New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-08-19
THE MUSICAL MARTYR
An Englishman's Wall Over His
Demand for Home Comforts.


| ticular shame seems TO me 10 attach 10
our being without composer OF the
first, or even Of the fifth. rank. Plenty
of epochs have got on quite well without
first rate musicians. Men ate ana drank,
married, were happy or miserable ana
died: and the old green world rolled on
its way among the stars just as IL ala III
the splendid period that opened WIN
Bach and closed with Wagner. Yet,
granting musical giant to be highly
! desirable as a credit to a nation ana
the bringer of added joys 10 life, let me
expound briefly why ] think we WI"
have to go without one. telne con-
| fessed." says Professor Edward DoWden
that he was not one Of the great poets.
so1nd and integral, proper TO an age OF
| faith" The age Of Heine was the dawn
OF our to-day; our age assuredly is not
an aIe Of faith. / do not mean religious
| faith: religion does not necessarily form
any part Of the faith that enables men
| to dream Of art master works and 10
realize their dreams. The sort or falth
| mean is the faith OF the Greeks, the
| faith men hold in themselves as artists,
| faith in their artistic impulses and In
! buttons. The creative men OF old. IL
, they would not have gone cheerfully 10
| the stake for the faith which was their
art, certainly would have starved for IL,
|
so fiercely In their souls that they had
no choice but 10 let 1t loose in the shape
of art; Cui bono? never occurred to
them; they were the helpless, though
not the unconscious, instruments or an
! instinct that amounted to a consuming
passion.
| Consider the case Of Bach. He lived
sixty-five years in obscure comfort; MS
reputation as a performer stood so high
/ -, - ,tS,I. do Vcy N
| brilliant luxury, the idol of dukes ana
duchesses and kings and queens; but his
creative instinct was irresistible and left
him no option but to toll at his organ
playing and teaching for a livelihood,
pouring forth the while foods Of glori-
Gus music. the bulk Of which cannot
have been appreciated at anything re-
sembling its true value, since il was not
published till after his death. Mozart
almost forgot to earn his bread so alb
sorbed was he in composing music which
many could not understand at ALL and
| only few knew TO be of the highest or
der, Beethoven. one OF the most sue
| cessful of composers IN the worldly
| sense, during his earlier years. deliber-
atcly took the new road"-gave up writ
| ing the kind OF music his patrons liked
and paid for and sent forth stuff that
puzzled his most fervent admirers ana
outraged the tenderest feelings OF many
estlmable musicians. Romberg stamped
on the parts of his middle period quar-
tets; and goodness only knows what ne
would have done to the posthumous
ones; the London Philharmonic in Civ
ing an order for a symphony requested
that It should be in his earlier manner.
and Beethoven swore he had kicked the
messenger downstairs. There was no
earthly, or at any rate worldly, reason
why Schubert should have written so
much music which neither he nor his
friends ever heard played; ii seemed
sheer madness for Wagner, after the
striking success OF "RienZi.' 10 proceed
to the creation Of music even harder TO
understand than the "Dutchman." which
few could tolerate.
These facts are familiar enough TO all
the world, yet how many Of us have
drawn from them the lesson they teach
preach indeed and shout aloud? The
lesson is that in music those who would
be great must be prepared 20 pay the
price, and TO be prepared 20 pay the
price there must be absolute. unshaka-
BILE confidence in ones genius and COM
plete assurance regarding the precious
ness Of the fruits Of that genius. With
the exception OF few composers who
had luck or business talcnt-Handel,
Weber, Haydn-the mighty inventors
have had 10 endure n degree OF martyr
dom Of one kind or another.
To-day doubt seems 10 have entered
into the souls OF all tho candidates for
musical fame. They are not Sound and
| integral. proper to an age OF faith
They are split, divided against them
| selves; doubt has paralyZed them they
lack the unwavering confidence In them
| selves that enabled their predecessors %
go ahead in search Of tho new regardless
| of consequences. Those who pose as
| great composers want the reward az
! martyrdom without paying the price;
! or perhaps ] might say they want their
! martyrdom with home comforts. on the
! painless dentistry principle Strauss and
! Max Roger on the Continent seem 10
follow the market with close attention.;
and on Strauss behalf the press IS
worked in this country with consum-
mate skill and amazing energy and per-
tinacity-not one newspaper Is left UNI
tried and IN many of them, as ] recent
~ remarked I'm THE Saturday Review,
articles appear which ought 10 bear at
the end the indication "GAdvtl'. In
England Elgar writes for the festivals,
or, when he launches violin concerto.
he Is aided and abetted by a vcry-and
! q ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS volinist. aid FL
! gar has given us nothing truly new or,
In my opinion. genuinely great "Geron-
| lllS Is Il me ldluits nc <AHb'Al'F ~
shabby failure: "The Kingdom" a miser-
able failure. Stanford need not be dis
cussed: he is an old staser and ! think
| all serious musicians have made up
their minds about him. Bantock Dellus
and Holbrooke are all startlingly clever,
and all try TO startle but not one seems
to have anything to say.
! Now if ono art more than another de-
mands that its creator shall have some
t.. Ntrlf la..NH
! sincere and profound emotion nothing
that is at once new and noble can be
produced II is 10 the lack Of this emo
| ton | point Bachs emotion came from
his religious mysticism: Beethoyen's
| from everything that happened TO him
! from anything whatever, In fact, that
! happened to any one anywhere; Wag-
ner's came out Of his quaint blend OF
| PHILOSOPHERS Nothing seems to move
! Rny one profoundly to-day: we dwell In
n skoptical age, when II seems so much
Of a toss-up whether life is futile or
really worth going through with that
| men seem unable to work themselves up,
over things that perhaps don't matter,
| into the spiritual state requisite FOR tho
| production of great music. Our souls
| are more or less benumbed. Elgar IS
undoubtedly a seriously devout person;
| that his whole being is shaken like Il
harpstring by his religious feelings so
| that whether he wills it or not IT emits
music, I must emphatically deny-if 1t
were he would not fob off on us such
incoherent twaddle as "The Apostles"
The other composers do not even pre-
tend to be deeply moved by life; they
are simply trusting TO their decorative
! invention 10 suggest to them the new
thew forget that the only music that is
great and endures comes from the heart
/ and soul.