=Early Instrumental Music=.—The history of pianoforte composition and
playing really begins with that of the preceding keyed instruments
with strings, to all of which the convenient name of “Claviers” will
be given. As these early instruments were at first merely substitutes
for the organ, which in turn was used simply to reduplicate voice
parts, the music first played on them was in no wise different from the
vocal and organ music of the day. When, moreover, music written for
the organ had some features distinct from purely vocal music, it was
frequently inscribed to be _played on the organ or clavier_, without
discrimination.
=Influence of the Renaissance=.—As most of the patterns of musical
form have proceeded from Italy, so it was there, in Venice, that
instrumental music seems to have emerged from its union with vocal
music, and to have assumed the elements of a style of its own. This
was directly the result of the general awakening of thought after the
Dark Ages, known as the Renaissance, which, leading to independent
investigation in the domains of science and art, brought in the
once unheard-of inventions and the discovery of new worlds, and in
the other a freedom of treatment fitted to express the new ideas
surging throughout the civilized world. Thus, in the first part of
the 16th century, while Raphael and Michael Angelo were voicing
these thoughts in their immortal creations, in Venice, a school of
musicians was turning its attention toward instrumental music, and
striving to produce in music a richness of color, just as the great
Venetian painters, like Titian and Giorgione, were producing similar
effects upon canvas. Teachers and students were congregating there,
enthusiastic over the new ideas in music; and the focal point of all
this activity was the Church of St. Mark’s, whose magnificent double
organ furnished an incentive to genius.
=The First Sonata=.—Among these musicians were a number of apostles
of the Netherlands school, of whom =Adrian Willaert= (1480-1562) was
especially honored and beloved. He and his successors, as organists at
St. Mark’s, wrote compositions for organ or clavier, which they taught
to young ladies in the convents. Such compositions were made the more
possible by the fact that into the old Church Modes, formed by using
only the tones represented by the white keys of our piano, “chromatic”
or _colored_ tones came to be inserted; so that, in the course of the
16th century, the modern scales, with their characteristic keynotes,
or tonalities, came to vie with the old modes, and ultimately nearly
to displace them, thus giving a chance for a variety and grouping of
harmonies necessary in the elaboration of instrumental music. The name
Sonata, or “sound” piece, was at first given indiscriminately to such
instrumental works, in distinction from the Cantata, or vocal work.
=Willaert and His Pupils=.—Willaert was especially successful as a
teacher, and thus left a number of accomplished pupils to carry on
his labors. Of these, =Girolamo Parabosco= (1593-1609) was noted
for his free fantasias, and his improvisations of sonatas on the
harpsichord; while =Claudio Merulo= of Correggio (1533-1604) wrote a
number of toccatas, in which the old church chorale style was relieved
by contrasting passages consisting of brilliant runs. The Toccata,
or _touch_ piece, had, as its characteristics, such _quick running
passages_, probably first suggested by the light tone and action of
the Clavier. While these runs had at first very little relevancy to
one another, they were much delighted in by these early pioneers, who
sported with them as a child plays with a new toy.
=The Gabrieli’s=.—Two other organists of St. Mark’s, =Andreas
Gabrieli= (1510-1586), and his nephew and pupil, =Giovanni Gabrieli=
(1557-1613), added to the resources of instrumental music. The first of
these, a pupil of Willaert, himself became a famous teacher; and both
contributed many canzone and sonatas to organ and clavier literature.
In all these the subjects were distinct, and, in the canzone
especially, the many quick passages and changing rhythms were used in a
manner that contributed to unity.
=The Harpsichord in Opera=.—A new factor now appeared in Florence,
destined greatly to further the cause of clavier music: namely,
the Opera. Taking the position of the conductor’s instrument, the
harpsichord became the most useful member of the orchestra, and was
employed constantly to fill in vague harmonies, and to strike chords as
a support to the musical declamation of the singers. Such chords were
not generally written out, but were suggested by their bass note, over
which figures were written to show their positions. To this shorthand
system the name of Thorough-bass was given. In this way the value of
chord combinations came to be recognized, and the relationships of such
chords studied entirely apart from the voice writing; so the idea of a
single melody, supported by occasional chords, was transplanted from
the Opera, and the modern harmonic style of music came into being.
=Dance Tunes=.—But, in this new style, the old basis for Unity in
the composition, furnished by the imitation of one part by another,
had to be abandoned, since only one melodic part existed at a time;
hence a new _basis_ had to be found in the manner in which _harmonies
succeeded_ each other. In determining such chord relationships,
composers were obliged to look elsewhere than to the old Church music;
and so turned their attention to the forms of Dance Tunes which
had already been in use for a long time among the people in their
Folk-songs, and in the performances of the wandering minstrels. Most
of these dance tunes were formed in a very simple _two-part_ design
of harmony, consisting in a transition from the initial key to a
contrasting key, for the first part, and a return from the contrasting
key to the first key, in the second part.
=Origin of the Suite=.—A book of such dances, based, however, on the
clumsy church modes, was published in 1551. Later, however, such dances
came to be written in the new harmonic style; and by putting together a
set of dances all in the same key but differing in rhythm and mode of
expression, a larger form of composition was devised, combining Variety
with Unity. To this form the name of Suite was given.
[Illustration: GIROLAMO FRESCOBALDI.]
=Frescobaldi=.—Another element tending to give Unity to the composition
was developed when composers learned to work out a _single subject_,
or melodic phrase representing a definite musical idea, by introducing
it a number of times in the course of the composition, sometimes with
slight variation, but always recognizable and used in such a way as to
bind the various parts the more closely together by their similarity of
conception. Several organists at Rome wrote music which possessed such
unity of idea. One of these was =Girolamo Frescobaldi= (1583-1644), a
man who was a close student of the best Italian music of his time, and
who had, moreover, been brought into contact with Netherlands ideas
through travel in Belgium. On his first appearance as organist of St.
Peter’s in Rome, in 1615, so great fame had preceded him that over
30,000 people are said to have attended the performance. His skill on
the clavier was no less than that on the organ; and for both of these
instruments he wrote Ricercari, Canzone and Capricci, which showed
considerable unity of subject, together with fluency in the treatment
of chromatic progressions, and a wealth of invention, which displayed
itself in novel themes and unusual harmonies; his compositions are well
worth study.
=Pasquini=.—In the second half of the 17th century, =Bernardo Pasquini=
(1637-1710), a pupil of the opera composer Cesti, carried on the work
at Rome. In his toccati he shows great freedom in departing from the
strict vocal style, and his clavier works have features, like the
sustained trill, which distinguish them decidedly from organ works.
=Method of Playing the Clavier=.—The method of playing the clavier used
by these old masters was peculiar. In a work on the subject published
by Di Ruta, about the year 1600, the rules given include holding the
fingers out _flat_ on the keys, and scarcely using the thumb at all,
allowing it to hang below the level of the keyboard. The scales were
played each with _two_ fingers, according to fixed rules; so that
smoothness combined with rapidity seems to have been made impossible.
=The Sonata and Overture=.—Starting with the harmonic form of the old
dance tunes, composers now began to elaborate this to a form capable
of expressing more serious ideas, by giving more definiteness to the
musical subject treated, and by introducing material derived from
the old vocal forms. =Corelli=, the violinist (1653-1713), and the
violinists of his school, restricted the name Sonata to combinations
of such movements, in distinction from the lighter forms of the Suite;
and the celebrated opera composer, =Alessandro Scarlatti= (1659-1725),
applied similar methods to the composition of his operatic overtures,
writing them in three parts: first, a moderately fast movement, which
was followed by a slow movement, the whole closing with a movement in
quick tempo.
=Domenico Scarlatti=.—Clavier music lagged somewhat behind violin
music, owing to the greater perfection of the violin as an instrument,
and also to the popularity of the lute, which was much affected in
fashionable circles. Finally, however, a man appeared who possessed
the genius to develop the peculiar resources of the harpsichord to a
remarkable extent. This was =Domenico Scarlatti=, the son and pupil of
Alessandro Scarlatti. The latter was himself a skilful clavier player
and composer; but his son attained a proficiency so far eclipsing that
of any of his predecessors as to place him entirely without the pale of
comparison with any of them. Domenico Scarlatti, who was born at Naples
in 1683, two years before Handel and Bach, first attracted attention
when about twenty-one years old, as an opera composer; but achieved
his greatest successes as a virtuoso on the harpsichord, winning a
world-wide reputation for his wonderful playing, which was a revelation
of what could be done with this hitherto undeveloped instrument. In one
of Handel’s Italian journeys a contest of skill was instituted between
these two musical giants; and the result was a drawn battle so far as
the harpsichord was concerned, although Handel triumphed at the organ.
Scarlatti traveled about somewhat, spending most of his later life in
the position of court music master at Madrid. He finally returned to
his birthplace, where he died in 1757.
=Scarlatti’s Use of Form=.—In the matter of form, Scarlatti developed
still further the work of his predecessors, applying to the harpsichord
the principles asserted by Corelli and his school. His Sonatas were
written in _one movement_ only, and have very _definite subjects_,
which are carried out along recognized lines. His Capriccii—short
pieces written in a rhythmic and delicately staccato style—are some of
his best works, and undoubtedly paved the way for the Scherzi, written
by Beethoven and Mendelssohn. His compositions are short, but concise
and definite.
=Scarlatti’s Style of Playing=.—But his chief addition to musical
material lies in the new style of playing which he invented. Novel
effects, like crossing the hands, long leaps, broken chords in contrary
motion, rapidly repeated notes, and runs in thirds and sixths—effects
which were in many cases far ahead of his time, since they were not
used by succeeding composers until a much later period—were employed
by him with the utmost fluency, so that he has been aptly called the
father of modern pianoforte technic.
[Music: EXAMPLES OF SCARLATTI’S STYLE.]
=Durante=.—The Neapolitan school boasted several other worthy clavier
composers, who contributed in various ways to the composition of the
Sonata. One of these was =Francesco Durante= (1684-1755), who wrote
sonatas in two movements of different character but in the same key.
The first, called a Studio, was written as a free fugue with running
passages; the second, or Divertimento, was more animated and less
scholastic. =Domenico Alberti= (1707-1740) composed sonatas similar in
general form, but of less artistic worth, consisting as they did simply
of a single-voiced melody, supported by an harmonic accompaniment
having no independence of style. Much of this was in the form of broken
chords, a mannerism which was afterwards used to excess, and became
dubbed the “Alberti bass.” This accompaniment form doubtless suited
the clavichord and harpsichord, but is not so well adapted to the more
sonorous modern piano. It is still used by composers for very simple
accompaniments.
[Music]
=Pier Domenico Paradies= (1710-1792) deserves special mention as the
writer of elegant and well-balanced clavier music. He first won success
as a composer of operas, which were given in Italy, and afterwards in
London, where he finally settled as clavier teacher. His sonatas have
two movements, like Durante’s, and contain brilliant allegros, besides
attractive melodies. His two-part rapid contrapuntal work is excellent,
both for musical merit and for technical study.
=Summary=.—We have seen, then, that in the 16th century, in Italy,
instrumental music began to break from its union with vocal music; that
the Opera brought the harpsichord especially into notice in the 17th
century, on account of its availability for accompaniments, and that
finally, in the 18th century, the Neapolitan composers developed for
it a style which took advantage of its peculiar resources, and applied
them to the enrichment of the harmonic forms which were coming into
vogue.