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 Pianoforte music % history with J*}! 
 
 3 1924 022 319 283 
 
The original of this book is in 
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PIANOFORTE MUSIC: 
 
 ITS HISTORY, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND 
 
 CRITICAL ESTIMATES OF ITS GREATEST 
 
 MASTERS. 
 
 JOHN COMFORT FILLMORE. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 THEODORE PRESSER, 
 
 1708 Chestnut Street. 
 1900. 
 
Copyright 18(3, 
 
 TOWNSEND MAC COUH, 
 
 Chicago. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In entering a field hitherto unoccupied by any English- 
 speaking writer, the author of this book has had in 
 view the following objects: 
 
 To discriminate clearly the natural epochs into which 
 the history of pianoforte music divides; to give a lucid 
 statement and exposition of the principles of composi- 
 tion which have governed and determined the creative 
 activity of those epochs; to trace the development of 
 these principles as manifested in the phenomena of 
 composition, and to point out the relation of the work 
 of each epoch to what preceded and what followed it; 
 to call attention to the great epoch-making composers 
 whose work furnishes the chief examples of those char- 
 acteristic principles ; to give a clear and discriminating 
 account of their work, a trustworthy estimate of their 
 relative rank and place in history, and to furnish bio- 
 graphical sketches of them sufficiently full to give gen- 
 eral readers a not inadequate notion of the men and 
 their lives ; to notice the work and lives of minor com- 
 posers and performers with as much fullness as the 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 limits of the book would permit ; to trace the develop- 
 ment of the technic of the pianoforte ; to give a suf- 
 ficient account of the instruments which preceded the 
 pianoforte, and of their relation to that instrument. 
 
 How far he has succeeded in his aims he leaves to 
 the judgment of his readers. But whatever shortcom- 
 ings may be discovered in his work, the attempt is one 
 which he believes requires no apology. The number 
 of those who are strongly interested in the best piano- 
 forte music is already large and is rapidly increasing. 
 To all such, and especially to those who, like the author, 
 are engaged in teaching the pianoforte, a connected 
 account of the course of development of that music 
 and of the composers who were instrumental in that 
 development, can not fail to be welcome. 
 
 Of the subjects here expounded, "The Content of 
 Music" and "The Classic and Romantic" certainly 
 deserve much more attention than they have hitherto 
 received, and it is hoped that the present exposition 
 will be found valuable. The biographical sketch of 
 Chopin will be found more complete and accurate than 
 any heretofore published in English, and the other 
 biographies and critical estimates are at least fresh, and 
 express the author's own judgments. 
 
 The work has been a labor of love, and the author 
 
PREFACE. v 
 
 can find no better wish for those who may do him the 
 
 honor to be his readers, than that they may find the 
 
 perusal of his work as interesting and profitable as the 
 
 composition of it, and the necessary preparation for 
 
 that composition, have been to himself. With this 
 
 wish, and the sincere hope that his work may not only 
 
 give useful information, but prove a helpful stimulus 
 
 to the highest musical and intellectual life, he offers it 
 
 to the public. 
 
 J. C. F. 
 
 Milwaukee, Wis., March 27 1883. 
 
 Note. — The author takes this opportunity to acknowledge his 
 obligations to numerous friends, and especially to Professors J. M. 
 Geery, of Ripon College, W. S. B. Mathews, of Chicago, and Libra- 
 rian Linderfelt, of the Milwaukee Public Library, for valuable 
 suggestions, criticism and assistance. 
 
PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 The author has felt called upon to make a few 
 additions to the list of minor composers and concert 
 pianists (all Americans) of the present time. He 
 has made a very few verbal changes in the book and 
 has added questions at the end of the chapters, 
 hoping thereby to increase its usefulness. Beyond 
 these improvements he sees no way of bettering his 
 work at present. He takes occasion once more to 
 express his thanks to the musical public for its 
 approval of his efforts. 
 
 Milwaukee, October, 1888. 
 
CONSPECTUS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE PIANOFORTE AND ITS IMMEDIATE PRECURSORS, THE HARPSICHORD 
 AND THE CLAVICHORD. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE FIRST CLASSICAL PERIOD. 
 
 Chapter I. — polyphonic music. 
 
 Chapter II. — the three greatest composers of polyphonic music 
 
 SOR THE HARPSICHORD : J. S. BACH, G. F. HAENDEL, D. SCARLATTI. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE SECOND CLASSICAL PERIOD. 
 A. The Epoch of the Development of the Sonata-Form. 
 Chapter III. — monophonic music — form — the sonata-form. 
 
 Chapter IV. — the three composers who developed the sonata- 
 form TO ITS LOGICAL LIMITS : C P. E. BACH, JOSEPH HAYDN, 
 W. A. MOZART. 
 
 B. The Epoch of the Predominance of Content in the Sonata. 
 
 Chapter V. — the content of music. 
 
 Chapter VI. — l. van beethoven : the composer who embodied in 
 
 THE SONATA THE NOBLEST POSSIBLE CONTENT AND RAISED IT TO THE 
 HIGHEST SIGNIFICANCE AS A WORK OF ART. 
 
 vii 
 
CONSPECTUS. 
 
 C. The Transition from the Classic to the Romantic Period. 
 
 Chapter VII. — the classic and the romantic in music. 
 
 Chapter VIII. — Beethoven's two greatest contemporaries in the 
 
 DOMAIN OP PIANOFORTE MUSIC : C. M. VON WEBER AND FRANZ 
 SCHUBERT. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 THE ROMANTIC PERIOD. 
 Chapter IX. — mendelssohn, chopin and Schumann. 
 
 PART IV 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF PIANOFORTE TECHNIC. 
 
 Chapter X. — the technic of the first classical period. 
 Chapter XI. — the technic of the second classical period. 
 Chapter XII. — the technic of the transition period. 
 Chapter XIII. — the technic of the romantic period. 
 
 PART V. 
 
 Minor Composers and Virtuosi of the Different Epochs, 
 
 Chapter XIV. — A. the epoch of polyphonic music. 
 
 B. the epoch of the sonata. 
 
 C. the contemporaries of the romanticists and their suc- 
 
 cessors, TO THE PRESENT. 
 
HlSTOET OF PlANOFOETE MlJSIO, 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE PIANOFORTE AND ITS PRECURSORS, THE CLAVI- 
 CHORD AND THE HARPSICHORD. 
 
 The pianoforte* is an instrument too well known to 
 require description here. Its characteristic pecu- 
 liarity, as distinguished from the instruments from 
 which it was derived, the harpsichord and the clavi- 
 chord, is that the tone produced from its strings can 
 be made soft or loud at the pleasure of the per- 
 former. The means by which these effects are pro- 
 duced consist in hammers connected with the keys, 
 and so arranged that the performer can, by graduating 
 his touch, make them strike the strings with varying 
 degrees of force, with the effect of eliciting every 
 degree of sonority of which the strings are capable. 
 
 The pianoforte was invented in Italy, at the be- 
 ginning of the eighteenth century. The first piano- 
 fortes of which we have any authentic information 
 were made in Florence, by Bartholomew Cristofori, 
 
 *The name " pianoforte " is a compound of two Italian words. piano^ 
 soft, aa&foriei loud. It means, therefore, etymologically, a " soft-loud." 
 
 Introduc- 
 tion. 
 
 The Piana. 
 forte. 
 
 Invented in 
 Italy about 
 1700. 
 
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Introduc- 
 tion. 
 
 The Harp- 
 sichord and 
 Clavichord. 
 
 Their tones 
 weak. 
 
 in 1709. These instruments were the result of 
 efforts to improve the harpsichord, so as to make it 
 capable of producing tones of various degrees of 
 power. This need was everywhere felt, and other 
 makers of harpsichords, in other countries, were also 
 engaged in attempting to solve this problem. The 
 harpsichord and clavichord had this in common with 
 the pianoforte; they had metallic strings, stretched 
 horizontally in a frame over a sounding board, and 
 were played by means of keys. But the strings of 
 the harpsichord were snapped, by means of crow's 
 quills, and those of the clavichord were set in vi- 
 bration by means of a. push from a small brass wedge 
 or "tangent," set in the end of the keys. This lat- 
 ter instrument already had some capability of gra- 
 dations of power, and for this reason it was a favor- 
 ite with the best musicians. It required great deli- 
 cacy of touch, and in the hands of a master was,, 
 within certain limits, a very expressive instrument. 
 But strings vibrated in this manner were necessarily 
 thin and light, and produced only soft and delicate 
 tones. 
 
 T he ha rp sichord also had light strings, and its 
 tones_jwere_weakj It was not only impossible to 
 produce much variation in the power of the tone, 
 but no powerful tone could be obtained from any 
 string, whether light or heavy, by any such methods 
 of producing vibration. Heavy strings, especially, 
 must be struck, not snapped nor pushed, in order to 
 produce their maximum of tone; and it was in the 
 direction of heavy strings and a larger sounding 
 
IN TROD UCTION. 
 
 board that progress was to be made toward an in- 
 crease of sonority, after the means had been found 
 of producing the greatest amount of tone of which 
 the lighter strings were capable, as well as of vary- 
 ing their power. 
 
 In the early part of the last century, then, the 
 clavichord and harpsichord had reached the limit of 
 their development, and musicians and instrument 
 makers were anxiously striving to secure results of 
 which these instruments were intrinsically incapable. 
 But, though Cristofori, and others of his contempor- 
 aries and immediate succcessors, hit on the right 
 principle, the first crude applications of it were not 
 immediately successful. The new instruments did 
 not find favor with players for a long time. This 
 
 w as partly because of the still rem aining defects_of 
 t heir constru ction, for much_time was required, to 
 perfect the comrjlicated_actjon of the pianoforlcso 
 as_to_secure_ promptness, _delicacy and. .-B&wer__gf 
 tS.u£h Jt Jo_d^rmo_ths_strings _ prope^ t t^remoye_the 
 harrmierJlQrn Jthe__string _ as soon . as Jt_had struck, 
 and have it. in . readiness fOTjmJnsjan^ repetkion of 
 the_strgkej It was also partly due, perhaps, to the 
 fact that players accustomed to the older instru- 
 ments could not readily find themselves at home with 
 the new mechanism, and preferred that with which 
 they were familiar. At any rate, so great a musi- 
 cian and player as LS^ jSach. condemned the S il- 
 bermann pianofortes shown him in 1726, a s being 
 heavy in touch, and" weakTn the treble; his son, C. 
 
 PTJi. Bach, is said always to have preferred the 
 
 Introduc- 
 tion. 
 
 New results 
 sought. 
 
 Mechanical 
 results to be 
 attained. 
 
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Introduc- 
 tion. 
 
 The Sfinet 
 and Virgi- 
 nals. 
 
 clavichord, and even Mozart, to the end of his life, 
 was a harpsichord player, rather than a pianist. 
 
 But toward the end of the century, great improve- 
 ment were madejin the construction of the piano- 
 forte^ the number^ of _comrjosjtions specially calcu- 
 l ated for the capabilities of the instrument had^ 
 greatly increased; the younger musicians had be- 
 came familiar with its manipulation; and by the be- 
 ginning of the present century, the clavichord and 
 harpsichord were driven forever out of use. 
 
 In closing this brief sketch, it remains to give a 
 passing glance at two other instruments, the spinet 
 and virginals. Concerning these it is only necess- 
 ary to say that they were merely varieties of the 
 harpsichord, differing from it only in shape and size, 
 but not in principle, much as square and upright 
 pianofortes differ from a concert grand, which is 
 shaped like the old harpsichords. 
 
 A full account of all these instruments is to be 
 found in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musi- 
 cians. 
 
paet fikst. 
 The Fikst Classical Peeiod. 
 
 i 700-1 750. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 POLYPHONIC MUSIC. 
 
 Melody is a series or succession of tones rhythmi- 
 cally ordered. 
 
 Harmony is a combination of tones heard simul- 
 taneously. 
 
 Counterpoint is the art of writing two or more 
 melodies to proceed simultaneously. Music thus 
 written is called "contrapuntal" or "polyphonic." 
 The latter term means " many- voiced." In poly- 
 phonic music, harmony is an incidental result of the 
 simultaneous progression of the voices. 
 
 "Monophonic " or "homophonic "* music has only 
 one principal melody. This is usually accompanied 
 by chords, more or less full, either in their simple 
 form, or broken up into arpeggios. Sometimes, 
 however, other subordinate melodies form the ac- 
 companiment, to a greater or less extent. This is 
 especially true of the bass, which often is a well- 
 defined melody, but is never, in this style of music, 
 quite equal in importance and interest to the princi- 
 pal melody. Sometimes, indeed, the principal mel- 
 ody is given to the bass, the harmonic accompani- 
 ment being above it. 
 
 ♦The present writer has chosen the terra "monophonic" ("one-voiced"), 
 as representing more accurately the fact that music in this style, has 
 only one prominent melody at any given point. Many German writers 
 prefer the term "homophonic." 
 
 7 
 
 Chap. I. 
 
 Definition 
 of Terms, 
 
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. I. 
 
 Beginnings 
 of Modern 
 Music, 
 
 Early' 
 
 Counter- 
 
 joint. 
 
 In the monophonic style of composition, harmony- 
 is no longer an accident, so to speak, but the chords, 
 in their successions and relations, exist independent 
 of any interweaving of separate melodic parts. 
 
 The beginnings of our modern music, in the early 
 Christian church, were monophonic in the strictest 
 sense. The congregations sang their hymns in uni- 
 son, without any accompaniment. Afterwards, 
 singers and composers began to accompany this 
 melody with one or more independent melodies, in 
 tones of the same length as those of the original 
 melody, or cantus firmus, as it was called. This 
 was the beginning of counterpoint, "punctum contra 
 punctum," point against point. At that time there 
 were no notes; points weie used instead. We 
 should say note against note. Certain monks of 
 the middle ages cultivated this science; sought to 
 determine what intervals might be admissible; and 
 gradually developed their art to a high pitch of per- 
 fection. The separate melodies gradually became 
 more and more florid, the number of them was in- 
 creased, until, at last, compositions were written in 
 as many as thirty-six real parts. Of course, these 
 extremely complicated webs of tone were nearly or 
 quite unintelligible to most musicians, and wholly 
 so to amateurs. But they were masterpieces of in- 
 genuity, and the interest in counterpoint which pro- 
 duced them, had developed consummate skill in the 
 management of simultaneously progressing voice- 
 parts. 
 
 The technic of composition in this first great 
 
POLy PHONIC MUSIC. 
 
 style (the polyphonic) was developed through the 
 enthusiastic labors of composers, monks, theorists 
 and pedants, among whom there appeared, now 
 and then, a man of genuine creative genius. Among 
 these ought especially to be mentioned Orlandus 
 Lassus, (1530 (?)-i594) a Netherlander, whose most 
 important work was done in Munich, and Giovanni 
 Pierliugi di Palestrina (1524-1594), a Roman 
 church composer, in whom the contrapuntal art pre- 
 vious to Sebastian Bach found its culmination. 
 
 At first, the efforts of contrapuntists were directed 
 solely toward the discovery of intervals pleasing to 
 the ear, and combining melodies so as to produce 
 agreeable effects at every point. Then came the 
 effort to enhance the effect of consonances by the 
 judicious use of dissonances. This resulted in mak- 
 ing the parts more smooth and flowing in their 
 movement. But, as the separate melodies began to 
 be more and more florid, the need of some means 
 of securing unity was felt. A complicated web of 
 interwoven melodies, having no elements in com- 
 mon, and no bond of union except consonance in 
 their intervals would be nearly or quite unintelligi- 
 ble. The means by which unity was secured was 
 Imitation. 
 
 Of Imitation there are two principal kinds, the 
 Strict and the Free. 
 
 The simplest form of Strict Imitation is the Canon. 
 In this form of composition, after one melody has 
 proceeded alone for one or more measures, another 
 part (or "voice") begins the same melody, and con- 
 
 Chap. I. 
 
 The technic 
 0/ Compost' 
 Hon devel- 
 oped. 
 
 The pleas- 
 ing in sen- 
 sation 
 sought first. 
 
 Strict Imi- 
 tation 
 
IO 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. I. 
 
 The Fugue. 
 
 The Fugue 
 in two-voice 
 parts. 
 
 tinues it, in strict imitation, at the interval of an oc- 
 tave (or perhaps some Other interval), until the final 
 cadence of the first melody is reached, when the 
 second melody is modified to suit the requirements 
 of the close, and both come to an end together. Of 
 course, in the invention of the first melody regard 
 must be had to the imitation which is to progress 
 with it. This requires much ingenuity and skill. 
 There are also canons in three, four, or more parts; 
 and many curious and ingenious kinds of canons, 
 which can not here be described. 
 
 The most elaborate of the forms of Strict Imita- 
 tion is the Fugue. This is the culmination of the 
 strict polyphonic style, both in respect of technical 
 requirements, of beauty, and expressive power. A 
 fugue may be written in two, three, four, five or 
 more parts. Some one of the parts starts with a 
 short, well-defined melody, which' is the "subject" 
 of the fugue. Then another voice replies with an 
 imitation of this subject, in the key of the dominant. 
 This imitation is called the "answer." The first part 
 accompanies the answer by a new melodic phrase, 
 so contrived as to contrast with the original phrase 
 and serve as a foil to it. This is called the "counter 
 subject." If the fugue is in two parts only, when the 
 answer is completed by the second part, the "exposi- 
 tion" of the fugue is said to be complete. Then fol- 
 lows an interlude or episode, in which fragments of 
 the subject and counter subject are used as imita- 
 tions. This episode leads to the second entry of 
 the subject, which commonly takes place in reverse 
 
POLYPHONIC MUSIC. 
 
 order to the exposition; i. e., if the exposition began 
 with the soprano and the bass answered it, the bass 
 now leads with the subject and the soprano follows 
 with the answer. After this comes another episode, 
 and then a " stretto," where the answer enters before 
 the subject has finished. The whole is closed with 
 a " coda," more or less elaborate. 
 
 This is the simplest outline of the fugue form. 
 When the fugue is written for three, four or more 
 voices, there are often more than three entries of 
 the subject and answer in all the parts. After the 
 exposition, or first complete entry of all the voices, 
 the order of entrance and the modulations into dif- 
 ferent keys are left to the imagination and skill of 
 the composer. So are the length and richness of 
 the interludes, and the greater or less elaboration of 
 the coda. The stretto is sometimes a strict canon. 
 The counter subject is often so constructed as to go 
 in double counterpoint with the subject; that is, is so 
 contrived that the lower of them may be transposed 
 an octave higher, or the higher an octave lower, and 
 the relations of the two still be correct and satisfac- 
 tory. There are fugues with two, three, four and 
 more subjects. 
 
 Free Imitation occurs when the imitations of a 
 given subject or " motive " take place without any 
 exact following of the original order of intervals, 
 and not in accordance with any fixed rule as to their 
 number, or the order of their entrance. The old 
 compositions in this style were Preludes, Inventions, 
 Fantasias, Toccatas, Sonatas, and various forms of 
 
 Chap. I. 
 
 More 
 
 elaborate 
 
 Fugues. 
 
 Double 
 Counter- 
 point. 
 
 Free Imitw 
 tion. 
 
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. I. 
 
 The Suite. 
 
 Examples 
 of poly- 
 phonic 
 music. 
 
 How in- 
 strumental 
 polyphony 
 was devel- 
 oped 
 
 dance music. Most of the compositions passing un- 
 der these names were polyphonic. 
 
 The sonata form will be considered further on. 
 The Suite was a series of dance tunes, often intro- 
 duced by a prelude. They were invariably all in 
 the same key, and were so arranged as to contrast 
 with one another in tempo. The first dance was 
 commonly moderately fast; the second very rapid, 
 the third slow and stately, the fourth and perhaps 
 the fifth less slow, but still majestic and dignified, 
 and the last a lively, rollicking jig. 
 
 The following examples are recommended to 
 students. J. S. Bach, "Two-part and Three-part 
 Inventions, "Das Wohltemperirte Clavier" (The 
 Well-Tempered Clavichord), a collection of forty- 
 eight preludes and fugues in all the keys; English 
 and French Suites and Partitas. Haendel,* six- 
 teen Suites, Lecons, Pieces, Fugues, Fuguettes. 
 D. Scarlatti, eighteen pieces (Buelow). All these 
 can be obtained in the cheap but excellent edi- 
 tion of C. F. Peters in Leipzig. There is also a 
 set of pieces by Scarlatti, edited by Louis Koehler, 
 and published by Julius Schuberth & Co., Leipzig. 
 
 The polyphonic music was first written for voices, 
 and for the service of the church. Afterwards secu- 
 lar music, (madrigals, etc.) came into vogue. When 
 the organ and other keyed instruments had been 
 invented, they were at first used for accompani- 
 
 *For typographical reasons the e is used in this and all other cases in- 
 stead of the umlaut. 
 
POL YPHONIC MUSIC. 
 
 13 
 
 ments to vocal music. From this it was an easy 
 step to transfer the vocal forms to separate instru- 
 mental performances, and this naturally led to inde- 
 pendent composition for these instruments. The 
 most elaborate and masterly fugues are those of J. 
 S. Bach, for the organ and clavichord. For these 
 instruments the polyphonic music was written, and 
 with the year of Bach's death, 1750, this first classi- 
 cal period may be said to have closed. Its signifi- 
 cance to us lies in the fact that all its treasures are 
 still available for the pianoforte, which has sup- 
 planted the harpsichord and clavichord, and that a 
 knowledge of it is indispensable to every pianist. 
 
 Chap. 1. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Chap. II. 
 /. 5. Bach. 
 
 Life and 
 education 
 at his 
 brother's. 
 
 the three greatest composers of polyphonic 
 music for the harpsichord: 
 
 Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685-1750. 
 George Frederick Haendel, 1685-1759. 
 Domenico Scarlatti, 1683-1757. 
 
 By far the most important of all composers for 
 the harpsichord was John Sebastian Bach. He was 
 the most distinguished representative of a numerous 
 family of musicians, who lived in Eisenach and its 
 neighboring towns for some two centuries. They were 
 a simple, honest, straightforward, high-minded race; 
 they lived quiet domestic lives, and devoted them- 
 selves to their art, with a simplicity of character, and 
 an elevation of purpose, which always secured them 
 the respect and love of their fellow-townsmen. The 
 subject of this sketch was born in Eisenach, March 
 21, 1685. He received his first lessons from his 
 father, beginning with the violin. But losing both 
 his parents before he was ten years old, he went to 
 live with his older brother, Johann Christoph, organ- 
 ist at Ohrdruff. With him he began lessons on the 
 clavichord. He made remarkable progress, and 
 speedily gave evidence of the gifts which were by 
 and by to raise him to the highest pinnacle of fame. 
 
 His brother seems to have repressed rather than 
 encouraged the impulses of the child's genius He 
 
/. S. BACH. 
 
 *5 
 
 not only refused him the use of his own collection of 
 music, by the best masters of the time, but after the 
 boy had surreptitiously obtained the book, and la- 
 boriously copied the whole, by moonlight, this hard- 
 hearted and unappreciative teacher took the well- 
 earned and dearly-prized copy away from him. At 
 the age of fifteen, he was sent away to Lueneburg to 
 school, and entered the choir, in which his services 
 paid for his school tuition, including vocal and instru- 
 mental music. He made rapid progress in playing 
 the organ and harpsichord, and improved every op- 
 portunity to hear the best performers of Lueneburg 
 and the neighboring town of Hamburg. He was 
 also greatly influenced and inspired by the per- 
 formances of the duke's orchestra at Celle, a band 
 at that time made up largely of Frenchmen, and 
 playing mostly French music. 
 
 He remained at Lueneburg three years. At the 
 end of that time he entered an orchestra at Weimar, 
 and soon after became organist at Arnstadt. Here 
 he studied and practiced with the utmost diligence 
 and zeal, striving to perfect himself, both in playing, 
 and in theory and composition. In 1705 he spent 
 three months at Luebeck, for the purpose of hearing 
 the celebrated organist, Buxtehude, and of becom- 
 ing acquainted with him. 
 
 Bach's reputation as an organist was now begin- 
 ning to spread. He received several offers of situa- 
 tions, and in 1707 he accepted an organist's post at 
 Muehlhausen in Thueringen, but left it in 1708, when 
 he was twenty-three years old, to become court or- 
 
 Chap. 11. 
 
 School life 
 at Luene- 
 burg. 
 
 Goes to 
 Weimar. 
 
i6 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 Becomes 
 Court or- 
 ganist. 
 
 Removes to 
 Leipzig. 
 
 Visits 
 Frederick 
 the Great. 
 
 ganist in Weimar. Here he remained nine years, 
 during which time he won acknowledged rank as 
 first of organists and organ composers. He wrote 
 here most of his greatest works for the organ. He 
 made annual concert-tours, playing both the organ 
 and clavichord, and won an extended reputation as 
 a master of the highest rank. 
 
 In 17 17, he accepted the appointment of con- 
 ductor at Coethen, and now for five years devoted 
 himself mainly to composing, and directing public 
 performances of chamber music. But in 1723, he 
 was appointed cantor at the St. Thomas school at 
 Leipzig, and also organist and director of music in 
 the two principal churches. Here he remained until 
 his death, July 28, 1750, writing music for his choir 
 for almost every service; chorals, motets, cantatas, 
 and great works for the festivals of the church, 
 among them one High Mass, and his immortal Pas- 
 sion Music. 
 
 For the rest, he lived a quiet, retired life, devot- 
 ing himself, not only to his musical labors, but to 
 the education of his numerous children, of whom he 
 had twenty, by two marriages. The most notable 
 incident which broke the monotony of his daily rou- 
 tine, was a visit to Frederick the Great, in 1747. 
 Bach's son Emanuel was Frederick's principal court- 
 musician. The king, who was a lover of music, in- 
 vited the father to visit him, and treated him with 
 greatest respect and consideration. As usual, Bach's 
 playing and his wonderful skill in improvising on 
 given themes, excited the strongest admiration. 
 
/. 5. BACH. 
 
 17 
 
 Soon after this he became blind, and continued 
 so for the short remainder of his life. His death 
 occurred from a fit of apoplexy, July 28, 1750. 
 
 Bach was one of the world's great creative minds; 
 an original genius of the highest order; a most con- 
 summate master of the art of musical composition 
 as understood in his day, and he had no superior in 
 playing the harpsichord and clavichord. All the re- 
 sources and capabilities of these instruments he 
 thoroughly understood. He was, it is true, very 
 much more than a master of the harpsichord; he 
 was the greatest organist of his time, and his organ 
 compositions are the noblest and most significant 
 the world has yet known. He was a teacher and 
 choir-leader, and a very large part of his mental ac- 
 tivity was spent in the production of church music, 
 of which he has left behind an immense amount, — 
 hundreds of cantatas, motets, chorals, a great Mass 
 in B minor, five separate settings of the Passion of 
 our Lord as given in the gospels, of which that stu- 
 pendous work, the Passion Music according to St. 
 Matthew, will forever remain one of the great monu- 
 ments of Protestant religious art. But though he 
 composed so much for chorus, organ and orchestra, 
 besides chamber music, he nevertheless wrote a very 
 large number of compositions for the harpsichord. 
 
 Many of these works are of permanent value from 
 their nobility and beauty of style and their intrinsic 
 emotional significance, and all are characterized by 
 high intellectual qualities, and consummate musi- 
 cianship. Moreover, although the instruments for 
 
 Chap II. 
 
 Death. 
 
 Bach'i 
 rank. 
 
 His works 
 /or the 
 Harpsi- 
 chord. 
 
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 His influ- 
 ence on the 
 Romanti- 
 cists. 
 
 His stimu- 
 lating 
 Quality 
 
 which they were written have become totally obso- 
 lete, the style, and even the technic of these compo- 
 sitions is such, that whoever wishes to take a high 
 rank as a pianist, must devote to them the most 
 earnest and diligent study. This is doubly true if 
 the pianist aims beyond mere technic, at high ar- 
 tistic qualities and musicianship. Said Robert Schu- 
 mann, "Make the 'Well Tempered Clavichord' your 
 daily bread; then you will surely become a thorough 
 musician." This advice, coming from a writer ap- 
 parently as far removed as possible from the man- 
 ner and style of Bach, is highly significant Chopin 
 and Mendelssohn, who, with Schumann, made the 
 Modern Romantic School of pianoforte writing, 
 were diligent students of Bach, and drew a large 
 part of their inspiration from him. These facts may 
 help to show us how immensely important Bach's 
 influence has been, and still is. The secret of this 
 influence lies partly in the profound originality, and 
 the inspired quality of Bach's genius, and partly in the 
 unsurpassed intellectual grasp and power by which his 
 works are everywhere characterized. The study of 
 a Bach fugue is an intellectual exercise of the most 
 salutary kind; an exercise, the severity of whose de- 
 mands on mental concentration and on the power 
 of sustained thinking, constitutes a most valuable 
 means of intellectual discipline. There is no keener 
 intellectual pleasure than these works afford, to him 
 who has mastered them. 
 
 Bach's instrumental works are the culmination 
 of the polyphonic or contrapuntal style. Up to his 
 
G. F. HAENDEL. 
 
 19 
 
 time this was the prevalent manner of writing, and 
 almost the only one cultivated by musicians. The 
 monophonic style, indeed, had already a beginning. 
 Opera airs and folk songs had been transferred to 
 the keyed instruments; some dance music also had 
 come to be written in this style. But the aim of all 
 composers was to write good counterpoint, and that 
 in the strict style, canons and fugues. Freer forms 
 were also used, as described in the preceding chap- 
 ter, which gave more scope to the fancy of the com- 
 poser. Though founded on the fugal style, they 
 often showed a reaching out after a freer, more 
 elastic and flexible means of emotional expression 
 than was to be found in the comparatively stiff 
 formality of the strict mode of writing. One, es- 
 pecially, of these works, the Chromatic Fantasia of 
 Bach, is a distinct prophecy of the Romantic School, 
 which was to appear a hundred years later. 
 
 George Frederick Haendel (commonly called 
 in England Handel), was born in Halle, Feb. 23, 
 1685. His family was not musical, and whence he 
 obtained his musical gifts it is not easy to determine. 
 But gifts he had, which were not to be repressed. 
 His father was a physician, who despised all art and 
 artists, and even went to the extreme of keeping his 
 son from school, lest he should there learn some- 
 thing of music. But the boy learned somehow, in 
 spite of his father. He used to practice on an old 
 spinet, with muffled strings, which, with somebody's 
 connivance, he had hidden in the garret, and by the 
 time he was seven years old, had become no mean 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 Haendel, 
 
 The boy 
 learns to 
 play. 
 
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 Lessons 
 
 •with 
 
 Zachau. 
 
 Enters the 
 Hamburg 
 oJ>era or- 
 chestra. 
 
 performer. At this time his whole future career 
 was decided by the interference of the Duke of 
 Saxe-Weissenfels. The child had accompanied his 
 father on a visit to Weissenfels, had managed to ob- 
 tain access to the organ in the duke's chapel, and 
 had given such surprising proofs of genius that the 
 duke strongly urged upon doctor Haendel the wis- 
 dom of humoring his son's bent. 
 
 He was now placed under the tuition of Zachau, 
 organist of the cathedral at Halle, and took lessons 
 on the organ, harpsichord, violin and oboe, and in 
 counterpoint, canon, fugue, and all the forms of 
 composition then practiced. He wrote a motet 
 every week during the three years he remained with 
 Zachau. His master then confessed that he could 
 teach him nothing more. The ten-year old boy was 
 sent to Berlin, where he made some valuable musi- 
 cal acquaintances, and astonished every one by his 
 surprising improvisations on the organ and harpsi- 
 chord. 
 
 He soon returned to Halle, and spent some 
 years in study and composition, copying large quan- 
 tities of the best music then known. His father 
 died, and left George and his mother poor. So the 
 boy set to work to support them both. In 1703, he 
 went to Hamburg and entered the orchestra of the 
 German opera-house, as a violin player. He amused 
 himself a short time by pretending to be very ignor- 
 ant, but happening to take the leader's place at the 
 harpsichord one day, in the absence of the regular 
 conductor, he displayed such ability as at once 
 
G. F. HAENDEL. 
 
 21 
 
 placed him permanently in that position. He re- 
 mained here three years, and composed his first 
 three operas, besides other compositions. The suc- 
 cess of these, his pay at the theater, and what he 
 had earned by giving lessons, had enabled him to 
 lay up a considerable sum, beyond what was re- 
 quired to support himself and his mother. So he de- 
 termined to make a musical pilgrimage to Italy, the 
 country which had been the field of labor of some of 
 the greatest of the Netherland contrapuntists, where 
 the ancient contrapuntal style of Catholic church 
 music had culminated in Palestrina, where the opera 
 had first been called into existence, — the country 
 whose leadership in music was still unquestioned. 
 
 He spent three years in the great musical centers 
 of Italy, Rome, Venice, Naples and Florence. He 
 composed successful operas, church music and a 
 serenata, and made the acquaintance of the most 
 distinguished Italian musicians, among them, Do- 
 menico Scarlatti. These men received him with the 
 greatest cordiality, and expressed the highest ad- 
 miration both of his compositions, and of his skill as 
 an organist and harpsichordist. In 1709 he re- 
 turned to Germany, and accepted a conductor's 
 post from the Elector of Hanover, on condition of 
 being allowed to visit England. He accordingly 
 went to London in 17 10, and at once composed the 
 opera "Rinaldo," to an Italian libretto, for the Hay- 
 market Theater. The work, though written in only 
 fourteen days, was received with the greatest en- 
 thusiasm, and Haendel immediately found himself 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 Visitsltalj. 
 
 Conductor 
 at Hanaver. 
 
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 Goes to 
 
 London. 
 
 famous. He stayed in London only six months, as 
 his leave of absence had expired, but after his Lon- 
 don triumph, his life and work in Hanover no 
 longer contented him. 
 
 Early in 17 12, he again obtained leave of absence, 
 and coming to London, he lingered far beyond the 
 time allowed him. This naturally offended his mas- 
 ter, the elector, and when that prince came to En- 
 gland as George I, Haendel thought it best to avoid 
 showing himself to the new monarch. However, it 
 was soon made up between them. The king ar- 
 ranged some festivity on the Thames, and one of 
 his suite advised Haendel to compose some music 
 for the occasion. This he did, and following the 
 king's barge, in a boat, with his band, he played it, 
 greatly to his majesty's satisfaction. George I was 
 too good a judge of music to deprive himself longer 
 of the services of such a musician, so he not only 
 received him into favor, but granted him an an- 
 nuity of two hundred pounds. 
 
 The two years from 1716 to 1718 Haendel spent 
 with the king in Hanover. Then returning to England, 
 he became chapel-master to the Duke of Chandos, a 
 wealthy nobleman, who lived in a style of great 
 splendor. He remained in this post three years, 
 writing music for the English church service, and 
 harpsichord music for the daughters of the Prince 
 of Wales, who were his pupils. He also wrote here 
 his so-called " Serenata," "Acis and Galatea,'' and 
 "Esther," his first English oratorio. He had written 
 
G. F. HAENDEL. 
 
 2 3 
 
 a German oratorio, the "Passion," during his last 
 stay in Hanover. 
 
 In 1720 he became director of Italian Opera for 
 the Academy of "Music, and from this time, for 
 seventeen years, he was constantly engaged in com- 
 posing operas, and managing operatic enterprises, 
 with varying success. At last, in 1737, he became 
 bankrupt. He made a few ineffectual efforts to re- 
 cover himself, during the next two years, and then 
 turned his attention almost exclusively to the com- 
 position of English oratorios. Here he found his 
 real field. He had had more than forty years of ex- 
 perience as a composer, and all the resources of 
 musical expression then known were perfectly at his 
 command. His imagination was vivid and power- 
 ful and dealt most vigorously with the sublimest re- 
 ligious conceptions. So that in "The Messiah," 
 " Samson," " Saul," "Judas Maccabaeus," and " Is- 
 rael in Egypt," he. created imperishable works, of 
 the loftiest character. 
 
 Haendel was a large, vigorous man, open-hearted 
 and generous, passionate and hot-tempered, but very 
 placable, of unconquerable will, energetic, industri- 
 ous, and withal full of genuine religious feeling. 
 The themes he loved to treat were such as called 
 forth joyful adoration and worship. The two great 
 climaxes in " The Messiah," the "Hallelujah" chorus 
 and " Worthy is The Lamb," are unsurpassed and 
 unsurpassable as expressions of this phase of re- 
 ligious emotion. He could treat the tender and pa- 
 
 Chap. 11. 
 
 Becomes 
 director 0/ 
 Italian 
 opera. 
 
 His 
 
 personal 
 
 character. 
 
 The 
 Messiah. 
 
2 4 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 Contrasted 
 with Back's 
 Passion 
 Music. 
 
 Dontenico 
 Scarlatti. 
 
 thetic aspects of the Messiah's life and work with no 
 less depth and nobility of feeling. Witness his " Be- 
 hold the Lamb of God," and "He was Despised." 
 A comparison of these with parallel passages in 
 Bach's " Passion Music " will reveal the character- 
 istic differences in the emotional natures of the two 
 men. Bach naturally dwells on the scenes of the 
 Passion and Crucifixion; he dissolves in tears and 
 grief, he melts in contrition, in penitence, in loving, 
 grateful, humble worship. Haendel, too, feels all 
 this, but in a different way, and he does not linger 
 on it; he hastens on to exult in the glorious triumph 
 of the risen Redeemer, to shout forth Hallelujahs 
 in some of the sublimest strains ever uttered by 
 man. 
 
 In these oratorios Haendel left his noblest legacy 
 to the world. His organ and harpsichord music, on 
 account of which latter he is necessarily mentioned 
 in this history, was much less significant. Never- 
 theless, some of it is of permanent value, as, for in- 
 stance, his " Fire " fugue, and his so-called " Har- 
 monious Blacksmith," and he can not be passed 
 over without honorable mention, since he was, next 
 to Bach, the greatest German organist and harpsi- 
 chordist of his time, as well as one of the greatest 
 composers of all time. He lived unmarried, died in 
 London April 14, 1759, and was buried in West- 
 minster Abbey. 
 
 Domenico Scarlatti, born in Naples in 1683, 
 was the son of Alessandro Scarlatti, a composer 
 of church music of no small importance in musical 
 
DOMENICO SCARLATTI. 
 
 25 
 
 history. Domenico's significance lies chiefly in the 
 fact that he was a most brilliant virtuoso upon the 
 harpsichord, and a composer of pieces which not 
 only surprise even the advanced pianists of the 
 present day by their brilliancy and difficulty (they 
 are, in fact, more difficult to play on a modern 
 concert pianoforte than on a harpsichord of Scar- 
 latti's time), but which are of no small musical sig- 
 nificance and value. He traveled much, met Haen- 
 del in Venice, was some years chapel master at the 
 Vatican, in Rome, played in London, in Lisbon, in 
 Italy again, and finally settled in Madrid, in 1739. 
 Here he remained, admired and respected, as com- 
 poser and virtuoso, until his death, in 1757. 
 
 Scarlatti was not, like Bach and Haendel, a great 
 creative genius of the first rank, but his harpsichord 
 compositions, although greatly inferior in intrinsic 
 significance and permanent influence and value to 
 those of Bach, are probably nearly equal to most of 
 Haendel's, and are even more difficult of execution 
 than any of his, so that in any history of pianoforte 
 music, he must occupy a prominent and an honorable 
 place. J 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 His music 
 compared 
 •with Bach 
 and 
 *faendei. 
 
PAET SECOND. 
 
 The Second Classical Peeiod. 
 
 A. The Epoch of the Development of the 
 Sonata-Form. 
 
 1 750-1 800. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 MONOPHONIC MUSIC — ITS FORMAL CONSTRUCTION — 
 THE SONATA-FORM. 
 
 Monophonic as distinguished from polyphonic 
 music has already been denned. (See Chap. I.) It 
 was originally vocal. The monophonic composi- 
 tions for the harpsichord grew out of the use of this 
 instrument as an accompaniment to the recitatives 
 and airs of the opera, a form of composition which 
 came into existence in Italy in the latter part of the 
 1 6th century. 
 
 These airs and their accompaniments were soon 
 played on the keyed instruments in use, and 
 gradually separate instrumental compositions in the 
 same style came into vogue. These existed side 
 by side with compositions of the prevalent poly- 
 phonic style, and gradually became popular. In- 
 deed, the tendency toward the monophonic style 
 showed itself even in many polyphonic composi- 
 tions for the harpsichord, by such masters as Sebas- 
 tian Bach and Haendel. In many of thei r suites, we 
 fi nd, in dances which are essentially polyphonic, 
 
 numerous i nstances of sudden cho rds, filled up to 
 dou ble the number_QX_YQ_ice p arts properly belong- 
 ing to the p lan Xhes£_are_hints of the employment 
 
 of chords in masses, to produce climaxes, or to re 
 inforce loud^r^s&ag^j^ludiis^or^of t^imp_orUnt 
 
 Chap. Ill* 
 
 Mono- 
 phonic 
 music at 
 first vocal. 
 
 Mono- 
 phonic ten\ 
 denotes in 
 polyphonic 
 music. 
 
3° 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 Scarlatti's 
 Sonatas 
 mono- 
 phonic. 
 
 TheSonata. 
 
 characteristics of monophonic music. Many of 
 these dances were also monophonic, in the sense 
 that they had one predominant lyric melody, to 
 which the remaining contrapuntal voices were subor- 
 dinate. 
 
 Domenico Scarlatti went farther, and composed 
 sonatas, monophonic in almost the same sense in 
 which the sonatas of Haydn and Mozart are mono- 
 phonic. In these, as a rule, only one melody is 
 heard at a time. The accompaniment is made up 
 of chords, more or less full, or of arpeggios. The 
 melody is taken up, now by one voice and now by 
 another, the accompaniment being also transposed. 
 
 These sonatas of Scarlatti's are the most eminent 
 examples, known to the present writer, of mono- 
 phonic music before the death of Sebastian Bach. 
 They are compositions in one movement only. The 
 only compositions for the harpsichord in more than 
 one movement, at that time, were the suites, previ- 
 ously referred to, partitas and concertos. Sebastian 
 Bach wrote organ sonatas in three movements, and 
 his son Carl Philip Emanuel wrote similar ones for 
 the harpsichord, of which two movements were com- 
 monly in the " sonata-form," on a smaller scale than 
 those of later writers. 
 
 The sonata, as now understood, is a composition 
 made up of a series of pieces, commonly three or 
 four, arranged so as to contrast with each other in 
 movement, and in emotional content. A symphony 
 is simply a sonata written • for orchestra, differing 
 from the pianoforte sonata only in being laid out on 
 
MONOPHONIC MUSIC. 
 
 31 
 
 a larger scale. Trios, quartets, quintets, concertos, 
 etc., are composed on the same plan. They are 
 simply sonatas for several instruments. The sepa- 
 rate compositions of which a sonata is made up are 
 called " movements," from the fact that they differ 
 in the rate of speed. The more common order is as 
 follows: The first movement is an allegro — a rapid, 
 vigorous, spirited or lively composition, somewhat 
 long and elaborate. The second movement is an 
 adagio — slow, deeply tender or sad — or else an 
 andante — pensive, tender, perhaps melancholy. The 
 third movement is an allegretto, perhaps a stately 
 minuet, or a playful scherzo. Both these movements 
 are comparatively short. The last movement is a 
 lively allegro, or, perhaps, a fiery, rushing presto, 
 generally of considerable length. This order is 
 often varied, but the principles of contrast involved 
 in it must always underlie whatever order of move- 
 ment may be adopted. But the term "Sonata- 
 Form " in its narrow, technical sense, applies, not 
 to the sonata as a whole, but to the form of compo- 
 sition commonly adopted in one, or at most two of 
 the separate movements which make up a sonata, 
 the construction of which must now be explained. 
 
 First of all, it is necessary to understand clearly 
 what is meant by " form " in music. " Form " has 
 to do with melody, mainly; with the rhythmical reg- 
 ulation of successions of tones, on a large scale. 
 Melody, in order to be intelligible, or any way satis- 
 factory, must be begun, continued and brought to a 
 close in accordance with some definite plan. 1 he 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 u Move- 
 ments." 
 
 "Sonata- 
 Form? 
 
 "■Form. 
 
32 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 Simple 
 periods. 
 
 Sections. 
 
 Phrases. 
 
 chief requirements of this plan, like those of any 
 work of art, are three, viz.: Unity, Variety and 
 Symmetry. 
 
 The simplest form of composition which can 
 give any satisfaction, regarded as a completed 
 whole, is a single Period, the nearest analogue 
 of which is a single couplet. A good example 
 of this is in the church tune, " Onward, Christian 
 Soldier," in " Hymns, Ancient and Modern." Here 
 the period is divided into two sections, to fit the two 
 lines of the couplet, and these two sections are bal- 
 anced against each other, symmetrically. More 
 commonly the two sections of a simple period are 
 each divided by a cmsura, or point of partial 
 repose. Indeed, such a division is plainly to be 
 seen in the tune above cited. Each of the two di- 
 visions of each section is then called a phrase. 
 More frequently than otherwise, the third phrase is 
 nearly or quite an exact repetition of the first, and 
 the fourth similarly reminds one of the second, that 
 is, they rhyme with each other, so that such a simple 
 period is closely analogous to the ballad stanza. It 
 is, in fact, the form commonly and necessarily used 
 in setting such stanzas to music. The point of re- 
 pose at the end of the first section (second phrase) 
 is more marked than those which finish the first and 
 third phrases, but is still only a half stop, or musical 
 semicolon. The last section of course closes the 
 period by a full stop. A good example of this form 
 is the first period of the theme in the A major son- 
 ata of Mozart (No. 12, Peters' edition). 
 
MONOPHONIC MUSIC. 
 
 33 
 
 Another thing must now be noticed about this 
 period, viz. : that what gives unity to it is the repeated 
 employment of a single melodic fragment as a pat- 
 tern or design. The melodic idea, or "motive," of 
 the first measure is repeated in the second, but in 
 different pitch. The third measure is less obviously 
 an imitation of the first, but still has nothing incongru- 
 ous with it. The second and fourth phrases have 
 motives differing slightly from that of the first and 
 third, but still analogous to it, and possibly derived 
 from it, or at least suggested by it. This use of 
 one or a few simple motives, of which the case cited 
 is a very simple example, is carried out on the most 
 elaborate scale in all large compositions. In the 
 hands of a master, this multifarious transformation 
 of the original motive invented, prevents unity from 
 becoming uniformity, continually presents them in 
 new and interesting lights, and develops from them, 
 as from germs, a complex and elaborate whole, sat- 
 factory to the intellect and to the artistic sense. 
 
 When the composer comes to add a second period 
 to his first, this new period will most naturally be a 
 simple one, like the first, made up of two symmetri- 
 cal sections, balanced against each other as antece- 
 dent and consequent. This period, however, must 
 not be wholly new, else we should have not one compo- 
 sition, made up of two periods, but two compositions 
 of one complete period each, wholly unrelated. The 
 new period must, of course, contain new materials, or at 
 least a fresh treatment of the old ones, otherwise it 
 would be merely a repetition of the first period, 
 c 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 Motives. 
 
 Relations 
 of periods 
 combined 
 into period* 
 groups. 
 
34 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 Two period 
 
 groups 
 
 combined 
 
 into a 
 
 larger 
 
 whole 
 
 But with variety there must also be unity. The com- 
 mon way of uniting a second period with a first to form 
 a composition is to make the first section of the new 
 period new and fresh, while the second section is a 
 more or less exact repetition of the closing section 
 of the first period. This is precisely the plan 
 of the Mozart example just cited, except that the 
 second period, instead of coming to a full stop at the 
 end of the eight measures, which would make it a 
 simple period, is prolonged by the addition of a 
 phrase of two measures, by which a very effective 
 climax is produced, without in the least impairing 
 the impression of symmetry. 
 
 This form is the germ from which all the musical 
 forms have sprung. It is in two divisions, balanced 
 against each other as are the two sections of a sim- 
 ple period. It may be enlarged by making each di- 
 vision consist of a period-group of two or more 
 simple periods united. But in the shorter forms, 
 when each simple or prolonged period comes to a 
 full stop, the first division is commonly one period 
 only, the second being composed either of one or 
 two periods, with perhaps a coda. With this is con- 
 trasted another similar form, often called a "Trio," 
 after which the original form is repeated, for the 
 sake of unity. This is the form in which marches, 
 waltzes, etc., are written. A good example of it is 
 the andante of the sonata in C (No. 2, of the Peters 
 edition) by Mozart. All the slow movements, 
 minuets and scherzi of the Mozart and Beethoven 
 
MONOPHONIC MUSIC. 
 
 35 
 
 sonatas are in this form, so that examples are easily 
 accessible. 
 
 The sonata-form is the most elaborate and ex- 
 tended of the forms which have been developed 
 from the elementary plan given above. Like the 
 forms heretofore cited, it has two main divisions. 
 In its most extended form, as developed in the or- 
 chestral symphony, each of these divisions is com- 
 posed of several period-groups, as follows: 
 
 DIVISION I. 
 
 I. Principal Subject. 
 II. Transition. 
 
 III. Second Subject (in the Key of the Domin- 
 
 ant). 
 
 IV. Transition. 
 
 V. Conclusion (in the Key of the Dominant). 
 This division is repeated. 
 
 DIVISION II. 
 
 I. Elaboration, in which the ideas of the first 
 division are turned over, modulated into 
 different keys, presented in new lights, and 
 combined and developed in various ways. 
 II. Transition. 
 III. Repetition of the whole of the first main di- 
 vision, the second subject and conclusion 
 being this time in the key of the Tonic. 
 In the case of pianoforte sonatas, this form is 
 often abbreviated, by making some of the transitions 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 Plan of the 
 sonata- 
 form. 
 
 Abbrevia- 
 tions of 
 this plan. 
 
36 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
 Form in 
 
 polyphonic 
 
 music. 
 
 Simple 
 periods in 
 Bach's 
 dances. 
 
 belong to the period-groups of the main ideas, in- 
 stead of forming separate groups, and by making 
 the elaboration, and, in fact, nearly all the period- 
 groups shorter than in the most elaborate works. 
 It is to be noted also that in this form the periods 
 which are associated in groups no longer end with 
 full stops. These are reserved for the close of 
 groups or even of larger divisions. The periods 
 follow each other in continuous discourse, and are 
 distinguished from one another not so much by the 
 cadences as by the grouping of the ideas. 
 
 This is the briefest possible outline of Form, as 
 now developed in monophonic music. In the strict 
 polyphonic style of Sebastian Bach, as shown in his 
 fugues, the most important productions of that style, 
 Form consisted in the orderly arrangement and suc- 
 cession of the different groups formed by the sepa- 
 rate entries of the subject and answer. Thus the 
 " exposition " formed the first group, the second 
 complete entry of the subject and answer made a 
 second group, in which the voices entered in a dif- 
 ferent order, by way of contrast. The same princi- 
 ples of Unity, Variety and Symmetry which under- 
 lie the construction of a modern sonata, controlled 
 the fugue also. But there were no " periods," in 
 the monophonic sense. But in Bach's compositions 
 in the free style, as, for instance, in the Gavotte in 
 D minor, in the Sixth English Suite, and in others, 
 we find examples of simple period structure. In- 
 deed, both this gavotte, and the "musette," which 
 alternates with it, are almost exactly in the form of 
 
MONOPHONIC MUSIC. 
 
 37 
 
 the andante of the Mozart sonata in C, cited above. 
 They are polyphonic in the sense that each has more 
 than one real melody ; for the bass is a " counter- 
 point," and not a mere foundation nor a series of 
 accompanying arpeggios. But their form is precisely 
 that of monophonic music, and it is so because there 
 is one principal melody to which the counterpoint is 
 subordinate. This melody is necessarily governed 
 by the principles summarized in the above outline, 
 for it is its accordance with these principles that 
 makes it clearly intelligible. 
 
 Chap. III. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CftAr. JT. 
 
 C. P. E. 
 
 Ba.k. 
 
 His 
 education. 
 
 Settles in 
 Berlin at 
 the court <?_/" 
 Frederick 
 the Great. 
 
 THE THREE COMPOSERS, THROUGH WHOM THE 
 SONATA-FORM WAS DEVELOPED TO ITS LOGICAL 
 LIMITS: 
 
 C. P. E. Bach, 1714-1788. 
 Joseph Haydn, 1732-1809. 
 W. A. Mozart, 1756-1791. 
 
 I. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was the third 
 son of Johann Sebastian, and was born at Weimar, 
 March 14, 17 14. He was precocious, showed un- 
 usual intellectual ability, and though his father 
 taught him music, as a matter of course, he never- 
 theless planned for him a very different career from 
 that of a musician. He sent him to the Thomas 
 School in Leipzig, and afterwards to the university 
 of the same city, and still later to that at Frankfort - 
 on-the-Oder, to study law. Emanuel thus became 
 a highly educated and cultivated man, and when, in 
 1737, he determined to relinquish the law for music, 
 he was not only an excellent musician, but a man of 
 such breadth and universality of culture as ensured 
 him a wide influence among men not especially con- 
 nected with his chosen profession. 
 
 He began his career as a professional musician in 
 Berlin, where he became a great favorite with Fred- 
 erick the Great. That monarch gave him a special 
 
C. P. E. BACH. 
 
 39 
 
 court appointment as chamber-musician and harpsi- 
 chordist, and being an amateur flute player, he 
 made it Bach's special duty to accompany his solos 
 at his private concerts. Bach held this post until 
 the Seven Years War broke out, in 1757, when he 
 went to Hamburg, became an organist and church 
 music director, and remained there, as musician and 
 composer, until his death in 1788. He wrote large 
 quantities of harpsichord music, some of it with or- 
 chestral accompaniment, church music, orchestral 
 music, oratorios, songs, etc., and an important in- 
 struction book, " On the true manner of playing the 
 clavichord," which contained his own and the best 
 of his father's ideas on technic, style and interpreta- 
 tion. 
 
 Personally he was kind and polite, and he was al- 
 ways beloved and respected for his personal char- 
 acter, his industry, his ability and attainments as 
 critic, teacher, composer and conductor. His spe- 
 cial significance as composer in the history of 
 pianoforte music, lies in the fact, that in his works 
 the decisive step from the polyphonic to the mono- 
 phonic style was taken. 
 
 In Sebastian Bach, the Fugue had reached its 
 climax. No advance was possible, either in the de- 
 velopment of the polyphonic forms, or in their 
 adaptation to the expression of a new content. 
 Progress was now to be made in a wholly new di- 
 rection. The germs of the monophonic style had 
 existed for more than a century, and this style had 
 even been considerably developed. Short forms 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Removes to 
 Hamburg. 
 
 His place 
 in the 
 History of 
 Music. 
 
40 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 The 
 
 inevitable 
 course of 
 musical 
 develop- 
 ment. 
 
 Bach's 
 qualifica- 
 tions /or 
 leadership 
 in the new 
 movement. 
 
 had been developed, more or less unconsciously, 
 "Sonatas" had been written, and enough had al- 
 ready been done, so that, as soon as it had clearly 
 become impossible to do anything more, in the strict 
 polyphonic style, than imitate Sebastian Bach, the 
 channel into which the musical impulse was now to 
 be turned became perfectly clear. The mo nophoni c, 
 style was to be cultivated^and to become predomin- 
 ant, aodJTirst of all, the for»^oiJt_yifas^tobe _dey_e_Li. 
 oped, the principles of orderly succession of melo dic- 
 jnembers were to Jje_discoyereiLand estabHsJied-f-lhe 
 meansof securing Unity, qf^enhancing mterest_by 
 means of Variety and Contrast, and of satisfying_the 
 sense _of order, symmetfy^aricf~proportion, were to 
 become familiar by grad ual e xperience, by theory 
 and practice. 
 
 Natural constitution, acquired culture and sur- 
 rounding circumstances combined to make Emanuel 
 Bach a leader in this new direction. He was not a 
 genius of the highest rank. There was nothing gi- 
 gantic or colossal about his aims, his ideas, his im- 
 agination, his intellectual powers, his emotional 
 capacities or his religious experiences. The reign 
 of the giants had closed with Sebastian Bach and 
 Haendel. To them were to succeed a race of more 
 commonplace musicians, who had, nevertheless, 
 their own special and important work to do. 
 
 Emanuel Bach was simply a highly cultivated 
 man, of respectable abilities, a well-trained and ac- 
 complished musician, who sought to compose and 
 play in a tasteful, elegant and pleasing style. There 
 
C. P. E. BACH. 
 
 41 
 
 seems to have been a sudden reaction in the public 
 mind, against the style of music which Sebastian 
 Bach cultivated, and of which he was the most dis- 
 tinguished representative. After his death, his 
 works fell into speedy oblivion. For almost a 
 century they slumbered, before the world again 
 began to realize what a mighty genius had worked 
 in the old Leipzig cantor, and to seek diligently 
 for the treasures he had left behind, a precious 
 bequest to posterity. 
 
 The public seemed tired of the severity of the 
 fugal style; they shunned the bracing intellectual 
 exertion needed for its intelligent comprehension, 
 and preferred music which should give immediate 
 pleasure, without requiring much mental strain on 
 the part of the hearer. Thus it naturally happened 
 that the popular musicians of this generation culti- 
 vated the simpler forms of the monophonic style. 
 Into this they imported such ideas of thematic treat- 
 ment as they could transfer from the older schools 
 of free polyphony. They made it the medium of 
 such expression as they were capable of, and de- 
 veloped and enlarged the small forms according to 
 their intellectual ability. But above all, taste, ele- 
 gance, were the watchwords. 
 
 Emanuel Bach's most important work was in the 
 form he gave the sonata. The sonatas of Scarlatti 
 had been in one movement only, and though this 
 movement was not yet a " Sonata-Form," or " First- 
 movement " form, in the modern sense, it was the 
 germ of it. Its plan was, in general, as follows: It 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Public taste 
 at that 
 period. 
 
 Free 
 
 polyphony 
 
 contributes 
 
 to the 
 
 monophonic 
 
 technic. 
 
4 2 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 A nalysis of 
 
 Scarlatti's 
 
 sonatas. 
 
 The prin- 
 cipal mo- 
 lives. 
 
 Example 
 of a 
 second 
 subject. 
 
 was in two divisions. Division I contained the "ex- 
 position" of the sonata. It consisted of several 
 groups of phrases, which perhaps ought to be called 
 periods, since they were commonly separated by 
 more or less decisive cadences, and were generally 
 characterized by different motives. The leading 
 motive of the first period was commonly the most 
 important, being, in fact, a principal subject, all 
 other motives being subordinate and accessory- 
 After this subject had been announced, in the prin- 
 cipal key, new motives were introduced, and modu- 
 lation began, pointing toward a new key in which the 
 division was to close. This key was generally that of 
 the Dominant, if the principal key was major, or if 
 it was minor, then the new key was commonly that 
 of the Relative Major, or sometimes the minor key 
 of the Dominant. 
 
 The periods succeeding the first were simply a 
 series of modulatory phrases, often spun out to con- 
 siderable length, and digressing into a considerable 
 number of more or less closely related keys, before 
 the goal was finally reached. The division was then 
 brought to a close by an extended cadence. There 
 are but very few cases where one of the subordinate 
 motives stands in such a relation to the principal 
 one, and to the others, that it can be fairly called a 
 Second Subject. There is an example of this in 
 No. 7 of Kohler's selections from Scarlatti's sonatas 
 (12 Fugues and Sonatas, Section 3 of the Classical 
 High School for pianists, published by Julius Schu- 
 berth & Co., Leipzig). This second subject is lyric, 
 
C. P. E. BACH. 
 
 43 
 
 very well contrasted with the principal subject, and 
 the form of the sonata approximates that of Eman- 
 uel Bach. But this is an exceptional case, and 
 seems to be the result of accident rather than of de- 
 sign. Still, it shows the direction in which the form 
 of monophonic music was tending. 
 
 The second division of the Scarlatti sonata com- 
 monly had a plan closely analogous to that of the 
 first division. It started with the principal subject, 
 in the key in which the first division closed, or in 
 some other key not too 'remote from the original 
 tonic, then introduced the subordinate motives in 
 much the same order as they occurred in the first 
 division, and modulated back to the principal key, 
 in which the sonata began, closing in this key, with 
 an extended cadence. The style of these sonatas 
 was commonly partly monophonic and partly free 
 polyphony. The periods, if periods they must be 
 called, seldom had any definite symmetrical balance 
 of antecedent and consequent. They were irregu- 
 lar as to the number of measures or of phrases, and 
 the composer's sense of symmetry and proportion, 
 though evidently present, seems to have been unde- 
 veloped, and to be working blindly, groping its way 
 toward a clearness of form which was not yet attain- 
 able. 
 
 In these respects, Scarlatti's sonatas were closely 
 analogous to many of the larger dance- forms 
 in the suites of his contemporaries, Bach and Haen- 
 del. Indeed, the forms of these dances are not dis- 
 tinguishable from that of the so-called " sonatas " in 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Division 
 second. 
 
 The style of 
 
 Scarlatti's 
 sonatas. 
 
44 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Symmetry 
 of the 
 smaller 
 dance- 
 forms. 
 
 E. Back's 
 Sonata- 
 Forms. 
 
 question, and Dr. Hans von Buelow, in his selection 
 of eighteen pieces by Scarlatti (No. 277 of the edi- 
 tion of C. F. Peters, in Leipzig), has given the 
 names of dances of the period to a number of these 
 " sonatas " (with entire propriety, so far as the form 
 and character of the pieces are concerned), for the 
 purpose of making them more attractive. In these 
 writers there are many small dance forms which are 
 as regular and symmetrical in the construction and 
 balance of their periods as any to be found in the 
 works of Haydn or Mozart. This was due, proba- 
 bly, to their being founded on vocal forms fitted to 
 the ballad stanza, which served as the germ for the 
 development of the monophonic forms. But these 
 larger forms were still more influenced by the elab- 
 orate style of the free polyphonic forms, such as the 
 prelude and toccata, than by that of the smaller 
 lyric forms, and partook of the indefiniteness of 
 that style. The lyric and symmetrically formal ele- 
 ment was slowly pushing forward into prominence, 
 but had not yet given signs of becoming predom- 
 inant. 
 
 Emanuel Bach's " Sonata-Forms," which he used 
 in the first and last movements of his sonatas, were 
 very much on the same plan as those of Scarlatti, 
 and of many of the pieces in the suites of Sebastian 
 Bach and Haendel. But his periods are often much 
 more symmetrical than any of those to be found in 
 the previous works alluded to, and there is a much 
 more marked balance of antecedent and consequent. 
 They constitute a distinct advance in clearness of 
 
C. P. E. BACH. 
 
 45 
 
 perception of the requirements of Form. They 
 seldom or never contain a well- marked second sub- 
 ject, and the only further advance is in the point 
 that their style is most decidedly monophonic. Im- 
 itation there is, and thematic treatment, but the free 
 polyphony or mixed style which had prevailed in 
 the preceding generation in almost all but the 
 smallest and simplest forms, had now given place to 
 a style as decidedly and purely monophonic as that 
 of a Mozart Sonata. 
 
 Besides this, Emanuel Bach wrote sonatas in three 
 movements, of which the first and third were "sona- 
 ta-forms," and the middle one was a lyric slow 
 movement, contrasted with the others in key and in 
 character. This form was adopted from him by 
 Haydn and Mozart, and their sonatas differ from 
 his only in the greater development of the separate 
 movements. 
 
 Let us now recapitulate. The modern sonata has 
 four essential characteristics: 
 
 i. It has at least three movements. 
 
 2. These movements are contrasted with one an- 
 other, in key and in character, some being rapid and 
 lively, others slow and tender. 
 
 3. One, at least, of these movements is a "sonata- 
 form." 
 
 4. The movements are all monophonic, some pre- 
 dominantly thematic and some lyric. 
 
 Of these characteristic features, none were wholly 
 new in Emanuel Bach's time. 
 
 Sebastian Bach had Written suites in six or seven 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 They are 
 decidedly 
 mono- 
 phonic. 
 
 Recapitula* 
 Hon. 
 
4 6 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 6". Bacli s 
 suites. 
 
 Haendets 
 suites. 
 
 What 
 Emanuel 
 Bach did 
 /or the 
 sonata. 
 
 movements; but these were all in the same key. 
 Moreover, some of them were in free polyphony. 
 His Partitas were simply small suites. He wrote 
 " Sonatas " for the organ in three movements, the 
 first and third being allegros and the middle one an 
 adagio or an andante, but these were all strictly poly- 
 phonic. He also wrote sonatas for the harpsichord, 
 but these differed from his suites only in admitting 
 fugues and other forms which were not dance-forms. 
 Finally, he had written concertos in three move- 
 ments, the first and last being allegros and the mid- 
 dle one an andante or adagio, in a style as closely ap- 
 proaching monophony as did the sonatas of Scar- 
 latti. These probably served Emanuel Bach as 
 models for his sonatas. But the three movements 
 of these concertos were all in the same key. 
 
 Haendel had written suites which resembled the 
 sonatas of Bach. They had sometimes fewer, some- 
 times more movements. Of these, one was often a 
 fugue. They were generally all in the same key. 
 
 Of Scarlatti's sonatas, enough has been said. 
 
 It will be seen that no one characteristic feature 
 of the sonata was original with Emanuel Bach, nor 
 did he even develop the " Sonata-Form " much fur- 
 ther than his predecessors. What he did do that 
 had not been done before was this : He combined 
 all the essential characteristics of the sonata in nu- 
 merous compositions of such merit that they became 
 models for his contemporaries and his immediate 
 successors. He brought the exclusively mono- 
 phonic sonata into vogue; he contributed toward its 
 
F. J. HA YDN. 
 
 47 
 
 development in the direction of clearness and sym- 
 metry; he adopted the principle of contrast in key 
 as well as in character, in the three movements of 
 which his sonatas were composed ; in short, he es- 
 tablished the plan of the sonata, determined the di- 
 rection in which it was to develop, and, by his influ- 
 ence and example, gave the most powerful impulse 
 to that development. 
 
 II. Franz {English, Francis,) Joseph Haydn 
 was born April i, 1732, in the little Austrian village 
 of Rohrau. His father was a wheelwright. His 
 mother, before her marriage, was a cook in a noble 
 family. They were honest, industrious, pious peo- 
 ple, fond of music, but wholly untrained in it. Little 
 Joseph used to sing with them their simple songs, in 
 a beautiful, clear, childish soprano. His father saw 
 in him evidences of musical talent, and as there was 
 no opportunity for his proper training at home, he 
 was removed to school at Hainburg, some four 
 leagues from home, at the early age of six. Here a 
 relative of his, named Frankh, became his teacher. 
 The boy was thoroughly well taught, proved an apt 
 pupil, and learned to sing well and to play different 
 instruments. 
 
 At the age of eight, Reutter, court-composer and 
 conductor at St. Stephen's church, Vienna, being at 
 Hainburg on a visit, heard him sing, and at once 
 offered him a place in his choir. So the boy went 
 to Vienna, sang in the cathedral choir, continued 
 his musical studies, and also those of the school cur- 
 riculum. His music lessons did not include in- 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 F.JMaydn. 
 
 His early 
 schooling. 
 
 Goes to 
 Vienna as 
 choir 
 singer. 
 
48 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Poverty 
 
 and 
 
 industry. 
 
 He makes 
 friends. 
 
 Becomes 
 director of 
 Count 
 Morzin's 
 orchestras 
 
 struction in Harmony or Composition, but so strong 
 was his natural bent in this direction that he con- 
 stantly practiced it by himself, working hard and 
 spoiling vast quantities of music-paper. Five years 
 after he went to Vienna, his voice began to change, 
 and being of no further use as a singer, he was soon 
 dismissed to shift for himself. He struggled on, amidst 
 poverty and hardship, practiced the violin and harpsi- 
 chord, gave lessons for his daily bread, and assiduously 
 devoted himself to the study and practice of composi- 
 tion. 
 
 He soon made the acquaintance of some of 
 Emanuel Bach's sonatas, was greatly interested in 
 them, and thenceforth they became his models. 
 Bach afterwards declared that Haydn alone thor- 
 oughly understood his style. He procured all the 
 theoretical works he could lay hands on, mastered 
 their contents, and gradually exercised himself in 
 every species of composition. He wrote masses, 
 operas, string-quartets, and, by dint of hard work, 
 speedily attained certainty and facility of technic, 
 and independence and originality of style. 
 
 He began to make friends. A wealthy amateur 
 named von Fuernberg invited him to his house, gave 
 him opportunities to hear good performances of 
 chamber music, and encouraged him to write his 
 first string quartet. His lessons increased, and his 
 price was raised. His compositions found sale 
 among wealthy lovers of music. In 1759 he be- 
 came conductor of a small but good orchestra in the 
 employ of Count Morzin, and wrote his first sym- 
 
F. J. HA YDN. 
 
 49 
 
 phony for it in the same year. There was at that 
 time no musical public. Artists were obliged to de- 
 pend solely on the patronage of the wealthy. 
 Haydn's salary as conductor was two hundred flor- 
 ins (about one hundred dollars). Of course living 
 was cheap. 
 
 He determined to marry, and in 1760, Maria 
 Anna Keller, daughter of a wigmaker, who had 
 been his pupil, became his wife. She was three 
 years older than he, had a bad temper, had no sym- 
 pathy whatever with his aims as an artist, and was 
 every way unsuited to be the companion of such a 
 man. She made his domestic life miserable till 
 their separation, a few years before her death in 
 1800. 
 
 Count Morzin was obliged to dismiss his orches- 
 tra soon after this, and in 1761, Haydn entered the 
 service of Prince Esterhazy, at Eisenstadt, his coun- 
 try seat in Hungary, as conductor of an orchestra 
 of only sixteen members. But they were good 
 players, and he was at once stimulated to do his 
 best in composing for them. This orchestra had a 
 chorus and solo singers associated with it for service 
 in church and at concerts, and Werner, Haydn's 
 predecessor, now an old man, remained for a time 
 in charge of the church music. The orchestra was 
 gradually increased, concerts were frequent, rehears- 
 als were required daily, and Haydn had enough to 
 do, with conducting and providing new composi- 
 tions. Here he remained for nearly thirty years, 
 and composed a vast amount of music, symphonies, 
 d 3 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 His 
 marriage. 
 
 Is made 
 conductor 
 to Prince 
 Esterhazy. 
 
 Vast 
 
 number of 
 his works. 
 
5° 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Visits 
 
 London. 
 
 His two 
 oratorios. 
 
 Personal 
 character- 
 istics. 
 
 chamber music, harpsichord and pianoforte music, 
 church music, songs, operettas, etc., until the or- 
 chestra was finally disbanded. He then returned to 
 Vienna, but was immediately invited to London, by 
 Salomon, the English publisher. Thither he went, 
 in the winter of 1 790-1. Before this, he had become 
 acquainted with Mozart, had formed the highest 
 opinion of his genius, and the two had become 
 warm friends. 
 
 In London he was received with the greatest en- 
 thusiasm. He composed six symphonies for Salo- 
 mon's concerts, conducted them at the pianoforte, 
 and afterwards gave other concerts, all of which 
 were extremely successful. He remained about a 
 year and a half, and then returned to Vienna. 
 Early in 1794, he again went to London under a 
 similar engagement, and succeeded even more brill- 
 iantly in all respects. He earned fame and money, 
 and returned home in 1795, comfortably independ- 
 ent. He still retained the title of conductor to 
 Prince Esterhazy, and the orchestra was now re- 
 vived. He continued to compose for it several 
 years. His reputation was greatly increased by his 
 oratorios, "The Creation," first given April 29, 
 1798, and "The Seasons," composed the following 
 year. This was the last of his important works. 
 He died May 31, 1809. 
 
 Haydn was a small, short man, very dark, with 
 dark gray eyes. In disposition he was cheerful and 
 even tempered, and though he was sensitive, and 
 unhappy in his domestic affairs, his music gives no 
 
F. J. HA YDN. 
 
 5* 
 
 evidence that his mental equanimity was ever great- 
 ly disturbed. He was very devout, very diligent in 
 his work, and commanded universal respect. He 
 composed very carefully and deliberately, attach- 
 ing the utmost importance to the working out 
 of his themes, aiming always to develop each idea 
 naturally, evolving from it, as from a germ, a work 
 whose prime characteristic should be organic unity. 
 He was indeed precise and careful, but he was no 
 pedantic follower of rules. Whatever sounded well 
 or answered the ends he had in view, he was con- 
 tent to write down, regardless of grammatical rules 
 as laid down by the theorists of his time. He was a 
 genuine creator, and his fund of invention seemed 
 inexhaustible. " The Creation," the child of his old 
 age, equals in freshness of melodic invention any 
 work of his youth or prime, and retains its charm 
 to this day. 
 
 As might be expected from his position as leader 
 of an orchestra, and composer for this and for con- 
 certs of chamber music, it is in the two departments 
 of the symphony and the string quartet, that his 
 originality exerted the strongest and most far-reach- 
 ing influence. His numerous compositions in these 
 fields were so superior in form and style to any- 
 thing that preceded them, that they drove them all 
 into oblivion, became models for succeeding com- 
 posers, and gained for Haydn the rightful title of 
 "the father of instrumental music." But in the 
 field of pianoforte music his influence was hardly 
 less marked. Accepting the form of the sonata as 
 
 Chap. IV 
 
 Chtefly a 
 composer oj 
 orchestral 
 music. 
 
 His 
 
 pianoforte 
 music and 
 its 
 influence. 
 
5 2 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 His sonata- 
 forms. 
 
 W. A. 
 Mozart. 
 
 Early 
 
 evidences 
 of a 
 musical 
 
 ei/t. 
 
 established by Emanuel Bach, he enlarged all its 
 movements and developed in the " sonata-form " 
 that clear and definite order of period and period- 
 groups which made it strictly and in the fullest 
 sense classical. In his sonata-forms, there is a "first 
 subject," often carried out into a period-group of 
 considerable length, a transition period or period- 
 group, then a " second subject," equally extensive, a 
 transition and a conclusion. The second division 
 begins with an elaboration of the ideas of the first 
 division, followed by a repetition of that division ex- 
 actly on the plan described in the preceding chapter 
 on Form. The student may examine them for him- 
 self in the very cheap but excellent complete edition 
 of his sonatas published by C. F. Peters, in Leipzig; 
 or the selection of ten celebrated sonatas, published 
 by the same house, may serve as characteristic spec- 
 imens of his form and style. 
 
 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born at Salzburg, 
 January 27, 1756, was the son of Leopold Mozart, an 
 intelligent, well-educated and every way superior 
 musician, in the service of the Archbishop of Salz- 
 burg. He was extremely precocious, began to man- 
 ifest remarkable love for music when only three 
 years old, soon learned to play the harpsichord and 
 the violin, and even began to compose. He had 
 the most delicate ear, was extremely quick and in- 
 telligent, learned by intuition everything pertaining 
 to music, and in short, showed the most un- 
 mistakable evidences of possessing the innate gift 
 of genius. Withal he was amiable in disposition, 
 
W. A. MOZART. 
 
 S3 
 
 perfectly teachable, tenderly attached to his family 
 and to all who were kind to him, and so profited by 
 all the instruction he received. His sister, Maria 
 Anna, two years older than he, was also very tal- 
 ented, so much so that their father- thought it worth 
 while to make concert tours with the two children 
 to exhibit their remarkable gifts to the various no- 
 blemen, whose patronage, in those days, was the 
 only support of artists. 
 
 The first of these tours was undertaken when 
 Wolfgang was only six years of age. They went to 
 Munich, and afterwards to Vienna, where Wolf- 
 gang's genius excited the liveliest interest and ad- 
 miration in the Emperor and in all his court. The 
 Empress petted him, and with the frankness of a 
 warm-hearted child, wholly ignorant of distinctions 
 of rank, and of the restraints of court etiquette, he 
 jumped up into her lap, threw his arms around her 
 neck and kissed her, doubtless to the great amuse- 
 ment of the courtiers. The next year they went to 
 Paris, where four of his sonatas for pianoforte and 
 violin were published, and afterward to London, 
 where he was received with the greatest enthusiasm 
 by the king, the royal family, the nobility, the musi- 
 cians, and the public. His powers of improvisation 
 excited the greatest astonishment and admiration. 
 Musicians delighted to put him to the severest tests, 
 from which he invariably came off triumphant. In 
 1765 they started for home, giving concerts by the 
 way in Holland, Paris, Switzerland, and various 
 German cities. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Concert 
 tours. 
 
 His 
 
 unembar- 
 rassed 
 treatment 
 0/ royalty. 
 
54 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. J /. 
 
 Tour in 
 Italy. 
 
 His 
 
 spontaneity 
 of 
 invention. 
 
 After these tours, he continued diligently to 
 study and compose at Salzburg, under his father's 
 direction. He went also to Vienna, and in 
 1769 his father began with him a tour of the Italian 
 cities, both to enlarge his musical experience, and 
 to extend his reputation. The tour was every way 
 successful. The boy learned much, and his genius 
 was everywhere admired and respected. At Bo- 
 logna he met the celebrated Padre Martini, who 
 gave him lessons in fugue and strict counterpoint. 
 He composed a good deal in Italy, among other 
 things, an opera, and several symphonies. 
 
 After their return to Salzburg, in 177 1, study and 
 composition went on with even greater vigor. The 
 boy's invention was exhaustless. Melodies rose in 
 his imagination like water in a boiling spring, and in 
 all that pertained to the development and technical 
 treatment of his ideas, there seemed no limit to his 
 capabilities. He wrote church music, chamber 
 music, symphonies, harpsichord music, operas, all 
 with no apparent effort, and with the utmost rapidity. 
 He was indeed an artist "by the grace of God." 
 These early compositions were, indeed, of little per- 
 manent value, but his powers were maturing by ex- 
 ercise, and he was gathering materials and gaining 
 in experience daily. In spite of the universal ad- 
 miration of his gifts and attainments, his father 
 found it impossible to obtain for him a court ap- 
 pointment. He was, indeed, vice-conductor to the 
 Archbishop of Salzburg, but without a salary, and 
 his relations to his patron were by no means pleas- 
 
W. A. MOZART. 
 
 55 
 
 ant. So, at the age of twenty-one, he severed this 
 connection, and started with his mother for Paris. 
 But there the time and circumstances proved un- 
 favorable, and soon his mother died there. 
 
 He returned to Salzburg, and accepted the place 
 of organist and concert-meister to the court and ca- 
 thedral. But he found it impossible to live with the 
 Archbishop. The troubles culminated in Vienna, 
 whither Mozart had been summoned in March, 
 1781, his master being there on a visit. This dig- 
 nified prelate was very fond of lording it over those 
 in his service. He made his court composer eat 
 with the servants, addressed him in terms of vile 
 abuse, and finally, being displeased with him, for no 
 discoverable reason, ordered him to leave the house. 
 Mozart left, and never had anything to do with him 
 afterward. To the honor of the Emperor, and of 
 the Viennese nobility, be it said that they all hated 
 this detestable despiser of genius, and treated him 
 with contempt. 
 
 On the 16th of August, 1782, Mozart married 
 Constanze Weber, third daughter of Fridolin Weber, 
 a prompter and copyist, whose acquaintance Wolf- 
 gang had made sometime before, in Mannheim, but 
 who was now living in Vienna. The marriage was 
 a happy one, but Constanze was a poor manager, 
 and Mozart was careless in money matters, so that 
 they were constantly in financial embarrassment 
 from their marriage until Mozart's death. The Em- 
 peror and the nobility might very easily have made 
 the life of the great composer an easy one, as re- 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Organist 
 to the 
 Archbishop 
 of Salz- 
 burg. 
 
 His 
 marriagt. 
 
 Pecuniary 
 difficulties 
 
56 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 His great 
 operas. 
 
 Overworn 
 and early 
 death. 
 
 gards money matters. Why this was not done is a 
 mystery, since they seemed to appreciate the fact 
 that his was a genius such as is sent into the world 
 but seldom, but certain it is that he was unable to 
 obtain a conductor's appointment, or any other 
 lucrative position. Men greatly his inferior were 
 preferred to him, and he earned a precarious liveli- 
 hood by giving lessons, playing at concerts, and the 
 sale of his compositions. 
 
 Among the most important of his works were his 
 operas, of which he wrote many for Vienna, Prague, 
 and other cities. The greatest of these are " Don 
 Juan," "Figaro's Wedding," and "The Magic 
 Flute ;" next to these, " The Abduction from the 
 Seraglio," "Idomeneus," "Titus" and "Cosi fan 
 tutte." He also wrote' many symphonies, which 
 were an advance on Haydn's in the extent of their 
 development, and in the greater fullness and rich- 
 ness of their instrumentation. His chamber music 
 also surpassed all that had been written by his pre- 
 decessors. He wrote with the greatest ease and 
 produced immense quantities of music, but the con- 
 stant strain, added to his anxieties about money 
 matters and to the drain on his vitality made by the 
 constant excitements of his life, sapped his strength. 
 He died December 5, 1791, poor and in debt, and 
 was buried in the common pauper's grave, in the 
 churchyard of St. Mary. Thus was sacrificed to 
 the niggardliness of titled fools a man worth more 
 to the world than whole countries full of emperors, 
 counts and dukes. 
 
W: A. MOZART. 
 
 57 
 
 In figure, Mozart was short and small ; he had a 
 prominent nose, and was not remarkable for being 
 either good looking or the reverse. In disposition 
 he was amiable and kind, very vivacious and 
 fond of society, and very fond of his friends, 
 who loved him in return. Between him and 
 Haydn there existed a warm friendship. Mozart 
 always acknowledged his obligations to his older 
 fellow-composer, and spoke of his works with 
 great admiration and respect. On his part, Haydn 
 cordially recognized Mozart's genius. In 1785, on 
 hearing some of Mozart's quartets, he said to 
 Leopold Mozart, " I declare to you before God, as a 
 man of honor, that your son is the greatest com- 
 poser that I know, either personally or by reputa- 
 tion; he has taste, and beyond that the most con- 
 summate knowledge of the art of composition." 
 
 As a composer, Mozart was remarkable, first^of 
 all for spontaneity and fertility ,gf . jnvention, and 
 next, perhaps, for sensuous beauty of^melody^ and 
 "harmony and warmth of color in jmodulation^and 
 Instrumentation., In his best operas he also achieved 
 much in the way of truthful dramatic characteriza- 
 tion. In his pianoforte sonatas and concertos, 
 
 which more immediately concern us in this history, 
 he made decidgiadvances on Haydn in the develop- 
 ment of Form,_ His greatest com positions in this 
 kind were laij 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Mozart's 
 
 personal 
 
 appearance 
 
 and 
 
 character. 
 
 OH a hrnaHpr gralp than. any fif 
 
 Haydn/sj they wereperfect in Unity, and admirable 
 in Symmetry andProoortion. TKj were jiotje; 
 ^rkah'Je for^ 
 
 Haydn's 
 estimate oj 
 him. 
 
 The 
 
 character- 
 istics of his 
 style. 
 
58 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IV. 
 
 Repose, not 
 contrast, an 
 essential 
 element of 
 the 
 classical. 
 
 the gssential nat ure of_the classical. ^Variety there 
 was, an inexhaustible freshness of ideas^a nd of treatr. 
 wKich 
 
 ment^and repose, which is of_J:he very ^essence^oi 
 the_stoirtlxdi^^at^2Il3vhi^-4ie »and,.Hayda,«ese 
 the foremost, ^representatives. jWkh_ J^zarj^the 
 Sonata, considered as an Art-Form, reached,jtsjail- 
 mination. He had" developed it to its logical limits, 
 and thenceforth little or no advance was to be made 
 upon his work, so far as form was concerned. The 
 great composers who immediately succeeded him 
 adopted his forms at first. They afterward struck 
 out new paths for themselves, but the new develop- 
 ment was not in the direction of elaborate forms, 
 but of a new content, and of the adaptation of 
 forms to the embodiment of this content. This will 
 be treated of in the next epoch. 
 
 The student is advised to compare the forms of 
 the pianoforte works of Emanuel Bach, Haydn and 
 Mozart, for himself. The complete sonatas and 
 concertos of Mozart may be obtained very cheaply 
 in the Peters' edition. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Epoch of the Predominance of Content in the 
 Sonata. 
 
 THE CONTENT OF MUSIC. 
 
 The content of a musical composition is what is 
 contained in it; — the ideas and feelings which find 
 expression through it, and the ideals which are em- 
 bodied in it. 
 
 i. What ideas, then, may be expressed in the 
 forms of music? 2. What feelings, if any? 3. 
 What ideals may be embodied in it ? 
 
 1. No images can be expressed or conveyed by 
 combinations or successions of tones. No events 
 can be described in this way, no situations indicated, 
 except indirectly and with difficulty. Nor can any 
 abstract ideas be expressed. Certain sounds do in- 
 deed suggest certain ideas and images, and may be 
 employed in music for this purpose. Thus the 
 barking of a dog raises the idea of the animal, be- 
 cause we have always associated the sound with 
 dogs, but the idea of a dog given by this sound 
 alone is extremely incomplete, so that any one con- 
 fined to a mere imitation of barking in an attempt 
 to express and convey his idea of any particular 
 dog, would be very unsuccessful. Given other par- 
 
 59 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Content 
 defined. 
 
 Music 
 can not 
 express 
 images or 
 abstract 
 ideas. 
 
6o 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Suggestions 
 of ideas by 
 music must 
 always be 
 incidental. 
 
 ticulars, and the mere suggestion by this sound 
 would be sufficient to raise the complete idea. 
 
 There are instances of this kind in music. Thus, 
 Mendelssohn in his music to Shakespeare's Midsum- 
 mer Night's Dream, introduces in the midst of 
 music appropriate to a love scene, an imitation of 
 the braying of a donkey, and this irresistibly sug- 
 gests at once the scene with Bottom and Titania, 
 which Mendelssohn had in mind. But if we did 
 not know beforehand that the composer's music re- 
 ferred to this particular play, the mere introduction 
 of a bray would convey no such idea. 
 
 We must discard then, at the outset, any notion 
 that music can be used as words are, or as the pic- 
 torial arts are, for the expression and conveyance of 
 the images impressed on our minds by outward ob- 
 jects. Any use of music for such a purpose must 
 be incidental and secondary to its main object. 
 There has been a great deal of nonsense written 
 about "the meaning of music," by writers who 
 wished to connect some definite scene or event with 
 particular pieces, importing into them a significance 
 wholly foreign to the composer's intention. 
 
 All talk about " describing " this or that event or 
 situation in tones indicates confusion of thought. 
 Properly speaking, no music ever " described " or 
 " depicted " anything. The expressions used, how- 
 ever, are attempts to convey a real truth, the rela- 
 tions of which are apparently not clear in the minds 
 of the writers who use them. More of this here- 
 after. 
 
THE CONTENT OF MUSIC. 
 
 61 
 
 But are there, then, no ideas in music ? Certainly 
 there are; but only musical ideas, except, as in the 
 above illustrations, when other ideas are indirectly 
 suggested. 
 
 What, then, is a musical idea ? A musical idea is 
 any succession or combination of musical sounds, 
 the separate components of which have a definite, 
 intelligible relation to one another. " Motives," as 
 defined in Chapter III, are musical ideas. The de- 
 velopment, arrangement and combination of these 
 motives, so as to evolve from them complex wholes, 
 satisfactory to the intellect, constitutes musical 
 thought. 
 
 The proper apprehension of the completed pro- 
 duct of the composer's thought, as coherent, logical 
 musical discourse, is also to be called musical 
 thinking. A fugue, sonata or symphony, studied 
 scientifically, in all the relations of the separate parts 
 to one another and to the whole, demands for its 
 proper comprehension intellectual powers and train- 
 ing. Considered from the side of construction, of 
 technical knowledge and technical treatment of 
 sounds, music is purely a product of intellect and 
 the composition of it is a purely intellectual process. 
 
 But no composer of genius impresses himself on 
 the world merely or mainly as an intellectual athlete, 
 or as a skillful composer. His skill is subordinate, 
 — is only a means to an end. That end is the em- 
 bodiment of some ideal. Mere technical skill, dex- 
 terity in the combination and arrangement of 
 sounds may be acquired by diligent study. It may 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 What 
 musical 
 ideas are. 
 
 Musical 
 thought 
 defined. 
 
 Technical 
 attain* 
 ments 
 are means 
 to an end. 
 
62 
 
 HISTORY OP PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Beauty in 
 music. 
 
 be possessed as an attainment by scholars and 
 pedants without a spark of creative power. But the 
 real creative artist uses the materials accumulated 
 by study, and the facility acquired by practice, as so 
 much food for his imagination; as means for the 
 embodiment of ideal conceptions. First and fore- 
 most, that which occupies the attention of the artist 
 is the embodiment of ideals of Beauty. It is not 
 enough that his production be skillfully constructed; 
 it must be' beautiful in order to satisfy his artistic 
 sense and make for itself a permanent place in the 
 world's estimation. 
 
 Beauty in music is of three kinds: Sensuous 
 Beauty of Tone, Symmetrical Beauty of Form, and 
 the Beauty which comes of the adequate expression 
 of a worthy emotional content. Of these three 
 kinds of Beauty, any one may predominate, almost 
 to the exclusion of the other two; or two of them 
 may be prominently present, the other being neg- 
 lected; or all three may unite to form a well- 
 rounded and satisfactory whole. 
 
 Of these three kinds, compositions which embody 
 simply an ideal of the Pleasing in Sensation, are 
 lowest in the scale, because the production of 
 them involves the minimum of intellectual effort and 
 of technical attainment, and also because the emo- 
 tional content is inferior. Compositions which com- 
 bine with this the embodiment of an ideal of Formal 
 Beauty stand higher, because Form is the result of 
 high intellectual processes. 
 
 Before passing to the consideration of music as 
 
THE CONTENT OF MUSIC. 
 
 63 
 
 the expression of ideal emotional experiences, it is 
 extremely important to make sure that there is no 
 confusion in the minds of even young readers, un- 
 acquainted with psychology, as to the relation of 
 feeling to the other mental operations ; and also 
 that the distinctions between the different kinds of 
 feelings are clearly understood. The discussion of 
 this subject, even in the briefest possible way, in- 
 volves a long digression, for which, it is hoped, am- 
 ple excuse will be found in the importance of the 
 the subject, the widespread ignorance of it, and the 
 difficulty of referring students to any treatise on it 
 which shall be at once brief, clear and pointed. No 
 one can really understand music, who can not dis- 
 criminate between its emotional content and the 
 other elements which enter into it. It is hoped, 
 therefore, that sufficient apology has already been 
 offered for the interpolation of a short essay on the 
 emotions here. 
 
 There are three, and only three kinds of activity 
 possible to the human mind. We know, we feel, we 
 choose. There are three general faculties corre- 
 sponding to these mental activities, viz.: the In- 
 tellect, the Sensibility and the Will. 
 
 Under the intellect are included all perceptions, 
 Memory, Imagination, logical Thinking, Intuition, 
 in short all cognition or knowing. The will is the 
 power of choosing. Under the sensibility are in- 
 cluded all those phenomena of mind which we com- 
 monly speak of as Feeling or Emotion, these terms 
 being here used as synonymous, from the simplest 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Importance 
 of a clear 
 idea of 
 feeling. 
 
 Different 
 kinds of 
 mental 
 activity. 
 
6 4 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Simple 
 tmotions. 
 
 experiences of pleasure and pain to the warmest 
 affections, the strongest desires and the most violent 
 passions. 
 
 Feelings are either (i) simple, or (2) complex. 
 
 I. The simple emotions are pure feelings of pleas- 
 ure or pain. They are in all cases effects, produced 
 upon the mind by a great variety of causes. The at- 
 tempt to classify and enumerate these causes would 
 lead us too far. It is sufficient to note that the 
 mind is always affected by some cause or other 
 which produces either pleasure or pain, although 
 our emotions are sometimes so lacking in intensity 
 that the sensibility seems to be almost neutral ; — the 
 line of transition from one state to the other is 
 nearly reached, and feeling is reduced to a mini- 
 mum for the time being. This is especially true 
 when there is no cause at work which powerfully 
 affects the feelings, and when the mind is taken up 
 with intellectual operations. A man absorbed in solv- 
 ing a mathematical problem, or in composing a fugue 
 or sonata, for example, may be so occupied with his 
 purely intellectual activity that he is almost or quite 
 unconscious of feeling at all. Nevertheless, there 
 is feeling present. For if his intellectual energy is put 
 forth without impediment, the exercise of his in- 
 tellectual powers is pleasurable ; if he meets with 
 unexpected obstacles or interruptions, a painful 
 effect is produced. The pain in the one case or the 
 pleasure in the other may be of considerable in- 
 tensity, or it may be so slight as not to obtrude it- 
 self on the attention, and the state of feeling, or 
 
THE CONTENT OF MUSIC. 
 
 65 
 
 mood, besides being simple, may be said to be indefi- 
 nite or vague. 
 
 The simple emotions of pleasure and pain often 
 depend on bodily conditions as causes, without our 
 being conscious of what these causes are. Most 
 people are subject to elations and depressions of 
 mood, dependent on the condition of the nervous 
 system. The nerves may be affected by the 
 weather, by the condition of the digestive apparatus, 
 or by other bodily causes. Besides this we receive 
 pleasure and pain from our social relations, from 
 success or failure in our business, from the gratifica- 
 tions or thwarting of desire, etc., etc. 
 
 II. Complex feelings are either (1) Desires or (2) 
 Affections. (Passions are simply desires in their ex- 
 treme form.) 1. When we experience pleasure in 
 view of some object as an exciting cause, we com- 
 monly desire that object in its absence ; or if any ob- 
 ject gives us pain, we desire its absence. In both 
 cases there is something more than a simple emo- 
 tion. There is superadded to the pure pleasure or 
 pain an outgoing of the mind toward the cause of 
 the feeling to possess it, or to be rid of it. The 
 mind is no longer simply passive, quiescent; it 
 reaches out actively toward its object. Desire tends 
 to action. Thus we enjoy a beautiful object, or the 
 society of a friend. The withdrawal of these causes 
 a painful sense of lack and deprivation; we desire a 
 renewal of the pleasure before experienced, and 
 long for the presence of the friend or the beautiful 
 object as a condition of the wished-for gratification. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Of tin 
 
 depend 
 
 upon 
 
 bodily 
 
 conditions* 
 
 Complex 
 feelings. 
 
 Desire 
 tends to 
 action. 
 
66 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 The 
 affections. 
 
 In the case of a friend, we desire not only his pres- 
 ence but his society, interchange of thought and 
 feeling ; we desire also that our thoughts, feelings 
 and actions may meet the approval of those we es- 
 teem. In the case of a beautiful object, or any ob- 
 ject which gives us pleasure, we desire to possess it, 
 to have it within our control; or if that be impossi- 
 ble, as in the case of a landscape, for instance, we 
 desire to appropriate it, to make it our own so far 
 as the nature of the case admits. Or, we are re- 
 pelled by something ugly or horrible, or displeased 
 by behavior which we disapprove ; we desire to sep- 
 arate ourselves from the disagreeable person or ob- 
 ject, and this feeling tends to active effort on our 
 part to bring about this separation. 
 
 2. Affections involve still another mode of feeling. 
 We experience pleasure or pain ; we recognize some 
 person or sentient being as the cause of this simple 
 emotion ; there is a movement of feeling to confer 
 good or ill upon the cause. With this is also com- 
 monly associated the desire of possession. The 
 society of a friend delights us. We not only desire 
 the presence, society and approbation of our friend, 
 but we desire also that he should experience pleas- 
 ure. This awakens in us the impulse to please him, 
 to act for his good. Or we are displeased by the 
 behavior of an evil-disposed person. We not only 
 desire the absence of so obnoxious a cause of pain- 
 ful emotion, but we are naturally impelled to inflict 
 pain on the offender. 
 
 The important consideration for us in this dis- 
 
THE CONTENT OF MUSIC. 
 
 67 
 
 cussion, as regards the content of music, is, that in 
 the simple emotions the mind is passive and qui- 
 escent; in the complex experiences of the desires 
 and affections there is a strong tendency to action. 
 These are the impulses which furnish motive power 
 to the will, and are the springs of conduct and of 
 character. 
 
 The significance of these distinctions will appear 
 more and more clearly as we attempt to study the 
 works of various composers, and to interpret their 
 mental states from their productions. We shall find 
 that some of these compositions give evidences that 
 their authors were occupied primarily with the in- 
 tellectual side of their work, — with plans of con- 
 struction. In these cases emotional experience was 
 reduced to a simple mood, so vague that close scrut- 
 iny would be required to decide whether it was 
 pleasurable or painful. We shall find other cases in 
 which the completed products show that the com- 
 poser had thoroughly mastered his material, con- 
 structed his forms with unimpeded freedom of en- 
 ergy and experienced keen pleasure in the spontane- 
 ous activity of production. This pleasure became 
 the emotional content of the music without the de- 
 liberate intention and perhaps without the conscious- 
 ness of the composer. In other cases, there was 
 added to this a higher faculty in the composer 
 whereby he conceived an Ideal of Beauty, which he 
 sought to embody in his composition. In these 
 cases there was infused into the work the added de- 
 light arising from the contemplation of the beauti- 
 
 Chap. v. 
 
 Relation of 
 these 
 
 distinctions 
 to our 
 under- 
 standing of 
 the content 
 of music. 
 
68 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 Some 
 
 composers 
 
 passionate. 
 
 Some 
 
 deliberate- 
 ly seek to 
 express 
 emotion. 
 
 ful conception, and from the consciousness of suc- 
 cess in the attempt to embody it. 
 
 In all these cases the emotions experienced 
 by the composer were simple, except in so 
 far as the element of desire to accomplish a certain 
 result complicated his emotional state. When this 
 desire was constantly in process of fulfillment this 
 element was reduced to the smallest possible quan- 
 tity, and the feeling became as nearly simple as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 But we shall find composers in whose mental 
 states the complex feelings predominated ; whose 
 minds are no longer occupied mainly with intellect- 
 ual processes, but in whom urgent desires, longings 
 and yearnings, or fierce passions constantly force 
 themselves upon consciousness, make their impulses 
 felt in the whole mental activity, and leave unmis- 
 takable traces on the completed product. We shall 
 find others who consciously sought to express in 
 tones real or imagined emotional experiences ; who 
 deliberately set themselves the task of finding suc- 
 cessions and combinations of tones which should 
 embody clearly conceived emotional states, — sought 
 to reproduce in tones the most subtle as well as the 
 most powerful impressions made upon their own 
 sensibility, and to convey these impressions to 
 others. Finally, we shall find composers who 
 sought to reproduce the emotional impressions made 
 by a series of events, with such vividness, that a 
 single clue should suffice to suggest the whole story 
 to those already acquainted with it. 
 
THE CONTENT OF MUSIC. 
 
 69 
 
 Resuming now our discussion of the content of 
 music, let us inquire: How are these feelings re- 
 vealed through musical composition ? What is the 
 relation of music to emotion ? This is now for us 
 the inquiry of most immediate importance. 
 
 Every one who will give the matter a little atten- 
 tion will discover that sounds, articulate and inar- 
 ticulate, are among the most efficient means of ex- 
 pressing and conveying feelings. Animals express 
 pleasure and pain by means of inarticulate sounds; 
 so do infants. Adults do the same, and modify 
 their expressions of ideas in language by the tones 
 in which their words are uttered. These tones ex- 
 press and convey the emotional state of the speak- 
 ers. We all learn in early childhood to associate 
 certain modulations of the voices of those around 
 us with certain feelings in their minds, so that we 
 could not possibly be convinced that we do not in- 
 terpret these sounds correctly. So certain are we of 
 our understanding of them, that no positiveness of as- 
 sertion by any one as to the state of his feelings 
 could convince us that he spoke truly, if his tone of 
 voice belied his assertion. Thus anger, hatred, joy, 
 love, jealousy, eager expectation, desire, passionate 
 remorse, gentle regret, sadness or melancholy are 
 conveyed unmistakably by sounds, whether con- 
 nected with words or not. Let it be noticed that 
 words, the signs of ideas, only excite feelings indi- 
 rectly, by conveying ideas, which raise the feelings ; 
 while sounds convey these feelings directly and im- 
 mediately. It is by the natural extension and carry- 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 The 
 
 relation of 
 music to 
 emotion. 
 
 Sounds 
 express 
 feelings. 
 
 Words 
 express 
 ideas. 
 
70 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chaj\ V. 
 
 Music a 
 language 
 »f feeling. 
 
 Who is the 
 best % 
 composer 
 and critic ? 
 
 ing out of this process, that the sounds produced by 
 instruments have come to be associated with the 
 same feelings which the voice expresses by tones in 
 speech and in song, so that music has come to be a 
 highly complex and elaborate language of emotion — 
 a perfect medium for the expression of feeling. 
 
 This is the prime characteristic of music. All 
 the fine arts aim to express and excite feeling. The 
 painter deals in pictures of stirring or tender or 
 tragic scenes ; the poet and the novelist describe 
 and narrate situations and events which excite the 
 strongest and deepest feelings. But, as already 
 pointed out, the office of words is to express di- 
 rectly, ideas; the painter gives us still more clearly 
 ideas and images. Feelings are indeed excited by 
 the ideas, but the process by which the artist reaches 
 other minds is a duplex one. The musician reaches 
 the sensibility of his hearers at once, and directly, 
 without the intervention of images. This is the 
 peculiarity of music among the fine arts, that it ex- 
 presses the life of emotion most directly, and most 
 subtly and powerfully. That music is greatest and 
 noblest which most perfectly answers this, its pecu- 
 liar end and aim ; in which its peculiar capacity is 
 most fully recognized and developed. 
 
 That composer is greatest who most clearly dis- 
 cerns the true ends and capabilities of his art; who 
 aims to give worthy expression to the noblest emo- 
 tional experience. He is the best connoisseur who 
 best appreciates the capabilities of music as a 
 language of emotion, and is best able to interpret 
 
THE CONTENT OF MUSIC. 
 
 7i 
 
 the emotional state of the composer by hearing his 
 productions. 
 
 It is, therefore, not only possible to embody in 
 music ideals of emotional experience, but the em- 
 bodiment of such ideals constitutes its peculiar and 
 appropriate function, and all worthy embodiment of 
 noble emotions involves Beauty, as well as do pro- 
 ducts which attain or approximate ideal perfection 
 of form. 
 
 Those compositions then, are greatest and noblest 
 which, using as materials tones pleasing by their 
 sensuous beauty, combine them into symmetrical 
 wholes, satisfactory to the intellect, and express 
 through these combinations emotional experiences 
 ideally noble and exalted. 
 
 To sum up this discussion : In a broad sense, 
 the ideals of the Pleasing in Sensation and of Beauty 
 of Form which are embodied in music may be said 
 to be a part of its content, but that which is most 
 appropriately said to be " contained " in music, is 
 the emotional experience which finds expression 
 through the form ; this it is which is innermost, and 
 so with peculiar propriety is said to be " The Con- 
 tent of Music.'' In this sense the term " content " 
 will always be used in this book. Wherever it ap- 
 pears, emotional content is meant.* 
 
 *The reader's attention is called to Herbert Spencer's essay on " The 
 Origin and Function of Music " in his " Illustrations of Universal Prog- 
 ress ; " to " Music and Morals," by the Rev. H. R. Haweis ; and to ll How 
 to Understand Music," by W. S. B. Mathews. These books are invalua- 
 ble to any student who desires to obtain a clear comprehension of the re- 
 lation of music to emotion. 
 
 Chap. V. 
 
 What 
 composi- 
 tions are 
 highest in 
 rank. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Ludwig van Beethoven. 
 1770-1827. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 L. van 
 Beethoven. 
 
 Birth and 
 family. 
 
 THE COMPOSER WHO EMBODIED IN THE SONATA THE 
 NOBLEST POSSIBLE CONTENT, AND RAISED IT TO 
 THE HIGHEST SIGNIFICANCE AS A WORK OF ART. 
 
 Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, De- 
 cember 16, 1770. His father, Johann, was a tenor 
 singer in the employ of the Elector of. Cologne, and 
 was by no means a man of high character, being 
 more or less dissipated in his habits, and rough and 
 harsh in his manners. His mother was daughter of 
 the chief cook at Ehrenbreitstein, and was an easy- 
 going, kind-hearted person. They were very poor, 
 having no income except Johann's salary as singer, 
 which was only three hundred florins, about one 
 hundred and fifty dollars a year. When Ludwig 
 was four years old, his father began to teach him 
 music, giving him lessons on the violin and harpsi- 
 chord. He also sent him to a common school until 
 he was thirteen years old, where he learned reading, 
 writing, arithmetic, and the rudiments of Latin. 
 This was all the formal schooling he ever had, but 
 he afterwards studied Latin, Italian and French 
 privately with one Zambona, who gave him help 
 
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN. 
 
 73 
 
 and intellectual stimulus in various ways. At the 
 age of nine years he was turned over to another 
 music teacher named Pfeiff er, who gave him efficient 
 instruction for a year, and at the same time he took 
 lessons on the organ of the court organist, Van den 
 Eeden. A year or so later, Van den Eeden was 
 succeeded by Neefe, who then became young Lud- 
 wig's teacher, and proved of very great service to 
 him. By the time he was eleven years old, Ludwig 
 was able to take his master's place at the organ in 
 his absence, was an excellent player and sight- 
 reader, and had played nearly all of Bach's " Well- 
 tempered Clavichord." 
 
 A little more than a year from this time, Neefe 
 was appointed to be director of both sacred and sec- 
 ular music in Bonn, and young Beethoven, child 
 though he was, was given charge of the harpsichord 
 in the theater orchestra, as accompanist and con- 
 ductor of the rehearsals. This gave him a great 
 deal of practice and experience, for many good 
 operas were given, but for more than a year it 
 brought him no pay ; at the end of that time, he be- 
 gan to receive a salary of one hundred and -fifty 
 florins (about seventy-five dollars) per year. He 
 practiced composition, writing songs and pianoforte 
 pieces during this time and gaining in knowledge 
 and experience. 
 
 In 1785 he took violin lessons of Franz Ries, and 
 wrote three quartets for pianoforte and strings, be- 
 sides continuing his composition of smaller pieces, 
 and two years later he paid a visit to Vienna, where 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 His music 
 teachers. 
 
 Violin 
 lessons. 
 
74 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Makes 
 
 valuable 
 
 friends. 
 
 His 
 
 manners 
 and 
 character. 
 
 he met Mozart and took a few lessons from him. 
 This was, of course, an important event in the life 
 of the young composer. Mozart recognized his in- 
 born genius, and predicted a great future for him. 
 
 A little later, Beethoven acquired some friends, 
 who were not only of the greatest importance to his 
 development at this critical age (he was now seven- 
 teen), but who remained devotedly attached to him 
 during his life. These were the Von Breuning 
 family and Count Waldstein, a young nobleman, 
 eight years older than Ludwig, a cultivated young 
 man, and an intelligent amateur musician. Madame 
 Von Breuning was a refined, intellectual, cultivated 
 widow, with three sons and a daughter. She em- 
 ployed young Ludwig as a music teacher in her fam- 
 ily, and they all became his warm friends. Up to 
 this time, his associations had probably been, for the 
 most part, with uncultivated people. His family, as 
 we have seen, was low in station, and far from ele- 
 vated in character, so that there was nothing in his 
 home surroundings to develop refinement. Indeed, 
 he remained through life a boor in his manners, and 
 was always an uncomfortable person to live with. 
 But, in spite of this, he had something in him which 
 all the finest people he met recognized as superior. 
 Madame Von Breuning saw, plainly enough, that 
 his faults were only on the surface. She had dis- 
 cernment enough to perceive that underneath the 
 uncouth exterior and bearish behavior of this rude 
 and violent youth there lay the essentials of a noble 
 character. She respected him accordingly, liked 
 
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN. 
 
 75 
 
 him in spite of his faults, admitted him to the inti- 
 mate friendship of herself and her family, encour- 
 aged him in every way, and introduced him to the 
 best German and English literature. Here he 
 formed intellectual and literary tastes which were of 
 the highest importance in his development, and 
 which lasted him throughout his life. Meanwhile, 
 his father went from bad to worse, and at last fell so 
 low, that before Ludwig was nineteen years old, the 
 ^ Elector ordered a part of his father's salary to be 
 paid over to him, and he thus became, in a way, his 
 father's guardian, and the real head of the family. 
 
 He remained at Bonn, in the service of the Elect- 
 or, in intimate association with the friends already 
 mentioned, and constantly engaged in composition, 
 until November, 1792. He was now nearly twenty- 
 two years old. Compared with Mozart's produc- 
 tions at that age, the pieces he had composed were 
 few in number, small and unimportant ; but there 
 were already to be found in them hints of his future 
 greatness, and suggestions of what was to be the 
 distinctive characteristic of his future works, grand- 
 eur and sublimity, nobility and elevation of emotion- 
 al content, and a profundity and force of passion 
 such as had been hitherto unknown in the works of 
 any composer. His acquaintances were impressed 
 with his powers, and believed in his genius, but this 
 impression was probably due much more to the fire, 
 imagination and force of his playing than to any- 
 thing in his compositions, for in improvisation he is 
 said to have surpassed even Mozart. We have al- 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 His 
 
 introduc- 
 tion to 
 literature. 
 
 His early 
 composi- 
 tions. 
 
 The 
 
 impression 
 he made 
 on his 
 acquaint- 
 
7 6 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Lessons 
 
 with 
 
 Haydn* 
 
 ready seen that his extemporaneous playing made a 
 profound impression on Mozart, at Beethoven's first 
 visit to Vienna, and Haydn was similarly impressed 
 when he passed through Bonn, on his way to Lon- 
 don, in December, 1790, and again on his return in 
 July, 1792. The high opinion which Haydn formed 
 of Beethoven's talent, finally resulted in the young 
 man's going to Vienna to study with the old com- 
 poser, in November, 1792, and thenceforth Beetho- 
 ven lived in Vienna until his death. 
 
 But his lessons with Haydn were a disappoint- 
 ment. Haydn was very busy, and seems to have 
 neglected his pupil somewhat; but besides, it soon 
 became clear that the natures of the two men were 
 so incompatible that the relation of teacher and 
 pupil could be hardly pleasant or profitable to either. 
 Each was original in his way, but the ways were 
 radically different. Haydn himself had been an in- 
 novator, had opened up new fields, and by break- 
 ing new paths for himself had aroused the antagon- 
 ism of the pedants of his day. Beethoven was to be 
 equally a pioneer in unexplored regions, and was 
 equally to incur the hostility not only of pedantic 
 worshippers of "the letter which killeth," but even 
 the disapproval of Haydn, genius though he was. 
 Haydn had never hesitated to break the rules of 
 the old contrapuntists whenever he thought he 
 could produce a better effect by so doing. He was 
 conscious of an unerring insight which enabled him 
 to discover principles beyond the ken of the musical 
 grammarians and purists of his time. It is probable 
 
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN. 
 
 77 
 
 that, on general principles, he would not have dis- 
 approved of any young composer's taking a similar 
 course, for Haydn was catholic in his views; but he 
 was now an old man and seems to have been inca- 
 pable of comprehending the new spirit which im- 
 pelled his vigorous young pupil in a direction wholly 
 different from that which he himself had taken, and 
 almost as widely divergent from the course of 
 Mozart, whom Haydn fully understood and appre- 
 ciated. When Beethoven submitted his first three 
 Trios to Haydn's criticism, the old man frankly ad- 
 vised him not to publish the third. Beethoven 
 knew this to be the best of the three, and such an 
 opinion of course destroyed the young composer's 
 confidence in the critical judgment of his teacher, 
 for Beethoven's intuitions were sure, and he walked 
 no uncertain road. Diverge from Haydn he must 
 and did; and the necessity prevented all intimacy 
 and cordial personal relations, though there was 
 never any open quarrel. Haydn seems to have 
 mildly resented young Beethoven's unteachableness 
 and Jack of proper respect, while Ludwig expressed 
 his disregard for Haydn's opinions with a good deal 
 of frankness. 
 
 Thus Haydn's formal instruction of the new 
 genius amounted to but very little. Beethoven took 
 lessons of others, especially of Albrechtsberger, the 
 great contrapuntist, but he assimilated their teach- 
 ings in his own way,, formed ideals of his own to- 
 tally different from those set before him by his 
 teachers, used their lessons merely as hints for orig- 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Haydn's 
 disapprov- 
 al of 
 
 Beethoven's 
 •work. 
 
 Lessons 
 
 •with 
 
 A Ibrechts* 
 
 berger. 
 
78 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Acknowl- 
 edgment 
 of his 
 claims by 
 the 
 
 amateurs 
 of Vienna. 
 
 inal discoveries incomprehensible to them, and as 
 material for the accomplishment of results which, 
 though now long since accepted as valid, awakened 
 in them only disapproval and contempt. 
 
 " Have nothing to do with him," said Albrechts- 
 berger to a young student, " he has learnt nothing, 
 and will never do anything in decent style." But 
 though learned pedants and dry contrapuntists could 
 not see the dawning greatness of a genius of the 
 first rank, it was plain enough to the noble and cul- 
 tivated amateurs whose patronage was- at that time 
 the only support of artists in Vienna. Beethoven 
 at once acquired friends, admirers and patrons 
 among the Austrian aristocracy. The Prince Lich- 
 nowsky and Baron van Swieten at first, and after 
 them nearly all the aristocratic connoisseurs of the 
 music-loving capital, employed him at private con- 
 certs and as a teacher, bought his compositions, fur- 
 nished him players to try his quartets and trios over 
 before they were finished, received him into their 
 houses on the most intimate terms and in every way 
 showed their appreciation of his talents and his 
 character. He was soon thrown on his own re- 
 sources by the withdrawal of his allowance from 
 Bonn, and henceforth he supported himself by com- 
 position, concerts and teaching. That he should 
 have found no difficulty in doing so is not so sur- 
 prising, although it is certainly creditable to his pat- 
 rons that they should have discerned in him abili- 
 ties as a musician which his teachers had failed to 
 see. 
 
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN. 
 
 79 
 
 What is astonishing, on the surface, is Beetho- 
 ven's personal relations to this high-born society. It 
 would doubtless have been entirely possible for his 
 aristocratic patrons to have shown their apprecia- 
 tion of his musical gifts and attainments, atid to 
 have supported him liberally, without admitting him 
 to social intercourse, for which, by his birth, his edu- 
 cation, his personal habits and his outward behavior, 
 he was every way unfitted, and so remained to the 
 last. 
 
 He was absent- minded and careless of his dress 
 to the last degree ; he was untidy, not to say un- 
 kempt and dirty ; his table manners were almost in- 
 tolerable ; he would come into an elegant drawing- 
 room after walking in the rain and shake the water 
 from his hat over the furniture, oblivious of any 
 possibility of damage ; he was perpetually breaking 
 whatever he touched ; he was extremely sensitive, 
 irritable, violent and abusive ; he stormed at his 
 pupils, young ladies of the highest rank ; he insulted 
 the gentlemen whose guest he was ; in short, his 
 outward behavior might not inaptly be summed up 
 in the sailor's verdict on the cannibals : " Manners 
 they have none, and their customs are disgusting." 
 
 Moreover, the social distance between noble fam- 
 ilies and such as his was at that time very great in- 
 deed. Yet he was received on terms of equality 
 into an aristocratic society as elegant and refined as 
 any in Europe ; was admired and loved equally by 
 gentlemen and ladies ; his faults were overlooked ; 
 hk boorishness and abuse were submitted to, and 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 His 
 
 personal 
 
 relations 
 
 to the 
 
 highborn 
 
 society of 
 
 Vienna. 
 
 His dress, 
 manners 
 and 
 behavior. 
 
8o 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 His social 
 success 
 accounted 
 for. 
 
 His 
 
 irritability 
 only upon 
 the 
 surface. 
 
 he was treated in all respects as if he honored that 
 society by his presence. To account for this phe- 
 nomenon it is not sufficient to point to the evidences 
 of his musical genius, for neither Haydn nor Mozart, 
 though both original geniuses, and, moreover, gen- 
 tlemen in demeanor, were treated with such consider- 
 ation by this same society. The truth is, that 
 Beethoven's faults were merely superficial. They 
 were hard enough to tolerate in elegant society, or 
 indeed in any company, but they did not by any 
 means touch the foundation of his character. His 
 neglect of dress, and of good table habits, of the 
 minor moralities and the amenities of social intercourse 
 were due partly to lack of early training, and still 
 more to his complete mental absorption in the ideal 
 conceptions which always filled his imagination, and 
 which have become the world's precious possessions. 
 His irritability and violent explosions of ungov- 
 ernable rage were largely due to the same cause ; 
 for, with a nervous constitution sensitive and ex- 
 citable in the extreme, any interruption of his pre- 
 occupation, especially any disagreeable interference 
 with the flow of his ideas, was a rude shock which 
 roused sudden and violent resentment. But though 
 he was not very considerate of other people's rights 
 and feelings in minor matters, in greater ones it 
 was not so. If he did not tithe the mint, anise and 
 cummin, he did not neglect the weightier matters of 
 the law. The surface of his behavior was often 
 ruffled by gusts of ill-temper, but the depths of his 
 soul remained in profound quiet. And depths there 
 
LUDW1G VAN BEETHOVEN. 
 
 81 
 
 were, and heights, too, in the soul of this man, such 
 as few could measure or fathom ; a profundity of 
 passion, a loftiness of thinking, a nobility of feeling, 
 an elevation of purpose such as commanded the re- 
 spect of all discerning persons. 
 
 Doubtless this alone would not account for his re- 
 lations to the Vienna aristocracy, any more than his 
 musical gifts and attainments would be sufficient. 
 But the central point is that Beethoven's music em- 
 bodied all tliat was noblest and best in his character. 
 It was not mere arrangement and combination of 
 sounds for amusement; it was not even merely the 
 creation of beautiful forms, for the gratification of a 
 high aesthetic taste; it was the embodiment of emotion- 
 al experiences which could only have been possible to 
 a man of the highest intellectual endowments, the 
 profoundest capacity of feeling, whose thoughts and 
 emotions and purposes were ideally pure and noble. 
 
 Beethoven took his art seriously; as seriously as a 
 saint and martyr takes his religion. To him it in- 
 volved right living ; it was a perpetual consecration. 
 The fire of his enthusiasm burned continually 
 without abatement. This consecration, this abso- 
 lute devotion to ideal aims was the attraction which 
 drew to him the noblest, the purest, the most refined 
 of the men and women of the time and place in 
 which he lived; and this it is which gives him a 
 place among the highest in the love and the esteem 
 of the best of our day. 
 
 His immortality as a composer is due mainly to 
 the nobility of the content of his compositions. His 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 His real 
 nobility of 
 character 
 revealed in 
 kis music. 
 
 Content of 
 his music. 
 
 His high 
 estimate of 
 his art. 
 
82 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Why ke is 
 an 
 
 immortal 
 composer. 
 
 Content of 
 Haydn s 
 music. 
 
 sonatas, symphonies, trios and quartets are indeed 
 master-pieces in form and style ; but Form, with 
 Beethoven, was not the most important matter. 
 The classical form of the sonata had already reached 
 its culmination in Haydn and Mozart. Beethoven 
 accepted this form, without question, as it came 
 from the hands of his elder contemporaries, and 
 soon began to manifest his originality by filling it 
 with a new emotional content. The very first of his 
 pianoforte sonatas are superior to the best of 
 Mozart's in point of significance. Indeed, the adagio 
 of his first sonata, in F minor, op. 2, is incompar- 
 ably more beautiful than anything of the kind which 
 had preceded it, and this beauty is due, not to 
 greater perfection of form, not to superior elegance 
 or grace of style, but to its noble serenity of spirit, 
 " a peace that passeth understanding," peace which 
 comes from the consciousness of union with the 
 Highest, the repose won by self-conquest, by strug- 
 gle and victory. 
 
 In Haydn's pianoforte compositions there reigns 
 the cheerfulness of child-like innocence, perpetual 
 freshness of spirit, with no evidence of any heights 
 or depths of passion, of struggle with temptation or 
 with fate, or any knowledge of evil, profound sor- 
 row or suffering. For aught that appears in most 
 of them he might always have retained the feelings 
 of a healthy, good-natured, careless child, at play in 
 the sunshine. And this was doubtless the spirit in 
 which he habitually wrote. He had annoyances 
 and troubles but instead of seeking to express his 
 
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN. 
 
 83 
 
 troubled feelings in music he used his art as a refuge 
 from all things unpleasant, forgetting them in the 
 creation of beautiful forms and combinations, into 
 which he always infused a cheerful mood. At least 
 there was seldom anything more divergent from this 
 than a mild melancholy, introduced for the sake of 
 enhancing the gayer mood by contrast. In Mozart 
 the characteristic mood is gayety, keen enjoyment, 
 a never-failing appetite for pleasure ; but the sources 
 of this pleasure are not so simple. He is more 
 many-sided ; has had a wider experience of men and 
 things ; has vastly more impressions to reproduce. 
 Into his short thirty-five years were crowded a rich- 
 ness and variety of social and musical experience, 
 from his life in the pleasure-loving Austrian capital, 
 in comparison with which, Haydn's quiet, retired 
 life at Prince Esterhazy's country seat, occupied in 
 composing for his own small orchestra and choir, was 
 simplicity itself. 
 
 Accordingly, we find in Mozart's music, as the 
 unconscious reproduction of his emotional life, a 
 many-sidedness, a variety and richness, especially 
 in the coloring of his orchestral compositions, to 
 which his older contemporary can lay no claim. 
 But in all this there is little of grandeur or sublim- 
 ity. Grace, there is, consummate ease and elegance, 
 the polish of a complete man of the world, who is 
 perfectly at home in all elegant society, gives him- 
 self up to his daily pleasures with the frank and 
 hearty abandon of a boy, accepts life as he finds it, 
 and never troubles his head with its deeper and 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Content of 
 
 Mozart's 
 
 music. 
 
8 4 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Neither 
 Hadyn nor 
 Mozart 
 ■frivolous. 
 
 Content in 
 the instru- 
 mental 
 music of 
 both a sub- 
 ordinate 
 matter. 
 
 Haydn's 
 'attempts at 
 dramatic 
 character- 
 ization. 
 
 sadder problems, and whose good-humor, zest for 
 pleasure and buoyancy of spirits, nothing can over- 
 come. 
 
 Not indeed that the music of either Haydn or 
 Mozart is frivolous or shallow, far from it. To both, 
 music was a serious occupation, an exalted pleasure, 
 and, barring some few things written from the ne- 
 cessity of earning money, and lacking the true in- 
 spiration, the ruling motive seems to have been to 
 embody an ideal of beauty conditioned on sensuous- 
 ly beautiful tones combined into logical forms. 
 This music is not only not trivial, but often has a 
 noble emotional significance. The ruling mood in 
 it seems to be the keen pleasure experienced by the 
 composer in the contemplation of his own beautiful 
 conception, and in the work of artistic creation. 
 This refers more especially to the purely instru- 
 mental compositions of both. When they had to 
 deal with words, they embodied the emotions raised 
 by the ideas of the text. This they did, doubtless, 
 intuitively and in a sense unconsciously. It is not 
 probable that either of them philosophized much, if 
 at all, about the relation of music to emotion, and 
 its proper limits as a means of emotional expression. 
 But they both instinctively felt what was fitting in 
 the relation of their music to the words chosen. 
 
 There are indeed instances, such as the peculiar 
 figure in " The Creation " at the words, " With sud- 
 den leap the flexible tiger appears," and other simi- 
 lar cases in the same work, which almost look like 
 crude attempts to " depict " the leap of the tiger, 
 
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN. 
 
 85 
 
 etc., but everywhere Haydn is saved, by innate re- 
 finement of perception, from the fatal step which 
 would land him in the ridiculous. 
 
 The operas of Mozart are full of admirable exam- 
 ples of dramatic characterization. Indeed, neither 
 Haydn nor Mozart appears at his best in his piano- 
 forte music ; a fact doubtless due, at least in part, 
 to the limitations and imperfections of the instru- 
 ment in their time. When they deal with the or- 
 chestra or with voices, the content of their music be- 
 " comes nobler and more characteristic. Still, in the 
 ^instrumental compositions, the form seems always 
 to have been a prime consideration, and neither 
 seems to have attempted or even desired to embody 
 a content which could not be perfectly expressed 
 through the form of the sonata. 
 
 With Beethoven the case was different. His was 
 a larger, deeper, more powerful nature, with super- 
 abundance of untamed energy. He was saturated 
 with the great ideas of his time, the time of the 
 French Revolution; he was independent to the last 
 degree, carrying his contempt for old forms and eti- 
 quette to an extreme which accounts for much of 
 his rudeness of behavior. He would have no social 
 shams, no cant, no hypocrisy, no putting the best 
 side out, no shallow compliments, no superiority ex- 
 cept such as was created by character and gifts. 
 Was his brother Johann a " property owner ? " He 
 was a "brain owner." Had the Austrian Emperor 
 and nobles, title, rank, wealth ? He had what rank 
 could not give nor money purchase, the genius and 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Beethoven '■» 
 character 
 and ideals. 
 
86 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 His tdeals 
 find 
 
 expression 
 in music. 
 
 Classical 
 forms 
 modified to 
 suit the 
 content 
 embodied in 
 them. 
 
 gifts which God had bestowed upon him, and he not 
 only asserted but forced acknowledgment of his 
 equality with the proudest of the aristocracy. The 
 great ideas of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, filled and 
 inspired him with emotions unknown to his prede- 
 cessors. 
 
 If these ideas and feelings found mistaken and 
 unworthy forms of expression in his outward be- 
 havior, they came to the noblest and most inspiring 
 embodiment in his great compositions. Witness the 
 Symphony " Eroica," the Fifth and Ninth Sympho- 
 nies, the " Sonata Appassionata," the Sonatas from 
 op. 101 to op. in, as conspicuous examples. 
 
 This new and superior emotional content had a 
 marked effect on the formal construction of his com- 
 positions. He did indeed write sonatas to the end 
 of his life, but he modified the form to suit the con- 
 tent which he had to express and for which the 
 somewhat stiff and formal outlines of the classic 
 sonata were no longer adapted. Neither Haydn 
 nor Mozart seemed to have anything to say which 
 could not be said while giving supreme place to 
 classical symmetry of form, balance of nearly re- 
 lated keys and uniformity of plan in a whole series 
 of works. What Beethoven had to say required 
 greater freedom in the treatment of themes, greater 
 variety in keys and frequency of abrupt modulation, 
 and not seldom departures from the traditional pro- 
 portions of the principal and subordinate groups. 
 These modifications are no contribution to the com- 
 pletion of the classical form ; that was already per- 
 
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN. 
 
 87 
 
 feet ; that ideal had already been realized; they were 
 departures from the classical in the direction of the 
 Romantic ideal. To quote an able writer:* " None 
 of these alterations and additions to the usual forms 
 were made by Beethoven for their own sake. They 
 were made because he had something to say on his 
 subject which the rules did not give him time and 
 space to say, and which he could not leave unsaid. 
 His work is a poem, in which the thoughts and emo- 
 tions are the first things, and the forms of expression 
 second and subordinate." 
 
 This intellectual and emotional content is admira- 
 bly characterized by Mr. Edward Dannreuther in 
 an article quoted by Mr. Grove. " While listening 
 to such works as the Overture to Leonora, the Sin- 
 fonia Eroica, or the Ninth Symphony, we feel that we 
 are in the presence of something far wider and 
 higher than the mere development of musical 
 themes. The execution in detail of each movement 
 and each succeeding work is modified more and 
 more with the prevailing poetic sentiment. A re- 
 ligious passion and elevation are present in the ut- 
 terances. The mental and moral horizon of the 
 music grows upon us with each new hearing. The 
 different movements, like the different particles of 
 each movement, have as close a connection with 
 each other as the acts of a tragedy, and a character- 
 istic significance to be understood only in relation 
 
 *See Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, article Beethoven, 
 page 207. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Ddnn- 
 
 reu tier's 
 estimate 
 0/ his 
 music. 
 
88 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 The ethical 
 quality of 
 nis music. 
 
 First 
 publica- 
 tions. 
 
 to the whole ; each work is in the full sense of the 
 word a revelation. 
 
 " Beethoven speaks a language no one has spoken 
 before, and treats of things no one has dreamt of 
 before ; yet it seems as though he were speaking of 
 matters long familiar, in one's mother-tongue ; as 
 though he touched upon emotions one had lived 
 through in some former existence. The warmth 
 and depth of his ethical sentiment is now felt all 
 the world over, and it will ere long be universally- 
 recognized that he has leavened and widened the 
 sphere of men's emotions in a manner akin to that 
 in which the conceptions of great philosophers and 
 poets have widened the sphere of men's intellectual 
 activity." 
 
 Having sought to account for Beethoven's rela- 
 tions to the society in which he lived, by giving 
 some notion of his character and works, it is now 
 time to return to the narrative of his life, which 
 shall be briefly sketched. Our digression began at 
 the point when he had come to settle in Vienna, had 
 been taken up by Prince Lichnowsky and Baron 
 von Swieten, and was taking lessons of Haydn and 
 Albrechtsberger. This was in 1792. His studies 
 in composition began to bear excellent fruit in about 
 three years. In July, 1795, were published his three 
 pianoforte trios, op. 1, and soon afterward the three 
 pianoforte sonatas, op. 2. These works were evi- 
 dently modelled on Haydn and Mozart, the best 
 composers of his time, but they are original and 
 characteristic. They excited much enthusiasm, one 
 
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN. 
 
 89 
 
 evidence of which is the proposal made to him by 
 Count Appony to write a string quartet at his own 
 price. 
 
 Before and during this year he had also written 
 several of his minor compositions for the pianoforte, 
 and what is of more importance, his first and second 
 concertos. The concerto in C major he played at a 
 concert in the Burg theater given for the benefit of 
 a widow's fund of the Artist's Society, and surprised 
 the musicians by the feat of playing it in C sharp, 
 the pianoforte being a half tone flat. He also 
 played at other concerts this year, one of them 
 Haydn's. 
 
 The record of 1796 is much the same. The most 
 significant compositions of this year were the piano- 
 forte Sonata in E flat, op. 7, so markedly original as 
 to create a new epoch in pianoforte music, and 
 the quintet for piano and wind instruments, op. 16. 
 He continued to grow steadily from year to year. 
 Most of his compositions for some time naturally 
 fell below the mark he had reached in the E flat 
 Sonata in point of originality, but they were all sig- 
 nificant, and the Sonata, op. 10, No. 3, written in 
 1798, is an important landmark in his progress. In 
 1797, his noble love-song, "Adelaide," was written. 
 His work in composition was varied by concerts and 
 much private playing. He used to meet his brother 
 musicians and engage in friendly trials of skill. In 
 one of these encounters, not so friendly, he worsted 
 Steibelt, who was very jealous of him, by taking the 
 violoncello part of Steibelt's new quintet, turning it 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 First and 
 
 second 
 
 concertos. 
 
 The 
 
 sonata in E 
 flat, op. 7 
 
 Friendly 
 trials of 
 skill. 
 
9 o 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Larger 
 works. 
 
 Sonatas, op. 
 26-27. 
 
 upside down, and improvising on the theme thus ob- 
 tained so brilliantly that Steibelt was fairly driven 
 from the room. His frequent meetings with Woefi 
 were more satisfactory. Both were excellent players 
 and improvisators, and both thoroughly enjoyed 
 their frequent musical contests. 
 
 Beethoven soon began to plan larger works. 
 "The Sonata pathetique" was written in 1799, and 
 a beginning was made on the string quartets, op. 18, 
 the septet, the first symphony, and his oratorio, 
 "The Mount of Olives." His pianoforte sonata in 
 B flat, op. 22, was also begun about this time, and 
 the third concerto in C minor, followed very soon. 
 All through the first year of the present century he 
 was absorbed in these works and in conceiving new 
 ones, though " The Mount of Olives " was not fin- 
 ished for some years. His mental activity was in- 
 cessant. The list of all his works and the details 
 concerning them would occupy more space than can 
 be given them in this chapter. Only salient points 
 which serve to trace his mental growth and the de- 
 velopment of his genius can here be indicated. 
 
 Among the pianoforte compositions, which more 
 immediately concern us, there were the sonatas in 
 A flat, op. 26, the two sonatas, op. 27, of which the 
 one in C sharp minor, commonly known as the 
 " Moonlight," is among the most original of all his 
 works, and the so-called "Pastoral " sonata, op. 28, 
 all of which belong to the year 1800. 
 
 But he was now becoming seriously deaf. For 
 some time he had suffered from violent noises in his 
 
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN. 
 
 91 
 
 ears, and the case was rapidly growing worse. 
 Many physicians were consulted, but none of them 
 could help him. At thirty years old, this greatest 
 of musicians and composers was looking forward to 
 the prospect of being unable to hear a single note. 
 The key-note of his character is given in the follow- 
 ing quotation from a letter of his, which shows how 
 he faced it : "I will, as far as possible, defy my 
 fate, though there must be moments when I shall be 
 f the most miserable of God's creatures. Not un- 
 happy, no ; that I could never endure. I will grap- 
 ple with fate ; it never shall drag me down." This 
 is the mood of the " sonata appassionata," a sonata 
 which must always remain one of the noblest of hu- 
 man utterances, the revelation of a high soul, sub- 
 jected to suffering the most intense, yet unconquered 
 and unconquerable. 
 
 In spite of his sufferings and his apprehensions 
 he worked on diligently. He commonly had sever- 
 al new compositions in his mind at once, turned 
 them over and over, sketched them slowly, elabo- 
 rated them laboriously, and only by slow degrees did 
 any of them grow to completeness. The spontane- 
 ity and marvelous rapidity of production which 
 strike us so forcibly in Mozart were never character- 
 istic of Beethoven, but the works which grew in his 
 mind so slowly attained majestic proportions and 
 overtopped those of Mozart as the slow-growing, 
 lofty oak towers above the graceful birch or the 
 quick-growing aspen. 
 
 The sonatas above referred to already had much 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 His 
 deafness. 
 
 His 
 industry. 
 
9 2 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 Sonatas, 
 op. 31. 
 
 Farther 
 anxiety. 
 
 of this loftiness of character. The year 1803 saw 
 another step in his development, the production of 
 the sonatas, op. 31, in which he himself recognized 
 a change in his style ; he also wrote the three violin 
 sonatas, op. 30, and some minor compositions. But 
 the most important work which occupied him at 
 this time was his Third Symphony, the " Eroica," 
 the inspiration of which is drawn from the noblest 
 ideas which underlay the French Revolution, and 
 from the career of Napoleon Bonaparte up to the 
 time of his assuming the title of Emperor. The 
 work was already finished and dedicated to Napo- 
 leon when the news of this event came to Vienna. 
 Beethoven tore off the title page and dashed it on 
 the floor in a rage. 
 
 The next year his one noble opera, " Fidelio," 
 was written, and other important compositions, 
 which can not here be dwelt upon, followed rapidly. 
 Full details are to be found in Grove's Dictionary 
 and elsewhere. 
 
 So it went on until 1815, when his brother Casper 
 died, and this event was the beginning of the last 
 epoch in Beethoven's life. Casper left his son Carl,, 
 then some eight years old, to the care of his brother, 
 and as the boy turned out wholly worthless, he be- 
 came a constant source of worry and anxiety to his 
 already overburdened uncle. 
 
 The case was further complicated by the fact that 
 Carl's mother was determined to get possession of 
 him, and contested Beethoven's right to him in the 
 courts, while Ludwig regarded his sister-in-law as a 
 
LUDW1G VAN BEETHOVEN. 
 
 93 
 
 disreputable person, unfit to have charge of her son, 
 and resolutely declined to allow her to have any- 
 thing to do with him. The added sorrow and vexa- 
 tion which these untoward circumstances caused the 
 composer, must have hindered his work and hast- 
 ened the exhaustion of his powers, but he worked on, 
 bravely and steadily, produced and published his 
 great works for pianoforte, his chamber music, sym- 
 phonies, etc., one after another, while his deafness 
 grew upon him, his domestic griefs and anxiety in- 
 creased, and his health gradually failed. It became 
 impossible for him to hear even the loudest notes of 
 the orchestra, and all communication with him had 
 to be in writing. 
 
 But it is doubtless due partly to these very cir- 
 cumstances, apparently so unfavorable, that this 
 latter period of Beethoven's life was rich in the 
 noblest and most original of his compositions. His 
 music was the expression of his emotional experi- 
 ence, and this experience was deepened, purified, 
 exalted, ennobled, by the fires of affliction. " It is 
 only fire that takes out dross," and out of the 
 furnace came the real gold of Beethoven's character.' 
 What he was, in his inmost soul, that his music 
 shows. What was mean in his externals or rude in his 
 behavior was mere husk ; the real heart of him is in 
 the Sonata, op. in and the Ninth Symphony. 
 
 The terrible trials out of which these works grew, 
 continued for twelve years, and then came the end. 
 His worthless nephew made him much trouble, fin- 
 ally attempted suicide, and was ordered out of Vi- 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 He becomes 
 totally i 
 deaf. 
 
 Last 
 works. 
 
94 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VI. 
 
 enna by the police. Beethoven went with the boy 
 to his brother Johann's in the country. Here he 
 and Johann had a tiff, and he returned to Vienna in 
 bad weather, took cold, soon had inflammation of 
 the lungs and then dropsy. He never rose from 
 this sickness, but died on the 26th of March, 1827. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Transition from the Classic to the Romantic 
 Period. 
 
 THE CLASSIC AND THE ROMANTIC IN MUSIC. 
 
 The term " classic " is used in two senses. In the 
 one sense it means — having permanent interest and 
 value — and is thus contrasted with the evanescent 
 and the ephemeral. In this sense any composition 
 is a classic which succeeds in maintaining its place 
 in the interest of mankind for ages after the death 
 of its author. No one can certainly determine dur- 
 ing the lifetime of any composer whether his works 
 are classics in this sense or not, because the only 
 sure test is that of time. We may, indeed, have 
 reason to think that a given work of excellence pos- 
 sesses elements of permanent and universal interest, 
 but in such matters it is easy to be misled, and the 
 history of music and of literature affords innumera- 
 ble instances of errors in judgment as regards this 
 point on the part of critics and connoisseurs. We 
 can not, therefore, safely predicate the term " classic " 
 in the first sense of any contemporary works. What- 
 ever has come down to us from a period sufficiently 
 remote to show that the interest it awakens is per- 
 manent, that the world will not willingly let it die, 
 
 95 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 The term 
 "classic " 
 defined. 
 
9 6 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 Classic and 
 romantic 
 ideals 
 contrasted. 
 
 Relation of 
 form to 
 content 
 
 is classic ; nothing else is, though many among con- 
 temporary works may possibly become so. 
 
 In the second sense, the term " classic," or, more 
 commonly, " classical," is used to designate music 
 written in a particular style, aiming at the embodi- 
 ment of a certain ideal, the chief element of which 
 is Beauty of Form. In this sense it is contrasted 
 with the term " Romantic," a term used to designate 
 music which aims at embodying a different ideal, 
 that of the vivid and truthful expression of varied 
 and strongly contrasted emotional experiences, such 
 as we are accustomed to connect with the word 
 " romantic " in literature and in life. 
 
 In " classical " music, in this sense, Form is first 
 and content is subordinate ; in " romantic " music 
 content is first and Form is subordinate. The clas- 
 sical ideal is predominantly an intellectual one. Its 
 products are characterized by clearness of thought, 
 by completeness and symmetry, by harmonious pro- 
 portion, by simplicity and repose. Classical works, 
 whether musical or literary, are positive, clear, 
 finished. The following axioms from Aristotle's 
 " Poetics " (quoted in the New American Cyclope- 
 dia, article "classics",) apply quite as well to 
 classical music as to Greek poetry. " There is 
 nothing beautiful in literature nor the arts which may 
 not be clearly analyzed by the intellect.'' " Every 
 poem must be contained within prescribed bounda- 
 ries, so that it may be easy for the mind to embrace 
 it at a single glance, and to form a single concerj- 
 tion or picture of it." 
 
THE CLASSIC AND ROMANTIC. 
 
 97 
 
 These are the fundamental principles which 
 underlie all classical compositions. 
 
 It is easy to see that, up to Beethoven's time, the 
 classical ideal had been predominant, at least in 
 pianoforte music. Indeed, no other had come for- 
 ward with any prominence. There were sporadic 
 cases which did not conform to the classical ideal, 
 but there was no other style generally recognized or 
 sought after. 
 
 The Bach fugues, in which the polyphonic mode 
 of writing culminated, and the Mozart sonatas, con- 
 certos, quartets, and symphonies, in which the limit 
 of development of monophonic Form was reached 
 have all the characteristics above described. They 
 are, indeed, often long and complex, composed of 
 many parts, developed to an extent unknown to 
 earlier composers, but their plan is always simple 
 and easily grasped as a whole and in its details, it is 
 strictly logical, it has the most perfect unity of idea, 
 its parts are symmetrically balanced, the proportions 
 are simple, the modulations are confined to a nar- 
 row range of nearly related keys for the sake of 
 simplicity and clearness ; in short, the composer 
 laid all possible stress on the necessity of producing 
 beautiful, clearly intelligible works, satisfactory to 
 the intellect and to the logical sense. 
 
 This being the case, it is obvious that the emo- 
 tional content of them must necessarily have been 
 simple. A composer whose mind is mainly occu- 
 pied with the intellectual side of his work, who aims 
 primarily at clearness of statement as the main con- 
 g s 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 The class- 
 ical ideal 
 predomi- 
 nant before 
 Beethoven. 
 
 The 
 
 emotional 
 
 content of 
 
 the 
 
 classical 
 
 •works 
 
 simple. 
 
93 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 The moods 
 •were logic- 
 ally devel- 
 tped. 
 
 dition of formal beauty, can not at the same time be 
 agitated by violent and contending passions, or dis- 
 turbed by vague yearnings or urgent desires. The 
 emotional content of his forms must be simple and 
 reposeful, such as simple pleasure or sadness, ele- 
 vated joy in the contemplation of grandeur, or 
 melancholy of a mild type. The simpler emotional 
 experiences alone were adapted for expression 
 through the strictly classical forms, and accordingly 
 we find no other in the works of the composers 
 above referred to, or in those of their contempo- 
 raries. 
 
 Imagination there is in their works, and that 
 of the finest type, but it deals with its musical 
 materials solely with reference to an Ideal of Beauty, 
 of which the expression of violent and conflicting 
 emotions formed no part, and to which such emo- 
 tions were not only foreign but antagonistic. It is 
 characteristic, too, that not only were simple emo- 
 tions, or moods, more or less indefinite or vague, 
 the sole content admissible in their mode of writing, 
 but that these moods in their successions and rela- 
 tions were, like the form of the compositions, devel- 
 oped in a logical way, were conceived as under 
 rational control and subordinate to intelligence. 
 They were, in short, the natural expressions of the 
 emotional life of healthy, simple, natural, well-fogu- 
 lated minds, living in the present, engrossed mainly 
 with present enjoyments more or less refined, -nnd 
 wholly free from disquieting questions, and f^m 
 unrest of every sort. 
 
THE CLASSIC AND ROMANTIC. 
 
 99 
 
 With Beethoven the case was different. His men- 
 tal and moral horizon was wider, his aspirations 
 higher, his sympathies stronger and more intense, 
 his joys and sorrows struck deeper root in pro- 
 founder soil, and spread their branches in loftier and 
 purer air, receiving more of sunshine and casting 
 deeper shadow. 
 
 In all the great artists there has been prominent 
 the conception of the Beautiful as a manifestation 
 of the Divine, and therefore as closely connected 
 with ideals of religion and morality. The percep- 
 tion of this is their greatest claim to be seers and 
 prophets for the race. But with Beethoven this was 
 pre-eminently the case. The " religious passion 
 and elevation " quoted from Mr. Dannreuther in 
 the last chapter, is the key-note of his character, and 
 he was a musician and not something else, because 
 he found in his chosen art the most perfect medium 
 in which to embody his most characteristic ideals 
 and feelings. 
 
 He was powerfully affected by the French Revo- 
 lution, and gave a passionate response to the great 
 ideas which gave rise to it. But he was also strongly 
 influenced by his study of English literature and of 
 the German school of Romantic Poetry, with both 
 of which he became acquainted in his youth, in the 
 house of Madame von Breuning. This latter school 
 was made up of young men, his contemporaries, 
 and aimed at nothing less than freeing German 
 Poetry from the shackles of a blind imitation of the 
 stiff and affected pseudo classicism of France. 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 How 
 
 Beethoven 
 
 differed. 
 
 Effect on 
 
 him *f 
 
 the French 
 
 Revolution 
 
 and 
 
 English 
 
 literature 
 
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 Character- 
 istics of 
 the 
 
 German 
 romantic 
 writers. 
 
 French literature had up to this time been predom- 
 inant in German thought, and its stilted forms had 
 served as the only accepted models for German 
 writers. 
 
 The young writers of the new school discarded 
 the current rules, sought their models and subjects 
 in the middle age romances, laid all possible stress 
 on the vivid representation of natural feelings in 
 their most vigorous manifestations and little or none 
 on conventional rules or established principles of 
 composition. They dealt in violent passions, in 
 strongly contrasted situations, in weird, and fantastic 
 images. They put desire and yearning in the place 
 of present enjoyment ; vague mysticism in the place 
 of definite clearness of ideas ; well-defined, powerful 
 feelings in the place of simple, vague moods. 
 
 It is probable that Beethoven did not definitely 
 propose to himself to attempt in music the same 
 sort of revolution which Tieck, the Schlegels and 
 others were accomplishing in German literature. 
 Very likely he did little or no philosophizing on the 
 subject ; but he was strongly influenced by the intel- 
 lectual movements of his time, with what result we 
 have already seen. He proclaimed no new revolu- 
 tionary gospel in the forms of composition. Out- 
 wardly, he conformed to the classical school, just as 
 he nominally belonged to the Roman Catholic 
 Church. But in both cases the inward spirit is too 
 great for the form in which it is contained. 
 
 The Romantic School really began with Beetho- 
 ven, and his example and character gave it its most 
 
THE CLASSIC AND ROMANTIC. 
 
 101 
 
 powerful impulse, though there is, perhaps, not a 
 word to be quoted from him in direct advocacy of 
 the new principle. 
 
 It was left to the young men of the next genera- 
 tion to devote themselves with full consciousness of 
 their own aims to the promotion of the principles 
 which underlay his practice, to fight the battle of 
 " David against the Philistines," and to establish the 
 supremacy of the nobler aspirations of human 
 nature, of the unrest of dissatisfaction with imper- 
 fection and wrong, of yearning and outreaching 
 desire for better things, of agitated striving, of 
 resistance, struggle and conquest as motives in art, 
 as against simple, childlike pleasure and pain, quiet 
 repose and harmonious beauty. 
 
 Two great contemporaries of Beethoven shared 
 the influences which affected him, and with him pre- 
 pared the way for the romantic composers proper ; 
 to them the next chapter will be devoted. 
 
 Chap. VII. 
 
 The 
 
 romantic 
 school of 
 music 
 begins with 
 him. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Beethoven's two greatest contemporaries in 
 the domain of pianoforte music. 
 Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826). 
 Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828). 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 CM. 
 •von Weber. 
 
 His 
 
 childhood 
 surround- 
 ings. 
 
 Carl Maria von Weber was born at Eutin, in 
 Holstein, December 18, 1786. He came of a family 
 in whom the love of music, and still more the love 
 of the drama, had been prominent traits. In some 
 of them, indeed, these two impulses had become 
 consuming passions. The boy's father, Franz 
 Anton, was one of these. He does not seem to 
 have possessed remarkable abilities, either histrionic 
 or musical, and had had excellent opportunities to 
 rise in the world in other callings ; but his innate 
 tendencies toward music and the stage impelled him 
 irresistibly into the life of a strolling player and 
 musician. Into this life, irregular, unhealthful for 
 mind and body, he dragged his unwilling family, to 
 the disgust and shame of his wife, and the detriment 
 of his children. 
 
 None of the family displayed remarkable talents, 
 or gave any promise of realizing Franz Anton's 
 dream of giving to the world another musical genius 
 like Mozart, except Carl Maria. In this boy, all 
 the artistic life of the family for long generations 
 
CARL MARIA VON WEBER. 
 
 103 
 
 seems to have been gathered up and to have 
 reached its culmination. Franz Anton, wild, way- 
 ward, impulsive, reckless, incapable of steadiness 
 of purpose or of sustained thinking, was by no 
 means a desirable guide and tutor for a young artist, 
 and all the surroundings of the boy's childhood and 
 early youth were such as tended toward mental dis- 
 sipation. All through his life, Weber felt the effects 
 of these disadvantages, in his incapacity for mental 
 concentration and sustained intellectual exertion, 
 and was obliged, in middle life, to subject himself to 
 the severest discipline in order to counteract, so far 
 as might be, the defects of his early training. He 
 was a weak, nervous child, with a disease of the 
 thigh bone which caused him to limp and withdrew 
 him in great measure from the sports of his play- 
 mates. Sensitive and impressible, his father's per- 
 sistent and injudicious attempts to force him to 
 become a youthful prodigy, excited in him only dis- 
 gust with art, and for a long time he accomplished 
 very little. Such interest as he acquired in music 
 came not through his father's ill-judged exertions, 
 but mainly through the sound, discreet and sympa- 
 thetic instruction of two men, J. P. Henschkel, of 
 Hildburghausen, and Michael Haydn, of Salzburg. 
 In both these places the wandering family stopped 
 long enough to give the poor child some little 
 chance of proper instruction. But one benefit he 
 did undoubtedly derive from his father's profession. 
 From his earliest childhood he was familiar with 
 theatrical representations and stage effects, and this 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 Carl's 
 gifts. 
 
 His weak, 
 nervous 
 constitu- 
 tion. 
 
 His 
 teachers. 
 
io4 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 Attain- 
 ments as a 
 pianist. 
 
 Vogler's 
 character. 
 
 Carts 
 dissipation 
 in Vienna. 
 
 familiarity was afterwards of incalculable advantage 
 to him as an operatic composer. 
 
 In spite of the irregularities of his instruction, he 
 made considerable progress in piano-playing, and 
 finally attained distinction as a brilliant and effect- 
 ive concert pianist. This result, as well as the more 
 solid development of his skill and his gifts as a 
 composer, was attained in Vienna, where he lived 
 from his fourteenth until his eighteenth year. He 
 became a pupil of the Abbe" Vogler, then a highly 
 esteemed composer and teacher, a man of some 
 really solid attainments and ability and of admira- 
 ble tact. He had, indeed, faults which resembled 
 those of Carl's father. He was vain and given to 
 show, ready to buy a brilliant and seeming success 
 with showy and superficial accomplishments. It is 
 no wonder that the boy should have been injured 
 by the commanding influence of two such men. His 
 vanity and over-sensitiveness to praise were con- 
 tinually fostered, and the damage would have been 
 worse if Franz Anton's foolish bragging and over- 
 weening vanity had not been so boundless that the 
 lad was fairly disgusted, and experienced something 
 of a wholesome reaction against it. 
 
 But these were not the only dangers which beset 
 the gifted youth. Vienna was a gay, dissipated, 
 pleasure-loving capital. Carl's mother was dead, 
 and there was little to restrain him from yielding to 
 temptations which inevitably allured him on all 
 sides. His most intimate friend was a young ex-of- 
 ficer named Gaensbacher, who was also studying 
 
CARL MARIA VON WEBER. 
 
 1°5 
 
 under the Abbe Vogler, an enthusiastic lover and 
 student of music, but given to all sorts of illicit 
 indulgences. With him and his set young Carl 
 lived a fast, irregular life, quaffing eagerly the cup 
 of pleasure. Nevertheless, he did a good deal of 
 real work, and profited not a little by his instruction 
 as well as by the multitudinous impressions he 
 received in a city which had been for more than 
 fifty years the musical capital of Europe, where 
 Mozart had lived and worked, where Haydn still 
 dwelt in his old age, and where Beethoven was mak- 
 ing a most profound impression. 
 
 Before he was quite eighteen years old, he was 
 called, on the recommendation of the Abbe Vogler, 
 to be conductor of the opera in Breslau. He 
 showed marked talent in his new position of respon- 
 sibility, and gained invaluable experience. But he 
 also showed conceit enough to rouse a great deal of 
 enmity, and he continued the career of dissipation 
 he had begun in Vienna. At the end of two years 
 he was overwhelmed with debt, and besides had so 
 much opposition to encounter in his work that he 
 abandoned his post in disgust. 
 
 This was in 1806, and the armies of Napoleon 
 were already overrunning the country. Murder, 
 rapine, outrages of all sorts were daily perpetrated, 
 the public mind became wholly occupied with the 
 war, and artists fared hard. Weber was, for a time, 
 the guest of Prince Eugene, of Wuertemberg, at 
 Carlsruhe, but was driven from this asylum by the 
 disorders of the time. Prince Eugene obtained for 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 His 
 
 Breslau 
 conductor* 
 ship. 
 
 Condition 
 0/ the 
 country. 
 
io6 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 Becomes 
 private 
 secretary 
 to Duke 
 Ludiuig 
 at Stutt- 
 gart. 
 
 Saving 
 elements in 
 Stuttgart 
 and in 
 Weber's 
 character. 
 
 him the position of private secretary to his brother, 
 Duke Ludwig, at Stuttgart, where still another 
 brother, Friedrich, was reigning King. Friedrich 
 was a coarse, passionate man, violent in his temper 
 and manners, and, as a ruler, arbitrary and tyranni- 
 cal ; his brother, Weber's patron, was not only weak 
 and self-indulgent, but also dissolute and reckless ; 
 the whole court and society in which the young man 
 was thrown was utterly corrupt and venal, and 
 wholly given up to the coarsest immorality. It is 
 not to be wondered at that a youth of his antece- 
 dents should have plunged even deeper than ever 
 before into dissipation and debauchery. He finished 
 sowing his wild oats in Stuttgart, and began reaping 
 the very disagreeable crop which came of them. 
 
 But there were redeeming traits in the young 
 man, and redeeming influences in Stuttgart society. 
 There were excellent families there, and some liter- 
 ary men and artists, who exercised a wholesome and 
 saving influence on Carl Maria. The man whose 
 sterling worth and devoted friendship was of most 
 value to him was Franz Danzi, conductor of the 
 Royal Opera, a sound musician, an admirable man, 
 full of high ideals, with penetration enough to see 
 what latent possibilities lay in the young composer, 
 with a strong desire to develop them, and with tact 
 enough to win Weber's confidence and affection, 
 though he was more than double his age. One of 
 his great maxims was, "To be a true artist, you 
 must be a true man ;" and he exerted all his influ- 
 ence to stem the tide of sinful indulgences on which 
 
CARL MARIA VON WEBER. 
 
 107 
 
 his weak young friend was floating, to call forth his 
 latent moral sense, to awaken his conscience, his 
 desire for intellectual attainments and artistic 
 achievements ; in short, to make of him such a man 
 and artist as he knew him to be capable of becoming. 
 
 But these lessons were not to have their full effect 
 until Weber had had the sharp schooling of adver- 
 sity. The end came in the early part of 18 10. The 
 young private secretary .had long been under the 
 King's displeasure ; he was now arrested, thrown 
 into prison, and soon banished from Wuertemberg, 
 — turned out in poverty, to get on as best he could. 
 Henceforth he became a man ; with numerous weak- 
 nesses, indeed, heavily handicapped by his inherited 
 traits and tendencies and by his youthful follies ; 
 but conscious of both his weakness and his strength, 
 and fully determined to make the most of himself 
 for the rest of his life. 
 
 The next three years he spent in wandering about 
 through Germany and Switzerland, supporting him- 
 self by giving concerts, by the sale of his composi- 
 tions, and by critical work. He had studied philos- 
 ophy and aesthetics in Vienna, had shown intellect- 
 ual powers of a high order, decided ability as a 
 critic, and had developed an effective literary style. 
 His critical writings were sought by the best musical 
 journals of Germany, and he wrote a great deal, 
 especially during his stay in Berlin and in Leipsic. 
 His operas " Sylvana " and " Abu Hassan," as well 
 as his cantata " The First Tone," had already been 
 composed at Stuttgart, and these were now success- 
 
 Chap. viil 
 
 Weber's 
 banish- 
 ment. 
 
 His "work 
 as critic. 
 
io8 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 His 
 playing. 
 
 Conductor- 
 ship at 
 Prague. 
 
 fully given in many places. His songs also brought 
 him reputation and money. His piano-playing 
 awakened great admiration. It was brilliant and 
 effective, characterized by perfect mastery of the 
 instrument, by extraordinary execution, and espe- 
 cially in improvisation he showed such command of 
 the resources of harmony and such power of express- 
 ing his feelings, that he is said to have produced " a 
 marvellous effect, such as had never been hitherto 
 known in the art of piano-playing."* This naturally 
 led to the sale of his pianoforte compositions. 
 
 During his wanderings he received a great variety 
 of impressions of men and things, associated with 
 many artists, poets and intellectual men of high 
 standing, as well as with persons of the highest 
 social rank, acquired wide experience of music, liter- 
 ature and life, worked hard to improve himself as 
 composer and man, and gained every way in char- 
 acter, in knowledge, in manysidedness, in concen- 
 tration and in command of his own powers. 
 
 Early in 1813 he accepted the conductorship of 
 the opera at Prague, and was once more settled 
 for some time. His work in this position lasted till 
 October, 181 6, somewhat more than three years and 
 a half. It was a time of hard work, of struggle and 
 discipline, of weakness, but also of growth in self- 
 mastery. Weber's work as a conductor was efficient 
 and successful. His production seems to have been 
 mainly limited to his patriotic songs, which excited 
 
 *See letter of his friend Lichtenstein, quoted in Life of Weber, by hi3 
 son t Vol. I, pages 206-7. 
 
CARL MARIA VON WEBER. 
 
 109 
 
 the greatest enthusiasm throughout Germany. To 
 these must be added his important cantata, " Battle 
 and Victory," written in celebration of the over- 
 throw of Napoleon at Waterloo. 
 
 On Christmas day, 1816, he received the appoint- 
 ment of conductor to his majesty the King of Sax- 
 ony, and thenceforth the remaining ten years of his 
 life were to be devoted to the establishment of Ger- 
 man opera at Dresden. This portion of his life 
 must be here sketched in the briefest possible man- 
 ner. Full details are to be found in Weber's Life, 
 by his son, already referred to. 
 
 The three great romantic operas which made 
 Weber's name immortal were composed during his 
 life in Dresden. " Der Freischuetz " was produced 
 for his own theatre in 1820, but was first given suc- 
 cessfully in Berlin ; " Euryanthe " was written for 
 Vienna in 1822; and " Oberon " for London in 
 1825. To these must be added his music to "Pre- 
 ciosa," also written in 1820. He went to London 
 to superintend the performances of " Oberon," and 
 died there of consumption, January 4, 1826. 
 
 Weber's place in musical history depends mainly 
 on his three great operas mentioned above. They 
 are original in motive and treatment, and also in 
 melody, form and orchestral effects. They are all 
 romantic in the strictest sense of the word. 
 
 The most popular of the three is " Der Frei- 
 schuetz :" the other two, though they contain many 
 beauties, and are acknowledged to be an advance, 
 in some important respects, on the first, have never | 
 
 Chap. VIU 
 
 Conductor' 
 ship at 
 Dresden. 
 
 His three 
 great 
 romantic 
 operas. 
 
 His place 
 in history. 
 
 "Der 
 
 Frei- 
 schuetz? 
 
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 Origin of 
 
 romantic 
 
 music. 
 
 maintained their place on the stage, whereas the 
 interest in " Der Freischuetz " seems to be perman- 
 ent, at least in Germany. It is only natural that 
 its popularity should be greater in Weber's native 
 country than elsewhere, for it deals with themes 
 peculiarly German, with popular German legends 
 and superstitions, familiar alike to noble, burgher and 
 peasant. The interest in the supernatural and the 
 fantastic, which constitute so large a portion of the 
 elements of this opera, is indeed universal ; but the 
 mold in which these elements are cast is national. 
 This applies both to the text and to Weber's beautiful 
 and characteristic musical setting. The whole is the 
 counterpart, in the domain of opera, of the Romantic 
 literature then in the full vigor of its lusty youth. 
 It was, of course, natural that the Romantic move- 
 ment in music should come to its first development 
 in the domain of opera, and that this epoch should 
 be followed rather than preceded or accompanied 
 by the period of romanticism in instrumental music ; 
 for, since this movement consisted essentially in the 
 expression of romantic feelings in tones, the first 
 suggestion of this would naturally come from a 
 romantic text. Successful efforts to set such texts 
 to appropriate music would naturally be followed by 
 attempts to embody similar feelings in purely instru- 
 mental forms. 
 
 This was the actual course of musical history. So 
 that, if Weber had written no pianoforte music, his 
 creative activity in the field of Romantic Opera 
 would have prepared the way for the purely roman- 
 
CARL MARIA VON WEBER. 
 
 in 
 
 tic composers for the pianoforte. But the romantic 
 ideas and feelings which had become the most pow- 
 erful element in the intellectual and spiritual life of 
 the time could not fail to produce a marked effect 
 on all intellectual activity in whatsoever field. 
 
 We have seen that this romantic tendency was 
 reproduced in Beethoven's instrumental works, and 
 traces of it are also to be found in Weber's piano- 
 forte compositions. In most of these, however, the 
 romantic element appears at its worst and shallow- 
 est. It savors of sacrilege to mention Weber's con- 
 certos and sonatas in the same breath with the pro- 
 foundly significant and essentially noble Beethoven 
 works. Most of Weber's pianoforte pieces were 
 written in his youth and early manhood, in the days 
 when he had no feelings or purposes which could 
 find noble expression in elevated music ; when he 
 was simply a brilliant, showy pianist, and when the 
 expression of feeling in his playing so highly prized 
 by his contemporaries was, in all probability, the 
 shallow sentimentality of a weak-nerved, over-sensi- 
 tive artist excited by gay or melancholy surround- 
 ings. At least, it is difficult to find much now in 
 his pianoforte works which can account for the 
 enthusiasm they excited in the first decade of the 
 century. The influence of romantic ideas shows 
 itself much less in the emotional content of them 
 than in neglect or contempt of the principles of 
 classical form, in a disregard of the intellectual 
 requirements of the old ideals, and in a certain 
 straining after effect and originality. These faults 
 
 Chap. VIH 
 
 The 
 
 romantic 
 in Weber's 
 pianoforte 
 •works. 
 
 Shallow- 
 ness of his 
 early 
 produc- 
 tions. 
 
 Ephemeral 
 character 
 of his 
 pianoforte 
 •works. 
 
112 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 Invitation 
 to waltz. 
 
 F.P. Scku- 
 iert. 
 
 are fatal, and Weber's pianoforte pieces are nowa- 
 days, for the most part, deservedly neglected. 
 
 The most prominent exception to the general rule 
 is his " Invitation to Waltz," a master-piece in its 
 originality of conception, its poetic beauty, its fire, 
 vigor, refinement and delicacy, and in its force and 
 truthfulness of characterization. This is, indeed, a 
 romantic work, in the truest sense. It is not only 
 far in advance of any other pianoforte piece by its 
 author, but represents a certain phase of the Roman- , 
 tic movement more perfectly than any other work 
 of the time. Its excellence has achieved for it a 
 great and widespread popularity which bids fair to 
 be lasting, either in its original form, in Berlioz's 
 orchestral transcription, or in Carl Tausig's brilliant 
 show-piece "arrangement" of it, a clever piece of 
 virtuoso work which certainly has decided beauties 
 of its own, though some of its most brilliant effects 
 are obtained by the sacrifice of the finest poetic 
 qualities of Weber's original conception. Besides 
 this, the Rondo of his Sonata in C, known under 
 the name " Perpetual Motion," still excites a good 
 deal of interest, his " Concert Stueck " has not yet 
 wholly disappeared from the repertoire of pianists, 
 and a few other pieces are played more or less and 
 are used, not always wisely, for teaching purposes. 
 
 The life of Franz Peter Schubert, the greatest 
 creative composer among Beethoven's contempor- 
 aries, was a short and uneventful one. He was the 
 son of a poor parish schoolmaster, and was born in 
 Vienna, January 31, 1797. He showed talent for 
 
F. P. SCHUBERT. 
 
 "3 
 
 music in his earliest childhood, and received lessons 
 in singing and on the violin and the pianoforte. 
 His teachers soon found that his intuitive percep- 
 tions had anticipated their instructions. In 1808 he 
 was admitted as a singer into the choir of the Impe- 
 rial Chapel. This appointment carried with it the 
 right to an education in the " Stadt Convict," an 
 institution where music was treated as an important 
 branch of study. His evident ability soon brought 
 him forward to the place of leader of the school 
 orchestra, and here he studied the best music of the 
 day, the symphonies of Haydn, Mozart and Beetho- 
 ven, and became thoroughly familiar with the 
 resources of the orchestra. 
 
 He soon felt the creative impulse, and began to 
 compose numerous quartets, quintets, songs, piano- 
 forte pieces, and finally a symphony. He tried his 
 hand at opera also, but in this field he was never suc- 
 cessful. His first symphony is dated October 18, 
 1 8 13, and was performed by the school orchestra. 
 
 Soon after this his voice changed, and he had to 
 leave the Imperial Chapel. He could have had the 
 privilege of pursuing his school studies for some 
 time longer, but his whole mind was devoted to 
 music, and he was indifferent to all other intellect- 
 ual pursuits. He did, indeed, become thoroughly 
 acquainted with the whole range of German poetry, 
 but he seems to have made it merely tributary to his 
 musical creative impulses, and always remained 
 exclusively a musician. When he left school after 
 his five years of study he was forced to teach with 
 
 H 5* 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 Becomes a 
 
 ckoir 
 
 singer 
 
 in Vienna. 
 
 Leaves the 
 choir and 
 school and 
 devotes his 
 time 
 
 exclusively 
 to music. 
 
H4 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 " The 
 Erlking" 
 and " The 
 Wan- 
 derer" 
 
 His 
 
 spontaneity 
 
 and 
 
 creative 
 
 power. 
 
 his father in order to earn his bread. This occupa- 
 tion he found thoroughly distasteful, and the three 
 years he passed in it were years of drudgery, only 
 relieved by constant creative activity. He honestly 
 and conscientiously fulfilled his duties as a teacher, 
 but outside of these he devoted himself to composi- 
 tion with such zeal and industry that these years 
 were among the most prolific of his life. 
 
 Nor, youth as he was, were all the compositions 
 of this time unimportant. Two of his greatest songs, 
 " The Erlking " and " The Wanderer," belong to 
 the year 1816, and two symphonies, one in B flat 
 and the " Tragic " in C minor, both of which have 
 won a high reputation among those who have heard 
 them. He discontinued his work as a school 
 teacher during his twentieth year, and thenceforth 
 he earned a scanty livelihood by teaching music and 
 by the sale of his compositions. He made various 
 applications for official posts as teacher or con- 
 ductor, but never obtained one of them ; he could 
 find no publisher for the great majority of his 
 works ; very few of his songs were sung and only a 
 small portion of his instrumental compositions were 
 ever performed during his life time ; he lived 
 obscure and neglected and died in poverty, October 
 19, 1828. 
 
 Such is the brief record of the life of a composer, 
 who, if he lacked some of the elements of greatness 
 which go to make up a genius of the first rank, was, 
 nevertheless, one of the most spontaneously creative 
 minds known in human history. His imagination 
 
F. P. SCHUBERT. 
 
 "5 
 
 produced music as a tropical forest produces vege- 
 tation, — it was a soil of boundless fertility, crowded 
 with germs which constantly sprang into marvel- 
 lously luxuriant growth under the influence of tropi- 
 cal heat and moisture. The list of his works* is 
 something enormous, and includes not only songs 
 and short pieces, but masses and operas, nine sym- 
 phonies, the last of which is one of the longest ever 
 written. 
 
 The quality of these works are quite as remarkable 
 as their quantity. The two best known symphonies, 
 the ninth in C major and the Unfinished in B minor, 
 are among the most beautiful, graceful, delicate and 
 refined compositions ever written for the orchestra. 
 The ideas are indeed not forceful, but neither are 
 they weak ; they lack the virility of Beethoven, but 
 their essentially feminine quality is positive, not neg- 
 ative. If they have not the grandeur, the uplifting, 
 inspiring power of Schubert's greatest contemporary, 
 they have the enduring charm of grace, tenderness, 
 delicacy, refined beauty and an emotional signifi- 
 cance the complement of Beethoven's stormy moods. 
 Beethoven climbed rugged mountain steeps, toiling 
 painfully from rock to rock, with bleeding hands 
 and lacerated knees, facing storm and hail, thunder 
 and lightning, struggling indomitably against oppos- 
 ing powers of earth and air, his face turned ever 
 upward to the heavenly beauty toward which he 
 strove, whose beatific vision was at once his inspiration 
 
 ♦See H. F. Frost's biography of Schubert, Appendix. 
 ner & Welford. 
 
 New York, Scrib- 
 
 Chap. VIIL 
 
 Sym- 
 phonies in 
 C major 
 and 
 B minor. 
 
 Content of 
 
 Beethoven's 
 
 works as 
 
 compared 
 
 with 
 
 Schubert's. 
 
n6 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 His -wealth 
 of 
 
 beautiful 
 ideas. 
 
 c»ap. vi it. and his soul's peace. Schubert's imagination dwelt 
 below in the luxuriant valley, full of flowers, of birds 
 and of sunshine, in the repose of heaven's own light 
 and air, singing and making melody with the spon- 
 taneity and ecstatic delight of a bird in a June 
 meadow. 
 
 If he delights and surprises us by the fertility of 
 his imagination and his wealth of beautiful and sig- 
 nificant ideas, he charms us no less by the inexhaust- 
 ible variety of his treatment of them. The C major 
 symphony is indeed prolix, but its length is, as 
 Schumann said, " heavenly ;" no one not insensible 
 to its subtle charm can wish for a moment that 
 Schubert had applied the pruning knife to its beau- 
 tiful luxuriance. There is not a spray or a twig we 
 would willingly sacrifice. 
 
 But beautiful as are his symphonies, and great as 
 was the treasure he bequeathed to the world in his 
 instrumental works, his most important contribution 
 to musical progress is to be found in his songs, of 
 which he wrote some six hundred, and these more 
 than anything else determine his place in musical 
 history. His genius was essentially lyric and roman- 
 tic ; — romantic in that he loved to deal with 
 romantic themes, and romantic also in his intuitive 
 sense of fitness in characterization, and in his innate 
 power of characteristic invention. What Weber did 
 for the opera Schubert did for the song. He was 
 the first creator of music adapted to express and 
 intensify all the varying and contrasted phases of 
 emotion suggested by the best lyric poems in Ger- 
 
 ffis songs 
 his most 
 important 
 contribu- 
 tion to 
 musical 
 history. 
 
F. P. SCHUBERT. 
 
 117 
 
 man, and some of the best in English, literature. 
 With him the song ceased to be merely a ballad 
 form, corresponding in a merely general way with 
 the emotional content of the words, and became a 
 plastic, subtle, romantic medium for the most com- 
 plete emotional expression. If in his instrumental 
 compositions he loved to dwell on the gentle, the 
 tender, dealing in quiet, pensive, reposeful moods, 
 he could now and then deal with a vigorous, soul- 
 stirring text with no lack of breadth, power or inten- 
 sity, as, for example, in his " Erl-King." Neverthe- 
 less, these cases are comparatively few, and do not 
 represent the natural and habitual cast of his mind. 
 This is shown more characteristically in his " Dying 
 Strains," and his " Maid of the Mill." 
 
 In the domain of pianoforte music, Schubert has 
 left us a considerable body of compositions, beauti- 
 ful, significant, characterized by qualities essentially 
 romantic, and pointing distinctly toward the new 
 development which was to follow him directly. In 
 these works there are three points in which his 
 romanticism reveals itself. 1. In the production of 
 a large number of pieces which, though founded on 
 the essential principles of form which had been once 
 for all established, did not strictly conform to the 
 plan of the sonata. The sonata form no longer 
 fully met his needs as a medium of expression. 
 With preceding composers the sonata had been the 
 natural form in which their musical ideas took 
 shape. Their strivings were in the direction of the 
 completion of that form, and when they did not 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 His 
 
 pianoforte 
 
 music. 
 
 How his 
 roman- 
 ticism 
 reveals 
 itself. 
 
 The sonata 
 not 
 
 sufficient 
 for his 
 need. 
 
n8 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 Schubert's 
 require- 
 ments in 
 Form. 
 
 His lack of 
 
 classical 
 
 clearness 
 
 and 
 
 symmetry. 
 
 write whole sonatas they still cast their ideas in 
 Rondo form, or in Dance form, both of which 
 belonged to the sonata as components. Only rarely 
 did they have something to say which could not find 
 embodiment in these forms. The C minor Fantasia 
 of Mozart is a conspicuous example of the excep- 
 tions to the rule. 
 
 Beethoven's practice remained the same, except 
 that he modified the sonata form itself to suit the 
 requirements of his enlarged content. But Schu- 
 bert, while he continued to write sonatas and sym- 
 phonies which differed from classical models, so far 
 as form was concerned, only in being more diffuse 
 and prolix, seems to have had within him, probably 
 without philosophizing at all on the subject, emo- 
 tions he could not help expressing in music, which 
 would hardly fit with exactness either the sonata or 
 any of its component movements. So he wrote 
 "Impromptus," " Momens Musicales," and "Fan- 
 tasias," and wrote so many of them that instead of 
 being a mere incident of his work as a composer 
 they occupied an important part of his creative 
 activity. 
 
 2. The second mark of his romanticism is the 
 absence of the classical characteristics of compact, 
 clearness of form, of concentration and symmetry. 
 His sonatas are all rambling and diffuse. His 
 imagination was extremely active, and not only con- 
 stantly generated new ideas, but continually com- 
 bined and contrasted them in an infinite variety of 
 ways, rambling on and on till there seemed to be no 
 
F. P. SCHUBERT. 
 
 119 
 
 more limit to the ever-changing views than to those 
 of a kaleidoscope. And every change revealed new 
 beauties ; every new light in which his ideas were set 
 showed more and more clearly the loveliness of them ; 
 each new effect seemed more and more charming ; 
 and, as his fertility was inexhaustible and he seemed 
 to be enamored of the grace and beauty of his con- 
 ceptions and never to tire of turning them over and 
 over, his productions were nearly always spun out 
 to such lengths that he wholly lost sight of classical 
 proportions. This enthusiasm, this fond dwelling 
 upon his conceptions from the love of them, this 
 giving himself up unreservedly to the pleasure of 
 following his own spontaneous impulses, regardless 
 of classical rules or of strict intellectual require- 
 ments of any sort, is an essentially romantic ten- 
 dency. 
 
 Finally, the emotional content of his compositions 
 is essentially romantic. We have already seen that 
 he occupied himself less with considerations of 
 form than did the purely classical writers. On the 
 other hand, feeling comes more into the foreground ; 
 it is a more prominent and important factor. His 
 sensibility is keenly alive, is open and sensitive to 
 impressions ; the range of feeling is wider, the emo- 
 tional movements are more subtle, delicate, and 
 refined ; there is more complexity of feeling ;. emo- 
 tions follow each other more rapidly, often contend 
 with one another for supremacy ; the contrasts are 
 sharper and more sudden. Besides, these feelings 
 are decidedly romantic in character, though they 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 His 
 
 feelings 
 
 were 
 
 essentially 
 
 romantic. 
 
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 CHAP..VIII. 
 
 The same 
 romantic 
 feelings in 
 pianoforte 
 music as in 
 his songs. 
 
 The 
 
 classical 
 
 ideal was 
 
 objective^ 
 
 the 
 
 romantic 
 
 subjective. 
 
 The 
 
 assertion 
 'of indi- 
 vidualism 
 in art was 
 a Romantic 
 
 represent mainly the feminine side of the romantic 
 type. These pieces are full of sentiment, of tender- 
 ness, of dreamy voluptuousness, occasionally inter- 
 rupted by episodes of a more stirring and vigorous 
 character. In short, all the phases of feeling to 
 which Schubert gave expression in his songs, when 
 he consciously sought to connect them with different 
 scenes, situations and events, come equally to their 
 embodiment in his instrumental works, and stamp 
 them unmistakably with romantic characteristics. 
 
 In concluding this sketch of the Transition Period 
 between the Classic and the Romantic, and of the 
 three great composers whose genius and productive 
 activity were chiefly instrumental in bringing about 
 the inevitable change, a brief summing-up must 
 suffice. 
 
 Be it remembered that the classical ideal was an 
 objective one ; that is, the composer's mind was occu- 
 pied with an object outside of himself ; with his 
 ideal conception, and with the work of embodying 
 it. Feeling, which is the innermost content of 
 music, is subjective; is an internal experience. When 
 the mind of the composer is mainly occupied with 
 feeling, the intellectual side of his work becomes 
 less prominent. The intellectual element becomes 
 then only a means for the expression of the feeling. 
 
 In the Romantic writers, this predominance of 
 feeling over the intellectual side of composition 
 of content over form, is a prominent feature. The 
 Romantic movement was the assertion of individual- 
 ism in Art, of the importance of the private feelings 
 
F. P. SCHUBERT. 
 
 121 
 
 of the composer and their right to truthful and vivid 
 expression as against the classical tendency to thrust 
 them into the background, to give them expression 
 only incidentally and unconsciously, while the men- 
 tal activity was taken up with the realization of an 
 ideal conceived of as objective, as in a sense outside 
 of and foreign to the composer. Be it remembered, 
 further, that the change from the predominance of 
 the classical to the Romantic ideal was not sudden ; 
 it was a gradual development. 
 
 The first interest of men in music was that of sen- 
 suous gratification, the pleasure derived from sweet 
 sounds, and from the excitement of rhythmical repe- 
 titions of sounds. Then came the intellectual 
 interest and pleasure of arranging sounds in succes- 
 sions and combinations, the development of the 
 technic of composition, of Counterpoint, Harmony 
 and Form. This went on, hand in hand with the 
 development of vocal and instrumental technics, 
 and the invention and improvement of instruments. 
 The clear perception of the relation of music to 
 emotion is a later stage of development. It was 
 felt at first dimly, more especially in purely instru- 
 mental music. No doubt, from"the very beginning of 
 song, the congruity or incongruity of words and 
 music were instinctively felt ; this relation gradually 
 impressed itself more and more on the minds of 
 composers and connoisseurs, until finally the emo- 
 tional significance of music forced itself into prom- 
 inence, asserted its claims to recognition and deter- 
 
 Chap. vnt 
 
 Order of 
 develop' 
 
 ment. 
 
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. VIII. 
 
 Weber's 
 and 
 
 Schubert's 
 roman- 
 ticism. 
 
 Beethoven 
 the 
 
 forerunner 
 of both. 
 
 mined the downfall of the classical and the predom- 
 inance of the Romantic ideal. 
 
 In Weber, we see this process carried to its com- 
 pletion in his operas, and exerting a marked influ- 
 ence on his pianoforte compositions. In Schubert, 
 the same tendency reaches its culmination in his 
 songs, with a similar effect on his instrumental writ- 
 ing. Beethoven is, in a way, the forerunner, 
 although he is the contemporary of both. He was 
 sixteen years older than Weber, and twenty-seven 
 years older than Schubert ; difference enough so that 
 he prepared the way in which they advanced beyond 
 him. In Beethoven's instrumental works, as well as 
 in those of Schubert and Weber, feeling assumes 
 great importance, becomes much more prominent 
 than it had ever been in the older writers ; but both 
 Beethoven and Schubert seem to have been grop- 
 ing their way toward the Romantic ideal, led indeed 
 by a sure instinct, but more or less blindly. Weber, 
 in his " Invitation to Dance," seems for once to have 
 reached a clearer and more definite conception of 
 the goal to be reached than either of his great con- 
 temporaries. 
 
paet thied. 
 The Romantic Pekiod, 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 the romantic composers for the pianoforte. 
 
 Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, 1809-1847. 
 Frederic Chopin, 1809-1849. 
 Robert Schumann, 1810-1856. 
 
 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was born in 
 Hamburg, February 3, 1809. His grandfather was 
 the distinguished Jewish philosopher, Moses Men- 
 delssohn. His father, Abraham, was a wealthy 
 banker. His mother, Lea Salomon-Bartholdy, was 
 also of Jewish blood, but was baptised with her hus- 
 band into the Protestant communion, and the name 
 of Bartholdy was added to the family name of Men- 
 delssohn. Both the parents of Felix were persons 
 of high character, superior intellectual abilities, 
 refined feelings, cultivated tastes, and devoted much 
 time and pains to the education of their children. 
 Felix had two sisters, Fanny and Rebecca, and one 
 brother, Paul. The family removed to Berlin before 
 Felix was three years old, driven from Hamburg by 
 the French occupation, and here they continued to 
 reside 
 
 Felix was taught by the best private tutors, study- 
 ing, besides the ordinary branches, Greek, drawing, 
 pianoforte, violin, harmony and composition. He 
 also received thorough physical training, and was to 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Mendels- 
 sohn. 
 
 Character 
 
 of the 
 Mendels- 
 sohn 
 family 
 
 His early 
 education. 
 
126 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Early 
 prod-uc 
 
 tions. 
 
 •'A Mid. 
 summer 
 Nights 
 Dream" 
 
 the end of his life a proficient in all athletic exer- 
 cises, a good swimmer, rider and dancer. His 
 teacher in composition was Zelter, a strict, pedantic 
 contrapuntist of the old school. Felix began to 
 compose at twelve years of age, and his productive 
 activity was incessant. He wrote songs, pianoforte 
 pieces, chamber music, symphonies for a few instru- 
 ments, operettas ; and these were all played and 
 sung at the musical parties periodically given in his 
 father's house. Of course, few or none of these 
 wo4S| of his apprentice period had permanent value. 
 The "work which signalized his majority as a com- 
 poser was the overture to Shakspeare's " Midsum- 
 mer Night's Dream,'' written in the summer of 1826, 
 when he was seventeen years old. It was a most 
 charming, delightful, original and characteristic 
 work, of such excellence that he never surpassed it, 
 even in his maturity. 
 
 His general education was not neglected. He 
 entered the university about this time, attended 
 Hegel's lectures, among others, and distinguished 
 himself by some admirable translations of Terence 
 and Horace into German verse, in the meters of the 
 originals. His production of music went on stead- 
 ily, stimulated by intercourse with the best musi- 
 cians, critics and connoisseurs of Berlin, and others 
 who visited that city. The Mendelssohn home was 
 a delightful and hospitable one, and few musicians 
 came to the Prussian capital without visiting it. 
 Felix, though sensitive and excitable, was of a thor- 
 oughly wholesome, happy disposition, and in his 
 
FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY. 
 
 127 
 
 childhood and youth, no less than in his mature 
 manhood, he charmed all who met him. 
 
 After the Midsummer Night's Dream overture 
 the next important landmark in his progress was the 
 overture to Goethe's " Calm Sea and Prosperous Voy- 
 age," in which his romanticism showed itself no less 
 than in his earlier great work. In the Midsummer 
 Night's Dream he had chosen a peculiarly romantic 
 subject ; had set himself the task of reproducing in 
 tones the feelings aroused by the scenes of the play, 
 and had been thoroughly successful. In this second 
 overture he discarded the classic form, and made of 
 the usual two movements two companion pieces 
 intended to reproduce the impressions made on his 
 feelings by the sea in calm and in storm. His suc- 
 cess in this instance was no less marked. This 
 overture was finished in 1829. 
 
 Another important event occurred in March of 
 this year, the performance of Bach's great " Passion 
 Music according to St. Matthew " for the first time 
 since the death of its author. This was Mendels- 
 sohn's doing. He and Devrient, the actor, per- 
 suaded Zelter to allow its rehearsal by the Akademie 
 of which he was director, Mendelssohn conducted, 
 and the revival of this great work proved an 
 immense popular success. 
 
 Abraham Mendelssohn now planned an extended 
 tour for his son, with the object not only of improv- 
 ing his mind in a general way, but of enabling him 
 to make friends, and find for himself a satisfactory 
 place in which to settle and work. His first visit was 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 "The 
 Meeres- 
 stille" 
 overture. 
 
 Revival 
 of Bach's 
 "Passion 
 Music" 
 
 His travels. 
 
128 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 The 
 
 iL Reforma,' 
 Hon 
 Sym- 
 phony" 
 
 Composi- 
 tions 
 
 during his 
 tvjoyears 
 of travel. 
 
 to London, when he played in public, produced some 
 of his compositions, and made many friends. He 
 was cordially received by the public, and found Lon- 
 don so congenial that he always felt a warm affec- 
 tion for the place and people, returning there nine 
 different times in the course of his life. He trav- 
 eled in England and Scotland, and received deep 
 and lasting impressions from some of the scenery. 
 The " Scotch " symphony and the " Hebrides Over- 
 ture " are attempts to reproduce these impressions 
 in tones. The latter is due to the effect produced 
 on his feelings by a visit to Fingal's cave. But nei- 
 ther of these pieces was written at the time ; some 
 of the principal motives occurred to him there, but 
 the impressions lay in his mind for a long time 
 before they matured and took musical shape. His 
 first great symphony was the " Reformation Sym- 
 phony," written after his return from England, in 
 the winter of 1829-30, for the tercentenary festival 
 of the Augsburg Confession. 
 
 In May, 1830, he began a long tour on the conti-, 
 nent, through Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, 
 France, and at last to London again. It was July, 
 1832, before he again reached Berlin. These two 
 years were a delightful time, and a period of growth 
 and improvement. Mendelssohn enjoyed the scen- 
 ery, the society of artists and literary men, sketched 
 a great deal, played much in public, in short, 
 enjoyed thoroughly and with hearty zest whatever 
 was enjoyable in his travels, but he did not neglect 
 composition. During this time he wrote for the 
 
FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY. 
 
 129 
 
 pianoforte the G minor concerto, the capriccio in B 
 minor, the first book of the Songs without Words, 
 and some other things. His correspondence was 
 extensive, and his letters are the most charming 
 productions imaginable, and give us, better than 
 anything else can, an insight into the personal fas- 
 cination he exercised on all who came in contact 
 with him. 
 
 The " Italian Symphony " was written at Berlin 
 in the winter of 1832-3. In May of the latter year 
 he condncted the Lower Rhine Festival at Duessel- 
 dorf with great success, and this resulted in a three 
 years' engagement as director of music there, 
 involving his responsibility for all the town music in 
 the churches, the concerts and the theater. From 
 this last he soon withdrew, influencing the opera 
 selections and performances only indirectly. He 
 composed steadily, writing many of his smaller 
 pieces and beginning his oratorio of St. Paul in 
 March, 1834. 
 
 In October, 1835, he accepted the post of con- 
 ductor of the Gewandhaus concerts in Leipzig, and 
 here he spent nearly all the remainder of his life. 
 He did indeed accept temporarily an appointment 
 as Kapellmeister to the King of Prussia, and as head 
 of a new Academy of Music in Berlin, and even 
 removed there, but unendurable irritation and worry 
 came of his relations with the Prussian court ; his 
 heart was in Leipzig, he soon returned there, and 
 there he lived and died. His connection with Ber- 
 lin continued in part after he left the city. He paid 
 1 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Goes to 
 Ihiessel- 
 dorf as 
 conductor. 
 
 Becomes 
 conductor 
 of the 
 Gewand- 
 haus at 
 Leipzig. 
 
130 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Founds the 
 Leipzig' 
 Conserv- 
 atory 0/ 
 Music. 
 
 His 
 marriage. 
 
 "Elijah," 
 184b. 
 
 repeated visits to London, conducted festivals in 
 Germany, etc., but his principal work was done in 
 conducting the Gewandhaus concerts, in founding 
 and directing the Leipzig Conservatory ( in 1843), 
 and in composition. St Paul was finished in 1836, 
 and met with immediate success. 
 
 In March, 1837, he was married at Frankfort to 
 Cecile Jeanrenaud, daughter of a Protestant pastor 
 there. The union was an extremely fortunate one, 
 and conduced greatly to his happiness and useful- 
 ness. But this useful, happy life was cut prema- 
 turely short. He was an indefatigable worker. 
 Incessant labor, combined with his excitable nervous 
 temperament, which gave intensity to all emotional 
 experiences, whether pleasurable or painful, and 
 made them a serious drain upon his vitality, wore 
 him out at the age of thirty-eight. The finishing 
 stroke was given by the strain of producing his great 
 oratorio " Elijah," written for the Birmingham Fes- 
 tival of August 25, 1846, at which he himself con- 
 ducted. He never recovered from the prostration 
 which this occasioned. Although he continued to 
 work, he gradually became weaker, suffered from 
 severe pains in the head, and finally died, November 
 4, 1847. The details of his life are so easily acces- 
 sible that the foregoing brief sketch may suffice for 
 this place.* 
 
 ♦See Lampadius' " Life of Mendelssohn, 1 ' " The Mendelssohn Family," 
 by S. Hensel, son of Felix's sister Fanny, Devrient's " Recollections of 
 Mendelssohn," Hiller's tl Letters and Recollections of Mendelssohn, Carl 
 Mendelssohn's " Goethe and Mendelssohn," Benedict's " A sketch of the 
 Life and Works of the late Felix Mendelssohn- Bartholdy. ' two volumes of 
 
FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY. 
 
 I3i 
 
 The great works here referred to are by no 
 means all he produced, but they are perhaps the 
 most important and characteristic. The music to 
 Goethe's "Walpurgis Night" ought, however, to be 
 mentioned as especially displaying his romantic ten- 
 dencies. The nature of the subject was such that 
 any music appropriate to it must necessarily have 
 been romantic. 
 
 His pianoforte music, of which he wrote a large 
 quantity, has, much of it, an emotional content 
 closely analagous to that of the " Midsummer 
 Night's Dream " overture and the rest of his com- 
 positions for orchestra. Such, for example, are the 
 " Rondo Capriccioso " in E minor, op. 14, the 
 " Capriccio " in B minor, the " Andante Cantabile 
 and Presto Agitato," the " Serenade and Allegro 
 giojoso," and many of his " Songs Without Words." 
 These latter are thoroughly characteristic of him, 
 original in form and in content, though many of 
 them, as well as some of his other compositions, fall 
 below the significance of the best, as was, of course, 
 inevitable. Very few of these pieces have any title 
 to indicate the scenes or persons to whose influence 
 the emotions embodied in the music were due, but 
 it is known that he was in the habit of trying to 
 reproduce in tones the emotional impressions 
 received from his surroundings. Of course, many 
 of these impressions were not profound, — he did 
 
 his letters, one " From Italy to Switzerland," and the other " From 1833 to 
 1847," and an excellent article in Grove's " Dictionary of Music and Musi- 
 cians." This list is by no means exhaustive. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 His 
 
 romantic 
 tendencies 
 as shown 
 in " Tke 
 Walpurgis 
 Night " 
 
 Content 
 0/ his 
 pianoforte 
 music. 
 
132 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Special 
 character- 
 ization of 
 his music. 
 
 How his 
 roman- 
 ticism 
 appeared 
 in the 
 forms 
 he chose. 
 
 His forms 
 •were 
 always 
 finished 
 and clear. 
 
 not attempt to restrict his musical utterances to his 
 most important feelings, but often sought to embody 
 in tones a content little removed from elegant com- 
 monplace. Accordingly much of his music is not 
 at all remarkable for its profound emotional signifi- 
 cance. But it is always genuine, graceful, refined, 
 elegant, and everywhere displays the hand of a con- 
 summate master. 
 
 Special attention ought to be called to the evi- 
 dences of Mendelssohn's romanticism displayed in 
 the forms assumed by his most characteristic utter- 
 ances. He not only deliberately sought to empha- 
 size the expression of feeling as the goal of his 
 efforts in composition, but when he succeeded in 
 reproducing his emotions in tones, the completed 
 products were almost always departures from the 
 classical models. The pieces on which his reputa- 
 tion as a pianoforte composer depend are not son- 
 atas, perhaps not even his concertos, but " Capric- 
 cios," "Fantasias," and " Songs without Words." 
 
 But it would be a serious misapprehension to sup- 
 pose that his forms were often, or indeed ever crude, 
 imperfect, or lacking in clearness or finish. Roman- 
 ticist as he undoubtedly was, the romantic element 
 represented only one side of his character. The 
 purest of classicists could not have written with 
 more perfect clearness of outline, absolute precision 
 of detail, and perfection of finish. There is nothing 
 obscure or foggy, — there are no half utterances, no 
 stammering or failure. What he had to say he 
 
FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY. 
 
 133 
 
 expressed with the utmost precision and certainty, 
 with a clearness and finish above criticism. 
 
 Indeed, it may fairly be questioned whether the 
 very lucidity and polish of his style does not often 
 detract from the effectiveness of his pieces. They 
 are expressive rather than suggestive, and express- 
 ive, too, of a content not always profound enough 
 to be interesting, still less inspiring. If we could 
 feel, as we often do with Schumann, that much is 
 left unsaid, that the comparatively insignificant con- 
 tent here expressed with such consummate grace 
 and elegance, had evident relation to more impor- 
 tant things not far off, their attraction would be 
 much enhanced. The very completeness with which 
 Mendelssohn gave utterance to so many graceful 
 insipidities was the cause of a strong reaction 
 against his influence and tendencies not many years 
 after his death. It is not uncommon, even now, to 
 hear his music referred to somewhat sneeringly as 
 " very gentlemanly music," while his fellow roman- 
 ticists are exalted at his expense. The amount of 
 justice in this has perhaps already been sufficiently 
 indicated. 
 
 Whatever may be the permanent significance or 
 influence of Mendelssohn's best work, he was, as 
 man, musician, conductor, pianist, organist and 
 composer, one of the most powerful influences in 
 molding the musical thought and shaping the 
 musical tendencies of the second and third quarters 
 of this century ; he was a musician of the highest 
 technical attainments, the broadest and most enlight- 
 
 Chap. IX, 
 
 Less 
 
 suggestive 
 than 
 Schumann. 
 
 Estimate 
 of his 
 character 
 and work, 
 
134 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 His works 
 perfect in 
 their way. 
 
 Content of 
 
 his 
 
 oratorios. 
 
 F.F. 
 Chopin, 
 
 ened culture, a consummate master of form, an orig- 
 inal inventor in the domain of melody and harmony, 
 and in his own peculiar field of romantic emotional 
 expression he was unapproached. This is probably 
 the most that can be said for his pianoforte music. 
 
 Measured by the standard of form, finish, musi- 
 cianship, grace, elegance, refinement, polish, deli- 
 cacy, beauty, he is surpassed by few or none. He 
 must be credited, too, with genuine originality and 
 creative power. But measured by the standard of 
 nobility, elevation and profound significance of emo- 
 tional content, the best of his pianoforte works will 
 poorly bear comparison with the greatest utterances 
 of Beethoven, though they may well be placed 
 beside the finest of Schubert's works, and are 
 greatly superior to almost everything of Weber. 
 
 His " St. Paul " and " Elijah " stand on a higher 
 emotional plane. They contain noble passages, and 
 sublime climaxes, and " Elijah " has scenes of 
 immense dramatic force. That these works have 
 great and positive merits and high significance is 
 certainly undeniable. The question of their claims 
 to immortality must be left to future generations for 
 settlement. But there can be no question as to the 
 beneficent influence they have already exerted. 
 Their author certainly had a place and mission of 
 his own in the world ; he most admirably filled the 
 one and accomplished the other. 
 
 Francois Frederic Chopin was born in Zela- 
 zowa Wola, a village near Warsaw, March 1, 1809. 
 His father, Nicholas Chopin, was a Frenchman 
 
FRANCOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN. 
 
 135 
 
 from Lorraine, who had settled in Warsaw when a 
 young man, and was engaged in teaching the 
 French language, as a professor in the Lyceum, an 
 institution corresponding in a general way to our 
 colleges. He also taught in various Government 
 schools, military and other, and was, besides, a pri ■ 
 vate teacher, receiving young men of family into his 
 household. 
 
 Frederic's mother was a Polish lady, Justine Kry- 
 zanowska. There were three daughters, one of 
 whom died young, of consumption ; but Frederic 
 was the only son. He seems to have taken his 
 character mainly from his mother, his traits being 
 decidedly more Polish than French, and he always 
 counted himself a Pole. Indeed, his father had 
 thoroughly identified himself with his adopted coun- 
 try, and the political events of the times were so 
 impressive, the misfortunes of Poland were so great 
 and fell with such crushing force upon all residents 
 of Poland that patriotic feeling was not only excited 
 to the highest pitch, but every Pole was forced to 
 feel the humiliation and sorrow of grinding tyranny 
 and oppression. The Poles were proud, sensitive, 
 excitable, and felt the sting of their national degra- 
 dation as keenly as human beings could feel. 
 Besides this, after the partition of 1772, almost every 
 Pole, however noble or distinguished, was exposed 
 to personal insult and abuse. Polish hearts, Cho- 
 pin's among the rest, were mainly occupied with the 
 feelings called forth by their national calamities. 
 In this we may find the key to the emotional con- 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 His Polish 
 character. 
 
 Character 
 of the 
 Poles. 
 
136 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 His 
 
 character 
 and 
 manners. 
 
 His 
 education. 
 
 Early 
 manifesta- 
 tions of 
 genius. 
 
 tent of many of his compositions, and thus account 
 for much in them which has always impressed con- 
 noisseurs as being somewhat morbid. 
 
 Young Chopin was naturally refined, and was 
 brought up from earliest childhood in intimate asso- 
 ciation with the best society of the Polish capital. 
 His manners were graceful and winning ; while at 
 the same time he was reserved ; much more so than 
 was evident on the surface of his behavior. His 
 constitution was not robust, and he had a delicate 
 and susceptible nervous organization, but was, 
 nevertheless, sound and healthy, — was, indeed, 
 never ill in his life until he contracted consumption 
 in Paris, at about the age of thirty.* 
 
 His father gave him a liberal education at the 
 Lyceum, and put him into the hands of two excel -\ 
 lent music teachers, Albert Zywny, who was his 
 only teacher in piano-playing and who made him a 
 pianist of the first rank before he was twenty, and 
 Joseph Eisner, a sound and excellent German musi- 
 cian, who taught him Harmony, Counterpoint and 
 Composition. 
 
 The boy's genius and originality soon began to 
 be manifest, both in improvisation and in formal 
 composition. He was very fond of the Polish 
 national folk-songs and dances, and seizing upon 
 these strange melodies, with their peculiar rhythms, 
 
 *Liszt's book on Chopin is a magazine of misinformation on this and 
 numerous other points, though it contains much valuable suggestion and 
 throws a great deal of light on Chopin's character and works to those who 
 can discriminate the errors from the truth. See article in Grove's " Dic- 
 tionary of Music and Musicians." 
 
FRANCOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN. 
 
 137 
 
 he supplied them with original harmonies of his 
 own, invented cadences peculiar to himself and 
 unique in the history of music, and invested them 
 with a poetic charm and significance which raised 
 them at once to high artistic rank. His imagina- 
 tion was vivid, subtle and powerful, and being 
 kindled by the peculiar circumstances in his sur- 
 roundings, to which he was most susceptible, he 
 began almost in childhood to express the national 
 feelings in musical productions of the most ideally 
 poetic character. He was extremely modest and 
 retiring, but his gifts could not be concealed, and 
 his playing was eagerly sought for and listened to 
 with delight by the best connoisseurs of Warsaw. 
 His first public performance was in 181 8, when he 
 was nine years of age. On this occasion he played 
 a concerto by Gyrowetz, and was well received, but 
 so far was he from being vain of his success as a 
 player, that when his mother asked him about it he 
 cried, " O mamma, everybody was looking at my 
 new collar !" 
 
 When he was eighteen years old his father deter- 
 mined to send him to Berlin, in order that he might 
 meet musicians, hear more music than could be 
 heard in Warsaw, and under better conditions than 
 prevailed there, and widen his experience generally. 
 Accordingly, to Berlin went the boy, in company 
 with his father's friend, Professor Jarocki. He 
 heard a great deal, keenly observed all that was to 
 be seen and heard, received numerous impressions 
 which were of benefit to him, but neither played nor 
 
 6* 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 First 
 
 playing in 
 public. 
 
 Journey 
 to Berlin, 
 
138 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 First 
 visit to 
 Vienna, 
 tSsg. 
 
 His two 
 concerts. 
 
 showed his compositions. He had opportunities to 
 meet Mendelssohn, Spontini and Zelter, but was too 
 modest to avail himself of them. " I did not think 
 it becoming," he writes to one of his young friends, 
 "to introduce myself to these gentlemen."* 
 
 This journey taught him much and stimulated 
 him more. He returned to Warsaw and worked 
 nearly two years with redoubled zeal and industry. 
 At length, in July, 1829, his father sent him away 
 again, this time to Vienna, and urged upon him the 
 importance of not only making the acquaintance of 
 the best musicians of the great musical capital, but 
 also of making himself known by playing in public. 
 
 The young man did both. He carried letters of 
 introduction to some of the most intelligent and 
 influential persons in the city ; they at once per- 
 ceived his great gifts, though he himself was mod- 
 estly unconscious of them and "wondered what 
 they found to admire in him," and all, musicians 
 and laymen alike, pressed him to play in public. 
 He appeared in two concerts. In the first he played 
 his variations on " La ci darem," op. 2, and impro- 
 vised on two themes, one from "La Dame Blanche," 
 and one a Polish theme. In the second he played 
 his " Krakowiak," op. 14, repeating the variations, 
 by request. Both his playing and his music aroused 
 great enthusiasm. The admiration was nearly uni- 
 versal, and Chopin left Vienna, after a short stay, 
 
 *See " Friedrich Chopin, Sein Leben, Seine Werke und Briefe,*' von 
 Moritz Karasowski, Vol. i, p. 57. This is the one authentic biography of 
 Chopin, and it is to be hoped that it may shortly be translated into Eng- 
 lish. 
 
FRANQOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN. 
 
 *39 
 
 amidst flattering plaudits. He went home by a 
 roundabout way, through Prague and Dresden, 
 reached Warsaw about the first of September, and 
 again settled down to work. 
 
 His Vienna experience, short as it was, did much 
 to mature his character and talent. The day after 
 his first concert, an event of great importance to 
 him, he wrote to his parents a very modest letter, 
 giving a full account of the whole affair, and toward 
 the end wrote, " I am now at least four years older 
 in knowledge and experience."* The enthusiastic 
 praise he received from the best artists and connois- 
 seurs awakened his courage and gave him confi- 
 dence in his own powers, while it stimulated him to 
 the exercise of them. 
 
 Another event was now a powerful stimulus to 
 production ; he had become passionately enamored 
 of Constantia Gladkowska, a young lyric actress at 
 the Warsaw theatre. It was the pure, elevated first 
 love of a high-minded, refined artist, and much came 
 of it in the way of composition. His emotions, power- 
 fully excited by this passion, as well as by the events 
 of his visit to Vienna, sought musical expression, 
 and the next year was a very productive one, the 
 most important works being the Etudes, op. 10, and 
 his two concertos, in E minor and in F minor. In 
 a letter to one of his very few intimate friends, 
 dated October 3, 1829, he speaks of being invited 
 to Berlin by the Prince and Princess Radziwill, but 
 says he has begun so many works that he thinks it 
 
 *See Karasowski, Vol. 1, p. 79. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Effect 0/ 
 his Vienna 
 experience 
 on his 
 develop- 
 ment. 
 
 His first 
 love affair. 
 
 His two 
 concertos 
 and the 
 Etudes, 
 op 10. 
 
140 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Firstfiublic 
 perform- 
 ance oft ie 
 £ minor 
 concerto. 
 
 Technical 
 difficulties 
 of the 
 concertos. 
 
 would be wiser to remain in Warsaw. In the next 
 paragraph of the same letter he confides to his 
 friend that he has found his ideal, but does not men- 
 tion the name of the young lady ; says he idolizes 
 her, but has never yet spoken with her. He says 
 also that the thought of her inspired him in the 
 composition of the Adagio of his new concerto, and 
 of a waltz* he had just written. His concerto in F 
 minor, afterwards published as op. 21, was finished, 
 and Chopin played it in two concerts in the Warsaw 
 theatre in March, 1830. His success with the 
 public was immense, and gave him still further 
 encouragement. 
 
 The E minor concerto, published as op. n, was 
 finished in August, and on the eleventh of October 
 he played it in concert with the same success which 
 had hitherto attended his public performances. The 
 critics praised him without stint, and his country- 
 men were proud of him as an artist who did honor 
 to the Polish nation. 
 
 They had indeed abundant reason for their pride. 
 If he had accomplished nothing more than the mere 
 mastery of the technical difficulties of these two con- 
 certos, he would have ranked as one of the greatest 
 virtuosos who had appeared up to this time. In 
 
 ♦See Karasowski, Vol. i, p. 108. A foot note informs us that the E 
 minor concerto is the one referred "to, and this statement is repeated on 
 page 123. But the evidence furnished by Karasowski is conclusive that 
 the F minor concerto was played in public before the first and last move- 
 ments of the one in E minor were written. Possibly the Adagio of the 
 latter was written before the other movements, and while he was at work 
 on the former. But Karasowski offers us no evidence whatever in support 
 of his statement. 
 
FRANCOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN. 
 
 141 
 
 fact, these difficulties were not only very great, but 
 they were of so peculiar a kind as to form an epoch 
 in the history of pianoforte technics, and there was 
 hardly anybody at that time, except Chopin himself 
 and his great contemporary, Liszt, who could have 
 played them. Pianists had to accustom themselves 
 to the new manner before they could find them- 
 selves at home in it. But to have invented these 
 new figures and combinations was a much greater 
 feat. 
 
 When we consider the artistic significance of 
 these works, the depth, fullness and variety of 
 their emotional content, the force of contrast, 
 the vigor, subtlety and vividness of imagination, the 
 richness of harmony and modulation, the beauty of 
 the melodies, the perfection of form, the ease and 
 power with which the intellectual elements are con- 
 trolled, the sure intuition by which the musical 
 means are adapted to the requirements of expres- 
 sion, the refinement which pervades the whole, we 
 must admit that in this young man of twenty-one 
 we have before us one of the most original creators 
 yet known, of whom not only Poland but the whole 
 world might justly be proud. 
 
 With these two concertos Chopin left his home 
 for Vienna, November 2, 1830.* He never returned 
 
 *The statement in Mr. Edward Dannreuther's admirable, though brief 
 article on Chopin, in Grove's "Dictionary of Music and Musicians," that 
 Chopin was only nineteen at this time, is a singular slip on the part of a 
 usually careful writer. The evidence in Karasowski's book, to which Mr. 
 Dannreuther refers, though he carelessly overlooked the facts, is conclu- 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 The 
 
 important 
 content 
 of the two 
 concertos. 
 
 He leaves 
 Poland 
 never to 
 return. 
 
142 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Second 
 visit to 
 Vienna, 
 1830. 
 
 The 
 
 uprising at 
 Warsaw. 
 
 to Warsaw, and with this departure closed the epoch 
 of his youth. His friends accompanied him a short 
 distance on his way, and at a banquet in a neigh- 
 boring village presented him with a silver cup filled 
 to the brim with Polish soil, solemnly adjuring him 
 never to forget friends and fatherland. There was 
 no need of the exhortation ; Chopin was true and 
 faithful, and loved his country and his home with 
 ardent passion. This cup and its contents he kept 
 religiously to the end of his life, and this Polish 
 earth was, at his own request, strewn on his coffin 
 at his burial. 
 
 He traveled to Vienna by way of Breslau, Dres-. 
 den and Prague, but he found the conditions there 
 much less favorable for him than on his former 
 visit. Many of his old friends were absent, and 
 various circumstances conspired to prevent his giv- 
 ing concerts as he had intended, although he finally 
 gave a single one to a small audience, not long 
 before his departure. 
 
 Among these unfavorable circumstances was the 
 Polish uprising of November 29th, 1830. The 
 Austrian government and nobility became suspicious 
 of all Poles and very much disinclined to favor 
 them in any way, and Chopin's sympathies were 
 so much with his oppressed and desperate country- 
 men that only the urgent representations of his 
 father as to his unfitness for military duty kept him 
 from returning at once to Warsaw to join his young 
 friends in the ranks of the insurgents. Thus 
 Vienna was no longer the pleasant place he had 
 
FRANqOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN. 
 
 143 
 
 found it a year before, and he determined to go to 
 Paris. But Paris was the headquarters of insurrec- 
 tion. It was the success of the July Revolution in 
 Paris which had given hope to the Poles and been 
 the occasion of the present outbreak. A Pole seek- 
 ing a passport for Paris was a suspicious character, 
 and Chopin's application was refused. He then 
 applied for a passport for England, via Paris, and 
 after considerable delay received permission to go 
 as far as Munich on his way. He reached the 
 Bavarian capital, July 20, 1831, remained there a 
 few weeks, made the acquaintance of the best 
 artists there, and, at their urgent request, played his 
 E minor concerto in one of the concerts of the 
 Philharmonic Society. His playing as well as his 
 composition met with a reception which went far to 
 compensate him for his disappointments in Vienna. 
 But a severe blow was in store for him. In Stutt- 
 gart he received the news of the taking of Warsaw 
 by the Russians, and was naturally filled with 
 anxiety and grief. In this frame of mind he gave 
 vent to his feelings in the passionate, fiery Etude in 
 C minor, op. 10, No. 12, sometimes called the 
 "Revolution Etude," a composition every way 
 worthy of its author and of the occasion which 
 called it forth. 
 
 He arrived in Paris toward the end of September, 
 and there he remained, barring occasional journeys, 
 for the rest of his life. The fate of his native 
 country drove the greater part of the noble and 
 intelligent among his countrymen into exile; many 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Gives a 
 concert 
 at Munich. 
 
 The 
 
 "Revolu- 
 tion 
 Etude." 
 
 A rrives at 
 Paris. 
 
144 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Discour- 
 agements. 
 
 Kalkiren- 
 ner. 
 
 Kalkbren- 
 ner's 
 reception 
 of him. 
 
 of them settled in Paris, and Chopin was much more 
 at home there than he could possibly have been in 
 Warsaw. So, after a while, he became a naturalized 
 French citizen, and used to refer jokingly to his 
 Vienna passport "to London, via Paris.'' saying that 
 he was only on his way to England. 
 
 But the beginning of his life in Paris was far from 
 encouraging. He was too modest to put himself 
 forward by giving concerts, or in any other way, 
 and he was wholly unknown. Success in Vienna, or 
 indeed anywhere in Europe, did not involve success 
 in Paris or the slightest reputation in that vain- 
 glorious metropolis. Chopin imagined himself in 
 need of further instruction and bethought him of 
 taking lessons of Kalkbrenner, at that time the 
 most fashionable teacher in Paris, a robust, healthy 
 artisan of a player, without a particle of genius in 
 his composition, whose vigorous style of playing, 
 combined with his really high technical attainments, 
 made him pass for the greatest virtuoso in Europe. 
 
 This man, now wholly forgotten, the whole list of 
 whose compositions is not worth the ink it would 
 take to print a Chopin mazurka, had then such a 
 reputation that Chopin, already an artist whose 
 shoes Kalkbrenner was not worthy to loose, actually 
 went to him and began negotiations for lessons. 
 Kalkbrenner heard him play, saw at once what an 
 increase of reputation such a pupil would give him 
 began to pick flaws in his technic, assured him that 
 his playing did not conform to classical rules and 
 needed a great deal of overhauling, and finished by 
 
FRANCOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN. 
 
 145 
 
 informing him that he would need three years to 
 train him properly, and would accept him as a pupil 
 if he would agree to remain with him that length of 
 time. 
 
 Chopin was very modest indeed, but he had 
 sufficient knowledge of his own powers and attain- 
 ments to be surprised at this proposal; perhaps, too, 
 a suspicion that to become a second Kalkbrenner 
 was not the high calling to which he was chosen, 
 began to dawn upon him before the interview was 
 over; at any rate, he hesitated and determined to 
 ask advice of his father and of his former excellent 
 teacher, Eisner, before deciding the matter. Eis- 
 ner wrote him a wise and cautious letter, in which, 
 without advising him directly what he should do, he 
 laid down the principles which ought to guide his 
 decision. He suggested plainly enough that Chopin 
 ought to give his own genius a chance to develop 
 naturally in its own way, and not allow any blind 
 Philistine to cramp it by pseudo-classical restric- 
 tions, or distort it by crowding it into a mould for 
 which nature never intended it, that his gifts as a 
 a composer were of far more permanent importance 
 than his piano-playing, and that three years devoted 
 to acquiring the Kalkbrenner virtuosity was very 
 much more time than he could afford to give to any 
 such purpose. Meanwhile, Chopin had had several 
 more interviews with the distinguished Parisian 
 virtuoso, had played for him a good deal, had 
 obtained from him the admission that he hardly 
 needed three years of training in order to be- 
 lt 7 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Chopin's 
 doubts. 
 
 Eisner's 
 advice. 
 
146 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 He acquires 
 a real per- 
 ception of 
 his own 
 powers. 
 
 come a great pianist, and had come to much the 
 same conclusions as those hinted at in his old 
 teacher's guarded letter. 
 
 It had become clear to him that the Kalkbrenner 
 virtuosity was no model for him, that on no account 
 could he nor would he copy any such example; that 
 even the truly classical field, whatever its richness 
 and fertility, was not his field; still less could he see 
 any way of producing anything from the little bar- 
 ren, stony patch so assiduously cultivated by the 
 Parisian pianists and composers in total unconscious- 
 ness of its sterility. In short, the young man had 
 been making the comparisons forced upon his atten- 
 tion and had fairly begun to be conscious of his 
 own powers. He saw that his productions were 
 wholly different, both in form and in content, from 
 what he saw around him. He could not help 
 believing in the validity of the principles which 
 guided him and of the inward forces which strove 
 in him for outward manifestation, nor could he 
 longer conceal from himself that the legitimate out- 
 come of these forces and principles must be to 
 create a new epoch in the history of musical Art. 
 And so, with strengthened courage and impulse, 
 with firm and high purpose, he addressed himself 
 eagerly and hopefully to the special and peculiar 
 work, which he now clearly saw it had been given 
 him to do. All this he boldly, but still modestly, 
 announces to Eisner in his reply to his teacher's 
 fatherly letter: he says decidedly that whatever study 
 he now does will be pursued with a view to enabling 
 
FRANCOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN. 
 
 147 
 
 him to stand more firmly on his own feet, gratefully 
 acknowledges Eisner's wise and fatherly counsel, and 
 dutifully hopes his kind friend will not withhold his 
 approval and blessing. 
 
 But what to do for a living ? His acquaintances, 
 outside of a small circle of artists and a larger one 
 of his impoverished refugee countrymen, were few; 
 he could not at once sell his compositions; he had 
 no pupils. His artist friends, Kalkbrenner among 
 them, encouraged him to give a concert and helped 
 him with the necessary arrangements, but many 
 hindrances stood in the way, and when he at last 
 gave it, in February, 1832, hardly anybody went 
 except the more wealthy of his own countrymen, 
 and the concert did not pay expenses. Chopin, 
 always easily depressed, was very much discouraged. 
 He conceived the idea of going to America, and 
 wrote his parents, beseeching them to give their 
 consent to his plan. Karasowski has some pertinent 
 remarks as to the intolerable position in which such 
 a sensitive, retiring, aristocratic artist would have 
 found himself in practical, unpoetic, democratic 
 America, if he had been unwise enough to settle 
 here in 1832 ! Fifty years have made a wonderful 
 change. 
 
 But Chopin's parents knew better. They insisted 
 that he should either remain in Paris or return to 
 Warsaw, and in spite of the numerous attractions of 
 the French capital, his discouragements there com- 
 bined with his home sickness to decide him to brave 
 the displeasure of the Russian Government and go 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 His dis- 
 couraging 
 prospects. 
 
 Wishes to 
 goto 
 A merica. 
 
148 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 He goes to a 
 reception at 
 Baron 
 Roths- 
 child's. 
 
 Becomes the 
 idol 0/ the 
 first 
 society. 
 
 Not success- 
 fill as a 
 player in 
 large 
 audience 
 rooms. 
 
 home. His friends in Paris, Liszt among others, in 
 vain tried to dissuade him; his trunk was already 
 packed when he happened to meet Prince Radiwill 
 in the street, told him of his intention and bade him 
 good-bye. The Prince pressed him to go with him 
 that evening to a reception at Baron Rothschild's. 
 Chopin consented, and that evening proved the 
 turning point in his career. His hostess invited him 
 to play ; he was excited and inspired by his sur- 
 roundings ; played and improvised in a way that 
 drew forth universal enthusiasm and applause from 
 the company, and found himself at once on the 
 road to fame and fortune. Before he left the house 
 he had numerous applications to give lessons in the 
 best families of Paris. He gave up his plan of 
 leaving, and henceforth depended on his earnings 
 for a livelihood. There was not the slightest diffi- 
 culty about it; he at once became the fashion, grew 
 more and more popular among the wealthy and cul- 
 tivated Parisians, turned the heads of the beautiful 
 women in the French metropolis, his compositions 
 were eagerly bought as fast as they were published, 
 and as pianist, teacher and composer he was, to the 
 day of his death, the idol of society. 
 
 As a concert player, however, he was compara- 
 tively unsuccessful. His playing was fine, delicate, 
 tender; he loved to play a piano with a soft, delicate 
 tone, and his proper place was in a drawing-room, 
 not a large theatre or concert-hall. This he dis- 
 covered, to his mortification, at his second concert 
 in Paris, where he failed to make any effect with the 
 
FRANCOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN. 
 
 149 
 
 great audience in the vast auditorium of the Italian 
 Opera. Henceforth public playing became distasteful 
 to him; he left it to his friend Liszt who, as he said, 
 " could storm and deafen the public into surrender," 
 and played almost exclusively in small parties of 
 connoisseurs, where, under the influence of sympa- 
 thetic auditors, especially ladies, his finest artistic 
 qualities showed themselves. 
 
 Thus Chopin all at once found himself floating 
 on the top wave of prosperity But there was 
 trouble in store for the young artist. In 1832, Con- 
 stantia Gladkowska was married in Warsaw. Cho- 
 pin's letters to his friend,* Johannes Matuszynski, 
 prove that his love for her was pure, deep and pas- 
 sionate. This love he had never confided to his 
 parents, and there had been no acknowledged 
 engagement, but Constantia had at least so far 
 encouraged him that, on his departure from Warsaw, 
 she gave him a ring as a token of affection. Her 
 marriage must have been a terrible disappointment 
 to him, and a great mortification as well, though no 
 record of his feelings on this subject exists. But 
 Chopin was young, popular, had only too much to 
 distract his thoughts, and time heals even severe 
 hurts. 
 
 In his next love affair he was equally unfortunate, 
 and even more so, so far as the wound to his self- 
 love was concerned. In 1836 he was betrothed to 
 a young and beautiful countrywoman of his, and he 
 
 * See Karasowski, Vol. I, chap. X. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Love disap- 
 pointments. 
 
 A second 
 misfortune 
 in love. 
 
i5° 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 His con- 
 nection 
 with 
 George 
 Sand, 
 Her char- 
 acter. 
 
 and all his friends were rejoicing in the near pros- 
 pect of a happy marriage, when the young lady sud- 
 denly decided to accept a count for her husband, 
 and broke with her artist-lover without warning or 
 ceremony. It was a cruel humiliation, and no 
 human being could have felt its sting more keenly 
 or deeply than did Chopin. It rankled terribly, the 
 more that he was not at all demonstrative by nature. 
 He brooded over his feelings in secret, grew even 
 more reserved and melancholy than usual, and 
 finally became morbid and almost desperate. 
 
 In this mood he made the acquaintance of a most 
 remarkable woman, who was henceforth to exercise 
 a controlling power in his life. 
 
 Mme. Aurora Dudevant, known in literature 
 under her pseudonym of "George Sand," was a 
 woman of genius, and already held a commanding 
 position in the literary world. The vigor and fire 
 of her imagination, combined with the force, refine- 
 ment and artistic finish of her style, had made her 
 known as a consummate literary artist, and had 
 given her a high place in the world's estimation, and 
 especially in the coterie of writers, painters, musi- 
 cians, artists and distinguished amateurs, of which 
 Chopin was by no means the least important mem- 
 ber. In personal character Mme. Sand was peculiar. 
 She was powerful, almost masculine in her mental 
 and bodily traits. She was passionate, but not 
 coarse ; religious, without accepting any of the cur- 
 rent theological dogmas ; moral in her way, but with 
 a moral sense which most right thinking people 
 
FRANCOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN. 
 
 I5i 
 
 would consider perverted, for she held opinions the 
 legitimate outcome of which would be to dissolve 
 the bonds of society. She was, in short, a free-lover 
 in belief and practice, was separated from her hus- 
 band, and supported herself and her two children 
 by her pen. Her principles and conduct were no 
 bar to her admission into a society where dullness was 
 the greatest of crimes, and wit, not to say genius, 
 atoned for many moral delinquencies, provided they 
 were covered with a veil of decorum. 
 
 From any introduction to this woman Chopin had 
 shrunk. He knew her books, admired her genius, 
 but felt, nevertheless, a strong prejudice against her, 
 and a desire to avoid her. Hitherto he had been 
 successful in doing so, but just at the crisis of his 
 second love affair she was presented to him one 
 evening at a reception, fell violently in love with 
 him, flattered him by her praise and attention, suc- 
 ceeded in fascinating him, and soon inspired him 
 with a strong feeling of affection. He went at 
 length to live at her house, and continued his inti- 
 mate relations with her until 1847, when she tired 
 of him, grew cool, and showed so plainly that she 
 had outlived her passion that Chopin, already nearly 
 dead with consumption, withdrew from her house 
 and left her to her own devices. But his attach- 
 ment to her had become his strongest passion, and 
 the rupture with her proved fatal to him. 
 
 His illness had been a lingering one. It began 
 with a severe attack of bronchitis in 1837. He sought 
 relief in a Southern climate, spent the winter of 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Chopin s 
 prejudice 
 against 
 her. 
 
 Is captured 
 by her. 
 
 His linger. 
 ing illness. 
 
i5* 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 The ■ 
 preludes 
 of a morbid 
 character. 
 
 1837-8 with Mme. Sand in the island of Majorca, 
 and appeared to grow better after his return. But 
 consumption began very soon, and was aggravated 
 by late hours and the excitement of Parisian society. 
 Its progress was slow but sure. For a long time 
 before he left Mme. Sand's house he gave his lessons 
 lying on a sofa, occasionally rising for a moment to 
 give an example or make some necessary correction. 
 During his illness, too, he became very irritable and 
 his pupils had often to grant the pardon which he 
 always asked for breaches of a courtesy which had 
 never failed during the earlier portion of his life. 
 Two years he lingered on after the last of his social 
 disappointments and then he died, surrounded and 
 mourned by his friends and pupils, October 17, 1849. 
 The last twelve years of his life require no 
 detailed mention here. The record would be a 
 monotonous one. His character had already been 
 formed, and many of his greatest productions had 
 seen the light before this time. The Preludes, or 
 most of them, were written during his winter in 
 Majorca, and many of them show traces of his mor- 
 bid mental condition. He was suffering from his 
 disorder; the winter was unusually cold and stormy; 
 he was exceedingly nervous and a prey to hypochon- 
 driacal fancies, which at times bordered on insanity. 
 This condition of mind was not permanent, but 
 often recurred during the last years of his life, as 
 his disease grew upon him and his sorrows in- 
 creased ; and the compositions of these years often 
 reflect his delirious mental condition. It is diffi- 
 
FRANQOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN, 
 
 153 
 
 cult to decide, however, just what compositions are 
 to be assigned to this period of his life. The opus 
 numbers are no guide; they only indicate the order 
 of publication, not of composition, anc* many of 
 the works published after his death were \vritten in 
 very early life. 
 
 The order of composition is approximately as 
 follows: From op. 1 to op. 15, inclusive, were 
 written before he went to Paris; so was the Concerto, 
 op. 21, which was composed before the other; from 
 op. 16 to op. 52, fall between 1832 and 1843; from 
 op. 53 to op. 65, belong to the years 1843 to 1847. 
 The works numbered from op. 66 onward are all 
 posthumous, and with the single exception of the 
 Fantasie - Impromptu, op. 66, are comparatively 
 insignificant pieces, which Chopin himself intended 
 to destroy.* 
 
 Of all his works, none are characterized by more 
 beauty, freshness, originality, or vigor than his Con- 
 certo in E minor, op. n. Of the works written in 
 Paris before i843,when his disease began to be serious, 
 those most original in form are the Ballads, Scherzos 
 and Impromptus. Some of the Nocturnes, Mazur- 
 kas and Polonaises are, however, equally character- 
 istic and significant as regards their content, and 
 extremely original in melody, harmony, cadences, 
 
 *There are two admirable complete editions of Chopin's works, one 
 or both of which ought to be in the hands of every student. One edited 
 by Carl Klindworth, and published by Bote & Bock, in Berlin, in three 
 volumes, at $3.00 each, and one edited by Hermann Scholtz, and published 
 by C. F. Peters, in three volumes, in Leipzig, at $1.75 each, or $5.00 for the 
 complete edition. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Approxi- 
 mate ordei 
 0/ his 
 composi- 
 tions. 
 
 His works* 
 
154 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap.'IX. 
 
 Their 
 merit. 
 
 Emotional 
 character 
 of Chopin's 
 •works. 
 How 
 
 determin- 
 ed. 
 
 figures and phraseology. The most important com- 
 positions after this period were the splendid and 
 imposing Polonaise in A flat, op. 53, the Polonaise- 
 Fantasie, op. 61, and the beautiful Berceuse, op. 
 57. But while there are degrees of excellence in 
 his works, there is almost nothing from Chopin's 
 pen which is not beautiful, poetic, significant, full of 
 the real inspiration of true genius, the expression of 
 the innermost life of a born artist, a passionate lover 
 and worshipper of the Beautiful, serving his beloved 
 Art and its ideal aims with unswerving and con- 
 scientious devotion. 
 
 As regards the emotional content of these works, 
 perhaps little need be added to what has already- 
 been said. Chopin's emotional life was determined 
 first of all by his inherited traits, mostly Polish, then 
 by the political disasters which befell his country, 
 and the consequent personal misfortunes of his 
 friends and countrymen, and lastly, by his intellect- 
 ual life and his social relations. His life in Paris 
 was an exciting one, in spite of his comparative 
 seclusion from the public. He was in daily inter- 
 course with the most intellectual men and women 
 of Parisian society, — artists, authors, wits, such per- 
 sons as Heinrich Heine, Eugene Delacroix, Ary 
 Scheffer, Franz Liszt, Mme. George Sand. His even- 
 ings were passed in the salons of beautiful, intelli- 
 gent, aristocratic ladies, whose subtle charms attracted 
 this select company of congenial spirits; and there 
 Art, Literature and the higher life of intelligence 
 were supreme. In this circle the noblest among 
 
FRANQOIS FREDERIC CHOPIN. 
 
 155 
 
 Chopin's countrymen found place, and in him they 
 found a most ardent sympathizer with all their past 
 sorrows, the woes of their present exile and their 
 patriotic hopes and aspirations. 
 
 There is a certa in heroic vein in ma nyofhiscom- 
 positions which comes of liis-slowing patriotism, 
 notably in his Polonaises^which are among the most 
 characteristically national of hisprbductionj^^JgiU, 
 this 'herolsmjsjjal^ 
 
 from uiat which in Beethoven wejj&yj^J.h.e^am.e 
 name. It lacks the ethical element, and it jQevec 
 suggests religious elevation. The _hero4&jEe£iiags 
 expressed in these works savor more of pride of 
 
 for . glorious , mjhtary^j^J£v^mem^^^^ 
 
 trodden,, and^qppressed^ than__of ^h.e^m.c^al.^mdigga- 
 
 tion of the reformer, the jtr^^^with^te^rgtaJtjgn 
 
 glOTJ^afeJbsJb^^ Not 
 
 that Chopin is ignoble, or immoral, or even irre- 
 ligious; not at all. He was brought up a strict 
 Catholic, and his early religious training, not un- 
 mixed with puerile superstition, was the ground on 
 which his whole character was based. He was high- 
 minded, his whole mental activity was permeated with 
 a fine moral sense, with refinement and high-bred 
 courtesy. He was a man of the world in the best 
 and highest sense, but still a man of the world. 
 His interests are human interests; his relations 
 human relations ; his joys and sorrows grow out of 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Heroic 
 vein in his 
 Polonaises. 
 
 The ethical 
 
 element 
 
 •wanting. 
 
 His feeling 
 
 mostly 
 
 secular. 
 
i56 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 He 
 
 perfectly 
 expresses 
 the feelings 
 of the 
 society in 
 which he 
 lived. 
 
 Chopin's 
 originality 
 equal to 
 any one's. 
 
 R. Schu- 
 mann. 
 
 his social surroundings, and when bitter disappoint- 
 ment overtakes him his consolations are to be found 
 in his relations to his fellows and in his beloved Art. 
 His h i gj\est ., mej^al , , resource^seems to be the love of 
 the Beautiful, juidjj&fe- power Jo^cre^^bTalSTiul 
 forms adapted4o,hjs need of emotional expression. 
 To Chopin we go then for perfect expression of 
 the emotions eng endered i n a high-bred exclusiye^ 
 mtetTectual society, as well as of those peculiar to 
 'himself and his, nation,, and -for -perfect embodiments 
 of beautiful conceptions, in, highly -.originai-fer,ms; 
 not for moral inspiration or religious uplifting. The 
 "religious passion and elevation " and, the "widen- 
 ing of men's moral horizon." justly ascrjbedjo 
 Beethoven are not to be found in Chopin. By. .so, 
 much is the, Polish, composer inferio^jnjjjatjjjg, 
 content oflns^Teatejt_works js pn^ljojrer^emotional 
 
 plane than that occupied by the noblest utterances of 
 lUS-S^St^JS^ecessor. In originality .Md'poweTof 
 
 conception, in invention, in mastery of his musical 
 material he is inferior tonojone. What "Ke "had to 
 say was his own, it was great and beautiful, andTie 
 
 said it in a marm^aboj^cri£ieism^.b.at.it was not 
 the TTighest and JioblesL, thing - y et - sa id— In-jjig 
 language of thepianoforte. 
 
 Robert Schumann was born in Zwickau, then 
 an insignificant mining town in Saxony, June 8, 
 1810. He was the youngest of five children, and 
 the only one of the family who achieved distinction. 
 His father was a bookseller and publisher, who had 
 had literary aspirations and ambitions beyond his 
 
ROBERT SCHUMANN. 
 
 *57 
 
 abilities ; his mother was a surgeon's daughter, of 
 some intelligence, but narrow and provincial in her 
 education and opinions, and decidedly contemptu- 
 ous of musicians and artists generally. Not a prom- 
 ising condition of things in this family for the devel- 
 opment of a musical genius. There had been no 
 musical talent in the family heretofore, and there 
 was no musical life or interest there now beyond 
 what was connected with the church and the schools. 
 The town offered few advantages. The best piano 
 teacher there was Professor Kuntzsch of the High 
 School, a pedantic, self-made musician, with the 
 defects of method and the narrow provincialism 
 inevitable in a teacher who had never been well 
 trained and who lived so far from the centres of 
 intellectual and artistic activity as to be but little 
 affected by the currents of musical life of his time. 
 
 Robert did not particularly distinguish himself at 
 school, either in childhood or later, but he began to 
 give evidence of musical gifts very early, and his 
 father was wise enough to send him to Professor 
 Kuntzsch for lessons. But he does not seem to have 
 profited much by the instruction, partly because his 
 teacher was incompetent, partly because the two 
 natures were incompatible, and quite as much be- 
 cause the boy was very badly spoiled, had been 
 indulged as the baby and the family, pet, and was 
 too irritable, susceptible and obstinate to learn much 
 of anybody except some one who could have 
 obtained complete mastery of him. This whole- 
 some control he never had. He showed the effects 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 His talent 
 singular 
 in the 
 family. 
 
 Failure of 
 his lessons 
 with 
 
 Professor 
 Kuntzsch. 
 
 His faults 
 
i5» 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 What he 
 did in spite 
 of faults 
 and 
 adverse 
 circum- 
 stances. 
 
 Schttr- 
 viann's 
 lack of 
 thorough 
 training. 
 
 His 
 
 itnteacha- 
 
 bleness. 
 
 of his childish faults to some extent all his life and 
 suffered from them, both as artist and as man. 
 
 But there were forces in him which could no more 
 help coming to outward manifestation than a live 
 acorn can help growing into an oak, if it have any 
 soil at all for nourishment. What Robert Schu- 
 mann might have become if he had been thoroughly 
 disciplined and surrounded by favorable influences 
 in his early years we can only conjecture. What he 
 did become we know ; and in spite of weaknesses 
 and defects the world has long since agreed to 
 acknowledge him as one of the great leaders and 
 creative minds of his time. It is possible that the 
 very circumstances which we deplore as apparently 
 unfavorable fostered the originality now so much 
 admired ; but it is more than probable that this 
 natural force was too strong to have been crushed 
 by any systematic training, however pedantic, and 
 that such surroundings as Chopin or Mendelssohn 
 had would have developed and enriched his nature 
 and genius without warping or misleading him. But 
 however this may be, Schumann never did become 
 either a thoroughly trained pianist or musician in 
 the ordinary sense. 
 
 His playing was always more or less faulty in tone 
 and in execution, and he never attained perfect cor- 
 rectness or ease. His Leipzig teacher, Wieck, wanted 
 him to study harmony systematically, when he first 
 took lessons of him at the age of eighteen, but Rob- 
 ert seemed to think a young fellow who could 
 improvise harmonies on the piano had no need of 
 
ROBERT SCHUMANN. 
 
 159 
 
 any system and so left harmony alone, until costly 
 experience taught him that he could not do without 
 it. This was one side of the boy's character ; but if 
 he had faults for which he had by and by to pay' 
 dearly, he had also traits which were to make him 
 both useful and famous. If he was self-willed and 
 obstinate, he was at any rate alive; if he would 
 grow only in his own way, still grow he would and 
 did, and a marvelous growth it was. 
 
 In early childhood he showed a wonderful power 
 of reproducing in tones impressions made on his 
 sensibility by persons, scenes and events. In spite 
 of his imperfect execution, he would sit down to his 
 pianoforte and invent melodic figures and phrases so 
 characteristic of the traits of his friends that the 
 likenesses would be recognized at once, and comical 
 enough were some of these tone-portraits. Thus, 
 from the very first, this peculiar phase of the roman- 
 tic tendency manifested itself in the boy. It was 
 innate and could not be suppressed, and this ele- 
 ment of romanticism he cultivated as his special and 
 peculiar field. He was a born romanticist through 
 and through, in every fibre of his being, and it was 
 not at all surprising that he took to German roman- 
 tic literature as his natural intellectual nutriment 
 and stimulus. His father's shop supplied the means 
 of gratifying this taste, and he availed himself of his 
 privileges with the greatest avidity. 
 
 But Schumann, if he worked only in his own way, 
 did, nevertheless, work. If he did not plague him- 
 self much with Professor Kuntzsch's instructions, he 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Power of 
 reproduc- 
 ing 
 
 impressions 
 in tones. 
 
 His innat* 
 romanti- 
 cism. 
 
 His self- 
 directed 
 work. 
 
i6o 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 His 
 
 father's 
 plans /or 
 him. 
 
 Harmful 
 effects of 
 his 
 
 pre-emin- 
 ence in 
 Zwickau. 
 
 collected round him all the music-loving youths of 
 his acquaintance, played with them in four-hand 
 arrangements a great deal of Haydn, Mozart, Bee- 
 thoven, Weber, Hummel, Czerny, in short, whatever 
 came to hand in the way of music, composed a great 
 deal in an exceedingly amateurish sort of way, even 
 organized a small orchestra and gave concerts, he 
 conducting and filling in on the pianoforte the parts 
 which were lacking ; made attempts at literary 
 authorship, too, wrote robber-plays and produced 
 them on an improvised stage, and altogether showed 
 great and incessant intellectual activity. 
 
 All this his father encouraged, and determining 
 to make a musician of him, he wrote to Carl Maria 
 von Weber, asking him to take charge of Robert's 
 musical education. Weber consented, readily 
 enough, but for some reason, the boy never went to 
 him. He floundered along as best he could, pursu- 
 ing his school studies, his reading and his music in 
 a confused, desultory, hap-hazard way, but with a 
 vast amount of energy and enthusiasm. He was 
 acknowledged as the leading spirit, in the field he 
 had chosen, among all the amateurs of Zwickau, and 
 this acknowledged pre-eminence contributed no 
 little to confirm in him the habit of self-will and 
 over-confidence in his own knowledge. It is indeed 
 astonishing, and a signal proof of the greatness of 
 his gifts, that he should ever have come to anything. 
 
 The first serious obstacle in the way of his self- 
 chosen path had to be met soon after the death of 
 his father, which occurred when he was sixteen 
 
ROBERT SCHUMANN. 
 
 161 
 
 years old. His mother would not hear of his be- 
 coming a musician, though she had no objection to 
 his using music as a recreation and amusement. 
 His guardian, a merchant of Zwickau, agreed with 
 her, and the two decided that Robert must go to 
 Leipzig to study law at the university, as soon as he 
 had graduated from the Zwickau grammar school. To 
 Leipzig accordingly he went in March, 1828, and 
 seemed not indisposed to yield to his mother's 
 wishes in the matter of a profession. It is probable 
 that he really meant to attend the lectures on juris- 
 prudence ; in fact, he made several attempts to do 
 so, but he never got farther than the door. His 
 time was spent in playing and composing music, 
 attending the Gewandhaus concerts and the opera, 
 making music with a few young student friends and 
 reading, mainly Jean Paul Richter, for whose works 
 he had conceived a violent passion. He further 
 diversified his experience by falling in love with 
 various pretty girls here and there, a species of sen- 
 timental indulgence to which he was very prone dur- 
 ing all the early part of his life, and which seems 
 to have harmed no one, perhaps not even himself. 
 He also took a journey to Heidelberg during this 
 spring, in company with Rosen, a young student 
 with whom he had become sworn friends, and pass- 
 ing through Munich met Heinrich Heine and the 
 painter Zimmerman, from both of whom he received 
 impressions which had no little effect upon him. 
 Rosen remained in Heidelberg and the two friends 
 began a correspondence in which the eighteen-year 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Is sent to 
 Leipzig to 
 study law. 
 
 Journey to 
 Heidelberg 
 
162 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 His morbid 
 sentiment- 
 ality. 
 
 His inter- 
 course with 
 Wieek. 
 
 old Schumann appeared mainly as a gushing youth, 
 running over with Jean Paulism and with that pecu- 
 liar German sentimentality which never fails to 
 strike an Anglo Saxon as somewhat ridiculous and 
 contemptible, but which is perhaps an indispensable 
 element of the German " Gemuethlichkeit," and 
 possibly may even be at the bottom of the pre-emin- 
 ence of the German race in the development of 
 music as a language of the sensibility.* But these 
 letters also contain premonitions of power, imagina- 
 tive and intellectual, and show the strong tendency 
 to fantastic dreaming and romantic imagining and 
 feeling which were born in him and were fostered 
 into luxuriant growth by his reading and associa- 
 tions. 
 
 One of the most healthful influences which 
 affected him during this year in Leipzig was his 
 intercourse with Friedrich Wieck and his family. 
 Wieck was an extremely original, sensible, active- 
 minded and successful music teacher. He had two 
 daughters, the elder of whom Schumann afterward 
 married. She was at this time about nine years of 
 age and was already an accomplished pianist. 
 Wieck himself was a healthy, merry, wholesome sort 
 of man, the reverse of the tearful, melancholy, over- 
 sentimental temperament of Schumann. The young 
 student spent many delightful hours with the fam- 
 ily, profited by his intercourse with them in many 
 ways, and was greatly stimulated by *hc gifted 
 
 *See letters in the " Life of Robert Schumann," by vm> vr**>f>w*\ 
 translated by A. L. Alger, and published by O. Ditson &. Co., Boston. 
 
ROBERT SCHUMANN. 
 
 163 
 
 artist nature and precocious attainments of the little 
 Clara. 
 
 But this did not last long. Robert left Leipzig 
 for Heidelberg in May, 1829, ostensibly to attend 
 lectures on jurisprudence in the university. What 
 he really did was to practice the piano, partly on 
 the basis of his lessons with Wieck, study and com- 
 pose music, play a great deal in a select circle of his 
 student friends and a little in public, and devote 
 himself almost exclusively to his musical and liter- 
 ary pursuits. The most significant compositions of 
 this year which now remain to us were numbers 1, 
 3, 4, 6 and 8 of the " Papillons," a series of short 
 pieces intended to reproduce the impressions of dif- 
 ferent scenes and incidents at a masked ball. 
 
 He does not seem to have yet arrived at any de- 
 cision as to whether he would ultimately pursue the 
 career of a professional musician ; he simply drifted 
 along, yielding to the impulses which moved him in 
 the line of musical activity and almost wholly neg- 
 lecting his law studies, for which he felt an uncon- 
 querable aversion. But matters could not go on so. 
 At the end of the school year something had to be 
 settled, and by this time he had thoroughly made 
 up his mind as to his course. He wrote to his 
 mother, July 30, 1830, informing her of his unwill- 
 ingness to continue his law studies and his desire to 
 devote himself to music, begged her to write to 
 Wieck for his opinion as to the wisdom of his 
 change of plan, and promised to abide by his old 
 teacher's decision. The letter was modest and 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Removes to 
 Heidelberg. 
 
 Still 
 neglects 
 law and 
 studies 
 music. 
 
 Drifts 
 
 without 
 
 any 
 
 definite 
 
 purpose in 
 
 life. 
 
 The crisis. 
 
164 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chaf. IX. 
 
 He returns 
 to Leipzig 
 to study 
 music with 
 Wieck. 
 
 Lames his 
 right hand. 
 
 Studies 
 with Dorn. 
 
 respectful, but very decided, and his mother, unwill- 
 ingly enough, complied with his request. Wieck's 
 reply settled the matter. He assured Mme. Schu- 
 mann that Robert had abilities which warranted 
 him in expecting to become a great musician, and 
 advised that he be thoroughly educated with this 
 end in view. 
 
 The result of it was that in a few weeks he was 
 again in Leipzig under the guidance of his old in- 
 structor, than whom no more competent man could 
 have been selected. He took up his residence in 
 Wieck's house, planning for a thorough course of 
 study of the pianoforte. But this soon came to an 
 end by his ill-advised attempts to shorten the pro- 
 cess of technical attainment. Just what were the 
 mechanical appliances he used for this purpose no 
 one seems to know, but, at any rate, his right hand 
 became permanently lame, and he was forced to 
 turn his attention exclusively to composition. His 
 previous efforts in this field, although exhibiting 
 innate power and originality, and displaying the 
 peculiar bent of his mind, had been crude, and he 
 himself had begun to see the necessity of solid theo- 
 retical study and practice. By Wieck's advice he 
 put himself under the instruction of Heinrich Dorn, 
 then conductor of the opera and a sound musician, 
 and entered upon the study of harmony and coun- 
 terpoint with great enthusiasm. 
 
 His lessons with Dorn profited him greatly, but 
 he was nearly twenty-two years old and had lost 
 much precious time. At the same age Mendelssohn 
 
ROBERT SCHUMANN. 
 
 165 
 
 was one of the most accomplished musicians in 
 Europe, while Schumann found that the years in 
 which it might have been possible for him to acquire 
 a similar mastery of the technic of composition had 
 passed forever. He never gained any such freedom 
 and facility of expression or command of his musi- 
 cal materials as characterized his future colleague in 
 the Leipzig conservatory. 
 
 Schumann soon left Wieck's house, though his 
 r intimacy with the family continued, and lived much 
 as other students did. He worked hard days and 
 devoted his evenings to recreation with his friends. 
 Socially he was reserved, or rather impassive, un- 
 responsive, and to all outward appearance apathetic; 
 but his intimates knew that this lethargic exterior 
 covered a sensibility extremely open to impressions 
 of every sort, a keen and subtle perception, a vigor- 
 ous intellect, a strong sense of humor, a vivid 
 imagination especially delighting in the fantastic and 
 the fanciful, and strong, deep feeling. 
 
 These qualities found their fullest revelation and 
 most characteristic embodiment in his music. His 
 "Papillons" ("Butterflies"), op. 2, begun in Heidel- 
 berg and finished in Leipzig in 1831, are thoroughly 
 characteristic of his nature and tendencies. They 
 are, in form, a mere series of short pieces, some of 
 them of no great intrinsic significance, but with a 
 poetic intention underlying the separate pieces and 
 the arrangement of them, to which Schumann has 
 given us a clue only by a hint or two, and by a few 
 words of explanation in the last number of the series. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 His man- 
 ners and 
 social rela- 
 tions. 
 
 His" Pap- 
 illons " 
 ckarac'ter* 
 istic. 
 
i66 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 They 
 
 suggest the 
 scenes of a 
 masked 
 ball. 
 
 They show 
 clearly the 
 poetic bent 
 of his 
 mind 
 
 But this last is sufficient to show clearly that he 
 intended these pieces to express different phases 
 of feeling induced by the scenes of a masquerade. 
 
 The short opening number seems to express the 
 mood appropriate to the first impression made by 
 the lighted ball-room with its throng of pleasure 
 seekers; No. 2 shows us the antics of a harlequin; 
 No. 3, a general promenade or procession of the 
 maskers; No. 7, a tender dialogue between two 
 lovers, followed in No. 8 by the most blissful of 
 waltzes, thoroughly poetic and profoundly suggest- 
 ive; No. 1 2 shows us the party breaking up during the 
 final dancing of the " Grandfather " minuet; while 
 the town clock strikes six, the sounds gradually die 
 away one after the other. The remaining numbers 
 are much less suggestive of definite scenes, but 
 those above mentioned can hardly be mistaken. 
 
 These " Papillons " are interesting and important 
 mainly as showing the bent of his mind toward con- 
 necting his music with more or less definitely con- 
 ceived scenes. This tendency shows itself plainly 
 in many of his works, notably in the Davidsbuendler, 
 op. 6 ; The Carnival, op. 9 ; the Fantasy pieces, 
 op. 12; the Scenes from Childhood, op. 15; the 
 Vienna Carnival Pranks, op. 26; the Album for 
 Youth, op. 68; the Forest Scenes, op. 82, and the 
 Album Leaves, op. 124. It is true, he himself has 
 cautioned us, somewhat obscurely, against carrying 
 our literalness of interpretation too far, saying that 
 some of the titles in the Scenes from Childhood 
 were added after the pieces were written, instead of 
 
ROBERT SCHUMANN. 
 
 167 
 
 serving beforehand as images which raised the feel- 
 ings embodied in the music. But his applying the 
 titles showed that he considered them sufficiently 
 appropriate to serve as more or less accurate guides 
 and helps in interpretation, and proves none the less 
 conclusively the poetic tendency of his mind, and 
 his proneness to link scenes and feelings together in 
 his music. That he often did not connect them 
 except in a vague way is thoroughly characteristic. 
 
 Schumann was a strong but not a clear thinker, 
 and seldom attained complete mastery of his 
 thought or definite, clear, finished expression, either 
 in music or in literary composition. His was one of 
 those somewhat exasperating yet stimulating minds, 
 of which so many are to be found even among the 
 greatest poets and philosophers of Germany, whose 
 ideas are hopelessly befogged, although they evi- 
 dently have ideas extremely significant and perhaps 
 all the more attractive that they are incompletely 
 revealed. These minds struggle with their thought, 
 they show unquestionable power, and the very vio- 
 lence of the effort convinces us of the greatness of 
 the ideas; but they are never completely triumphant; 
 they never fully succeed in dragging out into clear 
 daylight and exhibiting in its full proportions 
 what they have discovered; more remains than they 
 themselves have perceived, much less displayed to 
 others; the whole is attractive but tantalizing. This 
 will be best appreciated by those who have tried to 
 make their way through the obscure pages of Hegel 
 in the hope of understanding him. Such are apt 
 
 Chap. IX, 
 
 Schumann 
 a strong 
 but not a 
 clear 
 thinker. 
 
i68 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Schumann 
 aims to 
 suggest 
 images by 
 his music. 
 
 The 
 
 "Etudes 
 Symjrhon- 
 taues." 
 
 Their 
 extraor- 
 dinary 
 power. 
 
 to come away convinced that the great philosopher 
 was a long way from understanding his own writing, 
 but also convinced that he had found much worth 
 understanding, and feeling that, on the whole, the 
 attempt had been a bracing, stimulating intellectual 
 effort, not without result in increase of strength and 
 enlargement of ideas 
 
 Schumann undoubtedly aimed often, if not gen- 
 erally, at the utmost definiteness of emotional ex- 
 pression, and often aimed, too, at suggesting definite 
 images by means of expressing in tones the emo- 
 tional impression made by such images. So that when 
 he inscribes a title which irresistibly suggests a 
 scene or event, we are fairly entitled to follow out 
 the connection with the music as definitely as 
 we can, in the absence of information or direction 
 to the contrary. Enough will remain obscure when 
 we have found every imaginable point of contact. 
 
 It is perhaps not important here to mention 
 Schumann's minor compositions in detail. Those 
 between the " Papillons " and the " Etudes Sym- 
 phoniques," op. 13, are of comparatively little 
 importance. These " Etudes, in the form of Varia- 
 tions," were written in 1834, and are not only a great 
 advance on any of his previous works but are 
 among the most profoundly significant and atractive 
 of all his compositions. The gain is not specially 
 in clearness of statement, but in fertility of inven- 
 tion, in wealth of suggestion and in the irresistible 
 impression of depth and power of feeling, intellect 
 and character which they make. In these there is 
 
ROBERT SCHUMANN. 
 
 169 
 
 no trace of the lachrymose sentimentality so plenti- 
 ful in his letters ; the Schumann of the " Etudes 
 Symphoniques " is hardly to be recognized as the 
 author of the letters to Henrietta Voigt on pages 88- 
 90 of Wasielwski's Life, for example; there is, to be 
 sure, the same fantastic, obscure imagining and 
 moods more or less akin, but the music is vastly 
 stronger and more manly than the letters appear to 
 be. Yet both are productions of the same man at 
 about the same time. 
 
 In form, these " Etudes," though called "varia- 
 tions " are very far from conforming to the accepted 
 models, and indeed most of them have so little 
 formal relation to the theme that the term "variation" 
 is almost a misnomer. They are rather Schumann's 
 comments on the original subject (which, by the 
 way, is not his own, but was written by the father of 
 of one of his young lady friends, Baroness Ernestine 
 von Fricken) — pieces suggested to his imagination 
 by the mood of this theme. 
 
 This work was immediately followed by the "Car- 
 nival," op. 9, another attempt to express in short 
 pieces a series of moods appropriate to a masquer- 
 ade. The two Sonatas, op. n and op. 22, belong 
 to the year 1835. They are much less successful 
 than the pieces just mentioned. Schumann was no 
 master either of the sonata form or of the art of the- 
 matic treatment, and his genius was hampered by the 
 classical harness. The op. 22 is much the better 
 of the two. 
 
 Between this time and the time of his marriage to 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 The "Car- 
 nival" 
 of.Q. 
 
170 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 His "works 
 from 06.1b 
 to op. so. 
 
 Schu- 
 
 mann's 
 
 disfavor 
 
 with- 
 
 Wieck. 
 
 Clara Wieck, in 1840, he wrote the "Kreisleriana," 
 op. 16 (so named from their imaginary connection 
 with Kapellmeister Kreisler, in E. T. A. Hoffmann's 
 fantastic romance, " Kater Murr "), the noble 
 "Fantasia," op. 17; the " Novelettes," op. 21, the 
 "Fantasy Pieces," op. 12; the "Scenes from Child- 
 hood," op. 15; "Arabeske," op. 18; " Flower Piece," 
 op. 19; "Humoreske," op. 20; "Night Pieces.' op. 
 23; "Vienna Carnival Pranks," op. 26, and other 
 pieces of minor importance. 
 
 This list comprises nearly all his significant works 
 for the pianoforte alone. They were largely the 
 product of a time of mental agitation due to his 
 love affairs. He had wished to marry Ernestine 
 von Fricken and had been very intimate with her 
 when she lived at Wieck's. But for some unex- 
 plained reason the connection was broken off, she 
 went home, Schumann fell under Wieck's displea- 
 sure and ceased to visit the family. Meanwhile he 
 fell in love with Clara, and after a while she recipro- 
 cated his affections, but her father would never con- 
 sent to receive Schumann as his son-in-law. When 
 the young couple finally did marry, Schumann had 
 to resort to the courts to get possession of his. 
 bride. 
 
 But Schumann's love affairs and activity in com- 
 position by no means occupied all his attention. 
 He was thoroughly disgusted with the shallow criti- 
 cism and the equally shallow appreciation of music. 
 at that time prevalent in Leipzig and elsewhere- 
 The popular pianoforte composers were Kalkbrenner,, 
 
ROBERT SCHUMANN. 
 
 171 
 
 Huenten, Herz, Czerny and men of that stamp, whose 
 only merit consisted in a certain amount of pleasing 
 melodiousness without depth of feeling or intelli- 
 gence. These were, in university student parlance, 
 " Philistines," the natural enemies of originality, 
 genius, and the vigorous individual life which char- 
 acterized the young Romanticists. 
 
 Against all pedants, shallow, self-seeking virtuosi 
 and empty - headed, frivolous pianoforte tinklers 
 Schumann determined to wage vigorous war, and 
 entered the field of criticism. In 1834 he, in 
 company with a few like-minded associates, among 
 whom was Wieck, founded the " New Journal 
 of Music " (Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik), and 
 edited it for ten years. It at once became a great 
 power in musical matters, profoundly influenced 
 public opinion, and introduced to Germany many 
 new writers, among them Chopin, Berlioz, Gade, 
 Stephen Heller, Adolph Henseult, Robert Franz and 
 Sterndale Bennett. Schumann's own writing was 
 much of it fantastic arid fanciful; he personified the 
 two sides of his nature under the names of Flor- 
 estan and Eusebius, and his associates Wieck and 
 Carl Banck under those of Raro and Serpentinus, 
 and these imaginary characters are continually ap- 
 pearing in the pages of the journal. The name 
 " Davidsbuendler " or "David and his confederates" 
 also appears, and his " Carnival" contains a "March 
 of the Davidsbuendler against the Philistines." But 
 if he wrote fancifully and more or less obscurely, 
 his criticisms are almost always striking and suggest- 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 The "Phil- 
 istines.^ 
 
 Schumann 
 founds and 
 edits the 
 '"Neue 
 Zeitschrift 
 fuer 
 Musik." 
 
172 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 His 
 
 collected 
 
 •works. 
 
 His songs. 
 
 The piano- 
 forte Quin- 
 tet, op. 44, 
 and Quar- 
 tet op. iff. 
 
 "Gene- 
 vieve." 
 
 ive, and many of them are very clear and forcible. 
 Most of them have been translated into English by 
 Mrs. Fanny Raymond Ritter, and are published in 
 two volumes under the title " Music and Musicians." 
 To these the reader is referred for further knowl- 
 edge of Schumann's work as a critic. 
 
 From the date of his marriage, Schumann's work 
 as a composer concerns this history but little. In 
 that year his emotions found vent in the production 
 of a large number of songs, some of them among 
 the most poetic and imaginative ever written, truth- 
 ful in characterization, surcharged with profound 
 feeling, and of great beauty. He then began to 
 write for orchestra, and henceforth to the end of his 
 life the piano occupied with him a subordinate place. 
 But among the comparatively few pianoforte com- 
 positions of the last sixteen years of his life, there 
 are three very important ones. These are the Piano- 
 forte Quintet, op. 44, the Quartet, op. 47' and the 
 A minor concerto, op. 54, all of them beautiful, sig- 
 nificant and original; so much so, indeed, that they 
 can hardly be said to have been surpassed in power 
 by even Beethoven's best work, though they fall far 
 short of the finish of the older master. Besides his 
 songs and orchestral work he also wrote an opera, 
 " Genevieve," which shows great creative power, 
 but has fatal defects as a musical drama, and two 
 cantatas, one " Paradise and the Peri," founded on 
 an episode in Moore's " Lalla Rookh," and the other 
 an adaption of Byron's " Manfred," besides works 
 of minor importance. 
 
ROBERT SCHUMANN. 
 
 173 
 
 In 1843, at Mendelssohn's invitation, he joined 
 him as a teacher of composition, etc., in the newly 
 founded Leipzig conservatory. But this connection 
 did not long continue. Schumann was no teacher ; 
 had no power of expressing ideas in speech or of 
 communicating information ; was always silent, and 
 apparently apathetic in the class-room as in society. 
 This tendency even increased after his marriage. 
 
 In his domestic relations he was happy. Clara 
 Schumann was a woman of genius, the daughter of 
 a man who had known how to develop her gifts in 
 the wisest way ; her culture was broad and deep ; 
 she was, and still remains (1883), at past sixty, one 
 of the greatest and finest of interpretative artists in an 
 age exceptionally productive of great virtuosi ; she 
 was not only exceptionally fitted to be the compan- 
 ion of a great creative mind like Robert Schumann's 
 in all his intellectual and artistic interests and activ- 
 ities, but was a domestic, homelike wife and mother, 
 who stood between her husband and outside annoy- 
 ances and interruptions, made a delightful, happy, 
 restful home for him and their eight children, and 
 was in every way a woman who commanded and still 
 commands the respect, admiration and love of all 
 who have the felicity of knowing her personally, as 
 well as of thousands who only know her by her 
 admirable performances and her reputation. The 
 present writer looks back upon some concerts of 
 hers with the Gewandhaus orchestra, some sixteen 
 years ago, as among the greatest privileges and 
 most delightful experiences of his life. 
 
 Chap.IX. 
 
 His 
 
 connection 
 
 •with the 
 
 Leipzig 
 
 Con$erva~ 
 
 tory. 
 
 Character 
 of his wife. 
 
i74 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Schu- 
 mann's 
 domestic 
 happiness. 
 
 His Con- 
 ductorship 
 at Duessel- 
 dorf. 
 
 Insanity 
 
 and death. 
 
 With such domestic surroundings it is not to be 
 wondered at that Schumann felt less than ever any 
 inclination for general society. He stayed at home 
 and devoted himself to composition, occasionally 
 going on a concert tour with his wife, who still 
 desired to play in public. 
 
 In 1844, Schumann gave up his paper and re- 
 moved to Dresden. He had already begun to feel 
 the disease which finally destroyed his reason and 
 his life ; it was afterwards found to be an abnormal 
 growth of bone into the substance of the brain ; it 
 caused him intense pain and occasioned a morbid 
 state of feeling and of mental activity. In 1850 he 
 was called to Duesseldorf as director of concerts 
 and church music and accepted the post. But he 
 was never a good conductor, and the progress of his 
 disease made him even less successful than formerly, 
 so that after some three years, a period prolonged 
 somewhat out of consideration for his feelings, the 
 connection terminated. 
 
 He had almost reached the end. Decided symp- 
 toms of insanity developed more and more rapidly 
 and culminated in an attempt at suicide. On Feb- 
 ruary 27, 1854, while sitting in social intercourse 
 with his physician and another friend, he left the 
 room, without a word, went to the bridge and threw 
 himself into the Rhine. He was rescued, but his 
 mind was gone. He was removed to a private 
 asylum near Bonn, and died there July 29, 1856. 
 
 A brief comparison of the three great composers 
 whose creative activity determined the course of 
 
ROBERT SCHUMANN. 
 
 175 
 
 Musical History in the Romantic Epoch must close 
 this chapter. All three were subjective ; each con- 
 sciously and deliberately sought to reproduce his 
 emotional life in tones ; each embodied in his com- 
 positions his most peculiar experiences ; so that in 
 the music of each is revealed his innermost life and 
 character. 
 
 Of the three, Mendelssohn was the most healthy 
 and wholesome ; dealt less with social emotions of 
 the feverish, abnormally exciting sort ; was closer to 
 nature, too, and to the healthiest literature. His 
 Midsummer Night's Dream music is perhaps his 
 most characteristic work, where he deals with nature 
 in her romantic aspects ; his imagination is kindled 
 by the solemn grandeur of the forest, the mysterious 
 gloom and silence of night, broken only by the cry 
 of night birds and of insects, the dewy, moonlit 
 glades, the flowery nooks, the thick coverts, the fairy 
 train of Oberon and Titania, with mischievous Puck 
 and the other attendants, the lovers whose transitory 
 mishaps only enhance the charm of the scene, the 
 clumsy clowns rehearsing their play, Bottom, with 
 the ass's head and the fairy queen's ridiculous infat- 
 uation with him. 
 
 But hardly less characteristic are his lovely, 
 romantic four-part songs, his overtures and sympho- 
 nies. The love of natural scenery reappears in 
 these works and in the Walpurgis Night, and his 
 oratorios show a noble, elevated religious life, such 
 as nowhere appears in Schumann or Chopin. The 
 majestic figure of the Prophet and the fiery enthusi- 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 The 
 
 Romantic 
 writers 
 compared. 
 
 Mendels- 
 sohn, 
 
 Love of 
 
 Nature 
 
 shown in 
 
 Midsum- 
 
 merNight'z 
 
 Dream. 
 
 A religious 
 life shown 
 in his 
 Oratorios. 
 
176 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Chopin. 
 
 His emo- 
 tions caused 
 by the ex- 
 citements 
 of worldly 
 society. 
 
 asm of the Apostle inspired him as no similar char- 
 acters affected his two romantic contemporaries. 
 The social emotions, too, expressed in his songs, 
 with and without words, are natural and under 
 rational control, never become overmastering pas- 
 sions, are always the revelation of a happy, sunny, 
 joyous, yet serious and thoughtful nature. 
 
 Chopin, on the other hand, has little apparent 
 relation either to nature or to religion. His emo- 
 tional life is conditioned solely on social relations, 
 and those not always of the healthiest or most ele- 
 vated. He is sometimes morbidly intense, delirious, 
 passionate ; there is pleasure intoxicating to the 
 verge of delirium ; his pain, grief and despair occa- 
 sionally border on insanity ; in short, the passions 
 of Polish and Parisian society, the whole emotional 
 life of a passionate, worldly, intellectual, refined, 
 luxurious, pleasure-seeking aristocracy is mirrored 
 in his music. It impresses us, too, with a sense of 
 what it would be somewhat unjust to call weakness 
 or effeminacy ; it is rather a deficiency of robustness 
 and virility, a character tender, refined, almost fem- 
 inine, but yet with a vast reserve fund of power and 
 with a certain positiveness and vigor which goes far 
 to make up for his over-sensitiveness and suscepti- 
 bility to outside influences. 
 
 Above all, Chopin is always an artist; his sense of 
 beauty is keen and subtle; his feeling for form is an 
 unerring instinct; his power of invention, both in 
 melody and harmony, is unsurpassed; and the ex- 
 quisite beauty of many, indeed most, of his works 
 
ROBERT SCHUMANN. 
 
 177 
 
 will for long remain a source of delight to connois- 
 seurs. 
 
 Schumann's greatest deficiencies, as already 
 pointed out, are lack of clearness, definiteness, con- 
 centration, and imperfect mastery of his means of 
 expression. What he had to express, however, was 
 an emotional life more virile, robust, powerful than 
 that of either Chopin or Mendelssohn. The fire of 
 Chopin's passion glowed with equal intensity, but 
 the impulse it gave was more fitful and spasmodic. 
 Schumann's feeling rushes on with all-compelling, 
 resistless force; even when imperfectly revealed it is 
 Titanic; if we sometimes get no more than glimpses 
 of his passion, even these convince us that there is 
 not only intensity but mass of heat, like a vast 
 furnace full of molten metal, from which indeed run 
 great masses of slag and dross, but these are the 
 very result and product of huge purification. 
 With all his passion, his intense longing, strong 
 out-reaching desire, earnest striving, headlong im- 
 pulse, there is a sense of repose which comes only 
 from the working of a great force. 
 
 The passion of Chopin is violent, rushing, impet- 
 uous, but carries less weight. Or, to change the 
 figure — Schumann's passion rolls in great, deep-sea 
 waves, which break on rocky cliffs in thunderous 
 roar of overwhelming surf ; Chopin's is a narrow 
 tropical sea, beautiful in calm and sunshine, but 
 fruitful of sudden hurricanes and violent storms, of 
 deafening thunder and blinding electric flashes; 
 Mendelssohn's is an inland lake, not too deep to be 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 Schumann. 
 
 His 
 
 profound 
 
 and 
 
 vigorous 
 
 feelings. 
 
 Com- 
 parison 
 of the 
 passion 
 of the 
 three 
 writers. 
 
178 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 easily fathomed, with charming, quiet bays and en- 
 ticing nooks haunted by sprites and elves, a veritable 
 fairy domain, the abode of grace and beauty. All 
 three are to be counted among the world's great and 
 precious treasures. "Romantic" they are, certainly; 
 but if it can ever be possible to judge of the per- 
 manence of any contemporary Art, then may we 
 surely expect that these three great masters will by 
 and by be counted as " classics." At any rate their 
 place in musical history is unmistakable. 
 
PAKT FOUKTH. 
 
 The Development of Piano- 
 
 EOKTE TeCHNIC. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE TECHNIC OF THE FIRST CLASSICAL PERIOD. 
 
 When the harpsichord was invented we know not. 
 But we do know that the organ preceded it. The 
 harpsichord seems to have been, at first, a mere 
 household substitute for the organ, which latter 
 instrument was, of course, too large and expensive 
 to be used anywhere except in churches, monas- 
 teries and other large places for public assemblies. 
 The harpsichord was at first a resource of organists 
 for home practice and gradually found its way into 
 popular use. 
 
 At first, organ music was transferred to it, and no 
 account was taken of its peculiar capabilities. For 
 a long time pieces were written " for the organ or 
 harpsichord," and even at the time of Bach and 
 Haendel harpsichord players were almost always 
 organists as well. And not only so, but these play- 
 ers seem to have considered the organ as so much 
 superior that they devoted little attention to the 
 harpsichord, regarding it as a mere auxiliary, subor- 
 dinate to their main interests. 
 
 But the striking difference between the capacities 
 of the two instruments must have suggested to some 
 of these players that there might be something in 
 the harpsichord worth cultivating. So long as scien- 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Relation 
 of the 
 harpsi- 
 chord to thl 
 organ. 
 
 Beginning* 
 of harpsi- 
 chord 
 music 
 proper. 
 
l82 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Shortness 
 of tone 
 necessitated 
 ornaments. 
 
 fjfccl of 
 lack .y 
 wnority. 
 
 tific music was almost exclusively confined to the 
 service of the church, so long the organ retained its 
 exclusive supremacy. But when opera was invented, 
 in the sixteenth century, and the harpsichord not 
 only came into prominent use in the orchestra, but 
 had to serve for the accompaniments of recitatives 
 and arias, its importance increased. Compositions 
 began to be written which took into account its 
 special peculiarities ; its evanescent tones, its lack 
 of sonority and its lightness and shallowness of 
 touch as compared with the clumsy actions of the 
 organs of the period. 
 
 The shortness of the tones precluded the cultiva- 
 tion of the lyric quality and suggested the appropri- 
 ateness of rapid passages as the staple element of 
 compositions intended for that instrument. When 
 tones had to be prolonged they were trilled or fur- 
 nished with turns, mordents, prall-trills or appoggia- 
 turas. These were borrowed from the vocal embell- 
 ishments of the time, but were not mere ornaments, 
 as in the case of arias, etc. ; they served to supply 
 the defect of shortness of tone in the instrument, 
 and so were an important element in harpsichord 
 music. 
 
 The second peculiarity, lack of sonority, owing to 
 the lightness of the strings and the impossibility of 
 producing a powerful tone by plucking a string with 
 a quill, precluded any broad, majestic effects, and 
 contributed to the adoption of light and rapid pass- 
 ages and embellishments as the main peculiarities of 
 harpsichord music. 
 
TECHNIC OF THE FIRST CLASSICAL PERIOD. 
 
 183 
 
 Lastly, the lightness of the action pointed in the 
 same direction. 
 
 Harpsichord technic, then, involved light and 
 rapid playing of scales and arpeggios and of all 
 sorts of finger passages, including trills and other 
 embellishments. It required independence and flex- 
 ibility of the fingers and great dexterity, but not 
 strength. 
 
 But there was no employment of extended scales 
 and arpeggios as there is in our modern music. In 
 the first place, these instruments were much smaller 
 in compass than our modern pianofortes, rarely 
 exceeding five octaves. 
 
 Then, too, the prevalent music was polyphonic, 
 and extended passages were impossible in fugue 
 playing. Each hand had generally to perform two 
 or more voice-parts at the same time, and this 
 involved the necessity of writing them within a nar- 
 row range of notes. 
 
 It was perhaps owing to this fact that the finger- 
 ing of single scale passages in vogue at that time 
 was so crude and clumsy. As late as the last 
 decade of the seventeenth century the rules laid 
 down in the instruction books for fingering scales 
 required them to be played with two fingers only ; 
 the third (middle) and fourth in ascending aud the 
 third and second in descending. 
 
 The use of all five fingers was a result of the 
 development of monophonic playing, or, what is, for 
 technical purposes, the same thing, of the employ- 
 ment of long passages for only one voice for a single 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 What was 
 involved in 
 harpsi- 
 chord 
 technic. 
 
 Limi- 
 tations. 
 
 Crude 
 fingering. 
 
 How iin- 
 jirovements 
 were made. 
 
1 84 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Back's free 
 polyphony. 
 
 A rtistic 
 capabilities 
 of the 
 clavichord. 
 
 hand, in free polyphony. The hand, not being ham- 
 pered by the necessity of playing two or more 
 voices, could indulge in much greater freedom of 
 execution, and out of this gradually came florid 
 monophony, culminating at last in our day in the 
 difficult passages of Thalberg, Liszt and others. 
 
 Of this style of free polyphony involving florid 
 monophonic passages Sebastian Bach was as great a 
 master as he was of strict polyphonic playing. In 
 the latter he was unrivaled. He was not only the 
 greatest composer of fugues, but the greatest player 
 of fugues. In the art of delivering several melo- 
 dies simultaneously he surpassed all his predeces- 
 sors and contemporaries. This art involved the fre- 
 quent changing of fingers on one key and the slid- 
 ing of the fingers from one key to another, so as to 
 produce a perfect connection between the tones. 
 
 The greatest defect of the harpsichord for fugue 
 playing was the impossibility of discriminative em- 
 phasis. The clavichord was somewhat superior in 
 this respect. It was possible to make some slight 
 difference in the power of the tones of this instru- 
 ment, to emphasize somewhat the entrance of a 
 fugue subject or answer, and to discriminate one 
 melody or passage from another by greater or less 
 force of delivery. Above all, it was superior to the 
 harpsichord in lyric quality, in the possibility of pro- 
 longing the tones beyond a mere tinkle, and impart- 
 ing to them something of singing effect. 
 
 Accordingly, the clavichord was a favorite instru- 
 ment with Sebastian Bach, as having finer artistic 
 
TECHNIC OF THE FIRST CLASSICAL PERIOD. 
 
 i85 
 
 capabilities than either the harpsichord or the piano- 
 fortes of his day. The action of the latter was still 
 too imperfect and clumsy to satisfy his requirements. 
 The mechanism of the pianoforte is necessarily 
 complicated, and it was thirty or forty years after 
 Bach's death before it finally superseded the older 
 instruments. 
 
 Sebastian Bach's technic, then, was the technic of 
 the harpsichord, and especially of the clavichord. 
 In him polyphonic playing, as well as polyphonic 
 writing, culminated. All that could be done on the 
 instruments of his time he did. He attained the 
 utmost independence of finger, the utmost ease, 
 lightness, fluency ; his dexterity in interweaving con- 
 trapuntal parts was perfection itself; he employed all 
 five fingers in passages when they could be used to 
 advantage, disregarding the pedantic rules of his 
 time ; he made the most of the lyric capabilities of 
 the clavichord. In short, like most original minds, 
 he was an innovator, discovering all the possibilities 
 of the instruments he used and inventing new 
 means of accomplishing his ends. 
 
 Haendel was also a great organist and harpsi- 
 chordist, but devoted most of his life to the produc- 
 tion of Italian opera. His harpsichord technic, as 
 far as it goes, differs in no essential particular from 
 Bach's. 
 
 Domenico Scarlatti seems to have had more of the 
 virtuoso spirit, in the sense in which that term is 
 used in Germany at the present day. 
 
 A virtuoso, in this sense, is one who puts the | 
 
 8* 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Back's 
 technic. 
 
 HaendeVs 
 technic. 
 
 Scarlatti' 3 
 virtuosity. 
 
1 86 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 The true 
 artist. 
 
 The 
 virtuoso. 
 
 The artist 
 spirit. 
 
 mastery of technical difficulties and the display of 
 his technical attainments above those aims which 
 the real artist regards as paramount. 
 
 The true artist has in view, first of all, the worthy 
 embodiment of a worthy ideal. As an interpretative 
 artist he holds it his paramount duty to render 
 truthfully the conceptions of any composer whose 
 works he takes upon himself to represent to others, 
 selecting the works of no composer whose genius he 
 does not respect, treating them reverently and 
 interpreting them with conscientious fidelity, so far 
 as he can ascertain the composer's intention. 
 
 The virtuoso, on the other hand, is apt to use his 
 attainments primarily as a means of glorifying him- 
 self in the eyes of others. Whatever he writes is 
 apt to be written with reference to the display of his. 
 attainments, to the production of astonishing and sen- 
 sational effects, that he may gain glory for himself. 
 His performances of the compositions of others are 
 apt to be characterized by the same dominant pur- 
 pose. "Effect" is the watchword of the virtuoso. 
 He does not like to play pieces, however noble or 
 significant, which are not "effective." He is apt to 
 desecrate the noblest works of the greatest genius 
 by additions and alterations intended solely for 
 show. 
 
 The spirit of the artist is one of self-abnegation,, 
 of devotion to ideal aims. The virtuoso is primarily 
 an egotist, using his technical attainments as a. 
 means not to the faithful setting forth of noble con- 
 ceptions, but for his own personal aggrandizement. 
 
TECHNIC OF THE FIRST CLASSICAL PERIOD. 
 
 187 
 
 But, although there are abundant examples of 
 both classes of players, there are perhaps few artists 
 who play much in public without sometimes being 
 tempted to sacrifice something of the higher inter- 
 ests they are called to represent, to the desire for 
 applause, and perhaps there are few virtuosi who do 
 not sometimes feel impelled to use their splendid 
 gifts and acquirements for high ends. It is a ques- 
 tion, in each individual case, of predominant ten- 
 dency and habitual intention. 
 
 As regards Domenico Scarlatti, it would doubt- 
 less be very unjust to represent him as a virtuoso 
 pure and simple, in the sense in which that word has 
 just been explained. But there is much in his com- 
 positions which seems to have been conditioned, not 
 on any inward necessity of expression, but on the 
 desire to overcome technical difficulties and to display 
 his mastery of them. There are passages exceedingly 
 troublesome to players even now, which seem to 
 serve no ideal end, but to exist solely for the sake of 
 difficulty. 
 
 The most conspicuous examples of this are pas- 
 sages where the hands are crossed very rapidly, as 
 in the sonata No. 10 of Koehler's edition (see Chap- 
 ter I). But whatever we may think of the intel- 
 lectual or artistic worth of this sort of work, it 
 undoubtedly contributed much to the mastery of 
 technic, and especially to the development of the 
 monophonic style of playing. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 Evidences 
 of the 
 virtuoso 
 spirit. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE TECHNIC OF THE SECOND CLASSICAL PERIOD. 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 The change 
 in technic 
 gradual. 
 
 Character- 
 istics of the 
 Vienna 
 pianoforte. 
 
 When we compare the sonatas of Scarlatti, the 
 suites of Haendel and the suites, partitas, sonatas 
 and concertos of Sebastian Bach with the sonatas of 
 Emanuel Bach, we find no sudden change in 
 technical qualities. Indeed, the development of the 
 technic of the pianoforte was a slow and gradual 
 process, and neither Emanuel Bach, Haydn nor 
 Mozart ever fully recognized the peculiar capacities 
 of the new instrument. All three were bred harp- 
 sichordists, and even in the Mozart concertos, the 
 culmination of technic in these three authors, most 
 of the passages are perfectly practicable for the 
 harpsichord. In these works, as in those of Haydn 
 and Emanuel Bach, we find the same demand for 
 lightness and fluency which characterized the con- 
 certos and other compositions of Sebastian Bach's 
 time. 
 
 This was, in part, due to the fact that the Vienna 
 pianofortes had very light actions, modeled on those 
 of the harpsichords then in use. The ideals of 
 pianoforte technic and effects were drawn from the 
 experience of harpsichord players, modified only by 
 the single consideration of the possibility of shading. 
 
 But this capacity for varying the power of tones 
 
 z88 
 
TECHNIC OF THE SECOND CLASSICAL PERIOD. 
 
 189 
 
 was an element which gradually enlarged the ideas 
 of players as to the possible effects derivable from it, 
 and, after a while, led to great changes in the con- 
 struction of the instrument. 
 
 Nevertheless, Vienna was not the place where 
 these modifications first suggested themselves ; the 
 Viennese players and composers continued for a long 
 time to be the exponents of a smooth, easy-going, 
 superficial style of technic and of playing, and the 
 Viennese pianofortes continued to be very light in 
 action and lacking in sonority, making small de- 
 mands on the power and endurance of players, and 
 incapable of broad or powerful effects. 
 
 From the above judgment of Viennese composers, 
 Beethoven, and in a less degree, Schubert must be 
 excepted. More of these hereafter. 
 
 The most important service rendered by Emanuel 
 Bach, Haydn and Mozart in the development of 
 pianoforte technic was their progressive recognition 
 of the lyric element. The adagios in the sonatas of 
 Emanuel Bach were distinct attempts to improve 
 upon the singing effects already attained on the 
 clavichord. They were probably calculated for that 
 instrument, at least quite as much as for the piano- 
 forte, for, although Bach played both instruments, 
 and the harpsichord as well, he is said always to 
 have preferred certain effects obtainable on the 
 clavichord to any of those which could be produced 
 by the pianofortes of his day. 
 
 The most peculiar of these effects was the 
 "Bebung," a peculiar tremulous effect produced by 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 The 
 
 Vienna 
 
 technic. 
 
 Develop- 
 ment of thl 
 lyric 
 element. 
 
 The 
 "■Beiung.' 
 
190 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 How 
 
 Haydn and 
 Mozart 
 developed 
 
 technic. 
 
 a rapid repetition of slight pressure on the key. 
 The " Tangent," which was in contact with the 
 string as long as the key was held down, transmit- 
 ted this vibratory motion to the string, producing 
 an effect probably analogous to that with which we 
 are familiar in the playing of violinists and violon- 
 cellists. 
 
 But although Bach preferred the clavichord for 
 the performance of his lyric pieces, the stress he 
 laid upon the lyric element in playing must have 
 tended strongly to develop the lyric capabilities of 
 the pianoforte, an instrument which was now rapidly 
 growing in favor, so much so as to fairly supersede 
 the older instruments about the time of Emanuel 
 Bach's death (1788). 
 
 Haydn and Mozart also cultivated the lyric ele- 
 ment of the pianoforte. Their works show a steady 
 development of it. Haydn modeled on Bach, and 
 Mozart on Bach and Haydn, and in the Mozart sona- 
 tas and concertos we find what was probably a full 
 and complete recognition of the lyric possibilities of 
 the small, light Viennese pianofortes of his time. 
 
 The extended scale and arpeggio passages of the 
 Mozart concertos also show a distinct recognition of 
 the capabilities of light and shade peculiar to the 
 pianoforte, although their relation to the harpsi- 
 chord is almost as close as their relation to the 
 newer instruments. 
 
 But there was an Italian contemporary of his 
 who, though he was no such original genius as 
 Mozart, rendered more important service than he in 
 
TECHNIC OF THE SECOND CLASSICAL PERIOD. 
 
 191 
 
 the development of pianoforte technics This was 
 Muzio Clementi ( 1752-1832), an artist and virtu- 
 oso who occupies somewhat the same relation to 
 Mozart and' Haydn that Domenico Scarlatti did to 
 Bach and Haendel. 
 
 He was born at Rome, went to England in his 
 childhood and spent most of his lifetime there. His 
 eighty years were full of honorable and useful activ- 
 ity. He was a thorough musician, an excellent 
 composer, so far as technical attainments went, and 
 had very marked talent, so much, indeed, that no less 
 a judge than Beethoven preferred his sonatas to 
 Mozart's. He composed about a hundred sonatas, 
 the same number of studies (Gradus ad Parnassum), 
 besides symphonies, choruses, etc. 
 
 He was a superior teacher, and formed some of 
 the finest pianists of the next generation ; among 
 them J. B. Cramer, John Field, Alex. Klengel and 
 Ludwig Berger. He also conducted Italian opera 
 in London, and engaged in the manufacture of 
 pianofortes. 
 
 In early life, he aimed at brilliant execution, and 
 especially cultivated difficult playing in double 
 thirds, fourths, sixths and octaves. He after- 
 wards acquired a broad cantabile and a nobler and 
 more artistic style generally. He was a pianist 
 rather than a harpsichordist, and was really the first 
 of the great players of whom this could be said. 
 He preferred the English .pianofortes with their 
 heavy action, and adapted his playing and his com- 
 positions to these instruments. 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 Clemently 
 175S-I$31. 
 
 As flayer. 
 
192 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XI. 
 
 Clementi 's 
 tecknic as 
 related to 
 English 
 piano- 
 fortes. 
 
 His 
 
 importance 
 in the 
 history of 
 technic. 
 
 These English pianos had greater sonority th#n 
 those of Vienna ; the heavier stroke suggested 
 heavier strings and a larger sounding-board, and 
 they required a technic approaching that of the 
 modern instruments. It is Clementi's great con- 
 tribution to pianoforte technics that he fully appre- 
 hended the requirements and capacities of the best 
 English instruments of his day, and in his playing, 
 teaching, and composing, gave them adequate recog- 
 nition. 
 
 The whole fabric of modern pianoforte technic 
 rests on the Gradus ad Parnassum. Up to the com- 
 positions of Chopin, Liszt and Schumann, there is 
 nothing for which these studies do not afford an 
 adequate foundation. Even the Beethoven Fifth 
 Concerto does not go beyond the Clementi technic, 
 in its principles or its extreme difficulty. 
 
 Clementi's lifetime covers a period from seven 
 years before the death of Haendel to four years after 
 that of Beethoven and up to within two years of the 
 establishment of the Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik by 
 Schumann. He lived through the whole epoch of 
 the development of the sonata, its culminatiop and 
 transformation, and into the very sunrise of the 
 Romantic epoch. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE TECHNIC OF THE TRANSITION PERIOD. 
 
 We have already seen that Clementi, the most 
 important factor in the classical technic, lived not 
 only through the first classical period, but through 
 the transition period as well. He was born four 
 years earlier than Mozart and died four years later 
 than Beethoven. Moreover, the most important 
 part of his work was done between the dates of 
 Mozart's death and that of Beethoven. 
 
 Although the romantic ideals were pressing into 
 the foreground, the whole technic of the transition 
 period was classical. We have already noticed that 
 Beethoven's most difficult concerto is amply pro- 
 vided for in dementi's technic. 
 
 Beethoven did, indeed, embody a content in the 
 greatest of his works, for the interpretation of which 
 the full resources of our modern instruments are no 
 more than sufficient. In this respect his work is 
 prophetic. But the essential elements of his tech- 
 nic are all to be found in the Gradus of Clementi. 
 One of the most noticeable points of his early tech- 
 nic is his use of rapid successions of chords, as in 
 the Sonata in C, op. 2, No. 3. This is evidently 
 borrowed from Clementi, who was, at that time, his 
 favorite model. 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 The technic 
 of the 
 period 
 classical. 
 
 Beethoven! x 
 technic. 
 
 *93 
 
19^ 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 Technic of 
 Schubert 
 and Weber. 
 
 All tecknic 
 either 
 classical or 
 romantic 
 in prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 Use of the 
 
 damper 
 
 pedal. 
 
 The technic of Schubert and Weber was also 
 based on that of Clementi. The latter, however, 
 made use of extended chords in a way wholly 
 original, an example which has been followed since. 
 He also used the octave glissando in his " Concert - 
 Stueck," a mere virtuoso trick, which has remained 
 wholly without influence on practice since. 
 
 In general, it may be said that not only the con- 
 temporaries of Clementi, but all classical players 
 and composers since, have based their technic on 
 his Gradus ad Pamassum. Some of them, like 
 Moscheles, for example, have seized upon points 
 which he had treated but briefly and have elaborated 
 them at great length and in detail. Many individ- 
 ual peculiarities of treatment and style are also to 
 be found, and the classical players of the Romantic 
 period could hardly remain wholly unaffected by 
 the innovations of the Romantic composers. But, 
 in principle, all classical technic is to be found 
 in Clementi ; and all ' in our modern playing 
 which cannot be accounted for on his principles 
 can be referred to Liszt and the other Romanti- 
 cists. 
 
 In one single point of technic have players, not 
 distinctively Romantic, gone beyond dementi's 
 practice or suggestion, viz., the use of the damper 
 pedal. Beethoven used it considerably, and Mos- 
 cheles (1784-1870) still more extensively. Henselt 
 (born 1814) still further enlarged the domain of the 
 pedal, and Thalberg (181 2-1 871), who cannot be 
 
THE TECHNIC OF THE TRANSITION PERIOD. 
 
 195 
 
 classed as either a classicist or romanticist, but is 
 the culmination of the "Philistine" school of shallow 
 players, of which Czerny and Kalkbrenner were 
 distinguished representatives, carried the *ise of it 
 to its extreme limits. 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE TECHNIC OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 Persistence 
 pf classical 
 technic in 
 the roman- 
 tic period. 
 
 We have alr-eady seen that the classical school of 
 playing persisted after the advent of the great 
 Romanticists. Kalkbrenner (i 788-1849), one of 
 the greatest of the classical virtuosi, died in the 
 same year with Chopin. Moscheles (1 794-1 870) 
 outlived all the Romanticists. Hiller was born in 
 181 1, Thalberg in 181 2 and Henselt in 18 14. Of 
 these three only Thalberg is dead, and even he out- 
 lived all the great Romanticists except Liszt. Be- 
 sides these there is a host of players who are classi- 
 cists by tradition and principle. 
 
 These followers of the methods of classical tech- 
 nic were, indeed, more or less affected by the 
 Romantic influences which surrounded them, but 
 these influences showed themselves rather in at- 
 tempts at characterization and the embodiment of a 
 Romantic content than in any borrowing of the pecu- 
 liar effects of the distinctively Romantic technic. In- 
 deed, Mendelssohn himself was essentially a classicist 
 in much of his technic, no less than in the clearness of 
 his forms. Even in the Songs without Words, there 
 is little which cannot be referred back to the techni- 
 cal principles of Clementi. 
 
 These principles depended mainly on the con- 
 196 
 
THE TECHNIC OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD. 
 
 197 
 
 struction of compositions from five-finger passages, 
 scales and arpeggios. The rules of fingering 
 required that a five-key position should always be 
 taken when possible ; that a position once taken 
 should not be changed unnecessarily ; that all pas- 
 sages derived from scales and arpeggios should be 
 fingered like the arpeggios or scales on which they 
 were founded ; that the thumb and little finger, 
 being shorter than the others, should not be used on 
 black keys, except in positions where their shortness 
 produced no disadvantage. These principles suf- 
 fice for playing all classical compositions in the 
 monophonic style. 
 
 But Mendelssohn, in many of his Songs without 
 Words, introduced passages where a melody with 
 an accompaniment to be played by the same hand 
 could be delivered properly only by changing the 
 fingers on successive keys while holding them down 
 with a continuous clinging pressure. 
 
 This changing of fingers was not wholly new, for 
 Bach had used it in polyphonic playing, and occa- 
 sional instances of it had occurred since, in de- 
 menti's works and elsewhere ; but with Mendelssohn 
 it assumed new and greater importance. His Songs 
 without Words became the fashion, served as mod- 
 els to many composers, and intensified the already 
 great and growing interest in the purely lyric style. 
 
 This interest was greatly heightened by the lyric 
 pieces of Chopin. But Chopin's relation to technic 
 was much more important than Mendelssohn's. He 
 was an innovator ; as original in his technical meth- 
 
 Chap.XIII. 
 
 Rules 0/ 
 fingering. 
 
 Mendels- 
 sohn's 
 technic. 
 
 The cling- 
 ing touch* 
 
 Chopin' s 
 technic. 
 
 Its 
 originality. 
 
198 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 Schu- 
 mann's 
 technic. 
 
 Its 
 difficulties. 
 
 the legato playing of chromatic pa ssages, esg ecially 
 TrTbfcubTe jfiir5s7aSiO>ther [nTeTyals, bj^ putting the 
 
 ing and^hetjnrd_,.anrl fourth Qy er_th e_fifth„irj. 
 He showed how to produce a smooth, 
 
 even chain of tones ig_arpeggios .dispersed jnjvide 
 intervals, and in extended chords. H" wrptft arp^f- 
 
 assins 
 
 ods and treatment as he was in his id eas and his 
 
 oro ughly under- 
 
 harmonies? 
 
 s tood h ow to write for the pianofort.gu-and-ho3K_to 
 produce effects hjtjiej^jjja&tfcaiasd. JjeJm,pjo.ued 
 
 gibs so interspersg'd wiLlT^assTng^nqtes^afid~apjiQg- 
 
 glatiTraTTKaTrin rnlp»; nf "fingenngj-ireYJously knnyn 
 
 wouia apjWHEcT 
 
 ayed with ease and certainty. 
 "~ ScTTulnann'^TSo — t!aa''a peculiar technic, but one 
 which seemed, at least, less perfectly adapted to the 
 requirements and resources of the pianoforte. Ap- 
 parently, his innovations were not, like Chopin's, 
 based on a thorough mastering of all previous tech- 
 nical achievements and a clear perception of new 
 effects to be produced by a further natural develop- 
 ment. They were dependent rather on the require- 
 ments of emotional expression, to which the piano- 
 forte must adapt itself if it could ; if not, so much 
 the worse for the pianoforte. 
 
 The new difficulties consisted partly in obscure 
 and involved rhythms, partly in the peculiar rela- 
 tions of the melodies to their accompaniments, 
 partly in the use of extended chords in awkward 
 
THE TECHNIC OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD. 
 
 199 
 
 positions, and partly in the participation of both 
 hands in the delivery of the same phrase. 
 
 In all these cases the thought is first in import- 
 ance with the composer and facility of execution 
 seems to be an entirely subordinate matter. 
 
 Schumann's innovations, therefore, had, for a long 
 time, comparatively little influence on the technical 
 treatment of the pianoforte. But of late years, a 
 generation of players and composers has sprung up 
 who have been powerfully affected by the Schu- 
 mann cultus, and have thoroughly accustomed 
 themselves to his technic. It now begins to be 
 said that some of his powerful effects imply and 
 demand many of the most important technical qual- 
 ities, both in player and instrument, which have 
 heretofore been credited to Liszt, and which Liszt 
 was certainly the first to popularize, both among 
 players and pianoforte makers. The new school of 
 writers represented by Brahms, Tschaikowsky, 
 Moszkowski, the two Scharwenkas, the Brassin 
 brothers and Sgambati, is deeply marked by the 
 Schumann peculiarities. 
 
 Chopin excepted, no composer has wrought such 
 remarkable changes in technic during his life time 
 as Franz Liszt. He was born October 22, 181 1, 
 at Raiding, near Pesth, in Hungary. His father 
 gave him his first lessons in playing the pianoforte 
 at the age of six years. 
 
 The boy at once showed the most remarkable 
 gifts. His sight-reading, comprehension and exe- 
 cution were astonishing. At nine years of age he 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 Slow 
 
 growth of 
 Schu- 
 mann s 
 influence 
 on technic. 
 
 Liszt. 
 
 His 
 precocity 
 
200 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 His sight 
 reading. 
 
 He settles 
 in Paris. 
 
 was able to play a difficult concerto in public, and 
 roused the admiration of all who heard him by the 
 fire and spirit of his performances. 
 
 He attracted the attention of two Hungarian 
 noblemen, who gave him a pension of six hundred 
 gulden ( about three hundred dollars ) a year to ena- 
 ble him to prosecute his studies. His father then 
 took him to Vienna and placed him under Czerny's 
 instruction. The boy also studied theory with old 
 Salieri 
 
 How well he read at sight will appear from a 
 single anecdote. He went one day into a music 
 store where some musicians were examining a new 
 and difficult concerto of Hummel. Knowing that 
 he played almost everything at sight, they gave him 
 this as an extraordinary test. He played it at once 
 with apparent ease. 
 
 Of course, for such a pupil there could be few dif- 
 ficulties, and before long young Liszt had com- 
 pletely risen above all the demands of technic as 
 then practised and had begun to invent new effects 
 of his own. He also mastered the whole range of 
 existing compositions for his instrument. 
 
 In 1823 his father took him to Paris and the fol- 
 lowing year to London, in both of which cities his 
 playing excited surprise and admiration. 
 
 In 1827 his father died, and young Liszt, now six- 
 teen years of age, went to Paris to seek his fortune 
 as pianist and teacher. He became at once a prom- 
 inent adherent of the extreme Romantic school. 
 
 Soon after he went to Paris, Hector Berlioz pub- 
 
THE TECHNIC OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD. 
 
 201 
 
 licly produced some of his fantastic "programme 
 music." Young Liszt was strongly attracted by its 
 peculiar style and impressed by its unquestionable 
 power, as well as by the evident mastery of all the 
 resources of the orchestra displayed by this extremely 
 eccentric and original composer. He soon set to 
 work to transcribe these works for the pianoforte. 
 
 The problem he set for himself was to reproduce, 
 -with the limited resources of an instrument poor in 
 melody and monotonous in tone-color, the effects of 
 the full orchestra with all its different families of 
 instruments. A stupendous task, indeed, and one 
 impossible to discharge except in remote approxi- 
 mation. But the degree of his success was aston- 
 ishing, and his playing of his transcriptions was an 
 exhibition of virtuosity which completely threw into 
 the shade the performances of all other virtuosi in the 
 capital. He followed up these works by numerous 
 transcriptions of orchestral works, including some 
 of the Beethoven symphonies, and afterwards tran- 
 scribed numerous opera melodies, songs by Schu- 
 bert and others, Hungarian Gypsy melodies (Rhap- 
 sodies), and some of Bach's organ fugues. 
 
 The impulse to this work was greatly quickened 
 by the violin playing of Paganini, who appeared in 
 Paris in 1 83 1. It was young Liszt's ambition to 
 become the Paganini of the pianoforte. With this 
 end in view he studied and experimented constantly 
 to produce new effects in melody, harmony and 
 brilliant passages, to increase the power and sonority 
 -of his touch, to vary the quality or "color" of his 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 His trans- 
 criptions. 
 
 Liszt' 's 
 Technic, 
 
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 The means 
 he used. 
 
 tones by different kinds of touches, to discriminate 
 the different elements of a piece as widely as 
 possible, and to make his playing effective by vio- 
 lence of contrast, force, fire, spirit, delicacy and 
 refinement,all carried to the highest attainable pitch of 
 excellence. In all this he was successful, and attained 
 such mastery as was not only the despair of all the 
 players of that time, but remains, by general con- 
 sent, unrivaled by any of the great pianists who 
 have since been formed on the principles of his own 
 technic. 
 
 These principles were, first, the development of 
 the greatest possible strength and power of discrim- 
 inative emphasis in the individual fingers, and sec- 
 ond, a much greater use of the hand playing with a 
 loose wrist than had hitherto been customary. 
 
 For the first, he held the wrist higher than other 
 players, and left it perfectly flexible, but still in such 
 a position that the fingers had all possible mechani- 
 cal advantage for the production of a powerful tone. 
 He also invented simple and radical exercises for 
 developing the strength of the fingers in the shortest 
 possible time. For the second, he made great use 
 of single and double trills, runs, arpeggios, inter- 
 locking passages, etc., to be executed with the two- 
 hands alternately. This produced a totally new 
 class of effects by means of wrist action. 
 
 These brilliant pyrotechnics, though really not. 
 much more difficult of attainment than the effects 
 of the older technic, were thought at the time to be 
 impossible for any one except Liszt himself, and. 
 
THE TECHNIC OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD. 
 
 203 
 
 pieces like his " Rigoletto " Fantasie, now effectively 
 played by some boarding-school misses, were then 
 thought too difficult for great virtuosi. 
 
 Between the years 1836 and 1848 Liszt played a 
 great deal in all the principal cities of Europe and 
 even in Constantinople, and was honored as few 
 artists have ever been, alike by kings, princes, nobil- 
 ity and commoners. 
 
 In 1848 he became conductor of the Grand 
 Duke's Opera at Weimar and since that has seldom 
 played in public. He gave up his conductorship in 
 1859, and has since lived at Weimar, Pesth and 
 Rome, always surrounded by friends and admirers, 
 and by young pianists seeking his counsel. 
 
 To these he has always shown himself a friend 
 and benefactor. 
 
 But Liszt's generosity has never been confined to 
 artists. Wherever there was distress or need, there 
 he was always ready with money, sympathy and 
 powerful influence for help. No artist was ever 
 more loved than he, and none ever seemed more 
 influential in his own time. 
 
 Liszt has devoted himself of late years to the 
 composition of great choral and orchestral works. 
 He had previously written many etudes, two con- 
 certos and many other original works for the piano- 
 forte. In these pieces, as in his transcriptions, the 
 prime consideration is their relation to the public. 
 His original ideas are seldom or never profoundly 
 significant. Few of his original pianoforte works, at 
 least, are conditioned on an inward necessity for 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 Liszt's 
 career as a 
 concert 
 player. 
 
 His 
 
 conductor* 
 ship at 
 Weimar. 
 
 Liszt 
 as a 
 composer. 
 
204 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 His works 
 sensa- 
 tional. 
 
 Effect 
 of his 
 works. 
 
 emotional expression so much as on the desire to 
 affect others. And again, the desire is not to affect 
 others by the communication of great thoughts and 
 feelings which press for utterance and crave sym- 
 pathy, but to make effect, to produce sensation, to 
 dazzle, astonish, overwhelm by a display of force, 
 brilliancy and mastery of effects unattainable by 
 others. 
 
 Liszt's works are always exciting, but few of them 
 are poetic or inspiring. They are imposing in their 
 sonority and in the bold and striking character 
 of their effects, and imposing also in the sense that 
 they appear at first to be much more significant 
 than they really are. After we have a little recovered 
 from the first shock of the powerful sensations they 
 produce, we discover that these stormy passages are 
 grandiose, not grand ; noisy, not sublime ; sensa- 
 tional, not profound. 
 
 The effect of them and of Liszt's playing and 
 teaching has been to revolutionize technic and to 
 bring about great changes in the construction of 
 the pianoforte in the direction of an enormous 
 increase of sonority and of capacity to endure a 
 powerful touch without injury to the quality of the 
 tone. 
 
 But as regards creative and perhaps even inter- 
 pretative Art, Liszt's influence has been much less 
 marked and does not seem likely to be permanent. 
 After all, the kingdom of true Art, like " the king- 
 dom of God, cometh not with observation," and is 
 
THE TECHNIC OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD. 
 
 2°5 
 
 manifested not in the fire nor in the whirlwind, but 
 in the " still small voice." 
 
 Liszt will certainly be known in the history of 
 pianoforte music as the greatest virtuoso of his 
 time. It seems not improbable that he will be 
 credited with the development of the pianoforte 
 and of its technical requirements to the extreme 
 limits of the possibilities of both. At any rate, it 
 is hard to see any capacities in the present instru- 
 ments which Liszt has not exhausted, or what 
 possible use of the muscles of the hand and arm in 
 playing he has not discovered and practiced. He 
 is the king of pianists and this title he seems likely 
 to retain for all time. 
 
 To sum up this discussion: Besides the increased 
 demands on the interpretative powers of the player 
 made by the great Romanticists, there are peculiar 
 intellectual requirements. Among these are the 
 peculiar involved, intricate rhythms of Schumann 
 and the extremely original harmonies and modula- 
 tions of Chopin and Liszt. 
 
 But when these peculiarities have been perfectly 
 grasped and assimilated in the mind of the player 
 they are seen to involve mechanical difficulties of a 
 character foreign to the classical technic. 
 
 i. The great increase of sonority demands 
 greater development of strength in the hand and 
 fingers without in the least impairing the flexibility 
 of the hand and wrist. Indeed the demand for 
 perfect flexibility and independence of all the 
 muscles, joints and nerves involved is even greater 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 Liszt's 
 place in 
 history. 
 
 Summary* 
 
 Increased 
 demands 
 of modern 
 technic. 
 
 Strength. 
 
2d6 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 Discrim- 
 inative 
 emphasis. 
 
 New and 
 peculiar 
 fingerings. 
 
 Lateral 
 stretches 
 of the 
 fingers. 
 
 Long 
 skips. 
 
 Wrist 
 action. 
 
 than ever, for the demand for discriminative empha- 
 sis is greatly increased. Not only must the two 
 hands be perfectly independent of each other, but 
 each separate finger must be able to produce the 
 most powerful tone of which it is capable, while 
 other fingers in the same hand are producing tones 
 of differing degrees of force. In short, there was 
 never before such a demand for the blending of 
 different degrees of force in touch, discriminating 
 each with the greatest precision and nicety. 
 
 2. The peculiar harmonies and especially the em- 
 ployment of harmonic bye-tones in scale and 
 arpeggio passages demands a different mode of 
 fingering from that which sufficed for the playing of 
 classical pieces. This fingering involves putting the 
 fourth and fifth fingers under the others with entire 
 freedom, and, in general, a much freer use of the 
 thumb' and little finger, especially on the black keys, 
 than was formerly admitted. 
 
 3. The greater sonority attained by the use of chords 
 in extended positions demands new stretches of the 
 fingers laterally to make the new intervals effective. 
 This involves both a greater development of the 
 interosseous muscles of the hand, and a new lateral 
 action of the hand from the wrist, some one of the 
 middle fingers being used as an axis on which the 
 hand turns loosely and rapidly to reach its new posi- 
 tion. There has also been a great increase in the 
 demand for long skips. 
 
 4. The demands for wrist action are also much 
 greater than formerly, both as regards the alternate 
 
THE TECHNIC OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD. 
 
 207 
 
 employment of the hands in trills and interlocking 
 passages, and as regards full chords struck staccato, 
 or in rapid succession. 
 
 Two important works intended to develop the 
 necessary technic to meet the demands of the Ro- 
 mantic compositions are worthy of notice here : 
 The Tausig " Daily Studies " and Mason's " Piano- 
 forte Technics." 
 
 Carl Tausig (1841-1871), was perhaps the most 
 brilliant of all Liszt's pupils. A virtuoso of the very 
 highest rank, for whom absolutely no technical diffi- 
 culties existed, with a technic which seemed infalli- 
 ble, his performances were dazzling in the extreme. 
 Moreover he was a thoughtful, intelligent, well-edu- 
 cated man and a practical teacher, so that he was 
 every way admirably fitted to embody and commun- 
 icate the results of his study and experience. 
 
 He taught some years in Berlin, and gradually 
 elaborated a system of elementary technical exer- 
 cises calculated to develop strength, flexibility and 
 in short all the requirements of the modern technic. 
 
 He did not live to complete it however. It was 
 finally edited and published by his friend, H. 
 Ehrlich, another prominent teacher and pianist in 
 Berlin, who incorporated many excellent ideas of his 
 own in the work. 
 
 These exercises, though seemingly elementary, 
 must be used with great discretion, if at all, in the 
 earlier stages of instruction. They are mainly use- 
 ful to advanced players under the guidance of an 
 intelligent teacher. 
 
 Chap. XIII 
 
 Technical 
 studies. 
 
 Carl 
 Tausig, 
 
 Tausigs 
 
 "Daily 
 
 Studies." 
 
208 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIII. 
 
 Mason's 
 
 Pianoforte 
 
 Technics. 
 
 Wm. 
 
 Mason. 
 
 The Mason Technics, on the other hand, are 
 simple and radical, and can be used with beginners. 
 Indeed, there is no single exercise which will so rap- 
 idly develop strength, flexibility of wrist and hand, 
 delicacy, force and discrimination of touch, in short, 
 all the technical merits of good playing, as the two- 
 finger exercise elaborated by Mason in this work. 
 He obtained the first hint of it from Liszt and after- 
 wards developed and amplified it greatly. 
 
 The treatment of rhythm in this work is also 
 admirable and exhaustive. The book is one which 
 no teacher can afford to overlook. 
 
 Much of the clearness and force of statement 
 which characterize the book, as well as some of the 
 original work, are to be credited to the associate 
 editor, W. S. B. Mathews (author of " How to Un- 
 derstand Music "), who is wholly responsible for the 
 letter press. 
 
 Dr. Wm. Mason, author of the book, was born in 
 1829, and was a son of the well-known Dr. Lowell 
 Mason. He went to Europe young, studied with 
 Moscheles, Hauptmann and Dreyschock, and then 
 went to Liszt about 1850, remaining with him some 
 time. He became a very distinguished pianist with 
 a world wide reputation. He has been settled as a 
 teacher in New York since 1856, and has written 
 many graceful, refined, excellent pieces for his 
 instrument. 
 
paet fifth. 
 
 Mln"ok Composees and Virtuosi 
 of the dlffekent epochs. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE EPOCH OF POLYPHONIC MUSIC. 
 
 The first harpsichord players were organists, and 
 it was a very long time before there was any differ- 
 entiation of harpsichord music from organ music. 
 Whatever was written for one was played indiffer- 
 ently on the othei 
 
 The prevalent style was that of strict polyphony, 
 though the dance forms gradually assumed a more 
 lyric character and approached the monophonic 
 style, developing the simple period forms. The 
 harpsichord was the popular household instrument 
 in Italy, Germany, England, and, indeed, wherever 
 music was cultivated. 
 
 In Italy, Venice was the city where instrumental 
 music was more especially cultivated, and the suc- 
 cessive organists of St. Mark's church distinguished 
 themselves also as harpsichord players. 
 
 The most celebrated of these was Adrian Willaert, 
 a Netherlander, who founded the Venetian Music 
 School in the first half of the sixteenth century. 
 He wrote " Fantasies " and " Ricercari " in a free 
 contrapuntal style, and was a great musician and 
 composer. In his day, the so-called " Ecclesiastical 
 Keys "* prevailed, and he was among the first to 
 
 ♦See " History of Music," by Professor F. L. Ritter, Vol. I. 
 
 Chap. XIV 
 
 Harp- 
 sichord 
 music in 
 Italy. 
 
 Willaert. 
 
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Willaerts 
 pupils. 
 
 jftettt f 
 mortal 
 
 suggest the division of the octave into twelve semi- 
 tones, an innovation out of which all our modern 
 key relationship and modulation has grown. 
 
 This change was greatly forwarded by the influence 
 of two of Willaert's pupils, Nicolo Vincentino and 
 Cipriano de Rore, and by still another pupil, Giu- 
 seffo Zarlino, a renowned theorist. 
 
 Other distinguished Venetian organists and harp- 
 sichordists of the sixteenth century were Claudio 
 Merulo di Correggio, Annibale Padovano, Andrea 
 Gabrieli and Giovanni Gabrieli, most of them 
 pupils of Willaert, and all partakers of his ideas. 
 They wrote toccatas, full of lively passages and 
 arpeggios, calculated especially with reference to 
 the evanescent tones of the harpsichord as con- 
 trasted with the continuous sound of the organ ; 
 Canzoni, in a more lyric style ; and Sonatas, in free 
 counterpoint. 
 
 The change to the monophonic style was a very 
 gradual one. One of the most important agencies 
 in effecting it, as already pointed out in a former 
 chapter, was the invention of opera at Florence in 
 the last half of the sixteenth century. For the first 
 time solo singers were provided with recitatives and 
 arias, to which was added a simple accompaniment 
 for the harpsichord. 
 
 It soon became customary to write only a bass 
 part for the harpsichordist or organist, the harmony 
 being indicated by means of figures over the notes. 
 
 But the player was commonly expected not simply 
 to play the chords indicated by the figures, but to 
 
THE EPOCH OF POLYPHONIC MUSIC. 
 
 213 
 
 invent an accompaniment in imitative counter- 
 point, and this remained the custom for more than a 
 hundred years. The ability to do this was regarded 
 as one of the greatest tests of musicianship. 
 
 But there was more or less of free accompaniment 
 in simple harmony, and the transfer of the recita- 
 tives and airs to the instrument, with the accom- 
 paniment, gradually familiarized players with the idea 
 of a monophonic instrumental style. 
 
 Still, the very ease and simplicity of it was in 
 some sense a hindrance to its adoption. Musicians 
 prided themselves on their ability to overcome the 
 difficulties of elaborate counterpoint, and he who 
 could most easily master its intricate mysteries was 
 accounted of the highest rank in his profession. 
 The highest tests of excellence were intellectual 
 ones ; music had not yet come to be considered 
 primarily in its relation to emotion. 
 
 The ability required of players was the ability to 
 play a complex web of voice-parts interwoven 
 according to the rules of counterpoint, and, on occa- 
 sion, to invent counterpoint to a given figured bass. 
 
 Among the most renowned players and composers 
 of this period ought to be mentioned Girolamo 
 Frescobaldi (1588-1645 ?), said to have been an 
 original genius, and to have written with especial 
 reference to the capacities of the harpsichord as 
 distinguished from the organ. He was organist at 
 jSt. Peter's in Rome all the latter part of his life. 
 
 His pupil, Johann Jacob Froberger (1 635-1 695), 
 court organist to the Emperor Ferdinand, was the 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Improvisa- 
 tion of 
 counter- 
 point. 
 
 Musician- 
 ship 
 
 demanded 
 of players. 
 
 Frescobaldi 
 u;88-ib45. 
 
214 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Pasquini 
 1637-1710. 
 
 The 
 
 English. 
 
 composers. 
 
 French 
 composers. 
 
 Rameau 
 1683-1764. 
 
 most celebrated German player of the last half of 
 the seventeenth century. Bernardo Pasquini (1637- 
 17 10), organist at St. Mary's in Rome, occupied a 
 similar high rank. 
 
 In England there was a school of distinguished 
 players and contrapuntists. Thomas Tallis was 
 organist to Queen Elizabeth in 1575, and so was his 
 pupil, William Bird (1538-1623). Other distin- 
 guished names are those of Dr. Bull (died 1622), 
 Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), and especially Henry 
 Purcell (1658-1695). 
 
 Specimens of their works are given in Weitzmann's 
 " Geschichte " and in Burney's " History of Music." 
 Some examples quoted by Burney from Dr. Bull are 
 full of remarkable difficulties in the shape of 
 passages in double thirds and sixths, some of which 
 seem almost impossible of execution. 
 
 In France the most distinguished players and 
 composers of this period were Jean Henry D' An- 
 glebert, court harpsichordist to Louis XIV, and 
 Francois Couperin (1 668-1 733), a composer of much 
 greater importance. His pieces were polyphonic, 
 but the upper voice-part was often the predominant 
 melody, and all the voices were ornamented with 
 trills, mordents, appoggiaturas, etc. 
 
 Contemporary with Sebastian Bach were Louis 
 Marchand (1669-1732), a very distinguished player, 
 and Jean Phillippe Rameau (1683-1764), whose 
 work as a composer, though important, was much 
 less significant than his labors as a theorist. He 
 published a work on thoroughbass, i.e., the science 
 
THE EPOCH OF POLYPHONIC MUSIC. 
 
 2iS 
 
 of chords and the art of harmonic accompaniment 
 to a given voice, in which the old polyphonic stand- 
 point was forsaken, that of monophony, the style in 
 which one melody should be principal and the others 
 subordinate was fairly occupied, and the ground 
 was prepared for the development of lyric harpsi- 
 chord music and of the sonata, which took place in 
 the next generation. 
 
 In Germany, besides Froberger, already men- 
 tioned, the seventeenth century had many excellent 
 organists and harpsichordists, among the most dis- 
 tinguished of whom were Hans Leo Hasler(is64- 
 1612), born in Nuernberg, but court organist to the 
 Emperor Rudolph II, in Vienna, a composer of 
 very great merit ; Adam Gumpeltzhaimer, Mel- 
 chior Franck, Samuel Scheidt, in the first half of the 
 century; Johann Kaspar Kerl (died 1690), Johann 
 Pachelbel (1653-1706), George Muffat, Andreas 
 Werckmeister, Dietrich Buxtehude (died 1707), and 
 Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau, Haendel's teacher, in the 
 latter half. 
 
 Froberger (1635-1695) deserves more extended 
 mention, both on account of his prominence and 
 because of his romantic adventures. He was the 
 son of a cantor in Halle, and, showing great talent, 
 was taken to Vienna by the Swedish ambassador, 
 who had heard him play, and introduced to the 
 Emperor Ferdinand III. 
 
 The Emperor became his patron, and sent him to 
 Rome to study with Frescobaldi. After three years, 
 having finished his studies, he went to Paris and 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 German 
 composers 
 0/ tke 
 Seven- 
 teenth cen~ 
 tury. 
 
 Froberger^ 
 
2l6 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Becomes 
 bellows 
 blower in 
 St. Paul's, 
 London. 
 
 Becomes 
 known by 
 accident. 
 
 Dresden, and then, returning to Vienna, became 
 court organist. In 1662 he received permission to 
 visit London. He was robbed on his way through 
 France, and, barely escaping with life, reached 
 Calais in rags. He managed to take passage to 
 London, but when near the English coast, the ship 
 was taken by pirates, and he jumped overboard and 
 swam ashore to avoid captivity or worse. Taking 
 refuge in some fishermen's huts, they furnished him 
 with one of their old suits, and in this guise he 
 begged his way to London. 
 
 There he entered St. Paul's, during service, to 
 give thanks for his deliverance. At the close of the 
 service he was accosted somewhat roughly by the 
 organist, who learning that he was hungry and pen- 
 niless, and knowing nothing of his character as a 
 musician, offered him the job of blowing the 
 bellows. This Froberger accepted in his need, said 
 nothing of his profession, and continued in his hum- 
 ble office until the marriage of Charles II with 
 Catherine of Portugal. On this occasion he was so 
 absent-minded as to let the wind out of the bellows, 
 and the playing came to an abrupt and mortifying 
 close in an important part of the solemnities. The 
 organist flew at him furiously, bestowed on him 
 some kicks and cuffs and rushed away. A lucky 
 inspiration came to Froberger. He filled the 
 bellows quickly, ran to the organist's bench and 
 began to play in a style which was at once recog- 
 nized by a court lady who had formerly been in 
 Vienna. He was speedily sent for, told his strange 
 
THE EPOCH OF THE SONATA. 
 
 217 
 
 story, played before the King and his court, was 
 received with great favor and richly rewarded. 
 
 After a while he took his departure for Vienna, 
 but his long absence had given offence and this had 
 been aggravated by some slanders so that he was 
 not even admitted to the presence of the Emperor. 
 Mortified and indignant, he sent in his resignation 
 and withdrew to Mayence, where he passed the 
 remainder of his days in opulence, but in ill-humor 
 with himself and with all the world. 
 
 These names bring us to the period of Sebastian 
 Bach, and with him to the climax of polyphonic 
 composition for the harpsichord. But the seeds of 
 the free lyric, monophonic style had long been sown, 
 and, as we have seen, sprung up into luxuriant 
 growth in the next generation. 
 
 Even during Sebastian Bach's lifetime, signs of 
 the approaching change were not wanting. Johann 
 Kuhnau (1667-1722), Bach's immediate predecessor 
 in the Cantorship of the St. Thomas School in 
 Leipzig, did much toward laying the foundations 
 on which Emanuel Bach built. He wrote sonatas 
 in from three to eight movements, and strove toward 
 a lyric style and in the direction of freeing the harp- 
 sichord from the shackles of counterpoint. 
 
 B. THE EPOCH OF THE SONATA. 
 
 The Vienna of Mozart and Beethoven contained 
 a group of distinguished players and composers ; 
 the Abb6 Vogler, Sterkel, Wanhal, Gelinek, Pleyel, 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Returns to 
 Vienna. 
 
 Kuhnau. 
 ibbf-iyzs. 
 
 Viennese 
 players. 
 
2l8 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Hummel, 
 1778-1S37. 
 
 Czemy, 
 1791-1857. 
 
 The 
 Phil- 
 istines. 
 
 Cramer, 
 1771-1858. 
 
 Berger, 
 1777-1839. 
 
 Klengely 
 1783-1832. 
 
 Wolfl, Steibelt and Dussek. Their works are now 
 obsolete, only one or two pieces of Dussek being 
 still current. 
 
 J. N. Hummel (1778-1837), a pupil of Mozart, 
 was, in his day, considered the rival of Beethoven. 
 He was an accomplished musician, a player of the 
 first rank, a prolific composer, and a successful 
 teacher. His works are. now rapidly passing into 
 oblivion. 
 
 Carl Czerny (1791-1857) was another Viennese 
 celebrity ; a player of high rank, a teacher of great 
 reputation and a prolific composer of studies and 
 pieces, mostly intended for teaching purposes. 
 
 His studies, for the most part, amplified and em- 
 phasized technical points to be met with in de- 
 menti. The content of his pieces is never impor- 
 tant. None of them go beyond the merely melodi- 
 ous and pleasing. In this he is fully in accord with 
 the Parisian pianists, his contemporaries, Kalkbren- 
 ner, Herz, Bertiai, Huenten, et id omne genus, the 
 " Philistines " against whom the Romanticists waged 
 merciless war. 
 
 Some of dementi's pupils deserved and received 
 much greater consideration. 
 
 J. B. Cramer (1771-1858) lived in England, was 
 an excellent pianist and musician, and composed a 
 great deal of music, none of which is now current 
 except his famous studies. 
 
 Ludwig Berger (1777-1839) was Mendelssohn's 
 teacher, and also wrote some valuable studies. 
 
 A. A. Klengel (1783-1852) was a renowned 
 
THE EPOCH OF THE SONATA. 
 
 219 
 
 pianist and organist and cultivated mainly the poly- 
 phonic style of writing. His forty-eight canons and 
 the same number of fugues are very learned produc- 
 tions. 
 
 Last, but not least, among dementi's pupils, 
 comes John Field (1782-1837), who fairly ushered 
 in the Romantic era by inventing the Nocturne, a 
 lyric composition of a distinctly sentimental charac- 
 ter, intended to express the various phases of feel- 
 ing appropriate to the night time. They served as 
 models for Chopin's compositions of the same name • 
 and, although the Chopin nocturnes are vastly more 
 significant than Field's, the resemblance was so 
 apparent that Chopin was thought by many to have 
 been a pupil of Field. 
 
 These nocturnes were a really original invention. 
 In these, for the first time, the lyric sentimental ele- 
 ment was entirely freed from all considerations of 
 classical Form. There was no preconceived, elab- 
 orate plan ; the form is the simplest possible group- 
 ing of single periods, is reduced to its lowest terms 
 and to an entirely subordinate position ; the senti- 
 ment is first and the form second. They are the 
 fore-runners of the Songs without Words, the Bal- 
 lades, Impromptus, Fantasias, in short, of the whole 
 family of lyric pieces which began to come into 
 vogue about the year 1830. 
 
 Field was an Irishman, born in Dublin. After 
 studying some time with Clementi, he went with 
 him to Russia in 1804 and spent most of the remain- 
 der of his life there. He wrote sonatas, concertos, 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Field, 
 1782-183?. 
 
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Moscheles, 
 1794-187 
 
 As a 
 player. 
 
 His 
 
 compost- 
 
 tions. 
 
 and other pieces, and was one of the best pianists of 
 his time. 
 
 One of the most prominent figures of this time 
 was Ignaz Moscheles *(i794-i87o). He was born 
 in Prague of Hebrew parents, early made the ac- 
 quaintance of nearly all the best music then pub- 
 lished, distinguished himself as virtuoso, artist and 
 composer, played and taught a long time in Lon- 
 don, became very intimate with Mendelssohn, with 
 whom he was associated in the Leipzig conservatory, 
 and continued his connection with that school until 
 his death. 
 
 As a player, Moscheles was celebrated for his bold 
 and brilliant style, for the power and variety of his 
 touch, and for his octave playing. Curiously 
 enough, he executed octave passages with a stiff 
 wrist. 
 
 As a composer he was very prolific, wrote seven 
 great concertos, highly thought of and effective in 
 their day, but now superseded ; several sonatas, 
 three sets of highly esteemed studies and a large 
 number of parlor pieces which retained their popu- 
 larity for a long time. 
 
 Moscheles outlived by many years the three great 
 Romantic composers. He was well acquainted with 
 their works, knew them all personally, and was inti- 
 mately associated with two of them. 
 
 Of course his own work as a composer could not 
 
 *See u Recent Music and Musicians," by Moscheles (Henry Holt & Co., 
 N. Y.), for an account of his own life and works. It is also a somewhat 
 gossipy and very interesting record of his intercourse with the famous mu- 
 sicians of the first half of this century. 
 
CONTEMPORARIES OF THE ROMANTICISTS. 
 
 help being affected by the Romantic ideals, but he, 
 nevertheless, remained an essentially classical com- 
 poser and player in his tastes and tendencies. 
 
 He was a teacher of great reputation, and formed 
 many players, who attained distinction. 
 
 C. THE CONTEMPORARIES OF THE ROMANTICISTS 
 AND THEIR SUCCESSORS TO THE PRESENT. 
 
 It will be remembered that all the Romanticists, 
 including Liszt, were born in the years 1 809-1 1. 
 About the same time were born a number of dis- 
 tinguished musicians, of a lower rank than the first, 
 but still of no small merit. 
 
 Prominent among these is Adolph Henselt (born 
 1814), a distinguished virtuoso, a thorough musician 
 and a composer of marked ability. Although his 
 compositions, so far as known to the present writer, 
 involve no technical principles not announced and 
 exemplified by others, yet his Etudes, op. 2 and op. 
 5, for example, which are among the best known of 
 his works, emphasized certain effects in a way that 
 stamps his style with marked individuality. These 
 effects are especially the delivery of a melody legato 
 with an accompaniment of chords to be played by 
 the same hand, the chords being often at such a 
 distance from the notes of the melody as makes the 
 proper execution of these passages very difficult. 
 He also sets a similar task for both hands simultane- 
 ously. In some of these etudes the left hand has a 
 series of widely extended chords, the upper notes of 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Henselty 
 
 1814. 
 
HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Hiller, 
 rSir. 
 
 Heller, 
 1815. 
 
 Other 
 good coin- 
 posers. 
 
 which constitute the principal melody, while the 
 right hand has a figured accompaniment. His 
 master- work is his great concerto in F minor, op. 16. 
 
 Henselt has been settled in St. Petersburg since 
 about 1837, occupied mainly in teaching. 
 
 Another conspicuous figure in this generation of 
 musicians was Ferdinand Hiller, born 181 1, at 
 Frankfort-on-the-Main. Like Moscheles and Men- 
 delssohn, he was of Jewish parentage. He was a 
 pupil of Hummel, and occupies somewhat the same 
 position with reference to the Romanticists that 
 Hummel did to Beethoven, Schubert and Weber. 
 He is a consummate musician, a respected com- 
 poser, without much genius, a fine player of the 
 classical school and an able conductor. He has 
 been for many years director of the conservatory at 
 Cologne. 
 
 Stephen Heller (born 1815) is a sort of miniature 
 Chopin. He has written nothing great, but much 
 that is refined, elegant, and within certain limits ex- 
 pressive. He is best known by his excellent studies 
 in phrasing and interpretation, op. 16, 45, 46 and 
 47. He has been for many years a teacher in 
 Paris. 
 
 Other good composers or players or both of this 
 generation were Th. Kullak. A. Dreyschock, Ernst 
 Haberbier, Robert Volkman, W. Sterndale Bennett, 
 Niels W. Gade, Louis Kcehler, Leopold de Meyer, 
 Fritz Spindler, Henry Litwlff, Charles Halle, Wm. 
 Taubert, Albert Loeschorn, Carl Eckert, H. Dorn 
 and C. F. Weitzmann, the distinguished Berlin com- 
 
CONTEMPORARIES OF THE ROMANTICISTS. 
 
 ^23 
 
 poser, teacher, theorist and critic of Berlin, author 
 of the History of Pianoforte Music (Geschichte des 
 Clavierspiels und der Clavierliteratur) heretofore 
 cited. 
 
 To a somewhat later generation belong Joachim 
 Raff, Wm. Speidel, Ch. Lysberg, Th. Kirchner, Otto 
 Dresel, Auguste Dupont, Otto Goldschmidt, Rich 
 Hoffmann, Solomon Jadassohn, Louis Ehlert, Louis 
 M. Gottschalk, H. A. Wollenhaupt, Waldemar Bar- 
 giel, Dionys Prueckner, Hans von Buelow, the two 
 brothers Anton and Nicolaus Rubinstein, Th. 
 Leschetizky, Ernst Pauer and Carl Reinecke. 
 
 Want of space forbids more than the mere men- 
 tion of the names of most of these men. Brief 
 notices of them may be found in Mathews' " Dic- 
 tionary of Music and Musicians " (Part IX of " How 
 to Understand Music"), and more extended ac- 
 counts in Grove's Dictionary. 
 
 But at least four of them are too important or too 
 interesting to American readers to be passed over 
 thus lightly. These are Raff, A. Rubinstein, von 
 Buelow and Gottschalk. 
 
 Joachim Raff was born at Lachen in Switzer- 
 land, in 1822. His youth and early manhood were 
 one long struggle with poverty, by which his educa- 
 tion, both musical and collegiate, was greatly 
 hindered. But he had great energy and persistence 
 and a natural tendency to music. He supported 
 himself by teaching and afterward by composing 
 numerous parlor pieces for the piano. He grad- 
 ually made himself a fine player and musician, and 
 
 •c«ap. nv. 
 
 Writer!. 
 1820. 
 
 Raff^ iSst. 
 
224 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 His rank 
 
 as 
 
 composer. 
 
 Rubinstein, 
 
 became a great master of orchestral composition. 
 He was befriended by Liszt after the usual generous 
 fashion of that master, and received from him 
 encouragement and influential aid as well as valuable 
 criticism. 
 
 Raff ranks as one of the first of living composers, 
 and has written a large number of important works, 
 including ten great symphonies, operas, cantatas, 
 chamber music, concertos for different instruments 
 with orchestra, songs, pianoforte pieces, etc. The 
 latter are less important than most of his other 
 works, many of them having been written down to 
 the popular demand out of the mere necessity of 
 making a living. They are excellent parlor pieces, 
 however, and some of his pianoforte pieces are 
 wholly worthy of so melodious and learned a writer. 
 Among them there is perhaps nothing better than 
 his pianoforte concerto, which is as fresh as it is 
 learned and skilfully written. 
 
 Raff has been director of the Conservatory at 
 Frankfort-on-the-Main since 1877. 
 
 Anton Gregor Rubinstein was born in Russia, 
 of Jewish parents, in 1829. He showed remarkable 
 musical gifts in early childhood, studied the piano- 
 forte in Moscow, and made his first concert tour at 
 the age of ten years. During this tour he went to 
 Paris, where he spent some time with Liszt. The- 
 next year he went to London and also played on 
 the continent. 
 
 In 1845 he studied composition in Berlin, taught 
 a couple of years in Pressburg and Vienna, and 
 
CONTEMPORARIES OF THE ROMANTICISTS. 
 
 225 
 
 then returned to St. Petersburg, where he devoted 
 himself to study until 1856. From that time he has 
 been considered one of the world's greatest artists. 
 His countrymen have heaped honors upon him, and 
 he has rendered great services in return. 
 
 He founded the Conservatory at St. Petersburg in 
 1862, and was director of it for five years. Since 
 then he has made many concert tours and has 
 devoted much of his time to composition. 
 
 His American tour in (1872-3), gave us oppor- 
 tunity to admire his wonderful technic, the power 
 and delicacy of his touch, the refinement, grace, 
 fire, force and imagination of his playing. In most 
 of these qualities he has never been surpassed, 
 unless, perhaps, by Liszt. 
 
 As an interpreter of the masters, Rubinstein is 
 somewhat erratic, seeming to treat the piece in hand 
 as if it was an improvisation and often paying small 
 respect to the composer's intention. His interpre- 
 tations also vary with his moods. 
 
 He has been a prolific composer of piano music, 
 songs, chamber music, etc., has written five sym- 
 phonies and a number of operas and oratorios. Of 
 all these his " Ocean " symphony holds thus far the 
 highest acknowledged rank, and next to that his 
 chamber music. His pianoforte music is almost all 
 brilliant and effective and some of it is genuinely 
 poetic. Its permanent worth is yet to be deter- 
 mined. 
 
 Hans Guido von Buelow was born in Dresden 
 in 1830. His musical gifts did not appear until 
 p 
 
 Chap. XIV 
 
 His 
 
 A merican 
 
 concert 
 
 tour. 
 
 His 
 
 composi- 
 tion. 
 
 Von 
 
 Buelow. 
 1S30. 
 
226 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Becomes a 
 musician. 
 
 Marriage 
 
 and 
 
 divorce. 
 
 after a dangerous attack of brain fever, in his ninth 
 year. He was then placed under the instruction of 
 that most original and excellent teacher, Fr. Wieck. 
 He afterwards studied the pianoforte with Litolff, 
 and theory with M. K. Eberwein and Moritz Haupt- 
 mann. His parents were unwilling that he should 
 become a professional musician, and sent him to 
 Leipzig in 1848 to study jurisprudence at the uni- 
 versity. The next year he was at the Berlin Univer- 
 sity, interested in politics, writing democratic articles, 
 and musical papers defending the writings of Liszt 
 and Wagner. 
 
 In 1850 he finally broke with the law and went to 
 Zuerich to have the advantage of Wagner's advice 
 and counsel. The next year he went to Weimar to 
 continue his pianoforte studies with Liszt, and two 
 years later he made his first concert tour. 
 
 From 1855 to 1864 he was the leading pianoforte 
 teacher in Stern's. Conservatory at Berlin. In the 
 latter year he went to Munich as conductor of the 
 Royal Opera and director of the Conservatory of 
 Music. His intimacy with Liszt and Wagner con- 
 tinued, and he spent part of 1866-7 with Wagner at 
 Lucerne. 
 
 This friendship had a tragic ending. Von Buelow 
 had married in 1857, Cosima, a natural daughter of 
 Liszt by the Countess of Agoult, with whom Liszt 
 had lived on the same terms that Chopin lived with 
 Mme. George Sand. Mme. von Buelow seems to have 
 inherited her parents' disregard of the obligations of 
 the marriage tie. At any rate, after living with her 
 
SUCCESSORS OF THE ROMANTICISTS. 
 
 227 
 
 husband some twelve years and bearing him five 
 children, it occurred to her that she preferred 
 Richard Wagner to him, and she forthwith went to 
 live with the elder musician, taking her children with 
 her, and with him she continued until his death. 
 
 Von Buelow procured a divorce, left Munich, and 
 has since spent his time largely in concert tours in 
 Europe and America. It has been repeatedly said 
 that he was insane, an exaggeration probably 
 occasioned by his numerous eccentricities and by 
 the nervous excitement due to his domestic misfor- 
 tunes and his overwork. 
 
 He has always been an indefatigable worker in 
 numerous fields. His compositions are not widely 
 known and have made little impression on the world 
 at large. But he is an excellent conductor, a pro- 
 found and accurate scholar, one of the best of 
 editors of ancient and modern classics, and a pianist 
 of the highest rank. 
 
 He has a remarkable memory, conducts a large 
 repertoire of symphonies and operas, including the 
 most intricate and difficult ones of Wagner, without 
 a score; and plays nearly the whole range of piano- 
 forte music from the most ancient times to the 
 present from memory. No wonder if he were 
 insane! 
 
 As a player, his technic is beyond criticism and 
 his interpretations characterized by a consummate 
 intelligence which includes the minutest details in 
 all their relations. The care with which all the 
 ideas are discriminated, each receiving its due 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Peculiari- 
 ties. 
 
 A ttain- 
 ments. 
 
 As a 
 player. 
 
228 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Gottschulky 
 l82Q-l8bq, 
 
 'Com- 
 positions* 
 
 Playing, 
 
 proportion of emphasis, is a revelation to most 
 players. 
 
 Withal, he is not a cold player, as some think, 
 although he lacks the passionate abandon and head- 
 long rush of Rubinstein. There is warmth and 
 passion enough, but they are always controlled by 
 intelligence. His concert tour in this country, made 
 in 1874-5, two years after Rubinstein's, was very 
 successful, and contributed much to the increase of 
 musical appreciation and intelligence. 
 
 Louis Moreau Gottschalk, the first American 
 pianist, who became known all over the country by 
 his concert tours, was born in New Orleans in 1829. 
 He was of Creole blood. 
 
 In 1841 he went to Paris, studied with Charles 
 Hall£ and with Chopin, became a pianist of very 
 high rank, made concert tours on the continent and 
 returned to America in 1853. The rest of his life 
 was spent in concert tours in North and South 
 America. He died in Rio Janeiro in 1869. 
 
 He had marked originality as player and com- 
 poser, but his compositions are not likely to be per- 
 manent. They are facile, fluent, and characteristic, 
 but the feeling in them is shallow, often artificial 
 and exaggerated, and may properly be characterized 
 as sentimentality rather than sentiment. 
 
 His programmes were largely made up of them 
 to the exclusion of better things, but he was among the 
 first to give the American public ideas of fine touch, 
 delicacy, power and consummate ease and mastery 
 in performance as well as of expression, within his 
 
SUCCESSORS OF THE ROMANTICISTS. 
 
 229 
 
 somewhat narrow range, and so he contributed 
 much toward laying the foundations of musical 
 appreciation and cultivation in this country. 
 
 Of composers born since 1830, Johannes Brahms 
 (born 1833) heads the list, followed by Camille St. 
 Saens (1835), Adolf Jensen (1837-79), Josef Rhein- 
 berger (1839), Peter Tschaikowsky (1840), Louis 
 Brassin (1840) and his brother Leopold, Edward 
 Grieg (1843), Phillip Scharwenka.(i847), his brother 
 Xaver Scharwenka (1850), and Moritz Moszkowski 
 
 (1853). 
 
 It is still too early to determine the permanent 
 rank of these men, even of Brahms, who is the best 
 known and is one of the greatest of living musi- 
 cians. 
 
 He was ushered into the musical world by Schu- 
 mann as a young man of the greatest promise. This 
 promise he has at least fulfilled in large measure 
 His two symphonies have great merits, both of com- 
 position and invention, and so have his songs, 
 chamber-music and pianoforte-music. 
 
 His concertos are of the most difficult, combining 
 all the technical difficulties yet invented, and show- 
 ing deep marks of the influence of Schumann and 
 hardly less of that of Liszt. 
 
 St. Saens is an organist and pianist of great 
 eminence in Paris. His orchestral pieces the 
 " Danse Macabre " and " Phaeton " are well known 
 in this country and are among the cleverest pieces 
 of programme music ever written. The latter, 
 especially, so vividly reproduces the impressions 
 
 Chap. XIV 
 
 Composers 
 since 1830. 
 
 Brahms^ 
 1833. 
 
 St. Saens, 
 IS35- 
 
230 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Jensen^ 
 1837-1879. 
 
 Rhein- 
 berger^ 
 1839. 
 
 Brassin % 
 
 Tschai- 
 koivsky, 
 1840. 
 
 Grieg y 
 
 1843. 
 
 Schar- 
 •wenkaS) 
 
 1S47. 
 
 Mosz- 
 
 howski 
 
 18S3- 
 
 made on the feelings by the successive events of the 
 well-known myth that the story can be followed in 
 the music without the least difficulty. 
 
 Jensen is best known in this country by his 
 Etudes, op. 32. 
 
 Rheinberger is a teacher and conductor in 
 Munich, and has written important works in many 
 departments. 
 
 Louis Brassin and his brother Leopold are 
 Belgians, and both are composers of marked ability. 
 
 Tschaikowsky is teacher of composition in the 
 Moscow Conservatory, and has shown great ability 
 in different departments of composition. His 
 pianoforte music includes a concerto, and is coming 
 into constantly increasing prominence among 
 pianists. 
 
 Grieg is a Norwegian composer of marked origin- 
 ality. His sonatas and other forms involving sus- 
 tained thinking and thematic development are frag- 
 mentary and weak, notwithstanding detached 
 beauties. His strength lies in his short character- 
 istic pieces for the pianoforte, marked by the pecu- 
 liar coloring of the Scandinavian folk-music. 
 
 The two Scharwenkas are prominent teachers and 
 composers in Berlin. The pianoforte music of both 
 is highly esteemed and its reputation is increasing. 
 
 Moszkowski has perhaps greater genius than any 
 of the younger generation. He lives in Berlin. His 
 pianoforte pieces are rapidly making their way 
 wherever music is known. 
 
 To these names must be added that of Giovanni 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF THE ROMANTICISTS. 
 
 231 
 
 Sgambati, an Italian pianist and composer whose 
 work marks an era in the history of pianoforte music 
 in Italy. He was born in Rome in 1843. His 
 mother was an English woman, which may account, 
 in part, for the peculiar turn of his genius. 
 
 It may almost be said that there has been no 
 great Italian pianist since the days of Scarlatti ; 
 for Clementi, although an Italian by birth and blood, 
 was an Englishman in his education. Up to a very 
 recent period, Italian music, since the rise of Italian 
 opera, has been almost exclusively in that field ; a 
 field, too, long since thoroughly discredited in the 
 rest of Europe by the increasing predominance of 
 the intellectual over the sensuous element. 
 
 The musical pre-eminence long enjoyed by the 
 Netherlanders and afterward by the Italians was 
 transferred to Germany not long after the death of 
 Palestrina ; and there it has remained ever since. 
 
 But of late years there has been a marvelous in- 
 tellectual awakening in Italy. Verdi, pre-eminent 
 in the purely pleasing and effective style of Italian 
 opera, produced, at an age when most composers are 
 past learning from their opponents, his " Aida " and 
 his Manzoni Requiem, two great works which show 
 him to have been powerfully affected by the theories 
 and practice of Wagner. 
 
 Sgambati, as pianist and composer, belongs as 
 completely to the new school of romanticism as 
 Brahms, the friend and disciple of Schumann. He 
 is the one Italian pianist and composer who now 
 enjoys a high reputation all over Europe. Before 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 Sgambati, 
 
 iigan 
 1843. 
 
 Deadness 
 of music in 
 Italy. 
 
 Its 
 revival. 
 
 Sgambati' 'i 
 tendencies. 
 
232 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Comptr 
 
 sition. 
 
 Lady 
 pianists. 
 
 Mme. 
 
 Essipoff, 
 
 1853- 
 
 he was twenty he had become famous for his playing 
 of Bach, Haendel, Beethoven, Chopin and Schu- 
 mann. When Liszt went to Rome, about this time, 
 Sgambati availed himself to the full of the great 
 master's friendly advice and criticism, and became 
 not only a great pianist, but an excellent musician, 
 conductor and composer. He was the first to give 
 orchestral performances in Rome of the works of 
 the great German masters. 
 
 He has written some important orchestral works 
 and chamber music, as well as pianoforte pieces and 
 a concerto. This last displays most of the technical 
 difficulties peculiar to the Romantic writers, and 
 shows very remarkably the influence of Schumann. 
 It has high intellectual qualities and no small emo- 
 tional significance. 
 
 Besides these there are hundreds of meritorious 
 composers whose names can not be mentioned here, 
 for lack of space. 
 
 Of the multitudes of living pianists of note only a 
 few can be spoken of here. To give first place to 
 the ladies : there are Marie Krebs, Madeline Schiller, 
 Anna Mehlig and Sophie Menter, besides two in 
 whom Americans are especially interested, Annette 
 Essipoff and Mme. Julia Rive-King, the former 
 from her American tour in 1875, and the latter be- 
 cause she is an American by birth. Both are 
 pianists and interpretative artists of very high rank. 
 
 Mme. Essipoff is a Russian, born in 1853. She 
 studied in St. Petersburg with Leschetizky, now her 
 husband. Her playing is characterized by grace, 
 
LIVING PIANISTS. 
 
 233 
 
 delicacy, refinement and especially by the beautiful 
 " coloring " she produces by her exquisite touch. 
 She excels as an interpreter of Chopin. 
 
 Mme. Rive-King was born in Cincinnati, in 1853. 
 Her father was a portrait painter and her mother an 
 able teacher of the voice and the pianoforte. She 
 showed talent very early, went to New York and 
 studied with the well-known teacher and composer 
 S. B. Mills, and then spent some time with Liszt in 
 Weimar. 
 
 Since her return in 1875 she has played numerous 
 programmes of the highest order, all over the United 
 States and Canada, from Boston to San Francisco, 
 and has earned a reputation of which Americans are 
 proud. Her repertory includes the best of all 
 schools, from Bach to Liszt and the younger com- 
 posers since, and she is an admirable interpreter of 
 the greatest works for the pianoforte. She has also 
 composed graceful and pleasing pieces. 
 
 In 1877 she was married to Frank H. King, her 
 manager, and now lives in New York. 
 
 Of male pianists known in this country must be 
 mentioned Franz Rummel, Constantine Sternberg, 
 Rafael Joseffy and Wm. H. Sherwood. The two 
 former are both pianists of high reputation. 
 
 Joseffy is one of the greatest of living virtuosi. 
 He is a Hungarian, born in 1852, and was a pupil 
 of Moscheles and Tausig. His technic is unsur- 
 passed. As an interpreter he excels in such works 
 as require exquisite delicacy, refinement and finish, 
 being much less successful in those which demand 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Mme. 
 
 Rivd-King, 
 
 1853. 
 
 Male 
 pianists. 
 
 Joseffy, 
 I&SS. 
 
234 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chap. XIV. 
 
 Sherwood^ 
 ISS4- 
 
 breadth, power, depth and nobility of style, He has 
 been in this country since 1879, and has become 
 well known. 
 
 Wm. H. Sherwood was born in Lyons, N. Y., in 
 1854, and was the son of a music teacher. His tal- 
 ent developed early, and he went to Berlin in 187 1 
 to study with Kullak, and afterward spent some 
 time with Liszt. 
 
 After four years spent in Europe he returned to 
 America and has since played in many of the cities 
 of the United States, everywhere winning the repu- 
 tation of a pianist and interpretative artist of the first 
 rank. His technic is equal to all possible demands, 
 and he interprets the greatest as well as the most 
 delicate and refined compositions of all schools with 
 the true insight of a born artist. His rendering of 
 the Schumann " Etudes Symphoniques," the great 
 Sonata, op. 111, and the E flat concerto of Beetho- 
 ven, and the Bach Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, 
 are among the most satisfactory performances it has 
 ever been the good fortune of the present writer to 
 hear. 
 
 Mr. Sherwood has also composed several pieces 
 of much promise. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 Our survey is now complete. We have passed in 
 review all the important composers of pianoforte 
 music, have analyzed their work, classified them 
 .according to the principles which governed their 
 creative activity, and traced the development of those 
 principles to their results in the different epochs. 
 The technical side of pianoforte playing has been 
 similarly treated, and composers below the first or 
 epoch-making rank have received as much attention 
 as the limits of the book would permit. 
 
 In the light of this discussion we may perceive 
 that the time in which we live belongs to the Ro- 
 mantic epoch. The three great romanticists died 
 early, but their great colleague, Liszt, still lives, and 
 it is but a few days since Richard Wagner, a greater 
 mind than any since Beethoven, and an extreme 
 Romanticist, was laid in his grave at Bayreuth. 
 Wagner, to be sure, was not a pianoforte composer, 
 but it can hardly be doubted that his indirect influ- 
 ence has had no small effect on all departments of 
 musical activity and especially production. That 
 influence is apparently on the increase, and so is 
 that of Schumann, the most intensely romantic of 
 pianoforte composers. The public is beginning to 
 understand both Schumann and Wagner, and the 
 23s 
 
 Conclu- 
 sion. 
 
 The 
 
 present 
 time 
 
 belongs to 
 the 
 
 Romantic 
 epoch. 
 
236 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Conclu- 
 sion. 
 
 Romantic 
 ideal now 
 pre- 
 dominant. 
 
 tide of interest in the Romantic composers seems to 
 be rising. 
 
 Moreover, all the rising young composers show 
 strongly the influence of Schumann, and all are per- 
 meated with Romantic ideas. The aim of all com- 
 posers of standing, nowadays, is to give worthy 
 expression to some phase of emotional experience. 
 Originality is shown, as in the case of Grieg, Svend- 
 sen and others, in seeking some peculiar manifesta- 
 tion of feeling, perhaps some national or provincial 
 type, and giving it adequate musical embodiment. 
 The intelligence of composers is directed, not, as in 
 the classical epoch, to the invention of new and 
 more elaborate forms, or to the development of 
 existing forms to their logical limits, but to the more 
 complete and subtle comprehension of the relation 
 of music to feeling. Their productive work is the 
 embodiment of the results of this increase of intelli- 
 gence. There are, indeed, composers who lay great 
 stress on the intellectual side of music as represented 
 in Form ; who write sonatas, symphonies, fugues ; 
 there are even attempts to revive the suite and the 
 ancient dance forms. There are those, too, who 
 emphasize the sensuous at the expense of the intel- 
 tectual and emotional elements of music. But, on 
 the whole, the Romantic ideal is dominant and its 
 influence seems to be on the increase. 
 
 But are there tendencies discernible which are 
 likely to produce a new revolution in pianoforte 
 music ? Is there some new ideal, conceived or con- 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 m 
 
 ceivable, which may supplant that of the Romantic 
 epoch as that supplanted those which preceded it ? 
 
 So far as now appears, the last question must be 
 answered in the negative. There are only three 
 possible kinds of ideals in music : (i) those which 
 relate to sensuous gratification, (2) those which give 
 intellectual satisfaction, and (3) those which relate 
 to the expression of feeling. We have already seen 
 that the third is now dominant, and is in process of 
 fulfillment. The second once held exclusive sway, 
 but is now merged and absorbed in the third. The 
 romanticists were not less but more intellectual than 
 the classicists, but their intelligence was held subor- 
 dinate to the new ideal, which they regarded as 
 supreme. So the ideal of the Pleasing in Sensation, 
 once supreme, has become subordinate to the intel- 
 lectual and emotional elements. But at the same 
 time, the means of sensuous gratification have been 
 immensely enlarged, in connection with the demands 
 of Form and expression. The resources of the 
 modern orchestra, as developed by Wagner, Berlioz 
 and others are vastly greater than ever existed 
 before, and the harmonic and , rhythmic additions to 
 the resources of pianoforte composers made by 
 Schumann and Chopin were very great. 
 
 The only progress which now seems possible is in 
 the more perfect and complete realization of the 
 three great ideals which have already been conceived 
 and in great measure realized. As regards piano- 
 forte music, the direction which improvement must 
 take seems clear enough. The limitations of the 
 
 Conclu- 
 sion. 
 
 Only threl 
 kinds of 
 musical 
 ideals pos- 
 sible. 
 
 How 
 
 progress is 
 now 
 possible. 
 
2 3 8 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Conclu- 
 sion. 
 
 How a new 
 
 instrument 
 
 may 
 
 supplant 
 
 the 
 
 pianoforte. 
 
 instrument are patent to everybody, — as patent as 
 were the limitations of the harpsichord two centuries 
 ago. The pianoforte produces neither a sustained 
 tone nor an increase of power in any tone after a 
 string has been struck. These defects will doubt- 
 less be remedied, and we may look forward to a 
 keyed instrument which shall surpass and supplant 
 the pianoforte, as the pianoforte surpassed and sup- 
 planted the harpsichord and the clavichord. How 
 this will be done and how long it will take we can 
 not say. There are those even now who are work- 
 ing on the problem. 
 
 It is not at all improbable that Helmholtz's well- 
 known experiments on overtones by means of a 
 series of tuning-forks reinforced by resonators and 
 kept in vibration by means of electricity, may point 
 the way to the final solution. Perhaps the coming 
 instrument may employ tuning-forks instead of 
 strings, and may even give the player command at 
 will of all the varieties of tone-color producible by 
 the orchestra. Who knows ? At any rate, it seems 
 plain that in this direction we are to look for the 
 next great revolution in pianoforte music. 
 
 When the new instrument has been invented and 
 perfected ; when players and composers have be- 
 come thoroughly familiar with its peculiarities ; 
 when some great creative genius of the first rank 
 has devoted his powers to the production of music 
 calculated for the new effects, then the music of 
 Beethoven and Chopin and Schumann will be to 
 the music of that day what Bach's music is to our 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 239 
 
 own time. We shall have learned editors " translat- 
 ing " the sonata appassionato, and the etudes sym- 
 phoniques " from the language of the pianoforte into 
 that of its modern successor,'' as von Buelow has 
 done with the Bach Chromatic Fantasia and other 
 harpsichord music. 
 
 But this is speculation, not history, and perhaps 
 even wild speculation. What our successors will see 
 it would be idle further to conjecture. 
 
 Conclu- 
 sion. 
 
Addendum. 
 
 ADDENDUM. 
 
 Since this book was first published, a considerable 
 number of young pianists and composers have become 
 more or less known. It is, of course, not possible 
 to mention all the meritorious ones, even if they were 
 all known to the writer; but some of them have 
 come to occupy so commanding a position that a 
 brief notice of them is essential to anything like 
 completeness. Some of them, indeed, as well as 
 older and better known ones, really required notice 
 in the first edition, the omission being due to the 
 writer's comparative unfamiliarity with their work. 
 Prominent among these must be named Dr. Louis 
 Maas, of Boston, a pianist and composer of rare 
 excellence. As an interpreter of great works of all 
 schools, ancient and modern, he is extremely satis- 
 factory. His playing is characterized by intelligence 
 of the highest order, by breadth and nobility of style, 
 by a vivid but chastened imagination and by a 
 completeness of repose which sometimes passes for 
 coldness v/ith superficial or unsympathetic auditors. 
 He controls passion and is never controlled by it, 
 so that his performances have a remarkable evenness 
 of quality. Of several severe programmes which the 
 writer has heard him play no remembrance remains 
 of a single detail which one could wish to have other- 
 wise than exactly as it was. Dr. Maas was born in 
 
ADDENDUM. 241 
 
 Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1852, but spent his youth 
 in London, whither his family removed. He was 
 a pupil of the Leipzig Conservatory from 1867 to 
 1871 and a teacher in the same institution from 1875 
 to 1880. Since the latter date he has been established 
 in Boston. He has written symphonies and cham- 
 ber music, besides music for his instrument, and 
 many of his works are highly spoken of. Most of 
 them the writer has had no opportunity to hear. 
 
 Other Boston pianists and composers who have 
 acquired reputation national in its extent are Arthur 
 Foote, Geo. W. Chadwick, B. J. Lang, Carlyle 
 Petersilea, Edw. B. Perry, Ernst Perabo, Carl C. 
 Baermann, Mrs. Anna Steiniger-Clark, and Carl 
 Faelten. The two former are known outside of 
 Boston mainly by their compositions. Both have 
 written pianoforte works, chamber and orchestral 
 music of no small degree of merit and have made 
 the American composer respected in Europe. 
 
 Mme. Teresa Carrefio is a concert-pianist of the 
 most brilliant type. As an interpreter of most 
 masters she is open to the charge of modifying the 
 composer's intention to suit her own fancy, changing 
 the embellishments, cadences and introductions of 
 Chopin's pieces, for example, in a way not to be 
 approved by a conscientious critic. But the tropical 
 fervor of her imagination, the fire, force and electric 
 brilliancy of her performances never fail to excite an 
 audience to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. Her 
 playing of Liszt and of other brilliant composers is 
 especially successful and effective. 
 
242 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 She was born in Venezuela in 1853, of a distin- 
 guished Spanish family. She showed her gifts in 
 early childhood, received her first lessons from her 
 father, and later studied with Gottschalk in New 
 York. Her home is now in the latter city, whence 
 she makes concert tours in both North and South 
 America. 
 
 Mr. Albert R. Parsons, of New York, is an excel- 
 lent pianist, but is known outside of that city mainly 
 through his translation of Wagner's essay on Beet- 
 hoven, his work as an editor of pianoforte music for 
 teaching purposes and his reputation as a teacher. 
 He belongs among the most thoughtful, able and 
 intelligent of American musicians. 
 
 Philadelphia is represented in the ranks of concert 
 pianists first and foremost by Mr. Charles H. Jarvis, 
 who first became known west of the Alleghanies by 
 his admirable recital at the Indianapolis meeting of 
 the Music Teachers' National Association in 1887. 
 His programme, beginning with the Beethoven Sonata 
 appassionata, included a wide range of style and 
 proved him an excellent interpretative artist. He 
 was born in Philadelphia in 1837 and, as pianist and 
 teacher, has done much to raise the standard of 
 musical intelligence in his native city. 
 
 Mr. W. W. Gilchrist, also of Philadelphia, has 
 written some of the best chamber music for piano 
 and strings yet produced in this country, besides 
 choral music. He was born in New Jersey, in 1846, 
 and has been long settled in Philadelphia as organist 
 and chorus director. Mr. Richard Zeckwer, Direc- 
 
ADDENDUM. 
 
 243 
 
 tor of the Philadelphia Musical Academy, Anthony 
 Stankowitch and Mr. John F. Himmelsbach are 
 also excellent pianists. 
 
 Mr. Richard Burmeister and Mr. Alexander 
 Lambert are concert pianists of marked ability. The 
 former lives in Baltimore and the latter is director 
 of a Conservatory of Music in New York City. Mr. 
 Ad M. Foerster is a composer of meritorious piano- 
 forte and chamber music. His home is in Pittsburg, 
 Pa. Mr. Wilson G. Smith, of Cleveland, has 
 written a considerable number of graceful pianoforte 
 pieces. 
 
 Chicago possesses a number of concert pianists of 
 great merit. Mme. Fanny Bloomfield-Zeisler is an 
 artist of rare intelligence, and her playing is always 
 characterized by great fire, force and delicacy. She 
 was a pupil of Leschetizky. Miss Neally Stevens 
 studied several years under the best artists in Ger- 
 many, including Liszt, von Biilow, Theo. Kullak, 
 Moszkowski and Xaver Scharwenka, and her play- 
 ing fully bears out the encomiums she received from 
 them. Miss Amy Fay is most widely known by her 
 very interesting book, "Music Study in Germany," 
 in which she gives an account of her experience as 
 a pupil of Liszt, Tausig, Kullak, Deppe and others. 
 She gives "piano- conversations" in various parts of 
 the country. Mme. Eugenie de Roode Rice may 
 properly be mentioned among Chicago pianists, 
 although she has now removed to New York. She 
 is an excellent interpreter of widely varied styles. 
 Mr. Emil Liebling and Mr. Fred Boscovitz are the 
 
244 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 leading male pianists of Chicago. They, with Silas 
 G. Pratt, have written a good deal of pianoforte 
 music. 
 
 Among the very best of the young generation of 
 American composers for the piano must be mentioned 
 E. A. McDowell, Arthur Bird, Edgar S. Kelley and 
 Johann H. Beck. All of them have produced excel- 
 lent works and give promise of still better. 
 
QUESTIONS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 When, where, and by whom was the pianoforte invented ? 
 
 What instruments preceded it ? 
 
 Tell how the tones were produced in each of the three 
 instruments. 
 
 Why were the strings of the older instruments thin and light ? 
 
 When did the pianoforte finally supplant them and come into 
 general use ? 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 Define the terms " Melody," " Harmony," " Counterpoint," 
 " Monophonic," " Polyphonic." 
 
 Describe the difference between Monophonic and Polyphonic 
 Music. 
 
 What device secures Unity in composition ? 
 
 What are the two principal kinds of strict imitation ? 
 
 Describe a Canon. 
 
 Give an outline of a fugue. 
 
 Describe free imitation. 
 
 Describe the " Suite." 
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 Name the three greatest composers of Polyphonic music. 
 
 Give Dates. 
 
 Give a brief account of the life and work of each, omitting 
 unimportant details. 
 
 (The author recommends that students try to remember, in 
 the biographies, only such leading points as these : Parentage, 
 
 245 
 
246 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 early situation and surroundings, the same in youth, most power- 
 ful influences affecting character and development, leading per- 
 sonal traits, work accomplished.) 
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 Give examples of monophonic tendencies during the poly- 
 phonic period. 
 
 Describe the Sonata, as a whole. 
 
 What is meant by " Form " in music ? 
 
 Define the terms " Period," " Section," " Phrase," " Motive," 
 " Period Group." 
 
 How are these elements combined so as to produce a whole 
 characterized by Unity, Variety and Symmetry? 
 
 Give plan of " Sonata Form." 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 
 What three composers developed the Sonata form to its 
 logical limits? 
 
 Give Dates. 
 
 Give brief accounts of each. 
 
 Give difference between the sonatas of D. Scarlatti and those 
 of C. P. E. Bach. 
 
 Recapitulate the essential characteristics of the modern Son- 
 ata. 
 
 How many of these were known before Emanuel Bach's 
 time? 
 
 What did he do that had not been done before ? 
 
 What did Haydn and Mozart do that had not been done 
 before ? 
 
 Chapter V. 
 
 What is meant by " Content " in music ? 
 What can music express, and what can it not express ? 
 What do words express, and what can they suggest ? 
 What can music do in the way of suggesting ideas or express- 
 ing them indirectly ? 
 
 Illustrate. What is a musical idea ? 
 What is musical thinking ? 
 
QUESTIONS. 
 
 247 
 
 How many kinds of Beauty are there in music ? 
 
 How many kinds of activity are possible to the human mind ? 
 
 Give examples of simple and complex feelings. 
 
 Tell the difference between desires and affections. 
 
 Describe the relation of music to feeling. 
 
 What music ranks highest, and what lowest? 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 
 Give brief account of Beethoven's life and work. 
 Give an approximate list of his compositions, the most im- 
 portant. 
 
 What gives him his prominent rank as a composer? 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 
 In what senses is the term " classic " used ? 
 What is meant by the term " romantic " ? 
 Give the characteristic difference between the two styles of 
 music. 
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 
 Give brief accounts of the life and work of Weber and 
 Schubert. 
 In what sense is the work of each " romantic " ? 
 What are the marks of romanticism in Schubert's work ? 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 
 Who were the three greatest romantic composers for the 
 pianoforte ? 
 
 Give brief biography of each, with year of birth and death. 
 Compare their characters and works. 
 
 Chapter X. 
 
 Describe the technic of the first classical period, as regards 
 touch, sonority of instruments, demands on fingers and execu- 
 tion, embellishments, fingering, etc. 
 
 State the distinction between a " virtuoso," and an interpre- 
 tative artist. 
 
243 
 
 HISTORY OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC. 
 
 Chapter XI. 
 
 What advances in Technic were made by E. Bach, Haydn 
 and Mozart ? 
 
 Give difference between Viennese and English pianofortes. 
 
 Give account of dementi's life and work. 
 
 Chapter XII. 
 
 Give account of growth of technic from Mozart to the Ro- 
 mantic writers. 
 
 Who developed the use of the pedal ? 
 
 Chapter XIIIT ■- 
 
 Give account of the technic of the romantic composers. 
 
 Of Liszt and his work. 
 
 Give summary. 
 
 Give work of Tausig and of Dr. Wm. Mason. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Affections, 66-7. 
 
 Agoult, Countess of, 226. 
 
 Aida, opera by Verdi, 231. 
 
 Albrechtsberger, relations to Bee- 
 thoven, 77-8. 
 
 Anglebert, J. H. d', 214. 
 
 Arpeggios peculiar to Chopin, their 
 fingering, 198, 206. 
 
 Artists, formerly dependent on the 
 patronage of nobles, 49, 53; con- 
 trasted with virtuosi, 185. 
 
 Bach, J. S. his life, 14-17; as a 
 composer and player, 17, 18; his 
 works and style, 17-19, 29, 30, 
 39, 41-46, 97- 
 
 Bach, C. P. E. his life, 38, 39; his 
 music and playing, 39-41 ; what 
 he did for the Sonata, 41-48. 
 
 Ballads, Chopin's, 153-4. 
 
 Bargiel, W., 223. 
 
 Beauty in music, 62, 71; Chopin's 
 love of, 156. 
 
 Bebung, the, 189. 
 
 Beethoven, his life 72-81, 85, 86, 
 92-94; compositions, 75, 89-92; 
 content and character of his mu- 
 sic, 80-82, 85-89, 93, 99-101. 
 
 Bennett, W. S. 222. 
 
 Berger, L. 218. 
 
 Bertini, 218, 
 
 Bird, Wm. 214. 
 
 Brahms, Johannes 229; influence 
 of Schumann on his technic, 199. 
 
 Brassin, Louis 229. 
 
 ' ' Leopold 230 ; technic shows 
 influence of Schumann, 199. 
 
 Buelow, Hans von, 223-227. 
 
 Bull, Dr., 214. 
 
 Burney's History of Music, 214. 
 
 Buxtehude, 215; visited by Bach, 
 15- 
 
 Canon, 9, 10. 
 
 Canzoni, 212. 
 
 Chopin, his history, 134-152; 154- 
 156; his playing, 137, 138, 147- 
 149; compositions, 139-141, 143, 
 I53-I56- 
 
 Classic, the, in music, 57, 58; 95- 
 98; classic qualities in Mendels- 
 sohn, 132-3; persistence of 
 classical technic, 196. 
 
 Clavichord, the, 2-3; its technic, 
 184-5. 
 
 Clementi, Muzio, 191-4. 
 
 Clinging touch, 197. 
 
 Complex feelings, 65. 
 
 Composition an intellectual process, 
 61. 
 
 Concertos, form of, 31; Bach's, 46; 
 Mozart's, 188, 190; Mendels- 
 sohn's, 129; Chopin's, 139-141, 
 153; Schumann's, 172-3; Bee- 
 thoven's, 193; Raff's, 224; 
 Brahm's, 229; Sgambati's, 232. 
 
 Concert Stueck, Weber's, 112. 
 
 Content of music, 59-71, 97, 98; 
 Beethoven's, 80-82, 86, 87, 93, 
 99; Haydn's 82-85, 99! Haen- 
 del's oratorios, 23, 24; of Bach's 
 Passion music, 24; of Mozart's, 
 57, 82-85, 99; of Chopin's, 154- 
 156; of Mendelssohn's, 131-134; 
 of Schumann's, 65-68, 175-8; of 
 Schubert's, 115-118; of Weber's, 
 111-12, 122; of Liszt's, 201-3. 
 
 Correggio, Claudio, Merulodi, 212. 
 
 249 
 
250 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Counterpoint, 7-10; double, 11. 
 
 Couperin, F., 214. 
 
 Cramer, J. B., 218. 
 
 Creation, oratorio by Haydn, 50-1. 
 
 Cristofori, invented pianoforte, 1, 
 3- 
 
 Czerny, C, 218. 
 
 Daily Studies, Tausig's, 207. 
 
 Danse Macabre, by St. Saens, 
 229. 
 
 Danzi, conductor at Stuttgart, 
 106. 
 
 Der Freischuetz, Opera by Weber, 
 109, no. 
 
 Desires, 65. 
 
 Divisions of the Sonata Form, 34, 
 35, 42, 43- 
 
 Dorn, H , 222. 
 
 Dresel, Otto, 223. 
 
 Dreyschock, A., 222. 
 
 Dudevant, Aurora (George Sand), 
 1 50-1. 
 
 Dupont, A., 223. 
 
 Dussek, J. L., 218. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Keys, 211. 
 
 Eckert, C, 222. 
 
 Ehlert, L., 223. 
 
 Ehrlich, H., 217. 
 
 Elaboration in the Sonata-Form,35, 
 
 Elijah, oratorio by Mendelssohn, 
 130- 
 
 Eisner, Chopin's teacher, 136, 145. 
 
 Emphasis, discriminative, impossi- 
 ble on harpsichord, 184; better 
 on clavichord, 184; developed to 
 its extreme limit by Liszt, 201-2 ; 
 Romantic school demands it es- 
 pecially, 206. 
 
 Erl-King, song by Schubert, 114, 
 117. 
 
 Ernestine von Fricken, friend of 
 Schumann, 169, 170. 
 
 Essipoff, Annette, 232-3. 
 
 Esterhazy, Prince, Haydn's patron, 
 49, 50; Mozart's, 49. 
 
 Ethical element in Beethoven, 87- 
 8, 99; lacking in Chopin, 155-6. 
 
 Eugene, Prince of Wuertemberg, 
 patron of Weber, 105. 
 
 Euryanthe, opera by Weber, 109, 
 no. 
 
 Exposition of a Fugue, 42 . 
 
 Fantasias of early composers, 211; 
 Mozart's in C minor, 118; Bach's 
 Chromatic Fantasia, 19. 
 
 Feelings, 63-7, 71. 
 
 Field, John, 219. 
 
 Fingering, 183-4; 196-8 (See 
 Technic). 
 
 Form, 31-6, 96; in Scarlatti's Son- 
 atas, 30, 41-46; in J. S. Bach's, 
 30, 46; in C. P. E. Bach's, 30, 44- 
 7; in Haendel's Suites, 46; 
 Haydn's Sonata-forms, 51-2, 
 82; Mozart's, 57, 58, 82, Bee- 
 thoven's, 82, 86, 87. 
 
 Franck, M., 215. 
 
 Frederick the Great, 16, 38, 39. 
 
 French Composers, 214. 
 
 Frescobaldi, 218. 
 
 Froberger, S., 13, 215-17. 
 
 Fugue, 10, 11, 16, 39. 
 
 Gabricli, Andrea, 212. 
 
 , Giovanni, 212. 
 
 Gade, N. W., 222. 
 
 Gaensbacher, friend of Weber, 
 104-5. 
 
 Gelinek, 217. 
 
 Gibbons, Orlando, 214. 
 
 Gladkowska, Constantia, relations 
 to Chopin, 139, 149. 
 
 Glissando, octaves, in Weber's 
 Concertstueck, 194. 
 
 Goldschmidt, O., 223. 
 
 Gottschalk, L. M., 228-29. 
 
 Gradus ad Parnassum, Clementi's, 
 192-4. 
 
 Grieg, E., 230. 
 
 Gumpeltzhaimer, A., 215 
 
 Haberbier, E. 222. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Haendel, G. F., life and works, 
 19-24; monophonic tendencies, 
 29, 30, 43, 44; form of the Suites, 
 46; his technic, 185. 
 
 Halle, Chas , 222, 228, 
 
 Harmony, 7. 
 
 Harpsichord, the, 2-4; its technic, 
 181-4. 
 
 Hasler, H. L., 215. 
 
 Haydn, F. J., biography, 47-52; 
 compared with Mozart, 57; con- 
 nection with Beethoven, 76, 77; 
 compositions, 50-52, 82-5; his 
 technic, 188. 
 
 Heller, Stephen, 222. 
 
 Henselt, Adolph, 121-3. 
 
 Henschkel, J. P., 103. 
 
 Hiller, F., 222. 
 
 Hoffmann, R., 223. 
 
 Hummel, J. N., 218. 
 
 Huenten, 218. 
 
 Ideals in music, 62, 237. 
 
 Ideas in music, 61. 
 
 Images, how expressed, 54, 60. 
 
 Imitation, strict, 9, 10; free, 11, 
 12. 
 
 Intellect, denned, 63. 
 
 Intellectual appreciation of music, 
 61, 67, 231. 
 
 " Invitation to Dance," 112, 122. 
 
 Italian music, 231. 
 
 " opera, Haendel's, 21-3, 
 
 Jadassohn, S., 223. 
 
 Jensen, A., 229, 230. 
 
 Joseffy, R., 233-4. 
 
 Kalkbrenner, F., I44~5. 218. 
 
 Kerl, J. IC, 215. 
 
 King, F. H, 233. 
 
 Kirchner, T., 223. 
 
 Klengel, A. A., 218. 
 
 Koehler, L., 222. 
 
 Krebs, Marie, 232. 
 
 Kreisleriana, 170. 
 
 Kuhnau, J., 217. 
 
 Kullak, T., 222. 
 
 Lassus, Orlandus, 9. 
 
 Leschetizky, T., 223. 
 
 Liszt, sketch of, 199-205; works, 
 201-204; technic, 202, 204-5. 
 
 Liszt, Cosima, 226-7. 
 
 Litolff, H., 222. 
 
 Loeschorn, A., 222. 
 
 Ludwig, Duke of Stuttgart, 106. 
 
 Lysberg, C, 223. 
 
 Manzoni Requiem, by Verdi, 231. 
 
 Marchand, L., 212. 
 
 Martini, Padre, 54. 
 
 Mason, Win., 208. 
 
 Mathews, W. S. B., 71, 208. 
 
 Mazurkas, Chopin's, 153-4. 
 
 Mehlig, Anna, 232. 
 
 Melody, defined, 7; form of, 31. 
 
 Mendelssohn, life of, 125-130; 
 works, 126-131, 134; his technic, 
 197. 
 
 Menter, Sophie, 232. 
 
 Mental Activity, 63. 
 
 Monophonic Music, 78, 29, 31, 39- 
 40. 
 
 Moods, simple emotions, 65. 
 
 Morzin, Count, 48-9. 
 
 Moscheles, J., 218-19. 
 
 Moszkowski, 229, 230. 
 
 Motives, 33. 
 
 Mozart, life of, 52-57; as a com- 
 poser, 57-8; compared with Bee- 
 thoven, 74-5, 82; content of his 
 music, .83-5; his technic, 198- 
 190. 
 
 Muffat, G., 215. 
 
 Music, suggests scenes, 60, 163, 
 165-6, 229; relation to emotion, 
 69. 
 
 " Oberon," by Weber, 109-110. 
 
 Operas, 21-3; 56, 92, 109, no, 
 212, 231. 
 
 Oratorios, 16, 22, 23, 50, 130. 
 
 Organ music for harpsichord, 181, 
 211; fugues of Bach, 16, 39. 
 
 Ornaments, necessity of, 182. 
 
25 2 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Pachelbel, J., 215. 
 
 Padovano, A,, 212. 
 
 Paganini, 201-2. 
 
 TPalestrina, g. 
 
 Papillons, Schumann, 163, 165-6. 
 
 Partitas of Bach, 46. 
 
 Passion Music, Bach's, 16, 17, 
 
 24 ; revival by Mendelssohn, 
 
 127. 
 Pasquini, B. , 214. 
 Pauer, E. 223. 
 Pedal, use of, 194. 
 Periods, defined, 32. 
 Period groups, 33. 
 "Perpetual Motion," Weber, 112. 
 Pfeiffer, Beethoven's teacher, 
 
 73- 
 "Phseton," by St. Saens, 229. 
 Phrases, defined, 32. 
 "Philistines," 1 70-1, 218. 
 Pianoforte, construction, 3; tech- 
 
 nic, 218; powers, 237-38. 
 Pleyel, 217. 
 
 Polonaises, Chopin's, 153-5. 
 Polyphonic Music, 7-13. 
 Preludes, Chopin's, 152. 
 Programme Music, St. Saens, 229; 
 
 Berlioz, 201. 
 Prueckner, D., 223. 
 Purcell, Henry, 212. 
 Quartets, form of, 31. 
 Quintets, form of, 31. 
 Raff, Joachim, 223-4. 
 Rameau, J. P., 214. 
 Reinecke, C. , 223. 
 Rhapsodies, Liszt's Hungarian, 
 
 201. 
 Rheinberger, J , 229, 230. 
 Rhythms, of Schumann, 198-9. 
 Ricercari, 211. 
 Ries, Franz, Beethoven's violin 
 
 teacher, 78. 
 Rigoletto, Liszt's, 202-3. 
 Rive^King, Mme. Julia, 223. 
 Ritter's History of Music, 211. 
 
 Romantic, ideal defined, 96, 99- 
 101; characteristics of Chopin, 
 !36-37. 139-41, 152-56; of Men- 
 delssohn, 126-28, 131-4; of 
 Schumann, 159, 162, 165-70, 
 175-8; of Schubert, 116-19, 122; 
 of Mozart, 118; of Bach, 19; of 
 Weber, 109-12, 122; of Liszt, 
 200-1; tendencies, 235-6. 
 
 Rondo in E flat, op. 62, Weber, 112. 
 
 Rore Cipriano di, 212. 
 
 Rubinstein, N., 223. 
 
 Rubinstein, Anton, 224-25. 
 
 Rummel, Franz, 223. 
 
 Sand, George, Mme., 150-1, 
 
 Scarlatti, A., 24. 
 
 Scarlatti, Domenico, 24, 25, 30,41- 
 44;. his technic, 187. 
 
 Scharwenka, P., 229, 230. 
 " X., 229, 230. 
 
 Scheidt, S-, 215. 
 
 Scherzos, Chopin's, 153-4. 
 
 Schiller, Madeline, 232. 
 
 Schubert, Franz, life, 1 1 2-14; 
 works, 1 13-19. 
 
 Schumann, life, 156-174; music, 
 163-6, 168-9, 172; compared 
 with Mendelssohn and Chopin, 
 175-8; his technic, 198-9; increas- 
 ing influence, 235. 
 
 Seasons, the, Haydn's, 50. 
 
 Sections, 32. 
 
 Sensibility, defined, 63. 
 
 Sgambati, 230-2, 199. 
 
 Sherwood, W. H., 234. 
 
 Simple Emotions, 64-5. 
 
 Sonatas, Bach's, 30, 46; C. P. E. 
 Bach's, 41-8; Scarlatti's, 30, 41- 
 4; Haydn's, 51-2, 82; Mozart's, 
 57-8, 82; Beethoven's, 82-8; 
 Kuhnau's, 217; of the 16th cen- 
 tury, 212. 
 
 Sonata-Form, 31, 35. 
 
 Speidel, Wm., 223. 
 
 Spinet, 4. 
 
INDEX 
 
 2 53 
 
 Spindler, F., 222. 
 
 Steibelt, D., 218, 89-90. 
 
 Sternberg, C, 233. 
 
 Sterkei, 217. 
 
 Stretto, in a fugue, 11. 
 
 " St. Paul," Mendelssohn's, 130. 
 
 St. Saens, C, 229, 230. 
 
 Stuttgart, in Weber's time, 106. 
 
 Subjects, 35, 42-3. 
 
 Suites, 12, 45-6. 
 
 Symphony, form of, 31; Beetho- 
 ven's "Eroica," 86, 92, Ninth, 
 86, 93; Schubert's, in C, 115; 
 unfinished, in B, 115; Tragic, 
 114; Rubinstein's "Ocean," 225; 
 Brahms', 229; Sgambati's, 231; 
 Mendelssohn's 128-9 
 
 Symmetry, 32. 
 
 Tallis, Thomas, 214. 
 
 Taubert, W., 222. 
 
 Tausig, Carl, 207. 
 
 Technic, of the first classical peri- 
 od, 18 1-7; J. S. Bach's, 184-5; 
 Haendel's, 185; Scarlatti's, 187; 
 of the second classical period, 
 188-192; Mozart's, 188-90; de- 
 menti's, 191-4; of the transition 
 period, 193; Beethoven, 193: 
 Schubert and Weber, 194; of the 
 Romanticists, 194-6, Mendels- 
 sohn's, 197 ; Chopin's, 197 ; 
 Schumann's, 198-9; Liszt's, 201- 
 2; minor, 205-8. 
 Thalberg, S., 194- 
 
 Toccatas, 212. 
 
 Transitions, 35. 
 
 Trio or Alternative (Form), 34. 
 
 Tschaikowsky, P.. 229, 230. 
 
 Two - finger . exercise, Mason's, 
 
 208. 
 Unity, 32-4. 
 Van den Eeden, 73. 
 Variety, 32. 
 Verdi, 231. 
 
 Vincentino, Nicolo, 212. 
 Virginals, 4. 
 Virtuoso vs. Artist, 181. 
 Vogler, Abbe, 104, 217. 
 Volkmann, R., 222. 
 Von Breuning family, 74. 
 Wagner, 226, 227, 235. 
 Waldstein, Count, 74. 
 "Wanderer," by Schubert, 114. 
 Wanhal, 217. 
 Weber, Carl Maria; life, 102-9; "i s 
 
 compositions, 107-12, 122. 
 Weitzman, C. F., 222. 
 Werkmeister.A., 215. 
 Wieck, Fr., 162-4, 170-1, 226. 
 Wieck, Clara, 162-3, 169-70, 173. 
 Will, 63. 
 
 Willaert, A., 211. 
 Woelfl, 89-90, 218. 
 Wollenhaupt, H. A., 223. 
 Wrist Action, 206-7. 
 Zachau, 215. 
 Zambona, 72. 
 Zarlino, C, 212. 
 
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