New-York tribune., 1919-06-22

marked the turning Of page
in En- glish literature, so music
is about to turn over a leaf
just row, acco riding to Edwin Evans,
who writes in "The New Witness:
every musicia n knows something of
the difficulty of urning the page, for
it does not often IN appen that the print
er or the copyist provides him with a
convenient opportui lity for doing so,
and the imp of the p erverse usually or
dans that the need for it will occur
when both mind and hands are fully
occupied. The difficult ty, however, is
not confined to turning page of music,
which is small matter. 1t recurs, and
is proportionately greater when the
time comes to turn over page of mu-
steal history, or in fact ,any kind of
history or any evolutionary process.
Even when every one is conscious of
having arrived at the bottom of the
page, there is moment of mental
furry. English literature, for instance,
turned the page on the Victorian era in
the middle nineties, but one need only
review the writings Of that .date to
realize how difficult the process was
From the Congress of Vienna ito the
present peace conference is completed
page of European history. Everybody Is
aware of it, but the newspapers give
everyday instances of quite intelligent
people who are not ready for the turn
over. However, these matters concern
other sections of this journal. My
business is with music.
Moving On
"a we'll filled page of musical his
tory has reached its end. The fact
that it is inscribed with the titles of
many masterpieces does not obviate the
necessity for turning over, and an en-
couragingly large section of the mu-
sical community has succeeded in per-
forming the feat, some with alertness
and deXterity, others with a reluctance
which one may respect when it was
due to sentiment, but not when it
arose from mere Incidence. Many have
shown that nothing short of a dev
astating earthquake would wake them
up. The war has caused some strange
permutatons in musical opinion. Such
conversions have been really too COM
plete to inspire full confidence, and it
is necessary, sometimes, to examine
the credentials of those who loudly
proclaim the end of the German CEN
tury in musical history. Opportunism is
by no means confined to politics, but, as
in politics, it does occasionally coincide
with correct estimate of the condi-
tons. 1t is the opportunist's tendency
to overstate his case which commonly
gives him away. To turn over the page
does not imply either condemnation or
oblivion of its contents. 1t is not nee
essary to quarrel with the German
classics in order to show that their
revolution of the musical wheel has
run it's full course.
Every time that have touched upon
this subject, one of those readers who
can never realize that a sentence OF
plain English means neither more nor
less than it states writes to me to
protest against a wholly imaginary sug-
gestion that the German classics should
be banned. / would no more think OF
banning the masterpieces they pro-
duced than of banning the hundred
best books from our libraries. would
be generous. l would give them a
much larger share in our music than
the average Englishman gives to those
books in his reading. A large pro-
portion ofNthe books we read is based
upon actualities. Is it too much to
ask that corresponding proportion
of the music we hear should have the
same relation to the world we live in
"The trouble is that the average
musician or music lover keeps his
music in watertight compartment
free from the contamination of the
world without. He habitually regards
music as concourse of sweet
sounds, apart from the many who in
hale it as a dsug. Like all great art
music is an Interpretation of life as
perceived by the artist, and it can nc
more be stripped of it's psychological