The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1880-05-16
VI. charles eounoa on Music.
Whitehall Revlow.

NJ. Gounod was busy furnishing his new
aud splendid hotel, situated Mt No. 20 Place Male
shcrbcs and had to pass under ladders and jump
over pals and hammers before reaching the music
where the great master awaited inc. Tie miislc-
room Is spcndldy ranelcd with oak, furnished With
classical severity and most perfect taste. At end
is placed an Immense orgatlc most perfect vehicle
Of aesthetic expression the musician has yet discovered
The maestro received me most cordially, and on my
explaining 10 him the object OF my visit he plunged at
''To my mind the Intellectual tendency Of the art
of music IS greater than the sentimental to-day, but
the great faulto music is that II Is complex aud
not simple. Masters too apt to study the effect Of
q hautboy, OF violin, or Of nute-questions of
detailand TO disregard the great value OF the tout
cpsembie-the expression In Its completeness OF AN
idea. II was not always so; Rossln for example,
and Mozart were both sutiimely simple An tho
greatest things always simple. RossInI composed
divncly from divine inspiration II Is as " cod had
ordered him to sing, aud he SUBSTANTIALLY, easily
and spontaneously II was his nature, and there was
effort The same IL true OF Mozart. -
'What Is your opinion Of the condition OF the art
OF music now2'' Inquired.
"Iike everything else, 1t Is In transitory stage.
II Is not wholly sentimental OF wholly practical.
and the fact Of our being In this transitory stage gives
me confidence. There Is strength In weakness, and
were there no opposition to truth, truth would be the
loser; gain strength and experience by combat and
failure; aud Is always after atransitory and hesitate
Ing stage like the present that the grandest epoch
when faith and reason are one. This time win come
rely upon It, although perhaps neither you nor will
see II. II Is the natural evolution of all things, and
tory Of this planet. As years and centuries roll on
we shall things clearer until at length faith and
reason win be one, and things which we now con-
slider supernatural will he natural. Music is only
phase of thought and In considering Its present con-
.liion aud It's future cannot separate u from other
aud win eventually meet with the same full complete
ness and perfect pOwer.'
4" But what viii be the result Of this present
pick condition Of the theory OF music In Europep''
"Why, naturally from this complexity will spring
simplicity. The next great master will be simple
No mr. al liz n n
break all, but with the fragments oil what he has
broken he will erect splendid tempe-Power pow
true and powerful. As 1t is with the history
Of any art 1t Is with the history OF
reason the Intelligence, and France the heart the
sentiment. The day will come when they Will UNDER
stand each other and he
asked.
"About two years and Q half; hut then was In
terruptcd. wrote lie Medlcin Magre lui In the
middle of Faust, before produced Faust peo-
pie did not understand that styeo Of musicthe simple.
expressed the Faust and Marguerite of Goethe as
even when she has fallen. Marguerite Is never I'm
pure. some years ago, after l had led the perform
ance OF Faust before the late King Of Hanover, Ills
Majesty sent for me aud said q have your opera
performed every sunday evening, and 1t Is to me as
continuation Of the divine service have attended In
the day. Your Marguerite Is as pure when the cur
tain falls as when first Faust meets her. ~
"Have you ever heard spchr's Faust p ~ in-
quired.
"Ycars ago; hut do not recollect 1t. I am glad
did not know II well at the time composed mine,
for 1t might have modified my conception of the sub
ject.''
After pause NJ Gounod broke out:
envy men who have time to express their thoughts
by orotery or by writing. These men are the real
apostles. I am nothing but poor musician and the
theatre absorbs all my time. ! envy men who can
directly appeal to the thoughts of their felowmen by
their pen or by their VOICE.
al hut surely music is an expression OF thought?,
Eyes, of course; but not SO direct. do not COM
plain for everything has Its USE but envy men who
and who have time TO their faculties
they please Had my life over again should not be
musiccian; should devote my faculties to literature
and philosophy
could not help thinking TO myself that the world
could ili-aiiord to loose Faust and Romeo and
Juliet ~ and that there perhaps rather too many
philosophers and woud-be apostles OF progress now
aloys