The New York herald., 1920-11-07

appointment of better known composers
and performers to the faculty.
II Is not safe to characterize
Schrecker's work. He himself eschews
class names for music. When he COM
posed "Fernen Klang' the critics
called him an Impressionist. a nomen-
clature he himself at that time had not
heard. Now he is called Expressionist,
more to explain that he keeps moving
ahead In the same tide of art as many
European poets and painter. He Is. IN
all cases, a Subjectivist. He writes no
programme music He does not initiate
nature. IF my hero Is on the stage"
he explains. "and comes into a spiritual
struggle on witnessing soldiers march
Ing by. | do not write military music,
but | express the hero's spiritual
struggle" Music. In other words. Is
the stuff OF life in his operas, and tha
opera grows out OF the drama of sound
as much as from the theme Of the text
Writes His own Librettos.
This Is Schrecker's aim. for he writes
his own llbrettos. and he has chosen
topics suited to a symbolic use, In which
music as such becomes an integral ma
terial of the story. 1.-THE Distant Tone
Is the sound Of an ever tempting para
disc which pursues the two central fig
ures. an artist and q prostitute. through
life of Woe. until at last on an island
of mystery they are united in ideal har-
mony. "The Playthlng" Is the symbol
OF the pure song of the earth. which
when It Is broken wrecks the life OF the
princess and the world and is not
mended until the princess finally falls
in love with true son OF nature. In
the "Gczeichneten' the conflict Is be-
tween the powerful fantasy OF an evil
musician and the romanticism OF his
rival for the love of the mIsician's
sweetheart. A lutte with thc secret Of
finding treasure embodies tls central
idea in ''The Treasure Diggers.'
The fabric OF Schrecker's music is not
intensely national Strauss In "Sa!ome"
is as modern as Schrecker. but he is
modern German. He transcends the
German music he found. but he does not
adopt the language Of other countries.
In so far as it is wise to trace musical
heritage. Schrecker can be described as
synthesis of the modern German and
the modern French, with a dash OF mod
ern Russian and italian. He likes TO
feel himself international, and so he Is
Two Orchestral Works.
two orchestral works. a romantic suite,
composed in 1901. and his recently
written "Kammersymphonie.' Tn,
charming suite began with five min
rtes of Tristan echoes, and grew into
an appreciable. orderly, lyric and lovely
work. not revolutionary but independent
and thoughtful. Tho 'Kammersym-
;'honie." in contrast. was like voice
from another sphere. 1t glowed with
modern color and sang In dissonance.
To call the color French, the orchestra .
ton Mahler's, the dissonances Strauss
sian, is only partly true. Debussy Is
hidden In the texture of many passages
and Mailer and Strauss have left their
mark on Schrecker's medium of ex-
preston.
But he Is more himself than the syn
thesis of these influences. A food of
light is in all he played. 1t Is radiant
strong. fruitful and good tempered.
The complex heaviness Of Mailer 9
supercosrnic anguish and the brutality
If Strauss's dscords are singularly
missing. And in relation to Debussy It
needs only TO be said that he builds W
lis music on the German structure OF
polyphony, which he only occasionally
illumines with the Frenchman's rides
cencc. (The 'Kammersymphonie viii
be given In America this winter by the
Philadelphia and San Francisco orches-
tras).
Prof. Schrecker is not n believer in
expressionistlc painting. and the walls
Of his home are hung with pictures
which would convince the most precise
Victorian He admits that he doesn't
understand what the modern painters
are doing. They are trying to do
what do" he said, write music; while
never try 70 paint" But the fact re-
rrains that lie appears now the most
successful musical exponent in Europe
of The enancination OF eXpreSsiOnism.