ON THE LIVES AND ART PRINCIPLES OF SOME SEVENTEENTH AND
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY COMPOSERS
There is much of value to the student to be derived from a
study of the lives and art principles of the composers of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. To go back to an earlier
period would hardly be worth while, as the music composed in
those days is too much obscured by the uncertainty of tradition
and the inevitable awkwardness of expression that goes with
all primitiveness in art.
The first whom I would mention are Don Carlo Gesualdo, Prince
of Venosa, and Ludovico Viadana.
The former was a nephew of the Archbishop of Naples, was born
in 1550, and died in 1613. His name is important from the fact
that he went boldly beyond Monteverde, his contemporary, in the
use of the new dissonant chords (sevenths and ninths) which
were just beginning to be employed, and adopted a chromatic
style of writing which strangely foreshadowed the chromatic
polyphonic style of the present century. He wrote innumerable
madrigals for a number of voices, but his innovations remained
sterile so far as the development of music is concerned, for
the reason that while his music often acquired a wonderful
poignancy for his time by the use of chromatics, just as often
it led him into the merest bramble bush of sound, real music
being entirely absent.
Viadana (1566-1645) has been placed by many historians of
music in the same category as Guido d'Arezzo (who is credited
with having invented solmization, musical notation, etc.),
Palestrina, Monteverde and Peri, who are famed, the one for
having discovered the dominant ninth chord, and the other
for the invention of opera. Viadana is said to have been the
first to use what is called a _basso continuo_, and even the
figured bass. The former was the uninterrupted repetition of
a short melody or phrase in the bass through the entire course
of a piece of music. This was done very often to give a sense
of unity that nowadays would be obtained by a repetition of
the first thought at certain intervals through the piece. The
figured (or better, ciphered) bass was an entirely different
thing. This device, which is still employed, consisted of
the use of figures to indicate the different chords in music.
These figures or ciphers were written over or under the bass
note on which the chord represented by the figures was to be
played or sung. A 5 over or under a bass note meant that with
that note a perfect major triad was to be sounded, considering
the note written as the root of the chord; a 3 was taken to
stand for a perfect minor triad; a 6 for the chord of the sixth
(first inversion of a triad), and 6/4 for the second inversion;
a line through a 5 or 7 meant that the triad was a diminished
fifth or a diminished seventh chord; a cross indicated a leading
tone; a 4 stood for the third inversion of the dominant seventh
chord. This system of shorthand, as it may be called, was and
is still of tremendous value to composers. In the olden days,
particularly, when many of the composers engraved their own
music for publication, it saved a great deal of labour. It is
probably not generally known that the engraving of music by
the composer was so common; but such was the case with Bach,
Rameau, and Couperin.
And this reminds me that the embellishments, as they were
called, which are so common in all harpsichord and clavichord
music, were also noted in a kind of shorthand, and for precisely
the same reason. The embellishments themselves originated
from the necessity for sustaining in some way the tone of
the instrument, which gave out little, dry, clicklike sounds;
if the melody were played in simple notes, these sounds would
mingle with the accompaniment and be lost in it. Therefore,
the embellishments served to sustain the tones of the melody,
and thus cause them to stand out from the accompaniment. Their
notation by means of symbols copied from the primitive _neumes_
vastly facilitated the work of engraving. Much confusion arose
in the notation of embellishments, owing to the fact that each
composer had his own system of symbols.
Alessandro Scarlatti and his son Domenico, both celebrated in
their day, are the next to demand attention. The former was
born about 1650 and died about 1725. He wrote many operas of
which we know practically nothing. His son was born about 1685
and died in 1757. He was the most celebrated harpsichord player
of his time; and although his style, which was essentially one
of virtuosity, was not productive of direct results, it did
nevertheless foreshadow the wonderful technical achievements
of Liszt in our own times. It is indeed a great pity that
Domenico Scarlatti's work did not bear more direct fruit in his
day, for it would have turned Mozart, as well as many others,
from the loose, clumsy mannerisms of the later virtuoso style,
which ran to the Alberti bass and other degrading platitudes,
paralleled in our comparatively modern days by the Thalberg
arpeggios, repeating notes, Doehler trill, etc.
Two masters in music, Haendel and J.S. Bach, were born the
same year, 1685; their great French contemporary, Rameau,
was born two years earlier and died in 1764; while Haendel
died in 1759, and Bach in 1750. Bach was destined to give
to the world its first glimpse of the tremendous power of
music, while Rameau organized the elements of music into a
scientific harmonic structure, laying the foundation for our
modern harmony. Haendel's great achievement (besides being a
fine composer) was to crush all life out of the then promising
school of English music, the foundation for which had been so
well laid by Purcell, Byrd, Morley, etc.
Jean Philippe Rameau was born in Dijon, and after travels in
Italy and a short period of service as organist at Clermont,
in Auvergne, went to Paris. There he wrote a number of small
vaudevilles or musical comedies, which were successful; and
his music for the harpsichord, consisting almost exclusively
of small pieces with descriptive titles, soon began to be
widely played in France. Much later in life he succeeded
in obtaining a hearing for his operas, the first of which,
"Hippolyte et Aricie," was given in 1732, when he was fifty
years old. For thirty-two years his operas continued to hold
the French stage against those of all foreigners.
His style marked a great advance over that of Lully, the
Italian, of the century before. Rameau aimed at clearness
of diction and was one of the first to attempt to give
individuality to the different orchestral instruments. By
some strange coincidence, his first opera had much the same
dramatic situation that all the early operas seemed to have,
namely, a scene in the infernal regions. Rameau's operas
never became the foundation for a distinctly French opera,
for at the time of his death (1764), Italian opera troupes had
already introduced a kind of comedy with music, which rapidly
developed into opera comique; it was reserved for Gluck,
the German, to revive grand opera in France.
As a theoretician, Rameau exerted tremendous influence upon
music. He discovered that the chord which we call the perfect
major triad was not merely the result of an artificial training
of the ear to like certain combinations of sounds, but that
this chord was inherent in every musical sound, constituting,
as it does, the first four harmonics or overtones. All chords,
therefore, that were not composed of thirds placed one above
the other, were inversions of fundamental chords. This theory
holds good in the general harmonic system of to-day. But
although the major triad and even the dominant seventh chord
could be traced back to the harmonics, the minor triad proved
a different matter; after many experiments Rameau gave it up,
leaving it unaccounted for.
Rameau was also largely instrumental in gaining recognition for
the desirability of dividing the octave into twelve equal parts,
making all the so-called half-tones recur at mathematically
equal distances from each other in the chromatic scale. In
1737 his work on the generation of chords through overtones
caused the equal temperament system of tuning to be generally
accepted, and the old modes, with the exception of the Ionian
and Aeolian, to be dropped out of use. The former became known
as major and the latter as minor, from the third, which was
large in the Ionian and small in the Aeolian.
Haendel, as before stated, was born in 1685 (February 23), in
Halle, in the same year as J.S. Bach, who was a month younger
(born March 21). His father was a barber, who, as was common
in those days, combined the trade of surgery, cupping, etc.,
with that of hairdressing. He naturally opposed his son's
bent toward music, but with no effect. At fifteen years of
age, Haendel was beginning to be well known as a clavichord
and organ player, in the latter capacity becoming specially
celebrated for his wonderful improvisations. In spite of an
attempt to make a lawyer of him, he persisted in taking music
as his vocation, after the death of his father.
In Hamburg, whither he went in 1703, he obtained a place among
the second violins in the opera orchestra.[15] Realizing that
in Germany opera was but a reflection of Italian art, he left
Hamburg in 1707 and went to Italy, where he soon began to make
a name for himself, both as performer and composer. One of his
operas, "Agrippa," was performed at Venice during the Carnival
season of 1710.
The Hanoverian kapellmeister, Staffani, was present and invited
him to Hanover, whither he went, becoming Staffani's successor
in the service of the Elector of Hanover. Several trips to
England, where he was warmly welcomed, resulted in his accepting
from Queen Anne, in 1713, a salary of two hundred pounds yearly,
thus entering her service, notwithstanding his contract with
the Elector. In 1714 the Queen died, and the Elector of
Hanover was called to the English throne under the title of
George I. Haendel, in order to escape the impending disgrace
occasioned by having broken faith with his former employer,
wrote some music intended to be particularly persuasive, and
had it played on a barge that followed a royal procession up
the Thames. This "Water Music," as it was called, procured
for him the King's pardon.
From this time he lived in England, practically monopolizing
all that was done in music. In 1720 a company for the giving
of Italian opera was formed, and Haendel placed at its head. In
1727, on the occasion of the accession of George II, Haendel
wrote four anthems, one of which "Zadok the Priest," ends
with the words "God save the King," from which it has been
erroneously stated that he wrote the English national hymn.
In 1737 Haendel gave up the writing of operas, after sinking
most of his own savings in the undertaking, and began to write
oratorios, the germs of which are found in the old Mysteries and
Passion plays performed on a platform erected in the chapel or
oratory of a church. Much has been written about Haendel's habit
of taking themes from other composers, and he was even dubbed
the "grand old robber." It must not be overlooked, however,
that although he made use of ideas from other composers, he
turned them to the best account. By 1742 Haendel was again in
prosperous circumstances, his "Messiah" having been a tremendous
success. From that time until his death he held undisputed sway,
although his last years were clouded by a trouble with his eyes,
which were operated upon unsuccessfully by an English oculist,
named Taylor, who had also operated on Bach's eyes with the
same disastrous result. Haendel became completely blind in
1752. Up to the last year of his life he continued to give
oratorio concerts and played organ concertos, of which only
the _tutti_ were noted, he improvising his part.
Haendel's strength lay in his great ability to produce
overwhelming effects by comparatively simple means. This is
especially the case in his great choruses which are massive
in effect and yet simple to the verge of barrenness. This,
of course, has no reference to the absurd _fioriture_ and
long passage work given to the voices,--an Italian fashion of
the times,--but to the contrapuntal texture of the work. Of
his oratorios, "The Messiah" is the best known. Two of his
"Concerti Grossi," the third and sixth, are sometimes played
by string orchestras. Of his harpsichord music we have the
eight "Suites" of 1720 (among which the one in E is known as
having the variations called "The Harmonious Blacksmith"),
and a number of "Harpsichord Lessons," among which are six
fugues. All these may be said to have little value.
J.S. Bach differed in almost every respect from Haendel,
except that he was born in the same year and was killed by
the same doctor. While Haendel left no pupils, with perhaps
the exception of his assistant organist, Bach aided and taught
his own celebrated sons, Krebs, Agricola, Kittel, Kirnberger,
Marpurg, and many other distinguished musicians. Bach twice made
an effort to see Haendel at Halle, but without success. On the
other hand, there are reasons for believing that Haendel never
took the trouble to examine any of Bach's clavichord music. He
lived like a conqueror in a foreign land, writing operas,
oratorios, and concertos to order, and stealing ideas right and
left without compunction; whereas Bach wrote from conviction,
and no charge of plagiarism was ever laid at his door. Haendel
left a great fortune of twenty thousand pounds. Bach's small
salary at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig made it necessary
for him to do much of his own engraving; and at his death,
though he had helped many young struggling artists, his
widow was left so poor that she had to be supported by public
benevolence. Bach's works were neglected by his contemporaries,
and it was only in the nineteenth century that he began to be
appreciated in a way commensurate with his worth.
Bach was born in Eisenach, in Thuringia, and it is of
interest to know that as far back as his great grandfather,
Veit Bach (born about 1550), music had been the profession
of the family. Bach's parents died when he was a boy of ten,
and his education was continued by his elder brother, Johann
Christoph, at a town near Gotha, where he held a position as
organist. The boy soon outstripped his brother in learning,
and continued his studies wholly by himself.
After filling a position as organist at Weimar, in 1703 he
accepted one at a small town, Arnstadt, at a salary of about
fifty-seven dollars yearly. He had already begun to compose,
and possibly in imitation of Kuhnau, whose so-called "Bible"
sonatas were at the time being talked about, he wrote an
elaborate clavichord piece to illustrate the departure of his
brother, Johann Jakob, who had entered the service of Charles
XII of Sweden as oboist. This composition is divided into five
parts, each bearing an appropriate superscription and ending
with an elaborate fugue to illustrate the postillion's horn. I
believe this is the only instance of his having written actual
programme music. After leaving Arnstadt he filled positions as
organist at Muehlhausen, Weimar, Coethen, etc. It was before
1720 that he paid his two visits to Halle in the hope of
seeing Haendel. At this time he had already written the first
part of the "Wohltemperierte Clavier," the violin sonatas,
and many other great works. Ten years later, when Haendel again
came to Germany, Bach was too ill to go to see him personally,
but sent his eldest son to invite Haendel to come and see him,
although without success.
In 1723 he obtained the position of Cantor at the St.
Thomas School, in Leipzig, left vacant by the death of Kuhnau;
here he remained until his death. In 1749 the English oculist,
Taylor, happened to be in Leipzig. On the advice of friends,
Bach submitted to an operation on his eyes, which had always
troubled him. The failure of this operation rendered him
totally blind and the accompanying medical treatment completely
broke him down. On the eighteenth of July, 1750, he suddenly
regained his sight, but it was accompanied by a stroke of
paralysis from which he died ten days later.
So far as his church music is concerned, Bach may be considered
as the Protestant compeer of the Roman Catholic, Palestrina,
with the difference that his music was based on the tonalities
of major and minor and that his harmonic structure was founded
on a scientific basis. What is mere wandering in Palestrina,
with Bach is moving steadily forward with a well-defined object
in view. With Bach, music is cast in the definite mould of
tonality, while with Palestrina the vagueness of the modes lends
to his music something of mystery and a certain supernatural
freedom from _human will_, so prominent a characteristic
of Bach's compositions. In considering Bach's music we must
forget the technique, which was merely the outside dress of
his compositions. His style was the one of the period, just as
he wore a wig, and buckles on his shoes. His music must not be
confounded with the contrapuntal style of his utterance, and
although he has never been surpassed as a scientific writer
of counterpoint, it would be unjust to look there for his
chief glory. As a matter of fact, when his scientific speech
threatened to clash with the musical idea in his composition,
he never hesitated to sacrifice the former to the latter. Thus
Bach may be considered the greatest musical scientist of his
time as well as the greatest breaker of mere rules.
Of his sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel is the most celebrated,
and did much to prepare the way for Haydn in the development
of the sonata. J.S. Bach wrote many sonatas, but none for the
clavichord; his sonatas were for the violin and the 'cello
alone, a great innovation. The violin sonatas bring into
play all the resources of the instrument; indeed it is barely
possible to do them justice from the technical standpoint. His
"Wohltemperierte Clavier" naturally was a tremendous help to
clavichord technique, and even now the "Chromatic Fantaisie"
and other works require fine pianists to perform them properly.
In considering the development of music, it must always be
remembered that Haydn, Mozart, and their contemporaries knew
little or nothing of Bach's works, thus accounting for what
otherwise would seem a retrograde movement in art. C.P.E. Bach
(born 1714) was much better known than his father; even Mozart
said of him, "He is the father, and we are mere children." He
was renowned as a harpsichord player, and wrote many sonatas
which form the connecting link between the suite and the
sonata. He threw aside the polyphonic style of his father
and strove to give his music new colour and warmth by means
of harmony and modulation. He died in 1788 in Hamburg, where
he was conductor of the opera. It should be mentioned that he
wrote a method of clavichord playing on which, in later days,
Czerny said that Beethoven based his piano teaching.
Up to the period now under consideration, music for the
orchestra occupied a very small part in the composer's work. To
be sure, J.S. Bach wrote some suites, and separate movements
were written in the different dance forms for violins, with
sometimes the addition of a few reed instruments, and possibly
flutes and small horns or trumpets. It is in the works of
C.P.E. Bach, however, that we find the germ of symphonic
orchestral writing that was to be developed by Haydn, Mozart,
and Beethoven. The so-called "symphonies" by Emanuel Bach are
merely rudimentary sonatas written for strings, with flutes,
oboes, bassoons, trumpets, etc., and have practically no
artistic significance except as showing the inevitable trend of
musical thought toward greater power of expression. In Germany
(and indeed everywhere else) the Italian element had full sway
over opera, and non-Italian musicians were forced into writing
for the concert room instead of the stage. Even Beethoven had
many disappointments in connection with his one opera "Fidelio,"
and so strong was the Italian influence, that here in America
we are only just now (1897) recovering from the effects of it.
Franz Joseph Haydn was born near Vienna, in 1732, of humble
parents, his mother a cook in a count's family, and his father
a wheelwright and sexton of the parish church. When a young boy
Haydn had a fine voice, on account of which he was admitted as a
member of the choir at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. This
entitled him to admission to St. Stephen's School, connected
with the cathedral, in which the city paid for the board and
lodging as well as the instruction of the singers. When the
boys' voices changed or "broke," however, they were turned
adrift. On leaving the cathedral, Haydn suffered the direst
poverty, engaging himself at one time as valet to the Italian
singing teacher, Porpora, in order to secure some lessons.
He gradually managed to make himself known, and was engaged
by Count Morzin, a rich nobleman, to organize an orchestra of
about eighteen, which the count retained in his service with
Haydn as leader. Here he wrote his first symphony (for strings,
two oboes and two horns, in three movements) and a number of
smaller works. When he was twenty-nine, Count Morzin gave up
his establishment and Haydn entered the service of Prince Paul
Esterhazy, in Eisenstadt, Hungary, in the same capacity. Here
he had an orchestra of sixteen, composed of good musicians, whom
he could call up at any hour of the night to play if he wished,
and over whom he had complete control. Although the contract
by which he was engaged names the most degrading conditions,
and places Haydn on a par with all the other servants, the pay,
though small (two hundred dollars yearly), was certain and
regular. From this time Haydn was free from the hardships of
poverty. His salary was soon increased to five hundred dollars,
and he made as much more from his compositions. He wrote over
one hundred and twenty-five symphonies, sixty-eight trios,
seventy-seven quartets, fifty-seven concertos, fifty-seven
sonatas, eight oratorios and cantatas, and nineteen operas,
besides innumerable smaller things, for instance, between five
hundred and six hundred vocal pieces. His operas, of course,
are mere trifles compared with our more modern ones.
His friendship for Mozart is well known. As for his relations
with Beethoven, it is probable that their disagreement was
merely the effect of pride, and perhaps a certain amount
of laziness on one side and youthful bumptiousness on the
other. Haydn was returning to Vienna _via_ Bonn, from England,
where he had been welcomed by the wildest enthusiasm, when
Beethoven called on him to ask for his opinion as to his talent
as a composer. It resulted in Beethoven's going to Vienna.
After taking a few lessons of Haydn he went to another teacher
and made all manner of contemptuous remarks about Haydn,
declaring he had not learned anything from him.
After two highly successful visits to England, in 1792 and 1794,
Haydn returned to Vienna and wrote his two celebrated cantatas,
"The Creation" and "The Seasons." His last appearance in public
was when he attended a performance of "The Creation" in 1808,
at the age of seventy-six. He was received with a fanfare of
trumpets and cheers from the audience. After the first part he
was obliged to leave, and as he was being carried out by his
friends, he turned at the door and lifted his hands towards the
orchestra, as if in benediction; Beethoven kissed his hand,
and everyone paid him homage. He died during the bombardment
of Vienna by the French, May 31, 1809.
Haydn's later symphonies have been very cleverly compared
with those of Beethoven by the statement that the latter wrote
tragedies and great dramas, whereas Haydn wrote comedies and
charming farces. As a matter of fact, Haydn is the bridge
between the idealized dance and independent music. Although
Beethoven still retained the form of the dance, he wrote great
poems, whereas the music of Haydn always preserves a tinge of
the actual dance. With Haydn, music was still an art consisting
of the weaving together of pretty sounds, and although _design_,
that is to say, the development of the emotional character
of a musical thought, was by no means unknown to him, that
development was never permitted to transcend the limits of a
certain graceful euphony which was a marked characteristic
of his style. His use of orchestral instruments represents
a marked advance on that of C.P.E. Bach, and certainly very
materially helped Mozart.
Of Mozart we probably all know something. Born at Salzburg,
in 1756, his was a short life, for he died in 1791. We know
of his great precocity; his first compositions were published
when he was six years old, at which age he was already playing
in concerts with his eleven-year old sister, and was made much
of by the titled people before whom he played. The rest of
his life is one continual chronicle of concerts given all over
Europe, interrupted at intervals by scarlet fever, smallpox,
and other illnesses, until the last one, typhoid fever, caused
his death. During his stay in Italy he wrote many operas in
the flowery Italian style which, luckily, have never been
revived to tarnish his name.
His first works worthy of mention are the clavier concertos and
several symphonies and quartets, which date from about 1777. His
first important opera is "Idomeneo, King of Crete," written for
the Munich opera. In this he adopts the principles of Gluck,
thus breaking away from the wretched style of the Italian
opera of the period, although the work itself was written in
Italian. His next opera was in German, "Die Entfuehrung aus
dem Serail," and was given with great success at Vienna, in
1782. It was followed by "The Marriage of Figaro," "Don Juan,"
and the "Magic Flute."
The story of his death is well known. A stranger, who turned
out to be the steward of Count Walsegg, came to him and
ordered a requiem, which was played in 1793 as Walsegg's own
composition. Mozart thought the man a messenger from the other
world. He died before he completed the work. So great was his
poverty that it was difficult to get a priest to attend him,
and a physician who was summoned would come only after the play
he was attending was ended. He had a "third class" funeral,
and as a fierce storm was raging, no one accompanied the body
to the grave. His widow gave a concert, and with the help of the
Emperor money enough was raised to pay the outstanding debts.
It is difficult to give an adequate idea of Mozart's works. He
possessed a certain simple charm of expression which,
in its directness, has an element of pathos lacking in the
comparatively jolly light-heartedness of Haydn. German opera
profited much from his practically adopting the art principles
of Gluck, although it must be confessed that this change in
style may have been simply a phase of his own individual art
development. His later symphonies and operas show us the man
at his best. His piano works and early operas show the effect
of the "virtuoso" style, with all its empty concessions to
technical display and commonplace, ear-catching melody.
[15] At that time the harpsichord player was a very important
member of an orchestra, as he accompanied the recitative
from figured bass and was practically the conductor. On
one occasion when the harpsichordist was absent Haendel
took his place with so much success that it paved the
way for a hearing of his operas.