The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-19

1 10 Portray what can these peoDle NAL
| OF the overture to Tristan und IsoIS",
when they do not know what Wagner mean,
by it?" "
My son, your questions are well M,
In fact, you talk like book, or rath".
like a critical Sunday article in the coun,..
OF daily newspaper. What YOU ash T.,
what every ordinary man of the street will
| ask. Yet here we have the extraOrdnar,.
phenomenon Of audiences painting viii
emotion under the spell of music of whos"
musical nature they cannot possibly kno,.
anything What system did Wagner en-.
ploy in composing the music of his preato,
works?"
Tine system Of leading motives, or ~.
resentative themes, l suppose you mean"
Precisely, my son. Now, in the own,
ture which we have just played there ar,
no leading motives. We have only IN.
battle between the bacchanalian musi,
and the carnal riotry Of TannhRnser m
represented in the hymn TO Venus on IN.
one side and piety az represented by tbA
pilgrims chorus on the other There ia A
symbolism beautifully elementary in M
nature. 1t does not go single step he.
latti or Carissim in so far az its purpose
is concerned. 1t advances only in musical
manner. not in musical philosophy The
mechanism OF the earliest operate COM
poser comprised monot one and sustained
notes for calm thought, and agitated nova.
ment and wider intervals for emotional
disturbance. What more is there in this
music Of Wagner"
Il see, father, that there Is nothing NOR.
II never struck me in that way before. All
that seems different Is external, is it mott.
"Of course. 1t is all modern treatment
OF harmony and Instrumentation
But, father, I am still puzzled The
public. which takes to this overture be-
cause it is so elemental. makes just as great
to-do over the farewell Of Wotdn or the
irnmolation OF Brunnhilde. These are ex-
cerpts from dramas in which the complex
leading theme system is carried out to it's
fullest development.
That lis true. my son; but the scenes
which you have mentioned require the
services Of a soloist."
That's fact, and glory be to the soloist,
I suppose.
Is
was in the beginning, is now and shall be-
an seculu s0culorum. We are going to
have solo singer tonight, tolerably bad
one, too but you shall see how the throb-
bling populace will hang upon her accents
as though she were the holy st. Cecilia her
self. You shall see how she will be encored
and how she will supplement 'Dich theure
Halle with something sweet and touching
by Ethelbert Nevin or Clayton Johns.
People will applaud the soloist, no matter
for what"
Father think you mistake Would
they applaud her for singing Bach"
"Ah, rascal! Have you hit upon the
root of the whole matter? Bach! Is he
for the unmusical? Never! And lie not
the mass unmusical? Certainly Yet it
adores Wagner. Is Wagner, therefore,
unmusical? Is he less a musician than
Bach2 Stop a moment. You know how
that thousands hasten once a year to listen
to The Messiah of the mighty Handel2"
ooh, yes, father; no one can forget that 4"
Would those same thousands 60 with
the same enthusiasm to hear the Matthew
Passion Of old Bach2'
mo, OF course not. Every one knows
that The Messiah is popular Indeed,
am quite sure that more than ha II Of those
who almost know it by heart have never
heard OF Baoh's Passion music"
Now, then, think a moment. WHY ia
Bach SO far away from the masses, while
Handel is 80 near to them?"
why, father, Bach never took a mo-
ment's thought about the hearer of his
music. He wrote wholly according to the
secret convictions of his artistic soul, and
troubled himself not one iota whether the
world would be able to follow him or not .
before he became an oratorio writer was
an opera composer He thought always
Of the theatre; he never forgot the public
out yonder in front OF the footlights. 1t
was for that he wrote, Of course. knew
that; but 1t had escaped me that 1t was
Handel's training as an operate compose
that put him in that continual state OF
mind
would you, therefore, say that Handel
was not a great master?'
NO, certainly not"
Then, what about Wagner Was not
he also a theatre composer? Did he ever
forget that the ultimate aim of his music
was to move an audience2"
mo. father. but you forget the organic
union of the arts which he sought In all his
dramatic writing. How is It that this
music makes men mad when it is taken
away from the action, the scene, the voice,
the all-persuading human element and
Just poured upon the troubled air by the
many-throated orchestral"
Spirit OF Nature, here,
In this Int ermlnable wilderness
OF worlds, az whose immensely
Even soaring fancy staggeIs.
Here Is thy hitting temple"
With this sudden quotation from Shelley
tho aged viola lapsed into mlIsing silence.
while his eyes wandered far away through
the smoky vistas before him as II seeking
some impalpable yet vital vision In the
murky air. The boy regarded him askance,
we'll knowing that this dreamful silence
brooded something.
Child OF my art at length the old man
said, know that Of all operatic music
Wagner's will least endure to be separated
from its dramatic environment, yet OF all
operatic music it is in this state the most
overwhelming. This was some time para
dox. Had Wagner lived to come to this
land Of no perspective he would have had
the distance thrust into his eyes. He
would have seen that what puzzled form
hardened Europe was no riddle to the
babes of unmusical America. Perhaps
he could have told us why his music was
so potent when robbed of all the aids which
he declared were essential to its eloquence.
We should not need him to tell us why the
wild upheaval Of the Valkyrs' ride or the
exquisite calculations OF the forest music
In Siegfried' were influential. These
things speak to us with the voice OF Nature,
But who will explain the effect OF the prel
ude to 'Parsifal' or the Vorspiel and Lie
bestod of Tristan upon minds not ac-
quainted with the works to which they
belong? Could Wagner do that?"
Again the old man became silent and the