| PAGE | ||
| Introduction by Leland Hall | [iii] | |
| Part I. The Classic Ideal | ||
| CHAPTER | ||
| I. | The Regeneration of the Opera | [1] |
| The eighteenth century and operatic convention—Porpora and Hasse—Pergolesi and the opera buffa—Jommelli, Piccini, Cimarosa, etc.—Gluck’s early life; the Metastasio period—The comic opera in France; Gluck’s reform; Orfeo and Alceste—The Paris period; Gluck and Piccini; the Iphigénies; Gluck’s mission—Gluck’s influence; the opéra comique; Cherubini. | ||
| II. | The Foundations of the Classic Period | [45] |
| Classicism and the classic period—Political and literary forces—The conflict of styles; the sonata form—The Berlin school; the sons of Bach—The Mannheim reform: the genesis of the symphony—Followers of the Mannheim school; rise of the string quartet; Vienna and Salzburg as musical centres. | ||
| III. | The Viennese Classics: Haydn and Mozart | [75] |
| Social aspects of the classic period; Vienna, its court and its people—Joseph Haydn—Haydn’s work; the symphony; the string quartet—Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart—Mozart’s style; Haydn and Mozart; the perfection of orchestral style—Mozart and the opera; the Requiem; the mission of Haydn and Mozart. | ||
| IV. | Ludwig van Beethoven | [128] |
| Form and formalism—Beethoven’s life—His relations with his family, teachers, friends and other contemporaries—His character—The man and the artist—Determining factors in his development—The three periods in his work and their characteristics—His place in the history of music. | ||
| V. | Operatic Development in Italy and France | [177] |
| Italian opera at the advent of Rossini—Rossini and the Italian operatic renaissance—Guillaume Tell—Donizetti and Bellini—Spontini and the historical opera—Meyerbeer’s life and works—His influence and followers—Development of opéra comique; Boieldieu, Auber, Hérold, Adam. | ||
| Part II. The Romantic Ideal | ||
| VI. | The Romantic Movement: Its Characteristics and Its Growth | [213] |
| Modern music and modern history; characteristics of the music of the romantic period—Schubert and the German romantic movement in literature—Weber and the German reawakening—The Paris of 1830: French Romanticism—Franz Liszt—Hector Berlioz—Chopin; Mendelssohn—Leipzig and Robert Schumann—Romanticism and classicism. | ||
| VII. | Song Literature of the Romantic Period | [269] |
| Lyric poetry and song—The song before Schubert—Franz Schubert; Carl Löwe—Robert Schumann; Robert Franz; Mendelssohn and Chopin; Franz Liszt as song writer. | ||
| VIII. | Pianoforte and Chamber Music of the Romantic Period | [293] |
| Development of the modern pianoforte—The pioneers: Schubert and Weber—Schumann and Mendelssohn—Chopin and others—Franz Liszt, virtuoso and poet—Chamber music of the romantic period; Ludwig Spohr and others. | ||
| IX. | Orchestral Literature and Orchestral Development | [334] |
| The perfection of instruments; emotionalism of the romantic period; enlargement of orchestral resources—The symphony in the romantic period; Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann; Spohr and Raff—The concert overture—The rise of program music; the symphonic leit-motif; Berlioz’s Fantastique; other Berlioz symphonies; Liszt’s dramatic symphonies—Symphonic poem; Tasso; Liszt’s other symphonic poems—The legitimacy of program music. | ||
| X. | Romantic Opera and the Development of Choral Song | [372] |
| The rise of German opera; Weber and the romantic opera; Weber’s followers—Berlioz as opera composer—The drame lyrique from Gounod to Bizet—Opéra comique in the romantic period; the opéra bouffe—Choral and sacred music of the romantic period. | ||
| Part III. The Era of Wagner | ||
| XI. | Wagner and Wagnerism | [401] |
| Periods of operatic reform; Wagner’s early life and works—Paris: Rienzi, “The Flying Dutchman”—Dresden: Tannhäuser and Lohengrin; Wagner and Liszt; the revolution of 1848—Tristan and Meistersinger—Bayreuth; “The Nibelungen Ring”—Parsifal—Wagner’s musico-dramatic reforms; his harmonic revolution; the leit-motif system—The Wagnerian influence. | ||
| XII. | Neo-Romanticism: Johannes Brahms and César Franck | [443] |
| The antecedents of Brahms—The life and personality of Brahms—The idiosyncrasies of his music in rhythm, melody, and harmony as expressions of his character—His works for pianoforte, for voice, and for orchestra; the historical position of Brahms—Franck’s place in the romantic movement—His life, personality, and the characteristics of his style; his works as the expression of religious mysticism. | ||
| XIII. | Verdi and His Contemporaries | [477] |
| Verdi’s mission in Italian opera—His early life and education—His first operas and their political significance—His second period: the maturing of his style—Crowning achievements of his third period—Verdi’s contemporaries. | ||
A NARRATIVE HISTORY OF MUSIC
CHAPTER I
THE REGENERATION OF THE OPERA
The eighteenth century and operatic convention—Porpora and Hasse—Pergolesi and the opera buffa—Jommelli, Piccini, Cimarosa, etc.—Gluck’s early life; the Metastasio period—The comic opera in France; Gluck’s reform; Orfeo and Alceste—The Paris period; Gluck and Piccini; the Iphigénies; Gluck’s mission—Gluck’s influence; Salieri and Sarti; the development of opéra comique; Cherubini.
While the deep, quiet stream of Bach’s genius flowed under the bridges all but unnoticed, the marts and highways of Europe were a babel of operatic intrigue and artistic shams. Handel in England was running the course of his triumphal career, which luckily forced him into the tracks of a new art-form; on the continent meantime Italian opera reached at once its most brilliant and most absurd epoch under the leadership of Hasse and Porpora; even Rameau, the founder of modern harmonic science, did not altogether keep aloof from its influence, while perpetuating the traditions of Lully in Paris. Vocal virtuosi continued to set the musical fashions of the age, the artificial soprano was still a force to which composers had to submit; indeed, artificiality was the keynote of the century.
The society of the eighteenth century was primarily concerned with the pursuit of sensuous enjoyment. In Italy especially ‘the cosmic forces existed but in order to serve the endless divertissement of superficial and brainless beings, in whose eyes the sun’s only mission was to illumine picturesque cavalcades and water-parties, as that of the moon was to touch with trembling ray the amorous forest glades.’ Monnier’s vivid pen-picture of eighteenth century Venetian society applies, with allowance made for change of scene and local color, to all the greater Italian cities. ‘What equivocal figures! What dubious pasts! Law (of Mississippi bubble fame) lives by gambling, as does the Chevalier Desjardins, his brother in the Bastille, his wife in a lodging-house; the Count de Bonneval, turbaned, sitting on a rug with legs crossed, worships Allah, carries on far-reaching intrigues and is poisoned by the Turks; Lord Baltimore, travelling with his physician and a seraglio of eight women, with a pair of negro guards; Ange Goudar, a wit, a cheat at cards, a police spy and perjurer, rascally, bold, and ugly; and his wife Sarah, once a servant in a London tavern, marvellously beautiful, who receives the courtly world at her palace in Pausilippo near Naples, and subjugates it with her charm; disguised maidens, false princes, fugitive financiers, literary blacklegs, Greeks, chevaliers of all industries, wearers of every order, splenetic grands seigneurs, and the kings of Voltaire’s Candide. Of such is the Italian society of the eighteenth century composed.