intervals separating these
four tones consisted invariably of two tones and
one semitone. The tetrachord was named ac-
cording to the position of the semitone. When
the semitone came between the first tone and
the second (going downward), the tetrachord
was called Lydian. When it was between the
second ,and the third, it was called Phrygian.
When it was between the third and fourth, it
was called Dorian. There were three different
octave-species," modes "or scales, as we should
call them, corresponding to these, made by con-
joining two tetrachords of the same kind sepa-
rated by a tone. They seem to have been all
written and thought downward, not upward, as
we think our scales. Expressed in modern
notation they would be as follows :
ORIENTLAL AND ANCIENT MUSIC.
1. Lydian Scale
2. Phrygian Scale :
3. Dorian Scale :
1st tetrachord. 2d tetrachord.
1st tetrachord. 2d tetrachord.
1st tetrachord. 2d tetrachord.
The Indian corresponds to our modern major
scale thought downward. The Dorian is the
exact reciprocal in under intervals of our major
scale in over intervals, the semitones coming
between the third and fourth and seventh and
eighth, giving each tetrachord a descending
leading-note, as each tetrachord of our major
scale has an ascending leading-note. The Dorian
scale was the favorite one of the Greeks, owing,
doubtless, to this peculiarity ; for the semitone
between the seventh and eighth, seems to be a
natural demand of the human ear and mind. The
Lydian scale they did not like so well, probably
because they thought it downward and not up-
ivard, thus missing the peculiarly satisfactory
characteristic of the upward leading-tone.
When, after the lapse of about four centuries,
there began to be felt a desire to base the music
of the Christian church on scientific principles
and to cultivate music in a scientific way, the
natural recourse was to the Greek system, for
that was the only culture-music yet developed
in the world. But the Greek civilization had
then perished, Greek scholarship was unknown
The " modes,
"octave-
or scale*.
Greek scales
thought down-
ward.
Attempts to
base Christian
music on that
of the Greeks.
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
in Christendom, and the attempt to revive the
Greek scales resulted in a complete misappre-
hension of the way the Greeks thought their
music. Bishop Ambrose, of Milan, did indeed
get hold of the Greek scales, but he inverted
them, thought them upward instead of down-
ward, and his mistake was perpetuated in
Christian music. The error was serviceable in
that it gave us the real natural way of thinking
the major scale, which finally became the pre-
dominant scale of European music. But it did
harm in that it inverted the natural order of
^e Dorian scale and prevented any true per-
ception of its real character. That scale, begun
on its fifth (A) and thought upward, thus.
The
" complete
system"
<tf the Greeks.
I
•nr
^
eventually became our present so-called "minor"
scale. Thought as the Greeks thought it, there
is no propriety whatever in calling it a "minor"
scale ; it is an wnder-scale, the true reciprocal
of the ouer-scale,which we, with equal infelicity,
call "major." The revival of the under-scale
with its characteristic melodic and harmonic
possibilities is greatly to be desired as an en-
richment of our musical resources.
In later times the Greeks had what they called
a " complete musical system ; " a scale of two
octaves, made up of five Dorian tetrachords not
separated by a tone as they were in the octave-
species, but overlapping and with a final added
tone, thus :
The Greek " Complete Musical System.''1
1st tetrachord. 3d tetrachord. 5th tetrachord.
2d tetrachord. 4th tetrachord.
Added
final
note.
ORIENTAL AND ANCIENT MUSIC.
The final A seems to have been added merely
to complete the two octaves. Finally, this
"complete system" was transposed, without
change of the order of intervals, to each of the
twelve semitones of the octave, making twelve
different " modes," or, as we should say," keys."
Each of these modes had a special name. Of
these, five, namely, those beginning on D, D&,
E, F and F 8, were regarded as principal and the
others as subordinate. Each principal mode
had two subordinate ones, one beginning on the
fourth below and one beginning on the fourth
above. Those beginning on the under-fourth
were designated by the term " hypo," which
means "under" and those beginning on the
fourth above were designated by the term
"hyper," which means "over," thus:
Scheme of the Greek Modes.
A, Hypo-Dorian. D, Dorian. G, Hyper-Dorian.
AJ, Hypo-Ionian. DJ, Ionian.
B, Hypo-Phrvgian. E,
C, Hypo-Aeolian. F,
CJ, Hypo-Lydian. FJ, Lydian,
Observe that some of these are duplicates.
Observe, also, that whereas the Dorian "Octave-
species " began on E, the " complete system "
which began on E was called Phrygian. These
names were confused by the mediaeval theorists,
who applied to the scale E-F-G-A-B-C-D-E
the name " Phrygian Mode." So that they com-
mitted at least two blunders; they thought this
under-scale, the Greek " Dorian octave-species"
upward instead of downward, as the Greeks
thought it, and they applied to it the name
which the Greeks gave only to their " complete
system " beginning on the same tone. The}'
blundered similarly with reference to all the
other scales they adopted from the Greeks, so
G|, Hyper-Ionian.
Phrygian. A, Hyper-Phrygian.
Aeolian. Bb, Hyper-Aeolian.
B, Hyper-Lydian.
Its
transpositions.
Confusion of
mediceval
nomenclature.
LESSORS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
.'
4
that Greek musical theory, instead of being an
enlightening element in our modern music, as
it might have been, became a misleading and
confusing one. The effects of this early and
long continued misunderstanding of Greek
musical ideas have been for centuries firmly
embedded in our musical system and are now
easily recognizable in our confused treatment
of the " minor " scale. It will probably be a
good while before we learn to treat the " minor "
scale and the u minor " chord in a rational way.
For a lucid presentation of this subject see
" The Nature of Harmony," by Dr. Hugo Rie-
mann, translated by the present writer and
published by the publisher of this history.
QUESTIONS.
What did the ancients do in music?
What did they not do, so far as we know ?
What origin did they assign to music ?
What effects were attributed to it in their mythologies ?
Give examples.
What two five-toned scales were used by the ancient
Chinese and East Indians?
What modern races have had one or both of these scales?
Into what two eight-toned scales were these afterwards
developed ?
What kind of instruments did the ancients use?
Whence did the Greeks probably get their music?
Give a brief account of the Greek theory of music.
What lay at the basis of their system?
Describe the difference between their " octave-species ','
and their " complete system."
Which "octave- species" or scale was their favorite ?
How did this scale become our modern "minor" scale?
What effect did the misapprehension of Greek ideas
produce on Christian music?
In what respects did the early Christian and mediaeval
j theorists misunderstand the Greek musical theory which
' they sought to revive?
LESSON II.
THE FIRST TEN CENTURIES OF CHRISTIAN MUSIC.
THEhistory of music practically begins jvith
the Christian era. There hacTbeen music, of one
sort or anotKer, from a very early period, and
some nations, as the Greeks, for example, had a
very elaborate theoretical and practical musical
system. But what wasreallyvaluable in their
system was not madejyailable^ in modern niusic.
With the advent ^f the~TJhnstian era, music
had to begin anew, almost from the foundation.
The beginnings of Christianity were surrounded
toy Greek influences. Begun and propagated by
Hebrews, it soon spread among the Greek popu-
lations which enclosed Judea on all sides, and
Greek churches were speedily organized. Before
the death of the immediate disciples and followers
of Jesus, numerous Greek congregations called
themselves by his name, professed his doctrines,
worshiped on the first day of the week, broke
tread and drank wine in remembrance of him,
and sang hymns in divine service. Thus began
a new era which was to supplant the ancient civili-
zation and the ancient worship. The central
element in the new faith and worship, as com-
pared with the paganism OfTDlTGrreeks. ,Was a
pure morality Some of the Greek religious rites,
in {He ceremonial part of which vocal and instru-
mental music played a prominent part, were
shockingly immoral. The worship of Bacchus
and of Aphrodite (Venus) consisted principally
in unbridled sensual indulgence. To these licen-
tious orgies, universal among pagan Greeks, all
9
LFSSUN II.
Beginning
anew.
Necessity
of it.
10
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LISBON II.
Character
of early
Ctirittian
Hutic.
the resources of musical art and science as then-
known contributed their fascination and power
of emotional excitement. Bands of frenzied and
half-intoxicated revelers danced and paraded to
the sound of flutes and other instruments, and
sang Bacchanalian and erotic songs. It was no
wonder that, considering the associations inevitably
connected with the popular music of the time, the
Christian teachers and elders should have pro-
claimed that " no pure Christian maiden ought
even to know the sound of a flute." Those who
celebrated the pagan worship were as far as possi-
ble from purity; and this class included nearly
or quite the whole Greek population ; so that
Christian worship, accepting the ideals of its
founder, seeking purity and holiness, not only
in act, but in word and thought, had to break
finally and completely with heathen ideas, prac-
tices and associations. For the time, the music of
the Christian churches must be wholly dissociated
from all music to which the Greek proselyte had
been accustomed, unless, indeed, as may have
been the case, they perhaps retained some of the
more dignified and reverential strains used in the
worship of Apollo and of Diana. Clement of Alex-
andria, almost two hundred years after Christ,
even forbade his congregation to use the chromatic
mode in their singing during the church service,
and there seems to have been for a long time a
constant struggle to eradicate pagan feelings, and
the music with which they had been associated.
Of the real character of Christian music, and
of its progress for centuries, we know very little.
That the disciples of Jesus were accustomed to
sing hymns in their own religious meetings, we
gather from such casual remarks as that of the
evangelist in his account of the Last Supper,
THE FIRST TEN CENTURIES.
11
" And they sang a hymn and went out." Doubt-
less the melodies and hymns they had used in
worship from childhood continued to be used in
the new church services, and it seems likely that
the apostles who first preached the Gospel to the
Gentiles introduced the same familiar music into
the worshiping assemblies of their Greek prose-
lytes. There is every reason to believe that this
music was purely monophonic ; that is, it consisted
of a single melody or voice-part, without any
accompaniment, either of harmony or of instru-
ments.
It lay in the conditions of the time that progress
in music should be slow. Little or no attention
could be given to it, or to the cultivation of any art
or science, except that of Theology. The church
had to suffer persecution. The zeal of its preach-
ers found ample room for its full expression in
making converts, in establishing churches, in con-
firming the faithful, who were often called on to
endure martyrdom, in answering the numerous
doctrinal questions which the acute Greek intellect
inevitably raised, in defining clearly to their own
minds their own theological belief. The first
centuries of the church were full of theological
disputes, concerning the nature and relations of
God, of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. These
disputes were in the highest degree acrimonious.
Parties were formed, headed by leaders of oppos-
ing views ; and party spirit led not only to virulent
abuse and blows, but to massacres in the streets
and even in the sacred precincts of the churches.
The professed followers of the meek and lowly
Jesus butchered one another for differences of
opinion on the most recondite and incomprehen-
sible points of metaphysical speculation. No
wonder that they could give no time or thought
LESSON II.
Why progrest
WHS slow.
12
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
Pope Sylvester,
314 A.D.,
etldblifhi's
singing schools.
to the development and improvement of church
music.
But as church services went on, and church
organization and ritual grew more elaborate, it
was inevitable that, sooner or later, the time
must come when imperfect music would cease
cce-lo-rumlau - -'da-t* .Da-ma
FIGURE 1.
TT-*
./
I'O-'PU * " •• * ^a K1S ------ » US
FIGURE 2.
to be tolerated, and when attention would be
given, not only to improvement in singing, but
to the increase of musical intelligence. In the
early part of the fourth century, Pope Sylvester
started singing schools, the first of which we have
any record in the Christian era. By that time
certain musical formulae had become pretty well
THE FIRST TEN CENTURIES.
13
established, as appropriate to the different feasts
and fasts of the church, and these singing schools
had for their main object the preservation of these
established chants. They had to be taught by
rote and handed down by tradition, for the musi-
cal notation of the time was extremely inadequate.
There were no means whatever for indicating the
length of tones, and the staff, our present means of
representing pitch, was not invented until almost
seven hundred years afterward. The only means
of indicating musical tones for singers were the
so-called " Neurase," of which Figs. 1, 2 and 4 are
illustrations. They were probably developed out of
the Greek accents and were written over the words
of the hymns. These singing schools were the first
sign of growth in the musical life of the church.
One effect of them was a strong tendency to con-
fine the singing in the church to those who had been
trained in them and to discourage congregational
singing. The latter was actually forbidden by the
Council of Laodicea, held 367 A. D. This coun-
cil ordained that nobody should sing in church
except the choir singers appointed for that pur-
pose and assembled in their own particular place.
All this was, of course, in the direction of making
music a matter of culture.
So far as theory is concerned, the first recorded
evidences of progress in the Church is the selection
of four of the Greek octave-modes by Bishop Am-
brose, of Milan, and the exclusion of music based
on any of the others.
These were the four, beginning on D, E, F and
G, thus : —
LESSON II.
dotation of the
period.
Neumte.
Congregational
singing
forbidden 367
A.D.
Bishop
Ambrote, of
Milan, died'
397.
14
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON II.
Authentic
modes.
Plagal modes.
These were afterwards called the authentic modes.
These modes, or scales, were regarded as having
their lowest note as a tonic or point of repose.
Gregory the Great, who was Pope from 590 to
604, added to these four modes four others, run-
ning from the fourth below the tonic of the au-
thentic mode to the fifth above it. Each plagal
mode had the same tonic or point of repose as the
authentic mode from which it was derived. The
following scheme will make this clear : —
1st Gregorian tone, authenic, tonic D.
2d Gregorian tone, plagal, tonic D.
3d Gregorian tone, authentic, tonic E.
4th Gregorian tone, plagal, tonic E.
3.
5th Gregorian tone, authentic, tonic F.
6th Gregorian tone, plagal, tonic F.
5.
6.
THE FIRST TEN CENTURIES.
15
7th Gregorian tone, authentic, tonic G.
8th Gregorian tone, plagal, tonic G.
7.
8.
_2i:
I
"&~&
-<^-
It will be seen that the 8th tone differs from the
1st only in having a different tonic. These oc-
tave modes still serve as basis for some of the
music of the Roman Catholic Church.
Pope Gregory made some use of a letter notation,
but the neumse continued to be used four hundred
years longer. The Gregorian music became the
standard church music. It was fostered by Char-
lemagne, who caused it to be taught all over his
dominions.
For almost nine hundred years the Church owed
such musical progress as was made to southern
nations. The Italians, especially, cultivated sing-
ing with success, and taught it north of the Alps,
much less successfully, if we may trust contempo-
rary accounts. But with Hucbald, a monk of
the monastery of St. Amand, in northern France,
-came the first faint dawn of a new epoch, that of
polyphonic music. In this field the Teutonic race
was to take the lead and keep it for about six
hundred years. Hucbald began to experiment
with intervals, trying what would go well together.
He got no further than making his voices move in
consonant intervals, parallel fourths, fifths and
octaves, and barbarous enough these combinations
sound to modern ears. But his work, never-
theless, stands as one of the mile-stones of musical
progress. It pointed out a new direction for
musical activity and marked the beginning of a
new era.
LESSON II.
Polyphony
begins.
Hucbald died
930.
16
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON II.
HucbalcTs
notation.
Guido of
Arezzo,
about 1020.
But the time was not yet ripe for polyphony..
The first thing to be done was to improve the no-
tation so as to have some means of fixing absolute
pitch. Hucbald tried 'his hand at this. He used
various devices and finally hit on something ap-
proximating our present staff. But he utilized
only the spaces, not the lines. In his most improved
notation each space stood for a degree of the scale,
and he wrote each successive syllable in the space
which corresponded to the pitch in which it ought
to be sung.
T"
I"
T"
S"
T-
I'
ta
EcT
Isra\ /
ce\
etc.
vere/
Solution.
eto.
- oe TO - re
FIGURE 3.
About a hundred years after his time, this
problem was practically solved by Guido, a monk
of Arezzo. He invented a staff of four lines, and
used both lines and spaces to represent absolute
pitch, just as we do. Guido also improved the
method of teaching then in vogue, and impressed
himself so strongly on his time that many things
were ascribed to him long afterwards which really
ought to be credited to other men — men whose
very names have been lost.
In looking back over the ground we have passed,
what strikes us most forcibly is the extreme slow-
ness of progress.
THE FIRST TEN CENTURIES.
17
It took a thousand years to get to a point where
there was a notation fit to express pitch relations
with accuracy. This slowness of progress and
the fewness of landmarks doubtless grew out of
the unfavorable conditions of the time. It was
the time of the dark ages, and included that por-
tion of those ages when ignorance and barbarism
most prevailed. Imagine a time when nobody
FIGURE 4.
but the clergy could read or write ; when printing
did not exist ; when the roads were bad and un-
safe ; when neither life nor property was respected ;
when war and violence were the rule and peace the
rare exception. We can thus see, dimly at least,
how music, which of all the arts owes least, — noth-
ing, in fact, to visible models, — an art in which >
everything had to be invented, would lag behind
all other intellectual interests.
LESSON II.
18
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON II
t ft
QUESTIONS.
What kind of music did the early Christians have in
their worship ?
Why did not the Greek Christians use Greek music ?
How long was it before there was any attempt at cul-
tivating church music ?
What was the nature of these first attempts ?
By whose direction were they made ?
What was their effect on congregational singing?
Who established the authentic scales, and when ?
Who established the plagal scales, and when ?
Describe the authentic and plagal scales (or modes).
How long were these scales prevalent?
What can you say of the progress of music for 300
years after Gregory the Great ?
Who made the first recorded attempts at polyphonic
writing, and when ?
Describe these attempts.
Who invented the staff?
What was notation previous to that ?
LESSON III.
FROM GUIDO OF AREZZO TO THE BEGINNING OF
THE SUPREMACY OF THE NETHERLANDERS,
ABOUT 1000 TO 1400.
THE dates which mark the boundaries of this
period are only approximate, and are given in
round numbers for the sake of convenience. Many
of the dates of this and the succeeding epoch are
more or less uncertain, different historians giving
them differently. Guide's most important work
was done during the first half of the eleventh cen-
tury. He is said to have died in 1050. As we
have seen, his most valuable service to musical
progress was the invention of the staff, a means of
representing to the eye the pitch relations of tones
so perfect, that it remains in use to this day in
substantially the form given it by Guido, and there
is little or no reason to suppose that it will ever
be supplanted.
But there was still no way of indicating the
length of tones, and until this lack was supplied,
the germs of polyphonic writing, already in exist-
ence for a full century, could not possibly spring
into vigorous life.
For this great desideratum music had to wait
another two hundred years. The man who in-
vented notes by which to represent the length of
tones to the eye was Franco, of Cologne. At first
he had only two kinds of notes, a long one (Longa
F) and a short one (Brevis •), the latter half as
long as the former. The two combined made triple
time, and he used both the form — »•-' (Trochee)
and ^ -7- (Iambus). Double time was not used
19
LESSON III.
Notes indicating
length.
Franco, of
Cologne, about
1200.
20
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON III.
Defects of
Franco's
notation.
until a later period, and was then considered less
perfect than triple time. Franco afterward added
a note twice as long as the Longa, the Maxima
( I) , and one half as long as a Brevis, the Semi-
brevis (*). He also used rests corresponding
to their lengths, and thus mensural music be-
came possible.
The worst of it was that Franco unfortunately
did not give his long and short notes a constant
and uniform value, as we might naturally suppose
he would have done. He made the lengths of his
notes depend partly on their position in relation
to each other. Thus a Longa alone counted as a
whole measure of triple time; but if a Brevis
followed it, the two together only filled a measure ;
if two Breves followed it, then the Longa counted
as a measure (triple time) and the two Breves as
another measure, the second Brevis being twice as
long as the first. Thus, for example, the follow-
ing passage F1 • • P • • would read thus in
modern notation: —
&£* — —
f
Eas^
$ /51
& •
&
-»~\
All this confusion could be obviated only by
separating the measures by bars or by some similar
device, and by giving each note a fixed and definite
length under all circumstances. But this was not
done for a long time after Franco.
Such as it was, however, this notation of Franco's
was so long a step in advance that it gave a great
impulse to musical development. Now that the
time relations of two voice-parts could be accu-
rately measured, even though the means were
clumsy, composers began zealously to write " Dis-
cant," as it was called, that is, to compose a second
GUIDO TO FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
21
voice to accompany the Gregorian Chant. The
latter was called the " canhis firmus" or " fixed
voice."
The two most remarkable names among the
composers who cultivated and improved the new Jean
mensural music were Marchettus, of Padua, near
the end of the thirteenth century, and Jean de
Muris, a Doctor of Theology in the University of
Paris, in the early part of the fourteenth century.
In the writings of these two theorists occur for the
first time the prohibition against parallel fifths
and octaves, which has been an accepted doctrine
of musical theory ever since. The Parisian Doctor
was the first writer to use the word "Counter-
point," instead of " Discant," a word derived from
" punctum contra punctum," point against point,
or, as we should say, note against note.
Philip of Vitry is also a name of nearly as great
importance as these two. These men, and many
others, diligently practiced the infant art of poly-
phonic writing, and prepared the way for the
Netherland composers of the next epoch. But
all or most of their activity was in the domain of
church music. We must now consider the secular
music of the same epoch.
LESSON in.
about 130°-
The strongest impulse toward the production of
secular music during this epoch came from the
Crusades. From the end of the eleventh till the
end of the thirteenth century the imagination of
Christendom was fired with fanatical zeal for the
recovery of the holy sepulchre from the hands of
the infidel. Fighting was the main business of
men. Scientific investigation there was none.
Europe was in the dark ages ; men's impulses were
easily turned into the channels of fanaticism ; sal-
vation and forgiveness were preached as the reward
of all who undertook the holy task of disposses-
Influence of
the Crusades,
about 1100 to
1300.
22
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON III.
The
Troubadours.
slug the. Saracen inhabitants of Palestine. The
result was that for two hundred years swarms of
men, of all ranks of society, from all Christian
countries, poured into Asia Minor, and there came
into violent collision with a race more highly de-
veloped and a civilization more advanced than
their own. Their ideas were as much jostled by
this encounter as were their bodies ; the mental
shock was as great as the physical. Thousands
who returned brought home with them new ideas,
new and strange objects, and among them new
musical instruments. The lute and the guitar
had hitherto been unknown in Europe. The Sar-
acens used also kettle-drums and other drums in
war, and these were new to the Christian soldiers.
The introduction of these instruments into Euro-
pean music modified it very greatly, and, of course,
stimulated interest in secular music, since they
were not adapted for the purposes of divine wor-
ship. The Arab songs, too, must have had their
effect on the Crusaders. Then the conditions were
not only stimulating to curiosity and to the secular
imagination, but they must have had a strong effect
on the emotional life. Absence from home and
friends, home-sickness, disease, wounds, hardships
of all sorts, strange surroundings, — all these tended
to excite and to deepen the social feelings. And
these feelings soon found expression in a vast
quantity of secular music, in a style hitherto un-
known in Christendom. With the rise of chivalry
came also the music of chivalry, love-songs ac-
companied by the lute.
The most favorable soil for the development of
this sentimental style of secular music was south-
ern France, especially Provence. Here the " gay
science," as it wag called, found its natural home,
under sunny skies and among a lively, pleasure-
GUIDO TO FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
loving people. It was cultivated by the highest
nobility, such as Count Willam, of Poitiers (1087-
1127) and King Thibaut, of Navarre (1201-1254).
These noblemen, however, only invented their
songs, and hence were called Troubadours or
Trouv£res (inventors). The songs were sung and
accompanied by assistants called Minstrels (from
the same Latin root as our " Minister," a servant
or helper). These minstrels were always of a
lower social rank than the Troubadours. They
were not only dependents of great houses, but were
ranked with clowns and tumblers, being kept, like
them, for the amusement of their noble patrons.
This is proved by the name " Jongleurs," applied
to them (from the Latin "Joculator," joker), and
by at least one old picture, in which a man stand-
ing on his hands is represented among the players.
Toward the end of the thirteenth century, we
find an exceptional Troubadour, who not only in-
vented songs, but sang and played them himself.
This was Adam de la Sale, a composer thoroughly
familiar with the best musical knowledge of his
time and one of the first writers of four-part songs.
He also wrote a little operetta called " Robin and
Marion," the earliest specimen of comic opera
known.
Although Provence was the natural home of the
love-song as developed by the Troubadours, they
were not the only ones affected by the influences
which called it into existence. In Germany the
same tendencies showed themselves about the same
time, and their manifestation differed from those
of Provence only as determined by the differences
of climate and of race characteristics. The Ger-
man knights and noblemen, however, took pride
in singing and playing their own songs instead of
leaving the interpretation of them to dependents.
LKBSON III.
Adam de la
Hale.
The
Minnesingers.
24
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON III.
The
MtMertinrjer.
They differed from the Troubadours also in that
they regarded the music as subordinate to the
words. They treated the poem as primary and
the music as serving the purpose of intensifying
the sentiment of it ; whereas the Troubadours
made the music primary and the words secondary.
The two styles, therefore, often differed greatly.
The Troubadours, as the Italian opera composers
did later, laid prime stress on the invention of
tuneful melodies, whether they exactly fitted the
words or not. The Minnesingers made it their first
aim to interpret the feeling of the text, whether
their melodies were sensuously beautiful or not,
often using a recitative style. These two opposite
tendencies have distinguished the Northern from
the Southern nations ever since.
The Minnesingers played their own very simple
accompaniments, often on small harps of triangular
shape. They were not always noblemen. A few
names have come down to us, such as Wolfram
von Eschenbach, Walther von der Vogelweide and
others who were engaged in the " Ssengerkrieg (con-
test of singers) at the Wartburg," in 1207. Wag-
ner has immortalized them in his " Tannhiiuser."
Beside the secular music thus cultivated .by the
nobility, there was a very strong movement of a
similar sort among the mechanics and tradesmen
of the German cities. The impulse to this move-
ment seems to have come from the Minnesingers.
The breasts of the worthy German burghers were
fired with the same enthusiasm and guided by the
same principles as those which inspired their high-
bred compatriots. They formed a guild called
" Die Meistersinger " (The Master Singers) for the
purpose of cultivating music and poetry. They
were not merely interpreters of other men's pro-
ductions, but were themselves creators of both
OUIDO TO FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
25
words and music. They had different degrees of
'merit in the order, passing from each degree to the
•next higher by competitive examination. Their
productions are said to have been rather common-
place and of no lasting value ; but the love of art,
.such as it was, had such vitality among them that
their organization lived from the thirteenth cen-
tury into the nineteenth. The last society of the
.guild was dissolved in 1839. It is no small matter
that so much enthusiasm for ideal aims should have
burned so long in the minds of men whose lives
were necessarily devoted, for the most part, to ma-
terial interests. It shows the German middle-class
character of that dark time in an admirable light.
The most noted of the Meistersingers was Hans
Sachs, 1495-1576.
Beside the consciously intentional efforts at good
music-making above enumerated, there was going
on at the same time a form of spontaneous musical
production of no small importance. This was the
"" Volkslied," Folk-song, or popular song, of which
there are numerous examples in Germany and
•elsewhere. These songs sprung up among the
common people, no one song, perhaps, being pro-
duced entirely by any one man. They were re-
peated by one and another as they were heard. A
•beautiful strain invented by one might be repeated
by another, who would add another to it ; and so
they were passed on and handed down from gen-
eration to generation. Of course, only strains
which pleased many were able to live in this way,
and so all folk-songs, of whatever nation, have for
their prime characteristic, naive, spontaneous
beauty. They are products, not of calculation or
scientific intelligence, but of the original creative
power of men, the sense of beauty being the de-
termining factor.
LESSON III.
The Folk-song.
28
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON III.
QUESTIONS.
After Guido had invented the staff, what new improve-
ment in notation was most needed ?
Who made it?
Describe the notes he used.
Explain the remaining deficiencies of Franco's nota-
tion.
How were they finally obviated ?
Define "Discant," "Cantus Firmus."
Name three other great musicians of the 13th and
14th centuries.
Who first used the term Counterpoint ?
What rules were permanently fixed by these men ?
When were the Crusades ?
How did they affect the minds and feelings of those
who took part in them?
How did these mental and emotional changes affect
musical development in Europe ?
What instruments did the Crusaders get from the
Saracens ?
What do you know of the Troubadours ?
What does the name mean ?
Name some of them.
How did they differ from the Minnesingers ?
How did the music of the two differ in principle ?
What do you know of the Meistersinger ?
Who was the most distinguished of them ?
What do you know of the characteristics of the Folk-
song?
*to 4A&+A**, Ifa****..
+f, ** **"
f '
LESSON IV. LESSON IV.
THE EPOCH OF THE NETHERLANDER,
ABOUT 1400 TO 1600.
WITH the beginning of the fifteenth century
came a new and very important epoch in the history
of music — the epoch of the development and cul-
tivation of the science and art of polyphony. It
is commonly called the epoch of the Netherlanders,
because Netherland composers took the most prom-
inent part in the movement, and were the most
prominent figures in the musical world for more
than a hundred and fifty years. After that time,
Italians and others, who had learned of them,
shared their supremacy, and with the death of
Orlandus Lassus, in 1595, they disappear from the
pages of history.
As we have already seen, the ground had been
prepared for them by the invention and gradual
improvement of an adequate system of notation,
and by numerous composers, who had tried their ™<e £ b«
hand at " discant." Harmonic knowledge had
advanced far enough to forbid parallel fifths and
octaves ; and " counterpoint," as discant was now
called, was both written and improvised with much
fluency. The task now before the musical world
was to develop and master musical materials on
the intellectual side. The emotional and imagina-
tive elements had to wait until the technic of
composition had been mastered and had become
thoroughly familiar. Those who now entered
upon this task were explorers, in spite of all that
had been done since Hucbald, that is to say, in the
past five hundred years. The contrapuntal forms
27
What had
already been
28
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON IV.
1380-1430. (?)
Ockenheim,
1430-1513.
were very incomplete ; the perception of harmony
was crude ; the means of v securing unity, variety,
symmetry, contrast, climax, the essential elements
of a beautiful work of art, were undeveloped ;
probably these requirements themselves were but
very imperfectly apprehended. The perception
of these was to grow gradually all through this
epoch of the development of polyphony. Remem-
ber that from 1400 up to the very last decade of
the sixteenth century, all culture music was poly-
phonic.
The first distinguished Netherland composer was
William Dufay, a Belgian. His contrapuntal
masses are the oldest of the kind preserved in
the archives of the papel Chapel at Rome, where
he was a tenor singer. Both in the progression of
his voices and in the treatment of his harmonies
he is said to have made marked advances on his
predecessors, and paved the way for a sharpened
perception of what is natural and fitting, in those
who were to come after him. He is generally
credited with the invention of Canon, a form of
strict imitation in which a melody is accompanied
by an exact repetition of itself at the interval of
an octave, fourth, fifth or some other interval,
the imitative melody beginning some time after
the original. These canons were then called
fugues (Latin, fuga, a flight), because one voice
pursued the other. The term " fugue " is now
applied to a more elaborate style of composition.
Dufay's sense of rhythm and of harmony was a
long way behind what we are now accustomed
to, of course. He was a pioneer, but he was
a musician of great ability, so much so that his
name is used to characterize the first period of the
epoch of the Netherlander.
The name of Johannes Ockenheim stands as
EPOCH OF THE NETHERLANDERS.
29
representative of the second period of this great
epoch. He built on the foundation laid by Dufay.
His canons are more elaborate. Dufay had writ-
ten them only in the unison and octave ; Ocken-
heim wrote them also in the fourth and fifth, and
is also credited with the invention of double coun-
terpoint. He wrote a motette in thirty-six voice
parts. It is believed that only six, or perhaps
nine, of these were written out, the others being
canonic imitations, all being finally sung together.
He is said to show a good deal of natural musical
perception ; but his works are mainly the product
of calculation. It was his task as well as that of
other composers in his epoch to develop contra-
puntal technic. This service they rendered most
thoroughly and effectually. The intellectual
world has ever since reaped the benefit of their
long-continued, severe intellectual exertion, a men-
tal activity which changed the whole aspect of
musical history.
Although Josquin de Pr£s was born not many
years later than Ockenheim, he shows marked ad-
vances on the latter's work in the direction of emo-
tional expression. He was perhaps not greatly
superior to Ockenheim on the merely intellectual
and technical side, although he carried the art of
counterpoint so far that it may fairly be said to have
culminated in his work. But he seems to have
had a more powerful imagination and stronger
musical feeling, and his mastery of his materials
and of all technical resources was such that he
could give his imagination freer play than could
any of his predecessors or contemporaries. This
freedom and mastery of his art was well expressed
by Luther, a great admirer of his/ who said of him :
" Josquin is a master of the notes ; they have to
do as he pleases ; other composers have to do as
LESSOS IV-
1440-1521.
30
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON IV.
Prevalent
disregard
of the wordg.
they please." In short, Josquin seems to have
been a genuine creative genius, who not only mas-
tered easily all that was then known of the art
and science of music, but who had also an inborn
perception of musical relations which others either
could not see or discovered only by the most la-
borious and painful search. This made his creative
activity in the invention of melodies and of compli-
cated counterpoint " as free as the song of a finch,"
as Luther elsewhere expresses it. It is probable,
however, that, with all his genius, there was a
good deal of the pedantry of the time in his work.
A man who could take the trouble to set the pedi-
gree of Christ to music on two different occasions
could hardly have been always impelled to compo-
sition by the forces of feeling and imagination.
No small part of his work must have been mechan-
ical and artificial.
It is thoroughly characteristic of the first three
periods of the Netherland epoch that no attention
whatever was paid to suiting the music to the
emotional character of the words. ' This indiffer-
ence to truthfulness of musical expression was
carried to the extreme of grotesqueness. In the
contrapuntal masses not only were secular mel-
odies employed as counter-subjects to the Gregorian
plain-song, but the words of these secular songs
were also retained and were interwoven with those
of the sacred office. And some of their songs
were anything but edifying, — drinking songs, love
songs of a decidedly unrefined character, and so
on ; so that while one set of singers was chanting
" Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi " (" Lamb
of God, who takest away the sins of the world "),
another set would be singing, in the vernacular,
songs fit only for convivial gatherings of pleasure
seekers, and coarse pleasure seekers at that!
EPOCH OF THE NETHERLANDERS.
31
LB«»ON iv.
JotquMi
advance in
Besides this, these masses were named from the
secular songs that were most prominent in them.
There was one very popular song called " L' hom-
me arme" " (The armed man), which was used, text
and all, over and over again by different composers.
.Nobody seemed to think of anything profane in
" The Mass of the Armed Man," or "The Mass of
the Red Noses " ! As Dr. Langhans has pointed
out in the fourth of his lectures on the history of
music, "this proceeding was closely analogous to
that of the painters of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, who painted themselves and their fami-
lies in their ordinary costumes, in the same group
with the Madonna and the Holy Child. They
seemed to have felt such things not as a profana-
tion of what was sacred, but as a sort of conse-
cration of the secular elements of the composition."
Josquin seems to have had a sufficiently strong
.feeling for the emotional element in music to see "t™nTof ^
the propriety of selecting secular melodies and
words as nearly allied as possible in sentiment to
the sacred words with which they were to be asso-
ciated. At least, he sometimes did this. With
him the special, peculiar work of the Netherlanders
may be said to culminate. Practically, the tech-
nic of polyphonic composition was complete,
within the limits of the tonalities of the mediaeval
scales. The work of Josquin's successors, up to
Ihe beginning of the eighteenth century, was to
apply this acquired musical material and musical
knowledge to the expression of feeling, both
sacred and secular.
The fourth great name among the Netherland
masters is Adrian Willaert (pron. Willart), the
founder of a music school in Venice which had a
very wide and deep influence on musical progress.
.He was director of music in St. Mark's, a large
32
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON IV.
Madrigals.
de Rare,
1516-1565;
Gioteffo
Zarlino,
1517-1590.
church with a gallery and an organ at each end,,
and numerous side galleries. Willaert conceived
the idea of making his complicated polyphonic
music more intelligible to his hearers by dividing
it between two choirs stationed at either end of the
church, in the two organ galleries. This experi-
ment was so marked a success that he carried it
further, stationing separate choirs in the different
galleries, until finally he had nine choirs, each of
four parts, thirty-six parts in all. Of course, this
arrangement made the music incalculably more
comprehensible than Ockenheim's mass in thirty-
six parts had been, given, as it was, under differ-
ent conditions, and went far in helping to concen-
trate attention on musical expression.
Willaert did not confine his creative activity to
church > music. His secular music, like his church
music, was polyphonic. He set secular songs for
five, six and seven voices, according to strict con-
trapuntal rules. These compositions were called
madrigals. They were the fashion in secular
music through a large part of the sixteenth cen-
tury and until they were supplanted by the air
and recitative, after the invention of the opera.
Constanzo Festa and Luca Marenzio were among
the greatest of madrigal writers. In England,
Morley, Kirbye, Dowland, Weelkes, Wilbye and
Benet accomplished much in this field.
Two pupils and successors of Willaert contrib-
uted very materially to the transformation of poly-
phony into expressive music. These were Cyprian
de Rare, a Netherlander by birth, and Gioseffo
Zarlino, an Italian, the first of his nation to
rival the Netherlander in their own field. De
Rore wrote a vast mass of Catholic church music
for St. Mark's and a large number of madrigals.
His most important service to musical progress
EPOCH OF THE NETHERLANDERS.
33
in the innovations to be found in his " Chromatic
Madrigals," published in 1544. Up to that time
madrigals had conformed their tonality to the
Gregorian scales, which formed the basis of church
music. But de Rore made a much freer use of
chromatic intervals than had been made before,
and thus greatly increased the expressive possi-
bilities of music.
Zarlino succeeded de Rore as the director of music
in St. Mark's Church, as de Rore succeeded Wil-
laert. He wrote a great deal of excellent music,
but his greatest fcontribution to musical progress
was in the domain of theory. He was the most
thorough and original writer of his time in har-
mony and acoustics, and his writings had a great
and far-reaching influence on musical intelligence.*
The last of the great Netherlander was Orlan-
dus Lassus. The best of his life's work was done
in Munich, where he was " capellmeister," or
director of church music. He was a genuine
creative genius, and much of his music retains its
interest and charm to the present day. He wrote,
of course, Catholic church music and a great
many madrigals. Some of his music, both sacred
and secular, has been republished in our own time,
and is now easily accessible.
Contemporary with Orlandus Lassus was a great
Italian composer, who, educated in the principles
of the Netherlander, surpassed them all, unless
we count Lassus as an exception, in point of the
mastery of polyphonic music as a means of emo-
tional expression. This was Pier Luigi Sante,
born at Palestrina, near Rome, and commonly
called by the name of his birthplace. He was
LESSON IV.
Orlandus
Latsus,
1520-1595.
* For an excellent Recount of some of his most important ideas, see
"The Nature of Harmony." by Dr. Hugo Riemann, translated by the
writer of the present work and published by Theo. Preeser, Philadelphia.
34
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON IV.
Council of
Trent, 1503.
27(e Misaa
Papse Marcelli.
educated at Rome by Claude Goudimel, a Nether-
land teacher and composer of great merit, who
founded the first public music school in Rome.
Palestrina was not only a perfect master of the
whole science and art of music as practiced in his
time, but was an original genius of a high order.
Palestrina's fame is, however, largely due to an
accident of history. The Council of Trent, in
March, 1563, discussed the abuses which had crept
into church music, such as the complicated char-
acter of the masses, which made them unintelligi-
ble, the use of secular songs in them, etc. The
assembled cardinals were fully alive to these evils,
for, now that polyphony was fully developed, peo-
ple had begun to feel the necessity of using music
as a means of emotional expression ; moreover, the
.success of the Lutheran movement in Germany
was attributed, in no small degree, to the popular
church music introduced by Luther, the emotional
effect of which was very different from that of the
polyphonic masses of the Catholic composers. The
council had almost decided to abolish all culture-
music from the Catholic Church, retaining only the
Gregorian chant. But wiser counsels prevailed.
It was suggested that at least one experiment
ought to be made to determine whether, after all,
the highest form of music known could not be
made to subserve the highest religious ends. Pales-
trina was commissioned to write some music, the
effect of which should decide the fate of Catholic
church music. He wrote three masses, one of
which, especially dedicated to the memory of his
patron, Pope Marcellus II, and hence called the
" Missa Papce Marcelli," may fairly be considered
not only the culmination of the polyphonic music
of this great epoch, as regards all the requirements
of an art-work, intellectual, emotional and imagin-
EPOCH OF THE NETHERLANDERS.
35
ative, but also as the culmination of Catholic
church music even up to the present time. No
modern writer has written any mass which so
embodies the most characteristic feelings of the
Roman liturgy.
The success of these masses was immediate, and
nothing more was said of returning to the bald
simplicity of the ancient Gregorian chant. They
were classical music in every sense of the word.
Their form was perfect, their content was noble ; the
form exactly fitted the content and the content ex-
actly filled the form. Their excellence was such
that they have exerted a powerful influence down
to the present time, and there are no signs of its
waning. Palestrina's death, therefore, marks not
only the culmination but the close of the first
great classical epoch. Among Palestrina's distin-
guished contemporaries may be mentioned Nanini,
Morales, Anton Gabrieli, Giovanni Gabrieli, Vit-
toria, Arcadeldt, Clement (" non Papa "), Waelrant
and Lajeune,
LESSON IV.
36
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON IV.
QUESTIONS.
What phase of musical progress characterized the
epoch of the Netherlanders ?
What proportion of these two centuries was taken up
with the development of the technic of polyphonic wri-
ting?
How much of it was applied to the use of polyphony
for emotional expression ?
Who was the first of the great Netherland composers ?'
Give dates.
What did he do?
What is a canon ?
Give name and dates of the second great Netherlander-
What advance did he make on Dufay ?
Who was the third Netherlander ?
What advance did he make?
What did Luther say of him ?
How did the early Netherland composers treat the
words to which they set their music ?
Tell what you know of their mixture of secular with
sacred words and music.
In which of them does a sense of the propriety of
suiting the music to the feeling of the words begin to
appear?
What do you know of Willaert?
Describe especially his attempts to render complicated
polyphony intelligible.
What form of secular music was prevalent in his time?
What do you know of de Rore and Zarlino ?
Who was the last of the great Netherlanders?
Tell what you know of him and of his great Italian
contemporary.
What is Palestrina's best-known work?
Why is it called " classical" ?
LESSON V.
THE RISE OF DRAMATIC MUSIC, 1600.
THE fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were a
time of great intellectual and spiritual activity in
Europe. The long night of the Dark Ages had
passed and the dawn of the new era had come.
Everywhere there was intellectual and spiritual
impulse, the thirst for knowledge, the craving for
mental freedom, the spirit of free inquiry. Men
chafed under the limitations imposed on them by
the scholastic philosophy, the prevalent outworn
theology, the current ideas of the time. This im-
pulse led to the Reformation in Germany, Eng-
land, Holland, Switzerland, and to similar move-
ments elsewhere. It led also to violent attempts,
on the part of those who held to the ideas here-
tofore dominant, to crush out the new ideas
and to suppress the forward movement of mind, —
to the establishment of the Inquisition, to bloody
persecutions, massacres, like that of St. Bartholo-
mew, the driving out of the Protestants from
France, the crushing of them in Spain and in Aus-
tria,— to civil wars, disorders and confusions, out
of all which, at length, Modern Europe was to
emerge.
.This great movement of mind was greatly as-
sisted by the invention of the art of Printing,
which began to exert a powerful influence about
the middle of the fifteenth century. Up to this
time few, except the clergy, were able to read or
write. Manuscripts were few and costly. But the
new art brought ideas within the reach of every-
body ; the desire to read and write soon became
37
LE880N
the ground
ar'
The art of
38
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON V.
Gunpowder at
a civilizing
agent.
general, and a new era of popular intelligence be-
gan. The common people began to feel within
themselves desires and impulses which they had
never felt so long as they had taken it for granted
that those who were their superiors in wealth and
in position must necessarily be their superiors in
intelligence also, and in the power which intelli-
gence brings. There was a great increase in self-
respect, in hope and faith in their own capacity
for improvement, and in their own future destiny,
on the part of men who had heretofore been hope-
less and helpless, the mere tools and servants of
powerful masters. Of course, the early results of
all this upward striving were social and political
disorders. The newly awakened hopes and desires of
the ignorant were often extravagant and unreason-
able. They had to learn wisdom and soberness
by the bitter experience of their own mistakes and
follies. And of course, too, those who felt that
their own vital interest lay in the preservation of
the ancient order opposed the new movement by
every means in their power.
In the political struggles resulting from the
irrepressible conflict of the new ideas with the old,
one of the most potent agencies in hastening the
downfall of the old feudal system and the tri-
umph of the new order was gunpowder. It may
strike us as strange, at first, that a mere mechan-
ically destructive agent should really contribute
to the triumph of ideas, and to mental and spiritual
progress. But we must remember that the most
determined efforts were made to crush the new
movement of mind by physical force; that the
champions of reaction had the wealth and most of
the world's physical power on their side, and that
the victory of the new over the old must have
come much later than it did if the invention of
THE RISE OF DRAMATIC MUSIC.
gunpowder had not greatly lessened the difference
between the weak and the strong as regards de-
structive and defensive power. Previous to this
invention, which began to be effective about the
same time as the art of printing, the feudal lords
and the authorities of the Church had matters
their own way. A robber baron, safely ensconced
in his impregnable castle, perched on an inacces-
sible rock, feared no one except, perhaps, his feu-
dal superior, or the Church, which could inflict on
him spiritual pains and penalties, even to the ex-
treme of everlasting torture in hell-fire. Com-
mon people he despised and trampled upon with
impunity. Clad in their coats of mail, he and his
comrades could easily subdue any number of
rudely armed peasants ; his castle was proof against
all possible attacks from them, and any effort at
resisting his insupportable tyranny was followed
by horrible punishments.
But coats of mail were not impervious to bul-
lets, nor could castles, which were proof against
all attempts to scale them, resist the force of can-
non balls. Gunpowder changed all the conditions
of warfare, made a weak man as good as a strong
one in battle, put an end to the invincibility of the
fortifications then in vogue ; in short, brought com-
mon men much nearer an equality with their for-
mer masters as regards physical power, and ush-
ered in the inevitable downfall of political and
social oppression. Itself a product of human in-
vention, it did a great service in the cause of intel-
lectual and spiritual freedom and of the mental
elevation of the race.
Another event, which seemed on the face of it
to be a retrograde movement in the world's progress
and a detriment to advancing civilization in Eu-
rope, really contributed much to the great intel-
LESSON V.
The conquest of
Constantinople
by the Turks,
1453.
40
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON V.
Beginning of
the revival of
letters.
Opera came
from the study
of the Greek
Drama.
lectual movement out of which our modern civil-
ization has come. This was the conquest of
Constantinople by the Turks in the year 1453.
This great Eastern capital held the remains of the
Greek civilization and the Greek literature. The
latter was as yet unknown to Western Europe,
at least in its original form. Some Latin transla-
tions of Greek works existed in Italy, but no one
studied Greek, or had ever read in the original
the great literary masterpieces of the most intel-
lectual race the world had ever seen. Greek
learning and culture was confined to Eastern
scholars, mainly those of Constantinople, the great
Eastern metropolis and intellectual centre. Its
conquest by the Turks drove them out. They
went as exiles into Italy, carrying with them the
Greek ideas, language and literature ; they were
scattered among the Italian cities, and there sowed
far and wide the seeds which grew up into the
Renascence (or Renaissance, as it is more commonly
called). "Wherever they settled, men became in-
terested in the great literary and artistic achieve-
ments of the ancient Greek race, the Greek lan-
guage began to be studied, the Greek epics and
dramas were read and re-read with the keenest
delight, the love of knowledge was kindled, the
love of Art became a passionate enthusiasm, and
the intellectual impulse called the Revival of
Learning became an irresistible force.
The invention of the Opera, one of the most
important, decisive and productive events in mu-
sical history, was part and parcel of this great
intellectual movement. It is one of the great
turning-points in the development of modern
music ; it changed the whole course of musical
history. But it might never have happened at all
if the revival of Greek letters had not come just
THE RISE OF DRAMATIC MUSIC.
41
as it did. The invention of opera was the direct
result of attempts on the part of a few enthusiastic
lovers of the Greek literature to revive the Greek
drama.
It happened in the very last decade of the six-
teenth century, about a hundred and forty years
after the taking of Constantinople, when the
leaven of ancient Greek art and literature had had
time to leaven thoroughly the whole mass of Italian
intellect and to permeate all Italian culture. It
happened in Florence, under the reign of the art-
loving family of Medici, who made their capital
for a long time one of the most important intel-
lectual centres of Europe.
There was a little knot of enthusiasts, some of
them artists, all of them men of culture, the best
culture of their time, who used to meet at the
house of Count Bardi to discuss art, literature and
all intellectual matters in which they were inter-
ested. They called their society the " Camerata."
Among them was a name ever since known all
over the civilized world, Vincenzo Galilei, father
of the great astronomer, Galileo Galilei. Among
other matters, they read and discussed the dramas
of JEschylus, Euripides and Sophocles, not only
as literature, but as productions for the stage, the
conditions under which they were performed, the
ideals of life they embody ; in short, everything
connected with them. Finally, it occurred to
some of them to ask " Why cannot this great form
of Art be revived ? Why cannot we do what the Drama
old Greeks did ?" The suggestion at once ex- 1
cited unbounded enthusiasm, and ways and means
were eagerly discussed. It was known that the
ancient drama was not spoken, but sung. The
principal characters used a sort of chant with an
Accompaniment of the lyre, and the choruses were
LM80N v
Cam«-
They try to re-
vive the Greek
42
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSOX V.
The prevalent
luck of any mo-
nophonic music.
First songs with
accompaniment
by Vincenzo
(ialilei.
Caccini follows
his example.
also sung. But when the members of the Camerata
came to consider the musical resources of their
own time they found nothing available for the
dramatic needs of soloists. The chorus was amply
provided for, for the whole culture-music of the
time was polyphonic. They were just at the verjr
culmination of the great epoch of polyphonic
music, of which the Netherlander were the most
conspicuous representatives, — the epoch which,,
beginning with Dufay, had developed polyphonic
writing on the technical and intellectual side, and
had culminated in the highly emotional, spiritual
and imaginative, as well as highly intellectual,
compositions of Palestrina and Orlandus Lassus*
The secular element, the Madrigal,. was as purely
polyphonic as the Masses of the period.
How should the soloists be provided for ? This
was the problem the members of the Camerata set
themselves to solve. The first fruits of this en-
deavor were produced by Galilei, who wrote a
number of songs for solo voice and sang them to
his assembled comrades, accompanying himself on
the viola. Everybody applauded with eager en-
thusiasm, and now others of the society took up
the matter. Some of them were musicians by pro-
fession, and one of them, Giulio Caccini, declared
war upon counterpoint as a " mere butchery of
poetry," affirmed that he had learned more of the
true function of music in the Camerata than in all
his thirty years' study of counterpoint, and vowed
henceforth to devote all his talents, skill and ac-
quired musical knowledge to the service of the new
ideas. He was, of course, much better equipped
for such a task than was Galilei, who was only an
amateur, and the solos he wrote, on the model of
Galilei s, fairly ushered in the new era of mono-
phonic sung with instrumental accompaniment*
J'HE KISE OF DRAMATIC MUSIC.
Recitative in-
vented by
Opera was now possible, for the air would serve
to express the emotions of tne principal charac-
ters, while the chorus served to express those of
several persons who needed to sing together. But
an aria (air) involves sustained intensity of feeling
for a certain length of time, whereas there are in
a drama many transient emotions, many mere sug-
gestions of feeling, besides more or less dialogue,
for which sustained solo singing is not adapted, — at
least, not in the form of the aria. These parts
might, of course, have been spoken. But Jacopo
Peri, another of the Camerata set, still with the | Jacopo Peri
notion of Greek drama in his head, all of which
was sung, hit upon the Recitative, a style so well
adapted to its purpose that it has retained its
place to the present day, and seems unlikely ever
to be superseded. It is a sort of compromise be-
tween song and speech, a sort of impassioned
declamation, partaking of the nature of both.
With this invention the means of producing
music dramas were fully completed, and Peri was
the man who produced the first opera. He was a
professional musician, a singer and an organist,
amply qualified for the work he had undertaken,
and his first opera, " Dafne," met with the most
cordial reception in the Camerata. The words
were by Rinnuccini, who also belonged to the so-
ciety. The success of their first work encouraged
them to write another, and this one, " Eurydice,"
was publicly performed at the wedding of Henry
IV of France with Mary of Medici in Florence,
in the year 1600.
It constitutes one of the turning points of his-
tory. At the very opening of the seventeenth
century, just when the elaborate polyphony of the
Netherland school was at the height of its suprem-
acy, came this new phenomenon, and behold, all
Pen's first two
operas,
"Dafne'' and
" Eurydice."
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON V.
of a sudden, the whole face of the musical world
is changed. In France, in Germany, in England,
no less than in Italy, kings, princes and noblemen
took up the new form of art, and from that day to
this it has been developing. It is a long way from
Peri's "Dafne" to Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde,"
but the germs of the latter were in the former.
THE RISE OF DRAMATIC MUSIC.
45
QUESTIONS.
Give some account of the intellectual condition of
Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
When did the art of printing begin to exert a powerful
influence ?
What was the effect of it?
What effect did the use of gunpowder produce on the
mental life of Europe?
When did this effect begin to be felt ?
Give date of the conquest of Constantinople by the
Turks.
What effect had this event on the intellectual life of
Italy?
What do you understand by the Renaissance ?
What has all this to do with the History of Music ?
Tell what you know of the Florentine "Camerata."
Which of its members first wrote songs for a single
voice, with instrumental accompaniment?
What professional musician followed this up ?
Who wrote the first opera?
Who invented recitative ?
What is recitative ?
What opera was first publicly performed?
When and where ?
Who wrote it?
LESSON V.
LESSON VI.
Difference in
origin between
opera and ora-
torio.
Keeii of dra-
•nifitic elements
in U,f Clixrch
Origin and
character of
these dramatic
elements.
LESSON VI.
THE BEGINNING OF ORATORIO, 1600.
OPERA, as we saw in the last chapter, grew out of
an attempt on the part of enthusiastic lovers of
art and literature to revive the Greek drama. It
was one of the fruits of the Revival of Learning,
a great intellectual movement which, beginning
in Italy, communicated its impulse to the whole
European world, and largely determined the course
of mental development and of Western civiliza-
tion from that time to the present. Oratorio, on
the other hand, was an outgrowth of the Church.
But it was, no less than the opera, distinctly dra-
matic in its origin.
As soon as the Church had got far enough from
the corrupt Roman theatrical spectacles, which it
had to condemn in the first few centuries of its
existence, to be in no danger from the remem-
brance of their demoralizing influences, it began
to feel the need of attracting and influencing its
proselytes by some means other than its ordinary
liturgy and its preaching. The common people
could neither read nor write. They were not only
illiterate, but ignorant. They could not read the
Scriptures for themselves, and if they could have
done so, the Church authorities would have op-
posed it, preferring to be themselves the sole
medium, not only of the exposition, but of the
communication, of Holy Writ to the laity.
The clergy, recognizing the fact that an ignorant
laity were more likely to be impressed by sensuous
elements in the liturgy than by those more purely
spiritual or intellectual, soon began to introduce
46
THE BEGINNING OF ORATORIO.
47
Mysteries, Mo-
ralities and
Miracle-plays.
Into the church services a semi-dramatic treatment LESSOIJ VI
of gospel readings. One priest recited the sayings
of Jesus, another those of the Evangelist, while
the utterances of the disciples and of the populace
were sung by the choir. After a while, poems
were introduced among the settings of the gospel
text, especially in Passion week, and took their
place in the choir beside the other Passion music.
The dramatic element became more and more
prominent, and by and by it was separated from
the liturgy. The priests gave dramatic represen-
tations in the churches for the amusement and
instruction of their parishioners.
These sacred plays were divided into Mysteries,
which treated such mysterious themes as Sin, Re-
demption, etc. ; Moralities, in which personifications
of the Virtues and Vices were the characters of
the drama, and Miracle-plays, which dealt with
Scripture stories and with the legends of the saints.
In these dramatic representations in the churches,
no women were allowed to take part. The priests
were the only actors, taking female as well as male
parts. They represented such characters as God,
Christ, Mary, the angels, etc., and they succeeded
in making the plays very popular. The churches
used to be crowded, and these plays were given sc
frequently that they formed a chief amusement of
the common people, as well as their sole means of
Biblical instruction.
After a while the churches could not contain secularization
the vast audiences which thronged to hear and see
the sacred plays, and then they were taken into
the open air. Temporary stages of great size were
erected in market places and in other open spaces.
Sometimes hundreds of actors took part, and a
series of representations, lasting for several days,
would be witnessed by many thousands of people.
\
48
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON VI.
Degradation of
them by reason
of the secular
element.
Laymen, as well as priests, took part in them, and
secular elements of a popular character were
mingled with those distinctively sacred. As was
natural, considering the unrefined state of the
common mind, these secular elements were often
exceedingly coarse, consisting of rude jests, and,
in great part, of a jocular treatment of the devil.
Old Nick was, indeed, a most popular character.
He was treated not so much as the impersonation
of evil, as a foolish clown, whose attempts at harm
were always foiled, and who invariably came to
grief in some ridiculous, farcical way. The great
stages on which the plays were performed were
often divided into three parts. The uppermost
represented Heaven, the middle one the Earth and
the lowermost Hell. Even in our day there is a
survival of these miracle-plays in the Passion Play
still given every ten years at Ober-Ammergau, in
Bavaria.
With the admixture of secular elements and
the admission of strolling actors and minstrels as
performers, the plays grew more and more profane,
until at last the coarsest and most scandalous jests
and songs became a prominent feature. These low
elements even invaded the churches. At the
" Fools' Festival," a sort of Christian revival of
the Roman Saturnalia, the churches were the
scenes of indescribably coarse revelry. A "Fool-
Bishop " celebrated a burlesque mass ; the censers
were filled with pieces of old boot-leather, which
filled the church with an intolerable stench ; dice
were cast and cards played on the altar; the
priest invoked coarse maledictions instead of bless-
ings on the congregation ; in short, all sacred
ideas and rites were parodied in the most outra-
geously profane way.
The " Feast of the Ass" was little better. It,
THE BEGINNING OF ORATORIO.
49
commemorated the flight of Joseph and Mary into
Egypt. An ass, dressed in a monk's costume, was
led into the church, the priest intoned the Latin
hymn, " Orientis partibus," closing each verse with
an imitation of the ass's braying, to which the
whole congregation responded with an uproarious
hee-haw !
This sort of profanation could not, of course, be
tolerated long, and the Church authorities frowned
it down. But, while the outdoor performances
continued to deal more or less in low elements,
there were, in at least one place, purified continu-
ations of the original miracle-plays, etc., in sacred
places. This was in the " Oratorio " (the Italian
name for chapel, or, as we sometimes say, oratory;
properly, a room for prayer) of a church in Rome,
where St. Philip Neri was a priest. In this " ora-
torio " he used to preach, and in Border to attract
the young people, he used to have, at first, a good
deal of singing before and after the sermon. Then
he wrote simple dramatizations of various Scrip-
ture stories in one act, had them set to music by
Animucia, director of music in the Papal chapel,
and gave one before the sermon and one after it.
Palestrina afterward wrote some of the music for
these little chapel or " oratorio " plays. Neri's
plan proved very successful in attracting the au-
diences he wished, especially as they were mostly
given in Lent, when secular amusements were pro-
hibited. Whether his sermons were popular or
not, his musical plays were very much so. Since
they were given exclusively in his " oratorio," to
go to hear them was to go to the " oratorio ;" and
this name has ever since been applied to that form
of .sacred musical art which grew out of his idea.
The piece which is accounted the first real ora-
torio, probably because it was long enough to take
4
LESSIIN VI.
The origin of
" oratorio."
Signification of
the name.
The firtt ora-
torio.
50
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON VI.
Difference be-
tween the early
opera, and ora-
torio.
up a whole evening, instead of being a mere prelude
or postlude to a sermon, was simply a Morality,
written by a lady — Laura Guidiccioni — and set to
music by Emilio del Cavaliere. It was given at
Rome, probably in St. Philip Neri's chapel, in the
year 1600, the very same year in which the first
opera was given at Florence. It was called " The
Representation of the Soul and the Body." Among
the solo characters were Time, Pleasure, the World,
Human Life, etc. These last three were gayly and
richly dressed at first, and afterward were to be-
come poor and wretched, and finally to die. There
was a chorus and orchestra, the whole was acted,
and the performance closed with a ballet, to music
sung by the chorus. The stage directions require
that it be danced " sedately and reverentially."
Thus we see that the early oratorio differed
very little in principle from the early opera. Both
were dramas, both employed much the same mu-
sical means, solos, chorus and orchestra, both were
acted, both admitted the ballet. But the one had
a distinctively moral and religious aim, while the
other had not. So that, while the forms of the
oratorio were influenced greatly by those of the
opera, its different aim and purpose gradually
brought about the real distinction which exists to-
day between the two species. Oratorio ceased to
be acted, excluded dancing, and admitted only
serious and devout music.
THE BEGINNING OF ORATORIO.
51
QUESTIONS.
Did opera and oratorio have their origin in the same
intellectual movement?
What was the movement which finally gave rise to the
oratorio ?
Why did the clergy introduce a dramatic treatment of
Scripture readings into the service?
Describe the growth of this tendency.
Tell the difference between Mysteries, Moralities and
Miracle-plays.
Describe the process by which the plays degenerated.
Describe the "Fools' Festival " and the " Feast of the
Ass."
Who was St. Philip Neri?
What means did he take to interest his congregation?
Where were his plays given ?
What does the word "oratorio" mean?
How came it to be applied to a form of musical art ?
Who wrote the first oratorio, and when?
Tell what you know of it.
Give the points of resemblance between the early opera
and oratorio.
Show the lines on which they afterward diverged.
LMSON VI.
LE680N VII.
Musical su-
premacy'of
Italy.
English com-
potert.
LESSON VII.
GENERAL SURVEY OF THE MUSICAL SITUATION
AT THE END OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
CONDITION OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.
IN the year 1600 Italian supremacy in music
had fairly begun, a supremacy which was to
continue unquestioned for more than a century.
Taught by the great Netherland contrapuntists —
nearly all of whom spent their lives, did their
life-work and found their public in Italy — the
Italian composers had not only equaled but sur-
passed their Flemish masters. The great epoch
of Polyphony, based on the church modes, had
culminated in Palestrina, and had found numerous
representatives in all the leading cities of Italy »
Venice, especially, had developed a school and
style of its own. Since Willaert's time there had
been a succession of organists, conductors and
composers in the Cathedral of St. Mark, every
one of whom was distinguished, many of them
being of the first, or nearly the first, rank. They
had cultivated the Madrigal as the form of secular
music, and from Italy it had spread to Germany,
France, Spain and England.
The English madrigal writers of Elizabeth's
time were among the best in Europe. The age of
Elizabeth and of Shakespeare was the first great
flourishing period of English musical Art. Men
like Tallis, Byrd, Morley, Dowland, Weelkes,
Wilbye, Ward, Bennet, Bateson, Gibbons, Hilton
and Bull ranked with the best European com-
posers of the time, especially in the field of the
madrigal and of organ and virginal music. The
52
MUSIC IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
53
music of the Anglican Church afforded less scope &»*>*
for composers than did that of the Catholic Church,
and Puritan fanaticism had operated to check its
development, so that the English Church music
of this time was not only inferior to that of the
Catholic Church, but also to that of the Lutheran
Church in Germany, where not only had there
been no unfavorable influences, but Luther him-
self had used all his vast power and influence to
make music a most important factor in the Prot-
estant Reformation. Nevertheless, these English
composers wrote many excellent anthems, some
of which are in use to this day.
Musical matters in Germany may fairly be said German mu»ic.
to have followed Luther's leadership. Himself a
genuine lover of music and with highly cultivated ;
musical gifts, he was wise enough to call to his aid :
the best, composers of the time. Besides this, j
like the Wesleys, afterward, in England, he intro-
duced popular melodies into the church services,
speedily transformed and divested them of all
unworthy associations, set his congregations to
singing them in unison, and made them a great
uplifting religious force. The Lutheran Choral
became, and remains to this day, the best ex-
pression of the true spirit of the Reformation, as
the Gregorian chant, culminating in the masses of
Palestrina, is the truest and best expression of,
what is noblest in the Roman Catholic Church.
Sung in unison by the congregation, in a slow ,
and dignified style, the organ carried, as it still j
carries, the harmonies, and from that day to this j
the Lutheran Choral has served as a basis for :
-elaborate contrapuntal writing, as the Gregorian
melodies did in Italy in the days of the Netherland-
ers and of Palestrina. At the end of the sixteenth
century, then, the Lutheran Choral was supreme
The Lutheran
Choral.
54
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON VII.
Prance.
What we ow«
to Italy.
in the Religious music of Protestant Germany, as
the developed and ennobled Gregorian chant was
in that of Italy and of Catholic Europe. But,
unlike Catholic Church music, the Lutheran
Choral had not yet revealed its full possibilities.
Protestant Church music was not to culminate
until about a hundred and fifty years after
Palestrina. It was Sebastian Bach who first
showed what could be done with the Lutheran
Choral in the way of Art-music, leaving behind
him in his motets, and especially in his Passion
music, models not only unsurpassed but unsur-
passable— the admiration and the despair of all
later composers.
Spain contributed a few able composers to the
age of Palestrina, the best known are Christoforo
Morales, admitted in the Sistine choir in Rome in
1540, and Tomaso Ludovico Vittoria (1560-1608).
But no music of historic importance originated in
that country.
To France, also, we look in vain for an original
contribution to musical history at this epoch,
unless we count the French-speaking Belgians
(Netherlander), such as Dufay, Josquin de Pres,
Clement ("non Papa"), Jaques Arcadeldt and
Claude le Jeune, as French. Italy was the great
intellectual and artistic centre. We owe to her
the great age of Painting, the Revival of Letters,
the development of Singing, and of Gregorian
Church Music, the invention of the Opera and of
Oratorio. In great part, also, we owe to her the
development of polyphony. For, although this
movement was started and carried on by Northern
foreigners, it was in Italy that they found their
public and their proper field of labor, and it was
in Palestrina, an Italian, that their work found
its culmination.
ADVANCE OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.
55
To Italy, too, we owe the highest development LMSON VIL
of instrumental music at this epoch. Naturally
enough, this development came first in the do-
main of organ music. As sacked music preceded
secular as an art development, so the organ,
used to accompany the music of the church, be-
came fit for artistic purposes sooner than did any
other instrument.
The progenitor of the organ was the Syrinx, or Earliest form
Pan's pipes, a series of reeds placed side by sidei °/'Aeors°w-
and blown by the mouth. When a bellows was
invented, in the shape of a bag, to be placed under
the arm, and the syrinx became a bagpipe, a step
had been taken toward the organ as we know it.
The next step was to place the pipes on a box,
and let the wind into the box from a weighted
bellows. Such organs were in use among the
Greeks two hundred years before the Christian
era.
The first organs of this sort in use in Christen- i First European
dom of which we have any accurate knowledge organt-
were in the eighth century, though there are said to
have been some in Spain in the fifth century, and
in Rome in the seventh. They were small, of
only one or two octaves, having from eight to
fifteen pipes. There was no key-board at that
time. There was a slide under each pipe, which
was drawn out to make the pipe speak and pushed
in to stop it. Only melodies were played, and
the player had to use both hands, pushing in one
slide when he drew out another. In the ninth
century many such organs were made in France
and in Germany, the largest of them having
their longest pipes four feet long. In some of
them, the slides were operated by upright levers,
marked with the letters A, B, C, etc., indicating
the pitch of the pipes. By the end of the tenth
56
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON VII.
Winchester
organs.
Improvements
in the organ
about 1 100.
century organs had increased a good deal in size.
The famous organ in Winchester cathedral,
England, had four hundred pipes. It had two
sets of slides, twenty in each set, with ten pipes
to each slide, and required two players. Mr. E.
J. Hopkins, in his excellent article on the organ,
in Grove's " Dictionary of Music and Musicians,"
says that this organ had three sets of slides and re-
quired three players, a principal organist and two
assistants. This organ was built in 980.
The next important step in the construction of
organs was not taken until about a century later.
It consisted in doing away with the slides and
replacing them by keys. These keys kept the
pipes closed automatically by means of springs, so
that each pipe sounded only when its key was
pressed down. Thus the labor of pushing in slides
to stop the tone was all saved. But in the larger
organs, where there were a number of pipes to each
key, this action, though simple, was very clumsy
and cumbersome. A key long enough to close
ten or more pipes had to be pressed down several
inches, sometimes even a foot, and required a very
powerful spring. This made a very hard action.
As late as the fourteenth century, organ keys
were from three to four inches wide and had to be
pressed down with the fists or elbows.
Pedals were invented, probably, about 1300,
although we know very little about them until
their introduction into Venice by " Bernhard the
German," about 1445. Reed pipes were intro-
duced about the fifteenth century.
The mechanism of the organ was gradually im-
proved until, by the end of the sixteenth century,
there were numerous organs with two or three
manuals and a full set of pedals, the action of
which was practicable for polyphonic playing.
ADVANCE OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.
57
Toward the end of the century independent LE8SON vn-
pieces for the organ began to be written. Venice Early organ
seems to have been the earliest centre for the pro- j "
duction of organ music. Especially from the j
year 1566 on there was a great development of
organ playing and organ music there, especially in
St. Mark's Cathedral. In that year Claudia Merulo
became organist of the first of the two organs in
that church, and Andreas Gabrieli took his place at
the second organ, a position which Merulo had
held since 1557. They were both excellent musi-
•cians, composers and organists. Merulo was suc-
ceeded at the first organ by Giovanni Gabrieli, who
•continued in this position from 1584 till his death
in 1612. Both these men contributed much to
the development of independent organ music.
Merulo, particularly, devoted himself to the
composition of pieces for his instrument, while
Oabrieli divided his activity as a composer be-
tween organ music and church music. Many
young Germans came to Venice to study the orgau
with the two Gabrielis, among them such noted
men as Hans Leo Hasler (1564-1618) and Hein-
rich Schi'te (1585-1672). With Hasler began
that movement of German students of music toward
Italy which lasted about two hundred years. He
went to Venice in 1584 to study with Andreas
Gabrieli, and was on terms of intimate friendship
with Giovanni Gabrieli. Up to this time, for
about two hundred years, the Netherlander had
been the great educators in music, but, instead of
establishing one or more musical centres in their
own country, they had scattered and settled in
Italy, Germany, France and Spain. Their labors
had, as we have seen, borne such fruit in Italy
that the predominant influence in musical culture
had now become Italian. Hasler, and other young
German flu-
dents in Venice.
58
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON VII.
The Harpsi-
chord and
Clavichord.
foreigners who studied in Italy, transplanted
Italian ideas and Italian style to their own
lands, and helped to make Italian musical influ-
ence supreme all over Europe. Schtitz studied
with Giovanni Gabrieli from 1609 until his death
in 1612. We shall have more to say of him in a
subsequent lesson.
By the end of the sixteenth century the two
precursors of the piano-forte, the Harpsichord and
the Clavichord, had become pretty well developed,
and some independent music was written for them
also. The Clavichord is supposed to have been
developed from the rnonochord, an instrument
which reaches back into unknown antiquity.
This instrument, as its name indicates, had only a
single string. It had a movable bridge, by means
of which the intervals of the scale could be given,
the player moving the bridge with one hand while
he plucked the string with the other. It was used
mainly for teaching the rudiments of music.
Some time after the organ key-board was invented,,
the monochord was provided with keys, each one
applying a bridge to a different place in the
string, corresponding to the intervals of the scale.
Other strings were afterward added, and the brass
wedges, or " tangents," as they were called, on
the ends of the keys, not only divided the strings
into parts, but produced the tone by setting the
strings in vibration. The clavichord in this shape
was simply an oblong box, placed before the per-
former on a table, the strings running right and
left. The right hand manipulated the keys,,
while the left probably damped the short portion
of the strings to the left of the tangents. It was
always a favorite instrument in Germany, because
some variation of power was possible, and because
of the tremulous effect (" Bebung ") which could
ADVANCE OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.
be produced by a peculiar touch on the key, the
tangent being held against the string.
The Harpsichord (clavicembalo), and its smaller
varieties, the Spinet and the Virginal, were prob-
ably developed from the Psaltery and, perhaps, j
the Dulcimer (Hackbrett). These were simply
triangular or oblong harps, laid on their sides.
The Psaltery was played with a plectrum, and the
Dulcimer with small mallets or hammers. From
this last, probably, came the idea of our modern
piano-forte. The harpsichord, in its developed
form, had thin metallic strings, set in vibration
by means of stiff quills set horizontally in perpen-
dicular "jacks " fastened to the ends of the keys.
Thus they operated like the ancient plectrum in
playing the psaltery and zither. A good deal of
music used to be written " for the organ or harpsi-
chord," and the latter instrument was used where
the larger organ was not accessible — at choir re-
hearsals and in private houses. Tallis, Byrd and
other English composers of the Elizabethan era
wrote much for the spinet and virginal, and the
virgin queen herself is said to have been no mean
performer. The harpsichord took the leading
place in the early orchestras and was played by
the conductor, as we shall see in the succeeding
lessons.
The Orchestra was exceedingly primitive at the
end of the sixteenth century. The guitar family
was very numerous and very popular — had been
so, in fact, since the Crusades, when the German
Minnesingers, the Prove^al Tsoubadours and the
wandering Jongleurs, or Minstrels, began to use
them in accompanying their songs. To this class
belonged various sizes and types of the Lute, one
of them being called the Theorbo, the Cithara, the
Mandolin, etc. The latter instrument, in various
LESSON VII.
of
chord.
The early
orchestra.
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON VII.
Stringed instru-
ment*.
Wood wind
instrument!.
Reed instru-
ments.
sizes and types, remains in use in Spain and in
Mexico to the present day. The ancient Keltic
bards used harps and a stringed instrument called
Growth or Crowd. This was played with a bow,
and is the earliest European instrument of this
class. The violin class of instruments was much
more numerously represented in the sixteenth
century than now. So long as instruments were
used merely for accompanying voices, the guitar
family, lutes, etc., retained their predominant
popularity. It was not till after the rise of purely
instrumental music in the seventeenth century
that this class of instruments began to fall into
disuse on account of their lack of capacity for de-
velopment into solo instruments. Then the violin
family began to come into prominence, those of
inferior artistic capacity were gradually weeded
out, and the violin, viola, violoncello and double-
bass were finally left as the most available repre-
sentatives of their once numerous family.
The wood wind instruments were well repre-
sented. The Flute is very ancient and existed in
two forms, the Side-flute (Flauto traverso), similar
to our own, and the Flute-a-bec or Beak-flute,
blown from the end. The modern flageolet and
the common whistle are really beak-flutes. One
kind of beak-flute or flageolet was called a Re-
corder. There were recorders of various sizes,
ranging from one to three feet in length. There
was also a long, bow-shaped, tapering flute called
a Cornet. The early orchestral Flute-a-bec had a
mouth-piece resembling the beak of a bird, and
this gave it its name. The ancients had double
flutes blown from the end.
The Oboe (or hautboy) is one of the oldest reed
instruments. Oboes used to be called " waits " or
" weyghtes." They were also of different sizes.
ADVANCE OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.
There was a large bass oboe called Bombard.
Our present large oboe is called an English Horn
( Cor Anglais, or Corno Inglese*). The bass oboe of
the present is called a Bassoon or Fagotto. The
latter name is the same as Fagot, and comes from
the fact that the long tube is doubled on itself
repeatedly, like a bundle of sticks.
Brass instruments had been in use from very
ancient times. In the sixteenth century there
were Horns, Trumpets and Trombones (or Sackbuts)
in use. Drums of various kinds, including the
kettle-drum, were also in use as military instru-
ments.
As yet (1600) there was little or no independent
music for any of these instruments. They were
used merely as accompaniments for vocal music.
For example, Giovanni Gabrieli used two violins,
two cornets and four trombones in the accompani-
ment of one of his church compositions, written
for only three voices, and in another piece, for
two choirs, he used one violin, three cornets and
two trombones. The first oratorio, by Cavaliere,
used an orchestra consisting of a harpsichord, a
double lyre, a theorbo (double guitar) and two
flutes. Similar orchestras were used in the first
operas. There was commonly, perhaps always,
a harpsichord or spinet, one or two flutes, and one
or two instruments each of the violin and lute
family.
The general situation, then, as regarded all our
modern forms of musical art, shows that they
were all in their infancy. Polyphonic choral
singing had attained a high pitch of perfection.
Solo singing was yet to be developed, to meet the
demands of the opera. Instrumental solo per-
formances were hardly thought of. The orchestra
was barely beginning the first experiments in the
LESSON VII.
Brass instru-
ments.
Early orchet-
tras.
Summary.
62
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
L«SSON VII.
combination of instruments. The organ alone
was starting on its independent career as a solo
instrument, followed, at some little distance, by
the harpsichord and the clavichord. All the great
departments of the art of music were to be de-
veloped separately and in combination. .How
much of this was done in the century to the
threshold of which we have now come, we shall
presently see.
ADVANCE OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.
63
QUESTIONS.
About what time did Italian supremacy in music begin?
Compare the condition of musical matters in Italy,
England, Germany, France and Spain about the year
1600.
What great factors in modern intellectual life do we
owe to Italy ?
What was the earliest precursor of the organ ?
Describe the first European organs.
Describe the Winchester Cathedral organ.
What great improvement was made in the action of
the organ about 1100?
Describe the organ actions of the 12th and 13th cen-
turies.
When were pedals invented?
When reed pipes?
Name some of the great Venetian organists of the
latter part of the 16th century.
Name Germans who studied in Venice.
Describe the Harpsichord and the Clavichord,- and
give their origin.
What kind of orchestra was used to accompany the
•early operas and oratorios ?
What is the difference between a Jlute-a-bec and a
jlauto traverso 1
What were Recorders?
Bombards?
Cornets?
How many different classes of instruments are men-
tioned as in use in the 16th century?
Mention some of those belonging to the guitar family.
LESSON VII.
LKSSON TIIL
Italian opera.
Itt development
in Venice.
LESSON VIII.
THE PROGRESS OF OPERA.
HAVING now given a general outline of the mu-
sical situation at the end of the sixteenth century,
our next task must be to trace the development of
musical art, along its various lines during the
seventeenth century, up to the beginning of the
life-work of Bach and Haendel.
Dramatic music will claim our attention first,
as the most important musical phenomenon of the
early part of the century. Opera, as we have
seen,_was invented in Florence. But while the
Florentine musicianszealbusly cultivated the new
form of musical art, it was in Venice that the
most important development of the opera took
place during the early part of the seventeenth
century. The conditions in Venice were particu-
larly favorable for the development of secular and
especially of dramatic music. Venice was an iso-
lated, wealthy, commercial republic. She had
suffered less than any other Italian city from the
political confusion of the time ; her wealth gave
her citizens leisure for mental cultivation; her
commercial intercourse with the Orient had broad-
ened her ideas, introduced new elements of culture,
and made her more a cosmopolitan city than any
other in Europe. Then she had a great school of
first-class musicians who were already attracting
disciples from the north side of the Alps. These
musicians were independent, original and pro-
gressive. Zarlino had discovered important prin-
ciples in harmony, the value of which is only, in
our own day, beginning to be appreciated. The
64
THE PROGRESS OF OPERA.
65
two Gabrielis, and, for that matter, all the com-
posers of the Venetian school from Willaert
down, had given their church music and madri-
gals a more dramatic coloring and a freer emo-
tional and imaginative treatment than anybody
else. The immediate successor of the Gabrielis
was to render the infant opera its greatest service.
This was Claudio Monteverde. He was born at
Cremona in 1568, and was director of music at
St. Mark's for thirty years, from 1613 till his
death, in 1643. From the beginning of his career
as a musician, before he went to Venice, he had
striven to make his compositions as expressive as
possible. With him the vivid expression of feel-
ing was the first aim of composition. To this end
he used without hesitation means unknown to or
forbidden by the theorists of his time. He was
the first to use the dominant-seventh without prep-
aration. He used the ninth, and even the aug-
. men ted fourth, in the same way, and he was the
first composer to use the diminished seventh
chord. As in the case of every composer of orig-
inal genius, Monteverde's innovations met with
severe criticism and violent opposition from the
pedantic theorists of his day. But they have been
accepted and incorporated into all our modern
music-thinking. So has one of his innovations in
the use of the violin. He was the first to employ
the tremolo, now in common use, as a means of
expressing agitated, passionate feeling. This, also,
was treated by many of his' contemporaries with
ridicule and contempt, but the result has shown
that Monteverde was right.
Active as he was in employing all the harmonic
and orchestral resources of his time, and in invent-
ing new ones for the purpose of dramatic expression,
he was just the man to do for the newly-invented
5
LE680N VIII.
Monteverde^
1568-1643.
His innovations.
66
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LWSON VIII.
firit public
optra houie
built in Venice.
OavaUi, 1599-
1676.
opera what nobody else could. In 1607 he pro-
duced his first opera in Mantua, where he was then
director of music, and he wrote at least two more
before he went to Venice. In the latter city he
continued his career as an operatic composer.
In these works he embodied his ripest ideas
on the art of composition and of musical expres-
sion, and his work marks an era in musical
history.
It was doubtless due, in great part, to the stimu-
lus of his example that operatic composition was
so widely and so successfully cultivated in Venice.
During his time the first public opera house was
built in Venice. This was an epoch-making
event, for it marks the beginning of opera as a
public entertainment, whereas elsewhere it con-
tinued to be, for a long time, exclusively the prop-
erty of princes and nobles, who used it on festal
occasions for the entertainment of their guests. In
Venice it was a popular matter, not a court affair.
So popular was it that other opera houses were
built, and before the year 1734 some four hundred
operas by forty different composers had been pub-
licly performed in Venice ! This date takes us
somewhat beyond the boundaries set for the pres-
ent lesson, but it seemed necessary to make the
statement. One more brief remark, and we have-
done with Venice for the present. Cavalli, who
became Monte verde's successor at St. Mark's in
1668, must be mentioned as the one Venetian
composer, after Monteverde, who contributed essen-
tially to the development of the dramatic style.
He won a reputation which extended far beyond
the bounds of Italy. After his time, opera in
Venice began to emphasize the sensuous rather
than the dramatic element, and with this change
began its degeneration and downfall.
THE PROGRESS OF OPERA.
67
LESSON VIII.
outside of Italy.
H. Schtltz,
1585-1672.
The newly-invented opera, or newly-revived
Greek drama, as it was then supposed to be, was Italian opera
speedily introduced into Germany. The first
German to do this was Heinrich Schutz (1585-
1672), referred to in the last lesson as a student
under Gabrieli in Venice. It happened in this
way : In the year 1627 the Elector John George
I of Saxony gave his daughter in marriage to the
Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. As the latter was
a highly-educated and cultivated man, the elector
wished to offer him some entertainment worthy of
his intellectual and refined tastes. So it occurred
to him to give a performance of Peri's first opera,
" Dafne." He ordered Schutz, his court director
of music, to prepare it and give it in the German
language, designating Martin Opitz, the poet, as the
translator of Rinuccini's text. But when the trans-
lation was made, it would not fit Peri's music. So
Schutz himself set the German words to music
and composed the first opera ever written in Ger-
many. Although written by a German, it was, to
all intents and purposes, an Italian opera ; for
Schutz was in full sympathy with the Italian ideas
he had imbibed in Venice. A long time was to
elapse before German opera composers were to
develop a national style. One reason of this was
the political and social confusion caused by the
dreadful thirty years' war (1618-1648), which
effectually prevented Schutz from following up his
first attempt in this line. He never wrote a second
opera.
In 1662 an Italian opera house was established IM™n °P,era
• I-. i .,i T, i- t i T i' established in
in Dresden, with an Italian conductor and Italian Dr««d«i, 1662
singers, and here Italian operas were given in the
Italian language, under court patronage, until
about the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth
century. What was true of Dresden was true of
e first written
in Germany.
68
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON VIII.
Engliih opera
composers of
this period.
Hamburg; her
character and
musical life.
nearly or quite every court in Germany. If Ger-
man composers were employed, they had to write
music in the Italian style to Italian words. In
short, Italian opera became the fashion, and, as in
the case of most fashionable things, so long as
the craze lasted, no other style, however meritori-
ous, had any chance of success. In England, also,
Italian opera became the fashion. The one Eng-
lish composer acknowledged as of first rank dur-
ing this century was Henry Purcell (1658-1695).
He wrote a very considerable number of operas,
but they were in no way distinguishable, as regards
style, from the contemporary Italian operas on
which they were modeled. Two other English
opera composers of this century achieved a good
reputation in their own country, Matthew Lock
(1620-1677), and John Eccles, born about the
same time as Lock.
In Germany, Hamburg formed an exception to
the prevalent Italian style. This grew out of the
fact that Hamburg was a free commercial city,
and also, being far removed from the scene of
the thirty years' war, had suffered less than
her neighbors. These two circumstances, as in
the case of Venice, enabled her to develop an indi-
vidual life of her own, and caused her music to
take on a peculiar character, different from that
of the rest of Germany. Here, as in Venice,
church music was greatly influenced by the dra-
matic style, and the opera, very naturally, was
from the start more characteristically German
than Italian. However, no real development of
German opera came out of this promising begin-
ning. Unfortunately, the writers of opera texts
there, as elsewhere, seemed unable to choose any
other than classical subjects, and as the masses
who patronized the opera had no sympathy with
THE PROGRESS OF OPERA.
69
Why German
opera was not
developed theref
Greek mythology, and no acquaintance with the LESSON VI11
Greek literature from which these subjects were
taken, they cared nothing at all for that kind of
musical drama. There was no court to support
the opera ; success depended on attracting full
houses, necessarily made up, in great part, of un-
cultivated people ; and so the managers resorted
to spectacular attractions and depended for their
patronage mainly on scenic accessories. Of course,
this was fatal to the development and realization
of all high artistic ideals, and opera here, as later
in Venice, degenerated. Decay set in, in fact,
not only before operatic endeavor had borne any
ripe fruit, but almost before there had begun to be
any fruit at all. A considerable improvement
took place, however, at the end of the century,
the results of which we shall trace in the next
lesson.
Italian opera made its first appearance in
France in the year 1645, when Cardinal Mazarin
procured a company of Italian opera singers for
the entertainment of the queen, Anne of Austria.
It is said, however, that opera, as performed by
this company, failed to meet the demands of French
rrii r\ i T i ' i f ii opera tailed to
taste. Ihe r rench applied to it the canons 01 the ; please French
drama as it had been developed by their great
classical dramatists, Corneille and Moliere, who
had already done much toward refining French
taste in dramatic art. Measured by these stand-
ards, the Italian opera of that time was faulty
and defective. Although it had originated in an
enthusiastic attempt to revive the Greek drama,
the tendency to develop its musical forms, and to
invent sensuously pleasing melodies at the cost of
dramatic truthfulness, had speedily shown itself.
Besides this, the Italian opera, as represented in
France, aimed to produce effects largely by means
French opera.
Whi/ Italian
70
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON VIII.
Obstacles in the
way of French
opera.
Perrin, 1620-
1675.
His lyric poems.
of decorations, scenic accessories, etc., instead of
depending mainly on a vivid and forcible dramatic
presentation of a well-constructed play. All this
hindered the success of Italian opera among the
cultivated classes in France much more than it
did in Germany, where the dramatic sense was
much less advanced, and where, indeed, the natu-
ral turn for the drama, and natural tact and per-
ception in dramatic matters, were far less marked
than among the French.
But the introduction of opera into France
created a desire among Frenchmen to produce a
musical drama of their own more in accord with
their dramatic ideals. The chief obstacle to this
was found to lie in the fact that French poetry,
as it then existed, was wholly unsuited to musical
treatment. There were at that time no free lyric
forms in the French literature, such as would
give a composer free scope for his imagination in
setting them to music; and the worst of it was,
that the iambic line of six feet, interrupted by a
csesura, unfit as it was for the purpose of an ope-
ratic composer, was considered by the poets and
critics of the day as the only poetic form worthy
of a place in literature.
The first man who had the courage to break
through this literary superstition, and to write
lyric verses suitable for music, in defiance of the
traditions of the elders, was the Abbe Perrin. He
first published a collection of poems, irregular in
form, freely adapting themselves to the varying
moods of the poet and avowedly intended to lend
themselves to the purposes of imaginative musical
composition. They were violently opposed, of
course, by the pedantic literary critics, and as
violently defended on the side of the musicians,
! who saw in them the possibility of a national lyric
THE PROGRESS OF OPERA.
71
drama hitherto unattainable. A professional or-
ganist named Robert Cambert, at that time the
most prominent composer in France, soon set
some of his songs to music, and very soon after this
the two combined to produce a comic operetta
called " Pastorale." This was given for the first
time in the year 1659. It made a great success,
in spite of the fact that it was given purposely
without any of those splendid scenic accessories
which the Italian party in Paris was employing
to dazzle the eyes of the public. But as there
was, of course, there, as everywhere, a considerable
number of those who preferred tawdry glitter to
solid artistic qualities, the new French opera
did not make its way as rapidly as its friends de-
sired. However, Perrin and Cambert worked on
energetically, and in 1669 they obtained of King
Louis XIV the exclusive privilege for twelve
years of giving operas, not only in Paris but in
all the cities of France. They formed a stock
company and built an opera house, opening it
with a new opera of their own, " Pomona," which
ran for eight months and netted Perrin alone
about $6000. It is said, however, to have been
inferior in every way to their first work. Feeling
the necessity of competing with the Italian opera
in showy decorations, they laid more stress on
/these than on the artistic quality of their new
work, and by these means achieved a great popu-
lar success. The consequence was that they ac-
complished very little for real French opera in the
four years during which they held their operatic
monopoly. Their real service lay in the decisive
first step of Perrin in the matter of lyric poetry,
and in the impulse given by their first combined
effort in opera.
"We now come to one of the great names in the
LESSON VIII.
Cambert,
1628-1677.
Kit fir ft
operetta.
Work of Perrin
and Cambert.
72
LESSONS IAT MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON VIII.
LuUy, 1633-
1687
He buys the
opera monopoly
from Perrin
and Oamberl,
1672.
importance of
his work.
history of French opera, and, for that matter, of
opera in general, the name of Giovanni JBattista
Lully, who succeeded to the monopoly of opera in
France in the year 1672. For two hundred years,
now, it has been affirmed that he robbed Perrin
I and Cambert of their privilege by means of the
basest intrigue. It has even been affirmed that
he poisoned Cambert, several years after he
cheated him out of his rights. He has always
been represented as a smart, shrewd, unscrupulous
courtier, who, coming to Paris as a youngster,
pushed his way up from a menial position in the
household of Mme. de Montpensier, the king's
niece, to that of a special favorite of the king
himself. He is said to have used the power thus
acquired in the most odious way, treating the
noblest men of his time with contempt and con-
tumely, and filling his own pockets at the expense
of others. However this may be, late researches
in the French archives seem to make it clear that
he bought the opera monoply of Perrin and Cam-
bert instead of stealing it from them.
Whatever else may be doubtful, it is certain
that, although an Italian by birth, he succeeded
in doing for French national grand opera what
Perrin and Cambert had failed to do. Associating
himself with the poet Quinault, who wrote the
poems for his operas, he created, within the next
fifteen years (he died in 1687), a large number of
music dramas so vigorous in conception, so full of
powerful rhetorical declamation, so dramatically
truthful — in short, so fully in accord with the
highest French ideals — that they kept their place
on the stage for almost a whole century after his
death. Considered as music, his operas were infe-
rior to the more fully-developed Italian operas of
his time. Considered as dramas, they were greatly
TEE PROGRESS OF OPERA.
73
superior, and it was this that gave them their na- LESSON VIXI-
tional character. They were real French opera,
not merely Italian opera transplanted into French
soil. At the end of the seventeenth century, then,
there were two styles of opera in Europe : 1. The
Italian, in Italy, Germany and England, charac-
terized by the predominance of the music over the characteristic
words and the dramatic action, laying chief stress tSSmfSmck
on the development of its musical forms and the and^ian
elaboration of its melodies. The first requisite of j
the latter was that they must be pleasing and sing-
able. Dramatic truthfulness in them was, as it
still is in most Italian operas, quite a subordinate
matter. 2. The national French opera, based on
an ideal the exact reverse of that which controlled
Italian opera, laying chief stress on dramatic ex-
pression and relegating the music to a subordinate
position, wholly tributary to the main purpose of
the drama.
74
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON VIII.
QUESTIONS.
In what city was opera successfully cultivated during
the early part of the seventeenth century ?
What conditions there were favorable to it ?
Who was the composer who did most for it?
Give dates.
Mention some of his innovations.
What was the object of these innovations?
Give evidences of the flourishing condition of opera
in Venice.
What caused its decay ?
Name a second prominent Venetian opera composer..
Who introduced Italian opera into Germany ?
Give dates.
Where was this ?
When was Italian opera established in Dresden?
Was the state of things in Dresden different from that
in other court cities of Germany ?
How long did it continue?
Name the prominent English composers of opera at
this time.
Give dates for Purcell.
Was their work essentially English or Italian in style?'
Give an account of the course of opera in Hamburg.
When was Italian opera introduced into France ?
Why was it regarded as unsatisfactory ?
What was the chief obstacle to the composition of
operas in the French language ?
Who overcame this obstacle, and how ?
Who wrote the first French opera?
Give date of its production.
Why was the success of Perrin and Cambert limited ?
When did their monopoly of opera pass into other
hands ?
Whose?
What service did Lully fender to French opera ?
Give an account of Lully, with dates.
Give the characteristic distinction between Italian and
French opera at this time.
Carissimi, 1580-
1673.
LESSON IX.
MUSIC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
1. The Growth of the Oratorio and of the Cantata.
THE man who did for oratorio much the same
service that Monteverde did for opera was Giacomo
Carissimi\ 1580-1673; these dates are somewhat
doubtful). He is said to have been one of the
most active- minded and progressive men of his
time. Most of the professional musicians had
been brought up in the traditions of polyphony,
and were strongly conservative in their feelings
and opinions. They were apt to look down on
the new attempts at monophonic music, whether
in drama, oratorio or church music, as mere
amateurish innovations, unworthy of educated mu-
sicians. So they treated all this phase of musical
activity, out of which so large a part of our modern
music has grown, with indifference or contempt.
Carissimi was of a different mind. He thought He adopts the
there was a field for the dramatic style of solo ; %%p*°*ie
singing, and that it could be made more ex-
pressive and more effective than polyphony. He
was a professional musician and director of music
at one of the churches in Rome ; but he devoted
many years of his life to the development of what
he called chamber cantatas, essentially the same
kind of works which we call cantatas nowadays.
They were, really, musical dramas without action
or scenery. The music consisted, as it still con-
sists in our modern cantata and oratorio, of recita-
tives, arias, duets, trios, quartets and choruses,
the one or the other kind being employed accord-
ing to the dramatic requirements of the text.
75
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON IX.
Canssimfs
recitatives-.
Difference be~
tictt'n the can-
t'lin and the
oratorio.
Given without stage accessories, everything was
left to the imagination of the hearer. There was
no drawing off of the attention to subordinate
matters, no disturbance by stage incongruities or
inadequacies ; the imagination had free play, and
each hearer was edified in proportion to his own
imaginative power and to the dramatic sugges-
tiveness of the poem. But, as von Dommer has
well pointed out in his excellent history of music
(p. 295), the absence of the stage accessories and
of action made the demands on the composer all
the more severe. Where attention was concen-
trated on the music, defects in form or in euphony
and rhythm, or in dramatic expressiveness, were
all the more glaring and noticeable.
Carissimi set himself to a task which he deemed
worthy of all his powers. He sought to make
of the recitative a refined and forcible kind of
musical declamation, and to make it as expressive
as possible in a natural way, approximating im-
passioned declamatory speech. He sought to
make the aria beautiful in melody, perfect in
form and expressive in style. He strove for
noble simplicity, beauty and dramatic truthful-
ness in every portion of his work. In this he
succeeded, to the delight and edification of his
contemporaries. He made the cantata a real
art- work, based on genuine art-principles, and
laid down the lines on which it has been culti-
vated ever since.
Of course, such a service rendered to the
cantata was rendered equally to the oratorio, for
a cantata differs from an oratorio only in having
a secular rather than a sacred subject. An
oratorio is, to all intents and purposes, a sacred
cantata. If the latter term is ever used nowa-
days in distinction from the term oratorio, it
MUSIC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
77
means either a work slighter and shorter than is
thought necessary for the name oratorio, or one
on a subject more or less related to religious life,
without having a scriptual text. Carissimi wrote
" Sacred Cantatas " or " Motettes," shorter than
oratorios, but he wrote oratorios also, on the same
general lines as his chamber cantatas (secular).
These works, like our modern oratorios, treated
scriptural subjects. "Jephtha," "David and
Jonathan," " Abraham an'd Isaac " were among
them. How many works of these different kinds
he wrote in the course of his long life is not
known. Most of them are lost. But enough
remain to show the quality of his work and to
give him a clear title to be called the " Father of
Cantata and of Oratorio." Besides, his work was
not only popular in his own day, but has exerted
a'most extended and far-reaching influence from
that time to the present. From the time of
Carissimi the cantata and oratorio have been
favorite forms of composition, and there is no
prospect of any diminution of their popularity.
Every new composer tries his hand at one or
both, and new works in this field are produced
every year. All this vast and growing wealth of
secular and sacred dramatic music has grown out
of the work of Carissimi, has followed the lines
he laid down, and has adopted the forms he de-
veloped, elaborating them more or less, but, on
the whole, departing far less widely from his
models than might have been expected, considering
that more than two centuries have elapsed since
his death. His was an epoch-making activity,
and his work marks the beginning of a great
historical era, the end of which is not yet.
In Germany, Heinrich Schu'tz (1585-1672),
already mentioned, in the last losson, as the com- '
LESSO;* IX-
Oirissimf*
work and inflv
ence.
, 1585-
78
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LKSSO?/ IX. I
Sebiistiana.
Yiadana, 1565-
1644, introduces
tola singing into
the church ser-
vice.
poser of the first German opera, composed several
works on the general lines of the oratorio, and so
rendered quite as great a service to this branch of
musical art in his native country as he did to
dramatic art in the introduction of opera. He
wrote The Passion, according to the four accounts
given in the gospels, The Story of the Resurrection,
and The Seven Last Words of the Redeemer. These
works were far less advanced in style than those
of Carissimi, but they served to lay the founda-
tions of German oratorio. The only other Ger-
man name to be mentioned here is a Prussian
music-director named Sebastiani, who wrote a
" Passion-music," given for the first time in 1672,
in which the congregational chorals were inter-
woven with the gospel narrative, the comments of
the believers and the bystanders, and the choruses
which represented the multitude.
As Italians were the first to introduce solo sing-
ing into dramatic music, both sacred and secular,
so it was an Italian who first introduced it into
church music proper. This was Ludovico Viadana
(1565-1644). He lived some time in Rome, then
became director of music at the cathedral of Fano,
and afterward at that of Mantua. He wrote what
he called Church concertos (concerti da chiesa);
they consisted of solo pieces and duets, trios, etc.,
for solo voices, with organ accompaniment. These
were written about the time mouophonic music for
dramatic purposes was invented in Florence.
Viadana eschewed the polyphonic style because
he believed that he could make the words much
better understood and give them truer expression
in the style he chose. It is the old story of the
revolt of the Camerata against the trammels of
polyphony, in the interest of musical expression
of feeling. Viadana had the true, sincere feeling
MUSIC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
79
for art. He carefully avoided all display of vocal
attainments, aiming at a noble, dignified sim-
plicity. He demanded of his singers intelligence,
sincerity and true feeling.
His organ accompaniments embodied real har-
mony, as distinguished from counterpoint. He
wrote a continuous bass (basso eontinuo), and with
chords, more or less full as occasion seemed to re-
quire. Up to this time, chords had been merely
the result of the combination of voice-parts in
polyphony. Now they began to be used inde-
pendently of any such combination. Viadana did
not indicate the chords by 'figures over his basses,
as Peri had done. But this speedily became a
^common practice, even in cases of polyphonic
writing.
After the middle of the century the influence
of Viadana's work was more and more widely felt.
•Church composers wrote motettes in his style, and
monophonic music began gradually to displace
polyphony in the church service. The best known
of the polyphonic church writers of this time is
Gregorio Allegri (1580-1652). A Miserere of his
is still performed on Good Friday in the Papal
•Chapel. For a most admirable account of its
effects see Mendelssohn's " Letters from Italy and
Switzerland."
Vocal music had been specially cultivated
among the Italians from the very beginning of
church music in Italy. Italian voices were
superior to any other in Europe ; Italian singers
devoted special attention to beauty of tone and
excellence in vocal execution, and easily attained
Si supremacy which even yet can hardly be dis-
puted. The church composers were usually, -if
not always, singers. They knew how to write for
the voice, and they demanded of their singers the
LESSON IX
Viadana's
harmony.
Allegri, 1580-
1652.
Vocal music in
Italy.
80
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON IX.
Discipline uj
students of siny-
iii'/ in Italy in
the nth century.
ability to perform the best works they were able
to compose.
Of course, the introduction of solo singing in
the church service, in opera and oratorio greatly
stimulated vocal cultivation. How far this was
carried in the seventeenth century, and how great
were the demands of various kinds made on
singers, we may learn from the following para-
graph, translated from von Dommer's " History
of Music," (Chap. XVI, page 440). It refers to
the training of the singers for the Papal Chapel
in the time of Pope Urban VIII, about 1636.
"The pupils were obliged to practice difficult,
passages one hour daily, in order to acquire a
good technic. Another hour they devoted to
the practice of the trill ; a third to correct and
pure intonation, — all in the presence of their mas-
ter, and standing before a mirror, so as to observe
the position of the tongue and mouth, and to avoid
all grimaces in singing. Two more hours they
devoted to the study of expression and taste, and
of literature. This was the forenoon's work. In
the afternoon they devoted a half-hour to the
theory of sound, another to simple counterpoint,
an hour to composition, and the rest of the day to
harpsichord playing, the composition of a psalm
or motette, or some other work adapted to the
talent and inclination of the pupil. Sometimes
they sang in some of the other Roman churches, or
went there to hear the works of masters. When
they came home they had to give the master an
account of all they had experienced. They fre-
quently went out by the Porta angelica to Monte
Mario, to sing, where there was an echo, in order
to observe their own faults from its responses.
Such studies may well have produced results
which seem incredible to us. It is said of the
MUSIC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
81
distinguished singer Baldasser Ferri, of Perugia
(1610-80), for the possession of whom the courts
of Europe competed, that he could sing a chain-
trill of two octaves in chromatic intervals up and
down in one breath, and this with absolute purity
of intonation. Besides this, he was quite as dis-
tinguished for characteristic variety of expres-
sion."
This may serve to show the condition of vocal
technic toward the latter part of the century. It
is quite probable that what was then regarded as
characteristic expressiveness in singing would
sound very crude to our ears. But as regards
mere vocal gymnastics, purity of intonation and
beauty of tone, the results then achieved were
probably the limit of human capability.
LESSON IX.
82
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
QUESTIONS.
Who was The Father of the Cantata and the Oratorio ?
Where did he live?
How did his ideals differ from those of most contempo-
i rary musicians?
What is the difference between a cantata and an ora-
torio?
What traits have they in common ?
Of what elements do they consist?
What can you say of the influence arissimi's
work ?
Who wrote the first German oratorios ?
Name another German composer in this connection.
Give some account of Schutz's work.
Who first w.rote monophonic church music in Italy ?
Give an account of his work.
What is a basso continue* ?
Who was the best known composer of polyphonic
church music at this period?
What influences conduced to the development of solo
singing?
Give an account of the studies of young singers at this
period.
Give an instance of Ferri's attainments in vocal
technic.
LESSON X.
MUSIC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
(Concluded.)
The Development of Instrumental Music.
THE crude orchestration of the early opera and
oratorio was referred to in the last lesson. But it , music-
was a matter of course that, although solo sing-
ing naturally received the greater stimulus from
the new monophony, nevertheless the instrumental
portion of the operas, oratorios, chamber cantatas,
church concertos, etc., should share more or less in
this impulse, and should gradually be developed.
The attempt to give characteristic expression to
all portions of dramatic works led to a keener and
more refined perception of instrumental effects,
and so the art and science of orchestration was
gradually developed. The necessity of .perfection
in details also led to the gradual development of
each individual class of instruments, the sifting
out of those kinds least available for the purposes
of dramatic expression, the further sifting of the
varieties within each class, and the survival of the
fittest. Thus, for example, the stringed instru- in$trwne«t» of
ments played with a bow were of two gen oral
orders : I. Knee violins (da Gamba), and II. Ann
violins (da Braccio). In the first order there
were three kinds of bass and three of tenor viols
In the second there were three kinds of violas and
four kinds of violinsj three of them smaller than
ours. Thus there were thirteen different kinds of
instruments played with a bow. The sifting pro-
cess has reduced this number to four: violin, viola,
violoncello and double-bass. The wood-wind and
83
the violin clast.
84
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HIS. TORY.
LZSSON X.
Lolly's over-
turn.
A, Scarlatti.
Chamber music.
Corelli.
165^-1713.
brass instruments also diminished in number by
the same process.
Side by side with this sifting went on the gradual
development of the individual instruments and of
solo playing. In the accompaniments of dra-
matic music, composers had to study the capacities
of each kind of instrument for characteristic ex-
pression and also its technical capabilities, and,
of course, both they and the players gained
knowledge and skill from experience. With the
improvement in individual playing came in-
creased freedom in writing, and the gradual de-
velopment of independent pieces for the orchestra,
Lully wrote overtures to his operas, which, though
short, were, nevertheless, in form, the germ of the
modern overture, sonata form and symphony.
They had a slow introduction, followed by a
lively minuet or a fugue. Alessandro Scarlatti,
whose work belongs partly to the next century,
and who will be mentioned further in the next
lesson, did a great deal for the development of
the orchestra.
Instrumental chamber music began to flourish
in the latter half of the, seventeenth century.
The world owes the early development of thisj
branch of art also to Italy. " The father of th$
true chamber music style and of real violin play-
ing," as von Dommer calls him (p. 456), was
Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), the most renowned
violinist of his time. He is said to have produced
a pure, clear, even, beautiful tone; his style of
playing was characterized by a noble, dignified
simplicity and by profound musical feeling. He
composed a great deal for his instrument —
church sonatas, chamber sonatas, concertos and
sonatas for the violin associated with other in-
struments. They were short, but well defined in
MUSIC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
LESSON x.
form, rich in power of melodic invention, beauti-
fully lyric in style, refined and pure in harmony,
dignified, avoiding all display of what is now
called virtuosity. " Corelli set instrumental music
for the chamber, once for all, on the right path,"
says von Donimer. He was not distinguished for
great execution on his instrument ; indeed, many
other violinists of his time surpassed him in this.
But the main features of his style, both as player
and composer, are models for all time, because
based on universal principles. His pupils, of
whom he had many, and successors only carried
out and developed what he had begun.
Corelli is said to have been a very modest, dif-
fident man, easily embarrassed and confused, so
much so that in the orchestra and in concerted
playing he frequently appeared at great disad-
vantage as compared with others who were in
most important respects greatly his inferiors.
The Venetian School of Organists was supreme : organ music.
up to the early part of the seventeenth century.
The sceptre was then transferred to Rome. The j
greatest organist of the first half of the century
was Girolamo Frescobaldi (1588-1653), called
" the father of the true organ style." His com-
plete works are still preserved. He wrote a great
many pieces for the organ and harpsichord, and
attained the highest reputation as organist of any
man of his time. People flocked to hear him
play, his admirers followed him from city to city,
and at his first public performance in Rome,
thirty thousand people are said to have crowded
to hear him ! Pupils came to him from all over
Europe, and he educated the best German organ-
ists of the next generation. He contributed much
to the development of the fugue style of organ
music which culminated in Sebastian Bach, and
Frescobaldi.
1588-1653.
86
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON X.
Sweelinck,
1540-1621
Scheldt and
other distin-
guished German
organists.
Patquini,
1637-1710.
marks the culminating point of Italian organ-
music From his time there was a gradual fall-
ing off, and supremacy in this field passed over
t© Germany.
But it ought not to be forgotten that both Fres-
cobaldi and his German contemporaries owed
much to Netherland teaching. Frescobaldi spent
several years of his early life in Flanders, where
the organist of the principal church in Amster-
dam, Jan Pieter Sweelinck (1540-1621), had a
great reputation, and taught a great many foreign
pupils, especially Germans. Sweelinck, however,,
had studied in Italy, having gone to Venice in
1557, where he was a pupil of Zarlino. He seems
to have been an exceptionally excellent teacher
as well as a great organist, and he educated a
large number of the best German organists, among;
them Samuel Scheldt, of Halle (1587-1654), the
greatest German organist of his time ; Melchior
Schild, of Hanover ; Paul Syfert, of Danzig ; Jacob
Schultz and Heinrich Scheidemann, of Hamburg,,
and Johann Adam Reinken (1623-1722), also
of Hamburg. Other renowned German organists
of this century were Johann Jacob Froberger
(1635-1695), Johann Caspar Kerl (1628-1693),
both pupils of Frescobaldi, Johann Pachelbel
(1653-1706), and Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-
1707). Sebastian Bach, when he was a lad in
the school at Luneburg, used to walk to Ham-
burg to hear Reinken, and made at least one trip
to Liibeck to hear Buxtehude.
Bernardo Pasquini (1637-1710) was, next to-
Frescobaldi, the greatest Italian master of the
organ. He was, like his older contemporary, a
thorough musician, furnished with all the best
knowledge of his time, and highly respected not
only in Italy but in Germany. He also educated
MUSIC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
«7
many German musicians, and distinguished him-
self as a harpsichord player and as a dramatic
composer.
The harpsichord was an instrument so con-
venient for producing harmony and for poly-
phonic playing by a single performer that, al-
though its artistic capabilities were very limited,
it nevertheless grew into high favor among musi-
cians and amateurs. Its development kept pace
with that of the organ, and by the end of the
seventeenth century it had nearly or quite reached
the limit of its capacities. It had become quite
a large, elaborate instrument, with two keyboards.
These two manuals could be coupled together, the
upper one reinforcing the other by a separate set
of strings an octave higher, thus adding power
and brilliancy to the instrument. In this form it
was in common use, especially for concert pur-
poses and in the orchestra. The spinet or vir-
ginal, a small, square harpsichord, was much used
in small rooms, in convents and households. The
clavichord was used more by artists and less by
amateurs, for reasons given in a previous lesson.
Mastery of these instruments was expected of
every professional musician as a matter of course.
Every organist was also a harpsichord player ;
music written for the organ was played on the
harpsichord, and vice versa. There was also some
writing of music specially adapted for the harpsi-
chord and clavichord. The numerous embellish-
ments of the harpsichord music of this and the
following century seem to have been not so much
mere imitations of vocal ornaments as attempts to
fill up the time of long notes on an instrument in-
capable of a sustained tone. The French excelled
at this time as harpsichord players. There was a
family named Couperin, at Paris, very distinguished
LESSOX X.
Harpsichord
and clavichord
88
LESSONS .EV MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON X.
F. Ootiperin,
,7. P. Rameau.
ckutid.
1069-L737.
/Summary.
both as organists and harpsichordists for more
than a century. Francois (1668-1733) had the
highest reputation for the elegance, refinement and
tastefulness of his harpsichord music. His works
and performances did much to establish French
taste in this field all over Europe.
J. P. Rameau, to be mentioned later as a French
opera composer and an epoch-making theorist,
wrote fine harpsichord music, and Louis Marchand
(1669-1732) was an extremely brilliant player of
this instrument as well as an excellent organist.
In Italy, Frescobaldi and Pasquini were excellent
harpsichordists ; so was Alessandro Scarlatti ; and,
in general, organists and musicians made it a point
to master the harpsichord. The German organists
mentioned above were all good harpsichord play-
ers, some of them very distinguished.
At the end of the seventeenth century the status
of instrumental music was this : The violin family
had been reduced, by a process of natural selection,
to nearly its present limits and the art of violin
making had been brought to perfection. All
through this century the Amati family, and later
the Guarneri and Stradivari families, in Cremona,
were making their famous instruments, never since
equaled and worth enormous sums to their pres-
ent possessors.
The lute family had come to occupy a decidedly
subordinate position. The incapacity for artistic
purposes of all instruments of the guitar type was
recognized and they have ever since been mostly
given over to peoples and individuals whose
musical taste is of a primitive, undeveloped char-
acter.
The wind instruments, both wood and brass,
were still undergoing the sifting process. The
combination of them into the groups of our mod-
MUSIC IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
LESSON X.
Deficiency-* of
the harpsi' Imrd
and tlte clivi-
chord.
era orchestra had not yet been dreamed of, and
was not to come until nearly a century later.
The harpsichord and the clavichord had
reached the limit of their development and their
deficiencies were so generally felt that active
efforts were being made to improve them in the
direction of sustained tone and increase and
diminution of power. Out of these efforts came
the piano-forte, in the first decade of the next
century, an instrument which only partially meets
these demands. But the experiments which finally j
resulted in the invention of our present instrument j
were by no m3aas the only ones. Attempts were i Attempts to i
made to transform the harpsichord into an instru-|pro<
ment producing the same effect as if played with a
bow. In this instrument the pressing of each key
brought a resine J wheel in contact with the string.
The wheels were kept rotating by machinery set
in motion by the foot. Other ideas looking toward
the improvement of the harpsichord were also
broached. As regards this instrument the attitude
of the musical world was one of eager desire and
expectation of radical improvement. The organ
was in condition to meet the fullest demands of
polyphonic playing and a vast deal of music in
this style was written for it by the organists of the
time.
Solo playing on all the instruments in use had solo playing.
reached a high degree of perfection, both as re-
gards technical execution and grace, finish and
expressiveness of style. Concerted chamber music
was fairly under way and a good deal that was j
valuable had already been accomplished. Out of
these elements the materials of the orchestra of the
future were shaping themselves. As for the actual
orchestra of the time, it had hardly emerged from
infancy.
90
LESSONS .LV MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON X QUESTIONS.
What motives operated to reduce the number of varie-
ties in each class of instruments ?
How did the development of the different kinds of
instruments and of solo playing come to pass?
How many kinds of stringed instruments played with &
bow were there?
How many are there now?
Into what two orders were they divided ?
Name two men who contributed to the early develop-
ment of orchestral music.
Who was "the father" of chamber music?
Tell what you know of him and his playing.
What great Italian organist was called <l the father of
the true organ style?'' Give some account of him. Who
was his teacher?
Name some of the German pupils of this teacher.
Name some other great German organists of this time.
Name the second greatest Italian organist of thia
ceutury.
Describe the harpsichord of the end of this century.
Give an account of the state of harpsichord music.
Name some distinguished French harpsichord players-
German. Italian.
Who were the great Italian violin makers of this cen-
tury and in what city did they live?
What was the fate of the guitar (or lute) family of
instruments?
What was the condition of the wind instruments at the
end of the century?
Of the harpsichord and the clavichord?
Describe the attempts to improve the harpsichord.
How far was the organ developed ?
What was the condition of solo playing on all solo-
instruments?
What was the condition of the orchestra ?
LESSON XL
ITALIAN OPERA FROM ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI TO
THE PRESENT.
ITALIAN OPERA, as we have seen, originated
in an attempt to revive the Greek Drama. As
music-drama, it involved music as one of its
principal elements ; but the element of dramatic
representation ought to have been, and was, at
first, the predominant one. We have already
seen that the French, a nation pre-eminent in
dramatic taste and talent, retained this ideal
of opera after Italy had lost it. Opera in Italy
went from Florence to Venice, where it was
developed by Monteverde and others. Then
the seat of its supremacy was transferred to
Naples. In this city there was developed a
style of music, especially in opera, no less origi-
nal and influential than that of Venice. The
first great name in Neapolitan music is that of
Alessandro Scarlatti (1659-1725). He wras a
pupil of the Roman school of Carissimi, and
was thoroughly educated in the style of church
music, oratorio and chamber music cultivated
by that distinguished master. His general
musical education was of the very best; he was
thoroughly trained in all the special branches
of his profession, and as singing teacher, con-
ductor, performer and composer in all styles.
he ranked among the first musicians of his
time. The Roman school of church music, of
which Palestrina had been and will always
remain the foremost representative, was char-
acterized by sublime elevation of style, by
91
Opera in
Venice and in
2fapies.
Alessandro
Scarlatti,
1659-1726.
LESSORS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
JScarlatti'i
Muxical
Forms.
Character-
istics of
Italian Opera.
noble and dignified simplicity. That of the
Neapolitan school, headed by Scarlatti, was
characterized mainly by sensuous charm and
beauty of melody. He was an incredibly pro-
lific composer. He is said to have written two
hundred masses, a very large number of motets,
psalms, concertos, etc., five hundred cantatas,
many madrigals, etc., and one hundred and
fourteen operas, besides a great deal of instru-
mental music.
In his hands the musical element of the
opera was predominant. Not that he did not
seek to fit his music, in a general way, to the
emotional character of the words and of the
situations of the drama; but he was concerned
still more with the perfecting of the musical
forms, and his arias and overtures served as
models for Haendel and for all composers of
Italian opera. His overtures resembled those
of Lully, and contained the germs of the modern
symphony. They were commonly in three
divisions, the middle part being slow and the
other two fast. After these overtures and
others written on their model began to be played
as separate orchestral pieces in concerts, the
three parts of the overture were gradually de-
veloped into three separate pieces, or "move-
ments," and became what is now called a
symphony.
From Scarlatti's day to our own the Italian
opera has laid prime stress on its melodies.
The first aim of Italian opera composers has
been to invent good singable, pleasing melodies,
well developed as regards musical form and
grateful for singers. The emotional character,
while not disregarded, has been a subordinate
matter, and no Italian writer has hesitated to
ITALIAN OPERA.
93
stop the action of the drama in a critical situa-
tion in order to give a singer opportunity to
sing a long and elaborate aria, pleasing in
melody, perhaps sensational in character and
often full of technical difficulties, for the display
of the singer's attainments in vocalization.
For the rest, Scarlatti was as bold and
original in his treatment of harmony as was
Monte verde before him, and was treated in
much the same way. His innovations were
condemned by pedants and theorists, and imi-
tated by all the young generation of composers ;
so that his school became a model, and exercised
a most powerful influence, not only in Italy,
but in Germany, in England and even in France,
where Italian opera had a strong party of de-
fenders opposed to the national school.
Scarlatti's Italian pupils, Leonardo Leo (1694
-1746) and Francesco Durante (1684-1755)
were among the most distinguished of those
who helped to establish the supremacy of his
style ; Nicola Piccini ( 1 724-1 800) , another Nea-
politan, carried it to France and competed
against Gluck with considerable success.
George Frederick Haendel (1685-1759) mod-
elled his operas on it, carried it to London and
produced numerous works for the English stage
for a period of about forty years ; and numerous
pupils of Scarlatti, both native and foreign,
spread the ideas and traditions of the Nea-
politan school all over Europe. Other import-
ant Neapolitan composers of the time immedi-
ately succeeding Scarlatti were his son, Do-
menico Scarlatti (1683-1757), Francesco Feo
(born 1699), Nicolo Porpora (born 1685), Gio-
vanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1737), almost
the first to write comic opera; Leonardo Vinci
Scarlatte*
influence.
His pupflt.
Haendel^
1685-1759.
Important
Neapolitan
composers
after Scarlatti.
94
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
1690-1734) and Nicolo Jomelli (1714-1774).
Antonio Sacchini (1784-1786) did most of his
ife-work as an opera composer in Paris; Gio-
vanni Paisie-llo (1741-1815) wrote for most
of the Italian stages and even for that of St.
Petersburg, and was a favorite in Germany.
Dominico Gimarosa (1749-1801) was one of
the greatest Neapolitans. He wrote seventy
operas, and his II Matrimonio Segreto, written
for Vienna, was one of the greatest operas of
its time.
After Alessandro Scarlatti, and even partly
ontemporary with him, "there were Italian
omposers in Rome, Bologna and Venice, who
were second in ability and reputation to him
alone. But there was no school of operatic
omposition which can be discriminated from
the Neapolitan in fundamental principles. His
successors equally devoted themselves mainly
to the musical side of the opera, neglecting the
dramatic element, broadening and perfecting
Scarlatti's musical forms, and making the Aria
the principal element of the opera. In Rome,
one of the most renowned masters was Giuseppe
Pitoni (1657-1743). Another was Francesco
Gasparini (1660-1737), and still another was
Agastino Steffani (1655-1730), part of whose
life was spent in Hanover. In Venice the
greatest name was Antonio Lotti (1667-1737).
Of other Venetians, Antonio Caldara (1670-
173(5), Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739) and
Baldassare Galuppi (1706-17 8f>) had great
reputation. Of similar rank were Giovanni
Bononcini (1670-1750), for some time a rival
of Handel's in London, and Emanuale Astorga
(1681-1736). In Germany, besides Haendel,
most of whose writing was, however, for the
Emnan and
Venetian
composers.
ITALIAN OPERA.
95
German
compoifru of
Italian opera.
London stage, there were numerous celebrated
composers of Italian opera on the model of
Scarlatti. In Vienna the greatest name before
Mozart, who also wrote Italian opera, but modi-
tied, and who holds a unique position, was
Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1732), renowned not
only as composer, but as conductor and the-
orist ; his Gradus ad Parnassum was for a long
time the standard text-book in counterpoint.
In Berlin, Carl Heinrich Graun (1701-1759)
-was the leading name; in Munich, Johann
Caspar Kerl (1628-1693) ; in Dresden, Johann
Adolph Hasse (1699-1783). In all these cities
there were numerous Italian conductors, com-
posers and singers. The Italian language was
used in the librettos, even by German masters,
.and Italian opera held its ground with great
tenacity until well into the present century.
Meanwhile, not only was prime stress laid on
the music as opposed to the dramatic action,
but this one-sided tendency was carried to the
greatest extreme. The aria became not only
"the most important element of the opera, but
•came to serve mainly as a means of displaying
the utmost brilliancy of vocal attainments on
the part of singers. Male sopranos (eunuchs)
•competed with female singers in virtuoso per-
formances. Great schools for the training of
solo singers arose in Bologna, Eome, Milan,
Venice, Naples and Florence, and solo per-
formances were the central feature of Italian
opera, everything being sacrificed to sensuous
-charm, brilliant effect and th» vanity of soloists.
Among the most celebrated male singers of
this period were Pistocchi (born 1659), Ber-
nacchi (born 1700), Senesino (born 1680),
Nicolini (born 1685), and, greatest of all, Far-
Italian opera
degenerates
into a mere
display of
vocalization.
Great singers
of the 18th
century.
or,
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
Great singers
since
Jfaendel's
time.
Rosirini.
1792-1868.
inelli (born 1705). Among great female sing-
ers were Francesco, Cuzzoni (born 1700) and
Faustini Bordoni (born 1693), the wife of
Hasse, the composer. These two ladies and
Senesino were among Haendel's singers in
London, where he was not only composer, but
conductor and theatre manager, until quarrels
with the nobility, his patrons, threw him into
bankruptcy, and forced him to devote his
powers to oratorio. Many amusing anecdotes
are related of the vexatious trials he had to
undergo from the vanity, rivalries and unend-
ing caprices of these singers, especially Cuz-
zoni's. For details of these matters the reader
must be referred to Schoelcher's or Rockstro's
"Life of Haendel," or to Grove's "Dictionary
of Music and Musicians." The plan of these
lessons will not admit of biographical sketches
of any 'length.
A long list of singers since Haendel's time
have been the exponents of Italian opera :
Catalani, -Pasta, Sontag, Malibran, Viardot,
Schroeder-Devrient, Grisi, Persiani, Alboni,
Jenny Lind, Cruvelli, Titiens, Nilsson, Patti
and numerous others, both male and female, of
greater or less distinction. The first require-
ment in such singers has always been beauty of
tone combined with florid execution ; but many
of them also possessed in a, hig-h degree the
dramatic instinct and that peculiar " magnetic "
quality which attracts and captivates an audi-
ence.
Italian opera, embodying the tendencies
above noted, culminated in Giachomo Rossini
(1792-1868), one of the most original creators
of melody known to musical history. His
operas are full of sensuous charm of melody
ITALIAN OPERA.
97
and harmony. They are brilliant and striking,
easily to be enjoyed without intellectual effort,
calculated for the entertainment of an idle,
luxurious, pleasure-seeking societ}-. As such,
they continue to amuse the civilized world,
even to this day. Only one of them, William
Tell, has any special dramatic force or elevat-
ing tendency. His principal operas, besides
William Tell, were Tancred, The Barber of
Seville, Othello, La Centenerola, La Gazza
Ladra, Moses in Egypt, The Lady of the Lake
and Semiramis. He was born at Pesaro,
studied under Padre Martini, a celebrated
teacher of Bologna, began writing operas
early, made a fortune by his brilliant produc-
tions and retired to Paris to enjoy it. Not-
withstanding his spontaniety, which enabled
him to produce fine melodies with the utmost
ease and fluency, he seems to have had no im-
pulse to compose after the pressure of pecuniary
necessity ceased. For nearly forty years he
lived a life of luxurious ease in the French
capital, producing nothing but his brilliant and
sensational, but false and imreligious, Stabat
Miter. His remains were taken to Italy in
1887.
Following Rossini came Vincenzo Bellini
(1802-1835), whose principal works were
Norma, La, Sonnambula and / Puritani, and
Gaetano Donizetti (1798-1848), the composer of
.Anna Bolena, Elisire d'Amore, Lucrezia
Borgia, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Fille du
Regiment and other popular operas. These
two are only second in rank to Rossini, and
their best works still keep the Italian operatic
stage, being heard more or less frequently all
over Europe and America. Lesser names were
His opera.
His Stabat
Mater.
Bell.ini,
Donizetti and
others.
98
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
Mercadante (1797-1870) and Carafa (1787-
1872).
One great Italiai\operatic composer remains to
be mentioned, more serious in aim than Rossini
or any of his successors, and nearly or quite as
great in every respect as Rossini himself. This
is Guiseppe Verdi, born in 1813 and still (1888)
living and producing important works. His
early life was devoted to operas of the common
Italian type, full of melodic charm, but much
more markedly dramatic in style, and far more
conscientiously written, than those of other
Italian composers. The orchestra, too, is treated
more seriously than in most Italian operas,
where, as Wagner once said, it is commonly used
as style. '' like a mighty guitar." With Yerdi the orches-
tra is less a mere accompaniment of arias. ?.nd
more an integral portion of the musical means
of enhancing the dramatic effect. In short, he
has aimed more at the creation of real music-
drama, and less at mere sensational effects than
have his Italian contem poraries and predeces-
sors. This tendency is shown in all his great
works, such as 77 Trovatore, Eigoletto and La
Traviata, and still more decidedly in his latest
opera's, Aida and Otello, written in his later
years, and showing decided traces of the in-
fluence of Wagner's theories and practice. His
great "Manzoni" Requiem Mass shows the
same influence and tendencies.
Of the present generation of Italian com-
Botto. posers, the best known outside of Italy is Arrigo
Boito, born in 1842, a talented composer and
poet. He wrote the text to Yerdi 's Otello, and
has become widely known in Europe by his
great opera, Mefistofele, based on Goethe's
"Faust." He has travelled much, and is thor-,
ITALIAN OPERA.
99
oughly conversant with the theories of Wagner,
as is proved by the style of Mefistofele. Since
the liberation and unification of Italy, the in-
tellectual life and artistic efforts of the Italians
seem to have taken an upward tendency, and it
looks ns if we might hope for a new " Revival
of Learning," such as made the Italy of three
hundred years ago the intellectual and artistic
centre of the civilized world, and the source of
mental inspiration.
100
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
QUESTIONS.
In what city, after Venice, did Italian opera receive its
greatest impulse?
Who was the great composer who did most for its de-
velopment there ?
Give some account of him.
How did his church music differ from that of the school
of Palestrina?
What was the predominant element in his operas?
1 What did he do for Italian opera?
What has been, since his time, the chief characteristic
of Italian opera ?
Give an account of its degeneration.
Name some of Scarlatti's Italian contemporaries and
successors.
Name the most important German composers of Italian
opera.
Name some of the great singers of the first half of the
last century.
Name some later singer*, down to our own time.
In whose work did Italian opera culminate ?
Name his most important successors.
Name some operas by these composers.
Give an account of Verdi's work.
Name his leading operas.
Who is the best known Italian operatic composer of to-
day?
Name his principal work.
LESSON XII. *
FRENCH OPERA FROM LULLY'S TIME TO THE
PRESENT.
LULLY'S operas, as we have seen, kept the
French stage for about a century. During this
long period no French composer appeared who
even approximated Lully's creative power.
The first of his successors who could bear com-
parison with him was Jean Philippe Rameau
(1683-1764). He was a much greater musician
than Lully, a man of great scientific attain-
ments. His works on harmony made an epoch
in the treatment of the subject. He sought a
basis both for the major and the minor chord
in the science of acoustics. He derived the
major chord (over-chord) from the series of
harmonic overtones, but failed to discover the
corresponding under-tone series which make
the minor chord (under-chord) the reciprocal
of the major. This discovery was reserved for
our own time, and the application of it to the
science of harmony is only now fairly begun.
But much of Rameau's work is permanent, and
most of it was so valuable that it has formed
the foundation of harmony teaching from that
day to this. He did much toward introducing
the system of "equal temperament," and he,
perhaps more than any one else, determined the
abandonment of the old church modes and the
establishment of our modern major and minor
keys. He was a virtuoso on the harpsichord,
and his compositions for that instrument had a
great reputation in their day.
101
Mameau,
1683-1764.
His theoretical
work.
102
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
His wwk at a
composer.
Rise, of French
comic opera.
Rameau was nearly fifty years old when he
wrote his first opera. His works of this kind
are twenty-two in number, and are a great
advance on Lully's in originality, in wealth and
variety of resources, and in dramatic effective-
ness. Like all epoch-making minds, he was
violently attacked bj* those who were accus-
tomed to the old, and could not reconcile them-
selves to the new modes of musical expression y
however suitable. But his works made their
way and are justly regarded as among the most
brilliant achievements of the French musical
genius. His work, like Lully's, had for its
main object truthfulness of dramatic expres-
sion, and is by this distinguished from the
Italian school. It surpassed Lully's mainly
in the enlargement of the musical means of
expression.
Rameau, like Lully, devoted himself to "Grand
Opera," as it is called — musical dramas on seri-
ous and mostly classical subjects. But it was
during his time that French operetta (opera
comique) arose, and has held its place beside
grand opera ever since. In 1752 a company of
Italian singers produced Italian comic opera in
Paris, and although they remained there only
two years, they gave the Parisian public an
impulse which resulted in the production of
French comic opera on national everyday sub-
jects in a free, unconventional style. There
had been French operettas before, but they
were comparatively insignificant. Now, stimu-
lated by the awakened desire of the public
and by the reaction against the stiff and stilted
manner which had become established as the
only respectable style in French literature and
art, men of ability began to devote themselves to
FRENCH OPERA.
103
comic opera in real earnest. First among these
composers were Dauvergne (1713-1797), an
Italian; Duni (1709-1775); Philidor (1726-
1795), and Momigny (1729-1817). Their work
culminated in Gretry (1741-1813), in whose
works French operetta reached a point perhaps
never since surpassed. They are thoroughly
representative of the French dramatic genius
in this field.
How great was the unnaturalness of the intel-
lectual tendencies these men combatted, we
may learn by a single example. In Louis XI Vs
time, the art of landscape gardening in France
was held to require that all the trees should be
clipped into regular and fantastic artificial forms,
no tree being allowed to develop itself natur-
ally or express its own nature in its own way.
The mental tendencies of the French cultivated
.classes were just as artificial in all departments
of art and literature as in landscape gardening,
and it was inevitable that a reaction should
take place in the direction of giving free play
to the natural tendencies of human nature.
This reaction culminated in the so-called
" philosophy of enlightenment," of which Jean
Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) is the greatest
representative. In the thought of these men
the ideal of the unrestrained play of all human
impulses was carried to as great an extreme as
had been the ideal of artificial restraints and
even distortions in their predecessors. This
ideal culminated in the. license and extrava-
gance of the French Revolution, extended its
influence to all fields of mental activity and to
all social relations, and has not yet spent its
force. Rousseau contributed to musical history
some important controversial writings directed
Comijaaers of
French comic
opera.
Artificialness
of intellectual
Hfa in France
at this period.
enlighten-
ment."
104
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY
against the artificial forms prevalent in grand
opera, a Dictionary of Music, and an original
operetta or melo-drama.
Other composers of operetta at this period
and later were D'Alayra c (1753-1809), who
wrote about sixty operettas and operas; Isouard
(1777-1818); Berton (1766-1844); Catel (1773-
1830); Boieldieu (1775-1834); the composer of
The (Jaliph of Bagdad and La Dame Blanche;
Gossec (1734-1829); also an important composer
of grand opera and of symphonies and chamber
music, Mehul (1763-1817), best known by his
opera of Joseph and his Brethren; Herold
(1791-1833), best known by his opera Zampa,
the overture of which is familiar to everybody ;
Halevy (1799-1862), author of The Jewess,
Auber (1782-1871), author of Fra Diavolo and
Masianello, and Adam (1803-1856). These
names bring us fairl}' up to our own time and
to comic operas, and, for that matter, to serious
operas, which are still heard on the French,
German, English and American stage.
Now, to go back to the development of
French Grand Opera, the greatest name imme-
diately succeeding Rameau was Christoph Sitter
von Gluck (1714-1787), a Bohemian, the author
of Orpheus, Alceste, Armida, Iphegenia and
other grand operas on classical subjects. His
was a creative genius of a high order, and his
Orpheus, at least, is still given both in concert-
rooms and on the stage. He held very strong
opinions in favor of dramatic truthfulness in
operatic music, as opposed to the prevalent
Italian tendencies ; and, as he was unable to
make any headway against the fashion of the
time in his own country, he went to Paris,
found there a congenial field, and spent most
Oluck.
.His work and
influence.
FRENCH OPERA.
105
of his life writing for the French stage On
of the prominent characteristics of his opera
and of French Grand Opera since, has beei
recitative, in broad, elaborate form fully ac
companied by the orchestra, giving free, spon
taneous utterance to the emotions of the indi
vidual actor in the drama, as opposed to th,
formal ana of the Italian opera, where th.
musical predominates over the dramatic ele
ment. It is the recitative that primarily char
actenzes the French Grand Opera.
Two Italian composers deserve to be men
tioned here, because they were both strongly in-
fluenced by the works of Gluck, and both wrote
more or less for the Paris stage These are
SaUeri (1750-1828), who spent most of his life
in Vienna, but wrote The Danaides for Paris-
and Spontini (1784-1 851), for a long time direc^
tor of the Royal Opera at Berlin, whose best
known opera is La Vestale.
The next great name in the annals of French
Grand Opera is M. L. Cherubini (1 7(50-1 842)
He was an Italian, born in Florence, trained a
-musician, and a composer of Italian operas
until he went to Paris in 1786. A visit to
Vienna enabled him to hear some of Haydn's
symphonies, which produced a great effect upon
him, and influenced profoundly his whole future
tivity as a composer. His style is severe
and classical. His operas, Medea. The Water-
carrier Faniska, The Abencerrages, Lodoiska
and others, give him a very high place as an
operatic composer. His Requiem is considered
the noblest Catholic church music since Pales-
Tina, and he wrote many other important
works. From 1816 to his death he was Director
the Paris Conservatory of Music, and Pro-
LISBON Xlf.
Salieri and
Spontint.
Cherubini.
His operas
and other
works.
K6
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON XII.
Meyerbeer.
His operas
and heir
character-
istics.
fessor of Composition there. As the titles of
his operas show, classical subjects, taken from
the Greek mythology, began now to give way
to other serious subjects in Grand Opera. From
his time on, the characteristic distinction be-
tween Grand Opera and Comic Opera has been
that Comic Opera admits spoken dialogue,
while in the Grand Opera everything is sung,
the dialogue and soliloquies being mostly in
recitative.
It is surprising how many of the great names
among French Grand Opera composers are
names of foreigners. Lully and Cherubini were
Italians; Gluck was a Bohemian; Gossec was
a Belgian. To these names we have to add
that of Jacob Meyerbeer (1794-1864), a German
Jew, born in Berlin, where his father was a.
wealthy banker. He was a fellow student with
Weber, under the Abbe Yogler, in Vienna,
found his congenial place in Paris, and wrote a
series of Grand Operas for the Paris stage.
The greatest of them are Eobert the Devil,
The Huguenots and The Prophet. Meyerbeer
had great gifts and much skill as a composer ;
but he wrote for effect, more to please and
amuse than to elevate the Parisian public, and
stands lower in the estimation of musicians
than he would if his aims had been higher. He
helped to degrade French taste and to make
Wagner's success in Paris impossible.
Since his time the greatest names in French
opera have been Ambroise Thomas (born 1811),
who has written many operas, both serious and
comic, Mignon being the best known; and
Charles Gounod (born 1818), best known by
his masterpiece, Faust. Hector Berlioz (1803-
1869) occupies a unique position in Frenqh
FRKNCH OPERA.
107
Offenbach.
opera, and, indeed, in French music generally L'"°»*
His operas, Benvenuto Cellini, Beatrice and '
Benedick The Trojans in Carthage and The
JBril of Troy, had no success in his lifetime.
The same is true of his symphonies, cantatas
and sacred music. He is only now beginning
to come into vogue.
Camille Saint-Saens (born 1835) has also
written good operas. But comic ' opera has *fc~~
been the characteristic field of French com-
posers since the time of Boieldieu, that is, since
about 1800. Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)
another foreigner, a German Jew, born in Co- 1
logne, represents the culmination of the ten-
dency toward burlesque in French comic opera
He flourished during the corrupt period of the I
icond Empire, and wrote burlesque full of
equivocal situations for the amusement of the
Parisians. He had much originality and his
melodies are often striking. His operettas:
Orpheus in the Underworld, La Belle Helene
Blue Beard, The Grand Duchesse of Gerolstein\
and others have made their way all over the
civilized world. E. Audran (born 1842) is
known in this country by his operettas, Olivette\
and the Mascotte; Robert Planquette (born 1850)
by his Chimes of Normandy; Victor Massel
(born 1822), by his opera, Paul and Virginia]
he has written many others), and ./. E. Massenet
(born 1842), by his opera, Don Csesar de Bazan.
Ihe last two are professors in the Paris Con-
servatory and have composed much in other
fields.
Audran,
ki^quette
Masse,
Jfassenet,
108
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
QUESTIONS.
Who was the first important French opera composer
after Lully ?
What was his rank as a theorist ?
In what special way did he advance the science of
harmony ?
How old was he when he began writing operas ?
How were they received and why ?
In what were they an advance on Lully's ?
When did French operetta begin to be prominent ?
To what was the rise of operetta due ?
Name some composers in this field ?
What name marks the culmination of this species?
What were the intellectual tendencies of the time, as
illustrated in French landscape gardening ?
What was meant by the "philosophy of enlighten-
ment?"
Who was its greatest representative ?
Give dates ?
Name some of the important composers of French
comic opera up to our own time ?
Name the great composer who succeeded Hameau ?
Give dates ?
Name some of his operas?
Name and describes a prominent characteristic of his
operas and of French grand opera since ?
Name two Italian composers who were strongly influ-
enced by Gluck ?
Who was the next great composer for the Paris stage ?
Name some of his operas ?
What is now the distinction between grand opera and
comic opera?
Give an account of Meyerbeer's work ?
Give dates and name his important operas?
Name the greatest French opera composers since his
time and those of operetta ?
LESSON XIII.
GERMAN OPERA
sfsrSr-'sSsSS
been graceful melodies and passionate If hU
temporary popular success to ideal
so degenerated and finallv lost tho
,-»•*• 4_r 11. ******** jr iOou l/UG
the public. His genius raised the
fg opera for a short time, to a high
109
LESSON
Opera in
Hamburg.
Reiser.
110
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON XIH.
Xattheson.
Telemann.
The "Sing-
spiel."
Mozart,
1756-1791.
In the meantime, Hamburg had greatly
profited by the work of some remarkable men,
especially Johann Mattheson (1681-1764), a
composer of talent, an excellent theorist and a
highly accomplished musician in every respect ;
George Philip Telemann (1681-1767) and,
finally, of Haendel himself, who went there as a
youth of eighteen, played in the orchestra, and
wrote his first opera for the Hamburg stage.
The beginnings of German opera proper, in
Hamburg as elsewhere, are to be found in the
King-spiel. The Sing-spiel, like the English
Ballad-opera and the French Vaudeville, was
originally a light play interspersed with popu-
lar songs, generally ballads, apt to be of a
satirical tendency and with a short refrain.
Such plays were popular all through the period
when Italian opera was fashionable, and were
often composed by writers of high standing in the
various capitals and musical centres of Europe.
W. A. Mozart (1756-1791), in Vienna, some of
whose best operas were written to Italian texts,
and most of whose work is quite as much Italian
as German, adopted this form, used German
words and subjects which, if not characteristi-
cally German, were no more Italian than Ger-
man, and made real operas out of them. These
works, especially his Magic Flute and his Ab-
duction from the Seraglio, may be looked on as
addressed more to the German than to the
Italian taste. But this can hardly be said of
his Don Juan and The Marriage of Figaro.
Mozart was, in short, a German, with Ger-
man feelings and tastes, but trained in the
prevalent Italian school. He never departed
in any essential particular from the princi-
ples of Italian opera. The plan of his works
GERMAN OPERA.
Ill
is the traditional one; the arias are, to all
intents and purposes, Italian arias. But hav-
ing German leanings and being an original
-creative genius of the first rank, his Italian
schooling was sufficiently modified, especially
when he wrote from the Sing-spiel standpoint,
to give his works, in part, a quasi-national
character. The Magic Flute, in fact, is com-
monly regarded as a real German opera. But
its arias and its forms betray Mozart's Italian
training. It is really a mixture of styles, but
with strong German tendencies.
L. von Beethoven (1770-1827) made a single
attempt at opera, and aimed to make his Fidelia
a German opera. So it was, if we regard only
its serious aims, its earnestness and depth of
feeling and the absence of all concessions to
the vanity of solo singers. In these respects,
indeed, it is an advance beyond Mozart. But
Beethoven established no new principles of
form or content in the music-drama, and the
subject of Fidelio is cosmopolitan rather than
German. In short, what Beethoven did was
merely to inculcate seriousness and elevation
of aim in this one example. But these qualities
.are not necessarily confined to Germany. To
create a really characteristic German music-
drama something more was needed than a mere
protest against the shallowness, the brilliant
:sensationalism and the seductive tunefulness
of current Italian opera as represented by Bee-
thoven's great contemporary, Rossini. Fidelio
is German in that it represents an earnestness
and elevation of tone much more frequently
found among German than among Italian com-
posers since Palestrina. But it is, after all,'
Beethoven rather than Germany that speaks in
r XIII.
Beethoven,
1770-1827.
112
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
Weber,
it. It is an opera which represents an indi-
vidual rather than a nation, and it does not
mark the beginning of a national style of opera.
Besides, it has serious defects as a singable and
dramatic work. Beethoven's great field lay in
the symphony, not in the opera. Schubert's
attempts at dramatic composition were still
less successful.
What neither Beethoven nor Schubert could
do for German opera was done by a great con-
temporary of theirs, Carl Maria von Weber
(1786-1826). The son of a theatre manager
and actor, Weber was familiar with stage effects
from his earliest childhood. A roving life
made him familiar with German feelings, Ger-
man legends, German modes of thinking in all
classes of society. His training was German
rather than Italian, and was picked up in a
desultory way from a variety of masters. He
acquired experience as, an opera conductor
when he was very young, taking his first con-
ductorship at Breslau when he was only eigh-
teen years of age. Thus he was amply equipped
to write operas in the German spirit to German
text, embod}ring German legends, ideas and
feelings. This he did in his great opera, Der
Freischutz, written for Dresden in 1821. He
had been called there for the express purpose
of conducting German opera in a theatre espe-
cially set apart for it, in opposition to the es-
tablished Italian one, which principally enjoyed
the favor of the court. He had a hard fight,
meeting with all sorts of opposition. But Der
Freischutz was such a master work, it was so
original and fresh, it so characteristically em-
bodied the peculiar romantic spirit of the Ger-
many of that day, it appealed so strongly to
GERMAN OPERA,
113
national and patriotic feelings that it overcame
all opposition. No opera was ever more popu-
lar. It went all over Germany, it aroused
popular enthusiasm, it stimulated hosts of imi-
tators among young composers; m short, it
marks an epoch in musical history and may
fairly be considered as the beginning of Ger-
man opera. Two other operas followed this,
Euryanthe and Oberon, both of high rank.
Weber's earlier attempts, Abu Hassan, Peter
Schmoll and Sylvana are less important.
With Weber begins the great Romantic
period of musical art. We have already ap-
plied the term " classical " to Palestrina (see
Lesson XI.) on the ground that he combined
nobility of Content (what he had to express)
with perfection of Form (mode of expression),
and that he exerted permanent, profound and
far-reaching influence on the future course of
musical history. In this sense, Bach and
Haendel were " classical" composers, so were
Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven in the field of
instrumental music. But when, through the
labors of these and other great men, musical
Form, the whole technic of musical composi-
tion, had been developed to the point where it
was available to express freely and perfectly
all phases of human feeling, there came a time
when men began to lay more stress on the
emotions to be expressed than on the form of
the expression. The " Classical " movement
was essentially a development of Form. The
" Romantic " movement, beginning with Weber,
was essentially an attempt to utter, perfectly
if possible, but at any rate to utter, whether
perfectly or not, feelings remote from every-
day experience, aspirations after ideals unat-
LESSON XI It.
Beginning of
the Romantic
Period.
Thf "Clasni-
with the" Ro-
nutntic" move-
ment.
114
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
tained and perhaps unattainable, dissatisfac-
tion with present surroundings, longings after
ideal conditions more or less vaguely appre-
hended in imagination. The Romantic move-
ment in music was nearly contemporary with a
similar movement in German literature, and
was a part of the same great movement of
mind. As Dr. Langhans has pointed out in
Chapter XI of his " History of Music," the
tendency to seek relief from present unsatis-
factory conditions in the imaginary surround-
ings of an ideal world is lay no means new, nor
is it confined to any period of the world's
history. But it shows itself with peculiar force
whenever outward conditions become peculiarly
unsatisfactory or painful. Whenever men are
oppressed with pain, hunger, want, disappoint-
ment of any sort, they turn for relief to the
world of the imagination, and this life of the
imagination sooner or later finds expression in
some form of art.
The Romantic movement in German litera-
ture and German music was closely connected
with the oppressions, confusions, privations
and political and social disturbances of the
Napoleonic era. Beethoven, for a time, was a
worshipper of Napoleon, as the world's great
deliverer and the champion of Liberty, Equality
and Fraternit}r. The noblest hopes and aspira-
tions of the time of the French Revolution find
expression in Beethoven's music. But when
Napoleon became a self-seeking despot, the
oppressor instead of the deliverer of Europe ;
when governments fell before him, when whole
peoples were thrown into confusion, homes
were destroyed, women were maltreated, men
were butchered by the thousand for his
Dentition of the
Romantic
movement in
Germany.
GERMAN OPERA.
115
aggrandizement; when all Europe seemed to
be crushed under his despotic sway, and every
one seemed powerless to cure the evils of the
time, men's dissatisfaction, aspiration, anxiety,
despair, anger, fear, hope, denied their natural
outlet of action, found relief in the fields of
literature and art. Thus was born the German
romantic literature and, a little later, the Ger-
man romantic music.
Weber's " Der Freischiitz " was popular not
only because its subject and treament were
Tomartic, but because they were national.
Following him came a host of lesser competi-
tors. The greatest of them was undoubtedly
Heinrich Marschner (1796-1861). He was a
•highly-educated, liberal-minded man, a musi-
cian of great accomplishments and a composer
of marked talent. From 1831 to 1859 he was
conductor of the Royal Opera at Hanover.
His greatest opera, Hans Heiling, forms a sort
of connecting link between Weber and Wagner.
He wrote a number of other operas, of which
only two survive, The Vampire and The Tem-
plar and the Jewess, founded on Sir Walter
.Scott's Ivanhoe.
Next to Marschner in importance comes
Ludwig Spohr (1784-1859). His greatest and
"best known opera, Jessonda. was first given in
1823.
The romantic movement in opera culminated
in the work of Richard Wanner (1813-1883),
certainly one of the greatest minds of our time
and probably one of the greatest yet produced
by the human race. He was born in Leipzig
during the year of the great battle there iff
which Napoleon received his first check. His
•childhood and youth coincided with the re-
LlSSONXIII
Marschner.
Spohr.
Richard
Wanner,
1813-1883.
116
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
t
His youthful
characteristics
aiul mental
activity.
actionary years when the defeat of the great
French emperor had strengthened all the other
European sovereigns against all liberal tenden-
cies in France and among their own subjects.
It was a time of dissatisfaction, of suppressed
aspiration and longing among the nations.
The fceaven of the great ideas of the French
Revolution was working in the mind of Europe,,
and fresh outbreaks of the revolutionary spirit
were gradually preparing.
Young Wagner was of an ardent tempera-
ment, had a clear, strong intellect, a glowing
imagination, and shared enthusiastically in the
liberal, patriotic aspirations, enthusiasms and
disappointments of his time. His early study
of the piano came to nothing, because he could
not be made to practice the necessary technical
exercises, and there is no record of any other
systematic study of music in his early years.
After his father's death, which happened in his
infancy, his mother married an actor, Ludwig
Geyer, a cultivated, intelligent man, who did
much for Wagner's education. The family
then removed to Dresden, where he became
interested in ancient languages and in the
Greek literature, especially, and afterwards in
Shakespeare. His reading of the latter stimu-
lated him to write a tragedy in which, as he
informs us in an autobiographical sketch, he
killed off forty-two of his characters before the
end of the second act, and had to let most of
them reappear as ghosts in order to keep up
the action. This play occupied him for two
years. Such energetic mental activity as this,
in a mere child, was prophetic of the creative
power which afterwards engaged the attention
of the whole civilized world.
GERMAN OPFRA.
117
The first profound impression made on him
"by music was at one of the early performances
of " Der Freischiitz." His mother, again a
widow, soon after removed to Leipzig, and
here he made the acquaintance of the Beethoven
symphonies and of the same master's music to
Goethe's JEgmont. This stirred him up to write
music to his own tragedy. He found he knew
nothing of harmon3r and that he needed it, so
he undertook to prepare himself for composi-
tion in a week's stud}- of a text-book, without
a teacher! Characteristic, this, of his un-
bounded self-confidence, independence, and also
of his native energy and spontaneous mental
activity. His whole student life was full of
just this sort of self-guided activity. His mind
responded to whatever stimulus suited its
peculiarities, and whatever he became inter-
ested in he pursued with resistless energy until
some new interest turned his intellectual forces
into a new channel.
It was during these student years in Leipzig
that he determined to become a musician, pur-
sued his musical studies, partly under excellent
teachers, for he did, at last, find out that
teachers could help him, arid wrote considera-
ble music, of no value except as apprentice
work preparatory to his future creative career.
He developed himself on many sides, not only
by musical and literary study, but by practical
acquaintance with the stage, availing himself
of the opportunities given him by his relatives,
some of whom were connected with the theatre,
making the acquaintance of many works and writ-
ing an opera, which was not performed. He also
began writing criticisms which showed much
vigor of intellect and keenness of perception.
I.»880N XIII
Repioval to
Leipzig and
stiide-nt, life
there.
Musical
studies.
113
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
LESSON XIII.
Conductor in
gdtburg,
1834.
Conductor at
JConipx'Mtrg
and Riga,
18B-6.
Composes
" Rienzi."
Goes to Paris.
Poverty.
This brings us to 1834, the year of his
majority. In the fall of that year he became
onductor at the Magdeburg theatre, a position,
which he held two years, profiting greatly by
lis experience. He studied thoroughly a great
number of the current German, French and
[talian operas, and learned a greal deal more
irom his work in preparing them for stage per-
formance than he could ever have learned in
any other way. He wrote here his second
opera, on Shakespeare's " Measure for Measure,"
and had it performed, but with very incomplete
success. In 1836 he was conductor at Kb'nigs-
oerg, and the next year at Riga, but became
more and more dissatisfied with the deficiencies
inevitable in the appointments of the theatres-
of these small towns, and more and more con-
vinced that they were no place for him and his-
work. They had served his ends for appren-
tice experience, and he had outgrown them.
He had planned and finished a grand opera on
the story of " Rienzi," the last of the Roman
Tribunes, an opera which demanded the full
resources of a first-class stage. With character-
istic audacity he determined to strike out
boldly for success on the Parisian stage. Noth-
ing less than this would content this plucky
young fellow. So to Paris he went, sailing
first to London through the Baltic and North
Seas, meeting with storms, picking up sea
legends from the Norwegian sailors, seeing
much of the coast scenery of the Baltic and
conceiving the plan of his next opera, " The
Flying Dutchman." But when he got to Paris,,
success did not come. Meyerbeer tried to help
him secure a hearing for his Rienzi, but failed.
He had no money, he lived from hand to mouthr
GERMAN OPERA.
by doing hack work for the music dealers and
by writing for the newspapers. There 'was
absolutely no opportunity for him in Paris.
He stayed there in poverty until the spring of
1842, wrote his "Faust" overture and his
" Flying Dutchman " during the interval, and
tried to get them performed in Germany. In
this he at last succeeded. " Rienzi " was ac-
cepted in Dresden and the "Flying Dutchman"
in Berlin, both in the spring of 1842. He'went
to Dresden to supervise the production of
" Rienzi," and was soon appointed to the con-
ductorship forme'rly held by Weber. Now be-
gan his great career as a composer. " Tann-
hiiuser " was given in 1845, but was so original
in style, so different from anything to which
the public was accustomed, that hardly any-
body liked it. and the critics fell foul of it in
the savage way to which every one of his
predecessors in original musical creation had
to submit. It was no new phenomenon in
musical history. He wrote "Lohengrin" in
1847, but could not get it performed in his own
theater.
Then came the storm}' year of 18*8, a year
of uprisings against oppression, thrones totter-
ing, aristocracies shaking in their shoes, but
ending in hopeless submission for the masses
and death or exile for many of the noblest men
of Germany. Wagner, always a liberal, took
active part in the revolutionaiy movement, and
when the end came, had to take refuge in
Switzerland. In Zurich he lived until 1859,
occupy ing himself largety with writing contro-
versial pamphlets in which he set forth his own
art beliefs, his theories of the relation of music
to the drama and his opinions on things in
Fauat over-
hire,
flying
DutchrtMn.
Conductor in
Dresden, 1842.
Tannhauser,
1845.
Lohengrin,
1847.
Revolution
and exilf, 1848.
Hi s contro-
versial
icritinps.
120
LhSSUA'S 2N MUSICAL HISTORY.
7/,'v audacity.
ffmunds for
Jiix xetf-confl-
detice.
flummary of
/u'.< ill -til of
general and art matters in particular. He
violently attacked not only the absurdities and
trivialities of the Italian opera, but Meyerbeer,
Mendelssohn, in short most of the reigning
powers, saving Beethoven, whose worshiper
he always declared himself to be; and whose
work he aimed to continue and enlarge. He
did not stick at trifles, this man whose operas
the public would not listen to. Nothing was
too audacious for him. He went his own way,
thought his own thoughts, expressed them
publicly in no measured terms, knocked the
popular idols from their pedestals right and
left with sledge-hammer blows, set up his own
productions in their place and loudly called on
the outraged devotees to fall down and worship
the new divinities on pain of being considered
stupid, dull Philistines, devoid of all true
artistic intelligence.
In most men this would have been insane
conceit. In Wagner it was self-confidence,
based on a true insight. He had seen, clearly,
truths which the greatest of his predecessors
had at best dimly divined. " The Music of the
Future " was the title of one of his pamphlets
in which he set forth the theories on which he
worked. It became a rallying cry for his
friends, and a phrase of contempt in the mouths
of his enemies. The central point of his con-
ception, briefly stated, is as follows: The ideal
art-work, which is to meet the rational require-
ments of the future, must combine all the arts
in the service of one poetic conception. Music
must not, as in the Italian opera, claim pre-
cedence of poetry, nor must poetry exclude
music, because music is capable of vastly in-
tensifying the emotional effect of the words.
GERMAN OPERA.
121
Combined with these two must be the added
effect of the other fine arts — painting, sculpture,
acting, pantomine, dancing, everything, in short,
which can add to the clearness of the author's
conception and enhance the effect upon the im-
agination. No concessions must be made to the
vanity of singers, none to intellectual supine-
ness or indolence on the part of the audience.
The creative artist's poetic ideal must be su-
preme. The personality of the interpreters
st be sunk in the realization of this ideal.
In short, the art-work of the future was to be
a music-drama, setting forth in beautiful form
some noble conception, and combining the
resources of all the arts for its worthy embodi-
ment. Each art must sacrifice its supremacy
to artistic unit}' of effect.
It was not enough for Wagner to set forth
this conception in glowing colors in his numer-
ous pamphlets ; he attacked all existing, ao
well as all previous art-work, 'as unworthy of
this, the only true ideal. He proclaimed the
inferiority of the spoken- drama, of purely in-
strumental music. He affirmed that Beethoven,
the greatest of instrumental writers, after bring-
ing pure music to the utmost limit of its de-
velopment, had felt the necessity of combining
it with words, and that the Ninth Symphony
pointed the way to the art-work of the future,
which it was Wagner's mission to proclaim to
the world.
He did more than theorize and controvert.
He embodied his theoretical principles in a
series of stupendous master-works, which, in
spite of the violent storm of opposition they
had to encounter, both on account of their
novelty and on account of the personal enmity
His attack on
other produc-
tions.
Hi& great
Master -works.
122
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
their author had incurred by his audacious
polemics against established and long -cherished
ideals, forced their way to recognition, chal-
lenged, and gradually commanded the respect
and admiration of the best minds, and stand
to-day acknowledged as «,mong the most colos-
sal products of human genius. He had now
reached his intellectual maturity, and had made
clear his own ideals to his own mind, partly by
his attempts to embody them in his music-
dramas, and partly by his efforts to explain
them to others in his controversal writings.
Henceforth, he looked not only on "Rienzi"
and "The Flying Dutchman," but also on
" Tannhauser " and " Lohengrin," far in ad-
vance of popular appreciation as they then
were, as mere apprentice work — the necessary
preparation for his mature period of produc-
tion. In " Tristan and Isolde " he fully and
satisfactorily embodied his ripe views, and* fol-
lowed it up with his great tetralogy, based on
the " Niebelungen Lied," called, " Der Ring des
Niebelungen," a series of four connected music-
dramas, "D.as Rhinegold," "Die Walkiire,"
"Siegfried" and " Gotterdamerung." The
list of his masterpieces closes with " Die Meis-
tersinger," his sole effort at comedy, and " Par-
sifal," which deals with the legend of the Holy
Grail.
In consonance with the principles above
stated, these works show important peculiari-
ties of structure. They dispense entirely with
the traditional operatic and instrumental forms.
There are no arias, no "closed" forms any-
where. Wherever the action goes on the music-
goes on. The continuous flow of melody cor-
responds to the emotional current of the-
Tristan and
Isolde.
The Niebel-
ungen.
tetralogy.
The Master-
singers.
Structure of
these music-
dramas.
6KRMAN OPERA.
123
drama. The vocal parts are more impassioned L»9o*XI
declamation than singing in the traditional
sense. The orchestra has a principal place in-
stead of being subordinated to a mere accom
paniment. Each leading character is indicated
or suggested by a characteristic " leading-mo-
tive," and these motives are continually inter-
mingled in the orchestra in a complex web of
melodies varying according to the dramatic
situations, and to the progress of events upon
the stage. Nowhere is the attention of the
auditor withdrawn for an instant from the mat-
ter in hand. All the elements present combine
into one grand, artistic whole. From the be-
ginning the interest is concentrated on the
progress of events, until the drama culminates
in a magnificent climax. In all the essential
requirements of an art-work, unity, variety, sym-
metry, contrast, climax, these music-dramas
are ideally perfect.
In harmony, Wagner was an innovator. The
essential peculiarity of his harmonies lies in his
recognition of the value and naturalness of the
third and sixth relationships.* There had
been hints of this in Beethoven, Schubert, and
others. But in Wagner the principle comes,
for the first time, to its full recognition and
application. He broadened the conception of
tonality to its utmost limits, to the utter confu-
sion of contemporary theorists. No stricture
on him was more common than the assertion
that his music was devoid of tonality. It is
now beginning to be recognized that even those
harmonic connections in his works which once
* See the writer's " New Lessons in Harmony." To
pursue this subject in detail here would take up too much
space.
Peculiarity of
his Harmony.
124
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
His orchestra-
tion.
JfiJi creative
power, and
energy and
commanding
influence.
seemed most forced, strange, and unnatural,
are really simple and easily comprehended.
He merely discovered, clearly recognized and
applied certain natural principles of harmonic
relationships which had been overlooked by his
predecessors. This is one of the strongest evi-
dences of his genius. It was real creative in-
sight.
His orchestration is as original as his har-
mony. The most impressive quality of it is a
rich sonority, which makes even the colossal
Beethoven symphonies sound somewhat small
in comparison. Yet, Wagner's orchestration
is by no means noisy. It is surprising, when
one thinks of it, how sparingly he uses the
brass instruments, and how few additions of
special instruments he has made to the Bee-
thoven orchestra. The overwhelming sonority
of his scores seems to be due mainly to the dis-
tribution of harmonic elements, and to the rich-
ness and variety of the chords themselves. It
shows what can be done by a great master
with resources which, in the hands of a com-
monplace composer, would produce only insig-
nificant effects.
Whatever we may think of Wagner's the-
ories, or of certain details in them; whether he
was or was not more or less one-sided ; whether
he did or did not exaggerate this or that truth
at the expense of others, which will sooner or
later claim and obtain recognition, the facts
will always remain that he created some of the
most important and effective art-works the
world has yet seen, that he occupied a most
commanding position during a large part of
the present century, and that he possessed an
intellect and a creative power never surpassed
GERMAN OPERA.
125
and seldom equaled in the world's history
until now.
He won worldly success, also. Failing a
second time in Paris, after he left Switzerland,
he turned again to Germany, made his way
gradually, and in 1864 was called to Munich
by Ludwig II, who had just acceded to the
throne of Bavaria. From that time until his
death he enjoyed the support of his royal pa-
tron, he outlived the worst of the opposition to
his works, he actually got a special theatre
built at Bayreuth, a little remote town, had it
fitted according to his own ideas for the pro-
duction of his own works, and thither the best
and most intelligent musicians and connoisseurs
flocked from all over the world to hear his
music-dramas. In that theatre the orchestra
and conductor are out of sight, the auditorium
is in gloom, and the whole attention of the
hearer is concentrated on the drama enacted
before him on the stage. Recalls are unknown ;
each singer devotes himself exclusively to the
interpretation of the drama ; in short, it is a
temple where art alone is worshipped and
where self-seeking vanity is sacrilege.
The man who achieved such results may
have made mistakes; he had his errors, follies,
weaknesses; but he also had splendid, noble
qualities, he believed in his ideals, he had the
courage of his convictions, faith in himself,
indomitable energy, perseverance and courage.
He made the world go his way at last, and his
achievements are a permanent enrichment of
the world's intellectual and spiritual life.
His worldly
success.
Bayreuth,
1876.
Summary.
126
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
QUESTIONS.
In what city was the earliest advance made towards the
production of real German opera?
Name one of the most important composers there give
dates, at least approximately, and give some account of
lii« character and work.
Name other composers of that city.
What is a " Sing- spiel " ?
Give an account of Mozart's work.
Give dates of his birth and death.
What opera did Beethoven write?
Did it involve any new principles of dramatic compo-
sition ?
What is the general tone and spirit of it ?
Give dates of Beethoven's birth and death?
Who gave the first effective impulse toward the produc-
tion of German opera ?
Give dates of his birth and death.
What opera produced this result ?
In what year was it composed and where ?
Name the two other great operas of this composer?
What great period of musical art begins with Weber?
State, as clearly as you can, the difference between the
"classical" and "romantic" ideals.
What periods of history have been specially favorable to
the development of" romantic " art and literature and why ?
What era gave rise to romantic literature and music in
Germany?
Name two of Weber's greatest successors and their most
important works.
In whose work has German opera culminated ?
Give dates of Wagner's birth and death.
Give some account of his mental activity in his child-
hood and youth and of his education.
In what cities was he conductor of opera during his
apprentice period ?
What was his first important opera ?
To what city did he go to get it performed?
By what route?
Describe his fortunes there.
What was his second great opera ?
Where were his third and fourth written and how came
he there ?
GERMAN OPERA.
1-7
What were they, and what was their fate ?
How came he to leave Dresden?
Where and how did he spend the next period of his
life?
Where did he live from 1864 to 1883 ?
Name his remaining operas.
Give some account of the Bayreuth Theatre.
Give an account of Wagner's theory of the music-drama.
Describe the peculiar! ties of structure in his later works
What are the most striking innovations in Wagner's
harmony?
Of his orchestration ?
Give a brief summary of his character, work and place
in musical history.
The two lines
atony which.
opera ha.t
ileveloped.
Italian. Pre-
dominanre of
the foi-mal
element.
French and
German. Pre-
dominance of
the (trtimatic
element.
LESSON XIV.
THE OPERA: SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK.
THE music-drama, started in Italy almost
three centuries ago, has developed along two
great lines. In Italy its course was in the
direction of musical form. The musical part
of the opera was exalted at the expense of the
dramatic element, with the inevitable result of
making the singers eventually the 'ruling per-
sonages of the opera. Vocal attainments and
vocal display naturally and inevitably became
the prominent feature; singers were no longer
interpreters of a dramatic work, and Italian
opera was degraded from the ennobling aims
of the drama to a mere entertainment. It cul-
minated, so far as this tendency is concerned,
in the brilliant, hollow, showy but enticing
operas of Rossini.
Verdi's tendencies have been toward higher
aims, and there are not wanting signs that
Italian opera is to be regenerated, largely
through the influence of Germany and espe-
cially of Wagner.
The other line was that looking toward dra-
matic truthfulness of expression as the true
aim of opera, and making the musical element
subordinate to this end. To the French be-
longs the credit of keeping this ideal alive
when Italy had lost it, and for a century or
more before there was any independent national
qpera elsewhere. As regards this, its true
ideal, French opera culminates in the works
of Gluck. Meyerbeer, the greatest Parisian
favorite since Gluck, among composers of grand
128
THE OPERA SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK.
129
opera, was nearly as insincere and as con-
sciencless as Rossini himself, and contributed
in no small degree to the degradation of French
taste. Ballet, scenic display, sensationalism,
these are but too prevalent now in French
» grand opera, and as for comic opera, one needs
only to mention Offenbach to be conscious of
how low French taste for "amusement" has
fallen. But Gounod and Saint-Saens, at least,
are redeeming elements of a high class, and
there are indications of radical improvement.
The honor of developing opera in the line of
the true music-drama passed over to Germany
about 1820. The two great names are Weber
and Wagner, in which last it has reached a
height the immensity of which we cannot yet
fairly estimate and beyond which we cannot yet
see. No one can prophesy the future of German
opera. There are signs, however, that serious
aims in opera are not to be given up. Anton
Rubinstein's " Nero " is a work whose merits
are highly extolled, and Hermann Goetz's
(1840-1876) "Taming of the Shrew" was an
admirable work, and gave great promise of
what might have been but for the untimely death
of its author. But probably little remains for
young composers, at present, except to imitate
Wagner. Such periods as his are commonly
followed by periods of rest and a lying fallow
of the creative imagination before another great
period of production can come. Minds like
Warner's appear only at rare intervals.
The field of comic opera and of operetta has
been well worked in Germany, and especially in
Vienna, which pleasure-loving city fairly vies
with Paris in its craving for amusement. Resi-
dent composers have not been slow to provide
Anton
Rubinstein.
Hermann
Goetz.
130
THE OPERA: SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK.
mcolai.
Opera in
England.
it, and the operettas of Suppe, Strauss, Genee
and Milloecker have nearly or quite crowded
out Offenbach's in Europe and in America, in
North Germany there has been less of this sort
of work, composers there rarely descending be-
low comedy to farce. Nicolai's '• Merry Wives
of Windsor" is a fair example of the type of
comic opera in North Germany, as Suppe's
"Boccacio" is of the Viennese operetta. All
this activity on the lighter side of the musical
stage has gone on side by side with the serious
work of Wagner, and there are no signs of its
diminution.
In England there has been no original school
of opera. English composers of more or less
talent have followed on the lines of Italian,
French and German composers, and have pro-
duced works of some merit, though it would be
difficult to mention any such works that arc
likely fo prove lasting. The two most impor-
tant of the older names are M. W. Balfe (1808-
1870), who wrote a considerable number ol
operas, the best of which was " The Bohemian
Girl," and W. V. Wallace (1814-1865), whose
best opera was " Maritana." To these names
should be added two foreigners, long resident
in London, Sir Michal Costa (1810-1 884), and
Sir Julius Benedict (1804-1885).
Sir Arthur S. Sullivan (born 1842) is now
extremely conspicuous in the field of the oper-
etta. He owes a great deal to his librettist.
W. S. Gilbert, who is an adept in the manufac-
ture of droll absurdities in rhyme. His libret-
tos are wholly free from the risk}- situations
and improper suggestions which characlerize
so many of the Parisian and Viennese operettas,
a fact to which they doubtless owe 110 small
Balfe.
Wallace.
Costa.
Benedict.
Gilbert and
Sullivan.
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
131
portion of their popularity among . the best
classes in England and America. Sullivan is
not a composer of any marked originality. His
scores are full of reminiscences and borrowed
ideas. But both he and Gilbert are clever
writers and skillful purveyors of amusing trifles,
and have won an enormous popularity. Their
H. M. S. Pinafore was their first successful
operetta. It had a great run in England and
an enormous one in this country. It was fol-
lowed by Patience, lolanthe and TJ\e Mikado,
all of which have been successful.
Frederick H. Cowen (born 1852) is an opera i
composer of promise, who has done excel-
lent work in the field of instrumental music.
A. (7. Mackenzie (born 1847) has done nothing; Mackenzie,
yet in the field of opera, but his other work |
suggests that he might be successful here also. (
England has at present a number of thoughtful, j
earnest, native composers ; but there is nothing j
to indicate that they are about to originate a
national school of opera, unless, indeed, we look
on the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas as a
national type. The librettos, at least, could
have been produced nowhere but in England.
In America, thus far, there have been but few
attempts at operatic composition, and none of
them have yet won a pronounced success.
132
THE OPERA: SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK.
QUESTIONS.
What were the two great lines along which opera
developed ?
What was the result of the Italian method ?
In whom did this tendency culminate ?
What great Italian composer has shown himself some-
what superior to this tendency ?
Have the French maintained their original standard
of opera?
Name two prominent composers whose influence tended
to degrade it.
Who adopted the French ideal and improved on what
that nation had done?
Name two great contemporaries of Wagner.
Name some of the Viennese composers of operetta.
Name the prominent English composers of opera and
operetta.
LESSON XV.
ORATORIO, CANTATA, PASSION MUSIC AND SACRED
MUSIC FROM 1700 TO THE PRESENT.
MOST of the opera composers of the seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries wrote more or
less church music, and many of them wrote
also oratorios and secular cantatas. There was a
gradual broadening of the forms and a growing
freedom of treatment until the oratorio culmi-
nated, as regards perfection of form and dignity
and nobility of content in the works of George
Frederick Haendel (1685-1759). He was a
Saxon by birth, showed musical gifts in early
childhood, mastered all or nearly all the musical
knowledge of his time while he was still a youth,
spent some time in the Hamburg opera, went to
Italy for what he could learn there, then became
conductor and composer in Hanover, but soon
went to London, where he spent the rest of his
life. He wrote a good deal of music for the
organ, harpsicnord and violin, but devoted him-
self mainly to the Italian opera, on the model
of Alessandro Scarlatti. He was composer,
conductor and theatre manager, all in one, and
wrote forty-six operas, which survive now only
in detached arias. His career as an opera com-
poser closed in 1740. He had failed two or three
times, owing to quarrels with the nobility, the
only patrons of the opera at that time, and
thenceforth devoted himself to oratorio exclu-
sively. He had already done some work in this
field. Esther, Deborah, Athalia, and the cantata
Acis and Galatea antedate his withdrawal from
the opera, and so do his Anthems and the Det-
133
Haendel,
1685-1795.
134
ORATORIO, CANTATA, PASSION, SACRED MUSIC-
His great,
oratories.
Distinction
between
" or'atories"
" sacred
cantatas"
and" secular
cantatas."
Israel in
Euypt.
The Messiah.
tingen Te Deum. His greatest oratorios, written
in the full maturity of his powers are The
Messiah and Israel in Egypt. Others which
approximate these are Judas Maccabaeus, Saul,
Samson, Joseph, Joshua, Susanna, Solomon,
Theodora and Jephtha. The Messiah and Israel
in Egypt are the only ones which employ scrip-
tural words exclusively. The others have texts
based on scriptural stories, written by con-
temporary authors of reputation, and might
appropriately be called " sacred cantatas." " Ora-
torios," " sacred cantatas " and " secular canta-
tas" have precisely the same form, differing
only in character of the words. All three are
written for solos, chorus and orchestra. The
solo parts consist of recitatives and arias,
then there are commonly duets, trios, quartets,
etc., for solo voices. But the most characteristic
feature is the chorus, a large part of the genius
and skill of the composer being spent on the
choral writing. Israel in Egypt is a chain of
colossal choruses, many of them double chor-
uses, for two choirs. The solo work is compara-
tively slight. It is given much less frequently
than The Messiah, which has become the com-
mon property of all English speaking men and
is now given every Christmastide in many places
in England and America. It owes its enormous
popularity largely to Haendel's happy selection
of his text from the Holy Scripture. He had a
special aptitude for appreciating and expressing
the sublime, and The Messiah, perhaps even
more than Israel in Egypt, shows him at his
best. It was written in an incredibly short time
and with the greatest facility, and everywhere
displays the band of a great master. The steady
march of his magnificent chorusus has never
LESSORS /A' MUSICAL HISTORY.
135
ceased to uplift and to inspire the souls of
thousands, and the noble climaxes of the Halle-
lujah chorus and Worthy is the Lamb have never
been surpassed in choral writing. There are
tender passages, too, such as the part beginning
"Behold the Lamb of God." The contralto
aria " He was despised " and the short tenor
aria " Behold and see " are unsurpassed in
pathos, and the noble soprano air" I know that
my Redeemer liveth " is perhaps as immortal as
the sublime hope and faith of which it is the
worthy expression. There is a good deal, how-
ever, in The Messiah which betrays the Italian
opera composer. In the soprano air " Rejoice
greatly, "and in numerous other portions of the
work there are ronlades and fioriture which are
much more suggestive of solo display than of
devout worship. Notwithstanding the fact that
even these portions of the work correspond in
their general emotional tone to the sentiment
of the text, they are largely made up of ele-
ments which are temporary and according to
the fashions of the time rather than permanent
and universal. It is probable that this will
become more and more clear to the general
musical perception as men become gradually
familiar with the noble, serious music of Wag-
ner's Lohengrin and Parsifal, and that The
Messiah, as a whole, will suffer by comparison.
There are not wanting signs that the time will
come when the musical world may possibly
receive more religious inspiration from Wagner
than from Haendel, though this opinion must
now seem extremely heretical.
The Passion Music differs from oratorio, first,
in confining itself in its selection of Scriptural
texts to those portions of the Gospels narrating
Influence of
Italian opera
in the
Messiah.
Comparison of
Wauntr with
Haendel.
Passion.
Music.
136
ORATORIO, CANTATA, PASSION, SACRED MUSIC.
J. .?. Sach,
liW5-17r.lt.
St. Matthew,
Passion
Music.
the suffering and death of Christ; and second,
in combining with the Scriptural narrative solos
expressive of the emotions of the individual
believer and choruses to express the feelings of
the multitude. Both these latter have words
not taken from the Scriptures. Most, if not
all, the examples known were written for actual
use in church service on Good Friday.
The great master in this form was Johann
Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Like Haendel,
he was a Saxon by birth, began his musical edu-
cation in early childhood, mastered the harpsi-
chord, violin and organ, became the greatest
organist and fugue-writer of his time, perhaps of
all time, and finished his life as organist and
choir-master in the Church of St. Thomas in
Leipzig. This position he occupied for twenty-
seven years, writing hundreds of motets, canta-
tas, chorals, etc., for the use of his choir. He
is said to have written five separate examples
of" Passion Music," the greatest of them being
the " Passion Music according to St. Matthew."
a colossal work in every respect and a perma-
nent embodiment of this phase of Christian
faith and worship. It was first given at the
Good Friday service of 1729. and then was laid
aside for a whole century. It was revived by
Mendelssohn and his friend Edward Devrient
in 1829, and is now given publicly ever}' year
in Leipzig and elsewhere.
Not only did the Passion Music culminate
with Bach's great work, but it seems to have
ended with it. Since that time, so far as the
present writer's recollection goes, there has
been no art-work of importance of this kind.
The oratorio, however, has been successfully
cultivated. The most conspicuous examples of
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
137
it since Haendel have been The Creation, by
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), which perhaps
ought to be called a sacred cantata, and the two
oratorios St. Paul and Elijah, by Felix Men-
delssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847). The latter,
especially, is of a highly dramatic character.
Unlike The Messiah, it illustrates the progress
-of a story, and is a real music-drama, without
;action or scenic accessories. Both musically
•and dramatically, it is of a very high order of
merit, and its climaxes are exceedingly effective.
So is that of the first part of St. Paul. These
two oratorios would be sufficient to give Men-
delssohn a permanent place in musical history,
if he had written nothing else.
Since Mendelssohn a good many oratorios of
merit have been written. Conspicuous among
them are Naaman, by Sir Michael Costa ;
Christus, by Fredrick Kiel (1821-1885), late
professor of composition in the High School of
music in Berlin ; Calvary, by Ludwig Spohr
(1784-1859), and in America, St. Peter, by
John K. Paine (born 1839), professor of music
in Harvard University.
Related to this are sacred art-forms intended
for concert performance rather than for church
service. Such are the great mass in B minor.
by J. S. Bach, some of the masses of Mozart,
particularly his Requiem, those of Beethoven,
especially the great Missa Solennis in D major,
.Rossini's Stabat Mater, a brilliant and effective,
but insincere and non-religious work, Cheru-
bini's " Requiem, Berlioz's Requiem, Yerdi's
" Manzoni " Requiem, etc.
The masses for the Catholic church service
have been numerous, but none of them have
ever approximated the dignity, nobility and
LISBON XV.
Haydn.
Mendelssohn.
Costa.
Kiel.
Spohr.
Paine.
Concert,
Masses, etc.
Church Mule.
138
ORATORIO, CANTATA, PASSION', SACRED MUSIC.
LMKW XV.
Moritz
Hauptmann.
English and
American
Church Music.
serene religious feeling of Palestrina. Many
modern masses, especially by Italian and
French composers, are showy, false and mere-
tricious to the last degree. The Lutheran
Church music is based on the choral. Its art-
forms consist mainly in motets and short sacred
;antatas. Bach wrote them in great numbers,
and most German composers since his time
tiave written more or less of them, especially
motets. Moritz Hauptmann (1792-1868) one
of Bach's successors in his Leipzig post, was
one of the best of motet composers, distinguish-
ing himself in this field of composition, more
than in any other, and surpassing most if not
all others in it. In the Anglican Church, the
Anthem is the most important form, and well-
trained English composers, from the madrigal
composers down, have written anthems for the
church service. The other Protestant sects
have mostly eschewed the chants of the Angli-
can Church, but have largely adopted her hymn-
tunes and in part her anthems. They have
also borrowed motets, etc., from German sources.
Besides this, many congregations use frequent
arrangements from operas, secular songs, etc.r
set to sacred words, not always in the best
taste. The hymn-tunes and especially the
Sunday School tunes of this country are often
mere jingle, wholly unrelated to true religious
feeling and corrupting to the taste of those
who habitually use them. But there are also
excellent tunes in use, and on the whole, the
tendency is probably toward better and higher
things. Among our best native church music
is the work of Dudley Buck, whose two motette
collections have exercised an elevating influence
on American church music.
LES80N& IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
The secular cantata has been cultivated from
the time of the birth of the oratorio. Bach secular
TT 11 -rr i vantutas,
and Haendel wrote cantatas, Haydn wrote
The Seasons, Mendelssohn wrote Antigone and
others, Schumann wrote Paradise and the Peri,
based on Moore's " Lalla Rookh," and the ex-
amples since are too numerous to mention.
Berlioz's splendid Damnation of Faust belongs
to this species. Conspicuous among later
German works are Max Bruch's (born 1838)
Lay of the Bell and Frithjof, Heinrich
Hoffman's (born 1842) Cinderella, Johannes
Brahms'1 (born 1833) Binaldo, Song of Fate,
and others, and Anton Dvorak's (born 1841)
The Spectre's Bride. In England A. C. Macken-
zie's (born 1847) Rose of Sharon is perhaps the
best work of this kind. Sir Arthur S. Sullivan
(born 1842) has written The Prodigal /Son and a
setting of Longfellow's Golden Legend, but the
latter is inferior in every respect to that of our
own Dudley Buck (born 1839), who has also
written The Legend of Don Munio,a,nd a " Cen-
tennial" cantata. J. K. Paine's OeUipusis an
excellent work. Most of these works are
essentially operas without action.
140
ORATORIO, CANTATA, PASSION, SACRED MUSIC.
QUESTIONS.
In whose works did the oratorio culminate ?
Name his two greatest oratorios.
How came Haendel to devote himself to writing ora-
torios ?
Describe the distinctions between "oratorios" and
sacred and secular " cantatas."
Tell what you know of the peculiarities of The Messiah
and Israel in Egypt.
How does the " Passion Music " differ from " oratorio "?
Who wrote the greatest work in this kind ?
What do you know of him and of his work ?
Who wrote The Creation ?
What do you know of Mendelssohn's oratorios?
Name them.
Name some other oratorios and their composers.
Name some great masses intended for concert perform-
ance.
Name one of the greatest motet composers.
Describe the condition of English and American sacred
music.
Name an important American composer in this field.
Name several prominent composers of cantatas and their
principal works.
LESSON XYI.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SONG.
SONGS were among the earliest, probably the
very earliest, manifestations of what could be
called music. The impulse to express feeling
vocally is universal. All the world over women
have sung lullabys to their babes, and men have
given vocal expression to emotional excitement.
The feeling for rhythm, too, is universal. The
monotonous chants of savages naturally and
spontaneously fall into measured cadences, and
their war songs are accompanied by the rhyth-
mical beating of drums, gongs, etc. Out of
this natural feeling for melody and rhythm
grew both lyric poetry and the music to which
it was sung. The early song is, in fact, com-
monly a four line ballad stanza, fitting exactly
to an eight-measure musical period having two
four-measure clauses (or sections), each sub-
divided into two phrases of two measures each.
The plan of such a period then is as foll6ws :
4 meas. clause. 4 meas. clause.
1st Phrase. 2d Phrase. 3d Phrase. 4th Phrase.
The first phrase rhymes with the third and
the fourth with the second, i. e., the third is a
nearly or quite exact repetition of the first, and
the fourth repeats the second, but commonly
with a different close. Quite often, however,
the fourth differs from the second more than
merely in the close. The two clauses stand
in the relation of antecedent and consequent
(Thesis and Antithesis). This simple period-
141
Genesis of
Song.
Metrical
Form.
The simple
period.
142
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SONG.
Two periods
with
connecting
link, (refrain.)
Development
of lorm.
The elaborate
song of the
Romantic
epoch.
Schubert,
1797-1828.
form, applied to. the first stanza of a ballad,
used to be applied equally to all the rest, the
same tune being used for all the stanzas.
Sometimes there is a short refrain of two lines
after the stanza, and then the stanza is repeated.
An excellent example of this is the ancient
French tune " Malbrook," known in this coun-
try as " We Won't Go Home Till Morning."
Here the two-phrase refrain is in the nature of
a connecting link between two repetitions of
the main period, and the whole is the germ of
what some writers call the " First Rondo-
Form." These simple formations were more or
less extended as Form was developed in the
hands of the great masters. The arias of the
great operas and oratorios were elaborate
forms, either in the smaller rondo-form or in
the composite primary forms, and the more
elaborate songs of Mozart, and especially of
Beethoven, were built on a similiar plan. But
it ought to be noted that the more elaborate of
these songs and arias were often, if not gener-
ally, set to words not cast in the ballad mould.
Even the great masters, when they treated the
ballad stanza, were apt to make a single air do
duty for a good many stanzas.
With the rise of the romantic epoch came
the feeling that every portion of the song ought
to have its special, appropriate form of emo-
tional expression in music. The man who once
for all established this principle in song-writing,
and made the emotional character of the sepa-
rate stanzas the governing principle in the
music, was Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828).
In spite of what had been done before him, his
work was so important, both in quantity and in
quality, that he is regarded as the creator of
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
143
the German art-song, as opposed to the folk-
song, or popular ballad. In Schubert's songs,
the instrumental portion takes a much more
prominent place than in the folk-song and in
the songs of the masters who had preceded him.
It is no longer a mere accompaniment ; it is an
essential portion of the emotional interpreta-
tion of the poem, has independent melodic
value, and frequently takes the principal mel-
ody, the vocal part being subordinate. In this
respect, Schubert's innnovations in the song
are closely analogous to those of Wagner in
the opera, where the orchestral portion is as
important as the vocal, or even more so. Schu-
bert wrote some six hundred songs, and set to
music a large part of the German lyric poetry
known in his day, and no small portion of the
English. He was a creative genius of the first
rank as regards spontaneity in the invention
of beautiful and characteristic melodies, and
his work constitutes an art-treasure of perma
nent value.
Following him came the great romanticists,
Mendelssohn (1809-1847), Schumann (1810-
1856), and later, Robert Franz (born 1815), a
most original and charming composer.
Among the greatest of living song-writers
are Anton Rubinstein (born 1830), and Johannes
Brahms (born 1833). There is a host of song
composers of merit, both contemporary with
these men and younger than they. They are
far too numerous to mention, and mention is
the less needed, as none of them have made any
innovations on the principles of the romantic
writers. They have simply enriched musical
literature with numerous songs, more or less
excellent.
Mendelssohn.
Schumann.
Robert Franz.
Rubinstein.
Brahms.
144
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SONG.
QUESTIONS.
In what impulse of human nature did vocal music take
its rise ?
What determined the form of the simple period ?
Give plan.
Do lyric popular ballads commonly have more than one
tune for the different stanzas ?
Give an example of ballad stanzas with a refrain.
Of what art-form is this the germ ?
What is the essential difference between the lyric ballad
and the art-song, as developed in the romantic period ?
What was the feeling which led to the development of
the art-song ?
Who was the great composer of such songs ?
Give dates.
What is the relation of the instrumental to the vocal
portion of Schubert's songs ?
Give some account of his work, both in quantity and
quality. •
Give names of later song composers of the first rank.
LESSON XVII.
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC FROM 1700 TO THE PRESENT.
THE germs of the symphony, as we have
seen, were in the opera overtures of Lully and
of Alessandro Scarlatti. The three, parts of
which they were composed became separated
after the overture began to be used as a sepa-
rate instrumental piece in concert performances,
and thus it became the modern symphony. The
sonata, originally a piece in one movement,
also took on the same form as the symphony.*
J. S. Bach and Haendel cast a great deal of
their harpsichord music in the form of suites,
generally consisting of six or eight dance tunes,
contrasted with one another in tempo, but all
in the same key. Johann Kuhnau (1667-1722),
Bach's predecessor at Leipzig, was the first man
who used the tit^e u sonata " for his harpsi-
chord music. Domenico Scarlatti (1683-1757),
son of Alessandro, was a great harpsichord vir-
tuoso. He wrote numerous " sonatas " in one
movement for his instrument, which differed
little, if any, from the single movements of
Bach's suites. All the composers of the time
wrote fugues, Bach's " Well Tempered Clavi-
chord " and his organ fugues being the culmi-
nating point of this style.
The first to write sonatas for the harpsi-
chord in three movements was Carl Phillip Em-
manuel Bach (1711-1788), son of J. S., for a
long time court-pianist to Frederick the Great
of Prussia, and afterwards settled in Hamburg.
* For a fuller exposition of the sonata, see the writer's
" History of Piano-Forte Music."
145
LMSON XV1T.
Origin of the
symphony.
The Suite.
The Sonata
Jfuhnau.
D. Scarlatti^
C. f. E. Bach,
1711-1788.
146
Jfaydn
Mozart,
17o6-1791.
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, PAST AND PRESENT.
:
His style differs greatly from that of his father,
and he is the real creator of the modern sonata,
for Haydn, Mozart, and even Beethoven mod-
eled on him. The French contemporaries of
Bach and Haendel, Rameau, Couperin, Mar-
chand, etc., have been referred to in a previous
lesson.
After Emmanuel Bach had outlined the so-
nata, it was taken up by Joseph Haydn (1732-
1809) in Vienna. He wrote a great number of
piano-forte sonatas, trios, string quartets and
symphonies (one hundred and eighteen of the
latter), all in the same form, and showed so
much inventive genius, originality and skill
that he is by far the most prominent figure of
his time in instrumental music. His work
marks an epoch in this field.
W. A. Mozart (1756-1791) lived during
Haydn's career,' had the benefit of his work,
possessed a splendid originality, and surpassed
Haydn in the development of his forms, and in
the richness, fulness and variety of his instru-
mental combinations. The most of Haj'dn's
symphonies were written for a small orchestra,
made up of the usual string quintet (first and
second violins, viola, violoncello and double
bass), two oboes and two horns. Mozart added
to these two flutes, two clarionets, two fagotti
(bassoons), two trumpets and two kettle-drums.
Haydn's later symphonies, after Mozart's work
was published, approximated his in fulness.
Both had the four great families of instruments :
viz., 1, stringed instruments played with a bow;
2, wood-wind; 3, brass; and 4, instruments of
percussion. In his three greatest sj-mphonies,
the "Jupiter" in C, the G minor, and the E-flat
major,Mozart not only developed the symphony
LESSONS TN MUSTCAL HISTORY.
147
form to its utmost limits, but enriched the world
with beautiful instrumental combinations greatly
in advance of Haydn, and hardly surpassed by
even Beethoven- himself. Mozart wrote a vast
quantity of piano music, chamber music, songs,
and orchestral music, besides his operas, church
music, and forty-one symphonies.
Ludwig von Beethoven (1770-1827) was the
next great symphony writer, although he was
much less prolific than Mozart or Haydn. He
wrote only nine symphonies, the last closing
with a movement for solos, chorus, and orches-
tra. He accepted the form of the S3rmphony
as completed by Mozart. He added to Mozart's
orchestra two more horns and three trombones,
a combination now known as" grand orchestra,"
and accepted by all symphony composers since.
The piccolo and contra-bassoon he used but
rarely. His acknowledged superiority to all
other symphony writers before and since lies
in the nobility, elevation and depth of the emo-
tional content of his works. They reveal a
moral earnestness and a high spiritual quality
not to be found before him, nor after him until
we come to Wagner. His chamber music, his
church music, his one opera and his piano-forte
sonatas display the same nobility of character,
the same serious thoughtfulness and the same
consummate mastery of style.
Franz Schubert (1797-1827), the great song-
writer, also wrote nine symphonies and a great
quantity of piano-forte and chamber music,
very little of which was performed during his
lifetime. His greatest work is the ninth sym-
phony, in C major. All these works are charac-
terized by spontaneity, freshness of melodic
invention, exquisite beauty of harmony, refine-
,
1770-1827.
Schubert.
1797-182*.
148
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, PAST AND PRESENT.
Weber.
Hummel.
Otter
instrumental
composers.
ment, and, in the chamber and orchestral works,
by extreme beauty in the instrumental combina-
tions and contrasts. Most of them are prolix
and lack mental concentration", and in general
there is more vividness and exuberance of im-
agination than intellectual restraint and self-
control. He shows the dawning influence of
the romantic period even more than Beetho-
ven, who, more than any other composer, com-
bines in himself the superior excellences of
both the classical and the romantic ideals.
The opera overtures of C. M. von Weber, the
great contemporary of Beethoven and Schu-
bert, are instrumental compositions of high ex-
cellence in every respect. They are romantic
in spirit ; but as regards form, do not depart
from classical models. His piano-forte music
is of less importance.
Next to these three, their most renowned
contemporary in the field of instrumental music
was J. N. Hummel (1778-1837). In his time
he had a great reputation as a pianist and a
composer of piano-forte and chamber music,
and some of his concertos and chamber compo-
sitions are still played. Other composers of
distinction in this field were Muzio dementi
(1752-1832), Pleyel, Dussek, Steibelt, Woelfl,
Cramer, Field, Hies, Kalkbrenner, Onslow,
Moscheles, Czerny*
These names bring us up to and even beyond
the opening of the romantic epoch, for Mos-
cheles and Czerny outlived most of the great
romantic composers. The four years, 1809-
1813, ushered into the world five great com-
posers, whose work, taken together, constitutes
* See the writer's " History of Piano-Forte Music," for a
more definite account of these men and their work.
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
14'J
the romantic epoch. These were 'Felix Men-
delssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847), Frederic
Chopin (1810-1849), Eobert Schumann (1810-
1856), Franz Liszt (1811-1886) and Richard
Wagner (1813-1883). To these names must
be added that of Hector Berlioz (1803-1869),
who wrote in the spirit of extreme romanticism,
but his work was almost isolated, met with
very little success during his lifetime, and exer-
cised comparatively little influence in shaping
the course of musical history. His symphonies,
" Episode in the Life of an Artist," " Hai'old in
Italy," and others, are extremely fantastic.
Of the others, Wagner's instrumental writing,
although of great importance, was almost ex-
clusively in his music-dramas, and has already
been treated of under the head of German
opera. Of the others, Mendelssohn, Schumann
and Liszt wrote piano-forte music, chamber
music and orchestral music. Chopin's writing,
with the exceptions of his two concertos, a few
other concerted pieces and some songs, was
confined to the piano-forte. The work of these
four men has been so fully estimated, especially
as regards their piano-forte writing, in the pres-
ent writer's "History of Piano-Forte Music,"
that the subject may be treated briefly here.
Mendelssohn was, by nature and education,
a classical composer. He modeled on the
classic writers ; the violence, self-assertion and
stormy passion of the extrame romanticists
was foreign to his nature and repulsive to his
taste. His music is. above all, refined, elegant,
graceful. His style is clear and finished. But
he could not escape the influences of his time,
and was more or less of a romantic composer,
whether he would or no. Probably his greatest
Thf, Romantic
composers.
Berlioz,
1803-1869.
Mendelssohn,
1809-1847.
150
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, PAST AND PRESENT.
8"hwnann,
1810-1856.
orchestral work is the overture to Shakespeare's
"Midsummer Night's Dream," a thoroughly
romantic work in every respect. He is roman-
tic, also, in that he sought, in his overture,
" The Hebrides," his " Italian," " Scotch" and
" Reformation " symphonies, and in his " Songs
Without Words " for the piano-forte, to express
emotions connected with definite scenes. He
wrote a great deal for the piano-forte and for
the organ, and some excellent chamber music,
besides his orchestral works.
Schumann was constitutionally a romanticist,
and his natural tendency was fostered by his
early reading of the German romantic litera-
ture. He was taciturn, but the passion which
did not express itself in words or behavior
I found vent in his music. His songs, his piano-
forte works, his chamber music, his symphonies,
are characterized by profound feeling, by burn-
ing passion, often by headlong impetuosity.
His imagination is vivid and powerful, but he
has also light and playful fancy. His intellect
was characterized by strength and depth,
rather than by clearness. His style as a com-
poser is bold and original, but often somewhat
obscure. This last quality is partly due to his
original and peculiar rhythms. He was late
in mastering the technic of composition, and
never had it at such complete command as did
Mendelssohn, whose " Midsummer Night's
Dream " overture, perhaps his greatest orches-
tral work, was written when he was only seven-
teen years of age.
Schumann wrote several symphonies, an
opera, " Genoveva," and some cantatas ; but he
will probably live in history by his piano-forte
music, especially the Fantasia op. 17, the Etu-
LESSONS AV MUSICAL HISTORY.
151
des Symphoniques, the Kreisleriana, the Novel-
ettes, the Fantasy Pieces and the Forest Scenes,
by his songs and his chamber music. Schumann
can hardly be said to have originated any new
forms ; his forms are adopted or slightly modi-
fied from the traditional ones. He is at his best
when, using the simpler forms, under no re-
straints imposed by an elaborate plan, he gives
free rein to his imagination, and allows the
stream of his romantic feeling to flow without
hindrance.
Chopin was perhaps the most strikingly
original of all the romantic writers except
Wagner. His reputation depends exclusively
on his piano-forte music. It is characterized
by extreme refinement and finish, by elegance
and grace, but some of it also by a volcanic
passion which knows no restraint but that
imposed by an exquisitely refined artistic per-
ception. Chopin is profoundly original in his
melodies and embellishments, in his harmonies
and cadences, and in his applications of the
principles of form. Among his greatest works
may be named the two concertos, especially the
one in E minor, the Etudes, op. 10 and op. 25,
some of the Polonaises, especially those in E
flat and in A flat, the Scherzos, the Ballades,
the Impromptus and the Fantasie in F minor.
But hardly less original and fine are the Noc-
turn, Mazurkas and Preludes and, in truth, he
has written almost nothing which would not be
sufficient to stamp him as an epoch-making
composer.
Liszt will be known in history as the man
who, more than any other, developed the mod-
ern piano-forte to its highest capacity, by the
demands which his works make on the instru-
LUBON XVII.
Chopin,
1MO-LS4!!.
Liszt,
1811-18*6..
152
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, PAST AND PRESENT.
LBWOK XVII.
The
Symphonic
Poem
compared urtth
the symphony.
ment, especially as regards sonority. He also
ranks as the greatest of piano-forte virtuosi.
But he will also be known as the inventor of
the " Symphonic Poem, "an important modifica-
tion of the orchestral S3rmphony.
The Symphcny, as developed by Haydn and
Mozart and applied to the highest ends of
emotional expression by Beethoven, may be
regarded as the culmination of classical form.
In its most elaborate form, it consisted of four
separate pieces or " movements," contrasted
with one another in tempo and in emotional
character. One of these movements was always
a " sonata-form," * the most elaborate of the
different forms of the classical epoch.
The symphonic poem, on the other hand, is
the culmination of the romantic ideal in the
field of instrumental music. That ideal de-
mands that form shall be subordinate to con-
tent ; that the free expression of feeling shall
be the first aim and end of music ; and it re-
gards form merely as an indispensable means
to this end. In the symphony, each separate
movement serves to express a separate phase
of emotional experience. It comes to an end,
the players stop, and the work enters upon an-
other phase of feeling, disconnected with what
precedes and what follows. But in actual ex-
perience, feeling is continuous throughout our
waking hours. One emotion fades into another,
or is replaced by another, without any break in
consciousness. Commonly, each phase of feel-
ing is developed from those which went before
it ; when it is not, there is either a profound
modification of feeling or a change, which
* See the chapter on " Form " in the writer's " History
of Piano-Forte Music," or any good work on musical form.
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
amount to revolution, by the occurrence of
some unexpected event. The symphonic poem
seeks to conform itself to these facts of emo-
tional experience. Its movements follow each
other without break, and it aims to express
truthfully not only separate phases of feeling,
but the connection and relation of these phases.
It discards entirely the classical sonata-form,
rondos and dance-forms, such as the scherzo
and the minuet, and aims to determine the suc-
cession and relation of its musical ideas solely
in accordance with the exigencies of emotional
expression. Of course, it must and does meet
the intellectual and aesthetic requirements of
every work of art. It must, in order to be
beautiful, meet the demands of unity, variety,
symmetry, contrast and climax. But this
orderly arrangement of ideas is not, as in the
classical symphony, predetermined according
to a cut-aiid-dried formal plan, to which the
emotional content is subordinate, but is de-
pendent on the natural order and succession of
the emotions to be expressed. In the syrn-
phon}r, the logical order is form first and con-
tent second. In the symphonic poem, the logi-
cal order is content first and form second.
Form is only a means of expressing feeling.
Perhaps a word may be needed here with ref-
erence to the capacity of music to express
feeling. No one will doubt that music is
capable of expressing and revealing such
simple emotional states as pain and pleasure.
Every one regards certain music as cheerful, or
joyous, or exultant, or martial, or sad, or
solemn, or melancholy, etc., as the case may be.
But can music express the more complex feel-
ings, such as love, hate, anger, jealousy ? The
Music as an
expression of
emotion.
154
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, PAST AND PRESENT.
"Programme
• Music."
answer is, yes and no. Love, for example, im-
plies the relation of two persons, and these
persons and their relation constitutes a neces-
sary element of the conception. This element
music cannot express. There is no musical
formula, no succession or combination of tones
which can represent to our minds a man or a
woman, or the relation of the two. But the
emotional element of the case, the states or
movements of feeling involved, are expressible
in music. It is entirely possible to write music
which shall be universally acknowledged as ap-
propriate to a love-scene, as revealing an emo-
tional state which could exist under no other
conditions. Love, then, is not merely a feeling,
but the conception of it implies an intellectual
as well as an emotional element, and this ele-
ment must be supplied by words, or scenery, or
pantomime, or by all three, if the conception is
to come to complete and vivid realization.
Music expresses only the emotional element,
but it expresses it with a 'force, subtlety and
intensity such as no other means of emotional
expression can pretend to. These considera-
tions are the true ground on which the Wagne-
rian music-drama must rest for its justification.
It is the union of all the arts for the complete
embodiment of complex mental states and move-
ments, such as cannot be fully and perfectly
realized to the imagination by means of any
one of them alone, or perhaps even by any two
in combination.
The symphony and the symphonic poem,
being instrumental music, can, of course, ex-
press feeling and only feeling. But, since all
our feelings, except occasionally the simplest
ones, are induced by ideas, by scenes, events,
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
155
the relations of persons, etc., it was natural
and perhaps inevitable, that the composer of
the symphonic poem, starting from the desire
to express definite feelings and laying out his
emotional plan on which the form of his work
was to depend, should imagine to himself some
story. A connected series of events, power-
fully affecting the feelings and progressing to a
climax, would afford the needed basis for such
a work, and would be likel}7 to kindle his im-
agination more vividly than would mere musical
phrases unconnected in his mind with any
characters or defined occurrences. This is
what Liszt did. His symphonic poems bear
such titles as "Mazeppa," "Tasso," "Hamlet,"
" Dante," "Prometheus," etc., and are attempts
to express the train of emotions appropriate to
the series of events in the stories, and to ex-
press them in their natural connections and
relations.
Whether he aimed to express them with such
definiteness as to make his music suggest
clearly each separate incident of the story be-
yond the possibility of mistake, may perhaps
be questioned. The best of all his " symphonic
poems" is probably " Les Preludes" which
aims to express the emotions awakened by a
passage from Lamartine, the gist of which is
that life in all its vicissitudes is but a prelude
to eternity. This central thought gives scope
for lofty feeling, noble aspiration, solemn, sub-
lime emotion in the contemplation of Infinity,
and for the contrast of such feelings with the
ordinary experiences and passions of human
nature. Liszt's success in this work is proba-
bly due, not only to the more inspiring char-
acter of his theme, but also to the fact that
LISBON XVII.
LiszPs
syrnphonic
poem "Les
Jf^relitdes."
156
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, PAST AND PRESENT.
LISSOM XVII.
Tendency to
overstep the
limits of
expression in
music
2,iizt's place in
musical
history.
there was no story. It is no part of the func-
tion of music to tell a story. While it may
legitimately illustrate a story by intensifying
the expression of the feelings connected with
it, there is a constant temptation, in a purely
instrumental composition, where a story is used
as basis, to make the music overstep its natural
limitations. There will be a constant tendency
to try, not only to express the feelings, but to
suggest the ideas. There have been marvel-
ously clever, ingenious and measurably suc-
cessful instances of this in the "programme
music " which makes up so large a portion of
eNWork of the romantic writers, and to which
Berlioz's symphonies and most "symphonic
poems " belong. But, at best, such efforts can
only be incompletely successful. Purely in-
strumental music is better confined to the ex-
pression of moods and movements of feelings
without seeking to embody other than musical
ideas. If a story is to be told, words or visible
scenes and pantomime can express fully and
clearly what music can, at best, only suggest
vaguely and indefinitely.
It is, perhaps, too early io make a final esti-
mate of Liszt's rank as a composer. His place
in history, as regards his creative work, will
ultimately depend on his intellect, imagination,
originality, feelings and moral qualities. As
regards intellect, imagination and originality
he will rank high; though this latter quality
showed itself less in power of melodic invention
than in his innovations in harmony and in his
extensions of the traditional limits of tonality.
In these particulars he is hardly inferior to
Wagner himself. But when we come to the
content of his music, to the feelings he sought
LESSONS JN MUSICAL HISTORY.
157
to express and the moral qualities they reveal,
it is at least very doubtful whether he can be
accorded ai^ but an inferior rank. " Les Pre-
ludes " is probably his greatest work, and it
certainly deals with the noblest and most in-
spiring themes, but it nevertheless reaches no
such heights of elevated emotion as do the
noblest works of Bach, of Beethoven or of
Wagner. The moral implications of the best
works of these three men are such as raise
them high above the plane of feeling revealed
in the best of Liszt's compositions. But the
fascinating influence of his personality, the
dazzling brilliancy of his performances as a
piano-forte virtuoso, the force of his character,
the consciousness of power and the quiet audac-
ity with which he commanded worldly success,
as well as some amiable and generous qualities,
have so possessed the imaginations and blinded
the perceptions of two generations of young
musicians, that comparatively few of his con-
temporaries are capable of applying sober judg-
ment, either to his works or to his personal
character, of which his works are the outcome.
Later generations will probably judge his seri-
ous defects much less leniently.
Among the best writers of " programme
music" is Camille St. Saens (born 1835), a
Parisian organist, pianist, conductor and com-
poser of great ability. His symphonic poems,
" Phaeton," " Danse Macabre," " Le Rouet d'
Omphale" and " La jeunesse d' Hercule " are
extremely clever and successful attempts at
suggesting the story indicated by the title, by
means of characteristic musical treatment. But
he has not confined himself to this field of com-
position. He has also cultivated the classical
Saint Sttens.
158
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, PAST AND PRESENT.
L«sso* XVIL
Other
<xntipoiter» of
instrumental
music in our
time.
forms, writing symphonies, concertos, organ
music and piano music, besides church music,
an oratorio and several operas. He ranks high
among living writers, and is the most origi-
nal among the younger generation of French
composers, as Berlioz is the most original in
the generation which preceded him. His work
is much more sane than that of his extremely
eccentric predecessor, whose work, although it
has latterly excited much interest as the work
of a powerful intellect and a brilliant, vivid,
lu-ated imagination, is never likely to be
accepted as a model. In one respect only has
Berlioz's life- work been obviously productive of
results in the musical world. He enriched the
orchestra with new instruments and with new
combinations and contrasts, producing many
novelties in special effects. His work on in-
strumentation has been widely studied and ver}'
influential.
In Germany, composers of sonatas, sympho-
nies and chamber music have been innumerable,
this kind of work being aimed at by every
ambitious student. The greatest names are
Joachim .fta/f (1822-1882), who occupies middle
ground between the classical composers and
the extreme romanticists; Johannes Brahme
(born 1833), and Anton Rubinstein (born 1830),
whose work is of the most important in our
generation. Other noteworthy names in this
field are Carl Eeinecke (born 1824), Niels W.
Gade (born 1817), Robert Volkmann (born
1815), W. Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875), an
English pupil of Mendelssohn; Max Bruch
(born 1838), Heinrich Hoffman (born 1842),
8. Judassohn (born 1831), Anton Dvorak
(pron. Dvorshak, born 1841), a most origi-
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
159
nal and eccentric genius ; Edw. Grieg (born
1843), /. L. Nicode (born 1853), ' Morit.z
Moszkowski (born 1854), Philip ticharwenka
(born 1847), and his brother, Xaver (born
1850), Peter Tschaikowsky (born 1840), G.
tiyambati (born 1843), one of the best represent-
atives of the New Itaty, F. H. Cowen (born
1852), and A. C. Mackenzie (born 1847, in Eng-
land), and John K. Paine (born 1839, in this
country). This list might be indefinitely ex-
tended. The mere mention of all the names of
composers of ability and promise would take
up too much space for our present limits. It is
peculiarly gratifying to an American to see how
many young composers are now coming forward
in this country, with thoroughly creditable
work. This remark would be still more forcible
if applied only to pianists and composers for
the piano-forte. America now contains a large
number of these of very high standing, and
their ranks are being constantly recruited.
Because of the primary importance of the
violin as an orchestral instrument, this lesson
would hardly be complete without a brief sketch
of the progress of violin music since the time
of Corelli. In his day, Italy was the home of
violin music, as of all other music, and that
country long retained her supremacy in this
field. Omitting lesser names, the next great
Italian violinist was Giuseppe Tartini (1692-
1770). He was a highly educated man, and
contributed much not only to the development
of violin-playing, but to general musical intelli-
gence. He discovered the combination (re-
sultant) tones, and utilized them as a means of
securing pure intonation. He not only derived
the major chord (over-chord) from the first six
LKS30N XVII.
Violin music.
Tartini.
160
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, PAST AND PRESENT.
Viottl.
Paganini.
of the overtone series, as did Rameau,his great
contemporary, but he succeeded, where Rameau
had failed, in basing the minor chord (under-
chord) on the undertone series. But, as in the
time of Zarlino, who made the same discovery
before him, this idea bore no fruit, because the
mind of musical Europe was not yet prepared
to receive it. Whether the time is even yet
ripe for the inevitable revolution in harmonic
conceptions consequent on this idea, remains
to be seen. It doubtless lies at the foundation
of scientific harmony teaching in the future,
near or remote.
Tartini was a prolific composer, writing a
great deal of violin and chamber music. He
had a romantic experience in early life, conse-
quent on a secret marriage with a young lady
related to Cardinal Cornaro, the discovery of
which necessitated flight and a long conceal-
ment in a monastery. Most of his life was
passed as solo-violinist, orchestral conductor
and teacher in Padua, where he founded a high
school of violin playing. His compositions
rank high, and are even now played.
Another great Italian name in the field of
violin-playing is Giovanni Battista Viotti (1753-
1824), called, " the father of modern violin-
playing," and regarded as one of the most im-
portant composers for his instrument. He
wrote twenty-nine violin concertos, eighteen
violin sonatas, and a great deal of chamber
music. A larger part of his life was spent in
Paris.
The greatest of all Italian virtuosi on the
violin, and probably the greatest player yet
known, as regards technic, was Niccolo Pa-
ganini (1774-1840). He was a Genoese, came
LESSONS 7.V MUSICAL HISTORY.
161
of an uncultivated famity, had little or no edu-
cation, and was by no means an admirable
character. But he possessed special talent for
music, early became a master of the violin,
combined all the excellence of other virtuosi
and surpassed them all, and astonished all
Europe with his enormous technical attain-
ments, and with the fire and passion of his
playing. He was not an interpreter of the great
classics for his instrument; he was original,
wilful, capricious, and, above all, effective, not
to say sensational.
In France and Belgium, a French-speaking
country, there have been many great violinists
in our time — Artot, Baillot, de Beriot, Lafont,
Molique, Leonard, Vieuxtemps, Sauret, Rhode,
Ovide Musin, and others. In Germany and
elsewhere in Europe, the greatest names of our
century are Spohr, Ferdinand David, long a
distinguished teacher in the Leipzig Conserva-
tory, Kreutzer, Ernst, Wienawski, Auer, Dan-
da, Joseph Joachim, August Wilhelmi, Bemenyi,
Saraste. Many other distinguished players
might be named, and there are now young vio-
linists coming forward who bid fair to rival the
solo performances of the best of their predeces-
sors.
LlSBOK XVII.
Modern
Violinists*
162
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, PAST AND PRESENT,
QUESTIONS.
How did the modern symphony arise?
What is a "suite?"
Who were the greatest writers of suites?
Who was the first composer who employed the title
sonata?"
How many movements in D. Scarlatti's sonatas?
How did these differ from the pieces of Bach and
Haendel?
Who was the greatest composer of fugues?
Who wrote the first harpischord sonatas in three move-
ments?
What great composers modeled their sonatas on his ?
Describe Haydn's services in the development of instru-
mental music.
How did Mozart's symphonies differ from Haydn's?
In whose works did the symphony form culminate ?
Who is acknowledged as the greatest of symphony com-
posers and in what does his superiority consist ?
Give some account of Schubert's instrumental music.
Weber's.
Name some noted contemporaries and successors of
theirs.
Who were the great romantic composers?
Give some account of the works of Mendelssohn, Cho-
pin and Schumann.
Also of Berlioz and his works.
Name some of the principal works of each of these
composers.
By what achievements will Liszt be known in history?
What is the characteristic difference between the Sym-
phony and Symphonic Poem f
What is the relation of music, as a means of expression,
to such emotions as love, hate, etc. ?
What considerations justify Wagner's principles as a
composer of music drama ?
How comes it that so many symphonic poems of Liszt
and others have names-implying a story or underlying plot ?
Can music tell a story ?
If not, why not ?
Given a story which excites a series of contrasted feel-
ings, can music suggest the story to any one who knows
beforehand what it is?
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
163
Would it be likely to suggest the story to any one who
did not know beforehand that the composer had the story
in mind when he wrote his music ?
Name Liszt's greatest orchestral work.
Why is it more successful than his other works?
How does it compare in nobility with the greatest works
of other great writers ?
By what qualities will Liszt's final place in history be
determined ?
In which of these qualities is his pre-eminence doubt-
ful?
By what qualities did he become popular?
Name the best of the younger French composers of
programme music and give some account of his work.
Give some of the greatest names in instrumental music
in Europe and in America.
Give some account of Tartini.
Of Viotti.
Of Paganini.
.Name some of the other great violinists.
LXMON XVIII.
Relation of
Ancient to
Modern Music.
Twelve
centuries of
but slight
progress.
LESSON XYIII.
CONCLUSION.
WE have now dealt, in outline, with the whole
history of music as developed in the Christian
Era. Pre-christian music has received but slight
treatment, not because the subject is not in-
teresting, but because it is greath* inferior in
interest and importance to our own music.
Ancient music, even in Greece, never passed a
certain rudimentary stage, and it is to our own
time that we must look for all the higher de-
velopments of the art. Nevertheless, the Greek
theory and practice, although the latter was
imperfectly understood and the former grossly
misapprehended, exercised on Christian music
an influence so important that it seemed neces-
sary to give a brief account of the Greek theory,
at least, and to point out its relations to our
own, as was done in Lesson I. But the limits
of the space allowed forbade a complete state-
ment of all the later refinements of Greek
theory, such as the enharmonic and chromatic
modes, etc.
The history of modern music begins with the
first attempts of Christian prelates to improve
church music. The first events of note are few
and far between. The setting up of singing
schools and choirs in the early part of the fourth
century, the establishment of the four " authen-
tic " scales by St. Ambrose about the end of the
same century, the addition of the four "plagal"
scales by Gregory the Great, two hundred years
later, the spread of the Gregorian chant under
the Empire of Charlemagne, the first crude
164
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTORY.
1C5
attempts at harmony by Hucbald, three hundred
years after Gregory, the beginnings of our staff
notation by Guido of Arezzo a hundred years
after Hucbald, the first use of notes to measure
*-he length of tones by Franco, of Cologne, two
hundred jrears later still, these are all the events
of note in the development of scientific music
for the first twelve centuries of Christianity.
It was a thousand years after the early Christians
began singing hymns in their worship before
there was any adequate means of representing
relative pitch, and twelve hundred years before
there was any adequate notation for represent-
ing the length of tones. Thus slowly did the
fundamentals of musical science develop them-
selves.
After the thirteenth century progress went
on with constantly accelerating rapidity. The
beginning of the fourteenth century ushered in
the great and decisive epoch of the Netherland-
ers, and at the very culmination of their work
came the invention of opera, as an attempt to
revive the Greek drama, and the oratorio, grow-
ing out of the miracle plays. Out of these has
come a steady growth up to the latest culmina-
tion of the opera in the music-drama_Q_f_ Wagner.
These forms of art necessitated the, perfection
of vocal music, both solo and choral, and the
independent development of the organ and
harpsichord and of the several orchestral instru-
ments. Out of the latter came solo playing and
the special development of instrumental music,
culminating in the fugue, as the acme of the
contrapuntal style and in the sonata, symphony
and finally, of the symphonic poem as the acme
of free style.
LESSON XVIII.
Accelerated
progress from
the
13th century
onward.
166
CONCLUSION.
No new path,
yet clearly
marked out.
Theflfldof
the ti/mphonic
poem open to
original work.
Thus far we have come ; and the question
naturally arises : What next ? Is there to be
an advance on Wagner in the field of the music-
drama? If so, in what direction? Will any
composer in the field of the oratoria surpass
Haendel's Messiah or Bach's Passion Music
according to St. Matthew? Will orchestral music
go beyond the Beethoven symphonies or the
symphonic poems of the later romanticists?
If there is now existing any new principle to
be developed in any field of musical art, it is
not plainly to be seen, and, so far as known to
the present writer, no one has announced the
discovery of any new path into which the com-
posers of the next few decades are to lead us.
Instrumental composers content themselves
with reproducing the classic forms of Mozart
and Beethoven, infusing into them more or less
of the spirit of the romantic school, or they
return to still earlier, even archaic forms, such
as the suite and its components. Comparatively
few seek to follow in the steps of Liszt and of
Berlioz. Yet precisely in the field of the sym-
phonic poem is there room for the originality of
genius to assert itself. That form is new and it
is also legitimate, based on true natural princi-
ples. Liszt originated it, but he ctid not exfiaust
it. With the symphony it is different. Beet-
hoven's genius was so colossal that it is hardly
conceivable that his greatest symphonies can
ever be surpassed. Whereas Liszt's genius was
by no means commensurate with the form he
invented. It is quite within the possibilities
that men now living may listen to symphonic
poems by some composer as yet unheard of, the
content of which shall be vastly more sublime
than that of any such works now existing.
LESSONS IN MUSICAL HISTOR Y.
167
As regards oratorio, no one seems to dream
of any advance in principle on those of Haendel.
Mendelssohn's " Elijah " is more dramatic, but
that is merely because it deals with a subject
capable of dramatic treatment. And no ora-
torio since " Elijah " has equalled that work.
The music-drama of Wagner represents the
culmination both of dramatic ideals and dra-
matic effects in the realm of opera, so far as yet
appears and so far as can now be foreseen. And
as regards solo performances, both technical
skill and interpretative power seem to have
reached the limit of human capability.
Nevertheless it would be rash to conclude
that the art of music has fully exhausted its
possibilities and is now to enter on a period of
stagnation and decadence, as other arts have
done. It would be presumptuous now, certain-
ly, to affirm that the next generation may not
have as great surprises in store for it as the
great romanticists have given us. When they
have come, if they do come, they will furnish
matter for the critic and the historian. At
present they are beyond prophecy and even
beyond conjecture.
LKSSOS. XVIII.
Apparent
culmination of
the opera and
the Qratorio.
168 CONCLUSION.
QUESTIONS.
Why was it best to deal but briefly with Ancient Music?
Why deal with it at all ?
Describe the slow progress of early Christian music.
Give a brief summary of musical progress after 1300.
Do we know of any new principle in musical art likely
to be developed in the near future ?
Why is there now more room for the exercise of original
creative power in the field of the symphonic poem than
in that of the symphony ?
Is there any apparent prospect that the Wagnerian
music-drama will be surpassed ?
>• "8
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169
170
TABLE OF CHRONOLOGY.
TABLE OF CHRONOLOGY.
171
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172
TABLE OF CHRONOLOGY.
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INDEX.
PAGE.
Preface iii
Introduction vii
Oriental and Ancient Music I
The First Ten Centuries of Christian Music 9
From Guido of Arezzo to the Beginning of the Supremacy of
the Netherlanders, about 1000 to 1400 19
The Epoch of the Netherlanders, about 1400 to 1600 27
The Rise of Dramatic Music, 1600 37
The Beginning of Oratorio, 1600 46
General Survey of the Musical Situation at the End of the Six-
teenth Century. Condition of Instrumental Music 52
The Progress of Opera 64
Music in the Seventeenth Century 75
Music in the Seventeenth Century (Cpncluded) 83
Italian Opera from Alessandro Scarlatti to the Present 91
French Opera from Lully's Time to the Present 101
German Opera 109
The Opera : Summary and Outlook 128
Oratorio, Cantata, Passion Music and Sacred Music from 1700
to the Present 133
The Development of the Song 141
Instrumental Music from 1700 to the Present 145
Conclusion .^164
A Comparative Table of Chronology 169
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