BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Mcnrg m. Sage 1891 9306 MUSIC Cornell University Library ML 100.M39 V 6 The art of music :a comDrehensjv^^^ 3 1924 022 385 318 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022385318 THE ART OF MUSIC v The Singing Angels AUdf piece Hg Hubert and Jan van Eyck 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 Fast Professor, Univ. of Wisconsin Managing Editor CESAR SAERCHINGER Modern Music Society of New Yorlc In Fourteen Volumes Profusely Illustrated NEW YORK THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF MUSIC THE AET OP MUSIC: VOLUME SIX Choral and Church Music ROSSETTER GLEASON COLE, M.A. Introduction by FRANK DAMROSCH, Mus. Doc. Director Institute of Musical Art in the City of New York Conductor, Musical Art Society of New York, etc. NEW YORK THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF MUSIC Copyright, 1915, by THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF MUSIC, Inc. [All Eights Reserved] PREFATORY NOTE The field of choral and church music is so vast and the subject so inclusive that the author has felt the con- stant pressure of the necessity for sifting and abbrevi- ating and condensing the voluminous material at hand in order not to go far beyond the prescribed limits of this volume. He has resolutely shut his eyes to the allurements of the many by-paths that constantly beck- oned away from the historical highway he was ap- pointed to tread; and he has endeavored to keep this object constantly in mind—to trace the development of the forces and tendencies from which have sprung the various musical forms that have gone to make up the literature of choral and church music as century followed century. In this volume, therefore, the great personalities of musical history will receive far less attention than the particular musical forms and art- tendencies that flowed from their, oft-times, combined creative activities. While a large number of choral and organ works of every class have been analyzed with much detail and a still larger number given definite classification, it is hoped that the historical summaries and the discussions of styles and periods, scattered throughout this volume, will be even more helpful to the reader in enabling him to place any given musical work in its true musical, as well as historical, perspective. It is a matter of some regret that from sheer lack of space several interesting and wholly relevant topics—^such as hymnology, con- temporaneous church music, the whole relation of mu- sic to the present-day church, etc.—^must be left un- vii CHORAL AND CHURCH MUSIC touched. In the chapters on contemporaneous choral music, it was necessary for the same reason to shut out of consideration the whole field of short cantata (for church choirs, and for female and male chorus), though the number of really fine works here is quite amazing. Contemporaneous choral music is fuUy discussed in three chapters and a large number of works are ade- quately described, though for obvious reasons critical estimates are in the main impossible from the very propinquity of these works. Grateful acknowledgment is here made to Mr. Fred- erick H. Martens and to Mr. Reginald L. McAU for the contribution of the comprehensive chapter on the his- tory of the organ (Chapter XIV), at the end of which their initials will be found; also to Mr. Wilhelm Middel- schulte, organist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, for many critical suggestions, especially on the organ- works of Bach, Widor and Reger. In this connection the author wishes to give full and grateful recognition to the valuable assistance of his wife in gathering and verifying much historical material. RossETTER G. Cole. Chicago, August, 1915. • •• Vlll CHORAL AND CHURCH MUSIC INTRODUCTION "And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men." This choir of angels (for can we conceive of a multi- tude of angels announcing this message otherwise than in well-ordered song?) typifies the mission of choral singing. Whenever human beings unite in expressing noble thoughts in noble music, their message also is one of good will. Their speech is rendered in rhythmic ca- dence, intoned in harmonious concord and made ex- pressive by melody; they are bound together in amic- able union for a common purpose; they willingly sub- mit to the discipline of a controlling mind; their object is to put beauty into the world and the peace and harmony which are required to make their work ef- fective are communicated to those who hear them and, whose souls they cause to vibrate in unison with their music. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the prac- tice of choral singing dates back to very early times. Not, of course, in the way in which we understand the term to-day, as an art-form, but in cruder forms of singing or chanting in unison such as may still be heard among uncivilized or half-civilized tribes. ix — CHORAL AND CHURCH MUSIC The desire to unite in the performance of religious rites, in prayers for rain or in praise of the deity; in the mutual encouragement to do battle against a com- mon foe; in the celebration of seasonal changes, in rejoicing over the gifts of nature or the fruits of their toil at harvest time—all these common feelings induce a common expression and stimulate choral singing. The development from these crude forms to the art- forms of the present has not only extended over a long period, but has been affected and influenced by many and various factors. For purposes of discussion we may divide these into two main classes : the Church and the Folk-song. These two factors have brought to the evolution of choral singing certain elements which, though diametrically opposed, yet most happily com- plement each other, namely, obedience to law and free- dom of expression. In the nature of things music in the Church—the Ro- man Catholic and the Greek Orthodox—had to adapt itself to the strict canons of the Liturgy. As the service became more and more elaborate and it was realized that music exerted a strong spiritualizing influence, its use was extended until it became one of the principal features in the Mass and required the participation of not only the regular clergy, but of numerous trained auxiliaries. Thus it came to pass that the Church, to satisfy its need for canonic music—that is, for music which met the liturgic requirements, preserved the dig- nity of the text and enhanced the devotional attitude stimulated the efforts toward greater beauty, variety, and dignity of expression. Every monastery, every cathedral contributed something to this evolutionary process until this primary stage of choral development culminated in the work of Palestrina. This was accom- plished by slow stages. The art of counterpoint, which forms the basis of this art-form, grew very gradually — INTRODUCTION from the combination of two voices to that of three, four, or more and incidentally caused to be discovered certain art-forms, such as the canon and the fugue, based upon the principle of imitation, which have been employed by all the great masters of musical composi- tion to the present day. Let us now, for a moment, leave this field of choral development and go into a small village in Russia. It is evening. The villagers are assembled under the spreading branches of an old linden tree whose blos- soms perfume the still air as the moon rises above the forest. Presently one of the villagers intones a song. It is known to all, has been handed down from genera- tion to generation. No one knows whence it came—^it seems always to have been there and it is interwoven with the memories and emotions of all the people of the village and of the whole countryside. In a word it is a folk-song. One after another the villagers join in, some in unison with the tune, but others, finding the range too high, endeavor to find tones which sound in pleasing consonance, and so, gradually, there is evolved a full harmony accompanying the melody of the song. Has anyone taught the villagers the science of har- mony? Of course not, but, just as the beautiful mel- ody grew out of the people's hearts and in the course of generations molded itself into a perfect tune, so gradually the sense for good harmony grew and caused the elimination of unpleasing progressions. Sometimes such a song tells a story which is developed in many stanzas. Then a 'foresinger' will chant the stanzas and the villagers will sing a choral refrain, thus taking active part in the recital. This, then, is the other source of choral singing which, meeting the stream coming from the church, soon united with it and helped to create and to develop this form of musical art. In order to obtain a survey of the whole field of xi : CHORAL AND CHURCH MUSIC choral music as it has grown from these two principal sources, let us enumerate it under three divisions 1. As an expression of popular emotions and thoughts. a. Folk-songs and refrains.