Lectures on the History of Music: 5th

“In his fifth lecture on the history of music (instrumental music), Mr. Ritter sketched the progress of instrumental forms up to the time of Bach and Handel. He said that it would condense his lecture, as originally written, too much if he gave the whole development of instrumental music up to our own day. Mr. Ritter's second course of lectures will include and continue this subject; also the modern opera; Church music from the death of Palestrina to our own time; and an account of the progress of music in America, as based upon his own experience. This will fairly cover the ground. After mentioning the ancient forms of song, so early cultivated, Mr. Ritter spoke of the primitive construction of the few instruments used by the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, which were adapted only for dynamic effects, to enliven and mark the rhythm of sacred dances or triumphal marches, or to regulate the motion of the chorus. The Christians accepted these instruments, though at first averse to their introduction in churches. Mr. Ritter then described the ancient Irish harp, and Rotta or bruth (a primitive violin), as well as the rude instruments carried to the south of Europe. ‘But it was not until the general introduction of harmony, that men gifted with musical talent began, by means of new inventions, to perfect the mechanism of various instruments, and then made use of these inventions for artistic purposes.’ It is curious to hear that professional musicians at first disdained to compose for instruments, but left this to half educated amateurs.”

“It seems that these professional musicians formed regular corporations in some parts of Germany and France, and their laws were sanctioned by the king or count on whose domains they resided. The head of these men was called “the king of the pipers” or “king of the fiddlers.” At a little village in the south of France, near which Mr. Ritter's boyhood was passed, lived and died the last representative of these piper kings. The gradual adaptation of folk songs, as dance tunes, to the instruments, as well as the invention of the score or tablature, was then described. The way in which long sustained, singable tones were first divided into short ones, on account of the inability of most instruments to sustain long ones, was explained; this was called “note splitting” or “coloring” a melody; hence our modern term “coloration” for passages of short tones. An account was then given of the gradual perfection of the organ; of the invention of those instruments that preceded the modern pianoforte; with many curious anecdotes of artists and composers. Very amusing was the account of the lute, such a favorite with poets, who, unmusically ignorant of its comic peculiarities and defects, have shed a halo of traditionary glory about that instrument. Mr. Ritter, among a few examples of old fashioned dance forms, then played the striking instrumental accompaniment to the duel of Tancred and Clorinda, by Claudio Monteverde, ‘a remarkable effort of descriptive, dramatic music, and one of the most striking documents of early musical art.’ Then came an account of the perfection of string instruments by the great Italian makers, and sketches of the lives of such violinists and composers as Corelli, Geminiani, Tartini, etc., and the great harpsichord players, Scarlatti, Porpora, Couperin, Rameau, and others. It seems that after the beginning of the seventeenth century, the organ and the harpsichord obtained the supremacy among instruments. In speaking of the old organists, Mr. Ritter said:—“How simple and modest were the pretensions of these men, yet how deep and truthful are the works which they destined for the adornment of religious service It must have been only through an exceptional perseverance and application, coupled with great love and veneration for religion and their noble art, that they were able to create such fine and numerous works, for the method of instruction was then very complicated, and encumbered with unnecessary difficulties.” Mr. Ritter then spoke of the Gregorian chant as the foundation of all past great Catholic Church music, and the chorale as the groundwork of the Protestant school, and alluded to the style of music that is played and sung in our churches by amateur musicians, in a manner as unflattering as it is unfortunately just, not only of them, but also of some artists by profession, who ought to feel that ‘noblesse oblige.’ An amusing account was then given of the forms of composition fashionable in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which seem as comical to us as the polka, mazourka, light ballad, and other of our own superficial fashionable forms will appear to posterity; and a description was added of the way in which the really great composers created forms which bear the impress of the perennial youth of genius. A sketch was presented of the progress of orchestral music as a whole, up to the dawn of the modern German instrumental school.

”In closing the present course of lectures, Mr. Ritter spoke of the noble example of the great masters, whose lives of untiring labor, iron perseverance, and devoted industry, strike the student like a reproof of those young aspirants who, not seeing the honor and enjoyment which lie in work for its own sake, would fain dispense altogether with what they call “drudgery;” and reap their reward before they merit it. He quoted Goethe's well-known saying that genius is only another word for industry. He regretted that so few were to be found to imitate these great models; scarcely one who will satisfy his sense of duty (if he has such a sense) as an artist before he yields to pecuniary temptations. The great men are patient; they do not, they did not, attempt to become innovators before they had mastered the alphabet of their art; they did not set up for artists while yet scholars; nor did they besiege publishers before they were able to write with grammatical correctness. After giving one or two anecdotes of those self-supposed geniuses who create and dictate their own laws, and awaken too late from the delusive dream, Mr. Ritter concluded by asking how many of those who profess to be admirers—amateurs—of art, how many students, how many artists, pause on the way that leads to the temple of music, to reflect on the great minds that prepared that path for them? Minds that not seldom, amid the greatest trials and sufferings, poured out to all men the cup of delight which is so often emptied in ungrateful ignorance. Yet, without a sound knowledge of the historical development of art, no future progress, no broad culture, no solid foundation, and no great success, can possibly be attained by any artist.”