New-York tribune., 1884-02-04
RETVEEN-AC1S MUSIC.
VIEWS OF MUSICIANS on ITS SCOPE AND
PURPOSE.

PURPOSE.
II vould be an excellent consummatIon II tle 10
-. oorformances of the music composed by Men
aolssobn for Shakespeares "Midsummer NlghC
Dreamn should sci our theatrical managers 10 thlnA
ino ahout that much-needed reform In our theatres
tbe Improvement of bctween-acts music WI
Jrvinrs season at the Star Theatre shoWeu Ho"
greatly the illusion Of a play could DC heipou an"
the interest in il concentrated and htehsiheu oy
oorefn, staoe management and correct scenery ana
,,ronerties. The song and dance of the rustics IN
q Lons XI" for instance, and the less wen oono
choral service sung at intervals III the chHpei "0io
in pretty harmony with the drama 'hey oiu n0'
oo+ ot ali disturbingy upon the mood conjured up
nv the dialogue and the action, but intenslhed IT,
Here as in other things Mr. Irving showed praise
worthy Judgment. But his care in the matter OF
,,rsic seemed 10 stop with the curtain, and there
,vos dreadful dissonance throughout between the
drama and the music played between acts II
seemed strange and ncomprehensible that so care
fnl n student as Mr.. Irving should not nave per
ceiyed that there is nothing that can sooner eaCo
tbe effect upon the audience OF strong dralh'uo
situation than the vulgar haring OF an li-conhposcu
orcbestra the moment the veil is drawn over the
mimic world on the stage. Nine times out Vi Iei
even so magnetic an actor as Mr. Irving IS ooIlseu
% re.conouer his audience with the beginning OF
'i'''N-"
audiences always indulge after the fall OF the cur
to,n might keep their minds keyed up to the pitch
of the inst ended scene but let them listen for
,noment TO the music and the impressions LETT by
,be artist and the writer vanish like smoke. For
that they shall be obllterated completely seems TO
he the fixed determination OF all orchestral leaders
These men seem to be guided by only one principle
,bicb ;s that every scene of sombre color must be
followed by bright, careless, hippant musc-gener-
nlv n waltz or galop-as if it was imperative that
drastic antidote should be promptly administered
after the medicine which has caused the emotional
or intellectual spell which was the very aim OF the
dramatist and actor Can anything Dlore NloleH"J
wrong than this be concevedf,
IfnA Midsummer Nights Dream" could be re-
xiyed with appropriately splendid appointments
and MendelssOhns music, the leaders OF theatre Or
cbestras might hear how music can be htted TO
action with mutual profit, and how.the highest ams
of incidental music to the drama can be subserved'
These aims ideally considered, Ought to be 10 retain
the audience in the pOetica mood developed by ne
1o,. IN nrepare the mind for the next ensuing scene
Inv suggesting its temper Though this point may
be omen to ouestion and to do this without putting
an additional strain upon the hearers. MUSICIANS
know that the task is difficult one, but tnat all
that is here proposed is accomplished III the specl-
mems of incidental music which have been COM
sicians Beethoven IN the music of "Egmont,"
Ueber in the muslc of Precosa," and MendelssOhn
in the ,nusic to A Midsummer Nights Dream"
The latter music comes nearer, perhaps, than any
other to meet all the requirements for Beethovens
,onsc tasks the mind little unduly, and WeDers
music only contributes the appropriate plquant
Spanish color to the songs that occur III the piay
Mendelssohn wrote the overture to Shakespeares
fairy drama when he lad of sixteen, and it
was not until seventeen years afterWard that he
undertook tat the request of Frederick William w.
of Prussia to whose influence also we owe the music
of q R,dpus Antigone" and Athalie'l to write
music for the whole comedy; yet everybody knows
how beautifully the spirit of the play is expressed
and how the entr'acte, incidental music and melo-
drama preserve the spirit of the exquisite overture,
whose first chords from the wind choir. like
The horns OF enand family blowing"
nsher ms at once into the fairy haunted wood. In
another moment the fancy is taken captive by the
pambols of the sprtes which cease only to give way
10 an amusing, yet always musical, Characterization
of BptIlV Bottom. The Intermezzo, anxious and ag-
fated follows the second act and first shows us the
alarmed search of Hernia for her truant lover and
then with a merry leap into the major introduces
the "hempen homespuns" who open the succeeding
net. The Wedding March which follows the fourth
act foreshadows the double marriage in the fifth
which Is the outcome OF All lnlS cACcl0ht iooAihS'
Beethoven used the same artifce in his music to
Gocthes tragedy, repeating Cidrchas plaintve song
after the fall of the curtain on the third act and
then changing TO march time to prelude the entrance
of the Spanish troops in the fourth. Such music
rests the mind from the tension caused by the play
but leaves the poetcal mood undisturbed.
England long ago gave serious consideration to
The subject of theatre music, and some of the COM
nostions of Purcell and other old composers have
maintained their hold the stage in spite OF their
srchaisms; but ii is in Germany that the subject
has exercised the minds of musicians and theatrical
beople most There a discussion was begun In 1853
which cannot be said TO be at an end even now
The occasion, as DR.. Hanslick related in his con-
trbution to the question three years ago, was the
Engagement of Dawson at the Court Theatre in
Berlin. The management desiring TO increase the
seating capacity of the house. banished the orches
ira. There were no complaints and soon the jour
nails began to discuss whether music might not be
kept out of the theatre with advantage to the
drama Singularly enough in this discussion the
musicians were those who cried for the repression
of music, while the dramatists defended it, Nearly
q century before LesSing had laid down the purpose
of between-acts music substantially ii has bess
stated above and the battle turned on the practica
bility of such an ideal Ferdinand Hitler argued
that to write between-acts music and preserve the
accented purpose required the art of the greatest
composers, who, however would not find the re-
strictions congenal. Moreover, the pieces would
have TO be listened to with much attention as the
play II being manifestly impossible TO secure this
union. PLAYS would better be performed without
Music than that the art should be degraded.