Scan 22
Musical Courier 1902-05-14: Vol 44 Iss 1155, 1902
63 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 23. See the scan on archive.org.
1by Strauss one can also preach of its dangers to music. Although music has little to fear from those who plan to undermine it, sooner or later this art throws off the unmusical as does the sea its dead. But the danger threatens the young composers who are blinded by Strauss' success. With some ambition, talent and study it is possible to copy and learn the Strauss formulae of effects; and there remain an abundance of poets and philosophers who lend themselves to murder by being convertible into symphonic pictures. Brahms and Dvorák will find few imitators—they demand too much.
3At the performance of "Also Sprach" that moved Hanslick to his criticism there was much applause, but the Doctor thinks the public ladled neither enjoyment or inspiration from this witches caldron. Immediately afterward came Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which made great effect even without the use of trombones." From this Hanslick deduces that strength and beauty of thought are of more value than the gaudiest dress; and that the real poet triumphs eventually over the combined arts of regisseur and scene painter.
5Does it not all read like some of the early criticisms on Beethoven's symphonies? I hesitate to mention Wagner here because we all know that the estimable musical Doktor of Vienna never got entirely over his attack of Bayreuthitis.
7But before pricking Hanslick in his tender heel let me unburden my mind of one other point that rankles. Why this eternal quarrel with a composer, author or poet because of his chosen subject? Hanslick is far from being alone in this cavil, nor is it confined to the critics of Vienna. If a man's creative force is stirred by a subject should we not—in all justice to the work and the man—try to get as much as possible of his viewpoint and then differ or agree only with his treatment of it? The subject surely should be taken for granted. If it is a poor one, then so much the worse for the creator, since by the choice of such a motive he endangers the possible success of the work.
9Or if critics insist that it is their privilege to find fault with an author's choice—and this is a premise upon which they base much of their writing—then why not quarrel with the same composer or author because of what he did not write? To gather in these ends: Why does not Hanslick write an article against Brahms because the latter did not write an opera? It seems to be quite as just as grunting at Strauss because he chose "Also Sprach" for subject matter.
11What is to be the outcome of all this? Are we to follow the example of certain nodding English fathers of music who look sentimentally into the past and say, "Music has had its golden age," and let it go at that? Or are we to smile indulgently at Kapellmeister Symphonies churned out under the influence of a Beethoven score, leaving the next generation to solve our difficulties? This is by far the most convenient way. It saves us—and also Hanslick—the trouble of "breaking our heads" over new works; but such an attitude leads nowhere, accomplishes nothing. I do not ask you to agree with me on the question of Strauss, but at least give him earroom because of the original thinker that he is.
13Strange, with all the fault Hanslick knows how to find, he does not once assert that Strauss has failed in what he set out to accomplish. He does not say that "Also Sprach" gives him no idea of Nietzsche's subject. Of course he harps on the necessity of the program notes for a comprehension of the work. But then are not they necessary for Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony," too? Not to mention the Liszt Symphonic Poems!
15And that old plea of Nietzsche's insanity! Well, I wonder how sane Beethoven was—according to the code of the philistine. Tut, tut, lieber Doktor, genius is never quite sane.
17Hanslick is not the first one to suspect that Strauss jokes with the public by writing his tremendous works. Weber even thought Beethoven was fit for the mad house when composing the Coda to the Vivace of the Seventh Symphony; other musicians of that time were more liberal and thought the composer only drunk.
19But only when one makes the nearer acquaintance of this Strauss score one realizes the fearful earnestness of it, the intricate planning and the huge cleverness: then the thought of it being a joke itself becomes laughable.
21As for saying in ten measures what others do in an entire symphony: in that I believe Strauss has succeeded. If the Doctor were less anti-Strauss he could reel off the names of a dozen symphonies that contain not a single musical thought or a phrase worth preserving.
23Hanslick also has his fling at Strauss' "Till Eulenspiegel," which he calls a highly colored show piece, a World's Fair of tonal effects and mood contrasts. He does not find that the composer has caught the spirit of the thing at all: "If it did not bear the title 'Till Eulenspiegel,' which urges the listener to hunt its meaning, if it were simply called a Scherzo, the uncultivated and impolite hearer would straightway call it a crazy piece of music."
25Now what the "uncultivated and impolite hearer" thinks of any piece of music can be of the least possible importance only. But the Doktor naively adds that even he, for his modest part, thinks the same of it as the above qualified listener. Quite generous of him, indeed. Besides "Till" was a crazy rogue, and it would have been strange if Strauss had pictured him in the grave, flowing habiliments of Händel.
27"One is sadly mistaken if he takes this masterless and amorphous procession of pictures for an overflowing of youthful genius, the dawn of a great, new art; I can only see in it the opposite: a product of over-refined Decadence."
29Now will you tell me which of the great men who have lived before their time—and most great men have—ever escaped this verdict? And the greater the man the more violent and hopeless a decadent was he. I do not mean to rub a list of such under your doubting eyes: it extends at least from Christ to Flaubert, and comprises every one of the mighty ones. In short it is the penalty one pays for not living and thinking and creating in the approved bourgeois style.
31In "Eulenspiegel" the dean of Vienna critics finds no new important thoughts, no musical ideas; he is a-weary of "Musik als Ausdruck" and wants from the younger men Musik als Musik. These music-symbolists, he raves on, must not try to imitate literally the Jean Paul definition of humor: that of crying with one eye and weeping with the other: must not think it musically humorous to blow D major into one's right ear and D minor into the left one.
33And then, as Eulenspiegel's merry pranks did not in the least resemble the present Boer war, Hanslick growls at the army of instruments Strauss uses in this composition. This is a new critical objection and deserves to be remembered.
35Finally Hanslick finds some virtue in it all. He credits Strauss with great orchestral virtuosity; says he is wasteful with effects, piquant in surprising contrasts, full of contrapuntal "Kunststückchen"—there's praise with a narrow margin of good nature, for you—original rhythms and "witty" modulations. "Alles furchtbar geistreich und wahnsinnig schön."
37Throughout both of these accounts in which Hanslick seems to take Strauss' critical measure one feels that the critic doubts the composer's sincerity. And this is a grave charge.
39I do not see how any critic can afford to wave aside Strauss on the grounds of insincerity. His work is so tremendously thorough and shows the marks of such proficient musicianship that he deserves at the very least to be taken most seriously. I quarrel with no man's taste—especially not in the province of music; but so wholesale and deliberate a misunderstanding nettles one. If Hanslick dislikes Nietzsche, then he should not loose his spleen against Strauss if the latter chooses to select a bit of Nietzsche's writings as the material about which he builds a musical composition.
41Nowadays a genius such as Strauss has the choice of being applauded as a mediocrity—he has only to write music down to the public's understanding—or of being misunderstood as a decadent. To be original was ever to be damned. That Strauss is coming into his own sooner in life than many of his musical fathers before him is only a sign of the progressiveness of the age. About the time he will be fully understood and even taken for granted some younger man will be hewing his way through the wood of conventional opposition. For the present the critical guns are trained on Strauss, but he stands up boldly under the fire. I suspect he loves fight. However, it should be fair fight: one with open ears and unclouded brain—above all, one free from deliberate misunderstanding.
43Arthur Bles writes me from Paris the following interesting gossip:
45This notice appeared a few days ago in the Echo de Paris:
47"At the Odéon 'L'Arlésienne,' with the music of Jules Massenet, executed by the Colonne Orchestra. I can see our friend of the amorous violoncello shaking hands with himself over the best of all ads., one which makes people laugh and talk."
49A little farther down in the same paper the same day:
51"At the Opéra Comique Mme. Sigrid Arnoldson will very likely make her reappearance next week in 'Carmen.'" The young artist will be supported by MM. Carbonne and Huberdean, the latter in the role of Lothario." Ah! tough luck on Bizet, twenty-seven years after the "première," talking about Lothario in "Carmen."
53I see that Puccini of "La Bohème" fame came very near putting an end to his artistic and automobilistic career yesterday. He was driving with a friend from Torre del Lago to Viareggio when at a cross roads another carriage got into the line of flight. They dodged the carriage, but hit a tree and broke up the auto. Puccini's companion was badly bruised, but the maestro got off without a scratch. Puccini lives to rake in more receipts from Melba performances.
55A Grand Piano underneath the Bough,
56A Gramophone, a Chinese Gong, and Thou
57Trying to sing an Anthem of the Key—
58Oh, Paradise were Wilderness enow!
60The above is a very modern paraphrase of Omar by Wallace Irwin. It appears in his "Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum."
62I have just been seeing and hearing in Paris a very curious experiment in the combination of the arts, about which I am the more anxious to say a few words, as it is quite likely that we may have an opportunity of seeing and hearing it in London in the course of a month or two, writes Arthur Symons in the Academy. Mme. Georgette Leblanc, a singer who is known for her creations of "Carmen," "Charlotte Corday," &c., at the Opéra Co-
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