The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-06-10
MUSIC.


Miss Neuhaus gave the third of her lee
ture recitals yesterday afternoon at the
home of Mrs. Henry L. Beverage. Her
subject was Wagner and His Works" The
last of the series will be given next Thurs
day afternoon, also at Mrs Beveridges
The subject then will be Modern Com
posers and the Russian School" Those
who have attended the recitals have found
them pleasant and profitable. and the fourth
should be the most interesting of the Sc
ries. OF course. Miss Neuhaus had to
sketch the stories of the Wagner music
dramas very briefly, but she succeeded in
conveying a general understanding of their
contents and purpose to those who were
not already acquainted with the work of
the demi-gOd of Bayreutn. Incidentally she
played selections from "Tannhauser,"
'Lohengrin,' the various Ring operas
Tristan and Isolde and "Parsifal" Her
playing, like her speech was skillful and
Miss Neuhaus took the conventional
musicians attitude toward Wagner and his
work. She had nothing but praise for him
and said that 'Tannhauser' especially had
a distinctly moral purpose Wagner she
said, professed no creed, but was intensely
religious. In fact, "Tannhauser's moral
ity is of a kind that mOralists long ago
passed. The Hbretti of all the Wagner OPP
eras show that their writer was incapable
or taking inspirations from nature. There
IOTe, ne was not, In the pure sense, art
Isl. NO healthy artistic life can exist in the
wagner atmosphere. His music is unlike
any other composers, and he had a genius
for musical construction. His works are of
great mechanical interest AS a phenom-
enon Wagner was a wonder. But in his
music, as well as in his philosophical libret-
Il, there is little besides gaudy intricacy.
One searches in vain for the fresh face and
voice of nature.
But all of this has been said in a great
way by DIR. Max Nordau in his "Degenera-
hand, because in it Dr. Nordau, for the
price of the book, will cure incipient aes-
thetic disorders, if the patient be capable
or receiving the medicine. In "Degenera-
ton" DIR. Nordau gives Wagner credit for
that for which he should have credit, but
he demOliSheS the absurd fusion of arts
theory, shows that the leading motive
and amending melody schemes are fatal
to natural musical expression and leaves
the reader convinced that Wagners domi-
nance, wherever it has existed, must fade
before the advance of enlightenment The
final paragraph of the Wagner chapter in
Degeneration" is as follows:
Hence the pilgrimage to Bayreuth be-
came a mark of aristOcracy, and an appre-
citation of Wagner's music, in spite of his
nationality, was regarded as evidence of in
| tellectual eminence. The prejudice in his
| FAVOR was created, and, provided one went
| 10 him In this mood, there was no reason
| why Wagner should not have the same in
| 1uence on hysterical foreigners as on hvs-
| terical Germans. 'Parsifal was especially
| neo-Catholics and AnglO-American mystics
| that marched behind the banner of the Sal
| walton Army. 1t was with this opera that
Wagner chiefly triumphed among his nom
| German admirers. Listening to the music
| of 'ParsifaP has become the religious act
| of all those who wish to receive the com
muniOn in musical form.
These are the explanatory causes of
Wagner's conquest first of Germany and
then of the world. The absence of iudg-
ment and independence among the multi
| tude, who chant the antiphony OF the
psalter; the imitation of musicians DOS
| sessed OF no originality, who witnessed his
| triumph, and, like genuine little boys wish
| ing TO be taken, chung TO his coattails-
| these did what was still needed 10 lay the
world at his feet. As IL is the most widely
| diffused so Is Magnetism the most mo-
/ mentous alteration of the present time
| The Bayreuth festival theater, the Bay
reuther Batter, the Partisan Revue Wag-
! nerienne, are lasting monuments by which
| posterity will be able to measure the whole
breadth and depth of the degeneration and
! hysteria of the age.