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+<title>
+  The Project Gutenberg eBook of On The Execution of
+Music, and Principally of Ancient Music, by M. Camille Saint-Saëns.
+</title>
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+<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>&amp; 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&mdash;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,&mdash;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&mdash;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,"&mdash;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,&mdash;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&mdash;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,&mdash;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,&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;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"&mdash;and the actually
+correct way of interpreting and playing it; (b) a passage from the
+scherzo of Mendelssohn's string quartet,&mdash;to show how a gay subject can
+be treated in the minor mood&mdash;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&mdash;namely, in a flute-like manner,&mdash;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&mdash;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>&mdash;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>
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author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 19:53:44 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 19:53:44 -0700
commit	a1e691d8349f8ac4b857b73de32e25c843c42f63 (patch)
tree	94da13993ddde79465a54496474c9c27241aaa96 /30412-h