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Index
COVER TITLE PAGE CONTENTS HOW TO USE THIS EBOOK FOREWORD INTRODUCTION EARLY MUSIC • 1000–1400
Psalmody is the weapon of the monk • Plainchant, Anonymous Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la • Micrologus, Guido D’Arezzo We should sing psalms on a ten-string psaltery • Ordo Virtutum, Hildegard of Bingen To sing is to pray twice • Magnus liber organi, Léonin Tandaradei, sweetly sang the nightingale • Le Jeu de Robin et de Marion, Adam de la Halle Music is a science that makes you laugh, sing, and dance • Messe de Notre Dame, Guillaume de Machaut
RENAISSANCE • 1400–1600
Not a single piece of music composed before the last 40 years … is worth hearing • Missa L’homme armé, Guillaume Dufay Tongue, proclaim the mystery of the glorious body • Missa Pange lingua, Josquin Desprez Hear the voyce and prayer • Spem in alium, Thomas Tallis The eternal father of Italian music • Canticum Canticorum, Giovanni da Palestrina That is the nature of hymns—they make us want to repeat them • Great Service, William Byrd All the airs and madrigals … whisper softness • O Care, Thou Wilt Despatch Me, Thomas Weelkes This feast … did even ravish and stupefie all those strangers that never heard the like • Sonata pian’ e forte, Giovanni Gabrieli My lute, awake! • Lachrimae, John Dowland
BAROQUE • 1600–1750
One of the most magnificent and expensefull diversions • Euridice, Jacopo Peri Music must move the whole man • Vespers, Claudio Monteverdi Lully merits with good reason the title of prince of French musicians • Le bourgeois gentilhomme, Jean-Baptiste Lully He had a peculiar genius to express the energy of English words • Dido and Aeneas, Henry Purcell The object of churches is not the bawling of choristers • Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, Dieterich Buxtehude The new Orpheus of our times • Concerti grossi, Op. 6, Arcangelo Corelli The uniting of the French and Italian styles must create the perfection of music • Pièces de clavecin, François Couperin What the English like is something they can beat time to • Water Music, George Frideric Handel Do not expect any profound intention, but rather an ingenious jesting with art • Sonata in D minor, K. 9 “Pastorale,” • Domenico Scarlatti Spring has come, and with it gaiety • The Four Seasons, Antonio Vivaldi The end and final aim of all music should be none other than the glory of God • St. Matthew Passion, Johann Sebastian Bach Telemann is above all praise • Musique de table, Georg Philipp Telemann His whole heart and soul were in his harpsichord • Hippolyte et Aricie, Jean-Philippe Rameau Bach is like an astronomer, who … finds the most wonderful stars • The Art of Fugue, Johann Sebastian Bach
CLASSICAL • 1750–1820
Its forte is like thunder, its crescendo a cataract • Symphony in E-flat major, Op. 11, No. 3, Johann Stamitz The most moving act in all of opera • Orfeo ed Euridice, Christoph Willibald Gluck We must play from the soul, not like trained birds • Flute Concerto in A major, WQ 168, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach I was forced to become original • String Quartet in C major, Op. 54, No. 2, Hoboken III:57, Joseph Haydn The most tremendous genius raised Mozart above all masters • Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart The object of the piano is to substitute one performer for a whole orchestra • Piano Sonata in F-sharp minor, Op. 25, No. 5, Muzio Clementi We walk, by the power of music, in joy through death’s dark night • The Magic Flute, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart I live only in my notes • Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, “Eroica,” Op. 55, Ludwig van Beethoven
ROMANTIC • 1810–1920
The violinist is that peculiarly human phenomenon … half tiger, half poet • 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1, Niccolò Paganini Give me a laundry list, and I will set it to music • The Barber of Seville, Gioachino Rossini Music is truly love itself • Der Freischütz, Carl Maria von Weber No one feels another’s grief, no one understands another’s joy • Die schöne Müllerin, Franz Schubert Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear • String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131, Ludwig van Beethoven Instrumentation is at the head of the march • Symphonie fantastique, Hector Berlioz Simplicity is the final achievement • Préludes, Frédéric Chopin My symphonies would have reached Opus 100 if I had written them down • Symphony No. 1 (The “Spring” Symphony), Robert Schumann The last note was drowned … in a unanimous volley of plaudits • Elijah, Felix Mendelssohn I love Italian opera—it’s so reckless • La traviata, Giuseppe Verdi Who holds the devil, let him hold him well • Faust Symphony, Franz Liszt And the dancers whirl around gaily in the waltz’s giddy mazes • The Blue Danube, Johann Strauss II I live in music like a fish in water • Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Camille Saint-Saëns Opera must make people weep, feel horrified, die • The Ring Cycle, Richard Wagner He … comes as if sent straight from God • Symphony No. 1, Johannes Brahms The notes dance up there on the stage • The Nutcracker, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything • Also sprach Zarathustra, Richard Strauss Emotional art is a kind of illness • Tosca, Giacomo Puccini If a composer could say what he had to say in words, he would not bother saying it in music • Das Lied von der Erde, Gustav Mahler
NATIONALISM • 1830–1920
My fatherland means more to me than anything else • The Bartered Bride, Bedřich Smetana Mussorgsky typifies the genius of Russia • Pictures at an Exhibition, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky I am sure my music has a taste of cod fish in it • Peer Gynt, Edvard Grieg I wanted to do something different • Requiem, Gabriel Fauré The music of the people is like a rare and lovely flower • Symphony No. 9, Antonín Dvořák Music is a language of the intangible • Woodland Sketches, Edward MacDowell The art of music above all the other arts is expression of the soul • The Dream of Gerontius, Edward Elgar I am a slave to my themes, and submit to their demands • Finlandia, Jean Sibelius Spanish music with a universal accent • Iberia, Isaac Albéniz A wonderful maze of rhythmical dexterities • El sombrero de tres picos, Manuel de Falla
MODERN • 1900–1950
I go to see the shadow you have become • Préude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Claude Debussy I want women to turn their minds to big and difficult jobs • The Wreckers, Ethel Smyth An audience shouldn’t listen with complacency • Pierrot lunaire, Op. 21, Arnold Schoenberg I haven’t understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it • Le Sacre du printemps, Igor Stravinsky And ever winging up and up, our valley is his golden cup • The Lark Ascending, Ralph Vaughan Williams Stand up and take your dissonance like a man • Symphony No. 4, Charles Edward Ives I have never written a note I didn’t mean • Parade, Erik Satie Life is a lot like jazz … it’s better when you improvise • Rhapsody in Blue, George Gershwin A mad extravaganza at the edge of the abyss • Les Biches, Francis Poulenc I come with the youthful spirit of my country, with youthful music • Sinfonietta, Leoš Janáček Musically, there is not a single center of gravity in this piece • Symphonie, Op. 21, Anton von Webern The only love affair I ever had was with music • Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, Maurice Ravel Science alone can infuse music with youthful vigor • Ionisation, Edgard Varèse A nation creates music. The composer only arranges it • String Quartet No. 6, Béla Viktor János Bartók I detest imitation. I detest hackneyed devices • Romeo and Juliet, Sergei Prokofiev Balinese music retained a rhythmic vitality both primitive and joyous • Tabuh-Tabuhan, Colin McPhee Real music is always revolutionary • Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47, Dmitri Shostakovich My music is natural, like a waterfall • Bachianas brasileiras, Heitor Villa-Lobos Never was I listened to with such rapt attention and comprehension • Quartet for the End of Time, Olivier Messiaen I must create order out of chaos • A Child of Our Time, Michael Tippett The music is so knit … that it takes you in very strong hands and leads you into its own world • Appalachian Spring, Aaron Copland Composing is like driving down a foggy road • Peter Grimes, Benjamin Britten
CONTEMPORARY
Sound is the vocabulary of nature • Symphonie pour un homme seul, Pierre Schaeffer/Pierre Henry I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas; I’m frightened of the old ones • 4´33´´, John Cage He has changed our view of musical time and form • Gruppen, Karlheinz Stockhausen The role of the musician … is perpetual exploration • Pithoprakta, Iannis Xenakis Close communion with the people is the natural soil nourishing all my work • Spartacus, Aram Khachaturian I was struck by the emotional charge of the work • Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, Krzysztof Penderecki Once you become an ism, what you’re doing is dead • In C, Terry Riley I desire to carve … a single painful tone as intense as silence itself • November Steps, Toru Takemitsu In music … things don’t get better or worse: they evolve and transform themselves • Sinfonia, Luciano Berio If you tell me a lie, let it be a black lie • Eight Songs for a Mad King, Peter Maxwell Davies The process of substituting beats for rests • Six Pianos, Steve Reich We were so far ahead … because everyone else stayed so far behind • Einstein on the Beach, Philip Glass This must be the first purpose of art … to change us • Apocalypsis, R. Murray Schafer I could start out from the chaos and create order in it • Fourth Symphony, Witold Lutosławski Volcanic, expansive, dazzling—and obsessive • Études, Gyorgy Ligeti My music is written for ears • L’Amour de loin, Kaija Saariaho Blue … like the sky. Where all possibilities soar • blue cathedral, Jennifer Higdon The music uses simple building blocks and grows organically from there … • In Seven Days, Thomas Adès This is the core of who we are and what we need to be • Alleluia, Eric Whitacre
DIRECTORY GLOSSARY QUOTE ATTRIBUTIONS CONTRIBUTORS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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