Part 19

=Dance Tunes=.—A clavier composition is extant, dated 1555, by =William Blitheman=, an English church composer, consisting of a chorale-like melody in whole notes, accompanied first by a flowing eighth-note figure, and next by triplet quarter notes, with a third voice added later. Such a serious style prefigured the variations upon dance tunes, which were especially cultivated by =William Byrd= (1538-1623). In such variations the melody was first harmonized in simple fashion, and was afterwards played several times in the same part, with slight changes, while the accompanying parts were varied in rhythm and style, becoming generally quicker in tempo. To modern ears the result is monotonous, as the same key and time signature is maintained throughout; but the variety in presentation must have been grateful after the simplicity of the dance tunes.

=The Virginal Book=.—Other popular forms were the Fancie, in which several melodic subjects were imitated in the various voices; and the Pavane, a dance in common time, whose theme was repeated in the following Galliarde, a dance in triple time. These and other forms are used in a curious collection of clavier pieces now preserved at Cambridge, and known as Queen Elizabeth’s Virginal Book. This collection, consisting of four hundred and eighteen manuscript pages, written on a six-lined staff, contains seventy compositions by Byrd, besides others by most of the composers of the Elizabethan era, like Tallis, Dr. Bull, Giles, Farnaby and many others.

=Leading Elizabethan Composers=.—Byrd was a pupil of =Thomas Tallis= (d. 1585), the renowned church composer, and together they were made organists of Queen Elizabeth’s Chapel, in 1575, receiving also the sole right to print music. Another musician who deserves special mention is =Dr. John Bull= (1563-1628), who won world-wide fame as organist and clavier player, finally becoming organist at Antwerp Cathedral, which post he held until his death. His clavier compositions show great technical fluency. =Orlando Gibbons= (1583-1625), a Doctor of Music at Oxford, and organist at Westminster Abbey, wrote excellently in the prevailing style. Shakespeare testifies to the popularity of clavier playing at this time in one of his sonnets, where he speaks of the keys as

“O’er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait.”

Although these early English composers wrote with musical solidity, their compositions can scarcely be said to have added much to the development of the instrumental style, or to clavier technic; and, in fact, they amounted to little more than a side issue in music, withdrawn from the general advancement, and valuable chiefly as curiosities. The melodies were apt to be wearisome, through monotonous repetitions, the rhythms to lack variety, and the modulations to appear chiefly in the form of unsuccessful attempts.

=The Parthenia=.—During the first half of the 17th century the virginal retained its popularity, although political turmoils prevented much positive advancement in music. The “Parthenia,” a volume containing the first printed collection of virginal music, appeared in 1611, composed of twenty-one pieces by Byrd, Bull and Gibbons; and a similar volume followed, with compositions for virginal and bass viol, by Robert Hole.

=Purcell=.—In the reign of Charles II (1660-1685) music again came to the fore, and was ably promoted by =Henry Purcell=, who was born in the year when Cromwell died, 1658, and died in 1695. Purcell is a shining figure in English musical history, through his ability as an opera composer, in which capacity he produced bright and pithy works, thoroughly English in spirit, and healthy in tone. He published a volume of twelve clavier sonatas in 1683, with parts also for two violins and a bass viol, founded on the model of the Italian violin sonatas, each having an Adagio, a Canzona, a slow movement and an Air. Later he published other sonatas, besides suites and separate pieces for the clavier. Upon the advent of Handel, however, the English composers became, for the most part, mere imitators of his style, which had so caught the national ear as to well-nigh eclipse all other kinds of music. The early English school, therefore, can be said to have had its last exponent in the person of Purcell.

=Rise of the French School=.—In France a school of clavier compositions developed during the brilliant reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715), which did much toward imparting elegance and polish, besides characteristic rhythms and technical figures, to clavier music. The head of this school and the personal teacher of many succeeding clavier composers and players was =Andre Champion de Chambonnières= (d. 1670), who became court clavier player to the king. He is said to have been master of a full tone on the harpsichord attained by none other than himself; he also published two books of clavier compositions, written in the pure harmonic style, and showing the tendency toward brilliant embellishments which became a characteristic of his successors. Of his pupils, =Jean Henry d’Anglebert= (d. 1691), was clavier player at court, and published in 1689 a book containing clavier arrangements of airs and dances from the operas of Lully, with rules for their execution.

=The Couperin Family=.—Two, at least, of the famous musical family of Couperin also came under the instruction of Champion. These were =Louis Couperin= (1630-1665), and =François Couperin= (1631-1701), who, with their brother =Charles Couperin= (1638-1669), and his son =François Couperin=, called “le Grand” (1668-1733), were all at various times organists of the church of St. Gervais, at Paris. The Couperins may be considered as classic composers for the clavier, as their style, though having an harmonic basis, was mostly in the line of instrumental voice writing. The first-named published three suites of dances for clavier; and the second was eminently popular as a teacher.

=François Couperin=.—François Couperin, “le Grand,” deserves special attention, and has been called the _first great composer_ distinctively _for the clavier_. He was a pupil of the organist Thomelin, and rose quickly to so commanding a position as player of the organ and clavier that, in 1701, he was appointed court clavier player and organist at the Royal Chapel. He was very accurate as a composer; and in the four books of clavier pieces which he published successively, he gave minute directions for interpreting the wealth of ornamentation with which his melodies are surrounded. Most of these pieces are _written in two voices_, with the upper melody most prominent; and they reflect the artificial show and glitter of the French court in their endless _turns_ and _embellishments_. Yet for this very reason they have amplified the resources of clavier compositions, preparing the way for composers like Scarlatti, Bach and Handel. Many of them show the French taste toward attaching definite meaning to music, by their fanciful titles, like “La tendre Nanette,” “La Flatteuse”—a custom followed by others of this school. Couperin wrote also a treatise on clavier touch, and was _one of the first to make use of the thumb in playing_.

=Louis Marchand= (1669-1732) was a brilliant though dissipated figure in clavier playing. Becoming organist at the court of Versailles, he lost the post through his reckless habits, and, going to Dresden, he was somewhat subdued in his conceit by the evident superiority of Bach. On his return to Paris, he became exceedingly popular as a teacher, although his extravagant style of living brought him finally to poverty. His pupil, =Louis Claude Daquin= (1694-1772), received through him an appointment as organist at the church of St. Paul, in preference to Rameau, of whose superiority Marchand became jealous. Daquin published a number of rather superficial clavier pieces.

=Jean-Phillippe Rameau=, the last and greatest light of this school, has even greater fame as an opera composer. He was born at Dijon in 1683, and displayed so great musical talent when a mere child that, although his parents had intended him for another profession, he was finally sent to Italy to study music. After spending some time there, he joined the orchestra of an opera troupe, traveling about France and gaining an insight into dramatic composition. Upon going to Paris he studied with Marchand, who recognized and feared his talent, and who finally was the means of his leaving Paris. Later, however, he obtained an organ position outside of Paris, and soon attracted attention not only by his playing, but also by the publication, in 1726, of a treatise on Harmony. In this he _reduced_ the study of _chords_ to a _scientific foundation_, and won his title of the name of creator of the modern science of Harmony. Returning to Paris, he now secured an organ position there, and set to work upon the series of dramatic productions which made him the foremost opera composer of his day, superior even to the popular Lully. In 1737, he published another theoretical work, in which the principles of Equal Temperament, which J. S. Bach had adopted fifteen years before, were so clearly stated as to make their establishment permanent for future composers. Rameau’s theories were the subject of much controversy in his day; but many distinguished contemporaries, like Rousseau and Voltaire, were his warm partisans. He died in 1764.

=Rameau’s Clavier Works=.—His numerous _clavier compositions_ show great advance in freedom of expression, and are written mostly in _three parts_, with an occasional succession of full chords. Many of these have _descriptive titles_, such as “La Poule,” in which the cackling of a hen is cleverly imitated. Others are in the form of dance suites. The order of Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue was made the basis of these suites as well as those of Couperin, although this order admitted of considerable variation; and no other principle of Unity appears in them, with the exception of a _common key_.

=End of the Early French School=.—The growing importance of the German school now came to be felt in France so strongly that the French school came to lose its individuality. We therefore turn our attention to the important developments in instrumental music which were effected in Germany.

REFERENCES.

Weitzmann.—History of Pianoforte Playing.

Rimbault.—The Pianoforte.

Naumann.—History of Music, Vol. I.

Henderson.—Preludes and Studies.

Naylor.—An Elizabethan Virginal Book.

MUSICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.

Weitzmann’s History, pages 314-329.

Rimbault.—“The Pianoforte,” pages 237, 240, 245, 248, 253, 262-283, 316.

Litolff Ed., No. 397, 2nd vol. of “Music by Old Masters.”

Augener Ed., Nos. 8300, 8299.

Breitkopf Ed., as for Chapter II.

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS.

Tell about early English instrumental music.

Tell about music in Queen Elizabeth’s time.

Describe the Variation form used by Byrd.

What was the Virginal Book?

What was the style of the Elizabethan composers?

What was the “Parthenia”?

Give an account of Purcell and his work.

Who was the founder of the French school?

What family figures prominently in the French school?

Who was the greatest member of this family? Tell about his work.

Tell about Marchand and Daquin.

What great theorist is prominent in French clavier music? Tell about his work.

Note that the English school was at its height in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Purcell, in the reign of Charles II, being the greatest light of the school. The strength of the French school was during the reign of Louis XIV.

LESSON XXVIII.

THE GERMAN POLYPHONIC CLAVIER SCHOOL.

=German Mastery of Polyphonic Music=.—The Italians, with their quick perception of structural beauty, have been the pioneers in the invention and use of most art forms. So it happened, in the history of instrumental music, that they were the ones to invent and give to other nations the vehicle of expression, while it remained for their pupils, notably, in this case, the composers of Germany, to fill these forms out with the expression of real and deep feeling. The German tendency toward serious and philosophical thought found the intricacies of polyphonic music, or the simultaneous flow of independent melodies, admirably adapted to their need of expression; and when this style of voice writing was applied to instrumental compositions, German musicians found a branch of art in which they were admirably qualified to excel. So, from being mere pupils of the Italians, they advanced to the production of works of much more distinguished character and deeper, richer content than was possible to mere beauty of form and melody.

=Hasler=.—In the second half of the 16th century, the clavier was popular in Germany, disputing the place of the lute as a social instrument, although organ and clavier compositions were identical, as in Italy. There is a record of the publication of two books of pieces for organ and “instrument”—by which is meant the clavier—in 1575-77, in which there were dance tunes with accompanying chords. =Hans Leo Hasler= (1564-1612), a pupil of A. Gabrieli, and fellow-student with G. Gabrieli, was especially prominent as organ and clavier player and composer during this epoch, publishing a number of such dances written for the organ or the clavier.

=Froberger=.—The devastating Thirty Years’ War (1618-48) put an end to artistic ambition during its progress. However, art quickly recovered at its close, and a number of worthy musicians appeared. An interesting figure among them, and a man who has been called the first German clavier virtuoso, was =Johann Jacob Froberger= (1605-1667). Showing great promise as a boy, he was brought to the notice of the Austrian Kaiser, Ferdinand III, who sent him to Rome, where he studied with Frescobaldi for three years. After this we hear of him as a successful performer at Paris, and, on his return to Vienna, as court organist, in which position he won widespread fame. A remarkable story is told of a perilous journey to England, where he arrived penniless, and of his subsequent recognition and his cordial reception by Charles II, who was delighted with his improvisation upon the harpsichord. Afterwards returning to Vienna, he resigned his post there, through some disagreement, and lived afterwards in retirement. In a number of Caprices, Toccatas and the like, written in the contrapuntal style, he definitely adopted the five-lined staff, and introduced many embellishments, after the French fashion. He possessed much charming melodic invention, and, in his Toccatas employed a treatment of his subject in definite sections, which afterwards appeared in the fugue form. Froberger anticipates the _program style_ of music, as he is said to have improvised descriptions of events, like that of the Count von Thurn’s crossing of the Rhine, which he depicted in twenty-six pieces.

=Johann Kaspar Kerl= (1625-90), also sent by Ferdinand III to Rome, studied there with Carissimi, the oratorio writer, becoming accomplished as an extemporizer. He occupied a number of organ positions in Vienna and Munich, also teaching the clavier, and wrote compositions which show a tendency toward the modern scale systems. =Johann Pachelbel= (1653-1706), celebrated as organ and clavier player, wrote pleasing works for the clavier, in which he tried to follow out the characteristics of the instrument. Many of these were in the form of variations. =Georg Muffat= (d. 1704) showed in his compositions a tendency toward French ornamentation, and his son =Gottlieb= (1683-1770), a pupil of the contrapuntist J. J. Fux, was organist to the Kaiser Charles VI, in Vienna, and clavier teacher to the Imperial family. His clavier compositions were in the form of Versettes and Toccatas.

=Eighteenth Century Clavier Composers=.—The Thirty Years’ War exercised a demoralizing influence upon music trades, and many excellent musicians were unable to have their compositions published in consequence. The result is, that comparatively few specimens of the works of the composers mentioned have come down to us in available form. Approaching the 18th century, we now come to a group of composers who represent the most brilliant epoch of early clavier work. Their productions, while retaining the dignity and complexity of the contrapuntal school, yet use its material with a freedom of modulation and of dissonant chords sufficient to express genuine emotional ideas through their medium.

=Reinken and Buxtehude=.—The Hamburg organist =Johann Adam Reinken= (1623-1722), a native of Holland, wrote a number of clavier compositions, publishing in 1704, pieces for two violins and harpsichord. =Dietrich Buxtehude= (1637-1707), organist at St. Mary’s Church, Lübeck, from 1668, excelled in free style of writing for clavier. The latter gave a series of Sunday evening concerts at his church which gained renown through all the surrounding country; and J. S. Bach himself is said to have walked to these concerts, a distance of fifty miles.

=Instrumental Polyphonic Forms=.—These men have been mentioned largely because their work made possible the results which Bach afterwards attained from an elaboration of what they had already accomplished. It was among such eminent German organists that the instrumental Fugue, the highest instrumental type of polyphonic music, took definite shape, consisting of an Exposition, in which the Subject, Answer and Countersubject were announced by the various voices; and a subsequent Development, in which, according to certain laws more or less strict, the material presented was carried through a variety of phases and brought finally to a triumphant close. Of other forms, like the Toccata and Canzona, the tendency came to be toward more freedom of treatment on the one hand, and an increasing definiteness and consistency on the other.

=Handel’s Early Life=.—A composer must now be mentioned whose work lay chiefly in other fields than the clavier, but who nevertheless drew much of his inspiration from the strings of the harpsichord. This was =George Frederick Handel= (1685-1759), who was born at Halle, and whose musical genius asserted itself so strenuously that, although his father was strongly opposed, he learned the harpsichord as a mere child, and became so proficient a performer that the reigning Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, hearing him play, insisted on his receiving a thorough musical education. So he was placed under Zachau, a competent organist and musician, at his native place, with whom he studied diligently. After his father’s death he went to Hamburg, entering the orchestra of the Opera house and rising to the post of harpsichordist. Launching out as an opera composer, he began to acquire a reputation, and in 1706 went to Italy, meeting many distinguished musicians there, among them Domenico Scarlatti, with whom he had a contest as to ability as clavichordist and organist, and winning fresh laurels.

=Handel in England=.—In 1707, he became music director to the Elector of Hanover, but quickly left the post for England, where, with the exception of short intervals, he passed the remainder of his life, becoming a naturalized English subject. It was no wonder that he was so warmly attached to his adopted country, since he became the popular idol, even winning over the king, George I, formerly Elector of Hanover, who, on his accession to the throne, was at first angry with Handel for his desertion of the post in his service at Hanover.

=Handel’s Operas and Oratorios=.—Handel was of an irascible disposition, and, living in the artificial atmosphere of London, among wits and satirists like Dr. Johnson, Addison and Pope, he was constantly embroiled with the cabals of his rivals, and the fickleness of the public. He produced a great number of operas, most of them successful; but as theatrical manager he met with severe losses, and finally gave up opera writing in despair, and turned to the composition of oratorios. The result was that in this form he has left his most enduring and elevated compositions; for while his operas were sometimes written down to the popular taste for empty Italian melody, the lofty themes of his oratorios inspired him to his grandest and most sincere style, which, moreover, was rendered the more dramatic and intelligible by his knowledge of the requirements of his audiences.

=Handel’s Clavier Works=.—Handel was an expert performer on the harpsichord, for which he wrote two sets of Suites, besides a number of single pieces. The Suites, of which the first set is by far the better, are written mostly in the _dance forms_, but with the interpolation of more serious forms, such as Airs, Variations and Fugues. The _contrapuntal style_ is here most _prominent_, although _with harmonic basis_, and with a laxity in the strictness of the voice writing, caused by the occasional use of extra notes to complete chords. Some of the variations are worked up to effective climaxes, and have running passages and broken chords, in which the resources of the clavier are cleverly drawn upon.

=Handel’s Last Years=.—Handel became blind in 1752, but continued to take part in the performances of his works till the year of his death. Choleric as was his temperament, the known generosity of his nature and his devotion to the ideals of his art made him the idol of the English people. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

=Mattheson=.—A close associate of Handel, when he was in the Hamburg orchestra, was =Johann Mattheson= (1681-1764), famed for his literary writings on musical subjects no less than for his musical ability. He wrote suites, a sonata and fugues in two parts, for clavier, which were of excellent workmanship.

=Bach’s Early Life=.—But all other names in the domain of polyphonic instrumental music pale before that of =Johann Sebastian Bach=, the culmination of the school of voice writing, and the musician who put the stamp of greatness on all former styles, while at the same time acting as guide to future fields of composition. Born at Eisenach in 1685, as a scion of a family the members of which had been musical leaders for generations, he seems to have embodied in himself the sum of the genius of his forefathers. The story of his life is a prosaic one, as he filled it with unflagging industry, carrying out his unswerving ideals of his art, caring little for mere popularity, and rearing a large family of sons and daughters, some of whom proved worthy to continue his work. As a boy, he lost both parents at the age of ten, and was taught clavier playing by his elder brother, Johann Christian, who took him in charge. He seized with avidity every opportunity to study his beloved music, copying hundreds of pages of manuscript, listening to every musical performance possible, drinking in and assimilating the ideas thus gained, to reproduce them later on, stamped with his genius.

=Later Life=.—At his brother’s death he went to Lüneburg as choir boy, where he became acquainted with Reinken’s work. At eighteen he was violinist in the court band at Weimar, shortly afterward becoming organist at a church at Arnstadt. His next position was as court organist at Weimar, in 1708, where many of his most important organ compositions were written. This post he left in 1717 for that of court chapel-master at Anhalt-Köthen, where he remained six years, after which he went to Leipzig, as Cantor of the Thomasschule, staying there till his death, in 1750.