Read Ebook: The Masters and Their Music A series of illustrative programs with biographical esthetical and critical annotations by Mathews W S B William Smythe Babcock
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Foreword 15
Discovery 17 The Spanish Rule--A Tale of Wars and Uprisings 17 Reforms in the 19th Century 18 Last Decades of Spanish Rule--The Coming of the Americans 19 Filipino-American War 20 The establishment of Civil Government 20
Power of Propaganda to Misrepresent 21 Non-Christian Population 21 Literacy 22 Facts of Filipino Attainments in Pre-Spanish Days 22 Religion, Alphabet, and Books 23 Traders and Artisans 24 Able Agriculturists 24 Written and Unwritten Laws 24 The Code of Calantiao 25 Testimonies of Occidental Writers 26 Progress During the Spanish Rule 27 Schools and Colleges 27 Filipino Record Abroad 28 Opinions of Foreign Writers 28 Background on Which America Had Built 29
Causes of Earlier Revolutions 30 The Revolution of 1896 30 The Pact of Biac-na-Bato 30 The Republic 31 The Governmental Machinery Set Up 31 The Malolos Constitution--Its Salient Features 32 Comments of Foreigners 34
A Homogeneous People 37 Total Population 38 Foreign Population 38 Comparative Population 38
Number of Islands 39 Total Land Area 39 Bays and Straits 40 Mountains 40 Rivers 40 Lakes and Falls 40 Mineral Springs 41 Climate 41 Differences in Time 41 Comparative Areas 42 Rainfall 42
Entrance to Manila Bay--Corregidor and the Islands "El Fraile," and "El Carabao" 43 The City of Manila 43 The Walled City 44 Fort Santiago 44 Three Manilas 45 Costumes 46 The Shops 46 The Pasig River 46 Other Places of Interest 46 The Cathedral 47 The Ayuntamiento 47 University of Santo Tomas 47 The Dominican Church 48 Avenues 48 Bilibid Prison 49 Central Observatory 51 The Luneta 51 The Manila Hotel 52 The Museum 52 The Carnival Grounds 52 Dewey Boulevard 53 Clubs and Societies 54 Cemeteries 54 Monuments 54 Life in Manila 55 Vexing Conventionalities Absent 55 Competition Less Severe 56
Malaca?ang Palace 58 Santa Mesa 59 San Juan Heights and Bridge 59 The Reservoir 60 Mariquina Valley and Town 60 The Payatas Estate 61 Montalban Dam 61 Fort William McKinley 62
Baguio 63 The Zig-Zag 63 Camp John Hay 64 Trinidad Valley 64 The City of Cebu 65 Places of Historical Interest 66 The City of Iloilo 66 Description and Attractions 67 Zamboanga 67 The San Ramon Penal Colony 68
Laguna Province--Pagsanjan Falls 71 Calamba 78 Los Ba?os Mineral Springs 78 College of Agriculture 79 Rizal Province 72 Antipolo--Virgin of Antipolo 73 Cavite Province 73 Zapote Bridge 74 The United States Naval and Radio Station 74 Kawit 75 Batangas Province 75 Historical Incidents 76 Attractions 76 Taal Volcano 76 Tayabas Province 78 Botocan Falls 78 Lucena and Atimonan 78 The Bicol Provinces 79 Sceneries 80 Historical Incidents 80 Peerless Mayon 81 Bulacan Province 82 Description and History 82 Attractions 83 Biac-na-Bato 83 Mineral Baths at Marilao 83 Malolos, the Seat of the Philippine Republic 83 Pampanga Province 83 Attractions 84 Tarlac Province 85 Medicinal Springs 85 Nueva Ecija Province--The Rice Granary of the Islands 85 The Government Agricultural School at Mu?oz 86 Bataan Province 86 Attractions 86 Historical 86 Mariveles 87 Mount Mariveles 87 Zambales Province 88 Naval Station at Olongapo and Fortifications on Grande Island 88 Pangasinan--Second Largest Rice Producing Province 89 Salt Making and Industries 89 Historical Events 89 The Mountain Province and Sub-provinces 90 The Rice Terraces in Ifugao 91 Gold Mining and Household Industries 92 La Union and the Ilocos Provinces--Household Industries 92 Abra Province 94 The Cagayan Valley--The Tobacco Region 95 The Cagayan River 95 Isabela Province and the Town of Palanan 96 Nueva Vizcaya Province--The Salt Incrusted Mountain 96 Mindoro Province 96 Mineral Deposits 97 The Submarine Garden at Puerto Galera 97 Palawan Province 97 Iwahig Penal Colony 98 Culion Leper Colony 98 The Underground River 99 Romblon Province--Marble Deposits 99 The Visayas 99 Samar, the First Island Discovered by the Spaniards 99 Iloilo and Capiz--Beautiful Caves and Cliffs of White Coral Rock 100 Negros Island--The Principal Sugar Producing District 101 The Haciendas and the Sugar Centrals 101 The Silliman Institute at Dumaguete 101 The Volcano of Magaso 102 Cebu Province 102 San Miguel, the First Spanish Settlement 102 Bohol Province 103 The Rebellions of 1622 and 1744 103 Medicinal Springs and Caves 104 Leyte Province 104 Abundance of minerals 104 Limasawa--Where Mass Was First Celebrated in the Philippines 104 The Island of Mindanao 105 Origin of Name 105 Introduction of Islam 105 Province of Zamboanga 105 Cotabato Province 106 Increasing Christian Population 106 The Large Lakes in Cotabato Province 106 Mount Apo 106 Bukidnon Province, an Unsurpassed Region for Cattle 107 Beautiful Lake Lanao and the Maria Cristina Falls 107 Davao Province, the Finest Hemp Land in the Island 108 Agusan and Surigao Provinces--Minerals and Agricultural Products 108 The Sulu Archipelago 109 Description, Principal Ports and Industries 109 Introduction of Mohammedanism 110 The Sultan of Sulu and His Present Position 111 The Policy of Attraction Carried Out by the Insular Government 111 The Town of Jolo--Chinese Pier and Ariolas' Walk 112 The Language for the Tourist 113 Number of Filipinos Who speak, read and write English 113
Number of Hectares under Cultivation 115 Principal Undeveloped Regions 115 Percentage of Farms Owned by Filipinos 116 The Principal Crops--Rice, Hemp, Sugar, Tobacco, Coconut-- Export Figures 116 Prospective Agricultural Industries 127 Irrigation 128 Rural Credit Associations--Table 128 Forest Resources 130 Area 130 Only 1 per cent Private Ownership 131 Timber Output and Export 131 How Timber Tracts are Obtained 132 Sawmills 132 Minor Forest Products 132 Minerals--Gold, Silver, Iron, Manganese, Coal, and Statistical Data 132 Other Industries 135 Public Lands 143 Area 143 Modes of Acquisition 143
Economic Position--Manila as a Trade Center 147 Trade Routes 147 Personnel of Philippine Commerce 149 America's Monopoly in Philippine Trade 150 Mediums of Trade 150 Trade with other Countries 151 Values of Imports and Exports, 1913 to 1922 152 Principal Articles Exported, 1921-1922 153 Principal Articles Imported, 1921-1922 154 Shipping 156 Entrances and Clearances of Vessels 156 Interisland Transportation 156 Table--Merchandise Carried by Foreign Vessels 157 Interisland Lines 158 Control Over Rates 158 Number and Tonnage of Vessels 159
Resembles Federal and State Governments 160 Departures from American Standards 160 The Budget System 160 Parliamentary Responsibility 161 The Council of State, Advisory to the Governor General 161 The Governor-General, the Vice-Governor, and the Executive Departments 161 The Legislative Department 164 The Judiciary 165 Provincial and Municipal Government 165 Expenses of the Philippine Government 165 Financial Status 166 Statement of Receipts, Expenditures and Surplus 167 Budget Estimates, 1918-1923 168 Currency and Circulation 168 Electors 170
Filipinization 174 Proportion of Filipinos to Americans in the Government 174 Autonomy 174 Outstanding Achievements of the Filipinized Government 175 Reorganization of Departments 175 The Budget System Explained 177 Public Improvements 177 Agriculture and Taxation 178 Public Order 178 Education--System of Instruction 178 Number of Pupils 182 Number of Teachers 182 Number of School Buildings 182 Universities 182 Sanitation--the Philippine Health Service 183 Comparative Death Rate 184 Local Autonomy 184 Public Welfare--The Public Welfare Commissioner 185 Administration of Justice 186 Record of the Courts 186 Government Enterprises--Object 187 The National Bank 187 The Manila Railroad 188 The National Coal Co. 188 The National Development Co. 189
Uprisings during Spanish R?gime 190 The Organized Movement 193 The Philippine Assembly of 1907 193 America's Policy and Promise to the Filipinos 194 Pronouncements of McKinley, Taft, Roosevelt, and Wilson 195 Jones Law, the Formal Pledge that Independence Will Be Granted 196 Executive Recommendation for the Fulfillment of America's Promise 197 Missions to the United States 197 The Commission of Independence and Its Purposes 198 The Declaration of Purposes 198 The First Mission 198 Letter of President Wilson 199 Statement of Secretary of War Baker 199 Hearing before Joint Committee of Congress 200 The Second Mission 200 The Memorial to President Harding 201 Reply of the President 205 Petition for a Constitutional Convention--Text 205
Where to Go in Manila 207 List of Hotels 207 Garages and Stables 208 Steamship Agencies 208 Foreign Consulates 209 Cable Offices 211 List of Banks in the Philippines Doing Business in 1923 211 Chambers of Commerce 211 Cinematographs and Theatres 212 Clubs 212 Booksellers and Stationers 213 Embroideries 213 Philippine Hats 214 List of Churches Holding Services in English 215 Rates of Fare for Public Vehicles 215 Postal, Telegraph, and Cable Rates 216 Interisland Sailings 219 Values of foreign coins expressed in terms of Philippine money 220 Banking: Combined condition of all the commercial banks in the Philippine Islands, in pesos 221 Currency in Circulation 222 Table showing the assessed valuation of real property in the Philippine Islands by provinces 223 Growth of the public school system 225 Private Schools 226 Annual Expenditures for Public Education 226 Total receipts, expenditures and accumulated surplus of the Philippine Government, 1901-1923, in pesos 227 Fire, marine, and miscellaneous insurance companies doing active business in the Philippine Islands, during year ending December 31, 1922 228 Americans and Filipinos in the Philippine Service on July 1, 1921 230 Newspapers and other publications in the Philippines, as per revision made up to June 18, 1923 230 List of sugar centrals in the Philippine Islands 234
Facing page--
Bird's eye view of the Walled City and immediate environs 18 Panoramic view of Camp Keithley, Lanao, Mindanao 18 Plaza Benavides, with the statue of Benavides in the center 20 San Sebastian Church, Manila 21 Aglipayan Church, Azcarraga Street, Manila 44 The new Trade School, Manila 45 The Cathedral, Walled City, Manila 46 Philippine University cadets in formation in front of the Ayuntamiento, the central government building 47 Bureau of Printing Building 48 A section of Manila's commercial district 48 The Luneta Hotel, Manila 49 Central Railroad Station, Manila Railroad Company 50 A Modern thoroughfare, Taft Avenue, Manila 50 The Paco Railroad Depot, Manila 51 The Jones Bridge 51 The principal buildings of the Philippine University 52 The Polo Grounds 52 The Normal Hall--A dormitory for girls, Manila 53 Philippine Carnival Auditorium, 1922 53 The Rizal Monument, at the Luneta, Manila 54 The Legaspi and Urdaneta Monument facing the Luneta, Manila 55 The Carnival grounds, Manila 56 A view of Pier 5, Manila 56 The Luneta, during a Carnival parade 57 A public market, Manila 57 The Aquarium, Manila, exterior view 58 Exterior view of Malaca?ang Palace, Manila 58 A typical country scene 59 The Executive Offices, Malaca?ang Palace, Manila 59 The Mariquina Valley 60 Salt beds, Pangasinan 60 Exterior view of the Lingayen Provincial Building, Pangasinan 61 The Baguio zig-zig coiling upon itself 62 The Amphitheater, Baguio, Benguet 63 The States? No It's Baguio, Philippine Islands 64 The road to Baguio 65 The beautiful town of Pagsanjan, Laguna 70 Pagsanjan Falls, Laguna 71 Montalban Gorge 72 The monument to the "First Cry of Balintawak," 73 The Bamboo Organ, Las Pi?as 74 An abaca plantation 75 The church at Taal, Batangas Province 76 Sample of bridges and provincial scenery 77 A Philippine Sugar Central. Calamba, Laguna Province 78 Sprouting coconuts, Pagsanjan, Laguna 79 Coconut groves, San Ramon Penal Farm, Zamboanga, Mindanao 79 The Sorsogon provincial government building and the Sorsogon jail 80 Mayon Volcano, Albay Province 81 r church service, of which first and last he seems to have produced five entire series for every festival Sunday in the year. These cantatas were short oratorios consisting of choruses, solos, recitatives, instrumental movements, and were frequently of considerable elaboration. Many of them are now lost, but a very considerable number remain. He also composed five oratorios for the Good Friday season--Passion music--of which three yet remain, the most famous one being the "St. Matthew's Passion."
Bach was married twice, and had, in all, eleven sons and nine daughters, of whom six sons and four daughters survived him. As a practical musician Bach excelled upon the violin, the organ, and the clavier, and he left a very large number of works in all three of these departments, works which still remain the admiration of musicians the world over. His genius was unquestioned in his own lifetime, and the memory of it remained lively even during the fifty years following his death when very few of his works were accessible.
The most complete biography of Bach is the large work by Spitta, in three volumes, in which the entire life-history of this great master, and all the circumstances amid which he worked, his discouragements, and what he accomplished, have been traced with most patient and loving care.
The list of Bach's compositions includes three sonatas and three partitas for violin alone; six sonatas for violin and piano, a large quantity of chamber music of one sort and another, a few orchestral suites, and about ten large volumes of music for the clavier and for the organ.
GEORG FRIEDRICH H?NDEL.
Born February 23, 1685, at Halle. Died April 14, 1759, in London.
H?ndel was the son of a surgeon and it was the wish of his father to educate him to his own profession, but the inclination to music was so strong that it was impossible to prevent him from following it, and, accordingly, he had the best training it was possible to get in the vicinity. When the boy was eleven years old he was taken to Berlin and placed under the instruction of Bononcini and Ariosti, Italian music being then the style at the Prussian court. At the age of sixteen young H?ndel had obtained a position as organist, and he was also a fine clavecin player and a good violinist. A few years later we find him at Hamburg, where he played the clavecin in the orchestra and was sometimes conductor. Here he produced several operas--"Nero," "Daphne," "Florindo," "Almira"--with so much success that in 1707 he made a journey to Italy for further perfecting himself in the Italian style. Accordingly he spent some months in Florence, three months in Rome, thence back to Florence to produce a new opera, and by the new year of 1708 he was in Venice, where his second Italian opera, "Agrippina," was produced. From Venice he went again to Rome, where he wrote two short oratorios for Cardinal Ottoboni.
He had already made the acquaintance in Venice of Scarlatti, Corelli, and of Antonio Lotti. He accompanied the Scarlattis to Naples and remained with them about a year, and there was great rivalry in regard to the harpsichord playing of H?ndel and Domenico Scarlatti. This success made H?ndel's name so celebrated that it led to his being invited to London, where he went in 1712 to bring out some operas. He liked London so well that he remained there all the rest of his life. During a part of this time he was himself the manager of the opera, importing his principal singers from Italy, producing his own operas as well, occasionally, as those by other composers, and experiencing in the vocation of manager the vicissitudes well known to attend it. He made and lost several fortunes; but finally, at his death, had paid up all claims against him and left to charity a very handsome estate.
In London he produced a large number of operas, and then, about 1733, he began to compose oratorios, and in 1741 produced the "Messiah," which had a great success. He also composed a large amount of instrumental music, and was very famous as an organist. He composed a large number of concertos for organ with orchestra, and he was in the habit of playing a new organ concerto in the intermission of an oratorio.
The number of H?ndel's works is extremely large. All his operas are now forgotten. Nevertheless individual fragments remain, such as the famous alto air, "Lascio Pianga," and many others. From his instrumental works also many charming bits have survived and still please the public, such, for instance, as the famous "Largo." Of the oratorios, his greatest are the "Messiah" and "Israel in Egypt." The most complete biography of H?ndel is that by Chrysander.
In order to appreciate the importance of Bach and H?ndel in the history of music, it is necessary to know something of the condition of the world of music when they commenced to work in it. The music-making of the world at that time had come from three original sources, and, in spite of the vast increase in the number of composers and in the volume of musical production, these streams had been kept, and still remained, almost entirely distinct from each other.
At the foundation of all the art of music lies the folk-song--simple melodies which spring up in every country and are easily learned, and pass from one to another until they become current over large extents of territory. The folk-song had its origin, most likely, in the dance; and the dance, in turn, was an artistic evolution from the cadenced chant, accompanied by a measured march, with which the early religious services were performed. The folk-song of the nation naturally disposed itself in the tonality most esteemed by the people, and, accordingly, we find in some countries that most of the folk-songs are in major tonality, while in others minor tonality prevails; the rhythm being determined by the favorite dancing step of the people. Thus, in Germany, many of the folk-songs are waltzes; in Spain, seguidillas; and in Italy, tarantellas. The making of folk-songs must have gone on continually through the spontaneous creation of new melodies by gifted but untaught musicians in all parts of the musical world. These melodies were seldom written down, but were passed from one to another orally; and down to the time of H?ndel and Bach very little recognition of the folk-song as a possible element in art had been accorded by any trained musician. This is not the place to trace the evolution of the folk-song into more and more symmetrically disposed phrases and agreeable relations of tonality. Enough to say that from the rather slow and minor songs of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, folk-song had blossomed out until, in the time of Bach, it had come to express very much of the simple delights and sorrows of the natural people.
This tendency to extravagant display of learning manifested itself in the Netherlanders in almost every department; and whoever will read the accounts of their receptions and festivals, with the elaborate Latin poems and processions which attended the ceremonies, will find in the music of those times the same qualities brought to expression. Nevertheless, the ear could not be entirely ignored, and now and then a master arose with genius and musical intuition necessitating his pruning his compositions more or less in accordance with the dictates of the ear; and thus there were such masters as Adrian Willaert, who founded a school in Venice somewhere about 1500, and Orlando di Lasso, who founded that in Munich at about the same time. Among the multitudinous works of these men are many which are simple, or at least musical in the proper sense. Nevertheless, as yet, simplicity in this so-called high art was accidental and momentary, and complication was the rule of its being and the measure of its power.
The complication of the works of the contrapuntal school almost passes belief. All kinds of imitations, canons, and fugal devices; inversions of motives, so that an ascending melody was transformed into a descending melody and vice versa; the enlargement or augmentation of a motive by doubling or quadrupling the length of each one of its tones; the diminution of a motive by shortening its tones to a quarter of their original value; modification by repeating its rhythm in the chromatic scale in place of the melodic intervals of the original figure, and even to the extent of reversing motives, so that the melodic steps were made in reversed order from the end to the beginning;--and in the midst of all this elaboration the composer or the trained listener of the time was supposed to enjoy not alone the music as such, but all these complicated devices of the composer.
When these things had been carried out in movements having as many as sixteen voice parts, which was not a phenomenally large number at that time, two results unexpected by the composer almost necessarily came about. The first of these was the production of chord successions which could be felt by the hearer only as such, since sixteen real parts moving within the three octaves of choral compass were necessarily obliged to cross each other continually, whereby the contour of the different voice melodies became lost in the mixture, and only the chords and chord successions came to realization. In this way, perhaps, the perception of harmonic good and evil was very much forwarded where nothing of the kind had been intended. The other result was the practical exhaustion of all these artificial resources for conveying an impression of power in a composer. When everything had been done that could be done, the new composer necessarily had to take a different path and arrive in some other way; otherwise he became merely a repeater of what had been done before.
All the scientific composition up to about the middle of the sixteenth century had been designed for voices, and the great bulk of it for the service of the Church. Presently, however, a distinctly secular music began to be developed, in which, very naturally, lighter principles of composition prevailed. Thus arose a great literature of madrigals, which generally were love-songs or glees, containing many of the devices of the extremely well-taught composer already mentioned, but also having in them a lively rhythm and a pleasant quality which, even after the lapse of three centuries and more, still has power to impress and please our ears. A little later an instrumental music of the cultivated kind began to be developed. The two Gabriellis, in Venice, wrote various kinds of organ pieces of a semi-secular flavor; the violin found its form, and, by the beginning of the sixteenth century, had become an instrument somewhat highly esteemed. The principal instrument still in use among the people, however, was the lute, which had taken the place of the harp, and both these instruments naturally tended to develop a taste for chords, since chords were what might be called their "natural product."
About the year 1600 a new department of musical creation was opened in the discovery of opera. This great form of art, which has now attained so much importance, was an accidental evolution from the effort to recover the Greek drama, in which, owing to the size of the theaters, the lines were chanted or intoned rather than spoken, in order that the voice might carry farther. The first operatic composers sought only a clear expression of the declamation, and intended to give their written notes similar effects to those which a speaker's voice would produce in the emphatic delivery of the sentiments and words of the text. Accordingly, the first opera had no melody, properly so called; but almost immediately, in 1608, there appeared a genius in this new form of composition, Monteverde, who not only introduced melodies, but also made a very intelligent use of harmony, and, above all, showed himself the founder of modern instrumentation by placing the violin at the head of the orchestra. Then ensued in Italy a century of the most animated musical productivity the world has ever seen. Operas followed each other from a great variety of composers, and opera-houses were erected in all the principal cities; opera was played everywhere, sometimes by the support of princes and sometimes by the support of the people themselves.
The development of opera was the most important creative inspiration which had ever come into the art of music, since, in the nature of the case, everything was new. What the music sought to do almost immediately, beginning with Monteverde himself in his opera "Tancred," was to represent the feeling of the dramatic moment. Almost at the very first they began to use music in the melodramatic way for accompanying the critical moments of the action, when the performers were not singing, and the forms of the singing utterance differentiated themselves into recitatives for the explanatory parts and arias for the more impassioned moments; and then, very soon, there came ensemble pieces, in which several performers sang together.
Thus all kinds of emotional situations were presented to music for representation and comment, and thus, upon the expressive side, music received the highest possible stimulation. At the same time, through the competition of composers for pleasing the ear, there was an ever increasing tendency toward symmetry and graceful forms. And so the aria became, after a little, a piece of vocal display, often entirely opposed to the action, and sometimes foreign to the genius of the scene; still, it was heard for the sake of the pleasure which people have in a skilfully managed voice. Toward the end of this century, somebody, whose name I do not at this moment recall, began to introduce into opera occasional moments of which the people's song was the type; short movements which did not aim at display or at immense dramatic expression, but sought to please by simplicity alone. In this way, through the desire of the operatic composers to avail themselves as far as possible of the technical resources of composition acquired by the learned musicians of the contrapuntal schools, and to please their hearers and to astonish them in various ways, all the different forces in music began to exercise themselves and come to expression in opera; but as yet nothing of the sort had made any great progress in instrumental music.
Thus we come to the period of Bach and H?ndel, both of whom began to write shortly after 1700. In the working out of their respective talents, both these composers show their well-schooled musicianship, according to all the learning of the contrapuntal schools--but with very important differences. H?ndel had all his life a predilection for diatonic tonality, and it is very rarely indeed that he deals with the chromatic at all, and never with the enharmonic. All the music in which he best expressed himself was written for voices, and as a master of vocal effect he still holds a distinguished position, particularly in the creation of compositions in which a large number of voices can be effectively massed. He also had a distinct flavor of the folk-song in many of his melodies, and in some instances the folk-song is the entire work. Such, for instance, is the case in "See, the Conquering Hero Comes," in "Joshua," and in several of the short instrumental movements in "Joshua," "Solomon," and his other oratorios.
Bach, on the other hand, was of a much more intensely organized musical temperament. His genius was of the greatest possible character. As a virtuoso he not only played upon the organ, the clavecin, and the violin better than most of his contemporaries, and upon the organ probably better than any; he also created works in these three departments which held the attention of his own time to an astonishing degree, considering the meager means of communication among men, works which still remain, in our time, the indispensable corner-stones of the literature of these three instruments. The violinist gets a large part of his mastery through the sonatas of Bach for violin solo, the organist learns his art from Bach, and the pianist finds "The Well-tempered Clavier," and many other works of Bach written for the clavecin of indispensable importance for the development of intelligent playing.
The peculiar importance of Bach to modern music lies in the delicacy of his sense upon the harmonic side and upon his intuition of the emotional value of musical combinations. In the form of his work he always more or less resembled his predecessors, the fugue underlying, probably, something more than half of all the music he wrote. But he also showed a strong tendency to impart to his work the vivacity of the folk-song and the expressive melodic quality which he had already found in the violin. Owing to his intensely sensitive harmonic perceptions, he was never able to confine himself for long to the more obvious chords of the key. The diatonic chords and combinations in which H?ndel found an ever complete satisfaction are not sufficient for Bach, and we find continually new chords, evasive cadences, and a flowing continuity of thought belonging to the master mind.
Hence to the ordinary student there are two difficulties in the way of appreciating and enjoying Bach. The first one is the somewhat antique flavor of much that he wrote, for it is now almost two hundred years since many of Bach's compositions were completed; and the second is this sensitive and evasive harmonic fancy, which surpasses the capacity of untrained hearers. Hence, such works as the recitatives in the "Chromatic Fantasia," the beautiful modulations and changes in the organ Fantasia in G minor, and scores of other passages that might be mentioned in the larger works of Bach, are the legitimate pleasure of advanced musicians or of those especially gifted; but there is a whole world of Bach which lies nearer, within our reach, and it is this more accessible part of the land of Beulah that the present program will approach.
PROGRAM.
Invention in C major. From the Two-part Inventions. No. 1. Invention in F major. From the Two-part Inventions. No. 8. Saraband in D minor. Fifth English Suite. Loure in G major. Heinze. Third 'Cello Suite. Song, "My Heart Ever Faithful." Preamble in E major. Sixth Violin Sonata. Heinze. Saraband in E minor. Fifth English Suite. Gavotte in E major. Tours. Sixth Violin Sonata. Cradle song, from the Christmas Oratorio. Prelude and Fugue in C minor. Clavier. Book I, No. 2. "Hope in the Lord." Arranged by William Mason from the celebrated Largo. H?ndel. Menuet in D major. First 'Cello Suite. Heinze. Gavotte in B minor. Saint-Sa?ns.
The conditions of being pleased with this program are that it be played in a melodious and expressive manner upon a good-toned piano, and that the songs are reasonably well done.
The selections from Bach in this program are intended to illustrate the lighter and, so to say, more superficial characteristics of Bach's music. Accordingly, the inventions are taken to show his manner of developing a piece from a single motive, which by many repetitions remains as a text all through the movement. The same principle carried much farther will be found later in Schumann.
The sarabands illustrate Bach's method in slow movements. These being written for the clavier, which in Bach's time had little tonal value, are rather meager in their development, but when played with a very sincere, melodic quality of tone, and treated exactly like expressive singing, with the necessary rise and fall of the phrase , will always please. Moreover, while very short, such is the cleverness of their construction that they interest a musician very much.
The gavottes, being arranged from pieces which Bach wrote for clavier with other instruments, are naturally more free; both because Bach had the benefit of a stringed instrument--violin or 'cello--for intensifying the melody, and because they have been recently arranged for piano solo, and hence manifest more of the modern treatment of the piano.
The song, "My Heart Ever Faithful," is really instrumental in its character. In the second part the melody lies very badly for the voice. It is practically an instrumental piece in which the voice is the sole instrument.
Owing to the length of the program and the relatively greater importance of Bach in the development of music, only one selection is given from H?ndel--Dr. William Mason's adaptation of the words, "Hope in the Lord," to the H?ndel largo. This melody is so well known as not to require further comment. In later programs other selections from Bach will be given which will illustrate the larger aspects of his style, and, above all, his intense emotionality. This quality, which was once popularly denied concerning Bach, is now recognized by all musical hearers, and it should be brought out in the playing. Another essential characteristic of a successful Bach interpretation is the due observance of the rhythm, which is always admirably organized in Bach's works. Rubato must be introduced in a very sparing manner, and always in such a way as not to destroy the rhythm of the period as a whole.
If the student is disposed to undertake this work seriously, it will be advantageous to enter into an analysis of one or more of the Bach selections , in order to ascertain exactly in what manner he uses motives to answer each other, when he continues upon the same motive, and when he branches off with other material. The inventions will be easiest for this purpose. It would be an advantageous exercise to play the inventions while the hearers note the number of times the leading idea occurs in each one. The object of this exercise is to lead unaccustomed hearers to note the actual musical idea--motive--instead of remaining passively attentive, taking in the music by contemplation. The latter attitude of hearing is the one best adapted for receiving whatever emotional movement there may be in the music; but since the larger works depend upon the development of musical ideas as such, it is desirable to acquire the habit of attending to them. The passive contemplation may be applied later to more emotional works. With Bach the purely musical is the first object of his work.
HAYDN AND MOZART.
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