1. MAZURKA.--[3/4] allegretto. Form 6.
Rhythm [3/4: 4 | 8. 16 4 4].
2. POLONAISE (also POLACCA).--[3/4] allegro maestoso.
Rhythm [3/4: 8. 16 8. 16 16 16 16 16] or [8 4 16 16 8 8].
The bass is generally [8 16 16 8 8 8 8]. Form 7.
3. BOLERO (CACHUCHA) (Spanish).--Like the polonaise but
livelier, and generally containing counter-rhythms in triplets.
4. HABANERA.--[2/4].
Rhythm [2/4: 8 8 16 8 16 | 8 8 16 8 16 | 8 8 3(8 8 8) | 8 8 4].
The characteristic element is the mixture of triplets and eighth
notes. Time, andante. Form undecided, generally No. 1. Very often
repeated with slight changes.
5. CZARDAS (Hungarian).--First part [C/2] (_lassan_, _lento_);
second part [2/4] (_friska_, _presto_ and _prestissimo_).
For form and rhythm see Liszt's rhapsodies, Nos. 2, 4, and 6.
6. TARANTELLA.--Rhythm [6/8: 8 8 8 8 8 8 | 8 8 8 8 8 8] or
[8 8 8 8 8 8 | 4 8 4 8]. Time, molto allegro to prestissimo.
Forms 4 and 6, sometimes 7. In the Trio the movement is often
quieter although not necessarily slower. It almost invariably
has a Coda. The Finale is usually prestissimo.
7. SALTARELLO.--Similar to the tarantella, with the exception
of having more jumps (_salti_).
8. POLKA (about 1840).--[2/4] allegretto.
Rhythm [2/4: 8 8 4 | 8 16 16 4]. Form 6. Accent is on the
second beat. Cuban dances (sometimes called habaneros) are
often in polka form and rhythm, with the one exception of
the triplets peculiar to almost all Spanish music
[2/4: 8 8 >4 | 8 8 >4 | 16 8 16 >8 8 | 16 8 16 3(16 16 16) 8]
9. WALTZ.--[3/4]. Rhythm (bass) [3/4: >4 4 4 | >4 4 4].
Faster than the old waltz. Form 2 with a coda. Modern waltzes are
often written in sets, or many different waltzes joined together
by short modulations or codas, preceded by an introduction,
generally in one period, _lento_, and ending with a brilliant
coda containing reminiscences of the principal themes.
10. GALOP.--[2/4]. Rhythm [2/4: 16 16 16 16 8 8 | 8 8 8 8] or
[16 16 8 8 8 | 16 16 8 16 16 8]. Form 6. Time, presto.
11. MARCH.--Same as the old march, but modified in character
and movement according to its title--funeral march, military
march, cortege, festival march, etc. In funeral marches,
the third and fourth periods are generally in major.
The modernizing of dance forms has been undertaken by
almost every writer from Scarlatti (d. 1757) down to our
day. Scarlatti joined sections together with isolated measures,
repeated sections and phrases before completing the period,
and added short codas to periods indiscriminately. Since his
time, everyone has added to or curtailed the accepted forms
by putting two forms together; hence the fantaisie-mazurka,
etc. Wagner represents the culminating point of the modern
tendency to disregard forms which were interpreted differently
by every composer, and which had their origin in dances.
The attempt to emancipate music from the dance commenced very
early; in fact, most of the earliest secular music we know
already shows the tendency towards programme music, for,
from an emotional standpoint, secular music began at the
very bottom of the ladder. It was made to express _things_
at first, just as in learning any new language we naturally
first acquire a vocabulary of nouns to express things we see,
such as table, chair, etc., in the same way that in _written_
language the symbols first take the shape of animals or other
things they are meant to represent. This same characteristic
naturally showed itself in music before the words for _emotion_
came, the common, everyday nouns were sought for in this new
language. The madrigals of Weelkes and their word painting show
this, and the same occur in instrumental music, as in Byrd's
"Carman's Whistle," one of the earliest English instrumental
works contemporaneous to the madrigals of Morley and others.
In France, many of the earliest clavichord pieces were of
the programme type, and even in Germany, where instrumental
music ran practically in the same groove with church music,
the same tendency showed itself.
I have given the forms of most of the old dances, and also the
elements of melodic structure (motive, phrase, etc.). I must,
however, add the caution that this material is to be accepted
in a general way, and as representing the rhythms and forms
most frequently used. A French courante differed from the
Italian, and certain dances were taken at different _tempi_ in
different countries. Poor, or at least careless construction,
is often the cause of much confusion. Scarlatti, for instance,
is especially loose in melodic structure.
It was only with Beethoven that the art of musical design showed
anything like complete comprehension by the composer. Until
then, with occasional almost haphazard successes, the art
of pushing a thought to its logical conclusion was seemingly
unknown. An emotional passage now and then would often betray
deep feeling, but the thought would almost invariably be lost in
the telling, for the simple reason that the musical sentences
were put together almost at random, mere stress of momentary
emotion being seemingly the only guiding influence. Bach stands
alone; his sense of design was inherent, but, owing to the
contrapuntal tendency of his time, his feeling for _melodic_
design is often overshadowed, and even rendered impossible
by the complex web of his music. With a number of melodies
sounding together, their individual emotional development
becomes necessarily difficult to emphasize.
Bach's art has something akin to that of Palestrina. They both
stand alone in the history of the world, but the latter belongs
to the Middle Ages. He is the direct descendant of Ambrose,
Gregory, Notker, Tutilo, etc., the crowning monument of the
Roman Church in music, and represents what may be termed
unemotional music. His art was untouched by the strange,
suggestive colours of modern harmony; it was pure, unemotional,
and serene. One instinctively thinks of Bach, on the other
hand, as a kind of musical reflection of Protestantism. His
was not a secluded art which lifted its head high above the
multitude; it was rather the palpable outpouring of a great
heart. Bach also represents all the pent-up feeling which
until then had longed in vain for utterance, and had there
been any canvas for him to paint on (to use a poor simile),
the result would have been still more marvellous. As it was,
the material at his disposal was a poor set of dance forms,
with the one exception of the fugue, the involved utterance
of which precluded spontaneity and confined emotional design
to very restricted limits. It is exactly as if Wagner had
been obliged to put his thoughts in quadrille form with the
possible alternative of some mathematical device of musical
double bookkeeping. As it is, Bach's innovations were very
considerable. In the first place, owing to the lack of the
system of equal temperament, composers had been limited to
the use of only two or three sharps and flats; in all the
harpsichord music of the pre-Bach period we rarely find
compositions in sharp keys beyond G, or flat keys beyond
A[flat]. To be sure, Rameau, in France, began at the same time
to see the necessity for equal temperament, but it was Bach
who, by his forty-eight "Preludes and Fugues," written in all
the keys, first settled the matter definitely.
In the fugue form itself, he made many innovations consisting
mainly of the casting aside of formalism. With Bach a fugue
consists of what is called the "exposition," that is to say,
the enunciation of the theme (subject), its answer by another
voice or part, recurrence of the subject in another part which,
in turn, is again answered, and so on according to the number
of voices or parts. After the exposition the fugue consists
of a kind of free contrapuntal fantasy on the subject and its
answer. By throwing aside the restraint of form Bach often
gave his fugues an emotional significance in spite of the
complexity of the material he worked with.
[13] Pier Luigi, born in Palestrina, near Rome.