Evening star., 1926-11-13

music brought up to appreciate and
| love the works of the old German
masters. those sublime musical fig
ures who combined technique with
taste, depth of knowledge with depth
of feeling.
| This audience, as all audiences, how
ever, was not above the mass instinct.
1t Is noticeable at all concerts.
| whether in city or town, metropolis
or village, that an invisible compulSiOjl
to applaud seems to hang over the as
/ semblage.
The real reason for this feeling Is
that the average music lover feels
| that if he does not applaud the num-
ber, if given without any very bad
technique, the other music lovers
present will imagine that he is not
musically we'll educated.
The safe way. therefore, and ths
only sure way, to impress ones
neighbors, at the average concert,
! with ones own knowledge and taste
is to applaud as loudly as any other
person present.
Whence arises the common phenom-
enon that practically every number
gets as much applause as any num-
| ber. The astute musician, whether
| instrumental performer or vocalist.
soon learns that Flip" on the end
of a composition, or particularly
| loud ending note, will set the average
audience into a veritable roar of hand
clapping. The calling of bravo is
| rarer in this country, and is not often
heard outside of New York.
This form of musical snobbery pre-
walls to such an extent that in listen
| ing to the quartet numbers previously
mentioned we were able to prophesV
! that. the three movements OF the
Americans ultra modern quartet would
receive exactly the same applause as
that accorded the music of Mozart
| and Beethoven.
| sure enough, that was exactly what
| happened, despite the very eVlden'
fact that it was virtually Impossible
| for those who really liked Beethoven
and Mozart to care a particle for the
strange "modernistic" composition.
The American composer work was
"jellyfish music" purely and slmpiy.
AS far as one could tell, on a first
hearing, there was not a single plt Oh
| true musical invention in 1t.
There were Indian themes" galore,
but none of them got anywhere. There
was much sound and fury, but, as
| Shakespeare said, it signitied nothing.
There were pluckings of the violon-
cello strings at intervals, the cheap
| est sort of technical trick.
There were discords and dissonances
enough to make Wagner jealous, but,
unlike the motifs of that master,
these whoops by the first and second
violins never resolved themselves into
any harmony or purposes whatsoever.
At least, If they did, it would take
many. many hearings-as many play
| ings as the quartet members indulged
| in, in practice-for the members OF
any audience to really appreciate and
like the thing.
Yet each movement got great
| "hand," and at the end Of the un-
shapen mass Of musical groanings
there was such a roar of applause as
neither Mozart or Beethoven has
| received.
| Probably the audience felt relieved
| that it was over! Perhaps much of the
applause at the end of concerts is due
| to this perfectly natural cause.
| Yet no doubt the dear audience,
| while vending it's way from the hall,
each person hopeful that every other
person would think that he or she
was musically well educated, We'd with
one another in saying, "Ah, yes, love
Beethoven and Mozart, but wasn't
that lawst numbah simply exquisite!'