New-York tribune., 1918-12-21
Music
\ Modern American Comnos;
ton at Philharmonic
Concert
BY II. L. Krehbiel

wagner music has reappeared on the
programmes of the Philharmonic So
e'e'S--the "Bacchanalc" from "Tann-
"auser, week or so ago. and tho
prelude and postlude of "Tristan und
is"ioe Nwithout wordsl at the concerts
't last Thursday night and yesterday
afternoon. Perhaps it was for the pur-
pose OF offering an antidotc to the bane
apparently felt to be necessary by some
persons whose feelings and intellectual
faculties are strangely confused, and
refuse to be coordinated in the nppre-
cation of art, that on the programme
which served for the last two concerts
'here appeared composition by an
american composer. There have been
olher works of native origin in the So
cletys schemes since the war began.
ana each time patriotic lovers of music
nave hoped to hear a message of de-
liverance from foreign bondage. But
the good tidings of great peace have
not yet been proclaimed. There was
no ln'imatlon of anything of the kind
IN the nursery pictures of a FORTNIGHT
ago and none in the more ambitious
oIchestral sketches by Reginald Sweet
winch we heard yesterday, notwith-
standing that the composer presented
himself as an illustrator of lines from
the anything but infantile Walt Whit
man.
Mr.. Sweet has won honors in music
at Harvard. but the way that he has
lollowed was OF the way they had at
at Old Harvard in the days of John
hnowles Paine. 1t was rather the wav
1e,eoly and soph omorically preached by
the musical quarterly which lived out
brief life a year or so ago. It
was modern, which seems to mean that
dlssonant harmonies woven around dis
connected compages of consecutive
tones are music when presented in a
strange, orchestral language. When
provided with motto they became ex
rressive and illustrative, and thus
achieve value which they would not
have IT not labelled. So yesterday we
heard the chant of dervishes with
their forces turned toward Mecca,
green blades of grass under blue
sky, and the whistling Of winds across
the prairies. Without the help of
Whitman's lines we should have been
reminded by the first piece of iris
tan's herdsman who had wandered to
Ragdad and lost his tune on the way;
by the second, of nothing at all either
under or above the clouds of heaven;
and by the third, only Of a futile at
tempt to make a new kind of musical
| storm picture by stubborn reiteration
in changing timbres, above, below and
betwixt onward pressing surges of
dissonant harmonies.
The most comforting though which
Mr.. Sweets music brought was that he
knew how to pursue purpose. There
was agreement between his intention
and his capacity to give it utterance.
1t was not lgnorantly empirical. He
did not charm the ears of his hearers,
did not warm their emotions, did not
stir their Imagination, though he tried
means which he mistakenly thought
might be employed to those ends. And
so we regretfully record another fail
ure to find the forward man that Amer
lean music is looking for and revert in
grateful memories to young old-men
who have ministered to us in the past
and are still giving us the best Ameri-
can music which we are privileged to
hear.
The concert began with Brahms's
Symphony in D, which flowed placidly
and mellif1uously between the banks of
the Stransky canal. After the pieces
by Mr. Sweet Mr.. Elman played the
Tschaikoffsky violin concerto, and then
came the Wagneran finale. Mr.. Elman
tossed aside the difficulties of the con-
certo with almost contcmptuous ease
and substituted many prettinesses for
things that have so much native, rude
forcefulncss in them that they have
led some people to decry the work as
ugly. But he displayed phenomenal
technical mastery and made his GUS
tomary success.