The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-26

II is the melodic acorn from which lis grown
tho mighty oak Wagner set the pace here
for all succeeding composers, and, not
being In sympathy with symphonic music
be developed e. magnificent system which
he called, and believed to be, tho music
drama. In the Ring" 1t is no. longer the
drama, but the epos; in "Tristan and Isolde"
the music ove-tops the drama; yet the
combination aspires nearer to perfection
than in any OF his previous efforts. Die
Meistersingsr' Is the unique German work
Of the master, In II he 10 mt Italian, not
ply German. And here again, when he
attempts pure melody, the result is that
discouraging and hanal tune, the Prize
Song! Wagner, the gigantic compiler OF
other mems ideas, the bold filcher OF
Beethoven, Weber--especially Weber
Gluck. Schubert-especially Schubert
Schumann and List always LisztD was
not wonder-worker in melodies.
Nor is Riche I'd Strauss. Some years ago
Camille Saint-Ss ems wrote a pamphlet in
which he extolled harmony above melody
and called attention to the very patent
fact that nothing ages like tune, not even
the beauty Of woman. Now the French
composer, fancying that he has been ia ken
too literally. is all for melody. He praises
Mozart ct the expense of Wagner, which il
silly, and he finds Richie rd Stra uss quite i'm
possible, though the young German is a
sterling exemplifica ton OF what power
full gent harmony can be made in musical
composition Strauss Is quite frenk in the
ma tier. For him 1t is always the question
whether the composer has rea lized his ideal
Mozart realized his and left the world a
legacy which is imperishable We gner
realized his-or thought he did--and we
should be deficient in gratitude il We failed
to remember this. The Mozart ideal OF
music and drama is quite different from the
Wagner ideal OF drama and music. With
far simpler and more plastic appa IA tus,
Mozart's charn cterization Of his men and
women Is superior to Wagner's more elabo-
rate ma chinery and more ambitious scheme
of chara cterization. The Wa gnerian libret
tos are deadly. His whole plan of treating
fable and myth, while ingenious and poetic
in intention, bears the fatal hall ma rk OF
artifciality and is crowded with doctrinal
disquisitions and political preachments.
Int word, We gner the pampheteer often
overshad ows Wagner the artist Think
OF that tedious book Of the Ring
some uncritical ones have compared to
! Browning's Ring and the Book with
| Its internal ethics. its manufactured bar
barics and it's awful lengthsi Not even in
the tawdry "Rienzi." the crude 'Dutch-
man." the clumsy "Tannhauser." or the
sloppy "Lohengrin" has Richard Wagner
committed such errors against the canons
Of taste, drame, poetry.
! With Wagner as a shining deacon OF
| danger, Richard Strauss sat down TO COM
pose his later music. Being Of the twen-
teth century, Of the future and not Of
| the past, as was Wagner-who summed up
the romantic epoch and opened no new
paths Strauss foresaw the bankruptcy
f, of the music-drama. Built, as 1t Is. OF bricks
without straw, its degeneration into mere
empty spectacle is inevitable. The stage
manager is the most important factor in
the newer music-drama. Singing. which
should be the expression of character,
has withdrawn into the background, or is
! become a barbaric bowling in outrageous
competition with vast and Gathering
orchestra. More shadowy, more inhuman,
| than the remote drdmdtis persona of the
! Ring are the latter-day characters in the
amorphous mess called music-drama.
| Wagner has left no disciples; imitators in
| abundance ard for the most part poor
ones. A reverson to a simpler style lis the
only possible solution; for the public, dazed
! by all this thurderous noise and these
ponderous librettos. returns 20 its Faust"
] and will have none of the new decoctons Of
/ Wagner and water.
! After irving his prentice hand at the
! classic forms. Strauss saw in the orchestra
! a chance for his peculiar gifts; though he
| was no. satisfied before, he, too, wrote a
| music drama and discovered that in his
! domain Wagner was practically unapnroach-
/ able. "Guntram" Is a genial work net a
significant ere. Nor. aside from its herutifrl
| orchestral settirg, hes FeUerspc, 'much TO
recommend it N .hc side ri originality.
! Iu aGuutram" Stra,lsa hos Eciio"sd the
! Wagner oi @IA ieuErir aEd -PGrsifa" in
| legend and treatment; b. @F,"ieTsnot II -
! the honeler -MeisterainPeI With an added
/ touch OF the archaic larured AID artificial
! in tho Vnr W .'oGs" 'c"lt--that Strauss
! shows.
I But with the oych.t'lrS solo-n his music
! il is one YET many Instruments he is the
! ,uperNr rf Observation-Disclosures the true arts-
! tic son Of Rerlios ard IisZt; more fantastic
, than R,r,ioz becal!s. Of greater imagination,
! moro daring than Iiszu because Liszt pre-
i cecied him In his psychologist exploita-
! ton Of certain characters in poetry. phil
! oscphv and fiction Strauss patterns after
List, though he probes deeper, thinks
wider, has bigger command of his tools,
and in more of realist. In effect, Richard
! Strauss is the first If great school Of
! psychological realists. | have compared
him elsewhere to Flaubert in his searching
analysis, fearlessne SIS Of problem, no matter
how ugly or painful; and to these qualities
! there is allied superb color sense and a tech
| nioue that has no parallel in art You may
! observe that have until now avoided this
misunderstood word. Too much has been
said about the gigantic orchestral technique
, or Strauss. To read some Of the lucubra-
tions expended upon him one could easily
imagine him as only skilful contriver
of orchestral effect for sheer delight in tone
Az was, too often Berlioz How far from
reality this Ia one may only judge who has
! with open mind AS well as ears-studied
tho scores and heard the entire range OF
! this extraordinary mans music This Lon
( don has not vet done, for, with few ex-
( .;,,, h;a compositionp we're heard for