The story of chamber music — Inside the Classic

How Chamber Music began—Early Chamber Music compositions—Musical position of England—Purcell—J.S. Bach—Great violin makers—Haydn and Mozart—Corelli and the compass of the violin—William Shield and 5/4 time 1

CHAMBER MUSIC INSTITUTIONS AND CONCERTS.

John Banister’s concerts—Thomas Britton, the musical coalman—Britton’s concerts—“Music Meetings”—Oxford Music School—_Pepys’s Diary_—_Evelyn’s Diary_—Frederick the Great—Bach and the Emperor—The Emperor Frederick’s compositions—Dando concerts—John Ella and The Musical Union—Analytical programmes and position of platform—Quartett Association—Dannreuther’s Musical Evenings—Sir Charles Hallé’s recitals—Monday Popular Concerts—Joachim—Various chamber music institutions—Japanese chamber music 12

HAYDN, P.E. BACH, DITTERSDORF, HANDEL.

J.S. Bach—Joseph Haydn—Philipp E. Bach—Dittersdorf—Early quartetts of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven—Silence as an effect in music—Haydn’s quartetts—Haydn’s Kaiser Quartett—Haydn’s other chamber music—Handel 37

Mozart’s C major Quartett—Mozart’s string quartetts—The genius of Mozart—Mozart’s other chamber music—Wagner on Mozart—Mozart’s letter to his father 59

Beethoven as democrat—Rhythmic similarities—Beethoven’s first and last compositions—Musical humour—The distinction in Beethoven’s chamber music 71

SCHUBERT, MENDELSSOHN, SCHUMANN, AND SPOHR.

Schubert as song-writer—Schubert’s chamber music—Mendelssohn— Mendelssohn’s position in England—Mendelssohn’s character— Mendelssohn’s chamber music—Schumann—Schumann as absolute musician—The E♭ Piano Quintett—Piano trios—Spohr’s opinion of Beethoven’s work—Characteristics of his compositions 82

Opinions of Brahms—Weingartner—H.T. Finck—Bülow on Rubinstein—H. Davey—Schumann—W.J. Henderson—Philip Spitta—Sir Hubert Parry—W.H. Hadow—Piano Trio, op. 8: two versions—Horn Trio, op. 40—String Sextett in B♭—String Sextett in G major—Piano Quartett in G minor—Quintett in F minor—String Quartetts—Thematic resemblances—String Quintetts—Clarinet Quintett—Dvořák—Revival of Bohemian music—Birthplace and early career—Criticisms on his works—His symphonic poems for orchestra—An American national style of music—The Negro Quartett—String Quartetts—Piano Quartetts—Piano Trios—String Sextett—Other chamber music 101

CHAMBER MUSIC OF THE RUSSIAN COMPOSERS.

Russian chamber music—Glinka—Quartett by Ippolitoff-Ivanoff—Quartett by Gretchaninoff—Mozart on melody—Russian schools of musical thought—Belaieff—String Quartett on name Belaieff—Arensky—Trio in D minor: Arensky—Sokoloff—Tanyeëff— Kopyloff—Tschaïkovsky 133

RICHARD STRAUSS AND ANTON BRUCKNER.

Position with regard to classical form—Strauss’s chamber music—Bruckner’s character and individuality—Bruckner’s symphonies—String quintett in F major—Hanslick on Bruckner’s works—Krehbiel on Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony—Weingartner’s opinion 177

CHAMBER MUSIC OF RECENT TIMES.

Trio by E. Schütt—Trio by Kirchner—Raff’s C minor Trio—Balfe’s Trio in A major—Trio: C. Hubert Parry—Trio: Bargiel—Sterndale Bennett’s Trio, op. 26—Trio, D minor: F.E. Bache—Trio, E flat: Nawratil—Trio: Goetz—Trio: Schmidt—Other Trios—String Trios—Quartett: Mackenzie—E flat Quartett: Rheinberger—Quartett: W. Rabl—Quartett: Prout—Quartett: Verdi—Quartett: Onslow—Quartett: W.H. Veit—Unusual combinations 191

APPENDIX A.—Chronological and Biographical 209

APPENDIX B.—Glossary of Terms 244

List of Illustrations.

“CHANT D’AMOUR”: Photogravure after Sir E. Burne-Jones’s Painting _Frontispiece_

A GROUP OF MUSICIANS 15

THE JOACHIM QUARTETT _Face_ 32

THE BOHEMIAN QUARTETT _Face_ 123

IPPOLITOFF-IVANOFF AND ARENSKY _Face_ 135

The Story of Chamber Music.

THE BEGINNINGS OF CHAMBER MUSIC.

How Chamber Music began—Early Chamber Music compositions—Musical position of England—Purcell—J.S. Bach—Great violin makers—Haydn and Mozart—Corelli and the compass of the violin—William Shield and 5/4 time.

“In the time of the Frankish kings,” says Mr. H.E. Krehbiel,[3] “the word chamber was applied to the room in the royal palace in which the monarch’s private property was kept, and in which he looked after his private affairs. When royalty took up the cultivation of music it was as a private, not as a court function, and the concerts given for the entertainment of the royal family took place in the king’s chamber or private room. The musicians were nothing more nor less than servants in the royal household. This relationship endured into the present century. Haydn was a _Haus-officier_ of Prince Esterhazy. As vice-chapelmaster he had to appear every morning in the prince’s ante-room to receive orders concerning the dinner music and other entertainments of the day.”

[Footnote 3: _How to Listen to Music_, p. 45.]

[Sidenote: =How Chamber Music began=]

This may be taken as one explanation of the origin of chamber music. Another is that near the end of the fifteenth century, madrigals and other pieces which no doubt were originally intended for singing began to be described as “madrigali et arie per sonare et cantare,” or, in the plain English of the time, “apt for voices and instruments,” by which is meant that the instruments joined with the voices probably at first to support them, both performing the same music.

About the same period and earlier it became customary to introduce instrumental music at the banquets of the wealthier classes, and what may be regarded as chamber music was used as a stimulus and a cover for conversation, a practice not even yet quite obsolete.

[Sidenote: =Early Chamber Music Compositions=]

From some such sources it seems likely that this form of music made a beginning. Composers then began to turn their attention to the growing requirements of such performers, and we find that many works were issued chiefly in the form of Courantes, Sarabandes, Gavottes, Gigues, and other dance forms. Music called Fancies, and sets of Ayres, and other pieces for lutes (a kind of guitar), and viols (the predecessor of the violin), also incidental music for masques, were much in vogue in England about this time, composed, among others, by Morley, Gibbons, John Dowland, Mace, Sympson, Jenkins, Lawes, and Locke. Hugh Aston, an instrumental composer of distinction, may also be mentioned. He left, among other works, a hornpipe which is remarkable. There is also a virginal book in the library at Cambridge that contains two or three hundred pieces for virginals, which instrument was a kind of harpsichord. In 1611 a collection of music for the same instrument was issued, the compositions of Byrd, Bull, and Gibbons. It was called “Parthenia.” Byrd’s “Variations on the Carman’s Whistle,” and Sellinger’s “Round,” are noteworthy works. John Jenkins published sonatas for two violins and a bass, with thorough bass for the organ and theorbo.

This was the great period of English music. Our position as compared with other nations was one of artistic supremacy, and we ought not to forget this as Continental writers are apt to do to-day.[4]

[Footnote 4: Such parchments as the “Angelus ad Virginem Hymn” (No. 284 Arundel MSS., Brit. Mus.); Hymn to St. Augustine (No. 572 Bodleian MSS., Oxford); and “Sumer is icumen in” (No. 678 Harleian Collection, Brit. Mus.), indisputably prove that in the tenth and eleventh centuries English musicians were hundreds of years in advance of Continental composers in polyphonic composition.—ED.]

[Sidenote: =Musical Position of England=]

Later on compositions such as we have mentioned were followed both in England and on the Continent by works of a more highly organised character, and to some of them the titles Sonata and Concerto were applied. These must not, however, be confused with the music of like name of our day, for they were much simpler in construction, and contained little or nothing of what we call development.

[Sidenote: =Purcell=]

Thus we find, to name but a few examples, that Reinken (1623-1722), a pupil of the celebrated Amsterdam composer, Sweelinck, wrote a notable Quartett, or Suite, for two violins, viola, and bass, which he called “Hortus Musicus.” Our own Henry Purcell (1658-95), whose compositions in many styles are so justly held in high esteem, left among others the so-called Golden Sonata, one of a fine set for stringed instruments. Corelli (1653-1713) too, a distinguished violinist and composer, of Italian origin, published in 1685 (the year J.S. Bach was born), twelve chamber sonatas for two violins, ’cello, and harpsichord.

[Sidenote: =J.S. Bach=]

John Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), whose mighty influence pervades the art of music of our day, and seems likely to increase in the future, wrote in all styles, even that of the Humorous Cantata. We need, however, here only mention his clavier music, which alone extends to four goodly-sized volumes; his compositions for clavier and strings, and flute; and, especially as belonging more particularly to chamber music, the Sonata in C major for two violins and clavier; another in G major for flute, violin, and clavier; and also that in C minor for the same instruments, from the so-called “Musical Offering,” which was written for the Emperor Frederick the Great of Prussia, on a theme given to Bach by that monarch himself.

Among those more or less distinguished composers who contributed to the store of chamber music about this time, may be named Geminiani (1680-1762), Tartini (1692-1770), Giardini (1716-96), Pugnani (1731-98), and Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-88), a son of John Sebastian. These lead up to, among others, Dittersdorf (1739-99), Boccherini (1743-1805), and Haydn (1732-1809), whose first String Quartett was published in 1755.

[Sidenote: =Great Violin Makers=]

It may not, however, be overlooked that the influence of the great violin makers, the families Amati, Guarneri, and Stradivari (1535-1745), contributed not a little to the advancement of chamber music, for these men were no mere artisans engaged in the manufacture of instruments from a commercial point of view. Rather were they true artists, and the product of their labours furnished both performers and composers the highest means of artistic expression. During the period in which they worked, the old viol was gradually changed into the violin, viola, and ’cello of our time, a change which has had a most important and far-reaching effect on the entire art of music.

[Sidenote: =Haydn and Mozart=]

[Sidenote: =Corelli and the Compass of the Violin=]

With Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) we enter a new era, for before the time of this master and of Mozart, says a high authority,[5] “such a form (the string quartett) hardly existed, and their work with it was such as almost to complete its artistic maturity in the course of one generation.” The same writer also states that prior to the time of these two great masters “the pleasure of the player was more studied than that of the auditor,” by composers of chamber music. In this connection, technically considered, it is interesting to note that Corelli, who has already been mentioned as a distinguished performer on the violin as well as a composer, regarded the note D [Music] as the upward limit of the violin’s compass, and he refused to entertain, on the ground that it was impossible, any passage written higher than this note.[6] Yet in Haydn’s Quartett op. 76, No. 5, which was written not so very long after the time referred to, there is a violin passage that reaches the note F♯ one octave and two notes higher than Corelli’s limit; also in the finale of the same composer’s Quartett op. 77, No. 2, a passage reaching an octave higher, and in other of his quartetts, the adjacent high notes C and B♭ are frequently written. Thus we see that along with the growth of musical ideas there was a corresponding expansion of technical means.

[Footnote 5: Sir Hubert Parry, _Summary of Musical History_, p. 54.]

[Footnote 6: Macfarren, article “Music,” _Encyclopædia Britannica_.]

[Sidenote: =William Shield and 5/4 Time=]

As regards the music of this particular period, even in features which are generally supposed to belong exclusively to modern music, it is interesting to find that the older composers have really set the pattern. For example, the popular idea is that the 5/4 movement in Tschaïkovsky’s Pathetique Symphony is a rhythmic novelty. Yet in a set of six chamber trios published in 1790 by William Shield (1748-1829), Musician-in-Ordinary to his Majesty, may be found such a movement, and this is all the more curious seeing that it is marked “Alla Sclavonia,” thereby betokening some connection between Russian music and this unusual kind of time. Shield was a prolific writer of works both practical and theoretic. Some forty, now forgotten, operas are credited to him, but his songs remain among the best which England has produced, such for instance as “The Wolf,” “Old Towler,” “Arethusa,” and “The Thorn.”

We quote a portion of the String Trio which has been mentioned:—

[Music: _Giuoco: Alla sclavonia tempo straniere con variazione._]

The 2nd variation has a syncopated figure in the first violin part.

The 3rd variation gives the solo part to the violoncello, and this leads to a coda concluding the movement with a repetition of the original theme.

CHAMBER MUSIC INSTITUTIONS AND CONCERTS.

John Banister’s concerts—Thomas Britton, the musical coalman—Britton’s concerts—“Music Meetings”—Oxford Music School—_Pepys’s Diary_—_Evelyn’s Diary_—Frederick the Great—Bach and the Emperor—The Emperor Frederick’s compositions—Dando concerts—John Ella and The Musical Union—Analytical programmes and position of platform—Quartett Association—Dannreuther’s Musical Evenings—Sir Charles Hallé’s recitals—Monday Popular Concerts—Joachim—Various chamber music institutions—Japanese chamber music.

With the general advancement which we thus see had taken place in instrumental music, there naturally arose a desire for its performance, and this led to the establishment of Concerts, both private and public.

[Sidenote: =John Banister’s Concerts=]

Burney in his _History of Music_ tells us that upon the decease of Baltzar the Lubecker, who was the first leader of King Charles the Second’s new Band of Twenty-four Violins, John Banister (1630-79), the first Englishman who seems to have distinguished himself on the violin, succeeded him. This musician was one of the first who established lucrative concerts in London. These were advertised in the _London Gazette_, and in No. 742, for December 30th, 1672, there is the following advertisement:—“These are to give notice that at Mr. John Banister’s house, now called the Music School, over against the George Taverne in White Fryers, this present Monday will be music performed by excellent masters, beginning precisely at four of the clock in the afternoon, and every afternoon for the future, precisely at the same hour.”

There are a number of such advertisements, and in the _Gazette_ of December 11th, 1676, Banister’s performance is announced to be held at the Academy in Little Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where it was to begin “with a parley of instruments composed by Mr. Banister, and performed by eminent masters.”

In Mr. North’s _Memoirs of Music_ we have a more minute account of these performances:—“Banister having procured a large room in White Fryers near the Temple Back Gate, and erected an elevated box or gallery for the musicians, whose modesty required curtains, the rest of the room was fitted with seats and small tables, alehouse fashion. One shilling, which was the price of admission, entitled the audience to call for what they pleased! There was very good music, for Banister found means to procure the best hands in London, and some voices, to assist him, and there wanted no variety, for Banister, besides playing on the violin, did wonders on the flageolet to a thro’ base, and several other masters likewise played solos.”

Banister had his first lessons from his father, who was one of the waits in the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. He left behind him a son, John, who became an excellent performer on the violin, and was one of King William’s band, and also played first violin at Drury Lane when operas were first performed there.

[Sidenote: =Thomas Britton, the Musical Coalman=]

In 1678, a year before the decease of the elder Banister, a club for the practice of chamber music, established by Thomas Britton, the celebrated small-coal man, had its beginning, and continued until 1714. Britton[7] (1651-1714) was born in Northamptonshire, and apprenticed to a London coal-dealer; he afterwards carried on business in Aylesbury Street, at the corner of Jerusalem Passage, Clerkenwell, as a small coal (probably charcoal) dealer. He seems to have been a man of progressive mind, and to have cultivated an extensive knowledge of many subjects, including both theoretical and practical music. His learning indeed seems to have led to his being regarded with suspicion on the part of certain narrow-minded and superstitious people, who attributed to him even so strange a mixture as atheism, Jesuitry, and magic.

[Footnote 7: Rimbault, _Dictionary of Music and Musicians_ (Grove).]

There does not, however, seem to be any foundation for the imputations which were made against him, for he appears to have been a sincere, plain man, but endowed with fine natural tastes, which raised him so far above his class that he had to pay the usual penalty for such superiority.

[Sidenote: =Britton’s Concerts=]

As a result of his study of music he established the club to which reference has been made. Here weekly concerts were held in a large room over his place of business in Clerkenwell, and these became exceedingly fashionable. The performers were drawn from among the most distinguished musicians, professional and amateur, such as Pepusch, Wollaston (the painter), John Banister, John Hughes (the poet), and Abel Whichello. It is also said that Handel frequently played the harpsichord, but the records do not entirely agree on this point. These concerts, which seem to have been due to Britton’s personal influence, together with the mutual love for bibliographical and other studies held by many of his audience, were at first free, but afterwards a subscription was levied. There appears to be no doubt that many learned and titled people, such as the Earls of Oxford, Pembroke, Winchelsea, and Sunderland, were subscribers, and that they fully appreciated and acknowledged the high conversational powers and book learning of the musical small-coal man.

Britton’s books were sold after his death, and the catalogue was issued as “The Library of Mr. Thomas Britton, small-coal man, deceased, who at his own charge kept up a consort of musick above forty years in his little cottage. Being a curious collection of Books in Divinity, History, Physick, and Chimistry, in all volumes.”

His portrait by J. Wollaston, who was one of his supporters, hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London. So recently as 1892 concerts called the Britton Concerts were given in his memory at the Hampden Club, Phœnix Street, St. Pancras, London.[8]

[Footnote 8: _British Musical Biography_, p. 62.]

[Sidenote: =“Music Meetings”=]

About the year 1680 the principal music-masters in London, perceiving an eagerness in the public for musical performances, caused a room to be erected in York Buildings and purposely fitted up for concerts, where the best compositions and performers of the time were to be heard. This was called the “music meeting,” and this room was for a long time the place where the lovers of music assembled at the benefit concerts of the most eminent professors of the art.

[Sidenote: =Oxford Music School=]

As regards the provinces, in 1665 a music school was founded at Oxford by the members of the old Oxford meetings which were suppressed during the Rebellion. Anthony Wood speaks of these meetings when King Charles was driven to Oxford. This new (1665) school, it is quaintly recorded, was furnished “with a number of instruments, including an organ of four stopps, and seven desks to lay the books on, at two shillings each.” Subscription concerts were given, and these Oxford gatherings were the first of which any account is to be met with, indeed they seem to have been the only association of the kind in the kingdom. (Hawkins, _History of Music_.)

For the common and ordinary people there were entertainments suited to their notions of music; these consisted of concerts in unison, as they were called, of fiddles, hautboys, trumpets, etc., performed in booths at fairs held in and about London, but more frequently in certain places called music-houses, of which there were many in the time of King Charles II.

Among the first of this kind was one known by the sign of the Mitre near the west end of St. Paul’s Cathedral. This was about the year 1664. The name of the master of this house was Robert Hubert, _alias_ Forges, who besides being a musician was a collector of natural curiosities.

Another well-known place of this kind was in Stepney, where there was an organ and a band of fiddles and hautboys, and here at times dancing was allowed.

[Sidenote: =Pepys’s Diary=]

As quaintly casting light on the musical condition of things during this period, the following extracts from _Pepys’s Diary_ may be given:—