Proceedings of the Musical Association, Volume 7 - 1880
- This volume was published under a former title. See this journal's title history.
Research Article
An Inquiry Into the Origin and Growth of Certain Musical Idioms and Expressions
- E. H. Turpin
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- 01 January 2020, pp. 1-18
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The title of my paper expresses the direction rather than the purpose of the observations I am indulgently permitted to offer for your consideration this evening. My proposition may be described as two-fold; in the first place I shall endeavour to show that original and soul-stirring music is not necessarily produced by the studied avoidance of accepted idioms, but rather by the skilful use of figures which have become recognised forms of the language of music; and in the second place it is my desire to protest that, accepting music as a modern art, we are too apt, in contemplating its comparatively recent achievements, to neglect the study of its primary impulses, which, having moved the hearts of all men in all ages, will ever remain the source of all that is true and strong.
A Neglected Musical Benefactor
- William H. Cummings
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- 01 January 2020, pp. 19-28
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In studying the story of the progress of music, as narrated by the historians of the art, I have looked in vain for some account of the rise and development of accompaniment music; and yet I can hardly imagine a more interesting subject for investigation than the history of the gradual development of accompaniment music specially written for keyboard instruments, represented in days gone past by the organ, the virginals, the spinet, the harpsichord, and the clavichord. Let us carry our minds back a couple of centuries. What had the performer of that time to guide him in playing accompaniments to vocal music on either of the instruments I have named? If fortunate, the accompanist might possibly have put before him a manuscript score of the music he had to accompany, but generally he would be compelled to content himself with a meagre skeleton in the shape of a treble and bass, and in both these cases he would be without the aid of figures to represent the harmonies which ought to be superposed on the bass; and further, in both cases, supposing the vocal bass-part ceased for a beat, or for any number of bars, an instrumental bass would then not be written at all. A very skilful musician at the organ or clavichord might possibly contrive to produce a decent accompaniment from a score, and might fairly represent the mind of the composer; but in the other case, where there was only a melody and a bass, he would be compelled to invent his own harmony, which might or might not be like that intended by the author.
A Few Words About Handel
- William H. Cummings
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- 01 January 2020, pp. 29-33
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My “few words about Handel” will chiefly bear on the question of the spelling of his name.
When some 300 years ago our national dramatist wrote the query, “What's in a name?” he little dreamt of the amount of disputation which would arise in after-times respecting the rightful spelling of his own. Probably many of you have seen the capital little essays on the spelling of Shakespeare's name which have been recently published by Mr. Halliwell-Phillips. Curiously, in the case of Shakespeare the momentous question is about the two letters e and a—and in respect to our great composer it is whether he shall be called Handel or Hendel.
The Principles of Musical Criticism
- John Stainer
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- 01 January 2020, pp. 35-52
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The subject on which I am to address you to-day is so wide that it would be impossible to do more than to give a very brief sketch of the whole, or to enter with some minuteness into the details of a special branch. I propose to take the latter course, and, in order to clear the ground before us, I will begin by stating what I do not propose to touch upon.
On Beauty of Touch and Tone: An Inquiry Into the Physiological and Mechanical Principles Involved in Their Cultivation
- A. Orlando Steed
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- 01 January 2020, pp. 53-74
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In most instruments the quality and variety of sound is so directly traceable to a difference in the way in which the motive power is applied, that it does seem but natural to suppose that the timbre of the pianoforte is amenable to similar influences. We need but listen to the first attempt of a learner to the violin, for example, to be convinced how entirely the timbre of the instrument is at the mercy of the performer; and although it is remarked commonly enough that beginners on the piano are not nearly so annoying to their hearers as those on most other instruments, still the unsatisfactory result of their first awkward attempts not unnaturally gives some colour to the very general impression that the actual tone of the piano depends upon the way in which the keys are struck. It is my belief, however, that this opinion is false, and that not only because by direct experiment I have myself failed to alter the character of the sound, unaccompanied with a corresponding change in its intensity, by any variety in the mode of striking the key which I could devise, but because a theoretical consideration of the matter must, I think, convince one of its utter impossibility. Thanks to the researches of Helmholtz, we are now provided with all the necessary knowledge of the principles which regulate the quality of the sounds of most musical instruments, and that of the piano has been clearly enough explained by him. I must not occupy your time by detailing the results of his researches—suffice it that every source of difference save one lies entirely within the domain of the manufacturer, and just as completely without that of the performer. The shape, size, weight, and hardness of the hammer; the place at which the string is struck; the density, rigidity, and elasticity of the string—all these are matters over which the player has no control whatever. The only exception to be found lies in length of time during which the hammer remains in contact with the string, in comparison with the periodic time of the prime tone. Helmholtz shows that the upper partial tones increase in intensity according to the rapidity with which the hammer quits the string after impact. He, indeed, gives a table illustrative of this for certain notes, which presents at a glance the relative intensities of the upper partials in cases where the hammer remains touching the string during three-sevenths, three-tenths, three-fourteenths, and three-twentieths of one vibration of the lowest partial, and thence demonstrates that the natural timbre of the instrument varies gradually from the lowest to the highest notes of its compass. He has not adverted to the fact that the quickness of rebound in the hammer must depend upon the force with which the key is struck, nor upon its consequence, that increased richness in the upper partials will therefore be accompanied by an increase in the loudness of the sound.
Introductory to the Study of Wagner's Comic Opera, “Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg.”
- C. A. Barry
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- 01 January 2020, pp. 75-98
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It is not many years since Wagner was frequently spoken of by his friends as the “best-abused musician in Europe.” And so he was; for in almost any circle of musicians mention of his name acted like a red rag upon a bull, and gave rise to all kinds of invectives. Happily for himself and his admirers, he has lived down prejudice, and certainly may now be regarded as the best protected, if not also the best paid among living composers. Throughout the civilised world his works have evoked a far larger amount of attention than those of any other composer have ever done during his lifetime. The interest in them may therefore be regarded as universal. Indeed, thus much has been admitted even by the most determined of his opponents. Under these circumstances I feel that I need not apologise, as I should have had to have done some few years ago, for having made choice of one of Wagner's operas as a subject to bring before the Musical Association. My excuse, if an excuse be needed, for giving the preference to “Die Meistersinger,” rests on the fact of its being one of those of Wagner's operas which have not yet been performed in this country, and on the good probability there seems to be of its being brought to a hearing in London at no distant date.
The Causes of the Rise in Orchestral Pitch
- W. H. Stone
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- 01 January 2020, pp. 99-116
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It was my pleasant duty to deliver a discourse at the Royal Institution, on Friday week last, on the general subject of musical pitch, and its mode of determination. Our excellent Secretary, who was there, was kind enough to say that he thought a practical application of the scientific principles then laid down might be interesting to this Society, and I propose to do what the short period allowed for lectures at the Royal Institution did not allow me to do, namely, to carry one degree further into the artistic department the principles then enunciated. It is no use, as was remarked to me by more than one distinguished musician present, telling us all this, unless you can give some rules by which to prevent discords and discrepancies. Now I shall endeavour to take up the tail end of that lecture, and fasten on it a still longer tail of a practical character. I have put up, however, the large diagram which served as a resumé in my former lecture, showing the methods of determining musical pitch. For many centuries there was no definite pitch; then the pitch settled down, and for a considerable period remained—during the time of Beethoven and Mozart, and many of our great writers—tolerably steady. With the increase of the orchestra—with the multiplication of the means of producing sound—there came a very rapid rise in pitch, and this rise has been so rapid that since the time of Handel, as has been shown by Mr. Ellis in his learned and valuable papers, it has gone up at least a semitone; nor is there any finality observable in this matter; it might seem as if the pitch would go on rising with the same expeditiousness from causes which are still in operation and which caused the present rise. We cannot go into that part of the subject. We have at last determined a standard. Of the various methods on the diagram, some of the latter seem so satisfactory that we may say that we have a pitch. We have a standard just as the French have their mètre; as the second is the measure of time; as there are now standards of electric measurement; so I think at last in some of the instruments here named, Scheibler's tonometer, Appunn's reed tonmesser, and Koenig's tuning-fork clock, we may be said to have a unit of measure like the British yard or the mètre.
On Some of the Underlying Principles of Structure in Musical Composition
- H. C. Banister
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- 01 January 2020, pp. 117-134
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My subject may seem, in title at least, technical and formal rather than aesthetic: having to do more with that which is outlined and made than with that which is inwrought and felt; with body and shape rather than with spirit and essence. So sorry, however, should I be for it to be thought that I approach the consideration of the beautiful art which we all love, in any of its richly varied aspects, with the spirit of a pedant, or as seeming to countenance the notion that music may be made or constructed merely, without being felt or inspired, that I must at the outset, as the truest introduction to the specialties of my subject, as well as to place myself right with the art and with my audience, say emphatically that, in proposing to myself to deal with some of the underlying principles of structure in musical composition, I wish to speak of structure as the expression of definite thought; as the result of that thought; as having to do with the form that the thought assumes, rather than with the shape or mould into which it is cast. Architecture has been termed “the poetry of mathematics”: that would not be said of building, which is not the expression of a poetical thought at all. So with music, the poetry of sound—or rather, perhaps, poetical feeling expressing itself through sound: the very form that it assumes is the resultant expression of the thought.
A Concise View of the Law of Copyright as Affecting Composers of Music
- F. Meadows White
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- 01 January 2020, pp. 135-167
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There are many aspects in which the subject of copyright might be regarded by the writer of a paper appointed to be read before this Association. It might be treated historically, and dressed with amusing anecdote; instances of bad or good fortune attending on certain well-known compositions might be recorded; lessons might be drawn from the high rewards obtained by the comic song or the dance tune, as compared with the poor financial results realised by the classical work of high intention and, it may be, of high achievement. Or, again, each composer or publisher might well and effectively occupy the attention of a meeting of the Association for the limited period allotted for discussion in treating this subject of copyright from the standpoint of his own special grievance or experience or criticism, and in offering for acceptance his own peculiar remedy or suggestion for amendment of the law. Or, again (to give as illustrations two points in the law of copyright so special in their character that they will need no further notice in this paper), the reader might treat the subject from the side of paradox. Eg. gr.: it is a maxim in the law of copyright that there can be no copyright in immoral publications: can there be immorality in music? Could we apply this maxim and deny copyright to a musical composition so trivial, so commonplace, or with so many consecutive fifths in it as to amount to musical immorality? Or again, the fifth section in the Copyright Act of 1842 empowers the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, on complaint that the proprietor of the copyright in any book (including printed music), after the death of its author, has refused to republish or allow the republication of the same, and that by reason of such refusal such book may be withheld from the public, to grant a license to the complainant to publish such book in such manner and subject to such conditions as they think fit; and the complainant may publish such book according to such license. Question raised: Would it be expedient to extend the principle of this provision to cases in the lifetime of the author, as, e.g., when the proprietor of the copyright in a musical composition has got possession of the plates and locked them up in his cellars, and refuses to reprint; and the composer, who sees in the publication of the work the passport to the recognition of his genius, laments the loss to the world of such a precious possession?
Front matter
RMI volume 7 Cover and Front matter
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- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 January 2020, p. f1
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