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MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT ; 
 
 OK, 
 
 REMARKS ON THE SPIRIT 
 
 OE 
 
 THE PRINCIPAL MUSICAL EORMS. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSEPH GODDARD, 
 
 AUTHOR OR ( THE PHILOSOPHY OP MUSIC.’ 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 THOMAS MURBY, 32, BOUYERIE STREET, 
 
 FLEET STKEET, E.C. ; 
 
 SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO., STATIONERS’ HALL COURT, E.C. 
 
 [all rights reserved.] 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY WARREN HALL AND CO., 
 CAMDEN ROAD, N.W. 
 
-^&Q Sfr‘8M3C 
 
 T6o- 1 
 
 Q-54- rc- 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This work does not treat either of the history or of the 
 technicalities of music. Several years ago the question used 
 frequently to suggest itself to the present writer whilst 
 listening to fine music/ whether its strong and elevating 
 influence might not be explained. Looking for indications 
 of music in nature, — i. e» not only for musical sounds, which 
 are abundant enough, but for musical expression also, — he 
 concluded that the effects of tone and accent in speech, are 
 such indications ; and he was first led to this conclusion not 
 by the palpable resemblance of modulation in speech and 
 melody, but by experiencing that the inward sensation pro- 
 duced by the eloquent enunciation of important language, 
 greatly resembles that produced by such music as Handel's 
 choruses, the expression of which depends so much upon the 
 principle of rhythm. Hence he first assumed that emphasis 
 and phrase in language are rudimentary effects of rhythm 
 and phrase in music ; * and afterwards concluded that the 
 former effects, together with modulation, are animated by an 
 impulse of the same order as that which gives rise to music. 
 He expressed these views some time back in a work, a new 
 
 * It is perhaps unnecessary to say that these different terms, emphasis, 
 rhythm, phrase, do not refer to effects of different natures, hut to different 
 forms of one principle, both rhythm and phrase being certain arrangements of 
 the effect of emphasis. 
 
 A 
 
Vi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 edition of which, he hopes soon to publish, entitled ‘ The 
 Philosophy of Music/ 
 
 This being so, he has thought that observation of the 
 spirit in which the above effects relative to language are 
 prompted, might throw light upon the spirit in which music 
 is prompted. A digest of the results of this observation, and 
 the residuum of the passing ideas the subject has suggested, 
 constitute the present work. 
 
 The author acknowledges with much pleasure, expressions 
 of sympathy received during the progress of the work, from 
 Mr. William Chappell, Mr. J. E. Duggan, Dr. Rimbault, 
 Mr. Charles Salaman, Mr. J. W. Davison, Mr. J. Goss, 
 Mr. J. Ella, The Rev. E. Young, Miss Emily Ham, Mr. J. 
 Eulcher (Glasgow), Mr. J. Smyth (B. M. Royal Art.), and 
 Mr. Thomas Murby, amongst others ; and is further desirous 
 of acknowledging his indebtedness to the last named gentle- 
 man for his very able and careful assistance in the revision 
 of the proof-sheets. He has only further to add, that the 
 sympathy here acknowledged, is sympathy with the inves- 
 tigation of music; and that it was given in ignorance of 
 the particular opinions and ideas expressed or implied in the 
 following pages. 
 
 136 , St. Paul's Road, 
 
 Camden Square, N.W. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The two chaeactees of sentiment, and the two sections of 
 
 MUSICAL EFFECT ...... 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The exigency in expeession which abstbact sentiment in- 
 volves, AND THE STEUCTUEAL PLAN OF THE GEEAT MODEEN 
 INSTEUMENTAL FOEMS OF COMPOSITION 26 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A COMPAEATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE SPTEIT OF THE INSTEUMENTAL 
 
 MUSIC OF HAYDN, MOZAET, BEETHOVEN, AND MENDELSSOHN . . 44 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 The intellectual position of insteumental music 74 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 The peinciples on which the musical and liteeaey plan 
 of an opeea, should be based 83 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 The spieit of saceed music. —eemabks on the oeatoeio .... 120 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 Some eemaeks conceening the influence of mental peogeess 
 
 UPON MUSIC.— CONCLUSION 137 
 

 
 
 
 
 I’i ' 
 
 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE TWO CHARACTERS OE SENTIMENT, AND THE TWO 
 SECTIONS OP MUSICAL EFFECT. 
 
 JJ UMAN emotion, regarded comprehensively, is 
 seen to be of two general orders : the feeling we 
 bear to one another, which arises through our human 
 relations, being one; and that which is not elicited 
 through social intercourse, but which we possess 
 solely with reference to our own minds and to nature 
 generally, being the other. The former is personal or 
 instinctive, the latter mental or abstract, emotion ; one 
 is common feeling, the other, though still broad, ex- 
 ceptional. The first order of sentiment is involved 
 in that vast sympathy which obeys Shakespear’s 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 ‘touch of nature;’ the second may be described 
 as that ‘pure passion’ alluded to by the poet where 
 
 he says — 
 
 ‘ I become 
 
 Portion of that around me, and to me 
 High mountains are a feeling.’ * * 
 
 Musical effect is well known to consist materially of 
 two distinctive elements, both composed of sounds 
 arranged in certain successions, the principle of ar- 
 rangement being in the one case variation of pitch, m 
 the other, variation of force. One principle is pre- 
 dominant in music of a character suggested by the 
 term, melody ; the other, in music whose characteristic 
 is a more or less elaborate accentuation: harmony is 
 common to, and deepens and enhances, both sections 
 of musical effect. I shall now endeavour to demon- 
 strate that the two characters of human emotion on 
 the one hand, and of musical effect on the other, have 
 a direct relation; to show that the melodic style of 
 music is naturally and peculiarly appropriate for ex- 
 pressing the instinctive type of feeling, and that the 
 marked rhythmic style is in the same degree appro- 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 11 
 
 priate for expressing feeling of the more abstract 
 type.* 
 
 This proposition regarded absolutely, may not 
 appear at first sight, practically important. The 
 considerations, however, that the process of its esta- 
 blishment gives rise to, will enable us to unfold the 
 moral theory of the art of music. And the natural 
 principle involved in this sympathetic divergence in 
 the character of emotion, and in the form of musical 
 
 * By music of a marked rhythmic style, I mean music where the 
 variation in effect, — and therefore where the expression and character, — 
 lies mainly in the rhythm. Music exemplifies the principle of rhythm 
 in two general forms, and for two objects ; in a regularly measured form, 
 and for a mechanical purpose, and in a variable and broader form, and 
 for a poetical purpose. The measured accentuation, — the time, — of a 
 piece of music, may be most strongly marked and yet this accentuation 
 may be the furthest removed feature in the effect from the characteristic 
 features of the individual composition. In the case of dance music , to 
 give an instance, the majority of pieces in each form of this kind of 
 composition, would be indistinguishable but for the difference of their 
 melodies . It is obvious that as regards rhythm, there is here little or no 
 variation of effect. On the other hand, composition where the charac- 
 teristic design is worked mainly out of the principle of rhythm, involves 
 an order of music which includes such works as Handel’s choruses. 
 There are compositions of this order, in which the measured and in- 
 variable accentuation is subdued, where there is no melody, where the 
 harmonic changes are both rare and of the simplest nature, where the 
 whole character and individuality lies in the shaping and grouping of its 
 larger rhythmic features, and of which the effect is most impressive and 
 sublime. 
 
12 
 
 musical development. 
 
 effect, is serviceable as an implement for interpreting 
 tie spirit and meaning of all tie important musical 
 styles: among tiese, of tiat abstract-instrumental 
 
 style whicli has attained such full development in the 
 works of Beethoven. 
 
 In entering upon the consideration of the proposi- 
 tion under notice, it is necessary, preparatively, to refer 
 to the following facts;— as man’s crowning inward 
 endowment is the high degree in which he possesses the 
 phenomenon, mind, so that which most elevates and 
 distinguishes him with regard to external qualities, is 
 the power through which mind manifests itself, or his 
 faculty of demonstration : the main issue of human 
 demonstrativeness, is language; its higher channel, 
 fine art. 
 
 In the living action of language work the three 
 grand principles through which human demonstration 
 is consummated, whereby all ideas of material things 
 are communicated, and all moral sensations expressed. 
 The simplest is that which we shall term the principle 
 of symbolical association — of raising ideas m others hy 
 the use of a regular machinery of suggestion. Certain 
 sounds, or words, are associated with certain distinctly 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 13 
 
 defined ideas — ideas of objects, persons, actions, 
 qualities, conditions, or sensations ; and a particular 
 succession of words being uttered, a correlative train 
 of ideas is at once suggested. The process is me- 
 chanical, i.e. the mind receives impressions thus 
 communicated, whilst in a passive condition — without 
 special exertion. It is to be observed, this principle 
 of expression only embraces emotions of distinctly- 
 defined character, and which are common to human 
 experience ; its name implies thus much, as the 
 influence of association is the resuscitation of old 
 impressions. It is also to be noticed that it does not 
 afford exhaustive expression to feeling, or arouse deep 
 sympathy, but serves mainly to suggest the idea 
 of feeling. 
 
 Another of these three principles of demonstra- 
 tion is, that of representation or imitation , — the ex- 
 pressing and conveying impressions by reproducing 
 in full extent and detail the original incitation of 
 those impressions. This is the psychological prin- 
 ciple of the arts of painting, sculpture, and the drama ; 
 and it prevails extensively in poetry, and amidst 
 graphic descriptive passages in ordinary language. 
 
14 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 It is to be observed, this principle embraces sentiment 
 too special and complex to be communicable by the 
 power of association ; that it affords scope for length- 
 ened expression, and arouses a vivid sympathy. 
 
 There is thirdly, the principle of direct expression , 
 the conveying a particular temper of feeling through 
 the effect of the modulation and accentuation of the 
 voice. This principle enters largely into all rhetorical 
 effects in ordinary speech, into all sentential and 
 metrical effects in the higher forms of language, 
 and into poetry ; it prevails wholly in the effect 
 of music. 
 
 All these principles may be remarked conjointly 
 operating in language. Thus, in the instance of a 
 speaker making a communication involving both fact 
 and feeling, we find that in the literal portion of the 
 communication — in the expression of simple ideas 
 and generic sentiment, the principle of symbolical 
 association operates ; whilst in the descriptive pas- 
 gages — in the graphic delineation of scene, character, 
 and circumstance— in the full reproduction of certain 
 influences in nature or life, the principle of repre- 
 sentation — of painting, sculpture, and the drama, 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 15 
 
 prevails ; but in that portion of the communication 
 where the sentiment being expressed is most original — 
 where it is peculiar to the conceiver alone, — in the 
 delicate modulation of the voice, and the dexterous 
 moulding of the phrase, the remarkable principle of 
 direct expression — of poetry and music, is in action. 
 
 It may favour the attainment of a distinct idea of 
 each of these principles, if I briefly recapitulate that 
 the first mentioned, acts upon the mind chiefly through 
 the process of association , the second, through the 
 process of representation , and the other, by effects 
 which are purely phonetic. 
 
 It is with the last principle that we have chiefly to 
 do in these considerations. I have to direct the 
 reader’s particular attention to the fact that language 
 has besides its more mechanical and circuitous forms 
 of action, another action which works in the effect of 
 different degrees of inflection of the voice, and by a 
 more or less marked and variedly arranged accentuation. 
 It is to be observed that this action is of a peculiarly 
 direct character, i.e., in working impressiveness, it 
 does not, like language in its other actions, refer to 
 ideas and feelings already in the mind of a listener, 
 
16 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 or to effects without ; it operates conjointly with those 
 processes, hut in so far as it is itself concerned, it 
 involves no intermediate process whatever : it has, it 
 would seem, the property of imbuing feeling spon- 
 taneously, and hence I term it the principle of direct 
 expression. 
 
 The function of this principle appears to he, to 
 express and convey that moral impressure which 
 is most original, which is, in the first place, pecu- 
 liar to the conceiver alone. Where, for instance, in 
 ordinary speech, ideas mechanically suggested, are 
 modified or enlarged by effects of modulation and accen- 
 tuation j or where, in the higher forms of language, 
 description is enhanced by sentential design or met- 
 rical effect, — the property of the action in question, is, 
 to superadd to the more stereotyped emotion conjured 
 up by other means of demonstration, the expression of 
 a further and finer phase of feeling peculiar to the 
 speaker alone* At the same time it is observable 
 
 * Dr. Blair, speaking of the art of rightly using the effect of emphasis , 
 in ‘ delivery,’ says : — ‘ It is one of the greatest trials of a true and 
 just taste ; and must arise from feeling delicately ourselves, and from 
 judging accurately of what is fittest to strike the feelings of others.’ 
 Lectures on Rhetoric, 8fC. 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 17 
 
 that where in speech modulation and accentuation 
 
 imbue a particular phase of moral impressure, they 
 
 also imbue a sense of the general emotion involved ; 
 
 * 
 
 that they act broadly as well as particularly, just as 
 the human countenance whilst wearing a particular 
 expression, wears also a general one.* 
 
 * Long after the above text was written I met with the following 
 allusion to the subject of these observations, and I quote it as evidence 
 that modulation and accentuation are beginning to be regarded as an 
 important element in language, and as worthy of deeper and more 
 exclusive investigation than has been hitherto given them. Sir Edward 
 Lytton Bulwer in ‘ Caxtoniana’ remarks : — ‘ In every good prose-writer 
 there will be found a certain harmony of sentence, which cannot be 
 displaced without injury to his meaning. His own ear has accustomed 
 itself to regular measurements of time to which his thoughts learn 
 mechanically to regulate their march. And in prose as in verse it is the 
 pause y he it long or short , which the mind is compelled to make , in order 
 to accommodate its utterance to the ear , that serves to the completer 
 formation of the ideas conveyed. * . * * * For reasons of its own 
 
 prose has therefore a rhythm of its own. But by rhythm I do not mean 
 the monotonous rise and fall of balanced periods, nor the amplification 
 of needless epithets, in order to close the sentence with a Johnsonian 
 chime. Every style has its appropriate music ; but without a music of 
 some kind it is not style — it is scribbling. And even when we take 
 those writers of the last century in whom the taste of the present 
 condemns an over elaborate care for sound, we shall find that the sense 
 which they desire to express, so far from being sacrificed to sound, is 
 rendered with singular distinctness ; a merit which may be reasonably 
 ascribed, in great part, to the increased attention with which the mind 
 revolves its ideas in its effort to harmonise their utterance.’ It does 
 not appear to have struck the writer of the above, that the ‘ music of 
 prose ’ is part of the general expression, and, in itself, both expresses 
 
18 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 It will have been remarked that in describing this 
 principle as the influence operating in the modula- 
 tion and accentuation of the voice I refer to it as 
 working in two different forms : — in the different 
 relations of sounds as regards pitch, and as regards 
 force. To thoroughly pursue the consideration of 
 
 and conveys a portion of tlie ideas involved, — that it thus has a distinct 
 and direct function ; although he is very near this idea in the passage 
 which I have distinguished hy italics. In the mind 1 accommodating 
 its utterance to the ear/ and, ‘ harmonising its utterance,’ there must 
 he more involved than simply the instinct to please the ear. For the 
 
 great power which this 1 music of prose ’ possesses to aid both expression 
 and perception, cannot depend upon the sole fact that the ear demands 
 to he pleased with the form of the mind’s utterance. The ear, like the 
 eye, is a sense calculated for fulfilling a finer office than that of 
 carrying on a process of symbolical association ; viz., the office of 
 conducting to the consciousness the subtler species of outward effect : 
 and thus it is an organ of the higher portion of the mind’s language. 
 A writer in adapting a passage to his ear is adding to it a burden 
 for the finer ..perceptions of his readers. Instead, therefore, of the 
 fulness which the music of prose gives to expression, being,— as Sir 
 
 Lytton Bulwer implies,— caused indirectly, through the increased at- 
 tention with which the mind revolves its ideas in order to harmonise 
 their utterance, it is caused directly, hy the harmony itself ; it is this 
 harmony which completes the mind’s utterance, which expresses that 
 within the mind which mere words leave unexpressed, which strikes 
 an appreciative sense in the listener, that words alone could not 
 reach. Music in language is not an accidental feature, indirectly 
 beneficial ; it is a principle of expression. 
 
 Since writing the foregoing note, I find the substance of the state- 
 ment with which it concludes, has been remarked by Sheridan. The 
 reader will further observe, there is another coincidence involved between 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 19 
 
 this principle of direct expression, it is necessary to 
 examine it not only in speech but throughout, and 
 even beyond, the whole area of expression occupied 
 by language ; from simple modulation and accentuation 
 in ordinary speech, past the broader and more elabo- 
 rate forms of these effects in rhetoric, their artistic 
 shapes in poetry, to their highest development and 
 wholly emancipated action in music. Such an exami- 
 nation will, I believe, impress the mind mainly with 
 three facts, — the first two referring to material, and the 
 last, to moral circumstances, — which attend the prin- 
 ciple of direct expression in the forms of demonstration 
 
 this work and the following quotation. In the portion of the latter 
 which I have distinguished by italics, the same classification of Emotion 
 is implied, that I have made in regarding it as of the two general orders, 
 instinctive , and abstract . 
 
 6 All that passes in the mind of man may he reduced to two classes, 
 which I call Ideas and Emotions. By Ideas I mean all thoughts which 
 rise and pass in succession through the mind. By Emotions, all exer- 
 tions of the mind in arranging, combining, and separating its ideas ; as 
 well as all the effects produced on the mind itself by those ideas ,from the 
 more violent agitation of the passions , to the calmer feelings produced by 
 the operation of the intellect and the fancy . In short, thought is the 
 object of the one, internal feeling, of the other. That which serves to 
 express the former, I call the Language of Ideas ; and the latter, the 
 Language of Emotions. Words are the signs of the one, Tones, of the 
 other. Without the use of these two sorts of language, it is impossible 
 to communicate through the ear all that passes in the mind of man.’ 
 
 Sheridan on the Art of 'Reading . 
 
20 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 it traverses. The first truth is, that modulation and 
 inflection in speech are embryo effects of the principle 
 of melody in music 5 the second is, that accentua- 
 tion in speech is of the same nature as rhythm in 
 music;* and the third is, that throughout colloquial 
 speech, oratory, and poetry, the more or less elabo- 
 rate employments of this principle of modulation and 
 accentuation, inevitably occur as the truths and 
 sentiments expressed, more or less ascend in character. 
 It is, in fact, obvious that whilst modulation and 
 accentuation in ordinary speech mostly enwrap inci- 
 dental truth and instinctive personal sentiment, their 
 more conspicuous presence in oratory, and their 
 elaborate and systematised enunciation in poetry, are 
 mainly the echo of broader truth and of that order of 
 sentiment which arises through mental exercise. 
 
 * It is not implied that the two elements of music have become deve- 
 loped from the two elements of direct expression in language, hut that 
 they belong respectively to the same principles of demonstration. It is 
 assumed that those peculiarities in the constitution of man that cause 
 certain effects of modulation and accentuation in language, to both ex- 
 press and imbue certain emotions, are the main inward conditions that 
 render him susceptible to the impulse and emotional influence of music. 
 These occult faculties combined with a portion of that capacity for 
 pleasure we possess in the cultivated exercise of the higher senses, may 
 be said to compose the natural foundation of musical appreciation. 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 21 
 
 The last of these facts involves, moreover, this 
 striking peculiarity ; — in the degree that the matter 
 of a statement rises in character, and, — by conse- 
 quence, — assumes elaborate expressional form, so does 
 such form become more exclusively composed of the 
 rhythmic element of effect, and depend less upon the 
 tonal element. It is apparent even from a passing 
 consideration, that in rhetoric and poetry, the elo- 
 quence — the impressiveness resulting from manner of 
 expression, is produced almost solely by variety of 
 accentuation, by rhythmical design; whilst the pure 
 vocal tone, — supposing the expression be uttered, — 
 becomes firmer and steadier, and loses almost altoge- 
 ther the sharp inflection and the tender modulation 
 indigenous to the language of ordinary speech.* It 
 will be found in the case of an orator, that wherever 
 his discourse embraces the instinctive sentiments of 
 the heart, his tone becomes more delicate and change- 
 able ; whilst, where his language is animated by 
 
 * A contradiction to this fact seems to present itself in the case of the 
 drama ; hut it immediately disappears before the consideration that the 
 general circumstances of the drama are those of life, and that the lan- 
 guage of the drama is thus to a large extent, of the character of the 
 language of ordinary life. 
 
22 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 feeling of a more abstract kind, such as that aroused 
 by broad truth, his phrasing becomes more massive 
 and elaborate, and his tone steadier and more monoto- 
 nous. Now these considerations; — that where in 
 language the truth involved is mainly broad and ideal, 
 and the sentiment of the abstract type, the principle 
 of direct expression assumes forms more elaborate and 
 defined than anywhere else ; and that in the degree 
 that the above occurs, such forms are more largely 
 composed of the element of accentuation alone ; — point 
 to the inf erence that mental sentiment has a natural 
 tendency to unfold in its expression, rhythmic effect. 
 Whilst the consideration that personal feeling is mainly 
 couched in language where effects of modulation are 
 more exclusively conspicuous, points to the conclusion 
 that the instinctive type of feeling has a natural ten- 
 dency in being expressed, to unfold tonal effect. 
 Independently of analogy, it is apparent from ordinary 
 consideration of the action of language, that this is 
 really the case ; that it is the tone, the modulation, 
 that flies, like a spark, from the warmth of personal 
 feeling, instinctive sentiment, ordinary human emo- 
 tion ; and that the broader sympathy is indicated 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 23 
 
 by the sentential effect, the strongly defined ac- 
 centuation : that the variations of tonal pitch 
 denote the personal sentiment in a communication, 
 whilst abstract emotion is denoted by rhythmical 
 change. 
 
 The fact is transparent that such instinctive 
 personal sentiments as love, solicitude, grief, betray 
 themselves principally in the tone, the delicate modu- 
 lation of the voice, whilst such abstract sentiments as 
 reverence, admiration, patriotism, — sentiments rising 
 out of broad ideas, as of Providence, goodness, liberty, 
 justice, — principally demonstrate themselves in effects 
 of accentuation- — in the marked emphasis and pause — 
 in sentential design. There is thus a priori argument 
 for anticipating that the natural characteristic features 
 of music, inspired by sentiment of the instinctive and 
 abstract types respectively, will be melodic outline 
 on the one hand, and rhythmic outline on the other. 
 As melody is of the same nature as intonation in 
 speech, effects whereof personal feeling has a natural 
 tendency to dictate, it is reasonable to assume that 
 a melodious style of music is naturally favorable for 
 expressing feeling of this nature. And as all rhythmic 
 
24 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 effect in music is of the same nature as phrase in 
 speech, effects of which emotion of an abstract nature 
 has a natural tendency to dictate, it is reasonable to 
 conclude that a musical style possessing bold rhythmic 
 outline, — such as that involved in orchestral and 
 choral works, — is naturally favorable for expressing 
 emotion of the abstract order. 
 
 I have, thus far, made one grand division in the 
 spirit of musical style. Two distinctive prevailing 
 forms being perceptible in the outward plan of all 
 musical effect, —the sinuous or melodic on the one 
 hand, and the conspicuously accentuated on the other, — 
 from probing the moral circumstances out of which 
 the rudiments of these forms arise in language, it is 
 assumed that the one is the naturally appropriate 
 general form for music originating in the impulse 
 of natural feeling, the other the naturally appropriate 
 general form for music having its inspiration in 
 abstract sentiment. And this assumption is based 
 on the facts that in all human intercommunication, 
 the moral element underlying it tends naturally to 
 indicate itself in these two ways : — the personal and 
 instinctive emotion, in the tonal change, the mental 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 25 
 
 sentiment — the more abstract emotion, in variety of 
 accentuation.* 
 
 It is thus assumed that the same demonstrative in- 
 stinct man unfolds in language, he betrays in music. 
 
 * This general proposition stated on a priori grounds in this chapter, 
 is practically tested in the course of the work. 
 
 C 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE EXIGENCY IN EXPRESSION WHICH ABSTRACT SENTI- 
 MENT INVOLVES, AND THE STRUCTURAL PLAN OP 
 THE GREAT MODERN INSTRUMENTAL FORMS OF 
 COMPOSITION. 
 
 I N the last chapter I argued the natural propriety 
 of certain general shapes of musical effect for em- 
 bodying that order of moral impressure which forms 
 the main inspiration of the poet and orator, on the 
 grounds of the favorableness of such shapes for 
 unfolding a powerful and elaborate rhythm ; and my 
 remarks pointed to massive and combinative musical 
 effects, such as an orchestra or chorus , is calculated to 
 produce : I showed that these issues of music favoi 
 the production of certain effects which the expression 
 of abstract sentiment visibly unfolds in language. 
 In the present chapter I shall show that there is 
 an important exigency in expression which this order 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 27 
 
 of sentiment gives rise to, and that this exigency is 
 met in a remarkable way, in the plan of composition 
 which distinguishes the higher forms of modern in- 
 strumental music as defined by great composers. 
 
 It is a peculiarity of that order of sentiment which, 
 as it results from the higher exercise of the mind and 
 sympathy, I term abstract to distinguish it from the 
 instinctive type of feeling, when existing in such 
 strength as to impel the expression of oratory, poetry, 
 or art generally, that it does not consist of a single 
 well defined feeling, hut of a flood of various feelings — 
 a complex moral impressure, which is ever attended by 
 a sense of perplexity as to means of expression. With 
 the true poetic afflatus is ever a sense that through 
 the step-by-step character of man’s powers of ex- 
 pression and perception, much of the thought and 
 feeling that crowds in the breast must escape un- 
 recorded. Thus it is that the faculty of expression 
 consists in a great degree simply of the power of 
 holding a crowd of ideas and feelings before the con- 
 sciousness until each has been separately expressed ] 
 this is certainly the case as regards the expression 
 of ideas and feelings in language : the greatest 
 
28 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 richness of conception may be fully represented through 
 a moderate command of language, where there is 
 also this muscular energy of the brain, — energy not 
 to conceive but to hold, to grasp, that which has 
 been conceived. The faculty of expression is thus to 
 a great extent, the power to withhold. To make 
 another allusion to the subject of oratory — it is to be 
 remarked, the listener’s sense of this power in the 
 orator, constitutes a great portion of the influence he 
 works, — the sense of matter and force withheld. 
 
 The following quotation may serve to suggest the 
 complex nature of that moral impressure which impels 
 art. It may be thought a morbidly forcible expression, 
 and an exaggerated representation, of the condition 
 in question ; still, it reflects a general state of the 
 breast which always attends contemplative habits and 
 broad sympathy ; and there is also to be taken into 
 consideration, that in the thoughts and feelings ani- 
 mating the poet and musician, as in their expression, 
 passionate energy if a fault, is a fault on the right 
 side. It also illustrates that perplexity as to means 
 of expression, to which I have alluded as naturally 
 attending copiousness of conception: here the poet, 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 29 
 
 either through this copiousness, or through weakness 
 of mental grasp, feeling the difficulty of sustaining 
 his impressions until they can be demonstrated by 
 the halting means of language, craves for a power 
 of spontaneous expression. 
 
 4 Could I embody and unbosom now 
 That which is most within me — could I wreak 
 My thoughts upon expression, and thus throw 
 Soul, heart, mind, passions, feelings, strong or weak, 
 
 All that I would have sought, and all I seek, 
 
 Bear, know, feel, and yet breathe— into one word, 
 
 # # # * # j WO uld speak ; 
 
 But as it is, I live and die unheard, 
 
 With a most voiceless thought # # * ’ 
 
 It is thus perceivable that the circumstances in 
 which art is resorted to, to express abstract emotion, 
 involve this exigency : — as there is a vast complexity 
 of feeling to be expressed, it is necessary that the 
 exponent possess either the faculty of holding this 
 moral impressure before the consciousness for some 
 length of time, or the means of throwing it into 
 expression comparatively simultaneously. I shall 
 attempt to show that music does supply a process of 
 
30 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 expression of the latter character 5 that it does this 
 by means of a certain plan of composition which the 
 instinct of great musicians has gradually developed, 
 as well as through the peculiar nature of its own effect 
 — through its direct action as a form of influence. 
 
 Those who are acquainted with matters relating to 
 the history of music, are aware that instrumental 
 music in its infancy was purely objective ; that it was 
 the musical reflection of certain well defined and 
 broadly felt sentiments. Instrumental music was in 
 fact, literally, ‘ song without words.’ This objective 
 character it still retained when it had become both 
 elaborate and combinative in form, — when the air, 
 tune, or theme, had become, in its instrumental 
 repetition, fretted into variations ; when the part- 
 song had become the quartett for instruments.* In 
 all this portion of its history instrumental music 
 retained a character almost purely objective ; it con- 
 
 * The signification of the word objective , as of the word abstract , as 
 used in these pages, is not precise but comparative. By objective music 
 is meant that kind of music of which the purport or object, is more 
 distinctly defined than is the case with other kinds of music. In the 
 same way, abstract feeling here implies feeling separated from the 
 common contingent circumstances of emotion, and which is even of a 
 less concrete nature than the simple feeling of life. 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 31 
 
 veyed the impression of being distinctly associated 
 with some natural and stereotyped sentiment. 
 
 Of all old musical forms, or plans of composition, 
 perhaps that which has influenced the musical art 
 most deeply and permanently, is the fugue. It would 
 be difficult to exaggerate the importance of the effect 
 of this ancient form upon musical art. It is probable 
 that the history of the fugue involves the only case of 
 a conventional form, suggested originally by necessity, 
 leading in a direct line to the unfolding of all the 
 greatest subsequent treasures of an art. If dearth in 
 the power of sustained musical expression was not itself 
 the origin, it is certainly likely that it was a circum- 
 stance which attended the origin, of the fugue, and 
 favored its growth. From this barrenness would 
 ensue, in the endeavour to construct a composition of 
 length, the necessity of repeating, imitating, or in- 
 verting, such an approach to a melody or characteristic 
 musical idea, as could be obtained ; and hence the 
 art of elaboration would arise. If this be so, the 
 fugue is a striking instance of restriction of the power 
 of expression in the infancy of an art dictating a 
 discipline of the faculties, and consummating a formula 
 
32 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 of art, without which the richest vein of inspiration 
 destined ultimately to unfold, could not by any known 
 means have attained its full expression. This leads 
 me to what I have particularly to remark concerning 
 the influence of the fugue upon music. The fugue 
 has led to a form of musical construction which fits 
 that important exigency in emotional expression to 
 which I have alluded^ 
 
 For the benefit of readers unacquainted with the 
 technicalities of musical art, I will attempt to briefly 
 explain the general form of a fugal composition. 
 
 The fugue is generally a long and elaborate com- 
 position in two, three, or four parts, i.e. with a dual, 
 triple or quadruple, outline ; its general peculiarity 
 being that it represents a maximum of elaboration 
 with a minimum of idea. Notwithstanding its length 
 and complexity, the pure creative effort involved in 
 the fugue, is represented by either one, two, or more 
 short melodic passages called the subjects of the piece. 
 Each part throughout the whole length of the com- 
 position, is composed of repetitions in various keys, 
 of these original subjects ; thus each outline, taken 
 by itself, has little or no meaning. The general 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 33 
 
 expression and meaning of the piece arises from the 
 various juxtapositions of the subjects , which occur as 
 these subjects are introduced in the parts. 
 
 It may be added concerning the history of this 
 musical form, that the fugal style not only originated, 
 but grew into full figure and power, when the vocal 
 form of music prevailed ; it is thus in the vocal 
 department that the art itself became developed to 
 little short of its present state. The sensible deve- 
 lopment of instrumental music follows only in the 
 wake of the great vocal forms. Not till vocal music 
 had become defined into the powerful and finished 
 forms of the eighteenth century, was the fugue trans- 
 planted into the, — then modest and subordinate, — 
 field of instrumental music, in which it has since 
 achieved such a work of progress, where in the great 
 principle of ‘thematic treatment,’ may be observed 
 the permanent impress of its features. 
 
 In its early use, then, the fugue was, so far as it 
 was animated by emotion at all, the expression of 
 positive and conventional sentiment ; and this charac- 
 ter it retained throughout its most elaborate develop- 
 ments. At the same time in its simplest constructions 
 
34 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 may be remarked that aptitude for abstract expression 
 from which such great results have since been deve- 
 loped. At that point in the construction of the simplest 
 fugue where a counter-subject commences to follow 
 or to interwind the original theme, is seen the 
 origin of that plan of composition through which 
 musical promptings of the broadest and most complex 
 nature are now expressed. Variety in musical ex- 
 pression is mainly produced, not in the musically 
 treating different sentiments, but different shades and 
 complexions of some one sentiment. This is observable 
 in the ctricc } which is so largely constituted by the 
 frequent recurrence of different musical phrases 
 applied to the same portion of the literary text, each 
 phrase illustrating the text in an altered sense , as may 
 be noticed in the songs of Handel. Now this principle 
 of musical procedure is incorporated in the structural 
 plan of the fugue. Where an important conception 
 assumes the fugal form, as for instance in the case 
 of a grand chorus, it will generally be found that the 
 different constituent passages or subjects of the fugue, 
 embody various phases of a single sentiment, or else 
 different sentiments logically related. But what is to 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 35 
 
 be specially noticed in this arrangement is : — the 
 musical unfoldings of a sentiment do not inevitably 
 occur successively , — do not follow one another in a per- 
 fectly free way, as in the aria , — but may be enunciated 
 more or less simultaneously. It is through the posses- 
 sion of this feature by the fugue that from it has been 
 developed a style of composition specially calculated to 
 express abstract sentiment : for we have here a process 
 through which a general sentiment and its various com- 
 plexions may be musically enunciated comparatively 
 simultaneously ; by which, therefore, a general spon- 
 taneity conjoined to a detailed minuteness and com- 
 pleteness of expression, may be attained. I have 
 observed that after sojourning in vocal music, and 
 after having been practised into strength, the fugue 
 became itself an instrumental form. Now in the 
 instrumental forms belonging to the most recent 
 development of the art the essential spirit of the fugue 
 still obtains, in the principle of thematic treatment. 
 
 A composition constructed on the principle of 
 thematic treatment, is one the main effect of which 
 is unfolded, as in the case of the fugue, not in the 
 production of successive musical ideas, but in the 
 
36 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 treatment of— the musically enlarging upon, one or 
 two main ones. But whereas in the case of the fugue, 
 the materials of this treatment are confined to the 
 original subjects themselves, and the treatment itself 
 consists of the various juxtapositions of these subjects, 
 in the case of the composition in question, the en- 
 larging matter may be chosen quite freely from the 
 broad field of musical effect. The more modern form 
 of composition is, thus, far freer than that involved in 
 the case of the fugue, — it may, in fact, embrace all 
 kinds of musical effect 5 at the same time it sufficiently 
 resembles the fugue to combine variety with unity of 
 character. 
 
 If we consider, then, that the mental order of 
 sentiment ever tends to multiply and extend itself m 
 the breast— to become an endlessly progressing tram 
 of feeling, just as the mind itself of the contem- 
 plative type, is continually moving to new impressions ; 
 that this order of sentiment thus requires a spontaneity 
 conjoined to variety, in the process of its expression ; 
 that with regard to music, the fugue involves a process 
 that exactly meets such a contingency ; that the spirit 
 of the fugue still regulates the structural plan of the 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 37 
 
 great modern instrumental forms of music : and if we 
 also refer to the consideration of the general aptitude 
 of instrumental music for exemplifying rhythmic effect, 
 
 ■ — in which, as we have seen, abstract sentiment natu- 
 rally tends to display itself, — we cannot fail to perceive 
 a still further antecedent probability than was visible 
 in the last chapter, of the modern instrumental forms 
 proving highly favorable for becoming the vehicle 
 for expressing the abstract order of sentiment ; we 
 cannot but be impressed with the probability that in 
 this field of expression instrumental music unfolds its 
 most aesthetically appropriate, as well as morally 
 highest, function, and thus enters a range of effect 
 which is the most powerful it can reach ; — nor can we 
 avoid thinking we can thus, to some extent, account 
 for those prodigious expressions which in certain 
 modern specimens of instrumental music, are consum- 
 mated ; and which suggest themselves as having been 
 conceived amidst a most profound and comprehensive 
 flow of thought and feeling. 
 
 Some considerations may be brought forward which 
 favor the supposition that Beethoven approached in- 
 strumental composition in this spirit and employed it 
 
38 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 for this important function, — that he projected it on the 
 basis of mental rather than instinctive, feeling ; that, 
 in fact, the revolution he worked in the spirit of instru- 
 mental music, is to be attributed to the circumstance 
 that he was the first great genius who proceeded on 
 this principle. With this supposition in view I shall 
 in the following chapter, comment upon Beethoven 
 and other great composers. In the meanwhile I have 
 to remark that there is evidence concerning this com- 
 poser’s habits of work, which harmonises with the 
 above hypothesis. It would appear that the very 
 modus operandi which the poet in the lines quoted at 
 the commencement of this chapter, felt could alone 
 express a certain complex emotional state, is literally 
 that which Beethoven adopted in composition, — the 
 plan of resolving this state into a nucleus of ex- 
 pression — the poet’s ‘ one word.’ 
 
 In some papers on music written originally in 
 German, and which have appeared in an English 
 translation by Sabilla Novello, occurs the following 
 passage. Speaking of Beethoven the author remarks : 
 — ‘ One of his excellencies was, he did not, like 
 many of his predecessors and successors, force and 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 39 
 
 mould into given forms, some weakly felt, ill- 
 digested, psychological sentiment ; on the contrary, 
 he adapted the form, as far as rules of art permitted, 
 to his own subject. When he had made himself 
 perfectly intimate with the subject he intended' to 
 represent, — when it stood clearly and full of life before 
 his mental vision, — a powerful brooding came over his 
 thoughts ; all the wheels of his mighty intellect were 
 set in motion, to produce and shape the principal idea, 
 which was to be expressed in all its different phases. 
 He especially endeavoured to obtain the appropriate 
 principal theme, which should announce the character 
 of the whole piece, and impress it as clearly and 
 decidedly as possible. He required, as a first and 
 important condition, that it should be pregnant, like 
 all his separate phrases.’ # 
 
 It is obvious how appropriate is the habit of pro- 
 cedure described in the foregoing for composition 
 in the modern instrumental forms, — how important it 
 is, in circumstances where the greater portion of a 
 
 * Musikalische Briefe. Wabrheit iiber Tonkunst und Tonkiinster. 
 Fur Freunde und Kenner. Yon einem Wohlbekannten. Leipzig. 1852. 
 
 Letters about music: Truth about music and musicians for friends 
 and connoisseurs, from one well known. Leipsic. 1852. 
 
40 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 composition is produced by the treatment of one or 
 two principal themes, that these themes should be 
 pregnant in character — rich in latent expression. This 
 habit of careful thematic selection is, in fact, the 
 circumstance which completes the outward conditions 
 that render this form of composition favorable for 
 expressing abstract emotion. 
 
 It appears, then, that the difficult task of expressing 
 a high and complex pressure of sentiment, is accom- 
 plished by music almost momentarily ; that all essen- 
 tial expression is contained in the first outline of the 
 tonal pencil, of which the further operations are a 
 work of development. The question is here sug- 
 gested : — how is music able to render a short theme 
 so full of meaning; to combine so much expression 
 with such a little material effect ? The answer to this 
 question lies to a great extent in the fact that music 
 expresses emotion, not as all the other arts do cir- 
 cuitously, by reference to some emotional incitation 
 in outer life, or the mind ; but directly, through an 
 original medium of expression : consequently in the 
 case of music, expression cannot be measured by effect 
 even so nearly as poetry (unspoken), or painting can. 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 41 
 
 We may form some idea of the power music has of 
 combining much expression with little material effect, 
 if, — referring to language, — we consider how much 
 meaning is sometimes suggested by the tone, — a 
 rudimentary effect of music, — in which a single word 
 is uttered. 
 
 The main propositions contained in this, and the 
 preceding chapters, may be thus briefly summed up : — 
 In ordinary speech emphasis is prompted in the ex- 
 pression of abstract, rather than of instinctive senti- 
 ment. Emphasis in speech, belongs to the same order 
 of expression which in another stage of development, 
 assumes the form of phrase in music. Massive and 
 combinative forms of music are most favorable for 
 exemplifying effects of phrase ; and as the sole agency 
 of musical instruments, is required for a considerable 
 portion of the execution of such forms, the department 
 of instrumental music may be considered their general 
 field of display. These circumstances point to the 
 general favorableness of abstract sentiment for forming 
 the burthen of instrumental composition. Further ; — 
 The consideration of the nature of abstract sentiment, 
 suggests certain conditions as necessary on the part 
 
 D 
 
42 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 of the demonstrator for its proper expression,— the 
 means of effecting comprehensiveness, conjoined to 
 spontaneity, of expression. The structural plan of the 
 modern instrumental forms of music, — the plan of 
 thematic treatment, — furnishes the musician with these 
 conditions. The logical pendant to the adoption of the 
 plan of thematic treatment, is the practice of obtaining 
 pregnancy of theme : this is exemplified in the modus 
 operandi of Beethoven.* 
 
 * It is on the same principle of the breast, which decrees more or less 
 elaborate effects of emphasis and pause, whether in music or speech, to 
 both express and arouse sentiment of the abstract order, that the 
 sound of thunder or cannon, always creates an emotion of awe. How 
 greatly the deep and measured boom of the big drum in the funeral 
 march in ‘ Saul/ helps to impress the mind with the idea of Death. In 
 that profound composition the sorrow, the regret, tell their tale in the 
 long, sweet, mournful strains of the melody ; but when at slowly 
 recurring intervals, comes the inevitable boom of the drum, — the note 
 of inordinate and stupendous emphasis, — the voice and feelings of the 
 heart are momentarily hushed, but the imagination is powerfully invoked ; 
 the sad but incidental idea of personal bereavement is suppressed, and 
 the great, all- shadowing idea of Death, is suggested; the nature is 
 impressed with a sense of the all-powerful, the eternal, the inevitable, — 
 with reverence and awe. Thus, a psychological propriety could be 
 shown to be involved by the facts, that at a funeral we toll the big bell 
 in deep and slowly recurring monotones ; and on an occasion of rejoicing, 
 make the bells peal out the full melody of the major scale. In the former 
 circumstances an abstract, in the latter, a personal feeling, is involved : 
 we mentally ponder over death, but realize joy instinctively and un- 
 thinkingly. Again in military and national music, the higher function 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 43 
 
 of which, is to express sentiment tending to the abstract character, — 
 sentiment inspired by such ideas as Patriotism and Heroism, — how 
 strongly marked is the accentuation, how striking the emphasis ! 
 Remark the choral march, the ‘ Marseillaise ! ’ With what a vigorous 
 and marked accent it opens, whilst to the words of personal import the 
 rhythm flows smoothly, and melody is conspicuous ; but at the invocation, 
 4 Aux armes ! how strongly marked again is the emphasis, and at the 
 word 1 Marchons ! \ how deliberately and firmly it sets in ! 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OP THE SPIRIT OP THE INSTRU- 
 MENTAL MUSIC OP HAYDN, MOZART, BEETHOVEN, 
 AND MENDELSSOHN. 
 
 A COMPARATIVE study of the instrumental 
 works of Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn, and 
 Beethoven, reveals a broad distinction separating the 
 genius of the two former from that of the two latter 
 composers. It may be said that Haydn and Mozart 
 are musicians by instinct, whilst Mendelssohn and 
 Beethoven are musicians by thought. The sweet, rich 
 strains flowing so copiously from the two former 
 composers, may he likened to the beauty of an infant, 
 which effuses unattended by effort, and in the utmost 
 simplicity. In this music we see two simple and 
 almost childlike natures the receptacle of the grandest 
 endowments, and the agency of a most sublime 
 function ; yet the inspiration comes almost unsought 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 45 
 
 is unfolded in ease and complacency, and the cha- 
 racters over which it passes, preserve throughout their 
 normal simplicity. 
 
 On the other hand, in the production of the music 
 of Beethoven and Mendelssohn, the individual cha- 
 racter is not at all a passive, quiescent thing in the 
 matter; it is active and obtrusive throughout. The 
 strains of these masters do not come , as the numbers 
 came to Pope, or as the music of Haydn and Mozart 
 came to them ; but they are intellectually wrested from 
 nature, and have the strong impress of character upon 
 them. 
 
 The music of Haydn and Mozart is not inconsistent 
 with what we should imagine might proceed from 
 natures amiable, submissive to circumstances that be, 
 with full content, happy, cheerful and taking pleasure 
 in all things. The natures of Beethoven and Men- 
 delssohn as betrayed in their works, though differing 
 widely, unite in forming in one respect, a strong 
 contrast to this picture, for there is in both the 
 opposite of content ; there is restlessness, aspiration — 
 a yearning for fuller and higher existence. Both of 
 these masters forsake the joys of the quiescent mind 
 
46 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 and passive nature, and search, though, in different 
 directions, for others. Notwithstanding a keen desire 
 to avoid entering the regions of fancy, I am tempted 
 to continue, — that Beethoven’s world of aspiration 
 seems redolent of nature — nature purified and divested 
 of death, — a ‘new earth;’ whilst Mendelssohn’s, is at 
 one time ‘some delicious land’ of poetic imagining, 
 at another, the spiritual world of religion. "With 
 Haydn and Mozart our inward nature is elevated 
 but not in any abnormal way. With Mendelssohn 
 and Beethoven our spirit is invoked from us and led 
 a far and mystic chase : this music reflects a sympathy 
 in its conceivers, for an immortal state, a craving for 
 an ineffable beauty — for a great consolation. 
 
 The relative extent to which the music of these 
 four masters bears comment, must not be taken as the 
 measure of its respective merit. That music which 
 most suggests remark, may be neither better nor even 
 more original, than that about which we cannot find 
 a word to say. The musical organization in Haydn 
 and Mozart, was so ripe and perfect as to effuse music 
 without the excitement of conditions beyond the 
 musical instinct itself, — such as the original moral 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 47 
 
 idiosyncrasy of Beethoven, and the highly cultivated 
 mind of Mendelssohn. 
 
 There may exist in the breast a certain emotional 
 afflatus which arises spontaneously. It is not positive 
 emotion, created by any particular outward influence ; 
 it is more a general and broad desire to feel than actual 
 and definite feeling. As physical power exists latently 
 stored up in the frame before it is manifested in out- 
 ward movement, and when thus existing in great 
 force, creates a vague and strong desire for action 
 quite irrespectively of external incentive; so intel- 
 lectual power exists latently in the inward nature, and 
 when in strong force, imbues a like vague but intense 
 desire to vent itself in some form of demonstration. 
 To such primordial force as this all art- creation is 
 owing. In its exudation it may involve instinctive, 
 or abstract emotion ; and become demonstrated in 
 music, poetry, painting, or literature according to 
 other circumstances attending the nature of the indi- 
 vidual. If the mental faculties, — reason, imagination, 
 — are largely developed, they will tend to induce 
 this moral energy to the regions of contemplation, 
 and it will probably resolve itself into definite emotion 
 
48 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 of the abstract order ; hut if this is not the case, it will 
 be more likely to operate in adding strength and inten- 
 sity to the instinctive feelings. In the same way it is 
 highly probable that the demonstration of this moral 
 afflatus, whatever emotion it may resolve itself into, 
 depends upon what particular demonstrative faculties 
 preponderate in the nature. If, for instance, those 
 outer faculties which relate to sound, — a keen dis- 
 crimination and appreciation of tonal effects, and 
 the faculty of devising such effects, — exist in a high 
 state of development, and they are the most perfect 
 faculties of the higher physical nature, it is likely that 
 it will he demonstrated by music ; hut if those faculties 
 which relate to visual effect, — form, colour, &c., — are 
 developed in this degree and proportion, then it will 
 probably become manifested through the art of 
 painting. Thus, if this be true, upon the condition 
 of the faculties of the moral nature, depends the type 
 of emotion which original moral energy assumes ; and 
 upon the condition of the faculties of the higher 
 physical nature, depends the form of manifestation — 
 the art, in which that emotion becomes demonstrated. 
 
 Now in the case of all the arts save music, it is 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 49 
 
 essential before art-effect is consummated, that the 
 original energy be directed to some distinct object, 
 so as to involve a definite phase of feeling, — it is so 
 because all art manifestation except that of music, 
 takes place through natural images, feeling being 
 expressed by the reproduction of its incentive in 
 outward nature. But music on the other hand, so 
 far as the material or form of expression is concerned, 
 is, in the expression of emotion, quite independent ; 
 it cannot copy external phenomena, but by its re- 
 markable powers of pure expression, imparts sentiment 
 in a direct manner. As, then, the reproduction of the 
 outward incentive to feeling, is not essential to musical 
 expression, we see no obstacle to that original moral 
 energy which has been mentioned as preceding all 
 art, inspiring music without having become previously 
 resolved into distinct feelings ; such an art expression 
 as this would be fraught with feeling, though of 
 an indefinite kind, and might be tinged with the com- 
 plexion of various emotions according to the thoughts, 
 fancies, and feelings existing at the time in the breast of 
 the composer; its meaning might be beautiful and deep, 
 though veiled, and it would impress strongly those 
 
50 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 who heard it because its animating soul is that moral 
 force out of which all emotion is born. 
 
 It is not improbable that the freer and more un- 
 premeditated part of the great portion of instrumental 
 works, more particularly those of Haydn and Mozart, 
 was composed under these circumstances. It may also 
 be generally stated that the moral energy of these 
 composers tends towards instinctive emotion, whereas 
 in the case of Beethoven and Mendelssohn, — they being 
 more frequently drawn by the power of their minds, 
 into the realms of thought and meditation, — such 
 energy tends to abstract emotion. 
 
 Begarding the music of Beethoven and Mendelssohn 
 on the one hand, and that of Haydn and Mozart on 
 the other, we see, also, in the one case strikingly 
 exemplified the advantages and disadvantages to 
 musical expression, when into its inspiration enters 
 more or less the influence of the mind ; and in the 
 other, the unique, ripe, and generally less assumptive 
 character that it bears, when springing from the un- 
 prompted action of the musical instinct. In the case of 
 the former two composers there is mental, — it may be 
 poetical or philosophical , — pressure brought to bear 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 51 
 
 •upon the conception of emotion and musical idea. 
 The chief advantage of an active reflective faculty 
 attending the musical instinct is, that it will he likely 
 to invoke the voice of music to the utterance of a more 
 elevated order of emotion ; the music will accordingly 
 be more poetical, thoughtful, and uniformly dignified. 
 But of those who are gifted with the wings of poetry 
 and meditation, few can carry into their flight the full 
 strength of the sympathy, so as to feel strongly the 
 emotions which the mind calls into being.* In the 
 case of Mendelssohn’s instrumental music, for instance, 
 there is a certain industrious fancy involved rather 
 than true imagination, consequently the sympathy is 
 
 * This faculty of carrying the full force of the sympathy into the 
 workings of the imagination, is the source of all living power and vivid 
 truthfulness in creative art. As graphic power in literary description, is 
 little mere than the transcript of a perfect and clear inward realization of 
 the scenes and circumstances described, so dramatic power proceeds from 
 the strong realization in the dramatist, of the circumstances imagined , 
 and thus of the feelings suggested. In the case of the novelist, the well 
 drawn character, is the character that is first well realised in the writer’s 
 imagination. With regard to the painter also, tire more vividly he 
 realises his conception of a desired effect, the more real and forcible will, 
 its representation appear. What is seen distinctly will always be 
 pourtrayed clearly, and what is felt deeply will always be expressed 
 forcibly ; and this applies to that which may be seen and felt in the 
 imagination. 
 
52 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 but weald y aroused ; the feelings called to action by 
 the mind, thus being but feebly and briefly realised, 
 the musical faculty is not strongly invoked or deeply 
 inspired. Music thus produced, has not the perspi- 
 cuity and natural beauty of music spontaneously in- 
 spired, neither does it possess the deep expression and 
 marked feature of music arising in an earnest flow of 
 the abstract order of feeling. Thus it is, that while 
 the music of Mendelssohn is bold, original, graceful, 
 and beautiful in its physical form, its spirit is frequently 
 shadowy, airy, and unreal. Being the offspring of 
 fancy rather than of deep imagination, its sentiment is 
 weakly felt and therefore weakly impressed, and its 
 really fine tonal effect appears to wear an artificial 
 expression.* Beethoven on the other hand, is one of 
 
 * The reader will observe that in these remarks I abstain from com- 
 parisons relating to the material construction and development of the 
 art of Music. I criticise the spirit not the form, of the works to which 
 allusion is made ; and pass over the relative technical merits and 
 peculiarities of the composers. If the above mentioned composers were 
 compared solely with reference to the purely musical merits of their 
 works — to the power and skill to wield the implement of tonal effect, 
 which these works betray, and not with reference to the moral element 
 contained, then the names of Mendelssohn and Mozart, would occupy 
 a more marked position in this general comparison. For instance, in the 
 power of conducting his subjects through every variety of musical 
 involution with the happiest skill and taste, Mozart appears superior to 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 53 
 
 the few instances of a nature that can carry true 
 warmth and strength of feeling, in fact, the full 
 force of the sympathy, — into his imaginative concep- 
 tions. The emotion which his mind called to action 
 was thus strongly felt, and the music inspired is 
 correspondingly earnest in character and forciole in 
 expression. 
 
 There is, however, a character in Beethoven’s music, 
 which seems to he less the result of a naturally active 
 mind than of a mind spurred to action by certain 
 exceptional conditions attending it. There is ob- 
 servable in many of his calm, melodic movements, 
 with the fulness of expression and sensuous beauty 
 suggestive of Mozart and Haydn, the mingling of 
 a deep and mournful aspiration ; and in many of his 
 energetic movements, a convulsive character suggests e 
 
 Beethoven, But the two masters brought to the task of composition 
 a widely different spirit of action. The skill with which Mozart could 
 develop any subject,— the power he possessed of weaving into a wonderful 
 tonal fabric, any thread of melody,— may have rendered him careless in 
 the selection of his subjects for composition ; having adopted one, he 
 carries it through an endless series of changes, seldom relinquishing it 
 until every mode of treatment that it will hear, has been exhausted. 
 Beethoven on the other hand, selects his subject as containing a certain 
 latent moral burden, and when he has so developed it as to fully unfold 
 its inner spirit, he relinquishes it. 
 
54 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 of a purturbed mind. This last moral circumstance, 
 indeed, overshadowed largely the composition of 
 Beethoven’s later works. 
 
 There are considerations which go to show that 
 mental depression is calculated to operate generally in 
 a way highly disadvantageous to musical composition. 
 It is not the first impulse of the breast possessed with 
 the actual feeling of grief, to turn to art for expression 
 and solace. Consistently with the traditional relation 
 between knowledge and woe only in reversed position, 
 the tendency of the latter in man, is not to incite art, 
 but pure mental action — to stir the mind to search 
 out the cause and moral propriety of its suffering, and 
 thus to discover consolation or reconciliation. There 
 is an intuitive tendency in the breast under the smart 
 of misfortune, more especially when this is of a moral 
 nature, to seek out some general principle of which the 
 particular grief that may be in question, is an exempli- 
 fication. Disappointed minds have a strong tendency 
 to generalise. This is the endeavour of the nature to 
 merge its misfortunes in the action of some high, 
 unswerving law; this accomplished, the heart bows 
 down before an influence alike inevitable and im- 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 55 
 
 posing, the imagination is kindled, the moral existence 
 expands, and the spirit rises. Where the intellect is 
 not profound enough to connect a petty grief with 
 some grand principle in the dispensation of life, then, 
 this moral instinct of self protection, impels the 
 mind to discover, if not the first cause of its sorrow, 
 in the grand field of philosophy and morality, at 
 
 least some likeness of it in the beauty and sublimity 
 
 « # 
 
 of nature; hence many a striking simile. This is 
 the process through which the nature of man morally 
 surmounts its afflictions. It is a process of recon- 
 ciliation. Through it, the lost hope and broken 
 sympathy, from being unnoticeable fragments of 
 ruin strewing the moral highway of life, become the 
 testimony of some great law in the government of 
 the world. This is the history of much profound 
 and solemn philosophy. 
 
 Thus it is that literature, as it affords fullest scope 
 for the record and expression of pure mental exercise, 
 accords better than art with sorrowful minds. But 
 music, notwithstanding its aptitude for being tinctured 
 with melancholy, is the natural resort of a buoyant 
 spirit. As I have suggested, personal depression may 
 
56 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 certainly develop habits of thought and meditation ; 
 and it is true that these habits in a composer, tend to 
 elevate considerably the character of his music : thus 
 depression may, in certain circumstances by reason 
 of its effect on the mind, have a favorable influence on 
 musical inspiration ; but its general effect is highly 
 unfavorable to this inspiration. The general art- 
 impulse proceeds from fulness of joy. The definite 
 emotion common to the birth of all art, is the 
 emotion of admiration : art rises in a desire to ex- 
 press and communicate an over full and fine sense 
 of this emotion. Moreover, in the case of music and 
 painting, this expression is consummated by the ele- 
 vated exercise of the higher physical senses. Now as 
 the pleasure naturally produced by the action of these 
 senses, is great in the degree that that action is fine 
 and elevated, it is obvious that these arts to reflect 
 emotion faithfully, must be exercised in a spirit of 
 great joy, — I mean a spirit of joy in a wide sense — 
 in a sense capable of embracing the most elevated 
 inoral condition of the breast. 
 
 It is thus perceivable why depression is a generally 
 unfavorable concomitant of musical composition. In 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 57 
 
 admitting the possibility of its having at times a 
 beneficial influence on composition through creating 
 habits of reflection, this fact should be taken into 
 consideration : — thought may involve the highest 
 mental exercise and deepest mental interest, and yet 
 far from gratify the sympathy. From the foregoing 
 considerations it is obvious, such thought must involve 
 an emotional condition the opposite of favorable for 
 musical inspiration. On the other hand, thought 
 which warms and expands the sympathy, is the most 
 favorable circumstance that can attend the exercise 
 of the musical faculty. 
 
 We here see how the element of personal depression 
 in Beethoven’s moral condition, must have interfered 
 with the natural action of the musical faculty, — 
 which ought to be the voice of rapture in some form 
 or other ; we may also see the possibility of the con- 
 tinual opening up of the sombre channels of reflec- 
 tion, in a mind not needing any incentive to activity, 
 operating in a way unfavorable for music. We are 
 also here in a position to understand why the absence 
 of all exceptional features from the instrumental 
 strains of Haydn and Mozart, is in some respects 
 
 E 
 
58 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 a gain rather than a loss to the music. As in 
 the case of these composers, the art-impnlse was not 
 stimulated so specially as in the case of Beethoven 
 and Mendelssohn, hut arose in a more spontaneous 
 manner out of the general moral energy of the hreast, 
 the musical faculty was in no danger of being pushed 
 to inordinate and strained action — to catch effects 
 beyond its grasp. In the slow movements of Haydn, 
 there breathes solemnity, grandeur, beauty, and all 
 that is most elevated in expression, hut there is no 
 longing. All is suffused in an atmosphere of content, 
 and however deeply solemn the strains may he, the 
 voice of a sigh is not heard. It would thus appear 
 that the music of Haydn and Mozart is of a kind pai- 
 ticularly perfect as music. Throughout the course it 
 takes into the depths of expression there are betrayed 
 no evidences of disparity between conception and 
 realization. 
 
 I have referred to the hypothesis that the great 
 abstract-instrumental style of composition was first 
 decidedly exemplified by Beethoven. Some features 
 of his system of proceeding in composition, have been 
 described. He first resolved his musical promptings 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 59 
 
 into a nucleus of expression. He took special pains 
 to inwardly weigh that succession of notes which was 
 to form his main subject. Its characteristic must 
 be that of pregnancy — of containing in embryo the 
 spirit of the subsequent expression. This system of 
 proceeding, was certainly, to a great extent, the cause 
 of the distinctive character of Beethoven’s music. 
 The subjects of nearly all composers but him, are 
 short melodies of the ordinary character, emanating 
 from emotion of the instinctive type ; or else a short 
 series of notes arranged with no other object than the 
 production of a pointed effect so contrived as to admit 
 of the various treatments of musical science. A subject 
 of the former kind being the expression of some 
 natural feeling, would be far more effective if instead 
 of being played, it was sung with words containing 
 a narrative of such circumstances as might naturally 
 attend that feeling. On the principle of making this 
 kind of subject the basis of an instrumental work, 
 the germ of a work of this kind might be extracted 
 from an Opera-song. And notwithstanding this has 
 been done with great effect in the case of Operatic 
 overtures, it is questionable whether such a method 
 
60 
 
 musical development. 
 
 of procedure is calculated to lead generally to good 
 art.* 
 
 In the first place the composer is in danger of be- 
 coming spasmodic, who proceeds to base an instru- 
 mental work upon a subject belonging to that class of 
 melodies which derive their general expression from 
 emotion of the instinctive order j a vigorous treatment 
 of a subject of this kind, is likely to produce effects 
 which sound vaguely earnest and unmeaningly passion- 
 ate. With respect to art generally, it is obvious that 
 forcible manifestations of instinctive feeling, are only 
 consistently the subject of art when their cause is shown ; 
 if a literary passage containing one, and belonging to 
 one of the characters in a drama, was declaimed apart 
 from the rest of the drama, it is unnecessary to say that 
 
 * This form of composition has claims to esthetic legitimacy even when 
 not conceived and framed in accordance with the principle of abstract 
 instrumental composition. As both abstract and instinctive emotion are 
 the subject of musical expression in the Opera, they may appropriate y 
 he so in its overture. When the main features of the latter consist of 
 passages extracted bodily from the former, the overture may be regarded 
 as a brief preliminary summary of the Opera itself, not as an abstract 
 work inspired by the general spirit of the Opera, which in t ese 
 circumstances, would form the subject of moral contemplation. Overture 
 and Opera being considered one work, the latter reveals the circum- 
 stances to which the sentimental melodies of the former refer, and thus 
 renders them a consistent portion of Instrumental music. 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 61 
 
 tlie effect however forcible, would be meaningless.* 
 And if it is not so absurd for a strain illustrating some 
 passionate outburst or fervent expression, of instinctive 
 feeling, to be musically enunciated in a symphony, as 
 for this emotion to be verbally declaimed unattended 
 by those circumstances to which it relates, it is still 
 naturally incongruous. 
 
 In the second place, material disadvantages are 
 incurred by using a subject of this character as a germ 
 from which to unfold a series of instrumental effects. 
 Instrumental composition should of course involve 
 a musical form calculated for embracing those effects 
 which an instrument or orchestra can best produce, 
 such as antiphonal, concerted, and bold rhythmic 
 effects ; but it has been shown that these are 
 naturally connected with the expression of the 
 abstract order of sentiment. Again, as an instinctive 
 feeling is elicited not by the objects revealed by 
 
 * It is equally obvious tbat if an important soliloquy in tbe piece, was 
 thus declaimed, tbe effect would be perfectly consistent because it would 
 be the expression of feeling which naturally arose solitarily. The fact 
 that an expression of instinctive feeling is only made under special 
 outward circumstances, and that an expression of abstract sentiment 
 may be made under any outward circumstances, has, thus, some bearing 
 upon musical art. 
 
62 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 thought hut by the palpable objects of life, it is, 
 though compact and forcible, finite and unexpansive, 
 — it does not give rise to new feelings— to a pro- 
 gressive train of emotions. A closely faithful art- 
 expression of such a feeling as this, will thus naturally 
 he comparatively indiffusive, — it will not tend to give 
 rise to copiousness of effect ; it must thus he an 
 unsatisfactory basis for long compositions, of a varied 
 yet homogeneous character, and possessing a sustained 
 poetical weight, — yet this is a part of the essential 
 character of an effective instrumental work. 
 
 Beethoven’s subjects certainly give the impression 
 that they are the emanation of abstract sentiment. 
 As the sweet, tender strains of songs and dances, are 
 felt to he the expression of the emotions of love, 
 joy, sorrow, or hope 5 so the at one time grand, at 
 another, simple, hut always portentous series of notes 
 forming Beethoven’s subject, is felt as the ex- 
 pression of the feeling which arises solitarily, being 
 born of thought, and having for its object nothing 
 the influence of which depends only upon personal 
 association, but things of both intrinsic beauty and 
 broad suggestiveness, such as moral charms, nature’s 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 63 
 
 forms and actions, her power and grandeur. Further 
 support may be brought to the hypothesis that 
 he composed his instrumental works in this spirit. 
 A distinguishing feature of his genius, is the pro- 
 duction of pieces which though they are in one place 
 exuberantly gay, in another, deeply serious, do not 
 express either personal depression or cheerfulness. 
 In the greater portion of his music, excepting per- 
 haps the very short movements, and the slow 
 movements, there is geniality in earnestness, and 
 depth in gaiety : the music thus elevates as it 
 moves, and impresses as it gladdens. This quality 
 in the music, harmonises with the idea that it ex- 
 presses emotion involved between its author and out- 
 ward nature, rather than that arising from personal 
 relations or incidental circumstances. How the sense of 
 cheerfulness and seriousness produced by the music, 
 resembles our impression of those feelings when pro- 
 duced by nature ! Nature in her gayest aspects, never 
 imbues a cheerfulness devoid of seriousness, — never fails 
 to impress as well as please; and in her grand and 
 solemn phases, whilst she imbues seriousness, she does 
 not sadden but strengthens and elevates. These aspects 
 
64 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 of nature are ever homogeneous 5 and the different 
 phases of feeling they imbue, pass through the breast 
 without producing discordant changes. The passages of 
 various character in the music in question, are also 
 homogeneous ; and where one markedly gay is imme- 
 diately succeeded by another strikingly serious, no 
 moral inconsistency is felt. With respect to these 
 qualities, this music appears to breathe no egotism ; its 
 gaiety and seriousness do not seem reflective of the 
 fluctuation of narrow interests and minor circum- 
 stances. It seems rather the expression of the mind 
 absorbed in nature, personal self-consciousness being 
 suppressed, the cheerfulness and seriousness it 
 breathes, as is the case with these qualities when 
 nature imbues them, including one-another. 
 
 When a composer commences an instrumental work 
 with a subject inspired by this order of sentiment, 
 how appropriate and effective, for the work of 
 development, are the orchestra’s resources for exem- 
 plifying bold rhythmic design, and producing com- 
 binative and antiphonal effects ! As abstract emotion 
 involves a progressive train of feelings, and thus tends 
 to fill the nature more and more largely with a sense 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 65 
 
 of all that is elevated and morally impressive, a strain 
 of music born of this order of feeling, must be favor- 
 able to extensive enlargement, and well fitted for the 
 purpose of unfolding the more powerful order of musi- 
 cal effects without sacrificing poetic unity or natural 
 congruity. 
 
 With a view to still further elucidate that division 
 in spirit which I have hitherto referred to as visible 
 in music only, I append some quotations having re- 
 ference to the art of painting, in the spirit of which, 
 as it appears, a similar division is also observable.* 
 
 1 You will find it a pregnant question, if you follow 
 it forth, and leading to many others, not trivial, Why 
 it is, that in Sir Joshua’s girl, or Gainsborough’s, we * 
 always think first of the Ladyhood; but in Giotto’s, 
 of the Womanhood? Why, in Sir Joshua’s hero, or 
 Yandyck’s, it is always the Prince or the Sir, whom 
 we see first ; but in Titian’s, the man.’ 
 
 * The principle on which I have made a division in the spirit of 
 music, coincides so nearly with that on which a division in the spirit of 
 painting, is implied in these quotations as to render the supposition 
 reasonable in the absence of circumstantial knowledge, that my tone of 
 comment was suggested by them : this was not the case. My text was 
 written to beyond this point, before the writings from which I quote, 
 appeared. 
 
66 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 ‘Not that Titian’s gentlemen are less finished than 
 Sir Joshua’s ; but their gentlemanliness is not the 
 principal thing about them ; their manhood absorbs, 
 conquers, wears it as a despised thing. Nor — and 
 this is another stern ground of separation — will Titian 
 make a gentleman of every one he paints. He will 
 make him so if he is so, not otherwise ; and this not 
 only in general servitude to truth, but because in his 
 sympathy with deeper humanity, the courtier is not 
 more interesting to him than any one else. “You 
 have learned to dance and fence ; you can speak with 
 clearness, and think with precision ; your hands are 
 small, your senses acute, and your features well shaped. 
 
 * Yes ; I see all this in you, and will do it justice. You 
 shall stand as none but a well-bred man could stand ; 
 and your fingers shall fall on the sword-hilt as no 
 fingers could but those that knew the grasp of it. 
 But for the rest, this grisly fisherman, with rusty 
 cheek and rope-frayed hand, is a man as well as 
 you. * * His bronze colour is quite as interest- 
 
 ing to me, Titian, as your paleness, and his hoary 
 spray of stormy hair takes the light as well as your 
 waving curls. Him also will I paint, with such 
 
MUSICAL ' DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 67 
 
 picturesqueness as he may have ; yet not putting the 
 picturesqueness first in him, as in you I have not 
 put the gentlemanliness first. In him I see a strong 
 human creature, contending with all hardship ; in you 
 also a human creature, uncontending, and possibly not 
 strong. Contention or strength, weakness or pic- 
 turesqueness, and all other such accidents in either, 
 shall have due place. But the immortality and miracle 
 of you — this clay that burns, this colour that changes 
 — are in truth the awful things in both; these shall 
 be first painted — and last.” ’ * 
 
 The following quotation shows that objects of the 
 most conventional character, may be represented in the 
 high abstract frame of mind — in such a way that those 
 qualities calculated to appeal to the higher sympathy, 
 are prominent. ( In the portrait of the Hausmann 
 George Gyzen, every accessory is perfect with a fine 
 perfection ; the carnations in the glass vase by his side 
 — the ball of gold, chased with blue enamel, suspended 
 on the wall — the books — the steel yard — the papers on 
 the table — the seal ring, with its quartered bearings, 
 — all intensely there, and there in beauty of which no 
 
 * ‘ Reynolds and Holbein.’ Cornhill Magazine, 1862. 
 
68 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 one could have dreamed that even flowers or gold were 
 capable, far less parchment or steel. But every change 
 of shade is felt, every rich and rubied line of petal 
 followed ; every subdued gleam in the soft blue of 
 the enamel, and bending of the gold, touched with a 
 hand whose patience of regard creates rather than 
 paints. The jewel itself was not so precious as the 
 rays of enduring light which form it, and flash from 
 it, beneath that errorless hand.’ * 
 
 By aid of the following quotation, I am enabled to 
 broaden my statement of the two main tones of feel- 
 i ng) — the instinctive, and the abstract. ‘ Solitude of 
 soul, and introspection, and the melancholy which 
 loves to be alone with nature, have a place in modern 
 pyschology. A morbid sense of isolation results, which 
 has been admirably depicted by Goethe in his Faust. 
 This character, to classic thinkers, would have seemed 
 unreal and monstrous in the last degree. They would 
 have shrunk from its unhealthy self-analysis and con- 
 stant brooding over private pains. But in modern 
 society it has a deep and far-spread truth. It represents 
 a condition of human life which is almost universal, 
 
 * ‘.Reynolds and Holbein.’ Cornhill Magazine , 1862. 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 G9 
 
 and which constitutes the special gravity of modern, 
 as distinct from ancient modes of thought. The 
 vast importance of the individual in the face of nature 
 and of God is here asserted. Faust, in the anguish of 
 his scepticism, looking at the moonlight, longs to be 
 far otf upon the hills, or on the meadows, and to bathe 
 his pain away in mingled light and dew. When 
 passion is struggling with the sense of duty in his 
 soul, he seeks the mountains. We find him among 
 trees and caverns, listening to the tempest and 
 endeavouring to lose his human troubles in the 
 contemplation of eternal nature. Again, after the 
 catastrophe of Margaret’s episode it is among the 
 fields, and pines, and waterfalls of Switzerland that 
 Faust recruits his shattered strength. 
 
 ‘Nature is always made the antidote of human 
 ills. Its peace contrasts with our unrest, its broken 
 continuity with our changefulness, the order of its 
 recurring seasons with our chaotic history, the dura- 
 bility of its powers with our ephemeral lease of life, 
 its calm indifference with our fretfulness and in- 
 tolerance of pain. Shakspeare, in his play of As You 
 Like It , has expressed this aspect of modern sentiment 
 
TO 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 with regard to nature. The lyrics ‘ Under the green- 
 wood tree,’ and ‘Blow, blow, thou winter wind,’ 
 most delicately point the contrast we have tried to 
 draw. But since the days of Shakspeare the love of 
 natural beauty has increased and been developed. He, 
 and the men of his time, cared for the colours, and the 
 scents, and the freshness of the outer world with the 
 keen sensibilities of youth. Man was still uppermost 
 in their thoughts. They loved the earth as a pleasure- 
 ground in which he passed his time. The idea of 
 nature as a vast power — instinct with divinity, from 
 which the human soul, in solitude, might draw great 
 thoughts and inspirations — had not yet occurred to 
 them. They did not find in landscape a mirror of 
 their own emotions, or transfer the feelings of hu- 
 manity to inanimate objects. 
 
 ‘ This kind of pantheistic reverence has grown up 
 of late years. Kousseau led to it by the doctrine which 
 he preached of returning to a state of nature. In the 
 old age of feudal civilization men imagined a golden 
 period of youth, before the growth of statecraft and 
 class prerogatives. Naked savage life appeared to 
 them, half throttled by the chains and bandages of 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 71 
 
 centuries, to be the true condition of the human race. 
 And when the throes which shook Europe, destroying 
 the old forms of social order, had produced a scepticism 
 in the hearts of many, Nature and her undisturbed 
 repose became the only refuge for them in the tumult 
 of the world. Eemoving their faith from man, and 
 from the god of his imagination, they reposed it in 
 Nature, and in the spirit that controlled the elements. 
 In England, "Wordsworth became the high-priest of 
 this creed. Shelley, and Keats, and Coleridge, each 
 in his own way, contributed to render it permanent 
 and influential over thought. The point in which 
 they all agreed, was reverence for Nature as the 
 source of intellectual enjoyment and moral instruc- 
 tion. They were not content with the slight atten- 
 tion which had been paid to her more superficial 
 aspects by preceding poets. They ransacked her 
 deeper secrets, dwelling alone with her, exercising 
 their powers of observation on the minutest incidents, 
 and making pictures from hitherto neglected scenes. 
 Man, in truth, had descended from the high tower • of 
 his humanity, whence he had been wont to cast a 
 careless and half-patronizing eye upon the hills and 
 
T2 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 pastures that surrounded him. From that time for- 
 ward he has learned to recognize that not only are 
 men interesting to mankind, hut that also in the world 
 itself there is a dignity and loveliness which he must 
 study with humility and patience. This is a great 
 lesson, the whole value of which has hardly yet been 
 recognized. But the progress of the age in physical 
 science, and in the facilities of locomotion, tend to 
 make it every day more widely felt. The more we 
 know of the universe, as revealed to us by chemistry, 
 geology, astronomy, and all our other instruments of 
 discovery, the less we boast that man is the centre of 
 all things. The world and its immensity necessarily 
 occupy our thoughts more duly than in days when 
 wars and politics and metaphysical discussion filled 
 the minds of men. And while we traverse new 
 countries to satisfy our curiosity, or for the sake of 
 health and pleasure, the various objects of natural 
 interest presented to our eyes, explained by science, 
 or admired for their intrinsic beauty, must extend our 
 observation, and distract our cares from petty griefs 
 and from the sense of personal importance.’ * 
 
 * Position of Landscape Painting in England . Cornhill Magazine , 1865. 
 
MUSICAL DEYELOPMENT. 
 
 73 
 
 To compose in the abstract-instrumental style re- 
 quires more than absolute genius and skill. The true 
 abstract composer must be imbued with the high 
 poetic temper. Thought as well as feeling must ani- 
 mate him. As well as delighting in sweet sounds, 
 appreciating the ordinary influences of beauty, and 
 being susceptible of the instinctive sentiments, he 
 must be sensitive to moral beauty, feel that sublimity 
 met in the higher walks of contemplation, sympathise 
 with the great in nature and the human soul, — in 
 short, be filled with homage for all beauty, and with 
 aspiration to all worthiness. 
 
CHAPTER IV- 
 
 THE INTELLECTUAL 
 
 POSITION OP INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 
 
 the course of this work, I have frequently alluded 
 to an order of feeling which is natural to man, 
 yet very different from what is understood by natural 
 feeling ; to emotion of which the channels do not lie 
 
 exclusively between man and man, but between man 
 and nature generally: and I have endeavoured to 
 show not only that instrumental music is specially 
 fitted to form the expression of this feeling, 4 " but that 
 it is unfitted for the expression of instinctive feeling, 
 the grounds of this latter proposition being (1) As 
 instinctive feeling involves special personal circum- 
 stances, it is incongruous when exhibited divested of 
 them. (2) It does not naturally impel forcible or 
 elaborate effects of accent, yet these are a portion of 
 
 * Bee page 41. 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 75 
 
 the effects which an instrument or an orchestra can 
 best produce. (3) As it is of a compact, unexpansive, 
 and finite character, a subject that is animated by it, 
 is not well fitted to be the text, or germ, of a long 
 composition of varied, and yet homogeneous character, 
 which are the necessary qualities of an effective instru- 
 mental work. 
 
 The suitableness in the above circumstances of a 
 subject inspired by abstract feeling, which results 
 from the expansive nature of this feeling, has also 
 been added to the list of those considerations which 
 show that for its expression instrumental music has 
 special powers. 
 
 It may be asked: — Of what use are these consi- 
 derations, — are they calculated to practically influence 
 the art of music? That to some extent they are 
 calculated to do this through only the fact of their 
 being drawn from the observation of life, will appear 
 in the next chapter; in the meantime it may be re- 
 marked, that they undoubtedly furnish us with some 
 criterion, though a very insufficient one, whose ap- 
 plication extends beyond the form and technicalities 
 of the art, a criterion namely, of its spirit, which has 
 
76 
 
 musical development. 
 
 long been a desideratum. In order to rank with 
 poetry and painting as a truly elevating art and be- 
 longing to those lasting influences which aid man to 
 progress, music should possess general as well as only 
 material symmetry. Yet hitherto the moral source am 
 intention ot instrumental music, have not been even 
 definitely indicated : it has been felt that obscurity m 
 these respects, does not set well upon a branch of art 
 for which a high dignity is claimed; consequently, 
 there has been much groping, -many explanations 
 more or less plausible, having been made, mingled 
 with frivolous accounts of what authors intended their 
 works to express. On the basis of the considerations 
 thus far laid down, I submit that the expression of at 
 least a grand type of emotion, may with some reason- 
 ableness, be pointed at, as the function of grand in- 
 strumental music ; that music like poetry and painting, 
 has its high abstract walk ; that, like these, she is not 
 always the voice of instinct, or the beguiler of sense, 
 but may be at times moved by the currents of man’s 
 higher nature, and form a portion of the record of that 
 which is essentially high and immortal in him. And 
 if I have only been able to point to a type of emotion 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 77 
 
 as the inspiration and burden of grand instrumental 
 music — to describe these with generalities, I may 
 point to the fact that little more than this can he done 
 in the case of any art. In great pictures, the objects, 
 
 ■ — that is to say, all those features that strike the eye 
 and the mind most distinctly, — constitute only the 
 frame- work of their meaning. In such works, varieties 
 of form and colour, corresponding with sound and 
 accent in music, are only the material channels of the 
 high purport of the work ; and though the former are 
 the likeness of natural things, the reproduction of 
 them is not the painter’s ultimate! object. The higher 
 purport of a picture is couched in its expressiveness, 
 — which is lofty, in the degree that it is spiritual,* — 
 and this is, taken as a whole, little less undefinable 
 than that of great instrumental compositions. In the 
 case of a picture, certain portions of the expressive- 
 ness, are seen to relate directly to certain definitely 
 
 * The utmost glory of the humaa body is a mean subject of contempla- 
 tion, compared to the emotion, exertion, and character of that which 
 animates it ; the lustre of the limbs of the Aphrodite is faint beside that 
 of the brow of the Madonna ; and the divine form of the Greek god, 
 except as it is the incarnation and expression of divine mind, is degraded 
 beside the passion and the prophecy of the vaults of the Sistine. — 
 Modern Painters , by John Push in . 
 
78 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 revealed circumstances ; but can all the expressiveness 
 be thus explained ? and is not the vague suggestive- 
 ness of such a work— its power of creating high, 
 illimitable, and undefined feeling,— such as that sense 
 of mystery and immortality, which the writer of a 
 passage quoted in the last chapter, imagines Titian as 
 having felt upon beholding the ‘ clay that burns,’ the 
 ‘ colour that changes,’— its really sublime attribute ? 
 The high phases of every art suggest great, compre- 
 hensive truth ; they all point more or less directly to 
 the mystic source of that which is glorious in outward 
 nature, and heroic within : whatever may be their sub- 
 ject, they work one influence upon the breast— imbue 
 the’ sense of a beauty that is ineffable, a virtue that is 
 all potent ; and open up feeling which may vary as to 
 intensity in different breasts, yet in each, will be of 
 one broad nature, and fall into the same grand channels 
 of awe and homage. Pencil, pen, and lyre alike strive 
 to express the sympathy of the human soul, with all 
 that is great in deed and grand in aspect,— a sympathy 
 as infinite as its inspiration, and whose tale of expres- 
 sion is never ended. 
 
 Thus the full meaning of the higher efforts of the 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 79 
 
 painter, can be probed little more closely than in the 
 case of co-ordinate works of musical art. The fact of 
 the materials of the painter’s art expression, being the 
 likeness of natural things, may lead a shallow observer 
 to suppose that in this likeness exists the whole pur- 
 port of the work. And because the materials of musical 
 expression, are not the exact likeness of anything in 
 nature or life, instrumental music through like im- 
 perfect observation, has been assumed to have no 
 meaning. In having then indicated a certain great 
 type of emotion, as the inspiration and spirit of grand 
 instrumental music ; in having suggested that from 
 this type of feeling the moral element animating the 
 higher phases of all art, is drawn ; and in having- 
 shown that the quality of indefinitude belongs to the 
 higher portion of the expressiveness of all works of 
 art, and thus of itself, does not evince meagreness of 
 moral purport, I believe that I have shown that this 
 species of music occupies a moral plane in common 
 with the great works of fine art generally. The fact 
 alone of an art being a recognized instrument of moral 
 exposition, has an important practical influence on that 
 art. Without this recognition, no art is held in high 
 
80 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 and permanent honour ; and it need scarcely be said, 
 that although the absence of human esteem, does not 
 in every instance prevent the production of great 
 works, it leaves a cold atmosphere for art-growth. 
 On the other hand, if a certain high order of feeling 
 is associated with a certain path of art, the result is, 
 to draw to that art this very order of feeling,— as the 
 fact of cathedral architecture and religious paintings 
 having been a recognized expression of religious feel- 
 ing, drew to the execution of such works, a spirit which 
 greatly conduced to develop the grandeur, beauty, and 
 purity that many of them breathe. These facts : — 
 that this art had a definite moral standing ground; 
 that it was held in highest honour, and was regarded 
 as a most momentous branch of endeavour, favoured 
 the growth of a spirit appropriate for animating it, by 
 imbuing those who approached it, with a sense of 
 seriousness and of emulation, and by insuring that no 
 art- impulse worthy to invest it, should fail to he drawn 
 to it. In the same way, the composer will be more 
 likely to bring a uniformly high and dignified vein of 
 thought and feeling, to the task of instrumental com- 
 position, when it is generally acknowledged as the 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 81 
 
 expression of the same order of sentiment as that 
 which invests the sister arts in their loftiest phases, 
 than he is at present likely to do, there being 
 now no fixed respect surrounding it, and no moral 
 function distinctly associated with it ; in attempting 
 this style of music, he will then, at least sweep all 
 frivolous and commonplace garniture from the cham- 
 bers of the mind, and clear them for higher vesture. 
 
 These considerations may prove indirectly beneficial 
 to music, if they suggest the desirableness of composers 
 looking at times to a higher and more varied source of 
 inspiration than the hackneyed incitation of the in- 
 stinctive feelings ; if they point to the emancipation 
 of the musical mind, from a too narrow round of 
 associations — remind it that other than technical 
 knowledge should possess it — that the source of music 
 is not music but the general mental and moral stream, 
 and impress it with the necessity of habits of reflection. 
 For the musician, amidst those whose road is a special 
 and deeply sunk groove, is peculiarly liable to lose the 
 habit of broad mental activity, partly because he has 
 to spend much time in mechanical practice and 
 technical study, and partly through the fact that 
 
82 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 musical art-material, by reason of its intrinsic beauty, 
 may be made to assume a pleasing form when only 
 animated by the slightest moral impulse. 
 
 The true destiny of the musical, as of the whole art 
 mind, is to walk in those high paths of knowledge at- 
 tained by the advanced mind of man, and to survey the 
 full intellectual scene around. The want of this salutary 
 mental activity, is the cause of that monotony which 
 now characterises the musical cast of expression not- 
 withstanding the variety that was imported into it 
 during the period occupied by Haydn, Mozart, Beeth- 
 oven, and Mendelssohn. Some of this monotony is 
 caused by the frequency with which musical phrases 
 fall into the same hackneyed idioms, and express the 
 same emotional phases; and the desire to break 
 through it, forms doubtless not a small portion of 
 that impulse which has given rise to the new German 
 school. By whatever means the desired change is 
 eventually wrought, it will be greatly stimulated by 
 enlarged culture and the broad spirit of modern 
 thought, becoming established in the musical mind. 
 
CHAPTER Y. 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH THE MUSICAL AND LITERARY 
 PLAN OP AN OPERA, SHOULD BE BASED. 
 
 TN dramatic composition the musician has to deal 
 with personal and abstract feeling intermingled. 
 In an important drama, as well as those minor cir- 
 cumstances which occasion the display of natural 
 feeling, there are generally some broad principles in 
 agitation, such as religion, liberty, &c., and some 
 occurrences on a grand scale, which spur the mind 
 to action, excite the imagination, and thus arouse 
 abstract emotion. He also here meets the circumstance 
 of natural feeling approaching abstract, in the qualities 
 of grandeur and sublimity: a wife, husband, sister, 
 brother, or friend, may be represented as displaying 
 loftiness of soul and heroism of act. Yet the moral 
 element thus unfolded, is still distinct from abstract 
 sentiment, being without its breadth, impersonal 
 
84 
 
 musical development. 
 
 nature, and permanent vitality; it is instinctive 
 feeling in its loftiest manifestation. How different, 
 for instance, as regards breadth and permanency of, 
 character, are the following two classes of feelings : 
 on the one hand, faithful love, and friendship, in 
 their keenest manifestation ; on the other, patriotism, 
 loyalty, constancy to religious tenets, love of freedom, 
 the passion for nature — art — knowledge, &c. Whereas 
 the incentive of the former feelings, is a personal one, 
 and the feelings tend to assert the personality of their 
 possessor, the incentive of the latter, is something 
 permanent and comprehensive, and the feelings tend 
 to suppress the personality of whom they invest. 
 Whereas also the former feelings, after arriving at 
 a season of vivid life, tend to subside and to dwell 
 calmly in the breast, the latter, are remarkable for 
 their permanently passionate hold upon the nature. 
 
 Erom what has been said concerning the specialities 
 of intonation and accentuation it follows that those 
 musical forms which involve bold and broad rhythmic 
 outline, — the choral and orchestral forms,— are best 
 fitted for illustrating the broad ideas— for expressing 
 the abstract emotion, in a drama ; and that the more 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 85 
 
 keenly expressive— the more melodic forms, are best 
 fitted for expressing the personal sentiment. I do not, 
 of course, state this fact with the idea that a mechanical 
 rule for composition, can be formed either from it, or 
 in any other way 5 hut as a general principle which 
 the composer to a great extent intuitively exemplifies, 
 and a knowledge of which may prove both interesting, 
 and, as I shall hereafter endeavour to show, advan- 
 tageous to him. It may, however, he thought that 
 this principle cannot apply strictly to dramatic music , 
 it is not, for instance, an unfrequent thing in a drama, 
 for emotions belonging to both the main orders of 
 feeling, to unfold almost, if not quite simultaneously : 
 this condition of things, according to the principle 
 laid down, demands a musical effect into which both 
 bold emphasis and soft melody, enter and intermingle. 
 Now, as in a piece of music, each part is an essential 
 portion of the structure, it may be asked : — can one 
 piece of music express sentiment of these two orders ? 
 I answer that one piece of music can do this 5 that 
 various feelings may be felt simultaneously, and that 
 music, through that power of condense expression it 
 possesses by reason of the impalpable nature of its 
 
86 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 effect, and with the more mechanical aid of its feature, 
 harmony, and the power it has of producing effects 
 of now graduated loudness, now successive loudness 
 and softness, now simultaneous loudness and softness, 
 — a power which may he compared to perspective in 
 painting, — can express emotion in a complex as well 
 as in a simple condition. If, however, this principle 
 is couched in the natural laws of human demonstration, 
 we may expect to see it to some extent already 
 exemplified. As a case in point, may he mentioned 
 Mozart’s, II mio tesoro , which is generally acknow- 
 ledged to he one of the finest dramatic airs in 
 existence. In this air, where personal sentiment is 
 expressed soft melody is all in all to the effect, and 
 the single human voice, so fitted for the production 
 of melody, is the foremost implement of that effect ; 
 hut directly the feeling expressed assumes more the 
 character of abstract emotion, — when a broader feeling 
 — the desire to avenge wrong, and to consummate 
 justice, arises, — emphasis becomes the chief power 
 in the effect, and the orchestra take the lead in its 
 production, whilst the voice defines only the salient 
 points of a broad rhythmical design. 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 87 
 
 The circumstances which beset a musician when 
 entering upon dramatic composition, differ so much 
 from those he meets in the case of any other kind 
 of music that they require a modification of the 
 function generally pertaining to the composer. Both 
 in the case of instrumental and of cantata music, 
 the composer’s function is to express emotion as fully 
 and completely as he can, and he is subjected to no 
 conditions but those of a purely musical kind. On 
 the other hand, in the case of dramatic composition, 
 he is surrounded by a framework of external con- 
 ditions, his office being not simply to enter into an 
 exhaustive expression of this or that emotion, but 
 rather to throw into more or less lengthy expression, 
 a mingled variety of feeling — feeling both transient 
 and deep — as it becomes unfolded in the progress 
 of the piece. Thus, under the former circumstances, 
 the music may at any point, be elaborated to the 
 highest degree, whilst in the latter case, such 
 elaboration can only be introduced at rare intervals. 
 The choice of these intervals amidst the general 
 material and moral circumstances of the piece, 
 should be one of the composers most important 
 considerations. 
 
88 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 In laying out tlxe plan for the music of an 
 Opera, the first object, then, should be, to discover 
 those points in the story which are morally appro- 
 priate for, and to which the dramatic circumstances 
 will permit, extended musical expression. The 
 music to these points, may be carried to almost 
 any pitch of elaboration, and it will constitute 
 the backbone of the whole work. The occasions 
 where this full expression and elaborate construc- 
 tion, may be appropriately introduced, may be 
 described generally as those where sentiment of 
 the instinctive type but of great warmth, and of 
 an elevated order, is unfolded; or where in some 
 important part of the piece, abstract feeling is 
 displayed. Leonora’s grand air, in the first act of 
 Beethoven’s opera, ‘Fidelio,’ is an example of the 
 one kind; the prisoner’s first chorus, in the same 
 opera, is an example of the other. No occasion could 
 be more appropriate for full musical display than the 
 latter. Here the sentiment to which elaborate 
 expression is given, is an abstract one, namely 
 freedom ; and this expression elicits the listener’s 
 sympathy with a lofty idea, as well as that nar- 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 80 
 
 rower sympathy he has with the prisoners per- 
 sonally.* 
 
 With respect to the intermediate music, at all those 
 points of the piece where the progress of the plot 
 chiefly elicits interest, the illustration should be as 
 brief as possible ; even when in these circumstances a 
 warm flow of feeling occurs, the composer should 
 endeavour to exert a faculty of selection and com- 
 pression similar to that which I have described 
 Beethoven as having exerted in instrumental com- 
 position. With the generality of composers it is 
 
 much easier to fall into the composition of a graceful 
 melody, as a suggestive passage of their literary text 
 presents itself for illustration, than, by reflecting, 
 
 * Beautiful as this chorus is, the idea suggests itself to me, that 
 Beethoven might have made more of the occasion — that, here, he might 
 have appropriately given a far fuller and more elaborate expression to 
 tlie — 
 
 1 Eternal spirit of the chainless mind.’ 
 
 The subdued utterance of the prisoners upon the approach of a guard, 
 is made the occasion for the production of the element of contrast in this 
 chorus : it is a somewhat common-place occasion ; but that it is allowed 
 to absorb half the effort of the composition, illustrates the servile way in 
 which even very great composers sometimes adhere to their literary text. 
 Here are two subjects for music : — the idea of liberty, and the fear of 
 some prisoner s upon the approach of a guard ; and one receives a treat- 
 ment nearly as elaborate as the other. 
 
 Gr 
 
90 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 to catch the essential spirit of this passage, to throw 
 it into terse musical expression, and, in obedience 
 to dramatic exigencies, to reject all other musical 
 promptings. The more perfectly, however, this is 
 done wherever the progress of circumstances chiefly 
 elicits interest, the more dramatic the music will he, 
 and the more effective the general work : but besides 
 these advantages, a great and special musical ad- 
 vantage results. Through the art-space saved by this 
 condensing and culling process, a musician is enabled 
 to illustrate in the greatest power and depth his art 
 and genius are capable of, those salient points of the 
 drama where some heroic human feeling is display ed, 
 or where ideal sentiment arises. On such occasions 
 of this nature as a good librettist might present, I 
 think compositions almost as deep and elaborate as 
 Beethoven’s symphonies and Handel’s choruses, might 
 be employed. The literary author should, of course, 
 make these occasions, -as in fact every occasion,— 
 arise naturally and necessarily out of the progress of 
 the piece. However great a musical effort may be, 
 if it refers to circumstances not vitally connected with 
 the plot, it is realised in diminished force because it 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 91 
 
 falls upon preoccupied minds, and interrupts, rather 
 than contributes to, the interest and sympathy which 
 fill them. The soldiers’ chorus in Gounod’s ( Faust,’ 
 refers to events that are not closely related to the 
 plot ; and however effective this chorus may be, even 
 in these circumstances, it would be doubly effective if 
 it was more judiciously introduced. The coronation 
 march in Meyerbeer’s 1 Prophete,’ on the other hand, 
 refers to a culminating incident of the plot ; this 
 music, consequently, possesses both intrinsic and 
 relative interest. 
 
 It is the custom of librettists to employ the 
 chorus to set off the expression of personal feeling 
 proper to the principal characters, by uttering its 
 impression of the spectacle. The concluding chorus 
 of Beethoven’s i Fidelio,’ is an instance of this practice. 
 This custom has certainly the warrantry of antiquity, 
 as the chorus of the ancient Greek tragedy, was 
 employed in a similar way, its function being that of 
 constantly vibrating between the audience and the 
 persons represented. If, however, the object of the 
 modern drama is £ to hold the mirror up to nature,’ the 
 custom above described, should be abandoned except 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 92 
 
 in those cases where the emotion expressed by the 
 principal characters, is of the abstract order ; and the 
 chorus should be chiefly used to express abstract 
 emotion. The tendency of large gatherings of men, 
 is to suppress the instinctive, and to give voice to 
 abstract sentiments. On these occasions such ideas 
 as duty, justice, patriotism, &c., are those to which 
 homage is paid ; and the feeling these arouse is of the 
 abstract order.* To express this feeling, then, should 
 be considered the grand function of the chorus. At 
 the same time the present custom may be advan- 
 tageously retained in such scenes as where a chorus 
 is assumed to be sung by peasantry, soldiers, fishermen, 
 people, &c. Although only when the subject-matter 
 of the chorus, is exuberant animal spirits, is it, in 
 these scenes, illustrative of actual life, still, m con- 
 junction with the orchestra, it imparts to them a 
 general life-like animation that could not otherwise 
 be given to them ; for few can have failed to ex- 
 perience the unsatisfactory impression such scenes in 
 
 * The fact that when the occasion is of a religions nature, the feeling 
 expressed, possesses a more personal character, is an exception to this 
 statement: this kind of occasion is made the subject of remark m the 
 next chapter. 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 93 
 
 the regular drama, give, especially when they are 
 sustained for some length of time. 
 
 The reader may have observed that thus far in this 
 work, no emotion has been referred to but that of an 
 healthy kind, — no mention having been made of evil 
 feeling. But the choice of literary subjects, dis- 
 played in the case of several modern operas, implies 
 that music may be employed to express this feeling 
 also. The modern doctrine of evil in man is, that 
 it is a negative condition, and arises when certain 
 natural impulses ordained for our benefit, escape 
 uncontrolled through the absence of other condi- 
 tions ; that, as the yielding to violent passion, 
 often denotes physical infirmity, so all bad acts 
 and feelings, arise through some combination of 
 physical, mental, and moral shortcomings ; briefly, 
 that the bad man has not too much, but too little. 
 This being so, when evil is chosen for the subject- 
 matter of art, her fine and intense light, instead of 
 being made to shine upon a phenomenon wherein the 
 powers of nature tend to formation, strength, useful- 
 ness, goodness, or beauty, is thrown upon a process of 
 dissolution ; and all that it can catch to irradiate, are 
 
94 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 some of those fleeing elements of virtue which alone 
 ever give character and energy to evil. Where 
 the artist seizes some of these elements, his as- 
 sumed expression of evil may possess true foice as 
 in the case of Milton’s Satan; but where evil— it 
 being assumed to be a positive quality, is en- 
 deavoured to be grasped, no effect is consummated, as 
 in the cases of Moore’s Mokanna, and Shelley’s 
 Count Cenci. Toward the end of this chapter, I shall 
 glance at the broad reason why we cannot admire art 
 unless it breathes a spirit of goodness. In the mean- 
 time, by the fact that this negative phenomenon, evil, 
 like physical disease, produces in the regarder, a 
 feeling of revulsion, it is easy to show that it cannot 
 inspire music. It is noticeable that in life an allowed 
 evil fact is never the subject of eloquence ; that, on 
 the other hand, eloquence is generally inspired by 
 something admirable. The reason of this is, that 
 when an. influence produces a pleasant impression in 
 us, our first impulse is to try and sustain this im- 
 pression ; and, as when an influence pleases us 
 through the eye, we continue to gaze, or try to re- 
 produce it by painting it, so, when the agreeable 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 95 
 
 influence is a fact of life, or anything producing the 
 inward emotion of admiration, we recount it, analyse 
 it, and enlarge all we can in our expression of it, in 
 order that the emotion it produces, may be sustained 
 both by the mind continuing to dwell on this in- 
 fluence and by sympathy with its effect on others.* 
 But when an influence produces an unpleasant feeling 
 in us, our first impulse is to try to get rid of the 
 feeling. Music then, cannot be inspired by evil 
 because the mind, refusing to dwell on the pure 
 morbid aspect of the phenomenon, the feeling it 
 produces is not sustained ; indeed, it appears on 
 the surface, unlikely, that where the object is 
 pleasure, we should endeavour voluntarily to retain 
 a species of feeling which we try involuntarily to 
 get rid of because it is unpleasant. Thus it is, that 
 when a composer endeavours to express evil feeling, 
 he either expresses only its apparent energy, thus 
 producing more or less true effect, or else he uncon- 
 sciously testifies to the negativeness of evil, by 
 relinquishing altogether the task of expression, and 
 
 * This is the nature of the impulse which gives rise to the principle of 
 representation. See page 15, 
 
96 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 exhibiting the opposite of music harsh discord and 
 distorted melody. 
 
 There are considerations which suggest that present 
 emotional pain is, also, a subject which a musical 
 composer cannot illustrate. This subject occurs in 
 Meyerbeer’s opera, ‘ Le Prophete,’ in which Jean 
 of Leyden’s short agony of indecision upon oeing 
 compelled to sacrifice his betrothed or see his mother 
 killed, is one of the principal points. In real life 
 a person enduring the actual pang of menial pain, is 
 generally undemonstrative. It is probable that at 
 such a moment, the nature is almost wholly absorbed 
 in the act of attention to a new and terrible fact ; 
 that it does not realise, much less demonstrate the 
 emotions which the fact is calculated to arouse ; and 
 that those emotions arise only subsequently. If this 
 is so, then a nfusician, like Nature, can do nothing, 
 because for the time during which emotion is un- 
 realised, there exists no subject-matter for music to 
 express. It is noticeable that even the poet, who 
 for giving expression to such an occasion as this, 
 has the advantage of being able to use physical 
 accessories of feeling —when picturing a character 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 97 
 
 in present emotional pain, generally has recourse to 
 the suggestion of negative traits. For instance thus 
 Parisina after hearing the doom of Hugo, is described — 
 
 ‘ Her eyes unmoved, but full and wide, 
 
 Not once bad turned to either side — 
 
 Nor once did those sweet eyelids close, 
 
 Or shade the glance o’er which they rose,’ 
 
 ^ 
 
 and thus Kaled before Lara’s fatal charge : — 
 
 ‘ His lip was silent, scarcely heat his heart,’ 
 
 and thus Constance de Beverley before the conclave : — 
 
 6 And there she stood so calm and pale, 
 
 That, hut her breathing did not fail, 
 
 And motion slight of eye and head, 
 
 And of her bosom, warranted, 
 
 That neither sense nor pulse she lacks, 
 
 You must have thought a form of wax, 
 
 Wrought to the very life, was there — 
 
 So still she was,’ # # # 
 
 and thus the demeanour of Macduff at the moment 
 when he is told of the slaughter of his wife and 
 children, is alluded to : — 
 
 Mai . 4 Merciful heaven ! — 
 
 What, man ! ne’er pull your hat upon your brows ; 
 
 'Give sorrow words,’ # # # * 
 
98 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 Although, the passionate demonstration of natural 
 feeling can be vividly expressed by music, there are 
 reasons why it should be sparingly introduced in an 
 opera. 
 
 In the first place the principle of generally 
 conforming art to life, suggests this course. In 
 life, whereas abstract feeling generally makes a 
 person enthusiastic, healthy instinctive feeling when 
 unattended by exceptional circumstances, is com- 
 paratively undemonstrative. In the second place 
 music inspired by natural feeling m its normal pnase, 
 is likely to possess a fuller spirit than music which 
 is animated by this feeling in a passionate phase, 
 for whereas in the latter case natural feeling 
 strikingly but almost exclusively, displays the quali- 
 ties of strength and warmth ; in the former, whilst 
 impressing these qualities, it exhibits also those of 
 sweetness and tenderness : this is, in fact, an exem- 
 plification of the truth, now generally recognised by 
 the art-mind, that the qualities of nature, existing 
 more evenly and in more variety in her normal phases 
 than in her convulsions, a richer art inspiration may 
 be drawn from her under the former than under the 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 99 
 
 latter circumstances. As another illustration of this, 
 it may he observed that whereas the spectacle of a 
 volcanic eruption, or of an earthquake, impresses 
 chiefly the ideas of power and confusion, an upright 
 shoot of grass impresses the ideas of power, repose, 
 organization, and beauty ; thus the latter object is the 
 richer in suggestiveness. In the third place, it will 
 be observed that the exhibition of feeling, — whether 
 instinctive or abstract, — in a calm condition, can be 
 more easily regarded in a disinterested personal 
 spirit, than its exhibition in a passionate state can be ; 
 and that when thus regarded, the sympathy aroused, 
 is sympathy for the abstract beauty of the emotion. 
 But a forcible display of feeling, will generally cause 
 a regarder to forget his position as a contemplator, to 
 feel a strong personal interest in, and to sympathise 
 in a special way with, the spectacle. Now as in life, 
 in the case of each individual, the objects of instinctive 
 feeling are special and limited, — as they can only 
 consist of friends and relatives, — it is plain, supposing 
 that the above spectacle consists of this feeling, that 
 certain emotional chords in the regarder might be 
 struck, which in life can only truly vibrate to one 
 
100 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 touch, and that the feeling thus aroused must be 
 hollow and artificial. On the other hand, as the scope 
 of abstract feeling is broad and unlimited, — as, for 
 instance, such a feeling as the love of liberty may 
 vibrate truly to innumerable touches, — it is also plain, 
 supposing that the above spectacle consists of abstract 
 feeling, that the sympathy of the regarder would 
 always be of a genuine character. Although, then, 
 the exhibition of instinctive feeling in a calm and 
 natural state, when it is regarded as an o eject of 
 contemplation, may edify, its representation in a 
 passionate state and in the average stage of develop- 
 ment, is, at least, purposeless, — for instance, what 
 advantage can there be in a strong accession of 
 artificial brotherly, sisterly, or parental feeling in 
 just that stage of development in which everybody 
 realises these feelings ? At the same time, it should 
 be observed, that in those rare instances where feelings 
 of this nature, are represented beyond the average 
 stage of development, — as being purer and finer 
 than they are in society, — their exhibition, whether 
 in a passionate state or not, is, in several important 
 ways edifying. It may appear that the whole weight' 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 101 
 
 of custom — of the example of the greatest dramatists 
 and writers, bears against the spirit of these remarks. 
 We must remember, however, that this custom 
 descends from the remote past, and may have origi- 
 nated in times and circumstances when the natural 
 sentiments were dull, and little more spiritual than 
 animal instincts — when lofty domestic virtues were 
 rare. In these circumstances, the representation of 
 instinctive sentiments in vivid warmth and in delicate 
 phases, would tend to unlock in the hearts of the 
 spectators, the avenues to the purer and tenderer 
 development of these feelings ; and the exhibition of 
 lofty domestic virtues, would be highly salutary. 
 We may conclude then, that only when this order 
 of feeling is exhibited in such an advanced stage of 
 development, as to apply to present life in the way 
 above described, is its passionate display either morally 
 or intellectually beneficial to the spectator. 
 
 The deep hut concealed devotion of Leonora in 
 Beethoven’s opera, ‘ Fidelio,’ is an example of in- 
 stinctive sentiment introduced in an opera in general 
 accordance with these remarks. This love is not 
 simply warm, tender, passively pure and faithful, but 
 
102 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 it embraces the qualities of active devotedness and 
 heroic courage. Thus it is in a stage of development 
 beyond that in which it ordinarily exists, or in which 
 it is ordinarily seen to exist. Yet even this feeling 
 is sparingly demonstrated,— the fire seldom flames, 
 though it is ever felt to be glowing beneath protracted 
 and nobly self contained action, — only when the 
 climax of the plot arrives, is it exhibited without 
 restraint. 
 
 I have previously argued that music characterised 
 by elaborate and strongly marked rhythm should 
 attend the expression of abstract sentiment, on the 
 ground that similar effects in a rudimentary form 
 attend the demonstration of the same order of feeling, 
 in language, — this being the shape in which, in life, 
 we meet the fact, that abstract sentiment is enthu- 
 siastic ; and that this principle should be observed in 
 a drama — in circumstances where the art-intention is 
 to catch the spirit of life, is obvious. On the ground 
 of truthfulness to nature, and on the ground of ex- 
 pediency, — which in art-matters always coincides with 
 that of truthfulness to nature, — I have also argued 
 that music should chiefly express instinctive ' senti- 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 103 
 
 meat in its full but comparatively silent flow ) that 
 energetic expressions of this feeling should, if ever, 
 be sparingly introduced. 
 
 Now if we continue still further our observation 
 of life, we find that not only is instinctive sen- 
 timent rarely and slightly demonstrated, but that 
 important abstract sentiment, though demonstrated 
 enthusiastically when demonstrated at all, is only ex- 
 hibited at comparatively rare intervals ; that, in short, 
 the more continuous occupation of the mind and the 
 demonstrative faculties, is neither the one action nor 
 the other, but the expression of that minor abstract 
 sentiment which attends the enlightened observation 
 of the lesser truths and beauties of the world. The 
 secondary part of the subject-matter of a musical 
 drama should, therefore, consist chiefly of this sen- 
 timent and idea. This kind of subject-matter is, 
 at present, to some extent introduced in operas, as 
 when one of the characters apostrophises the seasons, 
 night, flowers, &c. ; or when a choral ode to labour, 
 rest, leisure, or peace, &c., is sung. The questions, 
 however, I think are worthy of some consideration, 
 whether for such occasions as these, more originality 
 
104 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 and variety, as regards subject, migbt not be attained , 
 and whether they might not be extended so as to fill 
 some of that art-space now occupied by matter which 
 appeals to the instinctive feelings. A keen dis- 
 crimination and tender sympathy, animating a li- 
 brettist, might discover many gleams of beauty in 
 every-day life, fit to form the subject of music, and 
 the exhibition of which in the circumstances of the 
 musical drama, would be salutary. Those minor 
 incidents of life which suggest reflection ; the beauty 
 of common and humble objects ; that which is pure 
 and high in every-day thought, and fragrant in small 
 actions, are materials from which true art-inspiration 
 may be drawn : that the greatest in art have exem- 
 plified this fact, and that it holds good in the dramatic 
 form of art, the instance and example of Shakespeare 
 are a sufficient proof. But it may be said that 
 comments more or less poetical or philosophical, some- 
 times argumentative, at others, satirical, on every-day 
 life, will not with any advantage, bear musical effect. 
 There is, it is true, an order of verbal statement that 
 gains no advantage from being accompanied with 
 music, and, therefore, which is better without it ; this 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 105 
 
 is statement of which the utterance and reception 
 are generally unattended by emotion, such as the 
 expression of incidental material fact, or of highly 
 abstract truth, like mathematical truth, — statement of 
 either so low a character, or so divested of human 
 association, as not to elicit sympathy. This order of 
 statement may be more comprehensively described, 
 as statement of which the object and influence, — 
 however important may be the one, and impressive 
 the other, — are not the production of emotions of any 
 kind. But I need scarcely say that a good author 
 would not introduce much matter of this kind into a 
 work so closely related to the sphere of poetry as the 
 drama is. In Shakespeare’s plays, for instance, if we 
 except the humorous scenes, we find, without taking 
 into account the markedly serious ones, that the 
 language in almost every line, ‘extracts emotions 
 beautiful and new.’ That the literary basis of the 
 intermediate or secondary music of operas, might be 
 far richer in ideas, far more original, and of a con- 
 siderably higher moral tone than it is in most cases at 
 present, cannot be doubted. 
 
 The proposition that music may be devised to aid 
 
 H 
 
106 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT, 
 
 the expression of important thought, will not appear, 
 prima facie , unnatural to the reader, as I have 
 previously pointed out that in this expression by 
 language, rudimentary effects of one of the essential 
 elements of music, naturally arise ; nor will this 
 proposition appear improbable, supposing my assump- 
 tion is correct, that the emotion attendant upon 
 thought, constitutes a high and most important part 
 of the field of musical inspiration. But if music can 
 be inspired by the feeling which attends thought,, wo 
 may assume as a general truth, that it may advan- 
 tageously attend the verbal expression of thought, 
 if we may be guided by a fact in analogous circum- 
 stances, it being indisputable that music may not only 
 be inspired by instinctive feeling but may advan- 
 tageously attend the verbal expression of this feeling. 
 Language which expresses thought, is of course 
 appropriate in different degrees for being attended by 
 music ; and some of it is inappropriate. 
 
 Important thought may be defined as that action 
 of the mind by which we arrive at the perception and 
 appreciation of certain new truths, or of ideas sub- 
 mitted as truths : that which animates music in these 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 107 
 
 circumstances, is the emotion aroused by the truths 
 and ideas which strike the attention in the course, 
 and at the climax, of this action. Now in the degree 
 that the more mechanical operation of the mind, — 
 the pure reasoning, — is simple in proportion to the 
 greatness and emotional suggestiveness of the truths 
 and ideas that form its subject, will it be possible for 
 the language that is involved, to be advantageously 
 attended by music : where the reasoning is very 
 elaborate and the truth unsuggestive, the language 
 may be pronounced unfit for music ; where the rea- 
 soning is moderately elaborate and the truth great, 
 the language might be wrought by the aid of music, 
 into an expression of the highest and most effective 
 kind ; where the truth is great and the more mechani- 
 cal operation of the mind, is slight, the language will 
 be generally best fitted for music, as the development 
 of the pure musical expression will be in these cir- 
 cumstances least likely to be hampered by the often 
 necessary incorporation of irrelevant words.* As in 
 the case of any literary episode that has been already 
 
 * The lingual construction best adapted for music, is considered in 
 the following chapter. 
 
108 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT, 
 
 set to music, it may be observed that various portions 
 are adapted for musical illustration in different degrees, 
 and that they accordingly bear musical effects more 
 or less full, so that order of language which I have 
 indicated as generally fitted to form the subject of 
 musical expression, of course, is fitted to do this in 
 different degrees 5 and to well prepare a literary 
 episode for music, besides an observance of the 
 principles above laid down, a fine exercise of judg- 
 ment and even much experiment, — resulting in a 
 further work of selection and rejection, — will be, 
 doubtless, always necessary. 
 
 The idea that music can aid the verbal expression 
 of thought in the drama, not only is not generally 
 entertained but is often ridiculed : this is frequently 
 done by allusion being made to the case of music 
 participating in the enunciation of the soliloquies 
 of a Hamlet. The confident spirit in which such 
 allusions as this, are made, is really an evidence of 
 how little this art has been philosophically investi- 
 gated, and of how one-sided its development has 
 been hitherto : on the stage its development has not 
 been even one-sided, for here music’s function has 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 109 
 
 been chiefly to endow commonplace and frivolous 
 circumstances with a power and beauty of effect, 
 to supply inanimate language with earnestness of 
 spirit. We may as reasonably assume that music 
 can be inspired by that feeling which is behind 
 thought and even the utterance of thought, as that 
 it can be inspired by instinctive feeling. The fact of 
 the depth and seriousness of the emotional impressure 
 which fine instrumental music creates, suggests that 
 there is a close sympathy between music and the emo- 
 tional state attendant upon an elevated frame of mind. 
 That music may be linked to the utterance of thought, 
 even experience shows ; it is felt in the case of the 
 oratorio, to aid in a strikingly effective way, the 
 enunciation of passages of the grandest poetical 
 character, and which sprang out of thought as elevated 
 and as far removed from the commonplace and 
 frivolous, as thought can possibly be. On the stage, 
 the experiment of uniting music with thoughtful 
 utterance, has not been so frequently tried as for it 
 to be safe to conclude that it necessarily entails 
 failure. Gounod’s musical investiture of Faust’s 
 opening soliloquy, — which is still the utterance of 
 
110 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 thought, though the utterance is passionate, and the 
 thought, morbid, —rather suggests the opposite con- 
 clusion. 
 
 It will be observed that the principles I have laid 
 down in this and the preceding chapters, are based 
 upon facts of life. Some, it is true, apply to the 
 subject only in a very broad way, and others, are of a 
 negative character. Yet if they only serve to impress 
 composers with the fact that music is a thing that 
 rests on life, they will not prove unprofitable ; for, as 
 I shall now proceed to show, life is the source of what 
 is true and highest in the spirit of art, and of what is 
 most efficacious in its form. 
 
 Arts such as music and the drama, the chief ani- 
 mating principle of which, is human feeling, must 
 draw their spirit from life, or they cannot possibly 
 give us elevated pleasure, because our very conception 
 of what is admirable in feeling, is drawn from life ; in 
 fact, our conceptions of all the higher qualities re- 
 lating to the spirit or form of art, and which we refer 
 to by the terms, beautiful, sublime, dignified, &o., 
 have been nurtured and trained in the atmosphere of 
 life. We may, I think, regard as truths the following 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 Ill 
 
 statements : — that a people has always prospered 
 in the degree that it has practised virtue : * that 
 as in the case of individuals, much experience of 
 life, generally tends to give, or to considerably 
 strengthen, an impression of the necessity and 
 advantage of virtue, so the experience of peoples, 
 establishes in the general mind the same impression : 
 that, thus, individual experience, combined with the 
 practical lessons taught by the past, causes a people 
 to regard moral virtue as one of its vital features : 
 and that this habit of mind prevailing throughout 
 generations, causes the feeling of respect for virtue 
 to become almost an instinct. Thus it is, that each 
 individual, be he good or bad, of a people that has 
 emerged from barbarism, inevitably possesses some 
 respect for virtue; and in the same way, a people 
 that by its virtues, has attained a somewhat elevated 
 life — that has risen to the enjoyment of peace, and to 
 the perception of some of the beauty and light of 
 life, necessarily and intuitively pays homage to those 
 
 * ‘ The earliest phenomenon likely to he observed connected with the 
 moral gover nm ent of the world is the general one, that on the whole, 
 as things are constituted, good men prosper and are happy, bad men fail 
 and are miserable,’ — J. A. Fuoude, on the Booh of Job * 
 
112 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 feelings and principles of action which have led to 
 its advancement : thus we admire righteousness, 
 goodness, love, and whatever we consider virtue. 
 Moreover, this feeling of the excellence and beauty of 
 virtue, is the fundamental feeling of our life , it 
 mingles with and influences all other feelings ; apart 
 from it we never feel earnestly about anything ; it is 
 in fact that which gives warmth to all other feelings : 
 directly it is opened up, warmth comes. Thus, when- 
 ever we feel earnestly, we are not only conscious of 
 being right, but we feel that we have morally advanced 
 through the fact of our emotion. So closely is the 
 idea of virtue associated with earnest feeling of any 
 kind, that when we speak generally of a person as 
 having betrayed feeling, we imply that at the time 
 he had either an accession to his character of some 
 good element, or that a former latent element of 
 virtue in him, was then awakened* Thus it is that 
 
 * This proposition, that a feeling only becomes warm as it raises the 
 fundamental feeling of respect and admiration for virtue, reminds me 
 of the following statement which is from an important modern work : — 
 t No heart is pure that is not passionate/ The reader will observe that 
 these propositions supplement one-another. The former being to the 
 effect that all warm feeling must he to some extent, virtuous, leaves 
 untouched the question whether other than warm feeling can he virtuous : 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 113 
 
 true music being always inspired by vivid and warm 
 emotion, inevitably breathes a spirit of goodness or 
 impresses us with a sense of its presence. This goes 
 some way to explain that strong sympathy between 
 music and the human heart, which has struck the 
 attention of men from the earliest times, and also that 
 relation between sensibility to music and virtuous 
 susceptibility, to which Shakespeare has alluded. 
 
 As, then, the love and admiration of virtue, is our 
 strongest feeling, so, whatever other qualities of music 
 elicit our admiration, the expression which it possesses 
 by reason of the warmth and virtue of the feeling by 
 which it is animated, always constitutes the strength 
 of its charm : music, then, appeals chiefly to a faculty 
 of admiration which practical life has developed. Thus 
 
 but to the question whether other than warm feeling can be highly 
 virtuous, the latter proposition is an answer in the negative. Again, 
 the latter proposition being to the effect that highly virtuous feeling 
 must be warm, leaves untouched the question whether other than highly 
 virtuous feeling, can be warm : but to the question whether other than 
 feeling to some extent virtuous , can be warm, the former proposition is 
 an answer in the negative. Thus the propositions taken jointly, betray 
 a closer relation between the qualities, warmth and purity with reference 
 to feeling, than is betrayed by either proposition, taken singly, the 
 joint effect of both being, that no other than warm feeling can be highly 
 virtuous, and that no other than feeling to some extent virtuous, can 
 be warm. 
 
114 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 the simple fact of music moving the feelings to 
 genuine awe or admiration — filling us with a fervent 
 sense of moral beauty, is a proof that such music is 
 animated in an important degree by some moral ele- 
 ment in life — that it rests upon a foundation of truth. 
 
 This tendency to pay homage to what has proved 
 serviceable to humanity, is manifested in the case of 
 service of all kinds. Nor is it simply the idea of 
 morality to which homage is paid, but the various 
 forms and institutions through which it is fostered 
 and administered, as well as the implements em- 
 ployed, are also held in honour: this is shown in 
 the respect which is so generally accorded to govern- 
 ment, law, religion and schools, and to the soldier, 
 the statesman, the priest, and the teacher. And the 
 respect arising on this principle, extends to almost 
 everything, small, or great, in life. Everything 
 associated with virtuous labour and the feelings of 
 practical life, commands in some degree our respect, 
 or admiration ; and the most humble thing possessing 
 this association, is held in higher honour than the 
 most extensive thing that has it not. The smallest 
 relic which relates to some necessary or serviceable 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 115 
 
 function of past life, possesses a pathos and dignity, 
 and elicits a far higher respect than even a pyramid, 
 or any wanton achievement, however vast. 
 
 As, then, we are only moved by the spirit of art 
 when this spirit is drawn from life, and our faculties 
 have been moulded by it, so we always admire the 
 form of art most when it wears the likeness of material 
 life, and therefore of something that our faculties 
 have been educated to respect. This is why all art 
 the form of which is the imagery of life, — such as 
 sculpture, painting, poetry, and the drama, — is con- 
 sidered, primd facie , by the generality of people, to 
 possess the quality of dignity in a higher degree than 
 music. Our very conceptions of the qualities, dignity, 
 importance, &c., have been moulded by the standard 
 of the necessary and serviceable in life ; and the 
 relation of music to life, not being palpably visible 
 in its form, its claims to respect are naturally not 
 felt by those who are not moved by its spirit. 
 
 Our conceptions of the various qualities of art being, 
 then, drawn from life, faithfulness to life in the spirit, 
 and where possible, in the form, of art, is the key to 
 admiration, which is the arbiter of art. Thus, prin- 
 
116 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 ciples of construction based upon facts of life, are 
 a sound foundation for art, and some importance 
 may be seen to attach to the principles I have laid 
 down with reference to the use of the accentuated 
 and melodic forms of music, the circumstances 
 attending the composition of instrumental music, the 
 employment of the chorus, the general forms and 
 degrees of expression to be given to abstract and 
 instinctive sentiment in an opera, the character and 
 conformation of its literary matter — what should 
 prevail and what be rejected. Unless music is ani- 
 mated by feeling it occupies the same art-level as a 
 geometrical design : whereas, however, it is always 
 apparent by the form of his art, whether a painter 
 intended to express high emotion, or to please merely 
 the sense, it is not so in the case of music — parti- 
 cularly instrumental. Through the form of music 
 being apparently unrelated to life, its chief function, 
 which is the expression of emotion, is but loosely 
 associated with instrumental music. As, then, the 
 principles I have laid down, imply that to some extent 
 music even in form, is based on life, these principles 
 may benefit instrumental music indirectly, if they 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 117 
 
 remind the composer of its general relation to life, and 
 thus of the higher function which pertains to it. 
 
 If it be true that moral energy though unresolved 
 into definite feelings, may set in motion the musical 
 faculty, we must bear in mind that even this kind 
 of art-impulse is the sense of an emotional capacity 
 which has been greatly developed and conformed 
 through the previous life -experience of humanity : 
 and it is not less true, as I shall endeavour to show 
 in the next chapter, that music is always fine in 
 the degree that the emotion animating it, has been 
 strongly and definitely felt. 
 
 The broad field of life is the fresh source of all 
 high and healthy emotion whether arising from 
 human relation, thought, contemplation of nature, 
 or from sympathy with the experience of others. Life 
 not only elicits but strengthens and purifies feeling ; 
 it is the crucible in which emotion is tested, and out 
 of which all that is true must come. As in the case 
 of an individual, certain feelings may be implanted 
 during youth, but life can alone test them and bring 
 them to strength, so of all feeling it may be said that 
 the fresher it comes from life the stronger and purer 
 
118 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 it is. Thus it is that primitive melodies, — airs which 
 have been inspired by feeling fresh from life — pressed 
 out by the actual circumstances of life, possess an 
 originality, vigour, freshness, and sweetness of ex- 
 pression, that time cannot take from them. Arising 
 out of warm, unaffected feeling, they command 
 sympathy, and being rooted in a portion of the living 
 truth of the world, they are felt to be as unique and 
 unsurpassable as nature’s wild flowers. This music 
 is ever fresh because it sprang from true and living 
 feeling ; whilst so much of the writings of professional 
 musicians, has passed to oblivion, because it was more 
 the expression of taste, or skill, or of the musical 
 learning, form, and fashion of its day than of any 
 real moral afflatus. The general truths these observa- 
 tions imply are : first, that true feeling is indis- 
 pensable for the production of music : secondly, that 
 the form of music should spring out of the nature 
 and circumstances of the emotion which inspires it, 
 forcible effects being unmeaning unless they are the 
 expression of enthusiastic feeling, whilst the con- 
 struction of elaborate forms, unless they are the 
 expression of broad and important feeling, or unless 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 119 
 
 the object is practice, is but ingenious trilling. 
 Briefly, for genuine inspiration and the production 
 of original and enduring music, the composer must 
 in the words of Robert Schuman, ‘ Look deeply into 
 life, and study it as diligently as the other arts and 
 sciences.’ 
 
CHAPTER YI. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OP SACRED MUSIC. — REMARKS ON THE 
 ORATORIO. 
 
 rj TFTE intention of sacred music, is the expression 
 of abstract and instinctive feeling united. The 
 conception of a divine Creator and Father, gives to all 
 incentives of feeling to be found in creation, the 
 character of works of intelligence and providence, 
 and thus imparts to man’s sympathy for whatsoever 
 is grand and beautiful in nature, the definiteness 
 and heartfelt warmth of personal sympathy. An 
 emotional phenomenon is here involved in which 
 abstract feeling possesses the warmth and concen- 
 trated energy of instinctive feeling, and in which 
 the latter feeling possesses the broad and lofty scope 
 and permanent vitality of intellectual sympathy ; into 
 which, moreover, enter those yearnings and aspirations 
 general in man for fuller and higher existence. 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 121 
 
 Through a peculiarity of the modern mind, this con- 
 dition of feeling has been prevented entering in its 
 entirety, the conceptions of composers of sacred 
 music ; it is, however, the typical spirit of this music, 
 and is largely present in it. From this spirit sacred 
 music catches those remarkable combinations of high 
 qualities, grandeur and earnestness, majesty and ten- 
 derness, austerity and pathos. 
 
 It is a curious fact that man should have artificially 
 exercised into separate action two great casts of thought 
 and feeling, namely the strictly serious and moral cast, 
 and the more poetical and philosophical one ; that 
 he should have two general lights of survey. It might 
 be reasonably supposed that the admission of religion 
 into his sphere of truth, would have rather tended to 
 impart entireness than partiality, to the spirit of his 
 survey. Nevertheless, perhaps among other causes,* 
 
 * 1 Thus, no system of law, or articles of belief were or could be com- 
 plete and exhaustive for all time. Experience accumulates ; new facts 
 are observed, new forms display themselves, and all such formulae must 
 necessarily be from period to period broken up and moulded afresh. And 
 yet the steps already gained are a treasure so sacred, so liable are they 
 at all times to be attacked by those lower and baser elements in our 
 nature which it is their business to hold in check, that the better part of 
 -mankind have at all times practically regarded their creed as a sacred 
 total to which nothing may be added, and from which nothing may be 
 taken away.’ * * * — J. A. Fkotjde, on the Book of Job. 
 
 I 
 
122 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 owing to the changing of religion in the mind, 
 from a strong literal belief to a more formal tenet \ 
 and to that ecclesiastical spirit which has been 
 aimed to exclude from religious conceptions the in- 
 fluence of new mental and emotional growth, it has 
 become the custom to regard everything separately in 
 these two lights, the sacred and the secular. Thus 
 art is separated into two general departments cor- 
 responding with man’s two lights of survey ; the effect 
 of this in the case of music, is to narrow and im- 
 poverish both departments. It is true that as up to a 
 certain point the church favored culture generally, it 
 benefited musical art by not only encouraging the 
 growth of more elaborate forms than could have 
 flourished supported only by popular taste but by 
 surrounding music with a high moral atmosphere, and 
 supplying it with a burden both serious and truly 
 poetic ; still, as with culture so with music, the plant 
 once grown strong, was no longer nourished by the 
 atmosphere in which it was reared. It cannot fail to 
 be observed, that since the period of Handel music 
 has developed in the secular department, in a greater 
 ratio than in the sacred. Whereas in the former, new 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 123 
 
 forms have arisen, as, for instance, the symphony, and 
 old ones have become more perfectly developed, as in 
 the case of the opera, in the latter, the forms have 
 not increased ; whilst what newness of expression 
 sacred music has unfolded in this time, is chiefly the 
 reflection of new idioms which in the first place arose 
 in secular music. Again the habit of partial survey 
 to which I have alluded, has tended to deprive secular 
 music of the deep inspiration of man’s more serious 
 conceptions. By referring to a few instances of the 
 inequality which a composer generally betrays when 
 he works respectively in the two styles in question, 
 we may see both the advantages and disadvantages the 
 circumscribed inspiration of the sacred style entails. 
 The secular music of Handel is distinguished by a 
 delicate melody, massiveness, and an austere grandeur ; 
 and it is always tasteful and perspicuous; but his 
 sacred music possesses a pathos and sublimity so deep 
 that we cannot conceive that any effect can impress 
 these qualities in a greater degree. Mendelssohn’s 
 secular music is intellectual, massive, and elegant ; yet 
 it gives the impression that the feeling underlying it 
 was somewhat weakly felt and artificial; it is more 
 
124 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 sentimental than pathetic, more rhapsodical than elo- 
 quent ; but his sacred music equals that of Handel in 
 elevated expression though not in power and majesty 
 of effect * On the other hand, Beethoven has given 
 to his instrumental works a greater fulness and as 
 great a depth of expression, with an equal power and 
 dignity of effect, as any other composer has given to 
 sacred works. But Beethoven was cramped by the 
 sacred forms 5 in his case the force of inspiration could 
 not be increased by the religious suggestiveness which 
 is here directly met, but was checked by it, by reason 
 of a certain narrowness by which, notwithstanding its 
 loftiness, it is characterised. 
 
 The partial survey to which I have alluded, is to a 
 great extent absent from the Bible and the Liturgy 
 
 * We here see again illustrated the ultimate dependence of musical 
 expression, upon mental exercise. As a rule composers who have been 
 great in secular music, where the ideas they have met, are for the most 
 part unimportant ones, and where, in the case of instrumental music, 
 they have been left to their own imaginations, have become greater in 
 the atmosphere of religion, where massive and lofty ideas present them- 
 selves. If music does not depend upon feeling in defined forms for its 
 inspiration, it can only proceed from the energy and the capacity by 
 which what is admirable is conceived and appreciated ; and it would 
 appear that the more positively these faculties are exerted by a composer, 
 the greater is his music. 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 125 
 
 of the English Church. The writers of these works 
 appear to have had but one inclusive spirit of survey ; 
 this is evidenced by the philosophic spirit, breadth of 
 thought, poetry and dignity, by which they are distin- 
 guished. But when references are made to Scripture 
 in the present day, whether for a devotional or an 
 artistic purpose, it is customary to leave out of sight 
 the general world of suggestiveness — to exclude from 
 the occasion, the influence of new mental growth and 
 new phases of feeling. Except in the case of the more 
 advanced intellects, religious conceptions are regarded 
 from a past position of the mind, and not as the sacred 
 writers regarded them, from its natural position in the 
 present. Eor instance, in the general mind, the idea of 
 an intelligent Source of all phenomena, does not mingle 
 freely with the stream of suggestiveness pouring from 
 nature and life, in the same way that a certain natural 
 truth is always realised subject to the influence of 
 others. This idea realised freely, would embrace all 
 that is high and beautiful in the suggestiveness of the 
 natural world ; yet as generally realised, its principal 
 attributes are omnipotence and mingled mercifulness 
 and austerity, many high qualities being not only 
 
126 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 absent, but tlieir absence is another and not the least 
 important attribute. It is probable that during the time 
 when the early conceptions of this idea were formed, 
 the faculty of wielding power in the broad forms of 
 creation and destruction, reward and punishment, was 
 the most elevated and majestic quality that nature and 
 life had suggested, and that the mind could conceive. 
 Thus, although mingling freely with all the suggestive- 
 ness that reached the mind, this idea was then naturally 
 enrobed in this limited range of attributes. But, unfor- 
 tunately, this is its present form in the general mind. 
 We can here imagine how disadvantageous it is for 
 art, for the ideas that inspire it, to be realised from a 
 past position of the mind. It is also undesirable for 
 modern ideas to be expressed in ancient forms of art. 
 The change which has taken place in the form and spirit 
 of music since Handel’s time ; which is visible in new 
 melodic and harmonic effects, more frequent modula- 
 tion, and more varied expression, seems at first sight, 
 to have rendered the modern style less fitted than the 
 more ancient, to express religious ideas. There is 
 little doubt that the latter is the better, for expressing 
 the idea to which I have already alluded, as it is 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 127 
 
 popularly realised. To express a conception of which 
 eternity, ehangelessness, power, and holiness, are 
 almost the sole associations, demands a condition of 
 art tending to massiveness and simplicity, not to 
 variety and delicacy of idiom. But c changelessness 
 in the midst of change ’ cannot remain an attribute of 
 this idea, whatever may be the nature of the Truth for 
 which it stands. This, with all other conceptions of 
 the unknown, must be ever undergoing modification — 
 ever approaching truth, as the suggestiveness pouring 
 in upon the mind and sympathy, gets richer and 
 deeper. Consequently, the most recent development 
 of musical, as of all art — the condition which reflects 
 most faithfully all the ideas and feelings that nature 
 and life have created in the breast — the condition 
 richest in expression, must be the more appropriate 
 for expressing that idea which the poet Thompson in 
 an intellectual spirit, calls, ‘ the varied God.’ 
 
 The highly beneficial influence the church has had 
 upon music in having supplied it with definite and 
 lofty subjects, tends to put out of sight the disad- 
 vantages an arbitrarily circumscribed suggestiveness 
 entails. And we are the less likely to see anything 
 
128 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 but the advantages which have resulted from the 
 connection of the church with music, on account of the 
 fact that secular music in so many cases, has been 
 grafted upon comparatively unimportant ideas. The 
 general conclusions to which these considerations point 
 are : — that progressiveness of form and expression can- 
 not unfold in a department of art whose source of 
 inspiration only embraces particular eras of history 
 and of the mind — from which the direct inspiration of 
 nature is excluded ; that although the conventionally 
 circumscribed religious channel of suggestiveness, has 
 given great and needful inspiration to music, it is not 
 alone a sufficiently broad foundation for a progressive 
 school of composition ; and that the general art con- 
 ditions which beset secular composition, are the more 
 favorable for the expression of that spirit of inspiration 
 suggested at the opening of this chapter.* Beethoven 
 who drew deep poetic feelings from nature, religion, 
 and his own intellectual life, has united the earnest- 
 
 * There is a peculiar propriety in the chorus entering largely into 
 music inspired by this order of feeling. Its power of marked emphasis ; 
 of assuming the fugal form ; and that quality of expression it has 
 through being the effect of human voices, tend to closely adapt it to 
 express emotion compounded of both abstract and instinctive feeling. 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 129 
 
 ness, depth, and grandeur of the sacred school, with the 
 fulness, poetry, and variety, of the secular. Truths 
 do not naturally present themselves to the mind in 
 the conventional order to which I have referred. In 
 broad deliberation the suggestiveness from all points 
 of the mental landscape, tends to blend. It may be 
 said on the other hand, that as the art-mind is sen- 
 sitive to the beautiful and great in all forms, when it 
 applies itself to the expression of religious formulae, 
 this broad sympathy must speak, and that thus in 
 sacred musical works, there is to be met that fulness 
 of expression just alluded to. Whereas, however, 
 when broad religious feeling is expressed in secular 
 forms, it meets the fuller resources and natural idioms, 
 when expressed in sacred forms, it meets tbe moie 
 restricted resources and arbitrarily preserved idioms. 
 Still, it is probable that a highly comprehensive order 
 of emotion does become expressed in church music. 
 In the musical enlarging upon those definite and 
 grand ideas which a church formula involves, there 
 probably enters much of that suggestiveness which, 
 recruited by new truth and new ideas, is evei flowing 
 to the mind of man, and forming and modifying 
 
130 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 feeling ; thus the music may be animated by a broader 
 spirit than that in which its literary text is used. 
 There can be little doubt that with the change now 
 fast coming over religious thought, the partial habit of 
 mind I have spoken of will disappear; that what is 
 fundamental in religious feeling, will be strengthened 
 by the light as it enters more into daily life and 
 leavens all other feelings ; and that the sacred style of 
 music, will thus become more broadly based on truth, 
 and consequently more beautiful. 
 
 I speak of the oratorio under the heading of sacred 
 music for convenience. Although it is an offshoot of 
 this style, and contains both its virtues and faults, I 
 regard it as a free form. For it to be a reasonable one 
 two of its present features must disappear : namely, its 
 subjects being drawn exclusively from the Bible, and 
 its dramatic form. Whatever arguments might be 
 raised for the retention of the former feature, so long 
 as the oratorio is considered a sacred form of art, can- 
 not apply to it as a free form. At the same time, it 
 may be presumed that its subject would still embrace 
 the highest conceptions of the human mind, whether 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 131 
 
 conceived in the past or shaped in the light of 
 present knowledge ; that it would be drawn generally 
 from high poetical and moral writing. 
 
 A very unreasonable practice in connection with 
 music, is that of adopting for the subject of cantatas, 
 literature which contains no important ideas, and 
 whose only pretence to character, exists in virtue of its 
 bearing a weak impress of the drama. If a drama is 
 too weak to bear action, scenic and histrionic effect, 
 it is unworthy of musical illustration as a drama. In 
 the case of an effective drama, where the characters 
 and sentiments have a strong complexion of reality, 
 only a great composer can attain graphic expression, or 
 exhibit the true dramatic faculty, namely, that of feeling 
 strongly the spirit of the occasion. How difficult, then, 
 must be the composer’s task where the characters are 
 shadowy, and the sentiments unoriginal ! These ob- 
 jections apply to the oratorio, which is a copy of the 
 drama, in so far as it consists of a long dialogue and a 
 group of characters, yet is without action, the appeal - 
 anco of reality, or an interesting plot 5 and although 
 it embraces ideas so weighty as to reward undivided 
 attention, these do not strengthen it as a drama, they 
 
132 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 only serve to give it other standing- ground. Now I 
 think it may be presumed, that instead of the subjects 
 of the cantata and oratorio, consisting in the one case 
 of a chain of common-place sentiments enunciated by 
 shadowy characters, and in the other, of transcriptions 
 from the Bible, in a faintly dramatic form, they should 
 not be specially distinguished by characters or plot 
 at all, but by ideas and imagery. The 1 Messiah ’ and 
 1 Israel in Egypt ’ are the two greatest oratorios ; the 
 character and form of their subjects, are essential 
 causes of this superiority ; and in neither is there any 
 attempt to copy the drama. In neither is there 
 dialogue, characters, or plot, in the dramatic sense ; 
 but throughout both works there is an uninterrupted 
 moral progressiveness, — a development less of inci- 
 dents than of ideas. The former work is a graphic 
 expression of the spirit of Christianity, and of the 
 character and attributes of its Founder; each air , 
 chorus , and recitative , gives new development to this 
 exalted subject ; and the progressiveness being purely 
 of a moral character, a comprehensive interest is 
 elicited at each stage. As a contrast to this, remark 
 the subject of Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah.’ This being in 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 133 
 
 the dramatic form, elicits chiefly interest of an inci- 
 dental and personal character ; and the progressiveness 
 being chiefly circumstantial, the ideas that meet the 
 attention at its different stages, are of very uneven 
 elevation. It being customary for the composer of 
 an oratorio to permit himself full expression at each 
 point of the work, gives these considerations additional 
 importance. A subject fitted for elaborate treatment 
 at all points, should at each, elicit a wide interest ; 
 and one whose chief feature is an impress of the ordi- 
 nary drama, cannot do this. It is also obvious that 
 music which is elaborated to an equal degree at 
 many points, is particularly undramatic. In ‘ Israel in 
 Egypt’ a series of catastrophes is described, on such 
 a scale as to produce impressions more akin to 
 epic poetry than the drama, the subject being a pro- 
 gressive exemplification of the powerful interposition 
 of Jehovah. I would, then, point to the books of the 
 1 Messiah ’ and ‘Israel in Egypt’ as models of the 
 more appropriate style of literature for oratorios. 
 To recapitulate, the chief features of this style are : — 
 freedom ; intellectual and moral rather than personal 
 and incidental progressiveness; and uniform compre- 
 
134 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 hensiveness, a feature which would naturally result 
 from that of moral progressivness. It is apparent in 
 the case of this order of literature, that all necessity 
 for the ordinary dramatic element for an incentive of 
 inspiration, is superseded. 
 
 Music set to language is generally more perspicuous 
 than pure instrumental music, not only because it is 
 technically hut, to some extent, because it is morally 
 simpler. Although words and sounds are closely re- 
 lated, it is to be remembered that they belong to 
 different principles of demonstration. The former sug- 
 gest stereotyped feelings through their names, and 
 more complex feelings through the description of 
 attending circumstances, whereas the latter are not 
 symbols, and they cannot indicate material phenomena. 
 When an emotion is alluded to in language, any im- 
 portant single word either refers to some accessory of 
 the feeling, and thus suggests it very imperfectly, or 
 not at all ; or else it is the name of a complete feeling, 
 and might inspire a musical movement. We here see 
 that the various feelings which may be implied by a 
 certain passage of language, cannot be adequately 
 expressed by music if a certain measure of sounds has 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 135 
 
 to coincide with the same measure of syllables or 
 words ; and why music in the form of the ballad or 
 psalm-tune, seldom has the fulness of expression which 
 music to unmeasured words generally possesses. Terse 
 language containing a few important sentiments, is, 
 thus, the best for music : in these circumstances a 
 composer can express a feeling in various phases with- 
 out having to incorporate words referring to subordi- 
 nate and sometimes trifling ideas, which attend more 
 or less necessarily all ordinary language, and eke out 
 metrical literature ; he has neither to curtail the deve- 
 lopment of a broad feeling of inspiration in order to 
 find room for a more weakly felt piece of effect nor to 
 connect music inspired by an important anterior senti- 
 ment, with subsequent language that has no connection 
 with it. The outward connection between music and 
 words is often a forced one ; and often when in one 
 place it is real, in another, it is unreal. These con- 
 siderations help to explain the marked superiority of 
 the music of the ‘Messiah’ and 1 Israel in Egypt’ to 
 that of Handel’s other oratorios. The language of the 
 former works being drawn bodily from the English 
 Bible, is a terse and graphic expression of grand and 
 
136 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 broad sentiments ; whereas that of the latter works, is 
 metrical, and the production of second-rate poets. 
 The grand effect of the ‘ Hallelujah chorus’ would 
 scarcely have been possible with metrical language — 
 if the few simple but weighty phrases of its text, were 
 expanded with unessential matter. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SOME REMARKS CONCERNING THE INFLUENCE OF MENTAL 
 PROGRESS UPON MUSIC. — CONCLUSION. 
 
 TNSTINCTIVE sentiment is greatly influenced by 
 A mental progress, though in a less degree than 
 abstract sentiment. The latter order of feeling may 
 be changed entirely in the course of a great advance 
 of the mind ; for instance, the conception of a Creator, 
 which in a barbaric time is associated chiefly with the 
 feeling of fear, becomes under the influence of en- 
 lightenment associated with feeling of an almost 
 opposite kind. The former, though not subject to 
 changes so radical as this, may still undergo consi- 
 derable modification, becoming more comprehensive 
 and finer, as society advances ; and it should be 
 added, that if enlightenment never changes entirely a 
 personal feeling, it calls new ones into life; for ex- 
 ample, it is said that the feelings of duty, honor, 
 
 K 
 
138 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT, 
 
 and friendship, do not exist in very early stages of 
 society. 
 
 If we compare the domestic sentiments of the pre- 
 sent day, with the same kind of feelings as they appear 
 to have existed even a hundred years hack, some 
 modification may I think be perceived to have taken 
 place. Over the domestic and social intercourse of 
 that time there seems to hang a certain kind of gloom 
 which is certainly not characteristic of modern life. 
 Whether or not this is the case, it is certain that 
 social intercourse is attended with more or less cheer- 
 fulness as it is respectively surrounded or unsurrounded 
 by enlightenment. The absence of a spirit of thought 
 causes both the brighter and the more sombre per- 
 sonal feelings, to be realised less keenly. The joy of a 
 comparatively unenlightened mind, is strong but not 
 fine ; and the sorrow, though it may fall upon stronger 
 nerves, falls dead and without the recoil which a 
 higher tempered mind tends to give it. On the other 
 hand, if reflection tends to sober joy, it also helps to 
 refine it ; and if it should make sorrow more keenly 
 felt it also renders it more hopeful. The development 
 of new faculties of taste and appreciation, begets a 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 139 
 
 keener and more versatile admiration; a refined and 
 wide admiration tends to spiritualise, expand, and 
 strengthen the feelings of love, friendship, and re- 
 verence ; and the larger the capacity of the heart for 
 these emotions the greater is its capacity for joy, and 
 the more room it has for hope. 
 
 With the modification and development of the in- 
 stinctive feelings has occurred a sympathetic change 
 in their musical expression. This change is chiefly 
 visible in that peculiar breadth and cheerfulness of 
 spirit which distinguishes modern music inspired by 
 natural feeling. As an example of breadth of spirit, I 
 may mention a short composition entitled an ‘ Elegiac 
 Song,’ written by Beethoven, in memory of the wife 
 of a friend, to words of which the general sense and 
 spirit are conveyed in the following ‘imitation’ by 
 Mr. Hullah : — ‘ Sweet was thy presence ; calm thy 
 departure ; too holy for regret. No tear should fall 
 when a glorified spirit home returneth.’ The music 
 expresses the feelings of warm human love, sympathy 
 with purity and virtue, constancy, keen but hopeful 
 regret, and, in remarkable vividness, the brightness 
 and glory of the heritage of religion. As an example 
 
140 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 of cheerfulness of spirit, I may mention Haydn’s 
 setting of Shakespeare’s lines, £ She never told her 
 love.’ Perhaps more sorrow could not he represented 
 in so few words than is expressed in this passage. 
 Yet the music is not gloomy ; a warm atmosphere of 
 charm surrounds the whole conception. The technical 
 cause of this charm, may be found in those richer 
 harmonious and melodic effects, and fresher musical 
 idioms which it contains. These are the modern com- 
 poser’s materials ; and they have become unfolded 
 chiefly through that changed and more cheerful spirit 
 which now animates emotion generally. 
 
 The influence of mental progress upon instrumental 
 music is indicated in the works of Beethoven. I think 
 it may he said that he accomplished his great works 
 not simply because he possessed great genius and a 
 thoughtful mind but because he also realised the great 
 mental development characteristic of the time in 
 which he lived, a period involving the end of the 
 last and the beginning of the present centuries. 
 
 It would appear, then, that as both abstract and 
 instinctive feelings are affected by enlightenment, the 
 progress of music is sympathetically related to the 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 141 
 
 general progress of line mind. It cannot be doubted 
 that time exerts a beneficial influence upon every 
 style of music, its tendency being to spiritualise and 
 enrich. Each age has its art trivialities ; and at times 
 art may be principally represented by such works or 
 by others which are but oft-repeated echoes from 
 great works of the past. It is possible that the pre- 
 sent may be such a time as this. Yet as the mind is 
 growing and with it the heart, the source of all 
 inspiration is widening; so that there is reason for 
 awaiting patiently another advent of that combination 
 of inordinate artistic and high moral capacity, called 
 genius. An important consideration, however, is here 
 suggested. I have remarked that scantiness of avail- 
 able resources for the production of effect, may have 
 induced that technical discipline which resulted in the 
 high development of the fugal art ; and I have endea- 
 voured to show that this art has influenced in an 
 important way some of the greatest modern works, 
 blow the present state of music, is the very opposite 
 of that which led to this result. At the present time 
 there is a plentifulness of resource, which time ever 
 tends to increase ; and it is possible that this circum- 
 
142 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 stance may operate unfavorably upon composition. 
 Another consideration here suggests itself. Inasmuch 
 as under the influence of enlightenment the tendency 
 of man’s various emotions, is to unfold less indepen- 
 dently of one-another, and to become so to speak each 
 more all-inclusive ; and since the expression of every 
 feeling by art must therefore necessarily become 
 broader, it would seem that the tendency of art-forms 
 must be to approach one-another in spirit. We may 
 thus expect that all separations of style which result 
 from realising feeling in a partial way, will cease to 
 exist ; and that the different styles of music, like the 
 variety of nature, will embrace more and more the 
 spirit of the whole. 
 
 The reader will observe that the remarks which 
 constitute this chapter, are both few in number and 
 of a less practical character than the general matter of 
 the work. They did not arise out of a deliberate 
 intention to treat of the influence of mental progress 
 upon music, — a subject which would bear far more 
 lengthy consideration, — but occurred to me during 
 the composition of the previous chapters ; and I have 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 143 
 
 thought it advisable to append them in this place. 
 They, consequently, represent only a glance at the 
 subject. 
 
 It is unnecessary for me to say that the aspect in 
 "which I have regarded music, demands a far deeper 
 and more discursive examination than that which I 
 have given to it. Oliver Wendell Holmes, referring 
 to music, remarks : — 1 It has its seat in the region of 
 sense rather than of thought. Yet it produces a con- 
 tinuous and, as it were, logical sequence of emotional 
 and intellectual changes ; but how different from trains 
 of thought proper ! how entirely beyond the reach of 
 symbols!’ The nature of the relation of these im- 
 pressions ; the reason why a couple or more notes 
 arranged in a particular way, may express and imbue 
 a certain phase of emotion, are considerations relating 
 to a subject, doubtless extremely recondite, still, con- 
 cerning which a mind qualified for its study might, 
 perhaps, gain some knowledge. Is the emotional in- 
 fluence of a musical effect derived from our in the first 
 place unconsciously associating its elements with those 
 changes of sound that occur in verbal utterance? and 
 does the vast impressiveness of music, thus, like other 
 
144 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 grand and complex influences are said to do, result 
 from facts of experience combined with the influence 
 of association?* That music on the one hand, and 
 modulation and accent in speech on the other, are 
 prompted by and appeal to, the same instinct, is all 
 that I have ventured to assume ; and on this standing- 
 ground I have endeavoured to investigate the moral 
 element of music. What this instinct is, and whether 
 or not it has been developed from the use of language, 
 are some of the many considerations relating to the 
 subject, which I have passed over, yet which, doubt- 
 less, might be investigated with profit. 
 
 Apart from the special interests of music, the sub- 
 ject of its moral element is a highly important one in 
 this respect : that it tends to raise considerations re- 
 lating to that immaterial world with which all that is 
 most serious in human life is concerned. Professor 
 Bain, alluding to mental and bodily states, makes these 
 remarks : 1 Mental states and bodily states are utterly 
 contrasted; they cannot be compared, they have 
 nothing in common except the most general of all 
 attributes, degree, and order in time. * * W; alking 
 
 * See ‘ Dissertations and Discussions,’ Yol. III., page 136. By J. S. Mill. 
 
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 145 
 
 in the country in spring, our mind is occupied with 
 the foliage, the bloom, and the grassy meads, all 
 purely objective things : we are suddenly and strongly 
 arrested by the odour of the May-blossom j we give 
 way for a moment to the sensation of sweetness : for 
 that moment the objective regards cease ; we think of 
 nothing extended ; we are in a state where extension 
 has no footing ; there is, to us, place no longer. * * 
 
 These subject-moments are studied to advantage in 
 bursts of intense pleasure, or intense pain, in fits of 
 engrossed reflection, especially reflection upon mental 
 facts. * * When as in pure feeling — pleasure or 
 
 pain — we change to the subject-attitude from the 
 object-attitude, we have undergone a change not to be 
 expressed by place ; the fact is not properly described 
 by the transition from the external to the internal , for 
 that is still a change in the region of the extended. 
 The only adequate expression is a change of state : a 
 change from the state of the extended cognition to a 
 state of unextended cognition. By various theologians, 
 heaven has been spoken of as not a place, but a state ; 
 and this is the only phrase that I can find suitable to 
 describe the vast, though familiar and easy, transition 
 
146 
 
 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 from the material or extended, to the immaterial or 
 unextended side of the universe of being.’ If the 
 being absorbed in that emotion of pleasure which high 
 musical expression produces, may be classed among 
 these subject-states, then music is a great, if it is not 
 the greatest agent in producing them. Again music 
 is the voice not only of those feelings which may be 
 expressed by language but of much of that residue of 
 feeling,— which probably constitutes the larger portion 
 of emotional phenomena,— that lies behind all words. 
 It would appear, then, that music is an important 
 evidence of the immaterial world ; and I think I may 
 venture to say, that from its investigation by the 
 regular student of moral science it is not improbable 
 that there might accrue new knowledge of those spi- 
 ritual states of life which contain our higher moments, 
 as well as of the principles of one of the most efficient 
 and exhaustive means of expression we possess. 
 
 WARREN HALE AND CO., PRINTERS, CAMDEN ROAD, LONDON, N.W. 
 
WILL BE SHORTLY PUBLISHED. 
 
 A NEW AND REVISED EDITION 
 
 OP 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OP MUSIC. 
 
 BY JOSEPH GODDARD, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 4 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT.’ 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 THOMAS MURBY, 32, BOTJVERIE STBEET, FLEET STREET, E.C. 
 SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO., STATIONERS’ HALL COURT, E.C. 
 
 “ Every now and then we come upon a passage of interesting, 
 if not of vigorous, reflection. # * * 
 
 “ The paper on the 4 Relationship of music to the other fine 
 arts ’ is principally occupied with stating and discussing three 
 propositions. The first is that whereas other forms of art like 
 painting and sculpture, endeavour to reproduce that phase of 
 beauty which created them by means of imitation, music depends 
 upon the more subtle principle of abstract expression. This may 
 appear, at first hearing, rather fine-drawn criticism, but we incline 
 to believe that it will be found, upon reflection, to contain a 
 thoroughly sound distinction, and one which has been nowhere 
 anticipated as far as we are aware.” 
 
 4 The Saturday Review,’ Sept. 20 , 1862 . 
 
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