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 Work of the Gallo-Belgic School=.—We note that many of the new
ideas came into being at this time, all of them, however, tending
toward the arranging of material or the preparing of it for the
emotional style. The Canon, and the principle of Imitation, developed
a set of strict rules which tended to produce more adequate command
of material and assisted in shaping the Fugue; though we, in our
own day, regard these rules as positively detrimental to the real
expression of emotion, yet they were necessary adjuncts to the real
command of _technic_. With Imitation came Counterpoint of a more
highly developed form; an inevitable step toward the fugal style of
the later polyphonic periods. And lastly came a use of _Folk-music
melodies_ and the _Leading Tone_, important because they foreshadow the
abandonment of the old Church Modes, and the _adoption of the Natural
Scale_. This marks the important point in the Gallo-Belgic school;
for with the introduction of the Natural Scale there came increasing
tendency for emotional expression, which could never have occurred had
the Church Modes retained their former position in music. The idea
of this preparation of material for emotional development cannot be
emphasized too strongly. Upon the Gallo-Belgic school rested the burden
of preparing this material for the later schools, so that these could
demonstrate to the world that while polyphonic music could not be
surpassed as a means of expressing certain impersonal, almost religious
emotions, it could not express to the fullest, the intimate, personal,
emotional ideas of the romantic composers.
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