Page:Pratt - The history of music (1907).djvu/334



In the field of theory, the period was notable for several general writers of originality, basing their discussions upon the new acoustics and seeking a feasible system of true harmony rather than of counterpoint, the fundamental questions being as to the construction and relations of chords as such. Chord-inversions are now for the first time clearly recognized.

Rameau (d. 1764), the distinguished composer and player (see secs. 127, 138), was the first and long the chief of the new harmonists. His views were developed through reading and reflection before he settled at Paris. When first published (1722, '26), they were not fully wrought out, but in some 20 later works (1730-62) were fashioned into a system. Some of these works dealt with musical acoustics, including temperament, some were mere attempts to popularize harmonic arguments, some treated of the musical defects of the Encyclopédie, and some were of a general philosophic character. Rameau's style was often difficult, his ideas novel, and some of his positions forced; but his historical importance cannot be gainsaid. The main points of his theory were that all chords are deducible from the harmonic series (partial-tones), are to be built up in thirds, often appear as inversions without loss of identity, and, however presented, imply a 'fundamental bass' (which may not be the actual bass), by which they are to be classified. The brilliant perception of the truth about inversions and the new search after the roots of chords opened the way for later advance, though some points were still unsatisfactory. The system was finely elucidated by d' Alembert (1752) and extensively commented upon by others.

Fux (d. 1741), the Viennese master (see sec. 121), took an entirely different course in his Gradus ad Parnassum (1725). Holding still to the old modes and not catching the drift of the new acoustics, he presented a system of counterpoint as the centre of composition, the value of which in its field is shown by its being translated from the original Latin into German (1742), Italian (1761), French (1773) and English (1791), and by its constant use by the best students.

Other publications until 1745 or later were mostly text-books of varying degree, often treating of the practical use of the basso continuo, as by Friedrich Erhardt Niedt (d. 1717) of Jena and Copenhagen, a larger work (3 parts, 1700-17, the last edited by Mattheson) and a smaller one (1708); by David Heinichen (d. 1729), from 1718 at Dresden, a considerable treatise (1711, much enlarged, 1728); by Mattheson (d. 1764), the versatile Hamburg critic and composer, several practical manuals, largely on the same (1719-39), the most important being the last, Der vollkommene Capellmeister; by Buttstett of Erfurt (d. 1727), advocating the old hexachord solmization (1717); by Giovanni Francesco Beccatelli' (d. c. 1734), choirmaster at Prato, some 12 essays on various subjects (from 1725), mostly dealing with special points, with some historical notes; by Pepusch (d. 1752), the London ballad-opera-writer, a useful text-book on old-fashioned lines (1731); by Francesco Antonio Calegari (d. after 1740) of Padua and Venice, a general treatise, one of the best in Italian till much later (MS., 1732); by David Kellner, a German lutist who was cantor at Stockholm, on figured bass (1732), which, though not valuable, was often republished and translated; by Lorenz Christoph Mizler (d. 1778), one of Bach's pupils, a student and later lecturer at Leipsic Univer