New-York tribune., 1921-11-02
Casella Gives
SonethingNe
Labeled Music
Pianist Composer, Member
of Revolutionary Italian
Coterie, Appears With
Philadelphia Orchestra
Presents "a Notte Alta
Distorted Phrases, Lurid
Shrieks Emerge From
Its Harsh Dissonances
By H. E, Krehbiei


We are not all versed in the termi-
nology of the turf, so we cannot tell
whether our expectations of Mr..
Casella at the concert of the Phila-
delphia Orchestra last night were left
at the post or whether he took the
bit IN his mouth and ran away with
them. From what we have read about
the young Italian revolutionary and
the music of his which we had previ-
ously heard, we had conceived some
notions about him and were equally
prepared to have them confirmed or
confuted; but what we heard was
neither confirmation nor confutation
of anything which we had dreamed of
in connection with tho aesthetics, the
science. the philosophy, the meta
physics, the theory or the practice of
music.
In Mr.. Gilman's apologize for the
Italian coterie to which Mr.. Casella
belongs, which was put before us in
the annotated program, we were led
TO expect something in the nature of
musical metempsychosis, rebirth Of
classic Italian ideals, a return to the
aims, if not the methods, of Montervede,
Caldara. Scarlatti, Pergolesi and the
qualities of grandeur, severity,
robustness. conciseness, sobriety, SIM
plicity of line, plenitude, plastique
ct equilibre architectural, vivacity
audacity. and perpetual quest of
novelty" as an unnamed author was
quoted as having said in characteri-
zation of the school which is no school.
We found plenty of audacity and some
evidences of quest of novelty in the
humorous pages Of Stravinsky but the
discovery did not seem a fitting re-
ward for our patient research.
Thoughts Evoked by Title
Noting the pretty title of Mr.. Casel-
las composition, "a Notte alta" we
lost ourselves in pleasant dream of
a night illumined by
"the wandering moon
Riding near her highest noon,"
and when we read the program which
MIR. Casella wrote to expound the sig
nificance of his music, we thought the
night, though dark and chill, might
after all be transfgured like that of
Schonberg's sextet, for a man and
woman, and passion and parting were
to be in it. We were told to observe
drama and hear how harmonies calm
and "ethereal' symbolized "the deep,
enigmatic Indifference of Nature to
human emotion" We listened intently,
as we hoped without prejudice, but
what we heard turned our fancies far
away from those professed by the com
nocturnal open at all, but in a deep,
dark, dank cellar, filled with grum-
blings, groanings, and occasional
sounds of noxious gases escaping from
pipe.
A French critic long ago said that
the ethereal, cobwebby sounds which
Berlioz invented to help give musical
delineation to Queen Nab, as Shake
speare described the fairy, reminded him
OF an ill-greased syringe: When Mr.
Walter Damrosch produced Mr.. Casella' s
war "Films" a year or so ago we
thought that the limit had been reached
in the effort to depict the moving of
heavy artillery by reproducing mimi
cry of clanking, clashing, squeaking
noises; but the terrestrial machinery OF
the Big Berthas was better oiled than
the celestial mechanism of this "Notte
alta" We should try to tell what the
piece is like if we could. 1t is easier to
say what it is not like.
New Form of Noises
1t is unlike anything that has been
identified with the concept music as il
has existed in the past; unlike the con
cept which prevails throughout the
world outside of the heads of Mr.. Ca.
sella and his confreres. An Italian
toward the close off the period OF
which Mr.. Gilman talks in his pro.
gram notes; defined music as consisting
OF "vagheaza, chiarezza,s e .buone mod
ulatione" e"-rbeapty, clearness and good
or correct, modulation. Such elements
have no existence in "a Notte alta
They are not .striven for, but striven
against. Deep and gloomy noises com
pacted of harsh dissonances and weird
instrumental colors, out of which
emerge distorted phrases, standing fol-
themes of sort which dart upward ir
lurid shrieks and are sprinkled occa.
sionally with dissonant pianofortt
arpeggio-of such is the texture of this
music. When it was over it seemec
for moment as if the audience had
been stricken mute. Then there came
few handclaps and there was enough
applause to show the visitor the cour-
tesy which he would better have de
served had he presented himself only
as a pianist--as he did afterward in
Cesar Franck's symphonic variations
The performance of Beethoven's sym
phony in A major, No. 7, was not edify
Ing. There were strivings for pre-.
ciogity OF detail which marred the dig
nifty Of the work and too little gradua.
ton Of nuance between fortissimo ant
pianissirno