New-York tribune., 1910-08-21

ortv which Ruskin eloduently describes as
| hene .the T am as contradistinguished from
the Il become: the sign alike of the supreme
knowledge which is incapable OF surprise, the
supreme power which is incapable of labor. the
supreme voIitfon which is incapable of change"
Music is not ineptly spoken of in the books as
the language of feeling; and there is nothing
| truer than that it gives voice to things for
which we seek In vain for utterance In words
There is no beautiful speech without an orderly
arrangement cf words and phraseS-without
some kind of form Now, if this degree OF form
/ is essential to speech, which deals with IDEAS
how much more essential must it be to music
which deals with states of the sou with eno-
tions which is a language the need Of which az
a medium of expression in its highest estate
does not arise until words longer suffice Us
for utterance, Let me quote, now, some words
| of mine from an earlier writing; the thoughts
are opposite here, and I do not feel that I could
! improve the manner in which they were ex-
pressed twenty years ago
| when the composers of two hundred and
fifty years ago began to develop instrumental
music they found the germ Of the sonata form
| the form that made BeethOvens symphonies
possibIe-in the homely dance-tunes Of the peo-
pie, which, till then. had been looked upon as
| vulgar things wholly outside the domain Of
polite art The genius of the masters of the
last century d. e., the eighteenth) moulded this
! form of pIebeian ancestry into vessel Of Won
derful beauty but by the time this had been
done the capacity of music as an emotional
| language had been greatly increased, and the
same Romantic spirit which had originally
created the dance-forms, that they might en-
body the artistic impulses of that early time
| suggested the filing of the vessel with the new
contents. When the vessel would not hold these
new contents it had be widened. New bottles
Ifor hot iv he vvEp rvr--+
what conservative critics decry the destruc-
ton of form in music 1t is destruction. but
change When you destroy form you destroy
music for the musical essence can manifest it.
self only through form
| Until Beethoven came the sonata beau
tiful vessel whose contents were pleasing to the
ear, gratifying to the intellect appreclative Of
symmetry and the display of ingenious learn
ing and charming to the fancy. we have now
| become acquainted with the fiuency and huraor
of Scarlatti, Rameau and Couperin, the earnest
| ness of Bach and Handel. the grace, elegance
and heartiness of Haydn and Mozart" said
Rubinstein at one of his historical Iecture-re-
citals in St Petersburg in 1855. but We have
| not yet found the soul of music The man xho
filed music with soul, with dreamings and
dral,.atic life Beethoven The music which
| before him had heart had soul Il is often
asserted that Beethoven wrote his first sonaras
under the influence of Mozart and Haydn. This
| I deny IN toto. The form, the manner Of e1-
| preston the style We're inherited, il is true
but not as an imitation of Haydn and Mozart
| but as the expression Of the period; and late,
| Rubinstein attempts TO account for the new
contents and changed manner of expression OF
| political grounds by what he calls his paradox:
| $50 long as political life constituted
| that the state cared for all the needs Of the
people music was the region in which simple
| ity, joyousness and ingenuOUsness spread their
| wings When after the Revolution had
to care for himself music became dramatic
| Then Beethoven came to be the Interpreter Of
| the souls travail and sufering-the suffering
not only of his soul. but also that of his
| people. Every takes the color Of his
period. When political life is without pronounced
| character. when it becomes colOrIess, then music
/ becomes characterless and palId-dS il is r0rr
| This analogy between politics and art has
often been discussed and Beethoven held up as
| a striking illustration of its correctness He
certainly was the first great democrat amongst
| the representatives of his art. Before his time
| the greatest musicians less than the least
| were house servants of the politically great
| Mozart sat high at the table. above the cook
I remember rightly, in the servants hall Of his