A Popular History of the Art of Music

W >> W. S. B. Mathews >> A Popular History of the Art of Music

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30

It would be unjust to close the account of this great artist without
mentioning what we might call the prophetic element in his works. The
great bulk of Bach's compositions are in two forms, the Prelude and
the Fugue. The fugue came to perfection in his hands. It was an
application of the Netherlandish art of canonic imitation, combined
with modern tonality. In a fugue the first voice gives the subject in
the tonic, the second voice answers in the dominant, the third voice
comes again in the tonic, and the fourth voice, if there be one, again
in the dominant. Then ensues a digression into some key upon what
theorists call the dominant side, when one or two voices give out the
subject and answer it again, always in the tonic and dominant of the
new key. Then more or less modulating matter, thematically developed
out of some leading motive of the subject, and again the principal
material of the theme, with one or more answers. The final close is
preceded by a more or less elaborate pedal point upon the dominant of
the principal key, after which the subject comes in. With very few
exceptions the fugues of Bach are in modern tonality, the major key or
the modern minor, with their usual relatives.

The prelude is a less closely organized composition. Sometimes it is
purely harmonic in its interest, like the first of the "Well Tempered
Clavier." At other times it is highly melodic, like the preludes in C
sharp major and minor of the first book of the Clavier, and, as a
rule, the prelude either treats its motives in a somewhat lyric manner
or dispenses with the melodic material altogether. Thus the prelude
and fugue mutually complete each other. But it is a great mistake to
regard Bach as a writer of fugues alone. He was also very free in
fantasies, and one of his pianoforte works, concerning the origin of
which nothing whatever is known, the "Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue,"
is one of the four or five greatest compositions that exist for this
instrument. The remarkable thing about this fantasia is the freedom of
its treatment and the facility with which it lends itself to virtuoso
handling, as distinguished from the rather limited treatment of the
piano usual in Bach's works. The second part of the fantasia is
occupied by a succession of recitatives of an extremely graphic and
poetic character. Melodically and harmonically these recitatives are
thoroughly modern and dramatic, the latter element being very forcibly
represented by the succession of diminished sevenths on which the
phrases of the recitative end. The fugue following is long, highly
diversified and extremely climactic in its interest. In other parts of
his work Bach has left fantasies of a more descriptive character. He
has, for instance, a hunting scene with various incidents of a
realistic character, and in general he shows himself in his piano
works a man of wide range of mind and extremely vigorous musical
fantasy.

In the department of concertos for solo instruments and orchestra, his
works are very rich. There are a large number for piano, quite a
number for organ, several for two and three pianos, with orchestra,
and various other combinations of instruments, such as two violins and
'cellos, and so on. In these each solo player has an equal chance with
the other, and solos and accompaniment work together understandingly
for mutual ends. The most noticeable feature of his elaborate works is
the rhythm, which is vigorous, highly organized and extremely
effective. In the department of harmony, it is believed by almost all
close observers that no combination of tones since made by any writer
is without a precedent in the works of Bach; the strange chords of
Schumann and Wagner find their prototypes in the works of this great
Leipsic master. Melodically considered, Bach was a genius of the
highest order. Not only did he make this impression upon his own time
and upon the great masters of the next two generations, but many of
his airs have attained genuine popularity within the present
generation, and are played with more real satisfaction than most other
works that we have. This is the more remarkable because from the time
of his first residence in Leipsic when he was only twenty-four years
old he went out of that city but a few times, and heard very little
music but his own. He was three times married, and had twenty-one
children, many of whom were musical. Three of his sons became eminent,
and the principal episode of his later life was his visit to Potsdam,
where his son, Carl Phillip Emanuel, was musician to Frederick the
Great. Here he was received with the utmost informality by the king
and made to play and improvise upon all the pianos and organs in the
palace and the adjacent churches. As a reminiscence of this visit he
produced a fugue upon a subject given by Frederick himself, written
for six real parts. This work was called the "Musical Offering," and
was dedicated to Frederick the Great. In his later years Bach became
blind from having over-exerted his eyes in childhood and in later
life. He died on Good Friday in 1750.

CHAPTER XXIV.

GEO. FREDERICK HAeNDEL.

The companion figure to Bach, in this epoch, was that of George
Frederick Haendel, who was born at the little town of Halle in the same
year as Bach, 1685, and died in London in 1759. Haendel's father was a
physician, and although the boy showed considerable aptitude for music
his father did not think favorably of his pursuing it as a vocation;
but the fates were too strong for him. When George Frederick was about
eight years old, he managed to go with his father to the court of the
duke of Saxe Weissenfels, some distance away, where an older brother
was in service. Here he obtained access to the organ in the chapel,
and was overheard by the duke, who recognized the boy's talent, and,
with the authority inherent in princely rank, admonished the father
that on no account was he to thwart so gifted an inclination.
Accordingly the youngster had lessons in music upon the clavier, the
organ and the violin, the three standard instruments of the time. The
older Haendel died, and before he was nineteen George Frederick made
his way to Hamburg, which was then one of the musical centers of
Germany. Here he obtained an engagement in the theater orchestra as
_ripieno_ violin, a sort of fifth wheel in the orchestral chariot,
its duty being that of filling in missing parts. The boy was then
rather more than six feet high, heavy and awkward. He was an
indifferent violinist, and the other players were disposed to make a
butt of him, although he was known to be an accomplished
harpsichordist. It happened presently, however, that the leader of the
orchestra, who presided at the harpsichord, fell sick, and Haendel,
being at the same time the best harpsichordist and the poorest
violinist of all, was placed at the head. He carried the rehearsals
and the performances through with such spirit that it resulted in his
being made assistant director, and two works of his were presently
performed--"Almira" and "Nero." The first made a great hit and was
retained in performance for several weeks. The Italian ambassador
immediately recognized the talent of the young man, and offered to
take him to Italy in his suite, but Haendel declined, preferring to go
with his own money, which, after the production of "Nero," and its
successful run of several weeks, he was able to do.

[Illustration: Fig. 52.

GEORGE FREDERICK HAeNDEL.

1685-1759.]

Accordingly we find him in Italy, in 1710, first at Naples, where he
made the acquaintance of the greatest harpsichord player of that time,
Domenico Scarlatti. The style of the young German was so charming, and
so different from that of the great Italian player, that he
immediately became a favorite, and was called _Il Caro Sassone_ ("The
dear Saxon"). He produced an opera in Naples with good success.
Afterward he produced others at Rome and Venice. In a few years he was
back at Hanover, where he was made musical director to the Elector
George, who afterward became George I of England. Here, presently, he
took a vacation in order to visit London, where he found things so
much to his liking that he remained, having good employment under
Queen Anne, and a public anxious to hear his Italian operas. Presently
Queen Anne died and George the First came over to reign as king. This
was altogether a different matter, for Haendel had his unsettled
account with the elector of Hanover, upon whom he had so cavalierly
turned his back. The peace was finally made, however, by a set of
compositions very celebrated in England under the name of "The Water
Music." When King George was going from Whitehall to Westminster in
his barge, Haendel followed with a company of musicians, playing a
succession of pieces, which the king knew well enough for a production
of his truant capellmeister. Accordingly he received him once more
into favor, and Haendel went on with his work.

For upwards of twenty years, Haendel pursued his course in London as a
composer of Italian operas, of which the number reached about forty.
During the greater part of his time he had his own theater, and
employed the singers from Italy and elsewhere, producing his works in
the best manner of his time. His operas were somewhat conventional in
their treatment, but every one of them contained good points. Here and
there a chorus, occasionally a recitative, now and then an
aria--always something to repay a careful hearing, and occasionally a
master effect, such as only genius of the first order could produce.
His education during this period was exactly opposite to that of Bach.
Bach lived in Leipsic all his life, and, being in a position from
which only a decided fault of his own could discharge him, he
consulted no one's taste but his own, writing his music from within,
and adapting it to his forces in hand, or not adapting it, as it
pleased him. Haendel, on the other hand, had always the public. He
commenced as an operatic composer. As an operatic composer he
succeeded in Hamburg, and as an operatic composer he succeeded in
Italy. The same career held him in London. There was always an
audience to be moved, to be affected, to be pleased, and there were
always singers of high talents to carry out his conceptions. Hence his
whole training was in the direction of smoothness, facility, pleasing
quality. Nevertheless, there came an end to the popularity of Haendel.
A most shabby _pasticcio_ called the "Beggar's Opera," was the
immediate cause of his downfall. This queer compilation was made up of
old ballad tunes, with hastily improvised words, and the merest thread
of a story, and included some tunes of Haendel's own. This being
produced at an opposition house, took the town. The result was that
Haendel was bankrupted for the second time, owing more than L75,000.

Some time before this he had held the position of private musical
director to the earl of Chandos, who had a chapel in connection with
his palace, a short distance out of London, as it then was. In this
place Haendel had already produced a number of elaborate anthems and
one oratorio--"Esther." In the stress of his present circumstances,
after a few weeks, he remembered the oratorio of "Esther," and
immediately brought it out in an enlarged form. The effect was
enormous. Whatever the English taste might be for opera, for oratorio
their recognition was irrepressible. "Esther" brought him a great deal
of money, and he presently wrote other oratorios with such good effect
that in a very few years he had completely paid up the enormous
indebtedness of his operatic ventures. At length, in 1741, he composed
his master work--the "Messiah." This epoch-marking composition was
improvised in less than a fortnight, a rate of speed calling for about
three numbers per day. The work was produced in Dublin for charitable
purposes. It had the advantage of a text containing the most beautiful
and impressive passages of Scripture relating to the Messiah, a
circumstance which no doubt inspired the beauty of the music, and
added to the early popularity of the work. In later times it is
perhaps not too much to say that the music has been equally useful to
the text, in keeping its place in the consciousness of successive
generations of Christians. In this beautiful master work we have the
result of the whole of Haendel's training. The work is very cleverly
arranged in a succession of recitatives, arias and choruses, following
each other in a highly dramatic and effective manner. There are
certain passages in the "Messiah" which have never been surpassed for
tender and poetic expression. Among these are the "Behold and See if
There Be Any Sorrow Like His Sorrow," "Come unto Him," and "He was
Despised." In the direction of sublimity nothing grander can be found
than the "Hallelujah," "Worthy is the Lamb," "Lift up Your Heads," nor
anything more dramatically impressive than the splendid burst at the
words, "Wonderful," "Counsellor." The work, as a whole, while
containing mannerisms in the roulades of such choruses as "He shall
Purify," and "For unto Us," marks the highest point reached in the
direction of oratorio; for, while Haendel himself surpassed its
sublimity in "Israel in Egypt," and Bach its dramatic qualities in the
thunder and lightning chorus in the St. Matthew Passion; and
Mendelssohn its melodiousness in his "Elijah"; for a balance of good
qualities, and for even and sustained inspiration throughout, the
"Messiah" is justly entitled to the rank which, by common consent, it
holds as the most complete master work which oratorio can show.

In the "Israel in Egypt" Haendel illustrates a different phase of his
talent. This curious work is composed almost entirely of choruses, the
most of which are for two choirs, very elaborately treated. Among them
all, the two which perhaps stand out pre-eminent are "The Horse and
His Rider" and the "Hailstone," two colossal works, as dramatic as
they are imposing. The masterly effect of the Haendelian chorus rests
upon the combination of good qualities such as no other master has
accomplished to the same extent. They are extremely well written for
the voice, with an accurate appreciation of the effect of different
registers and masses, the melodic ideas are smooth and vigorous, and
the harmonic treatment as forcible as possible, without ever
controlling the composer further than it suited his artistic purpose
to go. Bach very often commences a fugue which he feels obliged to
finish, losing thereby the opportunity of a dramatic effect. Haendel
perfects his fugue only when the dramatic effect will be improved by
so doing, and in this respect he makes a distinct gain over his great
contemporary at Leipsic. The total list of the Haendel works comprises
the following: Two Italian oratorios; nineteen English oratorios; five
Te Deums; six psalms; twenty anthems; three German operas; one English
opera; thirty-nine Italian operas; two Italian serenatas, two English
serenatas; one Italian intermezzo, "Terpsichore"; four odes;
twenty-four chamber duets; ninety-four cantatas; seven French songs;
thirty-three concertos; nineteen English songs; sixteen Italian airs;
twenty-four sonatas.

Haendel was never married; nor, so far as we know, ever in love. He had
among his friends some of the most eminent writers of his day, such as
Addison, Pope, Dean Swift and others. His later years were so
successful that when he died his fortune of above L50,000 was left for
charitable purposes. This was after he had paid all of the
indebtedness incurred in his earlier bankruptcy. It would be a mistake
to dismiss this great master without some notice of his harpsichord
and organ playing. As a teacher of the princesses of the royal family,
he produced many suites and lessons for the harpsichord, in one of
which, as an unnoticed incident, occur the air and variations since so
universally popular under the name of "The Harmonious Blacksmith." It
is not known to whom the composer was indebted for the name generally
applied to this extremely broad air, and clever variations. Very
likely some music publisher was the unknown poet. As an organist
Haendel was both great and popular. In the middle of his oratorios he
used to play an organ concerto with orchestra. Of these compositions
he wrote a very large number. They are always fresh and hearty in
style, well written for organ, and with a very flowing pedal part.
Haendel appears to have played the pedals upon a somewhat different
plan from that of Bach. Bach is generally supposed to have used his
toes for the most part, employing the heel only for an occasional note
where the toes were insufficient. Haendel seems to have used toe and
heel habitually in almost equal proportion.

It is a curious feature of the later part of Haendel's career that he
brought out his oratorios in costume. Several of the original bills
are extant, in which an oratorio is promised "with new cloathes."
"Esther" is said to have been given with complete stage appointment at
Chandos, like an opera; but the Lord Chamberlain prohibited future
representations of the kind on account of the supposed sacredness of
the subject. Afterward the characters were costumed, and the stage
set, but there was no action. While Haendel was German by birth, his
long residence in England and his habitual writing for the last ten or
fifteen years of his life oratorios in the English language, made
him, to all intents and purposes, an English composer. For nearly a
century he stood to the English school as a model of everything that
was good and great, to such an extent that very little of original
value was accomplished in that country, and when, by lapse of time and
a deeper self-consciousness on the part of English musicians, this
influence had begun to wane, a new German composer came in the person
of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, who, in turn, became a popular idol,
and for many years a barrier to original effort.

The influence of Haendel upon the later course of music is by no means
so marked as that of Bach. Nevertheless, he was one of the great tone
poets of all times, and his works form an indispensable part of the
literature of music. It was his good fortune to embody certain types
of melody and harmony with a clearness and effectiveness that no other
composer has equaled. The oratorio, in particular, not only fulfilled
itself in Haendel, but we might almost say _completed_ itself there,
for very little of decided originality has been produced in this
department since. The Haendelian operas have been mostly forgotten for
many years, but they contain gems of melody in the solo and chorus
parts which have still a future. His first opera, "Almira," was
revived at Hamburg a few years ago with remarkable effect, and it is
not at all unlikely that extracts from many of the other works will
eventually find their way into the current repertory of the singer, as
many of the arias already have.

CHAPTER XXV.

EMANUEL BACH; HAYDN; THE SONATA.

I.

None of the sons of Bach inherited the commanding genius of their
father, although four of them showed talent above the average of
musicians of their day, and one of them distinguished himself and
exercised an important influence upon the subsequent course of
pianoforte music. The most gifted of Bach's sons was Wilhelm
Friedmann, the eldest (1710-1784), who was especially educated by his
father for a musician. He turned out badly, however, his enormous
talents not being able to save him from the natural consequences of a
dissolute life. He died in Berlin in the greatest degradation and
want. This Bach wrote comparatively few compositions, owing to his
invincible repugnance to the labor of putting them upon paper; he was
famous as an improviser, and certain pieces of his in the Berlin
library are considered to manifest musical gifts of a high order.
Johann Christian (1735-1782), the eleventh son, known as the Milanese
or London Bach, devoted himself to the lighter forms of music, and
after having served some years as organist of the cathedral at Milan,
and having distinguished himself by certain operas successfully
produced in Italy, he removed to London, where he led an easy and
enjoyable life. He was an elegant and fluent writer for the
pianoforte. The one son of Bach who is commonly regarded as having
left a mark upon the later course of music was Carl Philip Emanuel
(1714-1788), the third son, commonly known as the Berlin or Hamburg
Bach. His father intended him for a philosopher, and had him educated
accordingly in the Leipsic and Frankfort universities, but his love
for music and the thorough grounding in it he had at home eventually
determined him in this direction. While in the Frankfort University he
conducted a singing society, which naturally led to his exercising
himself in composition. Presently he gave up law for music, and going
to Berlin he obtained an appointment as "Kammer-musiker" to Frederick
the Great, his especial business being that of accompanying the king
in his flute concertos. The seven years' war having put an end to
these duties, he migrated to Hamburg, where he held honorable
appointments as organist and conductor until his death. He wrote in a
tasteful and free, but somewhat superficial, style; and while his
compositions bear favorable comparison with those of other musicians
of his time, they are by no means of a commanding nature like those of
his father. There were, however, two reasons for this, wholly aside
from the question of less ability in the younger composer. One of
these is to be found in the free form which Emanuel Bach began to
develop. Sebastian Bach had the advantage of writing his greatest
works in a form which had been prepared for him, without having been
exhausted. The technique of fugue had been created before his time,
but its possibilities in the direction of freedom and spontaneity had
never been illustrated. Bach proceeded to do this for the fugue form,
and, it may be added, did it with such amplitude that no composer has
been able to write a free and original fugue since. The son
recognizing both that the fugue had been exhausted as a free art-form,
and feeling no doubt that something more intuitively intelligible than
fugue was possible, addressed himself to composition in the free
style, in which the means of producing effects had not yet been
mastered. The thematic use of material had been acquired, or was
easily inferable from the fugue, but the proper manner of contrasting
that material with other, calculated to relieve the attention and at
the same time intensify the interest, remained for later explorers.
The missing contrast was the lyric element, but it was not until the
next generation of composers that it came into pianoforte music in
satisfactory form. Accordingly the sonatas of Emanuel Bach sound dry
and superficial, and while they are interesting as the remote models
upon which Beethoven occasionally built, they do not repay study for
the purposes of public performance. There is little heart in them. As
a literary musician Bach deserves to be remembered for his work upon
"The True Art of Playing the Piano." This was the first systematic
instruction book for the instrument of which we have a record, and it
still is the main dependence for information concerning the method of
Bach's playing, and the way in which he intended the embellishments in
his works to be performed.

II.

In the little village of Rohrau, in Austria, was born to a master
wheelwright's wife, in 1732, a little son, dark-skinned, not large of
frame, nor handsome, but gifted with that most imperishable of
endowments, a genius for melody and tonal symmetry. The baby was named
Francis Joseph, and he grew to the age of about six in the family of
his parents, in a little house which although twice somewhat rebuilt,
still stands in its original form. Hither people come from many lands
in order to see the birthplace of the great composer Haydn, the
indefatigable and simple-hearted tone poet of many symphonies,
sonatas, and the two favorite cantatas or oratorios, the "Creation"
and the "Seasons." In his earliest childhood the boy showed a talent
for music, which, as his parents both sang and played a little, he had
often an opportunity of hearing. Before he was quite six years old he
was able to stand up in the choir of the village church and lead in
solos, with his sweet and true, if not strong, voice. This was his
delight. At length George Reutter, the director of the music in the
cathedral of St. Stephen at Vienna, heard him, and offered the boy a
place in his choir. Now indeed his fortune seemed made, and he
embraced the offer with gratitude. As a choir boy he ought to have
been taught music in a thorough manner, but as Reutter was rather a
careless man this did not happen in Haydn's case, but the boy grew up
in his own devices. He composed constantly, without having had the
slightest regular training. One day Reutter saw one of his pieces, a
mass movement for twelve parts. He offered the passing advice, that
the composer would have done better to have taken two voices, and that
the best exercise for him would be to write "divisions" (variations)
upon the airs he sang in the service--but no instruction. At length
the boy's voice began to break, and at the age of fourteen or fifteen,
he was turned out to shift for himself. He found an asylum in the
house of a wig maker, Keller, with whom he lived for several years,
earning small sums by lessons, playing the organ at one of the
churches, the violin at another, singing at another and so on, in all
managing to place himself upon the road to fortune--that of industry
and sobriety. This part of his career lasted from 1748, when he left
the choir of the cathedral, to 1752, when he became accompanist to the
Italian master, Porpora, who was then living in Vienna in the house of
an Italian lady, whose daughter's education he was superintending.
With Porpora he learned the art of singing, and the proper manner of
accompanying the voice. He also got many hints in regard to the
correct manner of composing. He had already produced a number of works
in various styles. In 1759 he was appointed conductor of the music at
the palace of Count Morzin, where he had a small number of musicians
under his direction, only sixteen in all. Here he began his life work.
Two years later he was invited to assume the assistant directorship of
the private orchestra and choir of Prince Esterhazy, who lived in
magnificent style, and for many years had maintained a private musical
chapel. Very soon the old prince died, and his son reigned in his
place. The new master was the one named "The Magnificent," and greatly
enlarged the musical appointment of his predecessor. He built a great
palace at Esterhaz, where there was a theater, in which opera was
given, and a smaller one where there was a marionette company, the
machinery of which had been brought to great perfection. There were
frequent concerts. The prince was a great amateur of the peculiar viol
called the barytone, and it was one of Haydn's duties to provide new
compositions for this instrument. Here for thirty years he continued
in service, with few interruptions, and always on the very best of
terms with his prince, and with the men under him. The players called
Haydn "Papa."

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30