Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
SONQS AND SINGERS OF TO-DAY.
Are the songs sung- to-day in our draw-
ing-rooms elevating? Are we, in fact, de-
teriorating? I regret I must answer in the
affirmative. It is a curious thing that the
further we advance in operatic music—the
more dramatic form our oratorio assumes,
the more inartistic, the more inane, our
drawing-room ballads become. It may be
that our dramatic music grows so difficult
both in the voice part and in the accom-
paniment that they practically prohibit
performance, and so the modern ballad
simply owes its existence to the inexorable
law of supply and demand. I have no
doubt, whatever, that there is a great deal
of truth in this; yet I think we are too
lazy rather than too unmusical to appreci-
ate a good song. It may be that singers
give listeners bad habits, or that listeners
give singers bad habits; there is a fault
somewhere. Who is responsible for the
incarceration of Schumann, Schubert,
Brahms, Franz, Berlioz and Sterndale
Bennett? Why is it that Sullivan, Cowen,
and most of the English composers are
represented by their worst, or at least their
less artistic, songs rather than their best?
Is it because of a big compass? Is it be-
cause of a difficult accompaniment? These
two reasons may, in some cases, have bear-
ing, but not always. The amateur singer,
as a rule, has no limits to his compass, and
unless he be an unusually cultivated ama-
teur, he is not particular how the accom-
paniment gets over his difficulties.
What is it that causes a song to become
popular? Of course you will say a good
melody—a "catchy" air. Yes, but what
gives an air that essential qualification—
" catchiness" ? It is rhythm.
Rhythm
forms the basis of all melody. The sim-
pler the rhythm of a song, the more chance
it has for popularity. Take a song, for
instance, like Pinsuti's "Queen of the
Earth." The refrain of this contains—
first two phrases identical in rhythm, and
then a simple phrase containing one long
note followed by triplets is repeated over
and over again to the end. Another pop-
ular song known as "Say Au Revoir, but
not Good-bye," is a repetition of one rhyth-
mical phrase from beginning to end.
This is also the case in that music hall
atrocity, "Sweet Rosy O'Grady."
An
examination of these melodies will be
sufficient to demonstrate the reason why
songs and dance music become popular.
Our modern songs have too little nature
in them. The only elements introduced,
as a general rule, are moonbeams, star-
light and winds that blow from the south.
These effects of nature are introduced
much in the same way as limelight in a
theatre, to illuminate the artist on the
stage. Go into any music shop and look
through the parcel of "new music" spe-
cially laid out for your benefit. What will
you find? You will find that the songs are
continually harping on one string—I and
You, You and I, eternally ringing in your
ears to a waltz refrain. The sun never
shines in these songs. They are always
set "in the nickering firelight" "when
OVIDE MUSIN.
Earnest students of
the violin in the Unit-
ed States will be high-
ly gratified to learn
that Ovide Musin, the
celebrated violin vir-
t u o s o , has decided,
after strenuous solici-
tation, to spend six
months of every year
in New York City,
where he will establish
violin classes upon the
system pursued at the
Royal Conservatory at
Liege,
Belgium,
where he is now lead-
ing professor of the
violin. Mr. Musin will
be able to do this, as
his appointment with
the Belgian Govern-
ment allows him an-
nually six m o n t h s '
leave of absence, the
Liege musical season
being from February
ist to the middle of
July, and the musical
season at New York
from August ist to
February
ist.
The
characteristics which
have made the Liege
school of violin cele-
brated in time past (as well as at the
present day) were a perfect position,
gracefulness of bowing, purity of style,
and general brilliancy of execution—
qualities indispensable for a successful
violin virtuoso.
OVIDH: MUSIN.
Mr. Musin will return to this country
about the ist of August, for the purpose
of opening a representative virtuoso school
of violin affording American students who
cannot go abroad, a finished European
education, and preparing pupils to enter
the Liege Royal Conservatory.
It is his
intention to make this school a permanent
institution, and will be conducted on the
same principles as pursued by him at the
Liege Conservatory.
His headquarters
will be at Steinway Hall.
the lights are low," " when darkness deep-
ens," or "in the hush of the twilight."
Do we not long for a blaze of sunlight to
brighten these dark corners!—a thunder-
storm to clear this unhealthy atmosphere!
Most of these songs are positively silly;
others are ambiguous.
Harold R. White.
*
TOLSTOI AND WAGNER.
Literary faddists are notoriously "off"
when it comes to any remarks about musi-
cal matters. Count Tolstoi, who libeled
Beethoven in his morbid story, the
" Kreutzer Sonata," is now on record with
another exhibition of his weakness in a
treatise on art, in which he takes occasion
to show that he is unable to understand
Wagner. Hence he has joined the active
ranks of the anti-Wagner army, made up
of literary men of distinction.
Of course Tolstoi has been bored by the
usual chatter of irresponsible Wagnerians,
who prate of Bayreuth silence and the rest
of it, and the Russian novelist is not musi-
cal.
He has seen "Siegfried," and that
settled the matter. He was told, he says,
that Wagner's works could only be appre-
ciated amid the darkness, the concealed
orchestra, and other eccentricities of Bay-
reuth, and, therefore, he attributes the
Wagner craze to a species of musical hyp-
notism. Spiritualists, he says, hold the
same argument, for they aver that you are
not able to give an opinion if you have not
been present at seances and manifestations.
In other words, Tolstoi says, "you must
pass some few hours in the company of
people half mad, and repeat the experiment
a dozen times, and you will see what they
see.
In such conditions as these one sees
what one likes. But there is a much simpler
method of arriving at the same result.
You have only to drink alcohol or smoke
opium."
These cynical remarks are not over
clever. A London writer raps Tolstoi
over the knuckles in this wise: "Tolstoi
is doubtless an anti-Wagncrite for pre-
cisely the same reason that the average
'bus driver, or the average bricklayer, or
the average major-general for that matter,
is an anti-Wagnerite—for the simple rea-
son that he lacks the requisite musical
culture to hold any opposite views. Take
a railway porter or a cabman to witness
" Siegfried " and he would doubtless be
just as bored with it us Tolstoi was.