New-York tribune., 1910-10-02

ful There is an indubitabIe Oriental relic In
the profuse embellishments which the Gypsles
weave around the Hungarian melodies when
playing them; but the fact that they thrust the
same embellishments upon Spanish and Russian
rrusic-indeed. uron all the music which they
play-indicates plainly enough that the Impulse
to do so is native to them, and has nothing
to do with the national taste of the countries
fer which they provide music
LISTS confessed purpose in writing the Hun
garan RhaI aIsodies' was to create what ne cailed
Gypsy Epics." He had gathered a large num-
Der Of the melodies without definite purpose.
and was pondering what to do with them when
it occurred 10 him that
These fragmentary, scattered melodies were
the wandering, floating. nebulous part OF
great whole, that they fully answered the CON
ditions for the production of a harmonious unity
which would comprehend the very flower OF thelf
essential properties, their most unique peau-
ties ard might be united in one
homogeneous body. a complete work. its divis-
ions to be arranged that each song Woulu
form at once a whole and part, Wnlcn n1Siit
he severed from the rest and be examined py
and for itself; but which would. nevertheless,
belong to the whole through the close affinity
of subject matter. the similar character OF It's
inner nature and unity in Development
The basis of LISTS ..Rhapsodies'' being thus
distinctly national he has in a manner indcat-
cd in their character and tempo the dual char
acter of the Hungarian national dance, the car
das which consists of two movements, a Ldssh.
or slow movement, followed by ffiss These
alternate at the Will of the dancers, who give a
sign to the band when they wish to change
from one to the other.
One of the formal characteristics of LISTS
concertos, though not wholly new at the time
when List composed the first between 1910 and
1S4S), was less common then than now, and no
doubt helped 1T to win it's wide popularity Their
movements fused into a whole by omission
of the customary pauses and community OF
theme Wherein the first concerto was chiefly
remarkable at the time of it's composition is
the consistency and ingenuity with which the
principal theme of the work the stupendously
energetic phrase which the orchestra prOciaims
at the outseD is transformed to make it
press a great variety Of moods and to give unity
to the work Thus, by means of this meta
morphosis," says Edward Dannreuther, 1.-The
poetic unity of the whole musical tissue is
made apparent in spite Of very great diversity
Of details; and Coleridge's attempt at defini-
ton of poetic beauty-unity in multiety-is car
ried out to the letter."
OF all the schools Of composition based on
folk music the Russian IS now at once the most
assertive, the most vigorous and (outsde Of
pianoforte music, at leasO the most character
istic In orchestral works there is mistaking
the utterances OF composers like Borodin QS34-
1850, Balakierew dS36-191O and Moussorgsky
QS39- -1SS1). Their idoms taken straight
from the lips of the Russian peasantry, and
compared with them Anton Rubnstein 1880
1890 and P. I. TschaiEowsky QS1O-1S93), who
were practically the only Russians whose music
was known outside of the Cars empire twenty
five years ago (Gnka can hardly be called an
exception) are not striking representatives of
the school to which they supposed to be-
long by reason of their nationality Rubinstein
offers troublesome proposition in several re-