New-York tribune., 1911-12-11
MUSIC
Concert by the Symphony
Society.
Sir Edward Elgar's New Symphony
An American Pianist.

music proclalmS lie supplies programmes
for the compositions, and by awakening
the interest OF his listeners beyond the or
binary he accomplishes a great good. II Is
net necessary to accept his interpretations
as truthful and unquestionable expressions
of the things which occupied the mind of
composer when engaged upon work the
form and scope of which indicate that he
wished II to be looked upon as significant;
il Is enough that he supplies pro
gramme" without vhich-in modern music,
at least-a listener comes into the audience
room like blind man cropping in the dark
A programme" is not necessarily-as has
been asserted by no less an historical and
critical authority than Ambrose certih-
cate OF poverty. an admission by the COM
poser that his art has got beyond its natu-
raj bounds Its primary value is that 1t
fixes a starting point for the listeners
fancy It's next that it quickens that fancy
I'm its operations. But a discreet pro
gramme" can do more than this-it can not
only make perception more susceptible TO
the sensuous beauty Of music per Sc; It
can also arouse thoughts which will stimu-
late pleasure. II can also prevent a gross
Instrumentation Of the character of q COM
Now. these things arc undenlably good
and 1t is therefore not the use nut the
abuse of programmes" or verbal inter
pretations which is to be condemned, for
after ALL the final appeal goes to the beauty
and expressiveness of the music itself anu
not to the composers programme or that
Of the self-appointed interpreter.
To come, now to Hecuba. At the concert
of the Symphony Society i'm the Century
Theatre yesterday afternoon Mr.. DAM
rosch gave a hearing 10 the second SYM
phony Of Sir Edward Elgar-a work which
had it's first performance in London on
September "a Of his year and has thus
far been on only two American schemes
those of the Cincinnati and Boston Orches-
tras On Fridays, when his audiences are
composed almost wholly Of women, Mr..
Damrosch talks about the principal work
which he is 10 bring forward; on sun
days, as q rule, he does not evidently
! believing that the tired business man,
who has his deserved compassion. would
rather hear restful music than lecture.
But Sir Edward Elgars symphony is
serious matter. and Mr. Damrosch wished
to have it appreciated at high artistic
I
he produced It. three years ago. So he
prefaced the performance with an ex-
! planatory talk with illustrative examples
at the pianoforte He found a provocation
in the circumstance that the English
analysts of the work had disagreed widely
in their opinions as TO the psychological,
or poetic, contents of the symphony. The
trouble grew out OF the fact that the COM
poser had written two lines from Shelley's
Invocation" I'm the score as motto:
Rarely. rarely. contest thou,
Spirit Of Delight
II this motto was to be Interpretations
Mr. Damrosch argued-as applying TO the
symphony as a whole the music would
have 70 be a lamentation; If. however, It
was true, as another English expounder
| had said, that the symphony was an eX-
preston OF happiness and delight from
end 10 end, the second movement, which
was dirge and burdened with woe, was
| ineXplicabe. These Mr.. Damrosch's ideas
| not his words He, therefore, transposed
| some OF the verses Of Shelley's poem, read
| ing the second and third stanzas as an
/ expression of the gladstone spirit Of the
| first movement. the first stanZa (Which
begins with the lines already quoted) as
| the sentiment Of the funereal second move
| ment, and the stanza
Let me set my mournful ditty
| To a merry measure.
| Thou wilt never come for pity,
! Thou wilt come for pleasure.
| Pity then will cut away
Those cruel wings and thou wilt stay,
TO the supposedly playful third movement.
/ which I'm this case has the form of a rondo
instead of that OF the customary scherzo.
For the last movement Mr. Damrosch con-
fessed he could find no commentary in the
poem: II might be interpreted as a sum-
ming up--the philosophy of one contented
with the enjoyments which had been his in
! youth or Of those which had taken their
place.
Mr. Damrosch's solution Of perpleXity
invoked by himself was ingenious, and ap-
parently gave satisfaction 10 his hearers,
who were helped by 1t to exercise their
fancy while the music was sounding and
therefore enjoy it the more. But we fancy
that this second symphony of Sir Edward s.
Ike his first, would better not be burdened
with a programme. Like Mr.. Damrosch, an
English critic found the spirit of Diony-
the suspicion lies very near that the in
spiration in both cases was the adoption by
the composer I'm the section OF harmonic
| and instrumental colors which came from
the palette OF Debussy c'L'apres midi dun
Faunc) Moreover, though Mr.. Damrosch
is unwilling to believe it, and the interpre-
tation OF the symphony is an expression OF
10Y in the delight of living, the fact remains
that Sir Edward did set down the lines
Rarely, rarely comest thou,
Spirit of Delight,
as d motto for the work as a whole. Why
try 10 impose the poets thoughts upon
the composition In all its details? II is
the pleasure OF composers nowadays to
mystify their hearers. That Sir Edward is
not superior 10 the device he showed long
ago when lie wrote a series Of variations
on a theme. and said that while the varia-
tions We're delineatlve or some OF his
friends. the theme itself was variation
Oh a fundamental theme which he refused
| 10 divulgc. So, too. Richard Strauss likes
| To amuse himself by writing descriptive
music and denying, for space, at least,
that he had any programmatic Intentions.
I'm transposing the stanzas Of Shelleys
! poem he relieves himself OF the embarrass-
ment which Beethoven created for the
poetical interpreters of his Heroic"
symphony when he placed the funeral
march before the scherzo.
| But Mr.. Damrosch did no more than
Liszt did when he rearranged some of the
stanzas OF Schillers poem "Die ldeale' TO
make them III the progress OF the music
OF his symphonic poem. The instance Is
ldoubly striking. for not only is the par
allel between the poems Of Shelley and