Evening star., 1926-09-10
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E.. TRACEWELL.

who pretend to look with horror upon
a tune.
We suspect such musicians are in
| the class with most of the free
verse" poets-they do not compose
| real melodies because they cannot,
| just as the new" poets do not i'll
dulge in rhyme because they cannot
| handle it.
| There are two classes of melodies
the trite and the perfect. The trite
| tune is the obvious thing that beats
it's way to success with African drum
accents in the hundreds of foxtrpts
ground out by. dance orchestras every
year.
Occasionally one of these .fox-trots
| forgets itself, and achieves the dis
t1nction of being a real melody. 1t
has something more to it than beat.
| 1t has pattern. The pattern of song
is the architecture. as it were, the
! picture. Great melodies have great
patterns. They are not obvious, yet,
when once heard, are inevitable.
| The perfect melody Is more than
| the combination of musical sounds,
according to certain laws of the
| musical art as worked out by men
| over the centuries. 1t is pattern
| in notes. using the staff as the ground
work. 1t is not something that just
grew" usually, but is the working out
| into sounds, intangible things at best,
of even more evanescent thought.
A true melody comes about as near
as man can achieve to putting into
definite form the vaguest longings of
the human heart.
That is why it is best to listen to
music with the eyes shut, or in a
dal kened room. To receive the studio
mr. Of f<,l tor
your radio Sunday night with all the
lights out is to get a new conception
of musical enjoyment, If you have
never tried it before.
To hear a good soprano sing thus a
Herbert waltz song is to be waited to
great heights, to be elevated on the
wings of songs, as Mendelssohn so
well said long ago.
X X X X
Melody is essential to great music,
yet to listen to some talk one would
think it a poor relation of time and
harmony AS a matter of fact, melody
holds first place at the musical feast.
1t occupies foremost place, and al
ways has, and, in so far as we are
given to see, always will. Composers
may come and composers may go,
but it is hard to see how the works
of the great German music masters
will ever be bettered. One comes
back to them every time.
1t was the glory Of Victor Herbert
that he wrote in their spirit. a piece
Of music was not musical to him, un-
less it was based upon a melodic pat
tern, a structure of dreams and in
spiration, yet tangible as we'll built
house. He knew music in theory and
1ti y hn tIJ0 a
he loved them himself and knew that
every one else does, in his heart.
We would not give any one of the
numerous waltz songs of Victor Her
bert for thousand and one tuneless
and worthless songs about some lit
tie bird sitting on branch and calling
to it's mate, or any of the other stuff
and nonsense that masqueradeS as
"art," and bores countless millions of
radio listeners.
Victor Herbert was a very human
man; perhaps that is why he knew
how to win the heart of his chosen
countrymen with melodies that will
never die. Where one has loved his
music in the past, 10 will love 1t next
year, and 10 more the next. He spoke
in musical idiomS we can understand,
yet his themes are never common
place, threadbare, worn-out. He was
d we'll of musical invention, and the
only word we have to describe it is
genius" Perhaps it is enough.