How to Appreciate Music, by Gustav Kobbé, a Project Gutenberg eBook

About this eBook

Author

Kobbé, Gustav, 1857-1918

Title

How to Appreciate Music

Credits

Produced by Mark C. Orton, Linda McKeown, monkeyclogs, Dan Horwood and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net

Language

English

LoC Class

MT: Music: Musical instruction and study, Composition

Subject

Music appreciation

Category

Text

eBook-No.

34610

Project Gutenberg

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34610

Release Date

December 9, 2010

Copyright

Public domain in the USA.

Contents

1. 1.HOW TO APPRECIATE MUSIC
2. 2.CONTENTS
3. 3.TABLE OF CONTENTS
4. 4.LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
5. 5.INTRODUCTION
6. 6.HOW TO APPRECIATE A PIANOFORTE RECITAL
7. 7.I — THE PIANOFORTE — The King of Instruments. — Music Under One’s Fingers. — Melody and Accompaniment on One Instrument. — Music’s Debt to the Pianoforte. — Its Lowly Origin. — A Poet’s Advice to His Musical Daughter. — The Clavichord. — The Harpsichord. — Piano and Forte. — All Depends on the Player. — Decorations That Do Not Beautify.
8. 8.II — BACH’S SERVICE TO MUSIC — Bach in Modern Music. — Harmony and Counterpoint. — What a Fugue Is. — The Fugue and the Virtuoso. — What Counterpoint Lacks. — The Mission of the Player. — Music as a Science. — Science versus Feeling. — That “Ear for Music.” — Bach and the Weather Bureau. — The Bacon, Not the Shakespeare, of Music. — What Wagner Learned from Bach. — The Language of an Epoch. — Bach in the Recital Hall. — Rubinstein and the “Triple Concerto.” — “The Well-Tempered Clavichord.” — A King’s Tribute to Bach.
9. 9.III — FROM FUGUE TO SONATA — Three Periods of Musical Development. — Rise of the Melodic School. — Scarlatti’s Importance as Composer and Virtuoso. — Rise of the Amateur. — Changes in Musical Taste. — Beethoven and the Epoch of the Sonata. — Beethoven’s Slow Development. — The Passing of the Sonata. — Orchestral Instead of Pianistic.
10. 10.IV — DAWN OF THE ROMANTIC PERIOD — What a Sonata Is. — How Beethoven Enlarged the Form. — His “Moonlight Sonata.” — Striving for Freedom. — The Beethoven Periods. — Sonatas Now Old-fashioned. — The First Romantic Composers. — Schubert’s Pianoforte Music. — Mendelssohn’s “Songs Without Words.”
11. 11.V — CHOPIN, THE POET OF THE PIANOFORTE — Tempo Rubato. — The Soul of the Pianoforte. — A Clear Melodic Line. — The Études. — Vigor, Passion, and Impetus. — The Préludes. — Nocturnes. — Chopin and Poe. — Waltzes and Mazurkas. — Liszt on the Mazurkas. — Other Works. — A Noble from Head to Foot.
12. 12.VI — SCHUMANN, THE “INTIMATE” — Poet, Bourgeois, and Philosopher. — “Carnaval” and “Kreisleriana.” — Thoughts of His Clara.
13. 13.VII — LISZT, THE GIANT AMONG VIRTUOSOS — Kissed by Beethoven. — Episode with Countess D’Agoult. — The Don Juan Fantasie. — Giant Strides in Virtuosity. — Sonata, Concertos and Rhapsodies. — How Liszt Played.
14. 14.VIII — WITH PADEREWSKI—A MODERN PIANIST ON TOUR — The “Piano Doctor.” — Pianofortes on Their Travels. — “Thawing Out” a Pianoforte.
15. 15.HOW TO APPRECIATE AN ORCHESTRAL CONCERT
16. 16.IX — DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORCHESTRA — Primitive Orchestral Efforts. — Beethoven and the Modern Orchestra. — How He Developed Orchestral Resources. — Beethoven and Wagner. — Berlioz, an Orchestral Juggler. — Wagner, Greatest of Orchestral Composers. — How Wagner Produces His Effects.
17. 17.X — INSTRUMENTS OF THE ORCHESTRA — The Prima Donna of the Orchestra. — Viola, Violoncello and Double Bass. — Dividing the String Band. — A Passage in “Die Walküre.” — The Woodwind. — The English Horn in “Tristan.” — Brass Instruments. — Richard Strauss’s Tribute to the Horn.
18. 18.XI — CONCERNING SYMPHONIES — Esthetic Purpose of the Symphony. — Seems to Hamper Modern Composers. — The Naive Symphonists. — Beethoven to the Fore. — Schubert’s Genius.
19. 19.XII — RICHARD STRAUSS AND HIS MUSIC — Originator of the Tone Poem. — Not a Juggler with the Orchestra. — Not Mere Bulk and Noise. — Life and Truth. — Literally Tone Dramas. — An Intellectual Force in Music. — Tribute to Wagner. — Richard Straussiana.
20. 20.XIII — A NOTE ON CHAMBER MUSIC
21. 21.HOW TO APPRECIATE VOCAL MUSIC
22. 22.XIV — SONGS AND SONG COMPOSERS — Too Poor to Buy Music Paper. — How the “Erlking” was Composed. — Finck on Schubert. — Schumann’s Individuality. — Phases of Franz’s Genius. — Self-Critical. — Brahms a Thinker in Music. — Grieg’s Originality. — Liszt’s Genius for Song.
23. 23.XV — ORATORIO — An Incongruous Art-Form. — Primitive Efforts. — Bach’s “Passion Music.” — Rockstro on Händel. — Mendelssohn’s Oratorios.
24. 24.XVI — OPERA AND MUSIC-DRAMA — Reforms by Gluck. — Comparative Popularity of Certain Operas. — Wagner’s Music-Dramas. — Wagner a Melodist. — Leading Motives not Mere Labels.

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