Page:Pratt - The history of music (1907).djvu/421

 CHAPTER XXIV

THE ADVENT OF BEETHOVEN

167. General Survey.—The treatment of the 19th century in musical history presents many serious difficulties. The mere multitude of items is far more bewildering than in any previous period, since, for example, the number of composers to be considered is at least four times as great as in the 18th century. The division of the material into classes is often exceedingly difficult, not only because the work of individual composers often extends into many different fields of production, but because the methods and spirit of the fields themselves cross and interpenetrate. The essential cosmopolitanism of music becomes more conspicuous, arising both from the frequent transfers of musicians from land to land and from the ready diffusion of their printed works. All lines of development, therefore, become more complicated, so that summary statements require incessant qualifications.

It is convenient to separate the century roughly into three large periods, namely, that of Beethoven, Weber and Schubert (to about 1830), that of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Chopin (to about 1860), and that of Wagner and his contemporaries, with their successors to the present time. The matters to be considered under these three divisions do not necessarily lie within the time-limits named, but often overlap in various ways. Yet for clarity of thought some division must be made.

In political history France occupies the centre of the stage. The 18th century had closed with the gigantic convulsion of the French Revolution, which not only wrought a bloody transformation in France, but shook the whole of Europe. With it began the gradual overthrow of the mediæval notion of society as existing for certain privileged classes, and the setting up of the modern ideas of equality and liberty, with a new valuation of the individual in all relations.

But before the fruits of the Revolution could be gathered came the amazing career of Napoleon (Consul, 1799-1804, Emperor, 1804-15), with his audacious intrigues and campaigns for supremacy in the face of all Europe. His empire was strengthened by the humiliation of Austria (Vienna occupied, 1805, '09), of Prussia (Berlin taken, 1806), of Portugal