The Indianapolis journal., 1904-01-24
An Advanced Musical Composer
Loefer of Hoon. Has Adapted Mseterlnck
euerite emon in CrandO
The Inaiananolls Journal.

vanced" that he outstrips even Richard
Strauss. And he lives in America-in Bos-
ton He is Charles Martin Loeffier. who
was born in Muhlhausen, Alsace. Jan.
80. 1861. and who for a long term Of years.
ending last spring. sat at the same desk
with the cOncertmaster. Mr.. Kneisel. of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra. When Mr..
Kneisel and the other members OF the quar-
tet bearing his name resigned from the or
chestra at the end Of last season Mr.. Loef-
fer also retired. He wished 10 devote his
time TO composition, while the other four
had determined to play thereafter only as
soloists and in the quartet. Comment has
been made in these letters on Mr.. Loeffiers
settings OF verses by Gustave Kahn and
Charles Baudela3re and Paul Verlaine. The
songs were sung at a Kneisel Quartet con-
cert h. Miss Susan Metcaif recently. The
Boston Orchestra last season played
symphonic poem by the composer, after
Verlaine's verses beginning, in Miss Ger
trude HALLS translation, Before your light
quite fail, already paIing star Occasion
for this chronicle was given by the per-
formance of Mr.. Loefier's 1.-The Death of
Tintagiles" at the latest pair of concerts
by the Boston Orchestra in New York.
More advanced than Richard Strauss"
sounds like the title of the prefacing essay
in one Of George Bernard Shaw's volumes
of plays. Better than Shakespeare" The
basis OF the assertion is not that Mr. Loef-
| fer has invented more unique uses of or
chestral instruments than has the eminent
Mr.. Strauss, but that his subjects are
newer" more subtle The subject always,
| scores more than technique. Mr.. Strauss
has written musical translations of German
tradition, It'll Eulenspiegels Merry
Pranks;" Of that great, bizarre tale, Don
| Quixote;" of Don JUAN" and of Neitsz-
ches Thus Spake Zarathustra." The last
would seem to be the effect of a process suf-
| hciently complex, but however difficult Is
| Nietszches philosophy, it can hardly be
| called subtle in the French sense, the
| Maeterlinckian sense. No writer has
achieved, az has Mr.. Maeterlinck the sense
Of things foreign to life and yet in it, of in
fiuences working just beyond perception. 1t
| is not enough to say that his imagination is
| fantastic-that he is like Poe-for there is
strong element of actuality in 1t; not are
| his method and purpose allegorical, as were
Nietszche's.
"Monna Wanna" a play which the Eng
| lish censor banned. and which has been
acted this winter at Mr.. Conreid's German
| Theater in New York, is significant Of a
change in Mr.. Maeterlinck's manner, for its
| personages are solidly human and its scenes
far fetched only in that they are medieval.
THE Death of Tintagiles' belongs to the
poets preceding period of mysticism 1t is
published in a collection entitled "Alladne
and Palomides, The Interior, The Death
OF Tintagiles: Three Little Dramas for
Marionettes.' Several English translations
are obtainable.
| The characters of 1.-The Death of Tinta-
giles are a boy, Tintagiles; his sisters,
Ygraine and Belangere; their old tutor
| Agloyale, and three handmaidens of the
Queen. The scenes are in and about a cas-
| tie in the bottom of black valley. Tin
tagiles has been far away and has been
mysteriously summoned home At the be-
ginning OF the first act his sister Ygraine
who has met him at the ships landing. is
talking to him of their home from which
| he was taken as baby. They are on the
top or a hill overlooking the valley, and
| nave paused before descending to the cas-
tie. My sister and L have been dragging
on our life here, says Ygraine, lever since
We were born, without daring to understand
anything of all that goes on. Such
silence reigned here that ripe fruit fall
ing In the park brought faces to the win
COWS. And no seemed have
suspicions-but one night found that there
must De something else. | wanted
to fly, and could not. You see there
behind the dead trees that poison the hori-
Zon, you see the castle at the bottom Of the
valley? 1t is going to rack and ruin,
and no one cares. The walls are cracking,
and 1t looks as If IL were dissolving in dark
ness. There is only one tower tAat
time has not attacked. 1t is very large.
and the house is never out of its shadow
II is In that tower that the Queen lives.
Wi IN Ern
was by her order that he has been brought
oack home-to his death, as il turns out
She is the personification OF horror. accord
ing TO Mr.. Maeterlinck's idea of the uni
verse. The following quotation from
Ygraine's description of her is, therefore,
important: She does not show herself.
She lives there, all alone In her
tower. and the women who wait upon her
do not come out in the daytime. .
She is very old; she is our mothers mother
and wishes to reign alone. She is
suspicious and jealous and they say she is
mad. She is afraid that someone
will rise up in her place, and ii is doubt
brought here. Her orders are car
ried out without anyone knowing how.
She never comes downstairs and
the doors of the tower are shut night and
day. / have never seen her, but
others have. 1 am told, long ago. when she
was very young. They say she is
But they who have seen her do not
dare to speak about it. But who
knows whether they have seen her or not ?
She has power that Is not under
stood and we live here with a great merci-
less weight upon our souls You
must not be too much afraid nor have bad
dreams: will watch over you, my little
Tintagiles, and no harm can come to YOU;
but do not go far from me nor from your
sister Bellangere nor from our old master
Aglovale."
The second, third and fourth acts are in
the castle, and tell of the attempts Of the
Queens handmaidens to obtain possession
of the boy. and their final success Tinta-
giles, his sisters and the old man remain
together in room. The agents of the
Queen are not seen their first visit
but the door is slowly pushed inward and
Aglovales sword is broken when he at
tempts TO stop the movement. The four
are petrified by fear, as a cold calm light
enters the room. Ygraine, Bellangere and
Aglovale are pushing against the door
but Intellectually. Tintagiles, who has
swoOned, comes TO himself, utters a lone
cry Of deliverance, and kisses his sister;
while at the very instant of this cry the
door stops resisting and suddenly closes
under their pressure"
, The scene of the fourth act is in a pass.
age outside the room. Three of the Queen
, SsNnnxxy,s nxr