New-York tribune., 1921-12-03

played through three t;mcs. NJ. d'Indy
played them twice, With change in
the Instrumentation. lrt without alter
alton of the harmony OF the structure
OF the pieces. Mentevcrde had wind
instruments only (eXcept altos and
basses) in both toccata and ritornello,
unless we regard his remark that "all
the Instruments might participates; in
which case he neglected to set down
and vulgano call tsampcts of a .sort)
were to play. Tho matter is not highly
Important here, bat what IS Interesting.
70 view. OF th~ fact that Moutcverde is
ss much spoken Of in the books as a
great innovasor and progrossist, is that
~ ITS harmonic s,:ucicte the toccata
is q precursor OF the prelude to Wag-
rcr's "Rheingoia." Z. IS built on a
pedal note aud the primary chord in
harmony, from which I. never departs.
10 that fact the attention. es me audi.
snes might have been iav;ted. The
on.y previous performance 6. the in,
tssesting work which ws can recall
was on. Sunday night, April IA, 1912,
at che metropolitan Opera House, when
"Orfeo" WAS given in concert form. un-
der the direction Of Mr.. Pasternack, in
the version pade by Professor Orefice
for she International Exhibition of 1911
in Rome.
The music by Lalande, composed to
entertain the ear of the Grand Mon.
arch while at dinner, proved to be an in
gratiating bit, like much of that of
Rameau and Couperin which has come
down to us in transcription for the
pianofortc--music designed to please
the taste when all the polite world
was devoted to the dance, when men Of
genius like Mo,iere, Quinault and
Lully thought their genius not ill-ap-
piled when devoted to the creation of
ballets. Sixty or seventy years ago
Gustav Andre, son Of the Andre, of Of
fenbach-on-the Rhine, who was Mozart's
publisher, lived in New York. He then
in D which was on M. d'Indy's pro-
gram. and which remained unpublished,
probably, until Breitkopf & Hartel
brought out their complete edition Of
Mozart's works. 1t is one of many com.
positions of its kind which Mozart
wrote and in which he seems to have
undertaken experiments in orchestca-
tion. 1t has two small bands, one COM
posed of two principal violins, viola
Inns, viola, violoncello and kettledrums.
nj. d'lndy, to make it effective in q
large room, no doubt, occasionally null
tiplied the strings and made the work
sound something like concerto crosse.
with its solo and chorus bands, which
was certainly not in consonance with
the intentions of the composer One Of
its novel and charming effects was a
sort of refrain by the second band
playing pizzicato. That was delicious,
but there are other nocturnal sere-
nades by Mozart which are more inter-
esting.
Themes Not Worth Labor
The compositions by M. d'Indv's
pupils and associates were an orches-
trail dirge, "ro the Dead" by Paul lie
Elem, and movement from a suite
with the general title "Tvocations," !"
called "The Gods in the Shadows of
the Caves" by Albert Roussel. Much,
overmuch elaboration, harmonically and
;nstrumentally, of themes not worthy
of go much labor might be said in
description of the two works; or. more
sententiously, "Much ado about moth
ing" However, considering them in
relation to something that has come to
US recently from Italy, Germany and
England, it is possible to see in them