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diff --git a/42097-0.txt b/42097-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c415ccd --- /dev/null +++ b/42097-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7994 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42097 *** + + Musical + Criticisms + + SHERRATT & HUGHES + Publishers to the Victoria University of Manchester + Manchester: 27 St. Ann Street + London: 65 Long Acre + + [Illustration: AGED 26.] + + MUSICAL CRITICISMS + BY + ARTHUR JOHNSTONE + + WITH A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR BY + HENRY REECE AND OLIVER ELTON + + MANCHESTER + AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS + 1905 + + + To Dr. Hans Richter + in Memory of his Friend and Admirer + Arthur Johnstone + + + + +FOREWORD. + + +The Editors desire to express their thanks to the Proprietors of the +_Manchester Guardian_ for their permission to reprint the articles +contained in this volume. + +They also wish to acknowledge the assistance they have received in +compiling the memoir from the family of the late Mr. Arthur Johnstone +and from his friends, and they are more particularly indebted to +Professor Sidney Vantyn for the long correspondence he placed at their +disposal. + +The letters quoted were for the most part written to Mr. Oliver Elton. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + =Memoir= i. + + =Chapter I.--Bach= + The Genius of Bach 1 + Mass in B minor ("Hohe Messe") 3 + The "St. Matthew Passion" 5 + A minor Concerto for two Violins 8 + + =Chapter II.--Beethoven= + Symphony No. 5 (C minor) 11 + Symphony No. 6 ("Pastoral") 13 + Symphony No. 7 14 + Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica") 16 + Symphony No. 2 18 + "Missa Solennis" 20 + "Fidelio" 21 + + =Chapter III.--Berlioz= + "Symphonie Fantastique" 24 + "La Damnation de Faust" 27 + The Centenary Celebrations 29 + + =Chapter IV.--Liszt= + "Faust" Symphony 33 + Pianoforte Concerto in E flat 36 + + =Chapter V.--Wagner= + Overture, "Faust in solitude" 39 + The "Ring" at Covent Garden (1903) 41 + The Bayreuth Festival 51 + "Parsifal" 53 + The "Ring" at Bayreuth (1904) 56 + + =Chapter VI.--Tchaïkovsky= + Symphony No. 5 and other works 63 + Symphony No. 4 67 + Overture, "Romeo and Juliet" 69 + Symphony No. 5 71 + Symphony No. 6 ("Pathétique") 75 + + =Chapter VII.--Sir Edward Elgar= + "King Olaf" 78 + The "Enigma" Variations 81 + Overture, "Cockaigne" 85 + The "Dream of Gerontius," Birmingham Festival 89 + " " Düsseldorf 92 + " " Preliminary Article 95 + " " Hallé Concerts, Manchester 98 + "The Apostles," Birmingham Festival 104 + " Preliminary Article 108 + " Hallé Concerts, Manchester 111 + Overture, "In the South" 116 + The "Coronation Ode" 117 + + =Chapter VIII.--Richard Strauss= + "Don Quixote," Rhenish Musical Festival at Düsseldorf 119 + "Don Juan," Preliminary Article 122 + " Hallé Concerts 124 + "Till Eulenspiegel" 126 + "Sehnsucht" 128 + Strauss's conducting of Liszt's "Faust" Symphony, + Lower Rhine Musical Festival, Düsseldorf 129 + "Tod und Verklärung" 131 + "Also sprach Zarathustra" 133 + "Ein Heldenleben," Liverpool Orchestral Society 136 + Quartet in C minor, for Piano and Strings 139 + + =Chapter IX.--Chamber Music= + Dvoràk. Quintet in A Major 142 + " Quartet, Op. 96 143 + Beethoven. Razoumoffsky Quartet (No. 3) 145 + Bach. Concerto in D minor for two Violins 146 + Beethoven. Quartet in B flat major 147 + Tchaïkovsky. Quartet in D major 148 + " Trio in A minor, Op. 50 148 + César Franck. Quintet in F minor 151 + + =Chapter X.--Piano Playing= + Reisenauer 153 + Moszkowski 155 + Busoni 157 + " 159 + Borwick 161 + Siloti 163 + Rosenthal 165 + Paderewski 166 + Godowsky 169 + Lamond 171 + + =Chapter XI.--Violin Playing= + Ysaye 174 + Ysaye and Busoni 176 + Kubelik 178 + Kreisler 180 + + =Chapter XII.--Music in the Nineteenth Century= + Extract from a review of Mr. J. A. Fuller Maitland's + "English Music during the 19th Century" 182 + Centenary Article: "Music in England during the 19th + Century" 189 + + =Chapter XIII.--Hans Richter= 201 + + =Chapter XIV.--Nietzsche= + Nietzsche and Wagner 211 + Nietzsche in English 222 + +Note.--The performances noticed were all given at Manchester, except +where otherwise stated. + + +PORTRAITS. + + Aged 26 _Frontispiece_ + + Aged 20 face p. 10 + + Aged 26 face p. 30 + + + + +MEMOIR. + + +ARTHUR GIFFARD WHITESIDE JOHNSTONE was born December 3rd, 1861, the +fourth son of the Rev. Edward Johnstone and Frances Mills. His father +was then taking the duty at Colton in Staffordshire, but in the +following year accepted the living of Warehorne in Kent; this he +resigned in 1866 and went to live at St. Leonards. Mr. Johnstone died in +1870, and the direction of Arthur's education fell entirely upon his +mother. Mrs. Johnstone gave her life to good works and to the care of +her children, one of whom was an invalid. Arthur looked on her as a +saint, and the thought held up his belief in humanity during the +somewhat long struggle when his powers and aims were uncertain, and when +he had to observe excessive dulness, dreariness, and meanness at close +quarters. He was also beholden to her for the gift that was at last to +determine his career. She was a good musician, and it was from her that +Johnstone inherited his fine taste and received his first instruction in +music. Later he studied under Mr. W. Custard, a local organist. The +atmosphere of his home was religious--extreme Anglican approaching to +Roman Catholic. Johnstone, though he became by reaction anti-clerical, +continued to appreciate the value of religion, chiefly through art and +music, as his letters and criticisms show. But his bent was secular as +well as artistic; a high Anglican school and a high Anglican college +were therefore not a pasture in which he could thrive. His spirit was +foreign to theirs. It says much for his strength of mind, that these +institutions left him able to admire certain forms of Christian art. + +In 1874 he went to Radley and remained there four years, doing neither +well nor ill, stifled rather in the ecclesiastical atmosphere of the +school, caring little for games, and out of sympathy with the public +school spirit. He therefore lived his own life, learnt to protect +himself by ingenious tact and reserve, and read irregularly what he +liked. Though not specially built for athletics he was by no means +lacking in bodily arts and dexterities. When quite young he was a first +rate billiard-player, a good skater, and at lawn tennis well above the +average. His chief accomplishment was an odd one which never left him. +During these early years he made a constant pastime of conjuring, and +devoted to it much of his leisure and some of his business hours. He +even gave elaborate entertainments in public, from the age of fourteen. +On one occasion when he was only seventeen he was able to apply his +skill to a really practical use. He was going by train to give a +performance and happened to enter a compartment where there was a gang +of card sharpers. They drew him into playing "Nap" with them; soon he +began losing and knew that he was being cheated. They were using the +ordinary conjuror's cards with plain white backs, of which he had a +supply in his pocket. He soon found an opportunity of replacing their +pack with one of his own, won back his losses with schoolboy +satisfaction, and changed carriages at the first stopping-place, leaving +the experts to solve the mystery for themselves. His self-possession in +public and private, the mature and slightly initiate air that became +less marked as he grew older, were probably due to these performances. +They served in his real education. The intellectual side of what is +usually common showman's art attracted him. The psychology of the +conjuror's victim, amused and angry, straining all his wits on the wrong +point; the festal atmosphere, or _Stimmung_, of inattentive youth and +good temper necessary for success, the real poverty of intricate +mechanical appliance compared with skill and patter--of these things he +would talk in youth with an Edgar-Poe-like elaboration and solemnity, no +doubt as well as any man in England. The best of these exhibitions was +when Johnstone was professing to explain to a few friends a trick of his +own doing. There came first, in long and well-cut sentences, a kind of +metaphysic of conjuring; an account of those principles of delusion that +were inapplicable in the present instance; exposure of the vulgar and +obvious methods, which seemed to the crowd the same as those subtler +ones which merely satisfied the conscience of the artist; and lastly, on +the verge of the "explanation," a long parenthesis or a touch of +coldness and abstraction, not to be interrupted, which ended, if at all, +not in any explanation whatever, but in a last performance of the trick. +Johnstone made a point of seeking acquaintance with the chief professors +of manual illusion who visited England. He well knew, of course, the +methods of signalling to counterfeit clairvoyance; and in one case, that +of "Little Louie," whose show at the Westminster Aquarium was the best +public marvel of the sort, he was convinced that the performers only +eked out by signalling and other tricks the failures of some genuinely +supernormal power of the "telepathic" kind which they themselves did +not fully understand. We say thus much about legerdemain, as it was long +our friend's quaint and picturesque substitute for the less original +forms of young men's amusement. It gave a good deal of pleasure to other +people, and he needed amusement, for his life was not to be easy. + +Johnstone left Radley at the end of the summer term 1878, and for the +next two years worked under Messrs. Wren and Gurney for the Indian Civil +Service, the limit of entrance then being nineteen years. It must be +admitted that he made no serious attempt to succeed, and that here, as +at Oxford later, the prospect of an examination proved to be the reverse +of an incentive to work. Perhaps it was fortunate for him that he +failed, for though he would have found a great interest in the natives +(and extended his _répertoire_ of tricks) he would have been repelled by +the average Anglo-Indian; besides, his abilities did not lie in the +direction of legal and political administration. In October, 1880, +Johnstone came up to Keble College, Oxford, and he quickly had a small +circle round him. Among his friends were R. A. Farrar, son of the +well-known Dean, and G. H. Fowler, the biologist, of his own College; +Winter, of St. John's, the best musician among undergraduates; his +biographers; and, later, Prof. York Powell, who instantly detected his +ability and force of nature. Amongst the dons of Keble, Johnstone cared +for two. One was the Warden, the Rev. E. S. Talbot, now Bishop of +Southwark, who behaved with tact, and encouraged as far as he might a +mind of no pattern type, which would not bring the College any +regulation honours; the other was the Rev. J. R. Illingworth, the best +writer of the school, and since known as a philosophical preacher. +Ascetic, but thoroughly humane, Mr. Illingworth attracted Johnstone by +his honesty and fineness of temper. But these clergymen, after all, +dwelt in their own world, not in his. Until he met York Powell, +Johnstone had found no older man from whom he could learn without +cautions and reservations, and who struck him as a master-mind and a +perfectly free spirit. The two men signally valued each other's +conversation; they had many delicate qualities in common--the kind of +delicacy only found in Bohemians of experience who have kept their +perceptions at the finest edge. Powell materially helped Johnstone more +than once by letting persons of consequence know what he thought of his +younger friend. Even in Powell's record there was hardly any friendship +more completely unruffled. + +In youth, as an undergraduate, Johnstone was sallow, but healthy, rather +lean and light, with a large and well-moulded musician's head, like +Beethoven's or, still more, Rubinstein's, in the outline of the +overhanging brow. It is easy to recall that earnest face, that +delightful smile always characteristic of him, and, above all, the +fascination of his playing on the piano. His voice was clear and carried +well, with a sharp metallic ring when he was indignant, but was usually +pitched low, as if unwilling to be overheard. His manner was formed and +his talk was from the first what it remained: forcible, emphatic, and +undoubtedly over-superlative at times, cut into quaintly elaborate but +perfectly built sentences, which came so naturally to him that we have +heard him discharge one of them the moment after opening his eyes in the +morning. They can best be illustrated by his more familiar style in his +writings and letters; the latter, indeed, give a fairly exact reflex of +his talk. A _flâneur_ of the best kind, he observed closely and +curiously; in spite of long spells of apparent idleness, the alert +quality of his mind never showed the faintest trace of slackness. He +described vividly and accurately; and he had a remarkable gift for +explaining any subject or point of view unfamiliar to his listeners, +careful that the slightest detail should not escape them. And, in turn, +he would quickly catch up and develop the ideas of his friends however +vaguely suggested or insufficiently thought out. Johnstone professed +Radical principles and was a member of the Russell Club, where the +advanced Liberals met for papers and debates; but his Radicalism was +social rather than political, and after the foreign experiences of his +later years his opinions tended in the direction of strong government +and Imperialism. At this time it amused him to be rather eccentric in +dress, though he afterward became trim and fairly modish. In 1882 the +intellectual undergraduate was capable of wearing a wide-brimmed, +light-brown, hard hat, descending over the ears and eyes and long hair +penthouse fashion. He had one of these "built for me, ground plan and +projection" on a special scale. He also had a tie which could be folded +into twenty-five different aspects or patterns, some of them striking; +it was a mosaic of squares, and the harvest of a long search; +twenty-five neckties in one. His collars were ultra-Byronic. Otherwise +he was not markedly strange in attire; though the real incongruity was +between these freaks of dress, and the keen intent grey gleam of his +eyes, and the look of held-in vehemence and sensibility. + +To what did this sensibility tend, what did it crave for? Not chiefly +for definite learning, or book-knowledge, or for abstract philosophical +truth. Johnstone's nature and gifts did not set towards scholarship +(except afterwards to musical scholarship) or to pure speculation. He +wanted, no doubt, to write, but he never cared to practise style as a +mere handicraft; "let us have," he would say, "something with blood in +it." He did not ask for religious solutions or consolations. Since +nearly all he printed was on musical subjects, only his letters and our +memories can give the impression of what he wanted. It was a +sufficiently rare ambition among the Oxford young men of our time, +though often enough professed. He wanted art and beauty. This desire, of +course, in others often was a cant; there were scholars and +verse-makers--more or less of the "æsthetic" type--sentimental and hard +at bottom like most such persons, who cultivated beauty, and have +usually come to nothing except prosperity. Johnstone was of another race +to these; they never heard of him; he did not care for the main chance; +he was in profound earnest. Few young men looked at life with so +definite an aspiration to get the grace, enjoyment, and beauty out of +it, and so definite a conviction that not much of these things is +attainable. To such spirits, pre-appointed to suffer and wait, society +seems at first an irrational welter, out of which, as by a miracle, +emerge enchanting islets of grace, and wit, and cheer. The desire to +find beauty in things or persons, and the desire to find soul and +humanity, are the unalloyed, intense, and usually disappointed passions +of elect youth claiming its rights. It is the second of them that saves +a young man from the conceit and exclusive folly that may beset the +first. Johnstone's tastes, his reading, loves and friendships were +guided by these two passions, and by a third which took off from the +strain of them, and was equally imperious--the wish to study the world +and to be entertained reasonably. Classes did not exist for him, except +that he often felt he was more likely to be able to foregather with and +help men and women who were at a discount in the world. With such +warring elements and a spirit so hard to satisfy, it was no wonder that +his earlier years seemed planless, and in part were so. The instinct for +travel and odd experience lasted long. No one but his near friends had +much knowledge of this complex but essentially single nature. To them +there seemed to be more than a seed of nobility and fair example in such +a youth, so externally disappointing to parents, and guardians, and +shepherds of colleges. Out of it was gradually wrought a character full +of fire and aspiration, fundamentally austere and uncompromising in +loyalty and in artistic conscience, but masked under a certain +reticence. But this is to forestall by several years. + + [Illustration: AGED 20.] + +Johnstone had entered Oxford at a time of great intellectual ferment. +Looking back we can now see that it was during the years about 1880 that +the revolutionary flood ran highest. The authority of Darwin and Huxley +was unquestioned by many of the younger generation and all-embracing. +The vague Christianity and sentimental optimism of Tennyson was held in +little esteem beside the wider tolerance, the subtle analysis, the +ceaseless curiosity of Browning. Above all "the Bard," as Swinburne was +admiringly called, was the poet of the young men. Another very important +factor in the mental development of our generation--and for Johnstone, +perhaps, the strongest of all--was supplied by the French literature of +the century, from the Romantic School onwards. It is no wonder, +therefore, that the reaction from the High Church influences and +surroundings of his youth was severe and complete, and that his highly +æsthetic nature demanded the fullest artistic and intellectual freedom. +The so-called "æsthetic movement," as we have before implied, left him +untouched. He would have nothing to do with the attempt to symbolise and +revive a civilisation that had utterly passed away, nor with the +deliberate neglect of the modern world, and its most intense and living +art--Music. Johnstone had not much mediæval sense, and was sparing in +his appreciation of Rossetti, to whom he became unjust. What he liked +best was "Jenny," though he was rightly critical on the unsound streaks +in its rhetoric. It was first brought home to him, as to others of his +group, by the skilful and dramatic reading, in a singular clanging +voice, of his chief Keble friend, C. W. Pettit: a young man of high and +melancholy character who was found drowned, probably by accident, in the +Upper River, near Oxford, in the spring of 1882. A memorial stone with +Pettit's initials marks the place, in an unfrequented reach of the +stream, and the inscription, if not effaced, is now a mystery except to +some few who remember him. + +"Jenny" also struck upon what may be mentioned now as the deepest chord +in Johnstone's sympathies; it is heard sounding in the letters, quoted +below, that review the stories of Ruth, Fantine, and Tess of the +D'Urbervilles. His attitude in this matter was free from conventional +ethics, and was, therefore, essentially Christian; and the relations of +society to technically errant women, who have lapsed even once by +accident, preoccupied him bitterly, and that in no theoretical or +sequestered way. In his own gipsy experience, he witnessed at least one +instance where the issue only just escaped disaster. He was haunted by +the story, as De Quincey was by that of his lost companion in Oxford +Street. The girl whom Johnstone, though generally hard up, managed to +befriend in his secret, chivalrous and effectual fashion, finally +married some one decent and respectable. Concealing the place and +circumstance, he afterwards cast the incident of the "Fantine of +Shotover" (we also conceal, of course, the name of the village) into a +kind of prose sketch or _poème_, which he finished when he was about +twenty-six, re-wrote twice, and thought of printing. It is unfortunately +not now to be traced. Its musical, exalted prose, if inexperienced in +form, gave genuine promise in that kind of composition; but he never to +our knowledge, pursued the vein, and the prose in which he became expert +was, apart from his letters, purely critical and expository. Still, +enough has been said to show the force and unusual bent of Johnstone's +human sympathies. It is clear that a young man's truth of instinct and +strength of head are never more hardly taxed than when he is confronted +with a concrete story of this kind. He may become foolish in opposite +ways, especially if he is also an artist and has strength of +temperament. He may be personally entangled through his sympathies, and +make ill worse. He may be superior, and spoil everything by clumsy +missionary benevolence, hard of hand. It is something if he can get +behind the ordinary, blind, damnatory formulæ of society. This however, +is not so difficult to a free mind. What is harder is to do it, and yet +to see the facts without mere theorising, without the cumber of +rhetorical and literary sentiment that obscures them. A Scotch-descended +brain is useful at this point. In our memory Johnstone rose to the +occasion thus presented, and acted and judged with balance. But we are +more concerned now with the road by which he arrived at his force of +sympathy. Æstheticism of the rootless academic kind had, it is evident, +no hold upon him; he was too angry to be precious; but his motive power +at bottom was that of the artist, as it was surely not that of the +radical theorist or philanthropic organiser; although it was, if we use +accurate language, by no means less human than theirs. What was at work +was his sense of beauty; of physical beauty, first of all, or of grace, +in the victimised person, as the sign and vesture of an originally sound +and simple, or gay and innocently festal nature; beauty inbred, and then +marred by some rough contact, and then marred more by social punishment, +and seldom retrieved, even in part--as in the particular instance it +chanced to be retrieved--by any fortunate and final escape. All this +revolts the deepest of human feelings, which distinguishes us from most +of the beasts, namely the æsthetic feeling, which at this point happens +to coincide closely with the religious. A certain depth and rarity were +thus super-added to the plain good feeling and kindliness of the man; +and we can draw these facts from the jealous hiding-place of the past +without undue violence to the shyness in which he wrapped them, as they +show his personal and special path of approach to the human tragedy, and +may even come to the notice of, and serve for the encouragement of +similar minds at a corresponding stage of discontent. We may now go back +to his early youth, when he was halfway through Oxford, and when some of +these ideas were germinating into necessarily crude expression, which +none the less has its interest. In a letter of 1881, he writes:-- + +"How can we escape from Swinburne? Does not modern society drive one to +his school, at least the sort of society that I am _supposed_ to have +been brought up in, whose moral atmosphere is a sort of perpetual +afternoon tea, where all the men are pale young curates and the women +district visitors, their excitements vulgar ritualistic tea-pot +tempests, the doctrinal significance of birettas, purificators.... Their +minds ever on the alert to quash the smallest expression of any delight +in natural beauty--'beauty is only skin-deep,' the damnedest lie that +was ever formulated (compare Browning's Paracelsus). I wish with Gautier +that I had been born in the days of the Roman Empire, when asceticism +was almost unknown and what there was of it entirely specialised, before +ever such an astounding classification as the World, the Flesh, and the +Devil had been made, or every natural beauty writhed, like the divine +feminine torso, in the accused grip of fashion." These are the +outpourings of a very young man only twenty. It may fairly be said that +Johnstone was always far more of an ascetic, personally, than he ever +admitted, and the articles on Bach and Sir Edward Elgar abundantly prove +the religious habit of mind induced by the training and associations of +his early years. A year later his views have become better balanced, as +shown by the following extract from a letter on the same subject. + +"I read most of the _Apologia_ a month or two back. As you say, Newman +stands quite alone in his sincerity and spiritual power, the only +orthodox thinker who is not an instance of self-deception resulting from +reiterated untruth. All the purest and most beautiful aspects of the old +faith seem to group round him. But the lights are almost out on the +stage where he poses so magnificently, a rough crowd is spoiling all the +scenic illusion, and garish sunbeams are coming in through the roof. + +"I was moved to tears the day before yesterday by the appearance in this +place [Tunbridge Wells] of a pretty face. + +"There she was, a radiant and triumphant vindication of human nature +among the myriad libels on the human form. + +"I love the wonderful human body. How utterly the most beautiful of +imaginable things in its strange dualism; perfect form expressed with +infinite subtlety in two mutually supplemental phases. The one--tall, +lithe-limbed, and athletic, with its shifting net-work of muscles +beneath the clear brown skin, boldly chiselled features and short crisp +hair--emblem of strength and swiftness and godlike protection, buoyant +and fearless; the other--a harmony of exquisite curves, white and +sensitive, and crowned with rippling hair, fulfilled of tender life and +wondrous grace--living type of fruitfulness. To say that either deviated +from the abstract perfection of form is merely to say the very idea of +sex is such a deviation; and is there not a certain divine +suggestiveness in this very fact? Their union is perfect Beauty--veils +of the great human Sacrament. And all this is faded clean out of modern +life. The belief in the body is dead. I believe some of us live and die +never knowing the likeness of the human form, just as some of us do +without ever seeing the sunrise. + +"The 'pale Galilean' has banished Beauty; and only here and there, +disguised almost beyond recognition, has it ventured with infinite +apology to return.... Yet let us not be all unthankful to the pale +Galilean and his lessons of suffering; there are too many of us who see +in their own instincts the very impress of impossibility to be +satisfied, who have to reflect with some bitterness, not '_il faut +mourir_,' but '_il faut vivre_' and gather up our scraps and skulk +along, hoping, perhaps, some day for a lowly place in some court in the +House of Life, if it be only that of a scullion. And then at what a +frightful cost have those lessons become part of the world's +inheritance! Surely it cannot have been for nothing." + + * * * * * + +Obviously, in all this outburst, if its literary and intellectual +origins are not hard to trace, there was no pose whatever; it was a mood +that Johnstone honestly and passionately lived through, or rather it +remained as a background to his nature. He was far from happy at this +period. He had many friends and varied interests, but he felt that life +was being wasted; in fact he had not "found himself," nor was he to do +so until his visit to Germany. No doubt Keble was not the college for +one of his temperament, and the English system of teaching the classics +made them, for him, dead languages indeed; but had their oral use been +encouraged (the practice of the late Professor Blackie) it is possible +that he might have taken a real interest in them. With one of his +friends he would speak constantly in Latin. + +During the next few years Johnstone was mainly engaged in scholastic +work, and the necessity of earning his own living prevented him from +taking his degree. In a letter of September 1885, he regrets that he +"had to live much in continuous utter rebellion against outward +circumstances. In the morning is much strife and crying; in the evening, +comfort of the pot. The Day of Rest brings loneliness in +crowds--'stalled oxen and hatred.' _Ca finira._" + +In the spring of 1887 he inherited a small legacy, which set him free, +for a time, from the drudgery of teaching, and enabled him to carry out +his long-deferred wish for a course of serious musical study at a +foreign conservatorium. At this period he knew absolutely no German, and +had only a fair knowledge of French, and was quite unconscious of +possessing the natural gift for modern languages, which he was +afterwards to turn to good account at the Edinburgh Academy and +elsewhere. In August he went to Kreuznach to acquire the elements of +German before proceeding to the Cologne Conservatorium, where he had +determined to study. The family where he stayed could speak no English +and but little French, so he was forced from the outset to express +himself in a strange tongue and make shift to understand it. Early in +October he entered the Conservatorium as a student, and engaged himself +to take the year's course. His chief friend was M. Sidney Vantyn, now +Professor of the Piano at the Liège Conservatoire, and then in his last +year of study. They met in the class of Professor Eibenschütz, one of +the most severe masters there, who made no allowance for Johnstone's +previous amateur training, and was rather harsh and discouraging. He +knew no English and Johnstone's German was still elementary, so Vantyn, +who knew English thoroughly, acted as interpreter between them. In his +recollections of those days M. Vantyn writes:-- + +"It was certainly evident that he had never had a musical training +before his arrival in Cologne. Johnstone's fingers were stiff and he had +to begin almost at the very beginning. And this he had the courage to +do. At that time I was one of the advanced pupils, I offered to help, +and for some months we practised together every day, more especially +with a view to developing the fingers. In April, 1888, he showed me a +sketch of a _Valse de Concert_. This composition was what one would have +expected from Johnstone--bright, original, thorough. At my request he +completed the _Valse_ which I played shortly afterwards at a concert, +where it met with a decided success. A little later it was sold to a +music publisher at Liège. He soon left Herr Eibenschütz for Dr. +Klauwell, with whom he studied the piano and harmony." Among the other +professors at the Conservatorium were Humperdinck, afterwards famous as +the composer of _Hansel und Gretel_, and Gustav Jensen, the brother of +the better-known song writer. + +At length, Johnstone was living in a world which brought out his best +qualities and stimulated his keenest interests. But he now realised that +he had come ten years too late for the attainment of any eminence, +either as executant or composer, and contented himself with considerably +extending his general knowledge of music. Nor did he ever confine his +attention to music alone; but he endeavoured to see as much as possible +of German methods of work, especially as regards the teaching of +languages. In reading the Cologne verdict on Johnstone's early training +it must be remembered that in his youth the piano was not well taught in +England, where the principles and importance of a good technique were +alike unknown. Of course, the principal and all his masters liked him +personally, but naturally their chief interest lay with young pupils who +promised to make a name in the musical world. The year's course at the +Conservatorium ended in July, and about this time he writes:-- + +"As regards intentions, I am quite resolved now (and quite contented) to +become a modern language teacher for life. During this year I have +obtained some insight into the musical profession, with the conclusion +that for all but the very few of quite the first rank it is a wretched +life. So I am after all going to take my degree, and shall reside next +term as a member of Balliol.... I could get a living by music now, but +that would be to sink into a drudgery yet worse than anything I have yet +had to do. I _will_ not teach beginners. Besides, I can make a much +better living in another profession." + +Johnstone returned to England at the end of August, 1888, in wonderful +spirits and in better health than he had ever before enjoyed, bursting +with ideas and enthusiasm for everything German. It was Gulliver's +homecoming after the voyage to the Houyhnhnms, and his friends had to +listen to criticism of a similar kind. There is no doubt that this year +brought real maturity to Johnstone. He gained a confidence in himself +and a grip on life, which even when the prospect seemed most hopeless +prevented him from ever again falling into his old moods of despondency. +In October he returned to Oxford. Some years back he had taken his name +off the books of Keble and migrated to New Inn Hall. The Hall had lately +been absorbed by Balliol, and so in the end Johnstone became a member +of the College which should have sheltered him from the beginning. In +Balliol he was tolerably well at home, though now senior to the men +around him. He forgathered with Farmer, who had just left Harrow for +Balliol and with the Master's support arranged a concert in the Hall +every Sunday evening. Once he gave a conjuring show, by Farmer's +request. Jowett shrilled in cherubic mirth, sent for Johnstone, listened +to his conversation, which flowed more easily than that of most of +Jowett's undergraduate visitors and was of another stamp; and continued +to treat him with politeness. Johnstone, whose classics had somewhat +rusted during his stay in Germany, read with Mr. St. George Stock, the +philosophical writer, then and since a well-known private teacher in +Oxford. In December he passed the necessary schools and took his degree; +his last experience of the old, disquieting city was pleasant, if +brief--a period of _recueillement_ before embarking upon the new career +which he had chosen. + +In the March following, 1889, he received an offer to go as tutor to the +young son of Prince Abamélek in Podolia, a province of Southern Russia. +The following account of his journey is interesting:-- + +"I left Berlin on Thursday morning at 8.30; the stage through Galicia, +Oswiecim, Cracow, Lemberg, Podwoloczyska was a bad twenty-four hours. +Just at the frontier the snow was immensely deep, standing in a wall on +each side of the train. It was like being let into Russia through the +works of a great snow fortification. The worst mistake I made was in +bringing no victuals with me. I noticed at the frontier examination that +my portmanteau was the only one not half full of food. The restaurants +at the large junctions are excellent, being all under the management of +Tartars, a race possessing the genius of cookery, but if you have to +wait as I did, more than twenty-four hours at an out-of-the-way country +station, you may find nothing obtainable but tea. Travelling in Russia +is in any case tiring; the distances are interminable, and every journey +has to be regarded as a sort of pilgrimage. On coming from Osipoffka +here, we had to leave about ten in the evening to meet the desired +train. + +"The start was rather amusing, for we were a considerable caravan with +children, servants, horses and dogs. All night we drove across the +Steppe, accompanied by several mounted men with torches, which they +lighted when the way was bad. + +"I had an outside place and was somewhat dazed and curried by the wind +and dust by the time we got to the station. Railway travelling is +interesting if you have got the courage not to go first class. The +carriages are on the American plan, with an opening down the middle. +Instead of dapper bagmen you find long-coated and long-haired Jews, +besides soldiers and students in curious costumes, while whole families, +travelling together, produce the effect of an emigrant convoy. Everyone +undresses with complete _sang-froid_. + +"The family always come for the summer to this estate. It lies in a +well-wooded district of Podolia, some hundred miles further north than +the region to which I first went. The house is very large, and the +garden magnificent. It is skirted by a river and there are primitive +boats and an excellent bathing place. They have also a steam-launch of +English manufacture, which is shortly to be got afloat. + +"The neighbourhood is a paradise of Gipsies. The river throws out arms +and endless windings, and the ground between is much broken and covered +with undergrowth. Here the Gipsies encamp. One sees them in the evening +bathing with their horses, and thus I had an opportunity of observing a +thing, the peculiar and suggestive appropriateness of which is remarked +on by Darwin in his 'Voyage of the Beagle,' namely, a naked man on a +naked horse. This is the true centaur; they become one thing. I am now +convinced that the Gipsies are the most physically beautiful of all +races. In England they are abject beggars, but here rather more +well-to-do than the average of the population; for they are not like the +peasants, more than half-starved by ecclesiastical regulation, and +obviously, in a country in such a stage as Russia is at present, they +have a better time. There are plenty of immense regions where they can +trap and fish quite unmolested, and the climate favours their mode of +life--doubly, I should imagine, the winter giving a short account of +defective constitutions. I suppose they are thieves, but to the casual +observer they are entirely admirable. Troops of splendid little brown +children go about in the evening singing or shrieking with shrill +laughter. Their music, by the way, is valued in Russia. There are +several troops who get large sums for attending various festivities. + +"It has gradually been borne in upon me that the climate of this region +is almost ideal. The sky is deep blue and far off, yet the heat is never +really oppressive, on account of a constant breeze which brings balsam +from the woods. For the landscape a finer contrast could scarcely be +found to the Southern Steppe, which is like the burnt and scraped +bottom of a pot. It has a character of its own, of course. From the fact +of being usually able to see to the level horizon in all directions, it +reminds one of the sea, while in summer the heated and quivering air +which rises from the ground produces marvellous atmospheric effects; but +there is always a wind, skin-drying and far from healthy. Here, on the +other hand, we are well watered and surrounded by deep and lordly +forest, and the aspect of the whole country is _riant_. + +"I have not yet seen much of the _kirchliches Wesen_. The priest at +Osipoffka, I gathered, is a man who has to get in a mass as often as he +is sober enough. The Abaméleks do not receive him, and never go to +Church while there. In any case, I do not think the Princess is +particularly _dévote_. She is of Polish descent, and her family having +given up Western Catholicism, have never become, I suppose, enthusiastic +as Russian orthodox. + +"Of the children the boy is much the most interesting. The eldest girl, +though not without promise of beauty, is at present in a somewhat gaping +and lumbering stage. The younger one is much smaller, though only a +little younger than her sister, also of better intelligence, if worse +temper. She laughs with a curious _abandon_ and is full of +_câlineries_, and is two totally different persons when pleased and +bored. + +"Master Paul has not the faintest resemblance that I can trace to either +of them. He is an exceptionally round-limbed and well-made child, with +low forehead and hair like dead-black fur showing a dead-white skin +between, tending to stand up though perfectly soft, and always with a +backward sweep, as though he had lately stood facing a high wind; beady +brown eyes, clear brown colour, delicate little nose and chin and a +mouth like a cherry, make up a face which is no false promise of his +vivacity of temperament. It changes in the hundredth part of a second +from bubbling laughter to a sort of Last Judgment seriousness. + +"He wags his little _tête de Polichinelle_ over his victuals, and +converses with them in several languages. Sometimes his mother +interrupts him and asks if he knows what he is saying, when he swears +that he hasn't spoken for a quarter of an hour. _Pauvre petit bijou_ she +calls him." + +In the autumn of 1889 his engagement as tutor ended, and he spent the +winter in Odessa to study the language. He put himself, as usual, under +conditions where it was impossible to speak any other language; entered +a Russian family; prepared his questions in Russian when he shopped; +and addressed in Russian the official who delayed his necessary papers +until he had silently put down a bribe of two roubles, and who then +shook him warmly by the hand. He was full of tales; he told of the +English journalist, so aggressively and deliberately English that he +would not uncover before the Tsar's portrait in a hairdresser's shop; of +the Prince Abamélek, who was always talking of taking him out shooting, +but never did so; of the Princess, who feared that her little Paul was +"trop jeune encore pour profiter de son esprit eminemment cultivé"; of +the social tyranny of Russian orthodoxy, which drove free-thinking +persons of quality in the country to church and sacrament at all the +Christian festivals; and, finally, of his shortness of funds which +forced him to find his way home in humble style. + +As an English liberal, Johnstone was naturally a welcome guest in the +society of the Reform party; and on his return to England he was to meet +Stepniak at the house of their common friend, York Powell, and to enroll +himself among the Friends of Russian Freedom. But he was more in +sympathy with the members of the Reform movement than with their +objects. While in Russia, such connections secured him a mild +surveillance on the part of the officials, and he had a little +difficulty in obtaining the necessary passport to leave the country; but +these vexations did not prevent him from holding that a paternal +government was required in Russia, and that his countrymen as a whole +were to blame for their harsh judgment of a civilisation merely because +it ran counter to their own political ideals. The late Bishop Creighton +arrived at precisely the same conclusion after his visit to Russia to +attend the Coronation in 1896. + + [Illustration: AGED 26.] + +On his way home he spent some months in Buda-Pesth, Vienna, and the +Tyrol, and made his first visit to Bayreuth and the Passion Play at +Oberammergau. + +Shortly after his return to England Johnstone accepted a mastership in +Modern Languages at the Edinburgh Academy, where his elder brother had +been a classical master for some years. He came into residence in +September, 1890, and Edinburgh was his home until he left that city for +Manchester, in January, 1896. On the whole he was happy there; for +though teaching foreign languages to boys is rather a thankless task, he +was cheered from time to time by the successes of his pupils in +examinations elsewhere, mainly those for entrance to Woolwich and +Sandhurst. He could even confess, after a long summer holiday on the +Continent, that "he was again thoroughly penetrated with the atmosphere +of gray old long-faced Sawbath-keeping Edinburgh." After all, Johnstone, +though he considered himself an Englishman, was, as may be gathered from +his name, Scotch on his father's side; his mother, too, had a strain of +Scotch blood. So perhaps that quiet self-contained manner and all that +it implied came to him from north of the Tweed. + +About this time, he was penetrated with the excellent purpose of +training his bodily nerve. He knew that he could never be noticeably +muscular, or anything more than wiry, with his light frame and high +tension. But he would say, "we ought to be able to see a man fall from a +high scaffolding on to the pavement, just before our feet, battered, and +to do whatever is necessary without turning a hair." Accordingly, though +himself most sensitive to pain and to the sight of it, he fraternised +with the young doctors and surgeons whom he met, accompanied them to +operations, watched the worst things, and even gave his help, which was +more than once invited owing to his deftness and neatness of handling. +In this way he got over any shrinking of the nerves. In Edinburgh he +also managed to find some amusement. He was a foreigner in his +adaptiveness to restaurant life, and found a quiet French café to his +taste, where he took his visitors. The odd stratification of Edinburgh +society into the various aristocracies of the country, University, +professions and commerce, and its broad Scotch democratic feeling, +entertained him. He was in one emergency summoned as French interpreter +in the police court, and was pleased at having given satisfaction to +himself and the magistrate, as the case was a somewhat delicate one and +demanded nicety of expression. York Powell, writing to a friend in June, +1893, spoke of Johnstone as + + "a fine fellow, very interesting; a musician doomed for the sins of + others (for he is not a great sinner) to be a dominie in Edinboro', + where he is consoled by an old Frenchman who can talk and + understand; and they have, with one or two more, a little French + club. Each pays sixpence a night for expenses, and you have simple + refreshments and sound conversation." + +Above all, his musical opportunities were good and varied, and he took +the fullest advantage of them. Music in Edinburgh had, for many years, +maintained a high standard. The orchestral concerts were second only to +those conducted by Hallé and Richter; the latter brought his own band +occasionally, and every solo player of eminence came there from time to +time. He found many congenial friends, and was a frequent guest at the +houses of Mrs. Sellar, the widow of the Professor of Humanity at +Edinburgh, and Dr. Berry Hart, the famous surgeon, where musical +amateurs met constantly; and he was a member of the "Rhyme and Reason +Club," where literary and artistic questions were discussed. + +His most noteworthy contribution to the Club was a paper on the +"Relation of Music to the Words in Songs," which he afterwards read at +the Manchester College of Music, and which well merits a summary here +(and some extracts). It shows how his mind was steadily working in the +direction of musical criticism. Its origin was a statement made in a +paper on Tennyson's songs, that poetry, if it be true poetry, is +self-sufficient, and the addition of music to it, however fine the music +may be in itself, is an intrusion and a disturbance for the true lover +of poetry. + +The first part of his paper is concerned with an examination into the +nature of music and its place among the arts. He goes on to deplore the +divorce between music and the songs of modern English poets, none of +which are capable of being sung, and traces this divergence back to the +days when Puritanism banished music from church and village green. +Burns, he adds, wrote genuine songs; but he is the only song-writer +since the days of Elizabeth, and worthy of being ranked with Heine. He +concludes by claiming for music "that it is not an inferior art, a mere +hand-maid to poetry, but a direct revelation of the principle of beauty +and on a footing of honourable equality with poetry. The songs of all +the really great lyrical poets are obviously and radiantly singable, and +meant to be sung, and in their authors' lifetime they were sung. So far +then from the finest lyrical poetry being impaired by association with +music, it is only the maimed poetry of decadence that does not admit of +such association, one unfailing mark of a lyric of the highest order +being that it rises to the true singing quality." In the following +passage Johnstone sets forth the ideal at which the composer of songs +should aim:-- + +"The great German song composers, such as Schubert, Schumann, Franz and +Brahms, working in profound sympathy with the 'Volkslied,' have arrived +at a conception of the song infinitely richer, more refined, and more +genial than is to be found elsewhere. With Franz and Schumann we find +that, in the best cases, the music positively furnishes a sort of +literary criticism on the text, with such exquisite exactness does the +composer appreciate the text and supply the appropriate musical +counterpart. + +"We often hear of the music being _wedded_ to the words of a song, and +it is very curious to find so wonderfully neat and perfect a metaphor +being used by people who are far from suspecting its perfection. This is +in fact, precisely what takes place when a good song is composed--the +music is _wedded_ to the verse, though the expression is often used by +those who think that the music has nothing to do but to express again, +more forcibly perhaps, whatever feeling is expressed by the verse, who +think, in other words, that the music is enslaved, not wedded, to the +poetry. + +"But music is not restricted to the expression of the feeling of certain +verses or of any other feeling or feelings. The poetry and the music +have each their independent character and their measure of independent +beauty, and this independent beauty and character is in no sense +destroyed by the union. The music has far more to do than merely express +again or emphasise whatever feeling is expressed by the verse. It may +accompany the verse, adorn the verse, brighten the verse, show up the +character of the verse in a new light, and, in turn, be much improved +by the association; but on the other hand, if destitute of independent +beauty, the music can never become beautiful by being _wedded_ to +something. + +"It will now have become clear, what according to the view of music that +I have endeavoured to explain, is the task of a song composer. He has +far more to do than to express again in tones the feeling of the song. +He has to furnish a composition that, in the first place, has life; and, +in the domain of art, to have life is to have beauty. + +"Secondly, it must have no incompatibility of temperament with the text, +but must be such as can once for all be wedded to the text with happy +results. + +"It is needless to say that a composer who takes this view, or has a +subconscious appreciation of the facts on which this view is based, will +not, if he cares for his text, be satisfied with the first outworn +rubbish that comes to hand, by way of musical setting. He will regret +whatever is totally wanting in naturalness and freshness. + +"He will not, like the composer of drawing-room ballads, capture some +wretched cadence, threadbare with much use, and trick it out, dragging +up the melody into long high notes, crowing and shouting as though he +had discovered America, whereas all he has really discovered is an old +shoe lying by the roadside that once, perhaps, belonged to a prince, but +after being stolen by the valet was given to a beggar, and so through a +succession of beggars, the last of whom left it by the side of the high +road." + +Johnstone's interest in music was becoming more and more intense. In the +intervals of his school work he composed a Gavotte which had a quaint +origin. He was one day in a music publisher's shop in Edinburgh, when he +saw a gavotte on the counter which had won a prize of £5 or £10 offered +by the firm for the best composition in gavotte form submitted to them. +"And is this your prize gavotte?" said Johnstone, "Well, if I couldn't +compose a better gavotte than that in the time it takes to write it down +I should think _even_ worse of myself than I do." "Why then," said the +representative of the firm, "go home and compose your gavotte, we will +publish it if we take it and give you the same money as this +prize-winner got." Johnstone went home and composed it, and the firm +carried out their promise. + +His few compositions were nearly always actually produced and completed +under some sudden pressure from outside. Left to himself, his critical +impulse was always stronger than his productive; he became dissatisfied +and dropped the thing he was working at. His friend, the well-known +singer, Fritz Hedmondt, having obtained from him a promise to arrange a +certain song, let matters drop until the concert date was fixed and the +programmes printed with the song announced "arranged by Mr. Arthur +Johnstone." He then forwarded the programme to Johnstone with the +observation that, of course, the thing had to be done. And it was done, +in twenty-four hours, and was a beautiful and original bit of +harmonization. He also set several songs, which, like the gavotte, met +with the approval of Prof. F. Niecks, and were the main subjects of a +fairly regular correspondence with Vantyn. In one of these letters he +gives an appreciation of the pianoforte piece he most admired. + +"About Schumann's Etudes Symphoniques I can only say this: For a long +time past I have privately held the opinion that the work is on the +whole, the finest composition for pianoforte solo in existence. This +will no doubt seem to you exaggerated, but such is my feeling about it. +The extraordinary wealth of imaginative beauty in those variations I +believe to be quite without parallel. Just think of that last variation +before the finale. There is nothing else in music which bears even the +faintest resemblance to it." + +Every summer he spent several weeks on the continent, and it was on one +of these visits that he first made the acquaintance of Nietzsche's +philosophy, which was then hardly known in England though beginning to +be talked of in Scotland under the influence of Dr. Tille of Glasgow. + +In December, 1903, he writes to Miss Sellar:-- + +"The author of _Schopenhauer als Erzicher_ is Friedrich Nietzsche. I +suppose you will no more agree with the point of view than with +Sudermann's; for, in fact, the point of view of the two writers is +practically identical, but I do not think you can fail to recognise the +extraordinary originality and force, and, above all, the magnificent +honesty of Nietzsche. + +"Have you not noticed that most serious-minded and well-intentioned +people in our day go about with a revised table of the virtues, saying +'truth' when they mean a certain group of optimistic delusions; saying +'courage' for readiness in accepting and energy in reiterating such +delusions, and persistency in closing the eyes to all those facts of +life which do not harmonise with them. + +"So far as my experience goes, the only people in our day who say and +admit the truth to the best of their lights are the disciples of +Schopenhauer--Ibsen, Tolstoi, Zola, Sudermann, Nietzsche. + +"No doubt you will regard this statement with my 'personal equation' +looming large. I mean you will consider there is no more in it than that +these are the teachers with whom I happen to agree. But I shall be +surprised if you do not admit Nietzsche's honesty and the +extraordinarily searching and luminous character of his thought." + +If Johnstone had been put through the mangle of the Honour School called +"Greats," it might have left him superciliously deaf to Nietzsche. As it +was, being without philosophic training, but deeply sensitive to any +new, articulate and daring voice, as well as perfectly at home in +German, he found in Nietzsche a liberating and refreshing power. And +then his personal experiences disposed him to accept the main thesis of +Nietzsche's philosophy that mankind, owing to the teachings of +Christianity, had sacrificed the future of the race to over-much care +for the weaker brethren. At the same time he kept his head, and signed +no vow of submission to Nietzsche. The review of Tille's translation, +well bears partial reprinting in this volume for its keen intelligence +and also as a quite early sketch of the Nietzschian system in the +English press. It was one of the first articles written by Johnstone for +the _Manchester Guardian_, and makes us regret, unwisely no doubt, that +his mind was to be absorbed more and more in music. + +Yet, in spite of that absorption, he was as deeply interested as ever in +literature and the drama, when dealing with the most serious issues and +problems of life. The purely technical and executive side of these arts +appealed less to him, and so, to take one instance, he soon outgrew his +early enthusiasm for Swinburne, wondered "whether he ever actually gets +there," and was even too severe in revulsion. Intentional obscurity +irritated him. Mallarmé and his school he would not attempt to +understand. His suspicions indeed were well founded, for at the last +Mallarmé in his lecture on "La Musique et les Lettres" had arrived at +forecasting a new future for music when the sound and rhythm of words +would replace the more clumsy and material tones of instruments. + +Browning and Meredith repelled him by their style, though they attracted +him by their subjects and method of treatment. Some of his letters on +literature can be quoted here, as this side of his gifts is little +represented in reviews. It will be seen that he talks less of the style +and form, than of the temper and insight of the three great romancers, +Meredith, Hugo, and Hardy. He is still intent, as they are, on the +special kind of subject, "man's inhumanity to women," which we have seen +absorbing him. Meredith was not widely read in Oxford in the early +eighties by the younger men, though he had always had a small and +impassioned public there since 1870. In our time he was rarely quoted. +He was too strong for tender youth; and any "scholar" or worshipper of +pure form or arbiter of elegancies could preach on Meredith's harshness +and quaintness, and wish that he were more considerately feeble. +Johnstone's tone when at twenty-five, in 1886, he writes of Meredith is +decisive enough, though his words would now be taken as a repetition of +the obvious. + +"Rhoda Fleming," he writes, "left me with increased wonder that its +author has not a more generally recognised position. He is the only +living English prose-writer with a real mind-kingdom of his own. The +story moves like fate--as inevitably, as cruelly (the white sacrifice!), +but just misses being dramatic. Why does he not write a play? He could; +perhaps something better than has been done for centuries." + +A year earlier he had written:--"When you say Hugo is 'so false' you +must mean not quite practical. Mrs. Gaskell's 'Ruth' is 'false' if you +like, as well as irrelevant. Its real tendency is the reverse of the +authoress' ostensible purpose. The woman becomes a partner in a union +perfectly unpolluted and humane, but unauthorised, and even this is made +inevitable. The Quaker element then turns it into tragedy, and the +climax is effected by a person who is a sufficiently remarkable instance +of a figure created by an apostle of mild propriety. He would have upset +the whole scheme of the Redemption by making the good Jesus sin the sin +of hate. This worthy, but rather Pharisaical Methodist--this large-boned +man of substance who makes responses louder than anyone else--this +nameless monster, whose foul-mouthed brawling on discovery of the +woman's history while under him as a governess, is made the insult in +answer to which her protector produces the _plea_ (which is the purpose +of the book); who, perhaps, takes his place as the best type in fiction +of the most hateful character that the varying conditions of climate and +creed ever yet conspired to produce on this, God's flowery earth--comes +duly in for his share in the comprehensive wash-brush at the finish. By +the simple expedient of turning his hair from black to white he is +qualified for service at the heroine's peaceful tomb, where he joins in +dropping the charitable tear. + +"The beautiful touches in this work are the seal of its futility, +arising as they do from the character of Ruth--an impossible incarnation +of all the virtues and graces--a sort of virgin mother, at last in fact +a crowned saint; and I cannot believe in her story, perhaps from being +too young. It may be that the remembrance of Ruth and other such works, +while reading Fantine, misled me; that the escape from the high-pew and +hassock flavour of Methodism to Hugo's 'prophetic soul of the wide +world' blinded. Yet, when a work like 'Les Misérables,' with the +prodigious activity of its dramatic impulse, takes in its sweep the +story of Fantine, something may surely be expected, if ever a writer is +to be adequate on such a subject, and, I cannot but think, rightly. The +'eternal Priestess of Humanity blasted for the Sins of the +People'--Fantine is just the thought dramatised. + +"Essentially hopeless and inexorable, surpassing the limit of horror +permissible in art.... And still the nameless agonies of the martyr's +death are forgotten for the angel-benediction at her grave. And is it +nothing to have achieved that this benediction should have been +possible after such a life?... + +"Yes, 'Les Misérables,' notwithstanding incidental impossibilities, +albeit ever in extremes, looms in my mind as incomparably the greatest +thing in fiction with which I am acquainted, and the longer ago it gets +since I read it and the more I read, the stronger this impression grows. +It seemed to me that the touches of truth in this 'false' work were +quite fearful in their power; such, for instance, of that gang of +convicts being jolted by in the van, 'their heads knocking together.' He +produces the physical effects of actual presence at what he describes. +Of course, it violates every possible canon from the 'Unities' +downwards; in fact, it might almost be made the basis of a new law of +multiplicities." + +Some years later, in 1892, he wrote his impression on reading Hardy's +masterpiece: "I have just finished 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles.' You may +have noticed a passage in Vol. I. running thus (chap. xvi.):--'Long +thatched sheds stretched round the enclosure, their slopes encrusted +with vivid green moss, and their eaves supported by wooden posts rubbed +to a glossy smoothness by the flanks of infinite cows and calves of +bygone years, _now passed to an oblivion almost inconceivable in its +profundity_.' + +"If a man speaks so of _cattle_ how must he feel towards his human +brothers and sisters! How strong must be in him that profoundest of +poetic passions, the '_carent quia vate sacro_' feeling! For, no doubt, +sometimes in these quiet country places a heart of such gold as Tess's +throbs away in complete obscurity its allotted number of pulses. Our +temper has altered from the time when this emotion was dismissed with a +'Let not ambition mock their useful toil,' etc., and Hardy has fully +realised the appalling paths of such tragedies in humble life. 'This +time,' he seems to have said, 'this time no mincing and no hedging. Let +the disdainful smilers and those others who shift all responsibilities +on to Providence look to themselves.' + +"There are passages of infinite pathos in this story: the 'too-late' +meeting of Tess with Angel Clare in the sea-side lodging, and the +terrific scene immediately after, when Angel is gone and she is left to +sob out her distraction; where Tess says to Angel, 'Why didn't you stay +and love me when I was sixteen with my little sisters and +brothers?':--the long letter she writes about a year after Angel has +left her, and where she practises the ballads that he had liked best, +while working in the field, 'the tears running down her cheeks all the +while at the thought that, perhaps, he would not after all come to hear +her, and the silly words of the songs resounding in painful mockery of +the aching heart of the singer.' And, earlier, the baptising by Tess of +her own infant, and--perhaps lying nearest of all to the fountain of +tears--those glimpses of her early innocence. 'Tess's pride would not +allow her to turn her head again to learn what her father's meaning was, +if he had any, and thus she moved on with the whole body to the +enclosure where there was to be dancing on the green' ... when one knows +against what fate the poor girl is going! But is it not all just a +little too cruel? To represent such adorable goodness, and sweetness, +and faithfulness as being rewarded with the actual _gibbet_--is not this +a little hard, even on Providence? The unsparingly tragic ending is not +the only thing, nor even the main thing that distinguishes this from +other stories dealing with the same sort of subject. + +"In George Eliot's Hetty we evidently have to do with a character quite +other than Tess's. The imputation of depravity attached to the fact that +Hetty, when scarcely more than a child, looked long in the glass and +thought how fine it would be to be a lady--this seems to me an +exceedingly miserable evidence of the somewhat crude vice of character +by which, notwithstanding George Eliot's immense genius, her sympathy +with the simple-hearted was, in certain cases, marred or destroyed. But +Hetty's character must be taken as it is revealed in action and +intention, and she abandons her infant, whereas the soul of Tess goes +out in an agony of endeavour to preserve hers, and, long after its +death, she exposes herself to ridicule by tending its outcast's grave. +In Hetty's dreams and schemes, again no thought of her parents and +people or hope of bettering their lot has place, while Tess at the +darkest moment of her _via dolorosa_--at Stonehenge, just before God +finally forsakes her--thinks of her sister 'Liza-Lu, and secures a +protector for those she is leaving behind. + +"Scott is, of course, without a trace of George Eliot's defect, and +always treats Effie Deans like a gentleman. By certain touches, too, he +indicates how deep is his concern for her, such as that crowd of +blackguards and urchins about the court-house, for whose holiday Effie +was so nearly murdered. But besides the fact that Scott has no true +grasp of feminine character, he makes Jeanie his heroine and never +really undertakes to tell Effie's story. And George Eliot, after +disposing of Hetty in a hurry, actually offers to interest us in the +love affairs of that preaching woman! In Fantine there are details +perhaps more intolerable to hear than this story of Hardy's, but the +general effect is less strong. For partly we distrust Hugo's rhetoric, +and besides, we are beguiled and consoled at the end, however +unreasonably, by his 'fortunately God knows where to look for graves,' +while in 'Tess' the concluding incidents come with a thunderbolt +inevitableness, and at the end nothing stands between us and the hideous +ignominy, the entire forgetfulness, the utter nakedness. But though her +life has become forfeit, perhaps that ignominy of the actual gibbet +might have been spared. In any case, there is nothing to be said at the +end of such a tale but-- + + "Tir'd with all these, for restful death I cry, + * * * * * + And maiden virture rudely strumpeted!" + +Yet let us not find fault, for terrible as it is to find a man who, +discarding the tradition that it is the office of poets to soothe and +amuse their fellow-prisoners with pretty fables and tales of the +governor's beneficence--a man who rejects this almost universal +tradition and appals his hearers with an account of malignant +treacheries committed by that governor--yet I sympathise with the +temper that does this, and believe that it has its roots in a genuine +and manly feeling, the feeling that I tried to suggest at the beginning. + +"Hardy is a strong example of that curious, inverted Manichæism so +characteristic of our time--a sort of mediæval horror of the grossness +of matter, balanced by a most unmediæval sense of the utter madness of +insulting and despising matter, seeing that the tyranny of it is +absolute. + +"He is perhaps the first Briton to write as a true man of the people on +such a subject, that is to say, to take it quite seriously. His story is +told with such passion that almost every particle of doctrinaire +affectation or easy pattern work is consumed and refined away, and he +has created in Tess the most inexpressibly pathetic figure that I know +of in literature." + +About Zola he writes in a letter of July, 1893:-- + +"Perhaps you have read 'Le Rêve.' It and 'La Debâcle' are the only two +of Zola's longer novels that could be recommended to a lady, and even +the latter with some misgiving. I cannot say that I think 'Le Rêve' one +of Zola's best works. I am far from sure that the French critic who +said: 'Nous préférons Monsieur Zola à quatre pattes' was not in the +right. Nevertheless, there are passages in it stamped by Zola's unique +greatness. With regard to its defects, I would rather say nothing at +present, except one--the end strikes me as absurd, _franchement mauvais +et du placage litteraire_--a recrudescence of something that we have +left far behind, something dead that should have been left to bury its +dead. All the same there are, I think, truly great things in the book." + +Of Marie Bashkirtseff, September, 1891, he writes:-- + +"Concerning Marie Bashkirtseff, she seems to me to have had nearly every +gift except two, namely imagination and heart. Above all, a sort of +critical intuition, which prevented her from ever resting satisfied in +anything second-rate. She was a typical little Russian, small of +stature, dark of tint; in temperament sensitive, romantic, versatile; +unlike the northern Russians, who are prevalently tall and fair and have +a certain contempt for the unpractical. Nearly the whole Russian harvest +of folk-songs and cognate treasure comes from the south, from Cossacks +and little Russians, the true Muscovite being almost a songless bird. +Marie must have had in a high degree the incomparable grace and +distinction of her countrywomen, with that wonderful animation and +'fever of life' which makes the atmosphere of Russian society the +warmest and brightest in the world. As to your statement that 'some of +her failings, like her love of luxury and her desire to be attended to +at all costs, are pure vanity and wormwood,' I have always stuck up for +this barbaric element, and believe that largely on it depends the +prodigious formative power of a _free feminine influence_--that thing of +such rarity as to be almost non-existent in our puritanical society. I +know a man at half a glance who has ever been under it." + +Referring to his correspondent's remarks that Russians seem to look at +religious questions like intelligent children, he writes:-- + +"Did you ever hear of the Soo-ré-ye-vites, the sect of which Leo Tolstoi +is a member? + +"Soorayeff was a peasant ignorant of reading and writing. He had read in +church 'God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in +spirit and in truth,' and by pure sympathy and unaided intelligence he +jumped to the conclusion that Jesus Christ meant what He said. Think of +the prodigious freshness of nature and the promise that this shows. + +"There are the five hundred sects of Great Britain all accepting the +same fundamental absurdities, and yet this simple man, never having +heard of criticism, is enabled to penetrate the viewless veil, woven by +the years and the churches over the face of the Son of Man, so as to +understand that Christ actually meant that God was a Spirit. + +"Suppose a missionary went among a savage tribe and tried to teach them +what Justice is; told them he himself was a son of Justice, and that +Justice was made manifest in him; lastly, that Justice is a spirit. +Suppose he came back after an absence and found the people teaching that +Justice was three persons and burning alive those who did not accept +this view!" + +In England, unless it were in London, Johnstone seldom felt at home; in +Scotland, still less. He liked to wander from one easy variegated +foreign city to another, where good music and good plays are quickly +accessible, and British convention is a mere figure in the comic papers. +He valued his friends in Edinburgh, but the place displeased him. He +would sit on Arthur's seat and hate the modern Athens steaming there +below him. Its curious old mossy layers of culture, professional and +academic, could hardly satisfy him, and he quickly got through the moss +to the stone. The ferment of the young "Celtic" writers and painters +seemed to come to little. He did not inure himself to the occasionally +inconsiderate manners of the Lowland Scotch, nor could he bring himself +to repay them steadily in kind. Some of the officials with whom he dealt +appeared to have been born, where they would die, in Gath. He would +hardly agree with, but he could understand the unqualified remark of his +old French associate, "Il n'y a pas d'amour dans ce pays." Probably he +was unjust to Edinburgh; but though his forbears were partly Scotch, he +was not, like Stevenson, born Scotch, and he never really saw the native +character from within. Teaching may not have been the best introduction +to it. He taught well, having the right sort of delivery and insistent +method. But it is disgusting to an artist to teach anything for bread, +except, perhaps, his own craft. The hard work, the pull on the nerves +and patience, can scarcely have strengthened Johnstone's health. + +Indeed, wherever he lived he had a touch of the exile. He dwelt really +in some region not of this earth at all, where the masters of music sit +in their Valhalla, where the hard waste matter that makes up most of our +life is eliminated, while the essence of its pain and pleasure is +distilled through art and presented in sublime purity of form. The saint +has his vision of personal goodness, the philosopher his of systematic +truth, the reformer his of a new society. The artist--for the term must +be extended to those who perceive as well as those who produce--has his +ideal vision, which varies in form with his special art. It follows that +the valuable part of actual life, to such a temper, is made up of such +stray hours of vivid experience and intelligence as, taken together, +give some notion of that other world. We had written "moments" instead +of "hours," but the former word would be misleading, with the false +suggestion of fleeting passive sensation, for which Walter Pater, or +rather those who misinterpret him, must answer. Every experience, in +truth, whether moral, sensuous, or intellectual, that is, of real worth, +contributes to the artist's dream. Johnstone posed so little and lived +by this principle so naturally and unwittingly that he could not be +called a doctrinairè. But few men save up their vital impressions about +everything so carefully, engraving them patiently on the memory, and +dismissing the vast mass of experience that tells us nothing. Hence +Johnstone was never quite naturalised in any abode, though he managed to +be sociable and festive when the chances came. In Edinburgh, however, +for the reasons given, he stayed over long, and we may regret that he +was not sooner freed from teaching school. + +Practically, there was some compensation for so late an escape. The +teacher's attitude, as of one clearly laying down the law, remained in +much of his press work, and to its advantage. The public as a whole, +though it must not be told so, is like a large, impatient, grumbling, +half-ignorant class of schoolboys. Reviewing is therefore educational +work. Not that the dominie-tone is wanted; for that is the worst of +faults, even in school-teaching! But the teacher does not take his class +into the secret of his own doubts, hesitations, or revulsions; he gives +his results, he gives what he thinks the truth. Or, if a figure from +another calling be preferred, the critic _operates_, beneficently if +often without anæsthetics. Further, there was something to be said for +the late specialisation of Johnstone's ruling talent. His nature was +rich; his articles have the style of a man who has lived, as well as one +who knows his trade. No youth, though ever so clever, could have made +them. He treats music as a means by which all the emotions, whether +large and solemn, or light and happy, or sombre, or perverse, are +transformed, often out of recognition, into their counterparts in sound; +so that the kinds of joy and pain given by music, like those given by +high drama but in a rarer measure, are stripped of any stinging personal +reference, while unweakened in force. The hearer is thus mysteriously +shown, as Rossetti says, the "road he came," and yet has no more, for +the time, to do with himself, save in so far as he is one of a thousand +men to whom the music interprets their experience, widely and deeply. +Therefore, to understand music, a man must have suffered. Johnstone had +met and weathered some of the suffering which an intense nature, even +under conditions easier than his, must absolutely meet with on this +earth, and must either give in to and go under, or must get over and +appropriate--there is no choice! He chose the latter way, being strong +enough, and so became a better musical critic. + +Besides, his bent for music was growing more marked during the last +years in Edinburgh. It was clear to his friends what his profession +ought to be, and his chance of adopting it came at the end of 1895. The +musical critic of the _Manchester Guardian_, Mr. Fremantle, died; and it +was hard to find a successor who would stamp his own mark and make the +critical judgments of the paper a power, in the musical capital in the +North of England. Johnstone had already written for the _Manchester +Guardian_ articles of sundry kinds; a review of the translation of +Nietzsche, part of which is reprinted in this book, and a notice on +Tolstoi; as well as on musical matters. York Powell was foremost in +commending his friend to the editor as a man of worth and high special +talent. An offer was sent to Johnstone, which he weighed with even more +than his usual deliberation. He felt the break with his friends in +Scotland, and he had misgivings, being a slow writer and not fond of his +pen, as to his power to work under journalistic conditions. As even his +letters show, he composed carefully and was a master of exact +expression; thus he felt some anxiety at having to work under the +pressure of a time limit, and that too at a late hour. He therefore +sent, without in any way jumping at the offer as an escape from +usherdom, a dignified reply that gave an impression of his quality. It +was not easy for his friends to make him decide with the necessary +haste. In the end he accepted the proposal, much to their relief, and +came to Manchester in January, 1896. There he stayed for the rest of his +life. + +In Manchester, Johnstone's existence and outlook were quite altered. He +had not to wait until the daily chare was over before he could turn to +music, which now took up his force and time for the working part of the +year. He had taught well, but others could have done that. Now, for nine +years, he gave himself to the work for which he was built, and which few +could do so well. Certainly no one did it in quite his way. The union of +temperament, knowledge, style, gave him an accent of his own. His lore +and his sensibility always grew and enriched each other. He did not +wholly limit himself to music, and before passing to this his chief +occupation, we may note his activity elsewhere. It was too much to hope +he would have any great distracting interest. Music is enough and more +for one man. But he spared some time for literature. He had a swift +preference even as a boy for all that was fresh, vehement, and strange +in modern drama and fiction. He was not at all like the complacent, +young, up-to-date college tutor, who reads the latest exotic writers, +but remains unaltered. Johnstone, if he liked a play or story at all, +was seized and shaken; a kind of enthusiasm which is a better preface to +a true judgment than any amount of accomplished and balanced coldness, +or the pseudo-"judicial" frame of mind. He was not so fond of poetry, or +so sure in his perception of it, caring too little for purely verbal in +contrast with accompanied or wordless music. We have reprinted above, +however, a part of his lecture on the scientific frontier between the +two arts. He found time also, when the press of the season was over, for +some byplay as a reviewer. He wrote in commanding style about books on +conjuring, on billiards, and on cooking. He used to say that cooking was +his real gift. To go to a certain café and quote Mr. Johnstone's name, +was to ensure a respectful and an even terrified service; and the +well-drilled waiter would commend a particular sauce-bottle as that +which his distinguished customer had used. But he remembered, with more +pleasure than banquets, having slept on shelves with the Cretan rebels +in the mountains, and sharing and digesting their extremely dried fish. +He also wrote on weighty matters outside music; the chief of these were +English and German plays. The companies that travelled from the +Fatherland to the Germanic city of the British Empire, and acted in the +Schiller-Anstalt, often played pieces involving actual dialect. +Johnstone's familiarity with German, as well as his natural sympathy +with writers like Hauptmann (and Sudermann in a less degree), marked him +out as the right reviewer. Plays, like concerts, have to be noticed in +hot haste on the very evening; or, at best, if given on Saturday, by the +following evening; for so much expedition is the minotaur-public of a +daily paper supposed to stipulate. The work done on such terms is not +always the worst in substance, though only long wont can give the kind +of finish or varnish that is desired. The same remark applies to musical +reviewing; but Johnstone's distrust of himself was needless. The result +was more in accordance with the expectation of his friends than with his +own. Many of his articles were written at great speed, and as one of his +colleagues said, if it had been possible for him to wait till he felt he +could do justice to the subject, most of them would never have been +written at all. + +Before passing to his main labours as a journalist, we may here quote, +in illustration, part of the notice that he wrote on the _Johannisfeuer_ +of Sudermann. Our reprints in this book deal almost wholly with music, +and, as we have said, he thought of music as a comment, at several +removes and after strange distillations, on life and experience. But the +drama, which is a copy of life, not indeed a direct one, but subject to +the laws of theatrical art, also engrossed him, especially when it was +at once modern in form and homely and passionate in theme. + +The Bavarian peasants and their girls still jump through the dying +embers of their bonfires on the eve of St. John:-- + + _"For the truth is Mr. Parson, a remnant of heathenism stirs in the + blood of us all. It has persisted through all the centuries since + ancient Germanic times, and, once a year, it blazes up with the + fire of St. John's Eve. For that night the spooks of ancient + heathenism are unchained. Witches ride on broomsticks, instead of + being beaten with them, and pass through the air, with mocking + laughter, on their way to the Blocksberg. The Wild Hunt scours over + the forest and wilder desires over our hearts--all that is most + frenzied and most utterly doomed to nonfulfilment. No matter what + the order may be that for the time being reigns in the world, for + one single heart's desire to be realised, and to give us something + to live on, a thousand others must go to ruin, not only for the + ever unattainable, but others, allowed to escape from a hand that + held them too carelessly. Yes, those bonfires which blaze up--do + you know what they are? They are the spectres of our heart's + desires, the red-winged birds of paradise that we might have kept + by us for life but allowed to escape, the spooks of the old order, + of the heathenism that is in us. However satisfied we may be in the + light of day and beneath the reign of law and order, this is St. + John's Eve in the night sacred to Midsummer Madness. I drink to + your ancient heathen fires. Let them blaze high! Will no one clink + glasses with me?"--(Act. iii., sc. 3.)_ + +"So the title 'Johannisfeuer,' with its double meaning, literal and +symbolical, must be rendered into English--according as we wish to lay +stress on the former or the latter--'The Bonfires of St. John's Eve' or +'Midsummer Madness.' On seeing the remarkably fine performance of this +play the non-German spectator, impressed with the general worthlessness +of German drama since the Augustan age (that is, the age of Goethe and +Schiller), might well wonder how it is possible for a German writer to +produce such a thing--a play, simple and unpretentious in design, yet +fraught through and through with poetic beauty; a play written with +northern sharpness of characteristic and, at the same time, with Italian +warmth, eloquence, and keenness of sympathy with the moods of nature; a +play distinctly Ibsenesque in structure and largely also in style, yet, +for all its sombre colouring, not haggard and aghast, like nearly all +the products of the Scandinavian's demonic spirit. The scene is in a +farm in East Prussia, in a neighbourhood with a mixed population of +Germans, Poles, and Lithuanians. The name of the farmer's family is +Vogelreuther. Marikke, a Lithuanian gipsy girl, is a foster-child in +their house, having been picked up along with her mother and carried +home by Mr. and Mrs. Vogelreuther in their sledge during the famine +winter of 1867. In the house she is known as Heimchen (the Cricket) and +in the neighbourhood as the 'famine child.' In the farm-house lives a +young man named George, an orphan nephew of Vogelreuther, indebted to +the famine for his upbringing. In the opening of the play George has +made a good start in life, having been apprenticed to an architect in +Königsberg and done well. He is betrothed to the farmer's daughter +Gertrude, but some years before there had been a love affair between him +and Heimchen, who had repulsed him hastily, not because she did not care +for him, but because she did not believe in the honesty of his +intentions. While busying herself with preparations for her +foster-sister's coming marriage, Heimchen discovers a manuscript book +belonging to George and containing verses and a diary. She cannot resist +the temptation to read, and she thus discovers that George had loved her +deeply and seriously, despite the difference in their standing. +Heimchen's mother--a besotted and thievish old woman--haunts the +neighbourhood, and has been recognised by her daughter. Heimchen has +been told that her mother is dead, but knows better. Meetings with the +terrible old woman re-awaken the gipsy instincts in Heimchen. George +loves her still at heart, and circumstances draw the two together. The +crisis is reached on the night of St. John's eve, when after an evening +in which the whole neighbourhood, lit up with bonfires, is given over to +punch drinking, dancing, and excitement. George is requested by the +unsuspecting farmer to escort Heimchen to the railway station, she +having a night train to catch to Königsberg. The ending is intensely +Ibsenesque in style. George, on the very day fixed for his wedding with +Gertrude, is ready to fly with Heimchen, but, mindful of the immense +obligations binding them both to the farmer's family, he insists that +there shall be at least an explanation. Heimchen, instinctively grasping +the difference between a man's and a woman's love, foresees the regrets +that would result from the overthrow of George's plans. She changes her +attitude and forbids him to speak to the farmer. The St. John fires are +burnt out. The midsummer madness is over. It is now for her to return to +duty and dulness and the burden of a starved heart. For life she must +remain satisfied with her one night of bliss on St. John's eve. So she +stands alone and watches the departure of George's and Gertrude's +wedding procession. + +"The great scene of the play, in which Heimchen and George are left +alone together, is managed with wonderful stagecraft. Till the last +moment they seem to be adhering to 'good resolutions,' but a series of +incidents, all absolutely natural, occur to distract attention and cause +delay, till they hear the whistle of the train and know that it is too +late. The bonfires, the punch-drinking, and, above all, George's speech, +from which the quotation at the head of these notes is taken, have fired +their blood, and Heimchen is unstrung by the painful meeting with her +disreputable mother earlier in the day, when she had been obliged to buy +back things that her mother had pilfered. At last she throws herself on +her knees before George and says, 'Du! Küss' mich nicht! Ich will dich +küssen. Ich will alles auf mich nehmen. Meine Mutter stiehlt. Ich stehl' +auch'--and the curtain falls." + + * * * * * + +To return to the date of Johnstone's arrival at the _Guardian_ office in +Manchester, where he was made welcome. He found friends upon the staff, +and kept them in spite of his want of sympathy with some of the +political views of the paper. On politics he never wrote, except when +recording matters of fact on his mission to the Greco-Turkish war. But, +not to speak of living persons, he was brought for some years into close +contact with one of the best-equipped and finest-tempered journalists +of our time. William Thomas Arnold, the son of Thomas, and nephew of +Matthew Arnold, was one of the two or three men, senior to himself, in +his personal circle, for whom Johnstone had a profound regard both as a +man and as a master-craftsman. This regard was well-deserved. An +authoritative scholar in the history of the early Roman Empire, a critic +who cast original light on Keats and some of the Jacobean poets, at home +in Dryden, in the French literature both of the great century and the +romantic age, abreast also of criticism in both countries, and a sound +vigorous judge of acting and the drama, Arnold made time to share the +daily burdens and aid in sustaining the high uncompromising standards of +a newspaper whose many foes have never questioned its consistent and +iron courage during the last ten years. Arnold often stood to Johnstone +in the capacity of actual editorial chief for the evening. It is hateful +to be edited, even to the change of a comma, except where errors of fact +or risks of libel are in question. Political contributions are another +thing; a common line--the "view of the paper"--must be adhered to, and +self-sacrifice in detail, within large limits, is simply necessary. That +is warfare; you may resign your commission, but, if you do not, must +accept instructions. But in art and letters! The mutual respect of the +two men may be measured by the freedom that was left to Johnstone, and +by the spirit in which he, rightly the most sensitive of men in such +concerns and naturally irritable, took the occasional blue-pencillings. +His other colleagues also held Johnstone in regard, in spite of the +vehemence with which he went his own way. Sometimes he would come in +from the concert, like an instrument whose strings are still quivering +at full pitch, and this is not the mood for rapid committee work at +night. There might be one great explanation from time to time which +cleared the air. It was seen that he was thinking of his subject, and +not of his own vanity, and that he was immensely, indignantly, and +delightfully wrapped up in that subject. On the whole it was a good +training for him, and few strong men, beginning at the age of +thirty-four, would have shown themselves, despite occasional rubs, so +reasonably adaptive. It may also be said that few newspapers would have +stood so well by a writer who, whenever he felt it his duty to do so, +would promptly perturb the musical hive, careless whether drone or +hornet minded. Mr. John Morley, who ought to know, has expressed some +doubt as to whether journalism tends to special elevation of character. +There are cases where the doubt does not arise. When the critic, on +artistic, and therefore on public, grounds, and with due store of +knowledge, raises a fury by his condemnations, and when the editor, who +has to think of his paper and its standing, supports the critic, +believing him likely to be right, that is a good evening's work. The +scope therefore granted to Johnstone as a journalist by his editor was a +proof of sagacity, for he became a power in the musical community, not +only of Manchester but of the larger region the _Manchester Guardian_ +reaches. No doubt, though he was allowed as free a hand in expressing +his opinions as any other of his craft, and a much freer one than the +majority, he sometimes wearied of the necessary restrictions of a +journalist's position and their deadening effect upon the mind. An +outburst, expressive of a deep and recurring mood, occurs in a letter of +January, 1902, written on his return to Manchester, and describing a day +he had spent in London with York Powell. + +"There is now no one in this neighbourhood with whom I can _converse_. I +find myself permanently in the journalistic attitude, regarding it as +luck if I can say two per cent. of what I think about anything; so the +meeting with Powell was an oasis at the end of some very sandy months." + +This complaint was laid not against the paper he served, but against the +sparseness of the kind of society he liked best. To understand it some +curious features of life in Manchester must be recalled. He used at +times to come to a small society of friends, which lasted for eight or +nine years, and met during the business year at about monthly intervals, +at the members' dwellings, for free conversation. He is remembered as +having there discoursed on Tolstoy's conceptions of art with his usual +energy and elaboration. The stringent mad-logic of the great art-hater +had once attracted, but at last disgusted him, and he saw that even +Tolstoy's famed novels, with their show of godlike equity, really held +the seed of his later prejudices against science, art, and sexual love. +But such occasions when he could talk freely seemed to grow rarer. The +fault lay somewhat, no doubt, in his own radical solitariness of mind, +but also in the surrounding conditions. + +Huge Manchester, almost a metropolis, is full of force, full of mental +as well as commercial stir; it is not, no, it is not! a _social_ city. +If it ever learns how to amuse itself, it will really be that; it will +be a metropolis. The reasons of the defect are partly physical. It has +an air, a rainfall, a climate, and an aspect, that do not make for good +spirits. The suburbs lie far apart in a ring round the business crater, +which becomes dark and most unfestal after ten o'clock at night, and +which those who cannot drive think twice of crossing. Also there is an +unfused mixture of races and classes. Apart from Greeks and Armenians, +who stand apart from one another and from other nations, there are the +German and other Jews on one side, and the Germans who are not Jews +markedly on another side. There are the big Lancashire money-makers, of +the soil; the shopkeepers and the vast clerkly multitude; the +professional classes, or castes; and the hand-workers, rough, but in +essential breeding and wits perhaps the soundest of all. For social +purposes many of these elements do not count. It is the Germans, the +Jews, and the professional classes, with many of the intelligent +business men in a large way, who probably civilise Manchester, in the +stricter sense of the term. It is as civilised an English city as can be +found in England outside London, if the press, the libraries, the +university, the theatres, and the music, be all weighed together. But +its bent hardly lies towards society, in the sense of ringing, +collective, intellectually disinterested talk, or towards gaiety of the +more bearable kind. There is ample dining, dancing, and official +entertainment, but those are not enough for salvation. The vast number +of philanthropic, educational, religious, and political agencies, which +fill playtime with labour for the good of mankind or party, entitle the +city to be called great and progressive, but they do not precisely make +it blithe. They inspire respect, and no one who has not lived there many +years can realise their number or the strenuous, positive, character of +the place; the southern nature seems soft and vague in comparison. But +the free talk of the real capitals, and their resources for witty +amusement, imply a large leisured class, an element of _flâneurs_ in the +population, which is hardly possible in a big North-English city. There +is personal isolation in a curious measure--a want of rallying points +for talk. The atoms repel each other and fly apart. Men go home to their +families or rooms and stop there. If they go out, it is often for some +"meeting" of an earnest description, not to amuse themselves; or, if +they wish to do this, they go to music, which is a somewhat solitary +pleasure. Talk, for the satisfaction of talking, is less common. There +are exceptions; but this is the impression given by long residence in +Manchester. The Germans, with their club and singing and cheerfulness, +have done their best for their adopted city. But it was hard for a +cosmopolitan person like Arthur Johnstone, at once deeply bent on art +and beauty of all kinds, and also demanding some kind of cheerful +foreign life in the intervals of work, to find his account quickly in +his new abode, and the opinion of it we have recorded above is largely +his own. + +For some time, therefore, he felt that Manchester was admirable rather +than refreshing. It had found for him the work of his life; he soon +became a force in his own calling; he had friends, new as well as old, +in the place; and he liked it better, as time passed, and as he managed +to find some of the intelligent festiveness that he wanted. Gradually he +touched several quite different circles, chiefly doubtless the musical, +but others also, journalistic, academic, and professional. Except with a +few, Johnstone made his way somewhat slowly in society. He could be +outspoken, uncompromising, and even explosive (though he never attacked +unless he thought there was provocation). These characteristics and his +daring line as a critic, both in talk and print, caused him to be +under-estimated by some otherwise intelligent persons. He might have +said, with Saint-Simon, that he was not "un sujet académique." He +disliked dons as a class; at Oxford and elsewhere they made him, of +course wrongly, restive. He had not been through their mill, and they +did not always care for or see his curious and original play of mind. +Their committee-trained caution of phrase was alarmed by his emphasis +and heavy-shotted superlatives, which merely amused his friends. There +were, of course, those among them who liked him well. In some houses he +had, apart from his musical gifts, a certain name for being "clever and +spiky." The latter epithet was only partially true, for he was +simple-hearted and good-natured the moment that the occasion arose. "His +sympathy," writes Madame de Navarro (Miss Mary Anderson), "never failed, +and his unaffected love and enthusiasm for the good, the true, and the +beautiful, could always be counted upon." All who had eyes saw this in +Johnstone, but all had not eyes. He was interested, absorbed, whelmed in +his subject, and thought instinctively more about ideas and purposes +than about persons, so that he sometimes ignored persons and therefore +dissatisfied them. He also said, what is true, that of the provinces, as +compared with the capital, "the favourite sin is cowardice." This, and +any semblance of snobbery, he openly despised. He liked to have power +and weight--and was right in liking it--in order to carry out certain +musical reforms. But he dismissed at once anyone who, as he put it, "may +be very well-informed, yet clearly cares nothing at all for things in +themselves, but simply and solely to be a person of consideration." So, +except as a musical critic, his measure, for good reasons, was not +invariably taken. He knew this fact, and felt it with some keenness, but +not from the side of disappointed conceit. He thought it was his lot in +life not to be able to talk freely and acceptably save to a very few +persons. He was sorry, but convinced that thus he was built. The old +Oxford sense of solitariness--and Oxford leaves dregs in the cup for +these her sensitive children--does not easily let go its victim. The +happiness and success of the latter years, however, were to leave him +markedly easier, mellower, and more communicative. He was, indeed, fully +entering on his own when he was cut down. But a larger and more various +experience than ever yet, both of thought and travel, was to be his lot +within the last eight years of his short life. + +In April, 1897, Johnstone made his appearance in a new capacity. The +dispute between Greece and Turkey over the treatment of the Christians +in Crete had reached an acute stage and war was expected to break out at +any moment. The _Manchester Guardian_, more than any other English +newspaper, had championed the Greek cause. Naturally the proprietors +wished to secure the best and fullest accounts of the operations and to +have them despatched in advance of other papers. Mr. J. B. Atkins was +chosen to accompany the army in the field, and Johnstone's knowledge of +modern languages and acquaintance with Eastern Europe marked him out as +a valuable colleague. He was posted at Athens to receive reports from +the front, to arrange all the details connected with their transmission, +and to review the progress of the war, work which he carried through +very successfully. His gift of tongues, which once caused him to be +congratulated in Germany on "speaking English so well," enabled him soon +to get a working knowledge of modern Greek; he was fortunate too in +finding a Greek gentleman, who, grateful for the attitude of the +_Manchester Guardian_, acted as his interpreter and showed him about the +city. The same friend was on intimate terms with the Royal family, and +introduced Johnstone to the King and the Duke of Sparta. At the close of +his stay at Athens, he hesitatingly asked if there was any return he +could make for the various kindnesses he had received, when this friend +of royalty named so modest a fee that Johnstone was staggered; "it was +the pourboire of a head-waiter," he said afterwards when describing the +incident, adding that he had never realised what true democracy meant +until then. Among his associates there was the correspondent of a +Viennese paper who had somehow incurred the dislike and suspicion of the +war-party, but, as Johnstone thought, unjustly. At last his life was +openly threatened; there was no hope for him unless he managed to leave +the country at once, and even then there was a fair chance that he might +never reach the ship alive. Johnstone, being on good terms with the +patriotic party, pleaded for his life and undertook to get him away; he +cycled behind him for the four miles from Athens to the Piræus, and when +they reached the harbour kept the mob off until he was safely on board +an Austrian Lloyd steamer. The ride was an exciting one, for it was +expected that an attempt would be made to shoot the obnoxious +correspondent on the way down to the port; some shots were actually +fired, but went wide of the mark. When the war was nearing the end +Johnstone's services were not so necessary at Athens, and he went to +join Mr. Atkins in camp; but he saw no fighting, for the day after his +arrival peace was declared. His colleague returned to England, and +Johnstone spent some weeks in Crete to investigate the stories of those +atrocities which had been the immediate cause of the war. He went _sac +au dos_ like J. K. Huysmans in 1870, but unlike him, roughed it with +good humour and looked upon hardships of this kind as a helpful and +valuable experience. A year later when congratulating a friend, who was +somewhat habit-ridden, on his marriage, he wrote, "The problem of +changing one's habits is emphatically one of those to be solved +'_ambulando_.' The forms of ambulation best adapted to the purpose are +serving on a campaign, doing time 'with,' and getting married;" +admitting, however, that the last, though less drastic, was more +permanent in its effect. + +Of the stay in Crete he always spoke as the best holiday of his life. He +was struck with the beauty both of the lowlands and the hills, and +predicted the day when the isle would be one of the great resorts of +Europe. The mountaineers redeemed for him the modern Greek race, which +his experience in Athens had led him to scorn utterly. He thought that +the citizen and official class were shifty and mendacious, and his +epithets were Juvenalian in vigour. The hillmen were of another race, in +body and spirit, and he loved sharing their hardy life. It is right to +add that he exempted the ordinary Greek soldier on the mainland from the +condemnation which he reserved for the officers. Some considerable time +he spent on the water, chartering a small steamer in order to coast up +near the seat of war. Before making his way homeward he went to +Constantinople, and the surface view, at any rate, of the Turk pleased +him well. He returned home in unusually buoyant health and wearing a +moustache, having fallen under the spell of Eastern prejudice against +the clean-shaved. + +At the beginning of the musical season in October, 1898, a considerable +storm was raised in Manchester by the action of the guarantors of the +Hallé concerts, who had offered the post of conductor to Dr. Richter, +instead of renewing Dr. Cowen's appointment. It fell to Johnstone to +write the two leading articles on the subject which appeared in the +_Manchester Guardian_ of October 4th and 17th. His clear and judicial +summing up of the case left no room for questioning the right of the +guarantors to act as they had done, while his special knowledge of Dr. +Richter's immense services to musical art enabled him to write with +authority on the great chance now open for Manchester's acceptance. In +short, the point at issue lay between sentimental considerations and the +good of the community, and Johnstone very naturally declared for the +latter. Our reference to this controversy is intentionally brief, but +its importance at the time was considerable. Johnstone was now +recognised as a leader of musical opinion in Manchester, a position and +influence which became greatly extended in the years that followed. + +There is no doubt as to the kind of power that he exerted. He did not +touch the actual administration of music in Manchester, in the College +of Music, or the Hallé concerts, or elsewhere. He did not directly +advise, therefore, in the choice of programmes, players, or singers. But +he went to every performance of the slightest note, whether popular or +not, and wrote about it incisively and heedfully, always preferring to +praise and interpret, but hitting very hard when he thought it +imperative to do so. He went to the prize exhibitions of the college +pupils, and reviewed them (omitting names) with a sympathetic ear for +promise. He lectured, often very well, at Mr. Rowley's Sunday gatherings +in Ancoats, and also in the History Theatre of Owens College. As a +lecturer, it may be observed, he suffered at times from having too much +to say and failing to compress it perfectly. But he held an audience of +unprofessional hearers with his sharply-cut and pungent style; and, in +one respect he was a fortunately un-English lecturer, for his power of +graphic gesture was quite noteworthy. These, however, were casual +activities; presswork took almost all his strength. He did a vast amount +of musical reviewing, and his room was stacked with the publications +that he simply found it useless to criticise. But the notices of actual +singing and playing were his main labour, as well as the pioneer +articles on unknown or imperfectly appreciated works. These were of high +value, and contain some of his best writing, being done at fuller +leisure. As to the quality of his published utterances we may say no +more; the articles we have saved for this book must speak for +themselves. But, without doubt, his judgment was looked for, and +welcomed or feared. He made it less easy for bad performers to come +again. He was generous, preferring even a slight excess, to oncoming and +unrecognised talent, or to remote and exotic kinds of talent which made +the fashionable multitude impatient. He became the worthy and articulate +voice of musical opinion in and beyond one of the English capitals of +the art. + +We could hardly illustrate the kind of power that Johnstone exerted +better than by quoting what Canon Gorton writes concerning his +connection with the Morecambe musical festival:-- + +"Our festival was born in 1891. From the first it was organised entirely +apart from any pecuniary object; it brought us some delightful music, as +we set our own test pieces, and its aim was essentially educational. Our +special correspondent from the _Manchester Guardian_ did not arrive on +the scene until 1899. We had grown accustomed to unstinted praise, the +judges exhausted the adjectives in the language in describing the +excellence of the singing, composers told us that they had never heard +their part-songs so perfectly rendered. We thought we were perfect. Then +came a bomb from the critic (April 27th, 1899). He was not in touch with +us or cognisant with our aim, nor did he allow for our limitations. Much +of the music seemed to him unworthy; the competitive or sporting element +annoyed him; he saw rocks ahead, rocks on which others had been wrecked. +He wrote: 'The array of talent is no doubt imposing, but far too much of +the music is of an inferior stamp. It should not be forgotten that the +end and aim of such festivals is to foster a taste for music. But the +taste for inferior music needs no fostering. If, therefore, the +organisers of these festivals prescribe second-rate works for the +competitions, they simply destroy the _raison d'être_ of these +competitions. It is music as an art--not music as a sport or trade--that +requires fostering. There is a danger that such concerts may degenerate +into a vulgar pot-hunting business, and one would like to see everything +done, both as regards the music prescribed and the conduct of the +proceedings of the festival itself, to guard against that danger.' I do +not claim to know much about music, but I recognise good English when I +see it. I saw that 'our special correspondent' was a master of his +craft. I replied at once in the _Manchester Guardian_ rejecting his +interpretation of our motives, and still more the motives which brought +choirs to our Festival. I said that 'no chastening was joyous' and urged +that the critic should have patience, that we were then walking and that +some day we would run, and expressed a hope that he might be there to +see. I afterwards called upon him at the Reform Club, and this commenced +a friendship, the memory of which I shall always hold as a matter of +pride. He henceforth became for us 'the critic.' We not only awaited +his arrival, but in choice of music Mr. Howson (the choir-master) even +applied an additional test: 'This will test the choir, but will it also +satisfy Mr. Arthur Johnstone's taste?' The choir were conscious ever of +his presence. The judges were in the box giving their awards, but 'Mr. +Johnstone is in the grand circle, what does he think?' I heard him once +appeal to his wife; 'Am I not always open to conviction?' With his first +article in view, and with the knowledge of what subsequently he did for +us, I could but allow that he made good his claim, for he became the +most stalwart defender of our Morecambe musical festival--'a movement,' +he wrote in 1903 'that is one of the most genuine and hopeful things in +the musical England of to-day.' Again he complained that 'little or +nothing has been done by the teachers of music in Manchester to +encourage the musical revival that for a good many years had been going +on in the North of England, and more particularly in Lancashire.' Later, +he wrote a remarkable article in reply to the strictures of Mr. J. +Spencer Curwen. Mr. Curwen had questioned whether our festivals help +choral music in the long run, and proceeded to comfort us by saying that +'we were entering upon a dangerous path. The more success you have, the +nearer you will approach to the state of things which exists in Wales.' +To this belated warning Mr. Johnstone replied (October 5th, 1903): 'The +peculiar evils enumerated by Mr. Spencer Curwen as being fostered by +competitions were observed a good many years ago by those who are +organising meetings in North Lancashire. Indeed, one may say the +observation of these evils was the point of departure in Lancashire, and +we are, therefore, a little tired of these strictures on the choirs got +up to learn certain pieces, dispersing immediately afterwards; on +fragmentary performances, and the rest of the black things on Mr. +Curwen's list. It is evident that Mr. Curwen is entirely without +knowledge of the best Lancashire choirs formed by the influence of +competition in their own neighbourhood. These choirs have as strong a +principle of cohesion as any in the world. Their repertory is +exceedingly wide. Their organisers show immense enterprise in unearthing +the treasures of the old English and Italian madrigal writers and of the +finest modern part-song writers. Let Mr. Curwen go to Morecambe next +spring; his ideas on the subject of musical competition will be pretty +thoroughly revolutionised.' Yes, Mr. Johnstone was open to conviction, +sought nothing less than the truth, was at infinite pains to obtain +it--_O si sic omnes_. But the debt we owe to him was not merely because +he was a critic keen to discern the good, not merely because he proved a +fearless champion. He became a friend always ready to discuss methods of +development, and to place his exact and wide knowledge at our disposal, +and after we had formed our plans it was a great gain to Mr. Howson and +myself to test their wisdom by his opinion. He spoke frequently of the +capacity for conducting which the festival revealed, and inveighed +against the star system, whether among vocalists, instrumentalists, or +conductors--and of these last he had in his mind's eye several whom he +maintained we ought to rely upon. It does not fall to me to speak of him +as a friend, as a delightful companion, as a courteous gentleman--one +whom I married and one whom, alas! I buried in the prime of his powers." + +Johnstone took the position he had thus made with increasing +seriousness, and worked during the Manchester musical season harder than +ever. In the summer he went abroad, but not entirely for rest. He +greatly expanded his knowledge, and also his musical reputation and that +of his paper, by his visit to festivals at Bayreuth, at Oberammergau, +at Düsseldorf, and at Vienna. Forced to choose, we have hardly been +able, within these limits, to quote from the contributions he sent home. +The last of his foreign journeys was unlike all the others, which had +been taken alone. The words quoted above from the letter of January, +1902, were no longer to be true, though the desired companionship came +late. A solitary life in lodgings, and the absence of domestic ties to +one of his affectionate and home-loving nature (which lay behind his +gipsy habits) could not be compensated even by hosts of friends; but +brighter days were in store. In June, 1902, he became engaged to Miss +Lucy Morris, a Manchester lady who had won considerable distinction at +Cambridge; and henceforward the most human of interests gave fresh +inspiration to his life and work. + +Their marriage took place two years later, on June 28th, 1904, quietly +at Morecambe. The friend of both, Canon Gorton, married them, and +another friend, Mr. Howson, undertook the musical part of the ceremony, +which was performed by the Morecambe Madrigal Society and the church +choir. There never was a wedding with better music, and for once the +hackneyed description, "the service was fully choral," might have been +used with a real meaning. The honeymoon was spent on the Riffel Alp: +afterwards the travellers attended the Bayreuth festival, returning to +Manchester at the end of August, where they went to live at Tarnhelm +(named after the magic helmet of the "Ring") in Victoria Park. A few +more months of happiness remained to Johnstone. On Thursday, December +8th, he was taken seriously ill, but though in considerable pain he +attended a concert in the evening, and wrote a notice of the +performance. The next morning his condition was worse, and on Saturday +he was operated upon for appendicitis. But relief came too late, and on +Friday, December 16th, his sufferings ended. He had just completed his +forty-third year: he was in the plenitude of his intellectual powers, +and had entered upon the happiest and most useful period of his life. + +This cruel and sudden ending to Johnstone's career, at a moment when he +had reason to be reconciled to life and to forgive circumstance, when he +was wider in his critical sympathies and more thoroughly master of his +means of expression than ever before, and when his public influence was +strong, stirred the musical society of north-western England. North and +South are two different nations--neighbours that often carefully ignore +and misunderstand each other. This appears to be specially the case in +musical criticism. The London press said much too little. But the word +"provincial" has no application to the musical energies of Manchester. +It is like one of the great German towns, Munich or Frankfurt, being +wholly independent of the capital, of which it is not a colony. The mark +made by Johnstone in this region was attested in a measure that he would +never have foreseen. The _Manchester Guardian_, besides giving an +honourable obituary notice to its critic, received far more letters in +his honour, expressing sorrow at his early death and admiration of his +character, than it found space to print, although the most salient of +them filled its columns. They were written with knowledge, not by +laymen, but by persons with whom Johnstone had worked and had dealt +faithfully, sometimes stringently. The remark of Canon Gorton, "I began +my friendship with a quarrel," might be echoed more than once. +Johnstone's clean, hard literary thrust, or _punch_, free from noisy +hammering violence, was a not infrequent introduction to his +acquaintance. It was given with a will, but in a spirit thoroughly, and +to third parties amusingly, impersonal. The letters as a whole give a +clear notion of the intelligent professional view concerning him; of +his honesty, catholicity, and knowledge. He had been everywhere, he +counted, and when he had gone he was missed. + +One of Johnstone's brothers in the craft, Mr. Ernest Newman, after +referring to a dispute which had led to their friendship, spoke of him +as "the best and strongest Englishman of our time in this line." Dr. +Adolph Brodsky, after praising in especial Johnstone's accounts of +pianoforte performances, singled out his services in breaking down the +popular prejudice in England against Bach. Others wrote of his musical +erudition and his "laudable desire to prevent anything in the form of +charlatanism from finding a place in the musical assemblies of +Manchester." Canon Gorton, who, as we quoted above, wrote with gratitude +of the high stimulus given by Johnstone to those local efforts which +save music from being unduly centralised in the bigger cities, and his +pertinent remarks upon the rarity and value of great musical critics +claim quotation, as they bring home the public sense of loss in +Johnstone's death. + +"He held a high view of his office, and would make a sacrifice of self +rather than a sacrifice of truth. It is difficult to calculate the +extent of your loss. Musicians succeed musicians; they being dead may +yet speak. But the critic's words are ephemeral; they remain in the +files of the newspapers. For musicians there are schools; but what +school is there for critics? In music we need guides, men with a wide +horizon, a general culture, men unfettered by musical faction, with +definite ideals, with command of the English tongue, of courage and of +true instinct. Such an one, I take it, was Mr. Arthur Johnstone. Who +will fill his place?" + +Upon this precise statement of the case we could not try to improve. We +can only add some words upon the nature of the man apart from his +profession. In an estimate of Johnstone's character the foremost place +must be assigned to his love of truth in all things; this virtue was the +touchstone he applied to his friends and to all artistic work. M. Vantyn +happily quotes, as the most appropriate motto for him, Locke's words, +"To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human +perfection in this world and the seed-plot of all other virtues," adding +by way of comment, "In everything, in all intercourse, upon all +occasions, under all circumstances, whether in enjoyment, in work, in +serious intercourse, he was a gentleman in the strictest sense of the +word." Next we may place his wonderful sympathy with the oppressed in +every class. Even where there was much that roused his anger in the +sinner, as in the case of Oscar Wilde, he was indignant at the merciless +treatment he received, and pleaded for a minor punishment. Where his +sympathy could have free play he was tender in the extreme, he would +take infinite personal trouble, and give all that his modest means +permitted. He was fond of animals, he disliked the idea of killing them +in "sport," and was glad that most of his intimate friends shared his +view. But he was not unreasonable on this point; and, to take the real +test question, he was not absolutely opposed to vivisection under +stringent conditions. For all his early talk of the "joy of life" he was +more anxious to secure it for others than for himself. He was tolerant +under his armour, and would rebuke pointless severity by saying, "Well, +well, there is something wrong with almost everybody;" but he did not +extend this indulgence to the cruel and pedantic. His youthful +rebelliousness, apartness, and questioning of society did not all +vanish, but were taken up and transformed into a more flexible temper; +for they had never been the mere plant of nihilism and vanity, that a +selfish nature manures in its barren private garden. Some of his friends +valued, above all, his total lack of the small inquisitiveness, which he +resented more than anything in others. He was deep in his work or in +the minor preparations for the day, and did not trouble much about his +friends' affairs. But when anything was doing, he emerged at once. When +one of his old companions was in suspense over illness at home, and yet +could do nothing but wait, Johnstone planned for him and personally +conducted an elaborate series of distractions and amusements covering +about four hours--not an easy thing to do in Manchester--each of them +appearing to be improvised as it came. The trouble over, he relapsed +into thought and went his ways. There were many such incidents. A +picturesque and noble character of this kind, with its traits of +quaintness, claims thus much record, and the more so that reticence made +it less easy to discover. To the public the journalist is such a mere +spectral hand and pen, writing by lamplight, without a face or form +behind it, as we hear of in a certain class of old ghost-stories. +Johnstone had become more than this to many of his readers. But they +could not know him as a man. It is well, therefore, to lift so much of +his privacy as may enable them partially to do so. He went through the +world scornful of its common valuations, appraising for himself, +watching with a certain isolation, and always preferring (if he must +choose) liberty to happiness, and rightful pride to obvious advantage. +But he was all the more human for that. + +We may here say something about his piano playing. Johnstone, of course, +never professed to be more than an amateur. He was quite aware that the +difference in executive skill between the professional and the best +amateur is almost as great in music as in billiards; and that, to +paraphrase Matthew Arnold's saying, "Technique is three-fourths of +musical performance." As to the remaining fourth his playing stood on a +very high level. Even in undergraduate days the charm of his rendering +was considerable, always carefully thought out and individual. If he had +never heard a piece performed, his insight was remarkable, lighting +instinctively upon what one realised was the best way of playing it. His +touch was very delicate; he never forced the tone out of a piano, and +always avoided anything that might be called hard hitting. He liked best +playing something in the style of a Rubinstein barcarolle, where the +music should speak through a veil of sound. But his strength really lay +in a fine sense of rhythm, a rare gift even among great pianists. +Whatever piece he attempted he took at the proper pace, even if +occasionally a note might be missed or a passage blurred, rather than +give a false idea of it by playing too slowly; what was altogether +beyond his powers he left alone. On his return from the Cologne +Conservatoire his actual execution was at its best, the fingers strong +and lissom; and, being at the top of his physical health, his playing +was full of almost exuberant vitality. A weak circulation was always a +trial, and it was his habit to warm his fingers at a fire, when +possible, before sitting down to the piano. It was perhaps a small +talent, but singularly dainty and cultivated, for which our memory of +twenty-five years is profoundly grateful. + +We might expect that the qualities he aimed at in his own playing would +be those that most attracted him in the great pianists of his period. Of +course he admired at their full value those transcendent players, +Rubinstein, Sophie Menter, Paderewski, Rosenthal; but there are also +artists equally unapproachable in their own delicate way, such as +Pachmann, Godowsky, Reisenauer, Siloti, and it was from them he received +the greatest personal pleasure. + +As critic his first object was to explain the qualities and scope of the +music (in Pater's words, "to disengage its virtue"); to show, if a +classic, why it had attained its position, if modern, why it should +command serious attention. He never assumed too much musical knowledge +on the part of his readers, avoiding the use of technical expressions, +still more of stereotyped phrases. Bad work and slovenly performance he +could chastise unsparingly, but he never wrote harshly when he +recognised genuine effort, and he was very generous in his praise of +young performers, and often attended minor concerts at some +inconvenience to encourage rising artists. His style was clear and +precise, rather expository in tone; coloured when the occasion demanded, +and occasionally enriched with allusions to other arts. Thus the +elaborate tracery of Gothic architecture exhibited in Strasburg +Cathedral (a favourite figure) is employed to illustrate Bach and +contrasted with the formal classicism of earlier composers, and the +Palladian style of Handel; Elgar's "Dream of Gerontius" is compared to +some "jewelled _ciboire_ of the Middle Ages;" a pianist's playing of +arabesque passages reminds him of the "arrogance and costly unreason of +fine jewellery." His discernment of any new work of permanent value was +quick and unerring; we may instance his early estimate of Elgar and +indeed of Strauss too (for his position then was uncertain) as having +been in advance of general musical opinion, though unquestioned at the +present day. Tchaïkovsky's Pathetic Symphony was a more obvious +discovery; here he showed his critical power rather in quenching the +popular enthusiasm (which he had at first assisted in creating) for this +work when the public seemed to have lost all sense of proportion, by +reminding his readers that after all "Tchaïkovsky and Dvoràk are +inspired barbarians and must not be put on the same level with Beethoven +and Schumann." Mention too should be made of his appreciation of Liszt, +whose services to music are too frequently ignored--the creator of the +modern pianoforte technique, the brilliant and original composer, and +the generous friend of Wagner. + +In their choice of the articles of which this volume is composed the +editors have given special prominence to those on the works of Sir +Edward Elgar and Herr Richard Strauss, the two composers of our time +who, as Johnstone considered, would bear the largest share in +influencing the cause of musical development. Many of the articles were +written on the first production of important works, and, in Elgar's +case, further impressions are given of later performances of the same +work. Those on the great acknowledged masters, if they cannot add much +more to our stock of actual knowledge, are interesting as confessions +of a sound musical faith. It is also true that the sum of potential +energy in the works of these great masters is infinite; in this sense, +that they strike a new flash out of every fresh and apprehensive mind. +They can beget generations of critics, each with another thing to say. +Such criticism is not a mere absorptive or passive process; it is +re-creation: it puts into fresh terms, by the art of words, some of the +impressions that have been built up of sound without language; or it +tells those who have felt the same thing what they did not clearly know +or remember that they had felt. The power to explain music is rarer than +competence in judging books. It may be thought that amongst Englishmen +of our generation Arthur Johnstone had as large a share as any of this +re-creative genius. + + + + +Musical Criticisms + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +BACH. + + +[Sidenote: =The Genius of Bach.= + +_November 27, 1901._] + +In the minds of those who have specially at heart the welfare and +progress of musical art in this country nothing at the present time +looms larger than the church music of Bach. To acquiesce in the +prevalent indifference of the public to that music we feel to be +impossible. If Shakespeare is nothing but a bore, there seems to be an +end of imaginative literature; and similarly, in music, any person whom +Bach entirely fails to interest had better give up all pretence to being +musical. For Bach is not one of the composers, like Berlioz, Liszt, +Tchaïkovsky, Dvoràk, or Richard Strauss, whom it is allowable to like or +dislike. Bach is the musical Bible--the foundation of the faith. +Historically considered, both Bach and Handel are artists of the +Reformation and the Renaissance. But if we fix attention on their +essential musical personalities, we find a certain broad difference +between the two great eighteenth century composers, which is fairly well +suggested by calling Bach a Gothic and Handel a Renaissance artist. +Bach's "Passion according to St. Matthew" stands to Handel's "Messiah" +in something like the same kind of contrast that Strasburg Cathedral +presents to St. Peter's in Rome. On the other hand, in its course of +development music has been quite different from architecture and the +graphic and plastic arts, and modern music owes quite a hundred times +more to Bach than it does to Handel. Bach represents by far the greatest +stimulating influence that has ever existed in the musical world. His +stupendous industry, resulting in a body of first-rate work that may be +reckoned among the greatest wonders of the world (it is not possible for +a modern to know it all); his awe-inspiring union of very great talent +with very great character; the completeness of his human nature and the +absolute purity of his life and art--these things unite to make of +Bach's personality something truly august, something that administers a +quietus to the ordinary critical, fault-finding spirit. Glancing over +the huge library of his collected works and knowing the glories that a +few of them contain, one is fain to say, "There were giants in the earth +in those days." Yet "giant" is scarcely the word. For the astounding +sinew and sturdiness of the man were quite secondary in the composition +of his character to that quality, in virtue of which he worked on +throughout a long life as though in perpetual consciousness of something +higher than ordinary human judgment; not waiting for full appreciation, +which did not come till about a century after his death (very much as in +Shakespeare's case), but perfectly realising the great ethical ideal of +Marcus Aurelius--the good man producing good works, just as the vine +produces grapes. No greater praise can be bestowed on Handel than to +say that in his very best moments he is almost worthy of Bach, as, for +example, in the choral section "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity +of us all," or in the tenor of the recitative "He looked for some to +have pity on Him, but there was no man; neither found He any to comfort +Him." + + +[Sidenote: =Bach's Mass in B minor.= + +_November 29, 1901._] + +Under Dr. Richter's irresistible generalship the most arduous task ever +yet undertaken by the Hallé Choir was yesterday carried through to a +brilliantly successful issue. Bach's great Mass illustrates his tendency +to throw all the weightier eloquence of a sacred composition into the +chorus, a solo or duet being treated as a delicate interlude, some +florid _obbligato_ for violin, oboe, or "corno di caccia"--the +eighteenth century name for the ordinary orchestral horn--being +intertwined with the melodic line in the manner of Gothic tracery. The +Mass is in six main divisions--the Kyrie, with three sub-sections; the +Gloria and the Credo, each in eight; the Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus +Dei, each in two sub-sections. The two choruses of the Kyrie--the former +a wailing supplication, the latter a mystical counterpart washed clean +of earthly passion--were sufficient to show that the choir had a most +thorough grasp of their parts, all the difficult and complex chromatic +harmonies coming out with admirable clearness and correctness. The first +chorus of the Gloria, with its joyous _vivace_ movement, breaks into a +style much more generally "understanded of the people." Here the choir +were on thoroughly firm ground. The ring of the voices was magnificent, +and the superbly effective contrast at the words "Et in terra pax" was +perfectly given. The first occasion on which we noticed any serious +defect in the choral singing was in the burst of jubilant melody at the +opening of the "Et resurrexit." The jar was only momentary and was +doubtless the result of an over-vehement attack. It can scarcely be +questioned that the most marvellous chorus in the whole work is the +Sanctus, which expresses in six-part harmony the mystical rapture of +celestial beings set free from all care, pain, and strife. The effect of +those persistent three-quaver groups in their garlanded similar motion +is like nothing else in this world. They create a harmony of +unparalleled richness, filling the ear with a feast of ravishing sound. +The contrast with such choruses as Handel's "Hallelujah" and "Worthy is +the Lamb" is extremely striking. Handel was always of the Church +Militant. He was always strenuous, affirming the faith as it were with a +note of triumph over its enemies. Such a rose of Paradise as this +Sanctus of Bach's is quite remote from all that Handel could do. For an +earthly choir, however, with lungs and vocal chords liable to weariness, +all this infinitely ornate and elaborate passage-work is very trying, +notwithstanding the absolute suavity of the musical expression, and in +the ensuing "Hosanna" there were occasional signs of exhaustion. But the +choir recovered their breath during the two succeeding solos, and gave a +magnificent performance of the concluding "Dona nobis pacem." + + +[Sidenote: ="St. Matthew Passion."= + +_January 25th, 1900._] + +It is possible to regard the "St. Matthew Passion" of Sebastian Bach as +the greatest work of sacred musical art in existence, and thus as +greater than Handel's "Messiah"; while at the same time thoroughly +acquiescing in the greater popularity of the "Messiah." Handel was a +mighty artist and a most lordly person; but he was a man of the world +and a Court composer, and his religion, though perfectly genuine, was +external and official in character. Bach, too, was a mighty artist, but +he was not a man of the world. He was a devout and pious man and a man +of the people, and his religion was inward and personal. Again, Handel +was cosmopolitan, whereas Bach was thoroughly German. Not that Bach was +wanting in knowledge of Italian and other foreign music. He was a +perfectly comprehensive encyclopædia of the musical knowledge that +existed in his time. But the basis of his character was too homely, +simple and loyal to be modified by foreign influence. Thus while Handel +became musically an Italian, Bach remained thoroughly German. All these +circumstances suggest reasons for the much wider popularity of Handel's +music by comparison with Bach's. The general public like the clear and +definite outline, the structural simplicity, that they find in the +Italian and quasi-antique style of Handel, while they are bewildered by +the subtlety, the complexity, the varied imaginative play, and the +rejection of set forms that they find in Bach. It must be remembered +that the average man of the world to a great extent determines the tone +of the general public; one may be thankful that there exists any work +of sacred musical art so splendid as "Messiah," which is to a great +extent intelligible to the average man of the world, and one may rest +satisfied that, for the present at any rate, the "Messiah" should be +performed often, the Passion music seldom. + +A long line of Christian aspiration and endeavour culminates in the "St. +Matthew Passion" music. The Good Friday service, or mystery, of the +Passion dates back to mediæval times. Musical settings of it are quite +innumerable. They fall into three main groups, according to style. The +earliest are in the "Plain-song" of the mediæval church. At the period +of Luther's Reformation the plain song gave way to the chorale style. +Finally, there are many settings in the oratorio style. Of these Bach +himself certainly wrote four, and probably five. By universal consent +the "St. Matthew Passion" is the finest of Bach's settings. The main +outlines of the scheme were fixed by tradition. Bach had the assistance +of a poet named Picander in arranging his text, but it was by Bach's own +judgment that all important points were settled. He divided the story +into two parts. The first comprises the conspiracy of the High Priest +and Scribes, the anointing of Christ, the institution of the Lord's +supper, the prayer on the Mount of Olives and the betrayal of Judas, and +ends with the flight of the disciples. In the second part are set forth +the hearing before Caiaphas, Peter's denial, the judgment of Pilate, the +death of Judas, the progress to Golgotha, the Crucifixion, Death and +Burial of Christ. Between the two parts there is a broad contrast, a +certain solemn stillness prevailing in the first and a passionate stir +in the second. Fifteen chorales are heard in the course of the work, +each forming a meditation upon the foregoing incident in the story. The +chorus is double, and there is immense power in the manner in which the +two main masses of sound are used, both to emphasise all that has poetic +value and to express the many elements composing the mighty picture. +Most of the solos are supported by the first choir. The utterances of +Christ are given by a bass voice with string quartet accompaniment. The +bass voice is in accordance with tradition. Most of the other +recitatives have an _obbligato_ accompaniment, in which a _motif_ +bearing figurative reference to some prominent image in the text is +worked out. The _obbligato_ is in most, though not in all, cases +assigned to a wind instrument, so as to contrast still further with the +music accompanying the words of Christ. The longest solo part is that of +the Narrator, who sings tenor. In the course of a long and masterly +discussion Dr. Spitta, the great biographer of Bach, contends that the +"St. Matthew Passion" is not, strictly speaking, either dramatic music +or oratorio music. One passage in the discussion may here be +quoted:--"Consider the passage where the Jewish people, prompted by the +High Priests and Elders, demand the release of Barabbas. The Evangelist +makes them reply to Pilate's question with the single word 'Barabbas.' +The situation is, no doubt, full of emotion, and an oratorio writer +might have let the tension of the moment discharge itself in a chorus. +But it would necessarily have been embodied in a form in which the +chorus could have its full value as a musical factor, in a broadly +worked-out composition with a text of somewhat greater extent. The +dramatic composer would have given it the utmost brevity, since it +stands midway in the critical development of an event. He would have to +consider the progress of the action as well as the expression of +feeling. A sudden roar of the excited populace--thronging tumultuously +about the governor--a sudden roar and brief turmoil of voices would be +the effect best suited to his purpose. Bach, composing a devotional +Passion, makes the whole choir groan out the name 'Barabbas' once only, +on the chord of the minor seventh approached by a false close." + +Dr. Spitta's point is that Bach's music interprets the feeling of devout +Christians, neither subordinating the purport of the text to a musical +poem, like a conventional oratorio composer, nor entering into the point +of view of the actor, like any other kind of dramatic composer. Dr. +Spitta's arguments on this point are quite convincing; and we do not +follow his practice of calling the work a "mystery" instead of an +oratorio, only because the former word would not be generally +intelligible, and because, in this country, we call any work of sacred +art for voices and instruments an oratorio, if it is not a Mass, and if +it is on too grand a scale to be called a cantata. + + +[Sidenote: =A Minor Concerto.= + +_March 14, 1902._] + +Anyone who knows his interpretation of Bach's A minor Concerto can +scarcely help associating Dr. Brodsky with that work very much as one +associates Joachim with Beethoven's, and Sarasate with Mendelssohn's +Violin Concerto. There is no other work that gives us so much of Bach's +musical individuality within the scope of a clear, simple, and widely +intelligible scheme. Bach made no music for the theatre, the casino, or +the fashionable ballroom. He seems to have written almost exclusively +for the church and for innocent, paternally safeguarded merry-making. He +was a good old patriarch who composed either to praise God or to help +the young people enjoy themselves--for if anyone imagines that Bach's +gigues, gavottes, sarabandes, and so forth were not meant for actual +dancing he is greatly mistaken. In such works as the Concertos one may +still trace the twofold impulse clearly enough, though all is idealised, +structurally elaborated, and otherwise adapted to a purely artistic +purpose. For in the first movement of the A minor Concerto--Dr. +Brodsky's special piece--we have something that brings the spirit into +the proper atmosphere. Bach takes us, as it were, to church, composing +our minds, as we go, with strong and able talk about subjects +appropriate to the religious season and the service that we are to +attend. The second movement is the service, and the Finale is the +afternoon walk or dance; Bach would probably have approved of Sunday +dancing. Dr. Brodsky is unsurpassable in the andante, where the +powerful, composed, and majestic rhythm of the bass finds a poetic and +delicately fanciful commentary in the solo part. Here one perceives the +difference between Bach's and Beethoven's religious standpoint, between +the ages of faith and of strife, between the _ancien régime_ and the +revolutionary period. For Bach the ancient faith is enough, while in the +spirit of Beethoven there ferment, fume and rage the ideas of the +French Revolution. The Hellmesberger cadenza played by Dr. Brodsky in +the Finale is perhaps the best-written excursus of its kind in +existence. It passes in review the thematic material of the entire work, +with unfailing felicity of touch, and good judgment as to the amount of +development; and the extremely rich and florid figuration is all so +neatly spun out of elements contained in the body of the work, that it +seems to have grown where we find it hanging, and has no suggestion of +anything alien about it. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +BEETHOVEN. + + +[Sidenote: =C Minor Symphony, No. 5.= + +_October 22, 1897._] + +The opening of the first movement forms the subject of a celebrated +passage in Wagner's pamphlet on conducting, where he complains of the +manner in which the pauses on E flat and D used to be scamped, and of +many other defects which were usual in the performances of forty years +ago. He represents Beethoven rising from his grave and apostrophising +the conductor with a harangue that begins: "Hold thou my _fermate_ +[pauses] long and terribly." Wagner was a most exacting critic, but we +venture to think that he would have been fairly satisfied with last +night's rendering of the first movement. The contrast of the masculine +and feminine elements which are inherent in the first and second +subjects respectively was presented with all possible effect; the pauses +were as long and terrible as Wagner could have desired, and were +sustained with a perfectly equable tone-delivery; the beautiful +unaccompanied phrase for oboe--which on the recurrence of the passage +takes the place of the _fermata_, or pause, at the twenty-first +measure--was given with all possible force of expression; and many +other individual beauties of the rendering might be cited. The second +movement is less taxing for the performers than the rest of the work; it +was given in a manner well in keeping with the spirit of the symphony, +which is like some vast work of sculpture in bronze, such as the gates +of the Baptistery at Florence. Just such plastic force in the moulding +of mighty tone-elements and just such nobility of the imagination did +Beethoven possess as enabled Ghiberti to mould those wonderful gates, +concerning which Michelangelo said that they were worthy to be the gates +of Paradise. The scherzo, too, was an artistic triumph for the +orchestra. Not a point was missed in that wonderful and uncanny +tone-picture. A dance of demons it has been called; but it must be +remembered that many great artists have treated grotesque and grisly +subjects with an ineffably beautiful touch, such as we see, for example, +in Alfred Rethel's marvellous drawing "Death the Friend." Not that the +scherzo in Beethoven's C minor symphony breathes the spirit of that +drawing, which is restful and serene, while the scherzo is full of weird +mockery. The only point of the comparison is that in both works we find +a grotesque subject ennobled and beautified by a great artistic +imagination. Strange that the C minor symphony should often have been +quoted as an irregular and anarchical composition. Sir George Grove has +pointed out in his well-known analysis that the entire work conforms +most strictly to structural principles, and that its chief +irregularities are the linking together of the scherzo and finale and +the _reprise_ of the scherzo shortly before the concluding presto. + + +[Sidenote: =The Sixth Symphony.= + +_February 24, 1899._] + +In dealing with this symphony, the conductor had occasion to show +qualities different from those that have been called forth by the +preceding works of the present Beethoven series. The third and fifth +symphonies are of a strongly exciting character, the second is also +distinctly exciting, at any rate in the finale, the fourth is a kind of +mildly celestial or seraphic utterance, and the first does not truly +represent the mature master in any of his moods. In previous +performances of the series it was the successful rendering of some +exciting element in the music, or the interpretation of a sublime +emotion, upon which the conductor seemed to lay a kind of stress. +Yesterday the case was quite different. The Pastoral Symphony is not +exciting, or sublime, or mysterious, those qualities being alien to the +genius of pastoral music or poetry. It is an expression of the emotion +stirred by simple and homely delights; and for its interpretation it +requires, in addition to the technical equipment, only a certain fresh +and healthy energy. Even the religious note near the end is of a simple +idyllic character. Once more the interpretation was, in our view, very +admirable. The conductor seemed fully to grasp the poetic import of each +section, and, under his guidance, the orchestra fully conveyed the +breezy delights of the opening movement, the soothing murmur of the +brook, the boisterous mirth of the ensuing allegro, the contrasting note +of the storm, and the final hymn of thanksgiving. It has been said that +Beethoven's music has an ethical bearing; and, as many persons have +great difficulty in understanding how any music can have an ethical +bearing, it may be worth while to suggest that the Pastoral Symphony, +following the tremendous emotions of the preceding symphonies, teaches +precisely the same lesson as the opening of Goethe's "Faustus and +Helena," where the sylphs, typifying simple, untroubled natural +influences, are busied about the person of the sleeping "Faust," pitying +the "unhappy man whether good or wicked," and seeking to soothe his +tormented spirit. According to the view of Goethe and Beethoven there is +no other healing for the unhappy man's tormented spirit but in the +simple, untroubled influences of nature. Such, in addition to its +musical beauties, is the ethical lesson of the Pastoral Symphony. + + +[Sidenote: =The Seventh Symphony.= + +_March 3, 1899._] + +One quality differentiating Beethoven's Seventh Symphony from the rest +of the nine is well expressed by Sir George Grove in his famous book +("Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies") when he calls it the most +rhythmical of them all. Beyond question the rhythm is on the whole more +strongly marked in the seventh than in any of the others. The slow +movement is not called a march; yet it has a far more definite tramping +rhythm than the movement that is called a march in the Heroic Symphony. +In the finale the rhythmical emphasis attains a degree of reckless +violence that has never been surpassed by any composer except +Tchaïkovsky. A scherzo is always strongly rhythmical; but in the scherzo +of this symphony one finds a kind of frenzied rushing, whirling +movement that is rare in Beethoven's works. Another differentiating +quality of the symphony is grotesque expression, which is strong in the +vivace, stronger in the scherzo, and goes all lengths in the finale. As +with the later works of many other great artists, it is hard to divine +the poetic intention of this symphony. One perceives a marvellous +design, for the most part grotesque in character; one perceives the work +of a gigantic imagination, smelting the stubborn tone-masses as in a +furnace and moulding them to its purposes with a kind of superhuman +plastic force. But what the mighty design illustrates is not, at +present, obvious. The grotesqueness of the first, third, and last +movements is all the more striking from the character of the slow +movement, which is absolutely remote from the grotesque. The quality of +the expression in that slow movement eludes all classification. It is +not exactly a funeral march, and not exactly a dirge, though it is +undoubtedly mournful in character. A kind of unearthly rhythmical chant +one might imagine it to be, accompanying some mysterious function among +the gods of the dead. There is perhaps no slow movement left by +Beethoven the beauty of which is more penetrating or more imposing. +After a fine and spirited rendering of the introduction and vivace, the +slow movement--inscribed "allegretto" in the score, though the composer +afterwards expressed a desire that the indication should be changed to +"andante quasi allegretto"--was played with fine expression, though +perhaps a trifle too quickly. The scherzo was entirely admirable. At the +opening of the finale the rushing semiquavers in the violin part were, +for some reason, not quite clear, though later in the movement, when the +music had become more complex, the same figure sounded clear enough. On +the whole, the rendering of the symphony well maintained the success +that had previously attended the series. + + +[Sidenote: ="Eroica" Symphony.= + +_February 1, 1900._] + +The fact that the leading theme in the first movement of the "Eroica" +Symphony is taken note for note from Mozart's youthful operetta, +"Bastien et Bastienne," is of no great importance. If an operetta +contained something that could thus be caught up into the seventh heaven +of art, its existence was thereby justified very much better than the +existence of most other operettas. The notion of bringing a charge of +plagiarism against Beethoven in reference to this theme is absurd beyond +expression. There is, after all, nothing in the theme but a certain +rhythmical arrangement of the common chord so simple that it might well +have occurred to two composers independently. Whether it occurred +independently to Beethoven or whether he heard Mozart's operetta at the +Elector's Theatre in Bonn while he was a boy and unconsciously +reproduced the theme, as is conjectured by Sir George Grove, is of no +importance. With Mozart the theme is little more than a piece of chance +passage-work. It leads to nothing; whereas with Beethoven it leads to +developments of extraordinary richness and significance, forming the +most important element in a tone-picture that greatly surpasses in +passionate and incisive eloquence, in fulness of matter, varied +interest, and plastic force anything that previously existed in the +world of music. It would be hard to mention any other of Beethoven's +themes from which results quite so tremendous have been obtained. It is +repeated between thirty and forty times in the course of the movement, +reappearing under an endless variety of forms, assigned to all sorts of +different instruments, changing in key, in tone-colouring, in loudness +or softness of utterance, producing an infinite variety of effects in +the harmony, combining in all sorts of unexpected ways with other +themes, and on every reappearance taking on new value, bringing fresh +revelation. To such great uses may an operetta tune come at last, if it +happen to be laid hold of by a Beethoven with an imagination like a +mighty smelting furnace, and a hand that can model like a great sculptor +in bronze. In Dr. Richter's interpretation of the "Eroica," the most +striking point is his treatment of the contrast between those musical +elements symbolising phases of virile energy and the strains of +consolation and reconciliation. Of the latter element a characteristic +example is the heavenly duet for oboe and 'cello that occurs just after +the terrific outburst of rage and defiance in the "working-out" section +of the first movement. It is a crisis of beauty and grandeur to which, +so far as we know, no other conductor can now do justice. But here, and +throughout the mighty first movement, we were reminded that Dr. +Richter's pre-eminence is really more unquestionable in Beethoven than +in any other music. His Wagner renderings are approached by others, but +his Beethoven renderings are not even approached. To the noble and +solemn strains of the Funeral March again complete justice was done; and +the same may be said of the scherzo--a movement full of radiant mirth +and containing in the trio the most beautiful horn music ever +written--and of the finale in variation form. + + +[Sidenote: =Symphony No. 2 in D.= + +_January 15, 1904._] + +According to Mr. Felix Weingartner, the advance from Beethoven's No. 2 +to his No. 3 Symphony is so great as to be without parallel in the +history of art, and this we regard as sound doctrine. The No. 3--the +"Eroica"--represents not merely a contribution of unparalleled +brilliancy to the symphonic music of the period, but an immense +enlargement of its previously known possibilities. Such a work naturally +dwarfs all that has gone before in its own kind; but it is very +desirable to avoid the mistake of certain commentators who, perceiving a +great gulf between No. 2 and No. 3, declare the former to be an immature +work, not thoroughly characteristic of Beethoven, but exhibiting him as +a mere disciple of Haydn and Mozart. While listening yesterday to the +wonderfully animated and expressive rendering one could scarcely fail to +be struck by the fact that it is all intensely Beethovenish; that it +goes beyond Mozart, quite as distinctly and persistently as Mozart in +his superb G minor Symphony goes beyond Haydn. We need a revision of the +current view in regard to these early Beethoven Symphonies. Only the +first is immature. No. 2 is stamped with the true Beethoven +individuality on every page, and is comparable with Mozart's G minor in +the richness of its organisation and the potency of its charm. The +enormous difference between No. 2 and No. 3 is not to be correctly +indicated by calling the former immature. It is a difference that +separates the Beethoven Symphonies from No. 2 to the end into two +well-defined groups. As was long ago observed, the odd-number +Symphonies, beginning with 3, are cast more or less in the heroic mould, +while the intervening even-number Symphonies are much milder in +character--creations of halcyon periods in which the composer would seem +to have been storing up energy for the titanic labours of 3, 5, 7, and +9. Bearing this in mind, we have no difficulty in assigning No. 2 to its +proper place. It is to be grouped along with 4, 6, and 8, and it may +thus be called the first of the "halcyon" Symphonies. Besides the +general character of the music there is one very special reason for not +accepting the view of No. 2 as an immature work. In the second subject +of the Larghetto, we have a very beautiful and original musical idea, so +thoroughly recognised by the composer as one of his best and most +characteristic that he returned to it many years later when composing +his last and greatest slow movement. Compare pp. 29 and 363 of Sir +George Grove's "Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies," noticing in +particular that the key-relation of the syncopated theme to the general +scheme of the movement is the same in the two cases. + + +[Sidenote: ="Missa Solennis."= + +_February 1, 1901._] + +Until yesterday Beethoven's "Missa Solennis" had not been heard at these +concerts, but it is not surprising that performances of such a work +should be few and far between. It is, beyond question, the most austere +of all musical works--a product of Beethoven's quite inexorable mood. At +the period when it was written the composer had become a sort of +suffering Prometheus. Even apart from his deafness, it is wonderful that +Beethoven's persistent ill-fortune, his isolated and unhappy life, +should not have discouraged him and checked the flow of his creative +energy. But that the mightiest of his compositions should have been +produced when he was stone-deaf--that is surely one of the most +perfectly amazing among well-authenticated facts! So far as we know, +there never was any other case in which deafness failed to cut a person +off altogether from the world of music. With Beethoven it only brought a +gradual change of style. As the charm that music has for the ear faded +away he became more and more absorbed, aloof, austere, and spiritual. +The warm human feeling of his middle-period compositions gave way to a +style of such unearthly grandeur and sublimity as are oppressive to +ordinary mortals. Of that unearthly grandeur there is no more typical +example than the "Missa Solennis." Not only in regard to the composition +but even in regard to a performance the ordinary language of criticism +is at fault. Who ever heard a "satisfactory" performance of the "Missa +Solennis"? A spirit of sacrifice is demanded of the performers; for the +music is written from beginning to end with an utter want of +consideration for the weaknesses and limitations of the human voice. Of +course that would be intolerable in an ordinary composer. Handel's +combination of German structural solidity with Italian courtesy, sense +of style, and delight in rich vocal rhetoric is the ideal thing. By +comparison with the reasonable and tactful Handel, Beethoven is a kind +of monster, from the singer's point of view, but a monster of such +genius that his terrible requirements must occasionally be met. + +The quartet was best in the astonishing "Dona nobis pacem" section, +where the composer seems to represent humanity as endeavouring to take +the Kingdom of Heaven by violence, protesting against all the oppression +that is done under the sun, and sending up to the throne of God so +instant a clamour for the gift of peace as may be heard amid the very +din of strife. For that prayer for peace sounds against the sullen +rolling of drums and menacing clangour of trumpets, the voices having +now a mighty unanimity, now the wail of this or that forlorn victim. One +looks in vain through the temple of musical art for anything to match +that tremendous conception marking the final phase of the "Missa +Solennis." + + +[Sidenote: ="Fidelio."= + +_October 28, 1904._] + +A most strange and unclassifiable chamber in the palace of musical art +is reserved for Beethoven's "Fidelio." A sort of despair is likely to +come over one who attempts to state how Beethoven stands in relation to +dramatic music. If one says that he was not a great dramatic composer, +there arise the questions--Did he not make the Symphony a hundred times +more dramatic than it ever was before? Did he not make music in +association with Goethe's "Egmont" that seems to belong for evermore to +that drama? Did he not individualise Leonora in music as well as Mozart +had individualised the much less exalted characters of Donna Anna and +Zerlina? Did he not achieve in his "Third Leonora" something that no one +has ever equalled or can ever hope to equal in the domain of the +dramatic overture? In fact he did all those things, and several more +that can be cited in apparent refutation of the statement that he was +not a great dramatic composer. And yet it is certain that he never +composed dramatic music as one to the manner born--not with the +unfailing adequateness to the theme of Gluck, the felicitous profusion +of Mozart, the glowing picturesqueness of Weber. No; in the mighty river +of Beethoven the symphonist's invention shrinks to a trickle in his one +opera. The water is incomparably limpid, and blossoms of the rarest +beauty and fragrance grow on the banks of the stream; but every page is +stamped, as it were, with the admission that writing operas was not +Beethoven's strong point: and beyond question he acted wisely in writing +only one. How mighty is the change when he takes the symbols of his one +musical drama and uses them for a monumental purpose, in the great +"Leonora" Overture! Beethoven is Shakespearean in the range of his mind +and in his attitude towards life, which he always approaches on the +purely human side, and without the preoccupations of the Court, the +camp, the cloister, the academic grove, or the church. But he is not +Shakespearean in his medium of expression, which is hard and +unyielding--a kind of musical bronze or granite. Yet "Fidelio"--despite +its jejune story, which suggests that Beethoven, having objected to +Mozart's "Don Giovanni" as scandalous, felt it his duty to compose an +opera on a subject that should be "strictly proper," and despite its +thin vein of invention--inevitably retains its hold on the musical +world. To call the success of it a _succès d'estime_ would be a misuse +of words. It focuses a certain range of poetic ideas that nothing else +of its kind touches, and stands--with its Wordsworthian simplicity and +moral goodness--among other operas like a Sister Clare amid a group of +fine ladies. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +BERLIOZ. + + +[Sidenote: ="Symphonie Fantastique."= + +_November 1, 1901._] + +The "Symphonie Fantastique" offers a more complete picture of the +composer's musical personality than any other single work. As a specimen +of youthful precocity it also stands alone. It was written at the age of +twenty-six, when the composer was still a student at the Conservatoire, +being persistently snubbed by a group of dons, who all--with the +possible exception of Cherubini, the Principal--were utterly his +inferiors in every kind of musical power, knowledge, and skill. The +experience of Berlioz at the Conservatoire of Paris was very similar to +Verdi's at a like institution in Milan; but the marks of genius in work +of the student period were far more distinct in Berlioz's than in +Verdi's case. We have said that, as a work of precocious genius, the +"Symphonie Fantastique" stands alone. No doubt other composers, such as +Mozart and Schubert, had shown genius of a higher order at an even +earlier age. But the "Symphonie Fantastique," as the work of a +'prentice-hand showing absolute mastery of the greatest and most complex +resources, has no parallel. The great fact that has always to be +remembered in regard to Berlioz is that he devoted himself with all the +energy of an enormous and highly original talent to one particular task +in music. That task was the winning of new material for the musical +medium, and what Berlioz accomplished in the world of tone was very like +what Christopher Columbus accomplished in the world of land and sea. +Berlioz too opened up a new hemisphere, and he did his work much more +thoroughly than the great navigator. This mighty achievement secures for +Berlioz a permanent place of the first importance in the musical +hierarchy. But to be deterred by respect for his genius from admitting +his faults is not the best way of using his magnificent legacy. Those +faults are none the less monstrous for being inseparable from his +individuality, and a thoroughly enlightened modern musician would +probably find it very difficult to define the attitude of his mind +towards the works of Berlioz's art. In a sense, everything in the best +of those works, among which the symphony played yesterday is +unquestionably to be reckoned, is justified. When one finds an artist +dealing with certain subjects as though to the manner born, and with +enormous power and resource, one must not condemn him because those +subjects are unpleasant or even horrible in the extreme. Such +condemnation is not living and letting live. Artistic power is +associated with qualities of the highest and rarest that human nature +produces, and it is always justified. The favourite subjects of Berlioz +may well prove a stumbling-block. "Orgy" very nearly became in his hands +a musical form. In at least three different works of his--"Symphonie +Fantastique," "Harold in Italy," and "The Damnation of Faust"--we find +a movement called by some such name, and, his appetite for horrors not +being satisfied with the "Witches' Sabbath" in the first of those three +works, he gives us another movement representing a procession to the +guillotine of a young man condemned for murdering his sweetheart. In +close association with this love of the lurid, spectral, and ghastly is +the bitterly ironical spirit which conceived an "Amen" chorus in mock +ecclesiastical style to be sung over a dead rat, the guying of the +composer's own love-theme with a jig-like variation on a specially ugly +instrument (the E flat clarinet) introduced into the orchestra for that +purpose, and the use of the stern and majestic Plain Song theme of the +"Dies Iræ" as a _cantus firmus_, to which the mocking laughter of +witches (rushing past through the air in a huge weltering broomstick +cavalcade) makes a kind of fantastic counterpoint. It is well to bear in +mind that the same talent gave us such miraculous gossamer fancies as +the "Queen Mab" Scherzo and the chorus of Sylphs and that most tenderly +beautiful and vividly conceived idyll "L'Enfance du Christ." + +For the "Symphonie Fantastique" the orchestra had to be considerably +enlarged. In addition to all the usual instruments the score requires an +E flat clarinet, two bells (G and C), a second harp, an extra +kettledrum, and a second bass tuba. Everything had been rehearsed with +infinite care, and in all five movements the rendering was a display of +virtuosity such as only a very rare combination of favourable +circumstances would allow one to hear. No other composer displays a +very powerful and skilful orchestra to quite such immense advantage. As +Mr. Edward Dannreuther has finely and truly remarked--"With Berlioz the +equation between a particular phrase and a particular instrument is +invariably perfect." His violently wilful character manifests itself in +the harmony. His fancies devour one another, like dragons of the prime, +instead of progressing and developing in an orderly manner. But the +marvellous beauty of the tone-colouring and aptness of the passage-work +never fail. The parts of the symphony most thoroughly enjoyed by the +audience were, no doubt, the second movement in waltz rhythm (where the +most wonderful use is made of the two harps and the wood-wind) and the +march in the fourth movement, where the part symbolising the emotions of +the mob rather than of the victim is very brilliant and telling, with +suggestions of that Hungarian March which the composer afterwards made +his own. + + +[Sidenote: ="Faust."= + +_March 7, 1902._] + +No more original or more enigmatic figure than Hector Berlioz was +produced during the nineteenth century by the world of art--a word that +may here be understood in its widest acceptation, and thus as including +architectural, musical, graphic, plastic, and literary art. In one of +the earliest _critiques_ on his "Faust," which was first performed at +the Opéra Comique in Paris in 1846, the opinion was expressed that he +ought to have been a chemist, not a musician--a remark that gives +extraordinary point to a piece of advice that Berlioz once gave to +artists in general: "Always collect the stones that are thrown at you; +they may help to build your monument." The remark that Berlioz ought to +have been a chemist, originally intended as a sneer, is a perfect case +in point. He _was_ a chemist, and it is his chief glory to have been +that in the world of music. He tested, analysed, combined anew, and +prodigiously enriched those elements of tone which are the material of +the musical artist. Of course he was far more than chemist. He was also +explorer, but always in search of material for his essentially chemical +experiments in tone. One can scarcely wonder that "Faust" was a failure +at first. Amongst the happy-go-lucky patchwork of the book is much +evidence of that coarse and satirical vein which was so strong in the +composer. How could the public be expected to approve of an opera on the +subject of Faust that had no love-song or truly lyrical utterance of any +kind for the tenor hero, but, on the other hand, had a song about a flea +and a rat's requiem, ending with an "Amen" chorus in mock ecclesiastical +style, to say nothing of a scene in Pandemonium and an _orgie +infernale_? Berlioz was a sort of a belated mediæval. The very title, +"Damnation de Faust," is mediæval. Shakespeare and the other poets of +Renaissance and later times recognise the fate of a soul as a matter +_sub judice_ till the end of the world. But Berlioz had no more scruple +than Dante in anticipating the Last Judgment. Mediæval, too, is the +coarseness of the scene in Auerbach's cellar; and the _chanson +gothique_, about the King of Thule, sounds as if it had come to the +composer as a reminiscence from some previous state of existence, so +marvellous is the power of the quaint and weird melody to transport the +spirit back to a musty and hierarchic world with walled towns and narrow +streets, with terrorism and torture-chambers, with crusades and +knight-errantry, with impossible heights of holiness and unimaginable +depths of diabolism. But not to any of the defects or qualities rooted +in the composer's mediævalism must we look for the popularity which the +work acquired in this country some thirty-four years after the original +production in Paris and has retained ever since. What the general public +enjoys is the superb peasants' chorus near the beginning, the +arrangement of the Rácoczy March, which is the finest piece of military +music in existence, the chorus and dance of sylphs, Margaret's Romance, +and Mephistopheles' Serenade. Perhaps, too, a good many of them take a +sort of unregenerate pleasure in the rat and flea songs, while at heart +disapproving of such things, and of course they like the ballad of the +King of Thule, because no one who is musical at all can entirely fail to +perceive the charm of that wonderful melody. It appeals to plenty of +listeners who have no idea that there is anything Gothic or mediæval +about it. + + +[Sidenote: =The Centenary Celebrations.= + +_December 10, 1903._] + +Berlioz was the Columbus of music; he discovered the New World. By his +theory and practice of orchestration he so greatly enlarged and enriched +the resources of tone that all contemporary and subsequent composers +capable of understanding his message experienced an immense +exhilaration--a sense that new and hitherto undreamed-of possibilities +were opening out before them. The starting-point of his momentous +voyages was the idea of what is called "programme music." Like Wagner, +he perceived that after Beethoven symphonic music could do no more on +the old lines, but that music might learn to characterise much more +sharply than it had ever done before. His prodigious reform, +enlargement, and enrichment of orchestration was entirely carried out +under the influence of the desire for stronger and finer +characterisation, for a more varied and interesting play of emotion and +graphic suggestion. A good many musicians and music-lovers at the +present day, recognising the enormous merit of Berlioz's achievement in +orchestration, yet consider that, like Moses, he was not allowed to +enter the promised land to which he had led his people; or, more +literally, that Berlioz was not able to make really good use of his own +discoveries, the importance of which is to be recognised in the music of +Wagner, Dvoràk, Tchaïkovsky, and others who learned from Berlioz, rather +than in his own music. While admitting that later men, such as those +mentioned, have used the Berlioz instrument to a more spiritual kind of +purpose or with greater epic and dramatic significance, the open-minded +music-lover can scarcely deny that the compositions of Berlioz, +considered as absolute works of art, include a majestic array of +masterpieces. Such things as the "Te Deum" and "Messe des Morts" bear, +in their unparalleled vastness of conception, the stamp of an +imagination comparable only to Michel Angelo's. They are mighty +fragments of larger works never carried out--impossible to be carried +out. The best-known work by Berlioz--and the most perfect, on the whole, +of the extended works--is the "Faust," which must not be judged as an +operatic version of Goethe's "Faust," but rather as a musical setting of +the "Faust" story in the racy and drastic manner of the mediæval puppet +plays, Goethe's drama being only used in so far as it affords +suggestions for scenes of the well-salted and drastic animation that +Berlioz loved. Berlioz was a typical French Romantic. His music is +absolutely wanting in the ethical element that is so strong in Bach and +Beethoven. But he had a powerful and truly poetic sense of the +wonderful, the beautiful, the weird, and the characteristic. Over and +over again in his "Faust" he achieves typical excellence. That rapture +of spring which is one of the great, imperishable poetic themes has +nowhere in music been better rendered than in the first pages of "Faust" +(orchestra and tenor voice), and the ensuing peasant choruses are by far +the best musical expression of that "sunburnt mirth" which outside the +world of art is only possible under a southern sky. The Rácoczy March as +orchestrated by Berlioz is not only the finest piece of military music +in the world but is an immeasureably long way ahead of the next best +piece. The energy, gaiety, and tumultuous eloquence of the final section +(altogether Berlioz's own, of course), give us the musical symbol of "La +Gloire"--that important conception which has played a part in history +for three centuries. The scene on the banks of the Elbe is woven of +moonbeams and gossamer fancies that no other composer could have +handled. The rhythm of the Mephisto serenade is too good for this world. +Here the composer succeeds in expressing the diabolical without any +direct suggestion of malice--simply by creating the rhythm and accent of +laughter too monstrously whole-hearted and full-blooded for a mere man. +Another miracle is the "Chanson Gothique" (about the King of Thule), +which is, as it were, the distilled essence of all mediæval romances +about lovesick maidens looking forth from their casements. In the latter +part the composer falls a victim to his evil genius--the _macabre_,--and +the terrible squint of the madman is perceptible in the "Ride to the +Abyss" and the howling and gibbering of demons, which entirely lack the +significance of the demons in "Gerontius," and simply show us the +composer indulging his taste for the grotesque horrors of the old +miracle plays. The latter part of the composition should not be taken +too seriously. Even in the early part there is one example of the +composer's peculiar fondness for guying the offices of religion. But +this, too, should be lightly passed over and forgiven in consideration +of the feast that the work as a whole offers to the imagination and the +bracing salt wind of the composer's manly and affirmative genius. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +LISZT. + + +[Sidenote: ="Faust" Symphony.= + +_November 21, 1902._] + +The melancholy fact has to be recorded that the "Faust" Symphony fell +flat on its first performance in Manchester. There seems to be something +in our national temperament which makes it peculiarly difficult for us +to penetrate the secret of Liszt and learn to understand his +tone-language. In musical society on the Continent "not to like Liszt" +is regarded as a fixed characteristic of the Englishman, and those few +Englishmen who have learned to like Liszt remember the gradual process +by which their ears were opened, like the learning of a foreign language +after one is grown up. Some composers have a manner of utterance that +may be picked up half unconsciously; but for Britons, at any rate, +Liszt's is not of that kind. Patience, persistent study, reflection, +observation, comparison, besides an ear of some subtlety, are necessary +for the understanding of it, and we have not the habit of taking music +seriously (except in the abstract) or of giving it our whole attention. +So a thing like the "Faust" Symphony goes over our heads as if it were a +poem in some foreign language of which we only apprehend the rhythm. It +is a pity, for to those few who understand the poem is very great and +splendid. Like some ghostly Ancient Mariner, the spirit of the master +holds us "with his glittering eye," and speaks as one who is full of +matter and wisdom and is a master of life. His story is that old one +about Faust and Gretchen--not the Berlioz version ending with the +Damnation of Faust, but the original Goethe version which deals with the +working out of Faust's salvation (the difference between the two being +really quite considerable),--and in the telling of this story he conveys +lessons to the heart that are much too delicate for words. A good many +composers have made "Faust" music of one kind or another. Spohr and +Schumann, Berlioz and Boïto, Wagner and Liszt, all paid their tribute to +the inexhaustible interest of the theme, besides Gounod--most +superficial and consequently best known of them all. Even in Gounod, +however, there is a little genuine "Faust" music--a very little. It is +to be found in the first few bars of the overture, in the Mephistopheles +Serenade, and, perhaps one might add, in the song about the King of +Thule, though Berlioz did that much better. Wagner's "Faust" Overture is +quite a great composition, and it is nearest akin to Liszt's Symphony. +But it is much too one-sided to vie in interest with Liszt's tremendous +composition, which seems to grasp the whole subject and tear the very +heart out of it, with a kind of imaginative power suggesting Victor +Hugo's, though the touch is more true. He begins with the solitary Faust +in his study, plunged in gloomy meditation, every phase of which the +music expounds (to him who listens closely enough)--intellectual pride, +reduced to impotence in the endeavour to solve the "riddle of the +painful earth"; the tranquillising of the spirit by mystical influences +seeming to emanate from a higher world; then the reawakening of pain in +the consciousness that had been hushed and charmed. Here the music, +passing up the chord with each note preceded by the semitone above, +sounds like a series of broken sighs. And presently we encounter +something quite new. A plaintive theme on the clarinet, answered by a +single viola, symbolises the vision of feminine companionship. Hope +reawakens, and the strength of Faust's nature asserts itself in the +splendid E major theme for full orchestra, destined to play the leading +part throughout the work. The movement is long, thoughtful, and no less +apt in invention than rich and glowing in tone-colour. In the second +movement, headed "Gretchen," we encounter quite a different atmosphere. +It is a worthy counterpart to the Gretchen episode in Goethe's poem--no +doubt the best picture of a girl, from the man's point of view, that +exists in literature. Inexpressibly beautiful is the contrast between +the fancy-free and the loving Gretchen. There is nothing in all music +more rich and rapturous than the ensuing love-scene, which reminds one +of the point in the first act of "Die Walküre" where the doors swing +open and reveals to the enchanted gaze of the lovers the spring +landscape bathed in moonlight. But Liszt is here more to the point than +Wagner. Then comes Mephisto with his diabolical dance, turning +everything into derision, till a light shines down from heaven, where +the soul of Margaret appears among the angels, and the "spirit that +denies," with his mask torn off, shrinks away, trembling and baffled. +Here the "chorus mysticus" gives utterance to the crowning idea of the +"Faust" drama--"The woman-soul draweth us upward and on." Such a work as +the "Faust" Symphony departs from the classical model inasmuch as it is +unified altogether by dramatic and characteristic and not at all by +architectural principles. It may also be regarded as three +character-sketches, which, with the help of some cross-reference, +together tell a story. Any person well versed in modern music, on +hearing this composition for the first time, cannot but be astonished at +the number of ideas, afterwards used by other composers, that it +contains. The most glaring case is the transformation music just before +the entry of the "chorus mysticus," which has been conveyed bodily by +Wagner, with only quite unimportant changes, into the third act of "Die +Walküre," after the words--"So streif' ich dir die Gottheit ab." But +dozens of other ideas in Wagner's "Tristan" and "Siegfried" and +Strauss's "Till Eulenspiegel" one here finds in embryo. + + +[Sidenote: =Pianoforte Concerto in E Flat.= + +_November 13, 1903._] + +The attitude of the musical public in this country towards Liszt is at +the present day the most unsatisfactory and anomalous feature of the +musical situation. It is not possible to name any individual who has +done more than Liszt towards creating all that is best in the modern +musical world. He created the pianoforte technique without which the +later works of Beethoven could never have been performed, he inaugurated +a new era of symphonic music by his invention of the Symphonic Poem, and +he was the first to understand and interpret Wagner. But we persist in +making our historic and traditional mistake. We do not appreciate the +continuity of musical art, and we do not value the stimulating and +school-forming influences. It is the same now as a hundred and fifty +years ago, when we preferred Handel, who never influenced any other +composer to good purpose, and who essentially represented the end of a +development, to Bach, who is the greatest and most fruitful formative +influence of any musical age, and who has powerfully influenced all +subsequent composers of genius, except two or three of the Latin races. +In the early nineteenth century we made precisely the same mistake in +regard to Mendelssohn and Schumann; now we are making it once more by +preferring Tchaïkovsky to Strauss. But worse still is our mistake of +refusing to listen to Liszt, without whom neither Tchaïkovsky nor +Strauss could have existed as musical personages. Once more yesterday +the superb Liszt Concerto in E flat was played and received with a kind +of tolerance. Very fine playing, the audience seemed to think; but what +a pity the composition was not something worth hearing! Yet it is quite +the most brilliant and entertaining of Concertos. No person genuinely +fond of music was ever known to approach it with an unprejudiced mind +and not like it, and--what is more remarkable--the effect of the music +on all those who study it with a view to playing it is so great that it +invariably overcomes the ancient and deeply-rooted prejudice. But, for +the general public, it is not a more notorious fact that Handel's +"Messiah" is a great and admirable work than that the original +compositions of Liszt are horrible. Consequently, when a work by Liszt +is played they do not listen, but resign themselves to be bored; and so +even a work like the E flat Concerto, which is quite popular in +character and free from anything tormented or obscure, besides being the +most brilliant pianoforte Concerto in existence, falls on listless ears +and provokes only the half-hearted applause intended exclusively for the +soloist. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +WAGNER. + + +[Sidenote: ="Faust in Solitude."= + +_February 15, 1900._] + +Musical biography teaches that a hard struggle, not only for +recognition but for existence, is the normal experience of a great +composer. A few great players and singers make fortunes, but great +composers never, and most of them have had to endure stress of poverty +to the end of their lives. Yet it may be doubted whether any other great +composer ever sounded the depths of human misery, as Wagner did during +that first visit to Paris, undertaken in the hope of making his fortune +at the Grand Opera. It is generally supposed that genius is conscious of +its own powers and works on with serene confidence in the future. But, +unfortunately, there is also such a thing as conceit--that is, the +illusory consciousness of powers that do not exist; and a man of genius +who, without private means, had thrown up his employment and taken +himself and his wife on a long journey to a foreign country in order to +win recognition in "la ville Lumière" must, in the course of three +fruitless years, have felt something worse than misgiving. That Wagner +did so feel is a matter not of speculation but of history. He has +described how, when meditating the subject of the "Flying Dutchman," he +sent for a pianoforte to see whether, after the mean drudgery and abject +misery of those years, "he was still a musician." Wagner was not an +ordinary man. Everything about him was on a grander scale--his folly and +rashness no less than his talent. Though more sensitive than others to +the most trifling discomfort, he showed, under an accumulation of +miseries that would simply have crushed almost anyone else, a stupendous +energy and reaction. He had failed to get his "Rienzi" performed in +Paris. For three years he had continued his fruitless endeavours to +obtain a hearing at the opera; and a crisis of frightful despondency +ensued, when, to ruin and beggary and the sense of having made a fool of +himself, was added an attack of a painful skin disease which tormented +him at intervals all his life. Now it was precisely at that crisis that +he wrote the "Faust" Overture--his masterpiece in the strict sense of +the term; that is, the first work of his mastership or mature power. +Thus, instead of being crushed, Wagner is suddenly found drawing upon +the reserve force of his genius to produce a work that stands very +nearly on a level with Beethoven's third "Leonora" Overture. For the +Faust Overture is a tone-picture of the utmost energy, nobility, and +beauty, utterly defying comparison with any other except Beethoven, and +attaining to a kind of demonic eloquence that Wagner himself never found +again, till quite late in life, during the "Ring of the Nibelung" +period. + + +[Sidenote: =The "Nibelung" Dramas.= + +_May 11, 1903._] + +Whatever may have happened in former years, it was scarcely possible to +leave the theatre after the "Götterdämmerung" performance on Saturday +with any disposition to satirise the management for the failure of the +stage effects in the final scene. In the course of the week Wagner's +greatest work had been presented with considerably brighter intelligence +and more adequate resource than ever before in this country, and it +was piteous that there should be a slight humiliation at the end. It +may be doubted, indeed, whether the "Ring" in its entirety has ever +been better done, for the amazing excellence of the orchestral +performance was to some considerable extent matched by the singers, +and the dramatic realisation of the composer's intentions was good +everywhere except in certain parts of the prologue, and showed +positive genius at certain points in each of the main dramas forming the +trilogy. The general impression was thus one of a great task nobly +carried out, and the concluding fizzle, however tiresome and distressing +to the stage managers, could but seem a trifling matter to any +appreciative spectator. It is a terrible business, that _finale_ of +"Götterdämmerung." Conceived in a mood of frenzied protest, it bears a +peculiar stamp of extravagance and violence. It shows Wagner as an +Anarchist of the Bakounine type, undertaking, as it were, to "grasp this +sorry scheme of things entire" and "shatter it to bits" on the +off-chance that Nature might afterwards "remould it nearer to the +heart's desire." A lifetime of noble endeavour and great achievement, +with scarcely any response from the world but the crackling of thorns +under a pot, had produced in Wagner such bitterness of spirit as little +men are saved from by their natural limitations, and it is that +bitterness of spirit which finds expression in the smashing and burning +and drowning of the "Götterdämmerung" _finale_. Heroes and demigods, +renouncing a hopeless conflict with the ugliness and meanness of the +world, involve heaven and earth in one red ruin. Such is the +significance of a tableau not worth a tithe of the time, trouble, and +expense devoted to it. + +By engaging Dr. Richter for the 1903 production the Covent Garden +authorities made it clear that this time the nonsense of star performers +who make cuts for their own convenience and sacrifice the composer's +intentions to a performer's conceit would not be tolerated; and at the +same time they gave the public the only possible guarantee for adequate +rehearsal. For that privilege London has had to wait twenty-seven years +since the original production in Bayreuth, though "Die Walküre" and +"Siegfried" were long ago taken up into the ordinary Covent Garden +repertory. There can be little doubt that "Rhinegold" is in all +important respects the most difficult part of the "Ring" to make +effective. Epic rather than dramatic in character, it presents to the +actor an unfamiliar kind of task. He finds himself representing some +creature that is scarcely individualised at all, and taking part in the +interplay of elemental forces rather than of human passions. This goes +far towards accounting for the fact that last week the "Rhinegold" +performance fell very far below the level of all the rest. The +representative of Alberic in the first scene seemed to take very little +interest in the love-making with the Rhine maidens. He had apparently +adopted the guide-book view of the dwarf as a creature merely of greed +and hate, and had overlooked the "fruitful impulse"--to borrow Mr. +Bernard Shaw's expression--which drives Alberic towards the Rhine +maidens; for his acting was quite feeble and pointless, nor was it +possible for him to carry out the stage directions that require Alberic +to climb over the rock-work and rush after the Rhine maidens with the +"nimbleness of a Cobold," the rock-work being much too insecure and the +Rhine maidens too restricted in their movements. In that first scene the +rise of the curtain reveals something like the glazed side of a huge +aquarium tank, and it was apparently to the general effect of the +picture as first displayed that all the attention of the scenic artists +had been given. Nibelheim, with the clanking sounds of the Nibelungs at +their smiths' work, was fairly well rendered, but here again Alberic's +part was ineffectively done, and there was far too much fairy-tale +prettiness and variety in the aspect of his crowd of slaves. At Bayreuth +these victims of sweating and improper labour conditions are represented +with horrifying truth as a huddled crowd of little earth-men, driven +hither and thither by the cursing and lashing of their master, and, +instead of being to some slight extent adorned and differentiated, +uniformly grimy and abject. Stage prettiness was never more out of place +than in the Covent Garden presentation of the scene. The setting was +best in the final scene, where the Gods march over the rainbow bridge +into Valhalla. In the rainbow there was a curious predominance of +"greenery-yallery" tints to the exclusion of the primary colours, but it +took its place well enough in a fairly effective stage picture with a +prehistoric building on the heights to the left. Here the only point of +inferiority to the Bayreuth presentation was in the meteorological +background. After the magnificent orchestrated thunderstorm the sky is +supposed to clear and the Gods to enter their new abode amid the glow of +a most radiant sunset. But the secrets of atmospheric effect and cloud +pageantry seem to remain for the present exclusively in the hands of +Bayreuth and Munich, and these things, though they belong to the +framework rather than the essential drama, seem to have loomed large in +Wagner's imagination when he conceived the "Ring," and so to have a +certain importance. + + +II. + +In strong contrast with the embarrassment and falling back on the mere +picturesque of the "Rhinegold" presentation was the rendering of "Die +Walküre" on Wednesday. A dramatic interpretation of Wagner at all +comparable to the musical interpretation which we derive from the +Liszt-Bülow-Richter tradition is not for the present, or for some time +to come, to be expected. But, making allowance for the difference in +standard between the musical and scenic arts, which is simply a +phenomenon of our time, one may well be thankful for such a rendering of +the music's proper scenic background and framework as was given at +Covent Garden on all but the first of the four evenings in the +production of the present year. In the opening act of "Die Walküre" the +setting was adequate, and a strikingly well-balanced performance was +given by Mr. Van Dyck (Siegmund), Mr. Klöpfer (Hunding), and Mme. Bolska +(Sieglinda). At the end of the only scene in which the three figure +together Sieglinda, dismissed by her husband, stands at the door of the +bedroom; Siegmund, who has told his story, sits on the further side of +the stage, the central place being occupied by the beetle-browed +Hunding. It is a moment big with fate in Wagner's peculiar manner. +Nothing certain is known or decided, but glances full of inquiry and +rapturous or sinister surmise pass between the three, whose variously +coloured kinds of suspense the music interprets. Here the _ensemble_ was +truly admirable, the stress and peculiar atmosphere of that moment big +with fate being successfully caught. Throughout the act Mr. Van Dyck's +suppleness and resource were finely exemplified, the sombre figure of +Mr. Klöpfer's Hunding contrasting effectively, while Mme. Bolska did +much by intelligent acting and good singing to compensate for a certain +lack of personal adaptation to the part. + +The majestic Wotan of Mr. Van Rooy was much in evidence throughout the +rest of the drama. A rare loftiness of conception stamps nearly all that +Mr. Van Rooy does. On the other hand, he is somewhat wanting in +suppleness, here and there, sacrificing the _ensemble_ to some extent to +his own rigorous and ultra-heroic impersonation. This is particularly +noticeable in softer scenes, such as the leave-taking with Brynhild. +Only in scenes where Wotan is wrathful or oppressed by the "too vast +orb of his fate" does Mr. Van Rooy succeed completely. His finest moment +is in the muster of the Valkyries, where those terrible warrior maidens +hold converse in music as wild and tumultuous as goes up from some great +parliament of birds, till Wotan stamps with his foot, and the whole +covey of them rush for their horses and go wheeling and galloping away +into the clouds. + +To the Brynhild of Miss Ternina it is not easy to do justice. No doubt a +specialist in voice-training might have some objection to raise against +the manner in which this or that note was produced, and as to her +impersonation in the earlier scenes, where Brynhild brandishes her spear +and sings "Ho-yo-to-ho," the doubt might be raised whether it is rugged +enough. But on the whole this artist seems to present a case of almost +providential adaptation to the task of impersonating Wagner's greatest +heroine. From whatever point of view her impersonation be regarded, it +seems better than one could reasonably expect. A most richly endowed and +harmonious personality is the basis of it. Fully matching Mr. Van Rooy +in breadth and dignity of conception, she greatly surpasses her +distinguished colleague in tact and cleverness, whether the matter in +hand be the management of draperies, the humouring of a horse, or any +such secondary matter upon which the proper development of a stage +picture may depend. Vocally, too, Miss Ternina is fully equal to the +tremendous task, and her Brynhild is thus a truly wonderful revelation +of Wagner's art at its best. For Brynhild is beyond all question +Wagner's finest individual creation. In a series of matchless scenes he +shows us the development of the warrior-maid into a perfect woman, every +phase of that development being touched with a kind of demonic power +that makes it impossible for anyone altogether to miss the point. In the +second act of "Walküre" Brynhild comes forth on to the crags in her +shining armour, with helm and shield and corselet of steel. In the +leave-taking with her obdurate father, who, against his better judgment, +has given way to the counsels of Fricka--that Mrs. Grundy of +Valhalla,--the insignia of her Valkyriehood begin to fall off, in +anticipation of the humanising process that is to be completed when +Siegfried, in the ensuing drama, removes the steel corselet for the +bridal feast. Before our eyes, therefore, and step by step Brynhild is +transformed, making the heroic life visible and rhythmic for us at every +moment. She is the vessel into which Wagner has poured the very finest +vintage of his genius. No blackguardly characteristics of the +_Uebermensch_, such as develop so very freely in the Siegfried of +"Götterdämmerung," are allowed to deform the figure and melody of the +superb heroine, who to the end glows with intense and untainted life. +Adequately to render such a conception--adequately both for our eyes and +ears--is no small achievement, and it is Miss Ternina's achievement +which well deserves to be reckoned, along with Dr. Richter's orchestral +interpretation, among the glories of the present production. + + +III. + +"Siegfried is a revelation of sensuous life in its natural and joyous +fulness. No historical dress obscures his form, nor are his movements +obstructed by any force external to himself. The error and confusion +arising from the wild play of passion rage around him and involve him in +destruction. But till that destruction is compassed nothing in +Siegfried's environment can arrest his own impulse. Not even in presence +of death does he allow himself to be swayed by any other influence than +the restless stream of life flowing within himself. Fear, envy, and +vindictiveness are alike alien to his nature, and so, too, is any desire +for love arising from reflection. His every movement is determined by +the direct flow of vital force swelling the veins and muscles of his +body to rapturous fulfilment of their functions." + + * * * * * + +Such, according to his creator, is that central hero of the "Nibelung" +dramas whom critics still for the most part hopelessly misunderstand, +though the best of the actors who have to represent him seem long ago to +have mastered his secret. It is a familiar fact that the cultivated +instinct of a good actor will often go right where all current criticism +goes wrong, and no figure of the world's drama, ancient or modern, +exhibits the point in a more remarkable manner than Siegfried. To any +actor, indeed, with the necessary personal and vocal endowment the part +may well make a strong appeal. It is devoid of all subtlety, simply +requiring him to know his words and his notes and not to allow the +native hue of his resolution to be sicklied o'er with the pale cast of +thought. Mr. Kraus, the Siegfried of the Covent Garden performances, did +well in most essential respects. + +But much more remarkable than any particular impersonation was the +catching of the proper tone and atmosphere in nearly every important +scene of the three main dramas. The glowing forge in the depths of the +primeval forest at the opening of "Siegfried," the play of the sunlight +through the moving branches that so terrifies the dwarf accustomed to a +subterranean environment, the highly realistic smith's work--all these +accessories in the picture of the godlike youth were well done, and the +peculiar early morning exhilaration of that first act was quite +successfully realised. So, too, were the fairy-tale terrors of the +dragon's cave and the leafy splendours of the glade in which Siegfried +holds converse with the birds. Where there is room for improvement in +the Covent Garden staging of these dramas is, above all, in the +meteorological background of "Rhinegold" and "Götterdämmerung"; +secondly, in the "Ride of the Valkyries," which has not hitherto been +done in a sufficiently spirited manner anywhere but in Paris; thirdly, +in the final scene of conflagration and ruin. At present the final scene +is much too elaborately done. All that smashing and falling of timber is +a mistake. A chaotic design painted on a sheet of canvas can be let down +at the right moment with better effect to the eyes of the spectators, in +addition to the immense advantage of producing no noise or dust, costing +little, and being completely under control.[1] The present method of +rendering the scene is too costly, too noisy, and too dangerous. The +Valhalla building should be recognisably the same as in the final scene +of "Rhinegold." + + [1] This suggestion was adopted in the performances at Covent Garden + in 1905.--ED. + +Never have the musical splendours of the "Ring" been revealed to British +audiences as in the past three weeks. The windy and cloudy eloquence of +the "Walküre" music and the heroic pathos of Brynhild's leave-taking +have long been pretty thoroughly appreciated, but not so the songs of +the forge in "Siegfried," where Wagner throws an almost fabulous kind of +energy into the picture of the typical young man singing at his work, +summing up all that is finest in that enthusiasm of labour which is +perhaps the best part of our inheritance from the nineteenth century. +These songs were, in the recent production, allowed to develop without +cuts or distortion. The brawny rhythm, the iron clangour, the fizz and +tumult of the instrumentation--all these things came out as never before +at a performance in this country. So, too, with the long love duet of +Siegfried and Brynhild and the ravishing trio of the Rhine Maidens in +the last act of "Götterdämmerung." But, apart from such dazzling +moments, the performances were in their completeness and sustained +excellence an extraordinary revelation of the composer's power in the +use of musical symbolism. Just before the rise of the curtain on the +first act of "Siegfried" one hears that whine or snarl of the Nibelung +dwarf, entering on the minor ninth along with the hammering theme. It +sounds merely comical and trivial. But just as a personal fault, first +observed as something funny, may in the experience of life or study of +history be found developing into a source of appalling mischief, so, as +these dramas progress, do we find the symbol of Nibelung hatred +developing from a comical snarl into those monstrous and multitudinous +yells that rend the welkin and dismay the soul amid the gathering horror +of the "Götterdämmerung" tragedy. Persons who are in the habit of +chattering about the _Leitmotiv_ as though it were a nostrum might with +advantage take note of a few such points. The symbols of Nibelung hatred +are not more effective nor anywise better done than the other symbols in +the "Ring," but they are shorter and more peculiarly orchestrated, and +so easier to follow. + +As to Dr. Richter's interpretation of these gigantic scores perhaps +enough has been said. The modern executive musician can approach no +greater task than that in the performance of which the foundation of Dr. +Richter's reputation was laid when the work was heard for the first time +twenty-seven years ago in the composer's presence, and we have been +fortunate in hearing his authoritative rendering once more. If Wotan had +understood his business anything like as well as Dr. Richter, Valhalla +would never have come to grief. + + +[Sidenote: =The Bayreuth Festival.= + +_July 23, 1904._] + +Apart from the Wagner Theatre and the undertakings connected therewith, +Bayreuth is a decayed "Residenzstadt," with an "Old Castle" of the +fifteenth century, a "New Castle" of the eighteenth, and other not very +carefully preserved relics of the Court which Franconian Margraves long +kept here. Of country residences and "pleasaunces" too, designed in the +over-fantastic manner of the South German potentate, there is more than +one in the neighbourhood, and no doubt such things help to create an +atmosphere that is favourable to artistic enjoyment. The smoke of modern +industrial enterprise is not unknown here, but in the fulfilment of the +part of its destiny which is connected with Wagnerian drama Bayreuth is +aided by the leafy dells and dingles and the stately avenues of the +Hofgarten, if not by the fantastic waterworks of the "Eremitage." + +The Festival, which stands as a concrete symbol of Wagner's artistic +mission, is just now at the zenith of its prosperity. It is twenty-eight +years since the theatre was opened and twenty-one since Wagner's death, +and the only thing which Bayreuth now fears is American piracy. One kind +of calumny after another has been silenced, and in years past the +institution seems to have done nothing but gain in solidity and dignity. +It has formed an international public with a somewhat higher average of +intelligence than is to be found anywhere else; and if there are certain +weak and wrong-headed elements in the internal organisation, they are +not so bad as to ruin the combined result of the brilliant and +exceptional talent with which nearly every department--musical, +dramatic, scenic, architectural, mechanical, and administrative--is +worked. One might make a long list of the points in which the Wagner +Theatre is somewhat better than any other of the kind. For example, the +situation and approaches are more agreeable, the exits and entrances are +more convenient, the ventilation is much more satisfactory, the acoustic +is much finer, the distractions during the performance are fewer in +consequence of specially good arrangements, structural and other, and +by reason of the early start and long intervals the audience is less +fatigued; the stage machinery works better, and the discipline behind +the scenes is more thorough. The orchestra, besides being more +advantageously placed, is larger, and has a higher average of executive +ability. Apart, therefore, from the special Wagnerian enthusiasm, there +is much to attract persons who take any kind of interest in musical +drama, and as a matter of fact the audience commonly includes dozens of +well-known musicians from different parts of the world whose own +tendencies are anything but Wagnerian. + + +[Sidenote: ="Parsifal."= + +_July 24, 1904._] + +On the second day of this festival "Parsifal" was given for the 122nd +time in Bayreuth, where, since the original production in 1882, it has +formed the principal feature of every festival except that of 1896. Any +attempt to describe impressions of the performance has to be preceded by +a shaking of oneself free from that hypnotic influence which Wagner's +art in its latest phase exercises. The curtain falls on the first act, +the lights are turned up, and one emerges quickly into the light of day +to find oneself once more in the midst of a chattering but well-behaved +international crowd that wanders about the open sandy space girdled with +plantations on either side of the theatre. It is not quite the same +experience as a child's on awakening from an importunate dream, because +the feeling that it was not one's own dream but another's is peculiarly +strong, together with a sense of utter astonishment that it should be +possible for the consciousness of an adult person to be ravished away +into the dream-world of another. Then comes further reflection and the +inevitable question how it is done. Is it primarily by means of the +music, which passes through the chambers of consciousness like the fumes +of an anæsthetic, or does the peculiar potency lie in the dramatic +symbols, for the elaboration of which the subtlest essences of a hundred +arts seem to have been brought together? All the objections to +"Parsifal" would seem to resolve themselves ultimately into distrust of +something that is so dreamlike, and dreamlike in a manner so +inexpressibly soft and luxurious. It is all rhythmic with the slow, +musically ordered movements of the Grail's knights, who are so holy as +to feel sin like a bodily pain; it is solemn with hieratic pageantry, +and rich with the lustre of costly stuffs and the glitter of +ecclesiastical embroideries and jewels. In the first and last acts it +has the atmosphere of a Christian sanctuary, and the second act, passing +in Klingsor's garden, seems to represent the pleasures of sin as +imagined by the most innocent of mediæval monks. All this the orthodox +moralist regards with some distrust as tending to create a distaste for +hard work and cold water. But let him remember the mischief done by the +Puritans in the seventeenth century, and be careful how he lays about +him with the iconoclastic hammer. Whatever else "Parsifal" may be, it is +certainly the most marvellous theatrical show in the world, and, as the +ultimate achievement of a man who for a lifetime had been considerably +in advance of any other person in knowledge of theatrical art, it +deserves to be treated with a measure of respect. + +What Bayreuth accomplishes at a "Parsifal" performance, in the smooth +and harmonious working of infinitely complex scenic resources, is +without parallel, and the almost miraculous stage management was last +week at its best. The slow transformations of the first and last acts +were carried out in faultless correspondence with the musical +suggestions. The sudden collapse of Klingsor's garden into ruin and +desolation was also perfectly done, and in all the elaborate evolutions +of the knights' retainers and scholars there was never the semblance of +a false move. A specially admirable feature was the fine co-ordination +of the dangerously complicated musical scheme in the latter part of the +first act, where the conductor has to keep together a body of singers +and players who are spaced out at four different levels--the orchestra +below the stage, the knights seated at the love-feast or manoeuvring +about on the stage, the older scholars on the first gallery of the dome, +and the younger scholars at the top. All the multifarious choir-singing +of boys and men was beautifully done; the only mistakes were made by +Amfortas and Titurel. The conductor was Dr. Muck, of Berlin, whose +_tempi_ seem to have been considered too slow by some of the _habitués_, +though his interpretation was admitted to be in all other respects above +reproach. + + +[Sidenote: ="The Ring."= + +_July 28, 1904._] + +This year's festival includes two complete presentations of the "Ring" +tetralogy, of which the first began on Monday. It seems to be generally +admitted here that the performance of the Prologue ("Rheingold") given +on that day was the best that has yet been achieved. Dr. Richter was at +the helm for the first time this year, and the generalship that has been +one great factor in Bayreuth's reputation ever since the opening of the +Wagner Theatre in 1876 soon became perceptible in the plastic force of +the orchestral rendering and the consummate knowledge with which +everything was disposed in such a manner as to give each performer the +best possible chance of doing justice to himself and his part. Moreover, +"Rheingold" is, of all the Wagnerian dramas, the one best adapted to +display the art of Bayreuth advantageously. The staging is of the most +extraordinary kind. All the action takes place up in the clouds, down in +the waters, or where the forges resound in the fiery caverns of +Nibelheim, and not one of the characters is a plain human being. Gods, +goddesses, giants, dwarfs, and water nymphs make up the _dramatis +personæ_, and the whole drama is more completely outside the range of +ordinary operatic art than any other musical and dramatic work. It is +therefore natural that Bayreuth, which alone among theatres devoted to +musical drama is not hampered by the operatic traditions, should +establish pre-eminence in the staging and dramatic presentation of +"Rheingold." There is no part for a prima donna or leading tenor, and +everything depends on a kind of extraordinary character-acting created +by Wagner, along with those richly animated figures from Norse mythology +which so effectively represent the natural forces and psychic impulses +of his greatest and most characteristic poem. The most important person +is Loge, the tricksy Fire God, who is far from sure that he did wisely +in joining the firm of Wotan and Company. + +In the great revival of the "Ring" here in 1896 the impersonation of +Loge by the late Vogel of Munich was a brilliant feature. Vogel was at +the time recognised as the best Loge, and his mantle has now fallen on +Dr. Otto Briesemeister, who, with a much less effective costume than his +predecessor's, dances very cleverly through his long and important part. +But among the stage performers it was Mr. Hans Breuer, the +representative of the dwarf Mime, to whom the principal honours of +Monday's performance fell. Already in 1896 Mr. Breuer was the Bayreuth +Mime, and he seems to have been steadily improving his presentation ever +since. It is now beyond all expression brilliant. Mime (or Mimmy, as the +name has been well Anglicised) is perhaps the best invented of Wagner's +purely grotesque figures--better individualised than his master, the +sinister Alberich, representing gold as a world-power, for whom Mimmy is +compelled to do smith's work. From beginning to end the part presents +unfamiliar problems to the actor, for never before was the attempt made +to give a musical vehicle to such whining and cringing and snarling. But +those problems have all now been solved by Mr. Breuer in a manner +suggesting finality. He has penetrated to the very marrow of the +composer's conception, and he gives us a figure that glows with +imaginative power at every moment. Almost equally good in its very +different way is the mighty elemental brutality of Mr. Johannes +Elmblad's Fafner--another case of an actor completely identified with +the particular part,--and the second giant (Mr. Hans Keller) fairly +matched his colleague and Messrs. Breuer and Briesemeister in expressive +pantomimic interpretation of the music. The enchanting "Rhine Daughter" +trio of the first and last scenes was beautifully rendered, the swimming +manoeuvre of the former scene being done probably better than ever +before. Besides doing justice to the drama as an allegorical picture of +life in the light of certain nineteenth-century ideas, the performance +was a specially good revelation of its amusing and naïvely entertaining +qualities. Regarding the show simply as an enacted fairy-tale, one could +not but call it a mighty good one, and that aspect of the matter was +almost certainly never before brought out so well. + + +[Sidenote: ="The Ring."= + +_July 30, 1904._] + +Too much ridicule has been expended on those who, in the days when the +works of Wagner were new to the world, declared them impossible of +performance. After witnessing one complete series of the dramas forming +the programme of this year's festival I am profoundly impressed by the +newness of the art that has been worked out, mainly in this place, under +stress of Wagner's peculiar requirements. The stage manager and the +singing actor, no less than the orchestral player and the conductor, +have been compelled to acquire a new technique. It is even possible to +state approximately the order in which the special kinds of technique +required by Wagner were developed. Of course the instrumental came +first, for without it there could have been no attempt to bring the new +art before the world. Here the most important influence, in addition to +the composer's own, was that of Liszt, Bülow, and Richter--the original +stalwarts of the Wagnerian school. Next arose a new race of dramatic +singers, of whom Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Niemann, and Materna were early +examples; and the key to the enigma of the music was found. But Wagner's +art is complex. Including, as it does, all the elements of the tragedy, +which Aristotle describes as having music for one of its parts, together +with modern scenic presentation, it is indeed somewhat more complex than +any other known art, and that is why it has taken so long to master the +technique of it. To the civilised world of no more than twenty-five +years ago it was still inconceivable that both the drama and the music +in one work could be important. A play with a little incidental music +was a familiar thing, and so was an opera with a conventional dramatic +framework having as its only purpose the advantageous display of musical +embroideries. But a dramatic work with music as an integral part lay +outside the range of all that was then believed to be possible, and long +after the new race of dramatic singers had arisen the peculiar problems +of _mise-en-scène_ and stage management which Wagnerian drama presents +were left quite unsolved. However, no such battle had to be fought over +the stage presentation as had been fought over the music. There was the +Bayreuth theatre, with plenty of time and, latterly, plenty of money to +work out the scenic and mechanical problems; and very slowly they were +worked out. The improvement since 1896, when I last saw the "Ring" here, +is enormous, and from the mighty trilogy as now presented that old sense +of awkward, cumbrous, and unmanageable material has to a great extent +disappeared--not, indeed, to the same extent in all the four parts +(prologue and three-fold drama). The change and improvement is most +startling in "Rheingold," which, with all its mythological and +thaumaturgical paraphernalia, used to be thought peculiarly clumsy and +full of bad quarters of an hour, despite the genius that scintillated +here and there. Now that the staging has been perfected, it no longer +embarrasses the performers or distracts the spectator's attention, and +one has unimpeded enjoyment of the story, with all its rich imaginative +play and its Aristophanic quality, as it is interpreted by a group of +actors and actresses who have thoroughly mastered their peculiar +business. "Rheingold" one now perceives to be a comedy big with tragedy. +Notwithstanding the undertow of forces making for monstrous mischief, it +is as thoroughpaced an Aristophanic comedy as anything having Norse +instead of Hellenic characters and imagery could be. The scene in which +the different uses of gold are explained by Loge, with exquisitely +humorous interpolated comments by Fricka (the Mrs. Grundy of Valhalla) +and others, is worth the attention of any philosopher; and yet that and +other passages of similar merit used to pass unnoticed. Together with +the mention in my former message of Messrs. Briesemeister's, Breuer's, +and Elmblad's achievements as Loge, Mimmy, and Fafner respectively, +there should have been some reference to the Fricka of Mme. Reuss-Belce, +who was simply perfect in the scene where that dignified lady sidles up +to Loge to inquire whether the gold cannot also be used to make nice +ornaments for ladies. + +In regard to "Walküre" and "Siegfried," which have long been in the +repertory of London, Paris, and other capitals, the superiority of +Bayreuth is very much less certain--that is to say, of Bayreuth as +represented by this year's performances. There was serious weakness in +two out of the three great protagonists, Wotan and Brünnhilde, and for +that weakness no degree of skill in the presentation of the finely +fantastic and ever-shifting backgrounds could compensate, nor even the +superb orchestral interpretation. The Siegfried of Mr. Ernst Kraus was, +however, on the whole a very striking performance, as it was at Covent +Garden in 1903. It was best in Acts i. and ii. of "Siegfried"--the +forging of the sword and the slaying of the dragon, preceded and +followed by the wonderful forest _rêverie_,--and it was least good in +the "Götterdämmerung" scene, where the hero tells the story of his youth +to his hunting companions. Here a certain lack of resource in purely +lyrical expression was a serious defect. But on the whole Mr. Kraus +would seem to be the best Siegfried of the present day--best, at any +rate, of those who can be induced to enact the part without mutilation. + +No excellence in the staging and general interpretation could obviate +or appreciably soften the unsatisfactoriness of "Götterdämmerung." The +final drama of the "Ring" series remains a terrible monster among the +dramatic works of mankind, with a dreary first and second act, in which +little seems to occur besides the heaping up of gloomy storm-clouds. The +fierce animation of the retainers' muster in the Hall of the Gibichungs +produced on Thursday the utmost effect of which it is capable; but the +atmosphere of these scenes in which the tragedy of the curse resting on +the Ring is worked out remained, as before, almost intolerable; and, +despite the ravishing Rhine-daughter music in the third act, the +romantic beauty of the "Erzählung" (story of Siegfried's youth), and the +monumental grandeur of the funeral scenes, the last day of the trilogy +left one with the old sense of oppression. As most persons are aware, +the whole "Ring" drama began in the composer's mind with "Siegfried's +Death"--that part which is now called "Götterdämmerung,"--and the other +three parts were written to lead up to it. Nevertheless the original +nucleus remains the monstrous product of a disordered imagination, while +the three parts, conceived as something secondary, form a series of +masterpieces. Books, we know, have their fates, and the fate of this one +is not the least curious. The experience of this year, while tending to +show that the supposed defects of "Rheingold," "Walküre," and +"Siegfried" almost entirely vanish in a rendering that is harmonious on +all sides, leaves one with a greatly increased sense of the final +drama's inherent unsatisfactoriness. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +TCHAÏKOVSKY. + + +[Sidenote: =Symphony No. 5 and other Works.= + +_January 21, 1898._] + +The experiment of devoting an entire miscellaneous concert to the works +of one composer is nearly always hazardous. We doubt whether any other +composer besides Wagner has ever withstood such a test quite +satisfactorily. It was, of course, inevitable that the unparalleled wave +of popularity upon which Tchaïkovsky's "Pathetic" symphony has been +carried over the country during the past two years should have had the +result of bringing other works by the same composer to the fore. That +result is in no way to be regretted. Tchaïkovsky is a thoroughly +interesting composer. His power and originality can scarcely now be +disputed, and, whatever may be the verdict upon his art arrived at by +those competent to judge when the excitement of novelty shall have +passed off, one fact seems already to be quite clear, namely, that he +was a great master of the orchestra. Listening to Tchaïkovsky's music +for a whole evening and comparing the new with former impressions may +have revealed more defects and limitations than merits; but the +experience confirms, to our mind, the view that the Russian composer +must be allowed to take rank along with Berlioz and Wagner as a +consummate and original master of the orchestra, regarded as a medium of +expression. He grasps the modern orchestra as if it were one instrument. +He sweeps over it like a mighty virtuoso with unerring touch. He knows +the suggestions and potencies that lie in the timbre of each pipe, +string, and membrane, just as a man knows the articulations of his +native language. To any musical strain that is in his mind he gives +outward form with absolute success. In short, he has consummate ability +to express himself in music, and such ability is so rare that it is +sufficient alone to make a composer very famous. There remain, of +course, certain questions about the self thus expressed, and not till we +reach those questions do the defects and limitations of Tchaïkovsky's +art come into view. The great prevalence of melancholy moods in +Tchaïkovsky's music is a matter of common observation. When he desires +to shake off his habitually gloomy and brooding state, how does he set +about it? Just as one would expect with such a disposition--by frenzied +excitement, by the blare and glare of military pageant or by an +orgiastic dance. His lighter music is bizarre or sardonic when it is not +merely intoxicating. The enormous predominance of the rhythmical +interest over every other kind of interest, such as that of melody or +harmony, in Tchaïkovsky's music, can scarcely have escaped notice; and +rhythm is the lowest element in music; it is the element representing +animal impulse, as shown by its preponderance in every kind of religious +music (Palestrina, for example). The music of Tchaïkovsky rocks, tramps, +jigs, whirls, and flies far more than it sings; and when it does sing +it is either profoundly melancholy, bitterly sardonic, or merely +bizarre. The composer has absolutely no serenity in his disposition, no +love of nature or of innocence, no naïveté, no calmness or coolness, no +healthy activity, no religion, though much picturesque patriotism, and +very little intellectuality--only just enough for the purpose of +expression. Such is the disposition revealed in the art of Tchaïkovsky. +Like Rubens, the painter, he cares for nothing but exuberant +animalism--for Rubens' Madonnas and other quasi-religious pictures are +all just as much studies of exuberant animalism as his Venuses and his +boar-hunts. Tchaïkovsky, too, loves hunting; though his more special +tastes are for fighting and military display, and for dancing. Such a +character could not be otherwise than profoundly melancholy in the +absence of strong excitement. At the same time, he was--again like +Rubens--an artist of enormous power, and his creations have their value. +The fifth symphony, which was given yesterday, affords a most +interesting comparison with the sixth and last. Such a nature as, +according to our view, Tchaïkovsky has revealed in his art would never +be thoroughly dignified except in great grief or in some situation +bringing his patriotism to the fore. This, we believe--added to the more +complete maturity of the art,--is the explanation of that greatness +which has been generally recognised as distinguishing the "Pathetic" +symphony among the composer's works. Alone among the larger works of the +composer it has dignity. The feeling that it embodies is tremendously +deep and sincere. It is an utterance of a strong semi-primitive nature +with robust appetite, but also with an immense capacity for +feeling--personal feeling, and family, tribal or patriotic feeling. In +the symphony given yesterday, on the other hand, we have a feast of +gorgeous tone-colour, orchestral figures of astonishing scope and +ingenuity, here and there motifs that are poignantly expressive, +vastness of design, superhuman energy; but the dignity of the work is +marred by the perpetual intervention of riotous and frenzied rhythms. +The other orchestral works given were all of minor importance. Perhaps +the best was the "Romeo and Juliet" overture, dealing with a subject +certain sides of which were naturally congenial to the composer's +temperament. He seized on these sides with unerring self-knowledge and +made an eloquent musical picture out of them. "The Variations on a +Rococo Theme" and "Pezzo Capriccioso" are two ingenious and bizarre +pieces, both very cleverly scored, which enabled Mr. Carl Fuchs to +display his admirable mastery of the violoncello as a solo instrument. +They were both very finely played, and, especially the latter, aroused +considerable enthusiasm. As far as the interpretation was concerned the +symphony, too, must be unreservedly commended. There was only one work +in the entire concert which, to our mind, bears the stamp of +perfection--namely, the little song "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt," which +is worthy to rank with the best lyrics by Schumann, and indeed shows the +spirit of that composer in one of his moods--that which produced "Ich +grolle nicht"--very strongly. All the songs were interesting. In fact, +the lyrical power of Tchaïkovsky is so striking that it may be placed +side by side with his mastery of the orchestra among those qualities +which make him a great composer. All that has been said with more +especial reference to the orchestral works applies with equal truth to +the songs; they are either melancholy, like the first, third, and last +given at yesterday's concert, or sardonic, like "Don Juan's Serenade." +Brightness, happiness, confidence, resignation, reverence, sense of +mystery are qualities as alien to the composer's nature as simple +joviality or innocent badinage. + + +[Sidenote: =Symphony in F Minor.= + +_November 25, 1898._] + +The fourth symphony of Tchaïkovsky, which formed the principal +orchestral work at yesterday's concert, is full of life and zest, +affording an interesting glimpse of those powers which were destined to +produce the "Pathetic" symphony. Composed some fifteen years earlier +than the "Pathetic," the fourth symphony represents the composer in a +very different mood, though with nearly the same technical powers. It is +perhaps natural that the earlier work should be more cheerful; but, +considering that the composer was thirty-eight years of age when he +produced that earlier work, the music sounds curiously youthful. The +difference between the style of the symphony given yesterday and the +"Pathetic" is almost entirely of a kind that eludes analysis. It can +only be stated broadly that in the "Pathetic" there is a depth and +energy of feeling to be found in none but truly great works of art; also +that there is mature style, appearing especially in the marvellous tact +with which so much rich, highly coloured, and dangerous material is +disposed. On the other hand, the earlier symphony, while strongly akin +to the "Pathetic" in rhythmic and melodic invention, figuration, +instrumentation, and device in general, is not only wanting in the tact +of the mature artist, but shows the composer not under the influence of +any strong feeling, and simply revelling in his powers of gorgeous +orchestration, ingenious thematic work, and marshalling of tone masses +with a view to picturesque effect. Tchaïkovsky is nearly always martial +in one part or another of an orchestral work. In the great symphony the +first movement has a ferocious section suggesting actual slaughter, +while the greater part of the third movement is an elaborate military +pageant. The work given yesterday leads off with martial strains, which +recur several times in the first movement and again in the last. The +first movement also exemplifies the composer's practice of bringing in a +good deal of development immediately after the statement of a theme, +instead of waiting for the development section. Though every musical +element is telling, the movement is too prolix. In the andantino it soon +becomes apparent that the composer's mind is running on his national +folk-melody, the second theme especially having a very strong flavour of +Russian national music. The movement is short and very charming. Next +one passes from song to dance, the scherzo being a kind of Cossack dance +orchestrated in the most piquant style, the strings playing pizzicato +throughout. Here again the composer is irresistible. The music is +ballet-music, not worthy of a symphony, but it is so exhilarating that +there has to be a "truce with grimace." And the finale? On a former +occasion we have declared our view that none of Tchaïkovsky's music +except his last symphony has dignity, but probably in no other +quasi-serious work has he committed himself to such an astounding piece +of rodomontade as is here used to conclude the symphony. The music +enters like a voluble showman, beating a drum at the head of a +procession, and assuring the crowd that never in this world has anything +been seen quite so wonderful as that particular show. The show then +proceeds, seeming to be concerned with national exploits which are all +illustrated by the comments of the same voluble showman. A meritorious +rendering was given of this amusing and in some respects instructive +work. Many of the wind-instrument passages are very trying for the +performers, especially in the case of the bass trombone, which in the +last movement sometimes has to play as fast as the flute; but the +players struggled manfully with these difficulties and did justice to +the score. + + +[Sidenote: ="Romeo and Juliet" Overture.= + +_December 14, 1900._] + +The case of Tchaïkovsky, with his one great Symphony overtopping by such +immeasurable heights all his other compositions of whatever kind, is +isolated. One is almost compelled to think of everything else in the +light of the one great work. Here is something that dimly foreshadows +the stupendous battle-picture in the first movement. There we note some +faint suggestion of that power to represent a heart full of the most +awful foreboding, amid scenes of gaiety and gallantry, which gives its +peculiar character to the celebrated 5--4 movement; and there are +foretastes of the bustle and excitement rendered on a gigantic scale in +the scherzo, of the triumphal note in the March, of the final despairing +wail. But all else is faint and fragmentary by comparison with the great +symphony. The "Romeo and Juliet" overture, played yesterday, is probably +Tchaïkovsky's best early composition, and it is certainly that which +suggests the great last symphony in the most unmistakable manner. The +poetic basis of the tone-picture is to a considerable extent the same in +both. A warning prologue leads to the scenes of violence and bloodshed. +Then follows a romantic love-story with a tragic ending. Everything in +the overture is extremely well done--the fighting music is graphic and +the love music is deeply fraught with feeling,--but it is not a bit +Shakespearean in spirit. The peculiar neuralgic pathos which haunts +nearly all Tchaïkovsky's works takes us into a fevered and unnatural +atmosphere very unlike Shakespeare's; and the fighting is gory and +realistic in the haggard manner of Verestchagin. As with Berlioz's +treatment of "Faust," one must not seek for any sort of fidelity to the +spirit of the original. It is better to rest satisfied with the striking +and eloquent picture, founded on external features of a well-known poem +but belonging essentially to the composer's own dream-world. The +overture was splendidly played yesterday. Dr. Richter's interpretation +most fully revealed the beauty of the introduction, where the composer +had succeeded in finding a note of pathos unlike his usual narrow and +egotistic or merely tormented vein. Specially remarkable was the fine +precision of the percussion instruments in the sections representing the +strife of the Montagues and Capulets; but it is scarcely necessary to +mention details, for the whole tone-picture was superbly presented. + + +[Sidenote: =Symphony in E Minor.= + +_March 8, 1901._] + +There is a great diversity of opinion as to the merits of Tchaïkovsky's +fifth Symphony. More than one London critic has expressed the view that +it is equal to the much-better known sixth and last. Mr. Jacques +declares in yesterday's programme that, though No. 6--the +"Pathétique"--appeals more strongly to the emotions, No. 5 is +constructively the finer work. On the other hand, we have the opinion of +the Russian critic Berezovsky--quoted together with the same writer's +detailed account of the work in a recent English book on +Tchaïkovsky--that No. 5 is the weakest of all the Symphonies. There is +something rather depressing in such extreme divergence of opinion. It +proves one of two things;--either Tchaïkovsky is not one of the sane +composers whose works stand in a certain clear relation to the musical +needs of human nature; or else, for all our greatly increased musical +culture, we are no quicker than were the men of Beethoven's day in our +perceptions; and, in the absence of perception, we are even more tied +down than were our predecessors by pedantic notions. The reception of +the great "Symphonic Pathétique" in this country disposes of the former +alternative. No other instrumental work ever aroused so great a wave of +genuine public interest, and even persons who are no great admirers of +Tchaïkovsky ought, if they care for the musical life of this country, to +take an interest in him, on account of the astonishingly sudden and +powerful grip that he took of the public imagination. It is not to +externals--such as instrumentation, counterpoint, form, and so +forth--that we must look for the explanation. Glazounoff orchestrates no +less brilliantly than Tchaïkovsky and has probably a greater mastery of +scholastic device, and the same is true of Saint-Saëns. Yet neither of +those masters ever did or could stir anything in the least like the +interest that Tchaïkovsky stirs. We believe the secret of Tchaïkovsky +lies first in his sincerity, his being in earnest, his intentness, his +search after the true symbol of his idea or feeling, his rejection of +mere fabricated music. In listening to Glazounoff one perceives the +trotting out of device. "Note how cleverly," the composer seems to say, +"how cleverly I introduce this theme in augmentation." Whereas +Tchaïkovsky is always intent on his idea, and, when he uses device, it +is with the air of a man deeply in earnest and grasping at a resource of +expression. Thus the centre of gravity is with Glazounoff as often as +not in the device, with Tchaïkovsky always in the message, and with that +dim sub-consciousness of the musical soul we perceive the one to be a +cultivated trifler, the other a man with something important to say. +That is the first and chief point. Next comes Tchaïkovsky's gift of +rhythm--the quality in music for which the general public of the +present day cares most. When a person of rudimentary musical notions +says that he likes a good tune, it will nearly always be found that what +he likes is the rhythm, and that the melody can be freely changed +without his perceiving it. The same taste exists in the higher stages of +cultivation. A hundred times commoner than a real sense of melodic +beauty is the love of a powerful rhythm that carries the listener off +his feet. Now Tchaïkovsky does that for the listener much more often +than any other composer. He first captivates by something in which his +gift of rhythm plays a leading part, and, having captivated, he does not +disappoint us by saying empty things. Further points are his +astonishingly rich harmony, which is never twisted and inconsequent, +like so much of Berlioz's harmony, but always develops logically and +clearly his vastness of design; his warmth of colouring, and his +picturesque force. Needless to say, that to explain sudden and signal +success with the general public there must always be a mention of weak +points. Among Tchaïkovsky's weak points that which has gained him most +popularity is his persistent habit of presenting his ideas in a sort of +balanced and antithetical manner. He does not expect too much +intelligence in the listener. First he says a thing, then he says it +again an octave lower down or higher up and with different +instrumentation; next he repeats a tag of what has just been said, and +repeats that once or twice, and so forth. And the thing is not done +artificially; such procedure evidently came natural to him. By the time +he has finished, something of the idea has been conveyed into the +dullest mind; and all this is done along with the extremely modern +harmony and with instrumentation so dashing, brilliant, and varied that +only a dreadfully analytical person takes note of the thematic +iteration. It is a remarkable point that while all the other symphonies +are full of Slavonic folk-melodies, the thematic invention in the +"Pathetic" is all original--every scrap of it. There is not a folk-tune +from beginning to end. One has only to think of the first theme of the +first quick movement to perceive how thoroughly the composer was worked +up. The originality of it is absolute. One may go over all the +orchestral composers from Haydn to Wagner and Brahms, asking oneself +whether that theme could be by any one of them. Obviously it could not +be the work of anyone else except Tchaïkovsky. On hearing that theme for +the first time the listener pricks up his ears. "Here is a man with +something to say," he thinks. Now there is nothing of that kind in No. +5. The thematic material has been obtained in an easy-going +manner--mostly by borrowing. And the superiority of the great No. 6 is +just as remarkable in the richness and spontaneity of development as in +originality of thematic invention. In other respects the case against +Mr. Jacques's view is much stronger. There is not the ghost of an +indication in No. 5 of the power which produced that overwhelming +battle-picture in the first movement of the "Pathetic," or of the +completely new kind of eloquence introduced into the world of music in +the third movement--the Scherzo-March--of the "Pathetic," or of the +unparalleled poignancy of expression in the Finale. The fifth is a fine +picturesque work, chiefly interesting for the glimpse that it gives us +of those exercises by which the genius destined to produce No. 6 +strengthened itself. We hear many of the same orchestral effects, such +as the frequent use of divided lower strings and the prominence of +bassoon parts. The figuration in the Valse, and again in the Finale, +also affords a faint premonition of the marvels that enthral us in the +latter work. But, before any comparison of the two is really possible at +all, one must knock off the last movement of the "Pathetic" and take it +as ending with the March, as the composer originally intended it to end. + + +[Sidenote: ="Pathetic" Symphony.= + +_November 22, 1901._] + +"Eighth time at these concerts," says last night's programme, in +reference to the great Tchaïkovsky Symphony, which is only eight years +old. The performances in London are to be numbered by dozens, and +whenever genuine orchestral concerts are given in this country the +swan-song of the late Russian master has probably been heard more often +than any other symphonic work. Let us not be in too great a hurry to +protest against this state of things. The enormous audience of yesterday +evening--much the largest of the present season so far--suggests that +the public have not lost interest in the Symphony. Nor do we dissent +from the views of the public in this respect. There is astounding +potency in the charm of the work and in the appeal that it makes to the +imagination. For some time past we have been preoccupied with the notion +that it forms a sort of pendant to Dvoràk's "New World" Symphony. +Dvoràk has caught in his music the breezy, hopeful, democratic, +optimistic, and free-thinking spirit of American life, with its upper +side of furious go-ahead civilisation, and its under side of primitive +humanity (Negroes and Red Indians) in which energy of feeling is out of +all proportion to intellectual faculty. Dvoràk's slow movement is +undoubtedly a hymn of such primitive humanity, with an undercurrent of +meditation on the prairie by night, in which the movements of sap and +the germination of seeds within the bosom of inexhaustibly fertile +nature become, as it were, audible. It is something like the poetry that +Walt Whitman would have written had he been a much better poet. In an +analogous manner Tchaïkovsky has caught up and fixed in his "Symphonie +Pathétique" the soul of modern Russia. Just as the American Symphony is +breezy, democratic, optimistic, and free-thinking, so the Russian is +languorous and oppressed, aristocratic, pessimistic, and hierarchic. The +absence of any slow movement, except the dirge at the end, is intensely +characteristic. The composer has no hymn of thanksgiving or serenely +contemplative interlude to give us, but only something with the perfumed +and artificial atmosphere of the ballroom, as a relief from the ardours +and terrors of his military and patriotic passages. Both in his first +and third movements he reminds us that the Russian, for all his profound +religiosity and mysticism, for all his abundance of talent and exquisite +courtesy under normal conditions, lives in a cruel country and has it in +him to be more cruel than any other modern white man. The dirge at the +end we believe to be the most powerful expression of tragic emotion that +exists in the entire range of music. Such a work will bear a good many +performances, especially in a place where there is a Richter to +interpret it. Of course neither the "New World" nor the Muscovite +Symphony is for a moment to be compared with Beethoven. Fellows like +Dvoràk and Tchaïkovsky, belonging to the fringe of civilisation, have +something of the savage about them, whereas Beethoven inherited the +central European culture and expressed in music the emotions of a +completely civilised character. The part of the nineteenth century +subsequent to the death of Wagner will probably be remembered for the +_avènement_ of the semi-savage in music. But, be it remembered, music is +an art of expression, and all thoroughly and richly expressive music is +good music, no matter what the informing emotion or underlying idea. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +ELGAR. + + +[Sidenote: ="King Olaf."= + +_December 2, 1898._] + +Mr. Edward Elgar seems to owe his fame almost entirely to those autumn +festivals which are so important a feature of musical life in this +country. An organist, with a turn for serious composition, occupying a +post in some city where one of those festivals is periodically held, is +favourably placed with a view to getting a hearing for the productions +of his musical genius; and Mr. Elgar was, and so far as we know is +still, organist at St. George's Roman Catholic Church in Worcester. His +career as a festival composer dates from 1890, in which year his +overture "Froissart" was produced at the Worcester Festival. Three years +later a choral work--"The Black Knight"--was brought to a hearing in the +same city, apparently with advantageous results to Mr. Elgar's +reputation, for since that time he has devoted much of his energy to +composition. The cantata performed yesterday evening for the first time +in Manchester seems to have been the fourth of Mr. Elgar's important +choral works. When first performed at the Hanley Festival two years ago +it attracted much attention, and was hailed by many writers for the +press as a work for the Leeds Festival--generally considered the most +important event of the kind in the country. The work composed for Leeds +and produced there last October was called "Caractacus." It is in +general style similar to "King Olaf," while naturally representing a +later stage in the composer's development. In both works one notes the +same dramatic instinct, the same unconventional treatment, the same +faculty of genuine thematic invention, and the same unmistakeable gift +for orchestration. As this composer gains in experience it does not +seem, as with many others, that his inventive powers become exhausted, +but that, on the contrary, they ripen and develop. "Caractacus" is +obviously a finer work in every way than "King Olaf." Now, all these +facts make Mr. Elgar a very interesting person. The qualities enumerated +above--gift for thematic invention, ingenious and telling orchestration, +unconventional treatment, and so forth--are extremely rare and valuable. +It is quite possible for a composer to have a long and successful career +without possessing any one of them, and it is therefore very natural +that a composer who does possess them should be hailed with enthusiasm. +But, unfortunately, they are not the only qualities necessary to a +composer of extended choral works, and Mr. Elgar, who rises so far above +mere feeble conventionalities in his actual music, is not free from the +common but most mischievous delusion that almost anything will suffice +by way of "verses for music." He throws away the resources of his +remarkable art upon a text that is in places unfit for any kind of +musical treatment, and is, on the whole, hopelessly rambling, +incoherent, and tiresome. One becomes interested in a dramatic episode +where a bride seems on the point of murdering her bridegroom with a +dagger that gleams in the moonlight. But the narrative wanders away to +other subjects; a fresh heroine, with quite different affairs and +interests, occupies attention, and one hears nothing more of the lady +with the dagger. No doubt, the title "Scenes from" the Saga of King Olaf +seems to justify such procedure, but it does not prevent the interest +from flagging or the general impression left by the work from being +fragmentary and incoherent. The best of the music is at the beginning, +where there is an extremely fine chorus, "The Challenge of Thor," +containing various musical elements all truly expressive and fraught +with the same primitive and racy vigour. The more important of the +elements in question are the Hammer music, the Iceberg music, the +Thunder and Lightning music, and the strains which carry the defiance of +Christianity by the old Norse religion. The most effective, too, of the +solos is the long tenor recitative following the great chorus. At the +words "listening to the wild winds wailing" a highly original and +interesting strain begins to be heard in the accompaniment. But the +promise of these fine things is not well carried out in the latter part +of the work. Everywhere the difficulties are very formidable, and in a +good many cases they were too much for the chorus, who, except in "The +Challenge of Thor," did not sing in a very free or expressive manner. +Nor did they always take their leads with precision; but, in a complex +work abounding in accompaniment figures with such puzzling +cross-rhythms, these defects were excusable. The cantata did not seem to +make any great impression on the audience; but we should expect to find, +if ever Mr. Elgar were so fortunate as to obtain a really good subject +and a good book, and especially a subject and book thoroughly adapted to +his remarkable dramatic powers, that he would produce something of +lasting value. + + +[Sidenote: =The "Enigma Variations."= + +_February 9, 1900._] + +The style of composition called "Variations" is a striking example of a +primitive form that has proved imperishable. Sir Hubert Parry has +pointed out that the fundamental idea of variations in instrumental +music is co-ordinate with the _canto fermo_ and counterpoint of the +early choral composers. Each system resulted from an attempt at giving +form and unity to a composition by repeating a theme over and over +again, each time in some new aspect, or with fresh ornamentation; though +the effect obtained by winding ingenious counterpoint for other voices +about an unchanging _canto fermo_ is, of course, very different from the +tricking out of the melody itself. In choral music the _canto fermo_ +system almost died out when maturer principles of structure were +discovered; but variation-form has never fallen into disuse at any +period since its invention. It has been used by all the great masters, +and by many of them as a vehicle for great and splendid ideas. General +progress from the mechanical to the imaginative marks the successive +stages through which the form has passed. One great reason for its +vitality is that it admits of treatment in every possible style. +Variations may be melodic, or contrapuntal, or harmonic. A superficial +composer can make them by simply worrying his theme, a profound composer +by developing the musical ideas that are in it. Bach's were mainly +contrapuntal, Mozart's mainly melodic--one may even say melismatic--and +Beethoven made variations of every kind, in his later works obtaining +results of undreamed-of grandeur from the form. But the later Beethoven +has never really been followed by any mortal in the austere and +wonderful path that he struck out for himself, though Brahms and others +have obtained a few hints from him. The originator of modern romantic +variations was Schumann, whose "Etudes Symphoniques" revealed a fresh +source of life in the form, that has proved less austerely inaccessible +than Beethoven's; Brahms, Tchaïkovsky, and many others having obviously +derived inspiration from it. Mr. Elgar stands in a peculiar relation to +the modern masters of variation-form. He seems to be much preoccupied +with the curious idea of musical portraiture, which, again, owes its +existence to Schumann. The miniature of Chopin occurring in Schumann's +"Carnaval" was the first, and perhaps remains to this day the best, +example in its kind, and the sketch of Mendelssohn forming No. 24 of the +same composer's "Album for the Young" is also a recognisable piece of +musical portraiture. Mr. Elgar has carried out the idea in an extended +scale in these variations. His theme, which he calls "enigma," has no +eccentricity. It is a rather march-like strain in regular form, having +three sections, the last of which is a repetition of the first, with +fresh harmony and instrumentation. There are nominally fourteen +variations;--including the finale, actually thirteen, for No. 10, +described as intermezzo, is not a variation. Each of the variations, and +the intermezzo, bears initials, or a nickname, which are commonly +assumed to represent the composer's friends. Why any such thing should +be assumed we do not know. It is both possible and allowable to portray +persons who are not one's friends, and some of Mr. Elgar's portraits +seem to us extremely severe and satirical. One of the early numbers, in +particular, gives a vivid impression of a very unsympathetic +personality, garrulous, querulous, trivial, meanly egotistic, and rather +ape-like. The composer does well to let the identity of the original +remain shrouded in mystery. The variations are grouped according to the +usual principles of contrast, and they are all extremely effective. +However much the composer may call his theme an enigma--Berlioz called +his variation-theme in an early symphony _idée fixe_--one can scarcely +escape the impression that it represents the temperament of the artist, +through which he sees his subjects; for that, and nothing else, is what +forms the connecting link between any series of portraits by the same +hand. Wonderful ingenuity is shown in varying the relation in which the +theme stands to the musical picture. During the first part of the work, +down to the end of the sixth variation, the attitude of the audience +seemed rather reserved. But a change began to be noticeable at the +seventh variation, called "Troyte," an impetuous presto movement that +shows a hitherto unsuspected kind of energy. Nor did the attention flag +at all during the noble and serene harmonies of the ensuing Allegretto. +The richly-organised "Nimrod," forming No. 9, leads to the dainty and +tripping "Dorabella" Intermezzo, which has no connection with the theme. +The eleventh variation, headed "G. R. S.," is another demonstration of +abundant vigour, and the following "B. G. N." has for leading feature a +fine lyrical melody for 'cello. No. 13 obviously has reference to +someone on a sea voyage, the "prosperous voyage" theme from +Mendelssohn's "Meeresstille" overture being heard amid delicate +suggestions of distant sea sound. In the very extended finale there is +some powerful polyphonic writing, and the movement ends with a +repetition of the theme in augmentation, forcibly declaimed by the heavy +brass to the accompaniment of the full orchestra. The audience seemed +rather astonished that a work by a British composer should have had +other than a petrifying effect upon them. They applauded with the energy +that the composer's imaginative power and masterly handling of the +orchestra deserve. Dr. Richter signalled to Mr. Elgar, who was seated +among the audience, and he thereupon mounted the stage and received an +enthusiastic greeting from the public. The striking success of this +composition reminds us of the following passage occurring at the end of +an article by Sir Hubert Parry written some years ago:--"It is even +possible that, after all its long history, the variation still affords +one of the most favourable opportunities for the exercise of their +genius by composers of the future." + + +[Sidenote: ="Cockaigne."= + +_October 25, 1901._] + +Dr. Elgar's more recent compositions seem to require nearly as much +talking about as Wagner's. But, be it observed, that is not the +composer's fault, but is the result of the primitive stage at which not +only the bulk of our musical public but many of our "leading musicians" +still find themselves, as regards understanding the poetic import of a +musical work. On two occasions in recent years a work full of slaughter +and frenzy, of barbarous revelry and sensuality, of glittering and +blaring pageantry, and ending with annihilation--a work the powerful +appeal of which lies precisely in the fact that it is the most powerful +existing expression in music of everything most un-Christian and +anti-Catholic--has been performed without public protest in a British +Cathedral. We here refer, of course, to the "Symphonie Pathétique." Dr. +Elgar is another composer whose music means something; but what chance +is there for us to understand him? One quails before the task of +discussing in a concert notice all the questions to which such a work as +the "Cockaigne" overture gives rise. First let us state, without +stopping to give reasons, that we think it worth hearing and worth +studying. If any previously existing overture is to be mentioned in +order to indicate the type to which "Cockaigne" belongs, it must +obviously be "Meistersinger." The humorous element is somewhat more +prominent than in "Meistersinger," and the general tone and colouring of +the two works are utterly dissimilar. But that the composer of +"Cockaigne" had "Meistersinger" in mind is rendered practically certain +by one particular point--the use of a Londoner theme and of the same +theme in diminution for the youthful Londoner, in exact analogy with +Wagner's symbols for the Meistersingers and the apprentices. Again the +opening bustle, giving way to a love-scene, suggests "Meistersinger," +and so does the polyphonic elaboration of the middle part. But there is +a great difference between following Wagner's procedure and borrowing +his musical ideas. To some slight extent in the E flat section, and more +particularly in the harmony thereof, we find the Wagner flavour. For the +rest, while the procedure seems at any rate to be based on Wagner's, we +find the materials used and the character of the artistic result +achieved to be entirely different from Wagner's. There are seven musical +elements in "Cockaigne," the significance of which may be roughly +indicated as follows:--(1) Bustle of the streets; (2) a virile personal +note; (3) companionship and interchange of ideas between two +sweethearts; (4) pert children playing their pranks; (5) military band +episode; (6) impressions on passing from the street into a church; (7) +new phases of street-bustle music. Musical symbols of very considerable +plastic force are invented for these things, and are woven into a +powerful and entertaining tone-picture with that mastery of the +orchestra which no one can now refuse to recognise in Dr. Elgar. He +always works with definite lines, and does not seem to care much for +those atmospheric effects in which certain moderns, such as Richard +Strauss, are so strong. The music has a far wider range of ideas and +emotions than would be possible in a poem occupying the same time in +delivery. It gives us impressions of London by day and by night, +impressions that are partly realistic and partly antiquarian, following +the flight of the imagination with absolute freedom, forming a sort of +musical parallel to Henley's "London Voluntaries." + + And lo! the wizard hour + Whose shining silent sorcery hath such power! + Still, still the streets, between their carcanets + Of linking gold, are avenues of sleep. + But see how gable ends and parapets + In gradual beauty and significance + Emerge! And did you hear + That little twitter-and-cheep, + Breaking inordinately loud and clear + On this still spectral exquisite atmosphere? + 'Tis a first nest at matins! And behold + A rakehell cat--how furtive and acold! + A spent witch homing from some infamous dance-- + Obscene, quick-trotting, see her tip and fade + Through shadowy railings into a pit of shade! + +And if this is effective, does not a certain sonnet of Wordsworth's +exist to prove that an aspect of London may furnish a magnificent poetic +inspiration? It should be remembered that there is originality in +emotion as well as in ideas and in devices; and this is where we find +Dr. Elgar strong--perhaps stronger than any other British composer. +Besides the technical ability to express himself in music, he has +originality of emotion. He takes us into regions where music never took +us before. As to his use of Wagner's procedure, that was also +Beethoven's procedure in some of his finest works. In fact, it is the +procedure of everyone for whom music is a language, such as it has +tended more and more to become ever since Beethoven's time. The history +of music in the nineteenth century is the history of something growing +constantly more articulate. + +No doubt some persons would like to ask--Should we have known all this, +or any of it, about the significance of the "Cockaigne" music had there +been no programmes? The answer is, Probably not. But the beauty of an +artistic design illustrating a certain subject may often be perceived +when one cannot make out what the subject is. In such a case the subject +is not "all nonsense." It is the stimulating cause of the beautiful +design, and it is very natural for those who find the design beautiful +to like to know what it is all about. It is a mistake to think that a +definite play of the imagination has nothing to do with musical +composition. It has very much to do with it. The kind of music with no +underlying play of fancy is only too familiar. + +The name "Cockaigne" occurs in some form in old English, French, +Italian, and Spanish literature, meaning "the land of delights." The +fancied connection with "Cockney" is of much later date. Henry S. +Leigh's "Carols of Cockayne" (1869) shows the recognition of the word in +the sense of "Cockneydom." There is said to be a connection between +"Cockney" and the French "coquin," and if that is so the appropriation +of "Cockaigne" as correlative of "Cockney" is justified by community of +origin, all these words being derived from the stem of _coquere_ (to +cook). No doubt "coquin" originally meant "cook's boy" or "loafer in a +cook-shop," and "Cockney" at first meant something of the same sort. At +the same time there hangs about the word "Cockaigne" a certain +proverbial suggestiveness, derived from the time when it was used in the +sense of "land of delights," the etymology being forgotten. It thus has +a peculiar appropriateness as the title of Dr. Elgar's genial and +largely humoristic tone-picture. + + +[Sidenote: ="The Dream of Gerontius," Birmingham Festival.= + +_October 3, 1900_] + +"The Dream of Gerontius," Cardinal Newman called his poem, with +exquisite modesty. How that poem may stand in the estimation of those +who share Cardinal Newman's point of view in regard to religious matters +is perhaps an important question, but not one with which musical, or any +artistic, criticism is concerned. For nothing is more certain about art +than that it is subservient to a person's view of life. Artistic or +æsthetic criticism must be humble, and must abstain from trespassing on +the ground of faith and morals. Indirectly, indeed, æsthetics may have a +bearing on these more serious subjects. For is it not written of +religious doctrines, "By their fruits ye shall know them"?--and nothing +else is in so complete a sense a "fruit" of a religion as a work of art +arising therefrom. Nevertheless, the function of æsthetics is not to +commend or blame a view of life, but rather to enquire with what +eloquence, with what sincerity, with what measure of convincing power +the artist expounds his ideas and communicates his feelings, whatever +those ideas and feelings may be. With these reflections I find it +necessary to premise my notes on Edward Elgar's new work. The +reflections are rather solemn, but the new work is very solemn. It is +deeply and intensely religious; it is totally unconventional, and must +be discussed in an unconventional manner. First, then, let me state a +point of difference from all that I have experienced in listening to +other oratorios and sacred cantatas, and, I may say, all other musical +works with words made by one person and music by another. The point is +that _this_ music, on the whole, is apt to bring home to the listener +the greatness of the poem. The composer has not merely chosen from the +poem such material as suited him. He has expounded the poem musically, +and to the task of expounding it he has brought what may be described +without inflation as the resources of modern music. We shall doubtless +hear of plagiarism from "Parsifal," and there is indeed much in the work +that could not have been there but for "Parsifal." But it is not +allowable for a modern composer of religious music to be ignorant of +"Parsifal." One might as well write for orchestra in ignorance of the +Berlioz orchestration as write any serious music in ignorance of the +Wagnerian symbolism. Edward Elgar does nothing so affected as to ignore +the development which, for good or for evil, the language of music +underwent at the hands of Wagner. His orchestral prelude, however, +reverts to an earlier Wagnerian type. It gives a forecast of the whole +story in such wise that at the end of it the imagination has to be +carried back. We have the last agony of the sick man, his death, and +passage to the unseen. The symbols, though employed in the Wagnerian +manner, are, nevertheless, thoroughly original, taking us into an +atmosphere and a world absolutely remote from all that is Wagnerian. +When the voice of Gerontius (assigned to a tenor solo) enters we are +carried back to the death-bed--to the prayers of Gerontius and his +companions. A series of choruses with intervening and accompanying +passages for the solo voice is devoted to the King of Terrors. Here the +music touches the various notes in the gamut of feeling, from the agony +of terrors to serene confidence. After the parting of Gerontius, with +the words "Novissima hora est," a new voice enters, that of the Priest +(baritone), chanting "Proficiscere, anima Christiana." Among the +supplications for the departed is a chant three times repeated, each of +the two parts ending with a choral "Amen" that bears a tender echo of +the mediæval "Cantus fictus." An extended section of chorus and +semi-chorus bring the first part of the cantata to a peaceful and +prayerful ending. + +In the second part the soul of Gerontius is winging its way towards the +celestial regions, holding colloquy with an angel. There is a Dantesque +passage in which a chorus of demons is overheard by the pair--the soul +and the angel. Gerontius is encouraged by the angel. Echoes of earthly +voices, praying for the departed soul, are borne up from the earth, and +in the end the soul of Gerontius is affectionately delivered over to +Purgatory by the angel, there to wait suffering indeed, but in +resignation and in the assurance of salvation. + +Naturally the prevalent poetic note in such a work is the mystical +exaltation, now of the contrite sinner, now of the aspiring saint. The +chief climax is reached, not at the end, but in the hymn of the Angels, +"Praise to the Holiest in the Height," recurring before the departure to +Purgatory. But the whole work sings "Praise to the Holiest in the Height +_and in the Depth_." A powerfully contrasting note is heard in the +death-agony of Gerontius and, above all, in the chorus of demons +occurring in the second part. Here a comparison with Berlioz is simply +inevitable--for Edward Elgar's dramatic power admits of comparison with +the great masters. His demons are much more terrible than those of +Berlioz, who was a materialist in the profound sense--not, that is, in +virtue of more or less shifting beliefs, but of unalterable temperament. +Infinitely remote from that of Berlioz is the temperament revealed in +Edward Elgar's music, which, like parts of the poem, fairly merits the +epithet "Dantesque." + + +[Sidenote: ="Gerontius," + +Lower Rhine Festival, + +Düsseldorf.= + +_May 22, 1902._] + +"Ever since the far-off times of the great madrigal composers England +has played but a modest part in the concert of the great musical powers. +For the products of the musical mind it has depended almost entirely on +importation, and has exported nothing but works of a lighter order." +Such are the words with which the German author of the "Gerontius" +programme, specially written for this Festival, introduces his subject. +The economic metaphor is ingenious. It does not imply too much or +justify the state of things to which it refers. Rightly or wrongly, +Germany and the Continent of Europe in general did not feel that serious +English music was a thing to be taken seriously, and to that fact the +writer refers with ingenious delicacy, going on to say that about the +turn of the century a change began to be noticeable. Everyone conversant +with musical affairs knows how that change was brought about, though not +everyone on our own side of the Channel cares to admit what he knows. It +is in the main to Edward Elgar--a man who has done his best work living +quietly in the Malvern hills, without official position of any kind, +remote from social distraction and the strife of commercialism--that the +change is due. The presentation of so lengthy a work as the "Dream of +Gerontius" at a Rhine Festival has a kind of significance that the +English musical public would do well to consider. The programme is much +more carefully selected than at our own festivals, the idea being not at +all that it should contain "something for all tastes," but that it +should be characteristic of musical art as it now stands, giving only +the most typically excellent of newer compositions, and of older +compositions only those upon which it is felt that contemporary genius +had been more particularly nourished. It is not accidental that on the +present occasion the names of Handel, Mendelssohn, Schumann are absent +while Bach is very abundantly represented; Beethoven's name figures in +connection with the most modern in feeling of all his works (the C minor +Symphony), and Liszt's with his revolutionary "Faust" Symphony. Nor is +it accidental that the preference is given to Strauss among German and +Elgar among English composers. For those are the men who really carry +the torch, and the Germans are not to be deceived in such matters. + +The performance of "Gerontius" yesterday evening had a good many +features of special interest. Full justice was done to the instrumental +part of the work by the magnificent Festival orchestra of a hundred and +twenty-seven performers. Those peculiar qualities of the imagination +which make of Dr. Wüllner, jun., by far the best representative of +Gerontius as yet found were once more demonstrated, and the part of the +Angel was given by Miss Muriel Foster with the wonderfully beautiful and +genuine voice that has long been recognised as her most remarkable gift, +and with considerably greater and more expressive eloquence than any +previous experience might have led one to expect from her. In the bass +parts of the Priest and the Angel of Death Professor Messchaert sang +with wonderful dramatic power, and the semi-chorus, seated in a line +before the orchestra, acquitted themselves almost to perfection in the +delicate task that they have to perform throughout the death-bed scene. +I have already expressed the view that the final section of the first +part, beginning with the Priest's "proficiscere, anima Christiana," is +the point at which one first becomes conscious of actual genius in the +composition; but now, after further study and another complete hearing +of the work, I am not quite satisfied with that statement. Perhaps at +that point a good many listeners first become clearly conscious of the +composer's genius. But on looking back at the extraordinary eloquence +and beauty of the musical symbolism in the prelude and death-agony of +Gerontius, one perceives that the _quietus_ which comes to the spirit in +the scene following Gerontius's death is merely a climax in a process +that really begins with the first notes. The heavenly calm at the +opening of the second part I realised yesterday more thoroughly than +ever before. Splendid as the treatment of the hymn "Praise to the +Holiest in the Height" is, the final section is not so completely +adequate as the rest. The truth is that the composer there found himself +in presence of a task hopelessly beyond the powers of any mortal except +Bach. In the "Sanctus" heard on Sunday evening the shining circles of +the heavenly choir are, as it were, made audible to the ears of mortals. +Bach could only do it once, and no other composer could do it at all. +Elgar gives a beautiful and grandly conceived hymn of the Church +Triumphant, and with that we may well rest satisfied. He is in the main +a dramatic composer, and, in those cases where he enters the domain of +purely religious music, he gravitates back rather to Palestrina, with +his "souls like thin flames mounting up to God," than to the greater and +serener spirit of Bach. + + +[Sidenote: ="Gerontius," + +Preliminary Article.= + +_March 12, 1903._] + +In subject, though not in treatment, this oratorio--the first +performance of which in Manchester will be given this evening--is +closely akin to the morality play "Everyman." Gerontius is not a +historical character, but a typical person, belonging to no particular +age or country. He is further like Everyman in being a layman, who has +lived in the world, as distinguished from the Church, and in being just +a plain, well-meaning man, without very great or shining qualities. The +poem on which the oratorio is founded begins, at a later stage than +"Everyman," with the death-bed scene, and does not end with the death of +Gerontius's mortal part, but peers wistfully into the world beyond, and +"under the similitude of a dream," tells much of what holy men have +imagined about the experiences of Christian souls going to their account +under the guidance of angels. + +In the oratorio the utterances of Gerontius are assigned to a tenor +soloist, who in the first part has to deliver the broken phrases of the +sick man "near to death," and in the second the delicately restrained +raptures of the soul that "feels in him an inexpressive lightness and a +sense of freedom," as he gradually becomes conscious of the angelic +presence that is bearing him along towards the heavenly regions. The +only other soloist in the first part is the Priest (bass), who delivers +the solemn "Proficiscere, anima Christiana, de hoc mundo," as the soul +of Gerontius quits the body. In the second part the second and third +soloists represent, one the Guiding Angel (mezzo-soprano) and the other +the Angel of the Agony (bass), who, at the most solemn moment of the +oratorio, is recognised by the Soul as "the same who strengthened Him, +what time he knelt, lone in the garden shade bedewed with blood." The +semi-chorus in the first part is the group of "assistants," or friends +gathered about the dying man's bed. The function of the chorus in the +first part is not defined, but it may be taken as voicing the prayers +and aspirations of other faithful souls, aware of Gerontius's case and +sympathising with him. In the second part the chorus is now of +"angelicals," now of demons. The semi-chorus again represents the voices +of friends on earth, which at one point are imagined as again becoming +audible to the Soul, and also takes part in certain phases of the great +hymn "Praise to the Holiest in the Height," where the vocal harmony +falls into as many as twelve parts. + +Those who are to hear this music to-day for the first time should beware +of judging it by false standards. Let them be prepared for the fact that +from beginning to end there is not a particle of anything in the least +like Handel or Mendelssohn. Without the slightest intention of doing +anything revolutionary, but simply following the bent of his own genius, +the composer here brushes aside the conventions of oratorio very much as +Wagner brushed aside the conventions of opera, and justifies himself +just as thoroughly in so doing. To hear the "Gerontius" music is to +become acquainted with by far the most remarkable and original +personality that has arisen in musical Britain since the days of +Purcell. One might trace the manifestations of that originality in the +harmony, that always shows a touch both sensitive and sure, in the +orchestration and interplay of chorus and semi-chorus, in the amazing +sweetness and depth of feeling that sounds in the Angel (mezzo-soprano +solo) music, in the force and truth of musical expression which, for the +most part, extends even to elements of minor importance in the work. But +for the present these broad indications must suffice, and we will only +add the warning that the music is powerful, subtle, and of manifold +significance, not to be judged in too great a hurry, and yielding up the +best of its secrets only to those who listen repeatedly and study +between. + + +[Sidenote: ="Gerontius," + +Hallé Concerts.= + +_March 13, 1903._] + +Originality is disadvantageous to a composer at first in two ways. The +more obvious is that listeners find the music speaking to them in an +unknown or partially unknown tongue, and are displeased; and the less +obvious, that players and singers cannot, as a rule, do justice to an +unfamiliar style. When it is a case of winning recognition for something +new and original a thoroughly adequate rendering is half the battle. +Such a rendering carries with it a sense of enjoyment and satisfaction +in the performers, and there is always a chance that this may to some +extent communicate itself to the public; whereas in the other case the +embarrassment of the performers will certainly communicate itself, and +the audience attribute everything unsatisfactory to the unknown or +insufficiently guaranteed composer. In Elgar's "Gerontius" the +originality is strong and unmistakeable, and the performers find their +technical skill severely taxed. But fortunately the composer has a clear +head; he knows the technique of each instrument and he never +miscalculates. Performers therefore find their task, though often +difficult, is always possible and, further, that the result is always +satisfactory. For Elgar has an ear; he is a man of tone, and does not +care for music that looks well on paper but sounds rather muddy. These +points, known to those who for some time past have taken a close +interest in Elgar's work, made it possible to hope that the Manchester +performance of his great oratorio would be a striking success, and +perhaps even throw a new light on the merits of the composition; and it +can scarcely be questioned that the experience of yesterday evening +fulfilled those hopes. It was doubtless the most carefully prepared of +the performances that have been given thus far in this country. Dr. +Richter was, for various reasons, peculiarly anxious that it should go +well; Mr. Wilson made up his mind some time ago that whatever +conscientious work could do to secure a worthy performance should be +done; the hopes and endeavours of choir-master and conductor were +seconded by the choir in an admirable spirit; and, though it seems that +for some time the usual difficulties of an unfamiliar style were felt, +not a trace of any such thing was to be observed in the performance, the +remarkably willing and energetic style in which the choral singers had +grappled with their task bearing its proper fruit in a rendering that +sounded spontaneous and unembarrassed, as though the singers were sure +of the notes and could give nearly all their attention to phrasing, +expression, and dynamic adjustments. In the highest degree remarkable, +too, was the orchestral performance. Passages of such peculiar +difficulty as the rushing string figures, that represent the strains of +heavenly music overheard by the Soul and the Angel as they approach the +judgment-seat, came out with much greater distinctness than we have +ever heard before, and we had a similar impression at many other points +in the performance, which was as delicate as it was precise in detail +and broad in style. But experience of all the complete performances yet +given induces us to think that the difference between thorough success +and ordinary half-success with this oratorio depends more on the +semi-chorus than on any other point, and this is where the pre-eminence +of last night's rendering, among all yet given in this country, is most +unquestionable. Though not placed in front of the orchestra--as they +should have been and, we hope, will be next time,--this group of twenty +picked singers was really excellent. The voices blended well, and their +combined tone was clearly distinguishable from the larger choir's. At +the notoriously dangerous points, such as the re-entry with the "Kyrie" +after the invocation of "angels, martyrs, hermits, and holy virgins," +there was no hint of embarrassment, and they played their part as a +slightly more delicate choral unit with absolute success in the litany +and throughout the marvellous concluding chorus of the first part, +where, as the original analysis suggested, the noble pedal-point +harmonies symbolise the swinging of golden censers, as the supplications +of the friends and of the church rise up to the throne of God. Among the +astonishingly new kinds of musical eloquence obtained in this work by +the interplay of chorus and semi-chorus it is worth drawing special +attention to the tenor and alto unison in the semi-chorus on p. 108 (we +quote from the second edition). The passage is not difficult, but to +realise the particular effect of tone as well as it was realised +yesterday shows exquisite adjustment. + +As principal soloist Mr. John Coates had an enormously difficult task, +which he performed about as well as was possible with the vocal material +that has been assigned to him by nature. All that thorough knowledge of +the part, together with high artistic intelligence, could do was done. +His voice did not break on the high B flat (p. 33), and he seemed to be +well disposed, notwithstanding his recent illness. Though it is usually +said that Elgar writes better for orchestra than for choir, and better +for choir than for the solo voice, he was very finely inspired when he +conceived the part of the mezzo-soprano Angel. The opening arioso, "My +work is done," is a most lovely song, to which the haunting "Alleluia" +phrase forms a kind of refrain. But even this--one of the very few +detachable things in the oratorio--is not the best of the Angel's music. +It is surpassed by the other song, "Softly and gently, dearly ransomed +Soul," where the dropping of the Soul down into the waters of Purgatory +is accompanied by music of quite unearthly sweetness and tenderness. +These are things which make it seem almost a shame to discuss this work +in any purely technical aspect. Miss Brema made the Angel's part one of +the few entirely satisfactory features of the first performance, and +again yesterday her nobly expressive style did full justice to the +marvellous beauty of the music. Mr. Black was vocally irreproachable in +the part of the Priest who speeds the parting soul of Gerontius, and +again as the Angel of the Agony in the second part. + +In reference to a musical composition the word "dramatic" has sometimes +to be used in a sense different from "theatrical." Thus the two great +Passions by Bach--the "St. Matthew" and the "St. John"--both have a +dramatic element so strong that at certain points the music becomes +altogether dramatic. Yet no sane person ever called it theatrical, in +the sense of unfit for a church. By "dramatic" in such cases one means +two things--(1) having thematic material that is conceived with a +certain vividness, in reference to a particular situation or mood of +feeling; (2) developed according to procedure that does not sacrifice +the vividness to formal or structural considerations. In this sense, +then, we call Elgar's "Gerontius" a dramatic composition from beginning +to end. To find fault with it for the absence of choral climax in the +manner of Handel and Mendelssohn is as much out of place as it would be +with Wagner's "Tannhäuser." On the other hand, we do not agree with the +criticism that "Gerontius" is Wagnerian music. In two places there is a +brief and faint suggestion of "Parsifal," first in the _sostenuto_ theme +for _cor anglais_ and 'celli that enters in the fifty-second bar of the +Prelude and recurs in some form at several points in the course of the +work, and secondly in a recurrent phrase for strings at the entry of the +recitative assigned to the Angel of the Agony--and to some extent +throughout that recitative, which vaguely recalls "Parsifal." The other +elements we find to be unlike Wagner and unlike every other composer but +Elgar. These elements it is convenient to classify, not according to the +usual technical or formal principle, but according to a dramatic +principle. One notes, in the first place, four main categories--(1) the +purely human; (2) the ecclesiastical; (3) the angelic; (4) the demonic. +The Prelude opens with the symbols of Judgment and Prayer. Next the +"slumber" theme enters, to be joined at the fourteenth bar by the +"Miserere." The note of feeling contracts and sinks towards utter +abasement, which reaches the lowest point in the _cor anglais_ theme +with _tremolando_ accompaniment. But now the sick man's despair finds +expression in a loud cry, which is answered in the majestic and ringing +tones that remind him to face death hopefully. A quite new musical +element enters with the Andantino theme, developed at some length, and +informs the penultimate section of the noble tone-poem, which continues +till a brief _reprise_ of the slumber theme suggests the passing of the +soul. New phases of the Judgment theme connect the Prelude with the +opening recitative, and here the imagination has to be carried back, as +usual after the Prelude of a dramatic composition, which as a rule +epitomises a good part of the action. It is evident, then, that the +Prelude is concerned only with the first two of the categories above +enumerated--that is to say, with the purely human and the +ecclesiastical, and not at all with the angelic or demonic. Of the +angelic music the principal elements, in addition to those already +mentioned, are the various phases of the great hymn "Praise to the +Holiest in the Height." The extraordinary demon music would in itself +offer material for an essay. Here we can only touch on a few obvious +features--the upward rushing semiquaver figure in chromatic fourths, +which is grotesque and rat-like; the three-part figure for strings in +quavers which is first heard with the words "Tainting the hallowed +air," but belongs more particularly to "in a deep hideous purring have +their life"; the terrific fugato "dispossessed, thrust aside, chuck'd +down"; the sinister and ominous four-note theme "To every slave and +pious cheat"; the _motif_ of demonic pride, p. 83; and the sarcastic +prolongation of the last word in "He'll slave for hire." The long chorus +formed of these elements is a welter of infernal but most eloquent +sound, the enormous technical difficulties all of which were completely +mastered yesterday. + + +[Sidenote: ="The Apostles," + +Birmingham Festival.= + +_October 15, 1903._] + +To-day, when Elgar's new Oratorio "The Apostles" was first publicly +performed, was a sufficiently striking contrast with the corresponding +day in the Festival of three years ago that witnessed the production of +the same composer's "Gerontius." On that earlier occasion the interest +both of performers and public was languid. That Elgar's music was +difficult and harassing to perform was generally known, while the merit +of it was regarded as doubtful. The upholders of British musical +orthodoxy, with their faith in the saving virtues of eight-part +counterpoint, shook their heads, the choral singers found their work +disconcerting, and the public doubted whether the composer was anything +more than an eccentric. The three intervening years have placed Elgar's +reputation on a very different footing. Vague hostility towards the +unusual and the unknown has given way almost universally to the +recognition that he is one of the great originals in the musical world +of to-day; and he thus compels attention even in those who instinctively +dislike both his particular methods and the kind of general atmosphere +into which his religious art transports the listener. + +In "The Apostles" Elgar adheres completely to those principles which +were exemplified by "Gerontius" first among works of British origin. +That is to say, the music is continuous, as in Wagnerian musical drama. +There is no such thing in the work as a detachable musical +"number"--whether air, song, chorus, concerted piece, march, or anything +else. The composer has musical symbols corresponding to ideas, feelings, +moods, aspects of nature or personality, religious conceptions or +aspirations, animated scenes of popular life, phases of local and +national custom, exhortations of the angels, suggestions of the devil, +mystical rapture, rebellious despair; and he uses those symbols in the +manner of a language. There is no mechanical work, no carrying out of +architectural schemes with lifeless material. Everything in the score is +vivified by the idea. The composition heard to-day consists of the first +and second parts of the projected oratorio. In the first part there are +three scenes--"The Calling of the Apostles," "By the Wayside," and "By +the Sea of Galilee"; in the second part four scenes--"The Betrayal," +"Golgotha," "At the Sepulchre," and "The Ascension." After the prologue +and the narrator's opening recitative, the setting forth of the +Apostles' calling begins with the changing of the Temple watch at dawn, +the watchmen on the roof as they salute the rising sun being conceived +as the unconscious heralds of Christ's kingdom on earth. Here the +musical treatment is stamped with the utmost grandeur, and points of +amazingly vivid and picturesque detail are successively made, the +curious Oriental _Melismata_ of the watchman's cry, accompanied by the +_Shofar_ (Hebrew trumpet of ram's horn), giving way to the psalm within +the Temple, between the phrases of which is heard the brazen clangour of +the opening gates, while the air is flooded with the rushing music of +harps. For the psalm an old Hebrew melody is used. So rich in matter is +the text of the oratorio that I cannot attempt here even to give an +outline of it, but must refer readers to Canon Gorton's booklet "An +Interpretation of the Libretto" (Novello and Co.). There will be found +an account of the sources from which the composer took his text, and in +particular the justification for his view of Judas as a man who intended +not to betray his Master to destruction but to force His hand, to make +Him declare His power and establish His earthly kingdom forthwith--a +view for which there would seem to be patristic authority.[2] The +oratorio is not theological; it is a dramatisation of the Gospel story +that may be compared with Klopstock's "Messiah." After the introductory +sections, broadly expounding the scheme of Redemption as accepted by the +entire Christian world, but not enforcing any particular doctrine, all +the stress is laid on the individuality of the persons--the Apostles, +the Magdalene, and the Mother of Christ--and on the collective character +of the groups, such as the women who are scandalised at the +ministrations of the Magdalene and the mob which cries "Crucify Him!" +As an accompaniment of the drama we have the mystical chorus of angels +commenting on the progress of earthly affairs and giving utterance to +the sweet, passionless jubilation of sinless beings after the Ascension. +To those who are acquainted with "Gerontius" it is almost needless to +say that the composer is at his best in rendering the music of the +heavenly choir. His marvellous faculty of finding music that matches the +words inevitably, so that once heard the associations seem to have been +long known, is here repeatedly illustrated. Perhaps the most absolutely +perfect examples occur at the words "What are these wounds in Thine +hands?" and in the recurrent "Alleluia" phrase. + + [2] Compare De Quincey's famous essay on Judas Iscariot.--ED. + +Elgar's austerity is more strongly pronounced in "The Apostles" than in +"Gerontius," and so, too, is his audacity in using the special resources +of the modern dramatic orchestra to expound a religious theme. The old +pompous oratorio manner he has left an immeasurable distance behind him. +He sticks at nothing in his determination to cut down to the quick of +human nature, to reject all abstractions and conventions and illustrate +an idea or fact of religious experience in its relation to actual flesh +and blood. The sinister parts of the oratorio recall by their general +tone, atmosphere, and colouring the scene in Klopstock's "Messiah" in +which an avenging angel carries the soul of Judas up to Golgotha and +there shows him the results of his work. Mighty as the music is, it is +all strictly illustrative, and so the centre of gravity remains in the +text. + +Some time must elapse yet before anyone can offer a confident estimate +of "The Apostles" as a work of art. It will possibly be found to stand +to "Gerontius" in something like the relation of Beethoven's Ninth +Symphony to his Seventh, the later work being of greater depth and +significance but less perfectly finished. + + +[Sidenote: ="The Apostles," + +Preliminary Article.= + +_February 25, 1904._] + +Elgar's most recent oratorio, "The Apostles," which will be heard by the +Manchester public for the first time this evening, stands in much the +same relation to recent works in oratorio form by other composers as one +of the later musical dramas by Wagner holds to the kind of opera that +was in vogue when he began to write. According to current ideas, +justified by the practice of many well-known composers, an oratorio +comes into existence by some such process as the following. A composer +casts about for a subject, either being guided in his choice by +consideration of what is in some manner appropriate to the particular +occasion, or simply taking a story from the Bible that has not been used +before, or not too frequently before, for musical purposes. He then +either obtains the services of a librettist or himself arranges a +libretto setting forth the chosen story. In the drawing up of the +libretto the most important matter is the engineering of "opportunities" +for the composer--here an effective air for the principal personage, +there a chorus with scope for effective contrapuntal writing, everywhere +due regard for the well-varied interest which the public loves, and, at +the end of a part, provision for an effective Finale. But some +recognised kind of musical opportunity is always the chief matter. No +one cares much about the subject except in so far as it provides the +musical opportunity of an accepted kind. It is a case of chorus, air, +concerted piece, march, air for another sort of voice, and Finale, with +connecting recitatives as a necessary evil, and the whole thing standing +or falling according as the composer seizes the said opportunities and +turns them to account in the accepted manner, or neglects or fails to do +that. For so long a time has that kind of oratorio been regarded by the +general public as the only possible kind, that even now immense numbers +of persons discuss works like "Gerontius" and "The Apostles" on the old +lines. That a musician should have a mind, and a message to which notes +and chords are subservient, is an idea so new as to be disquieting, if +not at once dismissed as absurd. People are so much accustomed to say +that they never did care about the subject of a musical work; that no +sensible person does; that if the music is pretty the work is good; and +there is an end of the matter. Yet now comes a composer and makes the +subject the chief thing, writing music that gives no one the slightest +encouragement to take interest in it apart from the subject--in short, +displaying the most complete indifference to everything that used to be +expected of a composer, and giving us all to understand that, in a +religious work, if the music does not in some clear manner contribute to +the exposition of the subject, it is not justified at all. In this +respect "Gerontius" and "The Apostles" are alike. People can take them +or leave them, but they cannot make them out to be pretty music, such as +one can enjoy without "bothering about" the subject. For Elgar so orders +that we have to enjoy with the head and the heart or not at all. He will +not allow us to enjoy simply with the nerves or by recognising approved +kinds of musical rhetoric. + +Whatever Elgar may do in the future, he can never approach a more +weighty subject than is expounded in the two parts of "The Apostles," +which make up the oratorio in its present form. This deals with the +calling of the Apostles and with some of the most important incidents in +the life of the Redeemer during His ministry. Everyone intending to hear +the work should read the short and clear account given in Canon Gorton's +"Interpretation of the Text." The writer is remarkably successful in +bringing out the profound consistency and psychological insight which +distinguish this oratorio text so very sharply from most others. +Attention may be drawn specially to the characterisation of the three +Apostles, John, Peter, and Judas, expounded mainly on pages 13 and 15. +Canon Gorton also shows us the sources from which some of the most +fruitful ideas and telling symbols of the oratorio have been derived. +The music exemplifies a further development along the lines indicated by +"Gerontius." In the resources which he calls into play the composer is a +thorough-going modern. His orchestra is of great size, and he does not +scorn the specially modern instruments or the modern tendency to group +and subdivide in an elaborate and subtle fashion. In the quality of his +absolute musical invention he shows himself to be neither a classic nor +a romantic, but a psychological musician. His thematic web is the exact +analogue of the emotional and imaginative play to which the exposition +of the story gives rise from point to point, and it thus partakes of the +nature of language. The composer cares nothing for accepted views as to +what is in accordance with the proper dignity of oratorio; but, trusting +to his conception as a whole to ennoble every part, he allows himself to +be here and there extremely realistic, very much as the great religious +painters have done. He works on a great scale; in the handling of +musical symbols he is not dismayed by tasks that might well be +considered impossible, and he thus reminds one of the compliment which +Erasmus paid to Albrecht Dürer--"There is nothing that he cannot express +with his black and white--thunder and lightning, a gust of wind, God +Almighty and the heavenly host." + + +[Sidenote: ="The Apostles," + +Hallé Concerts.= + +_February 26, 1904._] + +A faultless rendering of "The Apostles" is not to be expected. The same +thing has been said of "Gerontius," and the score of the later work yet +more obviously transcends the powers of the best endowed and disciplined +musical forces to render it in a manner which "leaves nothing to be +desired." All hope of reaching the end of their task with a feeling of +complacency must be abandoned by the choir, orchestra, soloists, and +conductor who undertake to perform "The Apostles," which, in point of +technical difficulty, is a "Symphonie Fantastique" and Mass in D +combined. Still, in a relative sense, a rendering may be +satisfactory--in the sense that it has the root of the matter in it, not +that it is faultless in every detail,--and in that sense we should call +the rendering of yesterday highly satisfactory. The general intonation +of the choir was better than on any previous occasion, all the delicate +fluting rapture of the celestial choruses at the end sounding +wonderfully sweet and showing not the least trace of fatigue. The +orchestral playing was more subtle than at Birmingham, and it seemed to +afford a better justification of the composer's extraordinary colour +schemes. It would be hard to suggest a better representation for any of +the solo parts. As at Birmingham, Mr. Ffrangcon Davies gave the words of +the Redeemer with admirable dignity, and here and there with a trumpet +tone in his voice that might have reminded an Ammergau pilgrim of the +late Joseph Mayer. As the Narrator and the Apostle John Mr. Coates gave +a rendering worthy of his Gerontius earlier in the season. In the parts +for women's voices Miss Agnes Nicholls and Miss Muriel Foster once more +proved their immeasurable superiority to singers of the "star" order in +music of real poetic quality. Mr. Black gave a most telling +interpretation of the part of Judas, which, as in the Passion Play at +Oberammergau, has greater dramatic significance than any other. All the +solo parts, except the Redeemer's, are in certain sections so much +interwoven with each other and with the chorus that the combined result +overpowers the individual interest, though in the parts of the Magdalene +and of Judas there are also important independent developments. There +can be no question as to the general excellence of the rendering, and +the audience was on the same enormous scale as when "Gerontius" was +given in November; but the reception was very different. There was +applause, of course, yesterday, but no scene of great enthusiasm such as +the earlier and simpler oratorio evoked. Some persons seem to be of +opinion that the comparative reserve of the public was caused by the +extreme solemnity of the subject; that they were really impressed by the +music, but in such a manner that there was no inclination to be +demonstrative. In this there may be some truth; but, "The Apostles" +being unquestionably much more austere and difficult to understand than +"Gerontius," we are inclined to accept the simpler explanation that the +audience did not like it so well. + +It seems impossible to deny that the music of "The Apostles" represents +in many important respects an advance upon the earlier oratorio. The +poetic theme of the whole work is incomparably more ambitious, and the +musical invention is in more respects than one of greater power. In +regard to this point the obvious case to take is Mr. Jaeger's example 3 +(Novello's edition), "Christ, the Man of Sorrows," that being the +_motif_ of which more frequent and varied use is made than any other. +Here we find unmistakable progress. In its simplest form the theme is +more intense and more profound in feeling than any in "Gerontius," and +furthermore the manner in which the significance of it develops +throughout the work, up to the Ascension phrase, where it occurs in its +most expanded form, though not for the last time, shows a great advance +in the composer's art. Again, the interest of the "Apostles" music is +much more varied. All the symbolism having reference to Christ in +solitude makes a most powerful appeal to the imagination; and the +opening of the Temple gates at dawn is a scene of astonishingly graphic +force and bold design. In the second part the tragedy of the Passion is +given in four scenes of tremendous intensity, and then, in the section +headed "At the Sepulchre," we begin to become aware of the spirit which +is Elgar's most rare and wonderful possession. "And very early in the +morning," says the text, "they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of +the sun." Thereupon are heard the watchers singing an echo of the music +from the great sunrise scene at the beginning. After a dozen bars the +fluting notes of a celestial chorus begin gliding in, and then we have +an example of that _naïf_ mediævalism at which the second part of +"Gerontius" here and there hints. A kind of unearthly exhilaration +begins to sound in the music. The Resurrection has brought a new fact +into a sorrowful world. It is a sublime adventure, at news of which +heaven and earth bubble into song. Throughout all the rest of the work +the composer creates that sense of the multitudinous which belongs to +parts of the hymn "Praise to the Holiest" in the earlier oratorio. But +the angelic rapture that accompanies the Resurrection and Ascension in +the "Apostles" is far greater and more wonderful. The heavenly strain is +repeated in so many different ways that the air seems to be full of it, +and it never loses the angelic character by becoming militant or +assertive. It remains to the end an efflorescence of song--the sinless, +strifeless, untiring, sweetly fluting rapture of the heavenly choir, +mixing or alternating with the more substantial tones of holy men and +women on earth. Elgar can also render for us the grief of angels. This +he does in a page of unparalleled beauty, describing how Peter, after +denying his Master, went out and wept bitterly. This page alone might +well save the composition from ever being forgotten. + +The less convincing parts of the oratorio are sections ii. and iii., +especially those parts devoted to the Beatitudes and the conversion of +the Magdalene. It is obviously a work the secrets of which are to be +penetrated only with the aid of many hearings and much study. At present +we are disposed to regard "Gerontius" as the more perfect work of art, +though the individual beauties of the "Apostles" are greater and more +wonderful. Nearly everything in the later oratorio is stronger. The +symbols of the Church show an advance upon the corresponding parts of +"Gerontius" scarcely less remarkably than the symbols of the heavenly +choir. The strange Old Testament element connected with the Temple +service again shows imaginative power of quite a new kind, wonderfully +enriching the background of the composition, and the tragic force of the +"Passion" scenes is immensely greater than anything in "Gerontius." But +with our present degree of knowledge we miss in the "Apostles" that +crowning artistic unity which prompted us to describe "Gerontius" as a +pearl among oratorios. + + +[Sidenote: ="In the South."= + +_November 4, 1904._] + +Sir Edward Elgar's most recent Overture, "In the South," has a +picturesqueness, or rather a kind of graphic power, arising from +far-reaching play of the imagination. In thematic invention it is +perhaps more strongly stamped with Elgar's originality than any other +work. Its whole tone, atmosphere, and colouring are something +essentially new in music, the only hint of any other composer's +influence occurring in the viola solo, which bears a faint suggestion of +Berlioz's "Harold in Italy." But, being a secondary element in the +latter part of the Overture, it is to be regarded merely as that kind of +reference which in music is as allowable as it is in literature. The +_grandioso_ theme beginning in A flat minor, which was suggested by the +Roman remains of La Turbie, is so striking that it has already acquired +a good many nicknames. The "steam-roller" theme, it has been called; +elsewhere, the "seven-league-boot" theme, the "Jack the Giant-killer," +and, among Germans, the "Siebentöter" theme. In any case it is a most +extraordinary piece of musical expression, of a kind scarcely ever +foreshadowed by any other composer, except once or twice by Beethoven, +who first sought and found the musical symbol of great historic or +cosmic forces, or of the emotion stirred in the human consciousness by +the play, or after-effects, of such forces. One thing remains to be said +about this Overture. The composer's procedure is a compromise between +the old procedure by way of thematic development and the newer by way of +dramatic suggestion, and he does not always succeed completely in the +fusion of the two, as, for example, Beethoven does in his greater +"Leonora"; but here and there he permits the feeling to arise that the +one is interfering with the other. In particular, the composition is +open to the charge of a certain weakness in thematic development; but +that does not prevent it from being, as a whole, a very striking, +beautiful, and original tone picture. Dr. Richter's interpretation very +finely revealed all the strong points. He saved three minutes of the +composer's own time by taking the _vivace_ sections at a somewhat +quicker tempo. As at Covent Garden last March, Mr. Speelman played the +incidental viola solo with marvellous beauty of tone. + + +[Sidenote: ="The Coronation Ode."= + +_October 3, 1902._] + +To the Coronation Ode I listened with great curiosity, remembering the +ordinary fate that overtakes patriotic composers and wondering what Sir +Edward Elgar would make of the subject. I find that he has let himself +be inspired by the nymph of the same spring whence flowed those two +delightful Tommy Atkins marches known as "Pomp and Circumstance." It is +popular music of a kind that has not been made for a long time in this +country--scarcely at all since Dibdin's time. At least one may say that +of the best parts, such as the bass solo and chorus "Britain, ask of +thyself," and the contralto solo and chorus "Land of hope and glory." +The former is ringing martial music, the latter a sort of Church parade +song having the breath of a national hymn. It is the melody which +occurs as second principal theme of the longer "Pomp and Circumstance" +march, which I beg to suggest is as broad as "God Save the King," "Rule +Britannia," and "See the Conquering Hero," and is perhaps the broadest +open-air tune composed since Beethoven's "Freude schöner Götterfunken." +Moreover, it is distinctively British--at once beefy and breezy. It is +astonishing to hear people finding fault with Elgar for using this tune +in two different compositions. I find it most natural in a composer, to +whom music is a language in which, desiring to say exactly the same +thing again, one has no choice but to say it in the same notes. Besides, +such tunes are composed less frequently than once in fifty years. How +then can one blame Elgar for not composing two in six months? The chorus +enjoyed themselves over it, and so did the audience. As to the +sentimental parts of the Ode, frankly I find them uninspired. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +RICHARD STRAUSS. + + +[Sidenote: ="Don Quixote," + +Düsseldorf.= + +_May 26, 1899._] + +Richard Strauss is now beyond question the most prominent figure among +the younger composers of Germany. He was born at Munich in 1864. At an +early age he mastered the various arts of composition and produced works +that showed originality and power. Among such early works may be +mentioned a String Quartet produced in 1881, and a Symphony first heard +in the following year. Within a few years he also composed a Sonata for +'cello, a Serenade for wind instruments, a Concerto for violin, a +Concerto for horn, besides songs and pianoforte pieces. These early +works show the influence of classical models, and in three cases--the +Sonata for 'cello and the Concertos for violin and horn +respectively--the influence of Mendelssohn. At a later period Richard +Strauss became a disciple of the Wagner-Liszt school and adopted the +Symphonic Poem as his principal medium of expression. His fine Sonata in +E flat for pianoforte and violin marks the transition stage. In his +later phase Strauss appears as a psychologist and an _esprit fin_. His +study of Nietzsche's philosophy appears not only in his "Zarathustra," +but in nearly all his "Symphonic Poems." The "Heldenleben" might quite +well be labelled with the Nietzschian expression "Der Uebermensch." +Strauss thus seems to stand to Nietzsche in something like the relation +that Wagner bore to Schopenhauer, and it is a curious point that in each +case the musician is found diverging somewhat violently from the taste +of his philosophical master. These two philosophers--the only two that +have taken a genuine interest in modern music--had both somewhat +rudimentary musical taste, though good taste as far as it went. +Schopenhauer's preference was for Rossini and Nietzsche's for Bizet, and +even as Wagner's style differs _toto coelo_ from Rossini's, so do +Strauss's incredible richness of imaginative detail and indifference to +rhythmical charm stamp him as something very different from those +"Halcyonian" composers whom Nietzsche loved. Strauss is not likely to +become popular in England, but two or three of his larger orchestral +works, and especially the "Heldenleben," would probably find favour with +a section of the English public. To the mandarins and to the majority he +is and must remain anathema. + +On the third and last day of this Festival Strauss's "Don Quixote" was +the work upon which public curiosity was chiefly concentrated. In these +"Fantastic Variations" we find the composer once more adopting a style +as frankly grotesque as in "Till Eulenspiegel." The long and important +introduction stands in a relation to the rest of the work that, so far +as I know, is unique. It is a preparation for the principal theme, +successively emphasising all the different kinds of significance +supposed to be contained in that theme. First we have a naïve, stilted, +and pompous phrase suggesting Don Quixote's absorption in the romances +of chivalry. Succeeding passages touch upon the hero's pose of gallantry +and the great predominance of imagination over reason which leads him +into grotesque adventures. The psychological method of the composer +causes him to lay stress on the crisis forming the _point de départ_ of +Don Quixote's career--a vow of atonement for sins and follies. At last +we get the theme in its complete form--a masterpiece of droll +characterisation,--and immediately after it the prosaic jog-trot of +Sancho Panza. In the first variation a musical element is introduced +typifying Don Quixote's feminine ideal--Dulcinea of Toboso. It ends with +the windmill incident. One hears the airy swing of the mill-sails, the +furious approach of the knight, and his sudden overthrow. Variation No. +2 gives the meeting with the flock of sheep. In the third we have a +colloquy between Don Quixote and Sancho, forming an elaborate movement. +Next comes the quarrel with the pilgrims, and then the scene in the +tavern where Don Quixote undergoes regular initiation into the order of +knighthood by keeping guard over his armour all night. No. 6 represents +the scene of the peasant woman mistaken for Dulcinea, and No. 7 the ride +of the two companions on wooden horses at the fair. Nos. 8 and 9 are +concerned with the enchanted boat and the priests mistaken for +magicians. No. 10 gives the disastrous fight with the Knight of the +Shining Moon. There is also a finale setting forth the reveries of Don +Quixote in his old age, and, last of all, his death. Together with the +purely grotesque elements are many touches of wonderful poetic beauty, +among which may be mentioned the scene of Don Quixote's midnight watch +and, above all, the concluding strain--a sigh of ineffable pathos. On +the other hand, it may be urged against the encounter with the flock of +sheep that such sounds do not really belong to the domain of music, but +rather to that of farm-yard imitations. On the whole, "Don Quixote" +strikes me as a less admirable work than the "Heldenleben," heard on the +previous day. The chief feature in the interpretation on Tuesday was the +superb rendering, by Professor Hugo Becker, of Frankfurt, of the +violoncello solo which throughout the work is identified with the person +of the titular hero. + + +[Sidenote: ="Don Juan," + +Preliminary Article.= + +_January 17, 1901._] + +"Don Juan," though much less eccentric than most of the other "Symphonic +Poems" by Richard Strauss, is a typical example of his overwhelmingly +rich and effective orchestration. It also exemplifies the peculiar +quality of his design, crowded with a Düreresque multiplicity of forms +and details, his indifference to symmetry and sustained rhythmical flow, +and his systematic endeavour to render the musical medium less vague and +more nearly articulate than it ever was before, by enlarging the range +of emotional expression, sharpening the instruments of graphic +representation, and exploring the mysterious by-ways of the tone-world. +Two imaginary figures that originated in Spanish literature have become +the property of mankind. If Don Quixote stands isolated, without any +close analogue in the romance of other countries, Don Juan--a somewhat +later creation--has much in common with several heroes of Germanic +legend, such as Tannhäuser, the Wild Huntsman, and Faust. The closest +parallel is between Don Juan and Faust. Both are rebellious spirits; but +Faust is ruined by intellectual pride, Juan by sensual passion. As those +two kinds of revolt belong to the persistent facts of life, neither Juan +nor Faust can ever cease to be interesting. It is quite natural that +each of them should be found as the subject of innumerable plays, poems, +romances, operas, and ballets. The poetic scheme forming the basis of +Richard Strauss's Symphonic Poem is remarkably simple. There is no +incident of a definite kind. Don Juan is simply conceived as +personifying the most direct and vivid affirmation of what Schopenhauer +called the "Will to live." He is enamoured of no one particular woman, +but of all the beauty and charm that are in womankind. He has a new kind +of love for each kind of beauty. Defying the laws of gods and men with +demonic recklessness, he rushes from one enjoyment to another, leaving +the trail of weeping victims behind him, while he himself remains the +incarnation of gaiety--for remorse is unknown to his heart, and he never +keeps up a love affair for a moment longer than it amuses him, nor is he +ever at a loss for fresh delights. The music of Strauss plunges us at +once into this whirl of intoxicating gaiety. A series of love-episodes +ensue, each one being individualised with amazing subtlety. It is, of +course, no new thing for masculine and feminine elements to be clearly +distinguishable in music; but the wealth of resource that Strauss shows +in these dialogues of dalliance and passion amounts to originality of a +very remarkable kind. After several such episodes we have a section +symbolising a masked ball that is very strongly stamped with the +composer's genius as a musical humourist. In the latter part the spirit +of Juan begins to flag. Reminiscences of the foregoing episodes recur +with an ominous change in the emotional colouring, and in the end Juan +is brought face to face with the black and cold embers of his once so +glowing heart. + +Beethoven protested against the desecration of music by so scandalous a +subject as the Don Juan story. But Mozart produced from the same subject +the prize opera of all the ages. It seems, too, that Richard Strauss has +made of it his masterpiece. + + +[Sidenote: ="Don Juan," + +Hallé Concerts.= + +_January 18, 1901._] + +There can be no gainsaying that Strauss's "Don Juan" Fantasia was +received yesterday with much applause. But there is room for doubt +whether the excitement that thus found expression was not due rather to +the bold and highly picturesque orchestration than to the essentially +musical qualities of the work. Richard Strauss postulates an audience of +great mental activity. He expects to be understood instantly, instead of +letting a musical idea gradually soak in to the listener's mind, as did +the older composers. In order to stimulate such mental activity he +constantly deals in strange and violent effects. Hence the irritation of +orthodox musicians, who, hearing so much noise and jingle, too rapidly +conclude that there is nothing behind; whereas, perhaps, if they +listened a little longer, they would begin to discover that Strauss has +nearly every gift that was ever in a composer--every gift, that is, +except those of a very profound or very sublime order. His power of +inventing thematic material to correspond exactly with some peculiar +mood of feeling is almost as remarkable as Wagner's. The opening of the +"Don Juan" Fantasia is characteristic of that excited condition of mind +which is so frequent with the composer. A passage beginning with an +upward rush for the strings shows us Juan launched upon his career. +Presently a rapid passage, mainly in triplets, for wood, wind and +afterwards strings, suggests the eager hunt after enjoyment. Next the +impetuous Don is himself characterised. Of these elements a tone-picture +of intoxicating gaiety is composed. Then follow the love-episodes, the +most beautiful being that in which the oboe has the melody while the +lower strings _a divisi_ add a rich and sombre accompaniment. The masked +ball scene is, in places, a little like a travesty of the "Venusberg" +music. This leads to the scene in which Juan is struck down by some +calamity--probably a sword-thrust. As he lies stricken, memories of +former days crowd back upon him. He has one or two momentary returns of +his old fire and energy. But at last his time comes and his soul departs +with a shiver. Strauss knows how to make such a scene marvellously +poignant. His most wonderful achievement in this kind is the parting +sigh of Don Quixote in the work on that subject. But his treatment of +Juan's death is also very powerful. + + +[Sidenote: ="Till Eulenspiegel."= + +_February 14, 1902._] + +"Till Eulenspiegel" was the great mediæval _farceur_. His name is well +known to students of folk-lore. In Flemish books it figures as Thyl +Uylenspiegel, in English as Till Owlglass. Like other heroes of popular +story, Till lies buried in more than one place, each of his tombstones +being adorned with his armorial bearings--an owl perched on a +hand-mirror. He originated and, for the most part, lived in Westphalia +or some country of the Lower Rhine; but he was a migratory person, and +one of his best authenticated exploits occurred in Poland, where he had +a contest of skill with the King's professional jester. Till is the +incarnation of mockery and satire and buffoonery, sometimes witty and +usually coarse. He represents a literary development that may be +regarded as a kind of Scherzo, after the Andante of the Troubadours, +Minnesingers, and other courtly poets--the inevitable reaction of the +popular spirit against too much high-flown sentiment. The legendary +figure of Till has appealed with the most extraordinary results to that +composer who first brought into the domain of the musical art the +specific qualities of the South German imagination, as represented, for +example, by Holbein, Dürer, and Adam Krafft. Incisive, graphic, ornate, +and with no less unheard-of power of characterisation is Richard +Strauss in his music than those other masters in their graphic or +plastic achievements. His "Till" reminds one of Dürer's woodcut +illustrations to the Apocalypse, but, of course, with colour added. And +what colour! and what characterisation in the colour! He controls the +orchestra precisely as a good actor the tones of his own voice. He can +make it render the finest shades of emotion. "Till" is a musical +miracle, unlocking the springs of laughter and of tears at the same +time. It enlarges one's notions of what is possible in music, so +multifarious and inconceivable are the drolleries, so prodigious the +technical audacities which the composer succeeds in justifying. Strauss +has, in a sense, revived an art said to have existed in the ancient +world--the telling of a story in the form of a dance. From the point +where that chromatic jig is heard which symbolises Till wandering about +in search of material for the exercise of his talents, the imagination +is spell-bound. + +Strauss goes a distinct point beyond Wagner in the articulateness of his +musical phrases, and he knows better than any other composer that it is +the special province of music to express what cannot be expressed in any +other way--what is too delicate, or too indelicate, to be expressed in +any other way. The most wonderful quality of "Till" is its mediævalism. +Listen to those triplets, in four-part chromatic harmony for five solo +violins with _sordini_, expressing the agony of terror into which Till +is thrown by his own wicked mockery of religion. By such devices the +composer conjures up the atmosphere of the age, characterised by +"Furcht auf der Gasse, Furcht im Herzen." The treatment of the prologue +and epilogue, where all that is blackguardly is taken out of Till's +themes now that he has become a story, is of inconceivable felicity. + + +[Sidenote: ="Sehnsucht."= + +_March 18, 1902._] + +Richard Strauss's song "Sehnsucht," raises a good many interesting +questions, such as whether it is not, after all, on harmony rather than +on tone-colouring that the essential quality of Strauss's music depends; +whether the eminent South German composer would have found it necessary +to be so persistently galvanic in his procedure had he not addressed a +musical generation that is too fond of taking opium with Tchaïkovsky; +whether it is with Eulenspieglish intent that he sets so many +unsophisticated love-song texts to music that betrays contempt of mere +lyrism, or whether he genuinely misunderstands the trend of his own +talent. Thus one might continue indefinitely; for it is the regular +effect of Strauss's music to crook the listener's mind into one huge +note of interrogation. One further and more important question must, +however, be added. Is it Strauss's deliberate intention to abolish +rhythm? Would he add to the well-known saying, "_Am Anfang war der +Rhythmus_" the rider "_aber jetzt nicht mehr_?" The over-strongly salted +and too highly flavoured "Sehnsucht" was admirably sung, and the +fascination of it, not unmixed with horror, was such that it had to be +repeated. Nothing about Strauss is more disquieting than his +after-effect on the musical palate. Whether one likes his style or not, +any other sounds are tame by contrast with it, and a naïf and mild +composer such as Grieg (the Hans Andersen of music) seems almost +bread-and-butter. + + +[Sidenote: ="Faust Symphonie," + +Düsseldorf.= + +_May 23, 1902._] + +The many violent anti-Lisztians in England should be particularly +careful just now to keep their powder dry. They are going to have great +trouble with this Eulenspiegelisch Mr. Strauss. A considerable group of +English visitors heard his interpretation of the "Faust Symphonie" on +Monday evening, and they are not likely to forget it. Strauss does not +belong to the small group of international conductors who can travel +from place to place, commanding success everywhere and in music of every +style. He has not studied conductor's deportment carefully enough to be +generally pleasing to the public. At the same time, his demonic talent +comes out clearly enough in his conducting when he has to deal with some +work that makes a special appeal to his sympathies. It seems to be his +mission to justify Liszt after decades of misunderstanding and +detraction. His rendering of the "Faust Symphonie" was simply a gigantic +success. The stress and anguish of the first movement, the wonderful +sweetness and charm of the Gretchen music, the almost incredible +incisiveness and pregnancy of the characteristic music in the +Mephistopheles section of the finale, and the unparalleled grandeur of +the concluding idea, where the mask is torn from the face of the +"spirit that denies" and the "chorus mysticus" enters with the final +stanza, leading up to the crowning idea of the whole drama, "Das +Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan"--these beauties and splendours of the +composition were revealed with the infallible touch of a master into +whose flesh and blood it long ago passed: and the audience, including +even the English visitors, felt it. The "Faust Symphonie" declares the +composer to be, in his attitude towards art and life, akin to Hugo, +Delacroix, and the other great French Romantics, and the result of that +attitude seems more completely happy in music than in painting or +literature. It makes one look back with envious longing to the freshness +and abounding vitality of those fellows who found such huge relish in +the great, broad, fundamental human themes, and resources so vast in the +treatment of them. It also provokes bewildered reflections on the +complex and enigmatic personality of the composer, who, for all his +religious orthodoxy, was a more tremendous revolutionary in art than +Wagner, and was, in fact, the originator of certain particularly +fruitful Wagnerian ideas. All this and much more is to be learned from +the Liszt interpretations of Strauss--a sphinx-like person who, as his +abnormally big head sways on the top of his tall and bulky figure, to +the accompaniment of fantastic gestures, works up his audience into a +sort of phosphorescent fever, here and there provoking a process of +sharp self-examination. + + +[Sidenote: ="Tod und Verklärung."= + +_October 17, 1902._] + +It is difficult to make out the prevalent state of mind in this country +in regard to Richard Strauss--Richard II., as he is often called in +Germany. Of course the upholders of a turnip-headed orthodoxy will not +hear of him, any more than they would hear of Richard I. a quarter of a +century ago, and he seems to have an irritating effect on all critics, +except a certain very small minority in whose temperament there is +something giving them the key to some part, at any rate, of Strauss's +genius. What irritates the critics is simply the difficulty of finding a +formula for Strauss. He has the annoying impertinence not to fit into +any of their pigeon-holes. He is enigmatic, Sphinx-like, a complex +personality not to be conveniently catalogued. That complex personality +we are not here proposing to analyse, but on one point we venture to +state a definite opinion. Those who assert that Strauss is a mere +eccentric will sooner or later find themselves in the wrong. He has in a +few cases played tricks on the public, but he is nevertheless a +master-composer, in the full and simple sense of those words--a +master-composer just as Mozart was. In "Tod und Verklärung" we find him +in a mood of absolute seriousness. The theme is a death-bed scene, the +phantasmagoria of a sick brain during the last moments of earthly +consciousness, the final struggle with death, and then a wonderful +suggestion of reawakening to immortality. The composition is thus, as a +German critic has pointed out, the counterpart of Elgar's "Gerontius," +so far as the subject is concerned; but in no other respect have the +two works any similarity. The qualities with which Strauss's name is +most commonly associated--audacious and grotesque realism, gorgeous, +intoxicating orchestral figuration and colouring--are here completely in +abeyance. In the mood of the opening section there is kinship with the +third act of "Tristan"--the same hush and oppression of the sick man's +lair,--but not in the musical treatment, which with Strauss has much +more reference to external detail (_e.g._, the ticking of the clock) +than with Wagner. The introductory notes are full of weird power, and +they lead on to some exquisitely pathetic "Seelenmalerei." In the +ensuing agitato section any listener acquainted with other Symphonic +Poems by the same composer--earlier or later--is likely to be surprised +at his comparative moderation and restraint in depicting the terrors of +the struggle with death. It cannot be denied that Strauss is greatly +preoccupied with such ideas. He has set the very article of death to +music on at least four different occasions ("Tod und Verklärung," "Don +Juan," "Till," and "Don Quixote"). The hanging of "Till" is +inconceivably drastic in its realism, and the last sigh of Don Quixote +is the most unearthly thing in all music. Don Juan's death is purely +_macabre_; but in "Tod und Verklärung" a certain suggestion of the +_macabre_ gives way to something very different--the suggestion of the +soul rising to immortality; and thus is initiated the final section, +dominated by the noble and beautiful "transfiguration" theme. Those of +the composer's admirers who "always thought he was a heathen Chinee" may +here find matter for searchings of heart. For the thing is too well done +not to have been sincerely felt. + + +[Sidenote: ="Zarathustra."= + +_January 29, 1904._] + +"Also sprach Zarathustra" ("Thus spake Zarathustra") is the first work +in Strauss's most advanced manner. It is scored for the following +enormous orchestra:--One piccolo and three flutes; three oboes and one +cor anglais; one clarinet in E flat, two clarinets in B flat, and one +bass clarinet in B flat; three bassoons and one contrafagotto; six horns +in F, four trumpets in C, three trombones, and two bass tubas; kettle +drums, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, and glockenspiel; a bell in E; +organ, two harps, and the usual bow instruments; and the demands on the +_technique_ of the performers are as exceptional as the number of +instruments employed. It is as striking an example of Dr. Richter's +energy that he should not have shrunk from the task of interpreting so +vast and bewildering a score, as it is of his openness of mind that at +his age he should have cared to bring forward the most typically +advanced and modern of compositions--for that we take Strauss's +"Zarathustra" to be in respect both of subject and treatment. We doubt +whether another living musician of anything like Dr. Richter's age +possesses in the same degree that youthful elasticity which can do full +justice to the works of a younger generation. Moreover, he is not in any +special sense a Straussian. He simply knows, as everyone conversant with +the musical affairs of the present day knows, that Strauss is a composer +of very great and commanding talent, and he thinks that in such a +musical centre as Manchester his more important works ought to be +known. So, in spite of a rather discouraging attitude on the part of the +public and an amount of extra trouble that can scarcely be reckoned up, +he gives one of them from time to time. It is not Lancashire any more +than it is London that, among British musical centres, has displayed the +readiest appreciation of Strauss--the great and typical modern. It is +the part of the country served by the Scottish Orchestra, where "Tod und +Verklärung" has before now been chosen for performance at a _plébiscite_ +concert. This seems very natural, for "Tod und Verklärung" is the +clearest, simplest, and least heterodox of Strauss's orchestral works, +and much easier to understand at a first hearing than Beethoven's C +minor Symphony. It has, in fact, been recognised as a classic nearly +everywhere, though here it still lies under suspicion of being a mere +piece of eccentricity. We can only hope that after hearing +"Zarathustra"--which certainly is rather a large order--some of our +conscientious objectors may reconsider their position. The extraordinary +thing is that it was better received than the far more generally +comprehensible "Tod und Verklärung." This was no doubt, in part, due to +sheer astonishment, but also, we believe, to the perception that +whatever else there may be in the work there is a certain grandeur of +perception. It is scarcely possible to listen in a state of complete +indifference to the opening tone-picture of sunrise, with its great +booming nature ground-tone, that recalls the Introduction to Wagner's +"Rheingold," and the ringing trumpet harmonies following the three notes +of the soulless nature theme. The plan of the tone-poem that gradually +unfolds is one of the clearest. It is on the same plan as the discourse +of St. Francis on "La Joie Parfaite," quoted by Sabatier from the +"Fioretti," where the holy man, the better to impress upon Brother Leo +wherein perfect joy consists, first enumerates a series of things in +which it does not consist, and then, having disposed of the erroneous +opinions corresponding to various stages of the upward path towards true +wisdom, tells us at last what perfect joy is. The wisdom of Zarathustra +is, of course, very different from the wisdom of St. Francis, but his +method of inculcating it is the same. He, too, has mortified the flesh +with the "Hinterweltler" (perhaps "other-worldlings" is the nearest +English equivalent), and thrown himself for a change into the vortex of +exciting pleasures--the "Freuden und Leidenschaften" he calls them, as +who should say the "fruitions and passions of youth." It is +characteristic that he puts the religion first and the exciting +pleasures afterwards. He also "did eagerly frequent doctor and saint and +heard great argument," that experience being symbolised by Strauss's +"Fugue of Science." But none of these things, he gives us to understand, +by emphatic use of the "disgust" theme, is the pearl of great price, or +perfect joy, or anything of the sort. The penultimate part of the +tone-poem deals with the conversion of Zarathustra into a dancing +philosopher--his learning of the great lesson that one must "get rid of +heaviness"; and here, of course, the musician is very thoroughly in his +element. Very remarkable and surprising is the conclusion. Strauss has +declared that the whole composition is simply his homage to the genius +of Nietzsche, but it is impossible to resist the impression that in the +manner of the ending he has endeavoured to suggest an improvement on +Nietzsche--and he might well be pleased with himself, and so a little +overbearing, after producing that "Tanzlied" (a sort of waltz for +demigods or "Uebermenschen"), which he has done much better than any +other composer that ever lived could have done it. He ends with a night +picture in B major against the final notes of which the persistent +nature theme in C major once more reasserts itself as a pizzicato +bass;--in words, "but you have left the riddle of the painful earth just +as much unsolved as it was before, for all your wisdom." Whether that +ending is more to the point than Nietzsche's own or not, it is really +wonderful that musical notes can be made to speak so plainly, and even +to say something quite important. + + +[Sidenote: ="Ein Heldenleben," + +Liverpool Orchestral Soc.= + +_Feb. 8, 1904._] + +We have here to deal with the latest phase of Strauss, and to arrive at +anything like a true estimate of "Heldenleben" we have to remember that +Strauss is a reformer and the recognised leader of a party which, +whether we like it or not, has played and is playing a great part in the +world of music. The central principle of the Strauss school rests upon +the perfectly correct observation that the general development of music +during the last two centuries shows continual progress towards greater +articulateness, and that there is no reason for regarding that progress +as having reached its final stage with Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner. +Brahms and the neo-classicists were on a wrong track, they consider, and +it is the mission of Strauss and his connection to bring the art back +into the paths of true progress. This indicates the sense in which +Strauss is called a reformer. It is the usual fate of reformers to +overshoot the mark; Mr. Weingartner thinks that Strauss has done so very +seriously in his last three Symphonic Poems--"Zarathustra," "Don +Quixote," and "Heldenleben,"--and I am constrained to give in my +adherence to Mr. Weingartner's view. In each of the three works named +there is much that only genius could have produced, but also something +that is alien to genius. The perpetration of deliberate cacophony for a +symbolical purpose we first encounter in "Zarathustra," where it is done +in a tentative and restrained manner and on a very small scale. In "Don +Quixote" the same procedure is used on a larger scale and with much +greater boldness, and in "Heldenleben" it has given rise, in the +"battle" section, to an extended movement that I can only call an +atrocity. That section displays the composer in a mood of unparalleled +extravagance. Taking harmony in the most extended sense that is +possible, it still remains a thing outside the limits of which Strauss's +battle-picture lies. It therefore fails altogether, I suggest, to carry +on the progress of music towards greater articulateness. It is not +music, and does nothing whatever for music. It is a monstrous +excrescence and blemish--a product of musical insanity, bearing no trace +whatever of that genius which produced the lovely and perfect "Tod und +Verklärung" and the superbly racy and pithy orchestral Scherzo "Till +Eulenspiegel." + +The expression of such views carries with it the terrible consequence of +being identified with "The Adversaries," whom Strauss, disarming +criticism by a novel method, symbolises in the awful strains quoted as +examples 4 and 5 in Mr. Newman's programme. But one must testify +according to one's convictions, and I confess that I cannot be +reconciled to section 4 of "Heldenleben," and find in section 5 a +considerable element of merely curious mystification. The principle of +"horizontal listening," which the whole-hog-going Straussians recommend, +does not help me. Horizontal listening becomes, beneath the murderous +cacophony of that battle section, simply supine listening. + +In other parts of the work there is much that is thoroughly worthy of +Strauss. Perhaps the most attractive thing of all is the violin solo +representing the feminine element in the hero's life-experience. The +wayward emotion of that part is rendered by the composer with a truly +magical touch that shows with what wonderful freshness he conceives the +task of such character-delineation in tones. How different from Chopin's +princesses is the Straussian lady! How infinitely more subtle, varied, +interesting, and psychologically true! The hero, too, is powerfully +sketched, though throughout the section specially devoted to him one is +conscious of the gigantic rather than the heroic. Most of the thematic +invention is telling--perhaps more so than in "Zarathustra,"--and the +"Seelenmalerei" in the love music and afterwards in the renunciation +music is all very finely done. Even the drastic musical satire of the +"Adversaries" is acceptable enough in its earlier phases. It is the +polyphony in the sections of storm and stress that goes wrong. The +subject of the work as a whole has the merit of general +intelligibleness. But the composer identifies the hero much too +insistently with himself; nor does he maintain the consistency of tone +that is proper to a work of art. If sections 3, 4, 5 and 6 carried out +the promise of sections 1 and 2 we should have a sort of gigantic +Gulliverian humoresque. But with section 3 a new atmosphere is conjured +up, and henceforth the work gravitates backwards and forwards between +two irreconcilable elements--the one drastic, sarcastic, and +cataplastic, the other at first subtle, sinuous, and soulful, and +afterwards turning towards a mood of religious exaltation and austere +contemplation. + + +[Sidenote: =Quartet in C Minor.= + +_March 10, 1904._] + +The case of Strauss is certainly an awkward one for the believers in the +neo-classicism of Brahms. In such works as the Quartet, op. 13, and the +violin Sonata, op. 18, written twenty or more years ago, he declares +himself an absolute Brahmsian, worshipping before all things the +well-constructed musical sentence, using the extended harmonies and +profuse figuration of the modern technique to express emotions that have +but little individuality and are merely typical of the thorough-going +German sentimentalist. Indeed, he here shows himself a better Brahmsian +than Brahms, avoiding all his model's worst faults, such as his groping +and fumbling, his muttering and whining, and only sentimentalising in +quite a healthy sort of way and with a flow so abundant and easy that to +find fault would seem intolerant. Yet, with all these wonderful +qualifications for a great Brahmsian career, Strauss would have none of +it, except during his most youthful period. For many years now he has +been displaying utter contempt of the well-constructed musical sentence; +also of German sentimentalism and of all the other traditional subjects +of musical eloquence. As an orchestral composer, he has pursued a path +of adventurous hardihood scarcely paralleled in the history of art, and +he looks back to his Brahmsian chamber-music as belonging to a +fledgeling state of his talent. As it is not open to the Brahmsians to +say that those early works prove Strauss's incompetence as a composer of +the orthodox kind, the only thing left for them to say is that the +chamber-music is much the best of his whole output. Sooner or later we +shall doubtless begin to hear that, and in the meantime those who like +the early works can play them or listen to them with the comforting +assurance that the composer would not object, inasmuch as he has himself +quite recently taken part in public performances of them. The +Quartet--which Dr. Brodsky and his usual associates, assisted by Mr. +Isidor Cohn, played yesterday--might rank as the mature work of anyone +but Strauss. It is youthful, relatively to the composer, in the +emotional basis of the music; but not in the workmanship, and least of +all in the invention, which has all the pith and weight commonly telling +of ripe experience. In short, it is an extremely good Quartet of the +orthodox kind--one may even say, one of the best existing works for +pianoforte and three bow instruments. The Andante is not quite such a +marvel as the slow movement of the violin Sonata, but it is very nearly +as good in invention and quite as good in its adaptation to the +medium--that is, to the particular group of instruments. The Scherzo is +as pithy as the Andante is glowingly sentimental, and the framing-in +movements are magnificently done. Thoroughly adequate was the rendering +of this immensely interesting composition. The tempo in the Scherzo was +faster than the composer's own; but, as it is not possible for him to +keep up the technique of a solo pianist, he may possibly avoid a very +rapid tempo for that reason. Mr. Cohn brought out all the passage work +clearly enough, though the rapid tempo caused a certain dryness in the +string tone. The other movements were satisfactory from every point of +view. It is interesting to note in this Quartet an early example of +Strauss's tendency to associate a certain mood with a certain key. A +contrasting section with an easier flow he assigns to B major, and +throughout the recurrences the original key assignment is preserved in a +manner very unlike the procedure of the older composers. Throughout the +work the connection between tonality and emotional import is preserved +in detail, and we here note a further development of the principle which +prompted Beethoven to throw his prevalently dark and mysterious Symphony +of Fate into C minor and his Rhythmic or Dancing Symphony into A major, +but which, from him, met with no more than a very broad kind of +recognition. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +CHAMBER MUSIC. + + +[Sidenote: =Dvoràk + +Quintet in A Major.= + +_February 2, 1897._] + +Music for pianoforte, combined with two or more bow instruments, is +usually constituted on anything but democratic principles, the +percussion instrument standing to the others in very much the same +relation as Jupiter to his satellites. But the splendid quintet by +Dvoràk given last night forms an honourable exception to this principle, +the Bohemian composer's well-known preference for bow instruments having +apparently counteracted the usual tendency to make the pianoforte part +too prominent. Throughout the quintet there is an endless wealth and +fertility of beautiful ideas. The opening allegro is based on two main +elements which form an effective contrast, the one moving prevalently in +syncopated double time, and the other approaching the character of a +tarantelle. The pianoforte part is sometimes of independent interest, +and sometimes consists of beautiful accompanying passages constructed +from chords in extended position. The second movement bears the name +"Dumka," which, we believe, was first used as the name of a musical +movement by Dvoràk, or at any rate first became familiar to the world in +general through his works. It is derived from a Slavonic root meaning +"to think," and may be taken as something like the equivalent of +"meditation." There are several peculiarly interesting and charming +movements in the works of the Bohemian composer bearing this name, and +that which occurs in the quintet is one of the best. It is in the +relative minor of the opening key, and exhibits the composer as a poet +of the same sort as Burns--at once sturdy in bearing and delicate in +feeling. Here and there the pianoforte part conveys a suggestion of +Chopin; but the courtly sentiment of Chopin is soon merged in a broader +and more full-blooded vein of feeling. The thematic material is +remarkably varied and episodic, while the Scherzo--called, as in other +Bohemian compositions "Furiant"--is compact and free from any trace of +the rambling tendency. The finale is dominated by a dance theme in +double time of enormous energy and vivacity. + + +[Sidenote: =Dvoràk + +Quartet, Op. 96.= + +_December 6, 1900._] + +The Op. 96 Quartet might almost as well be called "From the New World" +as the Symphony. Whether it was written during the composer's stay in +America we do not know, but it is certainly an outcome of his American +experiences no less than the "New World" symphony. All the themes of +both those works are idealised Negro or Red Indian melodies, and though +the results may not be in the Quartet quite so wonderfully felicitous as +in the Symphony, they are fine enough to make it a most interesting +feature in the music of the wonderful Bohemian composer's American +period. That music has taught some of us a rather important lesson. The +value of folk-melody has long been recognised, but until these works by +Dvoràk became known it was pretty generally thought that Negro tunes +formed an exception to the principle that all sincere, unsophisticated, +and original musical utterance has artistic value. Dvoràk has taught us +the danger of regarding any natural thing as common or unclean. He has +shown that Negro melody may give rise to beautiful works of art no less +than Irish, Hungarian, or Scandinavian melody. Dvoràk is the most +impossible to classify of all composers. He is naïf and yet a master of +complex and ingenious design; a scorner of scholastic device and at the +same time a successful worker in the classical forms; the most original +of the composers who became known during the latter half of the 19th +century, yet suspected, on occasion, of the most barefaced plagiarism. +It is hard to say whether his absolute musical invention, his skill, +taste, and resource in laying out for single stringed instruments, or +his ear for orchestral colouring is the most remarkable faculty. He is +the musician who seems to have learned but little from text-books and +professors, and yet, by a continual series of miracles, he avoids all +the pitfalls that beset the path of the unlearned composer. He is never +at a loss--never does anything feeble or ineffective,--but again and +again overwhelms and delights us with his inexhaustible flow of racy and +full-blooded melody and with his splendid handling of whatever +instrument, or group of instruments, he may choose to handle. + + +[Sidenote: =Beethoven + +Razoumoffsky Quartet, No. 3.= + +_December 5, 1901._] + +The third Razoumoffsky Quartet stands among Beethoven's chamber +compositions very much as the C minor Symphony among his orchestral +works. To define the qualities in virtue of which these two cognate +works appeal so very strongly and directly to the imagination is a +matter of great difficulty. They belong to the same period; and, utterly +dissimilar as they are in form and detail, they are akin to one another +in spirit. Both reveal the composer during that short but golden prime +of his artistic life when he had done with technical experiments; and +when that austere indifference to mere sensuous beauty of sound, which +in course of time his deafness inevitably brought, had not yet begun. +Hence these works, though they fall far short of the exaltation, +intensity, and rugged grandeur of many third-manner compositions, are +more perfectly balanced. They are also entirely free from certain +perverse--one may almost say misanthropic--elements which are a +stumbling-block in much of Beethoven's music. Such is the felicity of +the invention that each new thematic element strikes the ear like a sort +of revelation. Nowhere is there an overlong development or anything that +bewilders or alienates. The Andante quasi Allegretto of the Quartet +reveals the composer in an extremely rare mood. The delicate romance of +it recalls the slow movement of the Schumann Quintet, however much more +profound Beethoven may be. The harmony is full of dreamlike beauty, and +here and there accents of extraordinarily eloquent appeal give that +impression (so frequent with Wagner) of music trembling on the verge of +articulate speech. A case in point is the recurring G flat in the viola +part in bars 8, 9, and 10 after the second repeat. The pizzicato bass is +another feature that irresistibly arrests attention. The unparalleled +delights of this enchanting work were brought home to the audience by a +performance which was not only masterly but was stamped by peculiar +felicity. Everything in the marvellous Allegretto was thrown into a kind +of delicate relief, and the fugal finale was given with the utmost +animation and perfection of detail. + + +[Sidenote: =Bach + +Concerto in D Minor.= + +_January 15, 1903._] + +The association of Lady Hallé and Dr. Brodsky in Bach's Concerto for two +violins yesterday brought together by far the largest audience ever yet +seen at these concerts. The D minor, with two solo parts, is doubtless +the finest on the whole of Bach's violin Concertos. The Largo, cast in a +mould that the composer used more than once, obviously takes the first +place among movements of the kind, in virtue of stately magnificence +paired with a certain royal mildness and amiability of expression. Other +examples may be deeper or more poignant in feeling, but none other is so +richly and perfectly organised in structure or so sweetly benign in +expression. The two solo instruments are treated by the composer on a +footing of absolute equality, and the manner in which his intentions +were yesterday realised by the two masterly performers was above praise. +Why (one is likely to ask on hearing such a performance) did a composer, +who could make a couple of instruments sing so sweetly and graciously +and in a manner so perfectly adapted to their proper genius, very +frequently force the singing voice to follow a crabbed line, +instrumental rather than vocal in character? In the more vivacious +movements preceding and following the Largo nothing could have been +finer than the delicate interplay of the two well-matched solo parts, +and the whole composition lost little or nothing by the rendering of the +accompaniment on a pianoforte instead of the small orchestra for which +it was originally scored. As pianoforte accompanist Miss Olga Neruda +showed unfailing discretion, and so contributed not a little to the +exquisite impression produced by the whole work. + + +[Sidenote: =Beethoven + +B Flat Major Quartet.=] + +In Beethoven's B flat major Quartet--the last of the third volume--the +intricate lines of the composition were brought out with admirable +unanimity of purpose, perfection of _ensemble_ never once being lost +amid the utmost fire and freedom of the execution in the rapid parts. +The Quartet, which occupies quite forty-five minutes in performance, is +remarkable for an opening movement in which adagio and allegro sections +alternate with wayward frequency, for the curious fourth movement in a +sort of Ländler rhythm, and for the Cavatina in E flat preceding the +Finale. It is capricious and multifarious, but has neither the +abstruseness nor the occasional violence of the later Beethoven as +revealed in the last Quartets and Sonatas. + + +[Sidenote: =Tchaïkovsky + +Quartet in D Major.=] + +Tchaïkovsky's first Quartet is chiefly remembered in connection with the +Andante, which makes a peculiar appeal to the imagination. Though the +thematic basis is evidently derived from folk-music, and the tones of +the muted instruments are such as one associates with "soft Lydian airs" +that merely play upon the senses without further significance, there is +in this movement a strange mystical exaltation that is not often met +with in Tchaïkovsky. It sounds like a dream of the shepherds who watched +their flocks by night and heard the angels sing, or an illustration of +some kindred theme in which a homely and pastoral note is associated +with devout and joyous feeling. It is the movement that so greatly moved +Count Tolstoy when, in company with the composer, he heard a performance +of it, also led by Dr. Brodsky. The rest of this beautiful and zestful +work causes one to wonder how the composer was able so early in his +career to make stringed instruments speak with such free, ready, and +natural eloquence. + + +[Sidenote: =Tchaïkovsky + +Trio in A Minor.= + +_February 26, 1903._] + +Most astonishing are the comments that one hears and reads occasionally +on such "In Memoriam" pieces as Tchaïkovsky's noble Trio, written in +honour of Nicolas Rubinstein--brother of the more famous Anton and a +pianist of nearly equal eminence. The psychological basis of this Trio +is of exceptional clearness; it is probably clearer than in any other +composition of similar extension. Yesterday, Mr. Siloti played the +pianoforte part at these concerts for the second if not for the third +time. Frequenters have therefore enjoyed unusually good opportunities of +becoming acquainted with the music, which we regard as on the whole the +best example of Tchaïkovsky's chamber composition. As in Schubert's +"Wanderer Fantasie," the centre of the whole is the theme of the second +movement--a beautiful and expressive strain that, in the composer's +imagination, evidently symbolised the personality of his lost friend. +The ensuing Variations--which include a waltz, a mazurka, and others +that are anything but sombre in character--range back over scenes and +memories connected with that personality, the composer now giving +himself up to lively characterisation, and now thrown back into an +elegiac mood by the returning consciousness of the friend's death. +Occasionally the two moods are mingled, as in that part of the waltz +where the dainty dalliance of the pianoforte part is accompanied by the +tragic variant of the central theme in the strings. The opening +movement, "pezzo elegiaco," is dominated by that tragic variant which, +at the very outset, is given out with mighty eloquence by the richest +tones of the 'cello--a wailing complaint that recurs in many different +forms and informs all three movements in one way or another. Analysing +the composition, therefore, not with reference to musical +technicalities, but psychologically, we find it to consist of three main +elements:--(1) The composer's affection for his friend and grief at his +loss; (2) biographical reminiscences and reflections thereon; (3) the +funeral panegyric. To some extent these elements are intermingled +throughout the work; but they dominate the respective movements as here +numbered, so that, broadly speaking, one may call the first movement +"lament," the second "recollections," the third "eulogy." In all +important respects the Trio strikes us as thoroughly original, though in +a few superficial matters the composer seems to take hints from certain +predecessors. Probably the "Wanderer Fantasie" influenced the general +design to some extent; the opening of the Finale suggests the +corresponding part of Schumann's "Etudes Symphoniques" by its rhythm and +atmosphere, and the short "funeral march" section at the end contains an +obvious reference to Chopin. One can scarcely hear a better rendering +than Mr. Siloti's of the pianoforte part, which is throughout of +paramount importance. Like Dr. Brodsky, Mr. Siloti was an intimate +friend of the composer, and as he is also an acknowledged master of +pianoforte technique and a highly accomplished musician, his Tchaïkovsky +interpretations have a certain authority. Moreover, no living +instrumentalist can charm a melody into life in a more suave and natural +manner, and the lines of a composition always fall into their proper +place in his renderings. Dr. Brodsky, always at his best in the music of +his famous compatriot and friend, gave a most eloquent rendering of the +violin part, and he was well matched by Mr. Fuchs, who, as before, +brought out the superb opening theme with amazing warmth and breadth of +style, and gave all the rest of his part in a manner worthy of that fine +entry. + + +[Sidenote: =César Franck + +Quintet in F Minor.= + +_December 12, 1903._] + +The Quintet, for pianoforte and strings in F minor and major, is a +typical example of the composer's profound learning and immense +technical mastery, of his lofty ideal as a musical artist, and of his +quite marvellous originality. Judging by such a composition, one would +hardly claim the gift of melodic charm for César Franck. He has little +or no lyrism, and he seems to be chiefly interested in delivering music +from the bondage of the tonic and dominant system, while calling upon +each instrument for what is most characteristic in its technical +resource. He is thus as far removed as possible from Grieg and the +song-and-dance men of recent time. He is a great master of form, but he +dramatises the chamber-music forms very much as Beethoven dramatised the +symphony, reconciling the claims of structure and emotion with the touch +of unmistakable genius. The great Quintet is written for performers +whose technique is subject to no limitations. Each part is intensely +alive, and at many points the listener's imagination is carried into +regions never before opened up. The music proves that the composer +understood his medium with extraordinary thoroughness. Some of his +audacious progressions, his persistent reduplications, and his rushing +unison passages one might, at first blush, call orchestral, yet more +careful observation quickly convinces one that they are not orchestral, +but that the special kind of eloquence in the music belongs essentially +to the particular combination for which it was written. The key system +is disconcerting at first. The composer seems to insist that two chords +so unlike tonic and dominant as F major and D flat minor (if anyone +thinks there is no such key he cannot have studied César Franck) will do +just as well for the main props of an extended composition; and he has +all the best of the argument. The technical interest of the work is of +the keenest from beginning to end; but the poetic interest seems to +develop slowly, the imaginative play being nowhere as definite as in the +finale, which begins with strong passages of extreme nervous agitation +and culminates in a tumultuous _dénoûment_ with strong reiterated +insistence on the two chords aforementioned, above which the strings +rush towards their point of repose in a unison of unparalleled energy +and breadth. The subtle and heavy emotion of the slow movement reminds +one of Maeterlinck. César Franck (1822-90) was a Liégeois who migrated +to Paris, where he became the founder of the young French school--that +school of which Mr. Vincent d'Indy is now the principal ornament. +Another follower, much less truly distinguished than d'Indy but better +known in this country, is Gabriel Fauré. Franck is the only great +composer that Belgium has produced in modern times. The task of +interpreting the wonderful Quintet was one of the most formidable that +Dr. Brodsky and his associates ever took in hand. But they were equal to +the occasion. With such a past master as Mr. Busoni at the pianoforte +there could be no uncertainty as to the interpretation, and the +immensely difficult string parts were rendered with that repose and +sureness of touch which alone can make a great and complex composition +intelligible. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +PIANO-PLAYING. + + +[Sidenote: =Reisenauer.= + +_February 13, 1896._] + +The reception of Mr. Alfred Reisenauer by the large audience in the +Gentleman's Hall yesterday afternoon was marked by considerable reserve. +Not once during the recital was there any display of enthusiasm. Yet it +cannot be said that the performance fell short of Mr. Reisenauer's great +reputation. In his rendering of Schumann's "Carnaval" not a point was +missed, and the "Paganini" intermezzo, occurring in the middle of the +slow waltz, gave a foretaste of the quite extraordinary technical powers +which were more fully displayed later on. The "Davidsbündler" finale was +played with less noise and more subtlety than is usually bestowed upon +this curious march, with the Grossvaterstanz creeping in unobserved, +much as the "Marseillaise" creeps into the "Faschingschwank in Wien" by +the same composer. In certain numbers the pianist showed a tendency to +prefer pieces of a secondary and almost trivial character such as the +"Rondo à Capriccio" to which Beethoven has given the whimsical sub-title +"Rage over the lost penny stormed out in a Caprice." Not that this work +is altogether frivolous. As in almost all Beethoven's music, the +working-out sections contain much that is beautiful and interesting; but +the opening theme is quite as bald as the _motif_ of Haydn's "Surprise" +symphony. In the first part of the programme--that is, down to the end +of the Beethoven selections--there were comparatively few indications of +the pianist's true calibre. But in Liszt's transcription of the +"Forelle" Mr. Reisenauer began to reveal some of those marvels of which +he and perhaps one other living pianist have the monopoly. That +interminable trill, with the song _motif_ freely and expressively played +by the same hand first below the trill and then above it, was a thing to +be remembered. There was not the least trace of those licences which +even first-rate players commonly allow themselves in order to facilitate +such manoeuvres. To the ear the effect was absolutely that of three +independent hands. The "Erlkönig" transcription, on the other hand, was +much less impressive. It was performed with an exaggerated _tempo +rubato_, and was altogether too noisy. Of the Chopin Nocturne in D flat +as rendered yesterday afternoon it is difficult to speak in measured +terms. Mr. Reisenauer seems to be pretty generally put down by amateurs +as wanting in "soul." But if so, it must surely be admitted that he gets +on extraordinarily well without one. Anyhow, soul or no soul, his +rendering of the Nocturne was a revelation. In the midst of an almost +nebulous pianissimo the parts were still differentiated with perfect +mastery, and altogether a science of tone-gradations was displayed that +is probably unique. Not a lurking beauty in the composition escapes his +research or exceeds his powers of interpretation. For the concluding +number Liszt's "Hungarian Fantasia" was chosen, and this piece again +fell totally flat on the greater part of the audience, possibly owing to +want of familiarity with the Hungarian style. For this Fantasia is based +on Hungarian popular songs, and decorated with passages that are a sort +of glorified imitation of an Hungarian improvisatore's performance on +the "cembalo." The song-themes are some of the most beautiful and +interesting to be found in all Liszt's Rhapsodies and Fantasias, +especially the first, which, in Korbay's edition, is set to the words +"They have laid down him dead upon the black-draped bier," and the +wonderful "Crane" song, which colours all the latter part of the +Fantasia. The difficulties of the piece are some of the most +heart-breaking to be found anywhere in the literature of the instrument. + + +[Sidenote: =Moszkowski.= + +_November 18, 1898._] + +To those who already knew Mr. Moszkowski as a composer it must have been +interesting yesterday to make his acquaintance as a pianist. His playing +is the exact counterpart of his composing. It is brilliant, ingenious, +elegant. It shows a knowledge of pianoforte technique so consummate that +the listener is apt to be completely dazzled and to forget that our old +friend the pianoforte is capable of other kinds of eloquence besides the +eloquence of technical display. At the same time, it is not at all our +intention to speak slightingly of Mr. Moszkowski's technical display. +Though not the highest thing in music, technique is a very important +thing, and, when carried to such a pitch of excellence, has a kind of +self-sufficient beauty that may be compared to the lustre of pearls and +diamonds. Perhaps it does not mean anything; but it is beautiful, +cheering, enlivening. It raises the spirits somewhat like champagne, but +better than champagne, and it has all the arrogance and costly unreason +that are so fascinating in fine jewellery, in common with which it seems +to convey a kind of magnificent protest against matter-of-fact and +gloom. The wonderful charm of Mr. Moszkowski's composing and playing +depends, further, on the fact that he attempts nothing but what he can +do to perfection. He knows well enough that there was a Beethoven and a +Brahms, for whom music was the expression of profound poetic ideas. But +such ideas are not his affair. He leaves them frankly alone, in the +well-founded confidence that almost anything in the way of an idea will +serve his most entertaining purposes. The Concerto played yesterday is a +perfectly characteristic work. Completely devoid of originality as to +material, it is nevertheless put together with an unfailing sense of +style, and everything is so adorned and so laid out for the solo +instrument that there is not a dull moment from beginning to end. If +only as a compendium of all the most telling musical effects that are +absolutely peculiar to the pianoforte, the Concerto is likely to be +remembered. The two Mazurkas that were played in the second part of the +concert were interesting examples of that form which apparently no +composers but those of Slavonic descent can handle successfully. It may +be hoped that anyone who listened to them attentively will have grasped +the rudimentary point that there is nothing in common between that +clumsy dance of Western Europe called the Polka Mazurka and the +elaborate figure dance the music of which has been so wonderfully +idealised in the Mazurkas of Chopin, Tchaïkovsky, Wiéniawski, +Moszkowski, and Scharwenka. + + +[Sidenote: =Busoni.= + +_December 23, 1898._] + +Of the four principal pianoforte styles--the Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, +and Liszt styles--Mr. Busoni has shown himself a past-master. It has +been said that these four are the only genuine pianoforte styles. But if +there is a fifth having typical originality distinct from all others, it +is the Brahms style, and in that style Mr. Busoni was heard for the +first time yesterday evening. His interpretation of Brahms's first +Concerto was no less masterly than his Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt +renderings. The work is one of exceptional importance. Written when the +composer was only twenty-five years of age, and almost entirely unknown, +and proving, when first produced at Leipsic, with the composer himself +as soloist, a dead failure, it nevertheless was, like Carlyle's "French +Revolution," the first work showing the author to be a genuine and +original man of genius. It shows him deliberately rejecting all that was +traditionally connected with the idea of a work in "concert style," +affording to the soloist none of the conventional opportunities for +display, demanding from him the mastery of an enormously difficult +technique, full of double-note passages, full of heavy and exhausting +reduplications; demanding also exceptional tact, intelligence, and +presence of mind such as are only to be found in a few players of the +very first rank. The music of the first movement is of profoundly +sinister and tragic import, portraying the rage, grief, and unrest in +some struggle of the heroic soul. It has nothing entertaining and +nothing to propitiate superficial taste. No wonder it was a failure at +Leipsic in 1859, when that centre of enlightenment was given up to the +Mendelssohn cult! After the composer himself, the first pianist to take +up the Concerto was Hans von Bülow, who with a performance at a +Philharmonic Concert in Berlin won early recognition of its surpassing +merit. Other performers who contributed towards the success of the work +with the world in general were Madame Schumann and Mr. D'Albert. At the +present time it may be doubted whether there is any better exponent of +it than Mr. Busoni. What a German writer has called the +"heaven-storming" first motive was delivered in a manner that showed +perfect grasp of its poetic import, and the tragic eloquence of the +ensuing development was never marred either by any sort of technical +fault or by inappropriate expression. The "Benedictus" forming the slow +movement is fraught with that profound religious feeling the musical +expression of which has been accomplished only by Bach, Beethoven, and +Brahms. It was no less perfectly rendered than the opening movement, and +the concluding Rondo was played with appropriate breadth, energy, and +mastery of heavy and intricate passages. Afterwards another work for the +same instrumental combination was played, namely, Liszt's "Spanish +Rhapsody," which Mr. Busoni has treated very much as Liszt himself +treated the "Wanderer Fantasie" of Schubert, making an arrangement on +the concerto principle, with a part for pianoforte and orchestral +accompaniments. The Rhapsody is put together on the same principle as +the Hungarian Rhapsodies, having majestic motives in the first part, and +afterwards dance themes with variations and ornamentations in the +transcendental manner peculiar to Liszt. Mr. Busoni's orchestration is +all very clever and telling, and in playing the solo part, which is +brilliant beyond all description, he, as it were, came down from the +pedestal of seriousness and showed that he also can, on occasion, be +simply entertaining. As an extra piece without orchestra, Mr. Busoni +played Liszt's "Campanella"--probably the most catchy and difficult +concert study in existence. The almost incredible brilliancy with which +it was performed seemed to leave the audience half dazed and wholly +captivated. + + +[Sidenote: =Busoni.= + +_November 25, 1904._] + +The concert was remarkable for one of Mr. Busoni's meteoric appearances, +the special function of which, in the order of nature, seems to be to +throw critics into a state of utter confusion and bewilderment. He has +been more frantically praised and more severely blamed than any other +pianist of the present day, and he never fails to justify both praise +and blame. He is the modern Sphinx among executive musicians, just as +Strauss is among composers. Nothing is certain but his matchless +technical power and the uncanny force of his own individuality that, +without misconception or inadequate conception, still does violence to +every composer, by a sort of inner necessity. Every accusation except +that of dulness or feebleness has been brought against Mr. Busoni, and +with justice. Yet he can well afford to smile at his critics; for the +fury of one is as eloquent a testimony as the rapture of another to his +prodigious faculty of stimulation. Most of the fault-finding is a covert +expression of rage at the writer's hopeless inability to estimate so +prodigious a talent or to guess what it will "do next." Henselt's +Concerto, hackneyed in Germany but almost unknown in England, was his +accompanied piece yesterday. It is the most considerable work of that +curious composer, who made a great reputation as a pianist though he +scarcely ever played in public, and some reputation as a composer though +he never did anything more original than the pianoforte Etude "Si oiseau +j'étais," and for the most part rested satisfied with giving enfeebled +reproductions of Chopin's ideas thinly disguised by arpeggio +accompaniments in extended harmonies and ornamental passages in double +notes. In a few points, such as the use of _martellato_ octaves and +chord passages, he had a more modern technique than Chopin's; but there +is no justification for his compositions except good laying out for the +instrument. From beginning to end one finds him cultivating the same +kind of mild and voluminous euphony. Mr. Busoni played the three +movements in his customary style, solving all the technical problems +that they present rather more intelligently than anyone else. His +unaccompanied solos were, first, two astonishingly ingenious Preludes +constructed on themes of chorales by Bach, which are treated as _canti +fermi_, and accompanied by passages in florid counterpoint, having the +character of an _obbligato_. The theme of the first was "Sleepers, +wake," and of the second the chorale known in this country as "Luther's +Hymn." The third piece was Liszt's seldom-heard transcription of +Beethoven's "Adelaide." + + +[Sidenote: =Borwick.= + +_February 10, 1899._] + +Among all kinds of solo playing it is pianoforte playing, the high +standard of which is specially characteristic of our age. The violin was +perfected in the seventeenth century, and, though the technique of the +violin has been further developed in comparatively recent times by +Paganini and others, there has not been during the nineteenth century +any other advance in a particular kind of musical performance at all +comparable with the advance in pianoforte playing, which, apart from +improvements in the construction of the instrument, is generally +attributed to the genius of Liszt. It is sometimes forgotten that Liszt +did not stand quite alone. He was the most brilliant pupil of a certain +school, namely the Czerny school. But Czerny, though probably the +greatest of all pianoforte pedagogues, does not stand quite alone as +the father of modern playing. There was another great pedagogue with +an independent system, namely Friederick Wieck, whose most brilliant +pupil was his daughter Madame Schumann. The modern art of pianoforte +playing may be traced back to one or other of those two remarkable +teachers, Czerny and Wieck. The most famous representative of the +Czerny-Liszt school at the present day is Mr. Paderewski, and the +most famous representative of the other--the Wieck-Schumann school +is Mr. Borwick. For a long time it was supposed that no member of the +English-speaking races was capable of taking rank among first-rate +solo-players, and it is therefore cheering to find Mr. Borwick--a +true-born Britisher--holding the position that he now holds. For his +first piece Mr. Borwick chose, appropriately enough, the Schumann +Concerto for pianoforte, which Rubinstein considered a no less happy +inspiration than Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. It is the most important +of all Schumann's works for pianoforte, and Mr. Borwick, as a pupil of +the Schumann school is, of course, completely in his element when +playing it. Yesterday he seemed thoroughly well-disposed, and he played +the whole work with admirable purity of style and insight into its +delicate ingenuities and romantic beauties. On his second appearance Mr. +Borwick played a Ballade by Grieg in the form of fifteen variations on a +Norwegian air. The air is plaintive and pretty, and in the harmonization +is strongly stamped with the composer's individuality. Some of the +variations, too, contain examples of graceful movement, but there is not +much more to be said for them. They are not for a moment to be compared +with the typical modern works in variation form, such as Mendelssohn's +"Variations Sérieuses," Schumann's "Etudes Symphoniques," or the +variations on a chorale of Haydn by Brahms. The one really fine work of +considerable scope for pianoforte by Grieg is the Concerto. All that was +possible, however, to be made of the Ballade was made of it by Mr. +Borwick. + + +[Sidenote: =Siloti.= + +_March 9, 1900._] + +Of Svendsen, the contemporary Scandinavian whose name stood first on +yesterday's programme, we know very little. Until yesterday we had heard +nothing of his but the familiar Romance for violin. The first hearing of +his Moorish "Legend" for orchestra left an impression of sweetness and +picturesque charm, but also of a talent scarcely equal to the conception +and laying out of extended orchestral works. As painters sometimes say, +the interest of the picture was literary rather than artistic. It was +nice to read the pretty story in the programme to the accompaniment of +the pretty music going on in the orchestra. But whether the music by its +own eloquence could have roused the desire to know what was the +imaginative or narrative basis of the design in tones is doubtful. +Except for a short section at the end, containing some slight +suggestions of development, the composition is almost entirely arabesque +work, which is perhaps an appropriate arrangement, the subject being +Moorish. The amazing double power that Liszt possessed of translating +from orchestra to pianoforte and from pianoforte to orchestra was +certainly never matched in any other mortal. Both processes he performed +with consummate ability. Mr. Siloti rendered the solo part with the +restraint and the mature mastery of his resources that are +characteristic of him. He tears no passion to tatters; he does not play +"in Ercles' vein"; the tricks of the "Oktavenbändiger" delight him not; +nor does he tickle and paw the notes in the velvety-ineffable style. Mr. +Siloti is so considerate as not to obliterate the composer in any way. +There is a certain largeness and gentleness in his manner. His technical +power is unlimited, but he uses no more of it than is necessary to bring +out the composition, and with regard to tone-gradations, pedalling, and +the entire management of the pianoforte--as medium of musical +expression, not of acrobatic display--one may say that "what there is to +know, he knows it." Among distinguished pianists of the day there is +perhaps none other whose style is so good a model for learners. Many +other pianists have great powers, but nearly every other has some +frightful fault, whereas Mr. Siloti has no serious fault. He is simple, +equable, gentlemanly, masterly. He seeks not to dazzle, to bewilder, to +impose, to appal, to petrify--but simply to convince. He _brings out the +music_ written by the composer, and that is what a pianist should do. +The group of Russian pieces played by Mr. Siloti on his second +appearance we thought, on the whole, very charming, especially the +Caprice by Arensky. The concluding piece by Rubinstein was not quite so +interesting, but it gave the performer his opportunity of treating the +audience to that "rampage" which is considered the only proper +conclusion to a group of pianoforte solos; and it had, at any rate, the +advantage of not being hackneyed. + + +[Sidenote: =Rosenthal.= + +_November 23, 1900._] + +An exceedingly remarkable performance of Schumann's Pianoforte Concerto +was given by Mr. Rosenthal and the orchestra. In no other performance +that we remember was the balance between orchestra and solo part so well +preserved. Mr. Rosenthal played with his usual perfection of technical +mastery; his phrasing was beautifully intelligent, and the distinction +of his style was to be noted no less in the homely sweetness and +graceful fancy of the Intermezzo than in the rich and complex Allegro. +Again, in the finale, his marvellous accuracy and fine phrasing enabled +the hearers to enjoy every _nuance_ of the composition, notwithstanding +a tendency to hurry that was perceptible at certain points. The +tremendous "Don Juan" fantasia, for pianoforte alone, gave Mr. Rosenthal +an opportunity of exhibiting his technical powers in one of the most +audacious _bravura_ compositions that exist. In many persons the fine +frenzy that rages through the middle and latter parts of this piece +awakens no sympathy. It has, nevertheless, a legitimate place in the +Palace of Art, being nothing more than the logical development to the +highest possible point of the _bravura_ style that originated with +Liszt. The latter of the two variations on "_Là ci darem_"--that section +which precedes the entry of the champagne song--is the most bewildering +and repugnant part of the piece to the general public. For that reason, +and also on account of its heart-breaking difficulties, the variation in +question is often omitted. But Mr. Rosenthal omitted nothing yesterday. +He hurled forth the Dionysiac declaration of war against all the chilly +conventions and proprieties, the priggeries and pruderies of Mrs. +Grundy, that forms the real content of the piece, with that technical +power in which he is surpassed by no living performer. After many +recalls he was constrained to play once more; and, by way of the +sharpest possible contrast, he gave Chopin's Berceuse, bringing out all +the delicate moonshine filigree of the right-hand part with infinite +subtlety. + + +[Sidenote: =Paderewski.= + +_October 29, 1902._] + +The recital given yesterday evening at the Free Trade Hall seems to have +been the last of Mr. Paderewski's art that we are likely to hear for +some time. He is not expected to visit Manchester again during the next +few years, and the occasion therefore seems fitting for a more general +discussion of his playing than is usual in a simple notice of a recital. +No doubt Mr. Paderewski is, on the whole, the most distinguished +executive musician now before the public. The Paderewski "craze" in +England and America is not a mere matter of fashion and folly, but is +shared by experts and brethren of the craft, many of whom are +irresistibly fascinated by Mr. Paderewski's playing, even while they +disapprove of much that he does. Why will he insist on using a +pianoforte with so hard a tone? Why is the skelp of his hand on the +keys so frequently audible from the most distant point of the hall, as a +sound quite separate from the musical notes? Why does he never play +Bach? Why does he always play Liszt's second Rhapsodie? Such are a few +among the searchings of heart to which Mr. Paderewski's public +performances give rise, and to none of them--probably--is there a +complete and satisfactory answer. The shallow-toned instrument admits of +greater clearness in the bass, and has a more scintillating kind of +brilliancy in the upper octaves, and Mr. Paderewski, who likes all +passage-work a little staccato, naturally favours it. The rage of his +"con gran bravura" lends greater charm to his _grazioso_ style, by the +principle of contrast--a point on which he often lays emphasis by rapid +alternations of the two styles. Iteration of show pieces, such as the +second Rhapsodie, is excusable in a pianist who is incessantly touring +the two worlds and playing to all sorts and conditions of men by land +and by sea. As to the Bach question we know nothing. He may even have +played Bach in other parts of the world. Mr. Paderewski's distinguishing +quality is a certain extraordinary energy--not merely a one-sided +physical, or even a two-sided physical and intellectual, energy; it is +of the fingers and wrists, of the mind, the imagination, the heart, and +the soul, and it makes Mr. Paderewski the most interesting of players, +even though to the extreme kind of specialist, absorbed in problems of +tone-production, he is not the most absolute master of his instrument at +the present day. His art has a certain princely quality. It is +indescribably _galant_ and _chevaleresque_. He knows all the secrets of +all the most subtle dancing rhythms. He is a reincarnation of Chopin, +with almost the added virility of a Rubinstein. No wonder such a man +fascinates, bewilders, and enchants the public! Greatly surpassed by +Busoni in the interpretation of Beethoven, by Pachmann in the touch that +persistently draws forth roundness, sweetness, and fulness of tone, and +by Godowsky in the mastery of intricate line and the power of sucking +out the very last drop of melody from every part of a composition, +Paderewski still remains the most brilliant, fascinating, and +successfully audacious of present-day musical performers, and in +preferring him the general public is probably right, though the keen +student of the pianoforte in particular may learn more from Godowsky, +and the earnest lover of the musical classics in general, more from +Busoni. + +The programme of yesterday's recital was on the usual lines, except in +regard to the Paganini Variations by Brahms, of which a selection from +the two volumes were played with astounding dash and incisiveness. The +unfamiliar Fantasia by Schumann was made perhaps a little more +interesting than any other player could have made it. Beethoven's C +sharp minor Sonata was given in a manner typical of Mr. Paderewski's +Beethoven renderings, except that there happens to be nothing in the +first and second movements that is alien to his Slavonic temperament. +The finale, belonging to that element in Beethoven which appeals to a +more broadly based human nature, sounded flimsy. The Chopin and Liszt +pieces were all splendidly done. The long-continued demonstrations of +enthusiasm in the latter part of the recital led to three additional +pieces, namely, a Nocturne of the performer's own composition, the +inevitable Rhapsodie aforementioned, and Chopin's A flat Waltz, with a +mixture of double and triple time. + + +[Sidenote: =Godowsky.= + +_March 17, 1903._] + +It is a little difficult to do justice to the qualities of Mr. +Godowsky's pianoforte playing without at the same time saying too much +and making claims that are not justified by the facts. It must be +remembered that there is no Liszt or Rubinstein at the present day. +Those men were giants--mighty personalities who dominated the musical +world, being essentially great as well as good players. The present +generation has no such personality among solo performers. Talents that +come to the top show a specialising tendency, and it is no longer +possible to say that so-and-so is the greatest pianist of the age. One +can only say that Mr. Busoni is the greatest musician who now plays +pianoforte solos in public, and Mr. Paderewski is the most brilliant +performer on the pianoforte, and Mr. Godowsky the most absolute expert +in tone production on the same instrument. It is not to be denied that, +taking Mr. Godowsky's art as a whole, and thus including musical +conception, one finds it imposing. He never comes within a measurable +distance of bad style: he always gives an essentially good rendering of +anything that he undertakes to perform. But what one principally admires +is not his mind, imagination, or temperament, but simply his hands--his +warm, subtle, and preternaturally deft wrists and fingers. Having +apparently been warned that the peculiar acoustic of the hall has a +tendency to make any pianoforte sound as if the pedal were down nearly +all the time, he yesterday avoided the bewilderingly elaborate style of +which he has made a speciality. But, in addition to the flawless +perfection of all the passage work, there was abundant opportunity in +the series of pieces by Beethoven, Chopin, and Liszt to admire that +marvellous control of tone which often enables him to reveal fresh +melody in quite familiar compositions. The pieces that were least +affected by the cross reverberations of the hall were the Etude in +extended chords and the C sharp minor Scherzo by Chopin. On the other +hand, no one who has not heard Mr. Godowsky under more favourable +circumstances can imagine, from the experience of yesterday evening, the +magical effect of his performance in the G sharp minor Etude in thirds +for the right hand. In playing the exquisite F minor Concert Etude by +Liszt he deliberately kept the tone down to a minimum, to avoid the buzz +and confusion as far as possible. Liszt's transcription of the +"Tannhäuser" Overture was used for the display piece that audiences +expect at the end of a recital. It is characteristic of Mr. Godowsky +that his favourite amusement is making rearrangements of Chopin's +Etudes--the "Godowsky Bedevilments," Mr. Huneker calls them. These +include the celebrated combination of the two G flat Etudes, where the +left hand has to play the one in the first book while the right plays +the legato and staccato improvisation from the second volume, and +another in which three Etudes in A minor are brought together +contrapuntally. Though they are all of course anathema to the purist, +the ingenuity displayed in some of these things is so prodigious that no +one interested in pianoforte playing can well be indifferent to them. + + +[Sidenote: =Lamond.= + +_December 15, 1903._] + +Mr. Frederic Lamond's strongest points as a pianist are not those which +the wider public most readily appreciates. He is not one of the +pianistic experts in the narrower sense, like Messrs. Pachmann and +Godowsky, for whom neat fingering and smooth tone-production are much +more important than musical interpretation. Mr. Lamond is before all +things a virile player. His style is broad and a little severe. He lacks +the peculiar grace and charm of Mr. Paderewski in the treatment of +dancing rhythm no less obviously than that faculty, akin to a Japanese +juggler's, which enables Mr. Pachmann to bring from the pianoforte a +tone more smooth and sweet than was ever before imagined possible. Mr. +Lamond's qualities are entirely different. Plastic force, technical and +imaginative grasp of the greater composers' greater ideas, a deep and +powerful but rather rough tone--these are the characteristics of his +playing, and they are characteristics better appreciated in Germany than +in this country, where music-lovers think too much of the merely smooth +and the merely deft and the "sweetly pretty." It is rather surprising +that neither of his recent performances in Manchester should have +included any example of Beethoven, of whose greater Sonatas Mr. Lamond +is now probably the best living interpreter, with the possible exception +of Mr. Busoni. He was of course quite right to play plenty of Liszt, but +it may be regretted that he gave so much of the later Liszt--who, +conscious of himself as the world-famous magician of the piano, often +improvised on rather poor themes, as if to show that any theme, however +weak, could be made interesting by his transcendental style of +ornamentation--rather than the earlier Liszt who wrote things of such +power and eloquence as the "Mazeppa" Etude. Mr. Lamond's mind seems +recently to have been running on Liszt's Tarantelle Fantasias. He played +the "Venezia e Napoli" Tarantelle at the Hallé Concert and the "Muette +de Portici" Tarantelle yesterday--both pieces which are chiefly of +interest as proving that Liszt could improvise effectively upon any +conceivable sort of thematic material. It would have been much more +interesting to hear the "Mazeppa," which Mr. Lamond played in the +composer's presence and to his evident satisfaction when last he was in +London, a few months before his death in 1886, or some piece in that +pregnant early manner. His best performance yesterday was in Chopin's A +flat Polonaise--a composition of such excellence that, hackneyed as it +is, it cannot in a good rendering fail to give pleasure. Mr. Lamond did +full justice to the majestic beauty of the themes, which are all +absolutely good, and brought out the famous _basso ostinato_ section in +some respects better than we have heard it done since Rubinstein's +death. He did not adopt any of the revised versions of the left-hand +octave passages favoured by certain distinguished modern performers. On +the other hand, he did adopt Rubinstein's version of the ending, with +the unexpected and telling chord of C major just before the final +phrase. In Rubinstein's F minor Barcarolle--so interesting in rhythm, so +original in colouring--Mr. Lamond was not entirely successful, his +temperament apparently not furnishing a key to the vein of lyrism in +which the piece is conceived. Yet in Liszt's "Liebestraum" he was +perfect, though one might have expected that his Beethovenish tastes +would have rebelled against the hothouse atmosphere of the composition. +The opening performance of Schumann's "Carnaval" was powerful and +distinguished, but too broad in style to be in keeping with the +sub-title "Scènes mignonnes." On neither of these recent occasions has +Mr. Lamond played anything of his own, though he has composed plenty of +effective stuff for his instrument. He is beyond all question by far the +most distinguished pianist of British extraction that has yet arisen. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +VIOLIN-PLAYING. + + +[Sidenote: =Ysaye.= + +_November 8, 1900._] + +Two complete Concerti, each in the orthodox three movements, exhibited +the distinguished Belgian master's style, first in strictly classical +then in more florid and more highly coloured modern music. Of concerti +by the great Bach for a single solo violin only two are extant. One, in +A minor, has been frequently played here in recent years by Dr. Joachim +and Mr. Brodsky. The other, in E major, is comparatively unfamiliar. +Perhaps the accompaniment, which in the original score is for strings +alone, has been considered rather meagre, and the extremely simple form +of the concluding Rondo may also have been regarded as unsatisfactory. +For Mr. Ysaye's performance of the E major Concerto the accompaniment +has been strengthened with an organ part written by Mr. Gevaert, +Principal of the Conservatoire de Musique in Brussels, and it can +scarcely be questioned that the work as he presents it is beautiful, +interesting, and highly satisfactory as a concert piece. The most +characteristic part is the middle movement, which, as in Bach's Sonata +for the same instrument and in the same key, is in Chaconne form, with a +bass theme that wanders freely through different keys, while the upper +strings play a descent and the solo instrument embroiders. A most +powerful and telling performance was given of this noble Adagio, the +accompaniment being assigned to a small group of orchestral players +together with the organ, and the soloist devoting all the resources of +his art to bringing out the delicate figuration of the upper voice with +ineffably sweet tone and subtle phrasing. The first movement is +remarkable for such wealth of thematic development as one scarcely +expects to find in a work composed so long before Beethoven's time, and +the finale brings the work to a close upon a note of simple and hearty +feeling. If strong contrast with the style of Bach was desired, the +Saint-Saëns concerto was well chosen for the second example of violin +music. Rich in colouring and surcharged with sensuous delights, the +modern Frenchman's composition passes along on its triumphant career, +like some fine lady, radiant in natural beauty and superbly attired, +witty, graceful, charming, and in every way effective--perhaps all the +more effective for being a little heartless. In the performance of this +music Mr. Ysaye was altogether in his glory. His astonishing warmth and +depth of tone lent fresh eloquence to such new phase of the solo part. +He made his instrument sing his Andantino theme with ravishing +sweetness, and his overwhelming technical power enabled him to revel in +the rushing and flying passages of the Mephistophelean finale. +Everything was magnificent, including even the harmonies in the Coda of +the slow movement, and the Concerto ended in a blaze of triumph. There +is only one fault to be found with Mr. Ysaye, namely, that he makes +everything sound modern. + + +[Sidenote: =Ysaye and Busoni.= + +_February 6, 1902._] + +If another and older master of the violin is commonly described--as it +were, _emeritus_--as greatest living violinist, it is unquestionably to +Mr. Ysaye that the title belongs in its full sense. Unparalleled warmth, +richness, and bouquet of tone, added to sovereign mastery of technique +and a marvellous temperament, full of fiery energy and yet apparently +incapable of exaggeration--such are the most obvious qualities of Mr. +Ysaye's art. He is not a genuine classic, like Joachim. Bach and +Beethoven he plays in virtue of infallible artistic _savoir vivre_; but +he is obviously in fuller sympathy with a Sonata or Concerto by +Saint-Saëns, a Suite by Vieuxtemps, or a Fantasia by Wiéniawski. Yet +that artistic _savoir vivre_ is so complete that it is nearly always +impossible to find specific fault with his renderings of the classics. +This was the case yesterday in the Bach Sonata, which headed the +programme. Each of the four movements declared the mastery of the string +player, no less than of the pianist, Mr. Busoni--real kindred spirits of +Bach and Beethoven. The Vieuxtemps Suite, too, was given with such +beauty of tone that the superficiality of the composition was entirely +disguised, the slow movement sounding almost as though Bach had written +it. In the concluding sonata--a late work by Saint-Saëns--it is +scarcely necessary to say that the violin-playing was perfect. Perhaps +some of the listeners remembered a performance by the same violinist of +Saint-Saëns's Third Concerto at a Hallé Concert not long ago. Again +yesterday we were treated to such playing as bewilders the senses and +seemed to place the transcendental cleverness of the French composer on +a level with the real imaginative power of greater men. Mr. Ysaye was +extremely well disposed--in fact, quite at his best--and was rapturously +applauded. As an extra piece he gave Beethoven's Romance in G, the +rendering being above criticism. + +Utterly dissimilar as Messrs. Ysaye and Busoni are in temperament and +artistic character, they meet as master musicians, and the association +is in the highest degree interesting. The one is all sense and the other +all spirit, and one feels that only the immensely high accomplishment of +both makes the association possible. Mr. Busoni's solo was that most +capricious and austere Sonata, Beethoven's 109th work. It was all +incomparably well rendered, and the Variations in the last movement, +which ultimately spin themselves into a kind of Fantasia, were a +prodigious revelation of technical power. It is long since such a +pianoforte performance has been heard in this city--a performance +stamped by austere beauty and lofty ideality, and free from all earthly +elements. What other pianist at the present day, we venture to ask, +could give us such a thing? + + +[Sidenote: =Kubelik.= + +_November 5, 1902._] + +Popularity such as Mr. Jan Kubelik, the young Bohemian violinist, at +present enjoys makes it very difficult to criticise his performance. He +has not to meet the same conditions as other violinists. Thousands of +persons who care little or nothing for music attend his recitals merely +because he is a recognised society pet, and he commands a fee that makes +it impossible for orchestral societies to engage him. The restrictions +imposed by this state of things are obvious. He can only play with +pianoforte accompaniment, or with none at all; he is obliged to adhere +almost entirely to music that is light in style and of only secondary +artistic worth, and during a certain proportion of each recital he has +to give himself up entirely to sensationalism. Thus, after hearing him +play through three complete recital programmes, we do not feel qualified +to express more than a very fragmentary opinion upon his art. That he +has all the ordinary technique of the instrument at his fingers' ends is +a notorious fact. His tone is never remarkable for volume, but often for +sweetness. His truth of intonation in the midst of intricate +passage-work is remarkable, and gives the sense of hearing a rare kind +of satisfaction. His memory seems to be entirely trustworthy, and his +manner is free from affectation; but as to his musical conception, we +can only say that it is quite adequate to the interpretation of such a +charming piece of light, racy, and popular music as Grieg's third +Sonata. The one scrap of Bach that he played yesterday--the +unaccompanied Prelude in E major--was not specially well done, and how +he plays Beethoven, Mozart, or any of the great masters we do not know +at all. His most _recherchés_ effects of tone Mr. Kubelik seems to hold +in reserve for the encore pieces. In the allegretto movement of the +Grieg Sonata--a most tenderly homesick and lovesick little northern +Romance--he did not let his violin sing with all the sweetness of which +it is capable, as was afterwards shown in the arrangement of Schubert's +"Ave Maria" and in an unpublished Serenade by the performer's friend and +compatriot Drdla--both played as extra pieces at the end of the recital. +Virtuoso music, in the rendering of which Mr. Kubelik is well known to +be a great expert, was represented in yesterday's recital by the +following pieces:--Wieniawski's Fantasia on Themes from Gounod's +"Faust," Paganini's caprice "I Palpiti," Bazzini's "Ronde des Lutins," +the last-named played among the encore pieces. We do not, as a rule, +care for the Fantasia on operatic airs, but Wieniawski's "Faust" +Fantasia is written with such wonderful ingenuity and musical skill that +it cannot be placed in the same category with the mere strings of tunes +with perfunctory accompaniments and connecting sections that such pieces +usually are. The Variation on the waltz theme, with the melody in +harmonics and the rushing accompaniment figure in the ordinary tone of +the instrument, is a marvel of successful audacity. It so happens, too, +that the rendering of this almost impossible Variation was the most +brilliant thing in yesterday's recital. + + +[Sidenote: =Kreisler.= + +_November 6, 1902._] + +We live in an age that seems likely to be known in the future as the +period of star violinists. It is curious to note how the musical world +illustrates the saying "It never rains but it pours." At one period we +have a long string of pianistic infant prodigies. Hoffmann, Hegner, +Hambourg--they come rapidly to the front, one after another, growing +ever younger and younger, and nearly always beginning with "h." Next we +break into the period of youthful violinists, beginning with "k." +Kubelik, Kocian, Kreisler come tumbling over each other's heel, each one +causing embarrassment to the critics for lack of any stronger terms of +commendation than were bestowed upon the last. It is true the string +players are not of such tender years as were the pianists on their first +appearance. The youngest of the violin prodigies was Bronislav +Hubermann, who not many years ago shook his elf-locks at the +Philharmonic Society of Vienna and more nearly succeeded in turning the +heads of that august, formidable, and severely critical body than might +have been thought possible. For the present we are mainly concerned with +Mr. Kreisler, who is not so desperately youthful, but is a mature and +military-looking man, though he is commonly reckoned among the players +of the new school, or the rising generation. His programme yesterday was +open to some of the same objections as Mr. Kubelik's on Tuesday evening. +It included nothing from the major prophets of music, the most important +piece being Tartini's "Trillo del Diavolo" Sonata--no doubt one of the +best examples of that school which grew up in Italy soon after the +perfecting of the violin at the end of the seventeenth century. In a +well-contrasted style was the only other piece in more than one movement +that he played, namely, Vieuxtemps' second Concerto. In the rendering of +these pieces one noted a peculiarly incisive manner of giving full value +to all the detail of the figuration, and also a singing tone of rich and +strangely penetrating quality. Mr. Kreisler's style is in sharp contrast +with Mr. Kubelik's. Instead of caressing the instrument and coaxing the +tone out of it, he wrestles with it and plucks out the heart of its +mystery. Nor does he seem to care for the sputtering Paganinities so +dear to the heart of Mr. Kubelik. His pieces in the second part of the +programme were a rather Mozartian Larghetto from a Sonata by Nardini (an +eighteenth-century Italian); a "Tambourin" by Leclair (an +eighteenth-century Frenchman), much modernised in the arrangement; a +bagatelle called "L'Abeille," by Franz Schubert of Dresden--not, of +course, the famous Schubert, but a violinist who died some twenty-five +years ago; an arrangement by Marcello Rossi of the "Song without Words" +in F, by Tchaïkovsky; and, finally, the Allegretto grazioso from the +same Nardini Sonata, played as an encore piece. "L'Abeille"--a clever +show-piece in perpetual motion triplets, played with a mute on the +bridge--was encored and repeated. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +MUSIC IN THE 19th CENTURY. + + +[Sidenote: =Mr. J. A. Fuller Maitland's English Music in the 19th +century.= + +_May 20, 1902._] + +As applied to Parry, Stanford, or Mackenzie, we are instructed, the +reproach of being "academic" has absolutely no aptness whatever. These +worthy dons are creative artists of the highest possible order, to be +classed with Bach, Beethoven, and Wagner, and it thus appears that about +the middle of the century British music arose like the lark, soaring at +once to the topmost airs of the welkin; that to find a parallel for the +revelation of genius during the fifty ensuing British years one has to +range over two German centuries! Not even Beethoven is to be excepted +from the list of things that were matched by our professorial larks, +swans, giants, heroes, angels, and demigods! Now all this represents a +rather deplorable state of things. Why is it--I cannot help asking once +more--that at the present time in this country so much worse nonsense is +written about music than about drama, literature, or any other kindred +subject? A great stir was recently made by the production of "Paolo and +Francesca," yet no admirer of Mr. Stephen Phillips has thought it +necessary to call him the equal of Shakespeare. There is certainly this +excuse for Mr. Fuller Maitland, that in the London press of recent years +much extravagance of the opposite kind has appeared--excessive and, in a +few cases, positively brutal detraction of Parry and Stanford and their +school--and perhaps the chief blame for the hysterical nonsense of +supporters lies within certain opponents who have attacked without +regard either for the facts of the case or even for common decency. In +any case a state of things has been brought about in which one party +howls "Incompetent humbug!" while the other shrieks "Genius of the +highest order!" + +In the meantime what about the truth and the critical currency? And is +it not a pity that Mr. Fuller Maitland should have missed the +opportunity afforded to him by the writing of this history to put off +controversial frenzy and return to a more judicial spirit? We that have +to do with the musical world are all perfectly well aware--whether we +describe Parry and Stanford as "academic" or protest against that +epithet--that they are men of high distinction who have played a leading +and brilliant part in the English musical revival and generally have +deserved well of the musical republic. For my part, while fully +recognising their eminence both in talent and character, I am of opinion +that their claims to regard as absolute creative artists are habitually +overstated by their supporters in the press. The appearance of Parry +created a considerable stir. His imposing grasp of choral polyphony was +something new in English music. His great intelligence, his wide +sympathy and geniality, his virility and industry--all these qualities +united to arouse enthusiastic hopes. But, as Mr. Fuller Maitland writes +on page 185, "with the passage of years the group of composers will fall +into truer and truer perspective." There has already been a considerable +passage of years since those first compositions, but the early +enthusiastic estimate has not been justified. Outside the circle of his +pupils and personal friends no one now seems to care very much for his +music. Here in the North of England concert societies find that the +public admiration of it is a rapidly vanishing quantity. Three years ago +his "Job" and "Blest Pair of Sirens" were given here, but ever since +that occasion his name has been something of a terror to our concert +societies. A frequent experience in regard to Parry's music is that, +whereas a first hearing impresses in virtue of massiveness and energy or +of striking and unconventional dramatic touches, second and subsequent +hearings are discouraging. "Job" is the most favourable case among the +choral and orchestral works that I have heard. It is thoroughly artistic +in conception and unconventional in treatment. Moreover, the lyrical +interlude of the shepherd-boy's song helps along the early part very +happily, and Mr. Plunket Greene is always eloquent in the +"Lamentations." Nevertheless, I found the second hearing a sad +experience. Now the impression that there is something wrong with +Parry's music--notwithstanding all the learning, resource, wide +sympathies, intelligence, and so forth that it shows--is undoubtedly a +very general one. To find any person not personally attached to the +composer taking up one of his works, great or small, is exceedingly +rare. The composer's personal popularity is great, but outside the +charmed circle no one seems ready to spend a shilling in hearing his +stuff or to risk a shilling in giving it. Mr. Fuller Maitland says that +the provincial choral societies are faithful to Parry, and this may be +true in some cases. To a society in the habit of occupying themselves +with the cantatas of Dr. Gaul I could imagine Parry would seem the +seventh heaven of art. But in the great centres or in any place where +there are ardent souls not to be deceived as to what is genuine in music +a revival of interest in Parry seems to me very improbable. + +At his worst, _e.g._, in "King Saul," he appeals; at his best, _e.g._, +in the "Soldier's Tent" (song with orchestral accompaniment), he almost +persuades. But the horrors of the empty tone masses hurled at one's head +in the "Saul" choruses, or of the purple patches of Wagnerian +orchestration associated with inept vocal phrases in the principal +monologue of the same oratorio--those horrors are so very genuine, +whereas the charm of such a song as the "Soldier's Tent," where the +composer keeps comparatively well to the point and scores with +comparative aptness, is still somewhat doubtful. A remark of Mr. Fuller +Maitland's helps me to a possible explanation of the something wrong. He +commends the "delicate humour" of "When icicles hang by the wall" in +Parry's English Lyrics. Now I have certainly never heard that song, but +I must have read it somewhere, for I distinctly remember the humorous +and expressive accompaniment at the words "coughing drowns the parson's +saw." It also comes back to me that other passages, such as all that +eight-part counterpoint at the end of "Blest Pair of Sirens," look +exceedingly well on paper. Possibly, then, the key to the mystery is +that Parry's music is analogous to those plays which read well but act +badly. Perhaps the way to enjoy it is to read it and admire the +fertility of device while taking great care never to hear it, and so +escape the consciousness of the fact that the actual wine of that music +as it flows forth is not quite the genuine thing; that, notwithstanding +notable fulness of body, the quality is gritty, the flavour somewhat +acrid and inky, the bouquet artificial and multifariously compounded. + +The root of the mischief I take to be that the composer--for all his +great and imposing powers, his fine taste, his profound and varied +learning--is wanting in sureness of touch and consequently in the +ability to establish that correspondence between form and idea without +which a work of art cannot properly be said to exist. Mr. Fuller +Maitland claims for Parry and his group that they "have far more +extensive resources in the different styles of music" than, for example, +the modern Russians, and this brings us back to the point of the +reproach conveyed in the epithet "academic." To musicians bent on the +holding of official posts and on success in a worldly career it is of +the first importance to "show extensive resources in the different +styles of music," and in the large body of Parry's compositions I find +far more evidence of desire to show such extensive resources than of the +artistic impulse to make music that is absolutely genuine. Sullivan, +with his much lower aims and ideals, is for me a better balanced +personality and a truer artist. Much of his music in the comic operas is +quite to the point. The outward form corresponds to the inward idea in a +certain absolute and final manner which there is no mistaking. Hence the +clearness of Sullivan's musical individuality or physiognomy. He was not +intent on showing resources, but on modelling his material into +conformity with his idea, and, because at his best he had the power of +doing that, his physiognomy is clear to us and his art vital. It thus +appears that such commercialism as Sullivan's does less mischief than +such academic tendencies as Parry's. + +In Stanford's case I have often protested against the indiscriminate use +of the epithet "academic." It seems to me that his compositions on Irish +subjects require to be considered quite apart from all the rest. However +deplorable may be that Brahmsian vein running through a great mass of +his non-Irish music, he really does in his "Phaudrig," "Shamus," and +Irish Symphony and in many of his Irish songs entirely escape from his +common-room and give us open-air music. No doubt, as Mr. Fuller Maitland +very justly points out, the humour of the Dogberry scenes in Stanford's +latest opera is admirable. Those are the scenes in which the composer +has followed the model of Verdi's "Falstaff" most closely. Elsewhere he +has undertaken to be more original and has not prospered so well. The +music of the love scenes is terrible. All that twisted, clever stuff can +never have any but a chilling, afflicting, alienating effect on a soul +in which any spark is left either of youthfulness or of sympathy with +youth. Stanford's musical cleverness, exceeding that of any other +mortal except Camille Saint-Saëns, has been his bane. His sense of +humour, too, is perversely adjusted. In connection with any but an Irish +subject it is always liable to mislead him, and I have little doubt that +it is the humourist quite as much as the don in him which nowadays makes +it impossible for him to treat a love-passage in any but a chilly, +clever, allusive, intelligible-only-to-the-initiated style. He was a +very different man in 1881 when his "Bower of Roses by Bendeemer's +Stream" was first heard. Not that he has even now lost his faculty of +lyrical tenderness altogether. If the sentiment be associated with an +infant, or penetrated with a sense of the weird and uncanny, or +intermingled with (Irish) patriotic feeling, he can still find the +symbol, as his quite recent music to Moira O'Neill's "Songs from the +Glens of Antrim" abundantly proves. But the note of warmth and +simplicity proper to youthful romance he seems to have lost. A peculiar +case among Stanford's compositions is represented by the Irish Symphony, +concerning which Mr. Fuller Maitland has nothing to say. Here, +notwithstanding the Irish subject, the gown shows through to some slight +extent in one place, namely, the development section of the first +movement. The conventional critic finds fault with the scherzo in the +form of an Irish jig as unsymphonic, as it undoubtedly is. But there +would be more sense in suggesting that the composer should have made up +his mind to be thoroughly unsymphonic throughout the work, bringing his +first movement into harmony with the fine sennachee's improvisation that +stands second, the magnificent racy jig, and the buoyant finale. We +should thus have had an Irish Rhapsody in four movements without any +defect. Even now the one touch of the composer's evil genius that comes +out in the first movement is too slight to spoil the work, which has +been a joy for a long time, and does not seem to lose its charm. It thus +seems to me that Stanford is far too good a man for an "academic," +though I cannot deny that the epithet is actually justified by more than +half the entire body of his published works. + +After all it was scarcely likely that the sudden efflorescence of +English music, ensuing upon a long period of sterility, would lead at +once to fruit of complete maturity. We have now reached the second +generation since the revival, and it would be a pity if our best men at +the present day were nowise in advance of the leaders who came forward +thirty years ago. + + +[Sidenote: =Centenary Article.= + +_January 1, 1901._] + +At the dawn of the nineteenth century music was at a low ebb in this +country. Purcell had been dead more than a hundred years, and Handel +about forty years. The spirit of Puritanism had killed the +madrigal-singing of Shakespearean England and suppressed every other +manifestation of the popular musical genius. Charles II. had come back +from his long residence abroad with a contempt for English music, both +sacred and secular, which, as Pepys's Diary shows, he did not hesitate +to express in public, and thus the merry-makings of the Restoration +brought no revival of the national art. Nor was it likely that the +situation, as regards Court influence, should be improved by the House +of Hanover--at the time of their accession a race of aliens having no +sympathy with the national development of the art. Characteristic of the +view that cultivated Englishmen took of music about the middle of the +eighteenth century is a letter of Lord Chesterfield's,[3] written when +his son was staying at Venice, to warn him against all the "singing, +piping, and fiddling" of Italy. He gives the young man to understand +that it is unbecoming in a gentleman to take part in such things, though +he may pay a fiddler to play to him. Elsewhere, too, Lord Chesterfield +is even more crushing. He lays stress on the inevitable connection +between music and low company. The Venice letter was written in +1749--six years after the first performance of the "Messiah" in London +and ten years before Handel's death. Perhaps, therefore, the +Chesterfield view of music was at that time exceptional. But it must +have become more prevalent in the ensuing half-century, and the view of +music as an inferior art, represented in its extreme form by Lord +Chesterfield, is far from being extinct at the present day. At the same +time, fully to account for the low level of musical taste in the England +of 1801, due allowance must be made for the comparative neglect of all +but political and military affairs caused by the tremendous agitations +of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. + + [3] "A taste of sculpture and painting is in my mind as becoming, as a + taste of fiddling and piping is unbecoming, a man of fashion." + +In the first year of the nineteenth century began the triumphant career +of John Braham, the first of the three great English tenor singers who +successively adorned the ensuing hundred years. Braham was a good +singer, but perhaps the most deplorable composer that ever successfully +foisted his rubbish on a tasteless public. His "Death of Nelson" +persists to the present day, for the justification of those who share +Lord Chesterfield's musical opinions, and even that unpardonable mixture +of sentimental slip-slop and half-hearted cock-a-doodle-doo seems to +have been a comparatively favourable example of the compositions with +which Braham regaled the London public during the early years of the +century. The scene of his first triumphs was Covent Garden Theatre, +where he was accustomed to appear in composite operatic entertainments, +his own part being almost invariably written by himself. A few years +after the London _début_ of Braham the penny-whistle melodies of Sir +Henry Bishop sufficed to make him the most popular composer of the day. +In 1810, when Bishop became director at Covent Garden, none of the +institutions that have played an important part in the musical progress +of the century as yet existed in this country. It is true the Festival +of the Three Choirs had been held regularly for a very long time +already. But there was no Philharmonic Society, no genuine opera, no +Saturday and Monday popular concerts of chamber-music, no Academy or +College of Music, no Crystal Palace or Hallé orchestra. The great choral +associations, independent of Cathedral authorities, had not yet been +formed, and England was far too much isolated from the rest of the world +in regard to musical affairs. + +It is curious to note how precisely the downfall of Napoleon corresponds +with the beginning of better things in the English musical world. +Leipsic was fought in 1813, and earlier in that year--as though with a +premonition that an era was at hand in which it would be possible to +cultivate the arts of peace--a group of musicians assembled in London to +discuss the formation of a Philharmonic Society. The event is of +striking significance. Hitherto music had flourished only under the +patronage of Lords Temporal and Spiritual; but the _souffle_ of the +French Revolution had passed over the world, and it was time for +music--which had put off the courtly periwig and the courtly graces, and +had attained in Beethoven to the purely human standpoint--to be +established on a broader basis. Let us give the worthy Bishop his due. A +well-meaning person, if a trivial composer, he helped to found the +London Philharmonic Society, which was the first society in Europe, and +in the world, consciously formed for the furtherance of musical art and +for no other purpose. + +Glancing now at musical activity in other countries, we find attention +necessarily concentrated in the first instance upon the heroic figure of +Beethoven, who in this year (1813) had already given to the world his +Eroica, C minor, Pastoral, and Seventh Symphonies, besides his Violin +Concerto, Razoumoffsky Quartets, Waldstein and Appassionata Sonatas, his +one opera "Fidelio," together with the third "Leonora" overture, and +many other works of towering genius. As yet, however, the real +significance of Beethoven was undreamed-of in the philosophy of mankind +in general, if dimly suspected by a few enlightened persons, mostly +resident in Vienna. Mozart had died before the dawn of the century, and +Haydn soon after it, having demonstrated the incomparable excellence of +that Viennese school (founded on the teachings of Fux's "Gradus ad +Parnassum"), which had early attracted Beethoven--a Rhinelander by +birth--within its charmed circle, and held him there for life. In the +first year of the London Philharmonic Society's activity the music of +those three--Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven--formed the staple of the concert +programmes. In the second year the first performance in England of the +Eroica was given. Other works of the highest importance by the same +master soon followed, and in 1817 an unsuccessful attempt was made to +induce Beethoven to come to England himself and conduct compositions of +his own for the Society. In this manner connection was established +between this country and the great central stream of musical life and +energy at that time. + +Beethoven was the colossus who bridged over the gulf between the two +great countries of Classicism and Romance. Of the Romantic composers, +Weber--the founder of German National Opera--was the earliest born. His +music was first heard in England during the twenties, the opera "Oberon" +being brought out at Covent Garden under his own direction. Another +great Romantic composer born before the close of the eighteenth century +was Schubert--a wonderful but most unfortunate man of genius, destined +to meet with scarcely any recognition during his lifetime. At a much +later period he was discovered and introduced to this country by Sir +George Grove. The real seed-time of the Romantic School, however, was +the period from 1803 to 1813, which saw the birth of Berlioz, +Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Verdi, and Wagner (of all except +Berlioz between 1809 and 1813). It is curious that all the stars +destined to dominate the musical firmament of the period following +Beethoven's death should thus have risen above the horizon within the +short period of ten years, and all but one within a period of five +years. Every one of them, except Schumann, came sooner or later to our +hospitable shores and played a more or less important part in that +process by which we have gradually learned to discard Lord +Chesterfield's maxim about having nothing to do with fiddling ourselves, +while laying more and more to heart his other maxim about paying +fiddlers to play to us. + +Even more important than these flying visits of master composers from +abroad, for their influence on the formation of taste, were the more +regular visits of distinguished Continental performers, some of whom, +indeed, not only came regularly but came to stay. Of these the most +important were Mr. (afterwards Sir Charles) Hallé, who in 1857 founded +the Manchester concerts that still bear his name; Mr. August Manns, who +became conductor at the Crystal Palace in 1855; and Dr. Richter, who has +been our regular visitor since 1877 and is now, to the great credit of +the Hallé Committee and their supporters, living in our midst. Scarcely +less important among such foreign influences making for the welfare of +musical art in this country is the violin-playing of Dr. Joachim, who +has been our constant visitor ever since 1844. + +Pursuing the signs of awakening musical life in the second and ensuing +decades of the century, we note the foundation of the Royal Academy of +Music in 1823, and of the Sacred Harmonic Society in 1832. That Society, +now defunct, was originally founded with the idea of replacing an older +institution called the "Antient Concerts," which had come to grief +through depending too much on aristocratic patronage. The Sacred +Harmonic Society did good work by performing Handel's "Israel in Egypt," +"Dettingen Te Deum," and other works, besides the "Messiah." They also +did something to make Mozart's church music known in London, though with +little encouragement from the public, and they rendered a service to art +by insisting on complete performances instead of the scraps and tit-bits +from oratorios that were popular at that day. Soon after the founding of +the Sacred Harmonic Society, that is about the beginning of the +Victorian era, came the palmy days of Italian opera in London. But +though the expensive warblings of Grisi, Lablache, and Rubini were no +doubt found highly exhilarating by the privileged few who could afford +to hear them, it is doubtful whether they did anything for the +development of the national taste, except, perhaps, by firing the +ambition of Sims Reeves. + +Great as is the value of such fine stimulating influences--the visits of +distinguished players, singers, composers, and conductors, and +performances of master works by musical societies,--they are not enough +to leaven the mass of the people without systematic educational +endeavour. Reference has been made to the founding of the Royal Academy +of Music. Sixty years later the Royal College was instituted, with a +view to bringing educational opportunities more into conformity with +the wants of the time. Among the work done for the improvement of +musical education during the intervening period Mr. John Hullah's is +worthy of specially honourable mention. After studying popular musical +education in France, and especially the Orphéon movement, Mr. Hullah +began classes at Exeter Hall for the musical instruction of +schoolmasters, and thus originated the vast development of musical +training in English elementary schools. In opposition to Mr. Hullah's +principles, Mr. John Curwen in 1853 founded the Tonic Sol-fa +Association, which has since spread its branches all over England. There +is supposed to be some sort of connection between staff notation and +Church principles, tonic sol-fa and Dissent. Some day, it may be hoped, +the history of choral singing in England will be written with the care +that the subject deserves. It remains to this day the principal +contribution of this country to musical art in modern times. Theoretical +mastership originated with the Germans, refined and exact orchestral +playing with the French, and brilliant solo singing with the Italians, +but it has been reserved for this country to perfect the art of choral +singing. Certain persons, more patriotic than truthful, try to make out +that the English are best in everything, but this claim in regard to +choral singing bears investigation. + +Next to the absolute contempt and neglect of music from which we began +to emerge early in the century, our greatest misfortune has been a +tendency to prefer composers representing the end of some artistic +development while rejecting the turbid and formally imperfect but +inspiring initiators. Thus, in one age we worship Handel--a mighty +musical architect, but one who never did and never could inspire +anyone--while we detest Bach, the most powerful of all inspiring, +stimulating, school-forming influences. In another age we make a +somewhat similar mistake in regard to Mendelssohn and Schumann, and it +is even possible to recognise the same unfortunate tendency at the +present day in the public attitude towards Richard Strauss and +Tchaïkovsky respectively, the former a rugged composer teeming with +ideas and varied suggestions, the other a remarkable painter in tones +but peculiarly restricted in the range of his ideas and emotions, taking +care never to suggest anything, but only to attempt what he can render +with symmetrical completeness. It is impossible not to regret that we +should thus continually prefer composers who lead to nothing, though +that is just what might be expected as a result of Lord Chesterfield's +principles. + +With regard to the extraordinary Mendelssohnian taste of the British +public which placed the accomplished fair-weather composer on a much +higher pinnacle here than he ever occupied in his own country, there is +even now one important question that has not yet been, and probably +never will be, settled. That Mendelssohn was long absurdly overrated is +certain; but the question is--Had there been no Mendelssohn, would our +choirs and public taken to better stuff, or would they simply have +concerned themselves so much the less with any sort of music? Possibly +the Mendelssohn craze was a necessary evil, supplying the requisite +spoon-meat for a period of musical infancy. It is, however, associated +with much humiliation. The main current of musical life and energy +since Beethoven's time has lain in the field of dramatic composition, +and from that main current we remained excluded for a most +unconscionable time. The case became a painful one, only to be met by +such sapient observations as that of the late Mr. Hueffer that "the +British public likes the dramatic stage and likes serious music, but +does not like the two things in combination." The real champion of the +Wagnerian art in this country was Dr. Richter, who, by the performance +of extracts at his orchestral concerts, gradually opened the ears of the +public and brought home the music to their hearts. In that task he was +well supported by Mr. Manns at the Crystal Palace and by Sir Charles +Hallé in the Manchester neighbourhood. Hence the fact that though the +two impresarios who gave performances of the great "Ring" drama in +London in the eighties incurred grievous loss, Mr. Schultz Curtius gave +it in the nineties and prospered, and that the voice of senseless +detraction is mute, except in the case of one or two incorrigible old +mandarins who cannot escape from the fixed idea that life consists in +the correspondence of an organism with the environment of its +great-grandfather. + +The best of the English Cathedral composers was Samuel Sebastian Wesley, +whose enthusiasm for Bach, antedating the movement initiated by +Mendelssohn, has scarcely met with sufficient acknowledgement. Soon +after the middle of the century a group of British composers with a +wider than the purely ecclesiastical scope began to appear. Sullivan, +Mackenzie, Parry, Cowen, and Stanford all learned their art in Germany, +and came back to their native country to practise it. All of them have +written oratorios, but without lasting success except in the case of +Sullivan's "Golden Legend." Dr. Cowen's Scandinavian and Professor +Stanford's Irish Symphonies have done something to win esteem for +English music in other countries. But the great achievement of British +music during the past fifty years has been the Gilbertian operas, in +which Sir Arthur Sullivan matched with a perfect musical counterpart the +kind of libretto furnished by W. S. Gilbert, an original type of comic +opera being thus created. Among younger composers, Mr. Hamish M'Cunn +made a reputation with his "Land of the Mountain and the Flood" overture +that he failed to confirm. Mr. Coleridge-Taylor has had a very rapid +success with his "Hiawatha" music, whether of a more lasting kind +remains to be proved. By far the most remarkable British composer of +recently made reputation is Dr. Edward Elgar. Mr. Otto Lessmann, editor +of the "Allgemeine Musikzeitung" and the most distinguished musical +critic of Germany at the present day, wrote thus (after hearing "The +Dream of Gerontius" at Birmingham last October): "If I am not mistaken, +the coming man of the English musical world has already appeared, an +artist who has shaken off the bonds of conventional form and opened his +mind and heart to those great gifts which the masters of the expiring +century have left as an inheritance to the future--Edward Elgar, +composer of the one great religious choral work brought to a first +hearing at the Birmingham Festival, namely 'The Dream of Gerontius.'" + +Progress has been very much more rapid during the last twenty-five +years than in any other period of the century. Indeed, so wonderfully +has been the revolution in public taste effected by improved educational +opportunities and the more artistic and expressive style of singing and +playing introduced by the Wagnerian school, that musical art now finds +itself in a completely new atmosphere, and hope leaps out, probably +asking too much of the immediate future. The great lesson that requires +to be brought home at the present time to all concerned, directly or +indirectly, with musical affairs is that music is one of the fine arts, +that it is subject to the laws of art and no others. This seems a +painfully obvious principle when stated, but how rarely does anyone act +on it! We find any number of persons pursuing music as a sport, others +as a business, others as a mild discipline for children--a kind of +drill,--others again as a learned subject, but very few as an art. The +first result of mastering this lesson would be the shaking off of fixed +ideas, such as that every composer must play the organ and write church +music. Chopin wrote nothing but pianoforte pieces, yet his fame is +undying, and much more is heard of his music now--fifty years after his +death--than ever before, while plenty of composers whose works include +voluminous compositions for choir and orchestra are absolutely forgotten +in their own lifetime. The real artist is distinguished from other men +above all by being enamoured of perfection. He finds what he can do and +rests satisfied with doing that, whether it be a great thing or a small, +whether it be one thing or many. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +DR. HANS RICHTER. + +(_October 20, 1897._) + + +The genius of musical interpretation is a phenomenon of modern times. +Beethoven marks the end of that great symphonic period which begins with +Haydn, and though seventy years before the production of Beethoven's +greatest symphony, Joseph Haydn had been drilling the little Esterhazy +orchestra and trying to secure satisfactory performances, yet to the end +of Beethoven's time the most important orchestras were usually filled up +with amateurs for those special occasions on which a symphony was to be +performed. It seems certain that the notion of a rendering actually +corresponding to a symphonic composer's ideal intentions never dawned on +musicians as a practical possibility till long after the greatest of +symphonic composers was dead and buried. + +Beethoven, no less than Sebastian Bach, often wrote for the future--not +even for the next generation, but for the distant future. And +Mendelssohn, who re-discovered Sebastian Bach and did so much to stir up +the lethargy of his musical contemporaries and re-awaken interest in +the great works of the past--did not Mendelssohn announce, as a general +principle for the guidance of conductors, that they should beware of +slow _tempi_, and take everything at a good pace, so that the faults of +phrasing might not be too obvious? + +The very terms in which the recommendation was couched show that +Mendelssohn was not unconscious of the faults that marred the best +orchestral playing of his time; but being of a mild, easy-going +disposition, he was not the man to expect impossibilities--such is the +ordinary musician's term for any exertion a little out of his ordinary +routine. It was reserved for a more masterful mind to expect +impossibilities, and to obtain them. + +When the works of Wagner began to attract attention, consternation fell +on all the old-fashioned conductors of Germany, the "Pig-tails" as +Wagner never wearied of calling them. Life was not worth living, they +felt, if they had to deal with such scores, and then lamentations were +reinforced by the bandsmen, who found that countless passages written by +Wagner were impossible of performance. + +But it so happened, as if by a special Providence, that along with +Wagner certain performing musicians, who were not so easily frightened, +had been ripening towards their life's task. From Liszt and Von Bülow +presently came demonstrations of the fact that Wagner's music was not so +impossible as at first thought to be, though requiring a method of +interpretation different from that of the "Pig-tails." In 1869 appeared +Wagner's pamphlet "On Conducting," just three years after his first +meeting with Hans Richter, and, whatever may be thought of the style of +that pamphlet, it is beyond question that it marks the beginning of a +new era in the history of orchestral music. Besides Richter, all modern +conductors of world-wide reputation--Bülow, Levi, Seidl, Weingartner and +Richard Strauss--were found in the same school. They learned from Wagner +how to play Beethoven, and their method has revolutionised the musical +world. + +Now that Bülow is gone, the acknowledged leader and master of them all +is Hans Richter, the incarnate genius of musical interpretation. + +To Richter's influence and example, far more than to anything else that +could be named, is due that prodigious improvement in the standard of +orchestral performance all over the world, which is the most notable +feature in the history of music during the past thirty years. +Principally owing to Richter's matchless combination of artistic +enthusiasm, practical mastery, and genial good sense, we now hear things +that musical prophets and wise men, such as Beethoven desired to hear +and had not heard. + +Hans Richter belongs to a German family of musicians. He was born at +Raab, in Hungary, in 1843, and, after a good musical grounding, entered +the Conservatorium at Vienna in 1859. He chose the horn as his principal +instrument, but his gift for playing musical instruments was so +prodigiously strong that in the course of a few years he acquired the +technical control of all the more important instruments in the +orchestra, besides pianoforte and organ. + +One of the earliest appointments that he held was that of principal +horn-player at the Imperial Opera in Vienna. After quitting the +Conservatorium he continued his studies under Sechter, the celebrated +contrapuntist, and thus when the great opportunity of his life came he +approached his task with magnificent and perhaps unparalleled resources, +in respect of practical and theoretical knowledge. The opportunity came +in 1866--Wagner, then living in Switzerland, wanted a competent musician +to help him in preparing the score of "Meistersinger" for the press. + +To Vienna, then, as now, the metropolis of the musical world, he +forwarded the request that such a musician should be found and +despatched to him at Triebschen, near Lucerne. The choice fell on +Richter, and thus the two great men, the exact complements of each other +as regards their artistic power became acquainted. Richter took up his +residence in Wagner's house; the great composer, who possessed a +Napoleonic eye for talent, at once appreciated the immense powers of his +youthful colleague, and an alliance sprang up between the two men which +only terminated at Wagner's death. + +Trial performances with orchestras brought together from the musicians +of Zürich and Lucerne quickly convinced the Wagnerian circle of +Richter's genius for selecting, training and conducting an orchestra, +while the preparation of the "Meistersinger" score was carried out to +the composer's complete satisfaction. Those who examined the fair copy +of Richter's handwriting which was on view at the Musical and Theatrical +Exhibition of 1892 in Vienna can testify to the marvellous neatness as +well as to the technical correctness and good style of Richter's +manuscript. It should be remembered, too, that the score of +"Meistersinger" was at that time by far the most intricate in existence, +and is even now only surpassed in elaborate complexity by "Tristan." + +But not only with the preparation of the score was Richter concerned. +Long before Wagner had put the final touches to "Meistersinger," Richter +had taken the solo and choral parts to Munich, and had there personally +trained the singers who were to take part in the first production. The +style was so new and so perplexing to the musicians of the day that +Richter encountered apparently insuperable obstacles at every turn. +Nevertheless, everything was carried through to a brilliantly successful +issue, and the first performance of "Meistersinger," which took place at +Munich in June, 1868, was really the first great triumph of the +Wagnerian cause. Though Bülow was at the conductor's desk, it is +unquestionable that the labour of Hercules, which was necessary to bring +the work to a first hearing, was performed in the main by Richter. + +At the sixth performance the representative of Kothner fell ill, and, at +the last moment, Richter stepped into the breach, donned the costume of +Kothner, and sang and acted the part with great success. No wonder a +distinguished critic should have said that Wagner's "Meistersinger" has +become part of Richter's flesh and blood. + +He prepared the score; he trained all the singers and players for the +first performance; he has conducted countless brilliant representations +of the entire work, and on one occasion, at any rate, he enacted one of +the characters. The qualities exhibited by Richter in connection with +the production of "Meistersinger" caused him to be appointed +fellow-director with Bülow at the Royal Opera in Munich, and when Bülow +resigned in the following year Richter stood alone in that post. + +The impatience of the King of Bavaria to have Wagner's immense +"Nibelung" trilogy performed was the cause of a premature attempt to +present "Rheingold" before the extraordinary _mise-en-scène_ required by +that work was ready. Rather than take part in an unworthy rendering, +Richter tendered his resignation and quitted the brilliant post to which +he had been so recently appointed. Thus early did Richter show the stuff +of which he was made. He had absolutely nothing else in view. He simply +had to look about for employment, and we next find him in Paris, working +in combination with Pasdeloup, who was engaged in a scheme for bringing +out "Rienzi" at the Théatre Lyrique. The scheme came to nothing, but the +authorities of the Théatre de la Monnaie in Brussels, who had heard of +Richter's fame, invited him to come and superintend the first production +of "Lohengrin" in French which they were preparing. + +With "Lohengrin" in Brussels he was no less successful than with +"Meistersinger" in Munich. Though at first everyone found the music +"impossible," on March 21st, 1870 a magnificent performance was +achieved. As an example of the difficulties with which Richter had to +contend in preparing for that performance, it may be mentioned that he +found the choral singers at the theatre incapable of rendering their +parts, and had to teach them, note by note, like children. Yet in the +public performance there was no trace of these miseries, everything went +with freedom and spontaneity, and ever since the first production under +Richter "Lohengrin" has been a great feature of the Brussels repertory. + +After fulfilling his engagement in Brussels, Richter returned to +Triebschen, near Lucerne, where he found Wagner just finishing that +colossal work, the "Ring of the Nibelung." It seems almost incredible +that in addition to their gigantic labours in bringing what was almost a +new art into existence, these remarkable men should have found means at +this period of devoting much time to the study of Beethoven's string +quartets. Richter took part regularly in the quartet playing, and he +considers these hours during which he was initiated by Wagner into the +deepest mysteries of Beethoven's art among the most valuable of his +experiences. In the same year, 1870, Wagner finished his "Siegfried +Idyll," a lovely _aubade_ that was written in honour of his infant son's +birthday. Richter had been entrusted with the task of getting together a +small orchestra in Lucerne, and of rehearsing the new work with them. On +the appointed day the musicians assembled on the steps of the villa at +Triebschen and performed the piece under Richter's direction to the +delight of the Wagner household, among whom the "Siegfried Idyll" is +generally known as the "Treppenmusik" (from "Treppe," a stair or flight +of steps). + +The following year Richter accepted an invitation to Buda-Pesth, and +there he remained until, in 1875, he was appointed conductor at the +Imperial Opera in Vienna, a post that he still (in 1897) holds. Thus +the Austrian Capital became for the second time his home and the centre +of his activity, and, indeed, those who know him well, know that in +spite of all cosmopolitan experiences, Richter is "ein echter Wiener"--a +true child of Vienna. + +The next "labour of Hercules" was the bringing out of Wagner's trilogy, +the "Ring of the "Nibelungs" with which the Bayreuth theatre was +inaugurated in 1876. During the rehearsals Wagner sat on the stage +directing the actors and Richter stood at the conductor's desk. + +Now that the work has become familiar we have lost all standard for +estimating the task which Richter undertook and once more carried +through to a brilliantly successful conclusion. + +That vast scene which occupies four evenings in performance he seemed to +have at his fingers' ends. Such was the impression made by Richter upon +all who were concerned, either actively, or merely as spectators and +listeners, in the inaugural Festival of 1876 at Bayreuth that they +recognised him as a new phenomenon in the world of art. + +The period of modern orchestral conducting may be said to date from that +occasion. It was then brought home to everyone that conducting was a +great art worthy of independent cultivation. The public began to take an +interest in the style of different conductors, and to show some +sensitiveness as regards interpretations of the great masters. The era +of the "Pig-tails" had come to an end. + +In 1877 Richter came with Wagner to London, and ever since that year the +"Richter Concerts" have been a regular institution in this country. In +Vienna, the city of his adoption, he is conductor, not only at the +opera, but also of the Philharmonic Concerts, and latterly of the music +in the Imperial Chapel. + +Of late years Richter has conceived a certain dislike to the theatre, +where he finds his work beset with small worries. He is coming to regard +the concert-hall more and more as his special sphere of activity. Upon +Richter's art as a conductor a good-sized book might be written. Here I +can attempt no more than to enumerate a few of his qualities:--Practical +knowledge of the technique belonging to all the more important +instruments; mastery of musical theory in all its branches; an unerring +rhythmical sense; judgment and insight with regard to every possible +musical style, enabling him always to find the right tempo for any +movement or section of a movement (the most important and most difficult +thing for a conductor); mastery of the principles discovered by Wagner +respecting orchestral dynamics, such as the necessity of equably +sustained tone without crescendo or diminuendo, as a basis to start upon +the conditions determining proper balance of strings and wind, the +nature of a round-toned _piano_ delivery (to be studied from first-rate +singers), the manner of producing long crescendos and diminuendos, also +of producing a true _piano_ and a true _forte_ (Wagner having pointed +out that old-fashioned orchestras never played anything but +mezzo-forte); mastery of Wagner's system of phrasing, his far-reaching +investigations with regard to _cantabile_ passages, his treatment of +_fermate_, his distinction between the naïf _allegro_ and the poetic +_allegro_; mastery and practical realisation of all Wagner's other +ideas concerning musical interpretation or public performances, a +subject in which Wagner took a far more deep, expert and fruitful +interest than any other of the great composers. + +Finally, Richter is distinguished from most other conductors by his +personal behaviour at the conductor's desk. He is free from antics; +every movement has significance and every attitude has dignity. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +NIETZSCHE. + + +[Sidenote: =Nietzsche and Wagner.= + +_June 18, 1896._] + +The intellectual world of the later nineteenth century has no more +remarkable and original, and also no more tragic, figure to show than +the author of these essays. He was descended from a noble Polish family +originally named Nietzky, who gave up their title and estates and +settled in Germany on account of Protestant convictions. Friedrich +Nietzsche was born in 1844. He received a classical education, and at +twenty-eight years of age became Professor of Classical Philology in the +University of Bâle; but throughout life his love of art, and especially +of music, remained an absorbing passion. It appears that his musical +instinct was first aroused by the works of Schumann, and that youthful +enthusiasm led to serious musical studies. Later on he became the most +ardent of Wagnerians, and finally the fiercest of Wagner's assailants. +Nietzsche's earliest writings are academic monographs on various +classical subjects, the brilliant scholarship of which led to his +appointment at Bâle. The philosophical essays began to appear towards +his thirtieth year, during his professorship at Bâle. There are verses, +too, by Nietzsche which exhibit a genuine poetic faculty. The manner and +order of Nietzsche's mental awakening is worthy of attention--first, the +love of music, leading to a general interest in art; next, philological +studies, originally undertaken, in the opinion of his sister Madame +Förster-Nietzsche, as a relief from the feverish problems of modern +æsthetics, and pursued to such purpose that he became a master of Roman +and Greek learning. His writings also reveal a wide knowledge of Hebrew +and Indian literature, besides thorough familiarity with all that is of +first-rate importance in modern thought. His first intellectual master +seems to have been Schopenhauer. In the year 1889 Nietzsche became +hopelessly insane. There is not the least trace of mental disorder in +the previous family history. The stocks from which he was descended were +on both sides of exceptional energy, ability, and character. There is +also abundant testimony to the simplicity, amiability, and charm of his +personal character. His friends and colleagues at Bâle seem to have had +no suspicion of the explosive energies which appear in his writings. His +tastes were throughout life reserved and fastidious, and the ultimate +breakdown of his mind can only be attributed to the sheer excess of +feverish energy with which he lived the intellectual life and to the +effects of spiritual isolation upon a sensitive and most arrogant +nature. He now lies to all intents and purposes dead at +Naumburg-on-the-Saale, in Saxony, which for the past fifty years has +been the home of the family. + +The present volume contains Nietzsche's latest essays, the publications +of 1888. The sub-title given to the "Twilight of the Idols," namely, +"How to Philosophise with a Hammer," applies equally well to the entire +volume, which deals exclusively in destructive criticism. The "idols" +upon which Nietzsche here exercises the hammer of a singularly +comprehensive iconoclasm are those of modern democratic civilisation. +The editor of the series is Dr. Tille, Lecturer on German Language and +Literature in the University of Glasgow, and author of "Von Darwin bis +Nietzsche," a book that has attracted some attention in Germany. No +explanation is offered of the motives which prompted the choice of +Nietzsche's latest works for the first volume of the English edition. +The history of Nietzsche's life since 1876 is the history of a tragic +struggle. In that year he attended the Bayreuth festival, though in a +weak state of health. The impression was overpowering, and henceforth +the Wagnerian drama appeared to him in a new light. He conceived a +horror of Wagner, but so deeply rooted in his affections was the +Wagnerian art that with his belief in Wagner everything else that he had +cared for was cast to the winds; he turned upon the religion of his +childhood, the philosophy of his youth, the very land of his birth, and +the only language that he really knew. Why, it may be asked, is the +"Wagner Case," where the Bayreuth master figures as a "rattlesnake," +offered to readers who have had no means of access to the earlier essay +by the same writer called "Wagner in Bayreuth," an utterance of +enthusiastic discipleship and probably the most discerning appreciation +of Wagner ever yet published? Again, in the early essay on +"Schopenhauer as Educator," one of the "Inopportune Contemplations," +Nietzsche reckons himself among those readers of Schopenhauer who know +almost from the outset that they have encountered a determining +influence; and, indeed, so saturated is Nietzsche with Schopenhauer's +ideas that he cannot get rid of the Schopenhauer terminology even in his +later writings, where Schopenhauer has become an "old false-coiner." The +expression "Wille zur Macht," an obvious modification of Schopenhauer's +"Wille zum Leben," continually recurs even in Nietzsche's latest +writings, and was to have formed the title of an entire book in his +projected work "The Transvaluation of all Values." The same early work +contains a passage in which Christianity is called one of the purest +examples of the striving after perfection to be found in the history of +mankind, while the "Antichrist," the last essay in the volume now before +us, is a new and more formidable version of the Voltairian "Ecrasez +l'Infâme," a furious denunciation not merely of Christian dogma, but +also, and more especially, of the ethical principles that are the +essence of the Christian system for the modern world. All these +recantations thus appear with scarcely a hint of the antecedent +confessions of faith. It has been denied that the mental development of +Nietzsche underwent any revolution or breach of continuity in the year +1876. German disciples have attempted to prove the consistency of that +development, and in the April number of the "Savoy" Magazine Mr. +Havelock Ellis remarks, with reference to Nietzsche's Polish descent, +that he was "not Teuton enough to abide for ever with Wagner." But in +any case the apostacy of Nietzsche from Wagner is a painful subject. +When he satirises Germany as the "flat-land" of Europe, the land of the +Hyperboreans and worshippers of Woden, the god of bad weather, when he +accuses the Germans of loving everything nebulous and ambiguous and +hating clearness, consistency, and logic, we may remember that though +Germany was the land of his birth Nietzsche was not a German by blood. +But to Wagner he had been bound by ties of personal friendship as well +as by fervent artistic admiration, so that no sufficient excuse can be +offered for the appalling diatribe in which he smothers with ridicule +both Wagner himself and everything connected with the Wagnerian art. The +plea of insanity can scarcely be allowed. There is too much method in +Nietzsche's madness. Moreover, he is no vulgarian like Nordau, lecturing +in a muddy pathological jargon about subjects completely over his head. +Nietzsche knew what he was talking about; if he had not first been the +most enthusiastic of Wagner's disciples he could not have become so +formidable an enemy. But though we may wish that on arriving at a new +mental standpoint he had dealt more gently with his former friends, yet +the temper which leads a writer to disregard every other consideration +in sheer intentness on the truth of the matter in hand is a quality not +to be slightly discounted. + +That Nordau should have anticipated Nietzsche in this country is a +public calamity. The talk about Wagner's degeneracy and decadence had +thus passed into a tiresome cant, and now that the real source of the +only serious anti-Wagnerian criticism makes its appearance the task of +disengaging the important side of that criticism seems almost hopeless. +A few of the leading points against Wagner's works may, however, be +mentioned here--the want of life in the whole and the excess of life in +the small parts, the internal anarchy, the distress and torpor +alternating with disturbance and chaos, the dwelling on the pathetic +note till taste is overcome and resistance overthrown, the hypnotic +character of Wagner's influence, his musty hierarchic perfumes, his +wealth of colours and demi-tints, his mysteries of vanishing light that +spoil us for other music--these are some of the characteristics of +decadent art upon which the case against Wagner is based, and it is +impossible to deny either the acuteness of Nietzsche's observation or +the damaging character of his indictment. On the other hand, it must be +remembered that the renovation of musical drama under Wagner's influence +is an unquestionable fact. Wagner saved us from the period when operas +were concocted from point to point by the most distinguished composer of +the day with a view to the tastes of the Parisian Jockey Club. Wagner +brought back dignity and poetry; he brought back sincerity, he infused a +strain of powerful and far-reaching vitality into the art that he +practised. The enthusiasm of the Wagnerian renascence absorbed nearly +all that was commanding in the musical talent of the time; it affected +even the Italian school, which had hitherto pursued an absolutely +independent line of development. Admitting, therefore, that Nietzsche is +often right in detail, just as Voltaire is now and then right when he +finds fault with "Hamlet," we are disposed to reject Nietzsche's general +conclusion no less emphatically than Voltaire's description of Shakspere +as a drunken savage. The truth is that decadence or decline in one +principle of vitality often means awakening energy in another. Nietzsche +had latterly worked himself to a point of view from which the mystery of +northern poetry and the vividly imaginative detail of Gothic art are +intolerable. His remarks about Wagner's want of taste in the disposition +of broad masses and his over-liveliness in minute detail are like a +criticism of Strasburg Cathedral by an ancient architect; his view of +the Wagnerian drama as concerned with problems of hysteria and as +exhibiting a gallery of morbid personages is like an indictment by a +Roman patrician of the entire "Corpus Poeticum Boreale." Nietzsche was +all his life a stranger to tolerance and compromise, and towards the end +this peculiarity became greatly accentuated. His failing health +attracted him to southern climates, and he presently decreed that the +north was no longer to exist. Having found a sort of salvation among the +"Halcyonians," he is constrained to wage spiritual warfare against all +Hyperboreans, and especially against Wagner, regarded as the typical +Hyperborean. "Ah, the old Minotaur!" says Nietzsche, "What has he not +cost us already! Every year trains of the finest youths and maidens are +led into his labyrinth to be devoured. Every year all Europe strikes up +the cry: 'Off to Crete! Off to Crete!'" It is highly interesting to +observe where Nietzsche finds an antidote for the painful impression of +the Wagnerian art. The one modern work that thoroughly satisfied his +later taste was Bizet's "Carmen." "This music seems to me perfect," he +says; "it approaches lightly, nimbly, and with courtesy. It is rich and +precise. It builds, organises, completes, and is thus the antithesis of +that polypus in music which Wagner calls unending melody. It has the +subtlety of a race, not of an individual. It is free from grimace and +imposture. I become a better man," says Nietzsche, "when this Bizet +exhorts me. Such music sets the spirit free. It gives wings to thought. +With Bizet's work one takes leave of the humid north and all the steam +of the Wagnerian ideal." "Carmen" is only the music of devil-may-care, +of gaiety and sunburnt mirth, with a strong spice of southern passion; +but it has really vivid originality, it has true unity of style, and the +unerring perfection with which the composer has caught and reflected a +certain mood of wayward grace and mastered the musical symbolism of the +bright and fierce and fickle south, the lightness and fire, the logical +development and rhythmical charm of the music stamp the work as an +unmistakable masterpiece of its kind. In his delight at finding +something congenial to his later taste Nietzsche forgot the question of +scope, and forgot that Bizet was only a trifler. It was enough for him +that he had found a "Halcyonian" to contrast with Wagner, the +"Hyperborean." Another objection to the line taken in the introduction +is that the isolated insistence on Nietzsche's "physiological" standard +gives the impression of a type of thinker inconceivably remote from what +he really was. Many a dull and stodgy materialist, such as the author +of "Kraft und Stoff," has maintained the universality of the +physiological standard; while the special characteristic of Nietzsche's +ethical ideas is surely something very different. Is it not the +audacious denial that any one ethical system is valid for all classes of +mankind?--the theory of "Herrenmoral" and "Sklavenmoral," +master-morality and slave-morality--and the attribution of all social +mischief to the ever-increasing prevalence of slave-morality over +master-morality. Is it not the acceptance of the caste-system as the +simple recognition of a universal and unchanging fact of life which +really differentiates Nietzsche both from the English moralists and from +all other European writers whatsoever? Perhaps Dr. Tille was unwilling +to alarm his readers, and conscious of addressing a public which regards +the question of human equality as having been finally settled a hundred +years ago, deliberately avoided bringing forward opinions that savour of +Oriental despotism. But seeing that every line of Nietzsche's writings +is animated by such opinions, it is impossible to deal with the subject +at all without shocking the ideas of a democratic age. Nietzsche, it +should be remembered, was a belated scion of the proudest, most +turbulent, and most ruthlessly tyrannical aristocracy that ever existed. +He witnessed, with despairing rage, both the success of vulgarity in +that modern Europe which had ruined his ancient and noble race, and what +he regarded as the progressive depreciation of the high-bred qualities +in human nature under the influence of socialistic ideas. Though nowhere +expressly stated, the thought of his people, disinherited for their +inability to adapt themselves to the modern spirit, is never absent +from his consciousness, and he uses his matchless literary power to tell +the men of an industrial and co-operative civilisation what the last of +genuine aristocrats thinks of them. With advancing years Nietzsche +became less and less German and more and more Polish, till after the +break with Wagner and Schopenhauer we find him openly satirising +everything German. He has, in fact, "reverted to type," and from 1876 +onwards he figures as a feudal aristocrat in exile. + +In his general type of culture Nietzsche was very un-English. The +questions of æsthetics have never been treated in this country as +anything but an affair of dilettantes--at best a superior kind of +trifling; whereas for Nietzsche they were a matter of life and death. +And if it is a point of conscience with cultivated Englishmen to take +some interest in graphic and plastic art, we have nevertheless +practically excluded music from our scheme of culture. We have, perhaps, +advanced a little beyond Lord Chesterfield's view of music as a pursuit +leading to nothing but waste of time and bad company, and an English +nobleman of the present day would probably hesitate to lay down, as Lord +Chesterfield laid down, that the legitimate claims of music upon the +attention of a cultivated man are adequately met by the occasional +giving of a penny to a fiddler. Yet in the depths of his consciousness +the typical Englishman has still a tendency to regard the disputes of +the musical world as Byron regarded the Handel and Buononcini +controversy:-- + + "Strange all this difference should be + 'Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee." + +Excepting, perhaps, one or two recent cases, such as Dr. Parry and Mr. +Hadow, our men of light and leading have had nothing important to say +about music, whereas for Nietzsche, a scholar and critic of commanding +reputation, music was the one art possessing genuine vitality in the +modern world, and the questions of musical æsthetics were anything but +an affair of dilettantes; they were the questions connected with a +tremendous power for good or evil. + +Of all Nietzsche's fantastic conceptions that which has produced the +most curious results is the famous "blonde beast," a sort of bogey +invented for the purpose of annoying and frightening Socialists. The +satirist begins by expressing contempt of herding creatures and +admiration of "beautiful solitary beasts of prey." Sheep and cattle, he +reminds the Socialists, are naturally gregarious, but lions have never +been known to acquire the gregarious instinct. Next he develops the +theory of analogy between great men of the conquering type and common +criminals--the same theory as is set forth, ostensibly as a joke but +really with much seriousness, in Fielding's "Jonathan Wild." This theory +stands in high repute among Socialists, who find it useful for attacking +great men of the conquering and warfaring type, so that when Nietzsche +turns it against Socialism he strikes with a two-edged sword. Lastly, he +conjures up a fearsome image of predatory and unscrupulous vigour, a +combination of Napoleon and feudal aristocrat. This is the "blonde +beast" which, according to the programme of the Nietzschian apocalypse, +is to devour the enfeebled man of the modern world. It is one of +Nietzsche's happiest inspirations, and has already provoked a +literature. Quite recently, for example, a book appeared in Germany +accepting with perfect gravity and recommending for immediate practical +adoption the principles of the "blonde beast." One might almost imagine +that Nietzsche foresaw some such result with secret satisfaction at the +idea of his posthumous revenge on the "flat-land." There are signs, too, +in the English press that the popular imagination is about to fix on +Nietzsche as a writer who recommends promiscuous ruffianism. Was not +Darwin known for many years as the preposterous eccentric who said men +were descended from monkeys? It is, however, advisable to warn those who +are not greatly concerned with mental problems, who value tradition and +take a hopeful view of life, that they had better leave Nietzsche alone. +His influence is on the whole gloomy, disquieting, and profoundly +unsettling, though in relation to the critical literature of the +Continent he is unquestionably one of the great originals, one of the +few "voices" that find many echoes. + + +[Sidenote: =Nietzsche in English.= + +_August 4, 1899._] + +The publication of a complete English translation of the works of +Nietzsche is an enterprise which deserves the cordial thankfulness of +all lovers of profound thought and fine literary style. It is not too +much to say that no German writer since Goethe's death, with the +possible exception of Schopenhauer, has united in the same degree as +Nietzsche the two characteristics of originality of matter and charm +and pungency of expression. And of no modern writer whatever, except of +George Meredith, can it be said that he possesses anything like +Nietzsche's power of compelling his reader, whether he is an admiring +reader or a protesting one, to think for himself about the fundamental +problems of life and conduct. Nietzsche's philosophy, with its intense +hatred of Christianity and modern humanitarianism, is scarcely likely to +make any large number of converts among us, but if it can compel us to +ask ourselves honestly and plainly what the unacknowledged ideals of our +civilisation are, and whether they are, after all, capable of being +rationally justified, he will have done an infinitely greater service to +thought than any founder of sect or school. + +If one measures the worth of a book by its suggestiveness rather than by +the degree in which its propositions can be accepted as a whole, +Nietzsche's own description of his "Thus spake Zarathustra" as the +profoundest of German works will hardly appear exaggerated. In the +absence of the great work on the "Transvaluation of all Values," which +was so lamentably cut short by the philosopher's incurable illness, +"Zarathustra" must probably be accepted as the prime document of the new +moral code, of which Nietzsche was the best known and most eloquent +preacher. + +Nietzsche's hero has, of course, very little in common with the +semi-historical fighting prophet of Iran. Under the disguise of a story +with no particular scene or date, he gives you a treatise on the moral +life as it might be if men would regard the extirpation of the unfit and +the propagation of a race of physically and mentally superior beings as +the first and last of human duties. Of course, in any such picture there +must always be many subjective features, and much that is characteristic +of Zarathustra, his extreme individualism, his love of loneliness and +solitary places, his hatred of a complex and expensive life, is simply a +reflection of the peculiar personal taste of his Creator. Had Nietzsche +himself not been free from ordinary social and domestic ties, it is +likely that the individualistic and anti-social strain in his teachings +would have been far less prominent than it is. But when all allowance +has been made for such personal idiosyncrasies, it remains the fact that +Nietzsche has more boldly than any other writer of our time raised the +most important of social questions; the question whether the ethical and +political ideals of Christianity, of democracy, of universal +benevolence, are those of a healthy or those of a radically diseased +humanity. No future vindication of our current idea can be regarded as +of any value unless it sets itself to grapple, more seriously than +professional moral philosophy has as yet done, with the attack of +Zarathustra. In the minor writings which fill the other two volumes of +the translation already published, Nietzsche is less constructive and +more purely iconoclastic. The "Antichrist" subjects the established +religion of Europe and the moral code based upon it to a criticism which +is always suggestive, often profound, sometimes merely angry and +wrong-headed. The attack upon Wagner, in whom Nietzsche had once looked +for a master, is closely connected with the furious onslaught upon +Christian ideals. Of Wagner the musician Nietzsche has many things both +hard and shrewd to say, but the Wagner against whom the main brunt of +his polemic is directed is Wagner the psychologist, the pessimist, the +preacher of chastity and resignation--in a word, as Nietzsche +understands him, the decadent. Christianity, according to Nietzsche, has +made decadence into a religion, Schopenhauer has turned it into a +philosophy, Wagner into an æsthetic theory. Hence the constant polemic +against all three which recurs in all Nietzsche's writings. The +"Genealogy of Morals" is devoted to the exposition of a favourite theory +of Nietzsche's, that there have always been two antithetical codes of +moral values, that of "masters" and that of "slaves." "Masters" prize +above everything else qualities which bespeak a superabundance of +personal force, strength, beauty, wealth, long life; "slaves" set the +highest store by qualities which make servitude more endurable, and in +the end render revenge upon the "master" possible. Starting from this +primary assumption, Nietzsche shows wonderful insight in his examination +of the growth of concepts like "guilt," "sin," "bad conscience." + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +Obvious typographical errors were repaired, as listed below. Other +apparent inconsistencies or errors have been retained. Missing, +extraneous, or incorrect punctuation has been corrected and hyphenation +has been made consistent. + +Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + +Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold (=bold=). + +Page i, "directon" changed to "direction". (Mr. Johnstone died in 1870, +and the direction of Arthur's education fell entirely upon his mother.) + +Page xii, "symbolize" changed to "symbolise" for consistency. (He would +have nothing to do with the attempt to symbolise and revive a +civilisation that had utterly passed away,...) + +Page xii, "civilization" changed to "civilisation" for consistency. (He +would have nothing to do with the attempt to symbolise and revive a +civilisation that had utterly passed away,...) + +Page xli, "Nietzschean" changed to "Nietzschian" for consistency. (The +review of Tille's translation, well bears partial reprinting in this +volume for its keen intelligence and also as a quite early sketch of the +Nietzschian system in the English press.) + +Page xxvi, "nor h" changed to "north". (It lies in a well-wooded +district of Podolia, some hundred miles further north than the region to +which I first went.) + +The absence of the sub-heading, I., in CHAPTER V has been kept true to +the original. + +Page 41, missing "on" added. (... a man of genius who, without private +means, had thrown up his employment and taken himself and his wife on a +long journey to a foreign country in order to win recognition in "la +ville Lumière" must, in the course of three fruitless years, have felt +something worse than misgiving.) + +Page 42, "aud" changed to "and". (... it is that bitterness of spirit +which finds expression in the smashing and burning ...) + +Page 58, "naively" changed to "naïvely" for consistency. (Besides doing +justice to the drama as an allegorical picture of life in the light of +certain nineteenth-century ideas, the performance was a specially good +revelation of its amusing and naïvely entertaining qualities.) + +Page 61, duplicate "which" deleted. (In regard to "Walküre" and +"Siegfried," which have long been in the repertory of London, Paris, and +other capitals, the superiority of Bayreuth is very much less +certain--that is to say, of Bayreuth as represented by this year's +performances.) + +Page 80, "begining" changed to "beginning" for consistency. (The best of +the music is at the beginning, where there is an extremely fine chorus, +"The Challenge of Thor," containing various musical elements all truly +expressive and fraught with the same primitive and racy vigour.) + +Page 84, "same" changed to "some". (The striking success of this +composition reminds us of the following passage occurring at the end of +an article by Sir Hubert Parry written some years ago.) + +Page 122, "Frankfort" changed to "Frankfurt" for consistency. (The chief +feature in the interpretation on Tuesday was the superb rendering, by +Professor Hugo Becker, of Frankfurt, of the violoncello solo which +throughout the work is identified with the person of the titular hero.) + +Page 129, "Symphony" changed to "Symphonie" for consistency. (="Faust +Symphonie," Düsseldorf.=) + +Page 129, "like" changed to "likes". (Whether one likes his style or +not,...) + +Page 151, "dramatized" changed to "dramatised" for consistency. (He is a +great master of form, but he dramatises the chamber-music forms very +much as Beethoven dramatised the symphony,...) + +Page 153, "Carneval" changed to "Carnaval" for consistency. (In his +rendering of Schumann's "Carnaval" not a point was missed,) + +Page 179, "Wienaiwski's" changed to "Wieniawski's" for consistency. +(Wieniawski's Fantasia on Themes from Gounod's "Faust," Paganini's +caprice "I Palpiti," Bazzini's "Ronde des Lutins," the last-named played +among the encore pieces.) + +Page 180, duplicate "and" deleted. (For the present we are mainly +concerned with Mr. Kreisler, who is not so desperately youthful, but is +a mature and military-looking man, though he is commonly reckoned among +the players of the new school, or the rising generation.) + +Page 192, "Leonara" changed to "Leonora" for consistency. (Glancing now +at musical activity in other countries, we find attention necessarily +concentrated in the first instance upon the heroic figure of Beethoven, +who in this year (1813) had already given to the world his Eroica, C +minor, Pastoral, and Seventh Symphonies, besides his Violin Concerto, +Razoumoffsky Quartets, Waldstein and Appassionata Sonatas, his one opera +"Fidelio," together with the third "Leonora" overture, and many other +works of towering genius.) + +Page 224, "idiosyncracies" changed to "idiosyncrasies". (But when all +allowance has been made for such personal idiosyncrasies, it remains the +fact that Nietzsche has more boldly than any other writer of our time +raised the most important of social questions ...) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Musical Criticisms, by Arthur Johnstone + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42097 *** |