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56 PAGES.
With which is incorporated THE| KEYNOTE.
VOL. XXVII. No. 24.
Published Every Saturday at 3 East Fourteenth Street. New York, Dec. 10,1898.
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL CHARACTER OF
ART.
Such is their sensuous beauty, that a
random succession of pure tones tickles
the dullest ear. One may fail to grasp the
logic of a composition, be deaf to the enun-
ciation of themes, the counterpoints, the
imitations and the balance of periods in
which the theorist delights, and yet ima-
gine himself fond of music.
Do not say that he imagines amiss, nor
call him a tone-fool too hastily. He notes
the colors of the picture, if not its forms.
Although it is one to him whether the com-
poser has ideas or not, so long as there is
sounding of brass and tinkling of cymbal,
there are other and more arrogant critics
who are little better off.
These are they who mark the skill of the
performer, only, and get no enjoyment
save from the execution of passages which
are, or are supposed to be difficult. For
this reason, they prefer solo to ensemble
numbers, and admire voices that are ab-
normally low, or abnormally high. A per-
formance by an organist upon the pedals,
by a pianist with the left hand, or by a
violinist upon the G string, delights them.
Virtuosi, thus regarded, become a higher
species of jugglers or freaks, to be judged
according to their rarity or dexterity alone.
The general public occupies a much
higher plane. What it receives from a
musical production is emotion. The mel-
ody which to the mechanician was a feat of
legerdemain—to the pedant a bald syllo-
gism, a succession of theses and anti-theses
—to the ignoramus a "linked sweetness
long drawn out"—reaches the popular heart
as a warm, palpitating, living thing. Here,
at last, we have music.
It may be but a simple street-song.
It
may be the chef-d'oeuvre of a master. The
difference is in degree, not in kind.
But is there yet no source of enjoyment
beyond and above those enumerated? To the
superficial mind, no; in the light of recent
developments, yes. In composition, be-
sides sound, form, technic and emotion,
there is also history and psychology.
"A poem or code of laws," says Taine,
"did not come into existence all alone. It
is but a mould, like a fossil shell, an im-
print like one of those shapes embossed in
stone, of a creature which lived and per-
ished. Under the shell there was an an-
imal, behind the document a man. It is
this individual with whom we must become
acquainted."
Yet the customs and daily life of the
composer leave deeper traces in his words
than in his music. It is literature which
deals in a tangible manner with externals—
with dress, conversation, intrigues, aspir-
ations, disappointments. We get a better
idea of Mozart as his neighbors saw him
from his letters than from his sonatas.
Only a vague guess as to whether he was
rich or poor, polite or rude, could be gath-
ered from the latter.
In what then does the autobiographical
character of art consist? Not in giving an
idea of the man as he appeared, but as he
was. Not in bearing record to the environ-
ment, but to the soul.
" When you consider the visible man,"
continues Taine, " what do you look for?
The man invisible. The words which en-
ter your ears, the gestures, the motions of
his head, the clothes that he wears, acts
and deeds of every kind, are expressions
merely; somewhat is concealed beneath
them, and that is the man himself."
It is as the interpreter of the inmost es-
sence, that-music is supreme.
In the
Eroica, there is an ocean of heavenly
sound,—but this is not all. We listen to
divine melodies,—but this is not all. We
get a general idea of the times in which
Beethoven lived—but this is not all.
Be-
hind, looms the shaggy-headed giant, the
brother of the Vikings, rude of bearing
and gentle of heart; passionate, at times a
buffoon, subject to moods of ecstacy and
of blackest despair. A man of conscience,
obedient to nothing save his idea of duty.
The development of themes is forgotten in
the human tragedy they unroll.
Turn now to Bach. The storm has be-
come a calm, the dreamer of awful dreams,
a man of simple faith. We have leaped
back from Shakespeare to Chaucer.
What was Gounod?
A voluptuary
tainted with mysticism. Witness Faust
and the Messe Solennelle. Rossini? A
voluptuary, pure and simple.
Call to
mind his religious works in particular.
Every measure of " Moses in Egypt " or of
the " Stabat Mater " tells the same story.
Let us no longer be content with the
t2.oo PER YEAR.
SINGLE COPIES 10 CENTS.
husks,—the outside,—the notes and rests
—but make for the creator of these. A
work of art is after all but a Browning
pomegranate. " C u t deep down the mid-
dle,"
and there lies a heart, "blood tinc-
tured of a veined humanity."
HARVEY WICKHAM.
*
T E O N O R E VON STOSCH, who several
*—' years ago married Louis Howland, of
this city, and retired from the concert
stage, is coming back to New York this
winter and will again be heard profession-
ally, although it was supposed that she
had retired permanently from public life
after her marriage. It was to Miss Von
Stosch that Mr. Gordon McKay, of New-
port, lent a fine Stradivarius violin, and
as she retained that during her years of
retirement, there were indications that she
might still be heard. Mr. McKay lent the
violin to her for use as long as she wanted
it. The loan of a $5,000 violin on such lib-
eral terms is almost enough to make an
artist return to use it in public. Mrs.
Howland, since her marriage, has lived in
Paris.
' T ' H E dates of next summer's perform -
*
ances at Bayreuth have been fixed,
and the subscription lists will soon be
opened, although the tickets will not be
distributed till March 1. There will be only
two cycles of " Der Ring des Nibelungen,"
namely July 22 to 25, very possibly with
M. Jean de Reske as Siegfried, and August
14 to 17; and these will probably be the
only Bayreuth representations of the tet-
ralogy till 1901. Frau Cosima Wagner has
also arranged for model performances of
" Die Meistersinger" on July 28, August
1, 4, 12, and 19, and of "Parsifal " on July
29, 31, August 5, 7, 8, 11 and 20. Con-
cerning the conductorship there are con-
flicting reports. Some say that Hans Richter
will conduct one or both of the Nibelungen
cycles, others that Siegfried Wagner will
take charge of one or both of them, leaving
only " Die Meistersinger" to Richter and
" P a r s i f a l " to Mottl.
*
A B E N E F I T for the family of the late
* * Max Alvary is being planned in this
city. The matter is being industriously
pushed by musicians and music lovers.