Complete Encyclopaedia of Music/A/Accompaniment
Accompaniment. The instrumental part of a composition, which moves with the voice, to which it is to be kept subordinate ; it also de-notes the parts which, in a concerted piece, move with a particular instrument, whose powers it is the object of the composition to exhibit. The accompaniment is considered as a vocal or instrumental accessory, which may consist of an unlimited number of parts, to supply the necessary chasms, and to heighten the general effect. Accompaniments must be executed with much skill and delicacy, and in such a manner as to fulfil not only the object of the composer, but to admit of the leader giving the full effect to the composition, which will otherwise make but a feeble impression, though in the most skilful hands. Accompaniments are in no degree susceptible of embellishment ; a circumstance which is too often overlooked. It is extremely difficult, without a previous knowledge of the composition in the person accompanying, to treat an accompaniment in a way which is at once judicious and pleasing. It is generally believed that the accompaniments of the ancients consisted in nothing more than playing in octave, or in antiphony to the voice' though the Abbe Fraguire has endeavored to prove, from a passage in Plato, that they had actual symphony, or music in parts. The accompaniment truly does denote something attending, or added as a circumstance to another ; either by way of ornament, or for the sake of symmetry, or the like. Organists sometimes apply the word to several pipes which they occasionally touch, to accompany the treble, as the drone, flute, &c. The accompaniment is always a part or parts writ-ten for instruments which accompany, to make the music more full. The accompaniment often plays a very different part, or melody, from the song ; but authors are not agreed whether it was so or not among the ancients. An efficient accompaniment, well performed, is very pleasing to the ear. All music, says Addison, is to deduce its- laws and rules from the general sense and taste of mankind, and not from the principle; of the art itself ; or, in other words, the taste is not to conform to the art, but the art to the taste. Music is not designed to please only chromatic ears, but all that are capable of distinguishing harsh from agreeable notes. A man of an ordinary ear is a judge whether a passion is expressed in proper sounds, and whether the melody of those sounds be more or less pleasing.
The accompaniment can be executed either by many, by a few, or even by a single instrument. We have, therefore, pieces of music with an accompaniment for several, or only for a single Instrument. The principles on which the effect of the accompaniment rests are so little settled, that its composition is perhaps more difficult than even that of the melody, or principal part. Frequently, the same musical thought, according to the character of the accompaniment, produces a good or bad effect, without our being able to give a satisfactory reason for the difference. Formerly, the Italians were the most distinguished for expressive accompaniments, contained in a few notes, but productive of great effect. They never weakened the effect of the principal part by means of the accompaniment. The French are behind some of the other nations in respect to this part of composition, as they frequently estimate the effect by the quantity of notes. The accompaniment requires of the performer the most scrupulous study, and of the composer the greatest care and delicacy. The accompaniment of various solo instruments - for example, the violin, flute, piano, &c. - is extremely difficult, and to give it full effect requires great knowledge and skill. The Italian composers accordingly consider a piano accompaniment for a full orchestra, especially in the recitativo, as a great problem, which they have labored zealously to solve. As the object of every musical accompaniment is to give effect to the principal part, the accompanist should always aim to support, and by no means to overpower and oppress it. Of all composers, Mozart, even in respect to the accompaniments, claims the first place, for the simplicity and beauty with which he amalgamates the leading and accompanying parts, through his unrivalled knowledge and excellent management of the parts for every individual instrument. The modern German composers excel in accompaniment.