The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-04-06
FAMOUS COMPOSERS.


The excellent serial work, Famous
Composers and Their Works (pup"
. lished by the J. B. Millet Co., Boston,
MAS progressed to its fifteenth part ana
in the five new numbers includes bio
graphical sketches and studies or the
Strauss family-that Is to say, the
two Johanns and Joseph Strauss-by
Henry T. Finck; Joseph Joachim Ran,
Carl Goldmark, Orlando Di Lasso and
Richard Wagner. by w. j. Henderson;
Johannes Brahms and Joseph Gabriel
Rheinberger by Louis Kelterborn; Max
Bruch and Palestina by Louis c. Elson;
and two essays one by John *. Paine
and Leo r. Lewis conjointly, on Music
in Germany" and the other by w. j.
Henderson on the Netherland masters.
We wish. in this notice. to glance
briefly three features: The essay on
"Muslc in Germany" Mr.. Finck's
sketch of the Strausses, and Mr.. Hen
derson's study of Wagner.
l.
Professor Paine is of the opinion that
music in Germany antedated its em-
ployment in the exercises of the church.
we nave tue DtSl lHltTtUlldl eNl-
dence." he writes, that the sense Of
melody and rhythm existed in definite
form among the German people of the
middle ages earlier than in church
music" When the monks of st. Gallen
sought to introduce the Gregorian song
into Germany, it is known that they
could not get the people to join willing
ly in its plain chant. Hence the shrewd
monks introduced "sequentiae," or
hymns with words in rhymed Latin
set to fitting music. These the people
readily accepted; and the inference is
that they had been previously given to
such singing and would have no other.
German music. prior to Sebastian
Bach. is divided into three general di-
visions. the folk-songs or Volkslieder.
the love-songsof the troubadours called
Minnesongs, and finally, the church
chorals. The first class is the Oldest
and the best: but of it little has come
down to us. The Volkslieder were ten
der and rhythmical the Minnelieder
for the most part heavy and solemn
and the church chorals devoid of
sprightliness and the more graceful
emotions. Instrumental accompani-
ment was familiar even prior to the
Thirteenth century: the development of
the counterpoint in the Netherlands
greatly accelerated it's vogue in Ger
many and during the early years of
the Reformation, Protestant church
music became noted for it's contrapunt-
al accompaniment. The second period
in the development of Protestant
church music began near the middle of
the sixteenth century when" says
Professor Paine. "it became the fixed
custom to place the melody in the high
est part of the harmony. When given
to the tenor, the melody could never as
sert it's rights, for IL was often lost in
the polyphonic complexity of the other
voices" Its transferrence to the So
prano was determined upon as early as
1542, at which time 1t was ratified in a
collection of Calvinist psalms.
The seventeenth century witnessed,
In Italy. the invention of the opera,
with it's scrupulous alterations of reci-
tative and aria and its great quickening
of Instrumentation. This century saw
the general introduction of bowed in
struments and may therefore be re-
garded as giving to music the orchestra
substantially as 1t is now known. The
influence of these changes was appar-
ent in Germany as well as In other
European nations; and in Lasso's Mu-
mich choir We find (as early as 1595)
30 instrumentalists reinforcing SO
voices. In the Dresden band, a
few years later, we find 13 stringed
instruments to SO wind and percussion
tr,c otn
ing. begun at this period in Italy, spread
into Germany and in the last two de-
cades Of the century we find the modern
fugue assuming shape. soon to be made
immortal by the genius of Sebastian
Bach.
Ciavier, or clavichord, composition
was of later growth. AT first, indeed"
writes Professor Paine, 1.-The same prin-
ciples were applied to both instruments.
But as time went on, the less ponderous
of the two instruments became the ex-
ponent Of the gayer moods, as repre-
sented by various forms Of the dance.
The name sonata, now of such definite
meaning in connection with chamber
music, was at first represented by short
Venetian organ pieces. Subsequently.
in the seventeenth century, the sonata
was a composition for one or more vio-
Inns with clavier. The first application
of the name sonata to solo for clavier
was made by Johann Kuhnau, Bach's
predecessor as cantor of the st. Thomas
school at Leipzig" This brings instru-
mental music down to the time whence
dts onward progress Is familiar to all.
1t remains for us to trace the evolution
of the opera and the 'oratorio, both Ital-
ian creations. as applied to Germany.
About the year 1886, one Johann Kaps-
berger. a composer who had resided for
20 years I'm Rome. began to write music
for the voice after the fashions then in
vogue in Italy. Gottlieb, at about the
same time, wrote the first German oper-
ettas. Heinrich Schultz, contempor-
ary. wrote one serious opera, "Dafne,"
which has been lost. In 1878. perma-
nent theatre was established at Ham,
burg. Here operas were produced with
great success for period covering 60
years. 1t was as director of the Ham
burg theater that Reinhard Keiser the
forerunner of Handel, and hardly Sec
ond to Handel in genius. wrote and pro-
duced 120 operas, In many of which, in
addition to choruses and recitatlves,
there were no less than 40 airs. From
the time Of the Hamburg theater under
Keiser's conductorship, and under the
stimulus of Mattheson's and Tele-
mann's genius, down to the present, the
opera has been a fixed factor in Ger
man music. We have traced its Begin
= nings very hastily; its later magnitude
IL known Of all men.
The early history of the oratorio In
ermany is not dissimilar to that OF
opera. Heinrich Schultz who wrote
first serious German pera, was
the first prominent oratorio COM
BY his attempts to tell the
|the r ,surrection" "a compost