The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-21
RECENT PUBLICATIONS.
A Gallery of Maniacs.

collection of short stories published by the
Scribners. 1t might have this subtitle:
"ROmances Based on DR.. Max Nordau's
Degeneration Mr.. Huneker is favorably
known by his Chopin, the Man and His
Music" He has been an active music
critic, teacher of the piano and a visitor
to the European musical centers. He has
had the good sense TO study music IN con-
nection with the other arts. and some of
his maniacs are crazy over literature and
painting. The general malady is modern
ism, which it took DR.. Nordau many, many
pages to diagnose. This and its parallel
mania. classicism, which usually is pas
sive disease of the mind, a dry rot, are
now the uppermost subjects of discussion.
because the world is now trying harder
than ever TO understand itself andIs nearer
than ever to doing so. This, Of course, may
be said Of every stage in the worlds his
tory, but not with the degree of eXactness
that IL is now. Physical conditions have
been arranged TO the comfort of a greater
number Of persons than ever before, and
this greater proportionate part OF humanity
is free TO examine mental conditions, Mr..
Huneker's ''Melomaniacs'' is a sign; ii is a
new enterprise in fiction.
The publishers announcement is "A
collection of fantastic and ironic tales in
which sentimental and conventional notions
OF music and musicians are upset. The
heroes of modern culture-Wagner, Ibsen,
Chopin, Schopenhauer, Nietzche and Rich
ard Strau6s-are handled without reVer-
ence. The book is a satire upon the SYM
bolc movement and artistic and literary
Bohemia, the seamy side of which is mer-
cilessly set forth" The tone of Mr.. Hume
ker's book is not so low as that jumbled.
impairment, ridiculOuSly overcOmprehen-
sive announcement, but the stories are too
fiashily cynical 10 be worthy of their auth
ors half-formed purpose. The strenuous
activity of latter-day realists and mysti-
cists, whether their efforts be treated
aesthetically or pathologically by observ-
ers, is a serious and intricate matter and
of fiippant tales. Aside from this, how
ever, Mr.. Huneker's stories are full of in
formation served in various ways. always
tersely and often wittily. The book really
is valuable. 1t would be interesting 10
know how many persons, eager beforehand
TO sheer at "Bohemianism" and 'deca-
dence," put down "Melomanacs" with re-
sentiment, no doubt vague, at the crude.
rough manner in which the characters are
presented. Perhaps by reaction Mr.. Hume
ker increases the folloEing of the masters
Of decadence" rather Than diminishes it.
In one of the satirical stories, THE Piper
of Dreams" a composer named Illowski
disappears from his European haunts, de-
termined to find something new in music.
Ten years later he returns with an orches-
ira of barbarians, some Of them from mys-
FERROUS Thibet, and gives at st. Petersburg
the first of a series of concerts. 1.-The
morning after his first concert he was
awakened by Fame knocking at his gate
the most horrible kind of fame. He was
not called a mailman by the critics, for his
music could never have been the product
of a crazy brain-he was pronounced an
arch-enemy TO mankind, because he told
Infamous secrets in his music secrets that
had lain buried in the shale of a vanished
pnOPh world he
drove to its very soul the most hideous
truths. hypnotist, he conducted his or
chestra through extraordinary and malev-
client forests of tone. The audience went
into the night, some sobbing, some beating
the air like possessed ones, others frozen
with terror" Illowski takes his orchestra
over Europe and 10 the United States. Ev-
erywhere riots occur, cities are destroyed
by mobS, the public goes mad
AN Emotional Acrobat" a tympanist
has written a concerto for seven drums
and woodwind orchestra and a symphony
for nothing but tympani. The kette-drum
is the greatest instrument. Chopin would
have been great tympanist if he had not
wasted his life foOlishly at the piano. When
he merely drummed his fingers on the
table, BalZac said, he made music, eX-
quisitely sensitive was his touch. All me!
what a tympanist lost to the world.
What shading, what delicacy, what sun
light and shadow he would have made fit
across my little darlings on their tripods. "
"Tannhauser's Choice" is Venus, not
is a tenor singer and rich. He fiuctuates
between Mrs. Holda (Venus) and Elizabet IN
Landgrave. He is sure of the former but
while he is vacillating the girl engages TO
be married to another man. You can take
your pitcher too often to the well, Harry
dear" says Mrs. Holda, who knows every
thing, and you drove once TO often TO
Berg street Elizabeth, sensible girl, in
stead of dying. takes the best man she
could possibly find; a better man than you,
Harry, and she couldn't resist letting me
know hprt Of I'M
your Wartburg ambitions, your pilgrimage
to Rome, and stay here in the Venusberg
l know | am old, but after all. am l not
your Venus?" The perversion of Wagner
Sunday story is not more profitable
than the original and il lacks the apparent
sincerity of the first.
Cintras. writer to whom composition is
more painful than IL was TO Gustave Flau-
bert and who dies without having written
more than few lines, says. In The Cor
ridor Of Time" 'Hodson. you are very
young fellow and / wish to give you good
advice. Now don't you ever bother with
art, music or artistic prose. Just marry a
nice girl who goes to comic operas. You
stick TO her and avoid Balzac He is toe
strong meat for you. You no more under
stand him than you do Chopin. Because he
| is great he is readable. but his secret is
the secret of the sphynx; II may only bt
unraveled by a few strong souls. SO &C
| your road and be happy in your plush way
read your historical hog-wash and believe
| me when / swear that the most misera bic
Il
| of the eternal beauty of art. who pursue
| her ideal face, who have the vision but moi
| the voice"
! Clever descriptions of musical camp fol
lowers occur frequently. There is Frat
/ Markart, the great instructor i'm the art OF
German lieder Interpretation, a hard-fea-
! tured woman who sneered at Italians
| Italian methods and Italian music" The
/ world seems full of such burly worshper:
| of the so-called, and falsely, dramatic
! singers produced mostly in Germany.
! Mrs. Wegstaffe sailing up to a Bulgarian
| pianist. eXclaims: Dear Herr Wunder
/ helm, charmed L assure you. We are al
| charmed. dear Tschaikowsky, charming
| man, charming composer. Dear Walter
| Damrosch assured me that he was quit,
the gentleman; charming music alto
gether!"
The most respectable of the stories, tn,
/ only one that has the genuine artistic sens,
of the author in il, is called "Brynhild'.
! Immolation." Hilda travels about will
| her mother, who sings Wagner's heroines
| Wherever they pitched their tent the cir
went abroad in the city. absorbing 1t. Thu.
/ she knew many things denied woman, an,
/ when her mother was summoned to Bay
| reuth she soon forgot all in the mists
! weavings and golden noise OF Wagner.
| The girl grows into womanhoOd but he
i heart remains childish. Her mother il
reckless, loves excitement and is cynical
i Hlda knew there were disagreeabl
! things in the world but refused herself tn
/ thought OF them. II was not the barrie
/ OF innocence but rather the selection o
/ certain aspects Of life that she fancied. an'
an absolute impassaoility in the face o
/ evil" Hilda loves Wagner She "absorbe,
the torrid music as il il were Mozartean.
She saw Siegmund and Segiinde entwine'
| in that wCndrOuS Song OF Spring and wouli
! have laughed In your face If you hinte'
that all this was anything but many-col
/ Ored arabessque She took he
! mothers tumult in good faith and rfdicuIe,