Scan 6
Musical Courier 1892-08-03: Vol 25 Iss 649, 1892
49 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 7. See the scan on archive.org.
1Herald" wish to say that Mr. Arens was not commissioned by the proper authorities to give an American concert in connection with the International Exhibition at Vienna? In this case the "Herald" certainly is wrong, for the program book of the concert in question was edited and published by the International Musical and Theatrical Exhibition, Vienna, 1892. The title page runs thus:
3TUESDAY, JULY 5, 1892, 8 O'CLOCK P.M.
4Second symphony concert of foreign composers and guest-conductors. Production of works by American composers.
6Nor is this all. At the conclusion of the first part, members of the music committee on behalf of the official commission went on the platform and personally handed Mr. Arens a huge laurel wreath amid the tumultuous plaudits of both audience and orchestra. On the streamers attached to the wreath (which Mr. Arens brought with him as a souvenir) this inscription is printed in large golden letters: "Dem ausgezeichneten Dirigenten Herr F. X. Arens, Die Commission der Internationalen Ausstellung für Musik und Theaterwesen, Wien 1892" (To the distinguished conductor, Mr. F. X. Arens, from the Commission of the International Musical and Theatrical Exhibition, Vienna, 1892). This seems to leave no doubt as to the fact that the American composers' concert on July 5 in truth was given under the auspices of the Vienna Exhibition; or does the "Musical Herald" hold that Mr. Arens secured the commission under the pretense of having been sent by America to officially represent his country at the Vienna Exhibition? If so, where are the proofs of such an assertion?
8Mr. Arens when approached on the subject, said in substance as follows: "The commission to conduct an American composers' concert was not secured under any false pretenses whatsoever. It came about partly through the uncommonly favorable criticisms on my previous concerts, partly through the enthusiastic efforts of Mrs. Grant, wife of our Minister to the court of Vienna, and the hearty co-operation of Consul General Goldsmith, and partly through the mediatorship of Nicodé, the composer, who wrote an enthusiastic letter about my Dresden concert to Professor Wüllner, of Cologne, a member of the official commission for Germany. Dr. Wüllner in turn wrote a very warm letter to Dr. Hans Müller, chairman of the German commission, mentioning Nicodé and Rubinstein as his references, whereupon Dr. Müller submitted the matter to Ritter von Hermann, chairman of the music committee. Shortly after I received official notice, signed by the president, the director and secretary, to the effect that the commission were happy to place an American composers' concert under my conductorship on the official program of the International Exhibition, at the same time offering me 200 florins to cover my traveling expenses."
10Waxing indignant, Mr. Arens continued: "The attitude of the 'Musical Herald' in this matter is as silly as it is vicious. By what power, divine or human, does that sheet forbid the American composer to shun European audiences? By what authority does it prohibit me to admire the works of my colaborers in the vineyard and to do to the utmost in my power to convince others of their merit? For the last six or seven years the American painter has enjoyed the privilege of being represented at the various art exhibitions at the Salon in Paris, Munich, Berlin, &c. Not that they at once took the world by storm, not that they had developed something entirely original and hitherto unheard of; but they did bring evidence of the fact that in the great republic beyond the Atlantic other than merely material interests are rapidly developing. At first barely noticed, they were spurred on by the ambition aroused through international competition, with the result that honors and medals of various degrees are now being awarded them at each and every exhibition. At the last exhibition in Berlin there hung a picture in the American department with the label attached, 'Bought by the German Government.' Although I had never before heard of the artist, my heart swelled with justifiable pride at the sight of this significant piece of cardboard. At the Munich exhibition of this year one of the grandest pictures on exhibit has Karl Marr, the German American, as its author. Now, I ask, would our American artists hold this respectable position among the fraternity if they had anxiously avoided European criticism by exhibiting their pictures in America only?
12"According to the silly remarks of the 'Musical Herald' it would seem as if I had stolen the scores from the desks of Foote, Paine and the others at the dead of night, and much against their will had absconded therewith to Europe. I very much dislike forcing the names of these gentlemen into the controversy, but the simple fact is that I not only received the scores (and parts) from Beck, Busch, Shelley, Kelley, Foote, Paine, Chadwick, Bird, Schönefeld, Gleason, &c., but that some of these gentlemen even supported the scheme financially, by personal contributions and in some instances even by soliciting funds from their friends for the worthy cause. And as to the official character of the Vienna concert I consider that the greatest achievement, both as to my labors and as to the merits of the American composers. If the American painter is deemed worthy to appear at the official exhibits of Europe, why shouldn't the American composer? Or does the 'Musical Herald' hold that our composers are inferior to their brethren of the brush and chisel? O the hypocrisy of it all! This would-be American music journal in feigned wrath anathematizes me, and with me all my colleagues and supporters, for daring to believe in the musical ability of the American nation, while in truth it is just as devoid of genuine patriotism as it is of the sense of journalistic honor. If you wish, you may publish the fact that the 'Musical Herald' already has suppressed a former answer of mine to its attack in the February number, which stamps it to be as cowardly as it is vicious. If any repudiating is to be done let the mask be torn off the 'Musical Herald;' let it be exposed in all its hypocrisy and anti-American tendency. The musical public will then know which is the pretender—I or the 'Musical Herald.'"
14So far Mr. Arens. We are forced to admit that if the assertions of Mr. Arens are true, the "Musical Herald" has struck a hornet's nest. To ascertain this we have written Nicodé, asking him whether he wrote that enthusiastic letter to Dr. Wüllner with reference to Rubinstein; also, whether he deemed the American composers sufficiently advanced to be granted the honor of a representation at an international musical exhibition, and, lastly, if he considered Mr. Arens' abilities as conductor sufficient to warrant a worthy performance. We shall publish the answer, which, because of the position of Nicodé in the musical world, will settle this vexed question once for all.
16THE RACONTEUR.
18"1849. A Vindication." By Wm. Ashton Ellis, editor of "The Meister." London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. 1892.
20NOT many moons since Mr. Ellis published in "The Meister" a general denial of Ferdinand Praeger's account of Richard Wagner's participation in the Dresden émeute in 1848 (which book, you will remember, I discussed in extenso). Finding, however, that this tentative study but whetted his Wagnerian appetite for minute details, Mr. Ellis has, under the title of "1849. A Vindication," just published a pamphlet of seventy-two pages, in which he strives to show that Richard Wagner did not participate openly in the Saxon uprising, that he did not shoulder a musket, shoot Prussians and say: "To hell with the king."
22Frankly, I am disappointed if Mr. Ellis' conclusions are warrantable. It appears that one Wagner, a journeyman baker, was the Wagner who shot the Lieutenant von Krug, and that the authorities and also the accounts afterward published confused him with the great Richard. Again am I overwhelmed. Being for the people I naturally welcomed with pleasure the mental picture of the composer of "Meistersinger" leaping upon the barricade heading a regiment of fanatics (after their rights be it understood) against that old, misguided despot, the weakling king of the Saxons. Instead of all this Wagner led the signals (rockets) and the alarm bells and left the city for Paris via Weimar when matters grew too hot. Incidentally Mr. Ellis denies the story about Wagner sipping a water ice which he had procured through the courage and imminent peril of a friend.
24The fact of the matter is that Mr. Ellis' book, while it corrects some slips of the memory on the part of the late Ferdinand Praeger, is mainly written for English readers of royalist predilections. Else why this bother to explain away Wagner's connection with the democratic cause? Wagner was an ardent lover of liberty, a democrat, a hater of royalty, in a word he was as much ahead of his people and times in politics as he was in music. Richard Wagner was a born revolutionist, the Socialist of music just as Hector Berlioz may be called its Anarchist. If he trimmed his politics later it was because Wagner the artist dominated Wagner the politician, but trim them he did, Mr. Ellis to the contrary notwithstanding.
26That famous incendiary letter cannot be disproved and Count von Beust knew of its existence. Mr. Ellis quotes Von Beust's flippant remark about Wagner's conduct when the old opera house was burnt: "I don't know whether he sang for the occasion Frisch, Feuer, Flamme, Frohlich und Furchtbar." As an evidence that the letter had no existence Wagner was heart and soul with the cause, and with Roeckel, Bakunin (the famous Nihilist) and Heubner doubtless planned the campaign. He was ever a discontented firebrand, and as he had grievances galore, he, with his socialistic tendencies and untamable idealism, readily embraced the cause.
28But why apologize for all this, Mr. Ellis? Why shouldn't he, or in fact any other man, rise and overthrow a silly, despotic, outworn form of government?
30England will go through it all some day and will be mightily improved if she rids herself of the incubus of royalty.
32What one deplores in Wagner's character was his instability in any cause, for his motives were generally selfish ones. He was first to enter a verbal fight and first to relinquish it if matters grew serious. This was a personal characteristic, as many have testified, and a characteristic I would say of most physically small men. The world is the gainer by his intense adherence to the old aphorism, "He who fights and runs away will live to fight another day." If Wagner had been killed in the Dresden barricades we would not have had his choicest work. Poor Henri Regnault, you remember, was killed by a spent bullet in 1871 at Buzeval (or Bougival?), and in one of the very last skirmishes of the Franco-Prussian campaign.
34What would not this talented youth and creator of "The Moorish Execution," "General Prim" (both in the Luxembourg), have not painted if he had been spared? So, after all, Wagner leading a gang of frowzy revolutionists is not so consoling a picture as Wagner hobnobbing with kings, composing "Tristan," and suppressing all references to his anti-royalism in later editions of his works. A time server in two senses was Richard. There can be but little doubt that Praeger's memory was defective, but no special pleading such as Mr. Ellis' in this book can destroy the impression that Richard Wagner was a born revolutionist, dabbled in revolutionary plots and promptly ran away to Switzerland at the proper time.
36There is no gainsaying, however, that Mr. Ellis' book is not interesting, not devoid of acuity, and a valuable contribution to Wagneriana.
38"Across the Plains" is a collection of Robert Louis Stevenson's essays published by Charles Scribner's Sons. Full of the rhythmical throb of life, exquisitely phrased, this book of memorabilia of the self exiled Samoan is no whit less interesting or fascinating than his previous works. The still sad music of humanity informs Stevenson's prose, a serious but not a dangerous undercurrent. Even in that most pessimistic essay, "Pulvis et Umbra," which is incorporated in this volume, almost Swiftian in its cruel mockery of mankind, there is a little rift of light toward the close that is as a draught of spring water after sipping wormwood and gall.
40But what a delightful raconteur is Mr. Stevenson! No theme is too slight for him to weave into his myriad contrapuntal fancies. And then his cool flexible English, which hits such a happy mean 'twixt ornamental turgidity and laconic terseness! Ever the poet, but also a keen observer, he can make the squalor of a San Francisco emigrant train interesting and will discourse for you about beggars in a most bewitching manner. The "Letter to a Young Gentleman" should be read by every aspiring author, and the chapter on "The Old Pacific Capital" is alluring in its verbal imagery; one specimen which we here willingly transcribe. Describing a particular Pacific beach, he writes:
42"The waves come in slowly, vast and green, curve their translucent necks, and burst with a surprising uproar that runs, waxing and waning, up and down the long keyboard of the beach. The foam of these great ruins mounts in an instant to the ridge of the sand glacis, swiftly fleets back again and is met and buried by the next breaker."
44Presto—and the picture stands vividly before you, conjured by that magician-painter, Robert Louis Stevenson.
46And now those digital athletes, the pianists, and those wordsmiths, the music critics, are in active training for the coming season's battle, which might be justly summed up as a combat 'twixt musician and critic.
48I received the following narrative from one who
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