Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
8
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
^
il.
i;
THE PLAYER-PIANISTS' DEPARTMENT
[It is in every way eminently desirable that a publication
which undertakes to give so much space and so authoritative
a treatment to the great player industry, as does The Re-
view, should not neglect what is after all the real excuse
for the player's existence, namely, the music that is evoked
from it. Recognizing the extraordinary importance of do-
ing everything possible to spread more widely appreciation
and love for music among player-pianists, The Review's
Player Section for the present month contains below, and
will in future regularly contain, a department devoted to
the musical interests of player-pianists and of the player-
piano. Each month one musical article of general interest
:will appear, together with useful hints, notes and comments.
This is in addition to the regular sub-section of the Player
Section which analyzes the monthly issues of music rolls.
Professional demonstrators, salesmen and player-pianists of
every degree will find each month on the ''Player-Pianist's"
page of Ihe Player Section much valuable information. And
the Editor of the Player Section will at all times be glad
to answer inquiries on any and all musical player matters.]
THE MUSIC OF CESAR FRANCK.
Cesar Franck, father of modern French music,
was born in Belgium in the ancient town of Liege in
the year 1822. Sixty-eight years later he died in
Paris (1890). At the time of his death he was a
professor in the Paris Conservatoire.
Whatever we may think of some music now be-
ing composed by the young French school, we
cannot deny to Franck the spiritual fatherhood
of it all. Among his pupils were such men as
Debussy and other leaders of those individual
schools of composition which France has recently
been so prolific in producing. Yet, the curious
thing is that Franck's personal spirit was in reality
far removed from the world-sickness of to-day. He
was essentially a mystic. With modern inventions
in harmony, in orchestration and in development of
form at his command and in continual use, he
nevertheless possessed the soul of a mediaeval monk.
His religious music most clearly shows this, as
does his marvellous symphony in D minor, last
and greatest of his works. Meditative, withdrawn
as it were from the thoughts of this world, sunk in
a rapt ecstasy; this was Cesar Franck. The noisy,
the objectively triumphant is little to be seen.
Instead, we have calm, a holy peace, although this
is from time to time interpenetrated with a spirit
of discontent.
Franck's mind, we have said, was essentially
that of a mystic. But his method is peculiar.
His mind seeks the mysteries, but as transfigured
from a modern aspect. So, in seeking to write his
thoughts in music, he shows everywhere the mod-
ern spirit of discontent, of search for the unre-
yealed. This is particularly shown in his very
personal harmonic system. It was Franck above
all others who clearly exhibited the musical pos-
sibilities of a constantly shifting harmonic basis.
This had first been shown in the works of Richard
Wagner, but it remained for Franck to make a
spiritual and subjective use of the scheme in abso-
lute music; in music, that is to say, which depends
upon no adventitious aid of human voice, action
or stage setting to speak its message.
This method of not keeping to the key—for that,
after all, is what it really comes to—implies im-
mense possibilities of eloquence in the hands of
one who knows how to handle it. That it also has
equally great possibilities of confusion and inco-
herency in less skilled hands is also clearly indi-
cated by some of the works of living composers
wha have been influenced by Franck. There are
some subjects, however, that are better left alone,
and :the modern French impressionistic school af-
fords one of them.
Cesar Franck was a disappointed man all his life.
His great genius was never recognized by his col-
leagues at the Conservatoire. His methods were,
in fact, above their comprehension. Academic,
riarrjbw, bound down to a tradition that had long
outlived its usefulness, the official pendants of
Paris would have none of him. He died shortly
after the first performance of his symphony, of-
ficially condemned of musical heresy.
Hardly had the grave closed over the remains of
Cesar Franck, however, when the musical world
waked to the fact that it had lost a great master.
The recognition came, as usual, too late. To-day
Franck's symphony is a favorite with every or-
chestra in the world. His wonderful oratorio "The
Beatitudes" has been sung by almost every great
choral organization, his lovely sonata for piano
and violin is a frequent visitor to recital programs
and such works as the Prelude, Choral and Fugue
have been made their own by men like Busoni.
Yes, Cesar Franck is recognized to-day as a mas-
ter. But Cesar Franck died in 1890
Philip Goepp, in a program note written for the
Philadelphia Orchestra, says of him: "A mystic is
Franck in his dominant moods, with a special sense
and power for subtle harmonic process, ever
groping with a spiritual discontent of settled ton-
ality. And again : "In truth . . . .
the chronic
vein of Cesar Franck is so ingrainedly reflective
that there never can be with him an absence of
his meditative phase. Rather must there be a
vehement rousing of his Muse from a state of
mystic adoration to rhythmic energy and cheer."
The D Minor Symphony.
Franck's symphony in D minor was brought out
in 1890 at a concert of the Conservatoire Orches-
tra in Paris, Jules Darcin conducting. Gounod and
other celebrities were present. The general ver-
dict was condemnatory. It is said that one pro-
fessor objected that no one had ever heard of using
the English horn (tenor oboe) in a symphony be-
fore and that, therefore, it was all wrong! Gounod
condemned it. The orchestra objected to playing it,
or the ground that it was not up to the artistic
standard of the Conservatoire concerts! But Dar-
cin prevailed and the work was brought out. Yet,
before it could be repeated, Franck's tender spirit,
worn out by age and labor, had taken flight.
The symphony is said to be in D minor. But
only the first movement is in the nominal key. The
second movement is in B flat minor and the third
in D major; a triumphing finale. There are only
three movements. At the very beginning of the
first movement there sounds a motto theme of just
six notes, ending in mystery and silence. (D. C
sharp, F
, F, E, A; two bars, each ending
on a rest for the fourth beat and with the second
note in each half the value of the other two. It is
a mystic signal)
The motto theme is developed into allegro speed
and becomes definite and striking by the change.
A new theme appears in ascending scale and the
slow motto re-enters again and again.
With
each re-entry it assumes new garb, so that new
tunes seem to grow out of it. This gradual growth
ol phrases into complete melodies is a feature of
Franck's methods as of Richard Strauss', although
here Beethoven first showed the way and Wagner
followed. The movement throughout is melodically
lovely and harmonically mystic. It is pale, dim and
meditative, though there breaks through in one
place, to be repeated later in the finale, a glorious
stirring melody voiced gladly and in joy by the
brasses. It is a hymn of gladness. The movement
is a continual balance between the sadness of the
motto and the allegro joy of the great central
hymn (A. B flat. A—A F. A—A. C. A.
A. F.
A.)
The second movement, allegretto, where the
worthy Paris professor objected to the strange
English horn, is a beautiful dream. That is all one
can call it. A slow halting trip of harps and
pizzicato violins for 16 measures, mysterious and
almost ghostly, ushers in a sweet sad song, voiced
in English horn, which later gives place to a
melody in major key, softly sung by strings and
gradually swelling to a full chorus. The gentle
song re-appears in other instrumental dress and the
motto theme sounds ominously.
The finale is a jolly major almost everywhere.
The first theme is glad and carefree. Interrupting
it, there comes, in softest brass, a lovely little bit
of four-part writing, just two or three measures
of mellow French horn. The song of the second
movement suddenly appears, but most fitly. With
a complete transformation the soft melody of the
horns rings out fortissimo, and the first theme also
re-appears. Then again there sounds the melody
of the second movement, now fortissimo and ring-
ing out with all the strength of orchestra. The
motto theme sings clearly for the last time. The
principal theme of the movement sounds triumph-
antly and the glorious work comes to a close.
A HEART TO HEART TALK
Odium Musicum.
"Pneumaticos odi, puer apparatus," is a verse
that many well-intentioned musicians have been
singing for some years past. With all due respect
to the shade of the late Quintus Horatius Flac-
cus, whose ode on the simple life has thus been
so ruthlessly (and with such bad neologism) para-
phrased, we may be pardoned for suggesting that
the time for that sort of thing is past. It is too
bad that there should be anybody living to-day
who finds it necessary still to anathematize the
pneumatic piano-playing mechanism. But that
there are such people, and that they have Horace's
indignation without the good cause that prompted
the "Persicos odi," is a fact of which we are un-
able to hold any doubt. The odium theologicum
was bad enough and still rears its ugly head, es-
pecially in this enlightened country of ours. The
odium musicum has never been an American pro-
duct of any richness, since music has played rela-
tively a small part in our national life. Still, it
also exists and also rears its head (though this one
is silly rather than ugly) from time to time above
the deep morass in which it customarily lies con-
cealed.
In Plainer English.
All of which satire, eloquence, Latinity and wit
is for the purpose of calling attention, (in the
editor's characteristically brilliant manner, of
course), to a phenomenon which still annoys the
player trade and still operates to discourage the
earnest player-pianist who takes his instrument
and his music seriously. We refer to the pes-
tilential spirit so common among musicians and
others which prompts them to sneer, to contemn,
and to make silly jokes at the expense of the
piano-player and the person who is using that in-
strument for the purpose of educating himself or
herself in musical appreciation. It is always rather
difficult to understand this sort of thing. A mu-
sician, one would suppose, should be the last person
in the world to raise a finger for the purpose of
staying any movement that may lead to a more
general appreciation of music in this country.
After all, it cannot be said that we have anything
of which to be particularly proud in our musical
culture here. It is not as if we were all musicians.
And, what is more to the point, we have had
comparatively little encouragement on the part of
the professional musicians themselves. For a cen-
tury, the musical destiny of this country has been
in the hands of the music teachers. And what have
they done for us? Read the catalogs of music
roll publishers or the lists of sheet music on sale,
and find out.
"Player-Pianist."
Whatever may have been the case a few years
ago, there is no longer any doubt that a great
many people are using the player-piano for the
purpose of musical education and are striving
earnestly to play it in an artistic manner. The
very fact that the player-piano is not automatic is
the best proof that it is susceptible of being played
in a manner individual and artistic. Even to-day
there are professional player-pianists whose "touch"
as it were, can be recognized by those who have