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COOKSON MUSIC LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
STORRS. CONNECTICUT
.S^i^
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
From the "National Geographic Magazine," Washington, D. C. Copyrighted 191:
A STATUETTE OF EROS PLAYING ON HIS LYRE
(height, 42 centimetres)
ESSENTIALS IN
MUSIC HISTORY
BY
THOMAS TAPPER
LECTURER AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY AND AT THE INSTITUTE OF
MUSICAL ART, OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
AND
PERCY GOETSCHIUS
INSTRUCTOR AT THE INSTITUTE OF MUSICAL ART, OF THE
CITY OF NEW YORK
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1914
,,S225?iJ' MUSIC LIBRARY
UN^ERSfTY OF CONNECTICUT
Copyright, 1914, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
TO
FRANZ KNEISEL
In
This Book is a gift
from
r^Irs. F.S. Wardwell
/
PREFACE
The object of this work is to present, as the title
states, the essential facts in the history of music. To
the text, which aims to accompHsh this, illustrations
have been added that are intimately related to the sub-
ject-matter of the chapters in which they appear.
It is hoped that the book will appeal to the music-lover
as a simple and naturally consecutive recital of the
growth of the art of music as one distinct manifestation
of the development of human thought. But it is also
intended that the volume shall interest and benefit the
student. For the purposes of individual or classroom
instruction the book will be found to provide sufficient
material for one year's work. When time and opportu-
nity permit of collateral reading and research, suitable
texts may be selected from the lists given in Chapter
XLII (page 329 et seq.)
A bibliography of the subject of music history and its
collaterals (aesthetics, biography, and criticism) will be
found in Chapter XLII. This list of titles constitutes
a practical basis for the formation of a private or school
library. For the excellence of this list, and the privilege
of including it in this volume, the authors are indebted
to Mr. Frank H. Marling, of New York City.
In Chapter XLIII there will be found selected exami-
nation papers in music history set by various schools and
colleges. These will provide the student with the best
viii PREFACE
evidence as to the requirements in such tests. They
may also be taken as models for the preparation of orig-
inal examination papers.
In the preparation of this work the authors have en-
joyed access to authoritative sources in English, French,
and German, and are particularly indebted to the fol-
lowing authorities:
Geschichte der Musik of A. W. Ambros, A. von Dommer,
Franz Brendel, Emil Naumann, August Reissmann.
John Hawkins, General History of Music. Charles
Burney, General History of Music. W. J. von Wasielew-
ski, Geschichte der Instrumentalmusik im i6. Jahrhuiidert.
F. J. Fetis, Biographie universelle des musiciens. Gustav
Schillmg, U^iiversal Lexicon der Tonkunst. Carl Engel,
Music of the Most Ancie7it Nations and Musical Instru-
ments. Sir George Grove, Dictio?iary of Music and Musi-
cians. Oscar Bie, Das Klavier und sein Meister. J. B.
Weckerlln, Les Cha^isons populaires du pays de France.
Dr. A. Mohler, Geschichte der alten und mittelalterischen
Musik. Hermann Ritter, Allgemeine Encyklopddie der
Musik Geschichte.
New York,
September, 1914.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Introduction i
II. Music of the Chinese, Hindus, and
Egyptians 7
III. MtTsic of the Israelites and Islamites 16
IV. Music of the Greeks and Romans . . 23
V. Music of the Early Christian Church 33
VI. First Experiments in the Association of
Parts 43
VII. Guido's Successors — Mensural Notation 52
VIII. Music of the People. Troubadours,
Minstrels 61
IX. Music of the People. Minnesingers
and Meistersingers 68
X. Music OF the People. Strolling Players,
Folk Songs, Instruments 79
XL Rise and Progress of Artistic Music.
Earliest Schools of Counterpoint . 88
XII. The Dutch School of Counterpoint . 98
XIII. The Influence of the Dutch School . 106
XIV. Orlando di Lasso 114
XV. Pierluigi da Palestrina. Italian
Schools. England 121
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
XVI. The Music of the Protestant Church.
The German Chorale 130
XVII. Rise of the Dramatic Style of Music.
Oratorio and Opera in Italy . . . 141
XVIII. Early Era of Oratorio in Germany . 152
XIX. Development of an Independent In-
strumental Style. The Organ . . . 160
XX. Instrumental Music. The Clavichord,
Harpsichord, and other Keyboard
Instruments 170
XXI. Cultivation of the Clavichord Style.
Other Instruments. The Primary
Orchestra 179
XXII. Dramatic Music in Italy. Later Era . 190
XXIII. The Opera in France and England in
THE Seventeenth and Eighteenth Cen-
turies 198
XXIV. The Opera in Germany 207
XXV. George Frederick Handel 216
XXVI. JoHANN Sebastian Bach. Comparison of
Bach and Handel 221
XXVII. Operetta AND Opera in Germany. Gluck.
Mozart as Opera Composer .... 230
XXVIII. Progress and Perfection of the Instru-
mental Style. Carl Philipp Emanuel
Bach and Joseph Haydn 239
XXIX. Mozart as Instrumental Composer. His
Immediate Successors 246
XXX. Ludwig van Beethoven 252
XXXI. Franz Schubert 258
CONTENTS xl
CHAPTER PAGE
XXXII. Romantic School of Opera in Germany.
Carl Maria von Weber. Opera in
Other Countries 265
XXXIII. Romantic School of Instrumentai
Music. Felix Mendelssohn .... 274
XXXIV. Robert Schumann 279
XXXV. Frederic Chopin 284
XXXVI. The Hyper-Romantic School. Hector
Berlioz. Franz Liszt 287
XXXVII. Richard Wagner 294
XXXVIII. Johannes Brahms 299
XXXIX. Reference Lists of Musical Celebrities
OF THE Nineteenth Century .... 303
XL. The Present Era 315
XLI. Music in America 321
XLII. The Essentials of a Music Library . 329
XLIII. Examination Papers in Music History,
Set by Schools and Colleges . . . 353
Index 361
ILLUSTRATIONS
A Statuette of Eros Playing on His Lyre Frontispiece
PACE
Negrite Playing a Nose Flute 3
Primitive Musical Instruments 5
The Chinese Tscheng (Cheng) 7
The Chinese Gong, or Tamtam 8
The Chinese King 9
The Chinese Ch'in, or Kin 9
A Bengalee Girls' Band at School lo
The Vina ii
The Serinda ii
The Music of a Funeral I2
Harp-Player 13
Small Egyptian Harp 13
Double-Pipe, Rhythmical Accompaniment of the Hands, the
Harp, and Two Tambouras 13
Harp of Thirteen Strings 14
Dancing to the Crotola IS
The Sistrum 17
Cymbals 17
The Psaltery 17
The Shophar, or Ram's Horn 19
Hebrew Coins Showing the Lyre 19
An Oriental Lute 20
French Rebec 22
Music at the Panathenaean Festival 24
A Music Lesson 25
Greek Musical Notation 27
xm
xiv ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Greek Cithara 28
Greek Lyre 28
Greek Lyre 29
Greek Cithara 29
Roman Instruments 31
Roman Drums 31
Signal Horn 31
Roman Flutes 32
St. Ambrose 35
Neuma Notation of the Tenth Century 38
Neuma Script, Eleventh Century 40
Primitive Organ 41
Crwth 41
Lyre 43
A Tenth-Century Harp 45
Psaltery 46
Guido of Arezzo and Bishop Theodal with the Monochord . . 48
Organistrum 51
A Class in Music 54
An Organ of the Tenth Century 58
Antiphonarium 59
A Three-String Vielle 62
Instrumental Performer 64
Vielle 65
Organ with Bellows Worked by Levers 67
The Singing Contest at the Wartburg 69
Heinrich von Meissen, called Frauenlob 72
Hans Sachs 73
Manuscript by Hans Sachs 74
The Crusader "]"]
Dudelsack Player 80
ILLUSTRATIONS xv
PAGE
Strolling Players 8i
Instrumental Musicians 86
Military Instruments of the Middle Ages 87
From the "Margarita Philosophica" 100
Ti tie-Page to a Work by Hermann Finck 107
Adrian Willaert 108
Jans Pieters Sweelinck 112
Orlando di Lasso 115
Palestrina 122
Palestrina's Birthplace 123
Title-Page of the Wittemberg "Sacred Song Book" (Tenor
Part), 1524 132
Ludwig Senfl 136
Hans Leo Hassler 137
Johann Hermann Schein 139
Stage Setting of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," at the Red Bull
Theatre, London, 1600 142
An Italian Parody 148
Alessandro Scarlatti 149
Domenico Scarlatti 150
Heinrich Schiitz 154
Theorbo (to the left), Chitarrone (centre), Archlute (to the right) 155
Angel with Lute 157
Sigismundus Theophilus Staden 158
Musical Instruments of the Early Sixteenth Century .... 161
A "Book" Organ 162
Fourteenth-Century Organ 163
Early Portative Organ 164
Organ of the Early Seventeenth Century 165
Girolamo Frescobaldi 166
Primitive Spinet, about 1440 171
A Clavichord, 1440 171
xvi ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Italian Spinet 172
Dulcimer 173
Upright Harpsichord 174
Cristofori Piano 176
Fran9ois Couperin 180
J. Ph. Rameau 182
Johann Kuhnau 185
Antonio Stradivari 188
Nicolo Piccini 193
Giovanni Paesiello 194
Agostino Steffani 196
Zingarelli, Sarti, Tritto, Paisiello 197
Jean Baptiste Lully 199
One of the Twenty-Four "Violons du Roy" 200
Fran9ois Joseph Gossec 202
Andre Danican 204
Henry Purcell 205
Carl Heinrich Graun 208
Joh. Ad. Hasse 209
Faustina Hasse 209
Johann Mattheson 214
George Frederick Handel 217
Facsimile of a Music Transcript by Handel 219
Bach's Birthplace, Eisenach, Thuringia 222
Johann Ambrosius Bach 223
Johann Sebastian Bach 224
Wilhelm Friedmann Bach 225
Johann Adam Hiller 231
Carl von Dittersdorf 232
G. Benda 232
J. F. Reichardt 233
ILLUSTRATIONS xvii
PAGE
Christoph Willibald Gluck 233
W. A. Mozart 236
Joseph Haydn 241
Philipp Emanuel Bach 242
Silhouette Portrait of Joseph Haydn 243
Leopold Mozart, 1759 247
Mozart 247
Muzio Clementi 249
Johann Nepomuk Hummel 250
Beethoven Medallion 253
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger 254
Franz Schubert 259
Antonio Salieri 260
Schubert's Clavier 262
Schubert's Birthplace, Vienna 263
Heinrich Marschner 266
Carl Maria von Weber 267
Etienne Mehul 269
Luigi Cherubini 270
Giacomo Meyerbeer 271
Jules Massenet 271
Giuseppe Verdi 272
Modeste Mussorgski 273
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy 275
Mendelssohn's Jagers Abschied 278
Robert Schumann 280
Clara Schumann 281
Frederic Chopin 285
Hector Berlioz 288
Franz Liszt 290
Richard Wagner 295
xviii ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Johannes Brahms 300
Joachim Raff 305
Carl Reinecke 306
Peter Cornelius 306
Anton Rubinstein 307
Camille Saint-Saens 308
Pieter Ilyitch Tschaikowsky 308
A Group of Russian Composers 309
Anton Dvorak 310
Edward Grieg 31°
Edward Elgar 311
Cesar Franck 316
Gustave Charpentier 317
Richard Strauss 317
Lowell Mason 322
Theodore Thomas 3^4
Leopold Damrosch 325
Stephen C. Foster 327
F. J. Fetis 331
Edward Dickinson 333
Philip Spitta 33^
Otto Jahn 338
Carl Glasenapp 339
Henry E. Krehbiel 34°
W. J. Henderson 34^
James Huneker 34^
E. Hanslick 344
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Of the practice of music before the dawn of civiHsa-
tion we know nothing. Of its practice by primitive
peoples of to-day we have the records and observations
of travellers and explorers; these, while of interest from
the ethnological point of view, are totally without value
in their bearing upon what the critic and music lover
recognise as music. Neither the ancient nations nor ex-
isting primitive tribes have contributed anything to the
art of music, as we practise it, that is in the slightest
degree significant.
The history of music, then, must deal primarily with
what we recognise as its artistic product. Of this prod-
uct we have the exact written and printed record in
music itself, extending back only a few hundred years.
All attempts at presenting the music of ancient nations
in our present-day notation are pure conjecture. From
the theoretical treatises that have come down to us, some
of them amazingly elaborate and detailed, it is impossi-
ble to determine what tone successions and combinations
"fell with delight upon the ear." In the Bible, in Plato's
Republic, in the A^iahasis of Xenophon, music is referred
to in terms that indicate how important a part it must
have pla3'ed in daily life. But the tones which Jubal
produced from the "organ," the "ancient songs" that
the Greek children sang in school, the martial strains
that cheered the Ten Thousand, the songs of the sailors
2 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
of the ^gean Sea are gone for ever. What we do know
of rnusic in ancient times is that it was given an hon-
oured place both in domestic and ceremonial Hfe, but
of the music itself not the faintest echo can reach us.
It may be surmised that the first vague expressions of
musical impulse were the vocal utterances of elementary
emotional states that have existed from the beginning
of human life on the earth. These utterances were not
what we should now accept as music; they were differ-
entiated but little, if at all, from the tones of birds and
animals. It was not until human self-consciousness was
considerably developed that these utterances began to
proceed from an inner emotional impulse and became
to some extent the more or less appropriate reflection
of a definite phase of conscious feeling — of an intelli-
gence capable of defining the necessary structural co-ordi-
nation and refinement of detail.
It may be safely assumed that none of the so-called
music of ancient and of primitive races was elevated
very far above the purely physical or animal utterance.
However, we cannot believe that the ancient Egyptians,
Chinese, Hindus, Israelites, and Greeks were indifferent
to music. They regarded it with great interest and ap-
parently held it in veneration. They wrote many trea-
tises about it; each nation developed a theory of music
quite different from that of the others, and some of these
theories are surprisingly profound and thorough. But
despite any evidence we can find to the contrary they
were lifeless theories which, apparently, were not and
could not be put to practical use.
Of the three fundamentals of music, melody, rhythm,
and harmony, the ancient and primitive peoples undoubt-
edly attached far the greatest importance to rhythm.
Their melodies were almost certainly artificial and de-
void of what we recognise as true musical feeling. Of
harmony there is nowhere among any of the records
of the ancient nations the slightest trace; and undoubt-
INTRODUCTION
edly for the reason that harmony is that element of mu-
sic which can be born of nothing less than a conscious
and definite apprehension of tone relationship, not alone
in a mathematical but essentially in an emotional sense.
The sometimes too credulous and enthusiastic inter-
pretations of these ancient writings on music must, there-
fore, be viewed with caution
and accepted with consider-
able reserve. Up to the be-
ginning of the Christian era
there exists no positive evi-
dence of any, even the most
primitive, systems of tone
combination. The melodies
that may have existed were
not recorded in a form that
admits of reproduction, and
no one now knows how they
sounded. Judging from the
subtle conditions which regu-
late our modern melody and
from the attitude and actual
musical attainment of the
overwhelming majority of
music listeners even in our
enlightened age, it must be
concluded that these ancient
melodies could have been no
more than fragments of tone succession, with no more in-
herent evidence of tone sense than might be expected of
the rudest natural instinct.
Rhythm was probably the most completely system-
atised element in ancient music; for the rhythmic sense is
not only aroused by the movements of the body but is in-
herent in the vital mechanism of the body itself. Rhythm
is a physiological fact to which the primitive mind must
respond, by nature and necessity, more quickly than to
From the "National Geographic Magazine,"
Washington, D. C. Copyrighted 191 2.
NEGRFTE PLAYING A NOSE FLUTE
4 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
any other less material impulse. Hence the well-nigh
universal practice of the dance either as spontaneous
expression of pleasure or as an integral part of cere-
monial performance. The probably rational, regular,
and varied rhythmic forms found ready expression
upon the drums and other instruments of percussion
which apparently abounded among ancient peoples, and
most prominently among those known to have been
the least emotional. The profusion of musical instru-
ments, both wind and string, which might bias our cor-
rect judgment of the musical culture of the older na-
tions, is more than likely but one further proof of the
essentially inartistic nature of their music; for the di-
rect and fundamental expression of real feeling is vocal.
It is not until the emotional impulse has passed that we
turn to the less direct and more mechanical reproduc-
tion upon an instrument, of that which is vocally ex-
pressed. Instrumental utterance is opposed to vocal,
precisely as physical manifestations are consequent upon
emotional states, and the nations which in early days
possessed the largest inventory of musical instruments
were probably the ones which had the crudest and most
elementary perception of music as a truly emotional
vehicle.
Further, the undoubted existence of a well-developed
and, in its way, logical music theory, the volumes of
essays and treatises upon music, such as are found among
ancient peoples, are not conclusive evidence that real
music, in any artistic sense, actually existed. They do
prove, however, the universal susceptibility of the human
mind and soul to the mysterious power of music. These
ancient peoples felt the influence of tone without really
knowing much that was vital about it, just as one may
feel electricity without possessing the remotest knowl-
edge of what it is, and yet be able to write voluminously
about the sensations and conjectures it stimulates.
Hence, it is more than likely that music as the art of
INTRODUCTION 5
tone combination, based upon the natural laws of tone
relation, was totally unknown to any one of the ancient
races before the Christian era; that their musical
practices were at first but little different from purely
elementary emotional utterance, and even when advanced
and systematised were still crude in the extreme; and
Copyrighted by Underwood & Underwood.
PRIMITIVE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
(central Africa)
that possibly the best, most natural, and instinctively
musical expressions were those of the Egyptian, Indian,
Greek, or Hebrew toiler who could not help lightening
his task — ^just as the unsophisticated toiler of the pres-
ent age does — by some sort of vocal expression that may
have been akin to song and which may have crystallised
into recognisable forms, repeated and handed down as
possible types of the melodies which were used in the
services of the early Christian church.
From the fact that many of the ancient nations ascribe
the invention of music to a god are we made aware of
its great antiquity. Its origin is thus accounted for in
6 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
many mythologies. The scientists, turning from these
reverential and poetic attempts at explaining the remote
and uncertain, have disposed of the question in ways
widely at variance with one another.
The naturalist Charles Darwin presented the hypothe-
sis that both melody (tones) and rhythm (movement)
were first acquired by the male progenitors of the race
for the sole purpose of attracting the opposite sex.*
Herbert Spencer has advanced the theory that "song
employs and exaggerates the natural language of the
emotions," that "vocal music, and by consequence all
music, is an idealisation of the natural language of pas-
sion."
Richard Wallaschek, whose Primitive Music is a most
noteworthy contribution, advances this opinion: "It is
with music as with language; however far we might de-
scend in the order of primitive people, we should prob-
ably find no race which did not exhibit at least some
trace of musical aptitude and sufficient understanding to
turn it to account." f
* Charles Darwin, Descent of Man, vol. II, chap. 19.
t Primitive Music, chap. I.
CHAPTER II
MUSIC OF THE CHINESE, HINDUS, AND EGYPTIANS
Far from treating music with indifference, the ancient
Chinese regarded it as worthy of scientific observation
and study. They wrote many treatises on the subject,
the oldest of which appeared in the eleventh century B. C.
Such historic records as we possess indicate that their
conception and practice of music were dull and lifeless.
Thev seem never to have discovered its artistic and
THE CHINESE TSCHENG (CHENG)
emotional possibilities, even as contained within their
fairly definite scale form. This scale — pentatonic, or
five-toned — was without the minor second interval and
may have resembled somewhat the modern Scotch scale.*
Subsequently this scale of five tones was extended to
seven and embraced a compass of two octaves.
The musical traditions of the Chinese and their prin-
cipal applications of the art were associated with religion
and a curiously ponderous symbolism. The following
tone succession, which is said still to be sung annually
in the temple in honour of the departed, is one of the
oldest known melodies:
*The tone succession was probably this:
-o &-
-«? ^-
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
d:
=1
t=\-=^-
V%¥=S=\
2:ze:
tzzt:
-(2-
^—^1
'-a-
ttzz^zd
:=1=q=
-^-
-s^-
i
t^
It will be observed that this melody is based upon the
five-tone scale. The slurs are here added to indicate the
THE CHINESE GONG, OR TAMTAM
regular and metrical structure, which is noteworthy; so,
too, is the key-note instinct; the prevailing tone at be-
ginning, middle, and end being F. Despite these evi-
dences of something akin to genuine musical instinct, the
melody is clumsy and untuneful.
There exists nowhere in Chinese music the slightest
trace of tone combination in a harmonious sense. They
have always used a large number and variety of instru-
ments; most of them, however, in keeping with their
CHINESE, HINDU, AND EGYPTIAN 9
primitive conception of sound, were nois}^ instruments of
percussion, whose chief office it was to mark the rhythm.
Their principal instruments are the gong, or tamtam,
the king, the tscheng, and the ch'in (or kin).
THE CHINESE KING
Sharply contrasted with Chinese musical practice was,
and is, the musical life of the Hindustani. The Hindus
put the same m3^sterious and poetic construction upon
CHINESE CH'IN, OR KIN
music that pervades their entire thought and civiHsation.
At the present day Hindu music displays a noteworthy
quality of theoretic and practical development, but there
is no proof that this was the case in ancient times.
Music appears to have been always greatly prized and
extensively employed, and not exclusively in connec-
tion with religious customs but also in public and pri-
vate life.
lO
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
Hindu musical theory was extremely extensive and
thorough. The Hindus based their practice upon a suc-
cession of seven tones, which is singularly like our modern
major scale. To these seven tones they gave melodious
names, which were abbreviated in singing to the first
syllable, resulting in the following series:
Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni (Sa).
This significant analogy with the modern system of
Guidonian (and subsequent) syllables — Do, Re, Mi, Fa,
Sol, La, Ti (Do) (see Chapter VI) — and the coincidence
A BENGALEE GIRLS' BAND AT SCHOOL
(they are playing the VINA, AN INSTRUMENT OF GREAT ANTIQUITY)
of the Hindu scale with our scientifically established
major scale seem chiefly to vindicate the unity of human
thought when guided by true, natural instinct.
The seven-tone Hindu scale was divided into twenty-
two so-called struti, or quarter-tones. But, as there
should be twenty-four quarter-tones within the octave,
their theory betrays a palpable error, which must be, and
doubtless is, corrected in practice.
Very numerous examples of Hindu melody have been
collected and noted down, chiefly by English explorers.
That many of them should exhibit musical charm and
natural melodious expression may be due to the fact
that they are of recent date and have been influenced to
some extent by modern European musical culture. There
CHINESE, HINDU, AND EGYPTIAN ii
is no proof that the}^ possess great antiquity. The rhyth-
mic structure is interesting and natural and the forms
are S3^mmetrical.
The melodies are transmitted orally from teacher to
scholar, and thus their preservation depends chiefly upon
memory and tradition. Nevertheless, the Hindus use a
THE VINA
primitive sort of musical notation by letters, declared by
the distinguished historian Fetis to be the oldest in ex-
istence. Five tones of the scale are designated by the
consonants which appear in their names and the other
two by the short vowels a and i: long vowels denote
double time-values; and all other directions are given,
THE SERINDA
partly by a number of curved lines and partly by ad-
joined words.
The musical instruments of the Hindus were not nu-
merous, but appear to have been (or, at least, are at the
present day) possessed of genuine musical quality and in-
genious mechanism. The two most characteristic instru-
12
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
ments are the vina and the serinda. The vina is a
cyUndrical tube three to four feet in length; the reso-
nance is produced by two hollow gourds attached, one at
each end, on the under side. The strings are plucked
(as in playing the modern banjo) with a sort of metal
thimble. The tone is clear, resonant, and agreeable.
The serinda is much like our violin; it has three strings
THE MUSIC OF A FUNERAL
(from a tomb at Thebes)
and is played with a bow. Great antiquity is ascribed
to it, so that it may be regarded as the oldest progenitor
of our group of violins.
The music of the Egyptians is believed to be of great
antiquity. Of its character in ancient times nothing is
known; but the conjecture, based upon the numerous
instruments they possessed, seems reasonable that their
practice of music was extremely extensive. The multi-
tude of pictures on the walls of Egyptian tombs afford
an insight into the life, religious and private, of the
people, and everywhere proofs abound of the degree and
manner of their musical occupations. There we find de-
picted harps of all shapes and sizes, numerous varieties
of l3Ares and of single and double flutes. These instru-
ments are manipulated in many instances by large bod-
CHINESE, HINDU, AND EGYPTIAN 13
ies of musicians, while singers of both sexes stand near.
Music accompanied almost every religious and social
function: the sacrifice, the dance, the dirge, and the
festival. Most prominent among
their instruments is, everywhere,
the harp, to which they gave the
HARP-PLAYER
(MEMPHIS)
melodious name tebunJ. The
Greeks ascribe the invention of the
flute to the Egyptians. small Egyptian harp
Egyptian music was, doubtlessly,
of the same primitive, crude character as that of other
ancient nations. Sir Edward William Lane collected a
number of Egyptian melodies in 1836, claimed by them
to be of extremely remote origin, but they afford no re-
liable clew to the character of early Egyptian music.
The melodies are based upon a tetrachord, or four-tone
DOUBLE-PIPE, RHYTHMICAL ACCOMPANIMENT OF THE HANDS,
THE HARP, AND TWO TAMBOURAS
14
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
scale — the same primitive series which, constituting the
basis of all Greek musical theory and practice, found its
way into the subsequent systems of early European
musical scholars.
{::
•zzfjut
F=1===:
The rhythmic formation of these (modern) Egyptian
tunes is very regular and interesting, though simple.
This, however, is no proof of similar perfection of their
ancient forms, for the influence of European music can-
not have failed to reach these, as it has all other semi-
HARP OF THIRTEEN STRINGS
CHINESE, HINDU, AND EGYPTIAN 15
civilised races. Here, again, not the remotest reference
to or indication of a harmonic S3^stem can be found.
And no system of notation was ever known to them or
used by them.
The Egj^ptians possessed many forms of musical instru-
ments; among them the double pipe, the tamboura, the
crotola, and a great variety of harps.
DANCING TO THE CROTOLA
CHAPTER III
MUSIC OF THE ISRAELITES AND ISLAMITES
Because of their relation to the Christian religion our
interest and sympathy are more intimately aroused and
deeply touched by the history of the ancient Hebrews
than by that of any contemporaneous race. And, there-
fore, is our curiosity greater and the disposition to attach
unusual importance to their music stronger than that
impelled by the historic accounts of music among other
nations of antiquity.
It is generally assumed that in former times music
attained a comparatively high degree of significance and
perfection among the children of Israel. In probable
consequence of this it had a very direct bearing upon
the music of the early Christian church, quite as im-
portant, in fact, as that which w^as exerted by the well-
preserved musical theory of the Greeks, if, indeed, not
more so. Both Hebrew poetry and Hebrew music seem
to have served from the beginning no other purpose
whatever than to extol Jehovah and to proclaim and
emphasise divine ideas and ideals. The Old Testament
abounds in passages which refer not only to the office
of music as employed in the temple service and on other
festival occasions, but they indicate in detail the manner
of its treatment and the instruments to be employed.
Many instances attest this: Miriam's Song of Triumph;
the welcome of King Saul with the sound of psalters and
tabret, lute, and cyther; and the ovation to David upon
his return from the overthrow of the PhiHstines.
While in other countries at this early period music
i6
THE ISRAELITES AND ISLAMITES
17
was chiefly a secular amusement, it expressed in Israel
the impulse to higher and truer development in the
service of a fervent religious belief. Most conspicuous
among the historic names in early Jewish history is that
of David. He it was who founded the temple music,
confirmed the privileges of the Levites, and conferred
definite authority upon the musical divisions of the
tribe. Himself an ardent lover of music, he seldom ap-
pears in Bible narrative to act or speak without the
THE SISTRUM
CYMBALS
THE PSALTERY
accompaniment of music in some form — either he per-
forms upon the harp himself or he directs the musical
practices of his followers.
Of the nature of ancient Hebrew melody no definite
conception can be formed, but it is safe to conjecture that,
from its uses and associations, it must have been solemn
and dignified of character, possibly something akin to the
monotonous chant, within narrow compass, established
by Pope Gregory in the early service of the Christian
church. The religious chants must certainly have evinced
less rhythmic vitality than were native to their festival,
secular, and martial melodies. These must have been
more vigorous and rhythmically diversified. Of harmony
there is, even among so significant a people, not the re-
motest evidence.
The Hebrew mode of singing in the temple and syna-
gogue was probably antiphonal or alternating, either be-
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
tween priest and congregation, or precentor and choir,
or between groups of singers. This is impHed by many
passages in scriptural poetry, especially in the Psalms.
For instance, in the thirty-eighth Psalm, which consists
wholly of responsive lines, we find this example of an-
tiphonal worship:
Priest. — "O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath,"
Congregation. — "Neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure;"
Priest. — "For Thine arrows stick fast in me,"
Congregation. — "And Thy hand presseth me sore."
The Hebrew form of scale was, no doubt, one of four
tones, the tetrachord, which seems to have been univer-
sal in ancient times. A melodic fragment like the fol-
lowing, still used in the synagogue and declared to be of
extreme antiquity, indicates the application of the tetra-
chord :
-ft — — -
Hear ye,
Is - ra - el,
the Lord
most
m
ho - ly,
He
lone
your God."
Some historians have surmised that the tones to be
used with a line of text were indicated by the accents of
Hebrew script. Whether this conjecture be true or not,
there is no evidence of any other method of notation.
While Hebrew instruments were very numerous, they
were primitive and imperfect. In the one hundred and
fiftieth Psalm (3-6), nearly the whole ** orchestra" is
enumerated:
3. Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet: praise Him with the
psaltery and harp.
4. Praise Him with the timbrel and dance: praise Him with stringed
instruments and organs.
THE ISRAELITES AND ISLAMITES 19
5. Praise Him upon the loud cymbals: praise Him upon the high-
sounding cymbals.
6. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the
Lord.
The most Important instrument was the shophar or
ram's horn: "The shophar is especially remarkable as
THE SHOPHAR, OR RAM'S HORN
being the only Hebrew instrument which has been pre-
served to the present day in the religious services of the
Jews. It is still blown, as in time of old, at the Jewish New
Year's festival, according to the command of Moses." *
HEBREW COINS SHOWING THE LYRE
In Arabia and Persia music was, and is, employed
in a totally different manner from that prevalent among
the ancient Hebrews. The love of the Islamites for mu-
Carl Engcl, The Music of the Most Ancient Nations.
20
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
sic, and their natural gifts, are very remarkable and,
presumably, always have been. But the history of their
music is of comparatively recent date and presents, for
that reason, pronounced artistic
traits suggestive of a more modern
culture that can only have been
modelled after and influenced by
the refined European condition of
the musical art.
The musical theory of the Islam-
ites is one of astonishing logical
exactness, elaborateness, and thor-
oughness. It seems to lack nothing
but that correct natural premise
which, secured and adopted by the
thoughtful musical scholars of the
Christian church in the Middle
Ages, was destined to develop with
scientific certainty into the per-
fected art of our day. But the
basis of Islamitic musical theory
was too vague and imaginative for
snch evolution. Though closely allied to nature in a
poetic sense, it was not so in the practical application
which they made of it.
The musical practice of the Islamites was not asso-
ciated with religion, as among the Jews, but was ex-
plicitly prohibited by Mohammed as a dangerous enemy
and rival of holiness. In consequence, the tones of the
voice and of the lute, which survived or defied this pro-
hibition, found refuge and welcome with the nomadic
Bedouins in the lonely retreats of the desert and there
throve under the strong natural impulses of these wild
singers and players.
The basis of their theory was a scale of seven tones,
corresponding to the modern major scale in all but the
last (highest) interval, which was a whole step instead of
AN ORIENTAL LUTE
THE ISRAELITES AND ISLAMITES 21
a half step, like, for example, the D major scale with C
natural instead of C sharp. This tone range was divided
into seventeen parts, each whole step representing three
while the two half steps remained undivided. Scientific
musicians are compelled to admit that this produces a
scale form of greater richness and, in some respects, of
greater acoustic accuracy than even our modern modes.
But the Arabs contented themselves with the mere math-
ematical speculation possible within the tone group and
have made no truly artistic use of it.
The tone-thirds create the impression of dragging the
voice, possibly a trifle less vaguely than the struti of the
Hindus. This marked peculiarity of Oriental singing and
playing is also found in southern Europe, modern Greece,
Naples, and Andalusia. Arab rhythms are for the most
part vague and monotonous, but in many instances sin-
gularly free, energetic, and effective.
Arabian melodies, however, possess very positive charm;
those in use at the present time, of which some may be
fairly old, are quaint, romantic, tuneful, symmetrical in
structure, rhythmically natural and interesting, and to
some extent positively beautiful.
I^L ,2\i:M iliimCTft'^^^^B^^ ^^
ivv;^lin.'^|flvliiijiH.^i^^^l^if
The tunes of the Turks are far less perfect and refined;
they are sensual, revel in indistinct, blurred tones and
vague phrases, are often singularly wild and indefinable,
and adorned, even overloaded, with a profusion of fan-
tastic coloratures and ostensible embellishments.
The most significant point of contact, however, between
the music of these races and the art of to-day rests in
22
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
the instruments which they used and, probably, to a large
extent invented. In this connection, their relation to the
modern orchestra and their influence upon it is extremely
important. Our lutes, mandolins, and guitars; our
oboes, kettle-drums and snare-drums, are all of direct
Arabian origin; and, although the violin traces its devel-
opment partly from northern Europe and Hin-
dustan, it is, nevertheless, true that the adop-
tion of the Arabian rebec by the troubadours
contributed most largely to the cultivation and
spread of this important instrument. The
Arabian rebec, called originally rebab or rabab,
is a kind of viola which found its way into
Europe as early as the eighth or ninth century.
The Crusaders brought it from the Orient in
the twelfth century. That this instrument
persisted in Europe is shown by the accom-
panying illustration of a French rebec of the
sixteenth century.
The chief instrument of the Arabs is the
lute, called by them el'eud or el'aoud (meaning
"wood of the aloe"), whence the Spanish de-
rivative laudo. The important family of wood
instruments, popular in European bands in the ^ceJtur™
sixteenth century under the name pommer or
bombard, is practically identical with the Arabian zamar.
Our present oboe is the equivalent of the discant (small-
est) pommer; the bassoon is the bass pommer.
No other Oriental race has evinced so marked a pre-
dilection for instrumental music as the Arabs. Their
wealth of instruments is well-nigh fabulous, numbering
no fewer than one hundred and thirty varieties, not in-
cluding a large number of brass and percussion instru-
ments and thirty others mentioned in their writings but
unknown to us.
CHAPTER IV
MUSIC OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS
For many and obvious reasons, the music of the
ancient Greeks has always been regarded by historians
with far greater interest than that accorded to any other
contemporaneous nation. The undisputed supremacy of
their culture in literature, sculpture, architecture, and
the sciences made the scholars of subsequent ages eager
to draw upon the stores of Greek learning. Their pro-
found musical theories have repeatedly been reverted to
by the pioneers of musical art and science during the
Christian era, even as late as the fifteenth century, as
presumably the most trustworthy basis and guide to fur-
ther development. And while this has proved, on the
whole, to be a fallacy (because Greek- theories of music
were, after all, but little if any more correct than those
of other ancient races), it is, nevertheless, true that many
of their basic principles did survive to influence the sub-
sequent organisation of the true art-material, probably
because of the inevitable coincidence of natural instinct,
to some fundamental extent in all ages. Thus we dis-
cover a close relation between our modern scale and the
tetrachord system of the Greeks; and many musical
terms have descended to us from Greek theory, either
directly or by way of their Latin equivalents.
In Greece we find, for the first time in history, music
treated as an object of beauty and of artistic potential-
ity in itself. With this people It was used not merely
to regulate the dance, to enliven the festival, or to sol-
emnise the sacrifice; nor was it regarded alone as a me-
23
24 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
dium of personal expression, but as a thing of abstract
beauty in itself, a fruitful subject for philosophical and
mathematical speculation. From the Greeks we have
the name: Mus-ik, the art of the muses.*
But the Hellenic mind ran to plastic forms, and there-
fore, with all their marvellous artistic endowment, the
MUSIC AT THE PANATHEN.EAN FESTIVAL
Greeks were not able to comprehend the true mission
of music, the wholly unplastic art, nor to contribute to
its development in the proper direction.
Still, the reverence and love for music displayed by
the Greeks were great. The art pervaded their lives,
mj^thical and material. Apollo led the muses with his
symboHc lyre. With him was Dionysus, the god of loud,
rushing music; then came demigods, human heroes, and
mighty epic poets: Orpheus, who subdued the demons
of the underworld; Thamyris, who boldly challenged the
muses to a contest; Linos, Hymenaeus, and Homer. And
so on, to the humbler shepherds, reapers, and workers of
fields and vineyards, who lightened their labour with
strains that were doubtless a truer expression of human
* With the Greeks, "music was never dissociated from poetry, and hence, in
later times, mental education broke up into two parts: music proper and let-
ters. These might be regarded either as arts or sciences. As arts, they were
used to purify the soul; as sciences, to instruct or enlighten it." — Thomas
Davidson, The History of Education, p. 94.
THE GREEKS AND ROMANS
25
feeling than anything that could be suggested by the com-
plex and highly developed theories of greater minds.
The first important musical authority in Greek history
was Terpander (c. 680 B. C.)> to whom improvement
of the lyre and the duplication of the tetrachord are
ascribed. Pythagoras (c. 540 B. C.) was probably the
first to apply mathematics to music and to establish the
basis of the first musical system. For this reason Py-
thagoras and his followers were known as canonists, as
they thus determined all music practice and theory by
*'rule." Pythagoras was followed, about two centuries
later, by Aristoxenos {b. 354 B. C), a man of more im-
aginative and progressive disposition, who advanced the
natural but reasonable
suggestion that the ear
(the personal judge) and
not the rule, or intellec-
tual critic, should be
the sole guide. He and
his school were, there-
fore, known as harmo-
nists.
The hypothesis of Py-
thagoras was: "All is
number and concord.
Numbers direct and
maintain the harmony
of the universe. Num-
bers form also the foun-
dation of musical effects.
What we hear In the
vibration of a string in
motion is a number; In music, numbers become resonant;
numbers determine the pitch of tones and their Interval
relations to one another."
The less mathematical and more philosophical Aristox-
enos says: "The soul is the tension of the body; and,
A MUSIC LESSON
26 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
as with stretched strings in harmony and song, so vari-
ous vibrations, according to the nature and shape of the
body, are produced, hke unto musical tones."
Plato says of music: "It, hke the other arts, should
serve the common weal; it is false and reprehensible to
declare that music exists for pleasure only. . . . Music
should inspire with love for what is good and pure. . . .
Bad music is more pernicious than any other evil."
These utterances seem to indicate deep insight into the
actual purposes and effects of music. But we must not
forget that they may have had far greater poetical than
practical significance, because that which they called
music was a theory, of vaguely apprehended possibilitieSy
but not a practical fact — not in any sense that which
modern music is, a vehicle of emotional expression.
The thorough and mathematically exact theory of
Greek music was based wholly upon the tetrachord — a
four-tone succession, in progressive pitches, always con-
taining two whole-step, and one half-step, intervals. Of
these tetrachords they distinguished three species, ac-
cording to the location of the half step, at the bottom
(Dorian), in the middle (Phrygian), or at the top (Lyd-
ian) of the row of tones. Thus:
Dorian Phrygian Lydiak
These tetrachords were later duplicated, or, rather,
interjoined, so that the seven-tone scale resulted. In the
case of the Lydian mode, this corresponded exactly to
the modern major scale excepting that it began with the
fifth tone (dominant) instead of with the key-note. Thus:
Lower tetrachord
=^E=^^
"25 —^^^ . Upper tetrachord I
THE GREEKS AND ROMANS
27
The complete Greek scale ultimately consisted of four
Dorian tetrachords extending from B in the bass to A
above middle C, To this was added one tone (A) at
the lower end, which was called the added tone. Each
tetrachord had its specific name; so, too, had each sep-
rb
TOTE
mm
GREEK MUSICAL NOTATION
arate tone, indicative partly of its position in its tetra-
chord and partly of its position on the lyre. Out of this
extended scale group seven modes or octave systems were
derived, varying simply in accordance with the starting-
point chosen.
The Greeks distinguished diflPerent voice registers
(topoi); a tonos, something apparently similar to our
key, and determining transpositions from one mode to
another; a diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic genus.
They made many other distinctions which, though often
singularly vague and to all appearances purely theoreti-
28
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
cal, prove the earnestness with which they carried out
their mathematical speculations. The Greek rhythmic
systems were highly developed, chiefly, to be sure, in re-
lation to Greek poetry, the prosodic measures of which
were the universal basis of all subsequent forms.
Greek melodies were possibly somewhat more natural
than those of other ancient races, but more than likely
crude, lifeless, and wholly incapable of development. Of
GREEK CITHARA
GREEK LYRE
harmony, in the modern sense, they possessed not the
remotest knowledge. Greek notation consisted entirely
of letters.
The manner of singing was almost certainly a com-
promise between speech and song, a sort of recitative.
The poet may have struck a few introductory notes upon
his lyre or cithara before beginning his declamation. He
may have accentuated certain syllables, may possibly have
ventured an occasional embellishment, and, no doubt,
carried the voice up or down in keeping with the dram-
atic inflections of the epic, along the line of the adopted
tetrachord or modus.
The chorus, which plays so important a part in Greek
tragedy, consisted of male singers. They were directed
by a leader, called koryphaeus, who used, instead of a
conductor's baton, clattering shoes and marked the time
by walking about.
THE GREEKS AND ROMANS
29
Compared with the great number of instruments used
by the Egyptians and Hebrews, those of Greece appear
almost insignificant. Their whole store is summed up in
two Instruments: the lyre (and related cithara) and the
flute (single and double).
Many passages in the works of Greek writers attest
the manner and method by which music was performed.
Thus we read {Odyssey^ book I) :
GREEK LYRE
GREEK CITHARA
Now when the wooers had put from them the desire of meat and
drink, they minded them of other things, even of the song and dance:
for these are the crown of the feast.
And a henchman placed a beauteous lyre in the hands of him who
was minstrel to the wooers despite his will. Yea, and as he touched
the lyre he lifted up his voice in sweet song.
Again {Odyssey, book IV) :
And among them a divine minstrel was singing to a lyre, and as he
began the song two tumblers in the company whirled through their
midst.
Throughout the Anabasis martial music and music of
the dance are frequently mentioned.
And when the trumpeters gave the signal, they presented arms and
advanced. (Book I, chap. II.)
As the sacrifices appeared favourable, all the soldiers sang the pasan
and raised a shout. (Book IV, chap. III.)
30 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
In the sixth book of the Anabasis the following descrip-
tion of a dance with music is given:
As soon as the libations were over, and they had sung the paean, two
Thracians rose up, and danced in full armour, to the sound of a pipe;
they leaped very high, and with great agility, and wielded their swords;
and at last one struck the other, in such a manner that every one
thought he had killed him (he fell, however, artfully), and the Paph-
lagonians cried out; the other, having despoiled him of his arms, went
out singing the Sitalces; while other Thracians carried off the man as
if he had been dead; though indeed he had suffered no hurt. After-
ward some iEnians and Magnesians stood up, and danced what they
call the Carpaean dance, in heavy arms. The nature of the dance was
as follows: one man having laid aside his arms, sows, and drives a
yoke of oxen, frequently turning to look back as if he were afraid. A
robber then approaches, and the other man, when he perceives him,
snatches up his arms and runs to meet him, and fights with him in de-
fence of his yoke of oxen (and the men acted all this keeping time to
the pipe); but at last the robber, binding the other man, leads him
off with his oxen. Sometimes, however, the ploughman binds the rob-
ber, and then, having fastened him to his oxen, drives him off with his
hands tied behind him.
Next came forward a Mysian, with a light shield in each hand, and
danced, sometimes acting as if two adversaries were attacking him;
sometimes he used his shields as if engaged with only one; sometimes
he whirled about, and threw a somersault, still keeping the shields in
his hands, presenting an interesting spectacle. At last he danced the
Persian dance, clashing his shields together, sinking on his knees, and
rising again; and all this he performed in time to the pipe.
After him some Mantineans, and others of the Arcadians, coming
forward and taking their stand, armed as handsomely as they could
equip themselves, moved along in time, accompanied by a pipe tuned
for the war-movement, and sang the paean, and danced in the same
manner as in the processions to the gods. The Paphlagonians, looking
on, testified their astonishment that all the dances were performed in
armour. The Mysian, observing that they were surprised at the ex-
hibition, and prevailing on one of the Arcadians, who had a female
dancer, to let her come in, brought her forward, equipping her as
handsomely as he could, and giving her a light buckler. She danced
the Pyrrhic dance with great agility and a general clapping followed.
. . . This was the conclusion of the entertainment for that night.
When Xenophon had assured Seuthes of the friendship
of himself and of his associates, "some people came in
THE GREEKS AND ROMANS
31
that played on horns, such as they make signals with,
and trumpets made of raw ox-hides, blowing regular
tunes, and as if they were playing on the magadis." *
P-
TRUMPET
ROMAN INSTRUMENTS
TUBA CORNEA
In Rome the purpose of music differed vastly from that
pursued by the Greeks, and its character was defined
accordingly. The Romans recognised in music neither a
medium of emotional utterance nor an object of serious
investigation, but chiefly an auxiliary of the dance and
ROMAN DRUMS
SIGNAL HORN
of their extravagant theatrical performances. It served
no higher purposes and was limited to the voluptuous
practices of a degenerate people.
* Magadis, a pipe that gave forth a shrill, powerful tone.
32
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
Their principal instrument was the flute, though they
also possessed the lyre and cithara of the Greeks
and used the straight metal tuba and the rounded buc-
cina mainly in their wars or at imposing public festivals.
Ovid, speaking from personal observation, calls song,
cithara, and lyre enervating. Quintilian indignantly con-
demns the licentious music of his day. St. Jerome de-
ROMAN FLUTES
clares: "A Christian maiden should not know what a
flute or a lyre is, or for what they are used." But
Epictetus, the philosopher, observed a fact about music
that will probably remain true for all time:
"And the learning of a carpenter's trade is very griev-
ous to an untaught person who happens to be present,
but the work done declares the need of the art. But
far more is this seen in music, for if you are by where
one is learning it will appear the most painful of all in-
structions; but that which is produced by the musical
art is sweet and delightful to hear, even to those who
are untaught in it." *
* The Encheiridion of Epictetus, book I, chap. VI.
CHAPTER V
MUSIC OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH
The momentous religious awakening which ushered in
the era of Christianity provided wholly new conditions,
signally auspicious for the development of music. With
the advent of spiritual ideals and impulses, the true power
and mission of music became recognisable, and before
long there evolved for the first time in human history
the possibility of directing this power into its most sig-
nificant channels. The regenerated soul, longing for a
medium of expression for its new hopes and feelings,
found no other form of utterance so peculiarly qualified
as music for this spiritual experience.
The early Christian congregations were, therefore, im-
pelled to sing, as well as to pray; and what they sang
could scarcely have been altogether new, but was prob-
ably appropriated from the existing traditions of the
Jewish church. The first Christian melodies were pos-
sibly such remnants of actual Hebrew chants as might
have been preserved; or they were derived from other
familiar sources unknown to the historian. The hymn
sung by the Saviour and his disciples at the Last Supper,
as recorded in the scriptures, must surely have been an
old Hebrew melody. There is also evidence that Greece
furnished melodic material for the early Christian church,
especially for the Greek branch.
It is more than likely that the method of singing was
antiphonal (responsive). Philo, a Jewish chronicler of
the first century, is authority for the statement that the
psalms and hymns were sung by alternate male and fe-
33
34
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
male choirs (among the Therapeutae, an IsraeHtic sect in
Alexandria). At all events, some such mode of alternat-
ing song must have been the original type of the antiph-
onal chant which subsequently became so general in the
Christian church. Both sexes joined in singing; but
instruments of every kind were prohibited for a long
time.
St. Ambrose (333-397 A. D.) is regarded as the
founder of the music of the Catholic Church. The first
attempts to organise and establish a system of musical
service are identified with his name. St. Ambrose was
a great lover of music and a hj^mn writer of such eminence
that the term Ambrosian was applied to all hymns writ-
ten in his characteristic prosodic measure, and even be-
came a general synonym for all ecclesiastic hymns of that
epoch.
LUX BE ATA (Hymn by St. Ambrose).
;eiSE^
:t=t:
1^=0
lux be - a - ta Trl - ni - tas Et prin
i=.:
m
-r—t-
^jrrn^
:[i^=t=
t:
-pt (Z.
ci - pa - lis u - ni - tas! Jam sol re - ce - dit ig - ne - us
In - funde
di - bus.
THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH
35
The Ambrosian chant or intonation was, no doubt,
recitative in style; the rhythm was marked as in speak-
ing, while the voice re-
mained mostly upon one
tone, excepting at the
cadences (the end of
the lines or verses),
where either a rising or
falling inflection was
made. (Hence, cadence
from cado, cadere, to
fall.) There was yet no
system of musical no-
tation; the tones were
indicated by letters only,
as among the earlier
Greeks.
St. Ambrose classified
his intonations accord-
ing to the following four
modes, borrowed, pre-
sumabl}^, from the Greek theory; these are known as
the Ambrosian ecclesiastic tones or authentic modes:
From "I'Histoire du Bas-Empire," tome II.
ST. AMBROSE
TETRACHORD TETRACHORD
I.
d-e^-g' a-b^-d
2.
€-¥-G-k B^-D-E
3-
F-G-A-B> C-D-E-F
4.
G - A - B-C D - E-F -
1
-G
In the third of these modes the usual tone B gave a
succession of three whole steps (the tritone), which was
not permitted in a system based upon the tetrachord, in
which, as in Greek theory, one of the intervals should be
36 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
a half step. To remove this error the pitch of the tone
B was lowered a half step when this tetrachord was used,
and this change was indicated by altering the form of the
letter from the usual square B (p) to a round B (b).
The square ^ denoted the "hard" melodic interval (the
tone used in all other modes); the round b, the "softer"
interval, now known as b-flat. These forms of the letter
B are the forerunners of our modern tf and b.*
It must not be forgotten that at this time music was
limited to melody alone. Harmony, or anything ap-
proaching the idea of independent parts, was still wholly
unknown.
In course of time a more perfect system became desir-
able, and the efforts to bring this about seem to have
centred next in Gregory, surnamed the Great (born
about 540 A. D.; pope from 590 to 604), who is credited
with having reformed and reorganised the liturgical and
musical service of the Catholic Church. The music he
established was called the Gregorian chant. All of the
intonations belonging to his liturgy were noted (in letters
only) in a book called the Antiphonaryy which, bound
by a chain to the altar of St. Peter's church in Rome,
was to remain an inviolable guide for the music of the
Roman Church for all time. For this reason every
chant it contained was known as a cantus firmus (fixed
chant). The name cantus planus (plain chant) was
given to some of them, that were sung in tones of uni-
form length.
The distinction between the Ambrosian and Gregorian
manner of singing appears to have rested largely upon
the rhythm, which, in the former, was apparently far more
natural and animated, conforming to an unconstrained
declamation of the text. The Gregorian chant, on the
contrary, held less strictly to the natural rhythm of the
* Progressive forms of the flat in musical notation:
THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH 37
KSTlL A J SCM JiTRlil-
U£K WATif fST NOBIS
/•.fr A.^** ^^ n ^4
y> i f ^-^ ^-^ />" n .
jt:
II 7 J*- '"
" -^ ■-^. < .y'-:
4
From the " Antlphonarium of St. Gregory" (Monastery of St. Gall, A. D. 790).
38 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
words; the spondee metre (all long syllables) was held
to be most consistent with the solemnity of sacred song
and better adapted for the participation of a large uni-
son choir. Further, the Gregorian chant was no longer
strictly syllabic (a tone for each syllable); not only were
two or more tones often sung to one syllable, but at times
a whole melodic group accompanied a single vowel.
Gregory increased the number of modes to eight by
adding four subordinate ones, known as plagal, to the
four authentic modes of Ambrose. The plagal modes
differed from the authentic only in that they proceeded
from dominant to dominant (fifth step) instead of from
key-note to key-note.* Thus:
Tone I, authentic: D-e-f-g-A-b-c-D.
Tone I, plagal: A-b-c-D-e-f-g-A.
Besides notation in letters there was another system
of which Gregory, and perhaps earlier writers, are known
to have made some use. This was the so-called neuma
script (from pneuma, breath) and was said to have been
invented by a monk, St. Ephraem, as early as the fourth
century, in which case it would probably have been
;
m
NEUMA NOTATION OF THE TENTH CENTURY
known to Ambrose also. It was, at all events, the first
device for indicating musical sounds ever invented that
proved to be capable and worthy of development, and it
was the fundament of the subsequent mensural system,
the direct forerunner of our modern musical notation.
This neuma script (also known as the nota romana)
consisted of fourteen small characters:
* See Karl Eduard Schelle's Die pdpstliche Sdngerschulc in Rom (1872).
THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH 39
which were gradually combined and multiplied to about
forty.*
The neumas did not indicate any particular tone or
time-value, but merely the rising, falling, sustaining, or
inflecting of the voice in a general way. They were,
consequently, mnemonic rather than strictly notational.
Finally — possibly as early as the seventh century —
some conscientious copyist hit upon the simple expedient
of drawing a line to guide him in placing his neumas
accurately and neatly above the text. This probably
purely accidental device was soon turned to account as
a means of fixing the pitch of the tones themselves.
The first line was fixed for the middle F of the bass
and was identified by the corresponding letter (F or ^),
from which, in a roundabout way, the present sign of the
F clef (•^i or ^:) has been derived. f Shortly afterward
— about the ninth century — a second line was added,
representing the fifth tone above F (that is, C), also
marked with its letter (!•. > the original of the modern
C clefs). J The F line was red, the C line either yellow
or green.
Later, a black line, for the tone A, was placed between
these, at first dotted but later continuous. Thus the
musical staff was gradually formed; and it grew until a
few centuries later it became the so-called great staff of
* See Plain Song, by the Rev. Thomas Helmore.
' T py <^/P ): ):]; yy » rf- iC l! < • :
^. ee-c c C, e C C C p |:|!p l i M tj
40 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
eleven lines — our present G and F staves with the C line
between.
Singing-schools for the study of the Gregorian intona-
tions were established not only in Rome but also in
Gaul, Britain, and Germany. But these were not the
. r ^ . ^F ^ •^/^ ^ J ^^ .
HE \^ m •^ ' m -^ ^
l{_y c^-vc-i^e >He -ui go C^e-ct aut
"nT"
NEUMA SCRIPT, ELEVENTH CENTURY
first; the significance of music as a vital factor of ecclesi-
astic life was early recognised and its use and cultiva-
tion received serious attention almost from the begin-
ning. The first school of song mentioned is that of Pope
Sylvester, established in Rome some time between 314
and 355. Later schools are ascribed to Pope Hilarius
(461-468) and others. The influence of the Gregorian
system upon the artistic development of ecclesiastic mu-
sic extended, undiminished, over a period of a thousand
years (from 600 to 1600 A. D.), and to the present day
it constitutes the basis of all Roman CathoHc musical
ceremony and service.
The music of the people remained entirel}^ independent,
and exerted in Gregory's time — and even long after — no
vitalising influence upon that of the church. All serious
and, in a sense, artistic music of the early and Middle
Ages found its home, its place of nourishment and grad-
THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH
41
ual systematic evolution, within the church, where it was
revered and cherished as an integral part of all holy life.
The duration of
the Gregorian style
of ecclesiastic song
may be bounded
by the years 590 A.
D., when Gregory
acceded to the pon-
tificate, and 900 A.
D., when the first
experiments in
combined melody
were ventured.
PRIMITIVE ORGAN
(museum at arles)
The instruments of this era
were a primitive church organ
and, among the people, the harp,
rota or crwth, large and small
hurdy-gurdy, psaltery, and a few
others.
This period is almost identical
with that in which Anglo-Saxon
poetr}^ flourished (650-825 A. D.)
and led into the reign of King
Alfred (871-901). The great
Anglo-Saxon epic, Beowulf, and
the cycles of Caedmon and Cyne-
wulf belong here. About 600
A. D. St. Augustine became the
teacher, to the Anglo-Saxons, of
the Christian religion. King Alfred, distinctly an edu-
cator of his people, prepared many books for their use.
CRWTH
(ninth century;
42 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
The early poetry of the land that afterward was known
as England "was made current and kept fresh in the
memory of the singers. The kings and nobles often at-
tached to them a scop, or maker of verses. . . . The
banquet was not complete without the songs of the scop.
While the warriors ate the flesh of boar and deer and
warmed their blood with horns of foaming ale, the scop,
standing where the blaze from a pile of logs disclosed to
him the grizzly features of the men, sang his most stir-
ring songs, often accompanying them with the music of
a rude harp." *
Comparatively little mention is made in Beowulf of the
practice of music in the stirring scenes that centred in
Hrothgar's great hall.
"... light-hearted laughter loud in the building
Greeted him daily; there was dulcet harp-music,
Clear song of the singer."
In Beowulf s Reminiscences:
"... the riders are sleeping,
The knights in the grave; there's no sound of the harp-word. "f
* History of English Literature, R. P. Halleck.
t Beowulf, translated by John Lesslie Hall, Ph.D.
CHAPTER VI
FIRST EXPERIMENTS IN THE ASSOCIATION OF
PARTS
The time was come when those who revered music and
beheved in its wider power grew impatient of the nar-
row and monotonous mode of unison singing. Faint pre-
sentiments of harmonic possibil-
ities may have moved them. The
growing richness and might of the
church, its extension in many di-
rections, may have created a de-
sire for ampler expression. Cer-
tain it is that in the first decade
of the tenth century, if not
earlier, attempts were made to
combine — or, rather, to multiply
— the vocal parts.
This was the most momentous
step in all the range of music
history, for it pointed out the
only method of extending and
amplifying the resources of musi-
cal expression; it was the only
progressive movement which could surmount the barrier
and continue on the way to positive development. Music
had gone as far as it was possible for it to advance
along the avenues it had followed hitherto; it had reached
the final stage on the road of single melody; in its pro-
gress it had arrived at the point which permitted no
further exploitation unless some new path could be found.
It may have been, and more than likely was, an accident
43
LYRE
(ninth CENTURYJ
44 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
which led into the open road, though, no doubt, the
guardians of the music of the church were constantly
searching and watching for a revelation which their daily
musical experiences inclined them to forecast. But they
could not know or foresee to what end this possibly ac-
cidental association of parts would lead. Nothing else
could have unlocked the vast treasure-house of musical
potentiality — could have started the process of evolution
that has led to the truly marvellous art of our day.
The individual associated with the new movement
was Hucbald, or Ubaldus, a learned Benedictine monk in
the convent of St. Amand, in the French Netherlands,
who lived from 840 to 930. Whether or not Hucbald
originated these novel experiments of increasing the one-
voice (unison) mode of singing the Gregorian intonations
to a more ample body of two or more simultaneous melo-
dies, or merely assisted in systematising them, is not
known. But we do know that he was a profound Greek
scholar, familiar with Greek musical theory, and inclined
to adopt certain of its precepts. This is attested by two
kinds of notation emplo3^ed by him, and by his applica-
tion of the ancient Greek names to the Gregorian modes,
though, for some unexplained reason, in reversed order.
Another (third) variety of notation is ascribed to Huc-
bald, which, though not destined to survive, is never-
theless noteworthy. It consisted in placing the syllables
T
ta
T
li/ \ lus\
T
Ec\ Israx / in quo \ 0/ no\
S
ce\ re/ he do/ on"^
X
T
ve/
est.
T
In modern notation:
il5
Vir
9-f9-
±=[1:
:^t:
-h-+-
Ec - ce ve - re Is - ra - e - li - ta in quo do - lus non est,
A SYSTEM OF NOTATION EMPLOYED BY HUCBALD
THE ASSOCIATION OF PARTS
45
of the text in the spaces of a staff of several Hnes, whereon
the intervals from space to space were indicated by the
letters T (tonus, or whole step)
and S (semitonium, or half step).
The first attempts at com-
bining melodic parts were known
originally by the name of or-
ganum, and later discantus (di-
versus cantus). These were of
two kinds; the first consisted in
an unaltered succession of par-
allel fifths or fourths and oc-
taves. To the Gregorian melody
(the cantus firmus), as lower-
most part, a higher voice was
added, singing exactly the same
melody either in the fourth or
fifth. In case the organum (or
discantus) was to embrace more than two parts, one or
both of these voices was doubled in the next higher
octave. Thus (in modern notation) :
A TENTH-CENTURY HARP
I I
"^'- g— !
a-G>-
-f2— «)— e>- and
r-r-
X--
\^B
'-^^9— ^ ^
— • — 0-
ZZ^
-fS C^ f g -
la:
r-r— r-
The importance of the very first experiment of this
kind is apt to be exaggerated, though it is impossible to
overemphasise the significance of the consequences which
followed. As already intimated, the experiment itself
may have been quite accidental; it may have resulted
from a misinterpretation of the given directions on the
part of one of the singers, which led him to sing his
melody in a different interval from that of his compan-
ions. Some historians explain this with convincing plau-
sibility as the natural consequence of different singers
(men and boys), with lower and higher voices, being com-
46
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
pelled to carry their intonations at different pitches; and
the selection of the fifth, fourth, or octave would appeal
to the sense of closest tone relationship as we understand
it to-day. This may have
happened repeatedly be-
fore the quaintness of the
effect was realised and its
possible results appreci-
ated.
To the modern ear this
method of multiplying
parts (then called quint-
ing and quarting) is re-
pugnant. To those who
first heard it, it was, no
doubt, a welcome nov-
elty. It was employed
for more than a century
without objection, from
which fact an impression
of the imperfect tone
conception and sense of
harmonious tone associa-
tion of the times may be
inferred. In itself, as a
specimen of combined melodies, the organum was worth-
less; but it soon led to other and more valuable results, as,
for instance, the so-called secular organum, in which differ-
ent intervals were used, generally in consequence of hold-
ing the lower part stationary (on one tone) while the
other intonated the cantus. Thus:
PSALTERY
(ninth century)
m\
t==r
t
t
"r
i
The second species, called diaphony, was of greater
artistic promise. This consisted in a succession of chang-
THE ASSOCIATION OF PARTS 47
ing intervals, only obtainable by the impulse of giving
to each separate part a more distinct melodic movement,
and of introducing other and more euphonious intervals;
for example, the third:
:=|:
Q J 3
It did not take long to develop this into actual poly-
phony, the artistic multiplication of genuine melodic
parts.
It is evident from this that all the music of the early
era centred in melody. There was still no conception of
that harmonic style (based upon chords) which is now
considered the actual fundament of all musical technic.
The experiments of Hucbald tended in a direct line to
that style which, two centuries later, received the name
of counterpoint (punctus contra punctum, note against
note), a designation which it has retained ever since.
But a harmonic or chord system did not take shape until
the eighteenth century (Rameau, 1722. See Chapter
XXI).
The novel practice of diaphony was indulged in by all
the singers of the time, and it is probable that it gave
rise to other experiments which may have threatened the
purity and integrity of the sacred intonation. It was,
no doubt, necessary and fortunate for the church that a
gifted and authoritative musical mind should appear at
this juncture to control and conduct the new technical
achievement into safe and serious channels.
This authority was Guido of Arezzo {c. 995-1050), a
Benedictine monk of the convent of Pomposa. Guido
was such an eminent leader in musical matters that many
of the important innovations of this era have been at-
tributed to him, probably without foundation. It is evi-
dent, however, that he was instrumental in simplifying
48
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
the confused theories of his day; in perfecting the no-
tation; in regulating the technic of melody combina-
tions; and, most vital of all, in establishing a scale 53^5-
tem which has required no significant modification to this
day, agreeing as it
does in all essential
points with the scien-
tifically demonstrated
major scale of modern
music. Certain it is,
also, that he refined
and exalted the art of
ecclesiastic music to a
more permanent con-
dition than it had yet
attained.
Guido's musical in-
stinct impelled him to
abandon the insuffi-
cient tetrachord basis
of the Greeks and
other ancient nations,
and to adopt a sys-
tem of scale formation
founded upon the hexachord, or six-tone succession, zvith
a half step in the middle and whole steps between the three
upper and three lower tones. The hexachords, three in
number, began upon G, C, and F. Thus:
G-A-B^-D-E
C-D-E^F-G-A
F-G-A^B>-C-D
For that upon F the round (soft) b already In use was
necessary, on account of the central half step.
The complete scale embraced twenty tones, from the
GUIDO OF AREZZO AND BISHOP THEODAL
WITH THE MONOCHORD
THE ASSOCIATION OF PARTS
49
low bass G to the high E of the boys' voices, tones which
correspond to the white keys of the modern piano key-
board; or to the scale of C major, beginning with the
fifth step. These were indicated by letters, there being
as yet no fixed system of notation. Thus:
r, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, a, b or 1S|, c, d, e, f, g, aa, bb,
or ^^y cc, dd, ee.
(The lowest letter is the Greek G, gamma.)
For eadi hexachord (of which the whole scale com-
prised seven) the so-called Guidonian syllables were
adopted: Uty Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La. They were the first
syllables of a six-line hymn to St. John. Each succes-
sive line of this music began upon the next successive
tone of the hexachord. Thus:
-0-^2-0-
-(g gy ■ o a .. . f : if
-,&-<2-
Ut queant
la
- xis Re - so - na - re fi - bris Mi - - ra
— i=5 ^ '^?^ [-/T? ^~'n 73 1
ifij' t^
—^
1
J
Ut,
Re,
Mi,
Fa,
Sol,
La.
The melodic intervals were whole steps, excepting at
Mi-Fa, which was invariably a half step. The employ-
ment of these syllables in the singing classes was called
solmisation, and it proved to be so convenient a method
of melodic exercise that it has survived to this day — a
50 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
singular testimony to the spirit of practicability which
seems to have actuated Guido in all his reforms.
The modification of the tone h has already been ex-
plained. It was practised in the early days of Ambrose.
The round b indicated the lower pitch, which, in conjunc-
tion with F, was softer; the square "Tjj was the higher pitch,
necessary in the two other tetrachords, and was called
hard. The round b was the type of the subsequent v (flat),
and the square iJj became the fa (natural). In Germany, b
flat is still called b, and b natural takes the name h, because
the square 1J| resembles that letter. The hexachords were
named accordingly, durum (hard), naturale, and molle
(soft). Thus:
G-hexzchord {durum) C-hexa.chord (naturale) F-hexzchord {molle)
-&—a
W=^-
ut re mi fa sol la ut re mi fa sol la ut re mi fa sol la
r AJ3 C DE CDEFGa FGabcd
Later, the hexachords were multiplied by beginning
with other letters, whereupon other inflections became
necessary. The tl (and sometimes ]?) were subsequently
applied to the alteration of any letter, or cancelling any
change from its natural condition in the original scale.
The accidental known as "sharp" (jf) became first nec-
essary in the hexachord on D, and affected the letter F.
The higher inflection of this letter may have been indi-
cated by simply doubling the f, thus: ^— a character from
which the ij: would naturally emerge. This is, however,
conjecture, and several other explanations are given.*
In Italy the softer syllable Do has been substituted
for Ut (which was retained in France); and finally a
seventh syllable Si (which is now generally called Ti)
X #
b t| H # i^
/X #
(t| t, # # X ^ JK
THE ASSOCIATION OF PARTS
51
was added to complete the line of the scale into its upper
octave.
As long as the melody remained within one hexachord,
the syllables were not changed; but if it extended beyond
these limits, those S341ables had to be adopted
which agreed with the hexachord into which
the melody ran. This was known as muta-
tion, and was something akin to modern
modulation. Hence the expressions Fa-Ut,
Sol-Re, etc. (on one tone), to indicate the
mutation from one hexachord to another.*
Whatever may have been falsely ac-
credited to Guido, it is at least certain
that he was the most prominent figure in
the ecclesiastic matters of his century. From
Hucbald, who was more philosophic and
speculative, and whose training inclined
him to scientific theorising, Guido was dis-
tinguished for his interest in the practical
application of such knowledge as he pos-
sessed. He was also a man of letters, and
wrote a book of twenty chapters on musical
theory and practice. Among other things,
he says: "My way is not the way of the philosopher; I
am concerned only in that which serves and brings our
youngsters (the choir-boys) forward. . . . The musician
must so determine his melody that it will express the
meaning of the words."
* See Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, Act III, Scene I.
ORGAN I STRUM
(ninth century)
CHAPTER VII
GUIDO'S SUCCESSORS. MENSURAL NOTATION
The momentous events described in the preceding
chapter had not long to wait for their significant conse-
quences. One important advance followed another in
comparatively rapid succession, and there has been, from
those early days until the present, no further impediment
in the progress of musical development. Enough experi-
ence had been gained, and musical perception had been
sufficiently developed, to make the natural growth of the
new art possible and easy, and, in consequence, the ulti-
mate fulfilment of its real purpose was only a question
of time. The almost total misapprehension of the true
spirit of music, the deep ignorance of its power as a
medium of emotional expression, had at last given way
to a realisation of its possible relations to the spiritual
phases of life. Vague intimations of its deeper beauty
and value were gradually becoming more definite and
certain, and that which had been regarded either as a
pastime or as a mystery, suited only to the aims of the
curious student, began to reveal its secret resources and
to command attention as a new and most powerful attri-
bute of advancing culture.
The narrow Hmitation of music to one melodic line
was removed by the experiments and subsequent achieve-
ments in the art of associating melodies. The imperfect
and in some respects unnatural theories of scale structure
were swept aside by the hexachord system of Guido's
day. Inadequacies and inaccuracies of the methods of
musical notation were constantly being repaired, and
52
GUIDO'S SUCCESSORS 53
thus a firm foundation, grounded upon the principles of
physical law, was gradually being laid and cemented,
ready for the superstructure of music as an art of ex-
quisite refinement and beauty.
To Guldo himself many of these Innovations and re-
forms have been attributed — probably, as already hinted,
man}'' more than he could or would justl}' lay claim to.
But of his Influence upon the healthy growth of the art
under his firm and w^se guidance there can be no doubt;
and the significance of his suggestions is indirectly at-
tested by the enthusiasm displayed in musical matters
among his direct successors.
Among the erudite musical minds of this era who
were almost certalnl}^ familiar with Guide's activities, and
doubtless shared them with him in their own provinces,
the most important were:
Johannes Cottonius (about 1050), a disciple of Guido
and a teacher of his sj^stem.
William, abbot of the convent at Hirschau in the
Black Forest (about 1068).
Aribo, a Benedictine monk (end of the eleventh cen-
tury), also a pupil of Guido and an able exponent of his
theories and pedagogic methods.
[The writings of these and other distinguished teachers
were collected and published In 1784 by Martin Gerbert,
at St. Blasien in the Black Forest.]
The elements of notation existing in the neuma char-
acters, imperfect though they were, and the rude begln-
ings of the staffs, had already been discovered. But no
method of determining the time-values of the notes or
musical characters was yet devised, probably because the
rhythmic values In use were either so uniform or so ac-
curately fitted to the text that no other specific direc-
tions were necessary. But it seems evident that a more
animated and manifold rhythmic arrangement began at
this time to assert itself, Induced, possibly, by the marked
activity of musical development in secular circles (out-
54
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
side of the church). It is also obvious that the newly
established practice of part-singing (combined melodies)
demanded some means of regulating the rhythmic val-
ues so that the singers could perform their concerted in-
tonations in "correct time."
&/minaihdmcamacpracTicam the hrevis HB, and the semi-
hrevis ^. Later, the minima j , the semiminima T
and fusa or croma y (each half the time-value of the
preceding one) were added. Among these last, the ef-
fect of the stems was to divide the value of the note, as
in modern notation. The relation of these characters to
those of our modern notes is evident: the brevis and
semibrevis correspond to our longest time-values ( [j [ [
and fy ), but written as open (white) notes, instead of
black, as was the custom until about the fourteenth or
early fifteenth century. These terms breve and semi-
breve, and also the term minim ( ^j ) ^^e still in use in
England, where the semiminim and fusa are known as
crochet (J) and quaver ( -1 )•
Franco of Cologne introduced triple measure into the
mensural system, and gave it the name tempus perfec-
tum, or perfect measure, because of its numerical coinci-
56
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
dence with the blessed Trinity, the symbol of perfection.
Duple measure was called te7?iptis i7nperfectum. For the
perfect {i. e., triple) division the complete, or perfect,
circle ( O ) was used as metre signature; for the imperfect
(duple) division the sign was a half circle, C, a character
which survives in our sign for 4/4 measure and which is
incorrectly supposed to indicate "common time." A great
number of other distinctions were introduced until, after
a time, the entire mensural system became extremely
complex and existed apparently chiefly in theory, to a
limited extent, onl}^ in practice.
When two or more tones were to be sung to one syl-
lable the notes were not slurred, as in modern usage, but
were joined. The connected groups were called ligatures
and were of two kinds, straight and oblique. Thus:
Ligatura recta:
sung
Ligatura obliqua:
-
— .^■■'"^
sun?
" ^ ^^
'^
! ^
^~ 1 "~
The writings of the German Franco testify to extraor-
dinary progress in the growth of the art during the thir-
teenth century, but are insufficient to aff"ord an accurate
conception of the matters about which he speaks. He
names four distinct classes of vocal music for which the
discantus was used; namely, motette, cantilenis, con-
ductus, and rondellis. Three of these suggest terms in
modern use, but the character of the conductus can
scarcely be discovered.*
Soon after the days of the two Francos, mensural music
appears to have flourished most vigorously in England;
* See Chapter XI.
GUIDO'S SUCCESSORS 57
but there is positive evidence, as will be seen, of its vi-
tality and progress also in France, Belgium, the Nether-
lands, Ital}^ and Germany — of course, in connection with
the life and ceremonial of the Roman church. The dis-
tinguished contemporaries of Franco were:
Petrus de Cruce (Pierre de la Croix, about 1170).
Walter Odington (about 1228).
Jerome of Moravia (early part of the thirteenth cen-
tury).
Important achievements are ascribed to three nearly
contemporaneous musical scholars in the next following
generation:
Marchetto of Padua (second half of the thirteenth cen-
tur)^).
Phillip de Vitry (Bishop of Meaux, end of the thirteenth
century),
Johannes de Muris (Doctor of the Sorbonne in Paris,
1 300-1 370). With the last two, especially, a new era in
the development of part-music appears to have opened,
for it was De Vitry, and after him De Muris, who first
enunciated definite rules of contrapuntal technic and
established a regular system of comparatively complex
part-writing. These rules, six in number, are recognised
b}^ the most refined modern theor}^ as the correct basis
of all harmonic and contrapuntal writing. The following
are particularly applicable:
Rule 3, " Every sentence must begin and end with a
perfect consonance,"
Rule 4. " Every dissonance must be followed by a
consonance which resolves it, and not by another disso-
nance."
Rule 6. " Imperfect consonances (third and sixth) may
follow each other in parallel direction; but parallel per-
fect consonances (octave and fifth) are forbidden."
These rules have retained their validity, because they
were the result of correct judgment, by ear or by instinct,
of the true natural laws of harmonic succession.
58
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
De Vitry and De Muris taught their new system under
the name contrapunctus, though this term was origi-
nally limited to music for two parts only, whence the ex-
pression pu7ictus contra punctum, or note against note.
Examples of the writings of the twelfth, thirteenth, and
fourteenth centuries
exist, consisting of
two, three, and even
four independent
parts, which exhibit a
remarkable degree of
skill and a certain
kind of stately beauty,
though little or no
evidence of true mu-
sical feeling.
In the newly found-
ed capella at Avignon
a singular style of
three-voice psalmody
came into vogue early
in the fourteenth
century. It was called
falso hordone or jaux bourdon (English, faburden); the
cantus firmus was placed in the upper part and har-
monised throughout with parallel thirds and sixths, ex-
cepting at the end, where a cadence was made on the
eighth and fifth. An example (conjectural) is as follows:
AN ORGAN OF THE TENTH CENTURY
^
jC2.
T-v.^i^ -1^- %ift
-■ — »■
Iw4 tncccdfe 23>rfw "Von "(TiseSinfc
THE SINGING CONTEST AT THE WARTBURG
ies of his kingdom. Undoubtedly, the determined influ-
ence of this man exerted its effect throughout the entire
social order and stimulated expression not alone in polit-
ical activit}^ but in art as well.
Shortly after his death there took place the famous
tournament in the Wartburg in Thuringia, perpetuated
in Wagner's opera Ta7uihduser. This tournament was,
70
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
however, not a musical but a poetical contest; for the
minnesinger was, first of all, a poet, while his music was
merely an adjunct to the verse. But this association of
verse and song brought a new force to bear upon musical
expression and contributed most significantly to the de-
velopment of musical practice.
The minnesingers who frequented royal palaces and
feudal castles as honoured guests and repaid their pa-
tron's hospitality with song and lay, rarely depended
upon the services of an attendant jongleur, but preferred
to sing and accompany themselves. A large number of
their melodies have been preserved, in the notation of
the time — the large Gothic note— the most of which bear
rather close resemblance to the ecclesiastic intonations
and are much less flowing and melodious than those of
the troubadours. The following sacred hymn is strongly
suggestive of the subsequent German chorale, and indi-
cates one of the sources from which the chorales were
undoubtedly derived:
T
1
1 s,
/^
:2
fe
-:t=4-
-2=—^
ZU-?-
-(2.—(i—
-A — 1
-^ — ^—
-^ — <^—
-?^ —
-^—f—
tfe
P—
Z^ZS_
:=t=
1 — ^
X=^^
[ — :— -(g—
'
:t:=t:_
\T
f>
_^
_(S
tiT-
"7
pi-
=4-|
p—
— H-
tp=
^^
tt=
•^ -^
P rfP^
g*
-f^*-j
te
-^-
PT
d— 2=*-
:2i=i-:
Others, again, of a somewhat later date, exhibit the
more genuine melodious qualities of popular song, as the
following, from the second half of the thirteenth century,
which is extremely regular in structure (as shown by the
slurs and letters here adjoined to the notes), and indicates
correct perception of the conditions of good, natural mel-
ody:
MUSIC OF THE PEOPLE
al
Fi=P=
71
I
:^it
-:UEi?.
-^-0
^
bl
g^
-^— •-
t=«=t
-I 1 vl
b2
lei
3
I I L I -t
Uke-^?
a\
-I — h:
1=t:
.^— ^
JaLz h — [-
f— I — F— f-f^
-♦— *
r^cfiizz^
-#— * — • — p-m-r-i^
H 1 1 F- --«-;<
±=w
^
1 — h
like^?
The minnesingers distinguished three classes of secular
melody: the leich, the spruch (sentence), and the lied
(song). The leich* may have originated in the older
dance forms, though some identify it with the ecclesias-
tic sequence. The spruch consisted of but one strophe.
The lied was longer, consisting generally of three sec-
tions, the third of which corroborated the first, all very
regular in metric form; and it was so identified with the
verse that it was not permissible to use the same melody
for another poem.
The early period of minnesong was represented by
Veldecke, Spervogel, Dietmar von Kurenberg, and others;
the middle and best period (about the beginning of the
* English, lay; Anglo-Saxon, lac (play or sport); Irish, laio, laoith (a song or
poem).
72
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
thirteenth century) by Heinrich von Morungen, Wolfram
von Eschenbach, Gottfried von Strassburg, Hartmann
von Aue, and Walther von der Vogelweide; the last
HEINRICH VON MEISSEN, CALLED FRAUENLOB
period, in which the art declined, by Nithardt von Reuen-
thal, Konrad von Wiirzburg, and Reinmar von Zweter
(end of the thirteenth century). The last famous name
was Heinrich von Meissen (1260-1318), distinguished in
the history of German literature for his quaint substitu-
tion of the more tender expression "frau" (lady) for the
MUSIC OF THE PEOPLE
73
earlier epithet "weib" (woman), which gallantry won him
the title of "frauenlob."
Minnesong was not destined to enjoy a protracted ex-
istence, but passed, after scarcely more than a century
of popularity, from the knightly bards down to the more
lowly citizens and respectable artisans. The aristocratic
minnesong became the
professional plebeian
meistersong (master
song) of the people.
The earliest authentic
account of the organisa-
tion of meistersingers
dates from the four-
teenth centur)^ and
tends to confirm the
conclusion that these
had inherited the tradi-
tion of minnesong. Em-
peror Charles IV granted
to the meistersingers a
patent and heraldic
rights in the year 1387, at which time the principal centre
of the guild was Ma3^ence on the Rhine, though guilds
existed in Frankfort, Colmar, Prague, and a few other
cities. During the following (the fifteenth) centur}^ mas-
ter song attained its greatest popularity and perfection in
the cities of Strassburg, Augsburg, and Nuremberg; a
little later in Ratisbon, Ulm, and Munich.
In the sixteenth century it spread to the eastern fron-
tiers of German}^. At Nuremberg, where the famous cob-
bler and poet Hans Sachs (1494-1576) was the leading
spirit of the corporation, contests of song continued to
take place as late as the seventeenth century — after the
Thirty Years' War. The corporation of German meister-
singers in general did not cease to exist until the year
HANS SACHS
74 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
1839, when the four surviving members of the singing-
school at Ulm transferred their insignia and records to
the Liederkranz Society of that city.
There are some points of resemblance between the
musical style of the earlier meistersingers and their pred-
ecessors the minnesingers, but, on the whole, that of
the former was more rude, clums}^, and plebeian than the
latter. While minnesong, no matter how primitive, al-
^J^
^f OOO 0/ O / ^^ o — — ^ %^
MANUSCRIPT BY HANS SACHS
ways revealed some traits of nobihty, meistersong was
invariably dull and prosaic, monotonous, and, with ex-
tremely rare exceptions, devoid of true beauty or natural
musical expression. Consequently, while music meant a
great deal to the humble tradesmen and brought no little
sunshine into the dull humdrum of toil which filled their
simple lives, it is not evident that their activity contrib-
uted in any marked degree to the progress of art or
that they ever accomplished anything to further the de-
velopment of music. One thing, it is true, must be recog-
nised as a debt which humanity, especially the Germanic
people, owes to the meistersingers, and that is the in-
troduction of an honest and not unwholesome musical
conception and practice into the domestic lives of the
people. Music became through them a part of the house-
hold occupations, and its fruits are in evidence at the
present day, for nowhere else has household music (haus-
MUSIC OF THE PEOPLE 75
musik) become so general and beautiful an element of
civilisation as in Germany — the home of meistersong.
The by-laws of the guild were very exact and rigor-
ously enforced, but so prosaic that they would appear
more appropriate for any other association than for one
which professed artistic aims. The record of these by-
laws and the rules of their music was known as the
tabulature. The master earned his rank by inventing
both new verse and melody; the poet set his poems to
old melodies; the singer was not an inventor of either
verse or melody; the school friend or amateur was one
able to pass a lenient examination. To the so-called
prime contests only members of the guild were admitted.
The subjects were chosen from the Bible. Every fault,
no matter how slight, was strictly noted by the chosen
umpire, the marker. The form, involving details of Hed,
bar, and other structural requirements, was prescribed.
In case a new melody met the approval of the marker,
its proud author might select a name for it.
In his opera, The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, Richard
Wagner has given a most vivid picture of the salient
traits of master song and of the well-meaning but nar-
row-minded men who practised it.
One example of the laboured melody of the meister-
singers will suffice to exhibit the contrast between their
conception and methods, and those of the minnesingers:
-&-
-«>-
-1=2-
iS'-
f^
fy
--
-/S
rs* /^
-^
,
1
1
1
f3
lis
->-r-
'
1
L.
L
j
'
■ ' t
t
1:
p 1
t
"Gen - e - sis the nine - and -twen - ti - eth you will find:
^ ^ -&- -^- -^ -^- -fS"- _ ^ -fN etc.
V- 1 1 1 —I 1 ^— ^
f=£^ ^=^=^=^= ^~^~t :^ ^=tz=t
How Ja - cob fled, from his bro-ther E - sau es - caped."
The melody here selected bears, it is true, a marked
and possibly not unintentional resemblance to the one
76
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
given on page 70, and both might claim to have served
Richard Wagner as models for the principal figure in his
Mastersinger motive:
Wagner's undoubted familiarit}^ with these historic melo-
dies, and the consistenc}^ of his artistic methods, preclude
the notion of mere coincidence. Their historic significance
lies in the evidence they afford of the stupendous progress
in musical expression during the past four centuries.
It must be remembered that the music activities of
this period were stimulated not alone by local conditions.
A potent factor that inspired the singers and makers of
verse from the beginning of the twelfth century and into
the thirteenth was the Crusades. This religious move-
ment profoundly affected vast numbers of people. Many
women and children shared in the enthusiasm to save the
Holy Land from the hands of the infidels. In this great
movement the energy of the people found a worthy me-
dium through which to express and shape itself. The
order of knights that grew out of the Crusades bound
themselves to chastity, poverty, and obedience. They
were at once protectors of the pilgrims and of the faith
that inspired their sacrifice. Religion and the valour of
the soldier were combined, and so strongly did they influ-
ence men that when Godfrey of Bouillon was made ruler
over Jerusalem he refused to wear a royal crown where
the Saviour had been crowned with thorns.
All that was involved in this movement — the purpose,
fidelity, and knightly character, the long marches across
the continent of Europe, the mingling of many peoples
MUSIC OF THE PEOPLE
11
— enriched men's minds, broadened their experience, and
impelled for expression in all social activities and arts.
While the momentous purpose of the Crusades was thus
exerting its influence English literature was slowly form-
ing itself for the significant utterances of Chaucer. Early
THE CRUSADER
in the twelfth century Layamons Brut, a poem of over
thirty thousand lines, was written. Orm's Ormulum was
written early in the thirteenth century. About 1225 the
Ancren Riwle (Rule of the Anchoresses) appeared, a work
described as " one of the most perfect models of simple,
natural, eloquent prose in our language." *
* Professor Swift.
78 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
A century or more later the Travels of Sir John Mande-
ville (born 1300) appeared, "the most entertaining vol-
ume of English prose that we have before 1360." f This
was one of the few works of the period that found ready
acceptance among the people.
The reader has only to compare the following lyric,
probably of the early thirteenth century, with the mu-
sical quotations to comprehend that our mother tongue
and the art of music were shaping themselves for a bril-
liant future:
" Sumer is i-cumen in
Lhude sing cuccu
Groweth sed and bloweth med
And springeth the wde nu.
Sing cuccu, cuccu."
t Professor R. P. Halleck.
CHAPTER X
MUSIC OF THE PEOPLE. STROLLING PLAYERS,
FOLK-SONGS, INSTRUMENTS
At about the time when German minnesong passed
over into the plebeian master song a new and by no
means inconsiderable power in the development of music
began to make itself felt. This power was wielded by
the strolling or vagrant players and pipers who, while
representing a low grade of the populace, possessed some
admirable and important qualities. They were shrewd,
wide-awake, often moderately well educated, and they
enjoyed no small degree of favour on account of their
ability to please and their readiness to serve.
This class of popular music makers had existed prob-
ably several centuries before music found recognition
and favour among the more cultivated lovers of the art.
The resemblance between these strolling players and the
histrions,* or comedians, of early Latin and Greek days
is suggestive and points to their possible origin.
They sang all sorts of ditties, played on various instru-
ments for money, especially for dancers, accompanied
the bands of warriors, amused the ladies and nobles in
their castles, recounted deeds of valour in rude verse,
carried news from town to town, were often the secret
messengers of Cupid and always the welcome merry-
makers of the people.. But they were vagrant, homeless,
and, on the whole, despised, even though gladly greeted
on all festive occasions for the entertainment they un-
faihngly provided. It was from this stratum of the com-
* Histrion = a player or actor.
79
8o
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
munity, no doubt, that the troubadours engaged their
assistant jongleurs or menestrels, and in that capacity
they compelled somewhat greater consideration and re-
spect.
In Germany the strolling players began to lead a more
settled existence and established corporations for the
protection of their com-
mon interests as early as
the thirteenth century.
These corporations were
in time absorbed by the
guild of town pipers, who
enjoyed a certain distinc-
tion in wealthier cities.
The oldest piper guild
in Europe was probably
the Fraternity of St.
Nicholas, founded in
Vienna in 1288. After
the fifteenth century
they were known in
many places as city
trumpeters. The system
of protective union
spread to England and
France, where similar
DUDELSACK PLAYER
(AFTER ALBRECHT DfjRER) corporations wete or-
ganised.
Every piper was subject to a " guardian of musicians,"
an office which existed as late as the reign of Maria
Theresa and was not abolished until 1782. In France
this guardian was called the king of fiddlers {roy des
menestriers and, later, roy des violons). He exercised
control over the pipers of his district and saw to it that
"no player, whether piper, drummer, or whatsoever else
he might be, should be tolerated without he be first ac-
cepted and elected a member of the brotherhood."
MUSIC OF THE PEOPLE 8i
The strolling players exerted a significant influence
upon the progress of popular poetry and music through
the sacred plays which they presented. At first (to the
middle of the twelfth century) the sacred comedies, called
in Germany passion or Easter plays and in France mys-
teries, were presented by the clergy alone, and in the
STROLLING FLAYERS
(C. W. DIETRICH)
Latin tongue. Later on, however, vagrants began to
take part in these clerical plays and even to present
them wholly themselves, whereby the plays assumed in-
evitably a more worldly character.
But the most important and wide-spread benefits be-
stowed by these humble vagrants upon the future growth
and development of artistic music were derived from their
interest in musical instruments and their ever-increasing
dexterity in their use. With the exception of the few
clerical organists, the strolling players were for many
centuries the only class of musicians who cultivated the
practice of instrumental music and who thus kept alive
the love of playing and "fiddling," either alone or in con-
certed groups, during the period when vocal music was
dominant both in and out of the church. It was they
/TipZik
82 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
who performed greater and more active service than any
other single class of music lovers in preparing for the era
of instrumental composition, signalised in later centuries
by such artistic products as the symphonies of Beethoven.
But besides these distinct classes of musicians, the
troubadours and minnesingers, meistersingers, and stroll-
ing players, who practised music in a sense as a profes-
sion, there existed still another class of music lovers;
namely, the people themselves. This, the largest class
of all, not limited to any country or race, but common
to all civilised nations, sang, untrammelled by theoreti-
cal rules or conventional regulations, as their natural in-
stincts prompted and as the heart impelled.
In the history of European music the people's song
(folk-song) attained a degree of significance second only
to the ecclesiastic chant of the Gregorian era, and in cer-
tain respects it may even be said to have transcended
the latter in its bearing upon the general development of
artistic music. For this was the genuine, intuitive ex-
pression of a universal spirit, which, in its freedom, was
in closer touch with nature and nature's laws than any
carefully devised theory could be. In all arts, but par-
ticularly in those of emotional expression, the spirit of
the people always leads; and it is not until the analytic
mind of the scientist obtains this revelation as a basis of
research that he can formulate correct theories and es-
tablish the facts out of which the refined technic of
art is gradually evolved. The voice of Nature herself
must first speak, through the lips of her ingenuous and
uninfluenced children, before the scientist can find any-
thing to interpret, to explain, and to develop into a work-
ing system. It was the song of the people — not the cal-
culations of the Greeks or of the mediaeval ecclesiastic
scholars — that contained the vital kernel of musical de-
velopment. And it was not until the people's melodies
penetrated into the web of ecclesiastic counterpoint that
MUSIC OF THE PEOPLE
83
the leaven was provided which engendered the hfe of a
new art.
This took place, not figuratively but actually, about
the end of the fourteenth century; for from that time
until the seventeenth century the masters of contrapun-
tal technic almost invariably adopted some popular
melody as thematic basis, or leading thread, for their
masses and other serious works; and almost every mass
of the period has its special designation according to
the title of the folk-song upon or around which it was
constructed.
Whence these songs came no one can tell. They
sprang from the special conditions of the province or race.
It was easy to find a musical setting for the good-natured,
often profoundly sentimental poetic eflfusions, or to cre-
ate new verse for a melody which had become familiar
by frequent repetition, and popular because it was true.
The people cared not for the method of their coming
and thought not of committing them to permanent writ-
ten form, but simply sang them generation after gener-
ation until some scholar, attracted by their truth and
beauty, fixed them for posterity in the notation of the
time. The following specimen of a German love ditty
dates from the first half of the fifteenth century and is
written in diamond-shaped semibreves only:
1-rT
a
y:
=rt:
^--^^ir
:ti^
'—■d — i — +-
-te-
MODERN VERSION, ADJUSTED RHYTHMETICALLY TO THE PROSODY OF THE
VERSE
84
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
One of the oldest and most widely used melodies of
France was the tune of The Armed Man {L'homme arme).
It was for a long time the most popular melody among
contrapuntal scholars, and it was held to be an indis-
pensable condition of mastership to have written a mass
upon this theme. It appears both in the major and
minor mode, chiefly in the latter, in the masses of the
most distinguished masters of the Netherland school,
where it is found most frequently in the following
form:
(L'homme arme.)
j(Z. jt.
-(2-
^
.|22
-^2-
^
=1:
bSizzi:
-^.,i_^ 1
I — I \-'
The majority of French folk-songs are more sprightly
than this and exhibit traits that are characteristic of the
French chanson of the present day. The following ap-
pears in a composition of Antoine Busnois (died 1481).
It was undoubtedly an ancient melody in his time:
?I3^^
(=1=
=:p4
^1
4=t=:
The musical instinct of the people found frequent
stimulus for expression in the popular plays of the Mid-
MUSIC OF THE PEOPLE
85
die Ages, a certain class of which may be regarded as
the remote but almost direct forerunners of the dra-
matic forms — oratorio and opera — of the seventeenth cen-
tury. The oldest plays of which record has been pre-
served are two of French origin, somewhat akin to the
vaudeville, both the text and music of which were com-
posed by Adam de la Halle, of whom mention has already
been made. The more famous of these, called Robin et
Marion, was written by De la Halle for the entertainment
of the court at Naples in 1285. Its popularity was so
great that for over a century it was constantly performed,
and the traditions of it are not yet extinct in the hearts
of the peasantry, who, at Bavai, in Hainault, sing one
of the songs, Robin m'aime, to this day. It runs as
follows :
(b) .
-^ 4-*-*-* -|-^->^-Fi-'5'-Fg
-(2-
*— f
s=^
FiNB.
Si^l
• ,
1=^==1=1=
(W
-^ -^
-*— f^-
:t:
•-•
zMiz^
Da Capo,al Fine.
—I — i — I — |— ^-^
Of the instruments in use before and during this period
of musical history the most venerable was the organis-
trum (ninth century). It resembled an enormous guitar
but was manipulated like a hurdy-gurdy, one player
turning the crank while a second handled the strings.
Later its size was reduced, and it appears thus in France
under the names rubelle and symphonic, and in Ger-
many as vielle, or leyer.
The favourite instruments of the troubadours and
minnesingers were the harp and the lute, the former being
more common in the north, while the lute, in many varie-
86
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
ties, has always main-
tained its popularity in
southern countries. The
theorbo, mandora, man-
doline, guitar, zither, and
many others are but dif-
ferent forms of the lute,
whose origin is traced to
the el'eud of the Arabs.
(See Chapter III.)
The various conver-
gent evolutions of the
queen of stringed in-
struments, the violin,
through the three most
musical nations of Eu-
rope (France, Germany,
and Italy) to its ulti-
mate common form in the modern orchestra, have been
shown in the following comparative table: *
INSTRUMENTAL MUSICIANS
FROM THE NORTH
FROM THE ORIENT
In France {Britain)
1. Crout, Crwth
2. Crotta, Rotta, Rote
3. Vielle, Fiddle
In Italy
Ribeca (Rebek, Arab.)
Ribeba, Ribecchino
Viola
Gi
5. Violon
hi, Germany
Kruth
Rotte
Viedel, Fiedel, Fid-
del
Geige ("Thigh bone Guigua, Giga
of a goat," which
it resembled)
Violine Violino
The wood instruments included the flute, the muse
(cornamuse, musette, bagpipes), and, most important of
all, the shawm (German, schalmey; French, chalumeau).
The last, a pipe with reed mouthpiece, originated among
the shepherds, who constructed it in the springtime out
* Emil Naumann, History of Music,
MUSIC OF THE PEOPLE
87
of strips of bark and a stem of willow rind, pressed flat,
as a reed. The shawm was the progenitor of a very nu-
merous class of reed mstruments; notably, a complete
choir of pommers, and through them the oboe and bassoon
of the modern orchestra. The evolution of the oboe, like
that of the violin, was influenced in no small measure
by an instrument from the Orient — the zamar of the
Arabs.
In the military music of this period, use was made of
the zamar-oboe, the pommers, trumpets, and drums,
the last patterned closely after Oriental models. French
chroniclers mention trumpets, tubas, clarions, horns, cor-
nets, and buisines (trombones). Undoubtedly, the mu-
sical instruments of Europe were enriched in variety and
number by the intermingling of peoples and the exchange
of their particular products during the Crusades.
W'-
^■miwm
MILITARY INSTRUMENTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES
CHAPTER XI
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ARTISTIC MUSIC.
EARLIEST SCHOOLS OF COUNTERPOINT
From historic accounts which have been recently
gathered and pubhshed, it appears certain that the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, far from being as fruitless as
was supposed, were a period of ver}^ significant activity
in the domain of ecclesiastic music and were, apparently,
very rich in results and products.
The earliest school of contrapuntal art is called, in
distinction to later schools, the Old French SchooL It
flourished from the end of the eleventh century, possibly
a little later, until the middle of the fourteenth, and in-
cluded some of the names already cited as the direct suc-
cessors of Guido in connection with the advances made
in notation and in the technic of melody combination.
Hence it is seen to represent the formative period of con-
trapuntal art; it grew immediately out of the first im-
portant experiments of Guido and others, and reached
a point in the progress of music where all the funda-
mental principles were firmly defined and where toler-
ably convincing evidences of successful and efficient work
upon the superstructure were richly supplied. It was, as
well, the exclusive educational source, the " facult}^," of
all succeeding schools of the north.
The most eminent off'shoot of the old French school
was the Gallo-Belgian, whose best years were bounded
by the century from 1360 to 1460. Another, somewhat
earher, offshoot was the Old English School, which, how-
ever, does not appear to rank as eminently as the former.
Partly from the old French and partly from the Gallo-
Belgian school proceeded the famous Netherland School,
whose activities extended through the next following cen-
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ARTISTIC MUSIC 89
tur}^, from 1460 to 1560. Earlier historical books have
accustomed us to regard this, the Dutch school, as the
first and oldest centre of progress in composition and
musical practice in Christian Europe and, therefore, in
the world; but this erroneous view seems to have resulted
from the superior renown of the Netherland masters,
which naturally eclipsed the glory of earlier periods until
the proofs of their existence and the significance of their
experimental labours were shown in the manuscripts which
were subsequently discovered.
Furthermore, it was the Netherlanders who supplied
all Europe with teachers, singers, and organisers of sing-
ing-schools, and thus innocently propagated the belief
that they were the prime source of all musical learning.
Especially strong was the current which thus set toward
the south of Europe and furnished Rome itself, as well
as other Italian cities, with the rich products of northern
industry and musical thought. So persistent was this
emigration to the south that after the middle of the
sixteenth century (about 1560) the development of artis-
tic music was no longer exclusively carried on in the Neth-
erlands, but ceased there almost altogether, to be contin-
ued and prosecuted with new energy in Germany and,
particularl)^, in Italy.
A comprehensive summary of the vital steps in the
evolution of artistic music, from its earliest beginnings
to the dawn of the modern classic era, would present the
following appearance:
(a) The first crude at-l tt l u i- i • i
■ Hucbald From the ninth to
tempts to associ- ^ /-. • i r a i i i
, 1- Ouido or Arezzo the eleventh century-
ate melodic parts j •'
(b) The dawn of actual 1 ^, , y- i n i i
, / Old r ranch School 1070-1370
contrapuntal art J / ji
(c) Transitional Gallo-Belgian School 1370-1470
(d) The most famous 1
and successful age I Netherland or Dutch 1460-1560
of contrapuntal [ ' School
science
90 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
(.) Gradual migration \ j^^jj^^ g^j^^^j 154(^1725
to the South j
(Brilliant period of Italian dramatic music, 1600-1725.)
The French capital, Paris (and specifically, its famous
Cathedral of Notre Dame), appears to have been the cen-
tre to which the crude but obviously significant ideas of
melody association gravitated. Here they were held fast,
subjected to systematic and persistent experimentation,
and reduced to definite principles, to be conducted into
straight and certain lines of development. The scholars
who first made it their mission to labour upon this prob-
lem were almost all organists of Notre Dame. The first
of whom historic record has been preserved was Leonin,
so renowned for his skill at the organ that he was called
optimus organista. The still comparatively imperfect
structure of that instrument in the eleventh century, the
very limited technical requirements, and the primitive
character of the music of his day indicate that Leonin's
fame as organist must have rested upon grounds that
would appear incredibly slight to us. But orga^iista is
sometimes translated ''composer." Moreover, the stu-
dent must not lose sight of the fact that we are still deal-
ing with the very infancy of music as an art. Leonin wrote
a book on organ playing, which contained compositions
by himself and others. (These were not for the organ,
but for vocal parts, which could be played by the organ-
ist just as modern hymn tunes are played.) His succes-
sor at Notre Dame was Perotin, called The Great. He
was the author of numerous compositions, some of which
have been preserved.
From 1 1 40 to 1 1 70 appear Robert of Sabillon, Pierre
de la Croix (or Cruce), and Jean de Garlande. These
are said to have effected many improvements in notation
and the art of singing, and De Garlande, the great peda-
gogue of the old French school, wrote a thorough and
scholarly treatise on mensural m^ sic.
From 1 170 to 1230 appear the t vo Francos — Franco of
Paris and Franco of Cologne, Walte/ Odington (England),
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ARTISTIC MUSIC 91
and Jerome of Moravia. Franco of Paris was twenty
years or more older than his German namesake; he wrote
many famous compositions and a treatise on mensural
rh3^thm which would seem to establish his fame as the
chief founder of the system of musical rhythm.
The last period of the old French school (1230 to 1370)
embraces the names of Phillip de Vitry (end of the thir-
teenth century), Jean de Muris (1300-70), and Guil-
laume de Machaut (1284-1369), who advanced the art
of contrapuntal writing and instilled more vitality and
melodic freedom into the technic of independent part-
writing (see Chapter VII). De Vitry and De Muris were
profound theorists and were among the first to recognise
and formulate trustworthy rules of counterpoint and
part-writing in general. Machaut was a poet as well as
a composer. For the coronation of King Charles V he
wrote a mass which is historically significant and con-
tains, though still in imperfect and clumsy form, some
traits of real musical beauty such as characterise the
later period of Des Pres and even Lasso.
The following extract from one of Machaut's composi-
tions, compared with the organum of Hucbald, gives a
fair conception of the progress made in the combination
of melodic parts during these first four centuries of ex-
ploration and experiment in a wholly untried domain of
human thought. It is transcribed in a somewhat mod-
ernised and more familiar notation:
;^^
^
^
^
=3=5
f^^
m
U-
JJgl
\.
^
1 (lii)iin il'iii ^
fi^ l\^i^ i^i^R -i-,^J,^ t^j^jL
92 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
The processes of musical technic that were progres-
sively active during this period may be thus briefly re-
viewed: The primitive two-part experiments of Hue-
bald about the 3^ear 900 were known under the name
of organum, or ars organandi — perhaps, though not cer-
tainly, because of some connection between this mere
duplication of the sacred intonation in octaves, fourths,
or fifths, and the operation of the organ, which is known
to have been in use already at that time and earlier.
By Guido, a little later, it was called diaphony.
From the beginning of the twelfth century the some-
what more elaborate voice combination was called, at
Paris, discantus (or diversus cantus); and about the mid-
dle of the thirteenth century the term contrapunctus
was adopted. These names may be regarded as indicat-
ing, in a general way, the successive degrees of progress
in independent part-writing,
Hucbald's organum and Guido's diaphony were too
primitive, on account of the preponderance of parallel
movement and rhythmic uniformity of the parts, to be
of any value in themselves; their significance lies in the
fact that they actually separated the unison parts and
thus supplied the first step toward ultimate complete in-
dependence of simultaneous melodic voices, for which the
name polyphony was at length adopted. The process
of development up to this point and onward to the
present may be tabulated in the following manner:
, , ^ . -Ill f Antiquity and early
(i) One-part music s ox sxmpic mtioay, < /^i • •
^ ' '^ ^ •" 1^ Christian ages.
(2) Organum (Hucbald), chiefly in parallel
parts,
(3) Diaphony (Guido), partly oblique parts,
(4) Discantus (early Parisian school), greater
independence both in direction and \ Mediaeval age.
rhythm of the parts,
(5) Counterpoint (other northern schools also),
a more general term for the constantly
advancing technic of part association,
' Modern age.
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ARTISTIC MUSIC 93
(6) Polyphony, perfected contrapuntal 1 1 Classic aee
art, '
(7) Harmony, chords, crystallised forms
of tone combination,
(8) Homophony, one supreme melodic
part with harmonic accompani-
ment,
(9) Romantic, Lyric, and Dramatic styles.
The origin and gradual evolution of contrapuntal art,
without which all modern music is wholly unimaginable,
may be traced in this wise: To the adopted cantus firmus,
or ecclesiastic intonation, a discant was added, as higher
part; at first as mere duplication in some perfect con-
sonant interval and in plain notes of uniform value. (It
seems conceivable that the term punctus contra punc-
tum may have been applied even to these incipient ex-
periments, inasmuch as the rhythms were necessarily
identical — the mensural system not yet having been in-
troduced — so that the product was literall}^ note against
note and nothing more.) After a while the rhythm of the
added part was animated to some degree by the addition
of grace-notes or embellishments (melismas), appropri-
ately called fleurettes, whence the designation contra-
punctus floridus. Probably the most momentous inno-
vation was the adoption of at least occasional contrary
direction, in the melody of the added part, for it was
not until this became a recognised and even obligatory
liberty that actual independence of melody could be se-
cured. To this improved product the name dechant
(discantus) or duplum was given, when the composition
embraced two parts only. When increased to three parts
it was called a triplum, and when four parts were com-
bined it was known as a quadruplum.
In such larger combinations many different names were
used to indicate the various parts, as tenor, contra-tenor,
motet, cantus, bassus, discantus. The tenor was always
that part to which the cantus was assigned (from Latin
tenere, to hold); it was originally the lowermost part.
94 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
but later became the part next above the bass (lowest),
as it is in the modern chorus.
The discant, instead of being written out by mental
calculation, is known to have been frequently improvised,
with such graces or fleurettes as the singer was capable
of inventing. This was so common a practice that old
writers of that early period distinguished between con-
trapunctus a penna (written) and contrapunctus a mente
(improvised counterpoint).
It was at this important juncture, when the parts
began to assume greater independence both in melody
and, especially, in rhythm, that a method of determining
time-values became imperative, and the mensural sys-
tem was devised. We have already seen how this method
was evolved from the neumas, gradually enlarged and
improved, until it finally developed into a system of
very great complexity and difficulty. Later it was sim-
plified and clarified into its present form, which, though
formidable to every beginner, is nevertheless far more
consistent, convenient, and perfect than the original
mensural notation ever was.
It is easy to imagine, and, indeed, it may be witnessed
in such manuscript compositions as have been preserved
from the days of the old French school, how the newly
discovered art of part association progressed from one
stage of freedom to another; how the art gradually gained
in fluency and fulness; how it slowly but surely advanced
and increased in ingenuity and complexity, until composi-
tions began to appear which could claim some degree of
real musical and harmonic beauty, and not only aroused
the admiration of the churchmen of those early da3^s
but which appeal even to our modern sense as objects
both of interest and wonder.
The compositions of this period appear, as has been
mentioned, to have been of four distinct kinds: the
motette, rondeau or rondellis, conduit or conductus, and
cantilenis. The most venerable of these was the motette,
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ARTISTIC MUSIC 95
one of the peculiarities of which was that each of the
voices generall}^ had its own text, independent of the
others. It appears to have been originally a secular form,
cultivated by the popular music makers, but was adopted
by the writers of sacred music, with such modifications as
were necessary. During the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries it was the most popular form of musical com-
position in France, whence it gradually disappeared, to
thrive all the more vigorously in the Netherlands and
also in some parts of Italy, a century or more later.
The rondeau also originated with the people and re-
mained always a secular form. It had usually one set of
words sung by all the parts in common. The form of
the conduit seems to have been less definite than that of
the rondeau, though but little is known about it. It was
generall)^, though not always, a vocal composition.
From such treatises on music theory as have been
handed down to us, it is apparent that the old French
writers made sj^stematic use of the principal thematic
devices known to modern theory, such as imitation,
double counterpoint, and canon. That the principle of
inversion was also familiar to them is shown in the
falso bordone, of which such wide-spread use was made
for many centuries and which seems to have been vir-
tually a succession of chords of the sixth (Chapter VII).
Much has been said of, and claimed for, the old English
school, which is supposed to have been established even
earlier, and to have flourished somewhat later, than that
of Paris. But historic testimony of conclusive worth is
meagre. The wonderful old canon, Sumer is i-cumen in
(Summer is come), dating from the early part of the
thirteenth century, could have emanated from no other
than a master-hand of extraordinary skill; but whose
hand it was cannot be shown. Besides Walter Odington,
one other eminent master is mentioned as representative
of the old English school, John Dunstable, but he is placed
as late as the fifteenth century.
96
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
Of much greater and more firmly established renown
was the Gallo-Belgian School, generally regarded as the
first vigorous offshoot of the old French school. The
earliest distinguished name encountered in the musical
histor}^ of this region is Zeelandia (about 1330-70). He
was among the first to regard the intervals of the third
and sixth as more attractive than the perfect consonances
— fourth, fifth, and eighth — and to use the former more
freely.
The next master was Vincent Faugues (born 141 5),
whose masses became very popular in Rome. The next
and most distinguished master of the whole period was
Guillaume Dufay, supposed to have been born in Hai-
nault about 141 5, though there is much uncertainty about
this date. His fame seems to rest more securely on his
achievements as theorist and teacher than upon his com-
positions. His counterpoint is still imperfect and con-
strained, but contains many cunning thematic devices
and occasional passages of real musical beauty.
iCyt-jt, cA^^£^, -u-J »^"-^'»-V'-
H
S^-t^
-^TM-
^
cZc
9- _
-W-
P5F
Other writers of the period were Firmin Caron (about
1420-80); Regis or De Roi, Flemish Koninck, (about
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ARTISTIC MUSIC 97
143 5-1485); and Antoine Busnois (born, probabl}^ in
Flanders, about 1440). The last ranked almost equal to
Dufay and is known to have introduced marked improve-
ments in the treatment of the parts.
CHAPTER XII
THE DUTCH SCHOOL OF COUNTERPOINT
The process of technical development in musical
writing which had its significant beginning among the
French organists of Notre Dame and passed from them
to the scholars of the Gallo-Belgian provinces, was next
taken up by the masters of the Netherland school. Here
the art of contrapuntal combination advanced to a very
high degree and the technic of composition reached a
grade of perfection and facility far beyond that exhib-
ited in the da3's of Dufay and Busnois. But it is no
less true that it did not advance in a corresponding mea-
sure in intrinsic musical value, but, rather, lost gradually
such natural power as it had possessed, in exaggerated
subtleties of purely mathematical calculation.
The student must never lose sight of the fact that the
products of these early centuries were not music in the
sense that modern art has accustomed us to regard it.
The art of true music, in the essentially elevated and re-
fined sense, was not yet born. Its mission as a reflection
and expression of human emotion was not yet recognised
or, at most, vaguely entertained as a remote possibility.
The history of music up to the beginning of the seven-
teenth century (that is, until about three hundred years
ago) is the story of manifold experimentation with mys-
terious problems of tone combination from every con-
ceivable point of attack — a searching and probing among
the possibilities of tone and its associations as a new and
wholly undeveloped medium of artistic creation. It was
the framing of the body, so to speak, with all its ana-
gS
DUTCH SCHOOL OF COUNTERPOINT 99
tomic parts and ph3^sical functions, in preparation for
the abode of the spirit whose presence we now know and
feel but which at that time was not yet conceived.
To comprehend clearly wherein all this searching and
technical exploitation consisted, the student must recall
the chief ph3^sical factors of musical art — melody, har-
mony, rhythm, and their infinite possibilities in forms of
co-operation. The most significant and salient trait of a
composition is its melody, or tone line, and the product
of composition is invariably a design in which the tones
arrange themselves in lines which hold and lead the hear-
er's consciousness from point to point, thus providing a
tangible scheme which one can follow and comprehend.
This linear principle of tone combination is so funda-
mental and exclusive that no musical utterance, no matter
how primitive or crude, can proceed from any other nat-
ural impulse. It is even seen in the inartistic but at least
natural musical practices of the ancient and all barbaric
races, which are limited wholl}^ to the element of melody,
or music formed of one single tone-succession. Of this
ph3^sical propert}^ of music the earliest scholars were fully
aware. For the first ten centuries of the Christian era
all music, both ecclesiastic and secular, was thus limited
to melody; and such systematic and scientific experimen-
tation as was conducted by musically gifted men of that
era was directed toward the perfection of the single line
of tones. This is shown in the intonations and chants
of the church and the folk-songs of the people. Then
came, as we have seen, the momentous experiments with
two and more tone lines at once, and the era of artistic
(contrapuntal) tone association was inaugurated. From
that time on, for over five hundred years, the only ob-
ject of music writers appears to have been to perfect and
elaborate this linear quality of music, to create more and
more intricate and interesting line-designs of tone se-
quence. Consequently, the music of these early centuries
exhibits cunning imitations, sequences, inversions, and all
loo ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
the devices now included under the head of motive de-
velopment or thematic manipulation; and from epoch to
epoch these devices increase and multiply their intrica-
cies until the most amazing examples of voice leading
and voice combination result— sentences, and even entire
FROM THE "MARGARITA PHILOSOPHICA"
(of GEORGIUS REISCHIUS, IS03)
masses, in which there is not a single tone that does not
form a significant link in some chain or line of thematic
sequence. That the complex of tone, as a whole, should
result in a reasonably harmonious product (that is, should
sound well) was the natural and by no means partic-
ularly difficult consequence of respecting the laws of
consonant intervals and, as we should state to-day, the
laws of chord combination.
DUTCH SCHOOL OF COUNTERPOINT loi
But this is practicall}^ all that music was from the
eleventh up to the seventeenth century — the solving of
a tone problem.
It is true, however, that we find occasionally infusions
of true musical expression, as the possibility of the spirit
dawned upon the writer, as the purely artificial and math-
ematical quality of the music began gradually to fit itself
for its ultimate purpose and to become a pliant means to
a great and noble end. This era was the inevitable school-
day period through which the art had to pass in order
to discover and develop its power, to test its strength, and
to come into conscious possession of resources that were
ultimately to know no limit. This is its significance in
music history, and from this point of view its products
must be judged, with gratitude and reverence, but also
with intelligence.
The first eminent name in the historj' of the Netherland
or Dutch school is Johannes Okeghem (or Ockenheim),
called the " patriarch of counterpoint and canonic art."
He was born about 1425, in Hainault, and died 1512, at
Tours. He was, properly speaking, a Belgian, and he
constitutes a connecting link between the Belgian and
Dutch schools.
The following specimen of Okeghem's writing is a sec-
ular song for three voices:
3.
■ 1 ■ r I I »
^
^
•a- "■
ITT
^^
3-^cr. j~^\= -^^^q^Kr' -g
■\
^^
m
I02 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
Almost exactly contemporaneous with Okeghem was
the scarcely less renowned Hollander Jakob Hobrecht (or
Obrecht) who was born 1430, at Utrecht, on the Rhine,
and died in 1506, in Antwerp. Antonius Brumel, a pupil
of Okeghem's (born about 1460), manifests a recognition
of chord formation and a leaning toward the more com-
pact harmonic style.
The most eminent master of the Dutch school, and
also a pupil of Okeghem, was Josquin des Pres. He was
born about 1450, in Hainault, and died 1521. He may
justly be ranked among the conspicuous figures in music
history and as a distinguished promoter of perfect contra-
puntal technic. Though charged with having carried
the mathematical devices of melodic association to an
exaggerated extreme, it is, nevertheless, true that every
phrase Josquin des Pres wrote, be it simple or elaborate,
displays evidence of true musical genius. Josquin ap-
peared in Rome in 1484 as singer in the papal chapel.
After the death of Pope Sixtus IV he accepted a call from
the Duke of Este, and went to Ferrara; later to Paris,
as premier chantre du roi of Louis XII. After a few years
there he returned to his native city as provost of the
cathedral, which office he held until his death.
The following is from one of Josquin's masses, Pange
lingua, for four parts:
^
'g- .-:-^c| f^
J ^1.1 .4-
-5-- —^ j
-^^
^
^^
:^r L
DUTCH SCHOOL OF COUNTERPOINT 103
m
±
I
^^
.H j i j Jl'^
?
^^t^^
:3^
^^
^
^^
de^t/n-
'f-utj^ ,
Every movement in the above sentence, written four
centuries ago, may be analysed in terms of modern har-
mony and tonahty. Close scrutiny of each separate voice
will reveal to the observant student the masterly manner
in which the four independent tone lines are interwoven,
and how strictly each tone drops into place in logical or
thematic agreement with the figures traced by the other
parts. There is a growing feeling for harmonic (chord)
effects exhibited here, and in others of Josquin's works
this is still more noticeable. The regularity of structure
as shown in the clear-cut succession of uniform (four-
measure) phrases, is not accidental.
One of Josquin's most famous pupils was Nicolas Gom-
bert, born in Bruges, in 1495. In 1528 he is encountered
in Madrid. His compositions are characterised by ease,
smoothness, and euphony, in which traits they excel even
the writings of his great master.
Another pupil of Josquin was Jakob Arkadelt, born
about 1 514, in Holland, and one of the earliest writers of
the madrigal. The following brief extract (the first period
of Arkadelt's famous Ave Maria) is a striking illustration
of the progress made in the harmonic style:
I04 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
A-^ kt.
af-ojd<^ Am.-- ■>**• /e'»uut»M^j ^p
a.- t^
/^6,
^<^cU£;t.
s
i-i ^^ ri
J 4-
5
S
:fe=5=
5
J:^
There was not the least disposition on the part of these
old masters to relinquish their pursuit of mathematical,
contrapuntal feats; on the contrary, the devices of canon
and fugue, while growing less constrained and mechanical,
rather increased in intricacy. But, while the necessity of
this discipline and the resulting power and dignity of the
music were strictly defended, the masters seem to have
become equally sensible of the need of contrast. Hence,
we perceive the increasing tendency to lead the voices
together, in compact chord forms, from time to time, in-
stead of giving to each voice its wholly independent share
in the unravelling and developing of the thematic motives.
It is very singular that in this era of preponderantly
mathematical music, experiments of a purely artificial,
descriptive character should have become popular. Pos-
sibly this application of tones to the illustration of phys-
ical phenomena (battles, country fairs, forest sounds, and
the like) was regarded also as a musical problem, dia-
metrically opposed to the purposes of counterpoint.
One of Josquin's pupils, Clement Jannequin (born about
I495)> was especially noted for such tone pictures, writ-
ten for voices — not for instruments, as is all descriptive
music of to-day. Among his compositions were the Bat-
tle of Marignano and the Paris Fair.
DUTCH SCHOOL OF COUNTERPOINT 105
Another noted master of this school was Benedict Dux
(or Ducis), born 1480 at Bruges, Hved in 151 5 in Ant-
werp, and died about 1540. His eight-part motettes are
remarkable for their dignity and beauty.
In the year 1502 the art of printing music with de-
tachable cast-metal types was invented by Ottavio Pe-
trucci (da Fossombrone). The immense significance of
this invention, which exerted a revolutionising influence
upon the whole range of musical culture, can be appre-
ciated only by considering the serious limitations involved
in the necessary preparation of copies of music works
by hand.
The first book which proceeded from Petrucci's work-
shop was a collection of thirty-three motettes for three
parts, by Josquin, Anton Brumel, Loyset Compere, and
others. His invention found many advocates, and in a
short time a number of music-printing establishments
sprang into existence: at Mayence (15 12), Nuremberg,
Munich (1540), Leipsic, Venice (1536), Paris (1520), and
Rome (1523).
CHAPTER XIII
THE INFLUENCE OF THE DUTCH SCHOOL
Thus far the Netherlanders had ruled supreme in
music and no other nation had produced masters whose
influence was as great and wide-spread as theirs, or who
could rival them in the significance of their achievements.
Probably the only country which exhibited important
activity at the same time was Germany, where two men
of great and just renown are encountered as early as the
days of Okeghem^namely, Heinrich Isaak and Hein-
rich Finck. Isaak (born in 1450) surpassed all of his
contemporaries in the composition and arrangement of
secular songs. The historian Forkel says of him that
" he manifested a clearness of melody, correctness and
beauty of rhythm, and a freedom of harmony suggestive
of the cultured art of the eighteenth century." Finck
(born about 1445) was also so popular that many of his
songs were republished as late as 1536.*
In France and Spam, also, musicians of eminence ap-
peared; and Italy, particularly, was beginning to reas-
sert her musical power and preparing to become during
the succeeding epoch the new centre of music history.
But this shifting of the centre of musical activity was
due, after all, almost entirely to the steady emigration of
the northern masters to these southern countries. The
*Hermann Finck, author of Practica musica (1556), thus refers to his great-
uncle, Heinrich Finck: "Extant melodias, in quibus magna artis perfectio est,
compositse ab Henrico Finckio; cuius ingenium in adolescentia in Polonia
excultum est, et postea Regia liberalitate ornatum est." (Melodies are ex-
tant, composed by Heinrich Finck, which show great skill; as a boy he was
educated in Poland, later by royal favor (liberality) he was enabled to con-
tinue his training.) (See illustration on page 107.)
106
INFLUENCE OF THE DUTCH SCHOOL 107
roots of the vigorous musical growth which spread its
branches over all Europe were firmly embedded in the
soil of Belgium and Holland; from this mighty centre all
the lines of musical progress took their start, and all that
music has since become may be traced to this source.
The Netherlanders did not stay at home. Their rov-
ing disposition, probably stimulated by the strong sea-
TITLE PAGE TO A WORK BY HERMANN FINCK
("PRACTICA MUSICA," I556)
faring activity of that age and people, the overproduc-
tion of fertile musical minds, and the natural demand
for their efficient services throughout Catholic Christen-
dom — these and other impulses led many of them away
from home, and thus they became the cause of the dis-
semination of their knowledge all over musical Europe.
This migratory tendency is observable as far back as
Okeghem himself, who spent the greater part of his ca-
reer in Paris; and also in Josquin des Pres, who was ac-
tive in Rome, Ferrara, and Paris. Clement Jannequin,
though a native of Flanders and a pupil of Josquin, spent
io8
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
his life in France. Gombert chose Madrid for his artis-
tic home and obviously greatly influenced the methods of
Spanish and Portuguese composers. Alexander Agricola,
a Belgian and pupil of Okeghem, is encountered in Spain.
The great teacher and
theorist Johannes Tinc-
toris went from the
Netherlands to Naples.
And so the emigration
continued and increased
until the Netherlands
were depleted of their
musical master minds
and gradually lost their
historic importance.
Among those who
wandered south to Italy
was the eminent Adrian
Willaert. He was born
at Bruges, in Flanders,
in 1480, studied law in
Paris, went to Rome
about 1516, shortly
afterward to Ferrara,
and finally to Venice,
where he remained as chapelmaster in St. Mark's Cathe-
dral until his death, in 1562. Willaert is accredited with
being the first to use a larger number of parts, namely,
six, seven, and even more, and he is supposed to be the
originator of the double chorus. In his compositions a
decided advance in tonal beauty is discernible, owing
partly to his more extensive employment of the plain
chord style. He contributed to the rapidly growing ten-
dency to simplify the choice and treatment of harmonic
material and to cultivate a more refined manner of ar-
tistic secular composition. Willaert's most significant re-
lation to the history of music consists probably in the
ADRIAN WILLAERT
AFTER AN ENGRAVING BY ANTONIO GARDANO
(VENICE, 1559)
INFLUENCE OF THE DUTCH SCHOOL 109
fact that he was the originator, or, at least, the most
powerful promoter of the madrigal — a secular form which
he exalted to a truly artistic rank about 1530 and which
rapidly attained to a high degree of popularity. Prior to
this the most prevalent form of composition was the sa-
cred motette, which, growing out of the religious chant,
was severe in character, strictly thematic and contra-
puntal, and provided the scholar the opportunity to dis-
pla}^ his learning and skill in canonic and imitatory voice
combination. In consequence of this rigidit}^ of char-
acter the motette became distasteful to the Italians,
who then, as now, evinced that predilection for pure,
smooth, unconstrained melody which has become the na-
tional physiognomy of their music.
The madrigal was intended and destined to satisfy
the desire for a style of vocal music which, both in words
and melody, was of a less scholastic and more popular
type. It was, originally, a simple shepherd's song and
took its name from mandra, a flock, and mandriale, a
shepherd. After a while it lost this primitive character-
istic and pursued a more general development. The text,
usually secular, consisted of twelve or fifteen lines of un-
equal length set, most commonly, for five voices. The
composer's aim therein was not, as hitherto, the scholarly
manipulation of independent contrapuntal parts, but to
reflect the sentiment of the text as accurately as possible.
The adoption of some foreign theme, or cantus firmus,
was completely abandoned, and the imitations and other
thematic details were treated with much freedom.
These qualities of the madrigal led, necessarih^, to a less
severe application of all the established musical factors;
chromatic progressions became very common; both the
rhythm and the melody were more free and striking;
novel and ingenious harmonic movements were invented;
descriptive passages were introduced; and greater vari-
ety in the whole method of thought and execution was
the inevitable result. For more than two centuries the
no ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
madrigal was cultivated and produced in incredible num-
bers by all the masters of note; it became universally
popular and exerted a most important influence upon
the development of a freer and more attractive style of
composition.
Besides the madrigal, the secular music of this period
embraced a number of other popular forms, chiefly of
Italian origin: the frottola, a short, merry street song;
the vilanella, a peasant's song; the maggiolata (May
song); ballata (dance song); barcaruola, a boat song, or
barcarole.
The following fragment from one of Willaert's four-
part vocal sentences will give a general idea of his mode
of composition. It also illustrates the extent to which
the harmonic style had already begun to supersede that
of the intricate contrapuntal era:
^
it
^S
"i^-pit^U
^
t7
m
4^ -^
-s-
U^'
u
tVt^
^£
jjJJTU. j
^
=^=j=
e
^
gF^=^ '1 i i ^
4=F^
Tf^=^
^i
^JJi'
g J ^
^ ^^
rf'cMajiU
-^^
__ci ^ ca_
^^^
ij-
ks.
^
^
Two of Willaert's most celebrated pupils were the
great Italian theorist Giuseppe Zarlino of Cremona and
INFLUENCE OF THE DUTCH SCHOOL
III
the composer Cyprian De Rore; the latter was born in
1516, in Mecheln, died 1565 at Parma. De Rore wrote al-
most exclusively works of secular character and is noted
as one of the first to adopt and cultivate the chromatic
progression. This was as great an innovation as the
harmonic style introduced in such an original and strik-
ing manner by Richard Wagner a half century ago, or
by Richard Strauss still more recently, and might have
led to a far more speedy development of harmonic free-
dom had De Rore possessed the genius to follow it up,
or his age been more ready to receive it. An example of
the astonishing effects he produced is seen in the follow-
ing passage from one of his four-part vocal motettes.
C^Ry.
/3
aui^ t»tn.cA
Wt^
(33 9- ^■
^^
^
SP
^^
^m
? i tr'l ti J?i l^^-Kh^^- .
m' ■ II
SE l''^ \\\VA
^ «. » -
^l^- i^^^ I
y^
*
^/6
a-t^e,.
m
f- -^ y ^
s
1^
With all its novelty and daring, it still betrays plainly
the awkwardness and lack of experience in the use of
many musical factors, and helps to demonstrate how re-
112 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
mote these old masters, with all their contrapuntal cun-
ning, were from apprehending those qualities of music
which more nearly concern the heart than the brain.
(The modern student is apt to be seriously misled by the
time-values used in these older works and to miscon-
ceive their intended effect. It is certain that the ordinary
beat of that time was ex-
pressed by a much larger
note than nowadays, and,
therefore, the half notes, or
even whole notes, in these
examples should be sung,
or played, as if they were
modern quarter notes, in
moderate tempo.)
Other contemporaries of
Willaert were: Costanzo
Festa, the first Italian com-
poser of fame; Philipp Ver-
delot; Jakob van Boes;
Jakob Berchem; Claude
Goudimel, the teacher of Palestrina and founder of an emi-
nent school of Italian music; and Clement (non Papa).
In France and Spain music also flourished to some
degree, and in Germany a school arose to which a later
chapter will be devoted. In England, about the begin-
ning of the succeeding century (1600), a number of noted
madrigalists appeared.
The music historians, theorists, and scholars of this
era were: Johannes Tinctoris, born 1446 in Brabant, died
151 1 ; Franchinus Gafurius (or Gafor), born 1451 near
Milan, died 1522 — one of the first truly distinguished
masters of musical theory; Heinrich Glareanus (Gla-
rean),* born 1488 in Switzerland, died 1563, the author
of a curious theory of twelve modes (the Glarean modes),
* Though commonly so known, Glarean's real name was Heinrich Loris, of
Glarus.
JANS PIETERS SWEELINCK
INFLUENCE OF THE DUTCH SCHOOL 113
not identical with our twelve ke3^s but derived from
Greek theory; Giuseppe Zarlino, born 15 17 near Venice,
died 1590, the greatest musical scholar of this whole
period. As composer he was accurate and scrupulous but
dry; as theorist he created an epoch in musical science.
Of supreme significance for coming ages was the system
of equalised temperament, which Zarlino was the first to
propose and which was soon to supersede the system of
perfect fifths, according to which all instruments were
then tuned.
In Spain a distinguished theorist appeared in the per-
son of Francisco Salinas, born 1512 at Burgos, died 1590
in Salamanca. In Germany there were Adam de Fulda
(end of the fifteenth century), Martin Agricola (1486-
1556), Heinrich Finck, and many others famous as theo-
rists and historians. In Ital}^ conservatories and schools
of art were early established, and their influence upon
musical culture was most beneficial. The oldest musical
conservatory was founded in 1537, at Naples, and was
known as the " Conservatorio Maria di Loretto."
Among the Dutch masters who preferred to spend their
lives in their own country was Jans Pieters Sweelinck,
born in Holland about 1562, died in 1621 at Amsterdam.
He was esteemed the greatest organ player of his day
and an instrumental composer of merit. He manifested
great interest in the culture of popular instrumental
music and was, therefore, a friend of the strolling players
and minstrels, for whose use he published, in 1602, a New
Zither Book.
CHAPTER XIV
ORLANDO DI LASSO
The student now arrives at the consideration of the
life and works of a Belgian master who ranks with the
greatest musical geniuses of this whole epoch and of
music history in general — Orlandus Lassus. He is also
known by his original Flemish name of Roland von
Lattre, called by the French Delattre and by the Italians
and historians generally Orlando di Lasso. He was born
in 1520 at Mons, in Hainault (one year before the death
of Josquin and six years after Palestrina's birth). At
the age of sixteen he left his fatherland and went with
the viceroy of Sicily to Milan and Palermo. At eighteen
he arrived in Naples, where he remained about two years.
After many wanderings (including a trip to England)
he finally accepted, in 1557, an invitation of the Bavarian
duke Albert V to make Munich his permanent home.
Lasso remained in that city, in the capacity of chief chapel-
master, until his death, in 1594.
During this long period he made two journeys to Paris,
declining with tact the most tempting inducements of the
French monarch, Charles IX, to remain there. He was
buried in Munich by the Franciscans, and to his memory
there has been erected a monument bearing the inscrip-
tion: Hie ille est Lassus, lassum quirecreabat orbem. (This
is that weary one who refreshed the weary world.)
Lasso was probably the most prolific of all composers.
His complete works — two thousand three hundred and
thirty-seven in number — are preserved in Munich, the
greater part unpublished. His fifty-one masses are all
114
ORLANDO DI LASSO
115
Psal
saims
characterised by that majestic dignity peculiar to the
master's whole style. Besides these, he wrote five hun-
dred and sixteen motettes for from two to twelve voices,
one hundred and eighty magnificats, four hundred and
twenty-nine sacred songs, and almost numberless eccle-
siastic compositions, including vespers, litanies, hymns,
psalms, requiems, passions, and stabat maters. Special
mention must be made of the Seven Penitential
(Nos. 6, 32, 38, 51,102, 130,
143), inseparably associated
with the name of Lasso, and
which never found more im-
pressive setting at the hands
of any master.
It is noteworthy that a
composer who could con-
ceive and reflect the feelings
of the penitent sinner in
such a sincere and touching
manner should find equally
fitting expression for the
gayest humour, as witnessed
in his German songs. Aside
from these intentionally
humorous eflTusions, Lasso also bequeathed a large number
of lyric secular compositions to the world, among which
are fifty-nine canzonettas, three hundred and seventy-
one French chansons, and two hundred and thirty-three
madrigals.
Lasso excelled his predecessors in versatility, imagina-
tion, and rapidity of thought and execution. He did not
appear to possess the power to break away completely
from the rigid forms of contrapuntal artifice so revered
in the days of his fathers, and he was, therefore, not
destined to enter, himself, the realm of free and uncon-
strained tone art. But it is quite as certain that he
educed effects and discovered resources that were before
ORLANDO Dl LASSO
ii6 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
unknown, and that the impressiveness of his music was
equalled only in the works of his great contemporary,
Palestrina.
His freedom in changes of key and the smoothness and
energy of his voice movements indicate absolute mastery
of the rules of the old school. His counterpoint is mostly
more florid than that of older writers, which is one of
many indications that Lasso was momentousl}^ active in
that gradual transformation from the contrapuntal to the
harmonic point of view of which we have already spoken.
Originally, the principle of melody, or the single tone
line, constituted the sole conception of music, and the
art of composition consisted in so interweaving two or
more such melodic lines as to produce a harmonious re-
sult. In other words, the harmonious tone bodies, or
chords, appeared as a consequence only. But, the power
of these chord effects once having been observed and ap-
preciated, their appearance became more and more fre-
quent, until it is evident that they, the chords, influence
the movement of the several parts and finally become
no longer a consequence but a cause. The harmonic
bodies and their successions become the basis upon which
the leading of the voice-parts is determined. This, it
will be seen, signified a complete change of conception,
and it not only influenced the manners and thought of
the composer but actually inaugurated that wholly new
epoch of writing which reaches down to our day. That
the rigidly linear contrapuntal style was beginning to
yield to the more compact and powerful harmonic style
is one of the most striking manifestations in Lasso's
writings.
For this same reason Lasso's treatment of many of the
scholastic devices is notably free; for instance, his imi-
tations do not extend any farther than it is perfectly
convenient for him to carry them; and that inexorable
logic of voice movement which marks the technic of
Okeghem, Josquin, and other old masters, is abandoned
ORLANDO DI LASSO
117
by Lasso, or treated with a freedom, or even indifference,
that proclaims the spirit of revolution. In this very re-
spect Lasso is regarded by many as inferior to Palestrina,
whose contrapuntal technic was as strict and severely
logical as that of any of his predecessors could have de-
sired. To venture a general comparison, the relation of
Lasso to Palestrina was somewhat parallel to that of
Handel to Bach in the eighteenth century, and of Schu-
bert to Beethoven in the nineteenth century.
The example which follows is from a sentence, Ado-
ramus te, Christe, of Orlando Lasso:
^^
3
^
3=fe??5
^m
t
- a
^
m
-i4
^^■
ta
iSi
W=^
^m
ta
-^H^^
f
=1-111
1,-5- •*
^
-— l^-'l J
^
J J--
^m
s^ -^
m
^
^g
^
ii8 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
Other Netherland composers who emigrated to Ger-
many were Jakob Vaet, Christian Hollander, Philipp de
Monte.
The epoch of the Netherlanders practically closes with
Lasso. During the foregoing period of two centuries,
over three hundred more or less distinguished composers
went forth from this great school of the north; and the
art of music, which it had so well developed and brought
to so high a degree of scholastic perfection, began to take
root in other countries of Europe, especially in Germany
and Italy, and to form an essential part of their national
civilisation.
A significant feature of the history of this musical
epoch, destined to change the character and affect the
subsequent evolution of the art, was the process of secu-
larisation gradually making its way into and through the
music of the church. The madrigal, which was originally
a secular form of the motette, was one of the evidences
of this movement; and it asserted itself as a perma-
nent and universally recognised style of popular art, be-
cause it was the outcome of a legitimate and wholesome
evolution of one of the established sacred forms of music.
But this secularising process was going on and extend-
ing its subtle influence within the church itself in the
very forms that were created for the purposes of religious
ceremonial. The old habit of introducing folk-songs and
fragments of popular melody into masses, motettes, and
other sacred works as a thematic basis assumed in time
such proportions, and was effected in some cases in so
shameless a manner, that the voice of the clergy, bent
upon preserving the purity of ecclesiastic usages, was
loudly raised against what was considered a sinful abuse;
and this growing protest is given, by many historians, as
one of the chief impulses which led to the recognition of
Palestrina's genius.
It was an inevitable movement. The genius of music
could not be confined to the church. Its true beauty,
ORLANDO DI LASSO 119
its specific mission, its most direct appeal to universal
human emotion were certain to be more quickly and fully
apprehended by the people at large than by the ascetic
churchmen. Among the people, music encountered less
restraint and could unfold its natural beauty and power
more freely than within the rigid bounds of church dis-
cipline and censorship, albeit the church had provided,
and was the only source that could provide, the neces-
sary opportunity for its technical and scientific develop-
ment.
But now this technical task was amply concluded; the
musical mission of the church practically fulfilled. In
fact, this very course of scholastic experimentation and
perfection had aroused the soul of music, had revealed
its inherent emotional potentiality, and had pointed out
the track that it was henceforth bound to pursue. The
church could no longer hold music as its own, and the
struggle of the art to find its proper atmosphere and abid-
ing-place, in the heart of the people, gave rise to the secu-
larising tendency of which we have spoken. This ten-
dency was, furthermore, promoted by the general new
birth and universal advance in social and civil culture;
stimulated greatly, no doubt, by the geographic change
of centre from the north to the south; promoted also by
the great rehgious Reformation, which, during the life-
time of Lasso and Palestrina, had already acquired a
mighty momentum and was beginning to influence music
precisely as it had transformed many religious views and
habits.
Lasso lived during this significant musical epoch and
contributed much to the juvenating process. The same
is true, to a greater or lesser degree, of Willaert and of
other masters of the closing era of the Dutch school.
At the same time, however, the church found a brilliant
champion in the person of Palestrina, who, while appar-
ently rendering great service to ecclesiastic music by re-
establishing the purity and dignity of its character, no
I20 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
less certainly wrought benefit to secular music to a prob-
ably equal extent. His musical genius was truly great,
wholesome, and natural; and his aims were as noble and
sincere as they were serious and truthful. Therefore he
actually purified both the ecclesiastic and secular styles
and unified them in a form of artistic expression that
was at once scholastic and emotional.
CHAPTER XV
PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA
ITALIAN SCHOOLS ENGLAND
In the north of Europe the art of music had been ac-
quiring form, vigour, and organic unity; but in the south,
chiefly in Italy, the land of poetic and artistic ideals, it
was to blossom and bear fruit of unexpected beauty and
splendour. Just as Rome was become the centre of all
Catholic Christendom, so now the Roman school of music
took the lead of all others. Foremost among the names
which made the Roman school so famous stands that
of Palestrina, undoubtedly the greatest master of the six-
teenth century, and, up to that time, the greatest in all
music history.
Giovanni Pierluigi took his historic name from the vil-
lage of his birth, Palestrina. His family name was Sante.
(His Latin designation was Johannes Petrus Aloysius
Praenestinus.) In Italy he was known as Giovanni Pier-
luigi da Palestrina. According to the latest authorities
he was born in 15 14 and was, therefore, six years older
than Lasso. In 1544 he was organist and chapelmaster of
the cathedral in his native city; in 1551 he was called to
succeed Arkadelt as master of the boy choir and chapel-
master in the Vatican Basilica, St. Peter's, at Rome.
His first work, printed three years later, was a volume
of masses for four and five voices, and the immediate rec-
ognition of their superior merit won him an appointment
in the convention of singers of the papal church. But
Pope Paul IV, on his accession to the pontificate in the
following year, felt himself compelled for various reasons
122 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
(chiefly the fact that Palestrina was married) to dismiss
him from the convention. During the same year, how-
ever, he became chapelmaster at St. John's; in 1561 he
assumed the same office at Santa Maria Maggiore; and
in 1 571 he was finally reinstated in his former office at
the Vatican. Palestrina died in 1594 (the year of Lasso's
death) and was buried before the
altar of Simon and Judas in St.
Peter's Cathedral.
Like all those who are destined
to become great masters, Palestrina,
before his genius was matured, was
for a time a close follower of his
predecessors. But he was gifted
with vastly richer talent, a much
broader and more comprehensive in-
telligence, and musical instincts of
primary power and range. There-
fore, he soon passed beyond the
bounds which the art of composi-
tion had then reached, and conceived a series of master-
works that were and still continue to be objects of
admiration and veneration.
The justifiable objection that had been raised by many
of the clergy to certain abuses that had crept into the
music of the church, and the agitation in favour of a
refinement and, particularly, a simplification of its char-
acter, reached a climax during the early part of Pales-
trina's career. An effort was made to remove the so-
called figural or florid style of counterpoint from the
church, because of the difficulties which attended both
its performance and its comprehension, and to return to
the simple old choral chant, as the more appropriate and
effective method of musical worship. A decision becom-
ing imperative, it was placed indirectly in Palestrina's
hands to demonstrate the feasibility of a partial return
to the simpler style and to effect a compromise which
PALESTRINA
PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA
123
would rescue the scholastic style from its threatened sup-
pression. Historic accounts conflict, but it seems prob-
able that Palestrina was commissioned (in 1565) to write
a mass which might serve as a permanent model of eccle-
siastic music. It is, however, not unlikely that Pales-
trina was personally inter-
ested in the controversy and
that his genius foresaw the
desired change. He himself
was repelled by many traits
of the constantly advancing
contrapuntal methods, and
he knew it would be neces-
sary, in time, to stem the
tide of "modernism," which
was just as active and
threatening then as in so
many subsequent eras of
art. And his peculiar mu-
sical conception and true
genius gave him the power
to meet the emergency as
probably no other living
musician could have done.
Palestrina wrote not only
one mass, as suggested, but
three, for six voices, the
third of which aroused ad-
miration and enthusiastic recognition far beyond the ex-
pectation of its modest author. In this third mass, those
emotions which dominate in the Catholic ceremonial found
most fervent and appropriate utterance. Through the
simplicity and directness of the means employed, and the
no less supreme treatment of traditional contrapuntal art,
this mass fulfilled all the conditions of an impressive and
truly beautiful ecclesiastic style. Palestrina dedicated
this mass, in a spirit of gratitude, to the memory of his
PALESTRINA'S BIRTHPLACE
124 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
former patron, Pope Marcellus II, whence it received its
historic title, Missa PapcE Marcelli.
Palestrina's compositions, while not nearly so numerous
as those of Lasso, represent the results of a long and dili-
gent life devoted almost exclusively to the service of eccle-
siastic music. They include fourteen books of masses for
four, five, and six voices; one book of eight-voice masses;
many books of motettes, ofFertorios, litanies, hymns,
magnificats, lamentations; and two books of madrigals.
The first collection of masses (1554) manifest all the
most brilliant traits of old-school counterpoint without
suggesting striking originality. The improperia (1559)
are far more significant and bear witness to Palestrina's
attitude toward the chord or harmonic basis, which he
uses with somewhat greater moderation, but also with
greater insight and impressiveness, than did Lasso.
Next in order of merit come the lamentations, hymns,
and a stabat mater. It is in his masses, however, that
Palestrina appears in the full glory of his genius. Here
are found that seriousness and dignity, that simplicity
coupled with unlimited command of contrapuntal re-
sources, which confirm his rank as the greatest master of
musical art who had ever lived, and one of the few monu-
mental figures in the entire range of music history.
Palestrina lived to see his works everywhere recognised
and prized, and to hear the style which he had created
called after his own name: Stile alia Palestrina. It is
a significant confirmation of his true and enduring great-
ness that after more than three centuries of uninterrupted
advance in musical art, and in the face of the rich and
resourceful music of modern days, the world cannot and
does not deny this master the most genuine admiration.
Some peculiarities of his technic — the stern diatonic
spirit of his melodic progressions, the frequent direct suc-
cession of fundamental triads in stepwise progression, the
rigid (though singularly original and effective) fashion of
his rhythm — sound somewhat hard and strange to mod-
PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA
I2S
ern ears; but the oftener we hear any of his works and
the farther we penetrate into their innermost qualities
and appreciate the ever^'where-prevalent, marvellous har-
mon}^ between idea, sentiment, and medium of expression,
the more are we impressed with their lofty purity and
natural power.
It is by no means eas)^ to choose an example of Pales-
trina's writing which will give even a faint impression
of the beauty and grandeur of his style. Fortunately, so
many of his compositions are now accessible in printed
form that the reader can easily obtain many different
specimens of his music. The following is a brief extract
from his Iste confessor:
"TT
I ^T K-T^"'"
4.^-1^
m
^^
We have seen how the Netherlanders migrated to the
south and became causal in establishing a chain of schools
of composition in Italy, where the next momentous steps
in the progress and development of the art were to be
126 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
taken. The first of these schools was the old Neapoli-
tan founded by Johannes Tinctoris. The next was the
old Venetian school established by Adrian Willaert.
The most eminent of Willaert's numerous pupils was
Andrea Gabrieli (the elder), born 1510, of an old Italian
famil}^. In 1536 he was admitted as singer to the
choir of St. Mark's, became second organist there in
1566, and was commissioned in 1574 to write a festival
work in honour of King Henry HI of France. He ac-
quitted himself of his charge by composing two cantatas,
for eight and twelve parts, which aroused great admira-
tion by the richness of their harmonies.
Andrea GabrieH extended the double-chorus style, for
which his teacher was famed, to that of the triple-chorus
in many of his works. He died in 1586. Giovanni
Gabrieli (the younger, 1 557-1613) was born at Venice.
In 1585 he became first organist at St. Mark's. In
1609, Heinrich Schiitz, who became subsequently one of
the greatest German tone-masters, crossed the Alps to
study with the younger Gabrieli. The association of vo-
cal music with instrumental accompaniment was greatly
promoted by Gabrieli, with whom this union became a
distinctive style of composition.
More eminent than the Gabrielis was Claudio Merulo
(i 533-1604), an organist of extraordinary skill and genius.
The former limited themselves chiefly to a mere tran-
scription of vocal pieces (canzone) for the organ, but
Merulo added florid passages and free interludes between
the choral members.
Other distinguished Venetian masters were Giovanni
della Croce, Baldassaro Donati and Giovanni Gastoldi.
Palestrina devoted much of his energy to teaching,
and was practically the founder of the Italian school of
composition at Rome. Possibly the honour is due to
Goudimel, the teacher of Palestrina and others, though
historically the old Roman school is inseparably connected
with Palestrina's name.
PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA 127
Contemporaries of Palestrina were Costanzo Festa,
Domenico Ferrabosco, Giovanni Animuccia, all pupils of
Goudimel; Ludovico da Vittoria; Luca Marenzio (1550-
99, almost without a rival as madrigalist); and the
famous Giovanni Nanini (i 540-1607), the founder of the
most distinguished Roman school, called the Younger
Roman (that of Goudimel being known as the Older).
Out of this Younger Roman School proceeded: Ber-
nardino Nanini (the younger brother of the founder,
Giovanni, who conducted the school after the death of
the latter) ; Giacomo Carissimi (one of the chief promoters
of the oratorio); Gregorio Allegri; Arcangelo Corelli
(the famous violinist and composer); Benedetto Marcello;
and the renowned Domenico Scarlatti (the younger).
About 1700 an offshoot of the Roman school took root
at Naples. The above-named Carissimi (1604-74) was
the teacher of Alessandro Scarlatti (the elder, the father
of Domenico); and this elder Scarlatti was the teacher
of the three organisers of the famous Young Neapolitan
School — Francesco Durante, Leonardo Leo, and Fran-
cesco Feo.
In England, the days of Queen Elizabeth appear to
have been a period of considerable musical distinction
and productivity. The most noted contrapuntalists were
Thomas Tallis (died 1585) and his pupil William Byrd
(about 1538-1623), both of whom were profound harmo-
nists — the latter a famous composer for the virginal (or
spinet), a forerunner of the pianoforte, which was very
popular in England. A pupil of Byrd was Thomas Mor-
ley, composer of secular songs, madrigals, canzonettas,
ballads, and airs.
Other English composers of this period were John
Dowland (born 1562), Thomas Weelkes, John Ward,
John Bennett, Orlando Gibbons, and John Hilton. Of
more than passing popularity was John Bull (about 1563-
1628), organist, virginalist, and a prolific composer.
In France, nothing of historic interest took place in
128 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
music from the momentous days of the early Notre
Dame organists, until the brilliant period of dramatic
activity inaugurated about 1650 by Lully.
In Germany, on the contrary, significant events suc-
ceeded each other with increasing frequency, tending in
the direction of the complete supremacy in music history
which that nation was subsequently to assert.
Summary of the achievements of ecclesiastic musical
art during the first sixteen centuries of the Christian
era:
Epoch I
Ambrose. Gregory
The preparation of the soil.
Epoch II
Hucbald. Guido
A momentous step is taken.
Transitional
Franco of Paris. Franco of Cologne. Adam de la Halle.
De Vitry. De Muris
The struggle with the consequence of this step.
Epoch III
Dufay. Okeghem. Josquin des Pres. Willaert. Lasso.
Palestrina
The gradual and ultimate realisation of the results of
which this step gave promise.
Subsequent Epochs
The progressive stages of secularisation and populari-
sation of the art of music down to the present day.
PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA
129
1425-1512.
1445-
1450.
Johannes Okeghem.
Heinrich Finck.
Heinrich Isaak.
I45c^i52i.
Josquin des Pres.
I4SS-
■85.
Wars of the Roses
(House of York
and House of
Lancaster).
1475-
■1564.
Michael Angelo.
1470.
Sir Thomas Mal-
lory's Morte d'
Arthur.
1480.
Adrian Willaert.
1483-
-1520.
Raphael.
I49c^
■1536.
William Tyndale
(Translator of
the Bible).
1492.
Jakob Arkadelt.
1492.
Columbus voyaged
to the New
World.
1510.
Andrea Gabrieli.
1 5 14-1594.
Palestrina.
1513-
Balboa sees the Pa-
1520.
Orlando di Lasso.
cific from the
heights at Pan-
ama.
1551-
Palestrina succeeds
Arkadelt at Rome.
1551.
Nicholas Udall's
Ralph Royster-
Doyster.
1557-
Lassus goes to Mu-
nich.
1554-
■86.
Sir Philip Sidney.
1562.
Jan Pieters Sweelinck
born.
1558-
■1603.
Queen Elizabeth of
England.
1563-
Willaert at St. Mark's
(Venice).
1564-
■1616.
William Shake-
speare.
1565.
Cyprian de Rore died.
1573-
-1637.
Ben Jonson.
1585 ic).
Hawkins, Raleigh,
Sir Francis
Drake.
1590.
Edmund Spenser's
Faerie Queene.
1594-
Death of Lasso and
Palestrina.
1597-
Francis Bacon's
first ten Essays.
1621.
Death of Sweelinck.
1620.
Coming of the
Mayflower.
CHAPTER XVI
THE MUSIC OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH
THE GERMAN CHORALE
It is universally conceded that all of the arts of the
Christian era, and especially music, owe much to the
Roman Church; and it is not denied that the Protestant
Church rather impeded than furthered their development.
But this is scarcely true of music; for the Reformation
and its consequences prepared a soil for this very art out
of which it was to draw new vigour, and that at the mo-
ment when its trend, in CathoHc environment, was in the
direction of a new growth which Protestant conditions
were calculated to foster most effectually.
The significance of the Reformation in musical history
is found in the fact that it led to the affiliation of both
sacred and popular elements; that it thus brought the
higher phases of music nearer to the people themselves,
as a whole, and prepared music for that technically sim-
pler and more direct emotional expression through which
it was to attain its greatest power and develop its proper
spirit.
The Reformation, which wrought so many changes, also
demanded a wholly different mode of musical practice.
The music of contrapuntally interwoven parts, which
reached such artistic perfection in the Catholic Church,
was repudiated in favour of a simple, one-voice melodic
style, externally similar to the early, unadorned chants
and intonations of the old church but of an entirely dif-
ferent, more popular character.
The masses and other settings of the liturgy, sung by
130
MUSIC OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH 131
clergy and trained choirs, were displaced by the chorale
and sung by the congregation in unison. This was in
some respects a backward step that would seem to threaten
the real progress of the art, especially in regard to rhythm,
which, in the austere regularity and heavy duple measure
of the chorale, was apparently even less vital than the
still essentially monotonous rhythmic pace of scholastic
counterpoint. But this very quality proclaimed the vig-
our of the chorale; and the particular manner of its
application (unlike the unmeasured recitative of the
Gregorian chant) gradually infused very wholesome ani-
mation into the music. This brought it home to the
heart and normal habit of the people and contributed
most powerfully to the breaking of the rhythmic bonds
in which all Catholic music was rigidly held and which
probably no other influence could ever have succeeded in
removing.
It was this rhythmic bondage that constituted the real
barrier to further advance in ecclesiastic music. The
comparison of Palestrina with Mozart or Beethoven re-
veals nothing more vital or striking than the difference
in their rhythmic treatment. This rhythmic change, com-
bined with the increase in suhjectiveness and emotional
spirit, constitutes the whole difference between the music of
the sixteenth century and that of our day. The musical
mission of the German chorale seems to have been to
initiate this transformation of the rhythmic element.
The origin of the German chorale is ascribed to three
different sources:
First, to the old hymns and chants of the Latin Church,
upon which it was natural for the new church to draw.
The changes to which these venerable melodies were sub-
jected chiefly concerned the form, which was modified
to meet the requirements of the new and more popular
methods of singing. During the first century the rhythm
of the chorale was much more lively, diversified, and syn-
copated than later, when, for good reasons, it was found
132 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
desirable to adopt that heavy, dignified, regular pulse that
characterises the German chorale to the present day.
Second, to the German sacred songs of earlier days,
which were of a far more popular type than those of other
countries. It should not be assumed that the people
had never sung in the German tongue before the Refor-
mation, or that Luther was the creator of German ecclesi-
'Bttcblettt.
I TENOR!
TITLE-PAGE OF THE WITTEMBERG "SACRED SONG BOOK"
(TENOR PART), 1524
astic song. As early as the ninth century such hymns
and melodies existed, and man}^ of a later date (twelfth
century) have been preserved. The thirteenth century,
particularly, is noted for a profusion of German songs
to the Virgin, some of which were subsequently carried
over into the Lutheran service — of course, with modified
text, to conform to the dogmas and spirit of the new
church.
The third and most important of the sources of Prot-
estant church music were the secular songs of earlier days,
from which legacy of the minnesingers and the music-
loving populace the most stirring and beautiful melodies
were derived. These were remodelled into appropriate
MUSIC OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH 133
forms for the new purpose. The oldest hymn-books of the
Reformed Church (the Wittemherg and the Walther, both
of 1524) contain two folk-melodies, and numberless ex-
amples illustrate this natural appropriation of German
and even French popular songs by the new church.
These, because of their more familiar form, rhythm, and
melody, supplied the Lutherans with material more con-
genial and better suited to the use of the congregation,
in unison song, than the style of Roman ecclesiastic mu-
sic could ever have become.
^ nee ju^-y^ ^ ^ '***' '"'i^*^*'
77a* t%-Ai:^ QctC vui£f,'cla4 a'sMX »-C IC^ ■ <^«-»-«.4l*>». Q^^
From a long list of more or less musically gifted men
who contributed original chorale melodies to the new
church service during the first half of the sixteenth cen-
tury, the most important were Hans Kugelmann, Philip
Melanchthon, Hermann Finck, and Nikolaus Hermann.
Of greater significance in music history, however, was
the activity which almost immediately began among the
more learned musicians, in applying their scholarship to
the elaboration of these church melodies. The first to
136 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
supply the chorales with more artistic harmonisation and
contrapuntal adornment was Johann Walther, a faith-
ful ally of Luther in his ambition to reform the church
service. Walther was born in 1496 in Thuringia. In
1524 he is mentioned as Ph.D. and bass singer in the
choir of the Prince of Saxony. In this year, also, he
published the first monu-
ment of Protestant
music, the Geystliche
Gesangk Btichleyn (see p.
132), upon the perfec-
tion and enlargement of
which he spent the rest
of his life. He died in
1570.
Of far greater talent
and scholarship was Lud-
wig Senfl, born the latter
part of the fifteenth cen-
tury at Zurich, and at
one time pupil of Hein-
rich Isaak in Innsbruck. He died about 1555. Senfl
promoted the technic of rhythm very materially in his
contrapuntal treatment of the chorale. Georg Rhau
(1488-1548), noted not only as collector and publisher
but also as composer, issued, in 1544, one hundred and
twenty-three tunes for the schools (Gemeindeschulen)
which contained some of his own melodies.
These composers still followed the old custom of plac-
ing the melody proper in the tenor voice. It was soon
recognised that this location in an inner register not only
robbed the melody of its intended efi'ect, but added to
the diflSculty of appropriately simple harmonisation; and
it was, therefore, not long before the chorale-air gravitated
to the uppermost (soprano*) register where it properly
belonged. One of the most earnest advocates of this im-
* Soprano, from sopra, above.
LUDWIG SENFL
MUSIC OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH 137
portant innovation was Luke Osiander, who endeavoured
to give, in every direction, a more natural and appropri-
ate form to the choral service. His arrangements of
the chorale, therefore, all place the melody in the so-
prano, where the congregation could more readily re-
HANS LEO HASSLER
cognise it and more easily participate in its singing; his
harmonies are always simple, consisting chiefly of con-
sonant triads.
Another advocate of this more practical style was
Seth Calvisius (born in Thuringia, 1556; died as cantor
at the church of St. Thomas, in Leipsic, in 161 5). Of
greater distinction and scholarship was Hans Leo Hass-
ler, born at Nuremberg in 1564. At the age of twenty
he went to Venice to study with the elder Gabrieli. The
following year he returned to Augsburg. Hassler's cho-
rale elaborations are based upon the triads, but dissolved
in the separate voices into melodious tone lines of real
musical beauty and significance.
138 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
tJ:
i-^
^
^^
Probably the most popular of all the German masters
of the sixteenth century was Johannes Eccard, born in
1553; from 1 571 to 1574 pupil of Lasso in Munich; then
in Venice, 1578 in Augsburg, 1604 in Konigsburg, and
in 1609 in Berlin, where he died in 161 1. His chorale
work is distinguished for its clearness and dignity; in it
the intention of imparting distinctive character to the in-
dividual lines of the chorale begins to manifest itself in
a striking manner.
The first writer who undertook, with definite purpose, to
introduce the then newly cultivated florid Italian melodic
style into German music was Michael Praetorius, born
in 1 571 in Thuringia. He laboured in many directions to
promote the spread of the best style of church music.
Besides a very large number of compositions, he also
contributed to the literature of music, historic and the-
oretic. His most famous book is the Syntagma musicum,
a treasure of historic information and a theoretical trea-
tise of very great value. The following illustrates his
adoption of the florid style then in vogue in Italy, in the
presentation of a chorale:
MUSIC OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH 139
Other noteworthy advocates of this fusion of German
sturdiness with ItaHan grace and rhythmic Hfe were
Erhard Bodenschatz, Johann Cruger, and Melchior
Franck.
The immediate successor of Praetorius was Heinrich
Schiitz, the most gifted musical genius of his century
(born 1585) and the most eminent forerunner of Sebas-
tian Bach. Under the tuition
of that distinguished represen-
tative of the new ItaHan style,
Giovanni Gabrieli, Schiitz had
entered so fully into the spirit
of Italian music that he was
able to combine German choral
song and Italian florid melody
far more intimately and vitally
than Praetorius had done.
Two of his successors, Jo-
hann Hermann Schein and
Andreas Hammerschmidt,
seem to have been actuated by
a desire to restore the chorale
and its manipulation to a style of melodic and harmonic
presentation more in keeping with its original simplicity
and sternness.
It is evident that music owes to the Protestant church
service the development of the harmonic form of com-
position and of the chord conception of tone association,
so significant in the further advances and ultimate power
of the art. The Italians, both in their sacred and secu-
lar writings, had unquestionably made important and far-
reaching use of the compact harmonic method, but Ger-
many was, nevertheless, destined to become the nation
(and chiefly by its congregational manner of musical
worship in simple choral song) through which this most
pregnant and forcible mode of part-writing was to evolve
into a distinct phase of musical technic and music history.
JOHANN HERMANN SCHEIN
140 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
Up to this time the development of music as an art
was centred in and fostered by the church. But ecclesi-
astic influence and tribute had now reached their end,
and the scene of further action is shifted completel)^ from
the church to the people. Music ceased for a time al-
most altogether to be a sacred art and became essen-
tially and practically a secular art. With the freedom of
religious thought and the expansion of human enlighten-
ment in all directions, came new desires and new ten-
dencies, and these provided new means of expression for
themselves. Music shared this spirit of freedom and
began to be applied to its greater mission of reflecting
the broader human — not alone the religious — emotions
of the universal spirit of mankind.
CHAPTER XVII
RISE OF THE DRAMATIC STYLE OF MUSIC
ORATORIO AND OPERA IN ITALY
The drama and the instinct of dramatic representa-
tation are as old as humanit3^ Dramatic plays have
been a popular and an instructive means of amusement
in all ages. In Germany the open-air (outdoor) plays
constituted a popular recreation in the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries and were conducted and performed by
churchmen themselves for a time. The profession of
player was quite as distinct then as now. Thus arose
those Latin pla3^s, or dramas, called ludi or mysteria.
Later, songs were added to these in the native tongue
and emphasised by the crowd of spectators who joined
in their singing. The subject-matter of the sacred plays
or mj'steries was invariably biblical, and the occasions
of their performance were usually the chief holy days of
the Christian calendar — Christmas, Easter, Passion week,
and Whitsuntide — which the)" served to celebrate. The
musical portions were originally very unimportant; the
interspersed songs were sung by a chorus — the final one
usually b}" all present; the dialogue was either simply
spoken, or recited in the monotonous manner of the
church intonations.
In England, mysteries, miracle-plays, and moralities
were extant from the earliest days of Christian histor}^
down to the end of the fifteenth century; and they were
also very popular in France, Spain, and Italy. Many
French mysteries still exist which date back to the four-
teenth and some even to the eleventh century.
141
142 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
The nation that was destined first to impart a higher
and more definite artistic aim to these rude dramatic
presentations was Italy, especially as concerns the office
that music was to perform in them. After the biblical
drama had degenerated
and almost completely
disappeared, a kind of
dramatic masquerade or
play, of secular charac-
ter, and often of great
magnificence and pomp,
came into vogue in
Ferrara, Florence, and
Rome, and proved to be a
strong agency in awaken-
ing general mterest m the
more refined drama. The
first pla}^ of this kind
possessed of some real
merit is said to have
been a version of Orpheus,
by Politianus (end of the
fifteenth century). Its
chief factor was the
spoken dialogue, between
the different sections of
which choruses in motette
or madrigal form were introduced. Not the faintest idea
of a vocal solo or recitative yet existed, nor were they
known until the following century.
Shortly after this the sacred drama experienced a sort
of resurrection in Italy. A devout priest, Philip Neri
(born 1515), founded, about 1551, a hall of prayer at
Florence in which he and his followers assembled for
divine worship and meditation. In the course of the fol-
lowing seventeen years this circle had become so firmly
organised and had so increased in numbers and influ-
wrA%fm^^M-^^Pv<_o
yt-c, y»-«^/
i. J. J. r
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^Lx^ /6'.i^P'( J J ^ — 1 ^ J 1
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^ ^'.1
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^
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i^
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V-
w
s
-^-^^^^
w^.
' ^=^
6 b»Z '^ i'
What influence all of these tendencies toward more
vital dramatic and emotional expression necessarily ex-
erted upon the instrumental portions of the early opera
will be shown in Chapter XVIII. Peri's Eurydice was
accompanied by a clavicembalo (early form of the piano-
forte), a chitarrone (largest lute), a lira grande, and a
large lute — behind the scenes.
The musical dramas, produced in astonishing number,
were performed in difl^erent cities and became immensely
popular. In 1637 Venice already possessed a permanent
148
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
public theatre. Every composer of note devoted him-
self more or less earnestly to the novel style of compo-
sition, among whom the most significant were:
From 1635 to 1660, Claudio Monteverde, Benedetto
Ferrari, Francesco Cavalli, Marc Antonio Cesti.
(l) SCARLATTI, (2) TARTINI, (3) MARTINI, (4) LOCATELLI, (5) LANZETTI, (6) CAFARELLl's CAT
SINGING AN ITALIAN PARODY
From 1660 to 1680, Molinari, Giovanni Legrenzi, Gio-
vanni Freschi.
From 1680 to 1700, Francesco Righi, Giovanni Ruggieri,
Alessandro Stradella, Alessandro Scarlatti, Atillo Ariosti.
At about the same time that the Greek tragedy was
adopted for dramatic treatment, the comedy also began
to flourish. An Italian literar}^ authority names Vecchi's
Amfipaniasso as the first comic opera; it was per-
formed in 1594 at Modena and introduced the droll
characters of the popular farce, Pantalon, Harlequin,
Brigella.
One of the most eminent promoters of sacred dramatic
music was Giacomo Carissimi, of whose life less is known
than of his works. Carissimi was born 1604 at Marino,
THE DRAMATIC STYLE OF MUSIC 149
near Rome; he was chapelmaster in Apollinare church in
Rome; flourished in the years 1635-74, ^^'^ hved to a
ripe old age. His contemporaries speak of him as one of
the progressive spirits of the day. As far as is known,
he did not compose a single opera, but he nevertheless
contributed to the perfection of the dramatic form by
his significant achievements in the aria and recitative, in
a style of composition known as the chamber cantata.
This form was one of the first
results of the influences which
the development of the dramatic
style naturall}^ exerted upon the
older forms of composition.
Carissimi was a master of the
old-school counterpoint, but he
applied his skill and solidity of
technical treatment to the new
forms, and imparted to them
the necessary stability of struc-
ture and greater seriousness of
purpose. He it was who ex-
tended and defined the essen-
tial outlines of the melodic de-
signs, either as solo-aria or duet, for all time, by moulding
them according to the forms of popular song — in rounded
phrases and periods, with distinct cadential limits, and
the "recurrences," which were not only a recognised ele-
ment of perspicuous design in the lays of the minnesingers,
but constitute the vital basis of musical form throughout
the classic period to our own day. One of Carissimi's
most famous followers In the sacred dramatic forms was
Alessandro Stradella (1645-81), a composer and singer of
great popularity.
The most brilliant period of old Italian opera was in-
augurated by Alessandro Scarlatti (the elder, father of the
still more famous Domenico Scarlatti). He lived about
1659-1725, a native of Naples and a pupil of Carissimi.
ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI
150 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
His first opera, Vonesta negVamore, was produced at
Rome. He returned to Naples as chapelmaster, where
he spent the remainder of a Hfe of almost incredible ver-
satility and wide-spread artistic usefulness.
Scarlatti, the elder, was the tutor of "half of Italy and
Germany," and as singer and vocal teacher he is regarded
as the founder of modern dramatic vocalism, just as Ca-
rissimi was of the cham-
ber aria and sacred aria.
The arias of Scarlatti are
firmly moulded in the
form of two parts (sec-
tions) with a third as da
capo. His overtures were
distinguished from those
of French composers in
consisting of a grave
(slow) movement be-
tween two allegro sec-
tions — a design known
as the Italian overture.
From the birth of
Philip Neri (1515) to the
death of Claudio Mon-
teverde (1643) the dra-
matic element in music
evolved to a truly re-
markable degree. It was
developed in the works of Carissimi and applied in the
early Italian operas of Alessandro Scarlatti. The advent
of the two important forms, opera and oratorio, occurred
at a time of great activity in Italy:
Michael Angelo laboured for fifty years as sculptor,
painter, architect, and poet. Leonardo da Vinci died in
1 5 19 and Correggio in 1534. The Council of Trent met in
1545 and remained officially active until 1563; one of its
most notable achievements was the purification of church
DOMENICO SCARLATTI
THE DRAMATIC STYLE OF MUSIC 151
music by prohibiting the use of secular melodies as cantus
firmus. (See Chapter XV.)
Contemporaneous with these activities were the early
colonisations on the continent of America. De Soto dis-
covered the Mississippi in 1539. St. Augustine, the old-
est town in the United States, was founded by Menen-
dez and his followers in 1565. Champlain, "a gentleman
of France," founded the city of Quebec in Canada in
1608. The following year, Hudson sailed up the river
that now bears his name.
A few years earlier, 1603, James I issued letters patent
to the Virginia Company, and in 1607 Jamestown (Vir-
ginia) was settled. The Mayflower brought the Puritans
(Independents) to what became Plymouth in 1620. In
1636 Harvard College was founded.
15 15. Philip Neri.
1568. Monteverde born.
1570. Vincenzo Galilei (monody).
1519. DeathofLeonardodaVinci.
1534. Death of Correggio.
1539. De Soto discovered the
Mississippi.
1545. Council of Trent.
1564. Michael Angelo died.
1565. St. Augustine (Florida)
founded.
1590. Dramatic music by Cava-
lieri.
1594. Peri's Daphne.
1597- First Italian opera at Ven-
ice.
1600.
Peri's Eurydice.
1603.
1604.
Carissimi born.
1607.
Monteverde's Orpheus.
1607.
1608.
1620.
1636.
1643.
Death of Monteverde.
1643.
1659.
Alessandro Scarlatti born.
The Virginia Company.
Jamestown, (Virginia) set-
tled.
Quebec founded.
The Plymouth Colony.
Harvard College founded.
The New Haven Colony.
CHAPTER XVIII
EARLY ERA OF ORATORIO IN GERMANY
The same spirit of dramatic expression was active in
Germany, and especially in the sacred forms, even more
vigorously and effectively than in Italy. Sacred plays
(Passion plays and mysteria) were more common and
popular in Germany than in the centre of Catholic influ-
ence and at a much earlier date. At the end of the fif-
teenth century they had attained such dimensions as to
extend over several successive days. The number of per-
sons engaged also increased in proportion; in 1498 a play
was given in Frankfort with two hundred and sixty-five
actors.
That the German folk-song should play a significant
part in these productions is self-evident; and the fact
that German composers always adhered firmly to the
form and style of the people's song, adopting it as the
melodic and structural basis for their arias, is the prin-
cipal explanation of the enormous popularity which the
dramatic forms achieved in this nation.
In Germany far greater interest was manifested in the
sacred dramatic forms, oratorio and sacred concerto,
than in the opera. As early as the middle of the six-
teenth century it was the rule for every composer to
write a musical setting of the Passion. One of the most
celebrated works of this character was a so-called Actu
Oratorio, composed by Melchior Franck and first per-
formed at Coburg in 1630. It was a mixture of Latin
152
ERA OF ORATORIO IN GERMANY 153
sacred text and free poetical intermezzi, designed both to
entertain and edify the hearer. This remarkable work
testifies to the sharp distinction between the two prin-
cipal dramatic styles, oratorio and opera, which was rec-
ognised and maintained from the start. The following
terzetto from the Actu Oratorio gives an impression of
the progress already made in free and appropriate musi-
cal expression. It is a hymn of consolation brought by
three angels in a dream to Prince Gottfried:
\. ^
(\ r rr r
^
^^^
zizS.
'/>A/vg>-A-<,-o--^
dt4/LC^ , e-ce-.
wj, y-^ I ji- r^i I 1
r.yrrujrj^j- bri n 4
\i\\\hV'-^ 1
^
-^ i '^--^'n w.... '^^"-'^^
j^i-%
'H'.
^s
iLU-olvh n lilJJ ru^ V V
i^i^^ --il^j' l-i ) J^ iII?l|iTli ^ ^
p> IJ lJ^ - I
^ n^ ^
g
Partly as contemporaries and partly as successors of
Schiitz, several other gifted composers appear, whose la-
bours in the sacred dramatic forms were of historic sig-
ERA OF ORATORIO IN GERMANY 157
nificance. Some of these have already been mentioned;
Johann Hermann Schein, noted for his elaboration of the
chorale in the new Italian style; Johann Rosenmiiller
(died 1686); Johann Rudolf Ahle (1625-73), and his son,
Johannes Georg Ahle (1650-1706).
The two Ahles are considered as the two direct pred-
ecessors of the great Johann Sebastian Bach and were
justly noted for their suc-
cess in unifying the artis-
tic styles of both sacred
and secular composition.
Typical specimens of the
new aria form are found
in the writings of the
younger Ahle, whose Sea-
sons was very popular
and famous.
Further, Wolfgang Carl
Briegel (born 1626), in
whose oratorios the ex-
periments of earlier
writers begin to assume
a certain degree of effec-
tiveness and permanency;
and Johann Sebastian!
(born 1622), a composer
of graceful melodies,
whose Passion work is probably the first in which the
new concerted style with instrumental accompaniment
and interspersed verses of song was adopted. (The in-
strumental accompaniment in this work consisted of two
violins, four violas, the bassus continuus — -probably for
bass lute — organ, lutes, theorbos, violas da gamba, and
violas da braccio.)
In the year 1644 a curious work appeared, in the nature
of a singspiel (vaudeville or play with songs), which illus-
trates the influence of the spirit of popular song, whose
ANGEL WITH LUTE
(albrecht durer)
158 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
significance throughout all musical tendencies in Ger-
many has been pointed out. This play was called "Sa-
cred Forest-ode, or recreation, entitled Seel-ezvig; the tunes
composed in the Itahan manner by Sigismund Gottlieb
Staden."
Seel-ezvig (immortal soul) was the name of the title
role and represented a nymph. Eight characters ap-
peared as nymphs, shepherds, shepherdesses, the spirit
of the forest, and figured in a series of partl}^ allegorical
and partly real episodes,
wherein Seel-ewig is be-
set with divers tempta-
tions from which she is
successively rescued and
fmally redeemed in tri-
umph. The accompani-
ment included three
violins, three flutes,
three shawns (may-
flutes), a rude horn, and
a theorbo for the con-
tinuous bass.
All these eff'orts to
cultivate the dramatic
style obtained a more
definite aim and sup-
port in Germany upon the establishment of permanent
theatres. The first of these was organised at Hamburg
in 1678 and was opened with a performance of a singspiel
called The Created, Fallen, and Redeemed Man. The music
was by Johann Theile, a pupil of Schiitz. The libretto
provided for recitatives, arias in strict metre, duets, and
choruses. The accompaniment was played by a spinet,
bass viol, and bandora; and this body of players was em-
ployed not only as accompaniment to the vocal parts, but
also, as expressly specified, "now and then the viols may
be heard alone, to give the singers a chance to breathe."
SIGIS^lUNDUS THEOPHILUS STADEN
ERA OF ORATORIO IN GERMANY 159
Dramatic music in Germany, both as evidenced by the
secular (opera) and sacred (oratorio) forms, enjoyed a
flourishing period during the entire seventeenth century.
Tendencies in the development of the art were so directed
that in the lifetime of Schiitz (i 585-1672) both these
great forms were established in Germany as they were
similarly established in Italy under the followers of Neri.
The period was one of immense intellectual activity
throughout Europe. Copernicus had a century before
corrected the error of the Ptolemaic system. His bril-
liant follower, Galileo (i 564-1642), worked contempo-
raneously with the composers of the early schools of opera
and oratorio. Descartes and Spinoza were eminent phi-
losophers. The early mystery and morality plays in
England had given place to the works of Shakespeare.
The Puritan age in English letters was rich in a new
order of literature. In 1653 Izaak Walton's Complete
Angler appeared; in the same period Jeremy Taylor's
Holy Living and Holy Dying was written — a book that is
said to have been read by every humble cottager. Like-
wise, in this period were written the plays of the two
great collaborators Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher.
John Milton died in 1674, ^wo years after the death of
Schiitz. Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan (1628-88),
the greatest of all allegories, "stole silently into the
world."
CHAPTER XIX
DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDEPENDENT
INSTRUMENTAL STYLE
THE ORGAN
In the more modern periods of musical history there is
a pronounced preference manifested for the instrumental
style of composition. So complete is the change in atti-
tude and conception, and in the supremacy of the latter
class over the vocal style, that their relations to one an-
other have become exactly the reverse of what they were
originally. Instrumental music is commonly distinguished
as absolute music because no external auxiliaries such
as text, dramatic presentation, scenic illustration, and
the like are employed to heighten the musical effect.
Instrumental music depends exclusively upon the elemen-
tal power of tone abstracted from all other elements of
attractiveness; upon the force of formal symmetry and
proportion; the ever-varying interaction of impressions
that are of a purely musical nature. It lies, therefore,
in the nature of things that this refined and genuine
phase of tone expression, this last and most perfect prod-
uct of artistic evolution, should have been reserved for
that advanced period of art history when the conscious-
ness of its capacity should have reached a higher degree
of maturity.
At first it was natural for human beings to restrict
themselves to the use of the instrument which Nature
herself provides — the human voice. The superior rank of
this, and of the vocal style identified with its specific
qualities and resources, was almost wholly uncontested
1 60
INDEPENDENT INSTRUMENTAL STYLE i6i
until as late as the middle of the sixteenth century. We
have seen that the strolling players and minstrels ac-
companied their vocal lays upon some rude instrument —
the vielle, bagpipe, or lute; and in the church, the organ,
clarion, and trombone were used at an early period for
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY
DESIGNED IN ISI2
the support of the vocal choir. But the instruments
served no other purpose than this; nothing more was
assigned to them than the duplication of the vocal parts;
not before the sixteenth century is there any trace of a
strictly independent instrumental conception and appli-
i62 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
cation of music to be found. The earliest compositions
of this character in which the instruments were used alone
were but little or nothing more than an exact transcrip-
tion of songs and other vocal pieces for the vielle, hurdy-
gurdy, lute, or harp.
A "BOOK" ORGAN
The first collection of printed instrumental pieces ap-
peared in 1507-08 in Venice and consisted in four books
of lute pieces, chiefly dances.
c^cJf^ cL> .r/^^o..>^H^ J^ t^ ^-^ ^^^'='^)
3^
nilUi^i
*
^
^
m
ft
1
u.
:^=^
5
5
The next appears to have been issued in 1529 at Paris.
These pieces were also for the lute and probably differed
INDEPENDENT INSTRUMENTAL STYLE 163
very slightly from similar vocal compositions in the
usual contrapuntal style of the time. In 1589 a collec-
tion of compositions w^as published at Rome, each num-
ber in a threefold arrangement — for three vocal parts,
for cembalo, and for the lute.
With the exception of dances, a few organ pieces, and
such transcriptions as the above, no compositions that
From a manuscript Psalter, National Library, Paris.
FOURTEENTH-CENTURY ORGAN
were written expressly for instruments (without reference
to vocal models) appear until the last quarter of the six-
teenth century. But thereafter instrumental music made
rapid advances and soon became of equal importance
and popularity with the vocal style.
Among the numerous but still very imperfect instru-
ments of early days the organ assumed the most im-
portant rank. Of its ancestry it suffices to say that it
originated in the hydraulos, or "water-organ," popular
with the Greeks and Romans. The word organum sig-
nifies "instrument" in general.
Organs were introduced into the Catholic Church about
164
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
the eighth century; in England as early as the seventh;
in France not until the eleventh. In Germany organ-
building became an important branch of industry at the
end of the ninth century, and in the tenth there were
already organs of considerable magnitude in Erfurt, Mu-
nich, Magdeburg, and Halberstadt. The hydraulic or-
EARLY PORTATIVE ORGAN
gans were superseded at about this time by those in
which a number of alternating bellows produced a stead-
ier wind-pressure. The pipes were placed originally in a
single row; then other rows were added; and after a while
the front or principal row was separated from the back
rows and a different keyboard used for each. This also
gave rise in time to the row of keys for the feet (about
the fifteenth century), called pedals in distinction to the
manuals for the hands.
In the fifteenth century experiments were ventured in
the imitation of other instruments, and the organ soon
INDEPENDENT INSTRUMENTAL STYLE 165
comprised flute, trumpet, and other stops or registers.
An important improvement was made in the invention
of reed-pipes, whereby it became possible to obtain greater
variety and to simulate other instruments more closely.
Most significant of all were the adoption of a uniform
standard pitch, and the equahsed temperament (men-
ORGAN OF THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
tioned in connection with Zarlino, and the incentive to the
Well-Tempered Clavichord of Bach, who was an earnest
supporter of the innovation).
At first the organist limited himself to the mere dupli-
cation of the vocal cantus intonated by priest or choir;
later he probably added a discantus of his own or played
all the vocal parts. As the mechanism of the instrument
was improved the resources of the organist increased,
and his technical skill kept pace necessarily with these,
until it was no mean accomplishment to be an organist,
even in the earlier days of the great contrapuntal schools.
i66 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
The advances seem to have been most rapid in the
Netherlands and Germany, where organists surpassed
those of Italy, notwithstanding the high esteem in which
the latter were held as late as the seventeenth century.
The oldest organ composi-
tions which have been pre-
served are said to be the
works of a German, Conrad
Paumann (born blind at
Nuremberg; lived in the
fifteenth century).
In Italy organ playing
flourished most vigorously in
Rome and Venice. Next to
the two Gabrielis, Claudio
Merulo of Correggio (1533-
1604) is regarded as one of
the most noted organists of
GiROLAMO FRESLuiiALDi ^}'^ ^^^e. He gave a lively
impetus to the technic of
the organ and also to the styles of composition for the
instrument; he was probably the first to give definite
form to the toccata.
Another eminent Italian organist was Girolamo Fres-
cobaldi. This so-called "father of the true art of organ
playing" was born about 1583 at Ferrara, died 1644.
He is known in history as the most skilful and gifted
organist of this era, and is said to have been followed
from city to city by those who admired his playing. The
following is a specimen of his style of composition — a
toccata, in which are recognised the sturdy, massive
chord effects, and also the florid, figurated style, both of
which are obviously derived directly from and dictated
by the vocal practices of the time:
INDEPENDENT INSTRUMENTAL STYLE 167
Toccata.
-^V M T i
ffi
# ^
^ ^ i ^
"' 1 .1
i V
^
m
J>.e^ e-try-o-^^^Cc
Frescobaldi's most noted successor in Italy was Ber-
nardo Pasquini (163 7- 171 o).
The debt which all musical Europe owed to the Neth-
erland school has been repeatedly demonstrated, in con-
nection with vocal music, chiefly within the church. But
the influence of the Dutch masters, in providing a funda-
ment for future structural growth, is evident also in the
advancement of instrumental music. Both Italian and
German organists derived nourishment from this source.
Frescobaldi himself laid the foundation of his mastership
in Flanders, where, at that time, "organ playing attained
eminent standing. Flanders, Holland, and Brabant gave
many fine organists to the world, and were, so to speak,
the nursery of this class of musicians,"
A large number of celebrated German musicians re-
ceived their organ training directly from an eminent Am-
i68
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
sterdam master, Jan Pieters Sweelinck (himself a pupil
of Zarlino). Foremost among these was Samuel Scheldt,
one of the earliest to promote the art of organ playing.
Scheldt was born at Halle in 1 587, and was, therefore, very
nearly contemporaneous with Frescobaldi and with Hein-
rich Schiitz. He was famous for his treatment of the
chorale, which was far more animated and elaborate than
that of earlier writers, and he aimed at the greatest pos-
sible richness of harmony and accuracy of expression.
Another eminent German organist and composer, Jo-
hann Jacob Froberger (born at Halle in 1605; died 1667),
was a pupil of Frescobaldi. He is noted for his achieve-
ments in the fugue form, rescuing it from neglect and
imparting vitality to it (modernising it, from the stand-
point of his day). The fundamental details of the fugue
were still more firmly established and the character of
this important instrumental form more definitely devel-
oped by a German organist of fame, Johann Pachelbel
(born at Nuremberg in 1653; died 1706 as organist of the
St, Sebaldus church in that city). In his works, full of
originality and alert imagination, the fetters of the old
ecclesiastic mode are broken and the two universal modes,
major and minor, assert themselves as the only natural
and legitimate tonalities. The subjects of Pachelbel's
fugues are of a distinctly instrumental character and
indicate an advance in the freedom and richness of mu-
sical conception. Thus:
-m^lxaj'i
INDEPENDENT INSTRUMENTAL STYLE 169
Two other German organists of this period are worthy
of mention: Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) and Nicolas
Bruhns (1666-97), both of whom made valuable con-
tributions to the organ literature of the seventeenth cen-
tury. To our modern ears these works sound dry and
are not calculated to hold the interest, but it is easy to
understand the admiration they excited in their day as
models of symmetry, animation, and originality.
CHAPTER XX
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
THE CLAVICHORD, HARPSICHORD, AND OTHER KEYBOARD
INSTRUMENTS
Of no less significance and far greater popularity than
the organ were the clavichord and the virginal, the two
chief varieties of stringed instruments with a manual or
keyboard, the forerunners of the pianoforte. The two
were distinguished to some slight extent in outward con-
struction, but chiefly in the manner of tone production.
In the clavichord the strings were struck from below by
flat, metal pegs, called tangents, inserted at the farther
end of the wooden strips or levers whose front end formed
the keys of the manual. In the square virginal (also
called spinet) and in the triangular-shaped harpsichord
(clavicymbal, cembalo, French clavecin) the strings were
snapped by short, thin points of quill driven into the
side of the wooden lever. From this quill (Latin spina)
the name spinet was derived. The virginal was a trifle
smaller than the spinet.
These instruments, being smaller and more easily con-
structed than the organ, and simpler in their manipula-
tion, served the purposes of entertainment and instruction
far better than the latter, and were, therefore, naturally
calculated to become more popular. The organ kept its
place exclusively in the church, while the clavichord and
spinet found their proper abode in the home.
Who the inventor of these instruments was will never
be known. It is certain that their earliest forms date no
farther back than the fourteenth century. The virginal
170
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
171
From the Weimar "Wunderbuch."
PRIMITIVE SPINET, ABOUT 1440
From the Weimar "Wunderbuch."
A CLAVICHORD, 1440
172 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
is first mentioned in 151 1. The embryonic forms of the
stringed instrument with keyboard may be recognised in
two ancient mechanisms: the monochord, from which the
clavichord family proceeded, and the antique psalter, the
remote progenitor of the harpsichord and spinet.
ITALIAN SPINET
The monochord, used in its primary form by the Greeks,
was not a musical but a mechanical device consisting, as
the name implies, of one string, divisible by means of a
movable bridge (somewhat like the strings of a violin,
altered in length by the moving finger of the player).
To obviate the inconvenient shifting of the bridge, a set
of keys (claves) was attached, with metal pegs, which,
striking the string in different places, produced the corre-
sponding tones. In the subsequent clavichord, the num-
ber of strings was increased, but one string still served
for two or more tones by being thus struck at different
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
173
points. The transition from the monochord to the clavi-
chord is represented by the dulcimer, a very old instrument
of German origin. It consisted of several metal strings,
stretched over a long wooden box, tuned by means of
DULCIMER
pegs, and struck with diminutive mallets of wood or felt,
manipulated by the hand and dropped upon the strings
from above.
The combination of these two gave rise, about 1500, to
the clavichord. The strings, usually of brass wire, were
stretched over the surface of a sounding board or box,
and gave forth their tone by being struck with the thin
metal tangent at the end of the wooden rod extending to
174 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
the kej'board. The tone was dehcate and characteristic
enough to give birth to a specific style of instrumental
music. The first instrument of this kind in which there
was a separate string
for each key, is said
to have been con-
structed in 1725 by
Daniel Faber, an
organist at Crailsheim
in Wiirttemberg.
At first the clavi-
chord had twenty
keys, with a compass
of two and a half oc-
taves; all of the keys
were white except B
flat, which was black;
later the number of
keys was increased to
twenty-two, and,
upon the addition of
the chromatic tones,
to thirtj^-eight. About
1600 it had a compass
of about four octaves;
the lower keys were
then black, the upper
ones white; it had, as
a rule, no legs, but was
placed upon a table.
As to the other family, the harpsichord and spinet, it
had, like the ancient psalter, a separate string for each
tone, of proportionate length. The tone of the psalter
was produced by means of a brass or ivory plectrum in
the player's hand, with which the strings were struck or
snapped. This instrument developed also about the year
1500 into the harpsichord (clavicymbal, virginal or spinet)
UPRIGHT HARPSICHORD
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
175
by substituting a set of quill points for the plectrum.
The approximately triangular form of the psalter was
retained, at least in the clavicymbal and harpsichord,
which had the appearance of a small harp laid upon its
side. The virginal and spinet were nearly or quite rec-
tangular.
In every outward respect, the instruments of both
classes were practically alike; they differed (i), as has
been seen, in the mode of producing the tone; (2) while
the clavichord was single-strung, the virginal was often
double or triple strung (z. ^,, in "choirs," more than one
string for the same tone); (3) the harpsichord often had
two banks of keys, one above the other, as on the organ,
and a sort of damper, shifted by hand.
II
(With movable
MONOCHORD
PSALTER
(With metal or
bridge or
ivory plec-
with keys.)
trums in the
hand.)
I
Square
2
Triangular
(With felt ham-
Hackbrett (Ger.).
Spinett (Ger.)
. Harpsichord.
(Snapped with
mers, struck
Dulcimer.
Spinette (Fr.)
. Clavicymbal
quill points
by hand
(Ger.).
from key-
from above.)
Psalter (modern).
Virginal
Clavicymbalum.
board.)
(Eng.).
Spinetto (It.)
Clavicembalo
(It.) or
Buonaccordo
Cembalo.
(It.).
(With metal
Clavichord.
Clavecin (Fr.).
pegs from be-
low, with key-
board.)
(With felt ham-
Klavier (Ger.).
Forte-piano,
Piano-e-forte, Pianoforte, Grand
mers from
piano, Fliigel (Ger.), Pianino or
Upright.
below, with
keyboard.)
Of the remarkably large number of experimental varie-
ties of keyboard instruments invented in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries as fancied improvements upon
the clavichord and harpsichord, none was to prove of
176 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
lasting value until the attempt was made by Bartolommeo
Cristofori, of Padua, in 171 1, to devise a means of modi-
fying the tone, and in a sense combining the advantages
of both classes. The instrument he made was most closely
CRISTOFORI PIANO
related to the clavichord, as the strings were struck from
below, not by metal tangents, however, but by small felt
hammers. The tone which was thus produced proved to
be susceptible of considerable modification; it could be
made long or short {legato or staccato), and either loud or
soft. For the latter reason, which was considered the
most significant, the new instrument was called forte-e-
piano (loud and soft) or forte-piano, and later, pianoforte,
which novel designation it has ever since retained.
It is natural that the development of any style of
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC 177
music must go hand in hand with the technical and me-
chanical perfection of the instrument for which it is de-
signed. The methods of execution upon these keyboard
instruments, especially as concerns the fingering, were so
singularly awkward and clumsy that one wonders how it
was possible to obtain an}^ satisfactory results with them.
At first only the three middle fingers were used; the
thumb and little finger but rarely; and this most unnat-
ural and apparently needless restriction was tolerated for
a full century. As late as 1735 the famous player and
composer, Mattheson, fingered the C major scale in a
manner which would seem to us to preclude all progress.
He magnanimously admits, however, that "you will find
almost as many different methods of so-called fingering
{applicatur) as there are players. Some run with four
fingers, others with five, while others, again, get along
almost as briskly with only two. Nor is this of any
consequence as long as one adopts some definite system
and adheres to it."
In his famous pianoforte method {Versuche iiber die
wahre Art, das Klavier zu spielen, 1759), Philipp Emanuel
Bach says: " As our ancestors very seldom made any use
of the thumb, it was usually in their way; consequently
they often had too many fingers. Nowada3's we are
sometimes conscious of having too few, notwithstanding
the more rational use of them in our present style of
music. I have often heard m}^ deceased father [the
great Johann Sebastian Bach] say that he had fre-
quently seen great players in his youth who never used
the thumb except in wide stretches, where it was unavoid-
able." Couperin, in his equally famous method (L'art
de toucher le Clavecin, 1716), already taught a more gen-
eral use of all five fingers. It was the elder Bach, how-
ever, who appears to have first advocated the cultivation
and employment of all five fingers equally. Of this, his
Well-Tempered Clavichord and other works bear unques-
tionable testimony.
178 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
All this affords the reader a gUmpse of the array of
obstacles which the art had to overcome, and increases
his appreciation not only of our present pianoforte style
but of the esteem due to the admirable compositions of
earlier days, conceived and executed under such limita-
tions as were imposed by the crudeness both of the
theory and the mechanical vehicles of musical expression.
The tone of all these instruments was, as intimated,
delicate, though possessed of a certain keenness and pene-
tration and of very brief resonance. The so-called mani-
eres, or embellishments (grace-notes), were doubtless often
introduced chiefly for the purpose of prolonging the res-
onance of certain tones of the melody — though, of course,
they also partly originated in the imitation of the orna-
ments (coloratures) so common and essential in vocal
arias.
CHAPTER XXI
CULTIVATION OF THE CLAVICHORD STYLE
OTHER INSTRUMENTS. THE PRIMARY ORCHESTRA
In the art of clavichord playing and composition, the
French and ItaHans kept up an even contest for suprem-
acy for a long time. France possessed the greater num-
ber of distinguished clavichordists, while Italy continued
to produce the best singers and violinists.
In France three masters appeared at an early date
who laboured with marked success in establishing a dis-
tinct clavichord style: Denis Gaultier (about 1605);
Georg Mufifat (from the middle of the seventeenth cen-
tury until 1704); and Franfois Couperin (born in Paris
in 1668; died 1733).
The most popular instrumental forms of the time,
created by these and other writers in all countries, were
the toccata, ricercar, fugue, fantasie, capriccio, aria (not
vocal) with or without so-called doubles (variations), and,
more especially, the numerous forms of the dance (alle-
mande, bourree, chaconne, courante, gavotte, gigue, me-
nuet, passacagha, pavane, passepied, polonaise, rigaudon,
sarabande, etc.), which were commonly published col-
lectively under the title of suite.
The suite was probably of French origin, dating from
the middle of the seventeenth century. It often con-
tained, besides the dances, other more scholastic forms of
composition, such as the prelude, fugue, rondeau, scherzo,
etc. In Italy the term partita was often applied to it,
and also the designation sonata da camera in distinction to
179
i8o ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
the sacred concerto known as sonata da chiese. (Neither
of these should be confounded with the modern sonata,
though the relation is apparent.) The sonata (from
sonus, sound; signifying a "structure of sounds," and
thus distinguished from the vocal cantata, from cantare^
to sing) appears to have been originally, at a very early
date, also a vocal composition allied to the motette. Later
on it was a brief instrumental introduction to larger vocal
forms (in which case it also bore the name sinfonia).
In its present modern col-
lective form of three or four
movements, the sonata was
derived in some degree from
the suite, which it partly suc-
ceeded and eventually super-
seded; but it does appear
contemporaneously with the
suite, as a composition in one
movement. This sonata in
one movement was the most
perfect and scholarly form of
this whole early instrumental
era, as it is to-day, with its
orchestral counterpart (the
symphony), the most distinguished of all the forms of
absolute music. Its most eminent promoter was Domenico
Scarlatti (the younger), who gave it those fundamental
structural traits which, with some important modifica-
tions, form the ground-plan of the modern sonata-
allegro.
The earliest suites consisted usually of dances, but the
name suite (and also partita) was also given to a series
of variations of a small dance in period form, like the
chaconne and passacaglia. The suite was most popular
in France, while in Italy preference was given to the
sonata and partita. The instrumental styles of these
two countries differed so essentially in the eighteenth
FRANCOIS COUPERIN
THE CLAVICHORD STYLE
i«i
century that the terms French style and Italian style
were common and decidedly distinctive.
Of the numerous works of Fran9ois Couperin, one of
the most prominent figures in French musical history in
the early part of the eighteenth century, the Pieces de
Clavecin are the most remarkable. They consist chiefly
of the dances in vogue at that time, but contain also
pieces of a more general character, conspicuous among
which is the rondeau (rondo). This latter was then the
most popular instrumental form and was based upon the
idea of alternation — the alternation of a principal period
with one or more subordinate periods; thus it embodied
the fundamental condition of instrumental music, the
clarity and effectiveness of which are dependent upon
just such thematic oppositions and confirmations as the
rondo (and also the sonata) affords. The following ron-
deau illustrates Couperin's style:
rsr
te
i--ii^Ji r
m
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A. CO
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i82 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
Couperin's historic successor was Jean Philippe Rameau
(born, 1683, at Dijon; died, 1764, at Paris). Rameau was
the first to publish a theoretical work in the sense of the
modern text-book on harmony; it was entitled Trea-
tise on Harmony, Reduced to Its Natural Principles. It
appeared in 1722 (about the same time that Bach's Well-
Tempered Clavichord Wcis published in Germany), and was
the first example in history of an attempt to present a
system of harmony or
chord combination in
the form of a well-
grounded and carefully
investigated theory.
Prior to this the theory
of composition was
taught under the name
of counterpoint, but
thereafter these two
phases of theory were
always separately taught
and applied. Rameau's
J. PH. RAMEAU method, though experi-
mental, was the basis
for all subsequent treatises for nearly one hundred and
fifty years, and many of his deductions and rules are still
recognised as fundamentally valid. Rameau's clavichord
pieces were extremely popular, and he was also actively
engaged in operatic composition.
In Italy, Girolamo Frescobaldi was followed by the
two Scarlattis, Alessandro and his son Domenico. By
far the more eminent in the history of music in general,
and clavichord composition particularly, was the younger,
Domenico Scarlatti, who is justly regarded as the most
distinguished clavicymbalist (and also organist), both as
composer and player, of this era. He was born in 1683
(two years before Bach and Handel) in Naples; he lived
for a time in Lisbon and Madrid, returned in 1725 to
THE CLAVICHORD STYLE
183
his native country, and died in 1757 (one year after the
birth of Mozart).
It is scarcely possible to overestimate the influence ex-
erted by Domenico Scarlatti upon the advance of musical
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art, especially that of instrumental or absolute music.
Many of his pieces for the clavichord are still considered
admirable, and in originality, purity of style, and beauty
of detail they rank with the best that the art produced
i84 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
during the first half of the eighteenth century. To his
great contemporaries, Bach and Handel, he was inferior
only in breadth and versatility of genius.
In England instrumental music was also an object of
serious and wide-spread cultivation. The most promi-
nent composers were Thomas Tallis (died 1585), his pupil
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William Byrd (died 1623), Giles Farnaby, Thomas Morley
(died 1604), John Bull, Orlando Gibbons (i 583-1625),
and Pelham Humphrey (1647-74) — all musicians of skill
and scholarship, though it cannot be asserted that their
contributions to instrumental literature were of striking
originality or lasting worth. They devoted their atten-
tion mainly to dances, in the French style, and to pop-
ular pieces. The greatest native English composer was
Henry Purcell (1658-95), a genius of real power of whom
more will be said in connection with the opera.
THE CLAVICHORD STYLE
185
In no countr}" was the growth of instrumental music
more rapid and vigorous than in Germany. One of the
earhest clavichord composers of this country, was Johann
Kuhnau. This original and masterly writer (born 1667;
died 1722 — ten years before the birth of Haydn), was
Bach's predecessor as cantor and organist of St. Thomas's
school in Leipsic. One of
Kuhnau's most interesting
creations was a collection of
six Biblical Histories, with
additional explanatory
notes, in the form of sonatas
for the clavichord, pub-
lished in 1700. Each one of
the six is accompanied b}'
a so-called programme de-
scribing the music and its
illustrative purpose; for ex-
ample, No. 2 bears the su-
perscription: Saul, cured of
his disorder by the music of
David. The sonata represented (i) Saul's depression and
foolishness; (2) David's exhilarating harp playing; (3)
the kmg's pacified spirit.
This is another illustration of the apparent instinctive
inclination among music lovers to recognise descriptive
qualities in music — even when instrumental — and to em-
ploy it in the suggestion and direct illustration of physi-
cal and emotional movements. The error committed by
many of these older writers appears to be that they car-
ried the idea to what impresses us as an absurd extreme.
The practice was very common, and many compositions
received descriptive titles sometimes both absurd and inap-
propriate. This is seen in the writings of Rameau, Cou-
perin, English composers, and even the great Bach; and
the custom has not yet wholly died out — in fact, in recent
times it appears to have been revived, but in a far more
JOHANN KUHNAU
i86 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
artistic and serious fashion, in the tone-poems of Liszt
and others.
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Theophile Muffat (son of Georg MufFat and pupil of
Joseph Fux) was more distinctively German than his
father, who is usually assigned to the French school.
Theophile was born in Vienna and hved during the first
half of the eighteenth century. Another very popular
clavichord composer was Johann Mattheson (1681-1764),
who will be considered later.
As to the other musical instruments which were used
THE CLAVICHORD STYLE 187
partly for solo performance but chiefly as accompani-
ment, and out of the combination of which the complete
orchestra was ultimately to emerge, it suffices to say that
each separate instrument (of brass, or wood, or with
strings) became the object of mechanical investigation
and improvement until it reached its highest grade of
technical structure and efficiency. As far as popularity
and general usefulness are concerned, the lute assumed,
no doubt, the foremost rank during the early centuries
of musical practice. But it was not calculated to serve
artistic purposes, and, although constructed in a wide
variety of forms and sizes and used a great deal by
early instrumental composers, and in accompaniments,
the lute was never considered worthy of a place in the
later orchestra and has, therefore, become almost ob-
solete.
The instrument that proved its artistic superiority and
adaptability was the violin. This attained a degree of
perfection at Cremona, in Italy (in the period from 1600
to 1745), never since quite equalled, through the persis-
tent and skilful efforts of the Amatis, Guarneris, and
Antonio Stradivari.
The greatest violin players and composers were Giu-
seppe Torelli (died 1708), Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713),
Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770), and, later, Giovanni Battista
Viotti (1753-1824).
The family of stringed instruments played with bow —
the violin, viola (da braccia), violoncello, and contrabass
— constituted then, as now, the fundament of the orches-
tra, to complete which it was only necessary to add the
wind instruments of wood and of brass. The division of
every class of instruments into groups (choirs or families)
of four or five, differing in register and corresponding
originally to the different vocal parts, was practised as
early as the fifteenth century. Agricola (in 1529) speaks
of a quartet of "little violas of three strings." Michael
Praetorius (in 1619) mentions the use of three-stringed
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
violas in part-music. In his day, in Germany, a complete
quintet was employed (presumably, violin, viola, viola da
gamba, violoncello, and contrabass), a fourth lower in
pitch than similar instruments in Italy. The term vio-
lino first appears in a book dated 1533, though it is not
known to what this refers — ^probably a little viola, called
later violetta. The earliest explicit mention of the name
"violin" occurs in a treatise published in 1596, where its
compass is given exactly
as fixed to-day. The first
certain employment of
the violin appears to
have taken place in Mon-
teverde's Orfeo (1607),
where it is spoken of as
a violino piccolo.
A body of instrumen-
talists in the sense of the
modern orchestra (wind
and strmgs) is first men-
tioned by a German, Johann Pezelius, in 1675, who asso-
ciated two violins, cornet, flute, clarions, clarionets, and
bassoons. In the same year Johann Caspar Horn's famous
Parergon musicum was published, consisting of dances for
two choruses, with violins, flutes, cornets, shawms, and the
basso continue (probably played, as was quite universal,
upon a bass lute). Gabrieli, in Ital}^, commenced to as-
sociate various instruments; but the orchestra, as a unified
and properly balanced body, was not fully organised until
the days of Haydn (middle of the eighteenth century).
Greater stress was naturally laid at first upon the culti-
vation of the single instruments for solos or for small en-
semble performances, thus assuring the full recognition
of the qualities and the technical perfection of each and
gradually determining its degree of fitness for concerted
employment.
The wind instruments in most common use appear
ANTONIO STRADIVARI
THE CLAVICHORD STYLE 189
to have been those of metal — the trumpets, trombones,
horns, etc. — which very frequently formed a choir by
themselves in the church service and in chorale elabora-
tions. Next in popularity to these stood the oboes,
clarionets, flutes, and other wood-wind instruments, the
mechanical perfection of which is, however, of compar-
atively recent date. It was customary to use, also, one
or more virginals or clavichords in accompaniments.
These, however, in their present form of the pianoforte,
are no longer admitted to the orchestra, their place there
being now taken by the harp.
The development of an orchestral body was powerfully
furthered by the forms of dramatic music which con-
stantly increased in popularity and magnitude, steadily
approached a higher artistic aim and achievement, and
stood in need of instrumental reinforcement and resources.
CHAPTER XXII
DRAMATIC MUSIC IN ITALY
LATER ERA
In consequence of the luxuriant growth of dramatic
song the serious a cappella style of the Roman Church
gradually gave place, in Italy, to a wholly new mode of
musical conception and utterance. Monteverde, Cavalli,
and Cesti had already found the beginnings of a new
musical language better suited to the expression of human
passion; Carissimi had extended, enriched, and intensi-
fied this language; and his great successor, Alessandro
Scarlatti, marks the inauguration of a most brilliant era
of Italian dramatic art. The earliest and chief centre
of activity was at Naples, and the array of masters
engaged there in the creation of dramatic works (espe-
cially operas) were known as the Younger Neapolitan
School.
To this era belong, first, two scholars of Scarlatti,
Francesco Durante and Leonardo Leo, who head the mas-
ters of the younger Neapolitan school. Durante was
born in 1684 (one year before Handel and Bach) at
Fratta Maggiore, studied at first with Alessandro Scar-
latti, then in Rome with Pasquini; later he became chap-
elmaster in Naples, where he died in 1755. He was
Scarlatti's inferior in point of dramatic talent, but his
works exhibit a certain thoroughness and brilliancy. His
orchestra was still primitive, though he began to make use
of flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, and trumpets.
Leonardo Leo was born in 1694, followed a career very
190
DRAMATIC MUSIC IN ITALY 191
similar to that of Durante, and died in 1744. His melo-
dies were more flowing and graceful than those of his
contemporary, but also more effeminate. Leo was the
favourite of all Italy. He wrote about forty operas, sev-
eral oratorios, and a multitude of sacred works, mostly
with orchestral accompaniment. A closer imitator of
Durante was Francesco Feo, born, 1699, '^^ Naples. His
works, both sacred and secular, were noted in their time
for their purity and solidity but were soon forgotten.
Another noteworth}" pupd of Scarlatti was Nicolo Por-
pora (later the teacher of Joseph Haydn), born 1685.
He was the author of a large number of operas, many of
them written for the London stage, where he was engaged,
in 1733, as composer and director; he was exactly the
same age as Handel, and died in 1766. Porpora was
more famous as vocal pedagogue than as composer.
To the next generation of Neapolitan tone-masters
belonged, first and foremost, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi,
born 1710, died 1736 (at the age of twenty-six years).
In the opera seria he was unsuccessful, owing to his lack
of talent and experience concerning dramatic effects, and
his want of the power and versatility requisite for larger
creations. On the other hand, his comic intermezzo,
La serva padrone, was enormously successful, especially
in Paris. The historian Fetis speaks of it as " a master-
piece of ethereal melody, elegance, and genuine dramatic
form." His last work, a famous Stabat Mater, has main-
tained its place in the admiration of music lovers to the
present day, though critics differ widely in their judgment
of its real merit.
The next composer of renown was Nicolo Jommelli,
born, 1714, near Naples. He appears to have been an
erratic genius, more gifted and brilliant than diligent.
In 1754 he became director and composer to the king
in Stuttgart, where he remained until 1765, when he
returned to Naples, and there died in 1774 (four years
after Beethoven's birth).
192
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
Probably the most distinguished of all the representa-
tives of the Neapolitan school was Nicolo Piccini, born
1728 (four years before Haydn); he studied with Durante
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and Leo and presented his first opera, Le donne dispet-
tose, at the age of twenty-six, in the theatre at Florence.
His greatest success was won with the comic opera
Cecchi?ia, written for Rome in 1761, which was on the
stage almost uninterruptedly and spread into all the
DRAMATIC MUSIC IN ITALY
193
musical cities of Europe; it became so famous that Pic-
cini's method of handhng the opera huffa (comic opera)
was recognised as standard, and he was called the re-
generator of that style. He is accredited with being the
first to adjust the aria to the design of the rondo form.
In the course of the ensuing fort}^ j^ears Piccini composed
no fewer than eight}^ operas besides a number of oratorios.
In 1776 he went to Paris, where he became the head of a
strong rival faction opposed to Gluck, in which connec-
tion we shall again consider his
career. Piccini died in 1800.
Another renowned pupil of
Durante was Giovanni Paesi-
ello, born, 1741, at Tarento.
His artistic career opened with
two comic operas written for
the Bologna stage, La Pupilla
and // mondo at rovescio; these
were followed — up to the year
1803 — by ninety others, partly
serious but chiefly comic. He
died in 1816.
The remarkable progress thus
made by the Italian opera, subsequent to Alessandro
Scarlatti, extended principally in the direction of purely
vocal art, while the dramatic contents were proportion-
ately neglected. The melody expanded to broader dimen-
sions, and its rhythmic members assumed greater regu-
larity and symmetry.
In the early days of monody the melody of the opera
and oratorio was composed of brief members, the sec-
tions were short, cadences frequent, and the aria, as a
whole, stunted, undeveloped, and unfinished. The
younger generation elaborated and sj^stematised the
structural form and created that broad three-part de-
sign (with a middle section and a da capo) which was
universally adopted and cultivated under the designa-
NICOLO PICCINI
194 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
tion "grand aria." (This form was naturally utilised in
instrumental composition also and became the basis of
the great majority of subsequent forms — in fact, the
chief structural idea according to which all homophonic
forms and even the larger sonata and symphony designs
were modelled.) But the more their interest centred
thus in the vocal ele-
ment, the less attention
was directed to the dra-
matic purpose, which
was supposedly the
prime object of the en-
tire creation. The re-
sult was, of course, that
all dramatic conditions
became of decidedly in-
ferior significance, and
the art and practice of
vocalism soon asserted
themselves as principal
aims. The dramatic
characters sank into
mere vocal instruments;
the aria, as brilliant
vocal show piece, sup-
planted the other ele-
ments; duets and en-
sembles were rare; and the chorus had but a very
unimportant role, or none at all. This, again, influ-
enced and degraded the text (libretto), which soon sacri-
ficed its dignity and dramatic sense. The composers
catered to the singers and were but too ready to devote
their efforts and melodic inspirations to the growing rage
for technical display, virtuoso colorature, and bravour
arias. Hence the discredit into which the Italian opera
fell and the contempt with which, to the present day,
many of the older types of this class are regarded, as
GIOVANNI PAESIELLO
DRAMATIC MUSIC IN ITALY 195
far as libretto and dramatic action and purpose are
concerned.
While the school at Naples was thus flooding Europe
with its attractive and, in some respects, admirable prod-
ucts, the rest of Italy was by no means idle. In Rome,
Venice, Bologna, and other cities composers of more or
less celebrity were active, addmg their voices to the vic-
torious chant of Italian operatic art.
In Rome, where the music of the church would be
expected to receive, naturally, more zealous cultivation
than that of the secular drama, there were, nevertheless,
several eminent masters busily engaged in the new and
popular domain of composition. Among these were Giu-
seppe Ottavio Pitoni (1657-1743); Bernardo Pasquini
(1637-1710), Frescobaldi's successor in the field of organ
virtuosity; Francesco Gasparini (1668-1737), teacher of
Domenico Scarlatti, composer of about thirty much-ad-
mired operas and the author of an interesting and valu-
able text-book on Thorough-Bass (the term, equivalent
to figured bass, is derived somewhat clumsily from
basso continuo or continuous bass); and Agostino Stef-
fani (1655-1730), famous for his melodic talent, especially
in the duet, of which, in its typical form, he was regarded
as the creator. Of distinct artistic merit is his Stabat
Mater for six vocal parts, two violins, three violas, 'cello,
and organ.
Conspicuously identified with Venice was the famous
school of Giovanni Legrenzi (1625-90), author of many
fine sacred works, seventeen operas, and a number of
sonatas and other instrumental pieces. He organised
an orchestra of thirty-four pla3^ers at St. Mark's, which
comprised string and wind instruments in an association
strikingly similar to the modern body.
His most eminent disciple was Antonio Lotti (1667-
1740), who wrote nineteen operas and many excellent
works for church and chamber, distinguished for their
grace, pathos, and profound contrapuntal scholarship.
196 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
This master, no doubt underestimated in his own day and
generation, is now regarded as a shining Hght of the Vene-
tian school. He was also a thorough master of the vocal
art.
Another disciple of Legrenzi's school was Antonio Cal-
dara (1670-1736), born in Venice; he became vice-director
of the opera in Vienna, under the celebrated pedagogue
and composer Johann Joseph Fux, where he remained
until his death. He wrote
sixty-nine operas, noted
more for skilful technic
than creative talent.
Great respect is ac-
corded, further, to Bene-
detto Marcello (1686-
I739)> whose principal
work was a beautiful and
powerful setting of the
Psalms of David. His
original intention of com-
posing the entire number
(one hundred and fifty)
was abandoned after he
had finished the first fifty.
One of the most clever and original composers of the Vene-
tian school was Baldassare Galuppi (1706-85); he spent
some time in London and was the author of about sixty
operas.
In Bologna appear Giovanni Paolo Colonna (1640-95)
and Giovanni Bononcini (the younger); the latter, born,
1660, at Modena, was most famous as a really able
rival of Handel in London, whose popularity with the
English public he shared quite evenly until the superior
genius of Handel overpowered him and (coupled with
some indiscretions of which Bononcini was accused)
forced him to return to the Continent, where he was lost
sight of. Another less brilliant but more noble-minded
AGOSTINO STEFFANI
DRAMATIC MUSIC IN ITALY
197
exponent of the school of Bologna was Giovanni Maria
Clari (bom 1669).
Other Italian cities also produced masters of greater
or lesser distinction. Palermo was the home of Baron
Emanuele d'Astorga (1681-1736), justly famed for his
beautiful Stabat Mater, and an excellent tenor singer who
won the hearts of every community he visited. His
cantatas were highly prized.
From Florence came Francesco Conti (1682-1732), who,
in 1703, was called to the position of theobist (lute player)
in the orchestra at Vienna; like Caldara, Conti became
vice-director there under Fux. He wrote sixteen much-
admired operas.
ZINGARELLI. SARTI. TRITTO. PAISIELLO*
* The spelling of this name is either Paesiello or Paisiello. See Grove,
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. Ill, p. 598.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE OPERA IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN THE
SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
The popular drama was perhaps nowhere more gen-
erally cultivated than in France; therefore, this nation
was ready to adopt with eagerness the new musical dra-
matic forms to which Italy had given birth and for which
France possessed ample models and lively sympathy.
Mention has been made of the popular play Robin et
Marion of Adam de la Halle. This was a sort of fore-
runner of the later opera, and performances of works of
a similar nature were among the most common forms of
recreation, kept alive chiefly by the jongleurs or min-
strels of France up to the sixteenth century.
In 1645 Cardinal Mazarin caused a number of profes-
sional singers to be imported from Italy to Paris. They
performed Peri's opera, Orfeo ed Eurydice, and met with
such success as to arouse the ambition of native French
composers, who began to imitate the new dramatic style
and produce operas of their own.
The transportation of Italian opera into France is sig-
nalised in history by the appearance of Giovanni Battista
LuUy, who, though a native-born Italian, was destined to
inaugurate the brilliant early era of French opera, and,
in fact, to create the national grand opera of France.
Lully was born in 1633, at Florence. He emigrated to
Paris at the age of twelve and served in the kitchen of
Mademoiselle d'Orleans, the king's niece. The atten-
tion of certain nobles having been drawn to his extraor-
dinary musical ability, Lully was given a place among the
OPERA IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND 199
twenty-four violons du roy, where he attracted the notice
and won the complete favour of Louis XIV. Lully was
of an almost repulsive appearance and far from refined
in manners, but he was not lacking in certain good quali-
ties and, above all, knew how to manage and to ingra-
tiate himself with
the king. He soon
became superinten-
dent of the court
music, was ap-
pointed secretary
to the king, was
knighted, and in
1672 was intrusted
with the exclusive
management of the
royal opera.
As composer,
Lully was keenly
aware of the taste
and desires of the
French people, and
he soon stood with-
out a rival in their
esteem, actually
creating an epoch
in the history of
French grand opera, which he raised to the dignity and
importance of a national institution that retained its
significance long after his death. Lully was powerfully
supported by a skilful poet, Philippe Quinault, whose
librettos were greatly superior to those of his contem-
poraries m France, Italy, and Germany. Together they
brought out about one opera each year. The first of
Lully's operas was Les fetes de V amour et de Bacchus
(1672). Up to the year of his death (1687) some eighteen
other operas and ballets followed, all based upon Grecian
JEAN BAPTISTE LULLY
Portrait by Mignard.
200 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
mythology. All bore the same title, Tragedie, mise en
musique, and each was prefaced by a prologue.
As far as the intrinsic merit of Lully's music is con-
cerned, it must be pronounced greatly inferior to the ar-
tistic productions of Italian
and German masters. His
creative musical talent could
not bear comparison with
that of Monteverde, Cavalli,
Scarlatti, or Schiitz. His
success was, therefore, not
due to this but to his dra-
matic genius; his operas were
masterpieces of dramatic
pathos and expression, and
their strongest feature was
the declamation. Their ob-
ject was the most vivid and
passionate dramatic utter-
ance, and the music, the
separate tones of his mostly
fragmentary melodies and re-
citatives, were wholly sub-
servient thereto. Hence,
Lull3^'s operas did little or
nothing for the advancement
of absolute music, though it
must be recognised that, from such close and ardent associa-
tion with the emotional pulsations of the drama, the latent
dramatic and emotional qualities of music were stimulated
and brought nearer to the vital action they were destined
to evolve and exercise in time. Lully discarded all vocal
embellishment, thus adopting a tendency directly opposed
to that of the Italians, whose natural melodic expression
was marred and hampered by a redundancy of ornament.
The following is a fine illustration of effective musical
declamation from Lully's Alceste:
From Vidal's "Les Instruments a Archet,"
Paris, 1876.
ONE OF THE TWENTY-FOUR
"VIOLONS DU ROY"
m
OPERA IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND 201
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It appears, for the reasons just given, that the early
French national opera as conceived bj^ Lully was quite as
one-sided, in its almost exclusive dramatic character, as
was that of Italy, where this very dramatic element was
made entirely subservient to purely melodious musical
expression. Lully's instrumental accompaniments were
very meagre — not in any degree independent but a mere
duplication of the vocal parts — except, of course, in the
overture and in the ballets and dances (called airs). In
regard to the latter, another characteristic distinction
appears between the French, who loved the ballet and
gave it a prominent place in their opera, and the Italians,
with whom this was an unimportant and more unusual
factor.
Lully's operas would probably have been less popular
had not his dramatic talent given him such command
of the effective auxiliaries — the management of the stage,
the arrangement of dances, the scenes and costumes — all
202 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
these things were brought into concerted operation by
his own hand. In this respect LuUy bore significant his-
toric relation to Richard Wagner, whom he resembles
in his definite purpose of creating a music-drama which
should assemble all the arts necessary for this object, but
to whom he was inferior in point of musical and dra-
matic genius.
The next eminent promoter of French national opera
was Jean Philippe Rameau, to whom reference has already
been made as instrumental
composer and as author of
the oldest harmony method.
Rameau, like Gluck and
Handel, reached quite an ad-
vanced age before treading
the path that was to lead
to the greatest triumph. His
first opera was performed in
1733, when he was in his
fiftieth year. Born in 1683,
he gave early proof of un-
usual musical talent. At the
age of eighteen he left his
parental home, went to Mi-
lan, and did not return to Paris until sixteen years later.
It was his first opera that suddenly made him famous,
and it was followed, up to his death, in 1764, by twenty-
two other operas and ballets, which, though neither revo-
lutionary in style nor even particularly original, were,
nevertheless, immensely popular — probably because they
were so natural and clever a continuation of the same
processes and the same manner of treatment that had
made Lully so beloved. Rameau's style was, however,
somewhat superior to that of the latter in the intensity
of its declamation, the variety and interest of its rhythm,
and the richness and technical purity of harmony.
A somewhat later and almost equally distinguished
FRANCOIS JOSEPH GOSSEC
OPERA IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND 203
composer and promoter of national French grand opera
was Frangois Joseph Gossec (1734-1829); he was an ad-
mirable writer and compares most favourably with the
best talents that France has produced. Gossec is ac-
credited with being a close forerunner of Haydn in the
domain of the S3^mphony, having written one in the style
subsequently adopted and developed by the great classic
masters, five yea.rs before Haydn turned his attention to
the symphony. Gossec wrote a few comic operas but
chiefly those of the larger, tragic type.
French grand opera, which attained to such vigour
under Lully and Rameau, encountered before the death
of the latter a strong rival in the opera huffa of Italy,
which found its way to Paris (as it also had to Germany
and England) and gave birth in France to the no less
popular and important forms of the opera comique and the
operetta. In 1752 a troupe of Italian ^'bufFonists" (from
huffa, comic) invaded Paris, presenting the comic operas
of Pergolesi and other Italian masters with overwhelming
success. This actually led to a division into rival fac-
tions — those who favoured the novel foreign products
and those who held loyally to their own national musical
drama.
The famous Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), better
known in literary than in music history, sided with the
"buflPonists" and even ventured to emphasise his belief in
the superior excellence of the Italian style by immediately
composing and producing a vaudeville (1752), Le devin
du village, which was received with great favour.
The antagonism grew so active that after two years
the ItaUans were obliged to quit Paris. But their seduc-
tive melodies continued to ring in the ears of the French
people, and the gradual affiliation of the two styles which
had become distinctive of these two nations was the in-
evitable consequence. Thus, the opera bufFa of Italy
actually became the type of the French operetta, though
each clung to its distinctive traits; it always remained
204 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
characteristic of the French operetta that it contained
spoken dialogue as well as musical numbers. But the op-
eretta of France reached a degree of poetic and musical
superiority over the opera buffa which did not fail to
exert a powerful influence on the whole range of French
dramatic art. Mythologic subjects were abandoned in
the operetta in favour of episodes of every-day life, es-
pecially that of the peasant, and this alone made it more
popular and far more appealing to the sympathies of
the public. After a time the term operetta was applied
to every class of musical drama in
which certain parts were spoken,
while in "grand opera" every word
was sung. Further, the latter al-
ways contained ballet numbers,
the operetta none.
Three French composers of the
eighteenth century are noted for
their successful efforts in establish-
ing and perfecting the style of both
operetta and opera: Andre Danican,
known also by chess-players as Phil-
idor (1726-95), whose best work,
Ernelinde, is regarded as a very sig-
nificant step; Pierre Alexandre Monsigny (1729-1817),
director of the Paris conservatoire, whose operetta, Le
deserteur, created an epoch in the history of comic or light
opera; and Andre Gretry, by far the greatest musical genius
of the three, and famed as the one "who brought comic
opera to its fullest perfection and made it a genuine re-
flection of the national character of the French in the
sphere of dramatic art." Gretry was born in 1741, made
a pilgrimage to Rome on foot at the age of eighteen,
where he studied zealously for five years; he then re-
turned to Paris, and finally overcame the jealousy of
his colleagues with his opera. The Huron (1768), versified
by Marmontel. Of his sixty-one very much admired
ANDRE DANICAN
(puilidor)
OPERA IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND 205
operas, Richard Cceur de Lion (1784) was the most popular,
not onl}^ in France but in almost all European musical
centres. He died in 181 3.
The histor)^ of operatic art in England presents but
little of interest before the daj^s of Henry Purcell, born
at London in 1658
(twentj-seven years be-
fore Bach and Handel),
Until near the end of
the seventeenth century
English dramatic music
was almost entirely in
the hands of Italians,
The French librettist
and composer Robert
Cambert (crowded out
of Paris by Lully) went
to London in 1673 and
endeavoured to oppose
his Parisian style to that
of the Italians, while a
number of native En-
glish writers strove to es-
tablish a national style
by using English historic
material. The first of the
latter to achieve a certain measure of success was Matthew
Locke, whose Macbeth was very favourably received. At
the same time Henry Purcell appeared, and he it was who
was destined to elevate English musical art to a dignity
and lofty artistic standard hitherto unknown in that
country and rarely excelled since. Purcell was unques-
tionably the most gifted of all English composers, the pos-
sessor of true musical genius. His aims were thoroughly
patriotic; but he adopted Italian models in preference to
those of the French, whose style he considered superficial.
HENRY PURCELL
2o6 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
^ Purcell's sacred works were highly esteemed, especially
his compositions for the annual celebration of St. Ce-
cilia's Day — a national festival still observed in England./
(The first one was held November 22, 1683, under Pur-
cell's direction, who later wrote several Odes to St. Ce-
cilia. Handel's Alexander' s Feast and St. Cecilia Ode
were written for these celebrations.) [ Purcell's thirty-
nine dramatic works consisted chiefly of national plays
with musical scenes and interludes. His Dido and Apneas
(1675), a most excellent creation which is yet occasionally
given in England and affords very positive enjoyment,
comprises an overture, recitatives (simple and accom-
panied), arias, duets, and numerous choruses of striking
character and effect, as well as a few instrumental inter-
ludes.
After 1690, French musicians gradually withdrew from
the London stage, leaving it at last entirely in the hands
of the Italians. The first opera in which, according to
Italian practice, the entire text was sung, was Thomas
Clayton's Arsinoe^ ^7^S- This and a few other native
operas were soon entirely supplanted by the flood of
Italian works that proved more popular with the music
lovers of England, and soon Scarlatti (the elder), Bonon-
cini, Conti, and others reigned supreme. Their operas
were at first translated, but it was shortly found more
convenient to sing them in their original tongue.
In 171 1 Handel appeared on the London stage with
his Rinaldo, and a few years later the most brilliant era
of Italian opera in England began. Another English
musician of this time is worthy of note, Henry Carey
(born about 1690), a gifted poet and composer of popu-
lar ballads but not connected with the opera. He is
generally assumed to be the author of God Save the King.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE OPERA IN GERMANY
Italian dramatic music began early to reach out into
other countries of Europe, and, indeed, may be said to
have overrun the musical world in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. The reader has learned how the
operatic and vocal art of Italy found its way into France
and England, partly through the instrumentality of Ital-
ian singers and operatic troupes who emigrated in large
numbers, and partly through the composers themselves,
who endeavoured, with varjang success, to establish their
operatic style bej^ond the borders of their own lands. In
the same way, the influence of Italian opera spread into
Germany.
Italian composers and singers flocked to all the prin-
cipal musical centres — to Vienna, Munich, Dresden, Ber-
lin, and other cities — where their sojourn became more
or less permanent and where they speedily won the fa-
vour of the entire populace, and retained it for a century
without opposition.
In Vienna the opera was at the height of its power and
favour from the middle of the seventeenth to the middle
of the eighteenth century, especially under the brilliant
direction of Fux, Antonio Caldara, and Francesco Conti
— the respective representatives of the scholastic, beauti-
ful, and comic types of dramatic music. Of these, Jo-
hann Joseph Fux (1660-1741) was a man of profound
theoretical learning; his famous method of counterpoint,
Gradus ad Parnassum (1725), is still quoted as an au-
thority.
207
2o8 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
Italian opera was introduced in Munich in 1654; the
performers were all from Italy, and also the composers,
with the exception of a few native Germans. One of the
earliest and most famous of these was Johann Kaspar
Kerll (1628-93), ^^ organ pupil of Frescobaldi, and the
author of three operas, six masses, and other works.
The first Italian singers were engaged for Berlin in
1616, though a permanent opera was not established there
until 1742, when Friedrich II
caused the Grand Opera House
to be erected. It was opened
December 7 of that year with
Cesare e Cleopatra, by Carl
Heinrich Graun (1701-59). He
wrote thirty-three operas, a
number of oratorios, and other
sacred works, the most famous
of which is his Tod Jesu {Death
of Christ). This work, which in-
fluenced the style of the ora-
torio, won extraordmary popu-
larity, lasting almost to the
present day. It is skilfully
written, but bears some traces
of the superficial style of the
Italian opera of that period. Graun was the undisputed
sovereign of the Berlin operatic stage. His smgers were
all Italians; the demand for them was so extensive that
German vocalists were not tolerated.
In Dresden, Italian opera found a foothold in 1662;
the instrumentalists were mostly Germans, but the singers
all Italians. The opera here reached its greatest emi-
nence under Johann Adolf Hasse, one of the most dis-
tinguished German tone-masters. Hasse was born in
1699 at Hamburg; he studied with Porpora and Scar-
latti; in 173 1 he was given charge of the Dresden opera
as director and composer and, at the same time, his wife
CARL HEINRICH GRAUN
OPERA IN GERMANY 209
(the celebrated Faustina Bordoni, the favourite of all
Italy) was engaged as prima donna. He died in 1783.
Hasse wrote fifty operas, many oratorios, and a great
man}' quartets, symphonies, sonatas, concertos, and other
forms. Scarcely any other German musician was ever
so idolised b}^ his countrymen. While Bach and Handel
were rarel}' mentioned, and then only as learned contra-
puntists, Hasse and Graun were the models and shining
lights of their age and nation.
JOH. AD. HASSE FAUSTINA HASSE
Graun was regarded as the greater in sacred dramatic
art, while Hasse was the favourite in the domain of opera.
Graun was the better scholar; Hasse possessed a more
fertile imagination, melodic and dramatic talent, and skill
in musical characterisation. Hasse wrote with judgment
for the voice, and was himself an excellent singer and
teacher; his accompaniments, however, were superficial.
Thus it appears that there was no lack of native-born
(German) composers who endeavoured, even while imitat-
ing the popular Italian manner, to establish a national
style and to counteract the overbearing of a foreign
school. The Germans, moreover, sensibly adopted the
best qualities of both French and Italian dramatic art —
from the latter, the highly developed art of melody and
2IO ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
vocalisation; from the French, effective declamation and
dramatic expression. Out of this union evolved the best
operatic products of the eighteenth centurj^, including
those of Gluck and Mozart.
The following extracts afford an idea of the style of
each and of the advances made in operatic melody:
OPERA IN GERMANY
211
J^;vo-u^ .Jrr->t »^ ^^6 - '- -.
Strauss is undoubtedly a musical genius of extraordi-
nary endowment and intellect and commands a wide
range of original resources. His harmonies are rich; his
melodies often peculiar but quite as often filled with the
spirit of classic naturalness and beauty; his rhythms are
THE PRESENT ERA 319
vital, energetic, and novel; his counterpoint infinitely
scholarly and free; and his orchestration extremely opu-
lent and vivid.
He is almost as complete a master of the climax as was
Richard Wagner, but his contrasts are more often strik-
ing than wholly pleasurable. Strauss is apparently sin-
cere in his artistic attitude and serious in his aims, though
so revolutionary and daring that he sometimes arouses
the suspicion of aiming for effect only. His most pre-
tentious creations are his symphonic poems, Also sprach
Zarathustra, Till Eidenspiegel, Don Quixote, Heldenleben,
Sinfonia domestica, and his operas Salome, Elektra, Ro-
senkavalier, etc. His songs, already numerous, are exceed-
ingly impressive and often of fascinating beauty and
emotional depth.
320
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
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CHAPTER XLI
MUSIC IN AMERICA
Music in North America during the early period of
colonisation was but a faint reflex of the musical condi-
tions and practices of those European countries which
contributed to the peopling of the western hemisphere.
It continued thus until within little more than the past
centur}^. Those who sought the New World were ani-
mated by sterner purposes and had little time and possibly
little inclination to occupy themselves with the pursuit of
music. There were, no doubt, some among them whose
love of music was deep and not easily repressed. The
more cultured emigrants were familiar with the musical
activities of the mother country and carried to their
new home memories of its madrigals, glees, ballads, and
even, perhaps (in later days), of the early operas. But
there was no possibility of continuing this form of enter-
tainment in the new and primitive surroundings, and their
musical cravings must needs be satisfied with the strains
of a fiddle, or flute, or bass viol, with which its owner
would not part even when embarking with scanty be-
longings on the perilous western voyage. In wealthy
homes a harpsichord or spinet was sometimes found. In
the South the Spanish lutes were fairly common and led,
in time, to the guitar, banjo, and mandolin of to-day.
Social choirs were probably cultivated to some extent,
and the music of the churches soon became a matter of
real concern — indeed, the most significant factor in pre-
serving the life of music in America, especially in the
more northern colonies.
But it is evident that music on this side of the At-
3-21
322 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
lantic was like a flower cut from its stem. For more than
a century after the landing of the Pilgrims, practically
all but the most slender threads of contact with the old
world were severed, and it was almost as if the history
of music was to begin again in the New World, in all
excepting its fundamental traditions. Then, very gradu-
ally, fuller contact was established, and music began to
thrive in America with slowly increasing vigour.
About the middle of the eighteenth century, English
ballad operas and popular plays were
occasionally introduced into the colo-
nies, and interest in various phases of
music-making slowly awakened.
The interest in secular music, how-
ever, continued for some time to be
secondary to that attached to the
music of the church; while the former
was tolerated, and to some extent en-
joyed, church music was regarded as
essential and worthy of active parti-
cipation. The h3^mn tunes of Hop-
kinson (who died in 1791), William
Billings (Boston, 1746-1800), Oliver Holden (Massachu-
setts, 1765-1834), and a few others, though in no musical
sense significant or calculated to contribute in the slightest
measure to actual musical promotion, were, nevertheless,
distinctively American products. Of far greater lasting
worth were the works of Thomas Hastings (1787-1872)
and particularly of that distinguished pioneer Lowell
Mason (1792-1872), both of whom continued to supply the
church with hj^mn tunes and anthems of appropriate char-
acter and constantly improving quality.
After a while renewed attempts were made to bring
European opera across the water. New Orleans organ-
ised an operatic enterprise as early as 1791, utilising works
of French and Italian origin. Philadelphia and New
York followed with similar projects in 1793. In the lat-
LOWELL MASON
MUSIC IN AMERICA 323
ter city early efforts were made in operatic composition
by native-born musicians, though American opera could
boast of nothing enduring before the da3^s of William H.
Fry (Philadelphia, 1813-64), whose Leonora was pre-
sented with a measure of success in 1845. The English
Beggar's Opera and ballad operas became popular in
New York in 1850. In 1825, members of the celebrated
Garcia family began a series of operatic performances, in
the serious style, in New York. An Italian opera-house
was opened in 1833.
From this it is apparent that during the first half of
the nineteenth century the United States was beginning
to attract the attention of European artists (or of their
enterprising managers), and then it was that the stream
of modern troubadours began to flow into the New World
— a stream that was to bring to the music lovers of the
western hemisphere all the wealth of the parent countries
and to stimulate and confirm more wide-spread and en-
thusiastic interest in the art of music.
The Garcias were followed by the violinist Ole Bull (in
1843), Jenny Lind (1850), Henriette Sontag (1852), the
violinist Camilla Urso (1852), the singers Alboni (1853),
Grisi and Mario (1854), Madame La Grange (1855), and
Adelina Patti (1859); later by eminent instrumentalists:
Anton Rubinstein and Henri Wieniawski (both in 1872),
Hans von Biilow, Eugen d'Albert, Ignace Paderewski,
and a multitude of others, until to-day no European vir-
tuoso thinks of omitting America from his concert tours.
Through these artists the best that the Old World pro-
duces is brought to our doors, and the artistic standing
of the two continents is in this manner steadily and surely
approaching the inevitable equilibrium.
Meanwhile, through the founding of various musical
organisations (whereby the impulse and influence of Eu-
rope is again noteworthy), music in America may be said
to have awakened by the middle of the nineteenth cen-
tury to something like an independent existence and to
324 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
have begun to assume a vital place in the life and artis-
tic history of the nation.
The earliest choral or musical association in America,
called into existence to gratify the craving for a wider
social participation in musical and choral practice than
was obtainable in fireside song, was founded about the
beginning of the war of independence. This was the
Stoughton Musical Society (Massachusetts). The next
was the famous Handel and Haydn
Society, organised in Boston
shortly after the close of the sec-
ond war with England (in 1815).
About 1799 Gottlieb Graupner, a
German, founded the first primi-
tive orchestra, the " Philhar-
monic," which continued in exis-
tence until 1824. This was fol-
lowed by the Musical FundSociety
in Philadelphia (1821 until 1857),
devoted to both vocal and instru-
mental music, the New York
Choral Society in 1823, and the
Boston Academy of Music in 1833. The Academy Or-
chestra was organised in Boston in 1840, the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra in 1842 by U. C. Hill, one of the
first Americans to study in Germany, and the Germania
Orchestra about 1850. In 1864 Theodore Thomas
founded his own orchestra in New York. In 1866, the
Harvard Musical Association was organised in Cambridge,
with Carl Zerrahn as its leader. Then followed the New
York Oratorio Society, founded in 1873 by Leopold
Damrosch; the Cecilia Society in 1877 (Boston, directed
by Benjamin J. Lang); the New York Symphony Or-
chestra (1878, Leopold Damrosch); the Boston Philhar-
monic in 1880 (Bernhard Listemann); the Musical Art
Society (New York, Frank Damrosch); and the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, which, under the successive direc-
TIIEODORE THOMAS
MUSIC IN AMERICA
325
tion of George Henschel, Wilhelm Gericke, Arthur Ni-
kisch, Emil Pauer, and other eminent European musi-
cians has achieved a rank of artistic excellence second to
none in the world. The equally significant organisation
of the New York Metropolitan Opera took place in 1883.
Then came the Chicago Orchestra of Theodore Thomas
in 1890; and at present Bal-
timore, Philadelphia, Cin-
cinnati, and many more
American cities maintain
their permanent orchestras.
These larger bodies pro-
vided both the incentive and
the material for chamber-
music associations whose edu-
cating and refining influence
was of equal though less ob-
vious and wide-spread sig-
nificance. The first string
quartet appeared in 1843, the
Mendelssohn Quintet Club
in 1849, and the list of simi-
lar organisations, up to the Kneisel and Flonzaley string
quartets, has steadily increased in number and impor-
tance.
Further opportunities of popularising the classic prod-
ucts of European masters and of securing a hearing for
original American works were furnished by the numerous
periodic music festivals, among which those of Worces-
ter (Massachusetts), Chicago, the May festivals in Cin-
cinnati, and the Bach festivals in Bethlehem, Penn-
sylvania, have become noteworthy national institutions.
These mediums of broader public education were most
powerfully supplemented by the establishing of music
schools which supplied direct private instruction to the
people. Foremost among the pioneers in this movement
was Eben Tourjee (born in Rhode Island in 1834), who
LEOPOLD DAMROSCH
326 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
founded a musical institute in East Greenwich in 1859,
the Providence (Rhode Island) Conservatory of Music a
few years later, and, in 1867, the New England Conserva-
tory of Music in Boston. Other important music acad-
emies are the Cincinnati College of Music, the National
Conservatory of New York, the Institute of Musical Art
of New York (founded in 1905), besides a host of smaller
schools, of greater or lesser efficiency, representing every
large city in the country. In recent 3'ears dignity has
been lent to these systems of education by the recogni-
tion and establishment of regular music courses in nearly
all American universities.
In this connection special mention must be made of
the eminent services rendered b}^ such teachers as Wil-
liam Mason, Rafael Joseffy (Hungary), and Carl Baer-
mann (Germany).
Powerful agents in the dissemination of musical knowl-
edge were the rapidly increasing music-publishing houses,
through which the best and newest compositions from
abroad and from home became accessible. The first
of note was that of Oliver Ditson (Boston, 1832), followed
by G. Schirmer (1861), Theodore Presser (Philadelphia),
A. P. Schmidt (Boston, 1876), Lyon & Healy (Chicago).
The equally momentous pianoforte industry dates
back about a century; that of the organ still farther.
The first American organ is said to have been built as
early as 1745 by Edward Bromfield. John Harris (Bos-
ton) is recorded as repairer and maker of spinets and harp-
sichords in 1769. Jonas Chickering (born, 1798, in New
Hampshire) began to manufacture pianofortes in 1823.
The Steinways came from Germany to New York and
founded their great pianoforte industry there in 1853, to
be followed shortly by Knabe, Weber, Mason & Hamlin,
and many other makers.
From all this the reader may verify the rapidity and
vigour of the development of music in America. Aborig-
inal music was absolutely valueless, bearing no other rela-
MUSIC IN AMERICA
327
tion to this progress than has been ascribed to that class
of primitive utterance treated in the first chapters. The
dormant art, kept ahve for a time by faint echoes from
Europe, awakened and accumulated in but little more
than a century a vitalit)^ which has elevated it to a
degree of independent excellence that now compels the
attention of other musical nations. Though the latter
still look with some
mistrust upon the
American composer,
it is undeniable that
the long list of those
whose creations are
distinctive — begin-
ningwith that modest
writer of popular
songs, S. C. Foster
(1826-64), and in-
cluding such names
as J. K. Paine (born,
1839, in Maine), F.
G. Gleason (1848),
Arthur Foote (1853,
Ma ssachusetts),
George W. Chadwick (1854, Massachusetts), Edgar Still-
man Kelley (1857, Wisconsin), E. A. MacDowell (1861,
New York), Arthur Whiting (1861), Horatio W. Parker
(1863, Massachusetts), Mrs. H. H. A. Beach (1867, New
Hampshire), H. K. Hadley (1871), F. S. Converse (1871)
— is securing the recognition of a musical spirit that is
rapidly becoming as active and significant as that of the
Old World. This list has been strongly reinforced by
foreign-born composers: Louis Maas (1852, Wiesbaden),
Victor Herbert (1859, Dublin), C. M. Loeffler (1861, Al-
sace), and Walter Damrosch (1862, Breslau), who have
made America their home. The American spirit has
been vitalised by the transient visits of such educators as
STEPHEN C. FOSTER
328 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
George Henschel, Antonin Dvorak (New York, 1892-5),
and Ferruccio Busoni (Boston, 1891-2).
To all of these influences must be added that of the
literary men whose critical writings have contributed to
the enlightenment and judgment of the public. This list
embraces, among many others, the names of J. S. Dwight
(born, 1 81 3, in Boston), A. W. Thayer (18 17, Massachu-
setts), F. L. Ritter (1834, Strassburg), G. P. Upton (1835,
Boston), W. S. B. Matthews (1837, New Hampshire),
W. F. Apthorp (1848, Boston), Louis C. Elson (1848,
Boston), Henry E. Krehbiel (1854, Michigan), Philip
Hale, H. T. Finck, W. J. Henderson, and J. G. Huneker.
America has produced a number of distinguished pian-
ists, who, though indebted to European masters for their
training, have demonstrated the sterling quality of their
talent and have exerted a powerful influence upon
American musical life. This phase of artistic activity
is represented by Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Sebastian
Bach Mills, William Mason, William H. Sherwood, Fanny
Bloomfield-Zeisler, Julia Rive-King, and many of the
above-mentioned American composers. American organ-
ists of distinction are: George W. Morgan (1822), G. W.
Warren (1828), Frederick Archer (1838), Dudley Buck
(1839), S. P. Warren (1841), S. B. Whitney (1842), George
E. Whiting (1842), Clarence Eddy (185 1), Wallace Good-
rich (1871).
CHAPTER XLII
THE ESSENTIALS OF A MUSIC LIBRARY*
At the outset of this chapter the reader is earnestly
urged to form a personal music library of his own. It
is often advisable and, indeed, necessary to consult books
in a public library, but there are a pleasure and satisfac-
tion in having one's own books which are well worth the
necessar}^ outlay or sacrifice, and such purchases consti-
tute an investment which will yield abundant interest.
To have books on one's own shelves for reading or con-
sultation at any time not only gives them a great added
interest but creates a sense of ownership and aflfectionate
regard for the volumes which is an invaluable stimulus
to the student and is not likely to be fostered in any
other way.
In making such a collection it is well to bear in mind
that it is not necessary to buy a lot of books at one time,
but that it is better to build it up by degrees and to as-
certain carefully just what is likely to be permanently
useful. Several well-chosen books added each year at a
comparatively small cost will result in course of time in
the formation of a library which will be a constant source
of delight and practical service.
The suggestions herein made are far from exhaustive
or inclusive of all phases of the art, as to cover its liter-
ature adequately would require a whole volume. The
endeavour has been made, however, to give some help-
ful hints and suggestions in an attractive field of study.
For convenience of reference, and following the natural se-
* Contributed by Frank H. Marling.
329
330 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
quence of the varied interests of the reader, the material
has been grouped under various divisions, making the
information more easily accessible. By this method the
special student in any form of music is able to find par-
ticulars regarding books in his own department. The
publisher and price have been mentioned in each case, as
it is believed that these practical details will greatly as-
sist the reader in his choice. Care has been taken to
include only volumes in print (with rare exceptions, as
indicated) so that those recommended should be procured
without much difficulty. It has been the aim of the com-
piler to mention only works of genuine worth, though, for
lack of space, some excellent books have had to go unre-
corded. It is also deemed wise to confine the list to works
in the English language, as in this way the needs of the
great majority of readers will be met, and to go into
foreign literature would open a field impossible to cover
within the prescribed limits. For the same reason there
have been included very few of the numerous works on
method and technic.
Works of Reference
An almost indispensable work in a musical library of
any completeness is Grove's Dictionary of Music and
Musicians (five vols., ^25, Macmillan). A new and
revised edition has recently appeared, devoting special
attention to American music and bringing the informa-
tion generally down to date. It is without an equal in
the English language for a comprehensive and scholarly
treatment of all branches of the art, and forms an invalu-
able storehouse of facts on musical matters of all kinds.
Of special value are its critical and scientific articles
and its monographs on the great composers, written by
specialists. Its possession will obviate the necessity of
purchasing many smaller and more fragmentary works.
Another reference work is Famous Composers a7id Their
ESSENTIALS OF A MUSIC LIBRARY 331
Works, hy J. K. Paine and others (six vols., ^24, J. B.
Millet Company), a work of unusual charm and interest,
covering the whole field of music and treating all schools
and nationalities in a fascinating way. The chapters are
the work of different American, English, and foreign noted
critics, each full of enthusiasm for his theme. A distinc-
tive feature is its wealth of illustrative matter of all kinds.
For those who cannot afford such expensive works
there is an excellent one-
volume (Riemann's) Diction-
ary of Music (^4.50, Presser),
by the well-known German
critic and writer, which gives
the most essential informa-
tion in concise and accurate
form.
The Musical Guide, by Ru-
pert Hughes ($1.50, Doub-
leday, Page & Company), is
a one-volume work consti-
tuting a multuni in parvo on
musical lines, containing, as
it does, a pronouncing and defining dictionary of terms
and instruments, with a key to the pronunciation of six-
teen languages and a pronouncing biographical dictionary.
Admirable, also, are the two dictionaries by Theo-
dore Baker, Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (^3.50,
Schirmer) and Dictionary of Musical Terms {$1, Schir-
mer), both being models of authoritative and condensed
statement.
Another useful book is Lavignac's Music and Musi-
cians (^1.75, Holt), which includes a large variety of in-
valuable facts about the technical side of music and some
chapters on American and European composers.
A handy series of reference books on music is the
Music Story Series (thirteen vols., each $1.25, Scribners).
These embrace a wide range of historical research and
332 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
comprise musical form, notation, the carol, minstrelsy,
the violin, organ, etc. The student can obtain in them
much detailed knowledge in any special department for
which the ordinary musical dictionary has no room, and
the numerous illustrations are of additional value. One
of the first books to present music as a language was
Music Explained to the World by F. J. Fetis ($1.50,
Ditson). This was the forerunner of a number of volumes
that have attempted to bring the message of music to the
seeker after culture.
Histories of Music
The most scholarh^ and comprehensive history of music
in print is doubtless the Oxford History of Music (six vols.,
8vo, ^30, Oxford Universit}^ Press), though its size and
price and severely critical and technical form make it
unavailable for most students.
The old histories of Burney and Hawkins, though full
of antiquarian interest to the lover of old times, are, of
course, now entirely out of date and lack in modern sci-
entific authorit}^
The General History of Music, by W. S. Rockstro
($3.50, Scribners), is by an accomplished English musical
writer and contributor to Grovels Dictionary. It is in
the main accurate and fair though somewhat lacking in
appreciation of the modern schools.
Professor Waldo S. Pratt's History of Music ($3,
Schirmer) is to be commended for its skilful condensa-
tion of its vast array of materials, having been well char-
acterised as "a sort of combined history and biograph-
ical dictionar}^ and a minute and scholarly treatise."
An invaluable summary of musical history for the gui-
dance of students is the Study of the History of Music,
by Edward Dickinson, the well-known professor of mu-
sical histor)^ at Oberlin University (^2.50, Scribners).
The story is told in clear, outline form, and a feature of
ESSENTIALS OF A MUSIC LIBRARY 333
exceptional usefulness is the very full references to musical
literature for further study throughout every section and
chapter.
A smaller work is Hunt's Concise History of Music
($1, Scribners), an old favourite packed full of the es-
sential details and dates in abbreviated form.
More recent works, each of which
has found acceptance with students,
are Hamilton's Outlines of Music
History (^1.50, Ditson) and Math-
ews' Popular History of Music {$2,
Mathews' Publishing Company).
The History of Music, hy J. F.
Rowbotham ($2.50, Scribners),
comes down only to the time of the
troubadours, but is specially explicit
on ancient and mediaeval music.
The English composer C. H. H.
Parry is also an accomplished writer.
His Evolution of the Art of Music
(^1.75, Appleton) is described by a competent judge as
" a series of thoroughly admirable essays, scientific in
spirit, and sound."
EDWARD DICKINSON
Histories of Modern Music
A timely book in this sphere is Modern Composers of
Europe, by Arthur Elson {$2, L. C. Page & Company),
which gives an account in moderate compass of the noted
composers of all schools of the day, about whom it is often
difficult to get definite information.
Other studies dealing, with intelligence and acumen,
with the very latest writers are Oilman's Phases of Mod-
ern Music (^1.25, John Lane Company), and The Music
of To-Morrow and Other Studies (^1.25, John Lane Com-
pany), by the same author, treating of Debussy, Richard
Strauss, and others.
334 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
Masters of Italian Music, hy R. A. Streatfeild ($1.75,
Scribners) presents an interesting interpretation of Ital-
ian contemporary composers.
History of National Music and Folk-Lore
Primitive Music, by A. Wallaschek (^4.50, Longmans),
is a comprehensive and learned review of the origin and
development of the music, songs, instruments, and dances
of the savage races.
Carl Engel's Study of National Music (out of print)
and his Literature of National Alusic {$2, Novello), also
Music of the Most Ancient Nations (^3.50, Reeves), em-
body the matured convictions of a patient and thorough
investigator of historical sources.
The National Music of the World, by H. F. Chorley
(^1.50, Reeves), a noted London music critic, is probably
the most readable and popular account for the general
reader.
H. E. Krehbiel's Afro-American Folk Songs {$2,
Schirmer) is a study in racial and national music, the
outcome of many years of patient and loving labour, and
forms a pioneer work on this theme which is handled
with Mr. Krehbiel's acknowledged originality and ample
scholarship.
History of Music in America
The most considerable work in this department is
History of American Music, by L. C. Elson (^5, Macmil-
lan), an ample volume crowded with illustrations and
treating a difficult subject with sympathy and impartial-
it}^; readable in style and forming, on the whole, the
most complete all-around review extant of our country's
musical institutions and men.
One Hundred Years of Music in America, edited by
W. S. B. Mathews (^3, Presser), is a thick octavo volume
with much detailed information of native musicians
ESSENTIALS OF A MUSIC LIBRARY 335
though not possessing large critical or discriminating
value.
Famous American Composers, by Rupert Hughes (^1.50,
L. C. Page & Company), is to be noted for its enthusiasm,
vivacity, and intimate acquaintance with the composi-
tions of our countrymen, particularly those of the pres-
ent time.
In Famous Composers and Their Works, mentioned be-
fore, Mr. Krehbiel has a chapter on American composers
giving a fair and trustworthy estimate of their achieve-
ments, and the same writer has some valuable comments
on the same topic in the appendix to Lavignac's Music
and Musicians ($1.75, Holt).
Biographical Works
We must first chronicle soriie general biographical se-
ries, the most recent of which is Masters of Music, ed-
ited by F. J. Crowest (twelve vols., each $1.25, Dutton).
This covers satisfactorily nearly all the great composers,
who have been intrusted to competent hands that have
made workmanlike use of their materials. In size, illus-
trations, and form they are all most attractive.
A similar series of able monographs by British writers,
called The Great Musicians edited by Francis HuefFer
(ten vols., each $1, Scribners), have been on the market
for many years, being pioneer works in this field, and
have recently been reissued in improved form.
Another compilation is the George T. Ferris Series of
Music Biographies (five vols., each ^i, Appleton), a most
engaging little set, including the great German, Italian,
and French masters as well as the great singers, violin-
ists, and pianists. They are extremely readable and
abound in apt anecdote and vivacious description.
Not to be overlooked is the series Living Masters in
Music, edited by Rosa Newmarch (ten vols., each $1,
John Lane Company), of special timehness for its very
336 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
full accounts of contemporary musicians, in which the
student will find most interesting particulars about
such "moderns" as Debussy, Leschetizky, Paderewski,
Puccini, Richard Strauss, and others. We would also
include in this connection, the invaluable set of Famous
Composers and Their Works, with its ample chapters on
musicians, and Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musi-
cians, both mentioned before.
Many students will have to begin their biographical
study with a work grouping
the lives of the greatest com-
posers in one volume.
We quote as serviceable ex-
amples of this class A Score of
Famous Composers, by N. H.
Dole (75 cents, Crowell) ; Makers
of Music, by H. F. Sharp (^1.75,
Scribners) ; Standard Musical
Biographies, by George P. Up-
ton ($1.75, McClurg).
Lives of Individual
Composers
PHILIP spiTTA On J. S. Bach, the monu-
mental Life of Bach, by Philip
Spitta (three vols., $15, Novello), is a wonderful example
of German accuracy and profundity and the final au-
thority on all matters connected with the composer,
though beyond both the purse and the time of the aver-
age reader.
A thoroughly competent life in more moderate com-
pass is the Life of Bach, by C. H. H. Parry, the English
composer ($3.50, Putnams).
Smaller compendiums, each adequate so far as their
scope admits, are Life of Bach, by Stanley Lane Poole
($1, Scribners), and Life of Bach, by Abdy WilHams
(^1.25, Dutton).
ESSENTIALS OF A MUSIC LIBRARY 337
The 77iagnum opus in Beethoven Hterature is Thayer's
Life of Beethoven in several volumes, a remarkably com-
prehensive work originally published in German, of which
an English translation by Mr. H. E. Krehbiel will shortly
be issued by the Scribners. It will doubtless be the
final court of resort on Beethoven for years to come.
Another account is by Schindler and Moscheles (^1.50,
Ditson), both personal friends, which contains first-hand
information. There are also shorter sketches by Crow-
est (^1.25, Dutton), and by H. A. Rudall (^i, Scrib-
ners).
The romantic career of Chopin has been told with
painstaking detail by Professor Niecks in his Life of
Chopin (two vols., ^10, Novello), but the most brilliant
account is found in Chopin, the Man and His Musicy
by James Huneker (^2, Scribners), in which this accom-
plished critic tells the story and expounds his composi-
tions in his inimitable and fascinating style.
Liszt's Life of Chopin (^1.25, Ditson) is more an
aesthetic essay than a biography, though interesting
for his interpretation of the composer's character and
ideals.
Brahms has been commemorated at length in Florence
May's Life of Brahms (two vols., $7, Longmans), and by
J. A. Fuller-Maitland, a careful English writer, in a vol-
ume of the New Library of Music Series ($2.50, John Lane
Company).
Probably the most modern and scientific account of
Handel is Life of Handel, by R. A. Streatfeild (^2.50,
John Lane Company).
In smaller compass and good of their kind are Mrs.
Julia Marshall's Handel {$\, Scribners) and Abdy Wil-
liams's Handel (^1.25, Dutton).
There is no extended life of Haydn in English, but
J. Cuthbert Hadden's monograph in the Master Musician
Series (^1.25, Dutton) is trustworthy, and there is a still
smaller book by Ludwig Nohl (75 cents, McClurg).
338
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
The Life of Liszt has been done in a most picturesque
and illuminating wa}^ by James G. Huneker {$2, Scrib-
ners).
The Mendelssohn literature is quite extensive. His
interesting letters (two vols., each ^1.25, Ditson) and
letters to Moscheles ($3, Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) can be
cited. There are a number of sketches and reminiscences
of Mendelssohn of more or less value, such as the volume
by Lampadius (^1.25, Ditson)
with valuable recollections by
his friends.
The Mendelssohn Family, by
Hensel (two vols., ^5, Harpers),
is of special interest for the
light it throws on his educa-
tion and family life.
The article by Sir George
Grove in his Dictionary is ex-
cellent for its enthusiastic ap-
preciation and characterisation.
One of the most impartial
and critically helpful short
works is the Life, by Stratton in the Master Musician
Series (^1.25, Dutton).
Mozart has been honoured in the great and scholarly
work by the accomplished Otto Jahn (three vols., $15,
Novello), described by a leading musician as " in many
respects the most perfect specimen of critical biograph-
ical writing in the whole field of music history," though
its great bulk and enormous mass of detail necessarily
limit its availability.
Valuable additional works are Mozart, by W. H. Hadow
($2.50, John Lane Company), Gehring's Life of Mozart
{$1, Scribners), and Breakespeare's Life of Mozart (^1.25,
Dutton), any of which will supply the necessary facts for
the general reader.
It is a singular fact that no adequate life of Schumann
OTTO JAHN
ESSENTIALS OF A MUSIC LIBRARY 339
has appeared in English, but one of the best existing is
that by Reissmann (^i, Macmillan).
In more abridged form are FuUer-Maitland's Life of
Schumann {$1, Scribners), and Wasielewski s Life of
Schtimami ($1.25, Ditson).
The most complete work in English on the life and
career of Franz Schubert was written by Kreissler von
Hellborn in two octavo volumes, issued in London in
1869 and now out of print, though
possibly available in second-hand
condition occasionally.
An admirable account is also
contained in Sir George Grove's
article in his Dictionary of Musicy
and there is a compact smaller
life by E. Duncan in the Master
Musician Series (^1.25, Dutton).
The son of Weber, Max Weber,
has written an excellent critical carl glasenapp
biography of his father (two vols.,
^2.50, Ditson), and Sir Julius Benedict's monograph in
the Great Musician Series {$1, Scribners) has the merit of
being written by a friend and pupil who was himself an
able musician.
The Wagner literature is extremely voluminous, and
it is impossible to mention a tithe of the biographical
material. One of the most satisfactor}^ lives is Henry
T. Finck's Life of Wagner (two vols., ^4, Scribners),
noteworthy for its clearness, picturesqueness, vigour, and
variety.
Another important volume is W. J. Henderson's Life
of Wagner ($1.50, Putnam).
The monumental work by Glasenapp and Ellis, of which
six octavo volumes (each $6, Paul Trench & Co.) have
been issued, is splendidly written, though too voluminous
for general use.
More within the needs of most persons are two biog-
340
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
raphies of high critical merit — one by Ernest Newman
(^3.50, Dutton) and a more recent issue by J. F. Runci-
man (^3.50, Macmillan).
Two short Hves, each worthy of chronicle, are Life of
Wagner, by C. A. Lidgey (^1.25, Dutton), and Life of
Wagner y by Francis HuefFer (^i, Scribners).
Wagner's own autobiography is, of course, of high im-
portance (two vols., ^8.50, Dodd, Mead & Company),
but has not yet appeared in a popular edition. His cor-
respondence and letters cover a number of volumes, the
most outstanding of which are the
^<5^^^^ celebrated Wagner-Liszt Correspon-
dence (two vols., $5, Scribners) and
his famous Letters to Alathilde We-
sendonck {$\, Scribners).
Critical Works
BOOKS OF ESSAYS, APPRECIATION,
HANDBOOKS, ETC.
The pioneer work in the litera-
ture of musical appreciation was
HENRY E. KREHBIEL
undoubtedly How to Understand
Music, by the veteran New York critic, Henry E. Kreh-
biel ($1.25, Scribners), and though it has had many com-
petitors since it appeared, it has probably not been
surpassed for general acceptability by the American
musical public, whose needs it has most successfully
met.
Of a different class, but of much value to the student
and music lover, are George P. Upton's skilfully com-
piled and well-illustrated series of handbooks, The Stand-
ard Operas (^1.75, McClurg), The Standard Concert Guide
— to symphonies, cantatas, oratorios, etc. ($1.75, Mc-
Clurg), The Standard Concert Repertory — of the minor
compositions and musical forms (^1.75, McClurg). All
these have been tried and tested and pronounced trust-
ESSENTIALS OF A MUSIC LIBRARY 341
worth}^ for their compact marshalling of information con-
stantly needed in reading and studying musical works.
Among such works there must not be omitted the men-
tion of Sir George Grove's Beethoven s Nine Symphonies
(j^3, Novello), one of the best books of musical apprecia-
tion ever written.
And also Philip H. Goepp's Symphonies and Their
Meanings (three vols., each ^2, Lip-
pincott), a work full of stimulus and
inspiration.
Stories of Symphonic Music, by Law-
rence Gilman (^1.25, Harpers), is an
indispensable guide to the understand-
ing of symphonies new and old.
The Story of Chamber-Music, by N.
Kilburn in the New Music Library
Series ($1.25, Scribners), is the only
volume in English devoted entirely to
this subject and gives detailed ac-
counts of chamber compositions with
analyses and numerous examples, illus-
trations, and portraits.
Mr. W. J. Henderson, among other creditable musical
achievements, has written an excellent monograph, en-
titled What Is Good Music {$\, Scribners), full of sugges-
tive instruction for the numerous class who desire to
cultivate a taste in musical art and is marked by its
brevity, sturdy common sense, and well-compacted in-
formation. Other works of Mr. Henderson, with valuable
material, are The Story of Music {$1, Longmans) and
Preludes and Studies {$1, Longmans).
A more recent writer, Daniel Gregory Mason, in his
volumes, A Guide to Music for Young People and Other
Begin7iers ($1.50, Doubleday, Page & Company), The
Orchestral Instruments and What They Do (^1.50, Double-
day, Page & Company), and The Appreciation of Music
(withT.W. Surette) (^1.50, Doubleday, Page & Company)
W. J. HENDERSON
342 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
has revealed unusual gifts of clear statement and literary
skill in popular exposition. The same author has also
brought out some fresh and suggestive critical studies of
the old and new composers, issued by the Macmillans,
From Grieg to Brahms (^1.75), The Romantic Composers
($1.75), Beethoven and His Forerunners (^1.75).
One of the most pungent, original, and distinctive of
all our American writers is James Huneker, whose bril-
liantly written volumes have won for him a high place
in the musical world, both here and abroad. His books,
Overtones (^1.25, Scribners),
Mezzotints in Modern Music
(^1.50, Scribners), and also his
lives of Chopin and Liszt, men-
tioned elsewhere, all reveal the
author's contagious enthusiasm,
breadth of knowledge, and wide
catholicity of taste, especially in
the interpretation of the modern
school, of which he is a specially
gifted exponent.
The Education of the Music
Lover (^1.50, Scribners) is by
Professor Edward Dickinson,
who calls it "a book for those who study or teach the
art of listening." By it he places both professional and
amateur readers in his debt by his rare faculty of writing
about music in a vitalising way. He is eminentl}^ fair-
minded and his liberally broad scholarship makes him an
admirable leader in the formation of intelligent judgment
m musical affairs.
Henry T. Finck, for many years in the forefront of
American musical circles as critic of the New York Eve-
ning Post, has issued a volume the title of which is Sue--
cess in Music and How It Is Won ($1.25, Scribners),
which should be in the hands of all professional musicians,
as he there describes in a very readable and attractive
JAMES HUNEKER
ESSENTIALS OF A MUSIC LIBRARY 343
wa3' how the world's greatest singers, pianists, and teach-
ers have made their way. His practical hints on a pro-
fessional musical career cannot fail to be most invaluable
to those pursuing music as a profession.
The composer Schumann's critical essays, collected
under the title of Music and Musiciayis (two vols., ^7.50,
Reeves), are unique in musical literature as evidencing
the union in one personality of great creative power with
rare critical acumen and abound in incisive thoughts and
pithy sa3'ings.
The lectures of our own E. A. Macdowell, delivered
while professor of music at Columbia University and
gathered together under the title of Critical and His-
torical Essays (^1.50, Schmidt), have also a peculiar value
and interest on account of his remarkable gifts as a
composer.
Music and Poetry, by Sidney Lanier (^1.50, Scribners),
gifted poet and musician, is a clear and engaging out-
line of important aspects of musical criticism, full of
delicate analj^sis, educated enthusiasm, and feeling.
Purity in Music, by J. F. Thibaut (^1.25, Reeves), is a
classic in criticism, especially recommended by the com-
poser Schumann, who advises his friends to read it fre-
quently for its advocacy of the highest musical ideals.
Very popular musical works, though to be read with
caution on account of an occasional "amateur" quality
in them, are Music and Morals ($1.25, Longmans) and
My Musical Life (^1.25, Longmans), both by H. R.
Haweis, written in a singularly attractive style and cal-
culated to awaken a decided interest in the subject es-
pecially on the part of a beginner in musical reading.
Musical ^Esthetics
The Beautiful in Music (^1.75, Novello), by E. Hans-
lick, of Vienna, is characterised by a high authority as
"one of the most gracefully written as well as one of
344 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
the keenest discussions of the nature and essence of mu-
sic extant."
The Boundaries of Music ($2, Schirmer), by A. W. Am-
bros, is designed as an answer to HansHck's work, an
opposite view being taken regarding
the power of music to express emo-
tions and feelings.
Another well-known and valuable
aesthetic work is The ^Esthetics of
^^^^^ ^^"^^^ Musical Art, by Ferdinand Hand
{$2y Reeves).
Church and Sacred Music
Music in the History of the Western
Church, by Edward Dickinson (^2.50
E. HANSLiCK net, Scribners), is practically a com-
plete history of church music. It
is catholic and judicial in tone, reveals wide and exact
scholarship, is written in a dignified style, and may safely
be taken as an authority in its important field.
Suggestive volumes in the same department are J. S.
Curwen's Studies in Worship Music (two vols., ^2.75,
Curwen), by an experienced English musician, dealing
largely with congregational singing and worship in a fair
and candid way. Of a similar nature but more practical
in its details is Practical Church Music (^1.50, Revell),
by J. E. Lorenz, an American church musician, which is
a discussion of methods, purposes, and plans and contains
valuable counsel and suggestions.
Professor W. S. Pratt, of Hartford Theological Sem-
inary, and a wise and efficient worker in this field for
years, has published an admirable volume conveying his
experience and entitled Musical Ministries in the Church
(^1.25, Schirmer).
ESSENTIALS OF A MUSIC LIBRARY 345
The Organ and Organists
One of the most elaborate and complete books on the
construction of the organ is Practical Treatise on Organ
Building, by F. E. Robertson (two vols., ^10, Schirmer).
A smaller work, interesting for its detailed account of
the newest modern improvements and innovations, is
Modern Orgari Building, by Lewis (^3, William Reeves).
Still more compact are two books by H. Abdy Williams
in the Music Story Series, The Story of the Organ and
The Story of Organ Music (each $1.25 net, Scribners),
both enriched by hundreds of pictures and full of facts
about the instrument and its music, photographs of
celebrated modern organs, and sketches of the great
organists of all schools.
Musical Instruments
(see also under piano and under violin)
A standard compendium in this line is Musical Instru-
ments, by Carl Engel ($1.75, Chapman & Hall), a capi-
tal handbook by an expert antiquarian. There are also
some good illustrations and descriptions of musical instru-
ments in English Music from 160^ to 1904 (^1.25, Scrib-
ners).
The most elaborate treatise in English on this topic
is Musical Instruments, by K. Schlesinger (two vols.,
$6, Scribners), with hundreds of authentic illustrations
of ancient and modern examples.
Modern orchestral instruments are fully described in
several works, namely: Orchestral Instruments and Their
Use, by Arthur Elson {$2, L. C. Page & Company); The
Orchestral Instruments and What They Do, by D. G.
Mason (^1.25, Doubleday, Page & Company); How
to Listen to an Orchestra, by Annie W. Patterson (^1.75,
James Pott & Co.); The Orchestra and Orchestral Music,
346 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
by W. J. Henderson (^1.25, Scribners), all excellent
treatises and fulfilling well their purpose.
The Opera
The most compact monograph in the operatic field as
a whole is The Opera^ Past and Present (^1.25, Scribners),
by a musical scholar of rare culture and high ideals, W. F.
Apthorp, of Boston, which discards biographical details
and concentrates attention on the growth and expansion
of the various features of the art and the parts played
in its development by the different composers.
On an entirely different plan but of unquestionable
value in its own way is Arthur Elson's Critical History
(^1.50, L. C. Page & Company). One of Mr. H. E.
Krehbiel's deservedly popular works is his A Book of
Operas ($1.75, Macmillan), which gives, with the author's
abundant familiarity with the theme and trained capacity
for literary expression, their histories, their plots, and their
music. Another operatic production of his pen is Chap-
ters of Opera ($2.50, Holt), a real contribution to the his-
tory of music in New York.
Of fine critical quality is The Opera, by R. A. Streat-
feild (^1.25, Lippincott), an English writer of high repute,
which includes full descriptions of every work in the
modern repertory.
In the useful Music Story Series is contained the Story
of the Opera, by E. Markham Lee (^1.25, Scribners), which
presents a great variety of topics, some of which are not
touched upon in other books.
Handbooks to the Opera
Of handbooks and guides to the operas and their plots
there is no lack. The oldest and probably the most
popular and generally satisfactory is The Standard Operas,
by George P. Upton (^1.75, McClurg), now brought out
in a much enlarged and superior form.
ESSENTIALS OF A MUSIC LIBRARY 347
Other worthy handbooks are Guide to the Opera and
its companion volume Guide to the Modern Opera, by-
Esther Singleton (each ^1.50, Dodd, Mead & Companj^),
full of striking and glowing analyses; The Standard
Opera Glass, by Charles Annesley ($1.50, Brentano), and
The Opera Goer's Complete Guide, by Leo Melitz (^1.50,
Dodd, Mead & Company), both of which are particu-
larly noted for the very large number of operatic works
included in them even though the notices are necessarily
much condensed.
The critical works dealing with the Wagner operas
would form almost a library in themselves, so we must,
perforce, confine our suggestions to a small number. Ac-
cording to many well-informed judges the best all-around
book is the Music Dramas of Richard Wagner, by A.
Lavignac (^2.50, Dodd, Mead & Companj^), notable for
its clearness, conciseness, and impartiality.
The Legends of the Wagner Drama, by Jessie L. Weston
($1.75, Scribners), gives accurate knowledge respecting
the historic legends on which Wagner based his dramas,
and H. E. Krehbiel's Studies in the Wagnerian Dramas
(^1.25, Harper), contains illuminating Wagnerian criti-
cism.
Among the numberless guides to the motifs of the
Wagner dramas. The Wolzogen series in several volumes
is authoritative (75 cents each, Schirmer).
Oratorio, Cantata, and Choral Music
A single volume covering altogether the subject of
oratorio music is called The Story of the Oratorio, by
Annie W. Patterson (^1.25, Scribners), and is the most
complete and fully illustrated, consecutive, and historical
treatment of this art form now available.
George P. Upton's volumes, the Standard Oratorios and
the Sta7idard Cantatas, are now incorporated into his ex-
cellent work the Standard Concert Guide ($1.75, McClurg),
348 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
which gives full sketches of the stories, analyses of the
music, and particulars about composers.
Arthur Mees, the well-known musical conductor, has
contributed to the Music Lover's Library a work entitled
Choirs and Choral Alusic ($1.25, Scribners), which prac-
tically occupies this field alone, so far as sj^stematic treat-
ment is concerned, and presents the necessary data about
choral works, choral societies, and the conducting and
management of choirs and choir singing in concise but
satisfactory form.
Pianists and the Pianoforte
For piano students there is no more appetising work to
begin with than Amy Fay's Music Study in Germany
(^1.25, McClurg). Though issued years ago, it is still
widely popular as a fresh and vivid picture of the strug-
gles and the successes of an American student abroad
with its lifelike and graphic accounts of the teaching
methods of Liszt, Deppe, and other great masters.
On the great virtuosos we find Great Violinists and
Pianists, George T. Ferris (^i, Appletons), with its glow-
ing and highl}^ rhetorical sketches of players from de-
menti to Paderewski.
A standard reference book is A. Ehrlich's Celebrated
Pianists {$2, Presser), with carefully collected biograph-
ical notices of over one hundred and fifty performers, in
alphabetical arrangement and with numerous portraits,
including sketches of twenty-five noted American pian-
ists.
The lives of the pianists Chopin and Liszt, important
in this connection, have been already mentioned in the
biographical section of this chapter.
To these we may add the little volume on Paderewski^
by E. A. Baughan, in the Living Masters of Music series
(^i, John Lane & Company); the Autobiography of Ru-
binstein {$1, Little, Brown & Company).
ESSENTIALS OF A MUSIC LIBRARY 349
Possibly, the volume giving most information to the
general reader will be The Pianoforte and Its Music, by
H. E. Krehbiel (^1.25, Scribners), in which he has com-
passed the whole subject in a sound and thorough man-
ner, treating of the instrument itself, the composers of
its music, and the great players, giving the typical stu-
dent or amateur just the sort of information most needed.
A book valued by many is J. C. Fillmore's Pianoforte
Music ($1.50, Presser), with clearly arranged biograph-
ical sketches and critical estimates of the schools and com-
posers.
More elaborate volumes are: History of the Pianoforte
and Its Players, by Oscar W. Bie (^6, Dutton), embel-
lished with attractive illustrations, and also History of
Pianoforte Playing and Piano Literature, by C. F. Weitz-
mann (^2.50, Schirmer), somewhat formal in style but
exact in its facts.
A. J. Hipkins's Description and History of the Piano-
forte (^1.25, Novello) is by an expert on instruments and
contains valuable plates showmg various historical forms
of the instrument.
On the analysis of pianoforte compositions, a subject
of growing interest among musical students, there are
several books, among them being Descriptive Analysis
of Piano Works for Clubs arid Program Making, by E. B.
Perry (^2.00, Presser); Weil-Known Piano Solos, by
C. W. Wilkinson (four parts, each 40 cents, Scribners),
showing how to play them with understanding, expres-
sion, and effect, and Elterlein's book on Beethoven s So-
natas (^1.25, Reeves).
On Chopin's works we can recommend J Handbook of
Chopin's Works, by G. C. Ashton Jonson {$2, Scribners),
in which each opus is placed in its proper sequence and
followed by lucid explanations and brief critical extracts,
forming an invaluable book of ready reference.
We must also refer here to Huneker's well-known work
on Chopin, the Man and His Music, mentioned in the
350 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
biographical section, which includes masterly analyses
of Chopin's piano compositions.
The Great in Music, by W. S. B. Mathews (two vols.,
^3.50, Mathews' Company), is a systematic course of
study in the music of classical and modern composers,
and is a work of great suggestiveness and practical help-
fulness for student clubs. And on the same line is Music
Club Programs, hy Arthur Elson (^1.25, Ditson), which
embraces historical outlines of all nations, schools, and
composers, with questions for study.
The Violin and Violinists
The literature on the violin is much larger than that
on any other instrument. A peculiar fascination, felt by
all lovers of the instrument, attaches to its history. A
most valuable collection of books in this division is the
Strad Library (about twenty vols., each ^i. The Strad,
London), covering exhaustively all phases of the instru-
ment, manufacture, playing, etc.
The Story of the Violin, by Paul Stoeving (^1.25,
Scribners), is a concise and closely packed brochure, with
pertinent facts and abundant illustrations to brighten
its pages.
On the old and classic instruments no book stands
higher as an authority than that by the English violin
maker George Hart, called The Violin, Its Famous
Makers and Their Imitators {$G, Dulau & Company), and
its companion volume by the same writer, The Violin a?id
Its Music ($5, Dulau & Company).
On violin manufacture and construction. Heron Allen's
Violin Making as It Was and Is (^3, Scribners) is very
thorough and practical, with all kinds of specifications and
plans. On a smaller but most useful scale is Broadhouse's
The Violin and How to Make It (^1.50, William Reeves).
On lives of the violinists the reader will find Ehrlich's
Celebrated Violinists, Past and Present {$2, Scribners),
ESSENTIALS OF A MUSIC LIBRARY 351
though not adapted for consecutive reading, useful for
consultation, with its numerous carefully gleaned bio-
graphical details.
More vivacious volumes are Great Pianists and Violin-
ists y by G. T. Ferris (^i, Appletons), and Famous Vio-
linists of To-Day and Yesterday , by H. C. Lahee (^1.50,
L. C. Page & Company).
Among the many technical works on violin playing we
may mention Technics of Violin Playing, by Carl Cour-
voisier, a well-known authority (^i, The Strad); Chats
to Violin Students, by G. C. Corrodus (^i. The Strad);
True Principles of Violin Playing, hy George Lehman
(^i, Schirmer); and Catechism of Violin Playing, by C.
Schroeder (^i, Augener), all the works of acknowledged
experts in the field.
The Voice and Singing
It is impossible to give here any account of the num-
berless voice methods of varying degrees of excellence,
and only a few of the most famous books which have
been tested by time and experience can be cited. Among
these are Voice, Song, and Speech, by Brown and
Behnke {$2, Putnams), two noted London specialists;
The Hygiene of the Vocal Organs, by Dr. Morell Mac-
kenzie (^1.25, Werner); How to Sing, by Lilli Lehman
(^1.50, Macmillan); Hints on Singing, by Manuel Gar-
cia (^1.50, Schuberth); The Philosophy of Si7iging, by
Clara Rogers ($1.50, Harpers); The Art of the Singer,
by W. J. Henderson (^1.25, Scribners), a book of general
all-around interest; and a host of others.
On the literature of songs there is a delightful little
account by H. T. Finck called Songs aiid Song Writers
(^1.25, Scribners), filling a niche all by itself and aptly
called "a song Baedeker," so crowded and crammed is
it with good things.
The fives of great singers is a subject of vivid interest
352 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
to many and there are two small volumes by George T.
Ferris, entitled Great Singers (two vols., each ^i, Apple-
ton), written with literary colour and charm.
Henry C. Lahee's Famous Singers of To-Day and Yes-
terday ($1.50, L. C. Page & Company) gives carefully
gathered information.
The life of the celebrated voice teacher Madame
Mathilde Marchesi, called Marchesi and Music (^2.50,
Harpers), though marred by egotism, abounds in inter-
esting passages.
Especially attractive is the story of the renowned Gar-
cia, the inventor of the laryngoscope, who lived to the
great age of one hundred and knew personally every
great musician of three generations, called Garcia the
Centenarian, and His Time, by M. S. Mackinlay (^4,
Appletons).
CHAPTER XLIII
EXAMINATION PAPERS IN MUSIC HISTORY, SET
BY SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
The papers that follow will give the reader a compre-
hensive idea of the scope and extent of music history as
a study in schools and colleges. In nearly all instances
the subject, presented in the form of lectures, requires
work based upon one or more text-books and, in addi-
tion, a certain amount of research over a somewhat
extensive bibliography.
No. I.
NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
History of Music
Answer six questions from this group.
Group I. i. What do the terms "classic" and "romantic" signify-
as applied to periods of music history? Give the approximate date of
the beginning of each period and name six important composers be-
longing to each.
2. Name three great oratorios by different composers and briefly
describe each.
3. What composer is called the "creator of the modern song"?
What did he do for the song to justify this praise? Name four of
his greatest songs.
4. Give an account of the origin and development of the orchestra.
5. What composers have written the finest music for the orchestra?
Name /o Mr of the greatest symphonies the world has yet known.
6. State the distinctive influence on opera or the contribution to
opera of each of the following composers: Gluck, Wagner, Weber,
Beethoven, Verdi, Mozart, Rossini, Gounod. Arrange the names in
chronologic order and name one opera of each.
7. For what is each of the following musicians most esteemed: J.
S. Bach, Muzio Clementi, Hector Berlioz, Paganini, F. Chopin, Franz
353
354 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
Liszt, Georges Bizet, Anton Rubinstein, Peter Tschaikowsky, Anton
Dvorak, Edvard Grieg, Edward Elgar?
8. Why are Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms often ranked together?
Write quite fully concerning the life and work of one of these musi-
cians and briefly concerning the work of the other two.
No. 2.
NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
History of Music
Answer eight questions from this group.
1. Write briefly on the contrapuntal, classic, and romantic schools
of music, stating the characteristics of each and naming its most dis-
tinguished representatives.
2. Write briefly on the music of Richard Strauss and Claude De-
bussy. State what, in your opinion, individualises the work of each.
Name at least three of the representative compositions of each.
3. Answer both a and b:
a. Name four European composers specially esteemed for their
songs, state where and when each one lived, and name two
well-known songs of each.
h. Name three eminent American song composers and mention
tzvo songs of each.
4. Name at least two distinguished musical contemporaries of {a)
Louis XIV, (b) Napoleon, (c) Queen Victoria.
5. Describe briefly the classical symphony. Name six symphonic
writers. Give a list of symphonies that you have heard or studied.
6. Answer a, b, c, and d:
a. When was the pianoforte invented? What did it supersede?
b. When did Clementi live? What influence had he and his fol-
lowers on the growth of piano composition and technic?
c. Name some of the piano compositions of Chopin, Beethoven,
Schumann, and Liszt. Write briefly of the style of each.
d. Name six famous pianists now living.
7. Give the prevailing characteristics of music in the period between
{a) 1400-1600, {b) 1600-1700, (c) 1700-1800, {d) 1800-1900.
8. Distinguish between the forms in each of the following groups:
{a) cantata and oratorio, {b) grand opera, romantic opera, and opera
comique, (c) symphony and symphonic poem. Name one composition
of each class, with its composer.
9. Write briefly on the general characteristics of {a) classical music,
Q)) romantic music, (c) programme music. Name three representative
composers of each style with one work of each.
EXAMINATION PAPERS 355
No. 3. (a).
INSTITUTE OF MUSICAL ART OF THE CITY OF
NEW YORK
Examination in Music History
Special Course
1. Remark on (a) The contrast between the ancient and the mod-
ern conception of music,
Or (b) The growth of musical notation.
2. Contrast the piano with preceding keyboard instruments.
3. Describe the origin and purpose of the opera as an art form.
4. What is a sonata and by whom and when was its modern form
specially determined?
5. Give an account of the orchestra and the styles peculiar to it.
N. B. Any one question may be omitted for the sake of answering
the others more fully.
No. 3. {b).
Examination in Music History
General Course
1. What forms or styles of composition were already prominent
before 1700? Give a brief account of one of these.
2. What was Handel's preparation for oratorio writing? When and
why did he enter upon it and with what results?
3. Give an outline of Bach's life with special comment on some one
aspect of his style and genius that Interests you.
4. Compare Haydn and Mozart as to personality, career, style, and
influence.
5. Remark on Beethoven's life and work in relation to the advance
of musical art at the opening of the nineteenth century.
N. B. Any one question may be omitted for the sake of answering
the others more fully.
No. 4.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Music 3
The given order of questions to be followed. Write legibly. Express
yourself clearly.
I. Name four composers between Schubert and Richard Strauss
who have contributed to the development of the German Lied. Name
four well-known lyric poets from whom the texts for their songs were
356
ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
often taken. What are the special features of the German art song in
distinction from the folk-song? Give the titles of six representative
German songs, one, at least, of each of the composers treated above.
2. State the leading facts in the life of Von Weber. In what im-
portant respects did he differ as a musician from his predecessors.''
What were the national tendencies of his time and how do his works
embody these tendencies? Describe the characteristics of romantic
opera as conceived by Von Weber and name his chief works in this
field. Who were three of the lesser composers of this type of opera
associated with him?
3. Describe the prominent characteristics of Chopin's music and
name the works which best represent his style. Give a list of the
celebrated artistic and literary people with whom Chopin associated
in Paris during the decade 1830-40.
4. In what three classes may all programme music be grouped?
Name a representative composer of programme music in the seven-
teenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Describe clearly what
has been the influence of Berlioz and of Liszt upon modern orches-
tral music. Name several important works of each composer. What
term did Liszt invent and apply to his orchestral works? What is the
essential difference in content and treatment between works of this
type and the classic symphony? What were some of Liszt's mani-
fold activities? What four cities are prominently associated with
his career?
5. Name standard compositions by various composers which find
their source in the works of the following authors: Shakespeare, Goethe,
Schiller, Scott, Byron, Hugo. Comment briefly on the connection in
any one of these works between the literary basis and the musical
treatment.
6. Name the composer and branch of music of each of the following
compositions: Fingal's Cave, V Africaine, Prince Igor, The Merry
Wives of Windsor, 181 2 Overture, Hans Heiling, Tod und Verkldrung,
Reflets dans I'eau, Sampson and Delilah, Scheherazade, Sakuntala,
Louise, Boris Godounow.
7. Describe the social and political conditions of Italy during the
first seven decades of the last century. In the works of what composer
are these conditions most vividly reflected? Name several of his
works. What striking use was often made of his name? Who is the
most prominent living exponent of Italian music? Name three of his
well-known works.
Take eitlier question S or g
8. Contrast briefly the essential characteristics of Russian, Norwe-
gian, and Hungarian folk music.
EXAMINATION PAPERS 357
9. State the prominent characteristics and mention at least one rep-
resentative work of each of the following masters: Grieg, Dvorak,
Tschaikowsky, Cesar Franck, Chabrier, Brahms, Debussy, d'Indy.
10. What are the striking differences between the music-drama of
Wagner and the former type of opera? Give a chronological list of
Wagner's works and describe the changes in his dramatic ideals and
musical style which these works embody. Mention two incidents in
Wagner's life which influenced strongly his inspiration. Explain the
terms "leading motive" and "transformation of motive."
No. 5.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Music 3
1. Give some account of the influence of Beethoven during the
nineteenth century. On whom did he react and in what manner?
2. Compare and differentiate the romanticism of Weber (instru-
mental music), Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Schumann.
3. Trace the general course of programme music from Beethoven
to the present day. Mention as many specific works as possible to
give point to your statements.
4. State wherein consists the greatness of Chopin. What were the
sources of his piano style and of his forms? What was his treatment
of sonata form? Comment on Chopin as nationalist.
5. In what respects was Berlioz a pioneer? Show clearly the rela-
tion between the artistic and sociological conditions of the times and
Berlioz's musical standpoint. Describe his personality as man and
artist. What contemporaries were influenced by him? What was
Berlioz's attitude toward opera? Toward sonata form?
6. Describe Liszt's attainments and influence as a pianist. What
were the sources of his epoch-making technic? Comment on Liszt
as transcriber. What did he accomplish at Weimar? Describe the
symphonic poem in respect to form and contents. Where and on
whom has the influence of Liszt reacted most noticeably ?
7. Outline briefly the conditions existent in French and Italian opera
during the first half of the nineteenth century. Wherein consisted
Wagner's "reform" of opera. What are the important stages in his
work as a dramatic composer? What were the origin and function of
the leading motive? Comment briefly on Wagner's use of the orchestra.
8. Compare and differentiate the critical activity of Schumann,
Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner.
9. Select any six of the following names for a concise summary of
their characteristics as composers and their historical influence:
Brahms, Tschaikowsky, Bruckner, Saint-Saens, Richard Strauss, Cesar
358 ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
Franck, Grieg, Dvorak, Moussorgsky, Debussy, Elgar, Rimsky-Kor-
sakow, d'Indy, MacDowell.
No. 6.
YALE COLLEGE
semiannual examination
Music 3 — History of Music
1. How is design in music shown? Is painting a more imitative
art than music or less?
2. Contrast Chinese and Hindu scale systems. Of what nature are
modern European scales? Give a short account of ancient Greek and
mediaeval church scales.
3. Define organum, counterpoint, discant. Describe the steps
taken during the Middle Ages toward the development of harmony.
4. Who was Adam de la Halle, Frescobaldi, Guido of Arezzo, John
Dunstable, Henry Purcell, Orlando Lasso?
5. Give an account of the Netherlands school of composers with
names and approximate dates.
6. Write a short biographical sketch of Palestrina. To what kind
of music did he restrict himself? What is the present importance of
his music? How does it differ from the music of our own time?
7. Compare folk music and art music.
8. State the achievements and limitations of early choral music.
9. What serious errors in church music was Palestrina called upon
to correct?
ID. Describe early musical instruments and the style of music
written for them.
No. 7.
YALE COLLEGE
semiannual examination
History of Music
1. Write a biographical sketch of Bach with a discussion of his posi-
tion in music.
2. What important influences tended to make Handel's style differ-
ent from that of Bach? In what does this difference consist?
3. Give a brief history of oratorio, naming important composers and
their works.
4. Describe the growth and climax of sonata form.
5. Wherein lies the greatness of Beethoven?
6. Contrast and explain classicism and romanticism. Classify
under these two heads the French and German composers from the
EXAMINATION PAPERS 359
time of Bach to that of Wagner. Arrange the names chronologi-
cally.
7. How many symphonies are known by Beethoven, Brahms, Schu-
mann, Tschaikowsky, Wagner?
8. Give an account of the development of opera in Italy from its
beginning to the present, with composers' names, dates, and works.
9. Give a like account of opera in Germany.
10. Explain the Wagnerian system of opera and name as many of
Wagner's operas as you can.
11. Mention important works by each of the following composers:
Haydn, Mozart, Handel, Liszt, Chopin, Weber, Saint-Saens, Verdi,
Berlioz, Schumann.
12. What is a symphonic poem? What composer is identified with
the earliest examples of this kind of music? Name three of his works.
No. 8.
TUFTS COLLEGE
1. Write for about fifteen minutes on one of the following sub-
jects: (a) Ambrose and Gregory, (b) Palestrina and Lasso, (c) minne-
singers and mastersingers.
2. Indicate briefly the significance of the following: {a) Antipho-
narium, (b) canon, (c) Bayreuth, (d) aria, (e) ballad, (/) chorale,
(g) figured bass, (h) discant, ({) recitative, (;) mode, (k) equal tem-
perament, (/) opera comique.
3. Name, with approximate dates, some composers who have had
important influence on the development of opera, and state, if you
can, the contribution which each made to that development.
4. Give author, nature, and approximate date of the following works:
a. St. Paul.
b. The Creation.
c. The Unfinished Symphony.
d. Benvenuto Cellini.
e. The Huguenots.
/. Iphigenia in Tauris.
g. Oberon.
h. Carmen.
i. Kaiserquartet.
y. Pastoral Symphony.
k. The Lamentations.
/. Genoveva.
m. Mors et Vita.
n. Life for the Czar.
0. Aid a.
36o ESSENTIALS IN MUSIC HISTORY
p. Romeo and Juliet.
q. Marriage of Figaro,
r. Ein Heldenleben.
s. Pathetic symphony.
t. Parsifal.
u. Kreutzer Sonata.
V. Judas Maccabaeus.
zv. Summer is a-coming in.
5. Give approximate date and chief claim to fame of the follow-
ing: C. P. E. Bach, Berlioz, Chopin, Lully, Kuhnau, Dufay.
6. Take a topic, biographical or historical, which has interested you
and outline an essay upon it. Use syllabus form if you choose.
N. B. If, in No. 4, you discover any names applying to two works,
name both.
No. 9.
OBERLIN CONSERVATORY
1. What circumstances brought Handel to England? In what
period of his life did he compose his Italian operas, and what was
their general character?
2. Why did he turn to writing oratorios?
3. How does the oratorio differ from the opera and from church
music?
4. Where is the influence of the Italian opera shown in Handel's
oratorios?
5. What can be said of his choruses: range of style and expression,
variety of structure, dramatic quality, etc.?
6. Under what conditions was the work of Sebastian Bach produced?
What different national influences are found in his music? What has
been the nature of his influence upon later art?
7. What were the leading movements in music just after Bach's
time?
8. Give an outline of the development of the symphony up to
Beethoven.
9. What is the sonata form?
10. How was the orchestra constituted in the time of Haydn and
Mozart? What additions were made by Beethoven?
11. How did Beethoven complete the form in symphony and so-
nata?
12. What is the significance of Beethoven in the development of
expression?
13. What do you consider the chief elements in the greatness of
Beethoven ?
INDEX OF NAMES
Adam (de la Halle), 66, 85, 128.
Agricola, M., 113, 187.
Ahle, J. G., 157.
Ahle, J. R., 157.
Albrechtsbergcr, J. G., 215, 252, 254.
AUegri, G., 127.
Amati, 187.
Ambrose, St., 34, 35, 50, 128.
Animuccia, G., 127, 143.
Aribo, 53.
Ariosti, A., 148, 218.
Aristoxenos, 25.
Arkadelt, J., 103.
d'Astorga, E., 196.
Auber, D. F. E., 271.
Bach, J. A., 221, 223.
Bach, J. Ch., 221.
Bach, J. S., 139, IS7, 165, 177, 221,
224.
Bach, P. E., 17^, 240, 242^^'
Bach, v., 221.
Bach, W. F., 225.
Balfe, M., 273.
Bardi, G., 143.
Beethoven, L. van, 252 et seq.
Bellini, V., 272.
Benda, G., 232.
Bennett, J., 127.
Berchem, J., 112.
Berger, H., 275.
Berger, L., 250.
Berlioz, H., 287.
Bizet, G., 271.
Bodenschatz, E., 131.
Boes, J. van, 112.
Boieldieu, F. A., 271.
Boito, A., 272.
Bononcini, G., 196, 218.
Bordoni, F., 209.
Brahms, J., 299.
Briegel, W. C, 157.
Bruhns, W., 169.
Brumel, A., 102, 105.
Bull, J., 127, 184.
Bull, O., 323.
Billow, H. von, 291.
Busnois, A., 84, 97, 98.
Buxtehude, D., 169.
Byrd, W., 127, 184.
Caccini, G., 144.
Caldara, A., 196.
Calvicius, S., 137.
Cambert, R., 205.
Carey, H., 206.
Carissimi, G., 127, 148, 190.
Caron, F., 96.
Cavalieri, E. del, 144.
Cavalli, F., 148, 190.
Cesti, M. A., 148, 190.
Charlemagne, 62.
Charpentier, G., 317.
Chatelaine de Coucy, 63.
Chaucer, G., 60, JJ.
Cherubini, L., 269, 275, 290.
Chopin, F., 65, 284.
Christofori, B., 176.
Cimarosa, D., 271.
Clari, G. M., 196.
Clayton, T., 206.
Clement (non Papa), 112.
Clementi, M., 249.
Colonna, G. P., 196.
Compere, L., 105.
Conti, F., 197.
Corelli, A., 127, 187.
Cornelius, P., 291.
Cottonius, J., 53.
Couperin, F., 177, 179, 181.
361
362
INDEX
Cowen, F., 273.
Cramer, J. B., 250.
Croce, G. della, 126.
Criiger, J., 139.
Czerny, C, 290.
Danican, A., 204.
Darwin, C, 6.
David, F., 291,
Davidson, T., 24.
Debussy, C, 317.
Dietmar von Kiirenberg, 71.
Dittersdorf, C. D. von, 231.
Donati, B., 126.
Dowland, J., 127.
Dufay, G., 96, 98, 128.
Dukas, P., 317.
Dunstable, J., 95.
Durante, F., 127, 190.
Dussek, J. L., 250.
Dux (Ducis), B., 105.
Dvorak, A., 310.
Eccard, J., 138.
Elgar, E., 273.
Engel, C, 19.
Ephraem, St., 38.
Epictetus, 32.
Faber, D., 174.
Farnaby, G., 184.
Faugues, V., 96.
Feo, F., 127, 191.
Ferrabosco, D., 127.
Ferrari, B., 148.
Festa, C, 112, 127.
Fetis, J. F., II, 191.
Field, J., 251.
Finck, Heinrich, 106, 113.
Finck, Hermann, 106, 107.
Flotow, F. von, 268.
Forkel, J. N., 106.
Fortsch, J. P., 212.
Franck, C, 317.
Franck, J. W., 212.
Franck, M., 139, 152.
Franco of Cologne, 55, 90, i:
Franco of Paris, 55, 90, 128.
Freschi, G., 166, 182.
Frescobaldi, G., 166, 182.
Froberger, J. J., 168.
Fulda, A. de, 113.
Fux, J., 186, 196, 207, 215.
Gabrieli, A., 126.
Gabrieli, G., 126, 139, 154.
Gafurius, F., 54, 112.
Galilei, V., 145.
Galuppi, B., 196.
Gasparini, F., 195.
Gastoldi, G., 126.
Gaultier, D., 179.
Gay, J., 218.
Gerbert, M., 53.
Gibbons, O., 127, 184.
Glareanus, H., 112.
Glinka, M., 273.
Gluck, C. VV. von, 233, 269.
Goetz, H., 268.
Goldmark, C, 268.
Gombert, N., 103, xo8.
Gossec, F. J., 202, 203, 271.
Gottfried von Strassburg, 72.
Goudimel, C, 112, 126, 127.
Gounod, C, 271.
Graun, K. H., 208.
Gregory, 17, 36, 38, 128.
Gretry, A., 204.
Grieg, E., 310.
Guarneris, 187.
Guido of Arezzo, 47, 51, 53,
128.
Guillaume de Marchant, 91.
Halevy, J., 270.
Hall, J. L., 42.
Halleck, R. P., 42, 77.
Hammerschmidt, A., 139.
Handel, G. F., 213, 216.
Hartmann von Aue, 72.
Hasse, J. A., 208.
Hassler, H. L., 137.
Hastings, T., 322.
Haydn, J., 231, 240, 242.
Heinrich von Meissen, 72.
Heinrich von Morungen, 72.
Heinrich von Veldecke, 68.
Helmore, Rev. T., 39.
89, 92,
INDEX
363
Hermann, N., 135.
Herold, L. J. F., 271.
Hilarius, 40.
Hiller, J. A., 251.
Hilton, J., 127.
Hobrecht, J., 102.
Holden, O., 322.
Hollander, C, 118.
Holzbauer, I., 233.
Horn, J. C, 188.
Hucbald, 44, 51, 89, 91, 92, 128.
Hummel, J. N., 250.
Humphrey, P., 184.
Isaac, H., 106, 136.
Jannequin, C, 104, 107.
Jean de Garlande, 90.
Jean de Muris, 57, 91.
Jerome, of Moravia, 57, 91.
Jerome, St., 32.
Joachim, J., 291, 300.
Jommelli, N., 191.
Josquin des Pres, 102, 105, 107, 116,
128.
Keiser, R., 122.
Kerll, J. K., 208.
Kirnberger, J. P., 215.
Klengel, A. A., 250.
Koninck, 96.
Konrad von Wiirzburg, 72.
Kretschmer, E., 268.
Kreutzer, K., 268.
Kugelman, H., 135.
Kuhnau, J., 185, 186, 221.
Kusser, J. S., 212.
Lane, E. W., 13.
Lasso, O. di, 114, 128.
Legrenzi, G., 148, 195.
Lekeu, G., 317.
Leo, L., 127, 190.
Leoncavallo, R., 272.
Leonin, 90.
Lind, J., 323.
LIndpainter, P. J. von, 268.
Liszt, P., 289.
Locke, M., 205.
Lortzing, A., 268.
Lotti, A., 195.
Lotti, G., 195.
Lully, G. B., 197, 199.
Luther, M., 132, 134.
MacFarren, G., 273.
Mackenzie, A., 273.
Mandeville, Sir J., 77.
Marcello, B., 127.
Marcellus II, 124.
Marchetto of Padua, 57.
Marenzio, L., 127.
Marpurg, F. W., 215.
Marschner, H., 266.
Marullo, B., 186.
Marxsen, E., 299.
Mascagni, P., 272.
Mason, L., 322.
Massenet, J., 271.
Mattheson, J., 177, 186, 213, 214.
Mazarin, Cardinal, 198.
Mehul, E., 269.
Melanchthon, P., 135.
Mendelssohn, F., 275.
Merulo, C, 126, 166.
Meyerbeer, J., 270.
Mingotti, A., 215.
Molinari, 148.
Moniusko, S., 273.
Monsigny, S. A., 204.
Monte, P., 118.
Monteverde, C., 144, 146, 148, 150,
188, 190.
Morley, T., 127, 184.
Moscheles, L, 275.
Mozart, L., 247.
Mozart, W. A., 236, 246.
Muffat, G., 179.
Muffat, T., 186.
Miiller, W., 232.
Mussorgski, M., 273.
Nanini, B., 127.
Nanini, G., 127.
Naumann, E , 58, 86.
Neri, P., 142, 150.
Nicolai, O., 268.
Nithardt von Reuenthal, 72.
364
INDEX
Odington, W., 57, 90, 95.
Okeghem (Ockenheim), loi, 106, 116,
128.
Osiander, L., 137.
Ovid, 32.
Pachelbel, J., 168.
Paer, F., 272.
Paesiello, G., 193, 194, 271.
Paganini, N., 291.
Palestrina, L., 112, 116, 121, 128.
Pasquini, B., 167, 190, 195.
Paumann, C, 166.
Pergolesi, G. B., 191, 192.
Peri, J., 144, 146, 198.
Perotin, 90.
Petrucci, O., 105.
Petrus de Cruce, 57, 90.
Pezelius, J., 188.
Phillip de Vitry, 57, 91.
Philo, 33.
Piccini, N., 192, 193, 235.
Pierre de la Croix (Petrus de Cruce).
Pitoni, G. O., 195.
Plato, 26.
Politianus, 142.
Porpora, N., 191.
Praetorius, M., 138, 187.
Puccini, G., 272.
Purcell, H., 184, 205.
Pythagoras, 25.
Quinault, P., 199.
Quintilian, 32.
Raff, J., 291, 305.
Rameau, J. P., 182, 202.
Ravel, M., 317.
Regis (de Roi), 96.
Reichardt, J. F., 233.
Reinmar von Zweter, 72.
Reischius, G., 100.
Rhau, G., 136.
Righi, F., 148.
Righini, V., 271.
Robert of Sabillon, 90.
Rore, C. de, iii.
Rosenmiiller, J., 157.
Rossini, G., 272.
Rousseau, J. J., 202, 232.
Rubinstein, A., 273, 291, 307.
Ruggieri, G., 148.
Rusiczka, 258.
Sachs, H., 73, 74.
Saint-Saens, C, 271.
Salieri, A., 258, 260, 269, 271, 290.
Salinas, F., 113.
Sarti, G., 271.
Scarlatti, A., 127, 148, 149, 190.
Scarlatti, D., 127, 149, 180, 182, 183.
Scheidt, S. G., 158.
Schein, J. H., 139, 157.
Schelle, K. E., 38.
Schenck, J., 232.
Schubert, F., 258.
Schumann, C, 300.
Schumann, R., 279, 299, 300.
Schiitz, H., 136, 137, 153, 168.
Sebastiani, J., 157.
Senfl, L., 136.
Spencer, H., 6.
Spervogel, 71.
Spohr, L., 266.
Spontini, G., 270.
Staden, S. G., 158.
Stanford, C. V., 273.
Steffani, A., 195.
Stradella, A., 148, 149.
Stradivari, A., 186, 188.
Strauss, R., in, 289, 318.
Strunck, N. A., 212.
Sullivan, Sir A., 273.
Sweelinck, J. P., 113, 168.
Sylvester, 40.
Tallis, T., 127, 184.
Tartini, G., 187.
Tausig, C, 291.
Telemann, G. P., 214.
Terpander, 25.
Theile, J., 158.
Thibaut, 62.
Thomas, A., 271.
Tinctoris, J., 108, 112, 126.
Torelli, G., 187.
Tschaikowsky, P. I., 273.
INDEX
365
Vaet, J., 118.
Valdecke, H. von, 68, 71.
Vecchi, O., 148.
Verdelot, P., 1 1 2.
Verdi, G., 272.
Viadana, L., 144.
Viotti, G. B., 187.
Vitry (Phillip de V., q. v.).
Vittoria, L. de, 127.
Vogel, J. C, 268.
Vogler, Abbe, 267.
Wagner, R., 69, 75, 76, iii, 291,
294.
Wallace, W. V., 273.
Wallaschek, R., 6.
Walther, J., 135, 136.
Walther von der Vogelweide, 72.
Ward, J., 127.
Weber, C. M. von, 267, 279.
Weelkes, T., 127.
Wieck, C., 280.
Wieck, F., 279.
Wiegl, J., 232.
Willaert, A., 108, no, 119, 126, 128.
William, abbot of Hirschau, 53.
William of Poitiers, 63.
Winter, P. von, 232.
Wolfram von Eschenbach, 72.
Zarlino, G., no, 113, 165.
Zeelindia, 96.
Zelter, C. F., 275.
Zingarelli, N., 272.