Scan 31
Musical Courier 1895-12-25: Vol 31 Iss 825, 1895
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1of M. Pierné's music, the aubade in the first act, by which it will be seen that the name of the heroine is a trisyllable Izeyl.—From L'Echo de Paris.
3On Prejudice in Musical Art.
5PREJUDICE in musical art arises, as do all other prejudices, from a lack of understanding. There are millions of people who go to oratorios, operas and concerts, without ever getting beyond the surface or really understanding the deeper meaning of the divine art. I even go so far as to assert that one-half of those who cultivate music (professional musicians and critics included) have no more natural calling for the art they are exercising than a good many physicians, clergymen, actors or generals may be said to have for their particular professions; in short, I am inclined to believe that the great majority of people are unmusical.
7Now this assertion may seem a very bold one to most people, but I am only expressing a conviction which I have gained after more than thirty years' observation in musical matters in Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Russia, England and the United States of America, and what is more, after many years of teaching in the different countries just mentioned. We frequently hear that society generally is progressing in musical matters; that certain works which were not appreciated ten, twenty or fifty years ago have now become general favorites all over the world. This sounds very pleasant and encouraging, but unfortunately it is not true. It is not possible that the great works of Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Schumann should, after they were treated with contempt when the public had the advantage of hearing them given under the direction and supervision of the composers, be all at once understood and appreciated by the whole world. No; the general public understands and appreciates these great masters almost as little as it did fifty or 100 years ago, and their works have only been made "popular" and become "fashionable" in more modern times through the untiring exertions of a few great musicians whose genius and enthusiasm have carried their public with them. Helvetius' saying, "Il n'y a que l'esprit qui sente l'esprit, c'est une corde qui ne fremit qu' à l'unison," is only in other words what Schumann expresses in: "Perhaps it is genius alone that understands genius." And we are indeed chiefly indebted to Mendelssohn that we now possess the great works of Bach, and to Schumann that Schubert's works were drawn from oblivion. We also know in what a noble and manly manner Haydn and Mozart defended and appreciated each other, and how enthusiastically Schumann spoke of Mendelssohn and Chopin, and Liszt of Wagner, at a time when the public knew little or nothing about these great composers.
9It is owing to those whose names I have given, and other great musicians, who understood and supported each other, that the world now possesses a treasury of great musical works, and not to the public or to the average critic or musician. The public (always cautious, in musical as in other matters) has never done more than indorse the opinions of great authorities. Moritz Hauptmann once said: "Our dear Leipzigers love to see Bach's name (on the program) and hear Offenbach." This is perhaps the most caustic criticism on popular musical taste which was ever expressed in a few words. To understand it fully we have only to go to a concert and watch the bored faces of the greater part of the audience when one of Beethoven's or Schumann's pathetic works (like the Funeral March in the Eroica) is performed, and how they brighten up when during a silence in which you might hear a pin drop some shallow nocturne or berceuse, a "pizzicato" polka or gavot is performed. I shall never forget the enthusiasm of the audience when, during an entracte of a Don Giovanni performance at Her Majesty's Theatre in the year 1861, Mlle. Theresa Titjen appeared before the curtain to sing—Arditi's valse, Il Baccio; the delight of the Gewandhaus classics when (two or three years after) Alfred Jaël, the pianist, gave as an encore after Schumann's A minor concerto, his triller (shake) variations on Home, Sweet Home. There were, of course, many excuses made afterward by the Gewandhaus classics for their indulgence (such as the pianist's perfect "triller," &c.), but the fact remains that Alfred's jingle had put Schumann's deep and impressive work momentarily in the shade.
11If we want a striking proof of the general public's incapacity for appreciating that which is high and noble in musical art we need only go to a performance of the greatest of all operas, Mozart's Don Giovanni. It is most fortunate for that great and unique work that Mozart was given an opportunity of introducing some popular melodies such as Madamina, La ci darem la mano, Batti, Batti, &c., in the score, otherwise there would be little chance of ever seeing Don Giovanni performed on the stage, as the very numbers which have given Mozart's masterpiece its loftiness and placed it above all other operas are, as a rule, only "taken into the bargain" by the general public. The great recitative duetto, Ma qual mai s'offre—of which Richard Wagner said in my presence (Biebrich, 1863), "No one except our divine Wolfgang could ever have written this"—leaves the public as indifferent as the public in Vienna. Well, Don Giovanni has always had "a few friends" in Vienna and elsewhere, but I don't think the average opera goer would grumble if the great recitative and duetto, the sestetto and the last grand finale were replaced by the Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana or the Toreador Song from Carmen. The mere mention of anything serious or tragic in musical or any other art (witness the almost entire disappearance of Shakespeare's tragedies from the stage) makes the average man feel uncomfortable. Why should he be bored with such stuff? A comic song, be it ever so vulgar, helps to digest a good, substantial dinner much better than the sublimest symphony by Beethoven or tragedy by Shakespeare.
13The conviction, above expressed, respecting the inability
15Donna Anna's two great arias (the sublimest of their kind), or the great sestetto, Sola in bujo loco (a composition incomparable for characteristic diversity, depth of feeling and beauty), while the greater part of the audience generally sneak away when the last tremendous scene, Don Giovanni a cenar teco, with its terrifying chords, begins.
17I have known a simpleton who only went to hear Don Giovanni when Zerlina was presented by Adelina Patti or some other great singer, as all the other characters were (to his idea) of no importance. It is well known what exertions poor Mozart made, after the first unsuccessful performance of his masterpiece in Vienna, to persuade the manager of the opera to repeat the performances, but it was all in vain. Don Giovanni was withdrawn from the
19IZÉYL
20(PREMIER ACTE)
21AUBADE
22GABRIEL PIERNÉ
24Allegretto Modº
251er COUPLET
262e COUPLET
27PLANO.
29TENOR SOLO.
31I. zé-yl
32I. zé-yl
33fil le au cœur fa rou – che
34Qui dort un é ter
35fleur de jeu – nes – se
36Que l'au – be – lais – se
37mel som – meil
38Pour qu'en fin sa grâ – co te tou – che
39sans fris – sons
40Pour qu'en fin l'a – mour en toi nais – se
41vo – que le printemps ver – meil
42L'au – be Qui fait pleu –
43vo – que lâ – me des chan – sons
44Le souf – fle di – vin qui pe –
46Publiée avec l'autorisation de MM. A. DURAND fils, éditeurs, 4, place de la Madeleine, Paris.
47Reprinted from L'Echo de Paris.
49repertoire, and not performed again until after Mozart's death, by which time Haydn, Rochlitz, Hoffmann and some other great authorities had succeeded in explaining the importance of Mozart's greatest work to the Viennese musical amateurs, who then at last began to believe in it. "Such an injustice would not be possible nowadays," we hear sometimes. Certainly not, if Mr. Wolfgang Amadeo Mozart came to us with his present great and world renowned name. Hyde Park and Green Park put together would not hold his "admirers"; but if Mr. Mozart came to us with his reputation of last century (when Salieri and several other long forgotten mediocrities held the positions which Mozart should have held) the small Queen's Hall, I think, would be amply large enough. "I have composed Don Giovanni for a few friends and myself," said Mozart when he saw how little his great work was appreciated by of most people to understand or appreciate good music is, as I said before, not only the result of long observation, but also of teaching music in different countries. Every music teacher of some experience must (provided he is himself musical enough to distinguish good harmony from bad harmony, good rhythm from bad rhythm) admit that the great majority of pupils, and consequently of all human beings, is unmusical, desperately unmusical. It is quite a common occurrence that piano pupils play persistently the same wrong notes and the same wrong rhythm in the most unconcerned manner. It is of no use to grumble at such pupils, because they are generally devoid of all musical sensibility, and, what makes it worse, sometimes of intellect as well. All a teacher can do in such cases is to lay in a good stock of patience and Christian forbearance, and console himself with the thought that his pedagogical exer-
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