23 chapters
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Selected Chapters
23 chapters
PREFACE.
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
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CHAPTER I. MOVING FORCES IN 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 mov
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CHAPTER II. BACH AND HÄNDEL.
CHAPTER II. BACH AND HÄNDEL.
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.
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CHAPTER III. HAYDN AND MOZART.
CHAPTER III. HAYDN AND MOZART.
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 himsel
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CHAPTER IV. CHARACTERISTIC MOODS OF BEETHOVEN.
CHAPTER IV. CHARACTERISTIC MOODS OF 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 ha
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CHAPTER V. BACH, MOZART, AND BEETHOVEN COMPARED.
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 perfor
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CHAPTER VI. SCHUBERT AND MENDELSSOHN.
CHAPTER VI. SCHUBERT AND MENDELSSOHN.
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
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CHAPTER VII. ROBERT SCHUMANN.
CHAPTER VII. 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 t
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CHAPTER VIII. CHOPIN.
CHAPTER VIII. 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
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CHAPTER IX. BACH, BEETHOVEN, SCHUMANN, AND CHOPIN.
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: 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-lyr
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CHAPTER X. LISZT.
CHAPTER X. 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
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CHAPTER XI. BACH, BEETHOVEN, CHOPIN, SCHUMANN, LISZT.
CHAPTER XI. BACH, BEETHOVEN, CHOPIN, SCHUMANN, LISZT.
The fullness with which the characteristics of the different composers have been treated in the preceding chapters of this course leaves little to be said in this final summing up, since the only element of the present program which we have not already had in combination with the others is that of Liszt, itself fully treated in the previous chapter. We have now arrived at a point where a completely developed recital program, according to modern ideas, can be presented, and this upon a great vari
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CHAPTER XII. CONCERNING THE TYPICAL MUSICAL FORMS.
CHAPTER XII. CONCERNING THE TYPICAL MUSICAL FORMS.
By form in music is meant the general plan in accordance with which the ideas composing the piece are arranged; that is to say, if the piece be a short melody of one period, there will be one phrase which is repeated at least twice, and two other phrases which are not exactly alike. In an ordinary simple melody the first phrase has the general character of proposing a subject or of stating a proposition, and the second phrase has the general character of answering that subject, or, in musical pa
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AUTHOR'S NOTE.
AUTHOR'S NOTE.
According to the original design, this work was completed with the ten chapters in which the great masterworks of the leading composers of the period from 1750 to 1850 were compared and their peculiarities and individualities emphasized. In response to a wide-spread demand, however, it is deemed advisable to add a few programs of later masters, and a few of the leading American composers, who, although not yet to be mentioned in the same connection as those forming the subject of the original te
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CHAPTER I. NATIONALITY IN MUSIC
CHAPTER I. NATIONALITY IN MUSIC
The outflow of musical production has become so wide during the last fifty years, and so many composers have distinguished themselves in every part of the world, that it is a matter of no small difficulty to make a selection of names sufficiently representative to illustrate the many-sided individualities of this movement. Dividing the entire list into countries which have produced the composers, or in which they have principally expressed themselves, we have at least four great European provinc
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CHAPTER II. BRAHMS.
CHAPTER II. BRAHMS.
Born at Hamburg, May 7, 1833. Died at Vienna, April 3, 1897. In Johannes Brahms we have a musical master of the first order. His quality as master was shown in his marvelous technic, in which respect no recent composer is to be mentioned as his superior, if any can be named, since Bach, as his equal. This technic was at first personal, at the pianoforte, upon which he was a virtuoso of phenomenal rank; but this renown, great as it is in well-informed circles, sinks into insignificance beside his
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CHAPTER III. GRIEG.
CHAPTER III. GRIEG.
Born 1843, at Bergen, Norway. Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born June 15, 1843, at Bergen, Norway. His musical talent asserted itself early, and fortunately his parents were able to provide him with the best of conditions for its development. The famous violinist Ole Bull was a friend of the family and encouraged him to devote himself to the musical profession. In 1858 Grieg went to Leipsic to study under Moscheles, Hauptmann, Wenzel, and Reinecke. He graduated in 1862, receiving praise for one or tw
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CHAPTER IV. RUBINSTEIN AND TSCHAIKOWSKY.
CHAPTER IV. RUBINSTEIN AND TSCHAIKOWSKY.
For the purposes of the musical amateur and pianist, the two most important of the well-established Russian composers are Rubinstein and Tschaikowsky. It is by no means easy to make up a satisfactory half-program from either composer, and this without in any way disparaging their remarkable genius, which had personal qualities of a very marked character and a richness of musical inspiration in certain directions rarely surpassed. But in both these masters there is an element which is peculiarly
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CHAPTER V. THE LATER ROMANTICISTS.
CHAPTER V. THE LATER ROMANTICISTS.
Among the numerous composers of Germany in recent times, of whom there are a very large number worthy of special notice, there are four who, by reason of their personal qualities and the general directions in which they have expressed their talent, demand special attention. Their names are Adolf Jensen, Xaver Scharwenka, Moritz Moszkowski, and I. J. Paderewski. As will be noticed from the names, three of these artists are Polish in nationality and stock. Adolf Jensen (born at Königsburg, January
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CHAPTER VI. GOTTSCHALK AND MASON.
CHAPTER VI. GOTTSCHALK AND MASON.
Owing to the composite character of our American civilization, in which so many different nationalities are mingled, several of which maintain as long as possible their own language and customs, there is a certain crudity in the national life and a want of ripeness which as yet has prevented the development of what properly can be called an American school of musical composition. Almost all our composers have been educated in Germany, many of them at Leipsic, and their compositions do not differ
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CHAPTER VII. MACDOWELL.
CHAPTER VII. MACDOWELL.
By general consent of music lovers and connoisseurs, Mr. Edward Alexander MacDowell, or Prof. MacDowell as he should now be called, is the most finished and accomplished writer for the pianoforte that we have. Mr. MacDowell was born in New York on the 18th of December, 1861, and after having some instruction from his mother, who was a good musician, he received lessons for a while from Teresa Carreno. In 1877 he went to Paris and became a pupil of Marmontel and Savard. Later on he went to Frankf
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CHAPTER VIII. ARTHUR FOOTE AND MRS. H. H. A. BEACH.
CHAPTER VIII. ARTHUR FOOTE AND MRS. H. H. A. BEACH.
There is nothing especial in common between the composers here mentioned that they should be put together in one program, excepting the fact that they both live in Boston; nor, on the other hand, is there anything especially contrasting between them. For this reason I think it better to give the selections of the different composers separately, leaving the superintendent of the concert to arrange the program of selections in any order most pleasing to him. Arthur Foote was born of a good New Eng
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CHAPTER IX. MISCELLANEOUS PROGRAM BY AMERICAN COMPOSERS.
CHAPTER IX. MISCELLANEOUS PROGRAM BY AMERICAN COMPOSERS.
For the convenience of clubs and classes desiring programs not so difficult of performance and not confined to one or two composers, the following is offered, embracing examples from Messrs. Edgar S. Kelley, Wilson G. Smith, Homer A. Norris, E. R. Kroeger, Geo. W. Chadwick, and Mr. William Sherwood. All of these gentlemen have made thorough studies of composition and several of them have exercised themselves in the larger forms, including orchestral and chamber writing. This is particularly true
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