New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-09-15
CHARACTER And ATTVTC

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CHARACTER md MUSIC
What is likely to be the "characteristic mode
Of expression in the future school Of American
music composers? The question is asked nv IN
interested correspondent in the Northwest who
writes concerning an article which appeared in this
journal few weeks ago discussing the opnion
OF our present composers held by a French critic
oil repute. Inc question is pertinent and merits
al answer out the answer is not easily given.
IL Is DIS nuch matter OF speculation what musical
| style Will be deemed effective by the people Of
the future as what features the writings of the
! coming poet or what peculiarities the pictures
OF the coming painter viii rely on for the charm
winch VIII aScinate the people to whose taste and
| judgment they will address themselves IT, is ovon
more matter of speculation. Poetry and pajnt.
ing are arts of imitation whose loftest ideals have
been reached in the past. Music on the con-
trary, Is not initiative, and has scarcely more than
entered upon its career Of development as an art.
! It's elements, indeed, older than articulate
! speech, but there is vast difference between
| The music OF the savage and the art of Beethoven
rs there IS between the sounds by which the lower
:E'maS express their feelings and the language of
Addison or Goethe. Only in their elements are
they kin.
The term school, as applied to musical COM
position is vague and almost meaningless. 1t
would puzzle historian to draw sharply the lines
that divide the schools spoken of in the books
and TO define the characteristics peculiar to each
| There has been much learned talk about the
| Neapolitan, FlOrentine and Roman schools and
the school of the Netherlands; but if u critical
Kaffir were to come with the question what in
the music produced by these schools was sug-
NnDlpS nd nh
lands he would probably be informed that the
terms had no specific aiming of the kind imagined
by him, but were only memorials of groups of
writer's who CHANGED at various times to draw
| attention TO themselves by the excellence Of their
work. Having hit the popular taste they were
for that reason inflated by other composers
ambitious TO succeed. Walter BagehOt is of the
opinion that it is by conscious and
unconscious imitation of this SORT that
literary schools are formed, and that
the wise and meditative man who follows the
strong and forward man is the one who generally
comes TO be looked upon as the head of a school,
simply because he knows how TO make his writings
peculiarly cOngenial to the minds around him.
having learned the trick from the venturesome
man who first hit the public fancy
The romantic spirit in music, which has never
been absent from the works of the great masters
but which broke through the bounds that con-
fined IL and asserted its right to full and free
expression under the influence Of Beethoven intro
duced new elements that have come to be looked
upon as identifying marks of national schools
In a general way these may be described as
peculiarities of melody, harmony and rhythm
which have been borrowed from the Fol1songs
Of European peoples. These elements have lent
color and character to the compositions of certain
composers and their imitators but their influence
...t.s
made as great as might have been expected.
One of this doubtless is that for a hundred
years all the laws governing composition in the
higher forms have gone out from Germany, by
reason Of her wonderful succession of musical
kings by the grace of God SonataS and suites
and symphonies have been written by Tuscan,
Gaul and MuscOvite, but they have been German
SOnatas suites and symphonies Won Bulow
recognized the truth Of this when few years
ago he said that the best German music was
nowadays written in Paris and St. Petersburg
1t is foreign TO the nature of the art that there
should be differentiation Of schools such as
there is in mental science, unless it be in a de
parment like that Of dramatic composition. Be
tween Wagners theories and those Of the old
italian composers the difference is one Of purpose
as we'll means Is the play the thing, or is it
merely a stallling-horse TO be tricked out with
pretty muSlCE DuJ even JnlS uluefcnce Is rapidly
disappearing in the cradle Of opera in Italy itself
as witnessed by Verdi Boito and Franchett In
o few years there will be no nation poor in in
telect and taste TO do reverence TO the operatic
ideal of hundred years ago. save, perhaps. the
degenerate ones, who can neither advance nor him
der the Of progress So far then, as the future
is concerned, the American composer, who is now
following the example of his brethren Of Great
Britain, France, Italy and Russia in studying
German ideals, will stand an equal chance with
them in the struggle for recognition so soon as he
is brought up to their level in the matter of appre
citation and encouragement. The laSt-mentioned
things are necessary for the development of that
vigorous, forward man. according to Bagehot.
who will strike out the rough notion of the STYLE
which the American people will recognize as
peculiarly congenal TO them, and which will there
fore invite imitation. The characteristic mode
of expression which will be stamped upon the
be mode that will hit the taste and appeal 10
the imagination OF the American public of the
future
This may not appear TO be very explicit but
we are not wholly without basis for specula-
ton touching the elements that are
likely TO enter into the musical taste Of the CON-
ing generation or generations OF Americans. To
start with, they will approach the art