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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:53:44 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:53:44 -0700 |
| commit | a1e691d8349f8ac4b857b73de32e25c843c42f63 (patch) | |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/30412-0.txt b/30412-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a27d91 --- /dev/null +++ b/30412-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,559 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30412 *** + +[Illustration: M. Camille Saint-Saëns] + + + + +ON THE EXECUTION OF + +MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY + +OF ANCIENT MUSIC + +BY + +M. CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS + + + _Delivered at the_ + + "_Salon de la Pensée Française_" + +_Panama-Pacific International Exposition_ + + _San Francisco, June First_ + + _Nineteen Hundred_ + + _& Fifteen_ + + +DONE INTO ENGLISH + +WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES BY + +HENRY P. BOWIE + +SAN FRANCISCO: + +THE BLAIR-MURDOCK COMPANY + +1915 + +_Copyright, 1915_ + +_by M. Camille Saint-Saëns_ + + + + +ON THE EXECUTION OF + +MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY + +OF ANCIENT MUSIC + +MUSIC was written in a scrawl impossible to decipher up to the +thirteenth century, when Plain Song[1] (_Plain Chant_) made its +appearance in square and diamond-shaped notes. The graduals and introits +had not yet been reduced to bars, but the songs of the troubadours +appear to have been in bars of three beats with the accent on the feeble +note of each bar. However, the theory that this bar of three beats or +triple time was used exclusively is probably erroneous. St. Isidore, in +his treatise on music, speaking of how Plain Song should be interpreted, +considers in turn all the voices and recommends those which are high, +sweet and clear, for the execution of vocal sounds, introits, graduals, +offertories, etc. This is exactly contrary to what we now do, since in +place of utilizing these light tenor voices for Plain Song, we have +recourse to voices both heavy and low. + +In the last century when it was desired to restore Plain Song to its +primitive purity, one met with insurmountable obstacles due to its +prodigious prolixity of long series of notes, repeating indefinitely the +same musical forms; but in considering this in the light of explanations +given by St. Isidore, and in view of the Oriental origin of the +Christian religion, we are led to infer that these long series of notes +were chants or vocalizations analogous to the songs of the Muezzins of +the Orient. At the beginning of the sixteenth century musical laws began +to be elaborated without, however, in this evolution towards modern +tonal art, departing entirely from all influence of the antique methods. +The school named after Palestrina employed as yet only the triads or +perfect chords; this prevented absolutely all expression, although some +traces of it appear in the "Stabat Mater" of that composer. This music, +ecclesiastical in character, in which it would have been chimerical to +try to introduce modern expression, flourished in France, in Flanders, +in Spain at the same time as in Italy, and enjoyed the favor of Pope +Marcellus, who recognized the merit of Palestrina in breaking loose from +the grievous practice of adapting popular songs to church music. + +In the middle ages, as in antiquity, the laws of harmony were unknown; +when it was desired to sing in two parts, they sang at first in +intervals of fifths and fourths, where it would have seemed much more +natural to sing in thirds and sixths. Such first attempts at music in +several parts were made in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries, when they were hunting for laws, and such music was +discordant. It bore the name of Diaphony. The real Polyphony came in the +sixteenth century with the school of Palestrina. + +Later on, little by little, laws were established, not arbitrarily, but +laws resulting from a long experience, and during all the sixteenth +century admirable music was written, though deprived of melody, properly +speaking. Melody was reserved for dance music which, in fact, was +perfectly written in four and even in five part scores, as I have been +able to convince myself in hunting for dance music of the sixteenth +century for my opera "Ascanio." + +But no indication of movement, nuances or shading, enlightens us as to +the manner in which this music should be interpreted. At Paris the first +attempts to execute the music of Palestrina were made in the time of +Louis Philippe, by the Prince of Moscow. He had founded a choral society +of amateurs, all titled, but gifted with good voices and a certain +musical talent. This society executed many of the works of Palestrina +and particularly the famous "Mass of Pope Marcellus." They adopted at +that time the method of singing most of these pieces very softly and +with an extreme slowness so that in the long-sustained notes the singers +were forced to divide their task by some taking up the sound when the +others were out of breath. Consonant chords thus presented evidently +produced music which was very agreeable to the ear, but unquestionably +the author could not recognize his work in such rendering. Quite +different was the method of the singers in the Sistine Chapel when I +heard them for the first time in Rome in 1855 when they sung the "Sicut +Cervus" of Palestrina. They roared in a head-splitting way without the +least regard for the pleasure of the listener, or for the meaning of the +words they sang. It is difficult to believe that this music was ever +composed to be executed in such a barbarous manner, which, it seems to +me, differs completely from our musical conceptions; and it is a great +mistake also in modern editions of such music to introduce delicate +shadings or nuances and even employ the words "very expressive." + +Palestrina has had his admirers among French literary writers. We recall +the scene created by Octave Feuillet in "M. de Camors." M. de Camors is +at his window; a lady is at the piano; a gentleman at the cello, and +another lady sings the Mass of Palestrina which I have referred to +above. Such a way of playing this music is simply out of the question. +Feuillet had obtained his inspiration for this from a fanciful painting +which he had seen somewhere. + +Expression was introduced into music by the chord of the dominant +seventh, the invention of which is attributed to Monteverde. However, +Palestrina had already employed that chord in his "Adoremus," but +probably without understanding its importance or divining its future. + +Before this invention the interval of three whole tones (Triton) was +considered an intolerable dissonance and was called "the devil in +music." The dominant seventh has been the open door to all +dissonances and to the domain of expression. It was a death blow to that +learned music of the sixteenth century; it was the arrival of the reign +of melody--of the development of the art of singing. Very often the song +or the solo instrument would be accompanied by a simple, ciphered bass, +the ciphers indicating the chords which he who accompanied should play +as well as he could, either on the harpsichord or the theorbe. The +theorbe was an admirable instrument which is now to be found only in +museums,--a sort of enormous guitar with a long neck and multiple +strings which offered great opportunities to a skilful artist. + +It is curious to note that in ancient times there was not attributed to +the minor and major keys the same character as is assigned them +to-day.[2] The joyous canticle of the Catholic church, "O Filii et +Filiæ," is in the minor. "The Romanesca," a dance air of the sixteenth +century, is equally in the minor, just like all the dance airs of Lully, +and of Rameau, and the gavottes of Sebastian Bach. The celebrated +"Funeral March" of Haendel, reproduced in many of his works, is in C +Major. The delicious love duo of Acis and Galathee, which changes to a +trio by the addition of the part of Polyphemus, is in A Minor. When +Galathee weeps afterward over the death of Acis, the air is in F Major. +It is only recently that we find dance airs in the major mood or key. + +From the seventeenth century on, music entered into everyday life, never +again to be separated from it. Thus music has remained in favor, and +we are continually hearing executed the works of Bach, of Haendel, of +Hayden, of Mozart and of Beethoven. How are such works executed? Are +they executed as they should be? That is another question. + +One source of error is found in the evolution which musical instruments +have undergone. In the time of Bach and Haendel the bow truly merited +its Italian name of "arco." It was curved like an arc--the hairs of the +bow constituted the chord of the arc, a very great flexibility resulting +which allowed the strings of the instrument to be enveloped and to be +played simultaneously. The bow seldom quitted the strings, doing so only +in rare cases and when especially indicated. On this account it happens +that the indication of "legato" is very rare. Even though there was a +separate stroke of the bow for each note, the notes were not separated +one from the other. Nowadays the form of the bow is completely changed. +The execution of the music is based upon the detached bow, and although +it is easy to keep the bow upon the strings just as they did at the +commencement of the nineteenth century, performers have lost the habit +of it. The result is that they give to ancient music a character of +perpetually jumping, which completely destroys its nature. + +The very opposite movement has been produced in instruments of the key +or piano type. The precise indications of Mozart show that "non-legato," +which doesn't mean at all "staccato," was the ordinary way of playing +the instrument, and that the veritable "legato" was played only where +the author specially indicated it. The clavecin or harpsichord, which +preceded the piano, when complete with two banks of keys, many registers +giving the octaves and different tone qualities, oftentimes like the +organ with a key for pedals, offered resources which the piano does not +possess. A Polish lady, Madame Landowska, has studied thoroughly these +resources, and has shown us how pieces written for this instrument thus +disclosed elements of variety which are totally missing when the same +are played upon the piano; but the clavecin tone lacked fulness, and +shadings or nuances were out of the question. + +Sonority or tone was varied by changing the keys or register just as on +the organ. On the other hand, with the piano one can vary the sonority +by augmenting or diminishing the force of the attack, hence its original +name of "forte piano,"--a name too long, which was shortened at first by +suppressing the last syllables; so that one reads, not without +astonishment, in the accounts given of young Mozart, of the skill he +showed in playing "forte" at a time when he was playing on instruments +of a very feeble tone. Nowadays when athletic artists exert all their +force upon the modern instruments of terrific sonority, they are said to +play the "piano" (_toucher du piano_). + +We must conclude that the indication "non-legato" finally degenerated +into meaning "staccato." In my youth I heard persons advanced in age +whose performance on the piano was extremely dry and jumpy. Then a +reaction took place. The tyrannical reign of the perpetual "legato" +succeeded. It was decided that in piano playing unless indicated to the +contrary, and even at times in spite of such indication, everything +everywhere should be tied together.[3] This was a great misfortune of +which Kalkbrenner gives a manifest proof in the arrangement he has made +of Beethoven's symphonies. Besides, this "legato" tyranny continues. +Notwithstanding the example of Liszt, the greatest pianist of the +nineteenth century, and notwithstanding his numerous pupils, the fatal +school of the "legato" has prevailed,--not that it is unfortunate in +itself, but because it has perverted the intentions of musical authors. +Our French professors have followed the example of Kalkbrenner. + +The house of Breitkopf, which until lately had the best editions of the +German classics, has substituted in their places new editions where +professors have eagerly striven to perfect in their own manner the music +of the masters. When this great house wished to make a complete edition +of the works of Mozart, which are prodigiously numerous, it appealed to +all who possessed manuscripts of Mozart, and then having gathered these +most precious documents, instead of reproducing them faithfully, that +house believed it was doing well to leave to the professors full liberty +of treatment and change. Thus that admirable series of concertos for +piano has been ornamented by Karl Reinecke with a series of joined +notes, tied notes, legato, molto legato, and sempre legato which are the +very opposite of what the composer intended. Worse still, in a piece +which Mozart had the genial idea of terminating suddenly with a +delicately shaded phrase, they have taken out such nuances and +terminated the piece with a _forte_ passage of the most commonplace +character. + +One other plague in modern editions is the abuse of the pedal. Mozart +never indicated the pedal. As purity of taste is one of his great +qualities, it is probable that he made no abuse of the pedal. Beethoven +indicated it in a complicated and cumbersome manner. When he wanted the +pedal he wrote "senza sordini," which means without dampers, and to take +them off he wrote "con sordini," meaning with dampers. The soft pedal is +indicated by "una corda." The indication to take it off, an indication +which exists even now, was written "tre corde." The indication "ped" for +the grand pedal is assuredly more convenient, but that is no reason for +making an abuse of it and inflicting it upon the author where his +writing indicates the contrary. + +As it seems to me, it is only from the eighteenth century that authors +have indicated the movements of their compositions, but the words which +they have employed have changed in sense with time. Formerly the +difference between the slowest movement and the most rapid movement was +much less than at present. The "largo" was only an "adagio" and the +"presto" would be scarcely an "allegro" to-day. + +The "andante" which now indicates a slow movement, had at that time its +original signification, meaning "going." It was an "allegro moderate." +Haendel often wrote "andante allegro." Through ignorance of that +fact the beautiful air of Gluck, "Divinities of the Styx," is sung too +slowly and the air of Thaos in the "Iphigenia in Tauris" equally so. +Berlioz recollected having heard at the opera in his youth a much more +animated execution of these works. + +Finally, in ancient times notes were not defined as they are to-day and +their value was approximative only. This liberty in the execution of +music is particularly perceptible in the works of Rameau. To conform to +his intentions in the vocal part such music must not be interpreted +literally. One must be governed by the declamation, and not by the +written note indicating a long or short duration. The proof of this is +to be seen when the violins and the voice are in unison--the way of +writing them is different. + +A great obstacle to executing ancient works from the eighteenth century +on is in the interpretation of grace notes, "appoggiaturas" and others. +In these cases there is an unfortunate habit in players of conforming to +their own taste, which may guide a little, but cannot suffice in every +instance. One can be convinced of this in studying The Method of Violin +by the father of Mozart. We find there things which one would never +dream of. + +The "appoggiatura"[4] (from _appoggiare_, which in Italian means "to +lean upon"), should always be long, the different ways in which it may +be written having no influence upon its length. There is an exception to +this when its final little note, ascending or descending, and preceding +the larger note, is distant from it a disjointed degree. In this case it +is not an "appoggiatura," and should be played short. In many cases +it prolongs the duration of the note which follows it. It may even alter +the value of the notes following. + +I will cite in connection with the subject of the "appoggiatura" the +beautiful duo with chorus of the "Passion According to St. Matthew," and +at the same time, I would point out the error committed in making of +this passion a most grandios performance with grand choral and +instrumental masses. One is deceived by its noble character, by its two +choruses, by its two orchestras, and one forgets that it was destined +for the little Church of St. Thomas in Leipsig, where Sebastian Bach was +organist. While in certain cantatas that composer employed horns, +trumpets, trombones and cymbals, for the "Passion According to St. +Matthew," he only used in each of the orchestras two flutes, two +hautbois, changing from the ordinary hautbois to the hautbois d'amour +and the hautbois of the chase,--now the English horn; that is to say, +hautbois pitched a third and a fifth lower. These two orchestras and +these two choruses then certainly were reduced to a very small number of +performers. + +In all very ancient music, from the time of Lully, one finds constantly +a little cross marked over the notes. Often this certainly indicates a +trill, but it seems difficult to take it always to mean such. However, +perhaps fashion desired that trills should thus be made out of place. I +have never been able to find an explanation of this sign, not even in +the musical dictionary of J. J. Rousseau. This dictionary none the +less contains a great deal of precious information. Does it not inform +us, among other things, that the copyists of former times were veritable +collaborators? When the author indicated the altos with the basses, the +hautbois with the violins, these copyists undertook to make the +necessary modifications. Times have unfortunately changed since. + +In Rameau's music, certain signs are unintelligible. Musical treatises +of that time say that it is impossible to describe them, and that to +understand them it was necessary to have heard them interpreted by a +professor of singing. + +With clavecinists the multiplicity of grace notes is extreme. As a rule +they give the explanation of these at the head of their works, just as +Rameau did. I note a curious sign which indicates that the right hand +should arrive upon the keys a little after the left. This shows that +there was not then that frightful habit of playing one hand after the +other as is often done nowadays. + +This prolixity of grace notes indulged by players upon the clavecin is +rather terrifying at first, but one need not be detained by them, for +they are not indispensable. The published methods of those times inform +us in fact that pupils were first taught to play the pieces without +these grace notes, and that they were added by degrees. Besides, Rameau +in transcribing for the clavecin fragments of his operas, has indicated +those grace notes which the original did not contain. + +Ornaments are much less numerous in the writings of Sebastian Bach. +Numberless confusions have been produced in the interpretation of the +mordant,[5] or biting note. It should be executed above or below the +principal note depending on whether the notes which precede the mordant +are superior or inferior to it. + +With reference to the difficulties in interpreting the works of Rameau +and of Gluck, I would point out the change in the diapason or pitch +which at that time was a tone lower than in our days. The organ of St. +Merry had a pitch in B flat. In addition to the tempi and the different +instruments which make the execution difficult, one must add the +recitatives which were very much employed and of which at that time a +serious study was made. I recall a beautiful example of recitative in +the "Iphigenia in Tauris." + +We come now to the modern epoch. From the time of Liszt, who not only +revolutionized the performance of music on the piano, but also the way +of writing it, authors give to performers all necessary indications, and +they have only to carefully observe them. There are, however, some +interesting remarks applicable to the music of Chopin which recent +editions unfortunately are commencing to falsify. Chopin detested the +abuse of the pedal. He could not bear that through an ignorant +employment of the pedal two different chords should be mixed in tone +together. Therefore, he has given indications with the greatest pains. +Employing it where he has not indicated it, must be avoided. But great +skill is necessary to thus do without the pedal. Therefore, in the +new editions of the author, no account of the author's indications +whatever is observed. Thus in the "Cradle Song," where the author has +indicated that the pedal be put on each measure and taken off in the +middle of it, modern editions preserve the pedal throughout the entire +measure, thus mixing up hopelessly the tonic with the dominant, which +the composer was so careful to avoid. + +A question of the greatest importance in playing the music of Chopin is +that of "tempo rubato." That does not mean, as many think, that the time +is to be dislocated. It means permitting great liberty to the singing +part or melody of the composition, while the accompaniment keeps +rigorous time. Mozart played in this way and he speaks of it in one of +his letters and he describes it marvelously, only the term "tempo +rubato" had not at that time been invented. This kind of playing, +demanding complete independence of the two hands, is not within the +ability of everybody. Therefore, to give the illusion of such effect, +players dislocate the bass and destroy the rhythm of the bar. When to +this disorder is joined the abuse of the pedal, there results that +vicious execution which, passing muster, is generally accepted in the +salons and often elsewhere. + +Another plague in the modern execution of music is the abuse of the +tremolo by both singers and instrumental performers. With singers, this +quivering is often the result of a fatigued voice, in which case it is +involuntary and is only to be deplored; but that is not the case with +violin and violoncello players. It is a fashion with them born of a +desire to make an effect at any cost, and is due to the depraved taste +of the public for a passionate execution of music; but art does not live +on passion alone. In our time, when art, through an admirable evolution, +has conquered all domains, music should express all, from the most +perfect calm to the most violent emotions. When one is strongly moved +the voice is altered, and in moving situations the singer should make +his voice vibrate. Formerly the German female singers sang with all +their voice, without any vibration in the sound and without any +reference to the situation; one would say they were clarinets. Now, one +must vibrate all the time. I heard the Meistersingers' quintette sung in +Paris. It was dreadful and the composition incomprehensible. Not all +singers, fortunately, have this defect, but it has taken possession of +violinists and 'cello players. That was not the way Franchomme, the +'cello player and collaborator of Chopin, played, nor was it the way +Sarasate, Sivori or Joachim played. + +I have written a concerto, the first and last movements of which are +very passionate. They are separated by a movement of the greatest +calm,--a lake between two mountains. Those great violin players who do +me the honor to play this piece, do not understand the contrast and they +vibrate on the lake just as they do on the mountains. Sarasate, for whom +this concerto was written, was as calm on the lake as he was agitated on +the mountains; nor did he fail on this account to produce always a great +effect--for there is nothing like giving to music its veritable +character. + +Anciently music was not written as scrupulously as it is to-day, and a +certain liberty was permitted to interpretation. This liberty went +farther than one would think, resembling much what the great Italian +singers furnished examples of in the days of Rubini and Malibran. They +did not hesitate to embroider the compositions, and the _reprises_ were +widespread. _Reprises_ meant that when the same piece was sung a second +time, the executants gave free bridle to their own inspiration. I have +heard in my youth the last echoes of this style of performance. Nowadays +_reprises_ are suppressed, and that is more prudent. However, it would +be betraying the intentions of Mozart to execute literally many passages +in concertos written by that author for the piano. At times he would +write a veritable scheme only, upon which he would improvise. However, +one should not imitate Kalkbrenner, who, in executing at Paris the great +concerto in C Major of Mozart, had rewritten all its passages in a +different manner from the author. On the other hand, when I played at +the Conservatoire in Paris Mozart's magnificent concerto in C Minor, I +would have thought I was committing a crime in executing literally the +piano part of the Adagio, which would have been absurd if thus presented +in the midst of an orchestra of great tonal wealth. There as elsewhere +the letter kills; the spirit vivifies. But in a case like that one must +know Mozart and assimilate his style, which demands a long study. + + + + +EXPLANATORY NOTES + +[1] Plain Song (Fr. _Plain Chant_) was the earliest form of Christian +church music. As its name indicates, it was a plain, artless chant +without rhythm, accent, modulation or accompaniment, and was first sung +in unison. Oriental or Grecian in origin, it had four keys called +Authentic Modes, to which were added later four more called Plagal +Modes. These modes, called Phrygian, Dorian, Lydian, etc., are merely +different presentations in the regular order of the notes of the C Major +scale--first, with D as the initial or tonic note, then with E _et seq_. +They lack the sentiment of a leading seventh note. In these weird keys +Plain Song was conceived for psalms, graduals, introits, and other +offices of the primitive church. Such music was generally called +Gregorian, because St. Gregory, Pope of Rome in the seventh century, +collected and codified it, adding thereto his own contributions. Two +centuries previous it was known as Ambrosian music, after St. Ambrose, +Bishop of Milan. + +Originally, a single chorister intoned the Plain Song, to which a full +chorus responded. Later this manner was altered to antiphonal +singing--two choruses being used, one for the initial and the other for +the responsive chant. Such music thus rendered was singularly grave, +dignified, and awe-inspiring. + +During the middle ages Plain Song unfortunately degenerated much from +its original sacred character, and, in one disguise or another, popular +and even indecorous songs were smuggled into it. In the time of Pope +Marcellus, 1576, Palestrina was employed to purge Gregorian music of its +scandalous laxities. + +M. Saint-Saëns, to illustrate the clever way in which popular songs were +given an ecclesiastical or Plain Song character, has here added to his +luminous lecture the following precious original composition, reproduced +in facsimile, in which through ingenious contrapuntal treatment he gives +a mock sacred form to an old French ditty, "I Have Some Good Tobacco in +My Snuffbox." + +[Illustration: musical notation] + +"_It is apparent here that by assigning the melody to the tenor part, it +is unrecognizable. Oftentimes licentious songs were taken as the Plain +Chant text, and on this account Pope Marcellus commissioned Palestrina +to put an end to such practices._" + +In a note he adds: "It must be remembered that before popular songs were +thus treated in counterpoint [which means that while the song is being +produced by one voice, the other voice or voices are singing against it +notes entirely different from the melody], the text for that kind of +treatment was the Plain Song--the singing of which was always assigned +to the tenor part. In my youth I have heard graduals treated in this +fashion at High Mass in my parish church of St. Sulpice in Paris, which +is still renowned for the splendor of its ceremonials." + +[2] + +(Illustration: musical notation) + +There are here illustrations of (a) the difference between the written +manner of Gluck, in a passage from his "Alceste"--and the actually +correct way of interpreting and playing it; (b) a passage from the +scherzo of Mendelssohn's string quartet,--to show how a gay subject can +be treated in the minor mood--and M. Saint-Saëns adds: "Mendelssohn's +scherzo of his 'Midsummer Night's Dream' is in sol minor but it evokes +no idea of sadness, although oftentimes those who play it, deceived by +its minor mood, give it a melancholy character, which is very far from +what the composer intended." + +[3] + +(Illustration: musical notation) + +Here M. Saint-Saëns has written a passage from a piano concerto of +Mozart to illustrate how that composer wished the _non-legato_ to be +interpreted--namely, in a flute-like manner,--the piano repeating +textually the passages indicated to be played first by the flutes. + +Again he illustrates the same subject with a passage taken from a piano +and violin sonata of Beethoven. The _non-legato_ passages here are not +to be played on the violin in a way approaching the _staccato_, although +they are written as detached notes; and the piano part follows the +rendering of the violin. + +A final illustration is furnished in the "Turkish March" of Mozart. + +(Illustration: musical notation) + +The proper manner of writing the graceful _gruppetto_ is here +given--with an illustration following of how it is to be correctly +played, and how it is incorrectly executed. + +[5] Next is illustrated the two ways of playing the _mordant_. + +[4] Finally, are several examples of the _appoggiature,_--showing both +the way they are written, and the way they are to be executed. + +The last line of the music above is an example of how in Haendel the +rhythm as interpreted differs from that in which the passage is written. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Execution of Music, and +Principally of Ancient Music, by Camille Saint-Saëns + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30412 *** diff --git a/30412-8.txt b/30412-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a43495 --- /dev/null +++ b/30412-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,950 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Execution of Music, and Principally +of Ancient Music, by Camille Saint-Saëns + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Execution of Music, and Principally of Ancient Music + +Author: Camille Saint-Saëns + +Translator: Henry P. Bowie + +Release Date: November 7, 2009 [EBook #30412] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE EXECUTION OF MUSIC *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: M. Camille Saint-Saëns] + + + + +ON THE EXECUTION OF + +MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY + +OF ANCIENT MUSIC + +BY + +M. CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS + + + _Delivered at the_ + + "_Salon de la Pensée Française_" + +_Panama-Pacific International Exposition_ + + _San Francisco, June First_ + + _Nineteen Hundred_ + + _& Fifteen_ + + +DONE INTO ENGLISH + +WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES BY + +HENRY P. BOWIE + +SAN FRANCISCO: + +THE BLAIR-MURDOCK COMPANY + +1915 + +_Copyright, 1915_ + +_by M. Camille Saint-Saëns_ + + + + +ON THE EXECUTION OF + +MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY + +OF ANCIENT MUSIC + +MUSIC was written in a scrawl impossible to decipher up to the +thirteenth century, when Plain Song[1] (_Plain Chant_) made its +appearance in square and diamond-shaped notes. The graduals and introits +had not yet been reduced to bars, but the songs of the troubadours +appear to have been in bars of three beats with the accent on the feeble +note of each bar. However, the theory that this bar of three beats or +triple time was used exclusively is probably erroneous. St. Isidore, in +his treatise on music, speaking of how Plain Song should be interpreted, +considers in turn all the voices and recommends those which are high, +sweet and clear, for the execution of vocal sounds, introits, graduals, +offertories, etc. This is exactly contrary to what we now do, since in +place of utilizing these light tenor voices for Plain Song, we have +recourse to voices both heavy and low. + +In the last century when it was desired to restore Plain Song to its +primitive purity, one met with insurmountable obstacles due to its +prodigious prolixity of long series of notes, repeating indefinitely the +same musical forms; but in considering this in the light of explanations +given by St. Isidore, and in view of the Oriental origin of the +Christian religion, we are led to infer that these long series of notes +were chants or vocalizations analogous to the songs of the Muezzins of +the Orient. At the beginning of the sixteenth century musical laws began +to be elaborated without, however, in this evolution towards modern +tonal art, departing entirely from all influence of the antique methods. +The school named after Palestrina employed as yet only the triads or +perfect chords; this prevented absolutely all expression, although some +traces of it appear in the "Stabat Mater" of that composer. This music, +ecclesiastical in character, in which it would have been chimerical to +try to introduce modern expression, flourished in France, in Flanders, +in Spain at the same time as in Italy, and enjoyed the favor of Pope +Marcellus, who recognized the merit of Palestrina in breaking loose from +the grievous practice of adapting popular songs to church music. + +In the middle ages, as in antiquity, the laws of harmony were unknown; +when it was desired to sing in two parts, they sang at first in +intervals of fifths and fourths, where it would have seemed much more +natural to sing in thirds and sixths. Such first attempts at music in +several parts were made in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries, when they were hunting for laws, and such music was +discordant. It bore the name of Diaphony. The real Polyphony came in the +sixteenth century with the school of Palestrina. + +Later on, little by little, laws were established, not arbitrarily, but +laws resulting from a long experience, and during all the sixteenth +century admirable music was written, though deprived of melody, properly +speaking. Melody was reserved for dance music which, in fact, was +perfectly written in four and even in five part scores, as I have been +able to convince myself in hunting for dance music of the sixteenth +century for my opera "Ascanio." + +But no indication of movement, nuances or shading, enlightens us as to +the manner in which this music should be interpreted. At Paris the first +attempts to execute the music of Palestrina were made in the time of +Louis Philippe, by the Prince of Moscow. He had founded a choral society +of amateurs, all titled, but gifted with good voices and a certain +musical talent. This society executed many of the works of Palestrina +and particularly the famous "Mass of Pope Marcellus." They adopted at +that time the method of singing most of these pieces very softly and +with an extreme slowness so that in the long-sustained notes the singers +were forced to divide their task by some taking up the sound when the +others were out of breath. Consonant chords thus presented evidently +produced music which was very agreeable to the ear, but unquestionably +the author could not recognize his work in such rendering. Quite +different was the method of the singers in the Sistine Chapel when I +heard them for the first time in Rome in 1855 when they sung the "Sicut +Cervus" of Palestrina. They roared in a head-splitting way without the +least regard for the pleasure of the listener, or for the meaning of the +words they sang. It is difficult to believe that this music was ever +composed to be executed in such a barbarous manner, which, it seems to +me, differs completely from our musical conceptions; and it is a great +mistake also in modern editions of such music to introduce delicate +shadings or nuances and even employ the words "very expressive." + +Palestrina has had his admirers among French literary writers. We recall +the scene created by Octave Feuillet in "M. de Camors." M. de Camors is +at his window; a lady is at the piano; a gentleman at the cello, and +another lady sings the Mass of Palestrina which I have referred to +above. Such a way of playing this music is simply out of the question. +Feuillet had obtained his inspiration for this from a fanciful painting +which he had seen somewhere. + +Expression was introduced into music by the chord of the dominant +seventh, the invention of which is attributed to Monteverde. However, +Palestrina had already employed that chord in his "Adoremus," but +probably without understanding its importance or divining its future. + +Before this invention the interval of three whole tones (Triton) was +considered an intolerable dissonance and was called "the devil in +music." The dominant seventh has been the open door to all +dissonances and to the domain of expression. It was a death blow to that +learned music of the sixteenth century; it was the arrival of the reign +of melody--of the development of the art of singing. Very often the song +or the solo instrument would be accompanied by a simple, ciphered bass, +the ciphers indicating the chords which he who accompanied should play +as well as he could, either on the harpsichord or the theorbe. The +theorbe was an admirable instrument which is now to be found only in +museums,--a sort of enormous guitar with a long neck and multiple +strings which offered great opportunities to a skilful artist. + +It is curious to note that in ancient times there was not attributed to +the minor and major keys the same character as is assigned them +to-day.[2] The joyous canticle of the Catholic church, "O Filii et +Filiæ," is in the minor. "The Romanesca," a dance air of the sixteenth +century, is equally in the minor, just like all the dance airs of Lully, +and of Rameau, and the gavottes of Sebastian Bach. The celebrated +"Funeral March" of Haendel, reproduced in many of his works, is in C +Major. The delicious love duo of Acis and Galathee, which changes to a +trio by the addition of the part of Polyphemus, is in A Minor. When +Galathee weeps afterward over the death of Acis, the air is in F Major. +It is only recently that we find dance airs in the major mood or key. + +From the seventeenth century on, music entered into everyday life, never +again to be separated from it. Thus music has remained in favor, and +we are continually hearing executed the works of Bach, of Haendel, of +Hayden, of Mozart and of Beethoven. How are such works executed? Are +they executed as they should be? That is another question. + +One source of error is found in the evolution which musical instruments +have undergone. In the time of Bach and Haendel the bow truly merited +its Italian name of "arco." It was curved like an arc--the hairs of the +bow constituted the chord of the arc, a very great flexibility resulting +which allowed the strings of the instrument to be enveloped and to be +played simultaneously. The bow seldom quitted the strings, doing so only +in rare cases and when especially indicated. On this account it happens +that the indication of "legato" is very rare. Even though there was a +separate stroke of the bow for each note, the notes were not separated +one from the other. Nowadays the form of the bow is completely changed. +The execution of the music is based upon the detached bow, and although +it is easy to keep the bow upon the strings just as they did at the +commencement of the nineteenth century, performers have lost the habit +of it. The result is that they give to ancient music a character of +perpetually jumping, which completely destroys its nature. + +The very opposite movement has been produced in instruments of the key +or piano type. The precise indications of Mozart show that "non-legato," +which doesn't mean at all "staccato," was the ordinary way of playing +the instrument, and that the veritable "legato" was played only where +the author specially indicated it. The clavecin or harpsichord, which +preceded the piano, when complete with two banks of keys, many registers +giving the octaves and different tone qualities, oftentimes like the +organ with a key for pedals, offered resources which the piano does not +possess. A Polish lady, Madame Landowska, has studied thoroughly these +resources, and has shown us how pieces written for this instrument thus +disclosed elements of variety which are totally missing when the same +are played upon the piano; but the clavecin tone lacked fulness, and +shadings or nuances were out of the question. + +Sonority or tone was varied by changing the keys or register just as on +the organ. On the other hand, with the piano one can vary the sonority +by augmenting or diminishing the force of the attack, hence its original +name of "forte piano,"--a name too long, which was shortened at first by +suppressing the last syllables; so that one reads, not without +astonishment, in the accounts given of young Mozart, of the skill he +showed in playing "forte" at a time when he was playing on instruments +of a very feeble tone. Nowadays when athletic artists exert all their +force upon the modern instruments of terrific sonority, they are said to +play the "piano" (_toucher du piano_). + +We must conclude that the indication "non-legato" finally degenerated +into meaning "staccato." In my youth I heard persons advanced in age +whose performance on the piano was extremely dry and jumpy. Then a +reaction took place. The tyrannical reign of the perpetual "legato" +succeeded. It was decided that in piano playing unless indicated to the +contrary, and even at times in spite of such indication, everything +everywhere should be tied together.[3] This was a great misfortune of +which Kalkbrenner gives a manifest proof in the arrangement he has made +of Beethoven's symphonies. Besides, this "legato" tyranny continues. +Notwithstanding the example of Liszt, the greatest pianist of the +nineteenth century, and notwithstanding his numerous pupils, the fatal +school of the "legato" has prevailed,--not that it is unfortunate in +itself, but because it has perverted the intentions of musical authors. +Our French professors have followed the example of Kalkbrenner. + +The house of Breitkopf, which until lately had the best editions of the +German classics, has substituted in their places new editions where +professors have eagerly striven to perfect in their own manner the music +of the masters. When this great house wished to make a complete edition +of the works of Mozart, which are prodigiously numerous, it appealed to +all who possessed manuscripts of Mozart, and then having gathered these +most precious documents, instead of reproducing them faithfully, that +house believed it was doing well to leave to the professors full liberty +of treatment and change. Thus that admirable series of concertos for +piano has been ornamented by Karl Reinecke with a series of joined +notes, tied notes, legato, molto legato, and sempre legato which are the +very opposite of what the composer intended. Worse still, in a piece +which Mozart had the genial idea of terminating suddenly with a +delicately shaded phrase, they have taken out such nuances and +terminated the piece with a _forte_ passage of the most commonplace +character. + +One other plague in modern editions is the abuse of the pedal. Mozart +never indicated the pedal. As purity of taste is one of his great +qualities, it is probable that he made no abuse of the pedal. Beethoven +indicated it in a complicated and cumbersome manner. When he wanted the +pedal he wrote "senza sordini," which means without dampers, and to take +them off he wrote "con sordini," meaning with dampers. The soft pedal is +indicated by "una corda." The indication to take it off, an indication +which exists even now, was written "tre corde." The indication "ped" for +the grand pedal is assuredly more convenient, but that is no reason for +making an abuse of it and inflicting it upon the author where his +writing indicates the contrary. + +As it seems to me, it is only from the eighteenth century that authors +have indicated the movements of their compositions, but the words which +they have employed have changed in sense with time. Formerly the +difference between the slowest movement and the most rapid movement was +much less than at present. The "largo" was only an "adagio" and the +"presto" would be scarcely an "allegro" to-day. + +The "andante" which now indicates a slow movement, had at that time its +original signification, meaning "going." It was an "allegro moderate." +Haendel often wrote "andante allegro." Through ignorance of that +fact the beautiful air of Gluck, "Divinities of the Styx," is sung too +slowly and the air of Thaos in the "Iphigenia in Tauris" equally so. +Berlioz recollected having heard at the opera in his youth a much more +animated execution of these works. + +Finally, in ancient times notes were not defined as they are to-day and +their value was approximative only. This liberty in the execution of +music is particularly perceptible in the works of Rameau. To conform to +his intentions in the vocal part such music must not be interpreted +literally. One must be governed by the declamation, and not by the +written note indicating a long or short duration. The proof of this is +to be seen when the violins and the voice are in unison--the way of +writing them is different. + +A great obstacle to executing ancient works from the eighteenth century +on is in the interpretation of grace notes, "appoggiaturas" and others. +In these cases there is an unfortunate habit in players of conforming to +their own taste, which may guide a little, but cannot suffice in every +instance. One can be convinced of this in studying The Method of Violin +by the father of Mozart. We find there things which one would never +dream of. + +The "appoggiatura"[4] (from _appoggiare_, which in Italian means "to +lean upon"), should always be long, the different ways in which it may +be written having no influence upon its length. There is an exception to +this when its final little note, ascending or descending, and preceding +the larger note, is distant from it a disjointed degree. In this case it +is not an "appoggiatura," and should be played short. In many cases +it prolongs the duration of the note which follows it. It may even alter +the value of the notes following. + +I will cite in connection with the subject of the "appoggiatura" the +beautiful duo with chorus of the "Passion According to St. Matthew," and +at the same time, I would point out the error committed in making of +this passion a most grandios performance with grand choral and +instrumental masses. One is deceived by its noble character, by its two +choruses, by its two orchestras, and one forgets that it was destined +for the little Church of St. Thomas in Leipsig, where Sebastian Bach was +organist. While in certain cantatas that composer employed horns, +trumpets, trombones and cymbals, for the "Passion According to St. +Matthew," he only used in each of the orchestras two flutes, two +hautbois, changing from the ordinary hautbois to the hautbois d'amour +and the hautbois of the chase,--now the English horn; that is to say, +hautbois pitched a third and a fifth lower. These two orchestras and +these two choruses then certainly were reduced to a very small number of +performers. + +In all very ancient music, from the time of Lully, one finds constantly +a little cross marked over the notes. Often this certainly indicates a +trill, but it seems difficult to take it always to mean such. However, +perhaps fashion desired that trills should thus be made out of place. I +have never been able to find an explanation of this sign, not even in +the musical dictionary of J. J. Rousseau. This dictionary none the +less contains a great deal of precious information. Does it not inform +us, among other things, that the copyists of former times were veritable +collaborators? When the author indicated the altos with the basses, the +hautbois with the violins, these copyists undertook to make the +necessary modifications. Times have unfortunately changed since. + +In Rameau's music, certain signs are unintelligible. Musical treatises +of that time say that it is impossible to describe them, and that to +understand them it was necessary to have heard them interpreted by a +professor of singing. + +With clavecinists the multiplicity of grace notes is extreme. As a rule +they give the explanation of these at the head of their works, just as +Rameau did. I note a curious sign which indicates that the right hand +should arrive upon the keys a little after the left. This shows that +there was not then that frightful habit of playing one hand after the +other as is often done nowadays. + +This prolixity of grace notes indulged by players upon the clavecin is +rather terrifying at first, but one need not be detained by them, for +they are not indispensable. The published methods of those times inform +us in fact that pupils were first taught to play the pieces without +these grace notes, and that they were added by degrees. Besides, Rameau +in transcribing for the clavecin fragments of his operas, has indicated +those grace notes which the original did not contain. + +Ornaments are much less numerous in the writings of Sebastian Bach. +Numberless confusions have been produced in the interpretation of the +mordant,[5] or biting note. It should be executed above or below the +principal note depending on whether the notes which precede the mordant +are superior or inferior to it. + +With reference to the difficulties in interpreting the works of Rameau +and of Gluck, I would point out the change in the diapason or pitch +which at that time was a tone lower than in our days. The organ of St. +Merry had a pitch in B flat. In addition to the tempi and the different +instruments which make the execution difficult, one must add the +recitatives which were very much employed and of which at that time a +serious study was made. I recall a beautiful example of recitative in +the "Iphigenia in Tauris." + +We come now to the modern epoch. From the time of Liszt, who not only +revolutionized the performance of music on the piano, but also the way +of writing it, authors give to performers all necessary indications, and +they have only to carefully observe them. There are, however, some +interesting remarks applicable to the music of Chopin which recent +editions unfortunately are commencing to falsify. Chopin detested the +abuse of the pedal. He could not bear that through an ignorant +employment of the pedal two different chords should be mixed in tone +together. Therefore, he has given indications with the greatest pains. +Employing it where he has not indicated it, must be avoided. But great +skill is necessary to thus do without the pedal. Therefore, in the +new editions of the author, no account of the author's indications +whatever is observed. Thus in the "Cradle Song," where the author has +indicated that the pedal be put on each measure and taken off in the +middle of it, modern editions preserve the pedal throughout the entire +measure, thus mixing up hopelessly the tonic with the dominant, which +the composer was so careful to avoid. + +A question of the greatest importance in playing the music of Chopin is +that of "tempo rubato." That does not mean, as many think, that the time +is to be dislocated. It means permitting great liberty to the singing +part or melody of the composition, while the accompaniment keeps +rigorous time. Mozart played in this way and he speaks of it in one of +his letters and he describes it marvelously, only the term "tempo +rubato" had not at that time been invented. This kind of playing, +demanding complete independence of the two hands, is not within the +ability of everybody. Therefore, to give the illusion of such effect, +players dislocate the bass and destroy the rhythm of the bar. When to +this disorder is joined the abuse of the pedal, there results that +vicious execution which, passing muster, is generally accepted in the +salons and often elsewhere. + +Another plague in the modern execution of music is the abuse of the +tremolo by both singers and instrumental performers. With singers, this +quivering is often the result of a fatigued voice, in which case it is +involuntary and is only to be deplored; but that is not the case with +violin and violoncello players. It is a fashion with them born of a +desire to make an effect at any cost, and is due to the depraved taste +of the public for a passionate execution of music; but art does not live +on passion alone. In our time, when art, through an admirable evolution, +has conquered all domains, music should express all, from the most +perfect calm to the most violent emotions. When one is strongly moved +the voice is altered, and in moving situations the singer should make +his voice vibrate. Formerly the German female singers sang with all +their voice, without any vibration in the sound and without any +reference to the situation; one would say they were clarinets. Now, one +must vibrate all the time. I heard the Meistersingers' quintette sung in +Paris. It was dreadful and the composition incomprehensible. Not all +singers, fortunately, have this defect, but it has taken possession of +violinists and 'cello players. That was not the way Franchomme, the +'cello player and collaborator of Chopin, played, nor was it the way +Sarasate, Sivori or Joachim played. + +I have written a concerto, the first and last movements of which are +very passionate. They are separated by a movement of the greatest +calm,--a lake between two mountains. Those great violin players who do +me the honor to play this piece, do not understand the contrast and they +vibrate on the lake just as they do on the mountains. Sarasate, for whom +this concerto was written, was as calm on the lake as he was agitated on +the mountains; nor did he fail on this account to produce always a great +effect--for there is nothing like giving to music its veritable +character. + +Anciently music was not written as scrupulously as it is to-day, and a +certain liberty was permitted to interpretation. This liberty went +farther than one would think, resembling much what the great Italian +singers furnished examples of in the days of Rubini and Malibran. They +did not hesitate to embroider the compositions, and the _reprises_ were +widespread. _Reprises_ meant that when the same piece was sung a second +time, the executants gave free bridle to their own inspiration. I have +heard in my youth the last echoes of this style of performance. Nowadays +_reprises_ are suppressed, and that is more prudent. However, it would +be betraying the intentions of Mozart to execute literally many passages +in concertos written by that author for the piano. At times he would +write a veritable scheme only, upon which he would improvise. However, +one should not imitate Kalkbrenner, who, in executing at Paris the great +concerto in C Major of Mozart, had rewritten all its passages in a +different manner from the author. On the other hand, when I played at +the Conservatoire in Paris Mozart's magnificent concerto in C Minor, I +would have thought I was committing a crime in executing literally the +piano part of the Adagio, which would have been absurd if thus presented +in the midst of an orchestra of great tonal wealth. There as elsewhere +the letter kills; the spirit vivifies. But in a case like that one must +know Mozart and assimilate his style, which demands a long study. + + + + +EXPLANATORY NOTES + +[1] Plain Song (Fr. _Plain Chant_) was the earliest form of Christian +church music. As its name indicates, it was a plain, artless chant +without rhythm, accent, modulation or accompaniment, and was first sung +in unison. Oriental or Grecian in origin, it had four keys called +Authentic Modes, to which were added later four more called Plagal +Modes. These modes, called Phrygian, Dorian, Lydian, etc., are merely +different presentations in the regular order of the notes of the C Major +scale--first, with D as the initial or tonic note, then with E _et seq_. +They lack the sentiment of a leading seventh note. In these weird keys +Plain Song was conceived for psalms, graduals, introits, and other +offices of the primitive church. Such music was generally called +Gregorian, because St. Gregory, Pope of Rome in the seventh century, +collected and codified it, adding thereto his own contributions. Two +centuries previous it was known as Ambrosian music, after St. Ambrose, +Bishop of Milan. + +Originally, a single chorister intoned the Plain Song, to which a full +chorus responded. Later this manner was altered to antiphonal +singing--two choruses being used, one for the initial and the other for +the responsive chant. Such music thus rendered was singularly grave, +dignified, and awe-inspiring. + +During the middle ages Plain Song unfortunately degenerated much from +its original sacred character, and, in one disguise or another, popular +and even indecorous songs were smuggled into it. In the time of Pope +Marcellus, 1576, Palestrina was employed to purge Gregorian music of its +scandalous laxities. + +M. Saint-Saëns, to illustrate the clever way in which popular songs were +given an ecclesiastical or Plain Song character, has here added to his +luminous lecture the following precious original composition, reproduced +in facsimile, in which through ingenious contrapuntal treatment he gives +a mock sacred form to an old French ditty, "I Have Some Good Tobacco in +My Snuffbox." + +[Illustration: musical notation] + +"_It is apparent here that by assigning the melody to the tenor part, it +is unrecognizable. Oftentimes licentious songs were taken as the Plain +Chant text, and on this account Pope Marcellus commissioned Palestrina +to put an end to such practices._" + +In a note he adds: "It must be remembered that before popular songs were +thus treated in counterpoint [which means that while the song is being +produced by one voice, the other voice or voices are singing against it +notes entirely different from the melody], the text for that kind of +treatment was the Plain Song--the singing of which was always assigned +to the tenor part. In my youth I have heard graduals treated in this +fashion at High Mass in my parish church of St. Sulpice in Paris, which +is still renowned for the splendor of its ceremonials." + +[2] + +(Illustration: musical notation) + +There are here illustrations of (a) the difference between the written +manner of Gluck, in a passage from his "Alceste"--and the actually +correct way of interpreting and playing it; (b) a passage from the +scherzo of Mendelssohn's string quartet,--to show how a gay subject can +be treated in the minor mood--and M. Saint-Saëns adds: "Mendelssohn's +scherzo of his 'Midsummer Night's Dream' is in sol minor but it evokes +no idea of sadness, although oftentimes those who play it, deceived by +its minor mood, give it a melancholy character, which is very far from +what the composer intended." + +[3] + +(Illustration: musical notation) + +Here M. Saint-Saëns has written a passage from a piano concerto of +Mozart to illustrate how that composer wished the _non-legato_ to be +interpreted--namely, in a flute-like manner,--the piano repeating +textually the passages indicated to be played first by the flutes. + +Again he illustrates the same subject with a passage taken from a piano +and violin sonata of Beethoven. The _non-legato_ passages here are not +to be played on the violin in a way approaching the _staccato_, although +they are written as detached notes; and the piano part follows the +rendering of the violin. + +A final illustration is furnished in the "Turkish March" of Mozart. + +(Illustration: musical notation) + +The proper manner of writing the graceful _gruppetto_ is here +given--with an illustration following of how it is to be correctly +played, and how it is incorrectly executed. + +[5] Next is illustrated the two ways of playing the _mordant_. + +[4] Finally, are several examples of the _appoggiature,_--showing both +the way they are written, and the way they are to be executed. + +The last line of the music above is an example of how in Haendel the +rhythm as interpreted differs from that in which the passage is written. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Execution of Music, and +Principally of Ancient Music, by Camille Saint-Saëns + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE EXECUTION OF MUSIC *** + +***** This file should be named 30412-8.txt or 30412-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/4/1/30412/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Camille Saint-Saëns. +</title> +<style type="text/css"> + p {margin-top:.75em;text-align:justify;margin-bottom:.75em;text-indent:2%;} + +.c {text-align:center;text-indent:0%;} + +.cimg {border:none;text-align:center;text-indent:0%;margin:15% auto 15% auto;} + +.image {border:none;text-align:center;text-indent:0%;margin:5% auto 5% auto;} + +.cb {text-align:center;text-indent:0%;font-weight:800;} + + img {border:none;} + +.nind {text-indent:0%;} + + h1,h2 {text-align:center;clear:both;} + + h3 {margin-top:15%;text-align:center;clear:both;} + +.top15 {margin-top:15%;} + + hr {width:100%;margin:5% auto 5% auto;border:4px double gray;} + + body{margin-left:10%;margin-right:10%;background:#fdfdfd;color:black;font-family:"Times New Roman", serif;font-size:medium;} + +a:link {background-color:#ffffff;color:blue;text-decoration:none;} + + link {background-color:#ffffff;color:blue;text-decoration:none;} + +a:visited {background-color:#ffffff;color:purple;text-decoration:none;} + +a:hover {background-color:#ffffff;color:#FF0000;text-decoration:underline;} + +.box {border:solid 3px black;margin:auto auto auto auto; max-width:60%;} + +.boxx {border:solid 3px black;padding:10px;} + +.boxd {border:dotted 3px black;} + +.note {font-size:70%;vertical-align:super;} +</style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30412 ***</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="cimg"> +<a href="images/ill_001.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_001.jpg" +alt="M. Camille Saint-Saëns" +style="max-width:50%;" /></a></div> + +<div class="box"> +<div class="boxd"> +<div class="boxx"> +<h1>ON THE EXECUTION OF<br /> +MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY<br /> +OF ANCIENT MUSIC</h1> +<p class="c"><img src="images/ill_002.jpg" +alt="logo" +width="200" +height="60" +/></p> + +<p class="cb">BY</p> + +<h2>M. CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS</h2> +</div></div></div> + + +<p class="cb top15"><i>Delivered at the</i><br /> +"<i>Salon de la Pensée Française</i>"<br /> +<i>Panama-Pacific International Exposition</i><br /> +<i>San Francisco, June First</i><br /> +<i>Nineteen Hundred</i><br /> +<i>& Fifteen</i></p> + + +<p class="cb top15">DONE INTO ENGLISH<br /> +WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES BY<br /> +HENRY P. BOWIE</p> + +<p class="cb top15">SAN FRANCISCO:<br /> +THE BLAIR-MURDOCK COMPANY<br /> +1915</p> + +<p class="cb top15"><i>Copyright, 1915</i><br /> +<i>by M. Camille Saint-Saëns</i></p> + +<div class="cimg"> +<img src="images/ill_003a.jpg" +alt="decorative bar" +width="650" +height="189" /> +</div> + +<h2>ON THE EXECUTION OF<br /> +MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY<br /> +OF ANCIENT MUSIC</h2> + +<p class="nind"><img src="images/ill_003b.jpg" +alt="M" +width="100" +height="104" +style="float:left;padding-right:0.5%;" />USIC was written in a scrawl impossible to decipher up to the +thirteenth century, when Plain Song +<a name="anchor_1" id="anchor_1"></a><a href="#footnote_1" class="note">[1]</a> (<i>Plain Chant</i>) made its +appearance in square and diamond-shaped notes. The graduals and introits +had not yet been reduced to bars, but the songs of the troubadours +appear to have been in bars of three beats with the accent on the feeble +note of each bar. However, the theory that this bar of three beats or +triple time was used exclusively is probably erroneous. St. Isidore, in +his treatise on music, speaking of how Plain Song should be interpreted, +considers in turn all the voices and recommends those which are high, +sweet and clear, for the execution of vocal sounds, introits, graduals, +offertories, etc. This is exactly contrary to what we now do, since in +place of utilizing these light tenor voices for Plain Song, we have +recourse to voices both heavy and low.</p> + +<p>In the last century when it was desired to restore Plain Song to its +primitive purity, one met with insurmountable obstacles due to its +prodigious prolixity of long series of notes, repeating indefinitely the +same musical forms; but in considering this in the light of explanations +given by St. Isidore, and in view of the Oriental origin of the +Christian religion, we are led to infer that these long series of notes +were chants or vocalizations analogous to the songs of the Muezzins of +the Orient. At the beginning of the sixteenth century musical laws began +to be elaborated without, however, in this evolution towards modern +tonal art, departing entirely from all influence of the antique methods. +The school named after Palestrina employed as yet only the triads or +perfect chords; this prevented absolutely all expression, although some +traces of it appear in the "Stabat Mater" of that composer. This music, +ecclesiastical in character, in which it would have been chimerical to +try to introduce modern expression, flourished in France, in Flanders, +in Spain at the same time as in Italy, and enjoyed the favor of Pope +Marcellus, who recognized the merit of Palestrina in breaking loose from +the grievous practice of adapting popular songs to church music.</p> + +<p>In the middle ages, as in antiquity, the laws of harmony were unknown; +when it was desired to sing in two parts, they sang at first in +intervals of fifths and fourths, where it would have seemed much more +natural to sing in thirds and sixths. Such first attempts at music in +several parts were made in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries, when they were hunting for laws, and such music was +discordant. It bore the name of Diaphony. The real Polyphony came in the +sixteenth century with the school of Palestrina.</p> + +<p>Later on, little by little, laws were established, not arbitrarily, but +laws resulting from a long experience, and during all the sixteenth +century admirable music was written, though deprived of melody, properly +speaking. Melody was reserved for dance music which, in fact, was +perfectly written in four and even in five part scores, as I have been +able to convince myself in hunting for dance music of the sixteenth +century for my opera "Ascanio."</p> + +<p>But no indication of movement, nuances or shading, enlightens us as to +the manner in which this music should be interpreted. At Paris the first +attempts to execute the music of Palestrina were made in the time of +Louis Philippe, by the Prince of Moscow. He had founded a choral society +of amateurs, all titled, but gifted with good voices and a certain +musical talent. This society executed many of the works of Palestrina +and particularly the famous "Mass of Pope Marcellus." They adopted at +that time the method of singing most of these pieces very softly and +with an extreme slowness so that in the long-sustained notes the singers +were forced to divide their task by some taking up the sound when the +others were out of breath. Consonant chords thus presented evidently +produced music which was very agreeable to the ear, but unquestionably +the author could not recognize his work in such rendering. Quite +different was the method of the singers in the Sistine Chapel when I +heard them for the first time in Rome in 1855 when they sung the "Sicut +Cervus" of Palestrina. They roared in a head-splitting way without the +least regard for the pleasure of the listener, or for the meaning of the +words they sang. It is difficult to believe that this music was ever +composed to be executed in such a barbarous manner, which, it seems to +me, differs completely from our musical conceptions; and it is a great +mistake also in modern editions of such music to introduce delicate +shadings or nuances and even employ the words "very expressive."</p> + +<p>Palestrina has had his admirers among French literary writers. We recall +the scene created by Octave Feuillet in "M. de Camors." M. de Camors is +at his window; a lady is at the piano; a gentleman at the cello, and +another lady sings the Mass of Palestrina which I have referred to +above. Such a way of playing this music is simply out of the question. +Feuillet had obtained his inspiration for this from a fanciful painting +which he had seen somewhere.</p> + +<p>Expression was introduced into music by the chord of the dominant +seventh, the invention of which is attributed to Monteverde. However, +Palestrina had already employed that chord in his "Adoremus," but +probably without understanding its importance or divining its future.</p> + +<p>Before this invention the interval of three whole tones (Triton) was +considered an intolerable dissonance and was called "the devil in +music." The dominant seventh has been the open door to all +dissonances and to the domain of expression. It was a death blow to that +learned music of the sixteenth century; it was the arrival of the reign +of melody—of the development of the art of singing. Very often the song +or the solo instrument would be accompanied by a simple, ciphered bass, +the ciphers indicating the chords which he who accompanied should play +as well as he could, either on the harpsichord or the theorbe. The +theorbe was an admirable instrument which is now to be found only in +museums,—a sort of enormous guitar with a long neck and multiple +strings which offered great opportunities to a skilful artist.</p> + +<p>It is curious to note that in ancient times there was not attributed to +the minor and major keys the same character as is assigned them +to-day.<a name="anchor_2" id="anchor_2"></a><a href="#footnote_2" class="note">[2]</a> The joyous canticle of the Catholic church, "O Filii et +Filiæ," is in the minor. "The Romanesca," a dance air of the sixteenth +century, is equally in the minor, just like all the dance airs of Lully, +and of Rameau, and the gavottes of Sebastian Bach. The celebrated +"Funeral March" of Haendel, reproduced in many of his works, is in C +Major. The delicious love duo of Acis and Galathee, which changes to a +trio by the addition of the part of Polyphemus, is in A Minor. When +Galathee weeps afterward over the death of Acis, the air is in F Major. +It is only recently that we find dance airs in the major mood or key.</p> + +<p>From the seventeenth century on, music entered into everyday life, never +again to be separated from it. Thus music has remained in favor, and +we are continually hearing executed the works of Bach, of Haendel, of +Hayden, of Mozart and of Beethoven. How are such works executed? Are +they executed as they should be? That is another question.</p> + +<p>One source of error is found in the evolution which musical instruments +have undergone. In the time of Bach and Haendel the bow truly merited +its Italian name of "arco." It was curved like an arc—the hairs of the +bow constituted the chord of the arc, a very great flexibility resulting +which allowed the strings of the instrument to be enveloped and to be +played simultaneously. The bow seldom quitted the strings, doing so only +in rare cases and when especially indicated. On this account it happens +that the indication of "legato" is very rare. Even though there was a +separate stroke of the bow for each note, the notes were not separated +one from the other. Nowadays the form of the bow is completely changed. +The execution of the music is based upon the detached bow, and although +it is easy to keep the bow upon the strings just as they did at the +commencement of the nineteenth century, performers have lost the habit +of it. The result is that they give to ancient music a character of +perpetually jumping, which completely destroys its nature.</p> + +<p>The very opposite movement has been produced in instruments of the key +or piano type. The precise indications of Mozart show that "non-legato," +which doesn't mean at all "staccato," was the ordinary way of playing +the instrument, and that the veritable "legato" was played only where +the author specially indicated it. The clavecin or harpsichord, which +preceded the piano, when complete with two banks of keys, many registers +giving the octaves and different tone qualities, oftentimes like the +organ with a key for pedals, offered resources which the piano does not +possess. A Polish lady, Madame Landowska, has studied thoroughly these +resources, and has shown us how pieces written for this instrument thus +disclosed elements of variety which are totally missing when the same +are played upon the piano; but the clavecin tone lacked fulness, and +shadings or nuances were out of the question.</p> + +<p>Sonority or tone was varied by changing the keys or register just as on +the organ. On the other hand, with the piano one can vary the sonority +by augmenting or diminishing the force of the attack, hence its original +name of "forte piano,"—a name too long, which was shortened at first by +suppressing the last syllables; so that one reads, not without +astonishment, in the accounts given of young Mozart, of the skill he +showed in playing "forte" at a time when he was playing on instruments +of a very feeble tone. Nowadays when athletic artists exert all their +force upon the modern instruments of terrific sonority, they are said to +play the "piano" (<i>toucher du piano</i>).</p> + +<p>We must conclude that the indication "non-legato" finally degenerated +into meaning "staccato." In my youth I heard persons advanced in age +whose performance on the piano was extremely dry and jumpy. Then a +reaction took place. The tyrannical reign of the perpetual "legato" +succeeded. It was decided that in piano playing unless indicated to the +contrary, and even at times in spite of such indication, everything +everywhere should be tied together.<a name="anchor_3" id="anchor_3"></a><a href="#footnote_3" class="note">[3]</a> This was a great misfortune of +which Kalkbrenner gives a manifest proof in the arrangement he has made +of Beethoven's symphonies. Besides, this "legato" tyranny continues. +Notwithstanding the example of Liszt, the greatest pianist of the +nineteenth century, and notwithstanding his numerous pupils, the fatal +school of the "legato" has prevailed,—not that it is unfortunate in +itself, but because it has perverted the intentions of musical authors. +Our French professors have followed the example of Kalkbrenner.</p> + +<p>The house of Breitkopf, which until lately had the best editions of the +German classics, has substituted in their places new editions where +professors have eagerly striven to perfect in their own manner the music +of the masters. When this great house wished to make a complete edition +of the works of Mozart, which are prodigiously numerous, it appealed to +all who possessed manuscripts of Mozart, and then having gathered these +most precious documents, instead of reproducing them faithfully, that +house believed it was doing well to leave to the professors full liberty +of treatment and change. Thus that admirable series of concertos for +piano has been ornamented by Karl Reinecke with a series of joined +notes, tied notes, legato, molto legato, and sempre legato which are the +very opposite of what the composer intended. Worse still, in a piece +which Mozart had the genial idea of terminating suddenly with a +delicately shaded phrase, they have taken out such nuances and +terminated the piece with a <i>forte</i> passage of the most commonplace +character.</p> + +<p>One other plague in modern editions is the abuse of the pedal. Mozart +never indicated the pedal. As purity of taste is one of his great +qualities, it is probable that he made no abuse of the pedal. Beethoven +indicated it in a complicated and cumbersome manner. When he wanted the +pedal he wrote "senza sordini," which means without dampers, and to take +them off he wrote "con sordini," meaning with dampers. The soft pedal is +indicated by "una corda." The indication to take it off, an indication +which exists even now, was written "tre corde." The indication "ped" for +the grand pedal is assuredly more convenient, but that is no reason for +making an abuse of it and inflicting it upon the author where his +writing indicates the contrary.</p> + +<p>As it seems to me, it is only from the eighteenth century that authors +have indicated the movements of their compositions, but the words which +they have employed have changed in sense with time. Formerly the +difference between the slowest movement and the most rapid movement was +much less than at present. The "largo" was only an "adagio" and the +"presto" would be scarcely an "allegro" to-day.</p> + +<p>The "andante" which now indicates a slow movement, had at that time its +original signification, meaning "going." It was an "allegro moderate." +Haendel often wrote "andante allegro." Through ignorance of that +fact the beautiful air of Gluck, "Divinities of the Styx," is sung too +slowly and the air of Thaos in the "Iphigenia in Tauris" equally so. +Berlioz recollected having heard at the opera in his youth a much more +animated execution of these works.</p> + +<p>Finally, in ancient times notes were not defined as they are to-day and +their value was approximative only. This liberty in the execution of +music is particularly perceptible in the works of Rameau. To conform to +his intentions in the vocal part such music must not be interpreted +literally. One must be governed by the declamation, and not by the +written note indicating a long or short duration. The proof of this is +to be seen when the violins and the voice are in unison—the way of +writing them is different.</p> + +<p>A great obstacle to executing ancient works from the eighteenth century +on is in the interpretation of grace notes, "appoggiaturas" and others. +In these cases there is an unfortunate habit in players of conforming to +their own taste, which may guide a little, but cannot suffice in every +instance. One can be convinced of this in studying The Method of Violin +by the father of Mozart. We find there things which one would never +dream of.</p> + +<p>The "appoggiatura"<a name="anchor_4" id="anchor_4"></a><a href="#footnote_4" class="note">[4]</a> (from <i>appoggiare</i>, which in Italian means "to +lean upon"), should always be long, the different ways in which it may +be written having no influence upon its length. There is an exception to +this when its final little note, ascending or descending, and preceding +the larger note, is distant from it a disjointed degree. In this case it +is not an "appoggiatura," and should be played short. In many cases +it prolongs the duration of the note which follows it. It may even alter +the value of the notes following.</p> + +<p>I will cite in connection with the subject of the "appoggiatura" the +beautiful duo with chorus of the "Passion According to St. Matthew," and +at the same time, I would point out the error committed in making of +this passion a most grandios performance with grand choral and +instrumental masses. One is deceived by its noble character, by its two +choruses, by its two orchestras, and one forgets that it was destined +for the little Church of St. Thomas in Leipsig, where Sebastian Bach was +organist. While in certain cantatas that composer employed horns, +trumpets, trombones and cymbals, for the "Passion According to St. +Matthew," he only used in each of the orchestras two flutes, two +hautbois, changing from the ordinary hautbois to the hautbois d'amour +and the hautbois of the chase,—now the English horn; that is to say, +hautbois pitched a third and a fifth lower. These two orchestras and +these two choruses then certainly were reduced to a very small number of +performers.</p> + +<p>In all very ancient music, from the time of Lully, one finds constantly +a little cross marked over the notes. Often this certainly indicates a +trill, but it seems difficult to take it always to mean such. However, +perhaps fashion desired that trills should thus be made out of place. I +have never been able to find an explanation of this sign, not even in +the musical dictionary of J. J. Rousseau. This dictionary none the +less contains a great deal of precious information. Does it not inform +us, among other things, that the copyists of former times were veritable +collaborators? When the author indicated the altos with the basses, the +hautbois with the violins, these copyists undertook to make the +necessary modifications. Times have unfortunately changed since.</p> + +<p>In Rameau's music, certain signs are unintelligible. Musical treatises +of that time say that it is impossible to describe them, and that to +understand them it was necessary to have heard them interpreted by a +professor of singing.</p> + +<p>With clavecinists the multiplicity of grace notes is extreme. As a rule +they give the explanation of these at the head of their works, just as +Rameau did. I note a curious sign which indicates that the right hand +should arrive upon the keys a little after the left. This shows that +there was not then that frightful habit of playing one hand after the +other as is often done nowadays.</p> + +<p>This prolixity of grace notes indulged by players upon the clavecin is +rather terrifying at first, but one need not be detained by them, for +they are not indispensable. The published methods of those times inform +us in fact that pupils were first taught to play the pieces without +these grace notes, and that they were added by degrees. Besides, Rameau +in transcribing for the clavecin fragments of his operas, has indicated +those grace notes which the original did not contain.</p> + +<p>Ornaments are much less numerous in the writings of Sebastian Bach. +Numberless confusions have been produced in the interpretation of the +mordant,<a name="anchor_5" id="anchor_5"></a><a href="#footnote_5" class="note">[5]</a> or biting note. It should be executed above or below the +principal note depending on whether the notes which precede the mordant +are superior or inferior to it.</p> + +<p>With reference to the difficulties in interpreting the works of Rameau +and of Gluck, I would point out the change in the diapason or pitch +which at that time was a tone lower than in our days. The organ of St. +Merry had a pitch in B flat. In addition to the tempi and the different +instruments which make the execution difficult, one must add the +recitatives which were very much employed and of which at that time a +serious study was made. I recall a beautiful example of recitative in +the "Iphigenia in Tauris."</p> + +<p>We come now to the modern epoch. From the time of Liszt, who not only +revolutionized the performance of music on the piano, but also the way +of writing it, authors give to performers all necessary indications, and +they have only to carefully observe them. There are, however, some +interesting remarks applicable to the music of Chopin which recent +editions unfortunately are commencing to falsify. Chopin detested the +abuse of the pedal. He could not bear that through an ignorant +employment of the pedal two different chords should be mixed in tone +together. Therefore, he has given indications with the greatest pains. +Employing it where he has not indicated it, must be avoided. But great +skill is necessary to thus do without the pedal. Therefore, in the +new editions of the author, no account of the author's indications +whatever is observed. Thus in the "Cradle Song," where the author has +indicated that the pedal be put on each measure and taken off in the +middle of it, modern editions preserve the pedal throughout the entire +measure, thus mixing up hopelessly the tonic with the dominant, which +the composer was so careful to avoid.</p> + +<p>A question of the greatest importance in playing the music of Chopin is +that of "tempo rubato." That does not mean, as many think, that the time +is to be dislocated. It means permitting great liberty to the singing +part or melody of the composition, while the accompaniment keeps +rigorous time. Mozart played in this way and he speaks of it in one of +his letters and he describes it marvelously, only the term "tempo +rubato" had not at that time been invented. This kind of playing, +demanding complete independence of the two hands, is not within the +ability of everybody. Therefore, to give the illusion of such effect, +players dislocate the bass and destroy the rhythm of the bar. When to +this disorder is joined the abuse of the pedal, there results that +vicious execution which, passing muster, is generally accepted in the +salons and often elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Another plague in the modern execution of music is the abuse of the +tremolo by both singers and instrumental performers. With singers, this +quivering is often the result of a fatigued voice, in which case it is +involuntary and is only to be deplored; but that is not the case with +violin and violoncello players. It is a fashion with them born of a +desire to make an effect at any cost, and is due to the depraved taste +of the public for a passionate execution of music; but art does not live +on passion alone. In our time, when art, through an admirable evolution, +has conquered all domains, music should express all, from the most +perfect calm to the most violent emotions. When one is strongly moved +the voice is altered, and in moving situations the singer should make +his voice vibrate. Formerly the German female singers sang with all +their voice, without any vibration in the sound and without any +reference to the situation; one would say they were clarinets. Now, one +must vibrate all the time. I heard the Meistersingers' quintette sung in +Paris. It was dreadful and the composition incomprehensible. Not all +singers, fortunately, have this defect, but it has taken possession of +violinists and 'cello players. That was not the way Franchomme, the +'cello player and collaborator of Chopin, played, nor was it the way +Sarasate, Sivori or Joachim played.</p> + +<p>I have written a concerto, the first and last movements of which are +very passionate. They are separated by a movement of the greatest +calm,—a lake between two mountains. Those great violin players who do +me the honor to play this piece, do not understand the contrast and they +vibrate on the lake just as they do on the mountains. Sarasate, for whom +this concerto was written, was as calm on the lake as he was agitated on +the mountains; nor did he fail on this account to produce always a great +effect—for there is nothing like giving to music its veritable +character.</p> + +<p>Anciently music was not written as scrupulously as it is to-day, and a +certain liberty was permitted to interpretation. This liberty went +farther than one would think, resembling much what the great Italian +singers furnished examples of in the days of Rubini and Malibran. They +did not hesitate to embroider the compositions, and the <i>reprises</i> were +widespread. <i>Reprises</i> meant that when the same piece was sung a second +time, the executants gave free bridle to their own inspiration. I have +heard in my youth the last echoes of this style of performance. Nowadays +<i>reprises</i> are suppressed, and that is more prudent. However, it would +be betraying the intentions of Mozart to execute literally many passages +in concertos written by that author for the piano. At times he would +write a veritable scheme only, upon which he would improvise. However, +one should not imitate Kalkbrenner, who, in executing at Paris the great +concerto in C Major of Mozart, had rewritten all its passages in a +different manner from the author. On the other hand, when I played at +the Conservatoire in Paris Mozart's magnificent concerto in C Minor, I +would have thought I was committing a crime in executing literally the +piano part of the Adagio, which would have been absurd if thus presented +in the midst of an orchestra of great tonal wealth. There as elsewhere +the letter kills; the spirit vivifies. But in a case like that one must +know Mozart and assimilate his style, which demands a long study.</p> + + + +<h3>EXPLANATORY NOTES</h3> + + +<p> +<a name="footnote_1" id="footnote_1"></a><span class="note"><a href="#anchor_1">[1]</a></span> +Plain Song (Fr. <i>Plain Chant</i>) was the earliest form of +Christian church music. As its name indicates, it was a plain, artless +chant without rhythm, accent, modulation or accompaniment, and was first +sung in unison. Oriental or Grecian in origin, it had four keys called +Authentic Modes, to which were added later four more called Plagal +Modes. These modes, called Phrygian, Dorian, Lydian, etc., are merely +different presentations in the regular order of the notes of the C Major +scale—first, with D as the initial or tonic note, then with E <i>et seq</i>. +They lack the sentiment of a leading seventh note. In these weird keys +Plain Song was conceived for psalms, graduals, introits, and other +offices of the primitive church. Such music was generally called +Gregorian, because St. Gregory, Pope of Rome in the seventh century, +collected and codified it, adding thereto his own contributions. Two +centuries previous it was known as Ambrosian music, after St. Ambrose, +Bishop of Milan. +</p><p> +Originally, a single chorister intoned the Plain Song, to which a full +chorus responded. Later this manner was altered to antiphonal +singing—two choruses being used, one for the initial and the other for +the responsive chant. Such music thus rendered was singularly grave, +dignified, and awe-inspiring. +</p><p> +During the middle ages Plain Song unfortunately degenerated much from +its original sacred character, and, in one disguise or another, popular +and even indecorous songs were smuggled into it. In the time of Pope +Marcellus, 1576, Palestrina was employed to purge Gregorian music of +its scandalous laxities. +</p><p> +M. Saint-Saëns, to illustrate the clever way in which popular songs were +given an ecclesiastical or Plain Song character, has here added to his +luminous lecture the following precious original composition, reproduced +in facsimile, in which through ingenious contrapuntal treatment he gives +a mock sacred form to an old French ditty, "I Have Some Good Tobacco in +My Snuffbox." +</p> + +<div class="image"> +<a href="images/ill_018.png"> +<img src="images/ill_018.png" +alt="musical notation" +style="max-width:75%;" /></a> +</div> + +<p> +"<i>It is apparent here that by assigning the melody to the tenor part, it +is unrecognizable. Oftentimes licentious songs were taken as the Plain +Chant text, and on this account Pope Marcellus commissioned Palestrina +to put an end to such practices.</i>" +</p><p> +In a note he adds: "It must be remembered that before popular songs were +thus treated in counterpoint [which means that while the song is being +produced by one voice, the other voice or voices are singing against it +notes entirely different from the melody], the text for that kind of +treatment was the Plain Song—the singing of which was always assigned +to the tenor part. In my youth I have heard graduals treated in this +fashion at High Mass in my parish church of St. Sulpice in Paris, which +is still renowned for the splendor of its ceremonials."</p> + +<p> +<a name="footnote_2" id="footnote_2"></a><span class="note"><a href="#anchor_2">[2]</a></span> +</p> + +<div class="image"> +<a href="images/ill_019.png"> +<img src="images/ill_019.png" +alt="musical notation" +style="max-width:75%;" /></a> +</div> + +<p>There are here illustrations of (a) the difference between the written +manner of Gluck, in a passage from his "Alceste"—and the actually +correct way of interpreting and playing it; (b) a passage from the +scherzo of Mendelssohn's string quartet,—to show how a gay subject can +be treated in the minor mood—and M. Saint-Saëns adds: "Mendelssohn's +scherzo of his 'Midsummer Night's Dream' is in sol minor but it evokes +no idea of sadness, although oftentimes those who play it, deceived by +its minor mood, give it a melancholy character, which is very far from +what the composer intended."</p> + + +<p> +<a name="footnote_3" id="footnote_3"></a><span class="note"><a href="#anchor_3">[3]</a></span> +</p> + +<div class="image"> +<a href="images/ill_020.png"> +<img src="images/ill_020.png" +alt="musical notation" +style="max-width:75%;" /></a> +</div> + +<p>Here M. Saint-Saëns has written a passage from a piano +concerto of Mozart to illustrate how that composer wished the +<i>non-legato</i> to be interpreted—namely, in a flute-like manner,—the +piano repeating textually the passages indicated to be played first by +the flutes. +</p><p> +Again he illustrates the same subject with a passage taken from a piano +and violin sonata of Beethoven. The <i>non-legato</i> passages here are not +to be played on the violin in a way approaching the <i>staccato</i>, although +they are written as detached notes; and the piano part follows the +rendering of the violin. +</p><p> +A final illustration is furnished in the "Turkish March" of Mozart. +</p> +<div class="image"> +<a href="images/ill_021.png"> +<img src="images/ill_021.png" +alt="musical notation" +style="max-width:75%;" /></a> +</div> + +<p>The proper manner of writing the graceful <i>gruppetto</i> is here +given—with an illustration following of how it is to be correctly +played, and how it is incorrectly executed.</p> + +<p><a name="footnote_5" id="footnote_5"></a><span class="note"><a href="#anchor_5">[5]</a></span> +Next is illustrated the two ways of playing the <i>mordant</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="footnote_4" id="footnote_4"></a><span class="note"><a href="#anchor_4">[4]</a></span> +Finally, are several examples of the +<i>appoggiature,</i>—showing both the way they are written, and the way they +are to be executed. +</p> + +<p>The last line of the music above is an example of how in Haendel the +rhythm as interpreted differs from that in which the passage is written.</p> + +<hr /> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30412 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/30412-h/images/ill_001.jpg b/30412-h/images/ill_001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a21ca7 --- /dev/null +++ b/30412-h/images/ill_001.jpg diff --git a/30412-h/images/ill_002.jpg b/30412-h/images/ill_002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..75090f5 --- /dev/null +++ b/30412-h/images/ill_002.jpg diff --git a/30412-h/images/ill_003a.jpg b/30412-h/images/ill_003a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c7a5a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/30412-h/images/ill_003a.jpg diff --git a/30412-h/images/ill_003b.jpg b/30412-h/images/ill_003b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..78685fd --- /dev/null +++ b/30412-h/images/ill_003b.jpg diff --git a/30412-h/images/ill_018.png b/30412-h/images/ill_018.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6f37a9b --- /dev/null +++ b/30412-h/images/ill_018.png diff --git a/30412-h/images/ill_019.png b/30412-h/images/ill_019.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f8a60a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/30412-h/images/ill_019.png diff --git a/30412-h/images/ill_020.png b/30412-h/images/ill_020.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5a95f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/30412-h/images/ill_020.png diff --git a/30412-h/images/ill_021.png b/30412-h/images/ill_021.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6393950 --- /dev/null +++ b/30412-h/images/ill_021.png diff --git a/30412.txt b/30412.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b986c0c --- /dev/null +++ b/30412.txt @@ -0,0 +1,950 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Execution of Music, and Principally +of Ancient Music, by Camille Saint-Saens + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Execution of Music, and Principally of Ancient Music + +Author: Camille Saint-Saens + +Translator: Henry P. Bowie + +Release Date: November 7, 2009 [EBook #30412] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE EXECUTION OF MUSIC *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: M. Camille Saint-Saens] + + + + +ON THE EXECUTION OF + +MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY + +OF ANCIENT MUSIC + +BY + +M. CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS + + + _Delivered at the_ + + "_Salon de la Pensee Francaise_" + +_Panama-Pacific International Exposition_ + + _San Francisco, June First_ + + _Nineteen Hundred_ + + _& Fifteen_ + + +DONE INTO ENGLISH + +WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES BY + +HENRY P. BOWIE + +SAN FRANCISCO: + +THE BLAIR-MURDOCK COMPANY + +1915 + +_Copyright, 1915_ + +_by M. Camille Saint-Saens_ + + + + +ON THE EXECUTION OF + +MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY + +OF ANCIENT MUSIC + +MUSIC was written in a scrawl impossible to decipher up to the +thirteenth century, when Plain Song[1] (_Plain Chant_) made its +appearance in square and diamond-shaped notes. The graduals and introits +had not yet been reduced to bars, but the songs of the troubadours +appear to have been in bars of three beats with the accent on the feeble +note of each bar. However, the theory that this bar of three beats or +triple time was used exclusively is probably erroneous. St. Isidore, in +his treatise on music, speaking of how Plain Song should be interpreted, +considers in turn all the voices and recommends those which are high, +sweet and clear, for the execution of vocal sounds, introits, graduals, +offertories, etc. This is exactly contrary to what we now do, since in +place of utilizing these light tenor voices for Plain Song, we have +recourse to voices both heavy and low. + +In the last century when it was desired to restore Plain Song to its +primitive purity, one met with insurmountable obstacles due to its +prodigious prolixity of long series of notes, repeating indefinitely the +same musical forms; but in considering this in the light of explanations +given by St. Isidore, and in view of the Oriental origin of the +Christian religion, we are led to infer that these long series of notes +were chants or vocalizations analogous to the songs of the Muezzins of +the Orient. At the beginning of the sixteenth century musical laws began +to be elaborated without, however, in this evolution towards modern +tonal art, departing entirely from all influence of the antique methods. +The school named after Palestrina employed as yet only the triads or +perfect chords; this prevented absolutely all expression, although some +traces of it appear in the "Stabat Mater" of that composer. This music, +ecclesiastical in character, in which it would have been chimerical to +try to introduce modern expression, flourished in France, in Flanders, +in Spain at the same time as in Italy, and enjoyed the favor of Pope +Marcellus, who recognized the merit of Palestrina in breaking loose from +the grievous practice of adapting popular songs to church music. + +In the middle ages, as in antiquity, the laws of harmony were unknown; +when it was desired to sing in two parts, they sang at first in +intervals of fifths and fourths, where it would have seemed much more +natural to sing in thirds and sixths. Such first attempts at music in +several parts were made in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries, when they were hunting for laws, and such music was +discordant. It bore the name of Diaphony. The real Polyphony came in the +sixteenth century with the school of Palestrina. + +Later on, little by little, laws were established, not arbitrarily, but +laws resulting from a long experience, and during all the sixteenth +century admirable music was written, though deprived of melody, properly +speaking. Melody was reserved for dance music which, in fact, was +perfectly written in four and even in five part scores, as I have been +able to convince myself in hunting for dance music of the sixteenth +century for my opera "Ascanio." + +But no indication of movement, nuances or shading, enlightens us as to +the manner in which this music should be interpreted. At Paris the first +attempts to execute the music of Palestrina were made in the time of +Louis Philippe, by the Prince of Moscow. He had founded a choral society +of amateurs, all titled, but gifted with good voices and a certain +musical talent. This society executed many of the works of Palestrina +and particularly the famous "Mass of Pope Marcellus." They adopted at +that time the method of singing most of these pieces very softly and +with an extreme slowness so that in the long-sustained notes the singers +were forced to divide their task by some taking up the sound when the +others were out of breath. Consonant chords thus presented evidently +produced music which was very agreeable to the ear, but unquestionably +the author could not recognize his work in such rendering. Quite +different was the method of the singers in the Sistine Chapel when I +heard them for the first time in Rome in 1855 when they sung the "Sicut +Cervus" of Palestrina. They roared in a head-splitting way without the +least regard for the pleasure of the listener, or for the meaning of the +words they sang. It is difficult to believe that this music was ever +composed to be executed in such a barbarous manner, which, it seems to +me, differs completely from our musical conceptions; and it is a great +mistake also in modern editions of such music to introduce delicate +shadings or nuances and even employ the words "very expressive." + +Palestrina has had his admirers among French literary writers. We recall +the scene created by Octave Feuillet in "M. de Camors." M. de Camors is +at his window; a lady is at the piano; a gentleman at the cello, and +another lady sings the Mass of Palestrina which I have referred to +above. Such a way of playing this music is simply out of the question. +Feuillet had obtained his inspiration for this from a fanciful painting +which he had seen somewhere. + +Expression was introduced into music by the chord of the dominant +seventh, the invention of which is attributed to Monteverde. However, +Palestrina had already employed that chord in his "Adoremus," but +probably without understanding its importance or divining its future. + +Before this invention the interval of three whole tones (Triton) was +considered an intolerable dissonance and was called "the devil in +music." The dominant seventh has been the open door to all +dissonances and to the domain of expression. It was a death blow to that +learned music of the sixteenth century; it was the arrival of the reign +of melody--of the development of the art of singing. Very often the song +or the solo instrument would be accompanied by a simple, ciphered bass, +the ciphers indicating the chords which he who accompanied should play +as well as he could, either on the harpsichord or the theorbe. The +theorbe was an admirable instrument which is now to be found only in +museums,--a sort of enormous guitar with a long neck and multiple +strings which offered great opportunities to a skilful artist. + +It is curious to note that in ancient times there was not attributed to +the minor and major keys the same character as is assigned them +to-day.[2] The joyous canticle of the Catholic church, "O Filii et +Filiae," is in the minor. "The Romanesca," a dance air of the sixteenth +century, is equally in the minor, just like all the dance airs of Lully, +and of Rameau, and the gavottes of Sebastian Bach. The celebrated +"Funeral March" of Haendel, reproduced in many of his works, is in C +Major. The delicious love duo of Acis and Galathee, which changes to a +trio by the addition of the part of Polyphemus, is in A Minor. When +Galathee weeps afterward over the death of Acis, the air is in F Major. +It is only recently that we find dance airs in the major mood or key. + +From the seventeenth century on, music entered into everyday life, never +again to be separated from it. Thus music has remained in favor, and +we are continually hearing executed the works of Bach, of Haendel, of +Hayden, of Mozart and of Beethoven. How are such works executed? Are +they executed as they should be? That is another question. + +One source of error is found in the evolution which musical instruments +have undergone. In the time of Bach and Haendel the bow truly merited +its Italian name of "arco." It was curved like an arc--the hairs of the +bow constituted the chord of the arc, a very great flexibility resulting +which allowed the strings of the instrument to be enveloped and to be +played simultaneously. The bow seldom quitted the strings, doing so only +in rare cases and when especially indicated. On this account it happens +that the indication of "legato" is very rare. Even though there was a +separate stroke of the bow for each note, the notes were not separated +one from the other. Nowadays the form of the bow is completely changed. +The execution of the music is based upon the detached bow, and although +it is easy to keep the bow upon the strings just as they did at the +commencement of the nineteenth century, performers have lost the habit +of it. The result is that they give to ancient music a character of +perpetually jumping, which completely destroys its nature. + +The very opposite movement has been produced in instruments of the key +or piano type. The precise indications of Mozart show that "non-legato," +which doesn't mean at all "staccato," was the ordinary way of playing +the instrument, and that the veritable "legato" was played only where +the author specially indicated it. The clavecin or harpsichord, which +preceded the piano, when complete with two banks of keys, many registers +giving the octaves and different tone qualities, oftentimes like the +organ with a key for pedals, offered resources which the piano does not +possess. A Polish lady, Madame Landowska, has studied thoroughly these +resources, and has shown us how pieces written for this instrument thus +disclosed elements of variety which are totally missing when the same +are played upon the piano; but the clavecin tone lacked fulness, and +shadings or nuances were out of the question. + +Sonority or tone was varied by changing the keys or register just as on +the organ. On the other hand, with the piano one can vary the sonority +by augmenting or diminishing the force of the attack, hence its original +name of "forte piano,"--a name too long, which was shortened at first by +suppressing the last syllables; so that one reads, not without +astonishment, in the accounts given of young Mozart, of the skill he +showed in playing "forte" at a time when he was playing on instruments +of a very feeble tone. Nowadays when athletic artists exert all their +force upon the modern instruments of terrific sonority, they are said to +play the "piano" (_toucher du piano_). + +We must conclude that the indication "non-legato" finally degenerated +into meaning "staccato." In my youth I heard persons advanced in age +whose performance on the piano was extremely dry and jumpy. Then a +reaction took place. The tyrannical reign of the perpetual "legato" +succeeded. It was decided that in piano playing unless indicated to the +contrary, and even at times in spite of such indication, everything +everywhere should be tied together.[3] This was a great misfortune of +which Kalkbrenner gives a manifest proof in the arrangement he has made +of Beethoven's symphonies. Besides, this "legato" tyranny continues. +Notwithstanding the example of Liszt, the greatest pianist of the +nineteenth century, and notwithstanding his numerous pupils, the fatal +school of the "legato" has prevailed,--not that it is unfortunate in +itself, but because it has perverted the intentions of musical authors. +Our French professors have followed the example of Kalkbrenner. + +The house of Breitkopf, which until lately had the best editions of the +German classics, has substituted in their places new editions where +professors have eagerly striven to perfect in their own manner the music +of the masters. When this great house wished to make a complete edition +of the works of Mozart, which are prodigiously numerous, it appealed to +all who possessed manuscripts of Mozart, and then having gathered these +most precious documents, instead of reproducing them faithfully, that +house believed it was doing well to leave to the professors full liberty +of treatment and change. Thus that admirable series of concertos for +piano has been ornamented by Karl Reinecke with a series of joined +notes, tied notes, legato, molto legato, and sempre legato which are the +very opposite of what the composer intended. Worse still, in a piece +which Mozart had the genial idea of terminating suddenly with a +delicately shaded phrase, they have taken out such nuances and +terminated the piece with a _forte_ passage of the most commonplace +character. + +One other plague in modern editions is the abuse of the pedal. Mozart +never indicated the pedal. As purity of taste is one of his great +qualities, it is probable that he made no abuse of the pedal. Beethoven +indicated it in a complicated and cumbersome manner. When he wanted the +pedal he wrote "senza sordini," which means without dampers, and to take +them off he wrote "con sordini," meaning with dampers. The soft pedal is +indicated by "una corda." The indication to take it off, an indication +which exists even now, was written "tre corde." The indication "ped" for +the grand pedal is assuredly more convenient, but that is no reason for +making an abuse of it and inflicting it upon the author where his +writing indicates the contrary. + +As it seems to me, it is only from the eighteenth century that authors +have indicated the movements of their compositions, but the words which +they have employed have changed in sense with time. Formerly the +difference between the slowest movement and the most rapid movement was +much less than at present. The "largo" was only an "adagio" and the +"presto" would be scarcely an "allegro" to-day. + +The "andante" which now indicates a slow movement, had at that time its +original signification, meaning "going." It was an "allegro moderate." +Haendel often wrote "andante allegro." Through ignorance of that +fact the beautiful air of Gluck, "Divinities of the Styx," is sung too +slowly and the air of Thaos in the "Iphigenia in Tauris" equally so. +Berlioz recollected having heard at the opera in his youth a much more +animated execution of these works. + +Finally, in ancient times notes were not defined as they are to-day and +their value was approximative only. This liberty in the execution of +music is particularly perceptible in the works of Rameau. To conform to +his intentions in the vocal part such music must not be interpreted +literally. One must be governed by the declamation, and not by the +written note indicating a long or short duration. The proof of this is +to be seen when the violins and the voice are in unison--the way of +writing them is different. + +A great obstacle to executing ancient works from the eighteenth century +on is in the interpretation of grace notes, "appoggiaturas" and others. +In these cases there is an unfortunate habit in players of conforming to +their own taste, which may guide a little, but cannot suffice in every +instance. One can be convinced of this in studying The Method of Violin +by the father of Mozart. We find there things which one would never +dream of. + +The "appoggiatura"[4] (from _appoggiare_, which in Italian means "to +lean upon"), should always be long, the different ways in which it may +be written having no influence upon its length. There is an exception to +this when its final little note, ascending or descending, and preceding +the larger note, is distant from it a disjointed degree. In this case it +is not an "appoggiatura," and should be played short. In many cases +it prolongs the duration of the note which follows it. It may even alter +the value of the notes following. + +I will cite in connection with the subject of the "appoggiatura" the +beautiful duo with chorus of the "Passion According to St. Matthew," and +at the same time, I would point out the error committed in making of +this passion a most grandios performance with grand choral and +instrumental masses. One is deceived by its noble character, by its two +choruses, by its two orchestras, and one forgets that it was destined +for the little Church of St. Thomas in Leipsig, where Sebastian Bach was +organist. While in certain cantatas that composer employed horns, +trumpets, trombones and cymbals, for the "Passion According to St. +Matthew," he only used in each of the orchestras two flutes, two +hautbois, changing from the ordinary hautbois to the hautbois d'amour +and the hautbois of the chase,--now the English horn; that is to say, +hautbois pitched a third and a fifth lower. These two orchestras and +these two choruses then certainly were reduced to a very small number of +performers. + +In all very ancient music, from the time of Lully, one finds constantly +a little cross marked over the notes. Often this certainly indicates a +trill, but it seems difficult to take it always to mean such. However, +perhaps fashion desired that trills should thus be made out of place. I +have never been able to find an explanation of this sign, not even in +the musical dictionary of J. J. Rousseau. This dictionary none the +less contains a great deal of precious information. Does it not inform +us, among other things, that the copyists of former times were veritable +collaborators? When the author indicated the altos with the basses, the +hautbois with the violins, these copyists undertook to make the +necessary modifications. Times have unfortunately changed since. + +In Rameau's music, certain signs are unintelligible. Musical treatises +of that time say that it is impossible to describe them, and that to +understand them it was necessary to have heard them interpreted by a +professor of singing. + +With clavecinists the multiplicity of grace notes is extreme. As a rule +they give the explanation of these at the head of their works, just as +Rameau did. I note a curious sign which indicates that the right hand +should arrive upon the keys a little after the left. This shows that +there was not then that frightful habit of playing one hand after the +other as is often done nowadays. + +This prolixity of grace notes indulged by players upon the clavecin is +rather terrifying at first, but one need not be detained by them, for +they are not indispensable. The published methods of those times inform +us in fact that pupils were first taught to play the pieces without +these grace notes, and that they were added by degrees. Besides, Rameau +in transcribing for the clavecin fragments of his operas, has indicated +those grace notes which the original did not contain. + +Ornaments are much less numerous in the writings of Sebastian Bach. +Numberless confusions have been produced in the interpretation of the +mordant,[5] or biting note. It should be executed above or below the +principal note depending on whether the notes which precede the mordant +are superior or inferior to it. + +With reference to the difficulties in interpreting the works of Rameau +and of Gluck, I would point out the change in the diapason or pitch +which at that time was a tone lower than in our days. The organ of St. +Merry had a pitch in B flat. In addition to the tempi and the different +instruments which make the execution difficult, one must add the +recitatives which were very much employed and of which at that time a +serious study was made. I recall a beautiful example of recitative in +the "Iphigenia in Tauris." + +We come now to the modern epoch. From the time of Liszt, who not only +revolutionized the performance of music on the piano, but also the way +of writing it, authors give to performers all necessary indications, and +they have only to carefully observe them. There are, however, some +interesting remarks applicable to the music of Chopin which recent +editions unfortunately are commencing to falsify. Chopin detested the +abuse of the pedal. He could not bear that through an ignorant +employment of the pedal two different chords should be mixed in tone +together. Therefore, he has given indications with the greatest pains. +Employing it where he has not indicated it, must be avoided. But great +skill is necessary to thus do without the pedal. Therefore, in the +new editions of the author, no account of the author's indications +whatever is observed. Thus in the "Cradle Song," where the author has +indicated that the pedal be put on each measure and taken off in the +middle of it, modern editions preserve the pedal throughout the entire +measure, thus mixing up hopelessly the tonic with the dominant, which +the composer was so careful to avoid. + +A question of the greatest importance in playing the music of Chopin is +that of "tempo rubato." That does not mean, as many think, that the time +is to be dislocated. It means permitting great liberty to the singing +part or melody of the composition, while the accompaniment keeps +rigorous time. Mozart played in this way and he speaks of it in one of +his letters and he describes it marvelously, only the term "tempo +rubato" had not at that time been invented. This kind of playing, +demanding complete independence of the two hands, is not within the +ability of everybody. Therefore, to give the illusion of such effect, +players dislocate the bass and destroy the rhythm of the bar. When to +this disorder is joined the abuse of the pedal, there results that +vicious execution which, passing muster, is generally accepted in the +salons and often elsewhere. + +Another plague in the modern execution of music is the abuse of the +tremolo by both singers and instrumental performers. With singers, this +quivering is often the result of a fatigued voice, in which case it is +involuntary and is only to be deplored; but that is not the case with +violin and violoncello players. It is a fashion with them born of a +desire to make an effect at any cost, and is due to the depraved taste +of the public for a passionate execution of music; but art does not live +on passion alone. In our time, when art, through an admirable evolution, +has conquered all domains, music should express all, from the most +perfect calm to the most violent emotions. When one is strongly moved +the voice is altered, and in moving situations the singer should make +his voice vibrate. Formerly the German female singers sang with all +their voice, without any vibration in the sound and without any +reference to the situation; one would say they were clarinets. Now, one +must vibrate all the time. I heard the Meistersingers' quintette sung in +Paris. It was dreadful and the composition incomprehensible. Not all +singers, fortunately, have this defect, but it has taken possession of +violinists and 'cello players. That was not the way Franchomme, the +'cello player and collaborator of Chopin, played, nor was it the way +Sarasate, Sivori or Joachim played. + +I have written a concerto, the first and last movements of which are +very passionate. They are separated by a movement of the greatest +calm,--a lake between two mountains. Those great violin players who do +me the honor to play this piece, do not understand the contrast and they +vibrate on the lake just as they do on the mountains. Sarasate, for whom +this concerto was written, was as calm on the lake as he was agitated on +the mountains; nor did he fail on this account to produce always a great +effect--for there is nothing like giving to music its veritable +character. + +Anciently music was not written as scrupulously as it is to-day, and a +certain liberty was permitted to interpretation. This liberty went +farther than one would think, resembling much what the great Italian +singers furnished examples of in the days of Rubini and Malibran. They +did not hesitate to embroider the compositions, and the _reprises_ were +widespread. _Reprises_ meant that when the same piece was sung a second +time, the executants gave free bridle to their own inspiration. I have +heard in my youth the last echoes of this style of performance. Nowadays +_reprises_ are suppressed, and that is more prudent. However, it would +be betraying the intentions of Mozart to execute literally many passages +in concertos written by that author for the piano. At times he would +write a veritable scheme only, upon which he would improvise. However, +one should not imitate Kalkbrenner, who, in executing at Paris the great +concerto in C Major of Mozart, had rewritten all its passages in a +different manner from the author. On the other hand, when I played at +the Conservatoire in Paris Mozart's magnificent concerto in C Minor, I +would have thought I was committing a crime in executing literally the +piano part of the Adagio, which would have been absurd if thus presented +in the midst of an orchestra of great tonal wealth. There as elsewhere +the letter kills; the spirit vivifies. But in a case like that one must +know Mozart and assimilate his style, which demands a long study. + + + + +EXPLANATORY NOTES + +[1] Plain Song (Fr. _Plain Chant_) was the earliest form of Christian +church music. As its name indicates, it was a plain, artless chant +without rhythm, accent, modulation or accompaniment, and was first sung +in unison. Oriental or Grecian in origin, it had four keys called +Authentic Modes, to which were added later four more called Plagal +Modes. These modes, called Phrygian, Dorian, Lydian, etc., are merely +different presentations in the regular order of the notes of the C Major +scale--first, with D as the initial or tonic note, then with E _et seq_. +They lack the sentiment of a leading seventh note. In these weird keys +Plain Song was conceived for psalms, graduals, introits, and other +offices of the primitive church. Such music was generally called +Gregorian, because St. Gregory, Pope of Rome in the seventh century, +collected and codified it, adding thereto his own contributions. Two +centuries previous it was known as Ambrosian music, after St. Ambrose, +Bishop of Milan. + +Originally, a single chorister intoned the Plain Song, to which a full +chorus responded. Later this manner was altered to antiphonal +singing--two choruses being used, one for the initial and the other for +the responsive chant. Such music thus rendered was singularly grave, +dignified, and awe-inspiring. + +During the middle ages Plain Song unfortunately degenerated much from +its original sacred character, and, in one disguise or another, popular +and even indecorous songs were smuggled into it. In the time of Pope +Marcellus, 1576, Palestrina was employed to purge Gregorian music of its +scandalous laxities. + +M. Saint-Saens, to illustrate the clever way in which popular songs were +given an ecclesiastical or Plain Song character, has here added to his +luminous lecture the following precious original composition, reproduced +in facsimile, in which through ingenious contrapuntal treatment he gives +a mock sacred form to an old French ditty, "I Have Some Good Tobacco in +My Snuffbox." + +[Illustration: musical notation] + +"_It is apparent here that by assigning the melody to the tenor part, it +is unrecognizable. Oftentimes licentious songs were taken as the Plain +Chant text, and on this account Pope Marcellus commissioned Palestrina +to put an end to such practices._" + +In a note he adds: "It must be remembered that before popular songs were +thus treated in counterpoint [which means that while the song is being +produced by one voice, the other voice or voices are singing against it +notes entirely different from the melody], the text for that kind of +treatment was the Plain Song--the singing of which was always assigned +to the tenor part. In my youth I have heard graduals treated in this +fashion at High Mass in my parish church of St. Sulpice in Paris, which +is still renowned for the splendor of its ceremonials." + +[2] + +(Illustration: musical notation) + +There are here illustrations of (a) the difference between the written +manner of Gluck, in a passage from his "Alceste"--and the actually +correct way of interpreting and playing it; (b) a passage from the +scherzo of Mendelssohn's string quartet,--to show how a gay subject can +be treated in the minor mood--and M. Saint-Saens adds: "Mendelssohn's +scherzo of his 'Midsummer Night's Dream' is in sol minor but it evokes +no idea of sadness, although oftentimes those who play it, deceived by +its minor mood, give it a melancholy character, which is very far from +what the composer intended." + +[3] + +(Illustration: musical notation) + +Here M. Saint-Saens has written a passage from a piano concerto of +Mozart to illustrate how that composer wished the _non-legato_ to be +interpreted--namely, in a flute-like manner,--the piano repeating +textually the passages indicated to be played first by the flutes. + +Again he illustrates the same subject with a passage taken from a piano +and violin sonata of Beethoven. The _non-legato_ passages here are not +to be played on the violin in a way approaching the _staccato_, although +they are written as detached notes; and the piano part follows the +rendering of the violin. + +A final illustration is furnished in the "Turkish March" of Mozart. + +(Illustration: musical notation) + +The proper manner of writing the graceful _gruppetto_ is here +given--with an illustration following of how it is to be correctly +played, and how it is incorrectly executed. + +[5] Next is illustrated the two ways of playing the _mordant_. + +[4] Finally, are several examples of the _appoggiature,_--showing both +the way they are written, and the way they are to be executed. + +The last line of the music above is an example of how in Haendel the +rhythm as interpreted differs from that in which the passage is written. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Execution of Music, and +Principally of Ancient Music, by Camille Saint-Saens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE EXECUTION OF MUSIC *** + +***** This file should be named 30412.txt or 30412.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/4/1/30412/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d10073 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #30412 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30412) diff --git a/old/30412-8.txt b/old/30412-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a43495 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/30412-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,950 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Execution of Music, and Principally +of Ancient Music, by Camille Saint-Saëns + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Execution of Music, and Principally of Ancient Music + +Author: Camille Saint-Saëns + +Translator: Henry P. Bowie + +Release Date: November 7, 2009 [EBook #30412] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE EXECUTION OF MUSIC *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: M. Camille Saint-Saëns] + + + + +ON THE EXECUTION OF + +MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY + +OF ANCIENT MUSIC + +BY + +M. CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS + + + _Delivered at the_ + + "_Salon de la Pensée Française_" + +_Panama-Pacific International Exposition_ + + _San Francisco, June First_ + + _Nineteen Hundred_ + + _& Fifteen_ + + +DONE INTO ENGLISH + +WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES BY + +HENRY P. BOWIE + +SAN FRANCISCO: + +THE BLAIR-MURDOCK COMPANY + +1915 + +_Copyright, 1915_ + +_by M. Camille Saint-Saëns_ + + + + +ON THE EXECUTION OF + +MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY + +OF ANCIENT MUSIC + +MUSIC was written in a scrawl impossible to decipher up to the +thirteenth century, when Plain Song[1] (_Plain Chant_) made its +appearance in square and diamond-shaped notes. The graduals and introits +had not yet been reduced to bars, but the songs of the troubadours +appear to have been in bars of three beats with the accent on the feeble +note of each bar. However, the theory that this bar of three beats or +triple time was used exclusively is probably erroneous. St. Isidore, in +his treatise on music, speaking of how Plain Song should be interpreted, +considers in turn all the voices and recommends those which are high, +sweet and clear, for the execution of vocal sounds, introits, graduals, +offertories, etc. This is exactly contrary to what we now do, since in +place of utilizing these light tenor voices for Plain Song, we have +recourse to voices both heavy and low. + +In the last century when it was desired to restore Plain Song to its +primitive purity, one met with insurmountable obstacles due to its +prodigious prolixity of long series of notes, repeating indefinitely the +same musical forms; but in considering this in the light of explanations +given by St. Isidore, and in view of the Oriental origin of the +Christian religion, we are led to infer that these long series of notes +were chants or vocalizations analogous to the songs of the Muezzins of +the Orient. At the beginning of the sixteenth century musical laws began +to be elaborated without, however, in this evolution towards modern +tonal art, departing entirely from all influence of the antique methods. +The school named after Palestrina employed as yet only the triads or +perfect chords; this prevented absolutely all expression, although some +traces of it appear in the "Stabat Mater" of that composer. This music, +ecclesiastical in character, in which it would have been chimerical to +try to introduce modern expression, flourished in France, in Flanders, +in Spain at the same time as in Italy, and enjoyed the favor of Pope +Marcellus, who recognized the merit of Palestrina in breaking loose from +the grievous practice of adapting popular songs to church music. + +In the middle ages, as in antiquity, the laws of harmony were unknown; +when it was desired to sing in two parts, they sang at first in +intervals of fifths and fourths, where it would have seemed much more +natural to sing in thirds and sixths. Such first attempts at music in +several parts were made in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries, when they were hunting for laws, and such music was +discordant. It bore the name of Diaphony. The real Polyphony came in the +sixteenth century with the school of Palestrina. + +Later on, little by little, laws were established, not arbitrarily, but +laws resulting from a long experience, and during all the sixteenth +century admirable music was written, though deprived of melody, properly +speaking. Melody was reserved for dance music which, in fact, was +perfectly written in four and even in five part scores, as I have been +able to convince myself in hunting for dance music of the sixteenth +century for my opera "Ascanio." + +But no indication of movement, nuances or shading, enlightens us as to +the manner in which this music should be interpreted. At Paris the first +attempts to execute the music of Palestrina were made in the time of +Louis Philippe, by the Prince of Moscow. He had founded a choral society +of amateurs, all titled, but gifted with good voices and a certain +musical talent. This society executed many of the works of Palestrina +and particularly the famous "Mass of Pope Marcellus." They adopted at +that time the method of singing most of these pieces very softly and +with an extreme slowness so that in the long-sustained notes the singers +were forced to divide their task by some taking up the sound when the +others were out of breath. Consonant chords thus presented evidently +produced music which was very agreeable to the ear, but unquestionably +the author could not recognize his work in such rendering. Quite +different was the method of the singers in the Sistine Chapel when I +heard them for the first time in Rome in 1855 when they sung the "Sicut +Cervus" of Palestrina. They roared in a head-splitting way without the +least regard for the pleasure of the listener, or for the meaning of the +words they sang. It is difficult to believe that this music was ever +composed to be executed in such a barbarous manner, which, it seems to +me, differs completely from our musical conceptions; and it is a great +mistake also in modern editions of such music to introduce delicate +shadings or nuances and even employ the words "very expressive." + +Palestrina has had his admirers among French literary writers. We recall +the scene created by Octave Feuillet in "M. de Camors." M. de Camors is +at his window; a lady is at the piano; a gentleman at the cello, and +another lady sings the Mass of Palestrina which I have referred to +above. Such a way of playing this music is simply out of the question. +Feuillet had obtained his inspiration for this from a fanciful painting +which he had seen somewhere. + +Expression was introduced into music by the chord of the dominant +seventh, the invention of which is attributed to Monteverde. However, +Palestrina had already employed that chord in his "Adoremus," but +probably without understanding its importance or divining its future. + +Before this invention the interval of three whole tones (Triton) was +considered an intolerable dissonance and was called "the devil in +music." The dominant seventh has been the open door to all +dissonances and to the domain of expression. It was a death blow to that +learned music of the sixteenth century; it was the arrival of the reign +of melody--of the development of the art of singing. Very often the song +or the solo instrument would be accompanied by a simple, ciphered bass, +the ciphers indicating the chords which he who accompanied should play +as well as he could, either on the harpsichord or the theorbe. The +theorbe was an admirable instrument which is now to be found only in +museums,--a sort of enormous guitar with a long neck and multiple +strings which offered great opportunities to a skilful artist. + +It is curious to note that in ancient times there was not attributed to +the minor and major keys the same character as is assigned them +to-day.[2] The joyous canticle of the Catholic church, "O Filii et +Filiæ," is in the minor. "The Romanesca," a dance air of the sixteenth +century, is equally in the minor, just like all the dance airs of Lully, +and of Rameau, and the gavottes of Sebastian Bach. The celebrated +"Funeral March" of Haendel, reproduced in many of his works, is in C +Major. The delicious love duo of Acis and Galathee, which changes to a +trio by the addition of the part of Polyphemus, is in A Minor. When +Galathee weeps afterward over the death of Acis, the air is in F Major. +It is only recently that we find dance airs in the major mood or key. + +From the seventeenth century on, music entered into everyday life, never +again to be separated from it. Thus music has remained in favor, and +we are continually hearing executed the works of Bach, of Haendel, of +Hayden, of Mozart and of Beethoven. How are such works executed? Are +they executed as they should be? That is another question. + +One source of error is found in the evolution which musical instruments +have undergone. In the time of Bach and Haendel the bow truly merited +its Italian name of "arco." It was curved like an arc--the hairs of the +bow constituted the chord of the arc, a very great flexibility resulting +which allowed the strings of the instrument to be enveloped and to be +played simultaneously. The bow seldom quitted the strings, doing so only +in rare cases and when especially indicated. On this account it happens +that the indication of "legato" is very rare. Even though there was a +separate stroke of the bow for each note, the notes were not separated +one from the other. Nowadays the form of the bow is completely changed. +The execution of the music is based upon the detached bow, and although +it is easy to keep the bow upon the strings just as they did at the +commencement of the nineteenth century, performers have lost the habit +of it. The result is that they give to ancient music a character of +perpetually jumping, which completely destroys its nature. + +The very opposite movement has been produced in instruments of the key +or piano type. The precise indications of Mozart show that "non-legato," +which doesn't mean at all "staccato," was the ordinary way of playing +the instrument, and that the veritable "legato" was played only where +the author specially indicated it. The clavecin or harpsichord, which +preceded the piano, when complete with two banks of keys, many registers +giving the octaves and different tone qualities, oftentimes like the +organ with a key for pedals, offered resources which the piano does not +possess. A Polish lady, Madame Landowska, has studied thoroughly these +resources, and has shown us how pieces written for this instrument thus +disclosed elements of variety which are totally missing when the same +are played upon the piano; but the clavecin tone lacked fulness, and +shadings or nuances were out of the question. + +Sonority or tone was varied by changing the keys or register just as on +the organ. On the other hand, with the piano one can vary the sonority +by augmenting or diminishing the force of the attack, hence its original +name of "forte piano,"--a name too long, which was shortened at first by +suppressing the last syllables; so that one reads, not without +astonishment, in the accounts given of young Mozart, of the skill he +showed in playing "forte" at a time when he was playing on instruments +of a very feeble tone. Nowadays when athletic artists exert all their +force upon the modern instruments of terrific sonority, they are said to +play the "piano" (_toucher du piano_). + +We must conclude that the indication "non-legato" finally degenerated +into meaning "staccato." In my youth I heard persons advanced in age +whose performance on the piano was extremely dry and jumpy. Then a +reaction took place. The tyrannical reign of the perpetual "legato" +succeeded. It was decided that in piano playing unless indicated to the +contrary, and even at times in spite of such indication, everything +everywhere should be tied together.[3] This was a great misfortune of +which Kalkbrenner gives a manifest proof in the arrangement he has made +of Beethoven's symphonies. Besides, this "legato" tyranny continues. +Notwithstanding the example of Liszt, the greatest pianist of the +nineteenth century, and notwithstanding his numerous pupils, the fatal +school of the "legato" has prevailed,--not that it is unfortunate in +itself, but because it has perverted the intentions of musical authors. +Our French professors have followed the example of Kalkbrenner. + +The house of Breitkopf, which until lately had the best editions of the +German classics, has substituted in their places new editions where +professors have eagerly striven to perfect in their own manner the music +of the masters. When this great house wished to make a complete edition +of the works of Mozart, which are prodigiously numerous, it appealed to +all who possessed manuscripts of Mozart, and then having gathered these +most precious documents, instead of reproducing them faithfully, that +house believed it was doing well to leave to the professors full liberty +of treatment and change. Thus that admirable series of concertos for +piano has been ornamented by Karl Reinecke with a series of joined +notes, tied notes, legato, molto legato, and sempre legato which are the +very opposite of what the composer intended. Worse still, in a piece +which Mozart had the genial idea of terminating suddenly with a +delicately shaded phrase, they have taken out such nuances and +terminated the piece with a _forte_ passage of the most commonplace +character. + +One other plague in modern editions is the abuse of the pedal. Mozart +never indicated the pedal. As purity of taste is one of his great +qualities, it is probable that he made no abuse of the pedal. Beethoven +indicated it in a complicated and cumbersome manner. When he wanted the +pedal he wrote "senza sordini," which means without dampers, and to take +them off he wrote "con sordini," meaning with dampers. The soft pedal is +indicated by "una corda." The indication to take it off, an indication +which exists even now, was written "tre corde." The indication "ped" for +the grand pedal is assuredly more convenient, but that is no reason for +making an abuse of it and inflicting it upon the author where his +writing indicates the contrary. + +As it seems to me, it is only from the eighteenth century that authors +have indicated the movements of their compositions, but the words which +they have employed have changed in sense with time. Formerly the +difference between the slowest movement and the most rapid movement was +much less than at present. The "largo" was only an "adagio" and the +"presto" would be scarcely an "allegro" to-day. + +The "andante" which now indicates a slow movement, had at that time its +original signification, meaning "going." It was an "allegro moderate." +Haendel often wrote "andante allegro." Through ignorance of that +fact the beautiful air of Gluck, "Divinities of the Styx," is sung too +slowly and the air of Thaos in the "Iphigenia in Tauris" equally so. +Berlioz recollected having heard at the opera in his youth a much more +animated execution of these works. + +Finally, in ancient times notes were not defined as they are to-day and +their value was approximative only. This liberty in the execution of +music is particularly perceptible in the works of Rameau. To conform to +his intentions in the vocal part such music must not be interpreted +literally. One must be governed by the declamation, and not by the +written note indicating a long or short duration. The proof of this is +to be seen when the violins and the voice are in unison--the way of +writing them is different. + +A great obstacle to executing ancient works from the eighteenth century +on is in the interpretation of grace notes, "appoggiaturas" and others. +In these cases there is an unfortunate habit in players of conforming to +their own taste, which may guide a little, but cannot suffice in every +instance. One can be convinced of this in studying The Method of Violin +by the father of Mozart. We find there things which one would never +dream of. + +The "appoggiatura"[4] (from _appoggiare_, which in Italian means "to +lean upon"), should always be long, the different ways in which it may +be written having no influence upon its length. There is an exception to +this when its final little note, ascending or descending, and preceding +the larger note, is distant from it a disjointed degree. In this case it +is not an "appoggiatura," and should be played short. In many cases +it prolongs the duration of the note which follows it. It may even alter +the value of the notes following. + +I will cite in connection with the subject of the "appoggiatura" the +beautiful duo with chorus of the "Passion According to St. Matthew," and +at the same time, I would point out the error committed in making of +this passion a most grandios performance with grand choral and +instrumental masses. One is deceived by its noble character, by its two +choruses, by its two orchestras, and one forgets that it was destined +for the little Church of St. Thomas in Leipsig, where Sebastian Bach was +organist. While in certain cantatas that composer employed horns, +trumpets, trombones and cymbals, for the "Passion According to St. +Matthew," he only used in each of the orchestras two flutes, two +hautbois, changing from the ordinary hautbois to the hautbois d'amour +and the hautbois of the chase,--now the English horn; that is to say, +hautbois pitched a third and a fifth lower. These two orchestras and +these two choruses then certainly were reduced to a very small number of +performers. + +In all very ancient music, from the time of Lully, one finds constantly +a little cross marked over the notes. Often this certainly indicates a +trill, but it seems difficult to take it always to mean such. However, +perhaps fashion desired that trills should thus be made out of place. I +have never been able to find an explanation of this sign, not even in +the musical dictionary of J. J. Rousseau. This dictionary none the +less contains a great deal of precious information. Does it not inform +us, among other things, that the copyists of former times were veritable +collaborators? When the author indicated the altos with the basses, the +hautbois with the violins, these copyists undertook to make the +necessary modifications. Times have unfortunately changed since. + +In Rameau's music, certain signs are unintelligible. Musical treatises +of that time say that it is impossible to describe them, and that to +understand them it was necessary to have heard them interpreted by a +professor of singing. + +With clavecinists the multiplicity of grace notes is extreme. As a rule +they give the explanation of these at the head of their works, just as +Rameau did. I note a curious sign which indicates that the right hand +should arrive upon the keys a little after the left. This shows that +there was not then that frightful habit of playing one hand after the +other as is often done nowadays. + +This prolixity of grace notes indulged by players upon the clavecin is +rather terrifying at first, but one need not be detained by them, for +they are not indispensable. The published methods of those times inform +us in fact that pupils were first taught to play the pieces without +these grace notes, and that they were added by degrees. Besides, Rameau +in transcribing for the clavecin fragments of his operas, has indicated +those grace notes which the original did not contain. + +Ornaments are much less numerous in the writings of Sebastian Bach. +Numberless confusions have been produced in the interpretation of the +mordant,[5] or biting note. It should be executed above or below the +principal note depending on whether the notes which precede the mordant +are superior or inferior to it. + +With reference to the difficulties in interpreting the works of Rameau +and of Gluck, I would point out the change in the diapason or pitch +which at that time was a tone lower than in our days. The organ of St. +Merry had a pitch in B flat. In addition to the tempi and the different +instruments which make the execution difficult, one must add the +recitatives which were very much employed and of which at that time a +serious study was made. I recall a beautiful example of recitative in +the "Iphigenia in Tauris." + +We come now to the modern epoch. From the time of Liszt, who not only +revolutionized the performance of music on the piano, but also the way +of writing it, authors give to performers all necessary indications, and +they have only to carefully observe them. There are, however, some +interesting remarks applicable to the music of Chopin which recent +editions unfortunately are commencing to falsify. Chopin detested the +abuse of the pedal. He could not bear that through an ignorant +employment of the pedal two different chords should be mixed in tone +together. Therefore, he has given indications with the greatest pains. +Employing it where he has not indicated it, must be avoided. But great +skill is necessary to thus do without the pedal. Therefore, in the +new editions of the author, no account of the author's indications +whatever is observed. Thus in the "Cradle Song," where the author has +indicated that the pedal be put on each measure and taken off in the +middle of it, modern editions preserve the pedal throughout the entire +measure, thus mixing up hopelessly the tonic with the dominant, which +the composer was so careful to avoid. + +A question of the greatest importance in playing the music of Chopin is +that of "tempo rubato." That does not mean, as many think, that the time +is to be dislocated. It means permitting great liberty to the singing +part or melody of the composition, while the accompaniment keeps +rigorous time. Mozart played in this way and he speaks of it in one of +his letters and he describes it marvelously, only the term "tempo +rubato" had not at that time been invented. This kind of playing, +demanding complete independence of the two hands, is not within the +ability of everybody. Therefore, to give the illusion of such effect, +players dislocate the bass and destroy the rhythm of the bar. When to +this disorder is joined the abuse of the pedal, there results that +vicious execution which, passing muster, is generally accepted in the +salons and often elsewhere. + +Another plague in the modern execution of music is the abuse of the +tremolo by both singers and instrumental performers. With singers, this +quivering is often the result of a fatigued voice, in which case it is +involuntary and is only to be deplored; but that is not the case with +violin and violoncello players. It is a fashion with them born of a +desire to make an effect at any cost, and is due to the depraved taste +of the public for a passionate execution of music; but art does not live +on passion alone. In our time, when art, through an admirable evolution, +has conquered all domains, music should express all, from the most +perfect calm to the most violent emotions. When one is strongly moved +the voice is altered, and in moving situations the singer should make +his voice vibrate. Formerly the German female singers sang with all +their voice, without any vibration in the sound and without any +reference to the situation; one would say they were clarinets. Now, one +must vibrate all the time. I heard the Meistersingers' quintette sung in +Paris. It was dreadful and the composition incomprehensible. Not all +singers, fortunately, have this defect, but it has taken possession of +violinists and 'cello players. That was not the way Franchomme, the +'cello player and collaborator of Chopin, played, nor was it the way +Sarasate, Sivori or Joachim played. + +I have written a concerto, the first and last movements of which are +very passionate. They are separated by a movement of the greatest +calm,--a lake between two mountains. Those great violin players who do +me the honor to play this piece, do not understand the contrast and they +vibrate on the lake just as they do on the mountains. Sarasate, for whom +this concerto was written, was as calm on the lake as he was agitated on +the mountains; nor did he fail on this account to produce always a great +effect--for there is nothing like giving to music its veritable +character. + +Anciently music was not written as scrupulously as it is to-day, and a +certain liberty was permitted to interpretation. This liberty went +farther than one would think, resembling much what the great Italian +singers furnished examples of in the days of Rubini and Malibran. They +did not hesitate to embroider the compositions, and the _reprises_ were +widespread. _Reprises_ meant that when the same piece was sung a second +time, the executants gave free bridle to their own inspiration. I have +heard in my youth the last echoes of this style of performance. Nowadays +_reprises_ are suppressed, and that is more prudent. However, it would +be betraying the intentions of Mozart to execute literally many passages +in concertos written by that author for the piano. At times he would +write a veritable scheme only, upon which he would improvise. However, +one should not imitate Kalkbrenner, who, in executing at Paris the great +concerto in C Major of Mozart, had rewritten all its passages in a +different manner from the author. On the other hand, when I played at +the Conservatoire in Paris Mozart's magnificent concerto in C Minor, I +would have thought I was committing a crime in executing literally the +piano part of the Adagio, which would have been absurd if thus presented +in the midst of an orchestra of great tonal wealth. There as elsewhere +the letter kills; the spirit vivifies. But in a case like that one must +know Mozart and assimilate his style, which demands a long study. + + + + +EXPLANATORY NOTES + +[1] Plain Song (Fr. _Plain Chant_) was the earliest form of Christian +church music. As its name indicates, it was a plain, artless chant +without rhythm, accent, modulation or accompaniment, and was first sung +in unison. Oriental or Grecian in origin, it had four keys called +Authentic Modes, to which were added later four more called Plagal +Modes. These modes, called Phrygian, Dorian, Lydian, etc., are merely +different presentations in the regular order of the notes of the C Major +scale--first, with D as the initial or tonic note, then with E _et seq_. +They lack the sentiment of a leading seventh note. In these weird keys +Plain Song was conceived for psalms, graduals, introits, and other +offices of the primitive church. Such music was generally called +Gregorian, because St. Gregory, Pope of Rome in the seventh century, +collected and codified it, adding thereto his own contributions. Two +centuries previous it was known as Ambrosian music, after St. Ambrose, +Bishop of Milan. + +Originally, a single chorister intoned the Plain Song, to which a full +chorus responded. Later this manner was altered to antiphonal +singing--two choruses being used, one for the initial and the other for +the responsive chant. Such music thus rendered was singularly grave, +dignified, and awe-inspiring. + +During the middle ages Plain Song unfortunately degenerated much from +its original sacred character, and, in one disguise or another, popular +and even indecorous songs were smuggled into it. In the time of Pope +Marcellus, 1576, Palestrina was employed to purge Gregorian music of its +scandalous laxities. + +M. Saint-Saëns, to illustrate the clever way in which popular songs were +given an ecclesiastical or Plain Song character, has here added to his +luminous lecture the following precious original composition, reproduced +in facsimile, in which through ingenious contrapuntal treatment he gives +a mock sacred form to an old French ditty, "I Have Some Good Tobacco in +My Snuffbox." + +[Illustration: musical notation] + +"_It is apparent here that by assigning the melody to the tenor part, it +is unrecognizable. Oftentimes licentious songs were taken as the Plain +Chant text, and on this account Pope Marcellus commissioned Palestrina +to put an end to such practices._" + +In a note he adds: "It must be remembered that before popular songs were +thus treated in counterpoint [which means that while the song is being +produced by one voice, the other voice or voices are singing against it +notes entirely different from the melody], the text for that kind of +treatment was the Plain Song--the singing of which was always assigned +to the tenor part. In my youth I have heard graduals treated in this +fashion at High Mass in my parish church of St. Sulpice in Paris, which +is still renowned for the splendor of its ceremonials." + +[2] + +(Illustration: musical notation) + +There are here illustrations of (a) the difference between the written +manner of Gluck, in a passage from his "Alceste"--and the actually +correct way of interpreting and playing it; (b) a passage from the +scherzo of Mendelssohn's string quartet,--to show how a gay subject can +be treated in the minor mood--and M. Saint-Saëns adds: "Mendelssohn's +scherzo of his 'Midsummer Night's Dream' is in sol minor but it evokes +no idea of sadness, although oftentimes those who play it, deceived by +its minor mood, give it a melancholy character, which is very far from +what the composer intended." + +[3] + +(Illustration: musical notation) + +Here M. Saint-Saëns has written a passage from a piano concerto of +Mozart to illustrate how that composer wished the _non-legato_ to be +interpreted--namely, in a flute-like manner,--the piano repeating +textually the passages indicated to be played first by the flutes. + +Again he illustrates the same subject with a passage taken from a piano +and violin sonata of Beethoven. The _non-legato_ passages here are not +to be played on the violin in a way approaching the _staccato_, although +they are written as detached notes; and the piano part follows the +rendering of the violin. + +A final illustration is furnished in the "Turkish March" of Mozart. + +(Illustration: musical notation) + +The proper manner of writing the graceful _gruppetto_ is here +given--with an illustration following of how it is to be correctly +played, and how it is incorrectly executed. + +[5] Next is illustrated the two ways of playing the _mordant_. + +[4] Finally, are several examples of the _appoggiature,_--showing both +the way they are written, and the way they are to be executed. + +The last line of the music above is an example of how in Haendel the +rhythm as interpreted differs from that in which the passage is written. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Execution of Music, and +Principally of Ancient Music, by Camille Saint-Saëns + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE EXECUTION OF MUSIC *** + +***** This file should be named 30412-8.txt or 30412-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/4/1/30412/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Execution of Music, and Principally of Ancient Music + +Author: Camille Saint-Saëns + +Translator: Henry P. Bowie + +Release Date: November 7, 2009 [EBook #30412] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE EXECUTION OF MUSIC *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif + + + + + +</pre> + +<hr /> + +<div class="cimg"> +<a href="images/ill_001.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_001.jpg" +alt="M. Camille Saint-Saëns" +style="max-width:50%;" /></a></div> + +<div class="box"> +<div class="boxd"> +<div class="boxx"> +<h1>ON THE EXECUTION OF<br /> +MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY<br /> +OF ANCIENT MUSIC</h1> +<p class="c"><img src="images/ill_002.jpg" +alt="logo" +width="200" +height="60" +/></p> + +<p class="cb">BY</p> + +<h2>M. CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS</h2> +</div></div></div> + + +<p class="cb top15"><i>Delivered at the</i><br /> +"<i>Salon de la Pensée Française</i>"<br /> +<i>Panama-Pacific International Exposition</i><br /> +<i>San Francisco, June First</i><br /> +<i>Nineteen Hundred</i><br /> +<i>& Fifteen</i></p> + + +<p class="cb top15">DONE INTO ENGLISH<br /> +WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES BY<br /> +HENRY P. BOWIE</p> + +<p class="cb top15">SAN FRANCISCO:<br /> +THE BLAIR-MURDOCK COMPANY<br /> +1915</p> + +<p class="cb top15"><i>Copyright, 1915</i><br /> +<i>by M. Camille Saint-Saëns</i></p> + +<div class="cimg"> +<img src="images/ill_003a.jpg" +alt="decorative bar" +width="650" +height="189" /> +</div> + +<h2>ON THE EXECUTION OF<br /> +MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY<br /> +OF ANCIENT MUSIC</h2> + +<p class="nind"><img src="images/ill_003b.jpg" +alt="M" +width="100" +height="104" +style="float:left;padding-right:0.5%;" />USIC was written in a scrawl impossible to decipher up to the +thirteenth century, when Plain Song +<a name="anchor_1" id="anchor_1"></a><a href="#footnote_1" class="note">[1]</a> (<i>Plain Chant</i>) made its +appearance in square and diamond-shaped notes. The graduals and introits +had not yet been reduced to bars, but the songs of the troubadours +appear to have been in bars of three beats with the accent on the feeble +note of each bar. However, the theory that this bar of three beats or +triple time was used exclusively is probably erroneous. St. Isidore, in +his treatise on music, speaking of how Plain Song should be interpreted, +considers in turn all the voices and recommends those which are high, +sweet and clear, for the execution of vocal sounds, introits, graduals, +offertories, etc. This is exactly contrary to what we now do, since in +place of utilizing these light tenor voices for Plain Song, we have +recourse to voices both heavy and low.</p> + +<p>In the last century when it was desired to restore Plain Song to its +primitive purity, one met with insurmountable obstacles due to its +prodigious prolixity of long series of notes, repeating indefinitely the +same musical forms; but in considering this in the light of explanations +given by St. Isidore, and in view of the Oriental origin of the +Christian religion, we are led to infer that these long series of notes +were chants or vocalizations analogous to the songs of the Muezzins of +the Orient. At the beginning of the sixteenth century musical laws began +to be elaborated without, however, in this evolution towards modern +tonal art, departing entirely from all influence of the antique methods. +The school named after Palestrina employed as yet only the triads or +perfect chords; this prevented absolutely all expression, although some +traces of it appear in the "Stabat Mater" of that composer. This music, +ecclesiastical in character, in which it would have been chimerical to +try to introduce modern expression, flourished in France, in Flanders, +in Spain at the same time as in Italy, and enjoyed the favor of Pope +Marcellus, who recognized the merit of Palestrina in breaking loose from +the grievous practice of adapting popular songs to church music.</p> + +<p>In the middle ages, as in antiquity, the laws of harmony were unknown; +when it was desired to sing in two parts, they sang at first in +intervals of fifths and fourths, where it would have seemed much more +natural to sing in thirds and sixths. Such first attempts at music in +several parts were made in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries, when they were hunting for laws, and such music was +discordant. It bore the name of Diaphony. The real Polyphony came in the +sixteenth century with the school of Palestrina.</p> + +<p>Later on, little by little, laws were established, not arbitrarily, but +laws resulting from a long experience, and during all the sixteenth +century admirable music was written, though deprived of melody, properly +speaking. Melody was reserved for dance music which, in fact, was +perfectly written in four and even in five part scores, as I have been +able to convince myself in hunting for dance music of the sixteenth +century for my opera "Ascanio."</p> + +<p>But no indication of movement, nuances or shading, enlightens us as to +the manner in which this music should be interpreted. At Paris the first +attempts to execute the music of Palestrina were made in the time of +Louis Philippe, by the Prince of Moscow. He had founded a choral society +of amateurs, all titled, but gifted with good voices and a certain +musical talent. This society executed many of the works of Palestrina +and particularly the famous "Mass of Pope Marcellus." They adopted at +that time the method of singing most of these pieces very softly and +with an extreme slowness so that in the long-sustained notes the singers +were forced to divide their task by some taking up the sound when the +others were out of breath. Consonant chords thus presented evidently +produced music which was very agreeable to the ear, but unquestionably +the author could not recognize his work in such rendering. Quite +different was the method of the singers in the Sistine Chapel when I +heard them for the first time in Rome in 1855 when they sung the "Sicut +Cervus" of Palestrina. They roared in a head-splitting way without the +least regard for the pleasure of the listener, or for the meaning of the +words they sang. It is difficult to believe that this music was ever +composed to be executed in such a barbarous manner, which, it seems to +me, differs completely from our musical conceptions; and it is a great +mistake also in modern editions of such music to introduce delicate +shadings or nuances and even employ the words "very expressive."</p> + +<p>Palestrina has had his admirers among French literary writers. We recall +the scene created by Octave Feuillet in "M. de Camors." M. de Camors is +at his window; a lady is at the piano; a gentleman at the cello, and +another lady sings the Mass of Palestrina which I have referred to +above. Such a way of playing this music is simply out of the question. +Feuillet had obtained his inspiration for this from a fanciful painting +which he had seen somewhere.</p> + +<p>Expression was introduced into music by the chord of the dominant +seventh, the invention of which is attributed to Monteverde. However, +Palestrina had already employed that chord in his "Adoremus," but +probably without understanding its importance or divining its future.</p> + +<p>Before this invention the interval of three whole tones (Triton) was +considered an intolerable dissonance and was called "the devil in +music." The dominant seventh has been the open door to all +dissonances and to the domain of expression. It was a death blow to that +learned music of the sixteenth century; it was the arrival of the reign +of melody—of the development of the art of singing. Very often the song +or the solo instrument would be accompanied by a simple, ciphered bass, +the ciphers indicating the chords which he who accompanied should play +as well as he could, either on the harpsichord or the theorbe. The +theorbe was an admirable instrument which is now to be found only in +museums,—a sort of enormous guitar with a long neck and multiple +strings which offered great opportunities to a skilful artist.</p> + +<p>It is curious to note that in ancient times there was not attributed to +the minor and major keys the same character as is assigned them +to-day.<a name="anchor_2" id="anchor_2"></a><a href="#footnote_2" class="note">[2]</a> The joyous canticle of the Catholic church, "O Filii et +Filiæ," is in the minor. "The Romanesca," a dance air of the sixteenth +century, is equally in the minor, just like all the dance airs of Lully, +and of Rameau, and the gavottes of Sebastian Bach. The celebrated +"Funeral March" of Haendel, reproduced in many of his works, is in C +Major. The delicious love duo of Acis and Galathee, which changes to a +trio by the addition of the part of Polyphemus, is in A Minor. When +Galathee weeps afterward over the death of Acis, the air is in F Major. +It is only recently that we find dance airs in the major mood or key.</p> + +<p>From the seventeenth century on, music entered into everyday life, never +again to be separated from it. Thus music has remained in favor, and +we are continually hearing executed the works of Bach, of Haendel, of +Hayden, of Mozart and of Beethoven. How are such works executed? Are +they executed as they should be? That is another question.</p> + +<p>One source of error is found in the evolution which musical instruments +have undergone. In the time of Bach and Haendel the bow truly merited +its Italian name of "arco." It was curved like an arc—the hairs of the +bow constituted the chord of the arc, a very great flexibility resulting +which allowed the strings of the instrument to be enveloped and to be +played simultaneously. The bow seldom quitted the strings, doing so only +in rare cases and when especially indicated. On this account it happens +that the indication of "legato" is very rare. Even though there was a +separate stroke of the bow for each note, the notes were not separated +one from the other. Nowadays the form of the bow is completely changed. +The execution of the music is based upon the detached bow, and although +it is easy to keep the bow upon the strings just as they did at the +commencement of the nineteenth century, performers have lost the habit +of it. The result is that they give to ancient music a character of +perpetually jumping, which completely destroys its nature.</p> + +<p>The very opposite movement has been produced in instruments of the key +or piano type. The precise indications of Mozart show that "non-legato," +which doesn't mean at all "staccato," was the ordinary way of playing +the instrument, and that the veritable "legato" was played only where +the author specially indicated it. The clavecin or harpsichord, which +preceded the piano, when complete with two banks of keys, many registers +giving the octaves and different tone qualities, oftentimes like the +organ with a key for pedals, offered resources which the piano does not +possess. A Polish lady, Madame Landowska, has studied thoroughly these +resources, and has shown us how pieces written for this instrument thus +disclosed elements of variety which are totally missing when the same +are played upon the piano; but the clavecin tone lacked fulness, and +shadings or nuances were out of the question.</p> + +<p>Sonority or tone was varied by changing the keys or register just as on +the organ. On the other hand, with the piano one can vary the sonority +by augmenting or diminishing the force of the attack, hence its original +name of "forte piano,"—a name too long, which was shortened at first by +suppressing the last syllables; so that one reads, not without +astonishment, in the accounts given of young Mozart, of the skill he +showed in playing "forte" at a time when he was playing on instruments +of a very feeble tone. Nowadays when athletic artists exert all their +force upon the modern instruments of terrific sonority, they are said to +play the "piano" (<i>toucher du piano</i>).</p> + +<p>We must conclude that the indication "non-legato" finally degenerated +into meaning "staccato." In my youth I heard persons advanced in age +whose performance on the piano was extremely dry and jumpy. Then a +reaction took place. The tyrannical reign of the perpetual "legato" +succeeded. It was decided that in piano playing unless indicated to the +contrary, and even at times in spite of such indication, everything +everywhere should be tied together.<a name="anchor_3" id="anchor_3"></a><a href="#footnote_3" class="note">[3]</a> This was a great misfortune of +which Kalkbrenner gives a manifest proof in the arrangement he has made +of Beethoven's symphonies. Besides, this "legato" tyranny continues. +Notwithstanding the example of Liszt, the greatest pianist of the +nineteenth century, and notwithstanding his numerous pupils, the fatal +school of the "legato" has prevailed,—not that it is unfortunate in +itself, but because it has perverted the intentions of musical authors. +Our French professors have followed the example of Kalkbrenner.</p> + +<p>The house of Breitkopf, which until lately had the best editions of the +German classics, has substituted in their places new editions where +professors have eagerly striven to perfect in their own manner the music +of the masters. When this great house wished to make a complete edition +of the works of Mozart, which are prodigiously numerous, it appealed to +all who possessed manuscripts of Mozart, and then having gathered these +most precious documents, instead of reproducing them faithfully, that +house believed it was doing well to leave to the professors full liberty +of treatment and change. Thus that admirable series of concertos for +piano has been ornamented by Karl Reinecke with a series of joined +notes, tied notes, legato, molto legato, and sempre legato which are the +very opposite of what the composer intended. Worse still, in a piece +which Mozart had the genial idea of terminating suddenly with a +delicately shaded phrase, they have taken out such nuances and +terminated the piece with a <i>forte</i> passage of the most commonplace +character.</p> + +<p>One other plague in modern editions is the abuse of the pedal. Mozart +never indicated the pedal. As purity of taste is one of his great +qualities, it is probable that he made no abuse of the pedal. Beethoven +indicated it in a complicated and cumbersome manner. When he wanted the +pedal he wrote "senza sordini," which means without dampers, and to take +them off he wrote "con sordini," meaning with dampers. The soft pedal is +indicated by "una corda." The indication to take it off, an indication +which exists even now, was written "tre corde." The indication "ped" for +the grand pedal is assuredly more convenient, but that is no reason for +making an abuse of it and inflicting it upon the author where his +writing indicates the contrary.</p> + +<p>As it seems to me, it is only from the eighteenth century that authors +have indicated the movements of their compositions, but the words which +they have employed have changed in sense with time. Formerly the +difference between the slowest movement and the most rapid movement was +much less than at present. The "largo" was only an "adagio" and the +"presto" would be scarcely an "allegro" to-day.</p> + +<p>The "andante" which now indicates a slow movement, had at that time its +original signification, meaning "going." It was an "allegro moderate." +Haendel often wrote "andante allegro." Through ignorance of that +fact the beautiful air of Gluck, "Divinities of the Styx," is sung too +slowly and the air of Thaos in the "Iphigenia in Tauris" equally so. +Berlioz recollected having heard at the opera in his youth a much more +animated execution of these works.</p> + +<p>Finally, in ancient times notes were not defined as they are to-day and +their value was approximative only. This liberty in the execution of +music is particularly perceptible in the works of Rameau. To conform to +his intentions in the vocal part such music must not be interpreted +literally. One must be governed by the declamation, and not by the +written note indicating a long or short duration. The proof of this is +to be seen when the violins and the voice are in unison—the way of +writing them is different.</p> + +<p>A great obstacle to executing ancient works from the eighteenth century +on is in the interpretation of grace notes, "appoggiaturas" and others. +In these cases there is an unfortunate habit in players of conforming to +their own taste, which may guide a little, but cannot suffice in every +instance. One can be convinced of this in studying The Method of Violin +by the father of Mozart. We find there things which one would never +dream of.</p> + +<p>The "appoggiatura"<a name="anchor_4" id="anchor_4"></a><a href="#footnote_4" class="note">[4]</a> (from <i>appoggiare</i>, which in Italian means "to +lean upon"), should always be long, the different ways in which it may +be written having no influence upon its length. There is an exception to +this when its final little note, ascending or descending, and preceding +the larger note, is distant from it a disjointed degree. In this case it +is not an "appoggiatura," and should be played short. In many cases +it prolongs the duration of the note which follows it. It may even alter +the value of the notes following.</p> + +<p>I will cite in connection with the subject of the "appoggiatura" the +beautiful duo with chorus of the "Passion According to St. Matthew," and +at the same time, I would point out the error committed in making of +this passion a most grandios performance with grand choral and +instrumental masses. One is deceived by its noble character, by its two +choruses, by its two orchestras, and one forgets that it was destined +for the little Church of St. Thomas in Leipsig, where Sebastian Bach was +organist. While in certain cantatas that composer employed horns, +trumpets, trombones and cymbals, for the "Passion According to St. +Matthew," he only used in each of the orchestras two flutes, two +hautbois, changing from the ordinary hautbois to the hautbois d'amour +and the hautbois of the chase,—now the English horn; that is to say, +hautbois pitched a third and a fifth lower. These two orchestras and +these two choruses then certainly were reduced to a very small number of +performers.</p> + +<p>In all very ancient music, from the time of Lully, one finds constantly +a little cross marked over the notes. Often this certainly indicates a +trill, but it seems difficult to take it always to mean such. However, +perhaps fashion desired that trills should thus be made out of place. I +have never been able to find an explanation of this sign, not even in +the musical dictionary of J. J. Rousseau. This dictionary none the +less contains a great deal of precious information. Does it not inform +us, among other things, that the copyists of former times were veritable +collaborators? When the author indicated the altos with the basses, the +hautbois with the violins, these copyists undertook to make the +necessary modifications. Times have unfortunately changed since.</p> + +<p>In Rameau's music, certain signs are unintelligible. Musical treatises +of that time say that it is impossible to describe them, and that to +understand them it was necessary to have heard them interpreted by a +professor of singing.</p> + +<p>With clavecinists the multiplicity of grace notes is extreme. As a rule +they give the explanation of these at the head of their works, just as +Rameau did. I note a curious sign which indicates that the right hand +should arrive upon the keys a little after the left. This shows that +there was not then that frightful habit of playing one hand after the +other as is often done nowadays.</p> + +<p>This prolixity of grace notes indulged by players upon the clavecin is +rather terrifying at first, but one need not be detained by them, for +they are not indispensable. The published methods of those times inform +us in fact that pupils were first taught to play the pieces without +these grace notes, and that they were added by degrees. Besides, Rameau +in transcribing for the clavecin fragments of his operas, has indicated +those grace notes which the original did not contain.</p> + +<p>Ornaments are much less numerous in the writings of Sebastian Bach. +Numberless confusions have been produced in the interpretation of the +mordant,<a name="anchor_5" id="anchor_5"></a><a href="#footnote_5" class="note">[5]</a> or biting note. It should be executed above or below the +principal note depending on whether the notes which precede the mordant +are superior or inferior to it.</p> + +<p>With reference to the difficulties in interpreting the works of Rameau +and of Gluck, I would point out the change in the diapason or pitch +which at that time was a tone lower than in our days. The organ of St. +Merry had a pitch in B flat. In addition to the tempi and the different +instruments which make the execution difficult, one must add the +recitatives which were very much employed and of which at that time a +serious study was made. I recall a beautiful example of recitative in +the "Iphigenia in Tauris."</p> + +<p>We come now to the modern epoch. From the time of Liszt, who not only +revolutionized the performance of music on the piano, but also the way +of writing it, authors give to performers all necessary indications, and +they have only to carefully observe them. There are, however, some +interesting remarks applicable to the music of Chopin which recent +editions unfortunately are commencing to falsify. Chopin detested the +abuse of the pedal. He could not bear that through an ignorant +employment of the pedal two different chords should be mixed in tone +together. Therefore, he has given indications with the greatest pains. +Employing it where he has not indicated it, must be avoided. But great +skill is necessary to thus do without the pedal. Therefore, in the +new editions of the author, no account of the author's indications +whatever is observed. Thus in the "Cradle Song," where the author has +indicated that the pedal be put on each measure and taken off in the +middle of it, modern editions preserve the pedal throughout the entire +measure, thus mixing up hopelessly the tonic with the dominant, which +the composer was so careful to avoid.</p> + +<p>A question of the greatest importance in playing the music of Chopin is +that of "tempo rubato." That does not mean, as many think, that the time +is to be dislocated. It means permitting great liberty to the singing +part or melody of the composition, while the accompaniment keeps +rigorous time. Mozart played in this way and he speaks of it in one of +his letters and he describes it marvelously, only the term "tempo +rubato" had not at that time been invented. This kind of playing, +demanding complete independence of the two hands, is not within the +ability of everybody. Therefore, to give the illusion of such effect, +players dislocate the bass and destroy the rhythm of the bar. When to +this disorder is joined the abuse of the pedal, there results that +vicious execution which, passing muster, is generally accepted in the +salons and often elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Another plague in the modern execution of music is the abuse of the +tremolo by both singers and instrumental performers. With singers, this +quivering is often the result of a fatigued voice, in which case it is +involuntary and is only to be deplored; but that is not the case with +violin and violoncello players. It is a fashion with them born of a +desire to make an effect at any cost, and is due to the depraved taste +of the public for a passionate execution of music; but art does not live +on passion alone. In our time, when art, through an admirable evolution, +has conquered all domains, music should express all, from the most +perfect calm to the most violent emotions. When one is strongly moved +the voice is altered, and in moving situations the singer should make +his voice vibrate. Formerly the German female singers sang with all +their voice, without any vibration in the sound and without any +reference to the situation; one would say they were clarinets. Now, one +must vibrate all the time. I heard the Meistersingers' quintette sung in +Paris. It was dreadful and the composition incomprehensible. Not all +singers, fortunately, have this defect, but it has taken possession of +violinists and 'cello players. That was not the way Franchomme, the +'cello player and collaborator of Chopin, played, nor was it the way +Sarasate, Sivori or Joachim played.</p> + +<p>I have written a concerto, the first and last movements of which are +very passionate. They are separated by a movement of the greatest +calm,—a lake between two mountains. Those great violin players who do +me the honor to play this piece, do not understand the contrast and they +vibrate on the lake just as they do on the mountains. Sarasate, for whom +this concerto was written, was as calm on the lake as he was agitated on +the mountains; nor did he fail on this account to produce always a great +effect—for there is nothing like giving to music its veritable +character.</p> + +<p>Anciently music was not written as scrupulously as it is to-day, and a +certain liberty was permitted to interpretation. This liberty went +farther than one would think, resembling much what the great Italian +singers furnished examples of in the days of Rubini and Malibran. They +did not hesitate to embroider the compositions, and the <i>reprises</i> were +widespread. <i>Reprises</i> meant that when the same piece was sung a second +time, the executants gave free bridle to their own inspiration. I have +heard in my youth the last echoes of this style of performance. Nowadays +<i>reprises</i> are suppressed, and that is more prudent. However, it would +be betraying the intentions of Mozart to execute literally many passages +in concertos written by that author for the piano. At times he would +write a veritable scheme only, upon which he would improvise. However, +one should not imitate Kalkbrenner, who, in executing at Paris the great +concerto in C Major of Mozart, had rewritten all its passages in a +different manner from the author. On the other hand, when I played at +the Conservatoire in Paris Mozart's magnificent concerto in C Minor, I +would have thought I was committing a crime in executing literally the +piano part of the Adagio, which would have been absurd if thus presented +in the midst of an orchestra of great tonal wealth. There as elsewhere +the letter kills; the spirit vivifies. But in a case like that one must +know Mozart and assimilate his style, which demands a long study.</p> + + + +<h3>EXPLANATORY NOTES</h3> + + +<p> +<a name="footnote_1" id="footnote_1"></a><span class="note"><a href="#anchor_1">[1]</a></span> +Plain Song (Fr. <i>Plain Chant</i>) was the earliest form of +Christian church music. As its name indicates, it was a plain, artless +chant without rhythm, accent, modulation or accompaniment, and was first +sung in unison. Oriental or Grecian in origin, it had four keys called +Authentic Modes, to which were added later four more called Plagal +Modes. These modes, called Phrygian, Dorian, Lydian, etc., are merely +different presentations in the regular order of the notes of the C Major +scale—first, with D as the initial or tonic note, then with E <i>et seq</i>. +They lack the sentiment of a leading seventh note. In these weird keys +Plain Song was conceived for psalms, graduals, introits, and other +offices of the primitive church. Such music was generally called +Gregorian, because St. Gregory, Pope of Rome in the seventh century, +collected and codified it, adding thereto his own contributions. Two +centuries previous it was known as Ambrosian music, after St. Ambrose, +Bishop of Milan. +</p><p> +Originally, a single chorister intoned the Plain Song, to which a full +chorus responded. Later this manner was altered to antiphonal +singing—two choruses being used, one for the initial and the other for +the responsive chant. Such music thus rendered was singularly grave, +dignified, and awe-inspiring. +</p><p> +During the middle ages Plain Song unfortunately degenerated much from +its original sacred character, and, in one disguise or another, popular +and even indecorous songs were smuggled into it. In the time of Pope +Marcellus, 1576, Palestrina was employed to purge Gregorian music of +its scandalous laxities. +</p><p> +M. Saint-Saëns, to illustrate the clever way in which popular songs were +given an ecclesiastical or Plain Song character, has here added to his +luminous lecture the following precious original composition, reproduced +in facsimile, in which through ingenious contrapuntal treatment he gives +a mock sacred form to an old French ditty, "I Have Some Good Tobacco in +My Snuffbox." +</p> + +<div class="image"> +<a href="images/ill_018.png"> +<img src="images/ill_018.png" +alt="musical notation" +style="max-width:75%;" /></a> +</div> + +<p> +"<i>It is apparent here that by assigning the melody to the tenor part, it +is unrecognizable. Oftentimes licentious songs were taken as the Plain +Chant text, and on this account Pope Marcellus commissioned Palestrina +to put an end to such practices.</i>" +</p><p> +In a note he adds: "It must be remembered that before popular songs were +thus treated in counterpoint [which means that while the song is being +produced by one voice, the other voice or voices are singing against it +notes entirely different from the melody], the text for that kind of +treatment was the Plain Song—the singing of which was always assigned +to the tenor part. In my youth I have heard graduals treated in this +fashion at High Mass in my parish church of St. Sulpice in Paris, which +is still renowned for the splendor of its ceremonials."</p> + +<p> +<a name="footnote_2" id="footnote_2"></a><span class="note"><a href="#anchor_2">[2]</a></span> +</p> + +<div class="image"> +<a href="images/ill_019.png"> +<img src="images/ill_019.png" +alt="musical notation" +style="max-width:75%;" /></a> +</div> + +<p>There are here illustrations of (a) the difference between the written +manner of Gluck, in a passage from his "Alceste"—and the actually +correct way of interpreting and playing it; (b) a passage from the +scherzo of Mendelssohn's string quartet,—to show how a gay subject can +be treated in the minor mood—and M. Saint-Saëns adds: "Mendelssohn's +scherzo of his 'Midsummer Night's Dream' is in sol minor but it evokes +no idea of sadness, although oftentimes those who play it, deceived by +its minor mood, give it a melancholy character, which is very far from +what the composer intended."</p> + + +<p> +<a name="footnote_3" id="footnote_3"></a><span class="note"><a href="#anchor_3">[3]</a></span> +</p> + +<div class="image"> +<a href="images/ill_020.png"> +<img src="images/ill_020.png" +alt="musical notation" +style="max-width:75%;" /></a> +</div> + +<p>Here M. Saint-Saëns has written a passage from a piano +concerto of Mozart to illustrate how that composer wished the +<i>non-legato</i> to be interpreted—namely, in a flute-like manner,—the +piano repeating textually the passages indicated to be played first by +the flutes. +</p><p> +Again he illustrates the same subject with a passage taken from a piano +and violin sonata of Beethoven. The <i>non-legato</i> passages here are not +to be played on the violin in a way approaching the <i>staccato</i>, although +they are written as detached notes; and the piano part follows the +rendering of the violin. +</p><p> +A final illustration is furnished in the "Turkish March" of Mozart. +</p> +<div class="image"> +<a href="images/ill_021.png"> +<img src="images/ill_021.png" +alt="musical notation" +style="max-width:75%;" /></a> +</div> + +<p>The proper manner of writing the graceful <i>gruppetto</i> is here +given—with an illustration following of how it is to be correctly +played, and how it is incorrectly executed.</p> + +<p><a name="footnote_5" id="footnote_5"></a><span class="note"><a href="#anchor_5">[5]</a></span> +Next is illustrated the two ways of playing the <i>mordant</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="footnote_4" id="footnote_4"></a><span class="note"><a href="#anchor_4">[4]</a></span> +Finally, are several examples of the +<i>appoggiature,</i>—showing both the way they are written, and the way they +are to be executed. +</p> + +<p>The last line of the music above is an example of how in Haendel the +rhythm as interpreted differs from that in which the passage is written.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Execution of Music, and +Principally of Ancient Music, by Camille Saint-Saëns + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE EXECUTION OF MUSIC *** + +***** This file should be named 30412-h.htm or 30412-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/4/1/30412/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Execution of Music, and Principally of Ancient Music + +Author: Camille Saint-Saens + +Translator: Henry P. Bowie + +Release Date: November 7, 2009 [EBook #30412] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE EXECUTION OF MUSIC *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: M. Camille Saint-Saens] + + + + +ON THE EXECUTION OF + +MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY + +OF ANCIENT MUSIC + +BY + +M. CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS + + + _Delivered at the_ + + "_Salon de la Pensee Francaise_" + +_Panama-Pacific International Exposition_ + + _San Francisco, June First_ + + _Nineteen Hundred_ + + _& Fifteen_ + + +DONE INTO ENGLISH + +WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES BY + +HENRY P. BOWIE + +SAN FRANCISCO: + +THE BLAIR-MURDOCK COMPANY + +1915 + +_Copyright, 1915_ + +_by M. Camille Saint-Saens_ + + + + +ON THE EXECUTION OF + +MUSIC, AND PRINCIPALLY + +OF ANCIENT MUSIC + +MUSIC was written in a scrawl impossible to decipher up to the +thirteenth century, when Plain Song[1] (_Plain Chant_) made its +appearance in square and diamond-shaped notes. The graduals and introits +had not yet been reduced to bars, but the songs of the troubadours +appear to have been in bars of three beats with the accent on the feeble +note of each bar. However, the theory that this bar of three beats or +triple time was used exclusively is probably erroneous. St. Isidore, in +his treatise on music, speaking of how Plain Song should be interpreted, +considers in turn all the voices and recommends those which are high, +sweet and clear, for the execution of vocal sounds, introits, graduals, +offertories, etc. This is exactly contrary to what we now do, since in +place of utilizing these light tenor voices for Plain Song, we have +recourse to voices both heavy and low. + +In the last century when it was desired to restore Plain Song to its +primitive purity, one met with insurmountable obstacles due to its +prodigious prolixity of long series of notes, repeating indefinitely the +same musical forms; but in considering this in the light of explanations +given by St. Isidore, and in view of the Oriental origin of the +Christian religion, we are led to infer that these long series of notes +were chants or vocalizations analogous to the songs of the Muezzins of +the Orient. At the beginning of the sixteenth century musical laws began +to be elaborated without, however, in this evolution towards modern +tonal art, departing entirely from all influence of the antique methods. +The school named after Palestrina employed as yet only the triads or +perfect chords; this prevented absolutely all expression, although some +traces of it appear in the "Stabat Mater" of that composer. This music, +ecclesiastical in character, in which it would have been chimerical to +try to introduce modern expression, flourished in France, in Flanders, +in Spain at the same time as in Italy, and enjoyed the favor of Pope +Marcellus, who recognized the merit of Palestrina in breaking loose from +the grievous practice of adapting popular songs to church music. + +In the middle ages, as in antiquity, the laws of harmony were unknown; +when it was desired to sing in two parts, they sang at first in +intervals of fifths and fourths, where it would have seemed much more +natural to sing in thirds and sixths. Such first attempts at music in +several parts were made in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries, when they were hunting for laws, and such music was +discordant. It bore the name of Diaphony. The real Polyphony came in the +sixteenth century with the school of Palestrina. + +Later on, little by little, laws were established, not arbitrarily, but +laws resulting from a long experience, and during all the sixteenth +century admirable music was written, though deprived of melody, properly +speaking. Melody was reserved for dance music which, in fact, was +perfectly written in four and even in five part scores, as I have been +able to convince myself in hunting for dance music of the sixteenth +century for my opera "Ascanio." + +But no indication of movement, nuances or shading, enlightens us as to +the manner in which this music should be interpreted. At Paris the first +attempts to execute the music of Palestrina were made in the time of +Louis Philippe, by the Prince of Moscow. He had founded a choral society +of amateurs, all titled, but gifted with good voices and a certain +musical talent. This society executed many of the works of Palestrina +and particularly the famous "Mass of Pope Marcellus." They adopted at +that time the method of singing most of these pieces very softly and +with an extreme slowness so that in the long-sustained notes the singers +were forced to divide their task by some taking up the sound when the +others were out of breath. Consonant chords thus presented evidently +produced music which was very agreeable to the ear, but unquestionably +the author could not recognize his work in such rendering. Quite +different was the method of the singers in the Sistine Chapel when I +heard them for the first time in Rome in 1855 when they sung the "Sicut +Cervus" of Palestrina. They roared in a head-splitting way without the +least regard for the pleasure of the listener, or for the meaning of the +words they sang. It is difficult to believe that this music was ever +composed to be executed in such a barbarous manner, which, it seems to +me, differs completely from our musical conceptions; and it is a great +mistake also in modern editions of such music to introduce delicate +shadings or nuances and even employ the words "very expressive." + +Palestrina has had his admirers among French literary writers. We recall +the scene created by Octave Feuillet in "M. de Camors." M. de Camors is +at his window; a lady is at the piano; a gentleman at the cello, and +another lady sings the Mass of Palestrina which I have referred to +above. Such a way of playing this music is simply out of the question. +Feuillet had obtained his inspiration for this from a fanciful painting +which he had seen somewhere. + +Expression was introduced into music by the chord of the dominant +seventh, the invention of which is attributed to Monteverde. However, +Palestrina had already employed that chord in his "Adoremus," but +probably without understanding its importance or divining its future. + +Before this invention the interval of three whole tones (Triton) was +considered an intolerable dissonance and was called "the devil in +music." The dominant seventh has been the open door to all +dissonances and to the domain of expression. It was a death blow to that +learned music of the sixteenth century; it was the arrival of the reign +of melody--of the development of the art of singing. Very often the song +or the solo instrument would be accompanied by a simple, ciphered bass, +the ciphers indicating the chords which he who accompanied should play +as well as he could, either on the harpsichord or the theorbe. The +theorbe was an admirable instrument which is now to be found only in +museums,--a sort of enormous guitar with a long neck and multiple +strings which offered great opportunities to a skilful artist. + +It is curious to note that in ancient times there was not attributed to +the minor and major keys the same character as is assigned them +to-day.[2] The joyous canticle of the Catholic church, "O Filii et +Filiae," is in the minor. "The Romanesca," a dance air of the sixteenth +century, is equally in the minor, just like all the dance airs of Lully, +and of Rameau, and the gavottes of Sebastian Bach. The celebrated +"Funeral March" of Haendel, reproduced in many of his works, is in C +Major. The delicious love duo of Acis and Galathee, which changes to a +trio by the addition of the part of Polyphemus, is in A Minor. When +Galathee weeps afterward over the death of Acis, the air is in F Major. +It is only recently that we find dance airs in the major mood or key. + +From the seventeenth century on, music entered into everyday life, never +again to be separated from it. Thus music has remained in favor, and +we are continually hearing executed the works of Bach, of Haendel, of +Hayden, of Mozart and of Beethoven. How are such works executed? Are +they executed as they should be? That is another question. + +One source of error is found in the evolution which musical instruments +have undergone. In the time of Bach and Haendel the bow truly merited +its Italian name of "arco." It was curved like an arc--the hairs of the +bow constituted the chord of the arc, a very great flexibility resulting +which allowed the strings of the instrument to be enveloped and to be +played simultaneously. The bow seldom quitted the strings, doing so only +in rare cases and when especially indicated. On this account it happens +that the indication of "legato" is very rare. Even though there was a +separate stroke of the bow for each note, the notes were not separated +one from the other. Nowadays the form of the bow is completely changed. +The execution of the music is based upon the detached bow, and although +it is easy to keep the bow upon the strings just as they did at the +commencement of the nineteenth century, performers have lost the habit +of it. The result is that they give to ancient music a character of +perpetually jumping, which completely destroys its nature. + +The very opposite movement has been produced in instruments of the key +or piano type. The precise indications of Mozart show that "non-legato," +which doesn't mean at all "staccato," was the ordinary way of playing +the instrument, and that the veritable "legato" was played only where +the author specially indicated it. The clavecin or harpsichord, which +preceded the piano, when complete with two banks of keys, many registers +giving the octaves and different tone qualities, oftentimes like the +organ with a key for pedals, offered resources which the piano does not +possess. A Polish lady, Madame Landowska, has studied thoroughly these +resources, and has shown us how pieces written for this instrument thus +disclosed elements of variety which are totally missing when the same +are played upon the piano; but the clavecin tone lacked fulness, and +shadings or nuances were out of the question. + +Sonority or tone was varied by changing the keys or register just as on +the organ. On the other hand, with the piano one can vary the sonority +by augmenting or diminishing the force of the attack, hence its original +name of "forte piano,"--a name too long, which was shortened at first by +suppressing the last syllables; so that one reads, not without +astonishment, in the accounts given of young Mozart, of the skill he +showed in playing "forte" at a time when he was playing on instruments +of a very feeble tone. Nowadays when athletic artists exert all their +force upon the modern instruments of terrific sonority, they are said to +play the "piano" (_toucher du piano_). + +We must conclude that the indication "non-legato" finally degenerated +into meaning "staccato." In my youth I heard persons advanced in age +whose performance on the piano was extremely dry and jumpy. Then a +reaction took place. The tyrannical reign of the perpetual "legato" +succeeded. It was decided that in piano playing unless indicated to the +contrary, and even at times in spite of such indication, everything +everywhere should be tied together.[3] This was a great misfortune of +which Kalkbrenner gives a manifest proof in the arrangement he has made +of Beethoven's symphonies. Besides, this "legato" tyranny continues. +Notwithstanding the example of Liszt, the greatest pianist of the +nineteenth century, and notwithstanding his numerous pupils, the fatal +school of the "legato" has prevailed,--not that it is unfortunate in +itself, but because it has perverted the intentions of musical authors. +Our French professors have followed the example of Kalkbrenner. + +The house of Breitkopf, which until lately had the best editions of the +German classics, has substituted in their places new editions where +professors have eagerly striven to perfect in their own manner the music +of the masters. When this great house wished to make a complete edition +of the works of Mozart, which are prodigiously numerous, it appealed to +all who possessed manuscripts of Mozart, and then having gathered these +most precious documents, instead of reproducing them faithfully, that +house believed it was doing well to leave to the professors full liberty +of treatment and change. Thus that admirable series of concertos for +piano has been ornamented by Karl Reinecke with a series of joined +notes, tied notes, legato, molto legato, and sempre legato which are the +very opposite of what the composer intended. Worse still, in a piece +which Mozart had the genial idea of terminating suddenly with a +delicately shaded phrase, they have taken out such nuances and +terminated the piece with a _forte_ passage of the most commonplace +character. + +One other plague in modern editions is the abuse of the pedal. Mozart +never indicated the pedal. As purity of taste is one of his great +qualities, it is probable that he made no abuse of the pedal. Beethoven +indicated it in a complicated and cumbersome manner. When he wanted the +pedal he wrote "senza sordini," which means without dampers, and to take +them off he wrote "con sordini," meaning with dampers. The soft pedal is +indicated by "una corda." The indication to take it off, an indication +which exists even now, was written "tre corde." The indication "ped" for +the grand pedal is assuredly more convenient, but that is no reason for +making an abuse of it and inflicting it upon the author where his +writing indicates the contrary. + +As it seems to me, it is only from the eighteenth century that authors +have indicated the movements of their compositions, but the words which +they have employed have changed in sense with time. Formerly the +difference between the slowest movement and the most rapid movement was +much less than at present. The "largo" was only an "adagio" and the +"presto" would be scarcely an "allegro" to-day. + +The "andante" which now indicates a slow movement, had at that time its +original signification, meaning "going." It was an "allegro moderate." +Haendel often wrote "andante allegro." Through ignorance of that +fact the beautiful air of Gluck, "Divinities of the Styx," is sung too +slowly and the air of Thaos in the "Iphigenia in Tauris" equally so. +Berlioz recollected having heard at the opera in his youth a much more +animated execution of these works. + +Finally, in ancient times notes were not defined as they are to-day and +their value was approximative only. This liberty in the execution of +music is particularly perceptible in the works of Rameau. To conform to +his intentions in the vocal part such music must not be interpreted +literally. One must be governed by the declamation, and not by the +written note indicating a long or short duration. The proof of this is +to be seen when the violins and the voice are in unison--the way of +writing them is different. + +A great obstacle to executing ancient works from the eighteenth century +on is in the interpretation of grace notes, "appoggiaturas" and others. +In these cases there is an unfortunate habit in players of conforming to +their own taste, which may guide a little, but cannot suffice in every +instance. One can be convinced of this in studying The Method of Violin +by the father of Mozart. We find there things which one would never +dream of. + +The "appoggiatura"[4] (from _appoggiare_, which in Italian means "to +lean upon"), should always be long, the different ways in which it may +be written having no influence upon its length. There is an exception to +this when its final little note, ascending or descending, and preceding +the larger note, is distant from it a disjointed degree. In this case it +is not an "appoggiatura," and should be played short. In many cases +it prolongs the duration of the note which follows it. It may even alter +the value of the notes following. + +I will cite in connection with the subject of the "appoggiatura" the +beautiful duo with chorus of the "Passion According to St. Matthew," and +at the same time, I would point out the error committed in making of +this passion a most grandios performance with grand choral and +instrumental masses. One is deceived by its noble character, by its two +choruses, by its two orchestras, and one forgets that it was destined +for the little Church of St. Thomas in Leipsig, where Sebastian Bach was +organist. While in certain cantatas that composer employed horns, +trumpets, trombones and cymbals, for the "Passion According to St. +Matthew," he only used in each of the orchestras two flutes, two +hautbois, changing from the ordinary hautbois to the hautbois d'amour +and the hautbois of the chase,--now the English horn; that is to say, +hautbois pitched a third and a fifth lower. These two orchestras and +these two choruses then certainly were reduced to a very small number of +performers. + +In all very ancient music, from the time of Lully, one finds constantly +a little cross marked over the notes. Often this certainly indicates a +trill, but it seems difficult to take it always to mean such. However, +perhaps fashion desired that trills should thus be made out of place. I +have never been able to find an explanation of this sign, not even in +the musical dictionary of J. J. Rousseau. This dictionary none the +less contains a great deal of precious information. Does it not inform +us, among other things, that the copyists of former times were veritable +collaborators? When the author indicated the altos with the basses, the +hautbois with the violins, these copyists undertook to make the +necessary modifications. Times have unfortunately changed since. + +In Rameau's music, certain signs are unintelligible. Musical treatises +of that time say that it is impossible to describe them, and that to +understand them it was necessary to have heard them interpreted by a +professor of singing. + +With clavecinists the multiplicity of grace notes is extreme. As a rule +they give the explanation of these at the head of their works, just as +Rameau did. I note a curious sign which indicates that the right hand +should arrive upon the keys a little after the left. This shows that +there was not then that frightful habit of playing one hand after the +other as is often done nowadays. + +This prolixity of grace notes indulged by players upon the clavecin is +rather terrifying at first, but one need not be detained by them, for +they are not indispensable. The published methods of those times inform +us in fact that pupils were first taught to play the pieces without +these grace notes, and that they were added by degrees. Besides, Rameau +in transcribing for the clavecin fragments of his operas, has indicated +those grace notes which the original did not contain. + +Ornaments are much less numerous in the writings of Sebastian Bach. +Numberless confusions have been produced in the interpretation of the +mordant,[5] or biting note. It should be executed above or below the +principal note depending on whether the notes which precede the mordant +are superior or inferior to it. + +With reference to the difficulties in interpreting the works of Rameau +and of Gluck, I would point out the change in the diapason or pitch +which at that time was a tone lower than in our days. The organ of St. +Merry had a pitch in B flat. In addition to the tempi and the different +instruments which make the execution difficult, one must add the +recitatives which were very much employed and of which at that time a +serious study was made. I recall a beautiful example of recitative in +the "Iphigenia in Tauris." + +We come now to the modern epoch. From the time of Liszt, who not only +revolutionized the performance of music on the piano, but also the way +of writing it, authors give to performers all necessary indications, and +they have only to carefully observe them. There are, however, some +interesting remarks applicable to the music of Chopin which recent +editions unfortunately are commencing to falsify. Chopin detested the +abuse of the pedal. He could not bear that through an ignorant +employment of the pedal two different chords should be mixed in tone +together. Therefore, he has given indications with the greatest pains. +Employing it where he has not indicated it, must be avoided. But great +skill is necessary to thus do without the pedal. Therefore, in the +new editions of the author, no account of the author's indications +whatever is observed. Thus in the "Cradle Song," where the author has +indicated that the pedal be put on each measure and taken off in the +middle of it, modern editions preserve the pedal throughout the entire +measure, thus mixing up hopelessly the tonic with the dominant, which +the composer was so careful to avoid. + +A question of the greatest importance in playing the music of Chopin is +that of "tempo rubato." That does not mean, as many think, that the time +is to be dislocated. It means permitting great liberty to the singing +part or melody of the composition, while the accompaniment keeps +rigorous time. Mozart played in this way and he speaks of it in one of +his letters and he describes it marvelously, only the term "tempo +rubato" had not at that time been invented. This kind of playing, +demanding complete independence of the two hands, is not within the +ability of everybody. Therefore, to give the illusion of such effect, +players dislocate the bass and destroy the rhythm of the bar. When to +this disorder is joined the abuse of the pedal, there results that +vicious execution which, passing muster, is generally accepted in the +salons and often elsewhere. + +Another plague in the modern execution of music is the abuse of the +tremolo by both singers and instrumental performers. With singers, this +quivering is often the result of a fatigued voice, in which case it is +involuntary and is only to be deplored; but that is not the case with +violin and violoncello players. It is a fashion with them born of a +desire to make an effect at any cost, and is due to the depraved taste +of the public for a passionate execution of music; but art does not live +on passion alone. In our time, when art, through an admirable evolution, +has conquered all domains, music should express all, from the most +perfect calm to the most violent emotions. When one is strongly moved +the voice is altered, and in moving situations the singer should make +his voice vibrate. Formerly the German female singers sang with all +their voice, without any vibration in the sound and without any +reference to the situation; one would say they were clarinets. Now, one +must vibrate all the time. I heard the Meistersingers' quintette sung in +Paris. It was dreadful and the composition incomprehensible. Not all +singers, fortunately, have this defect, but it has taken possession of +violinists and 'cello players. That was not the way Franchomme, the +'cello player and collaborator of Chopin, played, nor was it the way +Sarasate, Sivori or Joachim played. + +I have written a concerto, the first and last movements of which are +very passionate. They are separated by a movement of the greatest +calm,--a lake between two mountains. Those great violin players who do +me the honor to play this piece, do not understand the contrast and they +vibrate on the lake just as they do on the mountains. Sarasate, for whom +this concerto was written, was as calm on the lake as he was agitated on +the mountains; nor did he fail on this account to produce always a great +effect--for there is nothing like giving to music its veritable +character. + +Anciently music was not written as scrupulously as it is to-day, and a +certain liberty was permitted to interpretation. This liberty went +farther than one would think, resembling much what the great Italian +singers furnished examples of in the days of Rubini and Malibran. They +did not hesitate to embroider the compositions, and the _reprises_ were +widespread. _Reprises_ meant that when the same piece was sung a second +time, the executants gave free bridle to their own inspiration. I have +heard in my youth the last echoes of this style of performance. Nowadays +_reprises_ are suppressed, and that is more prudent. However, it would +be betraying the intentions of Mozart to execute literally many passages +in concertos written by that author for the piano. At times he would +write a veritable scheme only, upon which he would improvise. However, +one should not imitate Kalkbrenner, who, in executing at Paris the great +concerto in C Major of Mozart, had rewritten all its passages in a +different manner from the author. On the other hand, when I played at +the Conservatoire in Paris Mozart's magnificent concerto in C Minor, I +would have thought I was committing a crime in executing literally the +piano part of the Adagio, which would have been absurd if thus presented +in the midst of an orchestra of great tonal wealth. There as elsewhere +the letter kills; the spirit vivifies. But in a case like that one must +know Mozart and assimilate his style, which demands a long study. + + + + +EXPLANATORY NOTES + +[1] Plain Song (Fr. _Plain Chant_) was the earliest form of Christian +church music. As its name indicates, it was a plain, artless chant +without rhythm, accent, modulation or accompaniment, and was first sung +in unison. Oriental or Grecian in origin, it had four keys called +Authentic Modes, to which were added later four more called Plagal +Modes. These modes, called Phrygian, Dorian, Lydian, etc., are merely +different presentations in the regular order of the notes of the C Major +scale--first, with D as the initial or tonic note, then with E _et seq_. +They lack the sentiment of a leading seventh note. In these weird keys +Plain Song was conceived for psalms, graduals, introits, and other +offices of the primitive church. Such music was generally called +Gregorian, because St. Gregory, Pope of Rome in the seventh century, +collected and codified it, adding thereto his own contributions. Two +centuries previous it was known as Ambrosian music, after St. Ambrose, +Bishop of Milan. + +Originally, a single chorister intoned the Plain Song, to which a full +chorus responded. Later this manner was altered to antiphonal +singing--two choruses being used, one for the initial and the other for +the responsive chant. Such music thus rendered was singularly grave, +dignified, and awe-inspiring. + +During the middle ages Plain Song unfortunately degenerated much from +its original sacred character, and, in one disguise or another, popular +and even indecorous songs were smuggled into it. In the time of Pope +Marcellus, 1576, Palestrina was employed to purge Gregorian music of its +scandalous laxities. + +M. Saint-Saens, to illustrate the clever way in which popular songs were +given an ecclesiastical or Plain Song character, has here added to his +luminous lecture the following precious original composition, reproduced +in facsimile, in which through ingenious contrapuntal treatment he gives +a mock sacred form to an old French ditty, "I Have Some Good Tobacco in +My Snuffbox." + +[Illustration: musical notation] + +"_It is apparent here that by assigning the melody to the tenor part, it +is unrecognizable. Oftentimes licentious songs were taken as the Plain +Chant text, and on this account Pope Marcellus commissioned Palestrina +to put an end to such practices._" + +In a note he adds: "It must be remembered that before popular songs were +thus treated in counterpoint [which means that while the song is being +produced by one voice, the other voice or voices are singing against it +notes entirely different from the melody], the text for that kind of +treatment was the Plain Song--the singing of which was always assigned +to the tenor part. In my youth I have heard graduals treated in this +fashion at High Mass in my parish church of St. Sulpice in Paris, which +is still renowned for the splendor of its ceremonials." + +[2] + +(Illustration: musical notation) + +There are here illustrations of (a) the difference between the written +manner of Gluck, in a passage from his "Alceste"--and the actually +correct way of interpreting and playing it; (b) a passage from the +scherzo of Mendelssohn's string quartet,--to show how a gay subject can +be treated in the minor mood--and M. Saint-Saens adds: "Mendelssohn's +scherzo of his 'Midsummer Night's Dream' is in sol minor but it evokes +no idea of sadness, although oftentimes those who play it, deceived by +its minor mood, give it a melancholy character, which is very far from +what the composer intended." + +[3] + +(Illustration: musical notation) + +Here M. Saint-Saens has written a passage from a piano concerto of +Mozart to illustrate how that composer wished the _non-legato_ to be +interpreted--namely, in a flute-like manner,--the piano repeating +textually the passages indicated to be played first by the flutes. + +Again he illustrates the same subject with a passage taken from a piano +and violin sonata of Beethoven. The _non-legato_ passages here are not +to be played on the violin in a way approaching the _staccato_, although +they are written as detached notes; and the piano part follows the +rendering of the violin. + +A final illustration is furnished in the "Turkish March" of Mozart. + +(Illustration: musical notation) + +The proper manner of writing the graceful _gruppetto_ is here +given--with an illustration following of how it is to be correctly +played, and how it is incorrectly executed. + +[5] Next is illustrated the two ways of playing the _mordant_. + +[4] Finally, are several examples of the _appoggiature,_--showing both +the way they are written, and the way they are to be executed. + +The last line of the music above is an example of how in Haendel the +rhythm as interpreted differs from that in which the passage is written. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Execution of Music, and +Principally of Ancient Music, by Camille Saint-Saens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE EXECUTION OF MUSIC *** + +***** This file should be named 30412.txt or 30412.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/4/1/30412/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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