The record-union., 1894-02-24
MUSIC And THE DRAMA.
What the MetropoIitans Have Heard
This Winter.
Methods of Different Play Writers
and the Contest Between the
Schools of Music.


duced to offset in part the disasters and
gloom of the closing winter in New
York. A fortnight ago l wrote of the
Water-color Exhibition, and showed in
general way that some progress had been
made by painters. Since then local art
critics have grown quite enthusiastic
about the excellence of the average eX-
hibited. But l find that few pictures
have been sold. Hard times affect the
painter as well as everybody else ma
terially.
Just so with the theaters, the opera
houses. the music halls. Managers COM
plain of heavy losses in some cases, of
greatly reduced receipts in all And in
Z the great army of the unemployed there
are hundreds of actors, musicians and
scores of singers. let music has made
great deal Of progress during the musical
year and the stage is looking up. With
materialistic retrog gresSion everywhere.
there Is everywhere spiritual, Intellect
ual, or, IN short, fundamental advance
ments. For while the materiaiistic may
rightly be the first, it is not the final nor
the chief standard of measuring things.
Leaving then the managers point of
view and verdict of the winter, the critic
would find that the stage here has been
not only brilliant, but in a way expert
mental. Irving and Miss Terry gave US
the English and Coquelin and Madame
Haoing the French, and, perhaps, hlStrI-
onically, the strongest elements. Though
they both We're seen in California, l
would venture to point out, for the sake
of comparison with American work not
yet gone " est, that what was new in the
English peoples repertoire was weak
dramatically and only pretty esthetlc-
ally, and the French actors showed new
work, the more striking feature OF which
was cleverness. Tennyson's Beckett"
NAV be q poem, but it is no drama; 1t is
q play in the literal and not i'll the techni-
cal sense. And Sardou's "Ghermidor' is
so done that anyone who cares for the
mechanism of the ''playrighting" cam
not but admire the skill OF the wright
The play advances. To feel that one is
witnessing a display OF skill is to be de-
prived OF part of the real pleasure Of the
piece.
The German drama is represented in
New York in a more serious fashion.
One can get the highest standard for the
comparison of home work by going 10
the humble little Irving Place Iheater.
There a company OF very mediocre actors,
with only two or three sets OF scenery,
have given very complete survey of
modern dramatic work IN Germany.
And there one finds the eXperimentalist
in all his best courage and Vlgor. a
dozen new plays by some eight or nine
new men and three or four thinking old
ones, have been given. The selections
were typical and any stage in the world
might have learned from them. There
was realism pure and simple, idealism in
new form, realism and idealism mixed
in various proportions, allegory blended
with satire, realism and even naturalIsm
pointed with socialistic or moral doc
fact n al
virtues AL shown for study and all teach
ing something worth knowing.
But best OF all, the German theater IN
New York makes a man realize that there
is something new TO be done and being
done And, ii ever we are to get out OF
our deep rut, new things must be tried.
Never mind the errors. At present our
own dramatic writers are following the
French and the English. l refer to the
young men. They cling to English senti-
ment, while trying TO put the handker-
chief to the eye by means OF French grace
and skill. Their excessive cleVerness
makes them admire technique, and lack
of thought burdens them with abnormal
feelings. 1t is want Of genius, of course
that makes their plays studies OF English
manners. Talent cannot see at home
new stuff.
L need not mention single American
actor. for no new one has come into
prominence. The new work of the stage
is III the manuscript. "ShOre Acres" by
Herne, has brought new group Of peo-
pie to the stage, with a realistic repre-
sentation of New England ideas. man.
ners and idioms. Herne has more than
talent but he is not a new man. HIS
Margaret Fleming was brought out in
1891. His field, however, is new. SEill
he clings to sentiment and false doctrine.
His hero is moss back" and it is not
well TO sympathize with race people in
this country yet, however noble they
may be at heart.
CLYDE Fitch, the New Yorker, and H.
J. w. Damn from California, have
brought out new plays, the latter his
first successful work. In these with the
faults OF English and French study comes
a certain touch of cynicism, healthier
than sentimentalism, but yet too strained
to be accepted as quite normal. 1t is a be-
ginning, however, and for this the weary
theater-goer may be thankful.
Such beginnings are what l wished to
point out There has been a marked
tendency in the plays written and the old
ones selected for reproduction, to bid not
so much for tear or laugh as for ad-
miration or scorn. This may not be
much of an advance. But every step
awav from the greatness of Tennyson
the sentimentalism of the English IS
progress. When the writers OF plays
once have learned that men will pay for
thew have learned, and the managers,
too. this winter. All that remains is to
90 farther than their present ends, and
offer the genuine fruits of observation,
reflection and experience. Ihls they
will not do so long as mere cleverneSs Is
so richly appreciated. Oscar Wide, with
his witty dialogues, is putting the comic
weekly on the stage, ana our men think
if great idea. Being journalists all,
they no doubt will give their work more
of the newspaper tone. Nor would this
he i'll if they took from the news the
dramatic and molded it for pronunciation
and not for type.
In music more definite results have
been achieved. 1t need not hurt Amerl-
can pride that a foreigner gave the i'm
puise toward newer and better things, Tor
thougn Anton Doorak has not only seen,
appreciated and undertaken TO use new
matter for music, he has not yet sue
ceeded. Doorak came TO New \ orB from
bohemian Austria to become a director of
the National Conservatory OF Music. he
already had followed the tendency IN the
European musical world of adopting ana
using folk melodies for the moths in
harmonic construction. Nothing more
natural could have happened than that
he should seek, on arrival here, for
American folk songs suitable for noble
music.
Nor was the idea new or untried. l
knew in Munich several American musl-
cal students there who had used the negro
melodies IN this way, and with some
European success. 1t was the fad there
among our men TO DO this, and they tre-
ouently expressed a determination TO
carry the work out here. One OF them
tried ii. but with only partial success. 1t
reo1ljred an authority to make the home
product acceptable, and that Doorak has