The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-02-04
Music.

" IL &~A 49,
S00s9so9cs 0e00e0ecooos9os
The Honolulu Symphony Society vii
give concert at the Opera House or
Friday, February 9. The principa
orchestral number on the program viii
be Schubert's B Minor Symphony Gun
finished), SO the following notes by the
musical critic. Philip H. Goepp, will
prove of interest:
The Unfinished Symphony is equal
ly remarkable, whether viewed in the
whole literature of music, or merely
in the group of Schubert's works. In
the first place, it is not, as might be
thought, his last work; it is in no
way to be likened to the unfinished
romances of great novelists. Yet, while
written six years before the end of
his short career it seems, with per-
haps one exception, absolutely his high
est level, which he did not distantly
approach for a long time. Then it is
somehow strangely free from charac-
teristic defects which troubled Schu-
bert before and afterwards. Nay. it
seems marked by the very qualities es-
sentfal to the symphony which he most
lacked elsewhere; SO that, of all his
nine symphonies, the unfinished, and
the last, in c Major, are the only ones,
generally performed.
The work begins in a way like moth
ing save some touches of Beethoven
lin the third and in the seventh sym
phonies), where the bass mysteriously
foreshadows the melody. 1t is, after
all, the bass to which you must look
for the symphonic quality. Schubert's
lyric leaning is betrayed by too fire.
quent tendency to run into accompa
MED melody. But here Schubert, with
all the contrast shows his strong af
fnity for Beethoven. We can not put
him off as a mere lyricist. The legend /
like melody in the bass strings is pre-
paratory. But the melody is too sub |
tie for formal statement. First comes
a quivering in the strings with rhyth-
mic bass, where somewhere an in |
definable melody is lowering. But pres !
emily, like royal figure after his no. ,
BILE precursors, the real theme sounds |
high and clear, though in softest tone,
in the woodwind, while the herald
figures lapse into attendants. Melodic
seems, somehow, wrong. To
drop theoretic phraseology for once,
the whole is like continuous flow
of melody where each phrase seems
chief until it pales before its sue
cessor.
So, after some overpowering clashes,
which preserve the prevailing tone of
and lightness from monoto-
there Oli6PS horne
oy the cellos. the most charming melo-
1y in all music, delicately echoed high
n the violns. With all it's perfect
Melody and the softest and purest or
the movement is full of
shocks and bursts. as if the
essence of legendary poetry. The neces-
'ary vigor is not lacking, nor the true
citation and balance of dolce and forte.
t is a mistake to view the crashing
,hords as mere interlude between the
yerse: they are quite as real a part
If the poem as any other. But with
III the beauty of the melodies and of
he meditation (Which was Schubert
special secret. what is called the
after the repeated state
nent of melodies, is somehow perhaps
# the highest spontaneity, although
ust here we might expect the great
st weakness.
A motive from the first phrase treat
d in canon. rises to dramatic climax
n which, added to the dynamic effect,
S an overpoWering surprise of mOdula-
ion. Again and again the tempest
Gems about to subside into the en-
hantment of the second melody. but
ach time it rises to a new height.
Iow the whole orchestra sound the
phrase in unison: then with
he motive in the BASES. the strings
ccompanying in tremolo figure. a wild {
erversion of their original melody, the
Whole orchestra thunders and storms
n mad tossing about of the motive.
where the secret of counterpart is un- ,
CONSCIOUSLY invoked for the most
ramatic of passag es. Suddenly we are =.
4 the delicate. mysterious atmosphere
f the first melody, and so on through :
he second. with a final repetition of :
he original bass figure to the end. The {
Whole is the final essence of romance. !
he feeling of Arabian tales with quick ,
harp succession of happenings. good :
nd ill., with no room for prosaic re- :
lection. ,
The Andante begins more quietly, :
ut it is in the same vein. At the 7
utset there is the same melodic bass i
resaging the melody in the strings :
Indeed. the very quality of the tonal /
hange of scene is characteristic of Y