The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-06-07
WHERE'S A GREAT COMPOSER?
TIE ART OF Music IN 4 TRANSIT
TON STATE.
Evidences OF an Uncertain search After New
Forms and Means Of ENpressiOn-The
Next Genius 10 he an Opener OF New
paths-A Longing Look Backward.

Next Genius 10 BE an Opener OF New
Paths-A Longing Look Backward.
1t is not at all likely that we are good
Judges OF our own time, We have not
The necessary perspective, for we are like
man looking at his own face in brook.
After all he does not see it az others see 1t
and if he but breathe little upon the sur
face of the water he distorts the reflection
Of his own features. Still we are but human,
and we are, therefore, nightly interesting
to ourselves. We cannot refrain from
studying our own features In the mirror,
nor can we abstain from speculation about
our own time.
Those who think about music must often
wonder whether we have any great COM
posers just now. We are Obliged to con-
fess that we cannot perceive any, though
we are harassed with doubts in regard to
Richard Strauss. Whether the future will
call him great man or not, is just what
Wa cannot determine. We have the COM
fort OF his own assurance. but that does not
greatly assist us. Strauss seems to have
no doubts. When he wrote "A Hero's
Life he carefully identified his hero by
introducing in the finale the identifying
IHCtiNS6 "a ITO oWu CoiIipo
These were his hero q works OF peace
But it does not follow that man is a
great composer because he thinks so him
self. To be sure, most OF the great masters
have had at least inklings Of their greatne
Bach seems TO stand alone in his complete
ignorance Of his own Importance. IL,
however, he had possessed an applauding
public and few industrious parasites In
The shape of German journalists to ring
hyphenated changes on his achievement
no, too. might have become megalomanic
Handel, on the other hand. was not per-
mitted to entertain any doubts. London
clawed at his feet, and sent up such per-
fume of adul alton to his nostrils that he
must have been more than human to doubt
that he was penning music which was to
enliehten the world and make glad the
wilderness.
Mozart was also told about his own great
ness, and Vienna did not allow Papa Haydn
20 languish in ignorance. Even Beethoven,
who was less troubled by public adulation
han some others, had his own ideas about
himself and he betrayed them When he
answered the boastfu land proprietor"
with his crushing brain proprietor.
But did not Karl Differs Won Dttcrsdorf
also feel comfortably assured that he was
a great man? Does any suppos+. that
Czerny and Cramer and Gyrowetz were not
IN their day and generation convinced
Of their own worthiness To places among
the prophets9 And 80 to-day are there
not thousands OF writer's of music who
honestly believe that though they may not
I've Beethovens. they are AT least only a
little lower than the angels? One can
easily picture the majority Of them writing
to their critics az Schumann wrote 10
kossmaly.
In your article on the Lied was little
grieved that you placed me in the second
class. do not lay claim to the first, but
think have claim to a place Of my own,
and least of all do wish to zee myself as
ISOLATED with Ressiger, Kurschmann. etc.
know that my aims. my resources, are far
beyond theirs. and hope you will concede
this, and not ACCUSE me Of vanity. which IL
far from me-"
II musicians-who are most pitlab y
mortal-were made thus in the elder days
Of the art, we may be able certain that they
are made 30 now. and that all the silent
singers, whose notes never sound from
the desth-pal paper" believe that II some
magnificent Liszt would hut produce their
music 1t would fill the world with excite
ment, even a. Wagner's "Lohengrin" did
after the old autocrat of Weimar made 1t
known.
But the world itself stands -agaze like
Joshua's moon ON Ajalon." 1t sweeps the
crannies OF it's own hills and valleys and
sees no master OF the first rank. Tho last
l:shx eli II hoIr he ctor p
horizon when the fearful spirit of TschaI-
kowsky sent itself into the invisible. Even
of him doubts begin to arise and cynics
among critics confidently declare that in
a quarter OF a century he will be relegated
to a place among the clever men who were
not geniuses They tell US that even that
splendid and flaming nationalism. which
we profess to find in his writing, will be
discovered to be but weak and Germanized
when compared with tho Russianism Of
such composers as Borrline, Cesar Oui and
Moussorgsky.
Where Is Dvorak? Did any one ever
think him a master OF tho first order'
Possibly when he was composing "Spectre's
Brides" and EST. Ludamilas" for docorous
English festivals some of the British breth-
rem believed him to be very great man. At
any rate they gave him the British crown
Of laurels--a doctors degree, But when
YOU review Dvorak's achievements they
do not loom large upon the horizon OF
memory. The Requiem is good. the quar-
tets are charming, the American SYM
phony is lovely. and 50 on. But nothing
towers. One never hears the thunder OF
fate at the portal.
Yet Dvorak 10 OF the older men the lead
ing composer outside Of France and Russia.
ST rauss il the avant courier of a new move
ment, and, whether he is right or wrong.
he is indisputahly more potent force than
Dvorak, In France Saint-Saens represents
the highest type of development in instru-
mental music and we must bear In mind
that instrumental music Is the Hottest
form of the art. The opera is hybrid. In
i, music becomes an accessory to the drama
and must OF need take a secondary place.
In the symphony and its allied forms music
stands on her own feet. She is the proud
mistress Of all she surveys, and it is in these
forms that Saint -Sasns is frances repre-
sentative master.
Nevertheless, the thoughtful critic would
y L ILL c. ,.a