The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1884-06-15
a0nN0p ON KA0NER.
why the Fsssch master Wished - write :
Review or she Gernan's Work.


| fTpterviow IN the vicnns Ncue Frei Preset
During Wagner's lifetime much III was
said Of him, and now that he Is dead ne y
snoken of too well. II cannot be denied
| that the nature OF q man who has con-
! ceiyed such works as he has brought iorth
differs from other natures. Who can lg-
more the fact that he has rendered import
ant services to music? But there is wide
difference between Legitimate recognition
of his great and multifarious qualities
and an extravagant and boundless ad-
miratIon. For my part / cannot ad-
nit that continuous recitatiye Is con-
tinuous melody. In Mozart alone Is con-
ltjnuous melody to be found. And at this
stage OF events Gounod played upon the
piano an air from "Don Giovanni" and
some passages from Beethoven and
Haydn.l This, he proceeded, is what L
cali continuous melody, and not that ever
lasting phrase without goal or limitation,
that musical sprinkling, those symphonic
effects without definite form. These ex-
ceeded all that the most personal and orr
g,pal OF artists shsuld permit himself 10
nut forth. They only lead to heresy, and
indeed Wagner, in most OF his works, is
nothing more than q musical hereto.
III Wagner stood alone the situation
would be changed, but his band OF partl-
sans and imitators do him the utmost In
Jury by adding their eXaggerations to the
masters and striving to evolve system
from the medley. Did Gluck, Mozart,
Beethoven, Meyerbeer or Auber dream OF
systems when they wrote their MASTER
pieces? In the happy and blessed hours
IN which an artists genius manifests ltse1
is II allowable to think OF cold classihca-
tons? How foreign is the mania 10
depict and represent by sounds the most
tri1,ng details oFthe true inspiration
that an artist receives from above as gift
OF Divine mercy. With their pomp OF
words and sounds these people but conceal
the poverty OF their ideas, a. If art consist
ed of rendering little by much. and not
much by little. Being incapable OF pro-
ducing an artistic work, embodied in de-
finite, graceful, or exalted form, they de-
ceiye the listeners whom they surprise by
apparent noise and motion; tap! tap tap!
again! encore. cleaving the vast or
chestral sauce in which no fishes
swim until they drown. The consequence
of this process is that 10 one is
willing nowadays 20 concentrate ones self
in order to really become, instead OF APP
bearing to be, something. Therefore it is
YOU see most young artists excluding from
their music artistic feeling and picty, seek
ing nothing but din in art, as In life, and
hungering for success amid brilliant de-
monstrations, puffs, banquet, etc. They
drag everything to themselves and give
nothing OF themselves. Appearance, not
genuine strength, is sought after.
They play Wagner's music in Paris, and
il is good that what is beautiful and eter
nal i'm his works should be made known,
but cannot readily believe that they will
become acclimatized in France. On the
contrary, I am sure the time is at hand
when everybody will weary OF the must
ca, sophsts and rhetoricians who labor
to transform human delights and en-
joyments into suffering. The object
of music is to give happiness and not
to engender woe and increase sorrow and
anguish. Whether Wagner has wished it
or not, his music has become the umbre!-
lathe torn umbrella-under which the
knights of la hduIe plague seek shelter from
the storm OF general dissatisfaction. A
gust Of wind will sweep them away, ana
the gay, the noble, and the. beautiful Will
shine forth under the bright sun.