MUSIC.
School of Practical Composition. By Carl Cwrny. Translated by John Bishop.
This is a large and expensive work, but its value is in proportion to its size and costliness. It embraces a wide field of instruction, which, though not wholly untrodden, has hitherto been very incompletely surveyed. The previous existing treatises on composition have for their subject the theory of musical sound, the principles of melody, and the laws of harmony or counterpoint in all its various kinds. They show how to construct phrases or sentences in one or more parts; but upon the construction and forms of entire pieces they are either silent or treat the matter slightly and inci- dentally. They teach the grammar of music, but its rhetoric, or tosthetics, they scarcely touch. M. Czerny says in his preface, with perfect truth, that "even with the best-grounded knowledge of harmony and pure com- position, the pupil is still ignorant of the forms which the different pieces must assume, and which, in music in general and in that for single instru- ments in particular, are practicable and usual: and in no treatise on thoronghbass that has yet appeared, has the manner of constructing a sonata, a variation, a quartet, a symphony, or even a waltz, been funda- mentally described."
To supply this desideratum is the object of the present work. It pre- supposes, on the part of those for whom it is designed, all the knowledge usually imparted by treatises on composition,—a familiarity, namely, with the rules of harmony, modulation, fugue, canon, and every species of single and double counterpoint; and it proceeds to exhibit to the student the modes in which his musical ideas may be developed and expanded into re- gular and symmetrical pieces in every form which the art recognizes. The work also embraces the art of instrumentation, or the art of employing and combining the various instruments of the orchestra, which occupies an en- tire volume of the three whereof the book consists.
It is sometimes contended that an adherence to established forms of com- position precludes invention, and restrains the freedom of thought which produces originality; and the rhapsodies of the modern school, void of shape and symmetry, show that such an opinion is abundantly acted upon by our aspirants to renown. But this is a great and a fatal error. " Ori- ginality in the arts," says a musical writer,* " consists in the novelty of the combinations into which the artist throws known materials. The archi- tect, for example, creates an edifice entirely new in its general aspect, by a new disposition of those objects which are held to be constituent parts of all buildings of its class. Whatever may be its magnitude or complexity, its porticoes, its pediments, its pillars, its pilasters, must all be modelled accord- ing to forms and proportions which are prescribed by the rules of the art. If each of these parts is properly introduced with a view to its particular func- tion, and also with a view to the site and purpose of the building, the archi- tecture will be pure and beautiful: if the parts are so combined as to produce a general aspect different from that of any existing edifice, the architecture will be original. If the architect, in the wantonness of imagination, throw together the elementary parts of the architecture of different orders, differ- ent ages, and different countries—if he blend the Grecian portico, the Gothic arch, the cupola, and the minaret—he will produce an architectural chimera, which, however monstrous, may possess a certain wild and fan- tastic beauty, like the fictions of the poets or arabesques of the painters. But endeavour to imagine a building which shall be new in all its parts as well as its entire form—a building not composed of the parts belonging to any order of architecture; and, if it is possible to imagine such a thing, it will be a mere mass of deformity." " The composer," says M. Czerny in the work before us," must betimes devote the most zealous assiduity to the study of the theory of music, so as to imbue himself not only with the terms but also with the spirit thereof, and that so completely as to become to him, as it were, second nature. Not less important, however, is the art of duly disposing his ideas, and of giving to pieces that form which answers to their object, and makes them clear and interesting to the hearers. These forms are by no means of arbitrary creation: they were invented, improved, and extended, by degrees and in the course of time, by distinguished geniuses; and the approbation and acknowledgment of a refined world, through several generations, have stamped them with the seal of im- perishableness. They depend as much on natural laws as those rules by which the painter must dispose of his groups and figures, the architect his pillars and columns, and the poet the incidents of his narration or his drama. The extension or entire abolition of these regular limits could only be permitted, even to the greatest genius, after he had sufficiently exercised himself in the same and become accomplished therein. But even la this case it is always a hazardous undertaking for the composer; as the present age in the first instance, and afterwards futurity, decide whether these innovations are actually to be considered of real advantage to the art."
M. Czerny sets out by showing the form and construction of simple themes of one and two strains, explaining the principles of modulation and rhythm which are applicable to them. He proceeds to the various kinds of variations on a given theme; and then enters upon the subject of the Sonata, which he treats with great fulness and minuteness. This, indeed, is a subject of paramount importance; for the sonata is the type of almost every species of instrumental composition. The form of the sonata, esta- blished even in the days of Corelli, has ever since remained fundamentally the same, though it has been gradually expanded by a succession of great Hogarth, History of Music.
masters, till it has reached its utmost development in the works of Beetho- ven. M. Czerny enumerates the different movements of which the sonata generally consists, and then taking each movement separately, examines the rules which have been adopted with respect to its theme, its course of modulation, its collateral subjects, and the parts of which it consists. Ills observations are illustrated by copious examples from the sonatas of the greatest masters, and are dictated by taste and sound judgment. He is careful to guard the student against the prevailing abuse of modulation. " In how sparing and well-directed," he says, "yet effective and surprising a manner, the classical composers have employed modulation! Whilst at present, in many new compositions, one key supplants another, one disso- nance follows another, and even in a single movement all the twenty-faux keys and all possible chords seem insufficent for many young composers, in order to produce the formless, overstrained, frightfully-somidiug, and scarcely practicable manufacture! Were this manner, which now so often predominates, to become general, it would be the surest way to create dis- gust and cause the world to abhor music."
The author then considers the peculiar principles of form and construc- tion which are applicable to the various classes of instrumental music; to the duet, trio, quartet, quintet, concerto, fantasia, &c.—every species, in short, from the waltz and galop to the grand symphony. He next pro- ceeds to vocal music, which he treats in a similar manner and with similar completeness; and his last volume, as we have already said, is entirely occupied with the art of instrumentation. It contains an explanation of the nature, scale, and properties of each several instrument, and of the best and most effective modes of using them as constituent parts of an orchestra, not only in purely instrumental pieces but in the accompaniment of every species of vocal music. This volume is enriched with a copious selection of orchestral scores, which are the more valuable as full scores of great works are less easily obtained in this country than any other kind of music. In- deed, the amplitude and beauty of the illustrations throughout the whole work greatly enhance its value. This work will be of the highest utility to the student of composition. It will furnish him with a great body of general principles and rules de- duced from and illustrated by the works of the greatest masters; and it will guide and assist him in his own examination and study of the purest models of art.
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