Evening star., 1954-01-10
News of Music

The National Symphony and
Evelyn Swarthout join this
Wednesday in performing the
greatest piece of music ever
written, the Mozart piano con-
certo in G, x. 453. We disre-
gard those who believe that
there exist two or three other
works also worthy of the same
epithet, and thus in one swoop
we defy both the fat against
the grandioSe superlative and
the logician's niggardly cham
pionship of one single peak Of
perfection.
One aspect of this concerto
leads into a fruitful chain OF
thought, the musical portray
ing or suggesting Of physical
objects or actions, and also
Is a tribute to Washington's
oldest guest, the startling.
While the imitation Of ma
ture by musicians is common.
1t Is rarely, if indeed there
exists another example. that
nature copies the artist. After
this concerto was written,
Mozart was delighted one day
to hear a starting in a pet shop
singing the theme of the last
movement. He bought the
bird and recorded the incident
in his notebook. The song is
note for note Identical with
the Mozart theme except that
the bird sang G sharp instead
of G natural. The Viennese
singer, if am not guilty OF
diSparaging home talent. while
he may have had no better
voice than his Pennsylvania
avenue colleagues, certainly
chose a better program.
Welded to Words
It is surprising now and
then to hear expressed disdain
of music that attempts to por-
tray attributes of the physical
world. A peculiar reverence
for pure music-music entirely
unconfounded with any rep
reSentational idea-iS a trait
of the Goth century music
lover not shared with most
of the greatest composers from
PaleStrina to Honegger.
In the first place, there has
been surprisingly little music
written, comparatively speak
ing. not associated in some
way with words. Before the
18th century. only a small
part of the tremendous guam
tity of music produced was for
instruments alone, and the
25 volumes of the COM
plete works of Beethoven.
universally regarded as pri-
marily an instrumental COM
poser. devote seven to vocal
music.
In the second place, COM
posers of every age and of all
temperamentS simply have not
been averse to extra musical
associations in their work. This
"extra-muSical" element (the
term seems satisfactory, for
who has defined the bounds of
music0 may be divided into
three categories: ID Music
that has no other excuse than
portraiture; (2) music that in
PRODUCES actual descriptive
sounds into its structure, and
go music that uses more or
less stereotyped symbols to
identify situations, objects or
emotions.
First Group Small
The first group, an exceed
ingly small one, is exemplified
by Honegger's Pa3fic 231. This
piece is an attempt to initiate
the sound of a locomotive. 1t
would be complete nonsense to
an auditor who had never
heard a locomotive, and it is
difficult to imagine any one,
musical or not, who, knowing
the sound of an engine, would
not be Immediately aware of
what was happening.
The use of sleigh bells in a
piece of Mozart called. THE
Sleighride." gongs sounded
IL times to indicate midnight
in operas, hunting horns to
give a forewarning of venison,
are several of countless ex-
amples of group two.
1t is only the third group,
by far the largest and most
universal, that merits any ex-
tended discussion. The con-
sideration of musical symbol
ism is one of the most fasci-
mating aspects Of music-at
once naive and profound.
Most Of this symbolism must
be explained to be noticed