Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
TELEPHONE
NUMBER,
1745—EIGHTEENTH
STREET.
The, musical supplement to The Review is
published on the first Saturday of each month.
A S the years elapse since the death of
*~V Tchaikovsky, the great Russian com-
poser, the estimate of the man and his
works continues to grow.
The musical
magazines of the Continent abound in in-
teresting stories concerning this master-
mind. His ideals, his likes and dislikes
form a continual topic of interest. Tchai-
kovsky had a sincere if conventional res-
pect for Haydn and always a due sense of
his importance in the historical develop-
ment of music.
He thought his music
valuable for educational purposes and de-
clared that the Haydn quartette was pre-
ferable to many chamber works of the
modern German school.
The chief deity of his musical Olympus
was Mozart. In this he differed from the
majority of his countrymen, who, prefer-
ring fire to light, and intensity of emotion
to " sweet reasonableness," have rarely ap-
preciated Mozart at his . immeasureable
worth. Although accused of being vari-
able in his views yet in his love for Mozart
Tchaikovsky remained faithful during his
whole life. He studied the composer from
every side of his genius, and left two me-
morials of his affection for him: his
" Mozartiana suite " for orchestra (opus 61)
and the vocal quartet "Night," the music
adapted from Mozart's Fantasia No. 4.
Tchaikovsky's versatility was not alone
confined to music for he contributed much
to musical journalism in his earlier years.
This was brought about largely through
pressure of circumstances that compelled
him to add to his income. Commencing
with 1872 he wrote for the Moscow papers
for four years, first for the Sovremennaya
Lietopis and afterwards for the Russky
Vestnik. In 1876, disgusted by the polem-
ics which he considered had been unjustly
fastened upon him, he resigned his post as
musical critic.
On the opening of the
Bayreuth theatre, however, he was induced
tp act once more as correspondent for the
Russky Vestnik and recorded his impres-
sions of the " Nibelungen Ring" in five
long articles. Twelve years later, he again
took up the pen and published, in a series
of twelve articles, portions of a journal
kept during his tour of 1888.
*
''TCHAIKOVSKY'S journalistic work,
*
says Laroche, " made no impression
upon his subsequent development, and left
hardly any visible trace upon his life."
At the close of the sixties and during
the seventies, Tchaikovsky's genius was
abnormally active. One work after another
took shape in his brain with a feverish and
exhausting rapidity; and to a man thus
preoccupied by the things of the imagina-
tion the weekly letter to the Russky Vest-
nik was a task. He was oppressed by an
almost fateful realization of the shortness
of his working days. To him "vitabrevis,
ars longa" was no mere copy book phrase.
He was haunted with a fear lest he should
"die with all his music in him," and more
than once in his life he paid the penalty
for his feverish activity in periods of en-
forced idleness and depression. The lust
of finishing left its mark upon his work.
"He wrote, wrote, wrote in haste," says
Laroche, "using up bales of music paper;
not finishing his work at once, or rather—
to be quite accurate—finishing it as regards
externals, and conscientiously attending to
technical details, but frequently in his
eagerness losing sight of the plan and pro-
portions of the whole." This accounts for
the destruction of so many of his earlier
works and the constant rewriting and modi-
fication of others.
Naturally he first quaffed from the never-
failing springs of classic Greece, imbibing
the influences of the Psyche, but, with the
deep earnestness of his nature, rather ab-
sorbing the yearnings of the Prometheus,
and intensely overcome by the profound
passion of the great tragedies.
With
Goethe he watched on Walpurgis Night,
with dilated pupil, the devilish efforts of
the evil one to compass the destruction of
a soul. With Shakespeare he joined in the
relentless analysis of human motives, and
soared beyond the clouds, upborne by heav-
en-aspiring if not heaven-born emotions.
Art he saw and sought in all its phases, and
knowledge of varied kinds he aimed to ac-
quire to aid him in his purpose. But view-
ing the varied methods for conveying idea
to human intelligence, it was not long
before he recognized that each lacked some-
thing.
The collected criticisms of Tchaikovsky
must not be taken as more than a partial
indication of his thoughts on music, for it
will be evident that the concerts of the
Musical Society at Moscow, and the per-
formances at the opera, gave only a limited
field in which to express his views.
What, then, were Tchaikovsky's musical
ideals in his youth and maturity, and how
far did they influence his individual devel-
opment? He himself would have repudi-
ated the use of the word "ideals." He had
the positive Russian temperament that
feels intensely and instinctively avoids
gush. Was it not a Russian who remarked
that a piece of bread and cheese was worth
all the poems of Poushkin put together?
In a similarly practical manner Tchaikov-
sky answered those who questioned him
about his inner consciousness.
*
our front page this week is a very
excellent counterfeit presentment of
Miss Marie Donavin, prima donna soprano,
who is well and favorably known in all
parts of the United States. For two sea-
sons she has toured with Victor Herbert's
band, and wherever she has appeared her
delightfully finished vocalism has com-
manded the highest critical praise. Miss
Donavin's voice is a pure high soprano of
wonderful range and well trained to color-
ature work. She sings with evenness and
ease, her diction is excellent and she pos-
sesses a remarkable degree of what is
termed personal magnetism. Her reper-
toire is an extensive one. With innumer-
able successes to her credit, Miss Donavin's
In music, he condemned the mass and
oratorio, because in them valuable acces-
sories were discarded, while in opera there
was a want of real earnestness, of pro-
found purpose. In pictures and poetry
there was no sound, in statuary no color.
Hence he conceived the idea of gathering
together the varied arts in their most per-
fect form, assigning to music the supreme
command, and using all for the develop-
ment of some great lesson or the imparting
of some all-absorbing idea.
In glancing over the list of subjects se-
lected by him for treatment it is easy to
see how faithful he has been to his inten-
tion, and in studying the results we cannot
but admit that they are consistent with his
plan. Rienzi, for instance, as a mere title,
proclaims its nobility. The Nibelungen
Ring exalts the higher love above lust for
gold; Tannhauser proclaims the victory of
purity over erotic passion; and in Parsifal
we are carried into the very highest mys-
teries of the Christian faith and are
taught to recognize the amplitude of God's
goodness and power.
*
r \ R . HANS RICHTER, Director of the
*— Imperial Opera, Vienna, has failed to
renew his contract for another season, and
will come to this country at the conclusion
of his engagement next May.
artistic future is certainly of the brightest.
*
* i \ 1 7 ' A G N E R was a mystic, and as a
'
mystic he is the representative of
the Germans, who, while they hold their
own among the practical workers of every-
day life, yet are conspicuously dreamers."
Thus proclaimed J. Allen Jack recently.
It is not then surprising that from among
the Germans Wagner has risen, nor that,
with his personal genius, he should stand
pre-eminently as the arch-mystic of ' the
harmonies.
Recognizing his mission at an early age,
he sought eagerly to acquire a knowledge
of all that might serve his purpose.
''THERE is much truth unfortunately in
*• the statement made by W. J. Hender-
son that the absorption of public interest
in the opera has well-nigh ruined the season
of concert music. The Paur Sunday night
concerts had to be abandoned as soon as
the famous operatic artists could be heard
at the Opera House concerts. The sym-
phony concerts conducted by Mr. Paur have
not been patronized as the}' should have
been. The Philharmonic Society is not
making as much money as it made last
year. The Boston Symphony Orchestra is
not doing as well as it should, and next
season will probably not give two concerts
at each visit. The Borough of Manhattan
will be the loser, and that of Brooklyn will
be the gainer, for the two-concert plan will
be continued under the auspices of the
Brooklyn Institute, which gives the people
of Brooklyn a great deal of good music