THE FORERUNNERS OF SCARLATTI, BACH, AND HANDEL

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21418, 9 March 1935, Page 9

THE FORERUNNERS OF SCARLATTI, BACH, AND HANDEL

TO THE KHITOS OP THE PRESS. Sir, —The kind and genial letter of your correspondent "Senex" inclines me to continue the controversy for another round. In the discussion as to the omission of Henry Purcell's name, we have somewhat lost sight of the original point. We arc living in revolutionary times in politics, in social affairs, in art, and in music not less than in other things. The writer of an essay on an historical subject may be excused if he seeks to find in history some parallel with, and explanation of. the developments of modern times.

Between the death of Palestrina in 1594 and the birth of Scarlatti, Bach, and Handel in 1685, it seems to me incontestable that there was a very marked and fundamental change in method and technique of musical composition. Dim fore-shadowings of the change, it is true, may be traced even in the fifteenth century and earlier. They smouldered and simmered, as it were, underneath the typical and representative essentially choral technique of the sixteenth century; but it was in the seventeenth century, and more particularly in the eai-ly half of that century, that the fire burst into flames and the acceleration became most marked. It was of that period more particularly that I was writing, and hence the omission of many names which would have naturally found inclusion had I been writing a general survey of seventeenth century music. Some minds will be inclined to dwell on points of similarity and continuity and to trace the process of evolution; other minds will be impressed more with the greatness of the change and the rapidity of its consummation, and will call the change a revolution. It is largely a matter of viewpoint. For myself, I am inclined to think that the change was so great, and the rapidity so marked, as to justify Sir Hubert Parry's phrase "decisive and abrupt" —if indeed poor out-of-date Sir Hubert Parry requires any justification at my unworthy hands! But, in using these words, it must of course be admitted that no change in history is so sudden as to justify the words "decisive and abrupt" in the sense that chopping a man's head off is decisive and abrupt. The processes of evolution are always there; but sometimes they are so abnormally accelerated that for convenience we call it a revolution. And this is the sense in which I understand the "Florentine Revolution." To-day we are confronted with the abnormal phenomena of multi-tonal and a-tonal music; that is, with music which is either in two or more keys at once, or else quite frankly and simply in no key at all, according to our accepted musical conventions. Without wishing to discuss the intrinsic artistic merit of individual compositions, I suggest that it is possible to regard these modern composers sympathetically, as pioneers in a new land, endeavouring to open up a new field of artistic endeavour, scrapping many of our present musical conventions, giving us a new vista of tonal possibilities, and forging a new technique of composition, which may in time displace our present technique as decisively as that of Scarlatti, Bach, and Handel displaced the technique of Palestrina. We base all our music to-day on the major and minor scales. Is it not possible that in times to come our two-scale-system of the last 200 years will be regarded as archaic, as the mediaeval modes are regarded to-day. Is it not possible that, when the pioneer work has been done, when the tools have been forged, when the a-tonal technique which is now in its infancy has had time to reach its maturity, some great genius will arise who will express himself in that technique as adequately as a Bach, or a Beethoven, or a Wagner expressed himself in the technique of his day? la it not possible to suggest a parallel between these men, who are forerunners of a new technique, and the f°rerunners of Scarlatti, Bach, and Handel? _ In spite of all that has been said, I still feel justitied in making the comparison. The only thing I feel I should not have been justified in doing would have been to bring Henry Purcell's name into an argument with which his music has no connexion. Yours, GtC " L. CLIFFE STANFORD. March 7, 1935.