7
THE STORY
OF
MUSIC AND MUSICIANS
FOR
YOUNG READERS
BY
LUCY C. LILLIE
AUTHOR OP
" THE STORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE FROM CHAUCER TO COWPER "
"PRUDENCE" "MILDRED'S BARGAIN" "NAN" ETC.
fillustratrti
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Copyright, 1880, by HARPER & BROTHERS.
JANET EDMONDSON WALKER
JREMEMBRANCE OF MANY MUSICAL ASSOCIATIONS
Ai HOME AND ABROAD
2091425
PREFACE.
THE only necessity for a preface to this little book is to
explain that the work is not designed to take the place of
text- books, works on harmony or thorough-bass, or those
interesting lives of the great musicians which competent
writers have given to us. Its object is only to interest
young students in music in the technique of their art,
and in the associations amid which great masters have
worked. Only such rules of harmony are given as have a
direct bearing upon the subject or composition under dis-
cussion, and these I have presented, after comparing them
with standard authorities, in as simple a fashion as possi-
ble, relying upon any reader who is a thoughtful student
progressing to technical study under a scientific instructor.
Meanwhile some impetus and enthusiasm may be added,
from reading this simple story of an art which all nations
are in some fashion developing to-day, and which had its
origin in an age that gave a significance to the victor crown
of bay-leaves and laurel.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
The Piano-forte. — Its History. — Clavichord, Virginal, and Spinet. — Anec-
dote of Queen Elizabeth. — An Old Harpsichord. — Piano-forte playing
in the Time of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven Page 13
CHAPTER II.
Musical Standards Yesterday and To-day. — How to Enjoy the Story of
any Art. — A Harmony Class. — A Fascinating Story. — Early Nota-
tion.— A Musical Note-book 30
CHAPTER III.
How to Feel about Study.— First Steps.— The Key-board.— The Family
of Notes. — Staff. — Degrees. — Intervals. — How to Understand the First
Rules of Harmony. — Suggestions for Note-book 46
CHAPTER IV.
John Sebastian Bach. — His Early Childhood. — The Gavotte. — Its Origin.
— A Court Dance. — The Fugue. — Explanation of this Form of Com-
position.— Passion Music. — Anecdote of the Basques. — How Mendels-
sohn revived Bach's Passion Music 53
CHAPTER V.
Rhythm and Time. — Bach's Developments. — A Simple Explanation. —
Keys and their Families. — A Bach Fugue. — Minor Scales. — Modula-
viii Contents.
tions. — Accidentals. — A few Words about Signatures. — "Why Han-
del and his Contemporaries discarded the lowest Note of the Signa-
ture Page 69
CHAPTER VI.
George Frederick Handel. — An English Country-house. — A Young
Lady's Impressions of the great Composer in 1711. — "Tweedledum
andTweedledee." — "Rinaldo" and other Operas. — A Friendly Cote-
rie.— "The Harmonious Blacksmith." — "Mr. Handel" in Dublin. —
Mr. Dubourg. — The First Performance of the "Messiah." — Last Days.
— Definition and History of the Oratorio 79
CHAPTER VII.
The Story of the Opera. — Count Vernio and his Friends. — A Musical
Centre in Florence. — The First Opera. — Instruments used. — Allesan-
dro Scarlatti. — Stradella. — The Size of the Opera in England. — Henry
Purcell and the Westminster Boys. — An Old Picture. — Gluck and
Marie Antoinette. — Gluck's Boyhood. — Fashion and Art. — Gluck de-
termined to Reform the Spirit of the Opera. — Classical Music, and
how to Define it 94
CHAPTER VIII.
"Papa Haydn." — What came of a Frolic. — The Wig-maker's House-
hold.— The Wandering Minstrels. — "Whose Music is that?" — Sym-
phonies.— What they are. — Haydn's Last Hours 114
CHAPTER IX.
The Story of the Sonata. — Suites and Madrigals. — Corelli's Work. — Anec-
dote of Handel in Rome. — "C Major." — The Movements of the So-
nata Explained and Defined. — Old Dances and Dance Tunes. — What
the Minstrels and Soldiers of the Sixteenth Century Introduced. — Min-
uets. — Scherzos 124
CHAPTER X.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.— " Master and Miss Mozart, Prodigies of
Nature."— A Concert in the London of 1765.— "Nannerl."— The Chil-
Contents. ix
dren's Presents. — Home Discipline. — The House in Chelsea. — Playing
and Composing. — The First Symphony. — An Old Letter. — Duets a
Novelty. — In Italy. — The First Opera. — An Important Visit. — The
Weber Family. — A Heartless Coquette. — Constanza. — "The Magic
Flute."— Last Days Page 134
CHAPTER XL
Ecclesiastical Music. — Early Writers. — Palestrina and the Council of
Trent. — An Important Decision.— The Reform. — Mass Music of Va-
rious Composers 150
CHAPTER XII.
Ludwig von Beethoven. — Boyhood and First Studies. — At the Princess
Lichnowsky's. — Cold Water and Compositions. — An Amusing Anec-
dote.—Sad Years. — "Adelaide." — Blind! — Last Days 164
CHAPTER XIII.
Beethoven and the Concerto. — Explanation of this Form of Composition.
— Viadana. — Difference between Composers' Methods. — Cadenzas, and
what they mean 173
CHAPTER XIV.
Carl Maria von Weber. — Story of his Life. — A Baby Prodigy. — Anec-
dote of his Life at the Court of Wurtemberg. — " Der Freischiltz." — In
London with Moscheles. — A Last Visit. — Asleep. — Overtures and
their Origin. — Structure. — Weber's Work. — Mendelssohn's Use of the
Term. — Overtures of English Composers 177
CHAPTER XV.
The Orchestra of Yesterday and To-day. — Its Origin. — Distinction be-
tween Orchestras and Bands. — A Wedding Celebration in the Six-
teenth Century. — Due de Joyeuse. — Lutes and Viols. — First Orches-
tra on Record. — Italian Developments. — Scarlatti's Obligato. — One
Hundred Years of Progress. — List of Instruments. — Chamber Music.
— A Conductor's Responsibility. — First Use of the Baton. — Mendels-
sohn's Facility in remembering Work. — An old Sketch-book 188
Contents.
CHAPTER XVI.
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. — Work and Play. — The Juvenile Orchestra.
— A Pretty Picture. — Fanny Mendelssohn. — A Famous Journey. — A
Letter from Goethe's House. — Moscheles in Berlin. — A Memorable
Evening. — The E-flat Concerto. — Work and Recreation. — Fanny's
Marriage. — In London and at Birmingham. — With the Moscheleses. —
A Happy Marriage. — Founding the Conservatory of Leipsic. — Fanny's
Sudden Death. — The "Elijah." — "And behold, the Lord passed by."
— Last Days Page 197
CHAPTER XVII.
A Trio : Chopin, Schubert, and Schumann. — Chopin in Paris. — Anec-
dote of a Memorable Visit. — Flowers and Nocturnes. — A Brief Story.
— Schubert's Life. — Teaching School and Composing. — One Stormy
Afternoon. — "The Erl King." — Beethoven's Friendship. — Last Days.
— Robert Schumann. — A Brilliant Genius. — Little Clara Wieck. — A
Happy Marriage. — Sad Years. — His Last Hours 209
CHAPTER XVIII.
Musical Culture.— A Young Girl's Diary. — Stepping-stones. — An Over-
romantic Student 223
CHAPTER XIX.
The Purpose of the Book. — Technique. — Standard Authorities. — Pro-
fessional Pianists. — Books on Music. — Conservatories at Home and
Abroad. — The Expense of Foreign Study. — Shining Lights.— Au-
thorities used. — How to study Music profitably 231
INDEX . . . .237
ILLUSTKATIONS.
PAGB
SONGS OF PKAISE Frontispiece.
ITALIAN SPINET, ORNAMENTED WITH PRECIOUS STONES 14
VIRGINAL 15
PIANO OP ABOUT 1777 17
HANDEL'S HARPSICHORD 19
LUDWIG TON BEETHOVEN 23
YOUNG BACH COPYING Musrc BY MOONLIGHT. 54
JOHN SEBASTIAN BACH . . 66
GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL 81
THE BOY LULLI 98
IN THE CHOIR-SCHOOL AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY 101
PAPA HAYDN 107
YOUNG HAYDN SINGING BEFORE THE TWO GREAT MUSICIANS. 115
CHRISTOPH HITTER VON GLUCK 126
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART 185
CARL MARIA VON WEBER 179
EICHARD WAGNER 186
FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY 199
IGNATZ MOSCHELES 208
SCHUBERT SEARCHING FOR THE ARTICLES HIS FELLOW - STUDENTS
HAVE HIDDEN 215
MADAME CLARA SCHUMANN . . . 222
THE STORY OF MUSIC AND MUSICIANS.
CHAPTER I.
The Piano-forte.— Its History. — Clavichord, Virginal, and Spinet. — Anec-
dote of Queen Elizabeth. — An Old Harpsichord. — Piano-forte playing
in the Time of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven.
I WONDER how many young people who sit down to
practise or take a lesson at the piano-forte know the story
of the instrument now familiar in every household of the
civilized world. Look at it as we have it to-day, almost
perfect in size and quality and tone. It is capable of pro-
ducing the fullest and the softest sounds, just as its name
indicates, for piano means soft, and forte means loud. Can
you realize that little more than a hundred years ago pianos
were a rarity ? Only one or two makers produced any in-
struments worthy of the name, and few households possessed
one. " But," I can hear my young readers exclaim, " the
music we play on our pianos — Bach and Hadyn, as well as
old English airs — were certainly played on some horizontal
instrument." Of course they were, but not on our kind of
The Story of Music and Musicians.
piano-fortes ; and the story I am
going to tell will take you back far
into the sixteenth century, when
ladies of rank, and monks and nuns,
and some troubadours, had the in-
struments from which our piano is
descended. Such were known as
the clavichord and virginal.
The clavichord was perfected
about 1500, and the name was de-
rived from clam (a key) and chorda
(a string); so you see at once that
it contained the two principal ele-
ments of our piano-forte. Although
it went out of use in Bach's day,
yet that dear old master, whose ga-
vottes all our young people are
playing now, loved to use it. The
piano-forte had been invented, but
Bach loved his old clavichord. As
he sat thrumming it, I think he
liked to fancy himself away in the
early sixteenth-century days, when
Henry the Seventh's court enjoy-
ed madrigals and queer little bits
The Virginal. 15
of music on the same sort of an instrument. Following
the clavichord, we have that graceful, romantic instrument
called the virginal. This was an improvement on the clavi-
chord ; and towards the close of the sixteenth centnr}r we
find its name in poetry,
romance, biography —
indeed in history.
The virginal produced
a low, tinkling sort of
sound not unlike that
of the German zither.
Only ladies of quality,
musicians, or nuns or
monks in convents, per-
formed upon the virgin-
al ; and so I think we
associate it with all the
grace and beauty and the
slow stateliness of that
romantic epoch. When
I think of a virginal it seems to me to bring many sugges-
tions of rich colors, softly fading lights, the flash of jewels
or the movement of white hands, of oak wainscoting and
tapestried walls — perhaps some very sad and sorrowing
heart, perhaps some young and hopeful one, but always
VIRGINAL.
1 6 The Story of Music and Musicians.
something that is picturesque and dreamy. Perhaps we
would not think it so sweet an instrument to-day, but as-
suredly in the sixteenth century it moved people to very
tender, elevated thoughts. Shakespeare wrote of it with
deep feeling, and there are some quaint lines of Spenser's
about it —
"My love doth sit ... playing alone, careless, on her heavenly virginals."
In 1583 Sir James Melvil was sent by Mary Stuart to
England as ambassador, and in his memoirs he relates how
lie heard Queen Elizabeth play. He says that Lord Huns-
den took him up into a "quiet gallery," where, unknown to
the queen, he might hear her play. The two gentlemen
stood outside a tapestried door -way, from within which
came the soft tinkle, tinkle of the virginal. I wish he had
told us what the Queen was playing. Presently, it appears,
his curiosity to see her Majesty overcame his prudence, and
he softly raised the curtain and \vent into the room. The
queen played on "a melody which ravished him," he says,
but for some moments did not see any one was listening.
Is it not a pretty picture?
At that time the Queen had not lost the charm of youth,
and in her splendid dress, with her head down -bent, her
figure at the quaint virginal against the rich and sombre
colors of the room, must have looked charming to the silent
Queen Elisabeth and the Ambassador. 17
Scotch gentleman just inside the door-way listening in rapt
attention. It is so poetic a picture of the time we can al-
most hear her music ; and if we read on a little farther, we
see that the Queen, suddenly seeing Sir James, came for-
ward, remonstrating with him for having come in, for, she
PIANO OP ABOUT 177T.
said, she was not used to play before people, but only to
" shun melancholy." Then she sat down upon a low cush-
ion, and honest Sir James, according to the custom of the
time, fell upon his knees before her. The Queen, with a
truly feminine spirit, inquired whether he thought she or
2
1 8 The Story of Music and Musicians.
Mary Queen of Scots played the best. Sir James said that
his sovereign played " reasonably for a queen." This an-
swer would not serve to-day, as the Queen of England is
one of the most perfect of amateur musicians.
The virginal and spinet belong to the same period. From
them, as need of a more elaborate performance grew, we
have the harpsichord. A very fine harpsichord looked some-
thing like a grand piano, but it had two rows of keys, one
upper and one lower. I shall not here go into a descrip-
tion of the harpsichord. It is only needful to say that it
was the outgrowth of clavichord and virginal and spinet,
and had some of the defects as well as the good points of
all three.
Our grandmothers played upon harpsichords. They were
tinkling little affairs, yet I fancy that Mozart's and Haydn's
music must have sounded very quaint and pleasing upon
them. Where have they all vanished to, I wonder? Along
with the flowery brocaded gowns, the slender fans, the pow-
der and patches and paint, of that dear old time?
In an old house I once visited, a harpsichord of seventeen
hundred and something used to stand neglected and disused
in an upper hall. Sometimes we children thrummed waltz-
es upon it; sometimes I remember our getting out a faded
old music-book with the picture of a shepherdess on it, and
picking out the funny little songs that were printed there a
The Harpsichord. 19
hundred years ago. On the fly-leaf of the book was writ-
ten, in a very flourishy hand, "To Isabel, from J ."
Who was Isabel, and who was J , we used to wonder.
I can fancy that the music she played to please her
HANDEL 8 HARPSICHORD.
mamma and papa, and perhaps her uncles and aunts, was
of a very primitive order, for when harpsichords were used
young ladies were not at all proficient. Music was then
considered a "genteel" sort of accomplishment, and good
masters were very rare, and never tried to make their pu-
2O The Story of Music and Musicians.
pils do more than strike the notes correctly and in good
"dum-dum" sort of time. Consider our advantages now;
and yet I fancy those young people of Isabel's day valued
their musical instruction much more than we do ours.
Well, then, from this pretty, picturesque harp'sichord pe-
riod we find ourselves by slow degrees in that of the piano,
and I suppose the first thing you will wish to know is how
a piano-forte differs from these other instruments of which
I have been writing. The principal difference is that the
strings are struck with a hammer. About the beginning
of the eighteenth century this idea had originated with three
men at once — an Italian named Cristofari, a Frenchman
named Marius, and a German named Schroter ; but all in-
vestigators seem convinced that Cristofari was the real origi-
nator. His ideas were the best. So, later in the century,
when harpsichords began to be thought incomplete, differ-
ent makers tried to produce something better, and the re-
sult was the primitive piano-forte.
At this time the composer Sebastian Bach was in Berlin.
Frederick the Great was eager to hear him play ; and as
that famous sovereign possessed several of the new piano-
fortes (or forte-pianos, as they then were called), Bach came
one evening to the palace, where a crowd of gay ladies and
gentlemen were assembled.
The composer had to go from room to room, trying first
Improving the Piano-forte. 21
one of the new pianos, then another. These instruments
were manufactured in Germany; but, later, English and
French pianos took the palm, and about the beginning of
this century American ladies were growing proficient in the
art of piano-playing — proficient at least for that day. Have
you not all seen your grandmammas' music-books, in which
"The Battle of Prague" is an honored "piece?" True,
there were hundreds of nobler works, but only public per-
formers seem to have attempted them.
Let us see to what degree piano-forte playing had pro-
gressed when Mozart died, in 1792, and when the great
master, Ludwig von Beethoven, was a young man just en-
tering on his career of work.
To begin with, let us look at the pianos of that day. Al-
though the harpsichord had been greatly improved upon,
the keys and strings yet needed something to aid elasticity
of touch. In Bach's day it had been the custom to strike
the key, drawing the fingers inward slightly, and a supple-
ness of wrist, which masters think so much of at present,
was not considered valuable. But with Haydn and Mozart
came a need of something finer in the piano-forte itself, and
musicians felt strongly the necessity of an improvement in
the instrument whereby they could make more gradual
effects. Many efforts to alter the strings and hammers for
this purpose proved unsuccessful ; but at last the main dif-
22 The Story of Music and Musicians.
ficulties were overcome, and before Beethoven's death, in
1827, pianos of various degrees of excellence were in use,
with all the desired improvements. To this more than to
anything else we owe the improvement in piano -forte
playing.
At concerts during this period the piano was largely
used, and also in private houses ; but lessons from the best
masters were rare, and, unless the pupil designed to pursue
a musical career, few except the leading people of society
studied piano-forte music. In general, the interest in it
was not great. Poor Beethoven used often to writhe under
what he considered personal slights. A story is told of his
once being at the house of Prince with Hies, the fa-
mous musician. They were invited to play together, and
while in the midst of their performance a yonng nobleman
at the lower end of the salon talked quite loudly with his
companion. Beethoven glared at him once or twice in vain,
and finally lifting Bies's hands from the piano, he called
out, " Stop ! I will not play for such dogs !" and away he
went, in spite of every attempt to an apology.
Such interruptions to music in a drawing-room occur
often enough now ; but in the beginning of this century, as
I said, piano-forte performances were confined to a much
smaller number, and naturally appreciation was not general.
On the other hand, if a child showed any ability, it was
I.VDWIG VON BEETHOVEN.
Patronage, 25
kept very closely to study. Mozart had pupils who thought
nothing of five hours' practice a day; and Beethoven, when
a boy, was kept to the piano for hours by means of a good
beating every time he left it.
The misery of a musical career at that time was certainly
lack of general understanding of the art. Musicians had to
procure for themselves noble patrons — rich ladies or gentle-
men who would help them on in their divine art, patronize
their concerts, get pensions for them, or in some cases offer
them homes where they might work unmolested by debt
and other domestic trouble. In this way Beethoven lived a
great part of the time at the house of Princess Lichnowsky,
in Vienna. Mozart was also indebted to some friends for
hospitality and influence, and indeed, where the public were
so often unappreciative, private patronage had to be sought
for, in order that the world might have many of the noble
harmonies we possess to-day.
In those days the famous composers or musicians were
the only teachers, so that any young student who cared for
his work had admirable opportunity to improve. Mozart
gave lessons of great length, and seems to have enjoyed
them heartily. Haydn had many pupils, one of whom was
Beethoven ; and we read that he paid Haydn eighteen cents
a lesson !
During that period which includes the last years of Mo-
26 The Story of Music and Musicians.
zart's life and the first of Beethoven's, between 1780 and
1792, the way was being laid for Beethoven's grandest work,
and yet we can hardly call it a transition state ; that is to
say, a period of time when any art is undergoing a change
which shall effect its whole purpose. But with Beethoven
came the perfection of the sonata and the symphony, and
all performers, whether in public or private, who attempted
his works were compelled to understand technique and the
use of their lingers on the key-board ; so that we may say,
justly enough, that with Beethoven we seern almost to begin
a new era in piano-forte music.
I have told you the step upward old Bach made ; then
Haydn went still farther, preparing the way for Beethoven's
perfect work. Mozart's brilliancy and delicacy, both as a
performer and a composer, helped the movement on in
every way, and during the first quarter of this century a
number of men came into fame as masters in execution and
composition as well. Indeed, with the beginning of this
century piano - playing had reached a period of excellence
which allowed a master to indulge all his feelings and ideas
in composing for this instrument.
In 1787 Beethoven, then a lad of about seventeen, visited
Mozart in Yienna. It was about the time that " Don Gio-
vanni" was being produced, and Mozart's mind was full of
its importance, so that the visit seemed of much less con-
Great Performers. 27
sequence to him than to Beethoven. The latter seated him-
self at the piano, Mozart standing by waiting, good-humor-
edly, for one of the usual performances of " prodigies "
whose parents destine them for the public. But the lad
played so brilliantly that Mozart could not but believe that
he was executing a well - prepared piece. Beethoven felt
this, and eagerly begged Mozart to give him a theme and
let him vary upon it.
To this Mozart consented, and presently the room seemed
to vibrate with the rush of harmony beneath Beethoven's
touch. Mozart listened in silent admiration, and going
softly upon tiptoe into the next room, said to some friends
assembled there,
"Pay attention to him. He will make a noise in the
world some day or other " — a prophecy soon fulfilled.
Beethoven's touch was strong and masterly, but rather
heavy, and as his deafness increased, his performances on the
piano were almost painful to listen to. His left hand often
remained unconsciously on the wrong chord. Mozart never
lost the brilliancy of his playing. Haydn, it is said, made
the piano " sing ;" but to the musicians who followed Bee-
thoven we owe the perfection of piano-forte playing and
instruction. Moscheles, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and others
realized the highest art in execution. Not very long ago
a lady was recounting to me scenes in which, according to
28 The Story of Music and Musicians.
her description, Mendelssohn and Moscheles performed act-
ual marvels at the piano, the delicacy and lightness of both
their styles reminding her "of a forest full of delicious
birds."
In the period of which I speak now — that is, the begin-
ning of this century — you will remember how little public
appreciation of art existed, and how hard the greatest men
toiled for all they obtained. But love of art is powerful.
It will carry any one of you over the roughest places ; and,
in looking at your well-arranged exercises, try to remember
those patient, eager students of eighty years ago, to whom
every bit of help came so slowly that we of to-day ought to
think our pathway cleared of every thorn.
As time went on, and the interest in the instrument
grew, the mechanism of the piano-forte was improved, and
at this date (1881) it is considered perfect. Here and there
as you play, as you listen to the sounds of the little hammer
falling on the strings, let your thoughts wander back to
Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth of England, with their
virginals and spinets — indeed, farther into the realm of po-
etic, dreamy sound, for beyond these were clavicytheriums,
citoles and citherns, dulcimers and psalteries, and in the
East, among the people whom we see now in sculpture, a
whole line of lyres and harps and lutes.
It may not seem that so far away as early Egyptian days
Ancient Musical Engravings. 29
was the first idea of our piano, yet certainly such is the
case. In some far Eastern country you might see, graven
in stone of centuries gone by, a figure holding an instru-
ment dimly shadowing that on which you now may play
all written music.
3O The Story of Music and Musicians.
CHAPTER H.
Musical Standards Yesterday and To-day. — How to Enjoy the Story of
any Art. — A Harmony Class. — A Fascinating Story. — Early Nota-
tion.—A Musical Note-book.
" WHAT I want to hear from you," said Yon Bulow to a
young lady who applied to him for instruction, " is a scale
and an arpeggio."
The young lady played the scale of E minor, which is the
one used, as a rule, in foreign conservatories as a test for a
student's or beginner's capacity. Next the chord of A flat
in arpeggio. Again and again she had to repeat them, each
time following some especial instruction from the master,
and at the end of half an hour she found herself doing them
in a manner altogether new to herself, and certainly very
much better than she had ever done them before. That
half-hour's experience, it seems to me, was invaluable, for it
taught her that even when a thing seems to be well done
it can always be improved upon, and that a scale which had
seemed to her so simple a performance really meant far
more than she or most young students appreciate.
Musical Standards Yesterday and To-day. 31
I have heard elderly ladies say that when they were tauglit
music in the first decades of this century, the principal
thing was the amount of time they spent practising and the
number of pieces which they learned. To perform "The
Battle of Prague" or " The Dewdrop" waltz was all that could
be expected from amateurs ; but in those days only profes-
sional musicians really studied. I do not want to say any-
thing against our grandmothers' sincerity, but girls at school
or under a governess in those days " took " music as they all
took drawing-lessons. Is there any household, I wonder,
where souvenirs of the past are cherished, in which there
are to be found no pictures of large, flat-looking flowers on
pasteboard, or music-books full of painfully unclassical mu-
sic ? Unfortunately, young people to-day " take " music very
often with the same inartistic spirit, but happily such rare-
ly perform except for their own families after they leave
school. The student whose music nowadays is considered
worth anything is the student who thinks and feels and is
patient.
Of course every school or conservatory has its own ideas,
and I am sure my young readers can tell me of fifty differ-
ent and perhaps equally excellent methods of teaching used
by their different teachers ; but the main points, if success-
ful, must be the same, and in this little work my object is
not so directly to teach, rather is it to help the student and
32 The Story of Music and Musicians.
the teacher by a little outside impetus — something to make
study seem more entertaining and worth while.
Directly we begin to think of study as a science and a
system the impression is apt to be gained that of necessity
the work must be dull and uninteresting; but in point of
fact, as I hope to show you, the very science and system of
music constitutes its first charm ; we will find the history
of the science little by little unfolds what makes it most ro-
mantic and picturesque, and at last the dullest of five-finger
exercises and most tiresome of scales will become invested
with a sort of glamour or poetry which will be welcomed
by the student who is really zealous as part of what one day
will be the real glory of a great achievement.
Now there is nothing gained by going too rapidly in any
study. Harmony, thorough-bass, counter-point, all of which
mean about the same thing, and which constitute the sci-
ence of music, are studies which the greatest masters have
considered work for a lifetime; but instead of discouraging
the young student, this should rather make him see how
necessary it is to begin from the very beginning, to under-
stand each day's work at the piano with some of its scien-
tific meaning. All that I hope to do in these pages is to
tell you the story of music, as it were, to offer some simple
suggestions for piano practice and study, to give the mere
rudiments of what is called theory, and to tell you some-
Conscientious Study. 33
thing of the lives of the great composers, the musical influ-
ences of their times, and to introduce you to certain of their
works.
The world to-day is full of melody ; of music such as one
hundred years ago could not have been produced. At con-
certs all over this country, as well as in Europe, the very
best music is to be heard ; therefore even young people in
the audience should bring with them a certain amount of
technical knowledge. They should learn enough of theory
to understand what is being produced by the great artists
of the day. It is all very well to enjoy a fine orchestra, an
opera, or an oratorio without troubling one's self about
anything scientific connected with it, but really the history
of all three is as charming as any fairy tale, and the very
science in it, as I hope to show you, has its picturesque side;
so that you need never feel it dull work, this following the
study of music with a conscientious regard for its higher
meanings and its original starting points.
Although study with a view to making music a "career"
is different in one sense from study simply for love of it as
an art and a personal resource, yet the guiding rules must
be the same ; and the young student who says to herself,
" Oh, but I never should want to play in public!" ought to
work with the same spirit as the one who looks forward to
a public life, the only difference being in the time bestowed
34 The Story of Music and Musicians.
on it. For a professional future six and eight hours a
day are required, besides a complete musical life ; but two
hours a day well employed can work wonders with the am-
ateur student, and with what a feeling of joyful possession
does not such a one reach a day when she can really in-
terpret the master's meaning ! It ought never to be consid-
ered in the light of an accomplishment, only as an art to be
acquired for itself, and for the joy there is in acquiring and
possessing it. If you do not feel that your music will make
you yourself happy, even though you were alone and never
to be heard, then do not try to pursue it. Be very certain
that no one will care for what you can do in it.
On the other hand, there are many people who for some
reason — usually a defective touch or lack of proper feeling
for music — can never become executants; yet such a one
can nearly always derive the greatest profit and enjoyment
from the theoretical study of music. I often wonder why
this is not considered a necessary study, independent of mu-
sical performance, just as other sciences are taught, for by
this means you can open up a whole field of thought and
enjoyment.
Listening to music becomes another and newer delight,
and besides you can be in possession at least of the science
of one of the noblest arts. The best composers have by no
means been the best performers — indeed, the very reverse
A Harmony Class. 35
has often been the case, and some of the very best teachers
abroad play but indifferently well; that is, the best teachers
of technique; for when people speak of taking lessons from
Liszt, or liubenstein, or Bulow, etc., it usually means only
playing pieces the notes of which they have learned for
these great masters, who correct their style and offer sug-
gestions.
Music as a theory no doubt entails years of study before
the whole, or even the suggestion of the whole, is attained,
but a great deal that is very satisfactory may be learned in
a much shorter time ; and to the young student who feels
no "instinct" for performance let me suggest fifteen or
twenty minutes a day of "theory;" perhaps it may develop
the lacking instinct; at all events, if persevered in, it must
lead to much satisfaction in hearing and understanding the
music on all sides of us to-day.
I well remember the first morning I ever spent in a for-
eign conservatory of music. I arrived just as the harmony
class had assembled. Beside me sat a slim little girl with
a very pretty, pale face, and a tired, anxious look. When
we had all opened our books, she whispered to me, " May I
look over you?"
The expression in her eyes was so piteous that it went to
my heart to answer, "You may if you like, dear; only it
won't help you. I don't know much of anything myself."
3
36 The Story of Music and Musicians.
I never shall forget her look as she burst into a silent fit
of crying, which for ten minutes stopped the lesson.
Often since I have thought of my little worried compan-
ion, who struggled on through the winter, always declaring
she could not learn because she could not like it, and I have
wondered if there were not a great many young students
who feel in the same way.
It is so stupid to hear of semibreves and crotchets and
quavers and minims and scales and clefs and scores, and all
sorts of terms like "allegro" and "andante" and "con
moto" and "adagio," and indeed whole Italian sentences,
that used to look to me, when I was a child, like imperti-
nent intrusions into English music.
But have you ever thought whether this system of music
which we have to-day may not have had a story — a far-off
story almost as entrancing as a fairy tale ? I think, had some
one told my little friend the story of the system she was
toiling to understand, it would all have looked very differ-
ent, and the study would have been tinged with a real delight.
Now, what I propose to tell you is the history of the notes
we use. This is really an introduction to the study of
thorough-bass., or harmony ; and if you make yourself com-
plete master of the first simple rules or ideas, you will find
later that many seemingly difficult things come almost in-
stinctively.
The First Ideas of Harmony. 37
You know that music to-day is written according to a
system, but, as you can readily understand, it was not per-
fected without a long test of various methods and centuries
in which no ideas were sufficiently systematized to create a
standard — centuries of crude music and mere experiment,
from the days of Saint Gregory, in 590, to the time of
John Sebastian Bach, in the middle of the 18th century,
when at last even the question of time was perfected. In
our own day, however, the study of harmony has become
generally appreciated, and masters in the science have quite
lately decided upon the best terms to use in expressing cer-
tain points which must be impressed upon every student's
mind, in such manner as shall make their study not only
simpler, but, at the same time, what is called more technical
in character. So, for instance, the old-fashioned use of the
terras crotchets and quavers is entirely abandoned ; whole
notes, half notes, quarter notes, etc., take their place, and
instead of tones we have steps and half steps, which, as you
will see in a later chapter, express better the actual sound
of each note in the scale.
The very first ideas of harmony came from the Greeks.
In Oriental times there was music at every season of festivi-
ty, triumph, mourning, or family rejoicing ; but there was
no special system for its government, and we suppose that
the music of those early days was of a rude character, ren-
38 The Story of Music and Musicians.
dered impressive and effective, however, by the martial
spirit or the bravely swelling chorus which inspired and
performed it. With the early days of Christianity came a
desire for music of a more delicate, although solemn, kind.
To express the tenderness of the new law — the law of Christ
and his wonderful messages of love — music of a different or-
der seemed needful, and the hearts of men, especially among
those early saints, longed for some expression which was
poetic and demonstrative of the joyous faith that was within
them. Of course their resources were still of the very scan-
tiest. No system of notation had been established, although
the letters of the alphabet were used to suggest certain
notes; but in the days of St. Gregory we read that mu-
sical schools were established in Rome, and we know that
he gave his name to a special kind of chant. Church musio
reached a point in his day whence it could be carried on.
Now we have in old manuscripts some illustrations which
show how music was written. The system of using letters
of the alphabet, however, came to an end, and was replaced
by the use of a series of characters. These are called new-
mce, and each character had a different name. The first
was known as the virga, and it was a long single note; the
bivirga represented two notes, and the trivirga three ; the
punctus was a short note, etc.
In old volumes are various illustrations which show
The Beginning of Written Music.
39
; v »)
z •
• ••.*•.
.4
*S \JT*
0/7/3
*• e
y
f
Is
9
10
music was written in that day, and the study of them is cu-
rious, since they represent the method which originally pre-
ceded the very beginning of
our present and perfect sys-
tem.
Fig. 1 shows the neumse.
Tli ere are ten here, but au-
thorities differ as to the num-
ber that were really in use. Fig 1 _THE
These neumse were placed over
the words, as shown in Fig. 2. We are not quite certain what
melody they here represent, but
,
the solution given underneath is
Fig. 2. the probable one.
The first idea of making lines
occurred in the year 900. But for a long time only one
red line was used, and on this the F note was written; the
PROBABLE SOLUTION OP FIG. 2.
Coe - li coe - lo - rum, lau - da - te. . . De - um.
grave sounds were placed below this line, the acute ones
above it. How this music looked when written you will
see in Fig. 3 on the following page.
4O The Story of Music and Musicians.
Early in the tenth century a monk in Flanders, named
Hucbaldus, introduced a stave, as we call it, consisting of
a great number of lines. At first these lines were not oc-
cupied by notes, but by the
syllables to be sung, as shown
_ in Fig. 4 on page 41. In
order to show whether the
' I ' . voice was to proceed by a
* p. 3 tone or a semitone the let-
ters T and S were intro-
duced. One advantage attending this system was that it
could be applied to a scale of any extent, and even used for
a number of voices singing at the same time.
PROBABLE SOLUTION OF Fio. 3.
S j-; J^ g? ,»_J g? £? ^ .
rj rj^^JL^ ^^ — -
Po - pu - - - le me us..
In the Bodleian library at Oxford, England, is a very
precious book once used in the Cathedral at Winchester. It
is MS., of course, and is believed to have been written dur-
ing the reign of King Ethelred II., who died in 1016. In
it we find music written in two different fashions, as shown
in Fig. 5 on page 42.
This, then, was the period of change. We have the sim-
The Score.
pie neumse above the words, and we have actually a four-
line stave with notes instead of words.
But up to this time all the notes were the same; no dif-
ference in length
was indicated, and
no one who had not
heard the melody
could sing it from
them. Presently the
breve, semibreve,
and dot, as shown in
Fig. 6 on page 42,
began to appear, and F* 4
thus, little by little,
our own system of notation was approached. In 1600, an
Italian named Franco de Colonia established a system of
SOLUTION OP PIG. 4.
T
Do \
T
/ mini \
T
Sit\
ria/
in \
cida
S
glo/
Do \ sae /
T
/ mini \
T
Sit\
ria/
in \
cula
S
glo/
sae/
T
Do\
T
/ mini \
T
8lt\
rial
in\
cula
S
glo/
Do\ sae/
T
/ mini \
T
Sit \
ria/
in\
cula
S
glo/
sae /
time, and in or about 1600 the first idea of a score origi-
nated.
42 The Story of Music and Musicians.
Do you know what a score is ? I was at a concert re-
hearsal in Paris one day, when a very knowing -looking
' ' / J + ( J « ' '
w» mndecnofcnmme &4
«*'
Fig. 5.
young person of about fourteen, with a great deal of fur
and velvet on, and a large roll of music, came in with her
governess and sat down near me. The orchestra were going
l,\ * A 1
«j ^"^ -*-j
1
l»l o & A
*» '
Q -T
Fig. 6.
to give part of " Faust " with some singing, and this pert
young lady turned to her governess, saying,
"Don't you want the score, Miss - — ?" and forthwith
she handed her the programme.
Time. 43
Now I think it would have been much wiser for this
small person to have first been sure what a score was be-
fore she talked of it. The origin of the score was in 1600.
A composer named Peri published his "Eurydice," and he
put the instrumental accompaniment below the vocal part.
Then he scored the bars through the stave, connecting the
words and music. Hence we call the music and words
together the score of the work.
As music began to progress — as oratorios, masses, and
operas were written — it became necessary to establish a defi-
nite system of time. It was done gradually; but at last,
in Bach's day, it was a carefully arranged science — so many
beats to the bar, so much value to each note.
A grand science has come from those first queer httle
attempts at written music which we find it so hard to un-
derstand to-day, and yet how grateful we ought to be to
the patient people of the seventh and tenth centuries who
tried to record some of their musical feelings !
When you sit down to your first harmony lesson, try to
remember what a wonderful story those little black notes
could tell. It is not dull or colorless work ; indeed, if you
consider it in the right way, it is like a charming tale in
which many characters which make the pages of history
vivid and fascinating appear, giving to our work that sense
of personality and of tradition — the peculiar interest which
44 The Story of Music and Musicians.
comes of any study handed down from one generation to
another. All the gradual progression, the slow steps up-
ward, are marked by melody, harmony, chant, or song, so
that music as we possess it now may be reckoned as the
result of a beautiful and suggestive past. Not a note that
you play, not a phrase uttered in your music, not a period
rounded and completed but may be made suggestive if you
only learn to think of it in this inspiring way.
In this first chapter I want to suggest to you a musical
note -book which from day to day may be kept up with
profit and much pleasurable interest. Do not attempt to
make it too elaborate. From simple beginnings corne the
best results, and in the study of music, more perhaps than
in any other science, everything should be taken slowly and
deliberately. No matter how often you go over and over
the same things, keep to them until their meanings are
fully mastered. Then there will be no confusion in your
progress, no necessity for going back.
Begin your note-book with a summary of what you have
gathered from this chapter. Put down a list of the early
musical terms ; add to it such dates as create landmarks
in the history of notation. For example, that of St. Greg-
ory, of Hucbaldus, and John Sebastian Bach. Any com-
ments which occur to your own mind it is well to insert ;
and if you make your book with each alternate leaf of
A Musical Note-book. 45
music-lined paper you can gradually add certain fragments
of music, so that at the end of a year quite a valuable little
book will be in your own possession, and will be an admi-
rable companion to the musical diary of which I will speak
later.
46 The Story of Music and Musicians.
CHAPTER IK.
How to Feel about Study.— First Steps. — The Key -board. — The Family
of Notes. — Staff. — Degrees. — Intervals. — How to Understand the First
Rules of Harmony.— Suggestions for Note-book.
WHEN you seat yourself before your piano with a simple
piece of music on the stand in front of you, look at the
notes on the key -board and those written above on the
music, and try to think of them as so many characters, each
one with a part of its own to be performed, demonstrating
its own individuality by means of your interpretation of it ;
not to be badly treated or misunderstood by those ten fin-
gers of yours, which with the help of the heart and mind,
and, let us hope, some soul too, are to produce all the har-
monies of which they are capable.
It is not enough for you to know that the key-board of
the piano before you represents merely so many notes
whose names, alphabetically arranged, seem so easy to re-
member. Much more than this must you think of from
the very beginning. A grand science belongs to them, and
although the study of harmony or thorough-bass cannot be
The Importance of Careful Study, 47
accomplished in all its details without years of study, you
can make a point of applying to every musical practice, to
every lesson, to every line of music you read and play, a
certain amount of technical knowledge which you will find
of the utmost assistance when you come to the deeper and
closer study of the science itself. Moreover, you will ac-
quire a new sort of interest in your work, by feeling that
you bring to each day's progress something which unfolds
to you the higher meanings in the art ; and it is well in the
very outset to impress upon yourself the fact that the first
and simplest rules of music are those which must be fixed
permanently upon the mind. Try so completely to under-
stand what you are learning that there need be no going
back over the same ground except by way of refreshing
the memory, or making more complete the harmony of
your work. Just as in the study of a language it is neces-
sary to learn the alphabet thoroughly, the meaning of each
word in a sentence before that sentence can be spoken
intelligently, or satisfactorily understood, so in rnnsic the
very first principles must be mastered before you can hope
for any elaborations; and indeed to read and play a simple
scale in the best way is to thoroughly understand not only
the names of its notes but the reasons for their arrange-
ment and their relationship to each other.
What I wish to tell you about in this chapter is how we
48 The Story of Music and Musicians.
calculate and name that family of black and white notes
before you, according to the system of notation used to-day.
To begin with, you know that music is written on five
parallel lines. This is called the staff ; and on that and on
what are called repeated, added, or leger lines are placed
the notes which you strike with your fingers. Now, then,
the lines and spaces which you see on the staff are called
degrees, which, as you can see, signifies that from one to an-
other you progress a, degree each time, for which reason the
rule in harmony is that you must count your degrees up-
ward from the very lowest line.
Parker tells us that the distance between two degrees of
the scale is called an interval, and starting with the note
which you know as middle C, and calling that one, D is its
second, E its third, F its fourth, G it&ffth, A its sixth, and
B its seventh. Add to this the eighth, and yon have the
octave, made up of seven distinct sounds, which, according
to the latest and best phraseology in music, are known as
seven steps, the whole forming a major scale. This is only
the beginning, however, of what you must learn about in-
tervals. There are six kinds of intervals — the perfect, the
imperfect, the major and the minor, the augmented and
the diminished. These terms have been given after much
thought and deliberation, and have each a distinct mean-
ing, which it is well for you to understand and remember
Perfect and Imperfect Intervals. 49
from the very beginning of your musical practice. For
example, let us see what does perfect signify?
Every note when struck produces a certain number of
vibrations. Now, then, every note has its octave ; for in-
stance, middle C has its octave C in the third space. Strike
the first C, and the number of vibrations produced are reck-
oned as one ; strike the octave, and the number is doubled ;
therefore, in reckoning the ratio of sound, the octave is
known as number two. This interval is called perfect, as
the vibrations are coincident. There are three other perfect
intervals, so called because the vibrations produced are so
nearly the same that it would be unwise to confuse things
by giving them any other name. These are the fourth, the
fifth, and the octave, making in our scale four perfect in-
tervals. Now, then, go over this, and striking your first
note in any scale, and which is always called the prime, or
unison, add to it the fourth or the fifth and the octave, and
you have at once your perfect intervals.
To make an imperfect interval, lower the upper note of
the perfect interval one half a step. For example, a per-
fect fifth consists of seven half steps; an imperfect fifth
consists of six half steps.
In the same scale the second, the third, the sixth, and the
seventh from C, otherwise D, E, A, and B, are known as
major intervals. Major signifies greater ; therefore, when
50 T/if Story of Music and Musicians.
applied in this way, it is understood to mean a greater in«
terval. For example, the interval from C to D is called a
major or greater second. It consists of two half steps, which
constitute a whole step in sound, or, as we have said, a major
second. The interval from C to E is a major third, from
C to A a major sixth, and from C to B a major seventh.
Minor signifies lesser, and the minor intervals consist of
half steps. For example, from C to D flat io a minor or
lesser second or interval — it has one half step of sound in
it ; from C to E flat is a minor or lesser third of three half
steps ; from C to A flat a minor sixth ; from C to B flat a
minor seventh. Now, then, you have the major and minor
intervals ; but in your scale you will remember that the
fourth and fifth, and octave, or eighth, are the perfect inter,
vals ; that is, they can never be called major or minor.
To thoroughly understand this let me suggest your test-
ing it on the piano. Strike middle C; then strike its sec-
ond, which is D. Say aloud, " C to D is a major second."
Then inquire of yourself what is a major second, ho\v many
steps in it, and with the notes before your eyes count them
up. You will find that they contain two half steps, each
with a sound of its own, and which make a whole step, or
major second. What sound lies between C and D nat-
ural? The minor second. Strike C again; next to it is D
flat, the minor or lesser second. Say to yourself, "How
Major and Minor Seconds. 51
many half steps in that ?" Only one. So on through the
intervals of which we have been speaking. Then take up
the scale as in the illustration below; there you will see
written in the musical notation the notes which form the
examples which I have given you. Now, then, what is the
fixed musical rule for forming a minor interval? It can
only be formed from a major interval ; that is, the upper
note belonging to the major second. Let us say D is low-
ered half a step, which makes it D flat ; take your major
third, and in the same way, to make a minor third of it,
lower to E flat, and so on.
But, you will ask, are these all the intervals which we
have to consider? They are the first and most important
ones in beginning musical study, and a very clear knowl-
edge of them is necessary — indeed you cannot too strongly
Rx them upon your mind ; but there are other intervals
made from these, and which are known by two names — the
augmented and the diminished intervals.
Augmented means increased ; therefore, when applied to
music, it must mean that the interval is increased. Take
your middle C. What is its major second ? D. Now, then,
how would you make an augmented second of this? All
changes of this kind are made out of half steps, a point worth
remembering at the start. To augment this major second,
then, raise the upper note half a step to D sharp. There-
4
52 The Story of Music and Musicians.
fore an augmented second consists of three half steps of
sound — a full step with half a step added. The diminished
interval is formed from the minor interval. The lower note
instead of the upper is raised half a step. Thus, from C to
B flat is, as you know, a minor seventh. Therefore, from C
sharp (which is the lower note of th'is raised half a step) to
B flat would be a diminished seventh, the interval being
diminished thus by half a step. If you try this on your
piano in the same way as suggested for the major and minor
and perfect intervals you will readily see precisely what is
meant.
I would advise any young student interested in these sug-
gestions to write out his or her own ideas on the subject,
and then to carefully examine with the aid of the piano the
illustrations given, and perhaps make out a little table, as it
were, of the perfect interval, the major, the minor, the aug-
mented or diminished. In the chapter on notation you had
an idea given for a manuscript musical note-book. Sup-
posing you fill one page of this with careful examples of
the intervals as you understand them ; and in your mar-
ginal space it would be well to say that the terms half steps
and steps are now used in place of tones, the best judges
having decided that they signify the sounds produced more
clearly.
John Sebastian Bach. 53
CHAPTER IV.
John Sebastian Bach. — His Early Childhood. — The Gavotte.— Its Origin.
— A Court Dance. — The Fugue. — Explanation of this Form of Com-
position.— Passion Music. — Anecdote of the Basques. — How Mendels-
sohn revived Bach's Passion Music.
ON the 21st of March, 1685, was born to Ambrosius
Bach a son, whom he christened John Sebastian, and who,
coming of a family famous for their musical ability, was
destined to become known throughout the civilized world,
not only as a great composer and musician, but as a reform-
er and developer of the study of technique. His father
lived in the quaint town of Eisenach ; but before the child
had done more than master the rudiments of music and
learn to play a little on the violin, his parents died, and his
elder brother, Johann Christoph, who was the organist at
Ohrdruff, adopted the little boy. He began to study at the
Ohrdruff Lyceum, and went ahead in his music with such
steadiness that the elder brother, who seems to have been a
stern and morose man, forbade the child to do more than
his allotted tasks, or to purchase any music for himself, or
indeed to indulge any of his impulses in composition.
54 The Story of Music and Musicians.
In the old house at Ohrdruff there was a cupboard which
John Sebastian passed many times a day with longing in
his heart. Well he knew that on an upper shelf was a rare
old book of manuscript music, and it used to seem to him
that if he could possess himself of it long enough to copy
even a part of its treasures he would feel himself happy as
a king. He dared not ask permission lest it be refused, but
finally it occurred to him that through the latticed- work
panel in the upper part of the door he might squeeze one
of his little hands, and pull the book, which was bound in
soft parchment, safely through. German children at that
time as now were kept so strictly that little John Sebastian
rarely escaped some one's watchful eye, but his heart was
so strongly filled with this desire that he found an oppor-
tunity at last, and climbing up to the latticed part of the
panel, contrived to squeeze the precious book through,
greatly to his delight. But even then it was hard to know
how to copy the music, since candles or light were refused
him. So he waited for moonlight nights, and on every one
worked hard in his window, finally succeeding in copying
the entire book.
I have often thought of the picture of the dear little
German boy working away in his old-fashioned room, the
moonlight tenderly bathing his head and eager fingers, and
illuminating the manuscript page on which he worked.
YOUXG BACH COPYING MUSIC BY MOONLIGHT.
Back's Perseverance. 55
How little he knew, or indeed cared, that nearly two hun-
dred years later all music-loving nations would reverence
his name. The work finished, little Bach proceeded to
make practical use of it ; but judge of his disappointment
when his brother, scolding him violently for what he had
done, took away the copy he so patiently and lovingly
made, and, it is said, burned it before the lad's eyes.
Genius, however, is not daunted by disappointment or
even failure. Bach struggled on, learning all that he was
taught and much more — in fact drinking in on all gides such
music and information as that day afforded J and at the age
of fifteen, in the first year of the eighteenth century, we
hear of him surprising all the townspeople of Luneburg
by his enchanting voice in church.
In return for his leading the boy choir he had his school-
ing given him, and when holidays came he would walk to
Hamburg, a distance of many miles, in order to hear and
talk to the famous organist Reinken. This Dutch com-
poser and musician took a great interest in the boy, and
gave him freely all the knowledge that he himself pos-
sessed, and which Bach absorbed greedily. Meanwhile, in
the ducal chapel at Sella, a band of French musicians were
engaged, and from them the young student learned cham-
ber and concert music, French in character and perform-
ance, and which no doubt strongly influenced him later in
56 The Story of Music and Musicians.
the composition of his world -renowned gavottes, passa-
cailles, and sarabandes.
Now, then, let us consider the style of the piano-forte
composition and playing at that date. The condition of
the instrument was such that music had to be written with
a view to its limitations ; and as the system of harmony was
by no means perfected, the general idea was of a sort of
dance music, or the solemn performances of church music
not requiring any great breadth of treatment. The organ
was the instrument most considered after the violin ; but
Scarlatti had begun to write music in a newer or more orig-
inal style, and no doubt his work was very suggestive to
Bach. The actual piano-forte was invented in his day, but
Bach always clung to the clavichord, on which he said he
could express himself as he desired ; and his manner of
playing was remarkable for its entire correctness, and at the
same time brilliancy, so that we may infer that many per-
formers of that day drew their inspiration from him, since,
both in composition and execution, he was undoubtedly
original. Determined to compose piano -forte music of a
higher order than anything which had been written, he set
himself to the development of a firmer basis of theory, and
what is known as counterpoint, and to him we owe much
of our present knowledge of time in music. He also com-
posed with direct reference to and following of all the rules
The Gavotte. 57
of harmony then known, and those which he himself work-
ed out and developed, so that at the present day no studies
are better for the beginner, or even advanced student, than
those of John Sebastian Bach. With the gavotte, and other
pieces of similar character, Bach's name is indelibly asso-
ciated. He made them not only fascinating, but wrote
them in so scientific and masterly a manner that they offer
endless instruction and suggestion to musicians to-day.
Some of the gavottes were in single pieces, some in what
are called suites, or sets of short pieces of music; and the
other day an old friend of mine showed me a fragment of
a manuscript music-book which was part of a gavotte writ-
ten for some festive occasion, I believe, in his native town.
In a French gallery there is a picture of splendidly-dressed
ladies and gentlemen dancing the gavotte. They wear the
costume of the latter part of the seventeenth century ; they
have smiling faces ; they flourish large fans, and wear high-
heeled slippers which they lift gracefully — for the gavotte
was a very brilliant dance in its movement.
The name came from a people in Dauphine known as
Gavots. They danced it more wildly than the stately peo-
ple of Louis's court, but the music of every gavotte seems
to me to be best suited to them. One can fancy them on
their village green clattering away to the quaint, gay music,
flinging their arms about, or beating time with their hands.
58 The Story of Music and Musicians.
But when the gavotte was introduced into the upper classes,
a ud with it various other dances of the people, it became
more refined, dignified, even more serious.
It is always well, even for beginners, to understand the
principle on which any kind of music is written. You will
find your practising much more interesting if you look
deeper than the mere sounds. Suppose we take some sim-
ple gavotte and examine into the way it is written. Here,
for instance, is the first strain in one of Bach's most popu-
lar gavottes :
THE GAVOTTE.
Now let us see what the few rules created for its compo-
sition are. They are these :
It must be in common time, which really means equal
time — two or four beats to the bar — although the term is
generally applied to that of four quarter notes to the bar,
marked by the Italian 0.
The movement is rather quick, and it is generally in two
parts. These parts are, in accordance with a custom pe-
culiar to old dances, repeated.
The Passacaille and Sarabande. 59
Originally the gavotte consisted of four bars in the first
part and eight bars in the second ; but if the gavotte is only
one of various parts of a suite, no fixed number of bars is
given. Now, as a general rule, the gavotte begins on the
third beat of the bar, so that you will see, if you calculate,
that each part must finish with a half -bar containing a
quarter note.
I know that to many of my young readers this may sound
very dull and useless, but if you will only give a little
careful study to a few rules which apply to your first
" pieces," lessons in real harmony and thorough-bass will
seem much more interesting to you later on. The cha-
conne and the passacaille, the passaglia and the sarabande,
are all dances of about the same period as the gavotte, and
have certain governing principles. The chaconne is slow,
and is usually written in the major key.
The passacaille is written in the minor key. What is
called the theme in the chaconne is invariably in the bass ;
in a passacaille it may be in any part. The passacaille has
a very curious kind of interest, since in the last century
composers made use of it to show their skill — what is known
as contrapuntal skill. It must consist of a short theme of
two, four, or eight bars. Bach, Frescobaldi, and Handel
all wrote famous passacailles.
The sarabande is more stately in its movement. It was
60 The Story of Music and Musicians.
a popular dance in the sixteenth century, and some say it
was introduced then by a famous dancer called Yaratanda.
I think that it might often have formed part of very pictu-
resque scenes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
when people were full of a certain kind of poetry, and en-
joyed whatever was splendid and stately. Sometimes
dancers were hired to perform it ; sometimes ladies and
gentlemen of quality danced it for their sovereign.
Old songs are full of references to sarabandes as being
danced at times when sadness, or even deep regret, filled
the minds of the performers; so that we may picture it as
a slow, pathetic movement, with melancholy and sweetness
in its train.
In 1723 Bach was appointed cantor of the Thomas-Schule,
in Leipsic, and organist and director of music in the princi-
pal churches. There he remained until his death, in 1T50,
and the organ played by him in the old Thomas-Kirche is
still in use there, and seems to breathe forth suggestions of
the dear master who, even when afflicted by blindness, loved
to spend hours before it, improvising or producing all sorts
of the harmonic changes in which he delighted, and en-
trancing his hearers by some of his grand fugues.
A fugue is a piece of music in which one part after an-
other seems to chase the subject or motive; it is derived
from the Latin fugare, to put to flight, and it is written
Composition of the Fugue. 61
according to a fixed plan, and involves all sorts of harmonic
forms, which you will the better appreciate with a further
study of thorough-bass. What are known as canon, imita-
tion, and double counterpoint are included in it. There is
first a subject started ; then what is called the answer ; then
the counter-subject ; then the stretto, which is an imitation
of the subject, but in closer time, and is supposed to give a
sort of sweep to the climax. After this may be added what
is called a codetta, which is a little "tail-piece," as it were,
and gives a greater idea of finish or completeness — an epi-
sode and a code, which is a larger kind of codetta.
There are fixed rules to be observed in the composition
of the fugue, but their details would not come within the
limits of our present purpose ; some you may remember
when you begin the real study of harmony, and may as well
be given now.
When the subject has the tonic, the answer should have
the dominant ; when the subject has the third of the tonic,
then the answer must have the third of the dominant, and
vice versa, and so on. When the fugue is in the minor, and
the subject has the interval of the diminished seventh, that
interval must come in unchanged in the answer. In either
major or minor, if the subject goes from the dominant to
the sub-dominant in the upper octave, the answer must con-
stitute the interval of an octave. Now, would it not be a
62 The Story of Music
profitable employment to make a little of this out on jonr
piano, and make notes of the same in your mauu script- book
with a line or two from some characteristic gavotte and
fugue — just enough to clearly indicate in, musical writing
the main rules to be employed..
Still another form of famous music is specially associated
with the name of John Sebastian Bach. This is what we
know as the Passion music.
I was staying once in, a little sea-bound village just on
the borders of Spain, and there I became very much inter-
ested in talking with two of the country people : one was a
pretty young peasant woman of the Basque race;; the other
a lad, also a Basque, who spent mosfe of his time fishing..
From them I heard a great deal about the curious allegori-
cal and religious performances which from time to time-
they had taken part in. These were plays given in the?
public squares at certain seasons. The characters were usu>
ally chosen from the Bible, and the plot of the play, or
rather its chief idea, would be some biblical scene.
From time immemorial these plays had been given, and
the ideas of the people were too simple to make them wish,
the custom altered. No form of dramatic or musical rep*
resentation is older, and so we ought to have great respect
for them, knowing they have come down from very pious,
early times.
Passion Music. 63
In some ways the Passion music, which I hope we will
how hear every year in America, has its origin in the same
feeling which influenced the writers of those early Christian
plays ; and although its form varies now very much, it still
keeps the original idea — that of describing in music the
story of the Passion of our Lord.
We use music for so many lighter purposes that some-
times people shrink from the idea of associating it with
anything BO sacred. Yet> after all, what art is more fitting
to speak to us of what ought to be dearest to our hearts ?
The grand and simple story of His life is not any less beau-
tiful because we listen to it sung by pure voices with the
accompaniment of harmonious sounds.
Passion music seems to have had its origin in the fourth
century, when S. Gregory Nazianzen first prepared it in
real form. None of this music is preserved, but we know
that it was very widely sung in the early Church.
A great many different ideas followed these first ones
down to the time of the Reformation. Finally the idea of
a more perfect form of Passion music worked its way on to
about 1728, when Sebastian Bach conceived the idea of
writing a complete Passion oratorio. His plan was to give
the exact words of the Gospel as far as possible, with good
choruses, some recitatives, and four-part chorales.
The great musician succeeded almost beyond his own
64 The Story of Music and Musicians.
expectations. It is impossible to describe the tremendous
and sublime effect of this great work. It is written for two
orchestras and two choirs ; it seems to contain every variety
of musical expression, and the whole thing breathes such a
purely devotional spirit that it is like the prayer of some
strong Christian heart.
Bach was at the time organist of the old church of St.
Thomas, in Leipsic, as well as cantor of the school, and so
he had every opportunity of bringing out his work in per-
fection. It was produced for the first time on Good-Friday,
1729. Between the two parts a sermon was preached, and
it is recorded that the entire service produced a wonderful
effect upon all present.
But later the interest in his marvellous music seemed to
flag. For a century it lay untouched ; and as it will un-
doubtedly continue to be given in America, I think the story
of how it was unearthed will prove interesting to the young
musicians whom I am addressing.
During the winter of 1827 Felix Mendelssohn, then about
eighteen years of age, was living in Berlin, in his father's
household. It was a charming one, the brothers and sisters
being united by affection and many sympathies. They
seem to have been equally fond of music, painting, and lit-
erature. Naturally such a delightful young circle drew into
it many agreeable friends. Felix's chosen companion waa
Edward Devrient. 65
Edward Devrient, an artist whose voice was exquisite, and
whose knowledge of music was quite equal to that of Felix's.
Every Saturday Devrient and other friends used to meet
at Felix's home to practise vocal music; and as Felix had
a great enthusiasm for " old Bach," he one day suggested
their trying the Passion music, which was unknown, except
in name, even to these ardent students. So they began
upon it, and their enthusiasm grew as they learned, page
after page, the various parts, as Devrient says, filling them
with new reverence for the Bible story.
It occurred to Devrient to produce the music in public.
The little circle was startled by such a venturesome idea.
Mendelssohn declared it would be a failure. Old Zelter,
his teacher, was the most influential musician in Berlin, and
Felix well knew how much opposition he would have to
expect from him.
But Devrient persisted. He knew that if Felix once un-
dertook it all would go well. At last the two friends de-
cided to go to Zelter and see what he would say to their
plan. Devrient has left a very entertaining description of
this interview.
Zelter lived in the Musical Academy ; they found him at
home, but sitting with his long pipe in a cloud of smoke.
Out of this he looked at the two young men, exclaiming,
66 The Story of Music and Musicians.
" Why, how is this ? What do two such fine young fellows
want with me at this early hour?"
" Now," writes Devrient, " I began my well-studied speech
about our admiration of Bach, whom we had first learned to
prize under his guidance. . . . He enlarged upon the difficul-
ties of the work, which required resources such as existed
in the Thomas-Schule when Bach himself was cantor there —
the necessity for a double orchestra and double chorus. . . .
He became excited, rose, put aside his pipe, and began walk-
ing about the room. We, too, rose. Felix pulled me by
the sleeve; he thought nothing more could be done."
But Devrient persisted, and finally Zelter agreed "to
speak a good word for them." When they left the room
Felix laughingly called his friend an arch-rascal. "Any-
thing you like, for the honor of Sebastian Bach," exclaimed
Devrient, as they went into the street.
They began the rehearsals, the arrangement of the score,
all the fascinating, though severe, labors which belong to
the preparation of any such work. When they went to en-
gage the solo singers, " Felix," says Devrient, " was child
enough to insist on our being dressed exactly alike."
They wore " blue coats, white waistcoats, black neckties,
black trousers, and yellow gloves," the fashionable attire of
the time ; but an. idea may be had of how economically a
young German lad of that period was brought up by Devri-
JOHN SEBASTIAN BACH.
Revival of the Passion Music. 67
ent's story that, Felix's pocket-money having run out, lie
loaned him a thaler (about one dollar) to buy his gloves,
upon which Madame Mendelssohn was quite displeased,
saying, "Young people should not be assisted to extrava-
gance."
It was just one hundred years since Bach's music had last
been heard, and this idea filled the two young men with en-
thusiasm. They could think and talk of nothing else. One
day, as they crossed the Opern Platz, Felix stood still, sud-
denly exclaiming, " To think that it should be an actor
[Devrient] and a Jew that give back to the people the
greatest of Christian works !"
The performance was in every way successful. Zelter's
prejudices vanished, and all Berlin went wild over this re-
vival of an interest in Bach. A second concert was called
for, and in other towns the music began to be studied and
produced. What seems to me best worth recording of this
is the fact that by perseverance in the right direction these
two young men did a lasting favor to all the world.
Devrient sang the part of Christ. He says of it : " Deep-
ly affected by the work as it proceeded, I sang with my
whole soul and voice, and believed that the thrills of devo-
tion that ran through my veins were also felt by the rapt
hearers."
Truly, as Devrient says, we owe thanks to that year 1829,
5
68 The Story of Music and Musicians.
in which the "light of Bach's greatest music" was given
to us.
At Felix Mendelssohn's funeral, in 1847, Devrient must
have had sad and sweet memories of this time of their youth.
Among the various selections of sacred music sung on that
occasion the final chorus of the Passion music, " We sat
down in tears," was given with most solemn effect.
Growth of Counterpoint. 69
CHAPTER V.
Rhythm and Time.— Bach's Developments. — A Simple Explanation. —
Keys and their Families. — A Bach Fugue. — Minor Scales. — Modula-
tions.— Accidentals. — A few Words about Signatures. — Why Handel
and his Contemporaries discarded the lowest Note of the Signature.
THE growth of counterpoint was not a very rapid one,
and various composers strove to perfect it, working out by
means of their own genius and technical ability certain mat-
ters connected with it which, in the beginning, were very
often too confused to be of much service to the student.
John Sebastian Bach devoted his attention earnestly, as you
have seen, to certain points in harmony. To the question
of time he gave much attention ; and as with this came a
necessity for rhythm, and as he united to his studies in this
direction that of a careful regard for the keys in which his
works were written, his compositions afford the young stu-
dent admirable opportunity for thoughtful and interesting
work.
In ancient music time or rhythm was determined with-
out any bars being marked or drawn across the stave. The
value of the notes determined the rhythm, but, as can readi-
70 The Story of Music and Musicians.
ly be imagined, this gave rise to much confusion, and in the
sixteenth century Henry Lawes was the first English musi-
cian who regularly made use of bars in his composition. It
was only after this period that rhythm in music began to
be regularly understood, and it is well for us, in the very
beginning of musical practice or study, to thoroughly un-
derstand the meaning of all such terms — a just comprehen-
sion of them being most useful to any pianist; my own
belief being that the very knowledge of the origin and
meaning even of a bar line, or of the length of a single
note, may influence the student's performance; for directly
the spirit of harmony and of melody together is infused into
the work, new lights seem to come upon it, and we can no
longer be simply imitators or perform mechanically with a
view to making a fine effect only, for the higher and at the
same time more technical meanings of the page before us
are understood. Rhythm has been defined in various ways,
but it may be said to be the metre of music. The intervals
of steps and half steps have been given a specified value in
order to produce the sounds with regard to harmony and
melody, and to create what is known as time. Time in
music is an expression of rhythm, and rhythm is the " sys-
tematic grouping of notes with regard to duration." To
rhythm time and accent stand in the same relation, so an
admirable authority tells us, that metre bears to quantity in
Rhythm. 71
poetry. When we speak of the fine rhythm of any compo-
sition, we mean that the composer has arranged his musical
ideas in a graceful manner. The spirit of the work depends
largely upon the swing or rhythm which the composer sug-
gests, and which it is the part of the player to appreciate
and express. This being addressed to young pianists, I
dwell more upon the sentiment in the meaning of the word
than its more purely technical definition. To give this
swinging rhythmical utterance in your music, and at the
same time to preserve directly the time in which the work
is written, should be a never-failing effort on the part of
all real students, however moderate their ambition or per-
formance. When you use a term, however, in its strictly
critical sense, be careful to thoroughly understand its mean-
ing. There is no trace of rhythm in barbarous music. The
different masses of notes, so to speak, which are arranged or
divided by time into groups of equal duration, did not exist
in any fashion sufficiently orderly in ancient days to have a
rhythmical meaning. No one verse, so to speak, in music
was begun and ended completely enough, or with sufficient
system, to make this possible. Accent and time were nec-
essary before rhythm could be in use. When the upper
figure which marks the time in which a piece is to be played
is an even number it is in direct rhythm, and the leading
accent always comes on the first beat of each measure. The
72 The Story of Music and Musicians.
secondary accent occurs when the movement in which a
piece is played is moderately quick, and falls on the middle
of the bar. When the movement is very slow, you may
often subdivide these accents. If it be very quick, a pri-
mary accent may only fall upon every other bar ; but much
of this must be determined by the musical taste and feeling
of the player. When, however, a piece begins with a frac-
tion of a bar, the utmost care must be taken in regard to
the accents employed. Every dot or rest is of consequence
in reading or playing, and belongs to the study of rhythm ;
to read or play " following the marks" strictly is considered
an evidence of what may be called good breeding in music,
and should be taken into consideration by every student
from the first note of the first piece learned. The gavotte,
as I have told you, begins almost always on the third beat
of the bar, ending with a half bar containing a quarter note.
Study even a few lines of one of Bach's gavottes with dis-
tinct reference to time and rhythm, taking it as you would
so much poetry, and you will have the best example needed
for our subject. And for the study of key-notes, with the
tonic, the dominant, and, at the same time, the interval of
the diminished seventh, nothing could be better than one
of Bach's simplest fugues.
When we speak of the key in which any piece of music is
written, we mean a "family of tunes," as it were, which are
, Importance of the Tonic. 73
all in a fixed state of relationship to one leading tone, which
is called the key-note, or, better still, the key-tone. For ex-
ample, if a piece of music is said to be in the " key of C,"
it means that C is the key-tone from which the piece is built
up ; and as each key has its own progressions — family laws
and rights and meanings — so each must have its family
name. In writing music, of course all sorts of rules must
be observed in regard to these different families. By fol-
lowing them strictly harmony is preserved, the sounds are
perfect, the strains pleasing in proportion to the care paid
all these many laws of music ; and while the young student
cannot expect to appreciate fully all these, there should be
an earnest desire to understand leading principles.
A scale of any kind presents the material of a key, and
the leading note or tone is the key-note or key-tone, called
the tonic. All keys are either major or minor, and two
have been chosen as the models on which all others are
formed — C in the major, A in the minor. The pitch may
be different in different keys, but, as you will see, the struct-
ure or manner of building your tone ladder up is exactly
the same in all major keys and in all minor keys.
Now, then, the tonic is of the greatest importance, as,
without knowing that, we would not have any idea in what
key any piece of music was written ; and in order to pre-
serve the unity of sound, the finish of any melody is always
74 The Story of Music and Musicians.
on the tonic note, or else on the major or minor, third or
the fifth, and in the close of the piece, if in a chord, the
lowest note must be the tonic.
The next tone of importance to your key is the domi-
nant. Using C as our model, take the fifth from that, i. e.,
G, and you have the dominant. The chord of the domi-
nant is the controlling chord, because, in making the modu-
lation from one key to another, the moment you reach the
dominant you are the same as in the key, and it is the chord
which exercises most influence over the progression. The
sub-dominant is t\\Q fourth from the key-note going up;
reverse it, or turn it down, and it is the fifth. (Exercise
this upon your piano, and it will become clear to you at
once.)
Now, then, each family of tones of course has its rela-
tions. When we speak of a related key, we mean one in
which there is but one note of difference. For example,
take your key of C. G is its related key, because there is
in the scale of G but one note of difference, F sharp.
F natural is a related key of C, because there is only the
difference of B flat, and these keys work in harmony to-
gether, although of course, by making your progressions
properly, you pass from them into every other.
Now, for a little bit of study go back to your fugue of
old Bach. If the subject has the tonic, or begins with it,
Formation of the Scale. 75
what is the answer ? Study this out easily and carefully, as
a means of impressing the significance of the terms upon
your mind.
The minor scale is formed in the following fashion : Ev-
ery major scale, to begin with, has its relative minor, and
that minor of course must have its tonic or key-note. To
determine this you must count down from the key-note of
the major scale three half steps, otherwise to a minor third.
For example, take the key of G. Three half steps below
you have your minor third, which is E; therefore E is the
tonic or key-note of the relative minor of G, and it starts
the scale known as E minor. If a piece is written in the
minor, however, the signature is precisely the same as in
the major. For instance, in this case, the key being G ma-
jor, there would be one sharp, F, in the signature. To de-
termine, however, that the piece is in the minor, see whether
the major seventh from the key-note of E is not always
raised, otherwise D sharp, as this is invariably the case in
all minor scales.
Take now the key of C ; count down three half steps,
you have A; A, therefore, is the prime unison or tonic of
your minor scale. Now let us see how the scale is formed,
remembering that all minor scales are built up on the same
principle. B, which is a major second, follows; next C,
which is a minor third; D, a perfect fourth ; E, a perfect
76 The Story of Music and Musicians.
fifth ; F, a minor sixth ; G sharp, an accidental, and your
major seventh ; and A of course the octave. Now you will
observe that the seventh, by what is called a chromatic al-
teration, is always made major, raising it a half step. In
playing a minor scale up from the lower note to the upper,
no one plays the minor sixth, for the simple reason that it
is hard for voices and impossible for some instruments to
take it, and for this reason it is made major; otherwise F
sharp in the key we are considering, because that augmented
second from F natural to G sharp is very difficult for voices
to reach accurately, and it would be impossible, as I say. for
certain instruments. Returning, however, in the descent of
the scale, this does not apply> so you may play your scale
correctly, according to the given rule of harmony ; for in-
stance, using your G sharp and F natural.
Now, if this sounds very puzzling it will be a proof that
in your study of the intervals you have not sufficiently im-
pressed upon your mind exactly the meaning of the term
used, or learned how to calculate your degrees, and it will
be an excellent evidence to you of the necessity of taking
things slowly and carefully, and thoroughly understanding
each division of your labor as far as you go.
The minor is employed with admirable effect by all com-
posers, deepening the melancholy, sentiment, pathos, or inten-
sity of their work, and in some themes being indispensable.
Illustrations of Signature. 77
Take your twelve scales, and you will find that they are
all built up on precisely the same rules.
When a piece is written partly in one key and partly in
another, it is said to be modulated, but in any and every
case it must return to the original key, and all the notes
which do not by rights belong to the key — the flats and
sharps which would occur in the key that it goes into for
a while — are written and are called accidentals. Occasion-
ally the key into which the piece changes is sufficiently
remote from the original to make it worth while to entire-
ly alter the signature ; for example, supposing the key be
E-flat major, your signature would be thus :
tJ
Modulating or changing to E major, the signature would be
altered thus:
The original flats would be cancelled or turned into natu-
rals. When the modulations are only into a very nearly
related key — for instance, into the key of the dominant,
which is, you know, the fifth from the tonic — then no alter-
ation is needed, for the accidentals would be so few. For
this reason we find the second movement of a sonata in the
dominant requires no change in the signature.
The Story of Music and Musicians.
The following shows you a table of the sharp and flat
signatures now in use :
r-fr* jtt.T
G Major.
D Major. A Major.
E Major. B Major.
* G-Flat Major. D-Flat Maj. A-FlatMaj. E-Flat Maj. B Flat Maj. F Maj.
Some composers in the last century dropped the last sharp
or flat in the signature, and marked it throughout the piece
as an accidental. The reason given by good critics for this
is that they desired thereby to call the attention of the
player more particularly to it, as it is regarded as the most
necessary note in the signature, and without that you could
not distinguish the key from the one just preceding it. For
example, in the key of D flat the last flat, G, is the only one
which distinguishes it from its predecessor, A flat, and it is
accordingly of greatest importance. Part of the " Messiah "
is written out in the way I have mentioned, leaving out this
essential note in the signature. An excellent suggestion for
your musical note -book would be the mention of certain
pieces where the signatures vary. Give the original key,
mention the modulations, the accidentals, etc., and especially
note the use of major or minor.
George Frederick Handel. 79
CHAPTER VI.
George Frederick Handel. — An English Country-house. — A Young
Lady's Impressions of the great Composer in 1711. — "Tweedledum
and Tweedledee." — "Rinaldo" and other Operas. — A Friendly Cote-
rie.— "The Harmonious Blacksmith." — "Mr. Handel" in Dublin. —
Mr. Dubourg. — The First Performance of the "Messiah." — Last Days.
— Definition and History of the Oratorio.
ONE May morning, in the year 1711, the drawing-room
of an English house not far from Windsor Castle presented
an animated appearance. A distinguished visitor was ex-
pected, and the three young ladies of the family, attired in
their best flowered chintzes, and with their most approved
of company manners, were gathered in the large bow-win-
dow, quite breathless with anxiety as to how this morning
call would be on all sides enjoyed. One of the daughters
of the house had been in Germany attached to the Hano-
verian court, where she had made the acquaintance of the
guest now expected, George Frederick Handel, the musi-
cian and composer, who is perhaps best known to-day for
his famous oratorio of the " Messiah."
When George I. became King of England he continued
his interest in Handel, and was the means of inducing the
8o The Story of Music and Musicians.
musician to visit his adopted country, and the eldest Lady
G , having met her former teacher drinking tea at Wind-
sor, an invitation for a morning at her father's country-
house quickly followed ; and we may fancy a flutter among
these simple maidens, whose musical ability was of the most
limited order, and who, from what they had heard, were in-
clined to feel rather afraid of the burly, hot-tempered gen-
ius just then absorbed in writing Italian opera music, which
was all that the fashionable world of London in that day
cared for. Young Lady G had passed a morning with
the daughters of the Prince of Wales, whom Mr. Handel
was teaching to write music, and I have no doubt that the
young people enjoyed a little gossip over the two factions
into which society was then divided. Operas were quite a
novelty. Fine ladies and gentlemen crowded the green-
rooms of the opera-house, chatted and talked at the wings
as if they were in a drawing-room. Fashion governs nearly
everything, and Handel, whose soul was full of grand ideas,
had to content himself at first with working upon an opera
in order to please the public. He wrote " Rinaldo" in four-
teen days, and it was produced at Drury Lane with a splen-
dor that created great excitement throughout London. We
never hear the opera of "Kinaldo " now, but one of its airs is
very beautiful. " Lascia ch' io Pianga" lingers in the heart
of every one who hears it.
GEORGE FREDERICK HAXDEL.
Handel and Buononcini. 83
As soon as he became famous, and very much the fashion,
Handel roused the jealousy of petty people, and opinions
differed to such an extent that society actually took sides-
one favoring a distinguished musician named Buononcini,
and the other Handel. The war raged, and during it a wit
and poet named John Byron wrote the following verse,
which has since been famous :
"Some say, as compared to Buononcini,
That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny;
Others aver that he to Handel
Is scarcely fit to hold a candle.
Strange all this difference should be
'Twixt tweedledum and tweedledee."
The Ladies G belonged no doubt to the " tweedle-
dum " faction, and so we may fancy Mr. Handel received
in this quaint drawing-room where I took a cup of tea not
long ago, and heard the story — with all the pretty airs and
formality of the period. Presently he is led away to the
music-room, where was a fairly good organ, upon which he
performed, greatly to the delight of his hostess and her fam-
ily, and no doubt with much more enjoyment for himself
than if he had been obliged to exchange compliment and
pretty nothings in the drawing-room below. That the visit
was considered an honor, indicating the feelings towards the
musician, is shown by the entry in young Lady G 's
84 The Story of Music and Musicians.
diary, and which, in faded characters, seems to bring up a
pleasant scene of the past :
" This morning came Dr. Handel, the great musician. He
played on the organ for us, and we were in a state of great
joy all the time. L could hardly keep from crying,
but I know not whether it was most with the musicke or
the honor. He says the Prince of Wales's daughters have
a very pretty talent for musicke, and one of them pleases
him much."
Far back of this time, however, Handel could remember
a childhood in which his music had to find utterance under
protest. He was born on February 23, 1685, in Halle, Sax-
ony. His father was a good surgeon, but he abhorred mu-
sic. As soon as little George Frederick began to show an
aptitude for it his father took him away from school, lest
any one of his companions should teach him his notes.
Whether among the teachers or scholars I do not know,
but the boy found a friend who gave him a little dumb
spinet, and this he secreted in an attic, contriving not only
to learn his notes from it, but to use his fingers in prac-
tising. Still his father opposed him ; but at last his genius
was made evident owing to an accidental visit.
The elder Handel was invited to visit his son, who was in
the service of the great Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, and
young George, knowing that music was always to be heard,
Handel to receive a Musical Education. 85
if not learned, in that place, determined to accompany bis
parent. Dr. Handel set out in his carriage, but after the
first mile looked around to discover his little son running,
as bard as his small legs would carry him, after the carriage.
At this the father's heart relented ; the child was picked up,
and, promising to behave well, taken to the castle, where tbe
duke was willing enough to allow him to remain for a day
or two.
In the old castle many of the inmates were musical, and
the boy, left much to his own devices, soon made friends
with them, and obtained easy access to tbe music-rooms and
the cbapel organ. One afternoon, the services being ended,
little Handel sprang on to the stool before the organ and
commenced playing, unconscious that the duke was linger-
ing below. His astonishment and delight were great when
he was summoned to the duke's presence, and his father
sent for to explain why musical advantages had not been
given him. After this there could be no question as to the-
boy's future.
Old Dr. Handel gave his consent to his son's musical ed-
ucation, and almost from that moment George Frederick
Handel became known as a musician.
I cannot tell you anything more of his childhood or his
youth but that he studied hard, and, like all 'geniuses, was
humble while be was learning.
6
86 The Story of Music and Musicians.
We must skip over many years to the time when he went
to England, for there he produced his greatest work, and to
this day the English reverence him as their own. He had
visited Italy, and in Venice met the best musicians of the
day. Of this winter an amusing anecdote is related. The
carnival season was at its height, and Handel being masked
at a certain ball, seated himself uninvited at the harpsichord
and began playing, improvising so that his identity would
not be known. The crowd of masks were not attracted
especially until suddenly a brilliant figure appeared in one
of the door-ways and stood transfixed by the music. This
was Scarlatti, son of the first great musician of that name,
and himself the leading harpsichordist in Italy. After a
few moments' silence he strode across the room, calling
out, " This is either the devil or the Saxon /" Handel
being known throughout Venice as "The dear Saxon"
(II caro Sassone). Handel removed his mask, Scarlatti
doing the same, and from that moment the two were firm
friends.
A few years later we find him in England, where, having
written his opera of "Rinaldo," he was obliged to arrange
it all for the harpsichord, and throughout the length and
breadth of the country it was played. Perhaps no musical
composer's work — unless it be that of the writers of the
English opera to-day — ever was so generally played, sung,
The Famous Dead March. 87
whistled, danced to, marched by, or buried with as was Han-
del's during the period of his English popularity.
Handel made friends, or perhaps I should say associates,
wherever he found appreciation of music, and so, in a long
room over a table in Clerkenwell Green, he had many a
delightful morning of music with congenial friends, none
the less appreciated because they were entertained by one
Thomas Britton, the owner of the stables, a coal-heaver who
had a passion for music, and delighted in welcoming Han-
del, for whom he procured a chamber- organ and various
stringed instruments, he himself performing very well on a
viol de gamba. A painter of the day sketched the coal-
heaver and his guests, and made a picture of one evening's
scene there when Handel was playing " The Harmonious
Blacksmith" for such a company as Pope the poet, the
Duchess of Queensbury, Dr. Pepusch, Colley Gibber, Buo-
noncini, and many others of that period of genius and
splendor.
When Handel began to work on his oratorios he had to
contend against a strong feeling. " Saul," in which occurs
the famous Dead March, was produced in 1739. (This
march is noticeable to the student as being one of the few
very stately and solemn pieces of the kind which is written
in a major key.) "Israel in Egypt" followed this, but Han-
del's success in England seemed to have considerably abated.
88 The Story of Music and Musicians.
The Irish papers announced in November, 1741, that "Dr.
Handel arrived in the packet-boat from Holyhead, a gentle-
man universally known by his excellent composition in all
kinds of music.
In Dublin he took people by storm, and be it said to the
credit of the Irish taste in music, which is too slightly ap-
preciated even to-day, that his best work was what attracted
most attention in the city of Dublin. There, on the 13th
day of April, 1742, Fishamber Street was crowded to ex-
cess, the doors of the new music-hall thronged, noblemen
and ladies of "quality" competing eagerly with people of
the middle and even lower classes for places in the concert-
room. On that day, as was announced, "Mr. Handel's new
oratorio, ' The Messiah,' was to be performed for the first
time." It is interesting to us to know that the chief sing-
ers on this first occasion were Mrs. Gibber, Mrs. Avolio, and
Mr. Dubourg. Of the latter an amusing story was told me
by a well-known musical director, who showed me Handel's
pitch-pipe. Dubourg was fond of introducing cadenzas
into his music, whether sung or played. In vain Handel,
as director, tried to keep the artist strictly to his text. At
a special concert, when Dubourg in his most elaborate man-
ner began indulging some fantasies of the kind, Handel
stood up and called out,
"Welcome home, Mr. Dubourg! welcome home again,
Failure of the Oratorio of " Samson'' 89
sir!" which recalled the discomfited Dubourg to his proper
place.
So successful was the oratorio that the whole of Dublin
rang with his praises. The anxiety to obtain places became
so great that the ladies of rank in the capital agreed for the
time being to go without hoops so that an additional num-
ber of people could be admitted in the audience, and Eng-
land, which had for some time neglected and imbittered
the composer, woke to the fact that a very great man in-
deed had been in their midst. Still on his return to Lon-
don a great many in the fashionable world tried to inter-
fere with his success. The oratorio of "Samson" was
produced, but failed, and it was not until 1746-7 when "Ju-
das Maccabaeus" appeared, that the tide seemed to turn in
his favor, and to this day shares some of the perennial hon-
or offered to the "Messiah." "Joshua," "Solomon," "Su-
sanna," and "Theodora," followed this, and Handel was
again on the pinnacle of success.
He lived very quietly, with but few and simple amuse-
ments, smoking his pipe and drinking his beer moderately
with a few intimate friends, and caring but little for the
opinions floating about him. In 1751 he was at work upon
a new oratorio, " Jephthah," and was attacked with that
blindness from which it seems so many famous musicians
have been doomed to suffer. In 1752 his eyesight failed
90 The Story of Music and Musicians.
entirely, but it is said that his nature became much softer,
gentler, and more kindly in every way after this terrible
affliction was pronounced incurable. To all sorts of chari-
table institutions he contributed liberally, and played fre-
quently on the organ at the Foundling Hospital for some
charitable purpose. He had no desire to have his life pro-
longed ; on the contrary, it is said that during that last year
he frequently expressed a hope that he might die upon
Good -Friday; "in hopes" he said, "of meeting his good
God, his sweet Lord and Saviour on the day of his resur-
rection."
On the 6th of April, 1759, he conducted an oratorio of
the "Messiah" at Covent Garden. Late on Good-Friday
night in the same year he quietly passed away, and so in
his last earthly hour fulfilling his dearest wish, and leaving
behind a record of unfailing Christian goodness, an untiring
devotion to work, and music which will live as long as the
voices and hearts and hearing of any people exist.
The oratorio, strictly speaking, is a sacred poem sung by
soloists and a chorus, and with a full orchestra accompani-
ment, but without any stage or scenic effect, such as scenery,
costume, or dramatic action. In the Middle Ages Scripture
stories were most popular for dramatic representations, and
they undoubtedly were the basis of the oratorio as we have
Emilio del Cavaliere. 91
it to-day. In the fourteenth century the choristers of St.
Paul regularly performed certain miracle plays, as they
were called, in which were fine choruses and some single
part songs, but between that century and the sixteenth very
little progress seems to have been made in them. In the
year 1600 both the oratorio and the opera were presented
in Italy, but as in every other form of composition a great
many changes were made, many new ideas evolved and.
elaborated before Handel in the "Messiah" fairly perfected
the scheme of composition. An Italian composer named
Emilio del Cavaliere was the first composer of an oratorio,
but the musical interest of the day in Italy inclined so
strongly to operatic music that Cavaliere did not follow his
first attempt with anything as remarkable. Handel, how-
ever, seizing upon such suggestions as the Italians of the
centuries preceding had offered, and building largely on
the old forms of mediaeval sacred plays, produced his ora-
torios as you have seen, with a success which time has not
diminished. It is said that should the student be chiefly
interested in the study of the historical oratorio, an Italian
composition of Handel's, " La Resurrezione," will afford the
best example. When Handel wrote it the oratorio had
kept up, so to speak, in development with the opera — by
which I mean that they were treated in point of composi-
tion, arias, and arrangement of melody very nearly in the
92 The Story of Music and Musicians.
same way — but when they received the German spirit, some-
thing more solemn and dignified resulted. Finally, when
that tempestuous, tumultuous, inspired fortnight occurred
in Handel's life, in the year 1741, during which time he
composed the "Messiah," we may consider the oratorio as
perfected. Up to that point choral writing was not based
on any especially stated rules. Handel was free to do with
it what he liked; he had the inspiring words of the Script-
ure to guide him in the composition of choruses such as
never had been listened to before. The orchestra of his
day, although different from ours, was a fine one, and well
suited to Handel's purpose, and in all airs which belong to
what is known as the Cantabile kind he had artistic sense
enough to do away as much as possible with an orchestral
accompaniment, for which reason the finest singers are al-
ways glad of an opportunity to display their powers and
express their highest musical feelings in works like the
"Judas" or the "Messiah." No greater evidence of the
effect of personal feeling in composition can be given than
in the " Messiah." Handel's whole soul was in the work.
When he was writing the exquisitely pathetic and beautiful
movement beginning, "He was despised," the composer
was thoroughly overcome and burst into tears, and it is
related that he spent part of the day playing and reading
such portions of the Testament as belong to the Passion
Grandeur and Simplicity of the "Messiah" 93
of our Lord. When composing the beautiful introduction
to " Comfort ye my people," Handel declared that the con-
stantly repeated major chords which follow the tender, lin-
gering, minor cadences in the overture, spoke to him directly
words of comfort, and so precisely expressed what he most
desired to convey — an impression of the saving power
which Christ's message of consolation was to possess. Take
the score of the "Messiah" after hearing it and go over
certain special portions ; trace out so far as you can the dif-
ferent keys employed, the various striking changes ; see
how wonderfully words and music are made to fit ; try to
read it going step by step from the opening movement to
the last grand "Amen" which, when Handel had written,
it is said, he uttered to himself upon his knees.
Other composers of whom we may speak later composed
famous oratorios, but for grandeur and simplicity none ever
written has exceeded Handel's " Messiah."
94 The Story of Music and Musicians.
CHAPTER VH.
The Story of the Opera. — Count Vernio and his Friends. — A Musical
Centre in Florence. — The First Opera. — Instruments used. — Allesan-
dro Scarlatti. — Stradella. — The Size of the Opera in England. — Henry
Purcell and the Westminster Boys. — An Old Picture. — Gluck and
Marie Antoinette. — Gluck's Boyhood. — Fashion and Art. — Gluck de-
termined to Reform the Spirit of the Opera.— Classical Music, and
how to Define it.
ONE evening towards the close of the sixteenth century,
a number of gentlemen were hurrying up the staircase and
along the corridors of a house in Florence. They were
richly dressed according to the custom of the time, but they
were all students, all deeply absorbed in music, and they
were on their way to the salon of one Giovanni Bardi,
Conte di Vernio, for the purpose of discussing a new idea
in their beloved art. Now, if we followed these gentlemen,
what should we hear and see ? Something very interesting,
yet, from our point of view to-day, very strange. They
were determined to develop opera, yet they had only the
vaguest idea how it should be done.
The opera as we have it at present had so far been un-
heard of, and the only suggestion these Italian gentlemen
Caccini. 95
had for such a form of musical composition was that given
them by the Greek lyrical dramas in the famous theatre of
ancient Athens, where plays were given accompanied by an
orchestra of lyres and flutes. When the "Agamemnon"
was performed every word of the dialogue was declaimed
as musically as possible, and the choruses were sung as well
as was possible at that time. In early English times music,
or recitative, was introduced into the simplest plays usually
performed in the public streets. People in various coun-
tries had been gifted with some perception of the beauty in
combining music and dialogue, but, as I have said, the regu-
lar opera was unknown up to the sixteenth century.
Our Italian gentlemen discussed their new ideas over and
over again before they made definite efforts to put them
into practice. One of the party named Caccini wrote a
series of songs, or " pieces," which he sang at Bardi's house
one evening, accompanying himself on the lute. He had a
beautiful voice, and delighted every one, so that his sugges-
tion of attaching to these songs something dramatic in the
way of action was received with pleasure. Little by little
the idea of a musical drama gathered strength, and one of
the first actual performances of which we read was at Man-
tua in 1594-, when a work called " L' Amfi parnasso " was
given. We who have heard the opera in its perfection
would be, no doubt, greatly amused could we witness "L'Amfi
96 The Story of Music and Musicians.
parnasso " given precisely as it was in Italy towards the close
of that splendid and warmly colored and suggestive century.
There was no overture and no instrumental accompani-
ment of any kind; five singers only took part in it. When
two were on the stage the remaining three stood behind the
scenes singing a kind of accompaniment. Everybody in
Mantua was charmed by this performance, considered en-
tirely novel and very graceful in character, but what would
dear old Master Vecchio, who wrote it, have said had lie
looked ahead nearly three hundred years to the time of the
great Bayreuth festival, where Wagner's operas were pro-
duced with such a wealth of orchestration and so many glo-
rious and superbly trained voices?
Conte Vernio's house was not the only one in Florence
where the new musical impulse was well received and help-
ed on. A nobleman named Corsi received the musicians of
the day, offering them every encouragement, and especially
urging on the work of one Jacopo Peri and Vincent Galileo
—father of the great astronomer — and Caccini. These three
young men were burning with genius, and possessed a great
amount of energy, but it appears that no one of the three
had 'much knowledge of harmony or counterpoint. Cac-
cini, as I have told you, wrote a series of very dramatic
songs, or, as they were called, canzonettes, which were the
basis of music of a more dramatic character. The special
Cor si's "Dafne." 97
importance of this music to the student of to-day lies in the
fact that it was the first written for a single voice, the first
composed for an accompaniment of one instrument,'and, as
may be imagined, it produced a marked effect upon music,
both vocal and instrumental, all over the world. Madrigals
had preceded these canzonettes, and no doubt contained
much more that was more pleasing to the ear than many of
the new songs offered the public by the composers of the
latter part of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seven-
teenth century; but there is no doubt that we owe to the
three musicians I have mentioned the first definite idea for
the music known technically as Monodia, which is a term
from the Greek, single, a song, "and applied by modern
critics to music written in what is sometimes called the ho-
mophonic style; that is to say, music in which the melody
is confined to a single part instead of being equally distrib-
uted between all the voices employed, as in the polyphonic
schools."*
Peri, at the suggestion of Signer Corsi, wrote a work in
the operatic style called " Dafne," "in order," as he says
himself, " to test the effect of the particular kind of melody
which they imagined to be identical with that used by the
ancient Greeks and Romans throughout their dramas, and"
* Grove's Musical Dictionarjr, page 354.
98 The Story of Music and Musicians.
although we are told that " it charmed the whole city " of
Florence, where it was performed, it was not sufficiently
characteristic to create a school of similar composition. I
think it safe to say that the first true Italian opera, on
which all of ours have been founded, was Peri's next work,
"Eurydice," which he composed in honor of the marriage
of King Henry IY. of France with Maria of Medici. The
performance of this opera — the first ever given in public —
took place in the year 1600, and raised the whole of Italy
to enthusiasm. The libretto was written by Kinaccini, and
the noblemen of Florence contended for the honor of per-
forming in it. Behind the scenes Corsi, the liberal patron
of the Florentine art, presided at the harpsichord, while
three noted men of Florence performed on the chitarone, a
very long, deeply-necked lute, with wire strings and two sets
of tuning-pegs (an old chitarone is preserved in the South
Kensington Museum), a viol, and a large lute. Three flutes
were added to this little orchestra. In the library of the
British Museum is a copy of the score of this opera, which,
when I read it, seemed to me to possess much delicacy and
spirit, and I believe that good critics consider it a work of
decided art in spite of Peri's ignorance of many of the
rules of counterpoint.
From this hour the opera was recognized as a form of art
in musical composition, and as the .interest in music, espe-
THE BOY I.UI.I.I.
Alessandro Scarlatti. 99
cially where a dramatic spirit could be added, was beginning
to be felt all over Europe, it progressed and developed rap-
idly, as you may imagine.
It would be impossible in this space to tell you the story
of the opera in detail — how it advanced steadily, in France
reaching a great height, where a composer named Lulli, in
1650, established it among the French people. Lulli had
been brought from Florence as a page in the court of Louia
XIV. He served the king's niece, Mademoiselle de Mont-
pensier, and no doubt he had listened from boyhood to all
the finest music of the day in her boudoir.
Among Italian composers of this early period the man
who seems to me most interesting was Alessandro Scar-
latti. He made striking improvements in the form of the
opera, varied its monotony in many original ways, and,
best of all, insisted upon its being written from a scientific
point of view. Peri and his followers had not cared par-
ticularly for writing according to the strict rules of harmo-
ny. They seemed to have despised the art of counterpoint,
and therefore it is that their work could never live, or do
more than please the uneducated ear. Our debt of grati-
tude to them is for their discovery, as it were, of what could
be done with music and dialogue, and their zeal in carrying
out an entirely novel method, but to Scarlatti we owe the
bringing of science to bear upon this first brilliant suggestion.
ioo The Story of Music and Musicians.
Stradella, a famous contemporary of Scarlatti, wrote in
the operatic style, and at the same time contributed largely
to church music in his day, giving to it a peculiar character,
a certain breadth and melodious form, different from the
more solemn strains of church composers who had preceded
him. Stradella's life was a very sad one, ending tragically.
He was a gentleman of great refinement, but not of high
rank, so that when he became engaged to one of his pupils
whose rank was far above his own it created a greal deal of
excitement in Florence and Venice. Stradella and his fair
pupil were married, and would have lived very happily but
for the fact that assassins constantly pursued him. Once
three of these men tried to kill him. They followed him to
the church of St. John in Home, where he was to sing, but
there, while listening to his heavenly voice, their purpose
changed ; his music dissipated all their blood-thirsty feel-
ings, and they made their escape, afraid to confront their
employers with stainless hands. Stradella, however, was
not destined to escape the vengeance of his wife's friends.
In Genoa both husband and wife were secretly stabbed to
death, no trace of the assassins being found.
Of the rise and progress of the opera in England much
could be said, but I must group only a few facts about some
one centre.
The English seem from very early times to have de-
IN THE CHOIR-SCHOOL AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
Henry Pur cell. 103
lighted in combining music with a certain sort of dialogue.
It was the custom, as I have said, to give performances in
the public streets, the singers standing in large carts, around
which crowds of people collected. With all their grotesque-
ness and absurdity there was a dignity about them which
impressed their rude audiences.
In 1658 was born in London a boy named Henry Purcell.
Music seemed to grow with him. When he was very young
he was put into the choir school at Westminster Abbey,
and it was only the other day I was standing in the old
school -room where the boy Purcell sat, and looking at a
quaint old picture of him which hangs upon the wall.
The Westminster boys were taught music very fairly by
old Cook and Humphries. It must have been a cheerful
life. To-day the school has been enlarged and beautified,
but even then it surely possessed the charm of peace, and
yet great harmonies, for it stands almost in the shelter of
the abbey, and all day long the boys had the dear old clois-
ter to run about in, and twice a day they listened to glori-
ous music on the organ. Purcell grew full of musical fire,
and when he was eighteen he was appointed organist of the
great abbey. He wrote constantly, catches, glees, songs,
and hymns, which to this day are listened to and sung with
delight.
It was when Purcell was about nineteen that he one daj>
7
IO4 The Story of Music and Musicians.
received an invitation from a school-master to call, on mu-
sical business, at his house in Chelsea. Thither he went.
He found a young ladies' school, and an energetic master
who wished his pupils to perform something operatic. So
Pnrcell wrote the music, and Tate the words, of "Dido and
^Encas," a little operetta in which he himself performed,
and which was so successful that henceforth he wrote chief-
ly for the stage.
But all the time everybody in' London was singing or
playing his glees and madrigals. Jn Westminster was a
famous old tavern known as Purcell's Head, and clubs used
to meet there to sing his music. Meanwhile we can fancy
Milton as a youth playing his most solemn music in that
quaint room of his, with its faded hangings and grand
organ, and at the theatre elaborate performances of " The
Tempest," " The Indian Queen," and other plays, to which
was added "Mr. Purcell's musicke."
Those were rollicking and riotous times. Purcell's sweet
music seems to come in with some feeling of soothing
sounds, but had the times been better he would have done
more, I am sure, in his noblest direction. Everything at
court and around it was careless and reckless. Dryden, the
poet, who wrote many of the plays for which Purcell fur-
nished the music, bitterly regretted when he was older that
he had wasted so much time amusing an ungodly people.
Gluck and Marie Antoinette. 105
Purcell seems only to have thought of his music, and cer-
tainly at this date, two hundred years after his death, his
sweetness and charm are as strongly felt. In 1695 he died,
and his tomb is in the abbey where his childish feet so
often passed and repassed, and beneath the organ where he
so often played in his most innocent and most happy years.
When I was a child I used to be very fond of a faded lit-
tle picture which I often saw in an old lady's house. It
hung on a staircase, and going up and down I liked to
stop and look at it, and make up stories about the two peo-
ple in it. The picture represented a fine room, evidently
in a palace. A splendidly dressed young lady, with a tre-
mendous coiffure and a brocaded gown, was seated before a
spinet or old-fashioned piano. Just Jbehind her was a gen-
tleman, also dressed in the fashion of 1770. He seemed to
be teaching her to play. The young lady, I thought, was
charmingly pretty. The gentleman had a strong, rather
stern face, high cheek bones, and a large forehead, but the
look of his eyes was not unkindly. Underneath the picture
was printed in script, with a great many flourishes,
" Gluck and Marie Antoinette"
The little picture was of no special merit as a work of
art, yet it possessed such an extraordinary fascination for
my childish eyes that the other day, when at a concert I
IO6 The Story of Music and Musicians.
listened to some of Gluck's sweetest music, the strains
seemed to bring it back in a flash to my mind's eye. In
imagination I again saw clearly the little ebony frame and
faded tints, the pretty, smiling young dauphiness, and the
grave though kind-hearted master.
That scene was but one from the life of Gluck, who was
famous in the last century for his operas, his social popu-
larity, his grand pupils, and last, but what is best of all, his
being the founder of opera in its most classical form.
On July 2, 1714, Christoph Willibald Bitter von Gluck
was born at Weidenwang. His father was in the service of
a prince, and Christoph had all the musical advantages of
the period, specially those of the Jesuit College at Korri-
motau, where he learned to sing, to play the harpsichord
and the organ and the violin. He early tried his hand at
composition ; his ideas were mainly dramatic, but the opera
of that day was not satisfactory, and you must bear in mind,
when criticising Gluck's early work, that orchestral music,
except in a very few places, was not understood, and at
least the arrangement of the orchestra as we have it now
was not known, and as a rule conductors of the theatre or
concert band played on the harpsichord, keeping time not
too well, for a few instruments which were imperfectly put
together and with but little idea of harmony. Chamber
music consisted chiefly of trios, the quartette not then be-
PAPA HAYDN.
Handel's Advice to Gluck. 109
ing in use, and anything distinctly like a classical composi-
tion in the operatic or dramatic style had not been offered
to the public. Italian music had spread its influence over
the northern countries of Europe, but before Gluck's day
Bach and Handel had created something that was more de-
cidedly German, both in sacred and secular music, and Gluck
himself had strongly German instincts although he studied
in Milan, and before he was of age had written and pro-
duced eight operas in the Italian style.
These were not a great advance on those of other writers,
but Gluck felt quite sure that something much better could
be done, and when in 1736 he went to England, he visited
Handel, who was then prosperous and busy in the court of
George. II.
Gluck was only twenty-two, an eager, restless young man,
with his head full of ideas, and a pocket full of manuscripts.
To old Handel he showed his music and begged for criti-
cism, but Handel would only admit that it "promised well."
But he gave Gluck a most valuable suggestion when he de-
clared that the young composer of the operas should turn
his attention to counterpoint, to something which would
result in a more masterly style. Off went Gluck to Paris,
and there- meeting with much encouragement from the
poets and writers of the day, as well as the royal family,
set to work on a new basis.
HO The Story of Music and Musicians.
The opera, as it was then written, consisted simply of a
series of songs in which the story of the opera was related ;
there were some imperfectly rendered recitations, an or-
chestral accompaniment was unskilfully devised, and, as a
rule, worse performed, but the airs were frequently very
popular, and the whole thing was kept going because it
pleased the public taste. The instinct of genius, however,
could not be satisfied by any work planned and produced
on so irregular and incorrect a model, and Gluck decided
that he could and would reform operatic composition. In
France he obtained suggestions of a fine style of dramatic
recitative ; in Italy his natural taste for melody had been
cultivated, and his experience in England and in Germany
taught him the use of a carefully arranged orchestra.
In one of his letters, translated by Lady Wallace, he
writes : " My purpose was to restrict music to its true office,
that of ministering to the expression of poetry without in-
terrupting the action."
Fashion governed art and music very curiously in those
days. It was in 1746 that there was a rage in England for
what was called the "glasses." This was in reality a har-
monica— an instrument made of glasses, and which, by ap-
plying a finger moistened with water, produced what were
considered agreeable concords. It is odd to think of the
great composer Gluck making his bow before the public
' ' // Parnasso. " in
at the Haymarket Theatre, as a performer oil the musi-
cal glasses. In one of Horace Walpole's famous letters, he
writes of this event as stirring the fashionable world. The
instrument later became very popular, and Mozart and Bee-
thoven did not disdain to write music for it.
Gluck's work went on very steadily, in spite of the con-
troversies of his friends and enemies and his personal an-
noyances. Final success came with his grand opera found-
ed on the mythological story of Orpheus and Eurydice.
I have told you that Gluck reformed the style of the
opera. He modelled his work upon the old Greek ideas
of dramatic art. He felt that so far the opera had been
more like a concert — a mere collection of melodies and bal-
lads; he bent all his energies to making a lyric drama of
operas, and he succeeded.
In Yienna much of his time and his work had to be
given to the princes and princesses, who were his patrons.
On one occasion the royal family performed his opera of
"II Parnasso." About this time he taught the archduchess
Marie Antoinette, and later she wrote from Paris to her sis-
ter, speaking of him as "notre cher Gluck" (our dear Gluck).
It was Gluck who first introduced cymbals and the big
drum into the orchestra. He fought hard over this inno-
vation. His enemies got out satirical pamphlets, in which
his "big noises" were ridiculed, but Gluck went his own
112 The Story of Music and Musicians.
way, determined to carry his point and prove himself right.
Gluck's last opera was " Echo et Narcisse." This was pro-
duced in 1779, and soon after he retired to Vienna, where
he passed his last years among the kindest friends. In
1787 he died suddenly.
The great object of Gluck's life was attained. He made
himself felt in every branch of operatic performance ; he
improved the method, arrangement, and especially its dram-
atic power; he made it a drama, and its music classical.
This word classical, as applied to music, I am sure many
of our young people do not fully understand. To define it
completely would be difficult, but I will try and give you
some idea of what it means.
To be strictly classical a musical composition must be
written according to the standard rules of the art, and with
a subject or theme worthy of the setting. It may be very
simple, it may have but slight elaboration, yet it must con-
tain the elements of true musical inspiration and of musical
art before it is classical. To form any correct judgment as
to what is classically good, you must have some knowledge
of the laws of music, so that you see how useful is the
study of a certain amount of harmony to those who never
aspire to fine performance. You may ask who is to judge
for us whether the subject of a musical work is worthy ?
This has to be decided by the good taste of the person
Music a Useful Study. 1 1 3
who is criticising, and at the same time we can follow
the opinion of the majority of those critics whom the
world allows are best fitted to form such judgments for us.
Our likes and dislikes, of course, need not be governed by
this, nor need music be heavy or labored to be considered
" classical," as so many young people suppose. The airiest
of Bach's gavottes, the most emotional of Beethoven's an-
dantes, the most brilliant of Mendelssohn's overtures — all
of these are as purely classical as the most ponderous and
sublime of symphonies or sonatas. It is doing a good
theme perfect justice which makes a work classical, and a
poor subject, incorrectly treated, is not to be called music,
no matter how much "dash" or "go" or so-called pretti-
ness it may have about it; and the young student of music
ought to be as careful in regard to the choice of his or her
studies as in speaking of a language. To be classical is
simply to be grammatical. "Would you wish to recite a
piece of poetry in a foreign tongue, without any regard to
rhythm, rhyme, or reason, simply because the mere words
in French or German were spoken ? Would not such
a performance seem positively ludicrous? When you can
bring to your musical study the same sensitiveness and ap-
preciation with which you regard the study of a language,
you will find that you care only for what is the best, or, in
other words, the classical.
H4 The Story of Music and Musicians.
CHAPTER VIII.
"Papa Haydn." — What came of a Frolic. — The Wig-maker's House
hold. — The Wandering Minstrels. — "Whose Music is that?" — Sym-
phonies.— What they are. — Haydn's Last Hours.
ONE day, nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, two
elderly gentlemen were dining together in an old house in
Hamburg, Germany ; they were music-masters of note in
those days. Herr Franck was the host ; the guest was
Herr Reuter, capellmeister at Vienna. Their conversation
naturally enough was upon music, the new and the old
musicians, singers and conductors. Suddenly Herr Franck
declared that he had in his house a prodigy, a boy of nine
years of age, whom he had brought up from the country.
He had discovered him in his father's house, singing and
keeping perfect time with two pieces of stick, while his
father, a coach-maker, and his mother accompanied him,
the one with the harp, the other with a vigorous but not
untuneful voice. The Hamburg musician, detecting the
possibilities of something very fine in the child's voice, as
lie sat there singing in the little cottage kitchen, brought
him to Hamburg, where, with a fair share of blows and
YOUNG HAYDN SINGING BEFORE THE TWO GREAT MUSICIANS
Herr Frances Prodigy. 117
scoldings, he was teaching him the divine art of mnsic.
Herr Keuter was delighted by his host's account of the
little genius. The boy was summoned from the kitchen
where he was dining with the cook, and no doubt enjoying
his Sunday pudding with great relish, for he worked hard
and did not fare too well.
I like to think of that picture — of the old wainscoted
dining-room, the grave musicians looking up from their
dinner as the door opens on a small, dark-haired, brown-
skinned boy, a dainty, delicately modelled child, who enters
shyly and stands at a distance from the table, his hands be-
hind him and the head bent down, until his teacher, Herr
Franck, bids him sing. Then the boy's voice breaks all
the bonds of restraint ; back goes his little head and he
sings. It is an irrepressible burst of melody ; up springs
Keuter, the old master, exclaiming, " He shall come to my
choir ; he is just what I want."
This was a wonderful step onward for the child. But
Keuter little knew the future of the boy whom he took
that day, and never dreamed that his name, Francis Joseph
Haydn, would be famous two centuries later in every civ-
ilized country of the world, and best known as that of the
founder of the modern symphony.
Reuter carried young Haydn off to Vienna, where he
was placed in the cathedral choir, and where his sweet
n8 The Story of Music and Musicians.
young voice, a marvellous soprano, filled all the town with
delight. His parents gave him freely in charge to old
Renter. But the master was selfish and exacting. The boy
longed to compose, but Reuter refused to allow him to take
lessons in composition, and made him give his whole time
to choir practice. Haydn had very little money, but he
hoarded every penny for a long time, and when he was
thirteen years old he purchased two treatises on music, and
having studied them diligently, actually composed a mass.
I do not suppose it was very fine music, but at all events
it showed a great desire for work, and it was too bad that
Reuter should have roared with laughter over it, and given
the eager boy no encouragement. It seems as though from
that time the old master was determined to thwart and an-
noy his pupil. The lad found choir- work a slavery, but did
not know how to free himself. A piece of idle mischief
led to his escape. One day in a frolic he cut off the tail of
the wig of a singer in the choir. Reuter flew into a rage,
turning Haydn out then and there, actually expelling him
from choir, board, and lodging. It was a cruel winter's
night. The lad wandered about the streets of Vienna, un-
til he remembered the one person who had ever encour-
aged him. This was a barber named Keller, and to his
humble abode Haydn directed his steps. Keller gave him
a cordial welcome, though he had but little to offer: a loft
Haydn s Early Life. 1 19
— in which, however, stood an old harpsichord — and a seat
at his simple table. In the wig- maker's family Haydn
went joyfully to work. He had some sonatas of Bach's,
he picked up odd bits of music here and there, mastered
the science of those who had gone before him, and though
often cold and hungry, was never cheerless. Now and then
he went into the shop, where Keller and his daughter Anne
were at work on wigs, and where Haydn's assistance was
quite acceptable. Anne Keller was a plain, dull girl, who
knew nothing of the great art of her father's lodger, yet
Haydn was grateful for her rough sort of kindness to him.
He became engaged to her, and later, when he was more
prosperous, married her.
It was not long before the young musician had made a
circle of friends. He played on the violin and the organ,
sometimes in the churches and occasionally in the salons of
some great ladies, but his chief enjoyment was a little club
of wandering minstrels. They were a band of enthusiastic
youths who wandered about Vienna on moonlight nights to
serenade famous "musicians.
One night they directed their steps to the house of Herr
Curtz, the leader of the Opera. Under his windows they
began one of Haydn's compositions, the young musician's
violin slowly filling the moonlit garden with melody. No
demonstration from old Curtz was expected, but suddenly
1 20 The Story of Music and Musicians.
a window was flung open, out came Curtz's bead, and his
voice screamed to know who was playing.
Back came the answer, " Joseph Haydn."
" Whose music is it ?"
" Mine."
Down came Curtz, collared the astonished young man,
and brought him up-stairs to a big, candle-lit room, where
stood a fine piano littered with music. There, when the
two had regained their breath, Curtz explained that he
wanted Haydn to compose some music for a new libretto
he had written. Now this was certainly an important mo-
ment. Haydn sat down to the piano, banged away, tried
various ideas, and at last hit upon the right thing. Before
daylight he had arranged with Curtz for the music, for
which he was promised one hundred and thirty florins.
It was his first real success, and from that moment pros-
perity attended him. He wrote his first symphony when he
was twenty-eight, in the year 1759. Soon after he received
an appointment in the household of Prince Esterhazy, where
his duty was a curious one. He was obliged to have a piece
of music ready to lay on his patron's breakfast-table every
morning. This may seem drudgery, but in reality these
years were among the happiest of Haydn's life, marred only
by his marriage with the barber's daughter, Anne Keller,
whose wretched temper at last forced him to separate from
• .." • "Papa Haydn" 121
her. He cared for her tenderly, however, and she was well
content with her lot in life.
Around Haydn, in England, France, and Germany, a band
of young musicians gathered, eager to watch his develop-
ments in music. Among them Mozart, then a very youth-
ful composer, was not only the greatest genius but the most
interesting figure. He it was who gave to the master that
endearing title of "Papa Haydn," whereby he was and even
now is tenderly and familiarly known. Between the two
men existed the most touching friendship, broken only by
Mozart's early death.
I have told you that Haydn was the founder of the sym-
phony as we know it to-day. Strictly speaking, the sym-
phony is a long and elaborate composition for a full orches-
tra ; arranged for a piano it suggested wind and stringed in-
struments, and if properly played gives a fine idea of all the
orchestral effects produced. Any number of instruments
may be employed in its execution, and voices are occasion-
ally added. The movements of the symphony are four:
the allegro, the andante or adagio, the minuet or scherzo,
and the allegro or presto. Two themes or subjects, or we
might say ideas, are employed in the first movement, and
these are given in two different keys, the theme working
back and forth, up and down, returning to the original key
with grace or strength or brilliancy, or it may be a pathos
122 The Story of Music and Musicians.
which belongs to certain progressions from the minor to
the major and vice versa. Once the symphony was start-
ed, it, as you may readily imagine, suggested innumerable
improvements in the orchestra of the day; consequently
Haydn's work was not alone that of composition, but of
development for musicians in different ranks, and when
finally produced, his work created by its demands a supply
of good material in the orchestra which was speedily forth-
coming.
Not alone upon the symphony did Haydn work. His
oratorio, " The Creation," was composed in 1799, and his
quartettes and concertos are of a superior order.
With a performance of " The Creation " in 1809 is asso-
ciated one of the last scenes of Haydn's life.
The public of Vienna wished to pay their honored musi-
cian a tribute, and so the oratorio was given with every
possible brilliancy of effect and performance. Haydn was
an old man, and very feeble, and he was obliged to be car-
ried into the theatre; but there he sat near his dear friend
Princess Esterhazy, while all eyes turned lovingly and rev-
erently towards him.
When the music reached that part in which the words
" Let there be light" occur, Haydn rose, and pointing heav-
enward said, aloud, "It comes from thence;" and indeed all
knew that the master's work was always a subject of prayer
Death of Haydn. 123
and humble supplication that he might be able to do the
best for the good of all.
After that evening Haydn never left his house. He grew
feebler daily, but suffered little pain. One day, when he
was thought to be past consciousness, he suddenly rose from
his couch, and by a superhuman effort reached the piano.
There, in a voice which yet held the cadences of the boy
chorister of long ago, he sang the national hymn, and so,
his hands dropping on the keys, he was carried gently to
his bed and to his peaceful death. This was in May, 1809 :
Francis Joseph Haydn, born in 1732, died in his seventy-
eighth year.
124 The Story of Music and Musicians.
CHAPTER IX.
The Story of the Sonata. — Suites and Madrigals.— Corelli's "Work. — Anec-
dote of Handel in Rome. — "C Major." — The Movements of the So-
nata Explained and Defined.— Old Dances and Dance Tunes. — What
the Minstrels and Soldiers of the Sixteenth Century Introduced.— Min-
uets.— Scherzos.
THE history of the sonata is one which I am sure all
young students who enjoy their work could read in detail
with both profit and much entertainment, for it belongs to
a most picturesque and interesting period in musical art.
At the end of the sixteenth century a great desire arose
among musical enthusiasts to create some form of music
which would express feelings of various kinds. Up to that
time the grandest form of composition had been used only
in church-music, and while these earnest individuals had no
desire to detract from the power and beauty of such music,
they considered rightly enough that a refining influence in
society would be music which appealed more to their hu-
man sentiments than those inspired only by the solemnity
of religious ceremonial. The opera and the cantata had
been received, and although by no means perfect were suc-
cessful ; but an elaborate form of composition such as be-
The Sonata. 125
came known later under the name of sonata, was not known
until the end of the sixteenth century. Even then such
pieces were much more simple than the sonata as we see
it one hundred and fifty years later ; the sonata, indeed,
which Beethoven finally perfected and handed down to us.
Originally, about 1620, the sonata consisted of but one
movement, and seems to have come from the madrigals of
that period. What were called suites often formed a sug-
gestion for those early sonatas, for which reason we find
that the names applied to different parts of such a work
closely resemble those used for the dance tunes of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. When written for
church-music, as it was in that day, the sonata consisted of
slow, solemn movements, but the sonata as we have it to-
day must consist of four movements. The drama also sug-
gested some of the musical ideas used in its formation, and
there is no doubt that it at one time was used as an accom-
paniment for vocal performance. Were it possible to go
into close detail, I could give you a score of names connect-
ed with early sonatas and many stories belonging to their
time; but what we have to consider is the sonata as we
have it to-day. Perhaps the sonatas of a musician named
Corelli may be considered as a fair starting-point, since he
worked with a close regard to forms and published sixty
sonatas of different kinds, chiefly beginning with a slow
126 The Story of Music and Musicians.
movement, very dignified and stately, and followed by three
movements of varied character. Corelli was born in Fusi-
gnano, in Italy, in 1653. He studied counterpoint or such
harmony and thorough-bass as could then be taught from
Simonelli and the violin from Basani. On this instrument
he is said to have performed marvellously well, but an an-
ecdote related of him and Handel indicates somewhat the
delicacy but lack of vigor in his style. Handel was in
Rome for the purpose of conducting some of his own can-
tatas. A cantata is a kind of short opera or oratorio, and
was originally a sort of musical recitation by a person with
no dramatic performance and accompanied by one instru-
ment; at present it consists of a choral work of more elab-
orate character; too short to be called an oratorio, and when
it is secular too light in tone or melody to be dignified by
that name. Handel's cantatas were many of them very state-
ly and grand, and in the special one which he directed in
Rome while Corelli led the band there occur some very
powerful passages. Corelli, as well as being leader of the
band, played first violin ; and exquisite as was his style Han-
del lost all patience over the tame way in which he produced
these parts, especially where the following notes occur.
•£.
CHRISTOPH KITTER VOX GLUCK.
Handel's Temper. 1 27
At last, unable to endure it any longer, Handel rushed
forward and snatched the violin out of Corelli's hands,
stamping up and down before him, began to fairly thunder
it forth, singing loudly and playing on the instrument at
the same time. Corelli listened, answered most politely
some of Handel's violent remarks and calmly began over
again, not even losing his temper, but not giving the pas-
sage in question with any more vigor, for which reason
Handel never could be brought to do Corelli justice as a
composer or performer, but he is well known now to have
reformed many points in technique; and limited as he was
both in composition and performance, we owe him a great
deal for his methodical manner and his. patience in rear-
ranging the confused ideas which belonged to that period.
Sometimes he made startling mistakes, one of which indi-
cates the lack of musical knowledge at that day, and being
connected with the famous composer Scarlatti is especially
interesting. The two composers were at a concert for the
King of Naples. Corelli was leading, and in a composition
of Scarlatti's made some small mistakes which confused
him in spite of Scarlatti's efforts to gloss it over. The
next piece was in the key of C minor. Corelli began it
in C major. "We will begin again," whispered Scarlatti,
but again and again Corelli failed to see or to rectify his
mistake ; and it is said that so great was his humiliation
1 28 The Story of Music and Musicians.
that his health immediately began to fail, and in fact lie
died soon afterwards, in January, 1713.
The four movements of the sonata are as follows : first an
allegro, next an andante, following this a minuet or scherzo
— this was introduced by Beethoven — the fourth movement
again allegro or presto or rondo. The allegro has two of
what are called themes or subjects, one in the tonic or key-
note, the other in the dominant. This is the fifth note above
the key-note ; for example, should the first theme of an al-
legro be written in C, the second would have to be in G.
It is called the dominant because the key to any passage can-
not be actually known unless it has this note for the root.
Should the first theme of the sonata be written in the minor
key then the second would have to be in the relative major.
The second movement of the sonata, the andante, has
usually one theme or subject, and it is a key which relates
in some way to the tonic or leading key. The third move-
ment, the minuet, has its origin in mnsic of French origin.
It was written always in dancing time. Sometimes it is
called the trio, because of its second movement being com-
posed in three part harmony. "When we come to consider
the symphony we will hear more of the minuet and scher-
zo time. The fourth movement goes back to the original
key, but there is only one theme, and this is often repeated
over and over in various ways.
Definition of Musical Terms. 129
This, of course, is merely an outline whereby composers
have a certain rule to govern them, but they are allowed
certain license, so that occasionally you will find sonatas
written without close adherence to this form. Schubert
constantly disregarded rules in his sonatas, and occasionally
Beethoven did the same. To Haydn, Mozart, and Bee-
thoven we owe the sonata as we have it now; for begin-
ners I should recommend Haydn and Mozart as the simplest
reading and best music to begin upon.
The actual meaning of the term allegro is " cheerful,"
from which you can form some idea of its application in
musical expression, but its proper significance relates to the
speed to be used in playing any portion of a piece of music
which is marked allegro. The tempo of such portions is
between andante and presto. Various words are combined
with allegro, such as " molto," "conbrio," which indicate
a quickening of the time; then the "allegro moderate,"
or " non troppo," meaning a slower time; while the size
of the hall in which an orchestra are playing, the number
of performers, and many such points indicate the time in
which the allegro is to be taken, no matter how the marks
read on the music.
The andante, following the allegro in a sonata, means
to " move along at a moderate pace," and like adagio and
larrjo the term is used as a name for a piece of music, or
1 30 The Story of Music and Musicians.
else as the name for one movement always taken slowly in
sonata, symphony, etc.
The minuet or scherzo, which is the third movement of
the sonata, was introduced by Beethoven. The minuet is
a piece of music in dancing measure, and is emphatically of
French origin. The name is from menu, and refers to the
small steps of the dance. When it was invented is un-
certain. A French composer named Lulli is supposed by
many to have invented it. The first form of the minuet
consisted of two eight-bar phrases in £ time. These were
repeated, sometimes beginning on the third beat of the bar,
but generally upon the first, and the movement was ex-
tremely moderate and precise.
Mozart, in "Don Giovanni," has written what is consid-
ered the most perfect form of the original minuet. Fol-
lowing this first movement came a second written in three-
part harmony, for which reason it was called a trio. Fre-
quently the second part of the dance contained sixteen or
more bars in place of the original eight. In what is known
as the suite we frequently find a minuet in this form. The
suites which led the way to the sonata were a collection of
dance tunes, and their history is interesting, romantic, and
picturesque. In the latter part of the sixteenth, and in the
beginning of the eighteenth century, dancing tunes had
spread all over civilized Europe. Travelling musicians took
Dancing and Dancing Tunes. 131
them from place to place entertaining the ladies and gen-
tlemen of Court with them, while people returning from
the wars or soldiers of foreign nations brought from place
to place the dances characteristic of their own climes ; and
the French and German and English people adopted them,
in course of time popularizing them as completely as though
they had originated among themselves.
In Qneen Elizabeth's day there was music of various
kinds ordained for dancing. Suites consisting of "A staid
tnusicke ordered for grave dancing" and again a " lighter
and more stirring kind." The poets of her day make fre-
quent references to these old dancing tunes, which are sig-
nificant to us now in our study of sonata or symphony, as
germs of the original feeling remain enough in both tempo
and treatment to be suggestive, or to create a background
for us as we practise, which makes work for us both pict-
uresque and entertaining. The variety in styles and meth-
ods of dancing and dancing tunes suggested the idea of
putting together a collection, in which there should be a
sufficient contrast to make the performance amusing and
inspiring. Therefrom started the suite. Dances of vari-
ous countries were selected, and composers of genius and
note devoted much time to working for them.
The dances, of course, are too numerous to mention —
Pavans, Gattiards, Allemanes, and Branles originated in
132 The Story of Music and Musicians.
Italy, Suabia, and France — and when these passed out of
fashion the Allemandes and Courantes and the Sarabande
came into favor. Following these the Minuet, the Riggar
doon, the Chacone, and finally in the English suite the Jig
appeared. A description of these dances is not necessary
here, although their characteristic would be well worthy of
study to the pianist, because of their direct influence upon
music and the suggestions which they offer for expression
and feeling, as well as for the impetus which the history of
any part of a science is sure to give to the study of it. The
scherzo, from the Italian word meaning jest, belongs to the
sonata, and occupies a prominent position therein. The
old minuet or trio formed the groundwork of the scherzo
as Beethoven developed it, and in it certain phrases are re-
peated, introduced and reintroduced with endless variations
in a spirit of gayety arid musical mirth which are charming
when in the hands of a great composer. The movement is
short, the rhythm carefully marked, and triple time consid-
ered the best. Sometimes for the sake of strong contrast
different time is used, but Beethoven clung, whenever it
was possible, to the |- time, even when another tempo might
have been as well used. An admirable critic — Professor
Gehring of Vienna — suggests that this has been done so that
the written notes should attract the eye and therefore im-
press the mind of the player with the composer's idea of a
The Scherzo. 133
" tripping lightness " — a quick rhythm, the three notes
with their little "separated stems" being more suggestive
than quavers with united ends. In Beethoven's C minor
symphony the scherzo is worthy of the closest attention :
suddenly it rushes from gayety into something terror-strick-
en and pursued, returning, as the above-quoted critic says,
" All alive and well,"* in the tremendously joyful finale.
All sorts of eccentricities are employed in the scherzo of
the 8th symphony ; especially when in rushes the tremen-
dous bass with its C sharp converted into D flat, and just as
the whole thing seems to have culminated in the chord of
F repeated, behold there is a fresh impetus aroused — a start
up again, and a new and brilliant finale. The scherzo of
the 9th symphony is considered very typical, and the phrase
given below indicates the character of the whole.
Timp.
Together with the study of the different portions of the
sonata and the symphony, it is well to make especial note
of the keys and their reference to each other.
* Professor Gehring does not suggest any resemblance in Schumann's
work to this special scherzo, but it seems to me that there are strong
characteristics in common.
1 34 The Story of Music and Musicians.
CHAPTER X.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. — "Master and Miss Mozart, Prodigies of
Nature." — A Concert in the London of 1765. — "Nannerl." — The Chil-
dren's Presents. — Home Discipline. — The House in Chelsea. — Playing
and Composing. — The First Symphony. — An Old Letter. — Duets a
Novelty. — In Italy. — The First Opera. — An Important Visit. — The
Weber Family. — A Heartless Coquette. — Constanza. — "The Magic
Flute." — Last Days.
IN the month of May, 1765, an advertisement appeared
in London, announcing that a concert would be given at
Hicksford's Rooms, Brewer Street, Golden Square, " For
the benefit of Miss Mozart, aged thirteen, and Master Mo-
zart, eight years of age, prodigies of nature — a concert of
music, with all the overtures of this little boy's own com-
position."
Suppose that we had been able to attend that concert
in May, 1765. A charming occasion it must have been, for
London was quite excited over the event; piano-forte per-
formances were novel enough then, at least so far as special
representations of the kind are concerned, to give this oc-
casion a character of its own ; children, " prodigies of nat-
ure," were particularly acceptable to the London public.
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART.
The Mozart Prodigies. 137
At that time precocity among young misses and masters
was regarded very favorably ; we read of quite small chil-
dren being brought into company for the purpose of enter-
taining older minds who had grown tired of the round
of foolish dissipations and ordinary social pleasures ; small
children, scarcely able to speak their own language, some-
times recited in classic tongues; dances were devised re-
quiring grace and accuracy, and the little people who per-
formed them were feted and made much of, so that the
performances of Miss Mozart and her email brother were
hailed with delight.
Very few of the prodigies, however, of that splendid pe-
riod, lived to fulfil any promise of their childhood ; but as
we read or hear the sonatas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
to-day — as we listen to the never-tiring strains of "Don Gio-
vanni"— as the organ swells forth in the glorious masses to
which he has given his name, the scene in Golden Square
rises as a background for so much that is wonderful and
inspiring, that we fain would conjure up its every detail,
separating it very clearly from occasions of a lighter char-
acter in those summer seasons when George III. was young
and music beginning to be patronized. I am sure there
was a great deal of jostling about of sedan-chairs and foot-
men that evening, and in the spring twilight — they gave
concerts earlier then than now — the gorgeously dressed
138 The Story of Music and Musicians.
ladies and gentlemen must have looked very much like
a picture. Let us follow them into Hicksford's Rooms.
We find ourselves in a large and well-lighted hall with
chairs and benches and a large platform containing some
instruments and a good harpsichord. Out comes old Papa
Mozart, a dignified gentleman from Salzburg, leading a child
by each hand : one a charmingly pretty little girl in the
quaint dress we are reviving to-day; the other a boy of
eight, of a most striking grace and beauty, and dressed like
a little court gentleman — that is, with knee-breeches, silken
hose, shoebuckles, a little satin coat with lace ruffles, and
a little sword at his side. The little boy makes his bow to
an enthusiastic audience ; he sits down at the piano, and
forthwith begins one of his own sweet, childlike, yet har-
monious compositions. Then "Nannerl," as she is called,
plays. Presently the two young prodigies vanish, the fine
audience moves away, the lights are out, and the boy's Lon-
don fame had begun. As we go through dingy Golden
Square to-day, one hundred and eighteen years later, we
think of all the music he left for us to hear and feel and
play between that night when he performed his own lit-
tle compositions, and the day of his death in 1791, at the
early age of thirty-five years.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born at Salzburg in
1756. His father had possessed musical talent, which de-
Mozart's Careful Training of his Children. 1 39
scended to the boy as genius. At three years of age he
learned to play ; before he was five he had composed a great
many little melodies, which his father wrote down for him.
I remember seeing in the studio of an English artist* in
London, himself the son of a great musician, a picture
representing the baby Mozart : a charming little figure lead-
ing a visionary choir of angels. It seemed to me the very
embodiment of what Mozart might have been as a child —
beautiful, fascinating, angelic, and a musician from his soul
to his very finger-tips.
His sister Anna, or " Nannerl," as they called her at home,
also played marvellously well, and when the children were
very young their father started with them, on a concert
tour, during which time they played in London. As I told
you, the great ladies and gentlemen of the day delighted in
juvenile precocity ; the little Mozarts were f^ted and ca-
ressed in a way which would have spoiled the lad's sweet,
sunny nature, perhaps, but for his father's watchful care.
With the true German instinct for discipline, the elder Mo-
zart guarded his children carefully from over -excitement
or indulgence. Presents were constantly made them —
garments of satin trimmed with finest of laces. Rich
jewels, besides all sorts of fanciful and expensive toys, were
* Mr. Felix Moscheles.
140 The Story of Music and Musicians.
showered upon the children. And even out of these the
careful father found a means of training the children's nat-
ures; the clothes were used only on concert or special so-
cial occasions ; the jewellery was kept locked away in a large
box, and the children were only allowed to take it out and
look at it when their behavior had been particularly good.
They were permitted to play with it for a little while, but
its intrinsic value was never told them. During this Lon-
don visit the Mozarts were for a time in lodgings in Chel-
sea, a part of London which was then an open country, with
blooming gardens and green lanes stretching in every direc-
tion, while the roar of the great city was far in the distance,
and even Hicksford's Rooms were a long journey away.
Old Mr. Mozart fell ill, and for some time the children
had to keep very quiet. The harpsichord was closed, and
the brother and sister took to running about the pretty,
suburban place, no doubt enjoying the respite from practis-
ing; but even in this happy time Mozart's little brain was
at work with musical compositions. The enforced idleness
and freedom from care was in its way productive. He
delighted to romp with Nannerl, to build up a little house
of stone and moss and weeds in the garden back of their
lodgings; but undercurrent was the impulse towards music-
al work, mingling with his play and frolics, and finally tak-
ing definite shape, when he composed his first symphony
Master and Miss Mozarfs Entertainments. 141
(Opus 15). He was then in his tenth year, but in this work
an amount of scientific knowledge is displayed which, tak-
ing the resources of the time into consideration, shows us
what sparkling genius the boy Mozart possessed. Soon
after this the father recovered, the family removed to a
quaint old inn in Coruhill, London, and more concerts were
advertised ; but the children had their precious souvenir of
that "field -and -flower" holiday in the manuscript which
was produced to the delight of the father during his conva-
lescence, and among the novelties offered in the programme
were " Duets for Four Hands on the Harpsichord."
This was in the year 1765. Among the treasures in an
old house in England I have seen preserved a letter in
which these performances are alluded to; one could wish
that the writer had given more detail ; but as would be nat-
ural, I suppose she, being the mother of two little people
of her own, dwelt more on her anxiety that her children
should be able to do like " Master and Miss Mozart " than
upon the methods and appearance of the latter. She refers
to their performance as " vastly amusing," and says that the
boy has a " most engaging look," and the little girl a " sweet
German face, with a very serious although enchanting ex-
pression." Still the letter shows how entirely novel and
quaint a proceeding it was considered. People who crowd-
ed to hear the children desired strongly to visit them at
9
142 The Story of Music and Musicians.
home; and it would seem as though they almost believed
there was some trickery in the way the performance was
conducted, for Mozart the elder at last announced a series
of " test " entertainments.
In the old inn was a large, wainscoted room where the
harpsichord was placed. Here audiences including the tal-
ent, wit, and fashion of London assembled twice a week,
while the children, attired in all their bravery — and perhaps
on these occasions being permitted to wear some of the de-
lightful jewellery —were brought forward, the audience being
requested to "test" them at the harpsichord. It is said they
never failed in satisfying and delighting their hearers, the
boy charming every one by his gayety, his quaintness, his
sweetness of temper, and as well the abandon with which
he entered into his work ; and Nannerl, the little, serious-
eyed, blooming madchen, fascinating the brilliant company
by her simplicity and talent, and the adoring fondness she
showed for her little brother.
Passing from this time of sunny though precocious child-
hood to a boyhood in which he worked indefatigably, we
find Mozart in Italy, studying, composing, performing, and
writing the most delightful letters home, chiefly to his dear
Nannerl, who by this time was more devoted to domes-
tic duties than music. But to her the boy always poured
forth his musical sentiments. Did he hear anything which
Opera of " La Tinta Giardanera" 143
pleased him it was to Nannerl that he desired to write it;
and I think in all the history of great lives there has rarely
been anything more touching than the devotion displayed
by Mozart to those whom he loved — first to his parents
and sister, later to his wife.
One of the most interesting experiences of the Mozarts
took place after the Italian visit in 1775. The Elector of
Bavaria invited Mozart to write an opera for the Carnival.
Mozart set to work speedily, watched over by his parents
and sister, and when the work was completed — it was called
" La Tinta Giardanera " — the father and son, with pretty
Nannerl, set off for Munich, where court life was then very
gay-
In the old market-place at Munich lived a very respect-
able widow, and Nannerl, a charming maiden at that time,
was taken there to lodge, the father and son being com-
pelled to be nearer court. Of course Nannerl shared all
the delights and excitement of the visit. Rehearsals began
at once, and young Mozart darted in and out of his sister's
lodging half a dozen times a day to report progress. Not
very long ago I was standing in the door-way of the old
house, and looking up the heavy oaken staircase, back of
a little shop, which led to the rooms where Anna Mozart
spent those days ; and it seemed to me that I could see
Mozart's fast flying young feet as he rushed up and down,
I /I /I The Story of Music and Musicians.
humming bits of the opera, or perhaps suggestions of the
finer work which was to come later. At all events a fas-
cinating picture, with Nannerl bending over the balustrade
from the gloom of the old hall above, her sweet young
face shining down a benediction upon the ardent and anx-
ious younger brother. No musical life, unless it be that of
Felix Mendelssohn, affords more charming pictures, or in-
deed more pathetic ones, than that of Mozart, and the sun-
shine in his music seems to me to belong to all this period
of youth, the dawn of early manhood with which these days
are so tenderly associated.
At last the grand night came. Nannerl was dressed with
extremest care by the old widow, and joined her father and
brother. The three were fairly trembling witli excitement,
Mozart slipping his fingers now and then into his sister's
for a sympathetic pressure, although he carried his young
head high, and in his splendid new costume of satin and
lace, with the flash of diamonds in his ruff and on his slip-
pers, looked like a young prince come forth to greet his
people.
The opera-house was crowded to excess; the court was
there in full splendor, and Mozart, the youthful Maestro,
sat with his father and Nannerl waiting so anxiously for the
performance to begin that he scarcely heeded the glances
bent upon him from every side. The boy — he was scarcely
Mozart's Fondness for his Parents. 145
nineteen — stood the blaze of admiration very well. His
mind was centred upon the music, and from the first note
to the last it was a triumphant success. Mozart became the
object of the wildest enthusiasm, and from that hour his
musical fame was established.
Unfortunately, however, all of Mozart's days were not so
cloudless nor so joyful. In his short and busy life the pe-
riods of anxiety and heart-sickness seem almost to predom-
inate, marking the serenity and the sunshine of the early
days all the more clearly. The little family circle at home
was so centred in the lad that when he started out on a
second tour, and the father could not accompany him, the
mother left her household duties to Nannerl and set forth
with her son. An adoring fondness for his parents was one
of the most lovely traits in Mozart's beautiful nature. On
this trip he wrote home with pride how careful he was of
his mother, and she, good woman, watched him tenderly,
giving up everything to his pleasure and profit.
He spent the winter in Mannheim, where his letters show
how very busily he was employed. He writes that he rose
early, "dressed quickly," and after breakfast composed un-
til twelve ; then wrote until half-past one, when he dined.
At three he began to give lessons, which continued until
supper-time; after which he read, unless he was among his
friends. Of course he had a large circle wherever he was,
146 The Story of Music and Musicians.
but in Mannheim during this winter he formed friendships
which shadowed all his life.
The Weber family were there — brilliant musicians, agree-
able and witty. There were five daughters, and Mozart
straightway fell in love with the eldest, Aloysia, a beautiful
girl, who was studying for the stage. She was well pleased
with the young composer's attentions, and he went to Paris
half, or, as he considered it, wholly engaged. That was a
sad visit to Paris. His mother, wishing to economize for
her sou's sake, took rooms in a cold, poor quarter of the
town, and there fell ill with a fatal disorder. Poor Mo-
zart wrote home the most pathetic letters. We can fancy
how he tried to save her, but it was in vain. The care-
ful, tender, self-sacrificing mother faded from his life, her
last thoughts being to commend this beloved son to God's
keeping.
Full of sadness, the poor young fellow hastened to Mann-
heim, where he hoped Aloysia Weber would console him.
She had gone to Munich, and thither he followed her.
There the true selfishness of the Weber family was shown
to him. They had become prosperous, and Mozart, although
famous, was far from being rich, so that the family of his
betrothed received him coldly. Aloysia herself scarcely
listened to the first words he said. He had entered the
Weber parlor full of hope and anxiety to see his future
Mozart's Marriage. 147
wife, and tell her the story of his sorrow. He must have
looked noble and manly, with the tenderness of his grief in
his handsome face, but Aloysia turned aside coldly ; there
were others there to whom she talked. Mozart hesitated a
moment, and then seating himself at the piano, sang in his
rich, clear voice, "Ich lasse das Mddchen das nicM will''1
(I leave the maiden who leaves me), and before the evening
was over, the engagement was at an end.
"We could wish that his intimacy with the "Webers had
also ended, but later he renewed acquaintance with them,
and in spite of much opposition from his anxious father
and Nannerl he married Constanza, Aloysia's younger sis-
ter. With her he tried to be happy, but even in his ten-
derest letters we see that she was ill-tempered, cold, and
selfish. But Mozart's nature was so uniformly sweet that
it took a great deal to make him positively wretched, and
unkind he could not be.
When he was in the midst of many worries, one summer,
he used to ride out every morning for exercise, and leaving
his wife sleeping, he never failed to pin a little note to her
pillow, that she might find it on awaking. It was always
a sweet word of love and care for her, and it is hard to
think Constanza was not worthy of it.
There is so much to tell of Mozart, I wish that we might
linger an hour more over his sweet story. His successes
148 The Story of Music and Musicians.
were so many that it is hard to think of him as so often
troubled about money.
In 1791 his beautiful opera of " The Magic Flute " was
produced with tremendous success at Vienna. Constanza
came on to hear it, and was thoroughly frightened by Mo-
zart's altered looks. He was ashy pale, worn and thin.
She seems to have been full of a really tender feeling for
him then. He was writing his famous mass, the " Requi-
em," and continued it even after he took to his bed ; and
while Constanza sat beside him, watching with tears the
feeble hand at work, he told her that his heart and soul
were full of thoughts of the dear Lord who had died for
him.
"The Magic Flute" was drawing crowded houses, while
Mozart lay dying not far off. In the evenings he would
time the performance, saying to Constanza and her sister
Sophie, and some musical friends always with him, " Now
they are singing this or that part." The day before his
death he read over the score of the Requiem, and asked
the friends near him to try and sing it with him. They
did so, Mozart coming in with his part in a sweet, faint
voice. Suddenly, at the Lacrimoso, he burst into tears, and
laid down the score for the last time. That evening he
murmured to Constanza, " Oh, that I could once more hear
my ' Magic Flute !' "
Death of Mozart. 149
Constanza glanced at Roser, a musician who was with
them, and, blinded by his tears, Roser sat down to the piano
and sang one of Mozart's favorite airs. It was almost the
last sound his closing ears received. The next morning,
Sunday, December 5, 1791, at the age of thirty-five, Mozart
died.*
* Xannerl survived her brother many years. Constanza Mozart died
in this century, having, in 1809, married a second time.
150 The Story of Music and Musicians,
CHAPTER XI.
Ecclesiastical Music. — Early Writers. — Palestrina and the Council of
Trent. — An Important Decision. — The Reform. — Mass Music of Va-
rious Composers.
PROBABLY no form of music has undergone so many
changes as that used in Christian churches since the period
of the Reformation, all kinds of local reasons producing
modifications, alterations, or offering suggestions for both
form and melody employed; but during the last ten years
there has been in church-music a decided improvement — a
strong desire to use the best forms, to employ the purest
kind of melody and the most harmonious music, entirely in-
dependent of its origin or its traditional meaning. While
the simple hymn tunes will always, I suppose, be more or
less in vogue among the various churches, will always be
beloved for sacred music at home, still the tendency is
towards a finer or broader kind of harmony, something
which will be worthier of study and of performance, and,
at the same time, elevate the thoughts of the people, as per-
fectly harmonious strains of music when listened to with
Church-music. 151
a fervent spirit, be it of the worship of God or the appre-
ciation of the art itself, must always do.
At the present day all Christian churches use for their
special services a great deal of what is known as old mass
music; the programmes for all Easter services include so
much of the music which has long been known as such,
that it is well to understand the origin of what we now call
the mass music in the history of the art itself; for to-day
we owe to it much that is fine in all our present forms of
melody, and especially a direct impulse towards an improve-
ment in the art of singing. The history of mass music re-
ally belongs to the history of singing, but like all such
phases in any art where the outgrowths are many, the actu-
al beginning, the first causes, or the principles which domi-
nate those beginnings, are apt to become confused or for-
gotten after the lapse of centuries and the constant ebb and
flow of so many tides of musical feeling.
If we could look back three hundred years to Easter-time
in Italy, we should see all the choir singing-schools actively
at work, choir- boys running hither and thither between
their hours of practice, full of enthusiasm for their work,
gathering about the master with anxiety and zeal; for to
sing in a choir in those days was regarded as a great favor.
Hot only did it open the way to musical study and advance-
ment to any boy who showed talent, but it elevated the
152 The Story of Music and Musicians.
choir- boy, who was generally of very humble origin, and
often afforded him the means of a comfortable home and
some instruction.
Between the fourteenth and the seventeenth centuries, to
advance in musical study it was necessary for a boy to be
admitted into some choir, as all the first music belonged to
the church, and was taught by the chapel - master and en-
couraged by the ecclesiastics. So many famous musicians
and composers have devoted special periods of their lives
to the composition of mass music, and, as at the present day,
so much of it is employed in all Christian churches, some-
thing historical on the subject is sure to be of interest, par-
ticularly as at one time the question as to whether certain
forms of music should or should not be allowed in the
Roman Church produced a distinct phase in musical history
which has influenced every period since that time. In the
lioman Church from time immemorial the custom of sing-
ing certain parts of the mass, or church service, to music
of a very impressive character has prevailed. It is difficult
to say positively the exact source from which this music
was derived. Tradition consecrated certain forms of melo-
dy or of chant to the service of the church, but the first
collected form which we now have was revised or arranged
by St. Ambrose, in the fourth century. Afterwards St.
Gregory the Great continued this work. Under the name of
The "Kyriel
153
plain chant various melodies, antique and solemn in form,
are preserved, and are still constantly sung in the Pontif-
ical Chapel of Rome, the cathedrals of most Continental dio-
ceses, and at present in many Protestant churches, especially
in the Episcopalian or Church of England.
Here is a specimen of the Kyrie, which is part of a mass
belonging to the ninth century, and as for one thousand
years after St. Gregory composed his famous chant the
same characteristics are noticed here and there in all music
written for church service ; so that a careful observation of
this early form is interesting and useful to the student.
TON. VI.
' '^ ' — r^< ^ — . ^^< r^^ • — '-^ i^j
" Ky ri - e.
e - - - - lei - son.
(ter.)
A -^
\ Jf L """*"
\(f\) ' ~ez>' £3^^ M -
-3 £2 0 '""7-, 'j^-pT^
Chris - - - - te. .
e - - - - lei - son.
(ter.)
n —
^~~^*.
r/ . . i . -
— -^ - ^-"^~™*-^.
1 fi r "T r^n rl t~~~\
i^-> ^2— ^'nf^fc ^ >-
iCl)
^ J^ "^^ ^"^ i^>
3
.
(^r.)
In early times each individual portion of the mass serv-
154 The Story of Music and Musicians.
ice used to be sung to its own tune ; when different church
festivals occurred there were special tunes appointed for
them. The invention of counterpoint, however, opened up
a new field. The composers of the day were enthusiastic
at once in their desire to make use of thorough-bass for
mingling these tunes and other plain chant melodies into
masses arranged with reference to different voices, and these
in turn gave rise to those great schools of ecclesiastical
music which led the way to so much that we possess to-
day, that we ought to regard them with solemnity and re-
spect.
During the latter part of the sixteenth century, the
schools for ecclesiastical music gave rise to a development
which has never been excelled. In the fourteenth or fif-
teenth century, what was called the Canto Fermo had
been employed for mass music. This was a single, plain
chant melody, or some one subject often derived from sec-
ular sources, which served as a theme for the entire mass.
"When composers of note who entered into the study of har-
mony or counterpoint began to allow their genius to take
wing, the old Canto Fermo underwent many changes ; but,
fortunately, wherever in the Canto Fermo a fine possibility
existed, or had in it anything worth preserving, the writers
of sacred music treated it with proper respect.
A tenor singer in the Pontifical Chapel, about 1390, named
Des Pres. 155
Du Fay, is now considered the first composer in what is
called the primitive or early school of mass music. He
worked hard, and his compositions are full of fine sugges-
tions. Dunstable and Binchoys were also writers of the
fourteenth century, and a singer in the Pope's chapel, who
was afterwards chapel-master to Louis XII., was one of the
most learned musicians of the fifteenth century. This was
Josquin des Pres. His masses would be excellent specimens
of ecclesiastical music but for his tendency to introduce too
much that was trivial. He had an abundant genius — that
is, his mind was teeming with musical suggestions — and had
he lived two centuries later we should doubtless owe him a
larger debt; for Des Pres needed only to have his genius
rightly guided by good standards. But we must judge of
people's work as much by their surroundings and resources
as by the genius in the work itself, so that, looking back to
the fifteenth century, we can realize how Des Pres felt at
liberty to let his imagination run riot ; counterpoint com-
bined with a purely classical idea and melodic form in work
had not then become fully understood. Now then, you can
readily understand how, as soon as composers began to re-
gard the plain chant as only a background for more elabo-
rate church-music, many composers allowed themselves too
much license in their sacred compositions. A reform was
necessary. The result of this was, as I have suggested, one
156 The Story of Music and Musicians.
of the most important periods in the history of the art of
music.
In 1564 the Council of Trent decided that it would be
necessary to lay down rules for ecclesiastical music, and
also to see that these should be strictly enforced and car-
ried out. So various were the abuses which had crept into
church-music, and so very difficult was it to eradicate them
without making a sweeping condemnation, and laying down
a strict law forbidding any but a certain kind of music,
that many of the council considered it wisest to forbid any
sort of what is called polyphonic music. However, many
people within and without the council had become so en-
thusiastic over the great development in music, that some
members of the council earnestly strove to oppose this
measure, and suggested that it would be well to preserve as
far as possible such forms of music as would include cer-
tain melody and quartette.
In looking back at a striking picture of that time we
seem to see one figure, an outsider, yet a most impressive
character — the genius, the man who determined musical his-
tory so far as church music was concerned. Going back
and forth between his quiet dwelling and the chapel of St.
Maria Maggiore, where he was organist during those anx-
ious days, this musician, Palestriua by name, lived a life of
thought and zealous aspiration ; his brain full of musical
Palestrina. 157
themes and subjects which he fully believed he could work
out in a manner fitting the use to which they would be put,
if only the council would not lay down a law which would
abolish them forever!
Palestrina's earnest desire was to prove the possibility of
producing music which should be thoroughly devotional in
character, and yet well adapted to the sacred words of the
service. Finally, his eloquence and genius so prevailed that
a committee was appointed to listen to three masses which
he prepared, the first of which was to be sung in the Sis-
tine Chapel on the 19th of June, 1565, as a test of his skill,
and an example of what might be done if the rigorous
laws deemed wise by many of the council were not put in
force ; but, on the contrary, the genius of the composer al-
lowed sufficient liberty to work with melody, quartette, and
choir, restricted, however, by certain rules which Palestrina
himself was the readiest to suggest.
The great day came. We can fancy the excitement among
all classes in Rome at the time, for the question was one of
great importance. On the decision of the committee hung
not only the fate of ecclesiastical music, but that of many
people interested in the study of the art itself; and the
poorest of the choir-boys as well as the most famous tenor
singers appreciated how much this decision meant, while
the large body of outsiders — the nobles, the ecclesiastics
10
158 The .Story of Music and Musicians.
and dignitaries of Rome — the patrons of music, and the
great throng of aspiring musicians and composers were full
of an enthusiasm not less in quality because until the deci-
sion was fixed they were compelled to repress all expres-
sion of it.
Palestrina himself seems to have been so convinced that
lie was working in the right direction that he scarcely fear-
ed the result; and it shows how much the music which he
wrote meant to him in its sacred form, when he plunged
with such ard6r into this occasion, since, of course, had he
not met with approval in the church, many places in France
and Germany would have been open to him for composi-
tions of another character, and he would also have re-
ceived much encouragement in Italy, even by his friends in
the church, as a purely secular composer. But Palestrina's
soul was with music of a different order: he longed to see
sacred music elevated to its proper place; to see melody
united with vocal art; to hear the words so sacred and so
solemn to his devout ears wedded to the very best that be-
longed to his beloved art. It is said of Palestrina that on
the night before the eventful day he remained alone in his
study engaged in meditation and prayer, as a knight of
olden time might watch the armor which for the first time
he was to put on and go forth to the battle of life and the
world, the triumph over flesh and the devil.
Humble Origin of Palestrina. 159
The mass which was ordered to be performed was after-
wards known as the mass Papae Marcelli. The pope, the
committee, and a host of the composer's friends, including
all the famous people of Rome, assembled in the chapel ;
the music began ; the solemn notes of the organ pealed
forth, introducing to the enraptured hearers and to the
world for all time to come music which may be considered
as the most perfect of its kind, and from which later com-
posers have had their keenest inspiration. A triumphant
host of angels in the new Jerusalem, so said the pope him-
self, might have sung to the apostle of the apocalypse some
such inspiring strains; and Cardinal Pisani, a famous mu-
sical critic, exclaimed in his delight, " So give from voice to
voice in notes like these, and in the sweetness and piety of
your hearts send forth strains which shall be forever insep-
arable from this occasion." The decision was fixed, and it
was decided by the committee that this music of Pales-
trina's might be considered as embodying the style in which
all future church-music should be composed. Perfect har-
mony was blended with solemnity and simplicity, and the
heart and soul of the composer seemed to have been woven
into the most artistic and finished portion of the work.
Palestrina was born of very humble parents in 1529, and
as was usual with a boy who showed a talent for music at
that time, he was sent to Home, that his voice in a choir
160 The Story of Music and Musicians.
might attract attention and procure for him a musical edu-
cation. The result was successful. From one point to an-
other he progressed until the period of which J have told
you, and from this point in his career up to the period of
his death, in 1594, he composed ninety-three masses, besides
hymns arranged for different festivals throughout the year,
lamentations, litanies, magnificats, madrigals, and various
similar pieces, all of which have been used from time to
time in various Christian churches, and which may be heard
on Christmas or Easter day throughout the whole country.
To all of these he gave that exquisite character of piety and
purity which were characteristic of his life; and as he was
strongly in sympathy with St. Phillipo Neri, he embodied
much of the loftiness of that saint's artistic spirit, and con-
trived, during his later years, to give to his religious works
an even greater degree of solemnity, a breadth and strength
which some of the earlier models lacked, although, at the
same time, the melodic form was never wanting. It was in
the arms of Phillipo Neri that he breathed his last on Feb-
ruary 2, 1594.
Alessandro Scarlatti, Leo, and Durante followed Pales-
trina, and in 1733 Sebastian Bach wrote his famous mass
in B minor. This was composed in true German spirit,
and based upon what may be considered family principles,
since we know that John Sebastian Bach was one of a long
Italian School of Ecclesiastical Music. 161
line of men of musical genius, who contributed from father
to son a special kind of talent which characterizes all the
work of the Bach family, and which in John Sebastian
seemed to have reached that culminating point whence new
sparks were struck in the old flame ; but the fuel for the
fire remained of the same material. This great mass of
Bach's is more like an oratorio. It contains the most re-
markable fugues, for which reason, more than any other, it
is worth the careful consideration of the student ; and in
the opening of the Credo it shows one of the most perfect
examples of the ancient Canto Fermo with modern harmo-
nies, and with a masterly orchestral accompaniment.
The more recent Italian school of ecclesiastical music cre-
ates what is called and known among students as the ninth
period. Durante gave it the first impulse ; Pergo Lesi car-
ried it on; Haydn and Mozart belonged to it exclusively;
following them in the same line were Beethoven and Cher-
nbini. Weber, Schubert, Hummel, Rossini, Mercedanti, and
Gounod have written masses of a high order, but they have
not kept strictly to the traditional forms for ecclesiastical
music. Sentiment with them sometimes was allowed to
interfere with solemnity, and the dramatic and emotional
quality in their work is often more remarkable than its re-
ligious fervor.
In the Sistine Chapel, at tho present day, mass music is
1 62 The Story of Music and Musicians.
given in its perfection. On ordinary occasions thirty-two
singers are employed : eight sopranos, eight altos, eight ten-
ors, and eight bassos. On grand festivals the number is
doubled, but very rarely is there any increase of orchestra-
tion or of instrumental accompaniment. The mass music
is written with a plain signature, or with a single flat for
the clef. Time is beaten in minims, except in the case
of -|, in which three semibreves are counted in each bar.
After that part of the mass called the Introit, the choir
takes up the Kyrie Eleison, the Christi next, and then the
Glo?*ia, which is generally a very triumphant portion of the
mass, although certain portions of the mass are always to
be taken in what is called adagio time. The Credo fol-
lows this; then the Offertory, where either a voluntary on
the organ or a special solo is inserted; next the Sanctus,
which is invariably a largo ; next comes the last move-
ment in the mass music, which is the Agnus Dei. After
this are merely the responses and the words of the mass,
which are spoken by the priest or deacon.
It would be impossible to give you in this volume more
than a general idea of the importance of ecclesiastical mu-
sic in the fifteenth century, with its effects upon the music
of our own time. As I have said to yon, all churches are
now making use of the compositions of these early Italian
and German masters, and their work has a special signifi-
7 he Fugue a Useful Study, 163
cance for the student of to-day. No matter what words are
used in any church for the music composed originally for
the Roman mass, the methods and treatment of that music
must remain characteristic, and to the student they are
more interesting when taken in connection with an entire
work. Mozart's Twelfth Mass, Haydn's famous mass in B,
Beethoven's and Rossini's requiems, several of Weber's
masses, besides those of earlier composers, all now furnish
the music for different Christian church services, and it will
be worth the student's time and attention to make certain
distinctions between old traditional forms: where the plain
chant or early melodic form is used, where an idea like a
Canto Fermo is worked out, and where the general impulse
of the composer is allowed complete sway. Connected with
such a study are certain points in harmony. For example,
take the suggestions offered by that original Kyrie of which
we have spoken, and then the fugues in Bach's mass in B
minor. Study something about a fugue, and then examine
one portion even of one of these, and gather therefrom as
much material as possible for the next opportunity you
have for listening to treatment of the same by the organist
in your own church.
164 The Story of Music and Musicians.
CHAPTER XII.
Ludwig von Beethoven. — Boyhood and First Studies. — At the Princess
Lichnowsky's. — Cold Water and Compositions. — An Amusing Anec-
dote.— Sad Years. — "Adelaide." — Blind! — Last Days.
THEKE is something about a great genius such as Bee-
thoven's which makes one feel awestruck with a silent sort
of homage to which words cannot pay sufficient tribute.
Sculpture seems to do most, for in the cold, still grandeur
of marble we can embody our ideas of homage of a master
like the one whose story I wish to tell you here. The de-
tails of his sad and anxious and fretted life seem to fall
away, to sink into insignificance ; his petty failings, the bur-
dens which tried and harassed him do not seem so much
part of himself as the work which he has left us, which is
immortal, even though he died without realizing its great-
ness, or its power for influencing the whole musical world.
Beethoven's life began and ended with absolutely no per-
sonal satisfactions, for even his work was a sad sort of re-
source: his heart when heavily burdened found refuge in
it. His work was the result of an instinct, but deafness and
Early Life of Beethoven. 165
blindness overtook him in the midst of giving the world
the noblest utterances of his poetic and inspired soul.
Ludwig von Beethoven was born at Bonn, December 16,
1770. His family had belonged originally to Louvain. His
father and his grandfather were musicians in the court band
of the Elector of Cologne ; his father, being a tenor singer,
was appointed to an official position in 1756. Jean Bee-
thoven, the father of our musician, married the daughter of
the chief cook at Ehrenbreitstein, a widow, who died when
her son was seventeen, and who seems to have been beloved
passionately by the boy. Both parents, although not very
well off in this world's goods, loved music heartily, and see-
ing signs of a precocious talent very early in Ludwig, gave
him every advantage; but the lad hated to practise, and to
force him to the piano the father used to beat him unmer-
cifully. However, with genius like his the drudgery of
learning was soon over, and the child began to feel an in-
fluence towards composition. Various little things are pre-
served which he wrote between his seventh and ninth years,
his earliest publication being the three sonatas for the piano-
forte, published when he was eleven years of age, in 1781.
One Pleiffer, a tenor singer, who joined the opera troupe in
Bonn, and came to board with the Beethoven family, taught
him for about a year, and meanwhile he learned the organ
from a court organist who was enthusiastic over the child,
1 66 The Story of Music and Musicians.
then scarcely ten years of age; and he wrote a funeral can-
tata which was performed by the organist, and excited con-
siderable discussion in the town.
When he was about eleven years of age, Ludwig accom-
panied his mother to Holland, travelling about and per-
forming at various private houses where his precocious tal-
ent roused positive enthusiasm, although among the people
whom he visited there was too little technical knowledge
to make his genius really appreciated. However, it paved
the way for the boy's success a little later, and at all events
gave him a certain amount of confidence, and enabled him
to try his hand at improvising, and above all things to criti-
cise his own work.
It was about this time, when Beethoven was not twelve
years of age, that the new organist at Bonn appointed him
as his deputy during his absence in Munster, which shows
what his ability must have been, since the music of the
chapel was of a complicated description, and required skill
"both in the execution and the understanding necessary
for its interpretation. However, the boy did so well that
Neefe, the organist, declared he would become a second
Mozart.
Soon after this we find Beethoven visiting "Papa Haydn,"
and presenting him with a cantata which he had composed.
Haydn encouraged the lad greatly, and gave him some les-
Peculiar Habits of Beethoven. 167
sons, but Beethoven's inclination was more for Mozart's
style than that of Haydn.
As soon as it was possible Beethoven established him-
self in Yienna, where Mozart's sudden death after a brill-
iant musical life had roused the Viennese people to a great
necessity in the art. So Beethoven went to work and to
study, and quickly gathered about him a circle of friends,
among whom were some valuable and appreciative pa-
trons.
At the house of Prince Lichnowsky he was always wel-
comed, the host and hostess doing everything to make him
comfortable and happy, humoring his queer temper, his
rough sort of teasing, and the peculiarities of his dress.
Beethoven was always a clumsy, awkward figure in a draw-
ing-room. He had a big head, with a shock of dark hair, and
features only redeemed from absolute plainness by the soul
that lay in the depths of his dark eyes and the smile that
showed his brilliant white teeth. He cared nothing for his
appearance, although he was so fond of washing, that one
of his friends recorded that when really intent on any com-
position, it was his habit to fill a huge basin with water, and
from time to time wash his hands and arms violently ;
meanwhile he would hum over his composition and return
to his work with new ardor.
At the Lichnowskys he was humored in every way pos-
1 68 The Story of Music and Musicians.
sible, the princess trying to make him feel free of all obli-
gation ; but it must sometimes have been hard to manage
him. For instance, to make him feel that he was of first
importance, the princess instructed her servants always to
answer Beethoven's bell when it rang, without waiting even
to attend to her orders.
The master, hearing of this, resented it deeply, and poor
as he was insisted on having a servant of his own. Anoth-
er story of his peculiar sensitiveness is of the time when
they were rehearsing " Leonora," one of his grandest com-
positions. It so happened that the third bassoon was ab-
sent, and Beethoven, who was waiting to conduct the orches-
tra, lost all patience. Prince Lobkowitz, who was present,
tried to make a joke of it, and to put him in good-humor.
"What harm done?'5 he said; "the first and second bas-
soon are here, don't mind a third !" Beethoven nearly
danced with rage; and when the rehearsal was over he
started for home, deliberately crossing the Platgoe Square
to the gates of the Lobkowitz Palace, where he stood still
and shouted up the entrance, " Donkey of a Lobkowitz !
Donkey of a Lobkowitz !"
That his friends loved and humored him in spite of many
such scenes, shows us how gentle and true a heart must real-
ly have beaten under his rough exterior.
He never married, although some of his music, sonatas
Beethoven s Love for /it's Nephew. 169
and songs, especially "Adelaide," were dedicated to the wom-
an he asked vainly to be his wife, Countess Guiccardi ; and
needing some human being to care for and to make happy,
he adopted his nephew Carl. I think no story could be
sadder than that of Beethoven's love for this wretched boy,
who abused his confidence in every way, and, indeed, by his
wicked deceits broke the master's heart Beethoven's let-
ters are pathetic enough, but here and there some words
sound like cries from his very son). He begs Carl to come
and see him — just to give him an hour — he is so lonely, and
he has toiled and labored that the boy might know ease
and comfort; but Carl was selfish, vain, and deceitful. Un-
less it were for money, he had no idea of spending any time
with the uncle whose ill-health and disappointments were
fast making him a fretful, melancholy invalid. Carl finally,
after doing everything disreputable, enlisted, and Beethoven
was forced to hear and know the extent of his deceit and
villany ; yet before he died, the old love and tenderness for
his adopted child stirred in him, fanning the spark that had
never quite been extinguished, and he added a codicil to his
will — " I appoint my nephew Carl my sole heir."
Friendships and his glorious work might have done
much for the master, but that his terrible misfortune of
deafness came so soon upon him.
It was one day in 1800 that he asked his dear friend Hies
170 The Story of Music and Musicians.
to walk out into the woods with him. There he acknowl-
edged to Hies how fast he was growing deaf, and from that
hour he seems to have felt that earthly joy was at an end.
He could still lead his own works, but when the perform-
ance was ended he would have to be turned gently around
to see the applause he could not hear! No wonder his
friends tried to humor his passing waywardness when he
was stricken with such a grief. He had loved to play and
to compose at dark, and by holding his violin very near his
face, for some time he contrived to feel the sweet sounds;
but gradually these faded out of all hearing. At last we
have a picture of him standing among his orchestra, deaf
to all, and gradually growing blind !
The spectacle, the very thought of it is so sad that we
turn to his lonely death-bed almost with relief. He loved
to walk, and even when ill spent much time roaming about
the country. "I wander about here with music-paper," he
wrote, "among the hills and dales and valleys, and scribble
a great deal. No man on earth can love the country as I
do."
Happily this sympathy with nature remained always to
cheer him, for, as his eyesight failed, he still remembered the
visions of green and blossom which he had seen.
Although some money was found in his desk after death,
he seems, during his life, to have had a terrible struggle
Death of Beethoven. 171
with poverty, and would have died in actual want but for
certain help from England. Not one loving word from the
nephew Carl came to cheer his last hours, and on March 26,
1827, he passed away, glad of a release from life which
meant now only pain and melancholy to the greatest mas-
ter of his art the world has ever known. His tomb in Vi-
enna bears emblems of life and death, with the one word
.Beethoven.
To attempt a criticism of Beethoven's work would be
impossible. I often recall what I once heard a famous mu-
sician say when some younger man was questioning the
master's work :
" We don't want anything better than what Beethoven
gave us, and no one ever got to tfie end of him yet"
How often the student may remember that ! The varie-
ty is infinite; not one sonata, not one symphony but might
contain study for a lifetime. Beethoven did not write im-
pulsively. It is said that he went over and over his work;
and, as you will find, it is always full of marks of expres-
sion so carefully made that you can be safe to follow every
one, sure that it will produce precisely the desired effect.
A great deal of discussion has gone on of late years as to
the time, or " tempo," as musical people say, in which the
sonata should be played, and of late it seems to me that
pianists are inclining to make the tempo much more rapid ;
1 72 The Story of Music and Musicians.
but no young student should attempt this, whatever they
may hear in a concert -room. Take it all gradually, for
study more than performance, and master each part, know-
ing as much of its meaning as you possibly can. No one
can teach you more than you can learn in one sonata of
Beethoven's. No orchestral performance can do more for
you than one symphony of his, but critically examine his
part. Take, for instance, the opening movements of the
sonata popularly called the "Moonlight." In that alone
lies the study of half a year, and yet how many young peo-
ple dash at it, all unconscious of what a little investigation
might do for them. Remember it is like a language, the
words of which you must learn before you can express
yourself. Every true artist says something of his own,
which it is the part of the student to discover and then
repeat in a voice to which he may give an expression cf
his own.
The Sonata and Concerto. 173
CHAPTER XIII.
Beethoven and the Concerto. — Explanation of this Form of Composition.
— Viadana. — Difference between Composers' Methods. — Cadenzas, and
what they mean.
ALTHOUGH the name of Beethoven must always be indel-
ibly associated with the sonata, yet his modifications and
improvements in that form of composition known as the
Concerto make it seem to belong to the great master in a
peculiar and permanent fashion. Mozart gave to the con-
certo its first idea of permanence, and it was founded upon
the sonata. The name is intended to express an instrument-
al composition, which is expressly designed to display the
skill of one performer on an instrument, and which is ac-
companied by an orchestra. The first notice we have of
any concerto was one written in 1603 by a composer named
Viadana, for voices and organ. Other instruments were
added later, and in 1686 Torvelli published a concerto for
two violins and a bass. The sonata, as you know, grew out
of the suite, and the concerto was the result of the sonata,
but of course a general idea characterizes them all. The
11
The Story of Music and Musicians.
concertos of different masters are, of course, as different as
are their different styles, and yet a certain set of rules are
observed in their composition. A concerto consists of three
movements, while the scherzo, which is used in the sonata,
is excluded. The first movement in Mozart's concertos be-
gins with what is called a tutti passage for the orchestra.
This tutti ends in the original key and not in the dominant
or the relative major, as would have to be the case in a so-
nata if the composition were in a minor key. Following
this comes the solo, whether of piano or other instrument.
A repetition of the beginning follows as a general rule, in
which the honors are divided between the solo instrument
and the orchestra. The second subject is produced precisely
as we have had in a sonata, and in this the first solo portion
almost invariably is brought to a brilliant close in the key
of the dominant or the relative major. For instance, sup-
posing it to be written in the key of C, the solo in the sec-
ond part would end in G. Then follows another tutti, a
second solo, and, like the sonata, it is worked up and down,
and finally back to the original key. Mr. Prout, in an
admirable explanation of Mozart's concertos, mentions the
fact that in many old concertos, near the end of the last
tutti, upon the chord on the dominant, a pause is made for
the introduction of a cadenza by the soloist. I have heard
this done several times in modern concertos, notably in one
The Cadenza. 175
or two of Beethoven's, especially prepared for the Sunday
concerts in Paris, and I have no doubt such variations are
constantly made. Beethoven wrote many such cadenzaa
for his own concertos. With him the custom was to con-
clude the cadenza with a long shake on the chord of the
dominant seventh. The orchestra, then, in a short but fine
passage concludes the movement. Sometimes it is the so-
loist who is passive during this pause, and the orchestra
who round the movement. This is specially noteworthy to
the young student, because the cadenza, being to a certain
extent outside matter, may be subject to special criticism
and analysis, and is useful since it must be characteristic
both of the composer's genius and the skill of the player.
Beethoven decided to give greater prominence to the or-
chestra in his concertos. Mozart had made the orchestra
subservient to the soloist. Also Beethoven connected the
second and third movements in his concertos, examples of
which are to be found in the concertos in G and E flat.
Mendelssohn followed this precedent so closely that in the
piano-forte concertos of G minor and D minor the move-
ments are continuous. In Beethoven's concerto in G, and
the one in E flat, he entirely broke away from the long es-
tablished custom of opening a concerto with a tutti for the
orchestra. The concerto in G opens with the piano alone ;
in E flat the piano enters on the second bar. Mozart had
1 76 The Story of Music and Musicians.
only once, and then in a concerto rarely played, tried this
experiment.
"We must call the student's attention to one more modifi-
cation of Beethoven's. In the concerto in E flat, Opus
73, Beethoven writes (instead of leaving the pause for the
cadenza) one of his own, adding the note, " Don't make a
cadenza, but go on at once to the following " — the cadenza
being, from the nineteenth bar, closely followed by the or-
chestra. All of these facts are interesting, and a strict at-
tention to them, when hearing or reading any of the con-
certos referred to, cannot fail to impress upon the student's
mind the motive and the method of the works themselves;
and they have their strong significance in the history of va-
rious compositions, helping us to a more intelligent under-
standing of what we hear or study. Mendelssohn did not
insert in his piano-forte concertos any cadenza at all, nor
has Brahms. Schumann and Raff have made some varia-
tions in the form of the concerto — Schumann being one of
the composers of modern times who has taken liberties
with facility and grace ; and Liszt's concertos for piano and
orchestra are composed upon a plan so different from any
one else, that they can scarcely be regarded in the light
of any thing but fantasias. The concerto is regarded by cel-
ebrated pianists as the most sympathetic method of display-
ing their own powers ; hence this style of composition
should be closelv studied bv all students of the piano-forte.
Baron von Weber. 177
CHAPTER XIV.
Carl Maria von Weber. — Story of his Life. — A Baby Prodigy. — Anec-
dote of his Life at the Court of Wurtemberg. — " Der Freischiltz." — In
London -with Moscheles. — A Last Visit. — Asleep. — Overtures and
their Origin. — Structure. — "Weber's Work. — Mendelssohn's Use of the
Term. — Overtures of English Composers.
DURING the year 1784 a German nobleman named Yon
Weber arrived in Vienna with his little children, whose
musical abilities were so marked that the father determined
to give them every advantage within his power. But Bar-
on von Weber was poor and reckless. He had always been
a spendthrift, and was noted for his eccentric habits and
ideas. Being the uncle of Mozart, he imagined that in Vi-
enna he might force his children into a place as prominent
as that filled by the famous young composer. But this was
not to be the case. His sons were placed under the care of
"Papa Haydn," but did not distinguish themselves; and
meanwhile the penniless, good-looking father, a widower
of fifty, fell in love with the very young daughter of his
landlord, a beautiful girl of sixteen, who seems to have con-
sented readily to marry him.
178 The Story of Music and Musicians.
The newly wedded pair went almost at once to the town
of Eutin, where the Herr Baron was offered the place of
Stadtmiusikant, or town musician. This was rather a down-
ward step, but it at least gave his little wife food and shel-
ter. Old Weber seemed to have no idea that she needed
more in her life than its actual necessaries. He treated her
harshly, if not with absolute cruelty, and in 1798, when her
one child, Carl Maria von Weber, was eleven years of age,
the poor little mother faded out of life.
Carl was born at Eutin in 1786. He was always delicate,
sensitive, and over-studious, and from his birth his rough-
tempered father determined to make a musical prodigy of
him. What hours of suffering he must have endured as a
mere baby, forced to sit at the piano, his little fingers strain-
ed upon the keys, while his father, with a baton that could
any moment become a rod, stood over him !
As a mere child Weber began to compose, and his father
carried him about from place to place, sometimes staying
long enough to have one master really influence the boy,
but rarely giving him time to think out carefully the mu-
sic that he was urged on to compose. Much of his time
was passed behind the scenes of provincial theatres ; and al-
though the influence of this sort of life on his moral char-
acter could not have been good, it helped him when he
came to write for the stage. He learned by constant ob-
CARL MARIA VOX WEBER.
Von Weber and the King of Wurt ember g. 181
servation everything connected with the workings of the
opera.
After a yonth spent in many wanderings, and with hard-
ships and disappointments of various kinds, young Weber,
at twenty-one, was appointed private secretary to the broth-
er of the King of Wurternberg, and in this position he
might have been successful but for a curious quarrel with
the king.
This monarch was a man of low tastes, coarse manners,
and extremely bad temper. Poor Weber was often his vic-
tim, for in his character of the duke's secretary he had to
beg from the king whenever his Majesty's very reckles?
brother needed money or any other royal favor. On such
occasions the king vented all his wrath on Weber, and
treated him at times with insult and contempt. One day,
after an unusually wild scene with the king, Weber left
the royal apartments, feeling as if he could no longer en-
dure such an existence. He stumbled against an untidy-
looking old woman, who inquired where she could find the
royal washer-woman.
Weber was still boiling over with rage he had been com-
pelled to conceal in the king's presence, and on a mad im-
pulse he pointed to the door of the king's cabinet, saying,
" There !" In walked the unsuspicious old woman, who,
without recognizing the king, informed his Majesty that
1 82 The Story of Music and Musicians.
the young gentleman outside had told her she would find
the washer-woman there. The king, who was well-known
to hate old women, sprang up, poured forth a volley upon
the terrified intruder, and ordered Weber to be thrown into
prison at once. Later he was released; but the incident
was never forgotten by the king, who, when an opportuni-
ty came, revenged himself.
Weber's father had become involved in business difficul-
ties, and Carl generously tried to shield the old man from
disgrace. But while Carl's opera of St. Sylvana was in re-
hearsal, and likely to make a great success, the king had
both father and son arrested. A mock trial was arranged,
and the king himself presided over it with his usual fury
of temper and expression. Young Weber remained calm
and dignified, even when he listened to the sentence of ban-
ishment pronounced upon his father and himself, and left
Wurtemberg completely resolved to devote all his heart
and mind to the pursuit of music.
A new era in his life followed. He wrote with clearer
mind and greater success, and as soon as he freed himself
from certain evil influences of his life, the very best part of
his nature developed. It is comforting to think how hap-
py Weber was in his marriage. His wife was a young art-
ist, of exquisite temperament and disposition, whom he
loved devotedly, and who made his home-life as perfect as
"Der Freischiitz" 183
it could be, when we remember how many cares he had,
and that for years he suffered with a fatal disease. It was
for his wife, his dear Lina, that he composed the " Invita-
tion to the Waltz," ever since so famous as a piano-forte
piece, and it was under much of her inspiration that he
wrote the opera of " Der Freischiitz."
This great work was performed for the first time in Ber-
lin, in 1821, and Weber and his wife spent some time in
that city preparing for its production. In those days, even
more than at present, musicians suffered greatly from the
effects of their rivals to lower them and their work in pub-
lic estimation, and Weber was not spared such annoyances.
But he felt an enthusiasm in his art which entirely mas-
tered this petty side of life ; and Sir Julius Benedict, then
his pupil, tells us how Weber spent the day preceding the
production of the opera. He passed some time at the
piano, going over a new work upon which he was engaged,
and gave Sir Julius and Lina the ideal story he had in it.
The music was the since famous concert piece in F minor,
and it seemed that never had the master played better or
been in a calmer and loftier mood. He then took a light
dinner and had a little rest, and so, with his wife and fa-
vorite pupil, went to the opera-house. A great audience
was assembled, and among them a little bright-eyed boy,
who sat entranced, an eager listener at his father's side.
184 The Story of Music and Musicians.
The boy was destined later to be famous as Felix Mendels-
sohn - Bartboldy. The success was complete. The com-
poser was received like a hero of victory, and slight and
awkward as he was, he stood among his friends great for
that hour at least. The royalty of genius was about him,
and every one paid homage to it.
Unhappily Weber was not always destined to such tri-
umphs. Five years passed away, and we find him in Lon-
don, where he was already famous as the composer of sev-
eral operas — " Der Freischiitz," " Euryanthe," " Oberon."
But though the latter proved a great success, the public did
not receive Weber as his friends felt that he deserved to
be received. Moscheles, the composer and musician, the
loyal, earnest friend of art and its disciples, with Sir George
Smart and several others, did all that they could to make
Weber a successful, happy visitor in the English capital ;
but Weber was fast dying, and every trouble in his public
life seemed to reduce his failing strength.
A dear old friend has told me of her last visit from
Weber — how he toiled up-stairs to her bright drawing-room,
and, sinking into a chair, declared himself too ill to have
ventured out. But even at the very last he continued pa-
tient and gentle. On the evening of the 4th of June, 1826,
his friends saw him for the last time. As usual, he retired
alone and bolted his door. In the morning the servant
Meaning of the Word " Overture" 185
who went to call him got no response. He hastened to Sir
George Smart, who with Moscheles burst into his room.
They found him lying dead, as in a peaceful sleep, his head
resting on his arm, his expression one of pure and gentle
repose.*
The meaning of the word overture is literally opening,
and in its original use had reference to the prelude to an
opera ; but after the close of the seventeenth century it
began to take form more as a special kind of composition,
and later came to be considered as of direct musical impor-
tance. In the time of the composer Lulli, the overture was
only a sort of introduction in very slow time, occasionally
followed by an allegro, with certain repetition and sugges-
tions of the music which was to follow it. Handel gave
the overture a prominent place and character. Gluck strove
to identify the music of his overtures with what was to fol-
low in the opera, and at the same time to preserve its own
characteristics.
The overture has shown in many instances the same prin-
ciples of structure which belong to the first or second move-
ments of a symphony or a sonata, and Rossini, who has
* A dear friend of Weber told me that it was quite untrue that the
so-called " Weber's last Waltz " was found under his pillow. It was not
even written by him, but by one of his pupils.
1 86 The Story of Music and Musicians.
composed admirable overtures, made a special point of what
is called the crescendo. (Note in his work also the use of
the dominant of the key before the tonic.) Beethoven is
considered to have outrivalled all his predecessors in No. 3
of the four overtures which he wrote for his grand opera
of " Fidelio." The theme of the opera is exquisitely por-
trayed in this overture, and for dramatic effect can scarcely
be excelled. Weber's overtures to his operas take so dis-
tinct a place in the history of music that his name must be
forever associated with this form of composition where it is
used as a prelude. In the overture to " Der Freischiitz "
he makes use of the orchestra in the most skilful and ingen-
ious manner, suggesting all the characteristics of the opera
in the most masterly style; and unless we consider Wagner's
overture to " Lohengrin " or the " Tannhauser," no modern
composer has rivalled him.
The name as well as the form of overture now refers also
to a special orchestral piece intended for performance in
public, whereby the composer can illustrate some special
allegorical or poetical subject. Mendelssohn's overtures
known as the " Hebrides," " A Calm Sea and a Prosperous
Yoyage," are famous examples of this kind, and the Shake-
spearian prelude which he composed as a boy, and which
he later combined with more dramatic music for " Midsum-
mer Night's Dream," is regarded as a surprising work of art
RICHARD WAGNEU.
Introduction and Preludes. 1 87
and sentiment. Berlioz, Schumann, Sterndale-Bennett, Sir
Julius Benedict, and many other composers of modern
times, have given special attention to overtures of this kind,
and in studying the subject try to investigate also those
forms of composition known as Introductions and Preludes,
and remember that the Overture and Symphony have much
in common.
1 88 The Story of Music and Musicians.
CHAPTER XV.
The Orchestra of Yesterday and To-day. — Its Origin. — Distinction be-
tween Orchestras and Bands. — A Wedding Celebration in the Six-
teenth Century.— The Due de Joyeuse.— Lutes and Viols. — The First
Orchestra on Record. — Italian Developments. — Scarlatti's Obligate. —
One Hundred Years of Progress. — List of Instruments.— Chamber
Music. — A Conductor's Responsibility. — The First Use of the Baton.
— Mendelssohn's Facility in remembering Work. — An old Sketch-book.
THROUGHOUT the story of music and musicians, so far as
we have been able to follow it, you will remember certain
indications or suggestions here and there of what may be
considered the beginning of the orchestra, and in this chap-
ter I wish to tell you something more definite concerning
it, before reaching the life of a famous leader or conductor
— Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.
When you attend a concert and see before you the order-
ly and systematically arranged rows of musicians ; when you
listen to their rendering of some fine work, such as Beetho-
ven's Fourth, Fifth, or Ninth Symphony, some overture of
Weber's, some concerto of Mendelssohn's or symphony of
Bach's, it will be interesting to you to have learned whence
Distinction between an Orchestra and a Band. 189
came the knowledge, or I may say the science, of this ar-
rangement. The story of the orchestra will tell you this.
The word is taken from the Greek. It really means an
open space where people sit, but in the present acceptation
of the term it expresses a place for an instrumental band
and a chorus ; and properly speaking, an orchestra must sit.
This is one of the chief distinctions between an orchestra
and a band. Bands, by right, stand while they play, orches-
tras ought to sit — that is, unless the weight of their instru-
ments compels them to stand. Besides this distinction, a
band is composed of wind instruments ; an orchestra has
both wind and stringed instruments.
The first orchestra of which we have any record suffi-
ciently correct to make us certain that such a term could be
applied to it, was in the sixteenth century.
In France there lived a certain famous nobleman, the
Due de Joyeuse. The splendor and beauty of his enter-
tainments were renowned, and he was noted for his interest
in everything which appertained to the art of music. Wan-
dering minstrels always found a hospitable shelter within
his gates. Even the most ordinary dancers of the time were
welcomed, provided they could accompany themselves upon
any musical instrument, and " dance therewith tunefully and
harmoniously." At that time lutes, viols, and flutes of vari-
ous kinds were used with cornets, drums, and trumpets, and
190 The Story of Music and Musicians.
some instruments which had been brought to Europe by re-
turning Crusaders. These were combined together in a sort
of rude fashion, but with no reference to harmony or their
relation to each other ; for which reason, as you may well
imagine, performances upon them, however numerous or
skilled the players, could scarcely be considered orchestral.
However, the Due de Joyeuse believed that something bet-
ter might be done. On the occasion of his marriage with
the Lady Margaret of Lorraine, he and some of his musical
friends determined upon producing something decidedly
novel in the way of musical entertainment out of the abun-
dance of crude material before them. An orchestra with a
certain degree of harmony in arrangement was the result.
This was in 1581. Old accounts still exist of this perform-
ance given at the Chateau de Montiers. It was called the
"Ballet comique de la Koyne," and although as an orches-
tral performance it had in it the same elements which make
it appear to us almost absurd, at the same time there was
the foundation laid for the genuine orchestra. "We read
that "ballet-dancers in full dress" performed upon the vio-
lins, while others played upon flutes and some upon harps,
the entire spectacle being a very gorgeous and brilliant one,
and the music considered by the spectators as something
novel and delightful.
From this point we can follow the story of the orchestra
Improvement of the Orchestra. 191
rapidly. In Italy the impulse towards music was so wide-
spread that the orchestra was speedily developed. lu 1600
we read of one as attached to an oratorio, and a quaint sug-
gestion is offered by the composer of the oratorio. He de-
sires that the characters in the drama should be asked to
carry instruments in their hands, and play, or seem to play,
during the symphonies !
When music became very dramatic in form, when oratorio
and opera developed an interest in special accompanists, the
orchestra naturally grew in strength and proportion, and
asserted itself as a distinct form of musical performance.
Scarlatti wrote fine music for two violins — a viola and bass
— making use of them exactly as all composers in every
school of music have ever since. According to Dr. Burney,
a well-known authority at the end of the last century, Scar-
latti wrote an obligate especially for one instrument in the
orchestra.
Within a hundred years from that performance at the
Chateau de Montiers the orchestra had reached a point when
we can find in it all the elements now in use. The stringed
band was the foundation then as now, and wind instruments
were used to " enlarge or to beautify the structure of the
rest by its efforts, and separated by its firm tone and massive
proportions." Bach entered thoroughly into the spirit of
the orchestra, and arranged his work for it with the greatest
12
192 The Story of Music and Musicians.
possible regard for delicacy and expression. He objected
to making his " effects " too powerful, having a distaste for
the thunderous in sound or the overwhelming, and accord-
ingly rnuch of his orchestral music is so arranged that many
critics even of the present day consider it thin and ineffect-
ive. But his purpose was not so much to display the power
and figure of an orchestra as to make the instruments carry
out the idea of spirit and finish in the composer's work, and
at the same time to support it by a volume of sound with-
out doing anything to produce too great a strain upon the
hearer's capacity. Handel, Mozart, and Beethoven worked
at the orchestra indefatigably, realizing its capabilities and
appreciating that a great field lay before them ; that, of ne-
cessity, much more could be done than had ever been at-
tempted with a finely organized and conducted orchestra.
The most accomplished pianist can learn a constant lesson
from hearing a good orchestra perform the well-known
works of great masters; and in listening to any such per-
formance try to observe carefully the different instruments,
how they are used, to what purpose the composer has put
them, and precisely how far each one influences the whole.
A most interesting and useful study is to find out before
hearing any orchestral performance the names of the vari-
ous instruments used, and by means of a dictionary or en-
cyclopaedia to learn all that is possible about them, the result
Chamber Music. 193
of which will be that your understanding and your enter-
tainment will be decidedly enlarged, and no doubt a concert
seem thereby to be transformed to you.
Here is a list of the instruments of a complete orchestra:
first violins, 15 ; second violins, 12 ; violas, 10 ; violoncellos,
10 ; double basses, 8 ; flutes, 2; piccolo, 1 ; oboes, cor Anglais,
clarionet, corno di bassetto, bassoon, double bassoon, trum-
pets, horns, trombones, timpani, cornet-a-piston, bass trum-
pet, tenor tuba, ophicleide, contra bass tuba, harp, bass
drum, cymbals. The number and kind of instruments can
of course be varied to a certain extent without losing the
effect.
Chamber music differs from ordinary orchestras because
none of the instruments are doubled — that is, only one of a
kind is included in it, and it is adapted to a small number
of performers on stringed instruments.
Until the beginning of this century the conductor of an
orchestra sat at a harpsichord among the instruments, and
his regulation of the orchestra seems to have consisted only
in keeping a watchful eye upon them and now and then
•triking a few chords when there was danger of their going
wrong. Even as late as 1829 Mendelssohn conducted in
this fashion his symphony in C minor at the Philharmonic
Concert in London ; but very speedily the baton took its
place, and about the same time the position of the so-called
194 The Story of Music and Musicians.
"leader" of the orchestra became obsolete. The leader's
duty had been to keep the band together, but, as he stood
among the violins, he had very slight control upon the larger
number of the orchestra. In the autobiography of Spohr
the musician, he gives us a picture of the early condition of
things, and also of a concert at which he was to direct, when
he insisted upon leading with a baton and directing from
the front. " Henceforth," to quote the autobiography, " no
one was ever again seen seated at the piano during the per-
formance of symphonies and overtures." A series of con-
certs given in 1845 in London were conducted by Sir Henry
Bishop and Moscheles, the conductor working indefatiga-
bly then, as at all times, for the advancement of what was
best in musical art, never desiring to promote his own per-
sonal interests or even popularity at the risk of anything
which should retard the progress of science and culture in
music. Believing firmly that the true way to conduct an
orchestra was in the present approved fashion, he strove
to forward it, and at length, in 1846, Signor, now Sir Mi-
chael, Costa announced a concert, and his name simply as
"conductor" appeared upon the programme for the first
time. The part of the conductor cannot be too highly val-
ued. Upon his enthusiasm, as well as his knowledge of
the work being performed, depends largely the success of
any performance ; and the finest feeling must be combined
Mendelssohn a Great Conductor. 195
with the very finest qualities of a trne musician, and at the
same time conductor and performers must be entirely in
harmony and have worked their way through many rehears-
als, so that a familiarity exists, without which their final
performance cannot be a sympathetic one. Among the
many conductors of the past century and a half Handel and
Mendelssohn rank supreme, but the latter united all the
qualities of a true-born conductor with those of a thorough
musician. Beethoven could not conduct, not only because
of his deafness, but because of his curious disposition. Schu-
mann, who had certain elements of a fine conductor about
him, was too absent-minded for the work. Moscheles would
have been one of the first conductors of the age had he had
time to devote to the work ; and Mendelssohn stands in this
century entirely alone. The conductor must study the score,
must correct all the parts, often rearrange them, see that
they are perfectly marked, and take the responsibility of
the interpretation given the work which his orchestra per-
forms.
Yery many stories are told by Mendelssohn's friends of
how, on certain occasions, when parts of the score were
found missing, just as the men were taking their places, the
sympathetic conductor always contrived in some fashion to
get the work together again: his marvellous faculty for
rapid musical work often coming to the rescue of himself
196 The Story of Music and Musicians.
and his band. Once, on a very important occasion, while
the audience were waiting, he dashed off a whole part,
writing it from memory.
In an old house in London there was, not long ago, a book
full of Mendelssohn's sketches, when he and Moscheles were
on their concert tour; and looking at them — some bright,
some humorous, all happy and kindly — one can fancy just
how much heart and soul Mendelssohn put into his work.
He put his fun into it as well as his pathos. Indeed, what-
ever the great musician had, he gave it all to those around
him when he stood in the conductor's place.
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. 197
CHAPTER XVI.
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. — "Work and Play. — The Juvenile Orchestra.
— A Pretty Picture.— Fanny Mendelssohn.— A Famous Journey. — A
Letter from Goethe's House. — Moscheles in Berlin. — A Memorable
Evening. — The E-flat Concerto. — Work and Recreation. — Fanny's
Marriage. — In London and at Birmingham. — "With the Moscheleses. —
A Happy Marriage. — Founding the Conservatory of Leipsic. — Fanny's
Sudden Death. — The "Elijah." — "And behold, the Lord passed by."
— Last Days.
ABOUT the year 1820, a musician in Berlin name Ferdi-
nand Hiller used to watch with interest the games played
by certain clever little fellows led by a particularly hand-
some lad of ten years. This boy, whose name was Felix
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, was quaintly dressed, and had the
air of distinction which was natural to the Mendelssohn
family. He entered into every game with such spirit and
delight that Hiller was amazed to learn that he was a mu-
sical genius whose composition and performances were all
known to an intimate circle of friends.
Mendelssohn's father was a banker living in the Leip-
zigerstrasse, Berlin, and Felix, his eldest son, was born in
1809. He had one brother and two sisters, and never was
198 The Story of Music and Musicians.
a family circle more thoroughly happy and harmonious.
Music was highly esteemed in the household, but, at the
same time, it was a disappointment when Felix decided
upon a musical career. However, the parents were wise
enough to see that their son possessed real genius, and so
they set to work to give him the best possible education.
So keen was his eye and ear for harmony that when he was
only seven years old, and took lessons of old Zelter, he
called the master's attention to a curious error in a piece of
Sebastian Bach's. This was the recurrence of six consecu-
tive fifths, and it was this remarkable keenness of ear which
made him later BO remarkable as the conductor of a great
orchestra.
Felix composed, as I have said, while he was still romp-
ing with little playfellows in the Berlin streets, and once a
week his father allowed him to assemble certain young mu-
sicians and lead them through some orchestral work. One
of his most enthusiastic friends has given us a charming
picture of these " practices" — the group of earnest perform-
ers, the boy conductor, still wearing his childish costume
the round jacket and deep collar, standing on a raised plat-
form, baton in hand, solemnly and most correctly directing
the players.
Felix's sister Fanny was his special favorite and compan-
ion. She was a brilliant musician and composed readily,
FELIX MEXDELSSOHN-BAIITHOLDY.
Mendelssohn's Visit to Goethe. 201
although with less genius, perhaps, than Felix. Several of
the "Songs without Words" were written by her. Never
was there the slightest jealousy or any misunderstanding
between the two ; their work and their recreation went to-
gether in complete harmony. When Felix composed any-
thing, he could scarcely wait to show it to his dear " Fance,"
as he would call her. Everything which the two young peo-
ple liked they shared with each other, and yet the two lit-
tle ones, Paul and Rebecca, were not shut out. It was a
charming quartet, and no wonder that the friends of the
Mendelssohns used to fear the young people would be spoil-
ed by knowing only the happy, prosperous side of life.
In 1821 Felix made a famous journey. Zelter, his old
master, was a dear friend of the poet Goethe, and through
him came an invitation to the little boy to pass a fortnight
in the house of the great man. It was certainly a memora-
ble visit, and Felix, although only eleven years of age, wrote
charming letters to his parents and his sister, describing his
experiences. From the first of these I quote:
" He [Goethe] does not look like a man of seventy-three ;
rather of fifty. After dinner Fraulein Ulrike, Fran von
Goethe's sister, asked him for a kiss, and I followed her ex-
ample. Every morning I have a kiss from the author of
1 Faust' and ( Werther,1 and every afternoon two kisses from
father and friend Goethe. Think of that ! In the after-
2O2 The Story of Music and Musicians.
noon I played to Goethe for about two hours, partly fugues
of Bach, and partly improvisations. In the evening they
arranged a whist-table, and Professor Zelter, who took a
hand, said, '"Whist means that you are to hold your
tongue.' "
The attention that he received during this visit does not
seem to have touched Felix's sweet nature with anything
like affectation or vanity. He returned home ready to en-
ter into family affairs, studies, recreation, and the like, and
to give them all accounts of his sojourn in Weimar, and
apparently forgetting most of the compliments which had
been paid him there.
In 1824 concerts of fine instrumental music were rare
even in Berlin, and so the advent of Ignaz Moscheles, a fa-
mous virtuoso and composer, was hailed with delight, and
the excitement which attended the purchase of tickets for
his first concert was something surprising. Moscheles was
to play Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart, and also a concerto
of his own — the since famous one in E-flat major, and which
is a tremendous work for any pianist even at the present
day. While he was performing this concerto, Moscheles
observed among his listeners a slight, handsome lad with
flushed face, and dark eyes brilliant with excitement. Now
and then the boy would glance across at a tall gentleman
not far away, who always responded to his look with a
Moscheles and Mendelssohn. 203
pleasant smile and nod of his head. Moscheles looked also
at the tall gentleman, and as soon as he had finished playing
he approached him and inquired cordially,
" Now, friend Kapellmeister, are you satisfied ?"
The Herr Kapellmeister thus addressed was the famous
musician Hummel, and he replied in terms of great enthu-
siasm, and added :
" My young friend, Felix Mendelssohn, is waiting to speak
to you." The boy pressed eagerly forward and caught
Moscheles by the hand. Something was said about the mu-
sic, and then Moscheles accompanied Hummel and the Men-
delssohn s back to the house of the latter, where a supper
was given, the children being permitted to remain up ; and
the meal being at an end, the entire party adjourned to the
music-room, where until daylight one after another of the
famous musicians present performed to the never-wearying
delight of their listeners, Moscheles astonishing every one
by his marvellous extempore playing, old Zelter suddenly
turning around and exclaiming, " Come, Felix, let us see
whether you can show any credit to your teachers. Sit
down and play whatever comes into your head."
It seems to me that the scene which followed evidences
more completely than anything which had occurred in his
previous life the true genius of Felix Mendelssohn. In-
stead of rushing to the piano and giving a display of his
2O4 The Story of Music and Musicians.
skill, the boy shrank back, turning pale and declaring that
he could not play a note.
Zelter was enraged, and declared that he would write to
Goethe that the boy Felix had turned coward.
" After playing at grand concerts at Weimar," exclaimed
Zelter, " is this the way you are going to show the white
feather I"
"But," exclaimed Felix, "at that time I did not rightly
know what I was doing ; and now, after those two there " —
indicating Moscheles and Hummel — "I neither can nor
ought to play." And with this he rushed from the room,
bursting into tears.
By request Moscheles left the E-flat major concerto, and
the next day, to his great astonishment, Felix performed it
for him in such a superb manner that Moscheles declared it
would be impossible for him to consider himself in the light
of the lad's teacher.
Soon after this we find Mendelssohn composing various
works — operas, symphonies, etc., and especially the music
of the " Midsummer Night's Dream ;" soon after which
he began to dream of his greatest work, the oratorio
"Elijah."
Fanny Mendelssohn's marriage did not remove her from
the charmed family circle. Just back of her father's house
was a beautiful villa known as the Garden House, and here
Mendelssohn a Rapid Composer. 205
she and her husband, the artist Hensel, took up their abode.
Here she organized the celebrated matinees of music, at
which the flower of Berlin musical and aristocratic society
was present, and where the noblest compositions were per-
formed week after week.
Felix's English journeys which he made from time to
time were full of pleasures, both musical and social. With
his dear friends the Moscheleses he stayed constantly, and
in the house many pictures and other reminders of those
happy, busy days when Felix and Moscheles worked togeth-
er still remain. Moscheles had a fund of delightful humor,
and he and Felix seemed just fitted to draw out that which
was most entertaining in each other.
Sometimes, after hard work, Mendelssohn would come
into Madame Moscheles's drawing-room, tired and worn.
Then that ever-ready friend knew just what should be done.
She would insist upon his lying down in a darkened room,
where he would often sleep for hours. These long sleeps
were his salvation, for there was in his family a disposition
to sudden brain prostration.
It was Mendelssohn's habit to compose rapidly, and then
to correct and recorrect some of his best phrases, until
sometimes Moscheles would have to insist upon his friend's
leaving his MSS. further untouched. But Mendelssohn was
never satisfied : he would yield grumblingly, and declare he
2o6 The Story of Music and Musicians.
never conld write just what he wanted. But to what genius
is any work perfect ?
Mendelssohn's wife Cecile was beautiful, amiable, and
sympathetic, and she proved a devoted companion to him
and a most careful mother. When Mendelssohn and Mo-
scheles undertook the guidance of the Leipsic Conservatoire,
Felix's house became a new social and artistic circle, and
Hiller has given a graphic description of it.
There was a large dining-room, with a sitting-room and
bedrooms opening from it. To the left was Felix's study,
a water-color drawing of which now hangs in Madame Mo-
scheles's London home. Here were his piano, desk, and some
favorite pictures, and the small portable easel or writing-
stand, now also in Madame Moscheles's possession, which
he constructed himself, and on which he composed most of
the " Elijah."
One evening a friend found Mendelssohn seated, buried
in thought, before his Bible. He looked up with one of
those sudden gleams which used to transfigure his whole
face. " Listen," he said ; and then, in a voice full of agita-
tion, he read that part of the First Book of Kings beginning,
"And, behold, the Lord passed by." It had inspired him
for the "Elijah."
Those few short years in Leipsic must have afforded de-
lightful memories for the friends who flocked to Felix's
"The Night Song" 207
house. Not only was there constantly good music, but on
birthdays and other festive occasions the Moscheleses and
Mendelssohns would improvise most delightful entertain-
ments, into which the great artists entered with childlike
enthusiasm. On one of these occasions, in which Joachim,
the celebrated violinist, took a part, Moscheles writes that
" Mendelssohn was sitting on a large straw arm-chair, which
creaked under his weight as he rocked to and fro, and the
room echoed with his peals of laughter."
Felix was at Frankfort when news was brought him of
his sister Fanny's sudden death. She had been playing at
one of her matinees — her fingers suddenly dropped from
the keys — she was carried into an anteroom, and soon
breathed her last. From that time Felix's spirits drooped.
Not only did he mourn his sister's loss, but her early death
seemed to be prophetic of his own.
On the 9th of October, 184T, he composed his last work,
" The Night Song." That same day he came to see the
Moscheleses, walking slowly through their garden, and then
going ont with his friends for a stroll, during which he
talked of Cecile and her coming birthday. From this he
went to the home of an intimate friend, Frau Frege. There
he attempted some music, but was forced to give it up. He
went home, and a little while after his wife found him pale
and cold upon the sofa. The next day the symptoms of
208 The Story of Music and Musicians.
brain trouble began, and on November 4, 1847, he expired,
at the age of thirty-eight years.
It has been given to few human beings to pass a life so
unclouded by care or sadness, so full of love and sympathy
and the joys of success, as Felix Mendelssohn's. In the thir-
ty-eight years of his life he included more work and more
simple joy than many who live beyond the allotted three-
score-y ears-arid-ten, and it is a relief to turn from sad lives,
such as Mozart's or Weber's or even Beethoven's, to one like
his. Everything sweet, everything that was tinged with the
sadness which comes over any artistic spirit, you can find in
his "Songs without Words ;" everything grand and sublime
in his oratorios of " Elijah " and " St. Paul."
When he lay dead his earliest intimate friend, Edward
Devrient, tells us that lie seemed to be buried in flowers,
for to his bier his friends brought everything that was rare
and fragrant in that November season. He looked, Dev-
rient said, once more as he had looked when a boy. Dev-
rient, who had been his tenderest companion, kissed his
brow for the last time, and of that moment he writes —
" The span of time in my remembrance enclosed the whole
of happy youth in one perfect indelible thought."
IGNATZ MOSCHELES.
Chopin, Schubert, and Schumann. 209
CHAPTER XVII.
A Trio : Chopin, Schubert, and Schumann. — Chopin in Paris. — Anec-
dote of a Memorable Visit. — Flowers and Nocturnes. — A Brief Story.
— Schubert's Life. — Teaching School and Composing. — One Stormy
Afternoon. — "The Erl King." — Beethoven's Friendship. — Last Days.
— Robert Schumann. — A Brilliant Genius. — Little Clara Wieck. — A
Happy Marriage. — Sad Years. — His Last Hours.
THREE composers seem to occur to our minds together —
Frar^ois Frederick Chopin, Franz Schubert, and Robert
Schumann. For myself, the music of Chopin seems always
to suggest certain scenes in his life, and some of it involun-
tarily brings to mind a scene described by an old friend.
It was in Paris, when Chopin was about twenty-five years
of age, a slirn, refined-looking young man with a gay smile,
although very melancholy eyes, and my friend and her
painter cousin met him in the market-place of the Madeleine
buying violets and some other spring flowers, after which
they all walked across the sunshiny square together to Cho-
pin's apartment, where he had a charming salon full of
softly tinted draperies, of flowers, some dusky old portraits,
and some water-colors, light in tone and delicate in senti-
ment. Chopin was in excellent musical humor. He playeJ
13
2io The Story of Music and Musicians.
for them, going from one thing to another until nearly even-
ing. He improvised, and would turn his head back from
the piano, looking from one to another, well knowing the
sympathy he would read in their faces. My friend told me
that her memories of Chopin at the piano, as on this occa-
sion, were very wonderful and precious to her. Sometimes
he would grow absorbed, and look like the embodiment of
his own most melancholy music, but his touch was light and
flexible; no one, unless it was Moscheles, Liszt, or Rubin-
stein, ever played his impromptus in any way as well as he
did himself. No musician's work seemed so entirely part
of the composer's very soul — to be the outcome of his own
personal feelings, his own fancies, his wild, fantastic, and
pathetic longings; and for this reason one likes to think of
him at the piano in the beautiful room, playing, improvis-
ing, and, as it were, dreaming over the strange chords, the
brilliant arpeggios and bewildering chromatic passages,
while all about were the fragrances of spring flowers, violets
and daffodils, a heaping jar of narcissus, and great bowls of
lilacs, white and purple, mingling their odors with the
dreamy sounds. I wished that my friend had had more to
tell me of that one day in Paris. Somehow, as I have said,
Chopin's music calls it readily to mind. He had gone out
to buy the flowers as a sort of inspiration ; and certainly the
music that resulted always lived in my friend's memory —
Chopin 's Early Life. 2 1 1
part of her thought of the man himself, for Chopin's music
was distinctly personal. Some critics think it overladen
with sentimentality, an element young players are too apt
to get into their style, and certainly to be strictly avoided ;
but Chopin, it seems to me, had too much real genius to
make this predominate. Everything he wrote has its tinge
of melancholy, everything has a little undercurrent of fan-
ciful feeling, which breaks out now and then, like the spray
of a fountain, into something which ends in thin air before
you can catch all its lights; but the foundation is solid, and
when you play any of Chopin's music, remember not to be
carried away by the idea that it is all to be expressed in
lightness and delicacy. Try to find the deeper thought first,
and then weave your daintiest feeling of the music about it.
Chopin's history was brief, and melancholy at the last.
He was born February 8, 1810, at Zelazowa-Wola, a Polish
village near Warsaw, and he died at Paris in 1849. His
father, who was French, settled in Warsaw, where he was
a professor at the Academy, and where he had also a first-
class private school. Little Frederic was brought up with
lads of refinement and good-breeding, so that, as a child, he
saw little of the roughness of life. His mother, who was a
Polish lady of extremely sensitive temperament, gave him
his first ideas of poetry and romance, and perhaps from
lier he inherited the tinge of melancholy which followed
2 I 2 The Story of Music and Musicians.
him through life. But as a youth he was gay enough, fond
of amusements and all sorts of fun.
Before he was nineteen he had become a finished pianist,
and as this was only in 1828, it was more of a feat than it
could be now. His teachers and friends were anxious for
him to be known and applauded in the world, and so he
went from Poland to Vienna, where he quickly gathered a
circle of friends about him, who listened and admired as
much as his dearest masters could wish. At this time every
one interested in any way in music, whether as an art or in
performance, was full of curiosity to see and hear the yonng
Pole, and when he arrived in Paris he created a sensation
in society as well as in musical circles.
Besides his art young Chopin had the reputation of be-
ing an enthusiastic patriot. The revolution in Poland was
just over; every one who came from that unhappy country
seemed to have an air of romance about him, and the young
musician, with his graceful beauty, his melancholy eyes
and smile, playing as no Parisian had ever heard waltzes
and polonaises played before, was naturally a strong attrac-
tion in the capital, and so he was soon established there,
and gathered a wonderful circle of people about him. He
knew all the famous men and women of the day. If some
people found him cold and selfish, at least he seemed to
have truly loved some of his chosen friends, and by many,
Early Death of Chopin. 213
both among his pupils and his friends, he was absolutely
adored.
Unfortunately Chopin's health, never very strong, began
to break soon after his twenty -fifth year. He went to
Majorca to seek health, but returned to Paris only to break
down again ; and yet he had, like many people of his artis-
tic nature, an energy and feverish activity which kept him
up. So, in spite of remonstrances, he went to London,
played there, and went constantly into society, burning out
with a rush his feeble little lamp of life. He hastened back
to his beloved Paris, where a favorite pupil, M. Gutman,
had everything in readiness for him.
But Chopin's strength had entirely failed. He passed
his days in weariness of mind and body, grateful for the
loving attentions of friends, and particularly soothed by
music. His pupil Gutman, his sister, and the Countess
Potocka nursed him constantljT, and they wheeled his piano
to the bedroom door, where they could play and sing for
him when he desired it. One evening about five o'clock
he seemed dying, but suddenly he opened his eyes, and
looking at Countess Potocka, murmured, "Sing."
She was weeping bitterly, but she went to the piano, and
there sang the canticle to the Virgin, that wonderful song
which Haweis tells us once saved the life of Stradella.
These were among the last sounds that reached the iiuisi-
214 The Story of Music and Musicians.
cian's ears. He died the peaceful death so often accorded
to those who have suffered much with his disease, and
while he lay in his last sleep friends came, filling all the
room with flowers. Every one knew of his passionate love
of them, and so, late roses and early autumn blossoms, and
even spring violets and pansies, were strewn about him,
until he seemed, they say, to be resting in some strangely
sweet garden of God.
Chopin's great art was in his harmonic progressions, a
term better to be understood after some study of thorough-
bass, though even without this some idea of the meaning
may be obtained and improved upon by studying different
parts of different works.
A progression in harmony is, strictly speaking, the follow-
ing up of one chord into another. An excellent idea is that
chords should not be regarded only horizontally, as we are
accustomed to think of them before us on the printed page,
but as well vertically, which suggests to our mind their
movement or on-going from one to the other. A chord is
the combination of any tones, and the simplest chord of all
is formed by adding to the tone its third and then its fifth,
which is known as the triad symphone or concord from
which all other chords are formed. The principal chords in
the scale are known as the tonic, the dominant, and the sub-
dominant, because their first notes are taken from the tonic,
Extempore Playing. 217
dominant, and sub-dominant of the scale. A number of
changes, inversions, etc., belong to the arrangement of
chords; and as progression depends so much upon them,
their careful study should be regarded by any student as a
most important branch of his or her work in music. What
endless beauties may be wrought in progressions Chopin's
music shows in perfection.
In Chopin's impromptus his peculiar power is most evi-
dent. An impromptu is a piece written down, yet in the
style of extempore playing, or improvisation. Many musi-
cians have been noted for their fine ideas in extempore
playing. This is, to take up some musical idea, sit down,
and at the piano elaborate it just as the ideas came. In
impromptus the musician gives the idea that he is doing
likewise, and the result in the music of Chopin and Schu-
bert is something very fascinating. It may be as well to
say that Beethoven and Mendelssohn never used this term
for any of their music, but Chopin seems to have created it
as something too dignified not to take a first place among
musical significations. When you can play with ease
Chopin's impromptu in C-sharp minor, or his impromptu
Opus 36 (Opus stands for work), then you may feel that the
drudgery of finger exercise is at an end, though its practice
should be perpetual.
Schubert, the second in the trio I have mentioned, was
2 1 8 The Story of Music and Musicians.
born in 1797, and was the youngest son of a family of eigh-
teen, and from earliest childhood showed a passion for mu-
sic: melody seeming to come as natural to him as the very
air he breathed. At thirteen, overtures, quartets, sympho-
nies, all sorts of compositions, were pouring forth from the
young musician's brain and fingers, no sort of hardship
daunting him, poverty and a rather rude home-life offering
no obstacles whatever to his work. In 1816 Schubert was
engaged in teaching little boys in his father's school, an oc-
cupation which seems to have afforded him no particular
annoyance, probably because he worked at it mechanically,
allowing his brain to employ itself as it would with musical
composition while he listened to the a-b ab and the multi-
plication table of his little pupils. Having escaped one af-
ternoon somewhat earlier than usual from his work, he shut
himself up in a little room, the only spot belonging entire-
ly to himself in his father's house. He had obtained pos-
session of a volume of Goethe's poems, and sitting there he
read the " Erl-king." Something seemed to till his heart and
mind and very soul as he read. It was an hour of tremen-
dous inspiration ; the words seemed to him to go to an ac-
companiment of rushing wind and of a fantastic melody;
the forest stretched before him — the father and child riding
on seemed to him to move to harmonies which he could
not restrain himself from uttering; and then and there he
ScJiubert. 219
seized his pen and wrote out the song which will be forever
famous, never afterwards having to correct a single line of
it, and occupying only as much time in the performance of
this remarkable work as it took to actually write the notes
down upon the paper. If Schubert had never written an-
other line, his fame might well rest upon this composition.
Every great singer, every great pianist has undertaken an
interpretation of it ; thousands have been realized by the
publishers of it, and in the lives of various people we read
of the effect produced by it upon their minds at different
important periods; as, for instance, when Jean Paul Rich-
ter, the poet, dying and blind, desired, a few hours before
his death, to hear it sung for the last time; and we have
also a picture of Goethe, aged, and living much in the past,
begging of Madame Devrient to sing it once more for him.
Schubert, warm-hearted, although at times intensely mel-
ancholy, had a charmed circle of friends; but he was not
always a good companion, his natural inclination to depres-
sion depriving him of that element of bonhomie which is
necessary in order to be always en rappwt with one's gay
companions. He was plain in appearance, not strong, al-
though rather large, and walked with a stoop which made
him awkward; but he was capable of all the suffering which
comes from a sensitive and nervous temperament, and he
had trouble enough to excuse many of his morbid feelings.
22O The Story of Music and Musicians.
Beethoven, during his last illness, learned to appreciate
the younger composer, and between the periods of his great
suffering he spent much time poring over Schubert's music ;
and almost in his last moments the eyes of the great master
rested upon his friend, and it is said that he strove vainly
over and again to say something to him as he held his hand
in a last farewell. In keeping with a German fashion,
Schubert and some of his friends, on the day of Beethoven's
funeral, drank to the soul of the great man. Some one sug-
gested to drink to the one who should go next, whereupon
Schubert started up, and filling a glass, turned aside, drink-
ing to himself.
It is not possible to give you here a full account of his
various symphonies, quartets, masses, quintets, sonatas, and
songs; the last great work was completed in 1828. This
was the seventh symphony in C, and it was performed to
a crowded and enthusiastic audience. Fame and worldly
success were just reaching forth their hands to lead him to
the heights of peaceful content, but his health completely
failed. In November, 1828, he expired at the age of thirty-
one.
At Leipsic the news of Schubert's death reached painful-
ly a young man who had been his devoted admirer since
boyhood. This was llobert Schumann, then a lad of eigh-
teen, working hard, composing, and building the foundation
Schumann — Clara Wieck. 221
for a great musical career. Schumann's first strong impe-
tus towards a musical life was when, at nine years of age, he
made a journey to Carlsbad with a relative to hear Mosche-
les play, and the influence of this master's technique never
left him. His father was a bookseller at Zwickau, in Sax-
ony, and although he knew little of music, interested him-
self strongly in his son's talent, and at the same time gave
him an excellent education. After leaving the University
of Leipsic he travelled, making the acquaintance of various
famous people and absorbing much material which he was
later to turn to excellent account in his musical composi-
tions. To follow Schumann's life would be highly inter-
esting to the student of his work, since in it we find so
many evidences of what influenced his compositions. The
story for many years is a highly interesting one, including
the events which led to his marriage with the gifted daugh-
ter of the old musician known as Papa Wieck.
The first performance of one of Schumann's symphonies
took place at Zwickau in 1832, and Clara Wieck, then a
girl of thirteen, was the pianist. Schumann, as well as all
who heard her, was filled with enthusiasm, and from that
moment seems to have adored the child who was later to
become his wife. He had not poverty to contend with, and
was therefore able to indulge many of his fancies in a mu-
sical career, and also to become interested in the publication
222 The Story of Music and Musicians.
of a musical paper. He associated himself with all the lead-
ing musicians and authors of the day, and on his marriage,
in 1840, life seemed to begin with every promise of human
happiness. Both husband and wife shared simple domestic
tastes, and at the same time were heart and soul musicians.
Clara Schumann* was the leading pianist of German}', and
he was one of its first composers. Their home at Leipsic
formed a noted centre for everything that was delightful
artistically, but both husband and wife enjoyed periods of
seclusion and study. The intimacies of the Schumauns
with Mendelssohn, Brahms, Joachim, and others are almost
famous, so inspiring and devoted were they; but in spite of
all that was so attractive in home and artistic life, Schu-
mann's health failed : the natural tendency towards the mor-
bid, which had always been a strong element in his nature,
increased, and the last years of his life were passed in a pri-
vate asylum near Bonn. His insanity took the form of
melancholia. Naturally his musical work impressed him
strongly, and various themes haunted him, so that he WHS
driven to the verge of despair in trying to work them out.
The very last came with the consolation of a more peaceful
period, and in the arms of his wife, July 29, 1856, he passed
quietly away.
* Madame Schumann still continues to delight the most cultured au-
diences (1886).
MADAME CLARA SCHUMANN.
Musical Culture. 223
CHAPTER XVIII.
Musical Culture.— A Young Girl's Diary. — Stepping-stones. — An Over-
romautic Student.
ONE day a group of girls in a foreign conservatory sat
down to discuss what music they liked best. With one ex-
ception, all were Americans, who had recently entered the
B Conservatory. The preference was for operatic mu-
sic; with some for Beethoven, and others for Mendelssohn.
Their musical education had been of the ordinary sort.
They had studied compositions which were selected with
no view to progress, and with no systematic idea of the
right sort of cultivation, yet all were tolerably good per-
formers ; that is, their facility had justified them in going
abroad to study in a regular musical school, and, like most
American students, they had quick minds, a genuine mu-
sical enthusiasm — not the sort of patience or diligence which
marks the German student, not the brilliancy of the French
girl, who learns to make use of her fingers with marvellous
rapidity, but their appreciations were ready to be cultivated,
and their kind of enthusiasm was wholesome.
224 The Story of Music and Musicians,
A year later any one of the group would have been sur-
prised had she been reminded of the opinions expressed by
her that day. System had stepped in with the slow but
sure culture of a whole year's hearing of only the very best
music. If you were studying astronomy or chemistry, would
it occur to you that you could by any chance profit by mix-
ing up all the chapters in your text-books, taking up any
part at any time, and giving the end the first place in your
mind? I am sure such a plan would seem absurd in the
extreme; yet so few young people studying music stop to
consider the necessity of avoiding just such a ridiculous
jumble, that in this chapter I want to talk about certain
arrangements for musical practice which I have seen work
very well.
To begin with, remember that every moment you can
give to your piano is valuable if used in the right way —
live minutes at a time is profitable ; on the other hand,
every moment wasted in stupid or careless playing is a di-
rect injury. Of course, even in our severest studies we
like to be amused, and one always can be amused at the
piano, except when one is playing finger exercises, over
which you can at least be interested.
A very entertaining thing is to have a musical diary, in
which one records each day what was practised or learned,
with comments on the composer's style, any peculiar forma-
Usefulness of a Musical Diary. 225
tion of chords or arrangement of notes, and any portions
which have seemed most difficult. You have no idea, until
you make the experiment, how such a book marks one's
progress, and how interesting it becomes to look back upon.
Reading such an one the other day, I was amused and in-
terested in noting how difficulties which in January seemed
insurmountable had vanished by May. This book was kept
with alternate leaves of music-paper carefully inserted, so
that the owner, who was certainly an anxious, if not a brill-
iant student, could put down or make note of anything
which occurred to her as she wrote, and sometimes the re-
sult was very interesting and entertaining. At the end of
each month the results were summed up with a note of
what had been accomplished. Perhaps a few pages from
such a diary will serve to illustrate my idea :
"January 3d. — Practised one hour to-day on Czerny's
studies, and half an hour's Plaidy, the old five fingers. I
then tried Mozart's minuet in E-flat major, hoping to make
the staccato parts less heavy. After playing it a few times, I
hunted out some bits of my exercises with special reference
to those pieces, and after ten minutes found I could go back
to the minuet much better. Read four pages of Haydn.
"January 4th. — Usual exercises practised, the minuet and
Schumann's ' Slumber Song.' Noticed the peculiarities of
some of the bars, and how very necessary it is to make the
226 . The Story of Music and Musicians.
left-hand work smoothly. Worked ten minutes extra on
left-hand finger exercises. Found it rather hard work.
Went to one of You Billow's concerts in the evening, and
returned wondering if I could ever accomplish anything.
Was delighted to hear that he practised finger exercises an
hour a day. He played Beethoven's 'Sonata Appasionata,'
and fairly rushed it. I heard that Beethoven composed that
sonata during a terrible thunder-storm, and Mr. says no
one can play it like Liszt, and that when Rubinstein plays
it he is apt to alter little bits here and there just to suit his
mood. When I heard Madame Essipoff, she took a great
deal of it very tenderly. Von Billow is very effective, but
certainly tremendous over it.
"January §th. — Tried to read the 'Appasionata' with
Mr. . Too much for me, but it gave me an idea of the
majesty of the whole thing. In practising Mendelssohn's
'Spring Song' to-day I suddenly discovered how to do the
arpeggio in the bass, and worked simply at those portions
without reference to the rest for a time. Mendelssohn
wrote the 'Spring Song' for one of his sister's festive occa-
sions. When Moscheles went for the first time after Men-
delssohn's death to see his wife Cecile, he played the ' Spring
Song' for her, and it brought back to them both all their
tenderest memories, so that it must have been most dear to
the composer.
Extract from a Diary, 227
"January 8th. — Miss H spent two hours here to-day,
and played all sorts of things. She has just come home
from four years' musical study abroad, chiefly in Dresden
and Berlin. She showed me how Deppe teaches his pupils
to hold the fingers — to curve the hand always slightly out-
ward and sink the knuckle part a little. She did some ex-
ercises very well, but her manner was excessively languid.
She does not seem to have much musical instinct, and so it
seemed to me waste of time, unless, as Mr. says, she
could devote herself to harmony, and so enjoy music as a
science. I played two of Chopin's waltzes for her, and was
very glad of the suggestions she offered me about my finger-
ing, which it seems to me I ought to consider more than I
do. She described Liszt's manner as very entertaining. He
is never twice quite alike, she says — sometimes satirical,
sometimes playful ; but she says his playing can never be
described. It is simply perfect, especially in all legato pas-
sages. She used to see Tausig very often, and said that ex-
cept Liszt he was the most wonderful pianist she had ever
heard — but such an eccentric creature! like some half-
human thing, quite elfish. He died very young, and was
a great loss to the musical world.
" February \st.— In my musical note-book to-day I took
for an example in modulation the ' Largo Appasionata ' from
Beethoven's Sonata, Opus No. 2. The original key is I)
14
228 The Story of Music and Musicians.
and it works readily into the dominant, but goes from that
into D minor. For a sudden transition it is remarkably
beautiful, and the manner in which it works back to D is
highly interesting."
These quotations from a young girl's diary, which, as you
see, was concerned only with musical matters, will perhaps
show you what might be done in this way ; and I am very
sure such a book would add greatly to the interest of mu-
sical study. Various anecdotes of different compositions are
included, as, for example —
" February 10th. — I played Schubert's 'Serenade' to-day,
with G— — doing the violin obligate delightfully. He told
me that Schubert had composed this charming work, with
its suggestions of moonlight and rose -scented gardens, in
the midst of the din and racket of a carousal from which
he escaped, leaving his companions over their beer and
songs at one end of the restaurant, while at the other, in
an open window, he sat jotting down notes for this exqui-
site song."
And again:
"When Mendelssohn was composing the 'Elijah' he waa
in doubt about one passage, and accordingly he went to an
intimate friend who was likewise a good critic, and played
it over for him without saying whose or what it was. When
he had finished, Mendelssohn calmly inquired, 'What do
Reminiscence of Mendelssohn. 229
you think of that? at least, what would be your opinion of
a work in which that could be included ?'
" ' That it ought to make the composer famous,' was the
answer, whereupon Mendelssohn said nothing and went his
way; but so strong was the impression made upon his im-
promptu critic's mind, that he declared that to him the whole
of the 'Elijah,' when he heard it later and recognized this
portion, seemed to be concentrated in that one particular
portion, or to radiate therefrom."
From one of the monthly " summings up " I will quote a
passage :
"May 31st. — This month I feel I have accomplished very
little in the way of expression, but a great deal in overcom-
ing certain difficulties. I really can play the E minor scale
fairly well, and the 'Moonlight Sonata' no longer stares me
in the face as something which I am never to execute. I
have made, this month, a careful study of musical terms,
writing them all down with definitions."
At the end of the year the diarist has put down a list of
what she had learned and what concerts she had attended,
and in a little companion volume the programmes of the
concerts, with photographs of the performers.
There was no special literary merit in that little book, but
I can safely say it carried the writer over tall places, and
now suggests many an hour of work made fascinating in-
230 The Story of Music and Musicians.
stead of prosaic. The romantic element in musical study
can be carried to a very ridiculous extreme, yet it may safely
be allowed to tinge one's labors ; for no art possesses such a
field for poetic aspirations.
I would not for worlds suggest to my young readers to
follow the example of a young person of twelve whom I
once knew, and who went through a whole year of very
commonplace musical study — in which, I am sorry to say,
she accomplished but little — pretending to herself she was
in Vienna studying at a conservatory, the protegee of a fa-
mous master, giving concerts and being treated as a prodigy.
Little Miss K , who, as you see, had a most vivid imagi-
nation, used to take her lessons with her little head just full
of these fancied scenes, and on leaving her teacher's house
would walk home with a servant, still assuming to herself
that she was in Vienna, the observed of all observers. No
profit came of all this to her playing, as you may easily be-
lieve, for in her case the ardor all went to the imaginary
side, and the necessity of real work did not occur to her.
It is well for young students to feel the poetry and loftiness
of the art they are pursuing, but they should at the same
time avoid eccentric vagaries.
Great Facilities for the Study of Music. 231
CHAPTER XIX.
The Purpose of the Book. — Technique. — Standard Authorities.— Pro-
fessional Pianists. — Books on Music. — Conservatories at Home and
Abroad. — The Expense of Foreign Study. — Shining Lights. — Au-
thorities used. — How to study Music profitably.
the appearance of a portion of this little work in
HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, a great many questions have been
written me in regard to methods of study, instruction, and
technique, and it seems advisable to address a final chapter
to all such friendly inquirers, as well as to any readers who
might be interested on the same points. To all such let
me in the commencement say that I have neither the abil-
ity nor the desire to do more than make general helpful
suggestions through this book ; that methods of piano prac-
tice are too various to classify ; that good instruction is the
only kind worth having, and, fortunately, may be had in
almost every city in America to-day, while foreign masters
have learned to regard us as a tuneful and decidedly music-
loving nation, according a special welcome to American
students.
Technique is the foundation of art, and the study of har-
mony, guided by professors and writers like Cornell, Par-
232 The Story of Music and Musicians.
ker, Richter, and various other standard authorities, has ad-
vanced to a position wherein it is considered as part of the
general culture as well as art of the day. Professional pi-
anists are so numerous that the best of music may be heard
on all sides, and this is certainly the most useful sort of
stimulus to the young student. Books on music, technical,
biographical, and discursive, are to be had by writers whose
professional standing warrants their most dogmatic utter-
ances.
In America conservatories of music have been started in
all the principal cities, and in many instances are well man-
aged and conducted. Abroad, the schools of Leipsic, Berlin,
Paris, Stuttgart, etc., rank highly on the Continent, while in
London two academies give a fine course of musical study
and possess various scholarships. To give an estimate of
the expense of musical study abroad, as I have been con-
stantly asked to do, is a difficult matter, since so much
depends upon the place of study chosen and the methods
pursued, but I think that any prudently inclined student
might be safe to venture abroad for musical education on
an income of five hundred dollars a year, while I have
known of its being done on even less.
Fifty years ago the number of professional pianists was
so small that an amateur rarely had an opportunity for
hearing good music or the least incentive for study from
Leading Musicians of the Present Day. 233
prominent examples. At the present day, while Liszt, Ru-
benstein, and Von Bulow head the list, a host of shining
lights follow in their train, and the world seems full of
the harmonious echoes they have wakened into life. It is
scarcely possible to mention these artists all by name, but
among prominent women of the day, all of whom I take
for granted are willing to recognize Madame Clara Schu-
mann as the leader of their sex in her art, we may pay this
brief homage to Madame Essipoff, Madame Helen Hopekirk,
Mademoiselle Janotha, and Madame Madeleine Schiller. So
many new stars are constantly appearing, that before these
words are printed it may be that other names will seem to
belong to the record of famous pianistes of the day.
I trust that it will be seen by all my readers that no ad-
vice is offered in this little volume as from a professional
musician, and that no suggestions contained within its pages
are intended to do more than stimulate the ardor of the
student who is working under good instruction.
All authorities consulted have been the best; all those
quoted have been long recognized as governing musical de-
cisions. The various methods for study suggested are the
result of practical experience, and incidents relating to liv-
ing persons or their friends have come from the most direct
source. Personal sentiments which are only matters of
taste need not have any special weight with the reader
234 The Story of Music and Musicians.
whose experience in musical life inclines him to an oppo-
site opinion, since, fortunately, the world of art is large and
fertile enough to include every variety of individuality.
The technical portions of the book, as may readily be seen,
are introduced only to illustrate or explain the form of
composition especially under consideration, or to rouse an
interest in the real study of harmony ; while it is to be
hoped that the lives of the great masters — the classicists —
will give to piano study the touch of inspiration which
comes from the story of those who have caused the divine
art to unfold and reveal its treasures — to open wide its por-
tals to those who knock with the password of interpreta-
tion ready on their lips.
Music must be loved to be studied profitably, but even
then it reaches the depths of the heart and soul by a proc-
ess of absorption which culture certainly develops. Each
new step taken in the right direction widens the horizon
and suggests new possibilities for the loving student, and
it is an art which to such an one can never be thankless
while the heart beats or the ears are not deaf to sound.
I can hardly do better than to bid my young readers
farewell with an extract from Haweis's " Book on Musical
Memories," in which he speaks of the power of music over
mind and body :
" Music is not only a body healer, it is a mind regulator.
The Power of Music. 235
The great educational function of music remains almost to
be discovered. The future mission of music for the million
is the Discipline of Emotion. * * * Music rouses the emo-
tions. Inward activities, long dormant or never before
awakened, are called up, and become new powers within
the breast ; for, remember, emotion nerves for action. The
stupidest horse that goes up hill to the sound of bells, the
timidest soldier that marches to battle with fife and drum,
the most delicate girl who spins round tireless in the dance,
the poorest laborer who sings at his work — any of them is
good enough to prove that music rouses and sustains emo-
tion. * * * Music disciplines and controls emotion. That
is the explanation of the art of music, as distinguished from
the mere power of the musical sound. You can rouse with
a stroke ; but to guide, to moderate, to control, to raise and
depress, to combine, to work out a definite scheme involv-
ing appropriate relations and proportions of force, and va-
rious mobility — for this you require the subtle machinery
of an art ; and the direct machinery for stirring up and
regulating emotion is the wonderful vibratory mechanism
created by the art of music."
INDEX.
A.
"A Calm Sea and a Prosperous
Voyage," 186.
" A staid musicke ordered for grave
dancing," 131.
Accent, 71.
Accidentals, 77, 78.
Acute sounds, 39.
Adagio, 121.
Adagio, largo, 129.
Adagio time, 162.
" Adelaide," 169.
"Agamemnon," 95.
Agnus Dei, 162.
Agreeable concords, 110.
Allegorical subjects, 186.
Allegorical performance, 62.
Allegro, 121, 128, 129.
" Allegro moderate," 129.
Allegro themes, 129.
Allemandes, 132.
Amateur, 18, 232.
Ambrose, St., 152.
" Amen," 93.
America, 63.
American students, 231.
Ancient Canto Fermo, 161.
Andante, 121, 128, 129.
Answer, 61.
Apostle of the Apocalypse, 159.
" Appasionata," 226.
Arias, 91.
Arpeggio, 50.
Arrangements, 112.
Arrangement of notes, 225.
Astronomy, 224.
Augmented interval, 48.
Augmented second, 76.
Avolio, Mrs., 88.
B.
Bach, Ambrosius, 53.
Bach, John Sebastian, 13, 43, 44, 53,
55-57, 59, 60, 62, 66, 67, 109, 140,
188, 190, 191, 202.
Bach's gavottes, 113.
Ballads, 111.
" Ballet Comique de la Royne," 190.
Band, 189.
Bardi, Giovanni, ContediVeruio, 94.
Bar line, 70.
Bars, 58, 59, 69, 225.
Bartholdy, Felix Mendelssohn, 188,
197.
Basis of theory, 56.
Basque race, 62.
Index.
Bass, 191.
Bass drum, 193.
Bassoon, 168, 193.
Bass trumpet, 193.
Bayreuth festival, 96.
Beat, 71.
Beethoven, Jean, 165.
Beethoven, Ludwig von, 21, 22, 26,
111, 128, 161, 162, 165-167, 175,
202, 208, 220, 223.
Beethoven's andantes, 113.
Berlin, 64, 65, 197, 232.
Bible, 62, 65.
Biblical scenes, 62.
Big drum, 111.
" Big iioises," 111.
Binchoys, 154.
Bishop, Sir Henry, 194.
Bodleian library, 40.
" Book on Musical Memories," 234.
Brahms, 175.
Braules, 131.
Breve, 41.
British Museum, 98.
Britton, Thomas, 87.
Broader harmony, 150.
Bulow,Von, 30,33,233.
Buononcini,83.
Byron, John, 83, 87.
C.
Cacciui, 95.
Cadences, 123.
Cadenzas, 175.
Canon imitation, 60.
Cantabile, 92.
Cantata, 124, 126.
Canticle, 213.
Canto Ferino, 154.
Cauzonettes, 96, 97.
Cardinal Pisani, 159.
Catches, 103.
Cathedral at Winchester, 40.
Cavaliere, Emilio del, 91.
Chaconne, 59, 132.
Chamber music, 106, 193.
Chamber organ, 87.
Chant, 44.
Chapel, 161.
Chapel-master, 155.
Chapel of St. Maria Maggiore, 156.
Chapel organ, 85.
Chateau de Montiers, 190, 191.
Chelsea, 104, 140.
Cherubiui, 161.
Chitarone, 98.
Chopin, Francois, 27, 212, 217, 227.
Choral writing, 92.
Chorales, 63.
Chord, 74.
Chorda, 14, 18.
Chords, 74, 214, 217.
Choristers, 63.
Chorus, 90.
Christian plays, 63.
Christoph, Johann, 53.
Chromatic alteration, 76.
Church music, 124, 149.
Church of St. John in Rome, 100.
Cibber, Colley, 87.
Cibber, Mrs., 88.
Citherns, 28.
Citoles, 28.
Civilization, 53.
Clarionet, 193.
Classical, 112.
Classicists, 234.
Clavi, 14.
Index.
239
Clavichord, 14, 15, 56.
Clavicytheriums, 28.
Clerkenwell Green, 87.
Closer time, 61.
Club of minstrels, 119.
Code, 61.
Codetta, 61.
Colonia, Franco de, 41.
" Comfort ye my people," 93.
Common time, 58.
Composer, 53.
Composers' licences, 129.
Compositions, 119.
Conbrio, 129.
Concert in Hicksford's Rooms, 134.
Concert-room, 172.
Concertos, Liszt's, 176.
Concertos, movements of, 175.
Concertos, Mozart's, 174.
Concerts, 173, 174.
Concerts in Paris, 175.
Concord, 214.
Contra bass tuba, 193.
Contrapuntal skill, 59.
Corelli, 125, 126, 127.
Cornell, 231.
Cornets, 189.
Corno di bassetto, 193.
Corsi,96,98.
Council of Trent, 156.
Counterpoint, 32, 56, 61, 98, 109.
Counter-subject, 61.
Conrantes, 132.
Covent Garden, 90.
Credo, 161, 162.
Cristofari,20.
Curtz, 119, 120.
Cymbals, 111, 193.
Czerny,225.
D.
" Dafne," 97.
" Dash," 113.
" Dance therewith tunefully and
harmoniously," 189.
Dauphine, 57.
Dauphiness, 106.
Dead march, 87.
Degrees, 48.
Deppe, 227.
" Der Freischiitz," 182, 184, 186.
Descent of scale, 75.
Devrient, Madame, 219.
Devrient, Edward, 65, 66, 68, 208, 219.
" Dido and ^Eneas," 104.
Diminished interval, 48,51, 52.
Diminished seventh, 52.
Discipline of emotions, 235.
Dominant, 61, 72, 74, 128, 228.
Dominant chord, 214.
Dominant relative major, 174.
Dominant seventh, 175.
" Don Giovanni," 26, 130.
" Don't make a cadenza, hut go on
at once to the following," 175.
Dot, 72.
Double basses, 193.
Double bassoon, 193.
Dramatic, 62.
Dresden, 227.
" Dressed quickly," 145.
Drums, 189.
Drury Lane, 80.
Drydeu, 104.
Dubourg, Mr., 88.
Ducal chapel at Stella, 55.
Due de Joyeuse, 189, 190.
Duchess of Queensbury, 87.
" Duets for four hands," 141.
240
Index.
Du Fay, 154.
Duke of Saxe, 84.
Dulcimers, 28.
Duraute, 160, 161.
E.
Early Christian music, 33.
Early Church, 63.
Early melodic form, 163.
Easter-time, 157.
Ecclesiastical schools, 153.
" Echo et Narcisse," 112.
" Effects," 192.
Egyptians, 112.
Eighteenth century, 53.
Elector of Cologue, 165.
Elements of true musical inspira-
tion, 112.
" Elijah," 204, 206, 208, 228, 229.
Elizabeth, Queen, 16, 131.
England, 40.
English musician, 70.
Episcopal Church of England, 153.
Episode, 61.
"Erl-king,"218.
Essipoff, Madame, 226, 233.
Esterhazy, Prince, 120.
Ethelred II., 40.
Europe, 190.
" Euryanthe, 184.
"Enrydice,"43.
Entiu, 178.
Execution, 56.
Extempore playing, 217.
F.
F note, 39.
"Family of tones," 72.
"Fance,"201.
" Faust," 42, 201.
Few rules for composition, 58.
" Fidelio," 186.
" Field-and-flower," 141.
Finish of melody, 73.
First symphony of Haydn's, 120.
Flanders, 40.
Florence, 94.
Flutes, 189.
"Following the marks," 72.
"For benefit of Miss Mozart and
Master Mozart," 134.
Founder of opera in classical form,
106.
Founder of symphony, 121.
Four-line stave, 41.
Four movements of sonata, 128.
Four movements of symphony, 121.
Four perfect intervals, 49.
Fourteenth century, 91, 152.
Fourth century, 63.
Fractions of a bar, 72.
France, 121, 132.
Franck, Herr, 114.
Frege, Frau, 207.
Frescobaldi, 59.
Fugue, 62, 163.
Fugue in minor, 61.
Fugue of Bach, 74.
Funeral cantata, 166.
Fusignano, 126.
G.
Galileo Vincent, 96.
Gallards, 131.
Gavottes, 56-59, 62.
Genius, 55.
Index.
241
Genoa, 100.
George I., 79.
George II., 109.
Germany, 79.
" Glasses," 110.
Glees, 103.
Gluck, 105, 106, 109-112.
" Go," 113.
Goethe, 201, 202, 204.
Good-breeding in music, 72.
Good-Friday, 90.
Gospel choruses, 63.
Gounod, 161.
Gradual progressions, 44.
Grand fugues, 60.
Grave sounds, 139.
Greater intervals, 50.
Greek lyrical dramas, 95.
Greeks, 97.
Gregory, St., 33, 44, 152, 153.
Guicciardi, Countess, 169.
Gutman, M., 213.
H.
Half-bar, 59.
Half-steps, 49, 50, 52, 57, 72, 75.
Halle, 84.
Hamburg, 55, 114.
Handel, 59, 79, 80, 83-85, 87, 88, 109,
127, 185, 192, 195.
Hanoverian court, 79.
Harmonica, 110.
Harmonic changes, 60.
Harmonic forms, 51.
Harmonic progressions, 214.
Harmony, 32, 43, 44, 46, 56, 59, 112.
Harmony class, 33.
Harps, 20, 114, 193.
Harpsichord, 18, 19, 86, 106, 119, 140.
Haweis, 213, 234.
Haydn, 13, 25, 117, 119, 120-123, 129,
167, 225.
"Hebrides," 186.
Henry IV. of France, 98.
Henry VII., 14.
Hiller, 197, 206.
Historical oratorios, 91.
Holland, 166.
Holyshead, 88.
Homophonic, 97.
Hopekirk, Helen, Madame, 233.
Hucbaldus, 40.
Hummell, 203.
Humphries, 103.
Huusden, Lord, 16.
Hymns, 103.
I.
" Ich lasse das madchen das nicht
will," 147.
" II caruo Sassone," 86.
" II Parnasso," 111.
Imperfect fifth, 49.
Improvising, 60.
Interval, 48, 76.
Interval, imperfect, 48.
Interval of diminished seventh, 61,
72.
Introduction, 187.
Instruction, 231.
" Introit," 162.
" Invitation to the waltz," 182.
" Israel in Egypt," 87.
" It comes from thence," 122.
Italian C, 58.
Italian masters, 162.
Italian opera, 98.
242
Index.
Italian opera music, 80.
Italy, 86, 132.
J.
Janotha, Mademoiselle, 521.
"Jephthah,"89.
Joachim, 207, 222.
Jesuit College at Kommotan, 106.
"Joshua," 89.
" Judas Maccabaeus," 89, 92.
K.
Kapellmeister, 203.
Keller, 114.
Keller, Ann, 119.
Key, 72.
Key-notes, 72, 73, 128.
" Key of C," 73.
Key -tone, 73, 75.
King of Wurtemburg, 181.
Lacrimoso, 140.
" L' Amfi paruasso," 95.
Landmarks, 44.
"La Ressurezione," 91.
" Lascia ch' io Piauga," 80.
Latin fngare, 57.
Lawe,s, Heury, 70.
Leading note, 73.
Leading principles, 73.
Leger lines, 40.
Leipsic, 206, 220, 232.
Lesser third, 50.
" Let there be light," 122.
Libretto, 98, 120.
Lichnovvsky, Princess, 25.
Limitations, 56.
Liszt, 33, 233.
Literature, 64.
Louis XIII., 99.
Louis's court, 57.
Lulli, 99.
Lutes, 28.
Lyres, 28, 95.
Lyric drama, 111.
M.
Madrigals, 14, 59, 97, 104, 125.
Magnificats, 159.
Main rules for the fugue, 62.
Major interval, 48-50.
Major key, 59, 73, 87.
Major scale, 48.
Major second, 50, 51.
Major seventh, 75.
Mantua, 95.
Manuscript page, 54.
Maria de Medici, 98.
Marie Antoinette, 105, 111
Marius, 20.
Mass, 43, 118.
Masses of notes, 71.
Mass iu B minor, 160.
Mass, Marcelli, 148.
Mass, requiem, 148, 158.
Masterly manner, 57.
Material of a key, 73, 74.
Measure, 7.
Mediaeval, 91.
Melodic form, 155.
Melodious forms, 100.
Melody, 41, 44, 152, 156.
Melody chant, 154.
Molvil, Sir James, 16.
Index.
243
Mendelssohn, Fanny, 204.
Mendelssohn, Felix, 27, 28, 64, 68,
113, 144, 175, 195, 196, 200-208.
Mendelssohn, Madame, 67, 226.
Messiah, 78, 79, 88, 89, 92.
Method, 112.
Metre, 70.
Metre of music, 70.
Middle ages, 90.
Middle C, 48-50.
Milan, 109.
Milton, 104.
Minor cadences, 93.
Minor interval, 48, 50.
Minor key, 59, 73.
Minor scale, 75.
Minor scale of E, 30.
Minor seventh, 52.
Minor sixth, 76.
Minor third, 75.
Minuet, 121, 128, 130.
Moderately quick, 72.
Molto, 129.
.Monodia, 97.
Moutpensier, Mademoiselle de, 99.
Moscheles, 27, 28, 202-208.
Mozart, 18, 25, 26, 111, 121, 129, 130,
134-149.
Musical academy, 65.
Musical diary, 45, 227-230.
Musical drama, 95.
Musical ideas, 71.
Musical notation, 51, 52.
Musical note-hook, 52.
Musical taste, 72.
Musical terms, 44.
Musician, 53.
Music-book, 57, 62.
Music-loving nations, 55.
15
Music manuscript, 54.
Music masters, 114.
Music-room, 85.
N.
National hymn, 123.
Naturals, 77.
NeumsB, 39, 41.
Notation, 48.
Note, 44.
Note-book, 44.
" Notre cher Gluck," 111.
O.
Octave, 48.
Ohrdruff Lyceum, 53.
Opera, 33, 43, 94, 96, 122.
Opera-house, 80.
Operetta, 104.
Operatic styles, 100.
Oratorio, 33, 43, 87-89, 122.
Orchestra, 33, 64, 95, 122.
Orchestral music, 106.
Organ, 56, 60, 83, 106, 119.
Organist, 53, 64.
Original key, 78.
" Orpheus and Eurydice," 111.
Overture, 96.
P.
" Papa Haydn," 121.
Parker, 48,231.
Paris, 232.
Passacailles, 56, 59.
Passaglia, 59.
Passion music, 62, 63, 65.
Passion oratorios, 63.
244
Index.
Pathetic movement, 60.
Pathos, 121.
Pepusch, Dr., 87.
Perfect interval, 48, 49, 52.
Peri, 43, 96, 98.
Phrase, 44.
Pianist, 70.
Piano-forte, 13, 56.
" Pieces," 59.
Poetry, 60.
Polyphonic schools, 97.
Pope, 87.
Presto, 121, 128.
Primary accent, 72.
Prime, 49.
Progressions, 73, 74.
Psalteries, 28.
Purcell, Henry, 103-105.
Q-
Quarter note, 59.
Quartettes, 106.
R.
Ratio of sonn*. 49.
Recitative, 63.
Red line, 39.
Reformation, 63.
Reiukiu, 55.
Related key, 74.
Relative major, 128.
Religious performance, 62.
Rest, 72.
Reuter, Herr, 117.
Rhythm, 69, 70, 72.
Rhythmical meaning, 71.
Richter, 219, 232.
Ries, 22.
Rinaccini, 98.
Riualdo, 80, 86.
Romans, 97.
Rondo, 128.
Rubenstein, 33, 233.
Rules, 98.
Rules of harmony, 56, 99.
S.
Sacred and secular music, 109.
Sacred poems, 90.
Salzburg, 138.
" Samson," 89.
Sarabaudes, 56, 59, 60, 132.
" Saul," 87.
Saxony, 84.
Scarlatti, 56, 86, 99, 100, 127, 160.
Scherzo, 121, 128, 130, 133.
Schiller, Madeleine, Madame, 233.
Schroter, 20.
Schubert, 129.
Schumann, Clara, Madame, 222, 233.
Score, 41, 42, 98.
Score of Messiah, 93.
Secondary accent, 72.
Second movement in sonatas, 128.
Semibreve, 41.
Semitone, 40.
Seven steps, 48.
Seventh century, 43, 60.
Shakespeare, 16.
Signature, 75.
Sistine chapel, 157.
Sixteenth century, 60.
Solo singers, 66.
Sonata, 77, 113, 119, 125, 126, 130,
132.
Sonata, perfection of the, 26.
Index.
245
Song, 44, 103.
Soprano, 118.
Sounds, 73.
South Kensington Museum, 98.
Spain, 62.
Spencer, 16.
Spinet, 18, 28, 84, 105.
Staff, 48.
Standard rules of art, 112.
Stave, 40, 69.
Steps, 52, 70.
Stradella, 1JO.
Stretto, 61.
Stuart, Mary, 16.
Study, 232.
Stuttgart, 232.
Suabia, 132.
Sub-dominant, 74.
Subject or motif, 60, 74, 112.
Suite, 125.
Swinging utterance, 71.
Symphony, 113, 128, 130.
Systematic grouping of notes, 70.
T.
T,40.
" Tannhanser," 186.
"The Battle of Prague," 21, 31.
The family of notes, 46.
" The Harmonious Blacksmith," 87.
"The Magic Flute," 148.
Theme, 112.
" Theodora," 89.
The Passion music, 63.
" The Tempest," 104.
Thomas-Kirche, 60, 64.
Tbomas-SchuJe, 60, 66.
Time, 161.
Torvelli, 173.
Trivirga, 38.
Twelve scales, 77.
U.
Uuisou, 49.
Unity of sound, 73.
V.
Varatanda, 60.
Vibrations, 49.
Vienna, 117, 119.
Violin, 53, 56, 119.
Virginal, 14, 15, 18, 28.
Vocal parts, 43.
W.
Wagner, 96, 186.
Walpole, Horace, 111.
Waltzes, 212.
Warsaw, 211.
Weber, Carl Maria von, 161, 162,
177-185, 208.
Weber family, 146-148.
Weimar, 202*
Werther, 20.
" We sat down in tears," 68.
Westminster Abbey, 103.
Whole steps, 50.
Wieck, Clara, 221.
Windsor, 80.
Words, 129.
Z.
Zelter, 66, 67.
Zither, 15.
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