Part 1 (1/2)

The Masters and their Music

by W S B Mathews

PREFACE

When a ins to think of music as a literature and to inquire about individualities of style and musical expression, it is necessary for him to come as soon as possible to the fountainheads of this literature in the works of a few great masters who have set the pace and established the limits for all the rest In the line of purely instrumental music this has been done by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schuner The latter, who exercised a vast influence upon the ht and in the selection of the orchestral colors in which it can be expressed advantageously, powerfully stimulated all composers later than himself, nevertheless exerted this influence at second-hand, so to say, never having written purely instrumental movements, but merely dramatic accompaniments of one intensity or another Hence, for our present purposes we ether Practically, down to about the year 1875, everything in instruinal with the ested by them Hence, in order to understand instru with the peculiarities, individualities, beauty, and n of the following programs and explanatory matter

My first intention has been to provide for the regular study of ais to be contributed by active nated in advance, the accessory explanations to be read froht be divided between several h which means the labor for each would be reduced, and, on the whole, an intimate familiarity with the music be more widely extended in the club Thisa part of every program less well interpreted than the others, whereby it will sometimes happen that valuable parts will not be properly appreciated The advantages of this h the defects, since the awakening influence of a course of study of this character will greatly depend upon having as many members as possible practically interested in it

While designed primarily for the use of a club, this course is equally well adapted to serve as a manual for individual study, in which case the individual himself will necessarily study every cora completely mastered each and understood its relation to the remainder of the course The only exception to this rule will be in the case where several prograiven In this case the player should take the easiest; after o on to the nextsucceeded with this, if possible let hiiven In case the latter should be impracticable for his technical resources, let hieneral features of all of the piecesand beauty as much as he can

The course is also well adapted for use as a text-book in female seminaries and the like In this case the foranization had better be observed, and the s conducted weekly or bi-weekly The teacher should remember that all the most important works, in which the maturity and mastershi+p of the composer come to their fullest expression, should be studied by theto their ability, and afterward played by the teacher himself, should he happen to possess the necessary technical qualifications When the maturity of the teacher comes in to supplement the immaturity of the pupil, after the latter has done his best, the best results will be produced

It will be noticed, and with disappointment to some, that the analyses and coush of every kind

Particularly are they free from attempts to connect each piece with a story or poetic idea In the opinion of the writer, the first step towardto appreciate music, as music

In instrumental music the development of a ures, and arabesques, and the legiti up of rounds are the phases of thought which interested the coave rise to the con lireat tone-poetry, it is quite certain that effects and influences of this kind are arrived at in the consciousness of the listener only when purely round of living hts of the co in no whit uplifted or inspired The uplifting which comes from the supposed assistance of a ”story” or a poetic idea attached to the composition by so the same in quality as that intended by the co at like ends,--the expression of spiritual beauty,--they anized ifted in music does not need the story or the poeifted in poetic sensibility does not care very n speech, trying to say vaguely and imperfectly what the poetry has said definitely and well

To put the immature and unspecialized hearer upon the poetic track as an aid to understanding a piece ofhim to expect phenomena which he will find only in literature; just the same as it would be a mistake to intrude pieces of inative literature

There is a time in both cases when these accessory or related provinces of e of each other In a poetic training this ht be at the point where the ue, mystical character--a mere soul-mood--which words express so imperfectly; or, in a course of music, when it is a question of a piece in which the composer has definitely attempted to express a poetical idea--as happens often in dramatic music, occasionally in symphonic poems and elsewhere Here the outside help is needed not so much in order to explain the s But in the earlier stages of her sense, purely musical observation (not so much technical as esthetic) coreater works signify nothing

In the course of the book there are two essays embodied which are very important to the trueForces in Music,” the first chapter, and that upon ”The Typical Forms of Music,” at the end of Part I The first should be taken up where it occurs The other e of the discussion preferred by the student or by the conductor of the class or club

PART I

THE MASTERS AND THEIR MUSIC

CHAPTER I

MOVING FORCES IN MUSIC

The art offorces, or motives, which have presented themselves to the composer with sufficient force to inspire the creation of the works we have The most important of these motives is the Musical Sense itself, since it is to this e the creation of the folk-song, with its pleasing syreater part of the vast literature of instrumental music

Aside from the expression of the musical consciousness as such, the composer has been moved at times by the motive of Drareat deal of theof the scene Accordingly, the composer carefully selects those combinations and sequences of tones which in his opinion best correspond with the dramatic moment they are intended to accompany And since ic in character, very strong and intense combinations of tones are sometimes employed, such as could not be justified in an instrumental composition to be played independently of any illustrative scenery or story

There is a third e place in the development of instrumental music--viz, the Expression of the Individual Mood of the Composer; and the further we come down in the history of music, the more unrestricted we find the operation of this motive

In the order of development, the purely musical is entitled to the first place; and it has also been the principalcause in the development of the art of rades ofto the ability of the individual reeable sy antitheses of s, all of which operate upon what are now very elementary lines, since they never exceed very simple and obvious rhythmic proportions and the ations of the music of barbarous and half-civilized tribes show that the attain is a sos of the American Indians, for exa the track of the common chord; the second phrase frequently repeats the first, and in sooes on indefinitely without any answer or conclusion In other cases a second phrase follows along the track of a closely related chord, but I have never noticed a case in which a third phrase appeared, corresponding to the first, after a digression of the second phrase into another chord

Generally the rhythht be called inarticulate drum-beats, as if an i itself felt in these insignificant pulsations; an impulse which a finer melodic sense would have satisfied by the proper antithesis in relation to the first phrase, thus leaving the ether, as always takes place in civilized music

The art of music see for the common chord, combined with a certain fondness for reverie, which in the earlier stages of the art was perhaps sees is hest stage, it is a reverie of the beautiful or the pathetic, pure and simple The existence of the harmonic sense in rude natures, where music has not been heard, seems very difficult to account for, since, while it is true that any resonant tone contains the partial tones constituting the co rude surroundings; and the discovery of the instinct of barbarousthe track of the chord is one of those unexpected finds ofto explain s, are themselves excessively difficult to account for