'
80 ANALYSIS
quently placed on the a long period in
list for
advance. [Haydn was
present at one of the
meetings (|ee Musical Times, 1902, p. 642).]
The society was dissolved in 1786, when Sir
Richard Hankey was president, owing, as Parke
states in his Musical Memoirs, to the annoyance
of the members at a restraint having been
placed upon the performance of some comic
songs which were considered unfit for the ears
of the Duchess of Devonshire, the leader of the
haut-ton of the day, who was present privately
in a box specially fitted up under the orchestra.
The members resigned one after another, and
shortly afterwards the society was dissolved at
a general meeting. o. M.
ANALYSIS. The practice now prevalent in
England of accompanying the titles and words
of the music performed at concerts by an analysis
of the music is one of comparatively recent date.
The identity of the pieces in the programmes
at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the
19th century is rarely certain. 'New Grand
Overture, Haydn,' or 'Grand Overture, MS.,
Haydn, is the usual designation of Haydn's sym-
' Chorley published two pamphlets called ' Handel
phonies as they were produced at Salomon's con-
certs in 1791, 1792. The earliest programmes
of the Philharmonic Society were almost equally
vague — 'Symphony, Mozart,' 'Symphony, Beet-
hoven,' 'Symphony, never performed, Beet-
hoven,' was with rare exceptions the style in
which the piices de resistaiice at the Society's
concerts were announced. It was not until the
fifth season (1817) that the number or the key
indicated which works the audience might ex-
pect to hear. The next step was to print on the
fly-leaf of the programme the words of the vocal
pieces, with, in the case of Spohr's ' Weihe der
Tone (Feb. 23, 1835), a translation of Pfeiffer's
' —
'
Ode,' or of the ' Pastoral Symphony (May 11,'
1835), some verses from Thomson's 'Seasons,'
or at the first performance of the overture to
'Leonora,' Ko. 1 (May 13, 1844) (due to Men-
delssohn), a short account of the origin and dates
of the four overtures.
The first suggestion M
to the desirability of
explaining the structure of compositions to the
audience was in a letter written to the Musical
World of Dec. 2, 1836, by the late C. H.
Purday, Esq. The first practical attempt to
assist amateurs to follow the construction of
classical music during its performance which
the writer has met with is that of Mr. Thomson,
the first Reid Professor of Music in the Uni-
versity of Edinburgh, who in the year 1841, and
even earlier, added analytical and historical
notices of the pieces in the programmes of the
concerts of the Professional Society of Edin-
burgh. His analyses entered thoroughly into
the construction of the overtures and symphonies
performed, but did not contain quotations from
the music. —
The next step appears to have been
made by John Ella when he started the matinees
of the Musical Union in 1846. His synoptical
'
ANALYSIS
analysis,' with quotations, set a pattern which
has endured to the present time. The same —
thing was done, but at greater length, by Dr.
Wylde in the programme-books of the New Phil-
harmonic Society, which commenced its concerts
in 1852. Some of these analyses were accom-
panied by extracts, and in many cases are of
permanent value, such as those of Beethoven's
'Pastoral Symphony,' Mozart's E flat ditto, and
the overture to the 'Zauberflbte' (1858). An
analysis of the 'Messiah' was issued by the
Sacred Harmonic Society in 1853, and was fol-
lowed by similar dissections of the Creation,' '
Beethoven's Mass in D, Israel in Egypt,' the
'
'Lobgesang,' Mozart's 'Requiem,' and, some
years later, Naaman.'
'
As early as 1847 John HuUah had given
biographical notices of composers in the book of
words of his historical concerts at Exeter Hall.
The books of words of the Handel Festi-
vals (1857, etc.) contain historical accounts of
the works performed. In connection with
the early Handel Festivals the late H. F.
Studies,' containing analyses of the ' Messiah,'
the Dettingen 'Te Deum,' and 'Israel in Egypt.'
In 1859 the Monday Popular Concerts were
established, and the programmes contained
notices of the pieces. On the occasion of
Hallo's Beethoven-recitals, two years later, full
and able analyses by J. W. Davison of the whole
of the sonatas were published, accompanied by
copious extracts. These have since been incor-
porated in the Popular Concert books, with
similar analyses of other pieces, including the
48 preludes and fagues of Bach, the whole form-
ing a body of criticism and analysis which does
honour to its author. Shortly after the founda-
tion of the Saturday Concerts at the Crystal
Palace, short remarks were attached to some of
the more prominent pieces. These have gradu-
ally become more systematic and more ana-
lytical, but they are of a very mixed character
when compared with those last mentioned.
The remarks which adorned the programmes of
Pauer's recitals in 1862, '63, '67, were half bio-
graphical and half critical, but made no attempt
to analyse each piece.
In 1869 the Philharmonic Society adopted
analyticalprogrammes prepared by Maofarren,
and the practice has been maintained since,
Mr. Joseph Bennett having been responsible for
them for many years. Macfarren also prepared
similar notices for the British Orchestral Society.
The practice of analysing pieces of classical
music with the view to enable the more or less
cultivated amateur to seize the ideas and mode
of treatment of the composer, is one which, if
carried out with skill and judgment, is surely
commendable. The fact that a movement is
L^ ^® above reference to the famous analytical prograjnmea of
the Crystal Palace is characteristic
of Sir George Grove's modesty •
their immense value in the history of music needs no
comment in
the present day. t: