Los Angeles herald., 1906-04-01
Ls MODERN music approachfng the

rs MODERN music approaching the
complexity of the "a scales, each
with its special philosophical sig
nifica ton, that are recognized in the
celestial empire: The Chinese ambas-
sador is reported to have said recently
that the work of some of the latest
composers sounds strikingly like the
music he has been accustomed to in his
native land.
The average American going to the
Chinese theater in any large city,
hears with astonshment a music which
sounds to him like the rasping of files,
the scraping of tomato cans and the
irregular rat-a-tat-tat of a drum which
a small boy has received as a Christ
mas present There's nothing tuneful
or melodic in it.
IF this is music" the old man thinks,
then it's me for My Old Kentucky
Home and In the Shade of the Old
Apple Tree Everybody works in the
Chinese theater but father; he just
holds his ears
Yet, according to the Chinese am
bassador, this is just where we occi-
dentals are coming out. Some of the
musical critics seem to agree with him.
Those people certainly who know most
about oriental music say that it has
complex harmonies which we are too
obtuse to catch. We are ear-blind to
their color. They have been at 1t so
much longer than we that they have
got much further along. For the Chi
nese were the first people in the his
tory of the world to develop a system of
octaves, circle of fifths and lot of
other harmonical technics, back in the
days when our ancestors, the Euro
pean savages, had not invented even
the simplest forms of melody.
II is well known that they regard
our music as barbarous and bald in
fits simplicity. Some Europeans hold
the same opinions. Gladisch, for eX-
ample, a German savant who has
worked out the intimate connection be-
tween Chinese musical theory and the
musico-p -philosophic conceptions of the
Greek teacher Pythagoras, has always
insisted that our lack of appreciation
is due to lack of training, and that We
shall eventually come to understand
better the marvellous intricacy of Chi
nese and Japanese musical effects.
Whether or not we shall finally ar
rive at understanding and liking some
thing that approaches the harmonious
discords of the Chinese, close observ-
ers claim to have discovered among
the musicians and lovers of music a
steadily increasing sensitiveness to
harmonies the existence of which was
formerly unknown. Nine. Fidele Koe-
mig of the faculty of the New England
conservatory, wife of the late chief de
chant of the Paris opera, says that
her husband in the course of long pro-
fessional experience constantly COM
mented upon the improvement that
is taking place in the hearing capacity
of European musicians and public.
Subtle harmonies of today are nm
derstood which forty or fifty years ago
even would have been regarded as in
comprehensive. The musicians have
grown more and more fearless in doing
the things that used to be forbidden
When Faust" was produced hack in
the 5os it was regarded by the critics
as too technical ever to be popularlv
accepted. Now even the hand organs
make easy work of some of its familiar
motives.
The present vogue of the modern
school of French composers i'm this
country-an enthusiasm which led to
Mime. Koenig's being called this win
ter to Boston as an instructor in
French singing at the conservatory
illustrates the point made by the Chi