Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-08
THE MUSIC WORLD.
Applause of the BOiSterOuS Kind That
Adds Nothing at all 10 Art.
TRIBUTES OF NOISE NOT NEEDED.
The Resumption Of the Well-Remembered
Wallace Webster Recitals.
OTHER MUSICAL ITEMS OF INTEREST

This thing of boisterouSly clapping the
hands, as the only way of expressing appre-
ciauon for all kinds Of musical or dramatic
performances, is curious when you think
over it bit.
Let Carroll knock the ball away to the
fence corner and get around to home plate
just before the flying sphere is felded back
into the catcher's eager hands-it is natural
that the rising excitement and iubilation OF
the spectator should take physical shape in
hand-clapping, hat-throwing and shouting.
So is it, too, when Blondin winds
up a fearsome, thrilling tight-rope act
with some grand coup; or when PerottI lets
go of that electrifying high note he has been
holding till the audience gets blue in the
face with suspense; or when Patti sets of
some of her dazzlingly brilliant vocal fire.
works All such feats of skill and endur-
anee find perfectly natural and proper re-
sponse in the physical excitement of the
audience. And this is just because all these
are feats of athletics; they are not achieve
ments of art.
-
There are to be sure, certain lines of truly
artistic effect rightly calculated to enthuse
the auditor up to the pitch where it is nat
ural to break out into physical manifesto
tions. The soul has its tours de force, as
well as the body. When Frederick Warde,
just after the narrowing, depressing narra-
tion of the mountebank's wanderings with
his starving child, confronts the vii lain who
has caused his woes, cowes him and wrests
from him the passports that shall bring
success to his agonizing search-then it is a
Just tribute to the art of writer and actor
that the high-wrought feelings of the audi
ence burst forth i'll loud applause. So also
is like tribute of appreciation fitting and
natural when the three Swiss leaders sing
their mighty pledge of patriotism in will
lam Tell;' or when orchestra, soloists and
chorus unite to cap the climax of the Ninth
Symphony with that most glorious paan of
joy; or whenever the underlying artistic
sentiment is OF bold, martial, climacteric
nature.
So
1t is only in such cases that applause is
logical and natural, and these form but a
small part of the infinitely varying moods
of artistic expression. In all the rest, the
conventional applause is more or less out of
place-frequently so much SO as to jar pain
fully upon truly appreciative ears Such
contradictions are not found in other arts.
Carefully watch the Expressive countenance
bending over poem or a novel; the shades
of feeling that fit over the features follow
the moods that the writer depicts; pleasure
and pain, triumph and despair, sympathy
and disgust are not received each with the
same stereotyped grin of glee. There is no
one fixed facial expression, or other out
ward token of appreciation, to be displayed
invariably before every painting one looks
at, from Raphael's ''Sistine Madonna" 10
Makart's Charles V. Entering Antwerp"
or every statue, from Cupid and Psyche to
the Laokoon: or everv bit of architecture,
from a Chinese pagoda to st. Peters at
Rome.
49,
Why then receive all the effects of
musical and dramatic art, which sweep the
entire gamut OF human emotions, with one
unvarying set form of appreciation ESQ
called) and that form the one appropriate
to the lowest plane of intelligence and sensi-
bility-mere dumb, noisy hand-clappingl
Why, indeed? Principally, beyond
doubt, because it is the readfest mode of
letting the performer know that. in a gen.
eral way, his efforts have been admired. 1t
is for the sake not of art, but of the artist: in
most cases 1t sacrifices art to the individual
pretending to represent art. 1t is as if one
should let his soup get cold, while he
stopped to praise the chef who con-
q
poor tribute to an artist to show conclu-
sively that he has not been able to enlist
the feelings of the hearer in the subject
matter of the performance so as to draw
attention from himself and the man
ner OF his performance. Yet the per- |
formers themselves are the most active agents |
generally In shaping things thus. Not to |
speak of calling in the aid of clacques and |
the like, they tamper with the music itself !
by adding eadenzas and long, high notes |
and by other extravagant devices in order to
cause sensation, an effect not aesthetic, but
athletic and most likely to win
spontaneous applause. Composers, desir-
ing their works to be generally used, fall
into the habit of writing with the same
object OF ending up in a startling wav.
And where neither composer nor performer
give the slightest excuse for il, where thev
both unite to awaken sad sweet and solemn
emotions, and where there NAV be
many In the audience thrilling re-
sponslvely in such mood as
this : still, the majority burst out with
the claShlng, boisterous hand-clap, and the
delicious feeling OF the truly appreciatiye
soul is shlvered and shattered
In very many places the conventional ap-
plause is mere dumb shows and noise
Pray you avoid it."
80
Speaking of Frederick Warde above calls
to mind point in the incidental music of
his admirable revival of 1.-The Mounte-
bank at the Grand Opera House last
week. 1t IS point conceived
well, but poorly executed. AS Young
Henri raises his hands to curse the motba1
who has deserted them, the solemn tones of
an organ in the church hard by float in at
the window, quickly calming the spirits
both OF lad and father, and the latter puts
The little palms together, saying, PRAY for
her, Henri"
mat is the conception. In execution last
week much was lost on account of the
rather unchurehly tune PLAYED on the |
nelodeum behind the scenes, and also be-
,ause the church spire visible through the
window seemed SO far away, and the organ
ounded so loud that no connection between
he two was apparent
-
By the way, the theater orchestra Of tbo
Irand dld some excellent work in certain
numbers last week. 1t is risky. tbourb. to
ttempt compositions having such broad
ull harmony and needing such contrasting
one-color, as the Iannhaeuser arrangement
Vlth a body OF instruments necessarily one | z
r more parts In either the string, wood or j
rass departments. In the lighter rhythms I
nd brighter melodies Mr.. Schwartz and q
is men showed to much greater ADVANTAGE,
-
The name OF the "Gernert and Guentber :
has been so long and promi- )
emily identified with the better class nf
rchestral activity in Pittsburg that manv
eaders may be somewhat startled to learn
its dissolution. Mr.. Guenther authorizes
ie statement that from this dav on that (
-ganization will have no further existence :