The Masters and Their Music
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Title: The Masters and Their Music
Author: W. S. B. Mathews
Release date: November 17, 2008 [eBook #25213]
Most recently updated: January 3, 2021
Language: English
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[Frontispiece: W. S. B. MATHEWS.]
THE
MASTERS AND THEIR MUSIC
A SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIVE PROGRAMS, WITH
BIOGRAPHICAL, ESTHETICAL, AND
CRITICAL ANNOTATIONS
DESIGNED AS AN INTRODUCTION TO
MUSIC AS LITERATURE
FOR THE USE OF CLUBS, CLASSES, AND
PRIVATE STUDY
BY
W. S. B. MATHEWS
Author of "How to Understand Music," "A Popular History of Music,"
"Music: Its Ideals and Methods," "Studies in Phrasing," "Standard
Grades," Etc., Etc.
Philadelphia
Theodore Presser
1708 Chestnut Str.
COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY THEO. PRESSER
PREFACE.
When a musical student begins to think of music as a literature and to
inquire about individualities of style and musical expression, it is
necessary for him to come as soon as possible to the fountainheads of
this literature in the works of a few great masters who have set the
pace and established the limits for all the rest. In the line of
purely instrumental music this has been done by Bach, Haydn, Mozart,
Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, and Wagner. The
latter, who exercised a vast influence upon the manner of developing a
musical thought and in the selection of the orchestral colors in which
it can be expressed advantageously, powerfully stimulated all composers
later than himself, nevertheless exerted this influence at second-hand,
so to say, never having written purely instrumental movements, but
merely dramatic accompaniments of one intensity or another. Hence, for
our present purposes we may leave Wagner out altogether. Practically,
down to about the year 1875, everything in instrumental music is
original with the masters already mentioned, or was derived from them
or suggested by them. Hence, in order to understand instrumental music
we have, first of all, to make a beginning with the peculiarities,
individualities, beauty, and mastership of these great writers. Such
is the design of the following programs and explanatory matter.
My first intention has been to provide for the regular study of a
musical club, in which the playing is to be contributed by active
members designated in advance, the accessory explanations to be read
from these pages. I have thought that the playing might be divided
between several members, through which means the labor for each would
be reduced, and, on the whole, an intimate familiarity with the music
be more widely extended in the club. This method will have the
disadvantage of leaving a part of every program less well interpreted
than the others, whereby it will sometimes happen that valuable parts
will not be properly appreciated. The advantages of this method,
however, will outweigh the defects, since the awakening influence of a
course of study of this character will greatly depend upon having as
many members as possible practically interested in it.
While designed primarily for the use of a club, this course is equally
well adapted to serve as a manual for individual study, in which case
the individual himself will necessarily study every composition upon
the list, and advance to a new program only after having completely
mastered each and understood its relation to the remainder of the
course. The only exception to this rule will be in the case where
several programs of increasing difficulty are given. In this case the
player should take the easiest; after mastering this, let him go on to
the next most difficult, and, having succeeded with this, if possible
let him attack the most difficult given. In case the latter should be
impracticable for his technical resources, let him at least familiarize
himself with the general features of all of the pieces mentioned, and
get into their meaning and beauty as much as he can.
The course is also well adapted for use as a text-book in female
seminaries and the like. In this case the forms of a musical club or
definite musical organization had better be observed, and the meetings
conducted weekly or bi-weekly. The teacher should remember that all
the most important works, in which the maturity and mastership of the
composer come to their fullest expression, should be studied by the
most advanced members of the class, according to their ability, and
afterward played by the teacher himself, should he happen to possess
the necessary technical qualifications. When the maturity of the
teacher comes in to supplement the immaturity of the pupil, after the
latter has done his best, the best results will be produced.
It will be noticed, and with disappointment to some, that the analyses
and comments are free from so-called "poetry," and gush of every kind.
Particularly are they free from attempts to connect each piece with a
story or poetic idea. In the opinion of the writer, the first step
toward musical growth lies in learning to appreciate music, as music.
In instrumental music the development of a musical idea, the creation
of musical symmetries, figures, and arabesques, and the legitimate
building up of musical climaxes upon purely harmonic and rhythmic
grounds are the phases of thought which interested the composer and
gave rise to the composition. And while we may not attempt to assign
limits to the inspiration and uplifting effects of great tone-poetry,
it is quite certain that effects and influences of this kind are
arrived at in the consciousness of the listener only when purely
musical appreciation is active and deep. Without the background of
living musical appreciation of this kind, the highest flights of the
composer will pass as mere noise and fury, the hearer being in no whit
uplifted or inspired. The uplifting which comes from the supposed
assistance of a "story" or a poetic idea attached to the composition by
some outside person is quite likely to fail of being the same in
quality as that intended by the composer. Music is one thing, poetry
another. While aiming at like ends,--the expression of spiritual
beauty,--they move in different planes, which in the more highly
organized minds are not proximate. The hearer specially gifted in
music does not need the story or the poem; he finds it a hindrance.
The hearer specially gifted in poetic sensibility does not care very
much for the music; to him it is merely a foreign speech, trying to say
vaguely and imperfectly what the poetry has said definitely and well.
To put the immature and unspecialized hearer upon the poetic track as
an aid to understanding a piece of music is, therefore, to place him at
a disadvantage, leading him to expect phenomena which he will find only
in literature; just the same as it would be a mistake to intrude pieces
of music as explanations in a course in poetry or imaginative
literature.
There is a time in both cases when these accessory or related provinces
of mind can be called into friendly activity to the advantage of each
other. In a poetic training this might be at the point where the
motive of the poem is of that vague, mystical character--a mere
soul-mood--which words express so imperfectly; or, in a course of
music, when it is a question of a piece in which the composer has
definitely attempted to express a poetical idea--as happens often in
dramatic music, occasionally in symphonic poems and elsewhere. Here
the outside help is needed not so much in order to explain the music as
to supplement its shortcomings. But in the earlier stages of musical
training in this higher sense, purely musical observation (not so much
technical as esthetic) comes first, since without this all our
rhapsodies upon the greater works signify nothing.
In the course of the book there are two essays embodied which are very
important to the true mastery of the material. They are the essay upon
"Moving Forces in Music," the first chapter, and that upon "The Typical
Forms of Music," at the end of Part I. The first should be taken up
where it occurs. The other may be left to the end or introduced at any
stage of the discussion preferred by the student or by the conductor of
the class or club.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PART I.
THE MASTERS AND THEIR MUSIC.
CHAPTER I.
MOVING FORCES IN MUSIC
CHAPTER II.
BACH AND HÄNDEL
The importance of Bach in the world of music. Pleasing and
representative compositions.
CHAPTER III.
HAYDN AND MOZART
The importance of Haydn as the creator of the sonata.
CHAPTER IV.
CHARACTERISTIC MOODS OF BEETHOVEN
CHAPTER V.
BACH, MOZART, AND BEETHOVEN COMPARED
CHAPTER VI.
SCHUBERT AND MENDELSSOHN
CHAPTER VII.
ROBERT SCHUMANN
CHAPTER VIII.
CHOPIN
CHAPTER IX.
BACH, BEETHOVEN, SCHUMANN, AND CHOPIN IN THE DIFFERENT
PHASES OF THEIR ART
CHAPTER X.
LISZT
CHAPTER XI.
BACH, BEETHOVEN, CHOPIN, SCHUMANN, LISZT
CHAPTER XII.
CONCERNING THE TYPICAL MUSICAL FORMS
PART II.
MODERN MASTERS AND AMERICAN COMPOSERS.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
CHAPTER I.
NATIONALITY IN MUSIC
CHAPTER II.
JOHANNES BRAHMS
CHAPTER III.
EDVARD GRIEG
CHAPTER IV.
RUBINSTEIN AND TSCHAIKOWSKY
CHAPTER V.
THE LATER ROMANTICISTS
CHAPTER VI.
GOTTSCHALK AND MASON
CHAPTER VII.
E. A. MACDOWELL
CHAPTER VIII.
ARTHUR FOOTE AND MRS. H. H. A. BEACH
CHAPTER IX.
MISCELLANEOUS PROGRAM BY AMERICAN COMPOSERS
ILLUSTRATIONS
W. S. G. Mathews . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
Joh. Sebastian Bach, Geo. Fred. Handel
Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang A. Mozart
Ludwig van Beethoven
Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn
Robert Schumann
Frederic Francois Chopin
Franz Liszt
PART I.
THE MASTERS AND THEIR MUSIC.
CHAPTER I.
MOVING FORCES IN MUSIC
The art of music shows the operation of several moving forces, or
motives, which have presented themselves to the composer with
sufficient force to inspire the creation of the works we have. The
most important of these motives is the Musical Sense itself, since it
is to this we owe the creation of the folk-song, with its pleasing
symmetries, and the greater part of the vast literature of instrumental
music.
Aside from the expression of the musical consciousness as such, the
composer has been moved at times by the motive of Dramatic Expression.
In opera, for example, a great deal of the music has for its object to
intensify the feeling of the scene. Accordingly, the composer
carefully selects those combinations and sequences of tones which in
his opinion best correspond with the dramatic moment they are intended
to accompany. And since many of these moments are of extreme
intensity, even tragic in character, very strong and intense
combinations of tones are sometimes employed, such as could not be
justified in an instrumental composition to be played independently of
any illustrative scenery or story.
There is a third motive of composition which also has had a large place
in the development of instrumental music--viz., the Expression of the
Individual Mood of the Composer; and the further we come down in the
history of music, the more unrestricted we find the operation of this
motive.
In the order of development, the purely musical is entitled to the
first place; and it has also been the principal moving cause in the
development of the art of music, from its universality--its power to
act upon all grades of musical consciousness according to the ability
of the individual musician. For example, the desire to realize in
tones agreeable symmetries of rhythm and strong antitheses of melodic
sequence has given rise to the folk songs, all of which operate upon
what are now very elementary lines, since they never exceed very simple
and obvious rhythmic proportions and the most common chords of the key.
Recent investigations of the music of barbarous and half-civilized
tribes show that the attainment of symmetry in the folk-song is a
somewhat late experience. In many of the songs of the American
Indians, for example, the first phrase moves practically along the
track of the common chord; the second phrase frequently repeats the
first, and in some instances the repetition goes on indefinitely
without any answer or conclusion. In other cases a second phrase
follows along the track of a closely related chord, but I have never
noticed a case in which a third phrase appeared, corresponding to the
first, after a digression of the second phrase into another chord.
Generally the rhythm runs out with a series of what might be called
inarticulate drum-beats, as if an impulse existed still unsatisfied,
blindly making itself felt in these insignificant pulsations; an
impulse which a finer melodic sense would have satisfied by the proper
antithesis in relation to the first phrase, thus leaving the melody and
the rhythm to complete themselves together, as always takes place in
civilized music.
The art of music seems to be an evolution from the sense of number and
the feeling for the common chord, combined with a certain fondness for
reverie, which in the earlier stages of the art was perhaps
semi-religious in character, and in the later stages is more nearly
related to the dance, until finally, in the highest stage, it is a
reverie of the beautiful or the pathetic, pure and simple. The
existence of the harmonic sense in rude natures, where music has not
been heard, seems very difficult to account for, since, while it is
true that any resonant tone contains the partial tones constituting the
common chord, a resonant tone is very seldom heard among rude
surroundings; and the discovery of the instinct of barbarous melodies
to work themselves along the track of the chord is one of those
unexpected finds of modern investigation which, while at first seeming
to explain many things, are themselves excessively difficult to account
for.
In a sense, there is no difference in kind between the folk-song and
the most complete and highly organized art-music; that is to say, both
alike are primarily due to the operation of simple musical instincts
working off along the track of rhythmic proportion and harmonic
relation. The vast difference in the grade of the results attained is
due to the capacity of the composers. The simple man giving himself up
to reverie and being gifted with a certain amount of musical feeling,
produces a commonplace melody of serious import or of lively rhythm
according to the nature of the reverie in which he indulges. This is
to him a complete expression of his mood, and it is received as such by
others in like state.
A Bach, a Beethoven, or a Schumann, giving himself up to tonal reverie,
will also arrive at more or less symmetrical melodic forms
proportionate to the mood of the composer and the idea which he is
seeking to bring to expression; but instead of his reverie terminating
at the end of one or two periods, as is invariably the case with the
simple man (an additional idea having to be sought with much diligence
and imperfect success), he goes on for a series of periods, and perhaps
develops a quite long discourse, all having relation to the simple
conception with which he started and to a fundamental mood. It is
evident that, owing to the time consumed in writing out a musical
discourse, the high composer will not have been able to complete his
composition, or at least the written expression of it, at a single
sitting; and upon examining it we do, in fact, find it to consist of
successive chapters or paragraphs, each one of which might be taken as
the expression of a mood, and all having reference to the central mood
underlying the beginning, which by the arrangement of material
necessarily becomes the characteristic mood of the entire work.
Moreover, Bach, Beethoven, or Schumann, in bringing their tonal mood to
expression, will permit themselves all sorts of freedom in bringing
together unexpected motives, rhythms, or chords, and the result,
consequently, will be of a very different character from that attained
by the composer of simple pieces, and will, therefore, be intelligible
to those only who have the musical capacity to realize these more
remote and less obvious relations.
Our composer also will have embraced in his tonal reverie, or at least
in the extreme moments of it, all those extraordinary means of intense
musical expression which the dramatic composer may have found out in
his effort to represent the tragic and extreme moments of dramatic
complication. And thus the tendency of the musical art is constantly
toward the complex, and toward the bringing together of relations so
subtle as to have been unintelligible to earlier musicians, and
unintelligible now, at first hearing, to common ears, lacking in these
finer perceptions of advanced musical endowment. It is to be noticed,
however, that these extraordinary combinations and relations of the
advanced composer occur only at remote intervals in the works of any of
the great masters. The extremely intense or dramatic or tragic is not
the staple of human life. They are incidents in a checkered and
tempest-tossed existence, and the music representing these moods is
also a little outside the range of the purely beautiful.
In one department of the higher art of music--viz., that of
symphony--there has been a working-out of the taste for the symmetric,
the well proportioned, and the agreeable sounding; in other words, the
beautiful as to proportion, charm of melody, and the satisfactory in
harmony. In symphony the tragic and the extremely dramatic have had
but a limited realization, while the purely beautiful in tonal relation
has been the main creative motive. This we find in Mozart and
Beethoven to a remarkable degree.
The general color of instrumental music, or its increasing complexity
and high flavor, has been very much influenced by the writers of songs,
as well as by the dramatic composers writing for the stage. There have
been a few great geniuses in the art of music who, while gifted with a
wide musical fantasy of their own, have taken pleasure in deriving
their inspiration from poetry, and have occupied a large part of their
time as creative composers in setting to music such lyric texts as
interested them. In this way Schubert, for example, wrote something
like 700 songs, Schumann a considerable number, and there have been
various other composers who have written extensively in this line. The
experience of the song-writer has, on the whole, been of great use to
instrumental music, since it has tended not alone to diversify the
music by encouraging a freer and more graphic employment of tonal
forms, but also to retain the melody within the compass suitable to the
voice and to preserve the agreeable proportions of phrases, such as we
already find in poetic meters. Still, the fact remains that for
intensification and for the extravagant element in the higher art of
music, the dramatic composer is the influence mainly to be thanked,
since in opera all these things are done upon so much larger a scale
and with so much greater intensity.
It is not easy in words to point out how extremely large a factor in
art-music is the operation of the unconscious. Instinct governed the
operation of Bach and Beethoven almost as much as it does the swimming
of the swan or the flying of the pigeon. For although the instinct of
tonal relations is not one of those universal endowments shared by
every individual to the same degree, there have appeared in the art of
music a series of remarkable geniuses who seem to have had within
themselves the power to turn all kinds of moods and experiences into
musical expression. What part of this was due to fortunate heredity,
and what to environment, and how much to original genius, pure and
simple, it is impossible to say. The nature of genius always remains a
mystery. At the same time, the currency which the music of these
masters has gained in the world, and still maintains, goes to show that
the instinct which governed them in putting together tonal forms for
expressing delight, and for operating upon the feelings of the hearer,
is not different in essence from that of the common listener; since
experience shows that all this music affords gratification to the great
majority of individuals who can be brought to listen to it a few times.
Of course, it is not to be expected that a casual hearer, inattentive,
it may be, and unaccustomed to remembering what he has heard, will be
impressed by a long instrumental composition to the same degree as a
practised hearer, and especially a hearer who has already followed the
composition through several times before; but the longest symphony or
sonata always contains a variety of moments which are intensely
pleasing to the ordinary hearer listening seriously to them for the
first time. The difference between the casual hearer and the more
cultivated one is that with practice will come a perception of a larger
number of these attractive moments, and finally, at last, the
realization of the entire discourse as a one, having a central idea; in
the same way as in a sermon a casual hearer notices here and there an
idea which strikes him; then he goes off into reverie, and is only
recalled by some other striking idea which attracts his attention,
while the trained hearer may have followed the discourse entirely, and
found it interesting from first to last.
Moreover, the repeated experience of hearing brings out in ordinary
listeners a capacity which they had not previously realized--viz., the
experience of feeling in connection with the music. We are still very
far from understanding the relation between music and feeling. The
most that is known about it as yet is that to a listener of even a very
slight amount of experience the minor chord suggests unhappiness, while
the major chord sounds brighter and more agreeable; a pleasant rhythm,
somewhat lively, betokens cheerfulness; a slow and heavy rhythm
betokens seriousness, perhaps sadness; but beyond this elementary
beginning of musical feeling, which is common to the most
insignificantly endowed individuality, there is a vast world of finer
sensibilities connected with music. A certain chord, or succession of
chords, or especially a certain melo-harmonic phrase, touches the
sensitive ear with a peculiar thrill, and this happens over and over
again, and continually in the more fortunate works of all the great
masters, when followed by sympathetic hearers. The point in this
connection which we have to notice is that the capacity of feeling to
be touched and awakened by tonal incitations is practically universal
as regards civilized man. The extent of the influence which music will
exert varies enormously in individual cases, but from the fact that
every normal hearer will be touched more and more by music with a
little practice in hearing it; that the number of those who are
extremely sensitive to this form of spiritual suggestion is much larger
than is ordinarily supposed; and from the fact of this capacity in the
average individual, and the universality of the admiration awakened by
the works of the great geniuses in music, it is a fair conclusion that
the future is destined to throw more light upon this obscure part of
the psycho-musical capacity of mankind; and it is obvious, as said
before, that the great geniuses whose works are demonstrated to contain
this power to touch hearers had this endowment in an extraordinary
degree, but not to such a degree as need place any bar upon the popular
appreciation of their music, if a comparatively small amount of
education has been given in hearing.
To sum up, then, the results arrived at in this discussion. The
programs and discussions now about to be undertaken have been arranged
for the purpose of assisting the listener to a recognition of the
peculiarities and individual charms of the works of the masters
represented, and also, incidentally, to afford the listener a certain
education in the art of hearing, and, by bringing together strongly
contrasted musical moments, to afford the musical feeling a strong
incitation, in the hope of awakening in every listener this capacity of
musical delight, when the sense of the beautiful and of the expressive
is appealed to through exquisite tonal incitation.
All the music in these chapters, without exception, has been created
upon musical grounds, since it is the instinctive following out of
musical ideas which has operated through the greater part of them,
while the pursuit of the highly dramatic and strongly marked has had
but a small influence.
The higher musical fancy has many ways of expressing itself or of
elaborating musical ideas, but there are two of its characteristic
modes which the student will do well to observe at the start. These
are what I call the "thematic" and the "lyric." The ordinary
folk-song, which starts off with a melodic phrase, this phrase being
partly answered, followed by a third phrase like the first, and then a
final answer, is the general type of the lyric moment. The thematic is
generally based upon a short phrase or melodic figure, and this figure
is repeated over and over in a variety of ways and different chords and
the like until a complete idea is formed from it. These two modes of
construction are traced at greater length in the concluding essay in
this work on "The Typical Musical Forms," and the student will do well
to fortify himself from time to time by reference to that chapter.
In all the programs of this course there is one caution which the
student will do well to observe: All kinds of technical analysis of
art-works put the hearer in a mood essentially different from that
necessary for properly enjoying the works as art. Every art work is
intended to awaken an artistic delight after its kind. In painting, a
delight in form and color, and in some a kind of suggestion or story by
means of them. In music, a delight in tone and tonal relations and
rhythm, and always a sense of tonal beauty, with a strong flavor of
feeling awakened by means of them. This entire expression of musical
masterworks belongs to the unconscious operation of mind, and the
hearer who occupies himself with the effort to recognize all the
various devices and artifices of the composer, and to follow the form
as such, or who occupies himself mainly with the idea of the story
which the composer is trying to tell, puts himself in a wrong attitude
for deriving the most complete gratification from the work. In a
cultivated realization of the beauty of a great musical masterwork,
these perceptions of technical skill on the part of the composer no
doubt enter to some degree, but they are always more or less in the
background, and form a part of the actual pleasure of hearing the
symphony or the sonata scarcely more than the capital initials and
punctuation marks enter into the enjoyment of a poem. All the
incidents of punctuation and typography we take instinctively, and are
conscious of them only when some one of them is missing and an error
exists in the work. This is the case with music. Symmetry and flow of
imagination are presupposed. Hence, whatever analyses may be made in
the class as a part of the operation of studying these different
master-works, the end to be sought by the student is the enjoyment of
the work as music; to take an active and lively pleasure in the melody;
to feel the harmony and the rhythm; to enjoy the contrast of the
different moods, and so on. Every piece in the entire list is a voice
in which the composer speaks to us, and the question is not the How,
but the What.
CHAPTER II.
BACH AND HÄNDEL.
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH.
Born March 21, 1685, at Eisenach.
Died July 28, 1750, in Leipsic.
Johann Sebastian Bach was the son of the city musician of Eisenach, and
a descendant of about ten generations of musical Bachs. His father
having died when the boy was young, the latter's brother, Johann
Christoph, gave him lessons for some time, after which he studied with
other masters of considerable celebrity, and at the age of seventeen he
was engaged as violinist in the private orchestra of Prince John Ernst,
of Saxe-Weimar. He held this place, however, for but a few months,
leaving it to accept a more desirable one as organist in the new church
at Arnstadt. During the time he held this position he made several
journeys on foot to Lübeck to hear the famous Buxtehude play, and later
paid the same compliment to another eminent organist. The most
important of the early positions which Bach held was that of director
of chamber music, and organist to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, and here,
after seven years' service, he was made chief concertmeister. In 1717
he left Weimar to accept a position as musical director at Köthen,
where he had a better opportunity to express himself with orchestra.
In 1723 be became cantor of the St. Thomas School at Leipsic and music
director of the university, as the successor of Johannes Kuhnau. In
this position he had the direction of the music in the St. Thomas
Church, where he had at his disposal an orchestra, organ, and two
choirs, besides which he trained the school-children. He here wrote an
enormous amount of church music, consisting of a very large number of
cantatas for church service, of which first and last he seems to have
produced five entire series for every festival Sunday in the year.
These cantatas were short oratorios consisting of choruses, solos,
recitatives, instrumental movements, and were frequently of
considerable elaboration. Many of them are now lost, but a very
considerable number remain. He also composed five oratorios for the
Good Friday season--Passion music--of which three yet remain, the most
famous one being the "St. Matthew's Passion."
[Illustration: Joh. Sebastian Bach, Geo. Fred. Händel]
Bach was married twice, and had, in all, eleven sons and nine
daughters, of whom six sons and four daughters survived him. As a
practical musician Bach excelled upon the violin, the organ, and the
clavier, and he left a very large number of works in all three of these
departments, works which still remain the admiration of musicians the
world over. His genius was unquestioned in his own lifetime, and the
memory of it remained lively even during the fifty years following his
death when very few of his works were accessible.
The most complete biography of Bach is the large work by Spitta, in
three volumes, in which the entire life-history of this great master,
and all the circumstances amid which he worked, his discouragements,
and what he accomplished, have been traced with most patient and loving
care.
The list of Bach's compositions includes three sonatas and three
partitas (generally classed as six sonatas) for violin alone; six
sonatas for violin and piano, a large quantity of chamber music of one
sort and another, a few orchestral suites, and about ten large volumes
of music for the clavier and for the organ.
GEORG FRIEDRICH HÄNDEL.
Born February 23, 1685, at Halle.
Died April 14, 1759, in London.
Händel was the son of a surgeon and it was the wish of his father to
educate him to his own profession, but the inclination to music was so
strong that it was impossible to prevent him from following it, and,
accordingly, he had the best training it was possible to get in the
vicinity. When the boy was eleven years old he was taken to Berlin and
placed under the instruction of Bononcini and Ariosti, Italian music
being then the style at the Prussian court. At the age of sixteen
young Händel had obtained a position as organist, and he was also a
fine clavecin player and a good violinist. A few years later we find
him at Hamburg, where he played the clavecin in the orchestra and was
sometimes conductor. Here he produced several operas--"Nero,"
"Daphne," "Florindo," "Almira"--with so much success that in 1707 he
made a journey to Italy for further perfecting himself in the Italian
style. Accordingly he spent some months in Florence, three months in
Rome, thence back to Florence to produce a new opera, and by the new
year of 1708 he was in Venice, where his second Italian opera,
"Agrippina," was produced. From Venice he went again to Rome, where he
wrote two short oratorios for Cardinal Ottoboni.
He had already made the acquaintance in Venice of Scarlatti, Corelli,
and of Antonio Lotti. He accompanied the Scarlattis to Naples and
remained with them about a year, and there was great rivalry in regard
to the harpsichord playing of Händel and Domenico Scarlatti. This
success made Händel's name so celebrated that it led to his being
invited to London, where he went in 1712 to bring out some operas. He
liked London so well that he remained there all the rest of his life.
During a part of this time he was himself the manager of the opera,
importing his principal singers from Italy, producing his own operas as
well, occasionally, as those by other composers, and experiencing in
the vocation of manager the vicissitudes well known to attend it. He
made and lost several fortunes; but finally, at his death, had paid up
all claims against him and left to charity a very handsome estate.
In London he produced a large number of operas, and then, about 1733,
he began to compose oratorios, and in 1741 produced the "Messiah,"
which had a great success. He also composed a large amount of
instrumental music, and was very famous as an organist. He composed a
large number of concertos for organ with orchestra, and he was in the
habit of playing a new organ concerto in the intermission of an
oratorio.
The number of Händel's works is extremely large. All his operas are
now forgotten. Nevertheless individual fragments remain, such as the
famous alto air, "Lascio Pianga," and many others. From his
instrumental works also many charming bits have survived and still
please the public, such, for instance, as the famous "Largo." Of the
oratorios, his greatest are the "Messiah" and "Israel in Egypt." The
most complete biography of Händel is that by Chrysander.
* * * * *
In order to appreciate the importance of Bach and Händel in the history
of music, it is necessary to know something of the condition of the
world of music when they commenced to work in it. The music-making of
the world at that time had come from three original sources, and, in
spite of the vast increase in the number of composers and in the volume
of musical production, these streams had been kept, and still remained,
almost entirely distinct from each other.
At the foundation of all the art of music lies the folk-song--simple
melodies which spring up in every country and are easily learned, and
pass from one to another until they become current over large extents
of territory. The folk-song had its origin, most likely, in the dance;
and the dance, in turn, was an artistic evolution from the cadenced
chant, accompanied by a measured march, with which the early religious
services were performed. The folk-song of the nation naturally
disposed itself in the tonality most esteemed by the people, and,
accordingly, we find in some countries that most of the folk-songs are
in major tonality, while in others minor tonality prevails; the rhythm
being determined by the favorite dancing step of the people. Thus, in
Germany, many of the folk-songs are waltzes; in Spain, seguidillas; and
in Italy, tarantellas. The making of folk-songs must have gone on
continually through the spontaneous creation of new melodies by gifted
but untaught musicians in all parts of the musical world. These
melodies were seldom written down, but were passed from one to another
orally; and down to the time of Händel and Bach very little recognition
of the folk-song as a possible element in art had been accorded by any
trained musician. This is not the place to trace the evolution of the
folk-song into more and more symmetrically disposed phrases and
agreeable relations of tonality. Enough to say that from the rather
slow and minor songs of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, folk-song
had blossomed out until, in the time of Bach, it had come to express
very much of the simple delights and sorrows of the natural people.
At the opposite extreme from the folk-song were the operations of the
thoroughly trained composer. While the folk-song developed itself
entirely by ear,--and the ear and feeling of the untaught musician were
his sole guide in the production of an agreeable melody,--the trained
composer for many centuries entirely disregarded the testimony of the
ear, or admitted it in only a slight degree. His principal care was to
carry out the rules which he had been taught; and in following this
tradition,--the operation of which was almost entirely unchecked by the
musical sense properly so called,--the tendency was constantly toward
greater and greater elaboration, since only in elaboration could the
mastery of the composer be shown. The art of combining tones had been
handed down for some centuries almost entirely in the form of what is
known as counterpoint, in which the relation of each voice melody to
the others was more considered than the chords resulting as the voices
moved from one tone to another. This art had its origin apparently in
France, and the most promising of the early compositions we know were
those produced at the Sorbonne about the eleventh century. By the
thirteenth or fourteenth century the pre-eminence had been transferred
to the Low Countries, and the Netherlands became the great hothouse of
contrapuntal development.
This tendency to extravagant display of learning manifested itself in
the Netherlanders in almost every department; and whoever will read the
accounts of their receptions and festivals, with the elaborate Latin
poems and processions which attended the ceremonies, will find in the
music of those times the same qualities brought to expression.
Nevertheless, the ear could not be entirely ignored, and now and then a
master arose with genius and musical intuition necessitating his
pruning his compositions more or less in accordance with the dictates
of the ear; and thus there were such masters as Adrian Willaert, who
founded a school in Venice somewhere about 1500, and Orlando di Lasso,
who founded that in Munich at about the same time. Among the
multitudinous works of these men are many which are simple, or at least
musical in the proper sense. Nevertheless, as yet, simplicity in this
so-called high art was accidental and momentary, and complication was
the rule of its being and the measure of its power.
The complication of the works of the contrapuntal school almost passes
belief. All kinds of imitations, canons, and fugal devices; inversions
of motives, so that an ascending melody was transformed into a
descending melody and vice versa; the enlargement or augmentation of a
motive by doubling or quadrupling the length of each one of its tones;
the diminution of a motive by shortening its tones to a quarter of
their original value; modification by repeating its rhythm in the
chromatic scale in place of the melodic intervals of the original
figure, and even to the extent of reversing motives, so that the
melodic steps were made in reversed order from the end to the
beginning;--and in the midst of all this elaboration the composer or
the trained listener of the time was supposed to enjoy not alone the
music as such, but all these complicated devices of the composer.
When these things had been carried out in movements having as many as
sixteen voice parts, which was not a phenomenally large number at that
time, two results unexpected by the composer almost necessarily came
about. The first of these was the production of chord successions
which could be felt by the hearer only as such, since sixteen real
parts moving within the three octaves of choral compass were
necessarily obliged to cross each other continually, whereby the
contour of the different voice melodies became lost in the mixture, and
only the chords and chord successions came to realization. In this
way, perhaps, the perception of harmonic good and evil was very much
forwarded where nothing of the kind had been intended. The other
result was the practical exhaustion of all these artificial resources
for conveying an impression of power in a composer. When everything
had been done that could be done, the new composer necessarily had to
take a different path and arrive in some other way; otherwise he became
merely a repeater of what had been done before.
All the scientific composition up to about the middle of the sixteenth
century had been designed for voices, and the great bulk of it for the
service of the Church. Presently, however, a distinctly secular music
began to be developed, in which, very naturally, lighter principles of
composition prevailed. Thus arose a great literature of madrigals,
which generally were love-songs or glees, containing many of the
devices of the extremely well-taught composer already mentioned, but
also having in them a lively rhythm and a pleasant quality which, even
after the lapse of three centuries and more, still has power to impress
and please our ears. A little later an instrumental music of the
cultivated kind began to be developed. The two Gabriellis, in Venice,
wrote various kinds of organ pieces of a semi-secular flavor; the
violin found its form, and, by the beginning of the sixteenth century,
had become an instrument somewhat highly esteemed. The principal
instrument still in use among the people, however, was the lute, which
had taken the place of the harp, and both these instruments naturally
tended to develop a taste for chords, since chords were what might be
called their "natural product."
About the year 1600 a new department of musical creation was opened in
the discovery of opera. This great form of art, which has now attained
so much importance, was an accidental evolution from the effort to
recover the Greek drama, in which, owing to the size of the theaters,
the lines were chanted or intoned rather than spoken, in order that the
voice might carry farther. The first operatic composers sought only a
clear expression of the declamation, and intended to give their written
notes similar effects to those which a speaker's voice would produce in
the emphatic delivery of the sentiments and words of the text.
Accordingly, the first opera had no melody, properly so called; but
almost immediately, in 1608, there appeared a genius in this new form
of composition, Monteverde, who not only introduced melodies, but also
made a very intelligent use of harmony, and, above all, showed himself
the founder of modern instrumentation by placing the violin at the head
of the orchestra. Then ensued in Italy a century of the most animated
musical productivity the world has ever seen. Operas followed each
other from a great variety of composers, and opera-houses were erected
in all the principal cities; opera was played everywhere, sometimes by
the support of princes and sometimes by the support of the people
themselves.
The development of opera was the most important creative inspiration
which had ever come into the art of music, since, in the nature of the
case, everything was new. What the music sought to do almost
immediately, beginning with Monteverde himself in his opera "Tancred,"
was to represent the feeling of the dramatic moment. Almost at the
very first they began to use music in the melodramatic way for
accompanying the critical moments of the action, when the performers
were not singing, and the forms of the singing utterance differentiated
themselves into recitatives for the explanatory parts and arias for the
more impassioned moments; and then, very soon, there came ensemble
pieces, in which several performers sang together.
Thus all kinds of emotional situations were presented to music for
representation and comment, and thus, upon the expressive side, music
received the highest possible stimulation. At the same time, through
the competition of composers for pleasing the ear, there was an ever
increasing tendency toward symmetry and graceful forms. And so the
aria became, after a little, a piece of vocal display, often entirely
opposed to the action, and sometimes foreign to the genius of the
scene; still, it was heard for the sake of the pleasure which people
have in a skilfully managed voice. Toward the end of this century,
somebody, whose name I do not at this moment recall, began to introduce
into opera occasional moments of which the people's song was the type;
short movements which did not aim at display or at immense dramatic
expression, but sought to please by simplicity alone. In this way,
through the desire of the operatic composers to avail themselves as far
as possible of the technical resources of composition acquired by the
learned musicians of the contrapuntal schools, and to please their
hearers and to astonish them in various ways, all the different forces
in music began to exercise themselves and come to expression in opera;
but as yet nothing of the sort had made any great progress in
instrumental music.
Thus we come to the period of Bach and Händel, both of whom began to
write shortly after 1700. In the working out of their respective
talents, both these composers show their well-schooled musicianship,
according to all the learning of the contrapuntal schools--but with
very important differences. Händel had all his life a predilection for
diatonic tonality, and it is very rarely indeed that he deals with the
chromatic at all, and never with the enharmonic. All the music in
which he best expressed himself was written for voices, and as a master
of vocal effect he still holds a distinguished position, particularly
in the creation of compositions in which a large number of voices can
be effectively massed. He also had a distinct flavor of the folk-song
in many of his melodies, and in some instances the folk-song is the
entire work. Such, for instance, is the case in "See, the Conquering
Hero Comes," in "Joshua," and in several of the short instrumental
movements in "Joshua," "Solomon," and his other oratorios.
Bach, on the other hand, was of a much more intensely organized musical
temperament. His genius was of the greatest possible character. As a
virtuoso he not only played upon the organ, the clavecin, and the
violin better than most of his contemporaries, and upon the organ
probably better than any; he also created works in these three
departments which held the attention of his own time to an astonishing
degree, considering the meager means of communication among men, works
which still remain, in our time, the indispensable corner-stones of the
literature of these three instruments. The violinist gets a large part
of his mastery through the sonatas of Bach for violin solo, the
organist learns his art from Bach, and the pianist finds "The
Well-tempered Clavier," and many other works of Bach written for the
clavecin of indispensable importance for the development of intelligent
playing.
The peculiar importance of Bach to modern music lies in the delicacy of
his sense upon the harmonic side and upon his intuition of the
emotional value of musical combinations. In the form of his work he
always more or less resembled his predecessors, the fugue underlying,
probably, something more than half of all the music he wrote. But he
also showed a strong tendency to impart to his work the vivacity of the
folk-song and the expressive melodic quality which he had already found
in the violin. Owing to his intensely sensitive harmonic perceptions,
he was never able to confine himself for long to the more obvious
chords of the key. The diatonic chords and combinations in which
Händel found an ever complete satisfaction are not sufficient for Bach,
and we find continually new chords, evasive cadences, and a flowing
continuity of thought belonging to the master mind.
Hence to the ordinary student there are two difficulties in the way of
appreciating and enjoying Bach. The first one is the somewhat antique
flavor of much that he wrote, for it is now almost two hundred years
since many of Bach's compositions were completed; and the second is
this sensitive and evasive harmonic fancy, which surpasses the capacity
of untrained hearers. Hence, such works as the recitatives in the
"Chromatic Fantasia," the beautiful modulations and changes in the
organ Fantasia in G minor, and scores of other passages that might be
mentioned in the larger works of Bach, are the legitimate pleasure of
advanced musicians or of those especially gifted; but there is a whole
world of Bach which lies nearer, within our reach, and it is this more
accessible part of the land of Beulah that the present program will
approach.
The importance of Bach in the world of art is further attested by the
inspiration which he has been to all great composers since his time.
In this respect he is the musician's musician _par excellence_. There
has never yet appeared a master so advanced as not to find delight in
the works of Bach, and in the opinion of many, all things considered,
he was the most richly endowed genius who has ever adorned the art of
music.
PROGRAM.
Invention in C major. From the Two-part Inventions. No. 1.
Invention in F major. From the Two-part Inventions. No. 8.
Saraband in D minor. Fifth English Suite.
Loure in G major. Heinze. Third 'Cello Suite.
Song, "My Heart Ever Faithful."
Preamble in E major. Sixth Violin Sonata. Heinze.
Saraband in E minor. Fifth English Suite.
Gavotte in E major. Tours. Sixth Violin Sonata.
Cradle song, from the Christmas Oratorio.
Prelude and Fugue in C minor. Clavier. Book I, No. 2.
"Hope in the Lord." Arranged by William Mason from the celebrated
Largo. Händel.
Menuet in D major. First 'Cello Suite. Heinze.
Gavotte in B minor. Saint-Saëns.
(All the instrumental pieces of this program except the two inventions
and the Tours arrangement of the Gavotte in E are in the "Bach Album,"
Peters edition, No. 1820, fifty cents. The inventions are in the
Peters edition, fifty cents. The prelude and fugue in C minor may be
had separately, as also the two songs.)
The conditions of being pleased with this program are that it be played
in a melodious and expressive manner upon a good-toned piano, and that
the songs are reasonably well done.
The selections from Bach in this program are intended to illustrate the
lighter and, so to say, more superficial characteristics of Bach's
music. Accordingly, the inventions are taken to show his manner of
developing a piece from a single motive, which by many repetitions
remains as a text all through the movement. The same principle carried
much farther will be found later in Schumann.
The sarabands illustrate Bach's method in slow movements. These being
written for the clavier, which in Bach's time had little tonal value,
are rather meager in their development, but when played with a very
sincere, melodic quality of tone, and treated exactly like expressive
singing, with the necessary rise and fall of the phrase (varying
intensity, as the idea advances or retrogrades), will always please.
Moreover, while very short, such is the cleverness of their
construction that they interest a musician very much.
The gavottes, being arranged from pieces which Bach wrote for clavier
with other instruments, are naturally more free; both because Bach had
the benefit of a stringed instrument--violin or 'cello--for
intensifying the melody, and because they have been recently arranged
for piano solo, and hence manifest more of the modern treatment of the
piano.
The song, "My Heart Ever Faithful," is really instrumental in its
character. In the second part the melody lies very badly for the
voice. It is practically an instrumental piece in which the voice is
the sole instrument.
Owing to the length of the program and the relatively greater
importance of Bach in the development of music, only one selection is
given from Händel--Dr. William Mason's adaptation of the words, "Hope
in the Lord," to the Händel largo. This melody is so well known as not
to require further comment. In later programs other selections from
Bach will be given which will illustrate the larger aspects of his
style, and, above all, his intense emotionality. This quality, which
was once popularly denied concerning Bach, is now recognized by all
musical hearers, and it should be brought out in the playing. Another
essential characteristic of a successful Bach interpretation is the due
observance of the rhythm, which is always admirably organized in Bach's
works. Rubato must be introduced in a very sparing manner, and always
in such a way as not to destroy the rhythm of the period as a whole.
If the student is disposed to undertake this work seriously, it will be
advantageous to enter into an analysis of one or more of the Bach
selections (or better, perhaps, assign each selection to one member for
study and report), in order to ascertain exactly in what manner he uses
motives to answer each other, when he continues upon the same motive,
and when he branches off with other material. The inventions will be
easiest for this purpose. It would be an advantageous exercise to play
the inventions while the hearers note the number of times the leading
idea occurs in each one. The object of this exercise is to lead
unaccustomed hearers to note the actual musical idea--motive--instead
of remaining passively attentive, taking in the music by contemplation.
The latter attitude of hearing is the one best adapted for receiving
whatever emotional movement there may be in the music; but since the
larger works depend upon the development of musical ideas as such, it
is desirable to acquire the habit of attending to them. The passive
contemplation may be applied later to more emotional works. With Bach
the purely musical is the first object of his work.
CHAPTER III.
HAYDN AND MOZART.
FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN.
Born April 1, 1732, at Rohrau.
Died May 31, 1809, in Vienna.
Haydn came of peasant stock, his father being a wheelwright, and the
little Franz Joseph the second of twelve children. At the age of eight
his beautiful voice attracted the attention of the director of the
choir of St. Stephen's Church in Vienna and he was entered as a choir
boy. Here he received a thorough training in singing, in clavier, and
violin playing, and also a good education. When his voice broke he
managed to sustain himself in an honorable way by various subordinate
positions as organist and violinist, playing the organ at an early mass
in one church, the violin at a mass an hour or two later in another
church, and finally, at eleven o'clock perhaps, reaching his principal
position. Thus for several years he passed an extremely industrious
and fruitful, but unrecognized, existence.
[Illustration: Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang A. Mozart]
As early as 1750 he had written his first string quintette, and soon
after he was twenty years of age he held various positions as musical
director in noblemen's houses. In 1761--Haydn being now twenty-nine
years of age--he was appointed assistant musical conductor of the
private orchestra of Prince Esterhazy. The orchestra consisted of
sixteen men. Five years later the senior director died, and Haydn
became the chief director and remained in this position until 1790,
when, in consequence of the death of the old Prince Esterhazy, his son
discontinued the private orchestra and dismissed Haydn upon a pension
of 1000 florins a year. He was now invited by a professional manager
to make a visit to England, which he did in 1790-92 and again in
1794-95, conducting many concerts there, and composing for the English
market a series of twelve symphonies for full orchestra, which are now
considered to represent his best work in this line. Still later he
turned his attention to oratorios and produced his "Seasons" and the
"Creation."
During his long service in the Esterhazy establishment, where he had to
produce a constant succession of new and pleasing music, he had the
opportunity of trying all sorts of combinations and devices, and in
this way he turned out an enormous amount of music, including 125
symphonies, more than 100 compositions for viol da gamba, an instrument
of which the old Prince Esterhazy was very fond, and a variety of music
of almost every kind then practiced. All of this music reflects
Haydn's character, which was simple, unassuming, kindly, and sincere.
As a composer he must be considered as the first of what we might call
the homophonic writers,--that is to say, he was the father of the
modern free style in which the normal form of the musical idea is that
of a melody and an accompaniment, as distinguished from the style of
Bach, in which the ground form is that of independently moving voices.
The following list will give a better idea of the astonishing range of
Haydn's activity as composer: One hundred and twenty-five symphonies;
20 clavier concertos and divertisements with clavier; 9 violin
concertos; 6 concertos for 'cello, and 16 concertos for other
instruments (contra-bass, baritone, lyra, flute, horn, etc.); 77 string
quartets; 68 trios; 4 violin sonatas; 175 pieces for baritone; 6 duets
for solo violin and viola; 53 works for piano; 7 nocturnes for lyra,
and various other pieces for the same instrument; 14 masses; 2 Te
Deums; 13 offertoriums; 24 operas.
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART.
Born January 27, 1756, at Salzburg.
Died December 5, 1791, in Vienna.
Mozart was the son of an excellent musician, and as soon as the boy
began to show his astonishing sensitiveness of ear and bias for music
in every direction, his father commenced to give him instruction. His
activity as a composer commenced when he could scarcely read, for
before he was five years old he showed his father a manuscript of a
violin concerto which at first the father took to be mere meaningless
marks, but on having them explained by the boy he found there was
indeed a musical idea and, of course, a composition.
When he was about six years old his father decided to take the boy and
his older sister upon a concert tour, which accordingly he did,
visiting the principal courts of Germany, and finally reached Paris
November 18, 1763. Here his first compositions were printed--four
concertos for violin. In Paris he was very successful, and the tour
was continued to London, where he published six additional concertos
for violin. By the time he was ten years of age he had written his
first oratorio, and now when he was upon a concert tour he was met with
skepticism and misrepresentations, the claim being put forward that the
compositions being published under his name had really been written for
him by his father, since it was evident from the face of them that no
boy of his age could have composed so well. To counteract these
charges poems were brought to him upon which he had to improvise and
fit the music to the words in the presence of the audience. In 1769 he
went to Italy, where, being now thirteen years of age and
correspondingly mature as compared with his early appearances, he made
a most astonishing success. In Bologna and in Rome as well as in
Venice he was examined by the most eminent theorists in Italy, and
received memberships in the societies of artists, and the Pope made him
a Knight of the Golden Spur. His first opera, "Mitridate," was
composed in 1770, Mozart being then fourteen years of age. The opera
was played twenty times. In Milan, two years later, he composed his
opera "Lucio Silla," and the same year his opera "Idomeneo," for
Munich. His other celebrated operas followed in fairly rapid
succession: "Figaro," 1785; "Don Giovanni," 1787; "Cosi fan Tutte,"
1790, and the "Magic Flute" in 1791. His last was his "Requiem." The
works of Mozart included thirteen operas, thirty-four songs, forty-one
sonatas, thirty-one divertisements for orchestra. The best biography
is that by Otto Jahn.
* * * * *
The epoch of Haydn is a very important one in art, since it was in his
time, and almost entirely by his own work, that the sonata and
symphony, the two most important forms in modern music, were invented
or discovered and brought to something like definite form. Practically
speaking, a symphony is merely a sonata written for orchestra; but the
possibilities of orchestral contrasts and changes in the working out of
the part known as "free fantasia" permits the symphonic composer to
conduct his work in larger lines and carry it to a greater length than
is advisable for the composer of sonatas for a single instrument, in
which monotony of tone-color is an element which must not be forgotten.
The "sonata-piece," as the principal movement of the sonata has been
called, is one of the great typical forms in music. Its greatness lies
in the latitude it permits the composer and the practically unlimited
field it gives for the illustration of musical beauty, contrast,
sweetness, and musical strength in a single composition. In this
respect it binds up in itself some of the most valuable possibilities
of the entire art of modern composition. In order to understand what
we are to have in the sonatas of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, some of
the peculiarities of the form need first to be noticed.
The sonata-piece consists practically of three chapters, of which the
third is substantially a repetition of the first, with a few not very
important modifications. The first chapter contains from two to four
different melodic subjects, of which one comes as principal, and is
substantially of a thematic character. The second is almost invariably
a lyric subject. In the sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven some very
lovely melodies will be found in this position. Between the first and
second subjects modulating periods may appear; and after the second
there is a concluding subject, which brings up to a close at the double
bar, upon the dominant of the principal key. In the older practice
there is a repeat sign at this point, and the whole of the first part
is gone over again. In modern practice this repeat is often
disregarded, since the memory of musical ideas appears more lasting in
our day than formerly. After the double bar comes the great
characteristic opportunity of this form of art-music, in what the
Germans call a working out (Durchführungssatz), in which the composer
makes a free fantasia upon any or all of the material introduced in the
first division of the work, already described. This working out is
often mere play, rarely rising to a seriousness at all approaching that
of fugue; still, a clever composer manages to afford many attractive
features in this part of a sonata, and still more in the larger
opportunities of symphony.
Haydn is entitled to the credit of having given the sonata-piece its
main characteristics of form. In this respect it follows the
suggestion of the older "binary form," in which sarabands, gavottes,
and the like were written by Bach. All of these, being composed upon a
single melodic idea, necessarily had to develop this idea by means of
sequences, imitations, transpositions, and transformations of one sort
and another, employing in this treatment much of the art which fugue
had supplied. All the pieces in this old binary form come to a half
close at the double bar upon the dominant of the principal key, or upon
the relative major if the principal key be minor. After the double bar
the development is taken up in the dominant, or in whatever key the
preceding part had ended in. Later the principal key is resumed and
the work concluded.
Haydn enlarged this form by completing his leading periods generally to
a symmetrical length of eight measures, and by adding a second subject
and a different melodic material for conclusion, both before the double
bar and at the end of the movement.
The style of the Haydn sonata-piece is generally light and pleasing.
Only in a very few cases, and in those for a few measures only, does he
attempt pathos. Thus the principal movement of the Haydn sonata seems
to have been developed from a dance motive, and the carrying out is
generally done in regular period forms--the form being substantially
verse throughout, the meter regular and not capricious. Haydn arrived
at this treatment through his natural fondness for symmetry and order,
and through having had for thirty years to produce a constant
succession of interesting pieces, mainly orchestral, primarily designed
to interest and please his princely patron, the old Prince Esterhazy.
The best symphonies of Haydn were written late in life, after he had
been called to London to conduct some new works of his. The glance
into the outer world, and perhaps the availability of a larger body of
players, gave his ideas a freer scope; and these twelve London
symphonies belong to a higher type than those of his earlier time.
As yet we have not spoken of the lyric melody, which in the Beethoven
sonata forms almost invariably a second subject. This idea appears to
have been due to Mozart, whose second subjects not only are sweet and
song-like melodies, but many of his first ones as well. Thus the
Mozart sonata, while excelling that of Haydn in melodiousness and
sweetness, is almost invariably of less musical interest, the
development of a musical thought being rarely considered. In the few
cases in which Mozart takes a serious mood he succeeds well, notably so
in the famous sonata in C minor, the last one in the volume of his
works. But in general, particularly in the sonatas, Mozart is
melodious in pure lyric pattern. These melodies of Mozart, while of
great sweetness and beauty, do not, as a rule, have much depth; they do
not sing from the soul. The soul has not "seen trouble," as folks say;
it sings with the instinctive sweetness of childhood, and thus fails to
touch the feelings of adults. The selections following illustrate
these points:
PROGRAM.
Sonata in E-flat (entire). No. 3, Schirmer edition. Haydn.
"My Mother Bids Me Bind My Hair." Canzonetta. Haydn.
Sonata in C-sharp minor (entire). No. 6, Schirmer edition. Haydn.
Trio from "The Creation," "Most Beautiful Appear." Haydn.
Soprano, tenor, and bass.
Sonata in F major. No. 6, Peters edition (first movement). Mozart.
Air of Cherubino in "The Marriage of Figaro," "Voi Che Sapete."
Mozart.
Sonata in E-flat (first and second movements only). Schirmer edition,
No. 1. Haydn.
Quintette, "Magic Flute," Mozart. Scene X, Act I, Andante. "Drei
Knaben, Knäbchen jung."
Aria of Countess from "The Marriage of Figaro," "Dove sono," Mozart.
Fantasia and Sonata in C minor. Mozart.
Trio from "The Creation," "On Thee Each Living Soul Awaits."
Haydn.
(The copies for this program are as follows: Haydn sonatas, Schirmer
edition, first volume, paper, seventy-five cents. This is a very
elegant and in every way satisfactory edition for study or for the
library. Mozart sonatas, Peters edition, $1.50 (retail). The songs
are to be had separately. Copies of "The Creation" and "The Magic
Flute" will be necessary.)
The selections above are made for the purpose of illustrating the more
prominent characteristics of the two composers mentioned. Haydn is now
beginning to be undervalued, and, in fact, his works are used mainly
for purposes of instruction, and comparatively little for that. This
is unjust, for while Haydn does not belong to the class of composers
whose music is conceived by them as a message to mankind, but rather is
conceived as an intelligent and refined form of delight, he is as
musical as Bach himself, and consequently his music remains fresh and
interesting despite the comparatively small forms. This will be
noticed in every one of the sonatas selected here. The Sonata in
E-flat, No. 3, is the one oftenest selected and studied, because it
shows Haydn in his most genial mood. The spirit is bright, pleasing,
fresh, and not a little vigorous. Practically, every single movement
of a Haydn sonata is developed mainly out of one leading motive. In
the present instance there is a second idea, of a quasi-lyric
importance, introduced in the thirteenth measure--counting each measure
from the first bar. In the forty-third measure a closing theme is
introduced. The places are marked in the Schirmer copies, so there
will be no difficulty in finding them. The second movement, if played
in a very singing but not dragging manner, will be found enjoyable,
although by no means sensational. The ideas are musical and the spirit
earnest. The finale, in the tempo of a minuet, is very pleasing
indeed. Here, also, the purely musical idea rules everything. The
problem with the composer is to treat an idea which pleased him, and to
carry it through all the changes and modifications which occurred to
him as attractive.
The Sonata in C-sharp minor (No. 6, Schirmer) is more significant, and
approximates the spirit of later works in the same key. The principal
subject has a great deal of vigor, and the musical treatment is very
fresh and original. The scherzando which follows is a very light
movement, and needs to be played with great delicacy and spirit. The
whole concludes with a menuetto, moderate in movement, song-like.
To my mind the strongest of the Haydn sonatas is the one which stands
first in the Schirmer edition, also in E-flat, a favorite key with
Haydn. The principal subject is very forcible, and the treatment
varied to a degree. The whole work is one which a musician can play
many times through, and always with enjoyment.
The second movement has the remarkable peculiarity of being in the key
of E major--a violent modulatory relation to that of the first
movement. I should say that this fact indicated that Haydn did not
conceive of the three movements of the sonata as constituting a single
whole, because if he had he could not have followed a close in E-flat
major with an opening in E major, exactly a semitone higher, without
the slightest modulation. This proceeding is inexplicable to me, if he
expected the sonata to be played through entire at a single hearing.
The slow movement, however, is a very strong one, the subject full of
musical feeling, and the treatment clever and interesting. All the
melodic passages in this movement need to be sung with great feeling.
Then the contrast with the lighter portions will produce their proper
effect. The finale, presto, is a very light and, one might almost say,
insignificant movement, relieved only by a few moments of something
better.
The Mozart collections are calculated to show the peculiar and womanly
sweetness which Mozart introduced into music. In Haydn, moments of
sweetness do indeed occur, and in his "Creation" they are frequent; but
in his instrumental works they are not so frequent. The Sonata in F,
of Mozart, is full of pleasing melodic ideas, and the first and second
periods and the first episode are all very attractive melodies. Note
that each of these ideas comes in the form of a fully completed melody,
and not in the form of a musical motive of one, or at most two,
phrases. Each of the Mozart subjects is eight measures long. The
characteristic tone of the Mozart sonatas is this melodic sweetness,
and the stronger parts only intensify this fundamental tone. The slow
movement is rather meager, but it is also pleasing and well made. The
so-called "Alberti" bass should be played in such a manner as to
minimize the motion of the sixteenths, and to intensify the chord
feeling. This will be done by playing softly with the left hand,
bearing down a little, and using the pedal with every chord, except
where it will mix up the melody.
The Fantasia and Sonata of Mozart, which concludes the program, is a
work which is well worth studying. The fantasia opens with a very
serious subject, which is carried through a variety of delightful
changes, in a manner indicating a poetic intention. The expression
must be carefully observed in the playing, and in the elaboration,
where the subject occurs in several keys in connection, the first tone
is taken rather strong and with a slight dwelling upon it. The slow
melody in D major, as well as the adagio in E-flat, illustrate Mozart's
faculty with sweet and rather deep melodies which, while perfectly
simple in structure, nevertheless have in them the soul of the artist.
The tone has to be full, round, singing, and never loud. There are
parts of the fantasia which do not come up to the level of the others;
particularly the allegro in G minor, which is inconvenient to play, and
almost never played in a musical manner. It has, however, to be gotten
over the best one can.
The vocal selections are of peculiar attractiveness. The canzonetta of
Haydn, "My Mother Bids Me Bind My Hair," is a fresh, girlish affair,
which can not fail to please. The trio, "Most Beautiful Appear," is so
sweet that Mozart might have written it.
Then in the Mozart selections, the "Dove sono" is an aria requiring to
be sung with a very pure tone and good style. All of Mozart's operatic
arias were intended for well-trained Italian singers having a refined
and high-bred style of singing. When so done, they are always
delightful. The Cherubino air is very fresh, and full of the charm of
youth and love. The trio of girls from "The Magic Flute" is given
because it is so taking, while involving a succession of implied
consecutive fifths. And the great trio, "On Thee Each Living Soul
Awaits," concludes the concert in a noble manner. If the resources of
the local society should happen to make it easy, it will afford an
admirable close to give along with this trio the two choruses,
"Achieved is the Glorious Work."
It is to be understood that the selections here offered from these two
great masters illustrate but a small part of their individualities.
The selection has been determined by the convenience of copies and the
likelihood of the resources in every place being equal to their
acceptable performance.
CHAPTER IV.
CHARACTERISTIC MOODS OF BEETHOVEN.
LUDVIG VAN BEETHOVEN.
Born December 16, 1770, at Bonn.
Died March 26, 1827, in Vienna.
Beethoven was the son of a very dissipated tenor singer of the chapel
of the Elector of Cologne, and the family had been musical for several
generations. The boy learned to play the viola and violin as well as
the piano while he was still very young indeed, and by the age of
eleven was regularly engaged as viola player in the orchestra and had
gained such proficiency upon the piano that it was popularly said of
him that he could have played a good part of Bach's "Well-tempered
Clavier" by heart. While still but a lad he succeeded informally to
the post of assistant conductor of the orchestra, and it was his duty
to prepare the music for the men, making the abridgments, emendations,
and rearrangements that might be advisable to adapt old music to the
then modern orchestra. In this way he gained, no doubt, much of his
marvelous acquaintance with orchestral effect. When he was fifteen he
was regularly appointed organist to the private chapel of the Elector,
and he was left in charge of the orchestra for months together in the
absence of the head director, Neefe.
[Illustration: Ludwig van Beethoven]
He began to compose by the time he was ten, but he did not manifest any
especial precocity in this direction: his published compositions with
opus number contain only one movement, it is believed, which he wrote
before he was twenty or twenty-one years of age. After the death of
his father he was left, as he had been practically for some years
before, the responsible head of the family, with the care of his mother
and his younger brothers. He remained in Bonn, with one visit to
Vienna in 1787, until he was about twenty-two years of age, when he
left Bonn definitely and took up his abode in Vienna. Here he studied
with the best masters attainable--Haydn, then in his prime, Salieri,
and others. His first published compositions with opus numbers--three
trios--date from the Vienna time.
In Vienna he lived all the remainder of his life--about thirty-five
years. In the earlier part of this period he was considered one of the
great pianoforte virtuosi of his time; his playing was distinguished
for force, strong contrasts, musical quality, and, above all, pathetic
expression. Czerny states that it was not unusual for a company of the
Viennese aristocracy to be affected to tears by the playing of this
master. His published works were generally criticized as being too
bold and unconventional.
As Beethoven had the fortune to live to quite a good age, he gradually
established his position with regard to the earlier compositions,
inasmuch as by repeated hearings they sooner or later commended
themselves to the critics as well as to the public; but by the time
this had come to pass with the works of a certain period, he had
advanced and composed others, which now in turn succeeded to the charge
of being too advanced and forced. These in turn were later on
accepted, only to leave a still later stratum of his compositions under
the same condemnation which had been the portion of the earlier works.
Nevertheless, the want of recognition of Beethoven by his
contemporaries has been greatly overrated. He enjoyed a fairly
comfortable income, as such things went among the middle-class Viennese
of his time, and during most of his career he was esteemed to be
probably the most eminent composer living.
As compared with the works of Händel or Bach, those of Beethoven do not
make a great display in volume. Nevertheless, there are thirty-two
piano sonatas, ten violin sonatas, nine symphonies for full orchestra,
five pianoforte concertos, twenty-one sets of variations for piano
alone, sixteen string quartets, and a very large mass of chamber music
of other sorts. There are two masses, one opera, and above one hundred
songs.
* * * * *
As generally stated, the characteristic point of difference between
what we call the classical and the romantic in the art of music lies in
the feeling actuating the composer, and consequently embodied more or
less successfully in his music. In the older practice, especially that
of the Netherlandish contrapuntal composers of the sixteenth century,
the motive of composition was that of producing a musical piece more
elaborate, more imposing, or more sonorous than previous works; or,
perhaps, the more commonplace conception of producing a piece as good
as previous works. The purely musical (conceived from a technical
standpoint) remained the moving principle with the composer. With the
invention of opera, about 1597, A. D., and the active development which
followed for a century after, a new principle came into operation,
namely, the expression of dramatic contrasts and situations, and so at
length the expression of intense individuality--the working of strong
individualities under the clash of tragic situations.
Along with the invention and development of opera, during the period
here mentioned, the mastery of the violin was carried forward with
great results to the art of music. About 1685, Archangelo Corelli
published his first collection of pieces for the violin, and in these
are found what are practically about the first examples of a
well-developed lyric melody, of the kind we now mean when we speak of
"bel canto"--the type of melody made the very crux of the art of
Italian singing. This impassioned, sustained, and expressive melody
took with wonderful rapidity and was almost immediately adopted into
opera, the ideal of which in the beginning had been that of an artistic
and dramatically expressive delivery of the text. Now, melody as such
has little to do with the dramatic delivery of the text. In a
sustained melody--as in "Home, Sweet Home," to quote a simple type--it
is first of all a question of sustained sentiment; whereas in a
well-determined declamation it is first of all a matter of effective
delivery of the words and phrases from an elocutionary standpoint,
allowing the voice all the stops, interruptions, shocks, and variations
of intensity requisite for effective delivery. But by the time this
sustained melody had been introduced into high art (it seems to have
made a beginning earlier in folk-song, although we have no precise
indications upon the subject) the mere delivery of a text, somewhat
after the manner of a liturgical intoning, no longer satisfied the
demands of opera.
Music grew by what it fed upon. The violin, which Monteverde had
placed in the position of honor at the head of the orchestra in 1608,
had grown upon the ears of the people; and there was a need felt for
something more impassioned, but at the same time more distinctively
musical, than the mere declamation of the first opera, no matter how
sing-song that delivery might be made. Hence arose the aria, which
practically is a prolongation of a single moment of the dramatic
situation. The Arias, at first and for quite a long time later, had
very few words, and these were repeated over and over, as we find still
in the well-known arias from Händel's "Messiah." Thus opera came into
possession of a simple and sustained melody, patterned after the
cantilena of the violin; and it was employed for marking the successive
points of the dramatic action. That is to say, as the drama unfolded,
one new situation after another developed itself. Each new entrance of
a dramatic person made a new complication and a new situation, brought
to the attention of the hearer by means of the lines and then enforced
by the aria, which the singer of greatest momentary importance had to
sing. That these arias very soon degenerated into show pieces for
virtuoso singers was an accident due to the popularity of the operatic
stage, the development of the new art of singing, and a delight in the
human voice as a musical instrument. It has no concern with our
present subject.
Moreover, it inevitably happened that as composers multiplied and
competed for the favor of the public, they tried more and more to bring
out in their music the very innermost passions and passing feelings of
the leading individuals in the play; hence the art of expressive music
was greatly developed, and the ears of the public learned gradually to
feel after and enjoy the human heart-beat in the music. Thus music
passed beyond the stage of working for itself as a development of
musical forms or science of construction, and became more and more, in
opera, the expression of individualities and moods. At the same time
that this tendency was working for making the music more expressive,
the necessity of pleasing the public tended also in the opposite
direction of pleasing the hearer by means of agreeable combinations of
tone-colors, delightful symmetries of tone-forms, and the like. So at
the very time when composers of one class were laboring in opera for
the development of deep expression, those of another class were working
no less effectually for making the music merely shallow and pleasing.
Light operas dealing with shallow situations--comedy, farce, expressed
by means of light and pleasing music--came to occupy more and more the
operatic stage, where, after all, the question of amusement will always
prevail.
All of these different tendencies came later on to their expression in
music purely instrumental. We have seen already how Bach managed to
compose truly expressive music which, nevertheless, is first of all
strong music, yet highly humoristic and fanciful. Then Haydn and
Mozart introduced various types of pleasing and simply expressive
melody, but it is only in occasional moments that their music touches
the deeper feelings of the heart. It is music to admire for its
cleverness, to enjoy at times for its sweetness and tenderness, and its
fresh melodic symmetry; but it is only in very rare moments that the
accent of emotional individuality is given.
In Beethoven we find this quality for the first time illustrated in
instrumental music; and, along with this occasional accent of
intensity, we have also a great and inexhaustible variety of moods and
manners appertaining to the different sides of the mighty individuality
of this great tone-poet. Along with this variety of moods, which in
their inner nature must be regarded as representing different facets of
individuality, we have also in Beethoven a certain comprehensive
element. Everything that he says to us belongs somehow to a larger
whole, and that larger whole is the entire man of the composer. It is
like the conversation of some highly gifted person, which, while
lasting perhaps for only a few minutes, nevertheless affords us a
glimpse into a remarkable personality, and appears in our memory as a
chapter accidentally revealed out of the entire soul of the talker.
Hence in trying to form an idea of the individuality of Beethoven and
of the range and peculiar beauty of his music, we have to learn his
most characteristic moods in order to get the range of his genius; and
then to see how he combines these widely different moods into a
whole--as he does in his sonatas and symphonies. Accordingly, this
first program begins with several pieces, comparatively small in
compass, but directly illustrating the variety of his humoristic
tendencies. All of these little pieces, moreover, have that accent of
intense individuality mentioned above--an accent very much more
observable in Beethoven than in any of his predecessors, and surpassed
only by Schubert and Schumann later. The latter, it may be
anticipated, is the most humoristic of all composers of instrumental
music.
There are certain conditions of largeness in a piece of music intended
to say something without words, and to work up to an imposing climax,
which give it a different form from what is practicable in pieces
having a text for doing a part of the talking. In order to reach a
great effect, an instrumental music piece has to last for some time,
and to continue quite a while in the same movement, as to rate of
pulsation and frequency of measure accent. It has to work within a
single tonality--remain in one key or revolve around one key in such a
manner as to preserve its own unity as a single being. Hence arise the
long movements of the sonata and symphony. It is not possible to
arrive at similar impressions upon hearers by the use of shorter,
disjointed movements. Only by carrying a movement on for some time,
and so developing it as to impress some one idea as central, and at the
same time to arrive eventually at some kind of a climax or goal, can a
serious instrumental movement become expressive and effective.
In Mozart these long movements have nothing like the unity of those of
Beethoven. A beautiful variety prevails, and the main ideas are
repeated a sufficient number of times; but it is for beauty rather than
for completing a cycle of moods or a cycle of soul-experiences. Or if
a cycle, then a cycle of pleasant and youthful experiences. In
Beethoven this is not the case. When he is much in earnest he takes
plenty of time for saying his say, and says it so thoroughly that you
are quite sure of what he is at. This will be shown in the present
program by means of the Sonate Pathetique, and phases of the manner
will appear in all the selections.
PROGRAM.
Selections of a quasi-lyric character:
Menuetto in E-flat. Opus 31, No. 3.
Menuetto in D major. Opus 10, No. 3.
Subject from Allegretto from Sonata, opus 90. Thirty-two measures.
Andante from Sonata, opus 27, No. 1.
Formal Variations:
Andante and Variations. Sonata in G major. Opus 14, No. 2.
Andante, from Sonata Appassionata. Opus 57.
Humoristic Variations and Moods;
Theme and Variations. Opus 26.
Scherzo in C, Sonata in C. Opus 2, No. 3.
Allegretto from "Moonlight Sonata." Opus 27, No. 2.
Scherzo in A-flat, Sonata. Opus 31, No. 2.
Sonata-piece:
Allegro (first movement), from Sonata in G. Opus 14, No. 2.
Allegro (first movement), Sonata in F minor. Opus 2, No. 1.
Sonata-piece, Impassioned;
Introduction and Allegro (first movement), Sonate Pathetique.
Opus 13.
The minuet proper, in the first selection, is a simply expressive
folk-song throughout its first period. It is only at the beginning of
the second period, with the dissonant C-flat, that something different
comes to illustration. The distinction of the mood is further
illustrated in the trio which follows, where the chords by their skips
and their delightful changes afford a most agreeable and charming
contrast with the main subject. (It is upon this trio that Saint-Saëns
has written his lovely variations for two pianos, four hands.)
The minuet in D, from the very strong Sonata in D major, opus 10,
affords very strong contrasts before we pass beyond the minuet proper.
The first period (eight measures repeated) is purely lyric and very
lovely. The second period starts out with an imitative bit, quite in
the manner of fugue, one voice after another responding in a vigorous
and spirited manner. When this is completed by the delightful return
of the principal subject, we are led to a trio in the related key of G
major, which is in a totally different style. It goes like a scherzo,
and when it in turn has been completed the main minuet returns with
most agreeable effect. At the end, a short coda. Both these
selections contain much which is not purely lyric, but rather thematic.
This occurs always in the trios, and in the second period of the minuet
in D.
The next selection is the beginning of the beautiful closing movement
of the Sonata, opus 90. This movement takes the place of a slow
movement in this sonata, and it is entirely in lyric style, except
where the imperative need of relief has led to the introduction of less
connected and sustained matter. The melody itself is one of the best
of Beethoven's. The illustration comprises the first thirty-two
measures.
In the next division of selections we come upon the Beethoven faculty
of diversifying a musical theme in the form of variations. The
examples here given represent certain of the simpler phases of this
part of his art, and if the student is ambitious in this direction he
might read for himself the variations upon the waltz in C, or the
famous thirty-two variations, in which endless varieties are obtained
from a very simple theme. A still more highly developed example of
this art is found in the last sonata of all, opus 111; but these are
too difficult for our present use.
The theme and variations in C, from the Sonata in G, opus 14, are easy
and pleasing. The theme itself affords a very pretty contrast between
the staccato of the first period and the close legato of the second
period. Then the sweetness of it is relieved by the strong
syncopations which break it up, toward the end (measures 17 and 18).
The first variation has the melody in the tenor, unchanged excepting to
make it legato. The right hand deals mainly with syncopated repeated
notes.
The second variation is much more broken. The left hand plays the bass
upon the beat, while the right hand comes in with a chord containing
the melody at the half beat. The third variation brings the melody
again in the bass, with an accompaniment figure in sixteenths for the
right hand. At the end there is a lovely coda of six measures.
Throughout these variations the harmony and the melody have not been
changed. Only the place of the melody and the rhythm of the accessory
accompanying figures have been changed.
A still more remarkable illustration of this phase of the Beethoven
genius is found in the andante and variations which form the second
movement of the Sonata Appassionata, opus 57. Here the variations are
not indicated in the notation, but the player has to find them for
himself, which is easy enough, because the two periods of the theme,
each of eight measures, are exactly repeated in the following
variations.
The theme itself has a church-like character, almost "sacred." This is
due to the first harmonic step from tonic to subdominant and back
again, in the manner of the "Amen" cadence so well known in anthems.
In the second period there is an intense and almost strained expression
due to the chord of 4-2, the seventh low in the bass. The first
variation plays the melody in the same place as in the theme, and in
the same chords; but the bass enters a half beat later and holds over,
so that a restless and searching expression results. The second
variation, again, is very reposeful. The melody is only suggested in
the upper tones of the right-hand part, and the sixteenth motion is
intended to have a certain chord-like character; meanwhile the bass has
a part somewhat like a melody suitable for 'cello. The third variation
brings the melody high in the treble (later changing again to the left
hand in the middle range of the piano), while the left hand performs an
arpeggio figure in thirty-seconds. At the end a lovely coda of sixteen
measures, recalling the theme in its original form. Throughout these
variations not only is the harmony and melody of the theme never
varied, excepting in time of coming in, but the spirit of the theme is
everywhere retained. Observe that the coda is not concluded, but
interrupted by the entrance of a diminished chord, leading into the key
of F minor. In place of this chord, end with a chord of D-flat,
directly after the dominant chord preceding the diminished chord, when
the finale is not to be played.
Quite different from the foregoing are the highly humoristic variations
of the Sonata, opus 26. These, being designated in the copy, require
only mention and characterization. The theme is three periods in
length, the second opening with a syncopation. The first variation
follows the harmony of the theme, but in a broken manner, not alone in
the cutting up into sixteenth notes, but also in changes of position
upon the keyboard. This tendency to excitement continues in the second
variation, where the melody is in the bass, in octaves broken into
sixteenth notes. The third variation changes the mode to minor, and
the musical treatment contains strong syncopations, implying much
suppressed passion. The fourth variation is a scherzo, bounding from
one point of the keyboard to another, like a musical Ariel. The fifth
variation returns to the harmony and manner of the theme, but in the
first eight measures the melody is held in reserve, suggested rather
than fully brought out, in order that the complete appearance of the
melody, legato, in the ninth measure shall be more effective. The
whole closes with a beautiful coda of fifteen measures. (Count back
from the end, if you do not find it at first.)
Still more humoristic is the scherzo from the Sonata in C, opus 2, No.
3. Here the principal subject is quite in fugue style, excepting the
order of keys. In place of answering in the fifth, it answers in the
octave.
It is unnecessary to add that this is a pure fancy-piece, the
imitations being unexpected and capricious, and never for the sake of
completing a pattern or form. The trio is a complete contrast, and
very free and effective upon the keyboard. Then, after the return of
the scherzo, we have a delightful coda of twenty-three measures.
Less pronounced, but very beautiful, is the allegretto from the
so-called "Moonlight Sonata," opus 27, No. 2. This is gentle, and
designed to mediate between the intense sadness of the first movement
and the equally intense and impassioned sorrow and longing of the
finale.
The sonata-piece is one of the most serious and diversified movements
known to music, and while continuous and characterized by great unity,
it is also rather complicated. Hence it will not be properly
appreciated except by those who observe the leading ideas as they enter
and recall them when they turn up again in the course of the treatment
and development. When a sonata is written for orchestra it becomes a
symphony, in which form the different ideas are more easily followed
because they derive a certain individuality from the tone-color of the
instrument first announcing them. When an artist plays a sonata he
seeks to intensify the individuality of the leading ideas and thus aid
the hearer in recognizing and remembering them.
The first example of sonata-piece is the rather light and pleasing
allegro which begins the Sonata in G, opus 14, No. 2. The Principal
subject lasts through twenty-four measures, the Second entering in the
key of D with the beginning of the twenty-fifth measure. The
Conclusion begins with the forty-seventh measure. Counting from the
double bar, the Elaboration lasts, including the pedal point upon the
dominant which prepares for bringing back the Principal, sixty-one
measures. There the first part begins over again.
The first movement of the Sonata in F minor, opus 2, No. 1, is shorter
and the subjects less marked than in any other sonata of Beethoven. It
also has less "stuffing," the ideas following with very little passage
work between them. The Principal lasts twenty measures, the Second
beginning with the F-flat in the soprano at the end of the twentieth
measure. The Conclusion begins with the C-flat in the soprano, in
measure forty-one. The Elaboration lasts sixty-two measures.
The "Sonate Pathetique" begins with a slow introduction, lasting ten
measures of very slow time. Then enters the headlong allegro, of which
the Principal, with its retinue of modulating sequences, lasts forty
measures. The Second enters in measure forty-one, and the Conclusion
in measure seventy-nine. The Elaboration lasts sixty-two measures,
beginning with a few measures of the introduction.
Time will not be wasted if before playing each of these movements the
subjects themselves be played through separately.
CHAPTER V.
BACH, MOZART, AND BEETHOVEN COMPARED.
The present program brings together a few representative
selections from the two greatest masters already
noticed, for the purpose of bringing out more clearly
the individualities of their style and the predominant
flavor of their work. In this comparison we are not as
yet undertaking to represent either Bach or Beethoven
in their moments of greatest and most impassioned
abandon. The so-called "Moonlight Sonata"
approaches this point in the case of Beethoven, but if it
had been desired to perform the same service for Bach
larger works would have been taken, such as the
"Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue," the "Fantasia and Fugue in
G minor" for organ (arranged for piano by Liszt), and
the like. And for Beethoven the sonatas in F minor,
opus 57, "Appassionata," the opus 106 in B-flat, and
opus 111 in C minor. All these go much farther in the
untrammeled expression of deep feeling than any of the
works brought together upon the present program, even
the "Moonlight Sonata," although the finale of this is
distinctly representative of Beethoven in the impassioned
and strong. As for Mozart, this headlong passion was
not at all in his line. But for the sake of showing the
peculiar sweetness of his imagination in contrast with
the more concentrated expression customary with Bach
and Beethoven, his Fantasia in C minor is here included.
Before entering upon the actual acquaintance with the
works in the program, it is advisable for the hearer to
be disabused at the outset of certain prepossessions
likely to be harmful. The most important of these is
that which regards Bach as having had a higher idea of
his art than later composers had, and of having intended
to illustrate in his works a very high degree of skill,
contrapuntal cleverness, and the like. This prepossession
is included in the phrase which describes all serious music
as "classical," as contradistinguished from that which is
merely beautiful and pleasing.
Bach had, indeed, great originality, but he came by it
honestly. His mental activity in musical directions was
of such a spontaneous character that immediately a
theme presented itself all sorts of possible treatment
occurred to him. If the theme pleased him he
immediately began to develop it, and in the course of this one
happy thought after another presented itself, without
having been sought for or worked out in the slightest.
Thus his highest and largest works have a good deal the
character of play, so easily were they composed. True,
they do not present to the player of the present day
nearly so much of this quality, for the technic required
to play them well is not quite that of the ordinary
pianist. Bach expects the hands to play melodiously and
very fluently, and the player to think in fugue; _i.e._, be
able to follow the answering voices in a fugue without
becoming confused when there are three, four, or five,
and without losing any one of the threads. This habit of
thought--for this is what it amounts to--is not natural
to the present generation, since nearly all our music is
more or less monodic (having one leading melody and
an accompaniment.) Therefore the art of playing Bach
has to be diligently mastered by much playing and
a great deal of hard study.
PROGRAM.
Bach, Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp major. Clavier, No. 3.
Beethoven, Sonata in C-sharp minor ("Moonlight"), opus 27, No. 2.
Bach, Fantasia in C minor.
Mozart, Fantasia in C minor (from Sonata and Fantasia).
Bach, Allegro from Italian Concerto.
Beethoven, Sonata in E minor, opus 90.
Bach, Prelude and Fugue in G major. Clavier, No. 15.
Beethoven, Sonata in D minor (Shakspere's "Tempest"), opus 31, No. 2.
Every art-work, in whatever line, has to satisfy three
prime conditions: unity, symmetry, and variety. There
can not be an impression of beauty into which these
three qualities do not at the same time enter, but the
beauty will differ in quality according as one or the other
element preponderates. In the successful music of Johann
Sebastian Bach (and he wrote unsuccessful music as well
as other men) we find all these qualities represented,
but not in the modern way. A prelude or a fugue of
Bach is essentially a "monody," a composition of one
idea, which preponderates so decidedly as to enforce its
character and individuality upon the work; nay, it is the
work. Variety and symmetry are always present, but
the variety is to be found in the modulatory treatment
and in the counterpoint--the various accessory ideas
which appear in the course of the work for better setting
off the leading idea forming the substance of the
composition. Hence we have in Bach, along with a
unity which pervaded every single idea and every
succession of ideas, a variety also going on at the same
time (as in the melody of the different voices, rhythm,
etc.); and symmetry, which also expresses itself as
between ideas heard simultaneously and between ideas and
paragraphs introduced successively. A Bach work,
therefore, is rather complicated almost always, and needs
to be studied a little, and the art of hearing it
appreciatively has to be acquired; but once we have mastered it,
there are no works in music which are more fresh or
permanently pleasing.
The Bach selections upon the present program include
three preludes and fugues, those of C-sharp major, C
minor, and G major, all from the first volume of the
"Clavier." There is no necessary connection between
the prelude and the fugue following, except that in
Bach's idea they somehow corresponded or contrasted
in such a manner that they could be heard agreeably in
connection.
The prelude in C-sharp, which opens the program,
consists of a long leading idea (eight measures) which
is repeated completely six times in the course of the
work. After it has been heard four times,--in the
keys of C-sharp, G-sharp, D-sharp minor, and A-sharp
minor,--it is relieved by a modulatory interlude,
constructed out of new material (measures 33 to 46). Then
the original theme is resumed in the subdominant of the
principal key (F-sharp major) and is given entire in the
original key of C-sharp, the repetition being exact. In
measure 63 the conclusion begins. It consists of a pedal
point upon G-sharp, treated very pleasantly, and relieved
and developed in measures 75 to 91 by interesting
matter of a more impassioned character. At measure 91
the pedal figure returns, and is abandoned only at
measure 101, after which the end speedily follows. (Before
playing the piece have the parts played and explained
separately, each division as here marked, and then the
whole prelude entire.) The work as a whole is singularly
light and pleasing.
The fugue is built upon the subject in the soprano at
the beginning, running two measures. This subject is
repeated entire ten times, and fragments are used over
and over again.
In immediate contrast with this work is placed the
so-called "Moonlight Sonata"--the title affixed not by
Beethoven but by some fanciful writer. The first
movement of this is quite as much a monody as anything of
Bach's, but with a difference. Little is attempted in the
way of modifying the harmony of the theme except to
carry it through several different keys, nor is there much
accessory matter employed as filling. It is practically a
song,--an ode if you like,--of a melancholy, grieving
character. Its structure will be understood by aid of the
following analysis: It begins with a prelude of four
measures, after which the leading idea enters in the key
of C-sharp minor, closing in E-major, four measures.
After a measure of accompaniment the subject resumes
in C major, proceeding immediately to B minor, after a
cadence in which an accessory melodic bit is introduced,
having the character of suspending the action, eight
measures, ending in F-sharp minor. The leading idea
now enters in F-sharp, five measures, and three little
melodic bits followed by eleven measures of arpeggio
matter hold back the action for the return of the theme
in measure 42 (first accent in 43). Everything in this
movement grows out of the leading melody, and the
movement has no skeleton or orderly arrangement of
parts except in a very general manner.
The allegretto which follows is practically a sort of
scherzo, in song-form with trio. Then comes the very
dramatic finale, consisting of three main elements handled
in the style of a sonata-piece. The Principal extends to
the first beat of the twentieth measure. On the second
beat of this the Second enters and runs twenty-three
measures. With the second eighth note of this measure
a movement of eighth notes in chords enters, which
forms the concluding piece. This carries us to the
double bar, after which a free fantasia follows upon the
same material. The free fantasia extends to two
measures of whole notes, thirty-six measures in all, where
the original theme returns and the first part is recalled
in different keys. At the end there is an added coda of
thirty-four measures counting from the end of the piece.
The Prelude in G major of Bach is another pleasing
illustration of his manner. It is very simple in
construction and needs only to have the first two measures and a
half played in advance for defining the subject, and the
fourth measure once, to define the second leading idea.
Everything else is developed out of these ideas. In
measure 11 some new material is introduced and treated
with excellent effect.
The fugue is rather an elaborate one. After the
subject has been carried through the first time, the subject
is introduced in a new form, in inversion (measure 43,
alto), all ascending passages in the original being now
imitated in downward directions and by the same
interval. This taken as a new subject affords ground for
much additional development, and later on the fugue
becomes very complicated and interesting. When well
played, however, the complication is only an incident of
a very playful and varied composition. In the entire
work there is no lyrical idea; everything comes thematically.
In the Beethoven sonata which I have chosen for
contrast, D minor, opus 31, No. 2, the thematic mode of
construction is also marked, but the contrast of subjects
is very much greater than in the Bach work, and the
effect of the whole impassioned to a high degree.
Beginning with a slow arpeggio chord (two measures) the
first theme follows only to be interrupted in the sixth
measure. In the seventh the Principal subject is resumed,
and in measure 10 a new motive appears in the
vigorously ascending bass theme, which is immediately
answered by a soprano counter theme, measures 11, 12,
14. This carries us forward to measure 30, where an
episode comes in not unrelated to the first theme, and
again in measure 44 a passage of chords practically
forming a pedal point, and the conclusion proper in
measure 55. In the elaboration these themes are delightfully
treated, and the entire movement has much the character
of an improvisation. The slow movement continues the
rhapsodical spirit of the first movement. The finale is
one of the most delightful examples of charming effect
reached by means of composition essentially thematic.
The Sonata, opus 90, in E, is one of the most pleasing
of Beethoven, and, aside from a certain figure in tenths
for the bass (measures 55 to 58, and again later on), it
presents no serious difficulties for the player. The
second movement is a delightful song, which is carried out
at great length.
The first movement of Bach's Italian concerto is much
more modern in style than the other pieces of Bach in
this program. Without ever quite reaching the
modern conception of the lyric, it at least approaches it
closely at times, and produces a beautiful effect.
Of the Mozart fantasia there is not room to speak in
detail. Note, however, the very clever modulatory
treatment of the leading idea in the first two pages, and
the entrance of the lovely slow melody in D major near
the end of the second page. The latter is Mozart-like
in the extreme.
CHAPTER VI.
SCHUBERT AND MENDELSSOHN.
FRANZ PETER SCHUBERT.
Born January 31, 1797, at Lichtenthal, near Vienna.
Died November 19, 1828, at Vienna.
Franz Peter Schubert, the great song-writer, was born, the son of a
parish schoolmaster, at Lichtenthal, near Vienna. The family was
musical, and the father and a few of his friends used to hold quartet
parties every Sunday afternoon, at which the works for string quartet
then current were played, also compositions by Haydn and other good
composers. The boy very early showed such talent that his father
taught him the violin, and occasionally allowed him to take part with
the rest. He had a beautiful soprano voice, which, attracting the
attention of the director of the music at St. Stephen's Cathedral,
secured him admission to the choir and to the Imperial Convict, or
school for educating the choristers for the Court-chapel, where,
besides the usual branches of education, he was taught music
thoroughly. This continued until his voice broke, whereupon he was
turned out to shift for himself. For the three years next following he
assisted his father in the school, teaching the lowest class in it, and
proved himself, it is pretty certain, a very indifferent teacher.
Later he resigned this position, and struggled on during his short life
mainly by the assistance of friends, one of whom saw to it that the
indefatigable composer was supplied with music paper; another shared
his room with him, etc. Between 1818 and 1824 he spent his summers at
the Hungarian estate of the great Prince Esterhazy, teaching the
daughters music and arranging music for the household. Here many of
his works were written. In Vienna he had an orchestra of school-boys
for quite a long time, which probably played his works occasionally, as
well as those of composers of less complicated works.
[Illustration: Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn]
Schubert began to compose in earnest very early, and by the time he was
twenty years of age he had written about 400 of his songs. His works
comprise a volume of pianoforte sonatas, several volumes of light works
for piano, about 600 songs, nine symphonies, of which two are among the
greatest we have, one opera, several masses, and a large number of
compositions for chamber music.
FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY.
Born February 3, 1809, at Hamburg.
Died November 4, 1847, at Leipsic.
He was the nephew of the celebrated Jewish philosopher and reformer,
Moses Mendelssohn, and a son of the well-known banker, Abraham
Mendelssohn.
The family was Israelitish, but Felix Mendelssohn was brought up a
Lutheran. The boy was of a very amiable and thoughtful disposition,
and was well instructed in music from his earliest years, his principal
teacher having been the celebrated theorist, Zelter. His first
appearance in concert was made at the age of nine, in the piano part of
a trio by Wolf. A year later he appeared as a singer. His
acquaintance with the orchestra commenced very early. There was a
small orchestra which met at his father's house on Sunday afternoons,
and by this means the compositions of the boy were tried and he himself
acquired his experience as a director. His activity as a composer
commenced about 1820. In this year he wrote a violin sonata and two
clavier sonatas, a little cantata, and an operetta. In 1821 Zelter
brought him to the great poet Goethe, who heard his music and conversed
with the lad with great interest. The friendship with Goethe continued
for many years. In one of his letters Mendelssohn tells of having
visited the poet and having had a long conversation with him, in which
the poet had given an account of Hegel's lectures on esthetics, which
Mendelssohn had heard that winter in Berlin, and in which Goethe was
very much interested on account of the novelty of the ideas presented.
The first of the important compositions of Mendelssohn to be published
and played was the overture to the "Midsummer Night's Dream," which was
written in 1826 and played immediately. He seems to have worked this
out upon the piano, improvising it piece by piece as he became excited
in reading Shakspere's comedy. This overture is of most complete
mastery in its working out and of thorough originality, and scarcely
anything of his later works surpasses it in merit as a finished
composition for orchestra.
It was largely through Mendelssohn's influence that the "St. Matthew
Passion" of Bach was brought out and given entire in Berlin, in 1829,
just one hundred years after its first production in Leipsic.
Mendelssohn was the conductor, and it was given in the Sing-Akademie.
This was the work of a boy of twenty. Nothing could speak more plainly
of the authority which his genius gave him than that he should conceive
and bring to completion an undertaking of this magnitude in a city like
Berlin at so early an age. He made many journeys for pleasure and
instruction. Full accounts of these will be found in his charming
letters, which are among the most delightful contributions of this kind
that any literary man or artist has left. During one of these journeys
he visited the Hebrides, and afterward produced his overture called
"Fingal's Cave," as a memory of that visit.
Mendelssohn attained great celebrity as a pianist and organist, the
latter mainly by his improvisations, although he has the credit of
having been one of the first to play Bach's fugues in England. The
late August Haupt, however, told one of his pupils that Mendelssohn, in
his time, never had an adequate pedal technic but played upon a sort of
hit-or-miss principle, which generally succeeded from his thorough
grasp of the music. He early produced his concerto for pianoforte in G
minor, and played it at many musical festivals. He was in great demand
as a director for festivals in Germany and also in England. He became
director of the Gewandhaus concerts at Leipsic in 1835, and in 1843,
with very distinguished artist associates, he founded the Conservatory
of Music at Leipsic, which, under his management, became so celebrated.
Mendelssohn produced works in almost every department of musical
composition, a great variety of chamber music, symphonies, overtures,
one opera, and a very large collection of music for the piano-forte and
organ. Probably his fame will last longer through the influence of
three works--viz., the "Midsummer Night's Dream" overture, which opened
the new world of the romantic; the oratorio of "Elijah," which is in
very many respects one of the most beautiful ever written, just as it
is also fortunate in the selection of subjects and of the episodes for
treatment; and the "Songs Without Words" for the pianoforte, which,
while not of remarkable depth, are very beautiful and poetic
compositions of such quality as to awaken in the musical world a new
appetite and a new appreciation of an instrument which has now become
the most universal in use.
All the works of Mendelssohn are distinguished for clearness of form,
elegance of sentiment, and delicate fancy. They are more feminine than
masculine, although at times he has a great deal of strength. His
pianoforte writing is not so well suited to the instrument as that of
some other composers, such as Chopin and Liszt, and his concertos,
although very popular, are not ranked among the master works of this
form of composition. Of all the pianoforte music which he produced,
the "Rondo Capriccioso" is the one which most completely represents the
characteristic range of his imagination.
The two composers for the present chapter have distinguished themselves
in almost every walk of composition. Schubert left a large quantity of
manuscript, most of it unheard until after his death, consisting of
about 700 songs, nine symphonies, various pieces of chamber music,
pianoforte sonatas, dances, marches, overtures, one opera, and many
miscellaneous compositions. In every department of this vast activity
there are a few works which stand out as masterpieces. To begin at the
top, his "Unfinished Symphony" and the great Symphony in C are in the
very first line of orchestral masterpieces, standing well up alongside
the greatest of Beethoven, and with an originality of style and beauty
wholly independent of the overshadowing Beethoven, who was, just at the
moment of their composition, engaged in his last works, including the
immortal Ninth Symphony.
Nevertheless, while Schubert was great in all musical directions, he
marked an epoch in one direction, and therefore has a fame peculiarly
his own. As a songwriter he was one of the greatest the world has ever
known. His fame in this department rests upon two wholly different
considerations, the union of which in the same composer forms the
epoch-marking peculiarity already mentioned. As a melodist he stands
in a rank by himself. His melodies move easily, now within the
diatonic mode, and now in the chromatic, but generally, within the
limits of each period, in the diatonic mode. The melodies are
flexible, well balanced, very singable, and natural. Each comes up,
lives its day, and dies away into silence, like a lovely flower
unfolding from its own germ in the moment of the year when the sunshine
and the showers have brought the time for its appearing. In this case
the predisposing external cause leading to the appearance of one of
these melodies is found in the poem chosen for text. Whatever Schubert
read, if it interested him, immediately called up within him a melodic
form. These melodies not only differ from one another by degrees of
indescribably delicate gradation, but each as it comes proves itself
adapted to the text which gave it birth. These lovely melodies,
moreover, are supported by pianoforte accompaniments which at times
rise to a co-ordinate rank with the melody itself as part of the
expression of the poem. Sometimes the so-called accompaniment is
itself almost the main thing. Such cases are found in "The Erl King,"
"To Be Sung on the Waters," and "Gretchen at the Spinning-wheel." At
other times the accompaniment is as simple as the melody, and serves no
other purpose than that of supporting the voice. A typical case of
this kind is found in "Hedge Roses," and in "Hark! Hark! the Lark."
It is another peculiarity of Schubert that, beginning with an entirely
simple melody, he sometimes digresses to a remote key, within which for
a moment he goes quite as simply, only to return again immediately to
the main key. The "Hark! Hark! the Lark" is a case of this kind.
(Note the transition to G-flat in the ninth measure.)
The universal type of Schubert's music is the melodic. This we find in
the pianoforte sonatas quite as plainly as in the songs themselves. In
the minuet and march on the present program the melodic ideas are the
main thing. Charmingly naïve are the little waltzes upon the present
list. Beautifully simple, delightfully symmetrical, their simplicity
relieved by short modulations into neighboring keys, it is not possible
to find elsewhere compositions so short, so simple, and yet so
beautiful. In spite of their brevity and simplicity, the student will
find them worth knowing thoroughly. It is also an excellent exercise
for the student to learn some of these by heart and to play them in
several different keys.
As an illustration of Schubert's cleverness in treating the pianoforte,
which is already sufficiently evident in the dramatic accompaniments of
his larger songs, before mentioned, attention is called to the
Impromptu in B-flat--the air and variations known as "The Fair
Rosamunde," the title due to the appearance of this melody in his opera
of "Rosamunde." At least three of these variations display great
finesse in treating the pianoforte. The first needs to be done with
the utmost delicacy and lightness, the melody suggested rather than
brought out. The third has a new rhythm and a melodic secondary figure
in the left-hand part, which, taken with the treatment of the variation
in the right-hand part, gives this piece a wholly new content and
effect. The fourth, again, is equally novel and equally significant
for the pianoforte. The remaining variations are of little importance,
although, as a matter of course, all are to be played.
Mendelssohn as pianoforte composer represents two very important and
characteristic moods--the scherzo and the song without words. It is
probable that by the good fortune of the latter name for his
collections of little piano pieces Mendelssohn rendered the musical
world a greater service than he did even by the elegant quality of his
compositions themselves. It was the happy thought of the title which
at once puts the listener upon the right track, and disposes him to try
to discover what the words of the unworded songs ought to be. It was a
fortunate guess rather than a something thought out by reason, and if
he had been pressed to assign a reason for including some of these
pieces under the name, he would probably have been driven to confess
that they were so included because he did not know what else they were.
The "Songs Without Words" embody many types, the most important being
the true cantabile--pieces in which there is a flowing lyric melody
with a soft accompaniment. These pieces are in effect nothing else
than "nocturnes," quite after the manner of Chopin, only less elaborate
in treatment and less extended. Among the best types of this class are
to be mentioned the first, the two folk-songs in the program following,
and the duetto. In all these the connected legato of the melody is of
the first importance; and, second, the proper sinking and swelling of
the melody in the true manner of impassioned singing. The
accompaniment follows closely and shares in the fluctuations of
intensity and mood.
Another type of these pieces is illustrated by the eighth, in B-flat
minor. This piece, which has the speed and restless movement of a
scherzo, has also the true Mendelssohnian flavor of sweet melancholy.
It goes at great speed, and often the melody is suggested by an accent
rather than fully expressed. Such cases are found in measures 3 and 4,
and elsewhere. In these instances there is a fragment of melody in the
middle voice.
Somewhat between the cantabile type and the scherzo is to be mentioned
the "Table Song," No. 28, in G. This is like a part-song of light and
pleasant yet somewhat sentimental character, suitable to be sung at
table.
As a composer for voice, Mendelssohn attained a very high rank,
producing melodies of great sweetness (yet often also of inherent
coldness) and very singable. One of the most beautiful examples of
this kind is found in the "O for the Wings of a Dove," first sung as
soprano solo and then later for chorus, in his setting of a psalm.
Another well-known example for alto is the "O Rest in the Lord." The
latter melody derives additional beauty from the contrast it makes with
the rather dramatic place in the oratorio where it occurs. Further
illustrations of Mendelssohn's powers in this direction may be taken
from the list above, which there is not time at present to discuss more
fully.
The part-songs of Mendelssohn for mixed voices deserve to be more
frequently sung. They are extremely beautiful and delightfully written
for the voices. While of moderate difficulty, they belong among the
very best of part-songs for unaccompanied mixed voices. The omission
of the accompaniment is of very great importance, as these pieces are
strictly written in such a manner that the voices have the complete
ideas, both melody and harmony, and when given independent of
accompaniment it is possible to obtain a purer intonation and better
sympathy.
The present program permits a somewhat greater latitude of arrangement
of parts than those of the preceding chapters. The works do not
contrast with each other exactly as was sought in previous programs,
but rather form phases of lyric melody, to be sung in such order and
combination as best suits the performers, taking care however, that an
agreeable succession of keys is generally observed.
PROGRAM.
Schubert: Waltzes.
Minuet, opus 79.
March, from four-hand collection.
"Fair Rosamunde and Variations."
Songs: "Hedge Roses."
"Wanderer."
"Hark! Hark! the Lark."
"Gretchen."
"Frühlingsglaube."
Mendelssohn: Songs Without Words. The first.
"Hunting Song," No. 3.
"Folk-song," No. 4.
"Gondellied," No. 6.
B-flat minor, No. 8.
"Table Song," No. 28.
Duetto, No. 18.
Overture to "Midsummer Night's Dream"; four hands.
"O rest in the Lord."
"If with all your hearts."
"It is enough."
Scene from "Elijah," "Lord God of Abraham," etc.
"Hunting Song," ) part-songs
"Farewell to the Forest,"; )
CHAPTER VII.
ROBERT SCHUMANN.
ROBERT SCHUMANN.
Born January 8, 1810, at Zwickau in Saxony.
Died July 29, 1856, at Endenich, near Bonn.
Schumann was the son of a bookseller and a confirmed music lover. The
boy showed marked talent for music, playing to some extent upon the
more usual instruments, and even getting together and conducting a
small orchestra of the school-boys. For this orchestra he very early
composed pieces. His father died when the boy was sixteen and had
nearly completed his gymnasium course, and in 1828 Schumann entered at
the University of Leipsic as a student of law. After a time he left
Leipsic in favor of Heidelberg, where some very celebrated lectures
were at that time being given; but at Heidelberg he practically wasted
his time, so far as the law studies were concerned, and devoted himself
entirely to music. As early as 1829 he made a short vacation journey
into Italy, and at Milan heard the famous violin virtuoso Paganini, and
then became wholly influenced for music. Schumann's mother was
extremely averse to his fitting himself for the musical profession, and
it was only with great difficulty that she was brought to consent.
Accordingly, his serious musical studies began in 1830, when he came
back again to Leipsic and became a music student with Frederick Wieck
and Heinrich Dorn. It was Wieck's daughter Clara who afterward became
Mme. Schumann.
[Illustration: Robert Schumann]
Schumann had a great determination to become a piano virtuoso, not so
much for the repetition of effects already standard as for the
invention of new ones. In this direction he devoted himself to
practice with such assiduity that he very soon reached a point where
his fingers could not keep up with his imagination. In the effort to
impart a greater individuality and strength to the fourth finger of the
right hand, he made some experiments which resulted in disabling his
finger for a while, and he never afterward regained the use of it to a
complete degree. Thus his career as virtuoso was cut short, but the
studies he made and the playing he was afterward able to do resulted in
very singular and productive discoveries of musical effects possible to
the piano, so that it is not too much to say that the piano playing of
the present time is more indebted to Schumann than perhaps to any other
master in the history of the instrument.
He began his creative career by the arrangement of a collection of
Paganini's studies, in which he sought to reproduce upon the pianoforte
some of the effects of the famous Paganini caprices for the violin. He
made two collections of these, about four years apart, and prefaced the
first book with many observations in regard to the methods of practice
and innovations of technic. Almost simultaneously with this he began
seriously as a composer upon his own account, and, quite
characteristically, as a composer of short pieces. The Papillons, opus
2, or "Scenes at a Ball," consist of short pieces of from two to six
lines in length, and among them are many of great beauty. Another of
these early works is the so-called "Dances of the Davidsbündler against
the Philistines." These consist of eighteen short pieces without
individual titles. Already, by the time when the composition of this
work was undertaken in 1835, Schumann had commenced to write as a
musical literary man under two pseudonyms--Florestan and Eusebius, the
one representing the sentimental and tender side, and the other the
impassioned and vigorously moved. The different numbers in the
"Davidsbündler Dances" are signed with one or the other of these
initials, and sometimes with both. The name "Davidsbündler Dances" was
in allusion to the term Philistine, which, in the German university
towns, signified the old fogies, the conservative element, who take
things as they find them and want nothing changed. Schumann belonged
to the new party, who wanted about everything changed.
Two or three years later a second work of very similar import, called
the "Carnaval," was produced, consisting of thirty-one short pieces,
each bearing a characteristic title. This work is of a very
extraordinary character. The moods of the pieces are extremely
individual and marked, and the range of pianoforte expression covered
by them is as great as can be found in the compositions of any master
for the instrument. Another characteristic set of pieces at this time
was the "Fantasy Pieces," opus 12, each of which had its own title;
also the "Kreisleriana," a series of queer sayings after the manner of
one Kreisler, an eccentric old musician in a novel popular at that
time. There are also what he called "Novelettes," a series of eight
somewhat elaborate pianoforte pieces.
In 1834 Schumann, in connection with two other young men, founded the
"Neue Zeitschrift für Musik" as an organ of musical progress. He
remained editor of this for ten years, writing there a great variety of
articles, and in 1844 resigned the editor's chair to Brendel and
removed to Düsseldorf. It was from Düsseldorf that he wrote his famous
article about the newly-risen star of Johannes Brahms.
In 1840 he succeeded in overcoming Wieck's objections to a marriage
with the young Clara, who was then a very distinguished piano virtuoso,
and in the same year he received a doctorate from the University of
Jena. In 1839 and 1840 he composed a very large number of songs--viz.,
one hundred in all. In 1841 his first symphony was played at the
Gewandhaus in Leipsic, and in 1843, upon the founding of the Leipsic
Conservatory by Mendelssohn, Schumann was appointed teacher of playing
from score. As he was practically no teacher at all, and found the
duties irksome, he soon resigned this position and lived for a while at
Dresden, and made a number of concert tours to various foreign
countries with his wife, his own works forming generally a part of the
program. It is told of one of these journeys that at some court or
other where they were graciously received, the amiable prince, after
complimenting the brilliant young pianist upon the solidity of her
work, continued, "And is your husband also musical?" At that time Mr.
Schumann was the husband of Clara Wieck, rather than Clara Wieck the
wife of Robert Schumann.
Early in 1851 Schumann's mind began to show signs of giving way, and in
1853 he was removed to a retreat for the insane, where he died in 1856.
Schumann's compositions comprise four rather large volumes of piano
works, four symphonies for grand orchestra, and a number of chamber
works of different kinds, of which the quintet for piano and strings is
perhaps the most successful; about 100 songs, one opera, several
cantatas, a series of music pieces for "Faust," to be played in
connection with the drama, etc.
In his lifetime his piano music had very slight recognition from any
quarter, its novelties both in the subject-matter of the music and in
the manner of treating the piano making it practically impossible for
piano players at that day, and it was only about the time of Schumann's
death that his piano music began to attract attention upon a
considerable scale. Schumann's Symphony in B-flat had a great success
under Mendelssohn's direction in Leipsic in 1841, but it was played in
very few other places for a number of years, although it was an
extremely bright and interesting production. When William Mason was in
Leipsic in 1850 he sent home a score and parts to the orchestra in
Boston. They held two rehearsals of this symphony and then laid it
upon the shelf in the belief that the composer must have been crazy,
and it was only five or six years later that they mustered up nerve to
produce the work and were astonished to find that it pleased the
hearers.
The universal currency of Schumann's piano music can not be said to
have made much progress until the appearance of Rubinstein. In the
early days of Schumann's productivity he composed his enormously
difficult and beautiful "Fantasie," opus 17, and dedicated it to Liszt.
Accordingly, not to be outdone in politeness, Liszt introduced some of
Schumann's pieces in his programs once or twice, but the effect of them
upon the audience was so much less than that of his own music or of the
Chopin pieces which at that time he was very fond of playing, that he
discontinued further efforts to aid Schumann's cause, although he wrote
him very polite and encouraging letters. The first real Schumann
player was Rubinstein, who had the qualities of tone and of
emotionality which Schumann's music imperatively required; and since
Rubinstein, Schumann's music has entered more and more into the
world-current of piano music, until at the present time it occupies a
position inferior to none other.
Of a composer so varied in his capacities, so original, so influential
upon the later course of development in his art, and so interesting in
every way, it is not possible from a single program--no matter how
carefully selected the works may be--to gain a complete idea. The most
that can be done is to give a glimpse of the man, to bring out a few of
his moods, and to observe the more salient features of his style. The
following list of selections has been influenced by the same idea as
that underlying all the previous programs of this series--namely: A
preference for selections of moderate difficulty, both for performer
and hearer; and a representation of what might be called the more
elementary characteristics of his art.
PROGRAM.
Kinderscenen. Opus 15.
"From Strange Lands and People."
"A Curious Story."
"Playing Tag."
"Happy Enough."
"Traumerei."
Album for the Young. Opus 68.
"The Jolly Farmer."
"A Little Romance."
Papillons. Opus 2.
Polonaise in D major.
Songs.
"The Hat of Green."
"The Wanderer's Song."
Forest Scenes. Opus 82.
"Entrance to the Forest."
"The Wayside Inn."
"Prophetic Bird."
"Farewell to the Forest."
Songs.
"Moonlight."
"He, the Noblest."
Night-piece in F. Opus 23. No. 4.
Novelette in F. Opus 21. No. 1.
Songs.
"Thou Ring Upon My Finger."
"The Spring Night."
Fantasy Pieces. Opus 12.
"In the Evening."
"Soaring."
"Why?"
"Whims."
"End of the Song."
The foregoing selections, as will be noticed, are all for piano and
voice; I have thought it better to confine them to these easily
accessible sources than to attempt to cover more ground. In a later
program more difficult piano selections will be given. All the
instrumental selections in this list are in the volume of "Selections
from the Works of Robert Schumann," edited by the present writer and
published by the publishers of "Music." All the songs are in the
collection of Schumann songs published by Boosey and Company.
I have written so many times upon the works and characteristics of
Schumann that it would, perhaps, suffice to refer the student to a few
of those places, such as "A Popular History of Music," pages 464 to
477. Also in the first volume of "How to Understand Music" there is
something to the point, and at various other places in the course of
the work, as will be found by looking up the references to Schumann's
music given in the index. At the beginning of the collection of
Schumann pieces, above mentioned, is an essay upon Schumann and his
works which will be found suggestive. One of the best single articles
I have seen is Mr. W. H. Hadow's essay upon "Schumann and the Romantic
Movement in Germany," which occupies pages 149 to 231 in the first
volume of his "Studies in Modern Music." In spite of these I shall add
a few observations in the present pages, since it is a peculiarity of
the works of any great writer that they grow upon the appreciation, and
while their shortcomings and limitations of whatever kind become more
apparent as the student grows in years and clearness of thought, the
beauties and originalities also press more and more upon our notice,
and perhaps, in the case of creative artists of the first order, come
out into even greater luxuriance than we at first realized. Such, at
least, I find in my own case since my first introduction to the works
of Schumann, which practically began with my acquaintance with Dr.
Mason at South Bend, Indiana, in the summer of 1870. Before that I had
heard but very few of the Schumann works, and these had not been well
done and so had failed of making an impression. I was much surprised
when Dr. Mason told me that one could not properly understand Beethoven
without knowing Schumann. And it was like opening a new world when I
began with the Novelette in E, the Fantasy Pieces, opus 12, and the
Romance in F-sharp, opus 28.
The most distinguishing quality of the Schumann music, and the one
which perhaps demarcates it from other music most strikingly, is its
hearty quality, its spontaneity, its headlong driving speed. Another
quality almost or quite equally notable is its conciseness. Schumann
is above all the poet of the short, the clear, the well-defined. In
parallel line with this is his habit of employing fanciful designations
for his short pieces, generally poetical titles suggesting a mood or a
scene. Examples of this latter peculiarity occur in the present
program. The titles were perhaps always put on after the piece had
been composed. It is not known with certainty whether Schumann had the
idea of the title in his mind in composing the piece. In most cases it
serves merely as a suggestion to the player of a proper standpoint for
conceiving the work.
Another peculiarity of Schumann's writing is the close unity of each
little piece or movement. He develops his period or his two periods
out of a single motive or a motive and a counter-theme, and the leading
idea is repeated several times. When the first idea gives place to a
second idea, this proves to be something totally unlike the idea which
it follows, making with it a strong contrast. In the clearness of his
moods and their contrast is one source of the vigor of impression which
the Schumann music has made and is making upon the musical world.
The first number in the present program contains five pieces from the
set called "Scenes from Childhood," written in 1837, when the composer
was in the very thick of his somewhat diversified course of true love
and had advanced seven years along the pathway of a composer.
Following the "Träumerei" are two popular selections from the "Album
for the Young," written some ten years later--the "Jolly Farmer" and
the "Little Romance." This program number closes with the Polonaise in
D, from the "Papillons," written in 1832. It is a very brilliant and
original piece, full of delightful pianoforte effect.
In the second series of instrumental numbers are included four of the
beautiful cycle, "Forest Scenes." Each of these is like a little
sonnet--brief, picturesque, and individual. In the first we have the
vague and shadowy effect of the entrance into the forest, the
shimmering leaves, the sunlight and shade, and whatever fanciful
explanation one likes of the imaginative tone-sonnet of the author. In
the "Wayside Inn" the thematic style of Schumann is well illustrated,
and also the variety of effect possible to be obtained from a very
small amount of musical material. The reference to the title is not
very apparent, since the speed of the piece and its quick and forcible
character deprive it of the reposeful "Stimmung" one would anticipate
from the title assigned. I do not know the true explanation of the
"Prophetic Bird." It is a most lovely little bit, and is now so well
known in the concert-room as not to need further discussion.
The "Farewell to the Forest" is one of the most delightful songs
without words in the whole Schumann category. Its melody is musical
and new, and the changing rhythms, the occasional coming out of a
middle voice, and the general effect of the whole are alike interesting
and absorbing.
In the next instrumental number we come upon another mood of Schumann,
or rather upon two of them. The "Night-piece" is of a lyric quality
enjoyable by every one. Nearly all young players object to the speed
which Schumann has marked, and many play it much more slowly; this,
however, is not warranted, since in the nature of the case Schumann
must have known what he intended, and when we have made an allowance
for the undue slowness of his metronome at given tempi, we are still
not warranted in making this slower than eighty for quarters. To take
it still more slowly is to change the character of all the latter part
of the piece. If well played it is sufficiently reposeful in the form
in which we now have it. In the second part there is some delightful
imitative work between the motive in the treble and its answer in the
tenor.
With the Novelette in F, opus 21, we come into the domain of what we
might call the higher Schumann, for in these works and in those which
follow upon this list greater demands are made upon the player, and the
music itself is deeper, stronger, more original, and therein more
satisfactory. The novelette consists of two main parts. First comes a
march-like movement, in which certain very strong chords with
occasional triplet octaves in the bass impart a singularly driving and
forceful character to the music. After the double bar at the beginning
of the fifth measure a new motive appears, which sets in operation a
series of sequences, and this period ends in D-flat.
The next period begins in the same manner, but the modulation is
differently conducted, and the period now ends in the key of A. Now
comes in what he calls the trio, a lovely lyric melody in the key of F.
This is developed to quite a length, after which the main theme of the
novelette returns, and the period ends in the key of F. Now ensues a
curious sort of intermezzo, in the key of D-flat, where one voice
starts out with a little melodic subject and another takes it up and
imitates it, and this in turn is followed by another, quite in the
manner of fugue, only that here the motive itself is very short and the
imitations follow so fast, one after another, that only the beginning
of each is to be made out. For the rest, it is a question of mystery.
When he has carried this as far as he cares, the first subject returns;
and after this again the trio, but now in the key of A major. At the
end of this, again the original subject, and so finally the end. The
most notable features of this novelette are its vigor, the different
forms in which the subjects return, and the persistence of the two main
ideas--the march and the lyric trio--which form the substance of it.
The mystic and fugue-like interlude is merely an interlude. It perhaps
represents one of those moments when the mind is too full for clear
utterance--a condition more celebrated in fiction than desirable in
reality.
The Fantasy Pieces, opus 12, are among the most happy of the smaller
works of this composer. Their general character is sufficiently
indicated by their titles. "In the Evening" represents one of those
mystic moods suitable to twilight. "Soaring" has also been translated
"Excelsior," which perhaps more truly represents its spirit. "Why?" is
a question, just like the word; nevertheless this has become the
greatest favorite of all the smaller Schumann pieces. "Whims" also is
well named, since in this quickly moving little piece one mood follows
another irrepressibly; among them are some which are highly poetic.
Last of all, "The End of the Song"--a very vigorous and strongly marked
movement which appeals to every one.
The Schumann songs are so remarkable as to demand separate treatment.
Those upon the present list are so placed because they represent in a
general way the more noticeable moods of Schumann in this form of art.
They can be sung high or low, as the singer's voice requires, but they
are more satisfactory if sung by a soprano voice, I think.
The first upon the list is the merry and arch little "Hat of Green,"
which with folk-tone sweetness and simplicity brings out a situation as
old as the world and as new as the morning. The musical treatment is
very clever and interesting.
The "Wanderer's Song" is characteristically German, representing the
song of the young student as he sets out upon his student career as
traveler, for seeing strange lands; or the emigrant who leaves his land
to find a better home, but never one so well loved as his own native
country. It is full of heart and courage until the middle part, where
the intermezzo in the key of E major tells of softer feelings--of
longing and homesickness.
"Moonlight," again, represents the peculiarly mystic and dreamy side of
the Schumann nature, and there are few songs in the whole world so
sweet and so beautiful as this; but it needs a pure, clear, and very
true soprano voice, controlled with musical feeling. Thus interpreted
it is indeed a dream.
The next two songs upon the list are out of the famous cycle called
"Woman's Love and Life"--the poems of no great depth, but the subjects
of lasting and universal application and interest. "He, the Noblest"
gives a very spirited and sensitive musical setting to the woman's
opinion of the loved one; words and music bring to expression one of
the most ideal moments of woman's life. The next, "Thou Ring Upon My
Finger," tells its own story, but here, again, the music is well worth
while for its own sake. It is interesting as an instrumental piece
without the aid of the voice. Few songs as musical have been written.
The last upon the list, "Spring Night," while out of another
cycle,--the so-called "Liederkreis,"--is nevertheless of quite similar
excellence to the preceding.
All need to be sung with abandon, and above all with sentiment, poetry,
and flexible rhythm, yet always with abounding musical life. To sing
such songs well is to be an artist.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHOPIN.
FREDERIC FRANCOIS CHOPIN.
Born March 1, 1809, at Zelazowa-Wola, near Warsaw.
Died October 17, 1849, in Paris.
Chopin was the son of a French father who had lived in Warsaw and was
teacher in the gymnasium there; his mother was a Polish woman.
Chopin's early talent for music was unmistakable, both his parents
having been gifted in this direction. The child, therefore, was put at
music very young and appeared as a wonder-child at an early age. His
teachers were a Bohemian named Zwyny and Joseph Elsner. But the most
of his work he must have accomplished by himself, since we find that
before he was nineteen he had written his theme and variations upon "La
Ci Darem la Mano," and all his works up to and including the Concerto
in E minor, opus 11. It is believed that the so-called second concerto
in F minor was also completed before this period. This mass of works
included not alone the very remarkable variations upon Mozart's air,
already mentioned, and the brilliant concertos, with certain rondos and
mazurkas and other characteristic illustrations of the Chopin genius,
but also the studies for pianoforte, opus 10, which in methods of
treating the piano amount to a most astonishing advance over anything
which had appeared before them. They are also as beautiful and
original from a musical standpoint as they are remarkable from that of
piano-forte technic.
[Illustration: Frederic Francois Chopin]
Accordingly, when Chopin, in 1828, went upon a concert tour to Paris,
Vienna, and Munich, he was received everywhere with astonishing
enthusiasm, and was very much surprised to hear himself called one of
the first virtuosi of the time, as, indeed, he must have been. At
Paris his opus 2 was published (the variations just mentioned), and
this was the composition which attracted Schumann's attention and
concerning which he wrote such a glowing and enthusiastic account. In
1829 he came to Paris to reside, and immediately became an active
member of a small but extremely brilliant art circle, among the members
of which were to be found such celebrities as Liszt, Berlioz, Heine,
Balzac, Ernst, and Meyerbeer.
Chopin's father having died, he assumed the care of his mother, and
supported himself partly by concert playing and partly by teaching. As
early as 1838 the symptoms of pulmonary weakness began to appear, and
from that time to the end of his life he was more or less an invalid,
always in delicate health and sometimes unfit for any exertion. From
the brilliancy of his position in Paris, the death of Chopin was a
great shock to the artistic world, and he was buried with most
impressive ceremonies. His grave is not far from those of Bellini and
Cherubini. He was a man of fine wit, aristocratic presence,
distinguished manners, and a highly sensitive and poetic nature, all of
which qualities reached expression in his music.
The best biography of Chopin is that by Fr. Niecks, in two volumes.
The so-called "Chopin," by Liszt, is merely a rhapsody upon his
departed friend, having very little biographical but a great deal of
critical value, because no one knew better than Liszt how to estimate
the innovations which Chopin had made in piano playing.
It will be noticed by the attentive reader that the art of modern piano
playing, as we now have it, depends practically upon the works of
Chopin, Schumann, and Liszt, with possibly a little advance help from
Weber and Thalberg. The three artists first mentioned began to work in
their several provinces at about the same time; Chopin and Liszt
between 1826 and 1830, and Schumann from 1830 on. Liszt, however, did
not produce works of distinguished originality until after the contest
with Thalberg in Paris and after hearing Paganini, somewhere about
1834, so that, on the whole, if superior eminence were to be accorded
either of these artists in point of priority of invention, we would
perhaps give the credit to Chopin; and in point of precocity of genius,
considering the astonishing innovations he made, I think Chopin is to
be held even in advance of Mozart, Schubert, and Mendelssohn, all of
whom created remarkably mature works in new styles at a very early age.
Chopin's works are almost entirely for the pianoforte, and he was the
originator of several forms which have now become types; the salon
waltz was practically created by him, although Weber's "Invitation to
the Dance" opened the way, and the ballads, scherzi, and nocturnes of
Chopin were new types, showing his genius in the most beautiful manner.
PROGRAM I. (Easy.)
Polonaise in A major, opus 40, No. 1.
Polonaise in C-sharp minor, opus 26, No. 1.
Preludes: Opus 28. No. 4, E minor.
No. 6, B minor.
No. 7, A major.
No. 9, E major.
Prelude in D-flat, opus 28, No. 15.
Waltz in C-sharp minor, opus 64.
Waltz in D-flat, opus 64, No. 1.
Nocturne in E-flat, opus 9, No. 2.
Waltz in A-flat, opus 42.
PROGRAM II. (More difficult.)
Polonaise in A major.
Fantasia Impromptu in C-sharp minor, opus 66.
Scherzo in B-flat minor, opus 31.
Nocturne in E-flat major, opus 9, No. 2.
Nocturne in G major, opus 37, No. 2.
Ballad in A-flat, opus 47.
PROGRAM III. (Still more difficult.)
Études: Opus 10, No. 1, C major.
No. 2, A minor.
No. 3, E major.
No. 4, C-sharp minor.
No. 5, G-flat (black key).
Ballad in A-flat, opus 47.
Romanza from First Concerto, in E minor. (Reinecke's arrangement or
with second piano.)
Impromptu in A-flat, opus 29.
Nocturne in D-flat, opus 27, No. 2.
Polonaise in A-flat, opus 53.
In order to fully understand the individuality and genius of Frederic
François Chopin (1809-1849) it would be necessary to study his work
from three standpoints. First, naturally, for what it is in and of
itself--the moods, the qualities of style, the peculiar individuality
of his musical thought; second, with reference to the modifications of
pianoforte style inaugurated by this gifted genius--modifications
which, while having their source in certain improvements of the
mechanism of the pianoforte made immediately before Chopin began to
write, would not have come so soon but for his genius and insight; and,
third, to study the relation of this master in his style of musical
ideas and working out, his fancy, his imagination, his representation
of many sides of human nature, to the music of the other composers of
the romantic school, and especially to that of Mendelssohn and
Schumann, whose compositions were produced contemporaneously with those
of Chopin. To cover all this ground is naturally impossible in one,
two, or even in several, chapters, wherefore I shall confine myself in
the present program to illustrating a few of the characteristic
individualities of Chopin and the essential features of his style.
There are difficulties in doing this adequately, arising from the fact
that as piano virtuoso, Chopin, when fully expressing himself, did so
without regard for the convenience of imperfectly-trained hands upon
the pianoforte. Hence the works of his which represent his genius at
its best are mostly too difficult for any but very accomplished players.
In recognition of this difficulty I have made three programs, each more
difficult than the preceding, from which the student may make his
choice, since the qualities are mainly the same in all, excepting that
his complete treatment of the pianoforte is more perfectly illustrated
in the more difficult examples of his style. These, I may add, are no
longer the utmost limit of pianoforte difficulty, as they were at the
time when written; later writers have passed considerably beyond even
the most difficult works of Chopin. But for pianists in general some
of the Chopin works still remain along the farthest borders of their
art.
Among the most striking peculiarities of Chopin's style are, perhaps:
first, melodiousness, combined with a certain melancholy, almost
morbid, mood; second, pleasing running work, especially for the right
hand, generally overlying an entirely simple bass, or a bass
essentially simple upon the harmonic side but broken or modified so as
to conceal this fact from the superficial observer. All his later life
Chopin was an invalid or semi-invalid, and much of his music
illustrates a certain feverishness and morbidness of temperament.
The originality of Chopin shows best, perhaps, in his polonaises,
ballads, preludes, and nocturnes; but the two sonatas, while presenting
marked differences from those of the older writers, are, nevertheless,
tone-poems of strong originality. Practically, he may be said to have
invented the polonaise, the nocturne, and the ballad. The preludes are
short pieces of marked originality and expression, which have always
seemed to me like chips struck off in working at something else. Very
likely they may have been beginnings of larger works which were never
completed. Possibly they may have never been intended to reach any
larger dimensions than those in which we find them. First, his
polonaises.
The polonaise, as perfected by Chopin, is a composition in 3/4 measure,
having really six beats to the measure, arranged in three twos; the
second of these six beats is divided, and there is an extra accent upon
the fifth.
Moreover, this rhythm must be kept quite strictly, like a march, for a
march the polonaise is in its general characteristics, rather than a
dance properly so called. The fanciful description of the polonaise
given by Liszt in his memoir of Chopin may be taken as in the main
correct. He says:
"While listening to some of the polonaises of Chopin we can almost
catch the firm, nay the more than firm, the heavy, resolute tread of
men bravely facing all the bitter injustice which the most cruel and
relentless destiny can offer with the manly pride of unblenching
courage.
"The progress of the music suggests to our imagination such magnificent
groups as were designed by Paul Veronese, robed in the rich costume of
days long past; we see passing at intervals before us brocades of gold,
velvets, damasked satins, silvery, soft, and flexible sables, hanging
sleeves gracefully thrown back upon the shoulders, embossed sabers,
boots yellow as gold or red with trampled blood, sashes with long and
undulating fringes, close chemisettes, rustling trains, stomachers
embroidered with pearls, head-dresses glittering with rubies or leafy
with emeralds, light slippers rich in amber, gloves perfumed with the
luxurious attar of the harems."
The delicacy of Chopin's playing is traditional, but Liszt is authority
for the statement that Chopin was fond of hearing his larger and more
heroic works played with a power of which he himself was incapable. It
is related by some one that upon one occasion a very talented young
pianist called upon Chopin, and, being invited to play, did so, the
great polonaise in A-flat being the matter. Excited by the work and by
the presence of the author, and full of the heroic spirit of the music,
he broke several hammers--an occurrence quite common in heavy playing
in those days. Naturally, the young man was extremely mortified at
this, and endeavored to apologize over and over again. But the
composer cut him short. "Say not a word," said he; "if I had your
strength I would break every hammer in the piano when I played that
piece." This may be one of those "ben trovato" anecdotes which, if not
true, ought to be.
Both the polonaises upon the first program illustrate the breadth,
impassioned force, and vigor of Chopin's idea to a marked degree, as
well, perhaps, as anything he ever composed. The first, commonly known
as the "Military Polonaise," is one of those pompous pieces which
inevitably suggest some kind of great ceremonial. The movement begins
in stately march-like rhythmic swing, and goes on with interruptions of
brilliant effect, as if where the cannon and drums add their noisy
emphasis. The pomp resumes its march, but presently gives place to a
middle part--a trio. This, again, is in the key of D major, with a
great swinging melody like a trumpet, the military rhythm going on
uninterruptedly below. At length the original movement is resumed, and
presently comes the end. In all, it is a matter of pomp, brilliant
ceremony, stately march, like some national festival.
The second polonaise is of a wholly different character. The
expression is even more forcible than that of the first, but the
character is not the same. It is now as if one remembered some of the
heroes of Poland. With what fervor enters the leading subject (first
four measures)! It is complete in itself. Then comes a softer and
more capricious melody, but little more heroic than a nocturne. The
second principal idea (measure 25) is mystic, as if some kind of
ceremonial were being conducted. The rhythm goes on, but softly and
with interruptions. At length the principal idea again. Now comes the
middle piece, in the key of D-flat--a beautiful melody, one of the
finest of Chopin's, supported upon very delicate and sensitively
changing harmonies, full of chromatic and enharmonic modulation. After
this a second idea, in which two voices carry on the interest; the
upper a soprano, the lower a baritone or tenor, and they have a sort of
dialogue (measure 66). Then the soft melody again. In the first
editions of this work the da capo was not marked, and for about forty
years critics gave themselves headaches in trying to explain why Chopin
invented a new form of this anomalous construction,--a first part in
the key of C-sharp minor; a second part in the key of D-flat major.
"Where," they asked, "was the unity?" And by way of emphasis they
spelled the word Unity with a capital initial. At last, however, some
Solomon among editors affixed the missing letters "D. C.," and behold!
we had our Unity all right. It was simply a case of a middle piece in
the major key of the same tonic, with the notation changed
enharmonically for the sake of simplicity, the key of D-flat being, for
the majority of players, easier to read than that of C-sharp major.
The preludes which follow represent individual moods. The first, in E
minor, consists of a slow melody, almost stationary, while against the
long tones a chord accompaniment softly pulsates, the harmonies
shifting chromatically.
The second, No. 6, in B minor, has a lovely melodic idea in the bass,
while the right hand carries a soft harmony and a slow pulsation in the
upper voice. The impression of the whole is most mysterious,
melancholy, and tender.
No. 7, in A major, is one of the preludes which seems as if it might
have been a beginning for a longer composition, perhaps a slow waltz.
No. 9, in E major, a very grave, serious, organ-like movement, in which
massive, tremendous chord-successions march onward to a climax through
unheard-of modulations. This piece, by the way, has been arranged for
organ very effectively by A. W. Gottschalg. In playing it the slow
movement, the sustained and deep melody, and the steady rhythm all
require careful attention.
The prelude in D-flat represents a larger flight of the Chopin fancy.
It begins with a lovely melody, like a nocturne. This exquisite melody
gives place to a somewhat broken part in the key of C-sharp minor, in
which the remarkable thing is the incessant repetition of the note
G-sharp. This continues in eighth-note motion throughout all the
measures of this part of the work. It can only be made tolerable by
careful observance of the "sotto voce" at beginning and gradually
increasing in power up to the fortissimo in the fortieth measure.
Again it subsides into pianissimo, and again the crescendo. Finally
the original melody in D-flat is resumed--and with what grateful
sweetness!--and the piece is carried through to the close.
The waltzes of Chopin are not to be taken too seriously. They are
salon music, but of a particularly pleasing character. One of the most
charming, although a small one, is that in C-sharp minor, which is
built upon three leading motives. First the motive of two measures
which opens the work; then the little passage of eighth notes which
answers it; and finally the running work beginning in measure 33.
Farther along there is a melody in D-flat, which stands in place of a
trio. It is a sentimental and lovely melody. The effect of the whole
is light, capricious, and musical.
Following this is the little waltz in D-flat, opus 64, so often heard,
and so many times built over in all sorts of double notes, thirds,
sixths, etc. It illustrates the knack which Chopin had of developing a
pleasing whole out of very slight materials. Observe the extreme
simplicity of the bass.
The name nocturne was invented by John Field, who wrote twelve pieces
with this title (the remaining ones of the twenty usually printed were
named by the publishers) which are, in effect, sonnets; little lyric
pieces, of greater or less depth, having the general type of a song
without words, but preferably of a melancholy or tender character, and
the form of a melody with accompaniment. Chopin took up this form and
greatly ennobled it. His nocturnes are vastly more beautiful and
original than those of Field; they have greater variety, deeper
tenderness, and in every way are more distinguished and characteristic.
The little nocturne in E-flat, opus 9, is one which is now very
generally played upon every sort of instrument capable of singing a
soprano melody.
The waltz which concludes the first program is of a more brilliant
character than the two little ones earlier upon the list. It begins,
after the introduction, with a double rhythm, the right hand playing a
melody in double measure, while the left hand goes on in triple rhythm.
It should be played with brilliancy, the left hand quite crisp and
clear, but light; the right hand rather brilliantly. The syncopation
gives place to agreeable running work for the right hand, and this
again to another subject in double notes, a very earnest melody. A
little later there is another short melody, and the double-note subject
returns, and so all the material over again.
SECOND AND THIRD PROGRAMS.
The Fantasia Impromptu in C-sharp minor belongs to that class of
Chopin's works mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, in which
pleasing effects are made by fluent running work, containing more or
less changing notes and other forms of dissonance--running work so fast
that the ear does not follow each note, but skims along the melodic
thread, as it were, the general impression of an "effect" being the
form of conscious delight. This kind of effect in music, which depends
in part upon the persistence of the pianoforte tone after the keys are
released, was original with Chopin; or, if we can not say that he fully
originated, he certainly brought it to greater perfection than any of
his predecessors ever did. Moreover, the runs of Chopin are more
complicated and daring, yet at the same time better adapted to rapid
performance than any of those by the older writers for pianoforte. In
the present instance, moreover, there is a further unsettling element
in the fact that against the six tones of the right hand groups, the
left hand plays groups of four tones. This, which was never carried
out upon so extensive a scale before, is now perfectly easy to perform,
although in Chopin's time it was considered a difficulty. It serves to
impart an elusiveness to the effect of the music, entirely in keeping
with the name.
The place of "middle piece" in this Fantasia Impromptu is filled by a
slow melody which in effect is a nocturne--quite in the manner of the
middle piece in the Impromptu in A-flat. The principal ideas in this
are also somewhat varied in their repetitions, and light and delicate
arabesques occur, which add to the charm. The slow part affords a
repose, after which the principal subject returns and the whole comes
to a brilliant ending by means of a coda. The entire piece is
extremely characteristic of Chopin's genius.
The Scherzo in B-flat minor is more analogous to a ballad than to any
one of the varieties of piece known under this title in the classic
works of Beethoven. It consists substantially of about four primordial
elements. First there is the principal subject, the characteristic
expression of which is due to the unexpected answer of the suggestive
query of the low notes by strongly accented chords. Still in emphatic
mood the second idea comes in (measure 48) with running work.
Then follows a delightful melodic idea (measure 64), which is repeated
in different keys no less than five times, the entire period extending
to forty-nine measures. The accompaniment of this charming melody is
thoroughly Chopinesque, consisting of arpeggio figures generally
covering the compass of a tenth. In spirit this passage is much the
same as that of the second idea in the Polonaise in C-sharp minor.
After the second idea there is a coda concluding this part of the work.
It is then repeated with a few very slight modifications. Then follows
the middle piece, a melody in the key of A, a novel relation of keys
which no doubt troubled the contemporaries of the composer more than it
need us, since the key of the piece is properly D-flat, the B-flat
minor predominating only at the beginning, and the first part, as well
as the last, closing in D-flat major. From this to the key of A,
counting by the keyboard, is a major third, and everybody knows that
the major third above or below is an agreeable relation of keys;
moreover, we have here the music to tell us. This middle part is
mystic and truly charming. Several other ideas meet us presently, one
of which, with triplets in the alto, is rather troublesome to play and
still more troublesome when it occurs again near the end of the piece.
Also some very pretty running work, charmingly supported upon a bass
containing considerable melody of its own. This running work is
afterward given considerable development, as also is the subordinate
idea already referred to characterized by the triplets in the alto, and
then the first part of the piece is repeated, and so at length the end.
The name "scherzo" in this connection is to be taken as signifying a
play of fancy, rather than an especially playful mood in the sense of
mirthfulness; in fact, it is not easy to find a rational explanation of
the grounds upon which Chopin named his pieces, especially as between
the ballad and the scherzo. Probably, however, he called those ballads
which begin with a lyric melody and depend for their interest mainly
upon the development of lyric melodies, reaching at times a tragic
elevation; but even with this explanation the line between the
nocturnes and ballads will be very difficult to draw, since the
Nocturne in G major, of which we shall speak presently, lacks only a
more brilliant treatment in the middle part to raise it to the grade of
a ballad. On the whole, we may as well confess that all these names
are more or less fanciful and perhaps applied without any very deep
reason, but simply because it was necessary to call the pieces by some
title in particular.
The Nocturne in G major is one of the most pleasing of all the
compositions of this kind in the works of Chopin. It is also rather
difficult, since the principal subject runs in thirds and sixths more
or less chromatic and in the course of the treatment these figures are
carried into a large number of keys, in all of which they have to
retain a singing quality of tone in the soprano and a very clean and
legato style of performance; but when adequately done the effect is
very charming indeed. The middle part again consists of a very
beautiful digression, something like a cradle song, or a barcarolle,--a
gentle, peaceful, rocking motion,--and then again the principal subject
returns. It will be seen that in spite of the quite considerable
length to which this nocturne is developed, it never rises to the
impassioned diversification which Chopin seems to have considered as
belonging to the ballad. For all his ballads, no matter how quiet
their opening subject, become more or less dramatic before they are
completed.
The Ballad in A-flat is one of the most frequently played compositions
of Chopin. It opens with a very pleasing and melodious subject, which,
by the aid of various subordinate ideas, is carried out to the extent
of fifty-two measures. At this point a new motion begins and a very
pleasing second subject, of a more playful character, perhaps, than the
first. Later on, in measure 115, some very pretty running work comes
in; then again, still farther on, where the signature changes to four
sharps, the second subject appears in the treble, somewhat changed,
against some very pretty running work in the bass; and then begins a
charming and elaborate building up to the climax, when the first
subject is brought back in fortissimo form. For the player and for the
hearer this piece, when well treated, is one of the most pleasing piano
solos possible to mention. I do not know, however, that it is
necessary to turn it wrong side out in the effort to find some hidden
or recondite meaning. It is pleasing and well made rather than deeply
impassioned, and it is a mistake to overdo the contrasts in it.
The studies of Chopin form a literature by themselves. In all, there
are twenty-seven published. The first book, opus 10, containing twelve
studies, was composed when Chopin was a boy of sixteen or seventeen,
and I do not think the history of music shows any similar case of
precocity. These studies were vastly more difficult than anything
existing at that time excepting the fugues of Bach, and they spring out
at once, fully armed as it were, with a well-developed style in melody,
in harmonic handling, and especially in the application of the hands to
the piano; thus they turned over an entirely new leaf; and what is more
significant, and to the credit of the young genius, is that he seems to
have divined, by a sort of intuition, the strategic points of modern
piano playing as it was to be, so that in spite of these works having
now been before the musical world more than fifty years and their
having entered into conservatory and boarding-school curricula to an
almost universal extent, the pianist who can play them all in the
manner in which Chopin intended is already an artist. They belong to
the most poetic and sagaciously conceived compositions for the
instrument. The five here selected are not particularly better than
the five next following, or the last numbers of this same opus, and
perhaps no better than those in the second set, the opus 25. The first
study, in C major, has for its object to accustom the hand to wide
extensions, the arpeggio figure nearly always covering a tenth and
sometimes an eleventh. This extension should be accomplished by the
fingers themselves as far as possible, and then by slightly turning the
wrist. To play this study well betokens first-class execution. The
second study, in A minor, has a chromatic scale for soprano with
staccato chords below, and its technical object is to impart greater
flexibility and usefulness to the fourth and fifth fingers of the right
hand. The third, also, is a cantabile in a beautiful singing melody,
with some very interesting contrasts in the middle part. Here, again,
Chopin addresses himself to the weak fingers of the right hand, since
these are the ones which will experience the greatest difficulty in
securing a proper effect in this study. No. 4 is a very impassioned
presto in C-sharp minor, in which strong single notes and octaves
occur, along with an insistent and very rapid sixteenth-note motion.
The effect of the whole is very strong and striking, and esthetically
considered it belongs to the dramatically conceived moods of Chopin.
No. 5, in G-flat major, is commonly known as the "black-key study," and
its object is to accustom the hands to the black keys and to very rapid
changes from one part of the keyboard to another. It is a charming
piece, producing the effect of a delightful scherzo.
It is interesting to note in this connection that all of these studies
and many others belonging to this set have, in recent times, been
rewritten for the left hand. This has been done in various ways. Mr.
Phillippe, of Paris, has simply transferred the right-hand part to the
left, and left the right hand with nothing or with but little to do.
Mr. Leopold Godowsky, the distinguished Russian pianist, has taken a
different course. The first study he has placed with the arpeggio
figure in both hands simultaneously, and a heavy melody of chords is
also added. The second study gives the chromatic runs to the weak
fingers of the left hand. The black-key study also is written for the
left hand, while an entirely new part has been composed for the right.
One of the most curious of all these arrangements of Chopin's material
is that of the late eminent organist, August Haupt, of Berlin, who
arranged this fourth study in C-sharp minor for the organ for Mr.
Clarence Eddy, by whom it is often played in concerts with an effect
extremely remarkable, especially when the pedals have the
sixteenth-note motion.
It should not be forgotten that all these five studies, as well as the
others in the whole collection, are tone-poems no less than exercises
for the pianoforte, and they can not be said to have been played until
this poetic sense is derived from them.
The romanza from the Concerto in E minor is a very beautiful
nocturne-like movement, and if given with an accompaniment of second
piano, or, better still, a very soft accompaniment of organ, it
produces the most delightful effect.
The Impromptu in A-flat, opus 29, might just as well have been called a
study, since the essential part of it is a rapid movement in eighth
notes having for its object, in part at least, the freer and more
delicate treatment of the left hand in accompaniments. It will require
a great deal of practice to play well, but when so played it produces a
very pleasing pianoforte effect. It belongs to the same class of
Chopin's works as the Fantasia Impromptu in C-sharp minor, already
mentioned. The middle part of this impromptu, as in the case of the
other, is essentially a nocturne-like movement.
The Nocturne in D-flat, opus 27, No. 2, is very often played. It is a
very beautiful composition, and while representing a number of serious
technical difficulties, esthetically considered, it is perhaps
sufficiently plain to any student capable of mastering it. In all
these cases it is to be observed that Chopin takes the implication of
the term "nocturne" somewhat freely, often developing the idea with
considerable force and dramatic spirit.
One of the most celebrated of all the compositions of Chopin is the
famous Polonaise in A-flat major, which seems in the fullest manner to
illustrate the description of the polonaise already quoted above, from
Liszt's Chopin. This remarkable work opens with a rather striking
introduction, the principal subject entering in the seventeenth
measure, very bold and strong. In the forty-ninth measure an extremely
forcible and dramatic idea begins which presently, in the fifty-seventh
measure, gives place to a more quiet melody. The most remarkable part
of this piece, and the one which has had much to do with its use by
virtuoso pianists, is the middle part in E major. Here, after a series
of heavy chords, a sixteenth-note motion enters in octaves for the left
hand, and for the right hand a melody, which is at first soft and
afterward built up. This octave middle figure continues without
interruption for sixteen measures, and then, after the chords are
repeated, is continued again for the same length of time. When this is
properly done, the passage begins quite softly and works up by degrees
until the very imposing climax at the end, and in the repetition the
same thing takes place again. The difficulty consists in this
insistent repetition of the same figure in the left hand, and a very
clear note of Chopin's genius is seen when he changes this bass figure
from E major to E-flat major. This change, although apparently not
significant on paper, has the keyboard peculiarity of giving the left
hand a rotary motion in the opposite direction from that necessitated
in the E major, and in three measures of it the player unwinds himself,
as it were, and is ready to begin again with the original figure.
Still another pleasing Chopin peculiarity is noted at the close of this
strong part, where there is a page or more of very delightful dreamy
work, at first in G major, afterward in F minor, and so at length the
original subject is resumed and the Polonaise brought to an end. A
work of this magnitude admits of being considered in so many different
lights as to make any short discussion of it seem fragmentary and
suggestive merely, and such, in fact, is the intention of the present
comments. Enough that we have in it a poetic suggestion brought to
expression.
CHAPTER IX.
BACH, BEETHOVEN, SCHUMANN, AND CHOPIN.
There are endless selections of compositions which might be made in
order to bring together into a single chapter enough of the music of
these four great masters to give a taste of their individualities,
style, and sentiment. Following are examples:
PROGRAM I.
Bach, Prelude and Fugue in C minor, Clavier, No. 2.
Beethoven, Sonate Pathetique, opus 13.
Schumann, Forest Scenes; "Entrance."
"Wayside Inn."
"Prophetic Bird."
"Homeward."
Bach, Fantasia in C minor. Loure in G (Heinze).
Chopin, Nocturne in G minor, opus 37, No. 1.
Waltz in A-flat, opus 42.
PROGRAM II.
Bach, Prelude and Fugue in D major, Clavier, No. 5.
Beethoven, Sonata in D, opus 10, No. 3.
Schumann, Fantasy Pieces, opus 12: "At Evening."
"Excelsior."
"Why?"
"Whims."
"Dream Visions."
"End of the Song."
Chopin, Nocturne in B major, opus 32, No. 1.
Ballad in A-flat, opus 47.
PROGRAM III.
Bach, Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp, Clavier, No. 3.
Beethoven, Sonata in A-flat, opus 26.
Schumann, Fantasy Pieces, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8.
Chopin, Nocturne in B major, opus 32, No. 1.
Ballad in A-flat, opus 47.
PROGRAM IV. (Regardless of difficulty.)
Bach, Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue.
Beethoven, Sonata, opus III. C minor.
Schumann, Études Symphoniques, opus 13.
Chopin, Nocturne in D-flat major, opus 27, No. 2.
Polonaise in A-flat, opus 53.
To discuss these selections in detail would take us too far, for which
reason only those observations will be made which seem more essential.
Throughout, the intention is to alternate the thematic work of Bach and
Schumann with the lyric or quasi-lyric writing of Beethoven and Chopin.
While Beethoven was also at times thematic, his work is generally well
balanced as to its structure, and so melodious in comparison with
almost anything of Schumann (excepting a few distinctly lyric pieces)
or of Bach, that it seems like lyric melody. It was also the intention
in these programs to preserve an agreeable succession of keys. The
first three programs are of moderate difficulty, although not so easy
as might be made. Still, in the present state of piano playing there
are few seminaries or private circles where these numbers can not be
played well enough to afford pleasure and instruction.
Of the various Bach numbers upon the programs the following
distinctions may be made: The preludes and fugues are generally
contrasted in respect of the qualities of lyric and thematic writing
respectively. The prelude in C minor, for instance, is almost an
exercise, being without clearly expressed melody (although the accents
in the soprano distinctly suggest a melody), and the whole is rapid and
incisive. The fugue, on the other hand, opens with a very sprightly
idea, which is carried out delightfully, quite in the manner of a
scherzo. The prelude in D major, again, is very light and graceful,
yet having a character somewhat between a fancy piece of tone-poetry
and an exercise, being capable of receiving either construction,
according to the ability and skill of the player. The fugue, on the
contrary, is rather firm, resolute, and marked, yet with distinct
touches of sentiment--which latter quality is always to be sought for
in the playing, but without resorting to rubato. It is not enough to
present these selections, they must be made to display the best effect
of which they are capable. It is not a question of composers merely,
but why we should love and reverence them. The prelude in C-sharp is
one of the loveliest in the entire "Clavier." It is lyric in its
principal motive, and there is a very pretty interlude of alternating
work between the two hands upon the dominant, just before the return of
the principal theme, which is quite in modern style. The fugue also is
very melodious, yet at the same time rather difficult, and it will be a
good player who is able to produce this fugue successfully in anything
short of about a month's practice. With the last program we come upon
a very different grade of difficulty, especially in the matter of
interpretation, for in mere finger work the last Bach piece is not so
much more difficult than the fugue in C-sharp major.
The "Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue" is a very curious illustration of
Bach's genius. No one knows the circumstances under which it was
written nor the time. There is absolutely nothing else in his works
which is at all like it, taken as a whole, although each one of its
peculiarities may perhaps be found elsewhere in his works. It opens
with a bravura run in scale work,--the two hands co-operating
interchangeably,--which must have the character of a bold flourish,
such as a virtuoso might give upon taking his place and beginning his
piece. This is followed with a delicate harmonic passage in which a
melody is very distinctly suggested; a very delicate and musical
passage it is. Then the bravura run returns, and then the harmonic
arpeggio motive as before, but always carried out in different keys and
chords. Upon these two elements the first part of the fantasia is
constructed.
In the forty-ninth measure begins another chapter, in which we have a
series of recitative-like phrases, the most of which end upon
diminished chords and contain or suggest enharmonic modulations of
extreme modern type. The recitatives are very expressive, and their
proper delivery necessitates a high degree of musical sensitiveness and
experience in singing. After the recitatives, at measure 76, a coda
begins, which brings the fantasia to an end. The coda is perhaps the
most beautiful part of this great work. I have here also forgotten to
mention the series of arpeggios upon chromatic chords, beginning in
measure 27. These Bach wrote merely as chords to be played arpeggio,
and it was for a long time a question as to what manner of filling up
the time would be nearest his intention. Mendelssohn, in one of his
letters, says he wishes that he knew what Bach meant here, and I
believe it is generally thought that the carrying out of the arpeggios
in Hans von Bülow's edition of this piece is very near the solution
suggested by Mendelssohn. At any rate, I advise using the Bülow
edition, particularly as the figures are written out in full and the
fingering is carefully marked--a very important consideration in one or
two places in the fugue.
The fugue also is interesting, and is elaborated to two quite imposing
climaxes, the first beginning in measure 60 and the other in measure
140, where the bass has the principal theme in octaves. Mr. Liebling
does not regard this fugue as quite up to Bach's standard, inasmuch as
Bach has repeated quite long passages in different keys without
materially changing the treatment, something which he rarely does, his
fertility of fancy being such that he always or nearly always avoids
exactly repeating himself, no matter how many times he chooses to bring
back the principal theme. The composition as a whole is by far the
most modern of Bach, and it is a veritable tone-poem. In order to
realize this it will be necessary to hear it several times, its
elaboration being so great and the difficulty of playing so
considerable that only very good players will have enough sentiment and
surplus of technic to interpret it with sufficiently musical quality.
But when so played it is one of the surest masterpieces in the entire
repertory of the piano-forte. And in consequence of its elevated and
poetic sentiment, its caprice and program-like character, it affords
one of the best possible studies in Bach's style at its best.
The sonatas by Beethoven named upon the programs are of quite
dissimilar value. The "Sonate Pathetique" is a very strong work
indeed, and, if we have many times seen its name, we must not forget
that after all it is not very often played in any one place. Moreover,
new players are all the time coming on to whom this strong and original
work is new. The introduction carries out the emotional spirit of the
Bach fantasia, as also does the work itself. The headlong allegro, the
slow, sustained, and beautiful adagio, and the easy-going finale all
have their own beauties, and continue the story, which, as Beethoven
thought it, was one story from beginning to end. The least
satisfactory part of this work is the rondo, the tempo of which is not
altogether easy to determine; I prefer it at rather a slow tempo.
There is a unity of movement in this work which is not always observed.
In a general way the eighth note in the introduction, the whole note in
the allegro, and the eighth note in the adagio, and the half note in
the rondo go at about the same rate--approximately, from sixty to
seventy-two by the metronome. If any modification is made, take the
rondo faster, say about eighty-four.
A very important technical point of the work is the treatment of the
chords in the introduction and in the allegro. All must have a melodic
quality in their highest tones, since the melody passes through the
chord. Neglect of this imparts a brutal and unmusical quality to the
tones of chords struck so forcibly. Throughout the work strong
contrasts continually occur between the impassioned motive and the
pathetic or appealing idea. These two elements struggle for mastery.
The adagio is one of those slow movements for which Beethoven was
noted; the cantilena is lovely and the sentiment deep and tender.
In some respects the sonata upon the second program is even more
remarkable. Its general build is rather light and pleasing, and
neither in length nor in dramatic contrast is it to be compared with
most of the "Pathetique." Especially is this the case when we confine
our attention to the light and pleasing first movement and the finale.
The latter, opening with that capricious little motive which seems to
say "Why don't you?" is all the way arch, sprightly, and pleasing. But
the second movement is one of the strongest and most impassioned in all
the sonatas. It opens grave, serious, as if fate herself impended. A
very slow and appealing motive is carried out thematically, almost in
the modern style of Schumann or Brahms. It is a slow movement which
might have been played upon Olympus or in Walhalla--provided the
dissipated gods of the old dispensations had been developed to the
capacity of remorse and repentance. Out of this profoundly sad,
despondent, slow movement grows the tender flower of the delicious
menuetto in D major which follows it. This is not to be taken too
fast, remembering that we have our fast movement still to settle with
later. It is a melodious, tender, gentle movement, which is one of the
most characteristic and beautiful of the kind to be found anywhere in
the entire list of the sonatas. In point of technical difficulty this
sonata presents no very great problems.
The Sonata in A-flat, commonly remembered from the "Funeral March,"
which takes the place of a slow movement, opens with an air and
variations. These were for a long time the most played of anything in
the entire collection of sonatas. Lately, under the influence of the
greater variations of Schumann and Brahms, they are becoming relegated
to the more remote seats in the musical synagogue. They are,
nevertheless, very interesting variations, quite in the "character"
line, each variation being a new picture, a new mood. Opposed to this
kind of variations is the "formal" variation, where, although the theme
is varied in its figuration and rhythm, the harmony remains unchanged,
and the esthetic character of the successive variations remains
practically unchanged. The "Funeral March Upon the Death of a Hero" is
one of the famous pieces. It no longer presents material difficulties
to the student. The scherzo must not be played too rapidly; the finale
is to go about as fast as possible, and with the greatest possible
lightness and delicacy.
The great Sonata in C minor, opus 111, is the last which Beethoven
composed, having been written after the Ninth Symphony, about a year or
two before his death. It is very difficult, technically; very serious
in its spirit, and has the curious peculiarity of consisting of two
movements only, excepting a short but very profound and serious
introduction. The first movement is very impassioned, and the entire
movement is developed from one or two short germs, thematically, quite
in the manner which Schumann took up and accomplished so much with.
The spirit of the allegro is almost like that of the "Sonate
Pathetique," but naturally much more mature. The slow movement, again,
consists of an arietta of two eight-measure strains--the first in C
major, the second in A minor. These two strains alternate throughout
the variations, which are of the formal order; but here Beethoven
manages to attain a very considerable development of interest, and
rises to an imposing climax without ever quite forsaking the peace of
the opening measures of the arietta. The variations are quite
difficult to play, and the ending is very troublesome to treat in any
manner to make it sound as one thinks an ending should. The whole,
while perhaps but little more characteristic of Beethoven than the
"Sonata Appassionata" or the great sonata for "Hammerklavier," opus
106, is nevertheless a very beautiful illustration of Beethoven's
tone-poetry for pianoforte.
The Schumann "Études Symphoniques," here chosen for illustrating this
capricious and humoristic master, is also a most astonishing work. It
is in the form of a theme and variations, but the variations almost
require the newspaper libel-saving reservation "alleged," since the
theme in some of them is not referred to at all, while in others it
occurs but for occasional measures here and there. Except for the
monotony of key, this piece might as well have been called "studies" as
variations. Nevertheless it is a most delightful example of Schumann's
imagination and of tone-poetry for pianoforte. Each variation or
successive movement is a new leaf from the world of the ideal. Nothing
more contrasted, no more agreeable succession of moods, no more
imposing example of poetic treatment of the pianoforte is to be found
in the entire literature of the instrument. It is a work which the
more one hears the more one likes it. It is curious, now that this
work is so often played, to remember that Schumann wrote concerning it
to a friend that he had just been writing a set of variations which
interested him very much, but he doubted whether they would ever be
played in public. Naturally, he said, it is unfit for such a position;
it is for the musician in his closet. Yet of all the Schumann piano
works this one probably is oftenest played, the immortal fantasia in C
not excepted.
The other pieces here omitted from comment have perhaps already
received sufficient attention in the earlier programs where they first
appeared.
It will be quite possible for the player to substitute still other
numbers in place of some of those here, or to rearrange the matter here
presented, for the sake of using pieces which one can play well. In
arranging the programs, however, it is desirable to preserve an
agreeable succession of keys, a due contrast of moods, and a fitting
illustration of the masters concerned.
CHAPTER X.
LISZT.
FRANZ LISZT.
Born October 22, 1811, at Raiding, Hungary.
Died July 31, 1886, at Bayreuth.
Unquestionably, Liszt was one of the most interesting personalities of
musical history. This began to show itself in his early childhood.
Born at Raiding in Hungary, the boy had piano lessons at the age of
six, his father having been a good musician himself, playing easily and
well upon the piano and many other instruments. At the age of nine the
boy appeared in concert with such success that, after a repetition of
the concert in a neighboring town, the great Hungarian magnates, Prince
Esterhazy at their head, united in providing a stipend of six hundred
gulden yearly for his proper education. Thereupon Liszt's father
resigned his position and attended scrupulously to his son, removing to
Vienna and placing him under the teaching of the famous writer of
études, Czerny. Liszt was now ten years old, and for two years he
studied in Vienna. At the end of this period a farewell concert was
given, in which the boy played with such astonishing power that
Beethoven, who was present, came upon the stage and embraced and kissed
him at the close of the concert.
[Illustration: Franz Liszt]
Liszt was now taken to Paris, with the intention of entering him at the
Conservatory. But Cherubini, who was then head of the institution, was
not favorable to gifted children, and admission was refused him on the
ground of his being a foreigner. Accordingly Liszt went on by himself,
but entered upon thorough private lessons in counterpo
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