The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-03-01
NJ ". ). HEN DER soy.

u
steal Composition Sir Charles
i Nilliers Stanford hays down some
fundamental prccepts In man
ner quite as charming as ID il
original the author processes To hnd
oil these rules in the scene between
Hans Sachs and Wdhher ron Sfol.inO
when the latter narrateS his dream and
with the suggestions of Sachs fashions
u into q mastersong Surely no other
text book has 40 engagingly set forth
basic laws in art The author sums up
the advice Of Sachs thus:
Know your rules. but make them
subservient To your poetic idea and
melodic invention
Balance your phrases So that they
a. once contrast with and supplement
each other.
Make your chief melodic phra Sc
clear. even 10y repetition. 50 that the
ear may grasp what you are driving
at.
III you make an Innovation. show by
the way you make IL that YOU under
stand the why and wherefore Of IL.
DO not waste your material aud
gather up the threads at the end
BE careful 10 keep your tonalty
clear"
same excellent book the author describes
some danger signals" and one of these
dangers is that of expressing ideas
realistically TO ones own mind. without
certainty that II will be ineligible as
music to the ears OF others
The quotation of these passages is
occasoned by hearing Il new compost
ton by a hoy. Erich Wolfgang Korn-
gold. the Viennese prodigy. is now ID
years old. and several OF his interest
ing and characteristic productions have
found their way to this country. We
are recovering from the shock which
We experienced when We heard the first
one. The abnormality OF the thing
made ones flesh creep. To listen to
music by little boy, Il mere child. as
he then was. and to find that 1t had
not single note Of freshness. of
buoyant enjoyment. OF rudy blood, but
was "scklied DER with the pale caste
Of thought and grooming with the
burdens of the world made one SILVER.
But gradually the hcarer becomes ac-
customed to this uncanny maturity and
precociOus insight.
1t il by no means impossible that
some Of the feat lures Of the boys music
which strike MS as the most abnormal
are the most truly normal inasmuch as
they are n boys freakish shattering OF
oil preconceived principles We are
told with portentous gravity that these
are the traits OF Korngold's compost
ton which proclaim his genius but
the present writer has come to believe
that they publish rather his irresponsi-
bic youthfulness defying law.
Whether Korneold viii continue to
Ala NJ Stx1a
as ono finds in his treatment OF the
two instruments IN the sonata for piano
and violin played on Tuesday evening
by Mr.. Lichtenberg and Miss Margulies
IL extremely doubtful These extrava-
gances are not inscparably associated
with his melodic and harmonic concep-
lions. They are not essentially perrna-
uent patterns Of rhythm.
The rhythmic iiguration Of the scherzo
Of the sonata II utterly artificial and IL
seems to have been planned chiefly for
tho purpose OF creating a puz2ling and
formidable piano part, to be played only
by a virtuoso while the violnist roamed
through startling intervals in the high
est positions of the T. string.
This manner Of writing music IL
freakish II Is done with malice afore-
thought, not with spontaneity. II shat
tiers at least three OF Hans Sachs's pre-
cepts: namely. To make a perfect ana
Intelligent balance OF phrases. to show
clearly the meaning Of Innovations, and
TO keep in high light the chief meiodic
phrase Without doubt tho youth fell
a victim TO that lure which stanford
mentioned later. expressing ideas real
istically to ones own mind without GER
tainty that It will be intelligible as
music to the ears of others
But this Viennese boy has really
remarkable talent. IL indeed 1t be not
genius His gifts were recognized here
when Rudolf CAM two or three seasons
ago played the piano sonata. Since
that time Korngold has made real prog
sass. His mastery OF form has In
creased his technic has gained con
sistency. But he has still much to
learn and to unlearn.
No composer has yet succeeded In
rising to great heights by thrustinl
aside the fundamental idioms of music
and this little master, fed fat upon thu
wisdom of Roger has acquired per
Serted view Of the nature Of muslca
eloguence Restlessncss of tonality, de
tePmined search after strange combina
lions of tones. SUGGESTIONS OF III as
"A sorted intervals. are the predominant
- eootures Of his music.
1871 commentators seemed TO leaI
VIVA ~ conclusion that thi
NJ Abandonment Q