The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-04-26
Two GREAT MUSIC CRITICS
THE LITERARY SKILL or BER-
LTOZ AND SCHUMANN.

| says OF tne brtlIiant Frencnu1on-neT'
iioz and the Drum virueso-schu'
] mann and Chopin-Opera's Good.By.
] Ever and anon some inquiet musical
spirit. wounded. perhaps. by the failure
OF the common or garden critic TO see II az
it sees itself. cries out that criticism should
be in the hands Of the musicians. To be
! sure II should. But so few OF them are
newspaper men. and the daily newspaper
has found In the course Of It's experience
that newspaper men have to do news
paper work. 1t Is generally conceded
that they do II q little better than those
who do not do 1t at all. but 1t Ia not ad-
mitted that they do It correctly. There
is not man on this broad and verdant
/, footstool who does not believe that he could
! perform the duties Of a journalist much
better than those who do perform them.
Even Senator Chauncey NJ. Depew, who Is
himself a most admirable specimen Of the
sort Of thing newspaper men manufacture
in their hours Of recreation. jestingly de-
cares what he really means when he says
that the newspapers are always wrong.
II musicians think themselves better
qualified TO write musical criticism than
the plain critics Of the market place. why
UOu tUcy W it' Aubtcdu VI bittihk eoOue
and clubbing why do they not set to work
and write? Surely there cannot be q noted
musician in this land whose work Richard
Watson Glider would not accept with
avidity. The pages Of the Century maya
zine are yawning for articles by Grieg on
Dvorak, by Hamish McCunn ON Parry. or
Weingartner on Strauss. Why not for
others by Harry Rowe Shelley on Henry
Holden Huss. or Alexander Lambert on
Adele Margulies?
Singing teachers. Of course. have TO be
barred, for their articles on one another
are already too numerous and they have
no characteristics worth mentioning ex-
cept vituperative dulness and sour-hearted
stupidity. The purlieus OF perdition con-
tain no more deadly writing than-that Of
the singing teachers, who have no phrases
except those which they mark In the music
to be sung, and no EXPIRE ssion except ritard-
andos and morendoe. They would make
the three-headed Cerberus himself tired.
There have been musicians who could
write criticism. and 1t Is only the other
day that an English newspaper discovered
one OF them. His name was Hector Berlioz.
He Is dead now But somewhere or other
this bright English paper found out that
some old manuscript OF the brilliant French
mans had turned up. and II solemnly told
its readers that they would be as'onished
to know tina, the famous composer Of the
'Childe Harold and Romeo ct Juliette'
symphonies was at one time fcuiiiotonist
and was really quito clever. don't you
know. Tbs mills Of the British weeklies
grind slowly. and they grind exceedingly
small stuff. Rip Van Wrinkle. who fell
asleep in the Hudson hills and let the world
go whirling pas; him for twenty years, was
wide awake compared with some OF them.
With one hand and with his eyes shut the
practical newspaper man takes from his
shelves book and opens at the title page.
Hector Berlioz: Selections From his Let
tiers and Aesthetic, Humorous and Satirical
Writings, Translated and Preceded by q
Biographical Sketch Of the Author. by
William F. Ap;horp. New York. Henry
Holt q Co., 1872 The sage Of the Boston
Transcript was busy In the bygone ages.
was he not3 There Is a book published
twenty-three years ago, containing much
Of the best that came from the flashing pen
Of the gifted Berlioz, and yet an English
newspaper just discovers that he was a
music critic and essayist. and that he was
pretty good az that sort Of work. too.
The truth Ia that Berlioz was one Of the
keenest and wittieet and most readable
Of all writers on music. He had a beautiful
sense Of hurlor. He was oven able, like
Wagner. too see the humor OF his own
difficulties, and one can imagine him shak-
ing hands with the author Of The End Of
Musician in Paris There Is a decided
similarity in certain aspects Of the styles
Of the two men. or rather in their mental
bent, for Wagner's style was simply i'm
possible. while Berlioz's was instinct with
Gallo spirit. Here is little extract from
the beginning Of his Musical Grotesques'
dedicated TO the members Of the chorus at
the Grand Opera. He had once been q
chorus singer himself.
THE art Of music is undeniably the one
Of all others which gives rise to the strange
est passions, the absurdest ambitions,
l will even say to the most peculiar mono
manias. or the people who are shut up
in insane asylums, those who think them
selves Neptune or Jupiter are easily recog-
nized as monomaniacs; but there are many
others, who enjoy entire freedom. whose
relations have never dreamed Of having
recourse TO the science Of phrenology on
their account, but whose madness In evil
dent. Music has unsettled their brains
will not speak Of those men Of letters who
write either In prose or verse upon ques-
tons Of musical theory Of which they have
not the most elementary knowledge; who
use words the meaning Of which they do
not understand who rave in cold blood
about old masters, OF whom they have
never heard a note; who generously ascibe
to them expressive and melodic ideas which
those masters did not have since melody
and expression did not exist In the time
In which they lived; who admire by the
wholesale and with the same heartfelt |
two pieces signed by the same |
name. Of which one is indeed beautiful |
and the other absurd: who say and write |
those astonishing butfooneries which no |
can hear quoted without laugh |
ing. 1t is agreed that everybody has the |
right TO speak and write about music; II |
Is trivial art for everybody; the phrase
IL consecrated.'
There now! Has any musician Of to-day |
written anything as much 10 the point as
that? Can you not see the whole race Of /
scribblers about music squirming on the |
point Of the pen that wrote The Damna-