New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-03-21
Scriabin's 'PrOmetheuS' Is
Heard and Seen by Car
negie Hall Audience.
ILLUMINATED MUSIC
is PRESENTED
Blues and Greenss Crimson and
Violet Effects as Notes
Are Struck.
BY II. z. KREHBIEL.


also easy to recall the trouble caused
in one of Bret Harte's Western mining
camps by the ill-bred fellow who was
suspected of having made free with
the name Of Charlotte Russo. We wish
to preserve reputation for good man.
ners, and have no longing for the fate
that threatened the boor in Harte's
poem. Otherwise we should be strong
ly tempted to say that a wholly incom-
prehensible musical composition with
apologies to the Muses. was played in
Carnegie Hall last night to the ac-
compartment of pretty poppy show
The occasion was a concert of the Rus
sian Symphony Society, and the work
brought forward was Alexander Scri-
abin's symphonic poem for extraor-
dinary orchestra, aud colored lights,
entitled "Prometheus," Poem Of
Fire" The work has been played
in Moscow, Bremen, London and
Chicago, but always without the pop
ply show attachment, for which the
composer had an electrical illumin-
ating apparatus constructed, which
failed TO work in Moscow, and was
thought to be too cumbersome to be
transported to the other cities, where
fore advantage was taken OF the COM
pOser's permission TO omit the SYM
phonic aurora borealis. But Mr.. Mo.
dest Altschuler is dauntless in his ply
poses to do all that man can for Rus
sian music, and so, with the Aid or
ingenious American electricians, he no.
only made use, and most successfully,
Of the cldricT lUDiiCre but improved
upon its construction, so that he imGft
also have growing and lessening H.
tensity Of colors TO play spontaneously
with the tonal dynamics of the COM
position. The device, simply de-
scribed, consists of revolving series
of colored lamps, the ligh. Of
which. controlled by keyboard
mechanism, is projected simply or
in combination upon square screen
mounted behind the orchestra. In
TIE fancy Of the composer the colors
thus shown have symbolic association
with the music and help to give ex-
position to the theosophic interpreta-
ton of the Promethian myth. The
fantastic notion was expounded as
fully as a thing essentially inexplicable
could be, in an article in this journal
printed last Sunday. The discussion
is continued to-day after demonstra-
ton which we venture to say was SIM
ply bewilderinf to all who gave 1t
serious attention last night
Mr.. Altschuler followed the example
of Sir Henry Wood in London and gave
two performances of the work, separat-
ed by n short pause. As in London, a
large part of the audience, perhaps
one-third in this case, left the hall
after the first performance. Unlike the
English hearers, however, they left de-
corously, without a sign of dlsproval a
gentle patter of applause filled the first
minute of two of the pause and died
away. Americans have not yet learned
to display bad manners in the concert
room.
One of the things most strongly i'm
pressed upon the audience was that TO
watch the changing play of colors on
the screens with sufficient intentneSs
TO try to discover whether or not there
wa. any logical relationship between
the lights and the tones caused dis
traction of the mind which made judg-
ment of the artistic value of the music
wellnigh impossible. One thing may
be confessed, so far as this reviewer is
concerned the music, built up on
scale utterly lacking in melodic
or harmonic elements of hitherto
recognized beauty, told us moth
ing of the primeval energy of
Prometheus. physical, intellectual or
physical. 1t is told US nothing Of the JOY
of living, or of the opposition of mind
and matter, or the resistance engen-
dered, or the overcoming of inertia, or
triumph over the immobility of mat
ter, or the return of the principles
of fire, light, life, conflict. activ-
ity or thought. If it did this for
NJ Scriabin, ne is doubtless alone IN
the world in this experience. II was
highly colored dissonance from the be-
ginning until the last measure. when
theere came triad, so long hungered
for that it gave it little pleasure when
reached beyond that which came from
relief As for the lights, they were an
ingenious and pretty show. No more.
The subject of key-color has re-
ceived considerable dignifed attention
because of the preferences which COM
posers have shown for certain keys,
and remarks which they have let fall
concerning them. But nowhere can
we find agreement, and the whole mat
ter is debatable ground. Some COM
posers and performers have as per-
sistently asserted that there is such
II thing as the psychology OF keys as
others, chief of them the theoretlclan
Kaufman, have denied it.
The choice of keys for certain works
of different character is certainly not
all matter OF haphazatd. In instru-
mental compositions, no doubt, the
choice depends to large extent upon
the mechanism of the medium chosen.
This fact has been frequently over
looked by psychologists who are not
familiar with practical music.
There is very obvious reason why
a composition should sound very dit
ferent on a violin in key IN when
the tones of the open strings do not
form a part of the key-scala and one
in which the open strings may be
freely used So the difference IN the
mechanism of the pianotorte as APP
piled to the white and black keys (the
difference in leverage works difference
in the character of the tones, despite
the efforts of manufacturers to min
imize il. Flat keys" as they are
called, are supposed TO be richer and
more sombre than sharp" keys. But,
unless the difference is due to mechan-
ical reasons of the kind suggested,
would not the key OF D-fat have the
same psychological effect as that OF
c PLAYED upon two pianofortes SO
tuned that D-hat on one instrument
had the same pitch as c on the other!
This assuming. of course, that both
instruments are tuned in equal tenn
permanent.
Preferences for Certain Keys.
We have found few instances in
which the master composers have pro-
claimed a belief in the expressive
Of different kays, although
there is scarcely one in whose music
preference for a certain key or keys
cannot be found. Beethoven, in two
instances which come TO mind, indi-
Gated a feeling for the psychology Of
keys. Once, in his sketches for So
nata for pianoforte and violoncello, he