New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-07-14

/ 1t was designed 90 illustrate and expound. TINS
the case with Don Juan and Tod und
! Verkarung." When it came TO Elm Heldenle-
! ben and ALSO sprach Zarrathustra" he con-
tented himself with the general title and super
scriptGns for tho various divisions. It'll
Eulenspiegel's Lustige Streiche," Don Quixote"
and the symphonic Dornestica" have descrip-
tive titles only, and in their cases the composer
publicly proclaimed his unwillingness to provide
programmes. How did the world find out what
the music 'meant?' Why. soon after the works
appeared there appeared also exhaustive expo
sitions of their poetical and dramatic contents
written by members Of the inner brotherhood,
and these received official sanction by being used
at concerts conducted by the composer Oh
viously. somebody had OWNED his thoughts Is
il not singular, not to say significant, that all
the analysts. including Mr.. Huneker, have found
in the music exactly what the official annotator
said there? Suppose there had been no
plenary inspiration in the first instance, how
could this strange unaninity have come to
pass? There has been such agreement about
other music since the world began. Once Dr.
Strauss threw out a most Irritating invitation
to the interpreters of his musical oracles. Re
fusIng TO write explanatory programme for
his Till Eulenspiegel' when it to receive
its first performance In Cologne, he limited
darkIy that We're he to tell in plain words all
ilIdl ne INTO the music pOllle might
take offence. Here a challenge TO the curl
with a vengeance. Something lbidinous
of course. Has anybody found it? No; but all
the world knows that Till is gibbeted in
Strauss music though he dies d natural death
IN the old Voksbuch from which the composer
took his subject. How comes it that this def
mite. articulate. narrative music is so obscure
in one case and obvious IN the other?
When the symphonic domestica" was pro-
duced at Carnegie Hall on March 81 of this
year, DR.. Strauss officially proclaimed that t
was not programme music. but should be re-
ceived music pure and simple Yet year
before he had told English interviewer that
il was Gelineation of day of his household
life, and that its themes were to represent hus-
band, wife and child. To his friends in New
York he was even more explicit; they pre-
pared TO find game OF sl1at in the slow move
ment and controversy between the composer
and his wife touching the temperature of babys
bath in the double fugue near the close The
double fugue found by the listeners at the
performance without difficulty, though it sound
ed more like a proclamation of the crack of
doom than a discussion over the respective
merits Of hot and cold water a medium for
infantiIe abutions. Without difficulty, too the
audience able to guess that the interim be-
tween bells and a squall Qandsmans
language and seven other bells and another
squall a period of restfulness; though it
was not clear to any except the personally con-
Quoted that in this interim the composer gave
illustration OF his method of creative work,
and that early in the momentous day there had
been a comparison of baby's features with those
of its parents by partial and prejudiced reIa-
tives. The lesson Of this was that the obvious
things in DR.. Strauss descriptive music are
the limitations OF natural noises. This is neither
cal. That child might cry in music. and get a
well deserved spanking to boot. was imagined
by Colonel Derby, alias John Phoenix" in San
Diego, Cal. fifty years ago: moreover. the de-
Hneative devices suggested in the satirical slt
of the original American humorist in his anay-
sis of Jabez Tarboxs lode Symphonic, The
Plains" were not one whit more less crudely
realistic than those habitualIy employed by
Richard Strauss. In fact. IT is impossible for
one familiar with the principles and methods
Of programmatic composers to note any adj
vance. except in technique and heightened ex-
pressiveness, which places Richard Strauss
above the men who wrote descriptive music n
century or two ago. Byrd, Kuhnau. and all
who made stories of battles and storms out Of
musical tones grasp the hand OF the modern
master and welcome him into their fellowship
by virtue of his bleating sheep. squalling brat
crashing crockery. squeakinG windmill and
snoring squire; while Froberger. Buxtehude and
the unnamed composer whom Kuhnau com
mended for his skill I'm picturing the progress
Of sick man and bringing him 10 state Of
convalescence without effecting a complete cure
were his precursors IN that species of musical
psychology which finds analogies between com
posers' devices and physical and psychical proc
esses. The one great point Of difference be-
tween him and them lies in his occasional pur-
M and
ingness TO the ugly except momentarily and
as passing contrast to heighten the effect of
the beautiful or the ugly is defended
in Strauss music the ground that beautiful
means must not be used to express" repelIant
objects. 1T fouts the critics of the composer"
says Mr.. Huneker. speaking of Fin Helden-
leben," and shows a stupendous battle piece
Tolstoian in fury, duration and breadth. Cacoph-
ony rules; yet is not a battle always cacoph-
onous? The old fashioned symbols Of trumpet
blasts, with ornamental passage work. are here
rudely disclaimed; is cruel, and this episode
is repulsive in its aural cruelty" O. e D.
Hither We painters! Paint US New York's cloaca
maxima; and since sewers are always i'll smell
ing. cruel and repulsive. be sure you mix your
pigments with assafptida!
DR. Strausss admirers see steady growth
toward psychological significance and definite
ness Of narration in his music from the earliest
symphonic poems. Don Juan" for instance. up
to Don Quixote." Touching the symphonic
domestica" the oraces have not yet spoken.
What these works really represent, from an
evolutionary point of view, is a steady departure
from musical ideals and methods, a steady
growth in the handling of the materials Of COM
position. and Of dependence upon external sug-
gestion and crude realism. His technical skill
Is great so great, indeed, that Mr. Huneker