New-York tribune., 1921-11-30
Philadelphia Orchestra Is
Heard i'm Excruciating
Music That Was Kissed
in London and Vienna
4 Travesty on Harmony
Composer Speaks in I'm
known Tongue and There
Is None to Interpret
Bv II. E. Krchbiel

\ Arnold SCh0nberg. NINE years ago
| they were performed for the first time
! in London and caused something like
| riot, the audience being divided into
| party which showed it's Indignation
by kissing and an opposition party
which was stirred, probably more by
! the sounds which came from the pro-
testants than those made by the sand,
into demonstration of applause.
It was, we believe 1--WE are not sure),
when the same pieces were played in
Vienna that an energetic hisser, who
sat Immediately in front Of the late
Mr.. Mailer, was rebuked by the latter,
and turning around, retorted: "Ihren
Dreck habe ich auch ausgipitfen!" CI
Kissed your muck also!"). Last week
Mr.. Stokowski presented the pieces to
his Philadelphia audience, which gave
expression to its feelings by an ener-
getic chorus of Kisses. Last night a
large GATHERING of decorous. too decor
Gus, New Workers received the first of
the five pieces with laughter and mild
ly applauded the rest.
We say that the gathering was too
decorous because the composition-we
suppose it is that, no matter what else
1t may be-ought to have been received
with unmistakable signs OF protest.
Why should there have been protest +?
their programs do so either because
they believe them to be artistic prod
ucts or because they feel it a duty to
keep the public informed as to what is
doing In the name Eve cannot say the
| provincel Of music or to pander to idle
Icuriosity and create sensation.
Progress Made Shibboleth
| In all these cases, except the last,
fsn I'D
Progress" Music is an art which
must make progress-that is. 90 on
| ward--is it is not to sink into decay.
Granted. Let us be progressive even
/! II progress leads US into the deep.
| dark. dank and noisome abysses of
hell.
But let US he sure that the leader
is progress and not reversion to savag-
| cry: Savagery, not barbarism. The
barbarian seeks cheer and beauty in
his, crude efforts at art; the savage
seeks to appcase horror by horrible
sacrlflce., Schonberg is said to have
much selse from a sincere conviction
that he was widening the gates Of
music and opening paths to apprecia-
tlon. OF greater potentialities than his
predecessors found in it.
Al ne is sincere, whether suffering
| from a form Of dementia created by
the nerve destroying and sense per-
verting life of to-day, or not, he is to
1 be respected and, perhaps, pitied.
Then, we conceive, he is in different
case from some other men whose So
called music has been heard of late, in
that ne is in earnest. He may be an
acousmatic, who accepts what he thinks
are aesthetic evangels without the power,
Willingness or desire to inquire into
their nationality, his hallucination be-
ing that whatever enters his mental
rear is significant, or true (crimes NAV
be committed in the name of TRUTH, /,
and because significant, or true, there
fore beautiful, or good art.
Profaning the Temple
] On the other hand. if one (Lord
, Berners, for instance, as we had soc-
casion to observe few days ago) feels
disposed to enter the Temple of Apollo
put his thumb to his nose and twiddle
his. fingers at the god, let him do sc
and welcome. But If while so doing
he processes to be priest of Apollo
let him be stoned to death as pro
faner of the temple.
! What the Give Pieces" Of Sch0berg
4 are like we cannot undertake to de
scribe in terms of definition or anal
ysis. The composer has written wha
has been described as a marvellous ant
monumental textbook on harmony. 1t;
fundamental principle is that any not,
1--WE suppose tone is meant) may b,
, combined with any other notes. 90
course it can; paper is patient" is
German proverb. But is the resul
harmony? 1t will not be till chaos b.
come again and the musical heaven
j. rolled up like scroll and thrown int
= the pit. Mr.. Schonberg has also sal
(and ten thousand musical schoolboy
to whom the study of musical scienc
t and art is irksome have said it befor
3 and after him) that composer mus
9 write as he feels. So he must; but
ugly, he has no business with art s
long as art is held by mankind to
an EXPRESSION of beauty.
Like all of his fellows Sch0nberg say
that he wants his music heard as mu
, sic. But he also says that it is def
: mite mental scheme translated int
tone as viewed Tor conceived) by hin
And so after his music has throw
those who want to greet every advanc
!, into bewilderment he gives his piece
titles, "PYesentiments," "The Past,
"The Changing Chord" "Peripetia
ii. e., an about face") and "The Obbli
cato Recitation; and one of his ex
, Founders hastens to explain that wha
he has sought to express is "All tha
dwells in us subconsciously like
dream; which is great fiuctuant pow
, er, and is built upon none OF the line
. that arc familiar to us; which has
rhythm, as the food has its pulsatin,
rhythm, as all life in us has it's rhythm
I which has tonality, but only as TIL,
/ sea or the storm has its tonality
: which has harmonies, though we can
I. not grasp or analyze then. nor can WI
3 trace it's theme. All it,
technical craft is submerged. made on,
and indivisible with the content Of tn,
work. We can no longer differentiat,
! between technique and idea, becaus,
: the composer attainI to an unrestin,
I intermingling OF both. There is n,
!; working out; any attempt to separat
! what is inseparable would be TO mis-
J, understand this music"
!. s1ncoherent and Distressing.
| Well, as one of Shakespeare's fool
t puts it, we hope "here be truths W
do not know what they are. We hay
y strong conviction that had M,
Stokowski put the pieces in q bar
9 shaken them together, drawn them uu
> at random, and played them no on
!, in last nights audience would hav
been q hit the wiser, or known whethe
4 the presentiments had executed volt
face or the chord been played as al
4 obbligato to the subconscious recita
T two. And the music would have beel
lro Ipzu ;neoharapf op-3 J;s% .ae.;,..u