CflnrttfU ItitetBttg SItbrarg BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF 1S91: L.sM6.^&: sJH/lZ- 9306 Cornell ... ^__ University Library ML 100.M39 V.3 The art of music :a comprehensive iibrar 3 1924 022 385 284 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/cu31924022385284 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 CESAR SAERCHINGER Modern Music Society of New York In Fourteen Volumes Profusely Illustrated NEW YORK THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OP MUSIC THE ART OF MUSIC: VOLUME THREE Modern Music Being Book Three of A Narrative History of Music Department Editors: EDWARD BURLINGAME HILL AND ERNEST NEWMAN Music Critic. 'Diuly Post,' Birmingham, England Author of 'Gluck and the Opera,' *Hugo Wolf,' 'Richard Strauss/ etc. Introduction by EDWARD BURLINGAME HILL Instructor in Musical Histoiy, Harvard University Formerly Music Critic, 'Boston Evening Transcript' Editor. 'Musical World,' etc. NEW YORK THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF MUSIC Copyright, 1916, by THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF MUSIC, Inc. [All Rights Reserved) MODERN MUSIC INTRODUCTION The direct sources of modem music are to be found in the works of Berlioz, Chopin, Liszt, and Wagner. This assertion savors of truism, but, since the achieve- ment of these four masters in the enlargement of har- monic idiom, in diversity of formal evolution, and in intrinsic novelty and profundity of musical sentiment and emotion remains so unalterably the point of de- parture in modern music, reiteration is unavoidable and essential. It were idle to deny that various figures in musical history have shown prophetic glimpses of the future. Monteverdi's taste for unprepared disso- nance and instinct for graphic instrumental effect; the extraordinary anticipation of Liszt's treatment of the diminished seventh chord, and the enharmonic modu- lations to be found in the music of Sebastian Bach, the presages of later German romanticism discoverable in the works of his ill-fated son Wilhelm Friedemann, con- stitute convincing details. The romantic ambitions of Lesueur as to program-music found their reflection in the superheated imagination of Berlioz, and the music- drama of Wagner derives as conclusively from Fidelia as from the more conclusively romantic antecedents of Euryanthe. But, despite their illuminating quality, these casual outcroppings of modernity do not reverse the axiomatic statement made above. The trend of modern music, then, may be traced first along the path of the pervasive domination of Wagner; vii MODERN MUSIC second, the lesser but no less tenacious influence of Liszt; it includes the rise of nationalistic schools, the gradual infiltration of eclecticism leading at last to re- cent quasi-anarchic efforts to expand the technical ele- ments of music. If the critics of the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries have successfully exposed not only the aes- thetic flaws in "Wagner's theory of the music-drama, but also his own obvious departures in practice from pre-conceived convictions, as well as the futility of much of his polemic and philosophical writings, Euro- pean composers of opera, almost without exception, save in Russia, have frankly adopted his methods in whole or in part. Bruckner, Bungert, d'Albert, Schil- lings, Pfitzner, Goldmark, Humperdinck, Weingartner, and Richard Strauss in Germany; Saint-Saens (in vary- ing degree), Chabrier, Lalo, Massenet (temporarily), Bruneau and Charpentier (slightly), d'Indy, Chausson, and Dukas in France; Verdi (more remotely), Puccini, and possibly Wolf-Ferrari in Italy; Holbrooke in Eng- land, are among the more conspicuous whose obliga- tion to Wagner is frankly perceptible. In Germany the most prominent contributors to dramatic literature, aside from Cornelius, with Der Barbier von Bagdad, and Goetz with Der Widerspenstigen Zdhmung, have been Goldmark, Humperdinck, and Richard Strauss. The latter, with an incredibly complex system of leading motives, an elaborately contrapuntal connotation of dramatic situations, aided by an intensely psycho- logical orchestral descriptiveness, has reached the summit of post-Wagnerian drama. His later dra- matic experiments—a ruthless adaptation of Moliere's Bourgeois gentilhomme, containing the one-act opera Ariadne auf Naxos, and the ballet 'The Legend of Joseph'—are distinctly less representative examples of viii INTRODUCTION his dramatic resourcefulness. In France, the Wagner- ian influence is typified in such works as Chabrier's Gwendoline, d'Indy's Fervaal, and to a lesser extent Chausson's Le Roi Arthus. Bruneau's realistic operas and Charpentier's sociological Louise belong, first of all, to the characteristically French lyric drama in which the Wagnerian element is relatively unim- portant. In Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande, Dukas' Ariane et Barbe-bleue, Ravel's L'Heure espagnole, and Faure's Penelope, we find a virtually independent con- ception of opera which may be almost described as anti-Wagnerian. In Italy, the later Verdi shows an independent solution of dramatic problems, although conscious of the work of Wagner. Puccini is the suc- cessor of Verdi, rather than the follower of Wagner, although his use of motives and treatment of the or- chestra shows at least an unconcious assimilation of Wagnerian practice, Mascagni and Leoncavallo are vir- tually negligible except for their early successes, and one or two other works. Younger composers like Montemezzi and Zadonai are beginning to claim atten- tion, but Wolf-Ferrari, combining Italian instinct with German training, seems on the way to attain a renas- cence of the opera buffa, provided that he is not again tempted by the sensational type represented by 'The Jewels of the Madonna-' Opera in England has re- mained an exotic, save for the operettas of Sullivan, despite the efforts of British composers to vitalize it. Holbrooke's attempt to produce an English trilogy seems fated to join previous failures, notwithstanding his virtuosity and his dramatic earnestness. Russian composers for the stage have steadily resisted the in- vasion of Wagnerian methods. Adhering, first of all, to the tenets of Dargomijsky, individuals have gradu- ally adopted their own standpoint. The most charac- teristic works are Borodine's Prince Igor, Rimsky-Kor- sakoff's Sniegourutchka, Sadko, Mlada, Le Coq d'Or, ix MODERN MUSIC and Moussorgsky's Boris Godounoff and Khovants- china. In the field of orchestral composition, the acceptance of Wagner's procedure in orchestration is even more universal than his dramatic following. If his system follows logically from the adoption of valve horns and valve trumpets, the enlargement of wind instrument groups and the subdivision of the strings, its far-reach- ing application is still a matter of amazement to the analyst. Even if it be granted that Wagner himself predaciously absorbed individual methods of treat- ment from Weber, Meyerbeer, Berlioz, and Liszt, the ultimate originality of his idiom justified his manifold obligations. German composers, except among the fol- lowers of Brahms, appropriated his extension of or- chestral effect as a matter of course, the most notable being Bruckner, Goldmark, Humperdinck, Mahler, and Strauss. If the two latter in turn can claim original idioms of their own, the antecedents of their styles are none the less evident. French composers from Saint- Saens to Dukas have made varying concessions to his persuasive sonorities; even the stanch Rimsky-Korsa- kotf fell before the seduction of Wagnerian amplitude and variety of color. GlazounoflF, Taneieff, Scriabine, and other Russians followed suit. Among English com- posers, Elgar and Bantock fell instinctively into line, followed in some degree by William Wallace and Fred- erick Delius. If Holbrooke is more directly a disciple of Richard Strauss, that fact in itself denotes an uncon- scious acknowledgment to Wagner. If Liszt has had a less all-embracing reaction upon modern composers, his sphere of influence has been marked and widely extended. To begin with, his har- monic style has been the subject of imitation second only to Wagner up to the advent of Richard Strauss and Debussy. His invention of the structurally elastic symphonic poem remains the sole original contribution X s INTRODUCTION in point of form which the nineteenth century can claim. For even the cyclic sonata form of Franck is but a modification of the academic type, and was fore- shadowed by Beethoven and Schumann. The vast evo- lution of structural freedom, the infinite ramifications of subtle and dramatic program-music, and the result- ant additions of the most stimulating character to mod- ern musical literature rest upon the courageous initia- tive of Liszt. In France, Saint-Saens' pioneer examples, though somewhat slight in substance, prepared the way for Cesar Franck's Les ioUdes and Le Chasseur maudit, Duparc's Lenore, d'Indy's La foret enchantee, the pro- grammistic Istar variations. Jour d'ete a la Montagne, Dukas' L'Apprenti-sorcier, Debussy's Prelude a I'Apres- midi d'un faune and the Nocturnes (programmistic if impressionistic), Florent Schmitts' Tragedie de Salome, and Roussel's Evocations- In Germany, Richard Strauss' epoch-making series of tone-poems, from Mac- beth to Also sprach Zarathustra, combine descriptive aptitude and orchestral brilliance with a masterly manipulation of formal elements. Weingartner's Die Gefilde der Seligen and Reger's Bocklin symphonic poems may be added to the list. In Russia, Balakireff' Thamar, Borodine's 'Sketch from Central Asia,' Rim- sky-Korsakoff's Scheherezade (although a suite), Gla- zounoff's Stenka Razine and other less vital works, Rachmaninoff's 'Isle of the Dead,' Scriabine's 'Poem of Ecstasy' and 'Poem of Fire' mark the path of evolution. Smetana's series of six symphonic poems entitled 'My Home' result directly from the stimulus of Liszt.