New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-05-06
II. E. K. s. Fifty Years
Copyright. 1922 New York Tribune Inc.

Marianne Brandt upIifted their magi-
cal voices in ripping song The other
picture is of krehbiel getting up in
the course of the evening to make a
speech which was full OF enthusiasm
but full also Of horse sense. That was
krehbiel all over Throughout that
Wagnerian period of ours. and / can
wildly recall its rhaps odical drift, he
kept his head. He always kept it. Is
there anything that so quickly dim
mers into mawkish sentim entality as
talk about music? Krehbel was al
ways there with the appropriate brsc-
ing tonic, the humor-and the truth
which kept the balance straight. When
the Boston Orchestra came 20 town
and the romantic posings of that great
conductor, Nikisch, were to the fore
the sacred precincts of old Steinway
Hall overlooked with gush. The next
morning Krehbiel would mop it up with
a few words of concise English and
incidentally, heighten sane valuation of
what the virtuoso could do.
A mastery musical critic is born, not
made. Half of Krehbiels authority
rests upon pure fair. But it is rooted,
also, in a knowledge to which those
who have narrowly observed his meth
DDS can best testify. Long ago
Matthew Arnold defined criticism as
d. -. a.
propagate the best that is known and
thought in the world" Your true
critic is a standard bearer or he is
nothing, a view of the matter against
which the caprice Of "impressionism"
may beat in vain. Criticism is dis
elimination, it is the establishment of
perspectives, it is an effort of the hu
man mind to come into harmony with
the eternal Brightness of things. Look
back over Krehbiel's lifetime Of crit
csm and see If he has not practiced
his art in the light of these principles.
With his incompatible fair it has been
natural for him to feel. But this has
never contented him. He has wanted,
also. to know. If be has written with
intuitive insight he also has written
with reasoned wisdom.
His musical wisdom has made him
the Jupiter Tonans of his profession.
used to feel the force of our friend
Huneker's attitude toward him. Jim
was perfectly willing to disagree with
him when their ideas didn't happen to
coincide. Jim would have disagreed
with the Pope any day. But on point
of exact knowledge, on anything that
involved memory or research or a
familiarity with the canons of musical
art, he took Krehbiel's dictum as axio-
matte. In those early Wagnerian days
used to write reams of musical criti-
cism myself, frequenting all the con-
certs and laying down the law with
great gusto on anybody, from Won BIZ
low to Paderewski from Seidl to
Gericke. 1t was point of honor with
me never to look at Krehbiel until |
had Unsigned my own precious lucu-
brations to the mail, on their way to
the provinces. Then | would turn to
The Tribune, and if | saw, once in so
often, that the great man and | had
come within mile of each other, !
| knew | was right. A generation of
| readers, I'll venture to assert, has gone
through much the same motion. The
customary thing, of course, for a
reader to tell critic is that he has ex-
pressed exactly what the reader has
had in his mind. No doubt But
Krehbiels ratification, | fancy. has
often been mighty comforting thing
Som times, perhaps. the reader might
even admit that Krehbiel had thought
of it first.
Thinking of it first, and effectively