The sun., 1918-09-01
Violinist, Now an
American Aviator
in Italy, Tells How
Great Conflict Slim
ulates Interest In
the Arts

Z on service, ana IS serving IN itAy'
where the following interview took
place.
SGTT would be difficult, not TO say i'm
Il possible, for me to answer your
question as to my impression of the Ital
ian front and of the heroic valor and en-
durance of our troops and those of our
allies said Albert Spalding First
becsuSa words are cheap things with which
to express all that one feels; and second
because of my uniform l am not per-
mitted TO discuss military matters III any
way. But must say as an American that
We feel proud and happy TO be able TO
work side by side with Italy in her great
fight for national freedom and aspira-
tions.'
Eielt. Spalding was then asked to ex-
press his-rfrws IN regard to musical Italy
and the effect that the war would have on
music in general He said:
ut is my belief that music will take a
more prominent place in peoples lives. and
In fact is taking more vital place now
than ever before. Guglielmo Ferrero. the
historian, once said: Art is pleasure
without need l wonder if he would
repeat that statement to-day. Life, from
a material standpoint, has during these
past four years come to be made of sterner
stuff than it was in the inconsequential
days which preceded the great war.
Material Pleasures Given UpH
People have sacrificed and suffered to
the utmost extent. Material pleasures
have had to be given up one by one. Dis
fractions, Injuries and manifold interests
have narrowed themselves down and be-
come merged into one great spiritual, men
tai and physical etfort-winning the war
for democracy.
"The psychological result Of this will be
TO prepare and fit people more for the
great consolation and mental uplift that
art, and especially music, can give. For
the pleasures of the body will be substi-
tuted the pleasures of the mind, by neces-
sity at first and by choice afterward.
Books will be read, pictures looked at
and music listened to with greater atten-
tIon. interest and concentration than ever
before.
More will be got from them; more will
be demanded of them. No patience will
be shown the charlatans, the faddists and
the tricksters who hitherto have owed
their facile success TO the easy credulity of
public who would go inconsequentia1ly to
their art much in the same state of mind
as they would go TO fashionable restau-
rant.
Remember that the intelligent listener,
the layman, plays almost as important a
role in Inc development of the music of
his country as does the executive musician,
the composer or the interpreter. His is
the right and indeed the duty TO demand
tie best and nothing but the best
Few Really Can Enjoy Art.
lie should not applaud an acknowl-
edged suceess simply because somebody
else has told him it was good. There is
nothing to be ashamed of in saying L do
not understand or Il do not like such
and such a work Enjoyment of art,
looking through the eyeglasses Of another
person, is not enjoyment at all, or at
least it is only enjoyment of the faded
and pale kind that people have who are
contented to know the great pictures Of
the world only through reproductions and
cheap chromos. They get the surface
without the substance: it is food without
4 taste.
I'VE will have no patience with musi-
cians, composers and Interpreters generally
who have a vocabulary of many words
but have nothing to say. The vocabulary,
the dictionary, is as necessary in music as
If is in literature, but jugglers of notes
and jugglers of words can never give US
what we really want-the true expression