Florentine lady, Vittoria Archilei. Embryo opera of Cavalieri. Peri's "Eurydice." Euterpe. Marthe le Rochois and Lully's operas. Rival queens in London. Steele, in "Tattler." Second pair of rivals, Cuzzoni and Faustina. Master Handel. Germany's earliest queen of song. Frederick the Great and German singers. Mrs. Billington. Haydn and Sir Joshua Reynold's St. Cecilia. Mozart's operas introduced into England. Catalani. Pasta. Sontag. Schröder-Devrient and Goethe's "Erl King." Malibran a dazzling Meteor. Another daughter of Manuel del Popolo Garcia. Marchesi, Grisi and Mario. Manuel Garcia and the Swedish Nightingale. Other Swedish songstresses. Patti. Queens of song pass in review. Two Wagner interpreters. A Valkyrie's horse. A word for American girls.
[The Opera and Its Reformers] [213]
Evolution of drama. At the altar of Dionysus. Greek poetry and music. Aristotle on Greek stage-plays. Æschylus and Sophocles. Euripides. Words, music and scenic effect. Lenæan theatre exhibitions. More costly than Peloponnesian war. Roman dominion. Primitive Christian church. St. Augustine. Mystery, miracle, morality and passion plays. Strolling histriones, etc. Florence "Academy." Vincenzo Galilei. Monody. Polyphonic music. Emilio del Cavalieri. Vittorio Archilei. Music of Greeks recovered. Peri. Monteverde and his work. First opera house. Alessandro Scarlatti. Troubadours. Lully, Rameau and French opera. Purcell, Handel and music in England. Gluck, the regenerator. German opera. Mozart, Beethoven, Weber and Wagner. What came from Bach, Chopin and Berlioz. Rossini's melodies. Wagner's influence. Verdi, the grand old man.
[Certain Famous Oratorios] [235]
Neri's oratory. Dramatized versions of biblical stories. Palestrina and harmonies of celestial Jerusalem. Religious dramas of Roswitha. Laura Guidiccioni's first oratorio text. Music by Cavalieri. At Santa Maria della Vallicella. Orchestra behind the scene. Description. Carissimi, "father of oratorio and cantata." Alessandro Scarlatti. Another Alessandro. Dr. Parry's opinion. "San Giovanni Battista" and famous air. Tradition about Stradella. What recent writers say. Handel and the "Messiah." Bach and the "Passion Music." "The Creation" and Haydn. Beethoven's "Mount of Olives." Mendelssohn, in "St. Paul" and "Elijah." Oratorios of Liszt and Gounod. Next step in the evolution.
[Symphony and Symphonic Poem] [247]
That adventurous spirit, Monteverde. Charm in exploring resources of instrumentation. Operatic overture. Forge of genius. Dance of obscure origin. Craving for individual expression. Touch of authority by Corelli. Cardinal Ottoboni's palace. Symphony, a sonata for orchestra. Purcell, Scarlatti, Sammartini and the Bachs. Monophonic style. Contrasting movements. German critic on early sonata. Further explanation. Meaning of symphony. Haydn with Esterhazy orchestra. Father of the symphony. Mozart. Beethoven. Schubert. Schumann. Mendelssohn. Berlioz, the musical heretic. His "fixed idea" and programme music. Liszt and symphonic poem. Saint-Saëns. Tschaikowsky and Russian spirit. Sinding. Grieg. Gade. Brahms and absolute music.