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

[Illustration: Fig. 67.

FRANZ SCHUBERT.]

His place in the history of music, aside from the general fact of his
possessing genius of the first order, is that of the creator of the
artistic song. While his pianoforte sonatas are extremely beautiful
and very difficult, and anticipate many modern effects; his string
quartettes, and other chamber music, worthy to be ranked with those of
any other master; and his symphonies exquisitely beautiful in their
ideas, orchestral coloring and the entire atmosphere which they
carry--his habitual attitude was that of the writer of songs. Some of
these are of remarkable length and range. One of them extends to
sixty-six pages of manuscript. Another occupies forty-five pages of
close print. A work of this kind is a cantata, and not merely a song.
Many of the others are six or eight pages long, and in all the music
freely and spontaneously follows the poem, with a delicate
correspondence between the poetic idea and the melody, with its
harmony and treatment, such as we look for in vain in any other
writer, unless it be Schumann, who, however, did not possess
Schubert's instinct of the vocally suitable. For with all the range
which these songs cover, their vocal quality is as noticeable as that
of Italian cantilenas.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE STORY OF THE PIANOFORTE.

The popular instrument of the nineteenth century has been the
pianoforte, the result of an evolution having its beginning more than
six centuries back. It is impossible in the present state of knowledge
to trace all the steps through which this remarkable instrument has
reached its present form. In the Assyrian sculptures discovered by
Layard, there are instruments apparently composed of metal rods or
plates, touched by hammers, upon the same general principle as the toy
instrument with glass plates, or the xylophone composed of wooden rods
resting upon bands of straw. In these the use of the hammer for
producing the tone is obvious. In the Middle Ages there was an
instrument called the psaltery, apparently some sort of a four-sided
harp strung with metal strings. The evidence upon this point is rather
indistinct. Still later there is the Arab santir (p. 114). This was a
trapeze-shaped instrument, composed of a solid frame, sounding board
and metal wires struck with hammers. This instrument still exists in
Germany under the name of _Hackbrett_, or the dulcimer. As now made,
each string consists of three wires tuned in unison. It is played by
means of leather hammers held in the hand. The difficulty of adapting
this instrument to the keyboard consisted in the fact that if the
hammers were connected with the keys, they would be under the strings
instead of above them, and this difficulty for a long time proved
insurmountable.

[Illustration: Fig. 68.

SPINET.

(Showing the disposition of the strings, bridges, etc. Dresden,
1590.)]

Two forms of instruments were at length developed, composed of a
wire-strung psaltery, played from a chromatic keyboard like that of
the organ. The first of these was the one called in England Spinet, or
in Italy _Espinnetto_, and in Germany the _Clavier_. The essential
characteristic of this instrument was the manner of producing tones.
Upon the ends of the keys were brass pieces called "tangents," of a
triangular shape, of such form that when the key was pressed, the
tangent pushed the wire and so produced the tone. As it remained in
contact with the wire as long as the key was held down, there was
nothing like what we now call a singing tone. The instruments were
very small, in shape like a square piano, but of three or four octaves
compass; the wires were of brass, and quite small. In several
representations which have come down to us from the seventeenth
century, the number of strings shown is smaller than the number of
keys, from which some writers have inferred that it might have been
possible to obtain more than one tone from the same string, through a
process of stopping it with one tangent and striking it with another.
This, however, is highly improbable; the discrepancies referred to are
undoubtedly due to carelessness of the engraver. The clavier, or
spinet, was a better instrument than the lute, which at length it
superseded, having more tones and a greater harmonic capacity. Besides
which it was a step toward something much better still. In England
they made them with pieces of cloth drawn through between the wires,
to deaden the already small tone still further. These were sometimes
called virginals, and seem to have been used as practice pianos, where
the noise of the full tone might have been objectionable. The oldest
form of the clavier known to the writer was that shown in Fig. 69,
which was so small that it might be carried under the arm, and when
used was placed upon the table. They were sometimes ornamented in a
very elaborate manner.

[Illustration: Fig. 69.

KEYBOARD AND FRET WORK OF SPINET SHOWN IN FIG. 68.]

[Illustration: Fig. 70.

RICHLY ORNAMENTED SPINET.

(Made for the Princess Anna, of Saxony, about 1550.)]

Contemporaneously with the spinet, and of almost equal antiquity, was
an instrument in the form of a grand piano, called in Italy the
clavicembalo, and in England the harpsichord. In Germany it was called
the _flugel_ or wing, from its being shaped like the wings of a bird.
These also, in the earlier times, were made very small, and were
rested upon the table. The essential distinction between the cembalo
and the spinet was in the manner of tone production. In the cembalo
there was a wooden jack resting upon the end of the keys, and upon
this jack a little plectrum made of raven's quill, which had to be
frequently renewed. When the key was pressed, the jack rose and the
plectrum snapped the wire. The tone was thin and delicate, but as the
plectrum did not remain in contact with the string, the vibration
continued longer than in the clavier. The cembalo was the favorite
instrument in Italy during the seventeenth century, and in England it
had a great currency under the name of harpsichord. Many attempts
were made at increasing the resources of this instrument, one of the
most curious being that of combining two harpsichords in one, having
two actions, two sounding boards and sets of strings, and two
keyboards related like those of the organ. This form seems to have
been exclusively English. The form of the harpsichord is shown in Fig.
71.

[Illustration: Fig. 71.

MOZART'S CONCERT GRAND PIANO.

(Now in the Mozart Museum at Salzburg. Its compass is five octaves.)]

Far back in the sixteenth century an attempt was made at a hammer
mechanism to strike down upon the strings. For this purpose the
strings were placed in a vertical position, the same as in our upright
pianos of the present day. Mr. B.J. Lang, of Boston, has an upright
spinet of this kind, which he bought in Nuremburg. It is a small and
rude affair, having about four octaves compass and a very small scale.

[Illustration: Fig. 72.

CRISTOFORI'S ACTION.

(According to his original diagram.)

_A_ is the string; _b_ the bottom; _c_ the first lever, or key; there
is a pad, _d_, upon the key to raise a second lever, _e_, which is
pivoted upon _f_; _g_ is the hopper--Cristofori's _linguetta
mobile_--which, controlled by the springs _i_ and _l_, effects the
escape, or immediate drop, of the hammer from the strings after the
blow has been struck, although the key is still kept down by the
finger. The hopper is centered at _h_. _M_ is a rack or comb on the
beam, _s_, where, _h_, the butt, _n_, of the hammer, _o_, is centered.
In a state of rest the hammer is supported by a cross or fork of silk
thread, _p_. On the depression of the key, _c_, the tail, _q_, of the
second lever, _e_, draws away the damper, _r_, from the strings,
leaving them free to vibrate. (Hipkins.)]

The pianoforte proper was not invented until 1711, when a Florentine
mechanic, named Cristofori, invented what he called a Fortepiano, from
its capacity of being played loud or soft. The essential feature of
the pianoforte mechanism is in the use of the hammer to produce the
tone, and the necessary provision for doing this successfully is to
secure an instantaneous escapement of the hammer from contact with the
wire, as soon as the blow has been delivered, while at the same time
the key remains pressed in order to hold the damper away from the
strings and allow the tone to go on. These features were all contained
in Cristofori's invention. The above diagram, Fig. 72, illustrates the
mechanism employed. It is from Cristofori's published account of his
invention, dated 1711; but there is in Florence a pianoforte of his
manufacture still existing, dated 1726, in which the action is more
perfect, as shown in Fig. 73.

[Illustration: Fig. 73.

ACTION OF CRISTOFORI'S FORTEPIANO. DATE 1726.

(Besides several minor improvements over his first idea, the later
instrument has a hammer check, _p_, and the hammer is more
developed.)]

The invention of Cristofori was taken up in Germany almost
immediately, and a Dresden piano maker, Silbermann, became very
celebrated. It was the pianofortes of his manufacture in the palace at
Potsdam, which Frederick the Great made Bach try, one after another.
The form of these instruments was the same as that of Mozart's piano,
shown in Fig. 71. The square-formed piano began to be made about 1750,
but the instrument involved no application of new principles, being
merely a clavier with pianoforte mechanism. The new form, so much more
compact and inexpensive, began to be popular, and was soon the
standard form for private families, as that of the clavier had been
before, and as the square piano, remained until as late as about 1870,
when the inherent mechanical difficulties of the upright were for the
first time satisfactorily overcome. Pepys, in his diary, tells of
having purchased a virginal which pleased him very much. It cost five
guineas--about $26.

[Illustration: Fig. 74.

IMPROVED ACTION OF THE ERARD CONCERT GRAND. (1821.)

_C_ is the key; _d_ is a pilot, centered at _dd_ to give the blow, by
means of a carrier, _e_, holding the hopper, _g_, which delivers the
blow to the hammer, _o_, by the thrust of the hopper, which escapes by
forward movement after contact with a projection from the hammer
covered with leather, answering to the notch of the English action.
This escapement is controlled at _x_; a double spring _il_, pushes up
a hinged lever, _ee_, the rise of which is checked at _pp_, and causes
the second or double escapement; a little stirrup at the shoulder of
the hammer, known as the "repetition" pressing down _ee_ at the point,
and by this depression permitting _g_ to go back to its place, and be
ready for a second blow before the key has been materially raised. The
check _p_ in this action is not behind the hammer, but before it,
fixed into the carrier, _e_, which also, as the key is put down,
brings down the under damper. (Hipkins.)]

The instruments were still small, and strung with small wires;
nevertheless, there was a tendency toward increased compass, which, by
the beginning of the nineteenth century, led the Broadwoods, of
London, to attempt a grand piano with six octaves' compass. But they
found that the wrest plank (in which the tuning strings are placed),
was so weakened by the extension that the treble would not stand in
tune. In order to strengthen the instrument, he introduced the iron
tension bar. This, like nearly all of the English improvements of the
piano during the first quarter of the nineteenth century, was in the
direction of greater solidity, and better resisting power to the pull
of the strings.

Upon the artistic side, Sebastian Erard in 1808 patented his grand
action, which, with very slight improvements, still remains the model
of what a piano action should be. Fig. 74 shows this action and its
parts.

[Illustration: Fig. 75.

THE STEINWAY IRON FRAME.

(Showing the disposition of the sounding board, bridges, etc.)]

Between 1808, when the Erard action was perfected, and 1832 or 1834,
when Thalberg and Liszt began to revolutionize the art of piano
playing, the instrument was the subject of a great number of
improvements in every direction. The damper mechanism was perfected
between 1821 and 1827; the stringing had been made heavier, the
hammers proportionately stronger, and the power of tone had become
greater. Thus the instrument had become ready for the great
pianists--Liszt having made his first appearance in Vienna in 1823,
and within seven years after having become generally recognized as a
phenomenal appearance in art. Meanwhile, great improvements were
continually carried on for the purpose of rendering the instrument
impervious to the forcible attacks made upon its stability by these
new virtuosi. In the early appearances of Liszt it was necessary to
have several pianos in reserve upon the stage, so that when a hammer
or string broke, which very often happened, another instrument could
be moved forward for the next piece.

The most important improvement in the solidity of the piano came from
the iron frame, which was introduced tentatively, somewhere about
1821, in the form of what is now called a "hitch-pin plate," or half
iron frame. About 1825 an American, Alpheus Babcock, of Philadelphia,
patented a full iron frame, but it was imperfect, and nothing came of
it. Conrad Meyer, of Philadelphia, in 1833, patented an iron frame and
manufactured pianos with it, which are still in existence. In 1837,
Jonas Chickering, of Boston, perfected the iron frame by including in
the single casting the pin bridge and damper socket rail. This
improvement still remains at the foundation of the piano making of the
world. Previous to this invention some of the American piano makers
had constructed their cases upon a solid wooden bottom plank _five
inches thick_. In 1855 the firm of Steinway & Sons exhibited their
first overstrung scale, in which the bass strings were spread out and
carried over a part of the treble strings, thus affording them more
latitude for vibration, without interfering, and bringing the bridges
nearer to the center of the sounding board. The idea of overstringing
was not new at this time, Lichtenberg, of St. Petersburg, having
exhibited a grand piano with overstringing at the London exposition
in 1851, and Theodore Boehm, the celebrated improver of the flute,
having invented an overstrung system for square pianos as early as
1835. In 1853, also, Jonas Chickering combined an iron frame with an
overstrung system in square pianos, the instrument having been
completed and exhibited after his death. The Steinway system of
overstringing, however, was more extended, and solved the acoustical
difficulties of cross-vibrations more successfully by spreading the
long strings, and this, therefore, is the system now generally
followed. The superiority of this principle was immediately
acknowledged, and it has since been applied to grands and uprights,
and few makers in the world but follow it in their work. Many minor
improvements have been introduced in America by Steinway & Sons and
others, whereby the artistic qualities and the durability of the best
American pianos are now generally acknowledged throughout the world.
The solidity of construction is such that with a compass of seven and
one-third octaves the tension of the strings amounts to about 50,000
pounds avoirdupois. The hammers are larger and heavier, the action
more responsive, and the singing quality and sustaining power has
reached remarkable perfection. Perhaps the most curious and important
of all American improvements in this direction is the so-called
"duplex scale" of Steinway & Sons, patented in 1872, in which a
fraction of the string is made to vibrate sympathetically, thereby
strengthening the super-octave harmonic, and imparting to the tone a
brightness and sweetness not so well secured in any other way at
present known.

If space permitted it would be interesting to follow the course by
which the difficulties of the upright piano have at length been
surmounted, and the tone of this form of instrument rendered nearly
equal to that of the grand. This was first accomplished by Steinway &
Sons between 1862 and 1878, by a succession of improvements having for
their object, first, the solidity of the instrument, then its prompt
action, together with as much of the tone quality of the grand as
possible. Many other American builders have taken part in this
development, whereby the American pianoforte to-day is the strongest,
the fullest-toned and the most expensively constructed of any in the
world. Still later, quite a number of more or less successful attempts
have been made to increase the stability of the tuning of the
pianoforte by a different system of stringing, the tension of the
strings being regulated by means of a tuning pin of "set-screw"
pattern, working through a collar of steel, instead of being thrust
into a wooden wrest-plank, where it holds fast by friction alone, as
has been the universal way previous to these inventions.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXXIV.

GERMAN OPERA; WEBER, MEYERBEER AND WAGNER.

I.

German opera reached an extraordinary development during the
nineteenth century, the distinguishing characteristics being an
extremely full and dramatically conceived treatment of the orchestra,
and a mode of delivering the text partaking of the character of melody
and recitative in about equal proportions, the entire object being to
present the action to the inner consciousness of the beholder in the
most impressive manner possible. In Italian opera, as we have seen,
there was a large development of arias and vocal pieces, whose value
lay in their beauty as melodies and as concerted effect, the action of
the drama being meanwhile delayed sometimes for an entire half hour,
while these pieces were going on. In Germany the effort to improve the
delivery of the text and to bring it into closer union with the
orchestra, and to develop the music from a dramatic standpoint
exclusively, led to the vocal form known as _arioso_, or, to use
Wagner's term, "endless melody," in which the successive periods
follow each other to the end of the paragraph, or the end of the
piece, without a full stop at any point until the end of the sense is
reached. The great master of this form of composition was Richard
Wagner, who may be regarded as the exponent of the extreme development
yet reached by German opera. Wagner's endless melody proposed to
itself the same ideal as that of Gluck, but it is only at rare moments
that one will find in the music of the later master the symmetrical
periods of the Gluck and Mozart epoch. Italian opera, as we have
already seen, carried forward the dialogue mostly in _recitativo-secco_,
that is to say, in a recitative following more or less successfully
the modulations of speech, and accompanied only by detached chords
marking the emphatic moments. This form of vocal delivery has the
slightest possible musical interest, and the Germans almost
immediately endeavored to improve it, as also did some of the Italian
masters, the first result being _recitativo-stromentato_, or
instrumented recitative, viz., recitative in which the text is
accompanied by a flowing and more or less descriptive orchestral
accompaniment. This differs essentially from the descriptive
recitative in the works of the Mozart or Gluck period, or even in
those of Haydn's later time. In the "Creation," for example, the
descriptive recitative consists of vocal phrases with instrumental
phrases interspersed, in dialogue form. The voice announces a certain
fact and the orchestra immediately answers with a musical phrase
corresponding to it, as, for example, in the recitative describing the
creation of the world, where the phrase relating to the horse is
immediately answered by an orchestral gallop; that of the tiger by
certain slides and leaps in the melody remotely answering it; while
the roar of the lion is immediately answered by a vigorous snort of
the bass trombone. This is by no means of the same nature as the
dramatic _arioso_ of German opera during the nineteenth century.
Haendel came nearer to this type of musical formation, for example, in
the "Messiah," at the recitative describing the appearance of the
angels to the shepherds, where, after a phrase of unaccompanied
recitative, the appearance of the angels is signified by an
accompanied and measured strain, "And lo, the angel of the Lord came
upon them."

This development of opera in the nineteenth century has been carried
forward by the successive efforts of a considerable number of masters,
among whom the three most important are Weber, Meyerbeer and Wagner,
each of whom created a type of opera peculiar to himself, and left
something as an addition to the permanent stock of musical dramatic
ideas.

[Illustration: Fig. 76.

CARL MARIA VON WEBER.]

II.

Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) was the son of a very musical family.
He was born at Eutin, and fulfilled his father's desire, which had
always been to have a child who should correspond to the youthful
promise of Mozart. The father was an actor, and the director of a
traveling troupe, largely composed of his own children by a former
marriage. This mode of life continued for a number of years, while the
future master was quite small. In 1794 Carl Maria's mother was engaged
as a singer at the theater at Weimar, under Goethe's direction.
Presently, however, the boy became a pupil of Heuschkel, an eminent
oboeist, a solid pianist and organist, and a good composer. Under his
careful direction Weber developed a technique which very soon passed
far beyond anything that had previously been seen. Still later he
became a pupil of Michael Haydn, a brother of Joseph. As early as 1800
the boy gave concerts in Leipsic and other towns in central Germany.
At this time an opera book was given him, "_Das Wald Maedchen_," and
the opera was composed and produced in November. Five years later it
was highly appreciated at Vienna, and was performed also at Prague and
St. Petersburg. Young Weber was of a most active mind, and interested
himself in all questions of art. In 1803 he made the acquaintance of
the famous Abbe Vogler, and became his pupil. Vogler commissioned him
to prepare the piano score of a new opera of his. He still continued
his practice as pianist, but when he lacked some months of being
eighteen years of age he was made director of the music of the theater
at Breslau. This was his first acquaintance with practical life as a
musician. He showed great talent for direction and organization, and
here he composed his first serious opera "_Rubezahl_" (1806). His
next position was at Stuttgart, where he became musical director in
1807. After composing several short pieces, he led a somewhat
irregular life for several years, concerting as a pianist, writing
articles for the papers, at which he was very talented, beginning a
musical novel, and at length, in 1810, producing his opera "_Abou
Hassan_." Then followed about three years of roving life as a concert
player and occasionally as composer, until 1813, when he was appointed
musical director at Prague. The opera here was in very bad condition,
and the company incapable, but Weber engaged new singers in Vienna,
and entirely reorganized the affair, and conducted himself so
prudently that he gained the good will of nearly every one. As an
example of his quickness it may be mentioned that upon discovering
that certain musicians in the orchestra, who were not disposed to
yield to his strict ideas of discipline, were conversing with each
other in Bohemian, while the music was going on, he learned the
language himself sufficiently to rebuke them in their own tongue. His
next position was at Dresden in 1816, and here he remained nine years
until his death. His position at first was somewhat ambiguous. There
were two troupes of singers in the opera--an Italian and the German.
The grand operas were given in Italian by the Italian company, and the
light operas in German by the German company. It was Weber's task to
change this, by producing new works of a distinctly higher character
than the foreign works of the Italian company. The second year he was
able to produce a few good operas of other schools in German versions,
but it was not until 1821, when his "_Preciosa_" was produced at
Berlin, and 1822, when "_Der Freischuetz_" was produced in the same
theater, that the reputation of the young master was established
beyond question. It is impossible at the present time to describe the
enthusiasm which the latter work created. It was a new departure in
opera. It united two strains very dear to the German heart--the simple
peasant life and the people's song are represented in the choruses,
and in the arias of the less important people. Agatha, the heroine,
has a prayer of exquisite beauty, which still is often heard as a
church tune. And in contrast with these elements was the weird and
uncanny music of Zamiel, the Satanic spirit of the wood, and the
strange incantation scene in the Wolf's Glen at midnight, where the
magic balls are cast. The story was thoroughly German, and the music
not only German and well suited to the story, but distinctly original
and charming of itself. In this work, perhaps first of any opera,
Weber made use of what has since been known as "leading
motives"--characteristic melodic phrases appropriate to Zamiel and
Agatha. The instrumentation was very graphic, and as Weber had been
brought up upon the stage, there were many novelties of a scenic kind.
In fact, the work marked as distinct an epoch as Wagner's "Nibelungen
Ring," and what is more to the point, it was one of the operative
influences affecting the young Wagner, as he tells with considerable
care in his autobiography. His next effort was a comic opera, the
"Three Pintos," which was never finished. Then came "_Euryanthe_"
performed at Vienna in 1823 with the most extraordinary success. This
work is said to have been the model upon which Wagner created his
"_Lohengrin_." When it was produced in Berlin in 1825, the enthusiasm
was yet greater and more remarkable than in Vienna. In 1825 he
composed "_Oberon_," the first of the operas in which the fairy
principle has prominent exemplification. This was produced in London
early in 1826. But by this time Weber's health had become completely
broken, and he died there of overwork and fatigue. He was laid to his
rest, to the music of Mozart's Requiem, in the chapel at Moorsfields
in London.

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