Chapter I: Front Matter

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

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TO

W.J. HENDERSON

WHO HAS HELPED ME TO RESPECT MUSICAL CRITICISM

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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_

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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