How to Listen to Music, 7th ed. | Page 2

Clarinet--The Brass:
French Horn, Trumpet and Cornet, Trombone, Tuba--The Drums--The
Conductor--Rise of the modern interpreter--The need of him--His
methods--Scores and Score-reading. Page 71
[Sidenote: CHAP. V.]
At an Orchestral Concert
"Classical" and "Popular" as generally conceived--Symphony
Orchestras and Military bands--The higher forms in music as
exemplified at a classical concert--Symphonies, Overtures, Symphonic
Poems, Concertos, etc.--A Symphony not a union of unrelated
parts--History of the name--The Sonata form and cyclical
compositions--The bond of union between the divisions of a
Symphony--Material and spiritual links--The first movement and the
sonata form--"Exposition, illustration, and repetition"--The subjects
and their treatment--Keys and nomenclature of the Symphony--The
Adagio or second movement--The Scherzo and its relation to the
Minuet--The Finale and the Rondo form--The latter illustrated in
outline by a poem--Modifications of the symphonic form by Beethoven,
Schumann, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Saint-Saëns and
Dvorák--Augmentation of the forces--Symphonies with voices--The
Symphonic Poem--Its three characteristics--Concertos and
Cadenzas--M. Ysaye's opinion of the latter--Designations in Chamber
music--The Overture and its descendants--Smaller forms: Serenades,
Fantasias, Rhapsodies, Variations, Operatic Excerpts. Page 122
[Sidenote: CHAP. VI.]
At a Pianoforte Recital
The Popularity of Pianoforte music exemplified in M. Paderewski's
recitals--The instrument--A universal medium of music study--Its
defects and merits contrasted--Not a perfect melody instrument--Value

of the percussive element--Technique; the false and the true estimate of
its value--Pianoforte literature as illustrated in recitals--Its division, for
the purposes of this study, into four periods: Classic, Classic-romantic,
Romantic, and Bravura--Precursors of the Pianoforte--The Clavichord
and Harpsichord, and the music composed for them--Peculiarities of
Bach's style--His Romanticism--Scarlatti's Sonatas--The Suite and its
constituents--Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue, Minuet, and
Gavotte--The technique of the period--How Bach and Handel
played--Beethoven and the Sonata--Mozart and Beethoven as
pianists--The Romantic composers--Schumann and Chopin and the
forms used by them--Schumann and Jean Paul--Chopin's Preludes,
Études, Nocturnes, Ballades, Polonaises, Mazurkas, Krakowiak--The
technique of the Romantic period--"Idiomatic" pianoforte
music--Development of the instrument--The Pedal and its use--Liszt
and his Hungarian Rhapsodies. Page 154
[Sidenote: CHAP. VII.]
At the Opera
Instability of popular taste in respect of operas--Our lists seldom extend
back of the present century--The people of to-day as indifferent as
those of two centuries ago to the language used--Use and abuse of
foreign languages--The Opera defended as an art-form--Its origin in the
Greek tragedies--Why music is the language of emotion--A scientific
explanation--Herbert Spencer's laws--Efforts of Florentine scholars to
revive the classic tragedy result in the invention of the lyric drama--The
various kinds of Opera: Opera seria, Opera buffa, Opera semiseria,
French grand Opéra, and _Opéra comique_--Operettas and musical
farces--Romantic Opera--A popular conception of German opera--A
return to the old terminology led by Wagner--The recitative: Its nature,
aims, and capacities--The change from speech to song--The arioso style,
the accompanied recitative and the aria--Music and dramatic
action--Emancipation from set forms--The orchestra--The decay of
singing--Feats of the masters of the Roman school and La
Bastardella--Degeneracy of the Opera of their day--Singers who have
been heard in New York--Two generations of singers compared--Grisi,

Jenny Lind, Sontag, La Grange, Piccolomini, Adelina Patti, Nilsson,
Sembrich, Lucca, Gerster, Lehmann, Melba, Eames, Calvé, Mario, Jean
and Edouard de Reszke--Wagner and his works--Operas and lyric
dramas--Wagner's return to the principles of the Florentine
reformers--Interdependence of elements in a lyric drama--Forms and
the endless melody--The Typical Phrases: How they should be studied.
Page 202
[Sidenote: CHAP. VIII.]
Choirs and Choral Music
Value of chorus singing in musical culture--Schumann's advice to
students--Choristers and instrumentalists--Amateurs and
professionals--Oratorio and Männergesang--The choirs of Handel and
Bach--Glee Unions, Male Clubs, and Women's Choirs--Boys' voices
not adapted to modern music--Mixed choirs--American Origin of
amateur singing societies--Priority over Germany--The size of
choirs--Large numbers not essential--How choirs are
divided--Antiphonal effects--Excellence in choir singing--Precision,
intonation, expression, balance of tone, enunciation, pronunciation,
declamation--The cause of monotony in Oratorio performances--_A
capella_ music--Genesis of modern hymnology--Influence of Luther
and the Germans--Use of popular melodies by composers--The
chorale--Preservation of the severe style of writing in choral
music--Palestrina and Bach--A study of their styles--Latin and
Teuton--Church and individual--Motets and Church Cantatas--The
Passions--The Oratorio--Sacred opera and Cantata--Epic and
Drama--Characteristic and descriptive music--The Mass: Its
secularization and musical development--The dramatic tendency
illustrated in Beethoven and Berlioz. Page 253
[Sidenote: CHAP. IX.]
Musician, Critic and Public
Criticism justified--Relationship between Musician, Critic and
Public--To end the conflict between them would result in

stagnation--How the Critic might escape--The Musician prefers to
appeal to the public rather than to the Critic--Why this is so--Ignorance
as a safeguard against and promoter of conservatism--Wagner and
Haydn--The Critic as the enemy of the charlatan--Temptations to which
he is exposed--Value of popular approbation--Schumann's
aphorisms--The Public neither bad judges nor good critics--The Critic's
duty is to guide popular judgment--Fickleness of the people's
opinions--Taste and judgment not a birthright--The necessity of
antecedent study--The Critic's responsibility--Not always that toward
the Musician which the latter thinks--How the newspaper can work for
good--Must the Critic be a Musician?--Pedants and
Rhapsodists--Demonstrable facts in criticism--The folly and
viciousness of foolish rhapsody--The Rev.