The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-09-13

w
be learning shorthand with much more
profit to himself and infinitely less dis
comfort to his neighbors. For there is
no other art which occasions so much
discomfort as music. One is not COM
PEELED to study the efforts of poor
artist or writer, (unless one reads the
magazipes) neither does the incompe-
tent sculptor or architect force himself
insistently upon us, Except in New York
and London) but there is no getting
away from man trying to learn the
cornet or even the comparatively
harmless flute. I remember, if may
be excused a personal anecdote, hav-
ing room in London next to man
who was, successfully, l must own,
mastering the difficulties of one of
Spohr's concertos for the clarinet.
At the same time was rather busy
on my side of the wall, with certain
composition of Schumann. Later on,
we came to know each other and
had my revenge. I asked him if he
was taking a correspondence course.
He had one up his sleeve, however; he
sent me in polite note enclosing
sixpence and asking me to put his
name at the head of the subscription
list for tuning my piano.
To return to my muttons, the term
classical music, as commonly applied,
is also incorrect. It has come to mean
any piece of music which the untu-
tored ear fails to grasp, and is thus
applied to Bach, Wagner, and
Tschaikovsky indifferently. The fact
is that classicism in music signifies the
rigid adherence to certain forms which
are rather too technical to explain and
is differentiated from romanticism,
exemplified by Wagner and the major
ity of present-day composers. The
difference is somewhat analogous to
that of the novel from the romance in
literature, which is not clearly pointed
out by any dictionary. The novelist, like
the classical musician, is tied down by
conventions, which in the one case are
the supposed conditions of real life
and in the other one frankly artificial
while the romancer and the romanti.
cist may draw freely on their fancy
without any other limits than those OF
literary and musical form, respect
lively.
The limits of musical form, too, are
, constantly changing. 1t is no exagger
alton to state that if Bach or Beetho
ven should rise from the grave an(
listen to Strauss "Symphonia Domes
tica," they would condemn it as utterl.
unintelligible nonsense, just as Wag
> ner, in his day, had to fight the preju
!, dices of the musical world, which ha
I long since been conquered by his art.
7 In this connection it has lately beel
s stated that Oriental music-that is
4 the music of China and Japan espe
r cially-so far from being barbarou
: nonsense is, in reality, very much NOR
: highly-developed than our own. Their
seem to be arguments for and agains
! this assertion. Certainly, the Chimes
8 have had ample time to perfect sys
: tenn similar to our own, and later O
t to discard it as unsatisfactory, SUI
|, posing them to have carefully studie
7, and cultivated the art. But on tn
0 other hand, it is equally certain tha
q such knowledge must be confined t
o the literati, for, low-class Chiname
and Japanese very quickly pick u
n foreign airs and stick to them. Thu
o the streets of Tokyo would hay
n sounded like home to an America
y citizen during the war, for the tune
ID "Y ankee Doodle" and ga Hot Time
ID the Old Town Tonight" were as pop
as lar there as here.
N 1t would hardly, of course, be corre
It, for an Englishman to let paper 90
without gentle growl at the Unite
n States, so I may state that my fir
Or conviction is that America is not
Or musical nation. am not, howeve
n- claiming that England is. In fact
ve consider the proud boast of the mo
IT, unmusical nation in the world to
n about equally contested between Il
lg two peoples. a9f