PIANOFORTE MUSIC
HISTORY, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND
CRITICAL ESTIMATES OF ITS GREATEST
MASTERS.
JOHN COMFORT FILLMORR.
PHILADELPHIA:
THEODORE PRESSER,
1708 CHESTNUT STREET.
1892.
COPYRIGHT i8?3,
TOWNSEND MAC COUN,
Cii.fCA.CO.
7oc
I
PREFACE.
IN entering a field hitherto unoccupied by any English-
speaking writer, the author of this book has had in
view the following objects:
To discriminate clearly the natural epochs into which
the history of pianoforte music divides; to give a lucid
statement and exposition of the principles of composi-
tion which have governed and determined the creative
activity of those epochs; to trace the development of
these principles as manifested in the phenomena of
composition, and to point out the relation of the work
of each epoch to what preceded and what followed it;
to call attention to the great epoch-making composers
whose work furnishes the chief examples of those char-
acteristic principles ; to give a clear and discriminating
account of their work, a trustworthy estimate of their
relative rank and place in history, and to furnish bio-
graphical sketches of them sufficiently full to give gen-
eral readers a not inadequate notion of the men and
their lives ; to notice the work and lives of minor com-
posers and performers with as much fullness as the
iii
iv PREFACE.
limits of the book would permit ; to trace the develop-
ment of the technic of the pianoforte ; to give a suf-
ficient account of the instruments which preceded the
pianoforte, and of their relation to that instrument.
How far he has succeeded in his aims he leaves to
the judgment of his readers. But whatever shortcom-
ings may be discovered in his work, the attempt is one.
which he believes ~ requires no apology. The number
of those who are strongly interested in the best piano-
forte music is already large and is rapidly increasing.
To all such, and especially to those who, like the author,
are engaged in teaching the pianoforte, a connected
account of the course of development of that music
and of the composers who were instrumental in that
development, can not fail to be welcome.
Of the subjects here expounded, "The Content of
Music" and "The Classic and Romantic" certainly
deserve much more attention than they have hitherto
received, and it is hoped that the present exposition
will be found valuable. The biographical sketch of
Chopin will be found more complete and accurate than
any heretofore published in English, and the other
biographies and critical estimates are at least fresh, and
express the author's own .judgments.
The work has been a labor of love, and the author
PREFACE.
can find no better wish for those who may do him the
honor to be his readers, than that they may find the
perusal of his work as interesting and profitable as the
composition of it, and the necessary preparation for
that composition, have been to himself. With this
wish, and the sincere hope that his work may not only
give useful information, but prove a helpful stimulus
to the highest musical and intellectual life, he offers it
to the public.
J. C. F.
MILWAUKEE, Wis., March 27 1883.
NOTE. The author takes this opportunity to acknowledge his
obligations to numerous friends, and especially to Professors J. M.
Geery, of Ripon College, W. S. B. Mathews, of Chicago, and Libra-
rian Linderfelt, of the Milwaukee Public Library, for valuable
suggestions, criticism and assistance.
PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION.
The author has felt called upon to make a few
additions to the list of minor composers and concert
pianists (all Americans) of the present time. He
has made a very few verbal changes in the book and
has added questions at the end of the chapters,
hoping thereby to increase its usefulness. Beyond
these improvements he sees no way of bettering his
work at present. He takes occasion once more to
express his thanks to the musical public for its
approval of his efforts.
MILWAUKEE, October, 1888.
CONSPECTUS.
INTRODUCTION.
THE PIANOFORTE AND ITS IMMEDIATE PRECURSORS, THE HARPSICHORD
AND THE CLAVICHORD.
PART I.
THE FIRST CLASSICAL PERIOD.
CHAPTER I. POLYPHONIC MUSIC.
CHAPTER II. THE THREE GREATEST COMPOSERS OF POLYPHONIC MUSIC
FOR THE HARPSICHORD : J. S. BACH, G. F. HAENDEL, D. SCARLATTI.
PART II.
THE SECOND CLASSICAL PERIOD.
A. THE EPOCH OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SONATA-FORM.
CHAPTER III. MONOPHONIC MUSIC FORM THE SONATA-FORM.
CHAPTER IV. THE THREE COMPOSERS WHO DEVELOPED THE SONATA-
FORM TO ITS LOGICAL LIMITS : C. P. E. BACH, JOSEPH HAYDN,
W. A. MOZART.
B. THE EPOCH OF THE PREDOMINANCE OF CONTENT IN THE SONATA.
CHAPTER V. THE CONTENT OF MUSIC.
CHAPTER VI. L. VAN BEETHOVEN : THE COMPOSER WHO EMBODIED IN
THE SONATA THE NOBLEST POSSIBLE CONTENT AND RAISED IT TO THE
HIGHEST SIGNIFICANCE AS A WORK OF ART.
vii
viii CONSPECTUS.
C. THE TRANSITION FROM THE CLASSIC TO THE ROMANTIC PERIOD.
CHAPTER VII. THE CLASSIC AND THE ROMANTIC IN MUSIC.
CHAPTER VIII. BEETHOVEN'S TWO GREATEST CONTEMPORARIES IN THE
DOMAIN OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC : C. M. VON WEBER AND FRANZ
SCHUBERT.
PART III.
THE ROMANTIC PERIOD.
CHAPTER IX. MENDELSSOHN, CHOPIN AND SCHUMANN. \)V
PART IV
THE DEVELOPMENT OF PIANOFORTE TECHNIC.
CHAPTER X. THE TECHNIC OF THE FIRST CLASSICAL PERIOD.
CHAPTER XI. THE TECHNIC OF THE SECOND CLASSICAL PERIOD.
CHAPTER XII. THE TECHNIC OF THE TRANSITION
CHAPTER XIII. THE TECHNIC OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD
PART V.
!!!^!!i -5 /)
nc PERIOD. ffOl
MINOR COMPOSERS AND VIRTUOSI OF THE DIFFERENT EPOCHS.
CHAPTER XIV. A. THE EPOCH OF POLYPHONIC MUSIC.
B. THE EPOCH OF THE SONATA.
C. THE CONTEMPORARIES OF THE ROMANTICISTS AND THEIR SUC-
CESSORS, TO THE PRESENT.
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE Music,
INTRODUCTION.
THE PIANOFORTE AND ITS PRECURSORS, THE CLAVI-
CHORD AND THE HARPSICHORD.
t
The pianoforte* is an instrument too well known to
require description here. Its characteristic pecu-
liarity, as .distinguished from the instruments from
which it was derived, the harpsichord and the clavi-
chord, is that the tone produced from its strings can
be made soft or loud at the pleasure of the per-
former. The means by which these effects are pro-
duced consist in hammers connected with the keys,
and so arranged that the performer can, by graduating
his touch, make them strike the strings with varying
degrees of force, with the effect of eliciting every
degree of sonority of which the strings are capable.
The pianoforte was invented in Italy, at the be-
ginning of the eighteenth century. The first piano-
fortes of which we have any authentic information
were made in Florence, by Bartholomew Cristofori,
*The name u pianoforte " is a compound of two Italian words, piano,
soft, and forte^ loud. It means, therefore, etymologically, a " soft-loud."
INTRODUI -
TION.
The Pia.:o
forte.
Invented in
Italy about
1700.
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
INTRODUC-
TION.
The Harp-
sichord and
Clavichord.
Their tones
weak.
in 1709. These instruments were the result of
efforts to improve the harpsichord, so as to make it
capable of producing tones of various degrees of
power. This need was everywhere felt, and other
makers of harpsichords, in other countries, were also
engaged in attempting to solve this problem. The
harpsichord and clavichord had this in common with
the pianoforte; they had metallic strings, stretched
horizontally in a frame over a sounding board, and
were played by means of keys. But the strings of
the harpsichord were snapped, by means of crow's
quills, and those of the clavichord were set in vi-
bration by means of a. push from a small brass wedge
or " tangent," set in the end of the keys. This lat-
ter instrument already had some capability of gra-
dations of power, and for this reason it was a favor-
ite with the best musicians. It required great deli-
cacy of touch, and in the hands of a master was,
within certain limits, a very expressive instrument.
But strings vibrated in this manner were necessarily
thin and light, and- produced only soft and delicate
tones.
The' harpsichord also had light strings, and its
tones were weak. It was not only impossible to
produce much variation in the power of the tone,
but no powerful tone could be obtained from any
string, whether light or heavy, by any such methods
of producing vibration. Heavy strings, especially,
must be struck, not snapped nor pushed, in order to
produce their maximum of tone; and it was in the
direction of heavy strings and a larger sounding
INTRODUCTION.
board that progress was to be made toward an in-
crease of sonority, after the means had been found
of producing the greatest amount of tone of which
the lighter strings were capable, as well as of vary-
ing their power.
In the early part of the last century, then, the
clavichord and harpsichord had reached the limit of
their development, and musicians and instrument
makers were anxiously striving to secure results of
which these instruments were intrinsically incapable.
But, though Cristofori, and others of his contempor-
aries and immediate succcessors, hit on the right
principle, the first crude applications of it were not
immediately successful. The new instruments did
not find favor with players for a long time. This
was partly because of the still remaining defects of
their construction, for much time was required to
perfect the complicated action of the pianoforte so
as to secure promptness, delicacy and power of
touch, to damp the strings properly, to remove the
hammer from the string as soon as it had struck,
and have it in readiness for an instant repetition of
the stroke. It was also partly due, perhaps, to the
fact that players accustomed to the older instru-
ments could not readily find themselves at home with
the new mechanism, and preferred that with which
they were familiar. At any rate, so great a musi-
cian and player as J. S. Bach, condemned the Sil-
bermann pianofortes shown him in 1726, as being
heavy in touch, and weak in the treble; his son, C.
P. E. Bach, is said always to have preferred the
INTRODUC-
TION.
New results
sought.
Mechanical
results to be
attained.
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
INTRODUC-
TION.
The Spinet
und Virgi-
nals.
clavichord, and even Mozart, to the end of his life,
was a harpsichord player, rather than a piaorist.
But toward the end of the century, great improve-
ments were made in the construction of the piano-
forte; the number of compositions specially calcu-
lated for the capabilities of the instrument had
greatly increased; the younger musicians had be-
came familiar with its manipulation; and by the be-
ginning of the present century, the clavichord and
harpsichord were driven forever out of use.
In closing this brief sketch, it remains to give a
passing glance at two other instruments, the spinet
and virginals. Concerning these it is only necess-
ary to say that they were merely varieties of the
harpsichord, differing from it only in shape and size,
but not in principle, much- as square and upright
pianofortes differ from a concert grand, which is
shaped like the old harpsichords.
A full account of all these instruments is to be
found in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musi-
cians.
PAET FIEST.
THE FIEST CLASSICAL PEEIOD,
1700-1750.
CHAPTER I.
POLYPHONIC MUSIC.
Melody is a series or succession of tones rhythmi-
cally ordered.
Harmony is a combination of tones heard simul-
taneously. x
Counterpoint is the art of writing two or more
melodies to proceed simultaneously. Music thus
written is called "contrapuntal" or "polyphonic''
The latter term means "many-voiced." In poly-
phonic music, harmony is an incidental result of the
simultaneous progression of the voices.
"Monophonic " or "homophonic "* music has only
one principal melody. This is usually accompanied
by chords, more or less full, either in their simple
form, or broken up into arpeggios. Sometimes,
however, other subordinate melodies form the ac-
companiment, to a greater or less extent. This is
especially true of the bass, which often is a well-
defined melody, but is never, in this style of music,
quite equal in importance and interest to the princi-
pal melody. Sometimes, indeed, the principal mel-
ody is given to the bass, the harmonic accompani-
ment being above it.
*The present writer has chosen the term "monophonic" ("one-voiced"),
as representing more accurately the fact that music in this style has
only one prominent melody at any given point. Many German writers
prefer the term "homophonic."
7
CHAP. I.
Definition
of Terms,
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP.
Beginnings
of Modem
Music.
Early
Counter^
point.
In the monophonic style of composition, harmony
is no longer an accident, so to speak, but the chords,
in their successions and relations, exist independent
of any interweaving of separate melodic parts.
The beginnings of our modern music, in the early
Christian church, were monophonic in the strictest
sense. The congregations sang their hymns in uni-
son, without any accompaniment. Afterwards,
singers and composers began to accompany this
melody with one or more independent melodies, in
tones of the same length as those of the original
melody, or cantus firmus, as it was called. This
was the beginning of counterpoint, "punctum contra
punctum" point against point. At that time there
were no notes; points weie used instead. We
should say note against note. Certain monks of
the middle ages cultivated this science; sought to
determine what intervals might be admissible; and
gradually developed their art to a high pitch of per-
fection. The separate melodies gradually became
more and more florid, the number of them was in-
creased, until, at last, compositions were written in
as many as thirty-six real parts. Of course, these
extremely complicated webs of tone were nearly or
quite unintelligible to most musicians, and wholly
so to amateurs. But they were masterpieces of in-
genuity, and the interest in counterpoint which pro-
duced them, had developed consummate skill in the
management of simultaneously progressing voice-
parts.
The technic of composition in this first great
POL y PHONIC MUSIC.
style (the polyphonic) was developed through the
enthusiastic labors of composers, monks, theorists
and pedants, among whom there appeared, now
and then, a man of genuine creative genius. Among
these ought especially to be mentioned ORLANDUS
LASSUS, (1530 (?)-i594) a Netherlander, whose most
important work was done in Munich, and GIOVANNI
PIERLIUGI DI PALESTRINA (1524-1594), a Roman
church composer, in whom the contrapuntal art pre-
vious to Sebastian Bach found its culmination.
At first, the efforts of contrapuntists were directed
solely toward the discovery of intervals pleasing to
the ear, and combining melodies so as to produce
agreeable effects at every point. Then came the
effort to enhance the effect of consonances by the
judicious use of dissonances. This resulted in mak-
ing the parts more smooth and flowing in their
movement. But, as the separate melodies began to
be more and more florid, the need of some means
of securing unity was felt. A complicated web of
interwoven melodies, having no elements in com-
mon, and nq bond of union except consonance in
their intervals would be nearly or quite unintelligi-
ble. The means by which unity was secured was
Imitation.
Of Imitation there are two principal kinds, the
Strict and the Free.
The simplest foum of Strict Imitation is the Canon.
In this form of composition, after one melody has
proceeded alone for one or more measures, another
part (or "voice") begins the same melody, and con-
CHAP. I.
The technic
of Composi-
tion devel-
oped.
The pleas-
ing in sen-
sation
sought first.
Strict Imi
tation
10
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. I.
The Fugut
The Fugue
in two-voice
parts.
tinues it, in strict imitation, at the interval of an oc-
tave (or perhaps some other interval), until the final
cadence of the first melody is reached, when the
second melody is modified to suit the requirements
of the close, and both come to an end together. Of
course, in the invention of the first melody regard
must be had to the imitation which is to progress
with it. This requires much ingenuity and skill.
There are also canons in three, four, or more -parts;
and many curious and ingenious kinds of canons,
which can not here be described.
The most elaborate of the forms of Strict Imita-
tion is the Fugue. This is the culmination of the
strict polyphonic style, both in respect of technical
requirements, of beauty, and expressive power. A
fugue may be written in two, three, four, five or
more parts. Some one of the parts starts with a
short, well-defined melody, which is the "subject"
of the fugue. Then another voice replies with an
imitation of this subject, in the key of the dominant.
This imitation is called the "answer" The first part
accompanies the answer by a new melodic phrase,
so contrived as to contrast with the original phrase
and serve as a foil to it. This is- called the "counter
subject." If the fugue is in two parts only, when the
answer is completed by the second part, the "exposi-
tion" of the fugue is said to be complete. Then fol-
lows an interlude or episode, in which fragments of
the subject and counter subject are used as imita-
tions. This episode leads to the second entry of
the subject, which commonly takes place in reverse
POLYPHONIC MUSIC.
1 1
order to the exposition; /. e., if the exposition began
with the soprano and the bass answered it, the bass
now leads with the subject and the soprano follows
with the answer. After this comes another episode,
and then a " stretto" where the answer enters before
the subject has finished. The whole is closed with
a " coda" more or less elaborate.
This is the simplest outline of the fugue form.
When the fugue is written for three, four or more
voices, there are often more than three entries of
the subject and answer in all the parts. After the
exposition, or first complete entry of all the voices,
the order of entrance and the modulations into dif-
ferent keys are left to the imagination and skill of
the composer. So are the length and richness of
the interludes, and the greater or less elaboration of
the coda. The stretto is sometimes a strict canon.
The counter subject is often so constructed as to go
in double counterpoint with the subject; that is, is so
contrived that the lower of them may be transposed
an octave higher, or the higher an octave lower, and
the relations of the two still be correct and satisfac-
tory. There are fugues with two, three, four and
more subjects.
Free Imitatio?i occurs when the imitations of a
given subject or " motive " take place without any
exact following of the original order of intervals,
and not in accordance with any fixed rule as to their
number, or the order of their entrance. The old
compositions in this style were Preludes, Inventions,
Fantasias, Toccatas, Sonatas, and various forms of
CHAP. I.
More
elaborate
Fugues.
Double
Counter-
point.
Free Imita-
tion.
12
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
dance music. Most of the compositions passing un-
der these names were polyphonic.
The sonata form will be considered further on.
The Suite was a series of dance tunes, often intro-
duced by a prelude. They were invariably all in
the same key, and were so arranged as to contrast
with one another in tempo. The first dance was
commonly moderately fast; the second very rapid,
the third slow and stately, the fourth and perhaps
the fifth less slow, but still majestic and dignified,
and the last a lively, rollicking jig.
The following examples are recommended to
students. J. S. Bach, " Two-part and Three-part
Inventions, " Das Wohltemperirte Clavier " (The
Well-Tempered Clavichord), a collection of forty-
eight preludes and fugues in all the keys; English
and French Suites and Partitas. Haendel,* six-
teen Suites, Legons, Pieces, Fugues, Fuguettes.
D. Scarlatti, eighteen pieces (Buelow). All these
can be obtained in the cheap but excellent edi-
tion of C. F. Peters in Leipzig. There is also a
set of pieces by Scarlatti, edited by Louis Koehler,
and published by Julius Schuberth & Co., Leipzig.
The polyphonic music was first written for voices,
and for the service of the church. Afterwards secu-
lar music, (madrigals, etc.) came into vogue. .When
the organ and other keyed instruments had been
invented, they were at first used for accompani-
*For typographical reasons the e is used in this and all other cases in-
stead of the umlaut.
POL Y PHONIC MUSIC.
ments to vocal music. From this it was an easy
step to transfer the vocal forms to separate instru-
mental performances, and this naturally led to inde-
pendent composition for these instruments. The
most elaborate and masterly fugues are those of J.
S. Bach, for the organ and clavichord. For these
instruments the polyphonic music was written, and
with the year of Bach's death, 1750, this first classi-
cal period may be said to have closed. Its signifi-
cance to us lies in the fact that all its treasures are
still available for the pianoforte, which has sup-
planted the harpsichord and clavichord, and that a
knowledge of it is indispensable to every pianist.
CHAP. ].
CHAPTER II.
CHAP. II.
J. S. Bach.
Life and
education
at his
brother's.
THE THREE GREATEST COMPOSERS OF POLYPHONIC
MUSIC FOR THE HARPSICHORD:
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, 1685-1750.
GEORGE FREDERICK HAENDEL, 1685-1759.
DOMENICO SCARLATTI, 1683-1757.
By far the most important of all composers for
the harpsichord was John Sebastian Bach. He was
the most distinguished representative of a numerous
family of musicians, who lived in Eisenach and its
neighboring towns for some two centuries. They were
a simple, honest, straightforward, high-minded race;
they lived quiet domestic lives, and devoted them-
selves to their art, with a simplicity of character, and
an elevation of purpose, which always secured them
the respect and love of their fellow-townsmen. The
subject of this sketch was born in Eisenach, March
21, 16,85. He received his first lessons from his
father, beginning with the violin. But losing both
his parents before he was ten years old, he went to
live with his older brother, Johann Christoph, organ-
ist at Ohrdruff. With him he began lessons on the
clavichord. He made remarkable progress, and
speedily gave evidence of the gifts which were by
and by to raise him to the highest pinnacle of fame.
His brother seems to have repressed rather than
encouraged the impulses of the child's genius. He
/. 5. BACH.
not only refused him the use of his own collection of
music, by the best masters of the time, but after the
boy had surreptitiously obtained the book, and la-
boriously copied the whole, by moonlight, this hard-
hearted and unappreciative teacher took the well-
earned and dearly-prized copy away from him. At
the age of fifteen, He was s^nt away to Lueneburg to
school, and entered the choir, in which his services
paid for his school tuition, including vocal and instru-
mental music. He made rapid progress in playing
the organ and harpsichord, and improved every op-
portunity to hear the best performers of Lueneburg
and the neighboring town of Hamburg. He was
also greatly influenced and inspired by the per-
formances of the duke's orchestra at Celle, a band
at that time made up largely of Frenchmen, and
playing mostly French music.
He remained at Lueneburg three years. At the
end of that time he entered an orchestra at Weimar,
and soon after became organist at Arnstadt. Here
he studied and practiced with the utmost diligence
and zeal, striving to perfect himself, both in playing,
and in theory and composition. In 1705 he spent
three months at Luebeck, for the purpose of hearing
the celebrated organist, Buxtehude, and of becom-
ing acquainted with him.
Bach's reputation as an organist was now begin-
ning to spread. He received several offers of situa-
tions, and in 1707 he accepted an organist's post at
Muehlhausen in Thueringen, but left it in 1708, when
he was twenty-three years old, to become court or-
Schcol life
at Luene-
Goes to
Weimar.
i6
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. II.
Becomes
Court or-
ganist.
Removes to
Leipzig.
Visits
Frederick
the Great.
ganist in Weimar. Here he remained nine years,
during which time he won acknowledged rank as
first of organists and organ composers. He wrote
here most of his greatest works for the organ. He
made annual concert-tours, playing both the organ
and clavichord, and won an extended reputation as
a master of the highest rank'. |g
In 1717, he accepted the appointment of con-
ductor at Coethen, and now for five years devoted
himself mainly to composing, and directing public
performances of chamber music. But in 1723, he
was appointed cantor at the St. Thomas school at
Leipzig, and also organist and director of music in
the two principal churches. Here he remained until
his death, July 28, 1750, writing music for his choir
for almost every service; chorals, motets, cantatas,
and great works for the festivals of the church,
among them one High Mass, and his immortal Pas-
sion Music.
For the rest, he lived a quiet, retired life, devot-
ing himself, not only to his musical labors, but to
the education of his numerous children, of whom he
had twenty, by two marriages. The most notable
incident which broke the monotony of his daily rou-
tine, was a visit to Frederick the Great, in 1747.
Bach's son Emanuel was Frederick's principal court-
musician. The king, who was a lover of music, in-
vited the father to visit him, and treated him with
greatest respect and consideration. As usual, Bach's
playing and his wonderful skill in improvising on
given themes, excited the strongest admiration.
/. S. BACH.
Soon after this he became blind, and continued
so for the short remainder of his life. His death
occurred from a fit of apoplexy, July 28, 1750.
Bach was one of the world's great creative minds;
an original genius of the highest order; a most con-
summate master of the art of musical composition
as understood in his day, and he had no superior in
playing the harpsichord and clavichord. All the re-
sources and capabilities of these instruments he
thoroughly understood. He was, it is true, very
much more than a master of the harpsichord; he
was the greatest organist of his time, and his organ
compositions are the noblest and most significant
the world has yet known. He was a teacher and
choir-leader, and a very large part of his mental ac-
tivity was spent in the production of church music,
of which he has left behind an immense amount,
hundreds of cantatas, motets, chorals, a great Mass
in B minor, five separate settings of the Passion of
our Lord as given in the gospels, of which that stu-
pendous work, the Passion Music according to St.
Matthew, will forever remain one of the great monu-
ments of Protestant religious art. But though he
composed so much for chorus, organ and orchestra,
besides chamber music, he nevertheless wrote a very
large number of compositions for the harpsichord.
Many of these works are of permanent value from
their nobility and beauty of style and their intrinsic
emotional significance, and all are characterized by
high intellectual qualities, and consummate musi-
cianship. Moreover, although the instruments for
CHAP II.
Death.
Bactii
rank.
His works
for the
Harpsi-
chord.
i8
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. II.
His influ-
ence on the
Romanti-
cists,
His stimu-
lating
Duality
which they were written have become totally obso-
lete, the style, and even the technic of these compo-
sitions is such, that whoever wishes to take a high
rank as a pianist, must devote to them the most
earnest and diligent study. This is doubly true if
the pianist aims beyond mere technic, at high ar-
tistic qualities and musicianship. Said Robert Schu-
mann, "Make the 'Well Tempered Clavichord' your
daily bread; then you will surely become a thorough
musician." This advice, coming from a writer ap-
parently as far removed as possible from the man-
ner and style of Bach, is highly significant Chopin
and Mendelssohn, who, with Schumann, made the
Modern Romantic School of pianoforte writing,
were diligent students of Bach, and drew a large
part of their inspiration from him. These facts may
help to show us how immensely important Bach's
influence has been, and still is. The secret of this
influence lies partly in the profound originality, and
the inspired quality of Bach's genius, and partly in the
unsurpassed intellectual grasp and power by which his
works are everywhere characterized. The study of
a Bach fugue is an intellectual exercise of the most
salutary kind; an exercise, the severity of whose de-
mands on mental concentration and on the power
of sustained thinking, constitutes a most valuable
means of intellectual discipline. There is no keener
intellectual pleasure than these works afford, to him
who has mastered them.
Bach's instrumental works are the culmination
of the polyphonic or contrapuntal style. Up to his
G. F. HA EN DEL.
time this was the prevalent manner of writing, and
almost the only one cultivated by musicians. The
monophonic style, indeed, had already a beginning.
Opera airs and folk songs had been transferred to
the keyed instruments; some dance music also had
come to be written in this style. But the aim of all
composers was to write good counterpoint, and that
in the strict style, canons and fugues. Freer forms
were also used, as described in the preceding chap-
ter, which gave more scope to the fancy of the com-
poser. Though founded on the fugal style, they
often showed a reaching out after a freer, more
elastic and flexible means of emotional expression
than was to be found in the comparatively stiff
formality of the strict mode of writing. One, es-
pecially, of these works, the Chromatic Fantasia of
Bach, is a distinct prophecy of the Romantic School,
which was to appear a hundred years later.
GEORGE FREDERICK HAENDEL (commonly called
in England Handel), was born in Halle, Feb. 23,
1685. His family was not musical, and whence he
obtained his musical gifts it is not easy to determine.
But gifts he had, which were not to be repressed.
His father was a physician, who despised all art and
artists, and even went to the extreme of keeping his
son from school, lest he should there learn some-
thing of music. But the boy learned somehow, in
spite of his father. He used to practice on an old
spinet, with muffled strings, which, with somebody's
connivance, he had hidden in the garret, and by the
time he was seven years old, had become no mean
CHAP. II.
Haendel.
The boy
learns to
Play.
20
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. II.
Lessons
with
Zachau.
Enters the
Hamburg
opera or-
chestra.
performer. At this time his whole future career
was decided by the interference of the Duke of
Sa*e-Weissenfels. The child had accompanied his
father on a visit to Weissenfels, had managed to ob-
tain access to the organ in the duke's chapel, and
had given such surprising proofs of genius that the
duke strongly urged upon doctor Haendel the wis-
dom of humoring his son's bent.
He was now placed under the tuition of Zachau,
organist of the cathedral at Halle, and took lessons
on the organ, harpsichord, violin and oboe, and in
counterpoint, canon, fugue, and all the forms of
composition then practiced. He wrote a motet
every week during the three years he remained with
Zachau. His master then confessed that he could
teach him nothing more. The ten-year old boy was
sent to Berlin, where he made some valuable musi-
cal acquaintances, and astonished every one by his
surprising improvisations on the organ and harpsi-
chord.
He soon returned to Halle, and spent some
years in study and composition, copying large quan-
tities of the best music then known. His father
died, and left George and his mother poor. So the
boy set to work to support them both. In 1703, he
went to Hamburg and entered the orchestra of the
German opera-house, as a violin player. He amused
himself a short time by pretending to be very ignor-
ant, but happening to take the leader's place at the
harpsichord one day, in the absence of the regular
conductor, he displayed such ability as at once
G. F. II A EN DEL.
2.T
placed him permanently in that position. He re-
mained here three years, and composed his first
three operas, besides other compositions. The suc-
cess of these, his pay at the theater, and what he
had earned by giving lessons, had enabled him to
lay up a considerable sum, beyond what was re-
quired to support himself and his mother. So he de-
termined to make a musical pilgrimage to Italy, the j
country which had been the field of labor of some of
the greatest of the Netherland contrapuntists, where
the ancient contrapuntal style of Catholic church
music had culminated in Palestrina, where the opera
had first been called into existence, the country
whose leadership in music was still unquestioned.
He spent three years in the great musical centers
of Italy, Rome, Venice, Naples and Florence. He
composed successful operas, church music and a
serenata, and made the acquaintance of the most
distinguished Italian musicians, among them, Do-
menico Scarlatti. These men received him with the
greatest cordiality, and expressed the highest ad-
miration both of his compositions, and of his skill as
an organist and harpsichordist. In 1709 he re-
turned to Germany, and accepted a conductor's
post from the Elector of Hanover, on condition of
being allowed to visit England. He accordingly
went to London in 1710, and at once composed the
opera "Rinaldo" to an Italian libretto, for the Hay-
market Theater. The work, though written in only
fourteen days, was received with the greatest en-
thusiasm, and Haendel immediately found himself
"HAP. II.
Visits I taij.
Conductor
atHamver,
22
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. II.
Goes to
London.
famous. He stayed in London only six months, as
his leave of absence had expired, but after his Lon-
don triumph, his life and work in Hanover no
longer contented him.
Early in 1712, he again obtained leave of absence,
and coming to London, he lingered far beyond the
time allowed him. This naturally offended his mas-
ter, the elector, and when that prince came to En-
gland as George I, Haendel thought it best to avoid
showing himself to the new monarch. However, it
was soon made up between them. The king ar-
ranged some festivity on the Thames, and one of
his suite advised Haendel to compose some music
for the occasion. This he did, and following the
king's barge, in a boat, with his band, he played it,
greatly to his majesty's satisfaction. George I was
too good a judge of music to deprive himself longer
of the services of such a musician, so he not only
received him into favor, but granted him an an-
nuity of two hundred pounds.
The two years from 1716 to 1718 Haendel spent
with the king in Hanover. Then returning to England,
he became chapel-master to the Duke of Chandos, a
wealthy nobleman, who lived in a style of great
splendor. He remained in this post three years,
writing music for the English church service, and
harpsichord music for the daughters of the Prince
of Wales, who were his pupils. He also wrote here
his so-called " Serenata," "Ads and Galatea" and
"Esther," his first English oratorio. He had written
G. F. HAENDEL.
2 3
a German oratorio, the "Passion" during his last
stay in Hanover.
In 1720 he became director of Italian Opera for
the Academy of Music, and from this time, for
seventeen years, he was constantly engaged in com-
posing operas, and managing operatic enterprises,
with varying success. At last, in 1737, he became
bankrupt. He made a few ineffectual efforts to re-
cover himself, during the next two years, and then
turned his attention almost exclusively to the com-
position of English oratorios. Here he found his
real field. He had had more than forty years of ex-
perience as a composer, and all the resources of
musical expression then known were perfectly at his
command. His imagination was vivid and power-
ful and dealt most vigorously with the sublimest re-
ligious conceptions. So that in "The Messiah/'
" Samson," " Saul," "Judas Maccabaeus," and " Is-
rael in Egypt," he created imperishable works, of
the loftiest character.
Haendel was a large, vigorous man, open-hearted
and generous, passionate and hot-tempered, but very
placable, of unconquerable will, energetic, industri-
ous, and withal full of genuine religious feeling.
The themes he loved to treat were such as called
forth joyful adoration and worship. The two great
climaxes in " The Messiah," the "Hallelujah " chorus
and " Worthy is The Lamb," are unsurpassed and
unsurpassable as expressions of this phase of re-
ligious emotion. He could treat the tender and pa-
CHAP. II.
Becomes
director of
Italian
opera.
His
personal
character*
The
Messiah.
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. II.
Contrasted
with Bach's
Passion
Music.
Domenico
Scarlatti.
thetic aspects of the Messiah's life and work with no
less depth and nobility of feeling. Witness his " Be-
hold the Lamb of God," and " He was Despised."
A comparison of these with parallel passages in
Bach's " Passion Music " will reveal the character-
istic differences in the emotional natures of the two
men. Bach naturally dwells on the scenes of the
Passion and Crucifixion; he dissolves in tears and
grief, he melts in contrition, in penitence, in loving,
grateful, humble worship. Haendel, too, feels all
this, but in a different way, and he does not linger
on it; he hastens on to exult in the glorious triumph
of the risen Redeemer, to shout forth Hallelujahs
in some of the sublimest strains ever uttered by
man.
In these oratorios Haendel left his noblest legacy
to the world. His organ and harpsichord music, on
account of which latter he is necessarily mentioned
in this history, was much less significant. Never-
theless, some of it is of permanent value, as, for in-
stance, his " Fire " fugue, and his so-called " Har-
monious Blacksmith," and he can not be passed
over without honorable mention, since he was, next
to Bach, the greatest German organist and harpsi-
chordist of his time, as well as one of the greatest
composers of all time. He lived unmarried, died in
London April 14, 1759, and was buried in West-
minster Abbey.
DOMENICO SCARLATTI, born in Naples in 1683,
was the son of ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI, a composer
of church music of no small importance in musical
DOMENICO SCARLATTI.
history. Domenico's significance lies chiefly in the
fact that he was a most brilliant virtuoso upon the
harpsichord, and a composer of pieces which not
only surprise even the advanced pianists of the
present day by their brilliancy and difficulty (they
are, in fact, more difficult to play on a modern
concert pianoforte than on a harpsichord of Scar-
latti's time), but which are of no small musical sig-
. nificance and value. He traveled much, met Haen-
del in Venice, was some years chapel master at the
Vatican, in Rome, played in London, in Lisbon, in
Italy again, and finally settled in Madrid, in 1739.
Here he remained, admired and respected, as com-
poser and virtuoso, until his death, in 1757.
Scarlatti was not, like Bach and Haendel, a great
creative genius of the first rank, but his harpsichord
compositions, although greatly inferior in intrinsic
significance and permanent influence and value to
those of Bach, are probably nearly equal to most of
Haendel's, and are even more difficult of execution
than any of his, so that in any history of pianoforte
music, he must occupy a prominent and an honorable
place.
CHAP. II.
His music
compared
with Bach
ind
^aendel.
PAET SECOND.
THE SECOND CLASSICAL PERIOD.
A. THE EPOCH OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
SONATA-FORM.
1750-1800.
CHAPTER III.
MONOPHONIC MUSIC ITS FORMAL CONSTRUCTION
THE SONATA-FORM,
Monophonic as distinguished from polyphonic
music has already been defined. (See Chap. I.) It
was originally vocal. The monophonic composi-
tions for the harpsichord grew out of the use of this
instrument as an accompaniment to the recitatives
and airs of the opera, a form of composition which
came into existence in Italy in the latter part of the
1 6th century.
These airs and their accompaniments were soon
played on the keyed instruments in use, and
gradually separate instrumental compositions in the
same style came intp vogue. These existed side
by side with compositions of the prevalent poly-
phonic style, and gradually became popular. In-
deed, the tendency toward the monophonic style
showed itself even in many polyphonic composi-
tions for the harpsichord, by such masters as Sebas-
tian Bach and Haendel. In many of their suites, we
find, in dances which are essentially polyphonic,
numerous instances of sudden chords, filled up to
double the number of voice parts properly belong-
ing to the plan. These are hints of the employment
of chords in masses, to produce climaxes, or to re-
inforce loud passages, which is one of the important
CHAP. III.
Mono-
phonic
music at
first vocal.
Mono-
phonic ten-
dencies in
polyphonic
music.
3
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. III.
Scarlatti s
Sonatas
mono-
phonic.
TheSonatc
characteristics of monophonic music. Many of
these dances were also monophonic, in the sense
that they had one predominant lyric melody, to
which the remaining contrapuntal voices were subor-
dinate.
Domenico Scarlatti went farther, and composed
sonatas, monophonic in almost the same sense in
which the sonatas of Haydn and Mozart are mono-
phonic. In these, as a rule, only one melody is
heard at a time. The accompaniment is made up
of chords, more or less full, or of arpeggios. The
melody is taken up, now by one voice and now by
another, the accompaniment being also transposed.
These sonatas of Scarlatti's are the most eminent
examples, known to the present writer, of mono-
phonic music before the death of Sebastian Bach.
.*. . i
They are compositions in one movement only. The
only compositions for the harpsichord in more than
one movement, at that time, were the suites, previ-
ously referred to, partitas and concertos. Sebastian
Bach wrote organ sonatas in three movements, and
his son Carl Philip Emanuel wrote similar ones for
the harpsichord, of which two movements were com-
monly in the "sonata-form," on a smaller scale than
those of later writers.
The sonata, as now understood, is a composition
made up of a series of pieces, commonly three or
four, arranged so as to contrast with each other in
movement, and in emotional content. A symphony
is simply a sonata written for orchestra, differing
from the pianoforte sonata only in being laid out on
MONOPHONIC MUSIC.
a larger scale. Trios, quartets, quintets, concertos,
etc., - are composed on the same plan. They are
simply sonatas for several instruments. The sepa-
rate compositions of which a sonata is made up are
called "movements," from the fact that they differ
in the rate of speed. The more common order is(as
follows: The first movement is an allegro a rapict,
vigorous, spirited or lively composition, somewhat
long and elaborate. The second movement is an
adagio slow, deeply tender or sad or else an
andante pensive, tender, perhaps melancholy. The
third movement is an allegretto, perhaps a stately
minuet, or a playful scherzo. Both these movements
are comparatively short. The last movement is a
lively allegro, or, perhaps, a fiery, rushing presto,
generally of considerable length. This order is
often varied, but the principles of contrast involved
in it must always underlie whatever order of move-
ment may be adopted. But the term " Sonata-
Form " in its narrow, technical sense, applies, not
to the sonata as a whole, but to the form of compo-
sition commonly adopted in one, or at most two of
the separate movements which make up a sonata,
the construction of which must now be explained.
First of all, it is necessary to understand clearly
what is meant by " form " in music. "Form" has
to do with melody, mainly; with the rhythmical reg-
ulation of successions of tones, on a large scale.
Melody, in order to be intelligible, or any way satis-
factory, must be begun, continued and brought to a
close in accordance with some definite plan. The
CHAP. III.
" Move-
ments}'*
"Sonata*
Form.' 1 ''
"Form?
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. III.
Simple
periods.
Sections.
Phrases.
chief requirements of this plan, like those of any
work of art, are three, viz.: Unity, Variety and
Symmetry.
The simplest form of composition which can
give any satisfaction, regarded as a completed
whole, is a single Period, the nearest analogue
of which is a single couplet. A good example
of this is in the church tune, " Onward, Christian
Soldier," in " Hymns, Ancient and Modern." Here
the period is divided into two sections, to fit the two
lines of the couplet, and these two sections are bal-
anced against each other, symmetrically. More
commonly the two sections of a simple period are
each divided by a c&sura, or point of partial
repose. Indeed, such a division is plainly to be
seen in the tune above cited. Each of the two di-
visions of each section is then called a phrase.
More frequently than otherwise, the third phrase is
nearly or quite an exact repetition of the first, and
the fourth similarly reminds one of the second, that
is, they rhyme with each other, so that such a simple
period is closely analogous to the ballad stanza. It
is, in fact, the form commonly and necessarily used
in setting such stanzas to music. The point of re-
pose at the end of the first section (second phrase)
is more marked than those which finish the first and
third phrases, but is still only a half stop, or musical
semicolon. The last section of course closes the
period by a. full stop. A good example of this form
is the first period of the theme in the A major son-
ata of Mozart (No. 12, Peters' edition).
MONOPHONIC MUSIC.
33
Another thing must now be noticed about this
period, viz. : that what gives unity to it is the repeated
employment of a single melodic fragment as a pat-
tern or design. The melodic idea, or "motive," of
the first measure is repeated in the second, but in
different pitch. The third measure is less obviously
an imitation of the first, but still has nothing incongru-
ous with it. The second and fourth phrases have
motives differing slightly from that of the first and
third, but still analogous to it, and possibly derived
from it, or at least suggested by it. This use of
one, or a few simple motives, of which the case cited
is a very simple example, is carried out on the most
elaborate scale in all large compositions. In the
hands of a master, this multifarious transformation
of the original motive invented, prevents unity from
becoming uniformity, continually presents them in
new and interesting lights, and develops from them,
as from germs, a complex and elaborate whole, sat-
factory to the intellect and to the artistic sense.
When the composer comes to add a second period
to his first, this new period will most naturally be a
simple one, like the first, made up of two symmetri-
cal sections, balanced against each other as antece-
dent and consequent. This period, however, must
not be wholly new, else we should have not one compo-
sition, made up of two periods, but two compositions
of one complete period each, wholly unrelated. The
new period must, of course, contain new materials, or at
least a fresh treatment of the old ones, otherwise it
would be merely a repetition of the first period,
c
CHAP. III.
Motives.
Reiatfons
of periods
combined
into period'
groups.
34
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. III.
But with variety there must also be unity. The com-
mon way of uniting a second period with a first to form
a composition is to make the first section of the new
period new and fresh, while the second section is a
more or less exact repetition of the closing section
of the first period. This is precisely the plan
of the Mozart example just cited, except that the
second period, instead of coming to a full stop at the
end of the eight measures, which would make it a
simple period, is prolonged by the addition of a
phrase of two measures, by which a very effective
climax is produced, without in the least impairing
the impression of symmetry.
This form is the germ from which all the musical
forms have sprung. It is in two divisions, balanced
against each other as are the two sections of a sim-
ple period. It may be enlarged by making each di-
a period-group of two or more
simple periods united. But in the shorter forms,
when each simple or prolonged period comes to a
full stop, the first division is commonly one period
only, the second being composed either of one or
two periods, with perhaps a coda. With this is con-
trasted another similar form, often called a " Trio,"
after which the original form is repeated, for the
sake of unity. This is the form in which marches,
waltzes, etc., are written. A good example of it is
the andante of the sonata in C (No. 2, of the Peters
edition) by Mozart. All the slow movements,
minuets and scherzi of the Mozart and Beethoven
Two period v i s i on consist of
groups
combined
into a
larger
whole
MONOPHONIC MUSIC.
35
sonatas are in this form, so that examples are easily
accessible.
The sonata-form is the most elaborate and ex-
tended of the forms which have been developed
from the elementary plan given above. Like the
forms heretofore cited, it has two main divisions.
In its most extended form, as developed in the or-
chestral symphony, each of these divisions is com-
posed of several period-groups, as follows:
DIVISION I.
I. Principal Subject.
II. Transition.
III. Second Subject (in the Key of the Domin-
ant).
IV. Transition,
V. Conclusion (in the Key of the Dominant).
This division is repeated.
DIVISION II.
I. Elaboration, in which the ideas of the first
division are turned over, modulated into
different keys, presented in new lights, and
combined and developed in various ways.
II. Transition.
III. Repetition of the whole of the first main di-
vision, the second subject and conclusion
being this time in the key of the Tonic.
In the case of pianoforte sonatas, this form is
often abbreviated, by making some of the transitions
CHAP. III.
Plan of the
sonata-
A bbrevia-
tions of
this plan.
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. III.
Form in
polyphonic
music.
Simple
periods in
Backs
dances.
belong to the period-groups of the main ideas, in-
stead of forming separate groups, and by making
the elaboration, and, in fact, nearly all the period-
groups shorter than in the most elaborate works.
It is to be noted also that in this form the periods
which are associated in groups no longer end with
full stops. These are reserved for the close of
groups or even of larger divisions. The periods
follow each other in continuous discourse, and are
distinguished from one another not so much by the
cadences as by the grouping of the ideas.
This is the briefest possible outline of Form, as
now developed in monophonic music. In the strict
polyphonic style of Sebastian Bach, as shown in his
fugues, the most important productions of that style,
Form consisted in the orderly arrangement and suc-
cession of the different groups formed by the sepa-
rate entries of the subject and answer. Thus the
" exposition " formed the first group, the second
complete entry of the subject and answer made a
second group, in which the voices entered in a dif-
ferent order, by way of contrast. The same princi-
ples of Unity, Variety and Symmetry which under-
lie the construction of a modern sonata, controlled
the fugue also. But there were no " periods," in
the monophonic sense. But in Bach's compositions
in the free style, as, for instance, in the Gavotte in
D minor, in the Sixth English Suite, and in others,
we find examples of simple period structure. In-
deed, both this gavotte, and the " musette," which
alternates with it, are almost exactly in the form of
MO HOP HO NIC MUSIC.
37
the andante of the Mozart sonata in C, cited above.
They are polyphonic in the sense that each has more
than one real melody; for the bass is a "counter-
point," and not a mere foundation nor a series of
accompanying arpeggios. But their form is precisely
that of monophonic music, and it is so because there
is one principal melody to which the counterpoint is
subordinate. This melody is necessarily governed
by the principles summarized in the above outline,
for it is its accordance with these principles that
makes it clearly intelligible.
CHAP. III.
C. P. E.
His
education.
Settles in
Berlin at
t'te court o
Frederick
t/te Great.
CHAPTER IV.
THE THREE COMPOSERS, THROUGH WHOM THE
SONATA-FORM WAS DEVELOPED TO ITS LOGICAL
LIMITS:
C. P. E. BACH, 1714-1788.
JOSEPH HAYDN, 1732-1809.
W. A. MOZART, 1756-1791.
:
I. CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH was the third
sou of Johann Sebastian, and was born at Weimar,
March 14, 1714. He was precocious, showed un-
usual intellectual ability, and though his father
taught him music, as a matter of course, he never-
theless planned for him a very different career from
that ot a musician. He sent him to the Thomas
School in Leipzig, and afterwards to the university
of the same city, and still later to that at Frankfort -
on-the-Oder, to study law. Emanuel thus became
a highly educated and cultivated man, and when, in
1737, he determined to relinquish the law for music,
he was not only an excellent musician, but a man of
such breadth and universality of culture as ensured
him a wide influence among men not especially con-
nected with his chosen profession.
He began his career as a professional musician in
Berlin, where he became a great favorite with Fred-
erick the Great. That monarch gave him a special
38
C. P. E. BACH.
39
court appointment as chamber-musician and harpsi-
chordist, and being an amateur flute player, he
made it Bach's special duty to accompany his solos
at his private concerts. Bach held this post until
the Seven Years War broke out, in 1757, when he
went to Hamburg, became an organist and church
music director, and remained there, as musician and
composer, until his death in 1788. He wrote large
quantities of harpsichord music, some of it with or-
chestral accompaniment, church music, orchestral
music, oratorios, songs, etc., and an important in-
struction book, " On the true manner of playing the
clavichord," which contained his own and the best
of his father's ideas on technic, style and interpreta-
tion, i
Personally he was kind and polite, and he was al-
ways beloved and respected for his personal char-
acter, his industry, his ability and attainments as
critic, teacher, composer and conductor. _ His spe-
cial significance as composer in the history of
pianoforte music, lies in the fact, that in his works
the decisive step from the polyphonic to the mono-
phonic style was taken.
In Sebastian Bach, the Fugue had reached its
climax. No advance was possible, either in the de-
velopment of the polyphonic forms, or in their
adaptation to the expression of a new content.
Progress was now to be made in a wholly new di-
rection. The germs of the monophonic style had
existed for more than a century, and this style had
even been considerably developed. Short forms
CHAP. IV.
Removes to
Hamburg,
His place
in the
History of
Music.
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IV.
The
inevitable
xourse of
musical
develop-
ment.
Baches
qualifica-
tions for
leadership
in the new
movement.
had been developed, more or less unconsciously,
" Sonatas " had been written, and enough had al-
ready been done, so that, as soon as it had clearly
become impossible to do anything more, in the strict
polyphonic style, than imitate Sebastian Bach, the
channel into which the musical impulse was now to
be turned became perfectly clear. The monophonic
style was to be cultivated, and to become predomin-
ant, and, first of all, \hzform of it was to be devel-
oped, the principles of orderly succession of melodic
members were to be discovered and established; the
means of securing Unity, of enhancing interest by
means of Variety and Contrast, and of satisfying the
sense of order, symmetry and proportion, were to
become familiar by gradual experience, by theory
and practice.
Natural constitution, acquired culture and sur-
rounding circumstances- combined to make Emanuel
Bach a leader in this new direction. He was not a
genius of the highest rank. There was nothing gi-
gantic or colossal about his aims, his ideas, his im-
agination, his intellectual powers, his emotional
capacities or his religious experiences. The reign
of the giants had closed with Sebastian Bach and
Haendel. To them were to succeed a race of more
commonplace musicians, who had, nevertheless,
their own special and important work to do.
Emanuel Bach was simply a highly cultivated
man, of respectable abilities, a well-trained and ac-
complished musician, who sought to compose and
play in a tasteful, elegant and pleasing style. There
C. P. E. BACH.
seems to have been a sudden reaction in the public
mind, against the style of music which Sebastian
Bach cultivated, and of which he was the most dis-
tinguished representative. After . his death, his
works fell into speedy oblivion. For almost a
century they slumbered, before the world again
began to realize what a mighty genius had worked
in the old Leipzig cantor, and to seek diligently
for the treasures he had left behind, a precious
bequest to posterity.
The public seemed tired of the severity of the
fugal style; they shunned the bracing intellectual
exertion needed for its intelligent comprehension,
and preferred music which should give immediate
pleasure, without requiring much mental strain on
f t-hp hpnrprO Thus it naturally happened
that the popular musicians of this generation culti-
vated the simpler .forms of the monophonic style.
Into this they imported such ideas of thematic treat-
ment as they could transfer from the older schools
of free polyphony. They made it the medium of
such expression as they were capable of^ and de-
veloped and enlarged the small forms according to
their intellectual ability. But above all, taste, ele-
gance, were the watchwords.
I Emanuel Bach's most important work was in the
form he gave the sonata. The sonatas of Scarlatti
had been in one movement only, arid though this
movement was not yet a " Sonata-Form," or " First-
movement " form, in the modern sense, it was the
germ of it. Its plan was, in general, as follows: It
CHAP. IV.
Public taste
at that
period.
Free
polyphony
contributes
to the
nionophonic
tecknic.
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IV.
A nalysis of
Scarlatti's
sonatas.
The prin-
cipal mo-
tives.
Example
of a
second
subject.
was in two divisions. Division I contained the "ex-
position" of the sonata. It consisted of several
groups of phrases, which perhaps ought to be called
periods, since they were commonly separated by
more or less decisive cadences, and were generally
characterized by different motives. The leading
motive of the first period was commonly the most
important, being, in fact, a principal subject, all
other motives being subordinate and accessory.
After this subject had been announced, in the prin-
cipal key, new motives were introduced, and modu-
lation began, pointing toward anew key in which the
division was to close. This key was generally that of
the Dominant, if the principal key was major, or if
it was minor, then the new key was commonly that
of the Relative Major, or sometimes the minor key
of the Dominant.
The periods succeeding the first were simply a
series of modulatory phrases, often spun out to con-
siderable length, and digressing into a considerable
number of more or less closely related keys, before
the goal was finally reached. The division was then
brought to a close by an extended cadence. There
are but very few cases where one of the subordinate
motives stands in such a relation to the principal
one, and to the others, that it can be fairly called a
Second Subject. There is an example of this in
No. 7 of Kohler's selections from Scarlatti's sonatas
(12 Fugues and Sonatas, Section 3 of the Classical
High School for pianists, published by Julius Schu-
berth & Co., Leipzig). This second subject is lyric,
C. P. E. BACH.
*
43
very well contrasted with the principal subject, and
the form of the sonata approximates that of Eman-
uel Bach. But this is an exceptional case, and
seems to be the result of accident rather than of de-
sign. Still, it shows the direction in which the form
of monophonic music was tending.
The second division of the Scarlatti sonata com-
monly had a plan closely analogous to that of the
first division. It started with the principal subject,
in the key in which the first division closed, or in
some other key not too remote from the original
tonic, then introduced the subordinate motives in
much the same order as they occurred in the first
division, and modulated back to the principal key,
in which the sonata began, closing in this key, with
an extended cadence. The style of these sonatas
was commonly partly monophonic and partly free
polyphony. The periods, if periods they must be
called, seldom had any definite symmetrical balance
of antecedent and consequent. They were irregu-
lar as to the number of measures or of phrases, and
the composer's sense of symmetry and proportion,
though evidently present, seems to have been unde-
veloped, and to be working blindly, groping its way
toward a clearness of form which was not yet attain-
able.
In these respects, Scarlatti's sonatas were closely
analogous to many of the larger dance . forms
in the suites of his contemporaries, Bach and Haen-
del. Indeed, the forms of these dances are not dis-
tinguishable from that of the so-called " sonatas " in
CHAP. IV.
Division
second.
The style of
Scarlatti* s
sonatas.
44
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC,
CHAP. IV.
Symmetry
of the
smaller
dance-
forms.
E. Bach's
Sonata-
Forms.
question, and Dr. Hans von Buelow, in his selection
of eighteen pieces by Scarlatti (No. 277 of the edi-
tion of C. F. Peters, in Leipzig), has given the
names of dances of the period to a number of these
" sonatas " (with entire propriety, so far as the form
and character of the pieces are concerned), for the
purpose of making them more attractive. In these
writers there are many small dance forms which are
as regular and symmetrical in the construction and
balance of their periods as any to be found in the
works of Haydn or Mozart. This was due, proba-
bly, to their being founded on vocal forms fitted to
the ballad stanza, which served as the germ for the
development of the monophonic forms. But these
larger forms were still more influenced by the elab-
orate style of the free polyphonic forms, such as the
prelude and toccata, than by that of the smaller
lyric forms, and partook of the indefiniteness of
that style. The lyric and symmetrically formal ele-
ment was slowly pushing forward into prominence,
but had not yet given signs of becoming predom-
inant.
Emanuel Bach's " Sonata-Forms," which he used
in the first and last movements of his sonatas, were
very much on the same plan as those of Scarlatti,
and of many of the pieces in the suites of Sebastian
Bach and Haendel. But his periods are often much
more symmetrical than any of those to be found in
the previous works alluded to, and there is a much
more marked balance of antecedent and consequent.
They constitute a distinct advance in clearness of
C. P. E. BACH.
45
perception of the requirements of Form. They
seldom or never contain a well- marked second sub-
ject, and the only further advance is in the point
that their style is most decidedly monophonic. Im-
itation there is, and thematic treatment, but the free
polyphony or mixed style which had prevailed in
the preceding generation in almost all but the
smallest and simplest forms, had now given place to
a style as decidedly and purely monophonic as that
of a Mozart Sonata.
Besides this, Emanuel Bach wrote sonatas in three
movements, of which the first and third were "sona- j
ta-forms," and the middle one was a lyric slow j
movement, contrasted with the others in key and in
character. This form was adopted from him by
Haydn and Mozart, and their sonatas differ from
his only in the greater development of the separate
movements.
Let us now recapitulate. The modern sonata has
four essential characteristics:
1. It has at least three movements.
2. These movements are contrasted with one an-
other, in key and in character, some being rapid and
lively, others slow and tender.
3. One, at least, of these movements is a "sonata-
form."
4. The movements are all monophonic, some pre-
dominantly thematic and some lyric.
Of these characteristic features, none were wholly
new in Emanuel Bach's time.
Sebastian Bach had written suites in six or seven
CHAP. IV.
They are
decidedly
mono-
phonic.
Recapitula-
tion.
4 6
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IV
S. Bach's
suites.
HaendeT s
suites.
What
Emanuel
Bach did
for the
sonata.
movements; but these were all in the same key.
Moreover, some of them were in free polyphony.
His Partitas were simply small suites. He wrote
" Sonatas " for the organ in three movements, the
first and third being allegros and the middle one an
adagio or an andante, but these were all strictly poly-
phonic. He also wrote sonatas for the harpsichord,
but these differed from his suites only in admitting
fugues and other forms which were not dance-forms.
Finally, he had written concertos in three move-
ments, the first and last being allegros and the mid-
dle one an andante or adagio, in a style as closely ap-
proaching monophony as did the sonatas of Scar-
latti. These probably served Emanuel Bach as
models for his sonatas. But the three movements
of these concertos were all in the same key.
Haendel had written suites which resembled the
sonatas of Bach. They had sometimes fewer, some-
times more movements. Of these, one was often a
fugue. They were generally all in the same key.
Of Scarlatti's sonatas, enough has been said.
It will be seen that no one characteristic feature
of the sonata was original with Emanuel Bach, nor
did he even develop the " Sonata-Form " much fur-
ther than his predecessors. What he did do that
had not been done before was this : He combined
all the essential characteristics of the sonata in nu-
merous compositions of such merit that they became
models for his contemporaries and his immediate
successors. He brought the exclusively mono-
phonic sonata into vogue; he contributed toward its
F. J. HA YDN.
47
development in the direction of clearness and sym-
metry; he adopted the principle of contrast in key
as well as in character, in the three movements of
which his sonatas were composed ; in short, he es-
tablished the plan of the sonata, determined the di-
rection in which it was to develop, and, by his influ-
ence and example, gave the most powerful impulse
to that development.
II. FRANZ (English, FRANCIS,) JOSEPH HAYDN
was born April i, 1732, in the little Austrian village
of Rohrau. His father was a wheelwright. His
mother, before her marriage, was a cook in a noble
family. They were honest, industrious, pious peo-
ple, fond of music, but wholly untrained in it. Little
Joseph used to sing with them their simple songs, in
a beautiful, clear, childish soprano. His father saw
in him evidences of musical talent, and as there was
no opportunity for his proper training at home, he
was removed to school at Hamburg, some four
leagues from home, at the early age of six. Here a
relative of his, named Frankh, became his teacher.
The boy was thoroughly well taught, proved an apt
pupil, and learned to sing well and to play different
instruments.
At the age of eight, Reutter, court-composer and
conductor at St. Stephen's church, Vienna, being at
Hainburg on a visit, heard him sing, and at once
offered him a place in his choir. So the boy went
to Vienna, sang in the cathedral choir, continued
his musical studies, and also those of the school cur-
riculum. His music lessons did not include in-
CHAP. IV.
F.J.Haydn.
His early-
schooling.
Goes to
Vienna as
choir
singer.
4 8
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IV.
Poverty
and
industry.
He makes
friends.
Becomes
director of
Count
Morzin s
orchestra
struction in Harmony or Composition, but so strong
was his natural bent in this direction that he con-
stantly practiced it by himself, working hard and
spoiling vast quantities of music-paper. Five years
after he went to Vienna, his voice began to change,
and being of no further use as a singer, he was soon
dismissed to shift for himself. He struggled on, amidst
poverty and hardship, practiced the violin and harpsi-
chord, gave lessons for his daily bread, and assiduously
devoted himself to the study and practice of composi-
tion.
He soon made the acquaintance of some of
Emanuel Bach's sonatas, was greatly interested in
them, and thenceforth they became his models.
Bach afterwards declared that Haydn alone thor-
oughly understood his style. He procured all the
theoretical works he could lay hands on, mastered
their contents, and gradually exercised himself in
every species of composition. He wrote masses,
operas, string-quartets, and, by dint of hard work,
speedily attained certainty and facility of technic,
and independence and originalky of style.
He began to make friends. A wealthy amateur
named von Fuernberg invited him to his house, gave
him opportunities to hear good performances of
chamber music, and encouraged him to write his
first string quartet. His lessons increased, and his
price was raised. His compositions - found sale
among wealthy lovers of music. In 1759 he be-
came conductor of a small but good orchestra in the
employ of Count Morzin, and wrote his first sym-
F. J. HA YDN.
49
phony for it in the same year. There was at that
time no musical public. Artists were obliged to de-
pend solely on the patronage of the wealthy.
Haydn's salary as conductor was two hundred flor-
ins (about one hundred dollars). Of course living
was cheap. . .
He determined to marry, and in 1760, Maria
Anna Keller, daughter of a wigmaker, who had
been his pupil, became his wife. She was three
years older than he, had a bad temper, had no sym-
pathy whatever with his aims as an artist, and was
every way unsuited to be the companion of such a
man. She made his domestic life miserable till
their separation, a few years before her death in
1800.
Count Morzin was obliged to dismiss his orches-
tra soon after this, and in 1761, Haydn entered the
service of Prince Esterhazy, at Eisenstadt, his coun-
try seat in Hungary, as conductor of an orchestra
of only sixteen members. But they were good
players, and he was at once stimulated to do his
best in composing for them. This orchestra had a
chorus and solo singers associated with it for service
in church and at concerts, and .Werner, Haydn's
predecessor, now an. old man, remained for a time
in charge of the church music. The orchestra was
gradually increased, concerts were frequent, rehears-
als were required daily, and Haydn had enough to
do, with conducting and providing new composi-
tions. Here he remained for nearly thirty years,
and composed a vast amount of music, symphonies,
D 3
HAP. IV.
His
marriage.
Is made
conductor
to Prince
Esterhazy.
Vast
number of
his works.
5
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IV.
Visits
London.
His two
oratorios.
Personal
character-
istics.
chamber music, harpsichord and pianoforte music,
church music, songs, operettas, etc., until the or-
chestra was finally disbanded. He then returned to
Vienna, but was immediately invited to London, by
Salomon, the English publisher. Thither he went,
in the winter of 1790-1. Before this, he had become
acquainted with Mozart, had formed the highest
opinion of his genius, and the two had become
warm friends.
In London he was received with the greatest en-
thusiasm. He composed six symphonies for Salo-
mon's concerts, conducted them at the pianoforte,
and afterwards gave other concerts, all of which
were extremely successful. He remained about a
year and a half, and then returned to Vienna.
Early in 1794, he again went to London under a
similar engagement, and succeeded even more brill-
iantly in all respects. He earned fame and money,
and returned home in 1795, comfortably independ-
ent. He still retained the title of conductor to
Prince Esterhazy, and the orchestra was now re-
vived. He continued to compose for it several
years. His reputation was greatly increased by his
oratorios, " The Creation," first given April 29,
1798, and "The Seasons," composed the following
year. This was the last of his important works.
He died May 31, 1809.
Haydn was a small, short man, very dark, with
dark gray eyes. In disposition he was cheerful and
even tempered, and though he was sensitive, and
unhappy in his domestic affairs, his music gives no
F. J. HA YD.V.
evidence that his mental equanimity was ever great-
ly disturbed. He was very devout, very diligent in
his work, and commanded universal respect. He
composed very carefully and deliberately, attach-
ing the utmost importance to the working out
of his themes, aiming always to develop each idea
naturally, evolving from it, as from a germ, a work
whose prime characteristic should be organic unity.
He was indeed precise and careful, but he was no
pedantic follower of rules. Whatever sounded well
or answered the ends he had in view, he was con-
tent to write down, regardless of grammatical rules
as laid down by the theorists of his time. He was a
genuine creator, and his fund of invention seemed
inexhaustible. " The Creation," the child of his old
age, equals in freshness of melodic invention any
work of his youth or prime, and retains its charm
to this day.
As might be expected from his position as leader
of an orchestra, and composer for this and for con-
certs of chamber music, it is in the two departments
of the symphony and the string quartet, that his
originality exerted the strongest and most far-reach-
ing influence. His numerous compositions in these
fields were so superior in form and style to any-
thing that preceded them, that they drove them all
into oblivion, became models for succeeding com-
posers, and gained for Haydn the rightful title of
"the father of instrumental music." But in the
field of pianoforte music his influence was hardly
less marked. Accepting the form of the sonata as
CHAP, IV
Chtefly a
composer of
orchestral
music.
His
pianoforte
music and
its
influence.
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IV.
His sonata-
forms.
IV. A.
Mozart.
Early
evidences
of a
musical
gift.
established by Emanuel Bach, he enlarged all its
movements and developed in the " sonata-form "
that clear and definite order of period and period-
groups which made it strictly and in the fullest
sense classical. In his sonata-forms, there is a "first
subject," often carried out into a period-group of
considerable length, a transition period or period-
group, then a " second subject," equally extensive, a
transition and a conclusion. The second division
begins with an elaboration of the ideas of the first
division, followed by a repetition of that division ex-
actly on the plan described in the preceding chapter
on Form. The student may examine them for him-
self in the very cheap but excellent complete edition
of his sonatas published by C. F. Peters, in Leipzig;
or the selection of ten celebrated sonatas, published
by the same house, may serve as characteristic spec-
imens of his form and style.
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART, born at Salzburg,
January 27, 1756, was the son of Leopold Mozart, an
intelligent, well-educated and every way superior
musician, in the service of the Archbishop of Salz-
burg. He was extremely precocious, began to man-
ifest remarkable love for music when only three
years old, soon learned to play the harpsichord and
the violin, and even began to compose. He had
the most delicate ear, was extremely quick and in-
telligent, learned by intuition everything pertaining
to music, and in short, showed the most un-
mistakable evidences of possessing the innate gift
of genius. Withal he was amiable in disposition,
W. A. MOZART.
53
perfectly teachable, tenderly attached to his family
and to all who were kind to him, and so profited by
all the instruction he received. His sister, Maria
Anna, two years older than he, was also very tal-
ented, so much so that their father thought it worth
while to make concert tours with the two children
to exhibit their remarkable gifts to the various no-
blemen, whose patronage, in those days, was the
only support of artists.
The first of these tours was undertaken when
Wolfgang was only six years of age. They went to
Munich, and afterwards to Vienna, where Wolf-
gang's genius excited the liveliest interest and ad-
miration in the Emperor and in all his court. The
Empress petted him, and with the frankness of a
warm-hearted child, wholly ignorant of distinctions
of rank, and of the restraints of court etiquette, he
jumped up into her lap, threw his arms around her
neck and kissed her, doubtless to the great amuse-
ment of the courtiers. The next year they went to
Paris, where four of his sonatas for pianoforte and
violin were published, and afterward to London,
where he was received with the greatest enthusiasm
by the king, the royal family, the nobility, the musi-
cians, and the public. His powers of improvisation
excited the greatest astonishment and admiration.
Musicians delighted to put him to the severest tests,
from which he invariably came off triumphant. In
1765 they started for home, giving concerts by the
way in Holland, Paris, Switzerland, and various
German cities.
CHAP. IV.
Concert
tours.
His
unembar-
rassed
treatment
of royalty.
54
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. I /.
Tour ir.
Italy.
His
spontaneity
S ,.
invention.
After these tours, he continued diligently to
study and compose at Salzburg, under his father's
direction. He went also to Vienna, and in
1769 his father began with him a tour of the Italian
cities, both to enlarge his musical experience, and
to extend his reputation. The tour was every way
successful. The boy learned much, and his genius
was everywhere admired and respected. At Bo-
logna he met the celebrated Padre Martini, who
gave him lessons in fugue and strict counterpoint.
He composed a good deal in Italy, among other
things, an opera, and several symphonies.
After their return to Salzburg, in 1771, study and
composition went on with even greater vigor. The
boy's invention was exhaustless. Melodies rose in
his imagination like water in a boiling spring, and in
all that pertained to the development and technical
treatment of his ideas, there seemed no limit to his
capabilities. He wrote church music, chamber
music, symphonies, harpsichord music, operas, all
with no apparent effort, and with the utmost rapidity.
He was indeed an artist "by the grace of God."
These early compositions were, indeed, of little per-
manent value, but his powers were maturing by ex-
ercise, and he was gathering materials and gaining
in experience daily. In spite of the universal ad-
miration of his gifts and attainments, his father
found it impossible to obtain for him a court ap-
pointment. He was, indeed, vice-conductor to the
Archbishop of Salzburg, but without a salary, and
his relations to his patron were by no means pleas-
W. A. MOZART.
55
ant. So, at the age of twenty-one, he severed this
connection, and started with his mother for Paris.
But there the time and circumstances proved un-
favorable, and soon his mother died there.
He returned to Salzburg, and accepted the place
of organist and concert-meister to the court and ca-
thedral. But he found it impossible to live with the
Archbishop. The troubles culminated in Vienna,
whither Mozart had been summoned in March,
1781, his master being there on a visit. This dig-
nified prelate was very fond of lording it over those
in his service. He made his court composer eat
with the servants, addressed him in terms of vile
abuse, and finally, being displeased with him, for no
discoverable reason, ordered him to leave the house.
Mozart left, and never had anything to do with him
afterward. To the honor of the Emperor, and of
the Viennese nobility, be it said that they all hated
this detestable despiser of genius, and treated him
with contempt.
On the i6th of August, 1782, Mozart married
Constanze Weber, third daughter of Fridolin Weber,
a prompter and copyist, whose acquaintance Wolf-
gang had made sometime before, in Mannheim, but
who was now living in Vienna. The marriage was
a happy one, but Constanze was a poor manager,
and Mozart was careless in money matters, so that
they were constantly in financial embarrassment
from their marriage until Mozart's death. The Em-
peror and the nobility might very easily have made
the life of the great composer an easy one, as re-
CHAP. IV.
Organist
to the
A rchbishof
of Salz-
burg.
His
marriage.
Pecuniary
difficulties
HISTORV OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IV.
His great
operas.
OverworR
and early
death.
gards money matters. Why this was not done is a
mystery, since they seemed to appreciate the fact
that his was a genius such as is sent into the world
but seldom, but certain it is that he was unable to
obtain a conductor's appointment, or any other
lucrative position. Men greatly his inferior were
preferred to him, and he earned a precarious liveli-
hood by giving lessons, playing at concerts, and the
sale of his compositions.
Among the most important of his works were his
operas, of which he wrote many for Vienna, Prague,
and other cities. The greatest of these are " Don
Juan," " Figaro's Wedding," and " The Magic
Flute ;" next to these, " The Abduction from the
Seraglio," "Idomeneus," "Titus" and "Cosi fan
tutte." He also wrote many symphonies, which
were an advance on Haydn's in the extent of their
development, and in the greater fullness and rich-
ness of their instrumentation. His chamber music
also surpassed all that had been written by his pre-
decessors. He wrote with the greatest ease and
produced immense quantities of music, but the con-
stant strain, added to his anxieties about money
matters and to the drain on his vitality made by the
constant excitements of his life, sapped his strength.
He died December 5, 1791, poor and in debt, and
was buried in the common pauper's grave, in the
churchyard of St. Mary. Thus was sacrificed to
the niggardliness of titled fools a man worth more
to the world than whole countries full of emperors,
counts and dukes.
W. A. MOZART.
57
In figure, Mozart was short and small ; he had a
prominent nose, and was not remarkable for being
either good looking or the reverse. In disposition
he was amiable and kind, very vivacious and
fond of society, and very fond of his friends,
who loved him in return. Between him and
Haydn there existed a warm friendship. Mozart
always acknowledged his obligations to his older
fellow-composer, and spoke of his works with
great admiration and respect. On his part, Haydn
cordially recognized Mozart's genius. In 1785, on
hearing some of Mozart's quartets, he said to
Leopold Mozart, " I declare to you before God, as a
mart of honor, that your son is the greatest com-
poser that I know, either personally or by reputa-
tion; he has taste, and beyond that the most con-
summate knowledge of the art of composition."
As a composer, Mozart was remarkable, first of
all for spontaneity and fertility of invention, and
next, perhaps, for sensuous beauty of melody and
harmony and warmth of color in modulation and
instrumentation. In his best operas he also achieved
much in the way of truthful dramatic characteriza-
tion. In his pianoforte sonatas and concertos,
which more immediately concern us in this history,
he made decided advances on Haydn in the develop-
ment of Form. His greatest compositions in this
kind were laid out on a broader scale than any of
Haydn's ; they were perfect in Unity, and admirable
in Symmetry and Proportion. They were not re-
markable for strong contrasts, but contrast is not of
CHAP. IV.
Mvzarfs
personal
appear a nee
and
character.
Haydn's
estimate of
him.
The
character"
istics of his
style.
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IV.
Repose^ not
contrast, an
essential
element of
the
classical.
the essential nature of the classical. Variety there
was, an inexhaustible freshness of ideas and of treat-
ment, and repose, which is of the very essence ot
the strictly classical, of which he and Haydn were
the foremost representatives. With Mozart, the
Sonata, considered as an Art-Form, reached its cul-
mination. He had developed it to its logical limits,
and thenceforth little or no advance was to be made
upon his work, so far as form was concerned. The
great composers who immediately succeeded him
adopted his forms at first. They afterward struck
out new paths for themselves, but the new develop-
ment was not in the direction of elaborate forms,
but of a new content, and of the adaptation of
forms to the embodiment of this content. This will
be, treated of in the next epoch.
The student is advised to compare the forms of
the pianoforte works of Emanuel Bach, Haydn and
Mozart, for himself. The complete sonatas and
concertos of Mozart may be obtained very cheaply
in the Peters' edition.
CHAPTER V.
f The Epoch of the Predominance of Content in the
Sonata.
THE CONTENT OF MUSIC.
The content of a musical composition is what is
contained in it; the ideas and feelings which find
expression through it, and the ideals which are em-
bodied in it,
i. What ideas, then, may be expressed in the
forms of music? 2. What feelings, if any? 3.
What ideals may be embodied in it ?
i. No images can be expressed or conveyed by
combinations or successions of tones. No events
can be described in this way, no situations indicated,
except indirectly and with difficulty. Nor can any
abstract ideas be expressed. Certain sounds do in-
deed suggest certain ideas and images, and may be
employed in music for this purpose. Thus the
barking of a dog raises the idea of the animal, be-
cause we have always associated the sound with
dogs, but the idea of a dog given by this sound
alone is extremely incomplete, so that any one con-
fined to a mere imitation of barking in an attempt
to express and convey his idea of any particular
dog, would be Very unsuccessful. Given other par-
59
CHAP. V.
Content
defined.
Music
can not
express
images or
abstract
ideas.
6o
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. V.
Suggestions
of ideas by
music must
always be
incidental.
ticulars, and the mere suggestion by this sound
would be sufficient to raise the complete idea.
- There are instances of this kind in music. Thus,
Mendelssohn in his music to Shakespeare's Midsum-
mer Night's Dream, introduces in the midst of
music appropriate to a love scene, an imitation of
the braying of a donkey, and this irresistibly sug-
gests at once the scene with Bottom and Titania,
which Mendelssohn had in mind. But if we did
not know beforehand that the composer's music re-
ferred to this particular play, the mere introduction
of a bray would convey no such idea.
We must discard then, at the outset, any notion
that music can be used as words are, or as the pic-
torial arts are, for the expression and conveyance of
the images impressed on our minds by outward ob-
jects. Any use of music for such a purpose must
be incidental and secondary to its main object.
There has been a great deal of nonsense written
about "the meaning of music," by writers who
wished to connect some definite scene or event with
particular pieces, importing into them a significance
wholly foreign to the composer's intention.
All talk about " describing " this or that event or
situation in tones indicates confusion of thought.
Properly speaking, no music ever " described " or
" depicted " anything. The expressions used, how-
ever, are attempts to convey a real truth, the rela-
tions of which are apparently not clear in the minds
of the writers who use them. More of this here-
after.
THE CONTENT OF MUSIC.
61
But are there, then, no ideas in music ? Certainly
there are; but only musical ideas, except, as in the
above illustrations, when other ideas are indirectly
suggested.
What, then, is a musical idea ? A musical idea is
any succession or combination of musical sounds,
the separate components of which have a definite,
intelligible relation to one another. " Motives," as
defined in Chapter III, are musical ideas. The de-
velopment, arrangement and combination of these
motives, so as -to evolve from them complex wholes,
satisfactory to the intellect, constitutes musical
thought.
The proper apprehension of the completed pro-
duct of the composer's thought, as coherent, logical
musical discourse, is also to be called musical
thinking. A fugue, sonata or symphony, studied
scientifically, in all the relations of the separate parts
to one another and to the whole, demands for its
proper comprehension intellectual powers and train-
ing. Considered from the side of construction, of
technical knowledge and technical treatment of
sounds, music is purely a product of intellect and
the composition of it is a purely intellectual process.
But no composer of genius impresses himself on
the world merely or mainly as an intellectual athlete,
or as a skillful composer. His skill is subordinate,
is only a means to an end. That end is the em-
bodiment of some ideal. Mere technical skill, dex-
terity in the combination and arrangement of
sounds may be acquired by diligent study. It may
CHAP. V.
What
musical
ideas are*
Musical
thought
defined.
Technical
attain-
ments
are means
to an end.
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. V.
Beauty in
music.
be possessed as an attainment by scholars and
pedants without a spark of creative power. But the
real creative artist uses the materials accumulated
by study, and the facility acquired by practice, as so
much food for his imagination; as means for the
embodiment of ideal conceptions. First and fore-
most, that which occupies the attention of the artist
is the embodiment of ideals of Beauty. It is not
enough that his production be skillfully constructed;
it must be beautiful in order to satisfy his artistic
sense and make for itself a permanent place in the
world's estimation.
Beauty in music is of three kinds: Sensuous
Beauty of Tone, Symmetrical Beauty of Form, and
the Beauty which comes of the adequate expression
Of a worthy emotional content. Of these three
kinds of Beauty, any one may predominate, almost
to the exclusion of the other two; or two of them
may be prominently present, the other being neg-
lected; or all three may unite to form a well-
rounded and satisfactory whole.
Of these three kinds, compositions which embody
simply an ideal of the Pleasing in Sensation, are
lowest in the scale, because the production of
them involves the minimum of intellectual effort and
of technical attainment, and also because the emo-
tional content is inferior. Compositions which com-
bine with this the embodiment of an ideal of Formal
Beauty stand higher, because Form is the result of
high intellectual processes.
Before passing to the consideration of music as
THE CONTENT OF MUSIC.
the expression of ideal emotional experiences, it is
extremely important to make sure that there is no
confusion in the minds of even young readers, un-
acquainted with psychology, as to the relation of
feeling to the other mental operations ; and also
that the distinctions between the different kinds of
feelings are clearly understood. The discussion of
this subject, even in the briefest possible way, in-
volves a long digression, for which, it is hoped, am-
ple excuse will be found in the importance of the
the subject, the widespread ignorance of it, and the
difficulty of referring students to any treatise on it
which shall be at once brief, clear and pointed. No
one can really understand music, who can not dis-
criminate between its emotional content and the
other elements which enter into it. It is hoped,
therefore, that sufficient apology has already been
offered for the interpolation of a short essay on the
emotions here.
There are three, and only three kinds of activity
possible to the human mind. We know, we feel, we
choose. There are three general faculties corre-
sponding to these mental activities, viz.: the In-
tellect, the Sensibility and the Will
Under the intellect are included all perceptions,
Memory, Imagination, logical Thinking, Intuition,
in short all cognition or knowing. The will is the
power of choosing. Under the sensibility are in-
cluded all those phenomena of mind which we com-
monly speak of as Feeling or Emotion, these terms
being here used as synonymous, from the simplest
CHAP. V.
Importance
of a clear
idea of
I feeling.
Different
kinds of
mental
activity.
6 4
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. V.
Simple
emotions.
experiences of pleasure and pain to the warmest
affections, the strongest desires and the most violent
passions.
Feelings are either (i) simple, or (2) complex.
I. The simple emotions are pure feelings of pleas-
ure or pain. They are in all cases effects, produced
upon the mind by a great variety of causes. The at-
tempt to classify and enumerate these causes would
lead us too far. It is sufficient to note that the
mind is always affected by some cause or otner
which produces either pleasure or pain, although
our emotions are sometimes so lacking in intensity
that the sensibility seems to be almost neutral ; the
line of transition from one state to the other is
nearly reached, and feeling is reduced to a mini-
mum for the time being. This is especially true
when there is no cause at work which powerfully
affects the feelings, and when the mind is taken up
with intellectual operations. A man absorbed in solv-
ing a mathematical problem, or in composing a fugue
or sonata, for example, may be so occupied with his
purely intellectual activity that he is almost or quite
unconscious of feeling at all. Nevertheless, there
is feeling present. For if his intellectual energy is put
forth without impediment, the exercise of his in-
tellectual powers is pleasurable ; if he meets with
unexpected obstacles or interruptions, a painful
effect is produced. The pain in the one case or the
pleasure in the other may be of considerable in-
tensity, or it may be so slight as not to obtrude it-
self on the attention, and the state of feeling, or
THE CONTENT OF MUSIC.
mood, besides being simple, may be said to be indefi-
nite or vague.
The simple emotions of pleasure and pain often
depend on bodily conditions as causes, without our
being conscious of what these causes are. Most
people are subject to elations and depressions of
mood, dependent on the condition of the nervous
system. The nerves may be affected by the
weather, by the condition of the digestive apparatus,
or by other bodily causes. Besides this we receive
pleasure and pain from our social relations, from
success or failure in our business, from the gratifica-
tions or thwarting of desire, etc., etc.
II. Complex feelings are either (i) Desires or (2)
Affections. (Passions are simply desires in their ex-
treme form.) i. When we experience pleasure in
view of some object as an exciting cause, we com-
monly desire that object in its absence ; or if any ob-
ject gives us pain, we desire its absence. In both
cases there is something more than a simple emo-
tion. There is superadded to the pure pleasure or
pain an outgoing of the mind toward the cause of
the feeling to possess it, or to be rid of it. The
mind is no longer simply passive, quiescent; it
reaches out actively toward its object. Desire tends
to action. Thus we enjoy a beautiful object, or the
society of a friend. The withdrawal of these causes
a painful- sense of lack and deprivation; we desire a
renewal of the pleasure before experienced, and
long for the presence of the friend or the beautiful
object as a condition of the wished-for gratification.
E ,*
CHAP. V.
Oft. n
depend
upon
bodily
conditions.
Complex
feelings.
Desire
tends to
action.
66
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. V.
The
affections.
In the case of a friend, we desire not only his pres-
ence but his society, interchange of thought and
feeling ; we desire also that our thoughts, feelings
and actions may meet the approval of those we es-
teem. In the case of a beautiful object, or any ob-
ject which gives us pleasure, we desire to possess it,
to have it within our control; or if that be impossi-
ble, as in the case of a landscape, for instance, we
desire to appropriate it, to make it our own so faf
as the nature of the case admits. Or, we are re-
pelled by something ugly or horrible, or displeased
by behavior which we disapprove ; we desire to sep-
arate ourselves from the disagreeable person or ob-
ject, and this feeling tends to active effort on our
part to bring about this separation.
2. Affections involve still another mode of feeling.
We experience pleasure or pain ; we recognize some
person or sentient being as the cause of this simple
emotion ; there is a movement of feeling to confer
good or ill upon the cause. With this is also com-
monly associated the desire of possession. The
society of a friend delights us. We not only desire
the presence, society and approbation of our friend,
but we desire also that he should experience pleas-
ure. This awakens in us the impulse to please him,
to act for his good. Or we are displeased by the
behavior of an evil-disposed person. W T e not only
desire the absence of so obnoxious a cause of pain-
ful emotion, but we are naturally impelled to inflict
pain on the offender.
The important consideration for us in this dis-
THE CONTENT OF MUSIC.
6 7
cussion, as regards the content of music, is, that in
the simple emotions the mind is passive and qui-
escent; in the complex experiences of the desires
~and affections there is a strong tendency to action.
These are the impulses which furnish motive power
to the will, and are the springs of conduct and of
character.
The significance of these distinctions will appear
more and more clearly as we attempt to study the
works of various composers, and to interpret their
mental states from their productions. We shall find
that some of these compositions give evidences that
their authors were occupied primarily with the in-
tellectual side of their work, with plans of con-
struction. In these cases emotional experience was
reduced to a simple mood, so vague that close scrut-
iny would be required to decide whether it was
pleasurable or painful. We shall find other cases in
which the completed products show that the com-
poser had thoroughly mastered his material, con-
structed his forms with unimpeded freedom of en-
ergy and experienced keen pleasure in the spontane-
ous activity of production? This pleasure became
the emotional content of the music without the de-
liberate intention and perhaps without the conscious-
ness of the composer. In other cases, there was
added to this a higher faculty in the composer
whereby he conceived an Ideal of Beauty, which he
sought to embody in his composition. In these
cases there was infused into the work the added de-
light arising from the contemplation of the beauti-
CHAP. V.
Relation of
these
distinctions
to our
under-
standing of
the content
of music.
68
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. V.
Some
composers
passionate.
Some
deliberate-
ly seek to
express
emotion.
ful conception, and from the consciousness of suc-
cess in the attempt to embodv it.
In all these cases the emotions experienced
by the composer were simple, except in so
far as the element of desire to accomplish a certain
result complicated his emotional state. When this
desire was constantly in process of fulfillment this
element was reduced to the smallest possible quan-
tity, and the feeling became as nearly simple as pos-
sible.
But we shall find composers in whose mental
states the complex feelings predominated ; whose
minds are no longer occupied mainly with intellect-
ual processes, but in whom urgent desires, longings
and yearnings, or fierce passions constantly force
themselves upon consciousness, make their impulses
felt in the whole mental activity, and leave unmis-
takable traces on the completed product. We shall
find others who consciously sought to express in
tones real or imagined emotional experiences ; who
deliberately set themselves the task of finding suc-
cessions and combinations of tones which should
embody clearly conceive^ emotional states, sought
to reproduce in tones the most subtle as well as the
most powerful impressions made upon their own
sensibility, and to convey these impressions to
others. Finally, we shall find composers who
sought to reproduce the emotional impressions made
by a series of events, with such vividness, that a
single clue should suffice to suggest the whole story
to those already acquainted with it.
THE CONTENT OF MUSIC.
69
Resuming now our discussion of the content of
music, let us inquire: How are these feelings re-
vealed through musical composition ? What is the
relation of music to emotion ? This is now for us
the inquiry of most immediate importance.
Every one who will give the matter a little atten-
tion will discover that sounds, articulate and inar-
ticulate, are among the most efficient means of ex-
pressing and conveying feelings. Animals express
pleasure and pain by means of inarticulate sounds;
so do infants. Adults do .. the same, and modify
their expressions of ideas in language by the tones
in which their words are uttered. These tones ex-
press and convey the emotional state of the speak-
ers. We all learn in early childhood to associate
certain modulations of the voices of those around
us with certain feelings in their minds, so that we
could not possibly be convinced that we do not in-
terpret these sounds correctly. So certain are we of
our understanding of them, that no positiveness of as-
sertion by any one as to the state of his feelings
could convince us that he spoke truly, if his tone of
voice belied his assertion. Thus anger, hatred, joy,
love, jealousy, eager expectation, desire, passionate
remorse, gentle regret, sadness or melancholy are
conveyed unmistakably by sounds, whether con-
nected with words or not. Let it be noticed that
words, the signs of ideas, only excite feelings indi-
rectly, by conveying ideas, which raise the feelings ;
while sounds convey these feelings directly and im-
mediately. It is by the natural extension and carry-
The
relation of
music to
emotion.
Sounds
express
feelings*
Words
express
ideas.
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAH. V.
Music a
language
/feeling.
Who is the
best
composer
and critic ?
ing out of this process, that the sounds produced by
instruments have come to be associated with the
same feelings which the voice expresses by tones in
speech and in song, so that music has come to be a
highly complex and elaborate language of emotion
a perfect medium for the expression of feeling.
This is the prime characteristic of music. All
the fine arts aim to express and excite feeling. The
painter deals in pictures of stirring or tender or
tragic scenes ; the poet and the novelist describe
and narrate situations and events which excite the
strongest and deepest feelings. But, as already
pointed out, the office of words is to express di-
rectly, ideas; the painter gives us still more clearly
ideas and images. Feelings are indeed excited by
the ideas, but the process by which the artist reaches
other minds is a duplex one. The musician reaches
the sensibility of his hearers at once, and directly,
without the intervention of images. JThis is^thg
peculiarity of music among the fine arts, that it ex-
presses the life of emotion most directly, and most
subtly and powerfully. That music is greatest and
noblest which most perfectly answers this, its pecu-
liar end and aim ; in which its peculiar capacity is
most fully recognized and developed.
That composer is greatest who "most clearly dis-
cerns the true ends and capabilities of his art; who
aims to give worthy expression, to the noblest emo-
tional experience. He is the best connoisseur who
best appreciates the capabilities of music as a
language of emotion, and is best able to interpret
THE CONTENT OF MUSIC.
What
composi-
the emotional state of the composer by hearing his CHAI> - v -
productions.
It is, therefore, not only possible to embody in
music ideals of emotional experience, but the em-
bodiment of such ideals constitutes its peculiar and
appropriate function, and all worthy embodiment of
noble emotions involves Beauty, as well as do pro-
ducts which attain or approximate ideal perfection
^of form.
Those compositions then, are greatest and noblest
which, using as materials tones pleasing by their
,. . . . highest in
sensuous beauty, combine them into symmetrical rank.
wholes, satisfactory to the intellect, and express
through these combinations emotional experiences
ideally noble and exalted.
To sum up this discussion : In a broad sense,
the ideals of the Pleasing in Sensation and of Beauty
of Form which are embodied in music may be said
to be a part of its eon.ent, but that which is most
appropriately said to be " contained " in music, is
the emotional experience which finds expression
through the form ; this it is which is innermost, and
so with peculiar propriety is said to be " The Con-
tent of Music." In this sense the term " content "
will always be used in this book. Wherever it ap-
pears, emotional content is meant.*
*The reader's attention is called to Herbert Spencer's essay on " The
Origin and Function of Music " in his " Illustrations of Universal Prog-
ress ; " to " Music and Morals," by the Rev. H. R. Haweis ; and to " How
to Understand Music," by W. S. B. Mathews. These books are invalua-
ble to any student who desires to obtain a clear comprehension of the re-
lation of music to emotion.
CHAPTER VI.
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN.
1770-1827.
CHAP. VI.
L. van
Beethoven.
Birth and
family.
THE COMPOSER WHO EMBODIED IN THE SONATA THE
NOBLEST POSSIBLE CONTENT, AND RAISED IT TO
THE HIGHEST SIGNIFICANCE AS A WORK OF ART.
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN was born in Bonn, De-
cember 1 6, 1770. His father, Johann, was a tenor
singer in the employ of the Elector of Cologne, and
was by no- means a man of high character, being
more or less dissipated in his habits, and rough and
harsh in his manners. His mother was daughter of
the chief cook at Ehrenbreitstein, and was an easy-
going,, kind-hearted person. They were very poor,
having no income except Johann's salary as singer,
which was only three hundred florins, about one
hundred and fifty dollars a year. When Ludwig
was four years old, his father began to teach him
music, giving him lessons on the violin and harpsi-
chord. He also sent him to a common school until
he was thirteen years old, where he learned reading,
writing, arithmetic, and the rudiments of Latin.
This was all the formal schooling he ever had, but
he afterwards studied Latin, Italian and French
privately with one Zambona, who gave him help
72
L UD WIG VAN BEE THO VEN.
73
and intellectual stimulus in various ways. At the
age of nine years he was turned over to another
music teacher named Pfeiffer, who gave him efficient
instruction for a year, and at the same time he took
lessons on the organ of the court organist, Van den
Eeden. A year or so later, Van den Eeden was
succeeded by Neefe, who then became young Lud-
wig's teacher, and proved of very great service to
him. By the time he was eleven years old, Ludwig
was able to take his master's place at the organ in
his absence, was an excellent player and sight-
reader, and had played nearly all of Bach's " Well-
tempered Clavichord."
A little more than a year from this time, Neefe
was appointed to be director of both sacred and sec-
ular music in Bonn, and young Beethoven, child
though he was, was given charge of the harpsichord
in the theater orchestra, as accompanist and con-
ductor of the rehearsals. This gave him a great
deal of practice and experience, for many good
operas were given, but for more than a year it
brought him no pay ; at the end of that time, he be-
gan to receive a salary of one hundred and fifty
florins (about seventy-five dollars) per year. He
practiced composition, writing songs and pianoforte
pieces during this time and gaining in knowledge
and experience.
In 1785 he took violin lessons of Franz Ries, and
wrote three quartets for pianoforte and strings, be-
sides continuing his composition of smaller pieces,
and two years later he paid a visit to Vienna, where
CHAP. VI.
His music
teachers.
Violin
lessons.
74
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VI.
Makes
valuable
friends.
His
manners
and
character.
he met Mozart and took a few lessons from him.
This was, of course, an important event in the life
of the young composer. Mozart recognized his in-
born genius, and predicted a great future for him.
A little later, Beethoven acquired some friends,
who were not only of the greatest importance to his
development at this critical age (he was now seven-
teen), but who remained devotedly attached to him
during his life. These were the Von Breuning
family and Count Waldstein, a young nobleman,
eight years older than Ludwig, a cultivated young
man, and an intelligent amateur musician. Madame
Von Breuning was a refined, intellectual, cultivated
widow, with three sons and a daughter. She em-
ployed young Ludwig as a music teacher in her fam-
ily, and they all became his warm friends. Up to
this time, his associations had probably been, for the
most part, with uncultivated people. His family, as
we have seen, was low in station, and far from ele-
vated in character, so that there was nothing in his
home surroundings to develop refinement. Indeed,
he remained through life a boor in his manners, and
was always an uncomfortable person to live with.
But, in spite of this, he had something in him which
all the finest people he met recognized as superior.
Madame Von Breuning saw, plainly enough, that
his faults were only on the surface. She rTad dis-
cernment enough to perceive that underneath the
uncouth exterior and bearish behavior of this rude
and violent youth there lay the essentials of a noble
character. She respected him accordingly, liked
L UD WIG VAN BEE THO VEN.
75
him in spite of his faults, admitted him to the inti-
mate friendship of herself and her family, encour-
\aged him in every way, and introduced him to the
best German and English literature. Here he
/formed intellectual and literary tastes which were of
J the highest importance in his development, and
which lasted him throughout his life. Meanwhile,
his father went from bad to worse, and at last fell so
low, that before Ludwig was nineteen years old, the
Elector ordered a part of his father's salary to be
paid over to him, and he thus became, in a way, his
father's guardian, and the real head of the family.
He remained at Bonn, in the service of the Elect-
or, in intimate association with 'the friends already
mentioned, and constantly engaged in composition,
until November, 1792. He was now nearly twenty-
two years old. Compared with Mozart's produc-
tions at that age, the pieces he had composed were
few in number, small and unimportant ; but there
were already to be found in them hints of his future
greatness, and suggestions of what was to be the
distinctive characteristic of his future works, grand-
eur and sublimity, nobility and elevation of emotion-
al content, and a profundity and force of passion
such as had been hitherto unknown in the works of
any composer. His acquaintances were impressed
with his powers, and believed in his genius, but this
impression was probably due much more to the fire,
imagination and force of his playing than to any-
thing in his compositions, for in improvisation he is
said to have surpassed even Mozart. We have al-
CHAP. VI.
His
introduc-
tion to
literature.
His early
composi-
tions.
The
impression
he made
on his
acquaint-
ances.
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VI.
Lessons
with.
Haydn*
ready seen that his extemporaneous playing made a
profound impression on Mozart, at Beethoven's first
visit to Vienna, and Haydn was similarly impressed
when he passed through Bonn, on his way to Lon-
don, in December, 1790, and again on his return in
July, 1792. The high opinion which Haydn formed
of Beethoven's talent, finally resulted in the young
man's going to Vienna to study with the old com-
poser, in November, 1792, and thenceforth Beetho-
ven lived in Vienna until his death.
But his lessons with Haydn were a disappoint-
ment. Haydn was very busy, and seems to have
neglected his pupil somewhat; but besides, it soon
became clear that the natures of the two men were
so incompatible that the relation of teacher and
pupil could be hardly pleasant or profitable to either.
Each was original in his way, but the ways were
radically different. Haydn himself had been an in-
novator, had opened up new fields, and by break-
ing new paths for himself had aroused the antagon-
ism of the pedants of his day. Beethoven was to be
equally a pioneer in unexplored regions, and was
equally to incur the hostility not only of pedantic
worshippers of " the letter which killeth," but even
the disapproval of Haydn, genius though he was.
Haydn had never hesitated to break the rules of
the old contrapuntists whenever he thought he
could produce a better effect by so doing. He was
conscious of an unerring insight which enabled him
to discover principles beyond the ken of the musical
grammarians and purists of his time. It is probable
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN-.
77
that, on general principles, he would not ' have dis-
approved of any young composer's taking a similar
course, for Haydn was catholic in his views; but he
was now an old man and seems to have been inca-
pable of comprehending the new spirit which im-
pelled his vigorous young pupil in a direction wholly
different from that which he himself had taken, and
almost as widely divergent from the course of
Mozart, whom Haydn fully understood and appre-
ciated. When Beethoven submitted his first three
Trios to Haydn's criticism, the old man frankly ad-
vised him not to publish the third. Beethoven
knew this to be the best of the three, and such an
opinion of course destroyed the young composer's
confidence in the critical judgment of his teacher,
for Beethoven's intuitions were sure, and he walked
no uncertain road. Diverge from Haydn he must
and did; and the necessity prevented all intimacy
and cordial personal relations, though there was
never any open quarrel. Haydn seems to have
mildly resented young Beethoven's unteachableness
and lick of proper respect, while Ludwig expressed
his disregard for Haydn's opinions with a good deal
of frankness.
Thus Haydn's formal instruction of the new
genius amounted to but very little. Beethoven took
lessons of others, especially of Albrechtsberger, the
great contrapuntist, but he assimilated their teach-
ings in his own way, formed ideals of his own to-
tally different from those set before him by his
teachers, used their lessons merely as hints for orig-
CHAP. VI.
Haydn's
disapprov-
al of
Beethoveifs
work.
Lessons
"with
Albrechts-
berger.
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VI.
Acknowl-
edgment
of his
claims by
the
amateurs
of Vienna.
inal discoveries incomprehensible to them, and as
material for the accomplishment of results which,
though now long since accepted as valid, awakened
in them only disapproval and contempt.
" Have nothing to do with him," said Albrechts-
berger to a young student, " he has learnt nothing,
and will never do anything in decent style." But
though learned pedants and dry contrapuntists could
not see the dawning greatness of a genius of the
first rank, it was plain enough to the noble and cul-
tivated amateurs whose patronage was at that time
the only support of artists in Vienna. Beethoven
at once acquired friends, admirers and patrons
among the Austrian aristocracy. The Prince Lich-
nowsky and Baron van Swieten at first, and after
them nearly all the aristocratic connoisseurs of the
music-loving capital, employed him at private con-
certs and as a teacher, bought his compositions, fur-
nished him players to try his quartets and trios over
before they were finished, received him into their
houses on the most intimate terms and in every way
showed their appreciation of his talents and his
character. He was soon thrown on his own re-
sources by the withdrawal of his allowance from
Bonn, and henceforth he supported himself by com-
position, concerts and teaching. That he should
have found no difficulty in doing so is not so sur-
prising, although it is certainly creditable to his pat-
rons that they should have discerned in him abili-
ties as a musician which his teachers had failed to
see.
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN.
79
What is astonishing, on the surface, is Beetho-
ven's personal relations to this high-born society. It^
would doubtless have been entirely possible for his
aristocratic patrons to have shown their apprecia-
tion of his musical gifts and attainments, a r .d to
have supported him liberally, without admitting him
to social intercourse, for which, by his birth, his edu-
cation, his personal habits and his outward behavior,
he was every way unfitted, and so remained to the
last.
He was absent- minded and careless of his dress
to the last degree ; he was untidy, not to say un-
kempt and dirty ; his table manners were almost in-
tolerable ; he would come into an elegant drawing-
room after walking in the rain and shake the water
from his hat over the furniture, oblivious of any
possibility of damage ; he was perpetually breaking
whatever he touched ; he was extremely sensitive,
irritable, violent and abusive ; he stormed at his
pupils, young ladies of the highest rank ; he insulted
the gentlemen whose guest he was ; in short, his
outward behavior might not inaptly be summed up
in the sailor's verdict on the cannibals : " Manners
they have none, and their customs are disgusting."
Moreover, the social distance between noble fam-
ilies and such as his was at that time very great in-
deed. Yet he was received on terms of equality
into an aristocratic society as elegant and refined as
any in Europe ; was admired and loved equally by
gentlemen and ladies ; his faults were overlooked ;
his boorishness and abuse ware submitted to, and
CHAP. VI.
His
persona!
relations
to the
highborn
society of
Vienna.
His dress,
manners
and
behavior.
8o
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VI.
His social
success
accounted
for.
His
irritability
only upon
the
surface.
he was treated in all respects as if he honored that
society by his presence. To account for this phe-
nomenon it is not sufficient to point to the evidences
of his musical genius, for neither Haydn nor Mozart,
though both original geniuses, and, moreover, gen-
tlemen in demeanor, were treated with such consider-
ation by this same society. The truth is, that
Beethoven's faults were merely superficial. They
were hard enough to tolerate in elegant society, or
indeed in any company, but they did not by any
means touch the foundation of his character. His
neglect of dress, and of good table habits, of the
minor moralities and the amenities of social intercourse
were due partly to lack of early training, and still
more to his complete mental absorption in the ideal
conceptions which always filled his imagination, and
which have become the world's precious possessions.
His irritability and violent explosions of ungov-
ernable rage were largely due to the same cause ;
for, with a nervous constitution sensitive and ex-
citable in the extreme, any interruption of his pre-
occupation, especially any disagreeable interference
with the flow of his ideas, was a rude shock which
roused sudden and violent resentment. But though
he was not very considerate of other people's rights
and feelings in minor matters, in greater ones it
was not so. If he did not tithe the mint, anise and
cummin, he did not neglect the weightier matters of
the law. The surface of his behavior was often
ruffled by gusts of ill-temper, but the depths of his
soul remained in profound quiet. And depths there
LUDW1G VAN BEETHOVEN.
81
were, and heights, too, in the soul of this man, such
as few could measure or fathom ; a profundity of
passion, a loftiness of thinking, a nobility of feeling,
an elevation of purpose such as commanded the re-
spect of all discerning persons.
Doubtless this alone would not account for his re-
lations to the Vienna aristocracy, any more than his
musical gifts and attainments would be sufficient.
I But the central point is that Beethoveris music em-
bodied all that -was noblest and best in his character.
It was not mere arrangement and combination of
sounds for amusement; it was not even merely the
creation of beautiful forms, for the gratification of a
high aesthetic taste; it was the embodiment of emotion-
al experiences which could only have been possible to
a man of the highest intellectual endowments, the
profoundest capacity of feeling, whose thoughts and
; emotions and purposes were ideally pure and noble.
""* Beethoven took his art seriously; as seriously as a
1 saint and martyr takes his religion. To him it in-
volved right living ; it was a perpetual consecration.
The fire of his enthusiasm burned continually
without abatement. This consecration, this abso-
lute devotion to ideal aims was the attraction which
drew to him the noblest, the purest, the most refined
of the men and women of the time and place in
which he lived; and this it is which gives him a
place among the highest in the love and the esteem
of the best of our day.
"* His immortality as a composer is due mainly to
the nobility of the content of his compositions. His
CHAP. VI.
His real
nobility of
character
revealed in
his music.
Content of
his music.
His high
estimate of
his art.
82
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP VI.
Why he is
an
immortal
composer.
Content of
Haydn's }
music* i
'
sonatas, symphonies, trios and quartets are indeed
master-pieces in form and style ; but Form, with
Beethoven, was not the most important matter.
The classical form of the sonata had already reached
its culmination in Haydn and Mozart. Beethoven
accepted this form, without question, as it came
from the hands of his elder contemporaries, and
soon began to manifest his originality by filling it
with a new emotional content. The very first of his
pianoforte sonatas are superior to the best of
Mozart's in point of significance. Indeed, the adagio
of his first sonata, in F minor, op. 2, is incompar-
ably more beautiful than anything of the kind which
had preceded it, and this beauty is due, not to
greater perfection of form, not to superior elegance
or grace of style, but to its noble serenity of spirit,
*ja pegce thflt passeth understanding" peace which
comes from the consciousness of union with the
Highest, the repose won by self-conquest, by strug-
gle and victory.
In Haydn's pianoforte compositions there reigns
the cheerfulness of child-like innocence, perpetual
freshness of spirit, with no evidence of any heights
or depths of passion, of struggle with temptation or
with fate, or any knowledge of evil, profound sor-
row or suffering. For aught that appears in most
of them he might always have retained the feelings
of a healthy, good-natured, careless child, at play in
the sunshine. And this was doubtless the spirit in
which he habitually wrote. He had annoyances
and troubles but instead of seeking to express his
LUDWIC VAN BEETHOVEN.
troubled feelings in music he used his art as a refuge
from all things unpleasant, forgetting them in the
creation of beautiful forms and combinations, into
which he always infused a cheerful mood. At least
there was seldom anything more divergent from this
than a jmjld_ melancholy, introduced for the sake of
enhancing the gayer mood by contrast. In Mozart
the characteristic mood is gayety, keen enjoyment,
a never-failing appetite for pleasure ; but the sources
of this pleasure are not so simple. He is more
many-sided ; has had a wider experienceoTTnerrand
things , has vastly more impressions to reproduce.
Into his short thirty-five years were crowded a rich-
ness and variety of social and musical experience,
from his life in the pleasure-loving Austrian capital,
in comparison with which, Haydn's quiet, retired
life at Prince Esterhazy's country seat, occupied in
composing for his own small orchestra and choir, was
simplicity itself.
Accordingly, we find in Mozart's music, as the
unconscious reproduction of his emotional life, a
many-sidedness, a variety and richness, especially
in the coloring of his orchestral compositions, to
which his older contemporary can lay no claim.
But in aH'thrs there is little of grandeur or sublhn-
ity. Grace, there is, consummate ease and elegance,
the polish of a complete man of the world, who is
perfectly at home in all elegant society, gives him-
self up to his daily pleasures with the frank and
hearty abandon of a boy, accepts life as he finds it,
and never troubles his head with its deeper and
CHAP. VI.
Content of
Mozart 's
8 4
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VI.
Neither
Hadyn nor
Mozart
frivolous.
Content in
the instru-
men tal
music of
both a sub-
ordinate
matter.
Ifaydn's
attempts at
dramatic
character-
ization.
sadder problems, and whose good-humor, zest for
pleasure and buoyancy of spirits, nothing can over-
come.
, -~ ^^ %
Not indeed that the music of either Haydn or
Mozart is frivolous or shallow, far from it. To both,
music was a serious occupation, an exalted pleasure,
and, barring some few things written from the ne-
cessity of earning money, and lacking the true in-
spiration, the ruling motive seems to have been to
embody an ideal of beauty conditioned on sensuous-
ly beautiful tones combined into logical forms.
This music is not only not trivial, but often has a
noble emotional significance. The ruling mood in
it seems to be the keen pleasure experienced by the
composer in the contemplation of his own beautiful
conception, and in the work of artistic creation.
This refers more especially to the purely instru-
mental compositions of both. When they had to
deal with words, they embodied the emotions raised
by the ideas of the text. This they did, doubtless,
intuitively and in a sense unconsciously. It is not
probable that either of them philosophized much, if
at all, about the relation of music to emotion, and
its proper limits as a means of emotional expression.
But they both instinctively felt what was fitting in
the relation of their music to the words chosen.
There are indeed instances, such as the peculiar
figure in " The Creation " at the words, " With sud-
den leap the flexible tiger appears," and other simi-
lar cases in the same work, which almost look like
crude attempts to " depict " the leap of the tiger,
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN.
etc., but everywhere Haydn is saved, by innate re-
finement of perception, from the fatal step which
would land him in the ridiculous.
The operas of Mozart are full of admirable exam-
ples of dramatic characterization. Indeed, neither
Haydn nor Mozart appears at his best in his piano-
forte 'music ; a fact doubtless due, at least in part,
tp the limitations and imperfections of the instru-
ment in their time. When they deal with the or-
chestra or with voices, the content of their music be-
comes nobler and more characteristic. Still, in the
instrumental compositions, the form seems always
to have been a prime consideration, and neither
seems to have attempted or even desired to embody
a content which could not be perfectly expressed
through the form of the sonata.
* With Beethoven the case was different. His was
a larger, deeper, more powerful nature, with super-
abundance of untamed energy. He was saturated
with the great ideas of his time, the time of the
French Revolution; he was independent to the last
degree, carrying his contempt for old forms and eti-
quette to an extreme which accounts for much of
his rudeness of behavior. He would have no social
shams, no cant, no hypocrisy, no putting the best
side out, no shallow compliments, no superiority ex-
cept such as was created by character and gifts.
Was his brother Johann a " property owner ? " He
was a "brain owner." Had the Austrian Emperor
and nobles, title, rank, wealth ? He had what rank
could not give nor money purchase, the genius and
CHAP. VI.
Beethoven's
character
and ideals i
86
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VI.
His ideals
find
expression
in music.
Classical
forms
modified to
suit the
content
embodied in
them.
gifts which God had bestowed upon him, and he not
only asserted but forced acknowledgment of his
equality with the proudest of the aristocracy. The
great ideas of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, filled and
inspired him with emotions unknown to his prede-
cessors.
If these ideas and feelings found mistaken and
unworthy forms of expression in his outward be-
havior, they came to the noblest and most inspiring
embodiment in his great compositions. Witness the
Symphony " Eroica," the Fifth and Ninth Sympho-
nies, the " Sonata Appassionata," the Sonatas from
op. 101 to op. in, as conspicuous examples.
This, new and superior emotional content had a
marked effect on the formal construction of his com-
positions. He did indeed write sonatas to the end
of his life, but he modified the form to suit the con-
tent which he had to express and for which the
somewhat stiff and formal outlines of the classic
sonata were no longer adapted. Neither Haydn
nor Mozart seemed to have anything to say which
could not be said while giving supreme place to
classical symmetry of form, balance of nearly re-
lated keys and uniformity of plan in a whole series
of works. What Beethoven had to s'ay required
greater freedom in the treatment of themes, greater
variety in keys and frequency of abrupt modulation,
and not seldom departures from the traditional pro-
portions of the principal and subordinate groups.
These modifications are no contribution to the com-
pletion of the classical form ; that was already per-
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN.
feet ; that ideal had already been realized; they were
departures from the classical in the direction of the
Romantic ideal. To quote an able writer:* "None
of these alterations and additions to the usual forms
were made by Beethoven for their own sake. They
were made because he had something to say on his
subject which the rules did not give him time and
space to say, and which he could not leave unsaid.
His work is a poem, in which the thoughts and emo-
tions are the first things, and the forms of expresstdff
second and subordinate."
This intellectual and emotional content is admira-
bly characterized by Mr. Edward Dannreuther in
an article quoted by Mr. Grove. " While listening
to such works as the Overture to Leonora, the Sin-
fonia Eroica, or the Ninth Symphony, we feel that we
are in the presence of something far wider and
higher than the mere development of musical
themes. The execution in detail of each movement
and each succeeding work is modified more and
more with the prevailing poetic sentiment. A re-
ligious passion and elevation are present in the ut-
terances. The mental and moral horizon of the
music grows upon us with each new hearing. . The
different movements, like the different particles of
each movement, have as close a connection with
each other as the acts of a tragedy, and a character-
istic significance to be understood only in relation
*See Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, article Beethoven,
page 207.
CHAP. VI.
Dann-
reuther s
estimate
of his
music.
88
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VI.
The ethical
quality of
his music.
First
publica-
tions.
to the whole ; each work is in the full sense of the
word a revelation.
" Beethoven speaks a language no one has spoken
before, and treats of things no one has dreamt of
before ; yet it seems as though he were speaking of
matters long familiar, in one's mother-tongue ; as
though he touched upon emotions one had lived
through in some former existence. The warmth
and depth of his ethical sentiment is now felt all
the world over, arid it will ere long be universally
recognized that he has leavened and widened the
sphere of men's emotions in a manner akin to that
in which the conceptions of great philosophers and
poets have widened the sphere of men's intellectual
activity."
Having sought to account for Beethoven's rela-
tions to the society in which he lived, by giving
some notion of his character and works, it is now
time to return to the narrative of his life, which
shall be briefly sketched. Our digression began at
the point when he had come to settle in Vienna, had
been taken up by Prince Lichnowsky and Baron
von Swieten, and was taking lessons of Haydn and
Albrechtsberger. This was in 1792. His studies
in composition began to bear excellent fruit in about
three years. In July, 1795, were published his three
pianoforte trios, op. r, and .soon afterward the three
pianoforte sonatas, op. 2. These works were evi-
dently modelled on Haydn and Mozart, the best
composers of his time, but they are original and
characteristic. They excited much enthusiasm, one
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN.
89
evidence of which is the proposal made to him by
Count Appony to write a string quartet at his own
price.
Before and during this year he had also written
several of his minor compositions for the pianoforte,
and what is of more importance, his first and second
concertos. The concerto in C major he played at a
concert in the Burg theater given for the benefit of
a widow's fund of the Artist's Society, and surprised
the musicians by the feat of playing it in C sharp,
the pianoforte being a half tone flat. He also
played at other concerts this year, one of them
Haydn's.
The record of 1796 is much the same. The most
significant compositions of this year were the piano-
forte Sonata in E flat, op. 7, so markedly original as
to create a new epoch in pianoforte music, and
the quintet for piano and wind instruments, op. 16.
He continued to grow steadily from year to year.
Most of his compositions for some time naturally
fell below the mark he had reached in the E flat
Sonata in point of originality, but they were all sig-
nificant, and the Sonata, op. 10, No. 3, written in
1798, is an important landmark in his progress. In
1797, his noble love-song, "Adelaide," was written.
His work in composition was varied by concerts and
much private playing. He used to meet his brother
musicians and engage in friendly trials of skill. In
one of these encounters, not so friendly, he worsted
Steibelt, who was very jealous of him, by taking the
violoncello part of Steibelt's new quintet, turning it
CHAP. VI.
First and
sefond
concertos.
The
sonata in j
flat, op. 7
Friendly
trials of
skill.
9
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VI.
Larger
"works.
Sonatas,
26-27.
upside down, and improvising on the theme thus ob-
tained so brilliantly that Steibelt was fairly driven
from the room. His frequent meetings with Woefl
were more satisfactory. Both were excellent players
and improvisators, and both thoroughly enjoyed
their frequent musical contests.
Beethoven soon began to plan larger works.
"The Sonata pathetique " was written in 1799, and
a beginning was made on the string quartets, op. 18,
the septet, the first symphony, and his oratorio,
" The Mount of Olives." His pianoforte sonata in
B flat, op. 22, was also begun about this time, and
the third concerto in C minor, followed very soon.
All through the first year of the present century he
was absorbed in these works and in conceiving new
ones, though " The Mount of Olives " was not- fin-
ished for some years. His mental activity was in-
cessant. The list of all his works and the details
concerning them would occupy more space than can
be given Hiem in this chapter. Only salient points
which serve to trace his mental growth and the de-
velopment of his genius can here be indicated.
Among the pianoforte compositions, which more
immediately concern ^us, there were the sonatas in
A flat, op. 26, the two sonatas, op 27, of which the
one in C sharp minor, commonly known as the
" Moonlight," is among the most original of all his
works, and the so-called " Pastoral " sonata, op. 28,
all of which belong to the year 1800.
But he was now becoming seriously deaf. For
some time he had suffered from violent noises in his
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN.
ears, and the case was rapidly growing worse.
Many physicians were consulted, but none of them
could help him. At thirty, years old, this greatest
of musicians and composers was looking forward to
the prospect of being unable to hear a single note.
The key-note of his character is given in the follow-
ing quotation from a letter of his, which shows how
he faced it : "I will, as far as possible, defy my
\ fate, though there must be moments when I shall be
jthe most miserable of God's creatures. Not un-
happy, no ; that I could never endure. I will grap-
ple with fate ; it never shall drag me down." This
is the mood of the " sonata appassionata," a sonata
which must always remain one of the noblest of hu-
man utterances, the revelation of a high soul, sub-
jected to suffering the most intense, yet unconquered
and unconquerable.
In spite of his sufferings and his apprehensions
he worked on diligently. He commonly had sever-
al new compositions in his mind at once, turned
them over and over, sketched them slowly, elabo-
rated them laboriously, and only by slow degrees did
any of them grow to completeness. The spontane-
ity and marvelous rapidity of production which
strike us so forcibly in Mozart were never character-
istic of Beethoven, but the works which grew in his
mind so slowly -attained majestic proportions and
overtopped those of Mozart as the slow-growing,
lofty oak towers above the graceful birch or the
quick-growing aspen.
The sonatas above referred to already had much
CHAP. VI.
His
deafness.
His
industry.
9 2
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VI.
Sonatas,
op. 31.
Farther
anxiety.
of this loftiness of character. The year 1803 saw
another step in his development, the production of
the sonatas, op. 31, in which he himself recognized
a change in his style ; he also wrote the three violin
sonatas, op. 30, and some minor compositions. But
the most important work which occupied him at
this time was his Third Symphony, the " Eroica,"
the inspiration of which is drawn from the noblest
ideas which underlay the French Revolution, and
from the career of Napoleon Bonaparte up to the
time of his assuming the title of Emperor. The
work was already finished and dedicated to Napo-
leon when the news of this event came to Vienna.
Beethoven tore off the title page and dashed it on
the floor in a rage.
The next year his one noble opera, "Fidelio,"
was written, and other important compositions,
which can not here be dwelt upon, followed rapidly.
Full details are to be found in Grove's Dictionary
and elsewhere.
So it went on until 1815, when his brother Casper
died, and this event was the beginning of the last
epoch in Beethoven's life. Casper left his son Carl,
then some eight years old, to the care of his brother,
and as the boy turned out wholly worthless, he be-
came a constant source of worry and anxiety to his
already overburdened uncle.
The case was further complicated by the fact that
Carl's mother was determined to get possession of
him, and contested Beethoven's right to him in the
courts, while Ludwig regarded his sister-in-law as a
L UD WIG VAN BEE THO VEN.
93
disreputable person, unfit to have charge of her son,
and resolutely declined to allow her to have any-
thing to do with him. The added sorrow and vexa-
tion which these untoward circumstances caused the
composer, must have hindered his work and hast-
ened the exhaustion of his powers, but he worked on,
bravely and steadily, produced and published his
great works for pianoforte, his chamber music, sym-
phonies, etc., one after another, while his deafness
grew upon him, his domestic griefs and anxiety in-
creased, and his health gradually failed. It became
impossible for him to hear even the loudest notes of
the orchestra, and all communication with him had
to bo in writing.
But it is doubtless due partly to these very cir-
cumstances, apparently so unfavorable, that this
latter period of Beethoven's life was rich in trj,e
noblest and most original of his compositions. His
music was the expression of his emotional experi-
ence, and this experience was deepened, purified,
exalted, ennobled, by the fires of affliction. " It is
only fire that takes out dross," and out of the
furnace came the real gold of Beethoven's character.
What he was, in his inmost soul, that his music
shows. What was mean in his externals or rude in his
behavior was mere husk ; the real heart of him is in
the Sonata, op. in and the Ninth Symphony.
The terrible trials but of which thesf works grew,
continued for twelve years, and then came the end.
His worthless nephew made him much trouble, fin-
ally attempted suicide, and was ordered out of Vi-
CHAP. VI.
He becomes
totally
deaf.
Last
works*
94
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VI.
enna by the police. Beethoven went with the boy
to his brother Johann's in the country. Here he
and Johann had a tiff, and he returned to Vienna in
bad weather, took cold, soon had inflammation of
the lungs and then dropsy. He never rose from
this sickness, but died on the 26th of March, 1827.
CHAPTER VII.
The Transition from the Classic to the Romantic
Period.
THE CLASSIC AND THE ROMANTIC IN MUSIC.
The term " classic " is used in two senses. In the
one sense it means having permanent interest and
value rand is thus contrasted with the evanescent
and the ephemeral. ^ In this sense any composition
is a classic which succeeds in maintaining its place
in the interest of mankind for ages after the death
of its authorj No one can certainly determine dur-
ing the lifetime of any composer whether his works
are classics in this sense or not, because the only
sure test is that of time. We may, indeed, have
reason to think that a given work of excellence pos-
sesses elements of permanent and universal interest,
but in such matters it is easy to be misled, and the
history of music and of literature affords innumera-
ble instances of errors in judgment as regards this
point on the part of critics and connoisseurs. We
can not, therefore, safely predicate the term " classic "
in the first sense of any contemporary works. What-
ever has come down to us from a period sufficiently
remote to show that the interest it awakens is per-
manent, that the world will not willingly let it die,
95
CHAP. VII.
The term
"classic "
defined.
9 6
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
Classic an
romantic
ideals
contrasted.
CHAP, vii. j s classic ; nothing else is, though many among con-
temporary works may possibly become so.
In the second sense, the term " classic," or, more
commonly, " classical," is used to designate music
written in a particular style, aiming at the embodi-
ment of a certain ideal, the chief element of whicn
is Beauty of Form. In this sense it is contrasted
with the term " Romantic," a term used to designate
music which aims at embodying a different ideal,
that of the vivid and truthful expression of varied
and strongly contrasted emotional experiences, such
as we are accustomed to connect with the~word
romantic " in literature and in life.
In "classical " music, in this sense, Form is first
an d content is subordinate ; in " romantic " music
content is first and Form is subordinate. The clas-
sical ideal is predominantly an intellectual one. Its
products are characterized by clearness of thought,
by completeness and symmetry, l)y harmonious pro-
portion, by simplicity and repose. Classical works,
whether musical or literary, are posftive, clear,
finished. The following axioms from Aristotle's
" Poetics " (quoted in the New American Cyclope-
dia, article " classics ",) apply quite as well to
classical music as to Greek poetry. " There is
nothing beautiful in literature nor the arts which may
not be clearly analyzed by the intellect.'' " Every
poem must be contained within prescribed bounda-
ries, so that it may be easy for the mind to embrace
it at a single glance, and to form a single conceo-
tion or picture of it."
THE CLASSIC AND ROMANTIC,
97
These are the fundamental principles which
underlie all classical compositions.
"~It is easy to see that, up to Beethoven's time, the
classical ideal had been predominant, at least in
pianoforte music. Indeed, no other had come for-
ward with any prominence. There were sporadic
cases which did not conform to the classical ideal,
but there was no other style generally recognized or
1 sought after.
The Bach fugues, in which the polyphonic mode
of writing culminated, and the Mozart sonatas, con-
certos, quartets, and symphonies, in which the limit
of development of monophonic Form was reached
have all the characteristics above described. They
are, indeed, often long and complex, composed of
many parts, developed to an extent unknown to
earlier composers, but their plan is always simple
and easily grasped as a whole and in its details, it is
strictly logical, it has the most perfect unity of idea,
sits parts are symmetrically balanced, the proportions
are simple, the modulations are confined to a nar-
row range of nearly related keys for the sake of
simplicity and clearness ; in short, the composer
laid all possible stress on the necessity of producing
/beautiful, clearly intelligible works, satisfactory to
the intellect and to the logical sense.
^ This being the case, it is obvious that the emo-
tional content of them must necessarily have been
CHAP. VIL
The class-
ical ideal
Predomi-
nant befort
Beethoven.
The
emotional
content oj
simple. A composer whose mind is mainly occu- j classical
pied with the intellectual side of his work, who aims | Dimple.
primarily at clearness of statement as the main con- 1
9 8
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. Vll.
The moods
ivere logic-
ally devel-
yped.
dition of formal beauty, can not at the same time be
agitated by violent and contending passions, or dis-
turbed by vague yearnings or urgent desires. The
emotional content of his forms must be simple and
reposeful, such as simple pleasure or sadness, ele-
vated joy in the contemplation of grandeur, or
melancholy of a mild type. The simpler emotional
experiences alone were adapted for expression
through the strictly classical forms, and accordingly
we find no other in the works of the composers
above referred to, or in those of their contempo-
raries.
'Imagination there is in their works, and that
of the finest type, but it deals with its musical
materials solely with reference to an Ideal of Beauty,
of which the expression of violent and conflicting
emotions formed no part, and to which such emo-
tions were not only foreign but antagonistic. It is
characteristic, too, that not only were simple emo-
tions, or moods, more or less indefinite or vague,
the sole content admissible in their mode of writing,
but that these moods in their successions and rela-
tioFs were, like the form of the compositions, devel-
oped in a logical way, were conceived as under
rationaT control and subordinate to intelligence.
They were, in short, the natural expressions of the
emotional life of healthy, simple, natural, well-regu-
lated minds, living in the present, engrossed mainly
with present enjoyments more or less refined, and
wholly free from disquieting questions, and from
unrest of every sort.
THE CLASSIC AND ROMANTIC.
99
With Beethoven the case was different. His men-
tal and moral horizon was wider, his aspirations
higher, his sympathies stronger and more intense,
his joys and sorrows struck deeper root in pro-
founder soil, and spread their branches in loftier and
purer air, receiving more of sunshine and casting
deeper shadow.
In all the great artists there has been prominent
the conception of the Beautiful as a manifestation
of the Divine, and therefore as closely connected
with ideals of religion and morality. The percep-
tion of this is their greatest claim to be seers and
prophets for the race. But with Beethoven this was
pre-eminently the case. The " religious passion
and elevation " quoted from Mr. Dannreuther in
the last chapter, is the key-note of his character, and
he was a musician and not something else, because
he found in his chosen art the most perfect medium
in which to embody his most characteristic ideals
and feelings.
He was powerfully affected by the French Revo-
lution, and gave a passionate response to the great
ideas which gave rise to it. But he was also strongly
influenced by his study of English literature and of
the German school of Romantic Poetry, with both
of which he became acquainted in his youth, in the
house of Madame von Breuning. This latter school
was made up of young men, his contemporaries,
and aimed at nothing less than freeing German
Poetry from the shackles of a blind imitation of the
stiff and affected pseudo classicism of France..
CHAP. VII.
How
Beethoven
differed.
E/ect on
/z'//r j/
t/tefira.-f
Revoi utter*
and
English,
IOO
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC
CHAP. VII.
Character-
istics of
the
German
romantic
writers.
French literature had up to this time been predom-
inant in German thought, and its stilted forms had
served as the only accepted models for German
writers.
The young writers of the new school discarded
the current rules, sought their models and subjects
in the middle age romances, laid" all possible stress
on the vivid representation of natural feelings in
their most vigorous manifestations and little or none
on conventional rules or established principles of
composition. They dealt in violent passions, in
strongly contrasted situations, in weird and fantastic
images. They put desijre and yearning in the place
of present enjoyment ; vague mysticism in the place~
of definite clearness of ideas ; well-defined, powerful
feelings in the place of simple, vague moods.
It is probable that Beethoven did not definitely
propose to himself to attempt in music the same
sort of revolution which Tieck, the Schlegels and
others were accomplishing in German literature.
Very likely he did little or no philosophizing on the
subject ; but he was strongly influenced by the intel-
lectual movements of his time, with what result we
have already seen. He proclaimed no new revolu-
tionary gospel in the forms of composition. Out-
wardly, he conformed to the classical school, just as
he nominally belonged to the Roman Catholic
Church. But in both cases the inward spirit is too
great for the form in which it is contained.
The Romantic School really began with Beetho-
ven, and his example and character gave it its most
THE CLASSIC AND ROMANTIC.
101
powerful impulse, though there is, perhaps, not a
word to be quoted from him in direct advocacy of
the new principle.
It was left to the young men of the next genera-
tion to devote themselves with full consciousness of
. their own aims to the promotion of the principles
which underlay his practice, to fight the battle of
"David against the Philistines," and to establish the
supremacy of the nobler aspirations of human
nature, of the unrest of dissatisfaction with imper-
fection and wrong, of yearning and outreaching
desire for better things, of agitated striving, of
resistance, struggle and conquest as motives in art,
as against simple, childlike pleasure and pain, quiet
repose and harmonious beauty.
{Two great contemporaries of Beethoven shared
\ the influences which affected him, and with him pre-
\pared the way for the romantic composers proper ;
p them the next chapter will be devoted.
I/
CHAP. VII.
The
romantic
school of
music
begins with
him.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAP. VIII.
C. M.
von Weber.
His
childhood
surround-
ings.
BEETHOVEN'S TWO GREATEST CONTEMPORARIES IN
THE DOMAIN OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CARL MARIA VON WEBER (1786-1826).
FRANZ PETER SCHUBERT (1797-1828).
CARL MARIA. VON WEBER was born at.Eutin, in
Holstein, December 18, 1786. He came of a family
in whom the love of music, and still more the love
of the drama, had been prominent traits. In some
of them, indeed, these two impulses had become
consuming passions. The boy's father, Franz
Anton, was one of these. He does not seem to
have possessed remarkable abilities, either histrionic
or musical, and had had excellent opportunities to
rise in the world in other callings ; but his innate
tendencies toward music and the stage impelled him
irresistibly into the life of a strolling player and
musician. Into this life, irregular, unhealthful for
mind and body, he dragged his unwilling family, to
the disgust and shame of his wife, and the detriment
of his children.
None of the family displayed remarkable talents,
or gave any promise of realizing Franz Anton's
dream of giving to the world another musical genius
like Mozart, except Carl Maria. In this boy, all
the artistic life of the family for long generations
CARL MARIA VON WEBER.
103
seems to have been gathered up and to have
reached its culmination. Franz Anton, wild, way-
ward, ^impulsive, reckless, incapable of steadiness
of purpose or of sustained thinking, was by no
means a desirable guide and tutor for a young artist,
and all the surroundings of the boy's childhood and
early youth were such as tended toward mental dis-
sipation. All through his life, Weber felt the effects
of these disadvantages, in his incapacity for mental
concentration and sustained intellectual exertion,
and was obliged, in middle life, to subject himself to
the severest discipline in order to counteract, so far
'as might be, the defects of his early training. He
was a weak, nervous child, with a disease of the
thigh bone which caused him to limp and withdrew
him in great measure from the sports of his play-
mates. Sensitive and impressible, his father's per-
sistent and injudicious attempts to force him to
become a youthful prodigy, excited in him only dis-
gust with art, and for a long time he accomplished
very little. Such interest as he acquired in music
came not through his father's ill-judged exertions,
but mainly through the sound, discreet and sympa-
thetic instruction of two men, J. P. Henschkel, of
Hildburghausen, and Michael Haydn, of Salzburg.
In both these places the wandering family stopped
long enough to give the poor child some, little
chance of proper instruction. But one benefit he
did undoubtedly derive from his father's profession.
From his earliest childhood he was familiar with
theatrical representations and stage effects, and this
CHAP. VIII.
Carl's
gifts.
His weak
nervous
constitu-
tion.
His
teachers.
104
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VIII.
Attain-
ments as a
pianist.
ISogler's
character.
Cart's
dissipation
in Vienna.
familiarity was afterwards of incalculable advantage
to him as an operatic composer.
In spite of the irregularities of his instruction, he
made considerable progress in piano-playing, and
finally attained distinction as a brilliant and effect-
ive concert pianist. This result, as well as the more
solid development of his skill and his gifts as a
composer, was attained in Vienna, where he lived
from his fourteenth until his eighteenth year. He
became a pupil of the Abbe Vogler, then a highly
esteemed composer and teacher, a man of some
really solid attainments and ability and of admira-
ble tact. He had, indeed, faults which resembled
those of Carl's father. He was vain and given to
show, ready to buy a brilliant and seeming success
with showy and superficial accomplishments. It is
no wonder that the boy should have been injured
by the commanding influence of two such men. His
vanity and over-sensitiveness to praise were con-
tinually fostered, and the damage would have been
worse if Franz Anton's foolish bragging and over-
weening vanity had not been so boundless that the
lad was fairly disgusted, and experienced something
of a wholesome reaction against it.
But these were not the only dangers which beset
the gifted youth. Vienna was a gay, dissipated,
pleasure-loving capital. Carl's mother was dead,
and there was little to restrain him from yielding to
temptations which inevitably allured him on all
sides. His most intimate friend was a young ex-of-
ficer named Gaensbacher, who was also studying
CARL MARIA VON WEBER.
105
under the Abbe Vogler, an enthusiastic lover and
student of music, but given to all sorts of illicit
indulgences. With him and his set young Carl
lived a fast, irregular life, quaffing eagerly the cup
of pleasure. Nevertheless, he did a good deal of
real work, and profited not a little by his instruction
as well as by the multitudinous impressions he
received in a city which had been for more than
fifty years the musical capital of Europe, where
Mozart had lived and worked., where Haydn still
dwelt in his old age, and where Beethoven was mak-
ing a most profound impression.
Before he was quite eighteen years old, he was
called, on the recommendation of the Abbe Vogler,
to be conductor of the opera in Breslau. He
showed marked talent in his new position of respon-
sibility, and gained invaluable experience. But he
also showed conceit enough to rouse a great deal of
enmity, and he continued the career of dissipation
he had begun in Vienna. At the end of two years
he was overwhelmed with debt, and besides had so
much opposition to encounter in his work that he
abandoned his post in disgust.
This was in 1806, and the armies of Napoleon
were already overrunning the country. Murder,
rapine, outrages of all sorts were daily perpetrated,
the public mind became wholly occupied with the
war, and artists fared hard. Weber was, for a time,
the guest of Prince Eugene, of Wuertemberg, at
Carlsruhe, but was driven from this asylum by the
disorders of the time. Prince Eugene obtained for
CHAP. VIII.
His
Breslau
conductor*
ship.
Condition
of the
country.
io6
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VIII.
Becomes
private
secretary
to Duke
Ludwig
at Stutt-
gart.
Saving
elements in
Stuttgart
and in
Weber s
character.
him the position of private secretary to his brother,
Duke Ludwig, at Stuttgart, where still another
brother, Friedrich, was reigning King. Friedrich
was a coarse, passionate man, violent in his temper
and manners, and, as a ruler, arbitrary and tyranni-
cal ; his brother, Weber's patron, was not only weak
and self-indulgent, but also dissolute and reckless ;
the whole court and society in which the young man
was thrown was utterly corrupt and venal, and
wholly given up to the coarsest immorality. It is
not to be wondered at that a youth of his antece-
dents should have plunged even deeper than ever
before into dissipation and debauchery. He finished
sowing his wild oats in Stuttgart, and began reaping
the very disagreeable crop which came of them.
But there were redeeming traits in the young
man, and redeeming influences in Stuttgart society.
There were excellent families there, and some liter-
ary men and artists, who exercised a wholesome and
saving influence on Carl Maria. The man whose
sterling worth and devoted friendship was of most
value to htm was Franz Danzi, conductor of the
Royal Opera, a sound musician, an admirable man,
full of high ideals, with penetration enough to see
what latent possibilities lay in the young composer,
with a strong desire to develop them, and with tact
enough to win Weber's confidence and affection,
though he was more than double his age. One of
his great maxims was, " To be a true artist, you
must be a true man ;" and he exerted all his influ-
ence to stem the tide of sinful indulgences on which
CARL MARIA VON WEBER.
107
his weak young friend was floating, to call forth his
latent moral sense, to awaken his conscience, his
desire for intellectual attainments and artistic
achievements ; in short, to make of him such a man
and artist as he knew him to be capable of becoming.
But these lessons were not to have their full effect
until Weber had had the sharp schooling of adver-
sity. The end came in the early part of 1810. The
young private secretary had long been under the
King's displeasure ; he was now arrested, thrown
into prison, and soon banished from Wuertemberg,
turned out in poverty, to get on as best he could.
Henceforth he became a man ; with numerous weak-
nesses, indeed, heavily handicapped by his inherited
traits and tendencies and by his youthful follies ;
but conscious of both his weakness and his strength,
and fully determined to make the most of himself
for the rest of his life.
The next three years he spent in wandering about
through Germany and Switzerland, supporting him-
self by giving concerts, by the sale of his composi-
tions, and by critical work. He had studied philos-
ophy and aesthetics in Vienna, had shown intellect-
ual powers of a high order, decided ability as a
critic, and had developed an effective literary style.
His critical writings were sought by the best musical
journals of Germany, and he wrote a great deal,
especially during his stay in Berlin and in Leipsic.
His operas " Sylvana " and "Abu Hassan," as well
as his cantata " The First Tone," had already been
composed at Stuttgart, and these were now success-
CHAP. VIII.
Weber's
banish-
ment.
His work,
as critic.
io8
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VIII.
His
playing.
Conductor
ship at
Prague.
fully given in many places. His songs also brought
him reputation and money. His piano-playing
awakened great admiration. It was brilliant and
effective, characterized by perfect mastery of the
instrument, by extraordinary execution, and espe-
cially in improvisation he showed such command of
the resources of harmony and such power of express-
ing his feelings, that he is said to have pro'duced " a
marvellous effect, such as had never been hitherto
known in the art of piano-playing."* This naturally
led to the sale of his pianoforte "compositions.
During his wanderings he received a great variety
of impressions of men and things, associated with
many artists, poets and intellectual men of high
standing, as well as with persons of the highest
social rank, acquired wMe experience of music, liter-
ature and life, worked hard to improve himself as
composer and man, and gained every way in char-
acter, in knowledge, in manysidedness, in concen-
tration and in command of his own powers.
Early in 1813 he accepted the conductorship of
the opera at Prague, and was once more settled
for some time. His work in this position lasted till
October, 1816, somewhat more than three years and
a half. It was a time of hard work, of struggle and
discipline, of weakness, but also of growth in self-
mastery. Weber's work as a conductor was efficient
and successful. His production seems to have been
mainly limited to his patriotic songs, which excited
*See letter of his friend Lichtenstein, quoted in Life of Weber, by his
son, Vol. I, pages 206-7.
CARL MARIA VON WEBER.
109
the greatest enthusiasm throughout Germany. To
these must be added his important cantata, " Battle
and Victory," written in celebration of the over-
throw of Napoleon at Waterloo.
On Christmas day, 1816, he received the appoint-
ment of conductor to his majesty the King of Sax-
ony, and thenceforth the remaining ten years of his
life were to be devoted to the establishment of Ger-
man opera at Dresden. This portion of his life
must be here sketched in the briefest possible man-
ner. Full details are to be found in Weber's Life,
by his son, already referred to.
The three great romantic operas which made
Weber's name immortal were composed during his
life in Dresden. " Der Freischuetz " was produced
for his own theatre in 1820, but was first given suc-
cessfully in Berlin ; " Euryanthe " was written for
Vienna in 1822; and " Oberon " for London in
1825. To these must be added his music to *' Pre-
ciosa," also written in 1820. He went to London
to superintend the performances of " Oberon," and
died there of consumption, January 4, 1826.
Weber's place in musical history depends mainly
on his three great operas mentioned above. They
are original in motive and treatment, and also in
melody, form and orchestral effects. They are all
romantic in the strictest sense of the word.
The most popular of the three is " Der Frei-
schuetz :" the other two, though they contain many
beauties, and are acknowledged to be an advance,
in some important respects, on the first, have never
CHAP. VIII.
Conductor-
skip at
Dresden.
His three
great
romantic
operas.
His place
in history.
Frei-
schuetz."
no
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VIII.
Origin of
roiuax-tic
musii .
maintained their place on the stage, whereas the
interest in " Der Freischuetz " seems to be perman-
ent, at least in Germany. It is only natural that
its popularity should be greater in Weber's native
country than elsewhere, for it deals with themes
peculiarly German, with popular German legends
and superstitions, familiar alike to noble, burgher and
peasant. The interest in the supernatural and the
fantastic, which constitute so large a portion of the
elements of this opera, is indeed universal ; but the
mold in which these elements are cast is national.
This applies both to the text and to Weber's beautiful
and characteristic musical setting. The whole is the
counterpart, in the domain of opera, of the Romantic
literature then in the full vigor of its lusty youth.
It was, of course, natural that the Romantic move-
ment in music should come to its first development
in the domain of opera, and that this epoch should
be followed rather than preceded or accompanied
by the period of romanticism in instrumental music ;
for, since this movement consisted essentially in the
expression of romantic feelings in tones, the first
suggestion of this would naturally come from a
romantic text. Successful efforts to set such texts
to appropriate music would naturally be followed by
attempts to embody similar feelings in purely instru-
mental forms.
This was the actual course of musical history. So
that, if Weber had written no pianoforte music, his
creative activity in the field of Romantic Opera
would have prepared the way for the purely roman-
CARL MARIA VON WEBER.
in
tic composers for the pianoforte. But the romantic
ideas and feelings which had become the most pow-
erful element in the intellectual and spiritual life of
the time could not fail to produce a marked effect
on all intellectual activity in whatsoever field.
"""" We have seen that this romantic tendency /was
reproduced in Beethoven's instrumental works, ^and
traces of it are also to be found in Weber's piano-
forte compositions. In most of these, however, the
romantic element appears at its worst and shallow-
est. It savors of sacrilege to mention Weber's con-
certos and sonatas in the same* breath with the pro-
foundly significant and essentially noble Beethoven
works. Most of Weber's pianoforte pieces were
written in his youth and early manhood, in the days
when he had no feelings or purposes which could
find noble expression in elevated music ; when he
was simply a brilliant, showy pianist, and when the
expression of feeling in his playing so highly prized
by his contemporaries was, in all probability, the
shallow sentimentality of a weak-nerved, over-sensi-
tive artist excited by gay or melancholy surround-
ings. At least, it is difficult to find much now in
his pianoforte works which can account for the
enthusiasm they excited in the first decade of the
century. The influence of romantic ideas shows
itself much less in the emotional content of them
than in neglect or contempt of the principles of
classical form, in a disregard of the intellectual
requirements of the old ideals, and in a certain
straining after effect and originality. These faults
CHAP. VIII.
The
romantic
in Weber's
pianoforte
works.
Shallow-
ness of his
early
produc-
tions
Ephemeral
character
of his
pianoforte
works.
112
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VIII,
Invitation
to waltz.
F. P. Schu-
bert.
are fatal, and Weber's pianoforte pieces are nowa-
days, for the most part, deservedly neglected.
The most prominent exception to the general rule
is his " Invitation to Waltz," a master-piece in its
originality of conception, its poetic beauty, its fire,
vigor, refinement and delicacy, and in its force and
truthfulness of characterization. This is, indeed, a
romantiq work, in the truest sense. It is not only
far in advance of any other pianoforte piece by its
author, but represents a certain phase of the Roman-
tic movement more perfectly than any other work
of the time. Its excellence has achieved for it a
great and widespread popularity which bids fair to
be lasting, either in its original form, in Berlioz's
orchestral transcription, or in Carl Tausig's brilliant
show-piece "arrangement" of it, a clever piece of
virtuoso work which certainly has decided beauties
of its own, though some of its most brilliant effects
are obtained by the sacrifice of the finest poetic
qualities of Weber's original conception. Besides
this, the Rondo of his Sonata in C, known under
the name " Perpetual Motion," still excites a good
deal of interest, his " Concert Stueck " has not yet
wholly disappeared from the repertoire of pianists,
and a few other pieces are played more or less and
are used, not always wisely,, for teaching purposes.
The life of FRANZ PETER SCHUBERT, the greatest
creative composer among Beethoven's contempor-
aries, was a short and uneventful one. He was the
son of a poor parish schoolmaster, and was born in
Vienna, January 31, 1797. ' He showed talent for
F. P. SCHUBERT.
music in his earliest childhood, and received lessons
in singing and on the violin and the pianoforte.
His teachers soon found that his intuitive percep-
tions had anticipated their instructions. In 1808 he
was admitted as a singer into the choir of the Impe-
rial Chapel. This appointment carried with it the
right to an education in the " Stadt Convict," an
institution where music was treated as an important
branch of study. His evident ability soon brought
him forward to the place of leader of the school
orchestra, and here he studied the best music of the
day, the symphonies of Haydn, Mozart and Beetho-
ven, and became thoroughly familiar with the
resources of the orchestra.
f ^He soon felt the creative impulse, and began to
! compose numerous quartets, quintets, songs, piano-
forte pieces, and finally a symphony. He tried his
hand at opera also, but in this field he was never suc-
cessful. His first symphony is dated October 18,
1813, and was performed by the school orchestra.
Soon after this his voice changed, and he had to
leave the Imperial Chapel. He could have had the
privilege of pursuing his school studies for some
time longer, but his whole mind was devoted to
music, and he was indifferent to all other intellect-
ual pursuits. He did, indeed, become thoroughly
acquainted with the whole range of German poetry,
but he seems to have made it merely tributary to his
musical creative impulses, and always remained
exclusively a musician. When he left school after
his five years of study he was forced to teach with
H =*
CHAP. VIII.
Becomes a
choir
singer
in Vienna.
Leaves the
choir and
school and
devotes his
time
exclusively
to music.
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC
CHAP. VIII,
" The
Erlking"
and " The
Wan-
derer.'*
His
spontaneity
and
creative
power.
his father in order to earn his bread. This occupa-
tion he found thoroughly distasteful, and the three
years he passed in it were years of drudgery, only
relieved by constant creative activity. He honestly
and conscientiously fulfilled his duties as a teacher,
but outside of these he devoted himself to composi-
tion with such zeal and industry that these years
were among the most prolific of his life.
Nor, youth as he was, wefe all the compositions
of this time unimportant. Two of his greatest songs,
"The Erlking"and "The Wanderer," belong to
the year 1816, and two symphonies, one in B flat
and the " Tragic " in C minor, both of which have
won a high reputation among those who have heard
them. He discontinued his work as a school
teacher during his twentieth year, and thenceforth
he earned a scanty livelihood by teaching music and
by the sale of his compositions. He made various
applications for official posts as teacher or con-
ductor, but never obtained one of them ; he could
find no publisher for the great majority of his
works ; very few of his songs were sung and only a
small portion of his instrumental compositions were
ever performed during his life time ; he lived
obscure and neglected and died in poverty, October
19,
1828.
Such is the brief record of the life of a composer,
who, if he lacked some of the elements of greatness
which go to make up a genius of the first rank, was,
nevertheless, one of the most spontaneously creative
minds known in human history. His imagination
F. P. SCHUBERT.
produced music as a tropical forest produces vege-
tation, it was a soil of boundless fertility, crowded
with germs which constantly sprang into marvel-
lously luxuriant growth under the influence of tropi-
cal heat and moisture. The list of his works* is
something enormous, and includes not only songs
and short pieces, but masses and operas, nine sym-
phonies, the last of which is one of the longest ever
written.
The quality of these works are quite as remarkable
as their quantity. The two best known symphonies,
the ninth in C major and the Unfinished in B minor,
are among the most beautiful, graceful, delicate and
refined compositions ever written for the orchestra.
The ideas are indeed not forceful, but neither are
they weak ; they lack the virility of Beethoven, but
their essentially feminine quality is positive, pr>t npg,
frtJwL. If they have not the grandeur, the uplifting,
inspiring power of Schubert's greatest contemporary,
they have the enduring charm of grace^ teadernegs,
delicacy, refined beauty and an emotional signifi-
cance the complement of Beethoven's stormy moods.
Beethoven climbed rugged mountain steeps, toiling
painfully from rock to rock, -with bleeding hands
and lacerated knees, facing storm and hail, thunder
and lightning, struggling indomitably against oppos-
ing powers of earth and air, his face turned ever
upward to the heavenly beauty toward which he
strove, whose beatific vision was at once his inspiration
*See H. F. Frost's biography of Schubert, Appendix. New York, Scrib-
ner & Welford.
CHAP. VIIL
Sym-
phonies in
C major
and
B minor.
Content of^
Beethoven s
works as
compared
with
Schubert's.
n6
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VIII.
His wealth
of
beautiful
ideas.
His songs
his most
important
contribu-
tion to
musical
history.
and his soul's peace. Schubert's imagination dwelt
below in the luxuriant valley, full of flowers, of birds
and of sunshine, in the repose of heaven's own light
and air, singing and making melody with the spon-
taneity and ecstatic delight of a bird in a June
meadow.
If he delights and surprises us by the fertility of
his imagination and his wealth of beautiful and sig-
nificant ideas, he charms us no less by the inexhaust-
ible variety of his treatment of them. The C major
symphony is indeed prolix, but its length is, as
Schumann said, " heavenly ;" no one not insensible
to its subtle charm can wish for a moment that
Schubert had applied the pruning knife to its beau-
tiful luxuriance. There is not a spray or a twig we
would willingly sacrifice.
But beautiful as are his symphonies, and great as
was the treasure he bequeathed to the world in his
instrumental works, his most important contribution
to musical progress is to be found in his songs, of
which he wrote some six hundred, and these more
than anything else determine his place in musical
history. His genius was essentially lyric and roman-
tic ; romantic in that he loved to deal with
romantic themes, and romantic also in his intuitive
sense of fitness in characterization, and in his innate
power of characteristic invention. What Weber did
for the opera Schubej^--dtd-^for^e--^Qri^_jHe was
the first creator of music adapted to express and
intensify all the varying and contrasted phases of
emotion suggested by the best lyric poems in Ger-
F. P. SCHUBERT.
man, and some of the best in English, literature.
With him the song ceased to be merely a ballad
form, corresponding in a merely general way with
the emotional content of the words, and became a
plastic, subtle, romantic medium for the most com-
plete emotional expression. If in his instrumental
compositions he loved to dwell on the gentle, the
tender, dealing in quiet, pensive, reposeful moods,
he could now and then deal with a vigorous, soul-
stirring text with no lack of breadth, power or inten-
sity, as, for example, in his " Erl-King." Neverthe-
less, these cases are comparatively few, and do not
represent the natural and habitual cast of his mind.
This is shown more characteristically in his " Dying
Strains," and his " Maid of the Mill."
"In the domain of pianoforte music, Schubert has
left us a considerable body of compositions, beauti-
ful, significant, characterized by qualities essentially
romantic, and pointing distinctly toward the new
development which was to follow him directly. In
these works there are three points in which his
romanticism reveals itself, i. In the production of
a large number of pieces which, though founded on
the essential principles of fornx which had been once
for all established, did not strictly conform to the
plan of the sonata. The sonata form no longer
fully met his needs as a medium of expression.
With preceding composers the sonata had been the
natural form in which their musical ideas took
shape. Their strivings were in the direction of the
completion of that form, and when they did not
CHAP. VIII.
His
pianoforte
music.
How his
roman-
ticism
reveals
itself.
The sonata
t not
sufficient
for his
need.
n8
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VIjII.
Schubert's/-
require-
ments in
form.
Hlf lack of
classical
clearness
and
symmetry.
write whole sonatas they still cast their ideas in
Rondo form, or in Dance form, both of which
belonged to the sonata as components. Only rarely
did they have something to say which could not find
embodiment in these forms. The C minor Fantasia
of Mozart is a conspicuous example of the excep-
tions to the rule.
Beethoven's practice remained the same, except
that he modified the sonata form itself to suit the
requirements of his enlarged content. But Schu-
bert, while he continued to write sonatas and sym-
phonies which differed from classical models, so far
as form was concerned, only in being more (diffuse
and prolix, seems to have had within him, probably
without philosophizing at all on the subject, emo-
tions he could not help expressing in music, which
would hardly fit with exactness either the sonata or
any of its component movements. So he wrote
" Impromptus," " Momens Musicales," and ** Fan-
tasias," and wrote so many of them that instead of
6em^"*a mere incident of his work as a composer
they occupied an important part of his creative
activity.
*-
2. The second mark of his romanticism is the
absence of the classical characteristics of compact,
clearness of form, of concentration and symmetry.
His sonatas are all rambling and diffuse. His
imagination was extremely active, and not only con-
stantly generated new ideas, but continually com-
bined and contrasted them in an infinite variety of
ways, rambling on and on till there seemed to be no
F. P. SCHUBERT.
119
more limit to the ever-changing views than to those
of a kaleidoscope. And every change revealed new
beauties ; every new light in which his ideas were set
showed more and more clearly the loveliness of them ;
each new effect seemed more and more charming;
and, as his fertility was inexhaustible and he seemed
to be enamored of the grace and beauty of his con-
ceptions and never to tire of turning them over and
over, his productions were nearly always spun out
to such lengths that he wholly lost sight of classical
proportions. This enthusiasm, this fond dwelling
upon his conceptions from the love of them, this
giving himself up unreservedly to the pleasure of
following his own spontaneous impulses, regardless
of classical rules or of strict intellectual require-
ments of any sort, is an essentially romantic .ten-
dency.
Finally, the emotional content of his compositions
is essentially romantic. We have already seen that
he occupied himself less with consixieratipjis of
form than did the purely classical writers. O
other hand, feeling cpmes_mpre into the foreground ;
it is a more prominent and important factor. His
sensibility is keenly_alive, is open and sensitive to
impressions ; the range_p'f feeling is wider, the emo-
tional movements are rnore~~subtle~ delicate, and
refined ; there is more complex ity of feeling ; emo-
tions follow each other more rapidly, often contend
with one another for supremacy ; the contrasts are
sharpr, .anxi_Jiiaie._sudden. Besides, these feeljjags-"
are decidedly romantic in character, though they
CHAP. VIII.
His
feelings
mere
essentially
romantic.
120
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VIII.
The same
romantic
feelings in
pianoforte
music as in
fits songs.
The
classical V
ideal was
objective,
the
romantic
subjective.
The
assertion
of indi-
vidualism .
in art was
a Romantic
tendency.
represent mainly the feminine side of t^g rr>n iantic
type. These pieces are full of sentiment, of tender-.
ness, of dreamy voluptuousness, occasionally inter-
rupted by episodes of a more stirring and vigorous
character. In short, all the phases of feeling to
which Schubert gave expression in his songs, when
he consciously sought to connect them with different
scenes, situations and events, come equally to their
embodiment in his instrumental works, and stamp
them unmistakably with romantic characteristics.
In concluding this sketch of the Transition Period
between the Classic and the Romantic, and of the
three great composers whose genius and productive
activity were chiefly instrumental in bringing about
the inevitable change, a brief summing-up must
suffice.
Be it remembered that the classical ideal was an
objective one ; that is, the composer's mind was occu-
pied with an object outside of himself ; with his
ideal conception, and with the work of embodying
it. EeeUrjg^_which is the innermost content of
nnviijijj'j jr^/jirr^'V'^i^^vrn^rnnl experience. When
the mind of the composer is mainly occupied with
feeling, the intellectual side Of his work becomes
less prominent. The intellectual element becomes
then only a means for the expression of the feeling.
In the Romantic writers, this predominance of
feeling over the intellectual side of composition
of content over form, is a prominent feature. The
Romantic movement was the assertion of individual-
ism in Art, of the importance of the private feelings
F. P. SCHUBERT.
121
of the composer and their right to truthful and vivid
expression as against the classical tendency to thrust
them into the background, to give them expression
only incidentally and unconsciously, while the men-
tal activity was taken up with the realization of an
ideal conceived of as objective, as in a sense outside
of and foreign to the composer. Be it remembered,
further, that the change from the predominance of
the classical to the Romantic ideal was not sudden ;
it was a gradual development.
The first interest of men in music was that of sen-
suous gratification, the pleasure derived from sweet
sounds, and from the excitement of rhythmical repe-
titions of sounds. Then came the intellectual
interest and pleasure of arranging sounds in succes-
sions and combinations, the development of the
technic of composition, of Counterpoint, Harmony
and Form. ( This went on, hand in hand with the
development of vocal and instrumental technics,
and the invend^n^^jad-impipvement of instruments.
The clear perception of the relation otmusic tol
emotjo" Jsjlatpr stafie of development^ IF~was
felt at first dimly, more especially in purely instru-
mental music. No doubt, from the very beginning of
song, the congruity or incongruity of words and
music were instinctively felt ; this relation gradually
impressed itself more, and more on the minds of
composers and connoisseurs, until finally the emo-
tional significance of music forced itself into prom-
inence, asserted its claims to recognition and deter-
CHAP. VIII.
Order of
develop-
ment.
122
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. VIII.
Weber's
and
Schuberf s
roman-
ticism.
Beethoven
the
of both.
mined the downfall of the classical and the predom-
inance of the Romantic ideal.
In Weber, we see this process carried to its com-
pletion in his operas, and exerting a marked influ-
ence on his pianoforte compositions. In Schubert,
the same tendency reaches its culmination in his
songs, with a similar effect on his instrumental writ-
ing. Beethoven is, in a way, the forerunner,
although he is the contemporary of both. He was
sixteen years older than Weber, and twenty-seven
years older than Schubert ; difference enough so that
he prepared the way in which they advanced beyond
him. In Beethoven's instrumental works, as well as
in those of Schubert and Weber, feeling assumes
great importance, becomes much more prominent
than it had ever been in the older writers ; but both
Beethoven and Schubert seem to have been grop-
ing their way toward the Romantic ideal, led indeed
by a sure instinct, but more or less blindly. Weber,
in his " Invitation to Dance," seems for once to have
reached a clearer and more definite conception of
the goal to be reached than either of his great con-
temporaries.
PAET THIKD,
THE ROMANTIC PEEIOD,
CHAPTER IX.
THE ROMANTIC COMPOSERS FOR THE PIANOFORTE.
FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY, 1809-1847.
FREDERIC CHOPIN, 1809-1849.
ROBERT SCHUMANN, 1810-1856.
9|
FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY was born in
Hamburg, February 3, 1809. His grandfather was
the distinguished Jewish philosopher, Moses Men-
delssohn. His father, Abraham, was a wealthy
banker. His mother, Lea Salomon-Bartholdy, was
also of Jewish blood, but was baptised with her hus-
band into the Protestant communion, and the name
of Bartholdy was added to the family name of Men-
delssohn. Both the parents of Felix were persons
of high character, superior intellectual abilities,
refined feelings, cultivated tastes, and devoted much
time and pains to the education of their children.
Felix had two sisters, Fanny and Rebecca, and one
brother, Paul. The family removed to Berlin before
Felix was three years old, driven from Hamburg by
the French occupation, and here they continued to
reside
Felix was taught by the best private tutors, study-
ing, besides the ordinary branches, Greek, drawing,
pianoforte, violin, harmony and composition. He
also received thorough physical training, and was to
CHAP. IX.
Mendeh"
so /in.
Character
oft/ie
Menttels-
sofi n
family
His early
education.
126
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
Early
produc-
tions.
M Mid*
summer
Night's
Dream.' 1 ''
the end of his life a proficient in all athletic exer-
ises, a good swimmer, rider and dancer. His
teacher in composition was Zelter, a strict, pedantic
contrapuntist of the old school. Felix began to
compose at twelve years of age, and his productive
activity was incessant. He wrote songs, pianoforte
pieces, chamber music, symphonies for a few instru-
ments, operettas ; and these were all played and
sung at the musical parties periodically given in his
father's house. Of course, few or none of these
works of his apprentice period had permanent value.
The work which signalized his majority as a com-
poser was the overture to Shakspeare's " Midsum-
mer Night's Dream," written in the summer of 1826,
when he was seventeen years old. It was a most
charming, delightful, original and characteristic
work, of such excellence that he never surpassed it,
even in his maturity.
His general education was not neglected. He
entered the university about this time, attended
Hegel's lectures, among others, and distinguished
himself by some admirable translations of Terence
and Horace into German verse, in the meters of the
originals. His production of music went on stead-
ily, stimulated by intercourse with the best musi-
cians, critics and connoisseurs of Berlin, and others
who visited that city. The Mendelssohn home was
a delightful and hospitable one, and few musicians
came to the Prussian capital without visiting it.
Felix, though sensitive and excitable, was of a thor-
oughly wholesome, happy disposition, and in his
FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY.
127
childhood and youth, no less than in his mature
manhood, he charmed all who met him.
After the Midsummer Night's Dream overture
the next important landmark in his progress was the
overture to Goethe's " Calm Sea and Prosperous Voy-
age," irt which his romanticism showed itself no less-
than in his earlier great work. In the Midsummer
Night's Dream he had chosen a peculiarly romantic
subject ; had set himself the task of reproducing in
tones the feelings aroused by the scenes of the play,
and had been thoroughly successful. In this second
overture he discarded the classic form, and made of
the usual two movements two companion pieces
intended to reproduce the impressions made on his
feelings by the sea in calm and in storm. His suc-
cess in this instance was no less marked. This
overture was finished in 1829.
Another important event occurred in March of
this year, the performance of Bach's great " Passion
Music according to St. Matthew " for the first time
since the death of its author. This was Mendels-
sohn's doing. m He and Devrient, the actor, per-
suaded Zelter to allow its rehearsal by the Akademie
of which he was director, Mendelssohn conducted,
and the revival of this great work proved an
immense popular success.
Abraham Mendelssohn now planned an extended
tour for his son, with the object not only of improv-
ing his mind in a general way, but of enabling him
to make friends, and find for himself a satisfactory
place in which to settle and work. His first visit was
CHAP. IX.
" The
Met- res-
stille"
overture.
Revival
of Bacfi's
" 'Passion
Music"
His travels.
128
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
The
^ Rcforma >
tion
Sym-
phony."
Composi-
tions
d tiring his
two years
of travel.
o London, when he played in public, produced some
of his compositions, and -made many friends. He
was cordially received by the public, and found Lon-
don so congenial that he always felt a warm affec-
tion for the place and people, returning there nine
different times in the course of his life. He trav-
eled in England and Scotland, and received deep
and lasting impressions from some of the scenery.
The " Scotch " symphony and the " Hebrides Over-
ture " are attempts to reproduce these impressions
in tones. The latter is due to the effect produced
on his feelings by a visit to Fingal's cave. But nei-
ther of these pieces was written at the time ; some
of the principal motives occurred to him there, but
the impressions lay in his mind for a long time
before they matured and took musical shape. His
first great symphony was the " Reformation Sym-
phony," written after his return from England, in
the winter of 1829-30, for the tercentenary festival
of the Augsburg Confession.
In May, 1830, he began a long tour on the conti-
nent, through Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy,
France, and at last to London again. It was July,
1832, before he again reached Berlin. These two
years were a delightful time, and a period of growth
and improvement. Mendelssohn enjoyed the scen-
ery, the society of artists and literary men, sketched
a great deal, played much in public, in short,
enjoyed thoroughly and with hearty zest whatever
was enjoyable in his travels, but he did not neglect
composition. During this time he wrote for the
FELIX -MENDELSSOHN-BAR TllOLD Y.
129
pianoforte the G minor concerto, the capriccio in B
minor, the first book of the Songs without Words,
and some other things. His correspondence was
extensive, and his letters are the most charming
productions imaginable, and give us, better than
anything else can, an insight into the personal fas-
cination he exercised on all who came in contact
with him.
The " Italian Symphony " was written at Berlin
in the winter of 1832-3. In May of the latter year
he condncted the Lower Rhine Festival at Duessel-
dorf with great success, and this resulted in a three
years' engagement as director of music there,
involving his responsibility for all the town music in
the churches, the concerts and the theater. From
this last he soon withdrew, influencing the opera
selections and performances only indirectly. He
composed steadily, writing many of his smaller
pieces and beginning his oratorio of St. Paul in
March, 1834.
In October, 1835, he accepted the post of con-
ductor of the Gewandhaus concerts in Leipzig, and
here he spent nearly all the remainder of his life.
He did indeed accept temporarily an appointment
as Kapellmeister to the King of Prussia, and as head
of a new Academy of Music in Berlin, and even
removed there, bu^ unendurable irritation and worry
came of his relations with the Prussian court ; his
heart was in Leipzig, he soon returned there, and
there he lived and died. His connection with Ber-
lin continued in part after he left the city. He paid
i
CHAP. IX.
Goes to
Duessel-
ciorf as
conductor.
Becomes
conductor
of the
Gewand-
liaus at
Leipzig.
T 3
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
Founds the
Leipzig
Conserv-
atory of
Music,
His
marriage.
"Elijah?
1846.
repeated visits to London, conducted festivals in
Germany, etc., but his principal work was done in
conducting the Gewandhaus concerts, in founding
and directing the Leipzig Conservatory ( in 1843),
and in composition. St Paul was finished in 1836,
and met with immediate success.
In March, 1837, he was married at Frankfort to
Cecile Jeanrenaud, daughter of a Protestant pastor
there. The union was an extremely fortunate one,
and conduced greatly to his happiness and useful-
ness. But this useful, happy life was cut prema-
turely short. He was an indefatigable worker.
Incessant labor, combined with his excitable nervous
temperament, which gave intensity to all emotional
experiences, whether pleasurable or painful, and
made them a serious drain upon his vitality, wore
him out at the age of thirty-eight. The finishing
stroke was given by the strain of producing his great
oratorio " Elijah," written for the Birmingham Fes-
tival of August 25, 1846, at which he himself con-
ducted. He never recovered from the prostration
which this occasioned. Although he continued to
work, he gradually became weaker, suffered from
severe pains in the head, and finally died, November
4, 1847. The details of his life are so easily acces-
sible that the foregoing brief sketch may suffice for
this place.*
*See Lampadius' u Life of Mendelssohn," " The Mendelssohn Family,"
by S. Hensel, son of Felix's sister Fanny, Devrient s '" Recollections of
Mendelssohn." Miller s '' Letters and Recollections of Mendelssohn, Carl
Mendelssohn s " Goethe and Mendelssohn, ' Benedict's " A sketch of the
Life and Works of the late Felix Me-ndelssohn-Bartholdy. ' two volumes of
FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLD Y.
The great works here referred to are by no
means all he produced, but they are perhaps the
most important and characteristic. The music to
Goethe's " Walpurgis Night " ought, however, to be
mentioned as especially displaying his romantic ten-
dencies. The nature of the subject was such that
any music appropriate to it must necessarily have
been romantic.
His pianoforte music, of which he wrote a large
quantity, has, much of it, an,. emotional content
closely analagous to that of the " Midsummer
Night's Dream " overture and the rest of his com-
positions for orchestra. Such, for example, are the
"Rondo Capriccioso " in E minor, op. 14, the
" Capriccio " in B minor, the " Andante Cantabile
and Presto Agitato," the " Serenade and Allegro
giojoso," and many of his " Songs Without Words."
These latter are thoroughly characteristic of him,
original in form and in content, though many of
them, as well as some of his other compositions, fall
below the significance of the best, as was, of course,
inevitable. Very few of these pieces have any title
to indicate the scenes or persons to whose influence
the emotions embodied in the music were due, but
it is known that he was in the habit of trying to
reproduce in tones the emotional impressions
received from his surroundings. Of course, many
of these impressions were not profound, he did
his letters, one u From Ttaly to Switzerland," and the other " From 1833 to
1847," an( i an excellent article in Grove's " Dictionary of Music and Musi-
cians." This list is by no means exhaustive.
CHAP. IX.
His
romantic
tendencies
us shown
in " The
W a I pur g is
Night "
music.
Content
of his
pianoforte
music.
132
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
Special
character-
ization of
his music.
How his
roman-
ticism
appeared
in the
forms
he chose.
His forms
were
always
finished
and clear.
not attempt to restrict his musical utterances to his
most important feelings, but often sought to embody
in tones a content little removed from elegant com-
monplace. Accordingly much of his music is not
at all remarkable for its profound emotional signifi-
cance. But it is always genuine, graceful, refined,
elegant, and everywhere displays the hand of a con-
summate ^master.
Special attention ought to be called to the evi-
dences of Mendelssohn's romanticism displayed in
the forms assumed by his most'characteristic utter-
ances. He not only deliberately sought to empha-
size the expression of feeling as the goal of his
efforts in composition, but when he succeeded in
reproducing his emotions in tones, the completed
products were almost always departures from the
classical models. The pieces on which his reputa-
tion as a pianoforte composer depend are not son-
atas, perhaps not even his concertos, but " Capric-
cios," " Fantasias," and " Songs without Words."
But it would be a serious misapprehension to sup-
pose that his forms were often, or indeed ever crude,
imperfect, or lacking in clearness or finish. Roman-
ticist as he undoubtedly was, the romantic element
represented only one side of his character. The
purest of classicists could not have written with
more perfect clearness of outline, absolute precision
of detail, and perfection of finish. There is nothing
obscure or foggy, there are no half utterances, no
stammering or failure. What he had to say he
FELIX MENDELSSOPIN-BARTHOLDY.
expressed with the utmost precision and certainty,
with a clearness and finish above criticism.
Indeed, it may fairly be questioned whether the
very lucidity and polish of his style does not often
detract from the effectiveness of his pieces. They
are expressive rather than suggestive, and express-
ive, too, of a content not always profound enough
to be interesting, still less inspiring. If we could
feel, as we often do with Schumann, that much is
left unsaid, that the comparatively insignificant con-
tent here expressed with such consummate grace
and elegance, had evident relation to more impor
tant things not far off, their attraction would be
much enhanced. The very completeness with which
Mendelssohn gave utterance to so many graceful
insipidities was the cause of a strong reaction
against his influence and tendencies not many years
after his death. It is not uncommon, even now, to
hear his music referred to somewhat sneeringly as
" very gentlemanly music," while his fellow roman-
ticists are exalted at his expense. The amount of
justice in this has perhaps already been sufficiently
indicated.
Whatever may be the permanent significance or
influence of Mendelssohn's best work, he was, as
man, musician, conductor, pianist, organist and
composer, one of the most powerful influences in
molding the musical thought and shaping the
musical tendencies of the second and third quarters
of this century ; he_was-^a musician of the highest
technical attainments, the broadest and most enlight-
CHAP. IX,
Estimate
of his
character
and work,
134
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
His works
perfect in
their way.
Content of
his
fratortos.
F.F.
Chopin.
ened culture, a consummate master of farm, an orig-
inal inventor in the domain _p_f r
and in his own peculiar field of romantic emotional
expression he was unapproached. This is probably
the most that can be said for his pianoforte music.
Measured by the standard of form, finish, musi-
cianship, grace, elegance, refinement, polish, deli-
cacy, beauty, he is surpassed by few or none. He
must be credited, too, with genuine originality and
creative power. But measured by the standard of
nobility, elevation and profound significance of emo-
tional content, the best of his pianoforte works will
poorly bear comparison with the greatest utterances
of Beethoven, though they may well be placed
beside the finest of Schubert's works, and are
greatly superior to almost everything of Weber.
His " St. Paul " and " Elijah " stand on a higher
emotional plane. They contain noble passages, and
sublime climaxes, and " Elijah " has scenes of
immense dramatic force. That these works have
great and positive merits and high significance is
certainly undeniable. The question of their claims
to immortality must be left to future generations for
settlement. But there can be no question as to the
beneficent influence they have already exerted.
Their author certainly had a place and mission of
his own in the world ; he most admirably filled the
one and accomplished the other.
FRANCOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN was born in Zela-
zowa Wola, a village near Warsaw, March i, 1809.
His father, Nicholas hopin, was a Frenchman
FRANCOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN.
from Lorraine, who had settled in Warsaw when a
young man, and was engaged in teaching the
French language, as a professor in the Lyceum, an
institution corresponding in a general way to our
colleges. He also taught in various Government
schools, military and other, and was, besides, a pri
vate teacher, receiving young men of family into his
household.
Frederic's mother was a Polish lady, Justine Kry-
zanowska. There were three daughters, one of
whom died young, of consumption ; but Frederic
was the only son. He seems to have taken his
character mainly from his mother, his traits being
decidedly more Polish than French, and he always
counted himself a Pole. Indeed, his father had
thoroughly identified himself with his adopted coun-
try, and the political events of the times were so
impressive, the misfortunes of Poland were so great
and fell with such crushing force upon all residents
of Poland that patriotic feeling was not only excited
to the highest pitch, but every Pole was forced to
feel the humiliation and sorrow of grinding tyranny
and oppression. The Poles were proud, sensitive,
excitable, and felt the sting of their national degra-
dation as keenly as human beings could feel.
Besides this, after the partition of 1772, almost every
Pole, however noble or distinguished, was" exposed
to personal insult and abuse. Polish hearts, Cho-
pin's among the rest, were mainly occupied with the
feelings called forth j>y Iheir. jiatiojial calamities.
In this we may find the key to the emotional cqn-
CHAP. IX.
His Polish
character.
Character
of the
Poles.
i 3 6
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
His
character
and
manners.
His
education.
Early
manifesta-
tions of
genius.
tent__ofjnaiv^of his compositions, and thus account
for much in them which has always impressed con-
noisseurs as being somewhat morbid.
Young Chopin was naturally refined, and was
brought up from earliest childhood in intimate asso-
ciation with the best society of the Polish capital.
His manners were graceful and winning ; while at
the same time he was reserved ; much more so than
was evident on the surface of his behavior. His
constitution was not robust, and he had a delicate
and susceptible nervous organization, but was,
nevertheless, sound and healthy, was, indeed,
never ill in his life until he contracted consumption
in Paris, at about the age of thirty.*
His father gave him a liberal education at the
Lyceum, and put him into the hands of two excel-
lent music teachers, Albert Zywny, who was his
only teacher in piano-playing and who made him a
pianist of the first rank before he was twenty, and
Joseph Eisner, a sound and excellent German musi-
cian, who taught him Harmony, Counterpoint and
Composition.
The boy's genius and originality soon began to
be manifest, both in improvisation and in formal
composition. He was very fond of the Polish
national folk-songs and dances, and seizing upon
these strange melodies, with their peculiar rhythms,
*Liszt's book on Chopin is a magazine of misinformation on this and
numerous other points, though it contains much valuable suggestion and
throws a great deal of light on Chopin's character and works to those who
can discriminate the errors from the truth. See article in Grove's " Dic-
tionary of Music and Musicians."
FRANCOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN-.
137
he supplied them with original harmonies of Jus
own^ invented" cadences peculiar to himself and
unique in the history of music, and invested them
with a poetic charm; and significance which raised
them at once to high artistic rank. His imagina-
tion was vivid, subtle and powerful, and being
kindled by the peculiar circumstances in his sur-
roundings, to which he was most susceptible, he
began almost in childhood to express the national
feelings in musical productions of the most ideally
poetic character. He was extremely modest and
retiring, but his gifts could not be concealed, and
his playing was eagerly sought for and listened to
with delight by the best connoisseurs of Warsaw.
His first public performance was in 1818, when he
was nine years of age. On this occasion he played
a concerto by Gyrowetz, and was well received, but
so far was he from being vain of his success as a
player, that when his mother asked him about it he
cried, " O mamma, everybody was looking at my
new collar !"
When he was eighteen years old his father deter-
mined to send him to Berlin, in order that he might
meet musicians, hear more music than could be
heard in Warsaw, and under better conditions than
prevailed there, and widen his experience generally.
Accordingly, to Berlin went the boy, in company
with his father's friend, Pjofessor Jarocki. He
heard a great deal, keenly observed all that was to
be seen and heard, received numerous impressions
which were of benefit to him, but neither played nor
6*
CHAP. IX.
. First
playing in
public.
Journey
to Berlin,
138
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
First
visit to
Vienna,
1829.
His two
concerts^
showed his compositions. He had opportunities to
meet Mendelssohn, Spontini and Zelter, but was too
modest to avail himself of them. " I did not think
it becoming," he writes to one of his young friends,
"to introduce myself to these gentlemen."*
This journey taught him much and stimulated
him more. He returned to Warsaw and worked
nearly two years with redoubled zeal and industry.
At length, in July, 1829, his father sent him away
again, this time to Vienna, and urged upon him the
importance of not only making the acquaintance of
the best musicians of the great musical capital, but
also of making himself known by playing in public.
The young man did both. He carried letters of
introduction to some of the most intelligent and
influential persons in the city ; they at once per-
ceived his great gifts, though he himself was mod-
estly unconscious of them and " wondered what
they found to admire in him," and all, musicians
and laymen alike, pressed him to play in public.
He appeared in two concerts In the first he played
his variations on " La ci darem," op. 2, and impro-
vised on two themes, one from " La Dame Blanche,"
and one a Polish theme. In the second he played
his " Krakowiak," op. 14, repeating the variations,
by request. Both his playing and his music aroused
great enthusiasm. The admiration was nearly uni-
versal, and Chopin left Vienna, after a short stay,
*See " Friedrich Chopin, Sein Lcben, Seine Werke und Briefe," von
Moritz Karasowski, Vol. i, p. 57. This is the one authentic biography of
Chopin, and it is to be hoped that it may shortly be translated into Eng-
lish.
FRANCOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN.
139
amidst flattering plaudits. He went home by a
roundabout way, through Prague and Dresden,
reached Warsaw about the first of September, and
again settled down to work.
His Vienna experience, short as it was, did much
to mature his character and talent. The day after
his first concert, an event of great importance to
him, he wrote to his parents a very modest letter,
giving a full account of the whole affair, and toward
the end wrote, " I am now at least four years older
in knowledge and experience."* The enthusiastic
praise he received from the best artists and connois-
seurs awakened his courage and gave him confi-
dence in his own powers, while it stimulated him to
the exercise of them.
Another event was now a powerful stimulus to
production ; he had become passionately enamored
of Constantia Gladkowska, a young lyric actress at
the Warsaw theatre. It was the pure, elevated first
love of a high-minded, refined artist, and much came
of it in the way of composition. His emotions, power-
fully excited by this passion, as well as by the events
of his visit to Vienna, sought musical expression,
and the next year was a very productive one, the
most important works being the Etudes, op. 10, and
his two concertos, in E minor and in F minor. In
a letter to one of his very few intimate friends,
dated October 3, 1829, he speaks of being invited
to Berlin by the Prince and Princess Radziwill, but
says he has begun so many works that he thinks it
*See Karasowski, Vol. i, p. 79.
CHAP. IX.
Effect of
his Vienna,
experience
on his
develop-
ment.
His first
love affair.
His two
concertos
\ and the
\ Etudes^
Op TO.
140
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAV. IX.
First public
perform-
ance of tke
E minor
concerto.
Technical
difficulties
of the
concertos.
would be wiser to remain in Warsaw. In the next
paragraph of the same letter he confides to his
friend that he has found his ideal, but does not men-
tion the name of the young lady ; says he idolizes
her, but has never yet spoken with her. He says
also that the thought of her inspired him in the
composition of the Adagio of his new concerto, and
of a waltz* he had just written. His concerto in F
minor, afterwards published as op. 21, was finished,
and Chopin played it in two concerts in the Warsaw
theatre in March, 1830. His success with the
public was immense, and gave him still further
encouragement.
The E minor concerto, published as op. u, was
finished in August, and on the eleventh of October
he played it in concert with the same success which
had hitherto attended his public performances. The
critics praised him without stint, and his country-
men were proud of him as an artist who did honor
to the Polish nation.
They had indeed abundant reason for their pride.
If he had accomplished nothing more than the mere
mastery of the technical difficulties of these two con-
certos, he would have ranked as one of the greatest
virtuosos who had appeared up to this time. In
*See Karasowski, Vol. i, p. 108. A foot note informs us that the E
minor concerto is the one referred to, and this statement is repeated on
page 123. But the evidence furnished by Karasowski is conclusive that
the F minor concerto was played in public before the first and last move-
ments of the one in E minor were written. Possibly the Adagio of the
latter was written before the other movements, and while he was at work
on the former. But Karasowski offers us no evidence whatever in support
of his statement.
FRANCOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN'.
141
fact, these difficulties were not only very great, but
they were of so peculiar a kind as to form an epoch
in the history of pianoforte technics, and there was
hardly anybody at that time, except Chopin himself
and his great contemporary, Liszt, who could have
played them. Pianists had to accustom themselves
to the new manner before they could find them-
selves at home in it. But to have invented these
new figures and combinations was a much greater
feat.
When we consider the artistic significance of
these works, the depth, fullness and variety of
their emotional content, the force of contrast,
the vigor, subtlety and vividness of imagination, the
richness of harmony and modulation, the beauty of
the melodies, the perfection of form, the ease and
power with which the intellectual elements are con-
trolled, the sure intuition by which the musical
means are adapted to the requirements of expres-
sion, the refinement which pervades the whole, we
must admit that in this young man of twenty-one
we have before us one of the most original creators
yet known, of whom not only Poland but the whole
world might justly be proud.
With these two concertos Chopin left his home
for Vienna, November 2, 1830.* He never returned
*The statement in Mr. Edward Dannreuther's admirable, though brief
article on Chopin, in Grove's " Dictionary of Music and Musicians," that
Chopin was only nineteen at this time, is a singular slip on the part of a
usually careful writer. The evidence in Karasowski's book, to which Mr.
Dannreuther refers, though he carelessly overlooked the facts, is conclu-
sive.
CHAP. IX.
The
important
content
of the two
concertos.
He leaves
Poland
never to
return.
142
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
Second
visit to
Vienna,
f8jo.
The
uprising at
Warsaw,
to Warsaw, and with this departure closed the epoch
of his youth. His friends accompanied him a short
distance on his way, and at a banquet in a neigh-
boring village presented him with a silver cup filled
to the brim with Polish soil, solemnly adjuring him
never to forget friends and fatherland. There was
no need of the exhortation ; Chopin was true and-
faithful, and loved his country and his home with
ardent passion. This cup and its contents he kept
religiously to the end of his life, and this Polish
earth was, at his own request, strewn on his coffin
at his burial.
He traveled to Vienna by way of Breslau, Dres*
den and Prague, but he found the conditions there
much less favorable for him than on his former
visit. Many of his old friends were absent, and
various circumstances conspired to prevent his giv-
ing concerts as he had intended, although he finally
gave a single one to a small audience, not long
before his departure.
Among these unfavorable circumstances was the
Polish uprising of November 2pth, 1830. The
Austrian government and nobility became suspicious
of all Poles and very much disinclined to favor
them in any way, and Chopin's sympathies were
so much with his oppressed and desperate country-
men that only the urgent representations of his
father as to his unfitness for military duty kept him
from returning at once to Warsaw to join his young
friends in the ranks of the insurgents. Thus
Vienna was no longer tfie pleasant place he had
FRANCIS FREDERIC CHOP I .
143
found it a year before, and he determined to go to
Paris. But Paris was the headquarters of insurrec-
tion. It was the success of the July Revolution in
Paris which had given hope to the Poles and been
the occasion of the present outbreak. A Pole seek-
ing a passport for Paris was a suspicious character,
and Chopin's application was refused. He then
applied for a passport for England, via Parisj and
after considerable delay received permission to go
as far as Munich on his way. He reached the
Bavarian capital, July 20, 1831, remained there a
few weeks, made the acquaintance of the best
artists there, and, at their urgent request, played his
E minor concerto in one of the concerts of the
Philharmonic Society. His playing as well as his
composition met with a reception which went far to
compensate him for his disappointments in Vienna.
But a severe blow was in store for him. In Stutt-
gart he received the news of the taking of Warsaw
by the Russians, and was naturally filled with
anxiety and grief. In this frame of mind he gave
vent to his feelings in the passionate, fiery Etude in
C minor, op. 10, No. 12, sometimes called the
"Revolution Etude," a composition every way
worthy of its author and of the occasion which
called it forth.
He arrived in Paris toward the end of September,
and there he remained, barring occasional journeys,
for the rest of his life. The fate of his native
country drove the greater part of the noble and
intelligent among his countrymen into exile; many
CHAP. IX.
Gives a
concert
at Munich.
The
"Revolu-
tion
Etude.' 1
A rrives at
Paris.
144
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
Discour-
agements.
Kalkbren-
ner.
Kalkbren-
neSs
reception
of him.
of them settled in Paris, and Chopin was much more
at home there than he could possibly have been in
Warsaw. So, after a while, he became a naturalized
French citizen, and used to refer jokingly to his
Vienna passport "to London, via Paris." saying that
he was only on his way to England.
But the beginning of his life in Paris was far from
encouraging. He -was too modest to put himself
forward by giving concerts, or in any other way,
and he was wholly unknown. Success in Vienna, or
indeed anywhere in Europe, did not involve success
in Paris or the slightest reputation in that vain-
glorious metropolis. Chopin imagined himself in
need of further instruction and bethought him of
taking lessons of Kalkbrenner, at that time the
most fashionable teacher in Paris, a robust, healthy
artisan of a player, without a particle of genius in
his composition, whose vigorous style of playing,
combined with his really high technical attainments,
made him pass for the greatest virtuoso in Europe.
This man, now wholly forgotten, the whole list of
whose compositions is not worth the ink it would
take to print a Chopin mazurka, had then such a
reputation that Chopin, already an artist whose
shoes Kalkbrenner was not worthy to loose, actually
went to him and began negotiations for lessons.
Kalkbrenner heard him play, saw at once what an
increase of reputation such a pupil would give him,
began to pick flaws in his technic, assured him that
his playing did not conform to classical rules and
needed a great deal of overhauling, and finished by
FRANCOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN.
informing him that he would need three years to
train him properly, and would accept him as a pupil
if he would agree to remain with him that length of
time.
Chopin was very modest indeed, but he had
sufficient knowledge of his own powers and attain-
ments to be surprised at this proposal; perhaps, too,
a suspicion that to become a second Kalkbrenner
was not the high calling .to which he was chosen,
began to dawn upon him before the interview was
over; at any rate, he hesitated and determined to
ask advice of his father and of his former excellent
teacher, Eisner, before deciding the matter. Eis-
ner wrote him a wise and cautious letter, in which,
without advising him directly what he should do, he
laid down the principles which ought to guide his
decision. He suggested plainly enough thaj^Chnpin
ought to give his own genius a chance to develc-p
naturally in its own way, and not allow any blind
Philistine to crAftt]T'""ff^by psey^o-classical restric-
tions, or distort it by crowding it into a mould for
which nature never intended it, that his gifts as a
a composer were of far more permanent importance
than his piano-playing, and that three years devoted
to acquiring the Kalkbrenner virtuosity was very
much more time than he could afford to give to any
such purpose. Meanwhile, Chopin had had several
more interviews with the distinguished Parisian
virtuoso, had played for him a good deal, had
obtained from him the admission that he hardly
needed three years of training in order to be-
lt 7
CHAP. IX.
Chopin's
doubts.
Eisner's
advice.
146
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
come a great pianist, and had come to much the
same conclusions as those hinted at in his old
teacher's guarded letter.
It had become clear to him that the Kalkbrenner
virtuosity was no model for him, that on no account
could he nor would he copy any such example; that
even the truly classical field, whatever its richness
and fertility, was not his field; still less could he see
any way of producing anything from the little bar-
ren, stony patch so assiduously cultivated by the
Parisian pianists and composers in total unconscious-
ness of its sterility. In short, the young man had
been making the comparisons forced upon his atten-
tion and had fairly begun to be conscious of his
He acquires, own powers. He saw that his productions were
a cepiion p of~ wholly different, both in form and in content, from
what he saw around him. He could not help
believing in the validity of the principles which
guided him and of the inward forces which strove
in him for outward manifestation, nor could he
longer conceal from himself that the legitimate out-
come of these forces and principles must be to
create a new epoch in the history of musical Art.
And so, with strengthened courage and impulse,
with firm and high purpose, he addressed himself
eagerly and hopefully to the special and peculiar
work, which he now clearly saw it had been given
him to do. All this he boldly, but still modestly,
announces to Eisner in his reply to his teacher's
fatherly letter: he says decidedly that whatever study
he now does will be pursued with a view to enabling
own
powers,
FRANCOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN.
147
His dis-
him to stand more firmly on his own feet, gratefully j CHAI> - IX -
acknowledges Eisner's wise and fatherly counsel, and
dutifully hopes his kind friend will not withhold his
approval and blessing.
But what to do for a living ? His acquaintances,
. I cour aging
outside of a small circle of artists and a larger one prospects.
of his impoverished refugee countrymen, were few;
he could not at once sell his compositions; he had
no pupils. His artist friends, Kalkbrenner among
them, encouraged him to give a concert and helped
him with the necessary arrangements, but many
hindrances stood in the way, and when he at last
gave it, in February, 1832, hardly anybody went
except the more wealthy of his own countrymen,
and the concert did not pay expenses. Chopin,
always easily depressed, was very much discouraged, j %*****
He conceived the idea of going to America, and ' America -
wrote his parents, beseeching them to give their
consent to his plan. Karasowski has some pertinent
remarks as to the intolerable position in which such
a sensitive, retiring, aristocratic artist would have
found himself in practical, unpoetic, democratic
America, if he had been unwise enough to settle
here in 1832 ! Fifty years have made a wonderful
change.
But Chopin's parents knew better. They insisted
that he should either remain in Paris or return to
Warsaw, and in spite of the numerous attractions of
the French capital, his discouragements there com-
bined with his home sickness to decide him to brave
the displeasure of the Russian Government and go
148
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
He goes to a
reception at
Baron
Roths-
child's.
Becomes the
idol of the
first
society.
Not success-
ful as a
player in
large
audience
rooms.
home. His friends in Paris, Liszt among others, in
vain tried to dissuade him; his trunk was already
packed when he happened to meet Prince Radiwill
in the street, told him of his intention and bade him
good-bye. The Prince pressed him to go with him
that evening to a reception at Baron Rothschild's.
Chopin consented, and that evening proved the
turning point in his career. His hostess invited him
to play ; he was excited and inspired by his sur-
roundings ; played and improvised in a way that
drew forth universal enthusiasm and applause from
the company, and found himself at once on the
road to fame and fortune. Before he left the house
he had numerous applications to give lessons in the
best families of Paris. He gave up his plan of
leaving, and henceforth depended on his earnings
for a livelihood. There was not the slightest diffi-
culty about it; he at once became the fashion, grew
more and more popular among the wealthy and cul-
tivated Parisians, turned the heads of the beautiful
women in the French metropolis, his compositions
were eagerly bought as fast as they were published,
and as pianist, teacher and composer he was, to the
day of his death, the idol of society.
As a concert player, however, he was compara-
tively unsuccessful. His playing was fine, delicate,
tender; he loved to play a piano with a soft, delicate
tone, and his proper place was in a drawing-room,
not a large theatre or concert-hall. This he dis-
covered, to his mortification, at his second concert
in Paris, where he failed to make any effect with the
FRANCOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN.
149
great audience in the vast auditorium of the Italian
Opera. Henceforth public playing became distasteful
to him; he left it to his friend Liszt whcL-asJie said.
" could storm and deafen the public into surrender."
and played almost exclusively in small parties of
connoisseurs, where, under the influence of sympa-
thetic auditors, especially ladies, his finest artistic
qualities showed themselves.
Thus Chopin all at once found himself floating
on the top wave of prosperity But there was
trouble in store for the young artist. In 1832, Con-
stantia Gladkowska was married in Warsaw. Cho-
pin's letters to his friend,* Johannes Matuszynski,
prove that his love for her was pure, deep and pas-
sionate. This love he had never confided to his
parents, and there had been no acknowledged
engagement, but Constantia had at least so far
encouraged him that, on his departure from Warsaw,
she gave him a ring as a token of affection. Her
marriage must have been a terrible disappointment
to him, and a great mortification as well, though no
record of. his feelings on this subject exists. But
Chopin was young, popular, had only too much to
distract his thoughts, and time heals even severe
hurts.
In his next love affair he was equally unfortunate,
and even more so, so far as the wound to his self-
love was concerned. In 1836 he was betrothed to
a young and beautiful countrywoman of his, and he
* See Karasowski, Vol. I, chap. X.
CHAP. IX.
Love disap-
pointments.
A second-
misfortune
in love
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
His con-
nection
with
George
Sand.
Her char-
acter.
and all his friends were rejoicing in the near pros-
pect of a happy marriage, when the young lady sud-
denly decided to accept a count for her husband,
and broke with her artist-lover without warning or
ceremony. It was a cruel humiliation, and no
human being could have felt its sting more keenly
or deeply than did Chopin. It rankled terribly, the
more that he was not at all demonstrative by nature.
He brooded over his feelings in secret, grew even
more reserved and melancholy than usual, and
finally became morbid and almost desperate.
In this mood he made the acquaintance of a most
remarkable woman, who -was henceforth to exercise
a controlling power in his life.
Mme. Aurora Dudevant, known in literature
under her pseudonym of "George Sand," was a
woman of genius, and already held a commanding
position in the literary world. The vigor and fire
of her imagination, combined with the force, refine-
ment and artistic finish of her style, had made her
known as a consummate literary artist, and had
given her a high place in the world's estimation, and
especially in the coterie of writers, painters, musi-
cians, artists and distinguished amateurs, of which
Chopin was by no means the least important mem-
ber. In personal character Mme. Sand was peculiar.
She was powerful, almost masculine in her mental
and bodily traits. She was passionate, but not
coarse ; religious, without accepting any of the cur-
rent theological dogmas ; moral in her way, but with
a moral sense which most right thinking people
FRANCOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN.
would consider perverted, for she held opinions the
legitimate outcome of which would be to dissolve
the bonds of society. She was, in short, a free-lover
in belief and practice, was separated from her hus-
band, and supported herself and her two children
by her pen. Her principles and conduct were no
bar to her admission into a society where dullness "was
the greatest of crimes, and wit, not to say genius,
atoned for many moral delinquencies, provided they
were covered with a veil of decorum.
From any introduction to this woman Chopin had
shrunk. He knew her books, admired her genius,
but felt, nevertheless, a strong prejudice against her,
and a desire to avoid her. Hitherto he had been
successful in doing so, but just at the crisis of his
second love affair she was presented to him one
evening at a* reception, fell violently in love with
him, flattered him by her praise and attention, suc-
ceeded in fascinating him, and soon inspired him
with a strong feeling of affection. He went at
length to live at her house, and continued his inti-
mate relations with her until 1847, when she tired
of him, grew cool, and showed so plainly that she
had outlived her passion that Chopin, already nearly
dead with consumption, withdrew from her house
and left her to her own devices. But his attach-
ment to her had become his strongest passion, and
the rupture with her proved fatal to him.
His illness had been a lingering one. It began
with a severe attack of bronchitis in 1837. He sought
relief in a Southern climate, spent the winter of
CHAP. IX.
Chopin's
prejudice
against
her.
.Is captured
by her.
His linger
ing illness.
152
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
The
preludes
of a morbid
character.
1837-8 with Mrrie. Sand in the island of Majorca,
and appeared to grow better after his return. But
consumption began very soon, and was aggravated
by late hours and thtj excitement of Parisian society.
Its progress was slow but sure. For a long time
before he left Mme. Sand's house he gave his lessons
lying on a sofa, occasionally rising for a moment to
give an example or make some necessary correction.
During his illness, too, he became very irritable and
his pupils had often to grant the pardon which he
always asked for breaches of a courtesy which ha'd
never failed during the earlier portion of his life.
Two years he lingered on after the last of his social
disappointments and then he died, surrounded and
mourned by his friends and pupils, October 17, 1849.
The last twelve years of his life require no
detailed mention here. The record would be a
monotonous one. His character had already been
formed, and many of his greatest productions had
seen the light before this time. The Preludes, or
most of them, were written during his winter in
Majorca, and many of them show traces of his mor-
bid mental condition. He was suffering from his
disorder; the winter was unusually cold and stormy;
he was exceedingly nervous and a prey to hypochon-
driacal fancies, which at times bordered on insanity.
This condition of mind was not permanent, but
often recurred during the last years of his life, as
his disease grew upon him and his sorrows in-
creased ; and the compositions of these years often
reflect his delirious mental condition. It is diffi-
FRANQOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN.
153
cult to decide, however, just what compositions are
to be assigned to this period of his life. The opus
numbers are no guide; they only indicate the order
of publication, not of composition, an^ many of
the works published after his, death were written in
very early life.
The order of composition is approximately as
follows: From op. i to op. 15, inclusive, were
written before he went to Paris; so was the Concerto,
op. 21, which was composed before the other; from
op. 1 6 to op. 52, fall between 1832 and 1843; from
op. 53 to op. 65, belong to the years 1843 to 1847.
The works numbered from op. 66 onward are all
posthumous, and with the single exception of the
Fantasie - Impromptu, op. 66, are comparatively
insignificant pieces, which Chopin himself intended
to destroy.*
Of all his works, none are characterized by more
Jjeauty, freshness, originality, or vigor than his Con-
certo in E minor, op. n. Of the works written in
Paris before a 843, when his disease began to be serious,
those most original in form are the Ballads, Scherzos
and Impromptus. Some of the Nocturnes, Mazur-
kas and Polonaises are, however, equally character-
istic and significant as regards their content, and
extremely original in melody, harmony, cadences,
*There are two admirable complete editions of Chopin's works, one
or both of which ought to be in the hands of every student. One edited
by Carl Klindworth, and published by Bote & Bock, in Berlin, in three
vol'imes, at $3.00 each, and one edited by Hermann Scholtz, and published
by C. F. Peters, in three volumes, in Leipzig, at $1.75 each, or $5 oo for the
complete edition.
CHAP. IX.
Approxi-
mate ordeY
of h is
composi-
tions.
His works.
154
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
Their
merit.
Emotional
character
of Chopin's
works.
Hoiv
determin-
ed.
figures and phraseology. The most important com-
positions after this period were the splendid and
imposing Polonaise in A flat, op. 53, the Polonaise-
Fantasie, op. 61, and the beautiful Berceuse, op.
57. But while there, are degrees of excellence in
his works, there is almost nothing from Chopin's-
pen which is not beautiful, poetic, significant, full of
the real inspiration of true genius, the expression of
the innermost life of a born artist, a passionate lover
and worshipper of the Beautiful, serving his beloved
Art and its ideal aims with unswerving and con-
scientious devotion.
As regards the emotional content of these works,
perhaps little need be added to what has already
been said. Chopin's e^^'ppal life was determined
firct cA-dl b-his inhpritfH i mostly .Polish then.
and the consequent personal misfortunes of his
friends and countrymen, and lastly, by his intellect-
ual life and his social relations. His life in Paris
was an exciting one, in spite of his comparative
seclusion from the public. He was in daily inter-
course with the most intellectual men and women
of Parisian society, artists, authors, wits, such per-
sons as Heinrich Heine, Eugene Delacroix, Ary
Scheffer, Franz Liszt, Mme. George Sand. His even-
ings were passed in the salons of beautiful, intelli-
gent, aristocratic ladies, whose subtle charms attracted
this select company of congenial spirits; and there
Art, Literature and the higher life of intelligence
were supreme. In this circle the noblest among
FRANCO IS FREDERIC CHOPIN.
155
Chopin's countrymen found place, and in him they
found a most ardent sympathizer with all their past
sorrows, the woes of their present exile and their
patriotic hopes and aspirations.
There is a certain heroic vein in many of his com-
positions which comes of his glowing patriotism,
notably in his Polonaises, which are among the most
characteristically national of his productions7~ But
this heroism is, atter all, a very different quality
from that which in Beethoven we call by the same
name. It lacks the ethical element, and it never
suggests religious elevation. The heroic feelings
expressed in these works savor more of pride of
birth, of military ardor, of national humiliation, of
the outraged self-love of a people, once celebrated
for glorious military achievements but now down-
trodden and oppressed, than of the moral indigna-
tion of the reformer, the' struggle with temptation
and with outward hindrance to the higher life, the
striving after the highest ideals in character. Not
that Chopin is ignoble, or immoral, or even irre-
ligious; not at all. He was brought up a strict
Catholic, and his early religious training, not un-
mixed with puerile superstition, was the ground on
which his whole character was based. He was high-
minded, his whole mental activity was permeated with
a fine moral sense, with refinement and high-bred
courtesy. He was a man of the world in the best
and highest sense, but still a man of the world.
His interests are human interests; his relations
human relations ; his joys and sorrows grow out of
CHAP. IX.
Heroic
vein in his
Polonaises.
The ethical
element
wanting.
His feeling
mostly
secular.
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
He
perfectly
expresses
the feelings
of the
society in
iv hie h he
lived.
Chopin's
originality
equal to
any one' 's.
K. Schu-
inann.
his social surroundings, and when bitter disappoint-
ment overtakes him his consolations are to be found
in his relations to his fellows and in his beloved Art.
His highest mental resource seems to be the love of
the Beautiful and the power to create beautiful
forms adapted to his need of emotional expression.
To Chopin we go then for perfect expression of
the emotions engendered in a high-bred exclusive,
intellectual society, as well as of those peculiar to
himself and his nation, and for perfect embodiment
of beautiful conceptions in highly original forms;
not for moral inspiration or religious uplifting. The
" religious passion and elevation " and the " widen-
ing of men's moral horizon" justly ascribed to
Beethoven are not to be found in Chopin. By so
much is the Polish composer inferior, in that the
content of his greatest works is on a lower emotional
plane than that occupied by the noblest utterances of
his great predecessor. In originality and power of
conception, in invention, in mastery of his musical
material he is inferior to no one. What he had to
say was his own, it was great and beautiful, and he
said it in a manner above criticism; but it was not
the highest and noblest thing yet said in the
language of the pianoforte,
ROBERT SCHUMANN was born in Zwickau, then
an insignificant mining town in Saxony, June 8,
1810. He was the youngest of five children, and
the only one of the family who achieved distinction.
His father was a bookseller and publisher, who had
had literary aspirations and ambitions beyond his
ROBERT SCHUMANN.
abilities ; his mother was a surgeon's daughter, of
some intelligence, but narrow and provincial in her
education and opinions, and decidedly contemptu-
ous of musicians and artists generally. Not a prom-
ising condition of things in this family for the devel-
opment of a musical genius. There had been no
musical talent in the family heretofore, and these
was no musical life or interest there now beyond
what was connected with the church and the schools.
Thetown offered few advantages. The best piano
teacher there was Professor Kuntzsch of the High
School, a pedantic, self-made musician, with the
defects of method and the narrow provincialism
inevitable in a teacher who had never been well
trained and who lived so far from the centres of
intellectual and artistic activity as to be but little
affected by the currents of musical life of his time.
Robert did not particularly distinguish himself at
school, either in childhood or later, but he began to
give evidence of musical gifts very early, and his
father was wise enough to send him to Professor
Kuntzsch for lessons. But he does not seem to have
profited much by the instruction, partly because his
teacher was incompetent, partly because the two
natures were incompatible, and quite as much be-
cause the boy was very badly spoiled, had been
indulged as the baby and the family pet, and was
too irritable, susceptible and obstinate to learn much
of anybody except some one who could have
obtained complete mastery of him. This whole-
some control he never had. He showed the effects
CHAP. IX.
His talent
singular
in the
family.
Failure of
h is lessons
with
Professor
Kuntzsch.
His faults
158
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
What he
did in spite
of faults
and
aitz't'rse
circum-
stances.
Schu-
mann's
lack of
thorough
training.
His
unteacha-
bleness.
of his childish faults to some extent all his life and
suffered from them, both as artist and as man.
But there were forces in him which could no more
help coming to outward manifestation than a live
acorn can help growing into an oak, if it have any
soil at all for nourishment. What Robert Schu-
mann might have become if he had been thoroughly
disciplined and surrounded by favorable influences
in his early years we can only conjecture. What he
did become we know ; and in spite of weaknesses
and defects the world has long since agreed to
acknowledge him as one of the great leaders and
creative minds of his time. It is possible that the
very circumstances which we deplore as apparently
unfavorable fostered the originality now so much
admired ; but it is more than probable that this
natural force was too strong to have been crushed
by any systematic training, however pedantic, and
that such surroundings as Chopin or Mendelssohn
had would have developed and enriched his nature
and genius without warping or misleading him. But_
however this may be, Schumann never did become
either a thoroughly trainer] pianist nr mimin'nn in
fhlfordinary sense.
His playing was always more or less faulty in tone
and in execution, and he never attained perfect cor-
rectness or ease. His Leipzig teacher, Wieck, wanted
him to study harmony systematically, when he first
took lessons of him at the age of eighteen, but Rob-
ert seemed to think a young fellow who could
improvise harmonies on the piano had no need of
ROBERT SCHUMANN.
any system and so left harmony alone, until costly
experience taught him that he could not do without
it. This was one side of the boy's character * but if
he had faults for which he had by and by to pay
dearly, he had also traits which were to make him
both useful and famous. If he was self-willed and
obstinate, he was at any rate alive; if he would
grow only in his own way, still grow he would and
did, and a marvelous growth it was.
In early childhood he showed a wonderful power
of reproducing in tones impressions made on his
sensibility by persons, scenes and events. In spite
of his imperfect execution, he would sit down to his
pianoforte and invent melodic figures and phrases so
characteristic of the traits of his friends that the
likenesses would be recognized at once, and comical
enough were some of these tone-portraits. Thus,
from the very first, this peculiar phase of the roman-
tic tendency manifested itself in the boy. It was
innate and could not be suppressed, and this ele-
ment of romanticism he cultivated as his special and
peculiar field. He was a born romanticist through
and through, in every nore of his being, and it was
not at air'suTpfTsing that he took to German roman-
tic literature as his natural intellectual nutriment
His father's shop supplied the means
of gratifying this taste, and he availed himself of his
privileges with the greatest avidity.
But Schumann, if he worked only in his own way,
did, nevertheless, work. If he did not plague him-
self much with Professor Kuntzsch's instructions, he
CHAP. IX.
Power of
reproduc-
ing
impressions
in tones.
His innate
romanti-
cism.
His self-
directed
work.
i6o
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
His
father' 1 s
plans for
him.
Harmful
effects of
his
pre-emin-
ence in
Zivickau.
collected round him all the music-loving youths of
his acquaintance, played with them in four-hand
arrangements a great deal of Haydn, Mozart, Bee-
thoven, Weber, Hummel, Czerny, in .short, whatever
came to hand in the way of music, composed a great
deal in an exceedingly amateurish sort of way, even
organized a small orchestra and gave concerts, he
conducting and filling in on the pianoforte the parts
which were lacking ; made attempts at literary
authorship, too, wrote robber-plays and produced
them on an improvised stage, and altogether showed
great and incessant intellectual activity.
All this his father encouraged, and determining
to make a musician of him, he wrote to Carl Maria
von Weber, asking him to take charge of Robert's
musical education. Weber consented, readily
enough, but for some reason, the boy never went to
him. He floundered along as best he could, pursu-
ing his school studies, his reading and his music in
a confused, desultory, hap-hazard way, but with a
vast amount of energy and enthusiasm. He was
acknowledged as the leading spirit, in the field he
had chosen, among all the amateurs of Zwickau, and
this acknowledged pre-eminence contributed no
little to confirm in him the habit of self-will and
over-confidence in his own' knowledge. It is indeed
astonishing, and a signal proof of the greatness of
his gifts, that he should ever have come to anything.
The first serious obstacle in the way of his self-
chosen path had to be met soon after the death of
his father, which occurred when he was sixteen
ROBER T SCHUMANN.
161
years old. His mother would not hear of his be-
coming a musician, though she had no objection to
his using music as a recreation and amusement.
His guardian, a merchant of Zwickau, agreed with
her, and the two decided that Robert must go to
Leipzig to study law at the university, as soon as he
had graduated from the Zwickau grammar school. To
Leipzig accordingly he went in March, 1828, and
seemed not indisposed to yield to his mother's
wishes in the matter of a profession. It is probable
that he really meant to attend the lectures on juris-
prudence ; in fact, he made several attempts to do
so, but he never got farther than the door. His
time was spent in playing and composing music,
attending the Gewandhaus concerts and the opera,
making music with a few young student friends and
reading, mainly Jean Paul Richter, for whose works
he had conceived a violent passion. He further
diversified his experience by falling in love with
various pretty girls here and there, a species of sen-
timental indulgence to which he was very prone dur-
ing all the early part of his life, and which seems
to have harmed no one, perhaps not even himself.
He also took a journey to Heidelberg during this
spring, in company with Rosen, a young student
with whom he had become sworn friends, and pass-
ing through Munich met Heinrich Heine and the
painter Zimmerman, from both of whom he received
impressions which had no little effect upon him.
Rosen remained in Heidelberg and the. two friends
began a correspondence in which the eighteen-year
CHAP. IX.
Is sent to
Leipzig to
study law.
Journey to
Heidelberg
162
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC,
CHAP. IX.
His morbid
sentiment-
ality.
His inter-
course with
Wieck.
old Schumann appeared mainly as a gushing youth,
running over with Jean Paulism and with that pecu-
liar German sentimentality which never fails to
strike an Anglo Saxon as somewhat ridiculous and
contemptible, but which i& perhaps an indispensable
element of the German " Gemuethlichkeit," and
possibly may even be at the bottom of the pre-emin-
ence of the German race in the development of
music as a language of the sensibility.* But these
letters also contain premonitions of power, imagina-
tive and intellectual, and show the strong tendency
to fantastic dreaming and romantic imagining and
feeling which were born in him and were fostered
into luxuriant growth by his reading and associa-
tions.
One of the most healthful influences which
affected him during this year in Leipzig was his
intercourse with Friedrich Wieck and his family.
Wieck was an extremely original, sensible, active-
minded and successful music teacher. He had two
daughters, the elder o'f whom Schumann afterward
married. She was at this time about nine years of
age and was already an accomplished pianist.
Wieck himself was a healthy, merry, wholesome sort
of man, the reverse of the tearful, melancholy, over-
sentimental temperament of Schumann. The young
student spent many delightful hours with the fam-
ily, profited by his intercourse with them in many
ways, and was greatly stimulated by the gifted
*See letters i'u the " Life of Robert Schumann," by von Wasielwski,
translated by A. L. Alger, and published by O. Ditson & Co., Boston,
ROBERT SCHUMANN.
163
artist nature and precocious attainments of the little
Clara.
But this did not last long. Robert left Leipzig
for Heidelberg in May, 1829, ostensibly to attend
lectures on jurisprudence in the university. What
he really did was to practice the piano, partly on
the basis of his lessons with Wieck, study and com-
pose music, play a great deal in a select circle of his
student friends and a little in public, and devote
himself almost exclusively to his musical and liter-
ary pursuits. The most significant compositions of
this year which now remain to us were numbers i,
3, 4, 6 and 8 of the " Papillons," a series of short
pieces intended to reproduce the impressions of dif-
ferent scenes and incidents at a masked ball.
He does not seem to have yet arrived at any de-
cision as to whether he would ultimately pursue the
career of a professional musician ; he simply drifted
along, yielding to the impulses which moved him in
the line of musical activity and almost wholly neg-
lecting his law studies, for which he felt an uncon-
querable aversion. But matters could not go on so.
At the end of the school year something had to be
settled, and by this time he had thoroughly made
up his mind as to his course. He wrote to his
mother, July 30, 1830, informing her of his unwill-
ingness to continue his law studies and his desire to
devote himself to music, begged her to write to
Wieck for his opinion as to the wisdom of his
change of plan, and promised to abide by his old
teacher's decision. The letter was modest and
CHAP. IX.
Removes to
Heidelberg.
Still
neglects
law and
studies
music.
Drifts
without
any
definite
purpose in
life.
The crisis.
164
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
He returns
to Leipzig
to study
music with
Wieck.
Lames his
right hand.
Studies
with Dorn.
respectful, but very decided, and his mother, unwill-
ingly enough, complied with his request. Wieck's
reply settled the matter. He assured Mme. Schu-
mann that Robert had abilities which warranted
him in expecting to become a great musician, and
advised that he be thoroughly educated with this
end in view.
The result of it was that in a few weeks he was
again in Leipzig under the guidance of his old in-
structor, than whom no more competent man could
have been selected. He took up his residence in
Wieck's house, planning for a thorough course of
study of the pianoforte, But this soon came to an
end by his ill-advised attempts to shorten the pro-
cess of technical attainment. Just what were the
mechanical appliances he used for this purpose no
one seems to know, but, at any rate, his right hand
became permanently lame, and he was forced to
turn his attention exclusively to composition. His
previous efforts in this field, although exhibiting
innate power and originality, and displaying the
peculiar bent of his mind, had been crude, and he
himself had begun to see the necessity of solid theo-
retical study and practice. By Wieck's advice he
put himself under the instruction of Heinrich Dorn,
then conductor of the opera and a sound musician,
and entered upon the study of harmony and coun-
terpoint with great enthusiasm.
His lessons with Dorn profited him greatly, but
he was nearly twenty-two years old and had lost
much precious time. At the same age Mendelssohn
ROBERT SCHUMANN.
'65
was one of the most accomplished musicians in
Europe, while Schumann found that the years in
which it might have been possible for him to acquire
a similar mastery of the technic of composition had
passed forever. He never gained any such freedom
and facility of expression or command of his musi-
cal materials as characterized his future colleague in
the Leipzig conservatory.
Schumann soon left Wieck's house, though his
intimacy with the family continued, and lived much
as other students did. He worked hard days and
devoted his evenings to recreation with his friends.
Socially he was reserved, or rather impassive, un-
responsive, and to all outward appearance apathetic;
but his intimates knew that this lethargic exterior
covered a sensibility extremely open to impressions
of every sort, a keen and subtle perception, a vigor-
ous intellect, a strong sense of humor, a vivid
imagination especially delighting in the fantastic and
the fanciful, and strong, deep feeling.
These qualities found their fullest revelation and
most characteristic embodiment in his music. His
"Papillons" ("Butterflies"), op. 2, begun in Heidel-
berg and finished in Leipzig in 1831, are thoroughly
characteristic of his nature and tendencies. They
are, in form, a mere series of short pieces, some of
them of no great intrinsic significance, but with a
poetic intention underlying the separate pieces and
the arrangement of them, to which Schumann has
given us a clue only by a hint or two, and by a few
words oC explanation in the last number of the series.
CHAP. IX.
His man-
ners and
social rela-
tions.
His "Pap-
illons."'
character-
istic.
i66
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
They
suggest the
scenes of a
masked
ball.
They show
clearly the
poetic bent
of h is
mind
But this last is sufficient to show clearly that he
intended these pieces to express different phases
of feeling induced by the scenes of a masquerade.
The short opening number seems to express the
mood appropriate to the first impression made by
the lighted ball-room with its throng of pleasure
seekers; No. 2 shows us' the antics of a harlequin;
No. 3, a general promenade or procession of the
maskers; No. 7, a tender dialogue between two
lovers, followed in No. 8 by the most blissful of
waltzes, thoroughly poetic and profoundly suggest-
ive; No. 1 2 shows us the party breaking up during the
final dancing of the. " Grandfather " minuet; while
the town clock strikes six, the sounds gradually die
away one after the other. The remaining numbers
are much less suggestive of definite scenes, but
those above mentioned can hardly be mistaken.
These " Papillons " are interesting and important
mainly as showing the bent of his mind toward con-
necting his music with more or less definitely con-
ceived scenest This tendency shows itself plainly
in many of his works, notably in the Davidsbuendler,.
op. 6 ; The Carnival, op. 9 ; the Fantasy pieces,
op. 12; the Scenes from Childhood, op. 15; the
Vienna Carnival Pranks, op. 26; the Album for
Youth, op. 68; the Forest Scenes, op. 82, and the
Album Leaves, op. 124. It is true, he himself has
cautioned us, somewhat obscurely, against carrying
our literalness of interpretation too far, saying that
some of the titles in the Scenes from Childhood
were added after the . pieces were written, instead of
ROBERT SCHUMANN.
167
serving beforehand as images which raised the feel-
ings embodied in the music. But his applying the
titles showed that he considered them sufficiently
appropriate to serve as more or less accurate guides
and helps in interpretation, and proves none the less
conclusively the poetic tendency of his mind, and
his proneness to link scenes and feelings together in
his music. That he often did not connect them
except in a vague way is thoroughly characteristic.
Schumann was a strong but not a clear thinker,
and seldom attained complete mastery of his
thought or definite, clear, finished expression, either
in music or in literary composition. His was one of
those somewhat exasperating yet stimulating minds,
of which so many are to be found even among the
greatest poets and philosophers of Germany, whose
ideas are hopelessly befogged, although they evi-
dently have ideas extremely significant and perhaps
all the more attractive that they are incompletely
revealed. These minds struggle with their thought,
they show unquestionable power, and the very vio-
lence of the effort convinces us of the greatness of
the ideas; but they are never completely triumphant;
they never fully succeed in dragging out into clear
daylight and exhibiting in its full proportions
what they have discovered; more remains than they
themselves have perceived, much less displayed to
others^ the whole is attractive but tantalizing. This
will be best appreciated by those who have tried to
make their way through the obscure pages of Hegel
in the hope of understanding him. Such are apt
CHAP. IX,
Schumann
a strong
but not a
clear
thinker.
1 68
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
Schumann
aims to
suggest
images by
his music.
The
''Etudes
Symphon-
iques."
Their
extraor-
dinary
power.
to come away convinced that the great philosopher
was a long way from understanding his own writing,
but also convinced that he had found much worth
understanding, and feeling that, on the whole, the
attempt had been a bracing, stimulating intellectual
effort, not without result in increase of strength and
enlargement of ideas
Schumann undoubtedly aimed often, if not gen-
erally, at the utmost definiteness of emotional ex-
pression, and often aimed, too, at suggesting definite
images by means of expressing in tones the emo-
tional imprpsdnnmaH
e inscribes a title which irresistibly suggests a
scene or event, we are fairly entitled to follow out
the connection with the music as definitely as
we can, in the absence of information or direction
to the contrary. Enough will remain obscure when
we have found every imaginable point of contact.
It is perhaps not important here to mention
Schumann's minor compositions in detail. Those
between the " Papillons " and the " Etudes Sym-
phoniques," op. 13, are of comparatively little
importance. These " Etudes, in the form of Varia-
tions," were written in 1834, and are not only a great
advance on any of his previous works but are
among the most profoundly significant and atractive
of all his compositions. The gain is not specially
in clearness of statement, but in fertility of inven-
tion, in wealth of suggestion and in the irresistible
impression of depth and power of feeling, intellect
and character which they make. In these there is
ROBERT SCHUMANN,
169
no trace of the lachrymose sentimentality so plenti-
ful in his letters ; the Schumann of the " Etudes
Symphoniques " is hardly to be recognized as the
author of the letters to Henrietta Voigt on pages 88-
90 of Wasielwski's Life, for example; there is, to be
sure, the same fantastic, obscure imagining and
moods more or less akin, but the music is vastly
stronger and more manly than the letters appear to
be. Yet both are productions of the same man at
about the same time.
In form, these " Etudes," though called "varia-
tions " are very far from conforming to the accepted
models, and indeed most of them have so little
formal relation to the theme that the term "variation"
is almost a misnomer. They are rather Schumann's
comments on the original subject (which, by the
way, is not his own, but was written by the father of
of one of his young lady friends, Baroness Ernestine
von Fricken) pieces suggested to his imagination
by the mood of this theme.
This work was immediately followed by the "Taj- -
nival," op. 9, another attempt to express in short
pTete~slfseries of moods appropriate to a masquer-
ade. The two Sonatas, op. n and op. 22, belong
to the year 1835. They are much less successful
than the pieces just mentioned. Schumann was no
master either of the sonata form or of the art of the-
matic treatment, and his genius was hampered by the
classical harness. The op. 22 is much the better
of the two.
Between this time and the time of his marriage to
CHAP. IX.
The" C
nival"
op.q.
170
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
His works
from op.ib
to op. 2b.
Schu*
matin's
disfavor
ivith
Wieck.
Clara Wieck, in 1840, he wrote the "Kreisleriana/'
op. 16 (so named from their imaginary cpnnection
with Kapellmeister Kreisler, in E. T. A. Hoffmann's
fantastic romance, " Kater Murr "), the noble
"Fantasia," op.' 17; the " Novelettes," op. 21, the
"Fantasy Pieces," op. 12; the "Scenes from Child-
hood," op. 15; "Arabeske," op. 18; " Flower Piece,"
op. 19; "Humoreske," op. 20; "Night Pieces.' 1 op.
23; "Vienna Carnival Pranks," op. 26, and other
pieces of minor importance.
This list comprises nearly all his significant works
for the pianoforte alone. They were largely the
product of a time of mental agitation due to his
love affairs. He had wished to marry Ernestine
von Fricken and had been very intimate with her
when she lived at Wieck's. But for some unex-
plained reason the connection was broken off, she
went home, Schumann fell under Wieck's displea-
sure and ceased to visit the family. Meanwhile he
fell in love with Clara, and after a while she recipro-
cated his affections, but her father would never con-
sent to receive Schumann as his son-in-law. When
the young couple finally did marry, Schumann had
to resort to the courts to get possession of his
bride.
But Schumann's love affairs and activity in com-
position by no means occupied all his attention,
He was thoroughly disgusted with the shallow criti-
cism and the equally shallow appreciation of music
at that time prevalent in Leipzig and elsewhere.
The popular pianoforte composers were Kalkbrenner,
ROBERT SCHUMANN.
171
Huenten, Herz, Czerny and men of that stamp, whose
only merit consisted in a certain amount of pleasing
melodiousness without depth of feeling or intelli-
gence. These were, in university student parlance,
" Philistines," the natural enemies of originality,
genius, and the vigorous individual life which char-
acterized the young Romanticists.
Against all pedants, shallow, self-seeking virtuosi
and empty - headed, frivolous pianoforte tinklers
Schumann determined to wage vigorous war, and
entered the field of criticism. In 1834 he, in
company with a few like-minded associates, among
whom was Wieck, founded the " New Journal
of Music " (Neue Ze.itschrift fuer Musik), and
edited it for ten years. It at once became a great
power in musical matters, profoundly influenced
public opinion, and introduced to Germany many
new writers, among them Chopin, Berlioz, Gade,
Stephen Heller, Adolph Henseult, Robert Franz and
Sterndale Bennett. Schumann's own writing was
much of it fantastic arid fanciful; he personified the
two sides of his nature under the names of Flor-
estan and Eusebius, and his associates Wieck and
Carl Banck under those of Raro and Serpentinus %
and these imaginary characters are continually ap-
pearing in the pages of the journal. The name
"Davidsbuendler " or "David and his confederates"
also appears, and his " Carnival" contains a "March
of the Davidsbuendler against the Philistines." But
if he wrote fancifully and more or less obscurely,
his criticisms are almost always striking and suggest-
CHAH. IX.
The "Phil-
istines."*
Schumann
founds and
edits the
"Neue
Zeitsckrift
fuer
Musik."
172
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
His
collected
works.
His songs.
The piano-
forte Quin-
tet, op. 44,
and Quar-
tet op. 47.
"Gene-
vieve."
ive, and many of them are very clear and forcible.
Most of them have been translated into English by
Mrs. Fanny Raymond Ritter, and are published in
two volumes under the title " Music and Musicians."
To these the reader is referred for further knowl-
edge of Schumann's work as a critic.
From the date of his marriage, Schumann's work
as a composer concerns this history but little. In
that year his emotions found vent in the production
of a large number of songs, some of them among
the most poetic and imaginative ever written, truth-
ful in characterization, surcharged with profound
feeling, and of great beauty. He then began to
write for orchestra, and henceforth to the end of his
life the piano occupied with him a subordinate place.
But among the comparatively few pianoforte com-
positions of the last sixteen years of his life, there
-are three very important ones. These are the Piano-
forte Quintet, op. 44, the Quartet, op. 47 and the
A minor concerto, op. 54, all of them beautiful, sig-
nificant and original; so much so, indeed, that they
can hardly be said to have been surpassed in power
by even Beethoven's best work, though they fall far
short of the finish of the older master. Besides his
songs and orchestral work he also wrote an opera,
" Genevieve," which shows great creative power,
but has fatal defects as a musical drama, and two
cantatas, one " Paradise and the Peri," founded on
an episode in Moore's " Lalla Rookh," and the other
an adaption of Byron's " Manfred," besides works
of minor importance.
ROBERT SCHUMANN.
173
In 1843, at Mendelssohn's invitation, he joined
him as a teacher of composition, etc., in the newly
founded Leipzig conservatory. But this connection
did not long continue. Schumann was no teacher ;
had no power of expressing ideas in speech or of
communicating information ; was always silent, and
apparently apathetic in the class-room as in society.
This tendency even increased after his marriage.
In his domestic relations he was happy. Clara
Schumann was a woman of genius, the daughter of
a man who had known how to develop her gifts in
the wisest way ; her culture was broad and deep ;
she was, and still remains (1883), at past sixty, one
of the greatest and finest of interpretative artists in an
age exceptionally productive of great virtuosi ; she
was not only exceptionally fitted to be the compan-
ion of a great creative mind like Robert Schumann's
in all his intellectual and artistic interests and activ-
ities, but was a domestic, homelike wife and mother,
who stood between her husband and outside annoy-
ances and interruptions, made a delightful, happy,
restful home for him and their eight children, and
was in every way a woman who commanded and still
commands the respect, admiration and love of all
who have the felicity of knowing her personally, as
well as of thousands who only know her by her
admirable performances and her reputation. The
present writer looks back upon some concerts of
hers with the Gewandhaus orchestra, some sixteen
years ago, as among the greatest privileges and
most delightful experiences of his life.
CHAP.IX.
His
connection
with the
Leipzig
Conserva-
tory.
Character
of his wife.
174
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
Schu-
mann s
domestic
happiness.
His Con-
ductorship
at Duessel-
dorf.
Insanity
and death. t
With such domestic surroundings it is not to be
wondered at that Schumann felt less than ever any
inclination for general society. He stayed at home
and devoted himself to composition, occasionally
going on a concert tour with his wife, who still
desired to play in public.
In 1844, Schumann gave up his paper and re-
moved to Dresden. He had already begun to feel
the disease which, finally destroyed his reason and
his life ; it was afterwards found to be an abnormal
growth of bone into the substance of the brain ; it
caused him intense pain and occasioned a morbid
state of feeling and of mental activity. In 1850 he
was called to Duesseldorf as director of concerts
and church music and accepted the post. But he
was never a good conductor, and the progress of his
disease made him even less successful than formerly,
so that after some three years, a period prolonged
somewhat out of consideration for his feelings, the
connection terminated.
He had almost reached the end. Decided symp-
toms of insanity developed more and more rapidly
and culminated in an attempt at suicide. On Feb-
ruary 27, 1854, while sitting in social intercourse
with his physician and another friend, he left the
room, without a word, went to the bridge and threw
himself into the Rhine. He was rescued, but his
mind was gone. He was removed to a private
asylum near Bonn, and died there July 29, 1856.
brief comparison of the three great composers
whose creative activity determined the course of
ROBERT SCHUMANN.
175
Musical History in the Romantic Epoch must close
this chapter. All three were subjective ; each con-
sciously and deliberately sought to reproduce his
emotional life in tones ; each embodied in his com-
positions his most peculiar experiences ; so that in
the music of each is revealed his innermost life and
character. \
Of the three, Mendelssohn was the most healthy
and wholesome ; dealt less with social emotions of
the feverish, abnormally exciting sort ; was closer to
nature, too, and to the healthiest literature. His
Midsummer Night's Dream music is perhaps his
most characteristic work, where he deals with nature
in her romantic aspects ; his imagination is kindled
by the solemn grandeur of the forest, the mysterious
gloom and silence of night, broken only by the cry
of night birds and of insects, the dewy, moonlit
glades, the flowery nooks, the thick coverts, the fairy
train of Oberon and Titania, with mischievous Puck
and the other attendants, the lovers whose transitory
mishaps only enhance the charm of the scene, the
clumsy clowns rehearsing their play, Bottom, with
the ass's head and the fairy queen's ridiculous infat-
uation with him. . .
But hardly less characteristic are his lovely,
romantic four-part songs, his overtures and sympho-
nies. The love of natural scenery reappears in
these works and in the Walpurgis Night, and his
oratorios show a noble, elevated religious life, such
as nowhere appears in Schumann or Chopin. The
majestic figure of the Prophet and the fiery enthusi-
CHAP. IX.
The
Romantic
writers
compared.
Mendels-
sohn.
Love of
Nature
shown in
Midsum-
mer Night's
Dream.
A religious
life shown
in his
Oratorios.
i 7 6
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
Chopin.
His emo-
citements
of -worldly
society.
asm of the Apostle inspired him as no similar char-
acters affected his two romantic contemporaries.
The social emotions, too, expressed in his songs,
with and without words, are natural and under
rational control, never become overmastering pas-
sions, are always the revelation of a happy, sunny,
joyous, yet serious and thoughtful nature.
Chopin, on the other hand, has little apparent
relation either to nature or to religion. His emo-
tional life is conditioned solely on social relations,
and those not always of the healthiest or most ele-
vated. He is sometimes morbidly intense, delirious,
passionate ; there is pleasure intoxicating to the
verge of delirium ; his pain, grief and despair occa-
sionally border on insanity ; in short, the passions
of Polish and Parisian society, the whole emotional
life of a passionate, worldly, intellectual, refined,
luxurious, pleasure-seeking aristocracy is mirrored
in his music. It impresses us, too, with a sense of
what it would be somewhat unjust to call weakness
or effeminacy ; it is rather a deficiency of robustness
and virility, a character tender, refined, almost fem-
inine, but yet with a vast reserve fund of power and
with a certain positiveness and vigor which goes far
to make up for his over-sensitiveness and suscepti-
bility to outside influences.
Above all, Chopin is always an artist; his sense of
beauty is keen and subtle; his feeling for form is an
unerring instinct; his power of invention, both in
melody and harmony, is unsurpassed; and the ex-
quisite beauty of many, indeed most, of his works
ROBER T SCH UMA NN.
177
will for long remain a source of delight to connois-
seurs.
Schumann's greatest .deficiencies, as already
pointed out, are lack of clearness, definiteness, con-
centration, and imperfect mastery of his means of
expression. What he had to express, however, was
an emotional life more virile, robust, powerful than
that of either Chopin or Mendelssohn. The fire of
Chopin's passion glowed with equal intensity, but
the impulse it gave was more fitful and spasmodic.
Schumann's feeling rushes on with all-compelling,
resistless force; even when imperfectly revealed it is
Titanic; if we sometimes get no more than glimpses
of his passion, even these convince us that there is
not only intensity but mass of heat, like a vast
furnace full of molten metal, from which indeed run
great masses of slag and dross, but these are the
very result and product of huge purification.
With all his passion, his intense longing, strong
out-reaching desire, earnest striving, headlong im-
pulse, there is a sense of repose which comes only
from the working of a great force.
The passion of Chopin is violent, rushing, impet-
uous, but carries less weight, Or, to change the
figure Schumann's passion rolls in great, deep-sea
waves, which break on rocky cliffs in thunderous
roar of overwhelming surf ; Chopin's is a narrow
tropical sea, beautiful in calm and sunshine, but
fruitful of sudden hurricanes and violent storms, of
deafening thunder and blinding electric flashes;
Mendelssohn's is an inland lake, not too deep to be
CHAP. IX.
Schumann
His
profound
and
vigorous
feelings.
Com-
parison
of the
passion
of t lie
three
writers.
i 7 8
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. IX.
easily fathomed, with charming, quiet bays and en-
ticing nooks haunted by sprites and elves, a veritable
fairy domain, the abode of grace and beauty. All
three are to be counted among the world's great and
precious treasures. " Romantic " they are, certainly;
but if it can ever be possible to judge of the per-
manence of any contemporary Art, then may we
surely expect that these three great masters will by
and by be counted as " classics." At any rate their
place in musical history is unmistakable.
PAET FOUETH.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF PIAISTO-
FOETE TECHJSTIC.
CHAPTER X.
THE TECHNIC OF THE FIRST CLASSICAL PERIOD.
When the harpsichord was invented we know not.
But we do know that the organ preceded it. The
harpsichord seems to have been, at first, a mere
household substitute for the organ, which latter
instrument was, of course, too large and expensive
to be used anywhere except in churches, monas-
teries and other large places for public assemblies.
The harpsichord was at first a resource of organists
for home practice and gradually found its way into
popular use.
At first, organ music was transferred to it, and no
account was taken of its peculiar capabilities. For
a long time pieces were written " for the organ or
harpsichord," and even at the time of Bach and
Haendel harpsichord players were almost always
organists as well. And not only so, but these play-
ers seem to have considered the organ as so much
superior that they devoted little attention to the
harpsichord, regarding it as a mere auxiliary, subor-
dinate to their main interests.
But the striking difference between the capacities
of the two instruments must have suggested to some
of these players that there might be something in
the harpsichord worth cultivating. So long as scien-
181
CHAP. X.
Relation
of the
harpsi-
chord to thl
organ.
Beginning*
of harpsi-
chord
music
proper.
182
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. X.
Shortness
of tone
necessitated
ornaments.
Effect of
lack of
sonority.
tific music was almost exclusively confined to the
service of the church, so long the organ retained its
exclusive supremacy. But when opera was invented,
in the sixteenth century, and the harpsichord not
only came into prominent use in the orchestra, but
had to serve for the accompaniments of recitatives
and arias, its importance increased. Compositions
began to be written which took into account its
special peculiarities ; its evanescent tones, its lack
of sonority and its lightness and shallowness of
touch as compared with the clumsy actions of the
organs of the period.
The shortness of the tones precluded the cultiva-
tion of the lyric quality and suggested the appropri-
ateness of rapid passages as the staple element of
compositions intended for that instrument. When
tones had to be prolonged they were trilled or fur-
nished with turns, mordents, prall-trills or appoggia-
turas. These were borrowed from the vocal embell-
ishments of the time, but were not mere ornaments,
as in the case of arias, etc. ; they served to supply
the defect of shortness of tone' in the instrument,
and so were an important element in harpsichord
music. .
The second peculiarity, lack of sonority, owing to
the lightness of the strings and the impossibility of
producing a powerful tone by plucking a string with
a quill, precluded any broad, majestic effects, and
contributed to the adoption of light and rapid pass-
ages and embellishments as the main peculiarities of
harpsichord music.
TECH NIC OF THE FIRST CLASSICAL PERIOD.
183
Lastly, the lightness of the action pointed in the
same direction.
Harpsichord technic, then, involved light and
rapid playing of scales and arpeggios and of all
sorts of finger passages, including trills and other
embellishments. It required independence and flex-
ibility of the fingers and great dexterity, but not
strength.
But there. was no employment of extended scales
and arpeggios as there is in our modern music. In
the first place, these instruments were much smaller
in compass than our modern pianofortes, rarely
exceeding five octaves.
Then, too, the prevalent music was polyphonic,
and extended passages- were impossible in fugue
playing. Each hand had generally to perform two
or more voice-parts at the same time, and this
involved the necessity of writing them within a nar-
row range of notes.
It was perhaps owing to this fact that the finger-
ing of single scale passages in vogue at that time
was so crude and clumsy. As late as the last
decade of the seventeenth century the rules laid
down in the instruction books for fingering scales
required them to be played with two fingers only ;
the third (middle) and fourth in ascending aud the
third and second in descending.-
The use of all five fingers was a result of the
developmentof monophonic playing, or, what is, for
technical purposes, the same thing, of the employ-
ment of long passages for only one voice for a single
CHAP. X.
What was
involved it
harpsi-
chord
technic.
Limi-
tations.
Crude
fingering.
How im-
provements
were made.
1 8 4
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. X.
Bactis free
polyphony.
Artistic
capabilities
of the
clavichord.
hand, in free polyphony. The hand, not being ham-
pered by the necessity of playing two or more
voices, could indulge in much greater freedom of
execution, and out of this gradually came florid
monophony, culminating at last in our day in the
difficult passages of Thalberg, Liszt and others.
Of this style of free polyphony involving florid
monophonic passages Sebastian Bach was as great a
master as he was of strict polyphonic playing. In
the latter he was unrivaled. He was not only the
greatest composer of fugues, but the greatest player
of fugues. In the art of delivering several melo-
dies simultaneously he surpassed all his predeces-
sors and contemporaries. This art involved the fre-
quent changing of fingers on one key and the slid-
ing of the fingers from one key to another, so as to
produce a perfect connection between the tones.
The greatest defect of the harpsichord for fugue
playing was the impossibility of discriminative em-
phasis. The clavichord was somewhat superior in
this respect. It was possible to make some slight
difference in the power of the tones of this instru-
ment, to emphasize somewhat the entrance of a
fugue subject or answe'r, and to discriminate one
melody or passage from another by greater or less
force of delivery. Above all, it was superior to the
harpsichord in lyric -quality, in the possibility of pro-
longing the tones beyond a mere tinkle, and impart-
ing to them something of singing effect.
Accordingly, the clavichord was a favorite instru-
ment with Sebastian Bach, as having finer artistic
TECH NIC OF THE FIRST CLASSICAL PERIOD.
185
capabilities than either the harpsichord or the piano-
fortes of his day. The action of the latter was still
too imperfect and clumsy to satisfy his requirements.
The mechanism of the pianoforte is necessarily
complicated, and it was thirty or forty years after
Bach's death before it finally superseded the older
instruments.
Sebastian Bach's technic, then, was the technic of
the harpsichord, and especially of the clavichord.
In him polyphonic playing, as well as polyphonic
writing, culminated. All that could be done on the
instruments of his time he did. He attained the
utmost independence of finger, the utmost ease,
lightness, fluency ; his dexterity in interweaving con-
trapuntal parts was perfection itself; he employed all
five fingers in passages when they could be used to
advantage, disregarding the pedantic rules of his
time ; he made the most of the lyric capabilities of
the clavichord. In short, like most original minds,
he was an innovator, discovering all the possibilities
of the instruments he used and inventing new
means of accomplishing his ends.
Haendel was also a great organist and harpsi-
chordist, but devoted most of his life to the produc-
tion of Italian opera. His harpsichord technic, as
far as it goes, differs in no essential particular from
Bach's.
Domenico Scarlatti seems to have had more of the
virtuoso spirit, in the sense in which that term is
used in Germany at the present day.
A virtuoso, in this sense, is one who puts the
CHAP. X.
Back's
technic.
Haendefs
technic.
Scarlatti's
virtuosity.
1 86
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. X.
The true
artist.
The
virtuoso.
The artist
spirit.
mastery of technical difficulties and the display of
his technical attainments above those aims which
the real artist regards as paramount.
The true artist has in view, first of all, the worthy
embodiment of a worthy ideal. As an interpretative
artist he holds it his paramount duty to render
truthfully the conceptions of any composer whose
works he takes upon himself to represent to others,
selecting the works of no composer whose genius he
does not respect, treating them reverently and
interpreting them with conscientious fidelity, so far
as he can ascertain the composer's intention.
The virtuoso, on the other hand, is apt to use his
attainments primarily as a means of glorifying him-
self in the eyes of others. Whatever he writes is
apt to be written with reference to the display of his
attainments, to the production o; astonishing and sen-
sational effects, that he may gLin glory for himself.
His performances of the compositions of others are
apt to be characterized by the same dominant pur-
pose. ^Effect" is the watchword of the virtuoso.
He does not like to play pieces, however noble or
significant, which are not "effective." He is apt tc
desecrate the noblest works of the greatest genius
by additions and alterations intended solely for
show.
The spirit of the artist is one of self-abnegation,
of devotion to ideal aims. The virtuoso is primarily
an egotist, using his technical attainments as a
means not to the faithful setting forth of noble con-
ceptions, but for his own personal aggrandizement.
TECH NIC OF THE FIRST CLASSICAL PERIOD.
187
But, although there are abundant examples of
both classes of players, there are perhaps few artists
who play much in public without sometimes being
tempted to sacrifice something of the higher inter-
ests'they are called to represent, to the desire for
applause, and perhaps there are few virtuosi who do
not sometimes feel impelled to use their splendid
gifts and acquirements for high ends. It is a ques-
tion, in each individual case, of predominant ten-
dency and habitual intention.
As regards Domenico Scarlatti, it would doubt-
less be very unjust to represent him as a virtuoso
pure and simple, in the sense m which that word has
just been explained. But there is much in his com-
positions which seems to have been conditioned, not
on any inward necessity of expression, but on the
desire to overcome technical difficulties and to display
his mastery of them. There are passages exceedingly
troublesome to players even now, which seem to
serve no ideal end, but to exist solely for the sake of
difficulty.
The most conspicuous examples of this are pas-
sages where the hands are crossed very rapidly, as
in the sonata No. 10 of Koehler's edition (see Chap-
ter I). But whatever we may think of the intel-
lectual or artistic worth of this sort of work, it
undoubtedly contributed much to the mastery of
technic, and especially to the development of the
monophonic style of playing.
CHAP. X.
Evidences
of the
virtuoso
spirit.
CHAPTER XI.
THE TECHNIC OF THE SECOND CLASSICAL PERIOD.
CHAP. XL
The change
in technic
gradual.
Character-
istics of the
Vienna
pianoforte.
When we compare the sonatas of Scarlatti, the
suites of Haendel and the suites, partitas, sonatas
and concertos of Sebastian Bach with the sonatas of
Emanuel Bach, we find no sudden change in
technical qualities. Indeed, the development of the
technic of the pianoforte was a slow and gradual
process, and neither Emanuel Bach, Haydn nor
Mozart ever fully recognized the peculiar capacities
of the new instrument. All three were bred harp-
sichordists, and even in the Mozart concertos, the
culmination of technic in these three authors, most
of the passages are perfectly practicable for the
harpsichord. In these works, as in those of Haydn
and Emanuel Bach, we find the same demand for
lightness and fluency which characterized the con-
certos and other compositions of Sebastian Bach's
time.
This was, in part, due to the fact that the Vienna
pianofortes had very light actions, modeled on those
of the harpsichords then in use. The ideals of
pianoforte technic and effects were drawn from the
experience of harpsichord players, modified only by
the single consideration of the possibility of shading.
But this capacity for varying the power of tones
TECHNIC OF THE SECOND CLASSICAL PERIOD.
189
was an element which gradually enlarged the ideas
of players as to the possible effects derivable from it
and, after a while, led to great changes in the con-
struction of the instrument.
Nevertheless, Vienna was not the place where
these modifications first suggested themselves ; the
Viennese players and composers continued for a long
time to be the exponents of a smooth, easy-going,
superficial style of technic and of playing, and the
Viennese pianofortes continued to be very light in
action and lacking in sonority, making small de-
mands on the power and endurance of players, and
incapable of broad or powerful effects.
From the above judgment of Viennese composers,
Beethoven, and in a less degree, Schubert must be
excepted. More of these hereafter.
The most important service rendered by Emanuel
Bach, Haydn and Mozart in the development of
pianoforte technic was their progressive recognition
of the lyric element. The adagios in the sonatas of
Emanuel Bach were distinct attempts to improve
upon the singing effects already attained on the
clavichord. They were probably calculated for that
instrument, at least quite as much as for the piano-
forte, for, although Bach played both instruments,
and the harpsichord as well, he is said always to
have preferred certain effects obtainable on the
clavichord to any of those which could be produced
by the pianofortes of his day.
The most peculiar of these effects was the
"Bebung" a peculiar tremulous effect produced by
CHAP. XI.
The
Vienna
technic.
Develop-
ment of thl
lyric
element.
The
'Bebung.'
190
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XI.
How
Haydn and
Mozart
developed
technic.
a rapid repetition of slight pressure on the key.
The " Tangent," which was in contact with the
string as long as the key was held down, transmit-
ted this vibratory motion to the string, producing
an effect probably analogous to that with which we
are familiar in the playing of violinists and violon-
cellists.
But although Bach preferred the clavichord for
the performance of his lyric pieces, the stress he
laid upon the lyric element in playing must have
tended strongly to develop the lyric capabilities of
the pianoforte, an instrument which was now rapidly
growing in favor, so much so as to fairly supersede
the older instruments about the time of Emanuel
Bach's death (1788).
Haydn and Mozart also cultivated the lyric ele-
ment of the pianoforte. Their works show a steady
development of it. Haydn modeled on Bach, and
Mozart on Bach and Haydn, and in the Mozart sona-
tas and concertos we find what was probably a full
and complete recognition of the lyric possibilities of
the small, light Viennese pianofortes of his time.
The extended scale and arpeggio passages of the
Mozart concertos also show a distinct recognition of
the capabilities of light and shade peculiar to the
pianoforte, although their relation to the harpsi-
chord is almost as close as their relation to the
newer instruments.
But there was an Italian contemporary of his
who, though he was no such original genius as
Mozart, rendered more -important service than he in
TECHNIC OF THE SECOND CLASSICAL PERIOD.
T 9 I
the development of pianoforte technic. This was
Muzio CLEMENTI (1752-1832), an artist and virtu-
oso who occupies somewhat the same relation to
Mozart and Haydn that Domenico Scarlatti did to
Bach and Haendel.
He was born at Rome, went to England in his
childhood and spent most of his lifetime there. His
eighty years were full of honorable and useful activ-
ity. He was a thorough musician, an excellent
composer, so far as technical attainments went, and
had very marked talent, so much, indeed, that no less
a judge than Beethoven preferred his sonatas to
Mozart's. He composed about a hundred sonatas,
the same number of studies (Gradus ad Parnassum),
besides symphonies, choruses, etc.
He was a superior teacher, and formed some of
the finest pianists of the next generation ; among
them J. B. Cramer, John Field, Alex. Klengel and
Ludwig Berger. He also conducted Italian opera
in London, and engaged in the manufacture of
pianofortes.
In early life, he aimed at brilliant execution, and
especially cultivated difficult playing in double
thirds, fourths, sixths and octaves. He after-
wards acquired a broad cantabilc and a nobler and
more artistic style generally. He was a pianist
rather than a harpsichordist, and was really the first
of the great players of whom this could be said.
He preferred the English pianofortes with their
heavy action, and adapted his playing and his com-
positions to these instruments.
CHAP. XI.
dementi,
1752-1832.
A s player.
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XI.
Clementf s
technic as
related to
English
piano-
fortes.
His
importance
in tke
history of
techmc.
These English pianos had greater sonority than
those of Vienna ; the heavier stroke suggested
heavier strings and a larger sounding-board, and
they required a technic approaching that of the
modern instruments. It is dementi's great con-
tribution to pianoforte technics that he fully appre-
hended the requirements and capacities of the best
English instruments of his day, and in his playing,
teaching, and composing, gave them adequate recog-
nition.
The whole fabric of modern pianoforte technic
rests on the Gradus ad Parnassum. Up to the com-
positions of Chopin, Liszt and Schumann, there is
nothing for which these studies do not afford an
adequate foundation. Even the Beethoven Fifth
Concerto does not go beyond the Clementi technic,
in its principles or its extreme difficulty.
dementi's lifetime covers a period from seven
years before the death of Haendel to four years after
that of Beethoven and up to within two years of the
establishment of the Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik by
Schumann. He lived through the whole epoch of
the development of the sonata, its culmination and
transformation, and into the very sunrise c/ the
Romantic epoch.
CHAPTER XII.
THE TECHNIC OF THE TRANSITION PERIOD.
We have already seen that Clementi, the most
important factor in the classical technic, lived not
only through the first classical period, but through
the transition period as well. He was born four
years earlier than Mozart and died four years later
than Beethoven. Moreover, the most important
part of his work was done between the dates of
Mozart's death and that of Beethoven.
Although the romantic ideals were pressing into
the foreground, the whole technic of the transition
period was classical. We have already noticed that
Beethoven's most difficult concerto is amply pro-
vided for in dementi's technic.
Beethoven did, indeed, embody a content in the
greatest of his works, for the interpretation of which
the full resources of our modern instruments are no
more than sufficient. In this respect his work is
prophetic. But the essential elements of his tech-
nic are all to be found in the Gradus of Clementi.
One of the m@st noticeable points of his early tech-
nic is his use of rapid successions of chords, as in
the Sonata in C, op. 2, No. 3. This is evidently
borrowed from Clementi, who was, at that time, his
favorite model.
CHAP. XII.
The technic
of the
period
classical.
Beethoven 1 s
technic.
T 93
19*
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XII.
Technic of
Sch ubert
and Weber.
All technic
either
classical or
romantic
in prin-
ciple.
Uteofthe
damper
pedal.
The technic of Schubert and Weber was also
based on that of dementi. The latter, however,
made use of extended chords in a way wholly
original, an example which has been followed since.
He also used the octave glissando in his " Concert -
Stueck," a mere virtuoso trick, which has remained
wholly without influence on practice since.
In general, it may be said that not only the con-
temporaries of dementi, but all classical players
and composers since, have based their technic on
his Gradus ad Parnassum. Some of them, like
Moscheles, for example, have seized upon points
which he had treated but briefly and have elaborated
them at great length and in detail. Many individ-
ual peculiarities of treatment and style are also to
be found, and the classical players of the Romantic
period could hardly remain wholly unaffected by
the innovations of the Romantic composers. But,
in principle, all classical technic is to be found
in dementi ; and all in our modern playing
which cannot be accounted for on his principles
can be referred to Liszt and the other Romanti-
cists.
In one single point of technic have players, not
distinctively Romantic, gone beyond dementi's
practice or suggestion, viz., the use of the damper
pedal. Beethoven used it considerably, and Mos-
cheles (1784-1870) still more extensively. Henselt
(born 1814) still further enlarged the domain of the
pedal, and Thalberg (1812-1871), who cannot be
THE TECHNIC OF THE TRANSITION PERIOD.
classed as "either a classicist or romanticist, but is
the culmination of the "Philistine" school of shallow
players, of which Czerny and Kalkbrenner were
distinguished representatives, carried the "ise of it
to its extreme limits.
CHAP. XII.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE TECHNIC OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD.
CHAP. XIII.
Persistence
pf classical
technic in
the roman-
tic period.
We have already seen that the classical school of
playing persisted after the advent of the great
Romanticists. Kalkbrenner (1788-1849), one of
the greatest of the classical virtuosi, died in the
same year with Chopin. Moscheles (1794-1870)
outlived all the Romanticists. Hiller was born in
1811, Thalberg in 1812 and Henselt in 1814. Of
these three only Thalberg is dead, and even he out-
lived all the great Romanticists except Liszt. Be-
sides these there is a host of players who are classi-
cists by tradition and principle.
These followers of the methods of classical tech-
nic were, indeed, more or less affected by the
Romantic influences which surrounded them, but
these influences showed themselves rather in at-
tempts at characterization and the embodiment of a
Romantic content than in any borrowing of the pecu-
liar effects of the distinctively Romantic technic. In-
deed, Mendelssohn himself was essentially^ a classicist
in much of his technic, no less than in the clearness of
his forms. Even in the Songs without Words, there
is little which cannot be referred back to the techni-
cal principles of Clementi.
These principles depended mainly on the con-
196
THE TECHNIC OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD.
197
struction of compositions from five-finger passages,
scales and arpeggios. The rules of fingering
required that a five-key position should always be
taken when possible ; that a position once taken
should not be changed unnecessarily ; that all pas-
sages derived from scales and arpeggios should be
fingered like the arpeggios or scales on which they
were founded ; that the thumb and little finger,
being shorter than the others, should not be used on
black keys, except in positions where their shortness
produced no disadvantage. These principles suf-
fice for playing all classical compositions in the
monophonic style.
But Mendelssohn, in many of his Songs without
Words, introduced passages where a melody with
an accompaniment to be played by the same hand
could be delivered properly only by changing the
fingers on successive keys while holding them down
with a continuous clinging pressure.
This changing of fingers was not wholly new, for
Bach had used it in polyphonic playing, and occa-
sional instances of it had occurred since, in de-
menti's works and elsewhere ; but with Mendelssohn
it assumed new and greater importance. His Songs
without Words became the fashion, served as mod-
els to many composers, and intensified the already
great and growing interest in the purely lyric style.
This interest was greatly heightened by the lyric
pieces of Chopin. But Chopin's relation to technic
was much more important than Mendelssohn's. He
was an innovator ; as original in his technical meth-
CWAl'.XIII.
Rules of
fingering.
M^ndels-
sohn' s
technic.
The cling-
ing touch-
Chopin s
technic.
Its
originality.
198
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XIII.
Schu-
mann's
technic.
Its
difficulties.
ods and treatment as he was in his ideas and his
harmonies. Above all others he thoroughly under-
stood how to write for the pianoforte, and how to
produce effects hitherto unattained. He improved
the legato playing of chromatic passages, especially
in double thirds and other intervals, by putting the
fifth finger under the fourth and third in descend-
ing and the third and fourth over the fifth in
ascending. He showed how to produce a smooth,
even chain of tones in arpeggios dispersed in wide
intervals, and in extended chords. He wrote arpeg-
gios so interspersed with passing-notes and appog-
giaturas that no rules of fingering previously known
would apply to them, and showed how they could
be played with ease and certainty.
Schumann also had a peculiar technic, but one
which seemed, at least, less perfectly adapted to the
requirements and resources of the pianoforte. Ap-
parently, his innovations were not, like Chopin's,
based on a thorough mastering of all previous tech-
nical achievements and a clear perception of new
effects to be produced by a further natural develop-
ment. They were dependent rather on the require-
ments of emotional expression, to which the piano-
forte must adapt itself if it could ; if not, so much
the worse for the pianoforte.
The new difficulties consisted partly in obscure
and involved rhythms, partly in the peculiar rela-
tions of the melodies to their accompaniments,
partly in the use of extended chords in awkward
THE TECHNIC OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD.
199
positions, and partly in the participation of both
hands in the delivery of the same phrase.
In all these cases the thought is first in import-
ance with the composer and facility of execution
seems to be an entirely subordinate matter.
Schumann's innovations, therefore, had, for a long
time, comparatively little influence on the technical
treatment of the pianoforte. But of late years, a
generation of players and composers has sprung up
who have been powerfully affected by the Schu-
mann cultus, and have thoroughly accustomed
themselves to his technic. It now begins to be
said that some of his powerful effects imply and
demand many of the most important technical qual-
ities, both" in player and instrument, which have
heretofore been credited to Liszt, and which Liszt
was certainly the first to popularize, both among
players and pianoforte makers. The new school of
writers represented by Brahms, Tschaikowsky,
Moszkowski, the two Scharwenkas, the Brassin
brothers and Sgambati, is deeply marked by the
Schumann peculiarities.
Chopin excepted, no composer has wrought such
remarkable changes in technic during his life time
as FRANZ LISZT. He was born October 22, 1811,
at Raiding, near Pesth, in Hungary. His father
gave him his first lessons in playing the pianoforte
at the age of six years.
The boy at once showed the most remarkable
gifts. His sight-reading, comprehension and exe-
cution were astonishing. At nine years of age he
CHAP. XIII.
Slow
growth of
Schu-^
jiiann s
influence
on technic.
Liszt.
His
precocity
200
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XIII.
His sight
reading.
He settles
in Paris,
was able to play a difficult concerto in public, and
roused the admiration of all who heard him by the
fire and spirit of his performances.
H.e attracted the attention of two Hungarian
noblemen, who gave him a pension of six hundred
gulden (about three hundred dollars) a year to ena-
ble him to prosecute his studies. His father then
took him to Vienna and placed him under Czerny's
instruction. The boy also studied theory with old
Salieri
How well he read at sight will appear from a
single anecdote. He went one day into a music
store where some musicians were examining a new
and difficult concerto of Hummel. Knowing that
he played almost everything at sight, they gave him
this as an extraordinary test. He played it at once
with apparent ease.
Of course, for such a pupil there could be few dif-
ficulties, and before long young Liszt had com-
pletely risen above all the demands of technic as
then practised and had begun to invent new effects
of his own. He also mastered the whole range of
existing compositions for his instrument.
In 1823 his father took him to Paris and the fol-
lowing year to London, in both of which cities his
playing excited surprise and admiration.
In 1827 his father died, and young Liszt, now six-
teen years of age, went to Paris to seek his fortune
as pianist and teacher. He became at once a prom-
inent adherent of the extreme Romantic school.
Soon after he went to Paris, Hector Berlioz pub-
THE TECH NIC OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD.
201
licly produced some of his fantastic " programme
music." Young Liszt was strongly attracted by its
peculiar style and impressed by its unquestionable
power, as well as by the evident mastery of all the
resources of the orchestra displayed by this extremely
eccentric and original composer. He soon set to
work to transcribe these works for the pianoforte.
The problem he set for himself was to reproduce,
with the limited resources of an instrument poor in
melody and monotonous in tone-color, the effects of
the full orchestra with all its different families of
instruments. A stupendous task, indeed, and one
impossible to discharge except in remote approxi-
mation. But the degree of his success was aston-
ishing, and his playing of his transcriptions was an
exhibition of virtuosity which completely threw into
the shade the performances of all other virtuosi in the
capital. He followed up these works by numerous
transcriptions of orchestral works, including some
of the Beethoven symphonies, and afterwards tran-
scribed numerous opera melodies, songs by Schu-
bert and others, Hungarian Gypsy melodies (Rhap-
sodies), and some of Bach's organ fugues.
The impulse to this work was greatly quickened
by the violin playing of Paganini, who appeared in
Paris in 1831. It was young Liszt's ambition to
become the Paganini of the pianoforte. With this
end in view he studied and experimented constantly
to produce new effects in melody, harmony and
brilliant passages, to increase the power and sonority
of his touch, to vary the quality or "color" of his
CHAP. XIIL
His trans-
criptions.
Liszfs
Technic.
202
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XIII.
The means
he used.
tones by different kinds of touches, to discriminate
the different -elements of a piece as widely as
possible, and to make his playing effective by vio-
lence of contrast, force, fire, spirit, delicacy and
refinement,all carried to the highest attainable pitch of
excellence. In all this he was successful, and attained
such mastery as was not only the despair of all the
players of that time, but remains, by general con-
sent, unrivaled by any of the great pianists who
have since been formed on the principles of his own
technic.
These principles were, first, the development of
the greatest possible strength and power of discrim-
inative emphasis in the individual fingers, and sec-
ond, a much greater use of the hand playing with a
loose wrist than had hitherto been customary.
For the first, he held the wrist higher than other
players, and left it perfectly flexible, but still in such
a position that the fingers had all possible mechani-
cal advantage for the production of a powerful tone.
He also invented simple and radical exercises for
developing the strength of the fingers in the shortest
possible time. For the second, he made great use
of single and double trills, runs, arpeggios, inter-
locking passages, etc., to be executed with the two
hands alternately.. This produced a totally new
class of effects by means of wrist action.
These brilliant pyrotechnics, though really not
much more difficult of attainment than the effects
of the older technic, were thought at the time to be
impossible for any one except Liszt himself, and
THE TEC H.VIC OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD.
203
pieces like his " Rigoletto " Fantasie, now effectively
played by some boarding-school misses, were then
thought too difficult for great virtuosi.
Between the years 1836 and 1848 Liszt played a
great deal in all the principal cities of Europe and
even in Constantinople, and was honored as few
artists have ever been, alike by kings, princes, nobil-
ity and commoners.
In 1848 he became conductor of the Grand
Duke's Opera at Weimar and since that has seldom
played in public. He gave up his conductorship in
1859, and has since lived at Weimar, Pesth and
Rome, always surrounded by friends and admirers,
and by young pianists seeking his counsel.
To these he has always shown himself a friend
and benefactor.
But Liszt's generosity has never been confined to
artists. Wherever there was distress or need, there
he was always ready with money, sympathy and
powerful influence for help. No artist was ever
more loved than he, and none ever seemed more
influential in his own time.
Liszt has devoted himself of late years to the
composition of great choral and orchestral works.
He had previously written many etudes, two con-
certos and many other original works for the piano-
forte. In these pieces, as in his transcriptions, the
prime consideration is their relation to the public.
His original ideas are seldom or never profoundly
significant. Few of his original pianoforte works, at
least, are conditioned on an inward necessity for
CHAP. XIII.
Liszt's
career as et
concert
player.
His
conductor-
ship at
Weituar.
Liszt
as a
composer.
.204
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XIII.
His works
sensa-
tional.
Effect
of his
works.
emotional expression so much as on the desire to
affect others. And again, the desire is not to affect
others by the communication of gr3at thoughts and
feelings which press for utterance and crave sym-
pathy, but to make effect, to produce sensation, to
dazzle, astonish, overwhelm by a display of force,
brilliancy and mastery of effects unattainable by
others.
Liszt's works are always exciting, but few of them
are poetic or inspiring. They are imposing in their
sonority and in the bold and striking character
of their effects, and imposing also in the sense that
they appear at first to be much more significant
than they really are. After we have a little recovered
from the first shock of the powerful sensations they
produce, we discover that these stormy passages are
grandiose, not grand ; noisy, not sublime ; sensa-
tional, not profound.
The effect of them and of Liszt's playing and
teaching has been to revolutionize technic and to
bring about great changes in the construction of
the pianoforte in the direction of an enormous
increase of sonority and of capacity to endure a
powerful touch without injury to the quality of the
tone.
But as regards creative and perhaps even inter-
pretative Art, Liszt's influence has been much less
marked and does not seem likely to be permanent.
After all, the kingdom of true Art, like " the king-
dom of God, cometh not with observation," and is
THE TECH NIC OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD.
205
manifested not in the fire nor in the whirlwind, but
in the "still small voice."
Liszt will certainly be known in the history of
pianoforte music as the greatest virtuoso of his
time. It seems not improbable that he will be
credited with the development of the pianoforte
and of its technical requirements to the extreme
limits of the possibilities of both. At any rate, it
is hard to see any capacities in the present instru-
ments which Liszt has not exhausted, or what
possible use of the muscles of the hand and arm in
playing he has not discovered and practiced. He
is the king of pianists and this title he seems likely
to retain for all time.
To sum up this discussion: Besides the increased
demands on the interpretative powers of the player
made by the great Romanticists, there are peculiar
intellectual requirements. Among these are the
peculiar involved, intricate rhythms of Schumann
and the extremely original harmonies and modula-
tions of Chopin and Liszt.
But when these peculiarities have been perfectly
grasped and assimilated in the mind of the player
they are seen to involve mechanical difficulties of a
character foreign to the classical technic.
i. The great increase of sonority demands
greater development of strength in the hand and
fingers without in the least impairing the flexibility
of the hand and wrist. Indeed the demand for
perfect flexibility and independence of all the
muscles, joints and nerves involved is even greater
CHAP. XI 1 1.
Liszt" 3
place in
history.
Summary*
Increased'
demands
of modern
technic.
Strength.
206
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAI-.XIH
Discrim-
inative
emphasis.
New and
peculiar
fingerings.
Lateral
stretches
of the
fingers.
Long
skips.
Wrist
action.
than ever, for the demand for discriminative empha-
sis is greatly increased. Not only must the two
hands be perfectly independent of each other, but
each separate finger must be able to produce the
most powerful tone of which it is capable, while
other fingers in the same hand are producing tones
of differing degrees of force. In short, there was
never before such a demand for the blending of
different degrees of force in touch, discriminating
each with the greatest precision and nicety.
2. The peculiar harmonies and especially the em-
ployment of harmonic bye-tones in scale and
arpeggio passages demands a different mode of
fingering from that which sufficed for the playing of
classical pieces. This fingering involves putting the
fourth and fifth fingers under the others with entire
freedom, and, in general, a much freer use of the
thumb and little finger, especially on the black keys,
than was formerly admitted.
3. The greater sonority attained by the use of chords
in extended positions demands new stretches of the
fingers laterally to make the new intervals effective.
This involves both a greater development of the
interosseous muscles of the hand, and a new lateral
action of the hand from the wrist, some one of the
middle fingers being used as an axis on which the
hand turns loosely and rapidly to reach its new posi-
tion. There has also been a great increase in the
demand for long skips.
4. The demands for wrist action are also much
greater than formerly, both as regards the alternate
THE TECIINIC OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD.
207
employment of the hands in trills and interlocking
passages, and as regards full chords struck staccato,
or in rapid succession.
Two important works intended to develop the
necessary technic to meet the demands of the Ro-
mantic compositions are worthy of notice here :
The Tausig " Daily Studies " and Mason's " Piano-
forte Technics."
CARL TAUSIG (1841-1871), was perhaps the most
brilliant of all Liszt's pupils. A virtuoso of the very
highest rank, for whom absolutely no technical diffi-
culties existed, with a technic which seemed infalli-
ble, his performances were dazzling in the extreme.
Moreover he was a thoughtful, intelligent, well-edu-
cated man and a practical teacher, so that he was
every way admirably fitted to embody and commun-
icate the results of his study and experience.
He taught^ some years in Berlin, and gradually
elaborated a system of elementary technical exer-
cises calculated to develop strength, flexibility and
in short all the requirements of the modern technic.
He did not live to complete it however? It was
finally edited and published by his friend, H.
Ehrlich, another prominent teacher and pianist in
Berlin, who incorporated many excellent ideas of his
own in the work.
These exercises, though seemingly elementary,
must be used with great discretion, if at all, in the
earlier stages of instruction. They are mainly use-
ful to advanced players under the guidance of an
intelligent teacher.
CHAP. XI H.
Technical
studies.
Carl
Ta usig,
Tansies
"Daily
Studies"
208
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP.XIH.
Mason ' s
Pianoforte
Technics.
IVm.
Mason.
The Mason Technics, on the other hand, are
simple and radical, and can be used with beginners.
Indeed, there is no single exercise which will so rap-
idly develop strength, flexibility of wrist and hand,
delicacy, force and discrimination of touch, in short,
all' the technical merits of good playing, as the two-
finger exercise elaborated by Mason in this work.
He obtained the first hint of it from Liszt and after-
wards developed and amplified it greatly.
The treatment of rhythm in this work is also
admirable and exhaustive. The book is one which
no teacher can afford to overlook.
Much of the clearness and force of statement
which characterize the book, as well as some of the
original work, are to be credited to the associate
editor, W. S. B. Mathews (author of " How to Un-
derstand Music"), who is wholly responsible for .the
letter 'press.
DR. WM. MASON, author of the book, was born in
1829, and was a son of the well-known Dr. Lowell
Mason. He went to Europe young, studied with
Moscheles, Hauptmann and Dreyschock, and then
went to Liszt about 1850, remaining with him some
time. He became a very distinguished pianist with
a world wide reputation. He has been settled as a
teacher in New York since 1856, and has written
many graceful, refined, excellent pieces for his
instrument.
PAET FIFTH.
MHSTOB COMPOSERS A^D VIETUOSI
OF THE DIFFERENT EPOCHS.
209
CHAPTER XIV.
A. THE EPOCH OF POLYPHONIC MUSIC.
The first harpsichord players were organists, and
it was a very long time before there was any differ-
entiation of harpsichord music' from organ music.
Whatever was written for one was played indiffer-
ently on the othgi
The prevalent style was that of strict polyphony,
though the dance forms gradually assumed a more
lyric character and approached the monophonic
style, developing the simple period forms. The
harpsichord was the popular household instrument
in Italy, Germany, England, and, indeed, wherever
music was cultivated.
In Italy, Venice was the city where instrumental
music was more especially cultivated, and the suc-
cessive organists of St. Mark's church distinguished
themselves also as harpsichord players.
The most celebrated of these was Adrian Willaert,
a Netherlander, who founded the Venetian Music
School in the first half of the sixteenth century.
He wrote " Fantasies " and " Ricercari " in a free
contrapuntal style, and was a great musician and
composer. In his day, the so-called " Ecclesiastical
Keys "* prevailed, and he was among the first to
*See " History of Music," by Professor F. L. Ritter, Vol. I.
CHAP. XIV
Harp-
sichord
music it.
Italy.
Willaert.
212
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XIV.
Willaerfs
pupils.
suggest the division of the octave into twelve semi-
tones, an innovation out of which all our modern
key relationship and modulation has grown.
This change was greatly forwarded by the influence
of two of Willaert's pupils, Nicolo Vincentino and
Cipriano de Rore, and by still another pupil, Giu-
seffo Zarlino, a renowned theorist.
Other distinguished Venetian organists and harp-
sichordists of the sixteenth century were Claudio
Merulo di Correggio, Annibale Padovano, Andrea
Gabrieli and Giovanni Gabrieli, most of them
pupils of Willaert, and all partakers of his ideas.
They wrote toccatas, full of lively passages and
arpeggios, calculated especially with reference to
the evanescent tones of the harpsichord as con-
trasted with the continuous sound of the organ ;
Canzoni, in a more lyric style ; and Sonatas, in free
counterpoint.
The change to the monophonic style was a very
gradual one. One of the most important agencies
in effecting it, as already pointed out in a former
chapter, was the invention of opera at Florence in
the last half of the sixteenth century. For the first
time solo singers were provided with recitatives and
arias, to which was added a simple accompaniment
for the harpsichord.
It soon became customary to write only a bass
part for the harpsichordist or organist, the harmony
being indicated by means of figures over the notes.
But the player was commonly expected not simply
to play the chords indicated by the figures, but to
THE EPOCH OF POLYPHONIC MUSIC,
213
invent an accompaniment in imitative counter-
point, and this remained the custom for more than a
hundred years. The ability to do this was regarded
as one of the greatest tests of musicianship.
But there was more or less of free accompaniment
in simple harmony, and the transfer of the recita-
tives and airs to the instrument, with the accom-
paniment, gradually familiarized players with the idea
of a monophonic instrumental style.
Still, the very ease and simplicity of it was in
some sense a hindrance to its adoption. Musicians
prided themselves on their ability to overcome the
difficulties of elaborate counterpoint, and he who
could most easily master its intricate mysteries was
accounted of the highest rank in his profession.
The highest tests of excellence were intellectual
ones ; music had not yet come to be considered
primarily in its relation to emotion.
The ability required of players was the ability to
play a complex web of voice-parts interwoven
according to the rules of counterpoint, and, on occa-
sion, to invent counterpoint to a given figured bass.
Among the most renowned players and composers
of this period ought to be mentioned Girolamo
Frescobaldi (1588-1645 ?), said to have been an
original genius, and to have written with especial
reference to the capacities of the harpsichord as
distinguished from the organ. He was organist at
St. Peter's in Rome all the latter part of his life.
His pupil, Johann Jacob Froberger (1635-1695),
court organist to the Emperor Ferdinand, was the
CHAP. XIV.
Improvisa-
tion oj'
counter-
point.
Musician-
ship
demanded
of players.
Frescobaldi
214
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XIV.
Pasquini
1^37-1710.
The
English
composers.
French
composers.
Raineau
most celebrated German player of the last half of
the seventeenth century. Bernardo Pasquini (1637-
1710), organist at St. Mary's in Rome, occupied a
similar high rank.
In England tkere was a school of distinguished
players and contrapuntists. Thomas Tallis was
organist to Queen Elizabeth in 1575, and so was his
pupil, William Bird (1538-1623). Other distin-
guished names are those of Dr. Bull (died 1622),
Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), and especially Henry
Purcell (1658-1695).
Specimens of their works are given in Weitzmann's
" Geschichte " and in Burney's " History of Music."
Some examples quoted by Burney from Dr. Bull are
full of remarkable difficulties in the shape of
passages in double thirds and sixths, some of which
seem almost impossible of execution.
In France the most distinguished players and
composers of this period were Jean Henry D' An-
glebert, court harpsichordist to Louis XIV, and
Frangois Couperin (1668-1733), a composer of much
greater importance. His pieces were polyphonic,
but the upper voice-part was often the predominant
melody, and all the voices were ornamented with
trills, mordents, appoggiaturas, etc.
Contemporary with Sebastian Bach were Louis
Marchand (1669-1732), a very distinguished player,
and Jean Phillippe Rameau (1683-1764), whose
work as a composer, though important, was much
less significant than his labors as a theorist. He
published a work on thoroughbass, i.e., the science
THE EPOCH OF POLYPHONIC MUSIC.
2I 5
of chords and the art of harmonic accompaniment
to a given voice, in which the old polyphonic stand-
point was forsaken, that of monophony, the style in
which one melody should be principal and the others
subord'nate was fairly occupied, and the ground
-was prepared for the development of lyric harpsi-
chord music and of the sonata, which took place in
the next generation.
In Germany, besides Froberger, already men-
tioned, the seventeenth century had many excellent
organists and harpsichordists, among the most dis-
tinguished of whom were Hans Leo Hasler(i564-
1612), born in Nuernberg, but court organist to the
Emperor Rudolph II, in Vienna, a composer of
very great merit ; Adam Gumpeltzhaimer, Mel-
chior Franck, Samuel Scheidt, in the first half of the
century; Johann Kaspar Kerl (died 1690), Johann
Pachelbel (1653-1706), George Muffat, Andreas
Werckmeister, Dietrich Buxtehude (died 1707), and
Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau, Haendel's teacher, in the
latter half.
FROBERGER (1635-1695) deserves more extended
mention, both on account of his prominence and
because of his romantic adventures. He was the
son of a cantor in Halle, and, showing great talent,
was taken to Vienna by the Swedish ambassador,
who had heard him play, and introduced to the
Emperor Ferdinand III.
The Emperor became his patron, and sent him to
Rome to study with Frescobaldi. After three years,
having finished his studies, he went to Paris and
CHAP. XIV.
German
composers
of the
Seven-
teenth cen-
tury.
Froberger,
1(335-1695.
2l6
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XIV.
Becomes
bellows
blower in
St. Paul's,
London,
Becomes
known by
accident.
Dresden, and then, returning to Vienna, became
court organist. In 1662 he received permission to
visit London. He was robbed on his way through
France, and, barely escaping with life, reached
Calais in rags. He managed to take passage to
London, but when near the English coast, the ship
was taken by pirates, and he jumped overboard and
swam ashore to avoid captivity or worse. Taking
refuge in some fishermen's huts, they furnished him
with one of their old suits, and in this guise he
begged his way to London.
There he entered St. Paul's, during service, to
give thanks for his deliverance. At the close of the
service he was accosted somewhat roughly by the
organist, who learning that he was hungry and pen-
niless, and knowing nothing of his character as a
musician, offered , him the job of blowing the
bellows. This Froberger accepted in his need, said
nothing of his profession, and continued in his hum-
ble office until the marriage of Charles II with
Catherine of Portugal. On this occasion he was so
absent-minded as to let the wind out of the bellows,
and the playing came to an abrupt and mortifying
close in an important part of the solemnities. The
organist flew at him furiously, bestowed on him
some kicks and cuffs and rushed away. A lucky
inspiration came to Froberger. He filled the
bellows quickly, ran to the organist's bench and
began to play in a style which was at once recog-
nized by a court lady who had formerly been in
Vienna. He was speedily sent for, told his strange
THE EPOCH OF THE SONATA.
217
story, played before the King and his court, was
received with great favor and richly rewarded.
After a while he took his departure for Vienna,
but his long absence had given offence and this had
been aggravated by some slanders so that he was
not even admitted to the presence of the Emperor.
Mortified and indignant, he sent in his resignation
and withdrew to Mayence, where he passed the
remainder of his days in opulence, but in ill-humor
with^himself and with all the world.
These names bring us to the period of Sebastian
Bach, and with him to the climax of polyphonic
composition for the harpsichord. But the seeds of
the free lyric, monophonic style had long been sown,
and, as we have seen, sprung up into luxuriant
growth in the next generation.
Even during Sebastian Bach's lifetime, signs of
the approaching change were not wanting. Johann
Kuhnau (1667-1722), Bach's immediate predecessor
in the Cantorship of the St. Thomas School in
Leipzig, did much toward laying the foundations
on which Emanuel Bach built. He wrote sonatas
in from three to eight movements, and strove toward
a lyric style and in the .direction- of freeing the harp-
sichord from the shackles of counterpoint.
B. THE EPOCH OF THE SONATA.
The Vienna of Mozart and Beethoven contained
a group of distinguished players and composers ;
the Abbe Vogler, Sterkel, Wanhal, Gelinek, Pleyel,
CHAP. XIV.
Returns to
Vienna.
Kuhna't,
Viennese
players.
2l8
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XIV.
Hutnmel,
1778-1837.
Czerny,
1791-1857.
The
Phil-
istines.
Cramer,
1771-1858
Klengel,
1783-1852.
Wolfl, Steibelt and Dussek. Their works are now
obsolete, only one or two pieces of Dussek being-
still current.
J. N. HUMMEL (1778-1837), a pupil of Mozart,
was, in his day, considered the rival of Beethoven.
He was an accomplished musician, a player of the
first rank, a prolific composer, and a successful
teacher. His works are now rapidly passing into
oblivion. 4
CARL CZERNY (1791-1857) was another Viennese
celebrity ; a player of high rank, a teacher of great
reputation and a prolific composer of studies and
pieces, mostly intended for teaching purposes.
His studies, for the most part, amplified and em-
phasized technical points to be met with in de-
menti. The content of his pieces is never impor-
tant. None of them go beyond the merely melodi-
ous and pleasing. In this he is fully in accord with
the Parisian pianists, his contemporaries, Kalkbren-
ner, Herz, Bertiai, Huenten, et id omne genus, the
" Philistines " against whom the Romanticists waged
merciless war.
Some of dementi's pupils deserved and received
much greater consideration.
J. B. CRAMER (1771-1858) lived in England, was
an excellent pianist and musician, and composed a
great deal of music, none of which is now current
except his famous studies.
LUDWIG BERGER (1777-1839) was Mendelssohn's
teacher; and also wrote some valuable studies.
A. A. KLENGEL (1783-1852) was a renowned
THE EPOCH OF THE SONATA,
219
pianist and organist and cultivated mainly the poly-
phonic style of writing. His forty-eight canons and
the same number of fugues are very learned produc-
tions.
Last, but not least, among dementi's pupils,
comes JOHN FIELD (1782-1837), who fairly ushered
in the Romantic era by inventing the Nocturne, a
lyric composition of a distinctly sentimental charac-
ter, intended to express the various phases of feel-
ing appropriate to the night time. They served as
models for Chopin's compositions of the same name
and, although the Chopin nocturnes are vastly more
significant than Field's, the resemblance was so
apparent that Chopin was thought by many to have
been a pupil of Field.
These nocturnes were a really original invention.
In these, for the first time, the lyric sentimental ele-
ment was entirely freed from all considerations of
classical Form. There was no preconceived, elab-
orate plan ; the form is the simplest possible group-
ing of single periods, is reduced to its lowest terms
and to an entirely subordinate position ; the senti-
ment is first and the form second. They are the
fore-runners of the Songs without Words, the Bal-
lades, Impromptus, Fantasias, in short, of the whole
family of lyric pieces which began to come into
vogue about the year 1830.
Field was an Irishman, born jn Dublin. After
studying some time with Clementi, he went with
him to Russia in 1804 and spent most of the remain-
der of his life there. He wrote sonatas, concertos,
CHAP. XIV.
Field,
1782-183?.
220
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XIV.
Moscheles,
2794-187
Asa
flayer.
His
composi-
tions.
and other pieces, and was one of the best pianists of
his time.
One of the most prominent figures of this time
was IGNAZ MOSCHELES *(i794-i87o). He was born
in Prague of Hebrew parents, early made the ac-
quaintance of nearly all the best music then pub-
lished, distinguished himself as virtuoso, artist and
composer, played and taught a long time in Lon-
don, became very intimate with Mendelssohn, with
whom he was associated in the Leipzig conservatory,
and continued his connection with that school until
his death.
As a player, Moscheles was celebrated for his bold
and brilliant style, for the power and variety of his
touch, and for his octave playing. Curiously
enough, he executed octave passages with a stiff
wrist.
As a composer he was very prolific, wrote seven
great concertos, highly thought of and effective in
their day, but now superseded ; several sonatas,
three sets of highly esteemed studies and a large
number of parlor pieces which retained their popu-
larity for a long time.
Moscheles outlived by many years the three great
Romantic composers. He was well acquainted with
their works, knew them all personally, and was inti-
mately associated with two of them.
Of course his own work as a composer could not
*See" Recent Music and Musicians,'' by Moscheles (Henry Holt & Co.,
N. Y.), for an account of his own life and works. It is also a somewhat
gossipy and very interesting record of his intercourse with the famous mu-
sicians of the first half of this century.
CONTEMPORARIES OF THE ROMANTICISTS.
221
help being affected by the Romantic ideals, but he,
nevertheless, remained an essentially classical com-
poser and player in his tastes and tendencies.
He was a teacher of great reputation, and formed
many players, who attained distinction.
C. THE CONTEMPORARIES OF THE ROMANTICISTS
AND THEIR SUCCESSORS TO THE PRESENT.
It will be remembered that all the Romanticists,
including Liszt, were born in the years 1809-11.
About the same time were born a number of dis-
tinguished musicians, of a lower rank than the first,
but still of no small merit.
Prominent among these is ADOLPH HENSELT (born
1814), a distinguished virtuoso, a thorough musician
and a composer of marked ability. Although his
compositions, so far as known to the present writer,
involve no technical principles not announced and
exemplified by others, yet his Etudes, op. 2 and op.
5, for example, which are among the best known of
his works, emphasized certain effects in a way that
stamps his style with marked individuality. These
effects are especially the delivery of a melody legato
with an accompaniment of chords to be played by
the same hand, the chords being often at such a
distance from the notes of the melody as makes the
proper execution of these passages very difficult.
He also sets a similar task for both hands simultane-
ously. In some of these etudes the left hand has a
series of widely extended chords, the upper notes of
CHAP. XIV.
Henselt,
1814.
222
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XIV.
Hitter,
1811.
Heller ,
Other
good c
posers.
which constitute the principal melody, while the
right hand has a figured accompaniment. His
master- work is his great concerto in F minor, op. 16.
Henselt has been settled in St. Petersburg since
about 1837, occupied mainly in teaching.
Another conspicuous figure in this generation of
musicians was Ferdinand Hiller, born 1811, at
Frankfort-on-the-Main. Like Moscheles and Men-
delssohn, he was of Jewish parentage. He was a
pupil of Hummel, and occupies somewhat the same
position with reference to the Romanticists that
Hummel did' to Beethoven, Schubert and Weber.
He is a consummate musician, a respected com-
poser, without much genius, a fine player of the
classical school and an able conductor. He has
been for many years director of the conservatory at
Cologne.
STEPHEN HELLER (born 1815) is a sort of miniature
Chopin. He has written nothing great, but much
that is refined, elegant, and within certain limits ex-
pressive. He is best known by his excellent studies
in phrasing and interpretation, op. 16, 45, 46 and
47. He has been for many years a teacher in
Paris.
Other good composers or players or both of this
generation were Th. Kullak. A. Dreyschock, Ernst
Haberbier, Robert Volkman, W. Sterndale Bennett,
Niels W. Gade, Louis Kcehler, Leopold de Meyer,
Fritz Spindler, Henry Litolff, Charles Halle, Wm.
Taubert, Albert Loeschorn, Carl Eckert, H. Dorn
and C, F. Weitzmann, the distinguished Berlin com-
CONTEMPORARIES OF THE ROMANTICISTS.
poser, teacher, theorist and critic of Berlin, author
of the History of Pianoforte Music (Geschichte des
Clavierspiels und der Clavierliteratur) heretofore
cited.
To a somewhat later generation belong Joachim
Raff, Wm. Speidel, Ch. Lysberg, Th. Kirchner, Otto
Dresel, Auguste Dupont, Otto Goldschmidt, Rich
Hoffmann, Solomon Jadassohn, Louis Ehlert, Louis
M. Gottschalk, H. A. Wollenhaupt, Waldemar Bar-
giel, Dionys Prueckner, Hans von Buelow, the two
brothers Anton and Nicolaus Rubinstein, Th.
Leschetizky, Ernst Pauer and Carl Reinecke.
Want of space forbids more than the mere men-
tion of the names of most of these men. Brief
notices of them may be found in Mathews' " Dic-
tionary of Music and Musicians " (Part IX of " How
to Understand Music"), and more extended ac-
counts in Grove's Dictionary.
But at least four of them are too important or too
interesting to American readers to be passed over
thus lightly. These are Raff, A. Rubinstein, von
Buelow and Gottschalk.
JOACHIM RAFF was born at Lachen in Switzer-
land, in 1822. His youth and early manhood were
one long struggle with poverty, by which his educa-
tion, both musical and collegiate, was greatly
hindered. But he had great energy and persistence
and a natural tendency to music. He supported
himself by teaching and afterward by composing
numerous parlor pieces for the piano. He grad-
ually made himself a fine player and musician, and
",u>. riv.
Write*.
bo* . si*
1820.
Raff, 1822.
224
HISTORY' OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XIV.
His rank
as
composer.
Rubinstein,
182Q.
became a great master of orchestral composition.
He was befriended by Liszt after the usual generous
fashion of that master, and received from him
encouragement and influential aid as well as valuable
criticism.
Raff ranks as one of the first of living composers,
and has written a large number of important works,
including ten great symphonies, operas, cantatas,
chamber music, concertos for different instruments
with orchestra, songs, pianoforte pieces, etc. The
latter are less important than most of his other
works, many of them having been written down to
the popular demand out of the mere necessity of
making a living. They are excellent parlor pieces,
however, and some of his pianoforte pieces are
wholly worthy of so melodious and learned a writer.
Among them there is perhaps nothing better than
his pianoforte concerto, which is as fresh as it is
learned and skilfully written.
Raff has been director of the Conservatory at
Frankfort-on-the-Main since 1877.
ANTON GREGOR RUBINSTEIN was born in Russia,
of Jewish parents, in 1829. He showed remarkable
musical gifts in early childhood, studied the piano-
forte in Moscow, and made his first concert tour at
the age of ten years. During this tour he went to
Paris, where he spent some time with Liszt. The
next year he went to London and also played on
the continent.
In 1845 he studied composition in Berlin, taught
a couple of years in Pressburg and Vienna, and
CONTEMPORARIES OF THE ROMANTICISTS.
225
then returned to St. Petersburg, where he devoted
himself to study until 1856. From that time he has
been considered one of the world's greatest artists.
His countrymen have heaped honors upon him, and i
he has rendered great services in return.
He founded the Conservatory at St. Petersburg in
1862, and was director of it for five years. Since
th 211 he has made many concert tours and has
devoted much of his time to composition.
His American tour in (1872-3), gave us oppor-
tunity to admire his wonderful technic, the power
and delicacy of his touch, the refinement, grace,
fire, force and imagination of his playing. In most
of these qualities he has never been surpassed,
unless, perhaps, by Liszt.
As an interpreter 'of the masters, Rubinstein is
somewhat erratic, seeming to treat the piece in hand
as if it was an improvisation and often paying small
respect to the composer's intention. His interpre-
tations also vary with his moods.
He has been a prolific composer of piano music,
songs, chamber music, etc., has written five sym-
phonies and a number of operas and oratorios. Of
all these his " Ocean " symphony holds thus far the
highest acknowledged rank, and next to that his
chamber music. His pianoforte music is almost all
brilliant and effective and some of it is genuinely
poetic. Its permanent worth is yet to be deter-
mined.
HANS GUIDO VON BUELOW was born in Dresden
in 1830. His musical gifts did not appear 'until
p
CHAP. XIV
His
A merican
concert
tour.
His
composi-
tion.
Von
Buelow.
1830.
226
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XIV.
Becomes a
musician.
Marriage
and
after a dangerous attack of brain fever, in his ninth
year. He was then placed under the instruction of
that most original and excellent teacher, Fr. Wieck.
He afterwards studied the pianoforte with Litolff,
and theory with M. K. Eberwein and Moritz Haupt-
mann. His parents were unwilling that he should
become a professional musician, and sent him to
Leipzig in 1848 to study jurisprudence at the uni-
versity. The next year he was at the Berlin Univer-
sity, interested in politics, writing democratic articles,
and musical papers defending the writings of Liszt
and Wagner.
In 1850 he finally broke with the law and went to
Zuerich to have the advantage of Wagner's advice
and counsel. The next year he went to Weimar to
continue his pianoforte studies with Liszt, and two
years later he made his first concert tour.
From 1855 to 1864 he was the leading pianoforte
teacher in Stern's Conservatory at Berlin. In the
latter year he went to Munich as conductor of the
Royal Opera and director of the Conservatory of
Music. His intimacy with Liszt and Wagner con-
tinued, and he spent part of 1866-7 w ^h Wagner at
Lucerne.
This friendship had a tragic ending. Von Buelow
had married in 1857, Cosima, a natural daughter of
Liszt by the Countess of Agoult, with whom Liszt
had lived on the same terms that Chopin lived with
Mme. George Sand. Mme. von Buelow seems to have
inherited her parents' disregard of the obligations of
the marriage tie. At any rate, after living with her
SUCCESSORS OF THE ROMANTICISTS.
227
husband some twelve years and bearing him five
children, it occurred to her that she preferred
Richard Wagner to him, and she forthwith went to
live with the elder musician, taking her children with
her, and with him she continued until his death.
Von Buelow procured a divorce, left Munich, and
has since spent his time largely in concert tours in
Europe and America. It has been repeatedly said
that he was insane, an exaggeration probably
occasioned by his numerous eccentricities and by
the nervous excitement due to his domestic misfor-
tunes and his overwork.
He has always been an indefatigable worker in
numerous fields. His compositions are not widely
known and have made little impression on the world
at large. But he is an excellent conductor, a pro-
found and accurate scholar, one of the best of
editors of ancient and modern classics, and a pianist
of the highest rank.
He has a remarkable memory, conducts a large
repertoire of symphonies and operas, including the
most intricate and difficult ones of Wagner, without
a score; and plays nearly the whole range of piano-
forte music from the most ancient times to the
present from memory. No wonder if he were
insane!
As a player, his technic is beyond criticism and
his interpretations characterized by a consummate
intelligence which includes the minutest details in
all their relations. The care with which all the
ideas are discriminated, each receiving its due
CHAP. XIV
Peculiari-
ties.
A ttain-
ments.
Asa
playen -
228
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XIV.
Gottschalk^
Com-
positions,
Playing*
proportion of emphasis, is a revelation to most
players.
Withal, he is not a -cold player, as some think,
although he lacks the passionate abandon and head-
long rush of Rubinstein. There is warmth and
passion enough, but they are always controlled by
intelligence. His concert tour in this country, made
in 1874-5, two years after Rubinstein's, was very
successful, and contributed much to the increase of
musical appreciation and intelligence.
Louis MOREAU GOTTSCHALK, the first American
pianist, who became known all over the country by
his concert tours, was born in New Orleans in 1829.
He was of Creole blood.
In 1841 he went to Paris, studied with Charles
Halle and with Chopin, became a pianist of very
high rank, made concert tours on the continent and
returned to America in 1853. The rest of his life
was spent in concert tours in North and South
America. He died in Rio Janeiro in 1869.
He had marked originality as player and com-
poser, but his compositions are not likely to be per-
manent. They are facile, fluent, and characteristic,
but the feeling in them is shallow, often artificial
and exaggerated, and may properly be characterized
as sentimentality rather than sentiment.
His programmes were largely made up of them
to the exclusion of better things, but he was among the
first to give the American public ideas of fine touch,
delicacy, power and consummate ease and mastery
in performance as well as of expression, within his
SCCCESSOKS OF THE ROMANTICISTS.
229
somewhat narrow range, and so he contributed
much toward laying the foundations of musical
appreciation' and cultivation in this country.
Of composers born since 1830, Johannes Brahms
(born 1833) heads the list, followed by Camille St.
Saens (1835), Adolf Jensen (1837-79), Josef Rhein-
berger (1839), Peter T^chaikowsky (1840), Louis
Brassin (1840) and his brother Leopold, Edward
Grieg (1843), Phillip Scharwenka (1847), his brother
Xaver Scharwenka (1850), and Moritz Moszkowski
(1853)-
It is still too early to determine the permanent
rank of these men, even of Brahms, who is the best
known and is one of the greatest of living musi-
cians.
He was ushered into the musical world by Schu-
mann as a young man of the greatest promise. This
promise he has at least fulfilled in large measure
His two symphonies have great merits, both of com-
position and invention, and so have his songs,
chamber-music and pianoforte-music.
His concertos are of the most difficult, combining
all the technical difficulties yet invented, and show-
ing deep marks of the influence of Schumann and
hardly less of that of Liszt.
ST. SAENS is an organist and pianist of great
eminence in Paris. His orchestral pieces the
" Danse Macabre " and " Phaeton " are well known
in this country and are among the cleverest pieces
of programme music ever written. The latter,
especially, so vividly reproduces the impressions
CHAP. XIV
Composers
since 1830.
Brahms^
1833.
St Saens,
1835.
2 3
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAH. XIV.
Jensen^
I837-J873.
Rlicin-
berger^
183Q.
Brassin^
184.0.
Tschai-
koivsky y
1840.
Grieg,
1843.
Schar-
luenkas,
1847.
Mosz-
kowski
I853-
made on the feelings by the successive events of the
well-known myth that the story can be followed in
the music without the least difficulty.
JENSEN is best known in this country by his
Etudes, op. 32.
RHEINBERGER is a teacher and conductor in
Munich, and has written important works in many
departments.
Louis BRASSIN and his brother Leopold are
Belgians, and both are composers of marked ability.
TSCHAIKOWSKY is teacher of composition in the
Moscow Conservatory, and has shown great ability
in different departments of composition. His
pianoforte music includes a concerto, and is coming
into constantly increasing prominence among
pianists.
GRIEG is a Norwegian composer of marked origin-
ality. His sonatas and other forms involving sus-
tained thinking and thematic development are frag-
mentary and weak, notwithstanding detached
beauties. His strength lies in his short character-
istic pieces for the pianoforte, marked by the pecu-
liar coloring of the Scandinavian folk-music.
The two Scharwenkas are prominent teachers and
composers in Berlin. The pianoforte music of both
is highly esteemed and its reputation is increasing.
MOSZKOWSKI has perhaps greater genius than any
of the younger generation. He lives in Berlin. His
pianoforte pieces are rapidly making their way
wherever music is known.
To these names must be added that of Giovanni
THE SUCCESSORS OF THE ROMANTICISTS.
231
Sgambati, an Italian pianist and composer whose
work marks an era in the history of pianoforte music
injtaly. He was born in Rome in 1843. His
mother was an English woman, which may account,
in part, for the peculiar turn of his genius.
It may almost be said that there has been no
great Italian pianist since the days of Scarlatti ;
for Clementi, although an Italian by birth and blood,
was an Englishman in his education. Up to a very
recent period, Italian music, since the rise of Italian
opera, has been almost exclusively in that field ; a
field, too, long since thoroughly discredited in the
rest of Europe by the increasing predominance of
the intellectual over the sensuous element.
The musical pre-eminence long enjoyed by the
Netherlanders and afterward by the Italians was
transferred to Germany not long after the death of
Palestrina ; and there it has remained ever since.
But -of late years there has been a marvelous in-
tellectual awakening in Italy. Verdi, pre-eminent
in the purely pleasing and effective style of Italian
opera, produced, at an age when most composers are
past learning from their opponents, his " Aida" and
his Manzoni Requiem, two great works which show
him to have been powerfully affected by the theories
and practice of Wagner.
SGAMBATI, as pianist and composer, belongs as
completely to the new school of romanticism as
Brahms, the friend and disciple of Schumann. He
is the one Italian pianist and composer who now
enjoys a high reputation all over Europe. Before
CHAP. XIV.
Sgambati^
1843.
Deadness
of music it
Ita
Italy.
Its
revival.
tendencies.
232
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XIV.
Comfy
sition.
Lady
pianists.
Mme.
Essipoff^
he was twenty he had become famous for his playing
of Bach, Haendel, Beethoven, Chopin and Schu-
mann. When Liszt went to Rome, about this time,
Sgambati availed himself to the full of the great
master's friendly advice and criticism, and became
not only a great pianist, but an excellent musician,
conductor and composer. He was the first to give
orchestral performances in Rome of the works of
the great German masters.
He has written some important orchestral wotks
and chamber music, as well as pianoforte pieces and
a concerto. This last displays most of the technical
difficulties peculiar to the Romantic writers, and
shows very remarkably the influence of Schumann.
It has high intellectual qualities and no small emo-
tional significance.
Besides these there are hundreds of meritorious
composers whose names can not be mentioned here,
for lack of space.
Of the multitudes of living pianists of note only a
few can be spoken of here. To give first place to
the ladies : there are Marie Krebs, Madeline Schiller,
Anna Mehlig and Sophie Menter, besides two in
whom Americans are especially interested. Annette
Essipoff and Mme. Julia Rive-King, the former
from her American tour in 1875, and the latter be-
cause she is an American by birth. Both are
pianists and interpretative artists of very high rank.
Mme. ESSIPOFF is a Russian, born in 1853. She
studied in St. Petersburg with Leschetizky, now her
husband. Her playing is characterized by grace,
LIVING PIANISTS.
233
delicacy, refinement and especially by the beautiful
" coloring " she produces by her exquisite touch.
She excels as an interpreter of Chopin.
Mme. RIVE-KING was born in Cincinnati, in 1853.
Her father was a portrait painter and her mother an
able teacher of the voice and the pianoforte. She
showed talent very early, went to New York and
studied with the well-known teacher and composer
S. B. Mills, and then spent some time with Liszt in
Weimar.
Since her return in 1875 she has played numerous
programmes of the highest order, all over the United
States and Canada, from Boston to San Francisco,
and has earned a reputation of which Americans are
proud. Her repertory includes the best of all
schools, from Bach to Liszt and the younger com-
posers since, and she is an admirable interpreter of
the greatest works for the pianoforte. She has also
composed graceful and pleasing pieces.
In 1877 she was married to Frank H. King, her
manager, and now lives in New York.
Of male pianists known in this country must be
mentioned Franz Rummel, Con-stantine Sternberg,
Rafael Joseffy and Wm. H. Sherwood. The two
former are both pianists of high reputation.
JOSEFFY is one of the greatest of living virtuosi.
He is a Hungarian, born in 1852, and was a pupil
of Moscheles and Tausig. His technic is unsur-
passed. As an interpreter he excels in such works
as require exquisite delicacy, refinement and finish,
being much less successful in those which demand
10*
CHAP. XIV.
Mme.
Riv<t-
1853.
Male
pianists
234
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAP. XIV.
Sherwood,
1854.
breadth, power, depth and nobility of style, He has
been in this country since 1879, and has become
well known.
WM. H. SHERWOOD was born in Lyons, N. Y., in
1854, and was the son of a music teacher. His tal-
ent developed early, and he went to Berlin in 1871
to study with Kullak, and afterward spent some
time with Liszt.
After four years spent in Europe he returned to
America and has since played in many of the cities
of the United States, everywhere winning the repu-
tation of a pianist and interpretative artist of the first
rank. His technic is equal to all possible demands,
and he interprets the greatest as well as the most
delicate and refined compositions of all schools with
the true insight of a born artist. His rendering of
the Schumann " Etudes Symphoniques," the great
Sonata, op. in, and the E flat concerto of Beetho-
ven, and the Bach Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue,
are among the most satisfactory performances it has
ever been the good fortune of the present writer to
hear.
Mr. Sherwood has also composed several pieces
of much promise.
CONCLUSION.
Our survey is now complete. We have passed in
review all the important composers of pianoforte
music, have analyzed their work, classified them
according to the principles which governed their
creative activity, and traced the development of those
principles to their results in the different epochs.
The technical side of pianoforte playing has been
similarly treated, and composers below the first or
epoch-making rank have received as much attention
as the limits of the book would permit.
In the light of this discussion we may perceive
that the time in which we live belongs to the Ro-
mantic epoch. The three great romanticists died
early, but their great colleague, Liszt, still lives, and
it is but a few days since Richard Wagner, a greater
mind than any since Beethoven, and an extreme
Romanticist, was laid in his grave at Bayreuth.
Wagner, to be sure, was not a pianoforte composer,
but it can hardly be doubted that his indirect influ-
ence has had no small effect on all departments of
musical activity and especially production. That
influence is apparently on the increase, and so is
that of Schumann, the most intensely romantic of
pianoforte composers. The public is beginning to
understand both Schumann and Wagner, and the
235
CONCLU-
SION.
The
present
time
belongs to
the
Romantic
epoch.
236
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CONCLU-
SION.
Romantic
ideal now
pre-
dominant.
tide of interest in the Romantic composers seems to
be rising.
Moreover, all the rising young composers show
strongly the influence of Schumann, and all are per^
meated with Romantic ideas. The aim of all com-
posers of standing, nowadays, is to give worthy
expression to some phase of emotional experience.
Originality is shown, as in the case of Grieg, Svend-
sen and others, in seeking some peculiar manifesta-
tion of feeling, perhaps some national or provincial
type, and giving it adequate musical embodiment.
The intelligence of composers is directed, not, as in
the classical epoch, to the invention of new and
more elaborate forms, or to the development of
existing forms to their logical limits, but to the more
complete and subtle comprehension of the relation
of music to feeling. Their productive work is the
embodiment of the results of this increase of intelli-
gence. There are, indeed, composers who lay great
stress on the intellectual side of music as represented
in Form ; who write sonatas, symphonies, fugues ;
there are even attempts to revive the suite and the
ancient dance forms. There are those, too, who
emphasize the sensuous at the expense of the intel-
tectual and emotional elements of music. But, on
the whole, the Romantic ideal is dominant and its
influence seems to be on the increase.
But are there tendencies discernible which are
likely to produce a new revolution in pianoforte
music ? Is there some new ideal, conceived or con-
CONCLUSION.
237
ceivable, which may supplant that of the Romantic
epoch as that supplanted those which preceded it ?
So far as now appears, the last question must be
answered in the negative. There are only three
possible kinds of ideals in music : (i) those which
relate to sensuous gratification, (2) those which give
intellectual satisfaction, and (3) those which relate
to the expression of feeling. We have already seen
that the third is now dominant, and is in process of
fulfillment. The second once held exclusive sway,
but is now merged and absorbed in the third. The
romanticists were not less but more intellectual than
the classicists, but their intelligence was held subor-
dinate to the new ideal, which they regarded as
supreme. So the ideal of the Pleasing in Sensation,
once supreme, has become subordinate to the intel-
lectual and emotional elements. But at the same
time, the means of sensuous gratification have been
immensely enlarged, in connection with the demands
of Form and expression. The resources of the
modern orchestra, as developed by Wagner, Berlioz
and others are vastly greater than ever existed
before, and the harmonic and rhythmic additions to
the resources of pianoforte composers made by
Schumann and Chopin were very great.
The only progress which now seems possible is in
the more perfect and complete realization of the
three great ideals which have already been conceived
and in great measure realized. As regards piano-
forte music, the direction which improvement must
take seerns clear enough. The limitations of the
CONCLU-
SION.
Only thret
kinds of
musical
ideals pos-
sible.
How
j progress is
; now
possible.
23 8
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CONCLU-
SION.
Hoiv a new
instrument
may
supplant
the
fia noforte.
instrument are patent to everybody, as patent as
were the limitations of the harpsichord two centuries
ago. The pianoforte produces neither a sustained
tone nor an increase of power in any tone after a
string has been struck. These defects will doubt-
less be remedied, and we may look forward to a
keyed instrument which shall surpass and supplant
the pianoforte, as the pianoforte surpassed and sup-
planted the harpsichord and the clavichord. How.
this will be done and how long it will take we can
not say. There are those even now who are work-
ing on the problem.
It Js not at all improbable that Helmholtz's well-
known experiments on overtones by means of a
series of tuning-forks reinforced by resonators and
kept in vibration by means of electricity, may point
the way to the final solution. Perhaps the coming
instrument may employ tuning-forks instead of
strings, and may even give the player command at
will of all the varieties of tone-color producible by
the orchestra. Who knows ? At any rate, it seems
plain that in this direction we are to look for the
next great revolution in pianoforte music.
When the new instrument has been invented and
perfected ; when players and composers have be-
come thoroughly familiar with its peculiarities ;
when some great creative genius of the first rank
has devoted his powers to the production of music
calculated for the new effects, then the music of
Beethoven and Chopin and Schumann will be to
the music of that day what Bach's music is to our
CONCLUSION.
239
own time. We shall have learned editors " translat-
ing " the sonata appassionata and the etudes sym-
pho?iiques " from the language of the pianoforte into
that of its modern successor," as von Buelovv has
done with the Bach Chromatic Fantasia and other
harpsichord music.
But this is speculation, not history, and perhaps
even wild speculation. What our successors will see
it would be idle further to conjecture.
CONCLU-
SION.
ADDENDUM.
ADDENDUM.
Since this book was first published, a considerable
number of young pianists and composers have become
more or less known. It is, of course, not possible
to mention all the meritorious ones, even if they were
all known to the writer ; but some of them have
come to occupy so commanding a position that a
brief notice of them is essential to anything like
completeness. Some of them, indeed, as well as
older and better known ones, really required notice
in the first edition, the omission being due to the
writer's comparative unfamiliarity with their work.
Prominent among these must be named Dr. Louis
Maas, of Boston, a pianist and composer of rare
excellence. As an interpreter of great works of all
schools, ancient and modern, he is extremely satis-
factory. His playing is characterized by intelligence
of the highest order, by breadth and nobility of style,
by a vivid but chastened imagination and by a
completeness of repose which sometimes passes for
coldness with superficial or unsympathetic auditors.
He controls passion and is never controlled by it,
so that his performances have a remarkable evenness
of quality. Of several severe programmes which the
writer has heard him play no remembrance remains
of a single detail which one could wish to have other-
wise than exactly as it was. Dr. Maas was born in
ADDENDUM. 241
Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1852, but spent his youth
in London, whither his family removed. He was
a pupil of the Leipzig Conservatory from 1867 to
1871 and a teacher in the same institution from 1875
to 1880. Since the latter date he has been established
in Boston. He has written symphonies and cham-
ber music, besides music for his instrument, and
many of his works are highly spoken of. Most of
them the writer has had no opportunity to hear.
Other Boston pianists and composers who have
acquired reputation national in its extent are Arthur
Foote, Geo. W. Chadwick, B. J. Lang, Carlyle
Petersilea, Edw. B. Perry, Ernst Perabo, Carl C.
Baermann, Mrs. Anna Steiniger- Clark, and Carl
Faelten. The two former are known outside of
I
Boston mainly by their compositions. Both have
written pianoforte works, chamber and orchestral
music of no small degree of merit and have made
the American composer respected in Europe.
Mme. Teresa Carrefio is a concert-pianist of the
most brilliant type. As an interpreter of most
masters she is open to the charge of modifying the
composer's intention to suit her own fancy, changing
the embellishments, cadences and introductions of
Chopin's pieces, for example, in a way not to be
approved by a conscientious critic. But the tropical
fervor of her imagination, the fire, force and electric
brilliancy of her performances never fail to excite an
audience to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. Her
playing of Liszt and of other brilliant composers is
especially successful and effective. j
242 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
She was born in Venezuela in 1853, of a distin-
guished Spanish family. She showed her gifts in
early childhood, received her first lessons from her
father, and later studied with Gottschalk in New
York. Her home is now in the latter city, whence
she makes concert tours in both North and South
America.
Mr. Albert R. Parsons, of New York, is an excel-
lent pianist, but is known outside of that city mainly
through his translation of Wagner's essay on Beet-
hoven, his work as an editor of pianoforte music for
teaching purposes and his reputation as a teacher.
He belongs among the most thoughtful, able and
intelligent of American musicians.
Philadelphia is represented in the ranks of concert
pianists first and foremost by Mr. Charles H. Jarvis,
who first became known west of the Alleghanies by
his admirable recital at the Indianapolis meeting of
the Music Teachers' National Association in 1887.
His programme, beginning with the Beethoven Sonata
appassionata, included a wide range of style and
proved him an excellent interpretative artist. He
was born in Philadelphia in 1837 and, as pianist and
teacher, has done much to raise the standard of
musical intelligence in his native city.
Mr. W. W. Gilchrist, also of Philadelphia, has
written some of the best chamber music for piano
and strings yet produced in this country, besides
choral music. He was born in New Jersey, in 1846,
and has been long settled in Philadelphia as organist
and chorus director. Mr. Richard Zeckwer, Direc-
ADDENDUM. 243
tor of the Philadelphia Musical Academy, Anthony
Stankowitch and Mr. John F. Himmelsbach are
also excellent pianists.
Mr. Richard Burmeister and Mr. Alexander
Lambert are concert pianists of marked ability. The
former lives in Baltimore and the latter is director
of a Conservatory of Music in New York City. Mr.
Ad M. Foerster is a composer of meritorious piano-
forte and chamber music. His home is in Pittsburg,
Pa. Mr. Wilson G. Smith, of Cleveland, has
written a considerable number of graceful pianoforte
pieces.
Chicago possesses a number of concert pianists of
great merit. Mme. Fanny Bloomfield-Zeisler is an
artist of rare intelligence, and her playing is always
characterized by great fire, force and delicacy. She
was a pupil of Leschetizky. Miss Neally Stevens
studied several years under the best artists in Ger-
many, including Liszt, von Billow, Theo. Kullak,
Moszkowski and Xaver Scharwenka, and her play-
ing fully bears out the encomiums she received from
them. Miss Amy Fay is most widely known by her
very interesting book, "Music Study in Germany,"
in which she gives an account of her experience as
a pupil of Liszt, Tausig, Kullak, Deppe and others.
She gives "piano-conversations" in various parts of
the country. Mme. Eugenie de Roode Rice may
properly be mentioned among Chicago pianists,
although she has now removed to New York. She
is an excellent interpreter of widely varied styles.
Mr. Emil Liebling and Mr. Fred Boscovitz are the
244
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
leading male pianists of Chicago. They, with Silas
G. Pratt, have written a good deal of pianoforte
music.
Among the very best of the young generation of
American composers for the piano must be mentioned
E^A. McDowell, Arthur Bird, Edgar S. Kelley and
Johann H. Beck. All of them have produced excel-
lent works and give promise of still better. ,
QUESTIONS.
INTRODUCTION.
When, where, and by whom was the pianoforte invented ?
What instruments preceded it ?
Tell how the tones were produced in each of the three
instruments.
Why were the strings of the older instruments thin and light?
When did the pianoforte finally supplant them and come into
general use ?
CHAPTER I.
Define the terms "Melody," "Harmony," "Counterpoint,"
" Monophonic," " Polyphonic."
Describe the difference between Monophonic and Polyphonic
Music.
What device secures Unity in composition ?
What are the two principal kinds of strict imitation ?
Describe a Canon.
Give an outline of a fugue.
Describe free imitation.
Describe the " Suite."
CHAPTER II.
Name the three greatest composers of Polyphonic music.
Give Dates.
Give a brief account of the life and work of each, omitting
unimportant details.
(The author recommends that students try to remember, in
the biographies, only such leading points as these: Parentage,
245
2 4 6
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
early situation and surroundings, the same in youth, most power-
ful influences affecting character and development, leading per-
sonal traits, work accomplished.)
CHAPTER III.
Give examples of monophonic tendencies during ,the poly-
phonic period.
Describe the Sonata, as a whole.
What is meant by " Form " in music ?
Define the terms " Period," Section," " Phrase," " Motive/'
" Period Group."
How are these elements combined so as to produce a whole
characterized by Unity, Variety and Symmetry?
Give plan of " Sonata Form."
CHAPTER IV.
What three composers developed the Sonata form to its
logical limits ?
Give Dates.
Give brief accounts of each.
Give difference between the sonatas of D. Scarlatti and those
of C. P. E. Bach.
Recapitulate the essential characteristics of the modern Son-
ata.
How many of these were known before Emanuel Bach's
time ?
What did he do that had not been done before ?
What did Haydn and Mozart do that had not been done
before ?
CHAPTER V.
What is meant by " Content " in music ?
What can music express, and what can it not express ?
What do words express, and what can they suggest?
What can music do in the way of suggesting ideas or express-
ing them indirectly ?
Illustrate. What is a musical idea ?
What is musical thinking ?
QUESTIONS.
247
How many kinds of Beauty are there in music ?
How many kinds of activity are possible to the human mind ?
Give examples of simple and complex feelings.
Tell the difference between desires and affections.
Describe the relation of music to feeling.
What music ranks highest, and what lowest?
CHAPTER VI.
Give brief account of Beethoven's life and work.
Give an approximate list of his compositions, the most im-
portant.
What gives him his prominent rank as a composer?
CHAPTER VII.
In what senses is the term " classic " used ?
What is meant by the term " romantic " ?
Give the characteristic difference between the two styles of
music.
CHAPTER VIII.
Give brief accounts of the life and work of Weber and
Schubert.
In what sense is the work of each " romantic " ?
What are the marks of romanticism in Schubert's work ?
CHAPTER IX.
Who were the three greatest romantic composers for the
pianoforte ?
Give brief biography of each, with year of birth and death.
Compare their characters and works.
CHAPTER X.
Describe the technic of the first classical period, as regards
touch, sonority of instruments, demands on fingers and execu-
tion, embellishments, fingering, etc.
State the distinction between a " virtuoso," and an interpre-
tative artist.
2 4 8
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC.
CHAPTER XI.
What advances in Technic were made by E. Bach, Haydn
and Mozart ?
Give difference between Viennese and English pianofortes.
Give account of dementi's life and work.
CHAPTER XII.
Give account of growth of technic from Mozart to the Ro-
mantic writers.
Who developed the use of the pedal ?
CHAPTER XIII.
Give account of the technic of the romantic composers.
Of Liszt and his work.
Give summary.
Give work of Tausig and of Dr. Wm. Mason.
INDEX.
Affections, 66-7.
Agoult, Countess of, 226.
Aida, opera by Verdi, 231.
Albrechtsberger, relations to Bee-
thoven, 77-8.
Anglebert, J. H. d', 214.
Arpeggios peculiar to Chopin, their
fingering, 198, 206.
Artists, formerly dependent on the
patronage of nobles, 49, 53; con-
trasted with virtuosi, 185.
Bach, J. S. his life, 14-17; as a
composer and player, 17, 18; his
works and style, 17-19, 29, 30,
39, 41-46, 97.
Bach, C. P. E. his life, 38, 39; his
music and playing, 39-41; what
he did for the Sonata, 41-48.
Ballads, Chopin's, 153-4.
Bargiel, W., 223.
Beauty in music, 62, 71; Chopin's
love of, 156.
Bebung, the, 189.
Beethoven, his life 72-81, 85, 86,
92-94; compositions, 75, 89-92;
content and character of his mu-
sic, 80-82, 85-89, 93, 99-101.
Bennett, W. S. 222.
Berger, L. 218.
Bertini, 218,
Bird, Wm. 214.
Brahms, Johannes 229; influence
of Schumann on his technic, 199.
Brassin, Louis 229.
Leopold 230; technic shows
influence of Schumann, 199.
Buelow, Hans von, 223-227.
Bull, Dr., 2 14.
Burney's History of Music, 214.
Buxtehude, 215; visited by Bach,
IS-
Canon, 9, 10.
Canzoni, 212.
Chopin, his history, 134-152; 154-
156; his playing, 137, 138, 147-
149; compositions, 139-141, 143,
153-156.
Classic, the, in music, 57, 58; 95-
98; classic qualities in Mendels-
sohn, 132-3; persistence of
classical technic, 196.
Clavichord, the, 2-3; its technic,
184-5.
dementi, Muzio, 191-4.
Clinging touch, 197.
Complex feelings, 65.
Composition an intellectual process,
61.
Concertos, form of, 31; Bach's, 46;
Mozart's, 188, 190; Mendels-
sohn's, 129; Chopin's, 139-141,
153; Schumann's, 172-3; Bee-
thoven's, 193; Raff's, 224;
Brahm's, 229; Sgambati's, 232.
Concert Stueck, Weber's, 112.
Content of music, 59-71, 97, 98;
Beethoven's, 80-82, 86, 87, 93,
99; Haydn's 82-85, 991 Haen-
del's oratorios, 23, 24; of Bach's
Passion music, 24; of Mozart's,
57, 82-85, 99; of Chopin's, 154-
156; of Mendelssohn's, 131-134;
of Schumann's, 65-68, 175-8; of
Schubert's, 115-118; of Weber's,
IH-I2, 122; of Liszt's, 201-3.
Correggio, Claudio, Merulodi, 212
249
2 5
INDEX.
Counterpoint, 7-10; double, n.
Couperin, F., 214.
Cramer, J. B., 218.
Creation, oratorio by Haydn, 50-1.
Cristofori, invented pianoforte, I,
3-
Czerny, C., 2 1 8.
Daily Studies, Tausig's, 207.
Danse Macabre, by St. Saens,
229.
Danzi, conductor at Stuttgart,
106.
Der Freischuetz, Opera by Weber,
109, no.
Desires, 65.
Divisions of the Sonata Form, 34,
35, 42, 43-
Dorn, H , 222.
Dresel, Otto, 223.
Dreyschock, A., 222.
Dude.vant, Aurora (George Sand),
Dupont. A., 223.
Dussek, J. L., 218.
Ecclesiastical Keys, 211.
Eckert, C., 222.
Ehlert, L., 223.
Ehrlich, H., 217.
Elaboration in the Sonata-Form, 35,
Elijah, oratorio by Mendelssohn,
130.
Eisner, Chopin's teacher, 136, 145.
Emphasis, discriminative, impossi-
ble on harpsichord, 184; better
on clavichord, 184; developed to
its extreme limit by Liszt, 201-2;
Romantic school demands it es-
pecially, 206.
Erl-King, song by Schubert, 114,
117.
Ernestine von Fricken, friend of
Schumann, 169, 170.
Essipoff, Annette, 232-3.
Esterhazy, Prince, Haydn's patron,
49, 50; Mozart's, 49.
Ethical element in Beethoven, 87-
8, 99; lacking in Chopin, 155-6.
Eugene, Prince of Wuertemberg,
patron of Weber, 105.
Euryanthe, opera by Weber, 109,
no.
Exposition of a Fugue, 42 .
Fantasias of early composers, 211;
Mozart's in C minor, 118; Bach's
Chromatic Fantasia, 19.
Feelings, 63-7, 71.
Field, John, 219.
Fingering, 183-4; 196-8 (See
Technic).
Form, 31-6, 96; in Scarlatti's Son-
atas, 30, 41-46; in J. S. Bach's,
30, 46; in C. P. E. Bach's, 30, 44-
7; in Haendel's Suites, 46;
Haydn's Sonata-forms, 51-2,
82; Mozart's, 57, 58, 82, Bee-
thoven's, 82, 86, 87.
Franck, M., 215.
Frederick the Great, 16, 38, 39.
French Composers, 214.
Frescobaldi, 218.
Froberger, S., 13, 215-17.
Fugue, 10, n, 16, 39.
Gabrieli, Andrea, 212.
, Giovanni, 212.
Gade, N. W., 222.
Gaensbacher, friend of Weber,
104-5.
Gelinek, 217.
Gibbons, Orlando, 214.
Gladkowska, Constantia, relations
to Chopin, 139, 149.
Glissando, octaves, in Weber's
Concertstueck, 194.
Goldschmidt, O., 223.
Gottschalk, L. M., 228-29.
Gradus ad Parnassum, dementi's,
192-4.
Grieg, E., 230.
Gumpeltzhaimer, A., 215
Haberbier, E. 222.
INDEX,
251
Haendel, G. F., life and works,
1924; monophonic tendencies,
29, 30, 43, 44; form of the Suites,
46; his technic, 185.
Halle, Chas , 222, 228,
Harmony, 7.
Harpsichord, the, 2-4; its technic,
181-4.
Hasler, H. L, 215.
Haydn, F. J., biography, 47-52;
compared with Mozart, 57; con-
nection with Beethoven, 76, 77;
compositions, 5052, 825; his
technic, 188.
Heller, Stephen, 222.
Henselt, Adolph, 121-3.
Henschkel, J. P., 103.
Hiller, F., 222.
Hoffmann, R., 223.
Hummel, J. N., 218.
Huenten, 218.
Ideals in music, 62, 237.
Ideas in music, 61.
Images, how expressed, 54, 60.
Imitation, strict, 9, 10; free. II,
12.
Intellect, denned, 63.
Intellectual appreciation of music,
61, 67, 231.
" Invitation to Dance," 112, 122.
Italian music, 231.
opera, Haendel's, 21-3.
Jadassohn, S., 223.
Jensen, A., 229, 230.
Joseffy, R., 233-4.
Kalkbrenner, F., 144-5, 2I 8.
Kerl, J. K., 215.
King, F. H., 233.
Kirchner, T., 223.
Klengel, A. A., 218.
Koehler, L., 222.
Krebs, Marie, 232
Kreisleriana, 170.
Kulinau, J., 217.
Kullak, T., 222.
Lassus, Orlandus, 9.
Leschetizky, T., 223.
Liszt, sketch of, 199-205; works,
201-204; technic, 202, 204-5.
Liszt, Cosima, 226-7.
Litolff, H., 222.
Loeschorn, A., 222.
Ludwig, Duke of Stuttgart, 106.
Lysberg, C., 223.
Manzoni Requiem, by Verdi, 231.
Marchand, L. , 212.
Martini, Padre, 54.
Mason, Wm., 208.
Mathews, W. S. B., 71, 208.
Mazurkas, Chopin's, 153-4.
Mehlig, Anna, 232.
Melody, defined, 7; form of, 31.
Mendelssohn, life of, 125-130;
works, 126-131, 134; his technic,
197.
Menter, Sophie, 232.
Mental Activity, 63.
Monophonic Music, 78, 29, 31, 39-
40.
Moods, simple emotions, 65.
Morzin, Count, 48-9.
Moscheles, J., 218-19.
Moszkowski, 229, 230.
Motives, 33.
Mozart, life of, 52-57; as a com-
poser, 57-8; compared with Bee-
thoven, 74-5, 82; content of his
music, 835; his technic, 198
190.
Muffat, G., 215.
Music, suggests scenes, 60, 163,
165-6, 229; relation to emotion,
69.
" Oberon," by Weber, 109-110.
Operas, 21-3; 56, 92, 109, no,
212, 231.
Oratorios, 16, 22, 23, 50, 130.
Organ music for harpsichord, 181,
211; fugues of Bach, 16, 39.
Ornaments, necessity of, 182.
252
INDEX.
Pachelbel, J., 215.
Padovano, A. r 212.
Paganini, 201-2.
'Palestrina, 9.
Papillons, Schumann, 163, 165-6.
Partitas of Bach, 46.
Passion Music, Bach's, 16, 17,
24 ; revival by Mendelssohn,
127.
Pasquini, B., 214.
Pauer, E. 223.
Pedal, use of, 194.
Periods, defined, 32.
Period groups, 33.
"Perpetual Motion," Weber, 112.
Pfeiffer, Beethoven's teacher,
73-
"Phaeton," by St. Saens, 229.
Phrases, defined, 32.
"Philistines," 170-1, 218.
Pianoforte, construction, 3; tech-
nic, 218; powers, 237-38.
Pleyel, 217.
Polonaises, Chopin's, 153-5.
Polyphonic Music; 7-13.
Preludes, Chopin's, 152.
Programme Music, St. Saens, 229;
Berlioz, 201.
Prueckner, D., 223.
Purcell, Henry, 212.
Quartets, form of, 31.
Quintets, form of, 31.
Raff, Joachim, 223-4.
Rameau< J. P., 214.
Reinecke, C., 223.
Rhapsodies, Liszt's Hungarian,
20 1
Rheinberger, J , 229, 230.
Rhythms, of Schumann, 198-9.
Ricercari, 211.
Ries, Franz, Beethoven's violin
teacher, 78.
Rigoletto, Liszt's, 202-3.
Rive"-King, Mme. Julia, 223.
Ritter's History of Music, 21 1.
Romantic, ideal defined, 96, 99-
101; characteristics of Chopin,
136-37, 139-41, 152-56; of Men-
delssohn, 126-28, 131-4; of
Schumann, 159, 162, 165-70,
175-8; of Schubert, 116-19, I22 !
of Mozart, 118; of Bach, 19; of
Weber, 109-12, 122; of Liszt,
200-1; tendencies, 235-6.
Rondo in E flat, op. 62, Weber, 112.
Rore Cipriano di, 212.
Rubinstein, N., 223.
Rubinstein, Anton, 224-25.
Rummel, Franz, 223.
Sand, George, Mme., 150-1.
Scarlatti, A., 24.
Scarlatti, Domenico, 24, 25, 30,41-
44; his technic, 187.
Scharwenka, P., 229, 230.
X , 229, 230.
Scheidt, S , 215.
Scherzos, Chopin's, 153-4.
Schiller, Madeline, 232.
Schubert, Franz, life, 112-14;
works, 113-19.
Schumann, life, 156-174; music,
163-6, 168-9, X 7 2 ; compared
with Mendelssohn and Chopin,
175-8; his technic, 198-9; increas-
ing influence, 235.
Seasons, the, Haydn's, 50.
Sections, 32.
Sensibility, defined, 63.
Sgambati, 230-2, 199.
Sherwood, \V. H., 234.
Simple Emotions, 645.
Sonatas, Bach's, 30, 46; C. P. E
Bach's, 41-8; Scarlatti's, 30, 41-
4; Haydn's, 51-2, 82; Mozart's,
57-8, 82; Beethoven's, 82-8;
Kuhnau's, 217; of the i6th cen-
tury, 212.
Sonata-Form, 31, 35.
Speidel, Win., 223.
Spinet, 4.
INDEX
2 53
Spindler, F., 222.
Steibelt, D., 218, 89-90.
Sternberg, C., 233.
Sterkei, 217.
Stretto, in a fugue, 1 1.
" St. Paul," Mendelssohn's, 130.
St. Saens, C., 229, 230.
Stuttgart, in Weber's time, 106
Subjects, 35, 42-3.
Suites, 12, 45-6.
Symphony, form of, 31; Beetho-
ven's "Eroica," 86, 92, Ninth,
86, 93; Schubert's, in C, 115;
unfinished, in B, 115; Tragic,
114; Rubinstein's "Ocean, "225;
Brahms', 229; Sgambati's, 231;
Mendelssohn's 1289
Symmetry, 32.
Tallis, Thomas, 214.
Taubert, W., 222.
Tausig, Carl, 207.
Technic, of the first classical peri-
od, 181-7; J- S. Bach's, 184-5;
Haendel's, 185; Scarlatti's, 187;
of the second classical period,
188-192; Mozart's, 188-90; de-
menti's, 191-4; of the transition
period, 193; Beethoven, 193:
Schubert and Weber, 194; of the
Romanticists, 194-6, Mendels-
sohn's, 197 ; Chopin's, 197 ;
Schumann's, 198-9; Liszt's, 201-
2; minor, 205-8.
Thalberg, S., 194.
Toccatas, 212.
Transitions, 35.
Trio or Alternative (Form), 34.
Tschaikowsky, P.. 229, 230.
Two - finger exercise, Mason's,
208. -
Unity, 32-4.
Van den Eeden, 73.
Variety, 32.
Verdi, 231.
Vincentino, Nicolo, 212.
Virginals, 4.
Virtuoso vs. Artist, 181.
Vogler, Abbe, 104, 217.
Volkmann, R., 222.
Von Breuning family, 74.
Wagner, 226, 227, 235.
Waldstein, Count, 74.
" Wanderer," by Schubert, 114.
Wanhal, 217.
Weber, Carl Maria; life, 102-9; his
compositions, 10712. 122.
Weitzman, C. F., 222.
Werkmeister,A., 215.
Wieck, Fr., 162-4, 170-1, 226.
Wieck, Clara, 162-3, 169-70, 173.
Will, 63.
Willaert, A., 211.
Woelfl, 89-90, 218.
Wollenhaupt, H. A.. 223,
Wrist Action, 206-7.
Zachau, 215.
Zambona, 72.
Zarlino, C,, 212.
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