Chapter I: Front Matter

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

In the plain text version Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Small caps are represented in UPPER CASE. The sign ^ represents a superscript; thus e^ represents the lower case letter “e” written immediately above the level of the previous character.

The musical files for the musical examples discussed in the book have been provided by Jude Eylander. Those examples can be heard by clicking on the [Listen] tab. This is only possible in the HTML version of the book. The scores that appear in the original book have been included as “jpg” images.

In some cases the scores that were used to generate the music files differ slightly from the original scores. Those differences are due to modifications that were made by the Music Transcriber during the process of creating the musical archives in order to make the music play accurately on modern musical transcribing programs. These scores are included as PNG images, and can be seen by clicking on the [PNG] tag in the HTML version of the book.

There is a list of the illustrations presented in the book. Some of the captions included in the transcription were taken from this list as there were images without any caption. However, the image facing page 471 is not listed and hence it was left without caption.

Obvious punctuation and other printing errors have been corrected.

The book cover has been modified by the Transcriber and is included in the public domain.

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THE ART OF MUSIC

The Art of Music

A Comprehensive Library of Information
for Music Lovers and Musicians

Editor-in-Chief
DANIEL GREGORY MASON
Columbia University

Associate Editors

EDWARD B. HILL LELAND HALL
Harvard University Past Professor, Univ. of Wisconsin

Managing Editor

CÉSAR SAERCHINGER
Modern Music Society of New York

In Fourteen Volumes
Profusely Illustrated

NEW YORK
THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF MUSIC

_Painting by Fritz von Uhde_

THE ART OF MUSIC: VOLUME SEVEN

Pianoforte and Chamber Music

Department Editor:
LELAND HALL, M.A.
Past Professor of Musical History, University of Wisconsin

Introduction by
HAROLD BAUER

NEW YORK
THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF MUSIC

Copyright, 1915, by
THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF MUSIC, Inc.
[All Rights Reserved]

PREFATORY NOTE

The editor has not attempted to give within the limits of this single volume a detailed history of the development of both pianoforte and chamber music. He has emphasized but very little the historical development of either branch of music, and he has not pretended to discuss exhaustively all the music which might be comprehended under the two broad titles.

The chapters on pianoforte music are intended to show how the great masters adapted themselves to the exigencies of the instrument, and in what manner they furthered the development of the difficult technique of writing for it. Also, because the piano may be successfully treated in various ways, and because it lends itself to the expression of widely diverse moods, there is in these chapters some discussion of the great masterpieces of pianoforte literature in detail.

The arrangement of material is perhaps not usual. What little has been said about the development of the piano, for example, has been said in connection with Beethoven, who was the first to avail himself fully of the advantages the piano offered over the harpsichord. A discussion, or rather an analysis, of the pianoforte style has been put in the chapter on Chopin, who is even today the one outstanding master of it.

In the part of the book dealing with chamber music the material has been somewhat arbitrarily arranged according to combinations of instruments. The string quartets, the pianoforte trios, quartets, and quintets, the sonatas for violin and piano, and other combinations have been treated separately. The selection of some works for a more or less detailed discussion, and the omission of even the mention of others, will undoubtedly seem unjustifiable to some; but the editor trusts at least that those he has chosen for discussion may illumine somewhat the general progress of chamber music from the time of Haydn to the present day.

For the chapters on violin music before Corelli and the beginnings of chamber music we are indebted to Mr. Edward Kilenyi, whose initials appear at the end of these chapters.

LELAND HALL