A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Introduction
INTRODUCTION. The main purpose of an Introduction in music is either to summon the attention of the audience, or to lead their minds into the earnest and sober mood which is fittest for the appreciation of great things. The manner in which these purposes are accomplished varies greatly with the matter which is to follow. If that be light and gay any noise will answer the purpose, such as brilliant passages or loud chords; but if it be serious it is manifest that the Introduction should either have proportionate inherent interest or such dignity of simplicity as cannot be mistaken for triviality. It is interesting to note the manner in which this has been carried out by great masters, and the more important relations which seem to subsist between a movement and its Introduction in their works.
In the first place there are many examples of simple signals to attention; such as the single independent chord which opens Haydn's Quartet in E♭ (Trautwein No. 33); the simple cadence which introduces his Quartet in C, op. 72 (Trautwein No. 16), and the group of chords with cadence which precedes the Quartet in B♭, op. 72 (Trautwein No. 12). These have no other relation to the movement than that of giving notice that it is about to commence, and are appropriate enough to the clear and simple form of the Haydn Quartet. Similar examples are to be remarked in very different kinds of music; as for instance at the commencement of the Eroica Symphony, where the quiet soberness of the beginning of the movement seems to call for some signal to attention, while its supreme interest from the very first seems to indicate that introductory elaboration would be out of place. In Chopin's Nocturne in B major [App. p.685 "Op. 62, No. 1"], again, it is not difficult to see the reason for the adoption of the two simple forte chords with which it is introduced; since the commencement of the Nocturne proper is so quiet and delicate that without some such signal the opening notes might be lost upon the audience; whilst a more developed Introduction would clearly be disproportionate to the dimensions of the piece.
In great orchestral works, such as symphonies, Haydn usually commences with a set and formal Introduction in a slow tempo, which marks the importance of the work, and by remaining so close to the principal key of the movement as hardly ever to pass the limits of the Tonic and Dominant keys, assists the audience to realise the tonality. Mozart did not follow the example of Haydn in this respect, as many of his symphonies are without Introductions,—especially the well-known ones in C (Jupiter) and G minor. In quintets, quartets, sonatas, and such forms of chamber-music he is also sparing of Introductions, but there is an example of some extent in the quintet for pianoforte and wind in E♭ (Köchel, 452), in which the harmonic successions are simple, and there is a more celebrated one to the string quartet in C, in which the harmonic bases vary more freely than in other examples of that period which can be adduced.
Beethoven began from the first to follow up this point, and it is said that some pedants never forgave him for opening the Introduction to his Symphony in C (No. 1) with chords which appear not to belong to that key. The Symphony in D again (No. 2) has a very important Introduction, in which there is free modulation, such as to B♭ and F, and many passages and figures of great beauty and interest. In the Symphony in B♭ the introductory Adagio is in the highest degree beautiful and impressive, and contains modulation even to the degree of an enharmonic change. In the Symphony in A the idea of the independent Introduction culminates. It has a decidedly appreciable form and two definite subjects. It opens with great dignity and decision in A major, and passes thence to C, the key of the minor third above, in which a clear and beautiful second subject is given; after this the figures of the opening are resumed and a short transition is made back to the original key, passing on from thence to F major, the key of the third below, in which the second subject again appears. From this key the transition to E, the Dominant of the original key, is at the same time easy and natural and sufficiently interesting; and considerable stress being laid upon this note both by its continuance in the harmonies and its reiteration individually, it thoroughly prepares the definite commence- of the Vivace.
In the above instances the Introduction is practically an independent movement, both as regards the substance and the clear division which is made between it and the succeeding movement by a full or half close. In many of his later works Beethoven made an important change in respect of the connection between the Introduction and the movement introduced; by abolishing the marked break of continuity, by the use of figures which are closely related in both, and by carrying the subject matter of the Introduction into the movement which follows.
One of the clearest and most interesting examples of his later treatment of the Introduction is in the first movement of the Sonata in E♭, op. 81a, in which the introductory Adagio opens with the text of the movement, which is constantly reiterated in the 'working out' of the Allegro, and yet more constantly and persistently and with many transformations in the long and beautiful coda. Rubinstein has adopted the same device in his Dramatic Symphony in D minor; in which also the first subject of the first movement proper is a transformed version of the opening subject of the Introduction.
In several of his later Quartets Beethoven makes the most important material of the Introduction appear in the movement which follows it, in different ways as in the Quartet in E♭, op. 127, and that in B♭, op. 130, and A, op. 132, in the last two of which the subjects of the Introduction and the first movement are very closely intermixed. In the E♭ Concerto also the Introduction reappears with certain variations of detail in the latter part of the movement previous to the 'recapitulation' of the subject. In its intimate connection with the movement which follows it, the Introduction to the first movement of the 9th Symphony is most remarkable. It commences mysteriously with the open fifth of the Dominant, into which the first rhythms of the first subject begin to drop, at first sparsely, like hints of what is to come, then closer and closer, and louder and louder, till the complete subject bursts in in full grandeur with the Tonic chord. In this case the introductory form reappears in the course of the movement, and also briefly in the discussion of the previous themes which immediately precedes the commencement of the vocal portion of the work.
After Beethoven no composer has grasped the idea of intimately connecting the Introduction with the work which it introduces more successfully than Schumann, and many of the examples in his works are highly interesting and beautiful. In the Symphony in C, for instance, a striking figure of the opening reappears in the first movement, in the scherzo, and in the last movement. In the Symphony in D [App. p.685 "minor"], in which all the movements are closely connected, the introductory phrases are imported into the Romanze, where they occupy no unimportant position. In his Sonata in D minor, for violin and pianoforte, op. 121, the Introduction proposes in broad and clear outlines the first subject of the succeeding allegro, in which it is stated with greater elaboration. The Overture to Manfred affords another very interesting specimen of Schumann's treatment of the Introduction. It opens with three abrupt chords in quick tempo, after which a slow tempo is assumed, and out of a sad and mysterious commencement the chief subject of the Overture proper is made by degrees to emerge. An earlier analogue to this is the Introduction to Beethoven's Egmont Overture, in which one of the chief figures of the first subject of the overture seems to grow out of the latter part of the introduction.
Of all forms of musical composition none are more frequently preceded by an Introduction than overtures; the two above mentioned, and such superb examples as those in the Overtures to Leonora Nos. 2 and 3, and to Coriolan, and such well-known ones as those to Weber's Der Freischütz and Oberon, Schumann's Genoveva, and Mendelssohn's Ruy Blas, will serve to illustrate this fact.
Introductions are not unfrequently found in the place of overtures before choral works, as in Handel's Joshua, Haydn's Creation, Beethoven's Mount of Olives, and Rossini's Stabat Mater. In this sense also the 'Vorspiel,' which Wagner so often adopts in place of an overture before his operas is an Introduction; as in Lohengrin and Rheingold, and the three operas of the Trilogy. In these the figures are generally very intimately connected with the music of the opera, and in all but the first they are part of the first scene, into whieh they pass without a break. In 'Tristan und Isolde' Wagner gives the name 'Einleitung' to the Orchestral prelude both of the first and second acts, and this term is yet more literally translateable as 'Introduction' than Vorspiel. In earlier operas the term Introduction is frequently applied to the whole first scene, as in Don Giovanni, Zauberflöte, Figaro, Freischütz, Il Barbiere, Norma, and so on. In Fidelio, Beethoven gives the name to the opening of the second act, which comprises more of an orchestral prelude, like Wagner's 'Einleitung.'
In relation to instrumental music again Introductions are occasionally found in other positions than at the beginning of an entire work; as for instance the preparatory adagio before the last movement of Beethoven's Septet and of his Symphony in C, the more important one in the same position in Brahms's C minor Symphony, the short passage before the slow movement of the 9th Sypmhony, the two notes which introduce the slow movement of the B♭ Sonata (op. 106), and the Introduction to the last movement of Brahms's Quintet in F minor.