The art of music, Vol. 07 (of 14) — Reading Companion

I. KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF KEYBOARD TECHNIQUE 1

Keyboard instruments and their derivation; the clavichord and its mechanism; the harpsichord and its relatives, virginal, _cembalo_, etc.; technique and use of the harpsichord--The beginnings of harpsichord music; the Gabrielis and Merulo; early forms; the influence of harmony and the crystallization of form--Frescobaldi and other organist-composers for harpsichord; early English virginal collections; John Bull, etc.--Genesis of the suite; influence of lute-music; Froberger, Denis Gaultier, etc.; Kuhnau--Development of the harpsichord ‘style’; great players: Chambonnières, etc.

II. THE GOLDEN AGE OF HARPSICHORD MUSIC 40

The period and the masters of the ‘Golden Age’--Domenico Scarlatti; his virtuosity; Scarlatti’s ‘sonatas’; Scarlatti’s technical effects; his style and form; æsthetic value of his music; his contemporaries--François Couperin, _le Grand_; Couperin’s clavecin compositions; the ‘musical portraits’; ‘program music’--The quality and style of his music; his contemporaries, Daquin and Rameau--John Sebastian Bach; Bach as virtuoso; as teacher; his technical reform; his style--Bach’s fugues and their structure--The suites of Bach: the French suites, the English suites, the Partitas--The preludes, toccatas and fantasies; concertos; the ‘Goldberg Variations’--Bach’s importance; his contemporary Handel.

III. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PIANOFORTE SONATA 89

Vienna as the home of the sonata; definition of ‘sonata’--Origin and history of the standard sonata cycle; relationship of sonata movements--Evolution of the ‘triplex’ form: Pergolesi’s ‘singing allegro’; the union of aria and binary forms; Padre Martini’s sonatas, Scarlatti’s true sonata in C; Domenico Alberti; the Alberti bass; the transitional period of the sonata--Sonata writers before Haydn and Mozart; J. C. Bach; Muzio Clementi--Schubert and Wagenseil; C. P. E. Bach; F. W. Rust.

IV. HAYDN, MOZART AND BEETHOVEN 131

The ‘Viennese period’ and the three great classics--Joseph Haydn; Haydn’s clavier sonatas; the Variations in F minor--W. A. Mozart; Mozart as pianist and improvisator; Mozart’s sonatas; his piano concertos--Ludwig van Beethoven; evolution of the modern pianoforte--Musical qualities of Beethoven’s piano music; Beethoven’s technical demands; his pianoforte sonatas; his piano concertos; conclusion.

V. PIANOFORTE MUSIC AT THE TIME OF BEETHOVEN 175

The broadening of technical possibilities and its consequences--Minor disciples of Mozart and Beethoven: J. N. Hummel; J. B. Cramer; John Field; other contemporaries--The pioneers in new forms: Weber and Schubert; technical characteristics of Weber’s style; Weber’s sonatas, etc.; the _Konzertstück_; qualities of Weber’s pianoforte music--Franz Schubert as pianoforte composer; his sonatas; miscellaneous works; the impromptus; the Moments musicals--The Weber-Schubert era and the dawn of the Romantic spirit.

PART II. THE ROMANTIC PERIOD OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC

VI. MENDELSSOHN, SCHUMANN AND BRAHMS 211

Influence of musical romanticism on pianoforte literature--Mendelssohn’s pianoforte music, its merits and demerits; the ‘Songs without Words’; Prelude and Fugue in D minor; _Variations Sérieuses_; Mendelssohn’s influence, Bennett, Henselt--Robert Schumann, ultra-romanticist and pioneer; peculiarities of his style; miscellaneous series of piano pieces; the ‘cycles’: _Carnaval_, etc.--The _Papillons_, _Davidsbündler_, and _Faschingsschwank_; the Symphonic Études; _Kreisleriana_, etc., the Sonatas, Fantasy and Concerto--Johannes Brahms; qualities of his piano music; his style; piano sonatas, ‘Paganini Variations,’ ‘Handel Variations,’ Capriccios, Rhapsodies, Intermezzi; the Concertos; conclusion.

Chopin’s music and its relative value in musical value; racial and personal characteristics; influences and preferences; Chopin’s playing--His instinct for form; the form of his sonatas and concertos; the _Polonaise-Fantaisie_; the Preludes--Chopin as a harmonist; Chopin’s style analyzed: accompaniment figures, inner melodies, polyphonic suggestions, passages, melodies and ornaments--His works in general: salon music; waltzes; nocturnes; mazurkas; polonaises; conclusion.

VIII. HERZ, THALBERG, AND LISZT 284

The career of Henri Herz, his compositions and his style; virtuosity and sensationalism; means of effect--Sigismund Thalberg: his playing; the ‘Moses’ fantasia, etc.; relation of Herz and Thalberg to the public--Franz Liszt: his personality and its influence; his playing; his expansion of pianoforte technique; difficulties of his music estimated--Liszt’s compositions: transcriptions; fantasia on _Don Giovanni_--Realistic pieces, Années de pèlerinage--Absolute music: sonata in B minor; Hungarian Rhapsodies; conclusion.

PART III. MODERN PIANOFORTE MUSIC

IX. IMITATORS AND NATIONALISTS 320

Inevitable results of Schumann, Chopin and Liszt--Heller, Raff, Jensen, Scharwenka, Mozkowski, and other German composers--The influence of national characteristics: Grieg, his style and his compositions; Christian Sinding--The Russians: Balakireff, Rubinstein, Tschaikowsky, Arensky, Glazounoff, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and others--Spanish traits; I. Albéniz; pianoforte composers in England and the United States.

X. MODERN FRENCH PIANOFORTE MUSIC 341

Classical traditions: Saint-Saëns, and others; C. V. Alkan--César Franck: his compositions and his style--Vincent d’Indy; Fauré--The new movement: Debussy and Ravel; Debussy’s innovations: new harmonies, scales, overtones, pianoforte technique; his compositions--Ravel differentiated; his compositions; Florent Schmitt and Eric Satie--Conclusion.

PART IV. VIOLIN MUSIC

XI. EARLY VIOLIN MUSIC AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF VIOLIN TECHNIQUE 368

The origin of stringed instruments; ancestors of the violin--Perfection of the violin and advance in violin technique; use of the violin in the sixteenth century; early violin compositions in the vocal style; Florentino Maschera and Monteverdi--Beginnings of violin music: Biagio Marini; Quagliati; Farina; Fontana and Mont’Albano; Merula; Ucellino and Neri; Legrenzi; Walther and his advance in technique, experiments in tone painting--Giov. Battista Vitali; Tommaso Vitali and Torelli; Bassani; Veracini and others--Biber and other Germans; English and French composers for the violin; early publications of text-books and collections.

XII. VIOLIN COMPOSERS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 396

Corelli, Vivaldi, Albinoni--Their successors, Locatelli, F. M. Veracini, and others; Tartini and his pupils; pupils of Somis: Giardini and Pugnani--French violinists and composers: Rébel, Francœur, Baptiste Anet, Senaillé and Leclair; French contemporaries of Viotti: Pagin, Lahoussaye, Gaviniès; Viotti--Violinists in Germany and Austria during the eighteenth century: Pisendel, J. G. Graun, Franz Benda; Leopold Mozart--The Mannheim school: J. Stamitz, Cannabich and others; Dittersdorf, Wranitzky and Schuppanzigh--Non-violinist composers: Handel, Bach, Haydn, Mozart--Conclusion.

XIII. VIOLIN MUSIC IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 430

The perfection of the bow and of the classical technique--The French school: Kreutzer, Rode, and Baillot--Paganini: his predecessors, his life and fame, his playing, and his compositions--Ludwig Spohr: his style and his compositions; his pupils--Viennese violinists: Franz Clement, Mayseder, Boehm, Ernst and others--The Belgian school: De Bériot and Vieuxtemps--Other violinist composers: Wieniawski, Molique, Joachim, Sarasate, Ole Bull; music of the violinist-composers in general--Violin music of the great masters.

PART V. CHAMBER MUSIC

XIV. THE BEGINNINGS OF CHAMBER MUSIC 467

The term ‘chamber music’; fifteenth-century dances; lute music, early suites; vocal ‘chamber music’--Early ‘sonatas’: Gabrieli; Rossi; Marini; etc.--Vitali, Veracini, Bassani and Corelli; Corelli’s pupils; Vivaldi; Bach and Handel.

XV. THE FIRST PERIOD OF THE STRING QUARTET 486

The four-part habit of writing in instrumental forms--Pioneers of the string quartet proper: Richter, Boccherini and Haydn; Haydn’s early quartets--The Viennese era of the string quartet; Haydn’s _Sonnen_ quartets; his ‘Russian’ quartets; his later quartets--W. A. Mozart; Sammartini’s influence; Mozart’s early (Italian) quartets; Viennese influences; Mozart’s Viennese quartets--His last quartets and their harmonic innovations.

XVI. THE STRING QUARTET: BEETHOVEN 509

Beethoven’s approach to the string quartet; incentives; the six quartets opus 18--The Rasumowsky quartets; _opera_ 74 and 95--The great development period; the later quartets, op. 127 _et seq._: The E-flat major (op. 127)--The A minor (op. 132); the B-flat major (op. 130); the C-sharp minor (op. 131); the F major (op. 135).

XVII. THE STRING ENSEMBLE SINCE BEETHOVEN 534

The general trend of development: Spohr, Cherubini, Schubert--Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms, etc.--New developments: César Franck, d’Indy, Chausson--The characteristics of the Russian schools: Tschaikowsky, Borodine, Glazounoff and others--Other national types: Grieg, Smetana, Dvořák--The three great quartets since Schubert and what they represent; modern quartets and the new quartet style: Debussy, Ravel, Schönberg--Conclusion.

XVIII. THE PIANOFORTE AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS IN CHAMBER MUSIC 573

The trio--Pianoforte quartets and quintets--Sonatas for violoncello and piano--The piano with wind instruments--Chamber music for wind instruments by the great composers.

ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME SEVEN

‘Home Concert’ painting by Fritz von Uhde (in colors) _Frontispiece_

The Virginal and the Gravicembalo 8

The Clavichord and the Harpsichord 8

Title page of Kuhnau’s ‘Neue Clavier-Übung’ 32

Fac-simile of Bach’s Manuscript of the Prelude in C major (Well-Tempered Clavichord) 80

Harpsichord Composers (D. Scarlatti, Couperin, C. P. E. Bach, Clementi) 110

Beethoven’s Broadwood Piano 156

Pianoforte Classics (Moscheles, Czerny, Hummel, Field) 182

Caricature of Johannes Brahms on His Way to the ‘Red Porcupine’ 238

Frédéric Chopin (after painting by Ary Scheffler) 268

Anton Rubinstein’s Hand 332

Famous Pianists (d’Albert, Busoni, Gabrilowitch, Paderewski) 364

Relatives of the Violin 372

Stradivarius at Work 386

Great Violin Composers (Corelli, Vivaldi, Tartini) 398

Caricature Statuette of Paganini 438

Great Violinists (Wieniawski, Joachim, Vieuxtemps, de Bériot) 448

Modern Violinists (Sarasate, Kreisler, Ysaye, Thibaut) 464

‘The Concert’; painting by Terborch (in colors) 476

Pioneers of the String Quartet (Boccherini, Haydn, Richter and Dittersdorf) 488

The Flonzaley Quartet 550

Great 'Cellists (Popper, Gerardi, Casals) 596

PIANOFORTE AND CHAMBER MUSIC

CHAPTER I KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF KEYBOARD TECHNIQUE

Keyboard instruments and their derivation; the clavichord and its mechanism; the harpsichord and its relatives, virginal, _cembalo_, etc.; technique and use of the harpsichord--The beginnings of harpsichord music; the Gabrielis and Merulo; early forms; the influence of harmony and the crystallization of form--Frescobaldi and other organist-composers for harpsichord; early English virginal collections; John Bull, etc.--Genesis of the suite; influence of lute-music; Froberger, Denis Gaultier, etc.; Kuhnau--Development of the harpsichord ‘style’; great players: Chambonnières, etc.

The foundations of pianoforte music were laid during the second half of the sixteenth century and throughout the seventeenth, with the foundations of instrumental music in general. Though there were at this time no pianofortes, there were three keyboard instruments, all of which not only took their part in the development of instrumental music, but more especially prepared the way for the great instrument of their kind which was yet unborn. These were the organ, the harpsichord, and the clavichord.

The organ was then, as now, primarily an instrument of the church, though there were small, portable organs called _regals_, which were often used for chamber music and even as a part of accompaniment, together with other instruments, in the early operas. With the history of its construction we shall not concern ourselves here (see Vol. VI, Chap. XIV). From the middle of the fourteenth century Venice had been famous for her organists, because the organs in St. Mark’s cathedral were probably the best in Europe. Up to the end of the seventeenth century they were very imperfect. Improvements were slow. Great as was the rôle taken by the organ all over Europe, from the basilica of St. Peter’s in Rome to the northern town of Lübeck in Germany, the action was hard and uneven, the tuning beset with difficulties. But the organ was the prototype of all keyboard instruments. Upon the imperfect organs of those days composers built up the keyboard style of music.

The harpsichords and the clavichords were what one might call the domestic substitutes for the organ. Of these the clavichord was perhaps slightly the older instrument. Its origin is somewhat obscure, though it is easy to see in it the union of the organ keyboard with strings, on the principle of that ancient darling of the theorists, the monochord, the great and undisputed ruler over intervals of musical pitch, from the days of Pythagoras down throughout the Middle Ages. This monochord was hardly an instrument. It was a single string stretched over a movable bridge. By shifting the bridge the string could be stopped off into different lengths, which gave out, when plucked, different pitches of sound. The relative lengths of the stopped string offered a simple mathematical basis for the classification of musical intervals.

The clavichord worked on the same principle. At the back end of each key lever was an upright tangent, at first of wood, later of metal, which, when the key was depressed, sprang up against the wire string stretched above it. The blow of this tangent caused the wire to vibrate and produce sound; and at the same time the tangent determined the length of the string which was to vibrate, just as the finger determines the length of a violin string by stopping it at some point on the fingerboard. The strings of the clavichord were so stretched that of the two lengths into which the tangent might divide them, the longer lay to the left. It was this longer length which was allowed to vibrate, giving the desired pitch; the shorter length to the right being muffled or silenced by strips of felt laid or woven across the strings. Thus the little tangents at the back end of the keys performed the double function of sounding the string by hitting it and determining its pitch by stopping it. Thus, too, one string served several keys. By the middle of the sixteenth century the normal range was four full octaves, from C to c^3. There were many more keys than strings, which was a serious restriction upon music for the instrument; for notes which lay as closely together as, let us say, C-sharp and E could not be sounded at once, since both must be played upon the same string. Not until practically the beginning of the eighteenth century were clavichords made with a string for each key. They were then called _bundfrei_, in distinction from the older clavichords, which had been called _gebunden_.

The clavichord always remained square or oblong in shape, and for many years had no legs of its own, but was set upon a table like a box--hence one of its old names, _Schachbrett_, chess-board. The case was often of beautiful wood, sometimes inlaid and adorned with scrolls, and the under side of the cover was often painted with allegorical pictures and pious or sententious mottoes. The keys were small, the touch extremely light. The tone, though faint, had a genuine sweetness and an unusual warmth; and, by a trembling up and down movement of the wrist while the finger still pressed the key, the skilled player could give to it a palpitating quality, allied to the vibrato of the human voice or the violin, which went by the name of _Bebung_. This lifelike pulsing of tone was its most precious peculiarity, one which unhappily is lacking to the pianoforte, in most ways immeasurably superior. Hardly less prized by players who esteemed fineness of expression above clearness and brilliance, was the responsiveness of its tone to delicate gradations of touch. This made possible fine shading and intimate nuances. On this account it was highly valued, especially in Germany, as a practice instrument, upon which the student could cultivate a discriminating sensitive touch, and by which his ear could be trained to refinement of perception.

The tone of the clavichord was extremely delicate. Its subtle carrying quality could not secure it a place in the rising orchestras, nor in the concert hall. It belonged in the study, or by the fireside, and in such intimate places was enshrined and beloved by those who had ears for the finer whisperings of music. But not at once was it so beloved in the course of the early development of our instrumental music. Frail and restricted, it was but a makeshift to bring within the circle of the family the growing music of its powerful overshadowing prototype--the organ.

The harpsichord was quite different and shared with its weaker sister only the keyboard and the wire strings. It was in essence a harp or a psalter played by means of a keyboard. The strings were tuned as in a harp and were plucked by means of quills attached to the key-levers. The tone was sharp and dry and could not be influenced by the player’s touch. Instruments of this nature seem first to have been made in England. At any rate it was in England that a considerable literature was first written for them. The English virginals are small harpsichords. The origin of the quaint name is no longer carried back to the love of the Virgin Queen Elizabeth for such music as the instrument could produce. Nor is it likely that it was so named on account of its size (it could be held on the lap), whereby it recommended itself to the convenience of young ladies with a musical turn. Most likely its name is due to its range, which was the high range of a young woman’s voice, an octave higher than the centre octave of the organ.

The harpsichord, or, more exactly, instruments which were plucked by quills attached to key-levers, went by many names besides virginals. In Italy it was called the _clavicembalo_, later the _gravicembalo_, or merely _cembalo_; in France the _clavecin_; in Germany the _Kielflügel_. The more or less general name of spinet seems to be derived from the name of a famous Italian maker working at the beginning of the sixteenth century, Giovanni Spineta, of Venice.

These instruments developed side by side with the clavichord but to much greater proportions. In the course of time several strings were strung for one note, one or all of which might be used, at the discretion of the player, by means of stops similar in appearance and use to organ stops. Sometimes the extra strings of a note would be tuned at the octave or upper fifth, permitting the player to produce the mixture effects common to the organ. Many instruments were fitted with two and even three banks of keys, which operated upon distinct sets of strings, or might bring some special sort of quill into play; and these keyboards could be used independently for contrast, or coupled for volume, or the music might be divided upon them. There were also pedals for special effects.

There was great need of these numerous sets of strings, these various sorts of quills, these keyboards and devices for coupling them, because the mechanism of the harpsichord action was unsusceptible to the fine gradations of touch. It was essentially a mechanical instrument; its range of what we may call tone-shading was defined by the number of purely mechanical adjuncts with which it happened to be furnished. Variety depended upon the ingenuity of the player in bringing these means into play. This does not, of course, imply that there was no skill in ‘touching’ the harpsichord. The player had to practice hours then as now, to make his touch light and, above all, regular and even. The slightest clumsiness was perhaps even more evident to the ear of the listener in the frosty tones of the harpsichord than it would be today in the warmer and less distinct tone of the pianoforte. But once this evenness and lightness attained, the science of ‘touch’ was mastered and the player proceeded to search out musical effects in other directions.

In the course of these years from 1500 to 1750 it was made more and more to impress the ear by means of added strings and stops and sets of quills, till it became the musical keystone of chamber music, of growing orchestra and flowering opera. At the same time it was made ever more beautiful to the eye. It grew fine in line and graceful in shape; its wood was exquisitely finished and varnished; it was inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and was beautifully decorated and enscrolled. The keys were small and usually of box-wood, the diatonic keys often black, the chromatic keys white with mother-of-pearl or ivory. Artisan and artist lavished their skill upon it. What a centre it became! How did it sound under the fingers of Count Corsi, behind the scenes of his private theatre in the Palazzo Corsi at Florence, while noble men and gentle ladies sang out the story of Orpheus and Eurydice to a great king of France and Maria de Medici his bride, when the first Italian opera was sung in public?