A Popular History of the Art of Music

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The entire list of operas by Rameau numbers about thirty. That they
did not preserve their popularity so long as those of Lulli is due to
their deficiency upon the dramatic side, especially to the inherent
inexpressiveness of the music itself. The treatment of the orchestra
is clever in many places, showing a manifest improvement over that of
Lulli, especially in the freedom of thematic work. He also ventures
occasionally on enharmonic changes.

Contemporaneous with him was that remarkable genius, Jean Jacques
Rousseau (1712-1778), the father of the kindergarten idea, and of many
other humanitarian and educational novelties. Rousseau's importance in
the history of music is not sufficient to justify an account of his
early days. With a great fondness for music, he found it extremely
difficult to read by note, as he was almost entirely self-taught. This
led him to devise a simpler notation, which he did about 1740,
publishing an account of it in 1743. His system was substantially
that of the tonic sol fa, except that he used figures in place of
letters. He presented a memorial to the Academy of Sciences upon this
subject in 1742, but his plan was so vigorously opposed by Rameau that
nothing came of it; nevertheless the idea was afterward worked out by
M. Paris, in the present century, and has proven very useful among the
_Orpheonistes_. In 1752 Rameau produced his first opera "_Le Devin du
Village_," a very light affair, somewhat on the order of what Germans
call a Singspiel. The most remarkable piece that he produced was his
comedy "_Pygmalion_" in 1775. There is no song in this opera. The only
music in it is that for orchestral interludes in the intervals between
the phrases of declamation.

The continuation of French opera was due to Philidor, the celebrated
chess player (1726-1795). He was very talented in many directions, and
from the production of his first opera in 1759, to his last,
_Belisaire_, finished by his friend Berton, and produced in 1796, he
enjoyed an uninterrupted popularity, having brought out in that time
about twenty-one operas, some of them comic, one or two of them
serious. His music is light and pleasing, and he is credited with
having been the first to produce descriptive airs ("_Le Marechal_")
and the unaccompanied quartette ("Tom Jones," 1764). The great merit
of his works was their clever construction for the stage.
Contemporaneous with him was Pierre Alexander Monsigny (1729-1817).
Not having been intended for the profession of music, he had a
classical education, and upon the death of his father obtained a
clerkship in Paris. He belonged to a noble family, and at first
pursued music as a recreation. His first opera was produced after
five months' tuition in harmony and theory, in 1759; this was followed
by about thirty other works. His greatest skill was melody and ease of
treatment. In 1812 he was appointed inspector of the Conservatory, and
in 1813 he succeeded Gretry in the Institute, and in 1816 he received
the cross of the Legion of Honor.

[Illustration: Fig. 61.

GRETRY.]

Upon the appearance of Andre Ernest Modest Gretry, (1741-1813), we
come to a real genius, although not of the first order. He was the son
of a poor violinist of Liege, Belgium, and when about sixteen years of
age he composed six small symphonies and a mass. The latter gained him
the protection of the canon of the cathedral who sent him to Rome,
where he pursued his studies with very little credit. After producing
one small work in Rome, he made his way to Paris, and his first opera,
"_Le Huron_," was successfully produced in 1768. This was followed by
more than fifty operas of all sorts, some of which still survive.
Gretry was a very charming man, and wrote upon music and other
subjects in a pleasing manner. His importance in the history of music
is due more to the number of works by him, than to their striking
musical qualities.

Another remarkable musician of this period in France was Francois
Joseph Gossec (1733-1829), who also was a Belgian from Hainault. His
early training was obtained in the cathedral at Antwerp. He came to
Paris in 1751 and became a pupil of Rameau. He conceived the idea of
writing orchestral symphonies, and produced some pieces of this kind
in 1754, five years before the date of Haydn's first. In 1759 he
published some quartettes. In 1760 he produced his best, "_Messe des
Morts_," in which he made a sensation by writing the "_Tuba Mirum_"
for two orchestras, one of wind instruments concealed outside. Berlioz
probably derived an idea from this. He wrote twelve operas which were
successfully produced, twenty-six symphonies and a variety of other
works. He founded his amateur concerts in 1770, and his sacred
concerts in 1773. In 1784 he organized his school of singing, out of
which the Conservatory of Music was afterward developed. Upon the
foundation of the conservatory, in 1795, he was appointed inspector
with Cherubini and Mehul. His influence upon the general development
of music is local to Paris, where he did more to enrich opera on the
instrumental side than any other composer of the eighteenth century.

Etienne Henri Mehul (1763-1817) was another of these prolific
composers of light operas. Son of a cook at Givet, he had passion for
music, and soon became a good organist. At fourteen he was deputy
organist, and in 1778 he arrived in Paris and at once commenced to
study and teach. The next year he was so fortunate as to listen to
Gluck's "_Iphigenie en Tauride_," which made a great impression upon
him. He called upon Gluck himself in order to express his admiration,
and, in consequence of the encouragement received from the eminent
composer, he proceeded to write three operas, one after another, which
are now lost. His fourth was accepted at the Academy, but not
performed. Finally his "_Euphrosine et Coradin_" was produced at the
Opera Comique in 1790. The public immediately recognized a force, a
sincerity of accent, a dramatic truth, and a gift of accurately
expressing the meaning of words, which always remained the main
characteristics of Mehul. Within the next seventeen years he produced
twenty-four operas, besides a large number of cantatas and other
works. Upon the whole, this sincere master must be regarded as one of
the most eminent in the history of French opera.

Somewhat later in the operatic field was Jean Francois Lesueur
(1763-1837). After serving as a boy chorister at Abbeville and Amiens,
he came to Paris, where in 1786 he was appointed musical director at
Notre Dame, and distinguished himself by giving magnificent
performances of motettes and solemn masses, with a large orchestra in
addition to the usual forces. His first opera, "_La Caverne_," was
produced in 1793, after which he wrote four others, as well as three
which were never performed. In the line of church music he was much
more productive, and one might say, more at home. His music is marked
by grand simplicity. As a teacher in later life he was very
celebrated, among his pupils being the greatest of French masters,
Berlioz.

[Illustration: Fig. 62.

BOIELDIEU.]

The most gifted of the French composers of light opera at the end of
the eighteenth century, and in the part of the nineteenth, was
Francois Adrien Boieldieu (1775-1834). This talented musician was born
at Rouen, where his father was secretary to the archbishop. The boy
was educated in the ecclesiastical schools, having begun as a choir
boy in the cathedral. His first little work for the stage was
performed at Rouen when he was about seventeen, "_La Fille Coupable_,"
with such success that the author was encouraged to go and seek his
fortune in Paris. Here for a long time he met with little
encouragement, and was obliged to make a living at first as a piano
tuner; later he was fortunate enough to have certain romances of his
sung by popular singers, and thus his name became somewhat known. For
these songs he received the munificent compensation of two dollars and
a half each. Presently he secured a libretto, "_La Dot de Suzette_,"
which was composed and performed at the Opera Comique, with so much
encouragement, that he soon after produced his one-act opera, "_La
Famille Suisse_." His popularity was not fully established, however,
until "_Zoraime et Zulnare_" in 1798. This work possesses a vein of
tenderness, a refined orchestration, and singularly clear and pleasing
forms. In 1800 his world-wide favorite, "_Le Caliph de Bagdad_," was
produced, and its taking overture was played from one end of Europe to
the other, upon all possible instruments and combinations of them. His
other two successful operas were "_Jean de Paris_" (1812), and "_La
Dame Blanche_" (1825). Both these made as much reputation outside of
France as in it, and are still produced in Germany. In 1803 Boieldieu
received an appointment in St. Petersburg and lived there six years,
but he returned to Paris later, and in 1817 became Mehul's successor
as teacher of composition at the Conservatory.

Of the French stage during this epoch it is to be observed that
nothing of a large and serious character was produced upon it, except
the operas of Gluck, which of course were not indigenous to France.
What progress was made by the composers before mentioned, and others
of less importance, consisted in acquiring fluency, ease and effective
construction. The ground had been prepared from which the century
following would reap a harvest.

III.

In Italy during the eighteenth century, opera continued to be
cultivated by a succession of gifted and prolific composers. At the
beginning of the century, the great Alexander Scarlatti was at the
height of his career, as also were Lotti and the younger masters
mentioned in the former chapter. All these composers followed in the
style established by Scarlatti and Porpora. The most talented of the
Italians of this period was Giovanni Batista Pergolesi (1710-1737).
This gifted genius was born at Jesin, in the Roman states, but when a
mere child, was admitted to the conservatory "Of the Poor in Jesus
Christ" at Naples, where his education was completed. He commenced as
a violin player, and attracted attention while a mere child by his
original passages, chromatics, new harmonies and modulations. A report
of his performances of this kind being made to his teacher Matteis, he
desired to hear them for himself, which he did with much surprise, and
asked the boy whether he could write them down. The next day the
youngster presented himself with a sonata for the violin, as a
specimen of his power; this led to his receiving regular instruction
in counterpoint. The first composition of his was a sacred drama
called "_La Conversione di St. Guglielmo_," written while he was still
a student. It was performed with comic intermezzi (_sic!_) in the
summer of 1731, at the cloister of St. Agnello. The dramatic element
in this work is very pronounced, and the violin is treated with
considerable feeling. His first opera, "_La Salustia_," was produced
in 1731. It is notable for improvement in the orchestration. In the
winter of this same year he wrote his comic intermezzo, "_La Serva
Padrona_," a sprightly operetta, which had a moderate success at the
time, but afterward for nearly a hundred years was played in all parts
of Europe. He wrote several other operas, which had but moderate
success, although many of them were performed with considerable
applause after his death. By general consent the most beautiful work
of Pergolesi was his "_Stabat Mater_," which was written to order for
a religious confraternity, for use on Good Friday, in place of a
"_Stabat_" by Scarlatti, the price paid being ten ducats--about nine
dollars. It is for two voices, a soprano and contralto, and is
excellently written. No sooner was he dead than his music immediately
became the object of admiration, his operas and lighter pieces being
played in all parts of Italy. He died at the age of twenty-six, being
the youngest master who has ever left a permanent impression in
musical history.

One of the most prolific composers of this period was Nicolo Jomelli
(1714-1774). Jomelli represents the Neapolitan school, having been
educated first at the conservatory of San Onofrio, and later at that
of "_La Pieta de' Turchini_." His earlier inclination was church
music, and in order to perfect himself in it he went to Rome. This was
in 1740, and two of his operas were there produced. He afterward
visited Vienna, where he produced several operas, and in 1749 he was
appointed assistant musical director at St. Peter's in Rome, a
position which he held for five years, after which he went to
Stuttgart, as musical director. While in Germany he had a very great
reputation as an opera composer. In 1770 Mozart wrote from Naples,
"The opera here is by Jomelli; it is beautiful, but the style is too
elevated as well as too antique for the theater." His later life was
spent in Naples. Besides many operas he wrote a number of
compositions for the church. It perhaps gives a good idea of the
estimation in which he was held while living, that a critic highly
esteemed in his day said that it would be a sorry day for the world
when the operas of Jomelli were forgotten, at the same time
pronouncing them superior to those of Mozart. Not a single line of
Jomelli is performed at the present time, nor is likely ever to be;
but the works of Mozart still retain their popularity.

Another prolific composer of the Neapolitan school was Antonio Maria
Gasparo Sacchini (1724-1786). This clever composer was very successful
in his lifetime, his operas being produced in all parts of Europe.
Nevertheless they are monotonous in character, and have little depth.
He has very little importance for the history of music. Still another,
also from the Neapolitan school, was Piccini (1728-1800). His first
operas were produced in 1754, and from that time on for about forty
years he was a very popular composer, his works being produced in
every theater, and in 1778 he was set up as an idol by his admirers,
in opposition to Gluck. He was highly honored by Napoleon, who took
pleasure in distinguishing him for the sake of humbling several much
more deserving musicians. The complete list of his works in Fetis
contains eighty operas. His biographer credits him with one hundred
and thirty-three. Yet another composer of the Neapolitan school was
Giovanni Paisiello (1741-1815). From the time of his first operas to
his death, he was highly esteemed as a composer. In 1776 he was
invited by the Empress Catharine to St. Petersburg, where he lived for
eight years, and among other operas which he composed while there was
"_Il Barbiere di Siviglia_." In 1799 he was called to Paris, where
Napoleon very greatly distinguished him. Upon leaving Paris, in 1803,
Napoleon desired him to name his successor, when he performed the
creditable act of nominating Lesueur, who was at that time unknown.
The list of his works embraces ninety-four operas and 103 masses. His
music was melodious and pleasing, but rather feeble; he is regarded,
however, as the inventor of the concerted finale, which has since been
so largely developed in opera. Perhaps the best of all the Neapolitan
composers of this half century was Zingarelli (1752-1827). Zingarelli
was not only a good musician and a good composer, but a man of ability
and principle. He was an associate pupil with Cimarosa. After leaving
the conservatory he took lessons upon the violin, and in 1779 produced
a cantata at the San Carlo theater. Two years later his first opera
was produced at the same theater with great applause, "_Montezuma_."
He then went to Milan, where most of his later works were produced. He
was an extremely rapid worker, his librettist stating it as a fact
that all the music of his successful opera of "_Alsinda_" was composed
in seven days, although the composer was in ill health at the time.
Another of his best works, his "_Giulietta e Romeo_," was composed in
about eight days. It is said that this astonishing facility was
acquired through the discipline of his teacher Speranza, who obliged
his pupils to write the same composition many times over, with change
of time and signature, but without any change in the fundamental
ideas. While busily engaged as a popular opera composer, Zingarelli
found time to compose much church music, his most important works
being masses and cantatas. Of the former there still exist a very
large number; of the latter about twenty. He made a trip to France in
1789, where he brought out a new opera, "_L'Antigone_"; he was
appointed musical director at the cathedral at Milan in 1792, and two
years later at Loretto, Naples. Thence he was transferred to the
Sistine chapel at Rome, and finally in 1813 he was appointed director
of the Royal College of Music at Naples, in which position he spent
the remainder of his long and active life.

He produced about thirty-two operas, twenty-one oratorios and
cantatas, and there are about 500 manuscripts of his in the "_Annuale
di Loreto_." As a composer of comic operas Zingarelli became popular
all over Europe, but he was nevertheless a serious, even a devout
composer. He was extremely abstemious, rose early, worked hard all
day, and, after a piece of bread and a glass of wine for supper,
retired early to rest. He was never married, but found his
satisfaction in the successes of his musical children, among whom were
Bellini, Mercadante, Ricci, Sir Michael Costa, Florimo, etc.

IV.

In this, as in the preceding century, there was very little activity
in England in the realm of opera music, beyond that of foreign
composers imported for special engagements. In the last part of the
seventeenth century, however, there was a real genius in English
music, who, if he had lived longer, would in all probability have made
a mark distinguishable even across the channel, and upon the chart of
the world's activity in music. That composer was Henry Purcell
(1658-1695), born in London, of a musical family. His father having
died while the boy was a mere infant, he was presently admitted as a
choir boy in the Chapel Royal, the musical director being Captain
Cook, and later Pelham Humpfrey. In 1675, when yet only seventeen
years of age, Purcell composed an opera, "Dido and AEneas," which is
grand opera in all respects, there being no spoken dialogue but
recitative--the first work of the kind in English. It contains some
very spirited numbers. After this he composed music to a large number
of dramatic pieces, many anthems, held the position of master of the
Chapel Royal, and in many ways occupied an honored and distinguished
position. He was one of the earliest composers to furnish music to
some of Shakespeare's plays, and his "Full Fathom Five" and "Come unto
These Yellow Sands," from the "Tempest," have held the stage until the
present time. He was in all respects the most vigorous and original of
English composers. He died in the fullness of his powers and was
buried in Westminster Abbey. The portrait here given was painted by
John Closterman, and originally engraved for his "_Orpheus
Britannicus_." It is impossible not to wonder whether the future of
English music might not have been better if the powerful figure of the
great master Haendel had not dwarfed all native effort in Britain after
Purcell.

[Illustration: Fig. 63.

HENRY PURCELL.]

In the eighteenth century the most notable English composer was Dr.
Thomas Arne (1710-1778), who enjoyed a well deserved reputation as an
excellent dramatic composer, the author of many songs still reckoned
among English classics, and the composer of the national hymn "Rule
Britannia," which occurred as an incident in his masque of "Alfred,"
1740. Dr. Arne has all the characteristics of a genuine national
composer. His music was immediately popular, and held the stage for
many years. His first piece was Fielding's "Opera of Operas," produced
in 1733. The full list of his pieces reached upwards of forty-one
operas and plays to which he furnished the music, two oratorios,
"Abel" and "Judith," and a variety of occasional music. His style is
somewhat like that of Haendel, a remark which was true of all English
composers for more than a hundred years after Haendel's death; but it
is forcible, melodious and direct. His music was not known outside of
England.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXX.

PIANO PLAYING AND VIRTUOSI; THE VIOLIN; TARTINI AND SPOHR.

I.

It was during the eighteenth century that the pianoforte definitely
established itself in the estimation of musicians, artists and the
common people, as the handiest and most useful of domestic and solo
instruments. The progress was very slow at first, the musicians such
as Bach, Haendel, Scarlatti and Rameau, the four great virtuosi of the
beginning of this century, generally preferred the older forms of the
instrument, the clavier or the harpsichord, both on account of their
more agreeable touch and the sweetness of their tones. Nevertheless
the style of playing and of writing for these instruments underwent a
gradual change at the hands of these very masters, of such a character
that when the pianoforte became generally recognized as superior to
its predecessors, about the middle of the century, the compositions of
Bach and Scarlatti were found well adapted to the newer and more
powerful instrument. The pianoforte itself underwent several
modifications from the primitive forms of action devised by Cristofori
in 1711, rendering it more responsive to the touch. All this, relating
to the mechanical perfection of the instrument, although appropriate
in part to the present moment of the narrative, is deferred until a
later chapter, when the entire history of this instrument will be
considered in detail. From that it will be seen, by comparing dates,
that every important mechanical step in advance was followed by
immediate modifications of the style of writing and playing, whereby
the progress toward fullness and manifold suggestiveness of music for
this instrument has been steady and great.

The first of the great virtuosi was Domenico Scarlatti (1683-1757),
son of the great Alessandro Scarlatti, and a pupil of his father, and
of other masters whose names are now uncertain. He was a moderately
successful composer of operas and works for the Church, but his
distinguishing merit was that of a virtuoso upon the harpsichord--the
pianoforte of that time. He was the first of the writers upon the
harpsichord who introduced difficulties for the pleasure of overcoming
them, and who, in his own country, was without peer as performer until
Haendel came there and surpassed him, in 1708. Scarlatti was also a
performer upon the organ, but upon this instrument he unhesitatingly
confessed Haendel to be his superior. In 1715 Scarlatti succeeded Baj
as chapel master at St. Peter's in Rome, where he composed much church
music. His operas were successful in their own day, but were soon
forgotten. His pianoforte compositions still remain as a necessary
part of the education of the modern virtuoso. They are free in form,
brilliant in execution, and melodious after the Italian manner. Many
of them are still excessively difficult to play, in spite of the
progress in technique which has been made since.

There were many other composers in the early part of this century who
exercised a local and temporary influence in the direction of
popularizing the pianoforte and its music, through the attractiveness
of their own playing, as well as by the compositions they produced.
Among these must not be forgotten Mattheson, the Hamburgh composer of
operas (p. 242), who published many works for piano, including suites,
sonatas and other pieces in the free style. Johann Kuhnau (1667-1722),
predecessor of Bach as cantor at Leipsic, published a variety of
sonatas and other compositions in free style, about the beginning of
the eighteenth century. Of still greater importance than the last
named, was Rameau, the French theorist and operatic composer (p. 336).
His compositions were attractive and very original, and in addition to
the charm of his own playing, and that of his works, he placed later
musicians under lasting obligations by his treatise upon the art of
accompanying upon the clavecin and organ, in which his theories of
chords were applied to valuable practical use.

The work of all these and of many others who might be mentioned, not
forgetting several English writers, such as Dr. Blow, Dr. John Bull
and the gifted artist Purcell (see p. 350), must be regarded as merely
preparatory for the advance made during the last part of the
eighteenth century. It was Haydn who began to demand of the pianoforte
more of breadth, and a certain coloration of touch, which he must have
needed in his elaborative passages in the middle of the sonata piece.
This kind of free fantasia upon the leading motives of the work, was
planned after the style of thematic discussion of leading motives by
the orchestra, and the obvious cue of the player is to impart to the
different sequences and changes of the motives as characteristic
tone-colors as possible, for the sake of rendering them more
interesting to the hearers, and possibly of affording them more
expression. Haydn's work was followed by that of Mozart, who gave the
world the _adagio_ upon the piano. Then in the fullness of time came
Beethoven, who after all must be regarded as the great improver of
piano playing of this century, as well as that of the next following.
Beethoven improved the piano style in the surest and most influential
manner possible. In his own playing he was far in advance of the
virtuosi of the eighteenth century, and in his foresight of farther
possibilities in the direction of tone sustaining and coloration he
went still farther. This is seen in all his concertos, especially in
the fourth and fifth, in the piano trios, and the quartette; but still
more in the later pianoforte sonatas. Here the piano is treated with a
boldness, and at the same time a delicacy and poetic quality, which
taxes the greatest players of the present time to accomplish. The most
advanced virtuoso works of Chopin, Schumann and Liszt, the three great
masters of the pianoforte in the nineteenth century, are but slightly
beyond the demands of these later sonatas of the great Vienna master.

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