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Musical Courier 1895-11-06: Vol 31 Iss 818, 1895
69 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. Printed page 7. See the scan on archive.org.
1PARIS OFFICE OF THE MUSICAL COURIER,
28 RUE CLEMENT MAROT, CHAMPS ELYSEE,
3PARIS, October 28, 1896.
4Please note change of address indicated at the head of this letter. Hereafter all communications intended for this department should be addressed there.
6NOW THE MUSIC BEGINS.
8Music in the best sense does not require novelty; nay, the older it is and the more we are accustomed to it the greater its effect.—Goethe.
10A KING, a Beethoven symphony, a Sarasate and a Fête des Capulet were not sufficient distractions at the Colonne concert réouverture on Sunday to blind French attention to the audacity of the popular chef d'orchestre in offering an unpublished work of a modern French writer to their attention.
12"Audacity" is the only word to apply to such a flying in the face of recent musical fashion; all the more so that this is but an earnest of what is to come, as the intention is to present a modern national musical thought at each concert of the ensuing season.
14A Faun's Afternoon was certainly fin de siècle enough as a title. As a wit remarked, the next would, no doubt, be The Five o'Clock Tea of a Nymph! N'importe, if, as Del-sarte holds, that "Art is the making visible the invisible"; as well this for art as The Tail of a Sphinx, The Wardrobe of Eve, or any other equally ancient and invisible topic.
16At any rate, welcome anything that offers a thread of suggestion as to the possible intent of a musical story. It is all very well to sit down on the comfortable but illusive theory of "musical intuition," "subtlety of comprehension," "infallibility of imagination," but when all is said and done that sort of thing is tout ce que, il y a de plus hypocritical. Of course anyone can tell whether a composition is warlike or funereal, pastoral or passional, but in story music in itself does not express, as does writing or painting. A chromatic tone may indicate the wail of a dying child or the discomfort of a victim of mal de mer; a crash of instruments may represent the rending asunder of mountains, or the coming together of lovers, and no unrich musician dares stake money on the decision of the composer as to which. When he says he does he either prevaricates or deceives himself. And when the composer has been dead and buried a century or two, the case is still more hopelessly hopeless.
18When then one sits under a concerto in "la mineur," "ut majeur," "fa dièse" or "mi bémol," the visions conjured up must necessarily be wholly individual, subject to mood, souvenir, temperament and training, variable and unsound as a weathercock, so far as accuracy of conception is concerned. A good proof of this, and a very supplemental amusing performance, would be a collection of the individual visions of the sticklers for unnamed subjects after renditions of them.
20Such people must fall back upon following the skeleton of mechanism in creation, the shape, the size, the mathematics, the scaffolding of construction, for their pleasure. It no doubt tickles their vanity to be able to do this, because it is an extremely difficult thing to do, and means many hours of painful study and more or less brains besides. A better order of person goes back of this to the marvel of genius which created the construction and says humbly:
22"If it has been so difficult for me to simply follow this, how colossal must have been the brain which created the marvel out of darkness!". His lesser soul bows before the mightier, and that is his vision.
24But in either case the examination of the frame of a partridge on a dish after dinner is far from the taste of the juicy, succulent cushions of flesh during the feast.
26Do not say here, "A knowledge of the framework does not interfere with the taste of the flesh." That is another side of this subject. I am only speaking of the value of suggestion as an aid to material conception, that is all, here.
28Music is no frame, no skeleton. It is not science nor mathematics, although it cannot exist without them. It was never meant to tickle vanity, to please sound builders, or even to produce objective hero worship. It is different from every other dead thing. Music is made to smash the soul into atoms on the hearing and then bring the pieces together into a nobler symmetry, a grander strength, a purer philosophy, as in the case of a Beethoven, or to drag down to a lower plane of enervation and weakness, as in the case of—many writers who are not Beethovens.
30In either case it would hurt neither vanity, worship, emotion nor composer to have some hint attached to the wordless symphony indicating its tenor.
32So, then, in the case of the entertaining Faun; by the title alone one has the imagination placed to a certain extent. One could go back to the age of Fauns, their character and customs and costumes, their pipes and hoops and their diabolic insouciance. One could even take a wandering fancy to the Luxembourg Gardens, and see one of them slip off his pedestal and engage in frivolity on both feet. If all came to all, one could go to the poem of Stéphane Mallarmé and read the pictural environment.
34Until we are more clairvoyant, then, let us have titles, ever so vague hints, outlines of harmonic topography—and honesty.
36M. Claude Debussy, composer of the work in question, is unknown so far as the great public is concerned. His style, like all the moderns, is searching, curious, original and intense in its way. He follows the poems of Baudelaire, Verlaine and that stamp, and has written a string quartet, "pas mal," they say. The work itself was a curious fantaisie, full of unprecise harmonies and fleeting phrases, of violins and harps and pastoral flutes, hautbois and mysterious horns; but there certainly could have been much more made of the pipe feature under the circumstances. There was a large and unimproved opportunity for some beautiful pastoral melodies. But, then, melody is not the fashion, of course.
38Other features of the concert were a Symphonie Espagnole, by Lalo, a Guirand caprice, and a Spanish dance, under the inimitable bow of Sarasate. I say "inimitable" advisedly, for, though other people play differently, no other human being ever possessed his peculiar qualities. Whatever put it into his head to make a specialty of that exquisite finesse that is his characteristic, and how had he the courage to adhere to it in the face of the row over "big bowing," "dramatic style," "broad interpretation," &c. He is a living lesson to imitators not to imitate. Would to heaven that singers would learn from him, and instead of working to force an unnatural vocal howl would work to raise to the highest perfection of refinement the real voice with which, as with the color of their eyes and the shape of their teeth, they are endowed.
40The Paris street cries are the most demoniacal, unnatural and irritating sounds that ever assailed human ears. The reason is that lacking carrying power, vibration, virility in their vocal organs, they substitute an unearthly open howl that seems to come from the hips instead of the throats, and incites a feeling of murder in those who are forced to hear it.
42It is exactly this way with singers who have mistaken ideas about "big voice." Patti knew better.
44Mme. Berthe Marx Goldschmidt played exquisitely a Saint-Saëns concerto, a Mélodie Russe by Liszt, and a presto by Scarlatti. The generous reception she received was testimony of the appreciation in which this artist is held in Paris, but none of the selections did justice to her talents. Mr. Goldschmidt, who has been for sixteen years Sarasate's accompanist, played with him the beautiful Spanish dance, which aroused the house to frantic enthusiasm. Mr. Colonne had a regular ovation, being recalled many times, cheered and bravadoed to no end. He deserves all he gets.
46Preparations are going forward actively for the Sunday concerts at the Opéra, to commence November 17 or 24. As already stated, these concerts are organized expressly for the benefit of modern French composition. In addition to the opportunity given to young writers to show what they can do, works of the best French masters, ancient and modern, will be played by way of instruction. There are to be five programs and ten concerts. Paul Vidal, Marty and the writers who wish to do so will be the conductors.
48Following is the official program of the first concert:
49Part 1.—1, Ouverture du Corsaire, H. Berlioz; 2, la Chasse fantastique (Saint Julien l'Hospitalier), Camille Erlanger; Julien, M. Dupeyron; a voice, Mme. Corot; chorus; 8, Prélude (Redemption), César Franck; 4, second tableau, Alceste, Gluck; Alceste, Mme. Rosa Caron; High Priest, M. Delmas; Oracle, M. Douaillier.
50Part 2.—5, Ancient dances, Mmes. Mauri, Subre, Laus, &c., in costumes of the period.
51a, Sarabande, Philomèle (Lacoste); b, Pavane (Belle qui tiens ma vie), chorus (X.); c, Musette et Tambourin, les Fêtes d'Hébé (Rameau); d, Gavotte du Ballet du Roi (Lulli); e, Menuet en ré (Händel.)
52Part 3.—6, Vision et Bacchanale d'Herculanum (Félicien David); Lilia, Mme. Corot; Hélios, Affre; Santan, Delmas; chorus; 7, third scene of Act 2, Fervaal (Vincent d'Indy); Fervaal, Affre; chorus; 8, Judex (Mors et Vita) (Ch. Gounod), chorus.
54Mlle. Grandjean, a French singer, has had such success in the Opéra Comique work that she has been engaged for three years by the Grand Opéra management. God knows, the vocal condition of both academies needs reinforcement! No one who heard Elisabeth in Tannhäuser the other night could possibly blame the poor man for flying from her to Venus, although even then it was a case of the lesser of two evils.
56M. Raoul Pugno leaves Paris this evening for England to make a tournée in Her Majesty's dominions. He first goes directly to Balmoral, where he has been invited to play before Queen Victoria. That's right, Mr. Pugno; now do not stop until you have crossed the Atlantic and proved to Americans that there is a piano art worth the name in France. If anyone in France can do it, Mr. Pugno is the one—so far as natural abilities go. He has precisely that dramatic glory in his playing which so many claim that the French lack.
58A new grand opera, by M. Edmond Harancourt, Circé, music by Hillelacher, comes to test its power before the public.
60In the play Duguesclin being presented at the Porte Saint-Martin the musique en scène and the plain chant sung during the ceremony of anointing Charles V., written by M. Pugno, are among the most attractive features.
62Te Deums were chanted in the Cathedral of Notre Dame and many other churches on Sunday thanking God for the happy results in Madagascar.
64The success is announced of a new French opera, Zaire, at Stuttgart. The opera is from the pen of M. De la Nux, a well-known teacher of singing here. The occasion was the birthday of the Queen of Württemberg, and the audience was punctuated with royalty, if that is any aid to success. The happy composer was summoned to the royal box, and received the congratulations of their majesties.
66The King of Portugal attended the Colonne concert on Sunday. The Châtelet was draped in French and Portuguese colors, and the King was respectfully saluted.
68The same evening that Zaire was played at Stuttgart
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