Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/107

Rh HISTORY.] MUSIC words they uttered. He did not reject the essential of rhythmical melody, which is ever necessary to a musical work, and which stands in relation to passages of pure declamation as metaphor in poetical speech stands in rela tion to circumstantial statement. An orator will pause in the disclosure of facts to enforce them by the mention of a similitude, or brighten them by reflexions from his own mind, and it is an application of the same art when a character in a drama stays to comment on the scene in which he is involved, and show in words the passion that is seething in his heart. Analogous to this is the occa sional arrest of intercourse between the musical persons for the expression of the feeling by which one is swayed, and such is a song in an opera during which, if the action be stagnant, the character more than elsewhere proves its vitality. Plan in a musical work consists (1) in uniform or contrasted rhythm, (2) in the relationship and enchain ment of keys, (3) in the development and elaboration of phrases, and (4) in their occasional recurrence. Some plans have by frequent appropriation become to a great extent conventional, and their philosophic basis accounts for and justifies the fact that much music is framed upon them ; it is the special province, however, of the writer for voices, and still more so of the writer for the stage, to ignore con vention, though never to neglect design, and to construct his plans according to the situations they are to fill and to the materials with which he has to work. For sixteen years Gluck pondered the prevalent improprieties and the possible proprieties of dramatic art, and prepared himself by technical study and polite conversation to strike the blow which was to effect a revolution, the while, strange to say, he wrote several operas in his old style for production in different towns of Italy, Germany, and other countries. At length in 1762 what he meant to be the representative work of his then matured principle, Orfeo ed Euridice, appeared in Vienna and made strong impression. Some lighter pieces filled the interim between this, which with out exaggeration may be regarded as an event in musical history, and the production in the same city of Alceste (1767). The opera was published, as also was Paride ed Elena (1769), each with a statement of the artist s vieAvs; and these two essays have since been regarded as constitut ing a grammar of dramatic music. Gluck was not content with the Viennese reception of the works on his new model, and was less so with the accessories that city afforded for giving theatrical effect to his compositions. He went, therefore, to Paris, wrote music to an adaptation of Racine s Iphigenie en Aulide, which fulfils his purpose in a higher degree than his previous pieces, and brought it out with extraordinary success. Orphee (1774), Alceste (1776) (both rearranged from the Italian versions), Armide (1776), and lastly Iphigenie en Tauride (1779) rose each to a loftier level, and met with just acceptance. Musical It must be owned that other forces concurred with wars. musical merit in Gluck s Parisian triumphs. He had taught singing to Marie Antoinette before she became dauphiness, and she now was an ardent partisan of her former instructor. Mme. Du Barry held a rival court to that of the young princess, her jealousy of whom and of her state was evinced by every possible means. Accord ingly she invited to Paris Nicola Piccini (1728-1800), and strove to establish him in opposition to the German master. His Roland set to a libretto by Marmontel was brought out in 1777, anticipating the subject of Gluck s Armide; it was followed by other French operas, and the contest ended with the production of his Iphigenie en Tauride (1781), subsequently to that with the same title, the masterpiece of his opponent. This musical warfare much resembled that of some forty years earlier between Handel and Buononcini in London, when the king headed the partisans of the German and the Prince of Wales those of the Italian artist ; but the Parisian feud was waged with far the greater violence, for, not only were the courts of the two ladies involved in it, but every literatist of note sided with one or the other faction, and hurled poems, or pamphlets, or essays, or critiques at his antagonists, that were crammed with remorseless invective. It pre tended to be a dispute as to national style, but was a quarrel between two leaders of fashion. Piccini s music is marked by the melodious grace for which his country claims pre-eminence, Gluck s by the graver thought by which the Teutonic muse is more distinguished. Gluck, however, was not profound, he was no contrapuntist, and his often grand and always expressive harmony sprang more from intuition than knowledge ; Piccini had dramatic power, and he advanced greatly Logroscino s invention of continuous concerted music conformable to the business of the scene, but applied this only to comic operas, and so turned it to no account in his compositions for Paris. His most successful production, La buona Figliuola (1760), passed from its birthplace, Rome, to every European capital, and is not even now forgotten. The origin, development, and supreme importance of the Sym- symphony next claim our attention. The term is and always phony. has been used in Italy to define the instrumental preface, which elsewhere is called an overture, to a long vocal work. Handel and others, early in the 18th century, defined by it an instrumental piece incidental to such a work, gener ally depicting some supposed action, such as a battle, or a multitudinous entry. The term is also applied to the prelude and interludes in a single vocal piece of however small extent. Its significance is far more comprehensive in the application now to be described. Its nearest analogy among earlier compositions is to what of old was called a concerto, and the two names, derived respectively from Greek and Latin, have at root the same meaning. Like the antecedent concerto, the symphony is a composi tion, consisting of several movements or self-complete divisions, for a full band ; unlike its predecessor, the plan of at least its first movement has in the course of years been so distinctly organized that musicians shrink from applying the definition symphony to any work wherein there is not the aim to fulfil this design. At first the term was loosely employed, for even so late as Haydn s visits to London in 1791 and 1794 the symphonies he wrote for first performance there were sometimes announced as * such, sometimes as overtures, and sometimes as &quot;full pieces.&quot; Its structural requirements especially connect it with works for the chamber, which, if for one or two solo instruments, are styled sonatas, if for three or four or more, trios or quartets, or what not, according to the number of parts they comprise. The word &quot; plan,&quot; always used by that distinguished teacher Cipriani Potter (1792- 1871) as meaning musical design, happily, because posi tively, expresses the arrangement of ideas according to a purpose, to which, being intangible and invisible, the word &quot; form &quot; is but metaphorically applicable. Sebastian Bach, Corelli earlier, and Purcell before them, designated com positions as sonatas which, however, are not modelled on the plan of the modern symphony. 1 Bach in some of his later preludes and in other instances has the incipient germ from which the plan has been evolved, and sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti (1683-1757) comprise movements 1 The earliest use that has been traced of the term sonata or suonata is in its application to some pieces for the organ by the uncle and nephew Gabrieli, who wrote in Venice towards the end of the 16th century. They form portions of larger works of which the rest is vocal ; they are brief, solemn, and slow, and are seemingly designed to pour sound in long continuance or in large masses. Similar pieces by early German masters have the same definition, and the next generation extended the plan by appending a quick movement.