The sun., 1909-12-19

~ z
folk lore aooompsInhed the expected pur.
pose and to-day the works which stand
closest 20 the German heart. albeit the
German disIikeS 20 confess IL. arc those
which Garry the folk song spirit in their
music. wagner's minnesingers do not
sing as much like the minnesingers Of
1900 as do Weber's children, Of legend or
Shubert's son Of outdoors.
Wherever IL exists to-day the opera
10 an artificiality. not an art The sym
phony Ii a strong. independent and self-
sufficient art form. That it has been in
some measure superseded by forms
developed from itself signifies nothing.
because the composers OF tone poems.
symphonic poems. or what you viii.
have never succeeded in finding any
method OF structure which does not
rest upon the fundamental principles
employed in the symphony.
The opera OF to-day is merely a show.
an amusement as It was in the seven
teenth and eighteenth centuries. II can
not be made to bear any relation to our
national life and thought. and no art which
10 not an expression Of the spirit Of a
people has vitality or Importance.
American musicians are turning their
attention to the opera for the same reason
that French composers do. namely
that 1t 10 in these times the shortest road
to public success and fortune.
Victor Herbert. Cor example. is writing
an opera seria which will be produced
at Mr.. Hammerstein's opera house. Mr..
Herbert is an excellent musician and one
Of indisputable talent. He has written
good music in the higher forms. and what
ever he chooses to do is certain to com-
mand the respectful consideration Of the
critical. But without meaning to esti-
mate beforehand the beauty or eloqusnoe
OF his SCORE. we may well wonder how
closely he viii approach to the compo-
sition OF American opera
He may indssd produce q great opera.
He 10 capable OF doing so. And Il may
have an American story. But IL Ia as
certain as anything can be that Mr.. Her
berts hbrettist cannot find any American
Orpheus Or Siegfried or Roland TO make
the hero OF his opera. The Italians began
with orpheus because he typified the
spirit OF their literary movement, or at
any rate they thought he did. The Ger
mans wrcstled with Siegfried because
he &as a great national hero whom un-
fortunately most OF the nation had for
gotten. The French. at q loss for any
hero. took the figures OF antiquity.
Meanwhile we Americans confront q
mixture of types and styles. We regard
ourselves as possessing finer and more
liberal taste than others because ve
listen TO .Manon- In French, to -Tosca'
In Italian, to -Tannhzuser' In German.
II seems TO escape our notice that none Of
these creatures or their actions or their
est consequence to us.
Whether he does IL well or i'll when q
dramatist builds play on social condi-
tons which profoundly concern our
national life. a. Mr.. Klein did In The Lion
and the Mouse" as Mr.. Moody did in The
Great Divide he approaches far nearer
TO the relation OF the drama to the people
than opera can ever be brought.
On the other hand there is not an emo
ton or an aspiration Of Americans
that cannot be embodied In our music,
especially In the orchestral forms. There
fore there In opportunity there to express
the national life. That We have no folk
music ard therefore no national idione
Is not a prohibition In the way Of progress.
We can have our instrumental music
even II 1t lack dialect.
Furthermore imported orchestral and
chamber music 10 not open to the same
criticism az opera. No matter what the
idiom Of instrumental music. 1t voices
universal emotions and It belongs TO the
types of art which speak TO all men.
The Descent from the Cross In tho
cathedral Of Antwerp tells the same
story TO German and American. not
withstsnding the fRct that It 10 painted
in the peculiar idiom Of Rubens.
The quartets OF Beethoven are GER
tainly devoid Of any color that could be
regarded as especially sympathetic to
the American. yet their message is a.
pregnant with meaning for the thought
full New Yorker as It is for the sentative
Dresdensr. Beethoven's qua rtets can
enter into our daily musical thought
and experience. They can become a
part Of our lives. just as readily as the
poetry of Keats or the prose Of Marcus
Aureiius.
But the AIdas and the Lucias and the
Siegfrieds and the BrCnnhildes OF opera
will not occupy the same places. The
personaRes OF the Morse mythology will
Oouh0 CtUcCt " us tAhnn buc P0PPoto Oh
Italian opera because the former are
types. embodiments OF ideals. while the
latter are only actors in a spectacle.
It 10 then not at all remarkable that
there Ia an almost impossible gulf be-
tween opera goers, and lovers Of abso-
lutte music. Talk to dozen frequenters
OF the opera houses and you will hear
not ten words of thoughtful comment
on the operas themselves. These come
and 60 and are forgotten. or they remain
merely to become fields for the exercise
of the gifts OF different singers.
1t Ia almost impossible to induce an
operagoer to discuss the character OF
the music or the aesthetic value OF any
scene in such q score as -Otello' or Lob
engrin.' But you can hear volumes OF
animated chatter about the splendor
OF Mr.. Slezak's Oteiio or the beauty OF
Nine. Gadsli's Eisd.
On the other hand II you chance to
mingle in the society of lovers OF orches-
trail music, you can start at any moment
a debate about the artistic Importance
OF Mahler symphony. You can open
q ar,.aair,v, NJ the r1raas,nf aatir,na fi<.s,