New-York tribune., 1900-12-29
ESSAYS ON MUSIC.
TRANsLATIoNs FROM CLEVER FRENCH
CRITIC.

MUSICAL STUDIES AND SILHoUETTEs.
Translated from the French of Camille Bel
laigue by Ellen Orr. Octave, pp S75. Dodd
Mead & Co.
This collection Of short essays and criticisms
is the work Of a French critic of the modern
school who sees things in the new light that has
come TO one Of the most musically retarded ma
tions Of Europe. For this reason it has special
interest especially where the author INDUCES in
specific criticism Of certain musicians and their
works. The articles embodying this and the
"silhouettes" make the best part of the book
and have more value than the elaborate essays
on Sociology In Music or Realism and Ideal
ism in Music" wherein NJ. Bellaigue sometimes
lapses into fine spun metaphysics and senti-
mentality. Besides these the book contains
Beethoven and His Nine Symphonies" nomi-
nally a review of Sir George Groves book of the
same title, really an account Of the composer
and his works from characteristicaTy French
point Of view; Italian Music and the Last Two
Operas Of Verdi" Three Symbolic Operas
namely, Der Freischtitz," Robert lie Diable"
and "Tannhauser'; 1.-THE Italian Sources of the
'Orpheus' of Gluck." 1.-THE Exotic in Music" and
''Silhouettes of Musicians"
The criticism Of italian music and Verdi's
"otello" and "Falstaff' is acute and sympa-
thetic and full Of significant things. Says NJ
Bellaigue:
The compact between Italian art and truth Law
broken when Verdi. at the beginning Of this
century, came to heal the rupture In his "Otello''
and "Falstaff" For hundred years indeed
the music Of Italy had uttered little else than
lies-joyous lies. must confess-of pure
thoughtlessness. The great criminal In
this affair, the more criminal because he was so
great was Rossni
So long dead is Rossini's "otelIo' that it seems
almost like exhuming a corpse for NJ Bellaigue
TO make the extended comparison of it that he
does ~ fha
ject. 1t is ludicrous for present day opera goers
who are untroubled with knowledge of Ros-
sinis forgotten travesty to learn of the liberties
the librettist took with Shakespeare's work.
Cassie. seeming to be useless, is suppressed: the
use Of anything ordinary as a handkerchief
to produce the catastrophe cannot be thought
OF; so the infinitely more "genteel' expedient Of
| an anonymous letter is resorted to- The music
fits the iibretto in its commonplaceness. its lack
| OF beauty its meagreness OF harmony BoYtc
made for Verdi. however. not only in "Otello. >
but in "Falstaff' we'll, books in which all IS
veracious and loyal TO the original The music
| is one long appeal to verify; il is however
italian melody, purified and rejuvenated
| The Exotic in Music" is essay suggested
| by the finals of Saint-Saens fifth pianoforte con.
| certo; an inferior genre, thinks NJ Balaigue. in
| that 1t describes or reproduces things rather
than beings But even at its best il is not in the
| hiSHSSI sehse Feracious, ana is expressed
through elementary means, by the intelligence
| or inferior beings, the voice of the muezzn OF
| the camel driver. Exotic treatment Is mostly
| at the hands OF modern musicians; Beethoven
did succeed in putting a Corsair element into
| The Ruins of Athens" and without an an
thentic document at his disposal TO draw from
The exotic note only tinkles in Weber's "Abu
| Hassan" and 'Turandot" overtures and in the
march Of the seraglio guards in "oberon': scbu
mann's Paradise and the Peri" is Oriental onI,
in name. The fourth act of ''LfAfricaine" is
masterpiece Of exotic art; but If we come to
| think OF II, in what country are we? No ops
knows; Il Africaine' might equally well bf
blndienne'" and the astonishing geography
lesson Of the second act leaves all latitude n th
] imagination. These latter days ara dave :,