A POPULAR HISTORY OF THE ART OF MUSIC
From the Earliest Times Until the Present.
With Accounts of the Chief Musical Instruments and Scales; the Principles and Artistic Value of Their Music; together with Biographical Notices of the Greater Composers, Chronological Charts, Specimens of Music, and Many Engravings.
by
W. S. B. MATHEWS,
Editor of "Music" Magazine,
Author of "How to Understand Music," "Studies in Phrasing," "Twenty Lessons to a Beginner," "Primer of Musical Forms," Associate Editor of Mason's "Pianoforte Technics," etc., etc.
Chicago: The "Music" Magazine Publishing Co. 1402-5 The Auditorium. Copyright by W. S. B. Mathews, 1891.
TO
DR. FLORENCE ZIEGFELD,
_President of the Chicago Musical College_
THIS WORK IS
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
I have here endeavored to provide a readable account of the entire history of the art of music, within the compass of a single small volume, and to treat the luxuriant and many-sided later development with the particularity proportionate to its importance, and the greater interest appertaining to it from its proximity to the times of the reader.
The range of the work can be most easily estimated from the Table of Contents (pages 5-10). It will be seen that I have attempted to cover the same extent of history, in treating of which the standard musical histories of Naumann, Ambros, Fetis and others have employed from three times to ten times as much space. In the nature of the case there will be differences of opinion among competent judges concerning my success in this difficult undertaking. Upon this point I can only plead absolute sincerity of purpose, and a certain familiarity with the ground to be covered, due to having treated it in my lectures in the Chicago Musical College for five years, to the extent of about thirty-five lectures yearly. I have made free use of all the standard histories--those of Fetis, Ambros, Naumann, Brendel, Gevaert, Hawkins, Burney, the writings of Dr. Hugo Riemann, Dr. Ritter, Prof. Fillmore, and the dictionaries of Grove and Mendel, as well as many monographs in all the leading modern languages.
I have divided the entire history into books, placing at the beginning of each book a general chapter defining the central idea and salient features of the step in development therein recounted. The student who will attentively peruse these chapters in succession will have in them a fairly complete account of the entire progress.
W. S. B. MATHEWS.
_Chicago, May 5, 1891._
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
Chart of Greatest Composers 11
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Popular History of the Art of Music by Mathews
- 2: 13th Century 122Reinmar
- 3: Peri's Eurydice 225Aria
- 4: Book first music of the ancient world
- 5: Leon Gautier Cantilena of St
- 6: Chapter xii the rise of polyphony
- 7: Book third the dawn of modern music
- 8: Book fifth epoch of the romantic
- 9: Chronology of the greatest composers
- 10: Chronological chart of the more important german composers
- 11: Wagner felt these strange combinations as music
- 12: And the perfection of their musical instruments
- 13: The tonal sense undergoing its primary education
- 14: The harper is designated as harp scraper
- 15: One of these lyres had originally six strings
- 16: The name of this instrument was te bouni
- 17: The Egyptian mind was conservative to reaction
- 18: And of the other allied nations of Assyria and Babylon
- 19: The name kinnor is said to have been Phoenician
- 20: The Assyrians held music in honor
- 21: Composed the rhapsody of Salamis
- 22: ' Later than the Homeric rhapsodists
- 23: Summoned to Sparta to sing patriotic songs
- 24: All accompanied by the cithara
- 25: We do not know precisely what this famous orchestic was
- 26: This was said of Terpander especially
- 27: The Dorian tetrachord corresponded to our succession mi
- 28: This is it Diatonic Didymus
- 29: Most certainly the lyre of Terpander had no twenty strings
- 30: 668 Those who seek for the best kind of song and music
- 31: The amateur unfamiliar with the C clef
- 32: And the frets of the vina located thereby
- 33: The volume of tone in the ke is very light
- 34: Canonic imitation and polyphony
- 35: All consonance and dissonance are purely relative
- 36: Particularly in the expression of melody
- 37: The Eisteddfod has been maintained until the present time
- 38: Taleisin was bard of Prince Elphin
- 39: Lai na char u'm hen gar iad on
- 40: The Venerable Bede represents St
- 41: Some time before the year 1240
- 42: 3 Wel sing es thu cuc cu
- 43: The crwth presents still more troublesome questions
- 44: The Arab appears to us an inert figure
- 45: Which had its origin in the Arab Eoud
- 46: His music belongs entirely to the ancient period of monody
- 47: Voldrent la faire diaule servir
- 48: The cantilenas were a power in society
- 49: And the Chatelaine de Coucy died about 1192
- 50: These were known as minnesingers
- 51: Ambrose collected were probably from Palestine
- 52: Adding to them four other scales called plagal
- 53: Boethius made at home classical studies
- 54: The contrary is the case in diaphony
- 55: Hucbald proposed the Greek letters
- 56: Or harmony Illustration POLYPHONIC NOTATION OF HUCBALD
- 57: That the imperfect dissonances
- 58: And the involved and massive polyphony of music
- 59: But it grew out of the devices of polyphony
- 60: Besides being a capable deschanteur
- 61: The works of Perotin were undoubtedly in advance of his time
- 62: Jean de Muris and Guillaume de Machaut
- 63: Antoine de Busnois was born in Flanders in 1440
- 64: With the exception of Johannes Tinctor
- 65: Si canta il solo Jusquino in Italia
- 66: The life of Lassus was full of dignity and honor
- 67: Founded a music school at Naples
- 68: And his Demonstrationi Armoniche Venice
- 69: A very large number of motettes
- 70: The changes in musical notation
- 71: The neumes signified mostly intonations
- 72: Neume notation of guido of arezzo
- 73: While affording the eye two familiar clefs
- 74: Melodically the instrument had little power
- 75: When the lute was still cultivated
- 76: The body of the rebec was pear shaped
- 77: One of them is a rebec with three strings
- 78: Stradivari established his own factory about 1680
- 79: Fourteen diatonics and eight chromatics
- 80: Having three manuals and pedal
- 81: Were at least better than those of the lute
- 82: And the other masters of the polyphonic schools
- 83: At which the music consisted of madrigals
- 84: The ruling standpoint of musical production changed
- 85: Who prepared a drama called Dafne
- 86: Il Combatimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
- 87: He added the recitativo stromentato
- 88: Porpora spent the early part of his life in Naples
- 89: La scia mi pian ge re ch'io so per che
- 90: Lulli made certain improvements upon the Italian models
- 91: Fait vi vreau de la du tre pas
- 92: Mattheson composed a large number of works
- 93: Carissimi was a prolific composer
- 94: Among the pupils of Andreas Gabrieli were Hans Leo Hassler
- 95: Was Jean Pieters Swelinck 1560 1621
- 96: Was Dietrich Buxtehude 1637 1707
- 97: The present scale of music had been demonstrated by Zarlino
- 98: Bach and Haendel exhausted the fugue
- 99: The six sonatas of Bach for violin solo
- 100: And a very few of his other pieces for the clavier
- 101: The Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue
- 102: Although he was known to be an accomplished harpsichordist
- 103: There came an end to the popularity of Haendel
- 104: While Haendel was German by birth
- 105: Not only fulfilled itself in Haendel
- 106: Or was easily inferable from the fugue
- 107: One day Reutter saw one of his pieces
- 108: Of the instrumental sonatas the symphony and the quartette
- 109: Was that of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756 1791
- 110: He asked expressly for Wagenseil
- 111: From 1773 to 1777 Mozart remained at Salzburg
- 112: Mozart was made chamber composer
- 113: Scarcely excepting the indefatigable and long lived Haendel
- 114: There will the music of Mozart be loved
- 115: He was soon back again in Bonn
- 116: The Adagio of this is especially interesting
- 117: Within two years from the Sonata Pathetique
- 118: His inner tonal sense was as acute as ever
- 119: The form thus established by Haydn
- 120: Apparently so simple and diatonic
- 121: And especially into his symphonies
- 122: But in the sonatas for pianoforte he is equally at home
- 123: Besides these he composed several cantatas for church use
- 124: And gave Graun the post of musical director
- 125: But in 1767 he returned to Calzabigi
- 126: Gluck's last opera for Paris was Iphigenie en Tauride
- 127: A few years before Haendel came there
- 128: Gretry was a very charming man
- 129: He was appointed inspector with Cherubini and Mehul
- 130: Was Francois Adrien Boieldieu 1775 1834
- 131: Jomelli represents the Neapolitan school
- 132: Zingarelli found time to compose much church music
- 133: His style is somewhat like that of Haendel
- 134: Son of the great Alessandro Scarlatti
- 135: Clementi pursued his studies near London
- 136: Something magical in the manner in which Dussek
- 137: Moscheles began his concert appearances
- 138: Tartini awoke in an ecstasy of admiration
- 139: Spohr received a singular proposition from one Herr von Tost
- 140: Spohr met Beethoven many times
- 141: The reposeful and completely satisfactory
- 142: And the symphonies of Schubert
- 143: Nor has virtuosity been confined to single instruments
- 144: Franz Peter Schubert 1797 1828
- 145: A Corpse Fantasia to words of Schiller
- 146: ' the ' Burgschaft ' and the ' Sehnsucht
- 147: As an orchestral director in youth
- 148: Schubert was a great admirer of Beethoven
- 149: Composed of a wire strung psaltery
- 150: The jack rose and the plectrum snapped the wire
- 151: Action of cristofori's fortepiano
- 152: The Steinway system of overstringing
- 153: Led to the vocal form known as arioso
- 154: In 1803 he made the acquaintance of the famous Abbe Vogler
- 155: Der Freischuetz has lasted fifty years
- 156: And for a while by Clementi himself
- 157: Whereupon Meyerbeer wrote the impassioned duet
- 158: Through the influence of Meyerbeer
- 159: The third opera of the series is that of Siegfried
- 160: That The Ride of the Valkyries
- 161: Accordingly he wrote Die Meistersinger
- 162: The house was completed at Bayreuth
- 163: Notwithstanding the fact that Paganini lost money in Paris
- 164: And the great Paganini caprices
- 165: Four tenor trombones and two tubas
- 166: Berlioz had no confidence in Wagner's endless melody
- 167: Thalberg was carefully educated
- 168: Pollini surrounded his melodies
- 169: Is not the point of his precocity
- 170: His piece being the Hummel concerto
- 171: Upon the appearance of Paganini
- 172: The repertory of the Weimar opera
- 173: About 1852 Liszt commenced his symphonic poems
- 174: Zelter had him play before Goethe
- 175: Popularizing pianoforte sentiment
- 176: The first professors were Hauptmann
- 177: The choruses when contrapuntally developed
- 178: In 1832 a symphony of his was produced in Zwickau
- 179: Moscheles and Banck dined together
- 180: He made diligent efforts to master counterpoint and fugue
- 181: As the first number of Kreisleriana
- 182: And in the opera of Genoveva
- 183: The Schumann technique is not sensational
- 184: Spontini was a vigorous director
- 185: Rossini was fond of good living
- 186: The principal parts having been taken by Pasta and Rubini
- 187: But at length in 1839 it was performed at La Scala
- 188: Was Daniel Francois Esprit Auber 1782 1870
- 189: The true successor of Boieldieu
- 190: Gounod has two elements of strength
- 191: And many other orchestral works
- 192: And only one and two years after Schumann and Chopin
- 193: Berlioz had been the founder of programme music
- 194: Antonin Dvorak and Edvard Grieg
- 195: The most important works of Brahms
- 196: Illustration MICHAIL IVANOVITCH GLINKA
- 197: Illustration PETER ILITSCH TSCHAIKOWSKY
- 198: Smetana was a brilliant composer
- 199: Illustration EDVARD HAGERUP GRIEG
- 200: This gave Gade a royal stipendium
- 201: 479 Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung
- 202: 498Braithwaite's Musicians for an Earl's Household
- 203: 100 Entfuehrung aus dem Serail
- 204: 225French Tenacity of Vernacular
- 205: 225Mason's Enthusiasm for Schumann
- 206: 379Polyphonic Schools of Italy
- 207: A Popular History of the Art of Music by Mathews
- 208: 437Weber's Influence on Piano Playing