A Complete History of Music: for Schools, Clubs, and Private ReadingBaltzell, W. J. (Winton James)
History
A Complete History of Music: for Schools, Clubs, and Private Reading
Baltzell, W. J. (Winton James)
Music -- History and criticism
=The Place of Intellect in Music=.—When we think of Music we have
in mind an organization of musical sounds into something definite,
something by design, not by chance, the product of the working of
the human mind with musical sounds and their effects upon the human
sensibilities. So long as man accepted the various phenomena of musical
sounds as isolated facts, there could be no art. But when he began
to use them to minister to his pleasure and to study them and their
effects, he began to form an art of music. The story of music is the
record of a series of attempts on the part of man to make artistic
use of the material which the ear accepts as capable of affording
pleasure and as useful in expressing the innermost feelings. The
raw material of music consists of the sounds considered musical, the
human voice, various musical instruments and the use of this material
in such ways as to affect the human sensibilities; that is, to make
an impression upon the hearer which shall coincide with that of the
original maker of the music who gives to his feelings expression in
music. We find in music, as in other branches, that man tries to reduce
phenomena to order and to definite form. The mass of musical material
is vague, incoherent, disorganized. Man seeks to devise ways to use it
intelligibly, and to promote esthetic pleasure. If musical sounds are
to be combined simultaneously or successively, this combination should
be in accordance with design, not haphazard, just as the builder of the
house or the temple puts together his material according to a regular
plan. Those who have been leaders in the Art of Music have labored in
two ways: to _extend_ the limits of expression in music, and to find
the means to _contain_ that expression. At one period stress is laid
on making music expressive, at another on the medium for conveying
expression to others, the latter being comprehended in the term Form.
In connection with this statement, the student will do well to remember
that every period of great intellectual activity, social or political,
reacted upon music and the other arts; to illustrate, we need but refer
to the formal, even artificial character of the music of the period
preceding the French Revolution and the freedom and vigor imparted by
the spirit of Romanticism which followed in the wake of that great
political movement, a difference strikingly illustrated in the music of
Haydn and Beethoven, Clementi and Schumann. There is also a constant
action and reaction of the various racial streams of power such as
the Aryan on the Semitic, East upon the West, Latin upon the Teuton,
Folk-music upon the Scholastic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account