New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-10-20
New Efforts to Preserve a Mon
opoly-A Special LEX Par
sifaP' Proposed in Germany.

For two months or more Hi"h'N
many has been rent by new eHorl u
preserve a monopoly OF the performances
of .'Parsifal" for the Wagner Theatre IN
IRayreuth. The agitation looking TO TINS
end has been going on at Intervals lor
more than a decade. Under the eXisunS
law in Germany the copyright on the last
of Wagners works will expire at mo-
might Of December 81, 1913; that Is the
end of thirty years after the death OF
The author. Twice, at least, efforts 10 eN-
dend this term have been made and de-
seated in the Reichstag. The last time
~ went down under a vehement flood OF
,oratory from Eugen Richter. the Socialist
header, who passionately set up the rights
of the people in all art works as against
the rights OF the heirs OF the creator. The
present effort is making under the guse
Lof a general proposition TO extend the
narm of protection OF all art works from
thirty TO fifty years, or even for all time.
The discussion has therefore taken
wider scope than before, though the main
MONT remains the perpetuation OF the
monopoly OF Bayreuth Statesmen, writ
serg, artists. theatre managers, composers
and others have been drawn into the
controversy chiefly through the energetic
aabors Of Herman Bahr, who is speaking
throughout the length and breadth OF The
Hand and securing signatures to a gigantic
netition 10 the national Legislature. The
kontributions to the controversy are OF
khe most diverse order, some breathing
khe spirit of pure ideslism, others giving
Expression 10 more or less mercenary sem
Hirnents. The most sensational utterance
mas been that of Richard Strauss, the
most shameless eXemplar Of commercial
hsm in art that ever lived, who chases
hl1e nimble mark, franc, shilling and dol
har with every vehicle invented by indus
hrialism and trade. His illumination was
Siven to the world through the ingenious
agency of a newspaper friend, one of his
kgilling helpers in the field of reclame,
Usudwig Karpath, a musical critic OF
hYenna, from which city he sends his
communications TO the Hamburger
Bremdenblatt." To him Strauss sent n
letter. Karpath professed TO be alarmed
at the effect which its violence might
have and asked that he be permitted to
modify some of its expressions, but
STRAUSS refused to change 1t in any par
tloular, and, thus dramatically intensified,
1t was given to the public IN this shape:
For me there is only one point Of view
dn the Parsifar question--respect for
Ethe wishes Of genius, Unfortunately, how
ever, the matter of the protection of
'Parsifal is not to be decided by persons
interested in the uplifting and refinement
of our culture, but by Jurists and poll
ticians. whose horizon does not compre-
hend the unbounded rights Of the owners
OF intellectual property. l personally at
tended the eight days session Of the Ger
man Reichstag at which the representa-
tives of the German people. with a few
exceptions, debated with enviable igno-
rance the question OF authors rights and
the period of protection. myself heard
a certain Eugen Richter tread under foot
THE rights of a miserable two hundred
German omposers-including the heirs Of
Richard Wagner--in favor of 10000 Ger
man public house keepers. And this will
mot be changed so long as the imbecile
law of universal suffrage remains in ex-
1stence, and so long as votes are counted,
mot weighed; so long, for instance, as the
vote OF a single Richard Wagner is not
Ifootmen as one. When that time comes 1
might no longer hear, perhaps, in the
kGoethebund the phrase about the right of
the German nation to plumber the genius
(which in life IL banished and condemned
land thirty years after his death to prosti-
flute his works by performances In the
Rittlest of provincial theatres. We few
Twill protest in vain, and the everyday citl-
Izen (Spiessburger) two years from now
son Sunday afternoons, between his dinner
land his evening stoup Of wine, instead Of
always attending kinematograph show
Tor an operetta, will also hear 'Parsifar
sfor five cents. And yet we wonder that
the Frenchmen and Italians still con-
sider us barbarians in all matters of
hCnlture."
1 Nothing could be better adapted than
EJrtteranccs OF this character, coming from
Isuch a source, to defeat the aims of the
Wagnerian idealists, who have all that
fhoy can do to reconcile their masters
Enany preachments about the democratiza-
ltion of art with the present effort to
prevent the proclamation" OF 'Parsifal"
kby making II a democratic inheritance,
hike the works Of Goethe, Schiller and all
sdheir great company, no less entitled TO
protection against proclamation" than
pParsifal." To 1t the Germans will be
prompt in applying the words of Goethe:
f'Man merkt die Absiche, und wird
rVerstimmt"
: The utter impracticabiity OF such
S'Iex Parsital" as Is under consideration
Us almost too obvious to require discus
Ision. 1t would surely test the ingenuity
Iof the most experienced lawmakers alive
ITO construct law which will be any
thing more than protection OF the heirs
of Wagner in their monopoly, SO long as
they choose to maintain IL. II II is to be
more than a special law to that end, II II
! is really TO be a protection of the drama
against proclamation by performances else
where IL is plain as a pikestaff that the
law must prescribe that the performances
be perpetual, that the festival theatre at
Bayreuth be maintained forever. that the
state undertake to preserve the purity
and integrity OF the representations land
what would Strauss say to thatO and
thousand and one other impossible things.
And all this would mean an appropriation
of the property OF the heirs of Wagner II
done before the expiration Of the copy
right or an unconstitutional violation Of
the rights OF the people afterward. Per-
haps Germanys institutions are sufficient
ly elastic to permit all this but even then