Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 3, No. 11 (1929-08)

August, 1929 The Phonograph Monthly Review 369 is readily seen by comparing the more emotionally poignant choruses of his great choral works with works written for instruments. In the latter the style is comparatively consonant. Not that it is always so, but as a rule the statement holds. There are the two classes of exceptions, the first in which he would make his instrument express emotion, as in the Fastasia in G minor for Or- gan, the second in which he writes themes for the very purpose of exploiting dissonances, apparent- ly for the fun of it, or as a tour de force, as in the theme of the Fugue in E minor, sometimes called the “Wedge” fugue. The composers next in historic importance are the classicists Haydn (1732-1809) and Mozart (1756-1791). The problem which interested them and their period most completely was that of form and of structural values, of the balanc- ing of phrases and periods, and of the develop- ment of harmonic formulae that might best serve such purposes. The use of dissonance is there- fore somewhat less common than with Bach. Ninth chords are relatively more frequent, the diminished seventh is somewhat less exploited. But the emphases of these composers were upon matter not requiring an extremely dissonant style. Much the same can be said of the works of the early Beethoven. But in the later portions of Beethoven’s career his interests lay in the direc- tion of making sonata and symphony more emo- tionally expressive, of extending their limits to the utmost bounds. With the increase in expres- sivism comes again a corresponding increase in the use of dissonance. If there is any advance over Bach in this respect it lies in the fact that secondary chords and such dissonances as they carry with them are given a feeling of greater independence than in Bach. Further, a major part of the development of the clasical forms is a matter of rhythmic balance, involving, especial- ly with Beethoven, strong and advantageously placed accents. The effects of these accents is frequently heightened by the use of dissonance. With the romanticists, Weber, Schubert, Schu- mann, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Chopin, Liszt, Wag- ner there is at first no great advance in the actual use of dissonances. But the romanticists are re- sponsible for the infusion of literary and pictorial ideals into the practise of composers, making necessary a style of the utmost expressive possi- bilities. Thus the dissonances which were by now an old story received greater stresses and em- phases than in the earlier uses. Further, as an adjunct to their expressive interests, the roman- ticists developed a craving for color, harmonic color, both as an aid to expression, and as a good in itself. For the first time dissonances began to be looked at as materials of coloristic beauty. In the further search for color, the limits of the diatonic scale were often transcended, and chro- matic combinations began to make an appearance. And most of these combinations involved dis- sonances,—chords of the seventh and ninth, chords in which the augmented sixth plays a determining part. There had been, of course, chromaticism in all the earlier composers, es- pecially in Bach. But the chromaticism of Bach is kaleidoscopic in character, in which one color quickly neutralizes another. With the roman- ticists new colors are sought, and when found are given all manner of emphasis, in all of which dissonance usually plays a leading part. Chopin in particular uses dissonances, chroma- tic dissonances, as color effect. Though his pre- vailing harmony is chiefly diatonic and (except for some Dominant sevenths and a few of the other milder sevenths) mostly consonant, upon this simple background, he superimposes chroma- tic passage work laden with glistening disson- ances. _ So rich is this passage work that it is often cited as one of the chief sources of modern- istic technic. There are of course passages in which the entire harmony is impregnated with this dissonance. The chromaticism in most of the preceding has been no more than modification of the diatonic. Chromatic chords have behaved in a manner not markedly different from the manner in which they would behave were they diatonic. They have been not much more than colored diatonic chords. All of which is changed with Liszt. Chromatical- ly dissonant chords, such as the augmented triad (C-E-G-sharp) are used with entire independence and without any reference to a possible diatonic origin, which opens up tremendous new vistas of both chromaticism and dissonant effect. Liszt, however, is no more than one who pre- pares the way for a greater in this field, Richard Wagner. Says George Sherman Dickinson in his admirable booklet, “The Growth and Use of Har- mony”, “Not until Wagner himself is harmonic imagination brought fully to a parity with the other sources of jnusical effect.” For the first time is the dissonance and the chromaticism of Bach actually.surpassed. Chromatic ninth chords and chromatic seventh chords as well as the vari- ous augmented chords are used with an indepen- dence previously considered possible chiefly for consonant diatonic chords. Together with this there is a strong current of chromatically disson- ant counterpoint. Of course the object of it all is to gain an extreme of expressiveness. No- where is Dent’s principle better exemplified. Af- ter Wagner Strauss follows chiefly in his foot- steps, growing in the impression of a further in- creasing dissonance chiefly by the use of a more involved and abstruse counterpoint, by more and more allowing his dissonant texture to obscure the feeling of tonality. Along with this main current of progress there were of course side-currents. Up in Scandinavia Grieg was exploiting the dissonances of the secondary seventh chords, throwing some of their most marked tonal clashes into the greatest possi- ble relief. In Paris Franck was making a style almost entirely of chromatic ninths and aug-