THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC, 
 
 Jfn; % Jf0rm 0f 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERIC LOUIS RITTER, 
 
 FIRST SERIES. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY OLIVER DITSON & CO., 
 
 277 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 
 NEW YORK: C. H. DITSON & CO, 
 
 711 BROADWAY. 
 
 1876. 
 
 OF CALIF. LIBRABY, LOS ANGELES
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, 
 
 By OLIVER DITSON & CO., 
 Vn the Ofla** of ih* Librarian of Congress, at Washington, 
 
 STEREOTYPED BY C J. PETERS ft SON, 
 5 WASHINGTON ST., BOSTON.
 
 Music 
 Library 
 
 HU 
 
 iw 
 
 INTRODUCTORY, 
 
 To the young artists of America, in whose 
 hands rests the musical future of their country, 
 I dedicate the following pages. Our artists are 
 entering on a new phase of existence. Our pro- 
 fession is no longer here, as it too long has been, 
 at once a refuge, an exhibition platform, and a 
 gambling bourse for ambitious amateurs, half- 
 educated artists, unprincipled speculators, and 
 undisciplined critics. This state of things, 
 that generation, is passing away : humbug and 
 puffery have lost half their power ; the once 
 pardonable weakness, that formerly excused 
 national artistic short-comings with the plea 
 of youth, is becoming stale and meaningless. 
 Our musical public is beginning to have an 
 opinion of its own. It is time that the dawn 
 of a school of American art should appear on 
 the horizon. And to whom shall we look for the 
 
 3
 
 4 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 hastening, the ripening, of this dawn, if not to 
 our rising artists ? 
 
 ***** 
 But they must arm themselves with courage, 
 fortitude, and, above all, with honest artistic 
 principles. For if our artists are unconvinced 
 of the nobleness of their mission, the sanctity of 
 their profession, the great duties which they 
 owe to it and to themselves, with what hope 
 shall they, as a class, expect justice and recog- 
 nition from the general public ? Although this 
 will eventually be their reward, it would be 
 worse than folly for one, passing through the 
 furnace himself, to blind the eyes of his young 
 colleagues to the trials they will necessarily be 
 exposed to before they reach their goal. I do 
 not here allude to the so often injurious influ- 
 ences of social bonnes fortunes, the flattery of 
 family connections, the intoxication of seeing 
 their names continually and favorably adver- 
 tised, enervating influences to which so many 
 promising native talents have succumbed, sink- 
 ing into oblivion at precisely the period of life 
 when the mind should have attained its most 
 harmonious and healthy development ; but rather 
 to the difficulties that beset the public career of 
 the truly earnest artist in America. This is 
 not the place to enlarge on the latter : I shall 
 find opportunity hereafter to treat fully of them.
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 5 
 
 But it is absolutely necessary that I should at 
 least allude to the Achilles heel of our present 
 musical situation, from, a social point of view 
 especially. 
 
 ***** 
 
 While the state of musical culture to-day 
 offers many elements which justify the hopes 
 of all lovers of music ; while everywhere we 
 perceive much activity, united in many cases 
 to promising talent, yet music is, by many 
 intelligent people, scarcely regarded as an art. 
 Many persons, of tolerably liberal views, yet con- 
 sider it merely as an accessory accomplishment, 
 and would gladly banish it, if the prevailing 
 superficial fashion (so much to be regretted) of 
 knowing how to play, or how to sing, a little, 
 were not too strong to be resisted. And many 
 consider music as an unfit occupation for mascu- 
 line minds. 
 
 None of the other arts is encumbered with so 
 many prejudices as music. Though accessible 
 to every human being, its right position in the 
 family of arts is, in many cases, underrated ; its 
 philosophical and a3sthetical meaning entirely 
 overlooked, or not understood at all. About 
 none of the other arts has so much nonsense 
 been written, as about music. A person scarcely 
 able to distinguish one tone or note from another, 
 one air from another, will not hesitate to judge
 
 6 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 of, and condemn, fine musical works in a most 
 imperative manner ; nay, I have seen criticisms, 
 novels, and sketches, on musical subjects, writ- 
 ten by persons who could not sing or play the 
 simplest tune, and to whom theory was a terra 
 incognita. 
 
 In our day, as in earlier times, we find man- 
 kind making music the vehicle of all that is 
 good and bad. Now it is prescribed for medical 
 purposes ; then it has to serve as a means for 
 educating our ill-tempered youth : now it has to 
 inspire the timid soldier with patriotic fire ; then 
 it is invoked as a helpmeet by the frivolous, 
 &c., &c. But, worse than all, here appears an 
 esteemed author, who does not find any thing 
 of the sort in music, and who declares that it 
 expresses nothing at all : it is merely a combina- 
 tion of agreeable sounds, to please our sense of 
 hearing, and to tickle our nerves more or less. 
 " It does not refine," he says ; " it does not ele- 
 vate ; it does not strengthen. It leaves the 
 moral nature quite untouched. It has no moral, 
 nay, no intellectual influence." 
 
 While we possess many technical and oestheti- 
 cal works on architecture, sculpture, painting, 
 and poetry, within the comprehension of the 
 general public, music has, as yet, to struggle, in 
 order to find its due and true place. That 
 which, in a great measure, accounts for this
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 7 
 
 state of things is the one-sided education of 
 our musicians themselves; in general, at least. 
 Their whole attention is directed, in most 
 instances, towards the technical side of musi- 
 cal art. Their appreciation of the history, the 
 philosophy, of their art, is a dark, indistinct 
 understanding and presentiment ; and many of 
 the false theories about music are due, in a 
 great extent, to their want of a more general 
 knowledge and logical power. Thus, the aes- 
 thetical side of music is entirely in the hands of 
 philosophers and speculative authors, who have, 
 unfortunately, not the necessary technical musi- 
 cal education, and whose theories, therefore, are 
 built on sand. Or else it rests in the hands of 
 amateur authors, who write about the art as 
 their fancies lead them. Of course there are, 
 everywhere, honorable exceptions. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Music is not an isolated art. It forms a most 
 necessary link in the great family of arts. Its 
 origin is to be looked for at the same source as 
 that of the other arts. Its ideal functions are 
 also the same. 
 
 Art, in general, is that magic instrumentality 
 by means of which man's mind reveals to man's 
 senses that great mystery, the beautiful. The 
 eye sees it ; the ear hears it ; the mind conceives 
 it ; our whole being feels the breath of God :
 
 8 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 but to penetrate, in its full signification, that 
 mystery, that charm which the beautiful thus 
 exercises over us, is to penetrate the incon- 
 ceivable ways of God. The sense of the 
 beautiful is that God-like spark which the Crea- 
 tor has placed in the soul of man ; and the 
 necessity of giving it reality is that irresistible 
 power which makes man an artist. 
 
 Not through one art-form alone does the idea 
 of the beautiful reveal itself to us, but, as in 
 the whole creation, through many-sidedness. 
 Though different in their forms, which are 
 necessarily dictated by the material which every 
 species of art employs in order to express itself, 
 yet the one idea of the beautiful is contained in 
 all art. 
 
 To say that it requires more genius to create 
 master-works in one art than in another is 
 certainly a wrong assertion. Shakspeare, 
 Beethoven, Michael Angelo, Phidias, who 
 can prove which one of these minds was the 
 greatest ? 
 
 In the plastic arts, the idea of the beautiful 
 is expressed through outward forms. The eye 
 serves the mind as interpreter of that ideal 
 of which the artist finds models in the nature 
 which surrounds him. 
 
 In music, the world, with its emotions and 
 feelings, is driven back on the heart. The ideal
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 9 
 
 of the artist thus rests in his own bosom. The 
 idea of the beautiful is expressed through tone- 
 fo'-ms, which the ear reveals to our mind. Thus, 
 though deeply felt by every man, music's real 
 nature is less understood than the more realistic 
 plastic arts ; hence the dualism of which I have 
 spoken before. 
 
 In poetry, the objective nature of the plastic 
 arts and the subjectivity of music are, in an 
 ideal sense, united. In reading the description 
 of a palace, of a beautiful figure, of a landscape, 
 our mind sees those objects in great reality, 
 while, at the same time, the peculiar mood in 
 which these pictures, when associated with cer- 
 tain lyric and tragic situations, place us, thrills 
 our soul with emotions and feelings in a great 
 degree similar to those awakened by music. 
 
 Thus the aim of all arts is the same, though 
 every one of them arrives at its own ends by 
 different roads. Every one of them possesses, 
 more or less, its moral, refining, ennobling quali- 
 ties ; every one of them can also be made the 
 vehicle of demoralization, or to serve frivolous 
 purposes. It is the true artist's mission to keep 
 his ideal of the beautiful, in all its forms, chaste 
 and pure. Not by descending to the level of 
 every day's trivialities, will he fulfil this noble 
 mission, but by lifting up his eyes towards the 
 purifying atmosphere of the God -like ideal.
 
 10 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Art is a wonderful mirror of man's intellectual 
 and sensual life, elevated into the regions of the 
 beantiful. Its influence upon man's mind is 
 thus ennobling, strengthening, elevating. Mu- 
 sic is a member, and not the least, in the family 
 of arts. 
 
 # * * * * 
 
 It has been my endeavor, in the following 
 lectures, to throw light on those early periods of 
 musical art, scarcely known or appreciated by 
 amateurs, and perhaps I do not exaggerate 
 if I say, by the great majority of musicians also. 
 And yet how important is it, for the understand- 
 ing of our modern art-culture (if a sound and 
 reliable judgment is to be gained), to possess 
 a fair knowledge of the growth and development 
 of musical forms. Besides the instruction this 
 study affords, what a source of intellectual and 
 artistic enjoyment it presents. We, at the same 
 time, follow and observe the different changes 
 of forms which the human mind creates, in order 
 to express its feelings and emotions as influenced 
 by the current thoughts of particular times. 
 Music is a great, and, in many respects, a reli- 
 able guide in the study of human progress and 
 development. No art is more closely connected 
 with the inner life of man than music, whose 
 magic power steps in at precisely the point 
 where the positive expression of language fails.
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 11 
 
 The very essence of man's existence, it partici- 
 pates in its struggles, triumphs, reverses, and 
 necessarily in its forms -and expressions re- 
 sembles those different phases. 
 
 Every one conversant with the literature of 
 musical history will see that the plan and execu- 
 tion of the present work is an original one. It 
 struck me, that, in this way, each distinct stage 
 of development of the great epochs and a. t- 
 forms would be more easily comprehended. Nor 
 have I rested it solely on metaphysical specula- 
 tions. I have tried its efficiency through prac- 
 tical experience. The outlines of this form 
 ripened in preparing and planning, with Madame 
 Raymond - Ritter, the " Historical Recitals " 
 which were given by her and other artists, and 
 which we destined to serve as sesthetical illus- 
 trations of different remarkable schools and 
 periods of musical art. No little share of any 
 satisfaction which my readers may derive from 
 this work will be owing to my dear wife and 
 sister artist, whose genuine enthusiasm, encour- 
 agement, taste, and practical assistance, have 
 proved so valuable an inspiration to me while 
 carrying out my plan, a plan the more difficult, 
 on account of my having undertaken to embody 
 it in a, to me, foreign language. 
 
 ***** 
 
 I never was prejudiced or influenced, in speak-
 
 12 IN TR OD UCTOR Y. 
 
 ing of the different masters, by the' nationality, 
 or the school, to which they or their labors 
 belonged. I strove, as much as lay in my 
 power, to deduce, from those of their works 
 which were accessible to me, their individual 
 importance as influencing and directing the 
 growth of life and art. I never accepted any 
 judgment, any opinion, of an important historical 
 fact, or aesthetic appreciation of important works, 
 that marked or prepared an era in music, until 
 after a conscientious, careful examination, com- 
 parison, and study of the most reliable sources 
 which were at my disposal, and most of which 
 are in my own possession. (This I need hardly 
 say, for the almost utter want of musical libra- 
 ries and of private collections, on this continent, 
 is a well-known fact, and a frequent subject of 
 remark and regret among students.) 
 
 Though, according to my adopted plan, I was, 
 in a certain sense, limited as to time and space, 
 I endeavored to present a comprehensive and 
 complete picture of each important epoch in our 
 art. It was not iry aim to entertain my reader, 
 merely, with the enumeration of names and 
 dates, but to bring him in lively and intellectual 
 contact with, and relation to, the still, in many 
 respects, mysterious means and ways which that 
 beautiful art employs to reach its own ends and 
 to fulfil its mission.
 
 INTR OD UCTOR Y. 13 
 
 My book, therefore, does not pretend to be an 
 exhaustive history of music, but, rather, a 
 friendly, and, I trust, a thoroughly reliable, 
 guide, to incite and direct those musical students 
 who feel the desire, the want, of a deeper and 
 more general knowledge of, and information as 
 to, the growth and progress of their art than is 
 common ; to encourage and strengthen the tal- 
 ented, the striving one, in his unavoidably ardu- 
 ous and difficult labors and struggles ; to point 
 out to the timid and undecided the imperative 
 and necessary duties of the true artist ; to hold 
 up a faithful mirror of art-life to the inex- 
 perienced, impatient aspirant for artistic fame. 
 
 But, alas ! how many stop on the path that 
 leads to the temple of art, to think of the great 
 minds that prepared that path for them, and 
 who not seldom, amidst the greatest trials 
 and mental sufferings, poured out for us that 
 cup of delight which men empty, time after 
 time, in naive and ungrateful ignorance ? How 
 many of those whose business it should be to 
 see a little farther than the narrow walls of their 
 own being, feel any desire to understand the 
 historical development of their art ? And yet, 
 without this understanding, how is a broad 
 musical culture to be gained? how is the sure 
 foundation of future progress to be secured ?
 
 14 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 1 shall often have occasion, in the course of my 
 lectures, to point out the great industry, the iron 
 perseverance, and the deep devotion displayed by 
 our most eminent masters, not alone in creating 
 original works after works, but also in studying, 
 with the utmost diligence and thoroughness, the 
 works of their predecessors. They knew how 
 to respect the good qualities of those who lived 
 and toiled before them, as well as those of their 
 contemporaries. And they had not the same 
 advantages that we have, in being able to pro- 
 cure for little money the model scores inevitably 
 necessary to the student. They were forced to 
 copy the good compositions that chance threw in 
 their way. But in this manner they gained that 
 great mastery in the technical execution of all 
 the different arts of counterpoint which enabled 
 them to write such quantities of perfect works. 
 It was not all genius that made these masters 
 so great, as many are led to believe : their emi- 
 nence was also, and in no small measure, the 
 result of persevering, continual, well-directed, 
 deep study of the fundamental rules and princi- 
 ples of their art. Has not one of the most gifted 
 poets and industrious men that ever lived 
 Goethe said, that "genius is only another 
 word for industry " ? Only when a sure basis 
 was gained by such industry, did they begin to 
 improve upon the old forms, and become able to
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 15 
 
 create new ones. They did not set up for critics 
 while they were still scholars ; they did not at- 
 tempt to become innovators before they knew 
 the alphabet of their art. Read the reliable 
 biographies of eminent composers ; study their 
 own utterances about their art, how they 
 clung to their adopted good principles. Before 
 giving way to pecuniary inducements, they first 
 satisfied their sense of duty as artists. How is 
 it in this respect with our young students ? 
 Scarcely yet able to write a succession of com- 
 mon chords with grammatical correctness, they 
 already besiege the publisher. They have nei- 
 ther time nor perseverance to go through the 
 necessary preliminary, earnest studies. They 
 are all geniuses (much-abused title !) ; and 
 geniuses do not need, they think, to study. 
 They create and dictate their own laws ; but 
 they generally awaken too late from their delu- 
 sive dream. A few years ago, a young man of 
 this city came to ask my advice as to becoming 
 a musician and a composer. He had some tri- 
 fles, and a mass in manuscript, with him. I dis- 
 covered in these crude productions some promis- 
 ing talent, and gladly laid out a plan of study 
 for him, based on our European ideas of what is 
 required from a composer. The young man was 
 astonished at the severity and length of study 
 required, and said to me. "Don't you think.
 
 1C INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 that, if I should work very hard for two years, 
 I would be able to compose an opera like ' Tro- 
 vatore,' or a ' Requiem ' like Mozart's, and then 
 make a great deal of money by it ? " 
 
 I have since sought to hear tidings of the new 
 Trovatore and the Requiem, but, so far, unsuc- 
 cessfully. This is only one of many examples I 
 could give. The genuine masters took delight 
 in work itself, and waited patiently for their re- 
 ward : our young aspirants would like to take 
 the reward first, and to dispense with the 
 drudgery altogether. 
 
 ***,** 
 
 Thus far the present series of lectures em- 
 braces the following distinct epochs : 
 
 FIRST LECTURE. 
 
 The Gregorian Chant, the Folk-song, Trouba- 
 dour-song, and the invention of harmony ; from 
 the Christian era to the latter part of the four- 
 teenth century. 
 
 SECOND LECTURE. 
 
 The old Flemish, German, English, Italian 
 and Spanish schools (the great epoch of Catho 
 lie church-music and the Madrigal) ; from tht, 
 latter part of the fourteenth century to the 
 death of Palestrina.
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 17 
 
 THIRD LECTURE. 
 
 The Oratorio, including the Passion, the Mys- 
 tery, and Miracle plays, and Protestant church- 
 music ; from the twelfth century to the death of 
 Schumann. 
 
 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 The Opera, from its first invention in Italy to 
 the death of Gluck. 
 
 FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 The development of instrumental music ; 
 from the sixteenth century to Haydn. 
 
 I hope to be able to offer, in the course of 
 next season, a second and closing series, which 
 will include, Catholic and English-Protestant 
 church-music, from the death of Palestrina to 
 our own time ; The modern opera after 
 Gluck; Instrumental music since Ph. E. Bach 
 and Haydn to our own day; also a historical 
 sketch of music in America; and a succinct 
 history of the literature of musical art. This 
 will cover the whole field of musical history, 
 treated as fully as possible in the form and limits 
 I have selected. An alphabetic index of the 
 principal subjects treated of in the work will 
 also be added to the second series. 
 
 FREDERIC LOUIS RITTER. 
 
 NEW YORK, Sept. 1, 1870.
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 FIRST LECTURE. 
 
 The Gregorian Chant. The Folk-song. The Invention of 
 Harmony, and the Troubadours. From the Christian Era to 
 the latter part of the Fourteenth Century. 
 
 cradle of music as an art, in the sense 
 JL we understand it to-day, may be traced back 
 to that of Christianity. The~Old World had 
 fulfilled its destiny, and the good tidings of the 
 new gospel were heard in Palestine : the hopes 
 of a future and a better life filled the hearts of 
 men. 
 
 With Christianity, a new civilization grad- 
 ually took the place of that of the Romans : 
 the internal corruption of the Roman empire 
 hastened its downfall, and undermined all that 
 which even the continual invasions of barbarians 
 had spared. With the new religion, men's 
 thoughts were led to nobler, loftier aspirations : 
 
 19
 
 20 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 the idea of a loving, pardoning God inspired 
 them. 
 
 Musip, the deeper expression of men's emo- 
 tions and joys, found then a more fructifying 
 field to take root in ; and, with the growth of 
 Christianity, music, as an eminently Christian 
 art, began to flourish, and accompanied, as a 
 faithful servant, the altars of the new gospel. 
 
 We have no real knowledge of the exact 
 character of the music which formed a part of 
 the religious devotion of the first Christian 
 congregations. It was, however, purely vocal. 
 Instrumental music was excluded, at first, from 
 the church service. It was despised, as having 
 been used by the Romans at then? depraved 
 festivities ; and every thing reminding them of 
 heathen worship could not be endured by the 
 new religionists. As late as the fourth century, 
 St. Hieronimus says, speaking of the degraded 
 state of Roman spectacles, " A Christian maid 
 should not know what a lyre or a flute is, 
 and what their use is." This strict confinement 
 to purely vocal music was, however, more ad- 
 hered to in the churches of the Occident ; for 
 in the Orient, with the multiplication of Chris- 
 tian congregations, the custom of introducing 
 instrumental music in the church service, after 
 the manner of the heathen, became more and 
 more general.
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 21 
 
 It is presumed that some of the hymns and 
 psalms of the early Christians were taken from 
 the Hebrew temple service, and some were of 
 Greek origin. The_peculiar versification of the 
 Psalms gave rise to the antiplwnal or alternate 
 ehant, sung by priests and people. This form, 
 being also used at the services of the Greek 
 temple, was no doubt imitated by the Oriental 
 Christians ; and from them it found its way to 
 the churches of the Occident. How much the 
 first Christians loved their hymns and singing, 
 and resolved not to abandon them, even amid 
 the greatest persecutions they were at first ex- 
 posed to, is proven by a passage of Plinius from 
 the beginning of the second century. He says, 
 " On certain days, they will assemble before sun- 
 rise, and sing alternately (antiphonal) the praise 
 of their God." And another writer, speaking of 
 the sect of Therapeutists, says, " After supper, 
 their sacred songs began. When all were arisen, 
 they selected from the rest two choirs, one of 
 men, and one of women, in order to celebrate 
 some festival ; and from each of these a person 
 of a majestic form, and well skilled in music, was 
 chosen to lead the band. They then chanted 
 hymns in honor of God, composed in different 
 measures and modulations, now singing to- 
 gether, and now answering each other by 
 turns."
 
 22 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 Also that persons of all ages and of both 
 sexes participated in the singing of psalms and 
 hymns, is proven by a passage of St. Eusobius ; 
 where, speaking of the consecration of the new 
 churches, he says, " that there was one common 
 consent in chanting forth the praises of God : 
 the performance of the service was exact ; the 
 rites of the church were decent and majestic ; 
 and there was a place appointed for those who 
 sang psalms, r- youths and virgins, old men and 
 young" 
 
 The more the new religion found disciples, 
 the more it was found necessary to bring unity 
 into the form of the church service : and, as sing- 
 ing of hymns and psalms formed a principal part 
 in it, t. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan from 374 to 
 397, not only encouraged the setting and com- 
 posing of hymns, but he also collected many 
 among those already in use ; and history attrib- 
 utes to him the having chosen and fixed four 
 diatonic scales, as foundation for the music of 
 the hymns. The following are said to be those 
 scales : 
 
 1. -A-titlientic Keys, or Scales.
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 which are called, after him, Ambrosian ecclesias- 
 tical keys. St. Ambrose was a warm admirer 
 of music, and is said to have written the words 
 of many hymns. The celebrated " Te Deurn 
 Laudamus," however, is erroneously attributed 
 to him : it is of Oriental origin, and probably 
 adapted from the Greek Church. St. Augus- 
 tine, the friend of St. Ambrose, speaks of the 
 great delight he received in hearing the singing 
 of hymns and psalms at the church of Milan, in 
 the following terms: "The voices flowed in at my 
 ears, truth was distilled into my heart, and the 
 affection of piety overflowed in sweet tears of 
 
 joy!" 
 
 But in those times, though new Christian 
 churches sprang up everywhere amidst persecu- 
 tion, it was not yet possible to preserve a uni- 
 form manner in the music, which made such an 
 essential part of the service. The melodies and 
 chants of St. Ambrose changed, and lost much 
 of their primitive purity. 
 
 It was then reserved to St. Gregory the Great 
 who was at the head of the Christian Church 
 from 591 to 604, to reform and regenerate the 
 entire musical part of the church service. 
 
 St. Gregory was not only full of religious en- 
 thusiasm, but he was also fond of, and a con- 
 noisseur in, music. He collected the best hymns 
 existing, is said to have written and composed
 
 24 HISTORY OF ML' SIC. 
 
 * 
 
 many himself, arranged the liturgy fcr the Chris- 
 tian service according to the Church year, and 
 had the whole written in a book, called an 
 Antiphonar, which he deposited upon the altar 
 of St. Peter, fastened with a chain, and which 
 he intended to serve as a foundation and un- 
 changeable direction for all time to come. This 
 Gregorian chant is also called cantus firmus, or 
 cantus planus. St. Gregory added to the four 
 scales ascribed to St. Ambrose four more, calling 
 the first authentic, and the others plagal. Here 
 are the four plagal scales : 
 
 2. IPlag-al Keys, or Scales. 
 
 -g-T- 
 
 These ecclesiastical keys, or scales, as estab- 
 lished or accepted by St. Gregorj^, were thus dis- 
 tinguished : 
 
 First tone D. Dorian. 
 
 Second tone A. ^Eolian. 
 
 Third tone E. Phrygian. 
 
 Fourth tone B. Hypophrygian. 
 
 Fifth tone F. Lydian. 
 
 Sixth tone C. Ionian. 
 
 Seventh tone G. Mixolydian. 
 
 Eighth tone D. Dorian.
 
 UISTOIIY OF MUSIC. Ii5 
 
 It was not until the sixteenth century that the 
 Greek names were affixed to these keys, princi- 
 pally through the teachings of Glareanus. 
 
 It is presumed, and, indeed, admitted, by 
 many modern writers on music, that the scales 
 which St. Ambrose and St. Gregory laid as the 
 foundation for the melodies and chants of their 
 hymns and psalms were taken from the musical 
 system of the Greeks. 
 
 St. Gregory, whose influence was so beneficial 
 to the advancement of true church music, worked 
 unceasingly for its introduction and study. He 
 erected singing-schools in Rome, and was him- 
 self often present, and watched the instruction. 
 The characters which St. Gregory used to note 
 the chants of the Antiphonar were the neumce, 
 small crooks and strokes of various shapes and 
 positions, placed over the words to designate 
 the pitch and the duration of the sound. When 
 these signs were used without lines, they 
 must have been very uncertain guides ; and an 
 old author says, " These irregular signs must 
 have been productive of more^ error than sci- 
 ence, as they were often so carelessly and pro- 
 miscuously placed, that, while one was singing 
 a semitone or a fourth, others would sing a third 
 or a fifth." In the course of the next century, 
 one line was first used ; and then two lines were 
 drawn, and the places of the neumce were thus
 
 2G HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 fixed with more certainty. The Gregorian chant 
 soon found its way to other countries where the 
 Christian religion took the place of heathen 
 worship : in 604 and 606, Roman singers ap- 
 peared in Gaul and Britanny ; and, in the latter 
 country, vocal music especially flourished. In 
 752, Pope Stephen II. sent twelve singers to 
 Pepin of France ; and in Germany, where the 
 conversion of the heathen was vigorously pushed 
 forward, the apostle St. Boniface founded several 
 singing-schools at the seats of bishops and in 
 convents. But very often these schools only 
 succeeded as long as those enthusiastic apostles 
 were at the head of them: if they died, the 
 people would fall back again into their wild 
 and barbarous state. John Diaconus, the biog- 
 rapher of St. Gregory, says, that, among all 
 European nations, the Gauls and the Ale- 
 manni were the least fitted to understand and 
 execute the Gregorian chant in its purity ; be- 
 cause they would always mix it up with some of 
 their own. " Their rough voices, roaring like 
 thunder, are not capable of soft modulation ; for 
 their throats, hardened by drink, cannot execute 
 with flexibility what a tender melody requires. 
 Indeed, their voices give out tones similar to the 
 rumbling of a baggage-wagon rolling down from 
 a height ; and, instead of touching the hearts of 
 their hearers, they only fill them with aversion. 5 '
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 27 
 
 Under the reign of Charlemagne, from 768 to 
 814, church music made great progress in the 
 different countries of his great empire. Charle- 
 magne, who was so powerful a support of the 
 Christian religion, was- very fond of music ; and 
 the singing of hymns and psalms was zealously 
 taught at his high-schools, and very often under 
 his own supervision. To preserve the Gregorian 
 liturgical manner of singing in its purity, and to 
 realize unity in the service of the different 
 churches of his empire, he had singing-masters 
 sent from Rome at different times, and erected 
 singing-schools at Metz and Soissons. Charle- 
 magne himself paid several visits to the pope in 
 Rome. There always existed disputes and 
 jealousies between the Roman and Gallic sing- 
 ers, as to whom should belong the right to sing 
 at the emperor's service while in Rome. 
 
 " The French pretended to sing better and 
 more agreeably than the Italians ; and the Ital- 
 ians, on the contrary, regarding themselves as 
 more learned in ecclesiastical music, which they 
 had been taught by St. Gregory (or, rather, ac- 
 cording to the true tradition of St. Gregory's 
 teachings), accused their competitors of corrupt- 
 ing, disfiguring, and spoiling the true chant. 
 The dispute being brought before the emperor, 
 the French, thinking themselves sure of his? 
 countenance, insulted the Roman singers, who,
 
 ^8 IIISl OR Y OF MUSIC. 
 
 on their part, emboldened by superior knowl 
 edge, and comparing the musical abilities of 
 their great master, St. Gregory, with the igno- 
 rance and rusticity of their rivals, treated them 
 as fools and barbarians. As their altercation 
 was not likely to come to a speedy issue, the 
 most pious emperor, Charles, asked his chanters 
 which they thought to be the purest and best 
 water, that which was drawn from the source 
 at the fountain-head, or that, which, after being 
 mixed with turbid and muddy rivulets, was 
 found at a great distance from the original 
 spring? They cried out, unanimously, that all 
 water must be most pure at the source : upon 
 which the Emperor said, ' Mount ye, then, up to 
 the pure fountain of St. Gregory, whose chant 
 ye have manifestly corrupted.' ' 
 
 All that we know of the state of music, till up 
 to the ninth century, shows that, all the hymns 
 and psalms were single-voiced, that is to say, 
 sung in unison ; although some few rare efforts 
 towards discovering and introducing harmony 
 that is, the singing of various parts simul- 
 taneously were made by different learned and 
 industrious monks in their solitude. 
 
 It would lead me too far to relate here all the 
 learned historical speculations of this u that 
 savant, whether it was the Celtic or German race 
 that first made use of harmony. The hypothesis
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 29 
 
 that it was most probably invented by the Celts 
 is based on the following fact : this people pos-- 
 sessed, among other musical instruments, a kind 
 of violin, in a primitive and rough state, called 
 Rotta, Grwth, Crotta, &c. The instrument was 
 overstrung with several strings of different 
 pitch, and it was played with a bow. This leads 
 very naturally to the supposition that it was 
 more than probable that chords could be drawn 
 from the Grwth. With the little light history 
 and science have as yet thrown on this subject, 
 it is difficult to trace from the use of the Grwth 
 the gradual introduction of harmony in music, 
 as a form which stamps our musical art, at the 
 same time, as entirely different from that of the 
 old world. It seems, however, safe to admit the 
 fact, that with the migration of the northern 
 tribes into the southern provinces of Europe, 
 and their final settlement thare, harmonious 
 music became gradually known and practised. 
 
 The oldest historical document of which we 
 have any knowledge, on harmony, in the modern 
 acceptation of the term, is by Isidore, Arch- 
 bishop of Seville, who lived at the time of St. 
 Gregory (from 570 to 636), and whose friend he 
 was. Isidore says, in his " Sentences on Music," 
 u Harmonious music is a modulation of the 
 voice : it is also the union of simultaneous 
 sounds." He also speaks of two lamb of har-
 
 30 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 mony, /Symphony and Diaphony. By the first 
 word he meant probably a combination of con- 
 sonant, and by the latter of dissonant intervals. 
 Though we possess here explicit rules for the 
 use of harmony, it took several centuries of 
 labor and experiment before men were able to 
 create works, even in a simple sense, in which 
 melody and harmony concurred to give adequate 
 enjoyment. The state of society, and the con- 
 tinual invasions of barbarians into the Roman 
 empire, devastating all that opposed their pas- 
 sage, hindered the peaceful cultivation of arts 
 and sciences, all intellectual life remaining, 
 so to speak, in suspense ; and communications 
 were then so scarce, that even the improvements 
 which some monks made, scarcely went farther 
 than the walls of their own monastery. Thus 
 the soil was not advantageous to the progress 
 of music, although the musical liturgy was en- 
 riched, during this period, by many new chants. 
 But, without gradual perfection and use of 
 harmony, musical art, in our sense, would have 
 remained stationary, partaking the fate of Greek 
 music, and less rich in rhythm. Greek music, 
 as far as we understand it, closely followed the 
 rhythm of that rich language : " being especial- 
 ly vocal, it was every where governed by the 
 peculiarity of the syllables, and, therefore, re- 
 duced to fixed limits. We are, throughout, led
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 31 
 
 to the opinion, that there existed a great harmo- 
 ny between the poetical and musical composition 
 of the Greeks ; that is to say, they never wedded 
 to the text a music, which, being perhaps beau- 
 tiful in itself, forced and distorted the words 
 and syllables, and thus rendered the meaning of 
 this text obscure, and a mere play of sound." * 
 In the Gregorian chant, notes of equal value ac- 
 companied the different syllables ; but it cannot 
 be said that it was void of all rhythm, as, in exe- 
 cution, the proper accents of the words were 
 always considered. St. Gregory certainly chose 
 this manner of chanting, as being more majestic, 
 more solemn, more adapted to the worship of a 
 large Christian congregation. Although appar- 
 ently monotonous, the Gregorian chant bore 
 within itself the germ of a more melodious inde- 
 pendence than the so much praised Greek music, 
 as it did not follow the syllables in such a sla- 
 vish manner ; for we already find groups of many 
 notes sung as ornaments upon certain vowels, 
 principally at the close of sentences in masses, 
 hymns, and psalms. The great influence and 
 importance of the Gregorian chant in music, 
 regarded as the modern Christian art, cannot be 
 too highly estimated. A freer tone-life began 
 to reveal itself in the art of song under St. 
 Gregory : from the life of sentiment, deepened 
 
 * Dr. John H. Schmidt: Die antike Compositions lehre.
 
 32 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 and enriched by the inspiring influence of Chris- 
 tianity, sprang a more independent tone-speech. 
 A tone-language, indeed, "in which faith, belief, 
 and feeling expressed themselves in such a man- 
 ner, that, in St. Gregory's time, it was said that 
 the holy man had received from a higher spirit- 
 ual world the power of creating such songs.'' 
 The Gregorian chant is the central point from 
 which all older compositions for the Catholic 
 Church proceeded, and upon which they rested. 
 The classic forms of the old masses, motets, and 
 hymns, including the works of Palestrina and 
 his school, sprang from the Gregorian chant. In 
 fact, it will remain the foundation of all true 
 Catholic church-music. 
 
 It needed only one step, and the solid founda- 
 tion of that beautiful art-temple, which stands in 
 its wonderful glory before us to-day, would be 
 laid ; and this step was the discovery of harmo- 
 ny, and its general use in the practice of choral 
 music. 
 
 The first author known to us as having left a^ 
 treatise on harmony, in which the rules are; 
 illustrated, at the same tune, by practical exam- 
 ples, was a Flemish monk, Hucbald of St. 
 Am and, in Flanders, who lived at the end of the 
 ninth and at the beginning of the tenth centu- 
 ries. In Hucbald's time, music in several parts, 
 called to-day " polyphonic," was not yet known 
 \ fhp. term "harmonious music," or "harmony,"
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. <J^ 
 
 but by that of " orgarium," or " diaphony." The 
 intervals which composed these parts were called 
 " symphonies." The specimens which the learned 
 monk gives us of the harmony or organum in use 
 in his time are very crude, and sound to our ears 
 not very pleasant; as he employed, and, according 
 to the renowned old Greek system, allowed, only 
 a succession of perfect consonants, which are the 
 fourth, the fifth, and the octave. One would not 
 trust his ears on hearing the organum of Hue- 
 bald, but would think it. impossible that such 
 had ever been in practice ; yet it seems there is 
 no doubt about it. The good monk himself, in 
 giving the necessary rules for employing the 
 symphonies, or intervals, in composing the or- 
 ganum, recommends them as sweet and agree- 
 able in their effect upon the ear.* Here is 
 one of his specimens as an example : 
 
 vi - vi - mus be - nc - di - ci -<inu.s Do - 
 
 - mi - num ex hoc nunc et us - que in sae - cu-lum. 
 
 * Though this form of ITiicbald's organum has boon admitted by aL 
 the most reliable musical historians, Dr. (). Paul maintains that the or- 
 ganum is a sort of counterpoint, in which one voice imitates the other in 
 the octave, the fifth, and fourth. If this explanation of the organum it 
 to be admitted, then great injustice has been done to our venerable old 
 author. The subject, however, has not yet been cleared up.
 
 34 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 In the dark days of the middle ages, the 
 monies, in whose hands the meagre cultivation 
 of literature and science then almost exclusively 
 rested, and who slavishly followed as much 
 as their knowledge would allow them the 
 works of Greek and Roman authors, tried, for 
 centuries, to deduce their rules for the science 
 of music from what they could gather at the 
 same source ; but the author considered for a 
 long time as the oracle by musical writers was 
 Boetfiius (from about 476 to 525.) There was 
 a hard and long struggle, however, between the 
 theory and practice of music. The Chris- 
 tian singers, led by empiricism, admitted and in- 
 troduced forms in their songs which did not 
 accord with the rules of Greek authors and 
 Boethius ; hence the confusion and complications 
 which rested heavily upon the progress of musi- 
 cal art. It is, therefore, not astonishing when we 
 read that it took half a man's life-time to make 
 himself master of the rudiments of music in 
 those days, as the rules were so many and diffi- 
 cult to learn. It was then thought that no one 
 could be a good teacher of philosophy or theol- 
 ogy, without possessing a knowledge of music. 
 Under these circumstances, it was well that a 
 man appeared, who, endowed with great practi- 
 cal sense, partly removed these difficulties, cre- 
 ated a new and simpler method of teaching, and
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC- 35 
 
 brought musical notation to greater perfection. 
 This teacher was Cf-uido of Arezzo, who lived in 
 the early part of the eleventh century, and was a 
 monk in the Benedictine monastery in Pomposa, 
 in Italy. Guido, like St. Gregory and Hucbuld, 
 probably, also used the letters A, B, C, D, E, 
 F, G, to designate the tones of the scale, and 
 the neumce as musical characters. A really 
 great merit of his was that of adding two more 
 lines to those already existing, and thus giving 
 the neumce a more fixed place. Two of the four 
 lines were black : of the other two, the second 
 of the four lines was red, the fourth was yellow, 
 and sometimes green. The red line fixed the 
 tone F, the yellow the tone C. From this 
 dates the use of our F, or bass clef, and the C 
 clef. 
 
 Guido was a good practical teacher, and was 
 accustomed to explain by word of mouth many 
 of the existing difficulties in musical practice. 
 A proof of this is, that he enabled his pupils, in a 
 comparatively short time, to read any chant at 
 first sight, which the other singers never could 
 do in all their lives. He is also the originatoi 
 of the solmization by means of the syllables ut. 
 re, mi, fa, sol, la. To teach singing at first 
 sight to his pupils, Guido used an air which was 
 so peculiarly constructed that every other line 
 ('verse) began with a tone one degree highei
 
 36 niSTOKY OF MUSIC, 
 
 than the previous one :. the first commenced on 
 C, the next on D, the third on E, the fourth on 
 F, the fifth on G, the sixth on A. The writing 
 of the Sapphic strophe is attributed to Paul 
 Diaconus, who was a contemporary of Charle- 
 magne (780-800). Here is the hymn: 
 
 Ut quo - ant la - - xis. lie- so - na - re n-bris. 
 
 Ji - ra gos - to - rum. Fa-mu-li tu - o - - rum. 
 
 Sol - ve pollu-ti Labi-i re - atum iSan - cto Johannes. 
 
 Every profession in those days had its patron , 
 and, St. John being then worshipped as the pat- 
 ron of singers, this hymn was sung in his honor, 
 and was considered a remedy against hoarseness. 
 The so-called Guidonian hand^ by means of 
 which solmization and the ecclesiastical keys 
 were taught, in those times, calling the top of 
 the thumb Gamma (G), and applying the names 
 of the rest of the notes to the joints of each fin- 
 ger, is also ascribed to him, though perhaps er- 
 roneously, as it more probably owes its origin 
 and development to some of his disciples. It 
 found its way to all countries of Europe, and 
 contributed much towards the study of musical
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 37 
 
 theory. As a harmonist, Guiclo did not go much 
 beyond Hucbald. No teacher or musical author 
 obtained such a popular reputation after his 
 death as Guido : all that was taught, improved, 
 invented, in musical branches, through the elev- 
 enth, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centu- 
 ries, was attributed to him. " Guido," says Bur- 
 ney, "is one of those favored names, to Avhich 
 the liberality of posterity sets no bounds. He 
 has long been regarded, in the empire of music, 
 as lord of the manor, to whom all strays revert, 
 not indeed as chattels to which he is known to 
 have an inherent right and natural title, but such 
 as accident has put into the power of his bene- 
 factors ; and when once mankind has acquired i 
 habit of generosity, unlimited by -envy and riva 
 claims, they wait not till the plate or charity 
 box is held out to them, but give freely and 
 unsolicited whatever they find without loss or 
 effort." 
 
 With the experience and facility church-sing- 
 ers gained, no doubt Hucbald's and Guide's or- 
 ganum, or diaphony, would not always satisfy 
 them ; and a species of harmony sprang up, - - 
 although it existed at first only in practice, 
 which exercised a great influence upon music 
 of simultaneous sound, and even upon the organ 
 um itself. This was the discantus or counter- 
 point (as it was afterwards called), at the enj
 
 38 HISTORY OF MUSIC'. 
 
 of the eleventh, or at the commencement of the 
 twelfth, centuries. The cantus firmut or cantus 
 planus of St. Gregory, and in its crude harmoni- 
 zations in the organum, consisted of notes of 
 equal value. In executing these chants, they 
 were either sung in unison, or, as in the orga- 
 num, the parts moved closely together. The neu- 
 mce, the musical characters of this epoch, were 
 found sufficient to determine the pitch of the 
 tones for the singers, as rhythm and measure, in 
 our sense, were not yet observed. In the dis- 
 cantus (descant), which consisted of two or more 
 parts, a given melody, generally a Gregorian 
 chant, called tenor (that is, "to hold"), formed 
 the foundation ; and. accompanying it, one, two 
 or three parts were invented, probably first im- 
 provised. The different parts which composed 
 the descant were not always sung in tones of 
 the same value, like the organum. To keep these 
 parts together in a tolerably harmonious manner, 
 it was, no doubt, soon discovered that a certain 
 understanding was necessary respecting the 
 value of the different notes representing the 
 tones, and the time they were to be sung in. 
 All this led to the discovery of measured music, 
 or the time-table^ mensural music, as it was then 
 called. Through frequent practising and experi- 
 mentalizing, the ears of singers became more and 
 more sensible to the disagreeable and barbarous
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 39 
 
 effect of a continual succession of fourths, fifths, 
 and octaves, as we find in the organum. Thirds 
 and sixths being excluded from practical use by 
 the old Greek system, the theorists of all this 
 epoch, slavish imitators of the renowned Greek 
 system, excluded them also. But in closely 
 pursuing the progress of musical art, as much as 
 the meagre documents left to us of those dark 
 times allow, we must admit, that, in practice, 
 singers were far ahead of the theorists ; and, step 
 by step, these latter had to record, and which 
 is their real merit systemize for further use 
 and development, that which others found, or 
 admitted through tradition. In this way, the 
 real meaning of consonances and dissonances, 
 and a more appropriate and effective use of them, 
 must, indeed, have been known long before writ- 
 ers on music acquainted us with the change. 
 Franco de C'ologne is considered the earliest 
 writer on mensural music. He lived in the 
 beginning of the thirteenth century. In his 
 work on music, "Musica et Ars Cantus Mensura- 
 lilis" he speaks of the different value of the 
 notes. 
 
 Formerly there were only two, longa, B^, 
 and brevis, : he already has four, with the 
 corresponding rests, duplex longa, ], longa , 
 brevis, and semi-brevis, + .
 
 40 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 5. Rests. 
 
 Perfect Longa, three beats. Imperfect Longa, two beats. 
 
 Brevis. Semi-brcvis. Final pause. 
 
 He also mentions two kinds of time, the per- 
 fect and the imperfect. Triple time he calls per- 
 fect (trinity being the substance of all perfection), 
 and common time was imperfect. The bars, a? 
 indicating the measures, were not yet in use : a 
 longa and a brevis representing three, and a longa 
 two, the singers counted according to the value 
 of these notes. In the explanations he gives of 
 the consonances and dissonances, and in the use 
 of them, Franco already approximates to our 
 ideas of them, although he still ranks the sixths 
 among dissonances. The description and rules 
 he gives of the discantus, in three, four, and five 
 parts, show an immense progress over the old or- 
 ganum. 
 
 Mensural music, as explained and probably 
 perfected by Franco, was gradually introduced 
 and adopted by church-singers and theorists. 
 A marked distinction began already to be 
 established, in the treatises on music, between 
 mensural music as a species, and the cantus plan- 
 us of St. Gregory. It found its way, and was
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 41 
 
 cultivated with great success, in England, very 
 soon after Franco's teachings. Commentators on 
 Franco's works or, at least, theorists who took 
 Franco's works as a basis, although they do not 
 show great progress beyond him were Walter 
 Odington of Evesham, under the reign of Hen- 
 ry III., and Hieronimus de Moravia, about 1260. 
 Of more importance to the development of men- 
 sural music and harmony were Marchetto di 
 Padua, in the latter part of the twelfth, and at 
 the beginning of the thirteenth centuries; and 
 Jean de Muris, about 1330, doctor of the Sor- 
 bonne at Paris, famous as a philosopher, mathe- 
 matician, and writer on music. Many of the 
 rules he gave for the use of consonant and dis- 
 sonant intervals in polyphonic writing still pos- 
 sess value. 
 
 As I shall often have occasion to make use of 
 the expressions " consonance " and " dissonance," 
 I will here give the explanation of those terms. 
 The difference between two musical sounds, or 
 tones, as regards their pitch, is called an " inter- 
 val." The nature of the sound produced by two 
 or more intervals, when sung or played together, 
 is either consonant or dissonant. Franco ex- 
 plained consonance and dissonance in the folio \v- 
 ing manner, which explanation, indeed, sufficed 
 for theorists until our day : " Two or more 
 voices or parts, harmonizing, when sung together.
 
 42 PJIST\)RY OF MUSIC. 
 
 in a mamiei agreeable to the ear, form a conso- 
 nance. Dissonance, on the contrary, when two 
 parts are united so as to sound disagreeable to 
 the ear." Now, consonant means, in general, 
 agreeable ; dissonant, disagreeable : but as, in a 
 more particular sense, the materials out of which 
 our musical harmony is formed can never be 
 disagreeable without ceasing to be music, we 
 must find a more generic explanation of conso- 
 nant and dissonant intervals. Every tone is the 
 product of a certain number of vibrations, either 
 through the human voice, or through artificial 
 means. If, in sounding two different tones si- 
 multaneously, the number of vibrations of the 
 one is in a simple proportion to the number of 
 vibrations of the other, then the ear receives 
 the sound in a satisfactory manner, and we term 
 such intervals "consonances" (for the ear, like 
 the mind, sooner comprehends that which is of 
 simple proportion) : the octave is like 1 to 2 ; 
 the fifth, 2:3; the fourth, 3:4; the major 
 third, 4:5; the major sixth, 3:5; the minor 
 third, 5:6; the minor sixth, 5 : 8. These inter- 
 vals are all more or less perfect consonances. 
 If, on the other hand, the number of vibrations 
 of two different tones is so multiplied as to render 
 their relative proportions more complicated, then 
 the ear receives the sound in an unsatisfactory 
 manner, and we term the intervals thus pro
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. W 
 
 rtuced, " dissonance ; " the major second, 8 : 9. 
 and 9 : 10 ; the minor second, 15 : 16 ; the major 
 seventh, 8 : 15 ; the minor seventh, 9 : 16, &c. 
 (The two figures represent two tones : during 
 the same period of time the first tone vibrates, 
 say three times, the second vibrates four times, 
 &c.) Now, all the different intervals which 
 musical practice has admitted, form a gradual 
 chain of more or less satisfactory sounds, from 
 the restful and most perfect consonance, to the 
 sharpest, most restless, and exciting dissonance. 
 Their skilful use, based upon a true musical 
 sentiment, and thorough study of the nature of 
 these different intervals, plays a most important 
 part in the true composer's productions. " The 
 dissonances," ingeniously says Printz, in his 
 " Phrynis " (1696), " are the darkness, the con- 
 sonances the light: the light would not be as 
 agreeable to us if it were always day and never 
 night. The dissonances are the bitter, the 
 consonances the sweet: the sweet would never 
 be as agreeable if we had not also tasted the 
 bitter." 
 
 There also existed in the middle ages, besides 
 the descant, another kind of counterpoint, or 
 music in different parts, generally for three 
 voices, which was called falso-bordone, or faux- 
 bourdon. 
 
 This kind of harmony consisted of a succes-
 
 44 t HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 sion of chords of the sixth, over a Gregorian 
 chant, as cantus firmus. 
 
 O. 
 
 iMr* 
 
 
 The falso-bordone seems to have originated in 
 France, and was thence introduced in the pope's 
 chapel. With the new discoveries and the 
 greater facilities for mastering the material, no 
 doubt many extravagances found their way into 
 the manner of singing the discantus, or descant, 
 to the displeasure of many a Christian : on the 
 other hand, many, out of habit, clung to the old 
 organum, and condemned the new descant as 
 profanation of the divine service. So Pope John 
 XXII., in the year 1322, issued a decree, at 
 Avignon, in which he reminded the clergy of 
 the proper manner in which church singing 
 should be fixed ; and, speaking of the disciples 
 of the new school of music, says, " that those 
 who were captivated with it, attending the new 
 notes and new measures of the disciples of the 
 new school, would rather have their ears tickled 
 with semibreves and minims, and such frivolous 
 inventions, than hear the ancient ecclesiastical
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 45 
 
 chant." But, notwithstanding the frivolous 
 invention, the descant and the falso-bordone 
 found their way even to the pope's chapel, 
 where they were cultivated with great success, 
 and prepared the way for those great master- 
 pieces of Josquin des Pres, Orlanclus Lassus, 
 Palestrina, and many others, which afterwards 
 adorned the Catholic Church. 
 
 We have seen, through the preceding narrative, 
 that several centuries of labor, experiment, and 
 in many cases, no doubt, of disappointment, 
 passed until fixed rules for the general use of 
 harmony were established. Nevertheless, those 
 preliminary, long, and tedious labors were neces- 
 sary, before men, gifted by the hand of God 
 with genius, could create the glorious works 
 that delight us ; in which the whole power of 
 melodious charm, wedded to rich and exquisite 
 harmony, speaks to us in so sublime a language : 
 a language never dreamed of by those monks, 
 faithful and restless gatherers of the first crude 
 and coy material, and who certainly thought 
 wonders of the barbarous sounds of their beloved 
 organum. But, thanks to the devotion and in- 
 dustry of these monks in their solitary cells, 
 they saved the remains of the great intellectual 
 life of old Greece and Rome from titter destruc- 
 tion, and, through their speculations and experi- 
 ments in arts and sciences, often, no doubt, very
 
 46 HISTOllY OF MUSIC. 
 
 pedantic and seemingly insignificant, unknow- 
 inglyowed the seed of many an art-form of 
 which ye reap the rich and delicious fruit to- 
 day. 
 
 The folk-song is an outgrowth from the life of 
 the people. It is a direct naturalistic efflux of 
 popular lyric song ; unassisted by art, it is true, 
 but yet the product of innate artistic instinct in 
 the people, seeking a more lofty expression than 
 that of every-day speech for those feelings which 
 are awakened in the soul by the varied events 
 of life. The first authors of the folk-song are, 
 with very few exceptions, unknown : they were 
 either men and women of the people, who, with 
 unembarrassed simplicity, and unaware of the 
 laws of art, described, with free originality, that 
 which lived and moved in the soul of the people ; 
 or they were artists, who were so inwardly con- 
 nected with the people in their feelings and mode 
 of expression, that their productions seem to 
 spring from the same source. On one side 
 purely human feeling, on the other side national 
 character, are truthfully reflected in the folk- 
 song : in it the characteristics of a nation are so 
 faithfully displayed, that it not only betrays its 
 origin, but also enables us to judge, through its 
 distinguishing features, of the relationship exist- 
 ing between different races of men. The un- 
 wearying attraction of the folk-song consists of
 
 HISTOBT OF MUSIC. 47 
 
 the freshness, originality, and unconcealed truth- 
 fulness with which every natural movement of 
 the soul is expressed; nor is it only healthy 
 realism that charms us in it. There we also 
 find presentiments of a lofty, noble ideal, and 
 such an exquisite sense of real poetic beauty, 
 breaking through the rind of natural growth, as 
 assures to the best of these songs an imperish- 
 able existence. 
 
 There is no doubt that the ancient nations 
 the Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, &c. 
 possessed many folk-songs: yet none of them, 
 as far as we can judge, have come down to us ; 
 and, although it is presumed that some of these 
 songs found their way into the Christian Church, 
 history fails to give any distinct proof of it. 
 Through the confusion caused in the political 
 and social state of European nations by the mi- 
 gration of the German races in the fifth and sixth 
 centuries, and through the uncertain state of the 
 different languages mixed up with each other, 
 the cultivation of poetry was out of the question ; 
 and, of course, secular music had as yet no foun- 
 dation. It was not until a new civilization took 
 the place of disorder and anarchy, that poetry 
 and song began to adorn the homes of the new 
 inhabitants. 
 
 In the history of the development of our Euro- 
 pean or Occidental music, which in its forma
 
 48 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 tion is ruled bj" entirely different laws from 
 those of the Oriental nations, the folk-song is of 
 the greatest importance. The folk-song and the 
 Gregorian song are the two factors that form the 
 foundation upon which all forms of our musical 
 art rest. Though each one of them followed, in 
 the course of time, altogether different roads, yet 
 we shall see that they sometimes lend each other 
 their individual charms. The Gregorian chant, 
 creating its own peculiar tonalities, the ecclesi- 
 astical keys, and enriched by the invention 
 of harmony, which gave to these tonalities a 
 still more solemn, characteristic, church-like 
 coloring, is thus at once distinct from any pre- 
 vious effort of temple music ; at all events, as 
 far as we can judge from the historical records 
 transmitted to us on this subject. The Gre- 
 gorian chant was thus raised to the highest form 
 of art-song. The folk-song puts its whole signi- 
 fication in melodious expression, being limited to 
 the more narrow circle of the naive sentiment 
 of the poetry which gives it meaning : human 
 reality and emotion are its functions. The Gre- 
 gorian chant points to the infinite beyond. The 
 tonality of the folk-song, resting in general upon 
 the key and the dominant, is simpler in its formal 
 construction than that of the Gregorian chant. 
 
 Though old chronicles have preserved and 
 transmitted to us the words of many a German,
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC, 49 
 
 Italian, French, and Spanish folk-song, popular 
 at certain periods of the middle ages, yet the 
 melodies of these songs have, unfortunately, not 
 all been noted down, and are, therefore, not ail 
 known to us. What we possess of such melo- 
 dies are, for the most part, from the latter half 
 of the fourteenth century, when composers 
 contrapuntists, as they were called made some 
 of the most popular melodies the theme of their 
 masses and motets. I shall speak, in my second 
 lecture, of this peculiar manner. Many of the 
 folk-songs of the Celtic races, such as the Scots, 
 Irish, Welsh, and the Bretons of France, are un- 
 doubtedly of very ancient origin. A number of 
 them must have existed long before the intro- 
 duction of the Christian religion. In examining 
 these original characteristic melodies, so full of 
 a peculiar poetical charm, one cannot help won- 
 dering at the fact that these people never made 
 a mark in the higher culture of music, and, as 
 far as history records, never sent forth a com- 
 poser in whose genius the art-world has 
 found concentrated all the poetic individual 
 characteristics of the musically-gifted Celtic 
 race. 
 
 Belonging to another class of folk-song, but 
 pointing already to the art-song, are the songs of 
 the troubadours, the minstrels, and the minne- 
 singers. It seems that the love for lyric poetry
 
 50 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 and song combined was first manifested by the 
 counts and knights of the south of France, and 
 especially by the nobles of Provence ; for, in the 
 twelfth century, the influence of the culture of 
 poetry and song was already felt, as more re- 
 fined manners began to regulate the barbarous 
 customs of the warlike and quarrelsome barons. 
 At the time of the Crusades, the order of the 
 troubadours and minstrels augmented consid- 
 erably all over Europe. 
 
 " In Provence, on the flowery shores of the 
 Durance, in the land where Grecian culture, 
 tended by the Romans, had never wholly been 
 destroyed ; where the arts of peace had long 
 flourished, and yet more richly after the migra- 
 tions of the nations, and in emulation of the 
 Spanish Arabs ; under the brilliant heaven of 
 Southern France, where nature, womanly beauty, 
 manly courage, and courtly manners lent their 
 highest charms to life, the luxuriant flower of 
 lyric song sprang forth among the troubadours. 
 It is true that the music and poetry of the trou- 
 badours was a natural outgrowth of that epoch 
 of stirring life, of love, longing, hatred, joy, and 
 melancholy ; but every mental growth demands 
 its appropriate soil, and only in the highest circles 
 could an appropriate field for lyric song then 
 exist. Though the profession of singer had 
 been regarded as an honorable one since the
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 51 
 
 time of the Gallic bards, and though the jon- 
 gleurs (musical and poetical conjurors, who 
 travelled from castle to castle for the entertain- 
 ment of barbarous chieftains) had preceded the 
 troubadours, it was only towards the end of the 
 eleventh century that it came to be considered 
 as a matter of perhaps more consequence that a 
 youthful knight should know how to compose, 
 sing, and play, than that he should invent verses, 
 and read and write correctly. The art of the 
 troubadour was entitled the gai saber (or gaia 
 science^), and to the idea of gayety a noble 
 meaning was attached. The true chevalier, it 
 was said, should never lose his normal feeling 
 of enthusiasm and joy : like an interior sun, the 
 joy of love should illuminate his life, and con- 
 tinually excite him to noble actions and fortitude 
 in trial, purifying his soul from envious, sombre 
 sadness, from avarice, torpidity, and hardness of 
 mind. Melancholy was regarded as a morbid 
 feeling, born of scepticism and degeneracy, a 
 want of power to accomplish great deeds or 
 duties. Gayety, or joy, was a state of mind 
 regarded by the troubadours as corresponding 
 with that of religious grace. The end of their 
 profession was the service of religion, honor, 
 and woman, in deed and in song. One of their 
 mottoes was, ' Love and religion protect all the 
 virtues ; ' another ran, ' My soul to God, mj
 
 52 HISTOItY OF MUSIC. 
 
 life for the king, my heart for my lady, my 
 honor for myself.' 
 
 " The troubadour most esteemed was he who 
 could invent, compose, and accompany his own 
 songs ; but those who were unable to play the 
 instruments of the period, the harp, lute, viola, 
 or citara (the ancient Irish rota or crowth), 
 were accompanied by a salaried minstrel : in 
 the South, these minstrels were termed jon- 
 gleurs, or violars. If a troubadour was not gifted 
 with a fine voice, he employed a singer (canta- 
 dor, or rnusar) to perform the songs which he 
 could create, but not sing. 
 
 " The merit of the troubadours in furthering 
 the progress of music as an art was, that they 
 liberated melody from the fetters of calculation, 
 gave it the stamp of individuality, and bore it 
 on the wings of fancy into the domains of sen- 
 timent. They had the further merit of intro- 
 ducing new and peculiar rhythmic changes of 
 time, which, apparently irregular, were really 
 forcible, symmetrical, and original. It is also 
 more than probable, that the troubadours re- 
 ceived new ideas, in regard to melody, from the 
 East ; as they found, among the Arabs, not only 
 a different system of tones, but many fanciful 
 vocal ornaments, then unknown in Europe, and 
 which they introduced in their own songs on 
 their return from the Crusades. But, as harmonv
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 63 
 
 was in that day yet undeveloped, the flowing 
 vine of melody received little support from it, 
 and therefore often appears weak. The rules 
 of composition were then highly complicated 
 and ill-classified : yet they were well understood 
 by the best-educated troubadours ; and though 
 their earlier songs were stiff, closely resembling 
 the Gregorian chant in form and style, in some 
 of the latter ones we find graceful melodies that 
 leave little to be desired, and that possess more 
 real variety and individuality of character than 
 do the words attached to them. Their charm is, 
 to the intelligent musician, unique, genuine, 
 healthy, vigorous, and sweet as the songs of a 
 choir of birds heard on a spring morning, in 
 the heart of a fresh and dewy wood, when the 
 wind is blowing and the sun shining." 
 
 The most celebrated of the troubadours were 
 Adam de la Hale, G-aucem Faidit, Thibaut (King 
 of Navarre), and the CJiatelain de Goucy. Quite 
 a number of their songs have come down to us. 
 Here is the music of two of Adam de la Hale's 
 songs. The first is a descant, or counterpoint, 
 set for three voices. Though crude and awk- 
 ward in the harmonization, it already shows, in 
 many respects, quite a progress in the difficult art 
 of counterpoint. The sense of the words at- 
 tached to this music is, " As long as I live J 
 
 * Fanny Raymond Bitter : Essay on the Troubadours, &c.
 
 54 
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 will love you, and never depart from my word.' 
 The second, " Robin m'aime, Robin m'a de- 
 mandeY' is an air from an interesting little play 
 called " Robin and Marion." This play may be 
 considered as the earliest precursor of the opera. 
 I need hardly say, that I have added the harmo- 
 nization of this charming chanson. Adam de 
 la Hale lived during the latter half of the thir- 
 teenth century. 
 
 I. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 >^r 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^=a^E^==f
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 We have already seen that the Gregorian 
 chant and the folk-song were the seeds of the 
 subsequent growth of musical art. Through 
 increasing civilization, the soil was prepared, 
 little by little, to receive these seeds. The 
 Church guarded and nourished, with solicitude, 
 its own tender plant, the Gregorian chant, 
 which, in the following century, shot forth 
 strong branches, capable of producing wonder- 
 ful fruit in the sixteenth century. The folk-
 
 56 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 song, long abandoned to itself, transplanted, as 
 chance would have it, to all the different cli- 
 mates of social and religions evolutions of the 
 people, overtook its more favored companion, 
 the Gregorian chant, towards the beginning of 
 the seventeenth century, and, as I shall prove 
 in my lectures on the musical drama and instru- 
 mental music, supplanted it altogether ; for, with 
 the perfection of the musical drama and in- 
 strumental music, the tonality which governed 
 the folk-song gradually became the pivot upon 
 which all modern musical art-forms were hence 
 forward to turn.
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 57 
 
 SECOND LECTURE. 
 
 The old Flemish, German, English, Italian, and Spanish schools 
 (the great epoch of Catholic church-music, and the madri- 
 gal) ; from the fourteenth century to the death of Palestrina. 
 
 IN my first lecture, I traced the timid, uncer- 
 tain, and slow step of musical art, until it came 
 somewhat near that which we call music. It 
 was in its infancy ; but the vigorous new life, 
 the natural healthiness, the rich imagination 
 which those Goths, those Franks, those Aleman- 
 ni, those Saxons, in two words, the German 
 element, intensified and purified by the civiliz- 
 ing influence of Christianity, infused into the 
 more or less depraved nations of the demoralized 
 Roman empire, was a fitting nourishment for 
 music, the youngest member in the family of 
 arts. 
 
 Until now, we have seen the different nations 
 of Europe participating with equal success in 
 the meagre cultivation of musical art, as it then 
 existed. Towards the latter part of the four 
 teenth century, however, the scene changes, and 
 we perceive different nations taking the lead,
 
 58 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 sometimes for more than a century, and impress 
 ing their own individuality upon all styles of 
 art-form. These nations were principally the 
 Netherlander s (Dutch*), the Italians, and the 
 Germans. 
 
 Though the power of the old Roman empire 
 was annihilated, under the destructive strokes of 
 the different German tribes, a new and no less 
 powerful one began to subjugate the various 
 new kingdoms ; and that was feudalism. It 
 may be, that the victorious tribes, then in pro- 
 cess of formation and assimilation into nations, 
 yet continually fighting among themselves, 
 needed a hard lesson of humiliation and moral 
 subordination, before their rough and awkward 
 natures were fitted to appreciate and understand 
 the advantages of the new civilization and reli- 
 gion : but it is certain that power was misused, 
 and an endeavor was made to crush out liberty 
 among the people. At the same time, we must 
 give the Church the credit of having protected 
 the tender germs of infant art and literature. 
 Towards the latter part of the middle ages, the 
 morning of a new and powerful intellectual life 
 began to dawn. Renewed industry and com- 
 merce created wealth. " In large and flourishing 
 cities, the sense of liberty and independence 
 from the pressure of feudalic rule united the 
 citizens in powerful corporations. With wealth
 
 BISTORT OF MUSIC. 59 
 
 and liberty, literature, art, and science found a 
 convenient and fructifying field. From Italy, 
 the new light spread over the other European 
 countries. The Italians, everywhere surrounded 
 by the sublime remains of old Greek and Roman 
 art, first awoke from the lethargy and confusion 
 caused by that great migration of northern na- 
 tions. In Bologna, Pisa, Padua, Parma, Naples. 
 and other cities, universities and high-schools 
 were founded, where, it is said, thousands of 
 students from all countries flocked, to listen to 
 the teaching of great masters ; and, of this rich, 
 healthy, and varied spectacle, Dante was the 
 great and lofty central figure. 
 
 It is, however, curious to observe that Italy, 
 the alma mater of all Europe in those times, re- 
 ceived her first musical works of any importance 
 from foreign composers. Foreign musicians, Ul- 
 tramontanes, as they were called, stood at the 
 head of her schools of music, chapels, and church 
 choirs for more than a century ; and these were 
 principally Netherlander. It seems that the 
 inhabitants of the Low Countries first availed 
 themselves of the advantages and blessings of 
 more liberal institutions than the rest of Europe ; 
 and, industrious and enterprising as they were, 
 the arts, principally music arid painting, were 
 early and passionately cultivated among them. 
 Motley, in his " History of the Dutch Republic,'
 
 60 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 gives the following picture : "' Thus fifteen ages 
 have passed away ; and in the place of a horde of 
 savages, living amongst swamps and thickets, 
 swarm three millions of people, the most indus- 
 trious, the most prosperous, perhaps the most 
 intelligent, under the sun. Their cattle, grazing 
 on the bottom of the sea, are the finest in Eu- 
 rope ; their agricultural products of more ex- 
 changeable value than if Nature had made their 
 land to overflow with wine and oil. Their navi- 
 gators are the boldest, their mercantile marine 
 the most powerful, their merchants the most 
 enterprising in the world. Holland and Flan- 
 ders, peopled by one race, vie with each other in 
 the pursuits of civilization. The Flemish skill 
 hi mechanical and fine arts is unrivalled. Bel- 
 gian musicians delight and instruct other nations. 
 Belgian pencils have, for a century, caused the 
 canvas to glow with colors and combinations 
 never before seen." 
 
 Although French, Italian, German, and Eng- 
 lish composers at first contributed equally to the 
 perfection of that art called counterpoint, thus 
 far the merit of first producing works of a higher 
 standard has been attributed to the Nether- 
 landers. The school of music of the Nether- 
 landers is generally divided into four different 
 epochs, each one distinguished by that composer, 
 who through his works, and his influence as a
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 61 
 
 teacher, was foremost among his contemporaries. 
 Thus, we have the epoch of Dufay, that of 
 Okeghem, that of Josquin des Pres, and that of 
 Willaert. 
 
 The oldest masses, written in contrapuntal 
 style, are to be found in the archives of the 
 pope's chapel in Rome. Their author is William 
 Dufay, who is said to have been born at Chimay 
 in Hainault. Baini, in his biography of Pales- 
 trina, says that Dufay was a tenor singer in the 
 Sixtine Chapel in Rome, from 1380 to 1432, and 
 that he also died there. Another modern writer, 
 T. W. Arnold, has, however, undertaken to 
 prove* that the composer Dufay began to be 
 celebrated not sooner than 1436, and that he 
 died in his own country. . He thinks that there 
 must have been two musicians of the name of 
 Dufay. But, until this is cleared up, I will ad- 
 mit the older date, as is yet generally done. 
 Judging from the specimens to which I have 
 'had access, of Dufay's works, his harmonies, 
 though correct, sound very often harsh and 
 strange ; the movement of the voice-parts is 
 already flowing and melodious. The dissonances 
 are employed with great care and understand- 
 ing ; that is to say, on the unaccented parts of the 
 measures, and as passing notes. Dufay also set 
 secular songs in contrapuntal form. His works 
 
 * In F. Chrysander's Jahrbiicher fur Musikalische Wissenscbaft.
 
 62 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 are remarkable monuments of the composition 
 of those early times. 
 
 The most celebrated contemporaries of Dufay, 
 who distinguished themselves in the same man- 
 ner of writing, were Egidius Binchois, Vincent 
 Faugues, Eloy, Brassart, Antoine Busnois. 
 These masters all belong to the so-called old 
 school of the Netherlands. But before I speak 
 of the masters of the new school, which com- 
 mences with Okeghem, and their works, it will 
 be necessary to explain certain technicalities in 
 form, and, at the same time, the meaning of 
 some technical words which are used to desig- 
 nate those forms. An approximative understand- 
 ing of these forms and technical words will, in a 
 great measure, facilitate a close pursuit of the 
 history of musical art to the amateur, while it 
 will increase his enjoyment. 
 
 I have already had occasion to use the expres- 
 sions "polyphony" and "counterpoint." Poly- 
 phony means the union of many parts or voices. 
 The old writers on music always used the word in 
 this sense. The modern theorists use it, however, 
 in a different sense. They apply the term " ho- 
 mophony " to that kind of composition in which 
 the parts move in similar progression and rhythm ; 
 
 O. 

 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 63 
 
 and the term " polyphony " to such compo- 
 sitions as fugues, for instance, in which each 
 of the parts, distinguished by different progres- 
 sion and rhythm, expresses more individual life 
 and melodious flow, although subject to the same 
 laws of harmonious succession. The old contra- 
 puntists, whose only aim was to cultivate this 
 latter form of writing, understood polyphony 
 always in this sense : they thought it superflu- 
 ous to mark any distinction. This leads us to 
 the word " counterpoint," which signifies point 
 against point ; notes being very often called points 
 by old writers. Counterpoint the terror of 
 ignorant superficiality and the object of pre- 
 tended contempt has a manifold signification. 
 It would lead me too far to give an explanation 
 here of all its different forms in use in musical 
 writing. I will limit myself to the following. 
 In its broadest sense, to study counterpoint 
 means to study the science of composition in 
 general. In a more limited sense, counterpoint 
 signifies to invent and add to a given part, called 
 cantus firmus, one or more parts or melodies. 
 The cantus firmus may appear as upper, lower, 
 or middle part. In the works of the old church 
 composers, until the seventeenth century, the 
 cantus firmus is always assigned to the voice 
 called tenor. The cantus firmus was, then, either 
 a Gregorian chant or a people's song ^folk-song) :
 
 64 
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 of this latter peculiarity, I shall have an oppor- 
 tunity to speak hereafter. With the ancient 
 church composers, counterpoint meant polyphony 
 in the sense I have explained above. 
 
 A contrapuntal form, more or less artificial, is. 
 the canon. It is a composition in two or more 
 parts, in which the parts, commencing one after 
 the other, imitate each other strictly, note for 
 note : every following part is entirely governed 
 by the construction of the preceding one. Here 
 is a canon from one of Dufay's masses. 
 
 10. 
 
 
 
 >* 
 
 ^ 
 
 -5^ 
 
 ~\ 
 
 ^ 1 s? \ \ \ ; I 
 
 i ^ 
 
 
 f* "^ 
 
 I s j ^ ^ 
 
 
 
 2j! 
 
 ttl !&22 
 
 
 
 The words canon and fugue, which are two 
 very distinct forms in our days, were then used 
 to designate the same tiling. Canon, as derived 
 from the Greek, means,- simply, law or rule. Itf- 
 application to a fixed form of musical composi
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 65 
 
 don probably first took place in the following 
 manner. The industrious and ingenious Flemish 
 composers, once started on the path of contra- 
 puntal writing, enriched it step by step, and 
 very often overloaded it, with all kinds of " arti- 
 ficialities : " so much so that these artificialities 
 became proverbial ; and subsequent writers on 
 music, and even modern historians, have told us 
 only of the pedantic, dry, and artificial contra- 
 puntal works of the Netherlanders, which seem 
 to be more the productions of arithmetical calcu- 
 lations than those of poetical imagination. This 
 is, however, not entirely the case, as I shall have 
 occasion to prove in speaking of the different 
 masters. It is true that the Flemish composers, 
 masters of polyphonic writing, could not always 
 resist the temptation of making use, perhaps a 
 little too much and too often, of their profound 
 knowledge of counterpoint. So we find that 
 they very often write their fugues, intended for 
 many voices, on one staff, accompanying it with 
 short, often versified devices, to indicate that 
 the composition is not to be sung as it is written, 
 but with certain modifications. The singers of 
 those times, being always learned and accom- 
 plished composers, no doubt delighted in those 
 forms. The hint given by the device was called 
 canon. Tinctoris, a celebrated theorist of the 
 fifteenth century, saj^s, " A canon is a term
 
 66 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 which indicates the meaning of the composer in 
 a certain obscure way." And another writer, 
 Hermann Fink, says, " The canon is a formula, 
 by which the unwritten part of a composition is 
 discovered in the written one." Thus the word 
 canon has been applied to this particular form 
 of composition. The writing of canons became 
 such a mania with some composers of these 
 days, that out of pure habit, or out of ignorance, 
 some even wrote devices indicating a canon, in 
 which no person could discover one. We find 
 canons in augmentation, in diminution, in con- 
 trary and backward motion, &c., &c., for two, 
 three, four, and up to thirty parts. Some of 
 them could not be executed at all. 
 
 Nevertheless, it was well, that, under the indus- 
 trious hands of the Flemish composers, the art 
 of constructing works out of one subject, by 
 means of consistent imitation, in which unity 
 of thought and logical form were the prevalent 
 features, should have become established as 
 foundation and principle in all works of a high 
 and lasting merit, till up to our days. Through 
 this they were fitted to become the teachers of 
 other nations : and, when their task was fulfilled, 
 they retired, leaving the field to the Italians, 
 who accomplished, in a more ideal, poetical 
 sense, what the Netherlander so successfully 
 attempted, and in many respects attained.
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 67 
 
 John Okeghem (Ockenheim), as stated before, 
 was the principal composer and teacher of the 
 Flemish school, after Dufay, called the new 
 school. The year of his birth and his birth- 
 place are not known with any certainty. Fetis 
 takes the year 1430, Ambros 1415-20. The 
 town of Termond, in East Flanders, is regarded 
 by some musical historians as his birthplace. 
 He began to be celebrated about 1470. In 1476, 
 he became treasurer at the Church of St. Martin, 
 at Tours. After forty years of service under the 
 reign of three French kings, he retired at an ad- 
 vanced age, and died in 1513, at Tours, where 
 he probably passed the last years of his life. 
 
 Okeghem was, for a long time, considered the 
 patriarch of music, the inventor of the canon, 
 and, in general, of artificial counterpoint. But, 
 as I have already shown, a great and important 
 school preceded him. Okeghem, endowed with 
 great talent, faithfully and industriously culti- 
 vated the forms which were in vogue during his 
 time. He brought the canon, however, to very 
 high perfection, and invented many of those 
 often-mentioned contrapuntal artificialities. The 
 voice parts in his compositions, such as masses, 
 motets, and chansons, move with greater freedom : 
 the harmonious treatment possesses still that 
 strange archaic color ; hoAvever, there is already 
 a breath of tenderness and inward feeling: in
 
 68 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 some portions of these works. Okeghem's in- 
 fluence as a teacher was, perhaps, still greater 
 than as a composer : his reputation spread far 
 and wide, and from all parts of France and 
 Belgium, pupils came to profit by his teachings. 
 The most distinguished of those pupils, who 
 marked the next great epoch of music, were 
 Josquin des Pros, Pierre de la Rue, Agricola, 
 Brurnel, Gaspard, Loyset Compere, Vcrbonnet. 
 The art of writing those artificial canons, before 
 mentioned, wa.j much cultivated at this epoch. 
 The most celebrated contemporaries of Okeg- 
 hem were the Netherlander, John Regis, Fir- 
 main Caron, Busnoys, Jacob Hobrecht, who is 
 spoken of as a very fine composer (Glarean 
 says, " He had so much invention, that he could 
 compose a whole mass in one night "). Hobrecht 
 was also the teacher in music of the celebrated 
 Erasmus of Rotterdam. Also the renowned 
 theorists and writers on music, John Tinctoris, 
 William Guarnerie, Bernardus Hycaert, lived in 
 Okeghem's time. ' 
 
 I have already mentioned that the old church 
 composers very often used secular songs and 
 folk-songs as cantus firmus in their masses and 
 motets, besides the Gregorian chant, a practice 
 which was in use until the seventeenth century. 
 It has been proven by such writers as Fotis, 
 Coussemaker, Nizard and Ambros, that this was
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 69 
 
 a custom which the first Flemish contrapuntists 
 received from their neighbors, the French. That 
 musical art among the Netherlander sprang up 
 at once, as an isolated fact, is, of course, not the 
 case ; and the recently discovered specimens of 
 old masses, chansons, and other pieces, by early 
 French composers, has shown who were the 
 masters of the first Flemish composers. But 
 France, under the misrule of weak and frivolous 
 kings, had then to celebrate tournaments, and 
 to make wars : there was no time for the develop- 
 ment and cultivation of peaceful arts. The 
 Low Countries, a part of which was under the 
 government of the dukes of Burgundy, were 
 thus in immediate social and commercial rela- 
 tions with France. From there they received, 
 no doubt, the first impulse to the cultivation of 
 musical art, and with it the habit of taking 
 secular melodies, as well as Gregorian chants, as 
 tenor, or cantus -firmus in their works for the 
 Church. And, as the social and political situa- 
 tion of the people was then entirely influenced 
 by the Church, the boundaries of profane and 
 secular music were less distinctly divided than 
 at a later period. Thus, from the first masses 
 of any artistic merit by William Dufay, which 
 are composed over the melodies, entitled, " Se 
 la face ay pale " " Tant je me deduisj' "L'Jiomme 
 arme" &c., until Palestrina, we find masses writ-
 
 70 niSTOEY OF MUSIC. 
 
 ten over profane chansons; for instance, " Adieu, 
 men amours" " Malheur me bat" " Des rouges 
 nez" &c., &c. But the most used as tenor was 
 " L'homme arme" Every composer, from Dufay 
 to Palestrina (and even Carissimi himself), has 
 written masses on this melody, over and ovei- 
 again. Every thing sanctioned by habit being, 
 in the course of time, admitted as essential, the 
 composers of all this period in our musical art 
 never dreamed of, or intended, any thing con- 
 trary to the dignity of the Church. Moreover, 
 most of the composers, in their qualities of 
 singers and chapel masters, were priests. The 
 masses of a composer were then distinguished 
 by the title of the melodies of the tenor ; and it 
 sounds curious to read the mass of " The Red 
 Noses," or that of " Farewell, my Love," that 
 of "The Armed Man," that of "He has a pale 
 Face," &c., &c. Masses, which were not com- 
 posed over such a tenor, were simply termed 
 masses sine nomine. Many voices were loud 
 against this custom, and condemned it as a pro- 
 fanation of divine service : others defended it. 
 But in the course of time, probably not without 
 being much abused by composers, this method 
 of writing disappeared entirely. Through more 
 experience and richer invention, aided by con- 
 tinual practice in the difficult art of counter- 
 point, composers could rely more on themselves,
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 71 
 
 and stand upon their own feet, needing no longer 
 the help of the leading-strings of those early 
 and naive composers for the church. 
 
 The greatest composer of the third epoch of 
 the Netheiianders, and, in fact, the first who 
 created works which still possess artistic merit, 
 was Josquin des Pres (Jodocus Pratensis). 
 Josquin was born, probably, in 1445, and proba- 
 bly, also, in Conde*, but we know certainly in 
 Hainault. A singular fate persecuted our 
 greatest masters : we very often do not know 
 where they came from. Like a comet, they 
 appear, shine, and disappear, and we are very 
 often uncertain when and where. Their real 
 existence, their real characters, are too often 
 obscured by a store of absurd, untrue, worth- 
 less anecdotes of their lives. They are only 
 too often represented as jesters dealing in silly 
 jokes, which are recounted with minute details, 
 and especially if they possess a vein of humor, 
 under which the grandeur of their characters, 
 the powerful and lofty aspirations of their minds, 
 the richness and sublimity of their imaginations, 
 are buried. Dry theorists and superficial critics, 
 Avith their multiplication and division tables con- 
 tinually at hand, cannot understand or appre- 
 ciate genius when it does not accord with their 
 figures. So it was with Josquin, the first real 
 great musical genius who marks an era in our
 
 72 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 musical art: so it was with Mozart, the last 
 great universal musical genius who appeared. 
 Even Beethoven and Schubert could not escape 
 the same false representations. 
 
 But to return to Josquin. After he had 
 finished his studies with Okeghem, he must 
 have directed his steps towards Rome ; for under 
 the pontificate of Sixtus IV., from 1471 to 1484, 
 we find him as a singer in the pope's chapel. 
 The reason which prompted him to leave such an 
 honorable position is not known. Was it, that, like 
 all great geniuses, he was persecuted by envy 
 and jealousy before he found recognition? After 
 leaving the service of the pope, Josquin des 
 Pres remained for some time in Florence, and 
 also in Ferrara, in Italy, where at last he found 
 recognition, and where his genius, in continual 
 contact with art and art-loving men, must have 
 received the deepest impression. Josquin re- 
 turned to his own country, and about 1498 we 
 meet him at the court of Ltmis XII. of France. 
 It cannot be ascertained for how long a time he 
 remained at the court of France. He is said to 
 have been in the service of the Emperor Maxi- 
 milian, which is probably an error. Josquin 
 died at Condd, Aug. 27, 1521. 
 
 So great was Josquin's reputation as a com- 
 poser, while living, that his works were preferred 
 to those of all others: his name was suflfi-
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 73 
 
 cient to stamp a work as excellent. A motet 
 by Adrian Willaert, " Verbum bonum est," for six 
 voices, was sung for a long time in the Sixtine 
 Chapel, and was supposed to be a composition 
 of Josquin's. Willaert, who happened to 
 come to Rome, where he heard the motet per- 
 formed, of course claimed it as his work. But 
 the prejudice of the singers was so great, that 
 they refused to sing the motet any longer. Cas- 
 tiglione also relates a similar fact : " A motet, 
 sung before the Duchess of Urbino, was totally 
 disregarded, till known to have come from the 
 pen of Josquin, when it excited universal ex- 
 stasy." Does not this remind us of many a 
 similar case in our days ? For want of sound 
 and just appreciation and judgment in an au- 
 dience, fine and original works are too often 
 only indorsed when the composer's name has 
 already acquired the prestige of a certain repu- 
 tation among connoisseurs. Andrea Adami calls 
 Josquin the brightest luminary in the heaven 
 of music, from whom all composers who suc- 
 ceeded him had to learn. So all his contempo- 
 raries constantly eulogized his learning and his 
 genius. Luther was very fond of Josquin's 
 music. After having heard one of his motets 
 performed, he exclaimed, " Josquin is a master 
 of the notes: they had to do as he pleased, 
 while they made other composers do as they 
 pleased."
 
 <4 Illy TOBY OF MUSIC. 
 
 Josquin, like every great composer that has 
 appeared until our days, was very industrious, 
 and paid, in many of his works, a tribute to the 
 taste of his time ; but he created many, which, 
 if only known, will still excite the admiration of 
 the connoisseur, and especially his motets and 
 psalms. It was not until after years of minuis 
 polishing, that Josquin allowed his works to be 
 made public, although he mastered all the intrica- 
 cies of the most artificial contrapuntal art with 
 the greatest ease and facility. " When we con- 
 sider," says Commer very justly, " that JosqiuVs 
 predecessors were merely men who regarded the 
 artificial construction of contrapuntal phrases as 
 of the highest consequence ; when we reflect, that, 
 in his motets, he broke through earlier bounda- 
 ries, and sought, with all his contrapuntal art, 
 to give full signification to the meaning of the 
 words, we are astonished at what ho accom- 
 plished, and forced to unite with his contempo- 
 raries in their admiration for him. Josquin not- 
 only stands above those composers who lived 
 before and with him ; not only above a great 
 number of those who succeeded him, but his 
 motets are such master-works, that, well-per- 
 formed, they will be listened to, through all 
 time, as real jewels among sacred compositions." 
 
 The epoch of Josquiu des Pres is already 
 rich in celebrated composers ; and the progress
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. . 75 
 
 of music, since the time of Dufay, is astonish- 
 ing. Not alone composers, but theorists of 
 great merit and profound knowledge, endeavored 
 to explain and systematize the methods which 
 led on Okeghem, Josquin des Pros, and others, 
 in the production of their works, and in their 
 teachings. The most celebrated of Josquin's 
 pupils were Certon, Clement Jannequin, Mail- 
 lard, Moulu, Claudin Sermisy, Jean Mouton, 
 Adrien Petit (called Coclicus), Arcadelt, Bour- 
 gogne, Nicolas Gombert, Jaquet von Berghem. 
 
 The invention of printing notes with mova- 
 ble metal types, in the year 1502, was of the 
 greatest influence on the development of musi- 
 cal art. The inventor's name was Ottavio Pe- 
 trucci da Ifossombrone, in Italy. Through Pe- 
 trucci's invention, the printing of musical works 
 became cheaper than the old indistinct prints 
 with wooden types ; and the enterprising Petruc- 
 ci published, in quick succession, selections of 
 masses, motets, chansons, and other works, by 
 the favorite composers of this time. Petrucci's 
 invention soon found its way to other cities and 
 countries. German printers, especially, availed 
 themselves of it very soon,, and busily printed 
 and reprinted, for the music-loving public, 
 new and recognized works of different com- 
 posers. 
 
 Thus we see musical art, after centuries of
 
 76 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 struggle and labor, arrived at that point where 
 composers and theorists, aided by successful 
 and industrious printers, who facilitated the 
 knowledge of their works, worked together, 
 hand in hand, to reveal to the human mind the 
 existence of the not less wonderful creations of 
 man's imagination. 
 
 With the exception of a few German and 
 French composers, Dutch masters had the uni- 
 versal control of musical matters in nearly all the 
 European chapels and church choirs of any conse- 
 quence. In the next and fourth period, called 
 the epoch of Willaert, the school of the> Nether- 
 landers reached its zenith ; after which, other 
 masters, Italians, stepped in, and obtained the 
 supremacy which had been so long and so ably 
 held by the Netherlander. 
 
 Adrian Willaert, born at Bruges, in Flanders, 
 in the year 1490, is said to have been a pupil of 
 Jean Mouton, possibly, also, of Josquin des Pres 
 himself. He first studied law at the University 
 of Paris, which, however, he soon abandoned for 
 the study of music. As a young man of twenty- 
 six, he had already made himself a name with 
 his compositions in his own country. In 1518, 
 he went to Rome. But it seems he was not suc- 
 cessful in endeavoring to procure himself a posi- 
 tion in Rome : he went, therefore, to try his 
 luck in Venice. He succeeded so well there,
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 77 
 
 that, in 1527, he had already obtained the posi- 
 tion of a maestro in the Church of St. Marc, & 
 position which was considered in Venice that of 
 a musical dignitary. Willaert's influence, as a 
 composer and teacher of musical science and art, 
 was great and beneficial. He was the founder 
 of the celebrated Venetian school of music, from 
 which sprang so many distinguished composers, 
 theorists, and singers. Willaert is also the 
 father of the madrigal, a form of which I will 
 speak hereafter. He introduced the double 
 chorus in the antiphonal form. Willaert died 
 the 7th of December, 1562. The . most cele- 
 brated of his pupils were Cyprian de Rore (who 
 was his successor, and to whom the Italians gave 
 the title of "II divino)," whose works may be 
 counted as of the best among those of his con- 
 temporaries ; and also the distinguished theo- 
 rist Zarlino, Constanzo Porta, Nicolo Vincento, 
 Delia Viola. Flemish masters, ,who lived and 
 distinguished themselves at this fourth and last 
 epoch of the Netherlanders, were Christian and 
 Sebastian Hollander, Thomas Crequillon, Jaco- 
 bus de Keiie, Orlandus Lassus, Clemens non 
 Papa, Matthieu Le Maistre, Andreas Pevernage, 
 Jacobus Vaet, Coradius Verdonk, Hubertus Wai- 
 rant, and many others. 
 
 Arrived at the turning-point of musical cul- 
 ture among the Netherlanders, I will next pro-
 
 T8 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 ceed to pass in brief review the labors of the 
 other European nations in the field of musical 
 composition during all this period. 
 
 From the earliest times, music, vocal and in- 
 strumental, was pursued with great application 
 and talent in England ; and, in the development 
 of harmony and counterpoint, it had an equal 
 share with other European nations. An old 
 author, Tinctoris, and with him many ancient 
 and modern writers, are even inclined to attribute 
 to the English the honor of being the inventors 
 of counterpoint ; and Dunstable, about 1420, 
 was, in his time, considered the foremost among 
 English composers. Though their neighbors, the 
 French and Dutch musicians, became masters 
 of the situation, the English also made consider- 
 able progress in that art ; and composers like 
 Robert Fairfax, John Digon, John Shepard, 
 John Marbeck, John Tavern, John Parsons, 
 Christopher Tye, Robert White, and many 
 others, contributed not a little towards the most 
 brilliant epoch of musical art in England, headed 
 by Thomas Tallis, his great pupil Bird, Morley 
 (a pupil of Bird), Dowland, Weelkes, John Bull. 
 John Wilbye, Orlando Gibbons, &c. Though 
 many a fine motet and anthem owes its origin to 
 these composers, their madrigals are yet more 
 interesting, more original, more beautiful, and 
 more fresh. The madrigal was then the favorite
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 79 
 
 form of English, composers. Besides the compo- 
 sitions which belong to, and also make an essen- 
 tial part of, the service of the church, such as 
 masses, motets, psalms, hymns, &c., composers, 
 from the earliest dates at which music was writ- 
 ten in different parts, were very industrious in 
 composing to secular words, melodies and part 
 songs for the wants of musical amateurs. And in 
 different countries, according to the peculiarities 
 of the people, these songs, the deeper expression 
 of individual life, took different forms in melo- 
 dious construction as well as in harmonious treat- 
 ment. Thus in France we find the chanson, in 
 Germany the Lied, in England the song and the 
 glee, in Italy thefrottole, the villote, the canzonet. 
 I will here only treat of the madrigal. 
 
 " Madrigal (Webster's definition) is a word 
 derived from mandra, or mandria, a flock, a 
 sheep-fold, a herd of cattle : hence madrigal, 
 originally a pastoral song ; a little, amorous 
 poem, containing some tender and delicate, 
 though simple thought." We already know that 
 composers have selected for their masses, very 
 often, Gregorian chants or secular melodies for 
 tenor. In the madrigal, the composition rested 
 upon original invention, thus allowing more 
 variety in form and contrapuntal treatment. In 
 the madrigal, the composer's endeavor was to 
 express, through adequate music, the meaning
 
 80 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 of the poem : he followed closely, with appro- 
 priate motives, the sentiment of the different 
 verses. Strict and elaborate canons and fugues 
 were thus out of place in the madrigal ; and, 
 though seemingly simple in its construction, the 
 composer found ample opportunity to display 
 his mastery in contrapuntal writing. Great 
 variety in rhythm, poetical expression, charac- 
 teristic melodies, new and striking harmonies, 
 were considered as the necessary qualities of 
 the madrigal. It was generally set for three, four, 
 five, six, and even more parts, though writing 
 in five parts seems to have been most in favor 
 and use. I have already mentioned that Adrian 
 Willaert is considered, if not as its inventor, at 
 any rate, as the composer who gave it its first 
 artistic form. The madrigal may be considered 
 as the highest form of chamber-music in those 
 days, written and composed for the refined and 
 appreciative amateurs of the best social circles, 
 principally in Venice and Rome. All composers 
 of any name produced works in this favorite 
 form: among others, I will mention, besides 
 Willaert, Cyprian de Rore, Constanzo Porta, 
 Constanzo Festa, Verdelot, Arcadelt, Palestrina, 
 Orlandus Lassus, Orazio Vecchi, the Prince of 
 Venossa, and Luca Marenzio, the madrigalist 
 par excellence. 
 
 The madrigal, after its first introduction from
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 81 
 
 Italy into England, about 1583, flourished es- 
 pecially there ; and such composers as Dowland, 
 Weelkes, Morley, Cobbold, Farmer, and many 
 others, have created works, which, through their 
 freshness and exquisite charm in melodious, 
 harmonic, and contrapuntal treatment, will, 
 when well performed, still receive the admira- 
 tion of musicians and amateurs. " The charm- 
 ing, and, in a certain sense, unequalled madrigals 
 of these masters differ essentially from those of 
 the Italians and Netherlander. It is well 
 known, that the British Islands (England, Ire- 
 land, and Scotland) possess a large number of 
 folk-songs of the most wonderful beauty. The 
 madrigals are either founded on these folk-songs, 
 or, in melodic invention, they imitate them 
 throughout ; while the masterly texture of the 
 voice-parts just touches on the boundaries of 
 that hair-line where melody still remains true 
 to itself, and yet is moved by the rich life of 
 polyphony. There can be nothing more grace- 
 ful than a few of the pieces of Dowland and 
 Morley. They are at once naively folk-like 
 and simple, yet really courteous. It is society 
 music in the best sense, and music which may 
 thank society of the times of Elizabeth 
 society that was rich in strong and handsome 
 women, and chivalric, pure men for its rise 
 and development. It is, indeed, one of the
 
 82 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 most pleasing flowers of that Elizabethan 
 soil." * 
 
 In 4601, Thomas Morley published a selec- 
 tion of madrigals, to which twenty different 
 composers contributed. The collection is called 
 the " Triumph of Oriana : " the motto of each 
 madrigal was " Long live fair Oriana ;" and, in the 
 fair Oriana, Queen Elizabeth was honored. 
 
 It would lead me too far to speak of the dif- 
 ferent changes the madrigal was subject to hi 
 the course of time. In my account of the musi- 
 cal drama, the opera and the oratorio, how- 
 ever, we shall meet it again. Suffice it here to 
 say, that, in its musical construction, it greatly 
 influenced the forms of other compositions, and 
 especially of the motet. 
 
 In Germany, the progress of musical develop- 
 ment, so peculiar and natural to its people, was 
 pursued steadfastly and consistently from its 
 earliest state, until it became, in our modern 
 times, the head of a school. Of the distinguished 
 German composers, who were perfect masters 
 of all the different forms of counterpoint, and 
 who created works unsurpassed by any of the 
 Dutch composers, I must mention Henry Fink, 
 who flourished about 1480 ; Henry Isaac (born 
 about 1440), called by the Italians Arrigo 
 Tedesco, one of the greatest among composers. 
 
 * Ambroa : Gcschichtc dcr Musik
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 83 
 
 His masses, motets, and German part-songs may 
 be counted among the finest works produced at 
 this time. Other renowned composers were 
 Stephen Mahu, Ldfenz Lemlin, Sixt Dietrich, 
 Arnold von Brack, Ludwig Senfle, a pupil of 
 Isaac, and, perhaps, no less a great composer 
 than his master Isaac. Luther was especially 
 fond of Senfle's motets. Besides masses and 
 motets, he has composed admirable part-songs 
 to German words. Of other German compo- 
 sers, I shall speak more elaborately in the lec- 
 ture on the Oratorio ; and especially of those 
 who played so conspicuous a part at the time of 
 the Reformation, and who adorned the rising 
 Protestant (Lutheran) Church with many noble 
 sacred hymns, which were the germs of a new 
 and vigorous form of Protestant church-music. 
 Spain furnished, in the sixteenth century, some 
 excellent singers and composers to the pope's 
 chapel in Rome ; and, to judge from the works 
 of these masters, one cannot help wondering 
 that musical culture of a higher order, with few 
 and rare exceptions, was, at a later period, so 
 entirely neglected by a nation which has given 
 proof of so much, so exquisite, so truly poetic, 
 talent for that art. We may consider Cristofano 
 Morales as the representative of Spanish com- 
 posers. This great master was born at the be- 
 ginning of the sixteenth century. Irt 1540, under
 
 84 IllSTOUY OF MUSIC. 
 
 Pope Paul III., he was admitted as a singer in 
 the Sixtiue Chapel. Morales points already, in 
 many of his works, to the noble and pure church 
 style of Palestrina. Morales was an upright, 
 thorough, and honest artist. His serious and 
 noble character, true to nis Spanish nationality, 
 can be distinguished in the following lines, which 
 form a part of his preface to a book of masses : 
 " I despise," he says, "all superficial, frivolous 
 music, and never occupied myself with it. The 
 object of music is to strengthen and ennoble the 
 soul. If it does else save honor God, and illus- 
 trate the thoughts and feelings of great men, it 
 entirely misses its aim. But what shall I say 
 of those men, who, gifted with divine power of 
 creating music, misuse their power in a con- 
 temptible manner ? There are such men, how- 
 ever, on whose ingratitude it is impossible to look 
 without indignation. And their works alone 
 are those that deserve the epithets, enervating, 
 demoralizing. But, should any one pretend to 
 say that all music is a frivolous luxury, he may 
 rest assured that the frivolity, and other defects 
 besides, are to be looked for in his own breast, 
 and not in the nature of musicl" Among other 
 Spanish composers, I will mention Escobedo, 
 Scribano, the two Guerros, Soto, Ortiz, and, be- 
 fore all, the admirable Vittoria. 
 
 It is difficult to draw a line of demarcation
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 85 
 
 between the styles of French and Flemish com- 
 posers of this time. The southern provinces of 
 the LOAV Countries being populated by a people 
 entirely of the same race as the French, the only 
 difference was that of residence in another coun- 
 try. Until our days, many of the Dutch com- 
 posers were even classified with the French: 
 from this we find the school of the Netherland- 
 ers, also often called G-allo-Belgian, Only one 
 of the French masters (and he is too often called 
 a Flemish composer) will occupy our attention 
 here, who, through his influence as the founder 
 
 o 
 
 of the great Roman school of music, and, as such, 
 the master of Palestrina, and also through his 
 charming compositions, prepared the epoch in 
 which real Catholic church music reached its 
 purest and most idealistic forms ; and that artist 
 was Claude Cf-oudimeL Goudiinel was born at 
 Vaison, near Avignon, at the beginning of the 
 sixteenth century ; and, on suspicion of being a 
 Huguenot, the 24th of August, 1572, rn that 
 terrible night of the massacre of French Protest- 
 ants, called St. Bartholomew's Night, he was 
 killed at Lyons, and his corpse thrown into the 
 Rhone. Goudimel has written masses and mo- 
 tets of exquisite te iderness, of rare charm, of re- 
 markable clearness in form, qualities of which 
 his great pupil, Palestrina, made so effective a 
 use. Of his arrangement of the Psalms of David,
 
 86 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 translated into French by Clement Marot and 
 Theodore de Beze, I shall speak in my lecture on 
 the Oratorio. The distinguished composers, 
 Animuccia, Bettini, Nanino, Merlo, called Delia 
 Viola, were, besides Palestrina, pupils of Goudi- 
 mel. Other French composers at this time were 
 Pierre Certon, Clement Jannequin, Phinot, 
 Claude le Jeune, Carpentras. 
 
 The Italians, under the guidance of such ex- 
 cellent composers and teachers as the Nether- 
 landers, made themselves gradually masters of 
 the difficult art of counterpoint. It was not in 
 the nature of the Italians to express themselves 
 in such complicated forms as counterpoint pre- 
 sents. Counterpoint, as I have already proved, 
 is the production of the Northern German mind : 
 and, like the Gothic style of architecture, each 
 part of the complicated form is only understood 
 in connection with the whole composition ; and, 
 though every one of these parts is brought to 
 the greatest individual perfection, they all con- 
 cur in the expression of one great thought, of 
 one great idea. Like all Gothic art, this form 
 reflects, in its variety of rhythm, in its richness 
 of harmony, and its finish and perfection of 
 workmanship, the social and political situation 
 of the Northern nations in the middle Ages, till 
 up to the " Renaissance," and, at the same time, 
 the drearav and fanciful imagination of these
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 87 
 
 nations. Not outward, like the Italian, but 
 within itself, rests the ideal of the German artist i 
 and, in his endeavor to give expression to his 
 deep and soul-felt thoughts, he not seldom 
 creates works overladen with contrapuntal 
 details, obscured by richness of harmony, often 
 incomprehensible for want of clear, formal con- 
 struction, and which only such gigantic minds 
 as J. S. Bach and Beethoven could triumphant- 
 ly overcome. In Italy, pure Gothic architecture 
 and essentially Gothic arts never could take 
 root. Surrounded by the classic remains of old 
 Greek and Roman art, influenced by the beauti- 
 ful, serene, and warm climate, the peculiarity 
 of their nature is more inclined to outward ex- 
 pression in clear, simple, but grandiose forms. 
 There is a repose and a quieting influence in 
 their whole art, a reflex of the lovely lines, the 
 beautiful sky, which overhangs the charming 
 
 */ ' o o 
 
 Italian landscape. The whole existence of the 
 Italians is an outward one, which, at the same 
 time, points to superficiality, to empty and cold 
 formalism. And this is not so perceivable in any 
 branch of their art as in music. Hence the dis- 
 sonance between German and Italian art. When 
 these two characteristic qualities, which distin- 
 guish the Italian from the German mind, are 
 found combined, though very rarely, in such 
 individualities as Palestrina, Orlandus Lassus,
 
 88 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 Handel, and Mozart, then art reaches that point 
 of universal excellence which makes its works 
 the sesthetical expression of no single nationality, 
 of no single individuality, but of the spirit of 
 the whole age ; and they are accepted as last- 
 ing and ideal forms of artistic enjoyment for all 
 men and for all times, and as lofty monuments 
 of man's mind and imagination, exceptionally 
 gifted by the fructifying and creative finger of 
 God. 
 
 Constanzo Festa is considered as the first 
 Italian composer who became a thorough master 
 in counterpoint. He was admitted as a singer 
 in the Sixtine Chapel in 1517, and died 1245, 
 much beloved, and much esteemed as a composer 
 during his life. Though Festa's works every- 
 where give proof of his having been a pupil of 
 the school of the Netherlanders, yet they 
 already display much of that tenderness, purity, 
 and chaste simplicity, which distinguished the 
 works of the great Italian composers who fol- 
 lowed him. Baini asserts that Palestrina studied 
 Festa's works closely ; nay, he considers Festa as 
 the immediate predecessor, the model composer, 
 in that noble style of church music which stamps 
 the works of Palestrina as unique in form an;l 
 idea. 
 
 Giovanni Pierluigi, called Palestrina from the 
 name of his birthplace, was born, according to
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 89 
 
 Baini, his biographer, in the year 1524. Kand- 
 ler, the German translator of Baini's work, on 
 the strength of an inscription on an old portrait 
 of Palestrina which exists in the archives of the 
 singers in the Sixtine Chapel, was inclined to 
 take 1514 as the year of his birth. It has been 
 proved quite recently, however, that KUndler 
 was right in fixing 1514. E. Schelle, on a visit 
 to Rome, had the good fortune to examine the 
 family papers and other documents formerly 
 belonging to our master, which were discovered 
 
 O O 
 
 by Cicerchio, a pupil of Baini, among the 
 archives of the town of Palestrina, near Rome. 
 Baini, so enthusiastic in his admiration of Pales- 
 trina, so exclusive in his favorable judgment of 
 his hero's works whenever he has to reward the 
 merit of others also, never took the trouble of 
 journeying to the near birthplace of the master. 
 He preferred to give us very learned and elabo- 
 rate speculations, founded on anecdotes and 
 bulls of the pope, &c., and to admit the wrong 
 date, when, by a half-a-day's journey, he would 
 have been able to state the right one. Schelle 
 also tells us that Palestrina's family-name was 
 Sante ; that the master's parents, though not 
 rich, were yet well off, and able to give their 
 son good instruction. It is very touching]}' 
 stated, in some books, that Palestrina, as a pooi 
 peasant-boy, came to Rome ; that his great
 
 90 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 musical talent was then discovered ; and that; 
 through all kinds of privations and adventures, 
 he became a celebrated composer. It is, how- 
 ever, as I have stated before, not true. Pales- 
 trina received his first musical instruction in his 
 own city, where he was also for some time 
 organftt at the cathedral. He afterwards went 
 to Rome, where he obtained his first engage- 
 ment as a teacher of the choir-boys of St. 
 Peter's, in the Vatican, in the year 1551, and was 
 subsequently chapel-master there. In 1554, he 
 published his first book of masses for four and five 
 parts, and was, in 1555, admitted in the Sixtine 
 Chapel ; but, as he was married, Pope Paul IV., 
 who considered it contrary to the rule of hi3 
 ohapel, which excludes laymen, had him dis- 
 missed. But in latter years, his reputation as a 
 composer of church music having become great, 
 Pope Pius IV., wishing to have him back, 
 created, expressly for him, the position of 
 u Composer to the pope's chapel," a distinction, 
 which, after Palestrina's death, was conferred 
 only on one more composer, Felix Anerio. 
 Palestrina died in the year 15', ' 1. 
 
 Palestrina, like every great composer, closely 
 and diligently studied the works of his predeces- 
 sors. Formed in that great school of the 
 Netherlanders, he faithfully followed its princi- 
 ples and traditions; and in many of his worka
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. V)l 
 
 he paid a tribute to that school. Though very 
 often considered as the reformer of true church 
 music, it was not in outward formal endeavors 
 that he perfected the organism of his art, but 
 by ennobling, enriching, purifying its inward 
 contents ; by idealizing, in the sense of the 
 Catholic Church, its mystic religious life. Pales- 
 trina's genius, so rich, so fruitful, attained its 
 truest and grandest expression in the musical 
 embodiment of the rites of his Church. Per- 
 haps more than any other composer, he found 
 those sympathetic yet heavenly-pure touches, 
 which enabled him to lend adequate musical 
 expression to that rich liturgy, so dear to the 
 Catholic Christian. In Palestrina's works, 
 Catholic church music found its greatest and 
 purest revelation : they mark the culminating 
 point, and at the same time, I may ^ay, the 
 close, of a great and unique epoch in our musical 
 art. 
 
 Palestrina founded his style, which was called 
 after him the Palestrina style, upon the study 
 of Gregorian chant in its purest meaning : from 
 that source he drew his wonderful inspiration. 
 No master studied Gregorian chant more deeply 
 than Palestrina : no one, before or after, knew 
 better how to use it with more artistic variety 
 and success. Palestrina remained true, all his' 
 life, to the traditions of the system of the eccle-
 
 92 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 siastical modes. He was a stranger to the nei 
 vous striving of some of his contemporaries foi 
 new and striking harmonious means with which 
 to enrich their works, and which resulted, 
 finally, in the overthrow of the system of the 
 ecclesiastical keys, and the substitution of our 
 modern tonalities (major and minor keys) 
 instead, which rest upon the tonic and domi- 
 nant. 
 
 Palestrina had the good fortune, while yet 
 living, to see his merit recognized. He was very 
 industrious all his life, and has composed a vast 
 number of works. 
 
 I have yet to mention one great event in 
 Palestrina's life. Nearly all writers on the his- 
 tory of music make it of great importance, 
 embellishing it, according to the force of their 
 own imaginations, with more or less romantic 
 colors. It is this : At the Council of Trent, in 
 the year 1562, among other reforms which con- 
 cerned the service of the Catholic Church and 
 its government, the question of a reform of 
 church music was also agitated. We are 
 told that the reverend fathers, at this 
 time, were very much incensed about the fri- 
 volity with which composers introduced profane 
 melodies as the fundamental theme, the tenor, 
 in their masses and other compositions, and the 
 contrapuntal artificialities with which works
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 93 
 
 destined for the edification of church service 
 were overloaded, so much so, that the words 
 could not be understood ; and that, but for the 
 genius of Palestrina, figurated or contrapuntal 
 music would have been banished from the 
 Catholic Church for all times. Pope Pius IV., 
 before taking sweeping measures, appointed a 
 committee of cardinals, and singers of his chapel, 
 to examine the subject, and to recommend 
 means for a necessary reform. Palestrina, al- 
 ready known by some exquisite works, at the 
 request of the committee produced three masses, 
 of which one, in six parts, pleased throughout, 
 and received the admiration of every one. It 
 is the celebrated " Missa Papce Marcelli" which 
 Palestrina dedicated, in grateful remembrance, to 
 his former protector, the Pope Marcellus II. 
 Since this time, we are accustomed to see Pales- 
 trina called the Saviour of church music. 
 
 Of course this mass is a wonderful work 
 throughout ; but as to that simplicity in contra- 
 puntal treatment, which, according to most writ- 
 ers on the subject, makes this mass so different 
 from the works of other composers of this time, 
 I could never discover it. Artificial contra 
 puntal form predominates from the first number 
 "Kyrie eleison," which is built upon a canon, 
 to the end. Baini, the most prolific source 
 of these reports, thinks it, of course, necessary
 
 94 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 for the glory of his hero to raise him, Atlas- 
 like, above all other composers ; and, to dissipate 
 all doubts, he discourages students, through 
 unjust and severe judgment, from referring to 
 the master-works of Palestrina's predecessors 
 and contemporaries. That the genius of Pales- 
 trina created a work in the old traditional forms, 
 which, through its great beauties, disarmed the 
 enemies of counterpoint, where, perhaps, lies 
 the whole question of a reform in church music, 
 shows the invariable truth which rests at the 
 foundation of the art-principle of those Nether- 
 landers, an art-principle, the very germ of our 
 modern music, and one that will hold good for 
 all time. But to admit, as Baini would have 
 us, that, because Palestrina is so great, with very 
 few exceptions the works of other composers who 
 lived before and with him are inferior produc- 
 tions, full of dry, contrapuntal artificialities, 
 without meaning, without invention, &c., &c., 
 is simply a great injustice to those worthy mas- 
 ters. Any one, who, without prejudice, knows* 
 how to read, and has the faculty of correctly 
 judging what he hears, will soon be convinced 
 of the narrowness of the views and judgments 
 of Baini, Burney, and others, in regard to most, 
 of the works, principally the beautiful motets, of 
 such masters as Josquin des Press, Arcadelt, 
 Clemens non Papa, Morales, Cyprian de Rore,
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 95 
 
 Orlando cli Lasso, Willaert, Festa, and a host of 
 others. Though full of the highest admiration 
 for the great and exceptional genius of Pales- 
 trina, yet this does not exclude my apprecia- 
 tion, my veieration, for the noble works of the 
 Flemish, German, and French composers of this 
 remarkable ep^ch in our musical art. And, feel- 
 ing the beauties of the works of these masters, 
 I never could understand yet how church music 
 then needed a saviour. Can it be, that then, as in 
 our own days, singers and organists ignored the 
 noble works of tne truly great and inspired 
 masters, and substituted, in their stead, the shal- 
 low, insipid, frivolous productions of merce- 
 nary art ? for, in musical art, it is unfortunately 
 only too often the case, that superficial knowl- 
 edge and deficient judgment and talent usurp 
 the claims of real merit, real knowledge, real 
 talent. 
 
 The genius of the Netherlander, which, for 
 nearly two centuries, stood at the head of musi- 
 cal culture in Europe, at the close of its mission 
 seemed once more to concentrate all its power, 
 all its peculiarity, all its fertility, on one master, 
 the greatest of all his nation, ii ferior to none of 
 his contemporaries, - - Orlandut, Lassus, or Or- 
 lando di Lasso. 
 
 Orlandus Lassus was born at Mous, in Hai- 
 uault, in 1520. In his youth, he \vas a choir-boy
 
 96 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 at the St. Nicolas Cathedral, in his native city, 
 and, if the anecdote be truly told, was kid- 
 napped not less than three times on account of 
 his fine voice. At the age of twelve years, he 
 accompanied Ferdinand de Gonsaga to Milan. 
 He afterwards went to Rome ; and, at the age of 
 twenty-one, he was already chapel-master at the 
 Basilica St. Giovanni in Laterano. In 15.17, he 
 received an engagement in the chapel of Albert 
 V., at Munich, where he remained until his 
 death, which occurred the loth of June, 1594. 
 
 The mind of Lassus was, perhaps, more pro- 
 ductive than that of any other composer. It is 
 estimated that he composed the immense num- 
 ber of two thousand works ! A modern writer, 
 Carlus Proske, gives so just an estimate of 
 Lassus' great genius, that I cannot do better 
 than to insert it here. " Orlando di Lasso pos- 
 sessed a universal mind. No one among his 
 contemporaries had such a clear will, or such a 
 mastery over the machinery of his art : what- 
 ever he needed for his tone-picture, he was able 
 to grasp with certainty. He was never unsuc- 
 cessful, whether in the contemplative mood of 
 the church, or in the merry caprices of profane 
 song. He was great both in the lyric and epic 
 styles, and would have been still greater in the 
 dramatic, had his age possessed this branch of 
 musical composition. In his works, we discover
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 07 
 
 traits of such dramatic, epic truth and strength, 
 that we feel as if we had been fanned by the 
 breath of a Dante, a Michael Angelo. If we place 
 Palestrina by the side of Raffaelle, it will not be 
 too far-fetched a comparison to place our master 
 beside the great Florentine. Lassus united in 
 himself so much that was to be found at that 
 time in the music of each European nation, that 
 he appeared unique, as well as characteristic, 
 and could not be held up as an especially Italian, 
 German, Belgian, or French composer. No one 
 resembled him in this peculiarity more than the 
 great Handel ; and as he united in himself the 
 German, Italian, and English genius of the 
 eighteenth century, so in the works of Lassus 
 we find the combined glories of German and 
 Roman art of his time." 
 
 Although many of Lassus' works were easily 
 accessible to Baini and Burney, yet these, in 
 many regards meritorious writers, were blinded 
 as to the great merit of these works. Burney, 
 in his " General History of Music," says, 
 " Indeed, the compositions a capella of Cyprian 
 Rore and Orlando Lasso are much inferior to 
 those of Palestrina, in this peculiarity : for, by 
 striving to be grave and solemn, they only be^ 
 come heavy and dull ; and what is unaffected 
 dignity in the Roman is little better than the 
 strut of a dwarf upon stilts in the Netherland-
 
 98 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 ers." Baini in his "Miemorie Storico-critiche " of 
 Palestrina, mentions Lassus in the following 
 terms : " Orlandus Lassus, a Netherlander by 
 birth and in his art, without fine ideas, without 
 life and spirit ; a man, who, through the compo- 
 sition of a, few (?) masses and motets in a sim- 
 ple style, and in eight parts, has usurped the 
 exaggerated praise, Lassus, lassum qui recreat 
 vrbem." This is a part of Lassus' epitaph, 
 which, by a play on the name of Lassus, signi- 
 fies, " Here rests the weary who refreshed the 
 weary." It has been reserved to our time, how- 
 ever, to set the works of Lassus, and of many 
 other unjustly forgotten masters, in the right 
 light. 
 
 With Orlandus Lassus' death, sacred musical 
 art in the Low Countries vanished, as by en- 
 chantment, while in Italy it flourished in a new 
 and brighter light. Such composers as Anerio, 
 the Spaniard Vittoria, Suriano, Luca Marenzio, 
 the two Gabrieli, Monteverde, Carissimi, Ales- 
 sandro Scarlatti, &c., created works after works, 
 which were everywhere greeted with delight, 
 and which gave the Italians that prestige in 
 musical matters which they retained, all over 
 Europe, until the beginning of the present cen- 
 tury.
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 99 
 
 THIRD LECTURE. 
 
 The Oratorio, including the Passion, the Mysterj and Miracl* 
 Plays, and Protestant Church Music from the Twelfth Cen- 
 tury to the Death of Schumann. 
 
 OUR modern oratorio and opera both took root 
 in, and trace their origin from, those early sacred 
 plays called Mysteries, Moralities, or Miracle 
 Plays. Those Eastern nations, the descendants 
 of the Greeks and the Romans, after their con- 
 version to the Christian religion, would persist, 
 so history tells us, in their natural tendency to 
 theatrical representations, a remnant of the 
 old heathen practice, as well in religious as in 
 secular life ; and the subjects of these theatrical 
 representations, in spite of anathemas from the 
 pulpit, were almost solely taken from heathen 
 mythology. But, in the first centuries of the 
 Christian religion, it was soon apparent to the 
 heads of the new Church, that to impress the 
 lively imaginations of these nations, and to at- 
 tract them to the service of the new religion, it 
 
 O ' 
 
 was necessary to give their religious service sym- 
 bolic forms in order to reach the mind through
 
 ICO HISTORY OF MUSIC'. 
 
 the senses. In the new religion, they were to 
 find every thing more beautiful than in the old. 
 With this many a heathen custom first found its 
 way into the ceremonies of the new Church, and 
 also the love for theatrical representations. 
 Thus we find, from the earliest times, among all 
 nations, the dramatic element, so innate to man's 
 nature, first associated with religious worship. 
 With the dominion of the Christian religion all 
 over Europe, and in the similarity of the ar- 
 rangement of the religious office, the same cus- 
 toms, the same ceremonies, established them- 
 selves in the different churches. The priests, 
 the supreme guides of the congregation in spir- 
 itual and social matters, even, to a certain de- 
 gree, in politics also, were eager to turn all 
 their tendencies to secular festivities and amuse- 
 ments to the benefit of the Church, and, to this 
 end, arranged spiritual plays, the subjects taken 
 from the Old and New Testaments, or the 
 lives of the saints, &c., which were played, for 
 instruction and edification in the religious mys- 
 teries, on a stage erected in the building of the 
 church, generally under the choir. Priests in 
 appropriate costumes, representing, according to 
 the subject, God the Father, Christ, the angels, 
 and Mary, were the actors ; and, as. women were 
 not allowed to appear on the stage, their parts 
 were also in the hands of priests. That these
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 101 
 
 sacred representations made a great impression 
 upon the pious audiences can be proved by many 
 an historical fact. It is said, that, at the miracle 
 play of the five wise and five foolish virgins, 
 acted in the year 1322, before the elector Fred- 
 eric, at Eisenach, a scene representing the five 
 foolish virgins, who vainly besought, with great 
 fervor, the Virgin Mary and the saints for their 
 intercession at the throne of God, and for admis- 
 sion into Paradise, excited the elector so much, 
 that he exclaimed, with great indignation, " To 
 what good are Christianity and pious works, if 
 even the prayers of the saints cannot procure 
 help and forgiveness ? " Pie was so deeply 
 moved, that he had a stroke of apoplexy, of 
 which he afterwards died. In the course of the 
 next centuries, profane elements, principally in 
 Italy, Spain, and France, where the traditions 
 of the old Roman theatrical representations were 
 not yet entirely extinguished, began to be mixed 
 with the holy legends. As these miracle and 
 mystery plays became more and more the fa- 
 vorite entertainments of the congregations, they 
 lasted several days, and the number of actors 
 amounted to several hundreds. Soon the 
 churches were not ample enough to give room 
 to the eager audiences ; and thus immense stages 
 were erected in the streets, on market-places, 
 and even in cemeteries. These stages, built of
 
 102 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 boards, were generally divided into three stories. 
 The upper one represented heaven, the second 
 earth, and the lowest hell. The actors inarched 
 in procession to their different places. Corpora- 
 tions formed themselves to arrange the miracle 
 plays in a more regular way. In Rome, the 
 " Compagnia del Confalone" existed (in the 
 latter part of the thirteenth century), which se- 
 lected the Coliseum for its place of meeting. In 
 Paris, we see the " Confrerie de la Passion," the 
 " Ct>nfr' v -ie de Bazoche." As soon as these mys- 
 tery and miracle plays passed from the hands of 
 the priests and monks into those of the people, 
 their character of sacred representations lost its 
 dignity and meaning. Jongleurs, histrions, and 
 all sorts of vagabonds, took a lively part' in these 
 plays ; and thus the sacred elements were not 
 seldom submerged by profane satires, comic 
 scenes, and gross buffoonery. Therefore it is 
 not strange that these people began to rival each 
 other in obscene deeds and language : the most 
 holy rites of religious ceremonies were degraded 
 by low and silly jokes ; instead of sacred hymns, 
 impudent street-songs resounded before the 
 altar of the church ; and the most important 
 person in the miracle plays, though also the 
 most abused, was the devil. He was very popu- 
 lar with our forefathers. They dressed him up 
 in the most fantastic, extravagant, and alarming
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 103 
 
 manner. In France, not less than four devils 
 had sometimes to appear in one play. He did 
 not yet represent the bad principle ; but his parts 
 were those of a clown, or a poor, abused imbe- 
 cile. He always got the worst of it. " All 
 Fools' Day" and the "Donkey's Festival" were, 
 for a long time, the most popular occasion of 
 general amusement. At the " Donkey's Festival," 
 in commemoration of the flight of Mary with the 
 infant Christ to Egypt, a donkey was dressed in 
 the gown of a monk, and thus led into the 
 church : sometimes a young girl, holding a doll, 
 to represent Mary with the child, rode on it. 
 Then the priest intoned the Latin hymn, " Orien- 
 tis partibus." The congregation responded by 
 repeating the last verse, "Hez, Sir Ane, hez."* 
 11. 
 
 - ri -en-tis par-tibus, ad-ven-ta-vit a- si- nus, pulcher 
 
 1 
 
 
 4- 
 
 et for-tis-simus, Sarci-nis ap-tis-si-mus. Hez, sir Ane, hez. 
 
 During the whole ridiculous ceremony, psalms 
 and hymns, parodied by the most absurd 
 versions, were sung, intermixed with the imita- 
 tion of the bray ings of the donkey. " All 
 Fools' Day," a tradition of the old Roman Sa- 
 
 * Forkel : Geschichte der Music.
 
 104 , HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 turnalia, was celebrated in just as grotesque a 
 manner. Though the humor of oui ancestors 
 very often lost all control of itself in the celebra- 
 tion of the miracle-plays, from the element of 
 these mysteries and moralities, as I have said be- 
 fore, emerged the forms of the oratorio and the 
 opera, the richest, and, in an artistic as well as 
 in a poetical sense, the highest, of modern mu- 
 sical art-forms. 
 
 The origin of the name " Oratorio," applied to 
 a particular art-form, is the following : Those 
 great reforms in the Christian Church, inaugu- 
 rated at the beginning of the sixteenth century 
 by Luther in Germany, and long ago felt and 
 hoped for, as inevitably necessary, by the purest 
 and noblest minds, could not fail to affect and 
 influence, in the most salutary way, the whole 
 Catholic world. Among those of the Catholic 
 clergy who deeply deplored the great demorali- 
 zation which then menaced the overthrow of 
 the old religion, who at the same time saw the 
 necessity of a return to purer, more legitimate 
 Christian principles, and who devoted the most 
 precious hours of their life to these purposes, 
 appears St. Philip Neri, born 1515, in Florence, 
 and in 1561 consecrated as a priest at Rome. Neri 
 afterwards founded a congregation of priests in 
 Rome. Before these congregations, he explained 
 biblical histories ; and, in order to draw youths
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC 105 
 
 to church, and to keep them from secular amuse- 
 ments, he used to have hymns, psalms, and 
 other " Laudi spiritual!," or spiritual songs, sung 
 alternately with his teachings. But, .to render 
 these pious meetings still more attractive, he 
 arranged and dramatized, in a simple form, the 
 sacred stories or events from the Scriptures, 
 such as " The Good Samaritan," " Job and his 
 Friends," "The Prodigal Son," "Tobias and 
 the Angels," &c. These pieces were written in 
 verse, and set to music in the manner of hymns 
 for a chorus in four parts, in which parts for 
 alternate single voices occasionally appear also. 
 The composer who was first associated with 
 Neri in his beneficial labors was Animucia, 
 chapel - master to the pope, and afterwards 
 Palestrina. These sacred plays, or " Azioni 
 sacre," were divided into two parts. The ser- 
 mon was delivered after the first part ; but the 
 performance interested the congregation so 
 much " that there was no clanger, during the 
 sermon, that any of the hearers would retire 
 before they had heard the second." As these 
 "Azioni sacre" were not performed in the 
 church itself, but in an adjoining hall or room 
 called an " oratory," or, in Italian, oratorio, thi.s 
 title has since been applied to this species of 
 sacred musical drama. 
 
 Though the oratorio gained wider form hand
 
 106 HISTORY OF MUtflV. 
 
 in hand with the secular drama called opera, its 
 ideal sacred meaning and expression rest upon 
 the idea St. Philip Neri first introduced in his 
 prayer-meetings. Like the first opera in Flor- 
 ence, the first oratorio was also composed and 
 performed in Rome, in the year 1600. Its 
 author is Emilio del Cavaliere, who played such 
 a conspicuous part in the invention of the musi- 
 cal drama, and of whose labors I have treated in 
 my lecture on the opera. " L'Anima d Corpo," 
 written by a lady, Laura Guidiccioni, was the 
 name of that first sacred musical drama, which 
 ,was set to music by Emilio del Cavaliere. 
 It was performed and acted on a stage erected, 
 probably, in the oratory of the new church of 
 Neri, the St. Maria, in Valliccella. It is curious 
 to observe, that, in Rome, oratorios were repre- 
 sented and acted on a stage with decorations, 
 like the opera, and principally at times of fast- 
 ing, as late as the beginning of this century. 
 I extract from Bumey's " History of Music " 
 the description of the first oratorio, " L'Anima e 
 Corpo," or, rather, the directions which Emilio 
 del "Cavaliere gives for the performance and 
 composition of a similar work : 
 
 " It is recommended to place the instruments 
 of accompaniment behind the scenes, which, in 
 this first oratorio, were the following : A double 
 lyre, a harpsichord, a large or double guitar, and 
 two flutes.
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 107 
 
 "1. The words should be printed, with the 
 verses correctly arranged, the scenes numbered, 
 and characters of interlocutors specified. 
 
 " 2. Instead of the overture, or symphony, to 
 modern musical drama, a madrigal is recom- 
 mended, as a full piece, with all the voice- 
 parts doubled, and a great number of instru- 
 ments. 
 
 "3. When the curtain rises, two youths, who 
 recite the prologue, appear on the stage ; and, 
 when they have done, Time, one of the charac- 
 ters in the Morality, comes on, and has the note 
 with which he is to begin given him by the 
 instrumental performers behind the scenes. 
 
 " 4. The chorus are to have a place allotted 
 them on the stage, part sitting and part stand- 
 ing, in sight of the principal characters ; and, 
 when they sing, they are to rise and be in 
 motion, with proper gestures. 
 
 " 5. Pleasure, another imaginary character, 
 with two companions, are to have instruments in 
 their hands, on which they are to play while 
 they sing and perform the ritornels. 
 
 " 6. II Corpo, the Body, when these words are 
 uttered, ' Si cJie hormia alma mia, &c., may 
 throw away some of his ornaments, as his gold 
 collar, feather from his hat, &c. 
 
 "7. The World, and Human Life in particular, 
 are to be gayly and richly dressed ; and, when
 
 108 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 they are divested of their trappings, to appeal 
 very poor and wretched, and at length dead 
 carcasses. 
 
 " 8. The symphonies and ritornels may be 
 played by a great number of instruments ; and, 
 if a violin should play the principal part, it would 
 have a good effect. 
 
 " 9. The performance may be finished with or 
 without a dance. If without, the last chorus is 
 to be doubled in all its parts, vocal and instru- 
 me'ntal ; but, if a dance is preferred, a verse be- 
 ginning thus: ' Chiostri altissimi, e stellati,' is 
 to be sung, accompanied sedately and reveren- 
 tially by the dance. These shall succeed other 
 grave steps, and figures of the solemn kind. 
 During the ritornels, the four principal dancers 
 are to perform a ballet, " saltato con capriole" 
 enlivened with capers or entrechats, without 
 singing, and thus, after each stanza, always 
 varying the steps of the dance ; and the four 
 principal dancers may sometimes use the galiard, 
 some times the canary, and sometimes the courant 
 step, which will do very well in the ritornels. 
 
 " 10. The stanzas of the ballet are to be sung 
 and played by all the performers witliin and 
 without." 
 
 These instructions will serve to give an idea 
 of the oratorio in its iniancy. It is also curious 
 to observe the conspicuous part the ballet, or
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 1U ( J 
 
 dancing, played in these early oratorios. Here 
 is a chorus from " L'Anima e Corpo" 
 
 3EE 
 
 4=: 
 
 -y f r 
 
 mP- 
 
 ?f=g?=^ 
 
 r I ii 1 
 
 r iJJJ j -lAf* 
 
 ET~^ ^T~*~*: =^r 
 
 f 
 
 i i 
 
 1 
 
 Ques - ta vi - ta mor - ta - le per fu - gir 
 
 /T\ /TV 
 
 J 
 
 
 -^~ 
 
 pres - to ha 1'a - le e con tal fret-ta pas - sa 
 
 rr\ 
 
 ch'a dietro i ven- ti e le sa - et - te las - sa. 
 
 The development of the different forms of the 
 sacred musical drama, such as the aria, the reci- 
 tative, the duet, and the chorus, was influenced 
 by that of the opera. But though the melo- 
 dious flowing aria, and expressive recitativo, re-
 
 110 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 placed the old liturgical chants and psalmodies, 
 composers strove to wed adequate music to 
 sacred words ; and thus, in the course of time, a 
 distinct line of demarcation was drawn between 
 the musical forms and contents of the oratorio 
 and those of the opera. 
 
 Among the Italian composers who contributed 
 most to the advancement of the musical drama, 
 and especially of the oratorio, I must mention 
 Carissimi, born about 1604, in Marino, near 
 Rome. Carissimi, who devoted the greater 
 part of his labors to the development of the 
 sacred cantata, and who deserves so much credit 
 for the perfection of the recitative, composed 
 quite a number of oratorios, full of noble music. 
 Some of the choruses are rich and grand in 
 their effect. Among the oratorios which he 
 composed are " Jephtha," " Solomon's Judg- 
 ment," " Belshazzar," " Jonas," " The History 
 of Job," " David and Jonathan," " Abraham and 
 Isaac," &c. Italian composers of importance, 
 who lived at this epoch, and who also com- 
 posed oratorios, were Stradella, Scarlatti, Cal- 
 dara, Colonna. 
 
 Though the form and the name of the oratorio 
 are of Italian invention and origin, yet, as we 
 shall see, German Protestant composers, Handel 
 and Bach, were destined to bring it to that high 
 point of perfection which to-day stamps this
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 11 1 
 
 noble form of musical drama as the ideal, 
 the goal, to reach which few composers have the 
 strength of talent and the necessary knowledge. 
 Here, however, we have first to consider another 
 species of oratorio, and its historical develop- 
 ment, the Passion oratorio, which has grown 
 side by side with the oratorio proper. 
 
 The custom of representing, during Passion- 
 week, in an epic-dramatic form, the Passion of 
 Christ, dates back to the earlier period of the 
 middle ages, and this became foremost among 
 the miracle plays.* A priest recited the part 
 of Jesus, another that of th Evangelist, and a 
 third the other parts ; the ^eople (turlce), the 
 disciples, the Jews, &c., were represented by 
 the chorus. This is the traditional manner in 
 which it is still performed in the Sixtine Chapel 
 in Rome. The dramatic element remains to a 
 considerable degree in the back-ground ; and the 
 music, which is only sung in the form of chants, 
 appears in a very subordinate way. In the six- 
 teenth century, some Protfestant congregations 
 introduced the custom of having the Passion 
 performed in an entire musical form. The 
 oldest known Passion-music, by a Protestant 
 composer, is to be found in KeuchenthaT 's hymn- 
 
 * An interesting remnant of this custom still exists, even in our days. 
 In Oberammergau, in the southern part of Bavaria, the peasants perform 
 and represent a Passion play, according to the old traditions, at interval? 
 of ten years. In Spain, also. Passion plays ;.re still occasionally per 
 formed.
 
 112 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 book, published 1573.* The soliloquy is in 
 recitative form : there are short choruses besides 
 foi the turbce, or people ; a four-part chorus 
 opens and finishes it. Similar in construction 
 is the Passion-music in Seleneca's hymn-book, 
 1587. Of greater artistic importance are the 
 works of Henry Schuetz, born 1585, died 1672. 
 Schuetz was a pupil of the celebrated master, 
 Giovanni Gabrieli of Venice. Initiated into all 
 the secrets of musical composition, he returned 
 to German} 7 ", and finally settled 'in Dresden as 
 chapel-master to the elector, George I. Schuetz 
 was an upright, conscientious, and earnest artist. 
 Like a saint, he devoted the best fruits of his tal- 
 ent to the Church. Faithful and unshaken, he 
 fulfilled his duties even through the horrors of 
 that great calamity, the Thirty Years' War. His 
 sphere of action was of the greatest influence 
 on the development of German musical art. 
 He earnestly endeavored to transplant to his 
 native country all those forms of musical com- 
 position which Italy then possessed in such high 
 perfection ; and, though a pupil of the Italians, 
 he stamped his works with his own powerful 
 German individuality. I have stated, in my lec- 
 ture on the opera, that Schuetz set " Daphne '' 
 to music, the first opera which appeared in 
 Germany. Besides madrigals, psalms, and sacred 
 
 * Carl von Winterfeli: Der Evangelishe Kirchengesang.
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 113 
 
 songs, he also composed several Passion ora- 
 torios ; and the effective manner in which he 
 wrote his choruses already points to Handel. 
 They are great and powerful creations. It is 
 Handelian spirit that already speaks to us, 
 though Handel was not yet born when Schuetz 
 died. He forms the first link of that long chain 
 of great masters, who, through their immortal 
 works, won for Germany the supremacy in mod- 
 ern musical culture. Schuetz's works may be 
 considered as the foundation of the form of 
 modern German oratorio music ; though he has 
 not, in fact, written an oratorio in our sense. 
 
 The Passion music by the Prussian chapel- 
 master, John Sebastiani, composed and published 
 in 1672 (the year of Henry Schuetz's death), 
 shows a progress beyond his predecessors. We 
 meet here, for the first time, Protestant choral 
 melodies, set and harmonized for different parts 
 in an artistic manner, a peculiarity Sebastian 
 Bach made such an effective use of in his Pas- 
 sion oratorios and Ids cantatas. The biblical 
 narration is no more in the forms of psalmody 
 or chanting, as we find it yet in Schuetz's Pas- 
 sions, but in recitative form, accompanied with 
 two violins, or violas and bass. The turbce, or 
 people, appear as a four-part chorus ; but as the 
 Evangelist, sung by a tenor voice, also joins in 
 an independent manner, these choruses thus
 
 114 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 consist, properly, of five parts. In the sacred 
 songs, or chorales, only the highest part was 
 sung ; the other voices were executed by violas 
 and a bass. At, the last verse of the closing 
 chorale, all the parts, instrumental and vocal, 
 joined. Here we have the fundamental form 
 upon which Bach built his Passion oratorios. 
 
 I must here mention the peculiar manner in 
 which that celebrated opera composer, Reinhard 
 Keiser^ composed and brought out in Hamburg, 
 1704, a Passion oratorio, entitled " The Bleeding 
 and Dying Jesus." Hunold Menantes wrote 
 the verses. The Evangelist reciting the biblical 
 narrative, as had been the custom, was left out, 
 and also the chorale ; but, instead of that, three 
 cantatas, resembling scenes from dramatic ope- 
 ra, " The Lamentation of Mary," the Tears of 
 St. Peter," and a sighing, sentimental love-song, 
 sung by the " Daughter of Zion," were substi- 
 tuted. The work made quite a sensation when 
 it was first performed in Hamburg. But, at the 
 same time, it seems the poet and the composer 
 were sharply censured from the pulpit for their 
 innovation. Though this form could not estab- 
 lish itself, it greatly influenced future efforts. 
 In the subsequent poem by Brookes, treating 
 of the same subject, we have an attempt to 
 unite the old tradition with this new manner. 
 Between the original biblical narrative, he wrote
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 115 
 
 verses of pious content, relating to the situa- 
 tion ; and, at convenient points, the Protestant 
 sacred song, the chorale, finds a place. Reiser 
 composed music to this new version ; also, Mat- 
 theson, Handel, and Teleman. Bach has also 
 taken some of the verses of Brockes's poem for 
 different arias in his Passion, according to St. 
 John. 
 
 Before I speak of the works of Bach and 
 Handel, it will be necessary, for the understand- 
 ing and appreciation of many a peculiar point 
 in these works, to examine the musical culture 
 of Protestant Germany since the Reformation. 
 
 The deeply-rooted love of accompanying, with 
 appropriate songs, all their occupations in the 
 house and the field, as well as their religious 
 service, is a peculiarity which has been, in all 
 times, a prominent trait in the character of the 
 German people ; and to this we owe many a 
 beautiful melody. Though the Catholic Church 
 sanctioned and " admitted only the Latin lan- 
 guage at its regular church service, long before 
 the Reformation, sacred people's-songs, with 
 German words, were sung, alternately, with the 
 Latin psalms and hymns in the Catholic 
 churches of Germany. Similar German songs 
 were regularly intermixed with the dramatic re- 
 citations of the miracle and mystery plays. 
 Besides sacred people's-songs, there was also an
 
 116 HISTORY OF MCSIC. 
 
 abundance of charming secular songs ; and the 
 best German composers set and arranged them 
 in three, four, five, and more parts. It was well' 
 that the great reformer, Luther, had such a high 
 idea of art, and of music in particular. " I am 
 not of the opinion, that, through the gospel, all 
 arts should be banished and driven away, as 
 some zealots want to make us believe ; but I 
 wish to see all arts, principally music, in the ser- 
 vice of Him who gave and created them." 
 Thus said Luther himself. He was passionately 
 fond of music. He calls it one of the greatest 
 gifts of the Creator, and assigned it the first 
 place next to divinity ; " for, like this," he says, 
 " it sets the soul at rest, and places it in a most 
 happy mood," "a clear proof," says he fur- 
 ther, " that the demon who creates such sad 
 sorrows and ceaseless torments retires as fast 
 before music and its sounds as before divinity. 
 There is no doubt that the seed of many vir- 
 tues exists in the minds of those' who love mu- 
 sic ; but those who are not moved by it, in my 
 estimation, resemble sticks and stones." As a 
 means of education, he attached great impor- 
 tance to the influence of music. " It is benefi- 
 cial," he says, " to keep youth in continual 
 practice in this art, for it renders people intel- 
 lectual : therefore, it is necessary to introduce 
 the practice of music in the schools ; and a
 
 HISTORY OF MUblC. 117 
 
 schoolmaster mu st know how to sing, otherwise 
 I do not respect him." After the establishment 
 of the first Protestant church, Luther's greatest 
 endeavor was to adorn it with a fitting musical 
 service. To this end, he associated with himself 
 John Walter, and Conrad Rupf, or Rumpf, 
 both musicians in the chapel of Frederic the 
 Wise, elector of Saxony. Luther and his asso- 
 ciates selected and arranged some of the finest 
 Latin hymns and German songs, as used already 
 in the Catholic Church. Luther was not as 
 narrow, in this respect, as Calvin and some oth- 
 ers of the Reformers. He well appreciated 
 those " many good songs and hymns, both Latin 
 and German." " Therefore," said he to Wal- 
 ter, " it is not right in those, neither can I 
 praise them for banishing all the Latin Christian 
 hymns from the Church, who think they are not 
 good Protestants if they sing, or listen to the 
 singing of, a Latin hymn. On the other hand, 
 it is not less wrong to sing only Latin hymns 
 for the congregation." Luther had the great 
 faculty of appreciating the wants and the genius 
 of the German people ; and, in this manner, the 
 reforms which he introduced in the Church of 
 Germany found a welcome echo in the hearts 
 of his nation. It is known that Luther has 
 written many a powerful hymn, full of Christian 
 resignation, and confidence in the everlasting
 
 118 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 decrees of God : but only three of the many sa- 
 cred melodies which were once attributed to 
 him are considered as his throughout; among 
 which is the celebrated "JSinefette Burg is unser 
 Gott" He also wrote his catechism in verse, 
 and had it set to music in four parts. The first 
 Protestant hymn, or choral-book, is by John 
 Walter, and was published 1524, at Wittenberg. 
 It originated under the eyes of Luther, and ho 
 wrote a preface to it. The songs (some of 
 them with Latin words) were set by Walter, in 
 four, five, and six parts. The principal melody, 
 with a few exceptions, is still assigned to the 
 tenor. The custom of giving the melody to the 
 highest voice, the soprano, did not come into 
 general use until the latter part of .the sixteenth 
 century ; as, also, the practice of arranging the 
 songs with plainer harmonies. This was proba- 
 bly done for the better convenience of the con- 
 gregations, who were accustomed to sing, as they 
 still do, the principal melody in unison. John 
 Walter, though not a creative talent, or a con- 
 trapuntist of great learning and facility, will al- 
 ways occupy a meritorious place in the history 
 of music, as the first faithful co-operator of Lu- 
 ther in the establishment of the German Pro- 
 testant sacred musical service. Another com- 
 poser, whose works Luther esteemed very 
 highly, was Ludwig Senfle, born, according to
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 119 
 
 some, at Zurich, to others, at Basle. He was a 
 pupil of H. Isaac, and chapel-master to the 
 ducal court of Munich. Senfle was a composer 
 and a contrapuntist of great resources and 
 learning ; his works, distinguished by ingenious 
 contrapuntal, though clear and distinct, combi- 
 nations, by natural freshness and poetical con- 
 ception, were much admired in his time. Al- 
 though Senfle was a Catholic, and engaged at a 
 Catholic court, Luther was in intimate relations 
 with him, and very of ten the reformer asked the 
 musician to send him, or set for him, new motets 
 and hymns. In a letter, of the year 1530, Lu- 
 ther asked Senfle the favor to set in different 
 parts, for him, the melody to the eighth verse of 
 the fourth psalm, " I will both lay me down in 
 peace, and sleep ; for thou, Lord, only makest 
 me dwell in safety." Senfle's compositions al- 
 ways refreshed, consoled, and strengthened him. 
 " I believe truly," he writes, " that the end of 
 my life is near. The world hates me, and I am 
 also sick of the world. The good and faithful 
 Shepherd may take my soul. I already sing to 
 my own self the antiphony, but I wish to have 
 it set in an efficient manner." There is no 
 room to mention all those composers who adapt- 
 ed, arranged, and harmonized already known 
 melodies for the Protestant Church, and some of 
 whose melodies are still sung by German Pro-
 
 120 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 testant congregations. Among the foremost, 
 however, I will name Leo Hassler, born 1564, 
 at Nuremberg, a composer and contrapuntist of 
 great knowledge, and of fine artistic taste and 
 invention ; John JEccard, 1553, whose German 
 part-songs are so fresh, ingenious, and spirited, 
 and who is also the author of a selection of very 
 fine sacred songs ; and Michel Prcetorius, cele- 
 brated as composer and writer on musical sub- 
 jects. Pra3torius was a man of great experi- 
 ence and education. He travelled much, was in 
 Italy, and exercised, through his writings, a 
 great influence on the development of musical 
 art in Germany. He also contributed much to- 
 wards the revolution in music which began in 
 Italy, and spread, in the seventeenth century, all 
 over Europe. 
 
 I have already mentioned, in a previous lec- 
 ture, that the Calvinists of Switzerland and the 
 Huguenots of France adopted the Psalms, ver- 
 sified by Clement Marot and Theodore de Beze, 
 for their musical service. These melodies, as far 
 as can be ascertained, were also adapted from 
 popular people's-songs, and harmonized, in a 
 simple form, by Claude Goudimel and Claudin 
 le Jeune. The principal melody is still assigned 
 to the tenor. Many of these charming and 
 truly sacred melodies found their way to the 
 Protestant Lutheran Church ; and even English
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 121 
 
 composers adapted them to the English Church 
 service (The " Old Hundredth " is one of those 
 psalm-melodies) . 
 
 Thus we see that the first reformers and the 
 heads of the Protestant churches endeavored to 
 make their congregations take part in the sing- 
 ing of hymns and psalms. Though efficient 
 choirs yet existed in the principal churches, able 
 to perform the more artistic settings of the 
 sacred songs, composers, in order to interest the 
 congregation in the singing of the hymns, were 
 gradually obliged to abandon the old custom of 
 assigning to the tenor the principal melody, 
 and to invent and harmonize melodies fit to be 
 sung in union by the whole congregation. With 
 the introduction of organs in the churches, and 
 the engagement of efficient organists, capable of 
 sustaining the singing of the congregation with 
 appropriate, simple, yet characteristic and 
 solemn harmonies, the musical part of the Pro- 
 testant churches assumed that character which 
 renders it sacred people's-song, in the fullest ex- 
 pression of the word. Though not so rich in 
 its forms as the mass of the Catholic Church, 
 the Protestant chorale, in its noble simplicity 
 and grandeur, influenced the musical education 
 of German composers not a little ; and, of these 
 composers, Bach and Handel were the greatest. 
 
 John Sebastian Bach was born at Eisenach,
 
 122 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 March 21, 1685. He was a musician of the fifth 
 generation of one of the most musical families 
 ever produced by any country. At the age of 
 ten he was left an orphan, and thus came under 
 the care of his brother, who was an organist at 
 Ohrdruff, and who also gave him his first instruc- 
 tion on the harpsichord, or clavier. After filling 
 the place of organist and " concert-ineister " in 
 Annstadt, Muelhausen, Weimar, and Anhalt- 
 Koethen, he was appointed cantor and musical 
 director at the Thomas School, in Leipzig, a 
 position which he held until his death, July 28, 
 1750. The last years of his life were saddened 
 by a painful disease of the eyes, which, through 
 an unsuccessful operation, resulted in total 
 blindness. 
 
 Bach's whole social career may be summed 
 up in a few words. There are no virtuoso 
 triumphs to be related, which, while they would 
 have been the means of great pecuniary gains 
 to him, might have won for him the prestige of 
 romantic intrigues, and success also ; and yet he 
 was the greatest organist and performer on the 
 harpsichord, perhaps the greatest organist that 
 ever lived ! We have none of those great perform- 
 ances of his works to describe, on account of which 
 princes and nobles, astonished at his genius, ri- 
 valled each other in seeking to place him at the 
 head of their chapels. He was too upright and
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 1-3 
 
 modest, too true to his German individuality. 
 Italians, or Italianized-German composers, then 
 had the upper hand ; and yet Bach had no equal 
 unless in Handel in the arts of counter- 
 point, as well as in that requisite which stamps 
 real genius, original melodious invention ! In 
 1733, in the dedication prefixed to that sublime 
 work, the B-minor Mass, the equal of which is 
 only to be found in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, 
 the cantor Bach besought the elector of Saxony 
 to protect him from certain diminutions of salary, 
 to which he was entitled as chapel-master of two* 
 churches in Leipzig. The salary was already 
 small enough. In the same dedication, he 
 modestly requested the honorary title of court- 
 composer, in return for which he offered to write 
 church and orchestral music as often as the 
 elector should demand it. He did not obtain 
 the empty title until three years later ; but no 
 further opportunity of composing for the Church 
 or other musical institutions was offered to him 
 by the court of Dresden. They wanted senti- 
 mental opera-music in the Church also : there 
 was no place to be found there for Bach's 
 solemn, pious, noble strains. I have neither 
 time nor space to give due consideration to 
 Bach's works, of which he created an astonish- 
 ing quantity'. I shall limit myself, in this lec- 
 ture, to his Passion oratorios, and to some 
 remarks on his cantatas and chorales.
 
 124 IHSTOnY OF MUSIC. 
 
 Bach's artistic career culminates in the forma 
 of Protestant church music ; and, of these, the 
 Protestant sacred song, the chorale, received his 
 continual attention. No other composer studied, 
 and turned to his artistic benefit, the harmonic 
 and melodic resources of the chorale, like Bach. 
 In this point, he resembles Palestrina, who held 
 a similar beneficial relation to the Gregorian 
 chant ; and, from this point of view, the t\vo 
 great masters embodied in their works that spir- 
 itual life and expression which took root in the 
 mystic creed of their relative churches. In his 
 cantatas, in his motets, in his oratorios, in his 
 works for the organ, everywhere we meet in 
 Bach's works the chorale, from its simplest 
 form of a plain four-part harmonization, to the 
 most artificial combinations which the deepest 
 knowledge of counterpoint can lend to the mas- 
 ter. Everywhere it is made the vehicle of pro- 
 found ideal contents. In his great cantatas, how- 
 ever, this art reaches its culmination. In the 
 cantatas, all that touches man's soul most deep- 
 ly, every feeling, every emotion, from the cradle 
 to the grave, is revealed in compositions inex- 
 haustible in richness of harmony, truthfulness 
 of melodious expression, and the greatest varie- 
 ty of forms. He penetrates the spiritual depth of 
 holy writ, raises its sense by means of his incom- 
 parable art, transfigures it in tone until its whole
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 125 
 
 meaning is revealed. Bach's church m isic is a 
 perfect exposition of the text which forms its 
 foundation. He seems to have found at once 
 the best forms for all his creations ; even where 
 he employs the most ingenious ones, it is impos- 
 sible to detect the slightest constraint. The 
 power which he possessed, of instantaneously 
 placing himself in the frame of mind required by 
 the exigencies of the text he had to set to mu- 
 sic, must have been astonishing : from this only 
 we can explain to ourselves the phenomenal 
 production of such a vast number of works of 
 the highest order. Bach is said to have composed 
 five Passion oratorios. But, up to this time, 
 only two are known and published; the one 
 according to St. John, and that according to St. 
 Matthew. The latter is the more perfect of the 
 two. The formal arrangement of the St. Mat- 
 thew's Passion is based upon that of Bach's pre- 
 decessors. There is the narrative of the Passion 
 of Christ, according to St. Matthew, recited in 
 a recitative form by a tenor. The speech of 
 Jesus, the parts of St. Peter, of the Priest, and 
 of Pontius Pilate, are assigned to a bass voice, 
 and the Jews are represented by a chorus. A 
 second group, the ideal Christian congregation, 
 and the Daughter of Zion, accompany the ac- 
 tion with moral observations. The Protestant 
 congregation, forming the third group, inter
 
 126 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 mixes the different situations with the singing 
 of suitable chorales. It is not possible to give 
 an adequate description of this beautiful work : 
 it must be studied and heard. All that Bach's 
 genius could reach lies unfolded, in immortal 
 master-strokes, in this wonderful sacred poem. 
 The composer, with rare tact and appreciation, 
 knew how to make use of all the best that the 
 forms of his predecessors and his contemporaries 
 presented, in order to serve his own noble pur- 
 poses. Great genius, and an extensive knowl- 
 edge of the deepest secrets of musical science, 
 were made the means of glorifying, of revealing 
 the most sacred, the most profound emotions 
 which religion grants to mankind. 
 
 Besides the Passion oratorios, Bach also com- 
 posed a Christmas oratorio. 
 
 a. F. Handel * was born Feb. 23, 1685, in 
 the same year as his great contemporary, J. 
 S. Bach. In my lecture on the opera, I have 
 given the outlines of his artistic career. Handel 
 also composed two Passion oratorios for Ham- 
 burg. The first, which he wrote while yet a 
 mere youth, shows only in some points the fu- 
 ture great master ; and the other, full of admi- 
 rable choruses and arias (the chorale is 
 also employed in it), was, until lately, little 
 known. Handel commenced his career in Lon- 
 
 * See Chiysander's excellent Biography of Handel.
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 127 
 
 don, as an opera-composer ; but his great influ- 
 ence on the musical culture of England is to be 
 looked for in his oratorios. While yet manager 
 and composer of Italian operas, he had already 
 brought out (in 1720) "Esther," his first oratorio ; 
 and, some time after, " Deborah and Athalia." It 
 was only when, through the opposition of the 
 English aristocracy, he found himself, after 
 years of manly struggle, nearly a ruined man. 
 that he devoted his whole genius to the ora 
 torio. In the year 1737, his career as opera 
 manager came suddenly to an end : his iron 
 constitution broke down ; his mental faculties 
 were temporarily disturbed, and an attack of 
 paralysis endangered his life. After a short 
 sojourn at Aix-la-Chapelle, where he took the 
 baths, he returned to London, and in quick suc- 
 cession created in his latter years those great 
 sacred dramas, in which his genius, ripened by 
 immense perseverance and almost universal ex- 
 perience, embodied in immortal tone-pictures 
 the everlasting truths of men's loftiest aspira- 
 tions. I need only allude to " The Messiah," 
 "Samson," "Israel in Egypt," u Solomon," 
 " Saul," " Jephtha," " Judas Maccabseus," &c. 
 As opera-composer and manager, Handel had 
 already done the work of a very industrious 
 man's life ; besides a vast number of remarkable 
 works, such as anthems, motets, psalms, hymns.
 
 128 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 cantatas, &c., which were composed during that 
 time. It fills us with awe when we consider the 
 quantity of gigantic works which he produced 
 after he had passed his fifty-third year. Handel, 
 through his failure as an opera-manager, was thus 
 destined to give the oratorio its lasting form ; and 
 his oratorios prove, that in this form he could 
 realize, in the highest sense, those great ideas of 
 dramatic life which were an inner necessity of 
 his artistic mind. In the Holy Scriptures he 
 found his immortal heroes, the ideal type of 
 Christian ambition and virtue : there also he 
 found those words of consolation and hope 
 which he so wonderfully wedded to the most 
 exquisite and most tender strains ; there he also 
 found those great principles of truth, religion, ana 
 liberty, which he triumphantly proclaimed to 
 the world by means of his powerful, highly- 
 spirited, and incomparable choruses. Not in 
 the rigid forms of purely church music, 
 neither in the empty superficial forms of the opera 
 of his days, but in a noble universal human ex- 
 pression, lay the mission allotted to his excep- 
 tional genius to fulfil. 
 
 Though the English composers, Arne, Arnold, 
 Stanley, Green, Worgan, and others, have also 
 composed oratorios, their works had only a tem- 
 porary success, and have since sunk into obliv- 
 ion. The oratorio in our sense, has never been
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 1-0 
 
 earnestly and suc3essfully cultivated in France : 
 all the French composers of any note have al- 
 most exclusively devoted their best efforts to 
 the opera. In Italy, the influence of the opera 
 on church music was most enervating. The 
 oratorios by such composers as Jomelli, Paisi- 
 ello, Zingarelli, Cimarosa, Guglielmi, cannot be 
 distinguished from their operas, except by a few 
 choruses in the fugue form. In France and 
 Italy, oratorios were generally performed in 
 Lent only, when the performance of operas was 
 suspended. The Italian and French composers, 
 " treading without much thought on the path 
 which the poets had broken up for them, pro- 
 ceeded to treat the oratorio like the opera-seria, 
 though less restrained in their handling of this 
 form, on account of its smaller dramatic require- 
 ments. We find no very essential difference be- 
 tween the two : arias, recitatives, choruses, are 
 worked out in much the same way ; only we 
 observe the bass admissible as a solo voice 
 first in oratorio. Neither poetry nor music pos- 
 sessed a really church-like character : composers 
 modified their oratorio style merely in an out- 
 ward manner. An oratorio air would have suited 
 a similar situation in a serious opera : an operatic 
 chorus might have been placed in an oratorio, 
 &c. Both oratorio and opera were considered 
 by songstresses and castrati as opportunities for
 
 130 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 the display of mechanical dexterity ; though, in- 
 deed, a certain limit to it was drawn in oratorio. 
 The direction which art took fully agreed with 
 the wishes of the public : the latter expected to 
 find as much enjoyment from oratorio (when 
 this was fixed upon in celebration of any solem- 
 nities) as the opera could present." * In Ger- 
 many, the forms of the Italian opera also exer- 
 cised great influence on the oratorio and church 
 music in general. The Italianized works of 
 Teleman, Hasse, and Graun, instead of those of 
 Handel and Bach, were the models of all Ger- 
 man composers of any significance. With few 
 exceptions, the oratorios of these musicians, 
 composed of sentimental, long, and empty arias, 
 and dry and spiritless contrapuntal choruses, 
 were then of very little influence on real Ger- 
 man musical art-culture. I must also mention 
 the Passion oratorio, the " Death of Jesus," by 
 the composer Graun. C. H. G-raun, born 1701, 
 and the favorite composer of Frederic the Great, 
 was held up by his German contemporaries as 
 the model composer ; and his " Death of Jesus," 
 performed in Berlin every Good Friday, was 
 for a long time considered as the work par ex- 
 cellence, written in a flowing style. Graun, 
 who then held the same position in Germany 
 as that which Mendelssohn holds in .public 
 
 * Otto .Talm : Mozart.
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 131 
 
 opinion to-day, is now as much underrated as 
 he was once overrated. He has written some 
 very effective and purely constructed choruses. 
 Other German composers of this period, whose 
 works still present some fine points, were 
 Homilius, who has composed a Passion oratorio in 
 a noble and pure style, Naumann, Krebs, Stolzel, 
 Rolle, Schicht, and Ph. E. Bach, the son of J. S. 
 Bach. The close imitation of the text of the 
 Bible, and even the selection of the entire sub- 
 ject from Holy Writ, so piously adhered to by 
 Handel, and in a great measure by Bach, in 
 their grandest works, was entirely abandoned ; 
 and the words, in the form of operatic libretti, 
 Azioni sacre, arranged and dramatized by 
 Zeno and Metastasio, were 'the models for poets, 
 and eagerly sought for by composers. . " La 
 Betulia Liberata," an oratorio libretto by Metas- 
 tasio, was such a favorite text, that, from 1734 
 to 1828, Italian and German composers set it to 
 music over and over again ; even in 1771, Mo- 
 zart tried his young powers on it. " Davide 
 penitente," also by Mozart, is a transformation 
 f a mass into an oratorio. 
 
 Bach's vocal works were laid aside in Ger- 
 many ; while, in England, Handel's oratorios took 
 from year to year a deeper root in the hearts of 
 the English people. The regeneration of the 
 opera by Gluck, and the progress of instrumental
 
 \.<j'2 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 mu&ic, gave, however, new and richer forinu 
 and contents to the art. It was in 1791, on. a 
 visit to London, that Joseph Haydn, born March 
 13, 1732, and the creator of the string quartet 
 and the modern symphony, heard, probably 
 for the first time, some of Handel's oratorios 
 performed. Inspired by the sublimity of 
 these works, he afterwards composed the 
 " Creation " and the " Seasons." Haydn, al- 
 ways original, has also given us, in the oratorio 
 form, music purely of his own. The music of 
 his oratorios can be compared " to a charming 
 garden, blooming among green meadows and 
 refreshing, shadowy bushes ; while Handel re- 
 minds one of imposing mountains, crowned with 
 noble forests of cedars and oaks." The " Crea- 
 tion " and the " Seasons " are well known and 
 admired ; and they will remain so as long as men 
 are capable of enjoying pure, spirited, and 
 healthy music. Through Haydn, the instru- 
 mental accompaniment of the oratorio has been 
 made the agency of greater and richer effects. 
 Beethoven 's " Mount of Olives," composed in 
 1800, is the only effort the great master made in 
 the oratorio form. We also possess the fragment 
 of an oratorio by the genial Franz Schubert, 
 " Lazarus," which was performed for the first 
 time in 1863. Though masters like F. /Schneider, 
 L. Spohr, B. Klein, K. Loew ', The. Chevalier Neit-
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. l'<-d 
 
 kom, composed many a meritorious oratorio, 
 I need only mention Schneider's " Weltgericht," 
 Spohr's " Letze Dinge," Klein's " David," 
 they were all surpassed by the popularity which 
 Mendelssohn'' s oratorios gained hi Germany as 
 well as in England. Mendelssohn, endowed 
 with a fine perception and a keen eye, under 
 stood at once the depth and the power of Han 
 del's and Bach's oratorios and other choral 
 works. It was he who in 1829 had Bach's St. 
 Matthew's Passion oratorio performed in Berlin 
 under his own direction. The sublime work 
 had then slept a sleep of one hundred years : for 
 it was performed for the last time by Bach on 
 Good Friday, 1729. How much Mendelssohn 
 owes to his great models, every one acquainted 
 with Bach's and Handel's works knows ; but to 
 what a great and effective use he turned his 
 many resources, his two fine oratorios of " St. 
 Paul " and " Elijah " have proven. Mendels- 
 sohn, more lyric than dramatic, more refined 
 than profound, more conventional than original, 
 who mastered the whole formal material of his 
 art with such wonderful facility, ease, and 
 aplomb, was thus understood and appreciated at 
 once ; and if we study the whole situation of 
 musical art when " St. Paul " first appeared, w( 
 cannot help thanking the talent that produced it 
 and through it gave new impulses to musical art
 
 134 HISTORY OF MUSHJ 
 
 His contemporary, Robert Schumann, the greatest 
 composer since Beethoven's death, has also com- 
 posed an oratorio, though of a secular character, 
 " Paradise and the Peri." This beautiful work is, 
 as Schumann's vocal works in general are, too sel- 
 dom heard here. Schumann, original and pro- 
 found, exquisite, ever femininely beautiful in his 
 tender strains, and of imposing grandeur in his 
 large forms, like all true original geniuses who 
 adhere more to principle than to speculation, 
 passed away before he found a deserved recog- 
 nition. 
 
 These are the historical outlines of that noble 
 art-form, the oratorio, with as much detail 
 as my limits would allow me. It may be said 
 that the oratorio is the highest form of musical 
 dramatic art, in the sense that it possesses as 
 foundation and contents the deepest and loftiest 
 ideas of Christian religious-moral life. Its 
 heroes and heroines are the ideal instruments 
 and messengers of divinity. Their struggles, 
 their triumphs, are those of high and noble 
 souls. The strains with which the composer ex- 
 presses their emotions, their feelings, must thus 
 aim at the freest and most ideal perfection. 
 Though the oratorio makes use of the same mu- 
 sical forms as the opera, yet, being uncontrolled 
 by the inevitable action of the opera performer 
 and the visible changes of stage machinery, it
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 135 
 
 can develop these forms freely, and thus gain 
 deeper musical meaning. The chorus, forming 
 one of the most important factors in the orato- 
 rio, not seldom concentrates in itself all the 
 rays of the central idea of the composer's sacred, 
 dramatic expression and inspiration. The purely 
 sentimental, the realistic passionate, the reflex 
 of human life in its continual conflicts and strug- 
 gles, and the necessary basis of the opera, 
 do not find such a conspicuous place in the ora- 
 torio ; and those composers who endeavor to 
 transform the ideal form of the oratorio, by 
 means of the dramatic element in the sense of 
 the modern opera, will always see their own ef- 
 forts, in spite of talent and knowledge, fall 
 short of the most sanguine expectations. In my 
 opinion, it is only through a return to a deep, 
 earnest, and faithful study of the immortal 
 works of those great oratorio composers, Han- 
 del and Bach, that a new foundation and a 
 new contents can be regained. Were not Haydn 
 and Mendelssohn inspired by these wonderful 
 creations ? And though they also created fine 
 and classical works, yet they did not reach, far 
 less did they surpass, their great models : there- 
 fore let us go back to that inexhaustible origi- 
 nal mine of abundant treasures of beauty and 
 inspiration, not in the sense of mere superfi- 
 cial imitators and transcriber, but in that of the
 
 136 
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 best spirit of our own times, to strengthen, tc 
 intensify, to enlarge our own minds through the 
 ennobling influence of such everlasting and per- 
 fect models. No age has yet produced fine 
 works independent of those productions that 
 preceded it ; and no age will fulfil its own artis- 
 tic mission in its full significance, by wilfully 
 ignoring the great, the beautiful creations which 
 other ages before it have already accomplished.
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 137 
 
 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 The Opera, from its First Invention in Italy to the Death of 
 Gluck. 
 
 UNTIL the close of that great epoch in mu- 
 sical history, marked by the immortal works 
 of Palestrina, Orlandus Lassus, and their con- 
 temporaries, the composer's highest endeavor 
 has been to adorn the Church with the noblest 
 and purest products of his mind : for, as I have 
 already stated, the whole mode of thought and 
 life of the different European nations took root 
 in the all-embracing idea of the Church; and 
 art, especially music, emanated from the bosom 
 of the Church. Though secular music was also 
 diligently cultivated by different composers, to 
 serve as a fitting adornment for social gather- 
 ings, its whole coloring yet bore the stamp of 
 the domineering church music : even favorite 
 people's-songs (folk-songs), as we have already 
 seen, were worked up by the most distinguished 
 composers in their masses, and as such became; 
 the property of the Church. Until the close of 
 the sixteenth century, all forms which were ad-
 
 138 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 mitted in musical practice consisted of those in 
 many parts in simultaneous progression, in two 
 words, of choral music. Monody was not yet 
 known ; at all events, it was not yet in general 
 use. In the form of chorus, the single individ- 
 ual, with his or her own characteristic feelings, 
 disappeared among the multitude of people, who, 
 moved by the same motives, by the same inward 
 and outward causes, expressed their emotions, 
 their feelings, in a collective manner : and, as in 
 the middle ages, the rights of the individual in 
 a psychological, social, and political sense were 
 scarcely yet recognized, but entirely governed 
 and controlled by the State and the Church, 
 choral music, in its different forms, was the fit- 
 ting expression of the artistic aspiration of these 
 times. So we find the secular song in its divers 
 aspects, the chanson, the German lied, the 
 glee, the villota, the villanella, and the charm- 
 ing madrigal, which represent almost exclu- 
 sively the chamber-music of the fifteenth, six- 
 teenth, and seventeenth centuries, always set 
 for three, four, five, six, and more voices. 
 
 Monody, the expression of all those various 
 lights and shades of individual inner life, was, 
 then, yet excluded from practice in musical art. 
 Its importance was not yet known or felt 
 Though the Church admitted chanting, a stiff 
 and monotonous monody. the favorite form of
 
 HISTORY OF MU&LC. 133 
 
 composers was the chorus. With the acquire- 
 ment of greater freedom in the political and so- 
 cial situation of the people, and with an increas- 
 ing love for, and need of, the study of secular 
 arts and sciences, these latter more and more 
 adapted themselves in their forms to the charac- 
 ter of the secular position they were to fill. 
 But secular music, above all other arts, became, 
 by means of this secular character, so promi- 
 nent, that its influence, though at first benefi- 
 cial in many respects, proved in the end to be 
 deteriorating to the sacred meaning of church 
 music. 
 
 Music, born at the altar of the Christian 
 Church, borrowed at first all its forms from it. 
 It already played a considerable part in those 
 early, yet loosely dramatized plays, called mo- 
 ralities, or mysteries, rudely arranged by priests 
 and monks from biblical or legendary subjects. 
 They were performed in the middle ages, even in 
 the churches, all over Europe : for mankind has 
 a natural propensity for mimic representations 
 of actual or feigned characters or deeds ; and 
 history tells us that all civilized, and even 
 half-civilized, nations have had plays adapted 
 to their individuality for religious festivities 
 and amusements. The musical portion which 
 formed a part of these mysteries and morali- 
 ties consisted entirely of chorales and psalm-
 
 140 BISTORT OF MUSIC. 
 
 odies or chants, taken from the church ser- 
 vice. In my lecture on the oratorio, I have 
 treated more fully of this peculiar custom. 
 Though the opera also took root from these 
 mystery or miracle plays, I only touch this 
 ground here for mere comprehension's sake. 
 
 The practical event, however, which increased 
 the love for the study of sciences, arts, and 
 poetry, principally at the courts, and in many 
 free cities, of Italy, was the conquest of Con- 
 stantinople by the Turks under Soliman, in 
 1453. Though the Byzantine empire was ut- 
 terly demoralized under the corrupt and weak 
 government of Constantinople, the traditions of 
 Greek and Roman greatness in art and science 
 yet existed ; and many a devoted scholar culti- 
 vated them. Through the conquest of Constan- 
 tinople by the Turks, these scientific and literary 
 men fled to other Christian countries, principally 
 to Italy, and bequeathed to their new hornea 
 their learning and its refining consequences. 
 Thus the study of old Greek literature increased 
 rapidly : the past greatness of that wonderful 
 nation awakened in the bosom of many an 
 Italian student a desire to see his own nation 
 produce the same wonders in art and poetry one 
 day. The Greek drama, especially, was the 
 subject of the closest study ; and to restore it to 
 its former magnificence was the dream of many
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 141 
 
 a modern Greek scholar. After again decipher- 
 ing the dramas of the old Greek poets, the men 
 of letters could of course be no more satisfied 
 with the crude, and in many respects coarse, rep- 
 resentations of the miracle-plays. But to re-pos- 
 sess the Greek drama, in all its beauty and 
 significance, it was soon found necessary to resus- 
 citate the Greek music, as music always made 
 an essential part of the drama of the old poets ; 
 and Greek writers were lavish in praise of the 
 wonderful effects of that music. To discover 
 this lost art again was, no doubt, the deep de- 
 sire of many a modern Greek student and musi- 
 cian. It was at the same time felt that the 
 monotonous chant, and the complicated contra- 
 puntal choruses of the Flemish and Italian 
 church composers, could not answer the wants of 
 the Greek drama or of the drama in general. 
 In order to understand the words of the poetry, 
 to follow their expression and meaning in all the 
 different colorings of the drama, a manner of 
 singing was to be found, for which a more natu- 
 ral and logical rhythm, and a greater simplicity 
 of harmony, were the necessary means. That 
 the Greeks possessed this music was thought 
 evident. But what were these forms of Greek 
 music ? How were those choruses arranged 
 which played such an eminent part in the Greek 
 drama ? To solve these problems, nothing was
 
 142 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 left to consult on the real nature of Greek mu- 
 sic but the exaggerated praises of the o;cl 
 authors. 
 
 Though all over Italy the different cities 
 rivalled each other in the getting-up of scenic 
 representations in which music formed a con- 
 spicuous part, it was principally in Florence, 
 however, that, under the reign of the rich and 
 art-loving house of the Medicis, music was des- 
 tined to take a new direction, and to create for 
 itself new and richer forms, sprung from this 
 searching into the final supposed resuscitation 
 of the lost Greek music. In Florence, more 
 than anywhere else, the question of re-estab- 
 lishing the Greek drama vividly occupied the 
 minds of literateurs, artists, and amateurs : it 
 was the theme of daily discussions at court and 
 in literary circles. The house of G-iovanni 
 Bardi, Count of Vernio, a man of great accom- 
 plishments, and poet and composer himself be- 
 sides, was, among others, the place of meeting 
 of those enthusiastic Hellenes who were not 
 satisfied with theoretical discussions on the 
 possibility of the re-establishment of the Greek 
 draiaa alone, but, being men of deeds, who be- 
 gan to put their admitted theories in practice. 
 The principal men who frequented Bardi's house 
 (and afterwards, when, in 1592, Pope Clemens 
 VIII. called Bardi to become his maestro da
 
 BISTORT OF MUSIC. 143 
 
 camera, that of Corsi) were Vincenzo Grdlilei, 
 Pietro Strozzi, Grirolamo Mei, Ottavio Rinuccini^ 
 G-iulio Caccini, and some time after, also Jacopo 
 Peri. These men unanimously proclaimed the 
 means of the musical forms then in use, as in- 
 sufficient to answer the requirements of a truly 
 musical drama ; and Vincenzo Galilei, the father 
 of the great mathematician and astronomer, Gali- 
 leo Galilei, was foremost among them as cham- 
 pion for Greek music. Galilei was a pupil of 
 the distinguished composer and theorist, Zarli- 
 no : he was also an able performer on the lute. 
 Galilei wrote and published, in opposition to 
 Zarlino, a pamphlet in the form of a dialogue, 
 in which Bardi and Strozzi appeared and dis- 
 cussed the merits of ancient and modern music ; 
 and of which the conclusion is, that modern 
 music is only fit for the uncultivated masses, 
 and therefore to be despised by the connoisseur. 
 Galilei was not yet satisfied with giving his 
 ideas on the nature of true music to the world ; 
 but he also composed, for one voice, the scene 
 of Count Ugolino in Dante's " Inferno," and 
 performed it himself with an accompaniment on 
 the viola. Being much applauded in this first 
 effort, he afterwards set some of " Jeremiah's 
 Lamentations " in a similar way to music. This 
 form of song, which Galilei designated monody, 
 seems to have been reaih the first of composi-
 
 144 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 tion for one voice independent of counter- 
 point. 
 
 The singer Giulio Caccini, called the Roman, 
 was one of the most zealous disciples of the new 
 theories, and also a frequenter of the meetings 
 at Bardi's and Strozzi's. He set, in imitation of 
 Galilei, different poems to music for one voice, 
 which he afterwards published in 1601, under 
 the title of " Nuove Musiche." Caccini gave 
 to his work a long preface, in which he put for- 
 ward his claims to the accomplishment of the 
 new manner of musical composition. He also 
 gave instructions concerning a good method of 
 singing ; and, to judge from his musical illustra- 
 tions, the art of singing must have been already 
 advanced to a high degree of perfection. An- 
 other master, Ludovico Viadana, has also great 
 claims to be considered as one of the first com- 
 posers of pieces for one voice. In 1602, he pub- 
 lished a number of " Concerti daChiesa" for 
 one, two, three, and four voices, with an accom- 
 paniment for the organ. In the preface, he says 
 that he composed these Concerti as early as 1595 ; 
 and, encouraged by his friends, he published them 
 to serve in place of the motets, originally writ- 
 ten for five, six, and more parts, and of which 
 one part was sung by a single voice, while the 
 organist played the other parts. As the forms 
 of instrumental music were at this period yet in
 
 HISTOfiY OF MUSIC. 145 
 
 a state of infancy, choral music,, and, in particu- 
 lar, madrigals, were roughly adapted to the 
 wants of the instrumental resources then in use. 
 Viadana, with a more refined sense, perceived 
 the defects of such an inartistic custom, and 
 thus tried to substitute a better and a more mu- 
 sical manner through his concerti. These pieces 
 are in melodious quality far superior to the mo- 
 nodies of Galilei and Caccini : they can be con- 
 sidered, indeed, as the first musical productions 
 in cantilene style, written in a smooth, singable, 
 and very melodious manner. 
 
 The greatest and most important step towards 
 the establishment of musical drama was now 
 made. The next thing to be done was to 
 make use of the new means, in a dramatic work, 
 destined to consist of adequate music from be- 
 ginning to end. Several of the musicians who 
 were accustomed to be present at the literary 
 meetings mentioned before, excited by the 
 novelty of the subject, had already tried to 
 realize the idea of having the whole drama set 
 to music, and aung. 
 
 The first whom history mentions, as having 
 tried his hand at the new form of drama, was 
 Emilio del Cavaliere. Two pastorals, " II Satiro " 
 and " La Disperazione di Fileno," by the re- 
 nowned poetess Laura Guidiccioni, were given 
 
 ' 1 1590, a^ the court of Florence ; and another, 
 10
 
 146 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 " II Giuco Delia Cieca," foUowed in 1595 : all 
 three were set to music by Emilio del Cavaliere, 
 and sung throughout. 
 
 According to Arteaga (" History of the Opera 
 in Italy " ), the musical part was written in the 
 style of the madrigal, and was full of tedious 
 artificialities and repetitions. It seems, how- 
 ever, that E. del Cavaliere's efforts in the new 
 direction did not satisfy the modern Hellenes 
 who assembled at Bardi's. 
 
 It was reserved to another to fulfil, in a high 
 degree, the so long-delayed expectations of the 
 impatient members of the literary circle. I have 
 already stated, that, after Bardi's engagements 
 in Rome, the meetings of the club, or academy, 
 were held at the house of Jacopo Corsi, who, 
 like Bardi, entertained the same views of the 
 necessity of discovering a new musical form, to 
 be adopted for the so-called Greek dramatic pur- 
 poses. It is in Corsi's house that we meet J. Peri 
 for the first time. Peri was a good musician ; 
 and, through a happy stroke, he brought the new 
 and so diligently sought for musical-dramatic 
 form into existence. The poet;- Rinuccini, who 
 had already written the intermezzo " Combatti- 
 mento d'Appollino col Serpente," and which was 
 put on the stage with choruses composed by 
 the celebrated madrigal composer, Luca Maren- 
 zio, re-wrote and re-arranged this intermezzi
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 147 
 
 called it " Daphne," and intrusted it to Peri, who 
 set it entirely to music, and had it performed 
 at Corsi's house. The work received general 
 applause. Peri made use for the first time here 
 of the stilo rappresentativo, retitativo, or par- 
 lante, a kind of musical form which holds the 
 medium between well-formed melody and 
 speech. It was the beginning of a recitative 
 style : every one present was delighted ; and 
 no one doubted but that the music which the 
 old Greeks had used in their dramas was thus 
 recovered. In the year 1600, on the occasion 
 of the marriage of Mary de Medicis with Henry 
 IV., King of France, among othor festivities, a 
 new work by Rinuccini also was produced at Flor- 
 ence, called " Euridice, una Tragedica per Mu- 
 sica." It was greeted by the brilliant assembly 
 of nobles and artists with still greater applause 
 than " Daphne." Peri allowed Caccini, who 
 had also composed music to Rinuccini's " Euri- 
 dice," to have some of it performed at the first 
 representation ; but he afterwards published his 
 own setting of the poem. 
 
 In " Euridice," we now possess for the first 
 time all the forms of our opera, though still in 
 a merely primitive state. At the time when 
 Peri's " Euridice " appeared in Florence, E. del 
 Cavaliere had performed his allegoric drama in 
 Rome, " L'anima e Corpo," of which I have
 
 148 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 spoken in my lecture on the oratorio. These 
 early musical dramas were composed of simple 
 choruses in the madrigal style, and of musical 
 recitation : in some lyric moments, the arioso 
 style already appeared at times ; but as these first 
 opera-composers attempted, as they fancied, to 
 imitate the musical forms which they believed 
 the Greeks had used in their dramas, the musi- 
 cal part of their works never attempted a broad, 
 well-formed melody. It was purely musical 
 declamation. The instrumentalists who played 
 the accompaniments in " Euridice " were placed 
 behind the scenes. The only instrumental 
 piece, somewhat resembling an air, and which 
 introduces a scene in the first opera, consists of 
 fourteen bars : it is called a " Zinfonia," and was 
 to be played by three flutes (see the lecture 
 on instrumental music). But all the material 
 for formation and construction of the opera was 
 thus discovered ; and, in the course of time, an 
 art- work emerged from these precocious efforts 
 which was destined to play a conspicuous role 
 in the artistic and social life even of whole na- 
 tions. I will here give as specimens (for the 
 sake of comparison), a recitative and chorus 
 from "Euridice," as composed by Peri and 
 Caccini to the same words.
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 149 
 
 13. RECITATIVO. Peri. 
 
 Or di soa-ve plcttro ar-mato ed'aurea ce-tra, Conlagri- 
 
 
 *-hT 
 
 mo - so metro Canoro amante impetra, ch'ilciel riveggae 
 
 L_ IWr-W p J-J 
 
 it-Jl-Wfr 
 
 =Pi 
 
 vi - - va La sos - pi - ra - ta Di - - va. 
 
 j N N N 
 
 =t 
 
 P-*-Ve 
 
 14. RECITATIVO. 
 
 Caccini. 
 
 Jt^j^Ui^^ 
 
 PPP 
 
 m 
 
 iv
 
 150 
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 J, 
 
 ry-T^' 
 2SF- 
 
 i j s 
 
 ^y~~~ .^ 
 
 liM=i 
 
 ;EIIIIE 
 ner 
 
 CHORUS of the Infernal Gods. Peri. 
 
 Poi chc gl'eterni im-pe - ri, Tol-to dal ciel Sa-tur-no par- 
 
 C\\ t v * f-^-t * && 
 
 ^H^-te-> ; p l ?%r^j? 
 
 =J=^F\ 
 
 5 ^-r- t=a 
 
 tiro i figlial-te - ri, da quest'or-ror iiot-tur-no 
 
 * *
 
 HISTORY Olf' MUSIC. 
 
 151 
 
 Alma non torno' ma - i del ciel a' dol - ci ra - i. 
 
 itN 
 
 1O. CHORUS of the Infernal Gods. Caccini. 
 
 
 1r1r 
 
 Though the newly-discovered style, the stilo 
 retitativo, created such a sensation all over
 
 152 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 Italy, the better composers looked upon it as a 
 mere production of amateurs not very much 
 skilled in musical science ; and of course they 
 had no inclination to cultivate the new form. 
 But progress in the new direction was not to be 
 retarded ; for, soon after, a master of great mu- 
 sical talent and ability directed his attention to 
 the " drama per musica," or the opera, as it was 
 afterwards called : and this master was Claudia 
 Monteverde, born 1568, in Cremona. Monte- 
 verde was at first, for some time, chapel-master 
 it Mantua ; and, from 1613 until his death in 
 1643, he occupied the same position at St. 
 Marc's Cathedral in Venice. Though the works 
 ^rhich he composed for the Church already bear 
 fhe marks of decadence in style, when com- 
 pared with the classic works of Palestrina and his 
 school, they yet give evidence of great strength 
 and invention in the master. But, with his ma- 
 drigals and operas, he marks the beginning of a 
 aew era in musical art. Monteverde was no 
 .onger satisfied to write merely fine and scien- 
 tific contrapuntal works : his aim was to render 
 jnpressively the different sentiments of the 
 poem he endeavored to wed to music. Though 
 he exposed himself to the severest criticisms of 
 the purists of his time, he would not shrink 
 back from the use of the sharpest dissonances 
 to serve his artistic purposes, always directed to
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 153 
 
 the dramatic expression of his nature. That 
 such a man was needed to give a solid form to 
 the opera, a foundation which would secure it 
 permanence, and draw into his service talented 
 composers, is evident ; and, at the same time, his 
 efforts proved beneficial to the new art-form 
 and modern musical art in general. Monte- 
 verde's first opera was Rinuccini's " Orfeo," and 
 afterwards "Arianna" and "II Ballo delle In- 
 grate," from the same poet's pen. " Arianna " 
 seemed to have pleased the most, especially 
 the lament of the deserted Arianna ; for all 
 Monteverde's contemporaries speak of it with 
 the greatest admiration. The dsamatic works 
 of this composer show a great progress beyond 
 those of his predecessors. Everywhere we see 
 the tendency to give to the words and to the char- 
 acters of his poem the necessary true musical ex- 
 pression gained by an effective use of harmonic 
 means and analogous rhythm. As Peri himself 
 said, in his preface to the printed copy of his 
 " Euridice," the new manner of composing re- 
 quired a new form of harmonic accompaniment, 
 an accompaniment, which, while at the same 
 time it sustained the singer, would not interfere 
 with his freedom of dramatic action. Monte- 
 verde went still further, and used his instrument- 
 al means for the suitable characteristic coloring 
 of different dramatic situations ; and we already
 
 154 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 find in his operas quite a number of instru- 
 mental pieces, such as symphonies, ritornellos, 
 toccatas, romanescas, and ricercares, introducing 
 and closing the scenes. 
 
 The opera soon became the favorite enter- 
 tainment of the different courts of Italy, which 
 also soon vied with each other in the most bril- 
 liant, dazzling, fantastic, and extravagant repre- 
 ser.tations and stage effects ; and, as we shall 
 see hereafter, singers with extraordinary vocal 
 powers, and the show of brilliant costumes and 
 machineries, drove the idea of the real meaning 
 of dramatic musical art in Italy entirely into 
 the background. 
 
 Italian church composers, seeing the brilliant 
 career of the opera, took hold of it with all 
 their energy ; and thus the progress the new 
 art-form made was rapid. As there is no room 
 here to mention all the men who appeared as 
 opera composers, I shall restrict myself to the 
 principal ones, as in their works we perceive 
 the different phases and changes which operatic 
 forms went through in the course of time. Fore- 
 most among those masters were Francis Colleto, 
 called Cavalli, Griacomo Carissimi, and Marco An- 
 tonio Cesti. The recitative of these masters is, in 
 some of its parts, written with great dramatic 
 truth and variety. It already shows, as it ought 
 to do, an entirely different treatment from that
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 loo 
 
 of the air, with which it forms those necessary 
 points of dramatic contrast and gradation. 
 Though Carissimi, as far as we know, did not 
 compose any operas, but devoted his energy and 
 knowledge to the forms of the oratorio and the 
 chamber cantata, which replaced the madrigal, 
 his airs and recitatives are full of vigorous dra- 
 matic life and spirit. Here is a recitative from 
 his oratorio " Jephtha." What an immense prog- 
 ress beyond Peri and Caccini ! 
 
 Heu, heu mi-hi ! fi - li - a me - a, he de-ce- pi- sti 
 
 a 
 
 In r N ^r~^^^ r 
 
 ? ? 
 
 ' v - P r c 
 
 s fi 7* P 
 
 / ^ -*- -^ -*. J^ 
 me, fi - li - a u - ni 
 
 ^ i i 
 
 ge - ni - ta, de-ce - 
 
 \J 
 
 
 r 1 
 
 1 
 
 W^*\ 
 
 
 i ff^l 
 
 
 _^J_ &- 
 
 i ' 1 
 
 ^v 
 
 
 2^ ^ 
 
 &
 
 156 
 
 HISTORI OF MUSIC. 
 
 pis - ti me, et tu pa - ri - ter, heu fi - li - a 
 
 & m ^5" 
 
 fr. 
 
 ^i* /? 
 
 
 
 
 
 x2_ 
 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 me -a, de - cep - ta es, de - cep - ta es. 
 
 
 
 A pupil of Carissimi's, Allessandro Scarlatti, 
 born in 1659, bore a still greater share in the 
 progress of modern musical forms after the dis- 
 covery of the opera. To Scarlatti belongs the 
 merit of having founded the Neapolitan school 
 of music, out of which came forth a large array 
 of distinguished composers and singers, whose 
 influence in musical matters was felt till up to 
 our modern times. Scarlatti has written re-
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 157 
 
 markable works in every form of musical com- 
 position in practice in his time ; and an aston- . 
 ishing number of these. He perfected the 
 recitative, and gave it classic value. His 
 arias, though wanting in breadth and largeness, 
 are models of fresh, melodious, refined musical 
 fornj . His orchestral accompaniments are 
 graceful, nc v er overladen, but always effective, 
 considering the time in which he lived. 
 
 The Italian opera was soon transplanted to 
 all the different counts of Europe, where it re- 
 mained as the exclusive spectacle of princes 
 and nobles. The prestige of Italian opera com- 
 posers was so great, that in Germany, in Eng- 
 land, a composer could only succeed when he 
 gave himself entirely up to the Italian style 
 of writing. France, however, though admit- 
 ting the fundamental idea of the Italian opera, 
 created a work in many respects materially 
 different ; and, as we shall see, this bore in it- 
 self the germ of the modern musical drama. 
 Cardinal Mazarin transplanted the opera into 
 France, and R. Lambert was the first French 
 composer who composed an opera (about 1660). 
 Cambert's operas are nothing but crude efforts, 
 reminding one more of church psalmody than 
 of secular music for the stage ; but his suc- 
 cessor, Jean Baptist LtiUy. born in the year 1633, 
 though an Italian by birth, identified himself so
 
 158 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 closely with the French spirit and natural cha- 
 racteristics, that the existence of entirely French 
 opera is due to him. He had the talent to gain 
 the favor of Louis XIV. ; and, with that, all the 
 advantages necessary to put his idea about the 
 musical drama in realization. Lully's greatest 
 merit was that of having invented the form of 
 the overture. Instead of the short introduction 
 generally employed by Italian composers, his 
 overtures are an elaborate form in two parts ; 
 the first of which was usually broad and of a 
 slow movement ; the second of a spirited cast, 
 habitually a fugue : sometimes a miniietto, or 
 another piece in a favorite dance form, closed the 
 whole. Lully's overtures were much admired 
 by his contemporaries, and imitated in formal 
 construction. Another specialty which distin- 
 guished Lully's opera from the Italian, was 
 the introduction of the dance, or the ballet, 
 which the French opera has retained as an im- 
 portant feature until our days. A third, and a 
 not less significant specialty of the French 
 opera was the greater importance the chorus 
 was allowed to take : through this, it gained 
 more dramatic life. That which imparted to the 
 Italian opera its greatest charm the recitative 
 and the air is yet an indistinct chaos in Lul- 
 ly's operas. Only here and there the simple 
 song-form succeeded. The French, always anx-
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 159 
 
 ious for a clear and distinct declamation of the 
 words, were yet insensible to a free, broad, and 
 well-defined melody (cantilena). Lully's next 
 successors, such as Colasse, Charpentier, Cam- 
 pra, cultivated the French opera in the spirit of 
 its creator ; and it was reserved to Jean Philippe 
 Rameau, born at Dijon in 1683, to give it a new 
 impulse. Rameau, who was a fine performer on 
 the organ and the harpsichord, and a distin- 
 guished theorist, was already fifty years old 
 when he attempted to write his first opera 
 " Hippolite and Aricie ; " and he at once showed 
 his great superiority over his predecessors. His 
 melodic movements concentrate to logical forms 
 full of character; his choruses evince the 
 highest dramatic effect : but, above all, the part 
 his orchestra has to play is as original as it is at 
 times grand. In those scenes where a storm, a 
 battle, a horrible earthquake, have to be depicted 
 Rameau, in spite of the indifferent state of or- 
 chestral playing in his time, produces powerful 
 and very characteristic effects. Lully's and Ra- 
 meau's works, until the appearance of the che- 
 valier Gluck, were esteemed above any other 
 operas by the French people. The_ attempt to 
 introduce the Italian opera in France failed sig- 
 nally for a long time ; though the French sing- 
 ers who appeared at the Academic Royale de 
 Musique could not compare (with their exag-
 
 160 HIS TORI OF MUSIC. 
 
 gerated and nasal singing) to the Italian vir- 
 tuosi who first sung in Paris. 
 
 The history of the opera in England is noth- 
 ing but a narrative of feuds and cabals between 
 singers, foreign composers, and managers. The 
 English musicians exercised little influence 
 upon the growth of the musical drama. Henry 
 Purcell, born in 1658, who has shown, in the 
 music he composed to plays, and in his operas, 
 so much dramatic power, so much melodious 
 freshness, died too young at the age of thirty- 
 seven to take an active part in the formation 
 of an original English opera-form ; and it seems, 
 besides, that he had not the necessary oppor- 
 tunity offered him of bearing with his whole 
 genius and musical accomplishments on the 
 advantageous growth of this important field. It 
 is much to be regretted, for the sake of English 
 musical culture, that such a profound talent 
 should have passed away without finding a 
 worthy successor among his countrymen. The 
 composers who wrote for the English stage were 
 Italians, and the great Handel. French influ- 
 ence, led by Cambert, whom his clever rival, 
 Lully, had superseded at the court of Louis 
 XIV., was, however, of not long duration. The 
 picture which the musical life of London pre- 
 sents at this period is full of instruction and in- 
 terest. The wealth of the English aristocracy
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 161 
 
 commanded the greatest singers and composers : 
 and, to judge from all the reports we possess of the 
 operatic representations of this time, they must 
 have thrown into shadow even what musical 
 Italy could offer, with its hundreds of fine sing- 
 ers and composers. But did this preference for 
 foreign musicians retard, discourage, and in 
 many ways wrong the indigenous cultivation of 
 English musical art, and above all that of the 
 musical drama, the opera ? This has been often 
 asserted, and, I truly believe, with something of 
 injustice. The artistic genius of a nation will 
 work its Avay out, in spite of religious, political, 
 and social obstacles. Those men, who, through 
 their strong individuality, through their power- 
 ful minds, mark an epoch in the life of nations, 
 either in art or science, are nothing but the lo- 
 gical result of the aspirations of those nations. 
 
 England, as I have shown in a previous lec- 
 ture, had an epoch in musical history principal- 
 ly at that great Elizabethan age rich in origi- 
 nal and learned composers, many of whose vocal 
 compositions, sacred as well as secular, are yet 
 the delight of the connoisseur. Was the musical 
 genius of the English nation exhausted after 
 the death of Henry Purcell ? Or was it want- 
 ng in those requisites so indispensable to the 
 opera composer, power and intensity of musi- 
 cal dramatic life, sensibility in passionate ex- 
 it
 
 162 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 pression, &c? If fine representations and bril- 
 liant performances of great works exalt and 
 stimulate to production the artist endowed 
 with knowledge and genius, while at the same 
 time he is able to form his taste and to exercise 
 his judgment by such means, then the musicians 
 of no other nation enjoyed such inestimable 
 advantages in a higher degree than the English, 
 principally during the whole of the eighteenth 
 century. I cannot admit that their efforts, if 
 equal or superior to those of the foreign compo- 
 sers, their contemporaries, would have been 
 rejected or ignored by their nation or by foreign 
 judges. 
 
 The greatest of all composers who have com- 
 posed for the English stage was Cr. F. Handel, 
 born at Halle, in Germany, in 1685. He re- 
 ceived his first musical education from the or- 
 ganist Zachau, at his native city : he afterwards 
 went to Hamburg, where the renowned Keiser 
 produced his works. There he composed some 
 operas, which were already noticed favorably. 
 From Hamburg, where by teaching music he 
 saved money enough to undertake a voyage to 
 Italy, he went directly to this holy land of all 
 youirg musical aspirants to fame. With energy 
 and open eyes, he made himself master of all 
 that Italy could offer him, as important and in- 
 dispensable to a thorough composer. In Italy,
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 163 
 
 he caine in friendly intercourse with the great- 
 est artists, such as Allessandro Scarlatti, his 
 son Dominico Scarlatti, Corelli, &c. After an 
 absence of three years, Handel came back to 
 Germany ; and, having made a reputation dur- 
 ing his travels, the elector of Hanover offered 
 him the position of chapel-master. On the 
 invitation of some English nobleman, he visited _',*' 
 
 England for the first time in 1710. On this first. '.\j&s* 
 
 , 
 
 visit, he composed his opera " Riualdo " for Lon- 
 don; but it was not till the year 1712 that he/ . , 
 took up_his permanent home in the English capi- 
 tal, where he produced, in quick succession, work 
 after work : and, as though his labors as a com- 
 poser did not suffice to his energy, he also be- 
 came an opera manager, an undertaking which 
 finally proved in many ways fatal both to his 
 purse and to his health. Handel died April 13, 
 1759. The closing years of his life were sad- 
 dened by blindness, at first partial, and finally 
 complete. 
 
 I have only to speak of Handel's merits as an - < ^*^' 
 opera composer here. Though, through his^ 
 great genius and his rich inventiveness, he cre- 
 ated many an immortal aria and chorus, and 
 though the dramatic truth and the power of his 
 classic recitatives are unsurpassed by any other 
 composer, yet he was not destined to realize in 
 its whole signification, the ideal of a dramatic
 
 164 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 musical work for the stage, in which poetry and 
 music concur to create dramatic characters, 
 though fictitious, yet full of human reality, 
 characters that live with apparent truth in oui 
 imagination, heightened by the breath of musical 
 inspiration, and almost forming a part of our own 
 existence. This he was to realize, and in the 
 most ideal sense, in that great art-form, which 
 became the culminating point of his rich and 
 laborious career, the oratorio. Handel was 
 conservative with regard to the Italian opera: 
 he improved upon the forms of his predecessors, 
 by enriching them with the gifts of his exqui- 
 site musical imagination ; but he never stopped 
 in his course to introduce reforms in the con- 
 struction of the libretto submitted to him for 
 musical composition. It was the defect of the 
 Italian opera which he inherited ; and, in spite 
 of the many pearls with which he endowed this 
 shadow of dramatic life, he could not save it 
 from final death. Handel's operas, with the ex- 
 ception of some of the finest airs and choruses, 
 have sunk into oblivion ; and, in spite of the 
 great musical beauties they "contain, the, rich 
 source of pure enjoyment and instruction they 
 present to the musical student, to revive them 
 on the stage would prove a decided failure. 
 Handel's importance for our modern times is to 
 - be looked for in his oratorios, and not in his 
 operas
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 165 
 
 Soon after the invention of the opera in Italy, 
 it found its way to Germany. Rinuccini's 
 " Daphne," translated into German by Opitz, 
 and set to music by Henry Schiitz, was played, 
 in 1627, before the court of the elector of Sax- 
 ony at Torgau ; but, the music being lost, it is 
 not possible to judge of its form or of its merits. 
 There is no time to name all the opera com- 
 posers, and the works which they composed, foi 
 the many large or small courts of German princes. 
 With the exception of the operatic performances 
 at Hamburg, the whole state of dramatic musi- 
 cal life in Germany, until Gluck, is that of the 
 reign of Italian singers, Italian composers, or, 
 like Hasse, Graun, Naumann, Italianized Ger- 
 man composers ; though their works certainly 
 possess many meritorious qualities. At Ham- 
 burg, a free and commercial city, full of enter- 
 prise and artistic aspirations, the opera, with 
 the characteristics of German life, seemed for 
 some time to succeed. A man, gifted with a 
 fine talent for melody and uncommon facility of 
 production, composed opera after opera for the 
 Hamburg stage, I mean ReinJmrd Keiser, born 
 in 1673. Reiser's operas were played on the 
 principal stages of Germany ; and one of them 
 was even brought out in Paris, which then 
 meant a good deal. I have already stated, that 
 Handel, in his youth, wrote a frw operas for
 
 -. 
 
 oCu^x/n *C<2t. 
 
 L66 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 Hamburg ; but the efforts of the Hambtirgians 
 to establish a permanent opera, with German 
 artists and composers at its head, were of no 
 avail : the time was not yet ripe fur the German 
 niind to step in, and give the opera that form and 
 meaning which it was susceptible of receiving in 
 future years. The master who first understood 
 the necessity of reforming the formal construc- 
 tion and the ideal meaning of the then existing 
 
 o o 
 
 Italian opera was a German, the Ritter G-luck. 
 
 As we have seen, the opera is entirely an in- 
 vention of the Italians. Italian composers 
 brought it to that point of comparative perfec- 
 tion in which other nations received and admired 
 it ; and only after making it thus a property 
 of their own, were the French and the German 
 composers enabled to mould its forms to the 
 spirit and wants of their own national individ- 
 ualities. The Italian composer's first ambition 
 is to write beautiful melodies. He proceeds with 
 a certain artistic naivete to the production of hib 
 works ; but being, to a certain degree, a born 
 
 artist, his artistic nature carries him safely over 
 
 > 
 
 the breakers. He succeeds where the German 
 and the French would signally fail, as these latter 
 first stop to examine into the propriety, the possi- 
 bility, of the thing ; and, as long as the Italian 
 opera composers had their own way, their reign 
 was supreme all over Europe. Another advan-
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 107 
 
 tage, which also aided them much, was the gift 
 of beautiful voices, which the Italians pos- 
 sessed, and still possess, in so high a degree. 
 From the earliest times, the Italian churches 
 availed themselves of the fine voices found 
 among their people ; and thus, through years of 
 diligent practice, a singing method established 
 itself, which made the beautiful material still 
 more beautiful and effective. With the inven- 
 tion of the opera, and its general introduction on 
 all the stages of Italy, the art of singing received 
 a new impulse. It is with amazement that we 
 read of the energy, the perseverance, the almost 
 passionate application, with which the Italians 
 cultivated the art of singing then ; and, as it 
 proved a great source of pecuniary earnings, in 
 order to satisfy an excessive ambition, and for 
 money's sake, they shrank not back from any& 
 trials in order to. obtain their end. In its first 
 stadium, the opera offered gorgeous costumes, 
 ingenious and brilliant decorations, dazzling 
 scenes of allegoric and fantastic monstrosities, 
 to the eye. The libretti, loosely cut after the ' 
 pattern of Greek mythological plays, were writ- L 
 ?,ten and arranged for the purpose of flattering, 
 in exaggerated terms and pictures, the patrons 
 of singers, composers, and poets, the vain 
 princes and nobles, in whose presence, and for * 
 whose entertainment, the representations took
 
 168 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 place. The great passions love, hatred, ven- 
 geance, heroism were trifled with ; and these 
 ridiculous shepherds and shepherdesses, ihe brag- 
 gadocios of these pampered heroes, the innocent 
 thunders of these impossible gods and goddesses, 
 ^ari only now excite us to a smile. In the 
 course of time, a somewhat better taste prevailed ; 
 and, instead of a mere feast for the eye, the ear 
 hecame supreme. Through the efforts of Scar- 
 latti and his pupils, and through the masters of 
 the Venetian school, the forms of the recitative 
 and the aria were fixed. Chorus, if it did not dis- 
 appear entirely, was considered of minor impor- 
 tance. Yet, in spite of the talent and influence 
 of such composers as Caldara, Colonna, Durante, 
 Buononcini, Gasparini, Porpora, Traetta, Jomelli, 
 the opera fell into another extreme : the exagger- 
 ated admiration of purely musically-fine execu- 
 tion, and the mere physical beauty of the voices, 
 ;nade the opera a.nedley of arias, only fit for the 
 concert-room. The composer was the servant 
 of the all-powerful virtuosi. The libretto, with- 
 out regard, or with but little regard, to dra- 
 matic truth, had to be arranged so as to give to 
 the best singers an opportunity to appear most 
 often, and to display to great advantage the fine 
 qualities of their voices and their wonderful ex- 
 ecution. Besides, it was necessary to have the 
 two best singers perform duets ; and, if there was
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 169 
 
 a third, also trios. (The bass voice, with very 
 little exception, was excluded from solo parts, as 
 unfit for virtuoso display.) It was therefore 
 the business of the poet and the composer to 
 procure these articles. The cut of the arias was 
 always the same : the composer furnished the 
 canvas, upon which the virtuoso, according to 
 his or her fancies and abilities, and without re- 
 gard to the sentiment which the dramatic situa- 
 tion required, embroidered those endless varia- 
 tions of passages, trills, skips, and long-sustained 
 notes. That divine right which the modern 
 composer claims, of having his melodies sung in 
 the form and version in which he has written 
 them down, did not then exist. On the con- 
 trary, that composer who best accommodated 
 his talent to the caprices of the singers was the 
 most popular ; and his operas were performed in 
 preference. " Therefore," says an old writer on 
 music, " do we perceive an everlasting sameness 
 in the operas of to-day. Any one who has heard 
 or seen the representation of two operas has 
 heard or seen the scenas of a hundred others." 
 While the books of that time, by professional 
 and amateur writers on music, are full of the 
 feats, the extravagant beJiavior, and the 
 salaries, of singers, they tell -us little of composers ; 
 and that little is not always to be trusted. Un- 
 der these circumstances, we cannot help
 
 170 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 ^fa^J 
 
 dering if a composer yet succeeded in calling 
 attention to his work, and in creating such pearls 
 of musical form as we here and there discover 
 in scarce old scores, now buried under the dust 
 of libraries. 
 
 To the Italians belongs, to a great extent, 
 the merit of having perfected the beautiful in 
 a purely melodious direction ; but the forms of 
 their recitatives, their arias, their duets, and 
 trios, once established and recognized, they be- 
 came conventional. Thus the originality of the 
 jjv**'* composer was fettered : his art sank to a mere 
 business ; and with it gradually sank the su- 
 premacy of the Italian opera. The Italians, so rich 
 in beautiful melodies, from the graceful, naive, 
 and simple canzonetta, to the broad and heroic 
 grand aria, were only destined to bring this side 
 of the musical drama to its perfection. But the 
 opera, as the highest expression of that art-form, 
 the musical drama, in which poetry, archi- 
 tecture, painting, and the terpsichorean art, en- 
 livened by the deepest and truest heart-beat of 
 musical feeling, concur to present to the man of 
 artistic sensibilities a richly heightened picture 
 of human existence in all its different shades 
 and lights, a mirror of the ideal fancies of 
 man's soul, is not the work of one nation. The 
 Italian art has only exclusive importance and 
 signification for the Italian, the French for the
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 171 
 
 Frenchman, the German for the German, &c. ; 
 but the quintessence of that great spirit which 
 governs and inspires them all in their art-pro- 2<-i4<" 
 ductions, is the goal towards which the genius 
 of mankind strive_s. One nation supersedes an- 
 other, every one learning from the other ; where * 
 one stops, another takes up the thread: every 
 one is called to bring a certain part of the uni- 
 versal work of progress to its perfection. The 
 imagination sees the goal ; but will the human 
 mind ever reach it ? 
 
 Before I speak of the great reforms which 
 Gluck introduced in the musical drama, let me 
 insert a passage here by a musician, contempo- 
 rary with Gluck : but the article from which I 
 extract this passage was written before Gluck 
 had brought out in Paris his " Iphigenia in Au- 
 lis ; " and Gluck's greatest reputation and influ- 
 ence as a reformer only commenced with his 
 success as an opera composer for the Paris stage. 
 At the same time, it shows the current of thought 
 with artists and people of good taste, judgment, 
 and aim, at this remarkable period. " In that 
 extraordinary spectacle," our author says, " to 
 which the Italians have given the name of opera, 
 there is to be found such ajmngling of the great/' 
 and the small, the beautiful and tasteless, 
 
 '' ' 
 
 I hesitate in what terms to write about it. In 
 the best of ojreras, we see and hear such stupid
 
 172 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 and trivial things, that we might think them only 
 calculated for children, or for a childish populace ; 
 and, in the midst of this revolting silliness, pas- 
 sages occur that pierce the heart with horror, 
 fear, pity, or refined voluptuousness. A scene 
 during which we have forgotten ourselves, and 
 felt the liveliest interest for the characters, is 
 followed by one in which the same characters 
 strike us as blundering fools, awkwardly trying 
 to astonish and alarm a vulgar crowd. While 
 we cannot bear to recall the senselessness that 
 has disgusted us in the opera, we cannot help 
 remembering its charming scenes with emo- 
 tion, or without wishing that artists would unite 
 to make of this great spectacle that perfect 
 thing which it is capable of becoming. The 
 opera might be the most powerful of all specta- 
 cles, because all the fine arts unite in it ; but it is 
 a proof of the superficiality of the moderns, that, 
 in the opera, they have lowered, and exposed to 
 contempt, all these arts." * 
 
 The artist, so much wished for, had already 
 put into execution those means required for the 
 regeneration of the musical drama; and that 
 artist was Gluck. 
 
 Christoph Willibald Grluck^ was born on the 
 2d of July, in 1714, at Weidenwang, in Bohemia. 
 
 * Sulzor: Theorie der sclioenen Kuensten. 
 t Anton Schmid: C W. Hitter von Gluck, dessen Leben, &c.
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 173 
 
 After having received instruction Li music in 
 different places, and his parents not having the 
 necessary means to Drovide for his further edu- 
 cation, he went to Prague, and afterwards to 
 Vienna, where he taught music, and sang or 
 played in different church choirs and orchestras 
 to make a living ; while he studied, with what 
 opportunities chance could offer him, the works 
 of recognized masters, such as Caldara, Fux, 
 Conti, Porsile. Through the kindness and gen- 
 erosity of a nobleman who took the young artist 
 with him to Milan, he was enabled to receive 
 lessons in the higher branches of composition 
 from Samartini. Having finished his studies 
 with Samartini, who initiated him in the arts 
 and secrets of Italian-opera writing, he com- 
 posed, with more or less success, different 
 operas, according to the customary traditional 
 forms, for divers Italian stages. After a short 
 visit to Paris and London, where he was en- 
 gaged to produce some of his operas, he re- 
 turned to Vienna, which city he made his per- , 
 manent home, and from whence he afterwards 
 proclaimed those great ideas of a true musical 
 drama which effected a revolution in the form 
 of opera. 
 
 Gluck's plan of reform, and the necessary 
 ability and intellectual understanding to carry 
 out this plan, must have matured slowly ; for,
 
 174 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 until the production and representation of " Or- 
 feo," in 1762, he had written, like every other 
 composer of his time, Italian operas. But the 
 peculiar style and the dramatic spirit which dis- 
 tinguished the composer Gluck in the latter part 
 of his life must, at times, have already appeared 
 in his Italian operas ; for the refined and cour- 
 teous poet Metastasio wrote, in 1751, * " Gluck 
 has surprising fire ; but he is mad. He composed 
 an opera for Venice which was very unfortunate. 
 He composed others, with various success. I am 
 not a man to pretend to judge him." In a letter, 
 written in 1756, to the singer Farinelli, the poet 
 says, apropos of the operatic representations for 
 some public festivity, " The drama is my ' Re 
 Pastore,' set by Gluck, a Bohemian composer, 
 whose spirit, noise, and extravagance have sup- 
 plied the place of merit in many theatres of 
 Europe, among those whom I pity, and who do 
 not form the minority of the folks of the world." 
 No doubt, while Gluck thus produced opera after 
 opera in the Italian style, he became gradually 
 aware of the unnaturalness and defects of the 
 
 _ 
 
 old form, as he at the same time noticed what 
 what was good and essential for its future regen- 
 eration. Burney, who, on a visit to Vienna, had 
 a conversation with Gluck on this subject, re- 
 lates, that while in London, where Gluck pro- 
 
 * Burney : Musical Tour through Germany, so-
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 175 
 
 duced his opera, " La Caduta de Giganti," he 
 studied the English .taste; remarked particularly 
 what the audience seemed most to feel ; and, find- 
 ing that plainness and simplicity had the greatest 
 effect upon them, he has, ever since that time, 
 endeavored to write for the voice more in the 
 natural tones of the human affections and pas- 
 sions, than to flatter the lovers of deep science 
 or difficult execution. In London, Gluck was 
 surely also struck by the beauties of Handel's 
 works ; but, to carry out his plan in its full 
 strength, Gluck needed a poet penetrated with 
 the same conviction of a necessary reform as he 
 was, and who would understand and enter into 
 his ideas. This poet he found in the person of 
 Cahabigi. The first opera of this new and re- 
 markable period of Gluck's artistic career was 
 " Orfeo," performed at Vienna, the 5th of Octo- 
 ber, 1762. Tho dilettanti and the connoisseurs^- 
 
 j2- t t f &^^* 
 
 were not a little surprised at the boldness of the' 1 .' 
 composer, and, at the first representation, opin- * 
 ions were divided about the merits of the new 
 style. In 1766, " Alceste " appeared, the li- 
 bretto of which was also by Calzabigi. In this 
 new work, Gluck had broken entirely with the 
 Italian opera. In "Alceste," which he com- 
 posed in his fifty-third year, the full breadth 
 and significance of his gradually-ripened ideas 
 lay unfolded. In the preface, written in Italian,
 
 176 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 Gluck himself sets those ideas forward.* " When 
 I undertook to set to music the opera of ' Al- 
 ceste,' I proposed to myself to avoid the abuses 
 which the mistaken vanity of singers and the 
 excessive complaisance of composers had intro- 
 duced, and which, from the most splendid and 
 beautiful of all public exhibitions, had reduced 
 the opera to the most tiresome and ridiculous 
 of spectacles. I wished to confine music to its 
 true province, that of seconding poetry by 
 strengthening the expression of the sentiments 
 and the interest of the situation, without inter- 
 rupting the action, and weakening it by super- 
 fluous ornament. I thought that music ought 
 to give that aid to poetry which the liveliness 
 of coloring and the happy combination of light 
 and shade afford to a correct and well-designed 
 picture, animating the figures, without injur- 
 ing their contour. I have, therefore, carefully 
 avoided interrupting a singer in the warmth of 
 dialogue, in order to wait for a tedious ritornel ; 
 or stopping him in the midst of a speech, in order 
 to display the agility of the voice in a large pas- 
 sage. I have not thought it right to pass rapidly 
 over the second part of the air, when it is- the 
 most impassioned and important portion of it, in 
 order to repeat the words regularly four times ; 
 or to finish whe.-e the sense is not complete, in 
 
 * This translation is copied from that in Hogarth's Musical Drama
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 177 
 
 order to give the singer the opportunity of show- 
 ing that he can vary a passage in several ways 
 according to his own fancy. In short, I have 
 endeavored to reform those abuses, against which 
 good sense and good taste nave long exclaimed 
 in vain. 
 
 " I have considered that the overture should 
 make the audience aware of the character and 
 subject of the piece ; that the instrumental ac- 
 companiment should be regulated by the interesty^^ 
 of the drama, and ought not to leave ajyoicL inyV^***' 
 the dialogue between the recitative and air ; that 
 it should not break into the sense and connec- 
 tion of a period, nor interrupt the warmth and 
 energy of the action. It was also my opinion, 
 that the chief care of a dramatic composer 
 should be to aim at simplicit} r . I have accord- 
 ingly avoided making a parade of difficulties at 
 the expense of perspicuity ; and I have attached 
 no value to the discovery of novelty, unless it 
 arose naturally from the situation of the char- 
 acter and the expression of the poetry : nor is 
 there any rule of composition which I have not 
 been willing to sacrifice to the production of a 
 good effect. 
 
 " These are my principles. Fortunately, the 
 poem has wonderfully favored my views. The 
 celebrated author, having conceived his own plan 
 
 of the lyric drama, in place of flowery descriptions, 
 12
 
 178 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 useless compositions, cold and sententious mo- 
 ', - , - , - rality, has substituted strong passions, interest- 
 ing situations, the language of the heart, and 
 variety of action. The success of the piece has 
 justified my ideas ; and the universal approba- 
 tion of so enlightened a city has proved to me 
 that simplicity and truth are the greatest princi- 
 ples of the beautiful in the productions of the 
 fine arts." 
 
 But composers were slow to recognize and 
 adopt " Gluck's principles. It seems even that 
 there were two parties at the Austrian capital, 
 those who adhered to the ancient form of mu- 
 sical drama, headed by Metastasio and Hasse ; 
 and those who represented the new school, 
 headed by Gluck and Calzabigi. Gluck himself 
 thought it necessary to defend his new princi- 
 ples, in regard to a true musical drama, against 
 the objections of the critics ; for in the dedica- 
 tory epistle published with the opera " Paride 
 ed Elena," complaining at the same tune of the 
 indifference with which composers received his 
 new endeavors, he says, " I determined to pub- 
 lish the music of ' Alceste,' simply in the hope 
 that it might find imitators. I ventured to flat- 
 ter myself, that, in following the path I have al- 
 ready opened, composers would have endeavored 
 to put an end to the abuses introduced into tlie 
 Italian theatre, and by which it is dishonored ;
 
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 but I grieve to confess, that, hitherto, my en- 
 deavors have been in vain. The half-learned, 
 the pretenders to taste, unhappily too numerous 
 a class, and in all ages a thousand times more 
 injurious to the progress of the fine arts than 
 those who are entirely ignorant, have combined 
 against a method, which, in establishing itself, 
 destroyed their pretentious. 
 
 " It was thought that judgment might be pro- 
 nounced upon ' Alceste,' after irregular, ill- 
 directed, and worse-executed rehearsals. The 
 effect which this opera would produce in a 
 theatre was calculated in an apartment with the 
 same sagacity with which some Grecian critics 
 pretended to judge, at the distance of a few 
 feet, of the effect of statues to be placed on 
 lofty columns. One of these nice amateurs, who 
 has transferred his whole soul to his ears, will 
 find an air too hard, a passage too much marked, 
 or not sufficiently prepared, without dreaming 
 that, in that particular situation, this air and 
 passage are the height of expression, and pro- 
 duce the happiest contrast. A pedantic harmo- 
 nist will remark an ingenious negligence or a 
 deficiency in strictness, and will hasten to de- 
 nounce them as unpardonable violations of the , 
 mysteries of harmony; and, forthwith, a chorus 
 of voices will join in condemning the music as ,'"-' 
 rude, barbarous, and extravagant."
 
 > -0 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 Though Gluck began to introduce his reforms 
 wiilt) composing for the stage of the German 
 caj iti vl, yet Germany was not prepared to offer 
 *- .an advantageous field for the realization of his 
 principles, carried to their last consequences ; 
 and it is a question, whether he ever could have 
 pursued his plans, had he not found in the indi- 
 viduality and characteristics of a foreign people 
 (the French) those qualities and peculiarities 
 of musical culture which proved favorable to 
 his own aims and ideas of what the musical 
 drama should be. The Bailly du Rollet, an at- 
 tache* of the French embassy at Vienna, passion- 
 ately fond of poetry and music, and an admirer of 
 Gluck's, pointed out to the composer the stage 
 of Paris as the only place, where, under existing 
 circumstances, success was possible. Monsieur 
 du Rollet proposed Racine's favorite drama, 
 " Iphigenia in Aulis," for their first trial, to be 
 brought out on the Paris stage : he was willing 
 to submit Racine's drama to those modifications 
 required by the musical composer. Gluck, of 
 course, hesitated not a moment to accept du 
 Rollet's propositions ; and, witli the energy and 
 enthusiasm of a convinced reformer, he threw 
 his whole mind into the balance, in order to 
 make " Iphigenia " acceptable to the taste of his 
 future Paris audience, and at the same time to 
 put forth his new ideas in the most perfect
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 18" 
 
 form. But, before we accompany Gluck to th 
 French capital, I will briefly survey the situa 
 tion of the field Gluck was on the point oi' ' 
 entering. t^J/^*^ 
 
 I have already spoken of the labors of Lull} 
 and Rameau, and the importance their works as- 
 sumed in the history of the musical drama. 
 When Gluck's " Iphigenia in Aulis " appeared, 
 Paris was divided into two camps, the " Bouffo- 
 nists," and the " Anti-Bouffonists." The first 
 were the champions of the Italian opera, in 
 whose ranks we see such writers as Rousseau, 
 and the German Baron von Grimm, who asserted, 
 in elaborate essays, that the French language 
 was not fit to be set to music, and ridiculed the 
 representations of French opera with the most 
 cutting sarcasm. The " Anti-Bouffonists " were 
 represented by those who swore by Lully and 
 Rameau. French composers, such as Dauvergne 
 and Mondonville, strove individually to cultivate 
 the forms of the opera in the sense of Rameau ; 
 or like Duny, Philidor, and Gretry, to realize, in 
 their operas, a fusion of the Italian and the French 
 elements. This was the case with the French 
 opera when Gluck engaged in it. The realism 
 of one-sided musical expression had here, as in 
 Italy, come to such a pass that interest in the 
 poem was almost lost sight of. The text-books 
 were mere consoles for musicians to display theii
 
 182 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 pictures upon. The poet's office was limited to 
 that of reproducing well-known situations, with 
 a few variations, adapted to the prevailing taste. 
 Rousseau* falsely accused the French language 
 of causing this tiresome monotony, when it 
 should properly have been laid to the account of 
 a one-sided artistic direction. The genius of tho 
 French language opposes as much resistance to 
 the melodic breadth of ornamental song as the 
 Italian .tongue is opposed to strong declamation. 
 This misunderstanding between words and mu- 
 sic had not escaped the fine observation of 
 Gluck. Avoiding a fruitless reconciliation be- 
 tween them, he took hold of the declamatory 
 principle energetically, and carried his idea out 
 with iron firmness, cutting off the over-luxuri- 
 ant growth of melody on all sides, regulating the 
 musical expression to the thought and the laws 
 of prosody. To the melodic cut of his arias, he 
 allowed only such liberty as the truth of the 
 dramatic expression demanded ; to his chorus, he 
 assigned a broad phrase form, and a sufficient 
 polyphonic treatment. He gave to the recitative 
 its full value ; in fact, revealed such a richness 
 of form in the recitative style, heightened by 
 strikingly dramatic instrumentation, that it fully 
 made amends for a somewhat too spare use of 
 melodic charm. He also perfected the overture, 
 
 * In his ' Lettvp nr la Musique franfaise."
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 183 
 
 placed it in undoubted relationship to the poem, 
 and gave it a peculiarly dramatic stamp. In all 
 these respects, Gluck went further than his 
 French predecessors, and, to a great extent, 
 completed in this the labor of Rameau. 
 
 Gluck, with that firmness and impetuosity of 
 character, with that energy and obstinate perse- 
 verance, with that enthusiastic faith in his own 
 powers, qualities so indispensable to an expo- 
 nent of new and reformatory doctrines, en- 
 tered the battle-field with confidence. The 14th 
 of February, 1774, " Iphigenia in Aulis " Avas 
 performed in Paris. Though the success of 
 the first representation was not a brilliant one, 
 yet the victory was decided ; but, at the same 
 time, opposition from both parties, the " Bouffo- 
 nists" and the " Anti-Bouffonists," was insti- 
 gated against the new intruder. Gluck's star, 
 however, rose higher and higher. " Orfeo,'' 
 " Alceste," both re-arranged for the wants of the 
 Paris stage, confirmed his reputation. " Iphige- 
 nia in Tauris," and " Armide " followed ; and, 
 with every new representation of these works, 
 the supremacy of Gluck's principles was con- 
 firmed, though not without a hard final struggle 
 with the Italian opera. The champions of Ital- 
 ian music, alarmed at the progress of Gluck's 
 operas, and anticipating defeat through the very 
 principles of Lully and Rameau, which they so
 
 184 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 often had ridiculed, and which the genius of 
 Gluck had rehabilitated in a new, more poeti- 
 cal, and more acceptable garb, called to their 
 support that Italian composer of the day, who, 
 with sure success, could alone be opposed to 
 Gluck ; Piccini, a composer of great merit, and 
 especially endowed with fine melodic talent. He 
 arrived at Paris in 1776. My space will not allow 
 me to enlarge upon all that was done, said, and 
 published by both parties, the " Gluckists " and 
 " Piccinists " to sustain their course : suffice 
 it to say here, that party feeling ran high ; from 
 the court down to the public in the parterre, 
 the two parties heaped bon-mots, sarcasm, even 
 gross abuse, upon each other, and pamphlets pro 
 id con, rained on the passive spectators. For 
 illustration's sake, I will mention, that, at the 
 first representation of Piccini's " Roland," the 
 composer, after assisting at the rehearsal, and 
 seeing the animus of the performers, said to 
 Marmontel, his librettist, " Every thing goes 
 wrong." And in the evening, when he started 
 to be present at the performance, he consoled his 
 alarmed friends, " Come, my children," he said, 
 " this is unreasonable : we are living with the 
 politest and kindest nation of Europe. If they 
 do not like me as' a musician, they will, at all 
 events, respect me as a man and a stranger." 
 Though Piccini succeeded temporarily, time
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 185 
 
 has since adjusted all those party differences. 
 Piccini's works are forgotten ; while Gluck's are 
 still performed, and attract the admiration of 
 the connoisseur. 
 
 Gluck died in Vienna, N)v. 15, 1787.
 
 186 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 / 
 
 The Development of Instrumental Music from the Sixteenth 
 Century to Haydn. 
 
 SONG, the earliest emanation of the world 
 of feelings and emotions within the soul, 
 was first uttered by that musical organ which 
 is identical with man's existence, the human 
 voice. The improvement of this organ through 
 careful culture, until it became a highly artistic 
 instrument, was, as far as we know, the first en- 
 deavor of civilized man ; and, as man's highest 
 natural inclination is to devote his finest gifts to 
 the glory of the Creator, song became, at an ear- 
 ly period of human culture, the ornament of all 
 temple service. It was, however, as I have al- 
 ready shown in my previous lectures, in the 
 bosom of the Church that song first created its 
 own artistic forms, in conformity with the sacred 
 office it had to fill. Though old Greek, Roman, 
 and Hebrew authors are lavish in their praise of 
 the astonishing effects of instrumental music, as 
 used in their several temple services, yet it was 
 not till the latter part of the sixteenth century
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 1 P -T 
 
 that a really artistic signification was attached to 
 the cultivation of instrumental music. To judge 
 from the construction and nature of the sacred 
 instruments known to the old Greeks, Hebrews, 
 and Romans, these instruments, for the most part, 
 must have been only used for dynamic effects, 
 to enliven and mark the rhythm of the sacred 
 dances and the triumphal marches, or to regu-aJ***, 
 late, in Greek tragedy, the motion of the chorus. 
 The Christians, though at first averse to the mu- 
 
 / * "*7 Nl-4 
 
 sic and musical instruments of the heathens, ac- 
 cepted many of the heathen customs by degrees, 
 as also their instruments ; for we know, that, 
 even in some churches of the Orient, instrumen- 
 tal music was finally introduced. The different 
 Celtic races also possessed several kinds of mu- 
 sical instruments, such as the Irish harp, and 
 Growth, or Rotta, a kind of violin in a very 
 primitive state of construction. The German 
 races, no doubt, also brought with them, on their 
 migration to the southern provinces of Europe, 
 divers types of musical instruments, as used by 
 them to accompany their songs and dances ; but 
 it was not, until the general introduction of har- 
 mony, that men, gifted witL musical talent, be- 
 gan, by means of new inventions, to perfect the 
 mechanism of different instruments, and were 
 thus enabled to exploit the resources of these 
 instruments for more artistic purposes. Instru-
 
 188 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 mental music, if not destined for church service, 
 was, however, for a long time despisedjyy pro- 
 fessional composers: its crude execution was 
 therefore left entirely to uneducated men and 
 women. In some parts of Germany and France, 
 these musicians formed regular corporations : 
 they had their own constitution, which was 
 sometimes sanctioned by the king or the count 
 in whose domains they resided. They conse- 
 quently enjoyed the exclusive privilege of play- 
 ing at, and also furnishing music for, the different 
 festivities of the inhabitants of cities and vil- 
 lages. The head of the corporation was called 
 the " King of the Pipers," or the " King of the 
 Fiddlers." Thus, in the middle ages, we have 
 the jongleurs and minstrels, a class of people 
 very little respected, but welcomed everywhere 
 for their music, their songs, and their jests. The 
 pieces they played were no doubt folk-songs in 
 the different dance forms, adapted to the instru- 
 ments then in use. The music-books of the six- 
 teenth century contain many pieces to be played 
 as dances ; such as the passamezzo, the gaillard, 
 ,' the saltarello, the pavane, the imperial, the 
 bransle, &c. ; but these dances were all tunes of 
 ., favorite folk-songs : they were arranged for the 
 organ, the harpsichord, the lute, the guitar, the 
 viols, and other instruments. The manner of 
 expressing, by means of alphabetic letters, the
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 189 
 
 sounds given by the strings or stops of the dif- 
 ferent instruments was called tabulatura, or 
 tablature : it is what we to-day denominate 
 score. 
 
 Although a great number of various musical 
 instruments were already known, and in use, in 
 the sixteenth century, yet instrumental music 
 made but slow progress ; while vocal music had 
 already attained at this time, a high degree of 
 perfection. It is true, that, though acquainted 
 with the principal instruments then in prac- 
 tice, composers directed all their attention to 
 the composition of choral music. If, besides 
 dance music, other pieces of a more serious char- 
 acter were to be played, the musicians selected 
 such as were written in polyphonic style, like 
 motets, madrigals, and also folk-songs, set in 
 contrapuntal manner. Thus, we often read on 
 the title-pages of the publications of motets, 
 madrigals, and other secular songs, that they 
 may be sung and also played on different in- 
 struments, da cantare e sonare. This proves 
 that instrumental music, in its forms as inde- 
 pendent of choral QT vocal music, is entirely 
 a modern art, not over two hundred years old. 
 The direction which musical art takes in our 
 time is vastly different from that which it fol- 
 lowed in the sixteenth century. Then the cul- 
 tivation of vocal music was the chief object of
 
 190 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 composers : to-day, and principally since the ap- 
 pearance of the three great Vienna masters, 
 Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, instrumental 
 music has obtained the ascendency. 
 
 Vocal and instrumental music aim at the same 
 sesthetical purpose : they are both the instru- 
 mentalities of expressing, by means of adequate 
 ideal artistic forms, those feelings, those emo- 
 tions of joy and sorrow, which move man's soul. 
 Vocal music found its first and gradual per- 
 fection in connection with poetry : the musical 
 imagination of man was thus assisted by the 
 support of decidedly-expressed sentiments. In 
 the course of time, and by means of long ex- 
 perience, a vocabulary established itself of fixed 
 melodious forms, corresponding with those of 
 mery language, for the expression of man's ideal 
 inner life. Only then, when this important SBS- 
 thetical ground was gained, was it possible for 
 purely instrumental music to create its own pe- 
 culiar forms on the basis of those vocal ones. 
 In adapting and arranging vocal pieces for their 
 instruments, musicians already strove, and were 
 also in many cases forced, to observe as much as 
 possible the peculiar construction which influ- 
 enced the technical treatment of these instru- 
 ments. In runnmg through the score of a mo- 
 tet or a madrigal, as originally composed for 
 voices and then arranged for instruments, the
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 191 
 
 difference is apparent. The facility of sustain- 
 ing, as much as the composer's idea required it, 
 the various tones which composed a melody, 
 a peculiarity of the human voice, was out of 
 the question, when these same melodies had to 
 be played on the lute, the harpsichord, or the 
 viols, then the favorite instruments. Rhythm 
 and motion being the predominant character of 
 these instruments, the players supplied the want 
 of long-sustained notes by varying the principal 
 tones of the melody. This manner of arran- 
 ging and varying consisted of different orna- 
 ments, such as trills, turns, passages, tremolos, 
 or by diminishing a long note into a correspond- 
 ing number of notes of smaller value. This 
 way of varying a melody, or note-splitting, was 
 also called diminution, or coloring ; hence, the 
 expression, " coloratura," as applied to vocal 
 execution. The diminution, or coloring, was, 
 however, diligently exercised by the human 
 voice ; and the pieces for the organ of this pe- 
 riod prove that the organists also delighted in 
 this manner of playing. Vincenzo Galilei, who 
 played such a conspicuous part in the invention 
 of the opera, complains of these musical " em- 
 broiderers " of his time, who, by their changes 
 and divisions, so disguised every melody that it 
 was no longer re cognizable, " but resembled the 
 representations jf the first painters in oil, which
 
 192 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 required the names to be written under them for 
 the convenience of the spectator, who, without 
 such assistance, would have been unable to dis- 
 tinguish a rose from a lily, a sparrow from a 
 linnet, a lobster from a trout." But, neverthe- 
 less, the peculiar material out of which instru- 
 mental music was to build up its forms, was 
 thus gradually gained. 
 
 There is no time here to trace the origin, and 
 follow up the gradual perfection, of every in- 
 strument I shall mention in this lecture. I will 
 start from that point where each relative instru- 
 ment was already made fit to serve some artistic 
 purpose. 
 
 The instrument, which, among others, seems to 
 have received the first careful attention of com- 
 posers, was the organ. Its gradual perfection 
 went hand in hand with that of counterpoint ; 
 and history tells of a great organist, Francesco 
 Landino, who lived in the fourteenth century, 
 in Venice ; but as none of his compositions for 
 the organ have come down to us, they must 
 have been, to judge from the awkward state of 
 the key-board of the organ, just as awkward and 
 crude efforts. Of the so-much praised organists, 
 Bernhard, the German (to whom the invention 
 of the pedal is probably wrongly attributed), and 
 Antonio Scarcialupi, who lived in the fifteenth 
 century in Italy, we do not know much more.
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 11):] 
 
 Of greater importance for us is Conrad Pau- 
 mann of Nuremberg, who also lived in the fif- 
 teenth century. Though born blind, he had 
 made himself master of most of the instruments 
 in use at his time. His pieces for the organ, of 
 which quite a number still exist, are written in 
 a very fluent counterpoint, in two and three 
 parts. These pieces also give evidence of the ad- 
 vanced state of contrapuntal art at this epoch in 
 Germany, being the oldest known specimens 
 of pieces for keyed instruments : they also show, 
 that there already existed a marked difference 
 between the manner of " coloring " for the voice 
 and that practised on instruments. Here are 
 two of Paumann's pieces, as deciphered by TJen- 
 ry Bellermann. 
 
 
 
 g> ^ g~ 
 
 it-*-
 
 194 
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 = m := ^n-ptTj^Trn*n 
 
 j-jJ-_4.Jj=j|ifcb^ 
 
 1O. 
 
 
 I > j ^ i_ 
 
 .gj f ? |-rg= 
 
 rr r ' ' "T? r 
 
 i 
 
 -^ 6 
 
 ^=y 
 
 r 
 
 -s^ 
 
 J 
 
 22: 
 
 22: 
 
 
 Trr^f 
 
 11
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 185 
 
 -i^ 
 
 The names of quite a number of organists, 
 contemporaries of Paumann, and who were then 
 more or less celebrated, have been preserved ; 
 which is also a proof that the art of master Con- 
 rad was already generally cultivated through 
 Germany. I will mention Paul Hofhaimer, Wil- 
 helm Legrant, Paumgartuer, George von Put- 
 tenberg : other German masters who lived at a 
 later period were Arnold Schlick, Jacob Buus, 
 Ammerbach, Bernhard Schmid, and Jacob Paix. 
 These masters, though their compositions pre- 
 sent for the most part nothing but the before- 
 mentioned art of varying or splitting notes, 
 laid the first foundation of that great school of 
 German organists of which J. S. Bach forms 
 the culminating point. 
 
 The religious and social life of the people be- 
 ing in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth 
 centuries so intimately connected, the forms of 
 musical art admitted by the Church, also exer- 
 cised their influence over those destined for 
 amusement in the home circle ; and thus the or- 
 gan was to be found in the house of the private 
 citizen as well as in the church. The art of or- 
 gan-playing, and the cultivation of instrumental 
 music in general, was, of course, diligently pur- 
 sued by the great masters of counterpoint, the 
 Netherlander. The most celebrated among 
 them seems to have been John Peter Sweling, or-
 
 IOC HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 ganist in Amsterdam, born in 1540 -}- 1622. 
 His reputation was so great, that from all parts 
 of Germany young organists came to profit by 
 his lessons. He was called in Hamburg the 
 "organist's manufacturer."' Several great mas- 
 ters, distinguished as composers of fine chora 1 
 works, as well as skilled organists, lived in Italy 
 at this epoch. I will mention Girolamo Para- 
 bosco, Andrea, and Giovanni G-abrieli, Merula, 
 Frescobaldi (called the father of true organ-play- 
 ing), and Pasquini. All these masters contrib- 
 uted in a considerable degree to the perfection 
 of the forms of organ music, as also of instru- 
 mental music in general ; and many of their 
 pieces, such as toccatas and fugues, yet possess 
 merit. The toccata seems to have received the 
 greatest attention from these masters. Its form, 
 no' doubt, has grown up with those short pieces, 
 at first of no distinct form, short improvisa- 
 tions, as I should call them, such as fantasies, 
 ricereari, capricci, contrapunti, introduzioni, can- 
 zone, which were played before a fugue or a mo- 
 tet ; or, as an old author says, " before the 
 organist or cembalist plays a fugue or a motet, 
 he will strike simply, and in a plain manner, a 
 few chords and passages." The toccata has al- 
 ways preserved the style of free improvisation. 
 The more developed melodious form gives place 
 in it to motives of lively passages and broken
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 197 
 
 chords, arpeggios ; and though worked up with 
 all the art of counterpoint (as are those of J. S. 
 Bach), liveliness and spirited motion, reminding 
 us of instantaneous improvisation and inspira- 
 tion, are its distinguishing features. The old 
 masters must have used the above-mentioned ex- 
 pressions, fantasia, ricercare, &c., which invaria- 
 bly convey to our mind a piece in this or that 
 distinct form, without attaching to them as much 
 difference of meaning as we do ; at least, to 
 judge from the construction of their pieces, com- 
 posed for the organ or the harpsichord. Ricer- 
 care, or ricercata, for instance, means a master 
 fugue, an art fugue ; that is to say, a fugue in 
 which all intricacies of double counterpoint and 
 the canon find a place : while, with those old or- 
 ganists, it meant simply a piece in the style of a 
 fantasie or extemporization. 
 
 The keyed instruments in use in the sixteenth 
 century, and out of which our square, upright, 
 and grand piano-fortes sprung, were the virgi- 
 nal, the spinet, the clavichord, and the harpsi- 
 chord. Instead of the hammer which strikes 
 the strings in our modern piano-forte, the key in 
 those old instruments raised little wooden jacks, 
 furnished with a crow-quill, or with a piece of 
 brass or steel, which struck the wires. The 
 sound which these instruments produced, 
 though thin, was yet free arid clear : altogether,
 
 198 HISTORY OF .\fUSIC. 
 
 it had something dreamy and romantic about it ; 
 and, when played softly, a good deal of the 
 eeolian harp. The virginal, " the instrument 
 for the ladies," as an old writer calls it, was 
 much in favor at the court of Queen Elizabeth 
 of England. The queen herself seems to have 
 been a good performer on this instrument. She 
 was very desirous of gaining supremacy as a vir- 
 ginal player over Queen Mary of Scotland, and 
 practised diligentl}* with that object. Sir James 
 Melvil tells*us, that one day, while at the queen's 
 court, Lord Hursden drew him up to a quiet gal- 
 lery, where he might hear the queen play upon 
 the virginal. " After I had barkened a while," 
 he says, " I took by the tapestry that hung be- 
 fore the door of the chamber, and, seeing her 
 tjack was toward the door, I entered within the 
 chamber, and stood a pretty space, hearing her 
 play excellently well ; but she left immediately, 
 GO soon as she turned about and saw me. She 
 appeared to be surprised to see me, and came 
 forward, seeming to strike me with her hand, 
 alleging, she used not to play before men, but 
 when she was solitary, to shun melancholy. She 
 inquired whether ray queen (Queen Mary) or 
 she played best. In that, I found myself obliged 
 to give her the praise." A volume of pieces 
 called " Queen Elizabeth's virginal book " is still 
 preserved. The compositions, consisting of pre-
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 199 
 
 luclos, dance tunes, and variations on popular 
 songs, were written by Tallis, Bird, Farnaby, and 
 Dr. Bull. Orlando Gibbons also composed a 
 considerable number of pieces for the virginal 
 and the organ. To judge from these pieces, 
 which are most of them very dry exercises, all 
 these English composers must have already pos- 
 sessed remarkable facility in mastering, on the 
 virginal, the harpsichord, and the organ, all 
 sorts of difficulties ; and Dr. John Bull especi- 
 ally, through his extensive powers, must have 
 been a kind of Thalberg at this early epoch of 
 instrumental music. 
 
 One of the most favorite instruments of all 
 nations, particularly during the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries, was the lute. Though it 
 is long out of practice, and forgotten, our poets, 
 perhaps for the sake of its euphonious name, 
 still dream of its romantic qualities. I will, 
 therefore, give a somewhat detailed explanation 
 and account of the nature of this instrument. 
 The shape of the body of the lute was not un- 
 like that of a turtle. Attached to it was a long 
 neck, inlaid with nine frets, which marked the 
 intervals, and over which the strings ran : at the 
 extremity of the neck was attached ' the head, 
 or the cross into which the screws, destined to 
 tune the strings, were fixed. The instrument 
 was not unlike the guitar, but it had more
 
 200 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 strings, from eight to twenty-four. I extract 
 from Mace's " Musik's Monuments" the follow- 
 ing passage, which will convey to you an idea 
 of the manner in which it was played. Mace 
 was a passionate lover of the lute, and placed it 
 above all other instruments. " Now, as to this 
 order," he says, " first set yourself down against 
 a table, in as becoming a posture as you would 
 -1** choose to do for your best reputation. Sit up- 
 right and straight ; then take up your lute, 
 r holding it in a slanting position, the head 
 erected against your left shoulder and ear. Lay 
 your left hand down upon a table, and your 
 right arm over the lute, so that you may set your 
 little finger down upon the body of the lute, 
 just under the bridge, against the treble or 
 second string, and then keep your lute stiff, and 
 strongly set, with its lower edge against the 
 table edge ; and so, holding it firmly, cause it to 
 3tand steady and strong, so that a bystander can- 
 not easily draw it from you. This is the most 
 becoming, steady, and beneficial posture." The 
 instrument must have been of a very fragile con- 
 struction ; for, says our old author, " You must 
 know that once in a year or two, if you have 
 not very good luck, you will be constrained to 
 have its body taken off: because, being so very 
 thin, and only supported with six or seven small 
 weak bars, and by the constant stretch of tli6
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 201 
 
 Btrings (which is a great strength), the body 
 will often sink in ; and then your lute will jar, 
 and grow unpleasant." Mattheson, the contem- 
 porary of Handel, and a prolific writer on musical 
 subjects, did not think very favorably of the 
 lute. " The flattering lute," he says (in his 
 ' Neu-eroeffnetes Orchester ' ), " has really more 
 partisans than it deserves. The insinuating 
 sound of this deceiving instrument always prom- 
 ises more than it can keep ; and, before one 
 knows the strong and weak points of a lute, one 
 is inclined to think that there cannot exist in 
 this world any thing more charming : but, after a 
 closer acquaintance with this siren among instru- 
 ments, one will soon be convinced of its great 
 defects, one of which is the everlasting tuning ; .<.?&? 
 for, if a lute-player reaches the age of eighty, 
 he assuredly has spent sixty years of his life in 
 tuning. In fact, it has been said, that it costs 
 the same money to keep a lute in Paris as a 
 horse." This instrument, in spite of its defects, 
 was held in great favor by amateurs and musi- 
 cians until the latter part of the last century, 
 when it disappeared entirely. The instrument 
 theorbe is a large lute. 
 
 Though it was already the custom, in the six- 
 teenth century, to unite the sound of diffei- 
 ent musical instruments with that of the human <^* 
 voice, in order to perform the various voca]
 
 202 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 pieces for the church, as well as in private chap- 
 els of kings and princes, and also to increase 
 the resonance and to enrich the body of the 
 sound, yet it was not until the middle of the 
 seventeenth century that the accompanying of 
 purely instrumental music received more atten- 
 tion, and became of more importance. The dif- 
 ferent instruments in use at this epoch were 
 only added at first to double the vocal parts. 
 There were then no extra parts written for the 
 instrumental performers: they transposed and 
 arranged the vocal parts for their instruments in 
 the best way they could. To judge from the 
 character of these instruments and the powers 
 of the performers, such a performance must 
 have been a curious cacophony. If a singer 
 desired to sing alone, and as melodious pieces 
 for one voice were not yet- composed, he would 
 choose a piece written in a contrapuntal style, 
 sing the upper part as the air, and play, on a 
 guitar or 'a lute, the other parts as an accom- 
 paniment. With the invention of the musical 
 drama, the opera, and its formal perfection, in- 
 strumental music began to emancipate itself 
 from the fetters of custom, as a mere double of 
 the original vocal parts. In the recitative and 
 the airs, it was soon found necessary to sustain 
 the singer through a careful and direct harmonic 
 accompaniment ; while, at the same time, it wad
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. '203 
 
 of the greatest consequence not to interfere with 
 the freedom of his dramatic action. Thus, in- 
 struction to this effect had to be given by the 
 composer ; and consequently separate and expli- 
 cit parts had also to be written for the accom- 
 panying instrumentalists. Short pieces, called 
 symphonies, were used to introduce the differ- 
 ent scenes ; and similar pieces, called ritornellos, 
 were played between or at the close of the parts. 
 These were not pieces of a fixed form, but 
 merely improvisations. Favorite dance tunes 
 were also frequently used for the same purpose. 
 The instruments which are said to have com- 
 posed the orchestra of the first opera, the " Eu- 
 ridice " by Rinuccini, were a harpsichord, a large 
 guitar, a viol, a large lute, and flutes. Though 
 some modern authors do not mention any other 
 instruments used in this first opera, it is very 
 probable, thai,, to give more eclat to the perform- 
 ance of his work, which was played on such a 
 great occasion as the marriage of the King of 
 France with a daughter of the house of Medi- 
 cis, Rinuccini used all the instrumental resources 
 then at his disposal ; for we find that the num- 
 ber of instruments used at some previous festivi- 
 ties in Florence was very considerable. Forty 
 different ones are mentioned, which had to play 
 the accompaniments and the ritornellos on a 
 grand occasion in 1565. Here is the longest in-
 
 04 
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 strumental piece, which introduces a scene in 
 Rinuccini's " Euridice : " it is for three flutes, 
 and consists of fourteen bars. 
 
 
 To the masters of the Venetian school of mu- 
 sic, and foremost among them to Giovanni G-a- 
 Irieli * and Claudio Monteverde, belongs most of 
 
 * K. von Winterfeld: Johannes Gabriel! und sein Zeitalter.
 
 HIS TO III' OF MUSIC. 205 
 
 the credit of having in a certain degree created 
 new and independent forms for instrumental 
 music, and also of having given a truer and, at 
 the same time, a more effective style of instru- 
 mental accompaniment. Thus the line of de- 
 marcation between choral and instrumental mu- 
 sic began to be more distinct ; yet each of them 
 lent to each other more support, more effective 
 meaning. In Monteverde's operas, we alread} - 
 find quite a number of independent instrumen- 
 tal pieces, such as symphonies, ritornellos, toc- 
 catas, romanescas, maurescas, ricercares. The 
 desire of employing different instrumental means 
 for the characteristic and dramatic coloring of 
 the various scenic situations is apparent in all 
 his dramatic compositions, particularly in the 
 battle -scene between Tancred and Clorinda, 
 from Tasso's " Jerusalem Delivered," performed 
 in 1624. It is the scene which describes the en- 
 counter of Tancred with Clorinda, whom Tan- 
 cred meets in the night, and, armed as she is, 
 believes her to be one of the heathen warriors. 
 The composer, by means of four string instru- 
 ments (three violas, and a double bass), unfolds 
 before our mind a picture which reflects, with 
 great dramatic truth and life, the inner, passion- 
 ate emotions of the two eager combatants, and 
 also the spirited exciting combat. The words 
 of the poet, sung in recitative style, describe
 
 206 
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 this. A passage in triple time imitates and rep- 
 resents the hasty and impetuous approach of 
 the horses. Scales, played in alternate and quick 
 
 J31. a. 
 
 succession, open the duel, and in the hottest of 
 the fight break free from control, and dissolve in 
 chords played with great rapidity in the manner 
 
 of the tremolo. The strings struck with fingers, 
 instead of with the bow, pizzicato as we call it
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 207 
 
 to-day, produce chords that imitate the noise of 
 the warriors' helmets striking against each other 
 
 c. 
 
 ^^^=fc3^=[ } r | 
 
 9^ 
 
 Passages of syncopated notes give an ingenious 
 picture of the close struggle of the combatants. 
 
 *T *-! I -I 
 
 
 /* : * * 
 
 
 -^ ? 1 
 
 i{C\j & 
 
 * ^1 
 
 -* s i 
 
 ! 1 ! 1 
 
 * 
 
 
 o ^/ i 
 
 9 1 
 
 2 j ^ t 
 
 i p - ^ E 
 
 3=3=3 
 
 In their eager desire for victory, they grasp, they 
 avoid, they deceive each other. At last, when 
 
 ^-^-J- 
 
 I I I 
 
 ^s 
 
 i 
 
 Zl
 
 208 
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 -I I- 
 
 J J^ 1 
 
 JB. 0- - f 
 
 ' I 
 
 35 
 
 gnad-Ly-4^ 
 
 rfc: 
 
 1 
 
 li^rr~^ =i4^~i=j=^ 
 
 
 ^zii 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 -^ 
 
 E3 
 
 F=f= -f ^^r-^V? 
 
 t * 
 
 <"^* s? ^ (^ f? 
 
 
 i I 
 
 \ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 * 
 
 HH 
 
 r r r r 
 
 
 
 
 Clorinda is wounded by a stroke from Tancred's 
 sword, and they interrupt the fight, the major 
 key changes into a minor. Fatigued, exhausted, 
 lifting the helmet of his wounded and dying 
 supposed enemy, Tancred recognizes Clorinda, 
 the woman he loves so much. I give you 
 
 s 
 
 
 /z.
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 209 
 
 a detailed description of this remarkable ef- 
 fort of descriptive dramatic music, as it is one 
 of the most striking documents of musical art 
 at this early epoch. With a keen sense and 
 great ingenuity, Monteverde here for the first 
 time used instrumental effects entirely different 
 from the vocal ones, and opened the road to his 
 successors. " It is well to know," he says, " that 
 I am the author of the invention and the first use 
 of this manner of writing, so necessary in musi- 
 cal dramatic art ; for, without .its knowledge, 
 musical art was incomplete, having thus far 
 only expressed the quiet and the soft." When 
 nvst performed, the instrumentalists thought it 
 
 H
 
 210 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 ridiculous to repeat the same note sixteen times 
 (tremolando) ; but Monteverde, sure of his de- 
 sign, and convinced of the dramatic truth of his 
 intentions, removed their objections; while, at 
 the same time, he taught them how to execute 
 the new difficulties : and the effect of the per- 
 formance of this scene was astonishing, over- 
 whelming. He thus at once surpassed all his 
 predecessors in their efforts to produce dramatic 
 music. 
 
 Though this manner of tone painting that 
 is, expressing and representing to the mind, by 
 means of instrumental effects and combinations, 
 the different emotions and situations the poem 
 thus describes is in a certain degree a new in- 
 vention attributed to Monteverde, yet, in fact, 
 it is only a transposition, for the peculiar mecha- 
 nism of instruments, of what had already been 
 done by Monteverde himself, and by other mas- 
 ters who lived before and with him, in some of 
 their madrigals and chansons. I take, for in- 
 stance, "La Battaglia Taliana," a battle-piece by 
 Matthew le Maistre, from the year 1552, and 
 composed for four voices. It is an extremBly 
 lively, spirited, and ingenious tone-picture : the 
 sound of the trumpet, the booming of the Can- 
 non, the rattling of musketry, the gallop of the 
 horses, and all the excitement of a lively con- 
 test, are imitated very faithfully by means oi
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 211 
 
 vocal combinations and characteristic syllables 
 and words. Mouteverde, endowed with great 
 penetration and practical sense, no doubt under- 
 stood at once with what great advantage and 
 effect, instruments, in preference to voices, may 
 be used in similar forms, leaving to each one of 
 them its own peculiarity, but, when combined, 
 drawing out of them such resources as render 
 his tone-picture more complete, more effective. 
 In this sense, he may be regarded, and perhaps 
 with more reason than any other of his contem- 
 poraries, as the real creator of modern dramatic 
 and instrumental music. 
 
 With the gradual introduction of the dramatic 
 element, the formal construction of musical art 
 changed entirely. The distinguishing charac- 
 teristics of the ecclesiastical keys are, a strict 
 use of diatonic melodic forms, and the observ- 
 ance of the relative position of the semi-tone 
 (mi fa) in all the scales or modes (see these 
 scales in the first lecture). Through this, each 
 one of the modes is subjected to a peculiar har- 
 monic treatment, and different closing formulas 
 (cadenzas) . The difference between the various 
 keys is thus more marked than that between 
 our modern major and minor keys, and their 
 transposition to other degrees. This led the old 
 writers to attribute to every one of the ecclesi- 
 astical keys the power of individual expression
 
 212 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 and effect ; but, like some of our modern theo 
 rists, who vainly endeavor to explain, in a simi- 
 lar way, the character of our major and minor 
 keys, these old authors do not at all agree as to 
 the nature of feeling expressed by each ecclesi- 
 astical key. Towards the middle of the sixteenth 
 century, however, freer rules in the practice of 
 the old modes began to be made use of ; adhe- 
 rence to their purely diatonic character became 
 gradually less strict. Through the efforts of the 
 madrigal composers, and especially the masters 
 of the Venetian school, the chromatic element, 
 degree by degree, modified the austerity of the 
 diatonic character of the ecclesiastical keys : 
 for, in the madrigal, composers moved more inde- 
 pendently in formal construction ; and, by means 
 of the harmonic innovations, so freely introduced 
 in the madrigal, the rigid and long-sanctioned 
 ecclesiastical forms of the old mass began, in the 
 course of time, to be entirely abandoned. Space 
 will not allow me to enter into more detail on the 
 construction of the ecclesiastical keys. For a 
 closer study, consult J. J. Fux's " Gradus ad Par- 
 nassum " (1725, Vienna), and Padre Martini's 
 " Esemplare osia Saggio fondamentale pratico di 
 Contrappunto " (1774-75, 2 vols. Bologna). 
 But, above all, I would refer to the actual musi- 
 cal works of the old church composers. 
 
 Monteverde was one of the first masters
 
 IlIfiTOKT OF MUSIC. 213 
 
 (perhaps the first) who freely introduced the 
 chord of the dominant seventh, in our modern 
 sense ; through this he contributed, more than 
 any other composer, to the overthrow of the ec- 
 clesiastical keys, and the substitution instead, of 
 our modern tonalities, governed by the dominant 
 seventh, and the tonic. These modes lie at the 
 sources of nearly all folk-songs and dance-tunes. 
 Instrumental music, in a great degree founded 
 on these popular forms, thus created its own 
 forms and tonal modes. With the supremacy 
 of the major and minor modes, the material of 
 our modern musical art began to develop itself 
 with more freedom, with more fluency, render- 
 ing it at the same time more pliable to the wants 
 and requirements of the dramatic and instru- 
 mental composer. 
 
 Monteverde's successors, such as Carissimi, 
 Cesti, Scarlatti, took up the work of perfecting 
 dramatic music, as well as of using the instru- 
 ments with more refinement and effect. The 
 noisy wind instruments, forever out of tune 
 (their construction having not yet attained such 
 a high degree of perfection as in our modern 
 times), disappear entirely from the orchestra, 01 
 are employed with more discretion. The ac- 
 companiment is limited to string instruments, 
 the harpsichord, and the lute or theorbe 
 In the church, instead of trombones, cornetti,
 
 214 HISTORY OF MUSIC, 
 
 and trumpets, string instruments are frequently 
 united with the organ. Thus more contrast and 
 artistic effect was gained in the performance of 
 cantatas, masses, and oratorios. 
 
 With the perfection of construction in the 
 family of string instruments, such as violins, 
 violas, violoncellos, and double basses, by the 
 celebrated violin-makers, Amati, Guarneri, Stra- 
 divari, Stainer, &c., some of whom were already 
 celebrated at the end of the sixteenth century, 
 the art of violin-playing was first brought in 
 Italy to that high degree of execution and artis- 
 tic performance, in which the Italian virtuosi 
 soon rivalled the great singers. The musician, 
 who through his mastery as a performer on the 
 violin, and also through the fine and noble com- 
 positions which he wrote and published for this 
 instrument, contributed more than any other of 
 his contemporaries towards the development of 
 our modern chamber music, was Arcanyelo Co- 
 relli, born in 1653, at Fusignano, near Bologna. 
 Corelli, when scarcely yet known, made a tour 
 through Germany, where he played at some 
 princely courts with great applause and distinc- 
 tion. After a few years of residence in that 
 country, and principally at Munich, he went 
 back to Italy, and made Rome his permanent 
 home. Corelli, as a violin-player, is said to have 
 distingulshe 1 himself through a round, pure, and
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 215 
 
 very refined tone ; and, though his technical 
 skill and execution of great difficulties were sur- 
 passed by many good orchestral leaders of his 
 time, yet, through his noble, exquisite, and 
 truthful expression, and his classic compositions 
 he surpassed them all. As such, he is with right 
 considered the father of violin-playing. Corelli 
 was a very modest and amiable artist, but a very 
 sensitive one. Handel, while in Rome, had one 
 of his overtures performed there. Corelli played 
 the first violin in the orchestra on this occasion, 
 and according to his own style, which was very 
 refined, but full of sentiment, missed the spirit- 
 ed, grand idea of the composer. Handel, los- 
 ing all patience, took in his customary brusque 
 way Corelli's violin, in order to show him how 
 he meant to have his work played. " But, my 
 dear Saxon," said Corelli very gently, " your 
 overture is written in the French style, which I 
 do not understand." Corelli had already 
 the fickleness of the public, which 
 often condemns, and forgets next morning the 
 artist it vociferously applauded the evening be- 
 fore. While on a short visit to Naples, a virtu- 
 oso on the hautboy, and another on the vio- 
 lin, both much inferior to him, won 
 the admiration and the applause of the Ro- 
 mans ; thus, when back in Rome, he thought 
 himself forgotten. This caused him so much cha-
 
 216 HISTORY OF MUSIO. 
 
 grin, tha,, it is said to have shortened his days 
 He died in 1712. CoreHi published a great many 
 works for string instruments, with accompani- 
 ment of a figured bass. Other great violin-play- 
 ers at this epoch were Greminiani, a pupil of 
 Oorolli, Vivaldi, Veraceini, and, above all, Criit- 
 seppe Tartini, born at Istria, in 1692. To judge 
 from Tartini's compositions for the violin, he 
 must have possessed an extraordinary mastery 
 over his instrument : they are full of all sorts 
 of difficult passages, trills, double-trills, and 
 skips. His playing was distinguished by a full, 
 round, and pure tone ; by great elegance, but a 
 free, yet energetic bowing. Tartini's early life 
 was full of romance. As a youth, his parents 
 wished him-to enter a Franciscan convent ; but 
 he had no inclination for such a secluded life. 
 He afterwards frequented the University of Pa- 
 dua, in order to study law. Endowed with rare 
 intelligence and great natural facilit} r , he mas- 
 tered his studies with ease ; and, besides his con- 
 tinual cultivation of the violin, he found ample 
 time to devote to the art of fencing, which he 
 loved passionately. Having become very expert 
 in the handling of the sword, and being also 
 confident of his own ability, his quarrelsome 
 temper induced him to fight one duel after the 
 other : he thus neglected his studies, and even 
 entertained the idea of establishing himself ic
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 217 
 
 Paris, as a fencing-master. He would have prob- 
 ably thus been lost to musical art, of which he 
 was destined to be in more than one respect a 
 most worthy representative; but, having fallen 
 in love with a young lady of Padua, the niece 
 of Cardinal Cornaro, he married her secretly. 
 This secret union having become publicly known, 
 his parents, irritated at his ill-conduct, refused 
 him all further subsidies ; and the cardinal, en- 
 raged at his boldness, set the police to watch /t** 4 ** 1 
 him. Tartini fled towards Rome. On his way 
 to that city, he met a priest, a near relation of 
 his, who, taking pity on his reduced situation, 
 invited him to his own convent in the town of 
 Assisa. At this convent our artist hid for two 
 years ; even his young wife did not know what 
 had become of him. In this solitude, and much 
 influenced also by the kindness and the piety of 
 the monks of the convent, he devoted all his 
 time to the study of music, especially violin- 
 playing ; one of the monks, being an accom- 
 plished musician, assisted him much in his 
 studies. After a secret sojourn of two years in the 
 convent, he was discovered by one of his own 
 townsmen, when playing in the church of the 
 convent at some festivity. The cardinal having 
 meanwhile softened down towards him, he was 
 able to return to his family, a better and wiser 
 man. He afterwards became chapel-master at
 
 218 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 the principal church in Padua. He wrote and 
 published a great many compositions of classic 
 value for string instruments, endeavored to es- 
 tablish a new system of harmony, founded a 
 music school at Padua, and formed a great 
 many excellent pupils. I will here only mention 
 the distinguished Nardini. Tartini was often 
 called by the Italians, II Maestro delle nazioni. 
 His sonata, " The Devil's Trill," is well known ; 
 the circumstance that gave existence as well as 
 its title to this remarkable composition is less so. 
 Tartini writes, " One night, in 1713, I dreamed 
 that I had made a compact with the Devil, who 
 had entered my service : every thing succeeded 
 according to my wishes ; my desires were always 
 forseen, and exceeded even, by the anxiety of 
 my servant. I fancied that I gave him my vio- 
 lin to play some airs to me ; but I was greatly 
 surprised when I heard so beautiful, so original 
 a sonata, executed with such superior intelli- 
 gence, that I had never even imagined any 
 thing that could be placed in comparison with it. 
 In breathless astonishment and delight, I awoke, 
 and seized my violin, hoping to recall at least 
 a part of what I had heard ; but in vain. The 
 piece I then composed is certainly the best I ever 
 wrote ; and I still call it, " The Devil's Sonata : " 
 but it is so far beneath what I heard in my 
 dream, that I would then have broken my violin,
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 219 
 
 and abandoned music forever, had I been in a 
 condition to do so." 
 
 Besides the classic schools of violin-playing 
 which the masters already mentioned founded 
 in Italy, the art of harpsichord, or piano-forte 
 playing, could also claim, at this epoch, worthy 
 and ingenious composers and performers. The 
 greatest among all was Dominico Scarlatti, born 
 in 1683, and son of the renowned composer 
 Allessandro Scarlatti. Dominico Scarlatti also 
 composed operas and church music,- but his 
 greatest importance and merit lay in his compo- 
 sitions for the harpsichord. He designated them 
 sonatas, though they are entirely different from 
 the form which we to-day call sonata : they 
 are pieces in one movement, generally in two 
 parts, built upon very simple, but very spirited, 
 original, and always graceful motivos. They 
 are perfect genre pictures, full of elegance, full 
 of poetical contrast, developing, in an ingenious 
 manner, all the resources of his great and per- 
 fect mastery over the instrument. Most of 
 these unique pieces sound as fresh and melodi- 
 ous as if they had been composed only yester- 
 day. The following extract may give you an 
 idea of Scarlatti's powers as a harpsichord player : 
 Thomas Roseingrave, himself a performer of 
 some eminence on the harpsichord and organ, 
 while on a visit in Venice, was invited, as a
 
 220 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 stranger and a virtuoso, to an acadeirxa at the 
 house of some nobleman, where, among others, 
 he was requested to sit do \vnto the harpsichord, 
 and favor the company with a toccata, as a spe- 
 cimen della sua virtu, of his capacity ; and, 
 says he, " finding myself rather better in cour- 
 age and finger than usual, I exerted myself, and 
 fancied, by the applause I received, that my per- 
 formance had made some impression on the com- 
 pany." After a cantata had been sung, a young 
 man, dressed in black, ani in a black wig, who 
 had stood in one corner of the room, very quiet 
 and attentive while Roseingrave played, being 
 asked to sit down to the harpsichord, began to 
 play. Roseingrave said, when he had heard him, 
 that he thought ten hundred devils had been at 
 the instrument ; he never heard such passages 
 of execution and effect before. The performance 
 so far surpassed his own, and every degree of 
 perfection to which he thought it possible he 
 should ever arrive, -that, if he had been in sight 
 of any instrument with which to have done the 
 deed, he would have cut off his own fingers. 
 Upon inquiring the name- of this extraordinary 
 performer, he was told that it was Dominico 
 Scarlatti. 
 
 Other distinguished Italian performers on the 
 harpsichord, and, at the same time, composers 
 of merit for this favorite instrument, at this
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 221 
 
 epoch, were Durante, Paradise, Porpor^i, Gf-as- 
 parini, and Alberti. 
 
 France at this time also claims having pro- 
 duced clever and original harpsichord and organ 
 players, such as Chambonnieres, d 'Angelbert, the 
 Couperins, MarcTiand, Daquin, Rameau. Fran- 
 fois Couperin, called the great, as he was con- 
 sidered the most distinguished master of an illus- 
 trious family of musicians, was born at Paris, in 
 1678. To judge from his compositions, which 
 are elegant, full of spirit and originality, he 
 must have been a very accomplished performer ; 
 but his pieces are not seldom so overladen with 
 trills and other ornamental notes, indispensable 
 to an instrumental performer at that time, that 
 the graceful and simple melodies are, so to say, 
 entirely smothered. Couperin also published 
 an instruction-book, " L'art de toucher le Clave- 
 cin," which was of great influence on the further 
 development of piano-playing. Couperin died 
 in 1733. His greatest immediate successor, was 
 Jean Philippe Rameau, born at Dijon, in 1683, 
 distinguished as theorist, opera composer, and 
 performer on the organ and the harpsichord. 
 Rameau's compositions for the harpsichord are, 
 in harmonious treatment, as well as in melodi- 
 ous invention, richer than those of Couperin : 
 they are fresh, original, graceful, and very in- 
 genious in formal construction ; some of them
 
 222 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 are real little gems. Rameau died in 1741, and 
 may be considered as the last great master of 
 a series of fine performers of this old French 
 school of piano and organ playing. The custom 
 of giving to many compositions, and also to dif- 
 ferent dances, for the harpsichord or piano-forte, 
 characteristic titles, such as " La Rare," " La 
 Favorite," " La Fleurie ou la tendre Nanette," 
 " Le Reveilmatin," " La Fanfarinette," " La 
 Musette," &c., &c., suggesting to our mind cer- 
 tain ideas, intended by the composer to be con- 
 veyed through them, is not altogether a modern 
 invention. We find that the above-mentioned 
 French composers, as well as German, English, 
 and Italian instrumentalists of that time, made 
 frequent use of this means ; to which, however, it 
 is well not to attach too much importance, as it 
 easily leads us to overrate the insignificant and 
 empty fabrications of mere mechanists, who 
 vainly seek to cover their utter want of invent- 
 iveness and necessary knowledge, by high- 
 sounding, suggestive titles. It is much more 
 easy to find a pretty title for a piece than to 
 discover fine and effective melo'dies. 
 
 Of English instrumental composers and harp- 
 sichord Dlayers at this epoch, I must mention 
 Lawes, Locke, Roseingrave, Purcell, and Dr. 
 Blow. Henry Purcell is the most important 
 among them. Some of his sonatas for string in-
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 223 
 
 struments, and a harpsichord, and also some of 
 his pieces in the dance forms of his time, are 
 spirited and full of fancy. He well appreciated 
 the melodious and elegant style which distin- 
 guished the compositions of such Italian masters 
 as Carissimi, Cesti, Colonna, Bassoni, Stradella, 
 and, no doubt, studied their works diligently 
 and beneficially; for, in the preface to his 
 twelve sonatas for two violins, and a bass for 
 the harpsichord or organ, he says, " For its 
 author, he has faithfully endeavored a just imi- 
 tation of the most famed Italian masters, princi- 
 pally to bring the seriousness and gravity of that 
 sort of music into vogue and reputation among our 
 countrymen, whose humor it is time now should 
 begin to loath the levity and balladry of our neigh- 
 bors (the French). The attempt he confesses 
 'to be bold and daring, there being pens and ar- 
 tists of more eminent abilities, much better quali- 
 fied for the employment than his or himself, 
 which he well hopes these, his weak endeavors, 
 will in due time provoke and inflame to a more. j 
 accurate understanding. He is not ashamed to arr< 
 own his unskilfulriess in the Italian language ; 
 but that is the unhappiness of his education, 
 which cannot justly be counted his fault : how- 
 ever, he thinks he may warrantably affirm, tl 
 he is not mistaken in the power of the Italian 
 notes, or elegancy of their compositions."
 
 224 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 After the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, instrumental music made great progress, 
 especially in Germany ; and the vast number of 
 distinguished talents who devoted all their ener- 
 gy and attention to this branch of musical art 
 soon assured its supremacy in Germany. The 
 organ and the harpsichord, however, were the 
 instruments first cultivated with the greatest 
 success. Since the organ was to lead, and at the 
 same time to accompany, by means of solemn 
 and noble, but simple harmonies, the sacred 
 song, the chorale of the Protestant congrega- 
 tions, its importance began to be more and more 
 conspicuous, and, as such, necessarily also bet- 
 ter understood by organists. The chorale, which 
 grew up and was formed in the bosom of the 
 Protestant church, gained for the Protestant or- 
 ganist the same meaning, the same importance, 
 that the Gregorian chant so justly obtained for 
 the great church composers of the fifteenth and 
 sixteenth centuries : it forms the basis of the 
 German-protestant church music. The German 
 organists, the hereditary and faithful cultivators 
 of that great art, counterpoint, in its broadest 
 Si-nse, emploj'ed all their science and knowledge 
 to enrich, by means of artistic and suitable or- 
 gan-playing, the musical part of the Protestant 
 church service, always making the chorale the 
 ground, the principal theme of their efforts.
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 225 
 
 But how simple and modest were the positions 
 and the pretensions of these honest old organ- 
 ists ! And yet, how deep and truthful are the 
 works which they destined for the adornment of 
 religious service ! It must have been only 
 through an exceptional perseverance and appli- 
 cation, coupled with great love and veneration 
 for the noble art, that they were able to create 
 such fine and numerous works ; for the method 
 of instruction was then yet a complicated one, 
 full of unnecessary difficulties, derived in a great 
 measure from the pedantic mania of surround- 
 ing it with puerile mysteries. But such mas- 
 ters as Bach and Handel have proven what a 
 solid foundation of musical education this school 
 of German organists was. The Gregorian chant 
 and the Protestant chorale run like a red thread 
 through the musical part of the church service 
 of the two great religious denominations : these 
 really sacred songs of the two churches are the 
 first impressions which touch the soul of the 
 young Christian on his entrance into the Church, 
 and are, as such, the indestructible echoes of hii 
 first sacred, associations. As Holy Writ forim- 
 the invariable foundation of the religious and 
 moral principles of the true Christian, so the 
 Gregorian chant and the chorale ought to form 
 the ground and invariable theme of the true 
 church composer ; and, as long as composers un- 
 it
 
 226 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 dersiood and valued this inestimable, noble, and 
 really sacred practice, their works composed for 
 the Church truthfully and appropriately fulfilled 
 their solemn office : these works were thus im- 
 bued with the sacred character derived from the 
 themes of the sacred songs : then, necessarily, 
 a distinct line of demarcation was drawn between 
 secular and sacred music. How is it to-day ? 
 A glance at the meaningless fabrications, des- 
 /< /./ tined for the Church by our would^be^church 
 iomposers, will at once betray to you their pro- 
 Cane models. The frivolous, worldly variations, 
 and silly, sentimental organ voluntaries, which 
 greet you at your entrance into sacred places, 
 will tell you the source from which the pliant 
 organist has drawn. It is the fashionable opera 
 of to-day, with its worn-out phrases, that has 
 taken the place of the original sacred songs ; it 
 is the empty modern ballad that has supplanted 
 the Gregorian chant and the chorale : and, ac- 
 cording to my conviction, only a return to the 
 true source of sacred Christian church music 
 will enable our church composers to resuscitate 
 real church art. 
 
 The list of celebrated German organists who 
 lived before and with Bach and Handel is long. 
 I shall only mention Samuel Scheldt, John J. 
 Froberger (the distinguished pupil of the re- 
 nowned Frescobaldi), J. C. Kerl, J. Pachebel^
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 221 
 
 Buxtehude, Reinken, Zacliau (the master of 
 Handel), Creorge Muff at, Fischer, Kuhnau, the 
 predecessor of Bach at Leipzig (and the first 
 who has written a sonata in which we may trace 
 the first dawn of our present sonata form), and 
 the different able organists of that musical fam- 
 ily, of which J. S. Bach was the greatest mem- 
 ber t while he was at the same time the greatest 
 of all organists. The vast number of immortal 
 works, in every style, which Bach has left foi 
 the organ, will serve as the foundation of all 
 true organ-playing, as they will also remain the 
 lofty study of every earnest, striving organist for 
 all time to come. Handel, great in every art- 
 form known at his time, was not less great as 
 an organist. In his concertos for the organ, he 
 has deposited such a treasure of original and 
 beautiful ideas, that it needs only the loving and 
 aspiring mind of the true artist to bring them 
 to light again. And in what glory do Handel's 
 ideas shine, when truly interpreted ! All these 
 organists were also distinguished players on the 
 harpsichord, and industrious composers for that 
 instrument. The favorite form of these old 
 composers and harpsichord players was the 
 suite; that is, a succession of several move- 
 ments or pieces in different forms (lessons, as 
 they were also called by old writers), but usu- 
 ally all in the same key, These movements,
 
 228 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 like those of our modern sonata, wliich, in 
 fact, is the substitute of the old suite, were 
 so arranged, as to present the necessary aestheti- 
 cal contrasts : they differed in time, motion, and 
 rhythm ; yet, being all in the same key, the in- 
 ner relation was to a certain degree preserved. 
 These movements consisted of pieces in the 
 usual dance forms, such as the Allemande, the 
 Couranto, the Gavotte, the Bounce, the Passa- 
 caglia, the Passepied, the Sarabanda, the Pavane, 
 the Air, the Minuetto, the Gigue, the Chaconne, 
 &c., &c. The Preludium also found a place in 
 the suite. Towards the latter part of the eigh- 
 teenth century, the suite gave place to the 
 partita, to which our modern sonata finally suc- 
 ceeded. I will give here the meaning which 
 the teachers and composers of the seventeenth 
 and eighteenth centuries attached to the charac- 
 ter and effect of the different movements which 
 composed a suite, or a course of lessons for vari- 
 ous instruments : this gives us a clear insight into 
 the art-practice of our forefathers.. 
 
 " The Prelude is commonly a piece of confused, 
 wild, shapeless, intricate play (as most use it) ; 
 in wliich no perfect form, shape, or uniformity, 
 can be perceived, but a random business, pat- 
 tering and groping up and down from one stop or 
 key to another, and generally so performed as 
 to make trial whether the instrument be well
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 229 
 
 in tune or not." Bach, however, gave to the 
 prelude a more artistic form, full of poetical con- 
 tents. 
 
 The Pcrvane is a grave and majestic Spanish 
 dance, wherein the dancers turn round, and 
 make a wheel or tail before each other, like 
 that of a peacock ; whence its name. It was 
 anciently in great repute, and was danced by gen- 
 tlemen with cap and sword, by those of the long 
 robe in their gowns, by princes with their man- 
 tles, and by ladies with their gowns trailing 
 after them. The time thereof is the slowest 
 and gravest part of instrumental music, gen- 
 erally consisting of three strains. 
 
 The Couranto is a piece in triple time, com- 
 monly of two strains, and full of sprightfulness 
 and vigor, lively, brisk, and cheerful. 
 
 The Minuetto is a composition in triple time, 
 of rather slow and graceful motion. It is said 
 to have been invented at Poitou, in France. 
 
 TJie Sarabanda, probably originally derived 
 from Spain, is of a slow and serious character. 
 It is also in triple time. 
 
 " A Tattle de Moy is a new-fashioned thing, 
 much like a Saraband, only it has more of con- 
 ceit and humor in it." 
 
 " Jigs are light, squibbish things, only fit for 
 fantastical, and easy, light-headed people, and 
 are of any sort of time."
 
 2:30 VISTOiiY OF MUSIU. 
 
 TJie (rrfXv Js dance tune of two strains, in 
 common tin ,. It is sometimes of a brisk and 
 lively nature, p-nd sometimes also of a tender 
 and rather slow movement. 
 
 The Chaconne (ciacona) is a composition, the 
 characteristic of which is a ground bass, con- 
 sisting of four measures of th^ee crotchets each, 
 repeated to continually-varied melodies, called 
 couplets. These varied melodies or couplets, 
 passing and re-passing freely from the m."vjor to the 
 relative minor key, from the grave to the gay, 
 from the tender to the lively, but without 
 changing the motion of the time, form those 
 interesting contrasts which fetter the attention 
 of the listener. I mention, among others, th^ 
 wonderful chaconne for violin alone, by J. S 
 Bach. 
 
 The. Passacaglia, or passecaille, is properl}" no- 
 more than a chaconne. The only difference be- 
 tween them is, that the movement of the passe- 
 caille is somewhat graver, the time softer, an<? 
 the expression less lively. 
 
 The term Allemande represents two kinds of 
 composition. First, a German national dance 
 written in common time, two crotchets in r 
 measure, and of brisk and lively character 
 Then a grave and slow air or melcdy of fou> 
 crotchets in a measure. 
 
 The suites of Bach and Handel are such ex-
 
 EISTOR? OF MUSIC. 231 
 
 quisite, fresh, and original compositions, that to 
 ignore them is k> deprive one's self of genuine 
 musical enjoyment, every one of their move- 
 ments is so characteristic, and betrays in every 
 bar the master-hand that formed them. 
 
 The suites of Grottlieb Muff at, a pupil of the re- 
 nowned theorist and composer, J. J. Fux, of Vi- 
 enna, are also rich in fancy and harmony, and 
 worthy productions for the harpsichord of that 
 time. I must also mention that admirable, well- 
 known classical work of Bach's, the "Wohltem- 
 perirte Clavier," or " Well-tempered Piano-forte," 
 a collection of forty-eight preludes and fugues in 
 all the major and minor keys. So great is the 
 artistic value and the intrinsic merit of this 
 work, that, like a rock, it has withstood for more ^^ 
 than a century all the changing pEases"of taste/ y/ 
 influenced by the caprices and fashions of time. 
 Eternal youth and unsurpassed perfection 
 stamp every piece of the collection. 
 
 It is curious to observe how long it was before 
 these old harpsichord players learned to use all 
 the five fingers as means of artistic execution ' 
 in a manner that seems so natural to us. Mat- 
 theson, as late as 1785, teaches yet the follow- 
 ing fingering. 
 
 For the right hand, ascending, 
 CDEFGABCDE FGABC 
 3 4, 3 4, 3 4, 3 4, 3 4, 3 4, 3 45:
 
 232 HISTORT OF MUSIC. 
 
 descending, C B A G F E D C, &c. 
 5 4 3, 2 3, 2 3, 2 3, &c 
 Left hand, ascending, descending : 
 3 2 1, 2 1, 2 1, 2 1, &c. : 2 3, 2 3, 2 3, 2 3. &c. 
 
 Bach was here, as ever, the master, who, 
 through his keen sense and his deep apprecia- 
 tion of the true, brought order and system into 
 the application of the use of the fingers, for 
 more effective execution and artistic rendering 
 of the difficulties of keyed instruments. 
 
 The orchestral resources of this epoch, by 
 means of diligent practice on, and continual im- 
 provement of, the different instruments, were 
 brought to greater effect, principally through 
 those two admirable masters, Bach and Handel, 
 who left the ineffaceable stamp of their genius 
 on every art-form that their minds took hold of. 
 I need only mention Handel's hautboy concer- 
 tos, his " Fire Music," and many of his over- 
 tures to operas and oratorios ; Bach's beautiful 
 violin sonatas, orchestra suites, piano-forte con- 
 certos, and other instrumental works. They, 
 and their contemporaries, were acquainted with 
 all . instruments, except the clarinet, used in 
 our modern orchestra; though they did not 
 yet employ these instruments as the means of 
 creating such varied, rich, and refined combina- 
 tions, and brilliant effects as we are accustomed 
 to find in the scores of the masters since Gluck
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 233 
 
 and Haydn. In their great choral works, as 
 well as in their purely instrumental composi- 
 tions, such as overtures, suites, concertos, the 
 string quartet serves as foundation, and occu- 
 pies a conspicuous part throughout ; .bassoons, 
 horns, trumpets, kettle-drums, flutes, and haut- 
 boys (of which they used several kinds, the or- 
 dinary hautboy, the hautboy d'amore, and da 
 caccia) were added, either to strengthen the 
 sonority of greater choral masses, or, as is often 
 the case, especially in Bach's works, they were 
 made to play an individually important part in 
 the different arias. These masters have, how- 
 ever, proved in many of their works, like Bach 
 in his charming D major suite, that they knew 
 how to create ingenious novel instrumental effects 
 when necessary. But these effects grew out of 
 the great idea which lay at the root of the mas- 
 ters' works ; they were not used to hide defi-^ffi. 
 ciency of melodious inventiveness under a bril- 
 liant and highly-colored instrumentation. 
 
 The organ, the harpsichord, and formerly the 
 lute, and the theorbe, were al ways found hi the 
 orchestras of these old masters. The art of 
 playing an accompaniment on these instruments, 
 according to the complicated rules of thorough 
 bass playing, seems to be now almost a lost art ; 
 and, with this, the real tradition of rendering 
 Handel's, Bach's, and other masters' (their con-
 
 234 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 temporaries) works is in a great measure also lost. 
 We know that Handel in his oratorios, and Bach 
 in his cantatas and passion oratorios, made a 
 conspicuous use of the organ, besides the instru- 
 mental means of which I have already spoken. 
 In these works, intended and accepted as ideal 
 forms of Protestant church music, the organ, so 
 intimately connected with the religious traditions 
 of every Christian nation, thus inevitably forms 
 an inseparable part. And in its austere gran- 
 deur, varied by the resources of the manifold 
 stops, is it not, when well handled, a worthy and 
 fitting background to such works ? Revive the 
 art of true organ-playing, as indicated by Bach, 
 Handel, &c., in their numerous works for this 
 instrument, and a great advance towards the 
 true performance of many of these masters' 
 grand choral compositions will be gained. This, 
 however, would necessitate a deeper knowledge 
 of the old masters' (in most senses, unrivalled) 
 method than is generally found among our or- 
 ganists of to-day, and, with it, more thorough 
 study and experience ; formerly, masters like 
 Bach himself, were appointed as judges and 
 critics of the aspirants to responsible positions. 
 These places were not then to be gained through 
 social influence alone, or, as is now too often 
 the case, in a sphere where we least look to find 
 it, through social hypocrisy and intrigue !
 
 HISTORY OF MUSIC. 235 
 
 The impulse given to instrumental music, es- 
 pecially through the labors and efforts of Bach 
 and his many distinguished disciples in the north 
 of Germany, and through the influence of the 
 great Italian masters of violin-playing in the 
 south of Germany, was lasting and beneficial to 
 art. Kings and princes, some out of loye for 
 music, others for ambition's and fashion's sake, 
 supported costly chapels, where an orchestra, 
 composed of able instrumentalists, was the fea- 
 ture. Talented composers were engaged to pro- 
 vide works exclusively for the wants of the 
 eager orchestras of these princely patrons. Solos, 
 trios, concertos, composed by the best masters 
 for various instruments, excited players to de- 
 velop their own technical skill, and the qualities 
 of their chosen instruments ; in this way, such 
 players sometimes rivalled great singers in exe- 
 cution. Thus instrumental practice gained a 
 prominent place and immense importance in 
 German musical culture ; and thus also was 
 that great modern German school of instru- 
 mental music prepared, headed by Haydn. 
 Mozart, and Beethoven.
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed. 
 
 BEC'O MUS LIB 
 
 MAR 1 6 1890
 
 MUSK 
 UBRARY 
 
 ML 
 160 
 R 
 v. 1