The arrangement of chords which the ear naturally expects at the close of a strain is called a cadence; it corresponds in music to the period which closes a sentence in dis course. It is perfect when the harmony of the dominant precedes the harmony of the key-note, and imperfect when the harmony of the key-note precedes that of the domi nant without its seventh.
The imperfect cadence is the most usual termination of a musical phrase, or short succession of measures containing no perfect musical idea. A portion of melody formed of two regular phrases, and containing a perfect musical idea, is called a section, and its regular termination is the perfect cadence.
Perfect. Imperfect.
i 1m" --, ---" I 'z1 I AW ...g. -6 9: I -- , Ii -5+ __—=*-----**2:7' 1 Music is produced by the human voice, and by a variety of artificial instruments. For the application of the voice to musical purposes, see SINGING. Musical instruments are classified as stringed instruments, wind instruments, and instruments of percussion. In some stringed instruments as the pianoforte, the sounds are produced by striking the strings by keys; in others,'as the harp and guitar, by drawing them from the position of rest. In a third class, including the violin, viola, violoncello, and double bass, the strings are put into vibration with a bow. In wind instruments the sound is produced by the agitation of an inclosed column of air; some, as the flute, clarionet, oboe, bassoon, flageolet, instruments of wood, and the trumpet, horn, cornet-a-piston, etc., of metal, are played by the breath; in others, as the organ, harmonium, and concertina, the wind is produced by other means. In the two last-named instruments, the sound is produced by the action of wind on free vibrating springs or reeds. Instruments of percussion are such as the drum, kettle-drum, cymbals, etc. The chief peculiarities of the more important musical instruments are noticed in special articles.
Musical compositions are either for the voice, with or without instrumental accompa Mment, or for instruments only. Of vocal music, the principal forms may be classed as church music, chamber music, dramatic music, and popular or national music. The first includes plain song, faux-bourdon, the chorale, the anthem, the sacred cantata, the mass and requiem of the Roman Catholic church, and the oratorio. Vocal chamber music includes cantatas, madrigals, and their modern successors, glees, as also recitatives, arias, duets, trios, quartets, choruses, and generally all forms, accompanied or unac companied, which are chiefly intended for small circles. Dramatic music comprehends music united with scenic representation in a variety of ways, in the ballet, the melo drama, the vaudeville, and the opera, in which last, music supplies the place of spoken dialogue. Instrumental music may be composed for one or for more instruments. The rondo, the concerto, the sonata, and the fantasia generally belong to the former class; to the latter, symphonies and overtures for an orchestra, and instrumental chamber music, including duets, trios, quartets, and other compositions for several instruments, where each takes the lead in turn, the other parts being accompaniments. These and other forms of composition will be found noticed separately.
history of MuN'e.—A certain sort of music seems to have existed in all countries and at all times. Even instrumental music is of a very early date: representations of musi
cal instruments occur on the Egyptian obelisks and tombs. The music of the Ilebrews is supposed to have had a defined rhythm and melody. The Greeks numbered music among the sciences, and studied the Mathematical proportions of sounds. Their music.
however, was but poetry sung, a sort of musical recitation or intoning, in which the melodic part was a mere accessory. The Romans borrowed their music from the Etrus cans and Greeks, and had both stringed instruments and wind instruments.
The•musie or modern Europe is a new art, with which nothing analogous seems to have existed among the nations of antiquity. The early music of the Christian church was probably in part of Greek. and in part of Hebrew origin. The chorale was at first sung in octaves and unisons. St. Ambrose and Gregory the great directed their attention to its improvement, and under them some sort of harmony or counterpoint seems to have found its way into the service of the church. Further advances were made by Guido of Arezzo, to whom notation by lines and spaces is due, but the ecclesiastical music had still an uncertain tonality and an uncertain rhythm. Franco of Cologne, in the 13th c., first indicated the duration of notes by diversity of form. The invention of the organ, and its use in accompanying the chorale, had a large share in the development of har mony. Along with the music of the church, and independently of it, a secular music was making gradual advances, guided more by the ear than by science; it seems to have had a more decided rhythm, though not indicated as yet by liars. The airs which have become national in different countries were developments of it, but it bad its chief seat in Belgic Gaul; and the reconciliation of musical science with musical art begun its Flanders by Josquin Duprt).8 in the 15th c., was completed the 17th c. by Palestrina. and his school at Rome, and reacted eventually on the ecclesiastical style. The opera, which appeared nearly contemporaneously with the Reformation and revival of letters, greatly enlarged the domain of music. Italy advanced in melody, and Germany in har mony. Instrumental music occupied a more and more prominent place. Corelli's coin positions exalted the violin. Lulli and Mittman, with their ballet-like music, seized the characteristics of French taste, till the German Gluck drove them out of the field. The scientific and majestic fugue reached its highest perfection under J. S. Bach. The changes introduced in ecclesiastical music in England at the restoration gave birth to the school of Purcell; and a little later England adopted the German Handel. who was the precursor of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Spohr, and Mendelssohn. The principal fact. in recent musical history Is the movement with which the name of Wagner is connected, having for its aim the production and perfection of a true musical drama, in which,. unlike the opera, the words and music shall be of equal importance.
See Pepusch's Treatise on Harmony, Calcott's Musical Grammar, Hawkins's and Bur ney's History of Music, Marx's Allgemeine Schule de Musik, Brown's Elements of Muskat Science, and Chambers's Information for the People, Nos. 96-97 (1875).