Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-07
NJ u S [ C.
BY HELEN FETTER.

| edge OF music is more likely to fiji
the bill than the musician with some
knowledge OF writing. since all
criticism. whether of music, the
drama. painting or any other art
remains primarily a branch of litera-
ture, rather than branch of the art
with which it deals. Admitting the
ephcmeral character of criticism, the
terms literature and art have to be
construed very literally, but they do
apply loosely to newspaper and peri
odical criticism. Music criticism,
whatever the special knowledge re-
CURED. is i'll its essence a thing OF
the written word, not the printed or
played note.
Again, in the most recent issue OF
the same periodical, Mephisto, taking
up again the cause of the music critic
as described above, III column on
Mistakes OF Critics, says:
"Schumann, YOU will note, made
mistakes as critic quite comparable
TO those OF Hanslick Ia Pragus
critic). The same could be said, l
think, OF Berlioz and other famous
creative and executive musicians who
cssaved criticism. This, it seems to
me. rather knocks the pins from UNI
der those who argue that the trouble
with criticism is that the critics are
musical nobodics. and that things
would be very different if musicians
and their music could really be judged
BIZ a jury of peers. What one OF
our Young modernists, for instance,
would really relish reading a review
of his latest experiment in cacophony,
written by Richard Wagner: And
would our singers be any more con-
tent with what was said about them
If the reviews carried the by-lines OF
Nellie Melba, Marcella Sembrich and
Geraldine Farrar?
"Pianists, particularly, seem to
think they do not receive a square
deal from the reviewers and some OF
them are forever challenging the
critics to come up on the platform
and do as we'll Entirely aside from
OLGA Samaroff's adventures Ill critl-
cism and DIN Downes' reply in the
three piano fling he shared with john
Erskine and Ernest UchS last sea-
son. I know not whether to smoker
or shudder when think what their
feelings would be- if one Vladimir de
Pachmann were asked to sit III iudg-
ment upon them.
MANY eloquent pens have drawn
wi vivid pictures of the trials and
unappreciated hardships of the
artistic performer-unappreciated by
the public that thinks of that artist
only in terms of satisfaction or dis
satisfaction which that public has re-
ceived for the money paid to see and
hear concert or opera. Until TINS
recent comment in musical journals,
little has been said of the much more
hapless person elected to the thank
less post of music reviewer. Mr..
DIN Downes Of the New York Times,
leading music critic of this coun-
try, has given a conservative glimpse
of some of the critics trials. lie
says:
THE lot of the reviewer is much
more difficult and complex and much
more dependent upon individual ca
pacity than that of the artist. Ad-
hitting that the artist is nervous be-
fore his audience, what is to. be said
of the audience, not OF thousands,
but of hundreds of thousands, that
the reviewer faces tomorrow morn
ing? How much time and how much
aid has he in preparing to face it!
The artist knows exactly what to ex-
pect and exactly what he is to do
in advance of his performance.
Every minute is calculated and pre-
pared for. The critic can only open
his mind, sharpen his ears, concen-
trate with the utmost possible in
tensity on what is passing and then
prepare. in an hour, more or less, a
recital of his cool judgment and his
emotional reaction. Nor is his re-
cital mere recounting OF tact. he
has not only to relate that at 7 :4O
last evening the curtain rose on
"Meistersinger" that the tenor origi-
nally announced was replaced by an
other tenor of even worse quality,
owing to the first tenor's illness that
the Eva was better than the Magda-
lena, and the Sachs one of the best
that has appeared in the opera these
several seasons hereabouts; but he
is to convey in an artistic manner
impressions of beauty and fine
shades of meaning and this in way
that will have distinction and meet
the test of cold print and cool-headed
perusal the following morning!
at is an appalling task; how diff
cult is only known to those who have
tried it. The mere reporting of facts
would not be SO difficult, even
though it must be conducted in gat-
ling-gun fashion. But criticism is
so much more than that. 1t requires
such clearness of thinking, such
weighing of values, and over and
above the structure Of reason and
logic, the play of the imagination
the color of words that will give
some reflex of the feeling of the
music. The structural task alone is
an imposing one. The writer has to
create from a mass of facts, impress
sions, emotional reactions, literary
form that is clear, compact. and as
interesting as possible for the reader
He is at one and the same time ar
architect and an improvisation, and
all this while the presses rumble
and there are 15-minute calls fol
copy, and the hours fly fast, and the
nerves tighten"
X n
Several years of experience in tht
capacity of music reviewer has de.
veloped from facts the following I'M
pressions:
CD The professional musician OF