MUSIC IN THE WESTERN WORLD

A History in Documents

Selected and Annotated by

PIERO WEISS and RICHARD TARUSKIN Department of Music, Columbia University

SCHIRMER BOOKS A Division of MacmiUan, Inc. NEW YORK

Collier Macmillan Publishers LONDON Contents

Preface xiii

PART I THE HERITAGE OF ANTIQUITY

1 Orpheus and the Magical Powers of Music (Ovid) 1 2 Pythagoras and the Numerical Properties of Music (Nicomachus) 3 3 Plato's Musical Idealism 6 4 Aristotle on the Purposes of Music 10 5 The Kinship of Music and Rhetoric (Quintilian) 12 6 Music in Temple and Synagogue: The Judaic Heritage (Bible, Philo of Alexandria) 15 7 Music in the Christian Churches of Jerusalem, c. A.D. 400 (Egeria) 21

PART II THE MIDDLE AGES

8 The Church Fathers on Psalmody and on the Dangers of Unholy Music (St. Basil, St. John Chrysostom, Origen of Alexandria, Eusebius of Caesarea, Honorius of Autun) 25 9 The Testimony of St. Augustine 29 10 The Transmission of the Classical Legacy (Boethius, Shakespeare) 33 11 Music as a Liberal Art (Scholia enchiriadis) 38 12 Before Notation (Isidore of Seville, St. Augustine, John the Deacon, Notker Balbulus, Costumal of St. Benigne) 41 13 Embellishing the Liturgy (Notker Balbulus, Ethelwold) 46 vi Contents

14 Musical Notation and Its Consequences (Odo of Clunv, Guido of Arezzo, Chaucer) 48 15 Music in Courtly Life (Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, Roman de la rose) 55 16 The Emergence of Polyphony (Aldhelm, Scotus Erigena, Hucbald, Regino of Priim, Giraldus Cambrensis, Anon. IV, John of Salisbury) 59 17 The Forms and Practices of Music, c. 1300 (Johannes de Grocheo, Aegidius of Murino) 63 18 The First Musical Avant-Garde (Jean de Muris, Jacobus of Liege, John XXII, motet and madrigal texts) 67 19 The Life of Francesco Landini (Filippo Villani) 72 20 A Letter from Guillaume de Machaut 76

PART III THE RENAISSANCE

21 The "Fount and Origin" (Martin Le Franc, Tinctoris) 79 22 Music at Church and State Festivities in the Early Renaissance (Manetti, d'Escouchy) 81 23 The Triumph of Emperor Maximilian 83 24 Music as a Business (Petrucci, Francis I, Tallis and Byrd) 89 25 Music in Castiglione's Courtier 94 26 Josquin des Prez in the Eyes of His Contemporaries (Glareanus, "Gian," Coclico, Luther) 97 27 Luther and Music (Luther, Walther, parody texts) 100 28 The Swiss Reformers (Calvin) 107 29 The Reformation in England (cathedral injunctions, John Bull) 109 30 High Renaissance Style (Aron, Zarlino) 111 31 Willaert the Reformer (Zarlino, Stacker) 114 32 Music at a Medici Wedding (Giunti) 115 33 Lasso and Palestrina as Revealed in Their Letters 121 34 The Life of the Church Musician (Constitutiones Capellae Pontificiae, Zarlino, etc.) 124 35 The Genres of Music in the High Renaissance (Morley, Cerone, Vicentino) 129 Contents vii

36 The Counter Reformation (Bishop Franco, Council of Trent, Palestrina, Animuccia, Ruffo, Gregory XIII, Coryat) 135 37 Palestrina: Fact and Legend (Agazzari, Cresollio, Guidiccioni, Baini, Palestrina) 140 38 Madrigals and Madrigalism (Mazzone, Zarlino-Morley) 143 39 Gesualdo, Nobleman Musician (Fontanelli) 146 40 The Most Musical Court in Europe (Bottrigari, Giustiniani) 147 41 Music and Dancing as Social Graces (anonymous conversation book, Arbeau, Byrd, Morley, Shakespeare) 150 42 Renaissance Instrumentalists (Tinctoris, Ventemille, cathedral and municipal documents) 158 43 Radical Humanism: The End of the Renaissance (Vicentino, Mersenne, Le Jeune, Galilei) 162

PART IV THE BAROQUE

44 The Birth of a "New Music" (Caccini) 169 45 The "Second Practice" (Artusi, Monteverdi) 171 46 The Earliest Operas (Gagliano, Striggio) 174 47 Basso Continuo and Figured Bass (Agazzari, Banchieri) 178 48 From the Letters of Monteverdi 180 49 Schiitz Recounts His Career 184 50 The Doctrine of Figures (Bernhard) 187 51 Music and Scientific Empiricism (Milton, Bacon) 189 52 Music in the Churches of Rome, 1639 (Maugars) 194 53 Music under the Sun King (Pierre Rameau) 197 54 Rationalistic Distaste for Opera (Corneille, Saint-Evremond, La Bruyere) 200 55 A New Sound Ideal (Mersenne, Le Blanc) 204 56 The Baroque Sonata (North, Purcell, Couperin) 207 57 Modern Concert Life Is Born (North) 211 58 The Mature Baroque: The Doctrine of the Affections (Descartes, Mattheson) 212 59 The Art of Music Reduced to Rational Principles (J.-P. Rameau) 220 viii Contents

60 The Earliest Musical Conservatories (Burney) 222 61 Castrato Singers (Burney) 225 62 The Conventions of the Opera Seria (Goldoni) 229 63 Opera Audiences in Eighteenth-Century Italy (Sharp) 231 64 Domenico Scarlatti at the Harpsichord (Burney) 234 65 A Traveler's Impressions of Vivaldi (Uffenbach) 235 66 Couperin on His Pieces de Clavecin 237 67 The Piano Is Invented (Maffei) 238 68 Addison and Steele Poke Fun at Handel's First London Opera 240 69 Some Contemporary Documents Relating to Handel's Oratorios 243 70 Bach's Duties and Obligations at Leipzig 246 71 Bach Remembered by His Son 248 72 Bach's Obituary (C. P. E. Bach, Agricola) 250

PART V THE PRE-CLAS SICAL PERIOD

* 73 The Cult of the Natural (Heinichen, Scheibe) 255 74 The Advice and Opinions of an Italian Singing Master (Tosi) 257 75 From Geminiani's Violin Tutor 260 76 From Quantz's Treatise on Flute Playing 263 77 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach on Playing Keyboard Instruments 268 78 The Rise of the Italian Comic Opera Style (La serva padrona, d'Holbach, Hiller) 273 79 From Rousseau's Dictionary of Music 283

PART VI THE CLASSICAL PERIOD

80 A Side Trip into Aesthetics (Rousseau, Avison, Beattie, Twining, Smith, Kant) 287 81 Haydn's Duties in the Service of Prince Esterhazy 298 82 Gluck's Operatic Manifesto 301 83 Some General Thoughts on Music by Dr. Burney 302 84 Frederick the Great Gives a Concert (Burney) 304 Contents ix

85 The Young Mozart as a Scientific Curiosity (Barrington) 306 86 From Mozart's Letters 310 87 Haydn's Reception in London (Burney, London dailies) 313 88 Sonata Form and the Symphony Described by a Contemporary of Haydn (Kollmann) 316 89 A Musical Episode of the French Revolution 319 90 Vienna, 1800 321 91 Beethoven's Heiligenstadt Testament 326 92 The First Reactions to Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony 328 93 A Contemporary Portrait of Beethoven 329 94 The First Performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony 332

PART VII THE LATER NINETEENTH CENTURY: ROMANTICISM AND OTHER PREOCCUPATIONS

95 Music as a Proper Occupation for the British Female (Burgh) 335 96 Leigh Hunt on Rossini 336 97 Schubert Remembered by a Friend (Spaun) 338 98 Paganini, the Spectacular Virtuoso (Hunt) 340 99 The Virtuoso Conductor (Spohr) 345 100 The State of Music in Italy in 1830 347 101 From the Writings of Berlioz 348 102 The Program of the Symphonie Fantastique 353 103 From the Writings of Schumann 357 104 Liszt, the All-Conquering Pianist 363 105 From the Writings of Liszt 366 106 Glimpses of Chopin Composing, Playing the Piano 369 107. Mendelssohn and Queen Victoria 371 108 From the Writings of Wagner 374 109 Wagner's Beethoven 377 110 The "Music of the Future" Controversy (Schumann, Liszt, Brendel, Brahms) 380 111 P. T. Barnum Brings the Swedish Nightingale to America 385 112 Smetana and the Czech National Style (Novotny) 388 113 The "New Russian School" (Stasov) 390 114 Musorgsky, a Musical Realist 394 X Contents

115 Chaikovsky on Inspiration and Self-Expression 397 116 Brahms on Composing (Henschel) 401 117 The "Brahmin" Point of View (Hanslick) 402 118 Verdi at the Time of Otello 406 119 Grieg on the Norwegian Element in His Music 412 120 The Post-VVagnerians: Mahler 413 121 The Post-Wagnerians: Richard Strauss 415

PART VIII THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

122 Debussy and Musical Impressionism 417 123 Questioning Basic Assumptions (Busoni) 421 124 From the Writings of Charles Ives 423 125 Musical Expressionism (Schoenberg, Wellesz, et al.) 426 126 The Retreat to the Ivory Tower (Berg) 430 127 The Death of Tonality? (Webern) 433 128 Arnold Schoenberg on Composition with Twelve Tones 435 129 The Rite of Spring (Stravinsky, Van Vechten, Cui, Du Mas) 438 130 A Futurist Manifesto (Russolo) 443 131 The New Folklorism (Bartok, Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams) 445 132 The Cataclysm (Bartok) 450 133 Between the Wars (Sessions) 453 134 The New Objectivity (Stravinsky) 458 135 Anti-Romantic Polemics from Stravinsky's Autobiography 460 136 Schoenberg on Stravinsky, Stravinsky on Schoenberg 465 137 The Cult of Blague: Satie and "The Six" (Satie, Collet, Milhaud) 467 138 Polvtonalitv (Milhaud) 473 139 The Only Twentieth-Century Aesthetic? (Thomson) 475 140 The Making of Wozzeck (Berg) 477 141 Approaching the Limits of Compression (Schoenberg, Webern) 479 142 The Assimilation of Jazz (Gershwin, Ravel) 480 143 "New Musical Resources" (Cowell) 483 144 Retrenchment (Hindemith) 487 Contents xi

145 Music and the Social Conscience (Weill, Hindemith, Copland) 490 146 Music and Ideology (Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians) 495 147 A Composer on Trial (Prokofiev) 499 148 The Outlook after World War II (Thomson) 502 149 New Developments in Serialism (Boulez, Babbitt) 507 150 Stravinsky the Serialist 512 151 Postwar Compositional "Issues" (Sessions) 514 152 The Master of "Organized Sound" (Varese) 518 153 The Music of Chance (Cage) 522 154 New Approaches to the Organization of Time (Carter) 526 155 The Contemporary Composer and Society (Babbitt, Rochberg) 529

Glossary 539 Index 547