Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-16
Nj USIC
AARON CoPLAND's LECTURE.
An audience that seemed to includ

| AANON AOx AANU y LEI OAhEss
An audience that seemed to include
equal parts Of those possessing academ.
ic curiosity abou5 the new music and
those who are well known musicians
of Washington filled the little auditori-
UNI at the Y. w. G. A. last night to
hear what one of Americas leading
young composers had to say on the SUBJ
ject. Mr.. COPELAND, although he has
come to be known chiefly as q serious
composer who has adapted jazz ideas
and effects to his own uses very clearly,
Is recognized In serious music circles as
a writer of original and very worth
while orchestral music. Tonight, In
New York. a new trio written by Mr..
COPELAND, based upon The theme Of q
song he heard in 1.-THE Dybbuk" a sea-
| son or so ago, will be given its premiere.
This work is for violin, violoncello and
piano and will be played by such artists
as the first violinist and celliSt of the
famous Belgian Pro Arte String Quar-
tet and Walter Gieseking, probably
the foremost pianist who plays the
ultra -moderns as sympathetically as he
does the works of the classiciStS.
In opening his talk last night, Mr..
COPELAND touched briefly upon the fact
that music Is the most difficult Of all
the arts for people generally to under
stand in its most modern complexities,
for 1t is not like new book that the
ambitious seeker can reread for himself
and so become accustomed to, or pic
ture that can be studied over and over
again. On the contrary, even the most
keenly interested musicians - young
composers who are working toward
similar ends-find that even In New
York, where the new music Is more
available than anywhere else in this
country, these new works are not played
frequently enough to give one most
alphabetically interested SUFFICIENT OPP
portunitieS to hear them. Music, how
ever, cerebrally conceived and cleverly
written on paper, must be performed to
live
Mr.. COPELAND then briefly took up the
chief divisions of music-melody, har-
mony, rhythm and form-showing that,
in the final analysis, the only one OF
these four that seemed weakly developed
In the newest music was form. He stated
that the principal need Of the present
time was new form to fit the new
uses of melody. of the revived barbaric
rhythmS and the new harmonic ideas
as involved in polytonality and
atonality.
He spoke of the naturally romantic
quality inherent In music and the de-
finite trend since the days Of Debussy
and Richard Strauss, away from sub
jective use of music such as Is broadly
examplcd in the Wagnerian works, to-
ward an objective attitude. Mr.. Cop
land divided his "moderns" into three
decades, roughly speaking-1900-10, the
period Of Debussy and r. Strauss; 1910
20. the period covering two definite
schools-the pre-war, with Strawinsky
and Schoenberg as dominant figures, and
the postwar, with Antheil, Hindenith
and the Group de Six of Paris; 1920
to the current date with Strawinsky and
Hindemith still dominating figure among
international composers.
Mr.. COPELAND emphasized the ne
cessity to recognize the fact that
Harmony Is not static" He touched
upon outstanding points demonstrating
the aims and uses Of polytorality (when
two or more tonalities are fused to give
intricacy in effects In a composition)
and also Of tonality when the COM