Chapter 1

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HOW TO LISTEN TO MUSIC

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS TO UNTAUGHT LOVERS OF THE ART

BY

HENRY EDWARD KREHBIEL

_Author of "Studies in the Wagnerian Drama," "Notes on the Cultivation of Choral Music," "The Philharmonic Society of New York," etc._

_SEVENTH EDITION_

NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1897

COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

TROW DIRECTORY PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY NEW YORK

* * * * *

TO

W.J. HENDERSON

WHO HAS HELPED ME TO RESPECT MUSICAL CRITICISM

* * * * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE

The author is beholden to the Messrs. Harper & Brothers for permission to use a small portion of the material in Chapter I., the greater part of Chapter IV., and the Plates which were printed originally in one of their publications; also to the publishers of "The Looker-On" for the privilege of reprinting a portion of an essay written for them entitled "Singers, Then and Now."

CONTENTS

[Sidenote: CHAP. I.]

_Introduction_

Purpose and scope of this book--Not written for professional musicians, but for untaught lovers of the art--neither for careless seekers after diversion unless they be willing to accept a higher conception of what "entertainment" means--The capacity properly to listen to music as a touchstone of musical talent--It is rarely found in popular concert-rooms--Travellers who do not see and listeners who do not hear--Music is of all the arts that which is practised most and thought about least--Popular ignorance of the art caused by the lack of an object for comparison--How simple terms are confounded by literary men--Blunders by Tennyson, Lamb, Coleridge, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, F. Hopkinson Smith, Brander Matthews, and others--A warning against pedants and rhapsodists. _Page 3_

[Sidenote: CHAP. II.]

_Recognition of Musical Elements_

The dual nature of music--Sense-perception, fancy, and imagination--Recognition of Design as Form in its primary stages--The crude materials of music--The co-ordination of tones--Rudimentary analysis of Form--Comparison, as in other arts, not possible--Recognition of the fundamental elements--Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm--The value of memory--The need of an intermediary--Familiar music best liked--Interrelation of the elements--Repetition the fundamental principle of Form--Motives, Phrases, and Periods--A Creole folk-tune analyzed--Repetition at the base of poetic forms--Refrain and Parallelism--Key-relationship as a bond of union--Symphonic unity illustrated in examples from Beethoven--The C minor symphony and "Appassionata" sonata--The Concerto in G major--The Seventh and Ninth symphonies. _Page 15_

[Sidenote: CHAP. III.]

_The Content and Kinds of Music_

How far it is necessary for the listener to go into musical philosophy--Intelligent hearing not conditioned upon it--Man's individual relationship to the art--Musicians proceed on the theory that feelings are the content of music--The search for pictures and stories condemned--How composers hear and judge--Definitions of the capacity of music by Wagner, Hauptmann, and Mendelssohn--An utterance by Herbert Spencer--Music as a language--Absolute music and Programme music--The content of all true art works--Chamber music--Meaning and origin of the term--Haydn the servant of a Prince--The characteristics of Chamber music--Pure thought, lofty imagination, and deep learning--Its chastity--Sympathy between performers and listeners essential to its enjoyment--A correct definition of Programme music--Programme music defended--The value of titles and superscriptions--Judgment upon it must, however, go to the music, not the commentary--Subjects that are unfit for music--Kinds of Programme music--Imitative music--How the music of birds has been utilized--The cuckoo of nature and Beethoven's cuckoo--Cock and hen in a seventeenth century composition--Rameau's pullet--The German quail--Music that is descriptive by suggestion--External and internal attributes--Fancy and Imagination--Harmony and the major and minor mode--Association of ideas--Movement delineated--Handel's frogs--Water in the "Hebrides" overture and "Ocean" symphony--Height and depth illustrated by acute and grave tones--Beethoven's illustration of distance--His rule enforced--Classical and Romantic music--Genesis of the terms--What they mean in literature--Archbishop Trench on classical books--The author's definitions of both terms in music--Classicism as the conservative principle, Romanticism as the progressive, regenerative, and creative--A contest which stimulates life. _Page 36_

[Sidenote: CHAP. IV.]

_The Modern Orchestra_

Importance of the instrumental band--Some things that can be learned by its study--The orchestral choirs--Disposition of the players--Model bands compared--Development of instrumental music--The extent of an orchestra's register--The Strings: Violin, Viola, Violoncello, and Double-bass--Effects produced by changes in manipulation--The wood-winds: Flute, Oboe, English horn, Bassoon, Clarinet--The Brass: French Horn, Trumpet and Cornet, Trombone, Tuba--The Drums--The Conductor--Rise of the modern interpreter--The need of him--His methods--Scores and Score-reading. _Page 71_

[Sidenote: CHAP. V.]

_At an Orchestral Concert_

"Classical" and "Popular" as generally conceived--Symphony Orchestras and Military bands--The higher forms in music as exemplified at a classical concert--Symphonies, Overtures, Symphonic Poems, Concertos, etc.--A Symphony not a union of unrelated parts--History of the name--The Sonata form and cyclical compositions--The bond of union between the divisions of a Symphony--Material and spiritual links--The first movement and the sonata form--"Exposition, illustration, and repetition"--The subjects and their treatment--Keys and nomenclature of the Symphony--The _Adagio_ or second movement--The _Scherzo_ and its relation to the Minuet--The Finale and the Rondo form--The latter illustrated in outline by a poem--Modifications of the symphonic form by Beethoven, Schumann, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Saint-Saëns and Dvorák--Augmentation of the forces--Symphonies with voices--The Symphonic Poem--Its three characteristics--Concertos and Cadenzas--M. Ysaye's opinion of the latter--Designations in Chamber music--The Overture and its descendants--Smaller forms: Serenades, Fantasias, Rhapsodies, Variations, Operatic Excerpts. _Page 122_

[Sidenote: CHAP. VI.]

_At a Pianoforte Recital_

The Popularity of Pianoforte music exemplified in M. Paderewski's recitals--The instrument--A universal medium of music study--Its defects and merits contrasted--Not a perfect melody instrument--Value of the percussive element--Technique; the false and the true estimate of its value--Pianoforte literature as illustrated in recitals--Its division, for the purposes of this study, into four periods: Classic, Classic-romantic, Romantic, and Bravura--Precursors of the Pianoforte--The Clavichord and Harpsichord, and the music composed for them--Peculiarities of Bach's style--His Romanticism--Scarlatti's Sonatas--The Suite and its constituents--Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue, Minuet, and Gavotte--The technique of the period--How Bach and Handel played--Beethoven and the Sonata--Mozart and Beethoven as pianists--The Romantic composers--Schumann and Chopin and the forms used by them--Schumann and Jean Paul--Chopin's Preludes, Études, Nocturnes, Ballades, Polonaises, Mazurkas, Krakowiak--The technique of the Romantic period--"Idiomatic" pianoforte music--Development of the instrument--The Pedal and its use--Liszt and his Hungarian Rhapsodies. _Page 154_

[Sidenote: CHAP. VII.]

_At the Opera_

Instability of popular taste in respect of operas--Our lists seldom extend back of the present century--The people of to-day as indifferent as those of two centuries ago to the language used--Use and abuse of foreign languages--The Opera defended as an art-form--Its origin in the Greek tragedies--Why music is the language of emotion--A scientific explanation--Herbert Spencer's laws--Efforts of Florentine scholars to revive the classic tragedy result in the invention of the lyric drama--The various kinds of Opera: _Opera seria_, _Opera buffa_, _Opera semiseria_, French _grand Opéra_, and _Opéra comique_--Operettas and musical farces--Romantic Opera--A popular conception of German opera--A return to the old terminology led by Wagner--The recitative: Its nature, aims, and capacities--The change from speech to song--The arioso style, the accompanied recitative and the aria--Music and dramatic action--Emancipation from set forms--The orchestra--The decay of singing--Feats of the masters of the Roman school and La Bastardella--Degeneracy of the Opera of their day--Singers who have been heard in New York--Two generations of singers compared--Grisi, Jenny Lind, Sontag, La Grange, Piccolomini, Adelina Patti, Nilsson, Sembrich, Lucca, Gerster, Lehmann, Melba, Eames, Calvé, Mario, Jean and Edouard de Reszke--Wagner and his works--Operas and lyric dramas--Wagner's return to the principles of the Florentine reformers--Interdependence of elements in a lyric drama--Forms and the endless melody--The Typical Phrases: How they should be studied. _Page 202_

[Sidenote: CHAP. VIII.]

_Choirs and Choral Music_

Value of chorus singing in musical culture--Schumann's advice to students--Choristers and instrumentalists--Amateurs and professionals--Oratorio and _Männergesang_--The choirs of Handel and Bach--Glee Unions, Male Clubs, and Women's Choirs--Boys' voices not adapted to modern music--Mixed choirs--American Origin of amateur singing societies--Priority over Germany--The size of choirs--Large numbers not essential--How choirs are divided--Antiphonal effects--Excellence in choir singing--Precision, intonation, expression, balance of tone, enunciation, pronunciation, declamation--The cause of monotony in Oratorio performances--_A capella_ music--Genesis of modern hymnology--Influence of Luther and the Germans--Use of popular melodies by composers--The chorale--Preservation of the severe style of writing in choral music--Palestrina and Bach--A study of their styles--Latin and Teuton--Church and individual--Motets and Church Cantatas--The Passions--The Oratorio--Sacred opera and Cantata--Epic and Drama--Characteristic and descriptive music--The Mass: Its secularization and musical development--The dramatic tendency illustrated in Beethoven and Berlioz. _Page 253_

[Sidenote: CHAP. IX.]

_Musician, Critic and Public_

Criticism justified--Relationship between Musician, Critic and Public--To end the conflict between them would result in stagnation--How the Critic might escape--The Musician prefers to appeal to the public rather than to the Critic--Why this is so--Ignorance as a safeguard against and promoter of conservatism--Wagner and Haydn--The Critic as the enemy of the charlatan--Temptations to which he is exposed--Value of popular approbation--Schumann's aphorisms--The Public neither bad judges nor good critics--The Critic's duty is to guide popular judgment--Fickleness of the people's opinions--Taste and judgment not a birthright--The necessity of antecedent study--The Critic's responsibility--Not always that toward the Musician which the latter thinks--How the newspaper can work for good--Must the Critic be a Musician?--Pedants and Rhapsodists--Demonstrable facts in criticism--The folly and viciousness of foolish rhapsody--The Rev. Mr. Haweis cited--Ernst's violin--Intelligent rhapsody approved--Dr. John Brown on Beethoven--The Critic's duty. _Page 297_

* * * * *

PLATES

I. VIOLIN--(CLIFFORD SCHMIDT).--II. VIOLONCELLO--(VICTOR HERBERT).--III. PICCOLO FLUTE--(C. KURTH, JUN.).--IV. OBOE--(JOSEPH ELLER).--V. ENGLISH HORN--(JOSEPH ELLER).--VI. BASSOON (FEDOR BERNHARDI).--VII. CLARINET--(HENRY KAISER).--VIII. BASS CLARINET--(HENRY KAISER).--IX. FRENCH HORN--(CARL PIEPER).--X. TROMBONE--(J. PFEIFFENSCHNEIDER).--XI. BASS TUBA--(ANTON REITER).--XII. THE CONDUCTOR'S SCORE. _Page 325_

INDEX _Page 351_

How to Listen to Music

I

_Introduction_

[Sidenote: _The book's appeal._]

This book has a purpose, which is as simple as it is plain; and an unpretentious scope. It does not aim to edify either the musical professor or the musical scholar. It comes into the presence of the musical student with all becoming modesty. Its business is with those who love music and present themselves for its gracious ministrations in Concert-Room and Opera House, but have not studied it as professors and scholars are supposed to study. It is not for the careless unless they be willing to inquire whether it might not be well to yield the common conception of entertainment in favor of the higher enjoyment which springs from serious contemplation of beautiful things; but if they are willing so to inquire, they shall be accounted the class that the author is most anxious to reach. The reasons which prompted its writing and the laying out of its plan will presently appear. For the frankness of his disclosure the author might be willing to apologize were his reverence for music less and his consideration for popular affectations more; but because he is convinced that a love for music carries with it that which, so it be but awakened, shall speedily grow into an honest desire to know more about the beloved object, he is willing to seem unamiable to the amateur while arguing the need of even so mild a stimulant as his book, and ingenuous, mayhap even childish, to the professional musician while trying to point a way in which better appreciation may be sought.

[Sidenote: _Talent in listening._]

The capacity properly to listen to music is better proof of musical talent in the listener than skill to play upon an instrument or ability to sing acceptably when unaccompanied by that capacity. It makes more for that gentleness and refinement of emotion, thought, and action which, in the highest sense of the term, it is the province of music to promote. And it is a much rarer accomplishment. I cannot conceive anything more pitiful than the spectacle of men and women perched on a fair observation point exclaiming rapturously at the loveliness of mead and valley, their eyes melting involuntarily in tenderness at the sight of moss-carpeted slopes and rocks and peaceful wood, or dilating in reverent wonder at mountain magnificence, and then learning from their exclamations that, as a matter of fact, they are unable to distinguish between rock and tree, field and forest, earth and sky; between the dark-browns of the storm-scarred rock, the greens of the foliage, and the blues of the sky.

[Sidenote: _Ill equipped listeners._]

Yet in the realm of another sense, in the contemplation of beauties more ethereal and evanescent than those of nature, such is the experience which in my capacity as a writer for newspapers I have made for many years. A party of people blind to form and color cannot be said to be well equipped for a Swiss journey, though loaded down with alpenstocks and Baedekers; yet the spectacle of such a party on the top of the Rigi is no more pitiful and anomalous than that presented by the majority of the hearers in our concert-rooms. They are there to adventure a journey into a realm whose beauties do not disclose themselves to the senses alone, but whose perception requires a co-operation of all the finer faculties; yet of this they seem to know nothing, and even of that sense to which the first appeal is made it may be said with profound truth that "hearing they hear not, neither do they understand."

[Sidenote: _Popular ignorance of music._]

Of all the arts, music is practised most and thought about least. Why this should be the case may be explained on several grounds. A sweet mystery enshrouds the nature of music. Its material part is subtle and elusive. To master it on its technical side alone costs a vast expenditure of time, patience, and industry. But since it is, in one manifestation or another, the most popular of the arts, and one the enjoyment of which is conditioned in a peculiar degree on love, it remains passing strange that the indifference touching its nature and elements, and the character of the phenomena which produce it, or are produced by it, is so general. I do not recall that anybody has ever tried to ground this popular ignorance touching an art of which, by right of birth, everybody is a critic. The unamiable nature of the task, of which I am keenly conscious, has probably been a bar to such an undertaking. But a frank diagnosis must precede the discovery of a cure for every disease, and I have undertaken to point out a way in which this grievous ailment in the social body may at least be lessened.

[Sidenote: _Paucity of intelligent comment._]

[Sidenote: _Want of a model._]

It is not an exaggeration to say that one might listen for a lifetime to the polite conversation of our drawing-rooms (and I do not mean by this to refer to the United States alone) without hearing a symphony talked about in terms indicative of more than the most superficial knowledge of the outward form, that is, the dimensions and apparatus, of such a composition. No other art provides an exact analogy for this phenomenon. Everybody can say something containing a degree of appositeness about a poem, novel, painting, statue, or building. If he can do no more he can go as far as Landseer's rural critic who objected to one of the artist's paintings on the ground that not one of the three pigs eating from a trough had a foot in it. It is the absence of the standard of judgment employed in this criticism which makes significant talk about music so difficult. Nature failed to provide a model for this ethereal art. There is nothing in the natural world with which the simple man may compare it.

[Sidenote: _Simple terms confounded._]

It is not alone a knowledge of the constituent factors of a symphony, or the difference between a sonata and a suite, a march and a mazurka, that is rare. Unless you chance to be listening to the conversation of musicians (in which term I wish to include amateurs who are what the word amateur implies, and whose knowledge stands in some respectable relation to their love), you will find, so frequently that I have not the heart to attempt an estimate of the proportion, that the most common words in the terminology of the art are misapplied. Such familiar things as harmony and melody, time and tune, are continually confounded. Let us call a distinguished witness into the box; the instance is not new, but it will serve. What does Tennyson mean when he says:

"All night have the roses heard The flute, violin, bassoon; All night has the casement jessamine stirr'd To the dancers dancing in tune?"

[Sidenote: _Tune and time._]

Unless the dancers who wearied Maud were provided with even a more extraordinary instrumental outfit than the Old Lady of Banbury Cross, how could they have danced "in tune?"

[Sidenote: _Blunders of poets and essayists._]

Musical study of a sort being almost as general as study of the "three Rs," it must be said that the gross forms of ignorance are utterly inexcusable. But if this is obvious, it is even more obvious that there is something radically wrong with the prevalent systems of musical instruction. It is because of a plentiful lack of knowledge that so much that is written on music is without meaning, and that the most foolish kind of rhapsody, so it show a collocation of fine words, is permitted to masquerade as musical criticism and even analysis. People like to read about music, and the books of a certain English clergyman have had a sale of stupendous magnitude notwithstanding they are full of absurdities. The clergyman has a multitudinous companionship, moreover, among novelists, essayists, and poets whose safety lies in more or less fantastic generalization when they come to talk about music. How they flounder when they come to detail! It was Charles Lamb who said, in his "Chapter on Ears," that in voices he could not distinguish a soprano from a tenor, and could only contrive to guess at the thorough-bass from its being "supereminently harsh and disagreeable;" yet dear old Elia may be forgiven, since his confounding the bass voice with a system of musical short-hand is so delightful a proof of the ignorance he was confessing.

[Sidenote: _Literary realism and musical terminology._]

But what shall the troubled critics say to Tennyson's orchestra consisting of a flute, violin, and bassoon? Or to Coleridge's "_loud_ bassoon," which made the wedding-guest to beat his breast? Or to Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's pianist who played "with an airy and bird-like touch?" Or to our own clever painter-novelist who, in "Snubbin' through Jersey," has Brushes bring out his violoncello and play "the symphonies of Beethoven" to entertain his fellow canal-boat passengers? The tendency toward realism, or "veritism," as it is called, has brought out a rich crop of blunders. It will not do to have a character in a story simply sing or play something; we must have the names of composers and compositions. The genial gentleman who enriched musical literature with arrangements of Beethoven's symphonies for violoncello without accompaniment has since supplemented this feat by creating a German fiddler who, when he thinks himself unnoticed, plays a sonata for violin and contralto voice; Professor Brander Matthews permits one of his heroines to sing Schumann's "Warum?" and one of his heroes plays "The Moonlight Concerto;" one of Ouida's romantic creatures spends hours at an organ "playing the grand old masses of Mendelssohn;" in "Moths" the tenor never wearies of singing certain "exquisite airs of Palestrina," which recalls the fact that an indignant correspondent of a St. Louis newspaper, protesting against the Teutonism and heaviness of an orchestra conductor's programmes, demanded some of the "lighter" works of "Berlioz and Palestrina."

[Sidenote: _A popular need._]

Alas! these things and the many others equally amusing which Mr. G. Sutherland Edwards long ago catalogued in an essay on "The Literary Maltreatment of Music" are but evidences that even cultured folk have not yet learned to talk correctly about the art which is practised most widely. There is a greater need than pianoforte teachers and singing teachers, and that is a numerous company of writers and talkers who shall teach the people how to listen to music so that it shall not pass through their heads like a vast tonal phantasmagoria, but provide the varied and noble delights contemplated by the composers.

[Sidenote: _A warning against writers._]

[Sidenote: _Pedants and rhapsodists._]