Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-12-09
THE CRITIC TALKS
TO MUSIC LOVERS
By SAMUEL l.. LACIAR

ny ShMSEAI II. LfASIATt
ONE HUNDRED YEARS ago to.
" morrow there was born at Licge,
the little Belgian city which played SO
prominent part in 1914 during the
early days of the war. child who was
destined to give Gallic music n posi-
tion in respect to the so called abso-
lutte forms of the art which it never
had attained until this composer
! reached his artistic maturity. This
child was Cesar Franck.
Franck's position in music, both as
to the place which he will eventually
occupy among the composers of the
world and also his relation to the
composers of France. cannot be def.
nitely told as yet. He was chronology
ically right on the edge of the great
modern movement. the end OF which
no man can fOresee and what trend
this will take will ultimately decide his
permanent place.
While no less an authority than
Claude Debussy refused to admit that
Cesar Franck was n French composer.
claiming that he was the head OF the
modern Belgian school, n SCHOOL of
| which most Of us have never heard, the
fact remains that FranCk was French IN
everything except birth. lie went to
Paris at the age of fifteen years and,
except for two years which he spent
in Belgium after he left the Paris Con-
servatoire, where ne did not finish his
course, he spent the rest of his long
and busy life in the French capital.
And whether he be French musically
or not, according as one rejects or ac-
cepts the Dcbussy dictum, it is true
that he exerted greater influence over
the French composers OF his time and
! the succeeding generation than any
composer who has ever lived in that
country. and that among his close fol-
lowers were more great musicians than
among those of any other French mas
ter. not excepting Debussy himself.
INIHILE in another hundred years
w Franck may not be ranked among
the great musical geniuses of the world,
he certainly will be considered among
the great talents (to use the difercntia-
tiOn of Ernst Nc,Imann| and also among
the great musical innovators nlong GER
tain lines. Whether the lines which
he laid down will remain permanent
and strongly enough dclincat"d in that
history of music which il still to be
written will decide the permanent
position Of the master.
There have been fcw composers OF any
rank whatever who lived the retired
life of Cesar Franck, Indifferent alike
to the applause or the ccnsurc OF the
crowd, doing his creative work between
the giving Of lessons and in the early
morning. 1t was the perfect example
of living a life OF art for arts sake.
The central quality Of his music may
perhaps best be described In the word
mysticism" characteristic not In.
troduced into music before his day, but
quality which Franck put into
every composition which came from his
pen. To quote from Ilugus lmbert ::
Before him music was scholastic,
naive, graceful. emotional. passionate,
descriptive or picturesque, but this new
quality (mysticisml had not before been
revealed. Even the mysticism Of
'Pursifal' has little in common with that
of The Beatitudes. The nature Of
Cesar Franck, who passed sn much OF
his time in divine contemplation. under
| whose fingers the organ of st; Clothilde;
rather with angels than with men, led
him toward this new development of
| his beloved art.
LONE Of Cesar Franck's greatest con-
~ tributions to his art was the revival
and the enrichment Of the ancient
! forms of canon, of which peculiarly
| fine example Is the finale Of the sonata
for violin and piano, where strict canon
| Is used In Il manner to make the hearer
forget the usual inflexibility of the
form. And no composer except Schu-
bert wrote his musical personality into
| his work more indelibly and more per-
sistently thnn Franck.
For this reason his music is intensely
individual and could be mistaken for
| the music of no other composer by the
trained hearer, There are certain char
actcristics, such ns his fondness for
chromatics, by the constant employment
of the smallest intervals, the habit Of
'modulating by thirds, the singular but
VA