The Story of Man - Book Four: The Modern World — Book Four

Book Four Modern '^^orld

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Book Four The Modern World

GIVE PEACE IN OUR TIME, O LORD This statue stands in the heart of the Andes upon the frontier dividing two South American States, Argentine and Chile, between whom there have been frequent wars. It bears this inscription ;

“Sooner shall these mountains crumble to dust than Argentinians and Chileans break the peace which they have sworn to maintain.”

It expresses the deep desire of many nations that henceforth quarrels should not be settled by war.

Photo E.N.A.

AN HISTORICAL COURSE FOR JUNIOR SCHOOLS

BY

HARPER CORY

AUTHOR OF “ THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION ” “ MODERN CANADA ” ETC.

Book Four The Modern World

GEORGE G. HARRAP (Sf COMPANY LTD.

LONDON BOMBAY SYDNEY

Book I BEGINNINGS Book II

THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD Book III

THE WORLD OF THE MIDDLE AGES

Book IV

THE MODERN WORLD

First published 1930 by George G. Harraf Co. Ltd. 39-41 Parker Street, Kingsway, London,

Pritited in Great Britain by The Riverside Press Limited Edinburgh

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Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Makers of Music 7

11. The Shipyard King 12

Chapter I Makers Of Music

ONE evening in the winter of 1690 Frau George Handel wanted to know where her little son was. Nobody knew. All the rooms were searched, but George Frederick Handel, aged five years, could not be found.

Dr Handel, the boy’s father, thought he would see if George was in the garret. Taking a lamp in his hand, he mounted the stairs. Upon reaching the topmost landing he heard faint musical sounds.

In great surprise the surgeon descended to the dining-room. Calling his wife and the maids, he bade them follow him. Soon they were all stand¬ ing outside the door of the garret. With a sharp thrust Dr Handel opened the door.

Sitting at a little spinet was the lost boy. A spinet is really a small piano. The boy did not notice his visitors; he was far too interested in what he was playing. But his father quickly sent him off to bed.

The little musician loved music with all his heart and soul, but his father wanted him to be¬ come a lawyer. A friend had bought the spinet for the boy, and his mother had placed it in the garret. And for many nights, while his mother and father had thought he was in bed, Handel had been sitting in the dark garret, lit only by the moonlight, playing upon his spinet.

Handel would have become a lawyer but for an accident. One day his father was ordered to visit a great duke. Handel wanted to go too, but he was told to stay at home. So when his father drove away in the coach Handel ran behind it. On the way his father saw him. Feeling sorry for his son, he let him finish the journey in the coach.

Some days later the Duke chanced to hear the boy playing an organ. He was so pleased with his performance that he made Dr Handel promise to let his son be trained as a musician. Handel studied so well that he charmed everybody who listened to his playing.

At that time there was not very much written music. About the year looo a Benedictine monk named Guido had discovered how to write the notes of the scale. He was the first to write “ doh, ray, mi, fah, soh, la, te, doh,” the musical names for the notes of the scale.

An Italian named Palestrina invented a better way about the year 1570. He was able to write several notes together, one above the other. His great work was to set all the words of the Church service to music, and nobody tried very hard to write something better.

MAKERS OF MUSIC

Handel wrote music which everybody loved, for he set the words of stories to music. These works were called operas. He came to England with some singers so that the English might hear his music.

So many of the people came to hear his operas that Handel became very rich. A man called John Gay stole some of Handel’s tunes, and, using these with a number of English country tunes, made a new opera — The Beggar's Opera — which became very popular.

Then Handel found that nobodv

, 1,1 1 • HANDEL

wanted to hear his

music, so he wrote several religious operas, or oratorios, as they are called. The greatest of these is the Messiah \ in this Handel has set the story of the coming, mission, and triumph of Christ to music. It is still sung in nearly every country in Europe at Christmas- time.

When he died Handel was rich and famous. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Another great musician, born exactly one month later than Handel, was Johann Sebastian Bach. When a boy, he too loved music, but his guardian would not let him touch any music-books. So Bach crept downstairs, night after night, and, taking one of the music-books to his bedroom, copied out every note. When he had finished his guardian found the copy and took it away from the boy.

Bach, however, was not to be beaten so easily, and after many great struggles he learned to play the organ in such a manner that people flocked to hear him.

Bach wrote much music for the church organ. But the work of copying out the music in the moonlight when a boy had weakened his eyesight, and the poor man went blind. But so long as he could hear his beloved music he was happy.

Both Handel and Bach became clever musicians at an early age. But Mozart, so we are told, could play the piano when he was only four years of age. His father took the boy to play the spinet at the different Courts of Europe, and Mozart was treated by princes and princesses even as though he had been a prince himself.

When he grew up Mozart wrote many operas and symphonies. The word ‘ symphony ’ is made from two Greek words, and means ‘ sounds to¬ gether.’ And so a symphony is a piece of music for an orchestra of many instruments. For all his 10

MAKERS OF MUSIC

hard work, Mozart was poorly paid; he died in poverty, and was buried in a pauper’s grave. No one knows where he was laid, but no better monument to his memory could be found than his own music. It is played all over the world.

Johann Beet¬ hoven, a German musician, hearing the praises of the young Mozart, desired that his son Ludwig should become a great musician. He made the five - year - old boy practise at the piano so much that Ludwig was almost heart-broken. You would think that he would have learned to hate music. Instead, he learned to love it, and when he died Germany and the world mourned the loss of one of the greatest musicians of all time.

These great musicians lived about the same period. Many others followed in their footsteps, among them one named Wagner. He could not play very well, but he wrote both the words and