1890.J on Evolution in Music. 67 



ensemble pieces ; and by finales elaborately contrived of groups of 

 various forms all well defined. The homogeneous character of the 

 musical material grew into an infinite diversity of characteristic 

 passages, each apposite to the character and situations in the play; 

 and the art of orchestration growing jiarallel to its growth in instru- 

 mental music, afforded absolutely bewihleriug opportunities of efi'ect 

 in the hands of a competent composer. In Weber a very high 

 standard of artistic perfection in all departments was arrived at ; in 

 Wagner, the utmost heterogeneity of which the art seems capable, 

 both in respect of his orchestration, the definition of the several 

 characters, the well-defined independent " leit motive," and the infinite 

 variety of sentiment and expression ; while the several functions of 

 stage effect, dramatic interest, and musical expression are so well and 

 clearly balanced in his best work that it is difficult to say at any 

 given moment that any one is made subservient to the other. 



The development of oratorio, not so cursed with over many faci- 

 lities, has been on parallel lines to opera, and though it has not 

 arrived at such a comj)lexity of deBnite ingredients, cannot now be 

 said to be in a chaotic or ill-developed c(mdition. 



It remains now only to point out tlie manner in which the art in 

 general has progressed, like its constituents, from limited sameness 

 to infinite well-defined variety. At the end of the sixteenth century 

 there was nothing but choral music, and a little crude instrumental 

 music, which was chiefly imitated from choral music. At the beginning 

 of the seventeenth century opera and oratorio began to emerge from the 

 nebulous state of the art, and went revolving off. on their respective 

 orbits. Instrumental music began to get independent status in the 

 Suites and Toccatas, and so forth, and rapidly divided itself off into 

 various well-defined groups. The orchestral symphony gained an 

 independent definiteness on its part ; the pianoforte sonata, like in 

 form, but quite distinct in treatment, was defined by the growing 

 skill by which the resources of the instrument were developed by 

 composers and players. Chamber music for solo instruments grew 

 up, with all its special artistic characteristics; then followed the 

 new class of small lyrical compositions for the pianoforte, of which 

 Chopin and Schumann are the happiest exponents, and their variety 

 and well-defined independence in hundreds of examples is too familiar 

 to need insisting upon. And so the art goes on, branching out and 

 subdividing into infinity of part songs, solo songs of many calibres — 

 noble, good, indifferent, and detestable — cantatas, symphonic poems, 

 rhapsodies, concert overtures, comic operas, artistic studies, odes, and 

 hundreds of other forms, each with their particular artistic idiosyn- 

 crasies and special adaptations, and all becoming by degrees more 

 short lived, more journalistic, and more calculated for quick returns 

 and rapid extinctions, to make way for fresh products, which will 

 also serve their time and shortly make way for similarly short-lived 

 journalistic productions, apt for their day in expressing the superficial 

 tastes and moods of the people of their day, and no more. 



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