The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-07
The Broad Scope
OF Revolutionary
Music Criticism
By CARL SANDS


criticism will be much broader
than its conventional bourgeois
prototype, which has concerned it
self almost exclusively with Europ-
can ana American concert music
and with only part Of this music at
thatl One would suppose there never
existed at all the great musicS of
Arabia, India, China, Japan and
Indonesia. And as to primitive
music, how many music critics know
anything about it at all-eyen its
very existencel The times are in
deed suspicious for the inception
Of q proletarian music criticism.
From no less an authority than
Professor Johannes Wolf of Berlin
we have support for the dictum that
the whole history Of music has to
be rewritten In the light Of the
knowledge given us Of non Europ-
can music by the recent researches
in Comparative MuSicology.
The scope Of a revolutionary
music criticism is also enlarged by
other than purely musical accre-
lions. In the great cultures of anti
guilty and also in the great cultures
Of the modern Orient, it has been
steadfastly held that muc'c, both in
form and In content, Is Intimately
connected with philosophy, science,
politics and the social order in gen.
eral. Have we or have we not much
to learn here? The question can
only be answered after exhaustive
research. Even our own science
holds much for us that the present
starvation support given to music
ology cannot even estimate.
And lastly, but most important,
the scope Of music criticism will
be widened to include the music
activities and potentialities of the
masses. In this operation musical
criticism will have to make a COM
plete Copernican twist. The focal
point will no longer be the exploits
OF individuals, but mass movements,
mass tendencies and mass achieve
ments. Outstanding personalities
will develop. But they, as well as
| the rank and file musician, will
| develop from something more than
mere accident. They VIII develop
from memorable social necessity.
This and the class consciousness of
it will be their inspiration. And the
nearer we come to communism, the
( wider will be musical culture. There
( will be SO many good musicians that
exceptional talent may not stand
out as far above its fellows as in
the past. Abnormal as well as nor
/ NAL talent may well spend more
time doing other things, live a more
rounded life and so give less time
to music, even as in the life Of
the average man and woman less
time will be spent upon necessary
economic labor and more upon cul-
tural pursuits.
The aim of q revolutionary music
criticism will be, then, two-fold:
first, to help the proletariat discover
it's own sense of musical values and
to translate. by means Of language,
to those who are undeveloped OF
only partially developed musically,
the nature Of musical values as they
appear in music; second. to advance
certain values and to check others,
also by means Of language, in actual
music work itself. Bourgeois musical
criticism has consistently obscured
the fact that musical value is given
primarily In music and only second
arilv in LANGUAGE.
The true music critic Is the COM
poser: by division Of labor, the per-
former also partakes, but to lesser
extent, Of this function. When a
man conposes or plays a certain
work he virtually answers the cues
ton what. at this time. constitutes
musical value?" He presents it then
and there. The study and the dis
cussion Of 1t has already taken
place in the studio. But the literary
critic Of music cannot present mus
ical value itself. He can only pre-
sent something about, usually round
about, musical value, a much
slighter and more equivocal achieve
ment. Nevertheless, in spite of its
obvious inferiori-y. qua criticism,
this little is OF paramount import
ance today on account of the fact
that in our present social system
we are all Of us, even musicians,
better eHuinped in the technique of
language than in the technique Of
music. The revolutionary movement
Is conducted primarily in language
and in action. Music. recorded from
this viewpoint as part Of the action,
can and must be kept in line with
the rest Of the acton. This will be
done to no small extent by the Ian
| guage of music criticism.
Admits Propagandistic Aim
And here it must be noted that