Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-07
THE MUSIC WORLD.
Plea for the Arts Milder Phases in
Study and Concert Room.
MR.. SEIDL'S ORCHESTRAL WORK.
Cheap Admission Tickets Desirable for
Pittsburg Students.
LATE NEWS OF GENERAL INTEREST


World" as saying to students:
1ou can at least notice the programme be
ing given throughout the country by leading
artists; and if you find that you are allowed to
study and play the same great compositions
which form the tours de force of their roper
torres be sure that You are on the wrong track.
That is worth repeating, and shows what not to
DO. Besides this negative value there is a GER
tain positive guide TOR students in these same
programmes. On them have appeared, be-
sides many other technically easy pieces, these:
Cradle Song Humeoreske, Album Leaf,
HWeddiES Procession" by Grieg: Sarabaude,
Bach: Musical Moments and Impromptus,
schubert Pastorale, Capricces, Scarlatter and
Minuet in q, Padarewski; played In the order
of the semi-colons, by D'Albert, Bulow. Steini-
ger and Aus der Ohe.
Nearly all of this list knew by heart myself
and found that they needed study. But prof.
Presussimo," TO quote Mr.. Perry's term
aud ms puphi too, would exclaim:
My should We study these thingsI
And do not doubt it. They may also be able
TO say, with more than one significance, that
they could read Hamlet ''at first sight" That
ability would hardly rank them with Booth and
Irving as interpreters of Shakespeare. Let US
try TO be explicit. 1t is not the ability to put
sufficient speed, that constitutes what we un-
fortunately call playing piece 1t is not
ALWAYS with the power of the tornado the
velocity OF the whirlwlnd, or the brilliancy of
itself. BY all means do strike key for every
note of music. that you may escape the praise
pupil to me. ''She strikes the first note in
every group, and never breaks down, however
fast you push her, he said. 1t was lamentably
true. She did that, and little else, in a studied
performance. Be clear. cultivate velocity and
proper power. but before you can play your
piece, difficult or easy, you must do and be
much more than this Can convince you of
this?
The piano is called an instrument of music.
with decided cOlloquial tendency to call it an
instrument OF torture. An instrument is a
means. a tool by which we accomplish desired
end. That end is music What is music? 1
prefer to try rather to characterize than to de-
line it here. 1t is an art. That is to say it seeks
to express, and both to excite in the hearer
and express for him those subtle and evanes-
cent but universal and powerful moods and
feelings which cannot be expressed by that |
mere artisan language. 1t seeks this express
sion through the medium of sound, ordered |
and arranged in fixed relation of tone to tone.
Sound is the abstract material of music tone |
the concrete. Then anything IL at produces |
the sensation of tone may be an instrument of /
music. A perfect solo instrument must not |
only be able TO produce tones in their proper
relation of pitch or vibrational intensity as
that is determined by the science of music for
all instruments and voices but it ought to con-
tain all OF these tones, the entire usable range
OF tone.
The mood or feeling to be expressed must
exist IN an individual mind and its value and
quality will depend upon the artistic, that is,
poetic perception of that individual He must |
also have a special senSitiYeness to tonal
effects and discipline in manipulating and
observing them, that enables him to even
hear what he sees and to see what he hears"
With these conditions existent be will be able
TO indicate on the paper. approximately the
simultaneous and consecutive relations of the
tones which embOdy the effect he intends. But
so tar there is no music. We have now the |
tone-Droducing instrument and the tone-sym-
bolzIng notation on paper.
The duml' instrument and the inert notation |
are only the elements of a potential vitality |
which can be apprehended as a real musical |
organism only when those elements are |
br hit into immediate correspondence by a
personality which masters both. This per ,
sonalIty IS then the interpreting artist He
must release the musical spirit which is hidden r
IN the mechanical notation, immured behind | {
rs .arS, and, passing it through what only a
Carlyle could call ''the ferruginous limbecs s
OF his own imagination" must resurrect it |
into rhythmical life upon the instrument
Note the common scientific bond of union in 9
all thus; The composer has expressed his idea c
in the harmOnles and rhythms of an estab- S
lished tone-system; the instrument is con- v
stTucted TO produce all of the tonal relations "
terpret the idea only by approaching it through
his knowledge of thus same science. v
Just as it is impossible for the comnosar IN q
represent his mood if he know no more of the a
science than It's notation, SO is 1t impossible for a
ihe player who knows only its notation to ap- Il
prebend the mood. The composer the creativa
mind can only embody the spirit In MS nroner |
form. when he understands the construction of c'
all forms; the player the interpretative mind tt
can only grasp the spirit where he can dis | n,
cover II by the scientific dissection of the | bt
special form. Composition is syntbetIc | Sc
Interpretation Is analytic. The notation is the dt
dead letter 1t must be verified AMI tho nor, \
DOseT's idea almost peIsonified by the rIayar
a. the dramatists idea is personified bv Tho ac
act'r- Asthe medium of expression, tone is ca
more subtle than language, there is the less tn
likelihood of Beethoven finding an internratoS m
han of Shakspere. And there is even q TO- | "a
wider gulf between Rubensteins Interpretation ra
4 the "ApUassIOnato' and its execution NV +Ga :
,verage amateur, than between's Rooth,s
Hamlet and the unintelligible mutterinc u
# the school boys ITO Be. or Not to Be A
T,- iva in nm Sip nf nh, |
onpOser felt. ought to be the ultimate ohiac+ IN
4 every student OF an instrument of mnsic | ID,
o reach this object he must not think or feel | en-
O much the instrument the music ba is | or
0 express; the sentiment. His training must =.
row 7e him with the same knowledge of the
cIence that his composer had. The process to
merely a recIprOcalinversiun of order Tbe | Nj
OmpOSer conceiyes an effect, and after mnch | to
lDOr SrealizPs sit in terms of the science oF | ;o
lu2 the Interpreter studies 1.-THE terms of the III
cience" in which the composer has formulated | en-
IS idea. and so arrives at the effect. No ner co
Drnance Of music in any degree artistic fbat ,
oes not ann at apprehension and interpreta-
on 20 Others of the composers idea which can Al
My be completely realized by the PLAYER who | nm
nOws the science. The relations of chord tO | A.
lord pulse to pulse, rhythm to rhytbm | ciy
eaSure TO measure, phrase to period. of | sw
lnalIteS. OF 'par;s, of movements must no | oa,
he common and sure channel of Communities |
on between composer and executapt throngb | o,G
hlch the one expresses and the other annre | .
anus the sentiment. The value of the mnsicql
iect is in the poetic delcacy of the composerie Phi
anu lne IruUn oil Its setting in | SUI
i5 t5a Dne 'aiue OF the Interpretation beg
ID the certainty of its reproduction But ner -, ~
ADS the mood is delicate and fleeing fyar Si snn
e composer present It then in great masses of o,n
und, with resultant difficulty and brIIiiancy. GIa @
INST the artist ignore such moods in his D. " !
ogrammes? To do so would baIie h;s - .;.I us FIT
I'd the TACT that he does not is estabIisbad - T
e use OF such music as have quoted Wbg | ona
II try TO initiate the effects produced bv .ba ~
tlst IN such music? Is 1t not ALWAYS on tho |
ntrary, as Mr.. Perry implies the r1ost Lea tlon
1t piece of all that the student wishes I'M der
o often tries to playI Auu tale
Il it was worth Grelgs thought and s+nd, .. lonl
impose the Humoreske. and D'Albert;s tiroO ~ larg
study to play 1t, shall we not find it nroft ope
le? Study harmony and form exbanst;yoTI Fra
lctce with appropriate touch, and Won n1oT III
y Of oSa ~, 20 stii stSiIiutheIy musical re- who
arr. Or lay aside your Liszt Rhapsodv and VIII
L me IN the study of the Scarlatti pieceS und
lch have just taken up. They won't make men
effect, you must. If you do not know how | Ed.
study music analytically ask your teacher for dro
p. If he can't (wOntis only another spellinp1 E.
IS not fit to teach. You will find baln ~ | lone
he Musician" by Ridley Prentice. and will Bari
e more exactly scientific work besides A | horn
uern work ike Bowman's, Weitzmann or M,
rcy Goetschin's is best Better stop meas -
NJ progress altogether, except on the mental M tahu
sentimental sides. Incidentally the exc fltt
ION VIII be also much mollified and i'm stud
we'd by this process Let US hope that we teac
J some day reach point where the anomaly City,
A 'school Of music" or a Conservatory NJ was
sic" that teaches no music but gives goId also
laIs and diplomas to pupils who can't tell Miss
Key OF ther graduating piece, will oe i'm ladie
SiDie' bEYERIDGE WEBSTER. luve
-. land.
t is now asserted that Anton Seidl with MI
orchestra of 100 men, will hold forth at A. S,