New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-06-17
AMERICAN COMPOSERS.


Tho cause of American music has never
been presented under such favorable cohdi-
tions as promise TO attend the concerts OF tne
Music Teachers National Association IN
Chicago during the first week of july Ihese
concerts will be under the direction of Mr.
Thomas, who will employ his own orchestra
and large choir that has been organized Tor
the purpose and is now engaged in the STUDY
Of the choral works which are to be Drought
forward. Though unable to MAINTAIN series
If festivals like Cincinnati Chicago has ac-
complished notable things chorally, and II the
choir prove worthy of Mr.. Thomas and his
hand. it is safe to say there is MOI single
foreign composer who would not be glad OF
the opportunity to have work OF MS pre-
sented to the public under such favorable
auspices. The American composers whose
music il to be performed at the twelfth an
nual meeting of the association are to be con-
graduated.
These concerts mark new and important
denayture in the purposes and achievements
of the Music Teachers National AssociahOh'
They took shape in this city three years ago
and were given such large significance ias'
wear at indianapolis by Mr.. Van der Stucisen
that to many they are now the most interest
;,,o footuro If the annual meetings. Like
the Tonkuenstlerversammlun in Germany
which List did so much to promote, they
serve an admirable purpose in encouraging
and instructing young composers IL Is 700
often forgotten that, compared with other
creative artists, the composer OF music is al
a great disadvantage: he cannot appeal direct
" to the public, but must do SO through the
mediumshp of an Interpreter. IL was con-
seriousness of this that led Ferdinand Hitler to
say that if it were as easy for the pubic TO
read printed music as books, Beethovcns
sonatas would be as popular as the poems OF
Goethe and Schiller. But it is only the gifted
and educated musician who can look at a page
Of music and hear it with his minds car, and
as works grow in completely the embarraSS-
ment grows greater. 1t is not difficult Tor
q COMPOSER even il he be not brilliant per-
former, to conceive entirely how his piano
forte solo sounds, but when he writes for
orchestra. with its almost countless com
binations of instruments, he must trust to his
Imagination and theoretical knowledge for the
actual effect unless he is able to hear his
work performed. From this dilemma there
IS no escape. Critics have found the results
Of Beethoven's deafness in that masters later
works, notwithstanding his gigantic grasp OF
the technics of composition; and even
Wagner, in whom the whole art Of writing
for consorted instruments is summed mp, fire.
quently made changes in his scores when he
heard the music played and sung.
OF late there has been n noticeable improve
ment in the attitude of the principal American
concert gvers and conductors toward Amer
lean composers but the occasional perform
ance of native composition by Mr.. Thomas,
Mr.. Van der Stucken or Mr.. Gericke does
not fully meet the educational needs Of the
situation, and the Music Teachers National
Association concerts are fulfilling noble
mission. The compositions which are to be
performed at Chicago are ambitious in the
matter of formal dimensions and the forces
employed and, whatever may be the ultimate
Judgment upon them, bear witness to the zeal,
energy and holiness of purpose which inspire
our composers Like those performed last
summer at Indianapolis and last fall at Mr..
Van der Suckers American concerts in
Chckering Hall, they will probably show the
influence of the German school, but that fact
will not detract from their interesting char
acter. For more than a century Germany
has been the musical law-giyer of the world,
and if any country ever succeeds in Wrestling
the sceptre from her grasp, it will be one that
has assmilated all the products of German
learning and vialized the art by the in
breathing Of a new spirit. We can afford to
follow in the footsteps of others and develop
National school of music on German lines.
1t is not many years since Dr. Won Bueow
called attention to the somewhat anomalous
circumstance that the best German music had
recently come from Paris and St. Petersburg.