Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-24
BY HENRIETTA STRACS.
FRANKFORT. Germany


THE fifth festival of the Interna-
tional Society for New Music
opened June 90. 1927, and this date
might we'll be starred as a red-letter
occasion in musical history. 1t marked
the beginning of a new era in musical
progress. The art expression of every
era has always had to fight for it's
place in the art world Few people
preserve the grace of open minds as
they grow older, because to do so
means the constant labor of readjust-
ing ideas, and from this mental lazi-
ness on the part of the public. modern
music, like every other modern art
has had to suffer. But the modern
musician has been wiser than his
predecessors. Instead of submitting
meekly to the indifference, or rebelling
holly against the ridicule and attacks
brought about by this same laziness.
he has steadily combated it with con-
structive propaganda. This propa-
ganda has taken the form of societies
TO promote this new doctrine, of con-
certs to present it and of magazines
to expound it. In the beginning it was
handicapped by chauvinism, for this
beginning was made during the World
ruled all other. Fortunately, this was
quickly superseded, at the close of the
war, by a desire for a more complete
international union. And so, in 1921,
while the so-called civilized nations of
the world were still seething with
political hatreds, a handful of must
clans from each of these nations
gathered almost secretly together in
SalZburg to exchange their musical
ideas. A Gordon of police, it is true,
had to guard the concert hall on the
day assigned to the French, but the
venture nevertheless proved so sue
cessful that the next year it was re-
peated openly as an official occasion,
open to the world.
Thus began the International So
ciety for New Music, and it's annual
festival which, to live up to the So
ciety's name in every point, is held
each year in a different country. This
year marks it's first in Germany. And
this year marks even more, for where
modern music in 1921 was being given
in Vienna, for instance. in an obscure
hall at the top of an old building, with
every door and window of the hall
closed to guard literally, as well as
figuratively, the disapproval of the
man in the street, this year of
grace, 1927. sees the city of Frankfurt,
also old in its musical culture, invit-
ing a Society for New Music to take
part in its official festival. And so the
musician of today has won his decade
of struggle by asking the public not
to like his music, but: to listen to it,
for only by listening can understand
ing come, and only by understanding
can we progress.
The, opening program was Busoni's
opera, Doctor Faust" This was the
great Italian pian:;t's last composition,
and for this, it's first performance, it
was completed and edited by Phillip
Jarnach. whose own" Sinfornia Bre.
Wis.," was just recently given at the
Lower Rhine music festival. In his
interesting program notes on ''Doktor
Faust" Edw ,rd j. Dent. president of
the society. under whose auspices it
was presented, tells us that Busoni
had long wished to write an opera
around some single, great figure, or
story or fable: that he had even
spoken to D'Annunzio about it, sug-
costing as hero, Leonardo Da Vinci.
But DAnnunzio being more expert
enced, and, as Mr.. Dent wittily adds,
a better Italian, advised against it,
because Da Vinci had had no love ad-
ventures. Don Juan was then
thought of, but there was Mozart's,
and Busoni had too much respect for
Goethe to tackle his Faust" At last
he thought of the old puppet-play on
Faust, and from this he took his idea.
Faust moves throughout the play, a
great, lonely figure of genius.symbol.
izing the artist. who gives prodigally
OF himself. and yet is always alone.
Marguerite we do not see, but like her,
her successor, the duchess, and even
the devil himself pass before us as
shadows in Faust's own consciousness.
to which the present is always the
past, and the past always forgotten.
Busoni, unlike Goethe, does not, as
Mr.. Dent points out, let. US know
Faust's end. The body dies. but what
1T Willed must go on, to be fulfilled by
the next generation. Should this
man perish?" asks Mephistopheles, at
the clio: %
1t must be confessed that, aside
from the Notwithstanding and absorb
ing personality of Faust which, &C.
cording again to Mr.. Dent Busoni
drew in this instance from his own.
the work itself is very dull. Busoni
seems to have lacked for one thing.