PREFACE.
Reading edition
The plan of arrangement used in this book has in view a combination of the recitation and lecture systems, and affords an opportunity for teachers to apply the best principles of both. The paragraph headings should be thoroughly fixed in mind and close attention should be given to the words in heavy type and Italics that occur in the body of a paragraph; together they form a convenient outline for the lesson. The questions at the end of each lesson are to be used to test the pupils’ mastery of the lesson material; all available works of reference should be consulted for fuller information than the limited space of one book will admit of, each member of the class preparing one or more abstracts to be read before the class. The review outlines and suggestions are to be used in the same way, special attention being given to written answers such as would be required in an examination.
With a view of furnishing the reader a considerable amount of material on the growth of music as an art, biographical sketches have been made short, especially since so many excellent works of that description are available at a small price. Emphasis has been laid on the work of the men who developed music, on the influences which shaped their careers and the permanent value of their contributions to music. A clear knowledge of how music reached its present state is not to be had by studying books, biographical and critical; the works of the composers must be examined, played and sung, compared, analyzed as to methods of construction (Form) and expression (Melody, Harmony and Rhythm), so that the student may appreciate the change from simple, elementary processes to the free, polyphonic style found in the complex modern piano and orchestral scores. Reference is made to representative compositions by classical and modern composers, which are part of the average teaching repertoire. The works of the earlier composers are not, however, readily accessible, although good examples of the style of the 16th and 17th centuries are in the cheap editions of Peters, Litolff, Augener, Breitkopf and Härtel, and Ricordi.
The plan of this book provides for two lessons a week for thirty weeks. This will occupy a school year and allow time for quizzes, reviews and examinations. If more time is available, the work may be divided into four, five or six terms and stress laid on the study of representative compositions, the preparation of short papers on the suggested topics, adding, as a feature to interest friends and music lovers generally, public programs including music.
Musical clubs will find in this book material for several years’ programs, special attention having been given to the lessons on modern composers and their music, the suggestions as to class-work applying with equal force to the study classes of clubs. The individual reader should follow out the suggested historical and biographical parallels which help so strongly to fix in the mind the periods in which composers lived.
Lessons III to VI were prepared by Dr. H. A. Clarke, of the University of Pennsylvania; Lessons VIII to XIV by Mr. Arthur L. Judson, of Denison University; Lessons XV and XVI by Mr. Preston Ware Orem, Mus. Bac., of Philadelphia; Lessons XVII to XIX, XXI to XXIII, XXXVII to XL by Mr. Frederic S. Law, of Philadelphia; Lessons XXV to XXXIII by Mr. Clarence G. Hamilton, A. M., of Wellesley College; Lessons XLI to XLVIII by Mr. Edward Burlingame Hill, A. B., of Boston; Lessons L to LVI by Mr. Arthur Elson, of Boston.
W. J. B.
November 1, 1905.
September 1, 1906.
CONTENTS.
Preface v
Introduction 17
Lesson I. Music of the Chinese, Japanese and Hindoos 24
Lesson II. Music of the Babylonians, Egyptians and Hebrews 35
Lesson III. Music of the Greeks: Scales 46
Lesson IV. Music of the Greeks (Concluded) 54
Lesson V. Ecclesiastical System 61
Lesson VI. Notation 70
Lesson VII. Music Outside the Church 77
Lesson VIII. The Causes of Polyphonic Development
and the Importance of the Polyphonic Era 88
Lesson IX. The Paris School 99
Lesson X. The Gallo-Belgic School 107
Lesson XI. The English School 115
Lesson XII. The School of the Netherlands 123
Lesson XIII. The Italian School 131
Lesson XIV. Palestrina and His Influence on the
Music of the Italian School. The Madrigal 139
Lesson XV. Musical Instruments 147
Lesson XVI. The Organ, Organ Playing and Organ Music 156
Lesson XVII. The Beginning of the Opera 171
Lesson XVIII. The Oratorio. Development of the Opera 179
Lesson XIX. Alessandro Scarlatti and the Neapolitan School 187
Lesson XX. Singing and Singers 195
Lesson XXI. Opera in France and England 203
Lesson XXII. The Opera in Germany. Handel and Gluck 211
Lesson XXIII. Mozart to Rossini 219
Lesson XXIV. The Oratorio 226
Lesson XXV. The Evolution of the Pianoforte 236
Lesson XXVI. The Early Italian Clavier Composers 246
Lesson XXVII. The Early English and French Clavier Schools 255
Lesson XXVIII. The German Polyphonic Clavier Schools 263
Lesson XXIX. The German Sonata Composers to Haydn 274
Lesson XXX. Franz Joseph Haydn 283
Lesson XXXI. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 291
Lesson XXXII. Ludwig van Beethoven 299
Lesson XXXIII. Beethoven and the Sonata 307
Lesson XXXIV. The Violin and its Makers 315
Lesson XXXV. Violin Playing and Violin Music 322
Lesson XXXVI. The Orchestra and Absolute Music 334
Lesson XXXVII. The Romantic Opera. Weber, Spohr, Marschner 345
Lesson XXXVIII. The French School of the 19th Century 353
Lesson XXXIX. The Italian School of the 19th Century 361
Lesson XL. Richard Wagner’s Music Dramas. Other Schools 369
Lesson XLI. Piano Playing and Composition: Clementi to Field 380
Lesson XLII. Franz Peter Schubert 391
Lesson XLIII. Weber. Mendelssohn 397
Lesson XLIV. Robert Schumann 407
Lesson XLV. Frederic Chopin 417
Lesson XLVI. Franz Liszt 425
Lesson XLVII. Pianists and Teachers Since Liszt. I 436
Lesson XLVIII. Pianists and Teachers Since Liszt. II 446
Lesson XLIX. The Art Song. Oratorio after Mendelssohn 454
Lesson L. The Symphonic Poem in Germany 463
Lesson LI. German Opera Since Wagner 472
Lesson LII. Old and New Schools in France 481
Lesson LIII. Musical Regeneration in Italy 491
Lesson LIV. England and the Netherlands 499
Lesson LV. National Schools: Bohemia and Scandinavia 507
Lesson LVI. The Russian School 515
Lesson LVII. Music in the United States 525
Lesson LVIII. American Composers:
Works in Large Instrumental Forms 535
Lesson LIX. American Composers: Vocal Forms;
Piano and Organ.—Musical Literature 543
Lesson LX. Musical Education 552
Index 561