The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-21
a s" % w%s - In the Theaters% Affairs Musical
in THE FIELD OF MUSIC
PIETRO MASCAGNIS IDEAS ABOUT
WAGNER AND THE FUTURE.
A Discussion of the Merits of Grieg as
a Comprehensive Bayreuth Family
Not Going to the

An interview with Pietro Mascagni, pre-
senting his musical theories, is especially
interesting now because he will begin an
American tour with a company singing only
his operas next month. The tour will begin
at the Metropolitan Opera House. New
York.
1.-The questions most often asked OF me
by musical people said Mascagni, at his
home at Naples, ARE these: What will be
the future development of music? Have we
seen the end of the music-drama as Wag-
ner inaugurated it. or will the composers
of the future continue that style of music
and bring it to its highest perfection? is
there reason to believe. OF to hope, that the
composers who will write for our children
and grandchildren may return to less mod
ern examples and-to melody? AS to SYM
phony. will it develop in the direction of
pure music. or make concessions to aca-
demic style and popular taste programme
musicO
"Above all, ii is wrong to look upon Wag-
ner as a musical reformer pure and simple,
or upon his life's work as a finished period
in the history of opera. Like other arts,
music is progressive. and it's highest devel-
opment will come as the prize of constant
SlrlVlnS IOT the luedl. Anu COIlplele HdI-
mony-melody-is the highest musical ideal
attainable. Wagner being under the sway
of polyphony, his works were not, and
could not be, opponents Of harmony.
Though. as Inauguration of a new style
Wagner was n radicalist, the true value of
his work in its bearing on the music OF
the future will become apparent only when
logical. clear-sighted and unsparing criti-
cism has done away with the pseudo opin-
ions of ignorant professional and unpro-
fessional dilettante that to-day are trying
to be more Wagnerian than Wagner him
self, while all the time obscuring the true
mission of the masters work.
mot until after these foolish voices are
silenced. and not until then. will there be
a revival of melody on the lines laid down
by the great Bayreuther, for, the fog hav-
ing cleared away, composers will be free
to seek inspiration at the fountain head
of pure music, and melody, the eternal and
universal language of the soul, will tri-
umph. Let ii be understood, at the same
time, that the rich treasures of melody
stored up by Scarlatti and Verdi did not
become obsolete in consequence of Wag-
ner's supremacy; his music-drama de-
throned only the old and obsolete methods,
or. better, styles of composition, sounding
their death knell without mercy and for
ever. A new recipe for constructing operas
was found. and ~triumphed. On that we
build. on that grounds the future of music.
LAS to symphony, L have no doubt of its
healthy development. Its future looks
bright. but until the ideal is attained much
hard Work must De done. composers must
stop their wild striving for originality; they
must be less prosaic than they are to-day.
Let the public make up its mind to have
poetry in music, let the critics take a firm
stand and abandon the policy of applaud
ing freaks-then symphony will be worthy
of its name and win back its place in public
esteem.
"Then, with all the world contributing,
we will have real folk-songs voicing mans
joy and woe, success and failure, love and
passion in the divine language of melody,
thp universal tOnglp understood and an
preciated by all. And this triumph of mel
ody will be the death of academic music.
the music of the recommendation, vul-
gar and antiquated-in short, a freak.
May those who love music never forget
that melody is it's highest and noblest eX-
preston. Melody will reign supreme in the
end because all acknowledge its power"
XXX
Miss Elsa Ruegger will play her cello
with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on
Oct. "a, and then will start on a tour of
the country. At Boston she will introduce a
novelty in the form of a concerto by Rubin
stein for cello and orchestra.
XXX
Kocian, Jan Kubelik's rival, will play for
the first time in this country at Carnegie
Hall, New York. on Nov. %. He will be as
sisted by an orchestra of a hundred under
the direction of Walter Damrosch. Kocian
is twenty years old and studied violin as a
fellow pupil of kubelik.
Ujejski, a friend of Chopin, wrote several
poems as commentaries on the composers
works, and a poem in the spirit of the
funeral march has been translated into
French and will be detained at a concert
in Paris, while an orchestra plays the
march.
The New York Philharmonic Society's
change of conductors from Emil Paur to
Walter Damrosch was not, it is explained,
due to Mr.. Paur's putting so many of Rich
ard Strauss compositions on the pro-
grammes Mr.. Paurs resignation was ac-
cepted because the orchestra under his d.
rection was not so profitable as it had been.
The Philharmonic conductor is not respon-
sible for the programmes. He may suggest,
but the directors decide.
The Castle-square English Opera Com
pany will open it's season tomorrow even-