The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-02-12
soprano. Mr.. Krouse has the matte
under advisement.
MUSICAL CRITICISM.
A Correspondent Calls for the Dismissal
of Ignorant Critics.

4 Correspondent Calls for the Dlsnlss&ti
of Ignorant Critics.
A large amount of musical criticism
that is held out as mental nutriment to a
hungry public, is simply private opinion,
tinctured more or less with ignorance.
Examples of this may be found IN our
daily papers, where prejudice and ignor-
ance are SO closely woven together that it
will not repay the trouble OF disentangllng
them.
The uninstructed musical critic, who
enters the profession to exc out an otherr-
wise insufficient income earned from buSl-
ness, may be known by the enthusiastic
way in which he praises everything ana
everybody; according to the vulgar out
expressive professional slang, he IS al
ways ssslopping over, - filling the gallon
measure of adulation till it overflows.
His praise is not due to good nature,
but to lack of knowledge; unadulterated
praise requires only a vocabulary OF
adjectives; judieious condemnation re-
quires knowledge and experience rms
kind of critic has learned his metnou
from his business; as he makes prohuaoie
sales by praising all species of collars, or
neckties. or what not alike, he hopes that
the same method will serve him as we'll IN
criticism, and so he uses the same glow
ing language for the muslin OF meolocrlly
and the linen OF Excellence.
Ii this kind of a critic is employed on q
daily paper of wide circulation, as ne
generally IS, he vitiates the taste OF those
who believe in him and causes people OF
sense and education to look with dlstrust
on all kinds of criticism, good and BAD,
wise and foolish.
Curiosly enough, q large number OF
editors who are stupendously wise In all
that relates to politics, crime, bicycle
riding, stockbroking and navigation, are
singularly ignorant OF art and literature;
they insist that articles on politics shall
be written by people who are acquainted
with politics; that articles on prize hight
ing shall be composed by adopts In this
/ beautiful art; they demand that business
shall be treated by those acquainted With
/ business; but they entrust the care OF
music and literature to any ignorant first
conner. Column after column is devoted
to teaching the public why 1t should
cast a vote for Smith instead
| of Jones; column after column OF
printed matter is devoted to describing
the manners and attire OF murderers and
the weapons with which the crimes were
committed; horSe-racing has its specially
trained reporter. but particularly
musical arts thrust in the background
and the duty of commenting on 1t is given
over to the irresponsible and the Ignorant.
1t would not be difficult to prove these
statements by culling examples from some
! of our daily papers-examples that would
sadden the soul of the musician and re-
ioice the heart of the misanthrope and
pessimist; but it is not our desire TO
pillory ignorance, but to protest against
the indifference that gives monetary sup
port to ignorance. If we carefully con-
slider the matter it would seem as II the
welfare of society depended as much upon
healthy, cultivated taste as upon healthy
exercised muscles, and that the educa-
tional value OF aesthetics is, at least, as
much as that OF horse-racing and base
ball playing.
Now if a reporting critic would be pun
ished with instant dismissal if he con-
founded a wretched, useless, spawned
horse with an Arabian courser, why
should critic OF music escape If he com
mits & similar fault? If ignorance is
punished in politics, why should 1t be
| honored in music? By expelling pre-
tenders from the field of criticism much
is done towards expelling Dretenders from
the field of art; for art pretenders grow
and fatten on fulsome, unw1se, unjust
praise, like toadstools in a damp, dark
corner in a graveyard.
Ii artists were impartially judged by
their merits and their faults; if all critics
|
merits and these faults, both art and
public taste would be benefited, the httest
would survive, and under the glow OF
truth pretenders would vanish like mi
asms in the sunlight.
The prevalence of bad art is largely due
to the prevalence of ignorant criticism.
When critic on a paper writes of third
rate vocalist whose voice is uncultivated
and whose method is ali faulty, her
'ssinging was simply delightful that a
certain song was ''adapted to display her
accomplishments in vocal forture" (O E;
when in this same paper the same, or a
brother critic tells US that DvOrak's music
ssWas Dvorak's music from first to last, -
and that a certain piece of Schubert s
was hardly Schubert, still it was Schu-
BERT when he tells US that movement
in Haydn quartet was 'ine1ably exqui-
site,'' and all this within the compass OF
few lines, we may well sigh for must
cal Utopia.
Humbug in criticism is as potent for
evil as humbug in art, for the public has
not time to seek out the best, and is very
liable to accept the bad as specimen OF
the best. Good critics and weighty criti-
cism are not rare, but with an abundance
of ignorance masking as wisdom, good
criticism is viewed as suspiciOusly and as
unIustIy as is a healthy man in a cholera
epidemic, or as wise man in an assem-
bly, of fools. w. w.