MUSIC 



359 



nobility, and surrounded them with such a halo of 

 poetry and romance that they are an important 

 addition to the resources of a modern composer, 

 and Chopin's name overshadows that of Schubert 

 and Weber, earlier workers in the same field 

 (Deutsche Tanze, U Invitation a la Valse). The 

 latest developments in instrumental music are 

 intense nationality in colour and thought, as shown 

 in the works of Grieg, Dvorak, Liszt, Mackenzie, 

 and a new striving after more definiteness which 

 was inaugurated by Berlioz. 



Vocal Music. The progress of vocal music from 

 its first great triumph in 16th-century counterpoint 

 was much slower and varied than that of instru- 

 mental. The reason of this is not hard to lind ; 

 for the conception of vocal writing in the contra- 

 puntal school was sound and artistic, and it reached 

 a point of absolute perfection in that epoch called 

 the 'Golden Age.' Thus there was not the neces- 

 sity for that advance which ever improving instru- 

 ments and the feeling for instrumental effects 

 demanded. Indeed, in choral music exactly the 

 same principles which formulated the rules of 

 counterpoint in the 16th century, must be recog- 

 nised by composers of to-day who wish to produce 

 the purest and grandest effects ; and the rules 

 themselves have V-en rather extended in seoj>e 

 than relaxed in meaning by Bach, the most daring 

 choral writer, and his successors. Where the letter 

 of the law has l>een modified it has been so from 

 within, and the spirit remains the same. It will 

 be convenient here to treat of choral and solo 

 vocal music, leaving the other obvious inbdivfaioiM 

 of sacred and secular to be treated in the articles 

 OHATOKIO and OPERA. 



M'IIKH/I/. From the invention of part-singing 

 till the end of the 16th century (Le. during the 

 course of its legitimate development in the church) 

 vocal music was entirely choral. When a solo 

 was required, the most melodious part was selected 

 from a choral movement, with what must have 

 l>een a most unsatisfactory ami incomplete result. 

 The first example of a piece conceived and written 

 for one voice seems to have Iwen Ugoti/m. a 

 dramatic scena with viola accompaniment, written 

 ( I .">s 1 1 by < lalilei ( father of the philosopher), one of 

 the Florence Academy. It was this invention of 

 Monody which prepared the way for opera and 

 made it possible. Unfortunately," the first writers 

 in this new school, which aimed after expressive 

 melody, were little proficient in the more solid art 

 of counterpoint which they affected to despise ; 

 and this tendency consistently followed out has 

 procured for Italian music its unenviable reputa- 

 tion of being gracefully melodious at the expense 

 of depth and meaning. The rude recitatives of 

 earlier composers became more and more melodious 

 till A. Scarlatti formulated the first Aria i.e. a 

 regular strain of melody, followed by a second in 

 contrast and complement, and thereafter rej>eated 

 ill, i t',,],,,}. Almost any of Handel's well-known 

 songs will furnish an advanced specimen of this 

 form, which was brought to perfection by Mozart. 

 The more serious style required for sacred works, 

 as well as the greater skill in the .</, of music' 

 which was at the disposal of composers like 

 Handel, Bach, ami Mozart, saved the Aria from 

 it* fiiends, and in northern Europe it chose a 

 slower development but a worthier end. In the 

 schools of liaeli, Gluck, Beethoven. Schumann, 

 Wagner, and Liszt the voice is treated as only one 

 instrument, to which indeed the important part is 

 assigned of giving the words intended for illustra- 

 tion the expression, however, being entrusted to 

 the whole mass of instruments employed. The 

 claims of any settled form to absolute considera- 

 tion are likewise disregarded where tin--" -<-"!n to 

 clash with the higher demand)) of expression and 



dramatic truth. Hence the opposition offered and 

 the accusations brought against all these composers 

 in succession by the professional and amateur 

 melodists of each day. None of their styles may 

 be entirely exonerated, but their ideal is certainly 

 the true one, and their work shows a progressive 

 development along at least closely related lines. 



Ballads. Alongside this scientific progress there 

 has always been the popular love of melody which 

 has found expression in folk-song and ballads. 

 Each nation has its characteristics strongly reflected 

 in these, and where they have been recognised and 

 accepted as a veritable and refreshing fount of in- 

 spiration as in Germany, Hungary, and Norway 

 the gain has been great. They are of course 

 the origin of the simple strophic song or ballad (e.g. 

 Mendelssohn's Es ist bestimint), however skil- 

 fully modern composers adorn it with graceful 

 accompaniment (e.g. the same composer's Aiif 

 Fliigeln des Gesanges). The Ballade, which aims 

 at a dramatic setting of some romantic story, 

 is the offspring of the same influence which 

 inspired Welier's operas. In this style Loewe 

 showed Schulert the way (Erl Konig), and follow- 

 ing composers have used the device very success- 

 fully (Villiers Stanford's La Belle Dame). A 

 later form is the art song which tries to reflect the 

 most delicate turn of meaning and the deepest 

 subjectivity to be found in the words. It was to 

 a great extent the result of Heine's poetry, and 

 its first great exponent was Schumann. 



Choral Music. The chosen home of modern 

 choral music has been Germany and England. 

 In the beginning of the 17th century H. Schiitz 

 left his home in Dresden to study the 'new 

 music' of the Florentine school in Italy, and lie 

 took the weakling back with him to be reared 

 among the great instrumental masters of Ger- 

 many. The noble German chorale was clm-i'ii 

 as a foundation, and in the effort to illustrate 

 the text no device of counterpoint, no resource 

 of the ever-improving science of harmony, was 

 left unused. Graun, Bach, Haydn, Handel, 

 Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn have enriched 

 the church with innumerable and inestimable 

 treasures in their Passions, Oratorios, Masses, 

 and 1'salms; and it is surprising how well fitted 

 the strict writing of all these masters has proved 

 in their hands to convey the most elevated, the 

 most dramatic, the most touching emotions. More 

 modern works are such as Dvorak's Stuluit M<it< r, 

 Liszt's Masses, &c. But the same principle has 

 always commanded the same success ; whatever 

 modern development in imxlern instrumentation, 

 harmony, &c. may be added to a composer's re- 

 sources, there is only one foundation, that on which 

 the great masters have ever built when rearing 

 their great choral works. 



Formal choruses have never been an important 

 part of operatic writing since the first rude begin- 

 nings. In plays the single characters will be 

 rather brought together, as it were, than introduced 

 with a distinct intention of giving each an equal 

 part. This feeling for dramatic truth is the origin 

 of the concerted writing in operas duets, en- 

 sembles, finales the treatment of which is in- 

 debted partly to solo vocal writing, partly to 

 choral. The handling of crowds, again, and the 

 l>est expression in music of their feelings requires 

 different treatment, and it is interesting to com- 

 pare how each great reformer has approached the 

 problem. Curiously enough, it is the composers 

 who have shown tlie greatest capacity for many- 

 part writing who have most successfully given 

 the correct impression. No two works are wider 

 asunder than Bach's Matthew Passion (17'2!) 

 and Wagner's Meisteriringer (1867); and yet it 

 is impossible to deny that the single terrible 



