very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish Government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established Government. All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above descriptions may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust dominion. Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts... Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened... Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and Morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great Nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt, that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages, which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its Virtue? From the "Farewell Address." Orchestral Music Music lovers of Pittsburgh have no reason, this year, to complain of a lack of opportunity to hear orchestral music. The number of visiting orchestras of recognized standard as leaders among the organizations of this country has been unusual and the opportunity for study and enjoyment correspondingly great. The Library can contribute something to the understanding and enjoyment of this music in its books, both those which consider orchestral music from the standpoint of the trained musician and those which are written for the intelligent but untrained music lover. It has also orchestral scores which may be borrowed just as books are borrowed. According to Benjamin Lambord in "The Orchestra and Orchestral Music" which is published as one volume of the series "The Art of Music," issued under the general editorship of Daniel Gregory Mason, it is as far back as "in the traces of Egyptian civilization that we find the real beginnings of our musical history and it will be remembered that two instruments which are depicted most in the monuments of that nation are the harp and the so-called flute." It may be interesting to those who are not familiar with the history of the development of orchestras, to read a sketch of the history, taken from the account in W. J. Henderson's "The Orchestra and Orchestral Music." The orchestra of to-day is the outcome of a long series of developments. In a general manner it may be said that the first combinations of instruments were without special purpose... For several centuries the whole labor of artistic composers was directed toward the production of unaccompanied church music. The centuries preceding the seventeenth produced little, if any, purely instrumental music. There were some compositions for clavichord, one of the precursors of the piano, and many for the organ; but these were wholly modelled on the great contrapuntal choral works of the church. The style was similar, and the method of development of musical ideas was the same. When these old composers first wrote for small combinations of instruments, they produced works which could be sung just as readily as they could be played; and, indeed, it was not uncommon for them to write over their compositions, "Da cantare e sonare"-"to sing or to play." When the thing was sung it was "cantata," and when it was played it was "sonata." But these early "sonatas" were in no respect like those of Beethoven. The manner of composing for the orchestra naturally developed side by side with an appreciation of the true functions and relations of the various instruments. It is impossible to separate the two proc esses... Modern orchestration owes the kaleidoscopic glories of its instrumental coloring to the mastery which composers have attained over the characteristics of the various instruments. One effect of the long series of experiments made by their predecessors was the establishment of the constitution of the orchestra itself, as well as of the methods of writing for it. As composers came to understand better the nature of each individual instrument, they also acquired a certainty as to the proper place of each in the general scheme. Those which were unnecessary or feeble were set aside, and the inevitable selection and survival of the fittest followed... In the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries the forerunners of many of the instruments of the modern orchestra were in use in Europe... The first compositions for groups of instruments resembled our chamber music rather than our orchestral compositions... The modern orchestra really began to take shape toward the end of the sixteenth century in pieces of dramatic form, the precursors of the modern opera... The foundation of the modern orchestra may fairly be attributed to Claudio Monteverde, born at Cremona, 1568, died in Venice, 1643. He was distinctively an operatic writer, and it was in the search after dramatic effects that he discovered the relative values of some of the important instruments, and invented some of the most familiar orchestral devices... The constitution of the orchestra in the early part of the eighteenth century...had reached the basis on which it now rests, except for the fact that the harpsichord was still used. There was, however, a complete and well-organized body of strings, similar to that which we have to-day. The violoncello alone had not attained its true position... Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) is credited with being the father of the symphony, and he established the real basis of the modern orchestra... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) applied his amazing genius to the development of the orchestra, as well as to all other departments of musical art. His work was rather that of exploring the capacities of the instruments in use than adding new ones to the extant list. That was in keeping with Mozart's entire career. He was not a reformer; he took what he found and put genuine life unto it... The development of the orchestra in the hands of the greatest of all symphonic composers, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), was of immense importance. Beethoven did not add greatly to the array of instruments, but he demonstrated the true relationships of the various bodies, and he enlarged them and their scope according to his desire for greater utterance... When the romantic writers began to advance along the path opened by Beethoven and to seek for broader and more influential emotional expression, they introduced one or two more instruments for special effects. The English horn was known to Bach in its primitive form of oboe da caccia... Modern symphonic writers use it freely. Its employment in their music is probably due to the demonstration of its utility by the eminent French composer, Hector Berlioz (1803–69), who had a truly wonderful insight into the powers of all orchestral instruments, and who laid down the principles of the post-Beethovenian style of orchestral writing... The proportion of power and the balance of tone in the orchestra are preserved by having more stringed than wind instruments. It requires many violins and basses to balance the wood and brass in a forte passage, and, furthermore, the strings themselves lack solidity if there are only a few... The music-lover who listens to orchestral music of the classic period must not expect anything but a clear and perspicuous presentation of music for its own sake. Sunny transparency is the chief characteristic of the instrumentation of Haydn and Mozart, while the technical construction of their works makes it incumbent upon the listener to follow the purely musical working-out of the subjects announced. The instrumental color-scheme is neither wide nor brilliant, but it is as admirably adapted to the subject-matter as the subdued greens of Corot are to his peaceful bucolic scenes. To appreciate thoroughly the works of Haydn and Mozart a music-lover should have the fundamental principles of musical form at his fingers' ends, and he should know the voices of the instruments. The rest is child's play. The knowledge of musical form is indispensable to the right enjoyment of all music, but it is peculiarly necessary in these classic works, in which pure beauty of form was the ultimate object... The observant music-lover will find, I think, that the development of orchestration has been perfectly normal, and that the instrumentation of each period is perfectly fitted to its music. A symphony of Mozart orchestrated in the Richard Strauss style would be a tinted Venus; while a tone poem of Strauss scored à la Mozart would be like one of Cropsey's autumn landscapes, reduced to the dead level of a pen-and-ink drawing. It is largely because of this organic union between music and its orchestral garb that the amateur ought to strive to understand the nature and purpose of orchestration. The addition to his enjoyment of all orchestral music will be far more than sufficient to pay for the labor of the study. Prices of Library Publications The list of "Publications of the Library Now in Print" at the back of this Bulletin gives the price of each. Any publication not marked in that list will be sent postpaid on receipt of five cents. New Periodicals The following periodicals have recently been added to the list of those regularly received in the Periodical Room: Boston City Club Bulletin. Comforter. Portland, Ore. Harvard Law Review. Cambridge, Mass. Journal of Religion. Chicago. New Near East. New York. Our Dumb Animals. Boston. Pacific Review. Seattle, Wash. Pennsylvania Progress. Harrisburg. Russian Information Bureau in the U. S. Bulletin. New York. |