New-York tribune., 1902-01-11

PLAYS. By Frances Gerard. with Illustrations
limo, pp So Sa' E. p Dutton DFtAts { Co Oh wagner
MUSIC AND ITS MASTERS. By O. B. Boise.
Tifh SIX portraits I2mo pp 2o6 Philadelphia
THE MUSICAL BASIS OF VERSE A Scientific
study OF the Principles of Poetic Construction.
~ J: F. Daeney. l2mo. pp. X. 26s. Longmans.
The demand for good and comprehensive
biography OF MendeIssohn is much less urgent
in these days than it in former years, al
though it is to be said that the reaction from the
ecstatic worship of the composer has in its turn
given way to a iuster estimate of the good
things he did in music, and Willingness to
preserve them in the modern repertory Be that
as IL may, seekers after the facts Of Mendels-
sohn's life and consistent estimate of his work
have hitherto had to content themselves with
unsatisfactory sketches and "reminiscences or
with the admirable. though necessarily brief
farticle by Sir George Grove in his Dictionary"
kdr. stratton's book is a convenient and readable
volume not pretentious in its flight of criticism
nut fuu of the facts in orderly arrange
sInent, and giving a number of valuable helps to
1he students of Mendelssohn's work These in
'ciuoe an admirably complete photography a list
of Mendelssohn's compositions with their dates;
a tabulation of the principal incidents in his
offe, list of persons connected with him in his
fcareer and what seems to be the superfuty of
0he complete English text of Elijah"
There is a charm about the short but brilliant
fife OF Mendelssohn that cannot escape the dull
fest biographer and Mr.. Stratton makes us feel
tsome OF that personal influence that contrib
suited so largely 10 his success His was indeed
"a life of success; his parents were rich; his
own prodigious talent precociousIy deveIoped
brought him into relations with the greatest and
F1nost influential, and put him naturally at the
mead OF things musical wherever he went. His
Ideals such TO win instant
prom the musical public of Europe; he had no
aight to secure recognition for or original
noeas that were opposed to the public taste, for
he had few such. and his own ceaseless activity
and ardor for work, while they wore him out at
the age Of thirtyeght utilized the fullest all
Ahe advantages that fortune had thrown into his
Jap.
The attractiveness of MendeIssohns personal |
aty has been fixed for posterity in many of his |
Friends eulogies but that there was another |
side Mr.. Stratton admits. He was morbidly |
sensitive to criticism, and those who received |
his music coldly he looked upon as enemies; |
newspaper criticism annoyed him extremely If |
1t was not laudatory; even his friends sugges- |
1ions exasperated him. At the same time he |
was quite unsympathetic in his attitude toward |
the work of his fellow composers though not |
many instances of it allowed to appear in |
this volume AS to his work Mr.. Stratton thinks |
he has been judged in part from a wrong stand |
point, and has been compared with those with |
whom he had nothing IN common. His charac- |
fsristcs are properly expressed in these words: |
The cultivated, refined, precise and orderly |
disposition found expression in music polished
beautifully balanced in harmony and phrase
and worked out with consummate skill and ad- |
dress Nothing vague, no redundant bars but |
everything in correct form, symmetry being as |
st were, a law OF his nature. If his themes were
trivial. as they were occasionally, deftly were
they handled that the defect escaped observa- |
1ion Mendelssohn could not have belonged to |
the new school, because he Mendelssohn
and none other; moreover, his work was done
before that new school had obtained a firm
footing, or even anything like general recogni-
fion.
AS TO which IL may be remarked that Men
delssohn is, indeed, not to be blamed for not
being somebody else, but that his music Will
none the less stand Or fall on its own strength,
End that much of It has already fallen
That the exploitation of the interest in wag-
her is still profitable to be the chief lesson
Taught by Frances Gerards compilation 1t is
obviously the work of one little versed in the
matter Of which it treats. and it's discussion is
In almost every way superficial; 1t is all derived
from better books Wagner and Bayreuth
and the author might at least, by the exercise
Of a little more care, have avoided many of her
errors in the spelling of proper names 1t is
hgreeabiy enough written. in a style that does
not tax the reader and it may be that some will
gain information here that might otherwise es-
cape them. The first chapter in the book that
on Bayreuth ITSELF and the little corner 1t oc-
cupies in history. chiefly of the eighteenth CEN
1ury, is the most interesting one and will be-
perhaps, the most useful. 1t gives us glimpses
OF the talented Wilheimina, Margarine of Bay
reuth, sister of Frederick the Great and viva |
cious narrator of life at the queer little court;
of Jean Paul Richter of the petty magnifcence
of Frederick, the Margrave, and we can read
too. the comments of Carlyle on the Margarine
and her surroundings. The little town and the
bit of country of which il is the capital first ap-
~ n the eleventh century; becoming later
memorable in Hohenzolern history" as Car
tyle said; passing first to the Margraye of Ans
paeh. in the line of succession and then being
ceded to Prussia Then came Napoleon and
took possession Of the margraviate, giving 1t to
Max Joseph. King of Bavaria, by whom it was
kept in the general division OF principalities
made by the Treaty of Vienna and TO whose
descendant it still appertans.
The succeeding chapters deal with the Festival
Play House at Bayreuth, and the circumstances
that finally brought Wagner's efforts to success;
there is detailed exposition OF the contents of
the medieval Nibelung Lied, and of the form
into which 1t moulded by Wagner for use
IN his trilogy: the story of "Parsifal" is told in
detail. and in the next chapter the author makes
p venture into discussion of the Holy Grail
legends
Mr.. o. B. Boise is musician who has taken |
thought about his art. In his brief but broad |
survey Of its province he has said not a few good
things-and not few trite ones; but his style
IS so diseursive and redundant that 1t is not |
always easy to follow him. He gives first a sur |
vey of the nature and origin of music. and its