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  DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSES
  OF PIANO WORKS

  FOR THE USE OF TEACHERS,
  PLAYERS, AND MUSIC CLUBS


  BY
  EDWARD BAXTER PERRY


  PHILADELPHIA
  THEODORE PRESSER CO.
  LONDON, WEEKES & CO.




  Copyright, 1902, by Theodore Presser
  International Copyright


  Printed in the United States of America




                          My Keys


                            I.

    To no crag-crowning castle above the wild main,
    To no bower of fair lady or villa in Spain;
    To no deep, hidden vaults where the stored jewels shine,
    Or the South's ruddy sunlight is prisoned in wine;
    To no gardens enchanted where nightingales sing,
    And the flowers of all climes breathe perpetual spring:
                To none of all these
                They give access, my keys,
                My magical ebon and ivory keys.

                            II.

    But to temples sublime, where music is prayer,
    To the bower of a goddess supernally fair;
    To the crypts where the ages their mysteries keep,
    Where the sorrows and joys of earth's greatest ones sleep;
    Where the wine of emotion a life's thirst may still,
    And the jewels of thought gleam to light at my will:
                To more than all these
                They give access, my keys,
                My magical ebon and ivory keys.

                            III.

    To bright dreams of the past in locked cells of the mind,
    To the tombs of dead joys in their beauty enshrined;
    To the chambers where love's recollections are stored,
    And the fanes where devotion's best homage is poured;
    To the cloudland of hope, where the dull mist of tears
    As the rainbow of promise illumined appears;
                To all these, when I please,
                They give access, my keys,
                My magical ebon and ivory keys.




                  Only an Interpreter


    The world will still go on the very same
    When the last feeble echo of my name
    Has died from out men's listless hearts and ears
            These many years.

    Its tides will roll, its suns will rise and set,
    When mine, through twilight portals of regret,
    Has passed to quench its pallid, parting light
            In rayless night,

    While o'er my place oblivion's tide will sweep
    To whelm my deeds in silence dark and deep,
    The triumphs and the failures, ill and good,
            Beneath its flood.

    Then other, abler men will serve the Art
    I strove to serve with singleness of heart;
    Will wear her thorned laurels on the brow,
            As I do now.

    I shall not care to ask whose fame is first,
    Or feel the fever of that burning thirst
    To win her warmest smile, nor count the cost
            Whate'er be lost.

    As I have striven, they will strive to rise
    To hopeless heights, where that elusive prize,
    The unattainable ideal, gleams
            Through waking dreams.

    But I shall sleep, a sleep secure, profound,
    Beyond the reach of blame, or plaudits' sound;
    And who stands high, who low, I shall not know:
            'Tis better so.

    For what the gain of all my toilsome years,
    Of all my ceaseless struggles, secret tears?
    My best, more brief than frailest summer flower,
            Dies with the hour.

    My most enduring triumphs swifter pass
    Than fairy frost-wreaths from the window glass:
    The master but of moments may not claim
            A deathless name.

    Mine but the task to lift, a little space,
    The mystic veil from beauty's radiant face
    That other men may joy thereon to see,
            Forgetting me.

    Not mine the genius to create the forms
    Which stand serenely strong, thro' suns and storms,
    While passing ages praise that power sublime
            Defying time.

    Mine but the transient service of a day,
    Scant praise, too ready blame, and meager pay:
    No matter, though with hunger at the heart
            I did my part.

    I dare not call my labor all in vain,
    If I but voice anew one lofty strain:
    The faithful echo of a noble thought
            With good is fraught.

    For some it cheers upon life's weary road,
    And some hearts lightens of their bitter load,
    Which might have missed the message in the din
            Of strife and sin.

    My lavished life-blood warmed and woke again
    The still, pale children of another's brain,
    Brimmed full the forms which else were cold,
            Tho' fair of mold.

    And thro' their lips my spirit spoke to men
    Of higher hopes, of courage under pain,
    Of worthy aspirations, fearless flight
            To reach the light.

    Then, soul of mine, content thee with thy fate,
    Though noble niche of fame and guerdon great
    Be not for thee: thy modest task was sweet
            At beauty's feet.

    The Artist passes like a swift-blown breeze,
    Or vapors floating up from summer seas;
    But Art endures as long as life and love:
            For her I strove.




  Contents

                                                                PAGE
  Introduction,                                                   11
  Esthetic versus Structural Analysis,                            15
  Sources of Information Concerning Musical Compositions,         23
  Traditional Beethoven Playing,                                  32
  Beethoven: The Moonlight Sonata, Op. 27, No. 2,                 45
  Beethoven: Sonata Pathetique, Op. 13,                           50
  Beethoven: Sonata in A Flat Major, Op. 26,                      55
  Beethoven: Sonata in D Minor, Op. 31, No. 2,                    61
  Beethoven: Sonata in C Major, Op. 53,                           64
  Beethoven: Sonata in E Minor, Op. 90,                           68
  Beethoven: Music to "The Ruins of Athens,"                      72
  Weber: Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65,                         81
  Weber: Rondo in E Flat, Op. 62,                                 86
  Weber: Concertstueck, in F Minor, Op. 79,                        90
  Weber-Kullak: Luetzow's Wilde Jagd, Op. 111, No. 4,              93
  Schubert: (Impromptu in B Flat) Theme and Variations,
    Op. 142, No. 3,                                               99
  Emotion in Music,                                              105
  Chopin: Sonata, B Flat, Op. 35,                                113
  The Chopin Ballades,                                           118
  Chopin: Ballade in G Minor, Op. 23,                            123
  Chopin: Ballade in F Major, Op. 38,                            130
  Chopin: Ballade in A Flat, Op. 47,                             137
  Chopin: Polonaise, A Flat Major, Op. 53,                       142
  Chopin: Impromptu in A Flat, Op. 29,                           147
  Chopin: Fantasie Impromptu, Op. 66,                            149
  Chopin: Tarantelle, A Flat, Op. 43,                            152
  Chopin: Berceuse, Op. 57,                                      156
  Chopin: Scherzo in B Flat Minor, Op. 31,                       158
  Chopin: Prelude, Op. 28, No. 15,                               161
  Chopin: Waltz, A Flat, Op. 42,                                 168
  Chopin's Nocturnes,                                            172
  Chopin: Nocturne in E Flat, Op. 9, No. 2,                      174
  Chopin: Nocturne, Op. 27, No. 2,                               176
  Chopin: Nocturne, Op. 32, No. 1,                               179
  Chopin: Nocturne, Op. 37, No. 1,                               183
  Chopin: Nocturne, Op. 37, No. 2,                               186
  Chopin: Polish Songs, Transcribed for Piano by Franz Liszt,    191
  Liszt: Poetic and Religious Harmonies, No. 3, Book 2,          194
  Liszt: First Ballade,                                          199
  Liszt: Second Ballade,                                         201
  Transcriptions for the Piano by Liszt,                         203
  Wagner-Liszt: Spinning Song from "The Flying Dutchman,"        205
  Wagner-Liszt: Tannhaeuser March,                                208
  Wagner-Liszt: Abendstern,                                      209
  Wagner-Liszt: Isolde's Love Death,                             210
  Schubert-Liszt: Der Erlkoenig,                                  213
  Schubert-Liszt: Hark! Hark! the Lark,                          216
  Schubert-Liszt: Gretchen am Spinnrad,                          217
  Liszt: La Gondoliera,                                          219
  The Music of the Gipsies and Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies,     222
  Rubinstein: Barcarolle, G Major,                               237
  Rubinstein: Kamennoi-Ostrow, No. 22,                           241
  Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite, Op. 46,                                247
  Grieg: An den Fruehling, Op. 43, No. 6,                         257
  Grieg: Voeglein, Op. 43, No. 4,                                 260
  Grieg: Berceuse, Op. 38, No. 1,                                261
  Grieg: The Bridal Procession, from "Aus dem Volksleben,"
    Op. 19, No. 2,                                               264
  Saint-Saens: Le Rouet d'Omphale,                               271
  Saint-Saens: Danse Macabre,                                    276
  Counterparts among Poets and Musicians,                        281




  DESCRIPTIVE
  ANALYSES OF
  PIANO WORKS


  Introduction


The material comprised in the following pages has been collected for use
in book form by the advice and at the earnest request of the publisher,
as well as of many musical friends, who express the belief that it is of
sufficient value and interest to merit a certain degree of permanency,
and will prove of practical aid to teachers and students of music. A
portion of it has already appeared in print in the program books of the
Derthick Musical Literary Society and in different musical journals; and
nearly all of it has been used at various times in my own Lecture
Recitals.

The book is merely a compilation of what have seemed the most
interesting and valuable results of my thought, reading, and research in
connection with my Lecture Recital work during the past twenty years.

In the intensely busy life of a concert pianist a systematic and
exhaustive study of the whole broad field of piano literature has been
utterly impossible. That would require the exclusive devotion of a
lifetime at least. My efforts have been necessarily confined strictly to
such compositions as came under my immediate attention in connection
with my own work as player.

The effect is a seemingly desultory and haphazard method in the study,
and an inadequacy and incoherency in the collective result, which no one
can possibly realize or deplore so fully as myself. Still the work is a
beginning, a first pioneer venture into a realm which I believe to be
not only new, but rich and important. I can only hope that the example
may prompt others, with more leisure and ability, to follow in the path
I have blazed, to more extensive explorations and more complete results.

Well-read musicians will find in these pages much that they have learned
before from various scattered sources. Naturally so. I have not
originated my facts or invented my legends. They are common property for
all who will but seek. I have merely collected, arranged, and, in many
instances, translated them into English. I claim no monopoly. On the
other hand, they may find some things they have not previously known. In
such cases I venture to suggest to the critically and incredulously
inclined, that this does not prove their inaccuracy, though some have
seemed to fancy that it did. Not to know a thing does not always
conclusively demonstrate that it is not so.

To the general reader let me say that this book represents the best
thought and effort of my professionally unoccupied hours during the past
twenty years. It comes to you with my heart in it, bringing the wish
that the material here collected may be to you as interesting and
helpful as it has been to me in the gathering. The actual writing has
mainly been done on trains, or in lonely hotel rooms far from books of
reference, or aids of any kind; so occasional inexactitudes of