Suum cuique; essays in music

Front matter

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE

SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND

THE GIFT OF

Prefatory Note

The articles forming this book have been reprinted by courteous permission of the original publishers and practically without change. That will account for inconsistencies of opinion, if such there be. I hope that to be the case, since chronic consistency is a virtue in mummies only. At any rate, no attempt was made to adjust earlier to later views. "Paris versions" are always anachronistic, even if better.

Some readers may miss a reprint of such historical essays as that on " Early American Operas," occasionally confused with my book on "Early Opera in America." They are reserved for eventual publication in a second volume of selected assays.

To Dr. Theodore Baker my hearty thanks are due for seeing the book through the press and for his masterly atmospheric translation of the German articles.

O. G. SONNECK.

Contents

Page

Music and Progress IS

National Tone-Speech versus Volapuk — Which? 25

Act III. Sonata Pianoforte Reinagle

A new Overture (in which is introduced a Scotch Strathspey)

Reinagle

It is highly probable that Alexander Reinagle, like Capron and Brown, excellent European musicians settled at Philadelphia, was engaged to give Nelly Custis harpsichord lessons. George Washington had presented to his adopted daughter a fine instrument at the cost of a thousand dollars — ^it is now at Mount Vernon in the drawing-room — and it was one of his great pleasures to have Nelly sing and play to him such songs as "The Wajrworn Traveller," with which he kept her constantly supplied. To poor Nelly, however, the instrument became one of torture, for her grandmother made her practice upon it four and five hours a day, as her brother tells us in his "Recollections."

Few as these glimpses are into George Washington's private life, they will have sufficed to show that he was not indifferent to music, and that he by no means "appears more as a patron or an escort to the ladies than as a lover of music," as Mr. Tower has it in his "Excerpts from Account Books of Washington."

Turning to Thomas Jefferson, we gain terra firma, and are no longer obliged to rely upon circumstantial evidence. ^ In fact, music was a passion with him. His own words and numerous anecdotes go to prove this. Especially his skillful violin playing has become traditional. But grandmothers in Virginia, who heard the truth from the preceding generation, quote an early authority as saying that Patrick Henry was the worst fiddler in the i/ colony with the exception of Thomas Jefferson. So Mr. Curtis informs us in his delightful book on the "true" Thomas Jefferson. The truth probably lies between the two traditions.

At any rate, Jefferson acquired in early youth a certain proficiency on the violin. It was his constant companion; it helped to mitigate the exactions of his public duties, and even as President he would continue to practice. He used to play duets with Patrick Henry, y John Tyler and other friends, and widow Martha Skelton's fondness of music surely was one of the attractions that finally, in 1772, led to her marriage with Jefferson. There is even a romance connected with his favorite instrument. If ever the history of the Cremonese violins in America should be written, it will be well not to forget the name of Jefferson, for it is possible that he owned one of the earliest Cremonese instruments brought to our country. At least, it is certain that John Randolph, the son of the King's Attorney-General, had bought a costly violin in Italy. Once Thomas Jefferson laid his eyes on his friend's coveted treasure and listened to its tones, it became the ambition of his life to possess it. He rested not until the owner agreed to part with it under certain conditions. The contract — for it was a contract, duly signed, sealed, witnessed and recorded in the general court of Williamsburg — reads:

"It is agreed between John Randolph and Thomas Jefferson, that in case the said John shall survive the said Thomas, the executors of the said Thomas shall deliver to the said John the value of Eighty Pounds Sterling of the books of the said Thomas, the same to be chosen by the said John, and in case the said Thomas shall survive the said John, the executors of the said John shall deliver to the said Thomas the violin which the said John brought with him into Virginia, together with all his music composed for the violin."

If the others considered this agreement a joke, not so Thomas Jefferson. Indeed, Mr. Curtis assures us that he added a codicil to his will, which he wrote as soon as he became of age, providing for the fulfilment of the compact by the executors. But the Revolutionary War interfered with the stipulations of the contract and will. Said John returned to England in 1775 and sold his precious instrument to said Thomas for the paltry sum of thirteen pounds.

That Jefferson was not proficient on the harpsichord, he plainly states in a letter to Francis Hopkinson in 1785; but it also appears from his correspondence that he was constantly on the lookout for a keyed instrument which would satisfy his tastes. For instance, he begs Thomas Adams under date of Monticello, February 20, 1771:

"... to hasten particularly the Clavichord which I have directed to be purchased in Hamburg, because they are better made there and much cheaper."

A highly interesting remark, if it be remembered that not the German, but the English instruments, especially those of Kirkman in London, were then generally considered the best. If Thomas Adams hastened to comply with Jefferson's request, he must have felt embarrassed upon receiving this second letter, dated June 1, 1771:

"... I wrote . . for a Clavichord. I have since seen a Fortepiano and am charmed with it. Send me this instrument, then, instead of the Clavichord. Let the case be of fine mahogany, solid, not veneered, the compass from Double G to F in alt., a plenty of spare strings; and the workmanship of the whole very handsome and worthy of the acceptance of a lady for whom I intend it. [Martha Skelton?] ... By this change of the Clavichord into a Fortepiano and addition of other things, I shall be brought into debt to you to discharge which I will ship you of the first tobacco I get to the warehouse in the fall . . as soon as you receive this . . and particularly the Fortepiano for which I shall be very impatient."

It is but natural that a man whose love of music was so pronounced should have laid stress upon a i/ musical education for his children. This side of their proverbially excellent education seems to have been a matter of grave concern to him. Words like "Do not neglect your music. It will be a companion which will sweeten many hours of your life," run like a motto through the letters to his daughters, letters written with such paternal affection that they cannot fail to move whoever reads them. He constantly urged Mary and Patsy, as he called his daughter Martha, to keep him well informed of their musical progress, and when the young ladies preferred to neglect this wish they were sure to receive a mild scolding. Jefferson was most exacting in such matters. Though he detested professional soldiery, he certainly was a strict disciplinarian in family life. At times he would go to extremes and become almost pedantic. Of this, a letter written to his "dear Patsy" from Annapolis on November 28,. 1783, when on his way to Paris, is a characteristic example :

" ... With respect to the distribution of your time, the following is what I should approve:

"From 8 to 10 practice music.

"From 10 to 1 dance one day and draw another.

"From 1 to 2 draw on the day you dance and write a letter next day.

"From 3 to 4 read French.

"From 4 to 5 exercise yourself in music.

"From S till bedtime read English, write, etc.

"I expect you to write me by every post. Inform me what books you read, what tunes you learn and enclose me your best copy in every lesson of drawing. ..."

Poor Patsy! Her father was actually starving her to death, as this wonderfully systematic distribution of time did not provide for meals. Not lacking in the sense of humor like her father. Patsy probably smiled when receiving the letter and amended the plan to give proportionate rights -to body and soul.

During his long residence at Paris, Thomas Jefferson, of course, had ample opportunity for gratifying his love of music. It is but necessary to peruse his voluminous correspondence as preserved in autograph at the Library of Congress to prove this. That he was personally acquainted with such men as Piccinni we know from his letters to Francis Hopkinson, and these letters — extracts from them are to be found in my book on

Hopkinson — also prove that Jefferson took a lively and intelligent interest in his friend's "improved method of quilling a harpsichord" not only, but in his exciting project to apply a keyboard to the Armonica or Musical Glasses. Indeed, improvements of musical instruments seem to have attracted his attention whenever he heard of such. For instance, one of Jefferson's letters contains a detailed description with a careful diagram of Krumpholtz's "Foot-bass," alias Pedalharp, and in another letter he suggested to Hopkinson how to improve "the staccado with glass bars instead of wooden / ones, and with keys applied to it," which "pretty little instrument" Franklin, as Jefferson adds, was in the habit of carrying with him.

As a specimen of the kind of musical letter that would pass between the two friends I quote here a letter from Francis Hopkinson to Thomas Jefferson under date of Philadelphia, October 23, 1788. Though preserved at the Library of Congress, I discovered it too late for publication in my book on "Francis Hopkinson and James Lyon." "The compositions alluded to are, of course, Hopkinson's "Seven Songs," that exasperatingly scarce publication of his dedicated to George Washington, the father of our country, by him who in the dedicatory preface claimed "the Credit of being the first Native of the United States who has produced a Musical Composition." I wonder if the millennium will record as last American composer a Member of Congress, as was the first.

"I have amused myself with composing six easy and simple Songs for the Harpsichord — ^Words and Music all my own. The Music is now engraving, when finish'd I will do myself the Pleasure of sending a Copy to Miss Jefferson. The best of them is that they are so easy that any Person who can play at all, may perform them without much Trouble, and I have endeavoured to

54 SUUM CUIQVE: ESSAYS IN MUSIC

make the Melodies pleasing to the untutor'd Ear. My new Method of quilling or rather tonguing the Harpsichord has had the Test of Time and answers perfectly well in every Respect — both my Daughters play, one of them very well. The Harpsichord is forever in Exercise and yet my Tongues stand unimpaired, and my Harps'* is always in Order, in that Respect."

The contrast in matters musical between here and abroad would naturally impress itself forcibly upon Jefferson's mind, especially after his return from Paris. To be sure, our musical life made great progress after the war, and by far greater than our historians have been in the habit of describing it, yet it remained very provincial and crude if compared with that at Paris. During the war it was crushed almost entirely. Certainly no music-lover deplored this more than Jefferson, but he was not willing to quietly submit to the logic of conditions. Music he must have, and that after the fashion of the grand seigneur of Europe. Only a Virginian Cavalier — and they all loved music — ^would have dreamed in those dark days of formulating plans such as Jefferson did in a letter addressed to an anonymous friend, probably a Parisian, from Williamsburg on June 8, 1778. It is to be found in Paul Leicester Ford's edition of Jefferson's writings, published by Putnam's Sons, and it reads in part thus:

"... If there is a gratification which I envy any people in this world, it is to your country its music. This is the favorite passion of my soul & fortune has cast my lot in a country where it is in a state of deplorable barbarism. I shall ask your assistance in procuring a substitute, who may be proficient in singing & on the Harpsichord. I should be contented to receive such a one two or three years hence when it is hoped he may come more safely and find here a greater plenty of those useful things which commerce alone can furnish.

The bounds of an American fortune will not admit the indulgence of a domestic band of musicians, yet I have thought that a passion for music might be reconciled with that economy which we are obliged to observe. I retain, for instance, among my domestic servants a gardener (Ortolano), a weaver (Tessitore di lino e lin), a cabinet maker (Stipeltaio) and a stone cutter (Scalpetino laborante in piano) to which I would add a vigneron. In a country where like yours music is cultivated and practised by every class I suppose there might be found persons of those trades who could perform on the French horn, clarinet or hautboy & bassoon, so that one might have a band of two French horns, two clarinets & hautboys & a bassoon, without enlarging their domestic expenses. A certainty of employment for a half dozen years, and at the end of that time to find them if they choose a conveyance to their own country might induce them to come here on reasonable wages. Without meaning to give you trouble, perhaps it might be practicable for you in [your] ordinary intercourse with your people to find out such men disposed to come to America. Sobriety and good nature would be desirable parts of their character. If you think such a plan practicable and will be so kind as to inform me what will be necessary to be done on my part, I will take care that it shall be done. . . . "

Whether the plan was carried out, I do not know. Probably this combination of the useful and pleasing was found to be impracticable. Had the bounds of an American fortune of those days permitted the indulgence in a domestic band, who knows but that Monticello would have become the American Eisenstadt? En miniature; of course, and with this slight difference: that Thomas Jefferson probably would not have had, like Prince Esterhazy, a Joseph Haydn as musical factotum.

{Paper read in 1903 and based on my article in "Music," 1900)

Benjamin Franklin's polyhistoric erudition was not merely of a receptive kind. Like Leonardo da Vinci, our "patriot and sage," as Franklin was called in eulogies, never received without giving. He suggested inventions and improvements whenever he became interested in a subject, whether in electricity, bookprinting, flying machines — the latter in the modern sense of the term, not fast stage-coaches, as in the terminology of the eighteenth century — optics, chemistry, submarine boats, stoves, eye-glasses, street-cleaning, and so forth.

Strangely enough, the invention of the musical glasses, generally attributed to Franklin, was not absolutely his. He only suggested some improvements, so important and radical, however, . that the instrument appeared to be original. As a matter of fact [see Grove],

the power of producing musical sounds from basins or drinking glasses by the application of the moistened finger, and of tuning them so as to obtain concords from two at once, was known as early as the middle of the 17th century, since it is alluded to in Harsdorfifer's "Mathematische und philosophische Erquickungen" (Nuremberg, 1677, II, 147).

And long before Franklin paid any attention to the improvement of the musical glasses, they were known and heard in public. No less a composer than Gluck performed on them in London in 1746, as appears from the following oft-quoted advertisement in the General Advertiser for March 31, 1746:

At Mr. Hickford's Great Room in Brewer's-street, on Monday, April 14, Signor Gluck, Composer of the Operas, will exhibit a. Concert of Musick. He will play a Concert upon_ Twenty-six Drinking Glasses, tuned with Spring water, accompanied^ with the whole Band, being a new Instrument of his own Invention, upon

U which he performs whatever may be done on a Violin or Harpsichord; and therefore hopes to satisfy the Curious, as well as the Lovers of Musick. To begin at Half an hour after Six. Tickets Half a guinea each.

Maybe Gluck really did invent a practicable instrument made of drinking glasses filled with water, but Franklin certainly did not base his experiments on Gluck. His part in the history of the now obsolete instrument seems to have been well known in Philadelphia, for I found in a "History of the Life and Character of Benjamin Franklin," published in the form of a eulogy in the Columbian Magazine for January, 1791, pp. 55-56, this passage:

The tone produced by rubbing the brim of a drinking glass with a wet finger had been generally known. A Mr. Puckeridge, an Irishman, by placing on a table a number of glasses of different sizes, and tuning them by partly filling them with water, endeavoured to form an instrument, capable of playing tunes. He was prevented by an untimely end, from bringing his invention to any degree of perfection. After his .death, some improvements were made upon his plan. The sweetness of the tones induced Dr. Franklin to make a Variety of experiments; and he at length formed that elegant instrument, which he has called the ARMONICA.

These statements coincide with a detailed description of the instrument given by Franklin himself to John Baptist Beccaria of Turin, under date of London, July 13, 1762:

You have doubtless heard the sweet tone that is drawn from a drinking glass by passing a wet finger round its brim. One Mr. Puckeridge, a gentleman from Ireland, was the first who thought of playing tunes, formed of these tones. He collected a number of glasses of different sizes, fixed them near each other on a table, and tuned them by putting into them water more or less as each note required. The tones were brought out by passing his fingers round their brims. He was unfortunately burned here, with his instrument, in a fire which consumed the house he lived in. Mr. E. Delaval, a most ingenious member of our Royal Society, made one in imitation of it, with a better choice and form of glasses, which was the first I saw or heard. Being charmed by the sweetness of its tones, and the music he produced from it, I wished only to see the glasses disposed in a more convenient form, and brought together in a narrower compass, so as to admit of a greater number of tones, and all within reach of hand to a person sitting before the instrument, which I accomplished, after various trials and less commodious forms, both of glasses and construction, in the following manner.

The glasses are blown as near as possible in the form of hemispheres, having each an open neck or socket in the middle. (See Plate II, Figure 1.) The thickness of the glass near the brim about a tenth of an inch, or hardly quite so much, but thicker as it comes nearer the neck, which in the largest glasses is about an inch deep and an inch and a half wide within, these dimensions lessening, as the glasses themselves diminish in size, except that the neck of the srnallest ought not to be shorter than half an inch. The largest glass is nine inches in diameter, and the smallest three inches. Between these two are twenty-three different sizes, differing from each other a quarter of an inch in diameter. To make a single instrument there should be at least six glasses blown of each size; and out of this number one may probably pick thirty-seven glasses (which are sufficient for three octaves with all the semitones) that will be each either the note one wants or a little sharper than that note, and all fitting so well into each other as to taper pretty regularly from the largest to the smallest. It is true there are not thirty-seven sizes, but it often happens that two of the same size differ a note or half note in tone, by reason of a difference in thickness, and these may be placed one in the other without sensibly hurting the regularity of the taper form.

The glasses being chosen, and every one marked with a diamond the note you intend it for, they are to be tuned by diminishing the thickness of those that are too sharp. This is done by grinding them round from the neck towards the brim, the breadth of one or two inches, as may be required; often trying the glass by a well tuned harpsichord, comparing the tone drawn from the glass by your finger with the note you want, as sounded by that string of the harpsichord. When you come nearer the matter, be careful to wipe the glass clean and dry before each trial, because the tone is something flatter when the glass is wet than it will be when dry; and grinding a very little between each trial, you will thereby tune to great exactness. The more care is necessary in this, because, if you go below your required tone, there is no sharpening it again but by grinding somewhat off the brim, which will afterwards require polishing, and thus increeise the trouble.

The glasses thus tuned, you are to be provided with a case for them, and a spindle on which they are to be fixed. (See Plate II., Figure 2.) My case is about three feet long, eleven inches every way wide within at the biggest end, and five inches at the smallest end; for it tapers all the way, to adapt it better to the conical figure of the set of glasses. This case opens in the middle of its height, and the upper part turns up by hinges fixed behind. The spindle, which is of hard iron, lies horizontally from end to end of the box within, exactly in the middle, and is made to turn on brass gudgeons at each. end. It is round, an inch in diameter at the thickest end, and tapering to a quarter of an inch at the smallest. A square shank comes from its thickest end through the box, on which shank a wheel is fixed by a screw. This wheel serves as a fly to make the motion equable, when the spindle, with the glasses, is turned by the foot like a spinning-wheel. My wheel is of mahogany, eighteen inches in diameter, and pretty thick, so as to conceal near its circumference about twenty-five pounds of lead. An ivory pin is fixed in the face of this wheel, and about four inches from the axis. Over the neck of this pin is put the loop of the string that comes up from the movable step to give it motion. The case stands on a neat frame with four legs.

To fix the glasses on the spindle, a cork is first to be fitted in each neck pretty tight, and projecting a little without the neck, that the neck of one may not touch the inside of another when put together, for that would make a jarring. These corks are to be perforated with holes of different diameters, so as to suit that part of the spindle on which they are to be fixed. When a glass is put on, by holding it stifily between both hands, while another turns the spindle, it may be gradually brought to its place.

But care must be taken that the hole be not too small, lest, in forcing it up, the neck should be split; nor too large, lest the glass, not being firmly fixed, should turn or move on the spindle, so as to touch and jar against its neighbouring glass. The glasses thus are placed one in another, the leirgest on the biggest end of the spindle, which is to the left hand; the neck of this glass is towards the wheel, and the next goes into it in the same position, only about an inch of its brim appearing beyond the brim of the first; thus proceeding, every glass when fixed shows about an inch of its brim (or three quarters of an inch, or half an inch, as they grow smaller) beyond the brim of the glass that contains it; and it is from these exposed parts of each glass that the tone is drawn, by laying a finger upon one of them as the spindle and glasses turn round.

My largest glass is G, a little below the reach of a common voice, and my highest G, including three complete octaves. To distinguish the glasses the more readily to the eye, I have painted the apparent parts of the glasses within side, every semitone white, and the other notes of the octave with the seven prismatic colors, viz., C, red; D, orange; E, yellow; F, green; G, blue; A, indigo; B, purple, and C, red again; so that glasses of the same color (the white excepted) are always octaves to each other.

This instrument is played upon, by sitting before the middle of the set of glasses as before the keys of a harpsichord, turning them with the foot, and wetting them now and then with a spunge and clean water. The fingers should be first a little soaked in water, and quite free from all greasiness; a little fine chalk upon them is sometimes useful, to make them catch the glass and bring out the tone more readily. Both hands are used, by which means different parts are played together. Observe, that the tones are best drawn out when the glasses turn from the ends of the fingers, not when they turn to them.

The advantages of this instrument are, that its tones are incomparably sweet beyond those of any other; that they are swelled and softened at pleasure by stronger or weaker pressures of the finger, and continued to any length, and that the instrument, being once well tuned, never again wants tuning.

In honor of your musical language, I have borrowed from it the name of this instrument, calling it the Armonica.

With great esteem and respect, I am, &c., B. Franklin.*

*See Bigelow, "The Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin. . . Vol. Ill, pp. 198-204. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1887. In 1769 an Italian version of this letter was published in pamphlet form (8 leaves, 12 mo.) The title reads: "L'Armonica. Lettera del Signor Beniamino FraQklin al padre Giambattista Beccaria regio professore di fisica nell'Universita di Torino dall'Inglese recata neU'Italiano. Nella reale stamperia di Torino." A copy of this extremely scarce pamphlet is in the Liceo Musicale of Bologna. Is there a copy in America, and is the publication kncfwn to American Franklin bibliographers?

Our knowledge of Franklin's share in the development of the Armonica rests on this letter and one dated London, December 8, 1772, answering the queries of M. Dubourg concerning the best method of playing the instrument.

As the outlines of Franklin's autobiography included a descriptive history of the Armonica, it is to be regretted that the book remained a torso.

The ingenious instrument soon aroused widespread interest. The HannOversche Magazin and the Leipziger Wockentliche Nachrichten die Musik betreffend both contained descriptions of it as early as 1766. The Musikalischer Almanack fiir Deutschland auf das Jahr 1782 said:

Of all musical inventions, the one of Mr. Franklin has created perhaps the greatest excitement. Concerning the way of producing tones, it is an entirely new kind of instrument.

By that time the Armonica had become fashionable. We remember the delightful passage in the Vicar of Wakefield:

They would talk of nothing but high life, and high-lived company; with other fashionable topics, such as pictures, taste, Shakespeare and the musical glasses.

Goldsmith's masterwork was published in 1761; it might be asked why I bring his words into connection with Franklin's musical glasses. Certain chronological reasons will offer an explanation.

The musical glasses were not played in private circles only, but in concerts, and the names of several Armonica virtuosos have come down to posterity.

Miss Marianne Davies, the daughter of a relative of Franklin, must have been the first virtuoso on the instrument, as she evidently used the first instrument built by Franklin. This fact appears from a communication printed under date of "London, Jan. 12, 1762"

in the Bristol Journal and reprinted in the Magazine of American History (1883). We find advertised:

The celebrated Glassy-Chord, invented by Mr. Franklin of Philadelphia; who has greatly improved the Musical Glasses, and formed them into a compleat Instrument to accompany the Voice; capable of a thorough Bass, and never out of Tune.

Miss Davies, from London, was to perform in the Month of January, several favourite Airs, English, Scotch and Italian, on the Glassychord (being the only one of the kind that has yet been produced) accompanied occasionally with the Voice and German Flute. Vivat Rex & Regina.

This advertisement helps us in two directions. In the first place, it shows that the original name of the instrument was Glassy-Chord, and not Armonica. This, of course, interferes in no way with Franklin's statement to Padre Beccaria that he named it Armonica in honor of the musical Italian language.