HOW TO APPRECIATE A PIANOFORTE RECITAL | ||
| I | The Pianoforte | [29] |
| II | Bach’s Service to Music | [48] |
| III | From Fugue to Sonata | [78] |
| IV | Dawn of the Romantic Period | [100] |
| V | Chopin, the Poet of the Pianoforte | [116] |
| VI | Schumann, the “Intimate” | [134] |
| VII | Liszt, the Giant among Virtuosos | [142] |
| VIII | With Paderewski—A Modern Pianist on Tour | [155] |
HOW TO APPRECIATE AN ORCHESTRAL CONCERT | ||
| IX | Development of the Orchestra | [167] |
| X | Instruments of the Orchestra | [179] |
| XI | Concerning Symphonies | [197] |
| XII | Richard Strauss and His Music | [207] |
| XIII | A Note on Chamber Music | [224] |
HOW TO APPRECIATE VOCAL MUSIC | ||
| XIV | Songs and Song Composers | [231] |
| XV | Oratorio | [248] |
| XVI | Opera and Music-Drama | [260] |
TABLE OF CONTENTS
HOW TO APPRECIATE A PIANOFORTE RECITAL
CHAPTER PAGE
I.—THE PIANOFORTE
Why the king of musical instruments—Music under one’s fingers—Can render anything in music—Liszt played the whole orchestra on the pianoforte—Fingers of a great virtuoso the ambassadors of his soul—Melody and accompaniment on one instrument—No intermediaries to mar effect—Paderewski’s playing of “Hark, Hark, the Lark”—Music’s debt to the pianoforte—Developed sonata form and gave it to orchestra—Richard Strauss on Beethoven’s pianistic orchestration—A boon to many famous composers, even to Wagner—Its lowly origin—Nine centuries to develop pianoforte from monochord—The monochord described—Joined to a keyboard—Poet’s amusing advice to his musical daughter—Clavichord developed from monochord—Its lack of power—Bebung, or balancement—The harpsichord—Originated in the cembalo of the Hungarian gypsy orchestra—Spinet and virginal—Pianoforte invented 10 by Cristofori, 1711—Exploited by Silbermann—Strings of twenty tons’ tension—Dampers and pedals—Paderewski’s use of both pedals—Mechanical pianofortes—Senseless decoration [29]
II.—BACH’S SERVICE TO MUSIC
Pianoforte so universal in character can give, through it, a general survey of the art of music—Bach illustrates an epoch—A Bach fugue more elaborate than a music-drama or tone poem—Bach more modern than Haydn or Mozart—His influence on modern music—Wagner unites the harmony of Beethoven with the polyphony of Bach—Melody, harmony and counterpoint defined and differentiated—Illustrated from the “Moonlight Sonata”—What a fugue is—The fugue and the virtuoso—Not “grateful” music for public performance—Daniel Gregory Mason’s tribute and reservation—What counterpoint lacks—Fails to give the player as much scope as modern music—Barrier to individuality of expression—The virtuoso’s mission—Creative as well as interpretive—Mr. Hanchett’s dictum—Music both a science and an art—Science versus feeling—Person may be very musical without being musical at all—The great composer bends science to art—That “ear for music”—Bach and the Weather Bureau—The 11 Bacon, not the Shakespeare, of music—What Wagner learned from Bach—Illustration from “Die Walküre”—W. J. Henderson’s anecdote—Wagner’s counterpoint emotional—Bach’s the language of an epoch; Wagner’s the language of liberated music—Bach in the recital hall—Rubinstein and Bach’s “Triple Concerto”—“The Well-Tempered Clavichord”—Meaning of “well-tempered”—A king’s tribute to Bach—Two hundred and forty-one years of Bachs [48]