Evening star., 1927-04-05

Observance of the Tooth anniversary
of the death of Ludwig van Beethoven
has been the occasion of an out
pouring of tributes to the inn
mortal composer by Americans in
connection with Beethoven week. Be
sides the recognition OF the great
character of his work and the remark
able personal traits that he possessed,
it is noted everywhere that even in
this age Of jazz his lofty compositions
are appreciated as never before.
Particularly gratifying in an age
of jazz" it appears to the Schenectady
Gazette, is the spectacle of hundreds
in every enlightened community" who
"still love to hear Beethoven's sym
phonies and feel grateful for them"
That paper adds that Beethoven is
being pointed to as the example of an
artist who refused to lower his stand
ard of work for any temporary adj
vantage. He kept up to the creative
pitch so long as he had the use of
his ears and thus achieved much in
extending the frontiers of expression
of the emotions of our nature.
When we are asking, as we are today,
is life worth living? Is democracy
failure? Is marriage a failure?' here
was one of our kind to whom all these
may have been a failure, but who
went ahead doing something he could
best do to make them all a success.
He made life music, whatever it may
have brought him of raw materials
of disappointment or pain"
y x
"In fortune and misfortune, in mo-
ments of pain or Of joyous ecstasy"
according to the Asheville Times,
Beethoven never ceased to hear
within himself those inspired and be-
Witching strains that raised music TO
level never before and not very often
reached afterward. Putting them oD
paper to be reproduced for all ears
but his own, he was conscious of Civ
ing to the world something more than
a sensuous pleasure. Always
he was a man in the best sense of that
term, and always-always- was
faithful worshiper Of beauty in its
most subtle FORM
Notwithstanding the fact that lin
spiration came easily to Beethoven in
the years of his greatest productivity"
the Detroit News finds a lesson of
industry in his life. mo great work
left his hands," points out that paper,
until he had labored at it for days
or months, sometimes for years.
He is great a century after
his death because he set his standards
higher than any one else's and then
stroVe fiercely and bitterly TO realize
them" The Manchester Union finds
in him lone of the greatest creative
intellects of all time" and offers the
judgment that he mot only brought
the classic sonata TO its highest de-
velopment but his modifying touch
was laid upon every element in
music"
Although his death "came at the
climax of middle age when he was
looking forward to the creation of
works still greater" the New York
Times remarks, 1.-The world may
mourn what he might have given and
was not permitted to give. but 1t has
eagerly possessed itself of what he
did give, has made that gift it's own.
as 1t has the product of only the very
greatest genius in any manifestation
of art" The Lexington Leader adds
its tribute, His symphonies and
sonatas are legacies to the race. Their
virtue will remain while time lasts.
Humanity can never live them down
or permit them to die. Indeed, more
and more, as ages pass, they viii
exercise greater influence as civiliZa-
ton and culture advance and the
world is better able to appreciate them
and feel their power"
X X X
Genuine greatness, honorably at
tanned" and greatness written in a
life of hard work" are phrases APP
piled TO his achievements by the
Omaha World Herald. The Kalamazoo
Gazette declares that like the dra-
matte works of the great Elizabethan,
the compositions of Beethoven consti-
tute q debt which posterity can re-.