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Scan 66
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians, 1916
12 lines. Read by computer on 5 September 2026. Printed page 42. See the scan on archive.org.
1filled in at performance from the 'figured bass.' The parts for the organ or harpsichord were never written out in full except when these instruments had an important solo part; and even then it was frequently the custom only to write the upper part and the bass, leaving the harmonies to be supplied from the figures by the player. Thus, for instance, the first solo for the organ in Handel's Organ Concerto in G minor No. 1, is thus written in the score:—
3It is evident from the figures here given that the passage is intended to be played in the following, or some similar way,
5and that a performer who confined himself to the printed notes would not give the effect which Handel designed. Similar instances may be found in nearly all the works of Bach and Handel, in many of which nothing whatever but a figured bass is given as a clue to the form of accompaniment. At the time at which these works were written the art of playing from a figured bass was so generally studied that any good musician would be able to reproduce, at least approximately, the intentions of the composer from such indications as the score supplied. But when, owing to the growth of the modern orchestra, the increased importance given to the instrumental portion of the music, and the resultant custom which has prevailed from the time of Haydn down to our own day of writing out in full all parts which were obbligato—i.e. necessary to the completeness of the music—the art of playing from a figured bass ceased to be commonly practised, it was no longer possible for the person who presided at the organ or piano at a performance to complete the score in a satisfactory manner. Hence arose the necessity for additional accompaniments, in which the parts which the composer has merely indicated are given in full, instead of their being left to the discretion of the performer.
72. There are two methods of writing additional accompaniments. The first is to write merely a part for the organ, as Mendelssohn did with so much taste and reserve in his edition of 'Israel in Egypt,' published for the London Handel Society. There is more than one reason, however, for doubting whether even his accompaniment would succeed in bringing out the true intentions of the composer. In the first place, our modern orchestras and choruses are so much larger than those mostly to be heard in the time of Bach and Handel, that the effect of the combination with the organ must necessarily be different. An organ part filling up the harmony played by some twenty or twenty-four violins in unison (as in many of Handel's songs) and supported by perhaps twelve to sixteen bass instruments will sound very different if there is only half that number of strings. Besides, our modern organs often differ hardly less from those of the 18th century than our modern orchestras. But there is another and more weighty reason for doubting the advisability of supplementing the score by such an organ part. In the collection of Handel's conducting-scores, purchased by M. Schoelcher, and now at Hamburg, is a copy of 'Saul' which contains full directions in Handel's own writing for the employment of the organ, reprinted in the edition of the German Handel Society;¹ from which it clearly appears that it was nowhere used to fill up the harmony in the accompaniment of the songs, which must therefore have been given to the harpsichord. It is therefore evident that such an organ part as Mendelssohn has written for the songs in 'Israel,' appropriate as it is in itself, is not what the composer intended.
93. The method more frequently and also more successfully adopted is to fill up the harmonies with other instruments—in fact to rewrite the score. Among the earliest examples of this mode of treatment are Mozart's additional accompaniments to Handel's 'Messiah,' 'Alexander's Feast,' 'Acis and Galatea,' and 'Ode for St. Cecilia's Day.' These works were arranged for Baron van Swieten, for the purpose of performances where no organ was available. What was the nature of Mozart's additions will be seen presently; meanwhile it may be remarked in passing, that they have always been considered models of the way in which such a task should be performed. [See the preface to Professor Prout's edition of 'The Messiah' (full score), 1902.] Many other musicians have followed Mozart's example with more or less success, among the chief being Ignaz Franz Mosel, who published editions of 'Samson,' 'Jephtha,' 'Belshazzar,' etc., in which not only additional instrumentation was introduced, but utterly unjustifiable alterations were made in the works themselves, a movement from one oratorio being sometimes transferred to another; Mendelssohn, who (in early life) rescored the 'Dettingen Te Deum,' and 'Acis and Galatea'; Dr. Ferdinand Hiller, Sir G. A. Macfarren, Sir Michael Costa, Sir Arthur Sullivan, and last (and probably best of all) Robert Franz. This
11¹ See also Chrysander's Jahrbücher für Musikalische Wissenschaft Band I, which contains a long article on this subject.
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