The herald., 1897-09-06
KEY AND BOW

"Raconteur," who is both witty and in
| teresting, contributes the following to tn
current issue of the New York Musica
Courier. In a few words he has so vividl.
sketched in the distinguishing character
| istics of some of the greatest living, al
well as of the dead. composers, that 1
makes valuable reading to all VIII,
are interested at all in things musical:
personality carries the day in repro
ductive art, granting, of course. moiet,
of reverence in the Individual; but In crea
tive art this overplus of the ego, thi.
enormous striving for the expression o.
personal popularity, has reached the poin
at which the deep, underlying principles o
art are ruthlessly swept aside and hysteris
Is the dominating note. You need but lis ter
to latter day music to realize what extrav
agances are tolerated for the sake of in
dividuality. Mascagni. for example, does
the most commonplace things with his
material, but he manages to obtrude his
profile into his work; his feverishness is
mistaken for the true Promethean fire, and
he Is put on tripod and every musica
syllable that falls from his lips is listened
to as oracular.
Somehow the oracle has been over.
worked lately, for we find several of his
fellow students outstripping him in the
say, Puccini is more versatile, and Pizzi
has more orchestral skill But Mascagni
was first in the field with his personality,
and he filled the public eye for a time.
I'm Germany you find the brilliant Rich
ard Strauss attracting attention to his
musical canvases by their high tintings,
by the trick of clever handling of motifs,
in word by the How and not by the
What In the background looms the some
q g 10
of Brahms, great musical thinker, a man
who is endowed with the glib tongue of
some of the younger men, but who has
nevertheless the Olympian manner. When
he speaks the ground trembles, for he has
some of the magic of Beethoven, but then
he often lacks personal charm, and conse-
quently is not the favorite of the concert
room. But after you have clambered up the
rugged and forbidding slopes of his music
you will find in secret crannies the sweet
est flowers, strangely perfumed, but with
out the intoxicating, musk-like order of
the artificial growths in the musical hot
houses down below. There are higher peaks
in the chain of musical mountains than
Brahms, but wholesome, bracing air
sweeps his heights. He is no conservatory
of half-whispered sentimentalisms He is
impersonal in his symphonic works, yet
curiously intimate In his songs. Strauss
schools, and it is easy to prophesy that the
sturdy power Of the Hamburg master will
outlive the skyrocket brlliancies of the
younger man.
eve need not controvert the fact that
great individuality is the underlying
essence of a great work of art. Without
music would lack the SAVIOR of
charm, variety, strength. But that this
same personality should be obtruded at
every turn, that personal mannerism
should disturb the proportion, symmetry,
balance and form of symphonic work, is
to ask too much. The older ideals Of purity
Of outline, exquisite finish, correct values
are not to be lightly passed over. Beauty
In music is an aim and to those who ans
wer that truth is greater than beauty, I
reply that they cannot be differentiated.
at is an age of technical feats, but the
technic is the technic of destruction, and
not of construction. We are tearing down.
not building up, but 1t behooves US to pause
amid the smoke of crumbling art work and
ask whether we can build edifices as
worthy. We are well saturated with the
can't phrases of the ultra school of self
propa gandists. We know that individ-
lalisrl is their war cry and shibboieth.
is the salt Of art, but evolu-
lion in art has not been thing Of a day
Dr. year. fanatical mob may destroy
n few hours the precious treasures Of the
and then we might be told that
he act was a personal expression Of lib
srty, that the individual should not be
The huge cathedral of tone which
las been slowly building since the advent
# man In the quarternary geologic period
S not to be overturned or replaced by any
works of recent years. Each composer
adds his mite; Chopin composes an ex-
Iuisitely fashioned prize. while a Bach in
,ents that Gothic arch in tone--the fugue.
Beethoven builds the lofty dome, vet the
structure will never be completed. We are
told that the work of some
petty sculptor of grinning gargoyles is the
end-all and be-all of the art-that he has
laid something new and has wreaked his
personality in the attempt. There is moth
ng new; all is development, the evolution
If a primal idea. Bach builded on others,
Beethoven builded on Bach and Brahms
'uilded on Beethoven. The apostles Of the
shrek in music will not. perhaps cannot,
'ealize this. so we see them sweep away the
grammar Of tone and attempt to replace 1t
oy the wide versifcation Of conceited i'm
STRAY CHORDS
The first production of Sousa's new opera,
The Bride Elect" which will be staged by
Ben Teal will be given at the fremont
heater, Boston, Jan. Sd.
Inc royal opera OF Berlin employs thirty
hree solo singers. The Berlin opera and
,peretta theaters together give employ
nent to 443 male and SS3 female singers.
Teachers of music in Kansas CITY look
'orward to good times this winter and an
abundance of pupils. The active work by
,rchestras and musicians in Kansas CITY
S beginning to bear rich fruit and nobody
'ealizes this influence sooner than music
.eachers. What is true of Kansas CITY
night be true Of Los Angeles if the trial
vas made.
German and French versions of Victor
aerberts 1.-THE Wizard of the Nile" will
oe produced in France, Germany and Bel
yium at the same time the opera is brought
tut in England.
The report of the Dresden conservatory.
low in its forty-first year Of establish
nent, shows 242 pupils, Of whom ten Amer
cans are taking special courses.
1t seems now to be quite probable that
Ernst Van Dyk. the Belgian tenor viii
ing with the Grau opera company In this
during the season of 1S9S-99.
Miss Bessie Abbott is to be educated
or the lyric stage by M. Jean de Reszke."
says an exchange. He had heard her sing
ng OF plantation songs, 1t seems. and was
impressed by her voice and ability.
An orchestral symphonic poem. entitled
Life Dream" by the American COM
ooser, James K. Peasants, was recently
performed for the first time In Berlin.
The work is highly spoken of.
Barcelona critics herald the advent Of a
lew opera composer Of whom great things