The New York herald., 1922-11-05


to do with such things. One of the
most studendous pundits of them all
was Eduard Hanslick, sometime
professor in the University of Wen
na and bitter opponent of every
thing which could be classed as pro-
gram music. In his little book
entitled 'The Beautiful In Music" he
remarked:
Music, we are told, cannot. like
poetry, entertain the mind with def
mite conceptions. nor yet the eye. like
sculpture and painting. with visible
forms. Hence 1t is argued the object
must be to work on the feelings"
Music's Power Limited.
This, be It understood, is diamet-
rically, opposed to Hanslick's own
faith. He held that music had no
power to express emotion. though 1t
undoubtedly might arouse It. But the
point at this moment is ihat he di-
rected our attention to the theory that
music could not indicate concrete OBJ
jects. such as houses. mountains, dogs,
cats or even qianists. Wilhelm Am
bros wrote a book named THE Boun-
daries of Music and Poetry" in which
he attempted to show how far the
composer could go before being COM
PEELED TO invite the assistance of the
written or spoken word. He took is
sue with all those who in his day were
regarded as fantastic idealists or i'm
possible realis.s.
Music" he said, "ever striving con-
formally to its nature after more
definite expression and more distinctly
stamped individuality. has at length
attained a standpoint which ia itself
belonging to the art of the h. elect
seems to push to its outermost ~oun-
dary. because 1t tries to represent or
tho stage of inner soul life what
speech alone can illustrate perfectly
some external event. some object 10
bc grasped by the senses--thus tres
passing upon another domain"
There is still another pundit, Dr.
Ferdinand Hand. who wrote Tho
Aesthetics of Musical Art" but
merciful writer is merciful to his
the metaphysics of Hand will be per-
mitted to repose between the somber
covers of his compact volume. Suffice
u to say that he holds music TO be
created by the need OF man for large
expression Of his feelings. Henslics
said music could not express emo
tions. But all agree that II cannot
define external objects. You must be
told what the external object Is.
When Rameau wrote La Poule,-
he was careful to see that Il had that
-.snne. IL any pianist were to perform
that dehrnt',ii little piece without
putting the name on the program
would ever one mentally see n chicken
or would not some discover In IL tho
portrait Of Partisan gamin or posi-.
bly, Chopin's little dog chasing his own
tailY
When Daquin composed "T.e Coucou,
ls --as un snfe ground. There are
thousands OF people who never hoard
n cuckoo but most of them have heard
mn imitation OF one. and they know the
melancholy. monotonous utterance
very well. When the same gentleman
wrote Les Hirondelles," however. he
needed his title very much The de-
scrlptive powers OF that composition
could never distinguish between
swallow and a newly flushed English
snipe.
Animals All Labeled.
Father Saint -Saens made no blunder
when he dashed off the animal
sketches for US. He followed the illus
trious example of Artemas Wards
panorama painter Ward. the lee
turcr, said: The beast in the lower
left hand corner Is a COW. The artist
came to me this morning with tears in /
his eyes and said: Mr.. Ward. can no
longer conceal the truth. This is "A
COW"
III Saint-Saens had not labeled his |
introduction with the royal name OF
lions you might have thought II rep
resented actors golden chariots trying
TO leave the Lambs Club at 2 A. NJ,