THE EARLY ORGAN MASTERS
The old Italian masters: Landino to Frescobaldi--Early
German masters; the forerunners of Bach; Hassler, Pachelbel,
Buxtehude--J. S. Bach: the toccatas, the preludes and fugues,
the sonatas and other works--The early French composers:
Couperin and Rameau; Spain and Portugal; the Netherlands--The
early English masters; Tye, Tallis, Byrd, Bull, Gibbons,
etc.--Purcell; Handel.
I
Italy, which was the scene of the birth and infancy of so many of
the forms and ideas out of which modern music was finally evolved,
witnessed the first development of organ-playing also. The earliest
existing information we possess regarding organists and organ-playing
comes from Italy and reaches far back into the fourteenth century.
Francesco Landino (1325-1390) of Florence is the first celebrated
representative of Italian organists’ art. A contemporary writer gives
the following enthusiastic account of his playing: ‘The whole assembly
is excited by his organ-playing, the young dance and sing, the old hum
with him; all are enchanted. He draws wonders from the little organ;
the birds cease their song and in their astonishment draw near to
listen.’[96]
The instrument with which Landino produced such astonishing effects
and gained such a reputation was not the church organ (_organum
magnum_), which was altogether too clumsy, but the little house organ,
probably the ‘portative’ organ, called _ninfale_ in Italy (see Chapter
XIV). In the Library of St. Lorenzo at Florence is a miniature which
represents Landino seated, playing on a _ninfale_ which rests on his
knees. He was called _Il Cieco_ from the fact that he was blind, and
his great skill as a performer gave him the name Francesco _degli
Organi_. He was generally recognized as the most prominent organist and
musician of his time, and, as he was of noble family and grew up in an
atmosphere of culture and refinement, it is not astonishing to find
that he was not less celebrated as a philosopher and poet. None of his
compositions for the organ have been preserved; probably most of his
playing was improvisation, as his infirmity would render it difficult
for him to make use of the imperfect notation of his time. Several of
his vocal works have come down to us, however, and Fétis considered
them far in advance of the art of his period.
There were, of course, many organists before Landino, but none of them
seem to have gained any special excellence in the practice of their
art. Until about the time of Landino the professions of organ-playing
and organ-building, certainly as far as church-music was concerned,
seem to have been more commonly than otherwise combined in the same
person. But after Landino organ-playing became more of a specialized
department of musical art. Early in the next century Antonio
Sguarcialupo achieved much fame for his performances and in 1435 was
appointed organist at the newly-dedicated Cathedral of Santa Maria at
Florence. He was of noble birth and was a man of refined and scholarly
attainments. He evidently held the double position of church organist
and court organist to Lorenzo the Magnificent, and his playing was so
exceptional that it attracted people to Florence from far and near to
listen to it. Lorenzo treated him as a friend, and so highly did he
esteem him that at his death he wrote a sonnet eulogizing the musician,
in which Death is made to say, ‘I have taken him in order that Heaven
may be made more joyful with his music.’ No compositions of his for
either organ or voices have come down to us, but he left a valuable
collection of older Italian compositions, thirteen in number, the only
existing examples of Italian musical art of that far-off time. This
collection is now in the Library of St. Lorenzo in Florence.
The Netherlanders, who were the musical masters of Europe during this
period, were the founders of the first real school of organ-playing
in Italy. The two men who gave this movement its first impetus and
direction were Adrian Willaert (about 1480-1562), who was _maestro
di cappella_ of St. Mark’s at Venice from 1527 till his death, and
Jacques Buus (born in Flanders about 1510), who was second organist at
St. Mark’s from 1541 to 1551. They cultivated with special zeal and
preference the so-called _ricercare_, one of the most important of the
early instrumental forms. Willaert’s creative interest naturally lay
more in the direction of composing for the fine choral establishment
which St. Mark’s maintained, but Buus seems to have made at least the
beginning of a type of instrumental music that was conceived for the
organ and not merely transcribed from vocal music, thus paving the way
for real organ music.
For a better understanding of early organ music it will be
necessary here to describe briefly some of the most important and
frequently-employed instrumental forms of the period. The earliest
use of the organ in the church service was merely to strengthen the
voice parts by duplication. When the organ was developed sufficiently
to be used alone for artistic playing, the organist merely played
well-known motets and other church compositions and sometimes even
favorite secular madrigals and _chansons_. For a long time these
were purely transcriptions of the choral parts with no attempt at
variation and many of the compositions of the period were frankly
written ‘either to be sung or played.’ Little by little organists
ventured to introduce free passages of their own to embellish the
voice parts, but such compositions remained essentially choral works.
The _ricercare_ (from _ricercare_, ‘to search out’) was one of the
earliest forms of strictly instrumental music, though the term was
sometimes applied also to the madrigal.[97] It dates from early in the
fifteenth century and was an elaborate and scholarly form into which
every known contrapuntal artifice and device was introduced, and which,
therefore, was least cultivated. Originally the _ricercare_ did not
adhere to the same subject throughout, but, like the motet, progressed
after a short elaboration to a new subject. This lacked conciseness,
which, however, was won in the seventeenth century when it assumed
practically the same form as the simple fugue, and for a long time
these two terms were interchangeable. The _ricercare_ was sometimes in
the form of a _fantasia_ on some popular melody or song and in this way
many secular tunes crept into organ music as they had earlier found a
surreptitious place in the old masses. A somewhat later form was the
_canzona Francese_, an invention borrowed from the French _chanson_,
contrapuntal in character but less elaborate than the _ricercare_ and
freed from pedantry. Its first three notes were almost invariably a
quarter and two eighths, thus establishing a characteristic rhythmical
movement. Its song-like character made it a favorite form. The
_toccata_ (from _toccare_, ‘to play’) was a third and still later form.
This required brilliant execution and was in the nature of a fantastic
improvisation to display the technical skill of the performer. Later it
was frequently employed to precede a fugue and was built largely on the
development of a single figure.
Pieces called _intonazioni d’organo_ (‘Intonations’) were short
preludes, from five to twenty measures long, in the nature of free
improvisations; they were used to precede the larger organ pieces in
the services of the Roman Church. The _fantasia_ was a form of very
respectable age, probably as old as the _ricercare_. It seems to have
been descended from the accompanied madrigal, in which the instruments
played the same parts with the voices. Hawkins in his History speaks of
fantasias as abounding ‘in fugues and little responsive passages and
all those elegances observable in the structure and contrivance of the
madrigal.’ Usually they were utterly free in form, differing radically
from the more formal structure of later fantasias, such as those by
Mozart and Beethoven.
St. Mark’s at Venice was destined to play such a distinguished part
in the development of organ-music that a word of historical comment
will here be appropriate. Venice was a republic until 1797, its
government being vested in the hands of a Doge, or Duke, and a Council
made up of representatives of the nobility. From very early times
this Council took the greatest pride in the music of the grand-ducal
chapel, later known as St. Mark’s Cathedral (San Marco). As early as
1318 they commissioned Zucchetti to build a new organ for the chapel
and, when it was completed, appointed him organist and choir-master. A
second organ was built about 1370 and the position of second organist
created in 1389. These two positions were co-equal in duties, salary,
and official importance and the organists, like the consuls of old
Rome, were supposed to be men of equal calibre. They were chosen with
the greatest care from many candidates after the stiffest kind of
examination conducted before the magistrates and St. Mark’s grew to be
one of the most coveted musical appointments in Europe. A _maestro di
cappella_ was added to the two organists in 1491. His position was the
most important of the three and his salary[98] was larger than that of
the organists. He composed the special music, trained and conducted the
choirs and orchestra, and had general supervision over all the church
music. This position became so important that later a second _maestro_
was appointed with rank and duties coordinate with the first. In these
positions a long line of illustrious musicians served St. Mark’s for
several centuries.
Once started in a new direction, the Italians soon took from the hands
of their Netherland masters the development of this branch of the art
and native organists began to write copiously for their instrument. In
addition to Venice, Rome, Florence, Naples, Bologna, Parma, and many
other Italian cities boasted of excellent musicians and organists who
worked earnestly and enthusiastically for the advancement of the art of
organ music. They did not employ counterpoint merely for its own sake,
as did many of the Netherland masters, but imagination and feeling
were given consideration. Harmonically and melodically much progress
was also made and chromatic tones were much more freely and frequently
brought into use. The forms chiefly cultivated were those mentioned
above. Brief mention will be made of the more famous of these early
masters.
Claudio Merulo (1533-1604) at the age of twenty-four was chosen out of
ten competitors to fill the position of second organist at St. Mark’s
in Venice, and from 1566 to 1586 he was first organist there. One of
the greatest organists of his time, he is credited by Fétis with being
the first to write really independent compositions for the organ.
He wrote three volumes of _ricercari_ and _canzoni_ and two volumes
of toccatas. His fame as composer rests chiefly on the fact that he
advanced the toccata-form. His reputation was overshadowed by the
greater genius of the two Gabrielis, who were associated with him at
St. Mark’s.
Andrea Gabrieli (1510-1586), a pupil of Willaert and the successor of
Merulo as second organist at St. Mark’s in 1566, was one of the most
eminent representatives of the brilliant Venetian school. He exerted
a large influence not only as composer and performer, but also as
teacher. Among his distinguished pupils were his nephew Giovanni and
the German Hans Leo Hassler of Nuremberg. His organ works include
chiefly _ricercari_, _canzoni_, and _intonazioni_. A characteristic
work of his is the _Fantasia allegra_, founded on a popular French
_chanson_ by Crequillon, which is quoted by Ritter in his _Geschichte
des Orgelspiels_. It has three themes or subjects which are developed
in the style of the _ricercare_. The second subject is a free
‘inversion’ of the first and the third is formed from the second by
‘diminution,’ with ornamentation in rapid passages.
Giovanni Gabrieli (1557-1612), nephew and pupil of Andrea, was likewise
celebrated as organist, teacher, and composer. From 1575 to 1579 he
was at the court in Munich. In 1585 he succeeded Merulo as first
organist at St. Mark’s, a position which he held until his death.
Heinrich Schuetz and Michael Prætorius were among his famous pupils.
As composer he stood at the head of the Venetian school, being,
like his uncle, a great master of vocal forms and showing a special
preference for compositions for double and triple chorus. For organ
he left preludes, a _toccata_, and several _ricercari_ and _canzoni_.
A valuable and attractive work of his is the _Sonata pian e forte_
in eight independent parts (quoted in Wasielewski’s _Geschichte der
Instrumentalmusik_).
The two Gabrielis occupy a place of large importance in the early
development of organ music and may be said to be the first real
organ composers. Their _ricercari_ mark a distinct advance over
the compositions of their predecessors, especially in their fugal
construction.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1526-1594), _maestro di cappella_ of
St. Peter’s at Rome from 1571 until his death, and the greatest master
of the unaccompanied polyphonic choral style, wrote some for the organ,
including eight _ricercari_. The character of his music is quiet,
serious, and dignified, contrasting favorably with the often dull and
meaningless _ricercari_ of the older Netherlanders. Wasielewski’s
estimate of these older compositions is: ‘The impression they produce
is essentially wearisome, dry, and monotonous. They are generally of
great length and they sound like troubled, uneasy successions of notes,
wanting in contrast of subjects and strength of ideas; the eye is more
satisfied than the ear.’[99]
Luzzasco Luzzaschi (1545-1607) was organist of the Cathedral of
Ferrara. Merulo conferred upon him the title of ‘first organist of
Italy.’ A good organ number is his Toccata in the fourth tone.
Gioseffo Guami (about 1550-1611) enjoyed an excellent reputation as
organist and composer. He was organist first at Munich, then at St.
Mark’s, and finally at the cathedral in Lucca, his native town. His
_canzona_ ‘_La Guamina_’ (quoted by Ritter) is a valuable composition
and shows him as a master of form, gifted with refreshing inventive
powers.
Girolamo Diruta, born about 1560 at Perugia, was a pupil of Merulo and
organist of the cathedral at Chioggia, near Venice. He was the author
of a famous instruction book (published in 1597), ‘_Il Transilvano_’--a
dialogue on the true method of playing organs: in which work a
knowledge of everything connected with the keyboard is easily and
rapidly taught. Also how to use the hands in Diminution (which means
here the ornamentation of a subject by rapid notes) and the method of
understanding the Tablature, proving the truth and necessity of the
rules given, by examples of Toccatas by divers excellent organists.
A work newly made, most useful and necessary to professors of the
organ.’ The book contains the following rules for playing the organ
‘with gravity and ease.’ The organist must sit before the middle of the
keyboard and must not make unnecessary movements, but must hold himself
upright and in graceful position. The fingers must be placed equally
above the keys, somewhat bent but not stiff; the fingers must press,
not strike, the keys. The scale is to be played by the fingers alone,
without the thumb, which is to be used only in a _salto cattivo_ (that
is, a leap from an accented to an unaccented note), thus:
[Illustration: Music score]
The prejudice against the use of the thumb remained in force until
Sebastian Bach revolutionized the whole method of fingering by using
the thumb equally with the other fingers. _Il Transilvano_ also
contains some interesting directions for registration for the eight
ecclesiastical modes, for example: ‘For the First Tone, which requires
full-sounding quality, the Double Open Diapason, the Open Diapason,
and the Flute or Principal. To give expression to the melancholy
feeling of the Second Tone, the Double Open Diapason and Tremulant are
required....’
Constanzo Antegnati, born in Brescia in 1557, was an organist and
organ-builder, as his ancestors had been for several generations. In
1608 he published an instruction book called _L’Arte Organica_, which
is of more than passing interest since it gives some insight into the
size and structure of contemporary organs, their tone-qualities and
mode of playing. It would seem that Italian organ-builders did not
strive after variety of tone-quality, but built their instruments
almost exclusively of diapasons from 32-foot pitch to highest audible
pitch through octaves and fifths, with only a small proportion of flute
stops and rarely a reed stop. The Italian organists seldom, if ever,
changed registration during performance. The effects which were then
so much wondered at were produced more by dexterity of execution and
command of counterpoint.
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1644), Italy’s greatest master of the organ
and the most distinguished organist of the seventeenth century, was
the first to infuse expressive power into organ music. He was complete
master of the contrapuntal and harmonic art of his period and his work
bears the stamp of genius that would tolerate no rule, whether old or
new. ‘Understand me who can; I understand myself,’ he wrote as a motto
over one of his works. So great was his fame, as Baini relates, that at
his first appearance at St. Peter’s in Rome in 1614 he had an audience
of 30,000 listeners. The organ on which he played was an instrument of
fourteen stops with one manual and a short-compass pedal-board. He was
organist of St. Peter’s from 1614 until his death, except from 1628 to
1633 when he was court-organist at Florence. Instrumental music was
still in a crude, formative period, yet his harmonies are frequently
startling in their boldness and romantic suggestion; his music shows
almost complete emancipation from the sway of ecclesiastical modes;
and in the vigor and force of his subjects as well as in the freedom
with which he treated them and the expressive qualities he employed, he
was far in advance of his age. His contributions to organ literature
were numerous and important. They consisted of _ricercari_, _canzoni_,
_toccatas_, and _capriccios_, many of which have been reprinted in
modern notation in various collections of old masters.[100] He was
careful to give very specific directions, many of which are exceedingly
interesting, as to just how he wished his compositions performed.
The culmination of Italian organ music was reached in Frescobaldi and
the supremacy in this field was soon transferred to Germany, whither
zealous and gifted German students had carried the fruits of their
Italian study. Very little progress was made in Italy, in either
organ-playing or organ-building, from the time of Frescobaldi until
near the close of the nineteenth century, so completely was Italy under
the domination of the particular kind of opera so dearly prized by that
melody-loving country. A few important Italian names, however, remain
to be mentioned.
Giovanni Battista Fasolo, a Franciscan born at Asti, lived at Venice
and was known mainly by a work (published in 1645) which supplied the
organist with suitable material for the different services throughout
the whole church-year.
Giovanni Battista Bassini (1657-1716), a famous violinist and organist,
was chapel-master of the Cathedral of Bologna from 1680 to 1685, when
he went to Ferrara. Of interest is his _Sonata da Organo_ in F, in
which he makes use of the ‘circle of keys’ in modulating away from and
back to the principal key.
Vincenzo Abrici (1631-1696) was born at Rome, but was converted to
Lutheranism and in 1664 was appointed chapel-master to the Elector of
Saxony at Dresden, probably the only Italian Protestant organist of
his time. He wrote excellent church music and while at Dresden was the
teacher of Kuhnau.
Bernardo Pasquini (1637-1710) was born in Tuscany and became the most
celebrated Italian organist of the second half of the seventeenth
century, his fame spreading to many foreign countries. Most of his life
was spent at Rome where he was long organist at Santa Maria Maggiore,
from which position he was elevated to a post that was evidently
created especially for him--Organist of the Senate and People of Rome.
Domenico Zipoli (born about 1675) was organist of the Jesuit Church at
Rome about 1716 and during his lifetime was recognized as one of the
foremost composers for the organ. He published sonatas for organ and
cembalo consisting of short pieces for ritual use. Several of these are
available in modern editions and, especially a Canzona in G minor and a
Pastorale in C major, are pleasing enough to have been written by Bach
or Handel.
Padre Giambattista Martini (1706-1784), a celebrated theorist and
historian, published in 1738 sonatas for the organ and cembalo, which
were sets of short pieces hardly suitable for church use. He was
considered the highest authority on theoretical matters and was always
ready to help and encourage young musical talent. His Gavotte in F
(from one of the above sonatas) has often figured on popular organ
programs.
II
Organ-playing in Germany was nearly a century later in starting
its serious development than in Italy. As the first impetus to the art
in Italy came from foreign sources--from the Netherlanders Willaert
and Buus who had settled in Venice--so the first definite stimulus
in the development of German organ-playing came from Italy and the
Netherlands, where the art had already reached a higher plane of
development. Amsterdam and Venice were the two chief centres from which
radiated the strongest influences in shaping the development of German
organ art. In the former city Sweelinck became the teacher of most of
the organists who later laid the foundations of the North German school
of organ-playing, while many of the great South German organists were
trained in Venice or Rome.
[Illustration: Early Organ Masters:]
Top: Girolamo Frescobaldi and Jan Pieters Sweelinck
Bottom: Samuel Scheidt and Hans Leo Hassler
The first Germans to develop the art were Conrad Paumann of Nuremberg,
Paulus Hofhaimer of Vienna, and Arnold Schlick of Heidelberg, all
South Germans. The circumstances surrounding the life of the first
representative of German organ music, Conrad Paumann, were strangely
similar to those of the first great Italian organist, Landino. Both
were blind (Paumann was born blind), both were of noble family, and
both mastered nearly every known instrument. Paumann (1410-1473)
aroused great enthusiasm by his playing, he travelled much, and his
fame spread to other countries. For many years he was organist at St.
Sebald’s Church in Nuremberg, but spent his last years in Munich. He
was the author of _Fundamentum Organizandi_, the oldest extant work on
the art of extempore organ-playing; for ‘organizing’ at that period
still meant adding a counterpoint or organum to a given subject.
Paulus Hofhaimer (1459-1537), born at Radstadt, was court organist to
Emperor Maximilian I at Vienna. So famous was he that he was knighted
by both the Emperor and the King of Hungary; poets praised him and
Lucas Cranach painted his portrait. His contemporary, the organist
Luscinius, described his playing as being ‘full of angelic warmth and
power ... no one has surpassed, no one has even equalled him.’
Only the important churches in the larger towns possessed organs in
the fifteenth century. In the following century, however, interest in
organ-playing and especially in organ-building increased greatly and
organists multiplied rapidly. Among the first of them to gain eminence
was another famous blind organist, Arnold Schlick, born in Bohemia
about 1460 and organist to the Elector Palatine at Heidelberg. He was
the author of the oldest printed German tablature book (1512); in this
independent pedal parts were used throughout, a great advance over
previous organ composers.
In some of the compositions of Leonhard Kleber (1490-1556) there
appeared the first signs of what later became known as the German
school of Colorists. This school made its appearance shortly before the
middle of the sixteenth century and took its name from the effort of
composers to overload their compositions with ornamental rapid passages
(_coloratura_). Many of Kleber’s compositions display all the stability
and earnestness of the Bach period, but the habit of ‘coloring’ the
parts with meaningless ornaments soon took possession of organists
and for a period in the latter part of the century the misuse and
abuse of the art of _coloratura_ caused German organ music to become
utterly mechanical and conventional. The greatest of the colorists were
Ammerbach, organist at St. Thomas’ Church, Leipzig (1560-1571), the
famous Strasburg organists, Bernard Schmid (father and son), Jacob Paix
(1550-1590), and Johann Woltz.
As the seventeenth century dawned, the fashionable art of _coloratura_
waned and the old solid style of organ-playing inaugurated by Schlick
and continued faithfully by his followers, which had really never
been lost by the more obscure musicians, was gradually revived and
gained new strength. A new life-giving element of greatest importance
to organ music was the Lutheran chorale; from it the inane art of the
‘colorists’ received its real death-blow. Its introduction into the
church-service and the important place it held there opened up a new
perspective for German organists and offered an artistic opportunity
which finally they began to take advantage of. The people loved not
only to sing the chorales but to hear them played on the organ; the
organists naturally desired to please their listeners, and out of
the custom of organists to render the chorales about to be sung with
all the resources of their art, gradually arose the _Choralvorspiel_
or prelude. The more abstract contrapuntal treatment or elaboration
of chorale-melodies was abandoned and a new method of treatment
adopted that even up to the present time has failed to exhaust their
possibilities. The great plasticity of these chorale-preludes was
first revealed by Pachelbel; the elaboration of them was brought
to the highest perfection of expression and poetry by the immortal
genius of Sebastian Bach and their present-day possibilities have been
grandly demonstrated in the _Choral-fantasias_ of Max Reger. In the
chorale-prelude is to be found the basis of the solidity of style that
after Scheidt’s time has characterized German organ music, and in the
cultivation of this form the German organist has found the most ample
and satisfying opportunity for the exercise of his highest artistic
abilities. The Lutheran service gave far greater opportunities to the
organist than did the Roman service; in this fact is to be found one
powerful reason, among others, why German organ music advanced rapidly
while Italian organ music remained at a standstill.
The new change in German organ art is strikingly indicated by the
_Tabulatura Nova_, published at Hamburg in 1624 by Samuel Scheidt
(1587-1654) of Halle. The music in this important work is entirely free
from the pernicious influence of _coloratura_ and for the first time
chorales are treated as pure organ music. Scheidt, who was a pupil of
the great Dutch organist and teacher Sweelinck and a contemporary of
Frescobaldi, was one of the three great S’s of the seventeenth century
(the other two being Schütz of Dresden and Schein of Leipzig, all
three being born about the same time). He was one of the most famous
organists of the century and did much to set the seal of permanence
on the forms of organ music that henceforth were chiefly cultivated
by German organ composers. These forms were the figured chorale,
the prelude and fugue, the canzona, the toccata, and the fantasia.
Scheidt’s importance lies in his artistic treatment of the chorale,
an idea that was taken up with such success a hundred years later by
the great Bach. By the middle of the seventeenth century German organ
music had attached itself firmly to the solid ideals it has ever since
maintained.
Nuremberg, the old home of German art in South Germany, was also one
of the principal nurseries of early German organ art and held its
leading position until the beginning of the eighteenth century. The
first of the celebrated Nuremberg organists was Hans Leo Hassler
(1564-1612), one of the real founders of German music. He was organist
to the fabulously wealthy Fuggers in Augsburg in 1585 and after
passing several years in Venice as court-musician to Emperor Rudolph,
he accepted a position as court-organist at Dresden in 1608, where he
died. He was the composer of the melody to the chorale _Herzlich tut
mich verlangen_, which was such a favorite with Bach that he used it
in many of his chorale-preludes and also in the ‘St. Matthew Passion.’
His organ works were only three in number, but Ritter maintains that
he bore the same important relation to German music that the Gabrielis
bore to Italian.
Erasmus Kindermann (1610-1655) spent most of his life in Nuremberg. In
his _Harmonia Organica_ (published in 1645), consisting of preludes in
the twelve tones, he composed several strictly in the modern keys (C
major, D major, F major) and treated the pedal with great freedom.
The greatest of the Nuremberg organists and one of the most celebrated
of the seventeenth century was Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706). After
holding the position of organist at various places (among them Erfurt
in 1676, where he taught Christopher Bach, Sebastian’s older brother
and first teacher), he returned to his native city in 1695 as organist
at St. Sebald’s. His organ compositions were very important and
influential, among them seventy-eight chorale-preludes--many of merit
and long-standing popularity--several chaconnes, brilliant toccatas,
and chorale-fugues. He was the inventor of this last-named form, the
subject being the first line of a chorale in diminution. This form was
perfected by Sebastian Bach and in the present day has inspired Max
Reger to the composition of his great _chorale-fantasias_, for example,
_Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme_.
Augsburg became the chief centre of activity among the South German
Catholic organists as Nuremberg was the most influential centre of
the Protestant branch. Christian Erbach (1573-1628), organist of the
Augsburg Cathedral, wrote organ pieces in the style of Merulo and
Gabrieli, but in his ritual-music was much influenced by the Protestant
chorale-preludes, except that he employed modal harmonies. An important
Augsburg publication was _Ars magna Consoni et Dissoni_ (‘The Great
Art of Consonance and Dissonance’) by Johann Speth, the cathedral
organist, containing the best contemporary toccatas and magnificats,
and some important airs with variations. The first great name of this
group is Johann Jacob Froberger (about 1610-1667), who passed much of
his life in Vienna as court-organist. Ferdinand III sent him to Rome
(1637-1641) to study under Frescobaldi and he became one of the most
famous German organists and instrumental composers of the century. His
organ works--25 toccatas, 8 fantasias, 6 canzonas, fugues, etc.--are
important largely because of their great influence on J. S. Bach’s
development; his music sounds now more archaic than its date of
composition would indicate. Johann Kaspar Kerl (1621-1693), through
the munificence of Emperor Ferdinand III, likewise was sent to Rome to
study under Frescobaldi and Carissimi and exerted a wide influence as
organist and composer at Munich and Vienna. His published organ works
were largely toccatas and canzonas in the Italian style.
The most excellent and at the same time the last of the great German
Catholic organists until the nineteenth century was Georg Muffat
(about 1645-1704). This really great artist deserves a much deeper
appreciation than history has yet accorded him. His great work,
_Apparatus Musico Organisticus_ (1690), consisting of toccatas, a
chaconne, a passacaglia, and other pieces, displays as fine a quality
of artistic feeling as is to be found in the period before Bach.
‘There is a human feeling about the music of Muffat, which removes it
above mere counterpoint or exhibition of skill, and appeals to the
heart more than any of the earlier compositions.’[101] Ritter, in his
_Geschichte des Orgelspiels_, says of him: ‘In the toccata he surpasses
all previous German masters except Buxtehude. Inexhaustible in the
invention of new forms and possessing absolute mastery to express them,
he is the first who leads the hearer from the realm of mere sound into
that of real soul-inspired music.’
While organ music was thus developing in South Germany, a vigorous
school was formed in North Germany, which waxed strong largely under
influences that radiated from the great Dutch organist, teacher, and
composer, Jan Pieter Sweelinck (1560-1621), at Amsterdam. So many of
the leading organists[102] of the next generation in North Germany were
his pupils that he earned the title of ‘Organist-maker’ and virtually
became the founder of the North German school of organ-playing.
His organ works are the most important products of his genius as a
composer. He was the first to use the pedal as an integral part of the
fugue and was the inventor of the organ-fugue as a form evolved from
one subject with the gradual addition of countersubjects leading up to
an elaborate finale--a form which Bach especially perfected.
Hamburg was one of the most important centres of activity in the
progress of North German organ music. Here Heinrich Scheidemann
(about 1596-1663), who came of a family of organists, was the first
to attain distinction. He was followed as organist of St. Catherine’s
Church by his more famous pupil Johann Adam Reinken (1623-1722),
who had also studied with Sweelinck. Few of his organ compositions
have remained and these have no marks of special excellence, but he
gained a great reputation as a performer. He had a large four-manual
organ at St. Catherine’s and his great ability in performance and
in improvisation on chorales attracted people from distant places.
He was organist there for sixty years, retaining his full faculties
until his death at the remarkable age of ninety-nine. Sebastian Bach
twice journeyed on foot from Lüneberg to hear him play and was thereby
greatly impressed and influenced. On a later visit (1720), after Bach
himself had improvised for a half-hour on one of Reinken’s favorite
chorales, the Nestor of German organists, then ninety-seven years old,
exclaimed enthusiastically to the younger artist, ‘I thought this art
would die with me, but I perceive that it lives in you.’ The chief
characteristics of his organ-playing were unusual dexterity of foot and
finger and ingenious combinations of stops.
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707), a Dane born at Helsingör, was the
greatest of the North German group of organists and exerted a still
more profound and stimulating influence on Bach. He was organist of
the Marienkirche at Lübeck from 1667 till his death. With one of
the finest organs in Germany at his disposal (three manuals with
fifty-three stops, of which fifteen were on the pedal), he made Lübeck
famous for its music. In 1673 he started an innovation in church-music
that attracted international attention. This was a series of sacred
concerts, called _Abendmusiken_, in connection with the Sunday
afternoon services during November and December of each year, at which
famous singers and players assisted. These performances were continued
until early in the nineteenth century. In 1705 Sebastian Bach, then a
youth of twenty years, walked fifty miles from Arnstadt to hear him
in one of these performances and in 1703 Handel visited Lübeck for
the same purpose. Buxtehude left many works for organ, the greatest
of which are his fugues. Two volumes (edited by Spitta) contain most
valuable music--in all about seventy works, consisting of passacaglias,
chaconnes, three toccatas, fifteen fugues, and a large number of
chorale-preludes. Many of these disclose the fact that he had brought
organ music to a point of development that needed only the touch of
Bach’s overpowering genius for consummation. Among the lesser figures
that surround the giant Bach, Buxtehude towers highest. He modulated
freely into all keys as Bach did, his harmonies were often as bold,
and he welded the old threefold North German fugue into a close-knit,
organically developed unity that clearly foreshadowed Bach’s more solid
and compact form.
III
Between the sturdy schools of North and South Germany there grew the
Saxon or Thuringian, in which the best influences of both schools
interlocked. Here in central Germany, especially in Thuringia where
‘every peasant knows music’ (as an old proverb runs), there flourished
a school that ultimately was the greatest of them all and that gave
to the world Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), not only the greatest
master of organ music, but one of the greatest master-minds of all time.
An analysis of the special qualities of mind and heart that raised Bach
to such a lofty pinnacle of inspired effort will be found in another
volume of this series. Our present purpose is concerned only with his
organ works. These are both numerous and epoch-making. They carry to
the highest point of perfection in workmanship and expression all the
instrumental forms that had been in the making for a century and a half
before his hand of magic touched them with its transforming power; and
their naturalness, spontaneity, grandeur, and nobility of content and
form have been at once the despair and inspiration of nearly every
great musician since his time. The organ was the central point in
Bach’s art, as the orchestra was in Beethoven’s; it was his natural
voice, his most sympathetic medium of expression. No matter what form
he chose to write in, the organist’s mode of thought and expression
is apparent--as much in his choral works as in those for clavier.
Robert Schumann says: ‘Most wonderful and bold in his primal element
is Bach at his organ. Here he knows no bounds and works for centuries
ahead. The majority of his fugues are characteristic pieces of the
highest order, often truly poetic creations, each one demanding its own
characteristic expression and its own color and light.’ Goethe ventures
the bold assertion that ‘in listening to Bach’s music it seems as if
divine harmony were intercoursing with itself, as might have happened
in the bosom of God before the creation of the world.’
Both of his parents died when Sebastian was ten years old and the boy
was brought up and educated by his elder brother Johann Christian,
a pupil of Pachelbel and organist and school-master at Ohrdruf. His
organ training was of the most meagre description, but he was an
indefatigable worker and thinker. His first organ position was at
Arnstadt in 1704, in 1707 he removed to Mühlhausen, from 1708 to 1717
he was court-organist at Weimar, from 1717 to 1723 court chapel-master
at Cöthen, and from 1723 till his death cantor of the Thomas School at
Leipzig. His organ works number about 150, of which only a small number
were published during his lifetime. Of the total number about ninety
are chorale-preludes (great and small). The remaining works comprise
nineteen large preludes and fugues, eight little preludes and fugues,
five toccatas and fugues, two fantastias and fugues, seven independent
fugues, four fantasias, a passacaglia, six sonatas, four concertos, and
several shorter pieces.
In his early productions Bach leaned strongly toward his predecessors
in art--Pachelbel, Buxtehude, Frescobaldi, Couperin--a period of
early dependence that is to be observed in the lives of all the great
masters. He learned alike from German, Italian, and French masters,
assimilated their best influences, and acquired all their resources,
thus enlarging his own field of vision before disclosing his own
individuality. Incredibly versatile as he is and unapproachable in many
fields, the forms that he endowed with unusual sublimity and grandeur
are the chorale-prelude, the toccata, and the fugue. Of these the
fugue reveals the most characteristic elements of his greatness. The
manner in which he treated the form of the fugue is unique, without
precedent or parallel in the history of musical art. This form, as Bach
found it, was mainly characterized by stiffness, monotony, and lack of
expression. Under his hands, the greatest contrapuntist of the world,
it acquired elasticity and flexibility; he made the seemingly dry and
hard form so serve his imagination that he was able to produce real
characteristic pieces, even musical poems, which reflect his innermost
feeling in all its different nuances.
The Toccata in F shows Bach’s genius in its most resplendent light.
This piece, with its imposing and truly modern pedal solos, its
intricate contrapuntal structure, its titanic energy, and its startling
modulations, excited the boundless admiration of Mendelssohn: ‘It
sounded as if the walls of the church might tumble down; what a giant
that Cantor was!’[103] Three of the other toccatas are powerful
compositions--the one in C major in the form of an Italian concerto,
and the two in D minor, one of which is sometimes called the ‘Dorian’
because there is no B-flat in the signature and the other, majestic and
brilliant.
Of the rich treasure of preludes and fugues that he left, the great
Leipzig pieces, written in the full maturity of his power, deserve
special mention. They are the ones in C minor, G minor, A minor, E
minor, and B minor--all ‘stupendous creations,’ as Spitta designates
them. The E minor Prelude and Fugue is called a ‘symphony’ by Spitta.
The Fugue, with its ‘wedge’ theme, is the longest of Bach’s fugues--231
measures--but the interest never flags for a moment. That Bach not
only ‘violated’ rules but made his own, is shown by the fact that he
introduces into his fugue a _da capo_--from measure 172 repeating
the beginning part. The lofty B minor Prelude and Fugue is replete
with glowing beauties. Of the highest type of perfection and full
of expressive eloquence is the E-flat major Prelude and Fugue. The
Fugue, which is sometimes called ‘the St. Anne Fugue’ from the chance
resemblance of its subject to the first line of an English hymn-tune of
that name, is built on the model of the old Italian threefold fugue,
in the last sections of which the subjects are combined and interwoven
with consummate skill.
The Fantasia in G minor is one of the most majestic works in the entire
literature of music. The Fugue associated with it is not as great as
the Fantasia, but is an exceedingly effective concert piece and a
masterful composition. It is a favorite not only with organists but
with all musicians, and has been transcribed for pianoforte by Liszt
and for orchestra by Abert. Its popularity with the general public is
due not a little to the unusually pleasing character of the subject
itself, which possesses all the jollity and grace of a dance-theme.
Bach’s fugue-subjects (and fugue-subjects in general) are seldom
interesting or pleasing as individual melodies. Their value is almost
wholly architectonic. The master architect will rear a structure of
significant beauty and imposing grandeur out of a mass of individually
uninteresting and meaningless brick and stone. In much the same way,
the composer views his fugue-subject mainly as a constructional item.
His interest is centred on the structure itself and the process of
construction. Notwithstanding this objective, impersonal point of view,
it is undeniably true that those fugues that have made the deepest
popular impression are constructed on subjects that are in themselves
melodically interesting, such as this G minor Fugue, the C minor
Fugue from the ‘Well-tempered Clavichord,’ and the C minor Fugue from
Mendelssohn’s Three Preludes and Fugues for organ.
In a class by itself is the wonderful Passacaglia in C minor, which
Bach wrote as an advanced exercise (a practice piece!) for the
two-manual and pedal clavichord. It consists of twenty variations on a
_basso ostinato_ of eight measures. The theme is announced by the pedal
alone _pianissimo_ and is repeated over and over again in one voice or
another while the other parts build up a structure of ever-increasing
elaborateness and magnificence, the whole concluding with a fugue whose
subject is derived from the _basso ostinato_.
The eight ‘Little Preludes and Fugues,’ so familiar to organ students
the world over, were composed probably for his own numerous pupils.
The six sonatas (or trios) of Bach were not written for the organ but
for the pedal-clavier for the use of his son Friedemann. However,
the wonderful three-part writing makes them especially suitable for
reproduction on the organ and affords excellent opportunity for color
and contrast in registration. They contain a wealth of musical ideas of
varying moods, character, and deep expression, full of soul and life,
and clothed in attractive and often playful technique, the highest
of Bach’s art--a constant source of inspiration to the organist that
will take the time to delve into their depths. They are not sonatas,
of course, in the modern sense of the word. Of special value may be
mentioned the following numbers from them: the first Allegro of Sonata
No. 1 in E-flat, the elaboration of which approaches the modern sonata;
the Largo and Finale (in reality a masterful fugue) of the Second
Sonata in C minor; the whole of the Third Sonata in D minor, the Adagio
being of especial beauty; the Andante and Allegro (Finale) of the
Fourth Sonata in E minor, in the Andante the harmonic effects being so
full and complete that one forgets that only three voices furnish the
material; the Largo of Sonata No. 5 with its rich figuration work; and
the first Allegro and the Largo of the Sixth Sonata in G major.
The real soul of Bach’s organ art is to be found in that numerous
group of his organ works that take the chorale for basis and
inspiration. Many of these are short compositions intended for use in
the church service, but many are long and elaborate and written for
concert use. They appear in three forms, the chorale-prelude (figured
and fugal), the chorale-fantasia, and the chorale-variation. The
signification of the chorale in the services of the Church to which
Bach had dedicated the full strength of his artistic powers sank deep
into his soul and the heart-beat of religious sentiment and devotion
constantly furnished stimulus and direction to his imagination and
intellect. His chorales frequently speak to us in a language suggestive
of words, but which words cannot express, the secret remaining in
the music. Inexhaustible are the forms that thus find characteristic
expression, born of the poetical suggestion. In the chorale ‘Through
Adam’s fall we all are doomed’ the fall into sin is suggested by the
ever-recurrence of the interval of a seventh in the bass. In _Christ,
unser Herr, zum Jordan kam_ the rushing waters of the river Jordan
are portrayed by the swift notes of the bass in the left hand with
16-foot tone, while the subject is played by the pedal with 8-foot
tone. In the variations on the chorale _Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ ich
her_ in canon-form, Bach astonishes with his almost superhuman mastery
of contrapuntal devices, but the expressive power never suffers, the
mathematical element and the musical fantasy joining in harmonious and
poetical union.
So many of Bach’s works have been transcribed for other
instruments[104] that the following comment by Busoni[105] will have
interest: ‘One finds among the master’s organ works pieces of a more
pianistic character, as one finds among the piano fugues some that show
the type of organ pieces. The technical manner of Bach’s writing is in
its essence the same for both instruments. The transcription of his
works from the organ to the piano (or _vice versa_) cannot, therefore,
be regarded as wrong, esthetically considered.’
IV
The early organ masters in France were neither as numerous nor as
important as in either Italy or Germany, and no significant advance
came from France in this field. The organ was late in getting a
foothold in this country, there being no record of any church-organ
there before the twelfth century; no school of French composers for
the instrument appeared until the sixteenth century. In 1530 and 1531,
however, a five-volume collection of organ pieces was published in
Paris by the printer Pierre Attaignant, though no composers’ names are
given. This book gives a trustworthy indication of the French art of
organ-playing at that time. The collection consists of (1) original
organ music--preludes, (2) vocal music arranged for the organ--motets,
Te Deums, Kyries, and Magnificats in the eight modes, and (3) secular
songs and dance music intended for the house-organ or clavier. In
France, as elsewhere, no distinction was made in writing for clavier
and organ, though the latter enjoyed the preference, as it was also a
house instrument. The early French masters had a true understanding
of the nature of the organ. Their playing was neither frivolous nor
over-serious, but natural and free. A tendency to emphasize effective
and ingenious registration rather than the worth of the composition
manifested itself among French organists as early as the sixteenth
century and this has been a prominent characteristic of French
organ-music ever since. French organists of the sixteenth century,
however, seem to have possessed greater facility on the pedals than
their German contemporaries.
In 1626 Jean Titelouze (1563-1633), a priest of St. Omer, and canon
and organist of the Cathedral of Rouen, published at Paris ‘Magnificats
in all the Tones, with Versets, for Organ.’ His organ compositions
are of considerable merit and he may be regarded as the founder of
French organ-playing. The school of Titelouze produced two excellent
organists--Nicolas Gigault[106] (born 1645), who, as Fétis says, was
‘one of the good French organists of the seventeenth-century school,
which was superior to that of the eighteenth century’; and André Raison
(born about 1650), organist of the abbey of St. Geneviève in Paris,
published in 1688 his _Livre d’Orgue_ containing masses, an offertoire,
and a piece imitating Froberger’s descriptive music entitled _Vive le
Roy_, written for the festival which commemorated the recovery of Louis
XIV from illness. It was stated that the purpose of the book was ‘to
show organists, both male and female, who are shut up in provincial
cloisters, how to make use of the excellent novelties and the increase
in the number of keyboards introduced by modern organ-builders.’
Raison’s music shows, in the indicated stops to be used, that the
French preference for reed stops had already manifested itself.
Jacques Champion de Chambonnières (the last part of which name he
assumed when he married the heiress of an estate of that name)
was first chamber clavecinist to Louis XIII. His influence on the
development of organ music was almost entirely through his famous
pupils, of whom, like Sweelinck, he had many, among them Le Bègue,
d’Anglebert, and the elder Couperins. He died in 1670, but left no
contributions to the literature of the organ.
Nicolas Antoine le Bègue (1630-1702), organist to the king, in 1676
published three books of _Pièces d’Orgue_. He was a very skillful
organist and a thorough contrapuntist. His book contains offertories,
symphonies (the same in form that Handel later employed for his
overtures), Noëls, elevations, mass music, magnificats, preludes, solos
for various stops, trios for two manuals and pedal, and dialogues for
two manuals.
Jean Henri d’Anglebert, chamber clavecinist to Louis XIV, published in
1689 _Pièces de Claveçin_, with a supplement of some organ music. This
contains among other things a quartet for three manuals and pedal, two
of the parts to be played with one hand on two keyboards, which would
have been impossible on any organ of this period outside of France on
account of the distance between the keyboards. By the beginning of
the eighteenth century France possessed many large organs with three,
four, and sometimes even five manuals. The largest instruments had an
Echo organ, and the _Voix Humaine_ and Tremulant were as popular then
as now. The pedal-board had a much larger compass than on present-day
organs, extending from F below the present lowest C to thirty-six
notes; but the pedal had no 16-foot stops, only 8-and 4-foot, the pedal
being used, not for bass as now, but for carrying the tenor or subject.
It was later reduced to thirty notes, beginning with the lowest C as at
present.
The Couperin family played much the same important part in the
development of French music as the Bach family did in Germany and both
in the same field, that of instrumental music. For several generations
the Couperins were distinguished musicians; the post of organist of
St. Gervais remained in the family as a kind of ‘living’ from about
1650 until 1815. The most important and renowned member of this
family was François (1668-1733), called _Couperin le Grand_ because
of his acknowledged superiority in organ and claveçin-playing. He was
organist at St. Gervais in 1698, but was soon promoted to the position
of clavecinist and organist to the king. Notwithstanding his great
reputation as a performer on the organ, he wrote nothing especially
for that instrument. His paramount interest as a composer lay in the
development of the claveçin or harpsichord and his work indicates
the point of historical development where the organ and the keyboard
instruments of the claveçin or harpsichord type parted, each to travel
its own path independent of the other. His part in the creation of the
modern pianoforte school is discussed in another volume.
Louis Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749), a pupil of André Raison and his
successor at St. Jacques, later at St. Sulpice, composed much organ
music, some of which has been newly edited by Guilmant in his _Archives
des Maîtres de l’Orgue_.
Louis Marchand (1669-1732) belonged to a family that was celebrated
in the annals of French music, mostly in the field of stringed
instruments. He published a volume of organ music, some of which has
been edited by Guilmant in the work just mentioned. He had a great
reputation as a player, but his compositions betray the trivial and
superficial musician. He was appointed court organist at Versailles and
for a time was very much the fashion as a teacher. But as a man he was
eccentric in manner and dissipated in habits--so much so that the king
is said to have insisted on paying half of his salary to his wife. This
incensed the musician, and one day he stopped playing in the middle of
a mass and walked out of the church. When the king indignantly called
him to account for his unusual behavior, he replied: ‘Sire, if my wife
gets half my salary, she may play half the service.’ In punishment he
was banished for a time and went to Germany. While in Dresden in 1717
he met Sebastian Bach and a contest between the two on the organ was
arranged, but to avoid inevitable defeat at the hands (and feet) of the
great German he suddenly left Dresden and returned to Paris, and the
contest never took place.
Far more important than Marchand as a musician was Jean Philippe
Rameau (1683-1764). While his chief fame rests on his operas,
theoretical works, and claveçin music, he won a great reputation as an
organist (in Clermont, Lille, and Paris), especially as an extempore
player, and was considered the greatest French organist of his time. He
published no music written especially for organ, however.
Dom Jean François Bedos de Celles (about 1714-1797), a Benedictine
monk, deserves mention here, not as an organist, but as a builder. His
book _L’Art du Facteur d’Orgues_ contains much valuable information
about the condition of French organs in the eighteenth century and
indicates that a great advance in organ-building was taking place.
The author gives much advice for effective combinations of registers
suitable for certain kinds of pieces; he finally says: ‘The more an
organist understands how to exhibit the resources of his organ, the
more will he please the public and himself.’
French keyboard music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
showed a marked preference for instruments of the harpsichord and
clavichord type. During the eighteenth century French composers for,
and performers on, these instruments were supreme in Europe, but
organ-music west of the Rhine has been, on the whole, quite unimportant
from early times until nearly the middle of the nineteenth century.
Organ-music in Spain and Portugal followed Italian and French models
and until about 1700 maintained a place of equal importance and worth
with that of Italy. It is worthy of mention that the first musician
to raise the standard of revolt against the mediæval system of tuning
and to advocate a system of ‘temperament’ was a Spaniard, Ramis de
Pareja, born in Andalusia about 1440. There are a few prominent names
among Spanish organists, such as Félix Antonio Cabezón (1510-1566),
Thomas de Santa Maria (died 1570), and Pablo Nassare (born 1664), but
no noteworthy progress was made here, organ music exhibiting the same
state of lethargy that was apparent in all Catholic countries during
the period from Frescobaldi until the middle of the nineteenth century.
With the Reformation the Netherlands divided along the line of
religious sympathies. Belgium remained true to the Roman Church and
her organ-music developed, as in France, according to the needs of the
Roman ritual. Holland, however, embraced Lutheranism and Calvinism,
and, as soon as Spanish rule was overthrown in 1581, took a prominent
lead, through her great organists, Sweelinck (whose work has been
already noted) and Anthony van Noordt (middle of seventeenth century),
in developing an organ style responsive to the needs of the Protestant
ritual.
V
In England peculiar conditions have prevailed from very early times
in respect to organ-music. Early English musicians were easily the
peers of those of any continental country. Some of the oldest and most
famous organs were built in England and the house organ was cultivated
there with as much zeal and artistic energy as in any other country.
But, even after the Reformation, the choir has always dominated English
church-music and until very recent years the organ has been regarded as
wholly secondary in importance. All great English church-music up to
the present generation has been vocal. We find in the Anglican service
no counterpart of the chorale-prelude in the Lutheran service or the
canzona and toccata in the Roman. The organ in the Anglican service
has been employed consistently and primarily as accompaniment for the
highly-trained choirs and its independent use has been confined almost
exclusively to playing before and after the services.
Handicapped as it was by lack of appreciation within the Church,
organ-music was further retarded in its development by the curious
reluctance of English builders to adopt pedals and to give up the old
system of tuning. Until well into the nineteenth century very few
English organs possessed pedals and in these few the pedal-board rarely
exceeded an octave and a half in compass. In the matter of tuning, the
system of ‘equal temperament’ was not adopted for English organs until
more than a century after it had been firmly established in practical
use on the continent. Here again the domination of the voices in the
service is apparent. Whether this mechanical inferiority of the organ
was related to its secondary position in English church-music as cause
or effect, is not germane to our purpose to discuss.
So unimportant was the organ considered in early English church-music
that no cathedrals maintained organists until the time of the
Reformation, the singers taking turns at playing the instrument. Henry
Abington, a priest who died in 1497, is the first Englishman mentioned
as having possessed proficiency as an organist (at Wells in 1447 and
Master of the Chapel Royal after 1465), and his fame in this respect
rests wholly on his epitaph at Stonyhurst: ‘He was the best singer
amongst thousands, and besides this, he was the best organist.’
But organ music flourished in the palaces of kings and wealthy
noblemen, where organists and organ-makers were installed as regular
members of the households. The greatest epoch of English music was
also the most brilliant of English organ-playing. Prepared during the
reigns of Henry VIII and Queen Mary, it reached its culminating point
in Queen Elizabeth’s long reign (1558-1603). No examples of organ-music
prior to Elizabeth’s time have been preserved. The organ compositions
of the great Elizabethan organists were written for the house organ
rather than the church organ and are, therefore, scattered through the
numerous collections of music for the virginal,[107] for they were
playable on either instrument. Collections of music written for the
church organ, so common on the Continent, were unknown in England until
recent times.
When England espoused the cause of Protestantism, many of her Catholic
musicians escaped to the Continent, but many remained and were
protected by the Court from being molested as long as they kept their
private religious views to themselves. Among the latter were some of
the most famous organists and musicians of Elizabeth’s reign--Tye,
Tallis, Blitheman, Byrd, and Bull.
Dr. Christopher Tye (about 1515-1572) was organist at Ely from 1541,
and later became organist of the Chapel Royal. He was highly respected
for his great musical ability and brilliant education, and his style
of writing was scholarly, though singularly unaffected. According to
Anthony Wood he was ‘a peevish and humorsome man, especially in his
later days,’ and it is related that while he was playing one day in the
chapel of Queen Elizabeth, with whom he was a great favorite, ‘she sent
the verger to tell him that he played out of tune; whereupon he sent
word that her ears were out of tune.’ With him the most brilliant epoch
of English music begins.
Thomas Redford (died before 1559) was organist and choir-master at St.
Paul’s, London, about 1535. He had the reputation of being one of the
ablest instrumental writers of his time and left many organ-pieces.
Thomas Tallis (about 1510-1585) received his first appointment as
organist at Waltham Abbey. At the Dissolution he became one of the
organists of the Chapel Royal, which position he held until 1577
through the shifting religious changes of the troublous reigns of
Henry, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth. He faithfully served the church of
his adoption by writing some of its finest early anthems, canticles,
and hymn-tunes. Though a famous organist, but few of his organ works
have remained.
William Byrd (1543-1623), one of the foremost composers of his period
and distinguished in all the forms then current, was a pupil of, and
worthy successor to, Thomas Tallis, whom he surpassed in everything
‘except in happy speculations.’ He served as organist of Lincoln
Cathedral from 1563 and became Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1569,
dividing with Tallis the duties of organist. The excellence of his art
is attested by his numerous church compositions and the instrumental
pieces, many of which are for organ, contained in the ‘Fitzwilliam
Virginal Book,’ the ‘Virginal Book of Queen Elizabeth,’ and ‘Lady
Nevill’s Virginal Book.’
Dr. John Bull (1563-1628) was the most famous virtuoso on the organ and
virginal of the latter part of the Elizabethan era. He was organist at
Hereford in 1582 and in 1591 followed his master Blitheman as organist
of the Chapel Royal. On Queen Elizabeth’s recommendation he was
appointed professor of music at Gresham College in 1596, which position
he held for eleven years. In 1613 he was compelled to ‘go beyond the
seas without license,’ as was the euphonious phrase for running away.
He became the Archduke’s organist at Brussels and four years later went
to Antwerp where he was cathedral organist until his death. He was a
curious personality, but a most excellent artist, exhibiting marvellous
contrapuntal skill and originality. In his preludes and fantasias,
notably in a Fantasia on the hexachord, his modulations and complicated
rhythms display a strong modern feeling.
One of the greatest names in the history of English church-music is
that of Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), the last of the early school of
English church composers. In 1623 he became organist at Westminster
Abbey and was one of the most renowned organists of his time, but
published only a few pieces for keyed instruments--some dances and a
fantasia. All the great English composers of this period were also
great organists, for the chief musicians at the cathedral and Chapel
Royal were all organists. All excelled as extempore performers,
and, when solo work was required, they exercised their skill in
improvisation and felt small necessity for writing what they played.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century the musical art of the
English Church received a staggering blow from the fanatical ideas and
iconoclastic acts of the Puritans. Their misdirected zeal was aimed at
all art; choirs were abolished, paintings and organs were destroyed,
and priceless treasures were wantonly burned. After the restoration of
the monarchy in 1660 more liberal views prevailed and there quickly
followed a revival of musical activity. But only a few musicians
survived the years of artistic darkness under Puritan domination--they
had either emigrated or chosen other professions. The destroyed organs
were rebuilt with utmost haste and foreign organ-builders were summoned
to give aid. Among these were two Germans by the name of Schmidt, one
of whom became famous as Father Smith. These organs were still in a
primitive form, the pedal not being considered necessary and, indeed,
not being added until Handel in his concertos insisted on their use.
With the new era came also an influx of new ideas from the Continent.
Pelham Humfrey infused a more modern style into the music of the
cathedral service and the organ for a time was permitted to assume
the importance of a solo instrument.[108] Furthermore, the organ soon
became a feature of theatre and concert performances and the area of
its influence was thus widened.
John Blow (1648-1708) was one of the first of the noted musicians of
the ‘new school.’ He was chosen organist of Westminster Abbey at the
age of twenty-one. Eleven years later his pupil, Purcell, was appointed
to this office at Blow’s request, but at Purcell’s death Blow was
reinstated. He also held the post of organist and composer to the king.
He was a voluminous composer, writing a vast amount of church-music
and also a considerable number of voluntaries for the organ, of which
relatively little has been published. His style is strong, healthy,
and, in harmonic progression, frequently in advance of his time. One
of his organ pieces is a ‘Voluntary for ye Cornet stop,’ beginning
with a short fugal passage which introduces the solo. It is dignified
and effective, but the popularity of such solo effects led in the next
century to a style that brought about a debasement of organ-music that
was far-reaching in its effects.
William Croft (1677-1727), though a distinguished composer and
organist, did not exert as wide an influence on organ-music as some of
his contemporaries. He was a pupil of Blow and after his master’s death
succeeded him as organist of Westminster Abbey. He wrote twelve organ
voluntaries, but they are not published.
Maurice Greene (1696-1755) was organist at St. Paul’s, London, in
1718, and succeeded Croft as organist and composer to the Chapel Royal
in 1727. In 1730 he was appointed professor of music at Cambridge
University. He was a prolific and able composer and rendered most
valuable service to English cathedral music. He also published several
organ voluntaries, in which he departed from the serious and fugal
style of his choral music and employed such ear-tickling solo stops as
the Cornet and Vox Humana to an excess that brought into existence a
host of tawdry and vulgar imitations.
VI
There remain to be mentioned the two most distinguished names in
English music--Purcell and Handel--the one, who undoubtedly would
have founded a school of real English music had not his life been cut
off at so untimely an age, the other, who, though a German, actually
did found a great English school a half-century later on the lines so
brilliantly suggested by his English predecessor. The year 1658 may
be said to mark the beginning of a new era in English music; in it
occurred the death of Cromwell, who, with all his greatness, stood for
Puritan ideas of artistic repression, and the birth of Henry Purcell
(1658-1695), who raised the musical fame of England to a height it had
never before attained. Though he died at the age of only thirty-seven,
like Mozart and Schubert he wrote with amazing swiftness and produced
an astonishing quantity of music in every form, far in advance of his
English, and most of his continental, contemporaries in quality and
workmanship. His music that falls within the scope of the present
inquiry consists of some four-part sonatas and suites for organ or
harpsichord. One of the most excellent of these is a Toccata in A,
which possesses such unusual musical qualities for that period that it
was for a long time considered to be one of Sebastian Bach’s earlier
works. The modern feeling for key seems to be fully established in
Purcell’s music. In this respect and in the fluency and expressional
power of his counterpoint he anticipated Bach by fully three decades.
Purcell was organist of Westminster Abbey in 1680 and of the Chapel
Royal in 1682.
George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) was the greatest representative
of English music in the eighteenth century and one of the most
brilliant organists of his time; his influence in both choral and organ
fields was supreme in England until the advent of Mendelssohn. Handel’s
organ-playing brought him fame earlier than did his operas. In 1703 he
visited Lübeck with his friend Mattheson and listened with deep respect
to Buxtehude at the _Marienkirche_. One purpose of the visit was to
look into the possibilities of succeeding the venerable organist, but
one condition of the succession was that the person who accepted the
appointment should also marry the daughter of the retiring organist.
After looking over the situation both Handel and Mattheson declined the
honor. During his Italian visit (1706-1709) he met Domenico Scarlatti,
who was only two years his senior, and together they journeyed from
Florence to Rome, forming a friendship that lasted throughout their
long careers. In Rome Cardinal Ottoboni arranged a sort of competition
between them. The contest was undecided on the harpsichord, but when
Handel had played on the organ, Scarlatti was the first to acknowledge
his friend’s superiority, saying that he had not believed such playing
as Handel’s was possible. His London experience began in 1711, when he
created a great sensation by the production of his opera _Rinaldo_,
written in fourteen days by piecing together arias and choruses of
earlier composition. The _Utrecht Te Deum_ in 1713 further increased
his fame in England and in 1719 he was appointed director of the Royal
Academy of Music, which became the scene of his operatic triumphs and
trials. Later in life he turned his attention wholly to the composition
of religious works and produced in quick succession the sublime
oratorios that brought him immortality. It was in connection with these
oratorios that his organ concertos came into existence. Handel had a
great reputation as an organist, especially as an extempore player.
This reputation he was wise enough to capitalize and, as a means of
attracting larger audiences to hear his oratorios, he exhibited his
skill as performer between the acts, to the great delight of his
listeners. He was not always in a mood for extemporizing, however, and
his thirty-three concertos for organ (most of them with orchestra) were
written for such occasions, many being merely transcriptions of his
concertos for various other instruments. They are cast in the form of
either the Italian concerto or the French overture. Since they were not
written for use in church, but in the theatre, they are for the most
part in light and flowing vein, brilliant in character but free from
triviality, and serve as excellent display pieces. They contain fine
music and must be regarded as good works of art. The most important
are No. 1 in G minor, No. 4 in F major, and No. 10 in D minor. These
works became so popular that Burney says,[109] ‘public players on keyed
instruments totally subsisted on these concertos for nearly thirty
years.’
Sir John Hawkins[110] gives a glowing account of Handel’s
organ-playing. ‘As to his performance on the organ,’ he says, ‘the
powers of speech are so limited that it is almost a vain attempt to
describe it otherwise than by its effects. A firm and delicate touch,
a volant finger, and a ready delivery of passages the most difficult,
are the praise of inferior artists; they were not noticed in Handel,
whose excellences were of a far superior kind, and his amazing command
of the instrument, the fullness of his harmony, the grandeur and
dignity of his style, the fertility of his invention, were qualities
that absorbed every inferior attainment. When he gave a concerto, his
method in general was to introduce it with a voluntary movement on the
Diapasons, which stole on the ear in a slow and solemn progression; the
harmony close-wrought and as full as could possibly be expressed; the
passages concatenated with stupendous art, the whole at the time being
perfectly intelligible and carrying the appearance of great simplicity.
This kind of prelude was succeeded by the concerto itself, which he
executed with a degree of spirit and firmness that no one could pretend
to equal. Such, in general, was the manner of his performance; but who
shall describe its effects upon the enraptured auditory? Silence, the
truest applause, succeeded the instant that he addressed himself to the
instrument, and that so profound that it checked respiration and seemed
to control the functions of nature, while the magic of his touch kept
the attention of his hearers awake only to those enchanting sounds to
which it gave utterance.’
FOOTNOTES:
[96] Quoted in _Sammelbände der Intern. Mus. Gesellschaft_, Vol. III,
page 614.
[97] For example, Merulo published many _ricercari da cantore_.
[98] When Willaert, who had previously occupied several important
positions, became _maestro_ at St. Mark’s, his annual salary was only
seventy ducats or about $88. This was gradually increased to two
hundred ducats ($250), which was continued to his successor.
[99] _Geschichte der Instrumentalmusik_, p. 123.
[100] Franz Commer’s _Sammlung der besten Meisterwerke des 17 und 18
Jahrhunderts_ and Ritter’s _Geschichte des Orgelspiels_. Also Haberl’s
selections from Frescobaldi’s organ pieces.
[101] C. F. Abdy Williams: ‘The Story of Organ Music,’ p. 120.
[102] Among his famous pupils were Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) of
Halle, Jacob Prætorius (1586-1651) of Hamburg, Heinrich Scheidemann of
Hamburg, Melchior Schildt (about 1592-1667) of Hanover, Paul Seifert
(died 1666) of Danzig, and Johann Adam Reinken of Hamburg.
[103] In a letter to his family dated September 3, 1831, at Sargans,
Switzerland.
[104] Chiefly organ works transcribed for the piano by Liszt, Tausig,
Busoni, and d’Albert; but also the ‘Two-part Inventions’ transcribed
for organ with a third part by Max Reger, and the Chaconne for violin
alone transcribed for organ by Wilhelm Middelschulte.
[105] See Vol. II of his edition of ‘Well-tempered
Clavichord’--article, ‘Transcriptions.’
[106] In Guilmant’s _Maîtres de l’Orgue_ there is a charming ‘Noël’ by
him.
[107] Then the chief representative of keyed instruments in England, as
the organ was in Germany and Italy, and the claveçin in France.
[108] A voluntary ‘upon the organ alone’ was permitted after the Psalm
and after the blessing.
[109] Vol. IV, p. 429.
[110] History of Music, p. 912 (Reprint: London, 1853).