New-York tribune., 1919-11-23
By Grenville Vernon

Dy olCIltilkC CIHOn
Despite the recent example of Mr.
Paderewski music and politics are to
the man in the street very long
way apart. We would not, for in
stance advise ary of those million odd
young hopefuls who are at the present
moment confident that they are one
day to be President of the United
States to undertake to master the
keyboard as the first step in the direc-
Jion of the White House. We have
only to attempt to visualize Mr.. Will
son playing the B Minor Sonata of
Chopin as an antidote to the latest
news from an ungrateful Senate, and
Mr.. Taft indulging himself in De-
bussys "Rehets dams l'eau" following
= seance with the league to enforce
peace to realize that Americans are
rot Poles. There was once a candidate
Tor the Vice Presidency who was de-
feated for the nomination because it
was proved that he buttered his water
melon, and we confidently predict that
like fate would befall the statesman
who preferred Chopin to golf or Bee
thoven to baseball.
So much for the influence of music
on politics. We, fear, however, that
musicians will do ill it, realizing this,
they decide that politics is none of
rhe-r concern. Such decision would,
of course, be human. To meet con-
tempt with contempt, scorn with scorn,
makes us all happier, if little wiser.
Which all brings us to a matter which
at first glance seems strangely irrel-
evant-the Bloch Suite for viola and
piano which was played last week at
Aeolian Hall by Mr.. Ferir and Mr..
Bauer
We will not go into an analysis of
this work. Moreover, we will not un-
dertake to determine whether it will
take prominent place in the literature
Of chamber music. We will not even
say whether we liked it or disliked it.
The salient point of the suite is that
it is the expression of Mr.. Bloch him
self; the evocation of an intense per-
sonality. Now, personality is really
The synthesis of two forces: that of
the ego itself coming into vital impact
with the inherited prejudices of the
race. Our internationalists, our parlor
Lenines and our new Repabiic Trot-
zkys insist that there is only one race,
the Human, and that the Cambodian
and the Partisan, the inhabitant Of
Nnuy "a and tba ipho hifoDf of Now
York, are one and inseparable, now and
forever. 1t is to these gentlemen of
the Revolution that we refer the suite
Of Mr.. Bloch.
Now America is the richer in the
fact that Ernest Bloch has taken up
his abode among us and as time goes
by we have no doubt that American
Influences will show In his music. Yet,
American his music is not and never
will be. In short, Mr.. Bloch is what
he is primarily because he is Jew
and of this fact he himself is the first
witness. His music is interesting be-
cause it is personal, and it is per-
sonal not because he was born with
a certain temperament and q certain
intellect, but because this tempera-
ment and this intellect have been
forces working within other and far
mightier forces, the inherited tradi-
sions, preiudces, enthusiasms and in
additions of the Hebrew race.
We have referred to Mr.. Bloch be-
cause he is a striking example of the
force of nationalsm, force more no.
tent in art than in possibly any of
the other manifestations of life. He
is what he is because he has felt his
heritage and has battled for it, be-
cause he has scorned the easy re-
wards of eclecticism, and because,
whether in Geneva or New York, he
has remained spiritually Jew. Now.
while the internationalists may retort
chat this proves nothing. that mas.
snuch as the Jew belongs to no distinct
political unit his music is therefore
truly international, we answer that this
is totally beside the point. The Jew.
unfortunately, does not at present
physically possess nation of his own,
and therefore does not possess a dis
tinct political life. 1t is also true that
the Meyerbeers., the Mendelssohns, the
Saint-Saenses Of the Hebrew race have
succeeded, to an extraordinary extent,
in ohliterating their spiritual history
and hays brought forth as Germans. or