[The Content and Kinds of Music]
How far it is necessary for the listener to go into musical philosophy—Intelligent hearing not conditioned upon it—Man's individual relationship to the art—Musicians proceed on the theory that feelings are the content of music—The search for pictures and stories condemned—How composers hear and judge—Definitions of the capacity of music by Wagner, Hauptmann, and Mendelssohn—An utterance by Herbert Spencer—Music as a language—Absolute music and Programme music—The content of all true art works—Chamber music—Meaning and origin of the term—Haydn the servant of a Prince—The characteristics of Chamber music—Pure thought, lofty imagination, and deep learning—Its chastity—Sympathy between performers and listeners essential to its enjoyment—A correct definition of Programme music—Programme music defended—The value of titles and superscriptions—Judgment upon it must, however, go to the music, not the commentary—Subjects that are unfit for music—Kinds of Programme music—Imitative music—How the music of birds has been utilized—The cuckoo of nature and Beethoven's cuckoo—Cock and hen in a seventeenth century composition—Rameau's pullet—The German quail—Music that is descriptive by suggestion—External and internal attributes—Fancy and Imagination—Harmony and the major and minor mode—Association of ideas—Movement delineated—Handel's frogs—Water in the "Hebrides" overture and "Ocean" symphony—Height and depth illustrated by acute and grave tones—Beethoven's illustration of distance—His rule enforced—Classical and Romantic music—Genesis of the terms—What they mean in literature—Archbishop Trench on classical books—The author's definitions of both terms in music—Classicism as the conservative principle, Romanticism as the progressive, regenerative, and creative—A contest which stimulates life. [Page 36]
Chap. IV.
Importance of the instrumental band—Some things that can be learned by its study—The orchestral choirs—Disposition of the players—Model bands compared—Development of instrumental music—The extent of an orchestra's register—The Strings: Violin, Viola, Violoncello, and Double-bass—Effects produced by changes in manipulation—The wood-winds: Flute, Oboe, English horn, Bassoon, Clarinet—The Brass: French Horn, Trumpet and Cornet, Trombone, Tuba—The Drums—The Conductor—Rise of the modern interpreter—The need of him—His methods—Scores and Score-reading. [ Page 71 ]
Chap. V.
"Classical" and "Popular" as generally conceived—Symphony Orchestras and Military bands—The higher forms in music as exemplified at a classical concert—Symphonies, Overtures, Symphonic Poems, Concertos, etc.—A Symphony not a union of unrelated parts—History of the name—The Sonata form and cyclical compositions—The bond of union between the divisions of a Symphony—Material and spiritual links—The first movement and the sonata form—"Exposition, illustration, and repetition"—The subjects and their treatment—Keys and nomenclature of the Symphony—The Adagio or second movement—The Scherzo and its relation to the Minuet—The Finale and the Rondo form—The latter illustrated in outline by a poem—Modifications of the symphonic form by Beethoven, Schumann, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Saint-Saëns and Dvořák—Augmentation of the forces—Symphonies with voices—The Symphonic Poem—Its three characteristics—Concertos and Cadenzas—M. Ysaye's opinion of the latter—Designations in Chamber music—The Overture and its descendants—Smaller forms: Serenades, Fantasias, Rhapsodies, Variations, Operatic Excerpts. [ Page 122 ]
Chap. VI.