A History of Music |
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ancient artistic aulos B-flat Bach became Beethoven began Brahms called Charles Villiers Stanford chief Chinese choral church clef composer composition Concerto contemporaries developed diatonic diatonic scale discant Dorian early Egyptian England English enharmonic existence faburden fact folk-music folk-song Franz French German Giovanni Gluck Greek Handel harmony Haydn Henry Hucbald instrument invention Italian Italy Johann John Josquin kithara known later Liszt Luca Marenzio madrigals master melody ment Meyerbeer modern modes Mozart musical history musicians neumes never notation notes octave opera orchestral organ organist organum original overture Palestrina pianoforte pipe pitch Plagal plain-song PLATE played player poems probably produced pupil Purcell rhythm sackbuts scale Schumann secular semitone shawms singers singing sixteenth century Sonata songs sound style success Sumer is icumen sung Symphony tetrachord tion trumpets tune violin vocal voice Wagner Wilbye William words writing written wrote
Popular passages
Page 296 - I call yon conscious clouds to witness, Could I pursue the bias of my soul, All friends, all right of parents, I'd disclaim, And thou, my Whiskerandos, shouldst be father And mother, brother, cousin, uncle, aunt, And friend to me!
Page 145 - This litel child, his litel book lerninge As he sat in the scole at his prymer, He Alma redemptoris herde singe, As children lerned hir antiphoner; And, as he dorste, he drough him ner and ner, And herkned ay the wordes and the note, Til he the firste vers coude al by rote.
Page 315 - that it was not only necessary to set his text to music which was pleasing in itself, but to invent melodies in such close alliance with the words that the two things become indistinguishable. ... In this respect, Sullivan did more for the English stage than any musician of his time.
Page 139 - Take a pair of sparkling eyes ' (allegro molto) ; and for his alto part fitting in as much as he could of' Tipperary ' or ' Onward, Christian soldiers,' or both." This strange state of things was finally checked by a Papal Decree of 1322, which insisted on the original Plainsong not being unduly obscured, though a school of theorists soon successfully reconciled the delightful novelty of thirds and sixths with the new ordinance. And thus the ground was prepared...
Page 305 - ... Orchestra, which, reflecting to a certain extent although they have done the advantages derived from the national movements in other countries, have apparently failed to create any realisation of the underlying lesson for ourselves. Scotland has still to learn the truth of what Cecil Forsyth says : " It must be confessed that in almost every generation there are two classes of men working and talking in opposition to each other — the nationalists and the denationalists. And the artistic health...
Page 275 - Contemporary with all these simple-minded men of high ideals, there was living a composer of vastly different stripe, clever to his finger-tips, opportunist of the deepest dye, cultivated, ambitious, and a master of his craft ; a composer with great conceptions to his credit, who nevertheless has never gained the respect of great musicians, because he never hesitated to sacrifice principle to gain success : Jacob Meyer Beer, a name which he afterwards denationalized into Giacomo Meyerbeer, b.
Page 207 - It is not the work of any one man or of any one age. It is the result of the study, of the experience, and of the knowledge of many men in many ages. It is not merely a creation; it is a growth.
Page 207 - ... collectors, when it finds its way into printed books) and yet is one of the most permanent things in the world. It is not the work of any one man or of any one period, though it can usually be employed for artistic purposes by composers of all periods. It is purely melodic ; harmonic only by accident. It is not self-existent ; but exists for one of the two purposes, poetry or dancing. It is an agglutination formed by the subconscious artistic mind of a nation. But though a dozen generations and...
Page 145 - On schelves couched at his beddes heed, His presse i-covered with a faldyng reed. And al above ther lay a gay sawtrye, On which he made a-nightes melodye, So swetely, that al the chambur rang: And Angelus ad virginem he sang.
Page 155 - The characteristic of this whole group is an aversion from the frightful mechanical ingenuities of Josquin and his fellow-workers. This aversion becomes more noticeable in the group of men that immediately succeeded them. And we may be thankful that it was so. For these men cleared away the choking masses of blind-weed that lay on the foot-hills leading upwards to the heights of Palestrina.4 This is extraordinary for three reasons. First of all, it is historically inaccurate. The work of Josquin...