New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-06-06

! land ecnsibilitics Tam o Shanter'
I being a frank bit Of programme music.
Scottish mclodc and rhythmic ldioms
were naturally employed in its struct
ure. Without them Burus's story could
not have been told in music. To pub
lish its pictures and humor was the
composers purpose, not TO discuss its
psychology or philosophy. This would
probably have been the professed aim
of the latter day type of composer,
who. unable, or let US say unwilling,
20 deineate the poets wierd incidents
and their theatre, would have sent
themes suggestive of nothing in par
ticular through maze of dissonant
harmonies and unrelated keys. tricked
out the fruit of his labors with ex-
perments in instrumental color and
then said il was the soul Of Tam, the
eSoteric significance Of INVESTIGATION
and the essence Of witchcraft. wZardry
and demonology which he had pre-
scented. Not so Mr.. Chadwick. Ills Tam
j. a ScOtchman, who gets fuddled at
the tavern and rides out in storm;
who espies church and the wild and
uncanny revels OF a lot Of witches;
who betrays himself by a shout Of ap-
prevail when the filings OF q lightly
clad damsel become great deal less
than Lawful; who is chased through
the night by the unholy rout, escapes
by the skin of his teeth or, rather, By
the tail Of his mare and. got home,
INDUCES in reviewing his adventure in
his mind. smiling az its humorous a.
poets and evidently trying 70 apply
the incidents which had eliminated in
the loss of his mares caudal APP
pendage TO point moral to the tale
of the nights adventure. Mr. Chad
wick's imagination and sense Of
artistic propriety and taste never
leave the tracks even on the steep
down grade of the witches orgy or
the frantic scramble for Tam's life.
but he adventures daringly enough in
his harmonies and achieves some start
lingly original instrumental effects.
The piece begins with a musical storm
picture:
"The wind blew as = were blawn its
last
The rafting showers rose on the
blast"
The thematic material is OF the OBJ
vious kind. Where under such circurn-
stances would a composer be without
his rushing chromatic scales and the
other devices for delineating turbulent
nature? Then, making the necessary
exchange u senses, We hear the hero
Of the poem when on the market night
Tam had got planted unco right.
W roaming swats that drank divine
ly"
4 melody with "a strong a Scottish
favor as the liquor which Tam drank
until he got so befuddled that when
tho trombones and horns present him
they muddle their keys in the roister-
ing chorus Through the storm which
bursts in again Tam begins his home
ward ride:
Wecl mounted on his gray mare Meg,
Tam skelpit on ,hro' dub and miro"
an estimate trotting figure accom-
panics fragments OF Tam's time Kirk
draws nigh and we see the
meeting house through the medium Of
a respectful perversion OF a psalm tune =
from old RayenscToft yclept Martyrs
in the hymn books. Tam catches a
OF the goings-on OF the witches
In the kirk Dances, OF course, from
ironnC bass and skirling pipes. As IN
"panse Nacabre." the yylOuhone imi-
,a.es the rattling OF bones. but Chad
wick goes Saint-Saens one better by
using also the resonant block Of wood
which il the leaders instrument In the
Chinese orchestra. and also a Chinese
drum 20 eccentua'e his hornpipe and
reel rhythms This is new device ard
nm extremely effective one, but not so
striking a color conceit as one which
he composer ingeniously borrowed
from the mixture stops Of the organ.
He blends oboe. muted trumpet and vio-
in harmonics IN tune, and its parallel