New-York tribune., 1910-11-07
MUSIC
The Symphony Society.

] III
s;rsctors Of our symphony concerts ,sav-
! ,,r those devoted 10 the propagation Of
p~seisn music have been nigcardlv in
.teir Offering of novelties il is liIaiv that
,hev VII make ample atoncnent this sea
-, IN extra ordinarily keen rivalry has
brought about the chs ange. and II will be
i,,teresting- ng-perhaps. too, occasionally di-
,-ortins-to observe the phenomena. Last
,ear Mr. Mailer. having previously found
sstjefaction in tire bit cf archaisrn ilius-
.rstcl h,- the conductors performance of
the mpaniuente on an Instrument
z.bich sounded ike = harp=icEord N Mo-
zar4'e oreras. turned his thoughts 10 Bach
ard took upon himself the tast, of perform
inn the old CortipuO q 3 he conceived il 11pon
tho sane instrument. This year Mr. Fled
Ter is % b. braver in an exhibition Of
arrhaje,71 nv using q re0I ha~psichord and
letting Bach : music alone neither com
nounding one composition out Of unrelated
nortiors Of others nor changing the old
masters Instrumentation.
NJ Walter TIaurosch has disclosed "a
n,17-nos7 this season 70 bring forward
large list Of new works Mr.. Nahler will
also freshen I'D the programmes Of the
Philharmonic Society, but oftener. It seems
!i17e1v. by presenting old works in new
gar5s than by giving a hearing TO unfamiI-
lar compositions. though these are not 10
he neglected What startling results can
be achieved in :his direction was proved at
the ffrst TWO concerts by the brass orna-
ulents added to Schutert's symptom in g
At his first concert. on October s. Nj
Damrosch made palpa BILE hit with Mr.
William WalaCes symphonic poem, Fran
co.'s Vtllon.' Unfortunately. those who
took the Symphony Society Bulletin as
q guide instead IF the house progra une
were told that lhe new work in the scheme
was an orchestral piece by Frederick De
lius. entitled "BriSC Fair The thoughts
which went through the minds Of those
who supposed that they were listening TO a
rhapsody on an Old English fcIksong.
when they were really hearing an extreme
l. interesting fantasia on the mood Of tho
French vagabond poet, would provide ma
terial for a lOnG discourse on the nature
and value of programme music. but the
unHritten CLOSES can never be obtained.
They are gone with Villons SHOWS Of yes
ter year" Yesterday Mr.. Damrosch pro-
ouced "Brigg Fair" and because some
one had blundered." there were no 2x-
planatory notes On the programme to ne
had. Mr.. Damrosch tried to help the audi
ence out of the dilemma by reading the
English folksong which gave title and
musical substance 10 the composition. It
would have been better. for the composer
"a least. IL he had spared himself the trou-
bic. since It must have been much more
difficult for the audience to enjoy the music
while vainly trying to fit Il to the senti-
ments Of the song. than It would have been
had their fancy been left to its own re-
sources. The fact is that Mr.. Deiuss
composition is little else than an Intellectual
effort 10 make characteristic and (suppos-
edly) illumnative variations on a folk
song tune which was written down by Mr..
Percy Granger as sung at competitive
folksong festival held at Brigg. in North
Lincolnshire, England, in April. 1905. The
tune Gin the Dorian mode) is not without
certain charm. but Mr. Deius's efforts
to reflect not the mood Of each strophe Of
the song, but each allusion. by strained and
distressing harmOnies relieved occs sionaIly
by bits of nature delineatton. are scarcely
4 compensation for the failure TO maintain
aesthetic consondnce between the poem and
the music which II has provoked ("In-
spred' would scarcely be the word here
for it is we'll s.tn to hold TO the old
fashioned notion Of inspiration No
uDupl bElEE Il air mas IulNlleO US mission
at this single hearing
Mr.. DamrcsCh offered another work new
to the New York public but as a matter
OF fact. II was a resurrected bit of ancient
musical bric-a-b brac which had little more
than the piquancy Of Eastern musical color
70 recommend IT, It was a march called
Orient ct OCcident. which Saint-Saens
in 1869 for the Union Certrale
des BeauX Arts appliques a rIndustrie'
for military orchestra. He published it I'm
1870 in its original form and also in tran
scriptiOns for symphonic orchestra and
pianoforte. four hands It is pretty bald
occasional music. though from the hands
OF master Of musical technique. The solo
rum bers Of the concert were airs sung by
Nine. Louise Homer. the first che faro
well within her voice and Sympathiesl the
second "Gerechter Gott'' from Wagners
Rienzi," which, il Il Is TO disclose any
value at all, must be sung
by some sort of trumpet or foghorn made
arttculate. 1t is mongreI thing. neither
German song nor Italian aria, and it is a
pity that good voice, admirable intentions
and honest effort such as Nine Homer al
ways puts forth should be squanGered on
such ill-chosen material The concert. !
which began with Goldmark's "Landifche
dOchzeit' symphony Tor rather suite). was
heard ov a numerous and obviously sym
pathetic audience