Four Hundred Years of European Keyboard Music by Walter GeorgiiReview by: Arthur LoesserNotes, Second Series, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Mar., 1961), pp. 306-307Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/891656 .

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Winterfeld published, as an appendix to his study, a volume containing about twenty of Gabrieli's works put in score, and some fragments. Until recently, with the exception of perhaps half a dozen other sacred works, a handful of madrigals, and some instrumental pieces, Winterfeld's scores were the only source of new Gabrieli publications, as well as the only basis of appraisal by historians.

With the publication of the first two volumes of Giovanni Gabrieli's complete works, the world of music will have the first opportunity to see and judge the music of his initial stylistic period. The first two volumes include, with a very few exceptions, all of that music. Volume I, which appeared in 1956, included the five motets Gabrieli published in 1587 and the first twenty of the sacred pieces published in 1597. The present volume contains the scores of the rest of that print, comprising 25 pieces in all. It is really a pity that three more pieces, published in 1600, were not included as well, for they belong to the early style, and they will be somewhat out of place in the next volume, which will contain works in the later style. This is almost carping, however, because the essential,

all-important fact is that finally we have a total of 50 works of the earlier period, and this provides a perspective that has been absolutely unavailable until now. For this the entire musical world owes thanks and gratitude to the American Institute of Musicology. It seems almost needless to say, therefore, that this volume should be acquired by every institute of higher learning and every public library with a music department. The two volumes together constitute a work indispensable to any collection that pur- ports to give a comprehensive picture of the evolution of music.

As far as external appearance is con- cerned, the same high standards are maintained in the present volume as in all publications of the Institute. This reviewer has expressed elsewhere some reservations mainly concerning editorial policy and the lack of its detailed ex- planation. He may add that there are a number of printing errors. Of course these are unavoidable. But there is a way to reassure the critical reader that they are no more than indeed that: the inclusion of a list of Errata in the next volume.

EGON F. KENTON

Walter Georgii, compiler: Four Hundred Years of European Keyboard Music. Koln: Arno Volk Verlag; U. S. A.: Oxford University Press, New York. 1959. [140 D.. $6.001

Four Hundred Years of European Key- board Music contains 52 pieces by 47 European composers between the years 1513 and 1936. It is a pretty good sampling on the whole, giving some sort of representation to most masters of any importance. One of the volume's virtues is the inclusion of a number of excellent works by composers not often performed and not readily available in print. I refer, for example, to the slow movement of Clementi's Sonata in A major, Op. 50, No. 1, a piece evincing considerable emotional depth as well as superb craft; or to the charming, sweetly melancholy Siciliana in F minor by Padre Martini; or to Purcell's A Ground in Gamut, the all-important bass line of which is identical, even to its key of G major, with the all-important bass

line of Bach's "Goldberg" Variations composed about 50 years later.

A curious feature of the printing of the older music, such as that of Byrd or Couperin, is the effort to reproduce the ornaments-trills, mordents, and so on-in the type faces employed during their epoch. Adequate explanations of their plausible execution are noted in an appendix. The collection also has a "Historical Introduction" which mentions a number of well known facts about the composers and compositions included.

It is in the treatment given to the later, more widely performed composers that the collection seems less successful than it might be. It is true that the compiler was faced with the necessity, as he states, of including only composi- tions that are not too long or too difficult

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to play. Representing Mozart by his lovely Adagio in B minor, K. 540, is surely not amiss, and giving Beethoven a place with two Bagatelles from Opus 126 might still pass muster. But what shall we say to brushing off Sebastian Bach with an undistinguished French Suite prelude, which he discarded? What is the justice of letting Schubert fail to shine with a trifling little Allegretto in C minor, a piece easily available in other editions? Why is Liszt's leonine hand concealed under a dubious Provengal Christmas Carol, written offhand for one of his granddaughters? Other inclusions seem a little pointless. If facility of execution was a consideration in making the selections, why seize on No. 1 of Schumann's Kreisleriana, a piece playable properly only by persons of considerable technical proficiency? Then why repre- sent Debussy by Clair de lune, so easy to buy separately?

Other biases seem to afflict the collec- tion: omitting Faure and Ravel, while at the same time including a piece by Max Reger, seems to imply that the compiler expects to find his customers primarily in Germany. Furthermore, the collection respectfully includes composi- tions by such composers as Pachelbel, Kuhnau, Buxtehude, Bohm, J. K. F. Fischer, Schobert, and Wagenseil-all respectable second- and third-rate practi- tioners of the 17th and 18th centuries. On the other hand, the estimable minor prophets of the 19th century, such as Saint Saens, Raff, A. Rubinstein, Cha- brier, and many others, are passed over in disdainful disregard. I know this is the musicologists' orthodox "modern" ideology; yet I have a suspicion that music lovers who are not "ologists" are, on the whole, in passive disagreement with this Einstellung.

ARTHUR LOESSER

Pieter Hellendaal: Concerti grossi, Op. 3. Edited by Hans Brandts Buys. (Monumenta Musica Neerlandica, 1.) Amsterdam: Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziek-eschiedenis. 1959. r03 (i im n- Fl1 90.-1

Pieter Hellendaal was one of a handful of gifted composers born and raised in the northern half of the Low Countries during the "great pause" that lasted from the death of Sweelinck to the 20th- century rebirth of Dutch music. Like some others, he found the cultural climate of 18th-century Holland little conducive to the realization of his musical ambi- tions and left his native country at the age of thirty. In England he rose quickly to the position of musicus academiae at Cambridge, having previously succeeded Dr. Burney as organist at King's Lynn. His organ career had started in Utrecht at the age of ten, but his virtuosity on the violin soon outshone his fame as an organist. With one notable exception Hellendaal's instrumental compositions are all written for string instruments.i

Aside from their unquesfioned his- torical interest, the six lively Concerti grossi published as Volume I of the new monuments of Dutch music form a most welcome addition to the none-too-exten- sive repertoire for string orchestra. Hel- lendaal's Opus III was first published

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by Walsh about the time of Handel's death, though not necessarily in 1758 when the royal privilege was granted. But, although Hellendaal knew Handel and his music well and had played solo violin for him in 1754, his style reflects more strongly the influence of older com- posers, especially Corelli and Vivaldi. His concertos certainly lack the struc- tural variety of Handel's Op. 6, for he adheres strictly to a five-movement pat- tern, adding a characteristic dance, mnarch, or pastorale to the traditional -church sonata sequence. His modern editor, the late Hans Brandts Buys, fol- lowing in the footsteps of Charles van den Borren, would have us believe that Hellendaal's style is "very often purely Dutch in character." This may be true of some of the final dances, such as the charming Borea of the second concerto which suggests the heavy stamping of frolicking Dutch peasants rather than the stylized steps of a French bourree. But on the whole there is little to distinguish Hellendaal from other Italianate Baroque eclectics, except perhaps his consistent

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