Music Trade Review

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PLAYER-PIANISTS' DEPARTMENT
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[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
.flayer 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, fiach 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 01
every degree will rind each month on the "Player-Pianist's"
page of the 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.]
FELIX MENDELSSOHN=BARTHOLDY.
In music, as in other forms of human activity,
we must always see human temperament in all its
phases. With some men the direct, the definite
and the concrete stand out to the exclusion of the
reflective, the abstract, the subjective. In music
we have Cesar Franck, but also we have Beetho-
ven. We have Brahms, but also we have Mac-
Dowell. The genius of Mendelssohn flowered
forth as a perfect representative of the romanti-
cism which was the dominating spirit of the culture
in his day. Living in the earlier years of the nine-
teenth century, he was the embodiment of romanti-
cism, but of a romanticism polished and perfected
to an extraordinary degree. Not for him the
cyclonic tempers of Beethoven or the wild excur-
sions into the subjective that distinguished Schu-
mann. He was a representative of the perfected,
the finished, and his art never rose above, as it
never fell below, that level.
It has been the fashion of late somewhat to decry
the genius of Mendelssohn, and to turn up a figura-
tive nose at him and at his pretensions. But the atti-
tude is essentially pharisaical. There is no justifica-
tion whatever for being superior at the expense of
Mendelssohn's work, for what he did he did finely,
with a perfection, a polish and a completeness sel-
dom if ever equalled, and certainly never sur-
passed.
, The work of Mendelsssohn has, in spite of all
that learned critics might say, been for a century
the delight of the unsophisticated lover of the
beautiful. His "Songs Without Words," say what
one will, are things of beauty, and, like such things,
seem likely to be joys forever. The player-pianist
should know his Mendelssohn and know him well,
and especially he should know the piano pieces,
among which the "Songs Without Words'' stand
quite in a class by themselves. Of them, one
should mention especially the "Venetian Boat
Song," the "Hunting Song" and the perennially
beautiful "Spring Song." Of the latter, curious
to say, it has been found that the difficulty of play-
ing it well upon a player-piano is very great in-
deed. This is on account of the extraordinary
delicacy and quickness required in bringing out the
melody against the lightly thrumming grace notes
which, in the form of arpeggios or broken chords,
permeate the whole piece with an interpenetrating
woof and warp of lovely harmony.
But the "Songs Without Words," lovely as they
undoubtedly are, do not exhaust the list of beauti-
ful Mendelssohnisms. What could be more charm-
ing than the "Rondo Capriccioso"? Mend.lssohn
was a great pianist in his day, and his p'ieces for
that instrument show an exquisite command over
its resources. The "Rondo Capriccioso" is not
beyond the interpretative talent of even a novice,
while the delicacy and charm of its simple content
win the music lover at once. There are other
pieces of the same general nature, notably the
"Andante and Allegra" of op. 16, and the "Rondo
Brillante" in op. 20. "On the Wings of Song" is
an especially lovely little thing. Its content and
spirit are properly suggested by its title, and it is
well within the capacity of the player-pianist so far
as concerns its interpretation.
I <
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Many of Mendelssohn's finest works were writ- and play the piano arrangement of this wonderful
ten for the grand orchestra. Such are the Scotch, overture, and then go and hear it played by grand
Italian and Reformation symphonies, the overtures orchestra.
Mendelssohn's spirit, when expressed in such
to "Fingal's Cave," "Ruy Bias," to the "Midsummer
Night's Dream" and others. Of all these, the first marvelous ways as this, cannot be set c.ovvn as that
is by far the greatest and most perfect. Wagner of a mere "music maker."' He was certainly a
called it the finest piece of landscape painting to genius. And there is plenty of further proof, if
be found in music. And the verdict has been gen- such be needed.
For instance, when Mendelssohn was seventeen
erally accepted. This Overture, in fact, is so very
remarkable that a word or two of description here years old he wrote the Overture to the "Midsum-
mer Night's Dream." Whoever has read the lovely
will be worth while.
Fingal's Cave is a wonderful piece of Nature's fairy fantasy of Shakespeare can understand the
task before a musician who attempts to express its
handiwork. It consists of a long gallery or cavern
hollowed out by the wave-, of the Atlantic Ocean spirit in music. Mendelssohn wrote thjs work as
on the western coast of Scotland. The cave is not a prelude to the play, and a marvelous success was
on the mainland, but on the Staffa, one of the his in doing it. The whole spirit of the fairy world
many isles which have been torn away by the is here revealed to us, a spirit of caprice, of fan-
erosive action of the waters. The cave is of tasy, of enchantment. The charming Titania,
basaltic formation, and at low tide is entirely un- Queen of the Fairies; the dignified Oberon, their
King; the fantastic Puck; all these are in thai
covered, so that it is possible to explore its utmost
depths in a boat. As the tide runs in, however, the music, and one can almost pick out the characteri-
waters gradually fill up the gallery until the whole zations one by one. And this was the work of a
boy of seventeen.
is entirely covered and the entrance altogether shut
Curiously enough, however, this very wonder-
off. During the rising of the tide, the great waves
fulness of mastery, this early flowering of peifec-
come tumbling in from the Atlantic and hurl them-
tion, was itself its own condemnation spiritually.
selves at the mouth of the cave, into which they
rush in a manner at once inspiring and terrifying, Mendelssohn waited more than twenty years be-
with a noise and fury surpassing description. The fore he composed the Nocturne, the "Wedding
locality, of course, is a favorite resort of sight- March" and the other exquisite numbers now as-
seers, and Mendelssohn himself visited the place in sociated with every performance of Shakespeare's
play. Yet these later works show absolutely no
1843. After he had seen the awe-inspiring spec-
tacle, he wrote to his sister Fanny, remarking, advance over the early Overture. It is not that
the latter is inferior, but that the former are not
among other things, that a certain phrase of music
superior. But the fact is that Mendelssohn was
had come to him as he stood and watched, and
that he had it in mind to make an overture on one of those rare geniuses who flower early and
Fingal's Cave. This phrase, indeed, forms the flower all at once. He did not grow gradually,
guiding motive of the overture and is heard at the but sprung full-armed from the brow of Futerpe.
And what he was at the end he was also at the
very beginning, reappearing from time to time in
one or another guise. It is the very spirit of Fingal beginning.
himself. The whole overture is one great cres-
Still, the music of Mendelssohn is lovely, re-
cendo, followed by a calm episode, and closes with
freshing, infinitely beautiful. No one who has
a grand diminuendo. The sea rises, the cavern
fallen under its sway ever is entirely happy away
fills, the tide runs out! These are the psychologi- from it.
cal divisions of the overture, and very wonderful
Let us love and revere Felix Mendelssohn-
music is made on them. Even the piano arrange-
Bprtholdy. Let us be glad that a bright, happy
ment is wonderful, and if the player-pianist will and ardent spirit like his did live, and did help us
keep in mind the picture of Fingal's Cave he will to understand a little better the true inwardness
have little difficulty in getting something like a of music and its real significance. Let us be glad
satisfactory interpretation.
of all these things, for indeed we have good reason
The overture is also called the "Hebrides" over- so to be.
ture. The name "Hebrides" is generally applied
to the whole range of islets which dot the western
coast of the Scotch Highlands, and which have
been torn away from the mainland by the forces
of the Wild Atlantic. Fingal, by the way, after
A Musical Viewpoint.
whom the cave is named, was a legendary Gaelic
Nothing matters very much in this world—so
giant and hero, and the cave was supposed to be certain philosophers would assure us—save the
his handiwork.
point of view. And the assertion is not without a
The player-pianist is earnestly advised to study value and a truth of its own. Nothing docs mat-
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