Omaha daily bee., 1918-12-29
Nj u s | c
By HENRIETTA M. REES.

BY HENRIETTA M. REEFS.
r WISH the wild bells of next
| Wednesday would ring out sew
- eral things to the wild sky,
those wild bells which are supposed
to be the musical ones, especially.
1t would be great to ring in con-
certs again and some real tirst-class
music from some real hrst-class ar
fists. 1t would be fine to ring wei
come to the deeper musical life for
many of the thousands upon thou
sands who are at present content to
live in the shadows, and it would
be joyous and noble to have bell
buoy to ring for some who are out
beyond their musical depth. 1t
would be wild bells, indeed, which
would be able to ring out great
deal about the lack of discrimination
and taste which marks musical ex-
preston, for the most part. Those
who have ability seem so often no:
to have discrimination, and those
who have discrimination do not use
this power sufficiently to build up
taste, and there we are, and the
musical world rolls on. with half OF
the talented ones going around In
circles instead of progressing, and
half of the untalented ones trying
their best to progress, but not being
able to see the path ahead of them
or to hear the wild beA which would
ring "the fuller minstrel in" The
very best of music is in the world
and all around and about every one
of US, but it takes discrimination and
taste to find it, and to use it wisely.
Lack of discrimination though,
come to think of it, is really de-
lightful thing in music. ! some
times just gloat over it. In the first
place, it keeps the man who for some
reason or another must write and
can't from composing masterpiece
of sound fit only for connoisseurs
Then along comes the person VINO
can't discriminate the difference be-
tween his music and that of some
real genius, and oh JOY, oh JOY, he
chooses for himself the piece which
is more or less of a musical bromide
and he does not rush in where angels
fear to tread and dare to attempt
the masterpiece. Every time | hear
something like poor Butterfly" l
rejoice that the performer has
chosen it and let something like
Madame Butterfly" alone. OF
course sometimes they do not do it,
but then sometimes a bull does get
into a china shop, and one shud-
ders for the result, which is the
same in both cases.
We do not usually let the children
play with the lockwood pottery,
and the chances are ten to | that ii
they were given their choice between
a beautiful vase and gayly colored
rubber ball, the children would al
WAYS choose the rubber ball, SO isn't
it really a blessing that there are
rubber balls?
lanes Huneker recently wrote an
interesting article in the New York
Times on Brahms, the master build
err. which is wonderfully lucid IN
presenting his views of this great
composer. The following are but
two short excerpts from it.
This massed work is the sum
total of high ideal; stern, unyield-
ing, betimes frostily inhuman, yet
logical and consistent. The phil
| osophic bent of his intellect EFFORTS
our admiration.
For a half century he pursued the
beautiful in its most difficult and
elusive form, followed it when the
| fashions of the season Knocked at
such undertaking devotion, when
musical structure was called old
fashioned, sober thought voted down
as dull, when the theater had invaded
| the tonal realm and menaced 1t in
its very stronghold, the symphony.
After all, there is something to be
said in favor OF the SHELTON, whether
concealed by human flesh or en-
bodied in religious dogma or en-
cased within the formal walls of
musical compositions. Things must
have structure to interest mankind;
even the prudish oyster has she'll.
Otherwise the amorphous shreds of
the floating jellyfish or the primeval
amoebae would become our ideal.
Brahms. was homo sapiens. He stood
on his hind legs, as did our common
forbears, with probably arboreal
habits And he wrought the noblest
music since Beethoven.
"He is thinker, his chilliness is
rather in his manner than in his dis
course, which often is thrice elo-
quent.
This plodder, at times without
Promethean fire, possesses shoulders
wide enough upon which to drape
the symphonic mantle\of Beethoven.
He reminds us of a medieval archi-
tect whose life was a prayer, in
marble; who patiently built Gothic
cathedrals which majestically flank
ed upon mother earth, whose thin
pinnacles pierced the vastly blue, and
in whose marmoreal naves an army
terrible with banners could worship;
while through the stony forest OF
arches music flowed as the voices of
many waters. Brahms is the master
builder of modern music"
.
Musical America reprints from the
New York Times this description of
how the German revolution affected
the Royal Opera in Berlin, where,
prior to the armistice, everything
was conducted with military disci-
pine, fact which really accounted
for excellent rehearsal preparation.
The Times correspondent reports:
Most curious was the effect of
the revolution on the employees of
the former Royal Opera house in
Inter den Linden. Count Won HUI
rb:af I,rarta~ &c A. 1&o-.