New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1901-06-29
STUDIES IN MUSIC.
THE HISTORY OF OPERA AND OF CHORAL
SINGING.

THE OPERA. PAST AND PRESENT: AZ HIS AS
thorp. with Portraits. CThe Music Lovers Ii
brsry) limo. pp. xiv 2SS Charles sciiOnei
ct5oIRs AND CHORAL MUSIC. BY Arthur Mees;
Emo Do. viii. Isl Charles scribner's Sons
MASTERS OF MUSIC. THEIR LIVES I'VE AMP az
WORKS. BY Anna Alice Chaplin. sVo' PIP 3d.
Dodd, Mead Co.
Mr. Apthorp has written a charmingiy inter-
esting book one for which the higher ana IN
telligent class of music lovers viii can MIN
blessed The subject is one of the most inter-
esting in the whole range OF musical history'
but Il is complicated and he has given just the
right view Of IL for the purpose he had in mind.
OF historical books on music that seek TO fulhl
their parpose by cataloguing composers ana
their works there are quite enough; they may
be referred TO- but not read. Mr.. Apthorps VIII
be read. and will give its readers tangible re-
suIts-a point of view, an idea Of the larger
forces that worked for the evolution of opera.
One of Mr.. Apthorp's purposes is TO reduce the
weight that is usually given 10 Alessandro scar
1stti He wishes II 10 be believed that this mas
ter merely propagated the influence OF Giacomo
carissimi. to whom he attributes qualities and
powers greater than have usually been consid-
cred his-"unquestionably the greatest genius OF
his time in music" he calls him-and his pupil
Cesti Carissimi this wonderful man."
did virtually the work of a whole century in
the matter Of formal musical evolution: he de-
welcomed and established wellnigh every form
of vocal composition cultivated in Bach ana
Handel's day. He never wrote Tor the stage,
and the musical forms he developed ola not In
any way take the stage into account
His influence on dramatic music. through Cestl,
therefore. though nothing but good as purely
la had q
rausico-dramatic influence 1t was this that LED
the opera into mo thoroughfare" from which
81 was not extricated till the arrival Of Wagner
Mr. Apthorp gives little reason for accepting
his new point of view. and it will not be so
easy to secure the substitution of Carissimis
name for Scarlatti's But he likes 10 see things
in a little different light from those who have
gone before him. OF the Gluck-Piccinni con-
troversy he says:
Upon the whole with all the wit. acute thought
and literary ability brought TO bear upon the
matter. first and last. this once great CON
troversy IS no very edifying reading now; what
controVersialists new aesthetic problems most
lack is originality. the new problems suggest TO
them no new arguments neither does the worlds
past experience in similar cases stead them one
3ot.
OF Gluck as a reformer he says that he was
but little OF a radical hardly anything but
tains very little constructive theorizing; it is for
the most part negative, pointing out what is
most TO be avoided in opera writing. The real
essence and handspring of this much talked Of
reform was Glucks own intrinsic dramatic
genius; his true strength a reformer lay in
his work, not in his doctrine. Mozart was
Gluck's direct antithess;
Gifted with vastly superior genius 20 Gluck's.
he had in very truth nothing but this genius
and the unerring accuracy Of immediate per-
ception that went Herewith. He was decidedly
ordinary intellectually; outside of his
music. without single intellectual taste.
Even by his precocity Mr. Apthorp is not much
impressed:
Up TO seventeen or eighteen he had composed
nothing fairly comparable for maturity Of ideas
and style TO Mendelssohn's E fat major octet
written at sixteen). Richard STRAUSS
minor symphony Cwritten at seventeen).
Mr.. Apthorp is indugent TO Bellini and Doni-
zetti. who were laboring under the deficiency Of
technique suffered by the Italians on account of
the artistic isolation-the 'Inbreeding," he calls
h-of their country. II is not easy TO see why
'ft must be owned in the end that their genius
was distinctly emotional and dramatic: they
had the reddest OF blood in their veins and q
very poignant faculty of expression" Verdi was
at first no better technical than the others but
he oreathed into opera spirit Meyerbeer
no matter how great or how small his genius
possessed the force Of sharply defined indi-
Ndnahty: any idea that passed through his
orain' no matter whence Il came originally came
OUT bearing his mark. The chapter on Wagner
is marked by good sense and sobriety OF
bayreuth we read that it is no longer a trust
worthy guide:
Al tne world is henceforth TO look anywhere
ners sgoa s1 IN the matter Of performing Wag-
~ : music 'ranas, il must look where II has
alMAYs looked In similar cases. TO competent
eaucateo and experienced professional rnusi,
cans even though they wear no Hofficial'' hadga
word TO say. ' ''o'o iio
Mr. meess discussion OF a most important
SUBJECT III musical history and aesthetics is sound
ana scholarly He has presented 1t in an ex
trernely agreeable form logical. symmetrical and
wei balanced, and with an admirable luciditv
and pithiness Of expression II is the vvorl, of a.
accomplished scholar, thoroughly =, ho,,, a.
field that traverses practically the whole e,..r,
OF musical history, and. as we'll OF a practical
musician familiar with choral singing from lone
years or work as a conductor Seldom are the
functions OF the student and critic so happiIv
united win those OF the musician As the art ~
music began with choral singing and was
emery concerned with il TIL three hundred
years ago. il has been Mr.. Mees's task 70 sketch
IN the compass OF a few pages the origin ana
early development of music from the Hebrews
ana Greeks through the period Of the rned,aa,,al
eontrapuntists; from this obscure and tan,,ea
web he has pulled the significant threads ana
EXHIBITS them clearly. The growth OF the ..or-
ssnun, OF descant. OF measured music and its
complications. and the rise of the Netherlana
ana italian schools admirably summarized
The popular movement at the time of the Ref
CrrrStl0n Is he etlfsa