Critical and Historical Essays
which ran to the Alberti bass and other degrading platitudes,
paralleled in our comparatively modern days by the Thalberg
arpeggios, repeating notes, Doehler trill, etc.
Two masters in music, Haendel and J.S. Bach, were born the
same year, 1685; their great French contemporary, Rameau,
was born two years earlier and died in 1764; while Haendel
died in 1759, and Bach in 1750. Bach was destined to give
to the world its first glimpse of the tremendous power of
music, while Rameau organized the elements of music into a
scientific harmonic structure, laying the foundation for our
modern harmony. Haendel's great achievement (besides being a
fine composer) was to crush all life out of the then promising
school of English music, the foundation for which had been so
well laid by Purcell, Byrd, Morley, etc.
Jean Philippe Rameau was born in Dijon, and after travels in
Italy and a short period of service as organist at Clermont,
in Auvergne, went to Paris. There he wrote a number of small
vaudevilles or musical comedies, which were successful; and
his music for the harpsichord, consisting almost exclusively
of small pieces with descriptive titles, soon began to be
widely played in France. Much later in life he succeeded
in obtaining a hearing for his operas, the first of which,
"Hippolyte et Aricie," was given in 1732, when he was fifty
years old. For thirty-two years his operas continued to hold
the French stage against those of all foreigners.
His style marked a great advance over that of Lully, the
Italian, of the century before. Rameau aimed at clearness
of diction and was one of the first to attempt to give
individuality to the different orchestral instruments. By
some strange coincidence, his first opera had much the same
dramatic situation that all the early operas seemed to have,
namely, a scene in the infernal regions. Rameau's operas
never became the foundation for a distinctly French opera,
for at the time of his death (1764), Italian opera troupes had
already introduced a kind of comedy with music, which rapidly
developed into opera comique; it was reserved for Gluck,
the German, to revive grand opera in France.
As a theoretician, Rameau exerted tremendous influence upon
music. He discovered that the chord which we call the perfect
major triad was not merely the result of an artificial training
of the ear to like certain combinations of sounds, but that
this chord was inherent in every musical sound, constituting,
as it does, the first four harmonics or overtones. All chords,
therefore, that were not composed of thirds placed one above
the other, were inversions of fundamental chords. This theory
holds good in the general harmonic system of to-day. But
although the major triad and even the dominant seventh chord
could be traced back to the harmonics, the minor triad proved
a different matter; after many experiments Rameau gave it up,
leaving it unaccounted for.
Rameau was also largely instrumental in gaining recognition for
the desirability of dividing the octave into twelve equal parts,
making all the so-called half-tones recur at mathematically
equal distances from each other in the chromatic scale. In
1737 his work on the generation of chords through overtones
caused the equal temperament system of tuning to be generally
accepted, and the old modes, with the exception of the Ionian
and Aeolian, to be dropped out of use. The former became known
as major and the latter as minor, from the third, which was
large in the Ionian and small in the Aeolian.
Haendel, as before stated, was born in 1685 (February 23), in
Halle, in the same year as J.S. Bach, who was a month younger
(born March 21). His father was a barber, who, as was common
in those days, combined the trade of surgery, cupping, etc.,
with that of hairdressing. He naturally opposed his son's
bent toward music, but with no effect. At fifteen years of
age, Haendel was beginning to be well known as a clavichord
and organ player, in the latter capacity becoming specially
celebrated for his wonderful improvisations. In spite of an
attempt to make a lawyer of him, he persisted in taking music
as his vocation, after the death of his father.
In Hamburg, whither he went in 1703, he obtained a place among
the second violins in the opera orchestra.[15] Realizing that
in Germany opera was but a reflection of Italian art, he left
Hamburg in 1707 and went to Italy, where he soon began to make
a name for himself, both as performer and composer. One of his
operas, "Agrippa," was performed at Venice during the Carnival
season of 1710.
The Hanoverian kapellmeister, Staffani, was present and invited
him to Hanover, whither he went, becoming Staffani's successor
in the service of the Elector of Hanover. Several trips to
England, where he was warmly welcomed, resulted in his accepting
from Queen Anne, in 1713, a salary of two hundred pounds yearly,
thus entering her service, notwithstanding his contract with
the Elector. In 1714 the Queen died, and the Elector of
Hanover was called to the English throne under the title of
George I. Haendel, in order to escape the impending disgrace
occasioned by having broken faith with his former employer,
wrote some music intended to be particularly persuasive, and
had it played on a barge that followed a royal procession up
the Thames. This "Water Music," as it was called, procured
for him the King's pardon.
From this time he lived in England, practically monopolizing
all that was done in music. In 1720 a company for the giving
of Italian opera was formed, and Haendel placed at its head. In
1727, on the occasion of the accession of George II, Haendel
wrote four anthems, one of which "Zadok the Priest," ends
with the words "God save the King," from which it has been
erroneously stated that he wrote the English national hymn.
In 1737 Haendel gave up the writing of operas, after sinking
most of his own savings in the undertaking, and began to write
oratorios, the germs of which are found in the old Mysteries and
Passion plays performed on a platform erected in the chapel or
oratory of a church. Much has been written about Haendel's habit
of taking themes from other composers, and he was even dubbed
the "grand old robber." It must not be overlooked, however,
that although he made use of ideas from other composers, he
turned them to the best account. By 1742 Haendel was again in
prosperous circumstances, his "Messiah" having been a tremendous
success. From that time until his death he held undisputed sway,
although his last years were clouded by a trouble with his eyes,
which were operated upon unsuccessfully by an English oculist,
named Taylor, who had also operated on Bach's eyes with the
same disastrous result. Haendel became completely blind in
1752. Up to the last year of his life he continued to give
oratorio concerts and played organ concertos, of which only
the _tutti_ were noted, he improvising his part.
Haendel's strength lay in his great ability to produce
overwhelming effects by comparatively simple means. This is
especially the case in his great choruses which are massive
in effect and yet simple to the verge of barrenness. This,
of course, has no reference to the absurd _fioriture_ and
long passage work given to the voices,--an Italian fashion of
the times,--but to the contrapuntal texture of the work. Of
his oratorios, "The Messiah" is the best known. Two of his
"Concerti Grossi," the third and sixth, are sometimes played
by string orchestras. Of his harpsichord music we have the
eight "Suites" of 1720 (among which the one in E is known as
having the variations called "The Harmonious Blacksmith"),
and a number of "Harpsichord Lessons," among which are six
fugues. All these may be said to have little value.
J.S. Bach differed in almost every respect from Haendel,
except that he was born in the same year and was killed by
the same doctor. While Haendel left no pupils, with perhaps
the exception of his assistant organist, Bach aided and taught
his own celebrated sons, Krebs, Agricola, Kittel, Kirnberger,
Marpurg, and many other distinguished musicians. Bach twice made
an effort to see Haendel at Halle, but without success. On the
other hand, there are reasons for believing that Haendel never
took the trouble to examine any of Bach's clavichord music. He
lived like a conqueror in a foreign land, writing operas,
oratorios, and concertos to order, and stealing ideas right and
left without compunction; whereas Bach wrote from conviction,
and no charge of plagiarism was ever laid at his door. Haendel
left a great fortune of twenty thousand pounds. Bach's small
salary at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig made it necessary
for him to do much of his own engraving; and at his death,
though he had helped many young struggling artists, his
widow was left so poor that she had to be supported by public
benevolence. Bach's works were neglected by his contemporaries,
and it was only in the nineteenth century that he began to be
appreciated in a way commensurate with his worth.
Bach was born in Eisenach, in Thuringia, and it is of
interest to know that as far back as his great grandfather,
Veit Bach (born about 1550), music had been the profession
of the family. Bach's parents died when he was a boy of ten,
and his education was continued by his elder brother, Johann
Christoph, at a town near Gotha, where he held a position as
organist. The boy soon outstripped his brother in learning,
and continued his studies wholly by himself.
After filling a position as organist at Weimar, in 1703 he
accepted one at a small town, Arnstadt, at a salary of about
fifty-seven dollars yearly. He had already begun to compose,
and possibly in imitation of Kuhnau, whose so-called "Bible"
sonatas were at the time being talked about, he wrote an
elaborate clavichord piece to illustrate the departure of his
brother, Johann Jakob, who had entered the service of Charles
XII of Sweden as oboist. This composition is divided into five
parts, each bearing an appropriate superscription and ending
with an elaborate fugue to illustrate the postillion's horn. I
believe this is the only instance of his having written actual
programme music. After leaving Arnstadt he filled positions as
organist at Muehlhausen, Weimar, Coethen, etc. It was before
1720 that he paid his two visits to Halle in the hope of
seeing Haendel. At this time he had already written the first
part of the "Wohltemperierte Clavier," the violin sonatas,
and many other great works. Ten years later, when Haendel again
came to Germany, Bach was too ill to go to see him personally,
but sent his eldest son to invite Haendel to come and see him,
although without success.
In 1723 he obtained the position of Cantor at the St.
Thomas School, in Leipzig, left vacant by the death of Kuhnau;
here he remained until his death. In 1749 the English oculist,
Taylor, happened to be in Leipzig. On the advice of friends,
Bach submitted to an operation on his eyes, which had always
troubled him. The failure of this operation rendered him
totally blind and the accompanying medical treatment completely
broke him down. On the eighteenth of July, 1750, he suddenly
regained his sight, but it was accompanied by a stroke of
paralysis from which he died ten days later.
So far as his church music is concerned, Bach may be considered
as the Protestant compeer of the Roman Catholic, Palestrina,
with the difference that his music was based on the tonalities
of major and minor and that his harmonic structure was founded
on a scientific basis. What is mere wandering in Palestrina,
with Bach is moving steadily forward with a well-defined object
in view. With Bach, music is cast in the definite mould of
tonality, while with Palestrina the vagueness of the modes lends