The Oxford History of Music
The Polyphonic Period. Part Jr. By H. E. Wooldridge. Second Edition revised by Percy C. Buck. The Romantic Period. By Edward Dannreuther. (Oxford University Press : London : Humphrey Milford. 17s. 6d. each.) Ass musicians-in England, and all people who without being 'musicians are really musical, owe a debt to the Oxford History of Music. Thirty years ago, when these volUmes first began to be published, they were the last word on their respective periods. They contained much original research, they printed long extracts of early music for the first time ; and as to the authors : Wooldridge, Parry, Dannreuther, Sir Henry Hadow and Mr. Fuller-Maitland—it was not so much that there were giants in the earth in those days as that there were in England scholarly musicians who kept themselves up to date in musical research, particularly such research as was published in German. The time has come for a new edition. There were three courses open to the editor : to have each volume revised by a competent hand ; to publish new volumes— interstitial volumes—to connect the older ones. and bring 'forward the results of thirty years' historical research ; or to reprint the volumes as they stood, with new prefaces. True to the spirit of compromise, all three solutions have been adopted. A valuable introductory volume has appeared ;- the second volume of Wooldridge's Polyphonic Period has been largely re-written ; while The Age of -Bach and Handel, The Viennese Period and The Romantic Period have been
reprinted as they stood. . _ Now, it is easy to be wise after the event ; but after the success of the new introductory volume which appeared in 1929, it might have been better to leave the .original volumes more or less as they were, and supplement them with new additional volumes ; there might, for instance, have been a third volume of the Polyphonic Period (instead of a revised second volume), and there might be (perhaps there will bel a new volume on the post-romantic period, from Brahms to Bartok, from the later Wagner to the latest Webern. The new edition of Wooldridge's Second volume would have made poor Wooldridge squirm ; but he would have been immensely interested in the new chapters which have been added : Song" by Mr. J. A. Westrupand itrumental Music by Mr. Gerald - - Cooper. The volume is notable for the recognition :1)+ all the
contributors, of the part played in the history of the period by Spain, as also for the use they have made of the new edition of Grove's Dictionary.
Of the later volumes which have been" reprinted as they stood, two have new prefaces ; but these prefaces are not nearly long enough. The reader might get Use idea that no new light had been thrown on the age of Bach and Handel, the Viennese period or the Romantic period. Yet one who kept up with musical research in Germany and Italy, and who had some acquaintance with Adler's Handbuch der IVIusikgeschichte, might well ask for more information from the Oxford History : on form in Bach' and Handel, for instance (on the lines the Royal Philharmonic Society's programme notes) ; on the origins of the sonata, since the claim of Bach's son,_ Carl Philip Emmanuel, has been dis- credited for nearly thirty years, and disproved by the researches of Torrefranea, while other research has shown that both the form and style of the classical sonata are derived from Italian opera.
If Italian opera is in the ancestry of the classical symphony, it is so no less in that of much music of the Romantic period. Dannreuther knew this. " In such melodies (he says, with regard to Chopin) there are frequent touches of Bellini—no note-for-note resemblance, but obvious spiritual connexion." He mentions several melodies to which this applies, including the trio of the Marche funebre. It would be a great pity to re-write Dannreuther or to correct the misprints which have delighted his attentive readers for thirty years. Here, once more, is the sonata for " piano and pianoforte " by Niels Cade (p. 311) ; was he thinking of the sprightly and not too difficult pieces for clarinet and pianoforte ? What might have been done for Dannreuther would have been to give him a " proper preface " ; and no preface is more proper to the ,Romantic period in music than an article by Professor Dent, on the influence of the pianoforte, which may be turned up in a back number of the American Musical Quarterly, vol. 2. The pianoforte was the typical instrument of the romantic composers because it was essentially an instrument for the awakening of associations. A transcription of musical ideas that already connoted certain definite associations was the typical method of romantic music. Chopin's Ballades and Nocturnes often depend on an etherealized recollection of Bellini's arias. " Liszt could seldom do more than transcribe Bellini ; Chopin's genius interprets him. If we have ever heard the operas sung, Liszt can recall the singer to our imagination ; Chopin goes further, makes us almost feel that not even Malibran herself could have suffused those tender melodies with an inspiration so enchanting." J. B. TREND.
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