[Hermann Ritter was born in Wismar, Mecklenburg, Germany, September 26th, 1849. and is regarded as one of the most gifted writers upon music of our times. In his youth he was a concert violinist of note. While studying at Heidelburg University, he evolved the idea of making a new instrument of the violin family which he named the "Viola Alta," contending that the proportions of the viola used in the string quartet were acoustically incorrect, He soon had many followers, and among his staunchest supporters were Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. The latter realized and appreciated his ability combined with his erudition, and frequently consulted him regarding the orchestration of his master works. In fact, Prof. Ritter became an attache of the Beyreuth Opera House, and was invaluable to Wagner during the presentation of the Niebelungcnlied. Many of his pupils have since been especially selected to play in the Beyreuth Opera Orchestra. Ritter studied at the Neue Akademie der Tonkunst and the Royal High School for music in Berlin, where he was a pupil of Joachim. He was also a close friend of Rubenstein. His best known work is his famous six volume "History of Music." This work is published only in German.

Considering Prof. Ritter's eminence and accomplishments, THE ETUDE feels especially honored in being able to present the following article, which deserves reading and rereading many times by all sincere music students. Written with the view of fixing the main outline of musical history well in the pupil's mind, Prof. Ritter has chosen the following as the ten most important epochs in musical history: 1. The Earliest Stage of Church Music (Bishop Ambrosius.) 2. The Epoch of Hucbald and d'Arezzo. 3. The Epoch of the Netherlanders. 4. The Epoch of Palestrina and His School. 5. The Epoch of the Rise of Opera. 6. The Epoch of the Classic Masters of Germany. 7. The Epoch of the Song and its classic master, Schubert. 5 The Epoch of the Musical Romanticists. 9. The Epoch of the Development of Program Music. 10. The Epoch of Richard Wagner. Translated by Miss F. Leonard.

It is evident that this series will prove of a nature that our readers will desire to preserve for permanent reference. -EDITOR'S NOTE.

JUST as in nature forms can be changed, just as in human life habits and customs must vary; so Art, the spiritual image of life, is ever subject to constant change. And the function of history is to show us in what manner developments have perfected themselves, how they have reached their culmination, only to make way in turn for some new development, The history of music also teaches us the changes in the feelings and moods of men, as well as in the forms in which they have been expressed. When we consider the development of music among the nations who have deeply concerned themselves with it, we observe that the art has been inseparably connected with their whole intellectual outlook. Any work of art must always be judged according to the intellectual and social life of its period, as well as by the peculiarities of the people or individual who created it. Life and art are intimately related. Therefore the forms of expression vary according to the moving impulses and ideals of the period in which they are given utterance.

In this way, therefore, we find different principles ruling in the various phases of the development of music. Thus, for instance, the flowering of the highest ideal of church music is represented by the two great masters, Bach and Palestrina, in whose music the sublime is combined with the true. The ideal of the greatest truth and the highest beauty is found in the epoch of Haydn and Mozart. The ideal of characteristic expression combined with the highest truth is to be found in Beethoven's last period, in Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner. Wherever among the contemporaries of these great masters we find truth lacking, there we find the baroque, the insincere style arising.

EARLY CHRISTIAN MUSIC.

We know that music became the language of the deepest emotions of life at a time when Christianity was the great temporal power of the world; and in the Christian church from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries developed each of the chief elements of music, as well as melodic and harmonic choral singing. Pope Gregory (about 600 A. D.) laid the foundations of a Diatonic System of Melody in his "Antiphonarium." The fundamental principles of harmony were systematized in the tenth century by Hucbald. Rhythm (mensural notes) came into its own through Franko of Cologne in the thirteenth century; and from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries, among the learned musicians of France, the first beginnings of counterpoint were initiated the counterpoint which from the fifteenth to the sixteenth centuries was to be further developed by the Netherlanders until finally, on Italian soil, in the music of the church, it blossomed to its finest flower in the music of Palestrina.

THE GREGORIAN CHANTS.

We must regard the diatonic style, as represented by the Gregorian chants and the works of Palestrina, as the principal characteristic of the music of the first fifteen centuries of the Christian era. On the other hand, the characteristics of the music of the middle ages (and of modern music also) are: 1. The use of the chromatic scale and enharmonic changes in addition to diatonic harmonies, and 2. Free counterpoint, as well as the highly differentiated use of the instruments of the orchestra, the technical possibilities of which had greatly expanded as they continued to do even during the nineteenth century. The psychology of the modern orchestra is already totally different from that of a hundred years ago. I consider that the technic of listening is also quite different from what was formerly required, just as national and individual consciousness has altered and the expression of it was changed.

Whoever has traced carefully the development of music in connection with the various epochs of general history will have observed the following general law: Each separate period of art undergoes gradual changes. We see its exponents ripen and rise gradually to a certain height, remain at this height for a time, and then gradually decline. The decline occurs when there is no longer necessity for renewed production, and when the highest proficiency in skill has been reached; that is, when skillful use of form, as well as use of the external technical means, can be learned mechanically and used in imitation merely. Form and technical means are not interesting in themselves. Only the content (the reality, the idea they express) is interesting.

When original genius is lacking, original content is usually lacking also. Moreover, it is a law in the development of music that all significant phenomena must struggle for recognition. Such phenomena arise from a deep inner necessity for expression; when this necessity has passed, then the phenomena disappear also, and new phenomena, corresponding to the changed spirit of the times, take the place of the earlier ones. This seldom happens, as I have said, without a struggle. Inseparably connected with the entire intellectual outlook of a people, and with the life and attitude of the individual, is the process of development of its musical life. In fact, we may consider it with reference to its environment.

At first we perceive music in the heart of the church, for from the beginning of the Christian era till the sixteenth century music as an art was found exclusively in the churches and convents. Then it appeared in worldly life, leaping directly from the churches to the theatre. From the theatre, in which the opera, as well as virtuosity in singing and in performance upon single instruments developed, it withdrew to the drawing-room (camera), resulting in the origin of chamber music. From the salon to the concert hall was the next step. Influenced by the modern national consciousness, it proceeded to the greater public concert halls and public gardens. In the various classes of human society, therefore, music was at first the privilege of the heads and scholars of the church (church music), then of the princes and nobles (opera and chamber music), until it finally became the common property of all the people (part songs, songs for single voice, instrumental music, opera, oratorio).

Moreover, the various means of expression employed by the tone-poets in the course of music's development are typical of the different epochs of style. In the period after the birth of Christ from Ambrosius and Gregory to Palestrina, church music was purely vocal in character. Song ruled and determined the style of all the music of this time. In the period marked by the works of Bach and Handel, the style created by the organ is recognizable throughout. The style of Gluck, Haydn, Mozart and the younger Beethoven is determined by the string instruments. The string quartet is the basis of the orchestra. The instrumental melody predominates even in the song of this period, especially in Italian opera. Piano and orchestra are still undeveloped. The piano is the instrument of the modern composers (Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Brahms, and Liszt). The combination of all the means of expression of orchestra and voices is characteristic of Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner, also of Richard Strauss. In song the declamatory style predominates (based on the syllabic proportions of the words). The orchestra is developed to its utmost limits, according to the peculiar character of each instrument.

NATIONAL INFLUENCES.

ITALY is to be considered the home of music, because in Italy the germs' of all musical forms developed. Later she yielded the supremacy to Germany, who in turn shared the fruits of her labors with other lands, as, for example, the Slav, Magyar and Scandinavian, as well as England and America. In the music of Handel and Mozart we must recognize both Italian and German influence; in Meyerbeer, German, Italian and French. It is interesting to observe how the three elements of music, melody, rhythm and harmony appear as the influences of the music of Italy, France and Germany. In the music of Italy, melodic style predominates in that of France, rhythmic style is strongest, and in that of Germany, harmonic, polyphonic and contrapuntal. No country except Italy has passed through so comprehensive a development of music as has Germany. The following plan will illustrate these facts:

1. GERMAN RELIGIOUS MUSIC-DRAMA.
The mystery plays of the Middle Ages. The Passion Music of Bach, Parsifal of Wagner.

2. GERMAN INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.
J. Sebastian Bach, Ph. E. Bach, J. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, R. Strauss, Bruckner, Mahler. (Suite, Sonata, Symphony, Symphonic Poem, Symphonic Ode.)

3. ORATORIOS.
Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, M. Bruch.

4. SONG.
Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Franz, Liszt, Wagner, Cornelius, Rubinstein (whose songs follow a pure German style), Brahms, Strauss, and Wolf.

5. GERMAN OPERA AND GERMAN NATIONAL MUSIC- DRAMA.
Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven, Spohr. Marschner, Wagner, R. Strauss, Schillings, Pfitzner, Humperdinck.

Two principles of musical style have worked out in the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; one based on treatment according to themes and conventional forms, the other on psychological treatment.

The music of the first style is expressed in conventional form and has no definite emotion (mood) as its content. The music of the second is derived from purely psychological principles; that is, this music is merely the expression of a mood, and the painting of a situation; its form is deduced from the principles of a poetical idea, and finds its justification and explanation by means of a program. All forms of music, excepting the oratorio, which has never passed beyond certain limits of convenience and tradition symphonic style, opera, piano forms and song-forms, have suffered an extension, a broadening of form, because of this new principle. It sought at the end of the nineteenth century new outlets in realism and symbolism, which involved a decided development of technic in the orchestra, as our youngest poet, Richard Strauss, has shown. He introduced new surprises in his works, compelling the instruments of the orchestra to obtain remarkable effects. He marks, with his orchestra, the culmination (up to the present time) of the wave of highly developed orchestra-technic.

AN IMPORTANT TRANSITION.

The first wave, as we know, was the transition from the old classic writers to the romantic school. Weber, closely followed by Mendelssohn, with reference to orchestra-technic, is an example. A special distinctive mark of modern music is the individual, the personal, the subjective quality, in contrast to the objective. A characteristic difference between the art-principle of the older classicists and that which developed in the romanticists, as well as with Berloz, Liszt and Wagncr, is the following: In considering the construction of a work of art, the classicists took care to produce a certain continuous flow of development in the thematic material according to the requirements of conventional forms, their contemporaries, more or less, following with a theory which they had studied out; in general, the artistic conception was objective (rather than other). With the later and latest composers the art principle lies in the inspiration, the intuition, and the artistic conception is more or less subjective, freeing the art of sounds from compulsory form. The ideals, the inner being of a time or an individual finds expression in any art, especially in music, the sphere of feeling. History suffices to show us how man is subject to continual change, and we must suppose that the law of external change persists in music also. This the development of music shows us.

If, now, we glance at the development of music from the beginning of the Christian era, that is, the process of growth of German, French and Italian music, we deduce the diagram, given at the bottom of this page.

Click on image above to load a larger version in a new window.

Let us now, from the history of the general course of music development, "select the ten most significant events or happenings which have made their influence felt even up to the present time.

1. THE EARLIEST STAGE OF CHURCH MUSIC.

The first great event of the growth of music in the early years of Christianity was the work of Ambrosius (Bishop. of Mailand, 333-397) and Gregory I (540-604). With the name Ambrosius we associate a series of Hymns, which are still sung today in the Catholic Church. He succeeded in preserving aesthetically the culture of the Catholic Church, in combining the antiphonal singing, customary in the Eastern Churches, with the elements of old Greek music, since his series of scales can be traced back to the old Greek modes. Of his system of notation we know nothing.

Gregory I extended widely the cultivation of Church music (which consisted exclusively of song), giving an impetus to unity of development which has persisted up to the present time. His chief work was the Anti-phonarium, the book which contained the antiphonal chants prescribed for use in the Church. The "Cantus Gregorianus," also called "Cantus Firmus," or fixed song, so called because it was to remain as guide and foundation in all church music, and is still in our own time the basis of the liturgy of the Catholic Church. The Gregorian Song was founded on eight series of tones (or scales), the so-called "Church Modes." It was always sung in unison. For notation, he used the "neumes," which did not fix the intervals definitely, but indicated the rising and falling of the melody. The "neumes" were merely an aid to memory (rememorationis subsidium).

2. THE EPOCH OF HUCBALD AND d'AREZZO.

The second great mark in the development of music was the work of Hucbald and Guido d'Arezzo. With Hucbald (born 840, in Belgium, died 932, in the Convent of St. Armand), we associate the first system of principles for polyphonic singing; with d'Arezzo (born about 1000, died 1037, as a Benedictine monk), the discovery of a system of notation which for the first time showed exactly the pitch of the notes. Hucbald laid down his rules for polyphonic song in his "Organum;" Arezzo showed his system in a work called Micrologus de disciplina artis musical

THE MASTERS OF NETHERLAND.

3. Epoch of the Netherlanders

While the principles of melody and harmony were developing in the head of the Christian Church for two thousand years after Christ, the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries bring new principles for the construction of music with reference to melody, harmony, rhythm and counterpart. The so-called Mensuralists, Marchettus von Padua, Franco of Cologne and Jean de Muris, not only advanced in harmony, hut discovered a notation (mensural notes) by which it was possible to indicate in writing a particular duration of the note. Through the work of these men came about the general development of our modern idea of consonance and dissonance. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, therefore, the composers of the Netherlands carried on the work of the preceding years, and influenced the development of music as far as our own day, because they furnished the materials, the stones for building up the art. The Netherlanders must be regarded as having established artistic counterpoint. From Northern France, England, Holland, Belgium and Germany, were the composers who shared in this important phase which lasted from the twelfth to the middle of the fifteenth centuries. Many forces worked together. Many theoretical and practical writers put their hands to the work, and many experiments of all sorts had to be made in order to create a wholly artistic system of contrapuntal writing, which in many cases took oversubtle and exaggerated forms.

In the period of the Netherlanders were developed the canon, augmentation and diminution of the theme, imitation and inversion of the theme, besides the beginnings of the fugue. The names of Dufay, Ockenkeim, Josquin de Pres, Gombert and Orlando di Lasso are the most important ones of the period. They prepared Italy for her musical independence. Their influence became especially strong in Rome and Venice (also in Naples), where the contrapuntal and polyphonic principles worked out in the field of 'a capela' song, so that we hear of a Roman school of composition, a Venetian school and a Neapolitan school.