Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
At the base of the pedestal is a bronze
group of three figures, emblematical of
patriotism. The principal figure is that
of a woman, symbolizing the Goddess of
Patriotism. On her left is the figure of a
boy, standing, with his hands resting on a
sword, representing War. The face is
strikingly fine, expressing temper and
great determination. On her right is the
figure of a child, representing Song or
Music; in its left hand it holds a lyre and
with the right grasps the folds of the over-
hanging flag by which it is partly envelop-
ed. Beneath this group is carved the seal
of Maryland, and in the rear of the monu-
ment is a bronze tablet bearing the text of
" T h e Star Spangled Banner."
The erection of such a memorial is cer-
tainly most commendable and praise-
worthy, but after all Key's greatest
monument is the song itself; more popular
to-day than when it was written, it will
live when the granite shaft at Frederick is
covered with dust.
T H E interesting similarities between
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sound and color are referred to by
Dr. Harold Wilson in an article in a recent
issue of The Arena. The subject is a fas-
cinating one which will interest and in-
struct those who have not heretofore given
their attention to this matter. Says Dr.
Wilson:
" There is an undeniable pleasure in the
contemplation of simple color. The yel-
low-green of a fresh meadow, the golden
tints of a field of ripe grain, the blue of a
clear sky, are very agreeable to the eye.
It is possible that the pleasure thus ex-
cited is analogous to that derived from the
sensation of a pure musical tone independ-
ent of melody, and numerous attempts
• have been made to build this relationship
into a definite aesthetic structure.
" I f the wave-lengths of the spectral
colors be reduced to a mean proportion
with that of red, we get such a series as
this: Red, ioo; Orange, 89; Yellow, 81;
•Green, 75; Blue, 6623; Violet, 60.
" Now taking the wave-length of C as a
standard, and calling this also 100, we get
a series of ratios as we ascend the scale:
C, 100; D, 89; E, 3o.8; F, 75; G, 67; A,
60; B, 53.
" T h e analogy between these two series
is certainly striking.
The two scales,
chromatic and musical, seem here to be
constructed upon the same laws, and the
development of what Kant has suggested,
'an art of pure chromatics,' seems as tho'
it ought to be easy and natural.
We
might look forward, it would seem, from
the art galleries of to-day, with their Ti-
tians and Raphaels, their Millets and Meis-
soniers, to those of to-morrow, with their
canvases reflecting the most delightful
color harmonies, totally emancipated from
the shackles of form. Turner is said to
have approached near to such an art in
some of his water-colors and in a few oils."
After a brief reference to some of the
attempts at constructing "color-organs"
and to realize "color-music," some of
which have achieved interesting results,
but all of which have been artistic failures,
Dr. Wilson goes on to say: " The analo-
gies which these experimentalists and
speculators have observed between color
and sound are of much interest, but their
uniform failure to reach the end they have
sought bears out the theoretical objections
which may be urged against the proposi-
tion they have endeavored to establish.
The essential nature of color, as a sensory
experience as well as an objective fact, is
radically different from that of sound, ex-
cept perhaps that they are both modes of
motion. The disparity in the quality of
the sensations arising from the fundamen-
tal spectral colors is almost complete.
Considered as sense impressions merely,
yellow and green, for example, are 'worlds
away,' whereas the musical tones D and E,
to which these colors are said to corres-
pond, produce sensations which are ob-
viously of the same order. The note E,
as a psychical experience, is known only
by its relation to D or to some other note
of the scale, whereas the sensation yellow
is absolutely independent of green or red,
or any other color. In the tonal scale,
equal variations in wave-length or fre-
quency produce equal effects throughout
its entire extent. In the chromatic scale,
on the other hand, the eye is much more
sensitive to small changes in wave-length
in the middle portions of the spectrum
that at or near its extremities.
The
colored lights of Jamieson may be 'en-
chanting to behold,' and Castel's*harpsi-
chord may represent the labors of a life-
time, but they are very far from being the
realization of true color-music. This art,
in the sense in which it has been sought
for, will, I fear, never be discovered, since
the very natures of sound and light seem
to indicate that it can not exist."
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T H E post of conductor of the royal
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opera in Munich, which Mottl was
unable to accept, has now been given to
Stevenhagen.
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T W O of the most distinguishing charac-
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teristics of modern piano playing as
exemplified in the playing of the best pian-
ists, are, first, the great use of the pedals in
the attainment of color; and, second, the
larger volume of tone sought for compared
with that of the older school of players,
and full allowance is made for the improve-
ments in the piano itself, due to the in-
strument makers. Doubtless, more force
is now employed in the rendering of a
sonorous cantabile passage than was for-
merly used in forte playing, says Prof.
Kautz, the well-known Albany musician,
in the Musical Record.
This incident
alone, of striving after tone volume, ne-
cessitates a proportionate strain on the
hands, wrists and arms, unknown to an
earlier generation of pianists.
Hence,
greater strength and endurance are de-
manded on the part of the player to en-
able him to carry out the regulation mod-
ern program.
To obtain this increased
strength necessary, many of our leading
performers become expert users of dumb-
bells.
After Helmholtz had shown by experi-
ments that the beauty and the sensuous-
ness of a piano tone were entirely depen-
dent on the presence and multiplicity of
its harmonics, and this again on the man-
ner in which the piano hammer was pro-
pelled against the string, the better pian-
ists were not backward in availing them-
selves of this knowledge, and it has been
of incalculable value in the study of touch,
always provided that the student has an
inborn sense of tone quality. . . . Of
course, such geniuses as Chopin, Liszt,
Thalberg and Henselt were fully cognizant
of all the possibilities of the pedals, but
it was intuitionally. . . . Every cultured
pianist knows that in the matter of pedal-
ing, nothing can replace original study in
order to insure a clean interpretation.
The abuse of the pedals by players is one
of the crying evils of the day, while their
correct use is the surest indication of the
possibilities of musical talents of a high
order. . . . There is another feature in
modern piano playing which is of the
highest value to the player, and which
differs radically from the instruction of
the older school. This is the utilizing of
the pedal in the sustaining of prolonged
chords. This permits the hand to leave
the keyboard, and thus, to an extent, rests
the same. To have done anything like
this some decades ago would have called
down upon the unhappy pupil the wrath
of the teacher, and it would have been
looked upon as something akin to sacri-
lege. Even yet there are pedants who
will not accept this feature as legitimate,
notwithstanding there is no further need
of holding on to the keys when the damper
pedal already sustains the tone.
How
much this resting of the hands aids in en-
abling a performer to render without
much fatigue an otherwise exhaustingly
long program, may be readily conceived.
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1VTEWSPAPERS supply history in the
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raw material.
War, of all earthly
causes, is the most rapid producer of his-
tory. Newspapers necessarily find in war
a subject of prime importance.
In a day, month, or a year, a nation
may be overturned, the political condition
of a great people revolutionized by the
vast and violent energies of war. Even in
the short space of an hour, as at Manila
bay, on the first of May, 1898, war may
disturb the political equilibrium of the
entire world, and perhaps revolutionize
the national policy of 75,000,000 of people.
Such possibilities make war of first con-
sideration to those whose business it is to
record the current doings of the world of
civilization.
A United States senator, who favored a
special war revenue tax, on newspaper
mail matter, declared that the newspapers
had caused the war by their sensational
war talk, and should be compelled to share
in the expense. He said that the news-
papers "cared nothing for the truth, and
resorted to all sorts of slander and misrep-
resentation." This is almost as denuncia-
tory and sweeping as was the statement by