The New York herald., 1922-03-12

manenIly IdSclnat0 Us. InOSe Wnt
cry out to the gifted and ambitious
composers: Let your feelings, your
thoughts. your ideas be great and
noble, as great and noble as those
of our great masters; then you will
produce the right kind of works, and
just as you produce them they will
be right.
what the Spirit Impels.
And IL you cannot do this. then
mount Pelion upon Ossa. write for a
thousand ,trombones and 100000 ket-
tledrums; nothing will result but a
bogy. Brilliant technicality is not
enough. Naturalnes. straightfor-
ward and powerful sincerity-that is
what we want. Write down without
fear what your spirit impels you to
write and express wEat must be ex-
pressed. Then 1t will be the image of
yourself. an expression of your own
nature. Have, moreover, the courage
to remain what you are, even IL you
are misjudged or torn TO pieces. Only
do not think that a ninth symphony
or 4 Nibelungen tetralogy will result
from your attempts. The world will
be very thankful to you for an opera
in the style OF Lortzing or for a SYM
phony such as Hermann Goetz has
written, provided what you have COM
posed is genuine and not artificial"
Having read these words Achmet
arose and lighted a perfumed ciga-
rette. He took down from the rose
wood shelf the score of Weingartner's
symphony in r major And therein
he perceived that the composer had
not written for a thousand trombones,
but for three and tuba: that he had
employed not 100000 kettledrums but
three. Achmet further observed that
the master had asked for six horns,
three trumpets, bass trumpet, a
large array of wooden wind instru-
ments, the triangle Of the Janissaries
the celesta Of the Cossacks. the bass
drum OF the British grenadiers and
the organ of the cathedral.
Few instruments indeed had es-
capped the eagle eye OF the philosopher
who SO wisely exhorted youthful as
pirants in the world of music to be
continent in their employment of ap-
paratus and to seek for simple, strong
brave utterance of the thoughts which
we're natural to their minds and not
to strive to plunge into tie wild vor-
tex of Zarathustran oceans or fest
with the rfbaldry of TIL Eulenspiegel.
Thereupon Achmet sat down and
communed with himself thus: "whc
was II that said. We may give advice
but we cannot give conduct? 1t was
the same sage who wrote. The de.
sire of appearing to be wise often pre-.
vents our becoming So Who was Il,
All. yet, ] do now recall his name. II
was Rochefoucauld. philosopher OF
the Gauls. who are greatly addicted tc
advice and philosophy"
Laborious Reachinss for sound.
And after this Achmet marveled. FOL
he could see upon the pages of tn,
symphony laborious reachings after
prodigious power of sound and only
here and there the seed grain OF a
simple. natural idea which was In.
stantly strangled In the throats oi
many horns, trumpets, trombones
tubas and other devouring beasts Of
the orchestral forests And Achmet
carried from the rosewood shelf tn,
score of Bloch's quartet, which was
free OF bowling wind instruments, and
therein he found that every simpl,
natural idea was seized the moment Il
appeared and garroted by weird chords
OF the perverted seventeenth or shot
through the middle by a poisoned
staccato from the first violin.
Thereupon Achmet breathed dc.
tected sigh, and went forth to tho
opera. And there he heard many
promising melodies split into frag.
ments by the piercing tones OF mighty
singers, tones which issued with a
muzzle velocity OF not less than 800
feet per second and were capable oi
penetrating eight inches of chilled
steel at a distance OF 5000 yards. And
each and every time one OF these
tones was discharged the populacs
thundered its approval even as II
Babe Ruth had hit one for five hun.
dred iron men. And again Achme,
wondered where all the simple. natura'
ideas In music we're to be found. And
he went home much discouraged.
And yet a few evenings later, his
courage being revived, he returned tc
the opera and heard one Gigli sins
n quaint little song In an opera called
lie Roi d'Ys." And the applause Of
the people was mighty. whereupor
Achmet said INTO himself, why, how
now? When any one permits the peo-
pie TO hear something simple. natural