Chapter I: Preface

It is not the purpose of this work to write a treatise on instrumentation or to prepare a pedagogical analysis of orchestration only, but rather to trace the evolution of the orchestra and of orchestration in connection with the history of music proper. Special emphasis will be laid upon what may be termed the IMPELLING FORCES to which the development of orchestration is due. This necessitates a considerable repetition of familiar facts that do not lend themselves to further original treatment. The restatement of such facts, however, would seem to form an indispensable background for the main theme, which is thereby exposed with all its attending phases of logical evolution.

In addition to extended studies of orchestral scores themselves, the standard works of Berlioz, Gevaërt, Riemann, Parry, and others have, as a matter of course, been referred to. The subject under discussion has already been admirably handled by Lavoix in his voluminous work entitled "Histoire de L'Instrumentation," but it was unquestionably done through French glasses, and the scores of not one German romanticist are submitted to careful analysis beyond those of Weber and Wagner. "Parsifal" had not been produced at the time when Lavoix's book went to press, nor had such representative composers as Brahms, Saint-Saëns, Tschaikowsky, Dvo[vr]ák then won their full meed of recognition. It is obvious, therefore, that the orchestration especially of the nineteenth century offers a fertile field for further profitable research. Again, the present writer is not aware of the existence of any comprehensive work in the English language upon the _history_ of the orchestra and of orchestration.

Throughout these pages the achievements of the more prominent composers are set forth in such manner as to indicate not only the distinctive features of their orchestration but of their general creative ability as well. In each case, the general style of composition and its significance as a contribution to musical literature are first enlarged upon. This is followed by an examination of the differentiated treatment of the strings, the wood, the brass, presented in logical sequence. A final analysis is then made of the individual method of orchestration as a whole, together with its relative value in the evolution of orchestration.

In the Appendix to this book will be found a few musical illustrations selected from representative orchestral scores.

LOUIS ADOLPHE COERNE.

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A.
_April_ 30, 1905.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

It was inevitable that in an age marked like the present by specialization in all the arts and in all branches of learning as well, the need would one day be felt of a history of orchestration. In attempting to supply it with this book Dr. Coerne has filled a want in English musical literature. Of treatises devoted to the art of writing for the orchestra there is no lack. Berlioz, the greatest master of the art before Wagner, wrote such a treatise, which while it was still looked upon as in many respects a model, was revised and brought down to date by Richard Strauss; but invaluable as this treatise is and as are the more voluminous treatises of the Belgian Gevaërt, the German Hofmann and the Englishman Prout, they are after all study-books for the creative musician, and only by laborious comparison of their illustrative examples, or the scores of composers, can the historical inquirer learn aught of the evolution of the art to which they are devoted. Even then his view is restricted, practically, to the music composed since the closing decades of the eighteenth century. The explanation of this fact is that while the art of music is always spoken of as young in the handbooks, that of orchestration is much younger. The student of orchestration, say the teachers, can derive little benefit from a study of scores older than those of Haydn and Mozart because some of the instruments of their predecessors are obsolete and so is their manner of writing for the instruments still in use. This, however, brings small comfort to the historical investigator who is quite as desirous to know what the orchestra was like prior to Haydn and Mozart, and the Mannheim symphonists, as he is to learn the steps by which it reached its present marvellous efficiency. It is the help which it extends in this direction which makes the "Histoire de L'Instrumentation" of M. Lavoix, to which our author acknowledges indebtedness, valuable; but that work is accessible only to students who have knowledge of the French language.

Moreover, there are interesting signs of a return to some of the orchestral instruments which had fallen into disuse when the modern art of orchestration came into existence. It is not only a pious regard and reverence for Bach and Händel, especially the former, which is prompting conductors when performing their works to restore instruments to the orchestra which were considered hopelessly obsolete only a few decades ago, but also a growing appreciation of the fact that modern substitutes for them have largely failed of their mission. Two facts of large importance confront the careful observer of musical phenomena to-day: the art of composition has reached that degree of technical perfection, or high virtuoso-ship which in the history of all the arts introduces a decay of true creativeness. We have, therefore, on the one hand excessive admiration for technique _per se_, and on the other a growing reaction towards old ideals. Of this latter fact I thought I saw significant evidences in 1900 when as a member of the International Jury at the Paris Exposition new specimens of a considerable number of archaic musical instruments came into my hands for examination, among them a bass flute for the return of which Mr. Frederick Corder expresses an ardent longing in his admirable essay on Instrumentation in the new edition of Grove's "Dictionary of Music and Musicians." Since then, too, we have heard the harpsichord in our concert-rooms, seen the oboe d'amore adopted by Richard Strauss, the alto flute by Felix Weingartner, and observed the establishment in America as well as Europe of orchestral and chamber concerts in which music of the seventeenth and earlier centuries is played upon instruments for which it was written. We shall in all likelihood some day have to extend our treatises on orchestration to include some of the instruments now considered obsolete, and be grateful for all references to them in historical works like the present one.

Dr. Coerne, the author of this book, is an American composer born in Newark, N.J., who has achieved the distinction of having an opera of his writing performed in a European opera-house. His "Zenobia" was brought forward in Bremen on December 1, 1905. It was the first instance of the performance in Europe of a grand opera composed by a native of the United States. The score of this opera and the subject-matter of this book were accepted as a thesis by Harvard University which conferred the degree of Ph.D. on the author in June, 1905. It was the first time that the university bestowed the degree for special work in music.

H.E. KREHBIEL.

NEW YORK, _April_, 1908.

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN ORCHESTRATION