The Washington times., 1919-12-28
COMPOSERS WEARY
OF OWN CREATIONS
Continual Repetition of Most
Popular Works Irritates
Famed Artists.

1t is told that whenever Richard
Wagner visited a city 1t was almost
an invariable custom for the town band
to serenade the famous composer with
the march from "Tannhauser," The
choice, however, did not please Wag-
ner, who, one night, when the band
master appeared after the perform
ance to pay his respects. testify asked
Did I never compose anything but
the 'Tannhauser' march?"
But wagner was not the only mas
ter of music thus irritated. 1t is very
doubtful, in fact. IL any composer
would feel at all flattered over the
choice of the public at large Of his
most popular composition.
Accidental Fame.
To q musician, Handers, Messiah"
alone would insure his fame. but to
the passerby he is the man who wrote
THE Largo" an aria. by the way,
from "Xerxes." a forgotten opera, and
in it's present-day form bearing little
resemblance to the original.
Bach included in a suite a lovely
air which some one discovered sound
ed well when played on the G string
alone of the violin, and SO Bach's
''Air for the G string" was born and
became popular. Rubinstein, the
wonderful pianist and talented or
chestral composer, is best known to-
day by his MELODY in F." a piano
trifle. Schumann, beloved Of pianists
the world over. once wrote a little
thing called "Traumerei," which the
people have adopted as their very
own. and naught they care for his
labors upon other and larger subjects.
Only Wedding March.
When very young. Mendelssohn
wrote a wedding March" Now.
wedding marches by the hundreds
have been written before and since,
but no bride is properly wed without
this particular march, and little wots
she whether he ever wrote another
note.
Schubert wrote hundreds Of songs,
as we'll as piano music. masses. and
symphonies, but there is only one
Schubert "Serenade."
Chopin. it is said. at a drinking
party set a skeleton beside the piano
and composed the Funeral March
without which no military funeral is
complete, and upon this rests by far
the larger part of his popular fame.
Gounod's Faust is a stranger to
most people, but his Ave Maria" is
popular everywhere; ask anyone off,
hand what Dvorak wrote, and receive
for an answer: THE Humoreske."
No Second Choice.
To the popular mind, Sullivan
stands or falls by the Lost Chord u
Moszowski by the "Seranata," Mas
cagni by the "Cavalleria Intermezzo,
Massenet by the "Thais Meditation u
and Rachmaninoff by the Prelude in
c Sharp Minor" while the great
achievements of Rossini and Suppe
are, respectively, the William Tell
and the poet and Peasant" over.
lures.
Beethoven is entirely unknown in
the star piece" category, while il
Mozart has place there it is through
the Gloria" from the Twelfth Mass
which it is doubtful if he ever saw
1t is interesting to note that with
the exception Of the Rossini and the
Suppe overtures, all the popular fav.
orites above mentioned are short. OIL
comparatively SO, most of them ne
doubt being thrown off, by the
composers as mere trifes.
1t is likewise peculiar that there i.
in no instance anything like a second
choice. save only in the case of tn,
Pilgrims Chorus from "Tannhauser.'