New-York tribune., 1921-05-29

04"'"S"A| VI 1aHldSIlCal. lie is Wllllnr
at times to sacrifice euphony for the
sake of picturesque effect, or to play
on the nerves of his hearers; but. as
rule, he is quite content with clarity
Of articulation and such defamation of
phrase as will present clearly the mu-
sical idea and its development."
The "Symphonia Domestica"
Has Its First Hearing
The new symphony which Herr
Strauss had brought with him received
It's first performance at the last con-
cert Of the festival on March q. .sOnita
naturally curiosity was on tiptoe con-
cernlng the work, and the newspapers
INDUCED in much speculation, not alto
gether without knowledge, about the
character of the music, concerning
which an intimation had gone out
that 1T marked departure from the
familiar symphonic poems. But to
this we shall revert presently. The
festival over, Herr Strauss went on
tour to Boston, Chicago, Detroit, St.
Louis, etc, but before then, on March
20 and 26, conducted q public rehearsal
and concert of the Philharmonic So
ciety at which the music performed
besides five of his songs consisted Of
Mozart's Jupiter" symphony, the love
scene from his opera "Feursnot." and
"Tod und Verklarung."
When the "Symphonia dome silica"
was brought forward Strauss officially
proclaimed that was not program
music, but was to be received as music.
pure and simple-music qua music.
Yet year before he had told an Eng
llsh lnterviwer that it was a delinea-
ton of day in his own domestic~Gfe
and that its themes represented hus-
band, wife and chi-d-papa. mamma
and the baby To some Of his friends
in New York he was even more ex-
plicit. His utterances prepared them
TO find game of cards (Skat) in the
slow movement and controversy be-
tween himself and his wife touching
the temperature of baby's bath in the
double fugue near the close. The
double fugue was found easily enough
at the performance, though it sounded
more like the crack Of doom than "a
discussion over the respective merits
OF hot and cold water as a medium
for infantile sblutions. Without diff
hculty also the hearers were able to
guess that the interval between seven
bells Qandsman's TALK and the in
strume ntal Imitation of q baby's suuall.
and seven other bells and another
squall, was period Of restfulness; for
the interval was filed with gentle and
placid instrumental songs. But it was
not obvious to the general (though it
may have been to the personally con-
ducted) that in the gentle and placid
episode the composer had illustrated
his method of creative work. Only
those who had been plenarily inspired
knew also that earlier In the momen-
tous domestic day there had been a
comparison of baby's features with
those of its parents by partial and
preJudiced elder relatives. This, how
ever, became clear when it was learned
that in the baby" ecene, explanatory
Of "reminiscences of the papa" and
mamma themes, the score contained
the words "just like his father!" and
lust like his mother!" Programatic? I?
Oh, no! Certainly not! Directions to
the music engraver, probably, copied
by mistake.
The lesson which we derived from
these observations at the time was that
the things which were obvious in DR..
Strauss's descriptive music were imita-
tons of natural sounds. This did not
then nor does it now strike us as amaz-
ingly cerebral or profoundly psyche
logical. That child might cry in
music and get spanking to boot WAS
imagined by Colonel Derby, U. s. A.
talias John Phenix) in San Diego,
Calf. nearly seventy years ago. The
delineative devices suggested In the
humorlst's satirical analysis of Jabeg
Iarbox's "ode Symph onie-The Plains"
were not whit more crudely realistic
than those habitually employed by
strauss-the theatrical wind machine,
the bleating Of sheep and the snores Of
sancho Panza in "Don cuixote," the
striking clock and squalliag brat In
the "Symphcnia dsmssasa.a tbs sus-