The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-06-12
I'M 81 MopERN ooMroxERs.
Ths Giants Of Ola THAT stIn Live and the A.
pirants fer Their society.
no., af..Z,

IRON Music.
The term 1.-THE great composers" Ia to-day gen.
orally understood to be the following masters:
Sebastian Bach. Handel. CLICK. Haydn, Mozart,
Beethoven. Schubert. Weber. schumann, Men
delssohn. Chopin, BerlioZ, Wagner. Liszt, and
Brahms. Under the torn 1.-THE greatest COM
posers, y two OF tho names will certainly be Bach
aud Beethoven; tho third with some will be
Wagner, and with others, possibly, Brahms.
The majority OF musicians will scarcely men
ton Palestrina among the great composers. and
yet II may he very much doubted IL his name
does not belong there. Purcell is by many Eng
lishmen thought to be entitled to a place among
the masters. large number Of Germans and
Englishmen consider Spohr a first rank" COM
poser. The Italians unquestionnbly place Hos
SIM and. Verdi among tho elect, and possibly
Donizetti and Belllni. The French hold Meyer
Many Russians Including Rubinstetnl give
Giinka a position among the immortals.. On the
S Hbe cD nSna, there iS a large number Of people
poser there are others who think Borlioz and
List mpossibilities as musical creators; there
the side of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven: and there
are nerce disputes yet raging among the Rd-
mircrs OF wagner and of Brahms as to the rel
atiyc merits Of these composers.
m There y arc many names prominent in the
from now Will be forgotten. In the latter half
Of the past century, Philip Emanuel Bach's
was = name to %conjure WITH his fathers
NS'Ns Vi oNbiNcii hhONu. louuN 0tDHbIlhn
Bach's fame Is continually increasing: his sons
continually decreasing. Johann Nepomuk Hum
mel was In his time considered to be n rival Of
Beethoven. A couple of sonatas. two concertos
played by. conservatory students. and three
trios are about all that keep his, name in re-
where are they . How many Of the works Of
Spontini or Mcrcadante are known nowl
name will chiefly survive as the composer Of n n
half dozen pianoforte pieces, a fine pianuforto
concerto. a fow songs and concerted vocal works.
Two HNInDnOn1CH and one ar fNn chs IN hRr pOun-
positions. Rubinstein's reputation will rest to
a larger extent on his career AS a pianist than as
q composer. The works of Gade and Ferdinand
Hitler are comparatively rarely played. Look
at the names appearing on the programmes of
citals; how many Of these will livel Among tho
German and Austrian. composers there are "a
ness or prominence. Who among them viii be-
remembered a half century ahead ! Is Bungcrt's
cycle of Hoineric operas OF lasting worth 7 viii
sohn, Gernshciin, kiol, and Fuchs last ! Arc
the symphonies and Tie Deum of Anton Bruck.
orchestral works of Goldmark pregnant with
vitality VII the choral works of Albert
viii the operas OF D'Albert and Hermann Goetz,
the concert ~cantatns OF Max Bruch and Helm.
rich Hotmann. the organ works of Rheinberger
and Merkel, the pianoforte pieces of MOszkow-
SKI, S~charwenkh. Huber, and Nicode, the songs
Of Franz, Jensen, and Lassen. the symphonic
security to make way for newer composers
Passing. To. the French composers. one may
well Wonucr II inc operas OF GOunod, BiZet, Mas
senet. Saint -Saens. Ambrose Thomas, Lalo,
Bruneau; the organ compositions OF Guilmant,
Wider and Dubois; the choral works of Cesar
Franck; tho pianoforte pieces of GODDARD, Saint
Saens, Alkan, Thom6, Stephen Heller; the or
chestral works of D6litus and Chabrier; the
songs of Chaminade, Bemberg. GODDARD and Mas.
senet possess tho element of life. Among Italians
who can claim Immortality for Mascagni, Boito,
Leoncavallo. Puccini and Sgambati 7
VIII the Russian composers. TschRikowsky,
Glazounow, Rimski, Korsakoff.. .;Arensky. BalN-
kirew, and Cesar Cui be considered as epoch
makers In the middle of the twentieth century :
Is DvorAk, the Bohemian, the composer of
choral. orchestral. and chamber compositions,
to decrease in universal favor. as has been the
case with Spohrl win GreiR's pianoforte
pieces stand side by side with those of Chopin
and Schumann
Are there EnRlishmcn who will claim immor-
tally for Mackenzie. Sullivan. Cowen. Parry,
Stanford, Stainer. BRrnby, or MacCunn
How will time deal with the works OF the
American composers-H. w. Parker and his
Tora Novissima," Mcdowell and his CON
certo and piano pieces, Foote and his chamber
compositions. Paine. Buck, Bristow, and Gil.
christ and their choral works. Klein. Dam
rosch. and Gleason and their operas. Nevin and
De koven and their songs. Chadwick and Kelley
and their orchestral worksi
There never was so much music composed or
published AS there is today. There never were
SO many concerts and r~ecitals given as ia the
case in this year of our Lord 1898. Musical ac-
tivity eYerywherei is tremendous,