Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-12-31
These Reckless Press Agent
M u SIC

The Musical Courier is amusing itseli
and its readers nightly by what 1t calls
| "a Ragout OF Reviews" IT consists oi
clippings from the New York papers, ar.
ranged in the familiar form of the dead.
| ly parallel" Thus, for the same event
N. Y. HERALD. N Y. TELEGRAPH
A large audience ap- Carnegie Hall waf
| plouded literally. half full.
N. Y. SUN N. Y. PRESS
The performance Of Throughout the con-
the OrGhestra o. s cert the tone Of oid thS
| It's work last night the usual standard OF
added 10 a fine record euphony technl-
appointment.
And more serious than these is the dl-
vergence of opinion concerning new
works OF the Korngold "Sinfonietta'
the critics wrote thus: ~
N, Y SUN. N Y HERALD.
The very dlsjointcd; One striking point is
ness. redundancy and Its clearly defined
erratic developments in form.
this work ."
The New York Press found Few, II
any, evidences of genuine melodc dis
tinction," while the Tribune found that
the composer breaks naturally, spon-
taneously into melody"
The Musical Courier seems to think that
in displaying these discrepancies 1t has
a great laugh on the critics. But has II? ?
Taste and Judgment
The surprising thing about the COM
ments quoted above is not that they diff
fer on questions of taste; 1t Is that they
differ on questions of fact. The critic
is at liberty to differ with all the world
and his wife concerning the inspiration
In Stravinsky. the meaning Of the "Ero-
lea" or the beauty of Frieda Hempel's $
voice. But he is no more at liberty to
differ with the rest of the world on the
question of the structure of the Korngold
"Sinfonietta" than he is at liberty to
differ on the question of the size of the
audience. In music there are a certain
number of things which are matters of
pure fact-the technique of composition
and the technique of performance are in
this category More things, fortunately
for the critic, are matters OF judgment:
they are the questions of meaning and
Interpretation, of significance and value.
Finally, there are matters of taste. The
questions of fact are beyond controversy;
the questions of taste are worth arguing
about. but II is not the function of the
critic to impose his taste or to ridcule
that OF others. The matters of judgment
alone supply the material for musical
criticism. And the justification of criti-
cism is in the soundness of the critics
judgment and the sensitiveness of his
response to the music he hears. Nothing
more,
What Can Be Demanded
All that the reader can ask the critic
is that he make his prejudice clear, that
he be not violent nor ignorant, that he
be fair and generous. All the critic can
do in addition is to set himself not to
Greats formulae for those who will not
think about music, but to suggest Just
how rich and wonderful music may be
II one can hear and feel and think about
1t intelliSentlv. And as for disagreeing
with other critics here is the verdict of
W. j. Henderson, critic of the New York
Sun: This writer does not care n far
thing whether any one agrees with his
views or not, so long as the other person
shows competency to form views of his
own to support them with reasons"
Whereunto: Amen!
Miss Farrar Caught
OF all the singers brought here by the
Metropolitan, Miss FarTar is least guilty
of the operatic attitude. Last Tuesday,
in Butterfly" it happened that for a
she stood in the conventional
pose, with high head and oustretched
arms. Although she had left her recita-
tive but moment before. and had done
nothing TO deserve 1t, the audience, en-