Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-04-21
RY LEoPOLD sToKOWsIN

do not like to couple war with
music. 1t is not good to couple war
with anything. 1 would rather not
talk about it. America knows, with
out my saying it, that the war has
driven many interpretive artists who
produce music to this country.
Whether the artists who create music
viii follow or not. who can say? Some
of them are already in the trenches.
We are all affected, even the most
subjective and interpretive, by mate
rial things; and the musician sensi-
lively attuned to every sound that
nature offers. what will he do after
hearing for years the reverberation
of artillery? VIII it affect his genius
No one can prophesy. There is no
doubt that if the creative genius OF
Europe finds it's way to America for
rest and peace, both will be accorded
in fun measure, for there is no coun-
try in the world more liberal in its
welcome to music than America.
| have been so often asked here if
America would eventually become a
country to produce music, if the
great mysterious force known as mu-
steal genius would eventually find its
channel among the people who love
music here. There is surely no OBJ
vious reason why it should not. The
world over the musical brain has
three lobes-the Interpretive the re-
ceptiVe, the creative. The greatest
of these of course is the creative. Al
ready i'm America YOU have to an as
tonishing degree the receptive quality
i'm fact the love OF music in America
is something phenomenal. | know OF
no people so tremendously eager for,
SO absorbed in music brought to them
as Americans. More and more You
are developing the interpretive quail
tty of music, more people are playing
music and playing well. The question
of creating music-must forever rest
on the knees of the gods.
Creative Genius
or course. IL is possible to write ex-
cellent music without having creative
genius. A man can he trained to write
skilful, intelligent music just as a
man can be trained to write sl,ilful. in
tclligcut books, even fairly technically
good poetry; but that flame which
comes to a man out of the infinite,
the divine fire which illumiuates his
own soul and the soul of those who
come in contact with him, that can
not be taught You can build the
channel for music and make it, very
strong and firm, you can see to it
that music flows in the right channel,
but the ineifable things which eNalt
the world cannot he found by any
quest, cannot he developed by the
most gracious system of musical train
ing in the world; that is out of the
heart of nature, and is as mysterious,
as remote from our understanding as
life itself.
Once we find a definition for genius,
once we trace it to its source, we
will find there, too, the spring of life.
That they are one and indiViSihle. I
am sure. and so I cannot tell YOU if
you viii ever he q great nation of
creative musicians. If could, l would
hr the prophet of the ages. can
only tell YOU where ! ind genius, and
then express IL to YOU through the
orchestra. We can all recognize that
I'm the faces of some men and women
we see God (to paraphrase Whitman
but / cannot tell YOU, no one can tell
YOU, why we see God in the eyes OF
some human beings and not in others.
William Morris has described genius
as 'the majesty that from mans soul
looks" 1T is indeed the majesty from
mans soul that speaks in the various
arts, and IL this majesty is dormant in
your nation, Or if back of the nation
it is dormant in nature and your ma
ton becomes susceptible to it, you
surely viii create great beauty, be-
cause you have a land of great force
and great power, and, as I have al
ready said, a great interest in noble
things.
Likes Everything Good
A fact Of great importance in Amer
lea is the universal quality of the
audiences appreciation of music. This
cannot he said of any other people.
The American audience is enthusias-
tic for everything that is good and
worth while in music. In France. for
instance the French people demand
all of the very best French music and
the classical music from Germany;
Beethoven and Bach are greatly ap-
ureciated but Strauss and Mailer. Re
ger and Schoenberg are but little
played. We can reverse this state
mcnt exactly for Germany and Aus
tria. Naturally there all the great
music of their own country receives
q widespread response, and the classic
French music is also presented in
concert and song; but in Germany
and Austria we hear far too little of
Duhussy, Eavel, DuKas Cesar Franck.
and stin less OF those great artists OF
the modern Russian school. l need
not say that the modern music Of
every school is WELCOMED in America.
There are limitations set to your en-
thusiasm The American ideal of
freedom and liberty is surely realized
To the utmost i'm one thing inNthe ap-
probation of beauty. Americans de-
mand but one thing namely, that
what is given them is the best Of its
kind. I'm this ideal at least the Amer
lean audience is paramount to any
other i'm the world.
am especially Interested in this
fact about America because | myself
enjoy all music, the simple music and
the great, The music of the people
au' the music of CLASSIC CECluSiVeneSs.
ao not believe th0t there is such a
thing as vulgar music" any more
than wa would speak of vulgar soul.
A human being may have vulgar
traits, but music is one of the attri-
hutes Of the soul, and so it cannot be
vulgar. II may be uninspired, it may
lack harmony, il may be without per-
mauent beauty, but it cannot he vul-
gar any more than a picture done by
an artist who loves humanity can he
vulgar. In England we hear people
speak Of Hogarth, of van Ostade as
vulgar PAINTERS; this is quite ridicu-
lous. As a matter of fact. they are
men OF wider sympathies than most OF
us. men who find in all humanity a
subject for their art, just as n musl-
clan should find in all nature n sub
iect for his music. | do not believe
that q man can be a great artist who
Is not q great lover of humanity, and
you cannot become great and love a
selected few human beings Every
manifestation of humanity the world